2009-11-30: The Princess Is In Your Castle (Just In Another Room)

Starring:

Peter2_V4icon.pngZelda_V4icon.png

Date: November 30th, 2009

Summary:

After the fight with Gabriel, Peter takes Zelda some place safe.


"The Princess is In Your Castle (Just In Another Room)"

Future Peter's Apartment

The room that the kidnapped princess has been taken to is dusty. Obviously it's seen little use in the last month or so, but not so bad that it's deteroirating or completely uncomfortable. The sheets she has drapped over her body are warm from her own body heat, soft rather than rough with age. Recently washed, most likely, even if the smell of dust still fills the air. The apartment has almost no furnishings. Bare of fancy things, with just the essentials. A few chair, a small table with a lamp, and a bed. There's a map on one wall, a few coats in a closet, and extra sheets laying at the foot of the bed.

Her wounds have been tended to, bandaged, but they are still a little sore.

The lamp is turned off, the room's only light being the windows, the usual late fall haze of New York keeping much light from actually making it's way inside. A dark haired young man, sits in the chair, looking at his hands. A spark crackles and dances from one finger to another, then dissipates. He's not trying to wake the young woman up, he's trying to figure out how to control this new ability.

These days Peter has many "new" abilities. And he knows they shouldn't be new at all.

New abilities. One of those would be Zelda's own, which he used to 'protect' her from a ruthless killer. Whoever that person is, she's not sure. She doesn't even know who Peter is or why he came in to her and Gabriel's hiding place to pick a fight. The blow to the head and then the bolts of electricity have left their mark and has left her needing a lot of sleep to recover.

Deep down inside, Zelda knows something is wrong. Even her dreams are troubled and are filled with furniture she can't touch because they shock her and doors that rearrange themselves so she can't walk through them. With a groan, she shifts, unwilling to open her eyes yet for fear it will only hurt more. Hearing someone practicing an ability closeby, she's wary. That's something Gabriel would do, but it's also the sound of that electricity from the night before.

Risking it, she squints one eye open and then the other. This is not the hotel. This is not any place she knows of. With a start, she realizes someone has bandaged her, but a captor wouldn't do that, would they? Snatching the blankets around her, she attempts to scramble up, to get away, but it hurts too much. It's that man, the one who came after them. With a moan, she just remains where she is. "Wh-where—-?"

The flickers of sparks die out almost as soon as she makes sounds. The offending hands raise up, almost in an attempt to show harmlessness as Peter stands up from his chair. "You're in an apartment— somewhere safe. He won't find you here, don't worry," he says, unaware of the whole situation, but wanting to believe the black and white of it. As much as he can— though that's failing in some ways. Especially since there's so much that he doesn't remember— and the wounds he bandages had been, for the most part, caused by him.

"My name's Peter. You— I didn't mean for you to get hurt yesterday. I— I'm sorry if I scared you. You're not being held prisoner though, I assure you. I just needed to get you somewhere safe. In case… Sylar. He's… dangerous." And possibly killed his niece. The cheerleader.

That harmlessness is not exactly registered for Zelda. While the motions are there, this is the man that attacked them and took her away. An apartment. Somewhere safe. But, where? How did they get there and where is Gabriel? Slowly, she attempts to sit up. If she doesn't move too quickly, she manages to lean her back against the wall, pulling the bed clotches up with her as she moves.

"Gabriel…where is…where is Gabriel?" She doesn't know anything about Sylar is, or why he would be after her or Gabriel. This is far too much information for her to handle so soon after waking up. "I don't know who Sylar is. But if he's dangerous, we have to go back. He'll…he's going to…why are you here?"
"Gabriel? Was there someone else in the apartment with you?" Peter asks, looking worried all of a sudden, and with good reason. He saved one person in the apartment, but if Sylar had a second one in there… it's already been hours. It's the next day! "I had a vision. On this… object that I found. It showed me Sylar— told me he was still alive. He looked a little different, but— it was him. He recognized me, had the same ability. The last time I saw him— he should be dead. He got stabbed throuh with a sword."

