Creation began on 01-30-14
Creation ended on 02-05-14
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Past Regrets and Future Atonement
A/N: This is the story I've been looking forward to creating for a while. It's more for Brother Correction and another that needs to know that even what they might've done in the past can be forgiven.
His personal domain seemed to show signs of being able to haunt him a little. He had just returned from undoing the deaths of two lives by a young woman that used an ax and was infamous for being the inspiration behind a skipping rhyme. And even before changing that point in history by altering the outcome of both murders by removing the dark thoughts the woman possessed, he had traveled to a realm called Middle-earth, and brought sanity to a warrior king long enough to aid him in destroying a dangerous ring made by a lord of darkness, ensuring that the world's free lands were preserved for generations to come. He slumped on his would-be throne and gazed up at the vast and intricate cosmos that was as far as the mortal eye could see, wondering how much longer he could go on living like this.
But then, he reminded himself why he couldn't stop doing what he did for those around him in the dimensions he visited. If he stopped correcting the mistakes that needed to be unmade, no good would come of his neglect. He made one mistake, did one thing wrong, and he had to carry that weight with him until he no longer needed to be burdened with it. But the weight was… Sometimes, the weight of his mistake could be so much that he wanted to die allover again and stay that way for a month.
I believe in second chances for the innocent, he thought, but could I get one for myself? Do I have to live with my mistake to the point that I will never know forgiveness from the masters of authority that surpasses my own?
He summoned one of his crystal balls to perceive multiple universes in need of change of mistakes that were made or would be made. His list never ending, his mission to preserve innocence unending, and his need to do good constantly in sight. Then, due to not seeing it because he wasn't paying direct attention, he saw a past shame that needed to be resolved. It was from a dimension he had traveled back and forth in time to undo certain mistakes that had been made. The unresolved shame: One man that was part of the elite squad of New York that dealt with victims of crimes of the sexual nature had shot and killed a young girl that had murdered in revenge for the murder of her mother…and he left in shame, unable to deal with what he had done.
Elliot Stabler, Brother Correction thought, learning from past experiences and memories that this guy was one of the Special Victims Unit's most aggressive and troubling, conflicted detectives alive. A man that served his two-year tour in Special Victims, but stayed in it. A man that loves his job…and loves his family. He'd make the city safe for his children to live in, despite the troubles they get into, like his middle daughter with her bipolar issues, or his eldest son that wanted to join the military forces after high school.
"Elliot put his papers in," he observed a past meeting between Olivia Benson and her superior, Donald Cragen, explaining that Stabler left…and saw how devastated the woman was because of this.
And he couldn't tell them, Correction sighed, disliking the emotional turmoil innocent lives go through; that was a pain that was often more devastating than any physical pain.
He examined the rest of the guy's past up to the present after he turned in his badge, and was unimpressed with what he had done with his future: Elliot had turned to a simple job as a construction worker, but even though he still he still lived with his family, he couldn't face them because he still suffered from what he did to save others from the girl that brought in a gun to get revenge. This wasn't adjusting or grieving in any sense understandable to people. No, this was a man that was too ashamed of what he did and angry at himself for what he did…and was keeping himself from grieving in order to move on, unable to let go.
"I gotta help this guy before his life ends in complete self-destruction," Correction told himself, getting off his throne and changing his current attire from the cloth and armor of Middle-earth to those of casual street clothes.
-x-
It's been over a year since he turned in his badge, but it's been like an eternity since he left SVU. Still, he could've (and, by all accounts, should've) told Olivia before he left, but after what happened that day, he couldn't face her. He wanted to eat his gun after that day, but his beliefs included suicide being a sin, same as divorce and lying. While Kathy accepted what happened as an accident, that it wasn't truly his fault and forgave him for his role in handling the incident, he couldn't face her all the time after what happened. And, like those he helped bring to justice that had a conscious to understand and accept that they did a great wrong, he wished he could take back what happened.
He lied awake in the dead of the night, unable to find sleep. The quiet seeming like an insane penalty to him every night. Any type of noise would've been better than this silence. The cries of Elliot, Jr., Dicky or his daughters screaming from a nightmare, even Kathy talking him with anything from questions to complaints was better than this quietness.
