Chapter 12: Borderland

It was the early hours of the morning and Claire had not slept one wink. For a while now, she was staring at the last page of her imprinted pack of printing paper where it said "thank you for the lovely dinner" as the latest thing in Sylar's life indeed, just like he had hinted it would be written like.

And just like promised, the large story that took her several hours to read without being able to stop, had started with Sylar's early recollections of being pulled in a wooden cart by his father and continued by his mother's murder by his dad around the same spot, being sold to another family for they didn't have children, his adoptive father abandoning them too, yet making him to follow his profession of watchmaking for grounds of possible appreciation of his choice if his adoptive father ever came back. Watches became his sole world for years. Because he understood them so well, they fueled his conception that there was something different and special about him, that he didn't belong. On some days he wanted to belong, but his mother wouldn't let him just be. She wished him to be more than a watchmaker, she advised him to try to be president on many occasions for she wanted him to be capable of such things, whether he felt like it, or not. To what he was trying to tell her she never listened, she had her own ideas about her son.

Then Dr. Chandra Suresh came into his life. He gave him new knowledge, he gave him hope that somehow there was a way to fulfill that hunger he felt for something, but he could never satisfy. It so amazingly all fell into place in his head when Brian Davis stepped into his shop, tortured by a power he didn't want to possess. Now Sylar knew what he had to do, but liked being in his own skin less for it. He would have hanged himself if not for Elle Bishop, who had made him think he was loved and that he was able to be good. But she had tricked him. Though he was sure she had feelings for him, she had used him under the direction of Claire's own father, put him in a situation where he couldn't keep himself from going for another ability, only so they Primatech people could study it. Further experimentation on him followed in captivity, then by Mohinder all on his own.

Believing that only those who do not deserve their powers needed to die, Sylar did not want to explode and kill innocent people. His cries for being stopped were shunned by Mohinder and it was then that he returned home in desperation, after being too embarrassed in front of his mother for what he has been up to previously. She had rejected him, with his powers, just like he'd anticipated, but her death was an accident. All he wanted to show her was who he really was.

The reader kinda knew most of the rest, but it surely sounded different coming from his perspective. It was a race for survival at first, then he became side tracked and tricked again by people who wanted to use him, Angela, Arthur, Noah Bennett, even Elle. So what he could do is find out what the truth was regarding them, and then go back to his origins and confront his fathers.

Being with Luke was interesting, fun god forbid, but he didn't have time to enjoy the time with who he believed was very likely his younger half brother. They were hunted down too soon and that never stopped till he infiltrated the organization and dealt with it from the top, from where all the nonsense came from. Self defense, if you like...

Claire held the last piece of paper like a statue. Her mouth slightly open as she forgot to shut it in the deep thought she was, she experienced this ice cold feeling in her chest, that did not come from the low temperatures in the Arctic. Understanding the reasons behind Sylar's actions did not make him any less fearsome, it did not make him any less of a monster. But it made a whole lot of sense. It made so many other people responsible for how he had turned out as well. Who was the victim at what point, was hard to tell. Question was, was there any way of undoing all that damage?

She heard it then, again. Sylar was still being sick as a result of them people's ruthless experimentation and assertion of what was right for them. And now, there was no doubt in Claire's mind that she will stand up and go to him.

Tbc