Fic: The Bargain
Title: The Bargain
Rating: PG
Words: 1900
Characters: Mohinder, Sylar (mild Mylar if you want to see it)
Warnings: General Sylar-related creepiness.
Spoilers: Set some time after the end of Season 2.
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not writing this for profit.
A/N: About two months ago, I wrote something titled Dreaming, where Mohinder, out on a mission, was jumped by a mugger and found out he’s being followed (warning: that one’s definitely Mylar and is NC-17). Then I wrote a sort-of-companion story about Sylar’s own dream. This fic takes place a few days after Dreaming; you can understand it without reading the earlier fic, but you might want to read it to get the backstory.
Summary: Mohinder gets a surprise visitor, and a shock.
Mohinder wrestled the suitcase out of the car and over to his motel room door as carefully as possible. Four days of healing had improved his shoulder somewhat, but he was still extremely sore. He fished the room key out of his pocket, clicked the door open, and then reached back for the suitcase handle, only to find another hand on it.
“Need some help with that, Dr. Suresh?”
Mohinder jerked a couple of steps backwards. Sylar stood there, smiling, obviously enjoying the effect his sudden appearance was having.
There was no point in running; Sylar could stop him in an instant. And without a weapon-hell, even with a weapon, he didn’t stand a chance in a physical fight.
“It’s rather chilly out here, don’t you think?” Sylar said, pulling his bag inside. Mohinder looked around. No one else was in sight. And even if he called out for help, he would just be dragging innocent people to their deaths. He swallowed and stepped inside. Sylar shut the door behind him.
Mohinder turned to watch him. “How did you find me?” he asked.
“You left your car rental agreement in the glove box,” Sylar said. “It said right there at the top: one-way, with a drop-off in Colorado Springs. Not very prudent behavior for a Company spy, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mohinder snapped, “There are dozens, if not hundreds, of hotels in this area. How did that magically lead you to this one?”
“I carefully considered what I know about your habits and preferences, your likely trajectory, and your probable price range.” A grin. “That, and I listened to the call you made from Toledo to reserve this room. You should really try to be more punctual for check-in, Mohinder. A man could get frostbite, waiting around a parking lot for you to show up.”
Mohinder gaped. Sylar with a sense of humor was odd enough. But that smile, happy but strangely intent, uncomfortably brought back memories.
He walked to the sink and set his keys down on it - any excuse to get away from Sylar’s gaze and buy himself some time to think. He heard the rustle of Sylar’s coat as the man walked up behind him.
“Relax, Mohinder,” Sylar murmured, and then his hands were slipping around to pull Mohinder’s suit jacket open and slide it down off his shoulders. Mohinder took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
A chuckle. “Well, well. Wearing a gun holster now?”
“Yes,” Mohinder said. “If I’d had it on earlier this week, maybe-”
“Maybe what? Maybe the mugger who jumped you would have politely stood aside and waited for you to draw? Oh, Mohinder. You really do need a handler to watch over you.” Sylar hooked thumbs under the leather straps and pulled the holster slowly off. Mohinder shivered.
Then fingers were gently touching his shoulder. “How is this doing?” Mohinder glanced up at the mirror. Sylar wasn’t looking at their reflection. His half-closed eyes were tilted towards Mohinder’s neck.
Mohinder twisted and pulled away and Sylar turned to look at him, giving him a smile with an edge. Mohinder said, “Why don’t you just tell me what I’ve done to earn the dubious pleasure of being stalked by you?”
That smile widened. “I have a proposition to make that I think you’ll find very interesting.”
“This is a dream,” Mohinder said. “A very, very, very bad dream, from which I’ll awaken shortly.”
Sylar laughed. He walked across the room and lounged back in one of the chairs. “Don’t get yourself all worked up, doctor. Just sit down and relax and we’ll have a little chat.”
To get to the other chair, he’d have to pass close by Sylar, and he’d be even further away from the door. He sat stiffly on a corner of the bed and did his best to glower menacingly.
