Chapter One-Hundred-And-Eighteen: Party Reunion

(The Bite, Pt. 6)

***

"You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!" Dustin laughed out as he crushed El into a hug, the telekinetic girl grinning as she hugged Dustin just as tightly. Behind him, Rowan's eyes widened at seeing how El was limping, supported by Mike—what had happened to her while she, Dustin, Steve, Robin, Valerie and Erica were trapped underground?

Before she could ask any questions, Rowan stumbled back as Alistair collided into her, hugging her tightly.

"Don't you ever disappear again, Rowan!" Alistair exclaimed, words half-muffled. He pulled back, revealing a glare that was cracking under the wobbly smile of relief. "Are you okay? What happened to you? I thought you were dead! I was gonna raise you up and kill you again and you're okay!"

"I'm okay, squirt," Rowan affirmed as she hugged her little brother back. "I'm okay. Though, that's hypocritical given what you did two years ago."

"I know. It must be karma," Alistair said, the words watery.

Rowan choked out a laugh. "God, I missed you, Al."

"I missed you too," he whispered back.

The siblings hugged each other a few seconds longer before pulling away. But Rowan wasn't spared before someone else barrelled into her, someone with flaming red hair tied into two braids and with enough sarcasm to rival Rowan's.

"Hey, Madmax," Rowan murmured.

"Hey," Max mumbled, her guard lowered in the tight way she hugged Rowan like the older girl might disappear. She looked at her, and that was when Rowan saw the fear. "Rowan, Billy, he's..."

Rowan frowned, big sister instincts flaring, and she looked at her brother, who looked uneasy.

"What's going on? What happened?" Rowan demanded.

"He's back," Alistair whispered.

Rowan froze. Shit.

Before she could ask more questions—and try to confirm the wishful thought of the Mind Flayer still being fucking dead—she heard Erica's incredulous, "Lucas?"

"What are you doing here?" the elder Sinclair demanded.

"Ask them. It's their fault," Erica answered, exposing the five teens.

"True, yeah. Totally true, It's absolutely our fault," Steve confirmed, Rowan resting a hand on Steve's shoulder and nodding to affirm it, while Alistair stood beside her, Max leaving to go stand by Lucas.

"I don't understand what happened to that car," Robin said.

"Or why my sister's ex has a dead bird on his shoulder!" Valerie exclaimed, making Robin turn and see Hugin. Her eyes grew comically wide. Alistair froze, his eyes also wide and Rowan stepped closer to her brother.

"Rowan, why does Al have his creepy bird puppet?" Robin demanded, and apparently that was enough to annoy Hugin out of stillness, because he gave a caw and flapped his wings, Alistair immediately clamping a hand on Hugin's beak.

"Hugin!" he hissed, but the damage was done. Robin nearly a jumped a foot into the air while Valerie let out a screech.

"Holy shit, it moved! It freaking moved! Why did it move!?" Robin shrieked, Valerie nodding vigorously in agreement while making the sign of the cross.

"El, Rowan and Al have superpowers," Dustin revealed, entirely too calm for the situation as Rowan and Alistair whipped toward Dustin.

"Dustin!" the siblings hissed.

"I'm sorry?" Robin and Valerie said in unison, as they stared at the siblings in shock.

"Superpowers. She threw it with her mind, she can shoot lightning from her hands and he can control dead animals. C'mon, catch up," Steve elaborated, also too casually, as he pointed first to El, then to Rowan, then finally to Alistair.

This time, Rowan directed her glare to Steve. "Steve!"

Steve looked sheepish—as he should—as Rowan looked back to her stunned friends. Though maybe she should expect this—no way could she or Alistair hide their secrets now.

"That's El?" Erica questioned, making all eyes turn back to the telekinetic girl again.

"Who's El?" Robin asked.

"She's El," Alistair answered, pointing to El who smiled meekly.

"I'm sorry, who are you two, again?" Nancy asked, directed to Robin and Valerie.

"I'm Robin," Robin replied.

"And I'm Valerie," Valerie added on.

"We work with Steve," Robin explained.

"I'm also Cami's older sister," Valerie revealed, giving a pointed glare to Cami—obviously Valerie wasn't happy Cami had kept secrets from her. Cami, for her part, gave a stubborn look back.

