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Corey watched as El slowly sat up.
He kept his distance, but he watched her. She breathed slowly, looking around. Her eyes landed on him when she was fully sat up, staring in disbelief as he tried to apologize through eye contact. She broke it off though, standing up and walking toward the tank. Papa touched Corey's shoulder, encouraging him to move back.
El rose her hand before her body, lifting the tank slowly. Corey inhaled in shock as he watched, the loud clanking the bolts made echoing even more. El brought it twenty feet into the air before lowering her hand, and the tank, back down. She inhaled weakly, turning toward Corey again with a bloody nose.
Papa lead her away after that. Corey waited for them to escape the room, it hadn't taken long before El stormed out and toward a private room. Corey followed, knocking his fist against the metal. "El?"
"Go." her voice rung over the water.
"Can I explain?" he begged her.
"Friends don't lie. You lie." she said back, slightly muffled by the door. "Go, now."
"I had to." he chose to explain, weather she wanted to listen or not. "I had no choice."
The door opened, El was on the other side of the room. Corey walked in, going to shut the door but she used her powers yet again to do it for him. Corey looked over at her. "Long story."
"Lie." she glared.
"Not a lie." he defended himself. "I can explain it all, you just have to be willing to listen."
El leaned against the seat as he sat on the bed. Corey rolled up his sleeve, showing the 016. "I was one of the children. Like you. Only, as I got older, Papa realized I had no power. Nothing was special about me, I was nothing. Useless."
El didn't move, but her shoulders fell just slightly.
"I was hidden from all the ones like you, kept away in hopes of me getting powers just a little late. Nothing ever happened, but Papa could use me. He needed me to be an inside person, that was the closest thing I had to a power. So I did, all the time. And usually, it was okay." Corey looked away for a second as he shook his head. "And then I went to Hawkins, to spy on you. And, I don't know, things were different. I met you, and Jude, and Will, and Dustin, and Max, and Lucas, and Mike, and everything felt different. I didn't want to leave any of you, I wanted to stay right where I was."
"Doesn't explain anything." El shook her head. "You lie!"
"I know!" he agreed with her. "I told Papa I wanted to stay, that I didn't want to be apart of his plans anymore. He said that if I could do this final thing for him, if I could spy on you to do one last mission for him, then I could stay. Things would be normal then. This was suppose to be the end, it will be the end."
"Why'd you take so long? It's been a year." El frowned her eyebrows together, her hands tightening on the sink.
"Because I needed Jude and Mike to go to California, to be with Jonathan and Will." he stood up, El gave a confused look. "They're coming for us, El. I gave them clues, but it had to be the four of them. Trust me."
