It was like a game of chess – played across years using human lives for pieces and casting thousands aside in the search for the slightest advantage. Those who were 'special' were the most powerful pieces of all and it is they who now play the game; a select few have escaped the board and become players in turn. The aims of the game may have changed but the rules haven't, the prize is power and the stake is the entire world...
"Nathan dear. Are you all right?" Anyone who didn't know Angela Petrelli would have seen nothing more than a mother gently prodding her son back to reality. But to those who knew her well there was an increasingly brittle edge to Angela. A woman burdened with secrets that no-one should know and decisions that no-one should ever have to make.
Her son shook himself, seemingly drifting out of a reverie. "Sorry Ma." He glanced down at the board between them, long textured fingers grasped the worn ebony wood of his knight and brought it down with a decisive 'click'. "Your move." His mother barely even glanced at the board as exquisitely manicured fingernails engulfed a pawn, thrusting it forward into the teeth of her sons attack.
The next few moves were played in silence – only the clicking of the pieces against the board punctuating the still air before Nathan sighed, leaned back and spoke, seemingly to thin air. "I suppose it's my fault for playing with a woman who can see the future. At least Peter had the grace to lose to me occasionally."
"You have all the ability you know Nathan." His mother replied, her posture relaxing somewhat. "You just need more practice."
"Well we both know with my schedule these days I won't be beating you anytime soon Ma." Nathan glanced at his watch as he stood up and briefly embraced his mother. "Same time next week?"
"Of course Nathan." The Petrelli matriarch smiled; tiredly Nathan thought. "Now off you go, don't want to keep the senate commission waiting."
"Goodbye Ma." With that Nathan Petrelli, junior senator for the state of New York disappeared.
"You manipulate people – position your pawns just where you need them most; and the best bit is, if you do it well enough then they don't even realise they are being used. They do it for their friends; their families; they do it for love, hate, revenge, justice. But it doesn't matter to you does it? Just as long as you are the one in control. You'll do anything and sacrifice anyone to make your vision of the future a reality. Because in the end, Ma, you're afraid. Afraid of change, afraid of power, and most of all you're afraid that in the end someone will beat you at your own game and leave you with nothing. You killed your husband, destroyed your children and all that you did it for has failed. You have to win, because there is nothing else left for you."
"What have you done with my son, you monster?"
"What have I done with your son Angela?" Features shifted, regressing to the form of Nathan Petrelli. "I killed him of course. What did you expect me to do?"
Angela Petrelli sat bolt upright in her bed shaking like grass in a storm wind.