"Diane," Sarah repeated, her brows furrowed in suspicion. She was still seated on the coffee table where she had tripped, Quinn hovering over her, but she had already anticipated every move that Quinn could possibly make and planned a response for each one while Quinn was recounting her story. She was ready for anything. Or at least, she had been up until that surprising revelation. "My mother, Diane. She helped you to escape?"

Quinn simply nodded her head in response, her expression calm but her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Sarah's head was swimming, or more accurately drowning, in thoughts. Trusting her mother had always been a struggle at best, but she never thought Diane would actually do anything to hurt her or the ones she loved.

"What's the point in telling me all of this?"

"A couple reasons," Quinn answered as she began to pace in front of the coffee table. "First, to let you know that you can't use James' mind control abilities against me. I know you've been thinking about it." Quinn paused to wag her finger with a sly smirk. Her eyes then narrowed as she leaned down to look directly into Sarah's eyes. "Hello James, I can see you rattling around in there. I'm sure you remember our last meeting?"

"Shit. I think she's onto us."

Sarah quickly pulled her eyes away so that Quinn couldn't see how much this information unsettled her. She didn't like using James' ability to control others but it was at least a small comfort to know that she could use it as a last resort. Now she didn't even have that option.

"Even if you don't make eye contact with me I can still get a general sense of what you're thinking," Quinn remarked after she noticed Sarah avoiding her gaze. "It's not always as clear, especially if I'm further away, but I can pick up on emotions and intentions if they're strong enough."

"Good to know," Sarah muttered.

"As I was saying," Quinn continued after clearing her throat. "I also told you all of this so that you'd understand that we're not so different."

Sarah's eyes gravitated towards Quinn's and for a split second she envied Quinn's ability to read minds. She wanted to know exactly what Quinn meant by that, exactly what she was thinking.

"I'm not sure I'm on the same page as you," Sarah replied quietly, her body tense.

Quinn smiled like it was obvious. "You know, abused and experimented on by Dr. Brenner and the Lab, abandoned by shitty mothers...hell, we even have the same taste in men."

Sarah nearly jumped upon Quinn in that moment but she restrained herself. She needed more answers and Quinn would see it coming anyways; if not in Sarah's mind, then on her face.

"I don't understand, what do you want?"

"I know you think I'm your enemy, but I'm not," Quinn answered, her body shifting as she spoke. Her shoulders slumped and her muscles untensed. She looked tired. "Am I mad at you for destroying what was left of my father? Yes. Do I like you? Not particularly. But I need you."

"If you're not my enemy, then why didn't you come clean from the beginning? Why lie about who you are?" Sarah had thought she'd figured it all out, but more curveballs kept coming at her and she was getting dizzy trying to catch them all. "And why kill Mark and recreate the Upside Down? That doesn't seem like the actions of somebody who is not my enemy."

"Like I said, Mark wasn't personal," Quinn replied with a sniff. "And there's a timeline to these things, I'm simply following orders."

"Whose orders?" Sarah demanded, steam nearly pouring out of her ears. A red, hot rage suddenly filled her and it was like keeping a lid on a volcano. But Quinn didn't need to answer. And Sarah didn't need Quinn's mind-reading abilities to know the answer. Because she already knew. "My mother's," Sarah said at last, the anger vanishing as quickly as it appeared. All the steam evaporated and suddenly she felt very small.

Quinn gave a small nod, the look on her face almost sympathetic.

"Why?" Sarah asked once she found her voice again. "Why would she do any of this? Have you do any of this?"

"I'm getting there," Quinn promised, waving her hands to calm Sarah down. "First I have a question for you. Do you know why the veil between Hawkins and the Upside Down was so thin?"

Sarah shook her head no.

"Because this was where it all started," Quinn explained, her arms sweeping across the space. "My father was assigned to come here, to Hawkins, from the Diagonal. This was where he created the Upside Down and where the Upside Down will be reborn."

