by Adam Sklar
CHAPTER FOUR: HOPE NEVER DIES
“Hope? Oh my god.” Dillon mutters whilst she and Quinton run up to Hope and hug her tightly.
“You two know each other? Is it just me, or does everybody know each other?” Riley questions.
“We do, I thought she was dead. We both thought she was dead. Quite a few of us worked together before we were captured by the Preservation of Eden. Hope was one of them, so was Lily.” Dillon answered.
“They told me you guys were dead too. They must have said that to all of us. Have you seen the twins?” Hope wondered.
“Wait, don’t tell me you’re talking about the JJ Twins?” Riley butted in.
“Yes! Jessica and Jennifer. You’ve seen them?” Hope responded.
“No, I don’t believe this. They were in the building. They left before we found you. Both of them were extremely adamant to get home, it seemed as if they had nothing to stay here for. They probably thought you guys were all dead too.” Riley assumed.
“This is a hotspot, the main place they hold any prisoners. It’s no surprise they ended up here as well. It’s no surprise we all ended up here.” Hope theorises and turns to Riley. “Before you came along, we were all trying to take down the Preservation of Eden. They were doing terrible things. Harvesting powers and killing people, all in the name of a ‘better future’. You brought us together, Riley. We can take them down. Together.” She nods.
“Are you immortal?” Riley quietly quizzed Hope.
“I don’t know, I’ve never tried to see if I am, hopefully I never have to. My ability allows me to absorb massive amounts of energy, I can either harness that energy or deplete it entirely. I’ve never absorbed enough for it to kill me. Do you remember that gigantic comet from a while ago? How it miraculously broke apart and disappeared as it entered our atmosphere? That was me, I absorbed it. Unfortunately it’s how the Preservation of Eden found me. I spent years running from them and eventually found Dillon and Quinton here. We then teamed up with the JJ Twins too. Lily was the last to join us. In 2010, The Nomad took it upon himself to take us all down and here we are. The JJ Twins got away back then, but we weren’t so lucky.” Hope explains in detail.
“I’ve heard about The Nomad, what makes him so powerful? Why can’t any of you guys stop him? Quinton, you have the power to give and take life? Couldn’t you have stopped him easily?” Riley shakes his head in confusion.
“The Nomad has a power none of us can fight against. He can control minds and reflect any damage we try to inflict upon him. Not just us with powers, but normal people too. If I tried to take his life away from him, it’d only kill me. Hope was his target. He wanted to kill her and when he realised he couldn’t, he must have locked her up in the most secure room he had in that building. After your escape, he must have arranged for somebody to transport her out.” Quinton presumes.
“It doesn’t make sense. They knew how powerful I was, they must have seen it coming. Why didn’t they have a back-up plan, a contingency? If he wanted Hope to be escorted out of that place, surely he would have done it earlier?” Riley ponders.
“I don’t know any more than you do, Riley. I hope we all learn the answers soon enough.” Quinton responds softly.
“Why were you in there, Hope?” Owen wonders.
“I—” Hope begins to speak before she is interrupted.
“The Nomad is using something called The Godsend Device, we’ve heard information on what he intends to use it for, but not enough to paint a clear picture. We just know that whatever he does with it, it’s nothing good. It’s an artificial device that can grant anybody a power they want, or at most, omnipotence, every single categorised ability to date. Hope is the only person we know that has the right ability to destroy The Godsend Device, to absorb it, to save the world from it.” Dillon explains.
“That sounds familiar to me. I don’t know why. I… I need to try and speak to Noah. He’s scared. I don’t know who he is, I don’t fully know who I am, but he’s extremely lost. Maybe he can help.” Riley explains.
“Who’s Noah?” Hope asks curiously.
“I am. At least, this body belongs to Noah. Right now, I’m just me. It’s confusing, I know. I’m trying to work it out myself, but I don’t have any memories of how this all happened. All I know is that I’m trapped inside Noah’s body and my own body is out there somewhere. We’re trying to work out how and why this is all happening to us. The Nomad has the answers.” Riley stammers as he attempts to explain his situation, as Dillon stares at Riley uneasily.
“There is no way you can approach The Nomad, he’ll kill you.” Hope argues.
“I have a gut feeling that if he wanted me dead, I’d be dead.” Riley answers.
“Have you tried meditating? I know it sounds funny, but it might just work. It’ll allow you channel into your inner self and maybe you’ll see Noah.” Hope offers a potential solution. Riley nods and pretends to disregard Hope’s advice and leaves to seek solace in an isolated zone away from the others. He enters the building from which Lily fell and sits on the hard concrete floor in the middle of the desecrated room. Riley takes a deep breath and slowly closes his eyes.