“We both want the same thing, Mohinder. I want to find the people who injected me with a lethal virus…you want to make sure they don’t inject anyone else.”
“Those are not the same thing,” Mohinder retorted. “And I doubt that my intentions are anywhere near as murderous as yours-”
“What does it matter, as long as we’re both working toward the same goal?” Sylar interrupted. “And as for murder - how exactly were you planning on putting an end to all this? Were you going to slap their hands and tell them to play nicely from now on?”
Mohinder looked away in frustration. That was the problem, of course.
“What exactly are you doing, Mohinder?” Sylar asked curiously.
Mohinder looked at him caustically. “You don’t know? Even after you’ve pawed through all my files?”
Sylar raised an eyebrow and looked at him as if he were the one being unreasonable. “I’m just curious as to why you’re still tracking down special people. I thought that now that you’re working for the Company, you might have expanded your repertoire a bit. Especially since, as far as I can tell, you’re contacting people who’ve already encountered the Company. It doesn’t seem like much of a challenge.”
Mohinder hesitated, but he didn't have a ready lie that would sound more believable than the truth, especially since Sylar surely had figured most of it out already. “I’ve been trying to see if they’ve forced the virus on other people.” He tried not to think about the girl he had almost injected himself. “It’s bad enough that this may have been inflicted on innocents who don’t deserve that kind of death. But if it gets out into the general population…” He sighed and suddenly felt the weight of everything pulling him down. He stared down at his hands as Sylar watched him silently.
Suddenly, he was tired of the game. He said, “I have no resources to pull on outside of the Company now. This is all I can do. They’re concerned enough about keeping me happy that they’ve allowed me the time to make trips of my own. I don’t know if they’re following me. It’s not much, but at least if I can save a few people - and if it leads me to useful information-”
“Have you found anyone who’s willing to talk to you?” Sylar interrupted.
“Two,” Mohinder said. “They both had vague, discomforting memories of being abducted, and the things I had to say about the Company fit in with that.”
“And did you find anyone with the virus?”
Mohinder finally looked up, irritated with the prompting. “One did. But it was the original strain, and I can’t determine where she was infected. She could have picked it up naturally from someone in public. Or she could have contracted it accidentally during her…stay at the facility. I can’t find anything proving she was given it under orders.”
“So, what? Did you offer her a nice hot injection of the cure?”
Mohinder glared. “Despite everything, she had a hard time believing the virus could do that to her. I gave her my contact information. Told her that if she shows symptoms and loses her ability to - loses her ability, she should call me and I’ll make arrangements to help her.”
“What was her ability?”
“Nothing you need,” Mohinder snapped.
Sylar laughed lightly again. “I need a lot of things, Mohinder.” He leaned forward on the table. “Right now, I need something from you. I was hoping we could come to an arrangement that would be mutually beneficial.”
“You must be joking.”
Sylar shrugged and looked up at him, and Mohinder was again reminded of the day they’d met. “I have a number of resources at my disposal that allow me to accomplish things that you can’t do. On the other hand, there are certain places you can go, and certain people you can talk to, that I can’t. We do both want the same thing, Mohinder. We can get there much more quickly together.”
Mohinder was incredulous. “You cannot be serious. After everything that you have done, to me, to my family, to people I care about, you cannot honestly be delusional enough to believe that there is any way I would ever-”
“Your sister could manipulate water molecules,” Sylar interrupted.
Mohinder’s chest constricted. “What did you say?”
“Your sister,” Sylar repeated. His face was suddenly utterly serious. “She could manipulate water molecules. I’ve seen the file. The Company’s nerve center is in New York, but they’ve got facilities in Oak Park in Illinois, and in Texas.” His lips compressed in anger. “I’m sure there are others, but I haven’t located them yet - the Company seems to ensure that they all operate independently of each other. The one in Illinois is probably the oldest; a lot of the old paper records are stored there. That’s where I came across her file.”
Mohinder couldn’t say anything.
