April 29, 2006

Gabriel leaned into the cracked piece of mirror, stretching the skin of his jaw for a closer shave. He wanted to be exceptionally well groomed for his very special date with Elle. Bringing the straight blade swooping around the curve of his chin mingled more of the white shaving cream with the oxidizing blood that caked around the end of the razor and down its handle in an odd brownish orange that he didn't quite have a name for.

Remnants of the bathroom mirror that he had broken were deeply embedded all around him in the walls of the annex room, twinkling with what light they could catch like slivers of stars. Blood dripped from his elbow to pit pat on the dusty floor at his feet, trickling in swirling lines from where Claire's name had been carved into the flesh of his inner arm. Only thin lines. Shallow cuts. After all, he wasn't completely insane. It wouldn't do at all for his best laid plans to be ruined on account of blood loss or tendon damage.

Patting his face dry when he was finished, Gabriel turned from the wall where his board of ability information had been resurrected, adorned with pictures of the perky cheerleader at the edges, and grasped one of the shirts that she had last worn in his hands from atop the pile of boxes that it rested on. He was careful not to ruin the delicate fabric with his blood as he lifted it to his face, inhaling a deep breath of the scent that was locked in the fibers. The smooth texture of cashmere was soft to the touch of his skin allowing him to believe for a fraction of a second that she could be there with him again.

All of her things had been packed away into the corners of the room so that not a single trace of her was left outside it. Gabriel had spent hours perched on the edge of the bed staring at what all had belonged to her in the bedroom before he had been able to bring himself to pick up for the last time. He didn't want to bare the thought of her things being thrown away like garbage though after he was gone. At least within the confines of the annex she would be safe, if in memory alone.

With a heavy sigh he replaced the shirt and closed the box that it belonged in. He quirked his head to the side studying the blood that remained damp on his arm and drew his stained finger through it to paint what was left on the wall. Gabriel had never repented for a sin he was about to commit before, but the nonsensical whim granted him enough absolution to bring on an eerie calm that could only prove beneficial for the finer control of his ability. Exiting the space, he wished a farewell to his Claire and left the blotched series of prayers for forgiveness behind.

Gabriel thumbed through his wardrobe for a few minutes before settling on the black collared shirt. Claire had liked that shirt. He pulled it on with the pair of black jeans that he had bought to wear home after taking Brian Davis's life. He looked like he was going to a funeral. And maybe he was.

The Company seemed to prefer a hands-off approach, he thought as he pulled the bottle of Pinot that he had originally purchased to share with Claire from the cabinet. They were content to watch from afar, snapping their pictures and placing spies in the lives of their targets. Gabriel tapped on the side of the syringe that he had loaded with rophenol bought disturbingly easily from a dark street corner a few blocks away and slammed the needle into the bottle's cork so that the drug could enter the alcohol without trace of it having been opened before. Judging from what had happened with Claire though, it seemed that they were not above ambush and kidnapping tactics should the need present itself. He slid the needle free of the cork and dropped it in the trash beneath a wad of dirty paper towels and duct tape used for polishing his fingerprints away from the apartment.

After having witnessed Elle, first speaking with Noah Bennet, and then jumping into the passenger seat of the Primatech van with him, not a hint of involuntary involvement about it, plots had started spinning dangerously. It became rather obvious that whatever organization had come for him, had chosen her specifically as a replacement for Claire. Gabriel lifted the wine bottle up to the light with a little shake action before placing it in ice to chill. They had very nearly succeeded. He took a deep breath to suppress the turbulent spasm of hatred that erupted with the thought. If their patterns of action held, Gabriel predicted that once the Company finally felt they were in position to take him, they would. That assumption was the adhesive binding his plan together. He was growing rather tired of the cat and mouse games interrupting the solace of what should have been a respectable grieving period. So, if he couldn't get Mohammed to come to the mountain, he would bring the mountain to Mohammed. By drugging Elle, and for all intensive purposes holding her hostage, he would force their move. When Bennet came to take him away he would be granted an all-access pass to the people responsible for Claire's disappearance.

