-8-

It had been a long, agonising journey to Washington D.C, and by the time he got there, Dr Sam Owens had been hopeful for a few hours of sleep and rest, but while he had managed to get some rest on the flight, it hadn't been enough. But knowing only too well that the President wanted to speak to him the moment he could when he arrived in the capital city, Owens was forced to control himself and hope he didn't fall asleep.

When he had left his wife Cathy, Owens had been driven to the nearest airport. He hadn't been surprised or stunned when he had seen the military jets nearby before they left. The flight was urgent, and that urgency had remained all the way until he found himself in the President's Oval Office; indeed, at the airport, Owens was rushed out without any red tape. The President had ordered the meeting and wanted his staff to fast-track the travel plans.

When he got there, he noticed that he wasn't the only one there, and it didn't honestly wildly surprise him; the Upside Down's invasion of Hawkins and the discovery of Eleven and the battle in the town had shaken things up, and the President needed to be advised of what was going on, and what they had to do, but Owens wasn't sure how his advice would be viewed. Truthfully, he believed it was better if they just let Eleven fight alongside them all rather than go out of their way to hunt down a traumatised teenager who hadn't done anything wrong. Even opening the gates wasn't her fault; the first time was an accident, and the second time had been Martin's own decision to hunt down Creel and find a way to bring him back. There were a few officials, a few he even recognised as foreign ambassadors, some army officers of high and prestigious ranks, but Owens had never really been in Washington like this before, and while his eyes flew over to the carafes of coffee, he decided to wait for a bit before he went to them.

It was with relief he noticed that the President, his staff, and his visitors, were meeting informally and not in a meeting room where there would be uncomfortable seating, but he had to hope he didn't fall asleep; he wasn't a young man, and he was still recovering from the pain he'd been put through when Brenner betrayed him, and Sullivans' care had not been gentle. Not one little bit.

"Ah, Doctor Owens," the President said, "please, take a seat."

President Ronald Reagan was a man after Owens' heart. The man was both smart and decisive, but he had a casual air about him that made him approachable. But Owens wondered if he was in such a mood today.

"Thank you, Mr President," Owens gladly took a seat, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"Long journey?" The Vice President asked, but he didn't really detect sympathy in the question.

"Yes. May I ask why I've been called?"

"I'd have thought that was obvious; you know this girl from Hawkins. We need to make plans on how to act."

It was what Owens had thought. The moment the car had come to his front door, he had known this was going to happen. Reagan held up a hand and leaned forward; Owens could see the President's face looked drawn, slightly haggard.

"She projected her memories to you, didn't she, sir?" Owens said knowingly.

Reagan stared at him in surprise. "How did you know?"

Owens shrugged. "It was just a guess, sir, but it was a good one."

"Too good."

Owens decided to make a slight confession. "I told her to do it."

"You did what?"

"She contacted me telepathically, Mr President; she had just discovered something critical and she wanted to ask a few questions while she was resting, and I suggested that she tell the people about herself since so many people are seeing her as a monster."

"In a way, she is," one of the soldiers scoffed.

"So Colonel Jack Sullivan believes, a soldier who wantonly slaughtered scientists at an installation in an unprovoked attack while we were at a critical stage," Owens glared at him, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. "She isn't a monster at all," he snapped protectively. "Listen, I know the kid. You might see her as a weapon of mass destruction, an ICBM on legs, but I see a traumatised girl who has been tortured her whole life, who has been hurt and abused for years. She has lost her parents; her mother was on the receiving end of electro-shock therapy that burnt her brain out, and her father was classed as Missing in Action during the Vietnam wars, and all that time she was forced into tests until she lost her memories, and went through even more."

"Enough of this," the British ambassador said, leaning forward. "Dr Owens, are you aware of the current political and international mess that's going on right now because of this country's experiments?"

Owens hadn't heard anything but he wasn't surprised in the least. "No, sir. I haven't. I've been too busy watching the news as it unfolded.

Silently Reagan got up and switched on the TV and picked up the remote controller. Owens watched with terror and horror as people raced through the streets of New York, earthquake lines spreading everywhere, purple lightning lashing through the skies…

The President turned the channel, this time showing San Francisco, already a city famous or rather infamous for its earthquakes, but there was nothing natural about these earthquakes, for the snowlike particles down from the skies, infecting hundreds of people and dissolving their flesh into piles of goo which merged together…..

And on and on it went, and it wasn't just in America, but abroad as well. Already London was being evacuated or at least it was until a barrier similar to the one in Hawkins blocked their escape, and dozens of other cities were going through the same thing too. Owens watched all of this in horror before Reagan, mercifully, turned the TV set off.

"The first earthquakes started a few hours ago. Panic is gripping all of the cities and towns, and the evacuations have been ground down because of these damn barriers," Reagan informed Owens.

"And many governments believe this is all our own fault," the Vice President said, casting a look towards the ambassadors.

"Do you blame us?" The French ambassador demanded.

Owens sighed, "No, I don't."

Truthfully, Owens could understand the logic behind the arguments. But he felt it was a truly bad idea for them to blame a young girl simply because it was easy. Not for the first time, Owens wished he had found work in a different line.

Reagan leaned forward, his haggard expression making him even more serious. "I'm going to be straight," he said. "I've been looking into the history of this…this project…this Upside Down place. Many soldiers and officers believe this Eleven to be a threat."

"She's not. I've known her for a long time," Owens brought out a file and showed them photos of a smiling brunette girl. "Does she look like a threat to you?"

Everyone took in the photos of Eleven hanging out with other kids, laughing and clearly enjoying herself.

