Tortured Souls
Part IX - The Pact
Peter Petrelli woke up. Somebody was in the room with him! "Whose there?" He damanded.
In a chair next to the window he could see the outline of a man dressed in dark clothing.
"Who are you?" He demanded the visitor.
"An old friend, Petrelli." Sylar said coming into his view. Before he could say anything else, Sylar was quickly thrown against the wall with monster force, falling to the floor just as violent.
"Son of a BITCH! He shouted grabbing his arm in pain. "As you are about to find out, this is not necessary. I am not here to kill you. DAMMIT!!! I think you broke my arm!"
"Really! And what in the hell makes you think I am going to believe you?" Peter sneered angrily at him. "You have tried to kill me, my brother, my niece, you killed Issac Mendez and countless others, you asshole! So you will have to forgive me if I don't really give a shit about your comfort level at the moment!"
"KISS MY ASS, PETRELLI!!!". Sylar shouted back at him. "But if I were here to kill you, you would be dead! You KNOW what I am capable of. So I think you will want to hear what I have to say."
Peter stared at him for a moment. "Fine". He said finally. "If no other reason than for morbid curiosity I am interested. But if you try anything….you lying sack of shit".
"You have my word… "Sylar assured him.
Peter glared at him.
"Yeah…I wouldn't buy it either." He said dryly.
"Ok." Peter acknowledged. "You got the floor. Have at it!"
He stood up, walking to the window. "Three months ago, I met a woman..."
"Yeah, Laura Ryan." Peter replied. "We know all about her."
Sylar turned around in astonishment. Taking a moment to allow Peter's words to process, he continued. "Well, if you know about her, then you have to know that I love her."
"Yeah." Peter said calmly. "I really believe you do."
"I don't even know how many people I have killed anymore. I don't remember all their faces, or their names." He continued. "I would have killed for power and not even given it a second thought. I didn't care about who they were, their families, children. It didn't matter. They had what I wanted and those details were purely useless to me."
Sylar stood up, looking thoughtful at Peter. "The day I met her, everything changed. The insane part of this is that I went looking for her because she was on Dr. Suresh's list. I was going to kill her." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as if to hold back tears. "If I never saw her face, if I didn't see her eyes…but I did. At that very moment she took my soul; along with my desire for power. Or so I thought."
Peter watched Sylar in amazement. This was a man he feared and hated. Not long ago, they had fought countless ineffective battles to kill each other. The OWI had formed a union to put a stop to Sylar once and for all. But ironically there he stood in front of him. Hardly the frightening man they had all come to fear.
"There was a time not so long ago, that I was not this evil life form you have come to despise, Peter. Before this evil took me over, I was probably somebody you saw on the street every day and never gave a second thought to. Maybe you came in my shop." Walking back to the chair, he slumped down, leaning forward, hands folded thoughtfully. "I grew up in a home with father who loved me, but not enough to take me when he left. I was left to be raised by my mother who wanted me to be...special...God, I have so learned to loathe that word! I had dreams just like everyone else. But, I was the son of a watchmaker. And the watchmaker's son became a watchmaker himself. I was actually good at it. When I was able to fix a timepiece that was particularly challenging, it made me happy. But I always had longed to be special; somebody who was going to save the world." He looked at Peter. "I wanted to be somebody like you, Peter."
Peter nodded in concurrence.
He continued. "The irony of all this, is that if she had met me when I was a watchmaker, I would have been crazy about her." He laughed spitefully. "Sure, she would have been kind and talked to me, but don't think she would have loved me. It took me becoming a killer and a fraud for her to fall in love with me."
He continued speaking. "I thought it was over. I thought maybe I could stop. Have a normal life, with her. But it all started to go wrong. Her power manifested. And I found myself wanting her power!" He could no longer hold back the tears. "I actually contemplated killing her to take her power for myself!" He put his hands over his face and slumped down in the chair, sobbing uncontrollably.
