Disclaimer : This is a fictional story and doesn't imply anything about the characters or actors of the series, Heroes.
Chapter 1 : Prologue
Noah Bennett swiped his access card and entered the dark passages of level 5. Walking lazily along, he recalled the story behind each inmate as he passed them, watching with amusement as they tried to affect him with their hateful glares. He'd been responsible for most of the inmates here. He didn't care though. They were extremely dangerous men and women, and they needed to be contained. Almost every one of them was responsible for some catastrophic incident or massacre. While they wept and insisted it was because they couldn't control themselves, it made little difference. The truth was that normal people landed up in prison when they lost control and harmed others, so why should these people be different?
Turning the corner, he saw the distant figure of Angela Petrelli at the far side of the long passage. She'd requested to meet him here, though it irked that she had chosen the furthest cell from the entrance. It felt like he had been walking miles. She was also a dangerous woman like these people on level 5, though her gift of insight had limited lethality. She was staring into the cell passively, and barely acknowledged his presence. She seemed to always wear black, but it was fitting attire for her.
"You came," she said flatly. It was a meaningless statement, though perhaps as close to a greeting as he could expect from her.
"Of course. I still serve the Company, so long as they remember who their real friends are, and who they must not go after."
She smiled to herself. "If you're worried about Claire, then you're being a fool, Noah. She's my granddaughter. I want her to be safe as much as you do."
"Somehow I find that hard to believe. If she had anything other than the miraculous ability to heal, I think she would have died ten times by now."
Angela's smile faded. She had failed in her duties as a mother and grandmother, and she was well aware of her flaws despite her thorny exterior. "We've all been through difficult times recently, Noah. No one has escaped unharmed." It was a loaded statement, and he decided not to comment on it, because the raw truth of her words stung him. So much had happened over the past few years.
He shook his head irritably and shifted the subject. "You wanted to meet me here."
"I did," she said. They were both happy to get back to business. The constant passive aggression between him and the Company was tiresome, and even though he would never let it go, there was also a time to stop behaving like a child and get on with it.
Noah finally turned to look into the cell. Like all cells on this level, it was remarkably bland and devoid of any comforts. A single bed lay in the middle as well as basic ablutions to the side. It was essential that none of the inmates hid themselves, or used the contents of their cells as weapons to attack the Agents. There was a young man lying on his bed casually, his face calm and indifferent to his company as he paged through the book he was reading. He was in his early twenties, tall and very handsome with strong features and jet black hair.
"I don't recall getting my hands on this one," Noah said, as he turned to face the cell fully, now suddenly interested in how this young man had ended up here.
"That's because you didn't," Angela said. "This is Ryan, our newest inmate, though he has been here for a few weeks already."
"Who is he?" he said simply. He really wanted to know. The man must have seen them dithering outside his cell, yet he paid them no attention.
"I already told you," she said, and he felt irritation surge in himself. "But don't worry, Noah, I know what you mean."
Angela took a deep breath. "Ryan is the greatest triumph of our abilities and potentially our deadliest threat," she said, and her face was grave.
"In what way?" he asked curiously.
"He has the ability to absorb and mutate energy," she said.
"Energy transfer is rare," he said matter-of-factly, "but your son has the ability and so does Sylar, as well as a young girl in Australia."
She chuckled softly to herself. "No one has this ability, and believe me, I have tried to find the remotest parallel between him and others like us. He is truly unique, and I'm quite thankful for it."
"Explain," Bennett said, and he suddenly became aware of the location of his gun. It was a reflex, but Angela did not easily scare, and this boy had some sort of hold over her. That in its self was worth something.
"He cannot absorb powers at all, and while that may make him seem weaker than my misguided son, or that other misguided monster, I assure you he is by far the most powerful of all of us. When something is directed towards him, he can absorb the energyÉ"
"Like a sponge," he interrupted.
"Yes, and no," she said. "There is nothing that affects him, and I mean nothing. The first time I met him he asked for sanctuary here, and I told him this was a place for special individuals. He froze a glass of water on my table, and I assumed that was it Ð we've all seen that before. However, when I took him to his cell one of the guards pushed him into it, after wrongly assuming that he was a recently subdued inmate."
Noah imagined the scene and the catastrophe that followed.
"I saw him draw the light from his room and the passages around, and watched it enter him, and through some maligned transformation, he blew the door straight off its hinges. I don't think he meant to hurt anyone, though the guard was most appallingly injured, but he certainly did want to remind us that his incarceration was voluntary."
"But the Grid," Noah said in shock.
"The Grid did nothing to him. We've tried almost every way to suppress his powers but nothing works. I've had to be very subtle about it too because he had only a few conditions when entering Level 5, and this challenged one of them."
"Conditions?" Noah said with a raised eyebrow. He'd never heard of such a thing with an inmate.
