Written for comment_fic on livejournal
Prompt was for the child Noah (Sylar's son in the episode 'I Am Become Death' that is set in the future), Noah's has a power
Gabriel noticed that Noah, at only 12 years old, was always tired lately. His grades were slipping, he quit the baseball team, and he hardly ever saw any of his friends any more.
Gabriel's lie-detection ability confirmed what he suspected - that Noah was sneaking around somewhere. But Gabriel had never learned to be the authoritarian parent, always being afraid where that would lead him. And young Noah always seemed to find a way to win their arguments. So Gabriel just smiled and hugged Noah and told him that someday he would trust enough to tell him, and Gabriel was willing to wait.
But then one day he heard Noah sneak out to use the pay phone two blocks over. Noah didn't really know how good Gabriel had gotten at focusing his hearing ability.
Noah, it turns out, was calling all over to find out about a man named Sylar. He was trying to locate people who might have information on him, people named Peter Petrelli and Mohinder Suresh.
Panic shot through Gabriel, as he wondered how close Noah was to finding out about his past.
He wanted to whisk Noah home and forbid him from looking into it. But he knew that telling a Gray not to bother figuring something out - that just drove them to pursue it further.
So he followed Noah. All the way to the apartment of Mohinder Suresh.
Gabriel listened to them as he hovered outside the curtained window, poised to rush Noah out of there at the first hint that Mohinder was going to reveal his secret.
But it turned out that Gabriel had underestimated his son.
"Welcome, Noah." Mohinder said.
"Do you have them?" Noah said.
"Yes. Right here. But I think we should talk about this."
"Why?"
"Well, for one thing, you're much younger than I expected."
"Irrelevant," Noah answered. Gabriel winced at the cool business-like tone in his voice -- when had Noah become a jaded young man? He was always precocious, yes, smart and mature for his age, but this? Just this morning he was giggling with a mouthful of waffles.
"And for another thing - this ... isn't wise. It's playing with the natural order."
"No offense, Dr. Suresh, but from what my research says, you're not one to talk. Besides, nature made me this way for a reason. I've done this lots of times. This is my destiny."
Gabriel shut his eyes in pain. He had done everything wrong. He thought he had shielded Noah from the worst parts of Gabriel.
Mohinder answered, "People who are obsessed with destiny often find it's not all it's cut out to be, Noah."
"Do you want him back or not?" Noah said.
"It's... of course, but .. I'm not so sure he would want this. It's been so long. And..." Mohinder sighed, full of conflict.
Noah spoke, "I'm sorry if this is hard. But I need to do this, Mohinder. Please?"
"It's not your job to atone for _his_ sins, Noah!"
"Yes it is! Why else would I be given this power?"
"To help people."
"I am helping people. Please, Dr. Suresh. It's the right thing to do, I know it."
Mohinder sighed again but said, "All right, Noah."
Gabriel heard an object land on the table and heard some substance swept around. He TKed the curtains aside so he could see, willing to risk being discovered if he could finally find out his son's secret.
It was ashes. From an urn.
And after Noah spread them out on the table, he concentrated on them, as a green smoke came from his little hands down to the ashes.
And then a burst of blinding flash.
And then Chandra Suresh. The exact same age as he day he died. Sitting, confused, on Mohinder's kitchen table.
Gabriel could hear his own heartbeat pounding thunderously, drowning out the explanations and wonder and shocked comments of Chandra and Mohinder. So this was Noah's secret project, Gabriel thought to himself, bringing back the dead. Undoing all of Sylar's terrible crimes.
Gabriel thought he could redeem himself by changing, by devoting himself to being a good father to Noah, by making his life about packing lunches and helping with homework and batting practice in the backyard. But at the back of his mind, he always knew that a white-picket fence life was no real atonement for the horrors he had committed. And even if he was always afraid that Noah would someday find out, he always assumed that Noah would hate him, would run away from him, would help his enemies kill him maybe.
He never thought Noah would decide to make up for Sylar's crimes. He never thought that Noah would have to bear such a burden, much less that he would choose to.
Gabriel knew that he should be grateful. That Noah loved him enough to want to 'fix' his crimes, that Noah had stayed with him, that Noah had such a life-affirming power.
But the thought of Noah stalking Sylar's victims, the thought of him obsessing over murder and forgiveness, the thought of his young son surrounded by the death and devastation that Sylar had caused, neck-deep in it, actively searching for the monster that Gabriel hid scared from, and looking it straight in the eye.
It was too much for a 12-year-old. Far too much. No child should have to endure it, especially one as good as Noah. And it made Gabriel hate Sylar more than ever. Made him want to destroy Sylar. It filled Gabriel with uncontrollable rage.
And then Sylar smiled. Because as soon as Gabriel lost control, Sylar was back.
And he looked at Mohinder embracing Chandra, with Noah beaming at their side, and he felt pride in his son.
Because his son was powerful.
So he sent a directed blast at Mohinder and Chandra, killing them both. And he burst through the window, smiled at his son, and said, "Nice trick. Now let me see you hit a double."