(no subject)
Title: Mirror Image (Part 1)
Characters/Pairings: Sylar, Zach, Sendhil
Rated: PG
Word Count: 3,051
Spoilers/Warnings: Up to Season 2.
Notes: My muse wanted me to write more RPF. I'm very sorry, heh.
Summary: Sylar finds a way to break on through to the other side.. into the real world. He wreaks havoc while Zach goes emo.
As soon as Zachary entered the dressing room, the figure in the mirror was waiting for him. It looked like him, sounded like him but every so often it would move in a completely incongruent way. The first time he saw it, after watching Ali finish one of her Jessica scenes, he figured his mind was just playing tricks on him. They'd been out late, not wrapping up the scene until four in the morning.
That was the first time his mirror self failed to conform to his actions, the raise of an eyebrow just slightly out of place. It continued throughout the past two weeks, making Zach worry he was losing his mind. The person in the mirror hadn't started speaking to him until three days ago, growing more insistent at every meeting.
“I fought Gabriel and he lost. I wormed my way through his subconscious, until he was cowering in the corner of our mind and he nothing more than a forgotten whisper.” His mirror-image spoke, making Zachary turn away. There was something altogether creepy about having a conversation with your own image and he refused to participate. “Do you really think I won't get out of here?”
Zachary ignored the pounding on the mirror, his other self trying to break through and focused his attention on the new script he'd just received. Or at least he tried to. His breathing caught in his chest though, while he fought the urge to look back at the mirror. He wasn't going insane, he wasn't and if he didn't listen to the figment of his imagination maybe it would just go away.
“Don't ignore me!”
Glass shattered throughout the dressing room, pieces flying into Zachary, nearly cutting him. The man stood, fearing the worst as his attention returned to the mirror. It was cracked, pieces broken and missing. And another man, one who could have been his twin, slowly stepped out of his prison behind the glass.
“Sylar,” Zachary rolled the name around in his mouth, realizing how crazy it all seemed. This couldn't be happening. He looked down at the cup of coffee in his hand, wondering if it had been spiked. Before he could look up again, he felt himself being propelled across the room, thrown into the wall by unseen hands. He crumbled to the floor, raising his head slightly as he watched the other man go through his things.
“Who else would it be?” Sylar spoke, as he ripped the dorky glasses from his face that his counterpart usually wore. “First I have to deal with Gabriel and his sweater vests.. and now stripes! Why can't my counterparts learn to dress themselves?” He went through the small wardrobe that filled Zach's dressing room, before finding the coat. The one Zach wore during most of the last few episodes of the first season. Slipping it on, he shot a pitying smile to Zach, who still had not been able to get up from where Sylar threw him. “Whoever does costuming for your show, thank her for me.”
Zach watched in bewilderment as Sylar left his dressing room. Then he began pushing himself off the floor, rising to his feet while still feeling the overall ache that been chucked like nothing more than a rag doll produced. This was crazy. Sylar wasn't real. People didn't just come out of mirrors and walk around.
Hearing a scream coming from down the hallway, Zach had little time to ponder over which mental illness he might have developed. He shot out of his dressing room, knowing the voice too well. When he finally got out to where the scream was coming from, he stopped short, not knowing what to do when a fictional character had your co-star pinned against the wall.
“Zachary, stop it. You're hurting me,” The Latina woman said to Sylar, unaware that she was talking to someone else entirely. He held her against the wall, whispering something Zach couldn't hear into her ear. They were too far away for Zach to do much of anything; he doubted Sylar would let him get any closer. “Please stop it.”
“Dania!” Zach shouted from down the hall, causing her to turn and look at him with wide eyes. He shook his head while still wary about approaching the fray. “That's not me.”
“Zachary!” She shouted, completely confused. Then, glancing back at the man who held her, her mouth gapped open, unable to bring herself to say the name. Apparently, she thought this whole situation was as crazy as Zach did and suddenly it was all the more dangerous. “Sy-sylar? Oh dios mio.”
