A/N: The final chapter is here! Enjoy!
The first thing that the adults explained was how Hopper survived- the question that everyone was wondering the most. Hopper shared his tale of how he jumped off the platform in the lab last second in order to survive the blast. He then went into vague detail about how he was kept a prisoner in a Russian prison.
He was clearly avoiding saying much about the experience. Even so Eleven could tell that he was treated horribly in the prison. She listened as he explained how he was able to send a message to Joyce.
Joyce then started talking about calling Murray and finding the message in the doll. The Byer brothers weren't happy to hear that their mom opened a doll all alone that could of possibly had an explosive in it.
Joyce went on to state how they flew out to Alaska and then gave brief details of them getting captured, and then them taking over the plane- "Mom!" Jonathan shouted in shock.
Murray butted in and said that it was risky but they survived and then formulated a plan to get Hopper back. Hopper then spoke up about the fight with the Demogorgon and how they all reunited.
Murray started teasing the other two about the reunion as soon as they mentioned it. Eleven personally was happy that Joyce and Hopper were together, the both of them could be happy and she wouldn't have to choose between them.
They went on and explained how they escaped only to go back when they heard about the stuff in Hawkins. Apparently they went back and faced the Demogorgon hoping to help them out. Joyce explained how Hopper ultimately was the one to slay it with a sword, amazing everyone in the room.
After hearing about the kill the boys of the original party started exclaiming their excitement about how cool that was. Eleven found herself letting out a small smile at their excitement, which only grew when Max told them to, "Stop being dorks."
Soon their story came to an end and Eleven thought about how lucky they were that they made it out alive.
Once the story wrapped up silence filled the room before Hopper pushed for them to start talking. Luckily Nancy started talking before one of the 'California boys' could.
Nancy went on about how Chrissy and then Fred died. She explained how she followed her instinct and went with Robin to check on information about the Creels. Dustin interrupted her and explained how they connected the dead kids to the schools guidance councilor.
He talked about how Max ran out of the house before telling Steve to drive. Then they broke into the school, stole files, and figured out that Max was to be Vecna's next victim.
The story made Eleven laugh until the part where they figured out about Max. She supposed though that it was lucky that they figured it out before Max died.
They continued to explain how they all met up at the school, Max's first Vecna experience, them deciding they needed to visit Vector, and how Max was doing some last minute things incase she did die.
As Eleven thought it over Nancy started talking again. She didn't pay attention until Nancy started talking about Victors tale of what happened. It was clear that Victor was unaware that his son was the one who killed the rest of his family.
The group then explained how they had figured out the key was music right before Max could die.
The Hawkins group continued to rant on about finding the Upside-Down, getting stuck in it, figuring out how to communicate between the two, and then Henry showing Nancy what he planned to do.
"At least we know how to communicate through both sides." Hopper commented.
The adults looked sick at what the kids were having to go through. Their uneasy looks only caused the pit in her stomach to grow- she did not want to explain what she went through.
"So, what about the last few days." Joyce asked.
The Hawkins group looked at each other with knowing looks.
"We decided we couldn't wait around for him to kill Max. We borrowed a van, bought some weapons, and formed our plan." Steve answered for the others.
"Steve, Nancy, and Robin were to try making their way through the Upside-Down and kill Vecna. Eddie and Dustin were distracting the bats inside the Upside-Down. Meanwhile Erica, Lucas, and I were to locate Vecna in the house. Erica ran out and told the others while I used myself as bait. Lucas was supposed to put the Walkman on my ears if I started floating but Jason found us and stopped him. Lucas had to stop Jason." Max explained in a whisper.
"Our stupid fight, ended up with the Walkman broken." Lucas grumbled.
"It wasn't stupid! He tried to shoot you!" Erica exclaimed. "He was trying to kill you and therefore kill Max."
"I'm sorry he what!" Joyce exclaimed looking shocked from the side.
Eleven found herself questioning the same thing and looked over to Lucas. His eyes met hers before he nodded slightly. The others had clearly picked up on his nod judging by their twisted faces.
Everyone seemed shocked to hear that Jason tried to kill Lucas over this. Eleven decided she didn't like whoever this Jason was.
Hopper seemed to share the same feeling as her as he whispered out threats about how he was gonna show that boy who's boss before speaking up and promising to get Jason arrested one way or another.
Eleven heard Will take a deep breathe before asking for them to, "Continue."
Max continued explaining; "I tried hiding in a happy memory from Vecna but he found me. I wasn't sure what to do but then suddenly he went flying. I looked up and saw Eleven. She told me she was real and that she had piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer."
Eleven felt all eyes shift to her.
Hopper gave her one of his questioning looks; "Piggybacked from a pizza dough freezer?"
"Yes"
She couldn't find it in herself to explain more so she left it at that.
"Alright, then." Hopper said in a tone that meant he definitely wasn't done on the topic but would let it go for now.
Max continued on explaining how eventually her and Eleven got trapped by the vines and she thought she was going to die.
"-but then Eleven was able to push through and hold off Vecna long enough. He suddenly disappeared and we figured it meant that the others had gotten to him. They had but he managed to escape."
