𝐔𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐀

𝐕

Sylar sighed and stood up. He brushed off his jeans and headed for the door.

"Sylar, what are you doing? I thought you were with us?" Peter questioned.

"I am." Sylar said, facing Peter who had also gotten up and was now standing before Sylar. "We need food. I'm going to go and see if there's anything left in the corner store up the road."

"You can't go alone." Ashleigh said, standing beside Peter. "It's the middle of the night and they might still be out there."

"I know, but if I take you with me and they show up, you'll glow and we might get caught, no offense." Ash nodded. "I can't turn invisible or fly like Peter can."

"Then I'll go with you." Peter suggested.

"Then who's gonna watch Firefly here?" he asked, gesturing to Ashleigh, who was taken aback by the nickname. "Besides, I'm stronger than you Peter. I can handle myself. I can always shapeshift if I have to."

"He's right, Peter. We need food and it is the best bet." Ashleigh said timidly. She and Sylar looked at Peter, who reluctantly nodded.

"Then it's agreed." Sylar opened the door and turned to leave but Ashleigh stopped him.

"Wait!" she turned around and grabbed something. "Here." She held out a walkie-talkie, which Sylar took, and then headed off into the night.

"I'm sorry." Ashleigh muttered quietly after what seemed like years of silence between them.

"For what?" Peter's confused voice rung through the silence next.

"I know I'm not really useful. I mean, we're basically in the middle of a war and all I do is boil and glow." She said, not meeting Peter's eyes because she was afraid of the emotions she'd see in them.

"That could be helpful." Peter tried to make her feel better. He hated seeing her upset. She raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"How?"

"If we were stuck in a dark room." Peter suggested. Ashleigh let out a small chuckle at that.

"You mean like we are now?" she replied, glancing at the small, dark room they were in. The only light they had was coming from the streetlights outside, casting a dim light across them.

"Exactly." Peter smirked and held out his hand. "Here."

"What?" Ashleigh asked, furrowing her brow.

"Take my hand." He nodded towards his outstretched hand. She threw him a sceptical look, but did so. Her whole body started to run a fever, and her skin took on a slight orange glow. Peter smiled at her, glad that his touch affected her like this, but then got his thoughts back on track. "Okay, try and make only your hand glow."

Ashleigh shook her head rapidly. "I don't wanna burn you."

"You won't," he grabbed a piece of broken glass from the upturned coffee table and held out his arm. "Look." He pressed the glass to his skin, ignoring the scared gasp from Ashleigh, and proceeded to slice it down his arm.

"Peter, what the hell?!" she nearly screamed but managed to control her voice, so not to attract attention to the where they were in case Executioners were around.

"Wait." He said calmly and led his eyes back to his arm. Ashleigh gasped again, when she saw the skin start to stitch itself back together. "I regenerate. It's one of the powers I picked up. I bet if I really focused, I could burn and glow too."

"That's so cool! The regeneration thingy, not the glowing." She smiled.

"Now, he sat beside her so their shoulders were touching and grasped her hand in his. "Try."

Ash nodded and took a deep breath, trying to focus all her energy onto her hand and making it glow. She glanced down at it, only to see that she'd managed to make her whole body shoot to one hundred and fifty degrees, not just her hand. She huffed in annoyance.

"Hey, you raised your temperature by choice. It's a start." Peter encouraged and nudged her shoulder with his.

She concentrated again. It seemed like forever, but soon enough, she felt an odd sensation. It was as though her arm was encased in hot water, but the rest of her body wasn't. She let out a proud laugh when she saw her arm glowing brightly. In another five minutes, she had her hand burning white-hot, illuminating the room and the loving smile on Peter's face. Peter looked down at their hands and closed his eyes for a moment. Ashleigh watched too, and frowned when Peter's hand slowly started to light up too.

"You did that so fast." She grumbled jealously. Peter could control her ability better than she could.

"I've had years of practise." He said with one of his cute lopsided smiles.

"When did you discover your power?" she asked, still staring at their intertwined hands that were glowing brightly.

Peter looked up thoughtfully. "About, five years ago." He started. "I kept having dreams that I was flying, but they felt so real. One day, I jumped off of a building, just to see if it would work. My brother, Nathan, found me, and we both flew. It was...amazing. He denied it, of course. It would've ruined his campaign, so he told the media it was just a suicide attempt."

"Wait, you're Peter Petrelli?" she gaped, although she felt stupid for only realising it now, and not when Sylar called him 'Petrelli' back in the alley.

Peter laughed and nodded. "I didn't know it then, but those dreams were actually powers I'd absorbed from my mother." Ashleigh nodded, just taking it all in. "So what about you? How'd you find out you had abilities?"

"Um, it was when I was fourteen. It was when I had my first kiss." Ashleigh was blushing deep red. "One second we were kissing, and the next, he was screaming. His lips were burnt and there were handprints burned into his shoulders. He didn't want to sound crazy and say I burnt him, so he passed it off as accidentally drinking boiling water, I don't know if anyone believed that, but no one could explain the handprints. My parents paid off his family to keep quiet about me, though. I never went out after that. I lived in complete solitude, apart from my parents. When I saw that girl on TV, the one that jumped off of the Ferris wheel, I was relieved that I wasn't the only 'different' person out there. When the Executioners started taking people, though, my parents kicked me out. They said it was for my safety, but I think it was because they really started to see how dangerous we Specials were. I mean, how could I be safer out there on my own?"

"Wow, you really went through a lot." Peter said, giving her hand a light squeeze.

"No more than the next Special." She shrugged.

"Well, you got by on your own for two years. That proves that you aren't useless." He smiled sweetly.

"Yeah, but if you didn't help me that day at the supermarket I would be god knows where. Probably being used as a guinea pig, locked up, or even dead. I'd been in that bathroom for a week; only sneaking out to grab food if I really needed it. The Executioners caught me but couldn't get near enough to me without burning. They were just leaving to get back-up when you found me. So thank you, I owe you my life."

"You're welcome." Peter smiled and his eyes locked with Ashleigh's. They stayed like that for a moment, before the crackling noise of a walkie-talkie interrupted their moment.

"Peter, Firefly? Can you hear me?" Sylar's voice rang through. Ashleigh picked up the other walkie-talkie and replied.

"Yeah we can hear you. What's wrong?" fear rose inside of her, hoping that he wasn't hurt.

"I nearly got caught. I had to run so I won't be back tonight. I'll meet up with you guys tomorrow. There's a cinema, it's past the corner store and to the left. Turn right and then left again and you'll be there, don't worry it's the same direction of Utopia. I'll be there."

Ashleigh put down the walkie-talkie and sighed. She had no idea finding Utopia would be this hard.