Chapter 11

Emma and Sylar sat on top of the huge bed. They had rented a hotel room, using her real name so that Zimmerman & Co. weren't able to track them. According to the plan they were supposed to take the next flight back to Tokyo after they had raided the building, but Emma had come up with another idea. An idea that Sylar disliked a lot.

"All I'm saying is the more we know about it, the better." She sat in front of him, cross-legged and demanding.

"We don't even know if there is anything more to find out this way. Nathan didn't want to work with him, maybe they never met again."

Sylar didn't really believe in what he was saying and judging from her expression Emma didn't either. It had taken a while to explain what had happened to him and why there were another man's memories indelibly anchored inside his brain. She had known about the real circumstances of Nathan's death, but apparently Peter had kept the nauseating details about Angela's intrigue to himself.

Aware of the fact that Emma knew what he had done made Sylar want to storm out of the room. He wasn't stupid, he had figured that Peter had told her at least a few things … but talking about it made his past seem too real and too close.

"You can distinguish now, right?" she tried and Sylar nodded slowly. Yeah, he could, most of the time. There were pieces of Nathan's life that flashed in front of his eyes from time to time and sometimes it would take a few seconds to realize they weren't his own. He had learned to not let it show, partly because he would receive a punch in the face from Peter, if he made it too obvious, but mostly because he was scared of making the impression that he didn't know who he was.

"It's not like I can control it, I didn't know anything about Striker before I saw that photo of him!" To be honest he didn't have a clue how reachable or unreachable Nathan's memories were. It's not like he had ever tried to access them deliberately, why would he? His own thoughts were bad enough.

Emma smiled at him and took his hand into hers. "It's fine." she said, "You don't have to, if you don't want to." She stood up and turned around to pack some items on the desk into her bag. Sylar stared at her back, feeling relieved and useless. Claire had made herself an icon of a whole movement, Emma had stuck with them and broke into a government facility after discovering her powers only months ago. And Sylar was shirking to enter the memories of a man who had worked with their enemy, who they knew next to nothing about.

His friend turned back to face him and asked if he was ready to go. Sylar hesitated, wondering if she expected him to change his mind, but after a moment he stood up, nodded and followed her outside.

"Finally!" Tracy's high voice made Claire flinch. The Ice Queen hurried past Claire on her way to the front door, followed by Noah Bennet. The two had been fighting like an old married couple over the last two days, letting Claire not much opportunity to state her own opinion. Sighing she looked down onto her cereal and started to mash the little flakes with her spoon.

Claire had spent a lot of time talking to Amy and Peter since Emma and Sylar were gone. They were much better in listening to her ideas, without judging everything she said and explaining how dangerous and stupid and over-hasty they were. To her surprise Matt Parkman had come to them more than once, suddenly speaking about changing the world and fighting any oppression, too. Maybe he had finally realized that they were responsible for building a better future his son could live in.

Due to Tracy's excitement, however, Claire exhaled slowly, trying to drain the nervousness out of her body. They had been looking for someone, who was very hard to find, but apparently didn't have any problem at finding them. Claire heard the front door being opened and closed and she listened to a short greeting.

Into the room stepped a teenager with messy curls and tired eyes. If Claire had met Micah Sanders on the street, she wouldn't have recognized him, he had changed a lot since that one time she had seen him at Kirby Plaza. Not only was he a lot taller, but he had lost almost every childlike feature on his face. His sinister expression and tightened jaw fit a man who had seen wars, not a teenager who should be complaining about school.

Micah looked around the room, decided to bump his duffel bag into the corner next to him and approached Claire. "Hi," he began and Claire stood up from her chair, "It's great to finally meet you, from face to face, I mean."

Claire smiled awkwardly, not sure what to say. One reason she was so nervous was that she knew Micah had sacrificed everything to fight Danko and the likes of him at such a young age, leading a one-ma-rebellion and living on his own. Now that a vaster group, which could be labeled as 'rebellion', formed itself around Claire, he was probably expecting some kind of leadership from her. Something she wasn't sure she could offer.

Another factor that made her stomach turn was that Micah was here to help arrange her comeback into public light. She had decided to go that way, the night of her jump when Peter had brought her to the Petrelli Mansion. She had no intention of breaking her promises and to refuse to play every role she had to play to reach her aim, but she couldn't lie to herself about being scared to death.

