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TESSISAMESS

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[savingthrows]

[ To her credit, Eleven thinks about that for a moment before answering. Squinting up at the ceiling in deep consideration. ]

I don't think so. We saved people. Made a lake. Helped the good guys.

[ What's not to like. ]

Should we have killed more bad guys?

[deaddrop]

[She's trying, and that's the important part, especially when there's a lot of catching up for Eleven to do.

Natasha isn't horrified, or even particularly surprised, by the answer and she keeps any disappointment off her face.

Any shortcomings on this front aren't any fault of El's.]

Have you ever had someone try to help you, but you didn't like how they did it? Maybe they tried making choices for you, even though you could make them yourself?

[Honestly, the morality of the killing can wait for later. Natasha isn't going to lose sleep over the deaths of some gulag guards.

But she does add:]

Maybe your dad, or your boyfriend.

[Someone who, presumably, Eleven would understood had her best interests at heart even if they made mistakes.]

[savingthrows]

[ silence for a while. Then, very softly and quietly. ]

Yes.

[ And she thinks, still, then offers: ]

They were scared. Not of me. For me. Wanted to keep me safe. Didn't trust me to stay safe.

[ And then it clicks, a little bit. ]

Didn't listen to me. Just decided. That made me angry.

[deaddrop]

I think that's how the people we left behind felt. They didn't ask for us to help, not the way we did.

[That doesn't mean that they shouldn't have helped, but Natasha shrugs past that.]

And they didn't know us well enough to know that we had their best interests at heart.

[savingthrows]

[ That feels difficult to her, but makes sense. When Hopper decided, he wanted to protect Eleven, but to her it felt no different from Papa deciding to keep her locked up, too. She understands it now, and they revised the rules together. To keep Eleven safe but give her room to grow, too. ]

Do you think they would have understood. If we had explained better?

[ Eleven isn't convinced of that - after all, she remembers that she didn't listen to Hopper until they were both hurting. ]

[deaddrop]

I think there were a lot of people. Some of them probably wouldn't have understood no matter what we said, especially not after the fact.

[Natasha shrugs, accepting that. There's no changing it now.]

Maybe if they'd known us better before, it would be different, but it's done. And we're out of their hair.

[Eleven seems to understand, though. It's a good start.]

I think some of them would understand if they had more information.