“I don’t know if you can hear me, but we’re in this together. I can feel your fear, your aggravation and confusion. We’re going to work out what happened to us. I know you didn’t mean to kill everybody here or back at Petrelli Manor. You were scared, you didn’t know where you were or who anybody was. At first, I thought you were killing them out of pure villainy and wickedness, but now I see that isn’t true. Please, talk to me.” Riley speaks calmly. “I know you’re there. I can feel it.” He murmurs, sensing the presence of a lingering figure in the darkness of his mind.
“Riley, I presume.” Noah groans.
“Noah? Can you hear me? Listen, you don’t have to kill. People are peaceful, very few of them are truly evil.” Riley persuades Noah.
“Every… Every waking moment is agony for me. Let me die. Let me die.” Noah mumbles.
“We will work this out, together. We’re both victims here. Victims of a greater mystery that we can only solve if we work together. When we shift, I know how confusing it feels. You’re suddenly in an unfamiliar place surrounded by strange faces.” Riley explains confidently.
“You don’t understand, I have an underlying instinct that tells me everybody is evil. I can sense it, I can feel it.” Noah answers.
“Even me?” Riley asks curiously as Noah refuses to answer. “Well?” He pushes for a response.
“No.” Noah answers reluctantly.
“Then let’s work this out together.” Riley remarks. “You don’t need to kill anyone.” He concludes. Riley walks back outside and rejoins the group with a positive outlook.
“How did it go?” Owen asks nervously.
“I think it went better than I could ever have expected.” Riley answers. “I was half imagining for him to start using powers against me too, but then I remembered I share his body. I knew I could feel so much weirdness when this all started. I felt like the shape of my face was uncomfortable, the positioning of my teeth and everything else too.” He explains.
“Riley, I think we need to—” Dillon is interrupted as alarms suddenly begin to blare from the facility as holes emerge from the ground revealing missile silos. The group suddenly step backwards as they retreat from the developing breaches.
“What the hell is going on?” Owen shouts, his voice suppressed by the deafening sirens.
“The future you saw, it’s happening.” Riley mutters.
“The bombs are here? Underneath the Preservation of Eden?” Dillon clamours.
“Jennifer told me that in the future she saw, I was looking at the shell of an explosive that had the Preservation of Eden name and logo on it. Do you know how many facilities there are?” Riley asks impatiently.
“Five, maybe six! This is their central hub, the main facility. That’s why we targeted it. I never knew they had missiles though!” Quinton shouts.
; “We can stop it! Quinton and I can stop it. I know we can. We have a huge amount of experience with this, if we’re familiar with the systems in control of all of this, we can stop this from ever happening.” Dillion insists.
“Dillon’s right, we can. Since this is the main headquarters, chances are we can control all of it from here.” Quinton responds supportively.
“There’s a town out there. If any of these missiles go off, they’re in danger.” Owen groans worriedly.
“There’s a whole world out there, Owen! Who knows where these missiles are going? There are potentially hundreds of them prepping for launch right now all around the world at all of their facilities. The future we saw was deserted.” Riley argues.
“Riley, look!” Quinton stands on the edge of one of the missile silos and points to a room that appears to be a central control panel. “Can you teleport us down there?” He asks.
“I can, I can. Everybody hold onto me.” Riley instructs the others whilst they all place their hands onto him. He teleports down with them into the control room. Dillon and Quinton immediately check the control panel, inspecting the information on the computer.
“Where is everyone?” Riley ponders quietly, his voice muffled by the rumbling machinery.
“I think you killed them all outside.” Owen answers abruptly.
“I thought those were just prison guards.” Riley explains under his breath.
“I think they pulled out all the stops for you. There’s nobody left.” Owen theorises.
“Judging by this equipment, this place is designed to run by itself. This was activated remotely. Wait a minute, only one of them was activated from elsewhere, and then two minutes later the rest of them were activated here.” Quinton explains whilst he fiddles with the complicated control panels.
“One of the missiles is set to hit the nearby town. Owen, you were right. You guys need to try and evacuate it just in case.” Dillon responds, examining the systems alongside Quinton.
“Careful, somebody’s been here.” Riley mutters. “You said the rest of them were activated here, that means somebody is around, or was around.” He explains under his breath.
“You guys need to go, just in case things go wrong. Evacuate the nearby town. Dillon and I have got this.” Quinton insists.
“How are they going to believe us?” Owen asks curiously.
“Maybe we need to scare them away, nobody’s going to believe three people shouting about a missile.” Hope suggests.
“Okay, okay.” Riley nods quickly, tapping Hope and Owen as he teleports back outside with them and begins to run towards the nearby town, instructing Hope and Owen to follow him.
