A/N: I know I've been gone for a long time, I know this is a change of stories that I'm writing and that I already have a pile of stories to be writing but I couldn't resist the urge to write this.

Disclaimer: This is my first Stranger Things fanfic, so I apologize for any details I miss or confusions I create with the settings and/or characters in advance. Don't worry, this doesn't contain any spoilers for the new season (season 4), so don't panic.

This story is kinda going to be an AU of season 3 for the most part.

Hawkins

November 15, 1987

A young, ebony-haired teenager made his way through the snow-covered grounds of the graveyard. He was dressed in black pants, a dark blue t-shirt and a black trench coat. The long and dark clothing was for the cold, he would need to store as much heat in his body as he could without having to wear a heavy, puffed-up jacket. He hated large jackets, the only kind he liked were trench coats, dark trench coats. Much like the one he was wearing at the moment. However, the boy's focus wasn't on his appearance or the weather. He was here for one reason and for one reason only. The boy made his way through the endless tombstones in the graveyard, snowflakes slowly descending all around him as they gracefully landed from the sky to the ground, adding to the six-inch layer of snow that covered not only the graveyard but all of Hawkins. Even the roads. The snow had arrived rather quickly and early this year.

Boots. The boy thought. He was glad he was wearing boots. The thick black boots that pressed on the thick layer of snow with each step he took. Finally, after walking halfway through the entire graveyard, the boy had finally reached his location. Not one but four different tombstones he had been looking for, all four of them lined right next to each other. There was a fifth one present, but that didn't matter. The boy looked down particularly at the one in the middle. The sight of the name engraved on it tortured his eyes as he could feel his soul and heart, at least what was left of it, twisting and turning in anguish. Nevertheless, he maintained a straight face, seemingly looking unaffected. On the inside, he may have been tortured and broken but on the outside, he was…blank, empty. His face showed no emotion whatsoever, just a blank nothingness.

"I know I never visited you," the boy said, kneeling in front of the grave. "I know it's been more than two years but I couldn't let myself forget today. I know how important today is for you."

The boy pulled out a pack of blood red-colored roses from inside his coat as he laid them on the grave looking up at it with his blank look. Before he even knew what he was doing, he found himself whispering two words, two words of many that he thought he would never utter again.

"Happy Birthday."

The words escaped his lips as he could feel the urge for his body to tremble, but he resisted. He couldn't allow himself to show any feeling of unease. Not even in his most private moments, though he knew this moment was not private at all. While it may have seemed otherwise to the average human's eye, the boy knew he wasn't alone. He was being watched and not just by one person, by several, by an army. The boy held out his hand as a petal from one of the roses was blown by the slight winds. The petal landed in his hand as he looked down at it, taking one last look. He enclosed his fingers into his hand, forming a fist, the petal crumbling and curling in his hand. The boy rose to his feet, letting the crumbled and crushed petal roll off his hand and onto the ground.

He tilted his head as he saw shadows of men drifting and skipping through the darkness. Then, in mere seconds, the shadows increased, only they weren't shadows. They were men, men in military clothing, armed to the teeth. The boy could even see their weapons, two AK-47s per man, one in their arms, another strapped to their back. Each man even had several grenades, two standard pistols, and they were dressed in heavy, fireproof kevlar. The boy couldn't help but smirk mentally inside his head, all those men, all that firepower just for him. Only they weren't just men, they were soldiers, U.S. military soldiers, Special Forces, the 'best of the best' as the government would put it.

Within seconds, several soldiers surrounded the boy, scrambled across the entire graveyard, all their weapons pointed towards him. The boy still kept his head tilted, he didn't bother to turn and face them. Even in the face of their weapons, not a single sign of fear could be seen on him. No accelerating heartbeat, no panic, no scared looks, it was almost as if he had been expecting it to happen. The boy quickly used his eyes to scan the area around him, he counted approximately seventy-eight soldiers in total, excluding the ten snipers on the rooftops of the buildings just a few feet away.

