V E R T I G O

“He may have not been perfect but he would have never let something like this happen.” The nerve this man had to use that as an excuse for his actions. It was laughable, to say the least, but Aundi was still furious. She could see that there was hope for him, he recognized his wrongs but not for the right reasons.

“So what exactly was your intention? Because the only thing I saw was you showing off with a deadly ability,” Aundi said poignantly. 

❝IT. WAS. AN. ACCIDENT.❞ He shouted, small objects pulling towards his with every word even as he leaned against a tree while a wave of dizziness interfered with his center of gravity.

The reveal did not surprise her. It did make the knot in her stomach tighten almost unbearably. He’d done it, and it didn’t sound like it was an accident. “I see.” She spoke slowly, trying to process what he was saying, and then what he was asking. 

“I… I can explain what happened.” She blinked at him, already preparing herself for how she would explain, and how he would react when she had to tell him that there was no way to reverse it. “I can explain how, but I want to know why first.”

Dubs breathed and exhaled slowly in order to clear his thinking for a clearer explanation. Her reaction was difficult to gauge, but he hoped with everything he had that she would be understanding. Though, he knew, he didn’t deserve it.

His mentioning of what happened seemed to prove to Sasha that he had something to do with it, though she still wanted to the benefit of the doubt. “There were a lot of things that happened at the protest.” She was just glad she’d left Ada with friends instead of bringing her along. 

“Do you mean the black hole?” She asked, raising an eyebrow and trying not to seem worried. Even if it had been him, it still could have been an accident. 

Dubs studied her, wondering how she managed to stay so calm when he felt so much apprehension about the event. He took a deep breath in an attempt to match her demeanor rather than look like some sort of frantic animal. ❝I do...❞

Seeing the man in front of her, the Evo, that caused copious amounts of damage and killed innocent people just get up and start to walk away made Aundi furious. “No, we are not done here! You don’t get the luxury to just feel bad for a second and sulk and then get over it.  And you definitely don’t have the right to get upset when someone tells you how wrong your actions were,” Aundi said fiercely.

Aundi’s original intention wasn’t to attack the man she had just met but ever since the day of the protest she’d been thinking about it more and more. And to see the person responsible for the mess just be so flippant about it irked her. “I can see that you felt guilty about what happened, but if you take a second to think you would realize that you feel guilty because what you did was wrong. You wouldn’t have to contemplate much if you made a better choice,” Aundi said looking at the man before her harshly. 

“I understand that as an Evo you feel you were doing the right thing by making a statement, but answer this question for me. Who do your actions more closely associate with, Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X?

Dubs stopped mid-stride. He’d barely eaten in over two weeks. He hadn’t been sleeping. Every time he closed his eyes, he heard their screams in his ears. And yet, Sylar had convinced him that it was right. It was all right. ❝You think I’m happy about what happened? I’m not. It was never supposed to get that big. No one was ever supposed to get hurt.❞ Of course, he wouldn’t have minded if it had only been government lackey’s in the black hole. He wouldn’t have shed a single tear over that. ❝There were children. They hadn’t even chosen a side yet. You think I’m going to sleep like a baby with that on my conscience, you’re dead wrong.❞

Aundi looked at the man in front of her really closely. Something about him seemed familiar but she didn’t know what. That is until he said the words “black hole”. Then Aundi remembered exactly who he was. 

“You!” Aundi spat. “You were the dumb Evo that decided that it was a good idea to create a black hole in front of a crowd of people! What were you thinking?”  

After what happened to Harry, Sasha remained somewhat wary around the Rogues. But nevertheless, she wanted to help, and now even more so. She’d wanted so badly for the protest to go smoothly, but of course that just wasn’t to happen. 

At the sound of the voice Sasha spun around and immediately took a step back. She didn’t know that it had been Dubs, but she knew it was a possibility. “Dubs? What’s wrong?” 

Dubs frowned as she stepped away from him. Though, rationally at least, he knew it could have been for any reason, he couldn’t help but feel as if everyone was afraid of him. 

Aundi had been taking a stroll in the park enjoying the warm rays of sun that had cascaded on her face.While she was walking through the more quiet area of the park, she had noticed a man sitting all alone. As she neared him she heard him speak softly aloud. Looking around she didn’t see anyone else around that he could be speaking to so she assumed he was talking to her.

