Episode III: Pantheon

Act III: Asclepius

According to the legends, Asclepius was the deity who could heal wounds that were even beyond the reach of other Gods.

His legacy, the staff of Asclepius remains a symbol of heroes who fight death to this day.

Scott Clarke entered the classroom precisely as the minute's hand touched twelve. He had never been late to his class, and that discipline was something he desperately wanted to teach his students. Quickly, he ran his eyes around the classroom and noticed the absence of a few students. Earlier that day, Jim Hopper had requested him to keep an eye on his niece who was new in town and had no friends. Scott felt worried and decided to go search for Jane but stopped himself as he reached the door. Just a few hours ago he had seen her hanging around with Mike and his gang in the cafeteria. He smiled to himself as he realized that Jane had already made new friends in such a short time. Mike and his band were the best students in Scott's class, and he was sure that they would take good care of Jane.

He would have a talk with the boys regarding punctuality later, but for now, he decided to start teaching. Something still felt odd about the girl, but he couldn't put his finger on it. So, he did the next best thing he could do under the circumstances. He placed his finger on a small patch of color on a large globe, "Class, today we're going to learn about the legacy of the Swedish scientist, Alfred Bernhard Nobel..."

Scott had never visited Sweden, but someone very close to him had loved that country. Maybe someday he would get the chance to meet Mike's cousin Eleanor again and learn why that girl disliked her motherland so much.

Max fished inside her bag and took out a small paper clip, straightened it out and inserted the tip into the latch. The others were staring at her with complete attention, they wanted to glimpse the magic. Eleven could've easily opened the lock by turning the latch from inside the room with her powers, but she decided to give Max a chance. Hopper had asked her to believe in other's abilities and provide them with an opportunity to shine, it was something that friends were supposed to do. The lock opened a few seconds later, and the gang piled into the room. Lucas locked it from inside and placed a chair under the latch to prevent anyone from opening it with or without a key. Then they switched the lights on and sat on the floor.

Scientists have been researching human emotions for a very long time. Sometime during the 20th century, they classified emotions into six fundamental elements; happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. The experts concluded that humans learned these emotions during early childhood and carried the learning throughout their lives. But it wasn't applicable to a girl named Eleven. Jane 'Eleven' Ives was kidnapped by a psychopath immediately after birth and then imprisoned in a lab where she was only allowed to learn one emotion; anger. She was being forged into a weapon, and she didn't need to learn any other sentiment. Thirteen years later she somehow managed to escape the lab and run into the embrace of a boy named Mike Wheeler who became her greatest teacher.

Within the following few days, she experienced new emotions. She learned happiness when the boy gave her a new name to help her escape from her past. She became surprised when the boy came back to rescue her after locking her in a wardrobe to hide her from his mother. She learned sadness when the boy yelled at her for letting his friend get killed at the quarry. She felt disgusted when the boy pressed his lips against hers in the gym.

But right then she felt another strange emotion, something scientists could never define. It made her head spin and heart beat faster as it let loose a bunch of butterflies in her stomach. She didn't know what it meant, but she grinned like a fool because she liked the strange and disgusting thing that the boy did. A lifetime later, she learned what that emotion was when the boy hugged her and begged her to never leave him again. Mike Wheeler had shown Eleven how to Love, and it was the most powerful emotion in existence. But it wasn't the first emotion that evolved in animals.

Just before touching his lips to hers, Mike had asked Eleven to go to the Snowball with him. She realized that it was a question in the form of a statement, but it took her a lifetime to decipher the real meaning. Once she grasped the truth, she was ready to confront the most powerful monsters to answer the question that Mike had asked her, 'Do you want to spend your life with me, Eleven?'

She did, and she wanted to blow him away by going to the Snowball with him.

But just a month before the Snowball, destiny decided that Eleven's lessons were completed and decided to return her to the void. On that fateful night, Eleven was forced to use the final fragments of her power to close the interdimensional portal which she had opened earlier and nearly died as a consequence. Subsequently, she learned the true nature of the most fundamental of all emotions, 'Fear.' She was afraid that if she died before answering the question, then Mike would lose his sanity trying to find the answer in the darkness. She was nearly dead when Hopper brought her cold and lifeless body to Mike. Her mind was gone at that point, but her soul still endured to honor her last wish. Eleven's subconscious borrowed her psionic powers to draw Mike's soul in itself and proceeded to show him her memories. They appeared as bright fireflies encircling his enigma in a vast sea of darkness. Mike touched the fireflies one by one and lived through Eleven's memories that she gained with him. Then he found his answer, 'See Mike? You have taught me so much, and I am happy to be with you for as long as I did. I'd love to go to the Snowball with you. This year, the next and a lifetime after that. But I have to go away to save you. Please forgive me.'

