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Pavlovian training

El woke up with a headache and a terrible pain in her upper back. Groaning, she sat up and, completely disorientated, she ran her hand through her hair, or at least she went to. As she touched her now shorn hair the events of the day before came rushing back to her. She looked up and around the room in which she was in. It was her room. It was her room in Hawkins lab. The same metal bed, the same white sheets, the same stuffed toy. She started panicking, her breathing speeding up so much she started hyperventilating. She tried to stand, but could only do so by leaning against the wall for support, and as she tried to walk towards the door the room started spinning and she collapsed, unconscious, on the floor.

"Dr Brenner, sir?" a guard said after knocking on his door.

"Yes?"

"She's awake."

Brenner walked to a control room full of monitors to see Eleven collapsed on her floor in her room. "What happened?"

"Think she had a panic attack" said one of the people watching the monitors. They both watched as her door opened and a doctor went in to check on her vitals, looking up at the camera in her room he nodded and gave a thumbs-up to indicate that she was ok.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"Eleven?"

It sounded like the voice was a long way away so she ignored it, besides, nobody called her that anymore so it couldn't mean her.

"Eleven" the voice repeated much more harshly, "wake up" it commanded.

She slowly opened her eyes, blinking hard against the harsh, white light until the room came into focus. It all looked familiar so she relaxed slightly until the memories again came flooding back. Sitting bolt upright, she turned to face the voice which was now speaking to her again, "hello, Eleven, I hope you slept well."

She had subconsciously pulled the blanket over her, up to her neck, as if in a futile attempt to protect herself. Looking at him with fear in her eyes and heart, she didn't reply.

"I'm glad you're home, Eleven. I missed you" he stated with a sycophantic smile on his face.

She couldn't help the sarcastic laugh that she spat out, "ha, yeah, you missed me...you missed torturing me, you missed using me, using my abilities, you missed hurting me, you missed stealing more of my life for your own sick..."

Brenner had clearly had enough and slapped her face hard, harder than he really intended. His anger at her leaving in the first place, at all the trouble she'd caused him, all the explaining he'd had to do and justifications he'd had to make, his anger bubbled through and, unfortunately for her, for that rare moment, he lost his composure and control.

Holding her cheek, she turned her head back to look at him with a defiant expression.

"Time to go, Eleven."

"Where?" she questioned, still holding her face as it hurt like hell.

"To resume our work" he said with a smile, as if that explained everything.

"I won't ever work for you again, I won't ever use my abilities for you...ever" she spat at him, raising her voice at the word 'ever'.

He smiled and nodded, humoring her. "Your work here is important, Eleven, it helps people, it helps keep them safe. You want to keep people safe, don't you?"

She didn't know how to answer the question; yes, she wanted to help people and make sure they didn't get hurt, but not at the expense of her own life, not anymore, no matter how selfish it was.

In that moment, Brenner knew that she still had a lot of self-doubt, without her friends and new family to help support her she was still vulnerable to manipulation for his own purposes. Inwardly smiling, he said "you can help people, Eleven, your abilities have the potential to keep tens of millions of people safe."