Fic
Fic: All That's Left of Yesterday.
Rating: PG-13 ish.
Characters/Pairings: Peter/Sylar, Noah Bennett, Angela Petrelli, Matt Parkman, Sophia Collings, random others.
Summary: It's now or never for Peter and Gabriel to get away from it all.
Warnings: Unbeta'd. Also, just so you know, there's character death and sadness. I was told there should be a disclaimer for that, so here you go.
Notes: Okay guys, last part. I'm sorry if you guys find this a little weird or out of character. I wanted to try something different, so please, read this keeping that in mind. I hope you like it!
SUPER NOTE: Can I just say, please don't kill me? I mean, I'm sorry in advance but man, I HAD TO. OKAY? (If you haven't read this yet, please ignore it until you have.)
Totally random but this whole series is 17,000 words long. Holy christ!
Like most days since Peter rescued him from his own mental prison, Gabriel Gray woke up, put clothes on, and drank some hot tea. However, unlike most days, Gabriel was expecting fully to find either one of two outcomes for him at the end of the day: Living with Peter, happily ever after; or dead, finally. He was not entirely sure, with any amount of certainty, which one he would find, but he knew exactly which one he wanted.
They decide to walk to the new Company's headquarters, if only to give them some more time together, since utter exhaustion, both emotional and physical, caused them to sleep through the night. For a long time, as they wander through the outskirts of the town in which they had stayed the night, neither of them says anything, until finally, Peter turns to Gabriel with a determined look in his eye.
"I need you to promise me something."
His tone doesn't sound promising, but Gabriel nods so that the other man will continue.
"Promise me that your first priority will be saving my mother, and anyone other innocent person there." He takes a deep breath, hazel eyes wandering up skyward as he prepares to say his next piece. "And also, don't...if I die, promise me you won't try and bring me back."
This time he moves his gaze to catch Gabriel's, and Peter looks completely serious, and at the same time, a little heartbroken.
"Peter," Gabriel is saying, but Peter shushes him.
"I've lived a good life. I've tried to help as many people as I can, and use the gifts I've been given. Sure, I've made mistakes, but who hasn't?" He smiles, lips pressed together firmly and eyes crinkled in the corners. "Promise me."
What seems like an eternity passes as they stare at each other, fighting an internal battle, until finally Gabriel nods, even though it's killing him.
"I promise, Peter."
They walk some more before, all too soon, they arrive at their destination. The sun is just barely coming up on the horizon and the golden light is casting a gorgeous sheen across Peter's features. For a minute, Gabriel can't help but just stare in awe, but then he remembers what they were there for. He turns his full attention to the building in front of them, already mentally calculating how many people were in there and what they were planning on doing.
Peter holds out a hand, and by reflex, Gabriel takes it, waiting as Peter takes one of his powers. He hasn't gotten used to the sensation yet, and he's not sure he ever will.
"Telekinesis?" he guesses, and Peter nods.
After a quick circle around the building, they stop in front of the entrance, prompting Gabriel to ask, "What now?"
Shrugging, Peter starts to walk to the front door, and carefully, opens the door and goes inside. Gabriel follows closely behind, and together, they stand in the lobby. Just like they suspected, Noah Bennett and a few other agents were standing there, all armed except for Noah.
"Hello boys," he smiles, and Gabriel has to fight the urge to roll his eyes at the condescension in the other man's tone.
"Where's my mom?" Peter asks. No need to sugar coat it, really.
Noah motions in a vaguely upward motion.
"She's upstairs. Shall we?"
Begrudgingly, they let themselves be manhandled to the elevator and up to the top floor, which Peter vaguely recalls is the one they were holding him on earlier. A slight shiver goes down his spine, and he relaxes when Gabriel gently touches his shoulder to calm him down, a gesture Peter is used to giving, not receiving, but it's appreciated none the less.
They're brought to one of the interrogation rooms, where Angela is sitting calmly at the table, a glass of water next to her.
Not knowing what to say, Peter says the first thing that comes to mind.
"Hi, Ma," he waves, and she smiles.
"Good morning, Peter." She glances at Gabriel and frowns.
"I would say it's nice to see you again, but we both know that would be a lie."
He smiles in a way that could almost be called patronizing.
"Mama Petrelli, how are you?"
She reaches for her glass and takes a drink.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer," she replies, setting the glass back down.
Noah glances towards one of the agents standing guard, and before Gabriel can say anything, Peter is roughly grabbed by two agents, both of them brandishing weapons. Another one walks over to Angela and does the same.
