Worlds Colliding (Stranger Things) Book Four

chapter 7 - Only the Mad Are Sane

Outfits Link:

https://urstyle.fashion/collections/198023

Same Night - Same Scenes (Montage)

Day One

Niko's Nightmare

Morning - Reed House - Niko's Room

Niko woke up with a gasp, looking around, seeing he was in his old room in the old Reed House, immediately standing up, confused.

Hearing a knock on the door, Niko turned toward the door, grabbing a hidden knife from the side of his bed, holding it ready.

The door opened, revealing Natasha, who glanced at the knife in Niko's hand in amusement. "Is this the new morning ritual I didn't know about?"

Niko looked at his mother in shock, emotional, not caring how this was happening, dropping the knife, running to embrace Natasha immediately. "Mama."

Natasha returned the embrace in confusion. "Niko, what's happening?"

"I don't understand how you're here," Niko admitted.

"I see your memory loss is still bad," Natasha stated.

"My what?" Niko asked.

They pulled away.

"After we stopped Vecna and Andrei, you fell into a coma for a few weeks, and you woke up," Natasha told him. "But your memory was having failures."

"Wait, after we stopped Vecna and Andrei?" Niko repeated. "That means we did win?"

Natasha smiled, nodding. "Yes."

"But Mikhail--" Niko started.

"We stopped him too," Natasha told him.

Niko looked hopeful. "So is it really over?"

Natasha smiled. "Yes, Nikolai, it's over." She put a hand to his cheek. "You saved us all."

"I did?" Niko asked with a smile.

Natasha nodded. "Yes, in fact Nadia and your uncle are waiting for you to join us for breakfast."

"Uncle Nadyr is back too?" Niko asked hopefully.

Natasha chuckled. "Yes, he is. We're all together, and nothing is gonna come between us."

"Ever again," Niko finished.

"Come here," Natasha told him, bringing Niko into a hug.

Niko returned the embrace happily.

But the happy hallucination didn't last, as Mirage was trying to get into Niko's head, finally succeeding as thunder was heard outside, and the sky darkened as the purple and orange thunderstorm appeared.

Still in the embrace, Niko started to feel something wrong, pulling away. "Wait, this isn't right. Something's happening."

Natasha started to burn, panicking. "Nikolai?"

Niko didn't have time to blink, as Natasha instantly caught aflame with just one more single touch.

Niko shouted in horror, unable to do anything to stop her from burning. "Mama!"

Natasha's skin burned and melted away until she was nothing but a skeleton. Her white porcelain bones singed, charred black, flames still dancing on her bones as she stalked closer to Niko. "You burned me, Niko. Now I burn you."

Niko backed away in fear, realizing what was happening. "This isn't real."

"Isn't it?" Natasha asked. "This is your reality, Niko. Everything you love, you destroy."

Niko screamed in anger and fear. "No!"

Natasha lunged forward, grabbing Niko, throwing him and herself through the window as they fell into infinite darkness.

∰

Niko's Nightmare Part 2

Niko was confused when he was pulled into another nightmare, with a wave of purple and orange energy erupting around his surroundings and pulling him into his own mind, as Niko was seemingly in a void of never ending darkness.

Mirage's voice spoke demonically in a snake voice. "Wow, Niko. I'm a little hurt that you wouldn't recognize me now."

Niko looked around in anger. "Where are you? Stop hiding, Andrei!"

"You could have just left things well enough alone," Mirage taunted. "Stayed powerless and not put you into our sights. Now you're making us do this."

Niko looked around as a flashing light went by all around, like an elevator going up between floors and lights shown fast through the windows, until Niko suddenly appeared in the Russian psionic program building.

Vecna appeared. "We can't have you interfering, Niko."

Niko turned around, thrusting his hand toward Vecna and Mirage, trying to use his powers, but as they were still in the process of being unlocked, instead of fire, it was more of a wave of orange energy that was released toward Vecna and Mirage, which didn't hurt them in the least.

"Shit," Niko said.

Niko saw Mirage appear behind him, ducking as Mirage lunged at him to try and bite him like a snake, instantly punching Mirage in the face.

He heard Will's voice, part of the nightmare to torment him. "Niko!"

Niko ran in the direction of the voice. "Will!"

Niko kicked down a door in front of him, which when it fell down, Niko nearly found himself falling off of a skyscraper tower, barely keeping himself from falling, his hands against either side of the doorway.

Will appeared on the ledge nearby. "Niko? What's happening?"

Niko shook his head, closing his eyes. "I know this isn't real."

Mirage appeared within his orange and purple energy behind Will, his snake tail wrapping around Will's throat. "Do you, though?"

Mirage dangled Will by his throat over the ledge.

Niko ran closer worriedly in horror. "Will!" Vecna stood behind Niko, launching out his tendrils to wrap around Niko's arms and legs to restrain him and keep him from stopping Mirage, making Niko fall to the ground. Mirage dropped Will, as Will screamed. Niko broke free and dove after Will to try to save him. "Will!"

Instead of falling several miles through the air, Niko very quickly hit solid ground, which was shiny and reflective like water, much to Niko's confusion as he started to stand.

"I don't think you know what's real, Niko," Mirage mocked.

Niko was suddenly yanked back through a blur of towns and cities, rushing images all around him, making him very dizzy.

When the rushing finally stopped, Niko was suddenly standing in the underground chamber where he and Hailey had to watch Natasha and Hopper "die" in the explosion, the exact memory/moment.

When the key exploded, Niko was thrown backward, and shattered through the glass in the chamber behind him.

When Niko shattered through the glass, on the other side, as the glass fell and shattered more, Niko fell into the endless black void, continuously falling through the air, hitting tendrils and snakes in the air all around him, as he got closer and closer to a glowing orange/purple light at the end of the void.

Niko held his head in his hands. "Wake up!"

Suddenly, Niko fell through the purple/orange light, and seemingly fell into reality, outside of Sabina's headquarters building, and landed on a car, groaning in pain.

Niko rolled off the car and onto the sidewalk, looking around, hoping that he was truly awake now.

However, when he looked up, Niko saw the sky shattering, along with a red thunderstorm behind it, and glowing orange/purple energy hurtling toward him with the intent to harm, as huge glass shards fell from the sky all around Niko, stabbing into the ground, trapping him in a cage, as the area turned completely dark.

Niko looked into the glass shards all around him, seeing his reflection repeated in each piece of glass.

"Look at yourself," Vecna mocked.

Niko reached out to touch the reflection in front of him, only for the Reflection Niko to appear to have completely white, bloodshot eyes, bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth, as he lunged out of the mirror to attack Niko. Several other Reflection Nikos with the same blood features all lunged for the real Niko, taking him down, beating him.

"You are just a scared little kid," Mirage taunted.

Niko broke free with a yell of anger, throwing all of the Reflection Nikos to the ground as he shot up.

Suddenly, all of the glass, all of the Reflection Nikos, disappeared, leaving Niko standing on the cliff outside of the Russian psionic building where his father had died.

Mirage appeared behind Niko and sent a blast of orange and purple power right at Niko, sending him flying to the ground. Niko flipped up to a standing position. With each blast that Mirage fired at him, Niko ducked, flipped and dodged out of the way. Niko, closer to getting his powers back, shot out weak streams of flame toward Mirage, but otherwise did no harm, needing more time.

Vecna created a visual of a huge falling stone fist that fell right toward Niko.

Niko yelled and rolled out of the way, making the stone fist hit the ground and shatter.

When Niko looked up, he realized that he was suddenly at his father's grave underneath the weeping willow cherry tree. "What the hell?"

"If you were good enough, maybe your father would still be alive," Mirage mocked.

A hand burst out of the grave, making Niko fall back away from the grave in shock. A zombie-fied, Vecna-victim looking version of Valkov crawled out of the grave, and toward Niko, spiders and snakes crawling and slithering all over his body.

Niko scampered back across the ground with anxious, panicked breaths. He stood, running away as fast as he could.

Suddenly, when Niko was running, he hit a glass barrier in front of him, and fell to the ground. Suddenly he seemed to be in the middle of a blizzard, and skyscrapers were growing out of the ground from all around him. Niko looked up and around, realizing that he was in a snow globe.

"All you had to do was step aside," Vecna growled. "Leave things alone. And now... you don't have a choice."

Niko hit against the glass, yelling, screaming to be let out, finally breaking free, shattering all of the glass. He backed away from Vecna and Mirage as they continued to advance on him, as he seemed to be going backwards through all of the previous nightmare stages that they put him through since this started, all of which were crumbling and toppling, threatening to crush Niko under the destruction. He suddenly started to fall down as the world turned to the side.

Mirage's voice was heard as he and Vecna were still watching him from afar. "You can try to hide from us all you want, but you can't hide from fear."

∰

Mirage's Mind Lair

The Castle (outside, what it looks like in reality in the Upside Down)

This video shows what the lair looks like just in reality (just the inside of the castle).

Niko suddenly appeared in the mind lair of Mirage, looking around, seeing that he was in the never ending red thunderstorm with floating structures of the broken castle floating around.

There was no solid ground, but Niko knew that he could run across the structures with his training if he had to.

Purple and orange energy appeared in a wave of smoke, creating a monster, which roared loudly as it started to take form.

Niko stopped in shock as he looked at the monster in fear, but quickly started to run and jump over structures, having to keep running to get away from the monster chasing him.

The fiery monster chased after Niko, lava forming the monstrous figure that had no real shape, as it screeched and roared, chasing Niko down.

Niko flipped over many broken, floating structures of the castle in the mind lair, trying to find an escape, but could find none.

The fiery monster used its lava-like tendrils to catch Niko by the arms and legs, wrapping the tendrils around his limbs completely, lifting him up into the air, roaring in his face.

Niko glared at the monster in anger and fear, adrenaline pumping through his veins. With life and death literally on the line, Niko took a hold of the tendril the monster was using to restrain him, grabbing it as the lava was burning his skin, but he didn't care, his eyes starting to glow orange, but with his power upgraded, and boosted by Mirage's attacks on him feeding the power that Andrei stole back to Niko, added with Nadia's power within the Mirage monster, Niko's eyes turned from orange to blue, the hottest flame. He screamed in utter rage, releasing his power. A burst of glowing blue power exploded out of Niko, burning the monster completely disintegrating it, throwing his now free arms out on either side of him, radiating another wave of power out around him, destroying all of the glass surrounding him, and throwing Vecna and Mirage far away from him with an insane amount of power that shocked them all, the blast so bright that it blinded everyone for a moment.

∰

Real World

City of Corinth

Night - Sabina's Headquarters - Lab

Sabina and Will were still around Niko, trying to figure out a way to help him.

Niko was still laying down, unconscious, a shimmer of orange energy passing through him, over his body, flickering out like electricity for a moment before fading away, his body still appearing and disappearing from existence, the energy starting to change from orange to blue slowly.

Sabina noticed Niko was starting to glow with blue power. "William..."

Will turned his head, looking at Niko, seeing that he was now glowing blue, very confused. "What's happening?"

"Get down!" Sabina yelled.

A blast of blue energy was released from Niko's unconscious body, throwing Sabina and Will through the air, sending them flying into the glass window nearby, shattering the glass, as Sabina and Will fell to the ground, both unconscious.

∰

Upside Down

Mirage's Lair

The blast was so bright that it was blinding everything for a moment, and when it faded, Niko seemed unconscious, before coming to, looking around, realizing he was free falling, looking around, seeing that he was now on the main part of Mirage's Lair, maneuvering through the air to take hold of one of the structures, jumping off of it to the land on the main platform in the center, looking around, scoffing. "Great. From Nightmare on Elm Street to half-assed Wonderland."

Voices around the platform were whispering, making Niko look around in confusion.

Niko walked closer to the center of the platform, where a purple and orange glowing crystal was in the middle, glowing brighter with each step Niko took towards it, until he finally reached it, and the glow returned to normal.

He heard Mirage's voice taunting him, as lightning struck through the sky. "Oh, Twelve, how far from home you are."

Niko looked around angrily, calling out. "Did you finally grow some balls to face me on your own, or are you still hiding behind the burned-ass pizza face side kick dancer of yours?"

Mirage appeared behind Niko, some distance away. "No one is hiding."

Niko turned to face Mirage, glaring, refusing to let Mirage scare him. "What is this place? It doesn't look like the Upside Down to me."

Mirage gestured around. "This is my home. Or, well, what I made of it. You see, when I got to this place, it was nothing but stone, but soon I realized when you banished me, my mind became bound to this place, and combined with my abilities, I realized that what I imagine could become reality."

"So this place is what, in your mind?" Niko asked.

"And in reality at the same time," Mirage answered. "I have it well hidden. Nobody should be able to see it, but since we share the same physic gift, I do suppose I can't hide it from you."

"So all this time, you still haven't changed," Niko spat. "Still getting your rocks off on being a child torturing piece of shit." Mirage ignored him, conjuring orange and purple energy around his hand. Niko glared. "What are you doing?"

Mirage chuckled darkly. "Relax, this isn't for you."

Mirage threw the energy into the sky, which flew away.

Niko turned back to the glowing crystal. "What is that?"

"It's a representational," Mirage answered. "Think of it like a trophy. Look closer and see."

Niko turned to look at the crystal, putting his hand on it. Once he did, he realized the crystal had Fred and Patrick's souls, and he managed to see flashes of their deaths, gasping in shock, taking his hand off the crystal, backing away. "What the hell did you do?"

"Well, don't look so surprised," Mirage told him. "I have to keep myself busy after you and Nadia condemned me here without mercy."

Niko glared at him in fury. "We were saving our family. I will do it all over again."

"You could wish for so many other things, but no, instead you wished for me to be in pain," Mirage told him.

"I didn't know what would happen," Niko replied. "That was an accident."

"Was it?" Mirage asked. "No, Twelve, I think deep down, you wanted me to spend eternity suffering. After all, your wish is the only thing that saved me. You created me, Nikolai. We're the same."

"That's a lie," Niko snapped in denial, shaking his head. "We're nothing alike."

"Are we not?" Mirage asked. "Two kids who grew up afraid of a menacing figure in their life, created out of the power of a powerful person, turned into monsters."

"Stop it," Niko whispered.

"Monsters make monsters, Nikolai," Mirage snapped. "We're the same. The same story, different outcome. We even share the same psychic gift. The only difference is that I have Nadia's powers along with yours."

Niko swallowed. "You're wrong."

"I was created, just as you were created, Nikolai," Mirage told him. "Don't you see what we could accomplish together?"

Niko scoffed incredulously. "You really think I would join you? You destroyed my life."

Mirage shook his head. "No, Nikolai, you destroyed your life. Your wishes made the monsters appear and it sealed your father's fate."

Niko took a step back in denial. "I didn't know that would happen."

"Did you not?" Mirage asked. "Because I think deep down, you did want me to die. You wanted every one of us that hurt your family to die. You just believed wishing for it would make you less responsible and instead of doing it yourself, because that would require for you to embrace the mother you are, and destroying me."

Niko raised his voice. "I was trying to save my family. Destroying you was the only way."

"But I thought heroes always found another way," Mirage mocked, tilting his head. "Unless of course, you're not a hero, Twelve."

"My name is Nikolai," Niko snapped.

Mirage shook his head. "No, you're name is Twelve. Nadia's is Ten. Twelve and Ten the experiments, and experiments don't have real names, because they're objects, things to use, burn out and then make more."

Niko scoffed. "That's funny, Andrei. I wonder if that's what your father used to say before he beat the shit out of you, because you were such a fucking disappointment." Mirage hissed at him angrily, holding out his arms, throwing a blast of purple and orange energy out at Niko. Niko ducked, moving out of the way as Mirage looked around, trying to find him. Niko breathed heavily, hiding behind one of the pillars, looking down at his hands, trying to summon his powers, but nothing was happening, knowing he needed more, speaking out. "You like games, right, Andrei? Catch me if you can."

Mirage hissed, summoning more power, throwing blast after blast against the pillar, and every time he did, Niko ducked, flipped and dodged out of the way.

Niko looked down at his hand from where he was hiding, seeing more blue energy coming from his hand, knowing he had to give it a shot now.

Mirage scoffed. "Hiding is beneath you, Rostov."

Niko jumped out of hiding. "No one is hiding."

Niko lunged forward with a yell as he conjured blue energy from his hand, about to throw it toward Andre, but he was stopped midway in the air by an invisible force.

Vecna appeared behind Mirage, his hand held out as he was using telekinesis to keep Niko suspended in the air. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

"Seriously?" Niko demanded. "One blast wasn't enough, you had to come back for more?"

Vecna threw his other hand out, telekinetically sending Niko flying into the ceiling on the platform and down to the ground, hard, making Niko groan in pain.

Mirage waved his hand, making the crystal pillar in the center of the platform disappear and turn into a sacrificial altar. "Last chance, Nikolai."

Niko started to stand, refusing to go down without a fight, glaring at the monsters, his eyes starting to glow blue. "I would never stand by you."

Mirage glared at Niko, holding out his hands, using orange and purple to take a hold of Niko, the energy tying itself around Niko's body, suffocating it. Mirage waved his hand, using the energy to levitate Niko and threw him over his and Vecna's heads through the air into the altar, the energy disappearing from Niko's body.

Niko was trying to move, but couldn't as he was trapped against the altar. Mirage stood over his head, waving his snakely arms around, conjuring purple and orange glowing energy from either clawed limb, trying to siphon the power from Niko, as wispy streams of blue energy started to leave Niko's body, and go into Mirage, purple and orange light glowing over the markings on the altar.

Vecna stood in front of them, raising his hand toward Niko as he started to levitate over the stone altar, groaning in agony, before he started to scream.

∰

Real World

City of Corinth

Night - Sabina's Headquarters - Lab

Niko's still unconscious body was on the table, starting to levitate over the table as his body was suffering the effects of what was happening to him in the Upside Down, turning gray as Mirage was trying to consume his powers and soul at the same time he was being killed by Vecna.

Niko's right arm snapped, followed by his left, then his left leg, then his right, cracking and bending painfully at irregular angles, his eyes starting to bleed.

∰

Upside Down - Mirage's Lair

Niko was still levitating over the altar, feeling the effect of both Mirage and Vecna's powers, screaming in agony, closer and closer to death.

Mirage smirked. "Poor Twelve. You could have been so much, much more. Instead you trapped yourself into being nothing but a firestarter to a bunch of humans."

Niko was fighting against Vecna's power, keeping him from killing him or breaking more of his bones, much to their shock. "You're wrong."

"Are we?" Vecna asked. "You choose to live on in a fantasy land of make believe when you don't have to face after who you really are."

"And as usual, rather than face the complexity of your own existence, you hide behind someone else's," Mirage told him. "So many fake lives. Always fighting with one arm behind your back. Never accepting all you could become. You're no hero, Twelve. You're not good. You're just a monster."

