The strong wind from the Mind Flayer's limbs whipped One's hair across her face, wrapping blonde tendrils around her eyes and making it difficult for her to see. Not that she needed her vision anyways, since she was still consumed in darkness. The only light came in the form of streaks of lightning that zig-zagged across the sky every couple of minutes, illuminating the menacing form of her monstrous friend.

"This isn't you, James!" One called up to the beast. Her voice had to fight to break through the powerful wind emanating from James' new form.

"You're right," James answered, but it didn't come from the Mind Flayer, it came from inside One's head. "This is better than I ever was."

"I used to love you," One said, but this time her voice was a faint whisper. She felt tears slipping down her cheeks as she realized that James had never actually been in Hawkins. Everything, from when she had rescued him to when they reunited, had been an illusion; a lie. He really had died all those years ago.

"I never stopped loving you," James responded once more inside One's mind.

This time James' voice was calmer and for a split second One thought she heard the boy she had befriended at the Lab all those years ago; the kid she had shared all her fears and aspirations with, the one she had laughed and cried and fought monsters with. But now he was a monster. And the voice she thought she heard was just a ghost whispering in her ear.

"We could be together forever, you know," James' voice filled in the gap after One's thoughts had ended. "Once you merge with this form, you'll be with me. You'll be more powerful than you could ever imagine. Don't you want that?"

"No!" One shouted in disgust, her nose scrunched and her eyebrows narrowed. "I would never want that!"

"Well, you will after time," James responded.

One of James' limbs stretched out over One and began to spiral down upon her, the wind sucking her hair up into its own blonde funnel. One leapt out of the way before the tentacle could slam down upon her and she landed on the rough pavement, letting out an injured moan. She felt the ground shake upon the limb's impact and watched the road crack and splinter in multiple directions.

"Like I said before, I wanted this to be easy," James' voice continued inside One's mind.

Another one of his limbs barreled down and One was just barely able to roll out of the way before it struck. "Did you ever know me to make things easy?" One answered between huffs as she tried to regain her breath. She pushed herself to her knees and glared up at James.

"You know, my original plan was just to take you after I lured you to the Upside Down to save me," James informed One. "But then I saw you through the window of the Byers' house and old feelings emerged. I wanted you to willingly join me and I thought that the best way to do that was to spend more time with you, to remind you of what used to be...Clearly that didn't work."

"Clearly," One disdainfully agreed.

"What does he have that I don't?"

One had just made it to her feet when his question nearly toppled her over again. "What? Who are you talking about?"

"Steve," James answered. "Why do you love him more than you loved me?"

"Maybe because he has a human body and he isn't trying to kill everyone I love..."

James responded by smashing another tentacle down on her, but yet again she was able to evade it. It was getting more difficult, however, and the cuts, scrapes, and bruises that she had accumulated from the fight at the Lab were on fire. She didn't know how much longer she could keep it up and she didn't know how much James was actually even trying. She assumed that a prerequisite for him merging her powers with him was that she had to be alive.

"Fine," One answered after spitting a strand of hair out of her mouth. "I don't love one of you more than I loved the other. It's different. When it was you and me, it was you and me, you know? You were the only one I had and we went through so much together. But with Steve, I'm not constantly reminded of my past. I can actually think about my future, about my happiness. I can be the person I was supposed to be."

"You think this is who you were supposed to be?" James scoffed, the anger in his voice beginning to elevate once more. His shadowy form moved closer and One could feel the winds pick up. "A weak, pathetic human? I'm offering you so much more! I'm offering you unbelievable power and a realm of your own to rule! How could you turn that down?"

"I never wanted my powers!" One yelled up at the mass of inky blackness. She felt a lump form in her throat and she had to push past it before she could continue speaking. "They're a constant reminder of being taken from my family, of the pain and torture I endured for years! I'd give them up in a heartbeat if it meant that I got to see my loved ones even just one more time!"

"Well, lucky for me, I never had anyone to give mine up for," James responded.

