This story was inspired by two songs of Juliane Werding. "Bist du da für mich" (Are you there for me?) and "Halt mich fest, Liebster" (Hold me, love) And just to make this clear, none of the two songs is only what the title says. You´ll get an idea when you read this story. It´s not meant as slash btw.

Disclaimer: I don´t own either Heroes nor Juliane Werding.

Darkness

Sylar looked out into the slowly rising night. It was getting colder and colder. Soon it would be here. There was no way around it. In the end it would find them no matter where they tried to hide. That was the malicious thing about the cold. It came everywhere. And there was just no place to run from it.

It was the end of the world. At last. And this time there was nothing they could do about it. Not that they hadn´t tried. They had. But in the end they had lost. All these superhuman powers, all these abilities had been useless. One after the other they had died trying. The only reason why Sylar was still alive was Claire. Sweet Claire, who once had made him as invincible as she was. She had died as one of the first. Even she hadn´t been able to survive this. It was ridiculous. It was tragic. And it was final. Her death had made him realize that. How he had escaped he didn´t even remember. Only that it had been Peter who had made it possible. Again this young idealist had died because of him. Only this time he wouldn´t come back. Neither of them would.

It was funny. Once upon a time, he had been a murderer. Someone who killed people with abilities to get their powers. He´d killed many many people. But now he faced something that had killed hundreds and thousands of people withing a few days and it would kill even more in the days that lay before them. So much more than he would have been able to kill in a whole life. Now he looked back the way they´d come and wondered how all this could have happened. But wondering was useless. There was no answer. Things had happened and there was nothing they could do to make it undone. Not with Hiro Nakamura being dead too.

So many people. People they hadn´t been able to save. People who had died of cold probably without even knowing what was happening to them. Sylar sighed and with a shiver he realized that he could see his breath in front of him. Oh, yeah it was getting colder. They didn´t have much time left. Maybe they would if they would keep running. But they just couldn´t run anymore. They had run as long as they could but they were tired. Most of them were kids and kids couldn´t run forever. None of them could.

Maybe he would have been able to keep going. Maybe Mohinder would have been able to keep going. But not Tracy and her kids. Sylar had run into them on his way out of the danger zone. He´d been running from this last lost fight, where Peter had sacrificed his life for him. Maybe it was fate who had brought them together in this place. In this time. He´d lost the battle to save the world but he had been able to help them run. Even if they knew it was only delaying. But instinct was a strong thing. As long as they were still alive they would run. Of course. They just had to. Especially Tracy who had sworn to protect these kids.

And Mohinder. To meet him there had been the biggest surprise. He´d been helping Tracy for a while, occasionally visiting her shelter she´d created, her little family. What a cruel sense of humor fate could have. He´d been there for only two days when the end had began. Now they were all here, hiding in a cave, waiting for the cold to come and consume them.

Sylar closed his eyes for a moment. He was tired. A tiredness that came along with the cold. For a moment he could see Peter again. And the others. So many of them. All dead. And their screams, that had died within the roaring of this coldness. If it only would be a storm that would come for them too. It would be easier to stand than this sneaking cold. When all of this had started, some had believed it to be something intelligent. Some kind of evil spirit behind the storm or something. But Sylar knew it wasn´t. It was nothing like that. Just the end. And this end didn´t care at all. It would come, consume them all and then it would go away again, leaving a dead world behind.

A hand touched his shoulder and made him jump. He opened his eyes and looked into the concerned face of doctor Suresh. Unbelievable that he truly lived to see the day when Mohinder was actually concerned about his well being.

„Are you okay?" he asked and Sylar nodded. But then he reconsidered his answer.

„No." he said and looked out again. It wasn´t necessary to explain what he meant. They all knew it.

„How long do you think we still have?" Mohinder asked looking out into the darkness too.

„Don´t know." Sylar said. „Tonight. Tomorrow. Who knows." He searched the gaze of the other man. „How´s Tracy?" he asked.

„She´s getting worse." Mohinder told him with a choked voice.

Sylar could only shake his head in disbelieve. How? How was all this possible? Tracy had been the last person on earth he would have expected to be effected by the cold. But she seemed to be even worse than all of them together. As if the ice inside of her was attracted by that cold that followed them, freezing her even faster than any of them.

„Doctor Suresh!" one of the kids, a little girl named Annie cried. „Tracy isn´t well."

