Chapter Text
The room slowly swum into focus, from the spotless whitewashed walls to the rough grey floors and finally the shiny chromed chair she was handcuffed to. She looked terrible, hating her reflection in the large mirror off to her left. She was back and she hated it, worse than that she hated not knowing what had happened to Mike and Hop. She thought that her situation couldn’t get much worse until he walked in. His hair with even less colour than it had had last time she had seen it, his face filled with more lines, the scars left behind by his life or frowning in disappointment. He sat down in a chair opposite her and she knew that everything had gone wrong; if she had been found and caught, undoubtedly Hop had been found too.
‘Predictable as ever aren’t you Eleven, all I have to do is take something you want and you’ll just come running back home to me.’ Brenner said in a sickly voice, with the expression of a bad poker player with a royal flush. He was relishing in the feeling of victory and making sure she knew it. What he said next almost sent her into shock, ‘Of course it helps if you have a man on the inside, did you know that the police are employed by the government…’
She didn’t want to believe it, she couldn’t believe it. Did that mean Hop had been working against her the whole time. Her head was spinning and she felt slightly sick, if he was telling the truth she didn’t know if she could cope. She had no argument, just a statement, a phrase that she was clinging on to like a shipwrecked sailor to a broken mast, floating with nothing but one thing to keep her afloat, ‘You’re lying.’ She croaked out hoarsely, her throat dry and tight with emotion.
He let out a sharp bark of laughter, wolf like and predatory. ‘How do you think we found you when you escaped at first, you think I would just send most of our security to a school without being tipped off by someone that what I wanted was there.’
‘Why did he keep me safe from you then, tell me that.’ She said, desperately grasping for anything to redeem the man she had once though of almost like a father, a real parent not like papa who was so smugly sitting there as he tore down her world around her.
‘keep you safe? yes, from me? No. I was not in control of the lab at that time, what good would it do me to have you running off to another part of the country before I had the means bring you back to me, it would be idiocy. Why not have the friendly neighbourhood cop, the one who had been so helpful finding the Byers boy to protect you from the big bad lab, hah, why do you think he forbade you from leaving to often Eleven, he was keeping you under house arrest. Think of him as your babysitter while I was moving homes but here we are, your new home. Welcome to my brand-new lab. It took me longer than I expected to be allowed unsupervised control so I could bring you back.’ He finished with a small smile on his face which never reached his eyes.
She didn’t know what to do, she was lost. About to reach into herself and use her powers and not stop, never stop. She didn’t care if it caused her eyes to close for the last time because what did it matter, she would be stuck here for the rest of her life anyway, nobody outside who hadn’t betrayed her. She would rather take anything over being stuck in the lab again, subject to a life of poking and prodding, tests and injections all day every day. Being the good little lab rat. A deep burning desire built up within her, she wanted to attack him, kill him even. As she reached deep inside herself for her powers she was interrupted by his voice.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you Eleven,’ he clicked his fingers and a screen flared to life on the wall, ‘anything you do to me or the staff will be done to Mike. If you behave, he will be fine so I suggest you sit still and do to what you’re told.’
After hearing this she slumped back in her restraints, she had no clue what to do. She was powerless and they knew it. She wished she could talk to Mike, he would know what to do or at least he would be able to come up with some far-fetched ideas. Anything would be better than the all-encompassing feeling of failure, she had come to save Mike and now not only did she fall right into the lab’s trap; Mike would probably never leave so long as she was here so papa could have control.
She just sat there unresponsive as the doctors ran their first set of tests, occasionally glancing at the screen on the wall to remind herself why she wasn’t attacking the lab workers. It was an uncomfortable and long process as everything from her blood pressure to the health of her hair was meticulously tested and recorded. It felt like they were making up for all the testing they had missed out on for the last few years.
When they finally finished she was led back to a new yet familiar room if you could call it that, a small and uncomfortable looking bed on one side which she sat on as the large metal door was closed behind her leaving her alone with the harsh artificial light imbedded in the ceiling and a small bowl of mushed food. The memories of innumerable evenings just like this flooded back to her, the same ending to almost every day of her childhood; thrown back into the room with the same almost unpalatable bowl of mush and maybe when she was much younger, some paper and colouring pencils. Those days are long gone now but just being back in this place makes them feel like only yesterday.
