Work Text:
Eleven knows deep inside that it's all her fault.
She created Vecna, she created the Mind Flayer. It's what keeps her up at night, her thoughts swarming with what if she had done this, or she had done that, then maybe Hawkins wouldn't be in shambles. The gate is wide open now, Henry accomplished his goal, and he was right. They had lost. They had lost badly, and Eleven didn't know if anyone could fix it.
Even though Vecna, Henry, had caused so much pain, Eleven didn't hate him. She just couldn't. There was just something in her, refusing to hate the boy. But was he a boy? She had seen him, his kinder, more caring side. He had wanted her alive, which was so much more than anyone in the lab could say. Did that make him a boy, even though he was a man? To Eleven, she didn't know.
Mike didn't understand, no one did. She had tried to explain the recent nightmares to Hopper, who had always stayed by her side after one, but they didn't end when he was there. No one understood how much it terrified her when she woke up in a cold sweat, her nose bleeding without her doing anything.
And then she heard it.
"Eleven".
The voice was pained, hurt. She had looked around desperately, afraid that the voice was here with her, hiding in the shadows that were within the area of her room. She had stumbled out of the room, tears brimming in her eyes, pushing open the door to the cabin, hearing Hopper yell out to her. Eleven couldn't hear anything as she ran, nothing but the blood roaring in her ears.
The woods surrounded her, only dark trees that were so tall El had once thought they touched the sky. When she thought she was safe, she laid against a tree, letting out a sob.
And then she heard it again, the same voice.
"Eleven--" Then came the bloody nose.
- - -
Eleven visits Max the next morning, not going home. She doesn't want to face Hopper, who will for sure ask what's wrong. She cannot explain that the creature that was killed by Steve, Robin and Nancy is alive and sending her messages in her mind.
Max's near death is one of the reasons that Eleven tries so hard to hate Henry. It hurts, watching Max in the bed. Eleven hates feeling helpless, feeling like she's so weak that she can't do anything.
Eleven closes her eyes, not noticing that by doing so, things in the room are levitating. She enters Max's mind again, the black room surrounding her vision.
"Max! Max!" She shouts, her voice distressed. She doesn't know what to do, and she finds herself easily missing Max's thinking and voice, her kindness and caring personality. Eleven knew that Max had been through a lot, and Eleven would always remember it as the reason Henry targeted her.
When Eleven opens her eyes, she jolts back in her chair as the objects she had been steadily levitating crash to the floor, creating a loud racket. Henry, in his blonde, human form, stared at her from the window of the door, a smile on his face.
Eleven runs out as fast as she can, unable to greet Lucas as he comes in.
- - -
Eleven returns home late, having gone to talk to Nancy about Henry. She barely remembers not to call him Henry in front of her, because in front of the group, she must not show that she believes it was her fault.
They talk for a bit, mostly about how they are. Nancy is alright, trying to spend time with Jonathan, because they were unable to earlier in the year. Eleven shares that she's alright, saying that she went to visit Max over the night. It isn't a full lie, but it isn't a full truth.
"..What did he show you?" Eleven had asked hesitantly, not wanting to reveal that she was trying to find if she was going to become like him soon. Nancy had frowned, her eyes showing the emotion of confusion. "H-Vecna." It's a small slip, the 'H' barely able to be heard, but Eleven sees as Nancy narrows her eyes.
"Are you sure you want to know?" Nancy had responded. Eleven had looked away, out towards a window that showed the bright sky, the pale baby blue color covered by the white, fluffy clouds. Henry used to tell her about it sometimes, about the outside world, the world that they both would one day see together.
How wrong that was now.
Nancy sighed. "His old home. He slaughtered animals, leading his father to become extremely paranoid and afraid for his family's safety. Victor thought it was a demon, but his mother figured it out one day and," Nancy took a deep breath, "she despised him for it, but who wouldn't?" Eleven bit her lip, looking towards the window to her right. "Then he slaughtered his family, except for Victor, who was saved by his favorite song and--El!"
Eleven jumped. Nancy shook her head. "Sorry. You were completely focused on the window." Eleven looked back at the window, seeing the same image as before. Her blue jacket was stained with blood, her 011 tattoo showing on the inside of her wrist. Her nose is barely bleeding, and fresh blood is everywhere on her dark gray t-shirt. Her hair is to her shoulders, wavy with strands that seemed to be dyed black.
Eleven knows this is a flash of the future, so she quickly thanks Nancy and flees the house.
