April 2007, "Powerless"

[ellectrical]

Ten minutes after she had come back to her room, her father left the Facility.

She doesn't actually discover this for another three hours, when she finally wanders into the security office. No one bothers her; she often came in to watch the camera feeds - she had been doing that since she was twelve years old - and everyone had known it was better to ignore her since well before that.

The security logs tell her that her father was gone. Wherever he had went was undisclosed, so he could be back at any time. It's why she doesn't think on it much when they also indicate that Suresh had accessed his lab in the Mendez loft, despite that he was supposed to be in New Orleans. She isn't interested, and heads to her father's office.

There is one stop to double check the key code, but she finds and enters it, and the office is empty. Sunlight gleams in through the windows behind his desk (it's the only room in the Facility in which she sees sunlight – she's never noticed this until now), and she moves to a tall, dark wood shelf that sits to the side of the windows. It's lined with large white filing folders, all imprinted with names: Parkman – Petrelli –

Bishop
Robert

Bishop
Elle

She reaches to pull it out, thinking it will be more difficult with her right arm in this sling, but it quickly doesn't matter. The file is oddly light, too light – her fingers curl around the top, and the folder falls open.

It's empty.

Elle shoves it back on the shelf, and after glaring around the office for a moment, moves over to her father's computer instead. It's not likely that he would keep anything on there if her files are hidden, she knows this, and it's why the first thing she does is to click to his access to the security surveillance system. If he's coming back, she'd rather know that now, before looking for anything else.

But the first images that come up are not from the Facility – they're from the Mendez loft.

"Does Suresh know you have him on video surveillance?" she murmurs to herself. Suresh is there, like he's not suppose to be, doing something in one of the lab tables while... some guy watches.

Too much isn't right about it. Suresh would have left. She can't tell who the man is, he's turned away from the camera, but she does know him, something triggers in her mind –

He turns.

"Sylar."




She clicks the program closed. What she's supposed to do is call her father, find someone else, any agents who are actually on the job right now.

Elle looks to the only photograph her father keeps on his desk – one of himself, on some fishing trip. Nothing he'd ever done with her.





"Daddy, you're going to be so proud of me."


-


In the car, Elle puts her sling back on. She doesn't like it; even if Sylar doesn't have his abilities back (even if he doesn't, who knows what Suresh did in the time it took her to get here), nothing is going to change that she's better with her right than her left. Or really, that she just really hates the sling. But she can't risk Suresh seeing her without it, she can't risk the camera in the Mendez lab filming her without it, so she pulls it on hastily over her shoulder and slams her car door louder than necessary.

The Mendez loft is an elevator ride up to a hall lined with windows on both sides. Those to the right look into the apartment. The blinds are open, she can see them immediately: Suresh, Sylar, and that girl, Molly Walker. They're collected around what looks like someone lying on a cot – Elle can't see enough to recognize who it is, and she doesn't care. She moves quickly to the door, and enters the code on the keypad next to it, making little noise as she opens the door and steps into the apartment.

None of them look up. She takes a step forward on the landing, toward the glass walls that cut between it and the area of the loft where they've gathered.