Worlds Colliding (Stranger Things) Book Four

chapter 3 - Fine Line Between a Monster and a Hero

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Same Night - Day One

Night - Reefer Rick's Place - Outside

Hailey, Dustin, Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Robin and Max were about to leave the shed, where Billy and Eddie were still hiding out to stay hidden from the town.

When Nadia heard a helicopter in the sky and saw the lights shining around, she immediately knew who it was. "Shit! Back inside, back inside!"

The group backed away into the shed to hide from the helicopter's lights.

"What's going on?" Eddie asked. "I thought you were gonna look for who died."

"There's a helicopter right outside," Dustin answered.

"Not just any chopper," Nadia told them. "Colonel Sullivan's helicopter."

"The guy that's been chasing you and Niko?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, the guy we've been luring after us so he doesn't find El, or find out about Hailey and Ruby," Nadia answered.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ruby asked.

"Guessing about Vecna and Mirage's victims," Hailey answered.

Billy rolled his eyes. "Are we really gonna call them that?"

"Yes," Hailey and Dustin answered.

Steve shook his head. "Don't fight them on this. They always win about what to call these things."

Billy let out a sigh. "Fine."

"Do you think they know Nadia's here?" Robin asked in concern. "Or that they could be looking for Ruby, Hailey, Billy and Eddie too?"

"More than likely," Max answered.

"Fuck," Ruby whispered. "There's no way we can go looking for the next victim, is there?"

"Not tonight," Steve answered. "Can't take the risk with the military government out there."

Hailey was completely frustrated and hopeless after what just happened to her again. "So what the fuck are we supposed to do?"

The others looked at Hailey in concern, knowingly.

"We go home, regroup, find out what to do in the morning," Nadia answered. "We can't be out on the street and risk being caught."

"That's your idea?" Dustin asked skeptically.

"It's the best one we got to make sure that Nadia, Hailey and Ruby aren't caught," Max pointed out. "Or Billy and Eddie."

"They're right," Robin agreed.

They all knew that was true, sighing heavily in worry.

Billy reached out to catch Ruby's hand to get her to look at him, looking from her to Max. "Hey." Ruby and Max looked at him. "You two be careful."

Ruby smiled softly, while Max was relieved to finally get to a place like this with her stepbrother.

"We will," Ruby told him.

"You too," Max told him.

Billy nodded. Ruby turned to go with the others, but Billy pulled her closer. Ruby turned to Billy, as the two looked each other in the eyes, both hating how this had to keep happening to them for reasons they didn't know. Ruby leaned closer to kiss Billy for a brief, but passionate and painful moment, which he returned.

Max looked at them sadly, while the others were sympathetic.

Ruby and Billy pulled away.

"I'm gonna fix this, no matter what the fuck I have to do," Ruby told him.

Billy smirked slightly in amusement. "Well, you managed to fix possession with the Mind Flayer, so I don't doubt it."

Ruby managed to chuckle. "Yeah, but that one had too close of a close call with both of us almost ending up dead. Let's hope this time doesn't end up the same."

Billy nodded in agreement. "Let's."

The group had to wait for the helicopter to be gone before risking going outside.

Hailey looked at Nadia. "Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

"No," Nadia answered. "I was gonna try a motel or something, but..."

"Don't be ridiculous," Steve told her. "Our parents are out of town like usual. You can stay the night at our place."

Nadia looked at Hailey and Steve, only slightly surprised, not all that much, nodding in agreement. "Okay. Thanks."

Hailey and Steve nodded.

Dustin and Robin were keeping a look out.

"All right, I think the chopper's gone," Dustin told them.

"If we're gonna leave, now or never," Robin told them.

Hailey, Steve, Nadia, Ruby and Max nodded in agreement.

Dustin, Hailey, Steve, Nadia and Robin snuck outside.

Ruby backed away from Billy, letting her hand slip out of his as the two's eyes remained locked, and Ruby turned to leave with Max.

Ruby and Max glanced back at Billy and Eddie, who both nodded reassuringly, before Ruby and Max left with the others to head outside to Nadia and Hailey's cars, getting in, and driving away, having to be quick and careful and staying hidden to be sure not to be caught, not yet knowing that Sullivan was leaving the city to head out of state to visit one of the people on the inside of the American government that was keeping them safe.

∰

Ruth, Nevada

Sam Owens' House - Kitchen

Owens' wife was doing dishes in the kitchen, only stopping when she noticed that all of the dishes and pans started to shake and rattle.

When a rack of pans fell down onto the island counter behind her, she let out a gasp of shock.

Outside, a helicopter was arriving, the sound of the blades whirring audible from inside the house, revealing the chopper was the reason for the shaking and falling dishes, as a bright light shown in through the window in front of the sink, right into Owens' wife's eyes.

Owens' wife had to raise her hand to shield her eyes from the light of the helicopter outside.

∰

Living Room

Owens' wife went to wake him, as he was sleeping on a recliner. "Sam."

Owens woke up, seeing the blinding light shining in from outside, turning his head to look out the window next to him.

∰

Outside

The helicopter was Sullivan's, as it had flown straight here from Hawkins, as Sullivan had no idea that Nadia had been in Hawkins, or about Hailey and Ruby.

The chopper took landing as Owens and his wife watched from further up outside the house.

Sullivan stepped down from his chopper with a few men.

∰

Inside - Living Room

Sitting on his couch, Owens was looking through pictures of Chrissy and Aaron's bodies which Sullivan had given him.

Sullivan was sitting on a chair in front of him. "There were no signs of any attacker. No bruises. No signs of any struggle. It's as if their attacker was a ghost. Does this remind you of anything, Doctor?"

Owens shook his head. "No, it doesn't."

"Are you sure?" Sullivan asked.

"Why are you here?" Owens asked. "Really?"

"I'd like your opinion," Sullivan answered.

Owens pointed at him before lowering his hand after a second. "I was fired, in case you forgot."

Owens tossed the photos onto the table in front of him.

"A foreign government invaded our country, all under your watch," Sullivan pointed out. "There had to be consequences. Certainly you understand that."

Owens stood. "What I understand is that something--something is going on in that town that nobody... nobody fully comprehends. And I also understand that military strength is not the answer."

"So what is the answer, Doctor?" Sullivan asked. "More scientists? Because it was men of science, men like you, who created this problem in the first place." He handed Owens pictures of Nadia, Niko and Natasha, and one of Eleven. "Everything that has happened in Hawkins can be traced back to the Rostovs and that girl. Wouldn't you agree? Mikhail Ivanov, Sabina Ivanova and Martin Brenner trained them for this very thing. Remote assassinations. And I know there are more. At least two that we know about, but we don't know their names or what they're capable of."

"What you're suggesting is impossible," Owens told him, trying to cover for them and protect them like he always had since book two.

"Is it?" Sullivan asked.

"Natasha, Nadia, Niko and Eleven are dead," Owens told him.

"Nadia and Niko are very much alive," Sullivan told him. "I've been tracking them all across the country and outside of this country as well. They've created a large mess away from Hawkins, all over the place. Like they're trying to draw all the attention of governments, American and Russian alike, to them. Like they're protecting others like them. I believe one of them is Eleven, and the other, somewhere out there, Natasha. And did you know that Ms. Rostova has a brother? Nadyr. He's been believed to be dead for so long too, but like the others, Nadyr has his own powers, and has been laying low for at least 10 years, staying under the radar. But now he's been caught back in action. There has to be two more that have been in Hawkins considering the damage that has been caused last year. One created by the Russians, and one from before."

Owens was slightly flustered. "Nadia and Niko are hardly the enemies here, Colonel. And if Natasha, Nadyr and Eleven are alive, where have they been all this time, and if there are really two more, then who would they be and why wouldn't you know the names of them?"

"Nadia and Niko have made it clear they're not allies," Sullivan replied.

"Because you keep hunting them," Owen retorted.

Sullivan ignored that. "And there are rumors that Natasha is alive, that she's been dragged back to Russia by Mikhail to be put back into the program. I believe that more than anything. Nadyr is probably coming out of hiding to go rescue his sister from their father. Most likely with Sabina's help, since she was believed dead since the massacre at Hawkins lab, but she's resurfacing as well. There are rumors that Eleven is alive too, and that she and the other two are receiving help from someone on the inside. They all are."

Owens frowned, pointing from Sullivan to himself. "Are you saying I'm helping them? Is that what you're saying?"

Sullivan stood. "If I wanted to chat, Doctor, I would've picked up the damn phone. Now, you can make this easy and tell us where they are, or... we can do this the hard way."

Owens sighed, refusing to answer.

∰

Moments Later

Sullivan's soldiers were raiding the Owens house, trying to find anything that he had on the psionics.

A soldier grabbed a box from the bedroom, walking into the living room.

"Why are you taking that box?" Owens' wife asked. "Those are Peter's old school projects. You do not need those. Hey! I'm talking to you! Sam, do something."

Owens looked at his wife, but still refused to give up information on the psionics.

∰

Outside

Owens and his wife watched, in each other's arms, as the helicopter flew Sullivan and his soldiers away from their home.

On the helicopter, Sullivan spoke to his men. "I want to know everything he's done and everyone he's spoken to in the past year. And if we're lucky, he'll lead us right to the psionics."

Owens watched the chopper go anxiously in paranoia.

∰ Worlds Colliding (Stranger Things) ∰

Lenora Hills, California

Rink-O-Mania

The paramedics were here, treating Angela after being bashed in the head with the skate by Eleven. They were surrounded by Angela's friends and a crowd just looking to watch.

"Can you tell me your name?" the EMT asked.

"Um, Angela," Angela answered.

"Angela," the EMT repeated. "Do you know where you are, Angela?"

"Uh, Rink--Rink-O-Mania," Angela answered.

"Rink-O-Mania, very good," the EMT assured. "Now, where does it hurt, sweetie?"

"My head," Angela answered, whimpering, crying. "And my nose. I can't breathe."

Jonathan and Calliope were making their way through the crowd up to the scene, getting here after their brush with Mikhail's men and near deaths that day.

Calliope was wearing normal clothes instead of the mission outfit she had been wearing in 4.02.

Argyle also walked through the crowd since he was the ride for the Byers, Eleven and Mike.

Eleven, Niko, Mike and Will were watching Angela and her friends with the EMT from the back of the rink, far away from everyone else in a corner at a set of tables. Niko was standing, while Eleven, Mike and Will were sitting down.

Eleven looked down, not sure on how she was supposed to feel about all of this.

Jonathan walked in, finding the group at the back of the rink away from everyone, walking up to Eleven, Niko, Mike and Will. "Hey, you guys okay?"

"Not really," Will answered. "It's, uh, a long story." He noticed Jonathan's shoulder was bandaged and his shirt was stained from his blood. "What the hell happened to your shoulder?"

"Long story," Jonathan returned.

Calliope walked closer. "Mikhail Ivanov sent men to try and kill Jonathan and were going to send some after Will from what I heard, but I'm guessing the car that is being investigated by the cops across the street, the one exploded, is the one that the men were inside, so that saved your asses."

Niko was completely stunned to hear about Mikhail's survival from what Natasha and Nadyr tried to do to him, looking overwhelmed, breathing heavily, deeply. "Mikhail? He's alive?" Will looked at him in confusion and concern, as did Mike and Eleven. Jonathan, knowing that Mikhail was his grandfather but not knowing why he was having such an intense reaction, looked at him in concern. Calliope raised an eyebrow, even looking empathetic for this, no matter how the two felt about each other  already. Niko tried to keep himself together, his chest starting to feel like it was constricting, feeling breath start to be harder and harder to take in yet it seemed to rush out all too quickly, realizing. "He's the one that has Mama back in the program. Oh, my God."

"Niko?" Will asked in concern.

Niko had to sit down, trying to regain control of his breathing before it could completely get out of control with the news and realization. "Mama being back in the program, a prisoner, is bad enough. Mikhail being the one to have her there is a thousand times worse."

"I'd say," Calliope agreed. "But I'm guessing you're the reason why the car across the street got exploded."

Niko looked up, trying to focus on the conversation so his anxiety attack didn't go into a full blown panic attack, but it wasn't working very well. "I think so. Guess that explains what I did before I got here. Not sure how I can only use my powers during a psychic episode though." He glared at Calliope. "And what the hell is the crazy lady doing here with you, Jonathan?"

Jonathan held out his hand to try and keep the peace. "Niko, it's okay. She saved my life from Mikhail's men."

"Really?" Mike asked.

Calliope shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest, tilting her head, pressing her lips together with a nod. "Well, credit is where credit is due."

Will looked at Jonathan in worry but relief, as the two brothers shared a hug. "What the hell, Jonathan?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out myself," Jonathan admitted.

Eleven stood. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, El," Jonathan answered. Eleven and Jonathan embraced. "Had a little something to help with the pain."

Niko closed his eyes, trying to tune it out, but everything was building and building. The blood pounded in his ears. His heart thudded in his chest. His hands shook, and his feet tingled. When he opened his eyes, he found that his vision had disfigured, as if he were looking through a fish eye lens. He had to get away. He couldn't stay there any longer, yet he couldn't find the will to move his feet. He clenched his hands into fists and his nails dug into his palms. Breathing was getting harder and harder as seconds ticked away. As if he had just ran a marathon. He had instinctive tears burning in his eyes that he was unable to stop due to the panic attack, his chest growing tighter as bile rose in his throat. He raised a hand to his throat as if he felt like he was being choked, a pins and needles feeling trailing through his arms.

In Niko's mind, this felt like it was forever, while in reality, it was only seconds before Will knelt in front of Niko to try and calm him down. "Niko. Niko, hey. You're okay." Niko couldn't get his breathing under control, a few tears slipping down his cheeks. Will wrapped his arms around him, and Niko couldn't help but hold onto Will tightly, burying his head into the crook of his neck to try and hide from anyone watching, including Mike, Eleven, Jonathan and Calliope who all watched in concern, not knowing what to do to help, but wanting to help, though knowing if they tried to, it would only make it worse. Will tried to help Niko. "Try and slow your breathing. Come on."

Niko shook his head, gasping. "I can't. I can't."

Will stayed in front of Niko, hands on his shoulders to try and help him. "Shh, shh. Nikolai. Niko, look at me. Shh, look at me. Niko. You can get through this. What do you need? Concentrate on your breathing."

Niko grabbed at his head, holding his hair between his fingers. His gasping became louder and more desperate, bringing his hand to his throat, unable to breathe. He slammed both his hands down on the table, clawing at it with his fingers. "I can't. I c-c-I can't. I can't."

That was the only thing he could manage to say between sporadic gasps.

Will had Niko turn his head to look at him, very worried and trying very hard, desperate to help, thumbs resting on his cheeks as he cupped his face. "Niko? Niko, hey. You're here. You're here with me. Concentrate on your breathing, okay?" He took Niko's hand, placing it on his own chest. "Niko, can you feel that?" He began to breathe in and out, deeply and slowly to try to show him what to do. Niko continued to gasp but finally looked up at his palm on Will's chest. Will nodded reassuringly. "Okay, okay. Close your eyes and match my breathing, okay?" Niko closed his eyes tightly as his gasps continued. Will breathed in and out slowly, and Niko shakily began to match his breaths, still gasping, but Will began to feel him slowing. "Good job, Niko. You can do this." Niko's gasping slowly eased, still copying Will's breathing. Niko hid his face with his hands as he was absolutely mortified that that happened, but Will was still as reassuring as ever, both closing their eyes, as Will rubbed Niko's back to continue to calm him down. "Shh, shh, shh, shh. It's over, Niko."

Niko leaned his head on Will's shoulder, not knowing what else to do, but was thankful the attack was over, and that he had helped him through it and managed to help him stop it, like Niko had to do quite a few times during Will's recover from PTSD after what happened in the Upside Down and being possessed by the Mind Flayer. Niko was still horrified and in shock about Mikhail being alive, knowing that he had Natasha, and upset that the attack had happened at all, but Will's presence was enough to help him calm down after the attack was done. Will tightened his arms around Niko, gently and comfortingly; no matter what happened between them, Will would always be there for him and help him, as Niko would do the same, proven when he didn't even hesitate to come to California when he thought that Will used the watch to call for help.

Jonathan whispered to Eleven, Mike and Calliope. "I've never seen Niko like that."

"That should tell you how bad Mikhail is, and how bad it is that Natasha is with him right now," Calliope pointed out.

Will whispered to Niko. "You okay now?"

Niko nodded, still getting his breath back, but breathing easier now. Will stood, helping Niko stand with him. Niko wasn't steady, but Will helped him steady. Niko looked up at Will, looking embarrassed and ashamed because of having an attack like that in front of him, when he was always the one protecting and helping Will when they had been together, but was thankful to him for helping, even after their breakup and how it was handled.

Niko looked down, avoiding his gaze. "Thanks."

"Yeah," Will agreed softly, hesitating before he asked this, knowing that he was the reason that Niko had the attack. "Who is Mikhail?"

Niko swallowed. "My grandfather. I'll explain once we're out of here and to a safer place." He glanced at Calliope in suspicion. "So you saved Jonathan's life. After you already started a fight with me today."

"Well, it's not like I knew for sure if you would help me if I asked nicely, which clearly you proved that you wouldn't when you tried to kill me," Calliope replied.

"You attacked me first," Niko retorted. "What was your name, crazy lady?"

"What do you care?" Calliope asked. "'Cause if I remember correctly, you tried to kill me by pressing my trachea."

Niko chuckled sarcastically. "Oh, I remember. I also remember how much I hate not finishing the job, so why don't we pick up from there?"

Calliope held out her arms on either side of her, raising them in a shrug. "Well, come on, big talker. Let's get this done. I'll so enjoy a rematch and a second chance to kick your ass."

Niko stepped closer threateningly. "In your dreams."

Will and Jonathan held Niko and Calliope apart.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey," Will told them. "We're not gonna do this in front of a rink of people and risk exposure more than there already has been today."

Niko pointed to Calliope. "Whoever she is, she got in my way. For that alone, I kill people."

"A lot of aggression in that sentence," Calliope quipped.

"Listen, I don't know who you are or where you come from, but whatever it is, I'd advice you to return post haste," Niko warned.

"Niko, chill," Jonathan told him. He looked at Will, Mike and Eleven to explain, who were watching in anxious nervousness. "This is Calliope Pierce. And she's just looking for her brother Apollo."

"Her brother?" Mike repeated.

"What brother?" Eleven asked.

"The brother that I was going to get Niko to take me to his grandmother Sabina for me to get answers from, before he tried to kill me," Calliope answered.

"That's what you get when you attack me," Niko replied. "And what the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, just the part of the 'origin story' that you didn't give a shit about because you 'heard it all before'," Calliope answered bitterly, angrily. "Sabina ruined my family when she took my brother to put into her little psionic program, and I'll be damned if I don't get him back."

Niko looked stunned by the entire truth of why Calliope did what she did, looking away. "So Sabina's alive too. Great."

"You thought both your grandparents were dead?" Will asked.

"Yeah," Niko answered. "Everyone did. Mama, Nadia and I all thought Sabina died. And Mikhail. And Uncle Nadyr."

"Well, you were wrong," Calliope told him.

"You have an uncle?" Will asked. "Why didn't you, Nadia or Natasha say anything about Nadyr, Sabina or Mikhail before?"

"Because we thought they were dead and that our history was just that; history," Niko answered. "Besides, as you guys know, our history is one that we don't like talking about or reminiscing about. As you just saw up close and personal. And mostly because Sabina and Mikhail are the reasons why Mama and Nadyr went through torture and experiments and the programs with Papa and Grigori. Sabina helped me, Nadia, Nadyr and Mama escape it only after Mikhail and Grigori were the reasons that Papa died. Then we thought Nadyr died, then Mikhail and Sabina. Any more questions?" No one answered. "I didn't think so."

Jonathan was looking around to make sure no one was listening, thankful that they were in the far back of the rink in the corner away from everyone, meaning no one was in hearing range, and no one else had even noticed Niko's panic attack since everyone was either leaving, or too focused on Angela and the paramedics. "Look, we can talk about this once we get out of here. With Mikhail's men out there, it's too dangerous to be out in the open."

"Finally, someone with some common sense, even when he's high as a kite," Calliope stated. "Let's get out of here."

"Who says you're going?" Niko asked.

"Niko, she's looking for her brother," Will told him. "Just give her a break."

"Thank you, Will," Calliope told him. Niko sighed in frustration, looking down in slight, hidden guilt. "And I'm guessing that's Eleven and Mike."

"How do you know about us?" Mike asked.

"I know about all of you and your friends back in Hawkins," Calliope answered.

"I doubt that," Niko told her.

Calliope listed them all to prove Niko wrong. "Nadia, Hailey and Steve Harrington, Ruby Charlize, Dustin Henderson, Lucas and Erica Sinclair, Max Mayfield, Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler." The others reacted in surprise that Calliope really did know about all of them. "Made it my job to so I could find Apollo."

"Let's just go, yeah?" Jonathan asked.

"With what car?" Calliope asked. "We had to ditch the car I stole because of tags and could have been tracked by Mikhail's men."

Argyle walked up to them. "What's up, dudes and dudettes?" He glanced at Niko and Calliope. "Who's this?"

"Calliope, Niko, this is Argyle," Jonathan introduced. "Argyle, meet Niko and Calliope. Argyle's our ride."

"This guy that smells like a heaping pile of weed?" Niko asked.

Calliope looked at Jonathan skeptically. "You've got to be joking."

"If you're coming with us, you might want to hold back on the judgment," Mike pointed out.

Niko snorted. "That's rich, coming from you, Mike. Especially tonight."

"Niko," Eleven warned softly.

Niko shrugged.

"Are we rolling?" Argyle asked. "Surf's up, my dudes!"

Argyle led the way away.

Jonathan looked at the others, including Calliope, nodding for them to follow. "Come on."

"All right," Will agreed, following Jonathan and Argyle.

Mike and Eleven followed.

Calliope looked at Niko, nodding for him to go. "After you." Niko gave her a look. "What? I can't be polite?"

"Cut the crap, all right?" Niko asked. "Jonathan the stoned dim wit, Will, Mike and El might buy your shit, but I don't trust you for a second."

"Excuse me?" Calliope asked.

"You're not excused," Niko replied.

Calliope scoffed. "Ye of little faith."

Niko smiled sarcastically. "Stick it up your ass."

"I'm telling you the truth," Calliope told him frustratedly.

"Oh, I never said you didn't," Niko told her. "I believe that your brother was in the program and that Sabina ruined your life like she helped Mikhail ruin mine, and Nadia, Nadyr and Mama's, before trying to right that wrong by helping us escape after my father died. And for that reason, I know that you'll do whatever it takes to get your brother back, even if it means attacking me out of nowhere or double crossing us."

"I saved Jonathan's life and blew up the guys that tried to kill him, so that they didn't come after him or Will or their family again, where they would've found you and Eleven," Calliope replied. "And they could've hurt Mike, or used you lot to track down Nadia, and find out about Hailey and Ruby all over again, and taken you three, Nadia and Nadyr to a psionic prison like your mother Natasha is in right now. But sure, no need to thank me."

"I'll consider thanking you on a day where you didn't attack me to get what you wanted before you did something to help us," Niko replied. "And that's a big if on whether or not that happens."

Calliope shrugged. "Well, as long as I get help to get to Sabina and get answers about where Apollo is, and what happened to him, I have no reason to double cross any of you, do I?"

Niko knew she had a point but still didn't trust her if it came down to them or finding her brother, walking past Calliope to follow the others.

Calliope shrugged, turning to follow.

∰

On the Road - Argyle's Van

(Song:) In Transit to Bermuda - Dorian Zero

Argyle was driving. Jonathan was in the passenger seat.

Niko, Will, Mike, Eleven and Calliope were in the back of the van, and there was thick tension in the air as Niko and Calliope were glaring at each other after their meeting today and their conversation before they left the rink; and Niko and Will's breakup and tense reunion that had Niko mostly avoiding Will; and Mike and Eleven's angst after Eleven lying to him and what she did to Angela and Mike being judgmental for it, along with whatever else had been bothering Eleven before this.

Will was trying to keep Niko calm, keeping the peace so that Niko and Calliope didn't take more shots at each other.

Argyle and Jonathan incredibly high, as Calliope was also a little high due to smoking weed for the pain when Jonathan and Calliope were both shot during their attack earlier that day.

Argyle was trying to break the tension. "I know this may be, like, upsetting and shit, but that future prom queen is gonna be fine. I mean, it's just, like, rubber wheels."

"Plastic," Jonathan corrected.

"Oh," Argyle said.

"Not like, hard plastic," Jonathan stated. "Just... just the soft kind."

Argyle nodded. "Totally. But you ever wonder why the wheels aren't wood, man? Or metal? So people don't get hurt when they get shmacked."

"Oh," Jonathan said.

"Yeah," Argyle said. "Because it happens more than you think, man." He glanced back at the others in the back. "Roller skate attacks."

Calliope shrugged. "Hey, at least it wasn't an ice skate. That nose would've been sliced clean off." Jonathan exclaimed hilariously as he covered his nose with both hands like he could feel the pain of just the statement. Calliope smirked. "It could've been so much worse."

"So much worse," Jonathan agreed.

Niko gave Calliope, Jonathan and Argyle all a look. "And how is this helping?"

"Are all three of them freaking high?" Will whispered.

"I think so," Niko answered in whisper.

"Helps with the pain," Calliope pointed out, holding up her arm, which was grazed with the bullet from that afternoon, to prove her point.

Niko and Will shrugged in agreement and acknowledgement.

Mike and Eleven eyed them apprehensively, not knowing how to react.

Jonathan, even while high, was trying to assure Eleven. "Just think of it this way, El. In the grand scheme of things, it's just a little blip."

Argyle smiled. "That's a funny word, man."

Jonathan nodded in agreement. "'Blip'."

Jonathan and Argyle both kept saying "Blip" in time with the rhythm of the song playing on the radio, saying the word at least 30 times.

Calliope rolled her eyes, closing them, tilting her head back against the wall of the van, in more of a relaxed high.

Will turned to Niko, whispering. "How are you even here right now? As proven today by both the car you blew up, somehow while under a psychic episode, apparently, and by the guys Calliope had to fight off to save Jonathan, it's too dangerous, so why..."

"Your mom called me using the watch I gave you last year," Niko answered. "Ask her about it."

Will frowned, turning away.

(Song Ends)

∰

Byers House - Outside

Argyle's van pulled up to the Byers house, and the teens all started to get out of the van and walk toward the house to go inside.