“Dillon, why did you bother with sending them to save the town? There are missiles set to hit places all over the world. If we fail, saving one town isn’t going to matter.” Quinton wonders.
“I needed Riley to go. There’s something not quite right about him. Lily’s dead because of him.” Dillon mutters.
“They saved us, Dill, they saved us and you know it. We’re here to help him find out what The Nomad did to him.” Quinton reminds Dillon as he continues fighting with the console.
“Do you remember what we dug up on The Nomad? The information that we found before we were put into that godforsaken machine?” Dillon shakes as she squints her eyes.
“That he has a family? A lot of people do, even the crazy ones.” Quinton responds quietly.
“Of all the things we learnt, we couldn’t even find out what his real name is. But we know that he has a wife and a son. Don’t you remember the name of his son?” Dillon stares blankly.
“What? Do you really think that’s him? Riley? A lot of people share the same name, Dillon. The chances of that, the chances of us all coming together despite everything? The odds are astronomical.” Quinton argues.
“You should know by now that whilst life for us in particular has been highly unfair, the ability to carry on believing in coincidences is something that we simply cannot do anymore. No matter what our quest surrounds, all of those involved are always brought together. I’m not saying Riley’s bad, I’m just saying I think we need to be cautious. If we know the Nomad like we do, the chances are that he’s using Riley just like he’s using everybody else. He may very well be as innocent as us. I just wanted some time to think without him around. You know me, I think quicker when it’s just us two.” Dillon concludes.
Riley, Owen and Hope continue running towards the nearby town, the sirens reverberate through the solid concrete roads as members of the town begin to depart from the nearby buildings and speculate as to why these alarms are blaring.
“You need to leave, all of you!” Riley shouts whilst waving his hands in the air rapidly. Members of the public begin to slowly step backwards in concern and confusion. Screaming occurs from inside a nearby restaurant, and Riley, Owen and Hope follow everybody who is running inside the restaurant.
“This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening.” One bystander shudders.
“This isn’t real, surely?” Another bystander whimpers with fear. As Riley, Owen and Hope enter the restaurant, they can see that everybody is watching the television. A startling banner reads ‘Breaking News’ as the newsreader is covering live footage from silos opening up all around the world.
“We have contacted the Preservation of Eden and are eagerly awaiting a response. We advise everybody to remain in their homes whilst we attempt to defuse this alarming situation. We assure you that everything will be okay, and that this is merely a false alarm.” A government official speaks confidently to an interviewer on the news.
“You all need to leave, everybody. This is real.” Riley speaks loudly.
“Shut up, kid. We don’t need people like you scaring everybody else. You heard them, this is a false alarm, some kind of technical screw-up.” A gruff customer complains as people begin retreating from the restaurant. Some leave calmly, others leave in panic. A few remain as they truly believe that it is indeed a false alarm and nothing more.
“Please, I promise you, this is real! I’m trying to help you!” Riley grunts worriedly. The gruff customer who complained earlier slams his drink down on the table and angrily confronts Riley.
“Get out of here.” The gruff man clenches his fists.
“Sir, I don’t want to scare anybody, I just want to—” Riley speaks quietly as he is interrupted when the man pushes him aggressively. Riley’s eyes flicker as they turn orange.
“Noah, don’t hurt him. Let him go. Remember what we spoke about?” Riley speaks from within, attempting to calm down an extremely agitated Noah.
“What the…” The gruff customer mutters, before stumbling outside of the restaurant.
“He won’t do anything in a public space like this.” Hope whispers.
“Noah.” Owen mutters as he trembles in fear. Noah turns around and recognises Hope, his every instinct warns him that Hope is dangerous.
“Let’s just go, Owen.” Hope asks quietly, grabbing Owen’s arm.
“Noah! You don’t have to be scared, none of us are corrupt or dangerous. We’re all good!” He shouts whilst he shields Hope. Noah slowly walks towards Owen, his eyes locked onto Hope as he refuses to blink.
“What’s going on here? We don’t need any aggro.” A staff member calls out as the remaining customers begin to grow agitated.
“I will let you go, Owen, you are good. But Hope is dangerous, she’ll end the world. I might not have all my memories back yet, but I have this driving instinct telling me that she will destroy everything, she’ll absorb it all. I must end her.” Noah mutters.
“Noah, I won’t let her go. She’s good, you’re good. The Nomad tricked you! He’s the one who is going to end the world, and Hope is the one who can save it!” Owen yells.
“I don’t believe you.” Noah grunts, as he continues walking towards Hope.
“Damn it!” Owen panics as he grabs into Hope’s hand, and freezes time.
“We hav
e to go, Owen. We have to go. Leave him here, he can find us.” Hope insists.
