Umm ... this was roughly finished in like five seconds. More fics this week is unlikely.
Title: What They Know
Rating: Um ... how about R for Sylar's thoughts to be safe?
Genre: Angsty seriousness. I got rather psychological with this one.
Warnings: If you haven’t watched all of Season 1 of Heroes, you shouldn’t be here, you should be at nbc.com catching up!
Disclaimer: Uh … obviously I don’t own Heroes, because if I did, I’d have Mylar making out on screen instead of in slash fics or my twisted mind …
Summary: Serious, deep thoughts by various characters concerning Sylar and Gabriel and Mylar.
My Thoughts: Took way too long to finish this one, but I rather like it. This was the first time I used the Haitian, and I discovered he's fun to write (used him a lot after starting this.) Also, the title was almost ‘Revelations.’ If this is jumpy, I was lazy. If there’s enough of an outcry, I’ll rewrite it … someday …
Sylar knows that he can easily break Mohinder, bend the beautiful Indian man until he snaps. He knows that it would take time; that it would be fun, a guilty pleasure, and that the end result would be almost too good to be true: Mohinder his, unquestionably, unwaveringly, perfect …
But Sylar also knows that then Mohinder would have lost the very thing that he is drawn to: the bizarre and at times galling way the geneticist resists. Even when the man is backed into a corner, knows that he is utterly powerless against Sylar, he fights tooth and nail.
Sylar knows that Mohinder will never truly be his because of this feistiness, but Sylar is also willing to let that slide.
~*~
The Haitian knows many things, most of which he shall never divulge to anyone else. His name is one of these things. Eventually, another person from Haiti will be ‘special’ and he shall have to choose another identification, but for now, ‘The Haitian’ will suffice.
The Haitian is wise enough now to know that there are no absolutes, ‘white and black,’ at least, none that come easily. ‘Good’ and ‘evil’ are one and the same most of the time, hardly indistinguishable, and only deep meditation and squinting from every conceivable angle will give you the answer, though not necessarily the one you’re looking for. Lives and hopes and dreams and bloody acts pile up; body counts tip the scale back and forth.
He knows that Noah Bennet was ‘evil’ once, but now he is ‘good.’
The Company was evil in a different way before it was demolished.
It took some time, but he now knows that Sylar is evil, and the Haitian knows that he must be stopped.
*
The Haitian knows that his ability is powerful, and knows that he must keep from turning down the path that Sylar, Sarah Ellis, and Linderman did. Sarah was brought back, and now Sylar will be too. It was too late for Linderman - but justice was not served. If Linderman had lived a thousand lifetimes of torment, it would not have been enough.
The Haitian knows that even monsters sleep: that’s how a knight can slay a dragon, but the Haitian knows that he is not a killer. He knows that even demons deserve a second chance, and it’s not up to him to decide who lives and who dies. The world is not a just place: people who try to do help others die alone and penniless, people who steal and scheme and leech of other people’s lives to gain more, triumph in courts as corrupt as themselves.
The Haitian knows that people look different in their sleep, which is why the Japanese man follows the Bushido code, which forbids destroying an opponent while, among other instances, they are sleeping. While they are asleep, you see their true face. If you kill them then, you are the coldest, most hate-filled creature in the world. To live a life like that is not worth living.
The Haitian cannot comprehend how this young, handsome man could have committed such atrocities. But then, not everyone can have a livid scar, an eye patch, or a flowing black cape.
The Haitian knows that his touch is so light that as he places a hand over Sylar’s eyes, the dragon will not awake. He will not jolt out of his peaceful rest as his memories are drained away.
The Haitian absorbes them all, every little detail, so now he knows many, many things. Terrible things, beautiful things ...
A woman praying over dinner in a dingy apartment ... muffled cries of anger and pain from behind a locked bedroom door ... being taunted on the playground; having no friends ... a funeral without tears for Wallace Gray ... a clumsy first kiss with Mariah Smith, the red-head from Algebra ... the tick of Chandra Suresh's watch as he enters the shop ... a bloody crystal in hand; Brian Davis' brain ... smashing a glass 'by accident' ... persistent phone-calls ... murder ... fleeing the FBI ... toppling off of a wall with a strange man in a tan coat ... a sterile cell; a man with horn-rimmed glasses ... MY NAME IS SYLAR ... a fluffy dog who licks shoelaces and doesn't care about all the people you killed ... Zane Taylor ... long car rides with Chandra Suresh's son, Mohinder ... a feverish, desperate night in a sketchy motel with Mohinder ... migraines ... drugged tea; a gun; taunting; PAIN ... stopping a bullet; throwing words back at the terrified man; shoving Mohinder down onto the desk ... Peter Petrelli ... Isaac Mendez ... your mother: DEAD ... watching Mohinder go off with a gray-haired man: jealousy? ... setting the FBI onto Ted Sprauge; taking Sprauge's power and experimenting with it ... painting; painting a shadowy figure towering over you in Japan; painting Mohinder dead at your feet; painting Mohinder pinned between you and the wall ... being hit again and again by Peter Petrelli ... pain as you're stabbed by a little Japanese man with a sword ... someone drags you into the sewer ... biding you time; healing in the muck ... searching for more 'special' people; you want to find Mohinder ... hiding in an abandoned apartment and falling to sleep ...
*
The Haitian knows his work is done.
~*~
Noah Bennet knows that this man before him - sedated and unconscious once more on a cell floor - is no longer Sylar, though he looks exactly like Sylar. He knows that this man’s mind has been wiped, that he doesn’t even remember what horrors he committed.
But he knows what Sylar is capable of. He has seen pictures, and met people, and heard accounts. No matter what anyone says, Noah knows that Sylar needs to die.
But Noah also knows that he’s not a barbarian. He has to maintain a certain degree of organization. He knows he can’t just take this matter into his own hands, he has to put it to a vote.
He knows he's not morally gray anymore.
~*~
Mohinder knows that Sylar killed his father, Dale, the real Zane, Molly’s parents, Hiro’s waitress, a girl mistaken for Claire, Eden, Peter (who came back, but still), Ted, Isaac Mendez, and so many more. He knows that Sylar tortured him - remembers it vividly, the memories still have him waking up at night in a cold sweat, screaming.
But he also knows that Sylar loved him.
Now, staring at this forlorn, crumpled man, lying on a cold floor, even the most graphic of murder scenes can’t summon up the blinding fury and hatred that once came so easily.
Mohinder knows that the others will be in favor of executing this man, regardless of reason or moral-codes. Mohinder has seen the gleam of resentment in even Hiro’s eyes, and he knows that it is too late.
He knows, as he raises his single voice in defiance of the mob, that he won’t be able to win this battle.
But he also knows he won’t loose without a fight.
~*~
Gabriel doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s confused and lost in a sea of hatred. Why did that man in the glasses glare at him so? And that blond woman … she’d practically become someone else when he’d passed her in the hallway.
Gabriel doesn’t know why Mohinder takes care of him, leads him along like a dog, ignores the obvious resentment of his ‘friends’ around him. Gabriel doesn’t know why Mohinder alone smiles warmly at him, never rages at him, never sneers or whispers mangled threats.
But Gabriel does know that Mohinder loves him, and that’s all that matters.