AUTHOR'S NOTE:

And so Sylar is starting to come to some realizations, huh?

Ariel doesn't really have many options left either…could she really still want him even after what he put her through?

****

Sylar slowly made his way over to the door, reading her mind from where he was. She wasn't crying on the other side of the door, she was deep in thought. She really didn't know what she was going to do anymore—she'd just given herself to Sylar twice, and then he'd done the unthinkable and now she had a very important decision to make. Ariel knew that she could never go back to the company—she'd made that decision quite consciously when she'd decided to save Sylar from Bob's sentence of death. She didn't have anywhere to run…anywhere to stay…she was going to have to reap what she sewed even if that meant she had to sty with Sylar when she really didn't want to anymore.

Sylar rapped his knuckled on the bedroom door. "Ariel? Let me in."

"No." Ariel told him firmly. "Keep your distance from me."

Sylar sighed and wished he could reach out and pull her to him. He knew that these feelings inside of him were developing into something more because he honestly couldn't see how he was going to live without her now. He hated facing the knowledge that he had just effectively pushed her away from him, even when before he'd been sure that he could let her walk out of his life forever and reap the rewards of her powers. He'd just hurt her and she was never going to forgive him, but he had to try and make her. Maybe if he said the words she wanted to hear? Could that work?

"Please come out, Ariel." Sylar begged through the door.

"I will come out when I have someone for you to hunt down and torture for personal gain!" Ariel replied harshly through the door. "Then I'll stay here away from you!"

Sylar sighed and popped himself into the bedroom, knowing at this point that he really had no choice but to use his new powers. He needed her to understand that he was truly sorry about what he'd done to her, and that he wanted her to stay. She shook her head as she took steps back away from him as he neared her, tears threatening to come out of her eyes again. She couldn't trust him—no matter how many of his thoughts she could read. Sylar had completely destroyed any hope of winning her back because he'd proven that what he wanted and needed was more important to him than she was.

"Stop it." Ariel told him, sighing when he shook his head and she found the wall nearing her as she backed up. "Stop."

"Stay with me." Sylar told her as he pinned her to the wall.

Ariel had to catch her breath and hated admitting to herself that she was still in love with him. The pain had been unbearable—sharp and yet dull, mind numbing and yet so mind blowing she wondered why her body didn't go into over load and stop functioning. And the whole time she felt as if he was doing it to her because he wanted her to feel the power that he had over her. So what if he didn't take her counter-acting power? So what if he really didn't want her dead? That had absolutely nothing to do with love—he'd taken Molly's ability to find 'heroes'…he'd completely ruled out the need for her at all.

She looked him in the eye and it was hard for her. "You have no need for me."

"You know that's not true." Sylar whispered, kissing her softly.

Ariel couldn't help but return the kiss—no matter how pissed off and hurt she was. His lips were still warm and soft, and when he stroked her hair she started to cry a little bit as he returned her kiss. He knew that by not taking her counter-acting power he was not going to be able to kill the woman in between him and the wall, and just in case he was ever tempted to, since he knew too well that he was easily swayed, he had removed such temptation. For some reason that he could not fathom, Ariel meant something to him—he wanted her more than he needed her. He didn't want her to go anywhere, and he was willing to do practically anything to keep her there with him.

"I love you." Sylar whispered to her, moving down a little to nibble on her neck like he knew she liked.

Ariel's eyes widened and she started to push him off of her—he didn't mean that! He was only saying it because he thought that she was slipping away from him and she wanted to hear him say it. She did want to hear him say it, but she wanted him to actually to mean it when he said it! Sylar rolled his eyes as she started to push on him harder, beating her fists against his chest. He did not feel like moving right then, and he knew that his behavior was going to start yet another fight between them, but he needed to feel her against him whether she wanted to be near him or not.

"That is exactly what I'm talking about!" Ariel exclaimed as Sylar grabbed her hands. "If you loved me you'd think about what I wanted! How I felt! But you don't, Gabriel! You don't!"

Sylar let go of her hands when she called him Gabriel. "I don't know how to put others first—protecting you from Bob when he pointed the gun at you was a reflex."

Ariel nodded. "I know…no matter what I wanted to believe I know that you just reacted to it. I'm flattered that you don't want to kill me, but don't pretend you love me just for the sake of trying to make me stay—I'm staying."

Sylar reached out to touch her hair. "Find me someone with powers?"

Ariel rolled her eyes. "You don't need me for that…you simply need me for companionship, and since I have nowhere else to go…you can rely on the companionship."

"Obtaining your powers made me hungry…find me a hero and I'll make us lunch." Sylar told her, kissing her swiftly when she rolled her eyes.

"You are so lucky I tolerate you." Ariel said as he unlocked the bedroom door and went out of it.

Sylar smiled a little because he actually knew that he was lucky that she tolerated him like she did. He actually expected a lot more resistance on her part, but she loved him…that was something he was going to have to live with. Ariel sighed a little when he left, and ran her fingers through her hair—she had expected to put up more of a resistance after all of that. She was still mad at him for what he had done, and there was no way that she was going to forgive him for what he had done or trust him any time soon…but she loved him and was willing to be there for him. She had been wrong about him and she knew it—Sylar could change.

Ariel looked down at her cell phone as it rang, and though she wanted to talk to Elle more than anything right that minute, she knew she couldn't. She ignored the phone call and pocketed the cell after silencing it, announcing to Sylar that she had an errand to run and she left. Sylar wasn't quite sure where she was going but he was very sure that she was going to come back. He knew that much about her—she wasn't just going to cut out on her. If either of them was not to be trusted right then it was Sylar and both of them knew it. Ariel was simply going to buy herself a new cell phone so that Bob and Jess could not trace her phone calls—then she was going to call Elle back on a pay phone.

