Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! I absolutely love them and they make writing this fanfic a lot more fun. Sorry, this chapter took a bit longer to write than usual. The next one will probably take even longer, cause I've got some exams coming up that I need to focus on. But don't worry, this story is way too addictive to simply put aside for weeks. I couldn't do that even if I wanted to.

Back to our heroes...

"He's in there."

"We heard him talking to the kid."

"What's the plan, Bennet?"

"Just wait for him to come out."

"He knows we're here."

"He'll have to come out of that room eventually. He's surrounded. Remember what I said. Aim for the head. He will heal, so we gotta be fast. Aim for the head."

"Done. Now what?"

Noah frowned and turned around slowly. His eyes widened. He saw an exact same copy of himself standing before him, holding a gun to his forehead. He changed his facial expression quickly and made it look like he couldn't care less about the little shape shifting act. "Sylar."

"Wrong."

Noah let out a snort of laughter and shook his head. "If you want them to believe that you're me, you should've shot me already. That you haven't pulled the trigger yet, proves that you're not me."

"Maybe I haven't pulled the trigger yet, because you're stopping me from doing so. You're using your ability to prevent me from killing you."

"Nice try, but it won't work. They know that I'm real and you're fake." Sylar didn't react, but Noah noticed the smirk even though it was there for just a second. "Aim your guns at his head." Noah took a quick look at the team of agents and saw that they did what he told them to do. They had their guns pointed at Sylar. "Take him out."

"He's forcing us."

"I… can't… move."

"It's him. He's doing this."

"Don't shoot!" the other Noah Bennet pleaded.

"Son of a bitch…" Noah gave up. Shape shifting was a smart move, but he hated that he had the be the one Sylar had to shape shift into. Like it was supposed to be some kind of taunt, to get a rise out of him. He wouldn't let that happen, but Sylar had shape shifted into him for a reason. He was up to something. "What do you want?"

"Let's walk."

Noah didn't have a choice. Sylar made him move down the stairs and outside the warehouse. There were a lot more agents outside the building and they all pointed their guns at the two Noah's as soon as they came walking out of the building.

"Don't shoot!" the other Noah yelled.

Noah glanced at Sylar from the corner of his eye. "What now?"

"Get in the car."

"Why don't you just make me?"

"Get in the car and drive."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll kill everyone here. I don't want to, but you're not giving me a choice. Now get in the car."

"Didn't Peter say something about you having changed?" Noah asked, but went to one of the Company cars anyway when he didn't get an answer. He opened the door and sat down behind the steering wheel. He had no idea what Sylar was planning to do with him, but he wasn't going to risk the lives of all those agents by not listening to him.

Sylar went to the other side of the car, but didn't open the door just yet. He needed some reassurance first. He scanned the area with his eyes and found what he was looking for. Micah was standing about twenty yards away from him, talking to a woman, probably also an agent. Sylar waited a couple of seconds until the woman walked away and entered a vehicle. Micah turned towards him and nodded his head before he followed the woman into the vehicle. Sylar knew enough. He opened the car door and sat down next to Noah.

"Where are we going?"

"Let's say that you had shot me and you had been able to tranquilize me. Where would you have taken me?"

"The Company," Noah answered truthfully. There was point in lying, Sylar would see right through it.

"There's your answer. Now drive."

Sylar wasn't forcing Noah to drive, he still had full control over his own body. "Okay…" Noah started the car and drove away from the warehouse. He had no idea if the other agents were going to follow them, but he really hoped they didn't. If Sylar was sincere about killing them, he'd rather have them stay away.

Sylar went through the unpleasant process of shape shifting back into his own body again. He breathed in through his nose slowly. "That feels… so much better."

"Never ever do that again," Noah warned him. "Stay out of my body."

"Oh, come on. I needed a way out of that place and shape shifting was the only way."

"Why do you want me to take you to the Company?"

"You tell me."

"Excuse me?"

