-8-

Joyce looked wildly around, her brain spinning as she tried to comprehend everything that had happened, but the lighting in wherever they were made it hard to look around. She and Murray had been watching as Hopper, who looked terrible as his imprisonment in Russia had been hard on him physically and mentally, about to fight Demogorgons of all things, when they were suddenly incinerated or torn apart, and then there was a flash of red, and Joyce had caught sight of some of the tell-tale signs of the Upside Down, and then…

And then she was here.

"Mum? Mum!" It took Joyce a moment to realise her two sons were hugging her, and when she did, she hugged them back.

"Will! Jonathan!" She cuddled them in her embrace. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know," Will pulled back and she looked her youngest son in the eye. "We were on the road, looking for El, after she'd been arrested, and then we found ourselves here."

Joyce was staring at Will in horror. "What do you mean, looking for El? What do you mean arrested?"

"El was arrested?" The lights came up, and Will, Jonathan, Mike, Nancy, Lucas, Max, Steve, and Eddie were stunned to see Chief Hopper standing there, looking older and more haggard with his bald head and frostbitten and scarred face. "Why, what happened?"

Mike was staring at Hopper in shock. "Chief, you're still alive?"

"Clearly, Mike," Hopper rolled his eyes irritably. "What happened to El?"

"Why are you asking, she's here?" Robin called, and they turned and they saw El was sitting cross-legged on a bunk, dressed in a white swimsuit, a blindfold wrapped around her head, blood trickling down from her nostril.

"Jane?" The Party turned and found a small group of people behind them. A tall man with a mohawk of hair, a strange-looking woman with messed up blondish hair that bordered on white with tinges of other colours they couldn't identify, a dark-skinned woman and a large dark-haired man, next to a young woman around Nancy and Robin's age, with her dark hair, dark skin and eyes framed with black makeup, showing she was of Indian descent. The young woman passed everyone and knelt in front of Eleven. "Jane? Can you hear me?"

"What's going on?"

Max stiffened. "No, no it can't…it's not possible." She turned around and gasped when she saw a young man with a mop of curly blond hair, wearing a white vest that was stained and torn. "Billy?"

"Max?" Her stepbrother whispered.

Max shook her head. "It can't be," she said, shaking her head in denial. "It can't be, you're dead."

"Believe me, I thought I was when that thing nearly killed me while your friend was there, but then there was a flash of red and I was in a dark place that looked like the mall, only it was smashed to pieces, and then I found myself here," Billy looked around the little room, "but where are we?"

Hopper wrapped an arm around Joyce, and she cuddled into him as they turned to Eleven. "She brought us here," he whispered.

"But how?" Suddenly Joyce remembered something important. "Jim, she lost her powers, she's been without them for a year."

"What?" Hopper said.

The Indian girl swung around. "What do you mean Jane's been without her powers for a year?" She demanded.

"Who are you?" Nancy asked.

The Indian girl turned to face her, but then she turned to Hopper speculatively and then faced the others. "You're her friends from Hawkins, aren't you?" she said in a tone laced with suspicion, but her gaze was so neutral that nobody could really tell or guess what she really felt.

"That's right, and who are you?"

"I'm Kali."

Mike's eyes widened.

Kali?

The girl El said was her sister, a killer of people who had caused harm and hurt others. He had always understood where Kali had come from, especially given what Brenner had done to her, and after her escape, she had failed to try to move on and had started hunting down the people protected by the law.

El had not liked it and she had come back to Hawkins, choosing them over Kali, but now Mike wondered if El was asking herself if she had made a huge mistake. He'd had a lot of time to think about the way things had gone between them, and how it seemed she had given up on him, on them. It had taken Mike a while to realise he had not had the words to truly calm her down, to say he loved her. Just remembering how she had stared down at him and said "Not anymore," made him realise that describing her as a superhero, not saying he loved her made her think he didn't love her on top of that fiasco at the rink.

"Kali?" Dustin repeated.

Kali nodded, her gaze narrow. "She left me for you," she said darkly, folding her arms and Mike, despite knowing that Kali and El, despite not being biological sisters, were sisters in other ways. The way she was staring at them reminded him of El, right down to her cold gaze. And out of the corner of her eye, Nancy noticed a red scar, with vines creeping out. She yelped and backed away.

