Discovery
Title: Discovery
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sylar/Mohinder though they are having separate adventures and now it' s Mohinder's turn.
Characters: Mohinder Suresh, Maya Herrera and Sylar as the lingering presence in the room.
Word Count: 2,110
Summary: From what Mohinder did in A loss of Control, he's now back at the loft and itchin to continue his latest research. He stumbles upon something that will change everything...and may cost a life or two in the process. It will also send him on a path eerily similar to that of the man he can't get out of his mind.
A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, rl issues with moving into a new apartment and all but I'm quite glad with how it turned out. I've never dreamed I'd be writing about Maya but hopefully I made her less of a pushover and more sadly persistent in her unwavering optimism to seek out the best in people. Much luv to my peeps iluvbsbkevinand mabetiniand uber thanks to anyone and everyone who's read and/or commented on the parts so far. Next Time: Sylar gets sent to do a favor and all Hell breaks loose at the facility when a disgruntled agent shows up and the sparks fly.
Disclaimer: I'm merely borrowing them Tim Kring/NBC own these ladies and gentlemen.
Part of my Season Three (with a lot more Mylar as it should be) promo-inspired series:
1. One Missed Call
2. Unfinished Business
3. A Loss of Control
4. For What's To Come
5. The Privilege of Power
After confronting his father's killer for what could be the last time, Mohinder did not return to his apartment. Instead, he rushed over to the loft that still served as his laboratory to continue his ongoing research project he started a week prior. Suresh also had a theory regarding Sylar's blood that would coincide with the work he'd been pursuing ever since the man came back into his life and brought Maya Herrera with him. She was a genetically fascinating specimen. Maya was unlike any other person with an ability that Mohinder had yet seen.
On the surface, her ability: the secretion of a deadly airborne toxin, held absolutely no positive benefit. But Suresh firmly held the belief that this woman wasn't given such an ability without there being some hidden use to it. So shortly after she started staying with him, Mohinder took a few different samples from the woman. He had Maya collect a sample of the substance that leaked from her tear ducts during a very controlled experiment Mohinder himself conducted.
Over the few days after her arrival, Mohinder tirelessly analyzed every sample. On the fourth day, he came upon a momentous breakthrough. One he was meaning to get back to but the detour over to the Hartsdale facility proved a momentary distraction. But now he could get back to work testing out the capability of a newly created serum. One he created from the extract of Maya's toxin sample. From everything Suresh calculated--this serum could do what he once thought was the impossible.
So the first thing he did upon returning to the loft was to get the sample out and test it. He'd never know what it could do unless it was properly tested with a human subject. Never wanting to put someone else through the potential side effects and also wanting to keep this little discovery away from the Company. God knows what they'd do with it if it did work. The only option he could think was to test it himself, damn the consequences. He took the sample and a sterile syringe and went outside onto the balcony of the loft.
For a moment, he hesitated on whether or not it would be wise to go through with this. But then he thought about the potential of this serum--that it could create people like Claire Bennet who would never know what it is to suffer from illness or injury. Slowly, he removed the plastic cap that enclosed the syringe's tip. After tapping any unwanted air bubbles away, he sets about unbuttoning the sleeve of his maroon and beige striped shirt at the wrist.
Once he rolled enough of the material up, he flexed his fingers a few times. Once a suitable enough vein popped, Mohinder inserted the sharp needle into his skin. It carefully tore its way through his flesh. He winced at the sensation then when it was deep enough inside of his arm, he brought his thumb down on the plunger. The silver thumb-ring catching a glint of light and flashing in his amber eyes. Mohinder gasped softly as he watched the serum disappear from the tube and into his veins. It felt strange for a few moments after...tingly. Mohinder wondered how he'd test it, then he thought that he could at least take a sample of his own blood to see if anything had changed within.
Quickly, he rushed back inside but in his excitement to see the results of his experiment--he tripped and his body started to head straight for the tall glass window. In that brief moment, adrenaline surged through his body as the man winced for what would surely be an excruciating impact. And he does fall...but not into glass. Mohinder hit the the ground, he's dazed for a moment and in that moment he doesn't realize that he's not bleeding. But when he does, Mohinder looks around and notes the lack of shattered glass shards as well. The full realization of what happened was helped by a glance over the shoulder to see that half of his body was on one side of the glass...while the rest was still inside.