"I'm glad you're here," she managed to say and intended to offer him something to eat since he looked pretty worn out, but apparently Tracy already had different plans for him.

"We all are." she stated and her nephew – at least Claire thought he was her nephew, she hadn't really looked through their family background – turned away from Claire.

"I already have a feeling what you need me for, but what exactly do you want to do? Hack into something? Make anything nasty public?" Claire could see the delight on his face and wondered, how far he had gone with his abilities in the past.

"Probably some other time." The Ice Queen sat onto a chair opposite of Claire and also Micah took a seat between the two women. "Right now we just need Claire to be able to talk to the world, preferably live."

"I could bring her face onto every TV on the world if you want to, or we send it directly to cellphones and computers, there are a lot of possibilities." Tracy seemed to consider his suggestions, but Claire intervened before they could go further.

"We can't do that!" she warned, "They are already scared of us and agitate the media against me, what will they say when they find out a thirteen year old can hack into the worldwide communication system!"

"I'm fourteen!"

"Alright, Alright." Tracy held one hand in the air and rubbed her temple with the other one. "Making her visible won't be a problem, the news-channels would fight to death for having her on their show. We need to make sure that nobody is able to trace the message back to us, to this house. Can you do this?" It was more of a command than a question and Micah didn't seem to mind, at least according to the smile that formed around his lips.

"There's nothing I can't do," he said and Tracy nodded contently.

"Perfect," she began, already lifting from her seat, making her way to the stairs. Claire and Micah had to hurry to keep up with her pace. "You can start to get everything ready, Angela and I still need to decide on the channel we want to contact, but this won't take too long." Wow, good that my name fell in that sentence, Claire thought. She would be on a show, to a time that Tracy had picked, reading notes that Tracy had written and fighting for things Tracy considered worth fighting for.

Sure, she was glad she got her help. Tracy was amazing in what she was doing, Claire hadn't even known how to start going public again, but it was still her life that they were using, her voice and her body. Claire was glad that the video would be live and not a recording, though. A video could be edited and Tracy and her grandmother would be able to control every single second of her big appearance, but when she was live … Sure they could give her a well written text and sit behind the camera, but what were they supposed to do when she didn't stick to the things they told her? Tracy wouldn't stop the transmission, she knew that this would look like they were hiding something or couldn't speak for themselves.

Claire knew that they wanted her to make clear that they had nothing to do with the attacks on Specials and that they meant no harm to anyone, but she also knew that Angela was skeptic about telling the truth about why the killings were happening. According to her, talking about an ancient serial killer, who was now revived by cutting his son's head open and working with the government to make herself the enemy, didn't sound convincing enough.

And she was right, it wasn't convincing, but it was the truth! There would be people listening that would be able to stop Striker, there would be a new enemy that all people would combine against. Everybody in this house already treated her like and immature teenager not capable of making her own decision, so why not act like one?

Claire was about to get outside into the garden to get a little bit of air when she heard excited voices in the entrance hall. Apparently Emma and Sylar had returned from their trip and even though Claire was desperate to know what they had found out, she considered waiting outside until Sylar had left the room. Sighing she decided that this wasn't worth the wait and shuffled towards the others.

As she entered the kitchen Peter, Tracy and Noah had assembled around the little table, eyeing the newcomers expectantly. Sylar shifted from one foot to the other, staring at Emma who lifted her eyebrows and turned towards the others again.

"Well, uhm ..." she started, waiting for Claire to reach the table, "I think the situation is even worse than we had thought."

And then she told them about everything that happened, about how Striker was recruiting Specials to fight against their propaganda-enemy and about a scientist that was exploring the nature of their abilities. Emma's eyes wavered on Tracy's face when she talked about that part and Claire could see how Sylar, who hadn't said a word until now, touched Emma's arm under the table until the blonde's gaze fell onto the wood in front of her. When she told them about Scott, Claire bit on her lip so hard that it would have hurt if that was still possible. She had trusted Scott, even liked him and she wasn't sure if she could blame his ability for all of that.

However, her worries about Scott faded when Emma told them what they had found out about Striker's plans. He wanted to wipe them out, every Special on this planet.

