"There are nearly seven billion people on this planet." "Chapter Twelve "An Invisible Thread"" "Each one, unique, different." "What are the chances of that?" "And why?" "Is it simply biology," "Physiology that determines this diversity?" "A collection of thoughts, memories," "Experiences that carve out our own special place?" "Outside Arlington, Virginia" "Or is it something more than this?" "Perhaps there's a master plan" "That drives the randomness of creation." "Something unknowable that dwells in the soul," "And presents each one of us" "With a unique set of challenges" "That will help us discover who we really are." "You okay?" "Did you have a dream?" "It's Nathan." " What about him?" " He's..." "He's what?" "In trouble." "He's not the only one." "What is it, Noah?" "That construction work we passed about a mile back" "Wasn't real." "There's going to be a road block a half a mile or so ahead." "This is where you get out." "Okay, head two miles in that direction." "And then follow the surface streets into the city." "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to buy you some time." "Here." "It's a secure line." "I will find you." "Get to Nathan and make sure it is him." "He'll be on Sylar's trail by now." " But dad, I... - listen to your father." "I love you, Claire bear." "Is there a problem, officer?" "Nathan Petrelli's Senate Office, Washington D.C." "What are you doing?" "I told you, I need you to be taub." "I'm not interested in what you need." "I'm..." "Such a waste." "You could've been so helpful." "Just didn't know your place." "Eddie, Gordon, send a clean up crew to..." "That hurt." "Shape-shifting, gotta love it, right?" "The changes don't just happen on the outside, either." "You remember that little knife off switch in the back of my head?" "I moved it." "Go ahead, get it over with." "My men will be here any second" "To collect Petrelli." "I know." "I got plans for them." "I have plans for all of us." "You going to kill him?" "Later." "Right after I absorb all of his memories." "It's a little ability Angela Petrelli" "Fed me like a snack." "Because Nathan..." "And by Nathan, I mean I..." "Have a rendezvous with destiny tomorrow." "The president's giving a speech at the stanton hotel." "Senator Petrelli's going to be there" "To have a little meeting with him right afterwards." "What for?" "Nothing." "Just to shake his hand." "And when I do..." "I'm going to be the most powerful man in the world." "You better kill me now." "Because there's no way i'm going to let that happen." "No, I don't need to kill you." "Because in 30 seconds," "There's not a person on this planet" "Who'll believe a word you say." "Man down!" "Man down!" "I've got him." "He's in here." "You son of a bitch." "The Capitol Washington D.C." "You think there's a chance he didn't get caught?" "Noah?" "No." "That was his plan all along." "I don't know how my dad always manages" "To get himself in the middle of everything." "Because he puts himself there." "Mostly because of you." "You have no idea the lengths a parent will go" "To ensure the safety of their child." "Something I hope you never have to find out for yourself." "Now..." "This is where I get off." "What do you mean?" "I just wanted to make sure you got here safely." "I'm not going in there with you to see Nathan." "Why not?" "Because I need to go find Matt Parkman." "Is this about your dream?" "In it, Parkman saves Nathan's life." "Okay, so why don't you just come up" "And warn Nathan and tell him how to avoid danger?" "That's not how it works." "I cannot change what I dreamed." "But I can help push its outcome." "Now you go find Nathan." "And I will find you later." "Nathan." "Wake up." "Wake up." "You want to be convincing" "When you meet the president today,right?" "I'm going to need all those sick little" "Twisted memories of yours." "Such a lightweight." "To hell with it." "Got plenty of memories from all this stuff" "You've got lying around here,anyway." "Your diploma says" "You graduated with honors from Annapolis" "These cufflinks tell me a different story." "Politicians." "Sir,someone here to see you." "She claims to be your daughter?" "All right,send her in." "Claire." "I'm glad you finally made it." "I was beginning to get worried about you." "Did you find him?" "Sylar?" "Yeah." "But he got away." "He's going to the Stanton Hotel" "To meet the president in an hour." "I'm going to intercept the president first" "And warn him." "And tell him what?" "That Nathan Petrelli is a look-alike?" "If I have to,yeah." "Blow the lid off this whole thing." "I'm going to