So here we go for the second story. Glad you came back to see what happens next. So let´s not waste any more time.

Disclaimer: I don´t own any of this.

A better Life than Mine

The last sequence ended and showed the earth from high above. A moment later the majestic sight was replaced by blackness and then the music of Linkin Park took over, while the credits were rolling. Shawn hurried to wipe the tears away that had snuck into the corners of his eyes. It was so freaking embarrassing for a guy to cry at the end of an action movie like Transformers. But man, Linkin Park really killed it every time. It was amazing what this band was capable of when they didn´t shout into the microphone for a change.

Well, at least he could blame it on the long hours of watching. This was the official end of his and Jules´ Transformathon, where they´d watched all three films back to back. Of course one would have wet eyes by then. And then he looked over at Jules and he saw that her eyes were wet too. And was that a tissue she had in her hand? Where did that come from? Was she really sniffing?

"I can´t help it." she explained, noticing his look. "It´s just so damn touching. Not just the ending. I mean …"

"You´re absolutely right." he agreed, relieved. "I had a lump in my throat too."

She nodded, blowing her nose and for a moment he just looked at her, wondering how this could be. That he was really sitting here, with her, watching one of the greatest action movies of all time and she didn´t look at him as if he were crazy for liking something like that. That she actually shared his love for those movies and didn´t ask him after it was finished what it had been about. Was that really true or was he only dreaming? Could he really be so lucky?

But she was here. They both were. It just had to be true.

"What?" she asked, startled about his gaze.

"Nothing." he claimed. "I was just wondering."

"About what?"

He looked at her for one more second and then motioned for the TV. "About Megan Fox." he said. "I wondered why she didn´t return for the last movie. That was kinda disturbing. I mean, don´t get me wrong. This new chick was hot and all … but also very smart." he hurried to add. "But it´s a break in the continuity that they exchanged her."

"They broke up." Juliet shrugged, recalling the plot of the movie.

"Yeah, but maybe she got killed during a shooting somewhere between the movies." Shawn offered another possibility.

"You would have liked that better?" Juliet asked, a little shocked. But then she just shook her head, smiling, as if she was talking to a pouting kid. "Shawn. Things like that happen. Sometimes people do break up. Makes it more realistic in my eyes."

"So you say, every couple can break up one day?" he asked, teasingly. But there was something in his voice, and it was asking her genuinely.

Instead of giving an answer she just looked at him, studying his eyes as if she tried to read in them. Eventually she moved closer.

"Shawn." she said. "Are you trying to tell me that you´re afraid of losing me?"

He smirked. "Why no." he claimed. "I´m just discussing movie trivia and plot realism with a fellow Transformers fan. About this Rosie Huntington-Whiteley … she really gave the movie a new face, didn´t she? I mean literally. I mean …"

"I get us something to drink." Juliet said, rolling her eyes.

Shawn watched her go to the kitchen, grinning to himself. He really was one lucky guy.

He lay down on the couch and stretched himself, to let the feeling return to his legs. During the last hour he had barely moved away from his seat, not even to get himself something to eat or to use the bathroom. It was just so riveting to watch this movie. No matter if you already knew it or not, you just couldn´t stand up at the last parts. Now he was lying here, listened to the last tunes of this great music and was once more aware of how lucky he was, to have such a great life.

The music stopped and it was silent in the room. Almost deafeningly silent. Sylar opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling. The warm light of Juliet´s living room was gone, replaced by the cold white light of the facility lamps, the soft and comfortable cushions of her couch had become the hard mattress of his prison cell cot.

He was awake. And that could only mean one thing. They were back for another round of Sylar-Dissection. Funny. Not so long ago he´d been the one doing dissections. For a completely different reason but …

The door was opened and before he even had a chance to sit up, someone was beside him. The needle went into the IV at his head and a new dose of the green liquid went into his brain. He gritted his teeth and kept the groan inside. As if there weren´t enough drugs in his system by now.

Rough hands grabbed him and he was dragged up. Yeah, he definitely was awake now. In his dreams he was touched much more gentle. At least the latest dreams he´d had the luck to dream. At least at night he was allowed to have a better life than this one. The life of a human guinea pig. Shawn had been so right when he´d used that term. Not that Sylar hadn´t known that himself.

