July 4th, 1985
AVEN COULD BARELY FEEL HER fingers. By the amount of punching to the gut, slapping to the cheek and knocking to the head she had taken, she shouldn't have been surprised. As she was being dragged to wherever the Russians wanted her, she tried to get a grip of her senses to attempt to locate where in the underground facility she was. However, it was no use, as her blurry sight couldn't even make out the colour of the walls.
She was led into a room similar to her other one, except it was bigger - much bigger. She felt like she could finally breathe. They tied her back up to another chair against a wall, her head drooping as the guards left her to sit by herself. She could have tried something, looked around to find a sharp tool to help get her out, but she couldn't even lift her head. She would need something more worrying to appear if she wanted her energy back.
Luckily, or not so luckily, that something did appear. She saw the Russians pull another person into the room, their outfit having colours so bright that she could register them without having to try. It was clear to her that they were knocked out, having been dragged across the floor until they were tied up on the opposing wall. It was then that Aven got her energy back.
Steve Harrington was knocked out, sitting across from the girl.
"Steve! Steve, wake up!" Aven shouted as soon as her eyes had blown wide. She was struggling against her bound wrists, leaning as far forward as she could to try and get closer to the boy she loved. "What did you do to him? Tell me!"
"The same thing we did to you. You pests kept on lying," one of the guards spat at her, creeping closer as his accent grew thicker and thicker.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Aven cried, throwing herself back into her seat as the guards stepped closer. "Steve and I work in the mall! We didn't mean to-"
She got cut off by a slap to the cheek, again.
"Stop with the lies. We're bringing you two a doctor," he muttered with a smirk before exiting the room, the other guards following him after sending a glare to the two teens bound in the chairs.
Around three minutes after the Russians had dispersed, Steve had woken up. With a groan and a wince in pain, he'd blinked away the light and tilted his head up, his eyes landing on a bloody and bruised Aven.
"Jesus, Aven, what happened to you?" He questioned softly, still trying to push away the drowsiness as his sole attention focused on the girl in front of him.
"The same thing that happened to you," she replied back just as quietly, meeting his piercing eyes as she shuffled uncomfortably in her metal chair. "The guards couldn't get the truth out of me, even when there's no truth to tell."
Steve stifled a laugh, shaking his head as he eyed the blood dripping from her lip. "They're idiots. They thought I was lying too."
"Guess this proves I'm stronger than you, huh?" Aven tried lightly, smiling through the pain bursting throughout her lower face.
"Not a chance," Steve quickly declined as he looked around the room, trying to find an easy way out.
"Are you okay? I know you won't be physically, but like- mentally, are you doing all right?" She asked genuinely as she leant forward once again, tilting her head to the side as an act of sincerity. He'd picked up on that after the night everything had gone south, or north in relation to their relationship. She always tilted her head when she wanted to speak seriously - wanting to talk to the person's emotions, not façade.
Steve was about to answer, but the door flying open interrupted him from doing so. In walked the guards, Steve immediately clenching his jaw and narrowing his eyes, as the Russians from the base stalked into the room with smirks and sinister smiles lurking across their lips.
"You need to tell the truth," one of them began, stepping forward to be in-between the two teens, "or you'll get the special needle to help you."
Aven glanced to the side as someone walked into the room, a tray full of medical equipment sitting on top of the board as he wheeled it to the back of the room. She knew they had other plans. She knew they wouldn't use them like they were designed to.
"We've told you the truth," Steve started as he leant forward against the rope behind his back, peering into the eyes of the lead Russian with pure hatred. "We're innocent. So, let us out of here, or we will find a way to throw you in jail and end whatever project you think you're doing down here."
They ignored the angered boy by turning around to face Aven, disregarding the shouts and pleads from Steve for her safety. The man with the metal tray full of different doctor's utensils fiddled with a bottle full of a sparkling, blue serum, one that both the tied-up teens could see. He poured it into a needle, sharpening the end before approaching the Hargrove daughter.
"Don't touch her!" Steve shouted as he pulled roughly against the harsh rope, feeling the jagged material cutting through his sensitive skin.
"Then speak," one of the Russians instructed as they all turned towards the boy, watching as he relaxed upon taking the attention off his visibly scared girlfriend.
"You broadcasted your stupid code all over Hawkins," Steve started with spite, lowering his brows with disgust. "We heard it and cracked it - in a day. A day. You didn't do a good job at hiding it."
Aven watched from across the room as Steve confessed their story to the Russians, noticing how he didn't make eye-contact with her at all. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't do anything with the ropes restricting her every movement.
"Who knows you're here?" They questioned deeply, a chorus of the men speaking up from their placement around the boy in the sailor's uniform.
"No one," he whispered with a grin, laughing as he finally looked across at the nervous girl before him. She furrowed her brows with worry, not understanding what had gotten him to be so hysterical, but before she knew it, the lights around them were flashing.
All the Russians instantly ran out of the room, kicking up the dust lathering the floor as Steve and Aven stared at each other with confusion. They didn't know why the sirens were screeching, filling the silence of the underground lab, but they could only guess it had something to do with their saviours.
Much to their surprise, their thoughts were interrupted when Robin, Dustin and Erica sprinted into the room, the teenage boy holding up an electric wand as he flailed it around in front of him.
"Oh, no one's in here," he whispered to himself as he dropped the taser on the ground, reaching for the knife on the doctor's tray before beginning to cut away at his two friends' bound hands.
"We're so sorry it took so long. We tried hard, really-" Robin started as she stood in-between the two beaten teenagers, her eyes glancing at them as she spoke her passionate apology.
"Robin, it's fine," Aven smiled, closing her eyes as she groaned in pain. As soon as Steve and Aven's wrists were untied, they ran towards one another, pulling each other into a hug.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything," Steve apologised as he ran a shaky hand through the girl's soft hair, being wary of her wounds as he held onto her in the middle of the room.
"Steve, it's okay. I couldn't help you either," Aven uttered gently as she pulled away, pressing a kiss to Steve's forehead. It was the only area on his face without a speck of dried blood.
"You missed," he teased.
"Come on, lovebirds. We don't have time for this," Erica complained from her position by the door, tapping against the rim of it whilst Dustin and Robin ran past her. The pair quickly nodded, following after the others as they made their way through the Russian base uncaught.
Once hopping onto one of the bright red carts, Dustin and Erica drove the three teens towards the elevator, much to the dismay of a terrified Steve. They made it into the familiar room, travelling up to the surface and into the centre of Starcourt Mall once again.
That was only the start of the horrid, life-changing events that took place on the fateful July night of 1985.
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