ellectrical | (no subject)

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When they had returned, Elle had forced her way through the first door she could, if only to, for a moment, get away from Bennet.

Instead, she'd ended up at the Bar. For the first time, she's not entirely sure she wants to be here.

So she'd retreated through the back door, out toward the grounds, making her way to the lawn near the lake. Though it had been the middle of the night in her world, it's very early morning here, sunlight just beginning to brighten the eastern sky. Elle really only pays attention to the extent that she can see well enough to find a spot reasonably apart from the water, where she sits down in the grass, her knees pulled up to her chest.

She's not sparking, but she is, very slightly, shaking.

The stuffed dog sits in the grass a few inches away from her. It had still been in her hand when she walked through the door.

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X frowns very slightly, attempting to follow Elle's question.

She does not want to get it wrong.

"When you stopped -- "

There should be a word for it. Multiple words, even.

X does not know what they are. So instead --

"After you remembered."

"Yeah," she answers.

"After that."

"I do not know," X says, after a long silence.

"If I understand."

Beat.

"It was different. For me."

X is not good at emotional extrapolation. Interpolation is a different story.

"But I do not think you have to explain."

"I can explain."

Beat

"If you want."

X hesitates.

Then, carefully --

"You do not mind?"

"I don't mind."

But apparently, X is going to have to actually ask.

"Okay."

X absorbs that for a moment, letting the semi-certainty sink in.

Then --

"You will explain? About what you started to do. After you remembered."

Beat.

"Please."

Her grip on her knees becomes tighter, and she looks away from X, leaning her head against them.

"It's about - where I was before. The place I had to escape before."

After a moment X sits down, too, bringing her own knees up.

It is more comfortable this way. Inasmuch as anything can be comfortable right now.

"The place that was -- "

What are the words she wants to use?

" -- like the Facility?"

"Yes. Not the Company, but -"

Like the Facility.

"And the - telepath was there."

"The one that made you forget. And remember?"

X is --

Not entirely sure.

"No."

She's folded herself too tightly to shake her head.

"Not - exactly. He wanted me to help him. With Sylar."

"Oh."

There are many reasons why that thought is upsetting.

Among them --

"To use him? Or to kill him."

She is doubtful whether a Facility-like place would have considered any other options.

"To use him."

She has to take a moment to breathe, and then. "Most people didn't want to be near him."

But Elle was disposable.

"That is sensible," X says, after a moment.

He saw her as a thing, too. Sylar.

It is problematic.

"I would not want to be, either. Now."

Beat.

"He made you be? the telepath."

Edited 2012-09-16 04:22 (UTC)

"Yes.

"He was - really powerful. He could've done anything."

"He is dead now?"

If not, X is willing to help with that.

"Yes."

Her grip is starting to look painful.

"But I - couldn't let him know it. What I was thinking."

"It was effective."

Considering Elle is still alive, it would have to have been.

X shifts position a little, though she is still not close enough to touch Elle.

Not quite.

"But it is difficult to stop?"

"It was - difficult."

Now it feels like a thread that's gotten away from her.

"And I didn't want to."

X just absorbs that.

Silently.

"You want to now?"

"I just - can't -"

She breathes in very quickly, as though just resurfaces from a dive underwater.

"I can't - do it like I did before."

"You cannot not think? About -- "

X pauses, searching out what she thinks she means to say.

" -- what you remember? Now."

She loosens, just a little.

"Yes."

X takes this moment to reach out, very carefully, and rest her hand on top of Elle's.

If Elle will allow it.

"It hurts? To -- know."