Sighing, Noah turns to Gabriel.
"Now, we can do this the easy way, and you can surrender without a fight, Or," he pauses to remove a pistol from where it was tucked into his belt, "You can try and fight us." Motioning towards the others in the room, he adds, "And I can guarantee you won't like that result. Remember, Gabriel, not everyone heals like you can."
Gabriel's eyes shift over to Peter's, and he's met with a steely gaze that almost screams, Do it.
He looks back at Noah.
"So let's say I do surrender, what exactly will happen after that?"
Noah fingers the side of his gun absentmindedly.
"Peter and Angela would be set free to do whatever it is they want, and you'll be taken care of."
"You mean you're going to kill me."
Noah doesn't need to say yes for Gabriel to know that is exactly what they plan on doing. He tries not to let the uncertainty show on his face as he adds, "And make it stick this time, I hope. It really is a pain trying to regenerate half of your body."
A quick gleam through Peter's thoughts and Gabriel knows Peter is both relieved and afraid, and he tries to send some calm emotions his way, even though telepathy was never his strong suit.
"Hmm, well," Noah shrugs, "Claire tells me that I could cut off your head and that would make it stick. I tend to believe my own daughter."
"Fair enough."
He's about to hold up his hands, give himself over, when Peter interrupts.
"Can I say goodbye to him?"
Everyone's face whips around to stare at the youngest Petrelli, whose eyes are shining with unshed tears.
Noah glances at Angela, and she nods once.
"Five minutes," Noah says, and adds, "And don't try anything."
The agent holding Angela leads her from the room to wait outside, while the ones holding on to Peter let go to stand by the door. Noah catches Peter's eye, mouthing, "I'm sorry," before heading out the door.
Once they're relatively alone, Gabriel pulls Peter into an embrace.
What are you doing? Peter is thinking at him, and Gabriel squeezes.
Think about it, Pete, he replies, This is the only way you and your mom will get out of this alive.
Peter pulls away, hands reaching up to cup the other man's face, and he stares up into dark eyes, feeling just a little lost.
"I never thought I'd say this," he whispers, "But I don't think I can do this without you."
Gabriel shushes him, bringing their foreheads together.
"You managed fine before I came along Peter, and even then. You're strong."
He kisses the shorter man's forehead, pulling away to whisper, "I love you."
A tear slides down Peter's cheek and he whispers back, "I love you too."
They kiss and Peter presses in desperately, like a man deprived of air, before a voice interrupts them and they pull apart.
"It's time."
Sophia Collings is looking just a little bit too amused and excited for Peter's liking, and he makes sure to glare in her direction.
Several heavily armed agents walk in, tugging Peter out of the room and guarding Gabriel.
Peter and Angela are taken downstairs, where they are put inside a car filled with agents. The car leaves for a destination unknown.
Meanwhile, Gabriel is taken to a cell, where Sophia stands over him with a weird, almost sadistic glee.
"It was so touching watching you say goodbye to him," she muses, holding what appears to be a very large hunting knife in her hand. "If you were anyone else I would pity you, but since you're not, I'm actually kind of amused."
He clenches his fist and ignores the ticking in his head, telling him to kill her painfully and slowly.
"Anyway, it's going to take a while for us to prepare for your, shall we say, demise, and we also want to make sure we can get your beloved far enough away that he won't try anything stupid." She holds up the knife.
"And since our friend The Haitian can't be trusted anymore, we're going to have to use some more...primitive measures to keep you contained."
Gabriel eyes the knife skeptically.
"What, you don't use those heavy grade sedatives anymore?"
Sophia smiles.
"Oh, we do."
Then she raises the knife and plunges it straight through Gabriel's forehead, not stopping until it's in to the hilt.
Satisfied, she turns to the guards standing at the doorway.
"If he gets up, stab him again."
She leaves, humming a merry tune.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter glares at Angela the entire car ride away from the Company building.
"You could at least pretend you're happy I'm alive," Angela sighs, fingering the edge of her coat, and Peter scoffs.
"You could at least pretend you're not ecstatic that the man I love is being executed right now."
"Please, Peter, you'll-"
"Don't. Just don't."
There's more silence and Peter glances out the window.
"This is wrong, Ma. You know it is."
She reaches across to rub her hand soothingly against his, but not looking up to make eye contact.
"In the end, Peter, I think you'll find that sometimes, sacrifices need to be made."
For ten minutes, there is silence, and Angela thinks that Peter has dropped the matter until glances at the two agents sitting in the seats in front of them.
