Fate, in the hand of men
- a Heroes story -

Author: ryuosen
Artist: davincis_girl
written for heroes_bigboom at lj
Genre: Action, Drama, Angst, Scifi, Het, Slash
Rating: R for violence, rape, language, sexual themes,
Wordcount: ~ 40000
Summary:
Everything changed with Claire's dive off the Ferris Wheel, just not for the better. When life became unbearable, there was no choice but to rebel. Yet for all their power, they're still losing. With their last chance, Peter, the right man for the job, used Hiro's power to stop Claire from ever taking the dive. Pity that he got himself killed beforehand, leaving Sylar with the task. Pity that he died too...

Notes:A big thank you to Ayou for listening to my ideas, whining and for kicking my ass, when it was necessary and to davincis_girl for the beautiful cover and the awesome fanmix booklet. Thanks a lot. It was great to work with you! A link to the artwork can be found in my profile under the story, along with the fanmix.

The story is complete with a prologue, 6 chapters, epilogue and will be updated every Wednesday.

Comments/critics are appreciated!


New York, 2010


"I finally found you."

Sylar stopped. He knew that voice even if he hadn't heard it in years. Turning around he came face to face with Peter Petrelli and a few feet behind him Emma. She obviously recognized him because her eyes widened before she offered him a shy smile. It made him wonder what she had thought of his sudden disappearance from the hospital and the cello he had left for her to find along with enough cash to pay for the bills over the years.

Fate it seemed liked to toy with them. Of all places they could have met it had to be Kirby Plaza. Here they had fought and decided the future of the world for the first time. Or was it the second time and the first time had been as they had faced of at the high school in Texas. It didn't matter either way. Sylar had done what had been necessary. Though to be fair he had to admit that it had been satisfying to ensure that Arthur Petrelli would never hurt anyone ever again. The destruction of Pinehearst had been even better, the tone of a crashing building sounding like music to his ears.

"Hello Peter, Emma."

"I was right. It was all true, wasn't it?"

Peter waited for Sylar to answer. For years he had waited for this moment, had hoped that he would finally encounter one of the most elusive specials in existence and yes he included Claude in that. Over the years he had heard the whispers, the rumors and all he wanted was to find the man to finally get answers to thoughts and memories he couldn't explain.

He had met many specials over the years. A Japanese man named Hiro Nakamura who could control time, though he himself had yet to try that. Given how shaky his control usually was with easy abilities he didn't want to see what could happen should he try something more delicate. The near explosion in Odessa had taught him, that he shouldn't play around with his abilities. Even his training with Claude hadn't helped. While yes he could use his abilities, sometimes even more than one, his control over them was never a hundred percent.

The only other known special who was able to take abilities was Sylar. Someone Peter knew intimately or at least thought he did, because he had this whole set of memories of him in his head. The problem was that he had no idea from where they came or if they were true.

According to those Nathan was dead.. even though he was currently preparing himself for his run for presidency.

Hiro had said it might be knowledge of a possible future, but as Peter had never traveled in time it was unlikely. Or at least that was what he wanted to believe. To think that memories, who had never happened, could affect him this way, was unimaginable.

He still remembered the day he had woken up in hospital after someone had literally beat him within an inch of his life and raped him. At least that was what Nathan had told him and he hadn't been able to remember if it ever happened. Or if he had just dreamed that it happened, although he could describe the man, the where and the how...

Shackled, glaring, fury...

"Why don't you tell me that Peter. What do you believe?"

Sylar was watching him and Emma, brown eyes studying him like he was something under a microscope. For all his supposed knowledge of Sylar he couldn't tell what he was thinking. Other things were exactly like they were in the memories he couldn't explain. Dark jeans and a dark coat along with the hair slicked back. Yes, he remembered this man.

"I think it's all true. But how do I know that?"

How do I know you?

He didn't speak the last part but Sylar appeared to have heard it anyway. Smiling slightly Peter got a nod before the other man threw something at him. Out of reflex Peter caught the small box. Without opening it, he already knew what he would find inside.

My compass...

"If you want answers, come to the place it will lead you. I will be waiting. Alone."

Then Sylar was gone.

Another piece of a puzzle where he had far too many pieces but no picture to compare them to. Turning to Emma, he noticed that she looked worried. Obviously not pleased with the thought of him meeting with a potentially dangerous special. A moot point anyway, they knew that Sylar was dangerous. He had attacked the Company that had been hidden behind Primatech on his own and destroyed everything.