"Tell me what you're planning to do with me once I'm there."

What? Noah turned his head in surprise. "What makes you think that I will tell you?"

"Eyes on the road, Bennet," Sylar said as he made Noah turn his head back.

Noah gripped the steering wheel firmly. Sylar still knew ways to get under his skin after all those years, both literally and figuratively speaking.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to. I'm just curious. I thought that maybe it would be a solution for the both of us. I mean, you want to see me dead. I can't die, obviously. It made me wonder what the Company had planned for me."

Noah didn't answer his question and kept his eyes on the road like Sylar had told him to.

"Nothing? There's really no reason why you shouldn't tell me…" and then it dawned on Sylar. "Oh… No, you've got to be kidding me. You... don't know?" Noah kept his mouth shut, which meant that Sylar was probably right. He leaned back in his seat and chuckled. "The Company doesn't know what to do with me? I never knew that this day would come. You're sure? Not even Angela?"

"Just tell us where we can find your off-switch and we'll gladly put an end to your miserable life."

Sylar stopped laughing and turned his body to face Noah again. "No."

Noah sighed. Sylar said he wanted a solution for the both of them, but the only solutions Noah could come up with where the ones where Sylar had to die. But then he remembered the conversation he walked in on, earlier that morning. "There is this place…"

"What place?"

Noah looked at Sylar from the corner of his eye. Somehow, he had the man's full attention. "A facility. I don't know much about it, but I heard it's impenetrable from the outside and not even someone as strong as you would be able to escape from it. Her words, not mine."

"Whose words?"

"An FBI agent," Noah answered. "Someone whose life you screwed up as well."

"That list is pretty long, Bennet. Be more specific."

"Agent Audrey Hanson. I bet that doesn't ring a single bell."

Sylar nodded his head. "I made her point her gun at her own head once. How is that screwing up her life?"

"There's no point in explaining if you need to ask me that."

Sylar didn't want to think about that agent. He had almost killed her if it wasn't for Parkman, coming to her rescue. It was one of the many things he wanted to forget about. So he decided to move on to the more important matters. "She knows more about it?"

"Why are you so interested in this place?"

Sylar leaned back in his chair again. "I want to talk to her. Bring me to her, Bennet."

"We just drove away from her."

"Then drive me to wherever the Company is now and I'll wait for her there."

"Hello Peter."

Peter straightened in his chair immediately. He had been dozing for a while and almost fell asleep when he heard someone call his name. He looked over his shoulder and saw Noah entering the office-like room.

"You look like hell," Noah said when he saw Peter's face.

"Looks worse than it feels."

"He gave you flight but couldn't bother to give you regeneration?"

"What's your point?"

Noah sat down behind the desk opposite from Peter. "At least we know that it's really you. We took a DNA sample, just to be sure."

"Why wouldn't it be me?"

"We thought you might've been shape shifting."

"Why would I be shape shifting?" Noah didn't answer Peter's question, he just shrugged his shoulders like the answer wasn't that important. "Is it because of him? Did Sylar shape shift into me? Into Nathan?"

"No, Peter. He shape shifted into me."

"Why?"

"He didn't tell you?" Noah thought that Sylar had told Peter about his 'plan', but he guessed wrong.

Peter stood up from the chair. "No! Noah, tell me what happened. I've been in this room for hours and nobody would tell me a single thing."

"Okay. Okay, I will. Just calm down." Noah waited for Peter to sit down again, but he didn't. So, Noah continued. "After we found you, Micah ran away from us. We decided to wait for him to come out into the hallway again, which he did eventually."

"Is he okay?"

"Yes, he was no trouble at all. He actually stayed with you the entire time."

Peter sighed in relieve. He had been worried that they had drugged Micah as well. "What about Sylar?"

"He was there, we heard him and Micah talk. We waited for him to come out of the room after Micah, but he never did. We waited a couple of minutes, but that turned out to be a big mistake. He was standing behind me all of a sudden, looking like me and holding a gun to my head."