Will looked at Niko, clearly losing his patience, not wanting to be quiet anymore. "So that's it? Even after what happened at the rink?"

Niko finally looked at him. "What do you want me to say?"

"I don't know, talk like people," Will answered. "Yell at me, something."

"So what, you want us to fight?" Niko asked.

Will shrugged. "Maybe, I don't know. People fight."

"Not my type of fighting that I prefer," Niko told him, speaking the next sentences sarcastically. "I'm sorry that I don't want us screaming at each other at some lame ass roller rink. I can't take that, it's too much drama."

Will rolled his eyes at the sarcasm. "Well, if you can't take the drama, then you shouldn't even be in a relationship. Which, by the way, you're not, so everything is good."

Will gave Niko a thumbs up sarcastically, turning to walk into the house.

Niko sighed, looking down.

Calliope was still by Argyle's van, having seen everything, making a face at Will's comeback. "Damn."

Niko looked toward Calliope in annoyance. "Don't you have anything else to do?"

"Besides watching your ex seriously burn you off?" Calliope asked, smirking in amusement, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not really."

Niko stepped forward slowly. "I'm just gonna say this once. If you annoy me again, I will kill you."

Calliope rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Of course."

Niko rolled his eyes, turning around, walking into the house.

Calliope smirked, lowering her arms to her sides as she walked toward the house, heading inside.

∰

Living Room

(Song:) Rigoletto, Act III: V'ho ingannato... Colpevole fui - Giuseppe Verdi

Eleven, Will, Jonathan, Mike, Niko, Calliope and Argyle walked into the Byers home.

Jonathan was wearing a jacket so that his mother wouldn't end up seeing the bandage over his gunshot wound so that she wouldn't freak out with worry.

"Mom?" Will called. "You used my watch to call Niko?"

Instead of seeing Joyce, they saw Murray in the kitchen through the doorway.

"Well, well!" Murray called. "Aren't you lot a sight for sore eyes, huh?"

Jonathan smiled, waving. "Hey, Murray."

Murray held up a spoonful of the dinner he was making. "You kids like risotto?"

Jonathan laughed. "Yeah."

(Song Ends)

∰

Dining Room

(Song:) Che gelida manina - Giacomo Puccini, Erich Leinsdorf

Eleven, Will, Jonathan, Mike, Niko, Calliope and Argyle were sitting around the table to eat dinner, while Murray and Joyce sat in two chairs away to give them space to eat.

"So there I was, headed down the I-5, going to see a client in Ventura," Murray stated. "I'm looking for a motel to stay for the night, and suddenly, bam, it hits me. 'Didn't the Byers move here?'"

Joyce gave a forced smile. "Small world, isn't it? It's a small world."

Niko gave Murray and Joyce a weird look for lying, taking a bite. Murray and Joyce both gave Niko a look, shaking their heads.

Will didn't buy this for a second given that he knew that Joyce used the watch to call Niko, but knew that they couldn't bring up the truth in front of Argyle, since as of right now, he was still in the dark and they wanted to keep it that way for his safety for as long as they could.

Murray smiled. "So I thought, 'hey, you know what? Why don't I drop in, say hello to my old friends?'"

Joyce tilted her head with a slight smile. "It's so sweet of you."

Murray pointed at her with his fork as he was eating. "Sweeter of you to let me stay."

"And he cooks, too," Joyce told them.

"Mm, and cleans," Murray added. "A regular little housewife."

Murray brushed up his hair.

Eleven frowned, looking from Murray to Joyce.

Niko rolled his eyes, glaring at Calliope across the table.

Calliope gave Niko an annoyed look, raising her eyebrows challengingly.

"Hey, enough you two," Will whispered. "This isn't helping anything."

"He's right," Jonathan agreed, though he was still stoned out of his mind.

Niko and Calliope looked away from each other as they continued eating.

Calliope noticed that her hand was shaking, frowning in confusion, but didn't think much of it at the moment.

This exchange had been so quiet that Joyce, Murray and Argyle hadn't heard them.

Joyce looked at Murray. "You should just stay."

"I'd be tempted, Joyce, except, you know, you have that, uh..." Murray trailed off.

Joyce pointed at him in agreement. "Right, that business trip."

Eleven and Will both looked at her in surprise and confusion.

"Business trip?" Will repeated. "What business trip?"

Niko raised his eyebrows at the lies, taking a drink of water.

Jonathan and Argyle, too high to pay attention, were getting more food.

"Oh, my gosh," Joyce stated, giving Niko a look for him to play along. "I almost forgot to tell you guys. This thing came up at work..."

Jonathan whispered to Calliope as he pointed to something on the table. "Can you pass me the olive oil?"

Calliope gave Jonathan a look. "That's wine."

"And it turns out I have to go to a conference tomorrow," Joyce announced. "In Alaska."

"Tomorrow?" Mike repeated the same time Will repeated, "Alaska?"

"Crazy, right?" Murray asked.

"That's where they're based," Joyce stated. "The Britannicas." Murray nodded. "Joan and Brian Britannica."

Niko gave Joyce a look, raising an eyebrow, but Joyce shook her head. Will noticed this and frowned as he looked between them in suspicious confusion.

Argyle looked up from eating. "So do Eskimos, like, still live in igloos, or, uh, are they, like, fully blown, like, living in the... in the suburbs now?"

Murray looked from Argyle to Calliope. "Who are these people?"

Joyce looked at Calliope in confusion. "That's a good question."

Calliope forced a smile. "A new friend of Jonathan's. Ask him all about it later."

Jonathan looked up in confusion. "Hmm?"

Niko gave Calliope a skeptical look. "I'd say 'friend' is overstating things right now."

Calliope took a bite, twirling her fork around to stab it into another piece of risotto. "Not after the day we had. Isn't that right, Jonathan?"

Jonathan was taken off guard, shaking his head. "I don't wanna be put in the middle of this."

"You are literally in the middle of this, Jonathan," Niko pointed out.

Mike, Eleven and Will looked between Niko, Calliope and Jonathan uneasily.

"I mean, yeah, but..." Jonathan trailed off.

"We can talk about this more later," Will told them, giving Niko and Calliope a look for them to behave.

Niko and Calliope both rolled their eyes.

Joyce, Murray and Argyle were completely confused.

"Wait, what's going on?" Argyle asked.

"You don't worry about it," Calliope told him.

"So, Jonathan..." Joyce trailed off. Jonathan looked at her. "This means you're gonna have to, you know, take charge while I'm gone."

Jonathan was lost. "Wait. What? What's going on?"

Will looked away, placing a hand to his head. "Oh, my..."

Niko smirked, chuckling.

Calliope whispered to Jonathan. "Your mom's going to Alaska."

Jonathan looked at Joyce in surprise. "You're going to Alaska?"

"Mm-hmm," Calliope answered.

"What's going on in Alaska?" Jonathan asked.

"The Britannicas are there," Argyle replied.

"The Britannicas?" Jonathan repeated.

Joyce frowned, giving Jonathan a confused look, concerned. "Jonathan, what's wrong with you?"

Murray adjusted his glasses. "I think I know what's wrong with him."

"Besides almost dying today," Calliope muttered under her breath.

Of course, sitting next to Calliope, Jonathan heard her and nudged Calliope to be quiet so that Joyce didn't hear that and worry. "We just had a super stressful day."

Jonathan gave Calliope a look, mouthing 'shut up'.

Calliope raised her eyebrows at Jonathan as if to say 'oh, really?'

"Stress, huh?" Murray asked.

Calliope nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, super stressful."

"That's one way to put it," Will answered, giving Jonathan a look for not telling their mother.

Jonathan shook his head, since he didn't want Joyce to worry.

Niko was somewhat amused by Joyce and Murray both keeping secrets, and Jonathan now too, so both parties didn't get into more danger or get worried, while Will was annoyed by it.

"This girl got shmacked in the head today at the roller rink, and two of her guy friends got taken down in a fight," Argyle explained.

"Shmacked?" Murray repeated.

"Yeah, one of those vicious skate attacks," Argyle answered. "And then down the street, a car exploded." Niko smirked, taking a bite. "And apparently while Jonathan was taking a tour of Lenora Community, there was another explosion and gunfire and shit."

Jonathan gave Argyle a look.

"Wait, what?" Joyce asked worriedly. "Jonathan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Mom," Jonathan told her. "Don't worry."

"What about you kids?" Joyce asked.

"We're fine," Mike answered.

"Did the explosions hurt anybody?" Joyce asked.

"Just the bad guys," Niko said.

Joyce and Murray frowned.

"The gunfire?" Joyce asked.

Jonathan and Calliope both took a drink to avoid answering since they both got shot, but the kids didn't want to tell Joyce that and make her go into obsessive worried mother mode.

"We're fine," Will told them. "We're all fine."

"And a skate attack?" Murray asked.

"Yeah, but it wasn't an ice skate," Jonathan answered. "It was... it was a plastic skate."

Eleven gazed off.

Mike tilted his head, looking distant.

"No, it was, like, rubber," Argyle corrected.

Jonathan nodded. "Rubber. Rubber. Rubber."

"You know what?" Argyle asked. "I'm not sure."

"She looked she's gonna be fine," Niko told them, trying to reassure Eleven.

"She's totally fine," Jonathan agreed.

"She didn't look fine," Mike remarked, eyes down on his plate.

Niko and Will both gave Mike an incredulous look, knowing that he screwed up saying that, giving him a glare.

Eleven looked at Mike, hurt, tossing down her fork, standing, walking away.

Joyce was concerned. "El, aren't you gonna finish your--" Eleven walked out of the room and upstairs without a look behind her. "What..."

Will put his hand to his head, sighing, frustrated and exasperated.

Niko gave Mike a hard look. "Way to go, Mike."

Mike took a drink of water, avoiding eye contact.

Calliope, Jonathan and Argyle raised their eyebrows at the drama and angst.

"What is going on with all of you?" Joyce asked.

"Okay, I, uh, I sense tension," Murray told them, chuckling. "Is it the risotto? Everyone hates the risotto?"

Calliope shook her head. "Mm-mm."

"Absolutely not," Jonathan agreed. "No, it's incredible."

"This risotto is shmacking, dude," Argyle told him.

Murray chuckled, looking at Calliope and Argyle. "Still have no idea who they are."

(Song Ends)

∰

Eleven's Room

Eleven walked into her room, closing the door behind her, going to lay down on her bed, depressed, flashing back to bashing Angela in the face with the skate, and Mike's horrified and upset: "What did you do? What did you do?"

She flashed back to seeing the rainbow room of Hawkins lab covered in blood and littered with bodies, and Sabina's words: "What have you done? What have you done?"

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Eleven weakly called.

Niko opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "Hey, El."

Eleven sat up. "Are you okay? After... earlier?" Niko nodded. "Is Nadia safe?"

"Yeah, she's back in Hawkins with everybody else," Niko answered. "Hailey called her with the watch too, so they must need help."

"I wish we could help them," Eleven told him.

Niko sighed heavily. "Yeah, me too."

"Why did Joyce call you?" Eleven asked.

Niko walked closer, sitting next to Eleven. "We can talk about that later. I wanted to check on you. Are you okay, after earlier?" Eleven shook her head. "Do you feel guilty?"

"I don't know," Eleven admitted, frowning in confusion. "Is that bad?"

"I don't think so," Niko answered. "But then again, I'm not the right person to ask, given my family's history."

"Am I a monster?" Eleven asked.

"What?" Niko asked.

"Am I a monster?" Eleven asked. "Everyone was looking at me like I was one. But when I had my powers, everyone in Hawkins looked at me like a hero. Like you, Nadia and Natasha. Hailey and Ruby. But what if I am really a monster?"

Niko frowned. "That's funny. Me, Mama, Uncle Nadyr and Nadia always had to ask ourselves the same question. About whether we're heroes or monsters. Especially me and Nadia over the past year, everything we had to do to make a mess to keep Sullivan and his guys, and Mikhail and his men from finding you, Ruby or Hailey. Or back when we were brainwashed for the program into being assassins like Mama and Nadyr. Even tonight with Calliope, I feel like I have to ask myself that question, since she's looking for her brother, and I still can't help but threaten her to not double cross us. Ruby and Hailey both think of themselves as crazy, explosive, and yes, even monsters too, you know." Eleven nodded in agreement. "But they've done so much to help save everyone like you, me, Nadia and Mama have. But we've all done things that we hated to do. Whether it's losing control or just snapping and lashing out, even if it means hurting or killing people."

"So what does that mean?" Eleven asked. "For you and me? Or Nadia, Natasha, Hailey and Ruby?"

Niko took a moment to think about his answer. "It means... there's a fine line between a monster and a hero. But you're far from being a monster, El. And I'd like to think that Nadia, Mama, Ruby, Hailey and I are all far from being monsters too. And my uncle Nadyr. We're all powerful in some way or form, even when we don't have our powers. And we've all been through so much that it can be really easy for us to snap and break and lash out at the people that want to hurt us. Even small town bullies like that bitch Angela and her friends. I don't blame you for what you did, El. Neither do Jonathan or Will. And you shouldn't blame yourself."

"Mike blames me," Eleven told him.

"Well, forget what Mike thinks," Niko told her. "You are not a monster. I promise."

Eleven managed a small smile, but still had a tough time believing that given the memories that she had just flashed back to.

Even so, Niko and Eleven embraced.

∰

Hallway

Niko walked out of Eleven's room, into the hallway, seeing Mike, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, is she okay?" Mike asked.

Niko crossed his arms. "Do you care?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mike asked.

"It means you're so eager to throw it in her face, then just act all surprised when that big mouth of yours backfires," Niko answered.

Mike stammered nervously. "I'm sorry. I was surprised when she literally attacked someone."

"It's Angela," Niko told him. "Who gives a fuck?"

"That's not the point," Mike told him.

"No, the point is, that you only seem to be okay with what El does as long as it's within what you decide is good," Niko told him.

Mike frowned, confused and lost. "That's not true."

Niko tilted his head skeptically. "Really? 'Cause let me tell you what she did today. She stood her ground and fought back against a bully, which is the same thing she, Hailey and I did against Troy and James who literally almost made your dumbass jump off a cliff and threatened to cut out Dustin's teeth."

"But--but--" Mike started.

"But--but..." Niko repeated. "But what? Now you can't speak English?"

"It was different," Mike told him.

"Because she did it for herself instead for you?" Niko asked.

"No, because what Angela did wasn't literally threatening to kill someone unlike Troy and James," Mike answered. "You can't compare those two."

Niko knew that Mike had a point but didn't want to admit it, looking away. "Whatever. Also, fuck you and your bullshit attitude towards Will."

Mike gave Niko a look. "Says the guy who dumped him through a letter, and has ignored him ever since he got to town." Niko looked down. "And what does he have to do with this?"

"You don't think I know you said something to him at the roller rink?" Niko asked.

"It's not like that," Mike told him.

"Then what's it like?" Niko asked. "Like you joining another D&D party?"

"How do you know that?" Mike asked.

"I guessed, because that is exactly the kind of bullshit thing you would do," Niko answered. "And I just think it's funny how you pull that shit after spending an entire summer last year blowing Will off from wanting to play because you wanted to make out with El."

"So it's bad that I wanted to spend time with my girlfriend?" Mike asked.

"No, Mike," Niko answered in annoyance. "It's bad that just because you got a girlfriend, you think it's okay to treat your friends like shit. Do I even need to remind you that you and Lucas were so worried about El and Max that you blew me and Will off when we told you that we found Ruby half dead in her motel room after the Mind Flayer got to her and Billy? And you know how all that ended up."

"That wasn't our fault," Mike replied. "Look, if you'd just let me talk--"

Niko shook his head. "I have better things to deal with than your shitty drama and hypocrisy. So unless you're gonna apologize to El and Will, leave them, and me, alone."

Niko turned around, walking away.

"Niko, wait," Mike told him.

Niko kept walking away, flipping Mike off without much emotion put into it, like it was just a thoughtless reaction.

Mike sighed, knowing that he had screwed up, but knowing that Niko was lashing out in an exaggerated manner because of his own issues.

Niko knew that Mike had been right about some of his points, including how he treated Will, looking down the hallway toward where he assumed Will's room to be. He went to Will's room to leave something in his room, before leaving and going to a guest room for the night, knowing that what he left in Will's room wouldn't make up for the way Niko had been acting, but hoping that it would make some amends, while also just doing it because he still cared about Will, no matter how he may have been acting.

∰

Later that Night - Will's Room

Will walked into his room, ready to go to bed, when he saw a box on his desk, frowning in confusion, walking toward the box, taking the note attached to it, reading it. "Just wanted to say Happy Birthday. Niko."

Will was surprised, but not that much, that Niko had remembered his birthday today when no one else did, managing a small smile, looking at the wrapped up gift box.

Even though even Joyce and Jonathan didn't remember, Will didn't blame them, since he knew that Jonathan had almost died today and was under a lot of stress even before that, and mostly high most of the time. And he didn't blame Joyce because clearly he knew something else was going on, and he knew that one of the only reasons why she would use the watch to contact Niko, even if it wasn't for his birthday, had to be because of Natasha and Hopper, and he knew that that was the reason why Joyce and Murray were acting so sketchy and keeping secrets at dinner. While he wished that they had remembered, they had good reasons to be forgetful.

Will was glad and relieved that Niko had remembered and left him a gift, smiling softly.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Harrington House - Hallway

Steve was standing in the hallway, sighing in concern, turning away.

Nadia walked out of the guest room, seeing Steve in the hallway. "Steve?" Steve turned his head toward Nadia. "Is she still in there?"

"Yeah," Steve answered. "Pretty sure she's beating herself up about Chrissy and whoever died tonight, who we can't even see into yet because of Sullivan out there and the threat of you two and Ruby being caught."

Nadia sighed heavily in agreement. "Yeah. You try to talk to her?"

"Yeah," Steve answered. "She just hasn't talked to me. She's still freaked about the nightmare Mirage gave her. Scared that she's gonna hurt somebody."

"Especially you or Dustin," Nadia finished.

"Yeah," Steve agreed.

Nadia nodded barely. "You want me to talk to her?"

Steve looked at Nadia, nodding barely. "Please. You, uh... you can probably relate to this a lot better than I can." Nadia nodded barely, walking past him toward the bathroom. "Nadia?" Nadia turned to face him. "Thanks."

Nadia nodded. "Yeah. Of course." Steve nodded barely, turning around, walking into his room. Nadia walked up to the bathroom door, knocking in concern. "Hailey? You wanna come out and talk? You've been in there for a while."

Hailey slowly opened the door, walking out into the hallway. "Sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," Nadia told her.

Hailey walked past her. "Yeah, except for the fact that someone else was killed tonight, and I have no idea who it was because I have no idea how to control this dreamwalking power yet, because if I try too hard to go into a daydreaming state, which is how I ended up in that maze of mirrors the first time, by the way, by daydreaming... then it doesn't work. And I have no idea how I'm supposed to help people if I can't control this, and we don't even know where the body is so we can't do anything about that tonight."

"Not yet," Nadia agreed. "But we will. I promise. We'll figure it out. All of it. How to control your dreamwalking power, and who died, and what to do next."

"It still doesn't help save that person who died, just like I couldn't save Chrissy," Hailey told her. "I barely saved Dustin in time. And every time I lash out when someone dies, I hurt the people around me. Dustin the first time. Him again tonight. Along with you, Ruby, Steve, Max, Billy, Robin and Eddie. I don't know what to do, Nadia. Even after all I've done to try and be light and pure, even changing the way that I've acted and dressed, I'm still getting darker and more out of control by the day, and I can't--I can't pretend to be okay with all of it, and pretend like this..." She pulled at her clothes. "Is me anymore. I did it to try and use it to help me control myself, but it doesn't work. And because of my mom, because no matter how much I didn't want her to get into my head, she did, and now... that's the least of my problems, but... Mirage said that I'm in the middle of everything and that I could end up killing everyone I love, and that's looking more and more true, and it doesn't matter how hard I try to hide it anymore. We have no idea if we're gonna be able to bring back Natasha and Hopper without getting hurt, or what's going on with Niko, Will, Mike, El, Jonathan and Joyce. I..."

Nadia looked at Hailey in concern, stepping closer, placing a hand on either of Hailey's shoulders, rubbing her arms to slowly calm her down. "Shh, shh. You're okay. You're gonna be okay. We all are."

"How can you say that?" Hailey asked. "You don't know that. You and Ruby don't have your powers. Niko and El don't. The only one of us who have powers is a ticking tomb time that the monsters can make explode every time they make a kill. You don't know that it's gonna be okay."

Nadia sighed sadly in agreement. "You're right. I don't. And we can't fight off the monsters right now because we don't know how to yet, but we will figure it out, just like we always do. And we'll take them down. Even if it comes back again, we'll take them down again."

"And the government?" Hailey asked. "Both the American and Russian?"

"We'll take them down too," Nadia answered. "I'm not letting the Russians find you and use you as their weapon like Grigori tried to do. And I'm not gonna let them get to Ruby either. Niko's gonna protect El, and Will, Jonathan, Joyce and Mike in California. Steve, Dustin, Billy, Lucas, Max, Nancy and Robin? They're all a lot more capable than they used to be. We can fight off a lot more than we used to be able to. We all got stronger. Ruby can fight without her powers. You two taught Steve and Billy how to fight. I have my weapons to help us all out. Remember that I taught you how to use some, and taught Ruby to use a bow and arrow last year after everything with the Mind Flayer, in case she needed it for another battle." Hailey nodded in agreement. "Dustin, Lucas and Max learned how to adapt, Nancy has her guns, and Robin's learning to adapt too. We'll find a way to help Billy and Eddie get free and clear of this police shit. And we are gonna be able to bring back Mama and Hopper."

"How can you be so sure?" Hailey asked.

"I can't," Nadia answered. "But we always find a way eventually. And we might not be able to fix all of this tonight, but I think I can help you with one thing that can help you feel better. More yourself and more in control."

"What are you talking about?" Hailey asked.

"You've been hiding from your darkness, Hailey," Nadia pointed out. "And I know that you thought that was gonna help you control it, but that was just gonna make it easier to control you in the long run. Like you're seeing right now. And changing the way you look and dress and act is not gonna make it any easier to fight the dark side of you. And like you said, this was mostly because of your mom in your head too, but your mom sucks. Okay?" Hailey couldn't help but chuckle, which was Nadia's goal as they both smiled slightly. Nadia reached up to wipe a tear of Hailey's away from her cheek. "I don't care what your parents want from you. You are amazing in all your badass, kick ass, edgy glory. I mean, it's kinda ironic that your powers ended up being red and black since you were pretty much drawn to those colors before."

"Yeah," Hailey agreed.

"I think it's time you stop hiding, and confront the darkness, so you can control it, and not let it control you," Nadia told her. "And get back to being yourself, through and through."

Hailey nodded shakily, sniffling. "Okay."

Nadia smiled softly. "Come here."

Steve had been listening from his room, looking down in thought, thankful that Nadia was here to help Hailey in a way that he couldn't, concerned and worried about both of them given the danger coming from literally every side.

∰

Bathroom

Nadia and Hailey walked into the bathroom.

Nadia noticed hair dye on the bathroom counter. "What's this?"

Hailey looked sheepish. "Oh, that was gonna be for a hair dye experiment. Before I started dress like a prep to try and 'control' all this."

"You were gonna dye your hair?" Nadia asked in amusement.

"Yeah," Hailey answered. "But like you said, my edgy self went to dark and edgy colors. And my mom said she was gonna kill me if I did it, not that that scared me out of it, but..."

Nadia nodded in understanding. "All right. Well, do you wanna do this now?"

"What, this, tonight?" Hailey asked.

Nadia smirked, shrugging. "Why not? It's a good distraction, and a way to pass the time until the morning, until we can actually do anything to help anyone. If you want to, anyway."

Hailey took a moment to think, before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I want to. I don't want to hide from the darkness anymore. Or pretend to be something I'm not. I wanna be myself again."

Nadia smoothed Hailey's hair down. "That's my girl."

Hailey managed a small smile. "I know it won't make everything, or anything, better, but I really need to do something to feel better than this."

"I get the feeling," Nadia told her. "Why do you think I like going undercover for spy work and missions? Dressing up and doing something different is part of the fun."

Hailey chuckled. "Can you help me?"

"Absolutely," Nadia answered. "I got some ideas on what to do."

Hailey sat in a chair as Nadia worked on her hair, gloves on both their hands, as Hailey was messing around with the extra hair dye. Hailey placed her dyed, gloved hands on the mirror repeatedly to leave purple and blue handprints, causing Nadia to laugh. Hailey chuckled sadly, but this was cheering her up and making her feel slightly better like Nadia planned, taking off her gloves, throwing them away. Nadia rinsed Hailey's hair once it was done, very thoroughly, using a hair dryer, brushing out Hailey's hair. When they were finally done, Nadia turned Hailey's chair to face the mirror.

Hailey's hair: (longer, but this style)

Hailey tilted her head, standing, looking into the mirror to look at her new hair, turning to the side. "Hey. I like it."

Nadia did a hand gesture. "Viola."

Hailey gave a little bow. "Viola." Acting out on instinct, Hailey embraced Nadia, surprising her only slightly, before she returned the embrace comfortingly, knowing Hailey needed it. "Thank you."

Nadia smiled softly. "Of course. Anything for my little protégé."

Hailey smiled more genuinely as they pulled away. Nadia gave her a reassuring smile.

∰

Kitchen

Steve had gone downstairs to get a glass of water.

Nadia walked downstairs, also to get something to drink, seeing him. "Hey."

Steve took a drink. "Hey, Nadia. You worked your magic on her pretty well. Getting her back to herself."

"Yeah, well, it took some convincing and calming down, and it's not gonna fix anything," Nadia pointed out. "But maybe it'll help her eventually."

Steve nodded. "Thank you." Nadia nodded. "But dyeing her hair? Seriously?"

They both chuckled.

"It was something to take her mind off of things since we can't do anything more tonight," Nadia replied. "Not until we know for sure if Sullivan is gone or not."

"Right," Steve agreed. "How is she now?"

"Not much better, but not any worse," Nadia answered. "So that's something, I guess." Steve nodded. Nadia walked over to get herself a glass of water. "Thanks for letting me stay here tonight."

"Of course," Steve agreed. "I know you would rather take your chance with a hotel room or something right now, but you and I both know that's not a good idea with FBI and American government worthy murders in town, and us literally seeing Sullivan's helicopter earlier."

