First question: 

When does a child become a weapon?

Maybe it was when they were carried through the door of Hawkins National Laboratory. Brought through a psychological barrier that stripped them of their humanity. Or maybe it was before that. When drugs mutated them in the womb? When their mothers signed up for the program that would eventually give them their powers? Maybe it was even further back, beginning when the Indigo Program was only a spark in Doctor Martin Brenner's mind. 

Or maybe that was the wrong way to go about it: maybe there was a process. The door began it. The tattoos, the shaved heads, the powers – they all continue it. They, as alchemy turned lead to gold, transformed child to weapon. 

That was Seven's theory, anyway, and of all of them he seemed to understand the best. After over two decades in Hawkins National Laboratory, his transformation had been long complete. He was no longer their greatest weapon (Assuming he ever had been. Seven hardly believed that) but they found other uses for him. They handed him a name, a lab coat, and a mission: control the test subjects. They'll trust you, Brenner explained, You're one of them. They had done it before, they could do it again (They would do it better this time.) Oh, yes, Seven was a weapon. Just a different kind.

Second Question:

When does a weapon become a child? 

Ten was only twelve. Twelve long years of testing and dehumanization. Papa always seemed to like her the least. She was a replacement. A well timed copy of test subject number Nine, who had been broken years before Ten was even born. But what good is a replacement that is weaker than the original? So they pushed her harder, punished her worse, did everything to show her what she was worth: nothing. Nothing except the ways they could use her powers (One day she would be replaceable. One day there would be another.) 

It worked, for a while. It worked until the incident.

Ten didn't know what happened. One minute she was sitting in her room, waiting for another test. The next alarms were blaring. As the laboratory was ripped apart by an unseen monster, two of their weapons – Ten and Eleven – fled unnoticed. And after that it didn't matter what happened (At the time it didn't matter, anyway, Ten would later realize her mistake.) What happened was that they were on their way to freedom. On their way to becoming children. 

Cast

TEN 

Sennia Nanua

SEVEN

"Oswald Campbell"

Jamie Bell

GAGE LOOMIS 

(Young) Clancy Brown

ELEVEN

"El"

Millie Bobby Brown

WILLIAM BYERS

"Will"

As Described

MICHAEL WHEELER

"Mike"

Finn Wolfhard

LUCAS SINCLAIR

Caleb McLaughlin

DUSTIN HENDERSON

Gaten Matarazzo

with

JOYCE BYERS  ⸻ Winona Ryder

JIM HOPPER ⸻ David Harbour 

NANCY WHEELER ⸻ Natalia Dyer

JONATHAN BYERS ⸻ Charlie Heaton

STEVE HARRINGTON ⸻ Joe Keery 

Author's Notes: 

We're so back!! I've been out of the Stranger Things fandom for awhile (And tbh I'm still not really back in it, because I don't really vibe with the fandom's current obsessions) but I was re–reading Firestarter recently and that finally got me back into writing. 

I know I probably could have just started off with season 4 in my original version, but I decided to go for a re–write. Firestarter is a very old book – at least by the standards of my time on Wattpad – and, most importantly. My writing's old and, most importantly, the plot has become increasingly convoluted as I've had to adjust season to season. I think season 4 was really the breaking point for me, because it totally re–wrote the test subject lore (I'm sorry, but there's no way all hat was as planned as they claim it was, it totally contradicts what was previously established. The most I can accept was they were planning for One to be important in some way.) With season 5 coming out this year (Allegedly, tbh with the lack of updates I wouldn't be surprised if it got pushed or something) and the show officially ending with that, I figured this was the perfect time to make a final re–write. All the cards on the table. 

Really quick explanation for Will. Noah has technically apologized, but also it was a very "I'm sorry you felt that way" apology so I'm still recasting. I'm just bad at recasting, so I don't have an actual replacement. If someone has ideas, share and I'll change it if I like it, but until then...just imagine your preferred Will recast with a bowlcut (The bowl cut is important! I don't care if some people think it's ugly, I actually like it because it fits Will's character, and honestly I respect "ugly" but period accurate costuming far more than when it's more modern to keep characters "attractive.") (I should probably recast Murray, since Brett Gelman was honestly worse than Noah was, but this will be the only mention of it because I don't care enough about Murray to even put him in the cast list.) 

I did consider being more creative with other members of the cast but uhhh that didn't happen. Mostly because I wanted to use show gifs and didn't want to have to work around multiple characters. Will's easy enough b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶D̶u̶f̶f̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ but I didn't want to push my luck. 

Also, heads up, this is going to be big AU, especially when it comes to the Hawkins Lab. If I didn't make it clear enough from my above comments, I hate how they handled the test subjects in season 4. I'm keeping the bones of it – mainly the stuff with Henry/Vecna/One because it's so important to the plot (And also I kind of like it) – but the rest is built from the older lore. There's some overlap on the test subjects' powers (Nine's pyrokinesis in the comics is very similar to Ten's thermokinesis, and apparently the actor for Four in the show asked if her character could be telepathic, which is cute so I'll allow it) but it's not just a bunch of El clones. I also kept the characters and plot from the SIX and Into the Fire comics, with some changes to fit my timeline betters. (The main change is pushing their escape to be a lot earlier, so it's no longer at the same time as Terry breaking in, and El wouldn't have even been born yet. There's also so changes around ages – a lot of them got older, basically they're more spread out.)

I also kind of combined the way they got the test subjects and how many. According to the wiki there's 18 total test subjects, and I admit I used to be very attached to El being the final test subject but now that I think of it I kind of like that? The comics took the route of the test subjects being taken because of later developing powers and only El was kidnapped from her Mom, but I don't like that explanation for all of them. So I went with the idea that Two to Six were "natural," found because the lab was looking for more people like Henry, then by Seven (Our boy Campbell) they had started getting the MKUltra kids. The rest had their powers induced in some kind of way then where taken very young, either at birth or soon after (I imagine Kali was taken the oldest of the non–volunteer group because her mom went to London before she even knew she was pregnant.) 

Also, I changed the reasoning behind why El (And Ten) doesn't remember Henry or the massacre, because the "stroke" explanation felt very...convoluted. Even as far as excuses for "totally planned" last minute plot points go, it still just feels off. I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers, but I think my previous readers can guess were I'm going, and I think you'll like it (And by "you'll like it" I mean you'll want to rip my spleen out but you know. Author things. <3)

Sorry for the lore dumb, I'm just very excited. Also it's really different from canon, so I'm trying to avoid people getting confused. Aside from that, I do plan to introduce new plot lines with the test subject in season 3 and 4, but that's something you're going to have to wait for until then. This book is season 1–3, and then Firelight will be 4–5. Because season 4 is long and apparently 5 is going to be just as long, so hopefully that's a good split. 

OKAY ONE FINAL NOTE: I rated this story mature, but I do plan to keep everything at relatively canon levels. It's just that canon levels means a lot of body horror and the Vecna plot is a whole suicide metaphor, so I'm just playing it safe here.