He kissed her, like she had always wished he would, cradling her neck within the gentle palm of his hand. She gasped when his lips parted from hers, locking her electric blue eyes on his hazelnut ones.

"this doesn't mean I forgive you you know"

Elle's blood was boiling as months of pent up rage overflowed, her anger almost paletable and her only thought of one thing.

Him.

She stopped herself, breathing deep and evenly, trying to quell the rage inside of her, to regain her focus.

If she was sadistic, he was phsycotic, recent events turning what had once been an undeniable attraction into something black, sticky and bitter.

She gulped down the immediate nausea she felt at the meer thought of the bus full of highschool students he had murdered mercilessly, to satisfy his blood lust, the week previous. The images of their shredded throats haunted her, even weeks after she and clare had stumbled upon the carnage. Clare had warned her not to look, her tolerance for such grizzly scenes more matured then Elle's after years of inflicting similar such wounds on herself. But Elle has wanted to look. She wanted to see what he was capble of.

She never knew a kid could bleed that much.

She had always had a taste for violence herself, relishing the sweet feeling of a fight, the feeling of competition. But she had never hurt a child. Something small and innocent, so full of potential and naievity. Before they were able to make the choice between good and evil.

She almost smiled bitterly in reflection as she leant down to secure the laces of her black canvas boots, recalling how part of her had almost believed that inside the bus would be nothing more then a few startled kids.

Sylar had proved her wrong.

He always did like to half the last word.

She walked to her dresser, palming a blade and sliding it smothly into her wrist sheeth. She pulled her sleeve down and brushed the hair from her eyes, looking at the room she and Sylar had shared for what she had once considered a beautiful year. Occupuying the same space as another was never something she had been able to do very well growing up, but she had felt at ease with Sylar. He said he recognised something in her, something he knew was inside of him aswell. She had felt a want for him she had never felt for anyone before. A want she had hoped and wished she was above needing to feel.

She had been happy.

Well, at least for a short period of time.

Back when they fought for fun, fought to push the other to learn, to develop their combat skills. When he would laugh when she managed to make contact between her fist and his face, congradulating her and spitting blood while the bruises and broken teeth would heal almost instantly.

Back when they would skip class and assignments to sneak through the nearby woods to the lake, where he would pull a bottle of wine from seemingly nowhere, and she would produce a few crumpled cigarettes and they would pretend that they were normal for a few silly moments.

When he would drag her by the hand to the top of the rocky hills edge, balancing a spliff between his lips as he wrapped her in his arms and promised that the water wouldn't hurt her. Promised that she wouldn't die, kissed her on the neck and reminded her that they couldnt die. Gave her the courage to jump, to feel the cold water bite her clothes and skin and to surround her in the quiet wetness.

Back before his mother died.

She frowned sadly, correcting her thought

Back before his mother died by her own sons hands.

She shook her head, pushing these thoughts away. She needed to keep her mind clear, to concentrate on what she had to do.

She didnt need to remember the feeling of his hands holding her safely while she tried to cut off his head.

No, that would not do at all.

Clare and Peter met her at the entrance hall to the mansion they inhabited, along with a slew of other souls with special abilaties. Blessed, cursed, or otherwise, they found a level of saftey and belonging within these walls.

Noah Bennet had gathered them all and given them a place to exist, with the help of Peters family money. The levels visible to the public allowed for bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, with lower levels carved into the ground allowing for more pro-active fascilaties; labs, training simulators, garages. All the things they needed to protect themselves from the outside world, and sometimes to help it.

Within these walls they were able to exist both publicly and privately, as humans and genetic mutations.

And neither Peter, Clare, or Elle would let Sylars continued existance threaten that tenious balance.

"You ready?" Peter asked, threading his arms through the sleaves of a thick wollen jacket, a gun holster momentarily visible at his waist.

"I'm always ready. The others know we're going?" Elle asked Clare, giving her shoulder a re-assuring squeeze with her hand. The once cheerleader had grown up fast in the last couple of years, but she was still only 16. Elle knew she would be frightened going into this battle, even if her sense of convition and revenge prevented her from showing so.

"Yeah, they know the drill. Hiro is keeping the comm. lines open in case we gather any important intel worth letting my dad know about" Clare smiled convincingly, her blonde hair gathered in a tight ponytail, her fringe pulled back.

"And they know not to follow?" Elle asked, worry furrowing her brow as the thought of Sylar getting his hands on her friends travelled through her mind. Her friends, who were there when she had been sick, back when she had to stay inside that locked room on the lowest level, in case her so called powers manifested. Her friends who had never given up on her.

Who had been forced to give up on Sylar.

Her friends who couldnt heal like Clare, Peter and she could.

"Noah wasnt happy about it, but I think hell keep to his word. He was very clear that were not to let Clare anywhere near Gray though, she's on strict sabotage duty" Peter replied, pulling car keys from his pocket.

Elle sighed. The plan was set, everything was in place, and all she had to do was jump.

But this time it would be her who led Sylar to the cliffs edge.