Author´s Note

All right, so here we are. I know there are probably enough questions about this volume to get lost right from the start, but I´ll try to organize it anyway. But first things first. If you´re one of these crazy folks that read commentaries before the actual story, stop right there. Don´t come any closer. Cheaters are not welcome here.

All right then. That was that. Now here we go.

I already apologize in advance, if this Author´s Note should extend more than the others. But the story was more complicated and so I have no choice. Sorry. Okay, once again. Here we go.

What the heck? Nathan? Really? How often does this show kill someone and bring him back again? And haven´t I done that to death too? Sorry for the pun. I don´t know how often I did this by now anymore. I lost count. But honestly. This is fiction and not supposed to be realistic. As long as it´s sold well, I never cared how unrealistic something is. Science fiction anyone? Fantasy? Hello? You get my point.

But why, I guess, is a pretty fair question. Well, I´ll try to answer that one. It´s as simple as it can get. Because I could. I figured I could pull it off and I did. Somehow.

Okay maybe it´s not that simple after all. So let me explain. It all started (and please don´t laugh) with a song. "I´m Sorry" (I forgot the band´s name) One of the lines said: "I can´t go back. I can´t change anything." And well, having this twisted mind of mine, one day I thought about Sylar while hearing this. For no reason at all. All these things (murders) he´d done and could never undo, even if he would want to (and I believe he came to a point where he would if he could, especially concerning Nathan)

But of course the past can´t be undone. Or can it? Why, of course, we have a time traveler.

Only Hiro would never do that. He´d sworn to never mess with the past again, changing the past to endanger the future. But who says it has to change anything if we went back to save Nathan? There are always ways. We all saw "Back to the Future" or "First Contact" or all those time travel movies that are out there (and honestly if you haven´t, you should) They all showed us that it is possible to go back and change things without screwing up the future. You only need to be extra careful and extra accurate.

So I figured, I could do it. And I took the risk. Or rather I let Hiro take the risk.

Making him do it, was tricky and I knew there was only one way to convince him. By not giving him a choice. Just like the summary said. The only thing that ever made Hiro do anything against his will, was the threat to the life of his girlfriend Charlie. Everyone who remembers the show will know what I´m talking about.

So I threatened someone too. Only it was Matt Parkman´s family. The fact that Greg Grunberg had had a guest role on Psych was something that almost messed up my plot but I thought of something to explain his role there. I managed to explain Sendhil Ramamurthy´s role, and so I had no choice but to explain this one too. I believe I managed a pretty decent explanation, even if it wasn´t the best I could have done. I only hope that Zachary Quinto won´t have a guest role on Psych one day. Although I´m sure it would be hilarious, knowing the writers of Psych. But it would challenge my explaining skills to a point of overload. Although … maybe … but that doesn´t belong here. So far it hasn´t happened.

Okay back to the point. Poor Matt. He just never had a chance. I needed him in the story. How else to convince Nathan about the whole plot Shana made up for him?

About her: Of course I needed some more for my plot than the already very interesting (and admittedly insane idea) to bring back Nathan. But there must be a reason for the things that happen. So I tried to figure out, why someone should want this. A villain of course, because we need antagonists. And since the story was already made of emotional decisions from the start, I ran with it. Let her reasons be as emotional as it can be. That´s typical for a woman right?

Revenge. I think it felt pretty organic, to connect her to what Nathan did in season 3. Of course some people would remember that. Nothing stays buried forever and someday the past will come back to bite you in the butt. To Nathan´s (and the President´s) bad luck, this person was crazy enough to pull all these strings, plus she was very resourceful.

Figuring her out was not the easiest thing. For being the villainess, who practically made this story possible, she refused to be in it, for quiet a while. I honestly needed to look for her, to get her into some scenes. As if she was hiding from me.

Her name was always there though. I knew from the start, that her name was Shana. Don´t know why.

The whole concept of the story was (or turned out like that) to split it in three parts. The first was the mystery of Matt´s and Hiro´s disappearing. I never intended to fool anyone about them being dead. It was a classic example of distracting attention, so no one would see coming who my surprise guest-star would be.

For the writing of that part in the hotel, I got some inspiration (just like Shawn) from "Ocean´s Eleven" There are videos on Youtube called "Petrelli´s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen" featuring the trailers for the movies, but with the Heroes cast. It´s hilarious. You should check it out.