He pulled the rest of his body through, the glass remaining intact. Suresh sat up on his knees and pressed his shaking hand to the glass...and watched bewildered as it seemed to phase right through.
"...my God..."
The door the loft creaked as it shut and an accented voice called out.
"Dr. Suresh? Mohinder...are you here?"
Mohinder scrambled back up to his feet, pulling his hand through the glass as he did so. He moved over to greet her, flashing a smile that was more for what he just accomplished than the presence of the woman. Maya set the blue crystal dish she was holding down on the counter.
Ever since she arrived in New York, Maya was staying with Mohinder. She was very grateful that he let her do so, not knowing another soul in the country. At least, not one who hadn't so completely torn the world she knew asunder. Often at night, Maya would either have dreams...or a nightmare. In her dreams, she would see her journey to America. But it would end so much better, with her beloved brother Alejandro by her side and getting to see the wonders of the country. Neither having met the tall, dark stranger who would take him from her forever. Who would go on to haunt her nightmares on other nights.
One day she accidentally discovered a thick manila folder shoved in the back of Mohinder's filing cabinet. And she learned so much more about the man called Sylar who traversed the country on a murderous rampage. Counting among his victims Molly Walker's parents and the father of Mohinder as well as over a dozen others. A man who from many of his kills gained fantastic and often lethal abilities...and always thirsted for more.
"I brought you this a couple of hours ago, but you were not here."
It was hard to resist the urge to ask where he'd been. Ever since Mohinder got the call that Sylar had been captured...she knew. He dropped everything in the middle of dinner with her at the apartment to drive down to Hartsdale. She could guess that due to the fact that he was slightly unshaven, and wore the same clothes he did when he left that he'd been there all night.
Mohinder blinked and glanced to the side of the woman. He muttered out his reply.
"Yes, they uh---they wanted to speak me about the phone-call Sylar made. The specifics of it. I told Noah Bennet but you know how it is with places like this. Have to repeat the same information to a never-ending cadre of people. Then I was going to speak with Bishop, but he wasn't there. Oh, sorry about dinner."
The last part of the statement was spoken like the true after-thought it was. Mohinder had so many important things on his mind that he couldn't be bothered by the woman's lingering feelings regarding an interrupted meal. But Maya chose to believe that Mohinder's story was true. Which was for the best as she smiled and lifted the lid off the dish...it was much better that she didn't know what he actually did the night before.
"It's nothing...I brought you the left-overs from last night."
Mohinder looked down at the leftover empanadas and forced a smile. He would never tell her but, for the most part, Mohinder just didn't like Mexican food. It didn't have the type of flavor that he craved.
"Ah, yes. Thank you Maya...I'll have some later. But first, there's something incredible that I've made a breakthrough on that you need to see."
She beamed with excitement at the geneticist. Had there finally been the answer she traveled all those hundreds of miles for?
"My sample...did you find something?"
When she asked, Maya stepped forward and placed her hand on Mohinder's arm. He glanced down at her hand and nodded.
"Yes, I always thought that this biological phenomenon was just the happenstance of natural selection. A completely random choosing of traits to be encouraged and passed on. Hard-wired into the DNA. But all DNA can be manipulated."
And with that he picked up the lid of the dish. Placing his hand through the glass. Phasing it through to about the wrist. Maya gasped and stepped back, her hands over her mouth.
"Dios mio! Mohinder, what are you doing?"
Mohinder pulled his hand back. A half-smile crept at the corner of his lips. He shrugged as he looked her right in the eye.
"Leveling the playing field. Think of of the possibilities-- every person on the planet could be given an advantage against the World's changing environment. People could become immune to the ravages of disease, the devastation of climate change, and even to death itself."
His excited tone served only to further twist up Maya's stomach. She took a step back from the man and replied.
"But...that is not what you were working on. What about me, my sickness? I thought you were going to help cure me Mohinder."
Mohinder knit his brow as he listened to the woman. Couldn't she see what fantastic news this was? He had to convince her how beneficial this could be.
"Maya, don't you see? This is all because of you, your gift. It can save countless lives. But there needs to be more research. The lack of availability of a sample would be detrimental to this research. I need you here...I need your help."
