Epilogue
Sylar kept his eyes fixed on this one tiny point. The one red spot where the flesh was torn open, the blood oozing out at each movement he made with his fingers. Even though his fingers didn´t even touch. But he´d never needed to touch to make the blood run. He turned his fingers a little more and a groan of pain followed his movement. Sylar felt his heart speeding up. It had been a while ago since he´d done something like this. He was excited. But he was also careful. The trick was not to cause too much pressure. Just enough to make it move.
More blood came spilling out of the wound and another cry of pain followed. Louder this time. Sylar bowed his fingers to finish it with one last, quick turn. And then it was over. The bullet flipped out of the wound and fell down, landing on the concrete floor with a unremarkable clattering sound.
"All right, that´s it." Peter commented and pressed some cloth on the wound.
Mohinder was panting, his hands clinging around the edge of the table he sat on. Peter lifted the cloth one more time to have a look at the wound and then decided: "You should see to some penicillin to keep it from infecting. So far it´s only torn fabric. I don´t need to tell you that you strained the arm too much after the shot."
"Indeed, you don´t need to tell me." was Mohinder´s reply.
He let his head hang in exhaustion after this rather unorthodox operation while Peter bandaged his shoulder and put it in a sling. Sylar watched them closely. Once in a while Mohinder would look up and meet his gaze. When he did, he answered it with a glare, as if accepting a staredown contest. Still he lost it each time, when he had to close his eyes against the pain, Peter´s treatment caused him.
"Here you go." the young man said when he was done and patted the scientist´s good shoulder.
"Thanks, Peter." Mohinder brought out, accepting the bottle of water Peter handed him.
"Thank Sylar." the young nurse replied. "I wouldn´t have been able to get the bullet out without cutting you open. Not here at least."
He threw Sylar a glance and the murderer nodded at him, gratefully. Peter returned the nod.
"Excuse me." he then said and left the small room, returning to the production hall.
Mohinder took a deep sip of water, before he slipped off the table to follow him out.
"Thanks by the way." Sylar said, before the scientist was out of the door. "For catching me. You saved my life."
Mohinder glanced at him, considering how to react. "It was a mere instinct what I did." he then said, dismissing the whole affair.
"Still. You could have let me fall." Sylar insisted, not ready to let it go that easily. "Why did you do it?" he asked.
Mohinder corked one eyebrow at him, smirking. "Maybe I´m a nicer guy than you thought I´d be." he suggested a possibility.
Sylar chuckled. "So what does that make us?" he asked the scientist, before he could walk out.
Mohinder turned back to him, one more time, again considering his next words carefully.
"It makes us even." he said at last and threw Sylar the bottle.
Sylar flinched, surprised, but caught the bottle. After another moment, he smiled at the open door and followed Mohinder outside, into the hall.
"I never let a criminal run free my entire life." he heard the voice of detective Lassiter from ahead. "I won´t start with that now."
"No prison would be able to hold him." Noah Bennet told him. "Except for the Company."
"You´re not the Company anymore." Peter recalled. "And neither is my mother. Things have changed, Noah."
"So what do we do?" Lassiter demanded to know. "I won´t let this man run free. He´s a murderer."
"A murderer with various abilities." Noah reminded, once again. "Please, detective, I understand your point, but let us handle this."
"And how do you want to handle this, Noah?" Peter asked him. "Until the Company is rearranged, there is no place where you could lock him up."
"I´ll find a way." Noah promised.
"Which way? Drugging him and putting him in a cell like a human vegetable?"
"Oh, god. That´s awful." Juliet groaned and Shawn and Gus looked equally uncertain about that idea.
"We can´t just let him go." Bennet defended this option. "He´s too dangerous."
"He tried to change once." Peter recalled.
"And he changed back again." Noah recalled of his own. "He killed again. He´s a murderer and he´ll always be one."
"But I saved your daughter." Sylar spoke up, reaching the gathering. "And you too, by the way. You´re welcome."
