Chapter 20: Battle Ready
There's a deep rumble beneath both Crystal and Eleven as they sit in the dirt, recovering from El's shockwave.
"What was that?" El asks, looking around for any signs that something had changed.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling we're going to find out," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin says ominously. "From what I've learned as the daughter of the Dark One, you need to expect the unexpected."
"Comforting," the youngest jokes.
"Do you feel ready to start training?"
"Why do I need to train? I'm pretty good with my powers."
"I say that to myself too, but shit can still happen. So how do you usually channel your powers?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you use anger to harness them?"
"Do I feel angry when I use them?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, usually I'm angry when something hurts my friends."
"Okay, are you always angry when you use your powers?"
Eleven thinks about if for a second and shakes her head. "Not always."
"Well, that's where I want to start..." Crystal takes in a deep breath and conjures up a small purple orb that hovers in her palm. It was light purple in colour.
At first, El is a little freaked out by this display of magic, but then she realizes that it's a lot like what Kali could do. She begins smiling with Crystal begins to play with it, making it dance in mid-air and flash different colours.
Rumple's daughter then floats the orb to the girl.
Jane shifts back a bit.
"It's okay, go ahead and touch it," the older girl offers.
El hesitates before reaching out with one finger and making contact with the orb. It felt warm and curved like a typical ball, just that it was glowing. It flashes once.
"Pretty cool huh?"
"Magic..." El says, almost hypnotized by its beauty.
"Real magic, I was born with it, it flows through my veins. Were you born with your powers?"
El nods.
"I wanted to show you that your powers can manifest with other emotions," Crystal says. "Not just anger, and usually something beautiful can occur."
El understood what she means, she sucks in a deep breath and concentrates on one of the canteens near the backpack. She tries to keep her body calm and slowly, the bottle gently hovers in the air. Slowly, a trickle of blood begins to leak from her nose.
"Does that happen all the time?' Crystal asks.
"Yes," Eleven says.
"Okay, so it's not always based on your mental state. Good note. But don't try to strain yourself too much, think of calm things like the seashore, or butterflies."
When Crystal mentions the sea, Jane shudders, thinking about the memories she saw in Billy's head over the summer. The sad memories that made him a nicer person, before all the bad things happen. It's what she used to reach back into Billy's humanity when he was possessed by the Mind Flayer and tragically decided to sacrifice his life to the creature to save her. She remembers how sad and broken Max was at the funeral and she wanted to hold her best friend and never let go.
The memories make her tear up and the canteen drops down to the ground again. To El's surprise, the once purple orb has shifted to a shade of blue with dark swirls circling the base of it.
"What happened?" the older girl asks when the canteen stopped floating.
"Bad memories," Eleven explains. "Something you said reminded me of something bad, but what happened to the orb?"
"I've cast a spell over it. When your finger made contact with the surface, it became connected to your emotional state. I learned how to do this with Emma's baby brother, Neal allowing him to communicate how he felt when he cried so we know what he needed. I called it a 'Baby Whisperer,' but it works on any person at any age. I figured this is good to help you with control."
Eleven was still in awe as the orb slowly went back to a purple colour, her memories of Billy fading.
"I like to think of purple as the chilled colour, yellow for happy, blue for sad, red for anger and so on," Crystal explains. She then looks over the area for something that the younger girl could destroy. She spots a log nearby.
"Now, we're going to kick it up a notch. I want you to focus on that log over there... and I want you to lift in the air. I want you to remember all the bad things that guy did to you that laboratory. How he didn't treat you like a human being, how he just wanted to use you for science. Find that anger again." While Crystal didn't know her ally's full history, she assumed the girl was treated like a lab rat and not an actual human being, which did make herself angry.
Eleven's mind flashes back to her training with Kali, where she'd also encouraged the girl to reach inside herself and harness the anger... the rage she had for Brenner... or Papa. She lifts the log into the air and then slams it against a nearby tree. Her telekinetic grip slowly begins to tighten and crunching sounds are heard as the centre of the log compresses inward. The memories of agents trying to hunt her down, the people who threatened to hurt her friends, what those monsters did to her mother, how she felt when she and Hopper fought, being separated from Mike for a year... trying to protect everyone from the Mind Flayer.
