"So… This is where the Company is going to be from now on."

"Yeah, it's a lot easier that we don't have to hide it like we had to do with Primatech."

"I don't see Claire anywhere. She didn't go with you?"

"Nope," Lauren answered. "She wanted to stay in New York."

Noah sighed and turned his body to face Lauren. "Thanks, Lauren. I know you've tried."

"Mr Bennet?"

"Yes?" Noah answered as he turned his head to see who had asked for him.

"Abby Collins," the woman said as she held out her hand. "I don't think we've met before."

Noah shook her hand. "Should we have?"

"We could have, but we didn't. I used to serve as the President's representative to the Building 26 task force. I believe that you were a part of it, as well?"

"Yes, I was."

"Can we talk in private?"

Noah was about to tell her that whatever she wanted to say, she could say in front of Lauren as well, but then Lauren placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I'll go and ask where they've taken Samuel."

Noah frowned at Lauren as she walked away. Did she know this woman? Did she know why this woman wanted to talk to him in private? There was only one way to find out. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yes. Please, walk with me."

"Alright," Noah said and they started to walk away from the building.

"I want to offer you a job," Abby said.

"A job? What kind of job?"

"The Company, it's a better solution than Building 26 ever was. One of us, one of them. It works. It's certainly better than using whole SWAT teams to break into people's homes and shooting them with Taser guns." She saw Noah narrowing his eyes at her. "Yes, Miss Gilmore informed me about everything."

"You want me to work for the Company again? Doing what exactly?"

"We would like you to be our chairman."

Noah raised his eyebrows. He didn't see that one coming. "What about Angela Petrelli?"

"She resigned this morning, effective immediately. We asked her who she wanted to be her replacement and she recommended you."

"Did she now?"

"Yes, but you don't have to give us the answer straight away. Think about it for a while."

It was a lot to take in. If Noah accepted, he'd be leader of the Company. He had never been interested in leading the Company, he never even considered it an option. Taking orders from others had been just fine, all those years. He was going to need some time to think about it. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Yes. We need to find Sylar and I think you can help us."

Looking for Sylar would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. The man could be anywhere. Talking to Matt didn't help much. He didn't have any idea where Sylar and Peter went and he was the last person who had seen them. So, that was a real problem, but Noah had been called 'the man with the plan' by a lot of people for a reason. "I know a way to find him," he said without hesitating. It wasn't a lie, he truly knew a way to find Sylar. He was only waiting for the right time to make the right phone call.

"You do?"

"Yes, but it requires somebody's help and I'm not entirely sure if that somebody is willing to help us." They had to hurry, though. Every minute that Peter spent in the presence of Sylar, could get him killed, and Peter meant too much to Claire to let that happen. Sylar might be under the impression that he had changed all of a sudden, but that could change any minute.

"Do you think you can find him anytime soon?"

"If everything goes as planned, you'll have Sylar by the end of the day."

Abby stopped walking and turned around to face Noah. "How are we going to deal with him, once we've found him? He has regeneration, shooting him with Taser guns won't work."

"Last time we used a tranquillizer to get to Sylar and it worked." That was when Peter had shape shifted into the president. They needed a different approach this time. Noah tried to get close to Sylar at the carnival by talking to them, pretending to be listening to Peter's speech about his brother's murderer being a changed man. He came so close. Sylar had been only an inch away from being stabbed with his syringe. If only Peter had been smart enough to let him do it, Noah wouldn't be having this conversation right now.

They'd have to get close to Sylar again, close enough to be able to eliminate him. But how? How do you get close to a man like Sylar? Noah thought about using the Haitian's ability. If René was able to nullify Sylar's abilities long enough to get close to him, that'd be great. It was a plan that could've worked, if it wasn't for what René had told him a little while ago. Sylar had been able to use his abilities near René before, apparently. He had been too strong, too strong for even the Haitian.

So, that was why she wanted to talk to him in private. Noah knew everything about how to deal with Sylar and they needed him. "What's going to happen to him, once we've got him? We can't keep that man imprisoned. He'll always find a way to escape."

"Let's just focus on finding and capturing him, first. There's no point in figuring out what to do with him, if we can't even find him."

"I'll have to make a phone call to find him. It won't take long." It was a long shot, but Noah had no idea how else he'd be able to find Sylar.

"Thank you, Mr Bennet. I hope you'll consider our offer as well. There are a lot of other people who are interested in leading the company, but you are, without a doubt, the most qualified man for that position."

