It has been almost a year since Will came back and a year since losing a new friend. The now teenagers are back again to solve yet another problem done in Hawkins. But will they lose another friend in the process of saving the world?
Stranger Things...
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A grunge looking El walks into the room. Her nose dripped with blood from using her powers. Mike and Eleven walk slowly to each other, they never broke eye contact. Once they were close enough, they gripped each other tightly. Eleven cried in relief and happiness.
Roni grinned and held back tears. Max looked at El in wonder while Lucas and Dustin's faces were overjoyed. When El and Mike finally let go, Hopper hugged her in a fatherly way. Roni knit her eyebrows in confusion but then understood, Hopper hid El.
At first Roni felt betrayed. Hiding one of her best friends whom she thought was dead for a whole year. But she thought for a second. Where would El go if she came back to them, she couldn't live in Mike's basement for a year.
Hopper would've found a better place for her to live. It would've been safe for her. Though, Roni understood Hopper keeping her hidden, she turned towards Mike and saw anger and betrayal on his face. Now, Mike wouldn't be so forgiving.
"You've been hiding her," Mike gapes. He shoves Hopper hard. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" He shouted.
Hopper balls Mike's shirt in his large hand. "Hey! Let's talk. Alone." He drags Mike off in the back. They weren't worried about him, though, Hopper wouldn't kill Mike...at least with people around.
El notices Lucas and Dustin and hugs them tightly at the same time. "We missed you," Lucas spoke. His face full of relief and happiness.
"I missed you, too," She replied. They pull away.
"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin said, smiling at her. Eleven did a double take and finally noticed something different. She reaches and touches his teeth.
"Teeth," El says softly. "You have teeth."
"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin said proudly. He then purrs, making El jump in surprise and Roni sighs deeply. It was funny at first but now he's done that too many times for her liking.
Max walks up the El. "Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." She holds out her hand to shake. El ignores her hand, brushing right past her and heads right towards Roni.
"El...I've missed you so much," Roni hugs her warmly. A sense of happiness fills her chest.
"Me too," They pulled away reluctantly. Roni wipes away a stray tear.
"You made me cry. That's rare," They chuckle. El looks down.
"Are we still...sisters?" El asks timidly.
Roni nods rapidly. "Of course. Once you have a sister, you can't get rid of 'em," El reaches up and wipes away the last tear that fell. "By the way, I dig your threads. Totally cool." Roni smiles.
Eleven didn't know what the first part of the compliment was but she understood what 'cool' was and nods thankfully and turns to hug Mrs. Byers.
Soon they head into the kitchen. Mrs. Byers asks if El could close the gate and Eleven says nothing but the look she gave answer. She could.
"It's not like it was before. It's grown," Hopper sighs. "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrects. Roni rolls her eyes slightly.
"I can do it," El says determinedly.
"You're not hearing me," Hopper said.
"I'm hearing you. I can do it," She looks straight in his eyes.
"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike comments. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point," Max said.
"It is, but if we're really right about this...I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army," Mike trails off.
"Will's apart of that army," Lucas says softly.
"He would die, too," Roni adds numbly. She almost lost Will once, no one wants to lose him now. They head into Will's room.
"He likes it cold. It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," Mrs. Byers slams the window shut. "We keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..." Nancy wonders aloud.
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan finishes.
Mrs. Byers stares at Will's body with as much hatred as she can muster. "We need to burn it out of him."
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike says. Hopper looks distantly. Roni instantly knew that he had an idea.
*****
Hopper carries Will to Jonathan's car, relaying the directions to get to his cabin. While waiting for the rest of them to get the heaters needing to get the mind flayer out of Will, Roni stands next El and squeezes her hand reassuringly and rubs the back of it.
"Please be careful. None of us want to lose you again, especially Mike. He... really needs you," Roni smiles warmly at her. Eleven swallows and nods, returning the smile.
The kids watch with sad and worried eyes as Jonathan and Hopper's cars back out and drive away. But no one's more nervous or worried than Mike. Roni places a hand on his shoulder.
"She's going to be okay, Hopper's with her. He wouldn't let anything happen to her," Roni speaks softly. Mike nods numbly, still watching them leave with broken eyes.
