"Okay, here we go," Hop gently lowered El into the bath after Joyce had slipped on those goggles they'd managed to get hold of over her face. He took a quick moment to kiss her forehead, wondering how well this would work.
"What do we do now?" Karen asked curiously.
"Now we wait."
"That's it?"
"There's nothing else we can do," Dustin said simply. Lucas sighed and looked down at his hands. He missed Max, and he knew that El had looked for her in the void, but she hadn't found her. And right now there wasn't anything they could do.
Suddenly Lucas gasped as a ghostly picture of El appeared in his head.
"Hello," she said, an uncertain smile appearing on her face while she tried to sound confident, "My name is Jane Ives or Jane Hopper, and this is my story. My mother was Terry Ives, and my papa was Andrew Rich. To the world my name is Jane, but to some people," she rolled up her sleeve and revealed her tattoo and held it up.
It read 0-11. "I am Eleven. I got this when I was a child. I was kidnapped from my mother, when I was just a baby…
In Lenora, Angela, her friends, and some of their classmates watched as a smiling, but tired and beautiful young woman, bright and full of life, looked down on them from the crook of her arm.
"Jane…," she whispered before she fell asleep, and then from their point of view they watched as a masked nurse took the newborn away, the little girl crying harder.
"I was kidnapped from my mother just after my birth, and I would spend so many years in the 'care," Eleven spat the word, "of this man."
A tall white-haired man appeared.
"He made us," images of young kids, their heads shaven wearing gaunt expressions on their faces while they wore hospital smocks, playing mind games, "call him Papa, but his real name was Dr Martin Brenner. This is what he did to my mother…"
In Lenora, Angela was unable to do anything, as she found herself watching two very small girls dressed in black and white dresses in a white-painted room that reminded her of a room in a hospital, playing on the floor before a slightly older version of Terry Ives came in, holding a gun. "Jane…," Terry's eyes sparkled with tears, before she was led away, dragged out struggling and screaming while the two girls watched on, not knowing what was going on.
But Angela was not the only person watching this, and many of them felt sick at the cruelty shown towards Terry, as electrodes were placed at her skull, and fried her brain...
"MAMA!" Jane's distant voice as if she were screaming from a distance rang in her brain; Angela didn't have any way of knowing that others were seeing the same horrific things she was.
Karen was grasping her head, moaning as the images and sequences came into her head. She was only just aware of Holly's whimpering, of Joyce muttering something unintelligible; she was barely aware of anything else while she watched in horror in her mind as Terry Ives, a woman that Karen could see she would have gotten along fabulously with, attempting to storm the lab to get her daughter back. If the bastard Brenner had kidnapped Mike, Nancy, or mercy forbid, Holly, she would have not stopped at a handgun, but she would have blasted her way in with a machine gun, and fuck the consequences. Karen would be the first to admit she had made dozens of mistakes that made her cringe, and she knew she had her own issues, but if there was one thing she was, it was Karen Wheeler was a mother, first and foremost; her kids took priority, no matter what.
And she loved seeing small children, finding them adorable.
The moment she saw the little girls in that white, sterile room (why did hospitals and places like that have them? They weren't a place for kids), Karen thought they were adorable, but her delight at seeing children turned to horror and outrage when she saw how Terry Ives was dragged kicking and screaming from the room, and she screamed with her, wanting to help her when those so-called 'doctors' fried her brain.
All because she wanted to free her daughter.
In Hawkins, Lenora, and other parts of the United States of America, the same sequences of images were being played, every tragic moment after another.
Hop knew a great deal about his adoptive daughter's past, but seeing it all play out from her birth, what happened to Terry, going through her basic psychic training before Brenner personally tattooed her before moving her up, all the way to the present day was a heartbreaking, nervy experience. He had dozens of regrets about how he'd raised the girl, but seeing for himself how like Brenner he was hurt him, but he was delighted El had forgiven him.
While there were some things he was not seeing, like her time with her infamous sister, Kali, Hop saw enough to make him sick.
And then, he witnessed El's interactions with the younger Henry Creel. They saw his own life unfolding, and how he became a psychopath who discovered his telekinetic powers and gifts, used them to torture the local wildlife, and then killed his own family.