"He wouldn't…"

"Yes, he would. There are enough witnesses to prove it. Peter…" Noah sighed. "I'll tell you everything, just sit down. It's a lot to take in."

"Okay…" Peter sat down.

Noah started by apologising for the way he handled things at the warehouse. Drugging Peter had not been necessary, looking back on the whole situation. Peter accepted the apology and Noah continued by telling everything that happened after he found Peter.

Peter was astounded. Nothing made sense anymore. What Sylar did, made no sense. He could've left. He could've fought them. He could've done a lot of things, but of all the things he could've done he had chosen the one you would expect the least. He had chosen to give up and surrender. It made Peter angry, so angry. After everything he did for that man, saving him from his nightmare, defending him in front of Noah and Matt, giving him a chance to prove himself. It was all for nothing. "Ungrateful son of a bitch," Peter murmured after Noah had finished his story.

"That's just who he is, Peter. I tried to tell you that, but you wouldn't listen."

"He didn't kill anyone?"

"No, but only because I did exactly what he told me to do."

Peter was pretty sure that Sylar only threatened to kill people to get what he wanted. That's what he always did. "Did he tell you why?"

"Why he wants to live the rest of his life in a prison cell? Yes, he did."

"Well?"

"He said he deserved it. Nothing more, nothing less. I think we can all agree with that."

Peter didn't agree. Sylar deserved to suffer for all the wrong he had done in his life, but he already did. Three years long, he suffered. This 'solution' Sylar came up with, wasn't that different from the solution Matt had chosen for him. The only difference was that Peter didn't need to save him from it this time. This time it had been Sylar's choice and he had to respect that. "So, that's it? It's over?"

"Yes, it is." Noah looked at Peter for a moment, but the man seemed to be deep in thought. "It's really over, Peter. We don't have to worry about him ruining our lives, ever again."

"I'm not worried. He can do whatever he wants. I don't care anymore." That wasn't entirely true, but he had to get some anger out.

Noah sighed and looked at the door behind Peter. "Claire's here. She wants to see you."

"Okay." Peter still had to process everything that Noah had told him. "How much does she know?"

"Everything, except one little detail."

"Which is?"

"I told her that Sylar was going after you. I told her and everybody else that he attacked you."

"You did what?!"

"Think about it, Peter. You'll have to go back to your old life eventually. What are you going to tell your family? Your friends? Your colleagues? Are you going to tell them that you helped a serial killer escape, or that you tried to stop him and risked your own life to do so?"

"What about Claire? Why can't she know the truth?"

"Sylar took her ability, he killed her birthparents. Even if you tell her everything about that nightmare or the people he saved at the carnival, it won't change anything. She will never understand."

"So… You're telling me that lying is my only option?"

Noah shrugged. "You can tell the truth. That's your choice, but I can tell you now. Nobody will understand why you helped a serial killer. You're gonna have a real hard time explaining why you did that and I don't think that 'I was stuck with him in a nightmare for years' is going to cut it."

"You talked to Matt?"

"Yes. He told me everything."

Peter wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to tell the truth, but Sylar had chosen to live his life imprisoned instead of finding an alternative. It meant that he no longer needed Peter's help and Peter no longer needed to worry about helping him. And also, Noah was right. Nobody would ever believe him about being stuck in Sylar's worst nightmare for years. Nobody even knew that telepathy was a real thing until Claire told them that it was.

"You can make it the truth, Peter. There's a handful of people who know what you've done and I've already talked to Matt. He isn't going to say anything to anyone."

"Send Claire in."

Noah took that as a sign that Peter had made his decision. He just hoped it was the right one. "I need to talk to you and Claire both, but I'll give you a moment to catch up first."

Noah left the room, closing the door behind him. It opened again after a couple of minutes and Claire walked in.

"Hey, you," Peter said, forcing a smile.

