A/N: Huzza and hello to lament4death!

Chapter 11- Play it Again

Age: 17.5

Over the following months, Gabriel quietly bided his time. In his usual exceedingly patient manner he lie in wait, letting her attacker believe that he got away with his crime. In his experience, revenge was indeed a dish best served cold and he had all the time in the world. He might have hidden his seething anger for Jenna's sake, but he certainly never forgot.

Peter suggested that Jenna see a therapist to help her deal with what she'd experienced, and Gabriel fully supported her decision to take his advice. She ultimately seemed to benefit from it, feeling less guilty and angry for having been treated as she was. He was, of course, happy to see her go on with her life as best she could, but he couldn't adjust so easily. He was glad it worked for her, but he couldn't see himself laying on anyone's couch. He had his own brand of therapy and soon he would experience his own version of catharsis. He even had his own support group.

Peter was predictably middle of the road about the plan, but he agreed faster than Gabriel thought he would and with far less protest than he expected. He seemed just as upset about the whole affair if that were possible, almost as though he considered Jenna his own. She may as well have been for as much involvement as he had in her development, and to know that she had potentially been so violated had to make his blood boil. Peter hated seeing innocents harmed and perhaps that was why he signed on. Maybe he needed a chance to right a wrong in the world, to bring some sense of justice to an incomprehensible and vile act, but whatever his reason, Gabriel was inwardly moved by his commitment. Peter had previously proven that although he didn't always agree with him, he had been and always would have his back so long as he was trying to do the right thing. But as often happened, extenuating circumstances had a way of mucking up Gabriel's carefully laid plans and it forced him to get creative. Peter was supposed to help him with the reconnaissance phase of the plan, but as luck would have it, Emma came down with a nasty virus that pretty much required his constant hovering over her even when she insisted she wasn't dying.

Never one to jump to conclusions, Gabriel needed definitive proof that Mr. Jason Bently was indeed responsible for Jenna's terrible experience and for that, he was in desperate need of one Japanese time traveler. Now he fully understood how it was that Noah and Nathan had found it so easy to ask for his help no matter how unlikely they deemed their success. For his daughter, he would do anything and that frightened him more than just a little bit to ponder the exact lengths to which he would go should the need arise. One uncomfortable phone call seemed trivial, but once he found himself in a dark alley smashed into a relatively narrow doorway with the man who gave him his scar, he began to question his own rationality.

Getting there was the easy part. Gabriel obtained a copy of the police report that outlined the location and circumstances in which Jenna was found. It was gut wrenching to read not so much for what it did say as for what it didn't. No witnesses, no identification on the victim, and no response from her other than one single episode of incoherent babbling which the writer noted as "dada ga." He felt physically ill at the thought of her lying in some cold, dark alley all alone in a strange city, but actually being there made it worse because it only confirmed that his imagination was pretty much spot on.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Hiro asked grimly. "If it were my daughter, I would just cut his head off and be done with it." He didn't carry around his katana anymore, but he would have been sure to bring it just for the occasion.

Gabriel had to glance at his partner just to be sure some stranger hadn't snuck up on him. Gone was the chipper, somewhat gratingly thick accent and those ridiculous glasses. Only a slight inflection belied the fact that he was not a native English speaker and at some point, he opted for contact lenses, a vast improvement. He also grew out his hair and had a nice soul patch going, all in all making him look a little more badass than he thought him capable. But more than his outward appearance, his very demeanor had changed. He wasn't the almost manically optimistic go getter he used to be, and Gabriel assumed that the war was responsible for that. He could see it even back then that Hiro's world view began to change and at the time he thought it was a reasonable adjustment, but it looked as though he weren't the only one who was still carrying around a head full of bad memories. With the more intense focus he seemed to have gained, Gabriel was thankful that Kirby Plaza happened well before because he might have found himself taking the little pain in the ass more seriously. "What if it were your son that did it?"

Hiro gave him a disgusted look. "Then he'd have something else removed. It would be a dishonor of the highest degree."

