The Road to Redemption

Part One

A New Man

AN: This story would not leave me alone till I started writing it. I will still be updating, Impossible Things (chpt 3 is nearly complete) but I had to get this one out of my system.

This is an eventual Mylar pairing…Rated P-13 at the moment but possible R for later chapters.

"So what do you think?"

Noah Bennett turned a careful eye towards his partner Matt Parkman and smiled.

"I think he'll do just fine," he replied.

"Yeah, well - you didn't take four bullets from the guy."

"And you haven't stopped bitching about it since - besides, he's not that man anymore and the more we remind him and ourselves of that man, the worse it will be for all concerned."

Matt nodded solemnly as he raised a cup of coffee to his lips and took a sip.

"Shit," he muttered as the hot liquid scalded his tongue.

"That was hot," he added and Bennett just raised an eyebrow, smirked.

"You're an idiot, know that?"

"Yeah, yeah…I know, Janice tells me at least twice before breakfast."

Bennett nodded, "Get him ready, would you?"

"Yeah, sure…that lackey will get to it boss," Matt quipped as Bennett started away from him.

"Hey, so wait a second, who you partnering him with?"

"Claire," Bennett answered and watched as Matt's eyes got wide.

"She'll do fine," he added and then shook his head, "actually, she's only the mediator of sorts - I am pairing him up with Mohinder Suresh."

Matt laughed out loud.

"You got to be kidding me!"

"What's funny?"

"It's all freaking funny Noah!" Matt chuckled, "for one…you have managed to turn some super powered mass murder into some docile little super agent and you want to partner him with YOUR daughter, the one may I add…he tried to kill and with the guy…whose father he killed!"

Noah just glared him.

"So you don't see the humor in this?"

Bennett ignored him.
"They'll be fine," Bennett said, "I have spent four years on this assignment, if Sylar was still anywhere in that man, do you honestly think I would send him out with MY daughter or Suresh?"

Matt shrugged, " No…"

"No," Bennett added, in a tone a voice that made it perfectly clear he wanted the subject dropped.

"I wouldn't," he went on, "Sylar is dead and that man in there is Gabriel Gray, get used to it…I have."

He turned and started away, leaving Matt behind to shake his head at such a thought.

----

For his part Gabriel Gray didn't remember much about the months he had spent being a serial killer named Sylar. In fact, the more he learned about the guy he was (which wasn't much) - the more thankful he was to have had it all wiped away from his memory.

He for one could not fathom how he could have done such horrible things in the first place. He was or so he thought, was the kind of guy who hated to see anyone hurt or in pain and he was just grateful that now he had been a chance to make a difference in the world.

He could at last be special and help others - do things that meant something.

He had been a long four years training for this day.

It had been nearly four years since, he had awoken with powers he couldn't believe he possessed (not too mention a pretty nasty stab wound) but on top of the powers that the organization had helped him to fine tune over the years. He had also received weapons and hand to hand combat training - he was also pretty good with computers and others technological stuff. In fact, picking all that stuff up had been easy and Bennett seemed pleased at the way he was able to master things so quickly.

It was like a dream come true - he was going to get to be a spy! He still couldn't believe it. Here he was a normal enough guy (unless you counted the telekenis or the super hearing or any of the other neat tricks he now possessed.)

And he had been caught up seemingly overnight into what felt like a surreal movie. He was lonely but he was also happy in a sense. He could make a difference. He could do all the great things his mother had told him she saw in him.

Except, he had once been a terrible person and he had killed a lot of people. It wasn't something he liked to dwell on and Noah Bennett had assured him many a time that it was what he did now with himself that was important. The past is the past, he would say and Gabriel would nod and take those words to heart. It was hard though especially around the other guys he trained with, they always seemed to be eying him wearly as if they expected him to fly off the handle at any second.

He just wished sometimes he could remember more about his life. Maybe, not the bad things he had done but surely it hadn't all been bad, right? There must have been some good. It was fustrating to only remember bits and pieces of the man he had been before.

"I want to see my family," he remembers telling Bennett, " I have a mother - she's a widow and she must be worried about me."

"You don't have a mother Gabriel."

"No," he said, shaking his head, "I do - I remember that much…her name is Virginia and she - she lives in Queens."

Noah had come over to him and sat down.

"No - Gabriel…your mothers dead, she's been dead for awhile now."

"How?"

"You don't remember?"

Gabriel had shaken his head, "No…I don't…I …what happened?"
"Cancer," Bennett said solemnly," she died of cancer."

He had had placed a comforting arm around his shoulders and Gabriel was thankful for Bennett. He seemed to be the only person around who didn't look at him like he was some kind of monster, well him and his daughter Claire. They had gotten to be friends of sorts and she was a nice girl. Yet, sometimes she would look at him as if she expected him to hurt her but those moments were few and far between. They got along pretty well for the most part.

