STATUS: UNKNOWN [stranger things] [2/2]

VII - I Was a Teenage Anarchist

A/N - Thank you all so much for your kind words! I probably still won't be updating often, but I hope you like this :-)

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"Do you remember,

when you were young,

and wanted to set the world on fire?"

•

Rosemary caught Kalis arm before she grabbed the bag of IDs to show Eleven. "Kal, I need you to think more about this. Kid's, what, thirteen? Come on, she doesn't need to be like us-"

Kali roughly yanked her arm back, "And what's wrong with being "like us"?" She spat back in a harsh whisper. "They did to her exactly what they did to us, she deserves to make them pay just like we deserve to make them pay." She took a breath, her voice turning to a low level instead of whispering. "You tried to live normally, when you got out. Younger than her. And just look how that turned out, hm?" She said, eyes darting to where Rosemarys hands were shoved in her pockets, eyes flicking back up to give her a pointed look. "With the same people, nonetheless."

Rosemary matched her gaze, never one to turn down a fight, and for a brief moment it reminded her of the moments right before she'd get into one at school, how Barb would always see it happening first and Nancy second, how Nancy was the only one with enough nerve to stop her and enough nerve to approach her afterwards -

A soft touch, gently wiping wounds however small, a quiet "You didn't have to do that, Ro." that is only met with a long silence. The soft touch moves from her forehead to rest upon her hand. "But thank you."

She frowned. "I'm not saying it needs to be with them. I messed that up. I messed everything up for myself, ok, but she doesn't have to do that."

"She won't."

It should not have been the end of the conversation.

But Kali ended it there.

Listen, Carina knew the need for revenge. She knew it very well. But she remembered what happened before, she remembered how scared Eleven was, how she'd clung to Joyce in their makeshift sensory deprivation bath, how she could barely even move herself in the arms of her captor and still reached her hand out to Mike - Eleven just didn't seem like the type to find solice in violence like Kali did. To be honest, Carina didn't think Kali felt solice in violence like she convinced herself that she did. She just hoped that Eleven would see what she was getting herself into before it was too late.

Rosemary leaned on the table near Axel and Mick, back turned on Kali and Elevens conversation as she heard the IDs clatter onto the table. "Everyone you see here was in some way responsible for what happened to us." She looked over her shoulder at them, seeing Eleven pick one up.

"... you hurt the bad men?"

"No, we just... give 'em a pat on the back." Dotty nodded, and Carina looked away. It was her least favourite part of it all, the hunting them down - it reminded her so much of Brenner, and all of his little and not so little tests. She'd never told Kali that to her face, that she reminded her of the lab too much sometimes. She didn't figure it would go down well.

"You kill them?" At the very least, she was glad that Eleven understood a lot more stuff now. It'd be simply painful to try and explain what they did as plainly as they would have had to a year ago.

She glanced over her shoulder to see Eleven looking at her a long moment, before turning her gaze back to Kali, who said, "They're criminals. We simply make them pay for their crimes." As if everyone in the room was not well aware of the fact that murder was, in fact, also quite the crime.

Axel looked like he was about to laugh. "Damn Shirley, what's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost-"

"Shut up, Axel." Rosemary spat at him, and he only matched her distainful look with a smirk.

Dotty tilted her head to the side. "We can't all be fighters, I guess."

"I'm a fighter." Oh, and Rosemary didn't like this one bit. "I've killed." She wasn't the best people-reader, but she'd done this same thing a year ago. Made herself into something that would fit with them because she needed somewhere to fit into. It helped somewhat, but looking back she wished it had gone differently. Maybe she wouldn't be getting sucked back into all of this mess if it had.

Neither Axel or Mick looked very convinced, which wasn't such a shock considering Elevens current get-up matched in with her hesitancy. Axel gave Rosemary a side look, and she gave a slight nod, to which he looked annoyingly impressed. "These men you killed," Kali began. "Did they deserve it?"

"They hurt me."

"And they still want to hurt you." Kali said, in a tone that bordered on insisting. "To hurt us. We're just making the first move."

She hoped Kali wasn't doing that on purpose. Saying "us" at every turn, enforcing to Eleven that the two of them were connected, that they needed each other.

Carina was glad they found one another. It's nice to know there are others out there like you, even if they're not exactly like you in most ways. Nice to know that they're not all locked away or dead. But Kalis the sort of person she'd rather share a drink with once in a blue moon rather than ride-or-die with on the daily. Unless that was the kind of thing Eleven wanted, but she highly doubted that any thirteen year old needed that.

"Come."