torchwoodinstitute | (no subject)

Sylar frowned and shifted when Luke ran out, getting up out of the chair he'd just sat down in and taking a few steps towards the door. But he knew that being around Luke when he was overheating like that was a bad idea. It tended to just piss Luke off more, because of the danger it put Sylar in.

Jack's question was met with a sigh. "Ten, fifteen minutes?" Sylar guessed. But of course this was one of the most sore subjects with Luke. Besides, it'd been quite a day already. "Maybe more like 30. He has to calm down enough to turn off the heat, and we'd already been training a whole day. He's tired."

Now that Luke was out of the room, Sylar asked the question that'd been on his mind since he heard of his counterpart. "So he's not here? Have you ever met anyone like him?" There was an undertone of worry to Sylar's voice.

Thirty minutes was a long, dangerous time. Luke didn't even know where he was going and so he just kept going down and down and down. It would be better if he had some cold water but it was cooler the further down he went and that should be all right.

Jack scooted his chair in and set his elbow on the table.

"I've never met him of anyone that looks like him," Jack said, not sugar coating it. "Even if Campbell isn't his really name, if he was here, I'd know." Jack watched Sylar's face. There was a cunning in his eyes that he recognized but he wouldn't bring those things up in front of Sasan. Jim had to know about Gabriel's past in the broad strokes because they worked together. But Sasan did not. "But never mind. How about you tell me what else you can do and Jim will put a pizza on for us."

The blond was paying no attention to Jack and was staring at Sasan as he had more milk and watched the strange exchanges going on that were now part of his daily life.

Sylar sighed again and sat down once more. No point in talking about this while standing.

Sasan had watched the whole thing, feeling a little bad that he'd brought up an obviously sore subject. Ugh, a love triangle going on with this kid? That has got to be some dangerous drama. But soon he was noticing that Jim was watching him. He smiled and scooted the milk back over to him. He knew it was kind of disgustingly sweet for the two of them, but Sasan was going to enjoy what they had, dammit.

"I'll get the pizza," he said, squeezing Jim's shoulder lightly as he got up.

Sylar wasn't paying any attention to the two of them, once he'd realized they were off in their own world. He had his eyes on Jack. This was a very targeted question the Captain asked, and it made Sylar question his earlier assessment of what he might know.

He leaned the side of his head on an upturned hand, slouching forward in his chair. "How about you tell me what you can do, first? I can tell you've got something weird going on." That was kind of an answer in its own right.

"I do. And it's nothing you can take and use for yourself since it isn't in my DNA," Jack said immediately, a strange smile on his lips. "I suppose you could always try, but it would just leave you with a bloody mess."

Yeah, that got Jim's attention, who was trying to keep his eyes on the glass and not on the fact that he had gotten caught staring like a teenager. Being locked in here with Sasan and no respite from the other man was driving him pretty crazy with all sort of needs he shouldn't have.

That he shouldn't be able to have.

He had no idea that Gabriel started killing people so early in life. Wow. And he still grew up to have a devoted fiancee?

The casual way Jack called him out made Sylar almost want to try it- especially since, the way Jack put it, he must have some form of healing ability. And yet, what Jack said about Sylar not being able to take it, that rang true. There'd be no point.

But now the burning question was- how could all of them still be so calm? They clearly all knew what he'd been doing! He didn't ask right away, though, unless that somehow broke whatever was holding this rather pleasant conversation up. He was looking at Jack with somewhat more wariness, however.

After a quiet moment, he said, "Enhanced eyesight. That's the only other ability I have. Mohinder helped me get that one." He smiled a little. "And the vortex power, although that one was more of an accident." The Company had 'slipped' and given him the wrong file. It was weird how they showed their trust like that.

As Jack had a hard time believing that Mohinder was part of a little cult of getting people with mutated abilities to lay down and let their heads be cut open, he decided that Sylar had learned that he could copy abilities empathically.

The divergent time stream here was somewhat remarkable and he would have liked to do more research on it across the various realities but that would require more use of the rift core and they were on lockdown.

Campbell was not a name that had come up in any of the realities he had observed or tracked Gabriel in. But that hardly meant he couldn't be in ones Jack had discarded early on before setting on the version of Gabriel he had finally recruited.

"What's your Mohinder like?" Jack asked, conversationally. "Is he your age? Ours is a geneticist. Probably twice as old as you are now."

Sylar sat up in his seat, visibly perking up to talk about Mohinder. "Of course he is. Mine is younger. Our age. He's...have you ever seen an abandoned puppy on the side of the road, trying to figure out how to cross it on his own? He's kind of like that." It was said with fondness. "The same people that picked us up were the ones that picked him up, but they really just wanted his Dad's research. I haven't been able to convince him that they're not the best, yet."