Then she decided to embrace eternity. But Eleven underestimated the true nature of love. It was an emotion that could overcome even the most ancient of all feelings. Fear never had a chance. Mike stood his ground at the gates of hell and challenged death to a rematch. He needed more information to figure out a way to save Eleven, so he pulled every firefly to his soul and witnessed every moment of Eleven's life. He was with Eleven through every nanosecond of time since the day she was born till the moment she was going to die. Then he found a way to bring her back from the darkness. Mike was thrilled to have Eleven back in his life because he could finally give her the life she deserved. Then one night he woke up sweating and screaming as he witnessed a vision where a man tested Eleven's pain tolerance using various techniques.

Mike never let anyone know what he was going through since that terrible night. When he lived all thirteen years of Eleven's life in one instant, his mind was unable to process such a massive amount of information and locked them away into the deepest depths of his heart. The memories would often get triggered and bestow upon Mike a replay of Eleven's past. The visions pushed him into a constant state of anxiety and depression. After all, who would want to see the love of his life getting electrocuted by a taser, or being locked in isolation for days, or being strapped to a chair and then exposed to horrors that were impossible to imagine, over and over again?

The worst part was that Mike was not just witnessing them, he was genuinely living Eleven's memories and dying in her suffering because he couldn't do anything to help her. The phenomenon was termed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it was slowly driving him to insanity even though the trauma belonged to someone else. Eleven had no idea what was happening to Mike, but she felt his inner turmoil and confronted him in the auditorium. And now they were sitting face to face in a room, and Mike was about to confess the night of the fireflies. He was scared shitless because he couldn't imagine what the truth might do to the girl who had fought death to save him.

Mike and Eleven were sitting in the radio room surrounded by the party. They needed their friends to make through the confession, and these four were the best the world had to offer.

Mike whispered, "Eleven. I'll tell you everything. But first, you have to make a promise."

Eleven frowned but nodded, "Yes."

"Promise me that you'll let me handle it."

"Mike…."

"No. This is my burden to bear, and I did it to save you. I'll do it a thousand times over if I have to."

The resolve in his voice shocked everyone.

"Okay. I promise."

Mike took a deep breath and spoke, "Do you remember the night you closed the gate?"

Eleven looked away from Mike's eyes, "I remember closing the gate. I remember the pain and the darkness."

Mike held Eleven's chin and turned her face towards him, "Then?"

"Then I heard you calling to me. I saw you. Somewhere in the dark. You were scared, and you were crying. You wanted to save me."

Mike nodded, "I saved you. Do you know how?"

"I remember you showing me the reason to live. I lived so that you could keep your promise to take me to the Snowball."

"Is that the Promise I made to you?" Mike sighed.

'El, you should already know what that promise means to both of us.'

Eleven smiled brightly, "No. You promised that you'll make my dreams come true. And I said that we'll do it together."

'I know, Mike.'

The occupants in the room clapped their hands and cheered for them. It was marvelous to comprehend how much Mike really cared for Eleven. But did he care a little too much? What happened to him while he was absorbed in Eleven's memories?

Mike spoke quietly, "Eleven. In that darkness, I was surrounded by millions of bright fireflies that you somehow created using your powers. and when I touched them, I lived your life."

There was pin-drop silence in the room, and then a cacophony of voices rang the air, "What the hell?"

"You son of a bitch. What have you done with Mike?"

"You did what? Are you on drugs?"

"What did you see Mike?" Will was the only one who understood the gravity of the situation. He had been in that lab and was well aware of the horrors that were contained within its pristine walls.

"She showed me her memories since the day we found her till the moment she closed the gate."

Dustin was curious about this new power, "Why did she do that?"

Mike swallowed bile as he fought hard to utter the next words, "She wanted to show me what I meant to her before she died. But I managed to view a few memories that I was not supposed to see."

Eleven's eyes went wide with shock, "The coke can! That's how you know. I'm so sorry Mike."

Max was curious, "Coke can? What about the coke can?"

