"Now, One, today is a special day," Dr. Brenner began, sitting next to One on her bed. She looked up at him with faded eyes. Was it possible that irises could lose color? Because her eyes had been starting to look more gray than blue lately..."Today we're going to send someone through."

"Through?" One asked weakly.

"Yes, my dear," Dr. Brenner smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Come along."

Dr. Brenner rose and held a hand out to her. With downcast eyes she slowly placed her tiny hand in his and slid off the bed, her bare feet slapping against the cold linoleum floor. She used to flinch when that happened but not anymore. She'd gotten used to it.

Together they winded through the many corridors of the labyrinth that was the lab until they reached a large open space with a suspended walkway and enclosed glass room. People moved about behind the glass, pressing blinking buttons and turning strange dials.

Dr. Brenner continued to hold her hand as he led her down a set of stairs to the main floor. One could feel a sea of eyes staring silently down at her. She tried not to look around too much at the crowd they were passing through but her curiosity altered her gaze every now and then. People in white coats like Papa, military uniforms, and neatly pressed suits surrounded them. She felt smaller than she usually did.

At last they stopped when they reached a raised stage. Dr. Brenner instructed her to sit on a chair in the center as he stood in front of her to address the audience. From up here she had a better view and could study the crowd more closely. The audience before her all sat in the same positions with the same looks upon their faces. They seemed more robot than human. Among them, she noticed the one-armed Mr. Munson.

"I would like to thank you all for coming today," Dr. Brenner began. "We have discovered something incredible here, something that could change the world as we know it. This child," Dr. Brenner paused to refer to One. "has abilities that will help our great nation to ensure that we stay at the forefront of power."

A round of clapping erupted from the audience, somehow starting and ending at the exact same time. One gulped as she realized why Dr. Brenner had brought her there. He was putting on a show...and she was the star.

"We have found others like her," Dr. Brenner continued. "But none as powerful as her. One, please step forward."

One hesitantly pushed herself from the chair, joining Papa at his side. She latched onto his arm in fear, evoking a smile and a chuckle from him.

"As you can see, we have a close relationship. Like father and daughter, right One?" Dr. Brenner looked down at her to ask.

One stared up into Dr. Brenner's eyes with an expressionless face. His stare told her that he expected a response. "Yes, Papa," she said quietly. His smile grew larger.

"Now, One, I need you to show these wonderful people what you can do."

One continued to stare up at him until he gently pushed her to the front of the stage. Her knees began to wobble under the pressure and she would have collapsed had Dr. Brenner's hand not been resting against her back to balance her.

"Think of a place, any place," Dr. Brenner leaned down to whisper in her ear. It was hard for her to envision a place when the only one she had known was the Lab, but for some strange reason she wanted to impress these people. Or more importantly, Papa.

One studied the crowd for something to focus on. She found a blue flower lapel on a woman's jacket and stared at it until a whirling circle of light appeared above her head. The woman, along with the rest of the audience, collectively gasped at the sight.

Their mouths continued to hang open when a red and blue parrot flew through the portal and began to circle the room. After everyone's eyes had finished following the parrot, they returned back to the portal where they found a wealth of lush greenery and colorful flowers. The calls of many tropical birds confirmed their suspicions: One had opened a portal to the jungle.

One looked back to Dr. Brenner with a big smile, her eyes searching his for the pride she craved. The look he returned told her there was still more to come.

"Please continue to focus your attention on the portal as we send someone through it! Mr. Sanchez, if you please."

One's smile dropped as she remembered what Dr. Brenner had said in her room. Her stomach did an uneasy flip. The screams of Mr. Munson's arm being severed from his body still haunted her nightmares. What if she did it again? A drop of blood rolled from her nose to her lips to her chin and finally to the ground.

One returned her gaze to her portal where she watched them move the woman out of her chair so that a man in his late twenties could climb onto it; the presumed Mr. Sanchez. She focused all her effort on the portal as he crossed through, trying her hardest to prevent it from closing on him. She shut her eyes and let out a deep sigh of relief once he had fully disappeared into the portal, but the relaxation broke her concentration and the portal snapped shut. The crowd gasped once more, but for different reasons. Mr. Sanchez was gone.

One turned back to look at Dr. Brenner again, but the pride she had just seen was replaced with anger.

