Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:57:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark <rahvin747@yahoo.com>
Subject: Ryan and Peter

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

Hope you liked the story. Please send comments to rahvin747@yahoo.com.