Alive

"Dude, run!" Shawn shouted, never slowing down in his escape attempt. He´d almost reached the big glass doors that led out to the street.

"Shawn!" Gus cried behind him.

"We´re gonna make it." Shawn felt exhilarated when he pushed open the door, still not slowing down. Fresh air hit his face.

"Shawn!"

"We´re gonna make it." he cried again and then he was on the street.

"SHAWN!"

Squeaking tires and a loud honking horn appeared right in front of him and Shawn´s eyes went wide. Withing three seconds he´d lost the ground beneath his feet and stumbled over the hood of the car, the world around him swirling wildly. And then he fell … for one second.

His back hit the ground and the air left his lungs. Still everything was spinning, paper was flying all around him like the biggest confetti he´d ever seen on a new years eve party.

"Shawn, are you okay?" he heard Gus ask and then someone demanded that he should freeze and take the hands behind his back.

Shawn moved his head, still feeling dizzy after this crash with reality and looked into the face of a smirking Lassiter. The detective raised a brow.

"Am I dead?" Shawn asked and Lassiter chuckled.

"Not yet." he replied and then reached behind himself, to get the badge off his belt. He held it up for the security men to see. "It´s all right." he told them. "We´ll take care of them. Police. I´m detective Lassiter and this is detective O´Hara. We´ve been after these two clowns for quiet a while now."

After this little speech he reached down and lifted Shawn up, putting cuffs on him almost in the same movement.

On the sidewalk the hotel security handed Gus over to Juliet, rather willingly. She gave him a victorious smile.

"Looks like your little coup didn´t quiet work, Guster, did it?" she asked and Gus snorted.

"What is going on here?" a new voice joined the gathering.

The manager frowned warily, at the fact that the two culprits, who were two familiar faces to him, got arrested by two faces he´d also seen before.

"Who are you?" he demanded to know. "I assume you´re no newly weds, after all. Am I right?"

"You´re right, sir." Lassiter affirmed. „Detective Lassiter and O´Hara. We came here looking for these two. We had reason to believe that they would try to rob your safe during the conference. And we were right."

"Yeah." Shawn shouted, leaning away from Lassiter as if he tried to break free. "But we almost had it, babe! Wohoooo! Didn´t we? Gus, tell em."

"I´d rather not." his friend replied.

"We were almost there." Shawn insisted.

"We weren´t even close." Gus corrected.

"That´s enough." Juliet put and end to this and shoved Gus over to the car. "You have the right to remain silent. But you already know the rest to pieces, so I´ll just spare that."

"I hope these two loonys didn´t cause too much damage." Lassiter addressed the hotel manager.

"It could have been worse." was the grim answer. "Fortunately you were there to arrest them right away. That spares me the trouble to hold them until the police arrives."

He met Shawn´s gaze who flashed him his best victorious smile.

"These men are crazies I assume?" Emmerson asked uncertain.

"You assume right, sir." Lassiter replied totally calm. "This is the thirteenth attempt of them to rob a totally secure location. They were caught every time. And they never learned anything from their lessons."

"And we never will!" Shawn shouted. "Wohooo!"

Lassiter only smiled and gave the manager a reassuring nod. "We´ll bring them back to the mental institute." he informed him.

"I sure hope so." was the relieved response. "Thank you very much, detectives."

"It was a pleasure." And of course Emmerson couldn´t possibly guess how true that was.

...

Mohinder just couldn´t believe what he saw. All the movement around and inside of him had come to a sudden stop, when he´d seen the face of the man Sylar had collided with. The face of the man he´d believed to be dead. But there was no doubt of who he was seeing, standing right there, very much alive. The eyes that currently rested on Sylar were far too hard to belong to a stranger who didn´t know him.

"You." Matt spat with all the disgust Mohinder could remember from his old friend. And then his eyes darted away from Sylar and found him. "Mohinder." he spoke, but his eyes went back to Sylar, only a second later, hostile and wary. "What are you guys doing here?" he demanded to know.

Mohinder was still far too shocked to actually compute what was happening right in front of him.

"We came here for you." he heard himself say.

"Me."

"Your family, Parkman." Sylar corrected.

"You came here for my family." Matt repeated, with cutting irony.

"My god, Matt, we thought you were dead." Mohinder´s whole body and mind felt numb. How was that possible? Molly hadn´t found him.

"Well, I´m not." Matt replied, totally oblivious to his old friend´s shock.

Mohinder shook his head, helplessly. "What happened?" was all he knew to ask.

"Happened?" Matt snapped. "Nothing. Nothing happened. I´m fine."

The hostility in his words was like a mental splash of water on Mohinder´s numbed senses. Finally this numbness that had slowed down his thinking went away and allowed him to react in real time again. Had he just heard right?

"Fine?" he cried. "How can you be fine? Matt, what´s going on here?"

"I could ask you the same." Matt replied, his tone low, glancing at Sylar with hateful eyes. "What are you doing here … with him?" he demanded to know, staring at Mohinder. "What, did you join the club of the human monsters now?" He faced Sylar again. "Or you?"

