Author's Note: I kind of took last week off unexpectedly. Sorry about that. (Also, watching NCIS, I always loved the name of Anacostia. And now that I'm writing something that takes place in Washington, I had to use it.)

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Chapter 25:

Noah Bennet had spent most of his night on the phone between Elle and Rebel, trying to work out exactly what was going to happen. Bennet did not trust Elle. She had gone from frantic and unsure, possibly even crying, to insisting that she was completely in control of the situation in just a few short hours. That change did not just come out of nowhere, and Bennet really had trouble believing that it came from Sylar saying that he was falling for her. The only thing that he had really learned from Elle that night was that she was fully back to being herself.

Still, he and Rebel were going to give this plan a chance, because taking down Building 26 was the priority. The one thing he knew Elle was right about was doing what was best for Claire. Sylar was not really a threat to his daughter anymore, at least not an immediate one. It was just going to be difficult for Bennet to work along side Donner, knowing who he really was. He did not even know what precautions he could possibly take to protect himself from this sworn enemy of his. He just had to rely on Elle's word that Sylar had been tamed by his love for her, which was difficult since he wanted to roll his eyes every time he even thought about it.

Sylar needed another day to pick the right person, the right circumstances. He wanted to be cautious, according to Elle, make sure that everything was going to line up correctly. That made sense, but it could also mean that he was stalling, that he planned to do something else, whether Elle knew it or not. In the meantime, Bennet needed to deal with this "Elle Bishop is alive" situation. He could not ignore it, or Danko might take the information to someone else. He brought his own personal file on Elle to work that day.

Bennet went into Danko's office and set the file down on the desk without a word of explanation. "Where exactly did you see Elle Bishop?"

Danko glanced at the file with little interest. "She was down in the Southeast part of the city. Near Anacostia."

Having given Rebel the address the night before, Bennet knew that Donner lived in Anacostia. Of course, Bennet also knew the circumstances of how Danko saw Elle, but he still had to go through this whole song and dance. "She has been presumed dead for months. I saw the body. And now you're trying to tell me, after all that, she's alive, and that's all you're telling me. What makes you so sure it was her?"

Danko raised his eyebrows at Bennet. "What makes you so sure she's dead? Wasn't the body you found burned so that it couldn't be identified without dental records? Because it seems to me that dental records are a lot easier to fake than visual identification. I saw Bishop go electric. We had a chat. It's her. Can I trust you to handle this or not?"

Bennet had been hoping that the other man might think Elle had never died in the first place. "Well, now that you bring that up, there's an interesting aspect to this theory that Elle faked her death. Because that means that Sylar never set her on fire, which means they were in on that together."

Danko shrugged. "What's your point?"

"About a week ago, Sylar killed two agents in Kansas. At the time, you mentioned that he was traveling with an unidentified blond woman." Bennet opened Elle's file and pulled out the picture of Wolski that Danko left on his desk that morning. He slid it across the desk for Danko to see now. "And I remember thinking this did not strike me as Sylar's M.O., even if he did catch Wolski screwing his girlfriend. On the other hand, this looks exactly like Elle Bishop's M.O."

Danko pulled the rest of the file over to him and started to flip through it. "Well, there you go. We already know Sylar was in Washington."

Bennet nodded. "That's right; we do know that. Because you managed to kill him with no back-up, and now you're having chats with his girlfriend."

"I'm not sure what you're accusing me of, Noah, but you should think very carefully before you go any further." Danko did not look up from the page he was reading when he said this, effectively conveying that he was not worried about whatever this veiled accusation might be.

"I'm not accusing you of anything," Bennet said. He took Elle's file out of his superior's hands. "So Anacostia. That's all you're giving me to go on? I guess I'll just drive around the area and hope I run into her like you did." He did not need to hear Danko's response to this, so he just walked out without waiting for one. His real goal for that day was to track down Nathan Petrelli, and he was just glad he had an excuse to get away from the office to do that.

On his way out of the building, Bennet passed Donner. He did not stop or acknowledge the man at all, but seeing him did reinforce in Bennet's mind that one, Sylar definitely needed to die, and two, Elle was probably not going to do it. That was a problem for another day though, just hopefully one in the not too distant future.

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Elle knew that she was not really safe alone in the apartment anymore. It was kind of sad because she was starting to feel better about being alone, and then Danko had to go and ruin it. But there was nothing she could do about that now. So Rebel and Sylar had agreed, through Elle, that Rebel should take her out of the apartment during the day. Elle choose not to see this as babysitting, but as protective detail because she was so valuable to both of them. At least that was how she tried to think of it.

