If God was real, Joan was terrified to see what hell truly was after witnessing all that she had.
Once Eddie was spotted making a getaway, Patrick responded immediately to Jason's call only giving Joan one last smile and squeeze of the hands as he spoke to her for the last time.
"I knew you were always good, Joan. I-I'm sorry about that night, do you think we could... try again? Now that we're... better than we once were?"
Joan smiled softly and that was all Patrick needed to fuel his run and consequently his final swim. The small prayer that he needed to finish this once and for all so he can free them both from whatever curse had landed on them. Because they were older, better and they would continue to grow wiser with time.
Together.
Or at least,
so he had thought.
Joan watched with wide eyes as Patrick's last moments scarred his closest friends and Eddie Munson. Amongst the frozen fear, Joan's eyes flickered over to the metalhead and although she had begun crying for the loss of a friend, she screamed out to him.
"Leave, Eddie! Go!"
Eddie's head snapped over to Joan's with big horro-filled eyes before he woke up and with one last rev of the boat engine he drove the boat as far as could, out from her sight and away from the second body he had seen cruelly murdered. It didn't take long for Joan to realize the cruel mess of life that she had considered a possible future with Patrick. The teen was kind and willing to learn, to grow past his old ways and become something greater, an admirable feature on anyone.
She had no time to mourn as Jason breached onto land with the broken body, torn apart over the loss of another person in his direct social circle. Using the distraction, Joan sobered herself up and quickly grabbed the old bike leaning against the shed, praying that it would just work.
And somehow, even through the yells for her to stop, Joan peddled as fast as she could down the road while the wind wiped away her tears like a mother's caress. Something she didn't have anymore.
And she let it guide her.
How she managed to bike to the tarp canopy of her and Eddie's old hideout, she would never know. Instead, she let out a calm breath and set the bike against a tree, ignoring the memories haunting her of better times and laughter. She crawled quietly underneath the tarp and sat against the tree where Eddie had carved their friendship into an eternity using their initials.
Joan decided she had had enough.
With a deep breath so dense it burned, Joan closed her eyes and forced herself to relax trying to call out to her kinder twin, channeling her years of horror movies for help.
"ʸᵒᵘ ᵃʳᵉ ʲᵘˢᵗ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ʰⁱᵐ, ʰᵘʰ?" Joan's eyes opened to see the kind Joan sitting in front of her with a sad smile on her face, eyes almost wishful in memories. "ˢᵒ ˢᵐᵃʳᵗ, ᵐᵃʸᵇᵉ ᵗᵒᵒ ˢᵐᵃʳᵗ."
"Who?"
"ₘy bᵣₒₜₕₑᵣ."
"You mean... my dad?" Joan asked with a tilt of her head. She nervously rubbed her hands over her pants for some friction-formed heat as it all started to click. "So you really are my aunt... kinda gnarly that we're basically twins. It's kind of like, what are the genetic chances of that happening and man that must be so weird for dad... imagine just waking up one day and seeing your sister and being like oh, hey but then it's not her, but..." Joan trailed off at the fond grin on her aunt's face and blushed as the Henderson curse showed face once again. "Sorry, but I just... I don't understand why I've never heard of you before."
At first her aunt had only hummed lightly as she considered the teen before her with kind eyes. It was strange for Joan, but somehow it all felt strangely familiar.
"ʸᵒᵘ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵃˢᵗ, ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵛᵉ ⁱⁿ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖʳᵉˢᵉⁿᵗ, ᵃⁿᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ᵗʰᵉ ᶠᵘᵗᵘʳᵉ." The words were whimsical, yet held all the weight of a presidential nuclear fallout button and Joan's eyebrows pinched together in confusion. "ᵂᵒᵘˡᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ᵗᵒ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʷʰᵃᵗ ʰᵃᵖᵖᵉⁿˢ ⁱⁿᵇᵉᵗʷᵉᵉᵉⁿ?"
