I believe that you can save me, and you'll never let me fall

Upon entering, Nathan found Bennet with Peter and Matt and silently wondered if he'd gotten there too late. Although since neither of them had been captured yet, he figured he hadn't. Ignoring the third party in the room for the time being, he addressed the other two occupants. "You gotta get out of here." He spoke candidly, because everything was starting to unravel - or maybe it had been for quite some time. But it had become even more personal. His future was now just as uncertain as theirs. He didn't disclose this right away, nor did he intend to. His purpose was to warn them about the radical change in plans that could very easily leave them both dead, and he didn't want that on his conscience. Based on past experiences, it should be understood that when the chips were down, he would protect Peter first and foremost ... once he'd successfully made him angry enough not to listen to him anymore. And Parkman was a relatively good guy. He certainly didn't deserve to get assassinated in some hotel.

Peter automatically tensed up when his brother came barging in. The mood had already been heavy, but his suspicion went up a notch. Not one, but two people from the other side had tracked them there. This couldn't be good. "Why?" A glance was cast over Nathan's shoulder to see if he'd brought back-up.

"Danko's out of control. His orders are shoot to kill." He didn't elaborate on who he was referring to. It was irrelevant. Anyone with any amount of authority and a gun could pose a threat at this point, but Peter knew exactly who he was talking about. The two had met. Everything had gotten progressively worse from there.

Peter's frown deepened. "I thought you were giving the orders." So this guy was their lead hunter. He still didn't outrank Nathan. Didn't that mean he had to follow a chain of command? Anything that happened had to be approved by someone higher up: someone who didn't necessarily like to get his hands dirty.

"Not anymore," Nathan replied flatly.

Despite his blatant opposition to Nathan's latest betrayal, in the back of his mind he'd always known that as long as his brother was in charge, he would try and prevent things from getting any uglier than they had to. He had this disillusioned idea in his head that this could end peacefully. Peter disagreed, but it was troubling to know that there was no longer anyone standing in the way of a trigger happy government and them. "What happened?"

A crease formed across Nathan's brow. "It doesn't matter." He'd made a bad call. Instead of issuing the order to mobilize a unit and have it sent over to bring down Peter when he'd held Danko at gunpoint, he'd decided to handle it personally and inevitably blown his cover. Unfortunately, there was no reasoning with the man who'd now made it his sole priority to get to the bottom of what'd really happened, and even attempting to explain was entirely out of the question. Things would have to be done differently now, but he still had a plan. How solid it was remained to be determined. Only time would tell how much better this scheme of his would turn out. Though he had to admit, regardless of how poorly made that single decision seemed in retrospect, he didn't regret it. It was better than burying his brother.

He'd said all he needed to, and he figured neither of them would appreciate him overstaying his welcome, so he pivoted on his heel and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Peter asked, uncrossing his arms and taking a step forward.

"To finish what I started." That didn't explain much, but he'd rather not go into details. For starters, he wasn't completely clear on them himself. Also it wasn't anything Pete should concern himself with. Plus it'd take too long to argue about what should be done next, so he was skipping the part where everyone else got to weigh in. He was making the final decision, and for the most part, it'd already been made.

"You can't. He knows you're one of them now. He'll kill you," Bennet concluded.

Nathan's hands were shoved into his pockets as he stopped and turned to once again face the others. "That's the risk I'm willing to take. I have to see this through." This couldn't be handled by anyone else. It was a problem he hadn't foreseen - losing control of his own agents. However, he was fairly good at adjusting, probably because he often had to resort to settling for some ideology other than the one he'd started with. It was not rare for him to have to abandon a personal goal he'd been vigorously pursuing because of an unpleasant chain of events that had ruined everything.

"Even if it costs you your life?" Sometimes certain exceptions had to be made: a philosophy he and Nathan had agreed on prior to starting this project.

"Come with us," Peter blurted out.