"This is impossible, he won't be able to do that!" Peter murmured and closed his eyes, probably thinking about a certain someone who had once had a similar aim.

"How did you even find out about his plans?" Noah asked and Emma swallowed. When she was about to answer Sylar cut her off.

"I used clairsentience, I saw a memory of him talking to one of his employees." Claire squinted her eyes. She knew that Sylar was able to do this, but why would he suddenly speak up?

"He just told someone about it, knowing that he is in an environment where he could be heard?" Noah questioned. Apparently Claire wasn't the only suspicious one in this room

"I'm not a mind-reader, Bennet," Sylar retorted and Noah exhaled loudly.

They were hiding something, Claire knew it. The only question was why Emma didn't say what had really happened. Did Sylar threaten her? Even though she still didn't fully believe in Sylar's I'm-a-changed-man-story she didn't think that he would hurt Emma. Claire believed that he wanted a friend and that he wouldn't do something that would scare Emma away, but she also couldn't believe that Emma would help Sylar to deceive them …

"Guys," Tracy started, eyeing Noah and Sylar carefully. "We need to focus on the real problem here. Striker will kill a lot of people if we don't stop him."

"She's right," Peter said, "we need to find out where they are taking the Specials they recruit and tell them about Samson."

"We need to find Striker, too, and find out who is supporting him," Claire said and Tracy nodded.

"You're right, Striker is not the only one who needs to be taken out. Angela said the White House has been turned upside down. Everybody's scared of us and it wouldn't surprise me if the President helped Striker to get enough resources to realize his plans."

It fit to what Angela had said, that the power mechanics in the upper circles have changed dramatically, but if this was true, how long had Striker been planning this? Her jump had been only two weeks ago, he must have known about their existence a lot longer to be obtaining that much control.

After a few more minutes the little group broke up and spread across the house. Tracy and Micah went upstairs, with the demand not to be disturbed. They were going to contact several news-channels, Angela was probably waiting for them. Claire didn't even try to follow them. She was pretty sure Tracy would have included her in the final choice, but she didn't really care. Besides, she had something else to do.

She had to find out what Sylar was hiding. He had been one of the first to leave the kitchen and rush upstairs, the only reason she hadn't followed him directly was that she didn't want anyone to interfere. She wanted to blow his secret alone.

Her eyes stayed on Emma for a while. She moved towards Peter who took her hand and led her through the living room, into the garden. Claire followed them and took a seat on one of the couches, having a good view of the couple outside. She felt a little bit bad for spying on Emma, she was Peter's girlfriend and Claire was supposed to trust her, but she was also Sylar's friend (just like Peter, but she couldn't keep everybody under 24-hour surveillance, could she?)

The couple talked and their hands never lost contact. Peter shook his head at something, desperately, and pressed their hands against his chest. Claire knew him. He and Emma had problems, he had been alone for too long, isolated from everybody else and then this nightmare …

After a while both of their bodies relaxed and Emma smiled, closing the distance between them, kissing Peter passionately. Now Claire looked away, embarrassed that she had been watching them the whole time. As she stood up her eyes wandered towards the couple another time and it made her chest hurt.

She missed Gretchen. Everything had happened so fast during the last week that she hadn't even thought about her. She didn't know what was worse: that she had finally made the step to open up to somebody she liked and who accepted her and ruining it by putting herself into the focus of public attention or knowing that Gretchen wouldn't be waiting for her. Not this time.

Gretchen had held on to Claire, even after the jump, even though she was disappointed that they couldn't be a normal college couple. Claire's world wasn't something Gretchen would want to live in, she was safer with her far, far away and Claire had to accept that. That thought brought tears into her eyes, knowing that if she ever got back into this dorm room in Arlington, Gretchen wouldn't be there to wrap her arms around her and make jokes about their new neighbor.

Claire began to move forward, taking a deep breath to calm herself down and avoid crying. The sadness inside of her quickly turned to anger and frustration, which were just the right emotions for a confrontation with Sylar. Maybe he would act like the other night, helpless, craving her forgiveness, being crushed by her words. When she stood in front of his door she closed her eyes for a moment. She shouldn't handle this the way she had that night. Sure, he deserved it but … she had to keep her aim in mind, finding out what really happened in L.A.. This was the whole reason. She didn't feel guilty or anything.

