Breaking Point: Contrition
Title: Breaking Point: Contrition
Rating: R for violence, language, grisly descriptions, and mentions of a character death.
Word Count: 4,351
Parings for the series: Mohinder/Sylar, Mohinder/Peter, implied one-sided Luke/Sylar
Characters in this chapter: Sylar, Nathan Petrelli, Mohinder Suresh, Peter Petrelli, Luke Campbell, Matt Parkman, Angela Petrelli, mentions of Daphne Millbrook
Warnings: Some violence, some subtext. So you know the usual. Spoilers for Volume 4 but this is my take on what I've been given to work with.
Summary: AU but very closely linked to the events of Volume 4. It's been approximately two years from the current show's time-lime during the present segments and much has changed. The secret is out, specials are being hunted, Nathan is the president, and a terrible event has set Sylar onto a path that will end in a collision course with his older brother's ambitions. If only Sylar could remember what he did before the plane crash that changed everything.
A/N: So much love to my betas and fantastic collaborators: iluvbsbkevin and takhallus . Sylar is a half-Petrelli in this. Some events are like what's going in the show's current canon but I'm taking liberties. This chapter shows how Nathan manipulated his way into power so quickly and what he allowed to happen in order to do it. Sylar and Luke lash out against Nathan on a much grander scale than ever before and Nathan is forced to seek out help.
Next Time: The plan to lure in and trap Sylar is laid out as well as why Sylar can't remember working for his older half-brother in the first place.
Disclaimer: Don't own Heroes, I'd love to but sadly it's not mine.
Previous Chapters:
Protege
Chance Encounters
What It Takes
Collision
This wasn’t the first bare room with white walls that Matt Parkman had occupied. Interrogation rooms look the same any police station you go to. The D.C. department isn’t any different than the NYPD or the LAPD rooms-all are made to look intimidating and sparse. The idea is for a suspect to be unnerved by the lack of comfort, of stimulation for the senses-they’ll give up and tell you everything you want to know. They lose the control that the person who walks in with their gun securely strapped to their hip clearly holds. But ever since he came home to find her blond hair nestled over closed eyes as blood pooled lazily around her fallen body-Matt hadn’t felt in control of a damn thing. He was stopping off for lunch at the apartment as he always does and he knew something was wrong right away when the door was half-open. All of his training and natural intuition churned his stomach with each step he made until he could push the door open and see her laying there-Daphne Millbrook had been brutally murdered.
For what felt like hours but he knew was only twenty, or thirty minutes tops-Matt sat there and replayed the events again and again in his head. How could this have happened…who was responsible…it wasn’t Sylar for once. He’d perished in the fire that burned down the Company’s Hartsdale facility, and there had been no reports of ‘ritualistic’ killings ever since. He sighed and rested his head in his hands, muttering that he was sorry over and over again until the door opened. He found now uniformed trooper or detective in a natty suit-no it was a pricey Armani suit instead that he scanned over until his eyes met the face of Senator Nathan Petrelli.
“…What are you doing here? How did you even know where I wa-“
“I heard about Daphne. Matt, I am so sorry…she seemed like a very sweet girl. You’re not being charged with anything, I contacted the D.A’s office and with the new information they’ve just received, they know you had nothing do with it.” Nathan walked over and sat in the lone chair opposite Matt, leaning forward to place his hand on his shoulder. Parkman furrowed his brow and felt his confusion mount once more.
“What do you mean…did they…did they find the son of a bitch who did this to her?” Such pain laced through the intonation of every syllable he spoke. He was already thinking of the plethora of acts he would like to commit against whoever ripped his current chance at happiness away from him. And with the ability that Parkman possessed, he could make each and every horrible idea come true with a single thought.
“Yes, and you don’t need to worry about it because they got him. But you need to listen to me Matt…it was someone like us. A very dangerous man who used his power to hurt a completely innocent person for no reason other than it gave him a thrill to do it. Now, the President is starting to employ certain tactics and special teams to find the most dangerous ones-it’s how he got caught, but it’s not enough. No one will listen to me about how dangerous these people can be; they think it’s perfectly alright to lock them away. But you and I know that some people need to be put down.”
Matt stood up suddenly, the chair he was in knocked back in one swift motion. His hands slammed flat onto the metal tabletop, Nathan leaned back as he stayed seated.
“Of course they do! What happened to Daphne shouldn’t have happened, ever! How could they think that it’s enough to lock up the ones like Sylar? Why can’t you convince them they need to, Nathan? You’re supposed to be able to help keep us safe with your seat in the Senate…why-“He slowly slumped back down into his seat, tears threatened to drip down his cheeks as he shook to keep them contained.
“-Why her? She was so…we were making a life together-trying to… I thought I was done with all of this.” Nathan glanced down, nodding in his best put-on of a friend who understood the conflict of living a normal life while having these abilities. Of knowing that it’s not possible to hide, or ignore the World the abilities bring one into. His mind was working, he was keeping up beat for beat with what notes of sympathy to play so that he could breach the offer he would explain to Matt at the best possible time. This had to be it.
