A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Who is she?

Eleven had been gone for over a year since defeating the Demogorgon, trapped in the upside down, devoid of care, comfort...love. After only one week she'd been ready to give up, curl into a ball and die, not allowing herself to believe that she could make it out of the desolate, bleak, forsaken upside-down alive. But she had been strangely calm and accepting of it, she knew that after 12 years of existence, surrounded by the depravity within Hawkins National Laboratory, she'd been able to live a week of perfection. In most people's eyes, a week being pursued and hunted by evil government scientists would have been a nightmare, but in that time she found things that she had never even dreamt of, friendship, family, love, things she'd never known even existed until then, until she'd had the courage to escape. For all of that she was truly grateful.

It had all changed when she realised someone was leaving her food, it wasn't much, but it was enough to provide both physical and, more importantly, spiritual sustenance. It had allowed that unfamiliar feeling of hope, fostered for the very first time in Mike's home, to return, and she resolved in that moment to fight, fight with every ounce of her being to survive, to return.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"Who is she?" asked Max as they all waited at the hospital, her mom having gone to talk with Hopper and the doctor.

The boys all looked at each other, not knowing where to start. Will was first to speak, "last year, you know we said I had an accident?" Max nodded, remembering the story they'd told her about Will's disappearance, knowing that they couldn't stop her from hearing gossip at school. "I, um, it wasn't exactly an accident..."

Max was intrigued, the way he'd said it implied that something had been done to him on purpose, maybe an attack of some kind she speculated. "Ok, go on."

"This is gonna sound completely insane, ok? but you have to believe it, it's all true, all of it, I promise" he said. Max said nothing so he continued, "I was taken...by a monster...to a place called the upside down. It's like here, but not here...ugh, I mean it exists in the same space as here, but it's somewhere else, somewhere awful."

Her confused face said it all, "it's like an alternate dimension" Dustin butted in, as if it would make it clearer.

Mike rolled his eyes, knowing that their explanation was inadequate and ridiculous sounding at best. "Look, the girl, her name is Eleven, she was raised in Hawkins National Lab where they ran experiments on her and treated her like absolute shit, they tortured her mentally and physically, forced her to do things" he said, barely suppressing his anger. His obvious emotion and passion meant Max found it hard not to trust him, despite how outlandish their explanation sounded already.

"Forced her to do what?" she asked, already scared to hear the answer.

"You have to promise that whatever we tell you doesn't leave this room, ok?" insisted Mike. She nodded, seeing clearly how important this was to him, to them all in fact. "She has certain...abilities..." he said, not actually sure how to continue without it sounding like he was crazy.

"She can move shit with her mind, like telekinesis" interrupted Dustin, not held back by such doubts, "and she has, like, telepathic abilities too, they were training her, turning her into a weapon" he added, looking disgusted as if he thought that was a colossal waste of such awesome powers.

"Yeah, very funny guys" Max said looking distinctly unimpressed, "look, there's a girl in there who I almost killed and you're out here making up stupid shit like that, you can all fuck off if you think this is funny." She looked around the group, to a boy they weren't laughing. In fact they looked like they found this anything but funny. Settling on Lucas, who she knew had no time for bullshit like this, she said "Lucas, tell me the truth, please."

"Max...everything they've told you is true. They stole a baby from her mom, told the mom she died, then abused her for 12 years. We only had a week, all of us together..." he glanced over at Mike who clearly looked more distressed than the others, "we found her in the woods while looking for Will after he was taken and we took her back to Mike's house, she didn't really talk much...or understand much...but Mike got through to her, got her to talk. She helped us find Will, but...by helping us..."

"What, what happened?" Max pressed.

"We were at the school, the middle school, the bad guys who were looking for her found us, but then the monster came and killed them all...it came for us too, but she...we thought she died destroying it, except Mike, he thought she was still alive. Turns out you were right man, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too" said Dustin.

There was silence for a few minutes whilst Max tried to work out if they were indeed insane, making fun of her, or, by some crazy miracle, they were being honest and it was all true.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Eleven spent a week out cold, not in a coma, but her body exhausted. She was severely malnourished but by some miracle had no broken bones, just extensive bruising. Mike only left her bedside when his parents insisted, he still had responsibilities at home such as his chores and homework. Hopper, or one of his trusted deputies, didn't leave the outside of her room, ensuring she was guarded 24/7.

Little did Eleven know the outpouring of emotion that happened by her bed as each person touched by her sacrifice came to see her. Joyce cried every day she came to visit, her heart breaking upon seeing the frail body of the girl who had sacrificed everything to find her son and keep them all safe. Nancy and Jonathan remembered the young girl crying from pure fear and pain in Joyce's arms, Hopper pictured the lab in his mind, her room, the tank, every time he saw her. But mostly it was the boys, talking to her unconscious form about everything that had happened since they were last all together. They told her how the lab had shut down and been abandoned literally the day after the school attack, about the mouthbreathers at school, new sci-fi films they'd seen and comics they'd read.

Then there was Max. She sat with her most days, whether it was out of a sense of guilt or curiosity she didn't really know, but she felt compelled to. She sometimes held her hand to give her some human contact, having listened to the boys she felt that this must have been something severely lacking in her life. It was Max who was there, holding her hand, telling her about her family life when El's eyes fluttered open. Max wasn't really paying attention, she was looking at the pale hand she was holding, subconsciously memorising every feature, and so she carried on talking. El lay there for a good few minutes just listening to the strange girl she had never met before talking about her life, feeling the sensation of her hand being held, which she found comforting, reassuring, and peaceful and didn't want it to stop. She surveyed Max's features, her bright hair, the most amazing color she'd ever seen, her pale skin and freckles. Eventually Max glanced up at El's face and stopped talking immediately, they looked at each other for a few moments before Max said "hey."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*