“My friend is somewhere in there, I can make him hear me. You just need to go.” Owen instructs, as Noah’s body begins to twitch.
“What the hell?” Hope mutters as she notices that everybody else around them is still frozen. Noah’s entire body twitches, struggling to move, his body makes cracking motions as he slowly breaks free from Owen’s power. Noah suddenly rushes up to Owen in a twitching motion, his angry and unforgiving face rests in front of Owen’s.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” Owen represses his cry as his lips quiver. Noah turns his head at an angle, inspecting Owen’s face closely. Hope tries to pull Owen away, but fails to overcome Noah’s power which is suspending Owen, keeping him locked where he is.
“I won’t kill you.” Noah insists. “But I will hurt you, now please, leave.” He reveals. Owen continues to resist, trembling in fear as he stands up to the powerful Noah Gray. Noah purses his lips in frustration. Owen immediately begins to shout and scream in pain as he feels his bones cracking one by one. Suddenly, Noah raises his hand and waves it into the air, throwing Owen across the room and knocking him into a brick wall with such tremendous force, rendering him unconscious as time resumes once more.
“Jesus Christ!” A staff member shouts out as customers begin to flee the restaurant. People scream and yell as multiple people begin calling the police to report an attack. The calamity between the customers who are running noisily through the café begin to make Noah extremely scared and agitated. Hope shudders and shakes in fear as she looks around her, her hands shaking as she suffers from the most unforgiving terror that she has experienced. Hope stares towards Owen worriedly, wishing that he’d followed her instructions instead.
“Please. You can’t kill me.” Hope stutters, as Noah emits flames from his hands and bursts them towards Hope. She raises her hands in self-defence and absorbs all the fire. Noah then strikes electricity from his hands and hits Hope with a severe blast of lightning. She raises her hands once again and carries on absorbing the energy of his attacks.
“Noah.” Hope cries. He walks menacingly towards her, and tilts his head.
“I’m a good person, Hope.” Noah mutters.
“I know you are.” Hope sobs whilst Noah successfully emulates Hope’s power. He places his hand on her forehead and begins to absorb her essence. Hope holds back her screams as she disintegrates slowly into particles and gets absorbed into Noah through his hand. Suddenly, as if the death of Hope flicked a switch in Noah’s mind, he becomes increasingly aware of the terror in the eyes of those who are trying to exist the building. Time slows to a standstill as Noah is overwhelmed by the pain and terror that he has inflicted upon innocent people, he realises that his fear of people and the world was an irrational one. Noah tries to apologise to everybody, attempting to convince them all that he has tried to save the world. Suddenly, Noah is thrown across the room and he forcefully hits the wall and falls harshly onto the floor.
“Show me how it ends!” Riley yells from within Noah, as he throws him across the room even more, using his own powers against him.
“Stop.” Noah insists.
“Why don’t you kill me too?! You’ve killed everybody who has tried to help us!” Riley shouts.
“Stop!” Noah insists aggressively. The customers continue to flee in panic as they see Noah talking to himself, switching between two personalities as the argument reaches its crescendo.
“Look at all these people, Noah. Look at the sheer fear on their faces. What did they do to you? What did they ever do to you?” Riley mourns, as sirens begin to wail in the distance
“What did… What did Owen ever do to you?” He whispers.
“I gave Owen a chance, he was the first person I ever gave a chance to and you cannot deny that.” Noah exclaims forcefully.
“But what did he do to you? What did Frank do to you? What has anybody ever done to you?” Riley grunts.
“Frank tried to kill me! He was trying to kill me.” Noah argues, repressing his anger.
“Frank never tried to hurt us, he was trying to guide us.” Riley responds dejectedly.
“All the people that helped to kill Lily, they were evil and they need to be stopped.” Noah mutters.
“No. They were hired guns. Probably brainwashed by this Nomad we keep hearing about. The only evil person here right now is you. Maybe I was wrong about you, maybe you’re lost. Perhaps you’re just too far gone.” Riley grunts.
“I… no. No, I’m good. I thought everybody else was evil.” Noah stammers.
“Then prove it. As far as we know, The Nomad did this to you, you were brainwashed. He made you so fearful of the outside world. I don’t know if it’s too late to come back from all this, you killed everybody at Petrelli Manor.” Riley groaned.
“I didn’t kill Lily. I didn’t kill Owen, I didn’t want to, but I could’ve. That is a choice made by a person in control, I had to save the world.” Noah responds.
“You might as well have fired the proverbial bullet on the human race, Hope was the only one who could absorb the Godsend Device, remember?!” Riley snipes.
“I might be powerful enough to do that too. Look, I’ll heal Owen.” Noah pleads.
