THE FEELING CAME QUITE SUDDENLY, LIKE A FLASH OF HOT WHITE AGAINST HER MIND, AND WAS GONE JUST AS QUICK. She stopped her watercolour abruptly, paintbrush dying against the paper. She dropped it back into the glass filled with water. The painting was of a cabin, trees stretching around the edges of the wood house. It was homely and comforting. She knew that she used to live there. A tire swing hung aimlessly in the background. Two parents stood out the front, as if calling to her. The mother had a mass of blonde hair which curled around her face. She was standing next to a tall man, who Sar knew was her father. He was wearing the brown outfit she'd seen in her memories, the ranger's hat sitting on his head. Their faces had been left blank.

She placed her book down and turned away from the desk. "Steve." He looked over at her. "I feel something."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Feeling as in, that sensing thing you do? Like with energy?" She nodded. "Is it the monster?"

"No," Sar said. "Much more powerful. And it wasn't darkness. There was just a spike of it then." She hopped off her chair. Sar walked across his carpet, bare feet careful to step over the mess of book she'd left around. Steve was still sitting up on his bed. Duran Duran was playing softly from the corner. Sar began to pull on her boots. She slipped on her jacket and tied her hair back. "Come on, let's go find it."

"Um, Sar? Is that a good idea?" He swiped up his car keys quickly as she strode out the door. "Hey, Sar!" He ran to catch up with her. She spun on the spot and extended a waiting hand for his keys. Steve stared at her for a moment before he gave them over grudgingly. Sar just raised her eyebrows at him as she slipped into the driver's seat. "Why are we going towards the powerful energy?" he asked her.

Sa tapped her fingers on the steering wheel and started the engine. "Just trust me," she told him. She reversed out of his driveway.

"And you're sure this thing isn't the monster."

She looked over at him. "What did I just say? Trust me, Steve. Finding this kind of power is rare. I'm pretty sure there's only one thing which can produce it." She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. She could only hope it wasn't another lure.

Before long they were at their destination. The keys were pulled from the ignition and Sar jumped out of the car, door slamming beside her. She pulled her beloved jacket down again, straightening it. The Hawkins Middle School towered in front of them. Sar began to stride towards it. The power was spiking again. It was incredibly powerful for such a far range, and strangely familiar.

Steve followed her. "Why are we at the school?" She ignored his words, pushing through the open doors. He raced to catch up with her, eyes darting around. "Sar, I'm skipping! You'll get me in trouble!" She didn't respond, eyes scanning the hallways for something only she could see. Sar was striding down the halls as if in a trance. She was stumbling, head twisting around as she walked, searching for the signal. The feeling was growing stronger, that was sure. She paused for just a second, to locate where the power source was. Steve stood beside her, peering at her carefully with furrowed eyebrows. A shrill bell sounded from above, ringing throughout the halls. She looked around them at the noise. "Is that the fire alarm?" Steve looked up, glancing around.

Then Sar started running. Her feet skidded against the ground as she bolted past the lines of children making their way out of their classrooms. They turned to her with watching eyes, wondering why she was running further into the school, rather than out of it.

A woman grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop. "Miss, where do you think you're going?" the teacher was staring at her.

"Sorry, got to go." Sar yanked her arm from the lady's grip and skidded down the corridor.

"Miss! You get back here! What's your name?" Sar only picked up her pace. The blonde ducked around the corner and continued to run, past the gym and the kitchen.

At some point, she'd seemed to have lost Steve. She could only assume he'd been caught by the same teacher who had been trying to catch her. It did appear the school may be on fire, after all.

Sar came to a stop in front of a door. There was no doubt that the power was coming from inside here. It was like a giant magnet, drawing everything with a mind advanced enough to sense it towards it. And if Hawkins' Lab had somehow found a way to monitor this energy...

Sar glanced down at the sign. 'Audio Visual Room'.

When she tried on the door handle, she found it was locked. She pushed against it again a few times for good measure. Steve was just jogging around the corner as she took a step back.

Sar kicked the door open. Three boys jumped at the action, one throwing a fire extinguisher to the side as if trying to be inconspicuous. It crashed into a metal shelf and knocked over a pile of books. He winced. They seemed to be standing around some kind of massive radio system. The three looked guilty, if not the slightest bit afraid. There was a blonde girl in the chair, sitting back with blood running from her nose. She stood up instantly as Sar burst in.

Sar just stopped.

"Sar, what on earth?" Steve pushed into the room, coughing at the fumes rising from a recently used fire extinguisher. He covered his mouth. "What's going on?"

The girl continued to walk up to her, brown eyes blinking slowly. Memories were radiating off this young girl like smoke. They filled her senses with pain and betrayal and loneliness. Sar imagined, that to another mind reader, she would feel the same. Sar couldn't help but receive glimpses of this girl's mind. She saw hospital beds and dressing gowns and hissing cats, and a familiar looking room with white walls, white floors, and a white door.