Nancy interrupted Max, noticing the way her words were getting smaller; "Yeah, he escaped but not unscratched. We made our way to Dustin and found out that Eddie sacrificed his life."
The words of Eddie dying left the room in a mournful silence. Even though Eleven hadn't met him, she knew from Mike's tales that he was great. She found herself wishing that she could have met him or that he had been kept away from the whole situation.
"Eddie died a hero." Dustin whispered before burrowing his face against Steve's shoulder.
The rest of them tried their best to ignore their friends sobs, while trying to hold back their own.
With the room a lot quieter than before Nancy continued, "We left the Upside-Down and then collected the others. We stopped by a store; picked up some things and gave our parents a call. I managed to convince them that we needed to escape the death of this town for a bit and got them to agree to let us stay out of town for a while."
Everyone seemed to think the information over, but none of them seemed to want to ask for them to explain anything further.
It didn't take long for everyone to look over at her and the California boys. Eleven knew she should probably just hurry to speak up and explain but she felt like her lips were glued shut.
After an awkward moment of silence Mike started; "I guess we should start at the roller-rink. It turns out that Eleven and well also Will was getting bullied."
The only person to look completely shocked in the group was Joyce. The kids had already heard vaguely about the bullying; while Hopper just had a defeated look on his face, like his fears were conformed.
"Why didn't you guys tell me?" Joyce asked.
Eleven still refused to answer which caused Mike to pull her closer to him.
"I think she figured you had enough on your plate mom. Besides I wasn't really getting bullied, not badly, not like El." Will explained.
The other protested that even a little bit of bullying was hurtful and Eleven had to agree.
"As I was saying apparently they had been getting bullied and the biggest bully showed up at the rink. She pulled Eleven out onto the Ice and got everyone to circle her and be jerks. El ended up running away so Will and I tried finding her. Next things we knew we heard a commotion from outside and found out that El had gotten sick of the girl and wacked her over the head with a roller-skate." Mike continued.
"It was you who smacked the girl at the rink!" Joyce exclaimed.
Eleven felt herself flushing in embarrassment at Joyce's comment.
"Eleven..." Hopper said looking at her solemnly .
She couldn't meet his gaze and ended up focusing her gaze on her blue bracelet that Hopper had given her.
Before anyone else could judge Eleven, Mike continued.
"We went home. Saw Mrs. Byers and Murray, they left, and we went to sleep." Mike said while nervously looking over at her before speaking once again.
"The next morning El and I were talking about what had happened and then there was a knock on the door." Mike swallowed, looking over at her.
She met his stare dead on until he continued the story.
"It was the police. They arrested El and refused to even let us talk to her. Then later-"
"Wait- hold on. You can't just leave us on that. Eleven got arrested." Max said.
"There is not really more to that. She got arrested for the roller-skate thing." Mike said.
Eleven refused to meet anyone's shocked glances, instead choosing to keep her eyes on Mike's loving one. The others started to shout about it but Mike and Eleven were only focused on each other conquering the possibly negative looks.
Will started speaking for them, "Yeah, she was arrested and we couldn't reach mom. The next thing we knew some agent people showed up at our door and caught us up on teh events in Hawkins. They said that Eleven was with Owens and was trying to get her powers back."
Will stopped talking and Eleven could tell they were all waiting for her to explain, in which she didn't. Instead of talking, Eleven shifted her gaze over to Will and stared him down until he got the memo to start talking. After an awkward minute he finally did.
"Yeah, two agents got left behind with us to make sure we didn't ruin there plans. We knew we couldn't just sit around while everyone else was in danger. We managed to get them to agree to order pizza so we could use Argyle as an escape driver. The doorbell rung but it wasn't Argyle. Turns out some of the government that have current power are blaming everything on Eleven instead of themselves and are trying to eliminate her. They burst into the house firing their guns like crazy. Luckily Argyle arrived and we managed to escape. One of the agents was left behind while the other died in the van."
Around Eleven was a stunned silence. In fact she herself was stunned, she had heard some of the details but not this much before.
Jonathan was the one to pick up where Will left off; "The dead agent gave us a pen. It took us a while but we finally figured out that it had Elevens location in it. The only problem is that we needed to use some kind of computer to figure it out."
While everyone else looked down at the news, the California gang had slight smiles growing on their faces.
Mike started talking before Jonathan could continue; "There was only one person we could think of with a computer between California and Hawkins."
Mike paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "Suzie."
A loud shocked gasp escaped from Dustin. For the first time in the past few minutes Eleven found herself looking over at the other people in the room.
"You went and visited Suzie without me!" Dustin screamed, with a smile that had been missing from his face for most of the time since the beginning of their reunion.
"No way!" Lucas shouted.
"You met Suzie without us!" Max continued for everyone else.
Mike almost looked smug as he continued- "Yup. We went to Suzie's house. Let me tell you her siblings are nightmares. We told her we were Dustin's friends and needed some help for a game. She agreed but we had to come up with a ploy for her siblings to play out so we could steal her computer back from her dad. Turns out that switching someone else's grades around isn't so good for the soul."