"Get him back," he growled through his teeth.

One began to hyperventilate. She tried to summon the portal again but between her pounding heart and the fearful murmurs of the audience she couldn't remember exactly where she had sent Mr. Sanchez. To open the initial portal she had just thought of a picture from a National Geographic magazine she had seen sitting in Dr. Brenner's office.

With a nod of his head guards began to pour down the aisles and towards the stage. She had to get Mr. Sanchez back or she, too, would disappear.

She tried to envision the National Geographic cover again but when that wasn't working she instead began to think of Mr. Sanchez himself. She pictured him standing on the chair in his neatly pressed tan suit. He had a large mole on his left cheek right below his glasses. His dark brown hair parted from the right and curled around his ears. She continued to think of him until blood was streaming from both of her nostrils.

Then it happened. A new portal opened in the same spot, but the interior looked different this time. Instead of tall trees and undergrowth, there were paved streets with lines of copycat houses and strange looking cars. One was about to give up and close the portal when a hand thrusted through it. The room watched speechlessly as an old bespectacled man with a shock of white hair and a mole on his left cheek climbed through the portal.

"Who are you?" Dr. Brenner asked once the man had clambered down from the chair.

"Brian," the man answered. "Brian Sanchez."

"Will! Jonathan!" Joyce yelled from the kitchen. "You guys are going to be late for school!"

One's eyelids flickered open and for a brief moment she panicked when she didn't recognize her surroundings. Then she remembered. She did a mental check as she scanned the house: roof still above her, standing walls, no demogorgons...Check, check, check. Overall the Byers' house appeared to be in tact.

"Sleep okay?" Joyce asked when she noticed One stirring. "Sorry, I wish we had an extra bed you could sleep on, I hope the couch was enough..."

"Perfect," One responded quickly. "The couch was perfect. Thank you, Ms. Byers."

"Please, call me Joyce," Joyce corrected her with a warm smile.

"Thank you, Joyce."

"So..." Joyce began, unsure of where to start or what to ask this mysterious girl who had wandered around her front yard late at night and crashed on her couch. Will had filled her in on some key components of the situation but she was still processing all the information. Even with everything she had experienced with Will it was still a lot to take in. "What are your plans for the day? I assume you're not in school anymore..." Joyce looked One up and down, assessing her appearance and attempting to surmise an age.

"I'm not sure," One responded. She didn't know her exact age or even her own birthday but she was pretty sure she was 21, possibly 22. Either way, she was too old to really get a proper formal education anymore, not that she had ever gotten one in the first place. The only thing they had taught her at the Lab was how to develop her powers. A small pang of jealousy hit her when she saw Will and Jonathan enter the living room with backpacks on. What would it be like to have a normal life?

"Hello..." Jonathan greeted One in surprise, looking to his mom and Will for some sort of answer that explained the stranger in their living room.

"Oh, Jonathan, this is One!" Joyce introduced the pair for them. "One, this is my oldest, Jonathan."

"Nice to meet you," Jonathan said slowly, giving her a small nod. One returned the nod to signify that she felt the same way. "All right, Will, let's get going before we're late."

"Bye, mom! Bye, One!" Will called as he followed Jonathan out the front door.

"Bye, you two! Be safe!" Joyce yelled after them. "And Jonathan, don't forget that Will is going over to Mike's after school!" Joyce stood in the doorway for a few moments as she fondly watched her kids drive off. Once she could no longer see the tail end of Jonathan's '72 LTD, she took a deep breath and shut the door.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but I have to go to work," Joyce informed One as she began to gather her things. "There's leftover pizza in the fridge that you can help yourself to. I should be back by four at the latest. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" Joyce stopped to look at her as she asked the last question.

One just nodded her head and stared down at the ground. Joyce bit the inside of her lip and took a few steps closer to One so that she could rest her hands on her shoulders. She tilted her head until she caught One's eyes. The poor thing looked like she had been through so much. "The bad men and the monsters can't get you anymore. You're safe here."

One looked up to meet Joyce's gaze and gave another nod in response, albeit slightly delayed. When Joyce was content that One understood she gave her shoulders a small squeeze and headed for the door. After a warm smile and a wave, Joyce was gone.