"I'm not just going to sit by, Ma. You know I can't."
Before she can reply, he reaches into his coat and pulls out a tire iron he had hidden earlier. Leaning forward, he smashes it into the driver's head and the passenger in quick succession. The car swerves off the road and bangs into a fence on the side of the road.
He ignores Angela's cries of protest as he gets out of the car, pulls the unconscious agents out, and ties them to one of the fence posts. He smashes their cell phones and takes their weapons, tucking one into the back of his jeans and the other into his coat.
"I'm sorry, Ma," is all he says before he starts to walk in the direction they came, adding over his shoulder, "And don't even think about calling them about this."
He disappears down the road and Angela sighs and sits back, trying to decide what to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is nothing but absolute fucking darkness. There is nothing to see, feel, think or hear where Gabriel is. He's dead. That's all there is to it. Although the fact that he's thinking these thoughts would maybe say otherwise. Regardless, nothing is happening, only vague, very vague electrical impulses dancing in his brain.
If he had the consciousness to do it, he would wonder if this was what hell was like, his punishment, but since he doesn't, he can't.
In what seems like a cliche moment, something inside of him snaps and he is violently brought back to life, heaving and sputtering, his whole body shaking as he bolts upright, holding a hand to his chest.
Standing in front of him, holding the hunting knife that used to be lodged into his brain, is Noah Bennett.
For a long time, Gabriel stares.
"I don't understand," he says at last.
Noah smiles and pulls a handkerchief from seemingly nowhere, using it to wipe the blood off of the knife.
"One day I came home from work," he says, tone calm and clinical, "And you weren't there. I fell asleep on the bed. When I woke up a few hours later, you had laid down next to me, but we were both sideways, and you were upside down."
A small smile begins to form on his face, but he doesn't make any movement to change.
"You woke up when I laughed, and we went back to sleep. The next morning, I woke up, and you were holding my hand."
Gabriel actually smiles and laughs out loud.
"Jesus, Peter. For a minute I was worried you weren't going to come back for me."
Peter winks and holds out a bloodied tissue.
"Ms. Collings had a bloody nose earlier and I swiped this for her DNA. Care to be someone else for a while?"
Gabriel takes the tissue and smiles, before morphing into the dream walker. Together, they leave the cell.
"What's your plan?" Gabriel whispers, and Peter shrugs.
"Get out of here? Without being noticed?"
They think their plan is going pretty well until they pass by an agent, who smiles at them, and a few seconds later, he turns back around with a confused, "Hey..."
Swearing under his breath, Peter pulls the pistol he had stolen from out of his coat pocket, holding it in front of him.
"Turn around!"
The agent is holding his gun in front of him, looking back and forth between two new impostors. He looks a little frightened, and Gabriel decides he must be new.
"I just saw you two downstairs, there is no way you beat me up here!"
"Now, James," Gabriel soothes, holding up both hands and reading the man's mind for answers, "We took the stairs, and you took the elevator. It's entirely possible."
James is not convinced.
"They said you have tricks, that you can convince me," he says, and Gabriel sighs.
"Look at me."
James does.
"You will continue on like you did not see anything. You will go check on the prisoner's cell and he will be there, just like he was before. Understand?"
James' eyes seem glazed over and he nods, turning and walking away like the encounter didn't happen.
Peter nods in Gabriel's direction and they continue walking, taking the stairs to avoid suspicion.
A quick swipe of some of their surroundings and they're able to copy the DNA of some random agents, so that they can blend in more and be less conspicuous.
They make it out of the building with relatively no incidents, and Peter motions towards the security panel by the front doors.
"You have Micah's power, right?"
Gabriel shakes his head yes.
"Use it to set the building on lockdown. No one will be able to get out until they can override it, and by then, we'll be gone."
The taller man lifts up a hand and does so, and soon, the building hums to life as protective metal shades slide down over the doors, windows, and air vents.
Peter smiles, shifting back to his normal form, and Gabriel follows suit.
"Let's get out of here," he says, linking his hand with Gabriel so he can take flight. The tell-tale spark passes between them, and Peter's about to jump into the sky when they hear a loud "Not so fast!" behind them.
They both whirl around, lightening already sparking in Gabriel's palms.
Sophia Collings is holding what appears to be a large caliber gun. Before they can do anything, she fires two shots, one of which hits Peter in the shoulder, and the other of which hits Gabriel square in the forehead.
