2009-10-17 16:05![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewatchmaker
thewatchmakerTitle: And Then There Were None
Rating: R - violence
Genre: Gen
Wordcount: 2300+
Pairings or Characters: Sylar, Parkman, Noah and Angela
Warnings: None
Summary: Follow up to the Man in the Mirror and RP with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
petrelliheidi. Sylar remembers who he was, and it's payback time.
Dust motes danced through the weak sunbeams that made it through the cobweb covered windows of my shop as I sat down in the middle of the floor. I pulled the plastic bag that contained my broken watch out of my pocket. Since realizing that I wasn’t Nathan Petrelli, I’d made a great deal of progress in controlling the psychometry. I wasn’t forced to watch the baggie’s past. Here it is in the box. Here it is on the grocery store shelf. Here it is in the pantry…
I looked at the watch through the plastic. The cracked face, the time stopped at seven minutes to midnight. I didn’t remember how it got broken. I know from the memories on my work table that I worked on it for years, putting each piece together until it worked. I’d finished it the day Chandra Suresh came looking for me. My memories of him are sketchy at best, but the Sylar will tell me the rest.
As soon as I can fight back the fear and strap it around my wrist.
“Now or never. Stop being a chicken shit. You wanted this. Wanted your life back, so you can protect Heidi and the boys. So you can have a family. So you can be free and have your life back,” I told myself, reaching into the bag at last. The leather was well worn, brown stains on the back of the black strap from old blood. It fit like it was part of my body. I closed my eyes and let the memories of my life hit me like the Big Bang itself.
When I came to I was flat on my back. It was dark outside, and there was dried blood under my nose. I got up and made my way to the back of the shop, bent over the small sink to wash my face and found blood under my nails too. There aren’t any scratches on my face, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were. I probably tried to claw my eyes out from the things I saw.
“No need to check that.” I rub my thumb over the watch, seeing my name on the black background. “Hello me. I’ve missed you.”
The three of them did this to me. Took my soul and my mind, twisted my body and made me think I was Nathan Petrelli. Angela, Noah and Parkman would pay for what they’d done. My revenge would be shift, and I couldn’t wait to feel their blood on my hands.
“Parkman first. He’s got the most power. That makes him dangerous.”
***
“Hello Mrs. Parkman, I’m a friend of Matt’s from NYPD. He told me that if I was in town I should drop by for a visit.” I smiled at Janice Parkman as she held the front door open. I was dressed in dark jeans and shirt. It was good to be out of Nathan’s monkey suits and in my own clothes. The kid looked me and gave me a gap toothed smile, while a string of drool ran down his chin. “He’s a cutie. I didn’t know you and Matt were expecting.”
“I’m sorry, but Matt’s not here.” She was nervous and tired. There was a tightness in the corner of her mouth. Something bad had happened. If Parkman got himself killed before I got to him, I was going to be pissed.
“Matt’s OK?” I fished for more information, crouching down to pick up the kid’s bottle when he dropped it. “Here you go.”
“Matt’s in the hospital. He had a nervous breakdown.”
”Oh I’m sorry to hear that, would it be all right if I visited him?” I liked it. It’d be better to kill him in a hospital than in front of his family. His kid didn’t need to be traumatized for life. I’m a father now. I wouldn’t want anything like that to happen to my boys, to Heidi’s boys.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” She shifted the baby on her hip and blew her hair out of her eyes.
“Please, Janice. I came three thousand miles to see Matt. I promise I won’t tell anyone else about this. It might help him to see a friendly face.”
***
The hospital was a state run mental hospital, a big concrete block that smelled like bleach, puke and piss. It reminded me of my time on Level 5 and at Primatech. I stole a lab coat out of a supply closet and some scrubs, blending in like the rest of the mindless medical drones who carried around trays of rainbow colored placebos in little plastic cups. I could have killed someone and taken their place, but I didn’t want to shapeshift into anyone else until absolutely necessary. I know what that did to me now. It drove me insane.
They didn’t blink as I came behind the counter of the nurse’s station and found Parkman’s files. I read them as I strolled into his room. He’d lost weight. His dark eyes were focused on the corner of the bed, and he was having a conversation with someone I couldn’t see.
