2008-01-21: Believe In Me

Starring:

Kory_icon.gif Peter_icon.gif

Summary: Some people have specific hang ups, and all they need is someone who can help them overcome.

Date It Happened: January 21st, 2008

Believe In Me


Dreamscape

The misty area between dreams expands around him. Every day, Peter thinks it's getting a little bigger, the amount of dreams he could walk into growing— one flickers out beside him as he looks around for that one that stands out far more than any of the others. There it is. Touching it, he steps inside. He's wearing a suit. That's new. His bowtie is untied, hanging loosely around his neck, and there's blood visible on the cuffs and sleeves, dried now, rather than fresh. He's carrying something with him, a thick silver chain-link, large enough to be a bracelet. Obviously a woman's. He's clasping onto it as if he's afraid to let go of it, as he looks around for Kory.

Tonight, Kory's dreamscape is a library. Even in her dream, Kory is surrounded by books and has dozed off with her face in some dusty tome. Until Peter steps into her dream, at which point she starts awake, and blinks, looking around until she spots him. "Peter." She's thrilled to see him, but given how things have gone with him of late, she keeps it low key, waiting to read what kind of mood he's in. "It's …good to see you." She's worried about him, of course. Recent events would dictate no other response in someone who cared about him.

Only when he shifts can she see the fresh blood. It's on his white shirt, under the jacket, staining through on the left side of his chest, as if his heart happened to be pierced with something— or the gaping hole there rather than just fresh blood could make it look like it was ripped out instead. Peter moves closer, avoiding touching anything. He's not soaked to the bone this time, at least— better for the library. "Hey— this one of those… dreams where you keep waking up?" he asks, moving a little closer, but still tightly holding whatever is in his hand. His voice is tight, shaky. "Did you— see the news today?"

"Yeah, probably," Kory admits, looking him over. She sees the wound, and remembers her own similar one. But she doesn't ask right away. He asks first if she's seen the news, and she shakes her head. "No. I'm sorry. I didn't. What happened?" She offers him her hand, her strength. The book behind her flips closed, an indication he's getting her undivided attention.

There's a slow inhale, shaky, as Peter moves even closer, but doesn't sit down. He doesn't seem to notice his own wound, so similar to what she went through once before. "My sister— my brother's wife— she was in a car accident. I saw it— not the accident, but— I saw it on the news, when I was walking by an appliance store in the Bronx and…" he trails off, shaking his head a little. "My brother must not have been in the car, but… she's in pretty bad condition and… there's nothing I can do about it. I can't just… go in and fix her." From his sudden change of hair length, making him look younger without actually changing his physical age much, he looks very much helpless in this.

"Oh, no, Peter. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" she asks, without hesitation. She does touch his shoulder since he came closer but did not accept her hand. "I'm no doctor, but I could let her know you're thinking of her. Or put you two together while she's asleep so she knows for herself…" She touches his shirt. He's always bleeding in these dreams. "…is there something else?" she asks, tentatively.

"Whatever you can do, I— thank you, Kory," Peter says, still tightly clasping the object in his hand— to the point that his palm starts to bleed, as if whatever is in his hand happens to be sharp. It doesn't bleed too much, though. Something else… He looks away, not pulling from her hand, but having a difficult time meeting her eyes. "The Company— I don't think they had anything to do with what happened to Heidi, but… they grabbed Elena. From her apartment… That man that you mentioned once… Mr. Winters… the one with the little girl that that woman was… yelling at him over? He was one of the agents that came to get her. I know because I saw it— I used one of my abilities to… see what happened to her… Because they didn't even clean up the mess they made."

Kory nods, and uses the tail of her T-shirt to wipe the blood away from Peter's hand, but does not try to pry his grip open. "Elena?" His girlfriend?! That explains the hole in his heart that goes all the way to China. That Benjamin is involved is met with a resigned sort of sadness. She was just getting to like the man, and he turns out to have been what she feared he was. "I'm sorry. Have you been able to reach her? Through her dreams? Is she all right?"

"They told me she was okay… but that I had to turn myself in to them if I wanted her to stay that way," Peter says, looking down, finally seeing the blood in his hands from the grip when she wipes away at it. Though she doesn't try to pry it open, he raises his hand up and opens it himself… it's a watch. A ladies watch. Rather fitting considering his circumstances… A circle of rubies sit around the glass, a few of them broken off and lost, and the band is totally broken off on one side— a half circle of blue stones visible. While it was together, they might have interlocked. Red and blue. "I haven't been able to reach her dreams, but I— I don't think they've hurt her. They need her alive if they're going to get me to go in…"

Kory regards Peter solemnly. "Is that what you plan to do?" she asks, looking down at the broken watch in his hands. "Let them have you?" She doesn't think it's a good idea, but she's also not the one with a loved one in their clutches. "Then what?"

"No— it's not what I plan to do," Peter says, carefully placing the water into his pocket with a sigh, moving his bleeding hands to touch hers. The fingertips aren't as bloody as the rest, so it doesn't get on her just yet. "I'm stalling for time— I demanded a file on what they plan to do with me, what they'll do to Elena if I turn myself in. But I don't know any way to get her back without… even if I do manage to find and rescue her before they can stop me, we'd be running for the rest of our lives…"

Kory shakes her head. Unacceptable, that last option. "That's not a life," she says solemnly. "Your other option is what — give them Gabriel?" Which option she can't help but consider. The man's sickness infected Peter, if what Peter says is true. And here on the dreamscape, it'd take one heck of a lot of self delusion for him to lie.

