Fanfiction: Heroes: Devil In A Miniskirt (Chapter 7)
Elle and Sylar ate most of their meal in silence, enjoying their eggs and pancakes, and the break from constantly bickering with one another. Elle was half way done with her second stack of syrup drenched pancakes when she heard Sylar speak.
“You never answered me before,” He stated, a slow grin spreading across his lips as he spoke, as if he was plotting something. Knowing him, he probably was.
Elle just tried to stay neutral for now, giving him a shrug of her shoulders. “Answered about what?”
“Your mother. What happened to her? Where was she when Daddy was training you to be his perfect little sadistic agent?”
She bristled at that, a frown spreading across her lips. “We don’t talk about my mother. Not now, not ever.”
“And why is that?” He asked cooly, leaning in closer to her now that grin still on his lips, though the look in his eyes was anything but friendly. “Why do we get to talk about my mother, and what I did to her, but I don’t even get to hear a thing about yours? That hardly seems fair to me Elle.”
Elle just smirked at that, setting her hand on his shoulder before giving him a little shock. “I never said I was fair, Gabriel. Now let’s end this pointless conversation, shall we?”
“No,” He grunted in pain from the shock but he wouldn’t allow himself to be distracted so easily. Not by her. “This is clearly something that makes you uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why I won’t allow it to drop so quickly.”
Elle held up her hand, letting it spark with a threat. “I said, drop it, okay?”
“Have I hit a sore spot? Are the memories that bad? Was she even worse than Daddy?” He taunted, leaning in close now. “Why won’t you talk about it? Don’t you what to remember your dear old mother?”
Elle crossed her arms over her chest, looking more than just a little put off by all this, her voice coming out much sharper than she had intended them to. “I don’t remember anything about my mother or what happened to her, okay? I try and try to remember something, anything about her, and my head hurts.” He had definitely hit a nerve with this line of questioning.
“Your head hurts when you try to think about her?” Sylar asked with a tilt of his head. He almost felt bad for her. Almost. Then again, if her mother had been anything like his own, perhaps he was better off not knowing. “Doesn’t that strike you as odd? That certainly isn’t normal. Not by a long shot.”
“Of course it strikes me as odd, you idiot, I’m not stupid. I know that trying to recall memories isn’t supposed to hurt. But it’s just the way it is. It’s the way it’s always been. It’s like there’s something up there, blocking me from getting to them. It’s always been this way, okay?” She really wished they could talk about something else now. Last thing he needed to know was how messed up in the brain she was.
“Almost like someone took them away from you.” He mused, bringing a hand up to brush against her forehead. He wished he could just crack her open, and figure out how she worked, what was wrong with her. But without his powers, cracking her head open wouldn’t do him much good. A shame. It had been a while since he had a challenge, as far as broken brains or broken watches went. “What about other parts of your childhood, like when you first manifested?”
“I burnt a house down when I was six, I’m pretty sure that was whenever I first started showing my powers. Everything before that is kind of blurry,” Elle pulled away from his touch, going into defensive mode once more.
“But can you be certain? What if you manifested earlier than that? Doesn’t it seem strange that you can’t remember much before that fire? What if that had something to do with your mother’s death?” He sounded almost like he cared; but really, at this point he was just curious. This lapse of memory she was describing was anything but normal, and he wanted to figure it out. “Haven’t you ever asked your father about any of this?”
“I’ve asked Daddy about my mother a few times, okay? But he never wants to talk about it. He says it’s better I don’t ask so many questions about it.”
“And you just listened and stopped asking, is that it?” Sylar asked, his voice almost condescending now.
“Well, what would you have done?” She snapped in annoyance, throwing out a small ball of electricity at him for that question. She really just wanted him to stop. She didn’t like not being in control of the situation.
Sylar grunted a little in pain, but he wouldn’t allow himself to be dissuaded, not so easily anyways. Not when he had her where he wanted her: vulnerable.
“I would have kept asking, kept searching for the answers. I wouldn’t have just given up. Or are you afraid of what you might find out?” He taunted, though there was an undertone of almost understanding to his voice. “Are you afraid that maybe in the long run, Daddy isn’t as trustworthy as you think he is? And if you don’t have Daddy, you don’t have anyone. And even trusting a bad parent is better than not having one at all, isn’t it? I know that even with my issues with my mother…I still wish she was alive. My father died years ago. She was all I have. So I can see your dilemma, not wanting to be alone, but don’t you deserve the truth, Elle?”
Elle softened despite herself at those words, unsure of what to say in response. She knew on some level, he was right, but what if the truth was something she didn’t want to know? Sometimes it seemed like that there some questions that were best left unanswered. She sighed softly. “Can we please talk about something else now?”
Sylar sighed, deciding to let the subject drop, at least for now. But there was a weak spot there, and it would definitely be due for exploring later on. “Alright, there’s something else I want to ask anyways. Why did you volunteer to look after me? What makes you think I won’t kill you the first chance I get?”
“Because I know you Gabriel. The other girl they wanted to send was stupid and foolish, you would have killed her and escaped in no time flat, but I’m better than she is.” Elle smirked, placing her hand on her hips before continuing, “Much better. I know how you think, what makes you tick. I knew you back when you were still a watchmaker, when you thought I was an angel with a broken watch. These are all things that put me in the advantage in order to help you.”
“And just what do you plan on expecting to help me with? Getting my powers back? What makes you so sure that once I have them I won’t rip your head open and steal those pretty little sparks of yours? After all, they do look like they have a million and one uses. I can’t wait for the chance to figure out all of them.” The look on Sylar’s face was anything but nice, a grin spread across his lips and a glint in his eyes.
Whatever vulnerability he had managed to glimpse from Elle earlier seemed to be gone now as she looked up at him with a grin to match his own. “I wouldn’t let you. Even if you tried, I know I could stop you. You’re not invincible. Besides, when I’m through with you, you won’t be taking powers without make a conscious decision about it. See, more than anything, I’m here to teach you.”
He raised a brow at that, not sure whether he was supposed to buy what she was selling or not. “And what exactly is it that you’re supposed to be teaching me?”
Elle smirked, holding out her palm, allowing blue lightening to dance across it. “You see, I’m here to teach you control. So far, you’ve gone after victim after victim, barely even caring what the power is, just feasting on that need for power. You let that hunger control you and it keeps you from being so much more than you are. But I’m going to teach you to be different. I’m going to help you learn to control you powers and the hunger behind them, so when you get them back, you can be so much more. Don’t you see, Gabriel, you can be so much more special than you already are, but as long as you let something else control you, you’ll be weak. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?”
The last thing he wanted to be was weak, but he knew better than to trust her either. But he had discovered another weakness of hers today so that was definitely a plus. And besides…control was never a bad thing to learn. It couldn’t hurt to see just what she planned on teaching him. And so he simply nodded his head, smirking in return to her. “No, I guess I wouldn’t want that at all.”