"Are you ready?" Diane asked Sarah, who stood nervously at her side before the large, white doors to Diane's office.

"As I'll ever be," Sarah responded with a semi-confident nod.

Diane pushed the doors open and Sarah was immediately met with the sight of four new individuals gathered in front of Diane's desk. They all turned to look at Diane and Sarah as they entered the room and Sarah felt herself shrink beneath their gaze.

"Sarah, I'd like you to meet your team," Diane announced with a smile. "Amelia, Hazel, Sam, and Daniel."

One-by-one, each of her teammates rose their hands as their name was called. Amelia had long, wavy black hair that fell to her waist, olive-colored skin, and piercing dark brown eyes. Hazel stood next to her, with short blonde hair and glasses that sat on a freckled nose. Next was Sam, whose light brown hair stopped in a blunt bob at her chin and small stature brought her just short of her teammates' shoulders. Last was Daniel, the tallest, who had buzzed hair and smooth, ebony skin. They all looked to be about her age, if not a couple years older, and they were all stunningly beautiful. What was in the Helian water?

"Hi," Sarah greeted them quietly, raising her hand to give them a small wave.

"Here's the mission," Diane began. She moved to stand behind her desk and pulled a slim, metal panel out from the drawer. She set the strange item on the desk for them all to see and after pressing something in its corner, a holographic picture appeared in the air.

Sarah took a step back in surprise, not quite ready for the futuristic technology that sat before her. While the Diagonal was a strange blend of different worlds, she wasn't quite sure where they had gotten this.

The hologram flickered and changed until a desert-like scene appeared before them.

"We were able to detect three creatures in Jakar on the southern edge of the dimension," Diane continued. "They're away from Jakarian civilization, but they still pose a threat. We need you five to eliminate them before they can cause any more trouble."

"Should be easy enough," Amelia said with a curt nod.

"I expect that you all should be able to handle this situation swiftly and safely, but should you need any reinforcements, we've got people standing by. Thanks to Sarah, the Dark Dimension, or the Upside Down as she knows it, is destroyed, but until every last piece of it is wiped out, no dimension is safe."

Diane looked to Sarah with a smile and Sarah blushed. Sarah's eyes then trailed over to her teammates and she was surprised to catch Amelia glaring at her with furrowed brows and a deep frown. Sarah didn't know how to respond other than to quickly look away.

"Sarah," Diane said, turning to address her daughter. "We'll need you to open a portal to Jakar. Do you think you can do that?"

"Um, I think so," Sarah responded with a gulp. After seeing the way that Amelia looked at her, her confidence had wavered. "My portals haven't been the most responsive lately, though."

"I'm sure you'll do great," Diane reassured her with a smile and a wink.

Sarah studied the scene in the hologram, noting every curve of the land and every tiny detail. Once she felt that she had completely captured the picture in her head, she turned towards the wall and began to focus on a small painting of a flower hanging from it. It took a little longer than normal, but eventually a portal appeared before her with a scene similar to the hologram on the other side.

"Great job," Diane commended Sarah, placing a hand on her shoulder in support after moving around the desk to stand beside her. She then turned back to the rest of the group. "All right, team, we'll be awaiting your safe return. Best of luck!"

Sarah watched Amelia, Hazel, Sam, and Daniel slowly slip through her portal and felt her hands subconsciously ball into fists. Whatever was waiting for her on the other side was new and "new" almost always meant "dangerous" in Sarah's experience. She took a deep breath before she joined the rest of her team on the other side.

Sarah found herself in a sea of red sand that glowed under a golden sky. Scarlet waves rose and fell in their own patterns, creating mountains and valleys of sand for as far as she could see. As she turned around to glimpse the rest of her surroundings, she felt like she had accidentally transported herself to a completely different world. A lush jungle of greens and blues sprouted up from the warm sand, offering a surprising juxtaposition of life and death.

"Keep up, newbie," Amelia called out to Sarah, jerking her attention back to the mission.

Sarah rushed to catch the tail end of the group, which had started to disappear into the trees.

"There's one that way," Daniel announced to the group, pointing his finger northwest.

Sarah strained her eyes to see what he was seeing, but she couldn't make out anything. The foliage was too thick. "Where? I don't see it," Sarah said.

Amelia rolled her eyes before responding. "Of course you don't see it. Only Daniel can because his abilities allow him to see heat signatures."

"Oh," Sarah responded, an embarrassed blush blooming in her cheeks. "That's cool! What else can you guys do?"

"I can manipulate gravity," Sam answered, demonstrating her ability by pushing herself six feet into the air. She floated for a few moments before slowly dropping back down.

"I can change the mental state of other living beings," Hazel answered next. He turned to stare at Sarah and within seconds she could feel her thoughts fading away and her eyelids becoming heavier. A large yawn escaped her throat before Hazel broke his concentration and Sarah quickly regained her energy.