"Hey." Claire returned his smile and gave him a brief hug. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, nothing happened."

"Well, that's putting it mildly. Peter, what were you doing with Sylar of all people?"

Straight to the point, like always. "It was all just one big mistake, Claire. I thought that he had changed." I still do. Peter could already feel himself becoming sick of the lie and this was only the beginning.

"How? After he killed Nathan, why would you ever believe him?"

"Did your dad tell you what happened with Matt?"

"Yeah, he said that you and Sylar were stuck in some kind of nightmare."

"We were in there for years, Claire. I helped him escape, because I thought that he was different, a better person. I thought that he had left his past behind him and wanted to move on. I got him out, because I needed his help at the carnival and he did. He helped, he saved people. But then…" There it was. The lie that had to be told. Peter turned his head away from Claire, because he couldn't look her in the eye. "After talking to your dad, he realised that he was never going to change and he decided to kill both me and your dad." Peter hated himself. He hated himself so much, because he didn't want to lie. Especially to Claire, who had been lied to her entire life. "Noah shot him and I saw it as a chance to lure Sylar away from the carnival."

"Then… How did you end up at that warehouse?"

One lie lead to more lies. "I followed him there," Peter answered. "Remember Rebel?"

Claire nodded her head. Of course she remembered Rebel. He had been helping her and other specials when they were being hunted by the government.

"That warehouse was where he had his hideout. Sylar knew about it and went there."

"Why?"

Peter sat down on the desk. "I don't know, Claire! Maybe he wanted his own hideout, maybe he knew that I was following him and he wanted to kill me there. Does it matter? He got caught and all I wanna do now is forget it ever happened."

"Can you?" Claire asked as she sat down next to him. "Can you forget what he did? Who he killed?"

Peter sighed and looked back at Claire. "Of course not. I'll never forget, but I wanna try. Sorry, I didn't mean to snap. You must've had a hard time as well."

"It wasn't that bad." Apart from all the media attention, nothing terrible had happened. Not compared to what Peter had to deal with. "Oh, but I did get a visit from Doyle."

That got Peter's attention. "Doyle?"

"Yeah, he found me and my friend Gretchen this morning."

"That's not possible."

"It is."

"No, but…" Peter paused. Sylar had taken care of Doyle. He had seen it with his own eyes and that's what he wanted to tell Claire, but he realised that he no longer had to prove anything to anyone, anymore. "Why was he there?"

"He wanted to disappear and thought that I would help him again. Can you believe it? I think he saw me as his last chance to get away. Then Edgar came and got me and Gretchen away from there."

"Is your friend okay?"

Claire forced herself to smile. "Yeah, she's gone back to school." She looked at Peter from the corner of her eye. She had almost lost him. When she heard that they had brought him here at the Company, she wanted to go see him right away, but he was still unconscious. It took a couple of hours before he finally woke, but her dad wanted to see him first. Peter didn't know anything about what happened with Sylar and her dad wanted to explain that to him first. "I'm so glad you're okay…"

"Hey…" Peter said as he put an arm around Claire's shoulders. "I told you, nothing happened."

"I really thought I had lost you too. He killed Nathan, I thought… He almost took you and dad away from me yesterday. I want him to pay, Peter. I want him to pay for everything he did to me, to us." She sat up and turned her head towards her uncle. "Do you know what I said to him once? I told him that I would keep trying to kill him for the rest of my life."

"I bet he didn't like that."

"On the contrary. He just smirked like he was looking forward to it and said something about everybody needing a hobby." Claire looked away and murmured, "sick bastard."

Peter had to stop himself from laughing out loud. Sylar's sick twisted sense of humour was highly amusing sometimes. Peter never showed it, because Sylar needed to know when he went too far with his jokes, but they were harmless most of the time. "It doesn't matter anymore. He's out of our lives for good."

