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Title: Perchance To Dream (1/2)
Characters: Claire, HRG, Sylar, Angela Petrelli, Nathan Petrelli, Peter Petrelli, and Others
Rating: PG-13 for themes and language
Type: AU, Gen
Disclaimer: Copyright of Heroes is held by the respective owners. No infringement is intended.
Spoiler alert: Spoilers through #3.06
Summary: Characters meet and clash in life and death.
Notes: I’ll write the second part at the conclusion of Volume 3.
Alone in the house, Claire Bennet experimented with suffocation. She tied the plastic bag over her face and waited. The air became thinner and thinner, as Claire fought her survival instinct. “It’s alright,” she told herself. “I started to suffocate in Ted Sprague’s nuclear fire; I started to suffocate in the train fire; I must’ve started to suffocate in Meredith Gordon’s fire before Dad got me out of there. I’m just finishing what I started.”
Dead, Claire intersected the Dreamscape, for death was a kind of dream. She moved with purpose, because this daughter had a private appointment with her father. “You’re here, Claire-Bear. Good. We haven’t got a lot of time,” assured Noah Bennet.
Bennet experienced the Deathscape after Mohinder Suresh shot him. He explored that Undiscovered Country before his Claire’s blood revived him. He found that inhabitants of the Deathscape could communicate with those within the living Dreamscape. Unfortunately, the dead could not touch anyone within the living Dreamscape. Living Bennet, who achieved R.E.M. sleep through autohypnosis, could not hold his dead baby girl in his arms.
“I’ve been ordered to kill Nathan Petrelli, today,” said Bennet without preamble, “at a press conference where he plans to go public about abilities.”
Claire’s Deathscape tears tasted real, as she choked on the irony, and her father looked as if he were suffocating. “My assignment is to kill him, Baby,” he continued. “Whether he stays dead is another matter.”
“You’ve never cared whether he lived or died,” said Claire.
“True,” he answered, “and I’d kill him a thousand times over to keep you and the secret of death safe from the living. If people knew about the full extent of your power, there’d be R&D by covert agencies with initials, religious wars, and assorted other nightmares that would make every dark future any time traveler or precog ever saw look like a teddy bear picnic.”
“Then, why are you worried about killing Nathan for keeps?,” asked Claire.
“Peter,” answered Bennet. “If his brother stayed dead, we’d face the opened Pandora’s box of Peter’s rage and abilities. Be in Odessa for a blood infusion. Afterward, we’ll try to talk some sense into them.”
“You always have a plan,” said Claire, wiping away her tears.
“Always,” said Bennet. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dad,” said Claire, fading back to life. She cut the plastic bag open with a knife she put beside her for the purpose, turned on the television for news of Nathan’s death, and went on-line to buy a plane ticket. Later, packed and ready to leave, she opened the door.
“Hello, Claire,” said Sylar. “Aren’t you going to invite me in? I took a teleporter’s power to visit you. It ‘d be rude to let him die in vain.”
Claire wasted no time wondering how Sylar survived Hiro Nakamura’s sword. Instead, she ran into the kitchen, dodging Sylar’s telekinetic terrorism with household objects. She waited for Sylar, braced against the stove. When she saw the look of triumph in his eyes, Claire turned on the gas and applied a cigarette lighter.
Dead for the second time that day, Claire contemplated the smoldering rubble that was the Bennets’ home. She thanked God that her mother and Lyle had been out with Mr. Muggles on a Costa Verde Dog Park play date. She decided it was time for her father to begin training her. They could not afford any more explosions and fires. Sylar distracted Claire from her reverie within the Deathscape
“What’s that?,” asked the watchmaker, pointing the finger he’d used to send his victims to the realm he now occupied.
Claire followed Sylar toward a shimmering curtain. “Hello, Claire,” said Angela Petrelli from the opposite side of it. “I can’t say I’m pleased to see you on that side. I wanted better for you; I wanted you to live.”