do whatever it takes to shut down building 26." "And how do I know this is you?" "What are you talking about?" "How do I know you're not sylar?" "Claire." "I am me." "We've spent a lot of time together over the past few days." "Mexico." "I was beginning to think you knew me better than anyone else." "Sorry." "It's all right." "Listen." "Why don't you stay here?" "I've got a car taking me to the Stanton Hotel." "Lay low until I can clean this whole mess up." "No,I want to come with you." "In case anything goes wrong." "It's not going to be safe." "So what?" "I can't get hurt." "And I need to help stop sylar." "It's time I put myself in the middle of this" "And made a difference." "I was thinking exactly the same thing." "You're right." "If things do go south," "I want you right there." "Right by my side." "Come on." "Building 26,Washington D.C." "How are you feeling?" "Better." "We don't have to do this." "We can turn around right now" "I'm okay." "It was just a headache." "And a nosebleed" "You're getting sick from using your power." "Maybe so." "But we have to get inside." "We must save the ones who are being held." "And we must shut down this operation." "Then let's use my power instead." "We are a team now." "I'll use my crimson arc to" "That's won't be enough." "Look at this security." "We have to stop time." "No." "It's too dangerous." "Just one more time." "I promise" "It's just a headache now." "Next,your head could explode." "Explode" "Really?" "Then" "That's just the chance" "I'll have to take." "I bet you're happy to see me." "Sylar..." "We've got to stop him." "A lot of help you're going to be." "Okay,let's hear it." "Lecture." "The finger-wagging,the general "I told you so. "" "That I screwed up." "Refused to listen." "And then you got into bed with Sylar." "That's all over now." "Clearly." "That's very zen of you." "No,it's practical." "If we get out of here,we're going to have" "To throw everybody and everything we have at Sylar," "Trying to get a spike into the back of his head." "A spike's not going to cut it anymore." "He moved the spot." "Great." "How the hell did you do it?" "Deal with all of this?" "Can't capture all of them,can't contain them." "There are no rules." "Not even gravity." "It's all about spinning plates." "Living in the gray area." "20 years of middle management,becomes second nature." "So in 20 years,I'll get it?" "20 years and an adopted daughter." "If I didn't have Claire," "I'd be following the same dogma that took you" "Right over the edge." "I'd be exactly in your position." "You are exactly in my position." "Yeah." "We should do something about that." "Together." "Good." "We have to find where they keep the prisoners." "Hiro." "Your ear" "Is bleeding." "I'm fine." "Come on." "Let's hurry." "Holy crap!" "Hiro." "It's Dr. Suresh." "Let's help him down." "I have an idea." "Payback is very bitchy." "Hiro?" "Is this a trick?" "I don't know." "No guards." "Something's very wrong here." "Hiro." "Let's go." "Hiro,what" "What happened?" "We are rescuing you." "I'll try to repay you later." "But right now, we have to get out of here as soon as we can." "Are you okay?" "No, he's not." "He has nosebleeds and headaches from stopping time." "Oh, I'm fine." "You're a doctor, right?" "Then you can help him." "Here, open your eyes wide." "Your pupils are dilated." "Do you have any stiffness in your left arm?" "Or dizziness?" "Yes." "But bruce wayne only slept two hours a night." "Hiro!" "hiro..." "These abilities allow us to do superhuman things," "But you are still human." "And your human body is rejecting these powers," "Like, uh..." "like a virus." "But this power... it is what makes me strong." "My destiny." "You can't freeze time again. do you understand?" "Stanton Hotel Washington,D.C." "Thanks." "So what's the plan?" "We just tell them the president's in danger?" "That would just send them down a rabbit hole." "And then sylar can become a rabbit." "So we got to play close to the vest." "Follow my lead, okay?" "Nathan!" "It's good to see you, man." "This is my daughter, claire. claire, this is liam." "Samuels. the president's chief of staff." "I live in america." "Your dad and I barely survived" "Boarding school together." "Barely." "Listen, I really appreciate the president" "Giving me some time this afternoon." "Sure, he just stepped up onstage." "Speech usually clocks in about 90 minutes." "Whatever works for him." "But I'd like to stick around, close by." "Absolutely. we got a suite upstairs." "Come here. do me a favor." "Sign in right here, and Frank will show you" " Nice to meet