Black Rose

I've been in Vegas for two weeks. Two long weeks without seeing Ryan or Tyler, whom I missed so much right now. I ended up staying with Nick at his place just because getting a hotel room would've been pointless by now.

As for the killer, his name was Steven Nickels or at least that's what we found out. It's as far as our research took us. It could've been an alias or his actual real name either way it was something that we had to go on. Right now, I was at Nick's house, going over case files of reports of missing woman, missing children, robberies, that his guy was linked to.

Normally I didn't bring a case home, but since it was important that we find this guy, Nick decided to bring this stuff here.

"I swear, we keep running into a dead end," I mumbled as I rubbed my head as Nick sat down with a cup of coffee across the coffee table from me.
"At least we have a name now."
"That is if it's his real name," I took the mug as I let the steam hit my face.
"A jury would think so."
"True but what if there's a Steven Nickels out there that he stole the identity and everything from."
"Wouldn't that take a lot of work?" Nick questioned.
"We're not dealing with your average serial killer."
"Point," Nick nodded as he watched me go over the papers again, "That's not what's bugging you."
"I just miss Ryan and Tyler."
"Sylar," Nick gave me a stern look, "That's not the look of a worried mom or girlfriend."
"It's Jesse Cardoza," I sighed as he looked at me.
"What?"
"I wasn't completely honest with on you about knowing the name."
"Oh," Nick waited form e to continue.
"We were a couple," I sighed sitting the mug down, "We were serious. Not just me thinking we were serious either, I mean serious in we were going to get married and start a family eventually."
"Wow."
"It's just being back here," I shrugged, "Going to that hotel where the murder was, it brings back old memories."
"I bet hearing he was married didn't help."
"According to these files, he got married three months after I broke up with him."
"Ouch," Nick give me a sympathic look.
"He cheated on me once with this girl, Anna, it's just now. I mean how much is he keeping from me?"
"Maybe he knows he hurt you and doesn't want you hurt again?" Nick offered.
"He wrote a report to keep me off this case," I leant back in the couch, "I wasn't sure why but it was a request or something to keep me out."
"Maybe someone was leaking information to Nickels and he didn't want him to find you," Nick nodded as a thought hit me as I sat up for a second, "What?"
"That's it," I ran through the papers.
"What's it?" Nick asked as I looked at pictures of different suspects.
"All these suspects that were the main suspect police found, weren't different people in each case."
"What?" Nick looked at the papers.
"Each picture is different, hair, eyes, skin tone, but he still has the same facial structure."
"Wait, are you saying?"
"Someone is working with Nickels, telling him when someone is getting close and each time, he changes his identity."
"So, wait, he's a chameleon?"
"Exactly," I looked at the names of the people he chose, "Come on, we've got to find coroner's reports."
"Sylar, wait," Nick got his things as we headed to the door.

Soon we were looking through cold cases on people, going through old logs of whoever these people were. All the names and identities he took were of dead people. Ones that were dead within a day before he changed names or John Does. Not only was he killing women but now he was taking identities of people just to pass through everyone.

"I knew there was something about this guy," I mentioned as we walked out of the room as Nick nodded.
"I'll call Brass and have him check all airports to make sure he hasn't left yet."
"Ok," I nodded as we headed out to the car.

As Nick finished up his call, I was lost in thought when he rushed over to me.

"No Nickels at any airport but a stewartess said she seen someone who matched the description of a body that just turned up at the morgue."
"Maybe she seen him before?" I questioned Nick.
"No," Nick shook his head, "The guy had been dead for 5 hours and she just seen him 15 minutes ago."
"Any idea to where he was headed?" I questioned as I got in the car with Nick.
"Miami," Nick nodded.
"Looks like I'm going home."

Soon after, I was on a plane back to Miami as I told Nick and Catherine I'd keep them informed about anything. They also said if I need anything to call them. Plus Nick promised to keep my situation with Jesse quiet since he understood. I had a feeling I'd be seeing Nick and the rest of them again soon though.

As I stepped off the plane in Miami, I went to get my bags as I tried to get through to Jake but his phone was off. It was around 8 in the morning now, so it meant that Ryan was most likely at work in which he was probably in the field or the lab. I tried to get ahold of Jesse but it went to his voice mail too. As I made my way out to my car that Ryan had brought to the parking lot, my phone decided to ring. I looked down to see it was Calleigh.

"Calleigh, hey I can't talk right now. I've got-"
"Sylar, it's important."
"I'm back in Miami, can it wait ju-"
"Ryan's been in an accident," She spoke softly as my heart fell.
"What?"
"He and Natalia were on the scene when the house they were processing had an explosion."
"Are they ok?" I asked as I slowly got in the car.
"Horatio's on the way to scene now."
"Where are they?"

Calleigh gave me the address as I drove to the crime scene in which I quickly got out of the car to see police all around. I rushed out of the car to see if I could see Ryan when I got stopped by some police at the tape line.

"Ma'am, you can't come through here."
"FBI," I looked at him showing my profiler badge.
"Go on," He gave me a look as I rushed to find my dad standing there.

"Dad!" I ran up to him as he turned around to see me, "Are they ok? Where's Ryan?"
"Sylar," He looked at me while slowly taking his sunglasses off.
"No, please don't tell me-"
"They're being checked out by rescue," Horatio looked at me, "What are you doing back?"
"I'll explain later," I nodded at him, "It's a lot to tell. Where is he?"
"With an EMT."
"Thanks," I smiled as I went to the direction of one of the ambulances to find Ryan getting looked at by an EMT.

"I'm ok," Ryan nodded as the guy ran some simple tests as I slowly walked up to him.
"Better make sure he is," I mentioned as the EMT looked at me.
"She worries too much," Ryan smirked as he nodded at the EMT as I rolled my eyes.
"Are you ok?" I walked up to him slowly seeing the damage on him.
"Fine," He smiled lightly at me, "When'd you get back?"
"I just practically landed when Calleigh called," I held back my tears as I looked him over, "Don't do that ever again."
"I'm sorry," He smiled taking my hand as he went to brush a few tears off my eyes.
"How's Natalia?"
"She's over there if you want to go talk to her," He nodded as I looked at him, "Go, I'll be fine."