A/N: On the off chance someone is curious, Nathan's phone is a Trac-Fone type he picked up at the mall as part of the gear he picked up before visiting Samson Grey.
"Hello?" Claire was wary of the "Unknown" on her caller ID.
"Hi, Claire. It's me, Nathan. I need your help!" he sounded pained.
"Nathan? How-" He'd been missing for months, with Angela saying he was dead and Peter saying they were working on it and neither of them giving her any details.
He cut her off. "I can't explain. Not over the phone. Are you still in Arlington?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I'm just down the street from you then." He gave her the address. "I really need your help, Claire. There was no one else I could go to. Please come. As soon as you can."
"Of course," she was confused, but before she could ask for more information, he hung up. She looked across the room at Gretchen, who was looking at her.
"What was that about?" Gretch asked.
"My… bio-dad, Nathan. He's in trouble." She looked at the address she'd scribbled down. "He says he needs help. I'm going down to see him. Wanna come?"
"Sure. Better than Intro to Physics."
XXX
He paced uneasily on the roof of the boarded up warehouse. He was wet, starving and feeling weak from days of exposure. At least he could make himself look good, if he couldn't improve how he felt. He looked like Nathan Petrelli, dressed sharply and only slightly damp. He missed seeing Claire pull up to the building, but he heard her and someone else coming through the building, calling out, looking for him.
Damn it! Why did she have to bring someone with her? He hurried to the roof access and dropped down the ladder to the hanging platform, then another drop to the floor below. Claire heard the sound of his landing and came towards him.
"Claire!" he called out.
"Nathan!" she broke into a run towards him. A willowy girl with long brown hair followed her more cautiously.
"No, stay back!"
Instead of stopping, she only slowed, looking around to see what the problem was. She came too close. He could hear it. "No, get back Claire! Get back. Now."
She stopped, but stubbornly did not move away. The other girl joined her. He could hear their music blending together, complementing each other. "No," he ground out through clenched teeth.
"What's wrong, Nathan?" Claire had figured out the problem seemed to be with Nathan himself.
"Get back," he said softly and looked up at her, an obsessive gleam in his eyes. Once again, she did not give ground.
Fine. He grabbed her with telekinesis and shoved her and her friend back. Gretchen stumbled and fell. Claire kept her footing and her eyes widened. "Gretchen! Run!" She reached down to help her friend and they started to escape.
"No!" He reached out again with his power and picked them up, swinging them to the nearby brick wall, moving them a safer distance from himself and pinning them there.
"Sylar." Claire's voice dripped with venom.
"No, no. Not really. I'm sorry Claire. I'm Nathan. I really am."
She laughed. "Yeah, right. Nathan with Sylar's telekinesis."
Gretchen said quietly, "What's going on, Claire?"
"That's Sylar, using a power to look like my dad, Nathan. He's a serial killer, of people with special abilities."
"No, that's not who I am. Not anymore. I know, it looks bad. And… I don't understand the half of it, but I need your help. I really do. You're the only one who can help me."
"Help you with what?" She struggled briefly against the telekinesis and gave it up as a bad job. Maybe if she just kept him talking.
He took a deep breath. "I have… the Hunger. I need your help overcoming it."
"You've already had your fingers in my brain, Sylar. I can't help you. And she doesn't have any abilities. So you're out of luck."
He frowned. "Claire, please. Please stop calling me that. It's hard enough for me to keep straight who I am." He looked at Gretchen.
"She's not special?"
"No."
"Is she special to you?"
Claire looked over at Gretchen and hesitated. Gretchen gave her a supportive smile. You can tell the serial killer whatever you think you need to, Gretchen thought.
"Claire," he took a single small step forward. He thought he could get away with that. Claire looked back at him, her eyes still full of hate for him. "This isn't Sylar's Hunger. It's his father's. And his father's Hunger isn't specific to people like you, or me. It's everyone. All living things. It's her," he jerked his head towards Gretchen. "It's your father, your mother, your neighbor, the people in those cars going down the street, in the convenience store. I can't go anywhere. I can't do anything that involves getting close to people. That's why I'm holding you away from me right now. If you get too close, I can't stop."
Claire's face stopped looking so hateful. She was listening to him. Good!
He went on, "Everyone's special to someone, Claire. She's special to you. You're special to me. I don't want to hurt anyone, anyone else. I never did."
She shook her head. "Now I know you're lying."
"I'm not. Please believe me, Claire."
She raised her chin. "You've told me to stay away. Fine. Nathan wouldn't keep holding me up here. He'd let me go."
He released her immediately, sliding her gently down until her feet touched the floor. "You're right. I'm sorry."
She stared at him, forgot herself and took a step closer, trying to get a better look at his face. He shook his head and gestured slightly. She felt pressure in front of her, pushing her back slowly. "No closer. Not until I'm ready."
