"I killed someone," Sylar said, a heavy regret in his voice as he extended his hand, fingers flicking as he called a book from cross the room. It was an unnecessary demonstration. He knew she knew what he could do, but it seemed necessary for the story. "The person that I got this ability from," He said, turning the book over in his hand. "Brian Davis," He wandered, vaguely, if Claire would be surprised that he remembered the man's name.
"I had just wanted to talk to him, you see," He said, lifting his eyes to look over at her. "See what his ability was, how he used it, so maybe... Maybe I could get a better idea of what mine was. I didn't know at that point, you see. Chandra, Mohinder's father, had shown up at my door when day and told me that I had tested positive on his litmus scale for abilities, that he wanted to study me to perhaps glean more insight into our abilities and how they worked," He said, turning the book over in his hands again as he looked away from her, keeping his eyes lowered. "You have to understand. I wasn't really anyone then. A thirty-two year old matchmaker's son who had become a watchmaker. Born in Queens, living in Brooklyn. I hadn't made very many leaps in my life, and the idea that I might..." Sylar trailed off, a catch in his voice as he considered what he was going to say and looked up at her.
"Did you ever actually get a chance to read Activating Evolution?" He asked, wondering if what he wanted to say would make any sense of she hadn't. "He just made it sound so...so...amazing that for someone who had never done anything of note in his entire life the idea...meant a lot. So... When Chandra decided that his research must have been wrong, that there was something wrong with his test, and that I really couldn't do anything... I wanted to see what it was that he wanted."
Sylar sighed, settling the book in his lap as he frowned, "I didn't mean to kill him," He said. "He wanted me to take his ability away, asked me straight out if I could... I thought... I don't know, in that brief second when I saw...something, I thought maybe I could. I didn't realize that I'd killed him until after it had all been said and done."