Niki Sanders

Niki Sanders
Portrayed by	Ali Larter
First appearance	Genesis
In-story stats
Known ability	None
Gender
Age	33
Residence	Niki Sanders's home
Occupation	online sex webcam operator
Significant other	D.L. Hawkins (estranged husband)
Child	Micah Sanders (son)

Character history

Genesis

In Las Vegas, Nevada, after doing some webcam work, Niki Sanders prepares for the day with her young son, Micah, but when thugs break in, she leaves. After Niki visits her son's private school, the principal gives her bad news about Micah’s tuition; she leaves and sees her reflection moving differently than she is. Haunted by what she sees, she yells at the image to leave her alone, much to the confusion of her son.

Later taking her son to her friend Tina's house, Niki talks with the woman about her situation. She explains that Mr. Linderman, who appears to be a loan shark with mafia connections, sent the home invaders seen earlier. Niki borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from him for Micah’s tuition, which has now been lost. Niki also tries to tell her friend about this strange "other" she hears and sees, but her friend fails to understand. Frustrated, Niki simply leaves. Arriving home, Niki finds the pinhole camera Micah made for watching the upcoming solar eclipse (that appears in Isaac Mendez's first painting, and is witnessed by several characters throughout the second episode). While looking through the camera she realizes the thugs are still there, and attempts to escape, but fails. The thugs then propose she perform for them on camera, then force her to do so. When she objects, the thug strikes her.

Niki awakens sometime later to find the mutilated bodies of the thugs. Even more shocking, Niki looks into the mirror to see her reflection covered in blood — even though she isn't — and gesturing for her to keep quiet.

Don't Look Back

Niki grabs her videocamera and leaves to pick up her son. However, when she watches the videotape, the image dissolves into static while the audio records the sounds of the thugs screaming and being killed. She experiences another blackout and awakens four hours later (in a different location and a new change of clothes) when Micah calls her a second time.

When she returns to her house to clean up the bodies, she discovers her garage has already been cleaned (even her webcam setup has been cleared away) and a key is hanging from the ceiling. She catches her reflection, which motions to a classic Cadillac parked across the street. Finding that the key fits, she discovers the registration, some months old, is in her name, and the thugs' bodies are in the trunk, along with a map. She gathers up Micah and sets out into the desert, following the map.

One Giant Leap

Niki follows the map and begins burying the bodies in an unnamed desert in Nevada. To her horror, she discovers the skeletal remains of a man wearing a skull ring, alike to the ones worn by the crew of D.L. Hawkins, Niki's estranged husband and Micah's father.

Niki takes Micah to visit D.L.'s mother to confront her about her interference in Micah's life and about the ring she found. D.L.'s mother believes her son was framed for the theft of two million dollars and the murder of his crew and that he is on the lam. Micah then lets slip that he might know how to contact his father. However, before they can get anywhere, Niki is pulled over by a police officer who is working for Linderman and brought to see him.

Collision

Niki and Micah meet with Miss Sakamoto, Linderman's assistant. Mr. Linderman will forgive Niki's debt if she seduces a politician who is courting Linderman's favor as "insurance". Shortly afterward, Niki went back to Tina's with Micah. Tina asked Niki if she's still seeing the other person in the mirror but then Tina just laughed it off and told Niki that it's just old age. Tina left the room and Niki talked with Micah, who revealed that he knows about his mom's webcam business and what Mr. Linderman wants her to do to repay the debt. The scene ends with a limo arriving at the door to bring Niki back to the casino. There, Niki ran into Nathan and had a surprisingly good time with him but did not go through with the deal. She is assaulted by one of Linderman's lackeys in the elevator where she reverts to her alter ego, beats up the lackey, and returns to Nathan's hotel room to sleep with him.

Hiros

Near the beginning of the episode, Niki is woken up by Nathan's bodyguard who asked her what she did with Nathan. Miss Sakamoto tells the bodyguard that they will take care of finding Nathan and the bodyguard leaves. Niki and Miss Sakamoto have a talk where Miss Sakamoto tells Niki that she is debt free now that she slept with Nathan. It is also revealed that Mr. Linderman taped the whole night to prove she went through with the deal. Niki leaves and finds police at her home looking for her husband, D.L. Hawkins, who seems to have been seen in the area. After someone attempts to break into Niki's house, they realize it is only Ando Masahashi who wants to meet Niki as he is a big fan. Niki tells them that he should just go home and the cops also leave but stay in the neighborhood to look out for D.L. At the end of the scene, it is shown that D.L. is already in the house and is hiding in Niki's bedroom.

Facts

• Has a tattoo on her upper right back that is only visible on "Bad Niki" 1

Powers

It's so far unclear whether Niki has any actual powers or is simply suffering from a multiple personality syndrome. Apparently during times of distress Niki switches to an alternate personality which is much more violent than her normal self and has supposedly already killed several people who have threatened her. It's possible that this personality possesses greater strength than Niki; one of the dead thugs in her garage had been ripped in half, which her friend Tina believes Niki couldn't do, and her alter-ego was easily able to overcome Linderman's thug in the elevator. Whether this personality has a name of its own is unclear at this point, however in Collision it said "Niki's not here."