She pushed the door open with more force than necessary and shut it behind her loudly. Sylar was sitting on his bed, slowly lifting his head to look her in the eyes. He looked tired and wasn't surprised to see her. Claire just stood there, arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" There was the usual note of arrogance and self-righteousness in his voice that Claire hated, but he couldn't quite hide his nervousness.

"How did you find out about Striker's plan?" She didn't have time for any of his games, she wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. Maybe if he understood that she knew he was hiding something, he would just give in.

"Did you listen when I was explaining it, like five minutes … "

"Cut the crap, Sylar, I know you were lying about this." Claire stepped closer, now standing right in front of him. She wasn't used to be in a physically higher position that he was and he didn't make an attempt to stand up.

"Look, Claire," he started, making the young woman shudder with the way he said her name, "We know about his plans, isn't this enough. I know you're not gonna believe me, but you really don't want to know how I found out."

A shiver ran down her spine and her eyes widened. "Did you hurt someone to get this information?" Claire had ruled this possibility out, because that would mean that Emma was helping him to lead everybody into the believe that Sylar had changed. Why should she do this? She had never got to know the killer. Yet.

"... No."

"Then what is it?" she wanted to scream, but she kept her voice low so that nobody would know she was here. She really didn't need everybody wondering what she was doing in Sylar's room.

"You know that Peter will stop protecting your sorry ass if he finds out that you're manipulating Emma and … "

The mention of Peter made Sylar stand up from his bed, enclosing one of Claire's wrists. His movement startled her, but she didn't flinch away, she just lifted her chin and looked into his eyes.

"Peter can't know about this," he whispered.

"Let go of me," Claire demanded, stressing every word. His hand left her arm and she lowered it slowly, not breaking eye contact or extending their distance to each other. "If you don't want Peter to know, you better tell me the truth, now."

Sylar bit on his lower lip, his eyes switched between Claire's, who was still surprised by how calm he was. It was still hard for her to accept that those eight years had actually happened to him and that he was indeed different. Which didn't mean that he wasn't as evil as before, but it also didn't mean that he was …

"I know it from Nathan's memory, it activated when I saw a photo of Striker." The mask Claire had tried to hold broke and her mouth fell open. Her eyes left him face and she started to move backwards, slowly. He had been right. She didn't like this at all.

"He was working with him back at building 26, that's where he had tried to pull his plan off the first time."

Claire turned her back towards Sylar and rubbed her forehead, fighting back tears of sadness and anger. There were all sorts of emotions boiling up inside of her that were always there when she thought about Nathan. After his death she had tried to remember how he had saved the world, how he had been a father to her and a brother to Peter. She had tried to fight the memories that told different stories. The ones where he had done terrible, terrible things, abandoned his brother and didn't care about her at all. She had tried to fight those memories, not only to pretend they had a good relationship, but to be able to hold onto her burning hate towards his murderer.

"You're right," she said with a shaky voice, "Peter can't know that." He wouldn't been able to cope with this.

She turned around and Sylar nodded slowly, sitting down again. It took some getting used to the idea of Sylar actually caring about Peter. He didn't want him to know that Nathan was involved in all of this, even though he would probably profit from it. Maybe it was because he had tried to do so in the past. From what Peter had told her, Sylar had received several broken bones for talking about Nathan in the wrong way.

"Was there anything else in the memory?" She asked and cleared her throat. She didn't want to be weak in front of Sylar, so she just got back to business.

"No, not really. I think he actually believes that we are out to destroy mankind so he won't stop." He paused and blinked a few times. "Nathan didn't support the idea."

"He probably didn't do anything to stop him either," Claire said and the harshness in her voice surprised both of them. She sighed and moved towards the bed, sitting down so that there was still enough space between Sylar and her.

"Do you have access to all of his memories?" It was scary how easy it was for her to talk about what Matt had done to Nathan. When she had found out she had been so utterly shocked and disgusted and now … I guess those are the perks of becoming numb.

"No, I don't." He hesitated, scrutinizing Claire with this look that made her feel transparent. "Sometimes they pop up in my mind, but it hardly ever happens anymore." He said it like a justification.