Sylar grabbed her by the arm, twisting until she was in front of him and he was holding both of her wrists behind her. Pointing what he thought was a deadly weapon straight at Zach, he spoke his command. “Cry for me, Maya. Come on.. llora tu”
Dania raised her eyebrows, struggling against her assailant's grip and finally met Zach's gaze. They were both at a loss for what to do, never having even imagined this a possibility they would come across in their work together. Zach took a step forward, unable to keep himself from stepping in again, causing Sylar to react.
Under the power of telekinesis, Zach sailed backwards again, landing on his ass a few feet away. He saw Dania start to cry, real tears coming from her eyes which caught Sylar by surprise. If that bastard hurt her..
Sylar was too busy studying the clear tears, brushing them away with his hand, to hurt Dania. This was not the girl he knew, even though she wore the same face. “That's okay,” he said, throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman's grip. “I'll teach you how to use your powers again. I'll teach you how to control them, how to use them for my benefit.”
“Dania! No!” Zach shouted, climbing to his feet right before getting shoved into the wall once more by Sylar. This time, he hit the wall hard, blacking out before he could be of any use to his friend.
Police flooded the studio that morning. Zach couldn't get away from them, or their multitude of questions. At the moment, he sat occupying one of the lounge chairs in the break room, starring up at the ceiling. It was the first reprieve he'd had in the last few hours. Those around the studio all saw the same thing, a man matching his description carrying Dania, breaking into a car and speeding away. He worried less about being the number one suspect and any jail time that might result and more about whether Dania was okay.
“Hey, Zach,” Milo greeted him as he entered the break room. It was empty save for the two of them. “Are you okay? I heard about what happened-- you didn't.. did you?”
Zach blinked at him, taken back by the other man even questioning him like this. They'd been co-stars for one and a half seasons now, they hung out at the same parties, went to the same premieres. “You don't really think that I would hurt Dania, do you? The police already cleared me, my alibi checks out--”
Milo raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, I believe you.. but you have to admit that the other story is a little far fetched.” He sat across from Zach, in the other sofa chair and seemed to ponder how best to broach the subject. He bit his lip and then started, “They say that Sylar was the one behind it. The real Sylar-- or well, the real in the completely fictional sense of the word.”
Zach shook his head, starring down at his hands. “Milo, I can't explain it. I just-- I've been seeing, this person in the mirror.. who looks like me but isn't..” He couldn't even bring himself to look at Milo. If the police didn't lock him up, someone was bound to bring him down to the nearest mental health facility, a nice maximum-security loony bin where he could grow old amongst the other crazies. “Sylar's been trying to break into this world for two weeks now. He finally got through.”
“Shit. And you didn't think to tell anyone about this?”
“And what would I have said?” Zach sighed. “I thought I was going nuts.”
Milo nodded. “I guess I can understand that, but the next time your serial killer other half decides to climb out of his world and into this one, could you please tell someone before he kidnaps one of your friends?” He tried to add a little humor to the moment, to lighten the mood. The studio had gotten awfully somber since Dania's disappearance. When he realized he wouldn't be able to get a smile out of Zach, he asked, “So, what do we do now?”
“Sit here. Wait. Let the police handle things and pray that when they meet up with this telepathic advanced human from an alternate universe they know how to deal with him.” Zach's held all the impatience of a child and about as much faith in the police as an atheist did in a higher power. “Kring wants to do a read-through of the new script today. The show must go on after all.”
The first read-through of a script was usually an easy going part of the week. The cast came in, read through their lines and worked the last remaining kinks out of the script. In between, they'd make jokes or tease one another about their parts. Grunny was forever commenting on how very Sylindar the scripts were becoming or how Peter was so emo he shit teardrops.
There was no joking today.
Instead, there was an anxiety that plagued everyone in the room, as they whispered of police reports and security measures. At the beginning of the meeting, to clear things up and get down to business, Kring offered a few words for the actress. They'd find her, he said, the police were doing all they could. They just had to be patient and comply with the authorities. It was out of their hands.
