Fixing Mistakes

Once again Shawn was looking down on the man that had been his President for these past three years – his boss for two – and once again he had no real idea what to do with this, emotionally and intellectually. It was just weird. Ridiculous. An impossible situation. But he was here and damn, he had to deal with it.

He moved around him a few steps, until he could see the back of his head, where Hiro had driven the spike into his brain. Fortunately it was a small thing and the way it stuck in there, it was barely visible. Easy to disguise. Good. Shawn sighed. This was a human being for god´s sake.

"Sorry, dude." he murmured at the dead – switched off – man on the ground. "Had to be."

He looked up and met Hiro´s gaze. He nodded at him and the nod was returned.

"I hope you´re sure about the spot." Hiro mentioned, a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"Don´t worry about that." Shawn replied. "I just hope you hit it right."

He moved the tip of his foot under Nathan´s/Sylar´s shoulder and lifted him a little, retrieving the foot immediately and jumped back, just in case he should wake up, pissed and vengeful. But Sylar/Nathan didn´t wake up. He stayed where he was, how he was, and didn´t move. Didn´t breath. Didn´t live. God, that was cross.

"All right." Shawn cleared his throat. "Um … I guess we need to get going then. This body has to get back where it belongs. That means we ehm … have to make him look exactly like that body he´s supposed to replace. That means we … have to …" he couldn´t quiet bring himself to say it out loud and so he just made the matching motion with his hands, indicating what had to be done.

"Slice his throat?" Hiro finished the sentence for him.

"Yeah." Shawn affirmed and quickly turned away from the body. "You do that."

Hiro´s head snapped upwards. "Me?"

"Yeah. It was your idea to come here, so …"

"But … I never slit anyone´s throat in my life. Not even an animal."

"Are you kidding?" Shawn cried. "You´re Japanese."

"And?"

"I once pointed at a chicken on a sales cart in Chinatown." Shawn recaptured some very marking life experience. "And that woman just took it and slit its throat. Just because I pointed at it. Dude, I´m just glad I didn´t point at a waitress."

Hiro opened his mouth but closed it again. He just didn´t know what to do with this story. Shawn´s gaze was still disgusted and terrified by the memory alone.

The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted their discussion. The two of them turned around, expecting everything from a beggar to a police officer. But instead it was Mohinder Suresh who´d found his way to them. When he saw them, he increased his speed.

"Great." Shawn mumbled to himself. "Now we have to deal with the mad scientist. Pun intended."

"What happened?" Suresh asked when he reached them, eying the unconscious man on the ground. "Is he dead? How …?"

"I stabbed him in the back of his head." Hiro explained.

"I told him where." Shawn added, making the geneticist frown.

"How could you know?"

Instead of answering him, Shawn took out his cell phone and showed him the text message he´d received three years ago.

"Chris Walken says: A fallen angel can not be killed by shooting his heart. You need to stab him in the back of his head. 3 inches up the disk, one to the left"

Suresh read it but didn´t understand.

"Someone sent me a message." Shawn explained, raising a finger to stop Hiro from speaking up. "I´m not entirely sure, who wrote those messages." he emphasized and Hiro was quiet. "But this someone seems to know exactly what we have to do." Shawn finished.

Mohinder looked at the message again, still not understanding. "What´s that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"It´s a reference. The Prophecy. Christopher Walken played the Arc Angel Gabriel. It was a trilogy. In the first movie he was the villain. But he got defeated and was forced to live as a human. In the last film he helped to defeat the evil guy and saved the world. As reward he got his wings back and was allowed to get back to heaven. Was a pretty cool movie, you should watch it someday."

"Sylar is not a fallen angel." Mohinder insisted on reality. "He´s a monster."

Shawn threw his head back in exasperation. "It´s just a reference, dude. And right now it´s not important anyway. Important is that we get this body to where it has to be, so we can finish our mission."

Mohinder still didn´t understand. "What mission?"

"To repair the past. Parkman stole the body of the real Nathan and screwed up everything."