"This ziti smells terrific!" Elle called out from the kitchen. Her voice carried with it a false note of glee in the anxiety that had been haunting her aura all night. Gabriel couldn't know for sure what was on her mind, but every flinch of her skin from contact with his and the nervous flitting of her eyes when she wouldn't make direct contact told him that she was expecting something… unpleasant. That in itself was information enough. Perhaps Primatech would be making their move soon, and so would he.

I'm sure it does. Mother's recipes always do. "Can't wait." A sinister smile full of dark intentions curled in the corners of his mouth as he skimmed over the label of the Pinot that he had bought for Claire. How suiting that Claire's gift should be Elle's folly.

"Hey, have you ever been to that little theatre down the street?" Elle's voice drifted closer to him with her approach as he popped the cork on the bottle. "I saw they had some sort of artsy spoken word thing there tonight."

"Maybe we should stop by later." If there is a later… Gabriel stooped down to take a whiff of the dish she held aloft for his approval. He greedily indulged in the herb tinged scent for a moment. It had been one of his favorites as a child and had been deemed satisfactory for what he expected to be his last meal.

"Maybe we should." Irregularly wrapping knuckles signaled the arrival of an unexpected guest. Elle jumped slightly at the sound but she flashed him a smile of relieved tension on the way to answer the door. "Oh, I invited someone to join us. I hope you don't mind." Bennet must be getting desperate. True enough Gabriel had been anticipating a move on the Company's part, but he hadn't guessed that it would come that soon. He was mildly irritated with himself for not being prepared, again, but the plan had already been set in motion, and it was too little too late to back down. Game on.

She disappeared back into the kitchen, calling to whomever waited on the other side, "It's open."

"Yeah, uh, I'm Trevor. We spoke on the phone?" Noah watched Zeitlan introduce himself over the apartment's video feed. Had he not been so invested in the capture of his daughter's defiler he might have felt a pang of sympathy for the young man. Trevor was a tender chicken that had just wandered into the wolf's den, unaware of the dangers that surrounded him in the guise of a pretty girl and an unassuming watchmaker. A pawn to sacrifice on his way to a check-mate. The ball is in your court now. Game on, Gabriel.

"I'm Elle. And, um, this is Gabriel," Elle beamed, leading the goth into the living room with her. His senses immediately picked up on the air of an ability, something more than ordinary lurking beneath the surface. An empty space presented itself inside of him and begged to be filled. The hunger had returned. Gabriel needed to be sated. Control yourself. He bit down on the end of his tongue to keep the craving that was raking away at his insides in check. "I thought you two should meet. Trevor has an ability too."

"An ability? I don't understand." Gabriel didn't even need to lie. His thought processes were violently turning over one another faster than he could keep track of them.

"Don't be mad, but I got Trevor's number off that list you had. I really think it's important for you to get to know people like yourself. I mean, alcoholics can't do it alone." And then it clicked. Gabriel flickered his gaze back and forth between Elle and Trevor, his capacity for understanding shrieking that he had been played. He had been ready to bait Primatech with Elle. He had been ready for an attack, or to be ambushed and dragged to a waiting van somewhere that would cart him away. But he had never expected the tables to be turned with such a cruel twist. There would be no move by Primatech as he had thought. Trevor was their move. Gabriel had been the one to be baited. Well played, Bennet, you son of a bitch.

"Trevor, why don't you… show us what you can do."

"Okay." Trevor looked around the living room for a second for something to use before settling his sights on one of the glasses that Gabriel had set out for the Pinot. He extended his arm towards it, forming his hand into a mock pistol and aimed. Gabriel instinctively moved out of his way, his insatiable curiosity holding him captive for what was about to happen. And then the glass shattered.

Remember your emotions. Push them away. Control yourself. But it was too late. Heat surged through his veins like hellfire, his stomach churning with acid and his muscles coiling to strike all on their own. Control yourself. And then another glass that had been sitting next to the broken one shattered as well with the power to steal the breath from his lungs. Control yourself!