"Yes, conditions. That is why I'm in charge, dear," she replied, after hearing the incredulity in his voice. "He said he wanted to remain here undisturbed, and would do so as long as he could leave when he wanted to, and no one tried to experiment on him or subdue him. Naturally, I agreed at first, believing him to be as limited as the rest of us. Yet when I saw his ability, I felt a strong compulsion to investigate and find out how such a man could exist."
"And?" Noah said.
"Well it's quite simple. He can pull any ambient energy into himself whether it is directed at him or not. He can use it against you, or store it, or perhaps alter it, I don't know. What I do know is that I dare not risk his wrath. He's a kind young man, but he has a dark side. He's been through much."
"Perhaps the Haitian.." Noah started.
"The Haitian is useless," Angela said dismissively. "Do you really think I wouldn't have thought of him first? He tried his very best to focus on Ryan, and Ryan pulled it all in."
"Pulled what in?" Noah said in awe. The Haitain was the ultimate secrete weapon against the most elusive villains.
"Even the Haitain gives off some sort of psychic energy to suppress his targets. He said that Ryan was like a thirsty desert and just soaked it all up. But that wasn't all. He did something to that energy and released it, and suppressed every single one of our powers for over an hour Ð including the Haitain's."
"Remarkable," Noah said, now staring wide-eyed at the young man who was still casually entertaining himself.
"Ryan must have known what had happened, but he didn't address the apparent violation of the rules he'd set. He didn't try to leave, or worse, do something to us all."
"Why is he here, though?" Noah said. It was a question he should have asked long ago.
"Ah, now we get to the crunch," she said with that infuriating half-smile once again across her face. "When he came here he seemed quite calm, but I realized that there were deep undercurrents which were upsetting him, but which he didn't want to discuss. I've tried to discuss it with him, but he's not interested. And soÉ"
"So?" Noah continued.
"So I brought you down here to see if you would have more success," she said, turning towards him with an eagle-eyed gaze. Angela was a master at using people to obtain her goals. Only her husband had been more ruthless, though sometimes he wondered about that too.
"Me?" he said, with a snort of derision. "I think you're confused. I perform other tasks for you. I'm hardly a counselor."
"Well yes, I believe the same. I find it hard to believe that you can do more than suppress and kill these people." It was an outright insult, but he let it wash over him. She would have to try harder to provoke him. "However," she continued. "I had a dream showing that you would be the one to make contact with him, and as you know, I am never wrong."
"I hate that ability of yours," he said while turning to look at Ryan, who seemed as unaware of them as ever. Angela could see the future, but sometimes her dreams were ridiculous and illogical, and she sent him and his partner off on wild missions that made little sense Ð at least until a few days or weeks later, when everything started to fall into place. He'd learned to trust her ability, if not Angela herself.
He sighed to himself. "I'll give it a try."
"Good," she said, as if she expected nothing less.
"But I'm not going to do anything with you watching," he said while looking down on her. It seemed to have little effect on how she held herself.
"I wasn't planning to," she said, and walked away without any further words.
Slowly he turned to stare at the youth in the cell. Angela was gone, but somehow her presence made it feel like they were in the majority and there was less to fear. Now, standing here, with a guy unaffected by the grid, he felt vulnerable and alone. Every sound in the passages seemed to echo twice as loudly, and every shriek from distant inmates carried ten times the potency. Yet, Ryan seemed as benign as he'd ever seen in a person. His appearance was so unremarkable that it was easy to forget how dangerous he was otherwise. Slowly he made his way to the door and typed in the six digit key code. The door opened slightly, and he flinched at the creak. He wanted to enter undetected, as idiotic as it sounded. Closing the door, he turned to see Ryan looking at him with an easy expression with his book on his lap.
"Hi," Ryan said in a friendly way.
"Hi," he replied, and awkwardness flooded over him. This felt like an attempt to get through to Claire after they'd had a fight. Ryan was older, and he felt no love for him, but still Ð he couldn't ignore the comparison.
"You guys had a good long chat out there. Did she send you to get something out of me, or to make a request?" The guy went straight to the point, and it seemed that his indifference was a dangerous illusion. He considered that Ryan had played this one unfairly by using some aspect of his power, but at the same time he looked into his piercing eyes and saw intelligence and will.
"She asked me to chat to you," he said. There was no point in evading the truth, and a foolish lie would possibly lose him the trust that he needed in this relationship. "I'm Noah Bennett."
"Ryan," he said with a handshake and a light smile.
"Just Ryan?" he said.
"I don't like to use my surname. There are memories attached to it which I'd rather avoid," he said. He stared at the book on the bed next to him as if it could save him from the topic. He looked at him suddenly and sharply.
"Ah, Noah Bennett," he said thoughtfully and with a coy smile. "You sure are hated here. I've heard just about every guy on this floor screaming your name. I'll kill Noah Bennett. Just wait until I get out of here. He'll spend days dying."
Noah smiled at him. He was under no illusion as to how the inmates felt about him. He thought he could get to like Ryan. The guy didn't seem malicious or cruel, and he had a disturbing knack for recalling scenarios just as they really were. "I'm the reason everyone is here on level 5," he said. "I don't expect to be popular."