you." "You too." "I thought you were right-handed." "Ambidextrous." "I bat righty." "Throw lefty." "You coming?" "Prisoners are gone." "The entire unit's been captured." "Seeing as how your unit was trying to kill us," "I think we caught a break." "How the hell did this happen?" "I tried to tell you before this whole thing started." "Your men alone are never going to be a match" "For people with abilities." "You sure this will work?" "Tasers didn't work on sylar," "But one shot of this will put an elephant down." "The trick is getting close enough to the elephant." "Hiro." "Hiro!" "call 9-1-1." "I've got to get to the stanton." "I've got to stop sylar." "Go, we'll stay with him." "Hello?" "Thank god. where are you?" "I'm with nathan." "Are you sure it's him?" "Oh, it's him. don't worry." "How do you know?" "Because it's me." "Oh, god." "This is funny." "Don't you love a good pinot?" "My dad's on his way." "He's going to stop you." "And then I'm going to kill you." "No." "Actually, I'm going to kill him." "Or have you kill him." "I haven't decided yet." "Don't give me that look." "Everybody dies sometime." "Well... almost everybody." "Papa petrelli, mama bennet..." "Mr. muggles." "What's your brother's name again?" "larry?" "Lyle." "Lyle, right." "Hmm, he's going to die too." "As we speak, my father's dying." "Did I tell you I got to meet my real dad?" "Boy, was that a disappointment." "Have you ever stopped to think about" "How much we have in common, claire?" "You were adopted." "I was adopted." "You... can't die." "I can't die." "Oh, you can die." "I'll make sure of it." "You'll get bored." "After like, 100 years of trying to off me," "Watching all of your loved ones drop like flies." "You may eventually come to forgive me." "Maybe you'll even love me." "I'll keep trying to kill you." "For the rest of my life." "Well, everybody needs a hobby." "I mean, I'm not saying there aren't bridges" "That need to be built," "But if we start building them now..." "Who knows?" "You could be my first first lady." "I'm sorry, senator. there's a full lockdown." "No one gets in or out without talking to mr. samuels." "Then you better talk to Mr. Samuels." "I have senator Nathan Petrelli" "Requesting access to the building." "Is there a problem?" "He says you're already inside." "If you're here, then who the hell's up in that suite?" "I can either know now or after we've taken him down." "You're not going to do that." "You send your men up there, and they will die." "He's right." "His name is Sylar. he's extremely dangerous." "And he's a target?" "he's one of them?" "He's one of them." "He's-got to stop saying that." "He's one of us." "He's one of us." "It's all right." "Liam, I've been lying to the president." "I've been lying to myself." "And I will take full responsibility for my crimes" "When the day comes." "But today we're going to course correct." "There's a man in that suite upstairs," "And he needs to be stopped." "And how do you suggest we do that?" "You don't." "We do." "Sylar can only be stopped by people like us." "My brother can do whatever sylar can do," "We just have to get him close enough to touch him." "Just give us a five-minute head start." "That's all I'm asking." "I'll take him high, you take him low." "Let's cut the son of a bitch in two." "I love you, Pete. you know that?" "Of course." "I love you too, nathan." "Ready." "Go!" "Are you all right?" " Yeah." " Where'd they go?" "The window." "Can you fly after them?" "I can't." "Come on, we have to find them." "Come on." "Oh,Claire's must be so mad at me." "WASHINGTON,D.C" "It's about time." "Mrs. petrelli, what are you doing here?" " Waiting for you." " How did you find me?" "I had a dream." "Nathan's in trouble." "Something terrible happened to him." "And then you save him." "I don't know how." "All I know is you have to come with me." "I can't." "I'm sorry." "My dreams don't lie, Mr. Parkman." "Now I need you to come with me." "I came here to stop those agents from coming after us." "I need to be able to go back to my boy," "And know he can live his life without being hunted." "I'm sorry about Nathan." "Then we want the same thing." "And without Nathan, none of that is possible." "You don't have to read minds to know that." "Come with me." "We should separate here." "You go that way, I'll look for Nathan over here." "Hold it." "Noah?" "You tell me that's Claire, not Sylar." "I just fought Sylar, okay. that is claire." "Put the gun down. dad..." "It's me." "Did you take his power?" "Yeah." "So we can stop him." "Freeze!" "on the ground!" "The president's life