As they began running lines, Zach only half-listened to the script being read as watched the others in the room. Maybe he was imagining things but he felt a distance growing between him and the rest of the cast. The way they eyed him nervously when they thought he wasn't looking. The way they seemed to be inching away as time progressed.
Adair was sitting in the back of the room, pushing her chair back as far into the corner as she could get, while her fingers interlaced with Grunny's. She was scared; looking to her favorite adult for safety. When their eyes met, Zach could tell what she was afraid of. Him.
He sighed inwardly; it wasn't his fault he shared the same face as the bogeyman. As his first scene in the episode came up, Zach sadly read the lines for Dania as Kring spoke them. There was no one else to read for her today, on such short notice. No offense to Kring but no one pulled off Maya as well as Dania could.
Sylar's line came up and he could only stare at his script. His mouth didn't seem to want to work. Looking back up at the room filled with his friends, Zach felt even more lost and alone. They were waiting on him, tension filling each passing second as he didn't respond.
“Zach, are you okay?” Grunny asked, always there for his friends even if he didn't know how to help here. Zach watched as Adair tightened her grasp on his hand.
His eyes fell back to the script, the place where it said 'SYLAR: I'm going to kill you, Maya. I'm going to reach into your brain and steal that precious power of yours.'. It was too close to home. “No. I'm not okay. I can't--” he stood up, running a shaking hand through his hair, “I'm sorry-- I can't do this right now.”
Backing out of the room, Zach tried to ignore his castmates, their wide eyes and calls to return. He needed space, he needed.. to strangle his doppleganger and show Sylar that he couldn't mess with his friends without getting hurt in the process.
He stormed down the hall, halting as he watched a uniformed police officer go by. No, he couldn't fall apart right here. Any action of violence would just get written down in one of their notepads and used as evidence against him. Nevertheless, he couldn't stop from kicking a metal folding chair that was standing in the hallway, finding the sound of it crashing to the floor quite satisfactory.
“I came to see how you were doing, but considering the way you just toppled that chair, I think I have my answer.” Sendhil's gentle voice announced his presence, shaking Zach from his mood. “You might want to handle this alone but you should know that the rest of us feel the same. We all miss her, Zach.”
“You don't know what it's like, Sendhil. That psycho is out there, walking around with my face, doing god only knows what to Dania,” He pointed off to the distance, beyond the studio wherever Sylar may have been. If only someone knew where that was or how to get there without drawing attention from the serial killer. Zach sighed, all hope seemingly draining out of him. He leaned up against the wall, a deep frown falling across his face. “And meanwhile everyone here is petrified to even talk to me. You guys are my friends, my second family.. and everyone thinks I'm guilty.”
“That's not it.” Sendhil crossed his arms, steadfastly refusing to give in to that train of thought.
“Then what is it? Why won't anyone even look me in the eye anymore?”
“We just don't know what to say, Zach. We know this is hard for you, but trust me, no one in there thinks you're guilty. We think we all may be losing it and Grunny believes we may all be experiencing a LSD flashback, but no, we're behind you here.” He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, shaking his head with conviction. “We know you couldn't possibly do something like this. You're not that type of person.”
Zach was quiet for a moment, one worry gone from his mind. There were still others, each clambering for the spot the last one left behind. His voice became quieter, slower. “But what if I am that type of person, Sendhil? You know, that's what I've been thinking all day. Where do I pull these scenes from.. the motivation behind them.. what if Sylar is just my darker half, the side that no one gets to see. What if the only thing separating me from him is the fact that I haven't gone that far off the deep end yet? And what if I someday I go down that path.. if things were just slightly different, that could be me.”
Sendhil grabbed Zach's shoulders, stopping the boy in mid-rant. “We all have darker sides, Zach. Things we don't want others to see, things we'd be terrified to let out.. but don't you see? That's what makes us better than our other halves. We know how to maintain control and not give in to those actions.”