“What are you doing here, Angela?,” asked her grand-daughter. “What’s this curtain thing? Everything looks weird through it.”
“I’m precognitive, dear,” answered Angela. “This curtain is a place where the Futurescape and the Deathscape intersect. That intersection causes distortion. Now, I don’t know what’s future, and what’s Dreamscape strangeness.”
Within the intersection, Claire could see, among other things, Sylar scalping her; Sylar becoming her father’s new partner; Mohinder Suresh cocooning people; Matt Parkman in a desert with a turtle; Her mother, Meredith Gordon, and her playing Russian roulette surrounded by puppets; and her with dark hair in leather killing Peter. “Jesus,” said Claire. “I see what you mean.”
Disturbed, Claire started fading back to life, refocused on saving Angela’s son. Suddenly, Angela pushed the curtain into Claire, throwing her off balance, fully killing her, again. “I’m afraid I can’t let you go, dear. Nathan must stay dead for the greater good. Gabriel, please restrain her.”
“My name is Sylar!,” he yelled. “You can’t tell me what to do! My own mother couldn’t tell me what to do!”
“I did say please,” cooed Angela. “Besides, I can tell you how to access the power you still crave, the power you have left to you within the Deathscape.”
“She’s lying,” said Claire, playing the one hand she could. “She doesn’t know anything about that power; she’s never been dead. But, I can help you, if you promise to leave me alone.”
Claire shifted within the Deathscape, so she and Sylar were within the Dreamscape version of the Company’s Level 5. Only two inmates were in R.E.M. sleep, Flint and Stephen Canfield. As they passed by Flint’s cell, his dream form called to Claire, throwing out blue flames. “Hey, Baby, did you come to see me?”
“Screw you!,” Claire answered. According to the file she read, he was a rapist and murderer, and she had had enough of both from Brody Mitchum.
Stopping at Stephen Canfield’s cell, Claire introduced him. “According to his file, Mr. Canfield has the power to generate black holes.”
“Interesting,” mused Sylar.
“Being dead,” continued Claire, “you can’t touch his living dream form.” She demonstrated. “But, like I did with Flint, you can interact, affect his mind.” She demonstrated. “Mr. Canfield, I want you to release your neighbor, the one you killed, from a black hole.”
Canfield complied, forming a black hole within the Dreamscape, discharging neighbor and lawnmower from the Deathscape end. From Canfield’s file, Claire learned this man’s name was Oscar Leeson. Claire addressed him. “Mr. Leeson, do you know what’s happened?”
“I’m dead,” he answered sadly.
“Yes,” Claire answered, “and the dead can affect the living in their dreams. Unless you help me stop him, I’ll be forced to show this dead man how to torture your family in their sleep.”
Driven by fear and instinct, the dead Leeson shot razor sharp blades of grass from his lawnmower, cutting and disabling the dead Sylar. Then, Leeson dragged Sylar through the Deathscape end of Canfield’s black hole.
“Thank you,” Claire called after Leeson, as the hole closed. “You’re a hero! So are you, Mr. Canfield. Dad was right. One of us, one of them, does work.”
“I helped save my family, too,” Canfield cried softly, fading awake.
“And you helped save your family, Claire,” said Nathan Petrelli, shifting their location in the Deathscape. “Peter showed me the ropes,” he responded, answering his daughter’s unspoken question.
“I have to get to Odessa,” said Claire. “You’ll need an infusion of my blood.”
“No, I won’t,” answered Nathan. “I’m staying here.”
Claire started to protest, as Peter Petrelli faded into view. “I pitched an every-colored fit when Noah telepathically told me and Parkman his plan after the shooting and another one when Nathan told me he was staying here. What about Heidi and the kids? Why did this have to happen at all?”
“But, it did have to happen,” Nathan continued. “Now that I’m dead, I can’t be killed, again, and I can keep Ma and her friends in line from here. I can finally do the right thing.”
Claire Bennet hugged her biological father, smiling a wistful little smile. “I’ll visit,” she promised.
“Not too often,” said Nathan. “You have to live.”