“It shouldn’t have Matt, but that doesn’t change the fact that it did. It’s time that we all stop trying to avoid the problems that come with having these powers. Now, I’ve had to realize that the only way to make my life, and the lives of the people I care about safe, is to remain in the thick of it. I have to take threats head-on because if I don’t then who will? It’s why I did whatever I could to become involved in these operations-in the new legislature that’s being written up. But only so many people will listen to a junior Senator from New York, Matt. I need…to get more people on our side. You can help me do that, and we can both make sure that no one else gets hurt except for the people who abuse what they can do to hurt others-people like the ‘Sylar’s of the World.”
Nathan thought about how arguably the worst special in existence was actually his half-brother. When he found out he didn’t know quite how to handle it, but then he took a look at his new sibling’s rather extensive file. The man was the type of muscle he could use, and all it would take would be convincing him that this could be his purpose. They had recovered Sylar’s body from the ashen remains of the Company’s Hartsdale facility, and he was kept on a secure base where Nathan would be visiting after he was finished here. Of course, the truth of his lineage was something that only Nathan and his mother really knew the full truth of-it was better for all involved to keep it like that.
In regard to what happened to Daphne well, one has to make certain things happen to get where one needs to be. Ultimately, she was expendable, and it gave Nathan a legitimate reason to deal with a personal matter that sprung up. Eric Doyle was recaptured and given a deal under the table by Nathan himself to kill Daphne in order to receive full amnesty from the designated fate of the other specials. What he didn’t know, was that Nathan was once in love with a feisty young blond named Meredith Gordon who Eric himself had a sick obsession with. He terrorized her for nearly two full days at his former theater as his most recent crime against her, and Nathan would make sure the son of a bitch would pay-all while making sure he got Matt on his side from now on.
With blood-shot eyes, Matt slowly looked up again at Nathan. He’d been so lost in his own thoughts of revenge that he never took a moment to listen in to Nathan’s plan and, how he was just another piece in it. Everything was clouded with the desire to protect anyone from feeling like he did at that time-disconnected and sick to his stomach every moment he thought of her alive. It’s not like how he was always told that thinking of the good things would make him happy-at least not yet. The bitterness of loss pervaded every memory he had about her.
“I’ll do it-whatever you need. I’m in.”
Present Day
“Dude, everyone knows your face…I don’t see how this is going to work.” Luke turned around from the back of the catering van in his crisp white jacket. He had to sidestep quickly to avoid the van’s door as it swung closed. Sylar looked down to his own starched white jacket as he began to button it.
“Something you really should have learned from me by now Luke is the value of hiding in plain sight. I can’t even tell you how many people have seen my face before, or after the act. It didn’t matter though, as long as I seemed perfectly in-place at the time. “After he finished with the last button, Sylar turned and gave Luke a once-over to make sure he truly did look as in-place as he could. When he thought they both looked ready, they made their way to a smaller building next to where the main ballroom was.
Sylar had picked up on this particular event while toying with his newest ability to pick up wireless signal transmissions, and he thought it the perfect way to really get Nathan’s attention. The banquet taking place in the main building’s ballroom would be filled with senators, cabinet members, congressman, and their wives. All people responsible for letting Nathan run roughshod over his life, and the lives of others. Sylar cared little for them however with one exception-but he was gone now and so this was an entirely personal affront toward his elder half-brother.
Soon enough they joined a small swarm of fellow white-jacketed catering staff as they began to go about setting up for the dinner. Sylar and Luke did as they were told the entire time so that the former could get a better idea of the building’s layout-figure out his best plan of attack. Twenty minutes into this routine and he and Luke found a chance to slip away into a secondary building where Sylar found exactly what he’d been looking for. The small one room building housed all of the controls for the outside sprinkler system. His hand grazed over the timer and with a quick glance of his watch he had it set to have them pop up twenty minutes from that moment.
“You still haven’t told me exactly what you’re going to do, Gabriel. Or, why you even need me here at all for it.” Luke glanced back to the door again then up at the man with a definite air of nervousness in his facial expression-how he held the corner of his lip in, or the wideness of his eyes. Sylar’s facial expression softened a little as his hand reached out to rest on Luke’s shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze.
“I want President Petrelli’s attention, I want him to know that what I’ve lost is going to be a feeling he and I will share. I want him to know that I’m alive and well and soon he’ll be standing right where you are as I look him in the eye and have my revenge for everything I’ve lost. But for you…this is a golden opportunity Luke. You get to be a part of something-have a real purpose, and when this is all over you’ll be a changed person. Not a weak boy but something else entirely, because you’ll be feared and respected for the power you wield. Now we’re going to go back out and we’re going to leave the party entirely. I want you to use your gift to weld the door shut by melting the lock over so there’s no keyhole, and the entire plate is fused to the edges of the doorway. Can you do that for me, Luke?”