“I can feel my control fading away, Noah. Our consciences are merging. This is your body, not mine. Please can we just work together for answers to the seemingly endless number of questions that we have?” Riley requests. “Please, heal him.” He concludes.
“I can make this up to you, Riley. I promise. I can make it up for all of us. I don’t know what happened, but after… After killing Hope, something changed in me. Almost like a reset that cleared my mind. I don’t know if it was something she did when she died, or if it was because I was raised with the objective of killing her. I just had this instinct inside of me. I couldn’t control it.” Noah explains as he walks up to Owen’s body apologetically with the intention of healing him from the drastic damage that occurred moments ago.
“Don’t.” Owen mutters, shaking as he regains consciousness. He looks around him to find Hope, closing his eyes mournfully as he realises she’s gone. Owen gasps painfully, as the people in a chaotic panic outside suddenly start behaving normally one by one.
“Put your hands in the air!” A police officer yells as he enters the restaurant, followed by armed forces who are aiming their laser-sighted weaponry towards Noah.
“No, please. I’m just trying to save my friend. Let me save my friend, and I’ll come with you. I promise.” Noah pleads with desperation.
“I don’t want to be saved. You don’t get to choose who lives or dies, right?” Owen groans whilst Noah looks towards him and then back towards the armed forces.
“Put your hands above your head, and get down on your knees, or we will fire!” An armed guard shouts aggressively.
“You don’t understand how easy it would be for me to end you all right now, be grateful that the thought isn’t crossing my mind!” Noah yells emotionally whilst his teeth chatter, causing the armed guards to become increasingly alert.
“You did this.” Owen whimpers.
Noah begins readying his powers in order to scare the officers away, with no intention of killing the officers, he emits a gentle glow from his hands. Suddenly, he notices a figure that stands out remarkably in the background, an elderly eastern-Asian man in a dark brown suit, with visible tattoos around his neck. Immediately, all of the police officers react as if they’ve forgotten their current objective. They look around in complete confusion and leave the general vicinity.
“Who are you?” Noah mutters as the Asian man enters the restaurant and removes his hat.
“That’s not a very respectful way to request an introduction, Noah. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt considering you had at least ten automatic rifles aimed at your face mere moments ago. My name is Hisoka Quincy.” He introduces himself and inspects the scene.
“How do you kno
w me? Do you work for The Nomad?” Noah ponders worriedly.
“You’ve learnt of The Nomad already? Then you’re ahead of schedule. I’m pleased. I did work for him, a lifetime ago.” Hisoka replies whilst Noah stares at the nonchalant civilians outside who are just going about their daily lives when they were in terrible fear moments ago.
“They’re not scared. They’ve—” Noah mutters, as he is interrupted.
“Forgotten? Not exactly, let’s just say they’ve been switched to autopilot. They’re unaware of everything going on around them. They’ll return to their homes and remember the day as an uneventful one. In a way, they have forgotten.” Hisoka observes. “It’s no coincidence that I live here, Noah. I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve been staying as close to their headquarters as possible. If things are going the way I think they are, then your new friends, Dillon and Quinton, are inside the Preservation of Eden?” He reveals.
“How could you possibly—” Noah grumbles whilst being interrupted.
“It’s a chain reaction. A very well executed one at that. Everything happening right now is because of The Nomad, I was here to disrupt the falling dominos. It seems like someone has already done that, these alarms shouldn’t be happening.” Hisoka answers as he looks towards Owen who passes out from shock. “Right now, we need to get your friend to a hospital. We both know he won’t let you heal him.” He explains. “There’s a hospital right down the road. Let’s go.” He concludes. Noah stares in disbelief, double taking from Owen to Hisoka and back again. He picks up Owen and the two of them proceed quickly to the hospital at the end of the road. Night begins to fall as they pace down the road.
“If you know that this domino effect was meant to happen, then do you know what I did in there? In that restaurant?” Noah asks impatiently.
“Yes. You absorbed Hope.” Hisoka answers truthfully. “Nothing could’ve prevented that, Noah. Just be happy that it happened the way it did. The Nomad wanted you to eviscerate her. If I came earlier, you would have still done it. Your father raised you to do that. You couldn’t have overridden this underlying instinct that itched against your skin, the instinct to kill her.” He reveals.
“Why would Sylar raise me to kill Hope?” Noah struggles to speak.
“Sylar? Oh no, no. The Nomad. He is Riley’s father after all. Of course, you know that he’s not yours. I’m going to help you remember as much as I can fill in, Noah. Just trust me when I say that you are good, and that even now, Hope Never Dies. We’ll talk more soon, let’s just get Owen seen too first.” Hisoka answers.
