Reality Crisis

Sylar had been sure to see the leader of the city as soon as Peter let him. From there, he made arrangements to have his own place. He would have to break the news to Peter, who seemed quite glad to have his 'brother' back to life.

Oh how that would end up when the other shoe fell on him. While he looked forward to unmasking himself at some point, there was much to learn about this new world before he spoiled the fun. And with Peter around, it would be easier to learn things as Nathan Petrelli.

For now, he took to exploring within the walls of die Festung. He asked a few questions here and there but nothing too conspicuous. Besides, most people that he had talked to so far were simply locals. There wasn't anything special or particularly useful about them. From what he could gather, the Chosen ones were treated with a reverence and rumors abounded. Some had built them up to be gods. Though perhaps they were-if Peter and himself were any indication. Others simply seemed to tolerate their presence, not that they would say as much when speaking to one of the outsiders.

All Sylar knew was that he was growing very weary of having to play the nice heroic type when confronted with such boring, ordinary humans.

It was strange, to actually sleep again. The rings Harry had made were working perfectly - he was going to have to thank the wizard again. Peter still wasn't sleeping every night, but now he could at least get his head down twice a week. It was great to get some actual, restorative rest after a long day at the hospital; his healing ability used his own energy and life force to draw pain and injury out of the wounded and into himself. His regeneration could negate the damage to his body, but not the heavy drained feeling.

He'd slept for most of the day. Now it was evening, and he was rested and ready to go. One day, he would have to find Jack Harkness and see how the other immortal was holding up. But this night, Peter jumped out the window to his studio apartment, and flew into the woods. He still hadn't seen much out of the ordinary (since when had vampires become 'ordinary'?), but he was patient. And curious.

In the wake of the tremors, Carlos had heard about people going missing. There were the people from the other world who had shown up here all at once after the first tremor, but also some of the chosen from this world. A stop by Harry and Murphy's apartments did nothing to ease his worries since the wizard and the (former?) police detective were nowhere to be found.

It was possible they were out looking into the disappearances too. There were a lot of possibilities, but that didn't stop him from worrying. Which turned his attention to the other person that he'd miss like hell if suddenly she wasn't here anymore.

Carlos set out for the fairy forest and the sanctuary within the forest.

The trip was fairly uneventful, which was good. The mood he was in, Carlos might have vaporized any ROUSes that tried to get into the way. When he finally made it to the camp and to the hut for the woman in question, he knocked on the door and tried not to hold his breath as he waited.

He didn't know what happened. It wasn't like when he'd been transferred to the City, either. He'd just woken up there, not knowing. Lost. Angry. Very angry. With the club in hand and nothing else. Of course, it hadn't taken him long to adapt to his new home, and even find ways to enjoy it. This time, though, this time didn't look like it was going to be much like that at all.

At one moment, he was on the path to finding Baba's cabin. The next, he was in some forest. At first he'd thought the City had changed around him, and that he'd be able to find his way back out easily, if not with a little frustration. But after a few minutes of running - which had actually taken him a lot further than it would have for any human, Eric discovered that this forest didn't have an end. A brief jolt upwards to see, and he was more than sure of it.

Thinking over what had happened, how he'd come to be here, Eric recalled the brief few moments when he had felt neither Pam nor Baba. And yet, he could feel them now. They were not with him, of course, but they were here. Wherever here was. He would have to find them both.

From above the treeline, Eric had seen something that looked like a ramshackle camp. Thrown together with parts of other places. He headed in that direction now, on foot. He wanted to get a feel of this situation before showing his hand. There was a small chance that in this place there were others like him, and they didn't need to know that he could walk in the sun. That was dangerous for everybody involved.

When he came upon the section of woods that held what he'd seen from above, Eric slowed. He smelled the signs of human life, but didn't see anybody right away. Of course, that meant nothing. People hid all the time.

Molly slept for long hours, but it was far from peaceful. Her nightmares plagued almost every moment until it could be in doubt that she would benefit at all from being asleep. The unfortunate fact was that this was practically normal for her. It was a rare time when she slept without her inner demons playing merry hell. That was life as normal for the Ragged Lady whose mindscape was broken, shattered in places and peopled by twisted versions of the Red Court vampires, friends and loved ones turning on her and accusing her of horrible things. It wasn't until a few hours before waking that her mind left her alone long enough for her to sink into exhaustion.

It wasn't the lack of nightmares that woke her, however. Nor was it her empty stomach. Her head gave a powerful thud from the inside which caused her to groan quietly. She called it the Ragged Lady Hangover Headache. It didn't just come with pain either. Opening her eyes some, they darted around as she tried to figure out where she was. What had happened. Was anyone there with her? Her mind flat out refused to give her information. It was under protest.

