Authors Note: Hey, guess what? Even though I intended for this to be a oneshot, my friend challenges me to a prompt challenge, that I'm going to be writing here. This is the second part of the story I started last chapter, and after this I'll be starting on the prompts.

Warning: Sex, self-mutilation, angst

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

- Nietzsche

Gabriel is always fighting Sylar. He knows that it's a losing battle, and that no matter how hard he tries he will always return, but he is learning. He is learning how to control him.

Him? Or himself? Gabriel has never truly been sure, not from the first moment Sylar emerged, when Gabriel was in his early teens, or when he really made himself known, after the meeting with Chandra Suresh.

Sylar is the voice inside his head, the angry urges to let go, to let the fear be replaced. At times Gabriel wants to give in, to let the darkness overwhelm him and let Sylar take over, but he knows he cannot give in fully.

He has to fight for Mohinder.

Mohinder doesn't know that Gabriel remembers the late night encounters with Sylar. He remembers them all too well, the images of tears flowing down Mohinder's face, those beautiful golden legs spread and viciously bruised. He screams himself, from inside his head, begging Sylar to let him out, to stop hurting him.

Gabriel loves Mohinder. Sylar loves to hurt Mohinder. Mohinder loves Gabriel, and Gabriel knows that in those moments in the dark when they are making love that Mohinder sometimes confuses the two. He will feel his lover's body tense when he kisses him too hard, or when he goes too fast. He comforts Mohinder then, stroking the black curls out of that beautiful face and planting a reassuring butterfly-soft kiss on the suddenly tear-stained cheek.

Mohinder will calm then, and the sound of his heartbeat in Gabriel's ears makes the watchmaker love him even more.

Gabriel wants to protect Mohinder. He would never, ever hurt him, he promises that every day. Mohinder makes him whole, gives him the strength and the reason to keep fighting. He wants nothing more than Sylar to die, to go away, to disappear, so that the two lovers can live a normal life.

At night Gabriel will cradle his lover in his arms, scared that at any moment Sylar may come out to play. He treasures the time when he is himself with Mohinder, and tries to make the most of it, because he knows that Mohinder is hiding the wounds. He doesn't want him to have to hide.

Tonight, Gabriel and Mohinder make love once more, sweet and passionate and desperate, neither really knowing why. As Mohinder collapses onto the sheets in a deep and exhausted sleep, Gabriel tries something new.

He plants a kiss on Mohinder's forehead and tucks the covers up around his body, not wanting him to get cold. He silently closes the door behind him and makes his way to the bathroom. He doesn't bother flicking on the lights, instead clicking the lock shut and sliding to the floor as he feels Sylar begin fighting to get out.

After a few moments of struggling he gives in, lets the beast out of his cage. As Gabriel retreats to the dark corer of his mind, Sylar pounds at the door, cursing his annoyance. Gabriel ahs locked them in. Sylar will not be getting at Mohinder tonight.

Gabriel's only fear is that Mohinder won't understand why he left him. He has never done so before, and the thought of Mohinder losing his trust, believing that Gabriel no longer loves him… it's almost too much for the watchmaker to bear.

Gabriel pushes these thoughts away and waits, counting down the hours until the dawn.

In the morning Gabriel awakes to a crash outside the bathroom door. He blinks blearily and is suddenly aware of a dried, dark red substance covering his face and arms and chest and legs. It is sticky, and for a moment he is terrified that Sylar managed to get out of the bathroom and killed Mohinder.

The door crashes open and Gabriel sees Mohinder in the doorway, looking terrified. At the sight of his lover on the floor, the Indian gasps, sinking to his knees and wrapping his arms around the pale man covered in steadily drying blood.

Blood from his own body… Sylar must have been scratching himself all night long.

Gabriel feels a tear on his shoulder and wraps his arms around Mohinder's waist. Mohinder looks up at his face and bursts into tears again.

"You were trying to stop him", Mohinder sobs, and Gabriel knows that he understands.

They will continue to fight the demons, as the days and weeks and months go by, and maybe, Gabriel finds himself hoping, just maybe they'll get rid of Sylar once and for all, and Gabriel's dream of happily ever after can come true.

But for now, with a sense of renewed hope and blood drying on his body, he joins Mohinder, and they cry.

Together.