Some of One's anger melted away after hearing the pain in James' voice. "James."

One knew he wasn't lying about this or trying to trick her. That pain was genuine. Even back at the Lab, James had been so adamant about never seeing his family again. He had clung to the narrative that they had abandoned him and she couldn't entirely blame him, because for a while, she had believed the same thing about her family.

"James, it's not too late! We can find your family, you can be happy!"

"Haven't you been listening?" James growled as he whipped one of his limbs over One's head and sent it crashing into the building next to her. Chunks of cement, bricks, and other loose debris came raining down over One's head and she had to bolt across the street to safety. "That's what I'm trying to do! I'm trying to get to the Diagonal so that I can obtain more power, and then I'll be happy!"

One ducked under another one of James' limbs as it crashed into a shop and forced her way against the strong winds to the middle of the street. She pushed aside the fear that was shaking her limbs and stood tall before her foe, her tiny figure almost glowing against the backdrop of his giant, shadowy form. "I can't let you do that," she said determinedly with a fixed look on her face.

"I'm no longer giving you a choice."

One felt a particularly strong gust of air blow past her and turned her head sharply when a brick exploded into dust against the wall behind her. One's eyes traced the direction the brick had come from and at the end of the path she found Eleven with her arm extended out towards her and a drop of blood pooling on her upper lip.

"El, El, listen to me," One begged. Another brick narrowly missed her head but she was able to duck just in time. "He's controlling you, you can push past this!"

Eleven didn't respond and One watched in shock as her sister raised a piece of cement the size of a car from one of the buildings that had crumbled into pieces over her head. One's eyes widened and she prepared herself for the imminent impact, but before Eleven could hurl the deadly mass towards her, one of James' limbs slammed into the ground inches away from One. She fell to the pavement just as Eleven pushed the giant cement block towards her and it flew into the theatre, which immediately caved in on itself in a loud explosion of dust and debris. The letters from the marquee scattered on the ground and spelled a new message: "hated".

"Please, El, it's me!" One implored. She was still splayed out on the ground and Eleven was moving closer to her, her hazel eyes glowing with an unfamiliar fire that burned everything in its sight. "It's your sister!"

"Give up, One," James' voice once more entered One's head. "You and your sister will be merged with me and together we will find the Diagonal and use its inhabitants to rule every dimension in existence."

"Never!" One yelled.

"Now, who shall go first?" James asked, ignoring One's cries of disapproval. "Eeny, meeny, miny...Eleven."

"No!" One screamed and watched in horror as Eleven stopped moving towards her and instead turned towards the Mind Flayer. With every step Eleven took, One could feel her heart beating in her throat.

One of James' limbs slowly lifted from the ground and began to hover over Eleven. Eleven just stood calmly underneath the chaos enveloping itself around her, not even flinching when random debris that got sucked into the cyclone struck her. One tried to force herself to her feet but the strong winds coming from the Mind Flayer kept pushing her back down. She tried to open a portal beneath Eleven's feet but the debris circling around Eleven made it difficult to focus on a spot. She was powerless to save Eleven...or was she?

One thought back to her previous fight with James in the Lab and how her own electricity had stopped James' control over her. Would it work on others as well? "Sorry El," One whispered to herself as she channeled the energy within her and thrust it towards Eleven.

The blast of energy latched onto Eleven and she fought against the blue currents convulsing her body to remain standing until she eventually gave in and collapsed to the ground.

One held her breath waiting for Eleven to move as what felt like an infinite amount of time passed by. Had she used too much electricity on her? Had she killed her own sister?

"What have you done?" James asked in surprise, his swirling limb freezing in place over Eleven's crumpled body.

"Come on, El...come on, El..." One whispered to herself, her eyes watching Eleven's figure intently for any sign of life.

Eventually Eleven stirred and One let out a huge sigh of relief, but she knew it wasn't over yet. It wasn't clear to One yet whether the electricity had actually canceled out James' control over Eleven and either way she still needed to get Eleven out from underneath his grasp. "Eleven!" One called over the deafening winds in an attempt to attract her sister's attention.