Gabriel smirked and resumed his watch toward the street. "It's too bad you didn't have such clarity when we first met. I think we might have got along a little better than we did."

"I don't regret trying to kill you so long ago because you deserved it." He informed him nonchalantly. "But I just wanted you to know that I didn't pull the trigger at your execution. You didn't deserve it then. Only the evil need be punished."

Gabriel gave him a tiny, relieved smile. "Remind me to stay on your good side then. Getting run through with a sword hurt like hell. You could have had the courtesy to sharpen it first. It was like being sawed in half with a rusty butter knife."

"If it hurt so bad, why didn't you die?" He asked blandly.

Gabriel shook his head and scoffed. "You just don't give up, do you?" He couldn't believe that after all that time, he was still doggedly seeking an explanation, but he simply didn't have one to give him other than the fact that someone drug his limp carcass through the sewers and paid for repeated rounds of surgery to stitch him back together.

Perhaps sensing that Gabriel was going to take his secret to grave, however long in the future that may lie, he took the opportunity to remind him of the mechanics of butterfly stomping. "You know that even if you see something terrible, you can't stop it. Some things are inevitable no matter how hard you try to change them."

He turned solemn and he swallowed irritably at the thought of having to stand by and watch someone hurt her, the futility of saving her making his heart pound with anxiety and dread. "What if I try?" He whispered hesitantly, his mind spinning with plans, "Maybe I can…"

"It's not how it works." He told him flatly. "Believe me, I've tried." Maybe it was a little pointed, but he didn't care. He had no reason to be afraid of Sylar, he could always vanish in a puff of smoke and leave him standing there all by himself if it came down to it. He never really got over Charlie's death and he never really stopped blaming Sylar for it. He might have changed, but it didn't change what he did.

Gabriel clenched his jaw. He hated having his past thrown into his face like that, but it seemed that more and more it was all catching up to him. Matt was right: karma was a bitch and it looked as if his payday were on the horizon. He understood Hiro's point of view, but he didn't apologize because even if he somehow forced out a mea culpa, he doubted it would mean anything to him. It certainly wouldn't bring back perhaps the only woman he ever loved- it all seemed so pointless. "Then why are you helping me?" He gritted through his teeth.

Hiro seemed unmoved. "Because I know how I would feel if it were my daughter. If I didn't help you bring this jackass to justice the right way, I know you would have done it your way. Sylar is dead and I want to make sure it stays that way. I'm getting to old to chase you around like I used to."

Gabriel never asked him if he had children, but there was something very fierce and familiar in his voice that gave him the impression that he did. No matter how Hiro may have changed, he imagined that he still managed to be a far better father than he turned out to be. And behind the cynicism was still the man driven by a sense of duty and honor, making Gabriel consider the fact that perhaps he hadn't really changed much at all. His attention was pulled away from his accomplice when the moment he had been waiting for arrived.

He and Hiro watched grimly as a white limousine pulled up at the end of the alley and the door swung open. Jason stumbled out, his tie hanging from his partially open shirt, and he looked around agitated. Finding the darkened and abandoned alley sufficient, he returned to the car and hauled an unconscious Jenna out by her arms, dragging her in the dirt and mud of the alley. "Come on, dumb bitch." He muttered as he struggled to get a grip on her, settling on grabbing a handful of her dress and ripping it in the process. In the dim light, Gabriel could see the fresh bruises already forming on her lovely face and it made him sick. Jason struggled as far as he had the energy and patience to before letting her drop into a puddle of dirty water. The coldness of the water was enough to partially bring her around and her eyes fluttered while she coughed weakly. Rather than being encouraged by her signs of life, Jason seemed angered by it. He didn't give a damn about her welfare and showed his distain by kicking a nearby glass bottle and growling, "Fuck you, bitch. After all I did you didn't have the sense to put out? Who does that?" Gabriel didn't know if it was intentional or not, but the bottle's trajectory ended at Jenna's forehead and it glanced off with a ringing thud, leaving a gash above her eye. It took every ounce of restraint that he could muster not to emerge from the darkness, hand raised to exact revenge right then and there, but Hiro kept him in check by keeping a firm grip on his shirt sleeve. She whimpered pitifully and fell back into unconsciousness while Jason stalked back to the car and ordered the driver to take off.