Niko had a realization, taking a deep breath. "You're right." He closed his eyes as he remembered his father's words. "I'm bad, and that's good."

"What are you doing?" Mirage asked.

Niko closed his fists, as suddenly, little pinpoints of blue energy appeared in the air around him, staring to swirl around and gain in size and speed, forming an energy wave of flame, which swirled around Niko and enveloped him in an aura of blue energy, still repeating his father's words. "I will never be good, and that's not bad."

∰

Real World

City of Corinth

Night - Sabina's Headquarters - Lab

Niko was still levitating, as his unconscious, and nearly dead body was doing the same thing. The energy seemed to be healing his body as his bones snapped back into place and the color was returning to his skin.

Will and Sabina were starting to wake up, groaning in pain, disoriented, looking toward Niko in shock and worry.

∰

Upside Down - Mirage's Lair

Niko's power up: (blue instead of orange because blue is the hottest flame)

The auras:

The explosion when reaching reality warping levels:

Niko's suit and headpiece:

Niko finished saying his father's words. "There's no one I'd rather be than me."

Niko opened his eyes, which were glowing with blinding blue light.

"Enough," Vecna snapped.

Niko screamed, throwing his arms out on either side of him, releasing a devastating amount of flame, which exploded out of his body, spreading in an aura around him, destroying everything close to him, incinerating everything to ash, his eyes glowing with blue fire.

The blast threw Vecna and Mirage flying through the air to the ground, finally stopping their attack on Niko.

Niko fell down on the altar, landing in a crouch, looking up, blood still dripping from his eyes as he glared at the two monsters with glowing blue eyes.

Mirage stood weakly. "What have you done?"

Niko slowly stood. "I accepted myself. Which is something you will never be capable of. But you were right about one thing. You tricked me into making those wishes because I was afraid. Because I thought doing what needed to be done would make me just as evil as my grandfather, but I was wrong. I'm not evil. I'm just me. And I'm never gonna forget that. And you were wrong, because we're not the same. You're just a parasite. And me?"

Vecna stood. "Enough!"

Niko let his eyes glow blue again, smirking. "I'm a fucking superhero."

Mirage screamed, lashing out with a line of glowing purple and orange energy, almost creating a whip shape out of the energy, as he lashed it out at Niko.

Niko did not even flinch as he caught the end of the lasso-like whip, using his power to make it turn blue and disappear with a blast that threw Mirage into the wall.

Vecna held out his hand, attempting to use telekinesis against Niko.

Niko held out his hand, making a tendril of blue fiery energy appear and launch itself through Vecna's chest, making him scream from the pain of the fire.

Because of the Upside Down hive mind, Mirage and every other creature from the dimension felt the pain, and screamed in agony.

Niko smirked. "See how you like it."

Vecna was in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"Like your partner said, we share the same psychic gift," Niko told him. "Which means this is my head, just as it is his. His power is rightfully mine, and Nadia's, and every time he uses it against me, it just makes me stronger. Strong like him. Strong enough to altar reality. I assume Nadia would get as strong as I am now with a boost like that. I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me."

"Enough!" Mirage yelled.

Niko nodded. "Agreed, let's finish this. Just me and you."

Niko let his eyes glow blue, as blue glowing energy appeared in the air around him, starting to swirl around and gain in size and speed, forming an energy wave of flame.

Mirage shot a burst of orange and purple power at Niko.

Niko struggled through the stream of power, but instead of fighting it, he let it hit him, to absorb more of the power, his own power along with Nadia's.

Mirage was stunned. "What are you doing?"

Niko tilted his head. "Like I said. You're nothing but a parasite. And it's time I take back what's mine."

This drained all of the power from the building in reality, leaving the entire building in darkness, as Sabina and Will, who were still really out of it, looked around in confusion.

As Niko continued to get closer and closer to Mirage, the power didn't effect him at all, only consuming the power that rightfully belonged to him and his sister, becoming more powerful, tilting his head back, which started to glow with blue energy, forming a glowing blue head piece out of his energy around his cranium.

Mirage attempted to let go of the attack, but couldn't as his power was fading, the mirage of the snake he put around himself starting to disappear, becoming his burn and severely destroyed human persona again.

Andrei looked at Niko in utter shock.

Niko absorbed the energy around him in a powerful display, starting to glow with such powerful blue light that it made Vecna and Mirage look away. Niko screamed, releasing a blast that sent flames and electricity shooting out in all directions, throwing the villains through the air and into a stone pillar, making them groan in pain.

The glow finally faded away, and when it did, Niko had conjured a blue protective glowing suit of energy shimmering around his body.

Niko looked at his suit, smiling in shock, completely ecstatic with the reality warping level of power. "Holy shit."

Vecna and Andrei looked at him in shock, but were still not backing down, standing up for one more fight.

"You're not powerful enough to stop us," Andrei threatened.

Niko shrugged slightly. "You were right about one thing. I have been fighting with one arm behind my back my entire life. So what happens..." He let his eyes glow blue. "If I break myself free?"

Niko held out his hands, letting his pure psionic psychic energy combine with fiery blue glowing flames around his hand, which danced, circled and spiraled around his hands and arms, an aura of blue glowing fire appearing around Niko, with spikes of electricity flickering out of the flames, before Niko threw his arms up and shot the flames and electricity into the sky. The stream of power shot into the sky in a humongous beam of flame and current, circling, cycloning around as it shot high into the clouds. Niko then screamed, throwing his arms out on either side of him, releasing a devastating blue wave of energy combined with blue flame and electricity, which exploded out of his body, spreading in an aura around him, which exploded all around the Upside Down and was also released from his body in reality, spreading worldwide on both sides of the barrier.

The blast threw Vecna's mind astral projection back into his own body as his real body caught on fire with blue flames around him, making him scream as his tendrils reattached themselves to his body, severely hurting him, but not killing him.

Andrei was thrown through the air, burning with blue flame, falling through the platform and down to the sky, screaming. He was not dead, and soon would regain enough power to conjure himself back into Mirage and still torment everyone, but he was definitely extremely harmed as well.

∰

Real World

City of Corinth

Night - Sabina's Headquarters - Lab

Niko was still levitating, finally returning to normal as he broke himself free, finally falling back down into the table, completely spent from using so much power even with the power boost, blood heavily dripping from his nose, blood still dripping from his eyes as if he had cried tears of blood, breathing heavily.

Sabina and Will finally managed enough strength to stand and run toward Niko, looking at him in concern.

"Nikolai?" Sabina asked.

"Niko, talk to us," Will told him.

"You were right about me, William," Niko said tiredly.

"What?" William asked.

Niko held out his hand, letting a blue flame with sparks of electricity circle around it, which soon faded, chuckling. "I'm a fucking superhero."

Sabina and Will let out a breath of relief, embracing Niko, as Niko returned the embrace, tiredly chuckling.

∰

Niko's telepathic blast, glowing blue, shot out over the Upside Down and the entire world on either side of the barrier, radiating out in a wave in all directions. 

∰

The Upside Down

Lover's Lake

The same purple and orange thunderstorm was in the Upside Down, an effect of Niko and Mirage's connection, and Vecna and Mirage going after Niko, though the orange was slowly turning into blue to signal Niko's change of power balance given his upgrade.

Steve was still being strangled by the tail of a Demobot, along with being bitten in the stomach and sides by a couple more, the creatures chittering away as they tried to kill Steve.

Steve was struggling and gasping for breath, desperately trying to survive, knocking away the bats at each chance, but didn't have much chance left.

Suddenly, standing behind Steve's head, Nadia swung down her sword to cut through the tail of the Demobat that was strangling Steve, making it screech in agony as it was forced to release Steve and fly up to try and get away, but Nadia swung her sword through the bat to kill it completely, blood splattering everywhere.

Right behind Nadia, Nancy, Ruby, Billy, Robin and Eddie were ready to fight, all of them still soaking wet from the lake.

Steve looked up at them in shock but relief.

"Hey, there," Nadia said.

Ruby used her bow to knock another Demobat off of Steve, quickly drawing an arrow, spinning it around and setting aim. As the Demobat roared and started to fly toward Ruby, Ruby fired the arrow into the bat's head, killing it instantly as it fell to the ground, dead.

Nancy picked up the oar from the ground, using it to knock a Demobat away from Steve's side. "Quick, hold it, Robin!"

Robin ran closer to step down onto the Demobot. "I got it."

Nancy quickly used the oar to bash the Demobat to death.

"Get it!" Eddie cheered.

"Kill it!" Billy yelled. "Kill it!"

Niko's telepathic blast, glowing blue, shot out over the Upside Down, radiating out in a wave in all directions, passing over all of the teens, but when it hit Nadia and Ruby, both of them gasped at the feeling of power, their eyes glowing blue for a brief moment, causing the teens to look at them in confusion.

Ruby's hands started to glow with golden psychic energy, like sunlight, causing everyone to be in even more shock and awe. "Tell me you guys see this too."

"We see it," Nancy answered.

"Oh, please let this be happening," Nadia said breathlessly.

Since Nadia and Ruby's powers were both bursting at the seams to be let out in some of the most powerful ways possible, they were definitely more powerful than they were normally before losing their powers, especially with Niko's blue wave of power, as he had reached reality warping levels of power due to absorbing a lot of the power Mirage used against him, which also made Nadia able to reach reality warping levels as it was part her power as well, though none of the teens here knew that yet.

Nadia's suit: (but purple, glowing, her skin/hair remains the same as normal)

Nadia snapped her arms out to use her power, but with the burst of power waiting to release, instead of just conjuring a sword out of glowing purple psychic energy, Nadia's purple energy radiated out of her in an aura, conjuring a glowing purple protective shield, like a suit, around her whole body, completed with protective bracelet cuffs on her wrists, which caused the others to look at her in shock.

 Ruby's powers were glowing from both her hands and her chest, like how they were out of balance after being attacked by the Mind Flayer in book 3, both in 3.01 and 3.08. Since her powers were out of balance just before she lost them, of course now, when she had her powers back, they were overwhelming completely as well.

Everyone was reacting in shock but complete relief.

"Oh, fuck yes," Billy said, knowing that it was about to go down.

Nadia and Ruby both laughed in shock and awe, looking up to see more bats flying closer.

Eddie picked up another oar to use as a weapon.

Since Nadia had her powers, Nadia tossed her regular sword to Billy since she knew he needed a weapon. "Billy!"

Billy caught the sword, holding it ready as he glared around. "Thanks."

Nadia, in her other hand, conjured her psychic energy, glowing purple, whip, holding the glowing whip and sword in either hand as she glared up at the sky.

As a bat dove through the sky to soar toward Nadia, Nadia whipped out her glowing purple whip to wrap around the Demobat, pulling on the whip hard, trapping it within the tight circle of psychic energy that burned the bat to the bone, making it screech in agony, before slashing her glowing purple sword straight through the bat, cutting deep into him, making him roar in pain as it tried to escape, flying around violently in an attempt to break free, but Nadia spun around and slashed her sword through its neck, completely cutting his head off, and letting the pieces of the dead bat fall to the ground.

As two bats flew toward Ruby, Ruby threw both of her hands forward, using enough anger to shoot glowing gold psychic energy beams from her hands and her chest, in a supersized beam, straight into both bats, burning them as the light started to eat away at the creatures, causing them to screech in agony from the intense heat.

Steve was catching his breath, watching Nadia and Ruby with their powers. "Thank God."

As a Demobat soared closer, Eddie bashed it with his oar. "Yeah! Come on!"

As another bat flew closer to Billy, Billy ducked, grabbing it by its tail, stabbing Nadia's sword into it and ripping them violently and angrily through the body of the bat, ripping it apart, letting the bat body fall.

Nadia looked around readily as more flew closer, her glowing suit and bracelets making it even harder for the bats to try and fight her. As two more flew closer, Nadia whipped her glowing purple psychic energy whip around one of the bat's throats, locking the whip around his neck, and pulling with all her strength to decapitate him with scorching hot agony, as she spun around and used her other arm with her glowing purple sword to slash through the other bat flying toward her from the other side, cutting it completely in half with searing pain, watching the four pieces of the two bat bodies fall to the ground. As another bat flew toward Nadia, Nadia flung her whip around its neck, using the whip to pull the bat to the ground, flipping over it to tie the whip securely around the bat, pulling it closer to her, strangling it with the purple glowing psychic energy coming from both hands, starting to pull either whip to cause it intense agony from either side, turning her second whip back into a sword, and stabbed the bat repeatedly until she killed it.

Ruby was going back and forth with using her power and her bow and arrows, mostly because the supersized beam from her hands and chest took a lot of power and it was so strong that it could knock her down and give the bats an advantage if she didn't see one coming.

Ruby used her bow to fire an arrow into the head or eyes of each bat that came for her, killing each one. When one bat flew at Ruby from the side before she could see it to shoot it with an arrow, she ducked back before it could bite her, starting to lose control, glowing with golden light. Golden light energy beams burst out of Ruby's hands and chest, releasing in such a devastating way that the several bats that were flying toward her on either side were nearly incinerated into ash. Ruby gasped in shock and pain from the blast as she shot the light at the bats with more intensity and strength, burning it away more and more until it disintegrated. A bat flew right for Ruby's head, but Ruby ducked, using her bow to hit it out of the air to the ground, using her bow to pin it to the ground, as she took the arrow in her hand and stabbed it right into the head of the bat over and over angrily and violently until she had killed it, ripping the arrow out, standing, breathing heavily.

Nancy was busy beating a bat with her oar that she didn't see another one coming for her from behind.

"Nancy, behind you!" Ruby told her. "Watch out!"

The bat landed on Nancy's back, biting her, making her yelp in pain and drop the oar.

Robin ran closer to help. "Oh, my God, Nancy!"

"Robin, get it off of me!" Nancy told her.

Robin took the bat off of Nancy and threw it away toward Billy. "Billy!"

Billy stabbed the bat with the sword, which he used to rip it apart, cutting it into pieces as the pieces fell to the ground. "Got it, got it, got it!"

Eddie was bashing another bat with his oar. "Goddamn it! Shit!"

"Steve?" Nadia asked worriedly, seeing that he was still on the ground.

Steve got up, catching another bat by the tail. "Come here!" He looked up, seeing a bat coming right for Nadia from behind. "Nadia!"

Nadia ducked, swinging her arm, still glowing purple with her suit and bracelet, to knock the bat away from her head, burning the bat with the contact, making it screech in agony, standing up straight, spinning around to slash her glowing purple sword right through the bat, tearing it to pieces, watching the pieces fall to the ground. Another bat flew right toward Nadia, but Nadia whipped her glowing purple whip right around its neck to keep it from getting closer, driving her glowing purple sword right into the bat's mouth, out through the back of his head, the whip and the sword around his neck and right through his head burning him completely, making it screech in agony, before dragging the sword down through its body to cut it completely in half from head to toe, killing it, watching both halves fall dead, lowering her sword and whip, breathing heavily, as her nose was bleeding profusely by now.

Ruby looked around for any more bats, nose bleeding profusely. "Come on, you sons of bitches! Come on!"

As a bat flew toward Billy, Billy drove the sword right into the bat's mouth, out through the back of his head, dragging the sword down through its body to cut it completely apart into pieces, watching the pieces fall to the ground.

Billy yelled out at the bat over his head. "Come on, come on, come on, you son of a bitch! I said come on! Let's go!"

The bat flew around Billy's head and soared right for his back, but Ruby swung her bow at the bat to knock it out of the air and to the ground. Billy turned to see what happened. Ruby instantly lined up an arrow and fired it into the bat's stomach to pin it down to the ground. Billy knelt down, foot on the tail of the bat, to keep it from almost getting free, before stabbing his sword into the head of the bat, and into the stomach of the bat, over and over until they finished the bat off, tearing it to pieces. Billy removed the sword from the bat, while Ruby removed her arrow, knowing that she didn't have many left.

Robin threw another bat to the ground. "Nancy, get it!"

Nancy used her oar to bash the bat to death. "Go to hell!"

Eddie was using his oar to swing at a bat to knock it away. The bat flew away, but flew right back at Eddie as it circled around. Eddie drove the end of his oar into its mouth, slamming it onto the ground, pinning it.

Nadia swung her glowing purple psychic energy sword down onto the bat to kill it while Eddie held it down, as both of them backed away from the dead bat, breathing heavily.

Steve had his bat by the tail, swinging it around, slamming it onto the ground over and over, biting the bat's head to the point he almost ripped it off, before slamming it on the ground again, leaving a big blood spot, before stepping onto the bat's neck with his barefoot, and ripping its body by its tail away from its head, ripping its head clean off, blood dripping from his lips, spitting it out in disgust, breathing heavily, tilting his head, tossing the headless body of the bat away to the ground.

Finally, the teens all had a moment to breathe now that they weren't under attack for the moment.

Ruby spun the arrow in her hand, turning to Billy with a smirk, her nose bleeding profusely. "My love is to die for. My lips are the gun, my smile is the trigger, my kisses are the bullets. Label me a killer."

Billy smirked.

Nadia, with no sign of danger for the moment, let her powers fade, making the purple glowing suit, bracelets, sword and whip disappear entirely.

Nadia and Ruby both wiped their noses to clean the blood away.

"How the hell do you two have your powers right now?" Steve asked. "And why are they so fucking powerful?"

"Was it the blue blast, wave, thing?" Nancy asked.

"I think so," Nadia answered.

"What was it?" Robin asked. "What the hell just happened?"

"Who cares?" Billy asked. "It saved our asses."

Nadia and Ruby both exchanged a look, realizing. "Niko."

"What about Niko?" Steve asked.

"That was his power," Ruby answered.

"How do you know that?" Nancy asked.

"One, I'm his sister, and his energy is connected to mine," Nadia answered.

"And Niko helped set my powers back on balance last year before I lost it," Ruby added. "I'd recognize that feeling again anywhere."

"So Niko has his powers back?" Billy asked. "And they're fucking blue now?"

"Who the hell knows at this point?" Ruby asked.

"We'll figure it out when we get the hell out of here," Nancy told them.

Steve chuckled lightly. "Right. Well, let's hope that lasts."

Nadia sighed in relief. "Steve." She walked toward Steve, seeing how badly his torso was wounded. "Steve, oh, my God."

Steve was wincing heavily in pain.

Eddie was completely in shock, freaking out. "Jesus Christ. Jesus H. Christ!"

Eddie tossed down his oar, turning away.

Ruby and Billy exchanged a look, breathing heavily. Billy put the daggers in the belt loop of his jeans, while Ruby spun around the arrow in her hand and put it back into the quiver on her back.

Nadia was looking over Steve's wounds. "Are you okay?"

Steve gasped in pain, looking down at his wounds. "Well, they took about a pound of flesh. But other than that..." He looked up at Nadia, managing a small smile. "Yeah, never better."

Nancy sat down to catch her breath, oar still in her hand.