Then suddenly he took a step back, raising his hands. "You know what? I don´t care. I don´t care what you´re doing with each other. Just get lost. Now."

"We came here to help." Without wanting it, Mohinder felt anger rise in his chest. He knew Matt had no reason to trust Sylar but he knew him. This behavior was just ridiculous.

"We." Matt repeated and laughed, as if this was the best joke he´d ever heard. "I don´t believe that you´re actually working with this monster." he shouted. "Did he erase your memory or something? Did you forget that he killed your father?"

"I´m not a killer anymore, Parkman." Sylar stated, holding out a hand, as if to keep him from jumping at Mohinder´s throat.

Matt glared at him, pure venom in his eyes.

"You´ll always be a killer." he hissed, no argument allowed.

"Matt, do you know that your family is being held hostage in this building?" Mohinder struggled to keep himself from shouting.

They hadn´t come here to fight, at least not with Matt, and frankly Mohinder was tired of having to convince other people about Sylar´s intentions. The reason why they´d come here was still imprisoned down in the cellar of this building and they needed to act quickly, if they wanted to save them.

"Jan and Matty are fine." Matt told him matter of factly, totally dismissing the truth of facts Mohinder had just lay down for him. When he met his eyes, they were hard and uncompromising. "Soon they´ll be." he stated, his voice quavering only a bit, almost impossible to notice.

Mohinder stared at him and suddenly he had the worst revelation.

"My god, Matt, what have you done?" he breathed, almost scared of the answer.

"That´s none of your business." Matt replied. "Everything went just fine before you came along. So get lost. I won´t allow you to screw this up."

"No matter what they told you." Sylar stepped forward. „You can´t expect them to keep up the bargain."

Matt only smiled and nodded at him. "Interesting how well you know that." he hissed.

"Matt, just stop it." Mohinder shouted, finally losing his patience. "Tell me what happened."

"Why should I? Why should I want your help? Yours from all people in the world? You´ve obviously chosen a side. Your daddy must be really proud of you."

"Okay, that´s enough, Parkman." Sylar growled. "You can hate me as much as you want but Mohinder came here to help you. Your family." His gaze was almost pleading. „Do you really wanna risk their lives? Think of it."

For a moment Matt seemed caught off guard. Finally one of them seemed to have gotten through to him.

"No." he admitted, at last. "You´re right."

"Then let us …" Mohinder started but Matt talked over him.

"And that´s why you´ll leave now." he said. "Both of you."

And then all the sudden there was something strange in his mind, that made Mohinder want to turn around and leave. As if it was very important for him to be somewhere else right now. And somehow he knew that this was Matt´s will, overcasting his mind, not his own. But he couldn´t do anything. Fighting it would be like trying to stop a rolling truck that went down a slope full speed. Especially when Matt was as determined as he was now.

And so Mohinder just turned around and started walking down the hall, never looking back one single time.

Sylar was beside him, his gaze as straight ahead as his. They walked down the hallway together, until they reached the corner. After that they just went on, heading along the corridors of this hotel, knowing only one thing, that they had to leave this place and that they had to do it fast. That they had to leave Matt behind, so he could deal with himself and his business, all on his own.

...

Matt Parkman didn´t dare to breath until they´d disappeared around the corner. The two men who could have killed his family just by being here. God, if they´d been seen … but no. No thinking about this. Not now. Not after everything was almost over. He´d been through too much, had done too many unthinkable things to even consider such possibilities.

He´d betrayed a friend, a friend who´d come here to help him, and he was well aware of that.

But he´d betrayed more than just him. He´d betrayed everything he´d ever believed in, his own sense for right and wrong and he´d done it willingly. Worse, he´d used his powers to commit an unthinkable crime, and with that he´d betrayed his oath as a cop too. All of this to save his family, the two people that meant the most to him on this earth. His wife and son. Janice and little Matt.

And now he was here, waiting for the world to collapse or for everything to be finally over. There was nothing he could do now. Things were done and he could not go back in time to change that. No one could. Not anymore.

A door was opened behind him and Matt flinched, his heart pounding against the inside of his ribcage.

"Parkman, where the hell are you?" Perkins, his personal shadow asked him, warily.

Matt quickly swallowed his nervousness and answered him. "Oh, I … I just needed to take a breath for a moment." he claimed. "I wasn´t going to run."

Perkins frowned, looking at him estimating.

"I didn´t think so." he replied and checked the hallway, as if he expected someone to be there.

Matt had to fight the urge to turn around and check it himself, reminding himself that Mohinder and the killer that was with him, couldn´t be there. Not after he´d send them away.

Perkins eyed him, his frown as deep as ever, but then he seemed to dismiss his suspicions. Probably because the plan had been set in motion anyway. And even if he´d think Matt able to try something, Perkins knew very well that he didn´t have a chance, not for anything.

"Shana wants you to be present at the speech." he said with a motion to the door.

"Why that? I already did what you asked me to. He believes everything you told him."

"She still wants you there." Perkins replied. "Just in case he should need another push."

Matt didn´t say anything. Even if he´d insisted on the fact that this wouldn´t be necessary, he knew very well that this was not the only reason why they wanted him there. They might not believe him to try anything that could risk his family, but they would watch him, no matter what.

