"Last one, you ready?" Amelia asked, looking to Sarah for confirmation as they stood facing a blank wall in Diane's office. 

"I'm ready," Sarah responded, meeting Amelia's eyes with a look of determination and nodding her head. She glanced over her shoulder to Daniel and her other two teammates who had taken Sam's and Hazel's spots, awaiting their signal. Once they each nodded their heads, Sarah faced back forward.

"Best of luck," Diane called from behind them, a warm smile spread across her cheeks.

"You will all do great," Adam added from where he stood beside Diane.

With their words, Sarah focused on a scratch in the paint and envisioned the holographic picture that her mother had shown her only moments ago. A whirring portal stretched open before them, encapsulating the team as they stepped through one-by-one.

Sarah went through the portal last, taking time to prepare herself for the destination on the other side. This mission, their last mission, brought her to a place she hadn't seen in a long time: New York City.

A large park met them on the other side, the trees only partially blocking out the hustle and bustle of city life beyond its edges. A sparse number of people milled about, leisurely passing them by without even noticing that a group of five people had just appeared from out of nowhere. Their tunnel vision kept them focused on the mundane lives they were stuck in, not knowing or caring that their world was so much bigger than they could imagine.

Sarah only barely remembered the life she had had here once upon a time; before the Lab, before the Upside Down, before the Diagonal...So, so long ago. It wasn't Hawkins, but it still had a sense of familiarity that brought a smile to her face.

"It's this way," Daniel announced, pointing towards a small, unkempt path that disappeared into the trees.

"How do you know it's the creature and not another person?" Rachel, one of the newer team members, asked.

After Sam and Hazel had passed, the team experienced a few changes throughout the years. Team members came and went, either of their own accord or something else's, but the core members remained the same: Sarah, Amelia, and Daniel.

Sarah and Amelia never became close friends, but they trusted each other to get the job done. After their first mission together, Amelia slowly came to recognize that despite the Earthly blood running through Sarah's veins, they were both one and the same. She had Sarah's back and Sarah had hers and that's all that mattered.

"Different heat signature," Daniel answered, leading the group across the park.

They didn't really need a team of five for this mission since they were tracking a lone demogorgon, but it was ceremonial. They had been through a lot together and they wanted to kill the last demogorgon as a team.

"Leo, you're up," Amelia announced, looking to the other new team member.

Leo jogged to the front of the group and glanced around once to make sure nobody was watching before turning invisible. The team listened for his footsteps as he cautiously followed the path of the demogorgon up ahead of them. His ability allowed him not only to physically disappear, but his scent and heat signature also became undetectable. The demogorgon wouldn't be able to sense him coming.

After five minutes, Leo reappeared in physical form before the group. "It looks like it's sleeping or resting or something," Leo informed the group breathlessly, his eyes darting around to each of them in turn.

"Let's go," Sarah instructed, taking the lead as the team made their way towards the demogorgon.

As Leo had said, the team found the demogorgon sleeping in a small cave dug beneath the roots of a towering tree. It began to move when they arrived, their scent stirring it from its slumber.

"Now!" Amelia shouted as the demogorgon emerged from its cave, towering over them with its sharp claws and teeth.

The demogorgon roared in pain as Sarah struck it with her electricity, momentarily stunning it before Amelia threw a ball of fire at it, immediately lighting it in a fierce blaze. It staggered around before them, attempting to get rid of the flame that was eating it alive, but the fire was too much and eventually the demogorgon succumbed. Rachel used her abilities to douse what was left of it and the surrounding plants with water before the whole park went up in flames.

"Nice job, team!" Daniel shouted with a smile, throwing his hand up in the air for the others to high-five.

The group took a moment to celebrate the success of their last mission before Sarah opened a portal back to the Diagonal for them to return home. As with their arrival, Sarah was the last to step through.

Amelia stopped when she noticed that Sarah had not moved from her spot. "You coming?" she asked.

Sarah stared off into the trees, her mind stuck on one thought: Hawkins. For the first time in a long time, she was finally back in her dimension. All it would take for her to get back to Hopper, Eleven, Steve, and the rest of the party was a bus ticket. In a few days she could be reunited with the friends and family she had never forgotten. She was so close.

But like her mother said, it wasn't time.

Sarah took one last glance around the area before turning back towards Amelia and the portal. "Yeah," she said. "I'm coming."