The sun was shining quite brightly that day, and Ariel wished that the warmth from the sun could somehow warm Sylar's heart. She was done trying to force him to fall in love with her, but she would really appreciate a little more trying on his part. She knew that it was hard from him and that he was trying as hard as he could, but deep down she really wanted to believe that he could fall in love with her—that he could actually find it in him to know without a doubt that they were meant to be together. That thought made Ariel stop for a minute—meant for each other? What was she, some starry-eyed school girl? Did she even believe in soul mates?

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Ariel kept walking down the sidewalk, stopping at the coffee cart she and Sylar used to stop at when she was stalking him. She pulled some money out of the pockets of her jeans and handed it to him, getting herself a latte. She thanked him graciously and then headed into a Verizon store, desperately to change from Sprint so that Bob and Jess couldn't activate the tracking signal on her cell. She looked around at the different phones that she could buy and decided not to be too spendy—even with the money she stored away for herself, she was running low.

"Hi, can I help you?" One of the greeters that had busy before asked her.

She smiled at the bald man with glasses and nodded. "Um, yeah—I was looking to change my phone service."

As she and the man were discussing phones and plans, Ariel realized that she was going to have to use the company credit card and then relocate with Sylar. Bob was certain to check the location the card was charge yet—if he hadn't thought to shut it off already—and then come looking for her and Sylar in the apartment complex. Sighing but plastering a smile on her face, Ariel charged the two phones and the transaction was approved, and then she had them transfer over all of the information from her old phone and then once outside in an alley, she broke her old phone and tossed it into the dumpster. Walking back out onto the sidewalk, Ariel hurried back to the apartment complex and when she got into the apartment she noticed that Sylar was grabbing his keys.

"We need to relocate." Ariel told him, tossing him the other cell phone she'd bought. "I was afraid that Bob or Jess would activate the tracker in my phone, so I bought us new ones but had to charge them to the company credit card so…we should get out of here while we can."

Sylar followed her frown as she slowed down her talking and he nodded slowly when he saw her looking at her blood splattered on the wall. By the time people got to the apartment complex and walked in, they'd assume there was a murder. Then they'd test out the blood, find out it was hers and assume she was dead, but want to find her body and never find that. Sylar looked back to her and nodded, aware of what she was thinking, and the two of them headed out o the stolen car he had already commandeered, and they headed out.

"Before we head out of town…I would really appreciate it if we could stop by a payphone so that I can call Elle back." Ariel told Sylar as he drove and she sat in the passenger seat playing with her new phone. "And I'd like to sneak back into the company and grab my laptop—I can do that by using my powers, you can stay here, and I'll find you again."

Sylar looked at her. "I don't want you going there alone, Ariel—I don't want you getting yourself killed unless I'm the one that's killing you."

She knew it was a joke so she smiled at him, and kept her mouth shut the rest of the way to a pay phone. He could read her mind anyway, so if he really wanted to talk to her he could just do it in her mind. Ariel was trying desperately to just ignore what was going on at the moment until she got to talk to Elle—about as much as she could from a pay phone. They were cutting it close, but if she hurried then she could talk to Elle and they could leave before Bob realized what was going on—and possibly traced the call that she was going to make to Elle's cell phone. Taking a deep breath, Ariel put the coins in and then she dialed Elle's number and smiled when Elle answered.

"I assume this is Ariel on the run?" Elle asked her with a smile on her face. "Well aren't you living the life now?"

Ariel smiled. "It's nice to talk to you too, Elle. I just uh…I made my choice in the heat of the moment and I have to live with it. I charged some stuff to the company card though, so your father's bound to start hunting us down so we're relocating. He…he took my powers, Elle."

Elle's eyes widened in amazement and she found herself not able to figure out what to say. Why was Ariel still with him if he'd done such a thing to her? Ariel was one of the best agents in the company, but she really wasn't the one with the highest pain tolerance. Even with everything that Elle and Ariel had been put through as children, it had never made the pain they felt any easier to handle. Take into account that Ariel was also one of the most 'innocent' agents—in respect to the fact that she always tried to pick something else over killing—and Elle figured that Ariel would rather come back to the company and beg than be with the man that put her through untold amounts of pain.

"You really do love him, don't you?" Elle asked Ariel softly.

Ariel felt tears come again. "God help me, I do."

Elle nodded. "I want you to keep in contact with me, all right? I don't care that my dad runs this place, all right? You're still my best friend, and if that bastard so much as accidentally runs into you, I'm stringing him up the nearest tree and playing with voltage."

Ariel smiled. "Understood. It's starting to rain Elle, so…"

"Go…have an adventure for the both of us." Elle told her softly.

Ariel promised and then hung up, hurrying over to the car and shivering a little as she sat in the passenger seat with him. Sylar looked at her and reached out to wipe away a tear, Ariel pulling away a little, flinching. He knew he deserved that and watched her wipe away her own tears before he pressed his foot to the gas pedal and got them onto a highway. They were going to make a stop to get him a power first, and then it was time to figure out how to take the company down. There was also something else going on—someone else coming into play—and Sylar noticed her discomfort and picked up his own ears too.

"Just keep driving." Ariel told him. "I know who that is."

Sylar looked at her. "Who is it?"

Ariel swallowed. "Adam."