"Stay where you are, do not move or we will open fire!" one of the soldiers, supposedly one of the leaders, demanded. "We have you surrounded!"

The boy remained silent as he turned his head away, looking back down at the tombstone of the grave right in front of him. Then, he could hear the sounds of blades ripping through the air, causing an echoing sound: a helicopter. He could feel the wind-like force of the rotator blades on his back. The boy slowly turned around to face the helicopter as it was about to land. Suddenly, just as the helicopter landed, the snowstorm began to pick up. The wind grew stronger and sped up, snowflakes were everywhere as visibility dropped drastically. The boy could feel the ends of his thick, long, black trench coat flapping much like a cape.

The helicopter finally stopped his function as the boy slowly walked about five feet towards it, only for the soldiers to close in on him even more. Fearing him, the soldiers tightened their grips on the triggers of their weapons as the boy stopped right in tracks. The helicopter doors opened as three different men in formal clothing stepped out. Two of the men were dressed in suits, the other was a general dressed the way a high-ranking officer of the government would be.

"They were right, weren't they, Dr. Owens?" one of the men in the suits said. "He was going to be here."

"You remember what we agreed on, Brenner," Owens scowled. "We bring him in, we don't harm or kill him."

"I'm aware," Brenner responded. "However, I'm afraid the General here has plans of his own."

Owens sighed as the General walked forward, stopping eight feet away from the boy.

"I know what you might be thinking," the General said. "In that little head of yours, you're thinking of how to escape but you can't. I don't care how powerful or strong you think you are. We have over a hundred men surrounding you and to make things better, you're not the only one here who can do mind tricks."

The boy tilted his head upon hearing the General's last few words. He looked up to the roof of one of the buildings that was close by. There, he saw a girl standing on the rooftop ledge. A girl wearing dark blue jeans, a rose-colored shirt, and a heavy, black jacket on top. Immediately, the boy clenched his fist, feeling rage and anger build up and stir inside of him at the sight of her. He was no longer able to maintain the stale look on his face, it was replaced by pure rage and anger. The girl could see his reaction as she saw the rageful look on his face, his clenched fists. The boy kept his rageful look aimed at the girl as one word came from his dried, pale lips.

"Eleven." the boy growled.

Two Years Earlier

June 20th, 1985

Ring! Ring!

The sound of a doorbell echoed through the Byers family home as Joyce Byers hurriedly ran down the stairs, breathing heavily in exhaustion as she opened the door. The door swung open as a certain brown-haired teen was standing right in front of Joyce.

"Steve?" Joyce said in confusion.

"Heyyy Mrs. Byers," Steve said awkwardly. "Uh, is Nancy around by any chance? Or Jonathan, maybe?"

"Hey Mom, who is it?" a tired voice echoed from the hallway.

"It's Steve, honey," Joyce yelled out before turning back to her conversation with the teen. "They're inside."

"Great, uh," Steve lifted two grocery bags in front of Joyce. "I got these for Nance."

"Oh, that's sweet of you, would you like to come in? I'm sure you'd like to say hi to her."

"Uh…" Steve said awkwardly, "You know, I really need to get going, my shift-"

"Doesn't start for another hour, you have time, Steve, come on in."

"Oh, uh, okay. Guess I can make this quick."

Steve awkwardly made his way into the house as Joyce closed the door behind him. He looked around the house, observing the living room and kitchen, both of which were clean to the core.

"You have a nice place, Mrs. Byers."

Joyce chuckled. "Thank you. Why don't you put those bags on the counter, you don't need to be holding on to them."

Steve nodded his head as he set the bags on the counter. He let his fingers slip through the gap of the covers as he shook his hands. His fingers had turned purple from how long he had been holding them, plus, they were pretty heavy. Steve overheard Joyce calling for Will and Jonathan as footsteps echoed from the stairs. Will arrived instantly as he instantly noticed Steve standing near the kitchen.

"Hey Steve." Will greeted.