“It seems your father had an abstract published that attracted their attention. They sent a team to investigate him to see if he might be a good recruit. One of them watched your sister playing in the garden and figured it out. Shortly after that, she fell ill. They somehow got samples of her tissue to work on, but their researchers couldn’t make any more headway in finding a cure than your father could. So, they just watched-”
Mohinder realized his fists were clenched tight.
“Apparently, after the-”
“I want that file,” Mohinder interrupted.
Sylar looked startled. “It’s not that easy to get in and out of there. I can fool the visible spectrum security cameras, but I haven’t yet figured out a way to avoid showing up on infrared, which means I had to map out a roundabout route through the building. Even if I’m not visible, there’s always a danger of someone bumping into me accidentally, or hearing me turn pages in an otherwise silent room. And the-”
“I want that file,” Mohinder repeated, getting to his feet.
“If it goes missing, you’ll be the first person they have suspicions about. Especially because of your involvement in the current research.”
“Except that I won’t be anywhere near the facility when the records go missing, will I?”
Sylar regarded him for several seconds and then stood as well, a smile quirking at the corners of his mouth. “So we have a deal then?”
“What?”
Sylar’s eyebrows flickered upward. “You didn’t think I was going to make a risky trip for no reason, did you? You can’t get something for nothing, doctor. And from the look on your face, I’d say there isn’t much in this world more valuable to you than that file right now.”
Mohinder stared at him, mouth open. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them again, they were filled with resignation and dread. “All right. I’ll...all right. But only if you get me that file first.”
“Consider it done, doctor.” Sylar raised a hand, and the door clicked and opened. Mohinder watched him carefully as he paused on the threshold and then turned to look back, just as intently.
“By the way, Mohinder…you mentioned your concern for all the people who didn’t deserve the virus. Am I by any chance on that particular list?”
“Just go,” Mohinder snapped. “Get out.”
Sylar smirked as he raised his hand again and the door swung towards him. Just before it latched shut, he called out, “That’s not an answer, Mohinder.”
Rating: PG
Words: 1900
Characters: Mohinder, Sylar (mild Mylar if you want to see it)
Warnings: General Sylar-related creepiness.
Spoilers: Set some time after the end of Season 2.
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not writing this for profit.
A/N: About two months ago, I wrote something titled Dreaming, where Mohinder, out on a mission, was jumped by a mugger and found out he’s being followed (warning: that one’s definitely Mylar and is NC-17). Then I wrote a sort-of-companion story about Sylar’s own dream. This fic takes place a few days after Dreaming; you can understand it without reading the earlier fic, but you might want to read it to get the backstory.
Summary: Mohinder gets a surprise visitor, and a shock.
Mohinder wrestled the suitcase out of the car and over to his motel room door as carefully as possible. Four days of healing had improved his shoulder somewhat, but he was still extremely sore. He fished the room key out of his pocket, clicked the door open, and then reached back for the suitcase handle, only to find another hand on it.
“Need some help with that, Dr. Suresh?”
Mohinder jerked a couple of steps backwards. Sylar stood there, smiling, obviously enjoying the effect his sudden appearance was having.
There was no point in running; Sylar could stop him in an instant. And without a weapon-hell, even with a weapon, he didn’t stand a chance in a physical fight.
“It’s rather chilly out here, don’t you think?” Sylar said, pulling his bag inside. Mohinder looked around. No one else was in sight. And even if he called out for help, he would just be dragging innocent people to their deaths. He swallowed and stepped inside. Sylar shut the door behind him.
Mohinder turned to watch him. “How did you find me?” he asked.
“You left your car rental agreement in the glove box,” Sylar said. “It said right there at the top: one-way, with a drop-off in Colorado Springs. Not very prudent behavior for a Company spy, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mohinder snapped, “There are dozens, if not hundreds, of hotels in this area. How did that magically lead you to this one?”