With that he took a step toward her again and gently cupped her jaw in his hand. All while he kept perfect eye-contact with the girl.
"Besides, a cure may not even be within the realm of possibility without causing you harm."
Her soft brown eyes stayed fixed on Mohinder's own. Initially, she wanted to tell him her ability was evil, that it had taken many innocent lives. But what could she do? Leave the only person she had in this country? No. Perhaps, if Mohinder was so certain that the essence of what she could create had the potential of saving lives, then this was still part of God's plan for her. Sacrifices must be made for others to prosper. Maya knew as a child of God that if she could contribute to something that could make the world a better place, then she must stay. She smiled knowingly at Mohinder.
"Yes, you are right Mohinder. I'm glad to see some benefit has been found in what has happened inside of me. Here-- let me go and heat this up for you."
Maya moved away from the geneticist's surprisingly cold hand and walked back over to the dish. She set the lid back on it and took it in the back of the room where a small kitchen area remained. Mohinder turned on his heel and moved over to his desk. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. While the woman busied herself he slipped a hand inside of his jacket, his fingers curled around the glass vial of Gabriel Gray's blood sample. Rolling it back and forth in the palm of his hand for a moment as his thoughts lingered to the man strapped to a concrete slab. Had they killed him by now or merely transferred the killer to a different facility? He made a point of it in his mind to find out tomorrow.
Mohinder unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and slid the tube inside, locking it up again after. With the narrowly-averted crisis concerning Maya, he thought it best to start working on Sylar's sample when she wasn't around. Perhaps the killer could end up contributing to instead of feeding off the research of others. Because what he just stumbled upon was the type of breakthrough that a scientist can spend his entire life working to find. Not to mention, a discovery that was entirely Mohinder's own.
But for now, he stood up after hearing the ding of the microwave in the other room. So that he could choke down the leftovers from last night and keep Maya placated. As much as he spouted off about changing and saving the world-- there was another reason Mohinder was determined to find out how far he could go with this discovery. He felt the biggest thrill of his life when his body phased through that glass. The rush of power, intoxicating. And assuming that the serum was both temporary and random without a stabilizer, Suresh wanted to know what other incredible abilities he could manifest with just one syringe.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Sylar/Mohinder though they are having separate adventures and now it' s Mohinder's turn.
Characters: Mohinder Suresh, Maya Herrera and Sylar as the lingering presence in the room.
Word Count: 2,110
Summary: From what Mohinder did in A loss of Control, he's now back at the loft and itchin to continue his latest research. He stumbles upon something that will change everything...and may cost a life or two in the process. It will also send him on a path eerily similar to that of the man he can't get out of his mind.
A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, rl issues with moving into a new apartment and all but I'm quite glad with how it turned out. I've never dreamed I'd be writing about Maya but hopefully I made her less of a pushover and more sadly persistent in her unwavering optimism to seek out the best in people. Much luv to my peeps iluvbsbkevinand mabetiniand uber thanks to anyone and everyone who's read and/or commented on the parts so far. Next Time: Sylar gets sent to do a favor and all Hell breaks loose at the facility when a disgruntled agent shows up and the sparks fly.
Disclaimer: I'm merely borrowing them Tim Kring/NBC own these ladies and gentlemen.
Part of my Season Three (with a lot more Mylar as it should be) promo-inspired series:
1. One Missed Call
2. Unfinished Business
3. A Loss of Control
4. For What's To Come
5. The Privilege of Power
After confronting his father's killer for what could be the last time, Mohinder did not return to his apartment. Instead, he rushed over to the loft that still served as his laboratory to continue his ongoing research project he started a week prior. Suresh also had a theory regarding Sylar's blood that would coincide with the work he'd been pursuing ever since the man came back into his life and brought Maya Herrera with him. She was a genetically fascinating specimen. Maya was unlike any other person with an ability that Mohinder had yet seen.
On the surface, her ability: the secretion of a deadly airborne toxin, held absolutely no positive benefit. But Suresh firmly held the belief that this woman wasn't given such an ability without there being some hidden use to it. So shortly after she started staying with him, Mohinder took a few different samples from the woman. He had Maya collect a sample of the substance that leaked from her tear ducts during a very controlled experiment Mohinder himself conducted.
