"SO," MAX SAID AWKWARDLY.  "Dustin said you have superpowers?"

The party of four was walking down the train tracks holding buckets of raw meat, dropping chunks every now and then, making a trail to lure the demogorgon baby to the junkyard. Steve and Dustin were walking ahead of the girls, having a low-voiced conversation. 

So, Olivia had somehow ended up about ten feet behind the boys, walking side by side with the little girl Dustin had wanted to bring along so badly.

And she was asking a lot of questions.

"Superpowers?" Olivia repeated, her face getting hot. She flung another piece of raw meat onto the ground as she walked. "I wouldn't say superpowers."

"Oh," Max frowned. "I knew he was making it up."

Olivia's head shot up. She cared about Dustin too much to let his crush think he was lying. "He wasn't lying. I can do... things. I just don't think they're superpowers."

"What can you do?" Max perked up. "I was, like, ninety-nine percent sure Dustin was just totally bullshitting me."

"I... uh..." Olivia stammered. She cleared her throat. "Psionic energy manipulation and psychokinesis."

Max just stared her. "Um... what?"

"Shit." The word felt unfamiliar in Olivia's mouth, but it seemed to fit the current situation. "Uh... I make some kind of earthquake thing. Everything around me starts to shake and... sometimes I make things break. I destroy things, basically."

"Destroy things?" Max echoed. 

"And I can fly," Olivia said suddenly. "I just learned how to do that last night."

"You can fly?" Max's blue eyes widened. "That's awesome! Wait- how did you just figure that out?"

"i jumped off a cliff," Olivia said, flinging more meat on the leaves around them. 

"Why would you jump off a cliff?"

Olivia felt sick. "I don't want to talk about it."

Poor Max looked so confused that Olivia felt bad for her. She shut her eyes briefly.

"Want to see?" She offered. She hoped Max would take the distraction and leave the other topic alone, because she was not ready to acknowledge it yet.

"Hell yeah!" Max grinned widely. 

Olivia took a deep breath. It felt odd to be using her gift intentionally, after nearly a year of shoving it down and trying not to destroy everything in her path.

She watched the boys walk in front of them, waiting until she was certain that  they wouldn't be able to hear them. 

Then she stuck out her hand, aiming towards a tree, and concentrated, hard, pursing her lips. 

The tree started to tremble slightly, brown leaves scattering to the ground. It looked as though it were in a strong wind storm, but it wasn't enough to really prove to Max that it wasn't exactly that- the wind. 

So Olivia concentrated harder, narrowing her eyes. She felt the familiar tug in her gut and, after a moment, the tree started to really move, the trunk itself shaking.

"Woah!" Max laughed in delight, staring at Olivia and then back at the tree. "That's awesome!"

Olivia smiled with relief. "Thanks."

They both stared at the tree for a moment, the boys far ahead of them now. The very roots were shaking now, making the tree sway a lot harder than Olivia had expected.

"Uh..." Max's smile wavered.  "Shouldn't you... stop now?"

Olivia gritted her teeth. "I'm trying."

But even as she tried to just shut it off, closing her fist, the tree continued to tremble, the bark breaking and snapping.

"Stop!" Max grabbed her arm, eyes wide. "You're going to knock it over!"

"I'm trying!" Olivia said, panicked. 

The tree shuddered one last time and then suddenly, it stopped moving. Olivia breathed out a sigh of relief and Max giggled.

"That was badass," she said, looking up at Olivia with admiration. Her fiery red hair blended in with the autumn colors around them.

Olivia was grinning, feeling rather proud of herself. 

Until the tree made a groaning noise and started falling towards the ground, landing with a thud so loud that it echoed through the forest. Birds quickly took flight all over the woods, cawing loudly as they flew around in panic.

There was a tense moment of silence after, Olivia and Max standing frozen as they stared at the fallen tree. 

"What the fuck?" Steve shouted. 

Olivia turned to see him and Dustin gaping at her. Steve threw his hands up in the air, like he didn't know how else to express his confusion.

Suddenly Olivia let out a snort. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth.

Steve narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Olivia snorted again, and then her shoulders started shaking, her mouth still hidden behind her hand. 

Steve dropped his meat bucket, taking off his gloves. "Liv?" he called, starting to walk over to the girls.

Her eyes were screwed up now, clutching her stomach with one hand and clamping over her mouth with the other.