Pity that he and Nathan had heard too late about what his parents had been doing there. He probably would have joined Sylar in his quest. The phantom feeling of shackles holding him immobile while someone prodded and poked him, or used his body as he saw fit still haunted him, even though he knew by now that it technically had never happened to him or his body. Unfortunately his brain didn't get that message.

So he sometimes still flinched when someone foreign touched him unexpectedly or had to visit the doctor because he had never gotten over the latrophobia either. Working as a nurse or paramedic, because that was what he had been in the other memories, was impossible as well.

Nowadays he was working at a care center for victims of abuse which his mother had founded after he had been released from hospital. It had started out small with only five people working there. Now five years later they were 30 employees, him included. They had come far in the short time and it was just as fulfilling to see a girl or a boy go home with a new confidence in life as caring for the elderly.

Opening the box, he watched as the needle spun around before firmly pointing west. Emma touched his shoulder briefly before speaking.

"Go, I'll be fine on my own."

Nodding his thanks, he hugged her briefly. Before thinking of Nathan and the deep friendship they shared. With the emotion came the ability and then was shooting off the ground like a rocket. He really loved flying. Clutching the compass between his fingers he followed the little tool until he stepped down on a open field.


Somewhere, 2010


Sylar heard Peter long before was even visible. The humming that filled the air, usually he associated it with planes, became steadily louder. He should have known that Peter would prefer his brother's ability to Hiro's especially if the rumors about Peter's control were true. If he was honest with himself, he had dreaded this day.

Three years had passed since he had walked away from a barely conscious Peter who had laid helplessly in a hospital bed. As much as he had longed to help him, he knew that he couldn't. Not when his own emotions were so fragile. This Peter hadn't deserved to be treated like Sylar would have treated the other one, from the old timeline. And as long as Sylar himself couldn't differentiate between them, he couldn't stay close to the people he knew and had come to love over the years they had fought together.

Instead he had returned to the carnival. To say that Samuel and Joseph Sullivan had been surprised had been something of an understatement, but a small lie about having seen the carnival in another timeline before demonstrating the gift of time manipulation had been enough to get accepted.

It had felt like coming home, even if the ulterior motive had been to keep an eye on Samuel Sullivan.

But that was all in the past now, or rather all in his past now and in a future that would never happen. Everyday he painted and everyday he saw different versions of the future but never one that resembled the one he came from. Over the years his mind had fused with the few memories that had survived the initial procedure of transferring the other Sylar's memories and abilities. They was no difference anymore, he was the Sylar of this and the old timeline. The Sylar who had marched into Pinehearst with a confidence that bordered on arrogance and destroyed every piece of equipment he had found before meeting with Arthur Petrelli.

For once he hadn't taunted, had only told him why he had to die and then done it.

"For Peter.."

He felt only marginally bad for killing someone in Peter's name. Knowing the other man he wouldn't have wanted it, until it was nearly too late. If there was one thing that Sylar had wanted to avoid it was having a repetition of the Pinehearst scenario.

Adam Monroe had been an interesting experience. Since Hiro had never impaled Sylar on Kirby Plaza, Sylar had never thrown him against a building and with that he had never traveled back to meet the woman named Yaeko and Takezo Kensei. And hadn't that changed Japan's history. In the end he had simple waited while Kaito Nakamura had Adam buried before digging him up again. Adam had promptly tried to kill him and watched in shock as Sylar had regenerated in front of him.

Choking Adam he had dragged him along to the carnival, where Adam still lived. Unsurprisingly enough he had married one of the carnies three months after his arrival. Currently he had his hands full with his pregnant wife and their first child. Running off wasn't an option either because Jewel would hunt him down and neuter him repeatedly - her words - if he tried.

Dealing with Chandra Suresh had been hard. With him Sylar connected many pleasant and just as man unpleasant experiences.

Few people could say they had killed themselves, succeeded and were still there to talk about it and only he could probably say he had done it twice. He had killed Gabriel Gray by emerging as Sylar after a murdering an innocent man (Brian Davis - who was by now married and living with the carnival) and he had killed a younger more docile version of himself by cutting his head open to imprint his own memories and identity.

After an intensive and very trying talk from both sides, Chandra had decided to continue his research in India under the watchful eyes of his son. Thankfully he had been spared meeting Mohinder. That was a can of worms he never wanted to open, ever again.

In the end he had been left with Bennet, Claire and the Company.

