I was glancing over old stories and this one begged to be revised so here I am, revising it. Hope readers old and new enjoy!

Part 1 – Ad Meliora (Towards Better Things)

-1988-

'Gabriel Gray get yourself down those stairs right now! You're going to be late!' The shouting was nothing new, not to Gabriel, it was all he had known whenever he had done something wrong. Never physical violence, his mother abhorred that sort of behaviour, but that never stopped her telling him exactly what she thought of his supposed laziness.

Sometimes he wished that he could be enough for her just as he was. Surely that was not so much to ask?

Banishing such thoughts from his head because Gabriel knew without a doubt that such thoughts wouldn't do anything to improve his mother's mood he hurriedly finished packing his bag before hurrying down the stairs. Without glancing at the clock he knew he was running exactly two minutes and fourteen seconds late.

That was another recent development. At first he had shaken off his ability to understand things as a bizarre but natural aptitude but now it was verging on scary, maybe he had been working with clocks too long.

'Ah, there's my special boy.' Gabriel did his best to hold in a grimace, not wanting his mother to see his adverse reaction to that particular nickname. He was, after all, nothing special.

'Good morning mom.' He said quietly as he embraced her, in return he received a piece of toast.

'You had better eat that on the way if you want to catch the bus.' Oh yes, first day of high school, big school, grown-up school. If there was one thing you tried your best to do was avoid making a bad first impression and if he missed the bus, he's be doing exactly.

'Thank you mom, I'll see you later.' Gabriel started off at a normal pace but the moment he was out of sight of the house he burst into a sprint, his mind insisting on telling him exactly how late he was still running.

In the end Gabriel was lucky, the bus had been running late as well, mainly due to the large number of clueless first years like him who had no idea what the correct amount of change was or where it was cool to sit. Unluckily, he'd ended up at the back of the queue meaning that by the time he got on it was standing room only unless you wanted to be teased for asking an older kid to move over.

Gabriel wasn't brave enough to risk that. He got enough teasing for looking old fashioned, with his perfect clothes and glasses, not helped by his natural shyness. He'd always had trouble making friends because he didn't want to do cruel things to fit in; as a result he'd kept his head down, done his work and generally avoided other people.

'Look kid, are you gonna sit down or not?' Pulling himself out of his thoughts Gabriel's eyes met those of a girl who must have been at least ninth grade, if not tenth. Realising that she had moved over to vacate the seat next to her Gabriel blushed at his lack of observation and promptly sat down.

'You're gonna sit with that loser?' The taunt came from one of the boys sat the back. He was everything Gabriel wasn't, cool, rebellious and annoyingly handsome. Much to Gabriel's surprise, rather than just ignoring the taunt the girl next to him turned round and yelled right back.

'Yeah, you got a problem with that?' Gabriel watched in astonishment as the boy backed down immediately and shut up. Turning back down from the confrontation Gabriel got his first proper look at his saviour and was barely able to stop his gasp of shock.

She was beautiful. Framed by the light from the sunrise streaming in through the window, long golden curls fell into her face and her striking blue-green eyes were now focussed on the book she had propped up against the seat in front. She looked like the kind of girl who would have to throw the boys off, why was she being so kind to him?

'You ok kid?' Gabriel blushed once again, he was pretty sure she'd caught him essentially checking her out.

'Yeah, I'm fine, thanks.' His voice came out quiet and insecure, suddenly he felt embarrassed that it hadn't broken yet; at least the boys at the back had that.

'Sure? Look, ignore the idiots at the back; they're just trying to be clever despite their limited IQ. You're a new kid right?' Gabriel nodded, still not trusting his voice to come out without squeaking, 'What's your name kid? No, let me guess, shy, geeky, alarmingly cute, I'd say you look like an angel to me.'

If Gabriel had been blushing before it was nothing compared to this, his face was practically burning. He was fairly sure that the girl next to him, who was way out of his league, had just flattered him, or maybe even flirted. But something else had struck him in that moment, her voice was filled with compassion and it was one of the nicest feelings he'd ever experienced, he'd never received compassion from his mother.

'It's Gabriel, Gabriel Gray.' He would forever thank the heavens that he had managed to sound vaguely confident, first impressions were important after all.

'See? I was right!' Her happy exclamation caused him to glance up in surprise, a moment after making eye contact she extended a hand to him. 'Megan Heath, it's nice to meet you Gabriel.'

In the middle of the bus on the way to high school on the first day of term, a shy boy and a popular girl shook hands and a life-long friendship was formed.

