Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

The changing tide

El lay in her bed staring at the white featureless ceiling above. She was tired from the day's tests, Papa had pushed her hard and punished her just as hard when she hadn't been able to achieve what he wanted. She couldn't understand why she was failing so badly, she used to be able to do most things he asked, and certainly make progress in the things she couldn't, but now something was very wrong. It was like she had some mental block that wouldn't allow her to succeed, like a part of her mind that she couldn't access kept saying 'no', refusing to do as it was told, rebelling against Papa. She'd never been one for introspection, essentially being brought up as a blank slate had ensured that, but for the umpteenth time since waking up from her 'illness' she felt her mind racing. She wasn't even asleep yet the same images and thoughts kept presenting themselves and it was overwhelming to the point where she sat up with her head in her hands and screamed, breaking down into uncontrollable sobs immediately afterwards.

Holtz was glad she was by herself watching the monitors as the sight of El's anguish moved her to tears. That was it, something had to be done, she didn't know what yet, or how, but she knew she couldn't continue to be a part of this. She'd been led to believe that El really was an empty vessel, not much cognitive function other than her exceptional abilities, like a living robot if you will. What a load of shit she thought to herself. She now knew, from poking around carefully, that she had a life beyond the lab, a family that was looking for her, people who cared about her, for god's sake her fucking girlfriend had been used as leverage against her, to torture her with. The problem now was what the hell she was going to do. Walking away would have been the easiest solution, just remove herself from the situation, but her conscience wouldn't allow it as she was now a part of the problem. She had to get both girls out.

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Knock knock

"Come in" Holtz said, composing herself as she knew who it was from the curt knock on her door.

"Doctor Holtz" Brenner said in greeting.

"You can call me Marianne" she replied in greeting, forcing a smile to keep up appearances.

"I prefer to keep things...professional here, Holtz" he informed her with his usual impenetrable expression on his face.

"Ok, Doctor Brenner" she pointedly replied, to which he smirked in response. "Anyway, what brings you to my corner of the world?"

"I've been reading your reports from your sessions with Eleven and I'm concerned that there has been no discernible progress, she's still having these dreams and they are interfering significantly with our work" he said, a hint of frustration in his voice.

Holtz had to gather her thoughts and try and come up with something to delay where she thought he was going with this, "I told you quite clearly before we started that it wouldn't be a quick fix, you of all people know how complex a normal brain is let alone hers, you will have to be patient" she explained, trying to sound as clinically detached yet adamant as possible.

He let out an audible sigh, "Ok" he started, clearly deep in thought, "I'd like to watch your next session, tomorrow morning isn't it?"

Internally she panicked, "yes...yes, fine" she replied, keeping her cool on the outside at least.

"Excellent, and we can liaise afterwards in order to draw up a plan of action depending on how it goes" he informed her.

"Good idea" she quickly agreed, nodding at the same time to reinforce her feelings.

Brenner smiled, happy that Holtz was in agreement with his plans, "Tomorrow then" he concluded before getting to his feet and leaving.

"Tomorrow" Holtz sighed quietly to herself. She sat deep in thought for a few minutes before seemingly coming to a decision and picking up the phone. Dialing a number she knew well and waiting a few rings for someone to pick up, she finally said "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cancel our date..." she listened and replied where necessary "uh-huh...yeah...yes, sure...of course, next week sounds great...ye...yeah, love you, bye." Rather than hanging up totally, she just depressed the buttons and dialed another number, this time she spoke as clearly as possible ensuring the pager service got the message perfectly, "be ready."

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

He checked his pager and read the short message, closing his eyes he breathed deeply and then looked at the complicated chart on his wall. It detailed shift patterns, floor plans, patrol routes, test schedules, everything he'd need. Looking at the floor plan he drew a large red X in a rarely visited, yet vital junction room, memorizing the times at which it would be easy to access unseen. "Ready" he mumbled to himself, grabbing his keys and leaving.

About 15 minutes later he pulled up outside the biggest bar in town and headed inside. He grabbed a shot at the bar and downed it quickly then headed for the back, seemingly looking for the men's room. Instead he veered off at the last minute and left via the back exit, made his way down the alley, and walked the 10 minutes it took to get to the station. Instead of walking in the font entrance, he made his way around the side and tapped lightly on the window a few times before waiting to see if Hopper noticed. Tapping again, he saw the blinds pulled up and Hopper's frowning face appear, followed a second later by a look of surprised recognition.

"Gimme 2 minutes" he gruffly said, closing the window and blinds again.

As he waited for Hopper to appear, he nervously shuffled his feet and rehearsing what he was going to say. As promised, 2 minutes later he rounded the corner, "what's happened?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"There's been a change, I'm not sure what exactly as I've been off for 2 days, but my partner told me I have to be ready to move, maybe as soon as tomorrow" he informed Hopper.

Hopper looked down deep in thought, "what do you need me to do?" he asked, willing to do pretty much anything.

"Here, take this." Hopper looked down and saw a pager had been placed in his hand. "When it's time, you'll get a message..." he trailed off slightly.

"What?"

"You're gonna have to be ready" he insisted seriously, "ready to drop anything and everything, I'm not sure if we're gonna make it, but if we do, we'll need you there."

Hopper examined the man in front of him, he looked scared, but not just for himself, he looked scared of failure, of its consequences. He nodded, "I'll be there, count on it" he reassured him, patting him on the back slightly awkwardly, "and...thank you" he added.

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