"A demogorgon?" Hopper asked with a confused look as Sarah and Steve stood before him. They had rushed back to the house immediately after taking down the demogorgon to warn the others, who were still huddled in the living room around the TV. "But there hasn't been a demogorgon in Hawkins for ten years."

"There shouldn't be any at all," Sarah explained. "My team and I killed every last one that had escaped the Upside Down before its destruction."

"Is it possible that it wasn't a demogorgon, but something else?" Joyce asked.

Sarah contemplated this but ultimately shook her head no. "It may not have acted like one, but it looked just like one. I don't know what else it could have been."

"It's dead now though, so that's what's important," Steve announced.

"But if there was one, there could be others," Will pointed out, making Steve's face drop.

"I should probably get home to check on Quinn..." a pale-faced Steve said as he slowly turned towards the front door. He gave the group a wave before disappearing through the door and a somber look settled on Sarah's face that only Eleven seemed to notice.

Eleven moved to stand closer to Sarah, offering her a reassuring smile and softly squeezing her hand. Sarah smiled back at Eleven until an uninviting thought entered her mind and dropped the corners of her mouth back into a frown.

"This all seems too coincidental..." Sarah said to the group.

"What do you mean?" Joyce asked.

"There hasn't been a demogorgon in Hawkins for ten years and then I come back and suddenly one appears, when they're all supposed to be dead, no less?" Sarah explained. "Something else is going on."

"What do you think it could be?" Will asked.

"I'm not sure..." Sarah replied, rubbing her chin with her hand as she contemplated possible answers.

"Whatever it is, it can wait," Hopper spoke up, turning all eyes towards him. His mouth was set in a firm line and he had a serious expression on his face. "Tonight is family movie night."

"Jim, aren't you at least a little bit worried?" Joyce asked incredulously. "There could be a new threat in Hawkins!"

Hopper's expression didn't change and he crossed his arms to further prove his point.

"No, he's right," Sarah agreed with a sigh and a small shake of her head. "We should remain vigilant but for now it seems to be neutralized. Until something else happens, there really isn't much for us to do. And I did promise that we'd watch some Westerns when I got back." Sarah looked to Hopper with an apologetic smile, cracking the serious expression on his face into a matching grin.

"El, would you do the honors?" Hopper asked and Eleven eagerly nodded her head before rushing over to the collection of VHS's stacked on the shelf beneath the television.

After a thorough examination of her choices, Eleven finally settled on High Noon and the group cozied in to watch. Joyce passed around bowls of popcorn for everyone and Hopper even shared his case of beer. It was shaping up to be a perfect night. But the whole while during the film, Sarah's thoughts were constantly nagged by a hovering problem and surprisingly, it wasn't the demogorgon.

"Dad, can we talk for a second?" Sarah whispered to Hopper, who was sitting beside her in his armchair.

Hopper glanced towards the screen before answering, "Sure, of course."

Sarah and Hopper quietly exited the living room, trying not to disturb the others, but Joyce watched them curiously as they left.

"What did you want to talk about?" Hopper asked once they made it to the hallway.

Sarah hesitated for a second, unsure how to broach the topic that she wished to address with him. How was she supposed to tell her dad that she had been secretly living with her mother for the past ten years and that her mother wasn't who he believed her to be? But she had to do it. Despite how difficult she knew the conversation would likely be, he deserved to know and she felt bad keeping him in the dark.

"It's about mom..." Sarah began, her eyes darting around the hallway in an attempt to avoid Hopper's inquisitive gaze.

"What about her?" Hopper asked in confusion.

"It's...I've..." Sarah stammered, struggling with the words that would come next. But she didn't get the chance to finish her sentence because just then, somebody filled the silence for her.

"Sarah."

Sarah's head snapped toward the end of the hallway where she found a woman standing in the fading golden glow of a rift behind her.

Sarah immediately looked to Hopper for his reaction and found a look of bewilderment sewed into his features. His thick eyebrows knit together and his mouth hung open in a crooked gasp.

The air between the three became heavy, so heavy that Sarah didn't speak for fear that her words would sink soundlessly to the ground. She also felt as if it wasn't her place to be the first one to talk. That right was reserved for someone else.

At last, Hopper broke the silence with one word: "Diane?"

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