Author's Note: Hey everyone! I'm back! If I get to Heaven, I am going to kill the person that said maths is important for everything. Oh well. As usual, thanks to OVERKILL-MAX for beta-reading for me. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Claire or Elle or anything from the Heroes universe. Tim Kring does. I also do not own the song Love Story. Taylor Swift does.

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Elle's POV:

The alarm clock rung and Elle groaned, extending a hand towards her bedside table to turn the blasted clock off. Her hand collided with something and she knocked it to the ground. Swearing, she found the damned clock and turned it off. Elle opened her eyes slowly and reached down to pick up the object that she had just knocked over. She smiled when she picked up the framed picture of her and Claire laughing their heads off at sunset at the beach. She gently touched her fingertips to Claire's face and her smile widened as she thought back to the day before.

*Flashback*

Elle pulled up in front of Claire's house. She got out of the car and smoothed down the front of her shirt and her pants. She rang the doorbell and after a few seconds, Sandra opened the door. The older woman was about to exclaim how relieved she was to see Elle perfectly fine when she cut her off.
'Shhh! I want to surprise Claire!' Elle whispered.

'Oh ok then. How are you Elle? Claire told me what you had to do today. Did it go well? Are you hurt?' Sandra queried.

'The mission went…well, I suppose. I'm physically fine, it's just I feel really guilty and horrified that I just lead an innocent man to his death' Elle breathed out.

Sandra made a sympathetic noise and wrapped her arms around Elle's shoulders. The younger woman leaned into the hug gratefully and Sandra pulled away after a few more moments and smiled. Elle smiled back and asked 'do you mind calling down Claire? I want to see how she reacts.'

'Sure', Sandra replied before yelling up the staircase, 'CLAIRE! There's someone downstairs who wants to see you!'

'Who is it?' Claire yelled back.

'Apparently, this girl claims to be someone named Elle Bishop' she yelled, a smile forming on the older woman's lips.

There was a beat of silence before they both heard a door open and close rapidly and the sound of someone literally flying down the stairs. Elle caught only a glimpse of blonde hair before she felt something slam into her, knocking her back into the wall behind her. She felt someone's arms lock in a death grip around her waist and someone hysterically saying 'Elle! You're back! Are you ok? Are you?'

'Hello to you too. Yes, I'm absolutely fine' she chuckled, catching Claire's chin in her fingers and tilting it up to look into her crystal blue eyes and smiling, her fingers moving up to softly stroke the younger blonde's cheek.

Sandra must've felt awkward intruding on this loving and tender moment, because she slowly backed away into the kitchen, smiling the entire time. Claire must've noticed that they were alone, because she whispered, 'I'm so glad you're ok' before leaning up and gently pressing her lips to Elle's. The older girl returned it tenderly and pulled away after a few moments, her hand reaching up to brush the hair away from Claire's face.
'Welcome back' Claire whispered, leaning in to catch Elle's lips in another kiss. The way she said it sounded like she had said 'welcome home.' Elle didn't mind. That was exactly how it felt.

*End of flashback*

She got out of bed, changed and went to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. As she was waiting for her eggs to cook properly, her phone rang. She frowned, wondering who could be calling her. She looked at her caller ID and sighed. She should have known the caller was her father.

'Morning daddy' she said cheerily.

'Morning? Elle, its 2:30 in the afternoon already. How's my favourite daughter doing?' her father asked.

'Dad, I'm your only daughter. And I'm fine' Elle replied, scooping the eggs out of the pan and putting two slices of bread into the toaster.

'Good, good' her dad responded. A silence fell between them and after a few moments, Elle said 'you didn't call me just to ask how I was, did you daddy?'

Bob sighed and said 'no. I actually wanted to tell you to come to the Company so we can conduct some tests.'

Elle frowned and asked 'what kind of tests?'

'Tests that will allow us to find the limits of your ability. We want to document as much information about every ability we can find and store it away. We might need it for future purposes.'

'Okay then. When do you want me to come?' Elle asked, walking over to the toaster and removing the pieces of toast. Walking over to the fridge, she removed a carton of orange juice and poured herself a glass.

'How about in around an hour? I'll meet you at the entrance. Bring a tank top and sweatpants.'

'Okay dad. See you in an hour.' Elle said, sinking into a chair.

'Bye' Bob replied before hanging up.

Elle hung up and started to eat her food. After she had finished eating, she washed up and went to take a shower. After getting ready she rang Claire to tell her that she couldn't come to see her today because she had some stuff to do at the Company. The younger blonde sounded disappointed, but she understood. After she hung up, Elle packed a white tank top and grey sweatpants into a bag, grabbed her keys and phone and walked out of her small apartment to her car.

