Day 46: Sun Room

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

Peter woke up suddenly, his body twisting in the bed and then forcing him to catch his breath in pain. Pain, which was coming from his middle because of the thing that had scratched him last night, and after that...

After that, Zach had jumped in front of him like some kind of martyr, like the exact opposite of everything Sylar stood for, to take the next hit for him. It got pretty fuzzy after that, so night must have ended right around then.

The man let out a pained grunt as he straightened himself up in bed. For some reason, he got the feeling that he'd slept in. There was no way for him to really tell without a window in the room, but he just knew. The fact that Sam's bed looked long since vacated was another clue.

Sam, but was he Sam again? Had the brainwashing worn off, as he and Roland had hoped, or was he going to have to go through this nightmare for even longer? He didn't know how long he could handle "Zach" and "Harrison" before he started going batty himself.

Pulling himself out of bed, Peter lifted his shirt and saw that he was tightly bandaged. The scratch most likely wasn't nearly as bad as the bite that "Zach" had received, but it still smarted. He let his shirt fall and then had to deal with a nurse chiding him for sleeping through the morning announcements. Not that Peter really cared at the moment. He was too busy thinking about last night and the fact that in a way, he now owed something to Sylar. Except it hadn't been Sylar. That was something he was sure of now.

Lost in his thoughts, Peter reached the Sun Room right as the rest of the patient populace was trickling in from breakfast. Sighing to himself, he headed over to the bulletin board and then saw a note written in familiar yet unpleasant handwriting. Holding his pen in a vice grip, Peter scribbled out a reply and then stalked over to an armchair and fell into it with a huff.

While Sylar was maddeningly frustrating, there was one good thing about the fact that he was himself again. It meant that Nathan was too.

[For Spock!]

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[replicatedorder.livejournal.com]

For Luke, it wasn't difficult for him to notice the uncanny—and very annoying—similarities between Sync and Asch. They both chose from what he said to respond to, choosing to simply disregard the rest because it got a little too personal. Giving answers, giving him satisfaction—he knew it was too much to ask, but it didn't remove that little twinge of nagging feeling at the fact that they were like that. It was impossible to try to reason with any of them, even the most rational, even if they had their reasons and Luke understood them.

"It'll be different next time," Luke said, but he had a feeling that Sync would just ignore this, too. "I'll be there by his side, and you won't be as strong as you were before." His tone was flat as he spoke, uneasy, revealing that Sync was getting to him in some way. Not because he feared for Guy—though a part of him did—but because of the aforementioned willingness to go around what Luke said and respond to only what he wished to respond to.

"Heh," Luke added, a little bit of enthusiasm somehow making its way to his voice. "It's a good thing I showed back up again right around this time." It was marked off as yet another thing that he was sure would be ignored, but he managed to straighten up with confidence. Sync's next fight against their group wouldn't go so well.

[godforsaken]

The effort Luke put forth in order to rile Sync up was met with an uninterested scoff, green eyes grazing over Luke's head as if he was paying attention to something else. It was obvious that the replica's words meant nothing to him, just like his existence altogether. While they didn't directly affect each other, it was the redhead's sheer stubbornness that kept their plans from running as fluidly as he would've liked, and for that seeing him alive was unforgivable.

"So you really were here before." Sync's smile had disappeared by then, his tone making it seem like talking to Luke was nothing more than a chore. He glanced back down at the other replica, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly as he continued.

"Where were you when you were here then? Where were you when your friends actually needed you?"

[replicatedorder.livejournal.com]

He tried to hold on to that enthusiasm and ease he mustered up, but it was difficult with the next line of questions that Sync chose to deliver. That was right: Where had he been? If he had a promise to deliver, why wasn't he here for his friends before? Luke knew he should have been there, that if he was so willing to take down this institution, why didn't he fight harder before? If the theories that Guy related to him were correct, it was still easy to manipulate him, to make him think he was someone he wasn't. It meant he really hadn't grown as much as he would have preferred, that he couldn't hold on to his right to exist.

But doubting himself was probably what Sync wanted. Making him wonder about who he was like as this "Brandon"—assuming that was who he became—would only make him slip further in his resolve. Luke fell silent while he mulled over this, remembering how strong he had been when he went up against Master Van that final time. Even if the man's intentions were in line with their own, his intentions and his approaches to things—his approaches to Luke—were incorrect. Luke never wavered in that resolve near the end, never stepped up and said that Asch should have been there instead of him. Yes, Sync had a good point. It was one that Luke couldn't even bring himself to confront.

He glanced away noticeably, his resolve slipping away so quickly. "I don't know," he replied, his tone surprisingly strong. Then again, he wasn't looking at Sync for the moment, so it lost that effect to some degree. "If I had a choice, I would have been there for Guy. I would have stopped you."

Luke shifted his gaze to meet Sync's head on. "But that doesn't matter now. I can't change that. Even if you want me to regret it, I can't, not if I want to help Guy. You're right in that I can't answer where I was before, but I can change that now. Even if you'll probably laugh at that, too, go right ahead. I appreciate this chance to be there for the people I care about." That bit of resolve was necessary, and by the end, he seemed to have gathered his bearings again.

[godforsaken]

Sync's gaze didn't waver when Luke finally mustered up the courage to look at him again, expression remaining passive as he listened to the replica's words. However, he wasn't aware that a dramatic monologue was necessary to answer his question, and it wasn't like he particularly cared if Luke was trying to convince himself that he was actually useful. He said it himself, didn't he? He didn't know where he'd been, so what was stopping him from making the same, fatal mistake again?

"You're so annoying." After everything the redhead said Sync could only muster up enough energy to point that out. Indeed, Luke's existence in Landel's was annoying, but the God-General hardly saw him as a threat. There was a difference between saying and doing, and until the latter actually made due with his words then Sync would hardly ever bat an eye in his direction. At least Claude had actually tried to act on his own, but in the end even he couldn't ignore his own sympathy. The God-General wasn't aware that he was still worth sympathizing, and that itself was enough to make his blood boil.

By then the intercom had gone off, signaling the end of this shift and the start of lunch. It was only then that Sync tore his eyes away, turning around in order to look for his nurse. However, before he left Luke completely, the replica graced him with a few parting words.

"I won't give you that chance." Call it a challenge, a promise even, but in reality it was nothing more than a scoff at Luke's declaration. The replica had more important things to worry about.