Gabriel went straight to his daughter in three long, fast strides and squatted beside her, softly stroking her wet hair. "It's ok, baby." He promised her, his voice threatening to break under the strain of the overwhelming sadness and anger he felt at watching his child suffer. "I'm going to fix this. He won't get away with it. I promise." Hiro watched solemnly as Gabriel gently held her hand while he called 911 so she wouldn't have to wait to be discovered. It wouldn't change the future, he reasoned, and it would at least in some small way make him feel better to think that he was doing something to help her if he couldn't change the fact that it happened in the first place. Gabriel stayed with her up until the moment the wail of the sirens echoed off the alley walls and the space was lit with flashing red and white lights. Only then, only when he was certain that his girl was safe, did he finally force himself to let go of her hand and allow Hiro to return them to the future before they were discovered lurking nearby.

Although Jenna was doing better, the experience was traumatic enough to reignite Gabriel's long buried nightmares of Level 5 and the war. The sense of helplessness and fear was fresh in his mind and he often woke with a start, his heart pounding and his body slicked with sweat, wondering if he screamed at all. He didn't want to wake her and he certainly didn't want her to know that he was anything other than completely stable, but he was worried that she might suspect something was wrong by the number of times she found him in the small hours of the morning working on watches or simply sitting on the couch exhausted with his head in his hands. But it was going to be ok, he told himself as he looked at his support group who met in his living room while Claire took Jenna out to a movie. Everything was going to be fine because he knew that each person was in 100% and they wouldn't fail him. He had gone through hell with them before and once more they rallied to their leader's call. Their very presence gave him a sense of calm certitude and Sylar smirked. His army awaited and in the blink of an eye they were on the battlefield.

He sat casually in a desk chair, feet kicked up on the computer desk, slowly flipping through the pages of the diary Jason kept under his bed. Finding it took only minutes because there was a short list of places it was likely to be. Finding the bottle of Rohypnol took longer, but time was on his side and he located it cleverly hidden in a hollowed out bookend. Great for fooling his unsuspecting parents, but a little too easy for Gabriel to find given his deductive logic and the fact that he stupidly wrote about it in his diary.

Jason stirred and blinked confused. He didn't remember leaving his desk light on when he went to bed, but it was on and it illuminated Jenna's brother of all people, quietly sitting and reading his journal as though he somehow belonged there. Jason glanced at the open window, but Gabriel didn't even look up and blandly said, "That's not how I got here if you were wondering."

"How the hell did you get in?" He asked, a little pissed that there was an intruder in his room.

"We'll get to that." Gabriel patiently answered, turning the page to keep reading. "But first we have some business to attend to. I believe we had an agreement and you failed to fulfill your obligation."

"Fuck you, man!" Jason laughed as he quickly reached under his bed to pull out a gun and point it at Gabriel's head. "I didn't agree to shit. Now get out before I blow your head off."

His dark eyes flicked to the gun and he gave his prey a small, twisted smirk. "You think I didn't know you had a gun stashed there? According to the entry on July 6th you found it in a storm drain, but the firing pin is damaged. It might not even work, however, if you're feeling particularly brave tonight, go ahead and pull the trigger." He calmly dared him. "It wouldn't be the first time I've been shot." He could see it in the kid's eyes and his trembling hand, he didn't have the guts. "Put it down," he scoffed condescendingly as he returned to his book, "you look ridiculous, especially since we both know it isn't loaded. You seem to be missing the clip if the gaping hole in the bottom of the grip is anything to go by."

"What do you want?" He asked a little apprehensively. "I didn't do anything to her, I swear."