They stood with their faces inches apart. The girl was clearly wearing a blonde wig, now that Sar was closer to her. She had a pink dress on, and haunting eyes that Sar would remember forever. With cautious movements, Sar reached forward. Her fingers grazed over the blonde wig, securing itself at the side. With a simple tug it fell from the little girl's head. It had been buzzcut to the scalp.

Sar had already known. The moment she'd stepped inside this room with the girl, she'd felt the immense power radiating from her. One that only could be coming from one of the children of the Hawkins Lab.

Then, she took the younger girl's left arm and pulled it forward, tilting the wrist upward. She was aware of the others watching her. She took the sleeve and pulled it back, revealing the cream of the girl's skin and the number '011'.

Sar's face instantly crumpled. She'd been young. She'd been so young when they'd left. It had been their plan— it had been their plan to take her too. They'd have taken all of them if they could... But plans had never worked out the way they wanted to for them. Eleven took this action as an invitation to do the same to Sar, exposing the matching ink tattooed on her wrist. El stared at it blankly for a moment. To their left, each of the boys' mouths were hanging open, and Steve was staring with wide eyes. Eleven's eyebrows were furrowed as she looked up at Sar with her dark, haunting eyes. "Sister?" Eleven asked her, almost uncertainly. She held a hope in her gaze which reminded Sar of Katie.

Sar's mouth twisted into a bittersweet expression, and if someone had looked in the right light, they would have seen tears hiding in her eyes. "Yeah," she whispered. "Sisters." She wrapped her fingers in Eleven's and knelt down, pulling the girl into a hug. She felt like home. Sar had her face pressed against Eleven's head. "I'm so sorry, Eleven," she whispered, pulling back with the younger girl still in her arms. Eleven seemed to not understand what she was talking about, a blank expression on her face. "We were going to take you with us when we escaped. That was the plan. But... but Brenner took you, and—"

"Papa?"

Sar let out a bitter laugh, full of loathing at the mention of what he'd tricked them into believing. "He's not your father, Eleven. You have a real father out there somewhere." She placed a hand on Eleven's cheek. "But Brenner, he took you," she continued. "We didn't know where you were, and when the time came... we just had to leave. I'm so sorry that we left you in that place." Her glassy eyes were searching Eleven's for any sign of forgiveness. She let her hand fall away from the girl's face. "Can you forgive me?"

Eleven gave her a simple nod.

Sar let out a short breath and pulled Eleven back against her chest, a small smile on her lips. Eleven was smiling too. Sar's arms curled behind the younger girl in a loving hug.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." The curly-haired boy raised his index fingers. "Hold on."

Steve had his arms crossed. "Yeah, I have some questions too."

"What the heck is Steve Harrington doing here?" the dark-skinned kid exclaimed.

"You're El's sister?" asked the boy with the dark hair. He was standing up straight, looking at them with lowered eyebrows.

She sat up at this, knees still curled beneath her. Eleven had taken it upon herself to stay clung to Sar's middle. Sar was smiling at her affectionately. "Not biologically," Sar said. "But we grew up in the same facility. In the... lab." Eleven's cheek rested against her chest. "I haven't seen her in three years."

This seemed to set them off again. "So do you have crazy powers too?" one of them was yelling. Another was yelling something about superheroes. There were too many voices for her to answer at once.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Steve was stepping in front of them. "Give them some space, alright?" He was glancing back at Sar. "Just one at a time, okay?"

Sar was still holding El. "Thanks, Steve, it's okay. And yeah. Telepathy. More mind control than the telekinesis Eleven has. I can do things in people's heads."

"Like Jean Grey!"

"Prove it!"

"She doesn't need to prove it, Dustin! Eleven can move things with her mind!" the pale-skinned one yelled.

"She slammed one door!"

"And found Will!" Mike countered. "So she clearly has superpowers! They're like the X-men." He stated this as if it were a fact.

One of them threw his arms up in the air. "So now there's two weirdos!"

"Shut up, Lucas!"

Sar was just smiling. Eleven was shifting in her lap, face in the older girl's neck. She was mumbling something softly, something about "the bad men" and "papa" and "sister". Her hands were curled in Sar's shirt.

The kids were still yelling at each other. "Lucas! Stop talking about them as weirdos!"

"No!" he gestured both of his arms to them. "There are two now!"

"I'm telling you, it's the X-men!"

•°•☆•°•

i love the kids so much. yes so we get a little sar, eleven reunion. sar left three years ago, remember, so that was when el was only 9. 

i honestly love writing this story so much and i hope everyone enjoys reading it just as much.