Molly needed some space. A little alone time to think over the things Erik had told her. The differences between him and Harry were staggering, even if she did kind of look at both of them in the same light. Sort of. She didn’t have the mega-crush on Erik that she’d held for Harry. Just a little one. But Erik, like Harry, never seemed to look at her that way, and Molly was used to not acting on her crush. There were similarities in the advice they gave her, but not in this one, crucial area. Carlos. Or any guy, really.

Harry had kept her from pursuing any sort of physical or emotional relationship until she had her magics under control. There had been good reasons for that since emotions and mental magics were her specialties. She’d already screwed up once that way, and if she wanted to keep her head on her shoulders, and Harry’s, she needed to not screw up again. That was a long time ago, however and once she gained control he hadn’t actively stopped her from dating. From there it had just been a natural course of events. Ahem.
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Since Molly had brought Carlos in to help him he'd been getting better. The venom was out of his system but the damage to his shoulder was still there. It was getting better but Erik had a habit of pushing through it and using it like there wasn't anything wrong. That meant it was probably healing slower than it should but he wasn't one to show weakness.

And since he'd been healed Molly had retreated to the edges of their shelters and the woods. He wasn't sure what was going on except he knew it most likely had to do with Molly having to go get Carlos to help him.

Erik had wrapped his arm under the shirt to give it a little support and to keep it from leaking blood or anything else while the dead skin was sloughing off. It was a little gross to look at but healing well. Meantime he stood looking out at the forest rubbing the shoulder absently with his hand wondering where Molly was.

After his talk with Hannibal, Piotr's mind kept straying back to his friend in the forest. He had left with the intention of returning soon, but then he'd found Kitty and his plans had been usurped. Now he was back to wondering about his friend and worrying about the fact that he hadn't left a note to say where he was going or how long he'd be gone. Of course, there hadn't really been any way to do that.

Piotr made the decision to check on the camp. He left a note for Kitty that he would be out for a little while, but that he would return before nightfall and he would be sure to be safe. He left the note on the nightstand and left their apartment.

Now that he had more of an idea of the layout, getting back to the forest was pretty easy. He went in steel, because he'd promised Kitty he would be safe, and that was the safest way he knew to be.

The forest loomed in front of him, and he entered it cautiously but confidently. He knew not to piss off the fairies. But he'd also lived here for a bit, so he didn't feel as if he would be unwelcome by them.

When he got to the edge of the camp, he stopped. He didn't feel as if it was his place to just go in unannounced anymore.

"Ragged Lady?" Piotr called out. "Hello? It is Piotr."

Critters were falling from the sky. Talk about your Biblical plague. Molly would worry about the whys of that later. Right now one of those snakes that were falling had bitten and poisoned Erik. She had separated his consciousness from the pain but that was only a temporary solution. She had left part of her mind in his acting as a stop gap between him and the pain. It meant there was a constant drain on her resources. It was a slow draw, but eventually it would wear her down. Before that happened she needed help, and she could think of only one person to go to.

She stumbled her way through die Festung dodging frogs, lizards, snakes and those damn spiders! The spiders were the worst because they didn't die on impact. They just wriggled around then skittered off. Of course it was worse when they landed on you and went through their creepy dance. She pressed on though only squeaking a little from time to time for the rain or ick and breathed a sigh of relief when she got to Carlos' door.

She knew she might not be welcome and that was fine. He could hate her all he wanted so long as he helped Erik. She felt a moment of dizziness as she leaned against the doorframe, her eyes drifting shut but a sucked in breath steadied her. She grit her teeth then reached out to knock on the door. "...please be home."

The bad weather that was threatening hadn't bothered Erik much. It had sent him checking to make sure that the shelters were weather tight since the storms seemed to hit every day it was something that was shaping up to be a long term thing.

So this time around he wasn't honestly paying that much attention to the rain that was threatening. There were things he was busy with such as the water wheel that was supplying them with power. It tended to hang up sometimes which interrupted the power flow. And one of the things that seemed to help it hang up was the way the water flow fluctuated after a storm.

He lifted his head in surprise when the first creature hit the ground but didn't immediately connect it with the storm.

Until more things fell.

Ducking his head Erik made his way back toward the shelters when a snake fell over his shoulders. The impact hurt but when the dying reptile whipped around and sank its fangs into him in reaction that hurt even more.

Swearing in German he crushed the skull of the snake and ducked under a shelter.

Those people who had come to see them and left were going to be trouble. Some were trouble because they were Molly's 'friends' and some were trouble just because they seemed to be that type. Such as the blonde man who had his helmet. For now they'd left but he was certain they'd be back again and again. They seemed to be people like Charles...idealists maybe. People who saw the right path but didn't see it the way he did.

