And finally after seven months the story continues...

"Are you ready for this?" Gabriel asked Peter. He gave a quick nod. "Oh before I forget," Gabe held out his hand. "Pick something useful." With his crooked grin firmly in place, Peter grasped the reformed killer's hand, sorting through the wide assortment of abilities. Finally settling on an old favorite, Peter withdrew his hand.

"This seems rather unfair, two against one," Peter commented.

Gabriel turned his head slowly to glare at his friend. "Screw fair."

"Short, sweet, to the point. You are a very wise man; has anyone ever told you that?"

"Peter," Gabriel said flatly.

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Just trying to ease the tension."

"Well it's not working."

"Sorry…maybe if you just-"

"Peter, focus," Gabriel rolled his eyes, but he could barely suppress the smile beginning to spread. God damn it Peter, now was not the time for joking around, he needed to keep a clear head. Noah Bennet was in that house with his Claire and he couldn't afford for there to be any mistakes. Mentally slapping himself back in to the moment, Gabriel stared down the door, willing Bennet to charge out and end this fight. Unlike his past self, he received very little pleasure from violence…even if it was the man who kidnapped his wife. If he let himself slip back into killing, who knows if he'd return from that. Gabriel Gray would once again become Sylar, and it wouldn't matter if he rescued Claire today, he would still lose her. Claire had forgiven him for what he had done. However, he knew her well enough to realize that forgiveness would not extend to future evil. She would morn her great love Gabriel for the rest of eternity; possibly resume her mission to destroy him, even at the cost of herself. No, Claire was too important to let that happen. This shouldn't even be happening to him; he was supposed to be on his honeymoon. Okay, that train of thought was not going to help him focus any better.

"Umm, Gabe?" Peter asked quizzically.

"Yeah," was his reply.

"Can we get this over with already?"

"Sorry, just going over some last minute details," he lied. Peter raised his eyebrows ever so slightly to show that he was not buying it. "Sure you were. Scared of Bennet are we; cause, we can always come back later with guns or something."

"First of all, I'm not frightened of Noah Bennet," At this Gabriel raised his left hand as it glowed blue, buzzing with electrical energy. "And second, who the fuck needs guns?" Peter gave his best crooked grin and turned away, returning his attention on the doorway. The pair silently counted down from some unknown number. Gabriel was the first to step closer to the door. He tried the knob only to discover that it had been left unlocked. "Looks like Bennet's getting sloppy," he gloated back to Peter who waited a few feet behind him. Gabriel swung the door open, confident that this would be a quick and easy victory. The last thing he could remember before fire exploded in his face was "Nice one Bennet".

Noah couldn't recall how long he had been sitting in this particular armchair. Time had no meaning for him, passing far too quickly, but yet, entirely too slow. Strategies and variables ran threw his head, trying to answer the most vital question of his entire existence. "How do I bring down an invincible man?" Sure he had done it before, but he had assistance, either from some special, like the Haitian, or a handy eclipse that rendered the man defenseless. However, Noah had to admit that in all actuality, he was no match against Sylar. He also had to take into account the killer's reacquired rage; what with him abducting Claire in all. Could he really call it an abduction though? She came willingly, disregarding that fact he had basically stripped her of her free will. No, he couldn't think like that. Claire had been corrupted by the greatest evil the world had and will ever know, and his actions were to secure the innocence of his little girl, his Claire-bear. She loved him, he was sure of it. He just removed the cancerous bastard that had attached himself to Claire. She needed to be rescued; she just wasn't in the state of mind to ask for it. Sylar was clouding her judgment. He was turning her into another version of himself that he could groom to help him destroy the planet. If Noah hadn't acted when he did, Claire would have been too far gone and he would have had to eliminate her as well and that would have been rather unfortunate.

Maybe if his head had been clear of the insanity that was gripping him, Noah could have seen that all these inner musings were completely false, lacking any basis in reality. So as he continued to sit stoically in his chair, each arm relaxing on either armrest in perfect unison, he couldn't help notice the commotion outside. He could make out two male voices not unfamiliar to him. So he brought along Peter. What a shame. The world needed more men like the youngest Petrelli brother, but he had made his bed with Sylar. Noah made no move to rise, simply waiting for the men to trigger his trap, explosives wired to the doorway, enough to incapacitate and/or kill, (depending on if that person was a regen) whoever was outside, but not enough to consume the entire house. Noah heard Sylar's muffled voice as he rejoiced in the older gentleman's incompetence. Bennet's smirk grew wider in the seconds leading up to the inevitable climax of his careful planning. The house shook with the force of the explosives. If he was real lucky, wood fragments had lodged itself in the bastard's sweet spot, but he was no fool. Noah grabbed his gun from beside his chair and went to greet his guests.