"And today it all came back. And I realized this is all I will ever be; a cold blooded murderer! Her best friend figured out who I was. He was like a brother to her and I killed him." He stood in rage. "He was a friend that she cherished. But I couldn't have her finding out about me. But what the FUCK did it matter! She is going to know what I am; It is only a matter of time. What is a few days? I didn't have to kill him! DAMMIT!!!!" He slammed his fist through a wall.
He continued. "I would give anything in the world for her to never know who I am." But this is my atonement in this life for my sins against mankind." He almost whispered. "I have to let her go."
Peter finally spoke. "So what do you want from me?"
Sylar turned and looked at him. Walking over to him, he stood squarely in front of him. "I want you to kill me. I want to protect the world from me so I can never hurt or kill her, or anybody ever again. And…."
He took a deep breath and tried to regain composure.
"And I want you to take every memory of me from her life so she will never remember I ever existed. I know you guys can do that" He broke down. "I will never be able to marry her or give her the life she wants. This is the only good thing I can ever do for her."
Peter stood astonished for a moment, and then he spoke. "Holy crap! I don't even know what to say. There was a time I would have killed you in a heartbeat to take your evil heart out of this world for good. But…wow! This is…." He was at a loss for words.
"Pathetic?" Sylar sneered angrily. "I am sure you are just enjoying the shit out of this, aren't you?"
"No, frankly, I am not." Peter said softly. "God knows I hate you. I know what you are and what you are capable of. There is nothing in the world I want more than to see you dead. But I have also loved before and…well, this….this is the ultimate sacrifice, man. I guess I just never thought you were capable of loving somebody like this."
"I never thought I was capable of loving a woman like this either." Sylar smiled sadly. "She is the only one in this life I have ever really loved. Or has ever loved me back. I don't deserve her."
Peter walked toward him slowly. "Can I ask you something? Why wouldn't you just take her and run away somewhere? You have the power to change yourself, why wouldn't you do that?"
Sylar turned and looked at him. "Because, she deserves better than what I can give her. She is everything good. And I would do nothing but bring her into my world. I don't want that for her. She wants to get married, have kids, a dog...the whole package. You have no idea how much I want to give this to her. If I'm not in the picture, she can have that life."
Standing in front of Peter once again. "Look, I realize I have no right asking you for any favors. Lord knows I don't deserve forgiveness and you have no reason to want to help me. But Peter, will you do this for me?"
Peter thought for a moment. He could not believe what he was hearing. Peter knew he had been a good man once, but all of the lives he had taken, all of the blood spilled. He could see the remorse in his eyes. This was a man who knew what he was and had come to him to end it all. To save the world from him. To save her.
Thoughtfully, Peter folded his arms. "Are you sure about this?" He asked softly.
Sylar nodded. "It is the only way." He whispered sadly.
Peter sighed. "You realize if we clear her memory of you, if we go deep, she will not remember anything about you. Can you really do that?"
He closed his eyes. "Peter, she is the only one that has ever really loved me. Despite what I am, we share a love that is very rare; it's so profound sometimes I have to ask myself if she is real. If I left her and never came back, or if I died, it would paralyze her in grief. She told me once she mates for life." He smiled remembering. "I know if something ever happened to me, she would not be able to move on with somebody else. So to answer your question Peter; I have to do it; there is no other way."
Peter thought for a moment. "Ok." He finally said. "But I need to follow proper channels. I'll call Bennett and the others and we'll come up with a plan of action."
He took a few steps closer to him. "When do you want to do this?"
Sylar thought hard. "Give me 48 hours." He replied, broken.
Peter nodded. "So what are you going to do now?" He asked him.
"Im going to catch the first flight out in the morning, then I am going to go back home and love her every second I can." He replied hollowly.
Peter actually felt sympathy for him. The evil man who had tried to kill his family stood before him; a shell of his former self. Peter touched his arm. "Look, what if I told you that I could get you there faster?"
"Sylar looked at him intrigued."
A moment later, Sylar was standing in his apartment accompanied by Hiro Nakamura, who Peter and called to teleport him there.
"That was BITCHIN!!!!" He said excitedly. "You are lucky I turned over a new leaf, or you would be..." Hiro glared at him. "Sorry."
"What you do, Sylar, it very brave thing." Hiro told him.