"Why should he do that?" Mohinder demanded to know, interrupting Shawn in the middle of his speech.

"Doesn´t matter, but he did it." the fake psychic cried. "That´s why Sylar could take over Nathan´s place and become President in the first place." he explained, so this idiot of a scientist would understand. "Because no one knew that the real Nathan was supposed to be dead. Of course he could fool them and take his place. We need to fix this mistake. And that means this body has a mission to accomplish."

Finally, finally after so much struggle, Mohinder seemed to understand. He looked down on the body of the fake Nathan Petrelli, a glimmer of hate in his eyes, and nodded.

"All right." he said. "I´ll help you."

Shawn was so taken by surprise that he halted and blinked as if he´d been slapped in the face. "Really?"

The gaze of the Indian was firm. "Yes." he said. "If there is any way to make up for all the mistakes I´ve made while working for this monster, I´ll do it." He turned his head to look down on the body again, again with this unmistakable hate in his eyes. "That way he´ll at least do some good before he dies." he mumbled.

"No, no." Hiro cried up, raising both hands in denial. "He doesn´t have to die. Not forever. After the funeral we can get him out again. Bring him back."

"What?" Suresh stared at him as if he were crazy. "Are you kidding? Resurrecting this monster? We should rather burn his body and make sure that he never comes back again."

Shawn sighed. Slowly he´d had enough of this whole discussion.

"Listen." he said. "We can talk about that later. Right now we should hurry. I´m not that firm with all this time travel business, but I think we´re running out of time. The suite where he should be, will not be closed forever. Soon someone will get in there to collect that body and then it would be good if he´d be there."

"Right." Hiro agreed eagerly and even Suresh nodded. Shawn turned back to the body.

"All right. Then let´s get started. Um … Oh. Oh, dammit."

"What?" Suresh cried, mirroring Shawn´s inner panic.

The fake psychic hissed, angry with himself for not noticing this earlier. "He´s wearing the wrong clothes." he threw his hand down in frustration. "God dammit. We need to dress him the way Nathan was dressed when he got … you know."

"Killed?" Hiro offered the word.

Shawn didn´t even hear it. He´d just had the perfect idea and snapped his fingers in triumph.

"Lassie took his clothes as evidence and put the impersonator into an orange jump suit." he recalled. "The clothes should still be in the evidence room." Another thought chased this perfect idea and destroyed it immediately. "Aaarrg, but that is in the future." Shawn cried. "And since we just changed the past, we can´t go there to get them. Dammit, why does that have to be so complicated?"

Hiro looked at him, blinking startled. "We didn´t change the past yet." he stated and startled Shawn even more.

"We didn´t? Then what did we just do?" he asked.

"Nothing. The past we came here to repair is still the same. I can go to the future and get the clothes."

"But …"

"Don´t you worry, Shawn Spencer." Hiro talked over him, a confident smile on his face. "I´ll be right back."

"Wait. I still don´t understand how …" But in this moment, Hiro had already shut his eyes and was gone, leaving nothing behind but an empty space.

For a moment Shawn could just stare at this spot where he´d been standing, wondering what would happen to them if something kept him from coming back. But then he forced these thoughts away and made himself focus. When he met the gaze of Mohinder Suresh, he could see the same kind of reluctance in the scientist´s eyes that he felt. Shawn cleared his throat.

"Maybe we … well, maybe we should use the time and do some preparations." he suggested, gesturing at the body and Mohinder understood.

Together they crouched down and quickly took off the suit President Petrelli had been wearing today. Clothes that were far too fine for what he was supposed to wear on that day in time that had actually happened three years ago. The day when he´d died. God, that was a creepy thought. Shawn was shivering.

The sound of rushing air was audible behind him and when he turned around, he saw Hiro standing there, a pile of folded clothes in his arm and a victorious smile on his lips.

"Sweet, dude." Shawn praised and immediately got back to work, slipping the blood strained clothes onto the man, that only wore the face of the one who´d actually died in them. Again there was a wave of goosebumps running over Shawn´s arms. He stood up and took a step back, steeling himself for what would have to come next.