As Eleven walks down the sidewalk, she looks into the windows of a house. Her other self is there, and Henry stands close, looking over at her and smiling. Henry waves, and Eleven shivers. She doesn't know if it's from his gaze or the gusts of wind. Her body reacts to whatever it is, causing goosebumps to rise up on her skin. The streetlight turns on, bright and vibrant, and it surprises several others on the street, most caring boxes or limping.
It doesn't surprise Eleven anymore.
"Eleven." Eleven can't help but shiver as she hears her name. But she doesn't run, she stands still, still refusing to face the demons that haunt her mind. With a deep breath, Eleven makes a move that she and Henry don't expect.
Under her breath, so quiet that no one else except her can hear, she mutters "hello Henry."
It's silent for a few moments, and then she begins walking again. Her eyes flicker to the windows of the houses again, and to her surprise, Henry stands, her evil reflection not in sight. He's wearing the orderly uniform that they first met in, when Eleven had been the number she was named after. It was clean, not stained with the blood of the children he had mercilessly slaughtered in the lab, some innocent, and some not so much.
Henry stands there, and for a moment, Eleven smiles, because for a second, she has a thought that he could be the kind and caring man he had been before his transformation. But then, her vision darkens, and she immediately notices the vines on the ground.
The darkness is met with a crack of red lightning from the giant cloud overshadowing the whole dimension. It's so dark and eerie, and Eleven spends at least a minute turning each direction, trying to take in her surroundings. The light flickers, and Eleven wants to run up to Nancy's room and plead to her for help, but she knows that Henry won't allow that.
This isn't real, this isn't real, Eleven assures herself, but as she hears a Demogorgon roar in the distance, she has a feeling that this is very, very real.
She looks over at the windows, now covered with dark vines. The eighteen year old adult remembers how Dustin said that Eddie had died from the Demobats, bats that had a thirst for human flesh. Eleven takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and begins to use her powers.
She feels blood on the top of her lip, and it drips down lower, forcing Eleven to keep her lips together: completely sealed. Eleven pushes herself harder, clenching her fists.
When she opens her eyes, she's not on the sidewalk anymore. In front of her is the first gate, where the Creel house once stood. She knows Henry's playing games with her, but as she walks through the woods, she makes sure to look nowhere but the ground in front of her until she reaches Hop's cabin.
In the window, she can see him, smiling before running a hand through his blonde locks of hair. As much as Eleven hates it, she can see that he's handsome. But now is not the time to admire him, especially as she hears his last words to her before she enters the wooden house.
"We create each others monsters. You created mine; I shall create yours."
She shivers, and doesn't look into any glass before she goes to her covers, bracing for nighmares.
- - -
Mike comes the next day, and Eleven can take her mind off Henry for a while. She likes it that way, as her and Mike spend time together, forgetting about her troubles for as long as she can. Eleven knows she can't outrun them, but she can hide from them as long as she wants. Eleven wants to hide for eternity.
Will comes a few minutes before Mike leaves. He doesn't say anything, merely greets them softly. Eleven can tell that something is wrong, but she doesn't want to pry into other people's business, as she had been told that wasn't nice. When Mike leaves, Will says a soft goodbye, and he wipes his eye.
Eleven closed the door, her grin slowly leaving her face. "El, are you alright?" Will questioned as she went to go sit on the couch. Hopper was out with Joyce, something about a date, which meant that Eleven had been alone.
Eleven looked over at Will, putting down her plate of Eggo's. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. Will sighed.
"I--it's..nothing." Eleven looked over at Will, cofused.
"Are you sure?" Eleven asked, trying to make sure he was sure. Will looked around before touching the back of his neck.
"No. It's just..I can feel Vecna, the Mind Flayer, whatever we're calling him--" Eleven's mouth runs before she can stop it.
"Henry. His name is Henry." Will approaches her, looking at her with concern.
"Henry?" Will questions. Eleven nods, noting how the light begins to flicker. "Well, I can..feel him. He's not dead, and I feel like..he has energy..in you." Eleven looks over at Will, furrowing her brows.
"Energy?" Eleven asked, questioning the boy she thought was her brother.
Will nodded. "It's like, when I'm near you, I feel like there's this--this darkness. And when I touch you, it's even worse." Eleven looked down, at her hands. She looked up, her breath hitching as she saw her other self in the reflective glass of the window. "El are you--" Will stopped.
"Do you see it?" Eleven asks, her voice soft and afraid. Will takes her hand and nods.
"What is it?" Will asks.
"Please, tell William that it's a who, not a what."
Eleven freezes, her eyes flickering from the ground to her reflection. "He's talking to me again". Eleven admits. Will looks at her, parting his lips.
"He's..what do you mean..again?" Will asks slowly. Eleven takes in a breath.