“Sendhil you are totally my new Yoda.” Zach couldn't keep from laughing and sharing a smile with the other man. The pep talk did wonders to bring him down to earth and slowly dissipate the worry he was holding inside. Then a thought occurred to him, which led to an idea. Not a good idea, not a very safe idea, but an idea that could possibly stop him from becoming completely useless in the midst of all this police activity. “There may be something good about being so close to Sylar. I know him more than most others; I've studied him.”
Sendhil was almost afraid to ask. “What are you getting at, Zach?”
“I could find him,” Zach nodded, formulating the plan in his head. “I know where he would go. I know what defenses he would use, what tricks.. I could take him down.”
“You're no match against his superpowers.” Sendhil was once again looking at him like he had lost his mind. It was a crazy idea, but the situation called for it. “You'd get yourself killed.”
“Bah! What's a bunch of superpowers when I have something he doesn't?”
“And that would be?”
“Friends.” Zach smiled up at him, getting that I'm-a-puppy-dog-give-me-a-scooby-snack look on his face, the one he always used to guilt people into going along with his schemes. “Come on, Sendhil, you know you want to take down a superpowered serial killer with me. It would be a story to tell at conventions.. and Adrian could get it all on film! YouTube would eat this up. What do you say?”
Sendhil was about to refuse and knock Zach out to keep him from going alone. He had no time to reply however, as Masi came closer down the hallway towards the two of them. “If you're sure you want to do this, if you really want to take him down, I know a place where you can train. You shouldn't go into this fight without knowing your strengths and how to use them.”
Zach cocked his head to the side, wondering what had gotten into his friend. There was something different in the tone of his voice, a more determined edge to his stance. Gone was the geeky tech and sci-fi fan, in his place was the badass from Five Years Gone. “Masi?”
“In one universe, people call me that.” The Asian nodded, betraying the secret he had sworn to protect years ago. “In my other life, I am known as Hiro Nakamura. I was the first to cross over the boundary between our worlds. I never knew Sylar would follow in my footsteps. This conversation does not leave this hallway, understood?”
Both Sendhil and Zach gapped at him, slack jawed. Then, simultaneous, they spoke. “Holy crap.”
...to be continued...
Characters/Pairings: Sylar, Zach, Sendhil
Rated: PG
Word Count: 3,051
Spoilers/Warnings: Up to Season 2.
Notes: My muse wanted me to write more RPF. I'm very sorry, heh.
Summary: Sylar finds a way to break on through to the other side.. into the real world. He wreaks havoc while Zach goes emo.
As soon as Zachary entered the dressing room, the figure in the mirror was waiting for him. It looked like him, sounded like him but every so often it would move in a completely incongruent way. The first time he saw it, after watching Ali finish one of her Jessica scenes, he figured his mind was just playing tricks on him. They'd been out late, not wrapping up the scene until four in the morning.
That was the first time his mirror self failed to conform to his actions, the raise of an eyebrow just slightly out of place. It continued throughout the past two weeks, making Zach worry he was losing his mind. The person in the mirror hadn't started speaking to him until three days ago, growing more insistent at every meeting.
“I fought Gabriel and he lost. I wormed my way through his subconscious, until he was cowering in the corner of our mind and he nothing more than a forgotten whisper.” His mirror-image spoke, making Zachary turn away. There was something altogether creepy about having a conversation with your own image and he refused to participate. “Do you really think I won't get out of here?”
Zachary ignored the pounding on the mirror, his other self trying to break through and focused his attention on the new script he'd just received. Or at least he tried to. His breathing caught in his chest though, while he fought the urge to look back at the mirror. He wasn't going insane, he wasn't and if he didn't listen to the figment of his imagination maybe it would just go away.
“Don't ignore me!”
Glass shattered throughout the dressing room, pieces flying into Zachary, nearly cutting him. The man stood, fearing the worst as his attention returned to the mirror. It was cracked, pieces broken and missing. And another man, one who could have been his twin, slowly stepped out of his prison behind the glass.