There has been a serious amount of miscommunication that have led them all to this point. Zelda stares at Peter for a moment in confusion. "No. Just…only Gabriel was there." He had a vision? What does that mean? What did it show? "W-who got stabbed with a sword?" That didn't happen in the apartment did it? Did this Peter stab Gabriel with a sword? Everything is getting muddled up in her head and she's confused. "But, if this Sylar's dangerous and he's after us, we have to go back. We can't just leave him there." While she knows that Gabriel can take care of himself, she doesn't know how he left the fight. Wait, why is she begging this man to help Gabriel, he's the one that attacked them. "Why are you being so nice?! You're the one that came in and attacked us and then—-I don't understand! If I'm not your prisoner, why am I here? You're not with the government?"

"When I got there I just saw you and Sylar," Peter says, frowning a moment. He's changed, or he's been duped. He's different, or he's lying. Which one is the truth? Which one is real? "Sylar got stabbed with a sword, by Hiro, to…" he trails off, shaking his head. There's a lot that he doesn't know about this situation, or anything at all, really. Everyone seems to believe the government is evil. Even people who work with the government. Trust no one except Ivory. Except something new tells him he doesn't know why he should trust Ivory at all…

"I just want to help you. I'm sorry. I think— I think the person I came to…" he hesitates, turns away from her, and sits down on teh chair as he turns back to face her again. "Tell me about Gabriel. How'd the two of you meet? What's he like?"

Zelda doesn't even know about Ivory. There are so many things she doesn't know about this situation. All she knows is that the government was after Gabriel and now they may be after her, too. "Sylar." It's a name she's never heard before and now Peter seems to be insinuating that this is the man that she loves. Some monster that she needs to be saved from. "I don't know who that is. The only other person in that hotel was Gabriel." And she can't imagine Gabriel being the man that Peter seems to think he is.

The sudden change in his demeanor startles Zelda, but she just watches him. For better or worse, she's stuck here until she can move again. She'll never get out of here when she can barely sit up without wincing. "He came into my bakery." The basics won't hurt. "Then, he fixed my grandmother's watch and I asked him out. He was so sweet and shy. He's been so worried that something like this would happen, that they'd come after us, get us. But…they didn't. It was you. I don't know who you think Gabriel is, but he's not someone I need to be saved from. I love him."

She loves him. Peter flashes back to that encounter. Sylar had said something very similar. He loves her. Once again, he feels like he might have missunderstood things and turned himself into the bad guy. "I don't understand how he could have changed so much in just three years," he mutters quietly under his breath, before he stands up and begins pacing back and forth in the nearly empty room. "You know what he can do? With his abilities, how he… he talked to me like I was supposed to be…" A friend. He wouldn't be a friend if the man had killed his niece, would he? Unless… he's changed a lot in three years too.

Sylar. Who was he that Peter thought she needed saving from him? Does she want to know? Can she afford not to? Zelda frowns at Peter. She doesn't quite know what to tell him, what to ask. Whatever he's done, he's not exactly put himself in the good guy position. She's not sure what that would be any more. "I didn't know him three years ago. I only know him now." As for his abilities? She knows that he has more than one, that he can use them. "He can…turn invisible, move things with his mind. That I know he can do for sure. I know there are other things that I haven't seen him use yet." As for him being a friend to Gabriel, that's something that Zelda doesn't know for sure. "He sounded like he knew you well," she shrugs. But, she hadn't heard of him before.

Turn invisible. Regenerate. Those two abilities could have come from people he knows. Peter can't help but close his eyes and stop pacing, letting his head tilt backwards. Who exactly is Gabriel? And what does he have in common with Sylar? "I— do you have anything personal on you? The watch that he fixed, maybe? Or… a gift that he would have given you?" If they love each other there had to have been gifts! And he didn't take off any of her belongings. He only had to bandage her head. "I discovered this ability— it lets me see things when I touch objects. It… I'm not sure if it's the past or the future. But I… it's hard to explain. But if I can see— I can know he wouldn't really harm you."