DING-DONG! The sound of the doorbell went off, and he got up to answer the door. But when he looked outside, all he saw was an envelope stuck to the door…addressed to him.
"What the…" He uttered, taking the envelope off the door and finding a letter inside.
Or, rather, directions that he was to follow.
"Come down to the precinct you used to work in at four in the afternoon the day after you read this. It will be desolate. You'll find me waiting for you. This is no bull. Not a shrink, not someone you know, but someone that knows you. Signed, B.C." The note read, and Elliot wondered who would want to meet him on a Thursday and at the Sixteenth Precinct while it was empty.
There was something about this that didn't make sense to him. And who was B.C.?
-x-
The Sixteenth Precinct brought back some good memories for Elliot by just standing out front. It seemed desolate enough, based on the fact that everybody was called away to handle a large situation that required all available personnel present. Deciding to get it over with, he entered the building and took an elevator to the SVU portion of the precinct. He wondered who would be waiting for him there.
Who could it be? He wondered.
The elevator reached his stop, but when it opened up, he wasn't greeted with a hallway or anyone that was there to make a statement or report a crime. All he saw…was darkness that was so thick that nothing was perceivable by him.
Step right in, he heard a voice say to him, only it was inside his head.
He stepped into the hallway and the elevator doors closed up behind him.
Follow the yellow lines, the voice instructed, and then the floor manifested glowing, yellow lines, leading from him to around the corner, right into the middle of SVU.
Gasp! He saw something that shouldn't have been in front of him, but was there, as clear as crystal: Jenna Fox, the only daughter of Annette Fox…and himself, along with everyone else that was there the day he made his move to stop her from shooting her gun several more times, on the floor.
"What is this?" He questioned, and then the scene vanished, replaced by a lone figure, dressed in blue jeans and a black and white and gray-striped shirt, sitting atop a desk in the empty environment.
"I've been expecting you, Mr. Stabler," the dark-colored man told him, looking at him from the distance between them. "You've not seen any ghosts today, except for the ones you won't let go of."
"What?"
"You were wondering if what you saw was the ghosts of shame and grief that desire revenge upon your soul. They weren't; what you saw was what you can't stop thinking about. You've let what happened that day you did what you had to do consume your conscious. You can't live with guilt that isn't yours take hold of you. You risk driving everyone away, even those that care about you with every fiber of their hearts."
"Who are you and how do you know who I am?" Elliot asked him.
"I have been around for so long that I've forgotten just how long, but you know who I am if you've paid attention to the urban myths that have been around for some time. All the lives that have been turned around for better after my presence has been touched upon by them. Remember the little boy that survived an attempted murder on his life just because he killed a little girl by accident. His name was Elias. Or that elderly man that suffered from Parkinson's that had those brain-dead girls impregnated and was unable to get custody of the girl's child…but was allowed to have the cord so long as he stayed away from the baby. Do you even recall that case you had when the baby girl that died because one woman wouldn't vaccinate her son from the Measles? How it seemed like an unusual dream because, as you recall, the girl was found buried instead of in a hospital and managed to pull through, and how the woman that was held responsible for her beliefs in not vaccinating her son nearly took the little girl's life? I have always been around the city, looking to undo mistakes that needed to be undone, to save those deserving of life…and punishing those that are incapable of atonement. I've always worn this face, ever since the young man I visited for a new identity one day was asked by me for the likeness of his. You know who I am." The man told him, being mysterious.
Elliot recalled those cases, along with several others, and some of the people involved in each case all mentioned something that seemed unlikely because none of them knew each other, and it was always the same thing: A mysterious man, a black man, had came to them and turned their lives around, saving them from death or some worse fate. They said he wasn't called a brother from the streets, but a brother to every soul in existence.
"Brother Correction," he expressed, earning a nod from the man. "You're Brother Correction? But…you seem…so…"
Brother Correction raised his left hand up to silence him.
"It's better to show benevolence than malevolence," he explained, "which is why it's good to have an appearance that is both harmless and invoking of familiarity. Of course, that isn't always the truth with me. This face is, by far, the easiest for me to assume…but I can be others if necessary. I'll show you."