“Sylar,” Zachary rolled the name around in his mouth, realizing how crazy it all seemed. This couldn't be happening. He looked down at the cup of coffee in his hand, wondering if it had been spiked. Before he could look up again, he felt himself being propelled across the room, thrown into the wall by unseen hands. He crumbled to the floor, raising his head slightly as he watched the other man go through his things.
“Who else would it be?” Sylar spoke, as he ripped the dorky glasses from his face that his counterpart usually wore. “First I have to deal with Gabriel and his sweater vests.. and now stripes! Why can't my counterparts learn to dress themselves?” He went through the small wardrobe that filled Zach's dressing room, before finding the coat. The one Zach wore during most of the last few episodes of the first season. Slipping it on, he shot a pitying smile to Zach, who still had not been able to get up from where Sylar threw him. “Whoever does costuming for your show, thank her for me.”
Zach watched in bewilderment as Sylar left his dressing room. Then he began pushing himself off the floor, rising to his feet while still feeling the overall ache that been chucked like nothing more than a rag doll produced. This was crazy. Sylar wasn't real. People didn't just come out of mirrors and walk around.
Hearing a scream coming from down the hallway, Zach had little time to ponder over which mental illness he might have developed. He shot out of his dressing room, knowing the voice too well. When he finally got out to where the scream was coming from, he stopped short, not knowing what to do when a fictional character had your co-star pinned against the wall.
“Zachary, stop it. You're hurting me,” The Latina woman said to Sylar, unaware that she was talking to someone else entirely. He held her against the wall, whispering something Zach couldn't hear into her ear. They were too far away for Zach to do much of anything; he doubted Sylar would let him get any closer. “Please stop it.”
“Dania!” Zach shouted from down the hall, causing her to turn and look at him with wide eyes. He shook his head while still wary about approaching the fray. “That's not me.”
“Zachary!” She shouted, completely confused. Then, glancing back at the man who held her, her mouth gapped open, unable to bring herself to say the name. Apparently, she thought this whole situation was as crazy as Zach did and suddenly it was all the more dangerous. “Sy-sylar? Oh dios mio.”
Sylar grabbed her by the arm, twisting until she was in front of him and he was holding both of her wrists behind her. Pointing what he thought was a deadly weapon straight at Zach, he spoke his command. “Cry for me, Maya. Come on.. llora tu”
Dania raised her eyebrows, struggling against her assailant's grip and finally met Zach's gaze. They were both at a loss for what to do, never having even imagined this a possibility they would come across in their work together. Zach took a step forward, unable to keep himself from stepping in again, causing Sylar to react.
Under the power of telekinesis, Zach sailed backwards again, landing on his ass a few feet away. He saw Dania start to cry, real tears coming from her eyes which caught Sylar by surprise. If that bastard hurt her..
Sylar was too busy studying the clear tears, brushing them away with his hand, to hurt Dania. This was not the girl he knew, even though she wore the same face. “That's okay,” he said, throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman's grip. “I'll teach you how to use your powers again. I'll teach you how to control them, how to use them for my benefit.”
“Dania! No!” Zach shouted, climbing to his feet right before getting shoved into the wall once more by Sylar. This time, he hit the wall hard, blacking out before he could be of any use to his friend.
Police flooded the studio that morning. Zach couldn't get away from them, or their multitude of questions. At the moment, he sat occupying one of the lounge chairs in the break room, starring up at the ceiling. It was the first reprieve he'd had in the last few hours. Those around the studio all saw the same thing, a man matching his description carrying Dania, breaking into a car and speeding away. He worried less about being the number one suspect and any jail time that might result and more about whether Dania was okay.
“Hey, Zach,” Milo greeted him as he entered the break room. It was empty save for the two of them. “Are you okay? I heard about what happened-- you didn't.. did you?”
Zach blinked at him, taken back by the other man even questioning him like this. They'd been co-stars for one and a half seasons now, they hung out at the same parties, went to the same premieres. “You don't really think that I would hurt Dania, do you? The police already cleared me, my alibi checks out--”
Milo raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, I believe you.. but you have to admit that the other story is a little far fetched.” He sat across from Zach, in the other sofa chair and seemed to ponder how best to broach the subject. He bit his lip and then started, “They say that Sylar was the one behind it. The real Sylar-- or well, the real in the completely fictional sense of the word.”