Noah didn't know what to say. He was flattered, but leading the company was a big deal. He didn't even have the time to think about it yet. Finding Sylar, that was more important. He followed Abby back to the new Company building and they went inside just in time, before it started to rain.

As Abby walked into another room, Noah got his phone out of his pocket.

"Suresh."

"Mohinder, it's Bennet. Listen, I was wondering… Is Molly still with you?"

"Yeah, she's right here."

"I need to find someone."

It was silent on the other side of the line for a couple of seconds.

"Let me guess. Sylar?"

Noah wanted to find Sylar, but Mohinder would never help him if he knew that it was his father's murderer that had to be found. What was Mohinder supposed to tell Molly? That she had to find the man who had killed her parents? The man who had tried to kill her? "No, it's Peter." Peter and Sylar had left the carnival together, but that didn't mean that they still were. They could've split up at some point after leaving Matt's house or Sylar could've killed Peter. Anything could've happened, but Noah had the feeling that they hadn't separated yet.

"Peter?"

"Yeah, he's missing," Noah said.

"Why do you need to find him?"

"Mohinder, do you have any idea what happened last night?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure that I don't want to know."

It was a small wonder that Mohinder hadn't found out about the events of the day before, yet. He was going to find out eventually, but his lack of awareness could work for the benefit of finding Sylar. "Let's just say that something happened with Claire and I need Peter's input."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She just really needs her family right now."

"Maybe he doesn't want to be found, ever thought about that?"

Peter didn't want to be found and neither did Sylar, but Mohinder didn't need to know that. "I could really use his help with something, Mohinder. Can you ask Molly to find him?" He heard Mohinder sigh on the other side of the line.

"I'll be right back."

Finally. If they knew where Peter was, they had a bigger chance of finding Sylar. There was still the possibility that Molly didn't know what Peter looked like. She always needed a picture of the people she had to find and there was no way that Mohinder had one of Peter. Noah could only hope that Molly remembered seeing Peter at Kirby Plaza. She wouldn't forget 'the exploding man' now, would she?

While he waited for Mohinder, he began to think about the job he had been offered. Leading the company meant that he'd have a lot of influence on… on everything. He didn't always agree with Linderman's ideas, with Bob's need to experiment on Elle and Angela… You'd think that a woman like Angela, a woman who had the ability to dream the future, would make better decisions than she did in all those years. Resurrecting Nathan through Sylar had definitely been the worst one of them.

"I know where he is."

"Where?"

"Washington. I'll send you the address in a minute."

"Washington? Oh, but that's great! Thank you, Mohinder. You have no idea how important it is that we find him." He didn't mean to sound so excited, but he couldn't help it. Sylar was so close.

"No, I don't. Listen, Bennet. I've just picked up Molly at the airport. I'm taking her to India, see if she likes it there and hopefully we can find some peace there. Maybe I can get my old job back…"

"You're absolutely right, Mohinder. I wish you the best of luck and call me if you ever need anything."

"That won't be necessary, but I appreciate the gesture. Bye."

Noah ended the phone call, just when a man appeared in front of him all of a sudden. "Edgar." For someone with the ability to run at six-hundred miles per hour, Edgar had really bad timing. Noah just wanted to go and find that Abby Collins as soon as possible.

"Hey," Edgar said.

"You found out where they are?"

"Those Japanese guys…"

"Hiro and Ando," Noah helped.

"Them, yes. They teleported all of us to a place just outside the city. I came back with them and Claire immediately, as you know. The rest of them came back to the carnival as soon as they thought it was safe enough to return."

"They're still at Central Park?"

Edgar nodded his head. "Yeah, they don't want to live at the carnival anymore, though."

"They don't?"

"No," Edgar answered and sighed. "Look, the carnival has always been a place where we used to feel safe. A place where we were able to be ourselves. We didn't have to hide what we are, because we're all the same. But now… Now everyone knows about us and that means that we no longer have to hide."

What Edgar said made sense. They didn't have to hide anymore, but if they no longer wanted to live at the carnival, then where did they want to live? "Edgar, how many people are we talking about?"

"Thirty-five or something. Could be more, could be less. I don't know what happened since I've left."

"Thirty…" That's a lot. "We'll find a place for them to live. Thanks, Edgar. For everything. You've helped us a lot, even though you don't owe us anything."

"Feels like I do."

Noah frowned at Edgar. "You do?"

"Yeah, I feel partly responsible for what Samuel did. I put you in hospital… Sorry, about that."

"Oh, that." That had been a nasty experience, being sliced to pieces. "I don't feel good about beating you up, either. Why don't we call it quits?"