Elliot then saw the guy's face and arms change from black to white, now resembling a Caucasian man in his early-thirties, dressed in the same clothes Brother Correction wore. Then, the man changed his appearance again, into a forty-ish man of Asian descent, complete with a beard and mustache.
"But I don't need to change my appearance in this case," he told Elliot, returning to his basic appearance. "Why would I need to when the situation doesn't require me to."
"Situation? You mean me?"
"Yes."
Elliot then turned to leave, but saw only a wall where the hall used to be. He turned to face Brother Correction again, seeing that the room had changed into a desert-like environment with a dark sky with a vast cosmos that was beautiful and scary.
"Elliot," Brother Correction expressed, "I'm not here to cast a judgment upon you. I'm not God."
"Then…are you the Devil?"
"Now, that's just rude, right there. I'm neither. I'm neither Jesus Christ or Lucifer, neither Saint Michael or the Leviathan. I have been viewed as a demon to some, but an angel to others. A judge, tormentor, savior, a god, an immortal, always striving to do good. I used to be like you or your friends, living among the ordinary people. I wasn't always what you could refer to as supernatural, unnatural or abnormal. Also, if I wanted to hurt you, I would've done so instead of wasting my time talking to you."
"Why me?"
"Is this really how you intend to live your life now? A construction worker that wallows over what he did when he was a cop affiliated with a unit that worked sex crimes? I mean, look at yourself. You act like a domesticated lion waiting for his time to end. I've looked at your past and you need to let what happened that day in that case go. You're not dealing with a girl that didn't get to enjoy her prom because her mother was killed, that didn't get the closure she needed because she made her choice the second she chose to get that gun that killed Sister Peg…or whatever responsibility you had in her death. You're still an innocent soul with a good heart, but you're angry at yourself for what happened…and you're stopping yourself from getting over your unnecessary shame. And this is something…you need to let go of." Brother Correction told him, and then levitated off the ground, taking the man with him, rising above the desert-like terrain and seeing the vast nothingness that existed.
"What is this place?" Elliot asked him.
"My domain," he answered him. "A place of solitude, where I keep those that cannot be redeemed along with items that bring more harm than good to the people that end up finding them. It is a private dimension where I'm the only shred of hope that exists, where I observe all other realms that suffer from mistakes that were made, pondering what to do to ensure that such mistakes are never made again. What I do…is my blessing…and my punishment."
"Your…punishment?"
"I did something wrong, something no one else should have to spend…everyday of the rest of their life paying for like a bill that won't be paid in full, no matter what you do. You know all about depraved indifference and reckless endangerment, Mr. Stabler?"
"Yeah, depraved indifference it's when someone dies and you did something that caused it and you feel nothing for it. Reckless endangerment is like depraved indifference, but without murders involved."
"But the problem is that I did feel bad for what I did, or what I didn't do, actually. I caused the suffering of many by not doing anything until after I realized that the two people I was supposed to keep watch over were beyond redemption, incapable of the spiritual absolution that saves their immortal souls from the depths of Hell itself."
"Wait a minute, this all started for you…because you didn't keep watch over two people? Just two people? What, were they pedophiles, drug dealers, rapists?"
Brother Correction took him past a galaxy similar to the Milky Way, turned to face him, upside-down, and said, "Servants to a plantation owner in Louisiana…that decided to cheat death and live forever. Of course, it didn't matter if I was charged with looking after two souls or two-million, I was still responsible. I saw a little boy and girl lose their lives to the servants that robbed them of their bodies through twisted, supernatural beliefs that had no place left in any form of modern-day society. I saw additional lives get turned upside-down the second they believed in things that could harm them and rob them of their futures. I wasn't always the god-like being that people began to believe me to be, so I couldn't do more than watch and wait for people to learn from their mistakes, to correct them on their own. When I still had a mortal vessel that was my own, I was taught to be patient, that good things come to those that wait…and the only way for those that serve evil to win is when good people stand by and do nothing. After I passed through the crossroads between life and death, I was bestowed a taste of the divine authority that all deities, past and present, possess, and given one simple task: To watch over two souls that practice a dark art so unforgivable that they'd be condemned the instant they were found out for what they do, and to see if they could change."
"And they didn't change one bit?"