"Yeah," Nadia agreed. "But I think Sullivan just blew into town long enough to check on the bodies. That chopper wasn't looking for us. I'm pretty sure it was leaving. That's what I hope, anyway, so we can get back to work tomorrow. And I really don't feel like having a show down with Sullivan again right now. We don't have the time for it."

Steve scoffed softly. "Yeah."

Nadia turned to face Steve, leaning against the counter behind her, taking a drink of her water. "Still. You letting me stay here after everything. It means a lot."

Steve looked up at her. "I told you before you left, Nadia. Even if we weren't together, you would always have a family here. I meant that."

Nadia nodded in agreement. "I know. Still. Thank you, Steve."

Steve chuckled softly. "Yeah."

As silence took over for a moment, Nadia and Steve looked at each other, without trying to, and looking away.

Nadia pressed her lips together. "We should call it a night. It's been a long day, and I have a feeling tomorrow and the days to come are gonna be even longer. Need all the rest we can get."

Steve cleared his throat, nodding in agreement. "Right, yeah. Goodnight, Nadia."

Nadia gave him a slight salute. "Night, Steve."

Nadia walked out of the room, upstairs to head to the guest bedroom to sleep for the night.

Steve bit his lips, shaking his head, closing his eyes, not knowing what to do about any of this, sighing heavily. "Okay."

∰

The Alibi

Ruby was in her own bar, having to get herself a drink from her own liquor supply in order to calm down enough to try and get some sleep for the night, her nerves running high; she hadn't even slept for at least 40 hours since everything that started happening, haven't really had the time to, and neither had Hailey, Max, Dustin, Billy or Eddie, but now they were finally getting the chance to. Since the last time they had really gotten to sleep was the night before Aaron's attack on Ruby, Chrissy and Aaron's deaths, Dustin's near death, and Hailey's powers going haywire with each new death along with discovering her dreamwalking power.

Ruby looked around the bar, a little uneasy to be back in the Alibi since the last time she was here, she was drugged and almost sexually assaulted because of Aaron, and even Vecna since he sent him after her to begin with, even though Aaron would have done it on his own for pure revenge. But she was trying to get past that since she didn't want them to win and take away her love for the bar and her own loft and render it feeling unsafe for her.

In Ruby's hallucination, Melody and Anthony appeared to sit on either side of Ruby.

"You don't look so good, Ruby," Melody told her, in a half-mocking tone. "Aaron sure did a number on you."

"Made you bleed like a real Ruby," Anthony agreed. "Almost got you sexually assaulted like you have before in foster homes." Ruby was not surprised that they would show up when she was alone and at her most vulnerable, bringing up things that she would really rather forget, closing her eyes, taking a drink. "Which is why you joined the gang before you moved back to Hawkins, so you could have protection and learn to defend yourself, even if it wasn't nearly as effective then as you are now at protecting yourself. When you're not drugged, anyway. Can't be surprised by what Aaron did to you, though. Especially since he did it in revenge for what you did to him, and not just because Vecna told him to. When you were left alone as a kid, you did this weird thing. Do you remember?"

Ruby took a drink. "No."

"You dressed up like a stranger, put on a wig," Melody recalled. "It made you feel like someone else."

Anthony shook his head. "No, that's not it. Made you feel like..."

Ruby frowned, vaguely remembering. "Like someone was watching." Melody and Anthony looked at Ruby, nodding. "Who knows? Maybe they are." Still in her own hallucinating mind, a black, shiny figure started to make its way through the darkness of the bar and toward Ruby. "Maybe it comes in, just to watch." The figure got closer and closer to Ruby. Ruby turned her head, not phased, like she had seen this figure before many times in her own head. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Ruby turned to look behind her, only to see nothing there. She looked at the bar seats on either side of her, to see that Melody and Anthony had also disappeared. She sighed, finishing her drink, hoping that would be enough to put her to sleep, placing the glass in the sink, standing, walking away toward the stairs to head up to her loft.

∰

Ruby's Loft

Before going to sleep, Ruby needed something to eat, also haven't having much food since all this began.

Ruby was in the kitchen, cleaning up from her dinner. She bit her lip, looking at the cabinet behind her from over her shoulder. She could hear crying from the cabinet, slowly turning to face it, walking closer slowly, cautiously, opening it hesitantly.

A baby was sitting inside, in nothing but blackness that seemed to go on forever.

Ruby closed her eyes, shaking her head. "No, no. It's crazy, stay focused." She closed the cabinet doors, turning toward the phone on the wall, about to pick it up. "Maybe..."

Melody appeared next to Ruby, leaning against the wall to look at her. "Maybe you want to call Billy. Or Max. To see if they can help you. I mean, it's only fair, Ruby. Since you helped him become less crazy himself, saved their relationship, saved their lives. So maybe you think you can call them to help you this time."

Anthony appeared, leaning against the beam next to them. "But you can't. You know that. They're not like you. Billy's craziness is nothing like yours, Ruby. And he has to stay in hiding, because he's being blamed for the death of Aaron, because of picking fights with three men in one night, just to save you. How much guilt you must feel because of after everything that happened to him last year, he's in yet another dire mess, because he was protecting you." Ruby swallowed, looking down. "And nobody else can help. Not Nadia, or Hailey, or even Nancy and Robin. They won't understand, and they will resent you for making them feel weird and unable to help."

Ruby hesitated but put the phone back in the cradle, turning around, walking away.

Melody and Anthony watched her go with a smirk.

∰

Moments Later - Balcony

Ruby laid down in her bed, pulling the covers up over her body, prepared to go to sleep.

Melody appeared in the bed next to Ruby, head propped up on her arm as she looked at her daughter. "They used to think hysteria was caused by the uterus sneaking around inside the body." Ruby rolled her eyes, sighing in exasperation, tired of this, just wanting to go to sleep. "They called it 'wandering womb syndrome'. Said it was an animal within an animal. Freud said the unconscious is like that too. A free-floating mind within a mind. Did you know that?"

Ruby scoffed. "Of course I fucking know that. You're nothing but a hallucination telling me what I already know. The whole fucking thing is just too goddamn ridiculous."

Anthony appeared in the dark, walking toward Ruby and Melody on the bed, smirking. "You so sure about that?" Ruby looked at Melody and Anthony in annoyance but tried to ignore them, turning onto her other side, away from Melody, but that meant having to face Anthony, sighing, not really able to look away or ignore this. Anthony continued on. "The word 'womb' means hollow. So when you think about it, it's not an animal that's getting lost inside you. It's a void. Just like you, Ruby."

Ruby got so annoyed that she had to turn on her radio on the table next to her, to her favorite song to drown out the voices of the hallucination version of her parents, and hoping that this would set her mind at ease after all the hallucinations from before.

(Song:) Shadows of the Night - Pat Benatar

To Ruby's luck, the song did work to tune out the hallucination, added with the effects of the drink she had before going to sleep. She focused on the lyrics of the song until she slowly fell asleep, and still able to hear the song while sleeping and dreaming, which kept her dream from getting too dark like it usually did, especially after all the dark things that had been happening.

∰

Harrington House - Hailey's Room

Once Hailey's hair was done and dry, Hailey laid down to go to sleep. She had a tough time because of Chrissy and her own nightmare given by Mirage, and seeing Dustin nearly die, and everything else, but eventually, she managed to fall asleep.

As Hailey fell asleep and she finally relaxed, the gem in her head started to glow red.

∰

Hailey's Mind Lair / Maze of Mirrors

Hailey suddenly appeared in the mind lair, maze of mirrors as she had called it, her gem glowing red, as the sclera of her eyes were black, and the irises were glowing red. She realized where she was, and let the glow of the gem and her eyes fade away to normal. "Oh, my God." She looked around, hoping that she wouldn't see any more horrifying nightmares related to Vecna and Mirage. When she saw the edge of a mirror glow red, she walked closer hesitantly, apprehensively, nervous, swallowing. When she touched the mirror, she could see through it clearly, able to see that it was Ruby's dream. "Ruby? God, please let this be just a dream."

Since Ruby could hear the song still playing in her dream, Hailey could hear the song through the mirror as she was seeing into Ruby's dream, curious about the song.

∰

Ruby's Dream

Night - Hawkins / Abandoned House

The song still playing and keeping her mind mostly at ease, Ruby walked through the town of Hawkins, looking around at the darkness and the storm in the sky. There was not a person in sight, and buildings were collapsing in on themselves, destroying each other. Water flooded the streets.

Ruby walked carefully through the watery streets, not knowing where she was going specifically. She reached a house with a rose stained glass window on its door. It was the only house that remained standing, but it was disintegrating slowly just like the rest. She frowned in confusion, drawn to the house, walking up the porch steps. She stopped at the front door, touching the rose on the stained glass, looking down at her own red leather jacket which had a rose design on it, along with black fringe. She opened the door and walked into the house.

The back of the house was completely gone. All that remained was the foyer and the set of stairs that seemed to be endless, going up into the stormy clouds of the sky. Behind the house seemed to be a beach, as water was flooding into what remained of the spooky, destroyed home.

Ruby slowly walked through the water, to the stairs. She started to walk up the steps, trying to reach whatever was up there. "Hello?"

Ruby reached the place at the top of the staircase, through the clouds. She walked onto a floor surrounded in darkness.

Up ahead, there was no wall. There was a full view of an eye of the storm, swirling around darkly, dangerously, all around.

Ruby walked closer to the eye of the storm, looking through the dark tunnel of clouds up to the end where there was nothing but sunlight. She was so confused yet in so much awe, and very calm given that she could still hear the song.

The sunlight at the end was glowing brightly like her power. It danced and flickered and waved in the end, before it started to shoot down the eye of the storm, and straight toward Ruby.

Ruby gasped softly, raising her arms on either side of her, not knowing if it would hurt or not, but preparing to be hit by the enormous beam of light energy. It engulfed Ruby entirely, making her glow from within, blowing back her hair. It didn't hurt in the least, as it was part of her. Ruby's nose bled slightly as the light continued to fill her being, glowing completely from within, opening her eyes, revealing that her eyes were glowing with the same sunlight energy.

Nearby in a broken mirror, Hailey could be seen looking through the mirror and into the dream.

Ruby turned her head like she knew she was being watched, able to see Hailey in the broken mirror. "Hailey?"

Hailey was surprised that Ruby could see her.

As the mirror was disintegrating into pieces along with the rest of the house, the camera panned up to the mirror and through the mirror, into Hailey's mind lair, the maze of mirrors.

∰

Hailey's Mind Lair / Maze of Mirrors

Hailey could see Ruby's dream through the mirror that was glowing red around the edge of the mirror, looking confused but in awe, not knowing what this meant, if it was meant as a nightmare, or just an at ease dream. All she knew was that she was glad that Ruby didn't appear to be in danger or pain, and stunned that Ruby had been able to see her through the broken mirror.

In Ruby's dream, when the mirror completely disintegrated, Ruby and Hailey were both snapped out of their dreams.

∰

Reality

Night - Ruby's Loft

Suddenly, Ruby gasped awake in her own bed, breathing heavily from her dream.

∰

Harrington House - Hailey's Room

Suddenly, Hailey gasped awake in her own bed, breathing heavily from dreamwalking on accident and seeing Ruby's dream. Her gem and irises were glowing red, as the sclera of her eyes were black. Her nose was bleeding slightly from using the power on accident in her sleep, reaching a hand up to wipe the blood away as the glow from the gem in her head faded, and her eyes returned normal.

(Song Ends)

∰

The Upside Down

Abandoned House - Attic

Vecna was standing in the attic, tendrils slithering around and attached to his back, levitating him, holding him midair. His eyes were closed as he was able to search project his mind with a power much like Ruby's mental astral projection (or sensory scrying as they called it) to see into the thoughts of his victims, including his future ones, whether they would end up dying or not.

During Vecna's mental astral projection, within a red and foggy outlook into Ruby's mind, like he saw her thoughts and what she saw in a red haze covered in fog, he saw flashes and glimpses of Ruby's dream in the house with the eye of the storm that looked an awful lot like the house he was in, with the eye of the storm behind and above this house. And even though he was a hideous creature, his smirk was visible.

∰

Day Two

Morning - Henderson House - Outside

Hailey drove her car up to Dustin's house, with Steve in the passenger seat, and Nadia and Robin in the backseat.

Dustin walked out of the house with grocery bags, getting into the backseat with Nadia and Robin. "Hey, Nadia. You didn't wanna take your car?"

"If Sullivan's still in town, best to not use my own car for a little while," Nadia pointed out.

"Good point," Dustin agreed. "I got some food for Billy and Eddie."

"That's great," Robin told him. "Ruby and Max are gonna meet us there on Ruby's bike."

Steve glanced at Hailey and her new hair and her going back to her normal style of clothing, smirking in amusement. "Just waiting for him to look up and realize."

Hailey managed a small smile. "Yeah, me too."

Nadia and Robin smiled softly.

Dustin looked up. "Notice what?" His eyes landed on Hailey for the first time since getting in the car, mouth dropping. "Oh, my... your hair! Your clothes!"

Hailey had her elbow resting on her door with the window open, resting her head against her hand as she looked back at Dustin with a smirk, brushing a little of her hair for emphasis. "Yep. What do you think?"

Dustin grinned, happy to see Hailey back to being herself, even if she was grieving a loss of a friend, and going through a lot given that they knew she was a tool in Vecna and Mirage's plan. "Awesome. You look awesome."

Hailey smiled a bit more, genuinely.

Steve, Nadia and Robin smiled at this, exchanging a look.

"All right," Nadia said. "Let's go."

Hailey put the car into drive. "Yep."

Hailey drove them away.

∰

Benny's Burgers

Lucas had passed out at Benny's with the rest of the team, hoping to try and find a way to keep them under control, no matter how futile that seemed, especially since he was doing it alone. He woke up to find that he was alone in the diner, but hearing voices and noises from outside.

∰

Outside

Lucas walked outside, seeing Ryan, Patrick, Jason and Andy at Ryan's new car that he got to replace the one that Nadia exploded in 2.02.

Ryan, Patrick, Jason and Andy were wearing their varsity jackets over regular clothes.

Ryan was putting their weapons into the back of the car. "You see all this? They see us? Eddie will shit his pants and cry for Mommy. This guy's no fighter. Billy's the one that we have to worry about. And Ruby, if she's really apart of it and gets involved."

"I hope they try something," Andy admitted. "Gives me a reason."

Lucas walked closer.

Patrick chuckled. "Hell, yeah."

Ryan picked up a bat from where it was sitting on the ground and leaning against his car, swinging it around, resting the bat on his shoulders as he smirked at Lucas. "Well, well, look who's decided to join."

"What are you guys doing?" Lucas asked.

"We're gearing up," Patrick answered.

Andy held up a wrench to use for a weapon. "Preparing for the hunt."

Ryan tossed the bat into the trunk, while Andy tossed in the wrench.

Jason walked toward Lucas. "Hey, man. Relax. We're not killers like Billy and Eddie. We just wanna talk to them. Get them to admit their crime. Try and see if Ruby's part of it or not."

Ryan put his hands in his pockets, smirking sarcastically with a nod. "Yeah, a little friendly neighborhood chat."

Ryan glanced back at Andy and Patrick behind him, who both smirked.

Jason glanced back at Ryan, Andy and Patrick, before turning back to Lucas, patting him on the shoulder. "Hey. You didn't know Chris. And we know your history with Billy and Ruby because your ex-girlfriend Max. If you're not up to this, you can go home. There's no judgment. You'll still be one of us, all right?"

Lucas knew that he had to go with them to stop them from making a huge mistake, but having to play like he was on their side for his own protection given how nuts they were acting. "No. I'm good."

"Why would you wanna go with, given Billy and Ruby and your history with Max?" Ryan asked suspiciously.

Lucas swallowed, knowing that he needed to convince them. "Max and I broke up. And Billy, back when he was outright psycho, nearly kicked my ass because his dad was a racist bastard that drilled that into his head and would kill him if he knew that I was hanging out with Max. So he was gonna do some serious damage if I didn't stay away from her. I still don't think Ruby's part of it. But I wanna find out. I wanna help."

Jason looked at Ryan to see what he thought.

Ryan accepted this with a shrug, but was still suspicious, willing to give it a chance after Lucas' true story, though not all the details. "All right." He turned to his trunk. "Let's capture us some freaks."

Ryan closed the trunk.

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

Billy and Eddie were still hiding out in the shed, having gotten little to no sleep after everything. As soon as they heard Hailey's car and Ruby's bike, outside, they both got up.

Billy walked to the window to look outside, seeing Hailey's car and Ruby's bike.

∰

Outside

Steve, Hailey, Nadia, Robin and Dustin got out of Hailey's car. Nadia grabbed a sheath from the trunk of the car, putting it on, having a sword within.

Ruby and Max got off of Ruby's bike, while Max took off the motorcycle helmet that Ruby usually had her wear when she was riding the motorcycle with her. Ruby had a quiver of arrows resting around her frame and on her back, while also having a bow resting around her as she got off the bike with Max, while Max was holding a bag of Billy's clothes. They both stopped when they saw Hailey.

"Oh, my God," Max said.

Ruby smirked. "Look who's back. Nice hair."

Hailey tilted her head, shrugging. "Thanks. Nadia helped out."

"One day back and Nadia's already got the real you back?" Max asked. "Awesome."

Dustin grinned. "That's what I said."

Nadia smirked, shrugging.

Steve waved them toward the shed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's just get inside."

"Oh, Steve, you're just jealous that it wasn't you that got the real Hailey back to her roots," Nadia teased.

"Very funny," Steve replied sarcastically.

Hailey chuckled as they started to walk toward the shed.

Max walked alongside Hailey, poking her hair. "That is nice hair."

"Thanks," Hailey replied.

Hailey and Max couldn't help small smiles.

"Hey, Ruby, Hailey told us about the dream she saw of yours last night and that you saw her through a mirror," Robin told her.

"Yeah," Ruby said. "It was super weird, but kinda cool. I only saw her through the mirror, which makes sense I guess because of the maze of mirrors, but still cool."

"Yeah, at least this time it didn't involve monster nightmares or death," Hailey agreed.

"Oh, my crazy mind has had monster nightmares and hallucinations and dreams of death even without monsters from the Upside Down to influence them," Ruby admitted.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Steve asked.

"Bite me, Steve," Ruby replied.

Dustin chuckled. "Come on." Ruby and Max walked toward the shed first, followed by Steve, Nadia and Robin. Dustin looked at Hailey, smiling. "You look great."

Hailey chuckled. "Thanks, Dustin."

Dustin took Hailey's hand to kiss it, hoping to cheer her up. Hailey smiled a bit more.

∰

Shed

Seeing their friends, Billy sighed heavily, hanging his head.

"What?" Eddie asked. Billy turned around, but before he answered, the door burst open, making Eddie jump. "Shit!"

The group walked inside with food and drinks for Billy and Eddie.

Dustin gave a smile. "Delivery service."

Billy raised his eyebrows at the group.

Eddie sighed in relief, giving the group a look for the jump scare.

Dustin and Robin smiled, while Steve waved.

Nadia nodded to them in greeting. "Hiya."

Billy noticed that Nadia had the sheath for her sword, and Ruby had the quiver on her back with arrows, along with the bow. "Are you two seriously gonna carry around a sword and bow and arrows from now on?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well, it's better than being caught unaware again. And these give us an advantage against whatever monster out there. Besides, Nadia taught me how to use this last summer before she left."

Billy shrugged in agreement. "All right, fair."

Ruby and Billy smirked slightly.

Max held up a bag of Billy's clothes, smiling nervously at him.

Billy took the bag, smirking slightly in thanks.

∰

Moments Later

Billy and Eddie were sitting down, eating hungrily since they hadn't had something to eat in a while.

Max looked at Billy in confusion. "Where's your car?"

"I hid around back so no one could see it from driving by down the road," Billy answered.

Nadia nodded. "Smart. Same reason why I didn't use my car today, in case Sullivan's still around."

"Yeah," Robin agreed.

"Who is Sullivan, exactly?" Eddie asked.

"We'll explain that later," Nadia told him.

Billy glanced at Hailey, her appearance change more than noticeable. "Back to normal, huh?"

Hailey nodded.

"Yeah, Eddie, this is the real Hailey," Dustin told him.

Eddie chuckled. "Nice look. Very metal. See why Dustin likes you now, Hailey."

"Thank you, I think," Hailey remarked.

"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news," Dustin told them. "How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always," Billy answered, taking a drink of beer.

"All right, bad news," Nadia agreed. "We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with Dustin's Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you two. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy and Aaron."

"Like, 100% kind of convinced," Max agreed. "Powell and Callahan also went as far as to accuse Ruby of being part of it because of everything that happened that night with Aaron having her drugged and her fighting back and everything."

Billy sighed in frustration. "That's because Powell and Callahan are dumbass assholes."

Ruby shrugged in agreement. "Basically what I said too."

"And the good news?" Eddie asked.

"Your names haven't gone public yet," Robin answered. "But it's only a matter of time before people find out about you two."

"If they haven't already," Steve added.

Robin nodded in agreement. "Right. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother are gonna be gunning for you."

Billy and Eddie already knew this was a possibility, but it didn't make it any easier.

Eddie was nervous. "Hunt the freak and psycho, right?'

"Exactly," Robin answered.

Billy was annoyed, frustrated. "Shit."

"So before that happens, we need to find Vecna and Mirage, kill them, and prove your innocence," Dustin told them.

"That's all, Dustin?" Eddie asked sarcastically. "That's all?"

Hailey nodded. "Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

"Listen, Eddie, I know everything we've been saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kind of thing before," Robin told him. She gestured to Nadia, Hailey, Ruby, Dustin, Max and Steve. "I mean, they have a--a few times." Steve nodded in agreement. "And Billy and I have once."

"Yeah, I was possessed by one of the fucking monsters," Billy agreed. "Not fun. Human-flesh-based and smoke-related."

"Bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this," Nadia told them.

"Yeah, see, you already know that Hailey has super powers after what happened," Steve told him. Eddie nodded in agreement. "Nadia, and her brother Niko, and mother Natasha, and Ruby, and our friend El all had super powers too and we all usually relied on them when something like this happened, before Hail got powers. But Nadia, Niko, Ruby and El lost their powers, and Natasha 'died', who we think is not dead but captured, along with Chief Hopper. But Nadia and Ruby can still fight, and Billy and I can too." Billy nodded. "Nadia, Niko and Natasha are literally super spies who taught Hailey and Ruby to fight to begin with."

"So Hailey's the only one with powers at the moment, but Nadia, Steve, Billy and I can still help with the fighting," Ruby told him. "But we just have to be careful with American and Russian governments out to get Nadia, Niko, Hailey, me and El like they got Natasha, and with the cops out to get you and Billy, and suspecting me."

"And right now, we don't know exactly what to do about Vecna and Mirage, but right now we're more in the--the..." Steve started.

"Brainstorming phase," Max finished.

Steve snapped, pointing at Max in agreement. "Brainstorming."

Eddie was completely lost and overwhelmed.

Billy sighed, shaking his head. "If you think this is too much now, imagine how it felt last year and all of this came crashing down after being possessed and a lot of people dying."

Max gave Billy a look. "Okay, but it's not gonna get that bad this time."

"That we know of," Robin agreed.

Nadia gave her a look. "Robin, not helping."

Robin smiled nervously.

"There--there's nothing to worry about," Dustin told them.

Steve laughed nervously. "Yeah."

Nadia, Hailey and Ruby gave Dustin and Steve a look for saying that.

"You literally just jinxed us," Hailey told them.

"You wanna slap them, or should I?" Ruby asked.

Dustin and Steve let their nervous smiles fade.

Billy smirked, tilting his head in amusement, taking a drink of beer.

Eddie just looked between them all warily, trying to process all of this and how this all seemed very normal to them.

Suddenly, they heard sirens in the distance.

"Shit," Eddie muttered.

Nadia pointed to Billy and Eddie and the tarps on the boat. "Tarps. Tarps. Tarps!"

Eddie hid in the boat, covering himself with one of the tarps.

Billy grabbed the other tarp and hid against the wall, covering himself with the other tarp.

Nadia, Hailey, Ruby, Dustin, Max, Steve and Robin ran to the windows of the shed to look outside, seeing cop cars drive past on the road, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Hailey realized. "The body. They're going to whoever died last night. I'm going."

Hailey ran to the door.

"Hailey, wait," Max told her.

"We gotta see who it was, Max," Ruby pointed out.

Dustin shrugged. "Let's go."

∰

Outside

Nadia, Ruby, Dustin, Max, Steve and Robin followed Hailey outside.

"You sure you can go, Nadia?" Robin asked. "Or if Hailey and Ruby can?"

"Pretty sure that Sullivan's gone, so as long as we stay mostly out of the cops' sight, we should be  good," Nadia answered.

Steve gave them a look. "Sure about that?"

Nadia, Hailey and Ruby didn't answer.

Hailey, Nadia, Dustin, Steve and Robin got into Hailey's car.

Ruby and Max got onto Ruby's bike, with Max putting the helmet on Ruby's head this time to help with the 'staying mostly out of sight' thing.

In Hailey's car, Nadia put on a large black hat that had a large rim that covered her face, placing on a pair of black sunglasses.

Hailey placed on a pair of sunglasses, only needing that, since with with her different hair, most people who didn't know her well wouldn't recognize her anyway.

Hailey drove her car away with Nadia, Dustin, Steve and Robin inside. Ruby followed on her bike with Max.

∰

On the Road

Fred's body was left on the ground for the police to find, the entire road a crime scene, coroners taking pictures, and paramedics putting a sheet over the body.

Powell, Callahan and Daniels stood with Nancy.

"And after you talked to Wayne, what happened?" Powell asked.

"I heard barking from the dog," Nancy answered. "And then... he was just gone."

"See anyone lurking about?" Callahan asked. "Who looks like they shouldn't be there?"

"No," Nancy answered. "No, no, there was nobody there. I already told this to Officer Daniels." She turned to look at the aforementioned officer standing behind her. "Did you look into Victor Creel?"

"Sorry, what's that?" Powell asked.

"Victor Creel," Daniels answered. "Wayne got it in her head that the old nut did this."