Mike closed his eyes, "Back in the lab, she was being trained to use her powers. They ordered her to crush a can of coke with her mind, and they'd torture her till she could do it. They'd hit her right below the ribcage. It was horrible, the pain was unbearable, and she'd often throw up. But the men wouldn't stop till she did it. I saw it first-hand."

The others in the room wanted to cover their ears as if Mike was scratching a blackboard with his nails. Eleven kept sobbing silently not because of her pain, but because she realized what Mike was going through. It must have put him through immense pain to witness that memory.

"El, look at me," the boy who sheltered her in her greatest hour of need spoke calmly, "It's not those memories that scare me. It's the ones that I haven't seen yet. I reached out to every firefly in the void to find the answer. And that's how I saved you. I have lived your entire life, Eleven."

Mike paused a moment for the realization to kick into others' faces and then dropped the hammer, "I don't remember them all right now. But sometimes I see these visions of her past. Today at the gym when I passed out, I was inside one. I've been having these visions quite often. And even if it takes a lifetime, I have to see all of them to save her."

Only one person in the group noticed the oddity of the last sentence. What did Mike mean, 'To save her?' What was he searching for?

"13 Years equals 156 Months, which in turn equals 678 Weeks. Multiply that with seven, and we get 4,745 Days. Now if we again multiply by twenty-four, we get 113,880 Hours. If you see a vision of say one hour per day, then you'd need... FUCK DUDE!" Dustin cursed as he quickly did the math in his mind.

Eleven covered her mouth with her palms, "Oh Mike! I wish we never met. If you didn't find me, then all of this would never happen."

Mike wanted to bump his fist on Eleven's head, 'Never met you? Are you crazy?' He needed to tell Eleven that it wasn't her fault. Whatever Mike was going through was by his choice, and he couldn't let Eleven blame herself. 'How to convince her?'

"Wait. If you have seen all of her memories, then did you see her when she was nak…"

"SHUT UP, DUSTIN!" Max moved towards Eleven and hugged her as she kept crying.

A figure stood up from the group, went to Eleven and squatted down in front of her, "Hey, El."

Eleven looked at the figure with confusion, wondering 'Why is he smiling?'

A group of scientists did some exciting research on the psychological conditioning of individuals who had suffered from abuse during their childhood. No one knew whether they were the same group of scientists who did the useless research on human emotions, but this time their findings were unquestionable. Children who were exposed to family feuds and abusive behavior from their parents developed an uncanny ability to read human emotions and predicting outcomes. They learned this ability out of necessity. They needed to guess when a smile turned into a frown, or when a hand bearing gifts left a mark on their cheek so that they could take cover in time. In a distinct sleepy town named Hawkins, a socially awkward boy had graduated in this field with distinction. He was rightfully given the title 'The Cleric' by his friends because he could read tragedy better than anyone with decades worth of medical knowledge backing them up. He also knew how to deal with them because he had been doing it since forever.

Will spoke with confidence, "You know, both of you are blaming yourselves for the same thing. Eleven, you can't forgive yourself because you think your past is hurting Mike. And Mike, you're blaming yourself because you couldn't save her when she was imprisoned in the lab."

The most effective way to find the wound was to hit the patient with the truth as soon as possible. Mike and Eleven looked away from each other.

'Test results are positive,' Will thought.

"It'd be so nice if Eleven was never imprisoned in the lab." Will gave a hearty laugh.

Step one; lay down the first alternative; "Now think. Eleven? If you were never imprisoned in the lab, do you think you could have still found Mike in the woods on that night?"

Step two; present the second alternative; "Mike? If Eleven was never imprisoned in the lab, do you think you could've saved her that night? How many girls have run into your arms in the last five years?"

Both Mike and Eleven shivered as the words entered their ears. They have never heard such blunt statements regarding their past. Will nodded, 'It's working,' he thought.

'Now list all alternatives.'

He leaned forward, "Eleven's past is what connects you two, and all of us together."

He paused for a moment to look at Mike and Eleven's faces and started hammering them with words, "If she didn't have her past, then there would be no tents made of blankets, there would be no Eggos, there would be no cycle rides, there would be no lazy boy, there would be no Demogorgon, there would be no adventure, there would be no kisses, there would be no snowball, there would be no Mad Max, Hopper would never have a daughter, my mom would be back with my dad, Jonathan would never find Nancy, Steve would remain the absolute douchebag, Dustin would never get to dance with a girl, Troy would beat the shit out all of us, there would be no PROMISES TO KEEP OR BREAK."

