V=IR: Conclusion - The First Law

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

The greatest puzzle of all - life versus death. Can one of history's most brilliant minds make the ultimate sacrifice to preserve another?



Stalking around the area he had first appeared in, despite his rage, Tesla still kept to the thirteen steps in each direction. Even in death, and now apparent rebirth, he had never been able to shake some of the compulsions that had been his companion for the length of his life. For some, they would have been inflictions; for him, it was simply a matter of being.

Every time he passed the twitching body of the young man who had unlocked his magnificent machine, the lightning flew into a greater fury, despite the detached look on his face. It was made even worse with the realization that he could not handle his precious machines, for the lightning was destroying them as surely as it was destroying some of the building around them.

Cortez was forgotten as Doug hurtled across the floor to where he'd seen Forge collapse. He'd seen Milan thrown out the window, and spared a moment to glance at the broken glass and smile mercilessly. Then all of his attention was focused on Forge. His hands moved almost of their own accord to begin CPR before he realized that Forge was breathing. He pressed fingers to the inventor's carotid, and found a pulse. Forge was still alive, but completely unresponsive. With his power still ramped up from Cortez's touch, he could almost see the other man's struggle against Milan's control. And as his breathing slowed, it looked like Forge might be losing.

Almost curious in a morbid sense, Tesla drew to a stop behind the companion to the young man on the floor. The storm was pausing as well, dictated by the copies words, actions and thought process. "Is he lost?" he finally asked.

"Not yet," Doug replied as he leaned back on his heels to look up at the blue-limned form of Tesla. "But he's fading, and I'm not sure how to reverse whatever it is Milan has done."

Tesla clucked his tongue and bent forward at the waist a little bit, staring at the prone figure before him. "You two," he murmured, fascinated by the metal play in Forge's hand, "are so different than what I was expecting. I suppose the whole world has changed while I have been gone." He grimaced, straightening up, the electricity flickering brightly. "Dead. While I was dead."

Doug shook his head. "Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose," he quoted to Tesla. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." He pointed at Forge. "He's not so different from you. Brilliant, misunderstood, and trying to accomplish some good in the world."

"If he is even as half as brilliant as I then he will change the world," Tesla responded. He stared down at Doug unblinking for several minutes. "It is as if you are beseeching me. What would you have me, in this state, do or accomplish? Be quick and precise, dear boy, for it is not my time you will be wasting."

"I don't...I'm not..." Doug stuttered. "I'm not like..." he trailed off, thinking. Forge had called him an expert in his field to get him into the Tesla Club event. Forge wasn't given to false flattery. Self-deprecation wasn't helping anyone, especially not the friend laying on the ground. There was a solution to be found somewhere, if he could just see the pattern.

Item. Forge's body was functioning, but his brain did not seem to be.
Item. Forge's body was part machine.
Item. Forge could receive sensory input from his prosthetics.
Item. Milan's power enabled him to take control of machines and make them do things.
Item. Forge was fighting Milan's control.

Each point ticked away in Doug's brain, leading him to a logical conclusion. Milan's control over Forge's prosthetics was like a virus, corrupting the 'operating system' behind them. And it had somehow spilled over to Forge's nervous system. One way to fight a virus was to reboot from uncorrupted files. But the human body didn't have a reset switch...

He looked back up at the electric ghost of Nikola Tesla. "I need you...I need you to electrocute him."

"I beg your pardon?" Tesla stared at him for a moment. "You must be mad, you want me to...wait." He turned and started to pace, muttering to himself in Serbian, unaware that anyone else would understand him. The science and technology that he had seen a glimpse of in that arm were worlds away from his own time. But than again, he had been worlds away from the time as well. "~How much would be needed?~" he murmured to himself, casting a glance over at the two young men. He seemed uncertain and irritated at that uncertainty.

"~Enough to reset his brain, but you must be careful. Too much would simply kill him.~" Doug's accent matched Tesla's perfectly, his knowledge even more instinctual due to the residual effects of Cortez's touch.

The electrical copy of Tesla straightened, an appreciative look coming over his features. "~You speak my native tongue well. It has been a while...~" He switched back to English for the rest of the conversation. "And does your knowledge extend to what would happen to me if I decide to do this?"

"Only theory. Because of the nature of your...existence," Doug hesitated before using the word, "I suspect it might have adverse effects. But at the same time, that very nature is what would make this possible." It was all guesswork, really, but it felt right in an indescribable way.

That got a soft laugh from him. "Adverse effects meaning the potential and very probable end of this new existence, you mean. I defied the very laws that supposedly governed our existence, at least back then, and now you ask me to throw it all away? He should be nothing to me, you realize. I could let him die and let you walk away to bury his body and I should not care. There are many who would call me a fool if I were to help you and I might even be one of those."

Still, he crouched carefully next to Doug, balancing his arms on his knees. "Tell me his name."

Trying to read the body language of an electrical construct, even with the assist from Cortez, was an exercise in futility. But the way he was crouched over and asking for a name had to be something. "Forge. His name is John Henry Forge."

"He creates." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. "Forge, to form or make; a furnace in which metal is heated for shaping." Tesla turned his head towards Doug and gave him a strange little smile, lifting his cane to his forehead in a small salute. "And to you, sir, I bid good day."

Matters of the heart had meant nothing to Tesla, it had been matters of the brain that had intrigued and driven him in his quest to capture the very essence of the human soul. And even if he had not quite managed to achieve the actual dream, the essence had come true and, at that moment, he was content. And as he drove his hands into John Henry Forge's skull, the lightning flowing through his body, he couldn't help but hope that maybe a little of his eternal soul would be immortalized through this extraordinary young man.

Forge's eyes shot open as his body contorted with a gasp. Filaments of electricity outlined nerve paths under his skin, glowing blue and illuminating the tower. His fingers scrabbled at the floor as his feet kicked spasmodically, neurons in his brain firing in sequential patterns not unlike Doug's analogy of a rebooting computer. From Forge's point of view, however, the experience was not unlike bungee jumping into Hell and being suddenly snapped back to salvation.

Eyes twitching in myoclonic jerks back and forth, he tried to focus on the two forms above him - one solid, one faint and flickering. In a moment's realization, he realized what had been done.

"...current lost between two points... voltage drop..." he murmured, closing his eyes. "One circuit completed, another closes. Relay."

The electrical storm had all but died out at this point and Tesla still crouched on the floor, head bowed. Slowly he straightened, though it was obviously a great effort, and clasped his hands behind his back. "This, gentlemen, is the end," he said, his voice barely audible. "And, for the best, I would think. Mr. Forge, I would have gladly called you a comrade had we worked together. But now I ask you for an honor -- remember me. Keep me immortal." With a last bow of his head, he suddenly vanished in front of them, all traces of the lightning dying with him.

As the lightning storm inside the tower faded, the pinging sound of cooling metal could be heard, followed by a dull crash as a number of the metal panels lining the tower, warped and damaged beyond any hope of repair or recognition, broke free of their moorings, crashing to the floor. One seemed to hang by a single scorched rivet before tumbling to smash the organ into pieces. Dust floated in the air, then settled as the momentary cacophony died, leaving Doug and Forge alone in the center of a silent ruin.

"...brain hurts..." Forge groaned, pulling himself to a seated position, then turning away as he began to cough and dry-heave, muscles still not synchronizing with the signals from his brain. "can...can...can we go?"