Sylar was still keeping an eye on everything, but he was far more comfortable now. "So does this mean everyone in my timeline's younger? Like people shifted a generation or something?" How weird. He wondered how that could even happen.

"The easiest way to think of the whole universe is like a gem with facets. Every facet is a new reality. There are nearly an infinite set of realities. Each one is just a little different from the rest. Every choice can and probably does create a reality for every possibility. In my reality, in this one, you're about to turn thirty-three and you're engaged. In another, you're Persian and own a boutique for animal clothing in LA. In in yours, you can create vortexes to travel between all of them."

There was a reason Jack tended to so easily pick up people. He was charismatic and he told them just enough truth to hook them, and hook them good.

That was how Sylar had been thinking this 'alternate reality' thing might work, and he was so very pleased to have Jack confirm it (and in such fanciful terms!). And the nearly infinite possibilities did indeed hook him. His mind was racing.

"So this place, it deals with harmful things that are outside the reality they're supposed to be in," he guessed. That would make sense to him, and explain how they knew so much, and also the whole 'coming and going by vortex' thing Jack mentioned when they'd first got here. What strange changes, too.

"-wait. Gabriel is engaged? ....to Mohinder?" The question was practically whispered. He felt kind of dumb for asking. His doppleganger could've met anyone else he didn't know. But it wasn't like Sylar made good relationships easily, and Mohinder was here.

Jack tapped his nose in confirmation at the first guess. Sylar was a smart one, though it was a little disturbing to see him cling to the name of his serial killing self at so early an age. Perhaps Mohinder in his reality had been as good of a guiding force in the other direction as he had been in this one? That left Campbell up for questioning though. There was something very wrong with Sylar's companion.

"Why would you assume you would be engaged to Mohinder?" he asked, just out of curiosity. "You don't have to prefer men in each if your realities. But that does seem to be true." The thought was amusing. Sasan. Gabriel. Spock.

But Sylar's particular excitement was telling. He liked his Mohinder too. It wasn't Jack's business though.

"I don't 'prefer' men," Sylar said straightforwardly, if not a little bluntly. "But I know I've enjoyed spending time with exactly two people in my life, and one of them is here. Maybe I'll meet one or two more people before I turn 33 that I don't hate, but-" He smiled a bit, proud of himself. "-I had pretty good odds."

He was chatting with Jack more honestly than he had with Eden after a couple weeks. Of course, Jack hadn't sedated and kidnapped him, so that probably had something to do with it.

Pizza in the oven and timer set, Sasan stepped back over to where Jim was sitting and sat down. He'd been listening to this whole thing with interest. It sounded like Gabriel and Mohinder had a thing across multiple timelines. He wasn't sure if he should consider that romantic or boring.

Sylar was watching Sasan with renewed interest, but he didn't ask the obvious question. Instead, he looked at Jack. "Where is Mohinder, anyway? You should probably warn him not to run into Campbell." If Luke killed Mohinder and then Gabriel killed Luke...well, that'd just ruin everyone's day.

Jack had actually just been thinking it when Sylar mentioned the geneticist. No one needed to run into Luke right now except maybe Gabriel. Communication wasn't down for the most part but it was largely interfered with and with time dilation a occurring due to the core manipulation engineering was doing to find their hacker, it was safer to send warm bodies. "Task for my two favorite agents," Jack said, but Jim was already standing up.

"Find Gabriel, send him to get Campbell. Find Mohinder, send him down here for the pizza party?" Jim asked, without mentioning that he wanted to get Sasan away from crazy children. One of whom was having a melt down just at the mention of Mohinder Suresh and his own lack of existence here.

Great.

Jack nodded and Jim held the door for Sasan, letting it swoosh behind them both. That left Jack and Sylar alone.

"How many people have you killed so far?" Why not just get to it? "I'm not judging. I'm just curious."

Sasan was plenty happy to go after Mohinder and not the kid who almost flash-broiled them. He really hoped Jim didn't run into that kid, either. He gave Sasan the willies.

Sylar was about to ask whether they had a lot of pizza parties in this place, but Jack apparently had more questions. Sylar raised an eyebrow, not quite buying what Jack said. "You're not judging me for murder? Really?" But this place seemed to operate differently than most of the places he'd seen. Sylar thought it over, then sat back in his chair. "Three people," he answered. "Why? Has Gabriel killed people?"

"A lot more than that," came the response from the doorway. Gabriel Gray was staring at the two of them with a vaguely amused expression. "More of me? Really? I'm going to get a complex one of these days." He looked to Jack for an explanation, and/or instructions. An actual double of him could be pretty dangerous, after all.