Noah only looked at him, not giving a response. Sylar noticed that Lassiter had put a hand on his holster. Everybody but Peter looked at him as if they expected him to attack them all, any minute. Even Juliet seemed unsure what to expect. And weren´t they right? He would be able to kill them all within only a few minutes … if he wanted.
"Listen." Peter broke the silence, at last. "How about finding a middle way? You don´t wanna risk it to let him go. Okay. Put him on probation then. Under your watch."
Noah immediately shook his head. "I can´t risk that." he said.
"You are aware of the fact that I could walk out of here and vanish at any time?" Sylar chipped in. "That I´m still here should prove something to you."
"What? That you are arrogant and megalomaniac?"
Sylar only chuckled at this.
"Think about it, Noah." Peter went on. "You´d be in charge. Would you rather have him run off without anyone to watch him?"
Bennet looked at Sylar musing. He was still hesitant, but at least Peter´s arguments had gotten through to him. Sylar smiled, spreading his arms.
"What do you say, Noah?" he asked. "Ready to team up again?"
Bennet´s glance became a glare. "I already have a partner." he told him.
Sylar threw a glance at Lauren, and shrugged.
Bennet looked from him to Mohinder. "How about you, doc?" he asked him, out of the blue.
"Me?" the scientist cried, brows raised. "Oh, no. I don´t intent to work for anyone here. Or the Company."
"Then what do you plan to do?" Peter wanted to know.
"I´ll go back to do what I always did." Mohinder explained with a tiny shrug of his good shoulder. "Trying to find the ones with abilities. To help them understand what they can and offer help if needed. That seems to be what I´m destined to do." he shook his head, for a moment, as if to chase away a troubling thought. "Too many of them have no idea how dangerous they can be to themselves and their loved ones." He went on and pointed at Sylar. "And I surely can´t take him with me when doing this."
"Yes, you could." Sylar immediately assured him. "I could help you. Convince them and teach them." "You can´t truly believe that I´ll fall for that trick a second time." Mohinder exclaimed and had to laugh.
"This time it´s not a trick." Sylar promised him. "Think about it. I know how things work. I could help them to understand how to use their abilities in a save way."
"And kill them after you had enough fun with them?"
"I can´t guarantee that the hunger won´t tempt me." Sylar admitted earnest. "I´m not gonna lie about that. But I´ll try. You could help me fight it … by reminding me. And if you should ever fail, you´ll always have this." he added and took something out of his pocket. It was the remote, he´d crashed at the wall of the diner. "I fixed it." he explained. "If I should ever get out of control … you can use it."
He offered it to the scientist who looked at the small device in utter disbelieve. Eventually he took it from him, maybe only to have it before the killer could change his mind again.
"You know that I will." he said, as if to ask Sylar if he was absolutely sure. "That I´d even kill you with that if I had to."
"I know." was all Sylar said. "That´s why I´m giving it to you." Having said this, he smiled. "What do you say? Ready to fight the monster?"
Mohinder hesitated but eventually grabbed the remote tighter. There was no smile on his face when he answered: "And to slay it … if necessary."
"Great!" Sylar cheered. "Where do we go first?"
Mohinder groaned, closing his eyes for a moment, probably asking himself why he agreed to this insanity in the first place. Sylar still smiled. Not even Noah´s warning glare could irritate him.
"I´ll be watching you." Bennet told him.
"Yeah, me too." Lassiter agreed and immediately got some uncertain glances.
"That … will be quite difficult for you, detective." Peter said. "People with abilities are all around the globe."
Lassiter made a face of pure disbelieve. "Are you kidding?" he cried and when Gus nodded at him with a face as if he knew everything there was to know about the subject, he frowned, more confused than ever.
"If he makes any trouble …" Bennet was talking to Mohinder. "You know how to reach me."
The scientist nodded, completely serious. "I know."
Peter turned to Lassiter with a face as serious as Mohinder´s. "It´s really the best that way, detective." he assured him and Lassiter, knowing that he probably had no other choice anyway, accepted it – reluctantly and hating it like hell.