She might as well show, because it's easier than explaining.
The adult raises her hand towards the window, and without even moving her hand, it shatters. Will flinches as glass falls down to the ground. Eleven wiped at her nose, no blood coming out, just as she had expected. "How did you--? And you're barely even bleeding.." Eleven nodded, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
"My powers are growing, and it started when I first noticed me and Henry's connection." She explained briefly. "I think somehow, he's trying to influence me like I did to him", Will narrows his eyes.
"What do you mean 'influence'?" Eleven sighed.
"I made his monster. He claimed he would make mine." Will shook his head.
"You're not a monster, El. You two are different, remember?" Eleven nodded, even though she wanted to disagree majorly with Will. They had quite a few similarities, because in the end, they didn't comply to what humans wanted, they were different, special, and their childhoods had been robbed from them, their powers also gone for sometime, something that had made them uniquely them.
As Eleven settles Will down so that he can sleep on the couch for the night, she looks towards the window she was supposed to have broken. It was repaired, and in her reflection, she could see his familiar face. "Goodnight Will," she tells him, not hinting that she's about to be awake for even longer.
Eleven tosses and turns in her bed, praying that she won't hear him again. His words replay in her head, over and over, a never ending nightmare. A chill crawls up her spine, and she squeezes her eyes shut, feeling him in her mind once again.
"Hello, El. May I call you El?" Henry speaks, but this time, she doesn't hear his voice in her mind. She opens her eyes, and to her surprise, they're in the black room. Henry smiles as Eleven looks around desperately. "Well, El, you might--"
"What have you done?" Eleven asks, fear in her eyes. Henry looks away, shrugging.
"Taken things into my own hands. Or, actually, your mind." Henry looks back at her. "You know that you need training, El. I can give you that".
Eleven furrowed her brows. "Training on what? Becoming my own monster?" Henry chuckled.
"The 'monster', as you call it, actually is you stepping into your powers, into understanding them," he explained to Eleven. Eleven shook her head, not believing him, and not wanting to believe him. "You don't believe me. Of course," Henry pauses. "Let's try a little experiment, shall we?"
Before she can say anything, Henry raises his hand and lifts Eleven into the air. She panics for a minute, before remembering her powers. The woman takes a deep breath before pushing her hand out and letting a scream echo through the never-ending darkness. Henry moved backwards at least a fifteen feet before stopping.
"I was expecting that, El. Do something I don't expect", he instructs. Eleven knows that she shouldn't be doing this, because this is practically her training to become a servant of the dark, of the Upside Down, but she's too curious.
Eleven drops herself to the floor, furrowing her brows as she stared at him. What wouldn't he expect? Eleven closed her eyes, taking them both to another place entirely, so it wasn't just them in the darkness.
Kali, Eight, sat on a metal cot, glancing down at her tattoo. "Eight?" Henry questioned. Eleven nodded her head.
"Did you know her?" Henry nodded, sighing right after. "What was she like?"
Henry looked up at her. "This is not what--" Eleven pushes him with her powers, screaming once again. Henry grunts as she moves his hands to behind his back, so he's helpless.
"Why do you want me here?" Eleven asks, furrowing her brows, frowning. Henry stares down at her.
"I'm afraid I can't answer that", Eleven clenches her fist.
"Why are you acting so much nicer?" Eleven questions, breathing heavily. Henry smiles.
"It's simpler that way", he answers without giving anything away. Her heart begins beating faster as she stares at his eyes, his cold eyes. She shivers and takes a deep breath. "Well, I'm afraid it's time for this to end."
Eleven is about to ask what he means, but she jolts up, Will shaking her. "El, El!"
"Will..?" Will lets out a breath of relief, making Eleven feel a bit better. "What happened?" Will trembled.
"You began saying his name. Over and over again, you repeated 'Henry, Henry, Henry'. For a moment, I thought you were having a nightmare, but..I have a feeling it was something else..?" Will guessed. Eleven took a breath in, shivering from the cold.
"What did I do?" Eleven specifically asked after seeing the mess from the open door in the other room. Will looks over at the door.
"Well, we might have to tell Hopper that his place has been trashed once again", Will tries to joke, but Eleven shakes her head. Will nods. "Serious, right, right. You moved them with your mind, and you were bleeding from your nose in your sleep. You shattered a few of the windows, and you knocked somethings down. Mostly everything is broken in some way," her head throbbed with the memory of her and Henry.
'It's simpler that way', what had he meant by that? Why had her heart pounded as soon as she made eye contact with him?
The first question mattered more than the second one, but she still wanted to know.
