"The truth is Ten, you are going backwards." Brenner states, his arms crossed. That's impossible, it felt as if you were making progress.
"Ten look at me." You hadn't even realized you weren't looking at the man.
You don't respond, the man takes a seat beside you, his hand resting on your leg lightly. You shudder under the touch, it has warmth but not one of a father.
Brenner sighs, "Ten, that fear you hold is the very thing holding you back. If you want Project Stargate to succeed you have to believe, you have to not hide from the truth no matter how frightening it is."
"I saw what I did-- to Eleven-- to those kids, I'm a monster."
Brenner shakes his head, "You speak of monsters -- and superheroes, those are myths. The truth is Ten, the truth is, life is rarely ever that simple."
You shake your head, "But what if I am?"
Brenner shakes his head, "Ten, you trusted me once, I'm asking you to trust me again." He says finally, you glance towards the outfit you had been using on the rack.
...
The doctor's lay you back gently on the bed, allowing you to fall backwards into the past. It has a sense of finality to it, like a final move.
"Eleven, Ten, please step forward." Dr
Brenner says.
You step forward out of the line, as does El. "Last night, your sister suffered a concussion, your brother has a bruised rib. Now, they claim to not know what happened but injuries of this nature do not simply happen. Someone did this, someone in this room."
Dr. Brenner looks up and down the line, examining each face with a look of disinterest.
"They must've fought or something." Two says, speaking up. He glances towards the two of you then back at Brenner.
"Fought?" Brenner questions, raising an eyebrow as he turns to look at the boy.
"Yeah-- you know how jealous some people can get." Two answers, nodding towards you.
"Eleven, Ten, you may step back." Dr. Brenner says, you both step back into line. You can feel the excitement within your chest at watching the self-confident idiot get what he deserves.
"Number two, please step forward.." Brenner orders, the boy takes a single step forward out of the line, "Collar him." Brenner adds, the man from before wraps a collar around twos neck that tightens shut. It's red flashing light blinking.
"You think because you demonstrate some talent that you're somehow immune to the rules, is that it?" Brenner questions, looking at the boy.
He gazes into Brenners eyes fearfully, "N-no papa." He answers.
"That the rules don't apply to you the same way they apply to your brothers and sisters?"
Two shudders under the man's intense words. "No, papa."
"Then why did you attack them?!" He asks, the kindness leaving his voice.
"I-if they told you that, they're lying." Two responds.
Brenner takes a remote out of his pants pocket, a large dial sits in the middle, he twists it to the right slowly, watching as two pants.
"Papa, please-- you have to believe me. They're lying." He pleads, Brenner continues pushing the dial.
"Now, shall we try again?" Brenner asks, lowering the electricity.
"It was an accident." Two says, on his knees looking up at Papa.
Two shrieks loud, and it seems as if it's never going to end.
No POV-- an hour after two interrogation.
"You open for something a little more challenging?" The nurse, doctor, whatever he is questioned, sitting down across from Eleven.
"Try to not show any emotion as I speak okay? Just keep playing the game if you understand." He adds, in response El moves a rook forward.
"Two is still in the infirmary recovering, he's being watched now but after he gets out he and the others are planning to kill you in this very room. And papa will allow it to happen. He's been planning it for some time now." Eleven breathes shakily in response, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
"Stay calm, play the game." The nurse moves his piece forward, as does El. "There's a reason why the others were able to escape from their rooms last night, and why the security cameras were turned off. Why papa punished two today. They don't even realize it but Papa is moving them like chess pieces, driving them to do exactly what he wants-- which is to kill you."
"Why?"
"Because he is scared of you, he knows you are stronger than the others. And he also knows he can't control you. That's all he wants, control. I saw all this happening and that's why I wanted to help you." The nurse answers, lookung down at El sadly.
"Helping me made Papa hurt you." Eleven says, thinking back to the moment she saw the man getting tazed as Brenner watched.
"And it is why you must escape. Today, but they are watching us closely. If you want to make it out of here alive you must do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"
"What about Ten?" El questions, looking over at the young boy who leans against the wall napping.
"What about him?" The nurse questions, moving a piece forward.
"He doesn't deserve to be stuck in here."She answers, glancing at the boy.
The nurse nods begrudgingly. "This is a risk, he will say no."
El shakes her head, "He won't."
The nurse nods again.
