Chapter Text
When Eleven woke up, she knew that wherever she was, her life had been irrevocably changed forever.
It started with the bath.
Just the week before, Eleven was told to reach in as far and deep as she could, to find something- what, she didn't know, but Papa told her to look as hard as she could, so she did. She found a monster.
In her fear, she recoiled, and was pulled out of the Empty, screaming and crying and banging on the glass of the tank until they were forced to drag her out. The disappointment, the cold, empty anger in her Papa's eyes filled Eleven with a blistering, stabbing wave of shame. But she was too terrified to try again that night, even if it was for Papa (It was getting harder to do anything 'for papa'). Needless to say, he had some uniformed men drag her back to the Box, kicking and screaming as she begged Papa to give her just one more chance, she'll be good, she promises-
Papa came back for her the next day, the stark, buzzing white light of the hallway filling the Box as he stood by the entrance.
"Are you ready to try again, Eleven?" He asked, as if she truly had a choice.
Eleven might be able to say yes or no, but in the end, no meant another day in the Box, another day without food or water or anything else. So, really, they both knew there wasn't a real choice. Eleven supposed it must be worth something that he at least bothers to ask. (It's not.) Still, she nods, a fractional inclination of the head, as she shakily stands.
"Good." He says simply. They return to the tank.
"Today, is a very special day. Because today, we make history." Papa knelt to meet Eleven's eyes. "Today, we make contact." Papa explained calmly. Eleven's brows furrowed.
"Contact?" Her voice was quiet, shaky, hoarse from lack of both proper use and confidence. Papa nodded.
"I want you to reach out to the monster." A bone-chilling sense of dread settled in her spine, stopping her heart and her lungs. Her large eyes went wider in disbelief, too shocked and afraid to speak.
"Eleven, I want you to do this for me. Am I clear?" It was apparent that Papa noticed her reaction. His steady, frosty tone turned freezing as he looked her dead in the eyes. Eleven stayed still for a moment before slowly, as if against her own will, she nodded.
"Yes, papa." she murmured.
It was time to get into the tub, and as per usual, they put her headgear on before slowly lowering her into the tank. Eleven met her papa's eyes one last time before the waters claimed her.
She opened her eyes and was greeted by the darkness. Shaking off the instinctive fear that gripped her heart, Eleven crept forwards, searching for the monster. She didn't want to do this. Why was she doing this again? A soft voice echoed in the back of her head, 'for papa'.
Right.
But was that really enough?
Of course it is, a part of her chided. (A part of her that wasn't as strong as it used to be.)
....Right?
Eleven didn't want to contemplate how unsure she's become. She was being bad for doubting papa.
....
Right?
Before she could come to her own answer, Eleven was pulled from her musings by the sound of tearing flesh. Her heart stopped when she laid her eyes on the Thing she'd been scared off by the day before. It was hunched over, its head stuck into its food as it tears it apart with its teeth. The sounds were absolutely gruesome, and as she slowly approached, Eleven couldn't help but wish she was anywhere- anywhere- but there. She was hesitantly raising a hand to it, leaning in to touch its slimy-looking back, when she heard something.
-ello?!
Eleven froze. In front of her, the monster kept eating, unbothered by the interruption. After a few seconds of silence, Eleven shook it off and forced herself to raise her hand towards the creature again.
Hello?!
Eleven stopped again. What was that?
She was so focused on the sounds that she didn't even realize as she turned away from the monster and it faded away back into the Empty. Unconsciously, as if being slowly reeled in by a string, Eleven found herself walking away from the Thing and towards the voice.
-anya? Ben? Dad?
Suddenly, just up ahead, something materialized. Eleven made her way to it, a little quicker than she did when approaching the monster. She got close and recognized it as a person. It was a boy, perhaps the most shocking thing about him being that he looked to be around her age. Eleven has never met anyone her age before. The boy looked scared, looking around frantically, and for a moment Eleven thought he might be able to see the Empty too, but he seemed to be reacting to things she couldn't see, choking on his own words when he lays his eyes on something that wasn't in the Empty.
He was dressed funny, too. Kind of like papa and some of his friends, but his pants were cut short and his jacket was opened to reveal a strange diamond-patterned top (she didn't know this yet, but it was called a sweater vest). His socks were also very, very long. He looked close to tears.
Anybody?!
He wailed, face twisted in dismay. And Eleven- her hand, unconsciously stretching out to him, stopped for a second, and- well.
She was 'anybody', wasn't she?
With a strong wave of more courage than she's ever had in her entire life, Eleven made contact.
The reaction was instant.
The boy jerked, head whipping to the side to face her, but seeing through her. Eleven felt a tugging deep inside her, pulling at the unseen energy all around, harder, harder, until something burst. A wave of raw energy exploded, a ball so dense and volatile that Eleven couldn't contain it, could feel it burning and searing and so she let go of it with a scream. Distantly, in the normal world, Eleven could hear frantic screams among a cacophony of other sounds, and a violent tremor as she felt that same deep tugging snatch her again and yank on her. Eleven gave in, getting pulled into the current and falling through it. Unbeknownst to her at the time, she leaves Hawkins behind, along with papa and the only not-life she's ever known.
When the calm settles again and she awakens, it is to fire and dust and blowing wind. She's dizzy, and absolutely alone. Eleven stumbles for a moment and then begins wandering around this sad, barren wasteland. Maybe if she starts walking, she might find the boy.
