The world around her became darker as she strode through the darkzone, or as she known it as; The Upside Down. The air grew stale as the radioactive flakes grew in number and size. She was now in the darkest depths of Purgatory.
Her thoughts wandered now that she was alone, drifting back to Mike as per usual. What if this plan failed? What if she managed to find him but he was already a demon, would he recognize her, would he try and kill her? And would she be able to accept that reality? She already lost him once and here was a lifeline to bring him back but if he was already lost to her and there was nothing but hatred and evil, she would lose the will to continue.
And every minute was most likely a week or two in Hell, how time was compressed in such a manner was beyond that of El's understanding, at least the timeframes of Purgatory and Earth were the same, especially seeing how Purgatory was not that dissimilar from Earth.
Her mission here was clear, she could not take on Hell on her own, so she would need the help of a sworn Enemy, if it could be done was unknown to her as she never got this far beforehand plus the plan was not of her own mind, it was that of Brenner's.
Brenner's original plan was to make contact with the demogorgan, using El to study its being, report her findings back to him and determine whether or not they could be used for their experiments. Perhaps even trained or domesticated. The insane plan of an even insaner madman. And here she was acting out that very plan.
She never thought she would be here seeking out the demogorgan under her own violation. The gate she had opened by accident back in 83 had been shut for years, it closed when she killed the demogorgan back in the classroom and she herself transported to Purgatory as she didn't have full control of her abilities.
Unbeknownst to everyone even Mike, When El was in the Upside-down for those long months, she befriended a small hedgehog like animal, that would burrow through the ground, along with the box she found food in every now and again, the creature would bring back berries for her to eat, it was enough to sustain her between the food drops in the box. Also in that time her powers and the things she could do had grown exceptionally, she no longer needed the bath to astral project herself between dimensions, she sometimes used that ability when things were quiet to watch Mike, wishing she could be there with him, she could see the despair in his eyes, the way his smile never reached his eyes and when things were quiet and he was alone, she could see the toll that it was taking on him.
El had been walking through the Upside-down for half an hour and yet there was no sign of the demogorgan, Leviathan or any other Purgatory or Darkzone native, just the ever falling flakes of ash and toxicity.
El carefully sat with her back against a tree, she needed a rest, using her powers to open the gate, fighting the Leviathan and the walking had taken it out of her, she was drained physically and mentally. She closed her eyes and focused, drawing strength from the world around her, its energy reinvigorating her. She stayed there for a long time, letting the energy flow through her, she smiled slightly, knowing that Mike would make a Star Wars reference about the force flowing through her.
She was snapped out of her trance like state as she heard the unmistakeable growl and strange echo like rumbles of the demogorgan, her eyes snapped open to see the Demogorgan around twenty-five yards opposite her, but what made her frown was that it was not facing her, in fact it was facing something else entirely
She watched as the Demogorgan was tackled to the ground by what was evidently a Leviathan, probably one of the strongest of their kind as Benny had said, the demogorgan's face opened like the petals of a flower as it gripped the Leviathan and flung it mightily into a tree, ripping the tree from its and toppling with a loud bang.
The demogorgan however did not pursue, instead it leant forward onto its forearms, almost in a protective stance in front of a mound of earth near a dead and fairly large oak tree.
El watched this from her spot, thankful she herself had not been discovered, it was starting to dawn on her why the demogorgans behaviour was different and not as aggressive as it normally would be.
The Leviathan stood up from it landed, a maniacal smile he bore suddenly became that expanded jaw of two tongues and teeth as it swiftly closed the distance between itself and the demogorgan before managing to clamp down on the demogorgans shoulder.
The demogorgan let out an intense painful shriek as it toppled over, consumed by pain as the Leviathan began to rip its flesh off. El watched almost horrified at this, whilst she hated the demogorgan species, naturally because of what happened, she could bare to see it in obvious pain, instead she felt anger towards the Leviathan, whilst the demogorgan was little more than an animal albeit a twisted one, the Leviathan on the other hand seemed malicious and sadistic in nature.
El's hand extended towards the Leviathan, where she suddenly flung her closed fist to the left and the Leviathan was torn away from the demogorgan, The Leviathan angrily turned to face El, its teeth deep red with blood. The demogorgan half limped, half crawled into the mound of Earth and out of sight.
El's anger intensified as one hand held the Leviathan helplessly in place and with the other hand she began to pull one by one the arms and legs off the leviathan, copious amounts of black blood began to splatter the ground as El used this method to rip apart the Leviathan, finally with twist of her head the Leviathans own head found itself rolling until it settled near her feet, its expanded jaw frozen.
El's breathing began to slow back to normal levels, for an unknown reason she saw red, she had never killed anything like that before, not in that manner, when she killed the demogorgan back in 83 she had done it as quickly as possible. Her head was drenched in sweat, her hair thankfully wasn't, she kept it short though, just past her ears, since short hair was all she had known she found long hair quite irritating so she kept it short.
Now that she had calmed down she cautiously approached the mound of earth in which the injured Demogorgan had crawled into away from the fight, she could hear the laboured breathing from the creature within.
As she peered within the mound of earth what she saw both shocked her and fascinated her, behind the injured demogorgan were nine small curled grey balls. She realized they were infant Demogorgans, that's why the demogorgan hadn't been as aggressive to the Leviathan, it was being careful as it was trying to protect it's young.
The demogorgan weakly raised itself back onto all fours, it weakly roared at El before collapsing once again into the dirt, unable to stand due to its fight with the Leviathan. Just like when she accidentally opened the gate, she slowly move forward, hand extended, it was mere inches away from the creatures grey hide.
Slowly and carefully she placed her small hand upon it's body.