Powell clicked his tongue, looking at Nancy. "Victor's locked away tight, honey. Don't need to worry about him, all right?" Nancy looked down desperately. "Now, you said last you saw Fred, he was by the picnic tables. Do I have that right?" Nancy got distracted when she looked down the road, and saw Hailey's car and Ruby's bike pull up, with Ruby still having the helmet on her head, and Max on the back of her bike. "Miss Wheeler. He was by the picnic tables. Is that correct? Miss Wheeler? Does the picnic table ring a bell?"

Nadia, Hailey, Dustin, Steve and Robin got out of Hailey's car.

Nadia still had the hat and sunglasses on, and Hailey still had her sunglasses on.

Nancy was absolutely relieved to see them, and absolutely stunned to see Nadia there; even with the hat and sunglasses on, Nancy would recognize her best friend from anywhere.

But she also knew that Nadia being back meant that this was involved with the Upside Down, causing Nancy to swallow nervously.

∰

Missouri to Alaska Airplane

Nadyr was walking through the airplane to find his seat, wearing sunglasses, holding a briefcase. "Where's my seat? F1. F2." He noticed a guy glaring at him. "F you. Sorry, what am I, 12? I mean fuck you." He found his seat, sitting down. "Ah, there we are."

Nadyr left his sunglasses on so that no one would notice when his eyes glowed bright purple-blue-pink when Sabina telepathically connected to him from home using her headset to strengthen the connection. They didn't have to speak aloud, but only think their responses to each other to communicate.

Nadyr: (thinking) "I'm on the plane. Should be in Alaska in about seven hours. Joyce and Murray are going to be leaving soon and they'll be there in five hours, yes?"

Sabina: (thinking) "Almost six, but yes. Are you clear on everything, Nadyr?"

Nadyr: (thinking) "What couldn't I be clear on, Mother?  If Joyce and Murray are lured into a trap to try and capture Nadia, Niko, along with Hailey, Ruby and Eleven, then I take out the man or men that set the trap, save them, and we go along with the plane to Russia to free Natasha from Mikhail, and Hopper from his own prison."

Sabina leaned back into her seat, smirking in amusement, rolling her eyes.

Sabina: (thinking) "Sure, you make it sound so easy."

Nadyr: (thinking) "No, not easy, Mother. Fun."

Sabina: (thinking) "I'm sure you would think so after having nothing to do for 10 years."

Nadyr: (thinking) "I've been born and this sounds like a class act riot. Sue me. I missed the excitement. And family. Natasha, Nadia and Niko mostly."

Sabina: (thinking, sarcastic) "Oh, Nadyr, didn't you miss your mother too?"

Nadyr smirked, shaking his head in amusement.

Nadyr: (thinking) "I may have missed you too, Sabina. A little bit."

Sabina: (thinking, slightly sarcastic) "There's my boy. Do you have the gas vials?"

Nadyr: (thinking) "Of course I have them. What do you take me for? ... Don't answer that."

Sabina: (thinking, chuckling) "So you have all you need to for the psionics and soldiers that will come for you and Natasha when you go to break her free. You can break them free as well. And then Mikhail has less and less control over who he has to use against us. Except for the rare few that are actually loyal to him without brainwashing."

Nadyr: (thinking) "Yes, and those people deserve to die just as much as he does after everything they've done. But I'm looking forward to freeing the other psionics and soldiers that were like me, Natasha and Valkov. The ones that were like Grigori can rot in hell for all I care."

Sabina: (thinking) "Focus, Nadyr."

Nadyr: (thinking) "I'm focusing. I'm just expressing my opinion. Everybody's entitled to one, Mama. And you're sure that you can get Niko and Eleven's powers back? That you can teach Nikolai to get Nadia, Hailey and Ruby's powers back?"

Sabina: (thinking) "That is the goal. I'll be in contact with you and Natasha whenever you need me to be, Nadyr. If you ever need help, just reach out. Don't be stubborn about this mission and try to do it on your own. Not this time. It won't work if you do it alone."

Nadyr: (thinking) "I know that much, Sabina. I've got this handled. And once this is all over, we'll put Mikhail down once and for all."

Sabina: (thinking) "Here's hoping. Be safe, son."

Nadyr smirked sarcastically, tilting his head back against the seat.

Nadyr: (thinking) "Aren't I always?"

Sabina: (thinking) "Should I answer that or just end the connection?"

Nadyr: (thinking) "Whatever suits you."

Sabina smirked, shaking her head, rolling her eyes slightly in amusement, ending the connection, causing both her eyes and Nadyr's eyes to stop glowing.

Nadyr smirked in amusement, ready for this mission, and to see his family again.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Dining Room

Will and Mike were sitting at the table, having breakfast, tense and awkward.

There were plates left out for Niko and Eleven, who weren't there for breakfast.

"Thanks, by the way," Mike told him.

"For what?" Will asked.

"For knocking some sense into me," Mike answered. "Well, you and Niko. I was being a total self-pitying idiot."

Will chuckled. "I didn't say it."

"You didn't have to," Mike replied. "You two and Hailey actually both knocked some sense into me, more than once."

"Of course Hailey would, no matter what the circumstance," Will remarked. Mike nodded in agreement. "Why? What did she knock sense into you for?"

"Well, it took a while for it to set in," Mike admitted. "But it was actually about D&D, and you. About how when you were begging last year to play the game before everything started to happen with Ruby, Billy and the Mind Flayer, and Lucas and I were too busy with El and Max. How all I wanted to do was ditch my friends to make out with El, and once I couldn't do that anymore, all I wanted to do was play the game. So much that I ended up ditching Lucas' championship game before break started. Realizing how much of a dick move that was."

Will nodded in understanding. "Well, you're realizing. That's something."

Niko slowly walked up to the table to get to his breakfast. "I'll say."

"Hey," Mike told him. "I'm glad you're here too. I wanted you to hear this."

Niko frowned, sitting down. "Okay. What about?"

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday too," Mike admitted.

"You don't have to say anything," Will told him. "I was being a total jerk to El, and moping because of the breakup with..." He glanced at Niko, who looked down. "Niko. I deserved it."

Niko looked up to give Will a look. "No, you didn't."

Mike shook his head in agreement. "No, no, no. You didn't deserve anything. And I'm sorry that I didn't reach out more, or that it seemed like I didn't care about the breakup. Listen, the last year has been weird. And I mean, Hailey, Dustin, Max and Lucas, they're great. They're great. It's just... it's Hawkins. It's not the same without both of you and El. For any of us. And I feel like maybe I... I was worrying too much about El... and I don't know, I feel like I lost you or something. Does that make sense?" Will and Niko nodded. "I have no idea what's gonna happen next. But whatever it is, I think we should work together. I think it'll be easier if we're a team. Friends. Best friends. Like a party again."

Niko accepted this with a small smile, nodding. "Cool."

Will smiled. "Cool."

Mike smiled. "Cool."

Niko sighed, tilting his head, shrugging, hating to admit this, but knowing that he had to. "Well, if you're gonna be handing out apologies, I probably should too for last night. I hate to admit it, but you had some good points last night, Mike. And you were right. I was being a hypocrite too. So... sorry."

Mike smiled, nodding. "So we're good?"

"Yeah, we're good," Niko answered. Will smiled at them making up after both had called each other out on their issues the night before, and Will had done the same with Mike at the rink. "But El should be next up on your list of apologies. Even if it was just being upset in the moment, she thinks that everyone looks at her like a monster now. Including you, Mike."

Mike was stunned by this. "Shit. Uh, thanks, Niko. Yeah, I was already gonna apologize, but yeah, I'll go do that now."

Will nodded. "Go. Figure out about why El lied to you about everything going on. I can apologize for the way I acted yesterday after you do."

Mike nodded in agreement.

Jonathan walked into the room, looking at the movies playing in the newspaper. "Hey, guys, there is a 4:00 PM showing of Police Academy 3. Could be fun."

"Yeah, going out and watching a movie and risking being found by Mikhail's men, captured or killed again sure sounds fun, Jonathan," Niko told him sarcastically.

Jonathan closed the newspaper. "Okay, then. Never mind."

"Maybe it's just safer to stay home today," Will agreed.

"So what, we're stuck in the house moping around all break?" Jonathan asked.

Will shrugged. "No one's moping. We're just trying to be smart. And plus, the movie is supposed to suck."

Mike stood, grabbing Eleven's plate from the table. "I gotta go apologize to El anyway. And you know, Niko, I'm not the only one that needs to apologize to someone I'm dating. Or used to date."

Mike glanced at Will to prove his point.

For once, Niko was rendered speechless, looking down, knowing that Mike was right, tilting his head in acknowledgement, sighing. "Touché, Wheeler."

Mike gave a smile, hoping they could work it out.

Will was impressed with what Mike said, smiling slightly, looking down, before glancing up at Niko.

Jonathan watched them in confusion, eyebrows furrowed.

Mike walked out of the room to take breakfast up to Eleven.

Calliope walked into the room, having gotten changed from the night before, back into her mission outfit since she knew the danger they were in and had to leave soon for their own protection, prepared for a fight if one came.

"Calliope," Will greeted.

"Will," Calliope replied. Niko groaned. "Oh, Niko, disappointed?"

"Oh, to see you, Calliope?" Niko replied sarcastically. "Always."

Calliope smirked sarcastically. "So much hostility in a tiny package."

Niko sighed in annoyance.

"Don't start, you two," Jonathan told them. "Yesterday was a long day, and today is already a long day."

"Fine," Calliope replied. "I don't mean to be the boring one, but you might wanna start thinking about us getting the hell out of here."

"When you say 'us', who exactly are you referring to?" Niko asked. "'Cause I'm really debating why I let a Clandestine follow us anywhere."

Will turned to face Calliope in surprise. "You're with the Clandestines?"

"Who the hell told you about the Clandestines?" Calliope asked.

"What the hell is a Clandestine?" Jonathan added.

"They're a vigilante organization that seeks liberation," Will answered.

Niko snorted. "More like a bunch of radical hippies with wannabe terrorist tendencies."

Calliope gave Niko an annoyed look. "Watch your mouth. And how do you know I'm with them?"

Jonathan looked at Will, confused. "And how do you know about them?"

"Niko told me," Will answered like it was obvious.

Niko looked at Calliope. "Be grateful I didn't know when you tried to kill me."

"Kidnap you," Calliope corrected.

Niko glared. "Whatever. Otherwise I would've finished the job. Though I'm not surprised, considering how you people view my family."

"Your grandparents mainly," Calliope corrected. "And you mean the Soviet family who is responsible for not one, but two psionic and soldier programs that destroyed many lives and separated many, many families."

Niko didn't respond to that, taking out a badge, tossing it at her. "But to answer your question, I found this while going through your bag."

"You went through her stuff?" Jonathan asked.

Niko shrugged. "I needed to be sure she wouldn't wire the place to explode while you guys were sleeping."

Calliope smirked sarcastically. "Is that so? Or were you looking for something else? Like a razor, maybe. Do you cut yourself while shaving? I could teach you to shave like a big boy."

"I could teach you how to gut someone while alive," Niko replied in a threat. "How did you even join the Clandestines? Did you cry and beg?"

"They headhunted me," Calliope answered.

"They headhunted you?" Niko asked. "Mary McPsycho?"

"I got skills you don't even know about," Calliope told him.

"Oh, you got skills?" Niko asked sarcastically.

Jonathan held out a hand to stop them. "Guys, stop it. Can we just go back to what is actually important?"

"Yeah," Will agreed.

Calliope sighed, looking at Niko. "Fine. What's important is that Mikhail's men already found Jonathan and Will before, and were only stopped by you and me blowing them up, literally. So unless you want them to find you and El here, I suggest that moving along would be a good place to start, Niko. Unless you four wanna get hurt, and risk Mike getting hurt in the process. And risk them getting closer to finding and taking Nadia, Hailey and Ruby too. Like they already took Natasha. Can't imagine who else would get hurt if they got to them too."

Niko, Will and Jonathan all knew that she had a point, sighing.

Will stood. "I'll get some of my stuff in case we have to get out of here fast. And tell Mike and El to do the same."

Will walked out of the room.

Niko hesitated.

Jonathan sighed. "I should, too."

Jonathan walked out of the room.

Calliope turned to face Niko, tilting her head. "If you're ignoring Will because of a breakup and planning on never getting back together with him, that's your loss. For whatever reason, he actually seems to love you."

Niko looked at her in annoyance. "I never asked you for relationship advice. Not that I need any." He muttered to himself. "Besides trying to talk to him again."

Calliope shrugged. "Maybe it's a tone thing. I don't know, but you could really work on, like, the way you speak. It's very... irritating."

Niko rolled his eyes. "You're really one to talk." He sighed. "But you're not exactly wrong." Calliope smirked smugly. Niko scoffed. "Don't let that go to your head."

"Didn't you say that if I ever annoyed you again, you'd kill me?" Calliope asked sarcastically.

"Oh, I remember," Niko replied. "Trust me, the only reason why I'm not doing it is 'cause the carpet is really good and wouldn't want to ruin it with your blood."

"I have an intense hatred for you, you little turd," Calliope remarked, sarcastic.

Niko smiled sarcastically. "Feeling's mutual, Calliope."

Niko stood, walking out of the room.

∰

Eleven's Room

Mike walked to Eleven's room, knocking on the door, which was open three inches. "Hey, El." Eleven was sitting at her desk, trying to fix her broken diorama that Angela and her friends destroyed. "I, uh, made you some Eggos, but they're getting kinda cold." Mike walked in, seeing the diorama. "Hey, that's cool. Hop's cabin, right?" He set Eleven's plate on the desk, sitting on her bed with a sigh. "So, um, are we just not gonna talk about it?"

"About what?" Eleven asked flatly.

"I don't know, just maybe, like, about yesterday, or..." Mike trailed off. "Everything."

"There's nothing to say," Eleven told him.

"Yeah, I guess, um..." Mike trailed off. "I guess I'm just a little, uh... guess I don't really understand. Why didn't you tell me what's going on here? I mean, you know I'm not exactly Mr. Popularity back at home. I mean, you've seen it. I've been bullied my entire life. I mean, I--I know what it's like."

Eleven still didn't look at him. "No. You don't."

"Okay," Mike said, confused. "What don't I understand?"

"I am different," Eleven stated. "I do not belong."

"You mean in Lenora?" Mike asked.

Eleven finally looked at him. "Anywhere."

Mike frowned. "Come on, you--you can't actually believe that."

"Nadia, Niko and Natasha had to be on the run for 10 years before they settled in Hawkins, and they had to leave again," Eleven pointed out. "They always have to be in secret. If Ruby and Hailey get found out, they might have to leave, too, like I did. If people know about us, people never accept us. Everyone looks at me like... like I'm a monster."

"They just don't know you," Mike told her.

Eleven had tears in her eyes. "You think I'm a monster too. Yesterday. The way you looked at me. You--you were scared of me."

Mike realized that Niko had been right, hoping that he hadn't been, shaking his head. "No, no. No, that's not... that's--that's not true. I was surprised. And maybe I was a little upset in the moment, but I mean... I'm sorry. I just... I didn't know what to do. I mean, it just was so crazy. It happened so fast. But it doesn't change anything. It doesn't matter. I... I care for you... so much."

Eleven looked down sadly. "Care. But you don't... you don't love me anymore?"

Mike frowned in confusion. "What--who--who said that I didn't?"

"You never say it," Eleven told him emotionally.

"I say it," Mike told her.

Eleven stood. "You can't even write it, Mike." Mike looked at her in confusion. Eleven grabbed her letters from Mike, reading the signature of each one, getting more worked up with each one as she tossed them down one by one. "'From Mike. From Mike. From Mike.'" Mike realized what she was saying, seeming not to have been aware of this himself, sighing. "'From Mike. From. From. From.'"

Eleven threw the last letter down, crying.

"Okay, okay," Mike tried to stop her. "Eleven, you're being ridiculous. What, like... what is this? You know what I think of you. You're the most incredible person in the world. And you can't let these mouth breathers ruin you. Ruin us. I mean, they're nobodies. They're nobodies. And you're a superhero."

Eleven looked down, frowning. "Not anymore."

∰

Will's Room

Will was packing up a bag.

Niko walked up to the door, knocking lightly. "Hey. I wanted to thank you for helping me last night. With my panic attack."

"Yeah," Will agreed. "Well, you've done that for me more times than I can count while I was getting over PTSD, so..." Niko nodded a bit. "You're welcome. Finally gonna stop ignoring me?"

Niko sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean... I just didn't know what to say to you."

"The last time you contacted me made that pretty clear," Will told him. "You broke up with me through a letter, Niko."

"I couldn't call," Niko pointed out. "You know that. It was too dangerous. They could've tracked us down a lot sooner than they're doing right now."

"That's not even my point, Niko," Will told him. "The letter said, and I quote, 'We're over. Forget about me'."

Niko felt very guilty, frustrated with himself and the pain he caused Will without meaning to. "I know. And I'm sorry. I just thought that you deserved better than to be in some half-relationship with a guy that could never contact you for real. That couldn't be with you until it was safe, and there was no telling when it could be safe. You do see what's happening right now, right? You and Jonathan were both put in danger last night because of me. Jonathan was shot and almost killed. You would've been if I hadn't blown up my grandfather's men in their car last night when I was under a psychic episode."

"No, I get that," Will answered. "And I know why you were worried, and I'm glad that you care enough to worry about us like this given everything you and Nadia already had to go through with trying to protect yourselves and draw attention away from El, Ruby and Hailey, and trying to find Natasha and Hopper. But what you don't understand is that it's not up to you about what I deserve. I get to choose what I deserve, Niko. Not you."

Niko looked shamed, nodding slightly in acknowledgement. "Okay. That's fair."

"Which you weren't," Will told him. "You weren't fair."

"I know," Niko agreed. "And I'm sorry for that too. Shit, this whole thing is just so fucking complicated. I hate that we're being this awkward with each other. I mean, that's not us."

Will took a deep breath, sitting down on his bed, signaling Niko to sit down too. "Sit."

Niko was surprised, but nodded slowly, walking closer to sit next to Will on the bed.

They both sat in silence for a moment before one of them had the nerve to break it.

"Thanks for not asking me about my grandparents," Niko told him. "Even though I know you want to, and well... everybody else does too. But they didn't ask either."

"I may or may not have threatened to kick their ass if they asked you about it," Will admitted.

Niko chuckled. "Thanks for that. And also for helping me with, you know what, before."

"You mean your panic attack?" Will asked.

"Can we not call it that?" Niko asked.

Will nodded. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here."

Niko shook his head slightly. "I just can't believe they're alive. I--I mean, I thought they were dead and gone, you know? Like, in God's name, may the devil have their souls. But they're alive, and they've been alive this whole time."

"Why didn't you mention them, to me at least?" Will asked.

"Because I didn't want to lie to you about them," Niko answered.

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

Niko swallowed. "I know you're wondering why I reacted like that. I mean, what memories caused that."

"Well, yeah," Will answered. "You were four when you, Nadia and Natasha got free. You don't remember anything to cause that, right?"

"That's part of the lie," Niko admitted.

"What?" Will asked.

"You know how everybody always said I have it slightly easier than Nadia 'cause I was a toddler, so I couldn't remember my time in the program?" Niko asked.

"Yeah," Will answered.

"Well, that's a lie," Niko told him. "Truth is, years ago, because I couldn't understand what was so bad that Mama and Nadia couldn't just tell me, and because I'm stubborn as hell, I decided to check Nadia and Mama's memories, of Nadyr, and my grandparents and the program."

Will processed this, slowly realizing. "Wait, but that means, that what Nadia and Natasha remember..."

"I remember," Niko finished, tears in his eyes. "Yeah. Truth is, I know firsthand what Mikhail is capable of and knowing that Mama is with him right now..."

"So you've just been keeping that inside all this time?" Will asked.

Niko nodded. "It was for the best. I couldn't let Nadia and Mama know that their efforts to protect me were in vain, just because I couldn't do what they asked of me."

"But you didn't know," Will told him. "You were just a kid."

Niko shrugged, taking a deep breath. "Well, I'm not a kid now."

Will frowned, concerned, trying to cheer him up. "I'm sorry your grandparents aren't dead."

Niko chuckled at the way Will said it. "Yeah, me too."

"But are you glad that Nadyr's alive?" Will asked.

"I am," Niko answered. "Sabina might have helped us finally escape, only after Mikhail and Grigori got Papa killed... but Nadyr was the one that helped us get out of Russia. And he was supposed to come to America with us, but then we heard news that Nadyr was captured and killed. That part was obviously exaggerated with he's alive."

Will nodded in agreement. "It could be worse."

"How?" Niko asked. "How it could my family life possibly be worse?"

"It could be boring," Will answered.

Niko looked at Will for a moment before starting to laugh through his tears. "Seriously?"

Will chuckled. "I'm sorry, I don't know what to say."

"No, you're right," Niko told him. "I do hate boring."

"You totally do," Will agreed.

Niko chuckled. "Wholeheartedly."

Will smiled, before returning serious. "Thanks for remembering my birthday. You're the only one. I mean, I don't blame them. El hardly knows what a birthday is. Mike's going through stuff with her. Mom is dealing with her secret mission with Murray." Niko smirked slightly at Will seeing through last night's charade. "And Jonathan almost died."

"Did you like the present?" Niko asked.

"If I'm being honest, I haven't opened it yet," Will admitted.

"Seriously?" Niko asked. "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Will chuckled, shaking his head. "Fine, fine." He reached out behind him to take the present off the bedside table, taking off the gift wrapping, seeing it was a set of ancient looking but still beautiful and intricately designed drawing chalk, which caused him to smile in awe at thoughtful gift. "These are beautiful."

"I stole them from a museum," Niko admitted. "They belonged to Michelangelo. And since you are the best artist I know, figured it was perfect for you to have them."

Will looked at Niko, unable to keep his smile off his face. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry my shitty, complicated family drama overshadowed your day," Niko told him.

Will shrugged. "Honestly, if it hadn't, I would have to be dealing with Mike and El's shitty relationship drama, which somehow sounds more painful than avoiding a death squad."

Niko laughed. "On second thought, that does sound worse."

Will smiled. "Totally."

Niko returned serious. "I'm really sorry for doing things the way I did. I just... I could tell you that I didn't know if normal was ever gonna be a thing for me again. And I couldn't go back to Hawkins, and that you weren't there anymore, but..."

"But what?" Will asked.

"But those are all excuses," Niko answered. "Truth is what happened hurt me, and it haunted me, and it still haunts me to this day, and I did what I always do when I'm hurt. I built a wall and suffocated behind it, and..."

"It makes it difficult to see other people's point of view," Will finished.

Niko nodded. "Yeah. So I'm sorry it took me so long to see yours."

Will was relieved that Niko finally got it, smiling. "I'm glad you get it now."

Niko managed a chuckle. "I guess I'm a slow learner sometimes."

"Just a little," Will agreed teasingly. Niko smiled. "By the way, your gay pride pins you've been wearing..."

"You like them, don't you?" Niko asked.

Will smiled. "I do. I really do."

"Yes," Niko cheered. "I knew you did."

"I didn't say anything before because I was mad," Will admitted. "But they're really cool."

"Well, you know, I knew that I was gonna regress back to my old bad habits, and you know it took me a while to get to a point where I don't think that part of myself is a mistake," Niko told him. "So I wanted to, even if I went back to my old ways, to remember how proud I am of that part of me."

Will nodded in understanding. "I'm proud of you."

Niko smiled before slowly returning serious. "You know, I was really scared when I thought you used the watch, but then I got disappointed when I realized it was Joyce, because part of me did hope you wanted to see me, which is dumb, I know. Why would you want to see me, right?"

Will frowned. "You thought it was me and you still came?"

"The first chance I could get," Niko answered. "I made you a promise a year ago, that I would always come no matter what if you hit that button, and I kept it, even though it wasn't really you. I still thought it was. And I know that doesn't make up for anything, but... I just wanted to let you know. And I wanted to protect you."

"I'm not the same helpless little boy that needed you to save him two years in a row, Niko," Will told him. "Every time Hailey's come to visit me and El, she's been teaching me how to fight. And I know I'm not as good as her, or Ruby. But I'm as good as Steve and Billy right now. Probably Calliope too. And I know that none of us are as good as you, Nadia and Natasha, but we're good enough to defend ourselves."

"You did all that?" Niko asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Will answered.

"When did you decide to?" Niko asked.

"Right around the 12th time I had to hold myself back from using the watch to call you," Will answered. "Because I did want to see you even after all that."

Niko couldn't help a small smile. "You did?"

"Of course I did," Will answered like it should have been obvious, causing Niko's smile to get bigger. "And you know... at first it was just a distraction. From you, from everyone here treating me differently because they knew I was different. Because of who I am and who I like. Even if they didn't know for sure, most of them could sense it, like Troy and James. And they haven't been fair." Niko frowned in concern. "And so that I didn't have to feel like everyone had to take care of me anymore. You, Mom, Jonathan, Hailey, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Nadia and Natasha. But it was also because I didn't want to feel vulnerable ever again. Not like before. I wanted to be able to protect myself. Not rely on you or anyone else to save me. Not again. So you don't have to keep looking at me like the boyfriend that needs protecting. Ex-boyfriend."

Niko processed all of this, nodding slightly. "Okay. That's also fair. Do I get to at least say that I'm proud of you? For coming this far on your own?"

Will managed a small smile, chuckling. "Yeah. Yeah, you get to say that." Niko smiled. "But I didn't do it on my own. Hailey helped me get here."

"Yeah, but it's your determination that got you this far," Niko pointed out. "Though I will have to thank Hailey the next time I see her."

Will chuckled. "Yeah." He frowned. "Be honest. If it wasn't for Mikhail's men in the city and the fact that more could come for me, for Jonathan and El... risking Mike's safety too... you would've left with my mom and Murray, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah," Niko answered. "But only because they have a lead on finding my mama and Hopper, added with a hard drive that Nadia and I stole for intel about the coordinates about where to find them. They might have a chance of getting them out, with some outside help."

Will nodded in understanding. "I figured that's what it was about. Mom didn't want to tell us because we would've all gotten involved."

"Yeah," Niko agreed. "Bad part about that is then we would be going into the belly of the beast, literally. Since Mama's locked up with Mikhail and his program as we speak. And I wanted to go more than anything. But even Hopper's guy that called warned that Nadia and I shouldn't because we would be caught and trapped and locked up and thrown back into the program alongside her."

"Plus everything with Mikhail's men here," Will finished.

Niko nodded in confirmation. "Yeah."

"So..." Will trailed off.

