cruiscin_lan: (Sylar is keen to your deceptiveness)
cruiscin_lan ([personal profile] cruiscin_lan) wrote2008-12-07 03:34 am

Fic: Beyond Repair

Title: Beyond Repair
Characters/Pairings: Sylar/Elle
Rating: PG for brains.
Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of any of its characters.
Word Count: 713
Spoiler alert: spoilers for episodes 3.08 and 3.11
Summary: There had to be a way to wind her up again, to get her running, to bring her back...

She hadn't screamed, and she hadn't exploded in an electrical maelstrom like last time. She had whimpered a little when she realized what was about to happen, but she didn't shed a single tear. She wasn't going to mourn Gabriel if it was going to make Sylar happy.

So he found his satisfaction another way. After a telekinetic slice, he pulled her skullcap from her head, exposing he gray matter. In the wrinkles of her brain he imagined he'd find the truth about who he was. He gently placed one finger against those wrinkles, tracing them the way he'd trace his finger along the gears of a clock. He was going to find out what had made her tick.

It had been a while since he'd used his power of clairsentience, the ability that Angela Petrelli had so generously given him via Bridget Bailey. He'd used it only one other time on a human being - the living, breathing, immortal Claire Bennet - and he wondered how well it would work on the dead.

It was a rapid influx of knowledge - memories in the form of images, sound bytes, even smells. It was almost more than he could sort out in his mind: the flakes of ashes that singed her nose and cheeks as she escaped from a burning house with her grandmother; the prickly sensation of a needle in her arm, left in there for days; the number of times she told her father she loved him and he replied by simply shutting the door behind him as he left.

He found her first assignment, and he paused, trying to take in as much detail as he possibly could. Here is where he expected to find the truth, and he did - only it wasn't the truth he was looking for. She had saved his life that day, of that there was no doubt - but she had saved him only to push him over the edge. She had admitted it freely to him.

But she had been lying. Sylar faded away as he realized that she had liked him, really liked him, as Gabriel. She had been trying to protect him from his fate all along.

His stomach lurched and the tears in his eyes turned hot. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced in so long, not since he'd first met her when she came into his repair shop that day. Guilt. Remorse. Hopelessness. The wretchedness of having broken something beyond the point of repair.

Despite the knot in his gut, he looked once more into Elle's face, her eyes still wide open, and allowed himself to hope. There had to be a way to fix this - he was, after all, a repairman, first and foremost. He had taken her apart and seen how she worked. There had to be a way to wind her up again, to get her running, to bring her back...

He furiously ran back through her memories in his mind, looking for the "on" switch. He hesitated over something Bennet said... something about his ability... the ability to transfer powers from one vessel to another...

He knew, then, what he had to do. He had to give her what he had taken from Claire, the ability to heal, to return from death's precipice. As soon as he realized he could do it, he knew exactly how, intuitively. It would mean he'd never again die to be resurrected; he'd never heal instantly after a wound or injury; he wouldn't be invulnerable.

But he wasn't invulnerable anyway - that was something he'd only just learned. By killing Elle, he'd hurt himself so badly he didn't know that he'd ever recover. By giving her the power to heal, he'd only be sacrificing the physical aspect. He'd have to find a way to forgive himself on his own. He hoped that she'd find a way to forgive him, too.

He traced his finger along the wrinkles in her brain again, gently, carefully, copying what he'd seen in the head of Claire Bennet. She gasped as he pulled his hand away, fitting her skullcap back on. He silently watched bone and skin fuse together, no scar to prove that anything had ever happened.

Elle's expression said otherwise. Tears fell freely from the corners of her eyes now, and she screamed.

[identity profile] catyuy.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I will just keep saying I love this.

[identity profile] motylik.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I wish this is what happens. *sighs* I doubt it though. Great idea! Continue maybe?

[identity profile] cruiscin-lan.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I hadn't intended to continue, but maybe a plot bunny will run by me later on, and I'll follow it down a rabbit hole or something.

[identity profile] eternal-moonie.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 02:46 pm (UTC)(link)
This fic was amazing! Poor Elle!

[identity profile] dragynflies.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh man, he fucked up hardcore, huh?

Poor Elle...now I just feel bad that he brought her back.

:(

[identity profile] ashesfor-trees.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"There had to be a way to fix this - he was, after all, a repairman, first and foremost. He had taken her apart and seen how she worked. There had to be a way to wind her up again, to get her running, to bring her back..."

Fan-fucking-tastic, man. Absolutely :)

and I love the end.

[identity profile] dacian-goddess.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Whoa! This packed a hell of a punch. It's heady how emotionally layered this is, and the cycle of broken and fixed.

Hmm. Does that then mean that her original power is gone, or that he's made it so she assimilates the healing alongside her electricity? And wouldn't his empathetic connection with Elle (hopefully) mean he hasn't truly lost Claire's ability after all?

[identity profile] cruiscin-lan.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I love it when my fic punches people. :P

I don't think healing would replace electricity, so I imagine she'd be able to do both. Re: empathic connection, I don't know if they'd even have one anymore after he killed her.

[identity profile] dacian-goddess.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yes, I don't imagine *they* would, but it's clearly still there on his part, at least, given the lengths he's just gone to. It would be a lot of fun exploring if that would be enough, actually, or if he'd need it to go both ways, or how it would even work at all since it's something that he put in there to begin with.

Um. Sorry for the ramblies; I really enjoy thinking "out loud" for some reason.

[identity profile] cruiscin-lan.livejournal.com 2008-12-07 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
You're going to inspire me to write more! Stop! I have too many things to do this week!

[identity profile] sellthelie.livejournal.com 2008-12-08 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
That was brilliant, would love to see what comes next. ♥

[identity profile] candlewaxdreams.livejournal.com 2008-12-08 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
This just makes me hurt for both of them. He wants to badly to correct the mistake he made by killing her, but he just managed to fuck everything up more. I don't think she'll be forgiving him anytime soon :(

This part especially got me:

Sylar faded away as he realized that she had liked him, really liked him, as Gabriel. She had been trying to protect him from his fate all along.

His stomach lurched and the tears in his eyes turned hot. It was a feeling he hadn't experienced in so long, not since he'd first met her when she came into his repair shop that day. Guilt. Remorse. Hopelessness. The wretchedness of having broken something beyond the point of repair.

[identity profile] shamusandstone.livejournal.com 2009-03-30 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
Eee, this is so beautiful and sharp and plausible (I'll admit I got a little "hey!" when he gave her Claire's power, because I was planning to write something utilizing that premise, but this is just too good to get territorial over).

[identity profile] cruiscin-lan.livejournal.com 2009-03-31 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Now you have to write it because I want to read it! You can't tease people like that!