Just a bit of backstory to help support the plot.

2

Devil's Bargain

November 26, 2010

Claire approached the grand front door to the Petrelli mansion not quite sure of what she should be expecting. Her grandmother had left her several messages throughout the day citing urgent business but not leaving any clue as to what that pertained to. She had kept glancing down at her phone, distracted from her afternoon classes, and debated internally about whether she even wanted to respond to the requests for a meeting at all. It would be the first time seeing Angela face to face since Claire had learned about the horrifying details of Nathan's death, and… Just the thought of her late biological father's memories and consciousness being crammed into that monster's head was enough to fill her with deep-seated resentment all over again. She couldn't be sure which part of that half-baked scheme disgusted her more, the fact that they had gone to such extreme lengths to cover up Nathan's death even from her and Peter, or that she had unwittingly shown the man loving affection during that time.

But, she had reluctantly admitted to herself, with all things Angela related the matter had to be taken seriously. The door opened before she even had the opportunity to knock. "We've been expecting you, Ms. Bennet," the butler announced, promptly escorting her to the sitting parlor. Of course you have, she thought with an inner scoff.

"Claire, my dear, I'm glad you came," her grandmother declared from a stiff chair, a strong drink in one hand, and a framed photograph of Nathan in the other.

"Claire," Noah called, taking a step forward to embrace his daughter but stopping dead in his tracks when he was met by her withering glare. One very disgruntled looking Hiro Nakamura shuffled his feet behind Noah, offering only a courtesy bow in greeting. The time traveler wore a thin-lipped frown and long creases etched their way over his forehead in anxiety. She had known that this would not be a pleasant visit, but if the matters at hand were grave enough to convert such a normally jovial presence into one of deep worry perhaps the situation was worse than she had assumed.

"I have a business proposition for you," Angela started. "As you know, Sylar has returned, and Nathan is no longer with us." She glowered momentarily into the mouth of her glass when Claire audibly snorted. How could she forget? "I had a dream last night of the future… past… a future, past if you will. You were the one to kill Sylar while it could still be done."

"Where are you going with this, Angela?" Claire swept her fingers through her hair in irritation. She was in no mood to deal with the older woman's cryptic dreams and manipulations.

"Getting straight to the point I see." As she looked up with a sad little smile that crinkled the edges of her mouth, Claire noticed her red-rimmed glassy eyes. She had been crying and apparently grown too tired to cover up the evidence that still stained her gracefully wrinkled cheeks. "I want you to go back in time and kill Gabriel Gray before he has a chance to become Sylar. Mr. Nakamura, here," Hiro glanced at her with open disdain that she chose not to notice, "has agreed to take you back to a point before Chandra Suresh discovered his 'patient zero'. Sylar will not even know about abilities, the people who have them such as yourself, or that he possesses one."

"Why me?" she asked flippantly, rolling her eyes. Was it really too much to ask that she be allowed to spend one day of her life not worrying about Sylar?

"Because you're his type, dear."

"Excuse me?" she hissed incredulously.

"The Sylar of this time line has a certain… fascination with you. I believe that the past version of himself may also be vulnerable to you. It would grant you more of a unique opportunity to get close enough to him to end the threat than anyone else would have. And besides, you're the only one that's managed to kill him so far." Angela and Hiro exchanged mutual glances of subdued hostility as she drained the remains of her drink so that the ice in the bottom of the glass clinked together. The time traveler had had his fair share of opportunities to end the menace himself, and while he was able to escape intact, his failures still managed to sting. Her grandmother leaned forward in her chair, holding Nathan's photo out in front of her. "Think about it, Claire. You could keep Sylar from hurting you, from killing your mother and your father, from murdering all of those innocent people. You could prevent it all. You could save us." That was a low blow that had her gasping for air when she remembered how to do so.

How many times had she been so angry and frustrated because her ability allowed her to survive all of the tortures that she had endured, but had never offered her a way to fight back? How many times had she had to rely on being saved by others because she couldn't defend herself? How many of those times had resulted because of Sylar or something he had done? There was a golden opportunity before her. One that would allow her of all the heroes to save the day. One that she couldn't afford to waste.

The image of facing Sylar without his powers to defend himself against her came all too clearly. She could see herself so easily releasing all of her pent-up rage for the man and pulling the trigger, knowing that for once he would not simply get up afterward and laugh to spite her. It was a good feeling, bordering on euphoria.

"You don't have to do this, Claire. Not if you don't want to," Noah said calmly, stepping forward to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. She shook him off with a deadly glare and turned back to Angela.

"I'll do it." Angela gave her a wicked smile in return that should have made her wonder exactly what kind of devil's bargain she had just signed.

"Now, Claire -" Noah made to replace his hand on her shoulder, wishing that she would put more time into thinking about such a quest. He couldn't make himself believe that manipulating his daughter into becoming a killer would ever possibly be a good idea, but she shook him away again with another heart-wrenching scowl.

"What do I have to do?" was all that she had to ask.

"We have a plan already in place. You're going to be transported to the nearest Hyatt hotel to the Queens location of your target. You'll book a room for yourself over the span of a month using a set of identifications that we have procured for you. Immediately afterward, you're going to call a private and secured line to Primatech requesting a meeting with your father. There will be a personally signed mission statement from myself to give to him explaining the situation and requesting his assistance. From there Noah will help you to make contact with Sylar, but it will be up to you to establish a connection to him that will grant you an opportunity to finish your mission."