Dustin looked down at this before letting out a huge sigh, "I guess I have to apologize to her then."
"Yup but in the end it was okay. We managed to figure out where El was and made our way over to her."
Mike paused for a second, glancing over at her before continuing-"It was in the middle of a dessert. It took us a bit to find out where she would be but then we saw military grade tire tracks and knew that's were she was."
Mike completely stopped talking, looking over at her expectantly. Her response was to lean further into him. She knew they were all waiting for her to explain, she wasn't stupid. She hadn't even told the boys she had traveled with for over two days what had happened while in the underground lab yet. All she had explained to them was her knowledge of Hawkins.
Mike nudged her in encouragement- wrapping his arms around her and practically dragging her onto his lap.
Taking a deep breathe she started, "Owens stopped the police vehicle and talked to me about Hawkins and getting my powers back. I agreed so he drove me to an underground lab. I went inside and saw what he called project Nina."
She paused as she felt tears build up in her eyes. She knew Mike saw them as he reached his hand up to wipe them away to which she gladly let him.
"-but he had a surprise. Not a good one. It was Papa. He was alive. Owens said it was the only way. That only he would know how to help. I didn't care so I ran but Papa's men caught me and made me unconscious."
Eleven twisted her face into Mike's shirt and let the built up tears fall. She heard some people shifting around before feeling two different hands start to rub against her back. She turned around and saw Joyce and Hopper.
"It's alright, Eleven your with us now." Hopper told her.
She nodded her head before twisting slightly away from Mike; so she could see the others. Her other friends her age had all moved closer as well and gave her hesitant smiles. Everyone's kindness gave her the strength to continue.
"When I woke up I was back in the lab. The old lab. My hair was gone and everyone was there. All of them."
"All of who?" Steve asked from behind Dustin.
"The other kids. I hadn't remembered them. Papa said that was my problem. That I didn't want to remember what had happened."
Everyone else was being so supportive of her so before she knew it, she found herself ranting on about the memories.
Ranting on about the kids being mean, ranting on about the details of her past, and before she knew it she was talking about how she started to get flashes of the other kids bleeding out. By the time she had reached that part everyone was practically sitting in a giant hug.
As soon as she had started, she found herself reaching the end. Eleven told them about her memories of Henry tricking her with kindness, killing the others, and then about how she stopped him.
"So that was the first opening of the gates, I guess." Will said looking stunned.
Eleven nodded at him in reply.
"That's a lot to think about." Max said; with the others all stating their agreement.
Eleven almost didn't want to say the last part but found herself needing to.
"It caused my heart to stop twice. They had to revive me."
The voices around her ceased to exist at her words.
"What." Hopper firmly said.
She took another deep breathe meeting his eyes- "Nina. It stopped my heart twice. It hurt."
Eleven looked from person to person finding rage in all their faces. Mike's arms squeezed her tighter.
"Does it still hurt?" Mike asked in her ear.
Besides his quiet tone, she could tell everyone had heard him.
"A little." She replied honestly.
The anger grew in everyone's faces before they suddenly snapped. The room filled with angry rants about what they were going to do to the people who hurt her.
After a few minutes everyone started quieting down, with their anger still very much present.
Eleven vaguely explained listening into the Hawkins group before deciding she must leave. She then gave a few details about Papa stopping her and Owens disappearing. She told them about waking up with the shock caller on- which only grew the already heavy anger towards the man, and about the military coming in.
Eleven was more than glad that she was finally reaching the end of her lab time and hurriedly explained Papa carrying her out and getting shot. Cheers rung around the room at the news of Papa.
Eleven nudged Mike and he took it as his que to continue for her.
"We found Eleven in the middle of the desert taking down a helicopter. She blew it up and then we reunited with her. She had a shock collar wrapped around her neck but then it suddenly clicked off. When Eleven turned around that's when I first saw Brenner. He was dying and Eleven went over to him. I don't know what exactly happened but Eleven ended up walking away. Then we drove off and tried reaching Hawkins."
Mike took a deep breathe before continuing- " We figured out that we wouldn't reach you guys in time but then Eleven figured out that if she's in a tub she should be able to piggyback off Max's mind and fight Vecna. Argyle came up with going to a Surfer Boys pizza because he could work his way in. We set up the pizza dough freezer for Eleven."
"That's what El meant!" Max shouted looking relieved to finally have an answer.
"Yes. Then I woke up in her memory. I found my way to Max. Fought Vecna till he disappeared. Woke up and came here." Eleven said.
Once the others were sure that she was done explaining and had not left anything vital out; they started talking about everything they had learned. Not just what they learned from her but what they learned from everyone.
They all pitched in giving their own thoughts and ideas. After long they tired out and got ready to have one giant sleepover in the living room. All Eleven could think about though was that she was so happy to finally be home where she belonged.
A/N: So how'd you like it?
Originally there was going to be three chapters but when I actually started writing it ended up turning into five.
Hope you enjoyed! Thank You so much for reading! Thank you to everyone who liked and/or commented on this, it means a lot! I can't believe this fic is already over!