Steve started to run, crossing the fifteen feet between them in seconds. He grabbed her shoulders and made her look at him. His eyes were serious as she had ever seen them.

"What- why are you crying? Did something happen?" He turned to Max and frowned at her. "What did you do?"

"Me?!" Max echoed, looking attacked. "It was her!"

Olivia took her hand off her mouth, doubling over, still shaking inconsolably. Her hair tickled her face.

Steve's worried expression vanished, replaced by disbelief. "Are you laughing?"

Olivia emerged, wiping tears from her eyes. Her smile was so big and contagious that Max and Dustin followed suit, smiling widely. "I knocked over a tree," she wheezed.

Steve gaped at her. "Yeah," he said in disbelief. "I- I can see that."

"It's- it fell," Olivia gasped for air, wiping a tear from off her cheek.

"Are you shitting me?" Steve said, staring at her with almost offended disbelief. "I thought something happened to you!"

"Sorry," Olivia stood up straight, trying to stop laughing. She couldn't keep the smile off her face, though. Her cheeks hurt from the strain.

"Jesus Christ," Steve turned around, shaking his head in exasperation. "Why do I feel like a damn babysitter?"

As he started to walk away, Dustin and Max looked at each other, bursting out into giggles. 

"Are you glad you came now?" Dustin asked the redhead. He looked almost nervous, his usual positive confidence wavering.

Max paused for a moment, her face flushed. She smiled at Dustin, raising her eyebrows. "I've been glad since the second you came to my window."

Olivia hid a smile, turning away from the kids as they started to chat. She looked ahead of her and saw Steve smirking at them. He motioned for Olivia to catch up with him and she obliged, falling side by side with him.

Steve handed her a bucket of meat. She struggled with it for a moment; it was hard to grip things with the cuffs on her hands. 

"How's Dustin doing?" Steve glanced behind them. 

Olivia smiled. "He really likes her, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Steve shook his head, grinning. "He's been talking about her non-stop for the past ten minutes. He wants to impress her. That's why he invited her."

Olivia nodded in understanding, tossing a chunk of raw meat onto the track beside them. "It's... cute."

"Yeah," Steve agreed with a small smile.

If Olivia had just glanced at him, she would have seen him staring at her as he said it.

When they finally made it to the junkyard, Steve stood on the hilltop in all of his rubber- donned glory. "Oh, yeah." 

He nodded, his sunglasses reflecting the abandoned miscellania. "Yeah, this will do. This will do just fine. Good call, dude."

Max, Olivia, and Dustin dumped the remaining steak into a pile, wrinkling their noses at the stench.

"I said medium-well!" A voice shouted from the other side of the junkyard.

The group turned to see little Mike Wheeler biking into the clearing, his walkie talkie tied in between the handles. He waved at Dustin and grinned at Olivia before his eyes settled on Max.

The smile faded from Mike's face almost instantly. "What's she doing here?!" he demanded.

"I invited her. She knows everything," Dustin said. He turned to Max, who nodded fervently. 

"You told her?" Mike's eyes widened in disbelief. 

"So what?" Dustin raised an eyebrow. 

"SO WHAT?" Mike repeated loudly. He thrust a finger in Max's direction. "This is top secret stuff! For party members only!"

"Hey," Olivia intervened, slightly shocked at Mike's aggression towards the little girl she thought was his friend.

Mike softened just slightly. He looked at Olivia for a moment before a flash of pain flickered across his face and he glanced away, blinking hard.

Olivia frowned, unable to make out what the expression was. It looked familiar, though.

"So, you haven't heard from Lucas or Callie?" Mike asked Dustin.

"Nothing," Dustin shook his head.

"Or Will?" Mike pressed.

"No."

"Hopper?"

"No! No one is around. Why do you think I'm with Olivia and Steve Harrington?-"

"I know where they are," Olivia said quietly.

The group turned to her expectantly.

"The twins and Hopper... they're at Hawkins lab. Lucas went with them, he stopped by my house really late last night to check on Callie. She and Will had some kind of... of seizure..."

Olivia trailed off when she saw the horrified looks on the kids faces.

"What?" Dustin's eyes were wide.

"Are they okay?" Mike asked, the blood vacant from his face.

"Wait, I thought you said that last night you jumped off a cliff," Max piped in. "And you found out you can fly? You're telling me all this happened last night?"

