Participants:
| Scene Title | It Was All Over The News |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The rest of the story is sought. |
| Date | July 24, 2009 |
Village Renaissance Building, Cat's Penthouse
Arriving by any of four elevators, visitors will find they open into three foot corridors facing wide double doors made from sturdy southern pine which swing outward and have the strongest locks available. The stairs lead to single doors, also outward opening, at the end of three foot corridors. Entry requires both a key and a keycard; other security measures are a video camera and voice communication terminal at all doors. The 4th Street side has floor to ceiling windows interrupted only by the access points. Cream colored curtains are normally kept closed.
This level has enough space for sixteen apartments. There is an office space with reception area, conference room, and executive office; a room for archery practice and other forms of physical exercise; a very well appointed kitchen and dining area; a music zone with an array of instruments, electronics, and amplifiers; an entertainment area with an HD set covering an entire stretch of wall from floor to ceiling; a locked room where security footage for the building is recorded and can be monitored; a laundry room; a staircase for roof access; central air and heating; the main bedroom and a few smaller guest rooms; plush deep wine carpet everywhere except the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms; and track lighting everywhere overhead. The light levels can be lowered or raised in the entire place, or selectively by segments. The overall decor suggests the occupant is a woman.
She's alone now, the guests here earlier having left to do things they needed to do, save for Elisabeth who rests and sleeps under the influence of painkillers in a comfortable chair in the entertainment area. Cat has just stepped off the elevator on her return from the recording studio on the fifth floor where she'd spent some hours playing guitar. The red Fender Strat is carried in hand, her face looks grim. There's grief in her eyes, mixing with calm and concentration. She isn't expecting to find Claire Bennet waiting for her outside the double doors to the penthouse itself, but it's certainly possible. People staying here, at least those trusted as Claire is, often have the key and keycard combo needed to access the top floors by elevator and stairs.
Neither is she expecting Hiro Nakamura will commence to be present, here or inside. Her mind is still affected by a measure of fog, and her thoughts are on speaking with Mother about recent events.
Hiro Nakamura never shows up. Cat spends the rest of the evening lonely, despairing.
That's in some other universe.
In this universe Hiro is calmly sitting in a chair when Cat turns the corner in time to see. He points at the front door in silent signal, as if expecting something.
It was all over the news, the destruction done to her grandfather's building, Pinehearst. It was a nagging suspicion in the back of her mind, mostly due to some of the stuff she had heard recently. So it was only logical that she go seeking someone who might know.
"Hey," comes the soft greeting from the now blonde Claire Bennet. She, of course, meant to dye it right back that night Delphine had accidentally set it back to it's true color, but… she didn't feel in a hurry to do so. A small smile plays at the corners of her lips. "I… hope you don't mind. I was waiting for you. I needed to talk to you… you know about Pinehearst." She seems almost reluctant to ask about the events that she missed out on. Maybe even a little hurt she wasn't invited along. "I figured from the news it was probably Phoenix." There is an unspoken question there.
There is a blink as she suddenly becomes aware of a familiar face is sitting there, waiting for Cat as well. "Hiro?" Then there is a twing of guilt in the pit of her stomach, even if it really wasn't her fault she missed their date.
Her eyes settle on Hiro soon as she opens the door and steps inside, then follow his gesture to look behind her where Claire stands. The younger and smaller woman is listened to quietly as she speaks, Cat nodding along, and the expression to her face shows truth in what's mentioned along with suggesting there were losses, as such operations will often have.
Once the floor is hers, she confirms what the Petrelli clan's youngest believes. "We carried out an operation there yesterday evening, Claire. And I'm sorry for what needed to happen there, truly. He hurt you, stole intimately from you, but he's still family. And losing family usually hurts, regardless of what they've done in the past." The way she speaks carries a suggestion of knowing that truth at firsthand.
"The details of it all are still foggy in my head right now, I'm able to pull bits and pieces out of the soup," she admits further, "it's lifting by degrees, faster when I make myself concentrate. But memory isn't at full power yet."
"He got your mind again?" asks Hiro, eyes leaking concern on Cat's behalf. They flicker slightly to look past her at Claire and a small smile creeps into the man's features. "Hey Cheerleader." There's actually a palpable measure of glad-to-see-you in the greeting. The time traveller sits back in the chair, steepling his fingers in his lap to ask, "What kind of losses were taken?"
