AN: So this was written for heroes_bigboom on Livejournal. There's art and a fanmix to go along with it over at my LJ (livejournal . com / b_dsaint) and thank you Annie for betaing and listening to me whine... getting close to the end. only a few chapters left
Thank you to everyone who's put this story on their favourites/left a review. It's so nice to hear from readers! some dialogue swiped from the episode.
Disclaimer: Heroes belongs to NBC and Kring... and I suppose maybe other people? I have no idea. I wish I owned Sylar though... and Elle. YUM
Gabriel leaned against the wall with arms crossed, hidden in the shadows as he watched Claire leading Angela through the hallways, shotgun balanced in one hand. He decided after a moment that he definitely had to teach Claire a thing or two about tracking specials if she really wanted to be an agent. She was living up to the blonde stereotype too much for his liking.
Claire let go of Angela's hand to open a door and Gabriel moved. He grabbed Angela, hand over her mouth, and teleported them to her office, leaving her there and teleporting back just in time to grab Claire's hand and follow her through a doorway. To his relief she realized the switch almost immediately and spun around, leveling the shotgun at his chest. He held up his hands in surrender, lips curving into a small smirk.
"Careful. Someone could get hurt."
Claire glared at him and he dropped his hands with an annoyed sigh. "Really, not even a smile? Kids these days, no sense of humour."
"Where's Angela?" Claire's eyes were hard and she bit the words out. He could hear the small tendrils of fear in her voice and a part of him felt guilty. He'd broken something inside of her, he realized, by stealing her power. There was a hardness, a coldness to her that hadn't been there before. Shaking his head, he ruthlessly pushed the realization and guilt away to examine later. He could fix her, he knows he could, but now wasn't the time.
Gabriel idly traced one finger down the length of the shotgun, smirk firmly in place. "Oh Mom's safe. We just need to have a little chat. Mother to abandoned son, you understand. Besides," he ripped the gun away from her and she jumped, backing away, "aren't you curious where your Dad and bio-Mom are?"
"What have you done to them?" Claire grit at him. The fear disappeared as quickly as he sensed it, and Gabriel marveled at her devotion to her family. Even after everything they'd put her through her concern for them was greater than her concern for herself. The contradiction was incomprehensible, even with his intuitive ability.
He let none of his inner thoughts show on his face, his smirk turning playful. He glanced around the hallway, as if searching. "Oh, they're around here somewhere."
"If you've hurt them..." Gabriel tried not to laugh as Claire threatened him. Never mind the fact they shared the same invulnerability, there was just nothing scary about a five-foot blonde girl trying to sound intimidating. True, he mentally conceded, Elle didn't look scary either, but she had her electricity to back up her threats. Claire had no offensive abilities to speak of.
His amusement must have shown on his face because Claire glared at him, expression becoming slightly petulant.
"No one in my family takes me seriously," she growled, half to herself, and Gabriel couldn't stop a grin that flickered briefly.
Claire saw the smile and her eyes narrowed as she backed up. "Uncle or not, I still hate you."
Gabriel didn't quite manage to hide the pain that flickered through him as the truth from her words resonated in his head. "You're entitled," he acknowledged.
Claire glared at him a moment longer before turning and running down the hallway. Gabriel watched her go, torn between stopping her and letting her try to save her parents. He mentally sifted through the outcomes if Claire reached Noah and Meredith in time. Noah's chances of survival increased significantly. Damn. He scowled before deciding to let her go. He'd done enough damage to her. Besides, he had bigger things to worry about. He heaved a put-upon sigh before teleporting back to Angela's office.
"Your granddaughter is quite determined to hate me," he remarked, reappearing with a blink.
Angela continued to stare at a monitor displaying the cell with Meredith and Noah locked in it and didn't respond. He walked towards her until he was standing slightly to her left, and studied the monitor as well. "Funny how that keeps happening in this family," he continued.
She turned to him then, arms crossed tightly over her chest. "You killed Arthur?" She asked, and there was a note of pleading in her tone that caused Gabriel to pause.
"I certainly did," he admitted finally. His eyes narrowed as the tension suddenly seemed to flow out of her.
"Then you saved the world," she breathed. She opened her eyes and he was startled to see a sheen of tears there. Pride, sadness, guilt, love... they all radiated from her and he couldn't make sense of it all. "I was right about you; you are a hero."
Gabriel glared, turning away and walking across the room. Angela's strange mix of emotions continued to radiate, confusing him and distracting him from what he'd planned to say. "I don't think so." Hatred burned in his chest as she continued.
