Heroes Fan Fiction ❯ Playing Minerva ❯ On Borrowed Time ( Chapter 2 )

Spoilers: 01x11, "Fallout", AU after that, does not take “Distractions” in account
Warnings: time-travel, memory jumps, implied underage themes

 

Playing Minerva

Chapter One: On Borrowed Time

In the not too distant future ...

Grim faces were all around him as he coughed and hacked, thrashing around in tightly wound blankets over his bed. Peter Petrelli had tried to stay strong in front of them, but he just couldn't. This illness came out of nowhere, and one moment he was ready to lead their small rebellion out into the war again, and then next he had fallen to the floor - his head throbbing and his body covered in sweat. His stomach felt knotted, and the powers that he had learned to control under Claude's tutelage were now bouncing around chaotically within his bones and fighting among themselves.

“Unn ...” Peter groaned, and Heidi Petrelli put a comforting hand over his forehead, but then Nathan snatched it away. Suddenly, Peter began convulsing wildly again.

“What's wrong with him?” Heidi asked frantically, and she looked around to saddened eyes that did not hold the answer.

“We don't know, Mrs. Petrelli,” Hiro said with much improved English. He shook his head sadly and then looked to Peter's sickly body. “He was healthy and standing just a moment ago.” Hiro pursed his lips and his face scrunched in concentration. Everyone looked to Hiro as if he knew something was wrong. “Something doesn't feel right.”

“What do you mean?” Matt asked quickly, putting a hand on Peter's arm, to both comfort him and hold him down.

“Time,” Hiro stated, and he closed his eyes trying to feel something intangible that no one else in the room had the talent to recognize. “There's something in time that seems off. Something happened.”

“Gees. He looks worse than that near-miss explosion,” Claude harrumphed. “Hey, Dr. Who, you don't suppose something in the past happened to Peter that's affecting him now?”

“It's hard to say,” Hiro said. “Time isn't as linear as we can perceive. Action upon action could have multiple consequences.” Hiro looked at everyone sheepishly. “Sorry, but I'm still learning about my powers.” He sighed and then pouted. “I wish things were easily explained away like in Star Trek.”

“Hiro…” Peter whispered, and as he breathed heavily, he struggled to reach out a hand to him. Hiro jumped up readily and grasped Peter's hand lightly in his own. “Where's Claire?”

Hiro shook his head at Peter. “Don't you remember? She's in Texas with Nikki and D.L. They found another one like us there, and they're going to appeal for this person's help. I'm sorry, Peter. I know Claire can heal you better than anyone.”

But Peter didn't want Claire just for that. He knew that she healed him, and in more times than he could count, she had saved his life by just being by his side. Now she was gone, and he was unexplainably ill - and it wasn't just her healing that he craved. Claire Bennet healed him in more ways then her powers ever could.

“Peter, hang on,” Mohinder said next to him, his deep coal eyes burning at Peter with resolve. “We will find out what's wrong with you.” Mohinder turned to Claude, who was staring at Peter peculiarly. With all his knowledge, Claude couldn't explain this phenomenon, as everyone would have suspected.

“Hiro…” Peter said, squeezing Hiro's gentle hand still gripping his own. “I need Claire. I'm starting to…” Peter stopped, and his breathing became deep and guttural, and his eyes began to roll back into his head.

“Peter!” Hiro said, “Why do you need Claire? What are you starting to do?”

Peter tried to compose himself, and he used as much energy as he could just to stay conscious. He looked at Hiro directly and said with a desperate voice, “I'm starting to forget her.”

“What? How could he forget her?” Nathan asked with a curled lip. He seemed to be exasperated that he could not help his brother. Even he still had a hard time dealing with all this `power' mumbo jumbo, and everyone knew that he became frustrated even more when it concerned his brother.

Hiro turned around to Nathan, and everyone stared widely at the look of trepidation on his face. “I knew it. It does have something to do with the past. There must be a rift.” He looked at everyone's quizzical faces and said. “If Peter never sees Claire in the past before his explosion ...”

“... He'll die,” Claude finished. He bit on his lip. “I'll admit, it wasn't only my training that got Peter through that. When the young Ms. Bennet came all the way from Texas to see him, she had healed him somehow, not just physically, but on a level that he could control his powers.” He raised an eyebrow as if pondering an errant thought, shook it off and continued. “I'd say that with Ms. Bennet there his lessons seemed smoother for him.”

“So what could happen back then that would prevent past-Claire from meeting inexperienced-ticking-time-bomb-past-Peter?” Nathan queried, almost scoffing.

Matt gasped suddenly as something dawned on him, and everyone watched his face grow paler. “Her father...”

“Please...” Peter managed to say, still struggling with his strange, time-afflicted illness.

Mohinder felt his forehead, and quickly his hands moved over Peter's chest and legs. “He's incredibly hot, like his body is a battery.” He turned around to Matt and said, “Do you still have those radiation detectors you used when Ted was alive?”

Matt nodded once and then rushed to go get them. Nathan stepped up and started waving his hands. “Wait a minute, you think Peter is generating radiation?”

“Maybe,” Mohinder said sternly. “One of the chief reasons for the near-explosion was that Peter was around Ted, and he couldn't quite control the amount of power. If not for Claude and Claire, Peter would have fulfilled his vision that day. If he misses meeting Claire in the past, then Ted's power could affect him now.”