There was something about that hand on his shoulder that made his thoughts run together and blur into a mess in Luke’s mind. Before he could even think twice about what Gabriel had just asked him to do his palms already started to heat up as he stood there-it was like he could practically feel Gabriel’s pulse through the fingertips resting on the bone structure of his shoulder. To do anything other than comply seemed impossible as Sylar carefully removed his hand and ushered them both out of the room. It took Luke a matter of minutes to properly fuse the lock solid, and then they were headed toward the side exit to wait for the sprinklers to go off during the party itself.
Twenty minutes later the flickering sounds of lawn sprinklers couldn’t be heard through the din of conversation and live music. If they could have heard that insistent flicking of water onto the grass perhaps they would have known what an ominous sign it was. Sylar stood on pavement in front of the lawn a good few yards away from the main building. Luke had been sent inside to trigger the room’s indoor sprinkler system that would be nicely set off by a little fire being set in the room itself. At that point it wouldn’t matter if he was even seen doing it, because Sylar wouldn’t let anyone escape that building while he was standing there. Testing the limits of his telekinesis used to be something that Sylar did for kicks back when his World first changed, and now he would be doing it once more as he began to focus his thoughts on the glass skylight ceiling. Luke was given three minutes to do it and get out of the building before Sylar would act. With six seconds to spare, the young man appeared at Sylar’s side sopping wet.
“Okay they’re on…now what?” Luke watched as Sylar carefully lifted his hand-fingers enclosed into a fist. His eyes were narrowed to focus on a single point of raised glass before he flicked his fingers open, as he did Luke watched the glass crack and shatter in moments. Shards rained down onto the guests in the ballroom below and when the screams began that’s when Sylar raised his other hand. It glowed and crackled with a caustic energy that leapt and spread until a massive blue bolt left his fingertips and moved through the air into the building through the newly-opened ceiling. His other hand now used electrokinesis to light the drenched lawn on fire to effectively trap his victims inside of the building.
Never in Luke’s life could he have imagined the sounds that came from the ballroom that night. Yeah he’d used his power on someone, twice now, but the cacophony of shrill screams of agony and horror were so visceral in that moment. He turned and looked at Sylar as the man continued to send bolt after bolt into the building causing one flare up after another as the water ignited from the electrical current. There was not a hint of joy or the slightest smirk of sadistic glee in his eyes as he watched the building begin to blaze on the outside as well. His gaze was hollow while he thought about Mohinder’s own scream, it was the last thing he ever heard him do was scream. After a few minutes of sending blasts to the building to add to the fire, he turned and nodded to Luke that they should leave.
Miles away, Peter paced in front of the door of the house he and Suresh had effectively been squatting in under assumed names. It was a modest one-story with a storm cellar that was outside of town enough to keep their lives as private as possible. However, that was soon to change as the last person he’d had contact with before his hand caressed Mohinder’s shoulder in the midst of their late-night lovemaking was his mother earlier that day. Her power absorbed into his skin and when he fell asleep during the evening, he had a dream of what was to come. If it came true it would be in the next few minutes, Peter was understandably tense as he kept an eye on the door.
“He may not even come, Peter. Your dreams are not always literal…this could be one of those times. We should just go back to bed and get some sleep.” Mohinder rubbed his eyes with one hand as the other braced his body against the side wall of the entryway. Ever since Peter told him who they were expecting, his mood turned sour in moments. But he had to try and keep it contained so that he wouldn’t upset Peter again.
“I have no idea why he would even show his face around here or why your mother would have even told him where we were living. After all he’s done to you-to us? The hunting of his own kind and now he wants to talk to you as though nothing has happened? We shouldn’t even let him inside.” Well keeping his feelings towards Peter’s brother was a much more difficult endeavor than Mohinder had anticipated.
“Mohinder, I’m not having this argument. I understand what he’s done to us, to everyone like us but my mother made it sound like he’s in over his head. Yeah, he’s been in over his head from the start but now he actually knows it. I know you’ve given up on him but I ca-“
“You can’t. I know I’ve heard it a thousand times before, Peter. But what you need to realize is that if you continue to let him in then one day he’ll take everything you have left. Or maybe it will just be gone.”
Before he could ask what that was supposed to mean, there was a hesitant series of knocks on their front door. Peter gave Mohinder a look then walked to the door, opening it up to reveal the image of his brother in a black Ralph Lauren tuxedo with his hair ruffled in the way that only a recent flight could have accomplished. Peter cocked his head to the side as his hand moved through his own hair to push his bangs back from his eye.
“So you’re using your ability again.”
Nathan glanced at Peter and realized that he wasn’t surprised at all by his sudden appearance on his front door. To the Petrelli men that could mean only one thing.
“How’s Ma doing?”
Peter moved aside to allow Nathan entrance into the house as Mohinder quietly glowered against the wall still. He shut the door after him but not before he gave a quick glance around the yard to look for anyone Nathan may have brought with him. Thankfully, he came alone.
“She’s okay…I can’t see dreams anymore though, Nathan, so if you came to ask me about something then you can just go find her.” He crossed his arms over his simple white t-shirt as he watched Nathan move deeper within the house. Inside of the living room they had a small TV on a wooden stand against the back wall. When Nathan reached it, he turned it on without a word and scanned to a news channel-he wouldn’t have had to it was all over every channel. Peter walked in with Mohinder behind him as Nathan turned up the volume on the news report.