This tedious cycle of discomfort and boredom continued on for three days before anything new happened, they just kept taking measurements and health checks not even getting her to use her powers. It was on the third day however, some time after she had been shut inside her room. She couldn’t even guess at what time it really was because she was isolated in her windowless room most of the day or what she thought was a day.
The door slowly creaked open and a face appeared, one she had hoped never to see again. Jim Hopper’s bearded face filled the space between the heavy door and the blank wall. She was sorely tempted to slam the door closed whether he was in it or not but remembering that anything she did to the lab workers would be done to Mike just about stilled her hand. He came in and hurriedly said, ‘come on kid, we’re getting out of here. Hurry.’ It was this which made her snap. She slammed the man against the wall, knocking the breath out of him and held him there.
It was with a raw and rough voice she choked out through sobs, ‘Don’t call me kid you monster! How could you do that to me, to Mike. I trusted you!’ She couldn’t bring herself to speak to him anymore, not even look at him, she just lay down on her bed and wept into the rough and uncomfortable mattress.
Her sobbing was interrupted by his shocked voice, ‘What are you talking about, what did I do?’
‘Why are you acting like you don’t know.’ she coldly replied
‘I don’t know what I did but this is not the time, we need to get out of here. We don’t have much time before someone notices the guards I knocked out.’
El wasn’t sure what was going on or if she believed a word he was saying but she decided that the worst that could happen is that he was lying to her just to mess with her then she would be thrown back here. She finally released him and stared coldly at him, ‘Move.’
She cautiously followed him as he crept slowly along the corridor, she didn’t know where he was leading her but at this point she almost couldn’t bring herself to care. She had found when she was younger that it was easier to deal with the lab if you gave up caring anymore and just obeyed thoughtlessly, anyway, if it was meant to be a trick by the lab; the less she cared, the less it would hurt.
She was jerked out of her thoughts by his hand on her shoulder, she had to resist the urge to throw him away from her. She barely noticed when he asked her to carefully open the door he had stopped them next to with her powers, they had finally decided to start testing her.
She was glad she had payed attention to his instructions as the door slowly swung open on its well-oiled hinges rather than being blown off in her anger. The terrified face staring back at her was enough to crack her composure, until now she had been successfully keeping a blank exprssion. Anything to make it seem like this whole ordeal wasn’t affecting her as much as the lab wanted. Mike’s pale face staring back at her, illuminated in the artificial light streaming through the open door, she rushed over and buried her face in his shoulder gently sobbing into it and quietly repeating the same thing over and over again, “I’m sorry, this is all my fault.” She had been trying to ignore the fact that without her, Mike would still be free, he would have a chance of a life beyond the sterile white walls of the lab.
They were interrupted by him, his heavy once comforting hand on her shoulder now an unwanted reminder of where she was. Sitting inside a small, cold cell in the belly of the beast with one of the few people who hadn’t betrayed her, who had lost his freedom because of her.
‘We’ve got to go, we don’t have much time before the lab works out we’re gone.’ He said in a hurried whisper.
Reluctantly she got up and dragged Mike with her, time to move on to the next lab scheduled torment. She didn’t recognise the path the man was leading her down, it was somewhere she hadn’t been dragged yet, it was almost certainly going to be some specially built room just for her; her very own custom-built hell.
She was brought from her thoughts once again by the man asking her to open another door, it looked heavier than the one she had to open earlier. They were probably testing how far she could go so they knew how big they needed their door to be in order to keep her secure. It was slightly harder to open this one and it was far stiffer, as if it hadn’t been opened for a while. The real shock came when she finally heaved the door fully open. The moonlight streamed into her face shocking her into stillness, she was outside. She was free.
His gruff voice commanded the two of them to follow him and almost in a trance they obeyed, she couldn’t quite believe this was happening. It must be some kind of hallucinogenic developed by the lab, or some intricate and carefully controlled trick to finally break her. It didn’t become real until the silence of the night was shattered by the shrill shriek of the lab’s alarms. They had discovered that their precious test subject and Mike were gone. The one thing she couldn’t quite understand was Him, he had given her to the lab and was now helping her escape; it just didn’t make sense.