“Ugh, my head hurts from all this time stuff,” Ando quipped. “I don't understand how time could be disrupted anyway. It's not like Hiro's been popping around lately causing time rifts. Right?” Ando turned to his friend for reassurance, but his friend had mixed emotions crossing his face.

There was a pregnant pause, and everyone looked to Hiro for reassurance.

“It's all my fault,” Hiro and Claude said together, and everyone seemed shocked that they admitted it at the same time. Claude put a hand on Hiro's shoulder and patted it.

“No, my friend, it is my fault.” Claude looked at everyone, and some seemed miffed that something was kept from them until a time like this while everyone else was mystified.

“I should have never agreed to do it,” Hiro said pouting. “I knew at the time, if I couldn't control my time powers, Peter surely couldn't either.”

“What are you guys talking about? Has Peter come in contact with your powers Hiro?” Hiro frowned as Nathan looked at him fiercely. “Hiro, you know that's dangerous.”

“I know, and that's why I tried to stay away from Peter as much as I could until I could learn to control it,” Hiro explained, and then Claude came to his defense.

“I forced Hiro to do it,” Claude said with deep eyes full of mild regret. “I thought if he could control Hiro's powers, he could control all the other powers even better. He had to learn some time...”

Nathan marched over to Claude and looked him hard in the eyes. “What did you do to my brother? How dare you mess with his life, especially at that time!”

“He had to learn,” Claude said stubbornly, pursing his lips. Everyone could tell he was trying not to lose his temper with Nathan, and he knew he was in the wrong. “He was making great progress, and when he returned not more than five minutes after absorbing Hiro's time-traveling powers, I thought that he did all right. Peter told me that no one saw him, and that he talked to no one while he was gone.”

“Five minutes can mean a lot for a person who bends time,” Hiro responded cryptically, and the look on his face showed he feared the worse.

“Did Peter say where he went when he got back?” Ando asked.

Claude shook his head. “He just told me not to worry. I knew something had seemed strange, but I had gotten to know Peter well enough that if it was truly bad, than he would have told me.” Claude cracked a half smirk and added, “Peter is noble like that.”

Everyone nodded, and suddenly the room got very awkward again. Peter was still breathing hard, falling in and out of consciousness. Finally, a moan escaped him, and he called out Claire's name.

Hiro swallowed hard as he watched Peter grow more ill by the minute. Finally, he broke the silence and said, “Maybe… this time rift concerns Claire. Maybe Peter visited Claire in the past?”

“You mean he visited her unwillingly? Even by training his powers?” Nathan asked skeptically.

“Peter and Claire have a strong connection, Nathan. It's something I've noticed from the beginning,” Heidi chimed in. She moved her chair closer to Peter's side and put her hand over his forehead, brushing his damp hair back. “Maybe he contacted her in some way that alerted her father that she knew...”

“Ah...” Hiro said. “Claire has told me before that her father had tried to have her memories erased. There was a time she had to pretend that she didn't remember meeting Peter.”

“But she came to New York anyway. I remember that,” Nathan said with a smirk creeping upon his face. “She kept demanding to see him.” Then he frowned, and then as the memory seemed fleeting, he looked at Peter again and second-guessed himself. “But am I really remembering that correctly?”

Hiro got a horrified look on his face as Nathan continued to stare at his sick brother thinking of Claire. “Oh no,” he stuttered. “What if we all forget?”

“CLAIRE!!” Peter sat up in his bed and screamed. His eyes shot wide open, and his skin looked damper than before. It was redder too, and he seemed to flush increasingly as his body temperature skyrocketed. Matt still wasn't back with the radiation detector, so everyone watched him cautiously hoping that he was okay.

“Nathan!” Heidi turned to her husband and grabbed his arm. “We have to bring Claire back from Texas now. He's not going to make it.”

“No…” Peter said loudly, and everyone looked at him with shock as he sat up fully awake. Peter was never one to deny a chance to see Claire. “Not this Claire. I have to see ... her, in that other time.” He looked at Hiro and reached out for him. Hesitantly, Hiro came to him and waited for him to explain.

“Hiro,” Peter said, gripping Hiro's arm with his sweaty hand. “Please, I need to go back and warn her. I have to reverse what I did during that lesson. I'm sorry… I never told you.”

“Told me...?” Hiro turned and gripped Peter's shoulders. “What did you do in the past Peter? What did you do when Claude was training you with my powers?”

Then, a heartfelt look appeared in his eyes. He smiled weakly as the faint memory washed over him. “I saw her… Claire. She was magnificent.” Then the wondrous expression on his face changed and contorted into a horrible grimace. He shook his head. “I should have never touched her.”

Hiro's eyes widened, and everyone mirrored his dread. Nathan came up behind a speechless Hiro and gave his brother an infuriated look. Peter hated that look, but it was just as well - he felt he deserved worse. He stared cautiously into his brother's fiery eyes, and he almost could feel the knives on his ears as his brother spoke.

“Peter, what did you do to Claire in the past?”

“I saved her... again. And she was happy to see me, and starry-eyed… just like she always is.” Then he dropped his head in his hands and began to weep. “I'm sorry, everyone.

“That time when I went back, Claire and I ... we made love.”