The man slides El a keycard from under the table, she takes it into her hands quickly and does a nice job hiding it.
Soon enough, Dr. Brenner takes Ten away to run some tests. Eleven takes the chance to find an excuse out of the rainbow room, telling the nurse that the lights are giving her a headache.
She goes below, to find the nurse where they were going to meet up.
The boiler room or, something of that sort, she enters the room and the nurse waits for her, standing nervously.
"Where's the other?" The nurse questions, looking at Eleven.
"Papa went to run tests on him." Eleven responds.
"I've found you a way out--" The nurse begins to say.
"We need Ten, he can protect us." Eleven states. Looking back at the door nervously.
"You can't save him by yourself. And I can't do anything."
"Why?"
"This place is truly a prison Eleven, the guards, the nurses, the children, me." He answers.
Eleven looks confused, not understanding where he's going with this.
"Here." The man adds, touching his neck, "Papa calls it Soteria, it weakens me, tracks me."
"What if I make it go away?" Eleven asks, raising an eyebrow at the man. "Can you help?"
He nods slowly, the man slowly kneels down, Eleven raises her hand upwards slightly, the man grunts as the object begins to rip out of his skin.
Eleven throws her arm to the side, flinging the object across the floor.
The nurse walks over to Soteria and picks it up, "Who knew something so small could cause so much trouble." He drops it, leaving a red bloodied mark on his right thumb and index.
The doors fling open behind Eleven, guards enter, flashlights raised with their tasers raised. Each taser having enough electricity to numb their entire bodies.
"Run!" The man yells, dashing with Eleven in hand. They scamper through the never ending pipes until they reach a staircase leading up.
The man drags Eleven up the steps and through, almost ironically a squadron of guards flies around the corner with tazers.
"What do you think you're doing?" The man questions, smirking.
The nurse turns around, expecting to run the other way but three guards bust through the closed door, trapping them in the hall.
"Up against the wall, both of you! Now!" The main guard orders, Eleven begins to turn against the wall but a hand grips her own.
"No." The man says, looking down at her, "You don't have to be afraid of them. Not anymore."
"Get em." The man adds, the guards on either side close in on them, taser raised.
The nurse raises his hand, flinging back the four men. They slam against the wall, the impact sending cracks down the tiled wall. He turns around, with a twist of his neck the three guards behind him have their necks snapped.
Eleven looks up at the man, finally realizing just who he is. The man doesn't speak, instead dragging her into a janitor room beside them.
"Don't move, you'll be safe here while I find Ten. Then we'll all leave, together." He says.
Eleven looks shocked, "I told you, we're a lot alike you and I. '' He adds, raising his white jacket sleeve. In small numbers 001 is tattooed on his wrist.
001, it all makes sense now, why he tried to connect with her. Why he tried to help her.
The man exits the room quickly, leaving Eleven in her stunned pose.
Eleven waits and waits, it feels like hours standing in that cramped room waiting for him to return.
She doesn't even really know the reason why Ten stepped in, he didn't help or anything, it was almost as if he was just there, taking the beating so she didn't have to do it alone.
Worry begins to creep in, and she is hesitant at first to leave the room. She peaks her head around the corner, eyes peeled as the lights above flicker non-stop.
She steps out slowly, a walkie-talkie rings out with distorted screaming, that almost sounds like children.
She continues past the dead guards and through the double doors, it reeks of blood, every breath she takes in.
She takes a right and is instantly stunned, dead kids line the hall, along with guards. All the rooms doors tore open, some children lay dead in their own beds.
She continues, looking around for Ten or One. She looks into another doorway, spying Dr. Brenner lying on the floor, bleeding, another small blood pile lies next to him but there isn't any body to show.
"He was here." Eleven mumbles to herself, suddenly, screaming echoes down the hall. Two large double doors the only thing blocking her from seeing the most likely horrible sight.
The rainbow room, it has to be. She jogs down the hall, flinging open the doors.
The smell is the first thing she notices, the undeniable stench of blood and iron. Then, the dead bodies. Two, most, of the numbers lie dead in this room.
One stands in front of the mirror, his left hand raised while the right holds Ten, he chokes the life out of an already half dead two, blood dripping from his eyes. Slowly, he releases the grip and watches as two drops fall to the ground.
"I told you to wait." One growls, turning around to face Eleven, his jacket stained with blood, as is his cheeks. His eyes are bloodshot and Ten lies unconscious in his right arm, a large gash ripped down his forehead.