"They didn't know the power of atonement. They didn't know the power of forgiveness, which absolves the soul from the bondage of hate and cruelty. For them, it was only greed, revenge and immortality. But there's such thing as eternal life in the realms of mortality. You might survive to a degree, by any dark means, such as selling your soul to have a portrait of yourself age for you instead of you, or transfer your soul onto a doll or relic, or evade death through a near-death experience in which you did suffer greatly but survived, but in the end, you're only delaying the inevitable, which can't be avoided."
"In the end, death is the only freedom from a lifetime of pain."
"Exactly."
Then, Elliot saw an explosion from afar, guessing that it was a supernova.
"Whoa," he expressed.
"All the energy unleashed in that could power a planet-sized city for up to eight-hundred years if it could be mastered probably," Correction revealed, "or power a city the size of New York in the present-day world until the year Three-Thousand."
"Really?"
"Yes."
When it seemed like the effects of the supernova were going to reach them, it vanished, leaving behind a small star of burning gas.
"Tell me, do you think if you had done anything different that day, would Jenna Fox be alive? If…maybe you or somebody had gone to her before she came back with her gun, and had a heart-to-heart with her, would she be able to let go of the desire for revenge?" Correction asked Elliot, as the space around them seemed to spiral out of control, though they were spared the dizziness of being spun around. "Let's hear it from your point of view, please."
"Maybe if I went after her after she was shown the people responsible for her mother's rape and murder, I probably could've stopped her," Elliot told him. "Everyday, ever since that day, I always thought about taking my own life, or just leaving everything behind and crawling into a hole where no one will find me, wishing I could take back what I did. But…you can't change the past."
"I can," Correction told him. "So, I'm asking you…if you could stop her before she came back to get revenge…would you do so?"
Elliot thought about and said, "I would. I'd stop her from making the choice."
"And would you be able to live with yourself if you could change this misfortune in history? Would you be able…to forgive yourself?"
"Yes."
"Could you do me one favor? It's something I'd only ask a good cop because it makes more sense to hear it from one."
"What is it?"
"I need to hear my Miranda rights."
"But…you've done nothing wrong."
"I have done wrong. I didn't act up sooner to stop the two servants from cheating death because I tried to be patient…and show restraint…only to be deceived in the end. I acted after their latest attempt to avoid death. I might've undone their acts against the innocent lives they cheated with their hoodoo beliefs, but it still weighs heavily on my soul, like an unpaid debt to the universe. One that may never be paid in full. I spoke with dozens of other god-like beings, and they all stated the same thing: I need to hear my crimes of depraved indifference and reckless endangerment from a cop seeking redemption. You're a cop in need of redemption. A former cop, maybe, but you still know the ways of the law, and it would mean a lot to me…to help me get closer to atoning for my transgressions."
Elliot never thought someone that used to be no different from a regular person would seek to be read his rights by a cop. He'd probably be the first person in whatever history that was recorded by divine authority to charge a god-like being with some sort of crime.
"You'd be the first in multiversal history to charge a nigh-divine individual with the crimes he committed," Correction informed him. "And, deep down, it will help you with your path to atonement."
Elliot sighed in agreement and uttered the words Brother Correction needed to hear.
"Brother Correction," he began, and a pair of handcuffs appeared in his left hand, "you're under arrest for depraved indifference and reckless endangerment against past victims you have saved over time. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights that have been said to you?"
"I understand…and I thank you… Detective Elliot Stabler."
The space around began to look more like a rainbow swirl instead of a vast cosmos, taking shape to resemble an indoor environment. And it was one Elliot was familiar with.
"Let go of your guilt," Correction instructed him, "let go of your shame, and let go of your fears. It's not confession…but an attempt to be absolved of unnecessary guilt. Think back to that day. Think of Jenna Fox…and Sister Peg, two of the lives that needn't be taken from the mortal coil…and let what happened to them go. Let their deaths…flow down a river like a fish that got away…or a leaf that fell into the water after detaching from an old tree… Let the sins you think you committed…but didn't commit…be forgotten."
Elliot did as he was instructed, letting go of what happened, putting his faith in what Brother Correction told him, hearing the additional words supplied to him.
