"I was born Gabriel Gray. That name was given to me by my birth mother. Her name isn't important. I don't know it and I have lived without it all my life. My father was a murderer. His name was Samson. He sold me to his brother who was also named Gray, first name Martin. He was a watchmaker. That is who and what Gabriel Gray is and was: the second-hand son of a second-rate watchmaker."
He had been mundane in those days. Sylar had not existed. All his life had been time and time pieces. His adoptive mother had suffocated him with her love, her devotion, her belief he could be more than what he was showcasing to them.
Virginia Gray had been a person filled with zealous ideals. Her mind had been a fractured thing which even Gabriel's latent gift hadn't been able to puzzle apart no matter how often he'd tried. Their life together as mother and son had been a skewed one. He had no desire to return to the life he'd led as the weak, shy man known only as Gabriel Gray, son of a watchmaker and his insane wife.
Ticking his head to the side as if it were a hand upon a watch notching over to another minute, he finished, "Sylar was and is the name I gave to myself when I was made aware of my gifts. When I saw my true potential, I knew I had to be more than Gabriel Gray had ever been. He was a meek, invisible boy living in his parents' home even as a man grown. Sylar was and is more. I became a villain. I murdered others for their gifts. I evolved though and now? I'm a hero. I don't murder anyone now. I only want to help people. May I help you?"