Unsure what to do next, One threw herself back on the couch. Should she leave? Should she stay? She hadn't opened another portal to the Upside Down in her sleep...but that didn't mean it wouldn't happen again...Hopper's yells began to bounce around in her head over and over until the voice changed and she imagined Joyce shouting the same things...

"Trying to kill us?"

"So it will happen again!"

"We'll find her somewhere else to stay, I promise. Just...not here."

A deep sadness settled into her bones and silent tears began to slide down her cheeks. Would she ever find a home? One decided to capitalize on the former choice of leaving when a strange sound rocked her from her thoughts and snapped her head around to the wall behind her.

It had sounded like somebody knocking...from the other side...She knew, or at least she felt confident, that nobody else was there. Maybe her ears were just playing tricks. She was still pretty tired...As fatigue once more settled down upon her mind her eyelids began to bob up and down, up and down, until a flash of light startled them open permanently.

The lights in the kitchen and living room began to simultaneously flicker in a chaotic, yet seemingly calculated pattern. Was this a normal occurrence at the Byers' house? One slowly rose from the couch to go investigate but another set of loud pounding from behind her sent her body back down to the couch like a magnet. What the hell was going on?

A new sound accompanied the banging and flickering of lights echoing around the house. One watched in a mixture of horror and curiosity as a set of invisible claws tore through the floral wallpaper. The set of scratches stretched from the ceiling to the top of the couch, exposing black lines of paint underneath.

Despite the fact that something had just shredded the wall, One felt compelled to lean in closer and investigate. She slowly peeled back more of the top layer of wallpaper so that she could get a better view of the mysterious paint underneath. As she tore through more of the crumbling wallpaper, she began to notice letters. S, T, U, V...The alphabet?

Granted, One had been out of the loop for fifteen years, but it still seemed like an odd choice of decor. Unless they served a purpose...? Almost as if in response to her thought, the lights all turned off simultaneously except for the lamp next to the couch. It began to burn brighter and brighter until One slowly rose to examine it.

When she got close enough to feel the intense heat emanating off of the lightbulb it blinked out. One stood above it, studying it perplexingly until another light flashed in her peripheral vision. The lamp in the kitchen across the hall began to do the same thing as the one in the living room, and it too, burned out when One approached it.

Then the light fixture closest to her on the hallway wall lit up. And then the next one, and the next one, until it had led One all the way down to a closet. One's hand shook uncontrollably as it reached out for the closet's handle. She flinched at the click of the doorknob turning and took a deep breath before she revealed the contents within.

Her face lit up in rainbows as she peered in at a bundle of glowing multi-colored Christmas lights. One was too curious to be creeped out by the fact that the Christmas lights weren't even plugged in. Is this what the mysterious invisible entity had wanted her to find? The Christmas lights blinked once.

The path of lights she had taken began to light up again in order, picking up speed each time the pattern repeated itself. Now One understood what she had to do. Gingerly picking up the pile of multi-colored Christmas lights along with a hammer and a box of nails, One returned to the living room to begin her task.

After a few minutes of tearing and pounding, One stood back to admire her work. She had torn off the rest of the wallpaper (she would have to come up with a way to apologize to Joyce later) and looped the string of Christmas lights between the alphabet so that each letter had its own little colorful bulb. The uninvited smile on her face faltered when she realized that she had basically just created a rainbow ouija board.

"Did I do it right?" One asked the wall hesitantly. She felt like anybody else in her situation would immediately dismiss the whole scenario as craziness, but compared to what she had been through this was practically normal.

One stood on the couch with her eyes glued to the wall and braced herself for a response. One by one the tiny lightbulbs flickered above the letters: Y, E, S.

One let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. It worked! Somebody was really trying to talk to her! But who? "Who are you?"

She waited and waited but the lights remained dark. They didn't want to answer that question apparently...so One came up with a new one, "What do you want?"

C...

One felt her heart begin to race as her eyes followed the lights.

O...

Her chest heaved up and down.

M...

A layer of sweat began to build on her skin.

I...

Her breathing was becoming harder and harder to keep up with.

N...

Her eyes widened until the whites were larger than her pupils.

G...

She jumped off the couch and stumbled to the floor after tripping over the coffee table. She laid paralyzed on the floor, staring up at the six lit letters.

"Coming," One whispered.

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