Nadia and Ruby both looked dizzy and lightheaded.

"You two okay?" Billy asked.

"Yeah," Ruby answered. "Just... fucking tired."

"It's been a year since we could use our powers, and we just used a bunch of it," Nadia pointed out. "In huge ways. Of course we're a little out of..."

"Power stamina," Ruby suggested.

Nadia smirked, shaking her head. "Not the words I would use."

Steve and Billy chuckled.

"Give me a second and I'll see if the madness manipulation came back to help with the sanity," Ruby stated.

They nodded in agreement.

Eddie was overwhelmed because they were talking like this was all very normal for them.

Robin was kneeling next to the bodies of the bats the teens had killed, flashlight in hand. "Uh, do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?"

They all looked at her.

"What?" Ruby asked.

Robin sighed. "It's just that rabies are, like..." There was a flash of red lightning in the sky that caused both Ruby and Billy to look up, watching as the red of the purple and blue thunderstorm faded away, replaced by the usual red and black. "My number one greatest fear." Once the lightning flash was over, the area returned to darkness. Robin looked at Steve. "And I think we should get you to a doctor, like, really soon, because once symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already, like, dead."

They all just gave her a look.

"Robin?" Ruby asked.

Robin nodded barely. "Not helping, I know."

"Definitely not helping," Nadia answered. She looked at Steve. "But she's not exactly wrong."

Steve sighed. "I know."

Nancy looked behind everyone toward where the Gate was. "Uh, guys?"

Everyone turned to follow her gaze.

Purple and orange energy appeared, the tell tale sign of a Mirage monster creation, as it formed a humongous sea monster in front of the Gate to block it off from the teens, as all of them looked on in shock and horror, especially Billy.

"Mirage monster!" Steve yelled.

"Yeah, no shit, Steve," Ruby told him.

"Who the hell's greatest fear is that?" Nancy asked.

"Who's wouldn't it be?" Eddie replied.

"It's mine," Billy answered.

None of them seemed to be overly surprised.

"Of course it is, surfer kid," Steve remarked. "Why wouldn't it be?"

The monster slithered like a snake across the lake.

"Run!" Nadia told them.

They started to run.

Even though there was no water in the Upside Down, the Mirage monster itself was conjuring a tsunami of water, causing the water to chase after the running teens, and lift them up from the ground and toss them to the ground, making them all gasp and groan in pain and cold. The monster lifted its arms and tried to smash them, only for them all to duck out of the way before they could be hit.

Robin fell to the ground after diving out of the way. "Oh, my God."

Billy was completely frustrated, but was not willing to let his nightmare monster effect him the way Mirage wanted it to, since he had dealt with worse trauma and horror by now. "Come on, let's fucking get this over with." The water snake monster lunged right for Ruby. Billy ran closer. "Ruby!"

Billy tackled Ruby out of the way before the water snake monster could eat Ruby whole. The monster sent a watery huge fist slamming into Ruby and Billy, sending them flying back to the ground, both even more soaked than they had been before, gasping for breath in pain, breathing heavily on the ground as they looked up at the monster.

The others turned back to help.

This time, Nadia was aiming for the full power up version of her power. She held out either of her arms, and with a burst of the purple psychic energy aura, conjured a glowing purple protective suit around her body, completed with the bracelet cuffs on her wrists, conjuring the purple glowing psychic energy sword and whip in either hand.

The water snake monster tried to lunge at Nadia. Nadia flipped through the air to make him miss, ducking another attack, flicking the whip to wrap it around the monster, jumping toward it so that she could fasten the whip so much that it was mostly restrained, but it was incredibly difficult given the amount of water that it was conjuring from the snake monster form, but she seemed to be getting stronger with each attack from the Mirage monster just like Niko had been with the Mirage monster and actually Mirage before. It shrieked as it tried to toss Nadia off. Nadia held on tight, raising her psychic energy sword, stabbing it into the monster repeatedly, making it screech in agony.

This bought Ruby and Billy enough time to get up off the ground.

Billy drew the sword and started to stab the water snake monster over and over again, kicking and causing as much damage as he could.

The snake monster finally managed to throw Nadia off of him to the ground. Nadia rolled over the ground, and Steve helped her up to her feet.

Ruby readied her bow and arrows, firing one after another into the body of the monster, causing it to scream in pain. As the monster lunged forward again, Ruby's instincts kicked in, and she glowed with golden light, as golden light energy beams burst out of Ruby's hands and chest, releasing in the devastating way that sent the supersized psychic energy beam right into the monster, sending it soaring back as it tried to keep its feet on the ground, but taking it down from the immense power burst, incinerating the monster piece by piece and evaporating a lot of the water surrounding it, making it scream in agony, while the violent, supersized light beam was also making Ruby slide back over the ground, with her feet solidly on the ground so she was standing, but the burst of power sent her sliding back.

Ruby gasped in shock and pain from the blast as it was hurtful to her, since this was not how her powers were supposed to be, but they were out of balance because of the infection that she had gotten twice from the Mind Flayer.

Nancy and Eddie both had their oars again and stabbed the monster over and over with the sharp end of the wooden oars.

Steve and Robin found a wire and were able to wrap it around the neck of the snake, trying to strangle it, Billy continued stabbing with his sword, and Nancy and Eddie continued jabbing with their oars.

The water snake monster lunged for Steve, hurling water right for him.

Nadia flipped in the way of the monster, holding her arms together in a X shape, her glowing purple suit and bracelets blocking the water attack like a shield, absorbing the power that Mirage created from the monster since it was partly her power to begin with. She realized that her power was absorbing the power from the attacks, not sure why, but she knew that it meant that her next attack would be the most powerful, jumping into the air with a battle cry, slamming her arms together, as her bracelets clashed together with an ethereal sound, releasing a purple energy wave so powerful that it radiated out over the entire dry lake bed, and threw the water snake monster to the ground.

Steve, Robin, Billy, Nancy and Eddie were completely in shock that Nadia could do that, and that both she and Ruby could take the monster down like that, weakening it to the point that it was almost ready for them to kill.

"Get back!" Nadia told them.

Steve, Robin, Billy, Nancy and Eddie backed away enough to not get hurt by Nadia and Ruby's powers, but close enough to still help if they could.

Ruby glowed with golden light, as golden light energy beams burst out of Ruby's hands and chest, releasing the supersized psychic energy beam right into the monster in a violent stream, sending it rolling back, taking it down from the immense power burst, incinerating more of the monster piece by piece, making it scream in agony, Ruby's feet also sliding over the ground as she slid back from the monster.

The monster tried to lunge at Nadia, but Nadia flipped over him and conjured her glowing purple psychic energy whip, wrapping it around his throat, pulling it back to strangle him, burning him immensely with the energy.

The monster sent a hurl of water into Ruby and Nadia with enough strength to knock them both down to the ground, roaring furiously, conjuring more water limbs to try and attack all of the teens, as they were all fighting against them.

Nadia stood, running straight for the monster, ducking, dodging and flipping over the watery limbs that it tried to take her down with, forming her purple glowing psychic energy sword, driving it right through the stomach of the monster, as Ruby shot the supersized glowing gold sunlight-like psychic energy beams from her hands and chest right at his face, both burning him and making him scream in extreme pain, until they all had weakened it so much that it was flailing around weakly in pain.

A misty version of Billy's mother appeared beside him from the fog of the Upside Down, glowing orange and purple for the power of Mirage. "Billy." Billy turned his head to look at the misty depiction of his mind conjured by Mirage. "Don't you wish for the pain to end? The insanity to disappear? I can make that happen. I can give you and Ruby everything you deserve. All you have to do is make a wish."

Billy was the only one that could see the mist for the wish, and while he was effected by the vision of his mother tempting him to make a wish to end his suffering along with Ruby's, he knew that it was Mirage and glared at it furiously for trying to tempt and manipulate him.

Steve reached out to grab Billy's shoulder, snapping him out of it. "Hey."

Nadia conjured a glowing purple psychic energy whip, lashing it around the neck of the monster, swinging herself up onto the back of the monster, straddling his back, so that her glowing energy suit was burning it even more added with Ruby's power, wrapping the whip around his throat, pulling on the whip to tighten it around his throat, making it suffocate and scream.

Ruby and Nadia's noses were bleeding pretty badly by now given the fact that their bodies weren't used to using this much power at once.

The monster was thrashing, trying to throw Nadia off of his back so that she could stop burning him with her suit, bracelets and whip, throwing her off, but Nadia was able to flip to her feet before she landed on the ground in a bad way, still holding onto the psychic energy whip to make sure that it stayed locked around the monster's throat, pulling on it harder to make him suffocate more and make it harder for him to move.

While Nadia was doing this, Ruby was still shooting the monster with her supersized beam, both girls screaming in exertion to keep this up to weaken the monster to the point that they could kill it.

Nadia was breathing heavily. "Billy. This one's yours."

Billy raised the sword. "With pleasure."

The snake monster's head lunged right for Billy to try to eat him alive.

Ruby tensed in paranoia and worry. "Billy!"

Billy waited until the perfect moment to drive the sword up through his mouth and right into his brain, ripping the sword through his head and tearing it to pieces, tearing the sword out of his head. They all backed away as the body of the snake fell to the ground. As soon as the body hit the ground, it disappeared in a wave of purple and orange smoke.

They all were gasping in relief now that it was over, all concerned for each other, looking at each other in shock.

Nadia and Ruby instantly let their powers fade because of how exhausting it was to keep them going, blood dripping down from their noses over their lips, both breathing heavily, swaying on their feet, nearly falling.

Steve and Billy both caught Nadia and Ruby and helped steady them so they didn't fall from exhaustion.

"Whoa," Steve said. "Are you okay?"

Nadia and Ruby nodded barely, breathing heavily, deeply, looking on the verge of passing out, but able to stay awake.

"Hey," Billy said.

"What the fuck?" Eddie asked. "Just one goddamn break, is that too much to ask?"

"Apparently it is," Nancy answered.

Steve looked at Billy. "And seriously? What's wrong with you?"

"What?" Billy asked. "It's not my fault Mirage conjured my fucking childhood nightmare."

"No, not that," Steve told him. "You don't say 'let's get this over with' when you're about to fight a monster. You say, 'oh, my God, I hope we don't die'."

"Says the guy that just bit a bat in half," Billy replied. "And you better hope you don't die, 'cause I'm sick of this shit already, Harrington. You realize what Ruby and I are risking by coming in after you, without our fucking music?"

Steve backed off, knowing that he had a point, looking between Ruby and Billy. "Thank you." He looked at Nadia, Nancy, Robin and Eddie. "All of you."

Nadia nodded. "Of course."

Nadia and Ruby wiped the blood from their noses and lips, standing steady on their own now.

"Can't believe I actually said that at least I would die helping my friends, meaning die for you," Ruby remarked.

Steve smiled slightly in amusement. "You said that?"

"Yeah, she did," Nancy answered, smiling.

"Don't let that go to your head," Ruby warned.

Steve held up his hands harmlessly, shaking his head, smiling.

Nadia, Robin and Nancy smiled.

"Aw, you two do care," Robin said teasingly. "You show it by bickering every chance you get, but hey, at least that's something."

Billy smirked, before letting it fade, looking around nervously as seeing this place brought back flayed memories, including of the Flayed Billy telling him that he wanted him to build an army of flayed with the red thunderstorm behind him, but seeing that this thunderstorm was fading from purple and blue back to red and black. "What the hell's up with the purple and blue?" Nadia shook her head, shrugging. "You don't think the Mind Flayer's still around, do you? Closing the Gate last year killed the monster in the real world, but not here."

Ruby walked toward Billy. "I don't know. But I'm not gonna let what happened last year happen again. Promise."

Billy nodded, slightly reassured, but still worried, and very right to be. "Me too."

The others looked at Ruby and Billy sympathetically.

Eddie looked around. "Can we get the hell out of here now?"

"Yeah," Nancy replied. "Let's go home."

Ruby went to put her hands to her head to try and use her madness manipulation, or her sanity part of the power, but got interrupted before she could.

But when Robin, Nancy, Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy and Eddie turned back toward the Gate, they saw more of bats flying closer as the sky flashed with red lightning, all bats screeching.

Robin jumped and hid behind Steve and Nadia as the group stood close together to face the oncoming threat.

The bats all landed around the Gate, blocking it off so they couldn't get through it.

Ruby tilted her head, completely done with all of this. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"All right," Steve said. "There's not that many. We can take 'em. Right?"

Ruby held out her arms in front of her, using enough anger to make her hands glow with golden light, trying to shoot her golden light psychic beams out of both of her hands at the bats to kill them, but her light and power started to fritz and fade. "What the fuck?"

Nadia realized that their powers were going back to dormant because the wave blast earlier had just been a temporary cure to their infection. "No, no, no."

"What the hell is happening?" Billy asked.

Nadia tried to conjure her purple glowing psychic energy sword and whip, but she couldn't do it, purple energy just flickering out weakly from her hands before they faded completely.

Nadia and Ruby couldn't use their powers at all now, causing all the teens to become worried.

"No, no, no," Ruby whispered.

"Don't tell me that they're gone just like that," Robin told them.

Eddie started to freak out again. "Jesus Christ. Shit, shit, shit!"

Many more bats started to fly closer, many more than they could deal with right now on their own.

"We can't," Nadia told them. "They're gone."

"What the hell are we supposed to do then?" Robin asked.

Nancy looked around for a place for them to go, seeing the edge of the woods at the side of what was supposed to be Lover's Lake. "The woods. Come on."

"Go, go, go," Billy told them.

Nancy, Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy and Eddie instantly started to run for the woods.

Robin sighed, turning toward the woods, tossing the flashlight in her hand up, flipping it through the air, catching it. "Great. More running."

Robin took off running after the others.

The teens continued to run into the woods to find shelter and safety, though in the Upside Down, there was no such thing.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Woods

Hailey, Dustin, Lucas and Max were being brought to Callahan and Powell's police cars to take them to the Wheelers for questioning, as they saw Steve's car and the car they had stolen earlier were still in the same place they left them, but being watched by a couple of cops.

They were on the way to the cars when they saw Niko's wave blast sweep past them, but Callahan and Powell were unaware of it, as they were in their cars, but Hailey, Dustin, Lucas and Max had been fully aware of it, and were completely shocked and confused, but couldn't say much about it right now without exposing the truth to Callahan and Powell.

Hailey seemed to be overcome with pain so suddenly, and an enormous amount of it, screaming in agony, before her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell to the ground, appearing to have fainted.

Dustin, Lucas and Max turned back worriedly because of this. "Hailey?"

Dustin knelt next to Hailey worriedly, lifting her up in his arms into his lap, trying to wake her up. "Hailey? Hailey!"

Powell and Callahan turned back to look at them in confusion.

Lucas and Max knelt next to Dustin and Hailey in concern, as Dustin, Lucas and Max were completely confused as to why Hailey fainted for no apparent reason.

∰ Worlds Colliding (Stranger Things) ∰

Lenora Hills, California

Warehouse

Sullivan's soldiers unlocked the locker that they had shoved Wallace into, opening it.

Wallace fell to the floor.

Sullivan walked closer, kneeling in front of the bloody and weakened agent. "How'd you sleep, Mr. Wallace?" Wallace was wheezing for breath. "Have you reconsidered your position? Where are the psionics?"

Wallace still refused to answer. "Go to hell."

Sullivan was not surprised, but frustrated with Wallace's refusal to break, knowing that was why Sabina trusted Wallace and Harmon enough for them to work for her. "Perhaps you need more time to think."

Sullivan stood, nodding to the soldiers.

The soldiers hauled Wallace up to his feet and put him back into the locker, closing it, locking it.

"He's not going to break, sir," one of the soldiers told him.

Sullivan sighed, turning around, walking away. "I know."

Sullivan reached the phone, picking it up, dialing a number.

∰

Mikhail's Plane

On a plane, Mikhail was close to finding Corinth, but even though he had seen the location pointed out by Apollo's powers on the crystalline globe, it was still nearly impossible to find in the ocean, especially since it could submerge underwater. "How long until the coordinates?"

"Not long, sir," the pilot answered.

"Well, hurry up," Mikhail told him.

There was a scientist next to him, making sure a vial was ready, turning to Mikhail. "Sir, the last serum with the psionic genetic markers you asked for."

"Is it ready?" Mikhail asked.

"Yes, sir," the scientist answered. "But at the rate the sickness is going, this would only speed it if you don't get the cure before the serum runs out of your system."

Mikhail took the serum from her, looking it over. "Yes, I know, I die."

"If you gave me more time--" the scientist started.

"There is no time!" Mikhail snapped. "I need everything I have to take Corinth and Nikolai, so cheers to that."

Mikhail injected the needle into his arm, seeming to feel extremely high, gasping for breath, as a glowing green energy passed over him, flickering like lightning, as his eyes glowing green, letting out a groan, nearly a scream of pain, until the power faded away, and his eyes started to return to normal.

"Sir?" the scientist asked in concern.

Mikhail let the green glow fade from his eyes. "I'm ready." His plane phone rang, which he answered. "Colonel Sullivan, I presume. Reconsidering your denial of my deal last night?"

"Sabina's agent wouldn't break," Sullivan admitted, frustrated beyond belief to have to admit this.

Mikhail smirked. "Of course he wouldn't. Sabina only trusts those who will always remain loyal to her. Through her powers or not. Care to make a deal?"

"You said that you would tell me where a few of the psionics are, in exchange for me bringing them to you wherever you are going after the others," Sullivan recalled.

Mikhail nodded in confirmation. "That's right."

"What's in it for you?" Sullivan asked. "Just to gain more power?"

"And to save my own life, Sullivan," Mikhail answered. "But not that that matters to you, since I'm sure that you would still love to try and kill me when you bring the three girls I need to me. You can go ahead and try, but you need those girls alive if you ever want to track down the rest of us, when I tell you exactly where we are. But if you think that you can kill me, you're in for a big storm coming your way. Come on, Colonel. It's better to deal with the devil you know than the devil you don't. How badly do you want to catch these psionics?"

Sullivan sighed, hesitating, hating having to do this, but giving in. "Fine. Which three are you talking about? The girls?"

"My granddaughter Nadia Rostova," Mikhail answered. "And two more that you have yet to realize, but you knew there was more out there all along. Ruby Charlize and Hailey Harrington. My children Natasha and Nadyr Ivanov are still in Russia with friends and Nadyr's newly revealed son Apollo Pierce. But I'll get to them again eventually. I'm going after Niko Rostov, Sabina Ivanova and Eleven myself. All you have to do is get to Nadia, Ruby and Hailey."

"Okay," Sullivan agreed. "And where are they?"

Mikhail smirked in amusement. "They've been right where you think they've been, right under your nose the entire time. The next time you're in Hawkins, you might want to look a little harder."

Sullivan nodded barely. "And where can I find you?"