"That is so cool. Gabriel?" He rigidly turned to see Elle grinning like a smitten teenager. "Isn't that special? Wait here. I have a great idea." She skipped off into the kitchen, bringing a handful of more glasses with her return. "Isn't this fun, Gabriel?" Fun isn't the word I would use. Every last ounce of self control that he possessed was pitted against one of his most basic instincts. Just to keep from looking at the kid that she was dangling in front of him like a juicy morsel was enough to pin the air in chest so that he couldn't breathe.

"Oh! I love that!" Elle declared as more glasses were shattered directly in front of him in a method of cruel and unusual torture. "Don't you love that?"

"That's great," he grit out.

"It's so special. Let's see it again!" And then he broke. Gabriel whirled around to see Elle clutching the arm of one smugly smiling Trevor. The kid must have thought that he'd won himself a prize in Gabriel's date because it wouldn't have taken anyone with his observational skills to detect the braver front of macho posturing coming from him. The hunger roared for a fix, snapping his brittle control like a rubber band that had been stretched too far and sent to fly off in a dozen different directions. He just couldn't take any more.

"You think he's so special?" I'll show you special. "I bet he can't do this!" With a wave of his hand Trevor flew into the bookcase with a pained cry.

"Gabriel…"

He ignored her plea, focusing instead on the control he held over the kid tacked to the wall. He was mildly surprised by the strength that he had gained as he was able to hold the weight of a grown male in complete control. Trevor struggled to free his hands and fight back but all of his efforts were in vain. He wasn't half as powerful as Gabriel… a sensation that he had to actively concentrate on not enjoying.

The hungry eyes of Sylar rolled back on Elle, blazing with fury. I said that I would give you the chance Claire never had. "I think you need to leave, now." Mental faculties were redirected to the new subject, deducing and reducing his internal machinations, reasoning out what it was that made him… tick.

"Gabriel, don't!" A brilliant flash of blue caught the corner of his eye as an arch of electricity knocked him off his feet. Trevor dropped to the floor with a thud while Gabriel's concentration was broken. The muscles in his arms, chest and stomach jumped and twitched of their own accord while every fine hair on his body stood on end in the charged atmosphere. He had never tried to stab an electrical box with a screwdriver, but he imagined the feeling of electrocution to be comparable. "Please…"

"How did you?" Suddenly the hunger had locked onto a secondary target.

"You don't have to do this," Elle implored with the writhing darkness lurking in the depths of his blackened eyes.

"You have no idea what I need to do," Gabriel growled at her. An abrupt shove at the material of space surrounding her sent a shockwave rippling in her direction with the power to blow her back to where she slammed against the refrigerator and fell to the tile floor. "But you're about to find out. Now get out!" Elle didn't have to be told again. She scrambled to her feet and bolted out the door for her life. She may have been a more comparable foe than Trevor had presented, but she wasn't stupid enough to gamble on those odds.

"Check-mate," Noah whispered to the screen that captured all the proof he needed to bring the killer in.

He couldn't tell how long he had been there crouched over the body as he was. The span of time it had taken to procure and adopt Zeitlan's ability was lost to an irrelevant haze of frantic blood lust. Guilt was there, sharp and brutal, piercing his heart as he gazed down on Trevor's lifeless shell with the hollowed out skull. Oddly enough though, as terrible as he felt for what he had done, it didn't come with the same level of agonizing clarity that the first time had. It was… an imperative. In death Trevor served a higher purpose. He was justified in the act of the taking the ability because he could use it in ways that the kid had never thought of. Instead of wasting such a talent on shattering glasses he would exercise it in a more righteous cause. Like taking down Primatech.

Gabriel lifted his arm, feeling points arise in the material of space. Forming his hand into the same mock pistol that Trevor had he focused on one of those shining points, and pulled the trigger, sensing the origin shatter. You're move, Noah.

He didn't bother stopping to wash up. Gabriel left his apartment and walked calmly out into the street where Bennet and Bishop were waiting as if nothing had happened. Blood slicked hands, spattered clothes and all. A deranged laugh escaped him as Noah came around to put him in handcuffs that echoed into the night and chilled the blood of casual passerby. Even after Elle had shocked him into unconsciousness the smile remained on his face. Gabriel peacefully dreamt about Trojan horses as his body was loaded into the van and taken to Primatech.

To be continued...