Maybe the fact that those videos inspired me, was the reason why I managed it to write some funny stuff for a change. Usually that´s not my thing, but the feedback I got for that undercover-spy-part said, I really hit the mark this time. And I laughed a lot while writing it too.

I just found it hilarious to imagine how Bennet for the first time, encounters Shawn and Gus at work. And while Lassiter already knows to expect nothing less from them, he would panic and suffer about their behavior. Even Sylar was startled at a few things (Shawn jumping over the counter) and that was hilarious too. I also wanted to show a few similarities between the pairing that is Shawn and Gus and the second one: Sylar and Mohinder. You might have noticed that, when Bennet watched the two teams on the monitors, arguing.

The second part of the story, contained time travel. Of course. I hope I managed a decent transition between it all. After Lassie and Jules picked up Shawn and Gus and led them away from the hotel security, I figured they´d go back upstairs to the suite. To let Shawn fall behind and eventually vanish, might be slightly interpretable, but I think it worked to explain why he wasn´t there twice when they got back, later in the third part. For Sylar and Mohinder it was easier. They just walked away, forced to do this by Matt. Out of the frame out of time. Or at least you can believe that. After Matt and Hiro returned from their mission, everything was changed anyway, so I guess it can work.

The alternate reality: What would have happened? We´re leaving the Psych world behind for a while, because this is entirely Heroes plot.

What would have happened if Nathan hadn´t been revealed as dead, as it happened with the funeral? If Sylar had taken control and never changed, as it happened while he and Peter were trapped in that wall universe?

He wouldn´t have helped Peter to stop Samuel for a start. Why would he? He might have instead killed him, to take his power. And Emma. Maybe he would have let the catastrophe happen, ready to offer support, as Nathan, later on. After the world was numb with shock and fear.

He´d take advantage of it and make himself the savior in the eyes of the world. The leader. Eventually President. Like it happened in "Five years gone" Or similar to it. Only my version of this alternate timeline was a little less dark. Because at this point Sylar had already managed a certain degree of change. So I figured he´d try to gain the same, as he tried to gain, when he tried to steal Shawn´s life. He´d try to build up something for himself. A home, and a family.

And that brings us back to Santa Barbara.

Having initiated a program to test and identify special people, they´d travel around the country, to find them all. And being Sylar, he´d want to be around, in case there should be an interesting ability to get. And so they found out about Shawn not being psychic, as he´d always claimed. Instead … And here we get to the point that gave me a big headache.

As some of you might know, I had some trouble wrapping my mind around the possibility of Shawn having an ability. I never wanted this, and I´m still not comfortable with the idea. But some of you talked into me quiet a bit and at least one of you, came up with a theory that was so convincing, I just couldn´t ignore it.

I´d like to quote a few of these things, so you´ll get an idea what his power is, because I don´t understand it half as good as the writer of this e-mail.

"I personally think Shawn would be a good influencer type. He kind of already does it, though it is very subtle in the way he does it. An influencer would be a mental skill set in suggesting a person or animal into doing what you want and if the power is strong enough the person being influenced wouldn't even think twice about doing what the influencer says or wants them to do.

I think this ability manifest minimally and only hugely appears when Shawn is in danger. So he unintentionally influences the person with the gun to literally miss the shot or get caught up in his psychic act so that they confess to the crime. But it could greatly affect the people who are around him the most and is probably the reason Gus doesn't put up much of a fight when Shawn plans something crazy. I think even Henry, Lassiter, and Juliet are falling into being long-term influenced. Just by looking at how fast they accepted Shawn and the exposure rate they have to Shawn …

So what part of the brain is involved in influencing someone? Speech pattern and eye contact are big on influencing and something Shawn does all the time. So add the frontal lobe for speech. The temporal lobe also has some function in speech too. Also add in the amygdala. (in the brainstem) It's involved in emotions (fear) and memory. All those should light up like Christmas trees when really activated.