"I won't let you," Sarah snapped, some of the anger returning as she straightened her back and balled her fists at her sides. "I won't let you destroy Hawkins and everyone I love."

"Let me?" Quinn asked in disbelief, a small laugh escaping her throat. "It wasn't me who created the Upside Down around your father's cabin."

Sarah's head snapped up towards Quinn in surprise. "But you said Malcolm was dead..."

"And I didn't lie about that," Quinn replied. "He is dead. That is why I need you."

"I didn't...I'm not..." Sarah stammered, unable to form the right words. If it wasn't Quinn or Malcolm that recreated the Upside Down, then it was..."Me?"

"My father's residual power was in the Upside Down. When you took it in to help you destroy the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down, did you really think that it just magically disappeared? It wasn't just James' abilities that you absorbed that day. All that's left of my father is in you."

"You're telling me that it was me who recreated the Upside Down," Sarah repeated, the words numbing her tongue. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, she couldn't understand. "but how? I was in a pocket dimension with Mark...I was changing him back...I..."

"I don't entirely know how it works." Quinn shrugged and crossed her arms over her body. "I think my father's abilities are somehow tangled with James' abilities since you absorbed them both at the same time. Whatever the crazy scientific reasoning, I was told that when you use James' abilities, you tap into Malcolm's abilities as well. When you used James' abilities to turn Mark from a monster back into a man..."

"...I created the Upside Down around the cabin," Sarah finished for Quinn.

"Exactly."

Despite the waves of information that pulled her under and pounded her into the earth, Sarah finally felt the strength to stand. Quinn took a few steps back but Sarah got the impression that it wasn't because she was afraid, but rather to give Sarah some space to breathe, to come to terms with everything she had just learned.

Once Quinn felt content that Sarah had some time to comprehend everything, she continued. "Diane told me that there's a way to get my father back." Before Sarah could even open her mouth to speak, Quinn instinctively raised her hand to stop her. "His ability allowed him to create anything, even living people. With his power, his essence, maybe...maybe you can bring him back."

"By recreating a hellish nightmare landscape filled with monsters using a power that I didn't even know I had until now and have absolutely no idea how to control?"

Quinn sighed, wiping her face with her hand as her curls shook back and forth. "Like I said, I don't know how it works. Only what I was told. But I last saw my father in the Upside Down. He came to me in a dream or a vision or...something. I don't know. He told me that I'd fix things, that I'd do what needed to be done and what needs to be done is to bring him back. And maybe you can do that, maybe recreating the Upside Down is the first step."

"I..." Sarah began when Quinn cut her off.

"Wouldn't you do anything for your dad?" Quinn snapped, her glare burrowing into Sarah's eyes, tunneling deep into her mind to root out the truth.

"I would," Sarah admitted, an image of Hopper's face filling her mind and grounding her back in reality. "I just...this...this is dangerous. This is risky. People could get killed. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around why you weren't just honest with me in the first place. Why you had to date the man I love just to get near me, to get inside my head?"

Quinn opened her mouth to answer but Sarah spoke before she could. "And don't just say it's because you were following orders. You had a choice."

"I'm not saying that I like your mother's plan," Quinn explained, her voice cracking as the dam keeping back her emotions began to break. "I bawled my eyes out after I killed Mark. But I did it because there is only one path that leads me back to my father and I'm not going to step a toe out of line if it means I'll risk being able to see him again!"

Sarah wanted to scream but instead she sighed, expelling every last ounce of air until her lungs were nearly empty. When they refilled, she asked, "My mother, where is she? What's she going to do next?"

Quinn's lips remained firmly shut but her watery eyes looked like they wanted to spill. "There's one more reason I told you all of this."

"And why is that?"

"To distract you."

Sarah's arms fell to her sides, her fingers once more curling into fists as she took a step towards Quinn. "Distract me from what?"

Quinn bit her lip until it bled in an effort to hold back the tears, but she still choked on her words as she spoke. "You need to find Steve."