"Do you think we can just start over?" Niko asked. "I really miss you, and even if we're not together, we were friends before. Best friends. And I could really use one right now."

Will was slightly teasing, but also serious. "I guess we can see." Niko nodded in understanding, standing up to leave. Will stood. "Wait, Niko."

Niko turned to face Will. "Yeah?"

Will sighed heavily, giving a meek smile and shrug. "Just... thanks for being honest."

Niko managed a small chuckle. "Yeah. It's the least I owe you after everything."

"The only thing you owed me was an apology," Will told him, trying to cheer them both up. "Which you did pretty well, a couple times now." They both smiled, chuckling lightly, looking each other in the eyes, before breaking eye contact. "So what now?"

Niko shook his head. "We get the hell out of here as soon as we can to make sure that we all stay safe. And figure out what to do from there."

"Well, I was talking about that too, but I was also talking about..." Will trailed off.

"Us?" Niko finished. "Yeah. So was I."

Will had a slight smile, nodding in understanding.

∰

Living Room

Jonathan and Calliope were finishing up packing their things, which Calliope didn't have to pack pretty much anything given obvious reasons.

Calliope looked up at the stairs, tilting her head in annoyance. "Who knew teen angst romance could take so fucking long to get through?"

Jonathan chuckled in agreement. "Yeah." He frowned, biting his lip. "Will didn't tell me that he and Niko broke up. Or that he was learning to fight from Hailey. Why wouldn't Will tell me?"

"I'm sure both of you had other things to do," Calliope replied. "We don't have time for more heart to hearts right now. We need to go. It's not safe." She called upstairs. "Niko, Will! El, Mike! We're not getting any safer here."

"Just give them a minute, Calliope," Jonathan told her.

"What makes you think that we have a minute, Jonathan?" Calliope replied.

Jonathan didn't have an answer to that.

The doorbell rang, causing Calliope to tense.

"Relax," Jonathan told her. "It's probably just my mom forgetting something."

∰

Hallway

Upstairs, Mike was telling Will about the conversation with Eleven. "I don't know. I didn't know what to say."

Will nodded in understanding, relating to this more than he thought he could, since he was clearly still in love with Niko but he didn't know if Niko still loved him, and how he would react if Will said the words to him. "Sometimes I think it's just scary to open up like that. To say how we really feel. Especially to the people we care about the most. Because what if they don't like the truth?"

"Like you and Niko?" Mike asked.

Will nodded. "Yeah. Like me and Niko. But also you and El. But both of you, and the two of us, can figure it out, once we're far away from here and no longer in danger."

Mike nodded in agreement.

∰

Foyer

Jonathan walked into the foyer, opening the door, revealing two officers outside.

"Hi," Officer 1 said; his name tag said Alomar. "Does Jane Hopper live here?"

Calliope walked up to the doorway of the foyer behind Jonathan.

"Uh, yeah," Jonathan answered. "Um, what is this about?"

"Is Jane's father or mother around?" Alomar asked.

"Uh, no," Jonathan answered. "No, her guardian's out of town. She's like her aunt." Will, Niko, Eleven and Mike walked downstairs. "I'm her cousin. Um, step cousin. But, uh... I'm sorry, what... uh, what is this about?"

"You may or may not be aware of an incident last night involving Jane at the Rink-O-Mania," Alomar stated.

Will and Niko walked around the corner of the stairs to see into the foyer, out to the cops standing outside.

"That was an accident," Will told them.

"We have a warrant here that says otherwise," Officer 2 told them; his name tag said Franco.

"A warrant?" Jonathan repeated. "Come on, that's crazy. That doesn't need to happen."

Eleven and Mike stepped around the corner of the stairs to see into the foyer.

Alomar looked at Eleven. "Hey there. You Jane Hopper?"

Eleven looked at them tensely.

Jonathan, Calliope, Niko, Will and Mike exchanged a look, not knowing what to do, but knowing they couldn't exactly expose themselves as more than ordinary right now with the looming threat right now unless they had to, since if the cops called them in on resisting and fighting back, then Mikhail's men would get wind of it and it would lead them directly to the California group.

The officers handcuffed Eleven.

"You have the right to remain silent," Franco told her. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." Will and Jonathan were completely anxious, while Mike looked stunned and worried, and Niko was trying to resist taking the cops down in order to make sure that they couldn't be traced by Mikhail's men, trying to find another way around this. "You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."

∰

Outside

As the officers took Eleven out of the houses toward their car, Jonathan, Will, Mike and Niko followed right behind them worriedly.

"Can you please tell us where you're taking her?" Jonathan asked.

"Are the cuffs really necessary?" Mike asked.

"Officers, answer us," Niko told them.

The officers refused to answer, putting Eleven into the back of the car, closing the door, and getting into their own seats in the front.

Calliope walked outside to watch all of this, not knowing what to do but trying to come up with a plan.

Mike looked into the car through the window to his girlfriend worriedly. "Eleven. Eleven, listen to me, okay? Eleven, will you please look at me?" Eleven slowly turned her head to look at him. "Everything's gonna be fine. I am going to fix this. Okay?  Just--just stay calm and everything's gonna be fine. Okay?" The siren started to wail and the lights started to flash as the cops started the car, slowly starting to drive away. Mike ran to keep up with the car to continue to reassure Eleven. "Just... all you have to do is trust me. I promise, okay? I'm gonna get you out. I promise!"

The cop car drove off, leaving them behind in the street.

Jonathan and Will ran closer worriedly, standing behind Mike as they watched the cop car go.

Will grabbed Jonathan's shoulder. "Has Mom's fight left yet?"

Jonathan whispered to himself. "Shit."

Jonathan turned around, running into the house.

Calliope walked up to Niko. "You know as well as I do if we took those cops down, then they would've called us in and all of Mikhail's men would've been on us in no time."

"I know," Niko agreed. "But they could've also taken over the police station by now, which means..."

"We gotta find a way and get El out of there anyway, if we're right about it being overtaken already," Calliope finished. Mike and Will looked at them weirdly, since it was weird to see them on the same page and working this out in their heads together. "So what does this mean? Armageddon against your grandfather?"

"Oh, it's much worse than that," Niko replied. "It mean you and I are gonna have to work together."

"Shit," Calliope muttered. Niko nodded in agreement. "I don't trust you."

"And I don't trust you either," Niko replied. "Maybe we can't get to trust. But there is a certain honesty in white-hot hatred."

Calliope shrugged in acknowledgement, tilting her head. "True. So, jail break it is then."

"Jail break?" Will repeated.

Calliope gave a mischievous, evil smile, excited for a jail break.

Niko tilted his head. "Oh, I hate that smile."

Calliope grinned. "Good."

Niko turned to Will. "Come on. I have some weapons inside that could help out."

Will nodded in agreement.

Will and Niko ran toward the house, inside.

Mike and Calliope exchanged a look.

∰

Inside - Living Room

Jonathan was trying to call Joyce, but clearly it was too late to get a hold of her.

Niko and Will ran to Niko's bag, going through his bag to find what could help.

"What are you guys doing?" Jonathan asked.

"Looking for weapons," Niko answered.

"For what?" Jonathan asked.

"Jail break," Niko and Will answered together.

Jonathan looked at them in surprise. "A what?"

"If Mikhail's men already took over the station like Niko and Calliope think, then we have a lot bigger issue than we thought," Will pointed out.

Jonathan realized they were right. "Oh, shit."

The intensity of the situation caused Niko to have another psychic episode as Sabina was trying to reach him with telepathy.

"Oh, no," Niko said, just as it started.

"What?" Jonathan asked.

Niko's eyes were glowing purple-blue-pink as he was given a vision of the dark haired woman in the same faded colors, seeing more of where they were, looking like what was a hospital or a facility of some kind, and a name tag was shown, but he couldn't read the name. He turned his head to try and see around him, and on the side of the vision, he saw a mirror, with a reflection of him as a baby, while he looked his current age on the bed strapped down, as the baby was crying and screaming in the mirror's reflection.

As per usual, Niko's powers lashed out destructively while trapped in the vision, a burst of his fire power flaring from his hands and shooting out at Will and Jonathan, making them duck in shock to avoid being hit.

"What the hell?" Jonathan asked.

"Jonathan, get back," Will told him. "It's a psychic episode." He tried to get through to Niko to wake him up. "Niko."

Jonathan backed away out of harm's way. "Will, be careful."

"I got this, Jonathan," Will told him. He stood, walking around the counter away from Niko as Niko was clearly still losing control and going to attack. "Niko, please." Niko nearly shot out more fire, but Will raised a pan to block the fire from getting to him, saving himself, tossing the pan aside as it was too hot to touch, throwing it at Niko to distract him, kicking him in the chest to make him back away. Niko, blindly lashing out without really able to fight back, swung at Will, but Will ducked, catching Niko's arm, flipping them both to the floor, pinning Niko down, snapping him out of it. "Niko!"

Jonathan watched in shock, surprised by what Will could do now.

Niko himself was surprised when he came to, realizing that Will had to take him down to snap him out of the episode. "Will?"

"Yeah," Will answered. "Yeah, it's me. You're okay. You're here."

Niko breathed slightly heavily. "I did it again, didn't I?"

"Yep," Will answered. "But I took care of it. Like I said. Not the same guy that needs protection anymore."

Niko chuckled lightly. "All right then."

Jonathan was absolutely stunned, processing.

∰

California to Alaska Airplane

Joyce and Murray were on the plane.

Joyce anxiously checked her watch. "Do you think I should've just told them? Or let Niko tell them? I mean, it is for him, Nadia and El to get Natasha and Hopper back. Their parents. It--it just felt so wrong to lie to them like that."

Murray nodded slightly. "Mm. Right, right, right. Well, I'm not exactly an expert in parenting, but for what little it's worth, I think you did the right thing. The responsible thing."

"Responsible?" Joyce repeated.

"Those children, bless their mischievous souls..." Murray trailed off, chuckling. "They like to get involved." Joyce nodded in acknowledgement, chuckling. "This way, what? They play too much Nintendo, eat too much junk food, smoke some ganja..." Joyce looked at him in alarm for that part and the ones following. "Pound some beers, experiment sexually. Or get back with ex-boyfriends in Will's case. I mean, really, what's the worst that can happen?"

A flight attendant walked up to Joyce. "Excuse me, ma'am?" Joyce turned her head to look at her. "So sorry to interrupt, but you're gonna need to fasten your seat belt."

Murray chuckled, nodding. "Of course, mm. Buckle up."

The flight attendant walked away.

Joyce gave Murray a look as she buckled her seat belt. "Like this is really gonna save me if we crash."

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Outside

The prisoners, including Hopper, were working outside the prison in the freezing cold and snow.

Dmitri walked along the line of prisoners working, carrying a rifle.

Hopper needed to stop to catch his breath, taking off his hat, wiping the sweat off his head even though it was freezing out.

Dmitri walked up to Hopper, speaking in Russian. "What is this, American? What is taking you this long? Are you tired today?"

Hopper put his hat on, speaking a word in Russian, that he picked up from Natasha along the way, and a little more while in prison for the past year. "Pig."

"What did you say?" Dmitri asked in Russian.

"Asshole!" Hopper snapped in Russian, spitting on the ground.

Dmitri grabbed Hopper, hauling him to the side like pissed off guard would do, slamming him into some wooden log piles away from the others, speaking in English. "Your Russian is getting better." He let Hopper go. "So is your acting."

"All right, come on," Hopper told him. "What is it?"

"I bring news from America," Dmitri answered. "I heard from your friends. They're bringing your money to Alaska."

"When?" Hopper asked.

"Today, I hope," Dmitri answered. "If my pilot gets the money, he will bring it in his plane tomorrow. Then you can hitch a ride back to your country."

"And Natasha?" Hopper asked. "Part of the deal was helping her find a way to break out, too. Before Mikhail has her back under brainwashing."

Hopper clearly didn't know that Natasha already had a backup plan thanks to Sabina and Nadyr, clearly, since they couldn't communicate.

"Yes, yes," Dmitri agreed. "That too is in action. But you do realize how hard it will be to break into a prison for the psionic and soldier program? Having to fight people with powers and without alike?"

"I don't care," Hopper replied. "Nadia and Niko?"

"They won't come, as you requested," Dmitri answered.

Hopper sighed in relief. "Good. Last thing that bastard needs is to get his hands on those two again."

"Precisely," Dmitri agreed. "I get rich, and you and Natasha are free, Nadia and Niko stay safe. Sound too good to be true, yes?"

"It does," Hopper answered. "This pilot, you sure you can trust him?"

"His name is Yuri Ismaylov," Dmitri explained. "He's a smuggler. Supplies American goods to some of us guards here, including me on lucky occasions. Cigarettes, peanut butter, Playboys, the best America has to offer."

Hopper just gave a dead pan look. "Great. So he's a criminal."

"Of course," Dmitri answered. "Who else do you want to do this job? Gandhi?" He chuckled. Hopper looked away, frustrated. "You're worried about your woman, is that it?" Hopper looked at him. "Mikhail's daughter. That's ballsy, even if you didn't know about Mikhail, Sabina and Nadyr before."

Hopper sighed. "Natasha didn't bring them up because apparently she thought they were all dead, and so did Nadia and Niko. Met Mikhail once and already want to kill the son of a bitch for what he did to us. He's the reason I'm here, and why Natasha's back there in the place she hates. If he's the one that screwed Nat over, and her brother Nadyr, and Nadia and Niko, the bastard deserves everything that's coming to him."

"I agree," Dmitri mused. "Even if he has a hold over everyone here in some way, shape or form, there is no love lost. But still. Given the rumors about Natasha, I can see why you like her, American. I hear she's very pretty. Feisty too. I like that."

Hopper glared at him. "You promised me we would find a way to get her out. And that Joyce and Murray would be safe when they come."

"We will, and they will," Dmitri told him. "Let me handle Yuri. You have more important things to worry about. Remember, you miss that plane tomorrow, I am still rich, and you're still stuck in Kamchatka, and Natasha is still stuck in her father's prison. So whatever it is you're planning, American, best get to it, yes?"

Another guard walked into view, speaking in Russian. "Antonov! Finish with your American toy, we need him on the tracks."

Dmitri replied in Russian. "Yes, yes. I am just putting him in his place." The guard spit on the ground, muttering in Russian before walking away. "Nosy bastard." Dmitri looked at Hopper with a smirk, speaking in English. "Where do you want it?"

Hopper gestured to his left cheek.

Dmitri swung a vicious right hook to hit Hopper in the left side of the face, snapping his head to the side.

∰

Russian Psionic Prison - Outside

Natasha was training with her new heightened powers, first on a person, then on inanimate objects, statues, even cars. She had to act like she was completely under brainwashing because Mikhail was watching, but Sabina was still secretly using her powers from the distance to make sure that Mikhail couldn't put her back into the program and brainwashing fully, buying her time until Nadyr could find a way to get to her and help her, along with Joyce and Murray.

Natasha formed her shield, which even looked stronger and more durable, and now had a golden glowing tint to it upon each molecule that she pulled together to form the shield, thrusting her hands toward the shield to send it flying into a man, sending him flying back through the air and hitting the floor, sliding down the floor and into the wall, his head hitting against the wall so hard that she knocked him out instantly.

Natasha turned toward a statue, raising her arms to form the molecular glowing gold shield all around the base of the statue, using it to compress the statue so intensely with enough power that she was able to make it explode.

Mikhail was watching, pleased by the progress they had made with Natasha's powers, and how she seemingly was under his complete control again.

Natasha turned toward a vehicle, raising her arms to form the molecular glowing gold shield all around the tires of the car, using it to compress the car and tires so much that she caused the tires to burst and the wheels to break completely with loud bangs, smoke flaring out from the wheels with a large burst of electrical explosion.

Mikhail waved to a truck.

The truck drove toward Natasha, testing how strong her newly heightened power was. Her nose was already bleeding slightly, but Natasha continued as she knew she had to to 'prove' to Mikhail that she was under his control.

As the truck drove closer to Natasha, Natasha held up her hands to form the glowing gold shield in front of the truck to keep it from driving any closer. The truck was stopped in place by the shield, spinning its wheels as it tried to speed closer. Natasha was straining to hold the truck back, groaning in exertion, as her nose started to breathe more heavily. The force of the truck trying to drive pushed the shield back toward Natasha, which in turn made Natasha slide back across the ground, still on her feet with her hands raised in the air to keep the shield up.

Mikhail held up a fist. "Halt." The truck stopped driving. Natasha lowered her shield, letting it disappear, breathing heavily as her nose was bleeding. "Very good, daughter. Now one more test. You don't think that a shield is all you can make, do you? Not with how much stronger you've become. I'm sure that you could form something similar in shape, but with a much more offensive state. What do you think?"

Natasha realized what he was saying, and smirked slightly in realization. She held up her hand, and started to pull molecules, clear but with a glowing gold tint, together, to create a circular shape like her shields usually were (or in rectangle shapes), but this time, the shape was small, and a perfect circle, with razor sharp edges, as it was spinning through the air chaotically and dangerously, just like a saw.

Natasha knew that this saw could destroy almost everything, just like her shield could in some cases. She felt so tempted to use it to kill Mikhail right then and there, but she knew that that would be suicide, as there were so many soldiers and psionics in the prison, under brainwashing, that would turn on her with his dying command, and end up outnumbering her and killing her. She didn't even risk glancing Mikhail's way so that he wouldn't be able to tell what she was thinking and risking exposing herself as not being under his control.

So instead, Natasha thrust her arm toward the truck in front of her, sending the glowing gold molecular saw sliding through the top half of the truck, cutting it almost completely off, as it fell with a shower of sparks into the truck.

The man inside had to duck, yelling out in pain as he was almost completely pinned down and shocked by the sparks, quickly getting out of the car before he could be hurt more.

Natasha, high on adrenaline, power and anger and acting like a brainwashed soldier/psionic, immediately spun around while forming another glowing gold molecular saw, and thrust her arm outward to throw it through a disconnected light pole, completely cutting it in half, watching it fall with the wires disconnected, yet there were still a few sparks only due to Natasha's power.

Natasha was breathing heavily at the rush of power and adrenaline, seeing how much damage she could do now with this power, and beyond glad that Mikhail couldn't use this power to his advantage outside of this prison due to Sabina keeping her free from the brainwashing, and Nadyr, Joyce and Murray soon to come to help.

Although still not as powerful as the younger psionics (Nadia, Niko, Hailey, Ruby and Eleven), Natasha was definitely relieved to be stronger than she was, able to do more now than just form shields, even if the only bonus she had were the facts that her shields were stronger now, and now able to create those saws, which could still wreck a lot of havoc.

Mikhail was deeply pleased, smirking, walking closer. "How did that feel?"

Natasha refused to look at him, as the brainwashed soldiers and psionics weren't supposed to anyway, acting her part brilliantly, still having a slight smirk on her lips even with blood bleeding heavily from her nose. "Euphoric."

Natasha was only smirking because she couldn't wait to use this power to kill Mikhail if she had the chance.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

The Alibi

Nadia, Hailey, Ruby, Dustin, Max, Steve, Robin and Nancy were meeting in the Alibi so they had a private place to talk.

Nadia took off her hat and sunglasses, tossing them onto the bar.

Hailey took off her sunglasses, folding them and putting them on the edge of her black spider web like collar of her shirt, letting the sunglasses hang from her shirt, tilting her head, running a hand through her blue and purple hair.

Nancy walked toward Nadia instantly, wrapping her arms around her. "Don't you ever scare me like that again. I was worried sick."

Nadia smiled softly, returning the embrace. "Hi to you too, Nancy. Missed you too."

Nancy and Nadia pulled away, smiling softly at the other.

The others smiled a bit at this as well, before they had to return serious.

Ruby was pouring Steve, Nadia, Nancy, Robin and herself some drinks, which they took gratefully after the last couple of days they all had. "I think we might need these."

"I'd say," Nadia agreed.

"I don't even like drinking that much, but I still agree," Robin added.

Steve, Nadia, Nancy, Robin and Ruby clinked their glasses, drinking.

Hailey, Dustin and Max gave them a look.

"Do we get one?" Hailey asked.

Steve laughed. "Yeah, in your dreams."

Hailey tilted her head.

Dustin waved them off.

Max shook her head.

Steve, Nadia, Nancy, Ruby and Robin smirked.

Nancy sighed. "You're saying that these things that killed Fred, Chrissy and Aaron, they're from the Upside Down?"

Steve nodded. "If the shoes fit."

"Our working theory is that Vecna attacks with a spell or a curse," Dustin explained. "And Mirage was trying to get me to grant a wish, but Nadia thinks that the wishes have a price, like an evil, ironic price that ends up with the person who makes the wish dead, like Fred. They use your deepest pain, darkest fear, or even greatest desire in Mirage's case to trap you, kill you and feed on your souls. And whenever a victim dies, it makes Hailey's powers lash out, and they're like ice cold to the touch, but in a way that can leave an ice burn so intense that it... well, burns."

Dustin, Nadia and Steve held up their hands to prove the point, all of whom had an intense ice burn on their hands after trying to help Hailey when she lost control the night before when Fred died and her powers lashed out.

Hailey looked down in guilt.

"It's not your fault, Hailey," Max told her.

"I know," Hailey agreed. "But it still doesn't feel good."

Hailey snagged Steve's drink and took a sip before he could stop her.

"Hey!" Steve complained, taking the drink back from her. "Nuh-uh."

Nadia gave Hailey an amused look. "Excuse you."

"I'm a weapon of mass destruction that two evil creatures are using to do whatever evil deeds they want whenever they make a kill," Hailey replied. "You two really think that you can stop me from taking a drink when I need it?"

Steve and Nadia exchanged a look, exasperated, rolling their eyes, both taking a drink.

The others smirked in amusement, but slight concern.

"Now, whether or not Vecna and Mirage are doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just love killing teens, we don't know," Ruby admitted, taking a drink.

Max nodded in agreement. "All we know is this is something different. Something new. I mean, two new things. Vecna sent Aaron personally to go after Ruby, got her drugged so she couldn't fight back, and almost beat her to death. And now Billy and Eddie are on the run because of under suspicion for murder."

Nancy frowned, confused. "Doesn't make sense."

"That's what I said," Ruby agreed.

"No, I mean I get why they would come after you again, Ruby," Nancy told her. "You're one of the psionics that caused them so much pain the last two years. Your, Niko and Nadia's powers were like literal kryptonite to them, able to burn Will and Billy so much that the Mind Flayer had to release them, or burning the tendrils and vines in the Upside Down, or killing Demogorgons and Demodogs, or anything that you guys did, really." Nadia and Ruby nodded in acknowledgement. "Using Aaron to do it would be another..."

"Way to mess with your mind, like taking Billy last year and everything that happened," Dustin finished.

"Yeah," Max agreed. "Or like the Mind Flayer taking Will messed with Niko's mind."

"That's just a theory, but makes sense," Robin told them.

"Yeah," Dustin agreed, looking at Nancy. "So what didn't make sense to you?"

"Fred and Chrissy," Nancy answered. "I mean, if Aaron was chosen to get under Ruby's skin..."

"Chrissy could've been chosen to get under Hailey's," Robin answered. "They were friends. Same reason why Mirage went after Dustin first."

Nancy looked at Hailey and Dustin sadly in sympathy.

Dustin looked at Hailey, but Hailey looked away in guilt and grief over her lost friend, and the worry that she could hurt everyone again.

"Okay, Chrissy, yes, could have been chosen because of Hailey to mess with her mind," Nadia agreed. "But Nancy raises a good point. Why Fred?"

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place?" Dustin asked. "Fred and Chrissy were both at the game. So was I."

"But Aaron wasn't," Hailey pointed out. "Though all three were at the trailer park."

"But Dustin wasn't," Ruby countered. "Though we know Aaron was here in the Alibi, Dustin and Hailey are here. Chrissy and Fred have both been here at least once, but never again."

They looked around the bar.

"Uh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve asked.

"I don't think it has to do with the place," Max admitted. "I mean, there's no real pattern that can connect any of this."

"Nancy, how was Fred acting before he died?" Robin asked.

"Scared," Nancy answered. "On edge. Upset."

"Hailey and Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin pointed out.

"Yeah, she was crying in the bathroom at school," Max answered.

"She's been upset for days," Hailey admitted. "She never told me what was going on though. Maybe she thought I wouldn't believe her. If only she had known. Maybe I could've helped her."

Steve reached out to place a hand on Hailey's. "Stop blaming yourself."

"Aaron wasn't upset, but he was definitely hallucinating, so in mental pain, I guess," Ruby told them. "Because of me, but..."

"Was Fred ever in any pain?" Nadia asked. Ruby and Nancy shrugged, not having really known Fred. "Okay, well, Hailey said that Chrissy and Aaron were both seeing Vecna in their heads, and Aaron took orders from him. And she saw Mirage in Dustin's head, and it's likely it was the same for Fred."

Robin nodded in agreement. "Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So maybe the dreams that Hailey saw with Chrissy, Aaron and Vecman--"

"Vecna," Ruby corrected, before giving Dustin a look. "Holy shit, your nerdom is contagious. Nope, not gonna happen."

Dustin smiled.

"I don't know about you guys, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster or a snake like creature, I would mention it to someone," Steve told them.

"Maybe they did," Max pointed out. "I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office." Ruby remembered this, nodding. "And Aaron was literally in Pennhurst. If you saw a monster, you--you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your--"

"Your shrink," Hailey finished.

Max nodded.

"Well, it's not like we can go to Pennhurst right now and ask Aaron's psychiatrist if he saw monsters," Dustin pointed out. "They would likely lock us up too."

Nadia tilted her head. "True, but we might be able to talk to Ms. Kelley."

Ruby sighed, finishing her drink. "All right, let's go."

Steve and Nadia finished theirs, but Nancy and Robin left theirs on the bar unfinished, not big drinkers.

∰

Outside

The group walked outside toward Hailey's car and Ruby's bike.

Nancy started to walk away from the group.

Nadia turned after her. "Whoa, whoa. Nancy. Nance!" Nancy turned back. "Nancy, where are you going?"

"Oh, there's just something I wanna check on first," Nancy answered.

"Something you maybe wanna share with us?" Dustin asked.

"I don't wanna waste your time," Nancy told them. "It's a real shot in the dark. It's at the library."

"Mind if I join you?" Nadia asked. Nancy looked at her. Nadia shrugged. "What can I say? I missed hanging out with you, Wheeler."

Nancy smiled, nodding.