"They're also my friends," Rowan explained. At least, she thinks they still are.

"They cracked the top secret code," Dustin revealed.

"Yeah, which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place," Steve added on as Rowan nodded and interjected, "Yeah, and find out they're open—"

"Russians? Wait, what Russians?" Jonathan asked, puzzled.

"The Russians!" Steve exclaimed.

"The ones El used as bowling pins with that car," Rowan elaborated, pointing to the unmoving bodies.

"Those were Russians?" Max breathed, eyes wide.

"Some of them," Erica confirmed with a shrug.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas demanded, looking confused.

"Didn't you hear our Code Red?" Dustin questioned.

"Yeah. And I couldn't understand half of what you were saying," Mike responded, affirming it had gone through but he hadn't heard it.

"Goddamn low battery," Dustin muttered.

"How many times do I have to tell you with the low battery?" Steve reprimanded, acting very much like a mom.

"Hey, I tried to juice the battery up, but it didn't work," Rowan defended, before she glared at Dustin and scolded, "We could have gotten that ride if you just got to the point, menace!"

"Well, everything worked out, didn't it?" Dustin huffed, crossing his arms.

"Worked out? We almost died," Erica reminded in an incredulous.

"Several times," Rowan affirmed.

"Yeah, but we didn't, did we?" Dustin snapped back.

"It was pretty damn close," Steve pointed out.

"Way too close," Rowan agreed.

"Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas questioned.

"What other government are they working for? Germany?" Rowan snarked.

"Yeah, what are you not comprehending? Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation," Dustin said.

Alistair's eyes widened and he whirled to Rowan. "Wait, do the Russians know about..."

He gestured to himself, Rowan and El, and Rowan shook her head.

"No, I don't think so. But they know about the other shit in Hawkins," Rowan explained, and Alistair paled.

"Fuck," he breathed, Hugin cawing worriedly as he felt Alistair's anxiety.

"So this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max questioned.

"It has everything to do with the gate," Dustin answered back gravely, Rowan nodding.

"Yeah, as I was saying earlier, the Russians are reopening the gate," she revealed, and immediately all the faces of the Party paled.

However, before that could set off another storm of questions, a loud thump came.

Everyone whirled, and Rowan saw to her shock that El had collapsed.

"El!" Mike and Alistair yelled in unison, running to her side as Mike pulled El into his arms and Alistair hovered by her side, the others following behind.

"Fuck, what happened to her?" Rowan breathed.

"The Mind Flayer. It attacked us, and it injured her," Cami answered.

The blood drained from Rowan's face as her fears were confirmed.

"Fuck," she whispered as she looked at Will as they all crowded around El. Fuck, she hoped that thing hadn't tried to possess him again.

"What's wrong with her?" Erica questioned at the same time Mike asked El, worry trembling in his voice, "El, what's wrong?"

"My leg. My leg," El choked out, pain twisting her face.

"Her leg. Her leg. Okay, get that off," Jonathan ordered and he, Alistair and Nancy peeled off the bloodied bandage wound around her leg.

Once they did, the sickening stench of infection assaulted Rowan's nostrils. She held back a gag as she looked at El's injury.

If Rowan had anything to eat, it would have left the contents of her stomach.

There was an angry red wound beaded with blood and sickly yellow pus threatening to erupt out of it, but under El's inflamed skin, something twitched underneath, and with each twitch El's face contorted in agony.

"What the fuck?!" she breathed.

Everyone's faces looked like hers—a mixture of horror and disgust—as Mike looked back to El, his face full of panic for her as he yelled, "El! El! El, are you okay!?"

"El, talk to us! Jean Grey, are you okay?!" her brother yelled, looking similarly panicked.

"El! El! EL!"

But El only let out an agonised scream, and Rowan knew then that if they didn't get whatever was in her leg out right now... 

El could die.

***

This was fun :)

Honestly, this was so chaotic and I loved bringing the chaos back here. And yes, Robin and Valerie now know about Rowan and Alistair's powers! But, because this is so chaotic—and what happens with El—a proper talk isn't gonna come until later

And with this, we're officially on the last episode of s3! Who's ready?? :)

Next chapter will be soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!