"What is that?" The large black man demanded.

"It's a gate…to the Upside Down," Dustin replied, staring at it curiously as he wondered why it was even here before a yelp and a body appeared, and someone fell to the ground. Nancy leapt forward and grabbed the person who'd come through, not even questioning who it was before the gate suddenly closed up behind them.

"It's okay, don't worry. Look, I'm sorry, I don't know why you were brought here, but we'll find a way out soon," Nancy said while she wondered why El was bringing them here, and why Billy was here when he had died the year before, and who this was.

"….Nancy?"

Nancy stopped, her breath hitching in her chest. No. It couldn't be. Behind her nearly everyone else was stunned.

"Is that?" Mike whispered.

"It can't be," Dustin was wide-eyed, goggling in disbelief when he recognised the voice.

"She's…."

"What, what is it?" Max looked around, staring at her friends worriedly.

The figure stood up. It was a young woman with messed up auburn hair, wearing cracked glasses, wearing a messed up red shirt, a dark jacket and blue trousers.

"Barb?" Nancy whispered in shock.

Barb Holland smiled at her friend, but it disappeared and was replaced by a glare full of hurt. "You left me, standing around Steve's house! Do you know how horrible that was? And then…I was snatched somewhere, gasping in fright in this horrible place…and then…here I am."

Nancy was staring at her in shock, her brain shut down completely as it failed to compute what she was seeing. "Barb?" She whispered. She even moved forwards, and poked and pushed the increasingly astonished Barb in the shoulder.

"Hey, what's going on?" Barb demanded before Nancy yelped and lunged for her, wrapping her arms around her and sobbing.

Joyce shook her shock off and stepped forward, but she sent a look towards El as she sat on the bunk. She hadn't moved for a while now, but Joyce knew from experience her adoptive daughter could be in a trance for a while. "Barb, I don't know how to say this, but I'll say it….You were killed."

Max had never seen anyone become so pale in her entire life. "What?"

"When you were taken into that place, you were mauled by a monster," Hopper said.

Barb might not have spent much time with Chief Hopper, but she knew the police chief of Hawkins would never make something like that up, but she was in denial. But at the same time, Barb was a logical, sensible woman. She shook her head again. "That can't be true," she said.

"It is true, Barb," Mike stepped forward, waving a hand and gesturing himself, "I mean, look at me, Dustin, and Lucas and Will. We've aged. It's been a few years."

Barb could not deny that. "How is this possible?"

"I dunno," Dustin just had to say, but Nancy was sure. "I think the person who can give us an explanation is right here."

Barb tilted her head as she took in the girl sitting on the bunk, wearing what looked like some kind of swimsuit with a blindfold covering her eyes. "Who is she?" She asked.

"My adopted daughter," Hopper said with a smile.

"What?"

"Her name is Jane," Kali stood up and turned to face Barb, her expression cold and furious, her every word dripping with rising fury and malice, her expression stopping even the faintest hint of an argument. "She was kidnapped after her birth, and her mother spent years trying to free her from a real monster called Dr Martin Brenner. When that didn't work, she stormed the Hawkins Laboratory with a gun, and she managed to kill someone but she was caught just as she found her daughter, and me before she could take us both out. She was then given electro therapy and her brain was fried. Jane then grew up and experimented on because she had the power to move things with her mind before she escaped."

"Hello, sister."

"Jane?" Kali was back next to the girl instantly, just as she was coming out of her trance. She looked around blearily, a smile growing on her face as she took in the array of faces. Kali noticed that her smile faltered a little, and she turned to see it focusing on the gawky guy with the black hair, and the redhead girl with her hair in pigtails and the dark-skinned boy next to her. She was curious about what would make her sister react like that especially if these people were so special to her, but she would discover that later.

Her eyes widened and she smiled in relief at the sight of Hopper and Joyce. "I kept the door open three inches," she remembered the letter.

Hopper chuckled and Joyce nudged him.