Characters: Claire, HRG, Sylar, Angela Petrelli, Nathan Petrelli, Peter Petrelli, and Others
Rating: PG-13 for themes and language
Type: AU, Gen
Disclaimer: Copyright of Heroes is held by the respective owners. No infringement is intended.
Spoiler alert: Spoilers through #3.06
Summary: Characters meet and clash in life and death.
Notes: I’ll write the second part at the conclusion of Volume 3.
Alone in the house, Claire Bennet experimented with suffocation. She tied the plastic bag over her face and waited. The air became thinner and thinner, as Claire fought her survival instinct. “It’s alright,” she told herself. “I started to suffocate in Ted Sprague’s nuclear fire; I started to suffocate in the train fire; I must’ve started to suffocate in Meredith Gordon’s fire before Dad got me out of there. I’m just finishing what I started.”
Dead, Claire intersected the Dreamscape, for death was a kind of dream. She moved with purpose, because this daughter had a private appointment with her father. “You’re here, Claire-Bear. Good. We haven’t got a lot of time,” assured Noah Bennet.
Bennet experienced the Deathscape after Mohinder Suresh shot him. He explored that Undiscovered Country before his Claire’s blood revived him. He found that inhabitants of the Deathscape could communicate with those within the living Dreamscape. Unfortunately, the dead could not touch anyone within the living Dreamscape. Living Bennet, who achieved R.E.M. sleep through autohypnosis, could not hold his dead baby girl in his arms.
“I’ve been ordered to kill Nathan Petrelli, today,” said Bennet without preamble, “at a press conference where he plans to go public about abilities.”
Claire’s Deathscape tears tasted real, as she choked on the irony, and her father looked as if he were suffocating. “My assignment is to kill him, Baby,” he continued. “Whether he stays dead is another matter.”
“You’ve never cared whether he lived or died,” said Claire.
“True,” he answered, “and I’d kill him a thousand times over to keep you and the secret of death safe from the living. If people knew about the full extent of your power, there’d be R&D by covert agencies with initials, religious wars, and assorted other nightmares that would make every dark future any time traveler or precog ever saw look like a teddy bear picnic.”
“Then, why are you worried about killing Nathan for keeps?,” asked Claire.
“Peter,” answered Bennet. “If his brother stayed dead, we’d face the opened Pandora’s box of Peter’s rage and abilities. Be in Odessa for a blood infusion. Afterward, we’ll try to talk some sense into them.”
“You always have a plan,” said Claire, wiping away her tears.
“Always,” said Bennet. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dad,” said Claire, fading back to life. She cut the plastic bag open with a knife she put beside her for the purpose, turned on the television for news of Nathan’s death, and went on-line to buy a plane ticket. Later, packed and ready to leave, she opened the door.
“Hello, Claire,” said Sylar. “Aren’t you going to invite me in? I took a teleporter’s power to visit you. It ‘d be rude to let him die in vain.”
Claire wasted no time wondering how Sylar survived Hiro Nakamura’s sword. Instead, she ran into the kitchen, dodging Sylar’s telekinetic terrorism with household objects. She waited for Sylar, braced against the stove. When she saw the look of triumph in his eyes, Claire turned on the gas and applied a cigarette lighter.
Dead for the second time that day, Claire contemplated the smoldering rubble that was the Bennets’ home. She thanked God that her mother and Lyle had been out with Mr. Muggles on a Costa Verde Dog Park play date. She decided it was time for her father to begin training her. They could not afford any more explosions and fires. Sylar distracted Claire from her reverie within the Deathscape
“What’s that?,” asked the watchmaker, pointing the finger he’d used to send his victims to the realm he now occupied.
Claire followed Sylar toward a shimmering curtain. “Hello, Claire,” said Angela Petrelli from the opposite side of it. “I can’t say I’m pleased to see you on that side. I wanted better for you; I wanted you to live.”
“What are you doing here, Angela?,” asked her grand-daughter. “What’s this curtain thing? Everything looks weird through it.”