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about?”

Sylar sighed, almost feeling bad for him, partly because he had an interesting ability. He watched for a few moments, nodding small as Dubs spoke. “It’s because you’re second guessing yourself. You feel guilty and you’re afraid of it now.” The serial killer shook his head again, almost wanting to laugh at him. “Stop feeling guilty. You did what you had to, and what you probably wanted to deep down, and they would have done worse if you’d stopped yourself. Besides–” He shrugged nonchalantly, almost as if bored. “–there’s nothing you can do about their deaths now. Why waste time and energy crying over it? We have a war to win.”

A pained looked graced Dubs’ face for a moment, causing him to look away from the man. ❝No. I did what I wanted to. The way my ability works... I can only do that which I’ve studied and understand. The black hole is a very specific science, one that still holds mystery even for the likes of NASA.❞ He shook off a wave of vertigo. ❝And I decided to take it on, show off... There were kids in there, man.❞ 

Furrowing his brow, he threw his hand at a wall, increasing the gravity of the surface until all of the objects in the room were quickly drawn to it. The motion was focused, exact, and driven by his anger. ❝What if they’re not dead? What if they’re just...❞ He shook his head, halting his thoughts until he could study more into them. ❝You think it scared them?❞ This time them referred to the government rather than the victims of his experiment.

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Dubs’ response. ‘Children’, he thought, sighing in exasperation. But then when he mentioned the black hole and asked if he was going to admonish him too, Sylar laughed and looked at him in an amused yet disbelieving way. “Why would I do that? I’m not like the others. I’m a serial killer who only has self-control to not kill other Evos at the moment because I’m more irritated with the humans.”

Dubs distanced himself from the man, picking up on of the weighted balls before focusing on that object alone. IT began to float above his hand before falling once again. ❝It hasn’t been the same.❞ He shook his head. ❝I don’t know what happened. I felt... off. I’ve never had problems with my powers before... Our parents trained us from the beginning.❞ Yet, when he’d caused the black hold, he’d felt only fear, unexplained and uncontrollable, stemming from nothing. ❝It doesn’t make any sense.❞

Sylar could feel the weight of a guilty conscience all the way across the base and as he followed it, he started to feel the walls rumble a little. When he opened the nearest door, Dubs and everything in the room came crashing down, though those emotions were still on high and almost overwhelming, at least for someone else. 

“The guilt you emitting is rather distracting and I can feel it on the other side of the base.” He grumbled, his tone obviously annoyed. “Stop it.”

Dubs closed his eyes and sighed at the voice that dared interrupt his brooding. ❝Well, if you’re the only one I’m disturbing, I think I’ll get back to it.❞ He ran a hand through his hair and stood up to spin and face him. ❝Are you going to remind me that what I did was stupid? An entire building of innocents are now gone forever because of me? Whatever it is, I’ve probably already heard it.❞

「  O P E N  」

          As Lux sits back down with a coffee in hand,   she can only furrow her brows at the other. Since being back in New York, having someone as a simple acquaintance was a relatively new concept. But now, as she sits down and sighs, she wonders if it was a mistake due to her negative ways. “There are a lot of stupid ideas out there and that may be one of the worst.” 

Mere eyed the Monstrosity that was growing with terror, “You get away, too!” She commanded. Her heart caught up in her throat, and now was not the time to have a panic attack or flashback. While her brain tried to scramble together the situation, she focused hard on her breathing.

She turned to start shouting for people to get back. Where was Shay or Kat when they were needed. Mere focused on projecting large letters stating “BACK UP” in stop sign red in Spanish, English, and German. With that taken care of- the general population, she gestured to Dubs, working specifically on Dubs now.

“Dubs, come here, try again, okay? Trust me, okay?” She called up to him. The idea was mask the black hole from him. It may not work, it may cause damage still, but hopefully it wouldn’t get larger. “Try it one more time, breathe and try.”

❝I can’t...❞ He felt the pull of the singularity on his body as his heart pounding fearfully in his chest and his eyes widened as pieces of the building before him began to come off in chunks only to be sucked into the black hole. His ears filled with screams. While he shouted. ❝No! No! ...It wasn’t supposed to happen like this... I don’t know what’s going wrong. I have to stop it!❞