I realized there were some plot holes in the last chapter, so I edited it. Whoops.

Hawkins, Indiana

9:20 pm.

"You think we have a chance at finding her?"

Jane, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will and Max were gathered in Jane's room, casually sitting in a semi-circle around the map. Lucas was the one to ask the question, raising his hand slightly to make sure their attention was on him. He was already pretty sure of the answer, since they all had something on their side that the bad men no longer did and that was Jane.

"Yes." Jane said sincerely.

"How did they just lose track of someone in a week?" Will asked.

"Your guess is probably as good as mine." Jane said. She looked to the map, pointing at the girl's picture. "But her last known whereabouts and the date they lost track of her co..." She paused, trying to think of the proper word. "...coincide with the tornado that hit the very next day."

The day the tornado wrecked Arcadia Bay it was all over nearly every news station, mostly requesting for support and donations to get the town on its way to getting back on its feet. That's why it had sounded so familiar. Jane saw the broadcast.

"So... Maybe their surveillance or whatever was knocked out by the impending storm." Max suggested. She looked around at the group. "High wind, heavy rain? Flying debris?"

"It's too likely." Mike said. He sat forward in his chair.

Jane smiled a bit at Mike's declaration. "Exactly. If it was just that, then they would have found her by now because they got the power back on in the town late last week. If they haven't relocated her by now-"

"Then she could be anywhere." Dustin said. "She left."

"Whatever happened, m-four-x couldn't stay in the town." Jane said. She looked at each pair of eyes fixed on her, taking a second before saying, "I think she cause the storm."

"How would she cause the storm? It says her powers are manipulating time." Will said.

"Maybe she didn't cause it directly." Lucas said.

"How do you cause a storm indirectly?" Mike said. "We have yet to find anyone with unknown weather powers."

The group stood in silence for a minute, racking their brain trying to come up with some kind of idea of what they were up against. Dustin stood up and approached Jane's bookshelf, pulling out the stack of comic books she's collected or been given over time. The others looked over their shoulders at him, but said nothing. If anyone was going to make a proper connection, it would be Dustin.

Dustin started sorting through the comics, separating all the Flash ones from the pile. "Do you guys remember when the Flash built his Cosmic Treadmill?"

"Yeah, it was issue one-twenty-five right?" Mike said.

"Yeah." Dustin said, shifting through the Flash comics. "He built it so he could travel through time."

"I highly doubt this girl is using a treadmill to control time." Max said.

"She's not. But what if her controlling time started to break the very fabric of it?" Dustin looked up from the comics at his friends.

"What are you talking about?" Jane said.

"The Flash used his treadmill to travel through time and alternate realities." Dustin said.

"Where are you going with this?" Lucas said.

Dustin grabbed the comic he was looking for and approached the map. "Let's assume that she learned about her powers and used them. But not once, or twice, but excessively."

"That would create alternate realities because there could be a different outcome every time." Mike sat up straighter.

"And if she created too many-" Max began.

"-then that would disrupt the natural flow of time and force it to fall apart." Lucas finished.

"Which means that someone or something, maybe even nature itself, had to correct it." Will added. "Which could be where that tornado came from."

Dustin grinned, glad that they were getting it. "Exactly, yes!"

"But what could make her use her powers so much that she nearly fucked up time?" Mike said. "And wouldn't we of noticed if anything was happening with time?"

"Not really." Jane spoke up. "If anything, only she would be aware of the change in things. Anywhere, anything, or anyone else would be left out of the bubble and continue on like nothing happened unless she made a noticeable change to the environment. We don't even know if she has control of the future, past, or present."

"Do you think maybe she learned that she was being watched?" Will proposed.

"No. I don't think she knows about anything but her power." Jane said.

"Well, if she left during the outage, where could she have gone?" Mike said.

"That's what I'm gonna find out. We can't treat this like the others, find them and that's it. I think m-four-x is about as important to them as I was." Jane looked at the picture of the little girl. "We need to find where she is and go get her. Before they do."

"We can't just skip out on school." Will said.

Jane made a face. She hated when her step-brother had to be the voice of reason. She sighed and scratched her head. "Maybe if we talk to dad, we might be able to figure something out." Still, the thought of trying to convince her adoptive father to let them go on a trip to god knows where and getting into god knows what dimmed her hopes.

"Let's just start with finding out where she is." Mike said. He stood and reached for Jane's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Then we'll work out the rest of the messy details later."

Jane smiled at him. Even after four years of knowing him, three years of being together, she still felt her heart skip whenever she looked at or spoke to him. "Okay."

"We're gonna have to get home soon. So if we're doing this, we gotta do it now." Max said.

"Right." Jane said. "Let's get started."