Sylar managed a half smile. "Look Hiro, I know I have caused you pain. Maybe it is hollow now, but for whatever it is worth, I am sorry."
Hiro, approached him. "I believe you truly sorry. I sorry, I stab you."
"Water under the bridge." Sylar replied.
"I must go back." Hiro answered. "I wish you peace." Holding up his hand, he gave him the Vulcan hand symbol.
"Thanks for the ride." Sylar replied, somewhat amused.
Hiro bowed, and he was off.
Peter logged into his laptop. Hiro returned Sylar back to California and he had work to do. Of course, he now could teleport and could have taken him home himself, but he felt this was the most important at the moment.
Impatiently, he clicked on his Outlook icon. When it finally came up, he started a new mesage:
Peter: Hana, I hope you are out there. Please respond.
Hana: If this is a booty call, I'm not available.
Peter: Your still pissed at me about standing you up the other night? I already told you it couldn't be helped. Again, I am sorry.
Hana: This is the second time.
Peter: Hey, I'll make it up to you; I always do But look, we have more important matters to discuss.
Hana: Go ahead
Peter: Get a hold of everybody. Tell them to meet me in the chat room in 15 minutes.
Hana: Got it! What is the code word?
Peter: SYLAR
Hana: Are you serious?
Peter: I'll explain everything. Alert the others.
Hana: Ok. See you in 15. I'm out!
Petrelli: Ok. Roll call. Who's here?
youcantseemeiminvisible:
Suresh: Present
Bennett 1: Here
parkman: Yo
DL/Niki: We're here
Wireless: here
FBI Gal: Here
Hiro: I am here
Petrelli: We have a situation that is going to be going down fast. Tonight, I got a visit from Sylar...NOW BEFORE YOU ALL START BUZZING IN WITH YOUR COMMENTS, here me out!
Petrelli: The guy came to me a little while ago. He has asked to be put to death. He wants to do this to protect Laura Ryan and to keep him from killing anybody again in the future. AND, he would like us to erase her memories of him.
parkman: so what did you use to kill him? gun; or a taste of his own medicine
Petrelli: I let him leave and go home to her. He asked me for 48 hours. Hiro teleported him home.
Bennett1: Well, there goes that chance.
youcantseemeiminvisible: I knew he was too soft!
Petrelli: People...SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! I said to hear me out. Don't worry...he won't back out.
Suresh: You can't trust him. The man is a ...!
Petrelli: Look, you guys weren't there. You didn't see him; you didn't see his eyes. This was for real, man. The guy was devastated. He loves her and he is afraid he will kill her if he lives. He wants her to be able to have a life without him and the only way he can do that is by us taking her memories of him.
Hiro: Peter speaks truth. I saw him tonight. He very sad man. No hate, in his eyes.
FBI Gal: It sounds like a win/win to me. We finally rid the world of Sylar, and with him out of the picture, maybe we can finally recruit Laura Ryan.
youcantseemeiminvisible: I have no problem with it.
Bennett1: Yeah, me either.
Suresh: What does he need 48 hours for?
Petrelli: The guy is giving up his own life for a woman he loves more than his lust for power. What would you need it for?
Bennett1: Ok, so 48 hours. We have Molly keep track of him. Then we pick him up. We send The Hatian and Candice to clean things up and take her memories.
DL/Niki: Ok, I have a huge problem with this. Has anybody even given any REAL thought to this at all?
Suresh: What do you mean, Niki?
DL/Niki: Well, for starters, after the Hatian does his thing, how are we going to explain the last 3 months of her life? Things have happened! Candice told us tonight her transformation is nearly complete. We can't have her just not remember. And...um...maybe she won't remember him, or their time together, but it wasn't in her head that she loved him. He is in her soul. Is that going to go away? I don't feel we have her best interest in mind at all here. And isn't that part of what we are here for?
youcantseemeiminvisible: look we rid the world of Grey...everything else we can handle. I don't see a problem here at all
Petrelli: Well, Niki has a point. We need to figure this out...
Bennett1: I have an idea...
End of Chapter IX