"Not everyone," Ryan said with a small smile, and he stood up and started ambling around the room.
"Not you," Noah said.
"Did I stain your perfect record on level 5?" he said smugly.
"You may find this hard to believe, but I don't enjoy putting people here. But they're dangerous and need to be confined."
Ryan leaned against the back wall with his hands in his pockets. He was very handsome, and the shirt lying against his body spoke of an athletic build.
"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" Ryan said.
"I do what I do," he said. He'd been ambushed with questions like that for years, and people tried to force the moral high ground on him. Truthfully, he did believe in what he did, but he still had to live with the murders and atrocities that he performed to enforce it.
"Yes you do," Ryan said. "I guess one could argue the point to capture or kill evil men who just happen to have the ability to do extraordinary things. But still, it's not my cup of tea. Most people are like that, you know."
"Like what?" Noah said.
"They admire a cause but they don't want to get their own hands dirty. Most people don't approve killing of animals, but they all know how the chicken landed up nicely wrapped in the store É the lamb, the porkÉ whatever."
Noah stared at the kid. "So you admire me?"
Ryan grunted softly. "I admire that you believe in a cause and you're willing to do evil to keep others safe. The problem is whether you are being useful. The butcher who gets us our meat certainly is, but with you it's a little more gray."
"I've never had a problem with gray," Noah said simply. Ryan was certainly a young man of considerable depth.
"I would imagine so. Still, gray has a nasty way of becoming darker and darker, and very soon you're sitting in a dark room and you realize it's been years since you saw even a glimpse of light." Ryan seemed to be speaking to himself too.
"And what would you know of gray?" Noah asked curiously.
"Not much," Ryan said. He started to walk around the room again. "I've learned the great weight of these powers I've had. People without powers move in small steps towards light or dark. Men like me take giant leaps in either direction, needing no more than a single act to define themselves."
"Do you want me to feel sorry for you?" Noah asked. It was a provocative question, and he thought Ryan had been angered after he stopped in his steps and swung around.
"I'm merely trying to tell you about myself. There's no need to bust my balls every time I open my mouth. The dick measuring contest ended long ago."
Noah smiled to himself, but tried to hide it on his face. This kid had a lot of spirit and seemed like an overall decent guy, and it was good to see that he could use his teeth too. He could make an excellent Agent, though perhaps the thought was premature.
"Why are you here, Ryan?" Noah said. The simplicity of the question was the most devastating part of all.
"IÉ don't want to discuss it," Ryan said, suddenly looking sheepish and embarrassed. He couldn't make eye contact with him. "All you need to know is that I came here to protect others from my powers. Over here I'm safe, and out there, they are safe. It works out well for everyone."
Ryan was fidgeting with his hands, and clearly anxious. He sat down on his bed and toyed with his book, but made no effort to read it. Noah felt like this question had unraveled the underlying issues behind this odd request to voluntarily live on level 5.
"So you're going to live here forever?" Noah asked.
"No, noÉ not forever. Maybe. I don't know. I need time to think and this was the best place I could think of." In minutes Ryan had gone from a capable and headstrong opponent, to a vulnerable and unsure one. Normally this would be the time to strike, but he felt an unusual sense of compassion for the guy and decided against it.
"RyanÉ you must understand thatÉ"
"Who was that!" Ryan blurted out and leaped to his feet. He ran to the glass so quickly that Noah almost drew his weapon.
Sensing a threat, Noah ran from the room and closed Ryan in behind him. His weapon was ready. He was ready. If someone had escaped, or someone else had arrived to rescue their friends, they would be going nowhere and were in for a nasty surprise. He saw the man in the distance walking away from him, and lowered his gun immediately. It had been a false alarm, though Ryan's reaction had been excessive to say the least. Walking back to the cell, he typed in the electronic code lazily before entering, and stowing his gun.
"It's just Peter Petrelli," Noah said.
"I want to meet him," Ryan said, still looking out into the passage.
This reaction really did shock Noah. He thought about all the possible reasons for this request, and all the repercussions. Villain and friend alike, either to kill him or to use his powers to attain some goal, had sought Peter. Yet surely Ryan had no goal in mind to match those previous users and abusers who'd contacted the Petrellis. Noah was sure in his mind that Ryan was a good guy, but he decided to keep his guard up after the crazy response to the appearance of Peter on the floor. He looked at Ryan again, who was still glancing out the window in hope of seeing Peter again. His breathing was staggered and his eyes strangely focused. Could it perhaps be something less sinister? Could Ryan actually want PeterÉ physically? It just seemed like the weirdest twist to the story, though he could see how it linked in with Ryan's appearance here, and his secretive past. An imaginary story of Ryan's life coalesced in his mind. He thought he knew exactly what he was doing on Level 5, hiding from the world. Either he was totally wrong or completely right. Either way, he smiled as he left the room. Peter was in for a good surprise.
End of chapter 1
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