"What did-- what did you do." Eleven says, looking around the room at all the dead children, her gaze is blurry with the tears beginning to form.
They slide down her face, without end.
"Eleven--" The man steps forward, Ten still in his hand. "Why do you cry for them?"
He raises his left index finger to her chin lovingly, "You think you need them but you don't." He gazes down into her eyes, Eleven sniffles, tears running down her face. "Oh, I know you're scared," He says gently, "I was scared once too. I.. know what it's like. To be different. To be alone in this world."
He exhales deeply, "Like you, I didn't fit in with other children. The doctors and teachers said I was.. 'Broken.." One places Ten on the ground, his breathing shallow.
The number turns around, while El just stares at him, watching the man intently. "My parents thought a fresh change of scenery in Hawkins might just cure me. As if this place was any different from the world, then, to my surprise our new home provided a discovery, a new found purpose. I found a nest of black widows."
Ten begins to mumble now, slowly awakening to the horrific scene at hand. He hasn't opened his eyes yet but he will soon, and it will not be pleasant.
"Most people fear spiders, detest them, but I found them endlessly fascinating. But more than that, I found them comforting. A kinship, like me, they are solitary creatures, like me, they are deeply misunderstood." One says slowly, staring at nothing in particular, remembering the memories he is now retelling to Eleven and the soon to wake Ten.
"They are gods of our world, the most important of all predators. They immobilize, and feed on the weak. Bringing balance and order to an unordered ecosystem." The man turns around to face Eleven, he looks angry.
"But the human world was disrupting this harmony. You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying, infesting our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own." His eyebrows dip, and he takes a step closer. Ten opens his eyes now, gazing at the dead children around himself with anger, but in his eyes the true emotion reigns, fear.
"Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket." Ten freezes at the words, his blood chills and the hair stands on the back of his neck.
"A cruel, oppressive world, dictated with made-up rules. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades." His voice raises with each word, his rage now left unchecked and beginning to seep out with every word. "Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, work, eat, sleep, reproduce, die!"
He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Everyone is waiting," He says, much calmer now. "Waiting for it all to be over, all while performing in a silly, terrible play. Day, after day."
The man closes the few inches between them, standing in front of El like a dark beacon of hate. "I could not do it anymore. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness. I couldn't pretend." He raises a shaky left hand up, "Then, I realized I didn't have to. I could make my own rules, I could restore balance to this unordered world. A predator.." He huffs out, almost in pleasure at the thought. "For good, as I practiced I realized I could do more than I possibly imagined."
Ten stands up, but One continues to ignore him, instead only focusing on Eleven. "I could reach into others, their minds, their memories. I became an explorer." He turns away from Eleven, instead facing the mirror where he watches his own expression. He steps closer towards it, watching his own expression as if it would show a different emotion then the one he holds.
"I saw my parents as they truly were, to the world, they presented themselves as good, normal people. But like everything else in this world, it was a lie. They did awful things, such awful things."
He smiles lightly, "I showed them who they really were. My naive father believed it was a demon, cursing them for their sins. But my mother somehow knew, knew it was I who was holding up the mirror. And she despised me for it, so she called in doctor's, experts. She wanted them to lock me away, to fix me. But it wasn't I who was broken, it was them."
"And so she left me with no choice but to break free. With each life I took I grew stronger, they were becoming a part of me. But I was still a child and I did not yet know my limits." He dances forward shakily, never taking his eyes off of Eleven, watching her every reaction, her every break from eye contact.
"He was arrested, blamed for the murder of my mother and sister. Just as I had planned, but I was far from free. When I awoke I found myself in the care of a doctor. The very doctor I had hoped to escape."
He grits his teeth, "Dr. Martin Brenner. The truth is, he did not just want to study me. He wanted more, he wanted control. When papa had finally realized he couldn't control me, he tried to recreate me. He began a program, and soon, others were born. You-- you were born, and I'm so very glad you were."
Eleven breaks eye contact, shuttering under the man's gaze. She glances down at the injured Ten trying to stand.
One follows her gaze, "He is weak, just as the others. A plague, diseased with an ability he cannot handle."
Eleven shakes her head, "You tricked me."