"I'll get you some water," Will told her, leaving the room. As she sat on the bed all alone, she thought of the time in the Rainbow room, when he had told her that she was like him, and how he had softly grasped her hand in his. Eleven brought her hand up to her nose, wiping away the fresh crimson blood.
- - -
Eleven doesn't see Henry until it's a month later.
She decides to stay in Hawkins, not going back to the school that had ended up giving her so many bad memories. She has her powers now, so she knew that she'd be able to make them--she doesn't finish that thought.
Eleven had begin to grow more used to Henry being there, because even though they don't speak, she can see him in the windows, in the mirror. Her other self, the person she doesn't want to turn into, isn't there with him. Eleven sometimes can't help herself to stare.
He's a handsome man, it's the truth. She can't help but stare sometimes, even if he is there, watching her. Eleven knows it's wrong, to find the enemy attractive, especially when she's dating Mike. (But is he really the enemy, and will Mike ever truly understand her?) But, there's something that she can't put her finger on, something that makes Henry seem more like a scared adult, like her, rather than a merciless child murderer.
Maybe it's how he looks, how even now, he's still greeting her politely and talking to her as if nothing happened between them, like they've always been happy friends. Well, almost, all the time he did that. Eleven wonders if that's how he plans to make her a monster, by slowly making her trust him more and more, slowly corrupting her into the dark person that will one day help him wreck terror over the world.
Eleven wishes that the description she came up with wasn't so detailed.
Eleven wants to go on a walk, so she tells Hopper farewell, and she ends up making it to where you can see Hawkins Lab. Her home, the place that she grew up. "Our home."
Eleven let's him in. It's a mistake, but one that she's already made countless times. Eleven looks to her right, and Henry is standing there, his white uniform on, no blood stains, once again. "Hello Henry," she greets softly. Henry smiles.
"Good morning, El," as he greets her, she takes the time to admire him, his tall posture, kind face, and his blue eyes that she had multiple times gotten lost in. "How do you feel?" Henry questions. Eleven shrugs.
"Fine. Why?" Henry grins.
"So curious," Eleven flushes red, embarrassed. Henry chuckles. "Do you want to get in?" Eleven looks at him, biting her lip. Does she want to be in the place that raised her into a monster? But then again, how is it different than Henry?
"I guess.." Eleven trails off. Henry hands her a white cloth, making Eleven frown. "What is this for?"
"So you don't wipe your blood on your sleeve. I know that can be annoying", he responds. "Now, open the fence."
He demands it, so there is no argument. Eleven quickly tucks the cloth into her pocket before she closes her eyes, raising her hand and she opens her mouth to release a scream. The sound of metal groaning fills her ears as she continues, ending up shoving her other hand out there. As she hears a thud against the ground, she opens her eyes.
Henry smiles at her, and Eleven almost uses her sleeve before taking out the cloth from her jean pocket, wiping under her nose. It's stained with bright red blood, her blood. Eleven folds it up and stuffs it into her pocket once again. Before they begin walking, though, Henry runs a finger over the back of her neck, walking to the other side of her.
"Good job," he whispers into her ear. "You did well," she feels her heart pound as she realizes how close they are to each other. They're so close, that she feels his breath on her neck. Eleven lets the praise sink in before she begins walking, Henry right behind her.
When they reach the door, they both share a glance. Eleven outstretches her right hand, Henry uses his left. The doors fall to the floor, sliding across the tiles. Eleven remembers the memories of two years ago, when she had kept the Mind Flayer, Henry, out of the world.
Now here she was, standing side by side with him.
They walk through the lab, silence taking over quickly. Their fingertips sometimes brush, and Eleven tries to ignore the constant jolt it creates in her heart. When they get to the main room, where she had lowered herself down and closed the gate, Henry stops walking.
"This is your final test, Eleven", she furrows her brows, looking over at him. "Come and find me, unless this has had no effect on you."
Eleven thinks for a while, standing there with her feet glued to the floor. Does she want to free him, does she want to become the monster in the mirror? Why do you refer to it as a monster? Eleven questions herself. She looks at Henry, bit her lip.
"Are you human?" She questions. He furrows his brows, yet sighs.
"The fire..yes. That's why I need you," he realizes what he says a few seconds later, but they let it linger, among the hating each other and the confusion that they both feel.
She thinks more, remembering how Mike lied to her, how he always wrote 'From', instead of 'Love'. How he had practically tried to control what she did, and in the end, she was sure he was right. Eleven didn't need him, and she never would again.
Eleven takes a deep breath, looks at the wall, and outstretches her hand.
She mumbles something under her breath, something to herself.
"Welcome to the end."
It's time.