Gabriel
pulled away from her at her words. "What
did you say?"
Ellen took the opportunity and moved away from him
back towards the center of the room as she spoke, "Sylar. That is
your real name isn't it?" she snapped at him.
He stepped back
from her, hearing his chosen name in her voice felt like ice being
poured down his back. It was familiar yet he did not accept it this
time. "Where did you hear that?"
Ellen shook her head,
ignoring how tired she was. She would not cower in front of him like
a frightened child. He would not have that power over her. If he had
to kill her first, then so be it. "It's true isn't it? Sylar is
what you call yourself to everyone else."
Sylar's face
contorted, his eyes flashed at her as she had never seen before, "Do
not call me that!" he bellowed.
Ellen backed further away as
she was reminded of the man she saw in those past scenes, the man who
chased after Claire and killed Peter without so much as a thought.
"You know who I really am, who I can be!" he said pointing a
finger at her madly. "Say my name. Say it!"
Ellen felt a heat
growing inside of her, "Gabriel." She said and he lowered his
hand. But she continued, feeling braver, "All the things you can
do, were any of them really yours to begin with?" the tingling in
her fingers grew.
Gabriel clenched his jaw and didn't
answer. His hands balled up into fists so tight that his skin turned
white.
"Were you planning to take mine as well, Gabriel? Were
you going to kill me for it just so you could claim it as your own?"
The room crackled with the heat and tension between the two of
them. Gabriel was shaking as he stood there, filled with rage. His
anger wasn't even towards her necessarily. He knew who had shown
her the truth and he loathed Peter for it.
She felt her legs
ready to come out from underneath her but she would not let them. He
started towards her like an angry bull and she ran but he snatched
her and yanked her towards him, putting his arms fully around her and
held her so tightly that she could barely breathe.
"Let me go!"
she gasped and released an instinctive burst of light.
Gabriel
screamed and pushed her away. As the lights in his vision died he saw
small burn marks on his arms and hands, the skin was dead and still
steaming from the shock.
"I cannot believe you any longer, Gabriel." Ellen said, breathing heavily as he stared disbelieving at his wounds. "Everything you've said to me was a lie. I'm sorry I believed you. But," Ellen calmed herself and looked at him, "I won't tell anyone. Just promise me that you'll leave. Go anywhere, it doesn't matter."
Gabriel stared at her, his face blank of expression. Leave? It was laughable. He was hardly done yet even with the powers Claire and Peter possessed. Peter. He had touched her, turned her around yet again and there was no coming back from that, she was no longer his.
Sylar scoffed at the very
idea.
If he wanted it, it would be his, period. Ellen's powers
would be his and perhaps Ellen herself as well, but there had to be a
way. He needed more time, more time with her.
He stood to his
full height, allowing the shadow to surround him. His eyes darkened
and his lips curled into a sneer at her. The beating of her heart
became like all the others. Like music, it raced at the sight of him.
The sight of what she said he really was.
Ellen trembled as he
approached her, "Gabriel." She said.
Sylar shook his head, "MY
NAME IS SYLAR." He spoke in the familiar tone she had heard in the
old apartment before Peter had come in.
Her eyes grew wide with
fear. She opened her hands releasing the dancing electric current at
him. It knocked him backwards and to the floor in a stream of white
and blue light. His shirt was charred and the skin on his chest was
burned but it hadn't been strong enough.
Sylar climbed smoothly back to his feet, "Leaving is not an option, Ellen." He said simply, brushing himself off. He felt the pain from the burns but it was small and he was able to push it to the back of his mind.
"You've hurt so many people!" Ellen said, tears in her
eyes, "How can you stand it? How can you bear all those innocent
lives just for the gain of something so small?"
"You think
what I do makes me smaller." He said.
"I thought you were
different, above all the want for achievement and power in the world.
There is more to it than that."
Sylar laughed a harsh and cold
laugh, "All of it was necessary. There is nothing greater in the
world." He stepped towards her again, wary of her power. "I wish
there was a better way to show you."
"Yes there is."
Ellen was shocked at how calm she was as she spoke to him. "Gaining
power and hording it, keeping it as your own is nothing but
selfishness."
Sylar said nothing.
"It is something a child
would do, not a grown and intelligent man." She said. "I never
thought you as small until now, Gabriel. You disappoint me."
Sylar growled and raised his hand to her, "NO!" he bellowed in his dark voice as he lifted her off her feet and slammed her body into the wall without touching her. Her head cracked sickeningly against the wall and she fell limply to the floor, her eyes were barely open as Sylar approached her. He heard her heart rate slow and she made no effort to stand.
"FOR THAT, I WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE FOR A
VERY, VERY LONG TIME." He pointed a finger at her but before he
began everything slowed down and came to a stop. The clock on the
wall was silent as Peter and Claire scrambled in from Ellen's
bedroom.
Claire didn't take her eyes off of Sylar though he
looked more like a carved statue rather than a real person as Peter
crouched down next to Ellen and put his hands on the sides of her
face.
Her eyes were glazed over and half open as she muttered
soft gibberish to him. Peter summoned his strength and lifted Ellen
off the floor, cradling her in his arms, her arms and head resting
limply against him.
"Claire! Come on! I don't know how much
longer I can hold him like this." Peter hissed.
Sylar's face was frozen in a delighted sneer, his eyes focused on the part of the wall Ellen was once in front of. Claire caught up to them in Ellen's bedroom and helped Peter get Ellen out of the window onto the fire escape.
"Go get Nathan, tell him what happened and that Ellen's safe for now. People need to know that Sylar has come back. They've got to know who he is."
Gabriel blinked
slowly, his thoughts returning to him at their normal speed. There
were voices coming from outside, but they were slow to reach him at
first.
Claire felt her pockets for her cell phone and cursed, she
had left it at home.
"Just go!" Peter said as he eased Ellen to her feet. She could stand but leaned heavily on him, her head still groggy. Claire leaped down the steps of the fire escape, leaving Peter and Ellen there.
"Gabriel." Ellen said in a
small voice.
Peter looked up as Claire jumped off the bottom of
the fire escape and started pounding the pavement towards her
apartment.
"Hello again, Peter." Sylar stood at the window.
"You really are a meddler, aren't you?"
Peter didn't respond as Sylar flicked his fingers and pulled Ellen towards the window but Peter held her fast. She screamed feeling the pull against her from both men but Peter held Ellen tightly to him, moving his eyes towards the sky above them and took off with Ellen at an amazing speed into the clouds.
Sylar smiled and chuckled to himself as he stepped out onto the fire escape. Though he didn't have the power to fly he was able to compensate easily enough. He lifted himself into the air, rising above the roof tops of the buildings, his mind on pursuing them until he heard loud foot falls along the sidewalk not far from where he was. He could tell it was a woman from the lightness of her steps and the sound of her breathing was very familiar to him.
