"I think we should focus on things here, Jane," Hopper was the first person to actually break the silence, seeing the utterly tired, and distraught look on his daughter's face. He couldn't blame her, with the world hanging by threads because of Creel's attacks, the pressure was on her.
"He's right, Jane," Nancy said, putting a hand on her shoulder and started to rub it soothingly. She had always seen Jane as a little sister, and she had come to adore her. "With a bit of luck, we can stop the world coming to an end if we work here."
"I hope you're right," Jane replied, "I don't like the idea of going to other cities unless I have to."
"What I can't work out is how Vecna-," Dustin began, but Jane interrupted him.
"Can't we just call him One, or Creel, it makes things much easier?" She pleaded.
"Oh god, not again," Steve sighed.
"She's right, it does make life a little easier," Erica pointed out.
Dustin sighed. "Okay, how did One open all those gates in those cities in the first place, since he was focusing on Hawkins? When he was stalking Fred, Chrissy, and Max, he always followed a sequence."
Robin shrugged. "Maybe he didn't need to, I mean if he was using Hawkins to bridge the gap between our world and the Upside Down, he wouldn't need to bother with doing the same thing in other countries or cities?"
"That or he did it in secret," Erica pointed out.
Jane shook her head. "We can work it out later, right now how do we deal with One right now?"
"Can't we just go into this Upside Down place, and blow it up?" Ted Wheeler asked.
Some of Kali's gang looked interested in the thought, but the others knew better.
"No chance," Erica shook her head.
"We wouldn't make it."
"No, Dad," Nancy shook her head.
"Why not?"
Nancy sighed. "The Upside Down is like a dark, twisted wasteland, a mirror of our own world."
"Yeah, but still," Ted tried to say.
"But nothing, Dad," Mike said. "Even if we could get close, which we can't, there are all kinds of traps there. The whole place is alive with monsters."
"Eddie was torn to bits by these Demobats," Dustin said darkly.
"And the Mind Flayer is still there, in the Upside Down," Joyce added, "we stopped it in Russia, but there could be other parts of it we haven't seen yet."
"There's something else," Nancy said, looking haunted and looking like she wanted to be sick but she didn't have the time. "When we were in the Upside Down, trying to stop One from getting to Max, he showed me a….a vision, of Hawkins of the real world being destroyed, monsters killing everyone and everything. He also showed great delight in showing me what was going to happen to you," she turned to Mike, Holly, and her parents.
Karen swallowed. "What do you mean?"
Nancy swallowed herself. "He showed me he was planning on killing all of you," she whispered, tears trickling down her face.
Jane clenched her fists. She swore it was not going to happen, not to them. Not to anybody else.
"Y-You saw that?" Mike hissed.
Nancy nodded sadly, but she turned her gaze to Jane. "It's not your fault," she said to the younger girl kindly. "If it hadn't been for you, our whole world would have been destroyed long ago."
Kali smiled at Nancy gratefully. She had been upset to see her little sister holding in so much guilt. She needed this, and she was glad her sister had these people in her life. She had been especially jealous Jane chose them over her, but she understood the logic behind it. She was just relieved these people weren't judgemental of Jane's worst mistake.
Likewise, the others, especially since they had seen what happened in the Lab which made Jane lose her memories in the first place, agreed.
But Nancy wasn't finished. "But I saw something else; One showed me something else, something we haven't seen before….something huge, something that flew….something….with a massive mouth."
Silence fell over the room before Dottie spoke up. "D-Did you get a good look at it?"
Nancy shook her head. "No."
"I guess it makes sense that we don't know too much about the Upside Down, and what's inside it," Mick said thoughtfully, biting her lip before she turned to Kali, "Do you think it could've been an illusion, like what you can do?"
"I don't know," Kali said.
"Why would it be an illusion?" Robin asked curiously.
"'cause One seems a bit…dirty when he fights," Mick answered.
"Yeah, she's right," Lucas growled, his anger towards what happened to Max shining in his expression. "One's dirty and cruel, he could have put that in your mind, Nancy."
"Yeah, and he might have done it, so we would make some kind of mistake," Dustin said, a spark of realisation in his eyes.
"We can worry about that later," Joyce said quickly, her head starting to spin, "we have to focus on what's happening right now. How can we deal with it? We need to think of a way of sealing those gates."
Jane nodded. "I'm tempted just to go into the Upside Down, and fight him there," she said.
"You can't!" Mike's voice was high in hysteria. "You nearly died the last time!"
Jane turned sad eyes over to him. "Mike, I'm tired of waiting. I want this to end."
"By dying?" Mike was getting angry now.
"Actually, do you think you might find it simpler closing the other Gates that are open in other parts of the world from the Upside Down?" Murray asked thoughtfully, speaking up for the first time.