"Kali," Jane whispered, hugging her tightly and keeping her eyes closed. "You have no idea how fantastic it is to see you again!" She pulled back and smirked. "I've remembered, we still have to visit London sometime."

Kali was so taken aback she could barely speak while the others in the room didn't have a clue what the two girls were talking about, but then a bright smile spread over Kali's face. "You remember that?" She asked.

Jane nodded, a fond smile on her face. "I do. But why didn't you tell me when I found you again a few years ago?"

The smile faded.

"I wanted to, believe me," Kali looked down. "But when I met you again a few years ago, you seemed so…different. You didn't remember me, you didn't remember our times together. I was afraid if I pushed you, it could cause more trouble."

While Jane was taking that in, only the party who had known about Kali knew their history, but for the newcomers like Murray, Barb, Billy, and Erica, they were confused.

"Er, sorry not sorry, but who are you?" Robin asked pointedly.

The two girls had more or less forgotten the company they had.

"My name is Kali," Kali began.

"Yeah, we got that."

Jane nudged her sister and showed Robin her identity tattoo while Kali followed suit.

Robin and the others saw the two tattoos.

Jane's read 011.

Kali's read 008.

"You were with Eleven in the Lab?" Erica asked.

"I was. But I escaped from the Lab; at the time, I thought Jane was dead," Kali said.

"What?" This was news to Jane. "What happened?"

"Brenner found out we were planning to escape from the Lab, so he came up with a sick plan to keep us apart; I only worked it out when you found me again a few years ago, but at the time I was dragged out of your room while we both planned and plotted a way out, and we were tortured. A few days later, Brenner showed me a blood-stained gown, your gown. At first, I thought he was lying, and playing one of his games, but I couldn't find you, so I decided to escape on my own."

Kali looked down. She wasn't pleased by how easily she had fallen for Brenner's lies, but she had escaped the Lab, and her sister had paid for it since.

Kali was surprised when Jane suddenly hugged her again, and Kali hugged her back, but then she became worried when she realised how tired Jane was. "Are you alright?"

"Tired. I've never done anything like that before," Jane admitted.

"I can imagine, but what did you do?"

"I used….the….the Upside Down to bring you here. Barb and Billy died ages ago, and I decided to bring them back. I wanted to see what I could do with my powers, now I've got them back," Jane said.

"You've got your powers back?" Joyce repeated with a smile of delight on her behalf.

"What happened to your powers?" Kali demanded at the same time.

Jane sighed. "I lost them last year; I don't know what happened, but I was bitten by the Mind Flayer, this hive mind creature thing. It infected me with something in the leg, and after I tore it out, I couldn't use my powers anymore, then I thought I'd lost them. I actually thought it was worth it after everything that happened at Starcourt," she finished.

Barb touched Nancy's arm. "Starcourt?" She repeated in a whisper.

Nancy sighed inwardly, wondering how long it would take to bring her old friend up to speed; seeing Barb again after everything that had happened since she'd fallen into the Upside Down was hard for Nancy. She had blamed herself so long for what happened to Barb she had to admit she had grown up and sworn never to let anything like that happen ever again if she could help it. "Trust me, it will take a long time to explain," she said, wondering already how she was going to explain it all.

"You thought it was worth it?" Hopper repeated as he stepped gingerly over to her, and Jane stared up at him, her lip trembling as she struggled against the tears. "El, those powers made you who you are."

"What?" Jane said, "You mean as a weapon against the Upside Down because people like Owens say its so? Against people the USA decides are a threat? At the time, I thought it was a joy…but I missed them so much, so I came here," she waved her hands around the room she was in with its basic essentials. "Owens brought me to this place after I was arrested."

"You were what?" Hopper gaped at her in horror.

"You were arrested?" Joyce hissed in disbelief.

"She was arrested," Mike sighed. "She smashed a roller skate into a girl's face."

"She deserved it, Mike," Jane said pointedly. "It was only a matter of time before she made someone snap."