Joan had spent too long hiding from the truth and running away when things got hard, she was tired in more ways than one. With her aunt in front of her and a million questions in her mind, she nodded and took the outstretched hand firmly, staring into the shared eyes before her confidence she hadn't had before.
"Show me."
"-we use the timewarp to travel back to before the big fight." Ryan said confidently, D20 ready to roll in case a battle waited them. If they were right, then this was the last place they needed to go before the final battle.
"Wait, no!" Harry groaned as he threw his head into his hands. "Brae is cursed, so instead of going back in time-!"
"The ancient instrument lets out a musical hum as its intricate pieces start to wind themselves into a position placed so delicately it must have been done by a Goddess herself." Joan started out softly, flipping a page in her notebook as a smirk began to raise on her face and she moved her line marker to the correct indent. "There's a flash! A warmth! And the party is nearly blinded as you all are shoved through space and time until everyone but the elves land unceremoniously onto the earth."
Brynnyn and Harry exchanged a high five over the table, being the only two elves in the party while everyone else rolled their eyes.
"The banner of the city is not black with the crest of the previous ruler-"
"See! I told you!"
"-nor is it the royal purple of the future." Joan paused for dramatics as everyone - including Brynnyn - looked at each in confusion and tried to flip through their notes for answers. "Instead a blood red flag hangs over the walls of the village and its image gives the human of the party a terrible feeling of foreboding. You see a man, a child, and a building with an opened door."
"Damn." Ryan said softly, chin settling in his hands as he furrowed his eyebrows in thought. With his fingers drumming lightly over his notebook he looks over at the DM. "I ask the child who is the ruler of this land."
"Roll for charisma."
"...ten, plus two for paladin aura."
"She speaks in a low whisper that you can barely make out before running away. It's name is not unfamiliar to you." Joan leaned forward across the table, voice down low as she whispered out softly. "Aevum."
"Damnit!"
"Shit, we're screwed. We lost!"
"No, no, we still have an opportunity! We were literally just in Queen Janae's time period! That means there's hope!"
"It's just the time in b-between the future and the present." Kaleigh stuttered out over the commotion, passing a smile at Harry who grabbed her shaking hand in support. "It's our past and future. Whatever we do now is how we stop Aevum."
Joan couldn't help but smile proudly at the freshman, leaning back in her seat as the party discussed amongst themselves their plan of action. They were only slightly off course, but honestly this part of the story was going to be her favorite.
She blinked awake to see Eddie Munson peering down at her from the safety of the canopy. There was a pink haze around them that softly whispered the dawn of a new day and a few cold-loving birds started hunting their meals nearby.
"...hi."
"...hi."
They sat quietly across from each other with a grimmer than ever air filling the space toxically. Joan played with the suit jacket that Patrick had given her the night before and Eddie fiddled with the chains on his jeans, neither looking at the other. Eddie had no words, only questions and a deep desire to break down mentally in front of the girl he had once held.
Joan, on the other hand, was silent for another reason. Mouth dry from dehydration and a new curse that had her stomach turning uncomfortably at every glance of curly hair.
How do you tell someone you've seen their death?
Dramatics aside, Joan was the future and now she had lived the past. There was a time in between that was both her future and her past that which her aunt had shown her. A terrible power and yet Joan still had no idea what to do with the knowledge that poisoned her mind.
Her time was almost up.
"Eddie, I..." Joan choked over the words, already feeling sentimental for too many damn reasons. "I'm sorry."
"...what have you got to be sorry for." Eddie finally sighed out and pushed the hair out of his face. "Apparently you weren't the one who did what she... did?" Eddie looked confused himself. "Right?"
"Still, I should never have reacted the way I did and the Joan before me... I don't think that was her either." Joan admitted quietly as she played with the hem of the jacket once more. "There's something missing in the puzzle and-and I don't know what it is, but..." Joan trailed off and they sat comfortably for a while.