"Have you ever tried to remember something on purpose? Maybe you can find out more about ..."

"Look, I'm not going to do this!" He cut her off and for a moment Claire thought the Sylar she knew would break through and show his face, but he caught himself. "It's not going to work anyway."

"You're scared, aren't you?" The way Sylar looked onto the ground confirmed what she had just said. At first she was baffled, then a dry laugh escaped her lips.

"I don't believe it! You turn up here, acting like you are a new man, telling us that you want to help! And now that you could actually turn out to be useful, you wimp out? This guy wants to kill every last one of us and is working with a man, who almost killed you, but hey, I apologize if actually contributing to my work is an inconvenience to you."

There was the same expression on his face like the night after Samson had started killing. Anger, embarrassment, helplessness. And just like that night a part of Claire enjoyed making him feel this way. When she had been attacked by her worst nightmare, deprived of her power she hadn't crawled into the next possible hole and drowned herself in self pity. She had fought.

"Just think about this the next time you call yourself a hero."

Claire thought about standing up and pretending to leave, but the guilty look on his face told her that she didn't need to. He had wanted a chance. Now he had one. Sylar continued to be silent, something that was unnerving on him. He wasn't arguing, probably because there was no reason for him to not try it, apart from his own selfishness.

"Look, I get it you didn't ask for those memories," Claire continued and Sylar knit his eyebrows, confused by her apparent compassion. She was surprised that those words left her mouth without feeling like she was lying. "You don't want to use them, but think about why they are in your head in the first place, so you don't get to use that as an excuse."

Sighing Sylar shifted so that one of his legs was lying on the bed. "Fine," he muttered, obviously pissed since Claire really left him no other choice.

"But I still don't know if it's going to work."

Claire nodded and rested her palms on the mattress behind her. For a moment Sylar just stared at her, he probably expected her to leave the room, but she had no intention of doing so. Partly because she was curious what was going to happen, partly because she wanted to make sure he actually tried.

Sylar changed into a cross-legged position, leaning his back against the headboard. His breathing became shallow and the sudden silence in the room made Claire uncomfortable. The previous hype about the idea of using Nathan's memories faded and was replaced by insecurity. It was the only logical thing to do, she knew that, but those were memories that shouldn't even exist anymore. They should have followed Nathan into death and were only still available because of some sick experiment her grandmother had initiated. Claire realized that she had been talking about them like they were files on a hard disk, something without live, but in reality those memories were the thing that had made Nathan into who he was.

After a minute Claire wondered, if he was faking and was just waiting for her to give up and leave him alone. She thought about saying something, but she didn't, just in case he was really trying and she would disturb the process. His whole body was tense, his lips were pressed together and his eyes were closed tightly. Another minute passed and Claire decided that she wouldn't wait much longer, but then his eyes suddenly opened. He looked confused, as if not knowing where he was.

"And?" Claire asked. Sylar ran a hand through his hair, exhaling loudly. Then he started to talk.

"Mr. Petrelli." Noah Bennet crossed his path and nodded politely. Nathan nodded back and he didn't miss the devilish smile on Noah's lips. When he passed Danko's office he looked through the door and saw him talking on the phone. When the older man noticed his presence, he lifted his free hand, but lowered his voice at the same time.

When Nathan had reached his own office he smashed the door behind him. Dammit! How long had Danko and Bennet been fooling him? What were they planning, did Danko know about his ability? Bennet had promised not to tell anyone and Nathan had assumed that Claire had been a sufficient reason for him to keep this promise, but he wasn't so sure about this now.

There was a knock on the door and Nathan twisted around, clearing his throat. "Come in," he said loudly and General Striker entered the room.

"I hope I'm not interrupting you, sir," Striker said with the usual politeness of a soldier that Nathan still knew from his time in the Navy.

"No, you're not. What's the issue?" Nathan avoided talking to Striker most of the time. He needed him for this operation to work, he was one of his best men, but the path he wanted to take this operation … Nathan was still trying to prevent this of happening.

"I'm here to talk about Emil Danko." Danko. Did that mean that Striker was working with him, or against him? Nathan gestured him to keep talking.

"He doesn't tell you everything that is going on in this building. There is a certain someone among us who has slipped your attention."