All three watched as a charred building was hosed down, rescue teams of medical personnel ran in and out, and the shocked commentary of the reporter heading the segment narrated the chaos. Peter narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on what was going on then recognized the room as a ballroom that he’d been to before a very long time ago when he was a teenager. It was some stupid party his parents dragged him off to as always and he sulked at the entire time until they finally went home after Angela had had too much to drink. She tended to get a little too honest for their father’s taste at that point and he hated being embarrassed. It all came together for him after that-why Nathan was standing there in a designer tuxedo and why he chose to fly instead of a more conventional means of getting around. Most of all, why the President had zero security with him on any venture.
“I was supposed to be there…if I hadn’t picked up the phone when Ma called me…I would have been.” Nathan seemed genuinely horrified at not only the concept of his own narrowly avoided demise, but also for all of the victims who were there and who suffered a terrible fate. Peter moved and turned the TV off again before he faced his older brother.
“Nathan, what happened? How could this…who did it?” Mohinder moved over, closer to Peter now as he had a feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t quite describe or explain. Nathan worried his lip as he run a hand through his fluffed up hair, trying to smooth it. As soon as he heard the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, he knew.
“They said that the people inside were locked in when the sprinklers went off-inside and out. I was sent a video file that was from the security footage…you can see blue streaks of lightning hitting the sides and through the ceiling of the building. Pete, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky last night. I’m being targeted by someone and it’s time I admit that I need you to help me.” Mohinder couldn’t help a short, derisive breath as he scoffed at Nathan. His eyes practically rolled as he moved toward the man in a steadily growing rage.
“Oh…Now you need his help, so you want Peter to drop everything and fend off whoever is attacking you, deservedly, I might add. For what you did to countless innocent people and to myself and your own brother-now you think you can pay the both of us a cheap, lip-service apology and everything will be forgotten? We were hunted like animals, restrained, and sent off to be locked away for God knows how long all in the name of your ‘doing the right thing’. We stood there next to each other after your father had you convinced that the World was going to be better off with more people having abilities. But as soon as that went South, you turned your back and decided that we were the ones to blame so you lashed out. Honestly, Nathan I have every urge to throw you across this room right now and allow you to experience just some of the pain that you’ve caused so read-“
Peter suddenly moved in between them as his hand braced against Mohinder’s chest.
“Mohinder…calm down, please. A lot of people died last night and that means there’s someone out there who’s incredibly dangerous-not just to Nathan but to everyone. Even if he made a few mistakes by listening to our father.” Nathan went from retorting to Mohinder to turning and glancing at his brother.
“The only way I ever saw how truly dangerous these powers could be was because I followed what dad said. The people he had around him were glorified thugs, and God only knows how many more people like that were out there trying to harm the population at large. All I did was try and get this situation contained before it spiraled out of control.” As soon as he finished speaking, Mohinder side-stepped Peter and his arm shot out to grip onto Nathan’s jacket. He shoved him back against the wall and held him there as Peter moved to try and break Mohinder’s hold on his brother.
“This situation… you are part of this Nathan, whether or not you want to be!” Nathan winced and stayed still as he looked right into Mohinder’s eyes.
“And it wasn’t a choice, you made a choice to be the way you are now, Mohinder. You chose to mess around with your DNA and go against what’s natural. We’re not the next step of evolution, we’re a mistake.” Nathan took a moment to collect his thoughts as he shifted his focus from Mohinder to his brother again.
“Peter…it was Sylar who attacked and killed all of those people last night, he’s alive. You’ve always been the only one who could come close to stopping him. If he’s going after me we can do something public, hold a press conference and lure him there.” The hand on his jacket loosened almost immediately after he said the word ‘alive’. Mohinder took a few steps back as if he’d just been swiftly punched in the stomach. The flashes of that night-the screams, watching Sylar’s pale hand scramble helplessly for his own before he was thrown from the falling plane. All this time, he’d believed he was dead; it had been two years since the crash.
Peter was also shocked as he realized that the man who brazenly called him ‘brother’ was not only alive, but targeting his only true sibling. While Nathan made his share of mistakes, it was true-he couldn’t deny him help when he sought it against that particular man. One of Peter’s great follies was the inability to walk away from that fight now that it had resumed once more. Not to mention he couldn’t stand the way Suresh’s eyes yearned to see the killer again. Even after all this time, he carried that torch.
“Nathan, how did he even survive? Where has he been all this time?” It was a long story for Nathan to tell and fortunately, he didn’t have to. At some point during the altercation, Angela Petrelli had entered their house without formal invitation. She stood behind Peter, just to the left of his line of peripheral sight, dressed in a charcoal gray pea-coat.
“I believe…that I can illuminate all three of you about that situation. Gabriel has no recollection of working for you, Nathan. He does remember, however, that he’s your brother. I had hoped that would be enough when he finally woke up to keep him from attacking you, but apparently I was mistaken. Nearly two years ago, I had an old friend pay a visit to a hospital in Rhode Island.