"And what can you do, Amelia?" Sarah asked the dark-haired girl after she neglected to answer on her own.

Amelia remained with her back facing Sarah as she continued to survey the trees, but her extended hand erupted into a ball of fire for a split second before immediately extinguishing itself. "Are we finally done with show-and-tell?" Amelia asked.

Sarah's cheeks flushed once more in embarrassment and she hung her head against her chest as she followed the rest of the group towards the heat signature that Daniel had spotted. When they were about twenty feet away from the monster, which Sarah could just barely make out as a demogorgon, they came to a halt and crouched down beneath the undergrowth.

"All right, you guys know the plan," Amelia whispered to Hazel, Sam, and Daniel. The three immediately spread out upon her signal and Sarah moved to follow when Amelia stopped her. "No, you stay here. Wouldn't want princess to get hurt."

"But I can..." Sarah began to argue, but before she could finish her sentence, Amelia had already crept away. She was resigned to watch from the bushes as the rest of her team circled the demogorgon.

Sarah's view was limited through the branches and the leaves, but what she could see was incredible. Catching the demogorgon off guard, Sam used her powers to lift it fifteen feet into the air. Its claws ripped through the sky as it tried to fight against the forces levitating it, but its thrashing was quickly subdued by Hazel's abilities as he lured the demogorgon into a sleepy state. As Sam dropped the demogorgon back onto the ground, Amelia blasted it with a wave of fire that singed it from head to toe. Its limbs shriveled from the intense heat, curling up into itself as the last of the flames burnt out.

Sarah was about to break out from the branches and join her teammates in the clearing where the slewed beast now laid, when a drop of something warm and wet hit the side of her neck. A look of disgust warped Sarah's face when the gooey substance stuck to her fingers after wiping it away, but that look of disgust was quickly replaced with a look of fear when she glanced up to find the source.

A demogorgon was towering over her, its monstrous claws only inches from her head. It sniffed her twice before leaning back and screeching into the air.

"Oh shit," Sarah whispered to herself.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late," Dustin apologized with a sheepish smile as the door slammed shut behind him, announcing his presence. Everybody waved their hello, but Dustin was immediately distracted by a new scent that made his stomach rumble. "Ooh, is that food?"

"Well, now that everybody is here I suppose we can begin," Sarah announced as she made her way to the front of the living room.

The rest of the party fanned out around her, sitting either on the couch, folding chairs, or the floor. Hopper preferred to stand off to the side and lean against the wall and Jonathan stood next to him with a sleeping Barb in his arms. Dustin joined from the doorway with a hot dog in each hand.

"I know you guys will probably have a lot of questions, but I think it's just easier if we wait until the end," Sarah continued. She was excited to see everybody but she had been rather nervous about this part. She knew that they all wanted answers, and to some extent deserved them, but there were a few parts that she wasn't quite ready to divulge with them.

"First and foremost, it's so great to see you all again," Sarah said with a smile. "There were times where I never thought this moment would be possible. I'm also very sorry that I wasn't able to reach out sooner and let you guys know that I was still alive. I tried several times, but my portals were...uncooperative."

"We understand, sweetie," Joyce spoke for the crowd. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Sarah's eyes instinctively shot to Hopper in the back corner and she was relieved to see him give a small nod in agreement. If anybody deserved answers and apologies, it was him.

With that part out of the way, Sarah attempted to move on with the rest of her story, but she found the words getting stuck in her throat as she surveyed the group of people sitting before her. Ten years really did a lot to a person. She knew that she probably looked different to them, but they also looked different to her. And somehow, also, exactly the same.

Max still had her telltale blazing red hair that flowed down her back in wavy curls, and her bright blue eyes were still as inquisitive and enigmatic as ever. But her face had matured more than most, giving a sharp definition to her cheeks and chin that caught your eye.

Lucas's midnight-colored eyes and dark, curly hair hadn't changed, but he had grown out of his lanky teenage phase and into quite the muscular young man. His smile had also somehow become more blinding and Sarah could easily see how it continued to captivate Max.

Mike's curly hair had become even more wavy and wild, spilling over his forehead and down to his shoulders. But his pointed features and his slender stature had remained the same, making him one of the more easily recognizable members of the bunch.

And lastly, Dustin had perhaps changed the most of all. He had grown out of his cleidocranial dysplasia, stretching out his face and giving him an even larger, and more wonderful smile. But Sarah could still see the Dustin she knew in his beaming blue eyes and in the tips of his hair that defied the copious amounts of Farrah Fawcett hairspray to maintain their corkscrew curl.

Sarah's face was quickly consumed with a giant smile as she took in the new appearances of her old friends.

