Hello again my favorite people! :D

Here is the long awaited next chapter. It's a little longer than the past few

We're about to find out what El is really made of ;)

Thank you guys SOOOOOO much for hanging in there if you've been awaiting for this update!

You guys make my day :)

The loud ringing school bells sounded as Mike walked through the halls. He was late, but only by a fraction. Casually he made his way over to his assigned classroom for that period; English. Only Lucas was in this class with him. When Michael reached for the doorknob of the class room and opened it everyone in the room turned and stared at him. A flush red color materialized on his cheeks. The teacher, Mr. Bronson, had a less than amused look on his face.

"Take your seat Mr. Wheeler, you're late." He spoke.

Michael waltzed over to his seat in front of Lucas. He opened his bag and pulled out the various supplies needed for class. All the sounds felt amplified as he embarrassingly unzipped the backpack and fumbled with all his notebooks, and he felt warm from the feeling. Michael was never one to be late for school.

"Hey what's the big deal why were you late?" Whispered Lucas.

"You know why," Michael replied, also whispering.

He kept his head cocked towards the front to make sure Mr. Bronson wasn't paying attention to their conversation. Luckily there were another three rows of students in front of them, blocking most of the sound and movement from them as they continued.

"You better be careful. If your mom finds out." Lucas began.

"I know I know. I just – I had to make sure she was okay." Michael said.

Lucas sighed and sat back in his seat. They both started taking notes and listened to their teacher as he read from the textbook.

"So, you think Sean is still out there?" Michael asked.

"No way man. The Demogorgon wasted him, there's no way he could of gotten out of that mess. We were lucky we did."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Michael replied. "But what if he escaped?"

"Then we'll beat him next time. Eleven is obviously stronger now, and with her at full strength it won't matter what he does. He can't win." Lucas finished.

Michael sat back in his seat, letting the words of Mr. Bronson pass through him like sand in an hourglass. His thoughts wandered to every corner of his imagination; what Sean could be doing, what was Eleven up to? Even Nancy crossed his mind a couple of times. So much had changed in such a short time. Now it seemed that things were changing again. But Michael felt like he wasn't changing at all, like he was stagnant and hadn't grown. Lucas was always level headed. Dustin was coming out of his shell. Will was even more wise from his experience in the upside down. What had Mike accomplished? His doubts started to outweigh his positive thinking, depressing him throughout the period.

That was until he heard a voice.

"Mike? Are you okay?"

Michael looked around at all his classmates, looking for a sign that someone had heard Eleven's voice. No one had heard as they scribbled and paid attention to Mr. Bronson. Just another confirmation that she truly was speaking through telepathy. Very carefully Michael whispered back to Eleven as to not alarm Lucas to what he was doing.

"Yeah, I'm in class though… Can you hear my thoughts too? Because I can't talk for long." Michael questioned El.

"Yes. It will take longer to respond… but yes." Eleven answered.

Then Michael began thinking what he wished to say to Eleven.

"I'm okay, why do you ask?"

"I don't know, felt something wrong." Eleven replied.

"Oh… Well, I don't know how to explain it. I just have a lot on my mind."

"What's that mean?" Eleven asked.

"Well… It's like when you become overwhelmed. When there is so much going on that you don't know how to handle it."

"I can help."

"I know you can. I just wish things were back to the way it was when we first met, and how you stayed in the fort I made you."

At that moment Eleven hatched a genius scheme. Something that would definitely show Michael that she thought he was "special" too.

"I'm sorry," Eleven said.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. I just have to accept that things must be this way." Mike replied in defeat.

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"I have something for you."

"What is it?" Michael asked.

"You'll see when you get here."

Then Eleven cut the conversation off. By the time Michael and her were finished she was arriving back at Hopper's house again. They got out of the car and walked up the steps back into the house, Eleven spoke.

"Will you help me with something?" She asked Jim.

"What do you need help with?" Hopper replied.

Eleven grinned.

6 HOURS LATER

Michael was tentatively eyeing the clock that seemed to tick slower and slower as the seconds passed along the circular edge of the time telling device. Suddenly a snapping sound grabbed his attention.

"Snap out of it Mike, we're almost done." Dustin snapped his fingers at him.

"Yeah, you've been looking at that clock all day. I know you want to go see Eleven but come on man you have to focus." Lucas added.

Then the bell rang and Mike soon disappeared from sight.

Will laughed when he saw Michael flying out the door with his bag.

"I've never seen him run that fast in his life!" Will said.