"We um … we still need to …" he made the motion with his hand, just like before.

"Slice his throat." Hiro finished for him, just like before.

"Yeah." Shawn mentally shook the nausea off and got his pocket knife out, sliding the blade out. He bit his lip, hesitating. His glance went to Hiro but Hiro only shook his head, taking half a step back.

Mohinder looked back and forth between them. "What?" he asked. "What is it?"

"We haven´t concluded yet, who of us is gonna do it." Shawn explained.

The eyebrows of the scientist went up at this. "Are you kidding?"

"Hey." Shawn cried, pointing at him with the knife. "I´m an investigator not a hitman."

"For god´s sake." came the impatient grumble from the scientist and before Shawn knew what had happened, he´d taken the knife out of his hand and leaned over Nathan, grabbing his collar to steady the body.

Shawn was shocked … and riveted. He didn´t want to see it but he just couldn´t look away. Suresh brought the knife down on Nathan´s throat. Sylar´s throat, Shawn corrected himself. That´s what Suresh saw in him. That was why he could do it. Because he hated the man. He wanted to kill him, wanted his blood for the blood of his father.

Maybe it was a good thing that he was here after all. Maybe that was the reason why the message had told him to bring him along. But now that the moment was there and Shawn expected Suresh to make the cut, already seeing him do it with lust and savage rage, the geneticist halted. His eyes were on the face of the man before him, Nathan´s face, and the hate in his eyes started to flicker.

"You mustn´t hesitate." Shawn heard himself say. "The wound has to look as if Sylar´d done it. If you hesitate, they´ll notice the difference."

Mohinder´s grip on Nathan´s collar fastened. "This man murdered my father." he recalled. "I will not hesitate."

He grabbed the knife faster and put it down … and hesitated, only for a moment. Then he cut.

The blade went through the skin much easier than it should have, maybe even too easy, but definitely faster than the scientist had expected it. Blood came splashing out of the wound, jumped up and right into Mohinder´s face.

The man of science gasped in shock and jumped up, skipping back with trembling legs, wiping his eyes frantically with his sleeve. The look in his eyes was a mixture of so many emotions that Shawn had no idea what to call it.

"Dr. Suresh?" Hiro addressed the panting man, carefully. He got no answer.

"It´s all right." Shawn said at last, not even trying to get through to him. It was obvious that he wouldn´t succeed anyway. Not after this. "It´s all right." he just repeated. "We take care of that."

As soon as the gaping wound on Nathan´s/Sylar´s throat had stopped spilling blood, Shawn and Hiro lifted him up, just enough so they could carry him to where he needed to be. Hiro closed his eyes and they left the allay behind, leaving a panting Mohinder Suresh to deal with himself until they´d be back.

...

When they appeared in the suite, the place was empty. The doors had been closed and where the body of the dead Nathan was supposed to lie, there was only a cover on the couch. Blank and undisturbed, as if someone really only wanted to cover the couch.

"Matt Parkman made them all see a body that wasn´t there." Hiro spoke quietly.

"Well." Shawn shifted the weight he was carrying and lay it to the ground. "Now there will be one again."

He hurriedly ripped the cover off the couch and threw it aside. After they´d placed Sylar/Nathan where he was supposed to be, he swapped the white cover and let it glide down on the body. A red stain appeared where the cloth touched the neck of the body, spreading slowly. Shawn couldn´t help, it felt like leaving something behind. Someone.

Noises from outside the suite made him swirl around. There were voices, arguing people and then the doors were pushed open.

"I should have never let you make me do this." Matt Parkman cried, marching into the suite. "What if I did something wrong? If he remembers who he really is? This is never going to work."

"What´s done is done." Noah Bennet replied. "They´ve all seen Nathan alive and well, nothing is gonna change that. And you erased all the memories that were left of Sylar …"

"No, I didn´t erase it." Parkman argued fiercely. "I suppressed it. Overcharged it with Nathan´s memories, which are. Not. Real. You have to know that."