"That's bullshit, Peter. And you know it." Claire went to stand before him. "How many times have we been under the impression that he was dead? First there was Kirby Plaza, where he should've died from being stabbed through the chest with a sword. Then there was the piece of glass I jammed into his head, but that damn thing melted. We've seen his body burn, thinking that it was finally all over, but no. He was just standing next to us, watching himself go up in flames."

That wasn't his fault. "He didn't die this time, though. They've taken him to someplace he can't escape from, according to your dad. It was his choice."

"Who cares? Do you really think he's going to stay there for the rest of his life? He's immortal, Peter! Like me. There will come a point when he decides that he's been gone long enough and he'll find a way to escape." Claire sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was sure of it. Sylar always kept coming back and he always left a trail of dead bodies behind him when he did. Her eyes widened as an idea came into her head. "We should do it."

"Do what?"

"Put an end to it, all of it. He will keep taunting us forever, Peter. But not if we do something about it. We could find him, find where they're keeping him and then we do it. I don't know how, but there must be a way. An ability maybe! You can absorb anything you want. Something strong enough to… I don't know. There must be a way, right? Peter?"

Peter's eyes grew wider with the second. He didn't want to kill Sylar and even if he did, he could never do it. "No." He stood and walked away from Claire. "No," he repeated and kept repeating it as he shook his head. Even if they were able to find Sylar somehow, he wasn't going to kill him. He didn't go through all that trouble of saving Sylar, to simply kill him in the end. Sylar had threatened to kill a lot of people, including Peter, but he knew that it was all just part of Sylar's plan to get himself locked up.

"No? Why not? We wouldn't be doing it just for us, Peter. Just think about how many lives we'll save, by getting rid of him."

"We're not going to kill him." Peter had to get that idea out of Claire's head, no matter what.

Claire raised her hands in defeat. "So, that's it? I'll just have to wait for him to turn up on my doorstep someday? Or yours? I won't be able to live my life peacefully, knowing that he's still out there. And neither will you, Peter."

"It's not gonna happen, Claire!"

At that moment the door opened and Noah walked in followed by Abby Collins.

"What's going on here?" Noah asked. It sounded like Peter and Claire were having an argument.

"Nothing," they answered at the same time.

Noah lifted his brow, clearly not convinced, but decided to leave it there. "We need to talk to you. Both of you."

"Why don't we all sit down?" Abby asked.

"I'm fine," Peter said.

"Peter, please. Sit down," Noah said. "You look like you haven't slept in weeks."

"I said, I'm fine."

Noah and Claire sat down and so did Abby, behind the desk.

"Where do I start," Abby said as she looked at father and daughter. "Claire, why don't you start by explaining why you jumped from that Ferris wheel?"

"What?" Claire asked, confused.

"I told you. She-,"

"I know what you told me, Noah. But I'd like to hear it from Claire." Abby turned her attention to Claire. "Claire," she began, "you've changed everything by coming forward about your ability. Not just for you, but for every single person out there with an ability. You took that decision by yourself. Can you tell me why?"

"I did it for all of us," Claire answered. "I just thought that if we could live in a world where nobody needs to hide their abilities, that would be so much easier, wouldn't it?" Claire looked at her dad and at Peter for reassurance, but the looks they gave her were everything but reassuring. "I mean, I only showed them my power. If someone doesn't want to show their power then they don't. It's their own decision."

"Then why did you attend that press conference?"

"To explain everything! I couldn't just jump from a Ferris wheel for the whole world to see and then leave without saying another word. And…"

"And what?"

"I don't want them to think that I'm the only one."

"They don't," Abby said, "and that's why I wanted to talk to both you and Mr Petrelli."

"It's Peter." Being called 'Mr Petrelli' made him feel so old. It also reminded him of his father and not exactly in a good way. "What's that got to do with me?"

"You're ability has been revealed to the world, as well."

"Yes, I know. The video."

"Not just the video. Claire and Noah talked about you and what you can do, during the press conference."