☆ ★ ☆

The bell above the door of Harrington Real Estate rang twice in the following ten minutes. Once as Quinn exited and once as Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max entered.

Eleven rushed in first, prepared to fight Quinn and protect her sister, but there was no one to be found. Harrington Real Estate was empty.

"Shit, we're too late," Mike exclaimed as he entered after her, followed by the rest.

"Where could they have gone?" Lucas asked, his eyes sweeping the room for any signs of Quinn or Sarah and finding none aside from the scrapes on the hardwood floor where the coffee table had been pushed towards the couch. Dustin and Will spread across the small space, investigating for themselves, while Max opened the door to the back offices to check for anyone behind it. A click of the door and a small shake of her head signified to the rest of the group that like the front half, the back half was also vacant.

"Do you think Sarah is okay?" Dustin asked, setting down the lamp he had been looking under with a defeated sigh. "For all we know, Quinn could have turned her into a stapler."

"Of course she's okay," Mike replied immediately, resting a hand on Eleven's slumped shoulder as he shot a dirty look towards Dustin. Mike turned Eleven to face him and continued. "It's Sarah. She's kick-ass. She's survived the Upside Down and demogorgons and the Mind Flayer, she can handle some punk with powers."

Eleven offered Mike a small smile in thanks, her downcast eyes flickering up towards his for a brief moment before they fell back to the floor.

A tinkle from the bell above the door captured the attention of the group, announcing the arrival of two more people: Hopper and Joyce.

"Where is she?" Hopper demanded, his breath ragged, his face red and then blue and then red again as the flashing lights of his truck illuminated the group through the window. "Joyce called me right after you called her. What's happening?"

"It's Quinn," Eleven answered, her mouth taut and her brows creased as Quinn's name passed through her lips. "She lied to us. She's a subject from the Lab. We think she's working with Malcolm or for Malcolm or something. However she's involved, Sarah is in danger and we need to get to her."

"But where is she?" Joyce asked, her hand gripping Hopper's. "How do we get to her?"

Eleven's eyes darted between her friends and family as she tried to think of a solution but her mind was all clattered, her thoughts rippling like TV static. TV static! "The void. I can use my abilities to enter the void and to find her," Eleven answered, a confident smile plastered across her face.

☆ ★ ☆

The residual sparks of light from the portal burnt out, leaving Sarah in the dark. In her pursuit to find Steve, her portal had led her to the side of a lonely and unkempt road winding through a patch of woods. Why Steve was here, if her portal had even led her to the right spot, Sarah couldn't fathom. But wherever she was, she wasn't alone. A 1995 BMW M3 was planted in the ditch before her, its front bumper wrapped around a sturdy oak.

"Steve?" Sarah called out, her heart hammering in her chest as she took cautious steps toward the vehicle. She hoped with everything in her that she'd find a stranger in the driver seat, but the custom license plate on the back of the vehicle that read, "STVFTHR" confirmed the owner. "Steve!"

Nobody responded.

Sarah continued towards the front of the car, each step becoming heavier than the last. "Steve? P-please," she cried, her voice cracking and her knees wobbling as she slowly sank lower and lower. "please answer me."

Still no response.

Within the next step, Sarah knew why.

A scream ripped through Sarah's throat but it was silenced once it mixed with the cool night air. Sarah stumbled backwards, trying desperately to distance herself from the scene before her, but she tripped on her own foot and fell to the hard ground. "Steve," she choked, his name coming out in a whisper.

She tried to force her eyes shut, to look away, but she couldn't blink, she couldn't even move. She could do nothing but stare at the mottled and broken body of the man she loved, splayed out on the hood of his car in a pool of his own blood. The lower half of his body was still lodged inside the car, framed by a halo of broken glass, and his glossy eyes stared right through her, immortalizing the fear he had endured during his last moments.

Steve was dead. And it was her fault.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★