"You coming?" Perkins asked, almost conversationally and Matt nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, I´m coming."

As he followed Perkins back to the stage he´d just tried to escape from – not in order to get away from them but because he couldn´t stand it to be present when it happened – the crowd had already gathered in the big conference room, all the politicians and their associates seated along the long tables, a few reporters standing close to the doors to broadcast this essentially unimportant meeting, which was only one more of so many that happened almost every month all over the country. But today it would be something more than this. So much more. And this was his fault.

Matt threw a glance to the other side of the stage, meeting the eyes of a woman. Her blonde hair was hanging lose over her shoulders and she was smiling. Excited. Another glance was exchanged, this time between her and Perkins. Perkins nodded. Everything was all right. Everything was ready. Shana nodded back, glad.

Matt gritted his teeth. This was like hell. A terrible, terrible mistake. But he´d done it to save his family and even if he wanted to, there was nothing he could do to change anything now. No matter what would happen, today it would start. And after that … god alone knew what would happen then. It wasn´t his responsibility any longer. His only responsibility was his family. And that was what he tried to focus on, when the regular schedule of the conference was suddenly put on hold, by something no one in this room – or anywhere outside of it for that matter – had expected to happen.

Today´s speaker stepped to the microphone, after leaving Shana at the side of the stage, an expression of disturbed uncertainty on his face.

"Ehm … ladies and gentlemen." he addressed the crowd. "I was just informed about a …" and there he stopped, staring into the faces before him, totally helpless. "To be honest, I don´t know what to say." he admitted. "Something has happened and … I think it´s the best I´ll just step aside and let someone else do the explaining from now on. When you see him, you´ll understand my confusion. Believe me."

And with that he stepped aside and another men entered the stage.

Matt didn´t want to look at him, knowing that he would feel the guilt of what he´d done with every breath, but he just couldn´t look away. Gasps in the audience filled the room when this unexpected speaker stepped to the microphone and faced the crowd before him.

"Hello." he greeted with a calm sonore voice. "I know it must be a shock for most of you to see me standing here today. But believe me, there is a very good reason … for everything. And if you just listen to me for a moment, I will explain it all to you …"

...

Up in the hotel suite, Noah Bennet sat before the screens of his little commando base and just couldn´t believe it. This was just impossible. It couldn´t be. But he saw it. The man who stood on that stage in the conference room of this hotel was … he was supposed to be dead.

The door got opened behind him and Noah jumped up from his seat, swirling around to meet the gaze of Carlton Lassiter and his partner.

"What the hell is going on down there?" he asked, shouting even though he tried not to.

Lassiter reacted with a startled frown. "What? What are you talking about?"

"I´m talking about this." Noah cried, pointing at the screen and at the man it showed.

Carlton only frowned a second time, cocking his head. "What about it?" he asked.

"You want to tell me that you have no idea how this man can be standing on that stage right now?" Noah blurred out, losing his patience more and more and, as he just realized, closing in on something that could be called a panic.

"I don´t even know who this is." Lassiter stated, looking him over in worried irritation.

"Where is Shawn?" detective O´Hara spoke up, looking around the room.

"What?" Gus cried and looked around as well. "I don´t know. I thought he was right behind me."

This change in the subject came so unexpectedly that Noah lost his drive. While Guster walked back to the door and threw a look outside, Noah took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He needed to calm down. There had to be a totally logical explanation for everything. He only needed to find it.

Gus came back in, an irritated frown on his forehead. "He´s not out there." he said.

"Why should he run off?" Juliet wondered. "Did he say anything to you?"

But Gus shook his head.

"I can´t reach Suresh or Sylar either." Bennet stated, not sure why this seemed so significant all the sudden.

Carlton threw him an asking gaze, a gaze that said clearly that he thought him hysteric instead of professional, the way it should be. And he was right. To a certain degree.

"Noah, what´s the matter?" he demanded to know. "Did I miss something?"

"What´s the matter?" Noah repeated as calm as he could and lost the battle against his nerves again, shouting: "There´s a man standing on a stage that should be dead for years and he´s right here, in this very hotel."

He turned up the volume of the screen so they could hear for themselves but they didn´t get the chance to listen to it very long. The sound of the door being opened again, interrupted them and made them turn around.

Noah expected to see Shawn in the door, or maybe Sylar and Mohinder. But instead he was facing another familiar face, he hadn´t expected. Another face of a friend, he´d considered to be dead.

Hiro Nakamura entered the room with careful steps, almost sneaking in, as if he wasn´t sure if he would meet friends or foes. He looked at everybody one by one, searching for something and when he finally met Noah´s eyes, he seemed to have found it. All the sudden the concentrated expression on his face was gone, replaced by a bright smile, one that was only too familiar to Noah.

Hiro threw up his arms victoriously.

"Yattaaaaa!" he cried, making everybody in the room wince under the sudden noise.

Noah stared at him in total loss. On the screen behind him, Nathan Petrelli kept talking to the crowd, speaking about a conspiracy within the government that he was about to uncover very soon.

In this moment, it seemed, the world had stopped breathing for a second.