“I carefully considered what I know about your habits and preferences, your likely trajectory, and your probable price range.” A grin. “That, and I listened to the call you made from Toledo to reserve this room. You should really try to be more punctual for check-in, Mohinder. A man could get frostbite, waiting around a parking lot for you to show up.”
Mohinder gaped. Sylar with a sense of humor was odd enough. But that smile, happy but strangely intent, uncomfortably brought back memories.
He walked to the sink and set his keys down on it - any excuse to get away from Sylar’s gaze and buy himself some time to think. He heard the rustle of Sylar’s coat as the man walked up behind him.
“Relax, Mohinder,” Sylar murmured, and then his hands were slipping around to pull Mohinder’s suit jacket open and slide it down off his shoulders. Mohinder took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
A chuckle. “Well, well. Wearing a gun holster now?”
“Yes,” Mohinder said. “If I’d had it on earlier this week, maybe-”
“Maybe what? Maybe the mugger who jumped you would have politely stood aside and waited for you to draw? Oh, Mohinder. You really do need a handler to watch over you.” Sylar hooked thumbs under the leather straps and pulled the holster slowly off. Mohinder shivered.
Then fingers were gently touching his shoulder. “How is this doing?” Mohinder glanced up at the mirror. Sylar wasn’t looking at their reflection. His half-closed eyes were tilted towards Mohinder’s neck.
Mohinder twisted and pulled away and Sylar turned to look at him, giving him a smile with an edge. Mohinder said, “Why don’t you just tell me what I’ve done to earn the dubious pleasure of being stalked by you?”
That smile widened. “I have a proposition to make that I think you’ll find very interesting.”
“This is a dream,” Mohinder said. “A very, very, very bad dream, from which I’ll awaken shortly.”
Sylar laughed. He walked across the room and lounged back in one of the chairs. “Don’t get yourself all worked up, doctor. Just sit down and relax and we’ll have a little chat.”
To get to the other chair, he’d have to pass close by Sylar, and he’d be even further away from the door. He sat stiffly on a corner of the bed and did his best to glower menacingly.
“We both want the same thing, Mohinder. I want to find the people who injected me with a lethal virus…you want to make sure they don’t inject anyone else.”
“Those are not the same thing,” Mohinder retorted. “And I doubt that my intentions are anywhere near as murderous as yours-”
“What does it matter, as long as we’re both working toward the same goal?” Sylar interrupted. “And as for murder - how exactly were you planning on putting an end to all this? Were you going to slap their hands and tell them to play nicely from now on?”
Mohinder looked away in frustration. That was the problem, of course.
“What exactly are you doing, Mohinder?” Sylar asked curiously.
Mohinder looked at him caustically. “You don’t know? Even after you’ve pawed through all my files?”
Sylar raised an eyebrow and looked at him as if he were the one being unreasonable. “I’m just curious as to why you’re still tracking down special people. I thought that now that you’re working for the Company, you might have expanded your repertoire a bit. Especially since, as far as I can tell, you’re contacting people who’ve already encountered the Company. It doesn’t seem like much of a challenge.”
Mohinder hesitated, but he didn't have a ready lie that would sound more believable than the truth, especially since Sylar surely had figured most of it out already. “I’ve been trying to see if they’ve forced the virus on other people.” He tried not to think about the girl he had almost injected himself. “It’s bad enough that this may have been inflicted on innocents who don’t deserve that kind of death. But if it gets out into the general population…” He sighed and suddenly felt the weight of everything pulling him down. He stared down at his hands as Sylar watched him silently.
Suddenly, he was tired of the game. He said, “I have no resources to pull on outside of the Company now. This is all I can do. They’re concerned enough about keeping me happy that they’ve allowed me the time to make trips of my own. I don’t know if they’re following me. It’s not much, but at least if I can save a few people - and if it leads me to useful information-”
“Have you found anyone who’s willing to talk to you?” Sylar interrupted.
“Two,” Mohinder said. “They both had vague, discomforting memories of being abducted, and the things I had to say about the Company fit in with that.”