"Sounds good to me. Anything else I can help with?"

"Maybe, but it's not for me."

"What is it?" Edgar asked, curiously.

"Could you make a delivery for me?"

"What kind of delivery?"

"Edgar, have you ever tried to let someone move with you at superhuman speed?"

Edgar narrowed his eyes as he looked at Noah. "No…"

Noah started explaining to Edgar that it was possible for people to travel with him, that he had seen it before. That Daphne Millbrook had been able to it, so why couldn't he?

Edgar pursed his lips as he thought about it. "Arlington University, you say? That's here in DC, right?"

"Yup, that's the one."

"I'll give it a try."

And before Noah could've said anything else, Edgar had vanished already. He smiled as he walked towards the room where he saw Abby go in to, earlier. As Noah stood by the door he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was Mohinder with the address.

He went inside and found Abby Collins in some kind of office. That was what it looked like, it was only missing the decorations. She was talking to another woman, probably a new company agent.

"A special facility?" Abby asked.

"Yes," the other woman said. "It's specially designed for people with abilities. It's impenetrable from the outside and not even someone as strong as Sylar would be able to break out of there."

"Speak of the devil," Noah said.

The two women turned around.

"Mr Bennet?"

Noah walked towards the desk the two women were standing behind. "I've got Sylar."

She frowned at him. "You do? Already?"

"See for yourself," Noah said as he handed her his phone. "This is the address. This is where he is now, at this precise moment."

"How did you get this?"

"Let's just say that I know someone with a very special ability."

"Thank you. We're going to send a team right away." She walked away with Noah's phone.

"Mr Bennet," the other woman said.

Noah looked at her and recognised her immediately as the FBI agent who had questioned Claire in Odessa, years ago. "Agent Hanson," he said. "That's a long time ago."

"It is, but it seems that nothing much has changed. We're both still going after Sylar."

"Not for long. I found him as you've just heard." The woman smiled at him, but her smile didn't look sincere to Noah, somehow.

"Found him? Or found him again?" she asked.

"Excuse me?"

She moved out from behind her desk, towards Noah. "You've had him before. At Primatech. Do you remember, Mr Bennet? Do you remember when Matt was desperately trying to prove that it was more than just a paper factory?"

Of course he remembered all that. It was a long time ago and so much has happened since. "What happened to you?"

"To me? Oh, you don't wanna know."

"I'm asking, aren't I?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I suppose. After Ted Sprague's death, things went downhill for me, I guess. I wasn't able to do my job like I used to do it. Every time I had to question someone, I couldn't help but wonder whether he was reading my mind or that he was going to explode suddenly. So, I had to quit my job. I had two really tough years, where everybody around me thought I was going crazy. That's not so important. What's important is that I started working for the FBI again, a couple of weeks ago." She sighed as she closed her eyes. When she opened them again she said, "If you want more details I can give them to you later, but I believe we have a serial killer to catch."

It was a lot of information to process, but Noah had asked and she answered truthfully. He guessed it must have been really tough to be the only one who knew about abilities. It also must have been such a relieve for agent Hanson, when Claire came out to the world about her powers. "Yes, let's go get him."

Claire didn't know what it was like to have a hangover (she never would), but she was pretty sure that she was having one right now. She hadn't been able to fall asleep all night. She wasn't nauseous, but it wouldn't surprise her if she started throwing up suddenly. The confidence she had at the carnival and the press conference had vanished the minute it was all over.

At some point (probably somewhere halfway through the night) she started wishing that all the events from the day before had never even happened. She wanted it to be all just a dream, for some reason. If she hadn't fallen from the Ferris wheel and if she never went to the press conference, everything would've been different. Her life would still be normal if all that didn't happen. As normal as life can be for someone with an ability.

And then there was her dad. He wasn't there to pick her up and take her home like he said he would, but Lauren was. Lauren, a woman she barely knew. Someone who had been working with her dad for years, someone who her dad had feelings for. That was obvious. Claire didn't want to go with Lauren and not because she didn't like the woman. Lauren clearly liked her dad as well, that wasn't the problem. She just wanted to be alone for a while. Then Madeline came and told her that she made arrangements for Claire to stay at the hotel if she wanted to.

Madeline Gibson, the police psychologist. She had been great to Claire, making all kinds of arrangements for her and letting her tell her story to the world. But it made Claire wonder why Madeline would've gone through all that trouble for her. Claire had never seen her before in her life and suddenly she was there at the carnival, asking her to be part of the press conference. She didn't think anything of it, at first, but lying awake the entire night had left her full of doubts.