"He was an evil bastard that got what was coming to him." Claire says a bit too calmly, a little bit too controlled. Cause while she does believe that, Cat is right, there is a bit of a sting at the idea that she just lost a family member. Especially, she she only saw him long enough to him to rip that ability out of her.
Taking a deep breath the ex-cheerleader shakes her head a bit. "That's not all that important. What's more important is Peter. Did you find him?" she asks eyes conveying her worry. She hadn't seen him yet, wouldn't he be here with the rest of the walking wounded? Last time she had seen him he was her cell in Pinehearst.
The question from Hiro, make Claire suddenly feel a little like crude under her shoe. Here she was asking about Peter, when there were so many more that died or were hurt. Way to go, cheerleader.
Her eyes go from one to the other, Cat opting to answer both questions in a sequence. Her voice is solemn on beginning and remain that way, her face showing the same. "We're still regrouping, there are people yet to check in, but that shouldn't take much longer. As it stands right now…" she lets out a slow breath and takes in another before continuing.
"Helena was pierced through the belly with a piece of rebar, had part of her hand shattered by freezing, and has a nasty cut on her forehead. She was taken by Teo to a Ferry place in Fort Lee for treatment. I'll go there today and see how she is, hopefully Flint Deckard will be able to get to her, but… I think he's going to be busy a while. Elisabeth," she gestures, has a leg injury and lost her voice. Colette fell into an elevator which itself fell, I've not seen her since. Part of the regrouping is finding out about other teams."
"Arthur didn't get my memory, it was Tyler Case, the older one. The younger Tyler stripped away Arthur's abilities and Richard Cardinal injected him with a fast acting failed version of the serum. He quickly bio-rejected. When it was all over on the roof Arthur, the older Tyler, both versions of Edward Ray, and several copies of Gillian and Brian were dead. Peter was shot by the older Edward Ray and kicked off the roof. I asked people to find him, to see if he was alive and bring the body in if not." Her eyes rest on Claire as she says that, watching her reaction as she goes on. "There's been no word on having found him yet. I believe he's alive. He's a Petrelli…" And those just can't be counted as dead without fifty kinds of proof. She isn't, however, finished there.
"During the battle with other teams, something happened at the bottom level, I don't know the details, but the reactor was damaged and started to melt down. Mason Chesterfield went there to shut it down." Here she's briefly silent as she settles into a chair.
"Teo says he didn't come out."
Silence practically emits from Hiro like a statement all its own as he gets up from where he sits and walks over to Cat. There he reaches to put arms around her and hug her, a gesture of honest sympathy. He doesn't waste a word on it. It's Claire he speaks to next. "Do you still have the Catalyst? Or have it back? Or is it permanently gone from you?"
As the news slowly sinks in, Claire doesn't know what to really think of it all. Emotions play over her face. Ironic isn't it.. Cardinal helps save her and then kills her grandfather, all she can think to say at first is, "Richard survived? Well.. that's good at least." Knowing how her grandfather died, actually bring a small twist of her stomach, and a pang of loss. She shouldn't feel it, up she is.
But it's the news about Peter that she really reacts too. Shocked and worried, her hands fist at her side. "Of course, he's alive." It sounds more like she's reassuring herself with those words. "It's Peter, of course he's alive." They can already see that look in her eye, the look that says she is planning. She's going to go out there and scour New York for her uncle. She waited, she twittled her thumbs at everyones insistence. Dammit, she's tired of it.
She looks all about ready to turn and walk out that door, when Hiro addresses her. "What?" Her brows lower slowly in a frown of confusion as she studies him carefully. "What are you talking about? Catalyst? What Catalyst?"
She leans into the embrace Hiro bestows, hands briefly resting atop his as she looks at his face. It's all there, unspoken, the now shared experience of having lost a father. It's not certain Mason is dead, but the odds aren't in his favor given the circumstances. There aren't tears, however, not here. Cat isn't one to let such things show in front of others. In point of fact, she isn't surprised Claire doesn't seem to get it. Her uncle, her grandfather… And there was a reason she called him Mason rather than Father.
