Finding Safety

McChord Air Force Base

Tacoma, WA

June 25, 1986

Across the base, Dr. Brenner and Twelve were busy settling into their seats on the small, white business jet he had arranged for them the previous night. He smiled to himself at how well his plan was coming together. Eight had gotten the ball rolling, providing enough incentive to get Eleven into the area. Jim Hopper had predictably wanted to keep her somewhere safe and had come to the base himself to assess the situation. Twelve had captured him with ease, having perfected similar abduction scenarios when she was nine years old. He had kept him hidden from Eleven through the night, long enough to let her start to panic, and then let her see him again, beaten and broken. And finally, he had been informed only minutes ago, that Eleven and Mike Wheeler were spotted entering the warehouse to attempt a rescue. He was impressed to hear that, despite a lack of training, they had managed to subdue four soldiers, secure a truck, a rifle and uniforms.

He cursed the thought of what she could be capable of if he had only been able to train her as planned. Putting her in the bath and sending her after the creature had been a mistake; he could admit that to himself. But they also could have contained the situation and continued their work. Instead, she betrayed him and ran away. The sisters could have been the crowning achievement of his life's work. Trained separately to nurture their individual gifts and then brought together when the time was right. They could have been an unstoppable force, the likes of which the world had never seen.

In the seat facing his, Twelve double checked her seatbelt, trying to fight back the apprehension about flying again. It was only the second time she had ever been in a plane, and while she was grateful that Papa was safe this time and the plane was much more comfortable, the terrors of that first flight still burned bright in her mind. The rest of their things would be coming in a few days, but Papa had let her bring her bear along, which she now hugged tightly as the plane began the long taxi toward the runway.

"Papa, I don't understand why we're leaving," she began. "Why did we just let them go?"

Irritated at being pulled out of his thoughts, and doubly so that she was daring to question his plans, he looked sternly at the girl sitting across from him.

He did his best to keep the irritation from his voice as he answered. "It's a test. If she passes, it won't be safe for us here. We will need to be ready when she comes for us," he explained.

"Papa, I can take care of us. I'm strong enough, you know that. I can stop all of them," she reasoned.

"Just like you handled the tests out in the desert?" he countered, his anger rising as her insolence continued. He had recently come to realize he had given her too much free reign over things here, and it had gone to her head. Things would need to change when they were settled in their new home.

"Papa, you don't need to be scared of her, I can protect us. We're being stupid, running away like this." As soon as the words left her lips, she knew she had crossed a line. She wasn't supposed to question his plans; Papa always knew best. Worse, she was never supposed to be disrespectful and talk back to him.

With a look of fierce disappointment in his eyes, Brenner leaned forward toward the girl and slapped her once, hard across the cheek. She immediately shrank back in her seat, hugging her bear tighter and fighting back the tears that wanted so badly to fall. She no longer looked like a fierce, battle-ready warrior, but instead, just a small frightened girl. He never liked correcting her, and thankfully it was rarely necessary, but he had found early on that a physical correction was the only way to break through to her when she was bad. He had tried the dark room back in the lab, but the isolation never had the same effect as it did on her sister. The times he had tried it, she had calmly walked to the room with her escort, sat down inside and waited patiently to be let out when her punishment was over. After today's trials were done, he would have to take a long, hard look at exactly where each girl fit into his plans.

In the warehouse, Mike finished wrapping Hopper's arm in a makeshift sling made from part of an old drop cloth he found on a shelf. Pulling Eleven and Kali out of their reunion, he announced "We need to get going. The guards outside, or the ones along the fence, could be waking up any time now."

As they made their way back toward the door, Mike can't shake the sense that it had all been too easy. After keeping Hopper hidden for almost a day, they had let him be found, shattered his arm, and then simply left. It didn't make any sense, and he knew they were probably walking right into whatever the final trap would be. Reaching out to pull the door open, Mike kept his hand on the grip the rifle, ready to raise in in defense as he braced himself to come face to face with Twelve, or Brenner, or dozens of soldiers, or all of the above. Instead, he met with resistance; the door was locked. He pulled again, just to be sure.