“And did you find anyone with the virus?”
Mohinder finally looked up, irritated with the prompting. “One did. But it was the original strain, and I can’t determine where she was infected. She could have picked it up naturally from someone in public. Or she could have contracted it accidentally during her…stay at the facility. I can’t find anything proving she was given it under orders.”
“So, what? Did you offer her a nice hot injection of the cure?”
Mohinder glared. “Despite everything, she had a hard time believing the virus could do that to her. I gave her my contact information. Told her that if she shows symptoms and loses her ability to - loses her ability, she should call me and I’ll make arrangements to help her.”
“What was her ability?”
“Nothing you need,” Mohinder snapped.
Sylar laughed lightly again. “I need a lot of things, Mohinder.” He leaned forward on the table. “Right now, I need something from you. I was hoping we could come to an arrangement that would be mutually beneficial.”
“You must be joking.”
Sylar shrugged and looked up at him, and Mohinder was again reminded of the day they’d met. “I have a number of resources at my disposal that allow me to accomplish things that you can’t do. On the other hand, there are certain places you can go, and certain people you can talk to, that I can’t. We do both want the same thing, Mohinder. We can get there much more quickly together.”
Mohinder was incredulous. “You cannot be serious. After everything that you have done, to me, to my family, to people I care about, you cannot honestly be delusional enough to believe that there is any way I would ever-”
“Your sister could manipulate water molecules,” Sylar interrupted.
Mohinder’s chest constricted. “What did you say?”
“Your sister,” Sylar repeated. His face was suddenly utterly serious. “She could manipulate water molecules. I’ve seen the file. The Company’s nerve center is in New York, but they’ve got facilities in Oak Park in Illinois, and in Texas.” His lips compressed in anger. “I’m sure there are others, but I haven’t located them yet - the Company seems to ensure that they all operate independently of each other. The one in Illinois is probably the oldest; a lot of the old paper records are stored there. That’s where I came across her file.”
Mohinder couldn’t say anything.
“It seems your father had an abstract published that attracted their attention. They sent a team to investigate him to see if he might be a good recruit. One of them watched your sister playing in the garden and figured it out. Shortly after that, she fell ill. They somehow got samples of her tissue to work on, but their researchers couldn’t make any more headway in finding a cure than your father could. So, they just watched-”
Mohinder realized his fists were clenched tight.
“Apparently, after the-”
“I want that file,” Mohinder interrupted.
Sylar looked startled. “It’s not that easy to get in and out of there. I can fool the visible spectrum security cameras, but I haven’t yet figured out a way to avoid showing up on infrared, which means I had to map out a roundabout route through the building. Even if I’m not visible, there’s always a danger of someone bumping into me accidentally, or hearing me turn pages in an otherwise silent room. And the-”
“I want that file,” Mohinder repeated, getting to his feet.
“If it goes missing, you’ll be the first person they have suspicions about. Especially because of your involvement in the current research.”
“Except that I won’t be anywhere near the facility when the records go missing, will I?”
Sylar regarded him for several seconds and then stood as well, a smile quirking at the corners of his mouth. “So we have a deal then?”
“What?”
Sylar’s eyebrows flickered upward. “You didn’t think I was going to make a risky trip for no reason, did you? You can’t get something for nothing, doctor. And from the look on your face, I’d say there isn’t much in this world more valuable to you than that file right now.”
Mohinder stared at him, mouth open. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them again, they were filled with resignation and dread. “All right. I’ll...all right. But only if you get me that file first.”
“Consider it done, doctor.” Sylar raised a hand, and the door clicked and opened. Mohinder watched him carefully as he paused on the threshold and then turned to look back, just as intently.
“By the way, Mohinder…you mentioned your concern for all the people who didn’t deserve the virus. Am I by any chance on that particular list?”
“Just go,” Mohinder snapped. “Get out.”
Sylar smirked as he raised his hand again and the door swung towards him. Just before it latched shut, he called out, “That’s not an answer, Mohinder.”