"Why can't I just find him, kill him, and come back?"

Angela had smiled condescendingly with that question. "Because this isn't the movies, Claire. There are real world consequences to killing people. We wouldn't want you to come back to a future where you're wanted for murder now would we? And if nothing else, a little discretion makes the work easier for our clean-up crews." In other words, it would be less strenuous to have a specialist come remove her fingerprints from his blood-stained apartment than it would be to have the Haitian chase numerous people down for memory wipes if she just shot him point-blank in the street. Great.

"Mrs. Petrelli, I am not so sure that this will be a good idea," Hiro timidly voiced his reservations through his thick accent.

"And what of Charlie, Mr. Nakamura? Do you no longer wish to see her again?" Hiro closed his mouth and returned to his uneasy stance, staring at the floor in weary contemplation.

"Remember, Claire. It's you're choice to do this. You can always back out," her father pitched again.

"I want to do this. I want to make him pay for everything he did to us. To me."

Claire had been provided with everything essential to the completion of the mission in a securely packaged duffel bag including: copies of all of Primatech's pertinent files on Sylar, several stacks of cash for whatever expenses she may face during her journey, a thin brown envelope with a full set of identifications, relevant contact information, the mission statement for her father, tracking devices, and an emergency code to use in the event that the plan should be aborted and she needed an urgent evacuation.

After Claire had packed another bag with her toiletries and a few sets of clothes to last until she had time to go shopping for more in the past, she declared herself ready to leave for her mission. "Here," Angela added, handing her Sylar's old broken wrist watch. "This should offer you a way in with him. We removed it from him after Nathan…" she couldn't quite make herself finish the thought. "You should ask him to fix it for you. It will be a convenient means of meeting for the first time."

She held the watch for several minutes, turning it over in her fingers and wondering exactly how many lives the object had seen taken. "Be careful, Claire Bear," her father had told her before she left with a strong hug that she couldn't move away from.

February 6, 2006

The first half of their plan had gone off without a hitch. Hiro teleported them to an alleyway that obscured their sudden appearance from passerby. He escorted her into the hotel, and made sure that she and her modest luggage found her room safely before preparing to depart.

"Hiro, wait," she called after him when he had started to make his trademark scrunchy face. "How will I get a hold of you when I'm ready to go home?" He pushed his glasses back up onto his nose and gave her a wide smile.

"Do not worry, Ms. Bennet. I will keep a careful eye on time for you." Hiro granted her one last courtesy bow and with a blink, vanished from sight.

Contacting the past version of her father had been the most difficult point of the entire adventure up until her first meeting with Sylar that afternoon. Claire had to constantly remind herself that he wasn't the same man partly responsible for the idiotic scheme that had been the catalyst for sending her there and that she really had no reason to be upset with him. Noah had promptly boarded a flight to New York from Texas after receiving her call. After so many years in his field of employment, he hadn't even been that surprised with her story about becoming a time traveling assassin; though he had more than put her through the ringer with every test imaginable to make sure that she wasn't some kind of impostor. He had been more amazed that she was no longer his sweet and innocent Claire Bear that he would reconnect with once he got home, but that the Claire in front of him was a grown woman, mature and strong. For a brief moment she had thought that she had caught a glimpse of a tear in the corner of his eye.

They had spent the first week of her time there doing reconnaissance work over the target and rehearsing the stages of her plan, and back-up plan, and the back-up plans for the damn back-up plan. Noah had also taken the time to drill her over the functions of her weapon and how to use it properly as well as basic self-defense maneuvers. Claire could have strangled the man for his anal retentive tendencies, but he had to be assured that she would be as safe as possible.

February 13, 2006

"You did just fine, Claire Bear," Noah said reassuringly once they were on their way back to her hotel from the Gray and Sons watch shop. Claire slumped her head into her hand and leaned against the cool glass of the Primatech van's tinted window with a heavy sigh. Of course he would say something like that even though she wasn't exactly the smooth agent that she had hoped to be that day. "We're ready to take him down at any time if you get into trouble," he added, smiling, misreading her disgruntled state. René quietly nodded in agreement from his perch behind the two front seats.

"And," her father turned a knowing but compassionate look towards her, "if you ever think that you might not be able to go through with it, I can take over. Just say the word, and I'll be there to finish it for you." She had no illusions about what that meant. Oh, I'll be able to do it alright.

I'll do it. She repeated those words to herself as she watched the streets of New York pass by through the window of the van. They were the three little words that for better or worse would change the world. Claire bade her father and René good-bye after the van had entered the rear parking area of the hotel and made her way to her room. Once inside she made herself comfortable at the table with the revolver, pouring her attentions over Sylar's file again. "Boom," she whispered to herself, aiming the gun at the wall in front of her and pretending to fire it.

Gabriel adjusted his glasses to more clearly see the parts spread over the table before him and tilted his work lamp just a bit closer. He held the two seemingly identical watches out for comparison noting some minuscule difference that only he would be able to discern. "Of course, why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself in the silence of the shop. He had already repaired the Sylar watch that Claire had brought him that afternoon, and then used its working pieces to help guide him on how to fix his own replica. Pushing the last tiny wheel into place, Gabriel excitedly observed the two time keepers tick away in perfect unison.

To be continued...