The two of them immediately hurried back into the cave, to where Tracy lay next to a small fire. A fire that provided no warmth at all. Not against this kind of coldness. It was burning for good hope more than for anything else. Tracy´s kids, their age varying from six to eighteen, were sitting around her, looking at her with fear in their eyes. Mohinder knelt down next to her and lay a hand on her forehead. He had to withdraw it, when he found her too cold to touch her for long.

„Please." Tracy brought out through shivering lips.

„You have to stay calm, Tracy." the doctor tried to talk to her but she shook her head, a single tear slipping out of her eye and freezing immediately on her cheek.

„Take care of the kids." she begged. „Promise that you´ll protect them."

„I promise." Mohinder said after a moment of hesitation.

Tracy nodded and closed her eyes against the tears. Mohinder looked over his shoulder into Sylar´s eyes. There was nothing they could do and they both knew it. They all knew it. The kids too. But even worse than that was the fact that they probably knew as well that the promise Mohinder had just given was useless anyway. Of course he´d promised to protect them. Tracy was dying. But they all knew that he wouldn´t be able to protect them from what was coming.

Tracy´s face relaxed and after another minute it was completely solid. Frozen dead. Some of the kids started to sob quietly, but the whole gathering remained surprisingly calm. That was the worst of it. Because it showed how much they all had already accepted that there was nothing left for them to do. No place to run, no hope to survive longer than the next day. And even that was an optimistic thought.

Sylar shivered again. Outside of their cave it was fully dark by now. Maybe the last night they all would live on this earth. And there weren´t even stars in the sky. Sylar couldn´t believe it but he was actually scared of the night that lay before them. It would be a long night. Such a long night.

...

The day had begun. A chilling and icy cold day. Mohinder looked over the wide area they could see from up here where their cave lay. It looked like in winter even though it was only July. The sun that shone above them seemed as cold as everything. As if no warmth was left in this world.

The others were still asleep. Probably a good thing. Though Mohinder wasn´t sure if he should be relieved or concerned about the fact that they had been able to sleep at all. Sleeping was dangerous in the cold. The kids had cuddled together to warm each other but that was still nothing more than delaying. Some of them might not wake up anymore already. And maybe that was even a mercy. It was better than to face what was coming for them. To face this.

„Can´t sleep anymore either, hm?" a deep voice spoke up behind him.

Mohinder swirled around. It was the pure force of habit that he expected to be attacked by Sylar when he looked into his eyes now. But of course he knew that this wouldn´t happen. Not anymore. Things had changed. The world was coming to an end and they were all equally helpless against this. It was still the strangest thing for him that he was facing the end side by side with the man he had considered to be his worst enemy. But now that he looked into Sylar´s eyes he saw nothing of this man. Only someone who waited for the end, the way he did, unable to fight it any longer, trying to figure out how to face it.

Now Sylar looked at him, asking, almost begging for guidance.

„They used to say everything happens as it is supposte to happen." he said. „Maybe that´s true. But why? Can you tell me why, doctor?" He stepped forward and looked outside, the way they had been standing here yesterday. Side by side, while Tracy was dying in the cave behind them. „What´s going to happen to this world, Mohinder?" he asked now. „I mean … Everything out there is dead. Is this really the end? Of everything?"

„We don´t know if everything is dead." Mohinder said after a while.

„I don´t think that anyone survived out there." Sylar shook his head. „You saw it too. What happened to all these people."

„I´m not talking about humans." the scientist went on. „Maybe this is the end of human kind. If things go on the way they started, I see no hope either. But … life … it always finds a way. There is always something that survives."

Sylar chuckled. „Like cockroaches?"

„Maybe." Mohinder affirmed. „Or maybe it will be something else. Something none of us would have expected. There are several creatures that can stand the lowest temperatures and wake up again as if nothing happened."

„Always the scientist, huh?" Sylar asked with a smile.

„I have to believe in that." Mohinder said. „I have to believe that this world will keep spinning around. Maybe humans won´t be there to see it … but I´m sure there will be a new world. One day."

Sylar smiled at him and nodded. He actually seemed to understand. And again there was this strange feeling to stand here, next to someone he had hated for so many years. How had all this happened? How had it come that far? Mohinder didn´t know the answer to that. But he knew one thing. When facing the end of all things, semantics didn´t really matter anymore. And neither did the past. Sylar was here and Mohinder was actually grateful that he didn´t have to be alone in this hell. He wouldn´t want to carry the responsibility for the promise he´d given to Tracy, all on his own.