As Hiro and the Cheerleader speak of catalysts, Cat closes her eyes and concentrates, trying to pierce through the fog and access that memory. She knows she should understand why it's important, that she knows it's important…
Hiro fills in the blanks, both for Claire's apparent lack of understanding and Cat's apparent lack of recall. "The Catalyst. The essence passed on from my mother to you when you were a baby, Claire Bennet. The thing that activated the Formula to make it work. A Formula which Arther Petrelli did not actually have, because he was given an inaccurate copy by Richard Cardinal." He loosens his embrace of Cat but leaves his hands upon her as a sort of lingering contact. A reminder of his support. "My mother told me about you and that her plan was to give it to you. It's why Arthur took you, Claire. It's all he wanted."
In the plush chair across the room, a pair of blue eyes open to glance around. The sound of voices didn't wake her though they draw her attention as Elisabeth wakes. She doesn't mean to eavesdrop per se, but she's also not sure whether to draw anyone's attention. So she merely listens as the conversation flows. She can't remember at this moment, through the drugs, whether she knew who the Catalyst was — she thinks not — though she did know there was a human one. She shifts in her chair, trying to find a more comfortable position for her leg, which is beginning to scream again, and her neck.
"Then…" Claire starts slowly, her eyes going from Cat to Hiro, "..if Arthur took my ability, then he took that too. If Delphine restored that too, then I have no idea if it is or not." She spreads her hands before her helplessly, her expression apologetic that she doesn't know. "Is there a way to find out?" she asks finally, arching a blonde brow to the time traveler.
Not aware of Elisabeth's awakening, and with Mother still apparently asleep, Cat remains where she is to listen as conversation goes on. There's nothing to contribute, though the explanation Hiro provides pulls aside a bit more of the fog, her memory of it clears. Of how she suspected it might have been in Claire but couldn't be sure. He had to have it, he wasn't looking for it, after all, and he hadn't taken Delphine's ability. Maybe there's a side effect… yes. What's going on with her, needing to take strong painkillers after each use and saying it wasn't always that way, surfaces. That, perhaps, is why Arthur left it in her.
Something made him not want it.
With a sigh Hiro tells Claire, "I have no way to know. It's probably gone. And if so, that's for the best. It takes a difficult decision out of my hands though, if it is gone." The last son of the Nakamura Family squeezes Cat's shoulder one last time before stepping away from her to pace lightly. "I have the genuine half of the Formula that Arthur Petrelli was missing. It was a difficult decision whether to destroy it or not. This makes that decision much easier. I will destroy it for the worthless burden it is. The mistake of reckless men attempting to do a good thing through evil works."
Should she let them know she's awake ….? Elisabeth debates, and then moves to shove herself upright in the chair that she's in. She snaps her fingers a couple of times, using her ability to shove the sound at the group to get their attention since she can't call out. When she catches someone's eye, she waves them closer. There's something she'd like to ask Hiro, but she can't type the question into the phone that's sitting in the chair with her until she's sure she's got them heading this way. Then she fumbles for the instrument to type into its text window.
Head drooping forward a bit, thoughtfully, a strand of blonde falls in Claire face and she focuses on it for a moment. "I would bet it is gone." Her hair went from brunette to what it was now, "If she put me back to my… 'all natural' state. It stands to reason that if the power was given to me, it wouldn't be restored?" Pushing the lock of hair behind her ear she looks to Cat, she is after all smart, to see if she agrees with her statement.
The snapping fingers do catch her attention and she twists around to look back at Liz. A glance to the others, she moves towards the injured woman.
"It seems gone to me also," Cat agrees, before speaking more words of agreement. "The Formula should be destroyed," she opines quietly, "it represents a source of power no one needs to have. The mechanics of nature have brought us to where we are, have caused us and our abilities to exist." The sound causes an interruption in her voice, she looks in Elisabeth's direction and stands to follow Claire.
"Over time, nature will continue its work. The answer isn't to wipe us out, or convert those who aren't like us. Some already say we're a master race. Many say we're mutant freaks to exterminate. Neither pole is the answer. Best course is to live our lives, not let the law treat us as more or less than human, refuse to be wiped out, and if we're truly Evolved nature itself tends all." In her head, again, the Founding Fathers surface. To her, in all they did with the nation's start and the constitution they wrote, was the understanding of human nature. That people aren't perfect, that power corrupts, and so they designed a system to block concentrations of power.
