Title: AC
Fandom: Sanctuary
Characters: Nikola T., Thomas E.
Rating: M
Summary: On August 6th 1890, in Auburn Prison, William Kemmler was the first human to be executed by AC current. Rated for non-major character death and implied torture. Some twisting of a historical figure.
Authoress Ramblings: Erm…I know I need to update RAXS, but I doubt it'll be updated anytime soon, sorry. This was inspired by an episode of Dark Matters, involving Edison and Westinghouse's battle over AC and DC currents. The electric chair used Westinghouse's AC current, and Edison backed the demonstration of the AC current on animals until the New York legislature chose William Kemmler, a murderer, to test it as a new way to execute people. It took place it took two attempts, at 2000 volts for 8 minutes. As we Sanctuary fans know Nikola got his electric powers falling asleep in Edison's chair, but what if that isn't what happened? Also, this is a not entirely comfortable as a vampire Nikola.
Footnotes at the bottom
Nikola watched in horror as William Kemmler, a convicted murderer, was slowly cooked from the inside out. Next to him stood Thomas, who also watched on. Not even forty-eight hours earlier Nikola had experienced what the man before him had, and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. Nikola was privately thankful for the man's gag, as the night before, it had been hard to contain his screams as his body absorbed the electricity, and he didn't think he'd be able to stand next to the torturer if he heard the man scream (1).
"He's still alive." Nikola said.
"How do you know?" One of the officials asked.
"I can tell." Nikola really wished he couldn't. (2)
"Double the voltage."
"Thomas…this is torture."
"This is proving a point."
Edison's assistant restarted the machine, with double the power. Nikola doubled over. (3)
"Tesla?"
"This is barbaric."
It was over in eight minutes, for Nikola, it felt like eight years.
"Excuse me, gentlemen." He left the room, avoiding eye contact with Edison entirely. He had to pause in the hall to recover before he could make it out of the prison. Edison was walking out of the room.
"I hope it was worth it, Thomas."
Footnotes:
1: Implied torture, AKA the reason for the rating.
2: As a vampire, he's tuned into the human body, he can sense Kemmler's vitals going crazy. Kind of like too much sensory input.
3: He's just received his electric abilities not even 48 hours prior, again, too much sensory input.