"What do you mean? Is Danko planning anything?"

A wolf-like smile played on the Brit's face. "He has made a deal with someone you might have come into contact with. He is here in this building. Right now. Shape-shifted."

He needed a moment to process what Striker had just told him until the penny dropped. Noah Bennet who had just walked passed him hadn't been Noah Bennet at all.

"A shape-shifter? Why would Danko work with a shape-shifter?" It didn't make sense, Nathan was pretty sure Danko wanted those people locked up.

"Because he helps him to hunt down Specials. In return he gets more and more powers."

Nathan gritted his teeth. Crap. "Sylar?!" he asked, lowering his voice, so that nobody – especially Sylar – would hear them. Striker nodded and stepped towards the Petrelli.

"We need to lock him up as long as he thinks we don't know," Nathan said but the man in front of him shook his head.

"May I suggest a different way of handling this?" Nathan saw that he was holding a file between his fingers. Striker moved to the desk and opened the file which contained a photo of a man he had not seen before. The name was unknown to him, too.

"Who is Samson Gray?" He asked.

"Sylar's biological father. He had been in Coyote Sands and the company hasn't lost track of him since. We were lucky that the files weren't completely destroyed in the fire."

Nathan took the photo into his hands. It showed a man in his thirties, dark hair, leather jacket, not someone you would like to meet in an ally at night. So this was Sylar's father, the complete opposite of Arthur. Nathan still found it ridiculous that Slyar had actually believed to be part of his family. He put the photo back into the file and even though he was curious about how Striker got his hands on it in the first place, he didn't ask that.

"So, how is he going to help us?"

"A few years back he has been diagnosed with lung cancer. I think if we offer him a cure he would be loyal to us and we would have the same weapon as Danko. Or a better one, even."

"And how exactly are we supposed to cure him?"

"He has the same power as his son, he can take the powers of others. So if we help him get his hands on someone who could heal … "

Nathan closed the distance between him and Striker and pushed him back until he hit the wall.

"If you let this guy anywhere near my daughter I will shoot you personally."

"Oh, but Senator Petrelli," Striker said and his wolfgrin appeared again, "I wasn't talking about your daughter."

Sylar just sat on his bed, staring holes into the white wall. His head was throbbing and he was tired as hell. Claire was silent, probably thinking about what she had just heard.

What if Nathan hadn't been exposed, if building 26 wouldn't have been taken down? Would he have stood a chance? Even though Sylar tried to forget his past and the bad things he had done, there was one thing that still made him feel worth something and that was that if he would want it, he could be untouchable. Invincible. If it was only him and nobody else he cared about. But apparently this had been an illusion.

"I should have just killed him," he whispered, not really aware of the fact that he said it out loud. Claire lifted her head and stared at him.

"Why didn't you?" she asked. Of course she would ask this. She would never believe that he would spare someone's life just because this someone was a close family member. The worst part was that she was right.

"I wanted him to die slowly. Painfully. If I had known that he would make it long enough ..." Long enough for what? He hadn't even known of Striker's existence back then or his plans to feed his powers to Samson. He would have been defenseless anytime.

"You couldn't have known, nobody did." Except Nathan. Whom he had killed. Sylar felt like the universe had smashed him face first into a concrete wall. They were silent for a moment.

"And there is nothing else?" Claire asked and Sylar smiled slightly.

"No, I don't think so." This time he believed what he was saying.

Claire leaned forwards so that her feet were on the ground again and Sylar did the same until they were sitting next to each other, their knees almost touching.

"I guess it was worth the try," Claire stated. When she turned around to look at Sylar she seemed to notice their closeness. He would expect her to jump up and leave the room, but she didn't.

It was so peculiar, the way she had acted. She had actually talked about Nathan's death, Nathan's memories that were implanted into his head. She hadn't beat around the bush, she had wanted to use those memories. It was so different from what Peter would have done. Even after years of suffering together, Nathan had still been a topic they hardly talked about and if they did, it was never this directly.

He had known that Claire wasn't like Peter, of course. However he had underestimated her will and her strength, the way she was in control of herself. She had surprised her and now she was surprising him again by not leaving the room the second she got what she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, there was the slightest chance she was starting to acknowledge that he had no intention of hurting her anymore.