"What?" The question had been so abrupt that Nathan had to study Pete for a moment to decide if he'd even said it.

"You really want to make things right? Then come with us and fight." By putting all their heads together and pulling all their resources, they could come up with a way out of this. They'd just have to think fast and on the move, but it could be done. Even though he still greatly resented Nathan for causing all this, Peter didn't want him to get hurt. Especially if the cat was out of the bag that he could fly ... There was nothing he could do back there anymore.

"And what would that accomplish?" He was touched by Peter's suggestion. They'd come a long way from his brother holding a gun to his head. That didn't erase the fact that right now he needed to be elsewhere. "I have things to do, Pete."

"You should listen to him."

Nathan cut his eyes over to Bennet. "I thought you of all people would back me on this." From what he knew about Noah, this man was highly dedicated to getting the job done. He'd loyally worked for Primatech for a large portion of his life. Sacrifices sometimes had to be made for the greater good. The one now telling him to run and hide would never abandon the cause to save his own skin, so advising anyone else to do so didn't make any sense.

"Part of this job is knowing when to cut your losses. You have to figure out what's most important to you." For Bennet, that something had always been Claire. If her life or general well-being hung in the balance, he'd choose her every time. Often his daughter didn't understand why he made the choices he did, but from what he'd gathered about Nathan Petrelli, Peter was at the center of everything that man did.

"I don't belong here." Here as in with the others. His ability was synthetic and pretty useless in the grand scheme of things. His influence - the impact he had on society as a whole - came from his ambition, so he held on to it for as long as he could, because when you stripped that away, he wasn't the same person. Diplomacy was the only way he could make a difference. Persuasion was his greatest power. To give up now would mean sacrificing his career, and that would mean he'd lose it all.

"You don't belong with them," Peter pointed out. Honestly, he didn't get it. They'd all struggled to come to terms with being different. They'd united to save the world twice. How could that not be enough for Nathan to feel like a part of something important? Maybe it wasn't what he'd wanted out of life, but so what?

"Maybe I don't belong at all." He didn't want to throw himself a pity party, especially with Matt standing there probably reading his every thought since he hadn't said anything. Why ask questions when you could just pluck out the truth? But it made Nathan uncomfortable, which was partly why he'd been ready to speed out of there so fast. Looks like it wasn't going to be that easy. As usual, Pete had to make things difficult.

Nathan opened his mouth to say something else, but ended up springing forward and grabbing Peter instead, dragging them both to the floor no more than a second before a bullet came shattering through the glass. Standing in front of windows ... not a good idea when you were being hunted. It was probably somewhat his fault. If Pete wasn't so focused on him, he would've been more conscious of what he was doing. Fortunately the shot had been taken from far off, so he'd been able to see the laser dot in time to prevent the bloody aftermath that would've resulted if he hadn't noticed it. He'd successfully shielded Peter with his own body, but their time was now extremely limited. The team outside would assume they'd hit their target, although they'd come in to make sure and clean up the mess. And when they did, Parkman and Pete needed to be gone.

He stood and brushed himself off, then gestured towards the door leading to the next room after extending a hand and pulling Peter up. "Go through there. There's a window in the back. They won't be able to get to you in time." Not if the two took to the skies.

"They're already here." Matt had in fact been checking to see how much of what Nathan was saying was true. After everything Petrelli had done, he'd be a fool not to. But he hadn't found anything that contradicted the words coming out of the other's mouth. "I'm sure they've got the place surrounded."

"Daphne's with Mohinder. They're safe, but you all stand a better chance if you stick together." Nathan knew that sooner or later, Matt and probably Peter too would attempt to break their friends out. He'd save them a step. He was prepared to shut down this entire operation, so he'd started sabotaging what little 'progress' they'd already made. With Daphne's super-speed, there was no way either of them could get caught if they stayed out of the open. She was injured, but not severely. Nothing she wouldn't make a full recovery from. He figured a reunion with Daphne would get Matt to go a lot quicker than debating along any other lines.