“Looks like you’re on enough tranquilizers to drop an elephant, Parkman.” He didn’t turn toward the sound of my voice. He kept having his conversation with his imaginary friend. According to the file his friend was me. I laughed out loud as I used Elle’s power to melt the hinges so the door wouldn’t open until I wanted it too. The smell of ozone and scorched paint filled the room, but Parkman still wouldn’t look at me.
“Parkman!” I walked over to him, slapped his formerly chubby cheek. “Wake up Parkman, got a nice donut for you if you wake up, Parkman.”
“Get out of my head, Sylar. Go away. Leave me alone,” he said to imaginary me.
I tapped him on the forehead with the clipboard none-too-gently and smiled as I sat down in imaginary me’s place in his delusion. “You think I’m in your head? How stupid are you, Parkman? You do realize that you’re placing the blame for all your bad thoughts and internal darkness on me. Who did you blame your jealousy issues on me before me?”
His eyes focused on me now that I’d taken the other’s spot. I had to wonder if he saw two of us now. “You’re not here.”
“I wasn’t before, but I am now. Would you like to know why I’m here, Parkman?” I put the file down on the bed. Raised my hand and used my power to shove him into the corner of the room hard enough to know the wind out of him. I lifted him up until his head touched the ceiling tiles. “I’m here to kill you. To punish you for helping Angela Petrelli steal my life.”
“You can’t kill me. You’re not real!” Spittle flew from his lips. He was insane. “If you kill me, you die too!”
“Oh you figured it out.” I chuckled and sat up, walking over to him to grab his face in my hand. “I’m going to beat you to death. I really hoped you were still in there. Your mind’s too far gone to realize what I’m doing is real, but your body will feel the pain.”
With that I flung him across the small room using all the strength that my anger added to my telekinesis. He hit the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and I smiled as I flung him back across to the other side. “I wonder how many times it’ll take before you’re too broken to breathe. That’s two. I hope you make it to twenty.”
He made it to fifteen before he died.
***
I would have saved Noah for last. He’d been my nemesis from the very beginning, but that honor was Angela’s now. I hoped she was having nightmares about me coming for her, but it didn’t matter where she hid, that bitch would be mine.
Noah was in Virginia. Living in a crappy apartment above the Japanese restaurant Angela made me try sushi at. God that shit had been disgusting. I was whistling as I climbed the stairs to his place a smile on my face as I envisioned Claire being inside, so I could kill Noah in front of her. Unlike Janice Parkman I had no qualms about scarring Claire for life. She hadn’t come to see Nathan once since I’d taken his place. She was obviously as selfish as her grandmother, only caring about herself and her needs.
Unlocking the door was easy. I’ve got a knack for using my telekinesis on locks. It didn’t take me long to find one of Noah’s own guns. I sat on the sofa, grinning as I turned into Claire to wait for him. I’d been her before. It wasn’t hard, and I wouldn’t be her long enough for it to fuck me up.
“Hey Claire Bear,” he said with a huge smile as he came through the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I need some money, dad,” I said with a smile as big as his. “You know how college life is.”
“I thought you were going to get a job at Starbucks? How much do you need?”
“My dealer says if I don’t give him $500 this week, he’ll stop giving me drugs, and I’ll have to fuck him to get high.”
“OK.” He said as he came over, pulling out his wallet and started counting a stack of twenties. “Wait what? Why?”
“To protect my family, Noah.” I stood up fast, shoved the gun into his gaping mouth and fired, shifting into my own shape as I blew his head off. Blood and brains splattered on the wall and ceiling like fireworks. But the last thing he saw or heard was Claire’s voice and my face. I wiped my prints off the gun before I left, taking the money from his wallet. I turned back into Claire to leave. Let the witnesses wonder if there were any.
***
I’d promised Heidi that she could be there when I had my revenge on Angela, but that was a promise I couldn’t keep. She accepted me, loved me, even knowing what I was capable of. She let me into her heart and the life of her children, but I didn’t think that love could survive watching me in action. Not now that I could picture my past instead of reading dull Company reports. She knew who Sylar was on paper. She didn’t know what I was like with blood on my hands. Her love, our family, was what mattered the most. It was all that mattered now.
No one stopped me as I entered the Petrelli mansion. I didn’t bother to wear Nathan’s face. It wasn’t as if any of Angela’s minions could stop me once my mind was set on something, and it was set on ending her reign of terror and manipulation.
“I was wondering when you’d get here,” Angela said from the sideboard where she was pouring herself a drink. “I dreamt about you coming.”