Peter swears as the other man's body falls, knowing it'll take a minute before he regenerates and gets back up. Clutching his shoulder with one hand while holding the gun he had stolen with the other, he glares at the woman standing in front of him.
"Why are you doing this?"
She shrugs, smiling a wicked smile.
"Because he's a murderer. Because you're the idiot who fell in love with him. Honestly, who cares anymore? I couldn't care less about the two of you."
She cocks the gun and holds it up straight at Peter.
"Drop the gun."
He stares her down for a minute before tossing it aside. She motions with her free hand.
"And the other one."
He throws that one away, too.
"Good." Sophia takes a step forward, a predatory gleam on her face not unlike the one that Gabriel used to wear when he was Sylar.
With a dull thunk the bullet is pushed from Gabriel's head, but before he can sit back up Sophia aims and shoots him again.
"God, he keeps coming back, doesn't he?" she muses, and sighs. "I'm going to kill you, Peter Petrelli, and your stupid lover over there, because I can."
She moves to stand in front of Peter, holding the gun almost against his forehead.
"Say goodbye," she taunts, and gets ready to pull the trigger. Peter stares her down, not letting himself be intimidated in his last few seconds, when suddenly, there's a loud noise and warm blood is spraying on his face.
He looks in surprise as Sophia's body falls to the ground and Noah Bennett is standing behind her, gun still raised as smoke pours from the barrel.
"Goodbye," he says, and Peter almost laughs at the absurdity of the whole thing.
"Thanks," he says, at last, and it's then he goes over to Gabriel and pulls his head into his lap, waiting for him to open his eyes again. Noah walks over to Sophia, kicking the gun in her hand away, and sighs. Quietly, Peter almost can make out him muttering, "I never did like her," but he's not sure. Noah turns to the other man.
"Aren't you glad I wasn't in there when you put it on lockdown?" he asks, motioning towards the building, and Peter smiles, leaning down to stroke at the unconscious man's hair.
In a few seconds, the other bullet is pushed from his head and he opens his eyes, popping up just a little with the sudden rush of life coming through him.
He takes one look at Peter and almost freaks out.
"I'm fine," Peter explains, motioning towards the fallen woman with his eyes.
He helps Gabriel stand and Noah hands Peter a handkerchief to wipe the blood off of his face with.
"Can you call my mom for me?" he asks, and Noah pulls his phone from his pocket and walks to the side to make the call, although Peter suspects it's more to give them privacy than anything.
Gabriel slides his hands together with Peter's.
"So now where to, Pete?"
Peter smiles and reaches up to push back some errant strand of hair that has dislodged himself from the taller man's coif.
"Anywhere but here." He frowns at the copious amounts of blood that were now staining both of their clothes.
"I know you said you weren't going to hurt anyone ever again, but you could have at least stopped them from shooting you so many times."
Gabriel shrugs.
"I was kind of more focused on making sure you didn't get hurt. Speaking of which," he gently begins to inspect Peter's arm and sighs.
"Does it hurt?" he asks, and Peter shakes his head.
"Yeah, but I've had worse. We can get it fixed up."
Peter wraps his non-injured arm around Gabriel's neck, and looks up at him with big eyes.
"Let's get out of h-" he's saying, except he gets cut off when two loud noises erupt in the air and Gabriel realizes with abject horror that Peter was slumping forward into his arms and he looks over and Sophia had crawled over and grabbed her gun while they were talking, and Gabriel's way too frozen to do anything before she raises her gun to take one last shot but suddenly there's an explosion of blood coming from her head and she falls back down, dead and Noah is standing there, smoke pouring from his gun and then he's helping Gabriel put Peter down on to the ground and taking his jacket off to use as a pillow and the whole time Peter isn't moving.
Noah is swearing under his breath and Gabriel knows deep down, he just knows that something is wrong here but it's not until he sees the blood pooling from the shot that exited from his temple and the one that hit his back that the tears start to form in his eyes.
"Peter," he says, voice cracking, shaking the form in his arms lightly, but already Peter's eyes are glazing over as he stares off at nothing, mouth slightly agape, and Peter is too still, too pale, and Gabriel can't help the sobs that are starting to wrack his body.
"Jesus, Peter, don't leave me, please," he begs, but Peter is gone, he can feel it inside of him, and he pulls Peter into his arms and cries and cries, and vaguely he knows Noah is patting his back and trying to comfort him, but he knows, fuck, he knows nothing is going to be okay after this.
"You could give him your blood," Noah suggests, softly, and Gabriel lifts his head up and gently slides his hand across Peter's face, closing his eyes.