Rating: R for violence, language, grisly descriptions, and mentions of a character death.
Word Count: 4,351
Parings for the series: Mohinder/Sylar, Mohinder/Peter, implied one-sided Luke/Sylar
Characters in this chapter: Sylar, Nathan Petrelli, Mohinder Suresh, Peter Petrelli, Luke Campbell, Matt Parkman, Angela Petrelli, mentions of Daphne Millbrook
Warnings: Some violence, some subtext. So you know the usual. Spoilers for Volume 4 but this is my take on what I've been given to work with.
Summary: AU but very closely linked to the events of Volume 4. It's been approximately two years from the current show's time-lime during the present segments and much has changed. The secret is out, specials are being hunted, Nathan is the president, and a terrible event has set Sylar onto a path that will end in a collision course with his older brother's ambitions. If only Sylar could remember what he did before the plane crash that changed everything.
A/N: So much love to my betas and fantastic collaborators: iluvbsbkevin and takhallus . Sylar is a half-Petrelli in this. Some events are like what's going in the show's current canon but I'm taking liberties. This chapter shows how Nathan manipulated his way into power so quickly and what he allowed to happen in order to do it. Sylar and Luke lash out against Nathan on a much grander scale than ever before and Nathan is forced to seek out help.
Next Time: The plan to lure in and trap Sylar is laid out as well as why Sylar can't remember working for his older half-brother in the first place.
Disclaimer: Don't own Heroes, I'd love to but sadly it's not mine.
Previous Chapters:
Protege
Chance Encounters
What It Takes
Collision
This wasn’t the first bare room with white walls that Matt Parkman had occupied. Interrogation rooms look the same any police station you go to. The D.C. department isn’t any different than the NYPD or the LAPD rooms-all are made to look intimidating and sparse. The idea is for a suspect to be unnerved by the lack of comfort, of stimulation for the senses-they’ll give up and tell you everything you want to know. They lose the control that the person who walks in with their gun securely strapped to their hip clearly holds. But ever since he came home to find her blond hair nestled over closed eyes as blood pooled lazily around her fallen body-Matt hadn’t felt in control of a damn thing. He was stopping off for lunch at the apartment as he always does and he knew something was wrong right away when the door was half-open. All of his training and natural intuition churned his stomach with each step he made until he could push the door open and see her laying there-Daphne Millbrook had been brutally murdered.
For what felt like hours but he knew was only twenty, or thirty minutes tops-Matt sat there and replayed the events again and again in his head. How could this have happened…who was responsible…it wasn’t Sylar for once. He’d perished in the fire that burned down the Company’s Hartsdale facility, and there had been no reports of ‘ritualistic’ killings ever since. He sighed and rested his head in his hands, muttering that he was sorry over and over again until the door opened. He found now uniformed trooper or detective in a natty suit-no it was a pricey Armani suit instead that he scanned over until his eyes met the face of Senator Nathan Petrelli.
“…What are you doing here? How did you even know where I wa-“
“I heard about Daphne. Matt, I am so sorry…she seemed like a very sweet girl. You’re not being charged with anything, I contacted the D.A’s office and with the new information they’ve just received, they know you had nothing do with it.” Nathan walked over and sat in the lone chair opposite Matt, leaning forward to place his hand on his shoulder. Parkman furrowed his brow and felt his confusion mount once more.
“What do you mean…did they…did they find the son of a bitch who did this to her?” Such pain laced through the intonation of every syllable he spoke. He was already thinking of the plethora of acts he would like to commit against whoever ripped his current chance at happiness away from him. And with the ability that Parkman possessed, he could make each and every horrible idea come true with a single thought.
“Yes, and you don’t need to worry about it because they got him. But you need to listen to me Matt…it was someone like us. A very dangerous man who used his power to hurt a completely innocent person for no reason other than it gave him a thrill to do it. Now, the President is starting to employ certain tactics and special teams to find the most dangerous ones-it’s how he got caught, but it’s not enough. No one will listen to me about how dangerous these people can be; they think it’s perfectly alright to lock them away. But you and I know that some people need to be put down.”
Matt stood up suddenly, the chair he was in knocked back in one swift motion. His hands slammed flat onto the metal tabletop, Nathan leaned back as he stayed seated.
“Of course they do! What happened to Daphne shouldn’t have happened, ever! How could they think that it’s enough to lock up the ones like Sylar? Why can’t you convince them they need to, Nathan? You’re supposed to be able to help keep us safe with your seat in the Senate…why-“He slowly slumped back down into his seat, tears threatened to drip down his cheeks as he shook to keep them contained.
“-Why her? She was so…we were making a life together-trying to… I thought I was done with all of this.” Nathan glanced down, nodding in his best put-on of a friend who understood the conflict of living a normal life while having these abilities. Of knowing that it’s not possible to hide, or ignore the World the abilities bring one into. His mind was working, he was keeping up beat for beat with what notes of sympathy to play so that he could breach the offer he would explain to Matt at the best possible time. This had to be it.
