ladyfirestarter | (no subject)

"The other ... this might make even less sense," she says, half to herself.

"Do you believe there's a center to the world?"

"You don't mean a physical center, do you."

He taps his fingers against his mug, considering. "I'm not sure. I've seen more than one world. I don't know that I ever saw a single center to any of them."

"Someday," she says with quiet certainty, "someday I'll take you to see the Rose. The other thing we protect."

". . . It's a rose."

His eyes are alight again.

"Someone told me once -- roses have the most purifying flame of all."

(and the fire and the rose are one)

"You could look at it that way," she says softly.

"All Heaven with its power," he murmurs, leaning back.

"Those are heavy tasks."

Charlie nods calmly.

"There's a lot of us helping to bear them. Lot of good people."

"Here in 2007." A grin. "Good. I'm glad."

Charlie takes another long sip of cocoa.

"It's like," she starts, and then tries again. "Have you ever done something that you look back on later and say to yourself, I must be an okay person, if I did something like that?"

"I think I know what you mean."

She nods.

And her smile fades a little, to something more sober. "I didn't want to ask before, with the other kids around..."

He sobers in response, eyebrows lifting. "What is it?"

"And if you don't want to talk about it, we won't, but --

"What happened with this guy Sylar?"

"Ah."

Frowning, he leans back. "He sounded -- he -- echoed. I think that's the only way I can say it. I could hear him -- sensing something? Seeing something?" He shakes his head. "He ticked."

A beat; another.

"I told him I was staying in Milliways by choice, because the alternatives might be worse, and he was furious."

Charlie frowns. Well, she's been frowning slightly since Charles said the word echoed, but it deepens.

"Furious how?"

"He called it imprisonment. And he came towards me -- physically, I mean."

He brushes his hair out of his eyes. "He asked who's hunting me."

"Furious ... on your behalf, then?"

Perceptive, Charles said before, but not sympathetic.

"No." Slowly -- "More that I would -- give up freedom. That I'd stay at a crossroads. Or maybe that anyone would."

She sits back. "Huh."

A pause, and then very gently: "What did you answer him?"

He smiles slightly.

"I told him the truth. Nothing."

"...By which you mean," she says slowly, "something other than what it sounds like you said."

A beat.

"And the more I think about that, the more disturbing it starts to sound."

"It's whistling in the dark," he replies, quiet. "It just happens to be true, as well. That's what they do,

(a rip in the galaxy)

they X. Annihilate."

Annihilate. It's the word he used before, when he spoke briefly about who had attacked him and what they would have done. The Enemy, he said. An Echthros.

"What are they?" she asks, low and intent.

"Fallen angels."

There's a flash of memory, deja vu, but it's gone before he can hold it.

"Demons," she hazards.