Angela unlocked the door to her mansion and tried to turn on the lights. They wouldn't go on. She sighed slightly. "Hello, Gabriel," she said. "I wondered how long it would be before you came to visit."
She was thrown back against the wall. "My name is not Gabriel," Sylar said. "You made sure of that."
"I suppose I did," she said. "Would you like to go into the sitting room, or are we going to stay out in the hall?"
She was released abruptly and dropped to the floor. She picked herself up and showed Sylar into the other room. They sat down facing each other, sitting in cushioned red armchairs. "So, why did you come?" she asked.
"You know why," he said. "You were even expecting me."
She didn't answer at first. "You have all the skills, you know," she mused. "You just need a little more practice," she said.
"Don't play games with me, Angela," he said. "I'm not a patient man."
"Oh, but we both know that isn't true, Sylar. If you weren't patient, you would have simply killed the four of us instantly back at Primatech, rather than toying with us to prove a point," she said. "You still have a great deal to learn."
"And I'm supposed to learn from you?" he sneered.
"Didn't it ever occur to you to wonder why you believed me so easily when I claimed to be your mother?" she asked.
Sylar didn't answer, so she continued, "It's because we are exactly the same. We both see people as tools to be used. I'm simply better at it than you are."
"You think you could have succeeded? You can't even get your sons to follow your pretty plans," he snorted.
"Right now, both my sons are behaving exactly as I expected," she said. "Nathan is well on his way to becoming the president who will impose order on this chaos. As for Peter, once he's backed into a corner, he'll loose his scruples. The details may be different, but the big picture hasn't changed."
"You never change, do you, Angela?" Sylar asked.
"No one does, Sylar," she said. "Did you ever wonder how it's possible for us to predict the future, when there are so many variables? It's because even though small things may change, people always choose according to their natures. Your little test failed simply because you failed to understand that."
"Claire, for example, simply dislikes change. When she first got her powers, she hated them because they were new and different. Now, she doesn't know how to live without them. She refused to face your choice because it meant facing change.
"Noah will always fight wholeheartedly to protect the things he cares about. That includes the people who are important to the people he cares about. He recognized your trap, and he gambled that a third choice might be presented to him," she explained.
"You're trying to tell me they're good people," Sylar sneered.
"Not at all," she said. "Noah has killed quite a few people personally, including his old mentor. As for Claire, her hands aren't exactly clean, either. She deliberately crashed a car, permanently crippling a boy who tried to rape her. And that's only the things she's already done. I am merely observing that they always act according to their natures."
"And what does that make you?" Sylar asked.
"If you need me to tell you, then you aren't nearly as intelligent as I expected," she said.
Sylar got up to leave. "Aren't you even going to ask about your parents?" she asked.
"I'll be back," he said, and disappeared out into the darkness.