“I’m sure you did, so you know this time there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” I hold up my wrist, letting her see my watch. “This was the key. You should have destroyed it. Probably should have burnt down the shop in Queens too. Those were both a big help in repairing the damage Parkman did to me.”
“You’re right.” She took a drink, the sour expression on her face never changing. Angela always looked like she’d eaten something she didn’t like. “I should have been more careful.”
“You were sloppy.” I drop onto the sofa, propping my feet up on the coffee table. I know she hates it from Nathan’s memories, so I make sure to scuff it with my heels. “You should have assigned me a handler. Someone who gave a shit about Nathan to keep him fresh in my mind, instead you couldn’t be bothered. Not even Peter could be bothered to spend time with his brother. I was terrified. I was alone, and my family wasn’t there to help me.”
As she moved to walk behind her desk, where I knew she had a gun, I yanked her with telekinesis and forced her onto the other end of the couch. Her drink splashed on her silk blouse, and if her looks could kill, I’d be dead.
“Get it over with, Gabriel. This is starting to bore me. Kill me or leave.” She talked a good game, but I could taste her fear. It was delicious. “You can read my mind after killing Parkman, so even without your lie detection you know I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re so funny, Angela. I didn’t take Parkman’s power. I’ve never wanted to read minds. Feeling people’s emotions is bad enough. I sure as hell don’t want to know how you think.” I got up and paced away from her to pour myself a drink. “It’s funny. Even after you lied to me about being my mother, I missed you. You were everything I’d ever wanted, and then when I had you as Nathan’s mother I found out you’re not very good it all.”
“As if I want to hear your opinions on being a parent, Gabriel, are you going to use Virginia as the prime example of motherhood?”
“If I was going to name an example it would be Heidi. She is a wonderful mother.”
She choked on her drink. “You’re in love with her?”
“Yes and by killing you, the last person who knows who I am dies. Everyone else thinks I’m dead.”
“You’re going back to being Nathan?”
“Hell no. Heidi, the boys and I are moving to California where my family can be safe.” I walked over behind her, taking her head between my hands and gave it a sharp twist. “This is how I did Chandra. He was like a father to me. Good bye, Angela.”
Rating: R - violence
Genre: Gen
Wordcount: 2300+
Pairings or Characters: Sylar, Parkman, Noah and Angela
Warnings: None
Summary: Follow up to the Man in the Mirror and RP with
petrelliheidi. Sylar remembers who he was, and it's payback time.Dust motes danced through the weak sunbeams that made it through the cobweb covered windows of my shop as I sat down in the middle of the floor. I pulled the plastic bag that contained my broken watch out of my pocket. Since realizing that I wasn’t Nathan Petrelli, I’d made a great deal of progress in controlling the psychometry. I wasn’t forced to watch the baggie’s past. Here it is in the box. Here it is on the grocery store shelf. Here it is in the pantry…
I looked at the watch through the plastic. The cracked face, the time stopped at seven minutes to midnight. I didn’t remember how it got broken. I know from the memories on my work table that I worked on it for years, putting each piece together until it worked. I’d finished it the day Chandra Suresh came looking for me. My memories of him are sketchy at best, but the Sylar will tell me the rest.
As soon as I can fight back the fear and strap it around my wrist.
“Now or never. Stop being a chicken shit. You wanted this. Wanted your life back, so you can protect Heidi and the boys. So you can have a family. So you can be free and have your life back,” I told myself, reaching into the bag at last. The leather was well worn, brown stains on the back of the black strap from old blood. It fit like it was part of my body. I closed my eyes and let the memories of my life hit me like the Big Bang itself.
When I came to I was flat on my back. It was dark outside, and there was dried blood under my nose. I got up and made my way to the back of the shop, bent over the small sink to wash my face and found blood under my nails too. There aren’t any scratches on my face, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were. I probably tried to claw my eyes out from the things I saw.
“No need to check that.” I rub my thumb over the watch, seeing my name on the black background. “Hello me. I’ve missed you.”
The three of them did this to me. Took my soul and my mind, twisted my body and made me think I was Nathan Petrelli. Angela, Noah and Parkman would pay for what they’d done. My revenge would be shift, and I couldn’t wait to feel their blood on my hands.
“Parkman first. He’s got the most power. That makes him dangerous.”