Peter frowned at the two of them. "You talked about me on live television?" Noah said that he told everyone about Sylar going after him, but he never said he did it during the press conference. "Why?"

Claire stood. "They needed to know that you're one of the good guys, Peter. They needed to know that you're nothing like him and that you never will be."

"It's important that they know that there aren't just bad people with abilities out there," Noah said.

"What else did you say?" Peter asked. "Nothing about Nathan, I hope?"

Claire hesitated, she kind of told them about Nathan. "I didn't say his name… I just talked about his ability, nothing more."

"I can't believe it," Peter said as he ran a hand through his hair. "It doesn't matter that you didn't say his name, Claire. They'll find out who he was and then they'll start spreading the truth. Why would you do that?"

"Does it matter? I mean, he's… gone."

"Yes, it matters! What about Heidi, hm? What about Simon and Monty? You never thought about what this would mean for them? This is going to turn their lives upside down and not just because Nathan had an ability. They'll find out about you, about you being Nathan's daughter." They might even find out that the plane crash wasn't the cause of his death. "That wasn't necessary, Claire!"

"That's enough, Peter." He was right, Noah knew that. It would've been better for Nathan's wife and kids if Claire hadn't said anything about his ability, but nothing could be done about that now. Peter had to tone it down a bit, because all Claire did was trying to explain abilities to the world and there was nothing wrong with that.

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't have done that. But isn't it better now that they know the truth?"

Abby decided to interfere. "It doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done."

Peter didn't agree. "Says who? I mean, what about time-traveling? Hiro could go back and make sure that Claire never jumped from the Ferris wheel. Or I could do it, just tell me where I can find him."

"No, Peter. You might make everything worse. We can't take that risk."

"And I don't want anything to change," Claire said. "The world will get used to this. Just give it some time. Yes, people will recognise us and want to know more about us, but we'll show them that we're just as normal as they are."

"With one big exception," Peter said. He didn't care about being recognised, that wasn't the problem. He was worried about people like Danko, people who thought that all specials should be considered 'dangerous'. "Hiro came back to the past, he told me to save the cheerleader." Peter looked at Claire. "Save the cheerleader, save the world. It worked. New York didn't explode. Sylar was killed, sort of. Why can't we do it again?"

Noah looked at Abby. She didn't know anything about what happened at Kirby Plaza, years ago. Not many people did, but Peter had a point. They could go back in time and try to change everything, but it was such a risk. A risk that wasn't worth taking. "Wouldn't it be better if you go forth in time, first? Have a look at what the future holds for us? If that turns out to be so bad, a future that none of us wants to live in, we'll consider doing it your way and change the past."

No… Peter had travelled to the future before and that had been such an unpleasant experience. In one future he lost Caitlin. In the other he had destroyed so many lives, just by being there. But the reason he went into that future, was to change it. This future might not need to be changed and if he destroyed anything... "I don't think that's a very good idea."

"It's the only way to know if Claire's actions will make the world unbearable for you to live in, or not. Our only other option is to wait and see what happens, but we won't know what awaits us." Noah sighed. All he wanted to know was if Claire would still be able to live her life as normally as possible. "You don't have to do it. I can ask Hiro to have a quick look." Noah turned to Claire. "What do you think?"

"Why are you so worried about the future?" Claire asked. "What could possibly happen?"

"People are curious now," Abby said, "but what about a week from now? A month? A year? Curiosity could change into jealousy or even worse, hate. What happens when another Sylar turns up? It could scare people and you don't want people to be afraid of you, Claire. You really don't."

"That's why we need to be prepared," Noah said. "We might not need to change anything, but it's important to know what's going to happen."

What Noah said made sense to Peter. If Hiro went to the future to have a quick look at how the world was dealing with abilities, that would be such a reassurance. But he didn't want the Japanese man to go alone. Hiro might see things he would never tell anyone about and Peter couldn't let that happen. "I'll do it. I'll go to the future."

Next Chapter: Gut Feelings