One (A Stranger Things Fanfiction)

Chapter One - Eleven's Nighttime Thoughts

Eleven had spent most of her life in a laboratory, and most of the time since escaping had been spent in hiding. But now, at the age of seventeen, she had finally found some normalcy in life, living in a house with a father, a stepmother, and a stepbrother.

As Eleven lay in her new bedroom (the one that had, until recently, belonged to Will's older brother, who was now married and out of the house), she closed her eyes and turned up the static on the radio in order to tune out any nightly noise. Then, using her powers, she said good night to her biological mother, and to the siblings she had been able to contact over the years. She even said goodnight to Eight, despite the tension that had existed between them since the events of not too long ago, which had involved Eight going mad with power and had ended with Eight faking her death.

Biologically, Eleven was an only child, but she had spent her childhood in a research facility as a lab rat. She had called the lead scientist Papa, even though this man was not her biological father. She was not the only child who had been raised in this way. In her earliest childhood memories, Eight had been with her. But Eight had been the first one to escape, leaving Eleven alone for years.

Eight had also been the first one Eleven had reunited with after escaping herself. Since then, she had committed herself to finding her other so-called siblings. She had expected there to be hundreds of them, considering that her tattoo had three digits, but as far as she could tell, she was the second youngest of only twelve. Also, her siblings had been raised in pairs, cut off from all of the others: One with Four, Two with Five, Three with Six, Seven with Ten, Eight with Eleven, and Nine with Twelve.

After Eight, whose powers involved projecting illusions into people's minds, the next two to escape had been Two and Five, whose real names were Emmeline and Jody. Two's powers involved persuading people to do anything that she wanted them to do, and Five had the ability to change people's moods to whatever she wanted them to be. Working together, they were unstoppable, and it helped that they were both beautiful girls. They'd made it all the way to Canada, where they'd managed to acquire a house, and were now living peacefully.

Three, or Kieran, whose powers were enhanced tracking abilities, super speed, and super strength, had been sent to bring them back, but he'd simply taken that opportunity to escape himself. He'd followed Two and Five to Canada and moved in with them.

Six had been the next one to escape. Six's powers were shape-shifting and the ability to learn any language in seconds. Naturally, Six had been sent to Russia as a spy, but had disappeared, taken on the form of a beautiful woman, and was now married. One thing that Eleven didn't understand was that her research had indicated that Six was a boy named Alexander, but when she reached out with her powers, she found the mind of a girl, who wanted to be called by the female pronouns. Apparently, Six had been born with a male body and a female brain. Eleven had never heard of such a thing. But then again, she had spent most of her life cut off from the rest of humanity. Perhaps this sort of thing happened far more often than she would have thought. Eleven had always honoured Six's request that she use the female pronouns on her.

Seven and Ten, or Patrick and Charles, had also escaped together, and they were currently on the run in Mexico. Seven could phase, meaning that he could walk through walls. Ten could cast unbreakable force fields, and nothing could get through them except for Seven. No matter how many times Eleven told them that it was safe to come back to the United States, they never believed her. Ten had never even met Nine, his identical twin brother.

Eleven had been the last one to escape. Nine and Twelve, or David and Daniel, had been the only ones left inside when the lab was finally raided. They'd both immediately been put into foster care upon being found. Fortunately, they had been allowed to stay together. Unfortunately, their foster parents were mean to them. As soon as Nine was old enough to live on his own, he'd left and he'd taken Twelve with him. However, that meant that Nine had been accused of kidnapping his brother. Nine and Twelve were two of the few siblings that Eleven had actually met in person. She had been the one to guide them to her new father's old cabin, where she herself had once been hidden. One lucky thing was that Nine's power was the ability to generate and conduct electricity, so that saved them from having to pay for it. Even now, Twelve refused to tell Eleven what his power was, and he'd even gone so far as to make her promise that she would never try to research it, and to Eleven, a promise was sacred.

Four, sadly, was dead.

Eleven had had to do research on him in the lab where they had all been raised. Apparently, Four's real name had been Benjamin, and he'd had the ability to change the ambient temperature and purify the air in the immediate area. He'd been sent into the Upside Down shortly after Eleven had accidentally opened the door. Apparently, Papa had thought that Four could raise the temperature and detoxify the air of the whole Upside Down, the idea being that it could be made livable for humans, who would then colonize it and perhaps even use it as a giant nuclear bomb shelter. Of course, as soon as Four had been sent in, he'd been devoured by Demogorgons.

But the single most elusive sibling was One.

Eleven had managed to do some research on One. Apparently, One, or Caroline, was Two's twin sister, but their powers were not similar in the least.

From what Eleven could tell, One might even be the only sibling more powerful than Eleven herself.

According to her research, One could heal any injury or illness instantly, but more importantly than that, she could conjure fire and turn herself invisible, and there was reason to believe that she might have been on the verge of developing even more powers.

She would almost certainly be invaluable in a fight against the Demogorgons.

Unfortunately, so far, she had been less than cooperative.

Whenever Eleven reached out to her with her mind, not only was she never able to see One clearly enough to even tell what she looked like, but One always flat-out refused to communicate with her. Over and over, she had screamed at Eleven to go away.

Why in the world would she refuse Eleven's attempts to connect?

Also, when she used her mind to seek One out, sometimes she found her in the normal world, and sometimes she found her in the Upside Down.

In Eleven's experience, it was very difficult to get to or escape from the Upside Down, especially after all the years that she had spent sealing up the various portals. How was it that One could come and go as she pleased?

Eleven had actually long suspected that One was not merely finding openings that Eleven had missed, but tearing new ones herself. If that was the case, then Eleven needed to find a way to stop her, before she put more people in danger.

Eleven knew that, as long as new holes were being torn, her new step-brother, Will, would never be safe, nor would her long-time boyfriend, Mike, or their friends, Dustin and Lucas.