""I'm the one with the complex," Jack said. "But id probably just sleep with myself if given the chance so it's better that you're the lucky duck of the gene pool. Did you run into Sas and Jimmy? I need you to track down a heat sink loose in the building."

Preferably before that heat sink tracked down Mohinder. Jack did give Gabriel a look as if to mention that this was pretty much an order and to be quick about it.

"Or did you just want to come and meet Sylar? Nice kid. I think I'm gonna trade you two out."

Gabriel had, for just a small moment, an unusual clueless expression to his face. He had not met up with Sas and Jimmy, in fact, as he was coming from their opposite direction. And so he had no idea what Jack meant by a 'heat sink loose in the building'. It didn't take him all that long to figure it out. "Oh, you brought a friend here? With an ability?" 'Friend' could mean so many different things around Gabriel Gray. Regardless, it shouldn't be too hard to find the one person out of two that didn't belong here. He nodded at Jack. He'd get on that.

Or, he would after he flicked at Jack's ear with telekinesis (without moving a finger- so maybe he was showing off a little). "Don't even joke," he said, rolling his eyes. Truth be told, Jack was one of the very few who could easily get away with a joke like that. It'd taken Gabriel a few missions and some time around the guy to stop fearing that Jack would 'trade up', so to speak.

"Nice to meet you, Sylar. I want to talk to you later, okay? Compare notes." He smirked slightly and then headed back out into the hall. It left Sylar looking somewhere in between worried and confused. It was not a look he wanted to have on his face.

"You really don't care that I've killed people?" was the question he ended up asking, after watching Gabriel leave.

Jack's Bluetooth fell out of his ear from the flick and he had to bend to pick it up sgain, which he did right before he settled cool blue eyes back on Sylar. "What I care about it moving forward. Your past happened. You can't change it now. We only have a problem if you plan on getting any of my people killed or killing them yourself."

He set the device on the table and leaned forward.

"If you decide to stay, that's when we're going to have to have a very long talk about the things you've done and the things you might still do. But until that happens, I don't intend to pry too much more."

There was a small shuffle outside as Gabriel and Mohinder met in the hall. Mohinder's voice was quiet but he was just outside and Jack could still hear him clearly. "Please be careful." His voice was deeper but it was still Mohinder, that purr was unmistakeable.

Sylar was left looking thoughtful and disturbed by what Jack was saying. If he decided to stay? They'd take him here? He'd been planning on trying to weasel out of going back to Primatech, and that was basically saying he could do so. Did that extend to Luke? Probably not, with the way Jack was talking.

More disturbing was the thought that maybe he could go back on what he'd done. He knew Mohinder had believed in him, but Sylar had always thought he'd crossed a line awhile ago. There was no point in trying to cross back over to the normal land where people were decent, so he might as well be the best monster he could. That was kind of the feeling Primatech had given him, too. This place didn't seem to adhere to any of that.

Before he could really reconcile any of what was flying through his mind, he heard Mohinder in the hall. And- yeah, there was no one else that could be, when he saw Mohinder in the doorway. Sylar had figured Mohinder would start looking like his old man as he grew older, but there was no sign of that here. Sylar glanced down at the table and rubbed the back of his neck instead of saying hi.

Mohinder was just as fascinated by the boy, though the idea was disturbing to him on so many levels that ' Sylar' had happened to him so soon. Jim hadn't filled him in on the conversation, just that a sixteen or seventeen year old version of his fiancé had showed up and was calling himself Sylar. Mohinder wished Gabriel was with him now because the name itself invoked a sort of dread in him that he couldn't begin to abide.

He swallowed and crossed the room, more handsome than the boy who had confessed to liking him at the pizza parlor until Gabriel told him he was seeing Luke.

Mohinder sat down delicately across from the boy and cupped his hands together in front of him on the table. "Can I call you Gabriel?"

He broke into a light laughter, looking back up at Mohinder. "He insisted on it, too. Okay, sure you can." There was a slight emphasis on 'you'. Mohinder was allowed. "You might get me mixed up with your fiance, though." He looked pointedly at the ring on Mohinder's finger.

That question had at least broken the ice somewhat. Sylar hadn't been sure what to say to this man who was clearly everything that Mohinder would be in a few years. Adulthood really suited him. "So you both, uh, work here? You and Gabriel?"

"I hardly believe that I'll get you and he mixed up if I can work with Gabriel and Sasan without much incident." Just that once. But once was enough.