And he wasn't the only one; in Hawkins, everyone saw in their minds the events playing out. Eleven's time in the lab, how she was tattooed, and everyone felt her fear, her uncertainty about what was going to happen before she was moved into the different experiments, and was severely punished if she failed. The sight of her, with her gaunt face and twig-thin body being dragged by men holding her with vice-like grips, yelling and crying for mercy, broke hearts, but not as much when they felt her loneliness and her desire for freedom. They watched and listened as Henry Creel befriended her, gaining her trust before he finally manipulated her with the appeal of getting out of the Lab forever after telling her stories of what it was like outside…all of it lies before she tore the chip out of his neck, and he went on to kill everyone else, barring Eleven.
They saw her confrontation with him, and they heard his madness, his utter contempt for life as he told his story.
-8-
In the Pennhurst Mental Hospital, the doctors and nurses and Victor Creel himself, watched in their minds as the scenes played out as well. Victor Creel was howling like a madman, as he watched what his son had become, how he had murdered his mother and sister framed him, and driven him insane. Only recently their hospital had been broken into by fake doctors, and now this. But Victor didn't care, and as he watched the girl's memories and how they linked to his son….he hoped she killed him for what he had done, he knew, that if there was anyone capable of ending him and his madness, it was her.
-8-
Eleven showed everyone she was connected to how she battled against the much more experienced, more powerful Creel, before she used all of her memories against him, throwing him into a portal before losing consciousness….and then waking up and not remembering anything, regressing a little.
She showed them all the memories of Brenner's next brutal experiments, how he punished her whenever something went wrong or for the sake of it….all before she touched the Demogorgon in the void. The sight of the monster horrified everyone and they tried to escape, but Eleven's grip was firm…and then they saw the hole open up into the Upside Down before she managed to escape. Get out. Get out. GET OUT!
Many residents in Hawkins had known and liked old Benny from the diner, and seeing the way he was murdered was a shock to them, but he had been kind, patient and gentle to the small girl who'd left the lab…only to be killed coldly…
They saw and heard Eleven as she spent hours wandering around the woods around Hawkins before hearing the voices of boys. As the torch beams from the torches held by Dustin, Lucas, and Mike shone in her face, they heard;
"Are they going to kill me? Will they send me back to the bad men? Am…Am I ever going to be free?"
They saw her early days with Mike, who showed himself to be really kind to her while Dustin and Lucas were suspicious and nervy around her, and while they were both awed by her powers, they didn't trust her at first.
They watched as she learnt some basic things from the three boys, before they learnt she knew where the missing Will Byers was, but they didn't know that Eleven was terrified they would hate her for opening up the Gate to begin with. That all of it was her own fault.
They saw how she was taken into the school, making Troy wet himself in front of everyone.
They saw the confrontation with Lucas, and how she ran off, feeling rejected and hating herself for it.
They saw how she broke Troy's arm for nearly killing Mike and Dustin.
They witnessed her final battle with the Demogorgon after going into the bath and finding the half-eaten body of Barbara Holland, and they heard her inner scream of self-loathing that if she had helped the boys, she might have stopped this, and they heard her mental vow to never let this happen again, no matter what.
The final battle was an eyeopener; Eleven was weak, badly weakened by her experiences with the bath, and now she was stretching herself to the max by going up against the Demogorgon, and destroying it until it created another hole into the Upside Down.
And on and on it went; they saw Eleven's life experiences - how she escaped the Upside Down, seeing the utterly twisted and alien landscape for themselves, how she came to live with Hopper and hearing how frustrated and bitter she was about being imprisoned again. They knew she was hiding things, like where else she went after she found her mother, Terry Ives, who was now a shadow of the woman she had been before in life. But there was a slither of her left….and they saw her return to Hawkins, fight the Mind Flayer, who had possessed Will Byers, and close the Gate, before Dr Sam Owens made a deal, and gave Hopper custody of her. She could live her life, but only under a compromise.
Everyone saw Eleven's next year, while she was frustrated she couldn't go out much and do everyday things like normal teens, they saw and heard how happy she was…before Mike lied to her while enjoying her new relationship with Max, who proved to be an amazing friend, and while it was funny and amazing to hear the way she told Mike; "I dump your ass!" Many women were not happy about the way Mike and his friends described them as a species.
But then it all went to hell; there were growing signs the Upside Down had returned, and there was a new hole, and one right underneath the new Starcourt Gate, built as a cover by the Russians who had stupidly unleashed the Mind Flayer, once more. Why couldn't the Russians and Americans just leave the Upside Down alone? Were they desperate for everyone to die?