Erik knew almost everyone in their small city by name. It was useful to cement their loyalty to him to know them but it was also because they were so small still it wasn't that difficult to keep up with. They were just human. If that was what you could say about the people in this world. Were they still human? It didn't matter. They were what was left against the monsters.

Molly had stormed off so he spoke to the people he came across if they'd seen her. They were happy to point out what direction she went. They thought Molly was a little strange but she'd obviously done a lot of work to protect them just as Erik had and they liked her. She'd been upset when they went by and they told him that too.

It didn't take long to find a familiar form and her colored hair walking between the homes they'd built.

"Molly." He was still behind her enough he wasn't exactly chasing her. Just giving her the option to stop.

The last time Sam could remember staying in one place this long had been college, which had literally been a lifetime ago. That had been trying to step into someone else's life and Sam was a little surprised that the delusion of trying to be normal had lasted as long as it had back then.

Here, there was no normalcy to be had. There were moments of happiness, but there were also moments when he wasn't quite sure if he'd manage to hang onto the thin tendrils that kept his sanity in place.

Reading helped sometimes. It kept him grounded and gave him something to focus on. Belia, the leader of die Festung, guarded her library jealously. But Sam had managed to get a few books from the woman. Mostly they were books that had been published by conspiracy theorists ranging from the absurd (even for him) to the eerily accurate in hindsight.

He was currently sitting in a deserted courtyard on the edge of die Festung, poring over one of the more interesting books. He might appear at ease to the casual observer, but his posture was just a little bit too rigid, his muscles ever so slightly tensed. Even if he might seem to be engrossed in the book, he was still highly aware of his surroundings. He wasn't safe here. He wouldn't delude himself into thinking that he was. Really, nowhere was safe. He was almost always on his guard, and right now, right here was no exception.

Murphy didn't like the idea of Harry storming into Magneto's colony to talk to him. It wasn't that she liked or even trusted the man who appeared to currently hold Molly's trust, but she didn't like the idea of Harry's temper getting mixed up in the situation. As far as she was concerned, if Molly was with the metal-manipulating mutant by choice, there wasn't a lot they could do about the situation.

All the same, she wasn't going to let him go into that without her. She hoped to be able to keep him from flying into overprotective neanderthal mode. She also didn't trust the company that was attending the summit with Magneto and Molly. She didn't necessarily dislike Zatanna, the female mystic, but she didn't trust her and she wasn't sure she liked Constantine at all. She certainly didn't trust him.

She was glad to have Carlos along, but he was from the same dark future that Molly was from which was extremely unnerving.

With all that was going on, Murphy was glad to have the sword strapped to her back. She knew, as with the last time she'd been here, that it was a risk to bring it in. She also trusted the holy sword to remain within her power.

Perhaps there was a reason that she'd been granted the Sword of Faith after all.

She had been to the colony before, so she led the others to it and stopped just outside it, waiting for Harry's lead once they had reached their destination.

Molly was turning out to be a goldmine of help and information in building himself a new civilization here in this half dead world.

There had been a section of the population of a different city that ran away from the new ruler and they were more than willing to be gathered up by someone who would take care of them. The only problem had become where to take them?

The Fortress was ruled by the woman Belia and while he planed to remedy that eventually for now he had to find his own place. It was perplexing at first but then they turned to the forest. A fairy forest wasn't perhaps the best place normally to set up your own city but compared to the rest of this blighted world it was a paradise.

Molly taught him how to not insult the fairy presence and Erik, to be on the safe side, brought in his building materials from outside whenever he could. Wrapping things in metal he could carry huge weights to where they needed them and the forest itself offered hunting and fresh food to keep them fed.

They had shelters now, and defenses, but the Netvores didn't come here. Still, there might be other things to defend from and Erik would never leave his back unguarded. It had been a long day of hauling stone from outside the forest so he was taking a moment to wash the dirt and sweat from himself and relax. Part of the choice to make their home here was the presence of the stream of fresh water. He scooped up cold handfuls of it to rinse his face and hair clean.

There was pain. Great pain. What was being done to him was no simple thing. Not just blood draws or allergy tests. There was much that Piotr didn't understand, couldn't wrap his mind around, but he knew that more often or not, it hurt. He didn't know what day it was, or even what month of what year. The times he was in his cell, he was the most happy, because nothing was being done to him. The rest of his life was agony.

He could never predict when it was going to happen, either. It was just one moment he was in his cell, and the next he was strapped to some device or machine. He didn't even know if there were days when it didn't happen, his perception of time was so distorted.

So when he felt himself waking up in that groggy state again, Piotr was preparing himself for more pain. Instead, seeing dirt beneath his hands, smelling trees and the world around him, he was confused. Elated, but confused. How had he gone from the lab of a mad alien to this forest? Where was he?