"They don't want Gabriel anymore," Peter says, rolling his eyes up with a hint of a laugh beginning to build. It's a dry laugh. "In fact— my mother offered Gabriel his freedom if he found and stopped me. Before I kill anyone else." He shakes his head. "I don't know if there are any options besides turning myself in."

Kory's mouth dropped open. His mother betrayed him. His own mother. She can't even fathom that. "You won't kill anyone else, though, Peter. Will you? That was just a one time thing? A momentary lapse. You have it under control now, right?" She believes in him. His optimism, his hope, are like a light to Kory, and she would rather help that flame stay lit if she can.

"She doesn't believe I'll stop— she says no matter what I do, if I don't turn myself in, I'll have more blood on my hands," Peter looks down at his hands again. The blood there is all his own. The wound isn't even healing… The gaping chest wound may not be carrying over into his physical body, but that one seems to be— little does he know. "I understand what's going on— I have Sylar's ability. It— he said it had a side effect and that's what's happening. Maybe because I know what's going on… maybe it won't happen again." Maybe.

Kory swallows hard. "Your mother, no offense, doesn't sound like a very nice lady." What mother would say such a thing to her child? What mother wouldn't want to defend and protect him even if he did something horrible in the heat of a moment? "Is there a way to stop the side effect? Or mute it? Redirect it? It couldn't always have been like this, right? If Sylar had been a killer even before his powers, he'd have been caught before his powers…"

There's a hint of a smile, as it appears Peter isn't about to argue his mother's niceness. Or lack there of. "The only thing that supressed it at first were the Haitian Pills. I actually still have a bottle of them— probably a weeks worth, but if I take them, I can't meet with you, I can't find Elena, and I won't be able to hide from them anymore. They'd find me." But if he has to… he has that as a resort. "Part of the reason I was helping him was because it was his ability that did it— that forced him into becoming a killer. And now it's done the same to me… If he could learn to suppress it, I can too." Somehow. He takes a slow breath. "But I don't know if they'll ever believe that. And I can't leave Elena locked up in a cell."

"Is…is it like Gabriel? Do you have that part of you locked up somewhere?" Kory asks, brows coming together as she goes thoughtful. "It occurs to me we might treat this like an infection. Kill it before it spreads and harms more of the good in you." She takes one hand away from his, and closes her fist. Then she opens it again and the dream has given her what looks like a simple paintball gun. "There's a type of therapy they use on cancer patients that works this way. They use the power of their own minds to fight back the corrupting cellular damage."

"I don't know, I don't— know how that works," Peter says, sounding confused as he listens to her. It's the appearance of the paintball gun that makes him blink and take a step back. "Using the power of my mind to fight— I don't know if it works like that. We could try, but… It was still me. When I… when I killed Mr. Nakamura. I just didn't feel like… I don't even know how to explain it." He struggles for a moment, as if he's trying. "Sometimes when I get upset my abilities just happen. I have no control over them. I don't think— they just happen. It was like that. Except I wasn't… over emotional. I was actually fairly calm when it happened. I needed to know what he wasn't telling me— and it was as if what I was doing to him would have answered the questions I had. When I realized what was happening— it was too late."

The gun vanishes as he blinks and steps back. She didn't mean to frighten him. "I don't know what to tell you, Peter. I don't know enough about the way your power works at the physical level. I can only try to help at the mental level. " And even that's limited; which is why she's going back to school. The library books appear to begin falling apart, pages flying away into the sky, books crumbling to parchment dust behind her while she looks on at Peter, face full of frustration.

There's a long pause. Peter understands she's just trying to help him. "I… when I first started… what I do. I thought that I could only use the abilities when I was around the people who had them. In the same room, that kind of thing. But then I— it came as a flash, a memory. Someone was trying to teach me, said I had to get rid of everyone— all of my attachments— but it turned out that my attachments were what gave me the abilities. Or at least that's how I think they work. I remember the people they came from. And I remember how I felt around them, how they made me feel. So it's that— those emotions— that make it so I can use their abilities. Sylar's might work differently, since it's own… side effect."

"So even if you managed to sever your attachment to Gabriel, or bury your emotions regarding Sylar, that might not be enough to do it," Kory sighs, and more pages go fluttering past her. "There has to be some way, Peter. I won't believe that you'll have to take those pills. I won't believe that's the only way to keep you from slipping again."

"In the dream… Gabriel said he was able to fight it because he had something to fight for," Peter says, beginning to pull away. He's starting to fade out, almost as if something is interrupting him, or if he's getting too weak to continue the dreamwalk. "I have a lot of things to fight for. You— my brother— Heidi— Elena… all my friends. But having people beside me while the Company chases after me…" That makes it difficult for him.

"But that's Gabriel's reason," Kory points out. "It may not be a reason that works for you. He had all those issues. The anger at his parents. The constant badgering to be special. Your mind may not have the same triggers." Kory also fades, frowning. "I'm having a hard time holding us together, Peter," she admits. "It's been more difficult lately." She doubts it's anything to do with his current troubles. What it is, she hasn't figured out, yet. "You'll stay in touch as you can, though, right?"

What is his issue? Peter knows they don't have much time left, but he pieces it together. What is it that hurt most when he found out his mother might want to have him killed rather than helped? "I need people to believe in me," he says softly. "I'll come back." It's the last thing he gets to say, before he fades out of the dream entirely. He needs people to believe in him.

"I believe in you!" Kory calls as loudly as she can, even as Peter fades from her sight. "I believe in you, and I always will!"

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License