"The power to do something for others exists because people believe in the person that performs these acts of nigh-divine power. It's merely belief itself, Elliot Stabler, like one's faith in their religion. Faith, like love or friendship, is among one of the strongest forces in existence…because belief creates what is there to see, to hear, smell, taste and touch. That is one of my greatest abilities, to defy fate, alter an outcome for the better, because most of my strength comes from the people that believe in the ability to change for the better, to make up for wasn't done, to believe in second chances…even third or fourth chances to do right. So…whatever you or anyone else believes I am capable of, then that is what I am capable of. The powers that I demonstrate, exhibit, for better or for worse, are entirely up to you. You can choose to believe or disbelieve. Believe or disregard. I believe in the good that exists within people…just as you believe in law and order."
-x-
Elliot found himself thrust back in time, back to the day he regretted the most, just in time to see Jenna Fox walk out of the middle of the room and into the hallway. At first, he didn't recall why he was there to begin with, other than having shown Jenna the wrongdoers that raped and murdered her mother, but then recalled everything else, along with some words he had heard from a voice that was belonging to a man that was both blessed…and damned.
"If you could stop her before she came back to get revenge…would you do so?" The voice of the man that gave him this once-in-a-lifetime chance to change the outcome had asked him.
He went after Jenna and managed to catch her in the hallway.
"Jenna, wait," he stopped her, and she turned to face him. "Whatever it is that you're thinking about doing, please, stop thinking it for now and listen to what I have to say. You might think that they'll get away with what they did, but they won't. They're going down for what they did, and when they go to jail, and I promise you they will, they're going away for a long time. They're not ever getting out. And by the time they're most likely to get out, they'll be dead before they can ever taste freedom. Even if I have to make sure they go to their cells personally, I will make sure that they rot behind the bars."
"You promise?" Jenna asked him.
"I promise," he said, nodding in the positive. "They're looking at life without the possibility of parole. Unless they can live until the end of time, they're never getting out."
Jenna then leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, and then revealed that she had a gun in her possession, and placed it on the floor.
"I wanted to use this on them," she confessed to him. "I bought it on the street from some guy in an alley. But now, I don't want to use it. I don't want it, anymore."
Elliot picked up the gun and helped her back up. She was likely to get probation instead of a sentence for buying a weapon without a license and everything, but since she backed out of her intention to use, there shouldn't have been a problem. Despite all that happened, he was still a civil servant and had to follow the law.
-x-
"…I hear you booked Jenna Fox having a gun in her possession she got off the street," said Olivia to Elliot, who returned from central booking after escorting the girl for her minor crimes.
"Yeah, I did," he responded. "She bought a gun off the street with a former intent to use it. After my talk with her, she didn't want to use it, anymore. Surprised that I did?"
"Actually, I was surprised that things didn't go crazy after Jenna left," she confessed. "I half-expected her to come back with a gun and shoot up the place. That…would've been a nightmare."
"Heh-heh…yeah, that would've been a nightmare," he agreed with her, but then had to ask a serious question. "Say, Liv, you believe that urban myth that very few people know about? The one about the guy that does good and corrects people's mistakes?"
"You mean, Brother Correction?"
"Yeah, him."
"Honestly…I believe in him. A man that lives to undo the mistakes of those that have done wrong to people that don't deserve it is a man worthy of being a Good Samaritan. He wants to help people and doesn't want anything of a reward in return, all save the happiness of the people he saves from dark futures. Why? Did you meet him?"
"I don't know. You?"
"Off the record? I believed he showed up to help me save Gladys' daughter when she left to straighten out her life and come back a good mother to her kid."
"Well, I think he came to me a while back…and helped me speak with Jenna, probably saved me from a future mistake. It's funny, it's like meeting him is waking up from a bad dream or a return to sanity or a way out of depression."
"I know that same feeling. Maybe he's like a type of guardian angel that just…appears whenever it's necessary for him to show up. A Good Samaritan that's a nonentity among the people whose lives he changes. You remember that case where the guy with Parkinson's tried to get custody of a baby just to save himself, but only got the cord, which he was really after? He might've had a hand in that case."
"And the little girl that nearly died of the Measles?"
"Or what about that small pharmacy that helped to legalize the use of ibogaine hydrochloride to treat drug addictions?"
"Or those attempted murders by that con artist that became deluded by his religious belief?"
