kyle

Eleven stands in the portal, the shimmering chaos of the upside down deteriorating is behind her. Everyone who was looking for her just a second ago, happy for her escape from the military is stunned. They do not understand. If she is there, she will get destroyed too, why would she be there? Why?

Mike howls in pain, “El! No!” His screams fall to deaf ears. He is distraught beyond belief. How could she do this? What about their future together? One where they’re all free and happy, unrestrained by the horrors that have been following them for so many years. Mike cries, his anguish breaking his voice as he continues to scream.

Max wishes for nothing more than her legs to move, for her voice to fully work, to express to Jane, that what she is doing is useless… Max curses her body, the betrayer. In her fantasy she runs to Jane in this moment, holds her hand, pulls her out. Hugs her tight. “You are loved,” she says, “and that is freedom.”

A single tear rolls down her cheek.

Will understands. He doesn’t accept it, however. He looks on to Jane, catches her gaze looking back at him. “Jane…” he whispers, “don’t…” She smiles at him. It’s a sad smile. He realizes that he hasn’t seen a genuine smile from her in so long. He cannot live with himself if he can’t ever see it again…

Hopper bends his head down in disappointment. He can’t believe she is making this choice. She doesn’t need to, doesn’t she understand? He will be here for her, always, they can be happy together, away from all this bullshit. Once this ends, they can finally be happy. A happy family. Him and his daughter. His disappointment burrows in his bones, deep and rotten. He couldn’t save her. Again.

Everyone hears Purple Rain by Prince playing in their heads. It’s an… interesting choice of soundtrack for the moment, but no one really has any capacity to question it. Not when Jane is so close, yet so far. Alive, but not for long. For a moment everyone looks at Mike, who seems to be talking to himself. Then everyone chooses to ignore Mike.

Jane waves her hand. She knows the end is near - Prince just started singing the bridge of the song. “Huh, the bridge,” she murmurs to herself, “how ironic.” She looks on to her friends and her enemies, hand still waving. Imagines herself the Queen of England before her final moments. She doesn’t really know who that is, but she imagines it must be someone important, who would die in the year 2023. She lets herself cry. She lets herself feel it all, for it will be the last time.

“WAIT!”

A voice, a recognizibly slimy voice, screams at Jane. She opens her eyes, ones she didn’t know were even closed and lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She looks at this person. At Doctor Kay.

“JANE, WAIT,” Doctor Kay’s voice is filled with emotion - desperation, it seems - as she slowly lugs her body toward the portal. No one had dared to even come close to the portal and the girl standing in it, for a good minute, despite the military having strict orders of capturing the girl. Later, the military men would say they couldn’t, because it was for the plot convenience.

Jane stirs at the desperate note of Doctor Kay’s voice, something about it sounding so familiar. It was like Mama, she thinks to herself when she was screaming my name at the lab.

“Mama?” Jane tentatively says, looking at Doctor Kay. Prince is still singing the bridge, don’t worry about it.

Doctor Kay stops. “Girl, what? Obviously not,” she says in a tone, that makes it seem like she maybe does not want to approach and save Jane after all. But she takes another step forward regardless. Her gaze softens. She looks on to Jane, staring deep into her big brown eyes. “You’ve always had such an active imagination, you know? It’s crazy these fools,” she dramatically waves her hand over the thirty people standing around the truck, all of whom are Jane’s friends? Doctor Kay isn’t so sure, “never invited you to play America’s Top Selling Table Top Roleplaying Game Dungeons and Dragons trademarked!”

“How…” Jane’s voice breaks from the emotion. She herself isn’t sure what emotion. Perhaps confusion or disembodiment from reality. “How do you know they never did? Only… only my diary knows that…” She mumbles to herself.

“Oh, you silly girl.”

Doctor Kay is right in front of the portal now, standing in front of Jane. They look at each other deep in the eyes. It’s almost a staring contest.

Doctor Kay raises her hand to the top of her head. She grabs her perfectly styled grey hair by the bangs and pulls. Oh my… It was a wig this whole time?

However, that’s not the part that shakes everyone the most. Doctor Kay… she’s…

“Bald?” Hopper says, finally looking up after having a long moment of feeling bad about himself and considering blowing himself up once he gets back home.

“But only one person can be bald,” Dustin adds.

“It’s her.” Max puts the details together. “It’s Eleven slash Jane slash Kay!”

“Slash the Mage,” Mike, who is still talking to himself, crying and holding his arms out in front of himself, like a third grader at a school dance, adds randomly.

“You’re me?” Jane holds out her hand through the portal. If the bridge were to collapse now (it won’t, Prince is still singing) all that would be left behind would be her right arm. And she knows Mike would keep it (maybe like an anime pillow, but she’s not entirely sure what that is).

“I am… I always have been. I’ve been trying to save you, Jane… Me.” Doctor Kay’s eyes are filled with tears.

“But Kali… She said you… You were keeping her hostage!” Jane gets loud as her anger and frustration slip through, “You took her blood! And the women? The pregnant women?” Jane suddenly halts, her expression stricken, “Oh shit, the pregnant women… We forgot to save them…”

Doctor Kay laughs, “Ah, Jane, hilarious as always!” She holds Jane’s hand in her own. “Don’t you understand? Kali was never there! Kali is the friends we made along the way!” She smiles and wipes Jane’s tears, reaching into the portal. “And the pregnant women? Don’t worry!”

Jane sniffles. “Okay.”

“Shall we go, now?” Doctor Kay coaxes Jane, pulling her hand to get her through the portal. Jane yanks her hand free.

“No!” She says, crossing her arms. “If I leave now, it will all be for nothing! You’re me! You must understand!” Jane is the one desperate now.

“My friend, it will not be for nothing if you believe.” Doctor Kay smiles, looks back at the gang, who are still glued to their X spots near the truck, “And I, for one, believe.” She says so with her whole heart.

“I believe,” echoes Will.

“I believe,” repeats Lucas.

“I also believe,” through a heavy fog of tears says Hopper.

“I believe,” Max smiles.

“I believe,” Dustin holds out his hands in a heart formation.

“But I don’t understand!” Screams Mike, still lost in his own delusions. No one bats an eye anymore.

“I believe,” say Joyce and Steve in unison. Have they ever interacted before? First time for everything - they look each other and smile.

“I believe,” says one of the military men, one who never really got to feel included in anything - bullied throughout all of his childhood years, his high school girlfriend leaving him for his dad, who was not only an absent parent but also a supervillain.

“I believe,” says the Byers’ family dog, back from the dead for the final season.

“I belieeeeeeeveeeee,” sings tone deaf Tammy, the biggest celebrity in Hawkins.

Jane smiles. She looks at her friends and enemies with fondness. She understands now, “I believe,” she says, stepping through the portal to the normal boring ass dimension of real world and hugs Doctor Kay. “Thank you, old me. But I’ve gotta ask - why Kay?”

“Kay, for cool,” Doctor Kay responds, wiping the tears she didn’t know she was holding.

“Oh my!” Jane laughs, “I guess I never was good at spelling!”

Everyone laughs, including all the military men. Prince laughs too - his song long done. The upside down explodes. Diana Ross’ song Upside Down also gets deleted from reality.

Everyone runs to each other, jumps up (including Max, whose legs suddenly work) and high five.