"He made me promise I wouldn't," he whispers back, and cradles Peter in his arms.
After several minutes of silence, where Gabriel mourns and Noah stares at nothing, Gabriel looks up.
"I can't live like this, Noah. Not without him." He gently lays Peter down on the ground, using Noah's jacket for a pillow like before. "Please," he pleads, and Noah knows, without the other man saying it, what he means.
"I can't-" Noah begins, but the look on Gabriel's face makes him stop before he finishes the sentence.
"Are you sure this is what you want?"
Gabriel nods, covering Peter's hands with his own.
"Yes. I'm not afraid."
Noah takes his gun from where he left it, but he doesn't make a move right away.
"If I make it stick, you'll be dead for good. You'll never come back. Why would you want that?"
Gabriel's eyes are suddenly dark, and sad, and empty and Noah's not sure what is the best thing to do. But all the same, he looks Noah straight in the eye and replies, "It feels like a part of my soul has been ripped away, and it stings. I know it won't get better. It never will."
At first, Noah seems to understand, but then, all of a sudden, a weird grin begins to spread across his face as he holds his gun to Gabriel's forehead.
"Good," he says, "Now you know how it feels."
A single shot rings out, and the world goes black.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere in the middle of the countryside in Canada, Matt Parkman stands next to a wooden box. He holds a shovel in one hand and a cell phone in the other.
"Are you ready?" a voice is asking him on the other side, and he nods, even though the caller can't see it.
"I'm ready to bury it now. Are you sure this is what you want, Angela?"
The elder Petrelli sighs and Matt doesn't even need his ability to hear the heartbreak in her voice.
"Matthew, that monster murdered one of my sons and caused my other one to be killed. He deserves this."
Her tone causes a part of Matt to cringe, as he remembers all too well the funeral a few weeks ago. Peter had been a good friend of his, until he ruined his plan to trap Sylar in his mind forever.
Luckily, in some roundabout way, Peter's death brought on the opportunity for him to force Sylar back into his own head, into a nightmare that would play over and over again for as long as Sylar would live (which, provided the apocalypse didn't come soon, would be forever). Although instead of leaving him in a world where everyone else was dead, he left him in a world where his Peter would die over and over again his arms, so he could feel the heartbreak on repeat for the rest of his measly existence. Adding the actual way that Peter died as a dream and making himself a hero in this nightmare was actually very clever, if Matt did say so himself, although he didn't expect the dreaming man to ever realize this.
What Matt wanted the most, though, was for him to understand exactly the heartbreak he forced on hundreds of people whose loved ones he murdered in cold blood. Including Angela Petrelli, now missing her husband and both her sons.
He turns his attention back to the woman on the phone.
"We could just kill him for real, Angela. Burn him like the shapeshifter. Then we don't have to go through all this." Vaguely, he motions towards the box in front of him and the large hole next to him.
"That's the easy way out. I want that...monster to relive his tragedy over and over again, so he can understand how much it hurt me when he took my sons away from me."
Although he can hear the venom in the older woman's voice, he's not quite convinced. Switching the phone to his other ear, he muses, "I think the real reason is the same reason you wanted me to turn him into Nathan. You know a part of Peter is still trapped inside Sylar's mind from when he went inside it to rescue him and it would kill you for it to die, wouldn't it?"
There's no answer and Matt knows he's won. He eyes the moon shining nearby and sighs.
"So what does the new company have to say about this? Does Bennett know?"
Angela's tone seems faraway, but she concedes, "They know but they don't care. As long as Sylar is taken care of they could care less who did it or how. Besides, I'm sure Noah is more than happy that the man who keeps harassing his daughter is gone."
Matt nods and takes one last look at the sky before picking the shovel back up with one hand.
"I'm going to finish the job now, Angela, but I'm going to leave a special marker. You'll know what it will look like because you'll dream it. If you change your mind...you know what to do."
There isn't even a half second pause before she's interrupting, "I won't change my mind. Goodbye, Parkman."
She hangs up and Matt sighs, slipping his phone back into his jacket. It takes some shoving, but he manages to push the box into the hole he dug, then slowly starts to pile dirt on top of it. Once everything is soothed away so it's not suspicious, he picks up a small rock from his pocket and buries it lightly into the ground over the spot he just covered up.
Without so much a look back, he leaves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two hundred years later, in a forest somewhere in North America, a man is sleeping, dreaming of sunshine and heartbreak and the man he loves.