“It shouldn’t have Matt, but that doesn’t change the fact that it did. It’s time that we all stop trying to avoid the problems that come with having these powers. Now, I’ve had to realize that the only way to make my life, and the lives of the people I care about safe, is to remain in the thick of it. I have to take threats head-on because if I don’t then who will? It’s why I did whatever I could to become involved in these operations-in the new legislature that’s being written up. But only so many people will listen to a junior Senator from New York, Matt. I need…to get more people on our side. You can help me do that, and we can both make sure that no one else gets hurt except for the people who abuse what they can do to hurt others-people like the ‘Sylar’s of the World.”
Nathan thought about how arguably the worst special in existence was actually his half-brother. When he found out he didn’t know quite how to handle it, but then he took a look at his new sibling’s rather extensive file. The man was the type of muscle he could use, and all it would take would be convincing him that this could be his purpose. They had recovered Sylar’s body from the ashen remains of the Company’s Hartsdale facility, and he was kept on a secure base where Nathan would be visiting after he was finished here. Of course, the truth of his lineage was something that only Nathan and his mother really knew the full truth of-it was better for all involved to keep it like that.
In regard to what happened to Daphne well, one has to make certain things happen to get where one needs to be. Ultimately, she was expendable, and it gave Nathan a legitimate reason to deal with a personal matter that sprung up. Eric Doyle was recaptured and given a deal under the table by Nathan himself to kill Daphne in order to receive full amnesty from the designated fate of the other specials. What he didn’t know, was that Nathan was once in love with a feisty young blond named Meredith Gordon who Eric himself had a sick obsession with. He terrorized her for nearly two full days at his former theater as his most recent crime against her, and Nathan would make sure the son of a bitch would pay-all while making sure he got Matt on his side from now on.
With blood-shot eyes, Matt slowly looked up again at Nathan. He’d been so lost in his own thoughts of revenge that he never took a moment to listen in to Nathan’s plan and, how he was just another piece in it. Everything was clouded with the desire to protect anyone from feeling like he did at that time-disconnected and sick to his stomach every moment he thought of her alive. It’s not like how he was always told that thinking of the good things would make him happy-at least not yet. The bitterness of loss pervaded every memory he had about her.
“I’ll do it-whatever you need. I’m in.”
Present Day
“Dude, everyone knows your face…I don’t see how this is going to work.” Luke turned around from the back of the catering van in his crisp white jacket. He had to sidestep quickly to avoid the van’s door as it swung closed. Sylar looked down to his own starched white jacket as he began to button it.
“Something you really should have learned from me by now Luke is the value of hiding in plain sight. I can’t even tell you how many people have seen my face before, or after the act. It didn’t matter though, as long as I seemed perfectly in-place at the time. “After he finished with the last button, Sylar turned and gave Luke a once-over to make sure he truly did look as in-place as he could. When he thought they both looked ready, they made their way to a smaller building next to where the main ballroom was.
Sylar had picked up on this particular event while toying with his newest ability to pick up wireless signal transmissions, and he thought it the perfect way to really get Nathan’s attention. The banquet taking place in the main building’s ballroom would be filled with senators, cabinet members, congressman, and their wives. All people responsible for letting Nathan run roughshod over his life, and the lives of others. Sylar cared little for them however with one exception-but he was gone now and so this was an entirely personal affront toward his elder half-brother.
Soon enough they joined a small swarm of fellow white-jacketed catering staff as they began to go about setting up for the dinner. Sylar and Luke did as they were told the entire time so that the former could get a better idea of the building’s layout-figure out his best plan of attack. Twenty minutes into this routine and he and Luke found a chance to slip away into a secondary building where Sylar found exactly what he’d been looking for. The small one room building housed all of the controls for the outside sprinkler system. His hand grazed over the timer and with a quick glance of his watch he had it set to have them pop up twenty minutes from that moment.
“You still haven’t told me exactly what you’re going to do, Gabriel. Or, why you even need me here at all for it.” Luke glanced back to the door again then up at the man with a definite air of nervousness in his facial expression-how he held the corner of his lip in, or the wideness of his eyes. Sylar’s facial expression softened a little as his hand reached out to rest on Luke’s shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze.
“I want President Petrelli’s attention, I want him to know that what I’ve lost is going to be a feeling he and I will share. I want him to know that I’m alive and well and soon he’ll be standing right where you are as I look him in the eye and have my revenge for everything I’ve lost. But for you…this is a golden opportunity Luke. You get to be a part of something-have a real purpose, and when this is all over you’ll be a changed person. Not a weak boy but something else entirely, because you’ll be feared and respected for the power you wield. Now we’re going to go back out and we’re going to leave the party entirely. I want you to use your gift to weld the door shut by melting the lock over so there’s no keyhole, and the entire plate is fused to the edges of the doorway. Can you do that for me, Luke?”