They dragged him out of his cell, two guards watching them, their guns ready to fire if he should do anything more than breath. Funny, he thought. They just drugged me and they´re still afraid that I´ll go nuts on them. What a joke and a pretty socially critic joke by that.

They reached the lab, where he´d spent the last few weeks of his existence, standing ready for extractions of blood, spinal fluid and other body liquids and sometimes things that were not liquid. The only reason why he wasn´t covered with scars over and over his body was his ability of healing. They didn´t drug him too heavy so his body would be able to stand the tortures they treated him with. How thoughtful they were. He´d always wanted to thank them for that but he just hadn´t gotten around to do so yet. But he would. Some day he would. That was only a matter of politeness.

A door opened and his personal doctor came in.

"Morning, Doc." Sylar greeted with a dizzy smile. "Up for another check-up? The back´s much better but my ankles are still itching. Probably because the weather changed. Of course, I can´t be sure about that. The weather not the ankles."

"Shut up." Mohinder said, approaching with an empty syringe.

The second doctor grabbed his head and bowed it forward. Sylar didn´t struggle. He already knew the procedure. Still he tensed while waiting for the pain to shoot through his spine and when it came, he gritted his teeth to not to scream. Sometimes he won that battle against his voice to express the agonizing sensations, sometimes he didn´t.

Today he almost made it. Almost. Neither Mohinder nor the other guy – Madison, his name was, Sylar believed – seemed to notice his scream. They just released him and went back to their lab table.

Sylar leaned back and tried to steady his breathing. His face was covered in sweat and his heart was pounding. Still he couldn´t help but chuckled.

"You are enjoying this, aren´t you?" he asked Mohinder´s back.

He didn´t get a response. He didn´t expect one.

"Of course you do." he went on talking. "I know that look of satisfaction in your eyes when you torture me. I of all people in the world should know how a man looks when he enjoys the pain of his victim."

Mohinder moved and for a moment, Sylar actually believed that he would turn around to him. But he only handed the substance he´d been working on to Madison. The other doc took it and filled it into his own gadget, to treat it a little more before he´d carry it into the second lab, somewhere at the end of the hallway, where the real deal would happen to it. Sylar had no idea what this was and he didn´t care. He was more interested in his personal Dr. Mengele right now.

"I can´t blame you though." he went on talking to Mohinder. "I killed your cousin after all. Not to forget your sister in law. Your father …"

This time there was a reaction on the doctor´s side. He turned around and looked at him. Sylar smiled when he saw the hate in those dark eyes.

"You shouldn´t tempt me, Sylar." Mohinder said. "Right now your life is in my hands."

"Thank you for the information." Sylar said and pulled at the metal fetters that held him in his chair. "I hadn´t noticed that yet." he shouted.

He settled down again, knowing that it was useless to fight these fetters. Mohinder had already turned away from him again.

"Yes, you do enjoy it." Sylar stated again. "And you know what? That´s good. It´s releasing, isn´t it? To take revenge. To let this dark side come out and play."

"The reason why I´m doing this, is not as low as that." Mohinder said without turning back to him.

"I see." was all Sylar replied to that.

"I´ll be right back, doctor." Madison informed Mohinder and after a brief uncomfortable glance, he walked out, taking the sample of Sylar´s spinal fluid with him. Sylar followed him with his eyes for a moment. He could see the guards that were posted before the lab. Then the door was closed again.

When he looked back at Mohinder, he was surprised to find the Indian scientist looking straight at him.

"I´m not like you." he said.

Sylar smiled. "Oh, you´re not?" he asked.

"No." Mohinder said and all the sudden he held a device in his hand, Sylar´d never seen before. It looked like a remote. Mohinder pushed a button on it and a piercing pain shot through Sylar´s head. It came so suddenly and unexpected that he had no chance of trying to keep his screams contained.

"Hurts pretty bad, doesn´t it?" Mohinder asked, his voice steady and cold. He pushed the button again and the pain stopped. Sylar was panting. What the hell was that?

"That is the electronic version of a tuning fork." Mohinder explained as if he´d read Sylar´s mind. "Much more effective on your nerves than the original. It also disturbs our surveillance system. That means we have exactly ten minutes now."

Sylar looked up at him, startled. "What do you mean we have ten minutes?"