"All she has ever wanted was to be normal, to have a normal life. She has lost her biological family, now she is set to lose what she's got left," Owens said.

"What about the disaster of the Starcourt Mall?" The Vice President pressed. "We know you were responsible for the security behind all of that."

Owens stiffened. "Contrary to what many people like to believe about my duties, sir, I was keeping watch on Hawkins; at the time, I believed Starcourt to be the brainchild of a rich builder, who saw potential in Hawkins and wanted to drive the economy of the town."

"So what went wrong? How the hell did the Russians come to be underneath the building?" The President demanded.

Owens sighed, "I was investigating claims that the Russians, the Chinese, and other powers," Owens spared a knowing and serious look towards the ambassadors, "had learnt of the Upside Down and they were conducting their own experiments into it. Like it or not, people, the Upside Down is known already to several countries. The Russians are one of them. I had been investigating the claims, and by the time I found out what was happening in Hawkins, it was too late, and all I could do was mitigate the damage to the town."

"Other countries know about this?" Reagan whispered.

"How much do they know?" The British ambassador demanded.

"Most of their work is experimental at best, but a few like the Russians have the technology already to make the necessary holes into the Upside Down, but they will discover the same issues we have; the Upside Down is uncontrollable, the years at Hawkins is proof of that. It's full of hostile inhabitants, and they can't be tamed," Owens insisted, but Owens knew that his words would make it back to the respective governments of what they were saying.

And they would disregard it.

Completely.

That was the trouble with scientists, many of them believed they could handle anything and then they cried foul whenever something went wrong.

And it would go wrong if they played games with the Upside Down. Owens had seen the folly of investigating it ever since that time when the thing Hopper, Joyce, Eleven and the others called the Mind Flayer emerged, and he had spent the last few years trying to turn his organisation away from researching it, even when Brenner came back to take control…but by then Brenner had decided to switch his research away from his focus with Creel and Eleven, and the Upside Down towards the NINA project instead.

Brenner had wanted to find ways of helping Eleven, but by that point, after witnessing for himself just how far she had grown outside rather than be trapped inside a Lab for years, he had decided to leave the girl alone.

Reagan gave a humourless, ironic chuckle, "Dr Owens, we know it's uncontrollable. I saw the memories the girl had of the Upside Down. One of the reasons why I brought you here was to ask for your advice. Now answer me, what do you think we should do?"

"Leave her alone," Owens gave a predictable reply. "Eleven is not a threat to us. She is the only one who can help us with this disaster. On top of that, we have to cope with the other gates in other cities and towns around the world. And we need her help with that. We have nothing that can close the gates. The Russians' device was destroyed in Starcourt, but the machinery was massive and the power needed to generate it was colossal. We couldn't mass produce it and we can make such a machine portable. The only person who can close them is somewhere in Hawkins, and she can't do much of anything should she die."

It offended the military pride of the soldiers in the room with them, and Reagan saw that clearly because his expression became sharper. "I will sign an order to make it clear she is not to be harmed, Dr Owens," he promised. "Now, I know from her memories, that this Eleven threw this Henry Creel guy into the Upside Down. Why was Dr Brenner obsessed with getting him back?"

"Creel was the first test subject of the Department of Energy, Mr President. His powers were off the chart. He had discovered them early and he he had practiced relentlessly. But Brenner had underestimated just how powerful he was, how dangerous. Creel was a psychopath and Brenner realised that almost too late. In the end, Brenner placed a chip into Creel's neck which inhibited his powers and allowed the Lab to keep track of him, but Brenner wasn't able to let him go as he could still be dangerous. He had to wait years before someone came along to free him."

"And that was Eleven."

"Does it really matter?" Owens challenged. "Creel didn't care who would help him, and he waited for the most powerful child he could find. We should be glad it was even Eleven."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because there was a chance, a very strong chance, that Creel would have escaped into the world, or they would have done everything he wanted," Owens said. "Eleven might have made a huge mistake, but I don't think any of the others could have thrown Creel into another dimension. If that hadn't happened, we might not be having this conversation. Our world might have died by now because of him."

Everyone sobered up as they silently conjured images of what they had seen from Eleven's point of view and tried to imagine the world destroyed, as Creel had wanted it to be.

"So, she bought us time?" The British ambassador summed up sourly.

"Not really, but in a way, yes. If it wasn't for Brenner, then Creel might have just remained in the Upside Down, but I doubt it; there's no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever, that he wouldn't have tried to come back on his own, and he has. He managed to create those holes between worlds by murdering people, and nearly killing a fourth."

"Why was Brenner obsessed with getting him back?" The Vice President demanded.

Owens sighed as he recalled Brenner's reasons. "Creel was the crown jewel of the program," he explained, "but so to was Eleven. Out of the kids Brenner experimented on, only a few were really powerful; from the memories we saw, it seemed like Eleven wasn't that strong, but believe me, she is very strong. But Brenner was frightened by what Creel could be doing in that other world, and he also wanted to explore it, and discover new sciences, discoveries."

"So a typical scientist, then?"

"In a way."

"How long did Brenner experiment on children?"

"Years. Unlike other people, who experiment with telepathy and other forms of mental powers, Brenner did not want warriors. He wanted to create a new era of scientific discovery," Owens said. "That didn't change when all but one of them was left alive. But there was something about Eleven that Brenner admired, respected, maybe even loved."

"Loved?" The Vice President sounded on the point of scoffing.

"Yes, it's hard to believe, but when it was believed she was dead, I don't think I've ever seen a man look so broken. Brenner threw himself into his work and began work on other projects, so by the time it was proven she was alive and well, I managed to persuade him to let her grow without interference."