So - he had sat there, feeling comforted and trying to remember his mother. Yet, she was only there in the back of his mind, somewhere - hazy and unfocused. He wanted to cry but found he couldn't because he could only vaguely remember what it had felt like to care for her in the first place.

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Yet, slowly in the last four years he had certain dreams: he dreamt of his mother sometimes, she was always so angry with him in those dreams and they were fighting and …

He always woke up covered in sweat, his heart pounding - hoping that their last conversation together hadn't ended with them fighting with her shrieking at him, her eyes big and frightened and then there were other dreams… of a man, one whose face he could never quite make out but he was beautiful, he knew that much and his voice was smooth and accented and he always woke up before he could make out his face clearer.

Those dreams troubled him the most but he couldn't even begin to tell himself why.

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Bennett sauntered over to the workstations to find Mohinder Suresh working with the other techies at the com stations. He headed up research these days but he also made an excellent field man. He had weapons and tactile training of his own and was quite equipped to handle himself these days.

He was shouting out orders as Bennett approached, "I need to talk to you," he said, all business.

Mohinder nodded, and barked out another command - one that went immediately heeded as Mohinder was no one to mess with these days and he had the attention and respect of everyone in their organization.

He followed after Bennett who went into Mohinder's office with Mohinder following, closing the door behind the both of them.

"What is it?"

Mohinder had no use for idle chit chat.

His days were long and busy enough but he knew Noah wasn't a man who chatted - not when he shut the office door anyway.

"My pet project," he started and watched as Mohinder stiffened at those words, "he's ready."

Mohinder swallowed hard and looked away, "Congratulations on rehabilitating a madman."

"A madman he has no recollection of being," Bennett told him.

Mohinder shrugged and went over to his desk, sat on it and turned to Bennett.

"So, what the hell does this have to do with me?"

"He's going to be your new partner."

Mohinder's eyes widened and he shook his head.

"No," he said.

"You can't say no," Bennett told him.

"I just did…"

"So you're resigning?"

Mohinder just stared at him.

"Are you serious. Bennett, you want me to quit if I don't take him on as a partner! That man killed my father."

"I know," Bennett said quietly.

"I know you two have history," he added.

Mohinder looked away and Bennett continued, "But, you two are a good fit! He's not Sylar, not anymore - he's Gabriel Gray and he's one of the sharpest, most efficient agents I have ever had the privilege of training and he needs someone like you."

Mohinder turned his gaze back towards him, "Fine," he muttered.

"And as back up - so you don't kill the guy… I am sending you out with Claire, if anyone is going to keep you two in line its her, understand?"
"I said fine," Mohinder answered, his lips pressed into a tight line.

"Alright, get off your pity party and come meet him, would you?"
"I have already met him," Mohinder said bitterly and Bennett smiled, "Yeah, well he's never met you so let's go, shall we?"

--------------

"You nervous?"

Gabriel turned in his seat to take in the pretty blonde woman sitting next to him.

Claire Bennett, now twenty-one and a beautiful woman dressed in a sleek black pants suit and a tousled mane of blonde hair, grinned at him.

"I guess so…"

Claire nudged him.

"You're going to do great things out there, trust me," she said.

"I hope so," Gabriel said and sipped at his coffee as they sat together in an empty conference room waiting for Bennett to come in with information on his first assignment.

"I know so, I saw you in the training vids…you're like a one man army out there," she smiled, "It's going to be just fine."

He wasn't convinced, his nerves were making him fidgety. It was something that he and Bennett had discussed many times. How he needed to focus more and calm himself. He had to be careful not to late his emotions get too heated and agitated but he couldn't help himself. He was a nervous wreck. He wished he was more like Claire. From what he had heard, she was very good at her job and she was still pretty young and he stole a glance at her. She was cool as a freaking cucumber as she sipped her diet soda and watched the door.

"He'll be here soon," she said, "he's just bringing with him are new partner who I am sure needed to be dragged kicking and screaming out of his office for this one."

"Why?"

She turned to Gabriel and averted her gaze slightly while she shrugged her shoulders.

"He's a nice enough guy, Mohinder but he has a hard time loosening up," she answered quickly and there was that bright cheery smile again but something in her tone made him uneasy.

Before, he could ask her more the door opened and Bennett stepped into the room, apologizing as he held the door open for someone else.

Into the room stepped Mohinder Suresh wearing a stony expression as he locked eyes on the man sitting across the table.

The time stopped for Gabriel as he could only gape at the man who had entered, his stomach dropping as it did so.

A terrible sense of déjà vu washed over him as he took in the man who had entered the room.

Then it hit him and it hit him hard as realization flooded over him.

He was staring into the cold eyes of the man he had spent the last four years dreaming about.