"I´ll make it quick." Mohinder said. "It was your luck that you were captured just in time. How this coincidence occurred is a mystery to me but I have no choice but to take advantage of it. I need your help."

Now Sylar believed that he had to have a hallucination. Had Mohinder knocked him out with something and he was dreaming again? But the pain he still felt pounding in his head seemed to prove the contrary.

"I don´t work for the Company." Mohinder told him. "I let them hire me again to stop them. There is no time to explain my motives to you now. My plan is simple. The Company developed a computer program that can hack into every system. It also has the potential to destroy these systems when planted into them. A virus if you prefer that. It´s here. In the main core of this facility. Over the last three months, I tried to get access to it but I didn´t succeed. It´s too highly secured. I can´t get there. But you could. You could bring me there. I would extract the virus and plant it into the Company´s own system. It would destroy their heart and we could finally bring them down." He held up a syringe, filled with a white liquid. "This drug can disable the Glycimerine we injected you with to suppress your powers. When I give it to you, you will get your powers back, almost instantly. If you help me, I will get my computer virus and you´ll be free."

Sylar couldn´t believe what he just heard. "You would let me go?" he asked sceptically. "Just like this?"

"I wouldn´t have much of a choice." Mohinder replied. "But against what I am fighting here, you are the smallest danger. So yeah. I would let you go." He looked at his watch. "We have three minutes left. What is your answer?"

"How do you know that I won´t kill you after you gave me this drug?" Sylar asked.

"I don´t." Mohinder answered earnest. "But I know that you want to bring down the Company as much as I do. They hunted you. They tortured you."

"So did you." Sylar pointed out, but Mohinder ignored him.

"You want them to pay." he repeated. "I can make this happen. I can plant the virus into their system. Not here. In the main computer that connects everything. I know where it is and I know how to get there. But I can´t do this without your help. I trust you that you´ll cooperate."

"You trust me." Sylar repeated. "Well, that´s interesting."

"Two minutes." Mohinder recalled the time. "What´s your answer?"

The door went open all the sudden and Mohinder let the syringe vanish in the pocket of his lab coat.

"Doctor." Myers, the facility´s director greeted him. Mohinder gave him a nod and watched him look around. "Is something wrong here?" Myers asked.

"No." Mohinder said, frowning. "Why do you ask?" "Our cameras failed all the sudden." Myers explained. "Did something happen in here? Did he do anything?"

"Not as far as I could see." Monhinder said. "He couldn´t anyway. He´s drugged, you know that."

Myers looked at him and then at Sylar, thinking for a moment. Eventually he nodded.

"Better give him a second shot." he said. "Just to be sure."

"Too much of the drug could kill him." Mohinder mentioned but Myers´ eyes were hard.

"Then dose it right." he demanded.

"Of course."

Mohinder took a syringe filled with Glycimerine, and approached Sylar. He carried the syringe in a way that only Sylar could see that he was in fact holding two shots. The Glycimerine and the white liquid, he´d offered him earlier.

"Sylar?" Mohinder asked, obviously waiting for his answer.

Sylar took a breath, gritting his teeth.

"I´m willing to cooperate." he said, at last and Mohinder nodded.

He injected him, with the white substance, not trying to be gentle with the needle. Sylar squinted, and lowered his head. Mohinder and Myers watched him for a while, waiting. But nothing happened.

"He´s half asleep by now." the geneticist explained. "He won´t be any danger, for at least two days. If he doesn´t collapse that is."

"All right." Myers said, nodding once. "Keep an eye on him." With that he turned around and left, no more words.

Mohinder heard a clicking sound and a second after he´d seen the door close behind Myers, he got grabbed by the throat and pushed against the wall, his feet dangling.

"So now …" Sylar said, looking up at him, piercingly. But in this moment Mohinder had already grabbed his arm and twisted it, violently. Sylar hit the ground, groaning when his head bounced off the floor. When his eyes met Mohinder´s again, they were startled. But only for a second. He immediately reached out his hand, pushing him against the wall a second time. With no arm to grab, Mohinder was not that fast getting free again.

"Seems you worked out since we last met, Mohinder." Sylar commented. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Mohinder couldn´t answer. Sylar was holding his throat. The murderer smiled. He reached up to his own head, ripping out the shunt that still stuck there. The wound it left closed itself a few seconds later.