By design, there was a brief temporal gap between Sylar leaving and Claude showing up. Elle was not really expecting anything to happen that morning, since it was apparently being left to Bennet to handle her. So she was surprised when there was a pounding on her door. Checking the peephole to find no one visibly there, she opened the door for Claude. He grabbed her arm and dragged her farther into the apartment. At first, she thought he had become visible when he touched her, but as soon as he held his finger up to his lips, she realized that she had actually become invisible.

With no idea what was going on, Elle waited for the other shoe to drop. It took at least a minute, but finally, the door was kicked in, which was unnecessary because neither them had locked it behind Claude. The fact that it was unnecessary really played up the frightening aspect of this event. Then Elle noted that the agent coming into the apartment was not holding a gun that shot electrical charges. It was a real rifle; he was there to kill her. If Claude had shown up a few minutes later...

Elle's breath caught in her throat as the agent's eyes scanned over them. She was not as confident in her invisibility as she should have been, being so new to it, but it must have worked because the agent just kept scanning. Claude pointed to his own hand and whispered in her ear, "Shoot the gun out of his hand."

Half understanding what he wanted, Elle took a moment to steady herself and shot a bolt of electricity at the agent's hand. She would have preferred to kill the man immediately, but it did not seem like the right time to question orders. As soon as the gun dropped from his hands, Claude let go of her arm, making it so that she could not see him and the agent could see her.

The agent was clearly thrown off by her sudden appearance. "How did you do that?"

Elle shrugged while arming both of her hands with electricity. She fully intended to kill the man at the slightest movement, but before he did anything other than stare, the agent's head snapped back and he went down with a thud. A second later, Claude reappeared holding the rifle up in such a way that it was clear he had hit the other man with the butt of the gun. "Let's find something to tie him up," he said. "And then we'll see if he might be useful."

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Moments after getting a sideways glance from Bennet, which was not at all subtle, Sylar was called into Danko's office. On the desk, there was a picture of the agent Elle killed the night she was raped. At least, it appeared to be him, but the picture did not show his face. Danko looked up at him calmly. "I was hoping we could talk about what happened this night." He tapped the photograph.

Sylar glanced back at the door. "Is that what you and Bennet were just discussing?" He really did not trust Noah Bennet.

"We'll get to that in a moment. First, though, Wolski. The medical reports said these were electrical burns."

Sylar knew where this was going; the mention of electricity made it obvious. Still, he needed to pretend that he did not know Danko had already figured out who Elle was. He gave off a few small sparks with his hand. "Yes, that's just one of my many talents."

"Right, and that's a talent you got from..." He looked down at a sheet in front of him as though he was verifying the details. "Elle Bishop?"

Sylar was not sure how far he should go to protect Elle's identity, considering how futile it was. He smiled. "Yeah, sweet girl. I haven't thought about her in a while."

Danko tipped his head to the side. "See, now that's strange to me because you're living with her."

Sylar was glad that was out in the open, but he was a little concerned about why Danko was letting him know how much he knew. After a brief pause, he sank down into a chair. "I lied about her being a sweet girl too." He nodded at the photo. "You want to know what happened to your agent? He tried to rape her and she killed him. And actually, I'm happy to clear up any misconception that I was in any way involved with his state of undress."

He had thought a lot about what Elle said the night before about Danko wanting to take her away from him in order to make sure that Sylar did not have any allegiances that might interfere with what they were doing there. He needed a way to downplay her importance to him while still making it clear that he wanted to protect her. He just was not sure how to do that if he assumed that Danko knew everything about their history that Bennet knew. He was going to have to put that off a little longer. He had been slouching in the chair, but now he sat up straight. "Is that what you and Bennet were discussing?"

Danko gave a slight nod. "This picture always bothered him. He said it didn't look like something you would do. So he started looking into Elle Bishop's death. Apparently there's some issue with the body, but he did not go into that. He presented me with this theory that you never killed her in the first place, which appears to be the case. And of course Bennet is under the belief that I killed you, and he thinks that's going to make her dangerous."

Danko was playing some kind of game here, and Sylar was not sure what it was. He found interesting this possibility that he never killed her. He knew that Danko believe that because that part of it was not a lie. After just a moment's deliberation, he decided it was better not to correct Danko on that. Her resurrection would only indicate that she was involved with other people that Sylar, which was not a good thing for Danko to know. Sylar smirked. "Everything makes her dangerous. And I never claimed that I killed her. I just said she was dead; Bennet drew his own conclusions." Sylar felt that there was an opening for him to put limits on their relationship, but it would seem awkward to volunteer any information just then. He needed to say something though. "The part about picking her up in Montana was true though. She was looking for some protection while she figured out where to hide. And I was not really all that interested in dragging her around with me. But then she got raped. I don't really have a choice anymore."

Danko crossed his arms. "I heard you and she were pretty close, actually."