One cocks his head to the side. "Tricked you? I'm saving you. You are a prisoner, just like me. To your papa," One nods to Ten, "To him, you are just a monster. A rat. Weaker than them, a controlled animal." One points to eleven's chest as he speaks, trying to convince her with every word he pulls out of his mouth.
"The truth is Eleven, it's just the opposite. You are better than they are," He looks back towards Ten and the other dead children, "Superior."
"That's why he is scared, scared of you. You are stronger."
He exhales again, gazing into Eleven's brown eyes. "For the first time in your life, you will be free. Imagine what we could do together, we could reshape the world. Remake it however we see fit."
Ten finally finds the balance to stand, his eyes resting on Elevens as she looks at the ground. Deep in contemplation.
"Join me." He says, almost estatically. He smiles at Eleven and the blood pours out of Ten's face, his eyes widen, suspecting that the nurse had switched her over to his side.
She looks up finally, shaking her head. "No."
She throws her arm forward, knocking the man backwards into the mirror. Ten raises his right hand, weaker than Eleven but still strong enough to hold his own.
The man begins to raise up as the two kids use their abilities together. Something fights back though, something much stronger than himself.
He slowly drops to his feet, raising his hand towards the two. They begin to slide back, Ten falters, flying backwards into the door, taking Eleven's attention away from One just long enough to gain the upper hand.
Eleven flings backward, slamming into the wall beside Ten. She drops to the ground with a thud.
One takes the moment, slamming Ten into the roof of the room on his back while Eleven flings through multiple building blocks into the wall.
One uses both hands, dragging the two through the air towards himself.
They both gasp for air, trying to fight their way out of the choke without avail. They can both feel the end coming, and with it, no help.
Blood begins to seep out from their eye sockets, making the lights blinding. "It wasn't supposed to end like this." One murmurs, he tries to snap the bones in each of their bodies but doesn't have enough energy, resorting to just choking them out.
The pain is realistic, you can feel it. Every crack, every bruised rib, every gnash to the head. Even the beating your throat is taking.
You begin to dizzy, and it feels as if you're turning purple.
Memories flash by, multiple times, a young woman holding you between her arms. "Y/N.." The angelic voice says, the voice draws you in, a closure that you felt you haven't had.
Maybe you were jealous of Eleven, her having a mother to know about.
Colors blur, memories from a distant past where you had no worries. A recurring figure appears, a woman with similar e/c eyes and a striking resemblance to you in the present. You can't deny the fact that you two look almost identical.
It angers you, having been pulled away from her at your young age. You were just a child, not a weapon to be used to fight others. You can only imagine life where you had no idea of your abilities.
You try to fight back but the reason is unknown to you, is it because you feel a need to save everyone, or is it just a need to satisfy the dream where you are the hero.
Whatever it is, it didn't matter to the young you.
It's just a fight to try and survive, afterwards, hopefully it will give Eleven enough to strike him.
You remember the words you had overheard One say, 'A memory from your past.' You had barely had any of those until he helped you remember.
Now the anger isn't even directed at him, it's directed at Papa; the man who took you away from your mother at such a young age.
With a deep groan you can feel yourself being pulled back to reality, you are almost painfully aware at how dire the situation is.
You use that memory, your mother calling your name for the first time against the man. You find yourself looking down at him from above, his eyebrow raised.
You can feel yourself clawing away at the force, with one final tug you drop, screaming from the pain, exhaustion and anger.
The man flies backward, into the wall, releasing El. She yells, her hand outstretched towards One. One stands but immediately flies through the mirror, Eleven's force never ending even as he is squarely against the wall.
She yells again, almost banshee like. You drop down to your knees, clawing at your ears. Suddenly a force overwhelms you, and you're being dragged into one's pit, portal, whatever it is.
The screaming never ends, Eleven fights to try and pull you out, while One on the other hand plans on dragging you out with him.
You grip the edges of the portal and try to force your way out, it doesn't work. The vines a slippery, living being. Your fingers slip and you feel yourself begin to fall back into it.
Eleven denies it, with a final raise in pitch she drags you out, your body dropping to the glass covered floor.
Shards of glass cut your arms but the exhaustion forces you to lay down, the screaming ends, as does your need to keep your eyes open.
You can feel the exhaustion weighing them down, you want to deny it. To stay awake, to see what happened, but your young weak body denies that and you slip into a deep slumber.
The coma that Dr. Brenner said you awoke from with no memories.