Blood is now pouring from her nose, her eyes appear to become dark, and she grinds her teeth in fury. All the feelings and the power of closing the Gate come back. The cracking becomes deeper and louder as the adrenaline flows through her, making her body stronger. She hadn't felt this sheer amount of energy in a long time, even after her powers had come back.
The orb changes to a dark red and more streaks of black. Crystal does become a little nervous, watching as more darkness creeps into the mood ball and in the girl's eyes.
"El..." she says. "El release. Come back to me."
However, the log snaps in half under the sheer power of the girl's telekinesis and she then flings it aside, like how a toddler might throw a toy. However, the log wasn't enough now, and Jane now focused on the tree behind it. The trunk begins to crack as she searched for a new target. Crystal also notices that El is starting to float above the ground from the sheer power of her telekinesis.
This makes Crystal more concerned, but this is what she wanted to address.
"Eleven you need to listen to my voice. I want you to think about Mike... how much you love him... how he makes you feel... how you two laugh together... smile... kiss. Think about the love you have with your new father... how he cares for you, gives you hugs makes you feel safe and loved."
Crystal's calming voice is annoying at first, but part of El's mind listens. The happy memories of her time with Mike, how he'd sing to make her laugh when their lips touched. How Hopper would make new Eggo creations with her, how'd they cuddle up in front of the TV, reading books together... when he told her how much he loved her.
Tears begin to come down her cheeks and the daughter of the Dark One knows that she's broken through to the girl, brought her to a more balanced state... The two of them really were cut from the same cloth. The impact on the tree has lessened, but Crystal knew that it was still very strong. The orb has turned to a strong mix of blue and purple, the power and control is there.
"Close your eyes..."
Eleven/Jane does so.
"Feel that power flowing through you. That love you feel... the warmth... This is what you should strive for. Love is the power you need..."
She pauses to let the girl feel it.
Eleven does feel this warmth... it's like a glow in her entire body, like energy racing through her mind and veins... she felt the power, but it wasn't angry... it was loving and even hopeful. She accesses every part of her body and everything is exploding in sparks. She felt in control of herself and her power. The zeal and exuberance of it all were amazing. She'd never felt this before; she was floating for a moment, completely weightless and devoid of any aggression.
"This does not control you... you oversee it... it does not define you. It is a part of you, but it does not rule your life. Anger does not command you... Or who you are as a person."
The younger girl opens her eyes and lowers her hands, the light leaves her body and it goes to feeling normal again. Her brown eyes look over at Crystal in shock and amazement.
"The key to not losing control is to think about the things that make you calm or happy. You need to remember that in the heat of the anger, you can't lose yourself to it, otherwise, you'll end up hurting people you care about," she explained. "You have to keep yourself balanced in mind and energy. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way, so I'm trying to help spare you from something similar."
"Amazing," El utters.
Crystal then hands the girl a cloth to wipe the blood from her nose.
"Anger is a powerful tool, but love is often even stronger."
…
"What happened?" Nathair gasps, ripping off the headset he was wearing. "Why did she stop?" He begins to type frantically on the keys of the computer console. He checks the screens in a frenzy and when the reading drops back to what it was before, his heart plunges into his stomach. He pounds the machinery in frustration. "NO, NO, NO! That was a class of energy we haven't seen yet. Why did it stop?!"
"Nathan calm yourself!" Mrs. Baker insisted. "The girl is only so much in control. It was her first time tapping into that energy... give her time to work with it..."
"MOTHER! You don't understand what this means! This boost of energy would what we need to bring this project to the next level... One that I haven't even fully planned out yet! You have to know how important it all is!"
"I understand that but throwing a tantrum on your machinery like you're a child who didn't get a cookie is not going to help matters."
"Don't patronize me Mother!" he hisses. "I'm not a child, I know what I'm doing."