Peter gave him a nod, before turning around, to Sylar.
"Thanks, Peter." the killer said and when the younger man gave him his hand, he pulled him in for a hug instead. This time Peter agreed with a smile, padding Sylar´s back. When they parted again they nodded at each other.
"Good luck." Peter said. "I need to go back to Claire and my mother. They´ll need help to go back to their normal lives. We all do."
Sylar and Mohinder both nodded in agreement.
"Good luck." Mohinder said. "To all of us."
Peter mirrored their nods, gratefully. Then after a last exchanged glance with Sylar, he turned around and left.
"What about Roth?" Shawn asked when he remembered the still unconscious man. They´d cuffed him but he didn´t look as if he´d come around again, any time soon.
"We´ll put him in a mental hospital." Bennet explained. "The official diagnosis will be complete lethargy. I´ll have an eye on him too. If anything should change in his condition, we´ll know it."
"I can´t think of any change though." Shawn said. "The way Marilyn talked about her brother, I don´t think she´ll ever allow him to get out again."
"What about her?" Juliet asked. "What do you think? Is she still out there?"
Shawn looked at Jules but couldn´t give any answer. No matter what he´d say, he would always feel like an idiot for the try to guess it in the first place.
"She said, she didn´t know it herself." was all he dared to say as an explanation.
"Marilyn was dead long before all this started." Bennet agreed.
"Am I the only one who´s creeped out by the fact that a ghost came to our rescue?" Gus asked.
"She wasn´t a ghost, Gus." Shawn argued. "More like a … spirit."
"And where´s the difference?"
"I don´t know. I just know that she wasn´t some slimy glowing thing that is losing ectoplasm when it goes through a wall."
"I didn´t say anything about slimy, Shawn." Gus cried.
"But you implied it."
"No, I didn´t."
Next to them, Juliet rolled her eyes at the banter and Lassiter, loosing his patience, hissed at them: "Would you just stop that!"
A chuckle made them all turn their heads. "Oh, man." Sylar shook his head laughing. "I´m really gonna miss you guys. It´s really a shame that I have to say goodbye."
"Oh, you don´t have to." Lassiter said. "Just let me cuff you and come freely, then you can have a nice little cell in the Santa Barbara prison."
Again Sylar smiled. "I always knew you had humor, Lassie-face." he said and promptly got a dark glare from Lassiter.
"Don´t you ever call me that." he growled at him. "And don´t make the mistake to believe that I wouldn´t find you if you pull off something new. Because I will."
"I sure hope you do." was Sylar´s answer. "Or who knows. Maybe I´ll pay you a visit once in a while."
"I´ll be here." Lassiter promised with a snarling grin and for a moment, the two of them were busy with an intense staredown, in which Sylar definitely had more fun than Lassiter.
"Seriously, dude." Shawn spoke, starting to feel uncomfortable. "You need to stop doing this."
"He started it." Lassiter cried, defensively.
"I was talking to him." Shawn cried back.
Lassiter halted, raising a brow, embarrassed.
"Sylar." Mohinder called and he actually sounded like an angry mother who called her delayed son to finally come in for diner.
"Coming." the killer answered, smiling at them all, one last time. His eyes rested on Juliet for one more minute. "Who knows." he said, looking deeply into her eyes. "Maybe we´ll see each other again after all. Sometime in the future."
At last he turned around to follow Mohinder out. After only a few steps he turned back around one last time.
"And by the way, detective." he said, looking at Lassiter. "I wasn´t kidding earlier, when I announced a visit. I always come back for my friends." He touched his forehead with one finger and smiling saluted them goodbye. "See you soon, friends."
With that he just turned around and walked away.
There you go. End of the second story. I hope you liked it. If so, don´t go too far away. The next thing is already on the way. Just around the next corner. Should be up in a few days. Hope to see you soon.
And thanks for reading.