Author´s Note
Well, well. Here we are again, celebrating the end of this latest story in the Psych vs. Sylar series with this by now old tradition. The one that I like to call my final statement. If you, dear reader, happen to be here to read this before actually reading the story, I once again have to do my duty as a writer and tell you politely to BACK OFF! Do yourself a favour and don´t spoil the story.
All right, now that I have done my duty, knowing that I will probably be ignored, I can go on.
Sylar´s Legacy. How did it start? Well, with Sylar´s apparent death in the last story of course. I know I was deceiving with that but I wanted the readers to believe, just like the characters believed it, that Sylar had actually died, even if it was only for a while. I´m not sure how many of you really did believe it though and if for how long. I hope I could at least confuse you guys a little to a point where you were not quiet sure anymore if he would come back or not.
But in the end, he of course came back. I don´t think that I would have been able to kill that guy off even if I would have really wanted it. The question many of you might have wondered about is probably how he survived. And I know you expect me to answer that burning question. But frankly, I have no idea. I´m the writer of the story, nothing more. I see what you guys see and that is all. I have no idea how he survived or why he suffered from that trauma after he came back out.
Frank´s theory that Sylar dropped out of that black hole again in Switzerland because he was so close to the LHC might be true, even though I like Mohinder´s theory much better. That Sylar unconsciously controlled the shadow and travelled to where they were because he knew they would help him. But ultimately I have no idea which is true. All I know is that he survived and that he suffered from amnesia for a while.
How it happened that he was cured from that amnesia is something I might be able to explain. If it is not quiet clear, Sylar inherited Frank´s power and in that state of not knowing, he had no control over it. When it met up with Frank, who was the original source of that power it overcharged or something like that. The result was a black hole that opened up above them and a regained memory for Sylar.
So, and this is as far as I dare to go with my explanation about what happened to him. Everything else would be pure speculation.
Now let´s move on to the second killer in this story. Nobody. How did he come to life? Frankly? I was thinking back and forth if I should admit that but in the end I just thought, what the hell. I think you guys have a right to know that. So here we go: Once again I was inspired by a trailer I saw on Youtube but before I tell you the name I want to say one thing. The guy in the trailer is not the guy I wrote for this story. It´s a mashup trailer and it was more the feeling of it that inspired me, not the story it tries to tell.
So please don´t make the mistake to believe I wrote the character of Nobody with that character in mind that is shown in the trailer. Because he isn´t. Neither is the story of that trailer the story I wrote. But when you see the trailer you will understand what hooked me so to it. And you will find that I took a few of the pictures that are shown in it and worked it into the story, just for the fun of it. The explosions on the market for example or the exploding car, as well as the tank that made a somersault in the street. Those were just images that I liked and that I wanted to work into the story and I think I kinda managed that, without copying the trailer. I still had my own story to write after all.
So well, I guess I still owe you the name of the trailer so here we go. It´s called Joker vs Sylar and it is as I said a fanmade mashup between Heroes and The Dark Knight. Whoever made it was really talented and if you like you may go to youtube and have a look at it. It´s really good. But once again, don´t forget that this story is not totally based only on that trailer.
What I wanted with this story was this: first I wanted to bring in a killer that worshipped Sylar and tried to find him after he was already dead (assumed). I also needed him to have an ability because otherwise it would have been pretty far-fetched that this guy was so well known to the FBI and still running free. So I gave him the ability of impenetrable skin (bulletproof if you like) and superstrength.
If you recall at the beginning of the story, Mary mentioned that sometimes he was called Superman by some. Because except for the flying those are practically the most well known powers of Superman. But in the end I went for the name Nobody, just because, and yeah I admit that, I was too lazy to think of a proper name for that guy. And I thought why shouldn´t he be someone that has no real identity? The way he lives his life in this world, as someone that doesn´t really belong to this society, he wouldn´t need a name for himself. So he became the literal Nobody. Someone who grew up on the streets and learned nothing in his life but anger, hate and betrayal. I also think that he has a pathological impulse control disorder, what is why he ended up being the killer that he is. One that kills his victims by beating them to death.
His development in this story was supposte to be like this. He should start off worshipping Sylar for what he was, when he was still an active serial killer. While trying to find him he would find out that his idol is supposedly dead and decide to carry on his legacy, therefor the title of the story. But as soon as the real, still very alive Sylar would show up and he would learn that he is not on his side, Nobody would turn against him, doing once again the only thing he ever learned: killing and hating everyone that is not on his side. But of course he wouldn´t be able to kill Sylar that easily and so their little standoff could not be the end of the story. But we´ll come back to that later. Let´s have a look at some other things first.
The idea to let Yang come into the story happened on the spur of the moment. She literally came from out of nowhere and somehow found her way to Nobody. Personally I liked the idea of him and her bonding the way they did. Something about her interested him and he allowed her to be around him for a while. Maybe the two of them could have been like a Bonny and Clyde couple if things had turned out differently. But as we all know life has its own rules. Yang tried to do the right thing and Nobody punished her for that.