-2011-

'What have the results shown so far?' Two men stood in a corridor, their conversation hushed and urgent.

'Well sir, the prisoner has certainly exhibited signs of interrupted sleep, I'm fairly sure we will soon start getting verbal feedback.'

'Yes, well, let me know the moment that happens.' One man turned, ready to leave.

'Sir, I don't mean to intrude but this guy must have had a seriously mucked up past for the drugs to take effect so quickly.'

'On that front, at least, you're on the right lies, but trust me, Mr Gray has done enough to deserve far worse than a few nightmares.'

Noah Bennet turned and left the scientist behind in the corridor, the new recruits always had moral issues at first, especially those from the medical profession; he'd make sure that recruit got the full brief on Sylar before he got sympathetic for the man, if you could describe Sylar as a man. A monster would be a better description.

Halfway across the building and several metres underground Sylar woke with a start for the third time that night. Or at least he assumed it was night, the artificial light produced by the bare bulb was no help in judging the time of day.

Running a hand through hair that badly needed a wash Sylar took several deep breaths to calm his racing heart. The nightmares themselves were no longer unusual, whatever drug they had him on this time it was certainly doing its job in ensuring he was constantly exhausted. Tonight however, had been the first time he had thought of her in over two years.

Before his latest dream he had been reliving some of his earliest memories, including the one of seeing a woman murdered at a café before being picked up by his mother. But now, they had suddenly jumped forward six year to the day he had met Megan Heath.

Even now, several minutes after returning to full awareness he could still picture her face, her eyes, and with her reappearance in his dreams, so came the reappearance of the remnants of Gabriel, which was perhaps the last thing he wanted. Sylar imagined that if they decided to do a psychological evaluation of him he would probably be diagnosed with split personality disorder.

But still, Megan was associated with a better time in his life and now that he considered it, that was probably the reason he had dreamed about their encounter so vividly compared to his other memories. That meeting was probably the first time in his life he had been truly happy, most of his childhood he had been shunned and rejected by his peers and looked down upon by his mother, but Megan had accepted him for who he was by moving over so he could sit down on the bus, a show of true kindness.

Sylar promptly shook those thoughts away; they were edging uncomfortably close to sentiment and therefore Gabriel territory. Besides, he wasn't that man anymore.

After all, Megan was possibly the only reason he had ever had moments of doubt and guilt for his actions over the past four odd years. Megan was to blame for his current situation as well, he had hesitated because his newest victim had looked like her and that pause had cost him his freedom. He would have been better off if he had never met her.

He didn't want to be Gabriel anymore, Sylar was stronger, revered, feared. But Gabriel was always there, in the back of his head and Gabriel's ever increasing guilt and anger at Sylar's actions made him wonder why Gabriel hadn't already won the battle for control. Instead Sylar kept going, hoping the fear of relapsing to such a state would be enough to keep Gabriel frightened enough to refrain from acting.

It had worked so far.

But now he could feel Gabriel gaining strength, and ground. Locked away in a cell, having drugs forced into him that blocked his acquired abilities, Sylar wasn't able to scare Gabriel away anymore. All he could do was hope that an opportunity would arise and he would be able to escape.

The thought of escape forced his head up, despite the lethargy that wanted to drag him down, in order to re-examine his surroundings. The cell remained unchanged; it was the same four thick grey walls with a thick sheet of glass spread across one, cold grey concrete floor and very thick locked door that had greeted him when he had first arrived here. No privacy, no way out.

It only made him hate his captors all the more, he valued his freedom more than anything and they had taken that away from him. He received the bare minimum in terms of sustenance, a shower once a week, he was only allowed near a razor to shave if several guns were pointed at him.

What would Megan think of him now?

'A penny for them,' Noah Bennet's voice pulled Sylar out of his moping, but he didn't grant his tormenter the courtesy of turning to face him. Besides there was no way he could mistake the voice, Bennet was the only voice other than his own that had heard since arriving here.

'Go away.' To his surprise, Bennet did exactly that, normally he stayed and stared at him until he cracked and lashed out in anger, or related the mundane events of his day to tease Sylar with thoughts of freedom. But Sylar couldn't help but feel grateful that Bennet had respected his wishes this time.

He really needed some time to think.

As Noah Bennet walked away a smirk appeared on his lips, Sylar was thinking about his past alright, now was just a matter of time before he slipped up and they had the key to Sylar's greatest weakness.