is in danger." "You want him to live?" "you need to listen to us." "I said on the ground!" "You can either listen to me now," "Or I'll tell you after you shoot me." "They were here, Peter and Nathan." "I'm sorry." "Only authorized personnel beyond this point." "This is a secret service badge." "You're going to let us through." "Oh, sorry." "You guys go ahead." "You don't want to see this." " no, no, I need to. - mrs. petrelli." " I need to!" " mrs. petrelli, don't!" "No, I need to!" " Nathan!" "Please." "Nathan!" "I don't understand." "My dream." "You were supposed to save him." "This way, Mr. president." "Nathan." "Is that you?" "Of course it's me." "we're getting the president out through the basement." "I can't give you any more time." "That's all right." "You don't have any more time to give." "This way, Mr. president." "Thank god you're all right, sir." "The secret service did a hell of a job today." "And so did you." "This is insane." "This will never work." " We'll make it work." " It's the only way." "And it has to be right now." "I don't know how much time I bought" "Sending Peter and Claire after Nathan." "Why don't you just chain him up, huh?" "Or tranq him; isn't that what you guys love to do?" "I don't want to be part of this." "I thought you came back to protect your family, Matt." "I did, but what you're asking me to do is crazy!" "Who will convince the president" "The whole thing was a mistake?" "Without nathan, nothing's going to change." "Word gets out that a person with abilities" "Murdered a U.S. senator," "You're going to have 100 Dankos out there." "Even if I could do what your asking me to do," "He would never really be Nathan." "He'd always be Sylar." "If Sylar can absorb all of Nathan's memories," "Then the entire history of anything he touches" "Will fill in the gaps." "Physically, no one will ever know the difference." "It'll be permanent." "Look, the last thing in the world I want" "Is to see that son of a bitch still alive," "And I have to lie to my family about it." "But we need Sylar to be Nathan Petrelli again." "Matt..." "You don't do this..." "Nathan is gone forever." "And how do we explain what happened to him?" "There's a body in deep freeze in building 26." "It's identical." "A shape shifter." "Your son, Mr. Parkman- you just wanted to protect him." "Can you honestly tell me that if something happened to him," "You wouldn't do anything- anything" "To keep him in your life?" "I can't lose Nathan, not like this." "I'm begging you." "You're no longer Sylar." "No longer Gabriel Gray." "That life is over." "Sylar's dead." "You're no longer Sylar-Sylar." "You're no longer..." "Sylar." "No longer Gabriel Gray." "Your life is over." "Sylar is dead." "You're now Nathan." "Petrelli." "Nathan Petrelli." "Son." "Brother." "Father." "Senator." "Nathan." "Petrelli." "Ma?" "We are all connected." "Joined together by invisible flame." "Infinite in its potential, and fragile in its design." "Yet while connected," "We are also merely individuals." "Empty vessels to be filled with infinite possibilities." "An assortment of thoughts, beliefs." "A collection of disjointed memories and experiences." "It's a new beginning, mom." "Can I be me without these?" "Can you be you?" "I take it the president agreed to it?" "Funding, resources, deniability." "I told them I found just the man to head up our new..." "What were we going to call it?" "I always liked "the company. "" "Are you feeling okay?" "Not really." "It's time for us to go back home, Ando." "I can't believe he's really dead." "He's really dead, Claire." "He really is." "And if this invisible threat that holds us together" "Were to sever, to cease... what then?" "What will become of billions of lone, disconnected souls?" "Therein lies the great quest of our lives." "To find, to connect... to hold on." "For when our hearts are pure, and our thoughts in line," "We are all truly one," "Capable of repairing our fragile world" "And creating a universe of infinite possibilities." "END OF VOLUME FOUR." "VOLUME FIVE "REDEMPTION"" "Six weeks later" "You're number four." "I haven't heard from you in weeks." "I was beginning to worry." "Nathan." "Sorry, mom." "Just haven't felt like myself lately." "Don't be ridiculous." "This is a great time for you, Nathan." "The world's your oyster." "We put all that nonsense behind us." "The family's back together." "This is your time." "Now come on." "We're gonna be late for lunch." "Nathan... have you heard a word I've said?" "It's just this clock." "It's running a minute and a half fast." "so..." "lunch?" "Italian?"