I saw the Devil wrapping up his hands
He's getting ready for the showdown
I saw the minute that I turned around
Change came in the disguise of Revelation
Set his soul on fire
Says she always knew he'd come around

-Dustland Fairytale by the Killers

Sylar tried to calm his pounding heart. His mouth formed a tense 'O' as he let only minimal breaths in and out and in and out. The rope veins up his arms stood out from the rest of his arms like his clenched muscles were trying to push them out from his body all together. A shaky hand ran through his black hair as he looked down at the ceiling.

He wasn't a religious man. Not anymore. His mother had been, and look where that got her? Linderman had said God had wanted what he did, and it was with Good Intentions that he followed out the Order. And, if Sylar needed any disproof – the thought that God created a monster like him, and then put Jane in his path, was proof enough that the was no Good God. However, looking down at the bare girl wrapped up in a thin white sheet on his bed, made him close his eyes and whisper a small prayer on his permanently smirking lips.

Suddenly his body went rigid, and for a moment he was stuck like that, his eyes open and on black fire as he bore holes into the ceiling.

"No," he growled, whipping his head down with great struggle. "You're not going to win like this."

He kneeled on the bed, and shook Jane's shoulder roughly. He was being a bit too rough, he could see that in the way her small frame bounced around on the mattress from the force of his hold, but he couldn't stop himself from hurting her it seemed.

Her wide brown eyes took the brightly lit room with a grimace, and she stretched her supple body out with a yawn. Sylar had always found watching this girl stir sensual, but he did not dare touch her. Not now, and maybe not ever.

"Jane," he said. He had tried to say it as gently as possible, but it came out as a low growl that had her jumping up and scooting away from him.

"Gabriel," she asked in a shaky voice. "Gabriel? What's wrong?"

The minute she saw the torment in his eyes, she foolishly advanced.

He sprang away in fear and disgust, his muscles tightening even more. He felt like a bomb loaded with shrapnel; if he was to go off he'd kill anyone around with slow painful jabs that would pierce vital organs and slowly seep life away. The inflicted wounds would get no tourniquet, and once he had died, they could dig at his victims all they want but they'd never find the root of the death. The root of that evil.

He knew that the monster was crying out for Jane. Jane was all his beast cared for, her name ran through its power like blood in a vein.

"He doesn't want to kill you." He said in his half plea, half growl.

"Who, Gabriel?" she asked, her wide eyes taking up most of her face and her bottom lip trembling with an emotion. He couldn't help but think that maybe if he had sti8ll been Gabriel, he would have known what emotion made her tremble, but the more Sylar took over, the more disconnected with humans he became. The moster raved at the 'Gabriel' taht passed so easily across her tongue then from her lips.

"Sylar!" he called, half in answer to her question, half in demand that she say that title instead.

"What's he doing?" she asked. "Just talk to me, Gabriel. I can help you."

She got off the bed and advanced on him once more. Her hands were raised and Sylar could see the pale flesh that made up the area of her anatomy. She looked calm and loving as her bare feet felt their way across the carpet. But Sylar could hear her heart beating almost as fast and as hard as his own. The wet sound sloshed her blood around, and it proved she was still alive and still with him. Sylar hadn't let the beast win yet.

"I need you to go to my bedside table," he said through his gritted teeth. His breath was slow and hissing as he tried to keep Sylar at bay enough to talk without the frightening growl. "And look in the drawer."

She obeyed, running backwards, all the while keeping her eyes locked o Sylar's. She unable to breath as his eyes held her life-force from her, like a bully holding a kids lunch money over their head, then laughing as they watched the child desperately jump for it.

Her small hand fumbled on the handle, but she soon got hold of it and ripped it open.

"Get out the restraints." He commanded. It came out as a snarl. "Hurry!"

She jumped and turned pale. Her hands grasped the leather binds fearfully, and as she slowly walked up to Sylar, the way he looked at her made her want to cry out.

Sylar forced himself to sit in his chair, and bade Jane to come forward with a twitch of his finger.

However, as the beast in him pushed forward, so did his power. The simple finger twitch called out his telekinesis and it had Jane pulled across to him.

She let out a small whimper, but swallowed it down as she looked at the binds understood what she had to do.

With shaky hands, She wrapped the largest one around his chest, locking his arms down under the brown leather that looked tougher then a great ocean liners anchor.

"Will this keep you here?" Jane asked in a whisper, not making eye contact with Sylar. Though she knew he was watching her with fierce intensity.

"They're designed to be immune to my various powers." He said through his teeth again. "Hurry up. I can't keep him at bay for ever."

"Right." Jane said, working on the hand binds. "Is there anything I should know..."

Sylar worked hard to keep the beast from this conversation. His large hand grasped Jane's where it rested on the arm of the chair. He watched the back of his eyelids as he slowly put up a flimsy and temporary wall between his thoughts that the monster inside of him's thoughts.

"If this gets bad," Sylar began, biting hard down on his lip as he felt the monster rage at being contained. "Just leave. Ok? I don't know what's going to happen."

"Why are you doing this," Jane asked and for once he recognised the reason behind her trembling. She was afraid. Afraid of losing Sylar to the demon she didn't love and yet depended on for security. She loved him so deeply that he could see her questioning his command to leave. "Where would I go?" she asked, letting tears roll down her face. "My world contains only you."

"No!" Sylar snarled, and this time it wasn't because of the beast's anger, but his own. "You are young and beautiful and I will not - Do you hear me? – not let you depend on me like that. The world is big, Jane."

Jane was almost sobbing now and the wall he had built in himself was crumbling. There was more pressure on her hand then what should have been, and the skin was white and red from his grasp, but neither noticed.

"It's beautiful, and wide, and uncontainable. It deserves to have you unleashed upon it. I am proud to be the reason you leave Bray. Live life for me, Jane."

"Why do you think he's coming back?" she asked, watching Sylar's muscles rippling like a pond.

"It has something to do with you, and ..." But thinking about the beast only tumbled his wall down further. His voice became an angry snarl as he swallowed and looked at Jane soberly. "I do love you. And so does he, remember that for us."

"I won't let you die."

His back arched suddenly, and Jane whipped her hands from his with a cry. His last images of her were a tear sodden mess. Her wide brown eyes were watching him fearfully as he slipped further and further away.

He could only hope that his beast really did love and protect Jane. She'd be safe enough if that was true.