"Yeah, okay," Steve said sarcastically. "Are you out of your mind? You two flying solo with Vecna and Mirage on the loose? Nadia, what about Sullivan and the chance he's still out there, or Powell and Callahan seeing you and somehow word gets back to Sullivan?" Nadia turned to look at Steve, tilting her head. "No, it's too dangerous. You need... you need to..."

Nadia raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest skeptically, daring. "No, finish that sentence. You trying to tell me what to do now?"

"No," Steve answered. "It's just that all of us are in danger, especially you, Hailey and Ruby right now, especially if Sullivan's still around. And even if he's not, then he could still come back with the murders going on."

Nancy, Robin and Ruby exchanged a look, knowing and amused, chuckling.

Hailey and Dustin exchanged a knowing look, smirking.

"So what do you wanna do, Steve?" Hailey asked sarcastically. "Nadia can take care of herself, and Nancy."

Ruby stood to get up from her bike. "You know what? I'll go with Nancy and Nadia." Nancy and Nadia nodded. "Robin, you know how to drive a motorcycle?"

"I don't even have a license to drive a car," Robin answered.

"Why don't you have a license?" Hailey asked.

"I'm poor," Robin answered.

Max turned to Ruby excitedly. "I can drive your bike."

Steve's eyes widened, pointing from Max to Ruby. "No, no. Do not let her drive your bike. She already almost crashed Billy's car on the way to the Gate while you were following us on your bike, Ruby. Never again. Please. Anybody but her, no."

Nadia smirked in amusement, looking down, biting her lip.

Max tilted her head in complaint at Steve, turning to Ruby. "Ruby."

Ruby laughed sarcastically. "When I teach you to drive my bike, but no sooner than that since you would crash this thing so fast, Max."

Max pouted, but knew that Ruby had a point, giving in, tilting her head. "Fine." She realized what Ruby said. "When you teach me to drive your bike?"

Ruby smirked, nodding, causing Max to smile excitedly.

Dustin looked at Ruby, shrugging with an upside down smile, as if to ask, 'What about me?'

Ruby shook her head. "Not a chance."

"Come on," Dustin complained.

Hailey rolled her eyes in amusement, tossing her car keys to Steve. "Steve, you drive my car." She walked toward Ruby, taking her keys from her, mounting Ruby's bike, starting it up, showing them she knew exactly what to do with a motorcycle, causing them all to look at her in surprise. Hailey looked up at them with a smirk, pleased by their reactions, shrugging. "What? I may have been considering getting a motorcycle before deciding on a black sports car. Even learned how to ride one."

Steve shook his head. "Nuh-uh."

"Yes-uh," Hailey replied.

Ruby patted Hailey on the shoulder, walking toward Nancy and Nadia. "Hailey's got it, Steve."

Dustin walked over to the bike, getting on behind Hailey. "I'm riding with Hailey."

"You crash the bike, I kill both of you," Ruby warned.

"Got it," Hailey and Dustin replied.

"If you don't use the bike, just leave it here," Ruby told them. "I'll come back for it later."

Robin smiled, shaking her head, walking toward Nancy, Nadia and Ruby. "This is ridiculous, but in a funny way."

"One way to put it," Nadia agreed.

"Where you going, Robin?" Max asked.

Robin stood next to Nancy, Nadia and Ruby, on the other side of Ruby. "Us older ladies will stick together." She turned to give Steve a sarcastic look. "Unless you think we need you to protect us."

Nancy, Nadia and Ruby all gave Steve a look, raising their eyebrows. Robin smiled.

Steve nodded sarcastically, sighing, knowing that he wasn't going to win this one.

Nancy, Nadia, Ruby and Robin turned around, walking away.

"Be careful," Steve called after them.

As the girls continued to walk away, Nancy nodded without looking back, Nadia looked over her shoulder to give Steve a look and head tilt, Ruby held up a peace sign without looking back, and Robin held up a thumbs up, looking back with a smile.

Steve watched them go, mainly Nadia.

On Ruby's bike, Hailey and Dustin exchanged an amused, knowing smirk.

"You just gonna stand there and gawk?" Dustin asked.

Steve turned to face Hailey, Dustin and Max. "Shut up."

"We're gonna go," Hailey told him.

"Hailey, Dustin, get off the bike and get in the car," Steve told them. "I'm not gonna deal with chasing you two down the street in this thing like we have to do with Ruby and Max when they're on the bike."

Max smirked smugly.

Hailey and Dustin rolled their eyes, getting off the bike, walking toward the car.

"It's a sports car, Steve," Hailey reminded him. "It can handle it."

"Yeah, well, I can't," Steve replied.

"Give me my keys," Hailey told him.

"No," Steve denied. "For you little shits being such a pain in the ass today, I'm still gonna drive." Hailey, Dustin and Max rolled their eyes, but got into the car, with Hailey in the passenger seat, and Dustin and Max in the backseat. Steve got into the driver's seat. "Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!"

Hailey smirked smugly. "Don't you mean 'Mom'?"

Steve gave Hailey a look, pointing at her, but couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at her since she wasn't being as sad as before, even if it was only a little more uplifting, hardly noticeable. "Shut up."

Hailey glanced back at Dustin and Max as the three shared a smug smile.

Steve started the car, driving down the road.

Hailey suddenly felt off, like something was wrong, getting dizzy. "It's probably a good thing you told us to get off the bike."

"Why?" Dustin asked. "What's wrong?"

"Just feeling dizzy all of the sudden," Hailey answered. "Not a good combo for motorcycle riding."

Dustin, Max and Steve frowned in confusion and concern.

∰

Trailer Park

Throughout the trailer park, there was a low rumbling sound, as the ground shook and all of the lights of every trailer flickered for a moment.

In the spot that Aaron died at the tree nearby Billy and Max's trailer, and inside the Munson trailer where Chrissy had died, and where Hailey's powers had charged both points of their death, slowly, red star outlines started to crack into the points where they died, in the ceiling of the Munson trailer and at the tree, looking ominous and dangerous. This was clearly what was causing Hailey to be suddenly dizzy and lightheaded.

∰

Mirage's Mind Lair

Mirage was in his mind lair, slithering about on the main podium for his floating, disintegrated lair in the middle of the red Upside Down thunder storm, conjuring a web of glowing purple and orange psionic dark energy and matter all around him. He could see through little windows of energy to potential victims all over Hawkins, each window connected by lines of energy like a spider web, looking through each window in the magic web until he found the right one, causing the web to spin and cyclone around him until he found it. Once he found it, he made the energy web fade away into nothing.

∰

Reality

On the Road - Ryan's Car

Ryan was driving. Jason was in the passenger seat. Lucas, Patrick and Andy were in the backseat.

Patrick heard a high pitched ringing in his head from Mirage infiltrating his mind, his face contorted in pain as he put his hand to his head with a groan, a slight drop of blood dripping down from his nose.

"Patrick, your nose," Andy told him.

"Huh?" Patrick asked.

"Your nose is bleeding, dude," Andy answered. Lucas found a clean cloth to use, handing it to Patrick. Patrick used the cloth to wipe the blood away. Andy looked away in disgust. "God, gross."

Ryan looked out ahead of the car. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Ryan pulled over.

∰

Gareth's House - Garage

Gareth, Jeff and the other member of Hellfire were rocking out in the garage with garage band instruments, only stopping when they saw Ryan, Lucas, Jason, Andy and Patrick walking up to them.

"You're a little early, fellas," Gareth told them. "Show's not till next week."

"Oh, that was music you were playing?" Andy asked sarcastically.

"We're looking for Eddie Munson," Jason told them. "He's in this band, if that's what you can even call this. He might be hanging low with Billy Hargrove. You should know him, since you guys play at his and Ruby Charlize's bar the Alibi."

"What do you care?" Gareth asked.

"That's our business," Ryan replied.

Gareth looked over to see Lucas, confused. "Lucas? What are you doing with theses douchebags?"

Ryan turned to look at Lucas intimidatingly. "You know these freaks, Sinclair?"

Lucas had to maintain his cover so that Ryan and the other jocks didn't do anything to hurt him while he was trying to stop them from doing something really stupid that could get people hurt. "Uh, they know my sister. They tried to recruit me to their... club, cult."

"Lucas, what the hell?" Jeff asked.

Lucas looked hurt to have to do this to his real friends, but was trying to do it for a good reason, trying to tell them that silently with a facial look, which clearly they couldn't understand. "We're just trying to find Billy and Eddie, man."

"Well, you have eyes, don't you?" Gareth asked. "They're not here."

"You haven't seen Ruby then, by any chance?" Ryan asked. "I'm betting she knows where Billy and Eddie are."

"No," Gareth answered. "But I'm dying to see Ruby kick your ass again like she did two years ago if you try to pick another fight with her, or Billy and Eddie."

Ryan nodded sarcastically, suddenly and angrily punching Gareth in the face, snapping his head back.

Lucas jumped in shock.

"Hey, man!" Jeff said, stepping up to try to defend Gareth.

Andy held Jeff back.

It took both Patrick and Jason to hold back the bigger member of Corroded Coffin/Hellfire.

Ryan pulled Gareth up, shaking him by his collar. "Where are they?"

"I don't know!" Gareth snapped.

Jason raised his voice, clearly angry and slipping in sanity, while Ryan just didn't give a damn about who he hurt. "Where are they?"

"I don't know!" Gareth repeated.

"Ryan," Jason said.

Ryan backed away from Gareth and helped Patrick hold the bigger one back, punching him in the gut to make sure the bigger one couldn't break free.

Jason went up to Gareth and punched him viciously in the chest and stomach.

Jeff was struggling worriedly for his friends against Andy. "Hey, let them go, guys! Let them go!"

Jason spun Gareth around and threw him into the drum set, knocking it all down.

Lucas was in shock by how far this spiraled out of control already, having not seen it coming this soon, let alone to people that weren't Billy, Eddie or Ruby, his hands to his head worriedly, anxiously, not sure what to do from being taken off guard like this; he only had one plan before that wouldn't get him into deep trouble, keeping them from finding the three of them in the long run.

Jason stepped onto Gareth's hand, making the bones of his fingers crack under the pressure of his weight. "It's gonna be hard to play drums with a broken hand."

Gareth screamed in pain. "Dustin! Hailey!"

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Dustin Henderson!" Gareth answered. "Hailey Harrington!"

"Say again," Ryan ordered, as it was hard to understand the words with Gareth screaming in pain from Jason nearly breaking his hand.

"Dustin Henderson and Hailey Harrington!" Gareth answered. "They both called me and Jeff, looking for Billy and Eddie. I think it was for Ruby, and Billy's stepsister Max Mayfield. Maybe they found them!"

Ryan smirked. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Of course Hailey the girl freak with the stone in her head is looking out for Ruby, Billy and Eddie for Max. And Dustin's her boyfriend, right?"

"Yes," Gareth answered, breathing heavily. "Yes."

"Great," Jason told him. "Where do we find Hailey and Dustin?"

Lucas was even more worried than before, not just because of the jocks spiraling out of control, but because he knew if they went after Hailey and Dustin to get to Billy, Ruby and Eddie, that Hailey would lose control and do something she would regret and hate herself for.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Police Station - Interrogation Room

Alomar and Franco were sitting across the table that Eleven was handcuffed to.

"So that's when you struck her?" Alomar asked. Eleven nodded. "I'm gonna need you to give me a verbal response."

"Yes," Eleven answered. "That--that is when I hit her."

"And why did you hit her?" Franco asked.

Eleven frowned. "I don't know."

Alomar scoffed. "You don't know?"

"You know, the girl you hit, she got a grade 2 concussion," Franco informed. "Did you know that?"

"No," Eleven answered.

Alomar looked at Franco. "She doesn't seem that upset about it, does she?"

"No, she doesn't," Franco answered.

"No, she doesn't," Alomar repeated. "Did you wanna kill her?"

Eleven could only remember how angry she felt. "I don't know."

Alomar frowned incredulously. "You didn't know if you wanted to kill her?"

"No," Eleven answered.

"No, you didn't wanna kill her, or no, you don't know?" Alomar asked.

"I don't know," Eleven answered.

The two officers exchanged a look.

∰

Processing

Eleven stood in front of the wall with the measuring height marked on the wall, holding a police slate with her name and ID number, along with the date, having to take her mugshots.

Woman: (voice over) "Jane Hopper."

∰

Front Desk

Mike, Niko, Will and Jonathan were at the front desk.

Calliope stood by the wall several feet behind them, looking around the station, taking note of all the extra men in the station, knowing that they were too late as Mikhail's men had taken over the station without the people who actually worked in the station actually really knowing.

The woman at the front desk were giving the boys information on Eleven, since she actually worked there and was completely in the dark about the takeover at the moment. "Okay, yes, I see her now. It looks like she's still being processed."

"Okay, so, uh, what does that mean exactly?" Jonathan asked worriedly.

"It means they're putting her in the system," the woman replied. "After which point, she'll be transferred to juvenile hall."

"What?" Niko demanded.

"Jail?" Mike asked incredulously. "You're gonna put her in jail?"

"A detention hall for juveniles," the woman corrected with what she believed to be true.

"That's jail," Niko told her.

"Hey, look, is there any chance we can just see her?" Jonathan asked.

"Are you a parent or a guardian?" the woman asked.

"No, but--" Jonathan started.

Will put out a hand in front of Jonathan. "Well, our mom is her guardian, like her aunt, so we're her cousins, Niko's like her brother, and we're family."

Niko and Jonathan nodded in agreement.

"That's not enough," the woman told them. "You have to be a parent or a legal guardian."

"You have to be kidding," Mike told her. "That is ridiculous."

"That's the law," the woman replied. "You're not gonna change it by complaining to me. You want to see Jane? Find your mother."

Calliope walked up to the boys. "Boys, come here now." The boys followed Calliope to the side. "Niko, I know you were pretty distracted with trying to help El, but look around and what do you see?" Niko looked around, soon realizing what Calliope already had. "We're too late. Mikhail's men. They're going after El, and they made us."

"How do you know that?" Mike asked.

"Don't ask her how she knows things," Jonathan advised. "She always does."

"And she's right," Niko agreed. "And don't get used to hearing me say that, Calliope."

"They're getting ready to take us down," Calliope told them. "So, Niko, Will, I suggest you get to the back like we planned, now."

Niko and Will nodded, grabbing Niko's duffle bag from the side by the wall.

"Provide us a good distraction," Will told them.

"You got it," Mike agreed. "Just make sure she's okay."

Niko and Will nodded, walking away to get to the back.

Several guards walked toward Calliope, Jonathan and Mike.

Calliope drew a knife and threw it into Guard 1's chest, taking him down with relative ease.

"Why aren't they using guns?" Jonathan asked.

"They plan to keep us alive to use as leverage most likely," Calliope answered. "I'd take that as an advantage."

Calliope stalked toward the guards with a glare, drawing a knife from her sleeve. Guard 2 tried to punch her in the face. Calliope ducked, punching him in the face before stabbing him in the neck, pushing him to the ground. Guard 3 ran closer, but Calliope spun around, kicking him in the stomach, knocking him down. She raised the leg of her shorts to pull a knife from the garter around her thigh.

"How many knives do you have?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope smirked, turning toward Guard 4, knife raised, flipping it through the air, catching it in her hand.

Guard 5 ran toward Jonathan. Jonathan ducked a hit, grabbing a coat rack from nearby, using it to hit the guard over and over.

Guard 6 tried to attack Mike. Mike ducked and kicked him to the floor.

Jonathan spun the coat rack around to use it to slam into Guard 7's face, snapping his head to the side, before slamming it into his back, making him fall to the floor, kicking him in the head to knock him out, tossing the rack to Mike.

Mike caught the coat rack so that he could use it to hit Guard 6 in the head over and over again until he knocked him out.

Guard 4 tried to slash into Calliope with a long blade, but Calliope ducked, and slashed her smaller blade across his stomach. Each time he tried to slash into her, Calliope ducked and dodged, punching him in the face, kicking him back. Guard 4 spun around, driving the blade right toward Calliope's chest, but Calliope pivoted back to make him miss, catching his blade with both her arms, spinning around, flipping him through the air and to the floor, stabbing him viciously in the stomach.

Mike punched Guard 8 in the face, kicking him in the stomach.

Calliope spun to punch Guard 9 in the chest, taking his baton from his belt, spinning to face him, hitting him in the face with the baton, making him fall unconscious, spinning closer to Guard 8 who tried to take down Mike, slamming the baton over Guard 8's head to knock him out, taking him down.

Mike caught his breath. "Thanks, Calliope."

Calliope raised her eyebrows, nodding, flipping the baton through the air, catching it in her hand.

Jonathan flipped Guard 10 to the floor, picking him up, throwing him into the wall, making him fall unconscious.

Calliope leaned down, picking up a gun from the ground. "I'm gonna hold onto this."

∰

Back Hallways

Will and Niko were breaking into the back of the police station to get to Eleven before she could be seriously hurt or killed by Mikhail's men.

Niko smiled sarcastically, raising his eyebrows. "Hi, boys."

Niko ran toward Guards 11 and 12, jumping up in the air and kicking both of them back into the wall behind them, into the windows on the wall, shattering the glass doing so, immediately bashing their heads with his gun to knock them out.

Guard 13 ran closer. Will kicked him in the face, making him fall, sliding closer to another cop, spinning over the floor to kick his legs out from underneath him, making him flip through the air and land on the floor, punching him hard in the head, knocking him out.

Guard 14 ran at Niko. Niko grabbed him, spinning around, slamming his head into the wall, turning away from behind, holding his arm, flipping him over his shoulder to the floor in front of them, kicking him in the head to knock him out.

Several guards ran down the hallway toward them.

Niko fired off his gun to take down Guards 15 and 16, and though Will hated the thought of using a gun, he knew that he had to in order to save Eleven, but didn't go for lethal shots, taking down Guards 17 and 18.

Guard 19 ran toward them. Will ducked, sliding between his legs, punching him in the crotch, making him fall to his knees, punching him in the head hard enough to knock him out.

Niko punched Guard 20 in the chest twice, throwing him down, kicking Guard 21 in the balls, turning back Guard 20 (behind him) to kick him in the head, knocking him down, spinning to punch Guard 21 (in front of him) in the stomach, making him fall to his knees, flipping through the air to kick him in the head, knocking him out, landing on his feet.

Guard 22 ran at Will. Will caught his wrist, twisting his arm around over his own head, spinning to put him in an arm lock, now standing behind him, kicking him in the knee, making him knee down, flipping away from him, spinning around to kick him in the head, knocking him down and out.

Now all of the guards in this hallway were knocked out.

Niko looked at Will in shock and awe, incredibly impressed.

"What?" Will asked.

"You're damn good for only doing this a year," Niko answered.

Will chuckled. "Well, Hailey's a good teacher."

Niko smiled. "So it seems. Though since Nadia, Mama and I did teach Hailey and Ruby how to fight, technically you're learning all of that indirectly through Hailey from..."

"You, Nadia and Natasha," Will finished. "Yeah, I know, Niko. Just like Steve and Billy are learning indirectly from you three because of Hailey and Ruby." He called out for his adoptive sister. "El? El, can you hear us?"

Eleven was in a cell in the back, calling out. "Will?"

"El!" Niko called.

"Niko!" Eleven called.

Niko sighed in relief. "She's still here. Good." He saw the cell keys on the wall outside the cell block, taking the keys. "We'll be taking those."

∰

Cell Block

Niko and Will ran inside, relieved to see Eleven there, even though it was seeing her in a cell.

Eleven sighed shakily in relief to see them. "Mikhail's men. Calliope was right."

"We know," Niko told her, running closer, using the keys to unlock the cell, instantly opening the cell and pulling Eleven out.

Eleven instantly embraced both Niko and Will in relief, as they both returned the embrace in just as much relief.

∰

Front Room

Everyone in the station who hadn't been Mikhail's men were either gone, running for their lives, or knocked out for trying to stop the fight going on.

As Calliope, Mike and Jonathan looked outside, they saw more men coming.

Calliope turned away. "Shit."

Calliope took out a lighter, lighting it, throwing it up to the smoke alarm to activate the alarm and set off the sprinklers, dousing herself, Mike and Jonathan, and Will, Eleven and Niko in the back.

Mike and Jonathan both winced.

"What the hell, Calliope?" Mike asked.

"Did you have a better message for Will, Niko and El, since they likely can't hear us from here?" Calliope replied. "Then shut up."

∰

Back Hallway

Eleven, Will and Niko were making their way to the front as fast as they could when the sprinklers started.

"What the hell?" Niko asked.

Will winced. "Guess that's a sign from Calliope that we need to get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, you think?" Niko asked.

Eleven looked at them worriedly. "Go."

∰

Front Room

As more men walked in, Jonathan hit Guard 23 with the coat rack, hitting him repeatedly, making him fall, knocking him out.

Guard 24 ran closer. Calliope backhand punched him fiercely in the face, making him reel back, spinning around to kick his legs out from underneath him, making him flip through the air and land hard on the floor, kicking him viciously in the face, knocking him out.

Mike picked up a desk weight, throwing it at Guard 25 to knock him down. Guard 25 pushed the desk weight off of him, trying to punch Mike. Mike ducked, kicking his arm hard, pushing him face down into the water covered floor.

Guard 26 swung at Calliope. Calliope caught his arm, spinning him around, looping one of her legs around his, flipping backward over his arm to kick him in the face with the other leg, flipping him to the floor, slamming his head against the floor, knocking him out, landing in a crouch, looking up.

Jonathan kicked the feet out from beneath Guard 27, making him fall to the floor with a splash of water, using a shotgun he found to hit him in the face, knocking him out. "Will! El! Niko, come on!"

∰

Back Hallways

Niko, Will and Eleven almost got to the front when they were blocked off by more men.

Guard 28 aimed a gun at the three of them. Eleven ducked his gun, sliding between his legs to make him miss. Will threw an object into his head hard enough to make him fall.

Niko found a shotgun nearby, smiling, picking it up, using it to slam into Guard 29 and Guard 30 on either side of him as they ran closer, knocking them both down, slamming the shot gun into Guard 29's head, and shooting Guard 30, taking him down.

Guard 31 grabbed Will from behind while Guard 32 to attack him from in front. Will used both feet to kick Guard 32 back, flipping forward to kick Guard 31 to the ground, rolling over him, standing up, hitting him hard in the head with his weapon, making him fall unconscious.

Since Eleven didn't know how to fight, she found something else to use to help Niko and Will take down the Guards, sneaking up on a shelf behind the guards, pushing it over onto Guards 33, 34 and 35 to pin them down to the floor and distract them, buying Niko, Will and Eleven enough time to knock all three of them out.

Guard 36 ran toward Niko. Niko spun around to kick his legs out from underneath him to send him spiraling through the air and landing on the shelf, making the shelf break as a piece stabbed into Guard 36, making him scream.

Guard 37 tried to fire at Will. Will ducked, spinning around to kick his gun out of his hand, knocking him out with his weapon.

When Guard 38 tried to stab Niko, Niko ducked and dodged all the moves he tried to make, kicking him in the crotch, turning to kick Guard 39 in the stomach behind him, spinning to backhand punch Guard 38 in the face, making him spin through the air before falling to the floor, kicking Guard 39 in the back of the head, making him lean forward, raising his leg and thrusting it down into his back to make him fall to the floor and not get up.

Eleven looked behind them worriedly. "Will! Niko!"

They both spun around, a moment too late.

Guard 40 had his gun aimed right at Niko, pulling the trigger, the bullet too close for Niko to try and dodge.

Niko's eyes started glowing bright purple-blue-pink, as if this activated another psychic episode, like Sabina knew that this was coming due to her connection to his mind and was giving him a psychic episode in order to help him defend himself, and trying to get him a message. This time, Niko didn't fight the connection but gave into it because he knew that he needed it this time, allowing her into his mind so that she could show him where to find her, knowing that connecting with her meant connecting with his powers and saving himself from dying by being shot, his power lashing out with a blast of fire that sent the bullet soaring back toward the shooter, shooting him in the chest while burning the skin off the front of his body, making him fall dead to the ground, but it didn't stop there, as the fire continued to explode outward, taking Will and Eleven all down as they tried to duck for cover, knocking both of them out, and bursting out of Niko through the rest of the station, destroying most of the building around him.

All while as Niko was given a vision of the woman in the same faded colors. He saw the face of the dark haired woman with the name tag, finally able to read the name tag, which read Dr. Ivanova. Sabina was standing over a baby next to her, discovering that the baby had fire powers, and the tattoo on his wrist said 012, revealing the baby to be an infant Niko, at the time that he was discovered to have fire powers.

∰

Front Room

The fire from Niko continued to explode outward, through the entire station, burning the unconscious or injured bodies of Mikhail's men and destroying more of the building.

Calliope saw this first. "Take cover!"

Calliope, Mike and Jonathan all ran to take cover, diving and ducking to do so, but in doing so, they were all knocked out, just like Will and Eleven in the back hallways.

∰

Back Hallway

Niko's power finally stopped, letting the flames stop coming from his body, but the rest of the station was still burning. He was the only one still standing because it was his power, but his nose was bleeding very heavily from the enormous release of power, and fell unconscious next to Will and Eleven.

∰

California to Alaska Airplane

Joyce and Murray were flying to Alaska.

Murray had fallen asleep, muttering indistinctly, obnoxiously in his sleep, sniffing, leaning his head on Joyce's shoulder.

Joyce was weirded out, pushing Murray off of her and against the window of the plane.

The flight attendant from before brought Joyce some food. "All right, and here you go."

"Thank you," Joyce told her. "Um, how much longer?"

"Oh, just a few more hours," the flight attendant answered. "Almost there." Joyce nodded. The flight attendant smiled. "You and your husband have exciting plans?"

Joyce smiled awkwardly. "Um, we're seeing old friends."

The flight attendant have her a cheerful smile. "How fun."

The flight attendant walked away.

Joyce sighed, opening her food box to start to eat, though she made a disgusted look at the airplane food.

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Outside

The prisoners were all getting dinner (just stale bread and small bowls of soup) from underneath a tent outside.

A soldier spoke in Russian to order them. "One person, one piece. Don't you understand? I said one piece per person!"

Hopper got his food and went to sit down next to another prisoner, offering his piece of stale bread.

The prisoner shook his head, speaking in Russian. "I am no fairy."

Hopper shook his head, also speaking in what little Russian he picked up. "No, no. You..." He gestured as if to hit his ankle. "Hit. You hit. I give bread."