As strange as it was, but Sylar, the murderer, the monster, was the last person he had left on this earth. And the way things looked like, they would die together out here. The way Tracy had died. The way the kids that were still sleeping in the cave would die soon. The way almost every human being on this earth would die. No, not almost. Every human being would be dead when all this was over. Maybe they even were already. Who told them that they were not the last by now? Before the radios had failed, they had received news from all around the world. It was everywhere. And it was spreading. Essentially they were just waiting for the blue star that was their world to go out for good.

Sylar gave Mohinder´s arm a brief pat. The way they had used to do it so many years ago, when they had first met. When things had been different.

„I´ll check on the kids." he said and Mohinder nodded. Sylar went back into the cave, leaving Mohinder alone with his thoughts.

The scientist wrapped his arms around himself against the cold. Outside the day was white and unfriendly. Mohinder had always been a man that loved the sun, the daylight. But now he was actually scared of the coming day. It would be so awfully long.

...

It had happened. In the end it had caught up with them. No wonder. They had given up on their try to run anyway. After the first night in this cave, when five of the kids had just not woken up anymore, the rest of them had refused to keep running. They all had known that any delay was useless. So they had stayed. Waited. Waited for the end to come.

Some of the kids had even gone out. Two boys, one of them sixteen the other only fourteen and their girlfriends. They´d said they didn´t want to just sit around and wait for it. If they had to die they wanted to go out there and face it. Sylar could even understand that. The sad thing was that he also knew that the kids wouldn´t find a fight out there, the way their instinct told them. The only thing they would find would be the overwhelming cold. They would moving slower and slower and in the end they would have to sit down, maybe embracing each other for protection. But none of this would help. They would die out there. Maybe they were dead already. Probably. It had been hours ago since they had left. Of course they were dead by now. It was so cold in this cave that not even a fire would burn anymore.

Sylar was freezing too. His healing abilities kept him alive so far but he felt that his time was running out as well. Maybe slower than the others. Much slower. But in the end he would die just like all of them. But before he died he would see all the others pass away. Some of them peacefully like the children that had died in their sleep. Others would cry, like Tracy. Sylar had never believed that the death of another person could hurt so much inside of his soul. He had watched so many deaths over the years. He had caused so many. And now he wanted to cry himself, just because he couldn´t do anything but watch. God, he couldn´t even remember how long they were already here. It felt like an eternity.

Sylar looked around in the cave, his gaze wandering over all the dead kids they had already lost. Tracy was amongst them. They´d brought them into a small pocket in the back of the cave. They all lay there in a line, as if this was a morgue. And in some way it was. Sylar looked at them and his heart wanted to break. The cold was coming for its pray in the darkness of the night.

They hadn´t covered the bodies like they would have done it under different circumstances. They needed the blankets for the (still) living. Sylar had never been afraid of death. Not his own at least. But now he was afraid. Because the dying had started and there was no way to stop it.

...

In the end it hadn´t been that long after all. Only two days. The last kid had died ten minutes ago and now nothing was left anymore. Mohinder had been hanging on until now, but now he was fading away very quickly. His last reserves were gone. The man was exhausted and his spirit was sinking down. His skin had taken on an unhealthy grey colour. He just had no strength left to fight.

„Let me." he slurred through his numb lips, when Sylar wrapped another blanket around him. „Just … let it be."

There was a part of Sylar´s soul that wanted to do him the favour. He didn´t want to burden his friend with even more than he already had to face. He didn´t want him to suffer any longer. But if he would let him go now, he would be alone. And he had no idea how long he would have to suffer. Waiting for the death was one thing. But waiting alone … no. He just couldn´t do that.

So he sat down on the cold ground next to Mohinder and wrapped his arms around the half gone man, rubbing his arms to create some warmth. He would keep him alive as long as he could. He didn´t care if he was selfish with that. He just couldn´t be alone. He couldn´t die alone. But in the end he knew that he would. No matter how long Mohinder would hang on. Sylar would last longer. So much longer.

But he would hold onto him. The last human being on this planet he had left. The man that had once hated him like no one else. Now he was all that he had left. So he sat there and held him. He held him even after the other man´s eyes had fallen shut and his skin had turned cold. He held him and waited. Waited for the end. No matter when it would come. He would face it here. Because there was nowhere else to go. Not for him. Not for anybody. It was the end of the world and he would be that last human on earth that died.

Ghostly clouds crawled over the ground before his feet, talking about the cold that had killed everybody but him. Now it had come to get him as well. The last one left. Sylar cried. He closed his eyes and lay his head against Mohinder´s cold one. When the sleep started to come over him, he didn´t fight it. Not anymore.

Thank you for reading. You may leave a comment and tell me what you think.