There was something about that hand on his shoulder that made his thoughts run together and blur into a mess in Luke’s mind. Before he could even think twice about what Gabriel had just asked him to do his palms already started to heat up as he stood there-it was like he could practically feel Gabriel’s pulse through the fingertips resting on the bone structure of his shoulder. To do anything other than comply seemed impossible as Sylar carefully removed his hand and ushered them both out of the room. It took Luke a matter of minutes to properly fuse the lock solid, and then they were headed toward the side exit to wait for the sprinklers to go off during the party itself.
Twenty minutes later the flickering sounds of lawn sprinklers couldn’t be heard through the din of conversation and live music. If they could have heard that insistent flicking of water onto the grass perhaps they would have known what an ominous sign it was. Sylar stood on pavement in front of the lawn a good few yards away from the main building. Luke had been sent inside to trigger the room’s indoor sprinkler system that would be nicely set off by a little fire being set in the room itself. At that point it wouldn’t matter if he was even seen doing it, because Sylar wouldn’t let anyone escape that building while he was standing there. Testing the limits of his telekinesis used to be something that Sylar did for kicks back when his World first changed, and now he would be doing it once more as he began to focus his thoughts on the glass skylight ceiling. Luke was given three minutes to do it and get out of the building before Sylar would act. With six seconds to spare, the young man appeared at Sylar’s side sopping wet.
“Okay they’re on…now what?” Luke watched as Sylar carefully lifted his hand-fingers enclosed into a fist. His eyes were narrowed to focus on a single point of raised glass before he flicked his fingers open, as he did Luke watched the glass crack and shatter in moments. Shards rained down onto the guests in the ballroom below and when the screams began that’s when Sylar raised his other hand. It glowed and crackled with a caustic energy that leapt and spread until a massive blue bolt left his fingertips and moved through the air into the building through the newly-opened ceiling. His other hand now used electrokinesis to light the drenched lawn on fire to effectively trap his victims inside of the building.
Never in Luke’s life could he have imagined the sounds that came from the ballroom that night. Yeah he’d used his power on someone, twice now, but the cacophony of shrill screams of agony and horror were so visceral in that moment. He turned and looked at Sylar as the man continued to send bolt after bolt into the building causing one flare up after another as the water ignited from the electrical current. There was not a hint of joy or the slightest smirk of sadistic glee in his eyes as he watched the building begin to blaze on the outside as well. His gaze was hollow while he thought about Mohinder’s own scream, it was the last thing he ever heard him do was scream. After a few minutes of sending blasts to the building to add to the fire, he turned and nodded to Luke that they should leave.
Miles away, Peter paced in front of the door of the house he and Suresh had effectively been squatting in under assumed names. It was a modest one-story with a storm cellar that was outside of town enough to keep their lives as private as possible. However, that was soon to change as the last person he’d had contact with before his hand caressed Mohinder’s shoulder in the midst of their late-night lovemaking was his mother earlier that day. Her power absorbed into his skin and when he fell asleep during the evening, he had a dream of what was to come. If it came true it would be in the next few minutes, Peter was understandably tense as he kept an eye on the door.
“He may not even come, Peter. Your dreams are not always literal…this could be one of those times. We should just go back to bed and get some sleep.” Mohinder rubbed his eyes with one hand as the other braced his body against the side wall of the entryway. Ever since Peter told him who they were expecting, his mood turned sour in moments. But he had to try and keep it contained so that he wouldn’t upset Peter again.
“I have no idea why he would even show his face around here or why your mother would have even told him where we were living. After all he’s done to you-to us? The hunting of his own kind and now he wants to talk to you as though nothing has happened? We shouldn’t even let him inside.” Well keeping his feelings towards Peter’s brother was a much more difficult endeavor than Mohinder had anticipated.
“Mohinder, I’m not having this argument. I understand what he’s done to us, to everyone like us but my mother made it sound like he’s in over his head. Yeah, he’s been in over his head from the start but now he actually knows it. I know you’ve given up on him but I ca-“
“You can’t. I know I’ve heard it a thousand times before, Peter. But what you need to realize is that if you continue to let him in then one day he’ll take everything you have left. Or maybe it will just be gone.”
Before he could ask what that was supposed to mean, there was a hesitant series of knocks on their front door. Peter gave Mohinder a look then walked to the door, opening it up to reveal the image of his brother in a black Ralph Lauren tuxedo with his hair ruffled in the way that only a recent flight could have accomplished. Peter cocked his head to the side as his hand moved through his own hair to push his bangs back from his eye.
“So you’re using your ability again.”
Nathan glanced at Peter and realized that he wasn’t surprised at all by his sudden appearance on his front door. To the Petrelli men that could mean only one thing.
“How’s Ma doing?”
Peter moved aside to allow Nathan entrance into the house as Mohinder quietly glowered against the wall still. He shut the door after him but not before he gave a quick glance around the yard to look for anyone Nathan may have brought with him. Thankfully, he came alone.
“She’s okay…I can’t see dreams anymore though, Nathan, so if you came to ask me about something then you can just go find her.” He crossed his arms over his simple white t-shirt as he watched Nathan move deeper within the house. Inside of the living room they had a small TV on a wooden stand against the back wall. When Nathan reached it, he turned it on without a word and scanned to a news channel-he wouldn’t have had to it was all over every channel. Peter walked in with Mohinder behind him as Nathan turned up the volume on the news report.