“Don’t you know what will happen to Owen? Wouldn’t his involvement be part of these falling dominos?” Noah shakes his head as he requests an answer.
“No. The dominos effect the most important elements of a plan. Owen was not a crucial element, he was a bystander in all of this. There are some things that cannot be planned for. Outside sources can hasten or hinder a plan, but The Nomad has a contingency for every possible event. Sooner or later, his plans will always come to fruition, whether that is by his hand or another’s.” Hisoka speaks softly as they enter the hospital lobby. The staff are panicking as patients are attempting to flee the hospital after seeing the news broadcast, the siren remains intact as Dillon and Quinton continue to work on the control panel.
“Can somebody please help us?” Hisoka raises his voice whilst still emanating calmness.
“I’m sorry, half our workforce are missing, patients are scrambling all over the place—” A lead nurse apologises. “Ah, Nurse McCreary, could you please take this gentleman to a room whilst I carry on restoring order in this hellhole?” She instructs.
“Right this way! Doctor, we have a critical patient!” Nurse McCreary speaks with urgency whilst she leads Hisoka, Noah and Owen to a single room. Owen is placed onto the bed and a doctor enters the room and begins to examine him. Suddenly, Owen wakes up, yelling at the top of his lungs in pain. Nurse McCreary attempts to restrain him before realising that he isn’t even moving.
“What’s happening?!” Noah shouts.
“My name is Doctor Laidlaw. Sir, could you move your fingers for me?” Laidlaw instructs Owen, who is unable to move anything below his neck. Owen screams in pain as he suddenly struggles to breathe.
“Nurse McCreary, check his airway. The patient is paralysed from the neck down and he appears to be experiencing difficulty breathing.” Laidlaw explains to himself, as Nurse McCreary checks Owen’s airway and finds no obstructions. The doctor examines Owen’s chest and assesses the initial signs of injury. “His lungs have collapsed, the patient is entering the first stages of multiple organ failure and the most likely cause is the blunt force trauma that occurred. I can’t say for sure until we get an x-ray, but I firmly believe he has a C1 injury and needs immediate support. Nurse McCreary, please set up the ventilator. What happened to this boy?” He questions Noah and Hisoka firmly, leading them outside.
“He fell from a roof. I carried him here.” Hisoka answers.
“Must have been a pretty high roof, we don’t have many here.” Laidlaw sighs. “Listen, I don’t think he’s going to make it. He has severe arrhythmia, both of his lungs are collapsing and I highly suspect that he has an injury at the base of his skull, a C1 injury. Without a miracle or somebody who has the ability to heal, I don’t think he’s going to survive. Ordinarily I would perform a tracheostomy, but given his condition, we’ll use a non-invasive method. We can try to make him as comfortable as possible. I’m sorry. I’ll be back as soon as I can, things are very messy around here right now.” Laidlaw mutters regretfully.
“Thank you for seeing us so quickly.” Hisoka expresses his gratitude.
“You’re welcome.” Laidlaw departs to deal with other patients, as other nurses enter the room and begin assisting Owen and connecting him to life support machines.
“I have to heal him.” Noah mutters.
“There’s no healing a man who wants nothing more than to die, you might save him, but he’ll be dead inside.” Hisoka whispers.
“You don’t know that, he could snap back. Since I met him yesterday, he’s grown so much stronger. I need to right my wrongs, show him I can come back from all of this.” Noah groans sadly as the nurses leave the room. He enters the room and sees a defeated Owen lying on the bed, he has regained consciousness unnaturally quickly despite all the drugs that have been injected into his system.
“Owen…” Noah whispers worriedly.
“Get out.” Owen grunts breathlessly as the mask muffles his rapidly decaying voice. “Have you any idea how I feel? My body is clinically dead. I should be dead. Why am I still alive, Noah? What did you do to me?” Owen speaks ever so slowly, every word takes their turn to gradually surpass his lips.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to throw you against the wall.” Noah stammers.
“Oh, you meant it. I know you did. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about when you changed my powers… Oh that’s right, Riley was in control when he did that. You changed my powers, what else did you change? What else did you give me?” Owen continues to grunt and whisper breathlessly, forcing himself to speak. Noah shakes his head in worry as he stares towards Owen, unable to conjure any words that may appease him.
“Get out.” Owen gulps exhaustedly. Owen slowly backs away and leaves the room. He approaches Hisoka in the empty lobby in order to continue the vitally important conversation that never reached its conclusion earlier.
“What’s your story?” Noah wonders.
