Title: The Solar Kill

Author: filmFreak1

Disclaimer: Heroes and Veronica Mars belong to Tim Kring/NBC and Rob Thomas/CW, respectively, and whoever else has rights to either of these series.

Rated: T (violent content)

Summary: Post Volume 2. Crossover Veronica Mars. Darkfic, featuring character death. Sylar makes an error that brings tragedy to the town of Neptune.

Feedback: would be very highly appreciated. I don't mind criticism, but try to be constructive.

The bearded man sitting behind the desk regarded the visitors who sat before him. The one who sat on the left resembled him slightly (for one thing, they were both bald), but was clean-shaven, older, and more heavyset, and wore glasses with thick dark frames—perhaps a little similar to how he himself might look in about ten or twenty years. This visitor had introduced himself as Bob—no surname given.

The one who sat on the right was as different from the other as night from day; to any outsider, it would have been unbelievable that she was related at all to the older man. She was thin, blond, and gorgeous. Despite her beauty, however, the bearded man could hardly stand to look at her. She reminded him too much of…her. Part of him wanted to leap over the desk and strangle this imposter, and yet another part wanted to cry and hug her tightly. The only reason he had not done the latter of these was that he had been expecting them, and thus knew she was not who he wished she was.

It had all started a month ago, after the horrific event; the image of the top half of her skull separated from the rest of her body still haunted him. The funeral had been a very somber event, even by funeral standards; Wallace Fennel had been especially devastated by the loss. The bearded man (although he had not had the beard then) had sworn an oath to himself that he would find the one responsible for such an act and put him in a hole, whether it be a cell or a grave. He had put all of his deputies on the case, at the neglect of everything else. The lower elements of Neptune had taken notice, and crime had shot up greatly as a result. The man now sitting behind the desk stopped taking proper care of himself; he stopped shaving altogether (hence the beard), and only took a shower once every few days. Nothing mattered except for hunting the monster. The deputies were initially sympathetic, but eventually grew frustrated with his obsession. Finally, about a week ago, they had unanimously decided that he was emotionally incapable of carrying on his duties as sheriff and should be taken off the job until further notice. He was put on paid suspension, and a deputy was selected to serve as acting sheriff in the meantime.

Not that that had stopped him of course. He continued the case from his other office, turning down all clients who approached him about taking their cases. After learning about the brain-stealing serial killer from the feds who came to Neptune to investigate the murder, newspaper articles began to line his walls; articles either printed off the Internet or scanned from the microfilm at the public library, all of them having to do with the monster's victims, such as James Walker and Zane Taylor.

A few days ago, he had received a phone call. The man known as Bob was on the other end of the line. Apparently, Bob's daughter, who now sat next to him, had read about the murder in an online article and had noticed that the victim bore a very strong resemblance to herself. Bob had gone on to say that he was coming down to Neptune shortly.

Hence how they were now sitting in front of the desk.

The bearded man had heard of the doppelganger theory before, the idea that everyone had a physical double out there, but he had never believed it…until now.

After what seemed to be an eternity of silence, he leaned forward on his desk. "So what did you come here to tell me?"

"Don't forget that we agreed on the phone that what we showed you would stay in this office, Detective," said Bob.

The bearded man nodded in reply.

Bob turned to his daughter. "Go ahead, Elle."

"Detective Mars, we believe Sylar killed your daughter because he wanted to kill me."

Keith Mars leaned back. "So Veronica died because of a case of mistaken identity? Is that what you're telling me?"

Elle nodded.

He closed his eyes. This revelation did nothing to ease his pain.

A moment later he opened his eyes again and looked at Elle. "So tell me, why would this…Sylar want to kill you?" He had previously detected that all was not right with his daughter's clone. There was something about her demeanor that bothered him, like she was an evil twin or something. Did Sylar have a good reason for wanting to kill her?

Elle turned and looked at her father.

"Go ahead, honey, we're going to have to tell him eventually anyway," said Bob.

Turning back to Keith, she raised her hand, palm facing toward him. He could not believe what he saw next.

Blue sparks of electricity crackled and traveled up and down her palm; Keith jumped in surprise.

"What the hell?!"

"Like I told you before, Detective, my company has a lot of very special people," said Bob. "Many of their abilities are just as powerful as or more so than Elle's here."

Keith's eyes jumped from Elle to Bob. "So what does that have to do with this Sylar?"

Bob explained in great detail to Keith how Sylar was able to use people's brains to steal their abilities and how he had nearly destroyed New York City with his nuclear powers; Keith remembered reading about the mysterious explosion that had been seen in the skies over the city that night.

When he was finished, Bob said, "Listen, Detective, we know how hard this has been on you, but Sylar is a very dangerous man. Now that he has his powers back, even those with such abilities are scared to go up against him."

Keith leaned forward once again. "Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?"

"I'm telling you that you need to give up your hunt for him. I know how hard that is, but you will only get yourself killed if you don't."

Keith started to open his mouth to reply, but Bob continued. "Listen, if you do as I ask, I'll keep you up to date on our investigation. Please, Detective, think of what your daughter would want. Go back to your job as sheriff and help those that need it."

After another moment's silence, Keith replied, "I'll consider your request."

--

Author's Note: This fic was just an idea that popped in my head recently. For now, I plan to conclude it in a couple of chapters, and those chapters will explain what happened before. Basically, the current plan is for it to be a short fic told in reverse.

Feedback, of course, will be highly appreciated.