Over the few days after her arrival, Mohinder tirelessly analyzed every sample. On the fourth day, he came upon a momentous breakthrough. One he was meaning to get back to but the detour over to the Hartsdale facility proved a momentary distraction. But now he could get back to work testing out the capability of a newly created serum. One he created from the extract of Maya's toxin sample. From everything Suresh calculated--this serum could do what he once thought was the impossible.
So the first thing he did upon returning to the loft was to get the sample out and test it. He'd never know what it could do unless it was properly tested with a human subject. Never wanting to put someone else through the potential side effects and also wanting to keep this little discovery away from the Company. God knows what they'd do with it if it did work. The only option he could think was to test it himself, damn the consequences. He took the sample and a sterile syringe and went outside onto the balcony of the loft.
For a moment, he hesitated on whether or not it would be wise to go through with this. But then he thought about the potential of this serum--that it could create people like Claire Bennet who would never know what it is to suffer from illness or injury. Slowly, he removed the plastic cap that enclosed the syringe's tip. After tapping any unwanted air bubbles away, he sets about unbuttoning the sleeve of his maroon and beige striped shirt at the wrist.
Once he rolled enough of the material up, he flexed his fingers a few times. Once a suitable enough vein popped, Mohinder inserted the sharp needle into his skin. It carefully tore its way through his flesh. He winced at the sensation then when it was deep enough inside of his arm, he brought his thumb down on the plunger. The silver thumb-ring catching a glint of light and flashing in his amber eyes. Mohinder gasped softly as he watched the serum disappear from the tube and into his veins. It felt strange for a few moments after...tingly. Mohinder wondered how he'd test it, then he thought that he could at least take a sample of his own blood to see if anything had changed within.
Quickly, he rushed back inside but in his excitement to see the results of his experiment--he tripped and his body started to head straight for the tall glass window. In that brief moment, adrenaline surged through his body as the man winced for what would surely be an excruciating impact. And he does fall...but not into glass. Mohinder hit the the ground, he's dazed for a moment and in that moment he doesn't realize that he's not bleeding. But when he does, Mohinder looks around and notes the lack of shattered glass shards as well. The full realization of what happened was helped by a glance over the shoulder to see that half of his body was on one side of the glass...while the rest was still inside.
He pulled the rest of his body through, the glass remaining intact. Suresh sat up on his knees and pressed his shaking hand to the glass...and watched bewildered as it seemed to phase right through.
"...my God..."
The door the loft creaked as it shut and an accented voice called out.
"Dr. Suresh? Mohinder...are you here?"
Mohinder scrambled back up to his feet, pulling his hand through the glass as he did so. He moved over to greet her, flashing a smile that was more for what he just accomplished than the presence of the woman. Maya set the blue crystal dish she was holding down on the counter.
Ever since she arrived in New York, Maya was staying with Mohinder. She was very grateful that he let her do so, not knowing another soul in the country. At least, not one who hadn't so completely torn the world she knew asunder. Often at night, Maya would either have dreams...or a nightmare. In her dreams, she would see her journey to America. But it would end so much better, with her beloved brother Alejandro by her side and getting to see the wonders of the country. Neither having met the tall, dark stranger who would take him from her forever. Who would go on to haunt her nightmares on other nights.
One day she accidentally discovered a thick manila folder shoved in the back of Mohinder's filing cabinet. And she learned so much more about the man called Sylar who traversed the country on a murderous rampage. Counting among his victims Molly Walker's parents and the father of Mohinder as well as over a dozen others. A man who from many of his kills gained fantastic and often lethal abilities...and always thirsted for more.
"I brought you this a couple of hours ago, but you were not here."
It was hard to resist the urge to ask where he'd been. Ever since Mohinder got the call that Sylar had been captured...she knew. He dropped everything in the middle of dinner with her at the apartment to drive down to Hartsdale. She could guess that due to the fact that he was slightly unshaven, and wore the same clothes he did when he left that he'd been there all night.
Mohinder blinked and glanced to the side of the woman. He muttered out his reply.
"Yes, they uh---they wanted to speak me about the phone-call Sylar made. The specifics of it. I told Noah Bennet but you know how it is with places like this. Have to repeat the same information to a never-ending cadre of people. Then I was going to speak with Bishop, but he wasn't there. Oh, sorry about dinner."