"And now … I´m going to kill you." Sylar stated. "Tell me how you want to stop me."

The answer came instantly. The pain in his head was back, with greater force this time, and Sylar winced, backing away from it. His knees gave in and he sank to the ground, holding his head as if to keep it from exploding. And then the pain stopped. His hands dropped down, to the ground, while his lungs desperately tried to catch some oxygen. His head was so hot as if he had the worst flu that was humanly possible.

When he looked up, Mohinder was standing over him, the remote in one hand, a gun in the other.

"I have a full load of Glycimerine in here." he told him, shaking the gun. "I gave you your powers back but I can also take it again."

Sylar didn´t answer. He was still recovering from that acoustic attack.

"Now come on, Sylar." Mohinder reasoned with him. "We had a deal. I know you want to get to those bastards." And after a brief hesitation: "Bennet told me what you did in Central Park."

Sylar looked up at him. "You work with Bennet?"

"Believe me. There is something way more serious going on here than you can imagine. We want to stop that. I want to stop it. Enough to even cooperate with you. So are you with me or not?"

Sylar gritted his teeth. "I barely have a choice, do I?"

He lowered his head one more time, to take a breath. When his head cleared a little, he finally stood up. Mohinder was still aiming his gun at him, warily. But Sylar only raised his brows.

"Now what?" he asked. "What do you want me to do?"

Mohinder hesitated one more second, before he lowered the gun. He still kept it ready though, just in case Sylar should try something.

"What you can do best." he answered the question. "The room I need to get into, is locked and the way to it is guarded."

"Understand." Sylar nodded. "Well, I guess we should set off then."

Mohinder seemed still wary, but eventually he nodded.

"All right." he said. "There are two guards outside. As soon as we attack them, they´ll know something is going on and they´ll send more after us …"

He got cut off abruptly when Sylar busted the door with a mere motion of his hand. The two guards who came running in, got thrown back, against the wall, only a few seconds later. Mohinder had barely time to flinch, before it was already over. Sylar threw him a glance.

"Then maybe we should hurry." he commented.

The Indian scientist stared at his enemy in shock. Sylar just walked out without another word. The two guards lay on the ground, knocked out, harmless. Two other guards came running down the hall, wielding guns. They flew away as easily as the first two. One of them pulled the trigger, sending a few bullets towards Sylar. He stopped them in the air, just a few feet before they hit him. With a motion of his hand they dropped to the floor. Ahead there were shouts.

"Which way?" he asked Mohinder.

"That way." Mohinder pointed in the other direction.

"Very good." Sylar commented and turned to the fast approaching backup. He raised both hands and brought them back together and all of a sudden there was no way for their pursuers anymore, when the walls of the hallway imitated his gesture, crashing down. Sparks went raining down, when the cables snapped and all around them, the lights went out.

"Man, that feels good." Sylar exhaled, happily.

He turned away from his work and followed Mohinder down the hall. Alarm sirens started to howl and it was pretty clear that they now had officially declared open season on them. They came across a few more guards, but they were probably caught more off guard then they were. No challenge for Sylar´s new gained power.

Eventually they reached an iron door and Mohinder hurried to insert his key-card, praying that it still worked. It did. The door opened with a beep and they hurried in.

"What now?" Sylar asked.

"Just secure this door." Mohinder told him, already rushing to the computer console. "I take care of the rest."

Sylar closed the door. Just before it fell shut, he caught a glimpse of more guards coming down the hallway. As soon as the door was closed, he reached out for the key system and a second later it spat sparks, shutting down. Outside they would have some problems now, using their key-cards.

The knocks he heard after a while, were proof of that. He threw a look at Mohinder but the scientist was busy working his way into the computer system. The next thing Sylar noticed was a movement under the ceiling. A camera. It moved around for a moment, searching, before it got fixed on Mohinder.

Sylar slowly made his way through the room, until he stood in the field of vision of that lens. He had a pretty good guess who was on the monitor on the other side. The lens moved again, zooming in.

Yeah, have a good look, Sylar thought and smiled for them. Then he raised his hand and smashed the camera almost nonchalantly.

"Well, I´d say you better don´t count on an extension of your contract." he told Mohinder.

"I don´t need one." was the dry answer. "All I need is in here."