"What?" Hopper might have been bemused, but Joyce wasn't. She snarled. "You mean that Angela girl was picking on you again? The number of times I had to argue with the principal to stop it…"

"It wouldn't have worked, Angela's family were too rich and she was just too entitled. I told a few lies to Mike, and they blew up in my face when Angela humiliated me with a milkshake at the rink. I lost my temper and I smashed a roller skate into her face," Jane said, but what worried Joyce and Hopper was how casually she said it.

"You don't seem sorry about it, El," Hopper commented while sharing a look with Joyce and Murray, worried about El. There was an edge to her that he didn't like.

"Why should I be? It's not as if I'm going to see her again any time soon, and I've got bigger concerns than some petty little girl who refuses to get a better life than targeting kids who just want to get along with things. But if she ever does hurt me again, then I will fight back," Jane replied matter of factly.

Meanwhile, a big smile was on Kali's face as she remembered her own past and how she had lashed out whenever someone had gotten on the wrong side of her before she used her powers to get even, but she decided her sister's comfort was more important. "So this Owens helped you get your powers back?"

Jane bit her lip and looked down, and this worried Kali. "Not quite. Brenner is here."

"Brenner?" Kali leapt to her feet with an angry snarl. "I thought he was dead. You said he was dead…"

"Yeah, but I didn't actually see him being mauled to death by that Demogorgon, I was too weak at the time," Jane replied. "But anyway, he's here now, and until then I had thought he was dead."

"So did we," Mike waved to Dustin and Lucas, but then he saw their expressions. "You guys did know right?"

Dustin sighed. "El brought us into her trance when we were discussing Nancy's vision of a destroyed Hawkins, and she told us Brenner was still alive," he explained.

Jane sighed, "I think it's best if I start at the beginning," she said.

From there Jane told them what she had discovered so far from the videos Brenner and Owens showed her, and from what Owens had shown her in the reports from Hawkins. She had to admit to them what she had done when Creel tricked her into removing the chip Brenner had put in him to keep him under control.

Jane had been reluctant to get that out; she had even tried thinking of different ways to explain the item but the end result would have been the same no matter what, but she made sure to promise to show them how life had been at the Lab so they could have a better understanding of it all. Most especially, she couldn't really look Max in the eye as she admitted her mistakes. Inwardly she wondered when Max would confront her with her act of anger in the Void.

Kali, meanwhile, had hugged her tightly after she had gotten over her shock and outrage at the news of Brenner's survival, but she especially wanted to know just what happened to her little sister after she had left the Lab. She was not sure she particularly wanted to see the Lab thanks to the videos again, but she knew she needed to so she could find ways of better helping her sister.

But it soon became clear that something else was wrong.

While some of the others were angry and put out by the realisation that the Upside Down had opened because of Jane's mistakes, Kali knew better.

"Jane, what happened with One…it wasn't your fault. He must have waited years, knowing someone would come along to take that chip out again. The massacre at the Lab would have happened, no matter what, he would have either used you or somebody else," Kali soothed her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that some of the party who'd earlier been glaring at Jane, angry that it was largely because of her this was happening, suddenly looked regretful.

Deep down she knew that the anger was just that, anger. It was baseless since they had likely known for years what Jane had done, but she decided to keep an eye out regardless.

Somehow Kali's words made a light bulb light up in Jane's brain.

"I know," Jane nodded. "I know who's really to blame for this."

"Who?"

"Brenner," Jane grimaced as she spoke the name. "Don't you see it, don't you understand? Brenner knew Henry had survived in the Upside Down for years, that's why he made sure I went through experiment after experiment, forcing me to relearn how to use my powers, and then using my trances to try to find him before I touched the Demgorgon and opened the first gate," Jane grimaced as she remembered seeing that Demogorgon in the void and then touching it, the resulting mental backlash ripping the barrier between the two worlds apart.

"It wasn't your fault, El," Joyce came over and sat down on the other side of Jane, glancing at Kali for a moment before she whispered to the other girl. "Listen, we don't know for sure what happened, or if this Vecna had opened up his own hole to kidnap Will on the night he went missing, but it sounds like he would have come through even if you weren't involved."

By now Jane had more or less absolved herself of any lingering guilt beyond it still being there. But at the same time, she decided she would unleash her new darkness on Henry and make him regret what he had done.