Chapter 3: Bailiwick

Claire hesitated outside the lab. As far as she was concerned, she was entitled to know everything about her once tormentor, what's more, after what she's been through, she felt she should have the right to at least have a say about what happens to Sylar. Angela and her father still treated her like a child to a great extent though and with Mohinder she didn't know where she stood. She didn't know him all that well, what's more, she had been wary around him, like many of his co-workers. Nobody really trusted the scientist who acquired his abilities in a completely different way to the others. Were they all defined by their powers? She mused, as she entered.

The head of research only acknowledged her presence with a glance and did not give her any more attention, not even when she stepped up to him and spoke. "Are there any experiments on the go with Sylar, or his blood?"

"There's nothing I don't know about him that could be of use," Mohinder said, without taking his eyes off the computations on his screen.

"How much of the inhibiting formula does he get?"

"Enough," the scientist muttered, grimacing in trying to keep his concentration and thought process undivided.

Claire rolled her eyes. She could do with a little more being taken into account. By everyone. "I understand it was enough for you to think you temporarily made him into a quiet bittie bunny, but how much, I mean, exactly?"

Mohinder blew the air out forcibly, giving in to the fact he lost his train of thought, "where does it come from, this insistence? I can assure you, this is not your fight anymore, and if it's comfort you're looking for, I'd predict you'll be able to enjoy the glimmer of the life you once knew without any further interruptions from this powerful force, that baffles us all, evolution."

"Well, thank you. That sounds...err, reassuring? Grim? Grand? Uhm, but you know, it's beside the point. Prisoner 06's dehydrated, has severe spasmodic abdominal pains with a raised body temperature, a rapid heart beat and low blood pressure. Now what I'd like to know is if the drugs he's getting are part of some organized punishment scheme or just mere side effects of vitally important research!"

The man of science leaned back, clearly shaken out of his shell. "Temperature? Heart beat? I'm not aware..." He narrowed his eyes, "how could you know?"

"We still share an ability, which makes it a special bond, if you wanna call it that. I know with utter certainty."

If possible at all, Mohinder got even more curious and stood up to take a better look on her, "you don't suffer through his pain, do you?"

"Only if I'd be in physical contact."

"Oh. Well then..." Mohinder unconsciously inched back towards his computer, starting to lose interest a little. "I'm sure Mr. Sylar is well aware of what demands evolution requests for singularity."

"So it is intentional. The pain."

The man shrugged, "perhaps. We have better things to contend with than measuring Sylar's vitals."

"In that case I have to ask you to come down with me and calculate a lower doze for him that'd make him more comfortable," Claire said, unrelenting. She couldn't let any emotion filter in where there was only a moral question.

Mohinder frowned, not sure what to think. The human psyche was more of life's mysteries than evolution will ever be. First of all, he did not know that the killer was so badly affected, or whether if he'd care if he did, but most importantly, the blond standing in front of him so decisively unbalanced him. "Why?"

"Because what it's been done to him is exceptionally cruel, wicked and disgustingly inhuman. It horrifies me to think that we are on the same level as a serial killer, that we do to him similar things to what we wanted us protected from when he was attacking us."

"So Claire Bennett's very innate nature shows what?" Mohinder asked to see more clearly, "pity? Charity? Meaning? Compassion even?"

"Just what's right Dr. Suresh, and you know it."

"Well, if that's not the the glowing light of the new dawn..." Mohinder muttered as he followed the girl to the cells, not knowing himself how much percentage of what he said was belief, and how much was sarcasm.

tbc