"I do. I always wanted this for you. I dreamed about it. And now that Arthur's dead there's no one to hold you back, no one to take advantage of you." Her voice rang with the truth but quickly the note went sour. Gabriel spun around as the dissonance rose, slamming a chair under her, ignoring the spike of fear as Angela gripped the armrests.
"Except you," he growled.
He could feel Angela's fear but he couldn't see it; she held herself tightly but her face remained calm. "Gabriel, I cared for you. I gave you love. I gave you guidance. Everything a mother can give, I gave you."
Gabriel waited for the echo of disgust to accompany Angela's words, but it never came. Confused, he pulled away slowly from the chair. Angela followed him with her eyes as he walked around her and paced, finally coming to a rest against the bookshelf.
"Are you really my family?" Gabriel studied Angela, trying to see inside her and make all the pieces fit.
Angela smiled tightly, tears in her eyes. "Of course. I'm your mother."
Gabriel waited and waited, but the disgust that had coloured Arthur's tones so completely never came. For a brief moment his expression relaxed and he smiled at her. This... this was what he had been looking for. His mother, accepting him. For one brief second, mother and son smiled at each other, reunited. But then reality returned and Gabriel's eyes grew hard.
"Then why did you abandon me? If you loved me, wanted to guide me. Why leave me to be a nobody, if you dreamed I'd be a hero?" he sneered the last word. He sounded enraged, but he couldn't hide the pleading desperation under the anger. Angela gripped the arms of the chair and took a slow breath, trying to relax the returning tension in her muscles.
"When you were a baby, I had one of my dreams. I dreamed of what you would become." She spoke slowly, eyes fixed on his face. He didn't look surprised and she realized Arthur must have already told him this part of the story. "You must understand Gabriel, my dreams are visions. They're symbolic and they always come true. In my dream you were a killer; you were the end of your father and you were the end of your brother."
Gabriel glared at her and paced in frustration. She was telling the truth and it ripped at him. "You made me this way, you and your damn Company. You turned me into a killer!"
Angela nodded once, swallowing hard. "The vision terrified me," she admitted. "Can you imagine how that felt Gabriel? To be terrified of your own son, to know he's going to mean the death of your husband? I was frightened of you. And for you. But I still loved you."
Gabriel slowed in his pacing as the truth rang in his head. He sat down slowly on the couch, eyes fixed on Angela's face. "You tried to kill me," he insisted, but there was no conviction in his words. The emotions from Angela were too overwhelming, the truth too pure.
"No." She tilted her head slightly, a familiar gesture Gabriel suddenly recognized as one of his own. "Is that what Arthur told you?" She sighed deeply at his nod. "At the time, I didn't know what Arthur would become; was already becoming. When I told him what I saw, he arranged for you to be sent away. He never told me where you were."
It was still the truth, but the slightest hint of falsehood echoed. Gabriel's eyes narrowed. "Maybe he sent me away. But you never looked for me," he growled at her.
Pain and fear reflected in Angela's eyes as she shook her head. "I didn't," she acknowledged. "He said you were safe, that the vision could never come to pass, and I let him convince me it was for the best. Arthur can be, could be, very persuasive. And I wanted to believe him." She whispered the last words sadly.
Gabriel searched her face, emotions in turmoil. The pieces of the story were like fragments in his head, refusing to come together to form a whole picture. "But then why order Elle and Bennett to turn me into a killer?"
"At the time Gabriel, I simply didn't know you were my son. All I knew was that you had a gift, a gift the Company could manipulate and exploit. I should have realized sooner, you have a version of Arthur's power just like Peter does, but I was distracted and saw the truth too late." Angela's voice was soft in its conviction and carried just a hint of regret. "When you were brought to Level 5 and I realized who you were I demanded you be kept alive."
Memories of his time in Level 5, and the weeks of being powerless, flickered through Gabriel's mind and he growled in anger. "Some mother," he spat. "You let Bennett torture me, let them take away my powers!"
"I did what I could Gabriel," Angela responded sharply, "to protect my sons. All three of them. I wanted my sons to be heroes, to save the world. I didn't want them to be killers, but sometimes it's the only way."
The truth rang in his head and sat heavy in his stomach. Angela had regrets, he could feel them, but she was also firm in her conviction that everything she'd done had been for the greater good. The past was past, and nothing would change it. They could only move forward.
more to come!