"I have like a thousand questions." Eddie started slowly as he looked out into the woods around them where some of his favorites memories had been spent. "But I think we need to get help first."
"Right, yeah." Joan agreed as they both crawled out from the tarp and took into stock what was around them. "We need to find a radio so that we can call the little shits."
"There's a construction sight nearby, I'm sure someone will have one lying around."
There was no radio, but Joan was quick to point out the wire, cylindrical pipe, alligator clips, and diode from various locations on sight. It was crazy to Joan how easy it was to find materials lying unattended for Eddie to go and snatch, the two immediately running away and heading back to their hideout in the ever brightening day.
Once they were back, Joan sat quietly on the log and started hooking up the radio pieces while Eddie handed over the various stolen tools without questioning her skill. He already knew that she was Dustin's daughter from the future, why wouldn't she be just as nerdy?
She even had that same intense look while she worked and the exact demeaning tone when she reached her hand out for the pliers that Dustin had whenever he wanted something. While explaining what she was doing her voice tilted into one of almost mocking as if what she was doing should be obvious.
It made his eyebrow twitch more than when nobody answered.
"What else could they be doing that's keeping them from answering?!" Eddie snapped out as he sat against a tree across from Joan with a huff. "It's like remember me?! The guy you dumped a hostage on with a town after him!?"
"...one time my dad forgot to pick me up from school when I was 9." Joan tried the distraction with a sheepish delivery, kicking out at a random rock to send it away. "So I walked home in the dark and snowy winter because I thought I was cool enough. Mom had a cow and dad tried to look embarrassed, but was so impressed at how I used my homemade compass to get home."
Eddie snorted, glancing over at his companion with a raised eye brow. "Yeah? Mommy and daddy usually take you to and from school?"
"It's a... different time. Between now and my time serial killers and kidnappers increase by, like, a lot." Joan frowned and brought her chin to her knees, wrapping her arms around her bent legs in an attempt to comfort herself. "Also kids shooting up schools and killing their friends... I also think all of this bullshit from the 80s has my dad pretty freaked out."
"Oh, damn." Eddie let out awkwardly. "That... sucks."
"Eh." Joan shrugged, peering over at Eddie with a small smirk despite the conversation. "Dad is notorious at work for forgetting his lunchbox. Mom has to bring it to him at least every other week."
"Dustin Henderson forgets his lunchbox? Dustin?" Eddie repeated with disbelief heavy in his tone. At first she laughed but then it died down as she really started to think about it. "That kid has his pockets labeled."
"T-that little shit." Joan shook her head as it started to click. "He only does that to eat lunch with her. E-every now and again he'll switch our lunches and come visit to trade and because he's there he has to eat with us-! Damn he's good."
"Sounds like the butthead never changes." Eddie smirked fondly as he thought about the curly haired boy. "Does he still assume he's smarter than everybody?"
Joan's face fell into one of deep pain, standing over at Eddie with haunted eyes. "You have no idea the pain of growing up with a dad who thinks knowing more than a five year old is an accomplishment." Eddie barked out a laugh as he imagined a confused five year old Joan across from an adult smug Dustin after just beating her in a game of trivia. "He had me looking at calculus in elementary. Kept telling mom that I was going to be the Sherlock to his Moriarty like some psychopath." Joan let out her own laugh and joined in on the contagious laughter that only fueled Eddie's own.
They laugh and laughed, pretending to ignore the small tears that welled up in their eyes for various different reasons the other didn't have to explain. But as she watched Eddie throw his head back and grab his chest from the relaxing laughter, Joan couldn't help but to wonder if the future was also her past, could it not be change?
After all, why else would she be here if not to make a difference?
A/N: woah thanks for the comments and kindness everyone. Please feel free to give feedback back both good and what I need to improve on. Thanks!!!!
yaoilovinkitsune: thank you so much for the kind comments!!! Your words mean a lot and truly fuel me further. I also felt rlly bad for Patrick :( hope you like the rest!!