"I certainly hope so Nathan. Do not become Icarus; his desire for greatness caused him to fly too close to the sun and become burned."
"Go make yourself some tea or something!" he barks at her. "This is nothing you can understand."
Mrs. Baker looks sternly at her son and had the good sense to smack him upside the head for such immature comments. While her son was a genius, he still had the tendency to act like a child and get excited or angry about things that seemed rather pointless in the grand scheme of things. She gives him a horrible glare before turning towards the exit to go make some more tea for herself. She also had to make some food for the subject whose ability was powering almost the entire facility. Dr. Nathair only let her off the machine for one hour a day, as he considered that humane and not to overwork her abilities. He saw the individual as a battery that still needed to be recharged every once and a while.
Andrea Baker leaves the facility while her son frantically takes notes to capture the "off the chart" readings and try to find ways to enhance this spark of energy again.
…
"Are you sure you want to do it again so soon?" Crystal asks. "After what happened the last time?"
Eleven is preparing to put the scarf around her eyes, she looks at her ally dead in the face and nods, giving a small smile of reassurance.
"I need to try and find Mike or someone else in here. I need to fight this stuff and try to show the bad man that he's not in control... we are."
"El, just because we had one successful training session doesn't make you an automatic master. The power you felt is strong it's going to take practice to control it."
"There's no time for practice... We're in the middle of Jumanji and our friends are in danger,"
Crystal looks on impressed that the girl from the '80s managed to properly use a '90s reference, even though it was clear she had no idea what it was.
"Okay fine, but don't work yourself up and if something is in there, get the hell out... You're not equipped to fight what's surrounding this hell hole. Plus, you're not a machine, you can't always force yourself to keep going, being a human means you need to take breaks once and a while"
"I got it," the young teenager says, putting the scarf around her eyes.
Crystal hands her the headphones and then finds the radio app.
The buzzing begins in her ears and Eleven inhales sharply, ready to enter The Void again.
…
Opening her eyes, Jane finds herself standing in the blackness like before. The same sinister vibrations from before can be felt as she begins to walk through the water. The ripples form on the surface again as she attempts to find someone that she knows.
She exhales calmly, trying to remain focused and think about happy things... this energy cannot stop her from finding her friends. She needs to be in control.
What feels like an eternity passes before the young girl sees someone up ahead. She sloshes through the pools of water, ignoring the prickling in her brain and the sensation of being pulled deeper into the water.
"Mike?!" she calls out. She squints to try and see the figure more clearly.
As she attempts to get closer, she can see the person is a boy, with dark, long hair and dark clothes. She recognizes the styling of the hair and knows it's not Mike.
"Steve?!" she calls out.
The energy in the Void becomes a bit more aggressive as the girl tries to get to her friend. She can see him standing in the blackness, his head continues to turn and he's looking down as if something is circling him.
"What the f***?! Where the hell is everybody?!" he shouts, his voice only being heard by Eleven. "What the hell?! What these things?"
He backs away as these still shapeless beings apparently get closer. El fights to see what they are and hopefully help the older boy, but the Void begins shaking more violently and the same harsh energy from before is entering her mind.
The girl knows she has to get out, but she needed to know where Steve was, she looks for anything surrounding him that might be from the jungle.
Then the black thing springs at him and El watches in horror as its claws seem to draw blood. Steve screams out in pain and tries to fight off this creature. She reaches forward, only to feel herself being sucked down under the water again. She wants to fight it... think about happy things... stay in control, but it's not working.
…
El rips the blindfold off her face, blood dripping from her nose. She expects to see Crystal sitting there next to her, offering water, but the older girl is on her feet. Her hands are glowing a dark purple colour and she looks ready to attack. She stares off into the thick jungle, trying to detect an unseen threat.
"I heard someone screaming," she says. "We have to find them."
Despite how dizzy she felt, Eleven gets up to join her ally, she inhales and prepares to go into battle. Whether it was Steve screaming or someone else, whoever they were needed their help.
"Let's go."