Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Sixteen: Gone

The boys sat in the backseat and my Dad, El, and I sat in the front. El had her head on my shoulder, and I had an arm wrapped around her, rubbing her arm soothingly as we pulled up to the Byers house once again. Jonathan, Joyce, and Nancy came running out the second they saw the headlights.

"Mike! Oh my gosh, Mike!" Nancy ran over, hugging him as we all walked towards the house, El, still attached to my side like glue. I rested a hand on top of her head. "I was so worried about you!" 

"Yeah, uh...me too?" Mike said, unsure of what to say. She peered around him, her eyes falling on Eleven.

"Is that my dress?"

~~~

We went back inside, everyone sitting around the table, while Mike and the boys filled us in on the gate using an analogy that their science teacher had told them.

"Ok, so in this example, we're the acrobat." Mike explained, pointing at his drawing. "Will and Barbra, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space."

"A gate." Dustin clarified.

"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab."

"With our compasses." Nancy, Jonathan, and Joyce all exchanged confused glaces. "So the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field and that can change the directions of a compass needle."

"Is this gate underground?" Dad asked.

"Yes." Eleven confirmed quietly. I furrowed my eyebrows, looking back at Dad.

"Near a large water tank?"

"Yes."

"H-How do you know all that?" Dustin asked.

"Good question." I said, looking at him with a confused glance.

"He's seen it." Mike clarified.

"Is there any way..." Joyce trailed off, "that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this..."

"The Upside Down." El clarified.

"Down. Yeah." She nodded.

"And my friend Barbra. Can you find her, too?" Nancy asked.

~~~

We gathered around the kitchen table, Eleven armed with a radio and the picture of Barb from the pool. She closed her eyes and the static began coming through the radio sounding distorted and weirder than normal. Suddenly the lights began blinking and she opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry." El said.

"Wh-what-what's wrong? What happened?" Joyce asked.

"I can't find them." She said, tears in her eyes. I nodded, putting a hand on her shoulder. Jonathan turned, walking away and putting a hand on his mouth. I crouched down beside El, causing her to look at me.

"Its ok...its not your fault, ok?" She nodded. "Why don't you go wash your face, take a minute. The bathroom is down the hall." She nodded again, standing up and walking away.

"What does that mean if she can't find them?" Joyce asked fearfully.

"It might not be anything," Mike said, "She might be burnt out."

"Burnt out?" Nancy asked

"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak."

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets." Dustin explained.