The tingling in the back of his head felt more like being stabbed with an ice pick and it almost made him wince in pain. "Let's begin with June 12th, shall we?" He asked pleasantly. "Allison Gifford. A nice girl you met online. Never having actually had sex with anything more animate than a sock or vacuum cleaner, you decide to get some help in the form of rufies off a dealer on 52nd." He reached into his pocket and held up the bottle to give it a little shake. "Poor Allison never knew what hit her. Your first time is usually better when your partner is conscious and not approximating a warm corpse, but it's a little late for that now."

"They weren't dead." He sneered in disgust. He never considered what he did as anything close to being harmful. It was just a way to cut to the chase, avoiding all the talk and games and a way to ensure that there was a reward at the end of it all. They never remembered anything afterward, a neat little side effect that kept him from getting caught. No harm no foul.

"May as well have been." Gabriel shrugged. "August 24th, Shelly Myers almost was. The pretty little waitress at the local TGI Friday's almost overdosed because you didn't know that you should never mix a nervous system depressant with alcohol. Lucky for her she survived, but now she has a lifetime of dialysis to look forward to because her liver failed. A gift that just keeps on giving…"

"That was an accident." He defended, recalling the panic he felt to think she was dying as her eyes rolled into the back of head. "I didn't mean to…"

"But you did. September 9th -Tia Johnson, November 13th -Bethany Miller, New Year's Day-Kristen Bowen." He sighed, listing the dates of each assault he recorded. He actually knew Bethany Miller, she was one of Jenna's former teammates. "But my favorite was Lilly Torres, February 14. How romantic." His voice was all but dripping with sarcasm as he glared at the man that so disgusted him. "Fast forward to April 20th, Jenna Carter."

Jason went pale when he realized that his own hand doomed him. He could deny it all he wanted, but her brother held the entire account in his lap. "Look man, it wasn't what you think." He weakly protested. All he could do now was try to judge how badly he was going get his ass kicked by the taller man. He seemed a little shady and his warning of retribution rang in his head. 'And before you think that this is just like every other threat you've heard before, know that I can and will follow through…' There was a certain stillness, an air of absolute invincibility that made him wonder if Jenna's brother was part of the mob or something. He was good at giving the distinct impression that he had done similar things before and got away with it.

"Then let's suspend my opinion and go straight to the facts." He retorted, flipping the pages to read directly from the grim tale. "Finally," he announced in his best reading voice, "bagged Jenna Carter's sweet ass. Can't believe she's letting me take her to prom. How fucking desperate must she be? I've been wanting to get all up in her forever!" He lowered the book with a distasteful expression. "So eloquent."

"Come on, dude. You have a dick! Tell me you wouldn't think she was hot if she wasn't your sister." He pleaded.

"Completely irrelevant." He dismissed, pointedly turning to the next page to continue the story. "May 5th. Tonight's the big night. Putting on my tux and filling the pockets with little doses of love for my date. Can't wait to see those pretty brown eyes drift shut so I can get my groove on. Just have to get through this stupid dance to get to the real party. May 6th. Last night sucked. Seriously- total fucking letdown. Got served by her dickhead brother, whatever." Gabriel glanced up to glare at him stonily until he squirmed before resuming. "But couldn't fucking score because she wouldn't drink anything. Finally got her to sip a little beer, but it was only enough to make her groggy. Had to knock her bitch ass out and force one down her throat. It was getting late and I had to get the limo back, so I dropped her off in Newark, hoping some homeless dude would get blamed for it. Hopefully she won't remember anything. Not going down for that fucking ho."

"So what." Jason shrugged, knowing that there really was no recourse for him. "I didn't fuck her. Get over it."

"While it does give me some measure of relief, it's entirely beside the point." Gabriel dryly informed him, tossing the book on the desk. "Because all that was lacking was opportunity, and the half dozen or so other girls you attacked were not so lucky. Perhaps your next victim may not be either, but there won't be another victim. Not one more young woman will have to stumble home in a fog, wondering what the hell happened to her, afraid and ashamed because you don't have the courage to be a man and take rejection."

