Smoke -- Jim Hopper

71. KEYS

Hellooo I'm gonna try to finish this to start on S4!! Not edited!
—————

Natalie was tense as she followed Jim and Joyce into the room, watching the wall hum and pulse with energy. There was a bad feeling starting to settle heavily in her gut as she tuned out the voices ahead of her.

Then the machine started to malfunction, shooting off sparks and the alarms started to blare.

"What's happening?" Natalie asked of the alarms.

"We need to hurry," Jim answered as the last remaining scientist escaped from the room.

"So we turn both these keys at the same time?" Joyce said as she looked at the control panel.

"Yeah," Jim said, his voice was heavy with desperation as he set down his walkie.

Natalie moved forward, breath baited as she moved forward towards the control panel. In a few short minutes this would be over for good. Things would be normal, at least for a little while.

"Okay get ready on three, one, two,-"

Natalie blinked as an arm wrapped around her body and she let out a scream as she was roughly thrown to the side. She groaned feeling her head smash in the control panel and the world darkened for a brief moment.

"Natalie!" Jim shouted as he dove after her only to be thrown through the front window by the Russian terminator that had been tailing them this whole time.

Natalie blinked, the world around her was fuzzy and she weakly pulled herself up to see that Joyce was passed out the controls panel. "Joyce?" She hissed, brining her hand up to the side of her head, it was wet with blood. Her body swayed a bit before her adrenaline kicked in.

Where was Jim?

Suddenly more awake she scrambled to go towards Jim who was now by the generator fighting with Grigori. "Jim!" She cried out as she ran towards the door, not caring about the mission at hand.

"No!" Jim shouted as he ducked under a punch, he was bleeding profusely from a cut on his lip. "I got this!"

Natalie watched in horror as they fought, both men tossing each other closer and closer to the generator. She quickly realized if she could get Joyce up they could turn the keys and it would be off just leaving Grigori and Jim fighting.

"Shit," she muttered, rushing over to Joyce and shaking her roughly, "c'mon Joyce! Get up!"

Natalie was starting to panic, the generator was spewing more sparks, and the gate was glowing brighter. It needed to be turned off before it was too late, before everything that El and the others have done would be for nothing.

She looked towards Joyce again who was still passed out cold against the control panel, and Natalie noticed a large cut on the side of Joyce's head. Cold dread washed over her as she began to understand that Joyce would not be waking up anytime soon.

She needed to make a decision.

Time seemed to slow as Natalie looked back at Jim, he was on the ground now, and Grigori was dangerously close to pushing his head into the turning metal of the generator. Her heart leaped in her throat as more power surged from the generator and it popped, sparking madly.

With shaky hands she quickly undid her belt and tied it around one of the keys, or else they'd all blow up if she couldn't turn off the generator in time.

Jim let out a shout as he pushed Grigori off of him and into the generator making Natalie flinch as the machine groaned loudly. It was almost horrifying to see how quickly Grigori was torn apart in front of her.

The generator was now shrieking with a loud metallic sound, and spitting off electricity. It was clear that it was more than unstable and if Natalie didn't do something, everything everyone has worked towards would be for nothing.

The Mind Flayer would win if she didn't turn the keys.

She locked eyes with Jim who was watching her silently. He looked almost at peace as Natalie began to realize what was happening.

"No," she said harshly shaking her head, "no I can't!"

Even though Jim couldn't hear her over the sound of the machine he nodded, trying his best to keep calm, keep his focus on her, on El, on the people he loved.

Natalie felt her world crashing down around her as she tightened her grip on the belt holding the other key, "Jim," she cried as she shared one last smile with him, "I'm sorry."

The keys turned and there instantly was a loud rumbling closely followed by an explosion that threw Natalie and Joyce to the ground.

Natalie winced, feeling glass shards cut into her back as she tried to get up, but she felt weak. Like half of her was missing, and then came the guilt.

Jim was gone.

And she was the one who pulled the trigger.

Murray was suddenly behind her, shouting in her ear to get up. He was holding a barely awake Joyce and he tugged at Natalie's shirt.

"We gotta go!" Murray shouted desperately. The Russians would be coming and they needed to get out.

Natalie blindly scrambled to her feet, looking out towards the generator and the gate. The gate was closed, cooling down to the color of the stone in was in, and the generator was in pieces, charred black.

She swallowed thickly, looking for Jim, somewhat hoping he was alive. But she knew better.

Natalie blinked and she seemed to be running behind Murray headed towards the elevator, then she was outside. The sirens sounded far away as she sunk to her knees, numb.

She even failed to see that El had wandered up to her, covered in blood and looking scared.

"Hopper?" El said quietly, watching as tears started to run down Natalie's face, taking dirt and blood along with them.

Natalie shook her head, feeling her shoulders shake as a sob wracked her body, "I'm so sorry Eleven," she cried.

El immediately collapsed in front of her sobbing as Natalie wrapped her arms around her. The victory of winning was so quickly clouded by the death of Jim, neither of them could find a moment to find comfort in one another.

————-