Jane, surprised by the question and the input, turned to him. "It's possible," she said at last after considering the question. "My powers…they do seem stronger, somehow, when I'm in contact with the Upside Down."
"No, you can't do it," Mike said.
"Mike, I might not have a choice, and besides if I can close all the gates that One's opened all over the world, from here, then I won't have to travel to those places; that's the last thing I want to do, and what if he opens up more gates in the meantime?" Jane asked him pointedly, folding her arms to complete the look.
Mike sighed, and he looked down. "I don't like this, Jane," he hissed.
"And you think I do?" Jane countered. "I'm like all of you, I hate going into the Upside Down, but this way, if it helps, then I will be saving millions of lives. And there's something else, Angela and her friends are still in the Upside Down. If I go there, I might find them."
Will knew better than everyone exactly how Jane felt with Angela. "Do you think you'll have problems with them?"
"Angela is nothing like One, Will. If she causes me any problems, a broken nose and a concussion will be the least of her worries by the time I'm finished," Jane said darkly. "But one of the reasons I want to go back there is so then I can see what's coming; Owens commented the Upside Down is constantly evolving its attacks on our reality, evolving like a virus, and this monster you described Nancy could be a part of it. If I go inside, we will be better warned and better prepared."
"But how will you get in there?" Karen asked.
"That's easy, I'll simply walk in through one of the holes that have opened, and I could get out the same way," Jane might have said with some confidence, but they could all tell she was not happy, and this was the last thing she wanted to do.
"Not without me, you're not," Kali snapped, and Jane sighed. She was about to protest more, but then she saw how determined Kali was. There was no chance she could change the older girl's mind.
"Oh, alright, sis," Jane muttered, making Kali grin triumphantly.
Mike frowned, not liking that Kali could win just like that.
Hopper didn't like the idea any more than Mike did. "You're not going alone, are you?"
"No. Only a few, if you'd like."
"Well," Funshine grinned, "if Kali's going, I'll go too."
"And me," Mick said.
"Me too," Axel said.
"Count me in," Dottie waved.
Jane bit her lip and stared at Kali worriedly. She wasn't sure what was going to happen if they all went. The Upside Down was not the kind of world they were familiar with, and she was frightened they might think it was a darker version of their own reality, and not an overgrown, toxic place full of unholy monsters.
"Okay," Jane said, glancing at her own friends, wondering if any of them would come, but they could work that out later. "That's settled."
"What about this Colonel Sullivan?" Joyce was glad they had the name of the soldier gunning for Jane.
Kali sent Jane a look, one Jane recognised. But Jane ignored her. She was more than aware she would have to deal with Sullivan at some point.
But she had an idea.
"What if I drag him with us, into the Upside Down, and show him exactly what's really happening instead of what's in his little mind?" Jane asked.
Hopper shook his head. "Absolutely not, he and his men will stop you."
"Dad, I am done running. I've spent years running. I am tired of running. But what I'm angry about is how everyone believes I am a monster. But by doing this, I'm giving them a chance to see the real monsters," Jane countered.
"Or they might try shooting you, did you think of that?" Mike demanded.
Jane glared at him. "Yes, I did. That's why I'm going to take all of their weapons, and I'm going to drag them all into the Upside Down. If they want to make a difference, that's it."
"Do you think you'll get away with it?" Erica asked.
"At this point, I don't care. My problem will be getting close to him, but my real problem is going to be getting into the Upside Down in the first place. Then the gates need to be closed, on top of the things coming out and waiting to come out. One thing I really want to do, to find out, is if what I saw was right; does One have my mother, Max, Virginia, Alice, and all of the children from the Lab trapped in his mind?" Jane asked before she spared them with a hard expression. "Those are my problems; Sullivan might want to kill me, but he is the least of them right now."
Kali's eyes glazed at the mention of the other children from the Lab, she had hated them for years for their arrogance but she had not wanted to see them dead like that. The idea they lived on, prisoners in One's mind, and they were not alone was ghoulish for her, but if there was a chance of getting them out again…
"If we can find them, how do we get them out? One's very powerful, he'll know what you're doing," she asked.
"I closed the gate I opened up in the lab," Jane countered. "I did that by willing it closed, I think if I will the minds out of One's mind, it should work, but getting Max's mind back to her body should be simple, and the same with my mama's mind, too. I hate to open gates for them to go through, and that's it. But I'm not sure about what to do with the people who have already died."
"Just let them out into the real world, sweetie," Joyce said. "They've been prisoners for a long time. They deserve to be free."
"Virginia and Alice Creel were both murdered, and their father took the blame. I think Victor deserves to be reunited," Robin said.