"Yeah, see that brings me to the next question. How exactly do you plan to bring that thing into this other Company-facility, after putting on an act like that in here? I mean … call me Mr. Negative but I´m pretty sure they have telephone in here."

"I don´t need to go in." Mohinder explained. He took a small disk out of the computer and packed it away. "Someone else will do that for me. Someone from the inside. My assistant is already out to prepare the ground for us."

"Wow, you´re pretty good at this, aren´t you?"

"I had enough time to learn." was all Mohinder said to that cynical comment. He´d safely packed away the precious disk by now. "We should go." he said, just as an explosion blew away the door.

Sylar managed it to reach out his hand, in time to catch and stop it, before it gave the way free for their pursuers. They could hear their shouts on the other side. Sylar shoved the door back into its place, while Mohinder hurried to the other side of the room, opening a ventilation shaft.

"That´s a joke right?" Sylar couldn´t believe what he saw.

"I prepared a car for us." Mohinder explained. "But we need to get to the garage. Don´t worry, it´s not far."

Sylar watched him slip into the shaft and cursed in silence. Maybe next time he should read the small print before he signed the contract. Using the ventilation to get away was just so … classic. He kept holding the door in place until he was at the shaft. He pushed it even further down the hall, to keep the guards busy, long enough to get away.

Fortunately Mohinder had been right about the garage. It really wasn´t far away and they reached the car undisturbed. Kudos to the scientist´s planing. He really must have put a lot of preparation into this. Amazing considering the fact how busy he´d seemed with his tortures on Sylar.

When Sylar reached the car, Mohinder already pulled out and for a moment Sylar expected him to drive away without him. But after he´d turned the car around, he waited for him to get in, just like promised. Or maybe out of pure self preservation, since he had to know that Sylar could have stopped him easily by flipping the car around.

No matter what the reason was, they both sat in the car and the car was heading for the gate. The gate was closed of course. But all Sylar had to do to change that, was holding his hand out of the window. Outside they immediately came under fire again. Sylar kept the bullets away while Mohinder raced over the pavement and at the gate like a madman. He didn´t even slow down when the gate was only a few inches away. Sylar shot his hand forward and crashed the gate open, an inch before the hood of the car crashed into it. Holy Cannoli. Mohinder still didn´t take the foot off the accelerator.

"But you planned to survive that, right?" Sylar asked him.

He got no answer. Behind them the Company was still trying to organize the manhunt for them. They wouldn´t need very long though. In this regard it was a good idea to really stump on the accelerator. Sylar just hoped that Mohinder had learned to drive during his time as a cab driver. Not that he needed to worry about his life. But if the car crashed, he really would have to take a taxi and the way he looked right now not even a New Yorker taxi would take him for a ride.

He settled down in his seat a little, while Mohinder drove the car down the street. So far there were no Company cars behind them. But that would change very soon. Mohinder steered the car into the heavy traffic so they would get lost in the crowd. Also a trick that wouldn´t last very long. They would have to leave the city as soon as possible.

Sylar sighed. He threw a glance into the side mirror … and froze. It was the face of Shawn Spencer that looked back at him. The cell phone on his nightstand started to ring and dragged him violently out of his sleep. Shawn jumped up, his heart pounding and his head spinning. Dammit, what had that been? Was it a dream? He surely was not in a car, so it had to be that way.

He looked around to orientate himself, touched his blanket and himself to make sure he was the one he usually was when he was awake. He relaxed when he found his face where it had to be and how he remembered it. Man, what a nightmare.

Finally he remembered his cell and hurried to answer it.

"Shawn." Gus cried into his ear. "Why are you not answering?"

"Sorry, dude." Shawn replied, still sleepy. "You woke me up."

"It´s half past nine." Gus informed him startled.

"It is?" Shawn asked and threw a look at his alarm clock. It truly said nine thirty-two. Wow. That was late, even for him. "I´m sorry." he said, still trying to collect his thoughts. "I just … I went to bed very late yesterday."

"Well, I hope you slept enough." Gus replied. "The chief called me because she couldn´t reach you. She has a case for us."

Shawn swallowed to get rid of the sleepy taste he had in his mouth and nodded.

"Don´t worry." he said. "I´m coming. In fact I´m … I´m on my way." With that he hung up and struggled to get out of his bed.