"I'll tell you when you've captured Nadia, Hailey and Ruby," Mikhail replied. "Don't disappoint, Sullivan."

They both hung up.

∰

Salt Lake City, Utah

Motel - Office

Calliope and Jonathan were talking to the manager, trying to get a room.

Jonathan pulled out all the money they had, which was very little. "Okay, so what can I get for this?"

"The trash can outside in the back," the manager replied.

Calliope rolled her eyes, looking like she was trying not to lash out and kick his ass right there. "Fucking God."

"Look, we're only gonna be here a little while," Jonathan told him.

"No," the manager replied.

Calliope looked toward a box of clothing. "Hey, are those clean?"

"Yeah," the manager answered. "They were forgotten by a guest so we cleaned them to sell."

Jonathan turned to Calliope, walking toward her, whispering. "Are you seriously thinking about changing right now?"

Calliope shrugged. "Think of it like if I stay on this clothes one more minute, I'm gonna shove these high heeled boots up that fucker's ass, or I can change."

Jonathan turned back to the manager. "Yeah, we're gonna need the room soon."

The manager eyed Calliope creepily. "Are you his girlfriend?"

Calliope glared. "No. Are you?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Look, here. I'm asking nicely." He pointed to Calliope. "She's not gonna be doing the same thing."

The manager scoffed. "I'm not scared of a little girl. But maybe her and I can come to an understanding."

The manager smirked.

Calliope and Jonathan glared at him incredulously in disgust.

Jonathan turned to Calliope. "Never mind. He's all yours."

Calliope smirked. "Fucking finally."

Calliope walked toward the desk.

The manager winked. "Hi, there."

Calliope tilted her head, smiling a sweet-not-so-sweet smile.

∰

Outside

Mike and Argyle were waiting by the van.

"What's taking them so long?" Mike asked, looking toward the office.

Argyle was still high. "Oh, I hope we get one of those special beds with like water and shit where you feel like you float. I think that's so cool, man. What do you think?"

Mike shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Trust me, you don't wanna know. And how are you still high?"

The manager suddenly went flying through the nearby glass door, making Mike and Argyle jump in surprise.

"Holy shit!" Argyle said.

"What the fuck?" Mike asked.

The manager sat up from the ground, looking toward the office, with the glass door that he had just gone through. "That chick is fucking crazy."

The manager stood, turning around, running away as fast as he could.

Mike and Argyle walked around the van to look into the broken door of the office.

Jonathan and Calliope were still inside, looking toward them.

Jonathan raised his arms in celebration, shrugging. "We got the room."

Calliope held out the keys, smirking, tilting her head.

∰

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Eleven was sitting at a table with a wire headset on, trying to crush a classic Coke can with her powers, but flashing back to glimpses of the Hawkins lab massacre, she couldn't.

No longer needing his Nina suit, Niko was recovering from what happened during the 'step two' of getting his powers back, and Vecna and Mirage's attack on him, and everything that happened in his mind in 4.06. He was fully starting to get used to his powers again, but he still had to learn how to do it for Eleven, Nadia and Ruby officially, permanently. He was testing how strong he was now, letting an aura of blue fiery energy glow around him, which allowed him to levitate off the ground, before shooting blue fire from his hands to send him propelling into the air, flipping, almost like flying, smiling, laughing lightly.

Will smiled at Niko having fun and getting used to having his powers again, and how much stronger he was now.

Eleven smiled, happy for Niko, but upset because she wasn't ready for step two yet, which she knew that she needed to be quickly so that Niko could get her her powers back, and then they could reunite with everyone else and get Nadia and Ruby's powers back.

Niko let his powers fade as he landed on the floor, walking forward with a smug smirk. "Guess who's back."

Will smirked, shaking his head. "Show off."

Niko let the smirk fade. "I do need to figure out my own way to get El, Nadia and Ruby's powers back, since obviously, it's gonna be different for each of them rather than how it was like for me with Sabina, given everything."

Will was trying to reassure and talk them through it. "Hey, it's okay. You've got this. You're both thinking too much. If I know anything, I know that nothing ever works very well if you're thinking too much about it. Just take a step back to breathe, focus, and try again."

Eleven and Niko were both relieved to have Will here to talk them through it, nodding in agreement.

∰

Hallway

Sabina and Owens were watching from the hallway.

"We're running out of time here, Sabina," Owens told her. "Hawkins is running out of time."

"I understand the stakes quite well," Sabina replied. "Look at Niko, Samuel. Even after he had to face Henry and Andrei on his own in order to regain his powers, and how strong he is now? There's progress there. He needs to master control on how much more powerful his powers are now, but he will. And he is making progress on figuring out how to do the same thing I did to him, to Nadia and Ruby, and in the process, helping Eleven."

"Yeah, I see all that," Owens agreed. "You know what else I see? I see frightened, traumatized little kids who have the fate of the world resting on their shoulders. Not just Niko and Eleven, but Nadia, Hailey and Ruby too. It's not fair."

"It's not," Sabina agreed. "But it's the way that it is."

∰

Training Room

Sabina walked into the room to speak to Niko, Eleven and Will. "You're doing very well, Niko. I'm proud of you. Will, thank you for being here to help them through this. It's one of the reasons why I wanted you to be here as well."

"Besides the fact that I'm the only one that could keep Niko calm and from attacking you at first sight?" Will asked.

"That too," Sabina answered. Niko smirked. "Eleven, you're doing well, but you still have a ways to go. Look at me. I know you're frightened. You're terribly frightened by what you've seen. But it's this very fear that's now holding you back. If you want this to succeed, you cannot hide from the truth, no matter how frightening it may be."

Eleven had tears in her eyes. "I saw what I did. I am a monster."

"No, you're not," Will told her.

"You're anything but a monster, El," Niko told her.

Sabina shook her head. "You speak of monsters, superheroes. That's the stuff of myth and fairy tales. Reality, truth, is rarely so simple. People are not so easily defined. Only by facing all of ourselves, the good and the bad, can we become whole."

"What if I don't wanna become whole?" Eleven asked.

"Then that is a choice," Sabina answered. "Your choice. The door is always open. This place is not a prison." She placed a hand to Niko and Eleven's heads. "This is. You both chose to trust me once. I'm asking you to trust me again. If not for your sakes, then for Nadia, Ruby and Hailey's. The rest of your friends and family. They need you."

"Niko, you're so close to figuring out how to control the extra power," Will pointed out. "You're so close to figuring out how to restore Nadia and Ruby's powers, the same way that Sabina did to you. You can do that for El too, to be sure that you can do it. All of you can help Hailey end this. We can help save everyone."

Niko took a deep breath, nodding. "I wanna keep going. But El has to go back into Nina to finish seeing the past, doesn't she?"

"Yes," Sabina answered. "Just one last time, to see the truth. Stop hiding, Eleven."

Eleven looked toward where her water suit was hanging, taking a deep, determined breath.

∰

Nina Lab

Eleven went through the process she had to go through for the Nina prep, before the lid to Nina opened.

Will and Niko nodded to Eleven reassuringly.

"You got this, El," Niko told her.

"We'll be right here," Will promised.

Eleven nodded.

Sabina sat down in her chair, sitting back in her seat, putting on her headset that would help her with showing Eleven the last memories she needed to know, the day September 8 of 1979, all of which flashed through her mind.

Eleven got into the tank, laying down in the water.

The screens turned on above her, helping her see the footage that she needed that would help her fall to sleep and see the memories in her mind, added with Sabina's telepathy helping her re-experience it as she unlocked Eleven's memories.

Sabina's eyes started to glow bright blue-purple-pink as she started the process all over again.

∰

Training Room

Niko went to sent down alone in the training room.

Will walked closer. "What are you doing?"

"Remember what I told you about in the fight with Andrei and Vecna, I felt like I was absorbing all the power that Andrei threw at me, since it's technically part my power, and part Nadia's power?" Niko asked.

"Yeah," Will answered.

"During the fight, I was able to reach reality warping level of power because he was just making me stronger with each attack," Niko explained. "Even if it was temporary. The point is, I can still feel that power."

"And..." Will trailed off.

"I think that that power can help me get past Andrei and Vecna and Dark Hailey and get into Hailey's head," Niko answered. "So we can try to talk and make a plan."

Will was surprised but hopeful. "Oh."

"So while Sabina's helping El, I'll be trying to contact Hailey," Niko told him.

Will nodded. "Okay. How?"

"Sabina said that my clairvoyancy and telepathy will be much stronger now, especially with the extra power I feel right now," Niko answered. "I'm gonna combine those two and try to do it."

Will nodded in understanding. 

Moments later.

Niko was sitting down, trying to contact Hailey telepathically, eyes closed. His glowing blue headpiece appeared around his head, as he started to levitate in the air, conjuring a web of glowing blue psionic energy and matter all around him. He could see through little windows of energy to try and find Hailey and find a way into her mind, which window connected by lines of energy like a spider web, looking through each window in the magic web, causing the web to spin and cyclone around him until he found the right one. His head piece flared with blue light, as he used his combined clairvoyance and telepath powers to locate and contact Hailey, having to get past Vecna, Mirage, and Dark Hailey to do so.

As Niko did this, the entire room's background changed into a black background with stars to pinpoint people that Niko was searching through.

Will looked around in awe. "What is all that?"

"Those are all the humans in the world," Niko answered. The white glowing spots changed to blue, which were very much smaller in size and range. "And these are all the psionics. Or the people that have been touched by heavy psionic energy."

Niko was becoming very overwhelmed with all that he was hearing, unable to focus, in a lot of pain because of Vecna, Mirage and Dark Hailey trying to keep Niko out of Hailey's head, groaning, gasping.

"Niko?" Will asked worriedly. "Niko!"

The telepath/clairvoyance map started to spin rapidly, overrun with red glowing energy light. Niko screamed in pain as he was forced out of Hailey's head, his energy zapping out one by one as the magic web and map disappeared.

∰

Salt Lake City

Motel - Outside

Calliope was sitting on the steps outside the motel, drinking a beer, managing to change out of Eden's black clothes and into some from the lost and found, passing a hand through her hair, which she had let down from her normal updo. She looked around as she was keeping watch, looking down at the black veins on her arm, pensive. She looked up, knowing she was being watched, sighing. "I don't know what's worse. That you don't think I know you're watching me, or that you're being creepy and watching me at all."

Jonathan walked closer, rolling his eyes. "In my defense, you did sort of die while I was pulling a bullet out of you not even 24 hours ago."

Calliope waved him off. "Only for a minute. Let's not get crazy."

"Can I sit?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope took a drink. "Nope."

Jonathan sat down anyway. "Great, thanks."

Calliope rolled her eyes. "What is it now?"

"I'm stuck in a room with Argyle and Mike," Jonathan answered. "What do you think?"

Calliope tilted her head. "Yeah, good point." She handed him a beer. "Here. You need this more than I do."

Jonathan took the beer, opening it, taking a drink. "Jeez. Who would've thought it would take you nearly dying to be nice to me?"

"Who says I'm not nice?" Calliope asked. Jonathan tilted his head. "No, seriously? Who said that, 'cause Ill kick their ass. Was it Argyle?"

Jonathan raised his eyebrows. "You were saying?"

Calliope shrugged. "Yeah, you're right."

"I mean, you're not nice, but you're kind of cool," Jonathan complimented.

Calliope scoffed. "Please. I'm sure you say that to all the girls that save you from getting shot."

Jonathan scoffed. "Jeez. Here I thought we had something special."

"All the weed must really have fried your brain," Calliope replied with a chuckle.

Jonathan chuckled. "Shut up. You know it's true."

Calliope took a drink. "Well, I guess I don't really share beer with the people who's life I saved, so maybe you're not fully wrong."

Jonathan gave a small smile. "I knew it."

Calliope managed a small smile. "Shut up."

Jonathan let the smile drop, turning serious. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Calliope asked.

"Why are you doing this?" Jonathan asked. "I mean, I know what it's like to want your brother back, but..."

"But why am I risking my life for somebody who I don't know?" Calliope finished. "Even if Apollo is my brother?"

"Yeah," Jonathan answered.

Calliope sighed. "Honestly, I don't know sometimes. I wonder if Apollo would even like me. If he wants to know me at all. If he even knows about me. But..."

"But what?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope swallowed, looking down. "Then I remember that my brother Judas is dead. He was driven to suicide by our abusive prick of a father, who then tried to kill me, so I had to kill him. My mother was killed right in front of me.  I have no home. Nowhere to go to or back to. Apollo, my mission... without that, I have nothing."

Jonathan was stunned, sympathetic, shaking his head. "That's not true."

Calliope sniffed. "Yeah, it is. And if I don't find Apollo, then this virus might as well kill me too."

"That can't be what you want, Cal," Jonathan told her.

Calliope looked down. "It is."

"But--" Jonathan started.

Calliope looked up, turning to look at him. "Because I don't think anyone else is ever gonna love me, and living in this world without Apollo, without the rest of my family, who's left to love me? That feels like hell to me."

"And if it doesn't go like that?" Jonathan asked.

"It has to," Calliope told him.

"Why?" Jonathan asked.

"Because I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't," Calliope answered.

Jonathan nodded slowly, sadly. "Look, I'm not trying to be a dick or anything. It's just... we've been through a lot the last couple of days. And I just... I just want you to be okay."

Calliope looked at him in surprise, touched, nodding. "Thank you."

Jonathan took a deep breath. "Well, I guess you know now."

"What?" Calliope asked.

"What friends are for," Jonathan answered.

Calliope looked away, smiling, chuckling. "You're an idiot."

Jonathan smiled. "Shut up."

Calliope and Jonathan clinked their beers, drinking.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Wheeler House - Living Room

Lucas, Max, Hailey and Dustin were sitting on the couch, being questioned by Powell and Callahan, surrounded by Ted, Karen, Claudia, Erica, Charles and Sue.

Max's mother and Hailey's parents were unsurprisingly not here, as Susan was a drunk, and Hailey's parents were out of town again, not that they would care enough to be here if they were in town.

Hailey had been given time to wake up and feel a little better after earlier, obviously, but she, Lucas, Max and Dustin were still confused as to what happened, though clearly they couldn't talk about it with everyone there, and Hailey was still feeling a bit of pain, though none of them knew why.

"What exactly were you all doing at the lake?" Powell asked.

Lucas, Max, Hailey and Dustin exchanged a look.

"Uh..." Lucas trailed off.

"It's comp--" Dustin started.

"We were... we were just going for a walk," Max told them.

"A walk?" Callahan repeated incredulously. "At 9:00 PM?"

Dustin replied in a squeaky voice. "To the lake. We were gonna..." He looked down. "Take a little swim." Lucas raised his eyebrows, not knowing what to say. Max and Hailey glanced at each other silently. Dustin shrugged slightly, looking up. "Little night swim."

"Dusty, someone was just murdered there," Claudia told him emotionally.

Hailey nodded, a much better liar. "Yeah, we--we didn't realize that until we got there."

"That's why we didn't swim," Lucas went along with it.

"And Nancy, was she with you at this night swim?" Karen asked.

Max and Hailey shook their heads. "No."

Dustin nodded. "Yes." Max and Hailey gave Dustin a look. "Uh..."

Lucas had a hilarious look on his face, eyebrows raised, mouth opened like he wanted to say 'oh shit'. "We're not sure."

Erica stood by the piano behind the parents, arms crossed over her chest, rolling her eyes at the lies, looking away.

"She was there," Dustin told them. "Then she left. It's all a little confusing."

Hailey pointed to Powell and Callahan. 'That's when you guys came."

Max nodded. "Right, then they dared me to say what I said."

Lucas chuckled nervously. "Oh, yeah."

"About the killers," Max went on.

Lucas and Dustin looked at each other from around Max and Hailey in between them, smiling, laughing.

Max and Hailey both gave them a look.

"You're lucky you didn't get shot," Ted told them.

Hailey nodded. "Mm-hmm."

Powell was very skeptic. "Right. And this wouldn't have to do with Max being the stepsister to Billy and a close friend of Ruby's, and leading us away from either of them or Eddie, would it?"

Lucas, Max, Hailey and Dustin all said, "No, no, no" at the same time, overlapping each other.

"Have you had any contact with Billy and Ruby?" Callahan asked. "Or Eddie?"

"God, no," Dustin lied.

Hailey shook her head. "Nope."

"Absolutely not," Lucas agreed.

"No, we haven't heard from them," Max added. "Billy and I aren't close, and if he and Ruby went off the rails... I don't think they did, but..."

"And we barely know Eddie," Lucas went on.

Erica stepped forward. "Oh, that's a bunch of bull."

Charles and Sue both gave her a look. "Erica!"

Erica looked around the adults. "I mean, you realize they're lying. The whole couch is on fire."

"Erica," Charles and Sue chided again.

"Just the facts," Erica replied.

Hailey gave Erica an annoyed look.

"Are you lying to these policemen, Dusty?" Claudia asked.

Dustin shook his head quickly, his voice very high-pitched. "No."

Charles looked at Lucas. "Lying to the cops is a crime, son."

"I'm not lying," Lucas denied.

Erica raised her eyebrows. "The fire is consuming us."

Hailey gave Erica a look for her to shut up.

"Threaten them with a little jail time," Ted suggested. "Maybe that'll loosen their lips."

Hailey looked at Ted in annoyance. "Okay--"

Sue gave Ted a look. "You wanna send our kids to jail?"

Ted held out his hands. "We need to take this seriously."

Karen tried to keep the peace. "He didn't mean it like that."

Everyone started to argue, overlapping each other's voices to where it was nearly impossible to tell who was saying what, and what was being said.

"Shut up," Powell told them.

Max tilted her head back in annoyance. "Oh, my God."

Powell stood, yelling to stop all the arguing. "Shut up!"

Hailey scoffed. "Jesus."

Powell looked around at the parents. "We're gonna try a more civilized approach. One at a time." He pointed to Max. "You first."

Max tried to play dumb. "Wait, what? Why me?"

"You're the closest to Billy and Ruby," Powell answered. "Follow me."

"I told you that I haven't seen them," Max told them defensively.

Callahan pointed at Max. "Do I need to cuff you? Up. Chop chop. Let's go."

Max rolled her eyes, standing, following Powell and Callahan out of the room.

Lucas, Hailey and Dustin exchanged a concerned look.

∰

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Niko was trying to figure out a way to contact Hailey since he knew Dark Hailey, Vecna and Mirage would all try to stop him, and the first attempt didn't work, and caused a lot of pain.

Will walked closer to check on him. "Any luck?"

"Not really," Niko answered. "The first attempt hurt like a bitch. I mean, power isn't the issue. If I go full strength, I would get into Hailey's head, but I can't risk her mind like that. Not with it being affected by three psychos already, one of them being her dark alter ego."

"So basically you can't just head dive through the front door," Will stated.

Niko seemed to be getting an idea after the way Will said it. "But maybe I could go the long way."