Both detectives were soon swept up in the possibility that Brother Correction helped them in their cases by changing the outcome, preventing the deaths of many innocent lives. It might've also explained why they saw IAB's attack dog, Ed Tucker, less and less over the cases.
"In the system of criminal justice, all sexually-based offenses are extremely heinous," Olivia expressed.
"But this is the only unit in the police force that deals with those offenses," Elliot added.
"Which is why the Special Victims Unit is among one of the best units in the force," they both turned toward the prison holding cell and saw a man inside it. "People that have something against cops that specialize in dealing with perversity and many other cases of child abuse, child molestation, rape or other cases where a bad guy spills himself into a woman's gut."
They went over to the cell and saw a dark-colored man sitting down, looking at them. They recognized him from the previous times they had seen him.
"Brother Correction?" Olivia questioned, and the man confirmed her suspicion. "What are you doing here in the cell?"
"I had to see if Detective Stabler feels any better after talking with Ms. Fox," he explained, though he seemed unusually more cheerful than usual.
"Yes," Elliot told him. "I actually do feel better after talking to her."
"Well, that's good to hear. Out of the many lives I have changed for the better, you two are among my favorite people. I should actually be thanking you two above all others."
"Why us?" Olivia asked.
"I've been helping people turn their lives around for so long, in the past and future, that I've forgotten just how long I've been doing this. What is time to one who is immortal in a sense? And…after saving so many kids and young teens, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, small towns and large cities, even whole planets in other dimensions, I came to a small realization that…I wasn't just defying all forms of fate with newer, positive ones that preserve innocent people and punish the guilty, but redeeming my own soul. But beyond that…after being read my rights by a good detective that wants to make the city safer for everyone…I realized something much greater than myself: It's not yet possible to correct every mistake that will be made, that has been made, just as it's not yet possible to stop the crime that plagues the world, the universe, or the multiverse, not even control it, but, like the police, it doesn't stop me from trying to help as many people as possible…because…as tiresome as it sometimes is… I love my life. I love helping those in need… And it took you two to help me to see that revelation. Thank you."
They looked at each other and then back at the nigh-divine man.
"You're welcome, Brother Correction," Elliot told him, "and thank you for helping us."
"Heh. I live to do this. I'll be going now, but I shall return the next time there's a mistake that needs to be corrected. See you around."
Brother Correction, with a greater smile on his face, then faded to nothingness and left no trace of him within the cell.
Elliot and Olivia then signed out and called it a day, returning to their homes to rest up for the next batch of cases involving SVU.
-x-
Returning to his throne, with more clarity in his conscious, the nigh-divine being sat down and looked at a large tree, possessing the traits of holly, yew and elder trees, that had sprouted in front of him, covered in cherry blossoms. It was a sign that he had been absolved of his shame and able to move on with his life. As one of the blossoms fell from the branches and into his hands, he smelled the wondrous scent it gave off. It was such a pleasant scent, like lemons and vanilla.
I can finally let go, he thought, conjuring up a crystal ball that displayed two people, a man and woman, suffering in an inferno. Papa Justify and Mama Cecile, you two are now off my consciousness. You are Hell's sole concern now. May your souls burn in perpetual agony until there is nothing left of you to scream with. I have been redeemed.
The crystal ball cracked and atomized into nothing…and the vast cosmos above him changed to resemble a beautiful sky with pinkish-white clouds. A realm of darkness with a grand cosmos transmuted into a bright, pretty realm, now symbolizing night and day, darkness and light, respectively.
In due time, positive life would be drawn to his presence, probably small birds and deers, but they would balance out the dark and cruel souls he had collected over his eternity. He wasn't concerned with the monsters that existed out there now. The demons, the murderers, rapists, people that wanted for the sake of wanting for the wrong reasons. In time, he would get them all, and he would give to those that had none. He was one and all, all and one, everyone and no one, everywhere and nowhere.
He was Brother Correction, a soul saved by saving others, and he would return.
Until next time
A/N: I've done it! I've saved Elliot Stabler and preserved his presence within SVU! Please, read this and review my efforts. Those that enjoy the Elliot/Olivia partnership within the franchise are the ones that will be bound to enjoy this the most. See you later. Bye!