***
“Hello Mrs. Parkman, I’m a friend of Matt’s from NYPD. He told me that if I was in town I should drop by for a visit.” I smiled at Janice Parkman as she held the front door open. I was dressed in dark jeans and shirt. It was good to be out of Nathan’s monkey suits and in my own clothes. The kid looked me and gave me a gap toothed smile, while a string of drool ran down his chin. “He’s a cutie. I didn’t know you and Matt were expecting.”
“I’m sorry, but Matt’s not here.” She was nervous and tired. There was a tightness in the corner of her mouth. Something bad had happened. If Parkman got himself killed before I got to him, I was going to be pissed.
“Matt’s OK?” I fished for more information, crouching down to pick up the kid’s bottle when he dropped it. “Here you go.”
“Matt’s in the hospital. He had a nervous breakdown.”
”Oh I’m sorry to hear that, would it be all right if I visited him?” I liked it. It’d be better to kill him in a hospital than in front of his family. His kid didn’t need to be traumatized for life. I’m a father now. I wouldn’t want anything like that to happen to my boys, to Heidi’s boys.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” She shifted the baby on her hip and blew her hair out of her eyes.
“Please, Janice. I came three thousand miles to see Matt. I promise I won’t tell anyone else about this. It might help him to see a friendly face.”
***
The hospital was a state run mental hospital, a big concrete block that smelled like bleach, puke and piss. It reminded me of my time on Level 5 and at Primatech. I stole a lab coat out of a supply closet and some scrubs, blending in like the rest of the mindless medical drones who carried around trays of rainbow colored placebos in little plastic cups. I could have killed someone and taken their place, but I didn’t want to shapeshift into anyone else until absolutely necessary. I know what that did to me now. It drove me insane.
They didn’t blink as I came behind the counter of the nurse’s station and found Parkman’s files. I read them as I strolled into his room. He’d lost weight. His dark eyes were focused on the corner of the bed, and he was having a conversation with someone I couldn’t see.
“Looks like you’re on enough tranquilizers to drop an elephant, Parkman.” He didn’t turn toward the sound of my voice. He kept having his conversation with his imaginary friend. According to the file his friend was me. I laughed out loud as I used Elle’s power to melt the hinges so the door wouldn’t open until I wanted it too. The smell of ozone and scorched paint filled the room, but Parkman still wouldn’t look at me.
“Parkman!” I walked over to him, slapped his formerly chubby cheek. “Wake up Parkman, got a nice donut for you if you wake up, Parkman.”
“Get out of my head, Sylar. Go away. Leave me alone,” he said to imaginary me.
I tapped him on the forehead with the clipboard none-too-gently and smiled as I sat down in imaginary me’s place in his delusion. “You think I’m in your head? How stupid are you, Parkman? You do realize that you’re placing the blame for all your bad thoughts and internal darkness on me. Who did you blame your jealousy issues on me before me?”
His eyes focused on me now that I’d taken the other’s spot. I had to wonder if he saw two of us now. “You’re not here.”
“I wasn’t before, but I am now. Would you like to know why I’m here, Parkman?” I put the file down on the bed. Raised my hand and used my power to shove him into the corner of the room hard enough to know the wind out of him. I lifted him up until his head touched the ceiling tiles. “I’m here to kill you. To punish you for helping Angela Petrelli steal my life.”
“You can’t kill me. You’re not real!” Spittle flew from his lips. He was insane. “If you kill me, you die too!”
“Oh you figured it out.” I chuckled and sat up, walking over to him to grab his face in my hand. “I’m going to beat you to death. I really hoped you were still in there. Your mind’s too far gone to realize what I’m doing is real, but your body will feel the pain.”
With that I flung him across the small room using all the strength that my anger added to my telekinesis. He hit the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and I smiled as I flung him back across to the other side. “I wonder how many times it’ll take before you’re too broken to breathe. That’s two. I hope you make it to twenty.”
He made it to fifteen before he died.
***
I would have saved Noah for last. He’d been my nemesis from the very beginning, but that honor was Angela’s now. I hoped she was having nightmares about me coming for her, but it didn’t matter where she hid, that bitch would be mine.
