Notes and trigger warning:

I wrote this before Season 2 came out. But I liked it so much that I didn't want to waste it! So I re-wrote it with S2 in mind.

This is a season 2 AU in which Eleven did not escape the Upside Down right away (something that always bothered me).

Referenced child abuse in this chapter.

Fic was originally posted on AO3.

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Black Parade

She didn't expect to wake up again.

But when she did, everything was different. Cold, disoriented, and alone, she stumbled through the hallways of the school. She knew where she was, but not how to get back to where she needed to be. Her chest constricted, trapping her breaths in her lungs. She couldn't tell if it was the panic setting in, or her body rejected the toxic air of the Upside Down.

The Demogorgon. It had fought tooth and nail against her, but it had hurt her friends and this was ending here. It had no chance of escape as she pulled it apart piece by piece. It knew it was losing. As a last resort it had tried to flee, opening another portal to the shadow world with the last of its strength and retreating through. But her grasp was unyielding. And so she'd followed, collapsing moments after, as the last particles of the beast faded to nothingness around her. Her last thoughts had been of Mike.

Mike. She needed to find him. If only she could find her way back to him, everything would be better. She tried to focus on that and ignore the world tilting around her as she searched up, down, and around for any sign of a way out, growing more and more desperate and dizzy with each passing moment. All of her muscles ached, protesting as she picked up her pace, fighting the exhaustion that threatened to pull her down to the floor again. This place leeched her already drained energy reserves. Tears blurred her vision and streaked down her filthy face, but somehow she still caught it in her peripheral. The red glow, standing out stark in the dank, blue hues of the inverted world.

Her ticket out of here.

She crouched, hand shaking with anticipation and her heartbeat jumped into overdrive as her arm breached the membrane separating this world from hers. But she needed to fit more than her arm through. Breathing in, she silenced her frenzied mind. She stood, pushing the pain in her head and body aside just as Papa had taught her all those years ago, and locking it away. Summoning calm and focus, she lifted her hand.

The portal crumbled like sand beneath her powers.

When it was big enough, she let herself breath again, new tears streaking down her cheeks.

Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike.

Movement caught her eye. She didn't want to stop, didn't want to wait for anything. But she did. Sickly, black tendrils oozed across the walls and floor, inching towards the portal. They were just reaching the edges, latching on as if they were alive and...like acid, they ate away at the fabric separating the dimensions. Where moments earlier the hole seemed to close on its own, stitching itself back together, it now grew, slowly but surely.

She leaned closer, squinting in the dim light. The black stuff spread and pulsed. It seemed almost alive. A dull, sinking feeling settled in her stomach. A cautious finger rose towards the tendrils. As soon as her finger made contact with its surface a blinding, cold pain, like the electricity sticks the bad men used on her when she wasn't cooperative, shot through her and suddenly she was on the floor, gasping for breath. The pain was gone in an instant, but the image that had flashed through her mind lingered. Evil. A dark presence she didn't understand. She didn't know what it, what he was. But she'd felt his intentions. His goal was clear. Take. Kill. An insatiable lust.

She rose shakily to her feet. It would be so easy to not think, to just step through that portal, to find Mike and warmth and home. But her feet carried her down the hallways, away from her escape. She needed to be sure. She just needed to be sure. Another, glowing spot came into view, this one much smaller. And then another, and another, and another. All small. But all there. In the school. Where Mike went to school every day. Her hands grew clammy and her breaths grew short as she approached the familiar double doors that led to outside the school. Unctuous vines held them closed but she easily used her powers to blow them apart, stepping out into the open. And stopped.

The world bled a glowing red.

Patches of light, varying in sizes and intensity, covered surfaces of the ground, structures, and trees as far as her eyes could see. They stood out stark against the darkness of the Upside Down. Glaring and undeniable. She fell to her knees, the air whooshing out of her lungs.

She had caused this.

Hawkins was in danger, the world was in danger because of her mistakes. But most importantly, Mike was in danger because of what she'd done.

She sobbed into her hands, covering her eyes from the sight in front of her. For one achingly wonderful moment she'd deluded herself in to thinking she'd ended it, that she could go home.

What a fool she'd been.

She'd forgotten Papa's words. Good things are for good girls, Eleven. Bad things are for bad girls. She moaned through her hiccups, biting down on the back of her hand hard enough to draw blood. The pain drew back her focus. She forced her breaths to even. Good girls don't cry. She clenched her jaw and rose from the ground with a new goal in mind.

She'd done this.

And now she was going to fix it.

She walked back through the doors, shutting them with a flick of her head, eyes fixed on the end of the hallway all the while, on the place where the red burned brightest. She stood in front of the tear, jaw set and gaze determined. Mike would have to wait. The Snowball would have to wait. Home would have to wait.

She lifted her hand, and the edges of the rip began to move together.

This was her home now.