All three watched as a charred building was hosed down, rescue teams of medical personnel ran in and out, and the shocked commentary of the reporter heading the segment narrated the chaos. Peter narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on what was going on then recognized the room as a ballroom that he’d been to before a very long time ago when he was a teenager. It was some stupid party his parents dragged him off to as always and he sulked at the entire time until they finally went home after Angela had had too much to drink. She tended to get a little too honest for their father’s taste at that point and he hated being embarrassed. It all came together for him after that-why Nathan was standing there in a designer tuxedo and why he chose to fly instead of a more conventional means of getting around. Most of all, why the President had zero security with him on any venture.
“I was supposed to be there…if I hadn’t picked up the phone when Ma called me…I would have been.” Nathan seemed genuinely horrified at not only the concept of his own narrowly avoided demise, but also for all of the victims who were there and who suffered a terrible fate. Peter moved and turned the TV off again before he faced his older brother.
“Nathan, what happened? How could this…who did it?” Mohinder moved over, closer to Peter now as he had a feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t quite describe or explain. Nathan worried his lip as he run a hand through his fluffed up hair, trying to smooth it. As soon as he heard the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, he knew.
“They said that the people inside were locked in when the sprinklers went off-inside and out. I was sent a video file that was from the security footage…you can see blue streaks of lightning hitting the sides and through the ceiling of the building. Pete, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky last night. I’m being targeted by someone and it’s time I admit that I need you to help me.” Mohinder couldn’t help a short, derisive breath as he scoffed at Nathan. His eyes practically rolled as he moved toward the man in a steadily growing rage.
“Oh…Now you need his help, so you want Peter to drop everything and fend off whoever is attacking you, deservedly, I might add. For what you did to countless innocent people and to myself and your own brother-now you think you can pay the both of us a cheap, lip-service apology and everything will be forgotten? We were hunted like animals, restrained, and sent off to be locked away for God knows how long all in the name of your ‘doing the right thing’. We stood there next to each other after your father had you convinced that the World was going to be better off with more people having abilities. But as soon as that went South, you turned your back and decided that we were the ones to blame so you lashed out. Honestly, Nathan I have every urge to throw you across this room right now and allow you to experience just some of the pain that you’ve caused so read-“
Peter suddenly moved in between them as his hand braced against Mohinder’s chest.
“Mohinder…calm down, please. A lot of people died last night and that means there’s someone out there who’s incredibly dangerous-not just to Nathan but to everyone. Even if he made a few mistakes by listening to our father.” Nathan went from retorting to Mohinder to turning and glancing at his brother.
“The only way I ever saw how truly dangerous these powers could be was because I followed what dad said. The people he had around him were glorified thugs, and God only knows how many more people like that were out there trying to harm the population at large. All I did was try and get this situation contained before it spiraled out of control.” As soon as he finished speaking, Mohinder side-stepped Peter and his arm shot out to grip onto Nathan’s jacket. He shoved him back against the wall and held him there as Peter moved to try and break Mohinder’s hold on his brother.
“This situation… you are part of this Nathan, whether or not you want to be!” Nathan winced and stayed still as he looked right into Mohinder’s eyes.
“And it wasn’t a choice, you made a choice to be the way you are now, Mohinder. You chose to mess around with your DNA and go against what’s natural. We’re not the next step of evolution, we’re a mistake.” Nathan took a moment to collect his thoughts as he shifted his focus from Mohinder to his brother again.
“Peter…it was Sylar who attacked and killed all of those people last night, he’s alive. You’ve always been the only one who could come close to stopping him. If he’s going after me we can do something public, hold a press conference and lure him there.” The hand on his jacket loosened almost immediately after he said the word ‘alive’. Mohinder took a few steps back as if he’d just been swiftly punched in the stomach. The flashes of that night-the screams, watching Sylar’s pale hand scramble helplessly for his own before he was thrown from the falling plane. All this time, he’d believed he was dead; it had been two years since the crash.
Peter was also shocked as he realized that the man who brazenly called him ‘brother’ was not only alive, but targeting his only true sibling. While Nathan made his share of mistakes, it was true-he couldn’t deny him help when he sought it against that particular man. One of Peter’s great follies was the inability to walk away from that fight now that it had resumed once more. Not to mention he couldn’t stand the way Suresh’s eyes yearned to see the killer again. Even after all this time, he carried that torch.
“Nathan, how did he even survive? Where has he been all this time?” It was a long story for Nathan to tell and fortunately, he didn’t have to. At some point during the altercation, Angela Petrelli had entered their house without formal invitation. She stood behind Peter, just to the left of his line of peripheral sight, dressed in a charcoal gray pea-coat.
“I believe…that I can illuminate all three of you about that situation. Gabriel has no recollection of working for you, Nathan. He does remember, however, that he’s your brother. I had hoped that would be enough when he finally woke up to keep him from attacking you, but apparently I was mistaken. Nearly two years ago, I had an old friend pay a visit to a hospital in Rhode Island.