Will didn't let them recover. He kept speaking in a calm voice, "Mike Wheeler and his gang of losers would keep playing D&D in his basement while Eleven, the girl with magic powers would hang out with cool guys like Troy and they would never meet. You want a future like that?"

Mike and Eleven stared at each other, Lucas kept looking at Max while Dustin absently kept chewing a bar of Nougat.

'Diagnosis complete. Mike and Eleven found each other because of her past, no matter how bad it was.' Will thought and smiled absently, 'It's time to administer the cure.'

Will clapped his hands to bring attention to himself and continued, "You guys are together because of a promise. And that oath has not only helped you to but all of us. Did you guys know that Mom was planning to patch up with Lonnie before I disappeared? Do you guys realize that Max has found a place where she can be free from Billy? Dustin has found a stupid sense of humor, but we're okay with him. Bob could finally become a hero. And you two know that you have found your best friends."

Will let out a sigh and continued, "Eleven, your past has changed all of our lives, and I'd rather return to the upside down than go back to my old life. What about you all?"

The whole gang nodded in unison. Will smiled and continued, "I'm sure you two can get through this just like everything else that happened. But this time you two are not alone. We are here to help you."

Mike and Eleven stared at each other and beamed. Will was right. If her tragedy did not take place, they would never have found each other, and it was worth every nightmare that came with it. They would fight this together, and this time, they had the unconditional support of the legendary vanguards from the Dungeons and Dragons.

Before Eleven could say anything, Will gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "Whatever Mike is going through, you can help him, Eleven. I believe he is searching for a particular memory from your past. Something that will answer a crucial question. Mike?"

Mike tried to answer, but his tongue was stuck firmly in its place and wouldn't move an inch. He had no clue how Will found out the truth. It was as if he really had Truesight. Eleven looked into Mike's eyes and swallowed. She finally understood what he was really searching for.

Mike wanted to know when the innocent child named Jane Ives was transformed into a weapon called Subject Eleven, an armament without a soul, a blade that could cut through flesh and bone like paper, a sword that could never be sheathed. Today was not about Mike's confession, it was always about her.

Eleven spoke nervously, "On the day of the Snowball, Mike didn't get into an accident. Some men tried to kill him."

Dustin swallowed part of the nougat's wrapper as Lucas slapped his back in frustration. Max was shocked, she screamed, "WHAT?"

"They were sent by Papa. The man you saw back in the corridor that day." Eleven clenched her fist.

The gang was too shocked to react, so Eleven continued, "I found Mike just before one of the men shot him. I don't remember what happened, but when I woke up, I saw the men. They were..." Eleven swallowed, "...Dead. And one of them looked..."

She couldn't finish the sentence. One of the men had his lower jaw rotated beyond the face, and part of his spine was surgically destroyed by some ungodly force. The other men had his gun snatched away from his hand by the same supernatural power, and he was killed with his own gun without any mercy. It was the act of the devil itself.

Eleven started crying hysterically, "I don't remember anything. It's... it's like back in the lab. Papa would do these tests. He'd put me to sleep, and when I woke up, there would be bodies everywhere. They looked so horrible, torn from limb to limb, spines taken out of the body, heads blown up. I..."

She couldn't finish the sentence, voices shouted in the air.

"That son of a bitch. Hope that Demogorgon ate his balls." Dustin squeezed the nougat into mush.

"Why didn't you kill him when he did these? He isn't really your dad, is he?" Lucas went straight to the point.

Will was running his hands on Eleven's back and consoling her. Eleven let out a silent gasp when she realized that they didn't care about the monster at all. They didn't try to run away from her like others did, and they didn't scream in fear. Their eyes did not show horror or hate, but they expressed an unstoppable resolve. She knew only another person who demonstrated the same determination, it was the boy who had brought her back from her rampage that day at the cost of his life. A drop of tear left her eye as she smiled through her grief.

'Friends.'

Mike nudged Eleven slightly, "Tell them the next part."

"Mike? I..."

Mike cleared his throat, "Guys. Hopper told me what Eleven did after that. Go on El."

Eleven placed his hand on Mike's thigh, "The bullet cut his femoral artery. He lost too much blood, and his heart stopped."