"Yes," Olivia sighed.

"Woah, woah, woah," Dustin held up his hands in a "time out" motion. "You jumped off a cliff? And what does Max mean, you can fly?"

"Since when?" Mike demanded.

Olivia sighed. This was not a conversation she could have with a bunch of thirteen year olds.

"I wanted to test something out," she lied. "I jumped off the quarry, and I manifested a new gift. Yes, I can fly now."

Mike looked sceptical as always, but Dustin just nodded. 

"I'm not even surprised," Dustin sighed. 

"Back up," Mike held up his hands. "What happened to the twins?"

"They started having a seizure," Olivia said tiredly. "Hopper got stuck in the Upside Down and Will went to go help find him, and Caroline started seizing about an hour later. We drove them to the lab, and Lucas stuck behind with them."

Mike, Dustin, and Max paused for a moment to let that sink in. They were surprising calm about the whole situation, much more than Olivia would have thought.

"They're at the lab," Dustin nodded his head firmly. He patted Mike on the shoulder, who was looking rather pale. "That's the best place for them. If their Twintuition is doing anything, they can handle it."

"I know," Mike said quietly. "I'm just..."

He suddenly glanced at Max, who was picking up a sheet of metal to hand to Steve, frowning as if realizing for the first time that she was standing there.

"Never mind," he said quickly. "We've got Ollie and Steve. That's the best we're gonna get."

"Thanks," Olivia frowned, her brows furrowing.

"That's not what I meant," Mike amended quickly. "I just meant-"

There was a loud bang right next to the crew and Olivia jumped, sending a small shock wave into the ground where she was crouched. 

"Hey!" Steve held up the folded-up chair he had kicked the abandoned car with. "Dickheads! How come the only one helping me out is this random girl?"

Max's face turned more red than her hair at the attention. Mike made a disgusted face.

 "We lose light in 40 minutes," Steve said adamantly. "Let's go. Let's go, I said!"

"All right, asshole!" Dustin glared at Steve. "God!"

Olivia stood up and quickly picked up the nearest item- another crimped metal sheet- and made her way towards Steve.

She jumped when Steve suddenly came up behind her, carrying more material of his own.

He noticed her reaction and his features softened. "Sorry. I wasn't talking you when I yelled."

"It's alright," Olivia said softly. "Not your fault."

Steve just gave her a sad smile. "I'll try not to yell. Deal?"

"Deal," she agreed.

O.B + S.H

By the time night fell, the party had completed their goal and reinforced the outside of their hideout; an old rusted bus now covered in metal of any kind.

Olivia sat across from Steve in the back seat of the bus, who was flickering a lighter on and off, watching the flame. His face was serious, his eyes calculating, like he was preparing for something big.

Then again, they were. 

The group really had no idea what they were up against, and Olivia had never even seen the monsters from the Upside Down face to face before. She felt sick when she remembered that these were the creatures that had killed her little sister.

She shook her head- hard- and looked away towards the driver's seat of the bus. She frowned when she realized that Mike Wheeler was sitting there alone, looking impossibly sad for someone so young.

Before she could change her mind, Olivia stood and began making her way towards him.

She heard Max and Dustin talking from the roof of the bus, deep in conversation. She was glad that out of all of this, someone got to be happy. These kids deserved it, after everything they had been through.

"Hey," she said quietly as she approached Mike. She slowly sat down across from him, resting on a milk crate.

Mike looked at Olivia for a moment before a flash of pain flickered across his face and he glanced away, blinking hard.

Olivia stared at him for a moment before it dawned on her. She knew that look. She saw it every time she looked in a mirror.

Grief.

For the first time, she realized that Mike Wheeler was grieving.

"You miss her," she said softly.

Mike looked at her sharply. "What?"

"Eleven." Olivia leaned forward, searching his eyes.

There it was again- the flash of pain she had seen before. But his time, he didn't even look away. He just looked at her, his dark eyes reflecting the moonlight.

"Yeah," he whispered. "I do."

Olivia looked down at her hands, her palms covered by the casts on her arms. 

"I mean... I only knew her for a couple weeks," Mike said quietly. "But... she was the most amazing person I've ever met."

"She was," Olivia agreed. "I... miss her."

"Me too," Mike said. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "We called her El, you know. "Eleven"... It made her sound like she was an object and not a girl."