Which side of the brain should light up? I'll leave that to you to decide. Right side =creativity and left side = logic

An added note on analyzing abilities: Juliet's ability is more or less coming from a hormone or group of hormones she is secreting that causes the people around her to love her. [It's why Sylar was so sensitive to it] It's not a mental ability and can't be controlled unless you know the right buttons to push to activate it (or in Juliet's case turn it off). If her ability was heightened she could start to influence people just like Shawn, except hers would be more focused on people pleasing her and it would be out of her control. Way out of her control."

Let´s take a moment to applaud this outpour of scientific thinking. Isn´t that insanely detailed? Just the fact that someone put so much thinking into something I made up, totally made my day. It still does. So Kudos. I could never write something like that.

But now you know. Or not. I can´t tell. Let´s say I hope so. But Shawn has an ability now, always had one, even though I didn´t want it. But I made his ability a very subtle one, so I think I found a middle way. So it is there, but it could as well be not there. You get my point. It´s totally chemical and he can´t really control it. Just like Juliet. It´s like a gift you use subconsciously. It comes to you when you need it, but you can´t call it. That´s how I understand it. Good enough?

Back to the plot. The time travel part was to a great deal inspired by two really great movies, that I already referred to in the story. Butterfly Effect and Frequency. Although I didn´t refer to the later as much as it deserves. The part where Shawn regains his memory at the funeral, came from that movie (if you haven´t seen it, honestly: Watch it. It´s not so much about time travel as it is about family and friendship and love in general. A really great movie, exciting from start to the end)

I also have to talk about the butterfly in Shawn´s room. That butterfly actually existed. It sat in the staircase of my apartment house. For months! And I´m absolutely serious about that. I thought it was dead and that alone was enough reason for me to bring it into the story. Just as a symbol. But just like in the story, it turned out it wasn´t dead at all. One day I found it sitting on the window, back to life, and I almost freaked out over it. After I overcame that shock I took it and carried it outside to let it fly, like Shawn did it.

So there you see. Life is crazier than most stories can be. At least for me it was.

Let´s get to the last part of the story before we lose ourselves in pages and pages of ranting.

Saving the President from a brain controlled Nathan.

After Sylar and Mohinder kinda broke up their partnership over those trust issues the good doctor felt after the whole time alteration (it´s not easy to deal with that many memories of deception, so I honestly hope you guys don´t blame him) I finally got a chance to let Sylar and Shawn team up for a while. I wanted to try that for quiet a while but never got a chance to do it. Finally it happened. And I very much liked it that Shawn acted just like always, only this time it was Sylar who suffered his refusal to listen when he´s told to stay put.

Of course I had to quote from Twenty-Four a lot at this last part, because of so many reasons. First: Matt was like Jack Bauer because his family had been kidnapped. Second the plot was to save the President and third because Zachary Quinto was on Twenty-Four once. Just like Tim Omundson, so that was an added bonus.

And I took inspiration for that part by watching Twenty-Four´s
season seven, the part where the Terrorists take over the White House. Yeah, it´s true. It sounds crazy and it probably is. But it´s a TV show and it´s exciting. And my own plot is not less crazy than that, so I think it´s okay.

I tried to get the 24-feeling of urgency into the last chapter by switching back and forth between the different parties involved. I hope I managed that. And I hope I didn´t do too wrong about the real security of the White House. Because I´m pretty sure in real life they would have been spotted much earlier than in my version.

I also wanted you guys to forget about Sylar, at least for a while until everything was already over. Hope I managed that too. Because in my mind, after that last conversation with Mohinder he might have decided that he indeed can´t trust himself enough to go through with his plan. After Matt already took care of everything, there was no need for him being there any longer. So he just left.

An added side note: Nathan´s line to Peter, when he tells him "I´m still here" was another direct quote from "Frequency". The one line that always gave me goosebumps in the movie and I just wanted it to be there. I figured it appropriate for the reunion of the two brothers.

I personally liked the ending for Sylar, more than I could have liked a happy ending. I just believe that it´s not always possible to make up, just before the story ends. And this time, it was just not meant to be.

But let´s not jump to conclusions. There´s still another story coming up. And the title, as sappy and classic as it sounds, just claimed to be the title. I thought about others but somehow it didn´t allow me to replace it. So that´s how the story goes. But don´t think you know what´ll come. To know that you´ll have to wait and read.

So thanks again for taking my ranting so patiently and most of all, thanks for reading and for being so faithful. Don´t forget to review ;-)