"What about Tracy?" The last time Peter had seen her, he'd left her behind to get caught. So in a way, he felt responsible for what happened to her.

Nathan's gaze momentarily fell to the carpet. "Tracy's dead." She'd tried to escape ... again ... and this time she wasn't returned to her heated holding cell. He hadn't been there at the time to intervene, so naturally the negotiation stage had been skipped.

Peter's eyes came to a brief close. If he hadn't convinced her to help him set that trap for Nathan, she might still be alive. That made it sort of his fault. "What are you going to do?" His feelings about his brother were mixed, but he knew he didn't want anyone else he cared about to die.

"Surrender." Sometimes you had to work a situation from the inside. He'd partially been doing that already, but now he was going to have to go way undercover. It was a risky move, but he believed it would work. At least it could if everyone did their part. It actually wasn't all that complicated. Danko was furious because he'd been deceived by Nathan, so he was out for blood. He'd just been waiting for an excuse to abandon any use of ethics, not that he'd had any to begin with. Even if you stripped away the rest of them, to capture the one he was really mad at ... it would temporarily distract his attention. That would buy them just enough time to officially put an end to this madness, and then he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

That was suicide. "No, Nathan-"

A hand was lifted to silence his brother. "Trust me, Pete. I know what I'm doing. I can fix this." Maybe they all doubted him ... questioned his methods and his overall integrity, but he still had enough faith in himself to know that if he could get them all into this, he could get them out of it if he played his cards right.

Gradually Peter's guard had dropped, and now he looked very much like the scared little kid Nathan had grown up with. Why hadn't he seen it under all that hostility? Probably because he hadn't been paying enough attention, but he would make up for it. Right now though, Pete had to get out of here. There was just one thing he wanted from his brother first. Closing in the gap between them, he slowly drew Peter into his arms ( not sure how he'd react ) and hugged him. Just in case things went horribly wrong, he didn't want them to part on unfriendly terms. Maybe it was asking too much, although he had a feeling that they both needed this. "It's gonna be alright," he muttered. When he pulled back, he offered a faint reassuring smile. "I'll catch up with you later."

"You sure about this?" Peter remained skeptical. He didn't think they should be splitting up, especially since he was feeling close to his brother for the first time in months. He wasn't ready to let go of that. Sure, they still had a long way to go before things got back to normal ( whatever that was for them ) and there were a lot of issues they'd have to work through, but at least Nathan was making an effort. He was willing to meet him halfway as long as he didn't do anything else stupid.

Nathan nodded, finalizing his decision. Then once Peter and Matt had finally fled the room, he reached into his pocket and withdrew an envelope that he handed to Bennet. "I need you to get this to the President."

"How?" It wasn't like he could walk up to the front door of the White House and hand-deliver the message.

"You're a resourceful guy. I'm sure you'll figure something out." He wished he could've provided a better answer, but he hadn't had time to think of everything. But when Bennet didn't make any further inquiries, Nathan assumed he'd decided he could manage the task after giving it some thought. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He cast a knowing glance over to the bag Nathan had brought along. He knew what its contents were without having to open it. He busied himself with removing the items quickly, prepared to make this look as realistic as possible. "Why me?" He asked curiously.

"Because he trusts you, and I trust you." Their story was that Peter and Matt had managed to escape because Nathan had intervened. Once Bennet realized that he was working with the other side, he caught him and restrained him. Danko would buy it. In the end, Noah was the only one who could help him fix his mistakes.

It was a reasonable response. Infiltrating the enemy camp was not a new concept. "Turn around," Bennet instructed before tying Nathan's hands behind his back. He continued to hook Petrelli up to the equipment designed to keep these people with abilities from being able to retaliate before waltzing him out the front door where a squad was ready to burst in. "You're wasting your time. They're gone."

And that as they say was that.