Zach shook his head, starring down at his hands. “Milo, I can't explain it. I just-- I've been seeing, this person in the mirror.. who looks like me but isn't..” He couldn't even bring himself to look at Milo. If the police didn't lock him up, someone was bound to bring him down to the nearest mental health facility, a nice maximum-security loony bin where he could grow old amongst the other crazies. “Sylar's been trying to break into this world for two weeks now. He finally got through.”
“Shit. And you didn't think to tell anyone about this?”
“And what would I have said?” Zach sighed. “I thought I was going nuts.”
Milo nodded. “I guess I can understand that, but the next time your serial killer other half decides to climb out of his world and into this one, could you please tell someone before he kidnaps one of your friends?” He tried to add a little humor to the moment, to lighten the mood. The studio had gotten awfully somber since Dania's disappearance. When he realized he wouldn't be able to get a smile out of Zach, he asked, “So, what do we do now?”
“Sit here. Wait. Let the police handle things and pray that when they meet up with this telepathic advanced human from an alternate universe they know how to deal with him.” Zach's held all the impatience of a child and about as much faith in the police as an atheist did in a higher power. “Kring wants to do a read-through of the new script today. The show must go on after all.”
The first read-through of a script was usually an easy going part of the week. The cast came in, read through their lines and worked the last remaining kinks out of the script. In between, they'd make jokes or tease one another about their parts. Grunny was forever commenting on how very Sylindar the scripts were becoming or how Peter was so emo he shit teardrops.
There was no joking today.
Instead, there was an anxiety that plagued everyone in the room, as they whispered of police reports and security measures. At the beginning of the meeting, to clear things up and get down to business, Kring offered a few words for the actress. They'd find her, he said, the police were doing all they could. They just had to be patient and comply with the authorities. It was out of their hands.
As they began running lines, Zach only half-listened to the script being read as watched the others in the room. Maybe he was imagining things but he felt a distance growing between him and the rest of the cast. The way they eyed him nervously when they thought he wasn't looking. The way they seemed to be inching away as time progressed.
Adair was sitting in the back of the room, pushing her chair back as far into the corner as she could get, while her fingers interlaced with Grunny's. She was scared; looking to her favorite adult for safety. When their eyes met, Zach could tell what she was afraid of. Him.
He sighed inwardly; it wasn't his fault he shared the same face as the bogeyman. As his first scene in the episode came up, Zach sadly read the lines for Dania as Kring spoke them. There was no one else to read for her today, on such short notice. No offense to Kring but no one pulled off Maya as well as Dania could.
Sylar's line came up and he could only stare at his script. His mouth didn't seem to want to work. Looking back up at the room filled with his friends, Zach felt even more lost and alone. They were waiting on him, tension filling each passing second as he didn't respond.
“Zach, are you okay?” Grunny asked, always there for his friends even if he didn't know how to help here. Zach watched as Adair tightened her grasp on his hand.
His eyes fell back to the script, the place where it said 'SYLAR: I'm going to kill you, Maya. I'm going to reach into your brain and steal that precious power of yours.'. It was too close to home. “No. I'm not okay. I can't--” he stood up, running a shaking hand through his hair, “I'm sorry-- I can't do this right now.”
Backing out of the room, Zach tried to ignore his castmates, their wide eyes and calls to return. He needed space, he needed.. to strangle his doppleganger and show Sylar that he couldn't mess with his friends without getting hurt in the process.
He stormed down the hall, halting as he watched a uniformed police officer go by. No, he couldn't fall apart right here. Any action of violence would just get written down in one of their notepads and used as evidence against him. Nevertheless, he couldn't stop from kicking a metal folding chair that was standing in the hallway, finding the sound of it crashing to the floor quite satisfactory.
“I came to see how you were doing, but considering the way you just toppled that chair, I think I have my answer.” Sendhil's gentle voice announced his presence, shaking Zach from his mood. “You might want to handle this alone but you should know that the rest of us feel the same. We all miss her, Zach.”