"You also heard that I killed her, so..." When he thought about the things Elle said on the phone to Rebel and Bennet the night before, he did not feel guilty about what he was going to say next. "So let me explain our dynamic to you. We hurt each other, and then we help each other, and then we just hurt each other again. She saved my life, and then pushed me to become a killer. I killed her father, and then I helped her fake her death. It's a cycle that works for us. But then..." He pointed at the picture, as though he was trying to remember the agent's name. "Wolski. Then Wolski came along, and he broke my favorite toy. As soon as I can find a way to fix her, she'll stop being off limits, and you can have her." Sylar felt the need to clarify that. "For the basement, not... in any other way."

Danko nodded his head thoughtfully. "Well, I'll see what I can do about Bennet. It's just that after talking to him, I thought you should know. Obviously, he does not have the first idea where to start looking."

That was a lie, which got Sylar thinking about Danko's choice to tell lies at this point. It occurred to him now that maybe Danko never knew that he had the ability to detect lies. After all, why would he or anyone need to know about that one? On the other hand, why would Bennet hold it back. But again, what would Danko have to gain by lying if Sylar could tell. He did not have time to think about that because the phone in his pocket started to buzz. Sylar checked the display and pushed himself up from the chair. "Good, because I want to hand deliver her myself; it'll make the betrayal more sweet. Just when she's ready." He did not know how effective that would be as a stall, but he only needed it to work for a few days, just long enough for them to get rid of Danko. "So if that's all, I have work to do."

Danko gestured vaguely at the door, which was all Sylar needed in order to take his leave. The call had been from Elle's cell phone, and she knew not to call him on Donner's phone unless it was urgent. And, after that little conversation, he knew Danko was up to something, so as soon as he was far enough away from Danko's office, he called her back. "What's going on?"

"Donner?" She sounded a little confused.

Sylar had not even been thinking about that. "Yeah, it's Donner." He paused just long enough for the casual listener to think the next part was responding to something new. "I can't really do anything about that right now."

"No, that's good. Um... We have a situation at the apartment."

The way she said that put Sylar on alert. He had a feeling that she had a pretty good idea of what constituted a situation. He was hoping that all it meant was that someone was dead because as long as it was not her, it did not matter much to him. "What kind of situation?"

"Well, your friend Kent Harper stopped by the apartment. Actually, he busted in with a rifle, and now the door won't close, but that's not important. What is interesting is that it seems like he has more questions than I do, Steve."

Sylar was separating himself more and more from the other agents, but he still was not far enough away that he felt it would be safe to ask about the name, so he let that slide. He was not really sure what she was trying to say. "I don't really understand what's going on there. Can you start from the beginning?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to take this call in private." It sounded like she was addressing someone else, like she had pulled the phone away from her mouth. Then she started talking to him again. "So, he seems to know who I am, but..." There was a long pause and the sound of a door closing. "I'm not so sure he knows who you are. I get the impression he thinks you're really Donner."

Sylar glanced back at the office he had just come from. "That means Danko was probably involved. What exactly happened?"

Elle sighed. "Like I said, he kicked in the door, ready to shoot me. Luckily, Rebel was here, and we were able to get the jump on him. And now he's all tied and not a danger to anyone. Here's what I've gathered. I heard Danko telling you last night that one of the other agents was suspicious of you. It was Harper, right?"

Sylar thought back on that conversation. "Yeah."

"Okay, well, what I've gathered from his questions and the few answers he's given is that Danko told him to come here and that he probably told him that Donner was acting strangely because he's taken up with one of us. I know you were looking for a candidate to spread rumors about, and I think one just fell into our laps. If you can do a Harper impression right now, I have a plan."

Sylar was trying to figure out what Danko was doing. He thought the point was for Bennet to take down Elle, and he did not know how Harper figured into that. He stepped out of the hallway and into the bathroom. After checking to make sure he was alone, he attempted to become Harper, and he was successful. "Yeah, I can do Harper. What's the plan?"

"All right." She sounded excited. "If we time it right, our technopath can make it look like a call from your phone is coming from Harper's. So here's what we're going to do." Elle detailed out her plan for him. It seemed to hinge on a few too many variables, but Sylar agreed that they should not waste this opportunity. He waited for Rebel to sync things up with the technopath, and then he hung up with Elle and dialed Danko.

Danko answered the phone by saying, "I hope you have good news for me."

Sylar took that to mean that the technological trick had worked. "Yeah, she's been taken care of." Once he said this, he immediately hung up the phone. They did not know enough about what Harper knew for Sylar to attempt a real conversation, and Danko would appreciate the conciseness anyway. Still alone in the bathroom, he shifted back into Donner and walked out to continue his workday.

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Author's Note: These chapters are really not breaking down the way I expected, so I don't know exactly how many chapters there will be, but I think it's going to be less than thirty. Just to give you an idea where we are in relation to the end.