“I’m precognitive, dear,” answered Angela. “This curtain is a place where the Futurescape and the Deathscape intersect. That intersection causes distortion. Now, I don’t know what’s future, and what’s Dreamscape strangeness.”
Within the intersection, Claire could see, among other things, Sylar scalping her; Sylar becoming her father’s new partner; Mohinder Suresh cocooning people; Matt Parkman in a desert with a turtle; Her mother, Meredith Gordon, and her playing Russian roulette surrounded by puppets; and her with dark hair in leather killing Peter. “Jesus,” said Claire. “I see what you mean.”
Disturbed, Claire started fading back to life, refocused on saving Angela’s son. Suddenly, Angela pushed the curtain into Claire, throwing her off balance, fully killing her, again. “I’m afraid I can’t let you go, dear. Nathan must stay dead for the greater good. Gabriel, please restrain her.”
“My name is Sylar!,” he yelled. “You can’t tell me what to do! My own mother couldn’t tell me what to do!”
“I did say please,” cooed Angela. “Besides, I can tell you how to access the power you still crave, the power you have left to you within the Deathscape.”
“She’s lying,” said Claire, playing the one hand she could. “She doesn’t know anything about that power; she’s never been dead. But, I can help you, if you promise to leave me alone.”
Claire shifted within the Deathscape, so she and Sylar were within the Dreamscape version of the Company’s Level 5. Only two inmates were in R.E.M. sleep, Flint and Stephen Canfield. As they passed by Flint’s cell, his dream form called to Claire, throwing out blue flames. “Hey, Baby, did you come to see me?”
“Screw you!,” Claire answered. According to the file she read, he was a rapist and murderer, and she had had enough of both from Brody Mitchum.
Stopping at Stephen Canfield’s cell, Claire introduced him. “According to his file, Mr. Canfield has the power to generate black holes.”
“Interesting,” mused Sylar.
“Being dead,” continued Claire, “you can’t touch his living dream form.” She demonstrated. “But, like I did with Flint, you can interact, affect his mind.” She demonstrated. “Mr. Canfield, I want you to release your neighbor, the one you killed, from a black hole.”
Canfield complied, forming a black hole within the Dreamscape, discharging neighbor and lawnmower from the Deathscape end. From Canfield’s file, Claire learned this man’s name was Oscar Leeson. Claire addressed him. “Mr. Leeson, do you know what’s happened?”
“I’m dead,” he answered sadly.
“Yes,” Claire answered, “and the dead can affect the living in their dreams. Unless you help me stop him, I’ll be forced to show this dead man how to torture your family in their sleep.”
Driven by fear and instinct, the dead Leeson shot razor sharp blades of grass from his lawnmower, cutting and disabling the dead Sylar. Then, Leeson dragged Sylar through the Deathscape end of Canfield’s black hole.
“Thank you,” Claire called after Leeson, as the hole closed. “You’re a hero! So are you, Mr. Canfield. Dad was right. One of us, one of them, does work.”
“I helped save my family, too,” Canfield cried softly, fading awake.
“And you helped save your family, Claire,” said Nathan Petrelli, shifting their location in the Deathscape. “Peter showed me the ropes,” he responded, answering his daughter’s unspoken question.
“I have to get to Odessa,” said Claire. “You’ll need an infusion of my blood.”
“No, I won’t,” answered Nathan. “I’m staying here.”
Claire started to protest, as Peter Petrelli faded into view. “I pitched an every-colored fit when Noah telepathically told me and Parkman his plan after the shooting and another one when Nathan told me he was staying here. What about Heidi and the kids? Why did this have to happen at all?”
“But, it did have to happen,” Nathan continued. “Now that I’m dead, I can’t be killed, again, and I can keep Ma and her friends in line from here. I can finally do the right thing.”
Claire Bennet hugged her biological father, smiling a wistful little smile. “I’ll visit,” she promised.
“Not too often,” said Nathan. “You have to live.”
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