Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

It's time

Hopper looked frantically through all the paperwork on his desk trying desperately to find the source of the incessant beeping. He recognized the sound as the pager he'd been handed and knew it had to be important as it hadn't made a sound before today. "FUCK!" he yelled in frustration, swiping the detritus of his desk onto the floor. Hands on hips and looking at the ceiling he huffed a deep breath, ruing his short temper. Clenching his jaw, he turned his attention to the floor, thanking whoever he could when he spied the small black pager in the corner. Grabbing it, he turned it over to see the small grey screen displaying the message: 'Be ready 1hr. SW nr Creek'.

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He made his way gradually to the remote junction room, fulfilling whatever duties he had along the way, making sure to make conversation with whatever other guard or occasional scientist who came his way so as to establish as good an alibi as possible. He knew there would be a few minutes unaccounted for, but he could do nothing about that other than try and manipulate others into thinking it was earlier or later than it truly was.

This was it. It had been 23 minutes since he received the message, 21 since he'd passed it on to Hopper, so he knew the window of time they had was closing faster than he'd like. It was now or never, so, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he put on the gloves he'd had the foresight to bring and withdrew the pliers and screwdriver he'd sneaked away from the maintenance locker. Realizing he knew about as much about electrical installations as he did about neuroscience he ended up just yanking out wires from the important conduits they'd identified prior to the event. They knew it would take a few minutes to have a knock-on effect and that generators would kick in, but there would be approximately 10 minutes where the surveillance would be down and the security systems vulnerable, including the vital fact that electronically sealed doors requiring scanable ids would all be unlocked.

He watched as the sparks flew, momentarily hypnotized, paralyzed by what he was doing, but he came to his senses pretty quickly, removing his gloves as he shut the door behind him so as to not draw unwanted attention. He managed to walk for at least 2 minutes before the first alarms went off, he recognized them as smoke alarms, obviously the sparks or whatever had started a fire. Perfect he thought to himself, thinking that it would work in their favor as the fire would draw more people to it in order to try and extinguish it. He sidestepped into an open room as he heard people running his way, towards the room, he didn't want to get caught up in the efforts to put out the fire if necessary as the plan required him to be elsewhere to give a helping hand, to open a few doors and show the way out.

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Eleven jolted awake due to another nightmare, but that wasn't what had woken her; she could hear a commotion outside her room, voices in the corridor shouting and rushing past. She made her way across the room, originally just intending to listen at the door, but as she pressed her ear to it she leaned against the handle and it silently swung open a little. Gasping slightly, it didn't take her long to decide to open it and leave her room. Listening to the shouts, it seemed as if a fire had broken out somewhere. She started walking in the opposite direction, being sure to keep close to the walls, silent in her movement.

She found herself in a part of the lab she didn't recognize, in front of a guarded door currently missing its guard. Despite not having a clue what she was doing, why she'd decided to defy Papa and leave her room, curiosity got the better of her and, unbolting the heavy door, she silently slipped through it. Inside was a short corridor, dimly lit. She ignored the empty rooms to the side, strangely drawn as she was to the room at the very end, feeling a pull she couldn't ignore.

Her breath hitched. Inside a lone figure inside stirred and locked eyes with her. Eleven approached the glass, raising her hand and putting it flat against the smooth, transparent, unbreakable surface. She watched as the person inside mirrored her actions until their hands were only separated by the layer of glass.

"Y...you" Eleven stated, her heart racing for a reason she couldn't explain.

"El?" said the girl, tears pooling in her eyes much to Eleven's confusion. "El...it's me...Max" she said, realizing that Eleven didn't know who she was.

Max...I know...I know that's who you are. Eleven frowned, searching her mind for more, "Max...I don't...I can't remember" she stuttered, "but you're here" she said, pointing at her own head, "I know you're here."

"Please remember me" Max begged, "please, I...I love you, you're mine and I'm yours, remember that if nothing else, remember that we love each other."

"I...don't know what that means" Eleven said.

"Let me out and I'll show you, please, help me...help us" Max pleaded.

Eleven didn't even hesitate to find the lock to Max's cell door and open it, for some reason trusting her explicitly. In no time at all, they were facing each other, no barrier between them. Eleven flinched slightly as Max raised her hand to her face, having been struck many times before for not performing her tasks adequately. Max stopped her hand for a second, silently cursing everyone and everything associated with Hawkins lab, before she cupped Eleven's face gently. Eleven couldn't ever remember being touched with such affection, such a simple touch causing a torrent of emotion to erupt, a torrent she could neither understand or cope with and she backed away.

Max shook her head no, silent tears streaking down her face. She grabbed El's hand and pulled her back, Eleven felt weak and unable to resist the girl only inches from her face. Images from her dream rushed through her mind and an unfamiliar feeling built in her stomach. Without understanding why, she leaned forward towards the girl who was doing the same until their lips touched gently. Eleven closed her eyes, allowing the feeling to wash over her, envelop her, she didn't know what she was feeling, but she knew how right it felt and that she never wanted it to stop.

All of a sudden, she was wrenched away, hands pulled them apart and picked her up roughly, carrying her away. She saw white-clothed men pushing the girl back into her cell while she did nothing but let the tears fall down her face as Eleven got further away.

To her horror, she wasn't taken back towards her room, "where?" she asked, fear evident in her voice.

"Treatment room" was the rough reply.

She started shaking her head no, her whole body starting to tremble in fear, "n...no, please...I'll be good, I promise...please...PLEASE!"

As she struggled, the guard holding her tightened his grip, hard enough to start hurting significantly. She felt her anger and frustration and fear and pain build until it was all encompassing, she had found proof that she wasn't crazy, that she wasn't imagining things, the girl in her dreams was here, not only that but she was also a prisoner. This was all wrong and El knew it, she knew it. As the onslaught of feelings became too much she let go, all the feelings feeding the burst of energy that caused the guards and white-unformed men to go flying in all directions leaving her in the middle, her nose bleeding and her head spinning. As she swayed and struggled to stay conscious, two more guards rounded the corner, ready to grab her and take her for the treatment she was now certain would mess up her mind even more, but she was too weak to stop them. Collapsing to her knees, the last thing she saw before passing out was a third guard attacking the other two, felling them with easy strikes to the back of their heads, the element of surprise clearly working in his favor.

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He picked her up with ease, her slight body even lighter than usual due to her recent reluctance to take care of herself. "Fuck" he muttered to himself, wondering whether he'd now be able to free them both, failure just wasn't an option he'd allowed himself to consider as the consequences would most likely be fatal.

He carefully made his way back to the cells, luckily the fire meant that everyone else was occupied and the remaining guards and orderlies had already been taken care of. All except the two currently restraining Max.

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