The prisoner glanced down, replying in Russian. "I will break your leg."

Hopper frowned, repeating what he had already said in Russian. "You hit. I give bread."

"And soup," the prisoner added in Russian. Hopper nodded in agreement. The prisoner took both Hopper's soup and bread, which was his entire dinner. "Crazy American."

∰

Moments Later

As the prisoners were working on the railroad again, Hopper was swinging his railroad pick like the rest of them, looking around to make sure that none of the guards were paying attention, turning to look at the prisoner behind him, speaking in Russian. "Now." He bit down onto the arm of his jacket to brace himself for the pain, breathing heavily. The prisoner hesitated only slightly before swinging his railroad pick down at Hopper's ankle, which was firmly against the railroad on the other side of his ankle bone. Hopper stifled a scream, looking at the prisoner, nodding. "Again, again."

The prisoner swung three more times, and each time, Hopper looked like he could cry, but more like each hit became more and more numb even while agonizing.

∰

Russian Psionic Prison - Cafeteria

Natasha was sitting alone, having dinner, making sure that she sat alone, to herself, having her head down and her eyes closed so no one could see her eyes glowing bright blue-purple-pink, signaling a connection to Sabina long distance.

Sabina was at home, wearing her headset to strengthen the connection to Natasha, as they could speak just in their minds, and not aloud.

Natasha: (thinking) "Tell me that Niko, Will, El, Jonathan and Mike are okay."

Sabina: (thinking)"They're unconscious after the fight and after my connection to Niko caused an explosion of fire to save him from being shot. Will and Nikolai saved Eleven. Mike and Jonathan had the help of a girl I know by the name of Calliope Pierce in helping fight off Mikhail's men."

Natasha: (thinking) "Do I even wanna know how you know Calliope Pierce and why she's with them?"

Sabina: (thinking) "She was the sister to one of the American program children. Number 10, like Nadia is for the Russian program. Suffice it to say, that didn't end well. She's trying to find me to get answers about her brother."

Natasha: (thinking) "And can you give her any?"

Sabina: (thinking) "None that she would like. I've been trying to check in with Nadia and let her know what's going on, but you said that Nadia, Niko, Eleven and Ruby were all bitten by the Mind Flayer monster last year, leaving them with an infection, which I believe is what is keeping them from using their powers, and it's also keeping me from being able to fully contact Niko, and why it's so hard and it comes in bursts of psychic episodes and power. Only able to even do that because we're both telepaths. But I've tried to make contact with Nadia, and Eleven, and even Ruby, and it doesn't work."

Natasha: (thinking) "I figured, since Niko couldn't use telepathy to get into Will or Billy's heads when they were taken over by the Mind Flayer, so of course you can't get into Nadia, El and Ruby's when they have the infection. And why it's so hard to contact Nikolai. Thank you for trying though, Mama."

Sabina: (thinking) "However, I can try and contact Hailey next, if you wish, to ensure that the girls and their friends in Hawkins are safe from Sullivan and any other threat. Mikhail's men will eventually go after Nadia, Hailey and Ruby too."

Natasha: (thinking) "I know. And yes, please try to contact Hailey and be sure they're safe. When you have the time and strength. You're already doing so much, Mama."

In her home, Sabina's nose was bleeding pretty heavily from all the power she used to give Niko two psychic episodes, one big enough to cause an explosion of fire, and to contact Natasha and Nadyr long distance, and trying and failing to contact Nadia, Ruby and Eleven long distance.

Sabina: (thinking) "I do what I must, Natasha. How is your power coming along?"

Natasha: (thinking) "My shields are much stronger than they used to be. I can hold off trucks and tanks, though they do slide me back on my feet across the ground. I can create molecular saws that can destroy trucks and light posts, and who knows what else."

Sabina: (thinking) "Good. You'll need that extra strength in power to be able to break free. Joyce and Murray are on their way to Alaska to meet with Hopper's guard's man."

Natasha: (thinking) "You don't think it's a trap, do you?"

Sabina: (thinking) "To catch Nadia, Niko, Hailey, Eleven and Ruby? I wouldn't doubt it. That's why Nadyr will find them, and save them if he has to. They have the hard drive he needs to locate you and Hopper anyway, so he has to go to them."

Natasha: (thinking) "Right, of course. The hard drive Nadia and Niko obtained from Zafar. Thank you for keeping me updated from what you see in their minds when you make contact."

Sabina: (thinking) "Of course."

Natasha: (thinking) "Is there anything else?"

Sabina: (thinking) "Yes. I'll be having Owens bring Niko, Will and Eleven to me shortly. He'll be the only one with them when they wake though, since Nikolai will obviously have a bad reaction to seeing me at first. Don't want to do that as soon as he wakes up from a psychic episode such as he just had, causing the explosion such as we did."

Natasha: (thinking) "Smart thinking. What about Mike, Jonathan and Calliope?"

Sabina: (thinking) "They'll be taken to a safe house until this blows over. And I don't mean that as a pun."

Natasha smirked, rolling her eyes.

Natasha: (thinking) "Ha ha."

Sabina: (thinking) "Calliope needs to sit this one out. I can't be having interruptions while trying to get Nikolai and Eleven's powers back, so that Niko can get Nadia and Ruby's powers back. Because Hailey cannot win this battle on her own with just her powers."

Natasha: (thinking) "Battle?"

Sabina: (thinking) "In Hawkins. I'll explain more when we have more time. The point remains is that Mike and Jonathan, and Calliope, will be safer at the safe house."

Natasha: (thinking) "And what if they're found by Mikhail's men, or Sullivan's?"

Sabina: (thinking) "Then Owens' men who are watching over them are ordered to give them the computer number for Nina in Corith. Where they can find us eventually."

Natasha: (thinking) "You're taking them to Corith?"

Sabina: (thinking) "It's the only way to be sure that we have all we need to bring the children's powers back. They'll be safe there with the other psionics and soldiers. It's a place I made even away from Mikhail."

Natasha: (thinking) "Okay. As long as he doesn't find a way to figure out where it is. Good luck, Sabina."

Sabina: (thinking) "And you, Natasha. For Lord's sake, be careful. Just because you're more powerful now does not mean you can be reckless. You're still outnumbered and at the disadvantage alone in the psionic prison. You must wait for Nadyr. He'll have the gas vials needed to set the other psionics and soldiers free. The same kind that Valkov used to free you 10 years ago. Then you'll all be free to go."

Natasha: (thinking) "That's good to know. Thank you, Mama. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope to see you soon."

Sabina: (thinking, chuckling) "Likewise, dear."

Sabina ended the connection between the two, as both her and Natasha's eyes stopped glowing.

Natasha could finally open her eyes now that she was no longer telepathically connected to Sabina, hoping for the best.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Library - Outside

Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin got out of Nancy's car, walking up to the library. Of course, Nadia and Ruby left Nadia's sword, and Ruby's bow and quiver of arrows, in the car in hiding, because they clearly couldn't take weapons into the library.

Ruby looked at Nancy. "Okay, help me get this straight. Eddie's uncle, Wayne, thinks that Victor Creel escaped from Pennhurst Asylum like Aaron did, and that he's the one running around Hawkins committing these murders?"

Nancy nodded. "Pretty much."

"But Victor Creel committed the eyeball murders, like, way back in the '50s," Nadia pointed out.

Nancy opened the library door. "Well, '59."

∰

Inside

Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin walked inside.

"So, that means these murders predate our lovable psionics and the Upside Down by about 30 years?" Robin asked.

"Yeah," Nancy answered.

"Which makes spooky Victor Creel like 70 years old," Robin pointed out.

"Yep," Nancy answered, dinging the bell on the library check out counter.

Nadia tilted her head. "Oh, and technically, as far as we know, Eleven didn't create the Upside Down. She just contacted a Demogorgon who was already living in that plane of existence using telepathy which opened a Gate. And she probably did it more than once on accident."

"Right," Ruby stated, confused, before looking at Nancy. "So you think Victor's a grandpa murderer who can turn invisible and lift people into the air?"

Nancy sighed. "It doesn't make sense, I know. That's why I said it was a shot in the dark."

Ruby shrugged. "Eh, I've heard more far-fetched things. Mostly seeing more far-fetched things in my own mind, but..."

Nancy gave Ruby a small smile, sympathetic.

"Well, speaking from another point of view, I haven't," Robin told them.

"Give it time," Nadia replied. "You will."

Nancy smiled at Nadia.

Robin looked at Nancy. "I just thought that by 'shot in the dark', you were being modest or hiding something super solid up your sleeve that you were gonna wow us with later." Nancy dinged the bell two more times. "But this is like really, truly, a shot in the dark." Nancy looked somewhat annoyed, looking at Nadia and Ruby in confusion. Nadia and Ruby smirked, shaking their heads, not knowing what to tell her. "Like we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around 50 times."

Ruby got annoyed with waiting for the librarian, tapping the bell more impatiently than Nancy did, dinging it harshly and repeatedly like that would make a difference, clearly on edge and trying not to lash out at something, but even so, her voice sounded cute and complaining, comedic. "Come on!"

Nadia, Nancy and Robin exchanged a look before looking at Ruby.

The librarian walked closer with books in her arms. "Coming."

"Hi, sorry about her," Nadia told her. Ruby looked at Nadia. "We're in a bit of a rush."

Ruby turned her head to look at Nancy on the other side of her. "Nancy?"

Nancy nodded, looking at the librarian. "Could we get the keys to the basement archives?"

"Of course," the librarian answered. "Give me one sec."

The librarian walked away.

Nancy looked at Ruby in concern, worried about her mind state but also because of her physical state, as this had been the first day she had seen her since she was nearly beaten to death by Aaron just days before. "Are you okay?"

Ruby sighed in frustration. "I will be once nobody asks me that again."

Nadia, Nancy and Robin nodded slightly.

Robin looked at Nancy, also looking at Nadia and Ruby for help. "Did I come off mean or condescending?"

"No," Nancy answered.

"No, you just came off in your hyperactive, rambling, lovable but slightly annoying ranting Robin way," Ruby answered. "Nancy's not used to that like we are yet."

Nancy pointed to Ruby in agreement. "Right."

Robin nodded in understanding. "Oh, okay. Got it. I'm sorry, Nancy. I'm trying to work on it. You don't know me very well. I don't really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues."

Nadia chuckled. "That much is obvious, Robin."

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "So if I say something that upsets you, just know that I know it's a flaw. Believe me, my mother reminds me daily."

Nancy nodded weirdly, but was somewhat amused. "Got it."

The librarian brought them the keys for the basement archives. "All right, ladies. Here you go. Have fun."

Nadia took the keys. "Yep. We'll try."

Nadia, Ruby and Nancy walked off.

Robin looked at the librarian to wave goodbye, making a cute shrugging gesture with her hands, smiling, turning to follow the other three girls.

∰

Ms. Kelley's House - Outside

Max stood outside the front door of the school counselor's house, ringing the doorbell twice.

Ms. Kelley opened the door. "Max. Hi."

"Hi," Max replied. "I'm so sorry to bother you over break, but... do you have a minute to talk?"

"Um, yeah, of course," Kelley answered. "Of course."

Kelley stepped aside.

Max looked back over her shoulder toward Hailey's car, before walking inside.

Kelley closed the door behind her.

Across the street in Hailey's car, Steve was in the driver's seat, Hailey was in the passenger seat, and Dustin was in the backseat.

"Okay, she's in," Steve told them.

"I'm missing collarbones, not eyes," Dustin told him.

Hailey and Dustin exchanged a look before looking at Steve.

"So, we gonna talk about it?" Hailey asked.

Steve looked at them. "Sorry, talk about what?"

"Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nadia," Dustin answered.

Steve looked busted and sheepish, looking away for a split second before looking at them. "Okay, first of all, that's not what happened."

Hailey made a face, tilting her head. "Pretty sure that's what happened. It was pretty public. There were a lot of witnesses."

"Are you two implying I still have a thing for Nadia?" Steve asked.

"No, not implying," Dustin answered. "Stating."

Steve nodded sarcastically, turning his head to look out the window. "Okay."

"It's so obvious you're still in love with her, Steve," Hailey told him.

Steve scoffed, shaking his head. "Oh, obvious, huh?"

"Like, glaringly obvious," Dustin answered.

"Maybe I was just trying to protect a friend," Steve told them. Dustin grinned, not buying that for a second. "A friend, Henderson, okay?"

"Okay," Dustin replied.

"I'm not buying that bullshit for a second, but whatever you say, Stevie," Hailey told him.

Steve huffed, blushing brightly. "I don't want to find her with her eyes sucked out of her skull by this Vecna creep, or have her worst nightmare, whatever that is, created by Mirage to kill her. Or be caught and taken by Sullivan, or whoever else."

Dustin smiled, laughing. "You're like bright red in the face right now."

Hailey smiled. "You are. It's adorable."

Steve shook his head, exasperated. "No, I'm not. I don't wanna talk about it."

"Denial," Dustin sang.

Steve gave Dustin a look. "I'll punch you so hard in your face your teeth will fall back out."

Hailey instantly reached out to hit Steve lightly on the head with her hand. "Steve!"

"Whoa," Dustin said at the same time. "Too far."

Steve realized what he said, regretting it. "Not cool."

"Not cool," Dustin agreed.

"Definitely not cool," Hailey added.

"Sorry," Steve apologized.

"It's okay," Dustin told him.

Steve nodded, holding out his hand, so that Dustin could fist bump him.

Hailey chuckled lightly.

∰

Inside - Living Room

Kelley and Max were sitting down in chairs, facing each other.

"It's just, with everything that's happening, with all the murders..." Max trailed off, not going too far into detail since Kelley wouldn't know about Billy being a suspect or Ruby getting involved because their names were kept out of the news, as was Eddie's, so far. "It's making everything worse again."

"You've experienced trauma, Max," Kelley told her. "And when you keep your feelings, your pain, bottled up the way you do, it doesn't take much to trigger them again. So now when it rains, it storms."

Max nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I know. But it's not just that. The inmate that escaped? Who was killed? That was Ruby's old foster father."

"Aaron," Kelley realized, remembering talking to Ruby about him in 4.01. "Was that why he was at your trailer park? Going after Ruby again?"

"Yeah," Max answered. "I saw it. And it was horrible." She flashed back to that night, how horrifying it felt to run outside and see Ruby half-beaten to death while Billy was beating Aaron to defend her. "And right across from us, that's where Chrissy was murdered, too. She was Hailey's friend. The cops asked us a bunch of questions. Did they talk to you? I mean, I know you were seeing Chrissy."

"Max, you know I can't talk about Chrissy," Kelley told her.

Max gestured around aimlessly. "Yeah, but, I mean... what if there was a serial killer on the loose in my neighborhood? Did Chrissy mention anything? Anything about who might have done this?"

Kelley shook her head. "Max, I'm--I'm sorry. I--I really can't discuss this. If you were in Chrissy's place, you wouldn't want me talking to any other students about you, right?"

"If I were dead and it would help catch the killer, then yeah, I most definitely would," Max answered.

"Well, let's leave that up to the police, shall we?" Kelley asked.

Max tried to hide her disappointment, nodding in annoyance. "Yeah, you're right." She spoke sarcastically. "The police totally have this under control." She got an idea. "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Sure," Kelley answered. "Up the stairs, to the left."

Max stood. "Thanks."

∰

Kitchen

Max walked up the stairs to the left, when she noticed Kelley's keys in a glass bowl on a table in the kitchen on the counter. She looked down the steps to make sure that Kelley wasn't looking, walking to the counter to grab the keys from the glass bowl, seeing the label on the key chain for "Office."

Without heading back to Kelley, Max walked right out of the house.

∰

Outside

Hailey, Dustin and Steve were still in Hailey's car.

Max walked outside.

"Here she comes, here she comes," Hailey observed.

Max ran up to the car, getting into the backseat with Dustin.

"What'd she say?" Dustin asked.

"Nothing," Max answered. "Just drive."

"Nothing?" Steve repeated.

"Steve, drive," Max insisted.

Steve started the car. "Okay."

Steve drove down the road quickly.

∰

Henderson House - Outside

Ryan, Jason, Patrick and Andy were knocking on every door and window they could find on the Henderson house.

"Man, no one's home," Patrick pointed out.

"So now what?" Andy asked.

"We keep looking," Ryan answered. "They're not at Dustin's. They're not Hailey's. They're not at the Alibi or the trailer park. But they've gotta be somewhere."

"The town's not that big," Jason pointed out. "Only so many places these freaks can burrow." They turned around, walking toward Ryan's car, only to see the back door open, and Lucas had seemingly disappeared. "Where the hell is Sinclair?"

∰

Inside - Dustin's Room

Lucas was sneaking into Dustin's room through the window to run toward Dustin's Cerebro on the desk, turning it on, calling for them worriedly. "Dustin. Hailey. It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin! Hailey!"

On the road, Steve was driving Hailey's car, Hailey in the passenger seat, and Dustin and Max in the backseat.

Dustin picked up his radio instantly. "Lucas? Where the hell have you been?"

"Just listen," Lucas told them. "Are you looking for Billy and Eddie?"

"We found them, no thanks to you," Hailey answered.

"You found them?" Lucas repeated.

"A boathouse on Coal Mill Road," Dustin answered. "Don't worry, they're safe."

"What about Ruby?" Lucas asked. "Is she with you guys?"

"Ruby's with Nadia, Nancy and Robin at the library," Dustin answered.

Lucas was in shock to hear one of those names. "Nadia's back in town?"

"Yeah, we'll tell you all about it," Hailey answered.

"Okay, but what happened with Aaron, Ruby and Billy, and Eddie and Chrissy?" Lucas asked. "For real, no gossip?"

"Aaron had Ruby drugged and almost beat her to death," Dustin answered. "Billy beat him down to save her, but he did not kill Aaron. And Eddie tried to save Chrissy."

"Then what killed them?" Lucas asked. "Save them from what?"

Max took the radio from Dustin to speak into it herself. "Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at school. We'll explain later."

Steve gave Max an 'okay' or 'great' sign in agreement.

"I can't," Lucas told them worriedly. "I think some real bad shit's about to go down."

"What are you talking about?" Max asked. "What bad shit?"

Outside Dustin's window, Ryan, Jason, Patrick and Andy peaked in through the window to see Lucas.

"Sinclair!" Jason called.

Lucas turned to look at them nervously.

When the four on the road didn't hear back from him, Max frowned, concerned. "Lucas? Lucas."

∰

Outside

Lucas climbed out of Dustin's window, jumping to the ground, facing Ryan, Jason, Patrick and Andy.

"What the hell were you doing?" Ryan asked.

"I was--I was looking for clues," Lucas told them nervously.

"Clues?" Patrick repeated. "What, freshman think he's Sherlock Holmes or something?"

Andy and Patrick laughed, doing a handshake.

Ryan smirked, turning away. "Yo, let's go."

Ryan, Jason, Andy and Patrick turned around, walking for Ryan's car.

Lucas knew that he had to keep them distracted. "I found one."

They turned back to face him.

"What?" Jason asked.

Lucas stepped closer. "A clue. I know where Billy and Eddie are hiding. So you can get your answer about Ruby soon."

Ryan and Jason exchanged a look, nodding slightly.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

On the Road - Van

Niko, Will and Eleven were waking up in a van, all three confused, and dirty and dusty after the explosion at the police station.

"What the fuck is going on?" Niko asked. "Let us out of here."

"How did we get here?" Will asked.

"Don't make me take this fucking van down," Niko threatened.

Owens looked over his shoulder from the front passenger seat, standing, making his way into the back of the van for the three of them to see. "Hey, kiddos."

Niko, Eleven and Will looked at him in surprise.

"Dr. Owens?" Will asked.

"What's going on?" Eleven asked.

"I'll explain everything," Owens assured. "I promise. We're only here to help."

Niko, Will and Eleven exchanged a confused look.

∰

Night - California to Alaska Plane - Landing

Joyce and Murray's plane finally landed after nightfall, and Murray was still sleeping in his seat.

Joyce shook him awake. "Come on. We're here."

Murray woke up. "Huh?"

"Come on," Joyce repeated. They both stood. Joyce stood, opening the cabin above their seats to get her bag, which was slightly open and flashing some money inside. "Oh, shit."

Joyce tucked the money away, closing and zipping the bag.

∰

Outside

Joyce and Murray got off the plane into the cold blizzard weather of nighttime Alaska, both shaking from the cold, but were bundled up to keep warm.

The flight attendant said every now and then to the leaving passengers, "Welcome to Alaska."

"Oh, God," Murray winced. "This is spring?"

They headed off the plane.

∰

Missouri to Alaska Plane

Nadyr's plane was only two more hours out from reaching Alaska, hoping to make it to Joyce and Murray before anything was set into motion; whether it was a trap or not, or just the plan itself to go save Natasha and Hopper.

Nadyr was restlessly waiting to end the journey to Alaska, looking around in boredom, checking his watch, running a hand through his blonde hair to pull it back from his face. "Hang in there a little while longer, sister. I'll be there soon."

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Outside

The prisoners were escorted into line ups so that the guards could check and make sure that their chains were all secure.

Hopper was limping in extreme pain as he made his way up to the guard check, but trying to hide the pain, which he did fairly well.

The guard took off his hat to make sure he had nothing beneath, before putting the hat back on his hand, while another guard tugged at Hopper's chains.

Hopper winced slightly but tried very hard not to show any other pain, as the chains held firm.

Once Hopper's check was done, he was led inside to his cell.

∰

Hopper's Cell

Hopper was sitting on the floor, unwrapping his foot, revealing that the chains, when the other prisoner had hit his ankle with the railroad pick, was embedded deep into Hopper's skin and ankle bone so that Hopper could try to pry the chains off his ankle in an excruciatingly gruesome and horrifying way. He looked ready to cry and scream as he was doing so, but he managed not to do so, just barely.

∰

Russian Psionic Prison - Natasha's Cell

Natasha was laying in her cell, looking at the ceiling blankly with a glassy, determined look in her eyes, prepared to do anything it took to escape once the time came. She knew that she had no chance of getting out alone, but once Nadyr, Joyce and Murray arrived, all bets were off.

She knew that Hopper had more of a chance to get out on his own given that his prison wasn't filled with brainwashed psionics and top tier soldiers, but still, she worried about what he would have to do in order to try and get out on his own, if he had to. She hoped that she could help him in case something happened, she would be right there to make sure he was okay, but she knew Hopper, and knew that he was already working on his own escape to try and find a way to help her escape, since he too knew that it was going to be nearly impossible for Natasha's escape with help, let alone without.

Needless to say, Natasha and Hopper had never been more worried about the other than right then, and both were worried about what would happen if they failed, and lost each other, or lost their kids.

∰

 Hawkins, Indiana

Library - Basement Archives

Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin were doing research through any and all archives they could get their hands on about the Creels.

Ruby felt like she was going more out of her mind like this, but she knew that focusing on this was ironically going to keep her more sane by keeping her busy and not lashing out and doing something she regretted.

"Anything juicy over there?" Robin asked.

"Nothing new," Nancy answered.

"Nada," Ruby answered.

"Nope," Nadia answered, popping the 'P'.

Robin also popped the 'P'. "Yep, same here. Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes." Ruby frowned, remembering her drawings about missing eyes, or sliced eyes that were ruined, but brushing that off as a coincidence. "Took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst. Blah, blah, blah, blah."

Ruby looked more and more overwhelmed. "What are we looking for exactly?" She peaked around the archive cases, knocking on the case loudly in a rhythm. "Nancy?" Nancy peaked around the archive case toward Ruby. "Any mention of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?"

"I don't know," Nancy admitted. "Okay? It's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time."

Ruby stood, pacing. "I don't know about that."

"What are you talking about?" Nadia asked.

Nancy, Robin and Nadia were concerned by Ruby's state.

"Ruby?" Nancy asked.

Ruby turned to face them. "Hmm?"

"Why don't you know about that?" Robin asked.

Ruby swallowed, shrugging. "I don't know. I just had some drawings of people without eyes, or of an elderly guy with his eyes sliced and ruined. I kinda saw them when I was learning how to control the sensory scrying power when I still had my powers."

"Sensory scrying?" Robin repeated.

"Think of it like mental astral projecting into another person's mind and seeing everything they see, feeling everything they feel, and hearing everything they hear," Nadia explained. "Up to and including reliving their memories."

"Right," Ruby agreed. "I don't remember where I saw the eyes, or lack of eyes, when I was scrying, but... it doesn't matter. So this is just... bringing up more of that. Since I've been seeing them lately too."

"Do you mean like from hallucinations or dreams or something?" Robin asked.

"I don't know," Ruby admitted, frustrated. "I don't know, but this is... Can we just keep looking, please? I don't care if it seems like a shot in the dark or a dead end. I will chase every fucking dead end there is until we find a way to clear Billy and Eddie's names and take Vecna and Mirage out after all the shit they've already pulled with them and Hailey and Dustin and me. I just..." She couldn't finish, turning away. "You know what? Why don't you three go meet up with Hailey, Dustin, Max and Steve? I'll be fine on my own for a little bit without everybody looking at me like they're waiting for me to snap. It's not like I can do anything in a public library, not like I'm in any danger here, so..."

Ruby turned around, walking down some steps to continue looking through the filing cabinets for the archives.

Nadia, Nancy and Robin exchanged a look, standing, walking down the steps.

"Ruby," Robin stated softly.

"Don't," Ruby told them.

"Don't what?" Nancy asked.

"Don't go all soft and reassuring and telling me that it's gonna be okay," Ruby answered. "I've really had enough of that for right now."

"Don't push us away right now, Ruby," Nancy told her. "Especially right now."

"You always do this," Nadia pointed out. "Why?"

Ruby sighed heavily. "Maybe I just don't wanna hurt anybody else that I care about now that I've made actual friends. And I don't wanna lose anyone else either."

Nadia, Nancy and Robin looked at her in concern, but not pity, and giving her some space.

"All right," Nadia agreed. "That I get completely."

Ruby nodded barely, deflecting to change the subject off of her, not liking to feel so vulnerable. "Yeah, I'm sure you do, Nadia. That's why you push Steve away, huh?"

Nadia chuckled barely, looking away, shaking her head. "Okay, I know what you're doing and it's not gonna work."

"I'm just trying to get my mind off the very bad things going on in in my mind, and yes, maybe talking about you and Steve and your little will-they-won't-they thing is slightly more healthy for the mind state right now," Ruby replied.

"I mean, she's got a point, Nadia," Robin told her.

Nancy chuckled. "Yeah."