“God made me a promise, and He broke it. Here I am.” Hisoka answers. He picks up a chair that has been knocked over during the chaos that occurred among workers and patients moments ago and proceeds to sit down. Noah pulls a chair and places it in front of Hisoka, joining him. “I never wanted to work for him. He had my wife. He still does. She’s more important to him alive than dead. He needed me to do things for his plan and my reward was for my wife to be freed from that treacherous prison of his. On the surface, The
Nomad isn’t bad, but he will do anything to ensure that his plan sees the light of day. You’re so important, Noah. Ever so important.” He begins to tell his side of the story.
“What do I need to know? How can we stop these dominos from falling?” Noah asks hurriedly.
“Have you learnt of the Godsend Device yet?” Hisoka wonders.
“Yes! Before we left for this town, I was told about it. Something about it being able to conjure as many powers that a person wants?” Noah reflects and nods quickly.
“Doesn’t it make you wonder why it hasn’t been used yet?” Hisoka responds curiously.
“Who’s to say it hasn’t been used yet?” Noah debates.
“Oh, we’d know. We’d know. Our Earth still orbits our Sun, does it not? We wake up every day to live our lives as freely as we can, we are in control of our very selves. The true reason why I know it hasn’t been used yet is because there is only one person strong enough to use it, Noah. You.” Hisoka answers. “Trust me, in time you will learn why. I don’t know everything myself, I knew what I needed to know. You are the only one who can operate The Godsend Device, The Nomad will do anything in his power to ensure that happens. He wants to control the future, to craft it as he sees fit. Why it has to be you, I do not know.” He continues explaining.
“I don’t understand. I ended up outside Petrelli Manor without any memory, with Riley trapped inside of me. I’m also the son of Gabriel Gray and Elle Bishop, but Elle is dead and I shouldn’t be this old if I was supposed to be born a few years ago?” Noah stammers impatiently.
“I don’t know, Noah. Time and space can be an unintelligible construct. All I know is that The Nomad wants to enact his plan this year, and he needed you to be old enough to use your powers to the fullest extent possible. He needed you to be this old, this year. I pray that you find answers. Noah, we don’t have time anymore, you have to get back to Dillon and Quinton as soon as possible, they’re going to need you. Trust me.” Hisoka speaks rapidly.
“You know that something’s going to happen, don’t you? Are they going to die?” Noah murmurs worriedly.
“That, I do not know. They aren’t crucial elements, but I do know that these alarms shouldn’t be going off, and only one thing can be responsible for that, something that was never supposed to be created. The Nomad planned for it to be made, but he should’ve been smart enough to know that it wouldn’t be able to use The Godsend Device.” Hisoka grunts.
“What was never supposed to be created?” Noah asks impatiently.
“Your clone. It was the only thing that The Nomad couldn’t create any contingencies for because of how unruly and unpredictable it is. Because of this, The Nomad created the one contingency that he knew would kill it if he needed to do so, a missile armed with a weaponised chemical that disempowers clones and clones only. The explosion would do the rest. If I had to theorise, your clone worked this out and sought it upon itself to launch the rest of the missiles. He is the worst version of yourself. The whole world is going to go very crazy very soon if Dillon and Quinton don’t stop it, but you need to go now. I will stay here and keep an eye on Owen.” Hisoka explains.
“I have to save him. He’s my friend.” Noah answers.
“He’s Riley’s friend, not yours.” Hisoka responds calmly. Noah stares at Hisoka with sadness in his eyes and proceeds to walk back into Owen’s room. He stares blankly towards Noah as they both stare at each other silently. Owen has lost the will to argue whilst he looks towards Noah tiredly, staring at his vibrant orange eyes.
“Well?” Owen groans.
“Let me save you.” Noah whispers. Owen shakes his head slowly as a tear falls from his eye.
“I don’t want to be saved. You killed Hope. The future I saw? It’s going to happen because Hope is dead. Everything happened the way it was supposed to, with her gone, you’ve kick started a chain reaction that won’t end until nothing is left.” Owen grunts slowly, struggling to finish each word, let alone each sentence.
“You don’t know that. I will do what I can. I will try to save the world. Both Riley and I were thrown into this face first, we had no idea what was in store for us. The Nomad is responsible for all of this and none of us have even seen him yet. Hisoka told me a lot. The Nomad is a puppeteer, and I’m the marionette.” Noah explains.
“You can’t. People like you… People like you should be stopped.” Owen mumbles. Noah stares at Owen, his eyes full of guilt as he reaches his hand to try and heal Owen. “Don’t… even… think… about… it. Leave me alone, Noah. Leave me alone to die.” He murmurs.
“Owen, where is this coming from? You were kind, optimistic, caring. I could feel that during your time with Riley. Please, do you forgive me?” Noah mutters sadly.