She finds him surprisingly easily, collapsed on his knees and sobbing over what appears- at first- to be a pile of rubble. Eleven silently approached, and realized that within the pile of rubble was a group of (gone, very gone) people. The boy looked sad, so Eleven assumed he really must've cared for them. Lost in her thoughts, Eleven accidentally kicks a rock, the overbearing silence of the world around them amplifying the noise tenfold. The boy's head whipped around, sharp (desperate) eyes immediately latching onto Eleven's thin, small form. He sprung to his feet, stance guarded but also so, so relieved- he wasn't alone.
"Who- who are you? What're you doing here- what happened?" He asked, words tumbling from his mouth in a rush, mind whirring a hundred miles a minute. He couldn't decide what to ask first, so it was as if his brain's answer was to just throw them all out at once. Eleven recoiled, bewildered and wary due to both circumstance and the sudden barrage of questions. The boy seemed to notice this, and in an awkward and uncharacteristic act of gentleness, he back-tracked just a bit. He didn't want to scare off perhaps the only other person alive. (The thought made a hint of bile rise in his throat. He swallowed it down.)
"I- I'm Five," he hedged. Eleven's gaze intensified. Five? A number, like- like her? Was he like her? "What about you? What's your name?" Encouraged by his number-for-a-name, Eleven was able to find her voice.
"Eleven." She murmured, voice soft and breathy- she screamed a lot just earlier, so her throat hurts and she's kinda dizzy now, which didn't help. She shuffled forward cautiously, eyes trained on Five. She stopped when she was about a foot away.
"Eleven?" He asked. His gaze rested on her wet-suit, perhaps only picking up on it now that the adrenaline had mostly passed. Something clicked in his head as he did so. "Never figured there'd be more." Five muttered. Eleven didn't know what 'more' meant, unless he was perhaps talking about people with number-names? People like them? Then again, was he like her at all?
"Are you- like me?" Eleven forced the words out of her mouth, nervous. She wasn't sure which answer she'd prefer- if he was like her, then did he escape his not-life too? Was she all alone, with no one else like her? Five eyed her calculatingly.
"Like you?" he asked. She nodded. Unable to properly express herself verbally, she resorted to brandishing her wrist, revealing the 011 stamped there in ink. Five's eyes widened, and slowly, keeping steady eye contact with Eleven, he grasped her wrist and pulled it closer. Eleven's heart pounded in her chest, awaiting his response. Eventually, Five lifted his other hand, pushing back the sleeve and settling his wrist next to hers for the both of them to see. Drawn carefully with deep black ink, right around the same area that Eleven's branding tattoo was, laid an umbrella with a circle around it. The thick-lined tattoo was nothing close to a number, but to Eleven this was enough evidence. This boy- Five- was like her. She might not be sure what the umbrella design was from, seeing as it wasn't his number-name, but she figured it must've been a Lab branding. Eleven looked up to see Five already watching her carefully.
"Like me," Eleven murmured. The corner of Five's lips curled upward, so quick and small Eleven thought she'd imagined it.
"Guess so."
"So, if you're not from here, then where are you from?" It'd been maybe a few hours since Eleven and Five met. They were in the middle of burying the bodies of Five's siblings (Eleven rolled the word around in her mind. Family, Five had said, when asked to define it) when Five came around to the question. Throughout the conversation, Eleven had made it fairly clear that while she was a human, and from Earth, she wasn't from the same Earth; it was one of the few conclusions Five came to when she explained how she got to the apocalypse; a lot of vague wording that he gathered was due to her limited vocabulary and speech. Something about a tank and how she had to "make contact" with the monster "in the Empty". It was honestly one of the most outlandish explanations Five could've come around to, but considering he'd just time-traveled into the apparent apocalypse, a confirmation of the multiverse theory wasn't too big of a stretch at that point.
"Hawkins Lab." She said simply. Five mulled it over. He was pretty sure there weren't any towns or facilities by the name of Hawkins- not in this universe, anyway.
"Hawkins where? In which state?" She blinked at his question, brows furrowing in confusion.
"State?" And, wow, this girl must've never gotten an education. Five wondered if she'd ever even left this Hawkins before.
"Have- have you ever left this... Lab?" Eleven slowly shook her head, wondering why that was so surprising. Did he not live in a lab?
"Oh. Well, now that you have, we should probably work on that." Five seemed a bit desperate for conversation, likely to take his mind off the fact that he's suddenly become one of the last two people on Earth, but Eleven didn't mind as he rambled on and on. If anything, she was eager to hear what he had to say, words that for once weren't orders or reprimands. She was eager to hear all he could possibly tell her about the world- and boy was there a lot. Sometimes Eleven would get lost, unsure what many of the words he'd said meant, and while he could be a little impatient he was too grateful for the company to complain. Also, the wide-eyed wounded look she gave Five the first time he'd huffed at her reminded him quite a lot of Vanya, which made him tamp his attitude down some. He would never admit how it stabbed at his heart when he saw it, the desire to see his siblings threatening to overwhelm him.
Still, he wasn't alone, even if Eleven was very quiet and kind of eerie. Even if he had to backtrack fairly often and explain things to her. He wasn't alone, and that was enough for him.
Eleven still doesn't know where she is. She also still doesn't know where she's going. What she does know is that the confused, scared boy next to her is the only other person around, and she really, really doesn't want to travel in this strange, scary place by herself. Eleven doesn't have a clue where the boy might be heading, but she still wonders if (hopes) he has room for one more troubled soul.