"Um, anyways..." Sarah began to say once the smile had broke enough for her to speak again, but she was cut short by the sound of the front door slamming open and a new guest joining the group.

"Uh, shit, sorry," Steve apologized as he attempted to re-right the door after it smacked into the wall.

Sarah felt her whole body freeze. She couldn't feel a single finger or toe because all the warmth flooded from her limbs to her cheeks, nearly coating her vision in a red tint from the rosy glow that emanated from them. She stood there helplessly as a tidal wave of old feelings drowned her heart and mind.

The first thing she noticed was his giant, goofy grin that lit up his entire face and made his dark eyes glow bright. Next was his chiseled jawline that drew your eyes in and kept them locked in place forever. And last, of course, was each strand of hair that flowed into a flawless dark wave around his face.

And she had thought he was mesmerizing then.

"Steve," Sarah whispered, fighting against her frozen body to move her lips.

Before Sarah could say anything else, Steve had his arms wrapped around her and was clutching her tightly against him. She slowly melted into him, allowing her arms to gradually climb up his back and latch onto each other and her head to drop onto his shoulder. Everything...the warmth that emanated from his body, the smell of his cologne, the way his body molded against hers...was better than any of the dreams that she had had about this moment.

Sarah could have held on forever but a cough from Lucas broke the two apart. Steve took a couple steps backwards until he found the couch and sat himself down on the arm.

"Sorry for the interruption, please continue," Steve apologized, giving Sarah a thumbs up.

"Um...uh...as I was saying..." Sarah said, dropping her arms to her sides when she realized that they were still raised in the spot that they had been during the hug. She coughed into her fist a few times and shook her head to try to get her line of thought back, but she couldn't stop thinking about Steve.

"What happened after you sent me, dad, and Steve back to Hawkins from the Upside Down?" Eleven asked, helping Sarah to find a starting spot. Sarah gave a small nod towards Eleven as thanks and Eleven responded with a smile.

"James, the Mind Flayer, was destroyed," Sarah answered. "Along with the Upside Down."

"What?" Max exclaimed.

"Holy shit," Dustin said between bites of a hot dog.

"I knew it..." Will whispered to himself, his hand instinctively moving to the back of his neck.

"But how?" Mike asked after the round of surprised murmurs died down. Even though Sarah had requested that they wait to ask questions until the end, the naturally inquisitive group couldn't help it.

"The Upside Down was created by a powerful individual," Sarah began to explain. "Their residual power was what made James into the Mind Flayer. When James attempted to merge me with the Mind Flayer, I was able to access some of that power and kill James. In the process, I somehow killed the Upside Down as well."

"Damn," Steve whispered with wide eyes.

"Badass," Max smiled in awe.

"How the hell did I miss all of this?" Nancy muttered to herself.

"So where did you go after all of that?" Hopper asked next, pushing himself off the wall to take a few steps forward.

"A dimension called Helia, or as I call it, 'the Diagonal'," Sarah answered after taking a deep breath. This is where the story got dodgy. "It's an advanced dimension full of super-powered individuals that runs parallel to our own."

Sarah neglected to add that it was also where part of her, Eleven, and James came from because doing so would mean that she'd have to explain Diane, and she still wasn't ready to do that yet. Not without talking to Hopper alone first.

"Whoa, so you lived with aliens?" Dustin asked after swallowing the last of his hot dog. His body was partially turned so that he could sneak back into the kitchen for a second helping when nobody was looking.

"They're not aliens, doofus," Lucas retorted. "Aliens come from outer space."

"Well maybe that dimension exists in outer space," Dustin snapped back.

"Do you even hear yourself? That's absurd!"

"It's been ten years but they haven't aged a day," Max muttered to herself as she rolled her eyes.

The squabbling continued for another five minutes until Hopper finally broke it up. "ENOUGH!" Hopper's shout echoed around the room. In a much calmer tone, he added, "Let her finish."

Sarah nodded her thanks to Hopper before continuing the story. "After that, I was stuck in the Diagonal. Every time I tried to open a portal back to you guys, it sent me somewhere else. I'll admit, I did give up for a while. I started to accept that the Diagonal was my new home. I worked to help clear other dimensions of escaped demogorgons and demodogs, and then when that was finished, I continued to travel between dimensions to obtain research for the Diagonal. I never stopped thinking about you guys, though. Not for a single day."

Sarah took a deep breath to stabilize herself as she felt a traitorous tear attempt to escape the corner of her eye.

"How were you able to finally get back?" It was Steve's turn to ask a question, and when Sarah locked eyes with him, she felt the drop of water finally break loose and roll down her cheek.

Sarah continued to stare into Steve's eyes, oblivious to the tear, as she answered, "It was time."

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