For some reason Cat's words make Hiro laugh a little. "Nice to see you're getting yourself back a little more." he observes. Because it is a very Cat Thing To Say on her part. "It's not back, Claire. I'm sure of it. It wasn't a natural part of you anyway." He obviously picks up on the snapping from Elisabeth, blinking as he looks her direction and then walks that way. Once he gets to her he half kneels by her chair to look at her and say, "Elisabeth Harrison. I'm glad you made it out all right. Voice gone, neh?"
Using the text window on the phone to get her thoughts out works far better than charades or a pen. Liz grimaces up at Hiro when he gets there and shows him the window. 2 qs: Can test for catalyst in blood 2 vrfy gone? Why fmla not alrdy dstryd? The damage that the formula can cause is incalculable — but she's curious about why Hiro (and others before him) have held onto the damn thing in the first place. Is it really something *anyone* thinks will have any kind of beneficial effect ultimately? Then she flashes him also, Entire throat slagged. Doc coming asap.
As she moves along side Liz, Claire shifts out of Hiro's way as he kneels down. "Well, can't say that I'm not glad. Especially if it goes hand in hand with the forumla. It would be stupid to put that kinda of power in anyone's hands. The government especially." The evil corrupt lot they are, Constitution or not. Tips of her fingers slip into the pockets of her jeans as she continues, "I mean, already got this FRONTLINE thing starting up, imagine what they could do with that unit if they had the formula." The disgust in her voice makes it plain that she doesn't think it would be good.
Resting her hand on the back of Elisabeth's chair, she leans over to catch a peek at the screen. "Yeah… I agree, burn the thing and scatter the ashes." Overkill maybe, but better safe then sorry. Her eyes narrow as she catches the last thing on her screen. "Ouch. How did you do that?" she asks with a sympathetic wince.
She flashes Hiro a quick and slight smile before bending to view what Elisabeth is communicating. "My ability came from the serum when I was an infant," Cat states, another piece pulled from the fog, "or so I was told. Evidence supports it, but some also opposes. Arthur took my ability, Delphine put it back, so if I was given the serum, Delphine was able to restore my altered DNA. I think, maybe, it could be like that for you, Claire, if the catalyst became part of your biology. But the only way to really know would be by making the formula. That, I very much don't recommend. Destroy the paper formula, and the point becomes entirely moot."
Another piece emerges from the fog. "Claire… I looked at your blood after Delphine restored you. It looks no different than any other human blood should. You've got an immune system, even. There was evidence of it. I think… I think your ability just means things fix before a disease can trigger it, so you never form a normal immunity. It's like you've never been exposed to all the things most of us have been, and got infected by something nasty."
Reading the text, Hiro puzzles out the meaning of the abbreviations and text-talk with quickness. Honestly it's easier than English to him. He gives Liz a sympathetic look and says to her, "You have to understand, it's a difficult decision not because I'd use it, or want to use it, but because it was my Father's wish that it be preserved and I inherit it." He looks at Claire briefly before looking away and rubbing his neck in what is definitely an uncomfortable gesture. "There were so many lives given just to discover it. And I'm sure that the knowledge of the Formula represents one of the greatest breakthroughs of human genetics in History. Probably the single greatest breakthrough. But it's obvious that our species is not ready for it. What would you do if you had a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, knowing that if you bit it you would know things, but it would damn you?"
Elisabeth hesitates to answer Claire's question. The older woman doesn't think the girl before her, as tough as she is and as much as she's been through, needs to hear that Elisabeth essentially melted the tissues of her own throat with amped-up ultrasound waves that instantly turned a clone of her grandfather into microscopic globules of bloody mist in the air. It's something Elisabeth is glad she didn't actually see happen, as she passed out. The simple answer: Dstryd voicebox w/pwr lst nite. Then her eyes skim up to the other two, looking thoughtful at Cat's explanation that Claire's ability is essentially her entire immune system — which makes sense based on what she's heard of the ability.