He had promptly taken the Company down and gotten Micah to erase every bit of data he could find. Though dealing with Nikki/Jessica had been awkward and had ended in blows more than once. Superstrength versus rapid healing and shielding, they had decided on a draw when it looked like they would bring the house down.

Bennet was, surprise surprise, still hunting him after he had threatened Claire and destroyed the Company. The man really needed a hobby.

"Stop your daughter's attempts to expose us or I'll stop her. I don't care how you do it. Tell her about your work, her real parents. But do it!"

His name had once more become a name infamous for his violence and power. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to escape that stigma.

Then there was Peter.

He had avoided the man ever after he had left the hospital. Even as he had heard that he was searching for him. Knowing that Peter somehow managed to evolve his ability to the point, where even dreams affected him; and it had to have been dreams, there was no other ability in his immediate vicinity that could have had the same effect. Only Angela had frequently contact with Peter and she had precognitive dreaming. It explained everything.

But that also meant that Peter was the only one aside from himself who remembered a future that was made of nightmares. He hadn't known whether to be glad or horrified. His own comatose state must have effected Peter, who was far more powerful than Angela, and thus had made him dream of a future only Sylar had lived in. The horrors and problems aside he had somehow been glad. A burden shared was a burden halved after all.

Still he couldn't face Peter.

Until tonight anyway.

Peter landed a few feet away from him. The box with the compass already hidden on his person. It made Sylar laugh quietly.

Too afraid to let me get away again are you?

"You sent Claire to us, didn't you?"

That he had, he had even gone as far as to write the names and address down for Bennet. All that Claire would stop her attempts to expose them.

"I made a few suggestions to her father. One of them was that she should meet you, yes."

"Why would you do that."

"Because I wanted her to know that there are others like her. That she isn't anything special among us and that she stops her attempts to expose us."

Had anyone told him that he would, one day, think that Claire Bennet wasn't special anymore, then he would probably sliced that person's head open. Now he knew better.

"So what I have seen is a possible future."

It was the conviction in Peter's voice that caused him to nod. He was in no mood to relieve his past, but he would answer the questions Peter had.

"How come I was able to see it so clearly, as if..."

"As if you lived it? I don't know the reason for the why, though the how is most likely that your empathic ability which pertains understanding and absorbing emotions as well as abilities evolved to the point that you felt the effects of the future you were dreaming about. The dreaming ability would be from your mother."

"Why don't I dream about anymore."

"Because that version of the future doesn't exist anymore. I made sure of it."

Sylar turned away from Peter and watched as the lights of the carnival went out one by one. Soon the whole troupe would be asleep.

"Why did you avoid me? You knew I was searching for you, right?"

"Yes I knew and I avoided you because at the time I had trouble to separate you from the Peter of the possible future. You are not him."

Standing next to Sylar, Peter looked down the small hill towards the carnival. He knew what the carnival was, but he had never thought he would see it. The whole ensemble was something of a myth among the specials.

Peter looked at his hand. Inside his mind he could still see the bruises that had been decorating his wrists at one point years ago.

"No I'm not, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be."

He could feel Sylar's eyes on him but resolutely watched the sky as the sun rose slowly. Dropping his hand he carefully wrapped it around Sylar's before forcing himself to meet his eyes.

"The Peter in the future was brave, a bit naïve and stubborn. He knew what was being done to him and continued going anyway. All for what he believed in and the people he cared about. He was also at peace before he died..."

Swallowing Peter took another deep breath. Living through is own death had been painful although he had apparently spent most of the time unconscious and sedated. Still he had dreamed and felt what the other Peter had felt.

Peace, satisfaction, love...

"His only regret was, that he hadn't realized earlier what he had."

Sylar was still watching him, face expressionless but Peter knew that behind those brown eyes his mind was working out the meaning of his words. He also knew the exact moment he had come to a conclusion as his eyes widened faintly. To his credit, Sylar never wavered in his eye contact.

"You don't know what you are offering. The emotions are.. "

"They are mine and I may not know where they'll lead me, but I'd like to find out."

God, Peter hadn't felt this shy since he had kissed Mandy behind the bleachers of the school gym for the first time. Slowly he leaned forward and brushed their lips together. The contact was brief before Sylar pulled away but he was smiling and kept their fingers intertwined while his eyes turned back to the sun which rose over the tents of the carnival.

And while Peter didn't know yet, where he would be in 2015, he had a feeling that it would be a lot better than before.

He couldn't ask for more.

fin