"Fuck you. What are you going to do about it? All I have to do is scream loud enough to wake up my parents." He sneered defiantly.

Gabriel tilted his head slightly and smirked at the boy's bravado. Although he was scared to death, he was pretending to be confident. "You could try," he invited menacingly, "but no one will hear you scream except me and my imaginary friends."

Jason looked to him confused. "You are fucking crazy. Imaginary friends? Seriously?"

Gabriel raised one of his eyebrows with a sly smile. "Officer Parkman," He called in a bored tone as he tilted back in his chair, "arrest this man. He pointed a gun at me and I was afraid for my life and…so forth." He lazily waved. The look on the little twerp's face was priceless when Peter released his cloaking ability to reveal he, Hiro, and Matt- in his agent uniform with gun drawn and pointed straight at his head.

"Holy shit!" Jason jumped. "What the hell? I didn't know you were a goddamn freak. Fucking specials."

"There's a lot you don't know, apparently." Hiro frowned. How someone could be so stupid was beyond him. "You didn't even notice that your cat has been standing in the same position the entire time." He gestured to the frozen feline by Gabriel's chair, stopped in mid stride by time.

Gabriel reached down to scratch the immobile animal behind the ears. "And that's why no one will hear you scream." He summed. "Your entire world has stopped except for this room."

In a last act of desperation, Jason reached for his gun but Matt took a step forward and retrained his sights on him. "Don't do it," he warned in a stern voice, "on the floor. Now." He too noticed the missing clip, but it didn't mean there wasn't one bullet in the chamber. Just as an added measure of precaution, Peter flicked it across the room well out of his reach with his telekinesis. If he or Gabriel were accidently shot it would be merely inconvenient, he couldn't say the same for Matt or Hiro. He wanted to avoid medical catastrophe if at all possible.

While Gabriel watched Matt handcuff the perp with mild interest he casually picked up the journal and asked, "Do you think the boys at the local precinct will be interested in this?"

Matt hauled Jason up painfully by the arm and smiled. "Oh yeah. The gun too. I'll bet there's a murder out there that can be tied to that gun. People don't toss things like that into a sewer unless they're trying to get rid of it."

Jason looked over his shoulder spitefully and noted Matt's uniform. "You aren't a real fucking cop. You work for the government."

Matt pulled off a velcro patch on his vest that concealed a compartment containing his badge. "I have the same power to make arrests as any beat cop, pervert. Which reminds me, you're under arrest for rape, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder. It's up to the DA how many counts you'll be charged with, but I think it's safe to say you're looking at a very long stretch." He gave him a shove toward the door to walk him to the van that awaited on a side street.

West shook his head in disgust when he saw the group approach with the target. Matt asked him to come along on the midnight raid as a favor, but in reality, he wanted to. Although he and Claire sort of went separate ways, he still kept in touch with her through their job. He had a wife and daughter of his own and as a father, it terrified him that she would ever experience something like that. His own motivations aside, he did it as a favor to Gabriel. After what he did for them all, his getting dressed in his uniform and taking a bad guy off the street seemed trivial. He couldn't believe he ever thought that he and Claire had something going, but it seemed almost funny to him now. It was hard to believe that he was in his early 30's, roughly the same age Sylar was when he began his reign of terror. What was even harder to believe was that he didn't snap and just kill the kid. "I would have just cut his head off." He commented.

"That's what I said." Hiro shrugged.

Luke opened the back door of the van and smiled deviously at Jason. He came for similar reasons as West, but no matter who the favor was for, it was exactly his cup of tea anyway. Luke hadn't settled down with anyone yet, but it didn't matter- he didn't like the idea of the punk giving all men a bad name. After he secured Jason to the floor with a nice, shiny set of chains he banged on the divider between the driver and the cargo area to let West know he was ready. "I'm glad you're into rape." He chuckled as they took off into the darkness. "I'll bet there's some very lonely guy out at Riker's Island saving a spot on his bunk bed just for you."