The others were looking at Mike as if he was a ghost. Dustin drew a cross in the air and prayed. Mike shouted, "I'm not dead you asshole!"

Eleven continued, "I bound his artery using my powers. Then I squeezed his heart and beat it to a rhythm. Once it started beating normally, I held the artery until Hopper got him to the hospital."

Four jaws were nearly dislocated that day. They knew that Eleven could lift things with her power, but this was at an entirely different level. Even the Jedi in Star Wars couldn't pull off something as remarkable as what this fourteen-year-old child had done that day. The truth was indeed stranger than fiction.

Dustin lifted his shirt and pointed at an old mark, "Can you make this disappear? It's an old battle wound."

Lucas snickered at him, "It's a stretch mark you fat cow. She's not a veterinarian."

Then, as usual, they started arguing about who looked more like an animal. But Will didn't lose his head, he needed the answer, "How did your Papa make you do these things?"

"He used something called a Control Matrix." Mike groaned, he had figured it out from the last vision he had.

Eleven jerked her head towards Mike, "You know?"

"Just a glimpse. It was the day you were brought into Hawkins."

Lucas sprang up and started pacing the room, "What's a control matrix? A video game?"

Mike replied, "Not sure. It looked like a paper with some diagrams. Before I could see it properly, I was pulled out from the vision. The woman who was showing it to Eleven looked as if she was going to mur..." 'Shit' "... unleash her powers when she saw heard the instructions."

"Eleven. Do you remember anything about this matrix?" Lucas was not going to let go.

Eleven shook her head sideways in frustration, "I don't remember. Whenever I try, I get a massive headache until I pass out. Something is not allowing me to remember the matrix."

Dustin licked his lips, "Brain implants?"

Mike exhaled, "No clue. The vision stopped before I could see how the damn thing worked. I can't trigger these visions. They come to me when they feel like it."

Will thought for a minute and had an idea, "We have to go back to the lab."

"Fuck no." Dustin was out of nougats, and he was pissed off.

Will grimaced, "You think I want to go back there? After all that happened? But we must trigger the vision. Mike said that the last sight was right before she came to Hawkins. We have to find what this Control Matrix is before that man comes for her. WE HAVE TO DO IT FOR ELEVEN."

Lucas came and sat beside Dustin, they glared at each other for a few seconds and nodded. Max smiled at Eleven, "We'll do it for you."

Mike's jaw couldn't handle the shock, so it made a dash towards the floor, 'Crazy bastard, the lot of them.'

But he laughed, "Yes. We'll go back to that hellhole. You guys would kill for an opportunity to see me drooling and acting like a brain-dead vegetable. But not today. We're too tired, right guys?"

He winked at the gang. They all knew about Eleven's surprise birthday party, and they had toiled for weeks to make it a grand one. They smirked back at him. Eleven was oblivious because she was thinking about the diagrams. Suddenly there was sound from the door. Someone was turning a key, and only one person had the key to the radio room.

"Hold on," Eleven acted without hesitation. She thrust her palm and lifted it in a smooth motion as all of them rose to the ceiling enforced by her incredible power that turned the gravity off for them. Once they reached the top and laid with their backs on the ceiling, she removed the chair with a mental pull. The door opened a moment later, and a bald head walked in and closed the door behind him. Then the person locked the door and made his way to the desk.

Ever since Jim Hoppers' niece had walked in through the door that morning, a strange sensation had crept inside Scott Clarke's heart and was not going away. In fact, he was so distracted that when he was taking attendance, he had called out Eleanor instead of Jane by mistake. It didn't make any sense to him, but he knew where a possible clue might be hidden. Scott opened the drawer and brought an old envelope. He grimaced as he recalled the history behind the letter hidden away inside the innocent-looking brown paper. Gently removing the flap, he took out the letter and carefully laid it on the table under the light. It was a rather simple letter, a sort of Last Will and Testament of a man who had disappeared from the world a year back. He tapped his finger below a line that was highlighted with red ink;

'You'll know when you see her. Her name is Eleven, and you must protect her at all costs. Look out for the nosebleed.'

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

The Episode returns after the break with Prithvi: The Goddess of the Earth.

Post-Credits: Dear readers, sorry for the long break. I'm working on a new project and it's taking a lot of my time. It's the story that took thirteen years in the making, a moment in writing but will take months in narrating. It's the story of how it all began. Coming soon to a screen near you.