“I felt anger like I’d never felt before shortly after my powers were changed. I feel that the anger I have, I’ve earned. I know the past, present and future of hundreds of people out there. It destroyed me… Forgiveness? I forgive Riley, not you.” Owen answers impassively.
“Then… will you forgive me, in time?” Noah’s lips tremble as he is overwhelmed by the level of guilt he is experiencing for the first time, the hollow emptiness forms inside his chest. He was totally oblivious to the fact that his powers could damage Owen to this extent. They stare at one another and anger begins to form in Owen’s eyes. He stares deeply into Noah’s eyes and readies himself to speak.
“No.” Owen growls, he blinks rapidly before slowly closing his eyes. The machines start going haywire, the life support systems begin to shut down and alarms start to blare.
“Owen? Owen?!” Noah shouts as nurses begin to rush into the room and escort him out. The heart monitor begins to flatline as a doctor begins to perform CPR on Owen.
“I’m sorry, Owen. Goodbye.” Noah mutters under his breath as he walks back towards Hisoka, refusing to take the selfish choice of saving Owen.
“No, no. This can’t be happening. Get back! Don’t do this!” Hisoka murmurs loudly in the distance at the end of the corridor.
“Hisoka, what is it?” Noah calls out in concern and begins dashing towards him.
“It’s The Nomad. It’s too late. There’s one thing I didn’t tell you, powers don’t work on clones! Save my wife and son! Find Catherine and Jared, please!” Hisoka’s voice shakes as the space around him begins to distort heavily, almost mimicking the effect that heat has on the air. He stares at Noah, his eyes full of wisdom and hope. “I believe in you.” He whispers.
“Hisoka!” Noah shouts as he disappears into thin air, leaving no trace of the man who stood on these tiles moments ago. Suddenly, flashes of fragmented memories ravage Noah’s mind as he breathes unsteadily and focuses on the sirens, remembering that Hisoka warned him of Wildcard’s nearby presence. Noah teleports back into the console room and approaches Dillon and Quinton apprehensively.
"Riley?" Dillon calls out, before she sees his orange eyes.
“Where are Owen and Hope?” Quinton asks.
“It’s just me. Noah. Riley is losing control over my body.” Noah reveals.
“Are you…?” Quinton speaks carefully under his breath, as he protects Dillon.
“I killed Owen and I think I killed Hope too.” Noah remarks with a defeatist tone. Quinton immediately progresses towards Noah, ready to take his life away from him.
“Do it. Please.” Noah’s teeth chatter as he attempts to restrain his tears. “Do it!” He yells outrageously, begging for the punishment he so very strongly believes that he deserves, for the lives of Lily, Owen, Hope and countless many more at Petrelli Manor would never have been lost if it weren’t for him.
“What happened to you?” Dillon ponders mournfully and places her hand on Quinton’s hands, lowering them and suggesting that he should hold off on his seemingly imminent attack.
“I’m starting to remember fragments of my life. A man named Hisoka came and spoke to me, somebody who used to work for The Nomad. He told me as much as he could. Now he’s gone as well beca
use he chose to help me. The Nomad got rid of him. I learnt that I was raised to do two things. Kill Hope, and become strong enough to operate the Godsend Device, I’m the only one who can. I was brainwashed by The Nomad that it became a sheer instinct of mine to fulfil those goals, not once did I ever question whether or not I’d be doing the right thing. I was so inherently fearful of the human population on the surface that I felt like I was going to die every single second. With Hope gone, that changed.” Noah explains.
“Then it’s not your fault. He tricked you like he did us.” Dillon mutters mournfully.
“You were right about him. He killed Hope. He did what we thought was impossible to do. He killed our friend, Dillon. He killed our friend.” Quinton argues.
“Can’t you see it, Quinton? The Nomad arranged for her to be removed after Riley had escaped from the Preservation of Eden so that he would be able to rescue her. It wasn’t a coincidence that he had guards remove her right at the same time that Riley was on the verge of escaping. Even the guards themselves were probably unaware that Riley would save Hope. He knew Noah would take over eventually and complete his mission because everything goes his own way. It always does. He has a contingency for everything, and obviously what happened to Riley when he ended up outside of Petrelli Manor was a contingency in itself.” Dillon clarified.
“He planned all of this? Like a domino effect?” Quinton responds.
“Yes, and now the dominos have been disrupted.” Noah exclaims. “Listen, Hisoka theorised what happened here, he thinks The Nomad set off one missile from wherever he is. Wildcard set off the rest of them here.” He confirms.
“That makes sense. We’ve nearly stopped all of the missiles, they’re not going to launch, but they need to go through some remote safety procedures before they can be disabled completely. We just have to wait. There was one we couldn’t bypass because it wasn’t activated here. I’m trying to find out more now.” Dillon answers.