"I don't know where I stand at with Steve right now, let alone anything else in my life," Nadia admitted. "Let's just leave it at that, shall we?"

"Why?" Robin asked, complaining. "Steve's been totally trying to distract himself and trying to make himself move on because he thought that was what you wanted, Nadia. But it's clear he never moved on, and that you still have feelings for him too, so..."

Nadia tilted her head. "Robin..."

"I know, I know," Robin replied. "Is it such a crime for me to want my two best friends to be happy, finally?"

Nancy and Ruby looked at Nadia, tilting their heads like they agreed.

Nadia chuckled lightly. "Not a crime, no. Distracting, yes."

"All right, fine," Robin agreed. "Moving on. But at least Nancy's got her unstoppable power couple thing with Jonathan, right?"

Nancy looked down, sensing Jonathan pulling away, but hoping that it was just because of the long distance thing and nothing else. "Yeah. I mean, we've been distant lately. But hopefully that'll change."

"You and Jonathan are literally made for each other, Nancy," Nadia pointed out. "And as a friend to you both since before you got together, you've got this."

Nancy managed a small smile. "Thanks, Nadia. Ruby? I know that you and Billy are constantly complicated either because of madness, or..."

"The Mind Flayer, Vecna and Mirage ruining us every fucking chance they get?" Ruby finished.

"Yeah, that," Nancy answered softly.

"Look, it's no secret that Billy was psycho, but you two came a long way since you both got here," Nadia pointed out. "And all three of us saw the way you two fought for each other at the mall after you got him free from the Mind Flayer, and you and I burned that son of a bitch right out of him."

"It's true," Robin agreed. "You and Billy might have some individual issues, but you're better together. And I hadn't seen anyone fight for each other like that up close, especially against a huge as hell monster that was dead set on killing both of you." Ruby shrugged in agreement, looking down. "And I know you two felt guilty about everything, including hurting each other because of the monster, but that wasn't because of you two. That was just the monster. You two deserve so much better than this."

Ruby looked slightly calmed down as she looked at the three girls, who gave her a small, reassuring smile.

Ruby swallowed, changing the subject off of her again. "What about you, Robin?"

Nadia looked at Robin, knowing that she was a lesbian, but not knowing if she wanted Ruby and Nancy to know yet, or at all.

Robin chuckled nervously. "That's really complicated, but I'm working on it. If my current crush doesn't work out, like we're not compatible or whatever..."

"You just have to find someone who openly is who they are, just like you," Nadia told her, supportive. "You deserve that much, Robin."

Robin smiled softly. "Thanks, Nadia."

"Are we done talking about the boyfriends or what else now?" Ruby asked.

Robin looked at Ruby like she knew that was a hint that Ruby knew about Robin but didn't push to know officially, which Robin was relieved for.

Nadia smiled knowingly, knowing that Ruby knew but was letting Robin confirm whether or not she was, or whether she wanted to confirm or not. "Yeah, I think we are."

Robin looked into a drawer. "Holy shit. The Weekly Watcher. I can't believe they have this."

"Don't they write about, like Bigfoot and UFOs?" Nancy asked skeptically.

Robin stepped closer. "First of all, UFOs are absolutely real. Bigfoot I'm still on the fence about. But may I remind you we are looking for information on dark wizards and genie-type monsters? If someone's gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos."

Nadia, Ruby and Nancy knew that Robin had a good point there.

∰

Moments Later

The four girls were now looking through The Weekly Watcher news articles on a projector screen, which was small enough to fit on a desk.

Ruby and Robin were sitting at the desk, while Nancy and Nadia stood on either side of them, leaning against the desk.

"Ah," Nadia said sarcastically at the first article. "Elvis cloned by aliens."

Ruby snorted.

Robin looked between the three other girls, shrugging. "You never know."

Nancy and Nadia turned their heads to look at Ruby and Robin in between them, exchanging a look, both smirking, rolling their eyes, looking away.

Nadia walked toward the window to look outside, peaking outside to make sure no one was outside.

Nancy paced away from Ruby and Robin at the desk, looking around boredly.

Robin flipped to the next article.

Ruby's eyes went wide. "'Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family. The murder that shocked a small community'."

"Ha ha," Nancy said sarcastically. "That's very funny."

"She's not kidding," Robin told them. "Get over here."

Nancy and Nadia turned back to the desk, returning to their places on either side of Ruby and Robin to look at the article, seeing that it was for real.

Ruby read from the article. "'According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon. Victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home.'"

"Pretty novel for the '50s," Robin remarked. "Exorcist wasn't even out yet."

"Okay, keep going," Nadia told them.

Robin went to the next page.

Ruby read from the next page, eyes lingering on the Creel family picture, with Victor, his wife, and kids. "Okay, so Victor claimed this exorcism failed, but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family, removing their eyes. Victor believed he was spared as a punishment."

"That's pretty convenient for Victor," Nancy stated.

"Yeah, or super inconvenient," Robin replied. "Victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? What if this is why? I mean, it sounds pretty insane. Just didn't go public because--"

"The plea bargain," Nadia finished. "The records were sealed. What if a demon did invade Victor's home? It's just, this demon wasn't any old demon."

"It was Vecna," Ruby finished.

Nadia nodded.

Nancy, Ruby, Robin and Nadia exchanged a look, looking at the two pages on the article.

Ruby couldn't help but stare at the picture of the Creel house, and the Creel family. Neither of the pictures were clear or good in quality, but she still felt something off.

∰

Outside

Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin walked outside in a hurry toward Nancy's car.

Robin spoke through her radio. "Dustin, do you copy?"

"Yeah, I copy," Dustin answered.

"So, Nancy's a genius," Robin explained. "Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's eye."

In the darkened, abandoned school, Hailey, Steve, Dustin and Max were in the middle of breaking in.

"Okay, that's totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now," Dustin admitted.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked.

"We're breaking and entering the school to retrieve confidential and extremely personal files," Hailey answered.

Ruby frowned, taking the radio from Robin to respond. "Can you repeat that?"

"Just get your asses over here, stat," Hailey told them. "We'll explain everything."

Ruby handed Robin's radio back to her so she could put it up.

Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin all looked confused and exasperated.

"I thought they were talking to Ms. Kelley," Nancy told them.

Nadia shook her head. "We leave them alone for two hours."

The girls got into the car to drive away.

∰

Hawkins High School - Kelley's Office

Max used Kelley's keys to unlock the door, opening it, leading Hailey, Steve and Dustin inside.

Dustin looked around. "It's like a mini-Watergate or something. Hawkinsgate."

Max opened the file cabinet with the student files for Kelley's patients.

"Didn't those guys get caught?" Steve asked.

"Holy shit," Max said.

Hailey walked closer, shining her flashlight onto the files. "You found it?"

"Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file," Max answered. "Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley too."

Max and Hailey exchanged a surprised look, before looking at Steve and Dustin, who were just as surprised.

∰

Woods

Ryan opened the trunk of his car, as Patrick, Andy, Jason and Lucas stood with him, allowing each one (besides Lucas) to grab a weapon, before Ryan closed the trunk.

Jason brushed leaves on the ground aside. "So, if Sinclair's right, the freaks are hiding here." He used a stick to draw an X in the dirt. "We move through the woods here together, then Patrick and Andy, you split up, go around this way. Me, Ryan and Sinclair, we keep going. Then we flank their asses from both sides."

Ryan nodded. "Let's do this. Those freaks won't know what hit them."

The boys started out through the woods, splitting up like they said they would toward a boat house, but it wasn't the one that Billy and Eddie were hiding out in, as Lucas had led them astray to keep them distracted.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Country Line Café

Niko, Will and Eleven were sitting at a table with Owens in the café, while Owens' men, and a woman, stood outside, keeping an eye on them.

"Sorry about all the theatrics," Owens told them. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Or kidnap us in our sleep?" Niko asked.

"That was for your own good and protection, because Mikhail's men would have just kept coming," Owens pointed out. "I was ordered to get you three out of there. All of you kids seem to always get yourselves into quite the predicaments, don't you? In Lenora and Hawkins or wherever else you go."

They shrugged.

Will remained serious and worried. "Where're Jonathan, Mike and Calliope? They were in the station too during the explosion."

"They're safe," Owens answered. "I had some other of my men take Jonathan, Mike and Calliope to a safe house away from your home for their own protection after what happened, since they know where you live now. And all of you got onto their radars in a big way."

"Which means that they could still find Jonathan, Mike and Calliope?" Eleven asked.

"We're not gonna let that happen, kiddos," Owens told them.

Niko scoffed softly. "You clearly don't know my grandfather. If he wants to find Jonathan and Mike and use them as leverage to get to me, El, Nadia, Hailey and Ruby, he will. Calliope won't stay there. She'll come after Sabina again and to try and get answers about where her brother is, and honestly at this point, I don't fucking blame her, though I wish to hell I could."

"Who do you think sent me to extract the six of you, Niko?" Owens asked. Niko frowned. "That's right. I know that you know by now that Sabina's the one that's been trying to contact you, but given that you, Nadia, Ruby and Eleven all have been bitten by what you kids call the Mind Flayer, all of you have an infection from that, that is blocking your powers from coming back, and blocking Sabina from fully contacting you like she can with Natasha and Nadyr. She can only get so far with contacting with you because you're both telepaths, but you've also been trying to block her out."

"Because no matter what Sabina's done in the past to help me and my family escape the program, she's a main reason why we were in it to begin with," Niko replied.

"That's true," Owens admitted. "But Sabina's also the only way that Natasha has out of Mikhail's prison now." Niko, Will and Eleven listened intently now. "Natasha herself reached out to Sabina, knowing that she didn't have a choice. Your grandmother contacted Nadyr."

Niko let out a soft breath. "Nadyr's really alive? My uncle?"

"Yes," Owens answered. "He had to stay hidden and 'dead' for a decade in order to stay alive, and keep you, Nadia and Natasha alive. And now Nadyr is going to go help Joyce and Murray in their mission to save Natasha and Jim Hopper."

Eleven perked up at this, relieved and emotional. "Hop?"

Niko and Will both reached out to place a hand on Eleven's hands.

"Yeah, El," Niko answered. "Hopper and Mama are really out there. They just need saving."

Niko and Eleven were both emotionally relieved, tears in their eyes.

Will smiled at them softly, looking at Owens. "What about everyone else?"

"Sabina's been keeping tabs on that too," Owens answered. "It's difficult because of like I said about Nadia and Ruby and their infections blocking her from connecting with them, so she's been trying to reach Hailey instead. And I've seen something last night, something that we've both been dreading for a while. I don't know how to say this other than just to say it. Hawkins is in danger."

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

On the Road - Bridge

(Song:) There's a Storm Coming - Dance with the Dead

Nancy was driving her car with Ruby, Nadia and Robin when a sudden explosion came from nowhere and sent Nancy's car crashing down the street, rattling Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin deeply within the car, but they were otherwise unharmed, but definitely alarmed.

Robin was freaking out, and Nancy was breathing heavily from panic.

Ruby was stunned and reminded of the car crash that killed her parents and nearly killed her/paralyzed her when she was eight, having to flash back to that day, as she was struggling not to have a panic attack due to the PTSD, breathing heavily as she gripped the seat in front of her, her knuckles pure white from the force of her grip.

Nadia was definitely worried, but didn't let fear or panic take control.

The car was hanging slightly off the bridge, making the girls more worried and scared of falling into the water below.

Nadia unbuckled her seat belt, climbing up toward the back of the car carefully, trying to use her weight to balance the car on the edge of the bridge, drawing her gun to aim at the threat outside. "You should know I'm a better shot when I'm pissed off."

Nadia fired her gun at the figure outside. The figure raised a shield to block the bullets.

The monsters outside the car were trying to rip the car apart, causing Robin and Nancy to scream, while Ruby and Nadia were gasping. However life threatening and terrifying this was, it gave the girls a chance to climb out of the car and onto the bridge before the car could fall into the lake below, able to save Nancy's car just in time from falling into the lake. Bits and pieces of the road were on fire, and the girls were still having to face the monsters, but they had a chance to fight them off now, as Nadia and Ruby grabbed their sword, bow and quiver of arrows from the car to fight off against the monsters.

Owens: (voice over) "You have fought this evil before and you've won. But this evil, it's like a virus."

∰

Mirage's Mind Lair

Mirage was in his mind lair, slithering around on his main spot, conjuring purple and and orange energy in order to create the monsters attacking the girls on the bridge, chuckling evilly.

Owens: (voice over) "Each time it returns, it comes back stronger."

∰

The Upside Down

House - Attic

Vecna was attached to its tendrils, eyes closed, in a trance, as he was able to project his mind outward to watch everything, claiming his next victims with his curse officially, but slowly, one at a time.

Owens: (voice over) "Smarter, deadlier."

∰

Hawkins

On the Road - Bridge

Nancy's car was damaged, but it looked like it was just from a wreck, and not from a full on monster attack, as it stayed on the bridge.

Nancy and Robin looked horrified, as these were their nightmare demons.

"Nancy?" Ruby asked. "Robin?"

"Mirage really knows what to do when creating nightmare demons," Robin told them.

Nadia and Ruby exchanged a look, as Nadia raised her sword, and Ruby lifted up her bow from the back of the car, and drew an arrow from her hand, as Nadia spun the sword and Ruby spun the arrow around in their hands, ready.

A monster jumped toward Nancy. Nancy raised her gun to fire.

A monster ran up the railing of the bridge, jumping and flipped through the air over Nadia's head. Nadia raised her sword to slash through the monster's stomach, ripping him in half with it, watching the body fall.

A monster tried to attack Ruby. Ruby raised her bow to block the move, turning the monster to push his arm away, before viciously hitting the monster in the face with her bow so hard that she sent him flipping through the air, aiming the bow and an arrow directly at the monster and firing the arrow right into his eye, into his brain, killing him instantly.

Nadia took her gun and tossed it to Robin so she could have something to defend herself. "Robin!"

Robin caught the gun and fired it at the monsters alongside Nancy.

Nancy and Robin continued firing until they killed some of the monsters, while Nadia used her sword, and Ruby used her bow and arrow.

Owens: (voice over) "A war is coming to Hawkins."

∰

Random Boathouse

Ryan, Jason, Andy and Patrick stormed into the boat house, only to find it empty.

Lucas slowly made his way in.

"Where you at, freaks?" Jason called.

"Come on, Billy," Ryan called mockingly. "Where's your psycho bitch of a girlfriend Ruby?"

They received no answer.

Jason shone his flashlight in Lucas' face. "You sure Billy and Eddie were here?"

Lucas nodded unconvincingly. "Yeah. I--I'm--I'm positive."

"Let's check around the back," Ryan told them. "Around the back!"

Ryan, Jason, Andy and Patrick stormed out to check around the back.

∰

Outside

Lucas turned around, running out of the boathouse and out through the woods, getting away as quickly as he could, knowing that the jocks would likely blow up and kick his ass for leading them astray if he didn't get away as fast as he could, going to warn his friends at the school.

Owens: (voice over) "There are good people, brave friends, who have helped you fight your battle in the past."

∰

On the Road - Bridge

The four girls were still fighting off the monsters.

Nadia grabbed onto a monster and spun herself around him, her legs locked around his neck so that she could flip him through the air to the ground, landing next to him in a crouch so that she could drive her sword through his head and kill him, ripping the sword out.

Ruby held up her bow, taking aim, firing an arrow right into the eye of a monster heading right for her, taking it out, watching it fall dead.

Owens: (voice over) "Nadia and Ruby and Hailey are all there, fighting as all of you psionics always do. To protect the ones you love. But they alone can't win this war. Especially without Nadia and Ruby's powers."

While Nancy and Robin were firing their guns at monsters in front of them, they didn't see the monsters behind them.

A monster kicked Nancy to her knees, slamming its hand into her face to make her head snap backward into his other hand, which he used to grab Nancy's hair tightly, before pinning her face down on the ground, stomping on her wrist to keep her gun down.

The other monster punched Robin viciously in the chest, sending her flying back to the ground, knocking the breath out of her completely. Robin was gasping for breath, trying to stand. The monster ran closer to kick Robin down once again.

Nadia instantly came up from behind the monster about to kill Nancy and slashed her sword through that monster's neck, beheading him, watching the headless body fall to the ground, while saving Nancy.

Before the monster above Robin could finish her off, Ruby stepped up and used her bow to block the killing blow, turning her bow to push his hand away, kicking him in the chest, making him back away, spinning around to hit the monster brutally in the face with the sharp corner of her bow, before facing him completely, lining up her next shot with the arrow, and let the arrow fly into the skull of the monster, killing him instantly.

Owens: (voice over) "Not without you."

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Country Line Café

Niko, Will and Eleven sat across from Owens.

Eleven tilted her head in thought, worry.

"I know it's not fair to ask more of any of you, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't think this was the only way," Owens told them. "If I didn't think that you, Niko and Eleven, couldn't help your friends, your family, hit these things so hard they can't get back up."

"We don't have our powers," Eleven told him.

"What if I told you there was a way, a way to bring them back?" Owens asked. "Not just for you two, but for Nadia and Ruby, too?"

Niko realized. "That's why Sabina's been trying to contact me. Why her psychic episodes she puts me through makes my powers resurface, even if it's only for a burst of lashing out."

Owens nodded in answer.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Hawkins High School - Kelley's Office

Max seemed to be pulled into a daydream of some sort.

Owens: (voice over) "We feared this moment would come, so we've been preparing."

Hailey looked up at Max in concern, sensing something wrong, not just with her, but with the other girls, confused.

Owens: (voice over) "Developing the means to restore your abilities."

Mirage was using his wish power to get into Max's head, trying to make her make a wish.

In Max's mind, she saw Hailey becoming dark and twisted, more like Dark Hailey, but darker than ever before, with red glowing tendrils growing from her skin, covered in thorns, slithering along her cheeks, the sclera of her eyes black, her gem and the irises of her eyes glowing red, looking almost demonic and monstrous.

Max became more and more tense and worried.

Owens: (voice over) "A way that has the potential to not just bring them back, but bring them back stronger than before."

Dark Hailey looked at Max. "You want things to be different so badly. What if I told you that there was a way things could be different? To grant you one wish, and one wish only? To make Billy and Ruby sane again. Safe and without madness. Making everything more than all right. Isn't that what you want, Max? For their broken, shattered minds to heal so they can finally be free? Be happy? So you can be free of guilt and shame and remorse and responsibility for them?"

"Why would I make a wish?" Max asked.

"Because my monsters are attacking Nadia, Ruby, Nancy and Robin right now, on top of this offer," Dark Hailey/Mirage answered, causing Max to become horrified. "And you can stop it with one... little... wish."

Of course, Max was tempted because of wanting Billy and Ruby to become better and happy, and to save the girls, but she knew that she couldn't make a wish because that would only make things worse because of the way Mirage twisted wishes, and that it would end with her death. "Go to hell."

In reality, Hailey Steve and Dustin woke Max up, shaking her awake, luckily due to the fact that the girls on the bridge had destroyed the rest of the monsters, which woke up Max.

"Max, are you okay?" Dustin asked.

Max was shaken up, not knowing how to answer.

∰

Helicopter

Sullivan was flying his chopper through the sky, searching.

Owens: (voice over) "But there are others who don't believe in you. Who think you and the other psionics are the cause."

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Country Line Cafe

Niko, Will and Eleven were sitting across from Owens.

"I believe they're wrong," Owens told them. "I believe you're the cure. That's why, if we're really gonna do this, I'm gonna ask that you leave with me now."

∰

Safe House - Living Room

Mike, Jonathan and Calliope were waking up, finding that they were alone inside the safe house, looking confused and not happy about waking up in a place that they didn't know.

Owens: (voice over) "But you should know there is a very real possibility this fails. And if it does, you'll never see your loved ones again."

∰

Country Line Café

Niko, Will and Eleven were sitting across from Owens.

Niko nodded, knowing what Owens wasn't saying. "Because it could kill us."

"Sadly, yes," Owens answered.

"Our friends in Hawkins, are they in danger?" Will asked.

Owens nodded.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

On the Road - Bridge

Nadia, Nancy, Ruby and Robin were breathing heavily after finishing off the monsters, which caused the others at the school to be able to wake up Max from the Mirage nightmare before it could get too far. The four girls looked at each other in shock and confusion.

Ruby took a step back as she felt an intense pain in her head, closing her eyes, her nose bleeding slightly, placing a hand to her head.

Nadia, Nancy and Robin looked at Ruby in confusion and concern.

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Outside

Behind the shed, Billy was sitting on his car, out of sight from everyone who could drive past, taking a drink of beer, not liking that he had to be separated from Ruby and Max like this after things had finally started to get better, even if they were slipping mentality wise over the year. He held his head in pain, as aforementioned, Ruby, Max and Billy had been having headaches, nose bleeds and trouble sleeping, mentioned in 4.01.

∰

Hawkins High School - Kelley's Office

Since Max was trying to recover from the Mirage vision, Hailey and Dustin were looking through Chrissy and Fred's files.

Chrissy and Fred had both had similar symptoms as to what Max, Billy and Ruby had been having, and even Dustin before his Mirage nightmare in 4.01.

When Hailey and Dustin noticed this, they showed Max and Steve.

Max was putting the pieces together, worried, horrified.

Owens: (voice over) "I'm afraid your friends in Hawkins are very much in the eye of the storm."

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Country Line Café

Niko, Will and Eleven sat across from Owens.

"You may feel like you need to go to them now, but if you do, you will risk everything," Owens warned. "Risk everyone."

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

On the Road - Bridge

Ruby was still on the bridge with Nadia, Nancy and Robin. She could feel something so wrong, like it was in her head, clawing, scraping away at whatever sanity she had left.

"Ruby?" Nancy asked. "Ruby!"

"Ruby, what's wrong?" Robin asked.

"Hey," Nadia told her in concern. "What's going on?"

Ruby turned her head as she heard the sound of a clock chime.

Vecna's voice echoed through her mind. "Ruby."

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Outside

Billy was still sitting on his car, when he felt the same thing Ruby felt, something chipping away at his already weakened sanity.

A second clock chime rang out through the darkness, which Billy could hear.

Vecna's voice echoed through his mind. "Billy."

∰

Hawkins High School - Kelley's Office

As Max was looking through the files, Max remembered all the times she saw Billy and Ruby with headaches, how often all three of them had to take Tylenol or something else to help with the pain, or Ruby having to drink and do drugs just to get a decent night of good sleep. Max and Billy hadn't been much better, but never had to go that far.

She remembered Lucas saying, "Max, I know something's wrong."

Max remembered all the nightmares that she had heard Billy waking up from recently, how she knew it was about what he had to do when he was flayed, to her, to Ruby, to the flayed. She had had nightmares about what would have happened if Ruby and Billy hadn't survived the night of the Battle of Starcourt. She knew Ruby always had constant hallucinations and nightmares that it was hard to decipher was what Ruby's natural nightmares or ones from being cursed.

Hailey, Dustin and Steve noticed Max's reaction and became even more concerned, first not having known about the Mirage nightmare because it had ended so quickly with the girls on the bridge taking out the monsters, but knowing something was definitely wrong.

"Max?" Hailey asked. "What is it?"

"Max?" Dustin asked.

"Max!" Steve told her.

Max turned to look behind her toward the door as she heard the third clock chime.

Vecna's voice echoed through her mind. "Max."

Hailey knew that something was wrong, trying to keep Max from going into another dream state.

Owens: (voice over) "They're not the only ones in danger. It's life as we know it."

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Country Line Cafe

Niko, Will and Eleven sat across from Owens.

"This is why I'm here," Owens told them. "Because I believe you and the other psionics are our best hope. Sabina believes it too. Our only hope. But I know you've all spent too much of your lives being told what to do by people like me. I know that. So you say the word, I will take you back to Mike, Jonathan and Calliope and find a way to keep all of you safe from Mikhail. Or... come with me now, let me take you to Sabina, and help your friends survive a battle that they cannot win without you, and without all of your powers."

Will looked at Niko and Eleven, knowing that this was up to them.

Niko and Eleven already knew the answer, even though Niko hated the fact they needed Sabina's help and needed to go to her to save everyone.

∰

Safe House - Outside

When Mike, Jonathan and Calliope heard cars pull up outside, they walked outside to see Owens' men outside, there to protect them from Mikhail's men, as promised by Sabina and Owens.

(Song Ends)

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Billy's Nightmare

Reefer Rick's Place - Outside

Billy heard the clicking of the clock, stepping away from his car, turning to look at it, stunned to see that the clock seemed to be intertwined with the engine of his car, growing out from it.

When the fourth chime rung, he heard Vecna's voice once again. "Billy."

∰

Max's Nightmare

Hawkins High School - Hallway

Max was walking through the dark hallway alone with her flashlight, following the sound of the clicking clock. She shone her flashlight down the hallway, stunned to  find that the clock seemed to be growing right out of the wall down the hallway.

When the fifth chime rang, she heard Vecna's voice once again. "Max."

∰

On the Road - Bridge

Ruby looked around, suddenly appearing alone on the bridge, calling out worriedly. "Nadia? Nancy? Robin?"

Ruby heard the clock ticking, walking along the bridge toward the sound, along the road that had pieces of it on fire from the car crash.

Ruby was not okay with how the site of the bridge and the car crash with pieces of the road on fire was looking almost exactly like the night of the car crash that had killed her parents, and almost killed/paralyzed her when she was only eight years old. She was breathing uneasily from how similar this setting seemed, as even the road seemed to change to look more like the road where her parents had died.

At first, Ruby didn't know if this was her own mind playing tricks on her or not, the car crash that the girls had just experienced on top of the monsters attacking activating her memories and PTSD from the car crash from when she was eight. She was horrified when she even saw the car from that crash from when she was a little girl, the one that her parents had died in, the one that she almost had died in.

In the car from when Ruby was a kid, the clock was seeming to be growing from within.

Ruby walked closer in shock, but did not see anyone in the car wreckage, only able to see the clock.

The glass of the clock face shattered into six lines crossing over themselves, with the intersection popping out in a big circle, and black widows spilled out of the glass, spreading over the clock, and over the car. Some even crawled down from the car and down to the cement road, making their way toward Ruby.

Ruby didn't move, like black widows didn't scare her at all, or this hallucination in general even though it was horrifying and bringing up her past trauma, since she had seen many things like this in her own head from her own madness, but she knew that this was not her madness this time.

When the sixth chime rang, she heard Vecna's voice once again. "Ruby."