The last part of the statement was spoken like the true after-thought it was. Mohinder had so many important things on his mind that he couldn't be bothered by the woman's lingering feelings regarding an interrupted meal. But Maya chose to believe that Mohinder's story was true. Which was for the best as she smiled and lifted the lid off the dish...it was much better that she didn't know what he actually did the night before.
"It's nothing...I brought you the left-overs from last night."
Mohinder looked down at the leftover empanadas and forced a smile. He would never tell her but, for the most part, Mohinder just didn't like Mexican food. It didn't have the type of flavor that he craved.
"Ah, yes. Thank you Maya...I'll have some later. But first, there's something incredible that I've made a breakthrough on that you need to see."
She beamed with excitement at the geneticist. Had there finally been the answer she traveled all those hundreds of miles for?
"My sample...did you find something?"
When she asked, Maya stepped forward and placed her hand on Mohinder's arm. He glanced down at her hand and nodded.
"Yes, I always thought that this biological phenomenon was just the happenstance of natural selection. A completely random choosing of traits to be encouraged and passed on. Hard-wired into the DNA. But all DNA can be manipulated."
And with that he picked up the lid of the dish. Placing his hand through the glass. Phasing it through to about the wrist. Maya gasped and stepped back, her hands over her mouth.
"Dios mio! Mohinder, what are you doing?"
Mohinder pulled his hand back. A half-smile crept at the corner of his lips. He shrugged as he looked her right in the eye.
"Leveling the playing field. Think of of the possibilities-- every person on the planet could be given an advantage against the World's changing environment. People could become immune to the ravages of disease, the devastation of climate change, and even to death itself."
His excited tone served only to further twist up Maya's stomach. She took a step back from the man and replied.
"But...that is not what you were working on. What about me, my sickness? I thought you were going to help cure me Mohinder."
Mohinder knit his brow as he listened to the woman. Couldn't she see what fantastic news this was? He had to convince her how beneficial this could be.
"Maya, don't you see? This is all because of you, your gift. It can save countless lives. But there needs to be more research. The lack of availability of a sample would be detrimental to this research. I need you here...I need your help."
With that he took a step toward her again and gently cupped her jaw in his hand. All while he kept perfect eye-contact with the girl.
"Besides, a cure may not even be within the realm of possibility without causing you harm."
Her soft brown eyes stayed fixed on Mohinder's own. Initially, she wanted to tell him her ability was evil, that it had taken many innocent lives. But what could she do? Leave the only person she had in this country? No. Perhaps, if Mohinder was so certain that the essence of what she could create had the potential of saving lives, then this was still part of God's plan for her. Sacrifices must be made for others to prosper. Maya knew as a child of God that if she could contribute to something that could make the world a better place, then she must stay. She smiled knowingly at Mohinder.
"Yes, you are right Mohinder. I'm glad to see some benefit has been found in what has happened inside of me. Here-- let me go and heat this up for you."
Maya moved away from the geneticist's surprisingly cold hand and walked back over to the dish. She set the lid back on it and took it in the back of the room where a small kitchen area remained. Mohinder turned on his heel and moved over to his desk. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. While the woman busied herself he slipped a hand inside of his jacket, his fingers curled around the glass vial of Gabriel Gray's blood sample. Rolling it back and forth in the palm of his hand for a moment as his thoughts lingered to the man strapped to a concrete slab. Had they killed him by now or merely transferred the killer to a different facility? He made a point of it in his mind to find out tomorrow.
Mohinder unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk and slid the tube inside, locking it up again after. With the narrowly-averted crisis concerning Maya, he thought it best to start working on Sylar's sample when she wasn't around. Perhaps the killer could end up contributing to instead of feeding off the research of others. Because what he just stumbled upon was the type of breakthrough that a scientist can spend his entire life working to find. Not to mention, a discovery that was entirely Mohinder's own.
But for now, he stood up after hearing the ding of the microwave in the other room. So that he could choke down the leftovers from last night and keep Maya placated. As much as he spouted off about changing and saving the world-- there was another reason Mohinder was determined to find out how far he could go with this discovery. He felt the biggest thrill of his life when his body phased through that glass. The rush of power, intoxicating. And assuming that the serum was both temporary and random without a stabilizer, Suresh wanted to know what other incredible abilities he could manifest with just one syringe.