That scene between her and him just before he killed her was so much fun to write. It was my attempt on trying out a psychological thriller. I hope it managed to give some of you a few goosebumps while reading it. I sure enjoyed it. Oh, and before I forget it. Anyone noticed the hidden waffles? First time I managed it to work in the favourite food of Heroes. The cockroach was there too if you looked closely.
That I brought Peter into the story was partly a subconsciously decision and partly pure necessity. Subconscious because Peter was seen in the trailer I already mentioned and he somehow snuck into my head while writing because of that. Necessity because that is exactly what he would have done if he´d heard news like that about Sylar. I think he would try to help if things like that would happen and so he took the first plane to Santa Barbara and made his way into the story. Once again.
By the way, I really liked the scene where he got to meet Mary for the first time. Again that was total character work, nothing that was planned from my side. But I like the fact that Mary irritated Peter that much, especially with this limp handshake of his. It´s really true what Shawn said: He has that effect on everyone.
One other thing that I liked about the course of this story was the fact that Lassiter got a chance to take over the chief´s seat for a while. It was a nice tryout and it was surely not as devastating as Tim Omundson always proclaimed in case Lassiter should ever get the chance to rule the city. Or if you like that better, how Shawn saw it in his dream the other Christmas. Anyway, it didn´t happen. Maybe just because Lassie didn´t have much time to change the whole constitution but still … I think he did a pretty adequate job as the chief of police.
Still I think it´s a good thing that chief Vick will take over again, as soon as she´s out of hospital. What will be in a few weeks, I guess. Depends on what the doctors say. Same thing goes for Henry. They´ll both be fine. Nobody didn´t get them.
What I didn´t quiet managed to accomplish in this story was to let Sylar and Mohinder go on some sort of a secret mission the way I wanted it. Maybe they were on a secret mission for a short time but I was not absolutely happy with the way it turned out. It didn´t quiet have the James Bond feeling to it that I imagined. But whatever. It was good enough anyway, at least I think so.
What I liked was the fact that they were watching from the distance for a while instead of walking in right away and that this turned out to create some trouble with the police for them. I especially liked the fact that Mohinder was so absolutely on Sylar´s side when Lassiter tried to arrest them. He really stood up for the man who´d killed half of his family, didn´t he? Sorry, I just had to bring that up again. Because it´s true. Because I believe he finally managed it to get over that old issue. The way he answered the phone when Lassiter demanded from him to put it on speaker, was proof of it. He did what Lassiter wanted from him, but he didn´t help him to deceive Sylar.
It really was an interesting change these two went through over the course of this story. From Mohinder´s feelings of guilt, over his tries to deal with that by messing with Sylar´s memory to their journey back to Santa Barbara. To analyse everything each of them did would need much more time and space than I intended to use for this Author´s Note so I will cut it short and stop right here.
About the last part where Nobody decided to poison the city, that was inspired by an episode of Twenty-four. The terrorists tried practically the same as Nobody, only there they used highly complicated computer tricks to do so. My Nobody was much more practical in his methods. He just went in there and smashed everything he could find.
I used some of the terms that were used in that episode of Twenty-four to explain the technology of that factory but that was really all that I dared to copy. Everything else was independent and my own again. I don´t steal stuff from other stories or shows, I simply borrow some inspirations from time to time. I would have liked to let Nobody aim for an atomic reactor but I googled that and there was simply no reactor in reachable distance. So I needed something else he could attack and that said episode of Twenty-four gave me the clue. Pesticides that could poison the city if released. Good enough for my finale. At least for me.
I also needed a final standoff between Sylar and Nobody and letting Sylar hold Nobody until he passed out was pretty convenient in my mind. On a sidenote, I didn´t plan on killing Nobody at the end. I was pretty much indecisive about what should happen to him and I remained indecisive until they found out that he hadn´t survived. So for all of you who were not okay with this ending, please understand that this was not my decision. It just happened. I for myself am not a fan of stories where the bad guy has to die in the end, as if that would be the only way of justice. I really don´t like such stories at all. They are way too classic in our believes of justice. But for Nobody there was obviously no other way. Just as Noah said: Maybe it´s better that way.
The final solution to what to do about Sylar was pretty much the same we had in the second story already, only that this time it was Mohinder´s own suggestion to watch over Sylar. To take him as his assignment as he put it. So as you saw the two of them will head back to Switzerland to finally settle down and find some rest. Or maybe not?
Again there is a strange force working on something that can only mean bad things for our heroes. Whoever it is that stole the dead body of Nobody, I have the bad feeling that they are up to something, wouldn´t you agree with me? But that is something we have to wait for until next time.
See you.
And once again I end with saying my sincerest thanks for staying with me that long. I don´t know what I would do without you people.
You may leave a last review of course.
And thanks so much for reading these stories. That´s why I write them.