But either way, it's Hiro's answer that interests her, and she meets the Asian man's eyes as he kneels at her level and speaks. She listens intently not just to his words, but to her sense of the man — in their few intercations, he has struck her as a wise person. So this action of holding onto the formula seems, to her, out of character until he explains. And then she nods slowly, her fingers typing a longer response in the small window. If dstryed, those who died to create it have died in vain, then. But what cost if we keep? She shows it to him and continues, Ppl willing to die to keep it out of Arthur's hands, Arthur and others willing to kill to GET it. Is there anywhere it can be hidden that it would truly be safe? I would trust you to do it, but assess carefully.
Glancing up from the small cellphone window to look at cat, Claire frowns a bit. "I don't know what is more disturbing.. that you tested my blood… or the fact you tested the nasty gooey bloody mess I hacked on the floor when I came back from the dead." Doesn't paint a pretty picture for sure. Her look turns thoughtful, she offers softly, "You know… I remember my mom, one time, mentioning that I never got sick growing up." Her brows lift a bit as if something occurs to her. "In fact, I never stayed home from school cause I was sick." A small smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. "I remember being jealous that others would get sick. It meant getting to stay home and veg in front of the TV."
Glancing down at Hiro, her brows lift on her head. "Well… " She moves to rest a hand on Hiro's shoulder. She doesn't know what it's like to lose a father, but she can in a way understand how important something can feel if it's entrusted to you. A glance to read Liz's screen she nods her head and gives Hiro's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Catalyst or not, it's dangerous.. and who is to say the Catalyst won't… somehow pop up again. It was a great discovery… but then… they thought that when they split the atom."
"I like to learn things," Cat replies quietly, "so I looked to see if I could find what killed you that day and tell you about your own ability, how it seems to work. There could be a lot of people capable of taking things away like Arthur, and Tyler Case." Knowing, to her, is always better. And it was far less disgusting than when she helped Abby put Rickham's insides, which had been outside, back where they belonged.
This train of thought causes the conversation with Magnes to emerge from the fog, what he initially said about her face.
Oh God, she wonders with a displeased expression coming to her features, maybe I do have geek in me.
To read that text from Liz, Hiro says solemnly, "I'm afraid those people will just have to have died in vain. The odds that we'll all end up dying in vain are unacceptable. So I'll destroy it. There is no place I can hide it that it can't be found somehow, by someone. That's impossible, even for me. And Cat's right. The Catalyst might resurface again." And he makes no mistake that he is capable of quite a few very unlikely improbable acts. He puts a hand on Claire's acknowledging the contact she gives him before he rises to his feet again. "I've learned what I came here to learn. And a little more that makes me feel good about the future." He shares a look between the three women that is wholly warm, if reserved. "Places to go. Anybody have anything for me?"
There's a faint smile as Liz nods to him deferentially, but she doesn't have anything further for him. In truth, she's glad he's going to destroy it. It doens't bear thinking about that he could just go back to another time and get it again or something. Too much thinking!! She waggles her fingers at him and settles back in her chair silently, the phone resting on her stomach for now while he bids his farewells.
"I do." Glancing at the other woman, Claire moves a bit closer to Hiro, a hand resting on his arm to move the m away from the others a bit. All so she can whisper. "Actually, I feel like I need to give you an apology." Giving him a pained look, "You know, since you asked me to help you free Peter." It's not the first time she hasn't been where she promised to be. So it's plain that the guilt of it is effecting her. "I just wanted you to know I am so sorry… and I would have been there if I could have." Her hand slide off is arm and she gives him a sad smile. "That's all."
"You'll find Peter," Cat states, "you're better at getting into and out of places than we are, Hiro. I should tell you, also, I met Magnes Varlane. He knows me as Michelle Banks, I told him only that about me. But he told me a lot of things about himself. About gangsters pulling the President's strings and having visited the past. He didn't say you took him there, though. It was interesting," she remarks, "that he'd talk to someone on the street he'd just met about all that." Her head shakes. "I asked why he wasn't careful about being in public after the video clip on the news, why he isn't afraid of being thrown into a dark hole. He claims he has a Presidential pardon and is in a police academy now."
Hiro watches Claire as she says her peace to him, his expression falling into that more or less neutral one he uses when he's thinking. It doesn't really mask anything all the time. He sighs and rolls his eyes at Cat's news and tells her, "That young man is a magnet for trouble. I tried to show him a reason to correct himself. Obviously he wasn't ready to learn." Then he turns to face Claire more fully. "It was not your destiny to be there, Claire. You had a different and more difficult path to walk. We couldn't know that until it happened. So please, do not apologize." He sets a hand on the young woman's shoulder and squeezes it assuringly.