"They are as real as they need to be." Angela Petrelli insisted, her voice calm and even. "I looked into his eyes and when I did this, I saw my son. Nathan´s still in there. He´s alive. Thanks to you."

Parkman looked into her eyes. "Yeah, well. Whatever." He shook his head in desperate need for some sense in all this. "We still have a body here that looks exactly like Nathan." he pointed out. "What are we gonna do about that?"

"We let him vanish." Bennet answered without hesitation. "I have a place where we can store him."

"Store him."

"Yeah." Bennet threw Angela Petrelli a brief glance, before making his way to the door. "Excuse me for a second." he said, getting his cell phone out. "Just need to make a call."

Shawn and Hiro didn´t follow him. They stayed hidden in the corner, listening, watching, waiting for the bomb to go off. But it didn´t.

Angela Petrelli uncovered the face of her dead son, only for a moment, and then turned away from him again. She didn´t touch it and she didn´t suspect anything. So far so good.

"Where will they bring him?" Shawn asked Hiro, his voice so low it was barely a whisper.

"Matt Parkman said something about a storehouse." the time traveler answered.

"I see. All right." Shawn glanced one more time at the two people in the suite, who were waiting for Noah Bennet to return. "Maybe we should get outahere." he decided at last and Hiro agreed.

...

When they returned to the allay, they found the scientist in a much better state than before. He´d wiped off most of the blood that had landed in his face and somehow had managed it to pull himself together. At least to a certain degree.

"Did you make it?" he asked them, his voice not quiet even yet.

Hiro smiled and took a quick bow. "The body has taken its place again." he told him. "Everything is back in place."

"Then we can go back now." Mohinder exhaled in relief.

"No." Shawn objected, making Mohinder and Hiro turn to him in confusion.

"No?" Hiro repeated and Shawn shook his head.

"We put the body in place again but we don´t know what´ll happen if we just go now." he said. "Who knows what could happen, we could go back to our time and find it ruled by dinosaurs."

"That´s ridiculous." Suresh cried.

"Yeah, maybe." Shawn admitted. "But if you ever watched Butterfly Effect you´d know that there is no way to be sure. Except … by making sure."

Suresh didn´t seem to agree. "What are you talking about?" he demanded to know.

"We don´t know how much your friend´s mess has taken effect by now." Shawn explained. "Things can still happen to this body that can screw up history. Things that we can´t foresee."

"He´s right." Hiro agreed. At least someone who got his drift.

Shawn nodded at him. "That means we can´t just go back now." he deduced at last. "Not yet. No, we can´t go back before we´re sure that this body is safely buried and can not do any harm anymore."

"What do you mean?" Suresh asked. "You want us to stay here until the funeral?" He turned to Hiro. "When is this supposed to happen?"

The small man visibly did his best to remember. "Nathan Petrelli was buried three and a half months after we cremated Sylar at Coyote Sands." he summarized at last.

Shawn almost couldn´t believe what he´d just heard. "You did what?" he cried.

"It wasn´t him." Hiro hurried to assure him, as if he needed to apologize.

Shawn wasn´t sure what to do with this. This whole alternate reality thing was giving him a headache. The best he could do was to run with what had happened and hope for the best. His own life and the people he shared it with depended on it.

"All right, whatever." he dismissed the subject of Sylar being cremated or not. "You´ve got three and a half months to tell me that story." he decided.

"So we really gonna stay here for that long?" Suresh asked, still not ready to believe this.

Shawn gave him a firm look. "Yes."

And with that the decision was made. Even Suresh could see that.

Shawn turned around and started walking, the two other men following him in silence until they reached the end of the alleyway. He could see Noah Bennet on the other side of the street, waving for a car that stopped at the curbside. He leaned down to the driver, probably giving him order to wait, until they´d brought the body down. After that he went back in the hotel.

The car waited.

"We will watch over this body." Shawn spoke, to no one in particular. "And make sure nothing happens to it – or because of it – that isn´t supposed to happen."

He threw a brief glance at his two companions but neither of them said anything in response. The decision had been made.