"Yeah the last time I saw him run that fast was when we first got the game board and he raced home to get it ready for the first campaign." Dustin claimed.

"We sucked back then." Lucas chimed in.

"Speak for yourself, maybe you did but I was great." Dustin joked.

They all laughed and slowly gathered their things.

"Seems like Mike is sort of back to where he was… except for the whole spending all his time with the girl who kills interdimensional demons thing." Dustin said.

Then they all walked out and headed their separate ways. All in agreement that they would reconvene later.

BACK AT HOPPERS

"Okay I seriously don't know why you wanted to do this kid but if this is what you like then I can't argue with it." Hopper said, standing back at the marvel they created in his living room.

They both stood back and looked at the new and improved blanket fort sitting in a section of the living room they had carved out. The blankets were white and blue with some tan pillows and blankets lining the bottom.

"Perfect," Eleven whispered to herself.

"If you say so," Hopper said, rolling his eyes and shrugging.

Hopper placed a hand on Eleven's shoulder and lowered himself down to her level. A look in his eyes told El he wasn't about to say something silly.

"Listen kid. I know you're powerful, and can certainly hold your own in any situation, that much is for sure. But if you exhaust yourself too much things will become difficult for you. If that kid is out there then you can bet he is trying to get more powerful," Hopper paused for a second and sighed before beginning again, "you have to become more powerful too, even more so than you are now… I think I can help you." Hopper finally finished.

Eleven became placid, not really sure what to think. She thought her powers were more than enough to handle everything. But she had never considered that 002 might still be out there and getting more powerful. She was scared.

I have to protect my friends, Eleven thought to herself, deciding that Jim was right. She needed to train herself – the right way. She would have to trust Jim to help her.

"Come on, follow me." Hopper told El.

Eleven grabbed a light coat to wear over her dress and walked outside. Hopper guided her to the back yard of his house. The wind blew along the across the surface of her face, chilling it. From there they could see the small lake sprawled out before them, it was quiet and peaceful. El looked up at Hopper, awaiting instructions.

"You can move things with your mind right?" Hopper asked.

Eleven nodded.

"Can you move water too?"

Eleven faced forward, staring at the lake before her. She wasn't one hundred percent positive that she could. She knew that the bath at the lab made her focus better, but she had never tried to physically move water, or at least a large amount of it.

Eleven nodded again.

"Okay… Well I want you to try something for me," Jim began, "I want you to try to move as much water in this lake as you can into the air, maybe even all of it."

Eleven frowned and her eyebrows indicated she was not happy with the request.

"I can't," El said.

"Why not?" Hop replied, "You haven't even tried."

"Too much, I'm not strong enough."

Eleven was scared, she didn't want to be told to do things with her powers anymore. It reminded her too much of the lab. But Jim had a point earlier, and 002 was going to get stronger. Somehow Eleven could feel his presence, although faint, it was there hiding.

Hopper sighed, "Look kid, I'm not going to force you to do anything, that's all up to you. I just think you should try, we don't know what we're up against and this will be a good way to measure how strong you are."

El took one last look at the lake before deciding. Over exerting herself hurt her head like being run over by a truck and it certainly wasn't something you would want to intentionally do to yourself. It made her feel better knowing Hopper wasn't going to make her do anything, much different than what the lab would do to her. So with a little bit of courage Eleven finally stepped out next to the water. She took a deep breath and raised her hand at the lake, willing as hard as she could to move the water in the air.

The water rippled in several spots and shook into waves. A few small pockets of water began to float into the air but nothing bigger than the size of a basketball.

"Come on kid you can do it. Think of a time when you felt the most powerful and use that." Hopper instructed. Deep down Hop didn't want to hurt El, he just wanted her to be as strong as she could so whenever the time came, she'd be ready.

Eleven's thoughts went to the school over a month ago. The fear of dying, the anger against the bad men for forcing her into a corner with her friends – causing the Demogorgon to come out of hiding. The rage when the Demogorgon relented against them. The instinct to protect her friends, and Mike.

El closed her eyes for a moment, still focusing on the water. When she opened them back up, there was no bright beautiful color in them anymore. There was only a dark blood red hue that signaled a deep power coming back from within her that was dormant.

Larger pockets of water starting floating up. This time they were as large as humans. Eleven began to lose her focus on everything but the water. She was shaking, and started to scream, time felt as if it was crawling around them slowly and the ground trembled beneath their feet. It was becoming intense, dangerous even.

"El you can stop now!" Hopper yelled, reaching out to her, but the energy radiating around her wouldn't let him get close.