Unlike Sylar, Mohinder wasn't smiling. He didn't think he was capable of smiling either and he certainly did not want to. He had so many questions to ask. Obviously a younger version of himself at least knew Sylar. Perhaps they were friends? And it didn't seem to bother him to know that he was in a gay relationship quickly headed towards marriage. Perhaps all was not as lost as it had seemed, but hat name--

Mohinder had to press. When he was upset or angry he tended to do irrational things and this might actually be one of them.

"Shall I tell you why I dislike the other name?" Jack looked about ready to step in, but Mohinder was already standing and lifting his t-shirt. This was not to show off the lean, smoothly muscled body that his older self got to touch whenever he wanted, but to point out the scars on his back, pink lines cut into caramel flesh. "This is my reminder of who Sylar had been before we killed him."

Jack blinked. Would 'scared straight' even work with this kid?

Maybe not entirely. But Sylar did look distressed to see the scars cut into Mohinder back there. He was speechless for a long moment. It was not something he had ever considered doing, although he knew that Luke probably had entertained the idea, at some point.

It was still uncanny how much this man was obviously Mohinder. No one else spoke with these same tones to Sylar, especially after they knew what he could do.

"That never happened in my world," he said quietly. "Primatech got to us before anything like that happened." This Mohinder must've been familiar with Primatech by now. It seemed like they'd be destined to cross paths.

If he'd felt awkward before, it was even more of a problem now. He wasn't sure what all he was feeling meant, but it seemed kind of pointless to try and sort it out, at the moment. "How long ago was that?" he asked, looking up at Mohinder. "That you 'killed' him?"

"It's been about two... I suppose nearly three years." Mohinder sat himself down, and Jack got up to check on the food. "The man Gabriel is now is not the man I first met. Nor the man that did this to me. I want you to understand that you don't have to be that name."

Did Sylar get it it was this just some words that meant nothing in the long run to the teen?

"I don't know your story, but I will tell you mine." It just wouldn't be in brief. Mohinder did nothing in brief. He started at the beginning, with Zane. Though details were skipped up, he moved towards the yo-yoing in his apartment and the desperate call on the phone. The illusionist. The trek through the jungle-- The decision for Sylar to did and Gabriel to be born again.

"We worked for the Company for a little while. It was mostly blackmail I suppose. Blackmail and lies, an attempt to use us against one another. And then Jack found us-- Found Gabriel. By then we were a bit of a package deal. But for you--What possessed you to take up that name? Does it have something to do with that other boy you came with? What was his name? Campbell?"

No. Mohinder didn't know him either.

It was quite the story. Gabriel and Mohinder had been through a lot together. Sylar listened carefully, occasionally biting his lip. All the details fit together, and that sure sounded like the Company...he didn't think Mohinder was lying. This Mohinder looked about as good as his Mohinder at lying, which was not at all.

The questions took him a minute to answer- he was still trying to process everything he heard, and what it might mean for him. "Yeah. We met when someone played a prank on me. When he showed me his power, I just- I had to know more. I followed him around for awhile, found 'Activating Evolution', and we talked about it a lot. And then I ran into someone who had telekinesis, and me and Campbell started planning." He bit at his lip again. "Is there some reason he's not in these other realities?"

"Gabriel didn't discover his aptitude until he was much older than you. Perhaps he did to to school with a Campbell but there was simply no connection at that time?" Mohinder could only offer the smallest of hypothesizes at this point. Had everything changed because Gabriel did not find the book his father wrote until much later? "Though, my father did not publish his work until I was already at university. Your timeline and ours don't connect well."

Mohinder touched his engagement ring very gently. What would it have been like if he had met Gabriel as a teenager?

Would they have come to love one another? Would he have been able to stop the monster before it became too great? Would Gabriel not have had to suffer for so long or cause others to suffer as much as he had?

Would his father still be alive?

"Your friend... Does he hurt people too? Or were you planning on hurting him?" It seemed a fair question. Jack didn't actually care of it. It seemed so very eckless.

It was a fair question, but Gabriel didn't look too keen on answering it. He'd already said way too much, but Mohinder always had a way of getting him to talk. Maybe it was the way that Mohinder shared first.

And he didn't want this Mohinder to get hurt, either. "He hurts people, too. He expects me to take his power some day, but I wouldn't. He's important to me." There. He thought Jack had probably figured out that much already. "And he doesn't like Mohinder because he thinks you're going to steal him away from me."

Okay, so pronouns were difficult in these situations. But he felt like he got across the warning.

Sylar was starting to look a little sick. This had been a very busy day, after all, and he'd overused a new power. Twice. All the adrenaline he'd had upon arriving was finally wearing off, and trying to hold onto everything that was going on was a further strain.