"How?" Will asked.

Niko stood, walking to the desk, grabbing papers and a pen. "Remember when El, Ruby and I went inside Billy's mind to find the flayed?"

"Yes," Will answered.

Niko used the pen to write the word 'memories' and to draw a circle around the word. "Exactly. We went through his memories until we saw it."

"So you think you can do the same with Hailey," Will realized, taking another pen from the desk.

Niko nodded. "So if I use my powers to make Hailey pass out, bringing her into her own mind, then go to the inner mind, then onto her memory self..."

"You can go straight down and reach her inner self," Will went on, writing on the paper.

Niko pointed at Will. "While using my powers."

"Giving you enough time to reach inner Hailey without Vecna, Dark Hailey and Mirage forcing you out," Will finished.

"And giving me enough time to talk to her without being interrupted," Niko agreed.

Will smiled in relief at them finding a way. "By doing the least damage to her mind."

Niko nodded smugly. "And bingo. Good guys one, bad guys zero."

"This is actually a pretty good plan, Nikolai," Will told him.

"Well, we make a pretty good team, don't we, William?" Niko asked.

"Yeah, we do," Will answered. Niko kept looking at Will, smiling, getting lost in the moment, starting to lean in. Will noticed. "What are you doing?"

Niko snapped out of it, shaking his head. "What? Nothing."

"Were you just trying to kiss me?" Will asked.

Niko shook his head. "No, of course not."

"Good," Will said.

"Good?" Niko repeated.

"Yeah, 'cause I would never kiss you," Will said.

Niko scoffed, starting to ramble, looking away. "Oh, you would never kiss me? Great, 'cause I would never kiss you either, you know."

Will smiled, leaning closer to cut him off with a kiss on Niko's cheek, surprising him, making his ears turn red. "I'm just messing with you." Niko smiled, leaning closer again, but Will stopped him by putting two fingers to his lips, confusing him, as Will tilted his head. "Sorry, but I don't just make out with anybody. That spot is reserved to my boyfriend, which you're kind of not, so..."

Niko nodded barely. "Wow, that's a low blow."

Will shrugged, smiling. "Sucks to be you, I guess."

Niko leaned closer to whisper in Will's ear with a smirk. "Well, guess I just have to make you my boyfriend again then, sweetie."

Will blushed, trying to not smile, scoffing, stepping away. "Jeez, you must think you have some game."

Niko shrugged. "What can I say? If you have it, you have it."

Will nodded sarcastically, mockingly. "Oh, you're like so cool."

"Yeah, actually," Niko replied.

"Is that why your ears went red?" Will asked.

Niko frowned, touching his ear. "No, they didn't."

Will scoffed slightly in amusement, starting to walk past Niko. "Right. Come on, lover boy. We have a friend to contact."

Niko smiled, walking toward Will, sitting down to try again.

Moments later.

Trying again, Niko was sitting down, trying to contact Hailey telepathically, eyes closed. His glowing blue headpiece appeared around his head, as he started to levitate in the air, conjuring a web of glowing blue psionic energy and matter all around him. He could see through little windows of energy to try and find Hailey and find a way into her mind, which window connected by lines of energy like a spider web, looking through each window in the magic web, causing the web to spin and cyclone around him until he found the right one. His head piece flared with blue light, as he used his combined clairvoyance and telepath powers to locate and contact Hailey, having to get past Vecna, Mirage, and Dark Hailey to do so.

As Niko did this, the entire room's background changed into a black background with stars to pinpoint people that Niko was searching through.

This time, it was working.

∰

Niko's Mind Lair

Niko's Mind Lair:

The color it glows for Hailey:

Niko opened his eyes, seeing he was in some type of dark room. "Okay, I know you have your Harrington genes, but really don't think you have an empty mind, so where am I?" He took a step forward, and suddenly, all the lights went on, revealing the room. Niko smiled in shock at the sight of his own mind lair. "Holy fucking mind lair."

Niko walked forward, standing at the base of the altar of the sanctuary. The water in the altar started to glow blue, swirling around, as a gem in the middle on metal within the water glowed blue. Glowing sparks of power around the altar started to appear, encircling around the altar to create a base of a tree.

Niko's energy circled around the entire tree, building it to full size in a beautiful display of power, flowers blooming from blue fiery and lightning energy.

The tree glowed with different colors depending on the minds that Niko tried to connect to. When Niko was ready to get into their mind, the energy from the glowing tree shot out toward the door in front of him in a beautiful, powerful blue fiery blast, opening the door completely.

This time, it glowed red and black for Hailey/Dark Hailey, the energy from the glowing tree shooting out toward the door in front of him in a powerful blast, opening the door.

Niko looked around as the tree along with all the flowers had changed from blue to red, smiling, walking away from the altar, toward the open door, past the wave of his energy that opened the door, and walked through the open door into Hailey's mind.

∰

Hailey's Mind Space

Night - Arcade

Niko opened his eyes, looking around, realizing he was in the arcade back in Hawkins, where the party continuously went especially in book 2. He looked around, scoffing. "Seriously, another mind scape? At least yours is the arcade."

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Hailey walked into the kitchen to get a moment alone, looking very overwhelmed and confused by what happened earlier.

When she felt Niko's power trying to get into her head, Hailey was feeling very lightheaded again, dizzy, struggling to focus.

Since Niko had to bypass Vecna, Mirage and Dark Hailey to try to contact Hailey herself, mentally, as they were fighting to keep him out of her head, the lights started to flicker and turn off completely.

Hailey looked around in confusion. She heard a screeching noise in her head like from a monster, holding her head in pain.

∰

Hailey's Mind Space

Night - Arcade

Niko walked around the maze of games, stopping in front of one, putting his hand against the screen. Blue electricity crackled from his fingertips into the game, and once it did, all the game screens turned on, and the screen started to show images of Hailey all through her life.

Niko looked around, scoffing, smiling. "Holy shit."

Niko looked around, seeing a counter, taking his hand off the game screen, walking toward the counter, looking through it, finding gold coins, taking the coins, looking them over, passing his hand over the coins, making the coins glow and show another memory of when Hailey, Eleven and Max went shopping in 3.02, all three girls smiling and laughing and having fun.

Niko put the coins back, this time finding one of him and Hailey. He walked toward one game, putting the coin inside it, which made the game screen show the memory, putting his hand against the screen, letting his eyes glow blue as there was a flash of blue blinding light.

∰

Reality

Night - Wheeler House - Kitchen

Hailey became even more disoriented, as Dark Hailey, Vecna and Mirage were trying to keep Niko out of her head.

The bowl in Hailey's hand flew out of her hand into the wall, shattering.

Hailey stumbled forward, catching herself against the counter, breathing heavily.

Hailey slowly pushed herself up, looking into the reflection of the window in front of her, only to see Dark Hailey glaring at her, both of their eyes and gems starting to glow red as their sclera turned black. Before anything else happened, Hailey fainted once again, falling to the floor, unconscious, her head rolling to the side, the glow fading from her gem.

∰

Hailey's Mind Space

Memory - Set During 1.08

Night - Hawkins Middle School - Gym

Niko appeared within the memory of himself and Hailey.

The memory was from the night when the party had been alone in the gym, before Eleven and Niko killed the Hawkins lab people that came after them and Hailey, and killed the Demogorgon, etc.

Niko and Hailey, 12 years old, were sitting on the bleachers together.

"Hey, so full disclosure," Past Niko told her. "I totally read Dustin's mind, and he is like madly in love with you."

Past Hailey turned to look at him in shock. "What?"

"Yep," Past Niko answered.

Past Hailey brushed it off, not believing it, and not knowing how to react to it. "Ew."

"Really?" Past Niko asked. "Ew?"

"If there's one thing I know, it's that I'm don't or will ever like Dustin Henderson," Past Hailey told him.

Past Niko looked away. "If you say so."

"I swear," Past Hailey replied.

Niko scoffed in amusement. "Really kept your word on that, Hailey."

Past Niko turned to look at Past Hailey. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Past Hailey asked.

"Getting you involved in this," Past Niko answered. "In my family stuff. Now people want to use you and make you into a weapon just like what happened to me, Mama and Nadia."

Past Hailey shook her head. "Hey, that's not your fault."

Past Niko tilted his head skeptically. "So you're saying you're okay with us having to battle other world monsters, having to deal with three nerds who are cool but annoy the shit out of us, and crazy scientists out to give you super powers?"

Past Hailey shrugged. "Okay, maybe those are not great circumstances."

Past Niko nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

"But even if I knew what would happen, I would do it all again," Past Hailey told him. "Especially if it meant being your friend."

Past Niko smiled slightly in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah," Past Hailey answered. "You're my best friend. My first friend. I wouldn't trade that for anything."

Past Niko smiled. "Well, hold on to that, 'cause we might die after this."

Past Hailey pushed Past Niko away. "Shut up."

Past Niko chuckled. "Well, since we're on the subject... I wouldn't trade it for anything either."

Past Hailey smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," Past Niko answered. They both smiled. "Also because we need to save the world, I could use the back up."

"Yeah, totally," Past Hailey agreed. "But don't worry. I'm here for that." She held out her pinkie. "I'm staying, 'cause we're in this together until the bitter end."

Past Niko hooked his pinkie finger with Past Hailey's as they both smiled. "Until the better end."

Niko smiled in nostalgia, shaking his head, chuckling, returning serious. "Come on, Nikolai. Focus. We need to find the real inner Hailey." He got an idea, putting his hands together. "Please work." His eyes started to glow blue as he used lightning sparks and fire, creating a blue glowing butterfly of telepathic energy, which started to fly, making Niko chuckle in awe that he could figure out how to do this. "Now find Hailey."

The blue glowing fire/lightning butterfly started to fly away from the the gym, as Niko followed after.

∰

Hallway

Niko was chasing the butterfly through the school hallways, looking around, stopping for a moment, as he saw another memory of Hailey's, this time of Will and Hailey, stopping to watch.

Hailey and Will were talking at Will's locker. (set sometime during 2.02 or 2.03 when they were 13).

"So you do want Max to become part of the party?" Past Will asked.

Past Hailey shook her head. "I didn't say that."

"So you don't?" Past Will asked.

"Didn't say that either," Past Hailey answered. "Look, it's not up to me if Max becomes part of the party. And I never thought that or even wanted you guys to think that you had to add her. I just..."

"You just want another girl to be friends," Past Will finished.

Past Hailey nodded. "Hey, don't hold it against me. You boys are great, but sometimes a girl needs another girl around. I miss El, and no one can replace her, but I think Max's really cool."

"And you and Max hit it off at the arcade," Past Will added.

Past Hailey gestured to Past Will. "Exactly."

When Past Will pulled out his book, a Zombie Boy flyer fell to the floor, making Past Will and Past Hailey look at it.

Niko looked at the flyer, glaring, remember that time well, rolling his eyes.

Past Hailey picked up the flyer, looking it over.

Past Will was nervous. "Hailey..."

Past Hailey scoffed. "Man, one would think that by middle school, they would master spelling. Assholes."

Past Will smiled. "Assholes indeed."

"You want me to kick their asses, or let you handle it?" Past Hailey asked.

They both chuckled lightly.

"I can deal," Past Will answered. "But thank you."

Past Hailey nodded in agreement, ripping up the flyer, tossing the pieces away, which fluttered down around like confetti, making both of them smile. "Come on, let's go."

Past Will closed his locker, and Past Hailey put an arm around him as they walked away to class.

Niko smiled, before looking at the butterfly, which flew away again.

∰

Science Lab

Niko walked into the lab, following his butterfly, seeing it was the same lab that he and Eleven had killed their first Demogorgon together in 1.08 three years ago. "Holy shit. Why'd you bring me here, little blue dude?" He walked closer to the wall where the mark of his fire and Eleven's power were still there, touching it for a moment, looking at the cracks that had healed from the Gate that had been temporarily put there that caused the Demogorgon and Eleven to disappear in front of Niko, Hailey, Mike, Lucas and Dustin. He turned to look at the butterfly. "What now?" The blue glowing butterfly flew away, going straight into the nearby mirror right next to the wall where Niko was standing, passing right through the mirror. Niko watched in shock, walking toward the mirror. "What the fuck?"

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey was laying on the ground in the Maze of Mirrors, waking up within her own mind lair. She was really confused, sitting up, looking around. "What the hell? Not again." She was in a lot of pain, slowly standing, looking around, seeing Niko's blue glowing butterfly, surprised, holding out her hand. "Well, you're pretty, but I don't think you're supposed to be here." The blue glowing butterfly flew away from Hailey's hand, confusing her. Hailey ran after the butterfly, as it was leading her through the maze. "Hey, come back." She ran after the glowing butterfly, chasing it through the mirror maze, stopping once she saw a mirror, which was glowing red around the edges. The glowing blue butterfly went through the mirror, making her raise her eyebrows in surprise. "Holy shit."

∰

Memory Mindscape

Night - Hawkins Middle School - Science Lab 

Niko was still in front of the mirror, watching as his glowing butterfly went through it again, appearing in front of Niko, making him look at it, holding out his hand, making the butterfly land on his hand, and once it did, it disappeared as Niko absorbed the energy back into himself, looking into the mirror, putting his hand on it, making the mirror glow blue, seeming to know that there was something on the other side. "Holy shit."

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey was still looking at the mirror, touching it, getting an idea because of how her powers could go through the mirrors to save Vecna and Mirage's victims. "Please be a secret passage."

Hailey took a deep breath,  placing her hands on the edge of the mirror, allowing her irises and gem to glow red, as her sclera turned black. Her glowing red energy aura appeared all around her, uniting with the mirror, making it glow completely, almost turning the mirror into a water like reflection.

∰

Memory Mindscape

Night - Hawkins Middle School - Science Lab

Niko took his hand from the mirror, making the blue glow disappear, and seeing it was starting to glow red, getting an idea. "Please be a secret passage."

Niko put his hands on the mirror, letting his eyes glow blue, making blue energy glow alongside the red energy within the watery reflection.

From the Maze of Mirrors, Hailey could see the blue.

Now from either side of the reflection, Niko and Hailey smiled in shock, eyes still glowing as they watched their energy mingle within the reflection.

Niko touched the glass of the mirror in front of him, shocked when his hand went through like water. He started to walk through the mirror, passing through the glowing red and blue water reflections like layers surrounding him, until he reached the Maze of Mirrors.

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Niko fell through the rest of the watery mirror, into the Maze of Mirrors, crashing into Hailey, making her power stop as they fell to the ground, rolling away from each other, groaning in pain, speaking together. "Fuck."

When they heard each other, Niko and Hailey turned their heads to look at each other, the two best friends looking at each other in shock.

"Oh, my God," Niko said in shock.

"Oh, my God," Hailey repeated in shock.

Niko and Hailey both started to smile excitedly. "Holy shit."

Niko and Hailey immediately sat up to tackle each other in a hug, the two best friends laughing in shock and happiness, at last being reunited. After a long moment, they pulled away, still in shock.

Hailey touched Niko's arms, justifiably thinking that he was a figment of imagination. "I don't understand. Are you real?"

"I'm real," Niko answered.

Hailey pinched Niko's cheek. "Did I make you?"

Niko groaned, hitting her hand. "Shit, Hail. Stop. I'm real, okay? I'm real."

Hailey embraced him again, making Niko smile, returning the embrace.

"I don't even care," Hailey admitted. "I just missed you so much."

Niko chuckled. "I missed you too." They pulled away. "I guess things have been pretty wild here."

"Wild doesn't cover half the shit," Hailey replied. "But how are you here?"

"My crazy but not totally evil anymore grandmother helped me from a city underneath the ocean," Niko deadpanned.

Hailey was utterly confused, reacting comedically. "The fuck?"

Niko laughed lightly. "Long story, but what matters is that I got my powers back."

Hailey smiled in relief. "Oh, that's amazing. I mean, not surprised. If anybody is gonna get his powers back first, it's you."

"Right?" Niko asked. "But question."

Hailey waved a hand. "Hit me."

"What the fuck is happening?" Niko asked. He looked around the Maze of Mirrors. "Where the fuck are we?" He looked at Hailey's hair, touching it. "Also, totally into the new hair."

"Upside Down shit got crazy," Hailey answered the three questions in order. "In my mind lair." She passed a hand through her hair. "And I know, right? It's like a lot lighter."

Niko was stunned by the second answer. "You have a mind lair. I do too now."

Hailey smiled. "Get out."

"Wait, why do you have one?" Niko asked.

Hailey shrugged. "Well, turns out I have a mind power, and this is where my mind goes when I dreamwalk."

"Dreamwalk?" Niko repeated. "You're a fucking dreamwalker? That's totally awesome."

Hailey chuckled. "Yeah, not so far. Don't really have a chance to have fun with it yet. It's mostly just used to save our friends from the two monsters we're facing."

"That's why they're so focused on trying to control you," Niko realized. "Wait, that means the red glow was you."

"And you were the blue," Hailey realized. "Your powers are blue now?"

Niko nodded. "Comes with the upgrade. Blue's a hotter flame than orange, so..."

Hailey nodded barely in understanding. "But what did we do? I've been trying to find a way inside the mirrors to dreamwalk into them."

"And I was trying to find a way into the mirror, so pretty sure we combined telepathy and dreamwalking," Niko explained. "Though I'm pretty sure you could have gotten into my dream if I was dreaming all by yourself, and I could have gotten in here by myself too considering I'm a telepath. With practice though, and on my own if three psycho monsters weren't trying to keep me out of your head. You helped me bypass them though."

"So you're really in my head?" Hailey asked. 

"Yep," Niko answered.

"But how are your powers back?" Hailey asked.

"Part of that long story," Niko explained. "But they are."

"And the blue energy wave, that was you?" Hailey asked.

Niko nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure I felt it all over the world, and considering where I was, pretty sure the Upside Down too."

"Holy shit," Hailey said in shock.

Niko looked around the maze. "Like what you've done with the place."

"Well, it's not everyday you're in my head," Hailey replied.

"Well, it's not everyday the world is being threatened by Mr. I-Look-Like-An-Uncircumcised-Penis and a child torturing psychopath cosplaying Wild Kingdom," Niko replied.

"You've seen the psychotic dicks we're fighting?" Hailey asked.

"Seen them?" Niko repeated. "I've fought them at the same time. They ganged up on me, the cowards."

"You fought Vecna and Mirage at the same time?" Hailey asked in surprise.

Niko nodded. "And I won. You fucking bet I did."

Hailey smiled. "Really? Shit, that's awesome."

Niko smirked, shrugging. "I mean, it is kinda awesome."

"Humble much?" Hailey asked.

"Shut up," Niko replied. "I'm pretty sure it was only possible because I was absorbing my own power back from Mirage and it got me to reality warping level of power for psionics, but..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hailey asked.

"I'll explain that more another time," Niko replied. "No time now. How is everybody back in Hawkins?"