"We're in the trap," he said, momentarily feeling defeated.

Not ready to give up that easily, Eleven stretched out one hand and tried to pry the door open. She was shocked to find the door resisted her grasp. Trying again, she realized the feeling of resistance was familiar. She pushed her mind out further, trying to find Papa or Twelve and came back empty.

"Dark room," she said, joining in Mike's feeling of defeat. Despite their hopes, they had played right into Papa's plans. She had been certain he would use whatever trick made the dark room effective, but she had thought he and Twelve would have been inside with them. Instead, he had them trapped in a cage.

"Come on," Mike said, not ready to give up without a fight. "There's got to be another way out of here. Or a way to shut off whatever is blocking you."

Heading in opposite directions, Mike and Eleven began to search the outer wall of the building, looking for anything that might work as a way out. Behind a large stack of crates against one wall, Eleven found a large door for trucks to unload their shipments. Unfortunately, this too resisted all her attempts to grab hold of the metal and pry it free. As the two continued circling the outer wall, Hopper and and Kali remained in the center of the room. Both were weak from their torture at the hands of Twelve and were fighting just to keep on their feet. Suddenly, Hopper noticed a faint sound from somewhere nearby.

"Everyone quiet," he ordered, halting Mike and Eleven who turned to look at him. "Does anyone else here that?"

They all turned slowly about, trying to pick out where the faint beeping was coming from. Mike zeroed in on it first, walking quickly over to the shipping crate near the chairs where Hopper and Kali had been restrained minutes before. It looked like all the rest of the crates in the building, but it was definitely emitting a soft, beeping tone every few seconds. After watching Mike struggle with the top of the box, secured tightly in place, Eleven reached out a hand and ripped the lid free as she walked up. Mike stared in shock at the contents inside.

"A bomb?" he asked in disbelief, "He's going to get rid of us with a bomb?"

The device inside the crate looked like something out of a cheesy spy movie; a huge stack of explosive charges sat wired to a complicated detonator, complete with a convenient timer counting down to their ultimate demise. It was so comical, Mike almost laughed, but he knew how deadly serious the situation had become. This was no movie, and as far as any of them could tell, those were very real explosives ready to go off, and none of them had the first clue how to disarm the device.

It was Hopper who shook everyone out of their stupor as the timer passed 30 seconds on its way down to zero. "Everyone get to the far side of the room, behind those crates," he shouted as he began to drag a terrified Kali toward what little protection he could find for the group.

Taking up positions behind the boxes and hoping beyond hope it would be enough cover, the four huddled down and prepared for the end. In their final seconds, they exchanged hasty farewells, talking over one another to offer what comfort or apology they could.

"I'm so sorry for dragging you all into this."

"I'm sorry I couldn't keep you safe."

"I never meant for any of this to happen."

"It's not your fault. None of this is your fault."

"I love you, so much."

They crouched there, bracing themselves for what would come. Would it hurt or would the end come so fast they would never even know? Mike and Eleven held tight to one another, faces buried in each others shoulders. Hopper had his good arm around Eleven's shoulder and did his best to wrap around both of them, offering what meager protection he could to his little girl, and the boy he would have been proud to one day call his son. Knowing she was an outsider to the moment, Eleven reached out one hand and grasped Kali's, pulling her close as well. If they had to face the end, she was glad it was among the people that she loved. She hoped they knew just how much she loved them, as she felt their own love flowing through her.

In a sudden moment of clarity the answer came to her, and she knew what she had to do. Standing again, dragging the confused trio with her, she turned to face the crate slowly counting down to their destruction.

"Jane, what are…" Hopper began, before stopping, seeing her head droop forward, her eyes fixed in a hard glare on the crate. It was a look he was all too familiar with and he understood it was their only hope.

As the timer ticked its final seconds, Eleven closed her eyes and wrapped her whole being around the deadly charge, bracing for the impact she was now certain she could face, to keep the ones she loved safe. Their love gave her all the strength she could ever need.

2….1….0….