"El," Olivia repeated. She smiled sadly. "I bet she loved that."

 "God," Mike leaned back in the bus seat. "If I miss her this much, if it hurts this much... I can't imagine what it's like for you."

Olivia blinked, hard.

"It's not the first time some I loved has died," she said. 

"Who?" Mike asked. For once, Olivia didn't feel like he was prying. She also felt like he deserved to know. Her story was also Eleven's story too, and the more you knew about a person, in life or death, the more you had to hold on to them.

"My mom first," she said. "She died during childbirth. And then... other kids. At the lab. Number Three... he was the oldest, about four years older than me. He actually wanted to be part of the experiments. His name was Ricky. He was the only one besides me who got a name.

Then there was Six... she was my age. She had really pretty red hair.

The the twins... Nine, and Nine- Point-Five. They were a lot younger

Then... Papa and Eleven. But Eleven... she was the most important person in my world. She always was. We had a special bond. We were the only ones born into the experiments. Which meant we could never leave. We were property of the lab."

"And as soon as she escaped..." Mike wiped a tear off his cheek, angrily. "She died."

"Not your fault," Olivia told him. She watched as the little boy's lip quivered. "It was... it was mine."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked. "Eleven... she opened up the gate. That's why she sacrificed herself. She always felt so bad about it..."

"It..." Olivia's lip wavered and she blinked back hot tears. "The gate... that wasn't Eleven. El. It was... me."

"You?" Mike's expression contorted into something unrecognizable. "You opened the gate?"

Olivia nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"So all that time... she was... protecting you." Mike said slowly. It wasn't a question.

Olivia felt a hot tear trace down her cheek. "I'm so sorry." Her voice broke.

She felt a small hand on her shoulder and she looked up, her vision blurry with tears.

"Not your fault," Mike said softly.

Olivia let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. It was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders; it wasn't all of the burden, but it was enough for her to be able to make it through the night.

"I don't blame you," Mike said. "And I know the others don't either. We all loved El, but... you loved her more."

"Will blames me," Olivia said. It hurt to say it out loud, but she knew it was true.

Comprehension dawned on Mike's face. His features softened and he looked at her sadly. "Is that what you think?"

"Of course," Olivia wiped her wet cheeks. "He avoids me. It's like he's... scared around me. You're his best friend, you would know."

Mike shook his head. "He doesn't blame you for El's death, Ollie. He blames himself."

"What?" Olivia said in disbelief.

"It was him who got her dragged into this whole thing," Mike explained. "Or at least, that's how he feels. El helped us search for him, dragged the monster away from him and out of the Upside Down, so he could escape."

"But..." Olivia struggled to formulate a sentence. "Why would he be so strange around me?"

"Because he thinks you blame him," Mike gave her a look. "El was your sister. You escaped that lab looking for her, and she wasn't here when you found his house. He feels... guilty."

Olivia sat back, letting the information wash over her. It all made sense now: Will avoiding her eyes, the desperate gestures to be kind to her,  avoiding speaking to her...

"I had no idea," she said hoarsely. "I feel terrible."

"Don't," Mike shook his head. "There was no way you could have known. But now that you do know..."

"I'll have to make sure he understands I don't blame him," she finished. "Dr. Owens does always tell us we have to start moving forward. Not stay stuck in the past."

"Dustin and Max seem to be doing just fine," Mike said, looking up to the skylight, where they could see the kids laughing with each other. "And... you and Steve seem to be getting along."

Olivia gave him a sharp look. "Steve is dating your older sister."

"I don't think so," Mike said knowingly. "I mean... she ran off with Jonathan. She and Steve got into a fight too. She used to like him, but... I don't think they're really together anymore. At least, not to her."

"And that doesn't... bother you?" Olivia pressed.

"Nah. Besides, Steve's definitely into you."

Olivia's cheeks turned red. She hesitated before daring to ask, "Are you sure?"

"Turn around," Mike said, smiling slightly. 

Olivia turned around to see Steve staring at her from the back of the bus. He had the sweetest smile on his face, and she decided she had never liked him more than she did in that moment.

"See?" Mike said, leaning back. "Totally into you."

Hello beautiful people! Today's chapter was pretty heavy. We found out why WIll has been so strange around Olivia, and Olivia and Mike bonded a bit over Eleven.

Drink some water and vote! I love you all!