Hailey took a deep breath. "Well, let's see. Max, Ruby and Billy are cursed by Vecna and have almost been killed by him." Niko frowned in concern. "They, me, Dustin, Lucas, Nadia, Nancy, Robin and Steve have all almost died because of Mirage monsters, and so has our new friend Eddie. But on the bright side, well, Lucas is on the basketball team."

Niko raised in raised his eyebrows at all of that, but was focused on the last part because it was the least dark. "Holy shit, Lucas is on the basketball team?"

"Fucking shock, right?" Hailey asked.

"Is he good?" Niko asked.

Hailey smiled, shrugging. "He won us our first championship in like, I don't know, always."

Niko smiled. "Get the fuck out."

Hailey smiled. "Fucking serious."

Niko nodded, approving. "Go off, Sinclair."

Hailey chuckled. "It was awesome."

"Wait, so you guys are friends with Billy now?" Niko asked.

"Well, friends is overstating," Hailey answered. "But we are helping him, and at least he's not as insane as he used to be, and he did say sorry to Steve and Lucas."

"For the blatant as fuck racism, or for trying to kill Steve when Ruby's madness power set psycho Billy even more psycho?" Niko asked.

"Both," Hailey answered. "He actually trusts Lucas to keep an eye on Max now, and he's not being a dick to him anymore, which is super weird, but hey, you know, whatever."

Niko remembered the main point. "Shit. Everybody, that's why I'm here. Nadia, is with you?"

Hailey remembered the current situation in Hawkins. "No, Dustin, Lucas, Max and I got separated from Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy, Nancy and Robin, and new guy Eddie. I think they got sucked into the Upside Down. I don't know, it's just a bad feeling I have."

"Wait, Steve and Nadia?" Niko asked. "Holy shit, are they back together? Nadia keeps saying they weren't together, but come on, girl, everybody knows."

"Like fucking everybody," Hailey agreed. "But no. I mean, they haven't had time to be together the first time, let alone to get back together now. I told El and Will all of this when I visited them during, before and after training Will, which we did a lot since he was sad when you guys broke up." She gasped when she remembered that, hitting Niko on the shoulder. "Why would you break up with Will?"

Niko held his arm. "Ouch. Look, I really wish we could get caught up more, but I'm not sure how much time I have, so hear this."

"What?" Hailey asked.

"Since I have my powers back, I'm gonna get El, Nadia and Ruby their powers back," Niko answered. "El, Will, Mike, Jonathan and I are gonna get back as soon as we can, but listen. You have to tell Nadia that our grandmother Sabina, our grandfather Mikhail, and our uncle Nadyr are alive. Just tell her that, and I will explain the rest when I see you guys, since we don't have time now." Hailey frowned in confusion, but nodded. "I know who Mirage is. Nadia doesn't remember, but you have to get her as far away from the Upside Down as you can, and as far away from Mirage, until I give her her powers again. He's not gonna stop until he gets her. Me and Nadia are his real targets. Luckily if my blast did affect the Upside Down, it could have healed Nadia and Ruby for a little bit and give them their powers back, so let's hope it lasted a while to help them."

"Wait, why?" Hailey asked.

Niko started to feel pain. "Oh, no."

"What is it?" Hailey asked.

"They know I'm here," Niko answered. "They're trying to push me out. I have to go."

Hailey took hold of Niko's arms. "No, no, please stay. We need to know more."

"I can't," Niko told her. "If I do, I damage your mind, and I could kill you." Hailey started to feel the same pain, but a hell of a lot worse than Niko did, groaning in pain. "Hailey? It's happening."

Hailey started to hear screeching in her mind, making her fall to her knees, holding her head, screaming.

∰

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Will walked in hurriedly, seeing that Niko was still in the telepathic state, but seeing how much pain he was in. "Oh, no."

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Niko knelt in front of Hailey, not in nearly as much pain as she was in.

Hailey held her head in her hands, as it felt like her mind was shattering. This pain, if long-lasting, was definitely enough to kill her, as Mirage and Dark Hailey were fighting for control of Hailey's mind while trying to push Niko out.

Mirage created shadowy, misty skull like monsters out of purple and orange energy, which appeared around Niko and grabbed him, pulling him away from Hailey, into the air above the ground.

Niko was trying to fight back, but the shadowy like monsters were barely corporeal, able to grab him and try to restrain him, but Niko couldn't really fight back against them. More and more shadowy, misty monsters appeared, tearing through Niko, weakening him physically, making him scream in pain.

As the camera panned through Niko's eye, the darkness of his mind seemed to be filled with the monsters, holding him down and trying to kill him.

∰

Reality

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Niko fell to the ground, burning up.

Will knelt next to him worriedly. "Niko? Niko!" He felt Niko's head, only to jerk his hand back with a yell of pain when he felt literally burned by his temperature. "Hang on, hang on, hang on. Where are you?"

Will opened Niko's eye.

A shadowy, misty monster soared out of Niko's eye, and right at Will, grabbing him, flying him through the air and tackling him to the ground, trying to go in for the kill. Will caught the monster by the shoulders, holding him at bay as much as he could, but barely able to, though in the real world, the monster seemed to be more corporeal than the monsters were in the Maze of Mirrors.

The monster snapped his jaw at Will, trying to bite.

Another monster flew out of Niko as he was glowing with completely blue energy.

Will kicked the monster above him away across the room, making the monster hit the wall and fall to the ground.

Seeing two more monsters escape from Niko, Will turned his attention to the torch on the wall, grabbing the torch, aiming it at the monster that tried to attack him, shooting him with a burst of fire that escaped from the torch, burning the monster alive, out of existence. "Go back to hell." As another monster flew closer, Will burned him alive with the torch, before doing the same for the final two monsters, killing them. Once he was sure that no more monsters were coming through, Will put the torch down and ran to Niko's side, holding his hand despite the fact that Niko was burning up. "Niko. I've got you. They're Mirage monsters. They come from your power. Your power can destroy them. Destroy them." Niko's eyes snapped open. "Destroy them."

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey was still in utter agony, unable to fight back as much as she wanted to, as the war raged on in her mind.

The shadowy monsters were trying to kill Niko as they grabbed his head, trying to twist his neck to kill him, but Niko screamed, releasing a blast of blue fiery energy, as the monster attack was making him stronger in power, allowing him to burn the monsters around him and make them let him go, as he fell to the ground.

Dark Hailey appeared. "And here I thought Mirage could handle you. Guess you should never send a snake to do your job."

Hailey looked up at Dark Hailey, glaring at her.

Niko was stunned to see the dark version of Hailey. "Holy shit."

Dark Hailey instantly conjured red glowing energy from her aura and shot it out at Niko with a blast so hard that she sent him flipping through the air and landing on the ground.

Hailey screamed in pain, as the mind battle over her was stronger than ever, and it was so close to shattering her mind and body. She tried to thrust her arm toward Dark Hailey to use her powers against her.

Dark Hailey held both her hands toward Niko and Hailey respectively, using her red glowing energy to trap their arms in place before they could use their powers.

Niko was stunned by how cold Hailey's powers were even in her mind from Dark Hailey, as the powers were so freezing that they were instantly delivering an agonizing cold burn to Niko's arm, making him scream in pain, as Dark Hailey made the energy spread from Niko and Hailey's hands to all over their bodies to make them both scream in agony.

∰

Reality

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Niko was covered in a layer of Hailey's red energy, which burned Will with an agonizing cold burn as Will was so close that it could touch him.

Will screamed in pain from both Niko's searing heat and Hailey's searing cold ice burn, falling to the ground.

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Niko and Hailey were still tortured by Dark Hailey's power, as they both screamed, releasing bursts of blue and red energy respectively, with enough power to send Dark Hailey flying backward and flipping through the air to the ground, buying them momentarily relief.

Hailey looked so weakened from the damage that the mind fight was doing on her mind.

Niko looked at Hailey, having wanted to avoid this because he knew that this would happen, but of course Dark Hailey and the monsters wouldn't care.

Dark Hailey pushed herself up from the ground, glaring at both Niko and Hailey, allowing her eyes and gem to glow red, the sclera of her eyes turning black. She looked deadly, psychotic and monstrous, far more dark than Hailey had ever been, even when she had lost control to Dark Hailey. She allowed her red glowing energy tendrils to appear from her back, soaring around her like an arrow, using the energy tendrils to levitate herself, releasing a monstrous sounding scream that sounded more like a screech as she threw the red energy tendrils outward at the ground and slammed them on the ground, causing it to explode in bursts of red aura energy, blasting Niko and Hailey to the ground, burning them intensely with the intensity of the freezing power, causing them both to scream and fall to the ground. In doing so, she also blew all the mirrors around them to smithereens, as the glass shattered and fell to the ground in showers all around, but they all knew that eventually, the mirrors would repair.

Even while in pain, Hailey looked around in shock, like she hadn't known that she could do something like that.

Niko and Hailey both tried to stand again.

Dark Hailey used the red energy to let herself down and land on the ground, on her feet, throwing out her hands to either side of her to release large blasts of red energy from either hand out, creating a red energy blast wave that radiated out Niko and Hailey.

The blast sent Niko flying through a broken mirror (the mirror that he had come through) and sent him out of Hailey's mind, back into his own, while the blast threw Hailey to the ground, making her land on the glass, severely cut, burned and injured, gasping in pain.

∰

Reality

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Training Room

Niko snapped awake, his power releasing him so he fell to the ground, gasping, the blue glow fading from around him.

Will walked toward Niko worriedly. "Hey, hey, it's okay. You're here. What the hell was that?"

Niko was gasping in pain, looking at the burns on his skin from the ice burn Dark Hailey inflicted, but they were already healing. "Well, it's the fourth time Mirage tried to kill me, second time for Vecna, and first for Dark Hailey. She kicked both my and Hailey's asses. So yeah, pretty normal day."

"Shit," Will said worriedly.

"Yeah, but good news," Niko told him. "Our plan worked. Got through to the real Hailey."

"Really?" Will asked in relief. "How is she? How are Dustin, Lucas and Max? Are they okay?"

"They're alive," Niko answered. "But the important thing is, she knows we're coming, and that I'm the key to getting El, Ruby and Nadia's powers back."

Will nodded in relief. "Good, because I have to tell you and Sabina something, either now or after help El."

Niko looked at him in confusion.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Hailey gasped awake, looking around.

Dustin, Lucas and Erica were around her, worried.

"Hailey, thank God," Lucas said.

"Are you okay?" Dustin asked.

"What the hell was the glow for?" Erica asked. "We couldn't even touch you to move you, so we had to distract the adults before they could see you."

"Shut up, Erica," Lucas told her.

"You shut up," Erica replied.

Dustin glared at them, worried about Hailey. "Both of you shut up."

Hailey swallowed. "All of you shut up. And I'm fine."

Dustin looked at Hailey. "You sure?"

Hailey shook her head. "No. But you're not gonna believe what just happened."

∰

Upside Down

Woods

The older teens were hiding under a boulder in the woods of the Upside Down, taking cover from any bats that might have seen them, which were flying overhead.

They waited until they were sure that the bats were gone before coming out of hiding.

"Oh, okay," Robin said. "That was close."

"Yeah," Eddie agreed. "Too close."

Steve was dizzy from blood loss, trying to walk, but almost losing his balance, catching himself against the boulder. "Oh, sh--shit."

Nadia walked closer worriedly. "Steve? Jesus."

"I'm fine," Steve said. "I'm fine."

Nadia looked over his wounds, shaking her head. "No, no, no, no. You're not. You're losing blood. Come on, sit. All right?" She helped him sit down against the rock. Steve groaned in pain, holding a hand over his wounds. "All right. Robin, can I see your over shirt?"

Robin walked closer, nodding, taking off her patterned over shirt, still having a black T-shirt under it, handing it to Nadia, looking at Steve. "So the good news is I'm pretty sure wooziness is not a symptom of rabies. But, um, if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me or something, you should totally let me know."

"Robin," Steve said.

"Yeah?" Robin asked.

"I kinda wanna punch you," Steve told her.

Robin laughed. "Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign."

"There's a way to keep your chin up," Ruby remarked sarcastically. "Always keep your chin up, otherwise you're just looking at your boobs all day."

Billy snorted.

Eddie chuckled.

Nancy shook her head in amusement. "What is wrong with you?"

Ruby smirked, shrugging. "Get a pen. It's a long list. First one being a Fruit Loop in a world full of Cheerios. Don't be afraid to stand out."

Billy shrugged. "When in doubt, remember FISH. Fuck it, shit happens."

"Yeah, this shit isn't the every day shit that happens," Eddie replied.

"It is for us, apparently," Nancy pointed out.

Robin moved away from Nadia and Steve.

Nadia had made a tourniquet with Robin's overshirt, kneeling in front of Steve. "You ready?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, just do it."

Steve reached his hands over his head.

Nadia wrapped the tourniquet around Steve's waist, over his wounds to stop the bleeding. Steve stifled a groan of pain, looking down at Nadia.

Nadia tied the tourniquet. "Sorry."

Steve looked up. "It's okay."

Steve ran his hands over his hair.

Nadia looked up at Steve. "Too tight?"

Steve looked down, shaking his head. "No, that's good."

Steve leaned back to sit down on his legs, eye level with Nadia as she finished up with the tourniquet, tension in the air between them still, but not bad or angsty tension since they had talked everything through. The air still felt electric, but not from the Upside Down.

Nadia looked up to meet his gaze as she finished. "Okay. All done."

Steve nodded slightly. "Thanks."

"Yeah," Nadia agreed.

"If you two are done pining, can we get a move on?" Billy asked.

Nadia and Steve rolled their eyes, turning their heads to give Billy a look.

Billy shook his head, clearly not caring.

Ruby looked around, humming Shadows of the Night to herself, to keep her mind busy just in case. She looked away and noticed a little hallucination of her own mind's making nearby.

In Ruby's mini-hallucination, Ruby saw a hole in the ground lapping with waves of a hurricane, which glowed with sunlight like her power.

Ruby walked closer, kneeling next to the hallucination to look at it curiously, whispering to herself. "Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane."

Billy walked closer. "Ruby?" Ruby looked up, her eyes glazed off and distant, which Billy came to recognize as a sign that she was seeing things. "What do you see?"

"A little hurricane glowing like the sun," Ruby answered. "Like you and me, hmm?"

Billy chuckled. "Yeah. Guess so. Hurricane and sunlight. Sounds about right."

Ruby smiled slightly. "I think it's showing up because of earlier with our powers. Even if it was just for a few minutes." Her smile faded. "I wish they would've stuck around long enough for me to use the sanity/madness power."

"Same," Billy agreed.

Ruby sighed heavily, looking at her hallucination. "These little hallucinations, the ones that look pretty. Those are the ones I like most. It's sort of calming. A little. But can still be annoying and distracting. Especially at the wrong time."

Billy nodded in understanding, kneeling next to her. "Well, eventually, you're not gonna have to deal with any hallucinations or nightmares of any kind."

"Pretty long eventually," Ruby pointed out.

"Yeah," Billy agreed. "But it'll be worth it."

"For me to shut out the craziness?" Ruby asked.

"Everybody's a little crazy," Billy pointed out. "And some people need to be a little now and then. What I meant is that it'll be worth it when neither of us have to go through this fucking torture anymore."

Ruby smiled slightly in agreement.

Eddie walked away from the others, climbing up a fallen tree to look into the distance.

The tree of course was covered with vines.

Eddie looked off into the distance before turning to look at the others. "So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?"

"Pretty much," Nancy answered. Eddie went to step down. "Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind."

"It's all a what?" Eddie asked.

Nadia helped Steve stand, an arm around her shoulder until he got his footing back, letting go of each other.

Ruby and Billy both stood, walking back toward the others.

"All the creepy crawlies around here," Billy explained. "They're, like, one. Used to be apart of it when I was flayed. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna, Mirage, the Mind Flayer, all that shit."

"I scried, or mentally astral projected, into the vines once," Ruby explained. "And just saw a brief glimpse of the hive mind two years ago to track down a place to set it alight to lure the Demodogs away from the Gate so we could close it, and even that little glimpse into the hive mind was pretty freaky."

Billy gestured to Ruby in agreement.

Nadia nodded.

Eddie pressed his lips together, processing this. "Shit."

Eddie started to step over the vines to get to the ground without stepping on any.

"But everything from our world is still here, right?" Robin asked. "Except people, obviously?"

"As far as we understand it, yeah," Nadia answered.

Robin pointed at them. "So, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the Gate."

"I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin," Steve told her. "But guns, yeah, sure."

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns," Nancy pointed out. "I have guns in my bedroom."

Eddie jumped down from the tree. "You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?"

"Nadia's a super spy that carries around a sword, and Ruby carries around a bow and arrows, and this surprises you?" Billy asked skeptically. "Especially after seeing their powers earlier?"

Eddie tilted his head in acknowledgement. "Fair enough."

Robin smiled at Nadia, Ruby and Nancy as her friends. "Full of surprises, aren't they?"

Nadia, Ruby and Nancy smirked.

Nadia frowned. "I wish we still had some of my family's arsenal in our old house, but of course we don't. We would've been set if we did."

"Nancy, what all do you got?" Ruby asked. "We need all your got since I'm almost out of arrows."

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver," Nancy answered.

"Yeah, you almost shot me with the Makarov," Billy recalled. (3.08)

"And me with the revolver," Steve recalled. (1.08)

"You both almost deserved it," Nancy replied.

Nadia and Ruby smirked slightly.

Eddie took off his vest, tossing it at Steve. "For your modesty, dude."

Suddenly, the ground shook violently as if in the middle of an earthquake, causing Ruby to fall into Billy's arms and both of them to fall to the ground.

Nadia backed away into Steve, as Steve had his arm around her and both had an arm against the boulder next to them to try to steady themselves and stay standing, Nadia's other arm holding onto the arm that Steve had around her.

Nancy, Eddie and Robin all took cover, trying to stay steady until the shaking stopped.

When the shaking stopped, the teens looked around anxiously, visually making sure everyone was okay.

Ruby looked at Billy, both breathing heavily.

When they heard creatures snarling in the distance, Ruby and Billy both sat up. Ruby's back still to his chest and his arm around her waist.

Nadia and Steve let go of the boulder, but other arms still holding each other.

Nancy, Eddie and Robin looked around nervously.

"Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me," Eddie stated.

"Yeah, me too," Robin agreed.

Nadia and Steve let each other go, stepping toward the others.

Billy let Ruby go so they could both stand.

Steve pulled on Eddie's vest.

Ruby picked up her bow, which she had dropped during the earthquake. "So what are we waiting for?"

Nadia started to lead the way. "Let's go."

Nancy, Eddie and Robin stood.

All of them set out.

∰

Salt Lake City

Motel - Outside

Calliope walked outside, walking toward a car, which she could easily break into, opening the door, and starting to hot wire the car.