Claire had been staring out of the window throughout most of the night. The hotel room had an amazing view over Manhattan, a beautiful marble bathroom and white, clean, linen sheets, but what Claire liked the most was the silence. It was so quiet, she wished she never had to leave again. Nobody was bothering her, asking all kinds of questions and she didn't have to worry about what people would think of her. Not here, not now. That would change the minute she stepped outside.

Everything in the room was extremely pretty and comfortable, but probably also extremely expensive. It made Claire wonder what her life would've looked like if she had grown up with Nathan as her father instead of being adopted by Noah and Sandra. It wasn't the first time she had thought about it, but talking about her bio parents at the press conference had brought it all back up. She would've grown up in the Petrelli mansion, but there was no point in imagining what kind of couple Nathan and Meredith would've been. She didn't even know how the two of them had met. She'd have to ask Peter the next time she saw him. He would probably know.

Peter. It would've been so great to have grown up with him as an uncle. A smile appeared on Claire's face as she imagined talking to Peter about her ability. She would have had someone to share her thoughts with, instead of hiding what she could do. It sounded all so wonderful and easy, but life was too complicated to have turned out that way. Too complicated because there was a dark part of the Petrelli family. The part where Angela and Arthur entered the picture. Claire felt sorry for Nathan and Peter, having to grow up with parents like that. Okay, maybe Angela wasn't as bad as Arthur was, but she had done many unforgivable things as well. Experimenting on Nathan, knowing that Peter was the bomb that would've destroyed New York and letting it happen.

No, if she had the chance to do it all over, she would have chosen the exact same life as the one she'd been living for the past nineteen years. Her dad had lied to her and betrayed her god knows how many times, but that was nothing compared to all the love that he and her mom had given her.

Claire sighed as she turned around and away from the window. What will today bring me? She already had one important thing on her to-do list and that was getting in contact with Peter. He was the only one who could explain the situation to her and she didn't have to doubt his honesty. Peter would never lie to her, unlike the rest of their families.

First things first. She had to take a shower. Being trapped and buried in Samuels trailer, escaping through water and falling from the Ferris wheel has\d left her covered in dirt and blood.

After having showered and after having found an extremely soft bathrobe, Claire sat down on the bed and turned on the television. She shifted on the bed nervously as she switched to the news channel. Here we go. She didn't know what to expect. Would they be showing the press conference non-stop? Did they think it was important enough to show it non-stop? It is important. The first thing she saw, however, wasn't the press conference. It was not her head displayed on the screen. It was Sylar's. They had taken a mug shot of his head. When did he get arrested? Claire sat closer to the screen as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. There was dirt all over his bearded face and his hair was a mess. He looked like some kind of homeless guy. What's he been up to?

After watching the news for a couple of minutes, it became clear to Claire that Sylar had been arrested not long before he turned up at her school, when she stabbed him in the eye with a pencil. They showed different parts of the press conference and eventually a bit of the video. Finally. It wasn't much. The quality sucked and the only thing she saw was the three of them, talking. At some point Peter fell to the ground, there were gun shots and then everything became a blur. There was a huge cloud of dust and only seconds later she saw two men shooting off into the sky. Peter and Sylar.

It seemed like her dad had been telling the truth. Sylar threw Peter on the ground and that's when her dad shot him, but he also said that Peter tried to convince him that Sylar had changed. If that's what he was doing before being thrown on the ground then why did Sylar do that?

Claire jumped when she heard a knock on the door. No. Whoever it was she didn't want to face them yet. If she just waited, pretended that she wasn't there, they might go away eventually.

There was another knock on the door.

She sighed and went to the door reluctantly. She looked through the peephole. "Gretchen!" she said, maybe a little too loudly. After opening the door she couldn't help but hug her friend. Finally, someone she actually wanted to see.

"Wow, hey," Gretchen said, a little surprised by Claire's enthusiasm.

"How did you get here?" Claire asked after letting Gretchen go. She had this big smile plastered on her face, which she couldn't seem to get rid of. "Come on, get in."

Gretchen picked up her bag and entered the bed/living room. "I fast-travelled." She dropped her bag on the bed and sat down.

Claire closed the door. "Huh?"

"Oh, you're friend gave me a ride."

"Friend? What friend?"

"Edgar. You know, short guy, dangerous-looking, tattoos, super-fast…"

Oh! "He brought you here?"

"Uhuh. Oh, and I swear, it's the best way to travel."