And then quite suddenly Hiro Nakamura vanishes, gone in that space between clock-ticks.
Elisabeth's eye shoot to Cat at that point. Varlane has a presidential pardon for the incidents in Japan, and he's in the NYPD police academy? Are you *shitting* her?? Yanking the phone back up, Liz types furiously. Pres prdn!??? HowTF?? Nate2019?? It's been something she's wondered about for a long time now — we know that the future Nathan came back with Edward Ray, but the question has always been 'is he behind the scenes, or did they just get rid of current-time Nathan or what?' But Hiro's gone before she can flash the question and she makes a huff of disgust.
Harder? Yeah. She died — again. This time it could have been permanent. Hiro's words don't really relieve the guilt she's feeling, just like no one could convince her she wasn't to blame for Midtown. When Hiro leaves, Claire frowns a bit, eyes gazing at the floor thoughtfully. But then she shakes away the thoughts and turns back to the others. She doesn't know who they are talking about so she can only stand there and listen… and read the conversation.
He's gone. Unsurprising, this is what Hiro does. Cat watches the spot for a few moments, then turns back to the blondes so she can read the latest typings. It makes her brows furrow, she has to concentrate, work to part that fog and pull out data. "I…" she starts, "Nate 2019?" Silence settles in. Two Edwards, two Tylers, one of each pair older than the other, there are two Nathans. Some seconds later she speaks again, having drawn a few details out.
"Unknown, and unknown. It could be him. It could be false, the pardon. But he did claim to be in the police academy, and says he has a pardon, that's why he isn't afraid."
What follows, after another stretch of silence as she tries to dig something else out, is "I want to talk to Tracy Strauss. The name stands out, it seems connected to something, but I can't get through the fog yet to remember. Who is Tracy Strauss?"
Typing quickly again, Elisabeth shows Cat the screen. Press secretary or PR person to POTUS. In truth, she's starting to be of not a lot of use here again. She types once more, Painkiller syringe in fridge. Mind fetching? Because at this moment, she can't swallow a pill. Alec left a syringe.
She reads, and nods, taking a step toward the kitchen only to see Claire's back as she's already headed there. Cat's attention thus goes back to the information, she nods with her brows furrowing again. "Damned fog," she growls. "I should try to see about meeting her, once the fog is all gone, figure out some way to do it without her knowing who I am. She works for the President, it might be impossible, but then again it's not certain how much Secret Service protection she has. I think there's something else to cover with her, can't spot what yet, but… she may know whether or not it's the real Nathan, working for him."
Then, as her words end, Cat's mind turns toward Father again, eyes drift toward the door behind which Jennifer is believed asleep. Her eyes show the loss again, but she neither says nor does anything to make it part of conversation.
Elisabeth considers and types, Could be likeness to Niki/Jess. She shows it to Cat, types one more thing, and then reaches up for her friend's hand to squeeze it tightly. I'm sorry about your father. More than I can ever say. If anything I can do, you know I'm here.
It's only a few moments until Claire finds the syring, and returns. Seeing the exchange between the two women she slows a bit giving them a few moments. Holding the item out to them she gives them both a tight-lipped smile. "Anything else before I get out of everyone's hair?." She's already formulating a plan on how she's going to search for Peter. "I'll — I'll be back later, if that's okay." Her eyes go to Cat, as she asks "Is it alright if I crash up here again?"
Her fingers curl around Elisabeth's for a moment as the words are read, and Cat simply nods her understanding, her acceptance. "Thank you." Then Claire has returned, Cat takes the syringe and speaks quietly. "Of course, Claire. Here, or on the fourth floor, anytime."
She takes Elisabeth's arm and feels for a vein, using a little pressure to make it stand out, then does that thing with the syringe where a little of the contents is pushed out to make sure there's no air bubble in it, and gives the injection. Not something she does very often, but she has decent dexterity. Musicianship makes her good at being able to use fingers with just the right amount of pressure and timing."
Soon Claire will be gone, Elisabeth will probably be back in drug induced sleep, and Cat will again be alone to share news with Mother.