Jonathan had been waiting by the vending machine, knowing that Calliope was going to do this, walking closer. "Where do you think you're going?"

Calliope jumped slightly, looking out of the car toward him. She sighed. "Jonathan..."

"You're going to save them all yourself, alone, aren't you?" Jonathan asked. "A little suicide mission, literally?"

"I have training and none of you do," Calliope replied. "I can save them."

"You'll die trying," Jonathan replied. "Especially since you're already sick. There's too many of them, Calliope. I'm already in. I know what it's like to try everything to get your brother back. I've already done that before, and I'm doing it again now. Will is out there with Niko and Eleven, and I need to make sure that they're okay. Just like I know that you need to save Apollo. I'm going with you. I've had some experience with shit like this. And I'm not taking no for an answer."

Calliope managed a small smile. "Okay. But even if we find Apollo, Niko, Eleven and Will, there's no guarantee that we'll make it back from this."

Mike walked down the steps of the motel, walking toward them, also having known that Jonathan an Calliope would have tried to leave him behind. "Well, you'll need all the help you can get then, won't you?"

"Mike, go back inside," Calliope told him.

"Not a chance in hell," Mike replied. "El's my girlfriend, and Niko and Will are two of my best friends. I'm going."

Calliope scoffed a chuckle, somewhat amused.

Jonathan shook his head. "It is literally impossible to keep Will, Niko, Mike, Hailey, Dustin, Lucas, Max and El from getting involved. So don't try to talk him out of this."

Calliope sighed, giving in. "Fine. If Mike's this bad, and I've seen how bad Niko, El and Will are, would hate to see how Hailey, Dustin, Lucas and Max are."

Mike grinned. "Yes, you will. What about Argyle?"

"Leave him behind," Calliope answered. "He'll just be a liability anyway. Like he has been every step of the way. His freak out almost killed me. We can't take the risk of him getting us killed or getting himself killed. Jonathan, if you wanna protect that friend, you leave him here."

Jonathan knew that Calliope was right, sighing, nodding. "Okay, fine. But I'm leaving him a note telling him to meet us in Hawkins later."

"Fine," Calliope replied, finishing hot wiring the car, starting it up. "If we're going, get in. We have a long drive ahead of us, and a submarine to catch if we're gonna make it to these coordinates. Might have to drop by a few old friends to get what we need."

Jonathan left the note for Argyle, which he left on the steering wheel of the pizza van, before getting into the passenger seat of the car that Calliope was stealing. Mike got into the back seat, and Calliope drove them away.

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Cells

Dmitri was looking out over the prison through the bars of the cell, turning to look at Hopper, nodding.

Hopper turned to the wall, ripping a piece of cloth from his shirt, bundling it up, putting it in his pocket, turning toward the bars, sitting down on the bench.

"You know, what we are to attempt is quite mad," Dmitri pointed out. "Even by your standards, American."

"Yeah?" Hopper asked. "You got odds for us this time?"

Dmitri scoffed a laugh, turning around, walking toward him. "I think..." He sat down on the bench next to Hopper. "A thousand to one?" Hopper chuckled. "Even if we somehow kill this beast, we still must escape. We fail there, I don't think they will be so kind as to throw us back in a cell. They will shoot us on sight."

"We'd die as monster slayers," Hopper pointed out. "You'll be a legend."

Dmitri leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "But still a traitor. You forgot traitor."

Hopper shrugged. "Monster slayer trumps traitor. I bet your son will be proud of his pops, at least."

"My son?" Dmitri asked. "No. I can't do nothing right with him anymore, it seems. He will say, 'Papa, I bet that bald American did most of the monster slaying'."

Hopper chuckled. "He's that age, huh?"

"Yeah, he is that age," Dmitri answered. "Is it same for you, American? With your new daughter?"

"The last time I was with El, she wanted just about nothing to do with me," Hopper mused. "I was just in her way, really. I think back to the way I was with my dad at that age. I was the same way. The exact same way." He stood, walking toward the bars of the cell. "I think it must be hardwired into us to reject our fathers. So we can grow and move on. Become something of our own. I hope that's what she's doing. Coming into her own. But still..."

"You worry," Dmitri finished. "To worry for our sons and daughters, that is natural, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Hopper answered. "But nothing about what El has had to deal with is natural. That beast, that monster in there, it's a part of something that wants to hurt El. And Natasha, Nadia and Niko. Two more of our friends. Hailey and Ruby. To kill them."

Dmitri stood, walking closer. "I don't understand."

"To be honest, neither do I," Hopper admitted. "All I know is that thing... that thing shouldn't be here. It shouldn't be alive. Because it is, it means it still isn't over. I thought I was put here to pay for what I've done. But I might've been put here for some other reason. Maybe I... maybe I can still help them. Not just El, or Natasha, Nadia and Niko, but all of them. Even if it's the last thing I do."

"You almost sound religious, American," Dmitri remarked.

"Religious?" Hopper repeated. "I don't know about that. But maybe I should give that prayer thing a try. 'Cause if we wanna get out of here, get back to El and your son, you and me... we're gonna need a miracle."

∰

Outside

There were only three guards outside the gate of the prison next to the booth that controlled the electronics for the gate.

A car pulled up to the gate steadily.

The three guards circled around the car in confusion and suspicion, shouting in Russian to demand to know who they were.

As the windows instantly rolled down, Natasha instantly formed her clear gold-glow tint shield saw, throwing it out at Guard 1, slitting his throat so fast that he didn't have time to react, watching him bleed before collapsing to the ground.

Before the other two guards could react, Nadyr shot a glowing red plasma blast out of hand straight into Guard 2's chest, having taken enough charging up time to create a strong enough blast that would kill a human before they could do anything, watching the blast burst through his body and fall to the ground, leaving a huge singe hole in Guard 2's chest and out through his back, having incinerated his heart and other organs within a moment. The body fell to the ground.

Before the last guard could react, Apollo thrust out his hand, which was glowing with green mist, conjuring a hard light crystalline construct of a huge, sharp, deadly crystal weapon, that he threw into Guard 3's head, killing him immediately before he had the chance to fire his gun or even call to alert others of the break in, watching him fall dead.

Joyce and Murray were both also in the car, both impressed that Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo could do that even without getting out of the car, though both weren't comfortable with the murder like they had to be taught to be, although they knew that in some cases, they had to do this to save the people they loved, like they realized the previous year with the Russians in book 3.

"Wow," Joyce said. "That was easy."

"Won't be that easy when we get inside," Nadyr pointed out. "Hopefully it'll be easier than a prison full of brainwashed psionics and soldiers along with our father, though. Joyce, Murray, you clear on what you need to do?"

Joyce and Murray nodded.

"Once you clear a path, we get to the control room and try and find a way to cut the alarm system and security cameras before anyone else can tell what's going on, and see if we can control the doors and exists," Murray answered.

Apollo turned to look toward the prison, starting to feel something, his eyes glowing green as they did when he used his echolocation power. "What the hell?"

"Apollo?" Nadyr asked. "What's happening?"

Apollo snapped out of his daze, the green glow fading from his eyes, gasping.

"What happened?" Joyce asked in concern.

Apollo turned to look from Nadyr to Natasha. "I thought you guys have never been in there?"

"We haven't," Natasha answered.

"Are you sure?" Apollo asked.

"Why?" Nadyr asked.

Apollo turned to Natasha. "You remember how I find people?"

"Yeah, the energy frequencies, all that," Natasha answered.

"Well, some people have similar energy and frequency signatures," Apollo explained. "Especially if they're family, and even more if they're psionic."

"Where are you guys going with this?" Murray asked.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure there's somebody or something in there connected to you guys, because the frequency signature I'm getting from there is massive and pretty connected," Apollo answered.

Natasha turned to look at Nadyr. "You don't think Mikhail is there, do you?"

Nadyr shook his head. "He wouldn't waste time on this."

Apollo sighed, shrugging. "Only one way to find out."

"Good," Natasha told them. "Let's get this done."

"How exactly do we get past the gate without the alarm going off?" Apollo asked.

Natasha turned to the gate booth, which was attached with the alarm that would alert the prison, instantly thrusting out her hand toward the machinery, forming her clear gold-glow tint shield all around the booth, machinery and alarm, making it all crash down and destroy it completely with an explosion of electrical sparks, not even setting off the alarm as it was destroyed in the process, and it caused the gate in front of them to open as Natasha had pushed the button right during the destruction. "Like that."

Nadyr smirked. "Way to go, little sister."

Apollo shrugged in agreement. "Not bad."

"Natasha!" Murray chided.

"What?" Natasha asked. "The prison's down a long winding road after this. No one's gonna see or know."

Nadyr chuckled. "Let's go."

Natasha drove down the long winding road toward the prison behind the gate, which remained opened behind them.

∰

City of Corinth

Sabina's Headquarters - Nina Lab

Sabina was sitting in her chair, headset on, eyes glowing bright blue-pink-purple, as she continued with Eleven's memories.

Niko's eyes were glowing blue as he was starting the process of telepathically healing the Mind Flayer infection of Eleven while she was in the water, and helping slowly bring her powers back, having to go slow so that Sabina could still help her with her memories, and so that both processes didn't endanger Eleven at all. Blue energy was expanding out of Niko, surrounding Nina like a dome, carefully healing Eleven little by little.

Will was watching nervously, but in anticipation, remaining quiet so he didn't disrupt their focus, knowing they needed complete silence for this to work without issue.

In the tank, Eleven was floating in the water, sleeping, though even behind closed eyelids, it was clear that her eyes were glowing a mixture of fire blue, and bright blue-purple-pink, shining through the skin, as Niko and Sabina continued to work their powers on her.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

September 8, 1979 (the night of the massacre)

Day - Hawkins Lab - Infirmary

Young Apollo and Eleven were getting examined after their beat down by the older psionic kids in 4.06.

Sabina shone a light in their eyes. "Try your best not to blink." They did as told. Sabina turned the flashlight off. "Any more headaches? Nausea this morning?" They shook their heads. "How about your memory? Can you remember what happened now?" They shook their heads. "Ten, Eleven, you know that I could read your mind. But given your concussions, that could be dangerous right now, so I guess I'll just have to go straight to the source. Yes?"

Young Apollo and Eleven both looked nervous.

∰

Hallway

Sabina walked down the hallway, leading Eleven and Young Apollo with her, holding both their hands as she did.

∰

Training Room

Sabina, Brenner, Henry and the other orderly were standing before the line of psionic children, each adult a few feet apart, hands clasped behind their backs, as the children were all wearing sweats.

"Good morning, children," Brenner told them.

The children all spoke. "Good morning, Papa. Good morning, Mama."

"Today's lesson is going to be about rules," Brenner told them. "Ah, for some of you, this may seem redundant. For others, it appears a refresher is required."

"Ten, Eleven, please step forward," Sabina told them. Young Apollo and Eleven did so. "Last night, your brother Ten and sister Eleven suffered concussions in the rainbow room. Now, they claim to not have a memory of what happened. But injures of this nature don't simply happen. Someone did this. Someone in this room. And all of you know that I can find out who. I won't go into Ten and Eleven's minds now as their heads are already injured. But I have no issue with raiding through each one of yours until the culprit, or culprits, step forward."

"Whoever did this can prevent this and a worse punishment in the long run," Brenner stated. "If you just tell the truth, without Sabina having to look for the truth herself. So, who's going to tell us what happened?"

The younger kids looked scared and nervous, because they had no idea and had no part of it, but was scared that all of them would be punished if whoever did it didn't step forward.

Four tried to talk his way out of this. "They must've... fallen."

"Fallen?" Sabina asked skeptically.

Four nodded. "You've seen them, Mama. They're clumsy." Seven was trying not to laugh, looking down. "Stupid."

Seven, Six and Five were now all trying not to laugh.

Young Apollo and Eleven both looked hurt and embarrassed.

Sabina glared at the four bullies, who all immediately stopped as her eyes flashed bright blue-pink-purple, and as did theirs as she went into their minds and saw for herself what happened. "Ten, Eleven, you may step back." Young Apollo and Eleven did so. "Four, Five, Six and Seven, step forward. Now."

Four, Five, Six and Seven stepped forward reluctantly, knowing that they were busted and going to be punished.

Sabina let the glow fade from all of their eyes as she left their minds.

Brenner turned to look at Henry and the other orderly. "Collar them." Henry and the other orderly stepped forward, both having two collars, putting them on around the necks of the four bullies. Henry handed a remote to Brenner as the two orderlies walked back to their places. "Thank you." Brenner looked at the bullies. "You think because you demonstrate some talent that you're somehow immune to the rules, is that it?"

"No, Papa," Four, Five, Six and Seven replied.

"That the rules don't apply to you the same way that they apply to your brothers and sisters?" Sabina asked.

"No, Mama," Four, Five, Six and Seven replied.

"Then why did you attack Ten and Eleven?" Sabina asked.

"Answer her," Brenner warned.

When the bullies didn't answer, Sabina nodded to Brenner.

Brenner turned up the dial on the remote in his hand, pushing a button, making electricity crackle through the four collars and shock the four bullies intensely, making them fall to their knees.

Young Apollo and Eleven looked horrified.

Sabina looked down at the four bullies, tilting her head, unfazed. "Now, shall we try again?"

Brenner turned the dial even higher. "What happened?"

"It was an accident," Four lied.

Brenner shocked the four bullies at the higher voltage, making them groan in pain and fall completely to the floor.

All the younger kids winced and had to look away.

Henry looked down with a frown, knowing that Sabina could have easily gotten those answers with telepathy, but realizing that Sabina and Brenner were just making an example out of the four bullies, and realizing there was much more behind this than he first thought.

Brenner continued to turn the voltage higher, making the four bullies scream, and Young Apollo and Eleven more horrified than before.

∰

Reality

Night - Woods / Clandestine Camp

Calliope drove the van up to the edge of the woods, pulling over. Calliope, Mike and Jonathan got out of the van.

"What are we stopping for?" Mike asked.

"We're heading to an old Clandestine hideout," Calliope explained. "So that we can get a lead on a submarine, since this place is gonna be in the middle of the ocean."

"Okay," Jonathan agreed. "Um, where to?"

"Yeah, lead the way," Mike agreed. "Unless you're gonna try and run away again."

Calliope smiled sarcastically, tilting her head. "Come on."

Mike looked at the van. "I feel like we should light this van up, leave it in a blaze of glory."

"It's a van, Mike," Calliope told him. "Not a Viking. Let's go."

Calliope led the way through the woods, with Mike and Jonathan following behind. They passed over a set of train tracks.

"I don't know about this, Callie," Jonathan admitted.

"You two are a bunch of negative Nellies," Calliope quipped.

"You're one to talk," Mike replied sarcastically.

Calliope smirked, brushing some hair behind her ear, gesturing to the train tracks. "Look."

Mike and Jonathan followed her gaze, seeing that rocks were set up in the shape of a C on the ground. "C?"

"For Clandestine," Calliope answered. "Like at the hospital I took you guys too."

"Holy shit," Mike said.

Jonathan nodded. "Let's go."

Calliope led Mike and Jonathan to the Clandestine camp. "This way. And... get down."

"What, why?" Mike asked.

Calliope ducked to the ground.

A second later, they heard a gunshot, which made Jonathan and Mike both duck down from shock.

"That's why," Calliope answered.

A group of Clandestines walked closer with guns, including some from Calliope's crew in the 4.05 opening Clandestine rescue mission flashback.

"Stay on your knees!" Rachel ordered. "Head to the ground."

Calliope, Mike and Jonathan did as told.

"Relax, Rachel," Calliope told her. "Call them off."

Rachel walked closer in surprise. "Calliope?"

"Hey," Calliope replied.

Rachel turned toward the other Clandestines. "Everybody stand down. Jesus, I'm sorry, Callie. I didn't realize it was you."

Calliope stood, breathing slightly heavily. "It's all right. Wait, I thought you were with your brother."

"I am," Rachel answered. "He's here, with our parents."

Calliope nodded in understanding, turning to look at Mike and Jonathan. "Come on, get up."

Mike and Jonathan slowly stood.

Rachel gave Calliope a hug. "Welcome home."

Calliope chuckled weakly, relieved to be reunited with some of her friends, but still not okay given everything else.

Calliope and Rachel walked with the other Clandestines toward camp, as they all greeted Calliope openly, smiling.

"Hey, guys," Calliope told them.

Rachel gestured for Jonathan and Mike to follow. "Come on. Any friend of Calliope's is a friend of ours."

Mike and Jonathan followed them into camp.

"So this is it?" Mike asked. "The Clandestines?"

"One of the camps, yeah," Calliope answered.

They saw many Clandestines stationed in the camp, all living happily at peace, as several kids, rescued psionics and soldiers from the Clandestine mission flashback, were running around and having fun.

"Everyone looks so happy here," Jonathan remarked.

"Yeah, once the people here find their loved ones that were taken from them," Rachel agreed.

"Not all people are that lucky," Calliope muttered.

Jonathan and Mike looked at Calliope in concern.

"And we're less exclusive to other people," Rachel added. "We respect our differences, but we're all the same."

Calliope was feeling dizzy and weak, looking at the black veins on her arms, woozy, not feeling well at all. "Right."

"So?" Rachel asked. "Tell me what you need."

As Jonathan and Mike started to explain, Calliope's vision and hearing blurred and became out of focused, muffled. She could barely hear or see anything, and not clearly, as she could hear her heart beating in her ears.

Mike frowned in concern when he saw how bad she was. "Calliope?"

Calliope started to fall.

Jonathan and Mike caught Calliope, kneeling down with her worriedly.

"Calliope!" Jonathan said.

Calliope completely passed out as they were worriedly trying to find out how to help her.

∰

Upside Down

Woods

The older teens were making their way through the woods of the Upside Down.

Nancy, Nadia, Ruby and Robin were walking ahead of the boys.

"Couldn't we have tried a road, or something just slightly less creepy?" Robin asked.

"I think we're getting close," Nancy told them. "We're almost out of here."

"How much farther is 'almost'?" Ruby asked. "I don't know how long Billy and I can last without our music, and we don't know if Hailey will happen to be dreamwalking at the right time, so..."

"Don't worry," Nancy told her. "Ruby, we're not gonna let anything happen to you and Billy, trust me."

"You're goddamn right about that," Nadia agreed, looking at Ruby. "And Mirage just sent a monster after you two, but we took care of it."

"Just like we took care of the bats to save Steve and fought for each other," Nancy pointed out.

"Yeah," Robin agreed. "I mean, we still totally got your back, Ruby. You and Billy are gonna be fine."

"Okay?" Nadia asked. Ruby nodded. "Okay."

Robin got an idea, jumping up and landing on her feet. "Oh, here's something. I heard you humming your song, so we can keep doing that, and even sing a little if it helps."

Ruby smirked. "Seriously?"