She's great, Claire thought as she went to sit next to Gretchen. She wanted to ask if it was her dad's idea to let Edgar bring Gretchen to New York, but she probably already knew the answer. He had done the exact the same thing when he invited her to that Thanksgiving dinner. "You just went with him?"

"Yeah. Well, not right away. Oh, my god. I thought I was having a heart attack when I woke up and saw a man standing in the middle of the room. I seriously thought that he was going to kill me."

"Edgar?" Claire would have freaked out too, if she had been in a similar situation, but Gretchen didn't have to worry about anybody wanting to kill her.

"Yeah, he was just standing there with his knifes, but then I recognised him from TV."

"The press conference…" Claire had been thinking about it all night. The press conference had been on her mind non-stop, but she had forgotten all about it as soon as she saw Gretchen through the peephole.

"Yep. Oh, and I've got that number… The one you wanted me to write down." Gretchen reached inside her pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper with the phone number on it. "What's it for?"

Claire took the piece of paper from Gretchen. "My uncle, I need to call him."

"Well… What are you waiting for?" Gretchen asked as she got her phone out of her other pocket.

Claire looked at Gretchen's phone and sighed. It was still early… Wherever Peter was, would he even be awake? Would he have turned his phone on? Maybe there was no point in trying, because Sylar could've killed him already. But if she didn't try, she'd never find out. What the heck, I'm just gonna do it. "Thanks," she said as she took the phone and called the number.

It went straight to voicemail.

Damn. She really wanted to talk to him. "Thanks, Gretch, but I don't think I'll reach him anytime soon." It was possible that Peter had a dead battery and if that was the case, Claire wouldn't be able to talk to him, not for a long time.

"Send him a text and he'll call you back when he gets it. I'm sure."

Claire wasn't so sure, but it was worth the try. "You're probably right." She started writing the text, which wasn't easy, because she had no idea how to put all her questions into one simple text message. Eventually, she managed to put something together.

"Why didn't you want anyone to know about calling your uncle?"

Oh, that. Claire had been a bit secretive about that, because she wanted to talk to Peter without her dad finding out about it. "He's… in trouble."

"Oh," Gretchen said.

Claire looked at Gretchen from the corner of her eye. It was obvious that Gretchen wanted to know more. She was curious, just like everybody else, but at least she had the decency not to push too much. Claire couldn't wish for a better friend. It made her want to tell Gretchen everything. "Yeah, it's Peter. Peter Petrelli."

Gretchen turned her head towards Claire and frowned. "That guy from the video?"

"You've seen it?"

"Who hasn't? I mean, they were flying, Claire. Everybody at college is talking about it. At first they all thought that it was some kind of magic trick, or that it was photo shopped or whatever, but then they saw what you did. Okay, most people still thought that what you did wasn't real as well, but then the police came and you and your dad started talking about that Sylar. It's hard to believe that that's all fake when everybody is so serious about it. Then they all wanted to know everything about you and they came to me with all their questions, because they had seen us together a lot at school."

Claire sighed as she tried to process all that information. So, that was what had been going on at college. The first reaction had been that it was all just a magic trick. "What do they think of me?"

Gretchen was about to open her mouth and answer Claire's question when there was another knock on the door.

They both looked at each other, neither knowing who it could've been.

"Maybe Edgar?" Gretchen asked, uncertain.

"Let's find out." Claire went to the door and looked through the peephole again. "I can't see anybody." She wanted to move away from the door but her feet were stuck to the floor. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Gretchen asked, slightly panicking.

"I can't move." Claire looked back through the peephole and saw another eye staring back at her. Her hand went to the doorknob, unwillingly. She opened the door as she walked backwards into the room.

"Hello, Barbie."

Oh, no. "Doyle. What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, Barbie. I just came to have a little chat with you."

"How did you get away from the carnival?"

"Claire…" Gretchen said.

Claire turned her head and saw Gretchen walking towards them. "Stay back!"

"You should listen to your friend," Doyle said as he made Gretchen move back to the bed.

Claire turned her head towards Doyle again. "Whatever it is, I'm sure we can work something out."

"Shut up," he sat as he pressed his thumb and index finger together, closing Claire's mouth instantly. "You're going to sit down and listen." He turned Claire around and made her walk back to the bed.

Claire sat down on the bed next to Gretchen. It's not like I have a choice. Doyle walked towards them with that creepy look on his face he always had.

"You're going to help me, Barbie," he said as he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the two girls.

Next Chapter: The Way It Ends