"Hey kiddo," Steve replied, slapping Will's hand with a high-five. "How's your brother?"

"The usual."

Steve frowned. "Define usual."

"Oh, I don't know," an exhausted Jonathan said as he and Nancy entered the area. "How about getting only three hours of sleep?"

"It wasn't my fault," Nancy said, rolling her eyes.

"Damn, you look terrible." Steve sighed.

"What?" Jonathan and Nancy blurted out simultaneously.

"No, not you," Steve replied, pointing to Nancy. "You look normal like you always do," he then pointed to Jonathan, who was rubbing his eyes. "You look like you tried to take a nap in a local dumpster."

"At least if I did," Jonathan sighed. "I wouldn't have to worry about being pushed over and falling off bed seven times a night!"

"I was cold, I needed the blanket." Nancy argued.

"So how does that involve me being pushed off bed!"

"I'm pregnant, Jonathan. I need my space."

As Jonathan and Nancy began bickering, with Joyce trying to reason with them, Steve and Will could do almost nothing but watch as the arguing and bickering continued. The duo remained silent for a few awkward moments until Steve spoke up.

"Are they always like this?" Steve whispered, leaning into Will's ear.

"Ever since Nancy moved in," Will said. "Yeah, pretty much. But they always make up, as long as my mom is there, at least."

"And you're just, what, sitting there like a third wheel?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's depressing."

Will sighed. "Do you think this was a good idea?"

Steve smirked. "What? The whole Nancy-moves-in-with-you-guys-so-you-can-take-care-of-her-during-pregnancy idea? That one? Honestly, at this point, I don't even know."

Eventually, Steve stepped as he stood between the arguing couple.

"Alright, enough," Steve said. "Look, whatever problems you two are having, how about we set it aside and enjoy some of the mountain pile of chocolates I've been carrying for thirty minutes?"

"Chocolates?" Nancy asked. "You brought chocolates?"

"You're a pregnant woman, Nance, you're craving chocolates now more than ever," Steve said.

Nancy was confused. "How-"

"Your mom," Steve interrupted. "She told me. Says she knows stuff about 'whenever women are pregnant' but anyways, that's not the point."

Nancy turned to Jonathan, who was visibly angry, as she forced herself a tensed smile. "It's chocolates."

Jonathan sighed in defeat. "I guess I could eat."

Then, the doorbell rang as Will turned towards the door. "That's gotta be them."

Will ran over to the door, unlocking it as he pulled it open as he saw Lucas and Max standing right outside the doorway. The couple waved over at Will, who welcomed them inside. Joyce had allowed Will to go with the party to the movies for one night, everyone knew about it as they had been discussing it for several days, almost a few weeks. While they had all gone to movies together on several occasions, this time was different. This time, they were bringing El with them, or rather, sneaking her in with them. Everyone knew that Hopper wouldn't have allowed El to go into the outside world yet, claiming that they 'had to wait longer'. So, Mike had come up with a plan to sneak El out of her cabin that she and Hopper shared. Hopper was on a long shift and he wouldn't have been back before El could return. Everyone, except for Hopper of course, who had no idea of the plan at all.

The plan was that Lucas and Max would hang out with Will at his house while Mike was with El at her's. Then, when it was time, they would all leave for the movies together. At least, all of them aside from Dustin, who still wasn't back from his summer trip. He was returning tomorrow and the party had something planned for him, but that was for tomorrow, they were all focused on today.

"Hey nerds," Steve said. "Shouldn't there be two more of you? I know Henderson isn't back yet but Mike and El should be with you, right?"

"They're over at El and Hopper's cabin," Lucas explained.

"What exactly are they doing?" Will asked, having a feeling he knew the answer.

"Take one guess," Nancy said, rolling her eyes as everyone sighed, knowing what she meant.