The explosion was incredible. In an instant, the create was ripped to pieces by a raging torrent of destructive fire. It took only one look for Hopper to realize the crates they stood behind would do nothing to stop the blast and it would only be another moment before the entire building was torn to pieces around them. A wall of heat preceded the flames like a hot desert wind and Hopper turned his head to one side, shutting his eyes against the end that rushed onward toward them.

A moment later, he felt the heat dissipate, realizing the end had not come for them. Turning to look in the direction of the create, now a hunk of charred and twisted metal on the warehouse floor, he was struck breathless at the sight. Behind some unseen barrier, the explosion raged on but it had ceased its outward thrust. As he stared in disbelief, the torrent of flame began to shrink inward upon itself until it was reduced to a single brilliant point, far too bright to look at. In another second, the light winked out and was gone.

Drained, Eleven dropped to her knees and pitched forward, catching herself before crashing to the ground. She knelt there, panting hard, trying to catch her breath. Blood poured from her nose, unheeded, and fell to the cold concrete floor below. The love that had strengthened her through the moment fell away and a seething rage took its place.

"He tried to kill me," she thought. "He didn't want to capture me. He wanted to finish me."

Leaning down, Mike laid a steadying hand on her shoulder. "El, are you alright?"

Not hearing his voice, not feeling his touch, she breathed harder, her whole body practically vibrating with raw energy.

"Papa tried to kill me," she whispered. "He tried to kill all of you."

Kneeling beside her, Hopper joined in trying to pull her back from the emotional cliff she was sprinting toward. "Jane, it's okay. We're all okay."

"Papa. Tried. To KILL ME," she growled.

Barely aware of the concerned assembly beside her, Eleven rose to her feet. Her eyes were dilated wide and shone jet black, all softness gone from her gaze. Dark veins of energy raised along her neck, up her cheeks and across her brow. Stalking toward the door with a singular purpose, she reached out and ripped it from the wall, frame and all. Whatever measures Dr. Brenner had put in place to contain her buckled under the intense energy now flowing through her. Stepping out into the bright June sunlight, she closed her eyes for a brief second; just long enough to locate the target of her fury. She began walking with a firm resolve to end things, once and for all.

Aboard the plane, Dr. Brenner checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes. He had hoped to be airborne already, but the winds had dictated taking off to the north. That had meant an extra few minutes taxiing to the south end of the runway, uncomfortably close to the warehouse. The trap was sprung and the the critical moment should have come and gone by now. He had heard no explosion, though there had been enough explosives in the crate to have reduced the warehouse to a smoldering crater. So she had contained it, at least to some extent, he surmised. Now the waiting game would begin. Had she perished in the hellish inferno, along with the brat, the boy and the cop? Or would she be coming for him, a crazed hunter ready to chase him to the ends of the earth? The field in the walls of the building would keep her contained for a while at least, he was quite certain. If she had survived, she would eventually work her way free and find him, and the final phase of his plan would take shape. He would make her see just how powerful she was and how it had been his guiding hands that had helped her to become what she was truly meant to be. Yes, it would take convincing, but she would come around and take her proper place at his side.

He settled back into his seat as the engines wound their way up, preparing for takeoff. As their whine reached a feverish pitch, he felt the pilot release the brakes and they began rolling down the runway, rapidly picking up speed. Moments before the pilot pulled back on the controls to lift off, the plane slammed to a sudden halt, as though grabbed by a gigantic fist. The engines screamed against this new restraint, fighting to continue forward. Suddenly, both engines were ripped free of their mounts near the tail and went tumbling off down the runway, propelled by the latent trust still pouring out of their rapidly slowing turbines. Several small fires ignited along their paths as fluids from the now severed fuel lines met with the white-hot gases still exiting the tumbling hunks of metal.

Twelve let out a startled yelp of terror and looked to Brenner, wanting to ask what had happened but unable to form the words.

His demeanor unbroken, he simply stated "It would seem that Eleven has caught us."

As if on cue, the door of the plane - along with a large portion of the fuselage around it - suddenly ripped free and went hurtling off into the grass bordering the runway. Unbuckling the belt across his lap, Dr. Brenner stood and straightened his necktie. Nodding to Twelve, indicating she should join him, he said, "I believe it is time for you to meet your sister."