Noah heard his mother's voice in the distance. The affectionate nickname she'd bestowed upon him at a tender age felt like knives gouging into his heart. He'd never hear it again. Ever. Nor would he see her smile, hear her laugh, nothing. It was all over.
Clutching more tightly to the body on the ground, he only vaguely registered the fact that the blood upon his skin had cool and dried. It was itchy but he ignored the sensation, too caught up in his grief to care. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he was going to make Sylar pay for what he'd done. He wasn't going to stop until he'd stripped him of every single ability he'd stolen over the years, and once that was done he was going to kill the bastard. Slowly and as painfully as he was capable.
In his mind - where he was currently envisioning all of this even if he didn't know it - Noah imagined the various ways he would take the other man's life. No, he told himself as he rocked back on his heels and tried to control his sobbing, not a man. A monster. A cold, heartless monster that he should have dealt with the moment he appeared in this God forsaken city.
He hadn't, though, and again Noah was almost overcome with a fresh wave of guilt that all but stole his breath away. "I'm sorry," he whispered, mumbling the words low as though his mother might be able to hear them even as she lay dead in his arms. "I should have stopped him. I should have-"
He didn't continue. The sound of another voice - again distant yet recognizable - made him stiffen. Horror slammed into him hard enough to all but steal his breath away. Emma. That was Emma.
Had Sylar killed her too? It was the only thing that made sense. How else could he hear her, along with his mother? Sylar had killed her, noticed who she was because of him and taken her away from him just as he'd taken away his mother, grandmother, and God only knew who else by this point.
"Why?" he questioned, voice hoarse from the time spent crying, head pounding for much the same reason. "Why didn't I just kill him?!?" He all but screamed the last before falling silent again. The tears had stopped, fortunately, and he merely sat where he was. Willing the rage to overtake him, wrap itself around him, so that he would be strong enough to see this through. To do what he should have done from the beginning, so no one else would ever be hurt by his inaction again.