Elsewhere

Mike and El were seated beside each other on El's bed inside her bedroom, the two each others' faces cupped with their hands as they embraced each other. Their lips continued to be pursed together, just as they had been doing for the past hour. Hopper was gone, having left for his shift over at the Hawkins Police Department. Before leaving, Hopper had told the couple specifically 'no making out'. That, of course, was disregarded. Mike and El continued their kissing spree when Mike suddenly ended up kissing El's nose. The two then stopped as they spaced themselves a couple inches away from one another, staring at each other awkwardly. A couple seconds later, the two burst out laughing, chuckling as they fell backwards, landing on El's bed. They continued giggling for a few minutes until they were finally able to calm down.

"That was so awkward," El said, smiling as she turned her head to face Mike, who was already eyeing her.

"Yeah," Mike chuckled. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be, it was nice."

The couple smiled at one another as they locked hands together, each of them gripping the other's hand as tight as they could. It had been over a year since El had closed the gate to the Upside Down and since Will was free of the Mind Flayer's control. Now, they finally had peace. No more monsters attacking or trying to kill them, no government agents hunting them down. None of it. They finally had a chance to try and live a normal life. At least as normal as anything with a teenage girl with Darth Vader-like superpowers could be. In the end, they had what they needed and wanted the most: each other and for the past year, nothing had gone wrong.

"So when's the whole 'movie' thing?" El asked.

"It's at 7:30," Mike replied as El nodded. "You sure you wanna do this? It's alright if you don't-"

"No I do," El said quickly. "I wanna do this…with you."

Mike smiled as he kissed the top of El's forehead. "Okay."

The pair smiled at one another as they continued holding hands, El rolled over towards Mike as the two locked lips. She crawled on top of him her arms around his neck, their kiss growing more and more heated.

Upside Down

In the cold, dark wasteland known as the Upside Down, snow-like drops of dust spread throughout the entire world. The Upside Down was essentially a replica of the real world, only there were no people and it was ruled over by dark, blackish-gray clouds. Every town, country, city, and non-living thing in the real world was replicated in the Upside Down. However, there were many supernatural elements that made the replicated areas unrecognizable compared to their real world counterparts. The Upside Down was not only a dimensional layer that existed beneath Hawkins, it was home to the Mind Flayer. A god-like creature who had been tormenting Hawkins. Last year, he had done so by taking control of Will Byers and sending several Demodogs to the cursed town. The year before, he had sent the Demogorgon, one of the many he had. However, both times, the Mind Flayer's soldiers had been thwarted and defeated by the same person: Eleven Jane Hopper.

The Mind Flayer was rageful and he ultimately swore revenge against her. But instead of simply going after her immediately, the Flayer remained patient. Waiting, planning something for the past year. He had finally completed his plan and now, all he had to do was execute it. On the fields of a grassland, red light seeped through the dark clouds as it glowed down on the grassland. Across the fields, a creature made of cloud-like shadow walked across the grassland. The avatar of the Mind Flayer stopped in the middle of the grassland as he was greeted by a group of several Demogorgons. The Demogorgons fell to their knees as they bowed before their master.

"She ruined and destroyed everything," the Mind Flayer spoke in a dark voice, referring to Eleven. "But we will make her regret her actions."

"Let us kill her!" one of the Demogorgons yelled, telepathically communicating with the Flayer like how all Demogorgons did.

"We'll rip her into shreds!" another exclaimed.

"No," the Mind Flayer's avatar whispered as the Demogorgons silenced themselves forcefully. "I have a better plan. You see, death would merely be the release from her sins and crimes. I must make her live with pain and guilt, to torture her soul."

"How does one achieve such a goal?" a Demogorgon's voice echoed telepathically in the Mind Flayer's mind.

"It's simple," the Flayer responded. "We make her suffer through the ones she loves and cares about the most. Alas, we need to find the one person she loves the most, the person she would do anything for. And I know just who it is."

A/N: I'll end that chapter right here. I hope you guys enjoyed this, let me know if you think I should continue this story, I would love to hear your guys' thoughts on this. Also, I've finished Volume 1 of Season 4 of Stranger Things. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything and this story contains zero spoilers for the new season.