Eleven looked over to One and a huge smile broke across her face. "Sarah!" she shouted back.

One couldn't help but smile herself because now she knew that James was no longer controlling Eleven. "El, get out of there!" One instructed Eleven as she aggressively pointed up at James' still-frozen limb.

Eleven noticed the threat just in time to jump out of the way as the tentacle came slamming down. One used the last of her remaining energy to crawl towards the spot where Eleven landed. She could feel the blood soaking through her jeans as the rough pavement scratched up her knees but she didn't care, she needed to get to her sister.

"El!" One called out again as she finally closed the distance between the two. She latched onto the hand that Eleven extended towards her and held on tight. A single tear formed in the corner of her eye that matched the one in Eleven's and a collective smile appeared on both their faces.

"Can you open a portal to get us out of here?" Eleven asked after their moment of joy had passed.

One nodded her head and tried to focus but her concentration was broken by a rushing sound above her head and she looked up to see another one of James' limbs coming down towards them. One was able to push Eleven out of the way but it didn't allow her any time to save herself. She was just barely able to hear Eleven's scream over the deafening wind as the living cyclone pressed down upon her.

One braced herself for the impact, for the crushing blow that would use her body like a cookie cutter in the pavement, but it never came. Was this part of the merging that James had been talking about? Or was she already dead?

When she had calmed down enough to feel warm breaths leaving her nose and a beating rhythm in her chest, she concluded that somehow, she was still alive and still her. One peeled open her eyes that she had instinctively clenched shut to see what miracle had saved her.

With a bright red river of blood flowing down half of her face and brows furrowed so tightly they threatened to tear her features in two, was One's savior. Eleven.

Eleven held a strong stance with both arms extended over One. A silent scream escaped her open mouth and One's own mouth mimicked Eleven's expression as she looked up to find James' limb fighting against an invisible force that was slowly pushing it away from them.

"You won't be able to hold this forever!" James seethed. His message was for Eleven but One could hear it in her mind too.

"Leave. My. Sister. Alone!" Eleven yelled between heavy breaths. It was evident that this was quickly draining her and One knew she had to act fast.

One rolled out from under the shadow of James' tentacle to rush to Eleven's aid. The wind had died down enough for her to get to her feet, but it was still a battle to move them.

"I've had enough of this," James growled. "I only need one of you."

With this, two of James' other limbs ripped through the sky and came barreling towards Eleven like missiles locked on target. Eleven was defenseless to stop them because her powers were focused on stopping the one above her from crushing them both, but there was somebody else who could. Right before the appendages could make impact with Eleven, a portal opened up on either side of her like whirling shields. The two limbs entered the voids and were immediately severed when the portals closed upon them. The Mind Flayer reeled backwards in shock and a terrible noise echoed within One's and Eleven's minds as James screamed in pain.

"Come on, let's go!" Eleven shouted, grabbing One's hand to pull her along while James was distracted.

One turned to leave with Eleven when she stopped to look back at James. He was still stumbling around, trying to regain balance from the sudden loss of two of his limbs, but the limbs were growing back quickly and it'd only be a matter of time before he was at full strength again. Snippets of what he had said about killing and taking over dimensions ran through One's mind. Even if she escaped, she knew that he wouldn't stop. Unless somebody stopped him first.

One sighed a deep breath and looked back at Eleven with watery eyes. "I can't," she said.

"What? Why not?" Eleven asked in disbelief. The ground trembled beneath their feet as the Mind Flayer stomped about angrily, knocking over buildings and power lines.

"Somebody has to stop him," One explained. "Permanently."

Eleven turned to face One and took both of her hands in her own. She looked into the eyes of her big sister with a trusting smile and wiped away a tear that had escaped down One's cheek. The two girls stared at each other for a moment before Eleven broke the silence that had seemingly enveloped them despite all the chaos happening around them.

"Then we do it together."

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