She looked at Gretchen. "Let her go too."
"No."
"What? Why?" She was angry again. She'd almost believed him.
"Because," he said slowly, "if I hurt you, you'll heal. If I hurt her, she's dead. She's safer where she is."
Claire looked between Gretchen and Nathan. She was starting to think maybe he was Nathan. What was it Peter had been 'working on' with Nathan? Was it this? It would explain why no one saw him anymore.
"Did Sylar do this to you?"
He smiled a little and laughed hollowly. "Yeah, it was his idea. Stupid idea. But I've got to get past this, if I'm going to have a normal life… any chance at a normal life. Will you help me?"
She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, waiting to see how he'd react to silence. He stood quietly. Eventually he swayed on his feet like he was dizzy and Gretchen slipped on the wall. He snapped to attention and put her back in her previous position. He looked at Claire, still waiting for her answer, but not trying to force it from her.
Finally she said, "What will you do if I say no?"
He stared at the floor and spoke with a voice empty of emotion. "I don't know. I'll leave. Maybe Mohinder…" He shook his head. "Maybe he can help me. If I can find him." He smiled a little. "At the least, it would make him happy to get his hands on me."
"Okay. I'll help you. What do you need me to do?"
"Heh," he exhaled and gave a grin that looked a lot more like a grimace. She could see his teeth, white against the darkness. "You know Sylar's… what he does. This is worse." He looked back at her and she could see the expression on his face. It was the expression of someone who didn't want to be doing what he was doing, teeth bared against reality, against himself.
"Worse how?" she asked.
His voice was tight. "You'll heal, Claire." He swallowed. He could hardly breathe for what he was about to do. She felt his power tightening around her and lifting her to the wall again.
"Nathan? What are you doing?"
He shook his head. "I don't want you to move. I don't want to have to cut twice, to get the right spot." He slid Gretchen further away and turned her head so she wouldn't see. He hoped he could keep his concentration enough to spare her seeing it. If only he could spare Claire as well. With dread clearly visible on his face, he started to walk forward very slowly, trying to get as close as he could without doing anything more.
XXX
To his great surprise, it only took twice. Perhaps that was due to the depth of emotion both Sylar and Nathan felt towards Claire. Perhaps it was due to his previous mastery over Sylar's Hunger. But the third time, he was able to stop after only the initial cuts. He panted, hands on his knees, barely able to stand. Every part of his body hurt. He was sure Claire felt worse. Intriguingly, conservation of mass did not apply to her power.
"I think…" he started, "I think… I think I've stopped it." He stood up stiffly and walked over to Gretchen, where she was sitting curled up against the wall. She would have flinched away if he'd let her. He hadn't been able to keep her from seeing, but he'd at least kept her from getting away.
Claire coughed, her voice raw from screaming. She still managed, "Get away from her."
He waved a hand back at her. It looked dismissive. "I'm safe. I think." He tilted his head. "I can hear her. I can… appreciate it. I don't… I don't have to have it." He released the last of his hold on Gretchen. It didn't matter. He didn't need to hold her away from him, or keep her from getting anyone else.
She moved slightly, realizing she was free. Instead of fleeing as he'd expected, she charged him, sacking him across the middle. She slammed him back into a steel support. His head hit the back of it and all was black.
XXX
"Gretchen! Gretchen! Gretch, please stop." Claire tugged on the other woman's shoulder. Reluctantly, Gretchen stopped kicking the man and stomping on him and let Claire pull her away. She turned to Claire and sobbed against her, trying to pull herself back together. How can Claire be so calm about this? she thought, on the edge of hysteria.
Claire patted her back while she looked at Nathan - or whoever that was. He still looked like Nathan, with a dark pool of blood under his head. His face, smashed under Gretchen's heel, was repairing itself. Just like she had. Just like Sylar's body would. She soothed Gretchen, wondering what to do. Finally she shook the other woman. "Gretchen? I need you to do something for me."
"Wha?" she sniffled.
"Gretchen, I need you to go back to our room and get me some clothes. Get that rope we used at Jesse's last time. And a knife and that little lantern of yours." Claire looked back and forth between Gretchen's eyes in the dim light. "Can you do that for me?"
"Claire… what he did to you…" Gretchen's face scrunched up again and she gestured past Claire at the skins in the distance.
"Don't! Don't look at that. Don't think about it. It's over now. Please, go get me some clothes. Okay?"
Gretchen nodded and left, numb.
Claire sorted through what was left of her clothes after they'd been cut off. She retrieved her cell phone and the contents of her pockets. Clad only in darkness, she walked back over next to "Nathan". His face was unmarred by the punishment Gretchen had given him. She'd sent Gretchen away mostly because she expected him to wake at any time. She was surprised he hadn't. He snored softly.
"You have got to be kidding me," she whispered.
