-8-
The Fury of Vecna.
Vecna was positive his rage was the only thing currently focusing his mind right now while his body recovered from its recent mutilation at the hands of Eleven. His mutated body had developed an incredibly rapid healing power, and he could heal from not fatal injuries extremely quickly, as he demonstrated when Eleven's friend Max tore out that vine in his neck; his body had recovered quickly, and since he had lived in this world for so long whereas humans found the atmosphere too toxic, he had gained a lot of resilience.
But his body could not recover from being burnt all over and he had lost one of his arms. Vecna couldn't regrow another one, and he had tried, but he had underestimated the limits of his powers. The pain in his stump was easing off as all he could do was simply instruct what was left to simply recover as quickly as possible. And besides, he was sure he could live without the arm; he usually hung in a web of vines, so why not simply adapt some of them to act as replacements for his limbs?
In the meantime, he was furious with himself for letting Eleven get to him like that.
Eleven…
Eleven who had defied him before, twice had nearly killed him, and he had suffered from a mind rape from the girl; while he was furious with her, he had to admit he had done the same to her, so it was only fair. Vecna didn't know for sure what she had seen, it had happened so fast, but he knew what he'd seen in her mind, now all he had to do was simply go through everything he'd taken from her mind.
Just thinking of that little slut now infuriated him; twice he had offered her a chance to join him, so they could work together and remake the world the way they wished.
He was not going to try that again. It was clear he was wasting his time; the last time he had tried, he had picked up a spark of an idea Eleven had simply not been able to hide, she had worked out a way of killing him while he was weak. It might even have worked and Vecna had quickly summoned his servants, the monsters that those fools she was friends with called Demogorgons to help him cover up his escape.
He had not lied, when he had seen her for the first time as Henry Creel, Vecna had been impressed with her, and her powers, and he had become fascinated in her; as time passed, Vecna became obsessed with her, obsessed with taking her and her powers, twisting her and transforming her into a partner who saw the world he did himself.
But she had refused. She was not like him, she still had something that linked her with her mundane mother, and she had fought him, wounded him, before throwing him here into this new world which had taken a while for him to twist to his own will to a degree.
But at the same time, with Eleven, Vecna had seen what Brenner had, but unlike Papa, Creel had seen her potential; all Brenner saw was a potential new Henry Creel who had already proven uncontrollable and it had only taken him a few years.
Brenner had never understood how much the children at the Lab had come to resent him in time, and how much they had pushed themselves to find a way to freedom. Look at Eight, she had grown up knowing about the outside world, just as he had, and he wasn't surprised when she used her powers to escape. It was only a matter of time. But he had wiped out every single child subject in the Lab primarily because their abilities were nothing compared to his, Eleven, and Eight. On top of that, Papa had failed to recognise he could only control the child test subjects to a degree before they became too powerful for him to handle and it would not be long before they planned for their escape or insurrection, and since his only powers were his mind and intellect, there was only so much Papa was able to accomplish.
The three of them were the most powerful and the most gifted out of every single child; oh, 2 might have had something, but he wasn't that powerful and the others only followed his line. In any case, their deaths had made him stronger, especially when he had raped their minds.
Thinking back about the attack, Vecna wasn't too worried; in many ways, he had accomplished what he had wanted to do, he had wanted to sow the seeds that would make every living being on Earth tremble with terror at just the sound of his name, and the sight of him. As Henry Creel, he had known it was only a matter of time before it was discovered what he was doing, so why bother to hide it now?
Vecna closed his eyes, peering through the void, and effortlessly slipping through the barriers separating the Upside Down from the real world - as if it deserved such a name, since nothing there was real, nor worthy of the title - and he sought out Eleven's mind while he went through everything he had seen in the girl's mind.
He knew of her weaknesses now, and he knew if he was to destroy her, he would have to deal with her friends. But right now he couldn't do anything about Eleven or her friends, especially as he was working on healing himself. He was mentally directing his body to accelerate the growth of new skin cells, and it was taking a lot of his time and energy.
But just because he was in this weakened state, Vecna wasn't above mentally ordering his servants to prepare to attack…but he was also aware there were other more powerful entities within the Upside Down, beings and entities he had tried to control in the past but was simply unable. They had seen the potential in that world, fresh prey, and new dominions. They didn't need him or his blessing to enter, and Vecna had long since discovered that, unlike some, he had no power over them.
If the real world had believed things had been bad before, they were going to discover beings more powerful.
Eleven's battle had only just begun, but they might be her downfall, and while regrettable he would adapt.