He led them on a winding path around innumerable blocks until she had no idea where they were, it was a complete shock when they burst around a corner and were suddenly confronted with what looked like a forest. She looked around and was curious as to why neither of the other two were surprised by the presence of so much green in the middle of a city. He just led them through the gates and into what she guessed was going to be their hiding place until they could come up with a plan to get far away from here.
They kept going until they were deep in the forest, they wouldn’t be safe forever but just maybe long enough to come up with a new plan.
Despite her hopes, it wasn’t enough time. They barely had enough time to scramble up into a tree, having to drag Mike up with her powers before eight armed men burst out of the undergrowth sweeping the forest floor with their torch beams. Then she heard it, the voice which kept haunting her. ‘Come now Eleven, I know you’re here. You’ve had your fun now it’s time to come home.’ It was cold and emotionless, a dangerous undertone sending a shiver though her small frame.
She saw it at that moment, almost too perfectly set up. Just out of the view of the horde of lab soldiers, intent on recapturing her was a fallen tree; a slew of memories came crashing down upon her of the hours she had spent practicing, training her powers the moment she realised Papa wasn’t gone. She steeled herself and tried to clear her mind, it looked far heavier than the one near her cabin. This would be hard but she had to, she couldn’t see another way. If she didn’t do this Papa would come back for her, again and again no matter where she was. She reached out with her powers and heard the rattle of eight guns point straight at her.
‘Now now, Eleven. I suggest you stop using your powers. From what I’ve observed, you aren’t fast enough to stop a bullet, let alone eight. It would be such a waste if I had to give the order to fire.’
In shock she lost a hold on her powers. How had they known? It just didn’t make any sense. Before she could think any more, she heard Papa’s voice return ‘Come down Eleven, as I said. It’s time to come home, you’ve had your fun.’
After taking a few moments to process what he had said, she came to a terrible realisation. He said she couldn’t stop eight bullets and she was almost certain he was right but that wasn’t what scared her. The thing which scared her is that she didn’t care. She didn’t care she couldn’t stop the bullets, anything was better than the rest of her life confined as a test subject, her only choice was between life in hell or no life and she was sure of her decision.
She whispered to Mike and Hop, he had earnt that name back by his actions today. ‘climb down and get away,’ she swallowed, her throat dry as she prepared to make possibly the last lie of her life, ‘I’ll follow you soon a different way so they’ll have a harder time finding us because they seem to be able to track me.’
After the two of them had silently climbed down, she stood behind a branch and waited a moment. It was time, she reached out again with her powers and heard the sound of eight guns cocking again overshadowed by the confused shouts of Mike and Hop who did not yet understand what was going on. She heard the same warning issue from Papa while she continued to lift the tree, unseen and unheard by the soldiers. This time she refused to comply, refused to stop. Just as she was bringing the log over the top of the solders she heard Papa’s voice ring out for a final time. ‘A shame… Fire!’
She felt pain explode through her body, trails of fire igniting in her limbs and finally a short pain in the back of her head as she lost her footing. Her last feeling was of falling and then nothing.
She didn’t know what was happening, she was warm and her head felt full of cotton wool. She had no idea where she was or how she got there but she wasn’t complaining. She finally opened her eyes when she felt a bright light shine on her, her eyes blinking rapidly trying to clear some of the fuzzy texture of everything she looked at. After a moment she saw two shapes swim into view but she couldn’t quite make them out.
She could make out a voice faintly, it was saying something but she couldn’t understand what it was saying. She ignored it for a while but soon she started to feel a deep ache in her leg and arms then a few moments later just by her temple. This pain shocked her senses into alertness and heard the voice clearly, ‘Well, it looks like I was right about the morphine wearing off. How do you feel Jane?’
He was wearing a white coat and there was a stethoscope hung around his neck, she was in a hospital. Moments later she heard two sets of hurried footsteps and Mike and Hop’s faces swum into view. ‘It’s done, you did it. He can’t come back this time.’ They both said at the same time. With that she felt her need for sleep overcome her once again, the relief which washed through her was better than any drug. She was finally safe. All of the madness was finally over.