One of the most chilling things they all saw was Eleven's confrontation with the Mind Flayer, in a mental version of the Wheeler's basement, and they saw that avatar of Billy threaten the increasingly distraught and terrified Eleven, levelling their threats against the girl before she fought against the giant monster, which bit into her leg. The trauma lost her her powers.
The tragic backstory of Billy, and the loss of her powers, and the loss of Hopper in the destruction of Starcourt led to the Byers leaving Hawkins; fear, apprehension for the unknown were at the forefront of Eleven's mind as Joyce, Will, and Jonathan Byers accepted her. They saw her and heard her hopes for the future, which were brought down by Angela and her cruelty….and her inward desire she had her powers still.
They saw her humiliation at the skating rink and, her confrontation with Angela…and they heard her thoughts of sadness, and anxiety, transforming into white-hot rage before she smashed the girl with the roller skate. But one thing was telling; while Eleven was shocked by what she had done, she didn't regret it, and if she had to do it again, she would.
They saw Eleven and Mike talking in her bedroom and heard her thoughts of distrust and uncertainty. She wanted Mike to be straight with her; while she would lie, she didn't like it, and she was already wound tight. She wanted to know if Mike loved her or not and if he didn't, to just come out and say it so she could move on. When the police inevitably came and arrested her for assault, she had reached the end of her rope. She didn't bother defending herself, saying she was sorry…. When she was taken to the juvenile detention centre, she panicked when she saw the cars, but when she heard the offer from Dr Owens, she was overjoyed deep down. The thoughts she had of getting her powers back were eye-opening.
Everyone saw her terror and shock when she discovered Brenner was alive. How? How had he survived? How long had he been there, behind the scenes? Why hadn't he done anything? Eleven's powers were restored to her, along with deep-rooted memories she had known, deep down, she had known she was missing memories, but she had always dismissed them. The time at the NINA lab gave Eleven the chance to lash out at Brenner before he died, killed by trigger-happy, big-booted soldiers.
"…Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
That was all Eleven was thinking as she telekinetically grabbed the helicopter, and twisted it while she debated inwardly what she was going to do about it before she lashed out in a rage and destroyed it. She was furious with the army already for threatening her, but Brenner had given her pause for thought, and she had been tempted to spend more time at the NINA labs despite the threat levelled towards Hawkins, but Max's life was her top priority, and she was not going to let her down.
Everyone saw her final moments with Brenner, and how while she was happy he was dead, and out of her life for good, they felt her lose a piece of her past…one she could never get back. Everyone saw her mind-to-mind battle with the transformed Henry Creel, her greatest enemy who was now Vecna, who had Max; everyone heard and watched as Eleven tried to get to Max, to save her…
"No….No, not Max…No, I have to free her…"
While she did save Max, she hadn't saved her completely.
Everyone saw her return to Hawkins, exhausted, and hurting from failing to save her friend…before some happiness crept in, Hopper was still alive and reunited with her.
"He's alive! Oh, he's alive!"
Her emotions were all over the place before their happiness ended when the Upside Down launched its attack against Hawkins, resulting in Eleven revealing herself to everyone.
"What am I doing? Not like this. But I have to. Vecna….he's doing this deliberately!…..HOLLY!"
The battle with Vecna and his brutal battle with her had been horrifying for everyone, but Eleven's thoughts before the fight were worse.
"Is he right, do my family and friends just…see me as a weapon, a gun…to point and fire at the Upside Down? Should I….just leave them?"
When Holly was taken, and threatened, Eleven was horrified and shaken, and they heard and saw her desperation to save the little girl who had been a friend when they'd met. They saw her rage and pain as she was raped - mind raped, but she had done the same to Vecna.
Her new fire powers were an eye-opener, but Eleven had decided to experiment and see what else she could do with her mind. When Vecna escaped, she was truly furious with him, but she was tired from her journey, and the fighting and this only made it worse.
Everyone sensed the end was nearing, but Eleven's face appeared in their mind's eye.
"I've shown you these memories to show you that I am sorry, I am so truly sorry for what's happened. Let me redeem myself to you by ending Vecna's threat. But to those like me, who I have also reached out to since I know you exist, you are not alone," Eleven said, before she smiled and then she cut the connection.
She left a lot of people shaken, angry, disturbed and terrified.