Zelda has no idea how Gabriel came onto those abilities. As far as she knows he just always had them. She's never quite learned the basics of how they all work, what it would mean for someone to have so many. Who is Sylar exactly and why is he suspicious of her? "Do I have anything—-you've got a lot of nerve, you know that? All I've got is what I came in, what you see me with. You're the one that brought me here, you should know that! I've got these clothes, that's all. And it's not like the two of us took a lot with us when we went on the run. Sure, he gave me things, but I don't keep them in my pockets. I didn't need any momentos when he was right there with me." As for the watch that Gabriel fixed, it's back at the hotel with the few things she couldn't bear to leave behind. That she now was forced to. "Why do you need a watch to know he wouldn't really harm me when I'm telling it to you right now? What is it that you think he's done that's so horrible?"

"He killed me, and he murdered someone I knew," Peter says quietly, before he moves toward the front door to the apartment, moving a good distance away from her. "He might be a different person now, but he was that once, and… I can't remember the last three years. I don't know who he is now. I don't know who I am now." He rubs his hands over his face, then pushes back his hair. "You can leave. I won't let the government come after you, if that's what you're so afraid of."

"That's not Gabriel." Zelda stares at Peter. It's not even disbelief that she shows him, but complete denial at the accusations. She knows the man she loves and he's not capable of that. "I don't know what you can and can't remember, but that's not who you think it is. He'll fight back if he's attacked, but he's not a murderer." She sighs and looks past him, at the door he's blocking - though not on purpose. "Where am I supposed to go? I still can't get up and I don't know where Gabriel is or even how to find him." She shakes her head woozily, looking down at the bed that was once so dusty. "If you think you can see who Gabriel was, why can't you do that for yourself? Go touch something that used to be yours?"

"How do you think I found out that I could do that in the first place?" Peter says quietly, looking over at the lamp, the open closet. "All I've gotten is… more confusion." It's the truth. Seeing things that tell show faces with names they shouldn't have. His own. And others. And people he doesn't know at all. "I just thought it would help… I thought I was helping you. I didn't want what happened to…" Ted, Sylar's other victims… "Do you know where he would look for you?"

"I don't know." Zelda is very much in the dark here. She has no idea why she's here, what has brought them all to this pass. She's at the mercy of this sad rescuer/attacker still and finds herself in a strange position of almost pitying him. If this is his apartment, it paints a sad picture of what kind of existence it has been for him. "I…" She what? She doesn't appreciate what he attempted to do; it's separated her from the person she was attempting to protect and who was protecting her. "I didn't need help. Not from Gabriel, at least. I don't know where he would. He's probably looking for me, but I don't know where he'd start."

"He tried to kill me. I'm not forgetting that part," Peter says firmly, looking back at the young woman. "And he gets his abilities by murdering people who had them before. He cut their skulls open and took out their brains and— then he would have their abilities. He couldn't heal when I fought him three years ago, and he can now. He couldn't turn invisible, and he can now. So he's killed since then. And you have an ability…" Gabriel might be good, but he doesn't know Gabriel. He knows Sylar, and Sylar was not the definition of good. "You're in an apartment in the Deveaux building on Central Park West. There's some cash on the table next to the lamp. I hope you find him quickly, but remember what I said. What he was three years ago may still be in there. I'll just have to believe that love is enough to keep something like that at bay." And then he disappears, dissolving out of sight. The door opens.

Murdering people. Whoever this Peter is, he's deranged and under delusions. He's already said that he can't remember the past three years, how is it that he knows so much about this Sylar person? He's probably confused. Zelda doesn't have the time to reply or to argue back. "I'm not going to take your money," she huffs at the comment. Luckily, she doesn't even need it. He's not here any more to hear her, but she knows where she is now. And…ironically it's back where she started. In the Deveaux Building…where Gabriel's apartment is. It may not be safe for long, but any port in a storm. Cautiously, she eases herself out of bed and slowly makes for the door. Her head throbs where she was hit with the statue, but she can make it. "He didn't even ask me who I was."

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