When he looked down he noticed that both of their hands rested on the space that was between their tights. They weren't touching, of course, but he could feel the warmth that she seemed to give of anyway.

"You know what," he suddenly whispered, not really in control of what his mouth was saying, "Just as I believe to have figured you out, you surprise me. Every time."

His fingers had found their way between her's. He didn't know when they had. Claire just stared at him with wide eyes and he wished that he would do another thing that would surprise him, but she didn't. Her eyes fell away from his and she stood up, leaving him alone with his headache and his rapidly beating heart.

Emma started to lift her fist in order to knock on the door in front of her, but she hesitated. She knew she had to tell her, or that somebody had to and - since Sylar had talked his way out of it by saying that he hardly even knew Tracy – there was nobody else to do it. How was she supposed to tell someone that they had found their long lost twin sister and that she was working for their enemy? Had Tracy ever looked for Barbara? Would she be happy? Mad? Scared?

No, she definitely wouldn't be scared. Women like Tracy weren't scared of something like that. She was the kind of woman Emma had been scared of all of her life, tall and blonde, beautiful and successful, brave and in the possession of functional senses. She was powerful, not only because of her ability, but because of her mind and her ruthlessness. No, she wouldn't be scared. Emma knocked on the door.

A few seconds later the door swung open and Emma took a step backwards as Tracy appeared in front of her. The other woman narrowed her eyes and smiled. She hadn't been expecting Emma.

"Hey, is everything alright?" she started and Emma tried to smile back.

"Yes, thanks, it's just … I need to talk to you about something we saw in L.A."

Tracy's smile faded and she stepped aside so that Emma could enter her room. She knew that she shared it with Claire, but she wasn't around. As she turned around Tracy stood in front of the wooden door, arms crossed, a big question mark across her face. How was she supposed to do this again?

"In the police station … When they were trying to recruit Gabriel and me a doctor talked to us, she explained a few things about our abilities and how they work. Her name was Barbara Zimmerman."

Tracy's mask melted and suddenly she didn't seem like the unbreakable Ice Queen anymore. Her mouth opened as if she was about to say something, but she didn't. So had been looking for her, or at least she knew of her existence.

"She looked exactly like you." Tracy moved across the room and sat on her bed, resting her elbows on her knees and covering her face with her hands. Emma kneaded her hands and carefully sat down next to Tracy, who lifted her face again. There were no tears in her eyes.

"So she is working for Striker?" she asked and Emma pressed her lips together. She didn't know what to say, so she just said nothing and put a hand onto Tracy's back. She felt surprisingly warm. Emma should probably stop to associate her with everything ice-related.

"What is she like?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think she believed what she was saying, that Striker was helping people." Tracy smiled a little.

"There were three of us, you know." Tracy's eyes wandered off and her head turned so that it was hard for Emma to still read her lips, but she didn't mention it. "My other sister's name was Niki. Nathan knew her, he had mistaken me for her, that's how I got to know about her in the first place."

"The first and only time I saw her was at her funeral, she was lying in that coffin. They had probably tried to cover it up, but parts of her body were so horribly burnt I ..." She pressed her lips together as if she had trouble speaking.

"She had been sick. Maybe I could have helped her, if had known her earlier ..." Emma's hand traced higher and enclosed Tracy's shoulder which caused her to look at her again.

"Now you have a chance to get to know Barbara," she started and Tracy nodded slowly. "Maybe, if she knew about Striker's plan and about you, she would switch sides."

"Yeah," Tracy answered and rubbed her fingertips over her eyes quickly. "I wouldn't even know what to say to her! Do you have a sister?"

It was such a normal question, yet Emma's blood froze in her veins. She couldn't answer at first, she just stared at Tracy's damp eyes, blue watery eyes, like Christopher's. There were few people that knew about her sister and about her nephew and when asked by a stranger she would probably lie, but this was no option this time.

"I … yes, but … we don't talk." It was all she could say and Tracy seemed to understand.

"Thank you for telling me, Emma," she said and bend forward to hug her. Emma hugged her back. She was happy for Tracy, happy that she would be able to meet her sister, happy that she would have a fresh start, sad that she couldn't.

thank you for reading :))

beta: ii-romana