This is bad! If I don't do something quick she might disappear again, Hopper thought to himself.

Eleven felt all the energy and emotion from inside of her burst out into blasts of power. Her body felt like it was ripping itself apart, tearing at her mind in the process. She couldn't stop though, she was locked into this state of high concentrated focus on her objective. Her screams reverberated into the air to express the feeling.

Then she heard someone behind her.

Mike stood in horror as he watched Eleven suffer from exhausting herself of energy. Hopper was bracing himself from the radiating energy El was producing. Michael's eyes started watering and tears slid down his cheek.

"Eleven stop! Please stop!" Michael cried out. He ran for her but was quickly stopped by El's energy.

I'm going to get to you El I'll keep you safe! Just stop please! Michael thought as he pushed to reach her.

Suddenly, at that moment, the intensity of the energy lessened, and Michael felt himself moving forward towards her. She was weak, on her knees, but keeping a hand raised at the water. Her screaming had stopped.

Michael moved to grab her, to pull her away and shelter her. When he finally grabbed her she fell back and looked at him. Her eyes were still very red. It hurt Mike to see her looking like this.

"Mike?" Eleven said quietly. "Is that you?"

"Yeah El it's me? I told you I'd come as soon as I can." Michael said, laughing a bit. He was so grateful that she didn't disappear again.

Eleven closed her eyes, then re-opened them. The redness faded and she went back to normal. Upset that she couldn't do what Hopper wanted, but glad that Mike was there. She was always glad to be with Mike. He made her feel… special.

A million thoughts of the moments her and Michael shared together twisted themselves up in one big web in her mind. She chose to forget all the bad times and instead remembered all the good things they had done together. Faintly she gave a smile to Mike who was still holding her like that day at the quarry when she saved him. However, she still couldn't shake the feeling of focusing on the water. An equilibrium had been reached in her mind, where she felt peaceful and calm.

"Well would you look at that." Hopper said, climbing to his feet.

Eleven looked out at the lake and noticed that she was somehow moving the entire mass of the lake into the air. A large smile choking her up while blood dripped out of her ears and nose. Michael laughed when he saw the spectacle that was just performed.

"El how are you doing that?!" Michael asked.

"I… don't know," she replied, "I just feel really strong right now."

Then the water collapsed back into the basin of the small lake, creating a large tremor and noise. Eleven was finally able to take her focus off of the water. Hopper moved over to them and kneeled on one knee.

"Good job kid." He said.

"Wait what!?" Michael raged, "you told her to do that?! What the hell is wrong with you? She's been through eno-"

"Mike. It's okay." Eleven said, she looked tired. "I wanted to. Will explain later. Okay?"

Michael looked at her, unsure of what to think. He didn't want anyone ever abusing her or using her for her powers, it felt fishy to him, but he decided to trust El. There was no one else he trusted more after all.

"Okay El. I'm sorry for getting mad." Mike finished

Eleven look up at them both and spoke

"I'm tired, can I sleep?" She asked.

"Of course kid. Come here, I've got you," said Hop.

Hopper took Eleven from Michael and lifted her up. They went inside and laid her down into the new blanket fort that she they'd made.

"What's this?" Michael asked, looking confused.

"She wanted to make this for you," began Jim, "she said it would make you feel special and that it would remind you of home."

Michael didn't have any word, he was choked up.

"Well she did a good job."

Hopper moved into the kitchen and grabbed some water, giving some to Michael.

"What was she trying to do?" Mike asked.

"I was trying to see how powerful she was, and how well she could handle something as large as that. It seems that she couldn't, even when she was at her max." Hopper answered.

"What do you mean? I just saw her raise your ENTIRE lake! She didn't fail." Michael retorted, he was a little perturbed that Hopper was using her powers. He still didn't give him a reason as to why.

"Yeah, she did manage to do it," Hopper paused, "but only when you showed up kid."

Michael's face was confused, then he remembered what Sean said about her and being linked to him somehow.

"She's unstoppable when she's around you." Hopper finished.

Well well well, Miss Eleven is more powerful than even thought previously, and can call upon that "red eyed" form whenever for a short burst of power.

However, she seems to even be MORE powerful when she is calm and focused by Michael's presence.

I foreshadow that emotion/mediatation training is on the horizon for Miss Eleven ;)

(Maybe even a little bit of self-defense training from Hop?)

I guess you'll have to see next time!

Until then...

Thanks for reading everyone

Please review if you have a moment. I still feel like there are areas I can do better and constructive criticism is always appreciated.

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