Noah was in Virginia. Living in a crappy apartment above the Japanese restaurant Angela made me try sushi at. God that shit had been disgusting. I was whistling as I climbed the stairs to his place a smile on my face as I envisioned Claire being inside, so I could kill Noah in front of her. Unlike Janice Parkman I had no qualms about scarring Claire for life. She hadn’t come to see Nathan once since I’d taken his place. She was obviously as selfish as her grandmother, only caring about herself and her needs.
Unlocking the door was easy. I’ve got a knack for using my telekinesis on locks. It didn’t take me long to find one of Noah’s own guns. I sat on the sofa, grinning as I turned into Claire to wait for him. I’d been her before. It wasn’t hard, and I wouldn’t be her long enough for it to fuck me up.
“Hey Claire Bear,” he said with a huge smile as he came through the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I need some money, dad,” I said with a smile as big as his. “You know how college life is.”
“I thought you were going to get a job at Starbucks? How much do you need?”
“My dealer says if I don’t give him $500 this week, he’ll stop giving me drugs, and I’ll have to fuck him to get high.”
“OK.” He said as he came over, pulling out his wallet and started counting a stack of twenties. “Wait what? Why?”
“To protect my family, Noah.” I stood up fast, shoved the gun into his gaping mouth and fired, shifting into my own shape as I blew his head off. Blood and brains splattered on the wall and ceiling like fireworks. But the last thing he saw or heard was Claire’s voice and my face. I wiped my prints off the gun before I left, taking the money from his wallet. I turned back into Claire to leave. Let the witnesses wonder if there were any.
***
I’d promised Heidi that she could be there when I had my revenge on Angela, but that was a promise I couldn’t keep. She accepted me, loved me, even knowing what I was capable of. She let me into her heart and the life of her children, but I didn’t think that love could survive watching me in action. Not now that I could picture my past instead of reading dull Company reports. She knew who Sylar was on paper. She didn’t know what I was like with blood on my hands. Her love, our family, was what mattered the most. It was all that mattered now.
No one stopped me as I entered the Petrelli mansion. I didn’t bother to wear Nathan’s face. It wasn’t as if any of Angela’s minions could stop me once my mind was set on something, and it was set on ending her reign of terror and manipulation.
“I was wondering when you’d get here,” Angela said from the sideboard where she was pouring herself a drink. “I dreamt about you coming.”
“I’m sure you did, so you know this time there’s nothing you can do to stop me.” I hold up my wrist, letting her see my watch. “This was the key. You should have destroyed it. Probably should have burnt down the shop in Queens too. Those were both a big help in repairing the damage Parkman did to me.”
“You’re right.” She took a drink, the sour expression on her face never changing. Angela always looked like she’d eaten something she didn’t like. “I should have been more careful.”
“You were sloppy.” I drop onto the sofa, propping my feet up on the coffee table. I know she hates it from Nathan’s memories, so I make sure to scuff it with my heels. “You should have assigned me a handler. Someone who gave a shit about Nathan to keep him fresh in my mind, instead you couldn’t be bothered. Not even Peter could be bothered to spend time with his brother. I was terrified. I was alone, and my family wasn’t there to help me.”
As she moved to walk behind her desk, where I knew she had a gun, I yanked her with telekinesis and forced her onto the other end of the couch. Her drink splashed on her silk blouse, and if her looks could kill, I’d be dead.
“Get it over with, Gabriel. This is starting to bore me. Kill me or leave.” She talked a good game, but I could taste her fear. It was delicious. “You can read my mind after killing Parkman, so even without your lie detection you know I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re so funny, Angela. I didn’t take Parkman’s power. I’ve never wanted to read minds. Feeling people’s emotions is bad enough. I sure as hell don’t want to know how you think.” I got up and paced away from her to pour myself a drink. “It’s funny. Even after you lied to me about being my mother, I missed you. You were everything I’d ever wanted, and then when I had you as Nathan’s mother I found out you’re not very good it all.”
“As if I want to hear your opinions on being a parent, Gabriel, are you going to use Virginia as the prime example of motherhood?”
“If I was going to name an example it would be Heidi. She is a wonderful mother.”
She choked on her drink. “You’re in love with her?”
“Yes and by killing you, the last person who knows who I am dies. Everyone else thinks I’m dead.”
“You’re going back to being Nathan?”
“Hell no. Heidi, the boys and I are moving to California where my family can be safe.” I walked over behind her, taking her head between my hands and gave it a sharp twist. “This is how I did Chandra. He was like a father to me. Good bye, Angela.”