Half an hour later, she pulled up in the Company parking lot and walked to the front entrance, where she spotted her dad.
'Ah, Elle, you're here. Good, good. Come with me.' Bob greeted her.

They walked into the building and into an elevator. The descended to the lowest floor of the Company facility and got out of the elevator and the stepped into a white, brightly lit corridor. Bob motioned her into a change room and she quickly changed into the tank top and sweat pants she had brought with her. After she exited the room, a group of men were standing and talking to her father. As she approached, they all fell silent and Bob said 'these men will show you what to do. Follow them.'

He clapped her on the shoulder and one of the men motioned to her to follow them. They led Elle into a white room, which was empty except for a weird looking machine that sat in the very center of the room. Behind it, there was a large glass window where a group of scientists were sitting behind a bunch of computers. She stood in front of the machine and the door in the other room she was facing opened and her father walked in. He walked up to the microphone and he said 'alright Elle. We are going to start testing now. The machine you see in front of you measures wattage that is discharged. I want you to stand in front of the machine and place your hands in the indents you see.'

Elle looked down and saw two hand shaped indentations on the surface of the machine. She placed her hands in them and said out loud 'Okay dad. I've done that'.

'Good. Now I'm going to ask you to let loose different voltages of electricity and we will measure and keep a record of them until you have reached the maximum amount of wattage you can discharge.'

Elle gulped and nodded. She knew this was going to be very tiring.

'Ok Elle, now I want you to release the smallest charge you can'.

For the next hour, Bob asked her to discharge different levels of electricity. By the end of it, Elle was exhausted. She was covered in sweat and her arms were aching.
'Can't…can't...put anymore into the machine dad. I'm done' she panted.

Bob sighed and said into the microphone 'ok Elle. I'm going to send someone in to improve your energy levels and we'll start the next test. '

The door to the room she was standing in opened and in walked an agent. Elle recognized him. He had the ability of energy manipulation. He walked over to her, put his hand on her shoulder and Elle immediately felt a rush of energy flow into her, stopping her shaking limbs and erasing her weariness. After he removed his hand from her shoulder, another scientist came into the room and said 'Miss Bishop, if you could please follow me.'

Elle nodded and followed him out of the room. They walked down to the very end of the corridor and he led her into another large room. This time, there was a gurney with restraints in the middle of the room and another machine next to it. There was a large glass window a few meters above the floor and there were more people and computers in the next room. She eyed the machine warily and stood next to it.

'Elle, this next test requires us to run electrical currents through you to see how much you can take and not pass out. We need to put these electrodes on you and we also need to restrain you so you don't move around too much. Am I clear?' Bob asked, looking at her over the top of his glasses.

Elle nodded. Three scientists came into the room and Bob exited, going into the next room.

'Ok Miss. Bishop, I'm going to have to ask you to please lie down on the bed and we will strap you up and glue all the electrodes onto you' a short, balding scientist said.

Elle nodded and lay down onto the gurney. Two scientists put her wrists and ankles into the restraints and locked them, pulling on the straps to tighten them. They then glued electrodes to her head, shoulders, arms, stomach and legs. The scientists stood next to the machine and Bob's voice came over the intercom.

'Ok Elle. We're going to start the test now.'

Elle gulped and squeezed her eyes shut, fearing what was to come.
The first trickle of electricity made her jump. It didn't hurt; it merely tickled her a bit. Bob motioned to the scientists next to the machine and they let another current loose into her body. It was slightly higher this time and it stung a bit. A few seconds later, another current of electricity flowed through her.

For the next half an hour, Bob kept running currents of electricity with ever increasing voltages into her. Pain quickly began to be her ruling sensation. It was so intense, it was all Elle could feel. It was a paroxysm of all five senses. She could taste a metallic taste on her tongue, feel the electric current passing through her body and the straining of their wrists and ankles in their restraints and smell an eye-watering stench that she couldn't quite identify. She could only hear the crackling and sizzling of electricity over her skin and her own screams of intense pain in her ears and explosions of colours were all she could see under her eyelids. All she wanted to do was to black out, to die, anything to stop this terrible, terrible pain she was feeling.

She begged them, screamed at them to stop running these currents through her. No-one listened though. They all seemed to be laughing. It seemed like they enjoyed watching her writhing and screaming in pain. Finally, after forty five long minutes, Elle began to feel light headed and dizzy. Her senses began to dull and she fell into the depths of unconsciousness.

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Footnote: Well, that was the tenth chapter. I don't think I described the pain very well but what's done is done. Hope you liked it and please review or PM me! Thanks for reading!