The group dispersed, Lucas and Max leaving the room to locate a piece of paper and a pencil, Will heading to his room to grab his walkie talkie, Dustin going to get one of Hopper's ties to use as a blindfold, and Mike stepping over to Jane's TV to tune it to static. Jane reached up and took down the photo of the girl, staring intently at it for a second. She could only wonder how they knew she had powers when she was only two before she was broken out. Just like she wondered how they knew that she had powers. She knew she got them from her biological mother, but what if she wasn't born with them? What would have happened then? Would she be leading a normal life once they found her useless?

"El?" Mike said. He'd succeeded in tuning the TV and now had his attention fixed on his girlfriend. He was very aware that her name was no longer Eleven, of course, but he'd gotten used to how the nickname felt on his tongue. Whereas everyone else had started calling her Jane, he mostly stuck to El. Though, every now and then, one of the others would say Eleven or El out of instinct. She never minded.

"Yeah?" she said, looking back at him.

Mike stood up and brushed his hands off on his jeans. "You okay?"

"I..." Jane began. But she caught herself. Friends don't lie. "No."

"What's wrong?"

Jane sucked in a breath. "What if we don't find her? What if she's dead like the others and that's why they can't find her?" If they knew where she was, why didn't they go after her? After anyone they know about?

"Don't think like that." Mike said.

"I can't help it." Jane admitted. "We've already found three of them dead, what if she becomes number four?"

"We'll find her, okay?" Mike placed his hands gently on Jane's shoulders.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

And Mike leaned down to kiss her softly, encouraging her closer to his body so he could wrap his arms around her. She easily relaxed into him, breathing out a relieved sigh through her nose as her arms went around his neck. They stayed like that for only a few seconds before they heard someone clear their throat. They didn't jump apart like most normal teenagers would do when they were caught being affectionate. They instead gradually pulled away from each other and looked to their friends standing in the doorway holding the required items.

Dustin held out Hopper's tie and Jane took it from him as the others took seats around the room. Jane sat in front of the TV facing them and, with a determined look, raised the tie to her eyes.

Leavenworth, Washington

6:47 pm.

Chloe turned into the drive leading up to the theater's entrance, Max leaning out the window to get as much of a look at the screen as possible. The thought of being able to relax with her best friend after so long grew more and more relaxing the closer they got to their location. And now that they were here, Max could truly say that her heart was at ease.

"Three minutes to spare." Chloe grinned from ear to ear, glancing over at Max once she'd succeeded in paying for their tickets. She put the truck in gear again and continued forward to look for a decent spot.

"Che, we would've been fine showing up three minutes late." Max giggled softly. "You know they take forever to get through previews."

"Hey, sometimes I like watching the previews." Chloe jokingly retorted.

"Such a dork." Max teased.

"Shut up and help me look for a spot."

Chloe circled around the lot, going as slow as possible so she wouldn't risk running in to anything while she looked for an open space. She didn't want to be too close, but she also didn't want to be too far.

"There's one!" Max eagerly pointed out the window to an available space, one that Chloe could easily back in to and open up the flatbed.

"Nice going, SuperMax." Chloe praised.

Chloe set the truck in reverse and creeped backwards towards the space, adjusting as she needed to. One she got it settled they got out and rounded to the back to unlatch the flatbed door. Max opened it up and Chloe climbed inside to spread out the blanket and pillows they brought with them. Max grabbed the speakers and fastened them to the sides of the truck before joining Chloe in the bed. She relaxed beside her, propped up against the window, and gave her best friend a warm smile.

"Thanks for this, Chlo." she said.

"No problem." Chloe returned the smile wholeheartedly. "I know it's been a crazy two weeks, and you know there's nothing more I want than to be there for you."

Max reached down and intertwined her fingers with Chloe's, pressing their palms together and resting her head on her shoulder. Even if she couldn't verbally express her feelings yet, she could take the baby steps needed to get there. For now, she'd find satisfaction in this in between space of her relationship with Chloe. The bluenette, albeit caught a little off guard by Max's actions, chuckled softly and leaned her head on top of Max's.

For once, everything felt like it was going to be alright.

Before I sign off, I figured I'd enlighten you all on the original concept for this story (one that still might be put in to the works later on as a second version).

In the first planned draft for this story, both ST and LiS were going to happen in their respected eras. I was going to start two years after the end of LiS (2015), which would have been thirty one years after the end of ST2. Max and Chloe were going to have a definite romantic relationship and also going on a road trip that they had been planning for a while. One way or another they would come across the now abandoned, desolate town that was once Hawkins, Indiana. They find their way to the empty laboratory and uncover the secrets of the town, such as finding tape recorders, old newspapers, damaged security footage, etc. Max becomes determined to figure out what truly happened back then and, with her still evolving time travel powers, manages to travel back in time with Chloe to some time between 1985 and 1988. Following that, they embark on an adventure with the ST kids to stop the impending doom that is threatening to take the town.

Like I said, it's still somewhat likely that I'll write this story somewhere in the future. Or, if someone wants to take over the project (but do credit me please), I'm entirely willing to share it out or assist with the work. It would be nice to have someone to write with again :)

But, with all that being said, I hope you enjoyed!

CaptainVampireKing awaaay!