Piotr stood, slowly, unsure of his own feet, and began to walk.

Rumor had it there was a new prisoner on the block. A powerful prisoner, but the talk was sketchy on what kind of power he wielded. Molly wanted to find out. She didn't have much else to do besides dodge Carlos, Harry and Mouse. She wasn't certain what exactly she was looking for, or would find, but it had to be better than hiding out in alleys and robbing pantries.

Getting in was child's play. One mega-veil and all she had to do was wait for people to go in or out the door she needed. Into the building was easy. It got increasingly more difficult to get down to the holding cells. When it looked like it was taking too long she grew impatient and planted the suggestion that someone should check on the newest prisoner just in case. After that it was a simple matter of following the guard and slipping in behind him.

She watched as the guard did his routine and made sure she was against the wall when he walked past her then back out the door. She watched it shut and heard the lock set. That wouldn't be a problem for her. Then she turned to look back to the cell with the new guy, and approached quietly, wanting a look at him before revealing herself.

He didn't look like much to her. Some older guy with a chip on his shoulder if that scowl was anything to judge by. She decided to tell him so, but didn't drop the veil yet. "You don't look like much to me."

Molly was here. Carlos knew that, though he hadn't seen her yet. Dresden had mentioned enough to let him know that Molly was from around his time. Meaning after Dresden's death and everything that had conspired to screw with her head.

Harry and Murphy didn't know the extent of the events that hadn't happened. Hell, Carlos didn't know all of it. But he knew enough to know where Molly was coming from.

He wanted to help her. He'd always wanted to help her, really.

He wasn't sure if his attempts at help would go any better than they had back home, but he had to try.

And besides, he didn't want to touch the tension between Harry and Murphy in the aftermath of that sleeping beauty curse (and presumably the kiss that had broken the curse) with a ten foot pole.

So he borrowed Mouse and set out searching the village for Molly.

By far, Eric had not exactly gotten around to exploring most of what this strange world contained. He had left die Festung and gone back to New Troy to look at the library of the ex-leader Lucius and what it contained. He had holed himself up for a long while, reading, watching, learning. There were a lot of strange things he discovered, but none of them were of the place in which he now lived.

There had been rumors among his staff about a forest that he hadn't heard anybody speak about before, and it piqued his curiosity. So finally, Eric left his base of operations. He went out to explore this strange new area.

The forest itself seemed to him to be very normal as he approached it. It certainly didn't look very fantastic. Yet, he had heard that it had sprung up overnight, thus making it abnormal. Also, interesting. Something to investigate. Perhaps an extension of his new and somewhat strange new empire.

But as Eric entered the thick of the trees, he discovered very quickly that it wasn't going to go that way. Things felt strange, and they smelled strange. He wasn't hearing the sounds that normally filled the woods, not really. There were sounds, but they seemed false.

Another thing was, Eric's outfit changed. He was now not wearing the simple jeans and wifebeater that he had been sporting previously. Now his clothing looked more like something from distant France. A pair of absurdly tight leggings and a billowy white tunic tied at the waist with a bit of string. Eric thought it might possibly be the most annoying thing he'd ever worn in his life.

Spike didn't like his basement apartment.

Well, sure, it was decked out fairly nicely, and had everything he needed (including a fridge stocked with blood, and he felt like the door was decently built. But it wasn't home.

So he went out to find the nearest watering hole and get piss drunk. It really seemed like the best thing to do given the situation. Strangely, though, finding out he was a television character really wasn't the worst bit of news. After all, he appreciated the great television dramas as much as anybody else. And he knew he was damn good looking and probably, at one point, had a huge fangirl population. That was something a man could appreciate.

Still, that didn't quite make up for the fact that he was an outted vampire in a strange city with no demon underground to terrorize or rely on as he wanted. Getting to the nearest bar he sat down heavily, ordering a bottle of alcohol.

(Backdated to before the rescue)

Murphy had come across a lot of the things during the course of working with Harry and SI that were just off-the-wall, beyond-imagination insane. But time travel was a new one. One that made her extremely cranky.

Worse, she was trying very hard not to think about what could happen in the very near future that would traumatize Molly to such an extreme. And she was really trying not to think about Harry dying. She wouldn't let it happen. She couldn't let it happen.

Harry had convinced Molly to stay at least for the time being. Which meant that Murphy had taken her in. Even if they could have asked Belia to find more space for Harry's apprentice, Murphy wanted her close by so she could keep an eye on the young woman.

While she waited for Molly to finish the mentor-ordered shower, she fixed a simple dinner with some of the food supplies that she'd been given at the market. She still wasn't used to just be handed things and treated like she was someone 'special' and she had to say she didn't like it one bit.