“You don't know what it's like, Sendhil. That psycho is out there, walking around with my face, doing god only knows what to Dania,” He pointed off to the distance, beyond the studio wherever Sylar may have been. If only someone knew where that was or how to get there without drawing attention from the serial killer. Zach sighed, all hope seemingly draining out of him. He leaned up against the wall, a deep frown falling across his face. “And meanwhile everyone here is petrified to even talk to me. You guys are my friends, my second family.. and everyone thinks I'm guilty.”
“That's not it.” Sendhil crossed his arms, steadfastly refusing to give in to that train of thought.
“Then what is it? Why won't anyone even look me in the eye anymore?”
“We just don't know what to say, Zach. We know this is hard for you, but trust me, no one in there thinks you're guilty. We think we all may be losing it and Grunny believes we may all be experiencing a LSD flashback, but no, we're behind you here.” He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, shaking his head with conviction. “We know you couldn't possibly do something like this. You're not that type of person.”
Zach was quiet for a moment, one worry gone from his mind. There were still others, each clambering for the spot the last one left behind. His voice became quieter, slower. “But what if I am that type of person, Sendhil? You know, that's what I've been thinking all day. Where do I pull these scenes from.. the motivation behind them.. what if Sylar is just my darker half, the side that no one gets to see. What if the only thing separating me from him is the fact that I haven't gone that far off the deep end yet? And what if I someday I go down that path.. if things were just slightly different, that could be me.”
Sendhil grabbed Zach's shoulders, stopping the boy in mid-rant. “We all have darker sides, Zach. Things we don't want others to see, things we'd be terrified to let out.. but don't you see? That's what makes us better than our other halves. We know how to maintain control and not give in to those actions.”
“Sendhil you are totally my new Yoda.” Zach couldn't keep from laughing and sharing a smile with the other man. The pep talk did wonders to bring him down to earth and slowly dissipate the worry he was holding inside. Then a thought occurred to him, which led to an idea. Not a good idea, not a very safe idea, but an idea that could possibly stop him from becoming completely useless in the midst of all this police activity. “There may be something good about being so close to Sylar. I know him more than most others; I've studied him.”
Sendhil was almost afraid to ask. “What are you getting at, Zach?”
“I could find him,” Zach nodded, formulating the plan in his head. “I know where he would go. I know what defenses he would use, what tricks.. I could take him down.”
“You're no match against his superpowers.” Sendhil was once again looking at him like he had lost his mind. It was a crazy idea, but the situation called for it. “You'd get yourself killed.”
“Bah! What's a bunch of superpowers when I have something he doesn't?”
“And that would be?”
“Friends.” Zach smiled up at him, getting that I'm-a-puppy-dog-give-me-a-scooby-snack look on his face, the one he always used to guilt people into going along with his schemes. “Come on, Sendhil, you know you want to take down a superpowered serial killer with me. It would be a story to tell at conventions.. and Adrian could get it all on film! YouTube would eat this up. What do you say?”
Sendhil was about to refuse and knock Zach out to keep him from going alone. He had no time to reply however, as Masi came closer down the hallway towards the two of them. “If you're sure you want to do this, if you really want to take him down, I know a place where you can train. You shouldn't go into this fight without knowing your strengths and how to use them.”
Zach cocked his head to the side, wondering what had gotten into his friend. There was something different in the tone of his voice, a more determined edge to his stance. Gone was the geeky tech and sci-fi fan, in his place was the badass from Five Years Gone. “Masi?”
“In one universe, people call me that.” The Asian nodded, betraying the secret he had sworn to protect years ago. “In my other life, I am known as Hiro Nakamura. I was the first to cross over the boundary between our worlds. I never knew Sylar would follow in my footsteps. This conversation does not leave this hallway, understood?”
Both Sendhil and Zach gapped at him, slack jawed. Then, simultaneous, they spoke. “Holy crap.”
...to be continued...