Nancy smiled slightly. "Yeah, why not? It's not like we don't know the tunes of all three songs by now from your very loud Walkmans."

Nadia gave Ruby a slight smile. "Any little bit helps, right?"

Ruby couldn't help a smile, shrugging, starting to hum again. Robin, Nancy and Nadia hummed along with her as they whispered the lyrics. "We're running with the shadows of the night / So baby, take my hand, you'll be all right / Surrender all your dreams to me tonight / They'll come true in the end..."

Ruby whispered to herself. "You said..."

Ruby and Nadia both said this verse as it was something they both did. "'Oh, girl, it's a cold world when you keep it all to yourself' / I said, 'you can't hide on the inside, all the pain you've ever felt'."

Robin and Nancy went along with the next lyric to help. "Ransom my heart, but baby, don't look back 'cause we got nobody else."

Steve, Billy and Eddie were following a little ways behind, separated, but hearing the girls, and each couldn't help but chuckle.

Steve glanced over at Billy, shaking his head. "There's no way I'm doing that for you."

"Good, don't," Billy replied. "I can handle it myself like always."

"But seriously, Billy," Steve told him. "I just want to say thanks. You and Ruby are risking a lot being here after being cursed. Without your music." Billy nodded. Steve looked at Eddie. "And thank you too. For saving my ass back there."

"Shit, you saved your own ass, man," Eddie told him. "I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there."

"Ozzy?" Steve repeated.

"When you took a bite out of that bat," Eddie answered. Steve was still confused, causing Billy and Eddie to roll their eyes. "Ozzy Osbourne? Black Sabbath? He bit a bat's head off onstage. You know? Doesn't matter. It's very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying."

"Thanks," Steve replied.

"We still saved your ass before you saved your own, though," Billy pointed out.

Steve nodded.

"Henderson told me that you and Hailey both were badasses," Eddie admitted. "Before I knew the real Hailey. Insisted on the matter, in fact. Even brought up Nadia before, but didn't tell me much of anything about her besides that she moved away and that you two made this badass power couple, in his words, not mine."

Billy smirked.

"Henderson said that?' Steve asked.

"Oh, yeah," Eddie answered. "Shit. Kid worships you two, dude. Like, you have no idea. It's kinda annoying, to be honest. I don't even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, guess I got a little jealous, Steve. I guess I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington was actually a good dude. Rich parents, badass little sister, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my own personal Munson doctrine."

"Apparently he used to be a bad douche," Billy quipped. "King Steve, remember?"

"Bite me, Hargrove," Steve replied.

"No, it looks like you're the one that likes to do the biting," Billy countered.

Eddie snickered.

Steve nodded sarcastically. "Do you want me to remind you how bad you used to be?"

"No thanks," Billy answered. "Still see that every day in my head."

Steve nodded slightly as if to say 'that's what I thought'.

Eddie smirked a slight smile. "Still super jealous as hell, by the way." The boys chuckled. "Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any, uh, normal circumstances." Hearing a twig snap, they paused, before continuing on to follow the girls. "Nope. Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that's what I've learned about myself this week."

"Give yourself a break, man," Steve told him.

Eddie pointed up toward the girls. "See? The only reason I came in here was 'cause those ladies came in straight after you. And of course as soon as Ruby went in, so did Billy, after he tried to stop her because of their curse. Now, I was too ashamed to be the one who stayed behind. But Nadia right there, she didn't waste a second. Not one second. She just dove right in." Billy nodded barely. Steve was looking at Nadia as the girls continued to walk and say Shadows of the Night quietly to help Ruby. "And Billy, as soon as Ruby went in to go save her friends, you didn't hesitate one second to go in after her. I don't know what happened to you two last year, and I don't know what happened between Nadia and Steve, but that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen."

Steve and Billy both looked up at Nadia and Ruby.

Billy patted Steve on the shoulder slightly. "So you might wanna get Nadia back. You know, if she doesn't go on the run again."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Steve replied.

The boys walked up to join the girls.

"There you guys are," Nadia told them.

"What took you so long?" Nancy asked.

"Nothing," Eddie replied.

Robin waved them off. "Fine, don't tell us."

Ruby walked with Billy, linking her arm with his, humming Vandenberg's Shadows of the Night, speaking it softly. "Bad mistakes, I made a few / Bit off more than I could chew / Keep on running, I can't stand still / Get in trouble while looking for thrills."

Billy smirked slightly, finding it somewhat useless, but knowing they had to try something to keep their minds clear from the curse for as long as they could; definitely not singing, but speaking the lyrics. "Burned some bridges along the way / My past intentions went astray / Shadows of the night / Into the darkness I'll ride / Far away from the lights / I will fly."

Billy put an arm around Ruby and pulled her into him when he said this part, making her smile.

They both whispered to themselves. "Been around, sailed the seas / Breaking barricades, chasing dreams / I'm only human, I make mistakes / I try to fix them, set things straight."

Nadia and Steve couldn't help but smile slightly at that, shaking their heads, exchanging a look and a smile, looking away.

Nancy, Robin and Eddie smiled.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently within an another earthquake, making everyone struggle to stay standing.

"Goddamn it!" Eddie complained. "Here we go again."

"Second on my list of least favorite things?" Robin asked. "Earthquakes. Seriously, I'm unsteady enough as it is." Nancy ran through the woods. "Nancy! Where are you going?"

Nadia, Ruby and Robin called out for their friend. "Nancy!" The other teens ran to catch up with Nancy at the edge of the woods. "Nancy!"

Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy, Eddie, Nancy and Robin stopped to catch their breath for a moment, looking in the distance to see the Wheeler house, sighing in relief.

Nancy led the way toward her house. "Come on."

The others followed.

∰

Hawkins

Wheeler House - Bathroom

In the bathroom to try and make contact in secret from the cops and parents, Dustin was trying to use his walkie to contact the teens. "Steve, do you copy? Nadia? Ruby? Nancy? Robin? This is Dustin. Where are you? We've been collared by the law. I repeat, we've been collared by the law. Do you copy? Billy? Eddie? Anybody?" Realizing that they weren't going to answer, Dustin put the antenna down and flushed the toilet to keep up with his act of needing the bathroom. "Shit."

∰

Hallway

Dustin walked into the hallway, looking into the living room to see Officer Daniels with the parents.

"Should we get lawyers?" Charles asked.

"No, no," Daniels answered. "We're not ready for that. As far as we know, nobody did anything wrong."

Dustin walked away.

∰

Kitchen

Hailey and Lucas were sitting at the kitchen island counter.

Dustin walked in.

Holly walked past them with a Lite Brite.

Dustin dodged around her to get to the counter. "Oh." He stood next to Hailey, looking at her in concern. "Hey, you okay?"

"I don't know," Hailey admitted. "I just felt so much pain. It felt like my mind was shattering."

Dustin and Lucas were worried.

"But you saw Niko, and he has his powers back, and get El, Ruby and Nadia's powers back," Lucas said. "And you told him what's going on here, so at least we know that they're going to be here soon."

"And the blue wave thing was also Niko, which makes sense, I guess," Dustin went on. "So Niko's the reason why you fainted both times?"

"I guess," Hailey said, shrugging. "I don't really know. If it's not just because of Niko, maybe it's from all the times that I had to explode with power since the killings began, or trying to save people from Vecna and Mirage."

"I'm trying to process the fact that you and Niko could literally bring him into your mind lair," Dustin pointed out. "And that there was a full on mind fight in the Maze of Mirrors."

"Yeah," Hailey agreed. "It gave me an idea on what we can do to try and track down Mirage when the time comes." Dustin and Lucas frowned in confusion. "And no, I don't mean bringing Mirage to the Maze of Mirrors. I mean... us finding him somehow through his mirror."

"Okay," Lucas agreed. "Niko can help you with that?"

"Nadia and Niko," Hailey answered. "I'll explain later to everyone else too. What matters is getting in touch with Steve, Nadia, Ruby and the others, because of what Niko said about Mirage going after Nadia, and she's powerless against him right now, if the blast wave didn't give her and Ruby their powers back for long." They both knew she was right, letting the subject drop. Hailey looked at Dustin. "Anything?"

"Nothing," Dustin answered.

Lucas frowned. "You don't think they went through..."

"Through Watergate?" Dustin asked. "Without us? Without a plan, like Nadia said? They wouldn't be that stupid."

Hailey frowned in concern. "Not unless they didn't have a choice."

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked.

"Something could've pulled one of them through," Hailey pointed out. "Leaving them with no choice but to go through to save them. I just... I feel like that's what happened. I can't explain it."

Lucas and Dustin knew that Hailey was right, all three of them worried about what could have happened.

"Shit," Lucas whispered.

"I can easily get us out of here," Hailey pointed out.

"Do you want to risk exposing your powers?" Dustin whispered. "To the cops of all people?"

Hailey shrugged. "I don't have to use my powers. I can just knock their asses out so we can go."

"And risk making things worse and getting more people called here?" Dustin asked sarcastically. "And getting us more in trouble with the cops because of assault? How is that gonna help anybody?"

"He's right, Hailey," Lucas told her.

Hailey sighed. "I know. But we can't just do nothing. Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy, Nancy, Robin and Eddie could be in the Upside Down."

"Let's try to be optimistic, okay?" Dustin asked. "Maybe they're just lawing low because the law got us."

Erica walked closer with a juice box. "'The law'? What is this, Gunsmoke? The stupid, the ugly and the darkling?" Hailey rolled her eyes. "Should I round up the posse? Saddle the horses?"

Lucas closed his eyes in annoyance. "Erica. Please, just go away."

"You haven't exactly been helping at all tonight," Hailey told her. "You've only been making things worse while we're trying to go out there and help our friends."

"With what?" Erica asked. Dustin and Hailey both looked at Lucas, but Lucas shook his head, not wanting to involve Erica for her own protection. Erica knew that Lucas would do this, already having a backup plan. "Here's the deal, Lucas. Either you tell me what's happening, or I tell Dustin and Hailey what I found under your bed."

Dustin and Hailey both looked to Lucas, raising their eyebrows with comically curious faces.

Lucas' eyes widened. "Please, no."

"Spill your guts, cowpucher," Erica told him.

Dustin was insanely curious, excited and intrigued, leaning against the counter with one arm, other hand against his hip. "What'd she find under your bed?"

"Nothing," Lucas lied.

Hailey leaned forward against the counter by her elbows, propping her chin on her hand with a smirk, tilting her head. "You know, I'm actually curious about this too."

"Yeah, just so you can get revenge on me for all the times I taunted you two about NeverEnding Story," Lucas replied.

Hailey smiled smugly, looking to Erica. "Is it gross?" Erica nodded. "Scale of one to ten."

"A hundred," Erica answered.

Dustin looked to Lucas in disbelief. "A hundred?"

Lucas gave in, explaining to Erica. "The serial killers are a dark wizard and a snake-like evil genie monster from the Upside Down. And we've been looking for them, but they're in the Upside Down, which we can't reach. At least we thought we couldn't, until we found a Gate at Lover's Lake. That was the reason why we were there, but these stupid cops grabbed us." Dustin and Hailey both shushed him for Lucas to lower his voice. "And if you tell anyone about this..." Erica was leaning against the counter by her elbows, chin propped up on her hand as she was sipping from her juice box, rolling her eyes, looking away. Lucas was speaking mockingly. "That's including Mom and Dad and Tina..." He returned serious. "Especially Tina..." Erica finished her juice, throwing the box away, putting her elbows back on the counter, propping her chin up on both her hands as she looked at Lucas skeptically. "I will smother you in your sleep. Do you understand?"

Erica pretended to think about it. "Hmm."

Lucas gave her a look. "Erica?" He leaned in closer, speaking slowly. "Do... you... copy?"

Erica stood up straight. "The smothering in my sleep part, but not much else. Why would they open up a Gate at Lover's Lake?"

"What?" Hailey asked.

"The commies," Erica clarified.

"The commies didn't do this," Lucas told her.

"Then who did?" Erica asked.

"Nobody," Lucas replied.

Hailey frowned, looking down.

"So it just opened up for fun?" Erica asked.

"Erica, you have no idea what you're talking about," Lucas told her.

"No, she doesn't, yet she raises an essential question," Dustin agreed. "How did Watergate open up? Only two Gates have opened, so far as we know. One by El, one by the commies. But it's not the commies or El this time, so it..."

"Well, like Nadia said, the Demogorgons always left Gates behind when they passed through, but they closed on their own," Hailey pointed out. "And like she pointed out earlier, Vecna and Mirage might be behind it, but it's not every time they attack. It's every time they make a kill. Every time that..."

Dustin looked at Hailey in realization. "Every time that you explode with power."

Lucas and Erica looked at them.

Erica was confused. "Explodes with power?"

Lucas nodded. "Every time these monsters have killed someone, Hailey's powers always explode in a way that can hurt somebody, and they go.... directly to the place where the victim dies."

Hailey realized. "Holy shit. Wait, wait, wait."

"Wait, wait, wait what?" Lucas asked.

Hailey started pacing. "Eddie said that my powers went into the lake after Patrick died. The closest thing to a solid surface it could to open up a Gate. On the floor of the lake."

Erica realized what they were thinking. "Hang on. You three think that Hailey is..."

"Opening Gates," Hailey finished.

Dustin nodded in agreement. "Whenever Vecna and Mirage make a kill and make Hailey lash out like that. Ruby, Max and Billy said that when they saw her powers after Aaron died, that they were ripping at the air, or at least the tree behind him, the closest thing it had to a solid surface. Eddie said the same thing for his trailer ceiling when Chrissy died. Maybe this is why the monsters have been obsessed with trying to control Hailey."

"Okay, but how?" Lucas asked. "How could Vecna and Mirage use Hailey to open up Gates?"

"I don't know," Dustin admitted. "But there's one thing that we could never figure out. Why Vecna and Mirage were killing people. It always seemed too random. Too prosaic. On top of that, how does the Mind Flayer figure into all this? Maybe this is it. This is the answer."

"What is the answer?" Erica asked.

Karen walked into the kitchen with Daniels. "You sure you just want water?" She opened the fridge. "We have Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper."

"Coke works," Daniels answered. "Thank you."

Hailey looked at Dustin, Lucas and Erica, nodding for them to follow her. The four of them walked out of the kitchen.

∰

Hallway

Hailey, Dustin, Lucas and Erica walked into the hallway leading to the basement, where no one else was around so they could continue talking in silence.

"Okay, just hear me out," Dustin told them. "How did El open the Mothergate?"

"She contacted the Demogorgon," Lucas answered.

Dustin nodded, pointing to his head. "A creature that we know can open Gates at will, with psychic contact, just like..."

"Vecna and Mirage when they're in Hailey's head and casts their spells," Lucas finished.

"Exactly," Hailey answered. "Now obviously none of these kills, and neither can Vecna and Mirage, technically open Gates, just like El couldn't technically, but she could just by contacting the Demogorgon who could."

"Exactly," Dustin agreed. "So what if, with each kill, they're making a more powerful psychic connection with Hailey and making her lash out in bigger and bigger episodes each time, and her powers go right out to the site of their deaths. A connection powerful enough to make her powers rip a hole in the fabric of time and space."

Hailey was completely overwhelmed with all of this, turning away. "They're using me to open more Gates."

Lucas and Dustin looked at Hailey in concern, but nodded in agreement. "Bingo."

"What I don't get is how the victims factor into all of this," Lucas admitted.

"Maybe it has to do with making them stronger, or Hailey's dreamwalking," Dustin answered, turning to Hailey. "You've seen basically all of the deaths and nightmares, or almost all of them except for Fred and Patrick, through dreamwalking, and that is your psychic mental power. Entering a mind lair of your own that's sort of like the mind lair that Ruby found of Vecna's, and Nadia said that Mirage could have one too. And they're both rooted in nightmares, hallucinations, dreams and all of that."

"So each time they create another victim, kill or not, and each time I dreamwalk while they're doing so, they're getting a stronger hold of their psychic connection on me," Hailey finished.

Dustin snapped his fingers, pointing to Hailey in agreement.

Erica was reeling. "What? I'm freaking lost."

Hailey, Dustin and Lucas continued on without acknowledging, like they were too lost in their realization to register what she said.

"Why would they be using Hailey to open Gates?" Dustin asked.

"To take over the world," Lucas answered.

"And who do we know that wants to take over the world?" Hailey asked.

"The Mind Flayer," Lucas answered.

Dustin nodded. "So if the Demogorgons were just his foot soldiers, Vecna and Mirage are his five-star generals. Five star generals with the psychic power to connect to Hailey who has the power to open Gates so they can make her open them."

Hailey was completely stunned and overwhelmed, putting her hands to her head, running them over her hair. "Holy shit."

Lucas and Dustin nodded in agreement. "Holy shit."

Erica made a face, shaking her head. "Holy shit. That was incomprehensible. You lost me at Mothergate. Please be kind. Rewind."

Outside, the lights on the porch were flickering.

"Okay, so remember the Gate?" Dustin asked.

"Oh, no, I blocked that out," Erica replied sarcastically.

Hailey tilted her head as they continued to explain.

∰

Upside Down

Wheeler House - Living Room

The older teens walked into the Wheeler House, or the Upside Down version of it, looking around at how the house looked exactly like the rest of the dimension, covered in vines.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Robin told her.

"Come on," Nancy said. "I don't want to stay here longer than we have to."

While the teens were starting to head upstairs, Steve and Nadia stopped because they heard Dustin and Hailey's voice speaking indistinctly and faintly.

"Do you hear that?" Nadia asked. "Dustin and Hailey?"

Steve nodded, shining the flashlight in his hand around.

∰

Nancy's Room

Nancy, Ruby, Billy, Robin and Eddie were in Nancy's room.

Nancy opened the closet door, pulling out a shoe box, walking toward her bed, putting the shoe box down, opening the box, only to find a pair of old white heels inside.

"Those aren't guns," Eddie told her.

"These heels are a bit pointy, but I was hoping for something along the lines of a deadly projectile," Ruby added.

"Seriously, Wheeler?" Billy asked.

Nancy shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Maybe you left them somewhere else," Ruby told her.

Nancy gave her a look. "There's a six year old in the house. I know where I keep my guns." She looked at the heels. "And also, I threw these away years ago."

Nancy glanced down at chemistry cards on her chemistry book, picking up the cards, looking through them, flashing back to when Steve helped her study with these cards in 1.01.

"I get that grades are important to you, but perhaps studying can wait till we get out of here?" Robin asked.

"Nancy, what the hell's going on?" Ruby asked.

"These are from sophomore chemistry," Nancy answered. She pointed to the wall. "And this--this wallpaper, this is old wallpaper." She turned toward a mirror on her dresser. "And this mirror, this went to a yard sale." She turned toward her bed, finding a stuffed rabbit, picking it up. "And you. You're not supposed to be here. No, I gave you to cousin Joanna two years ago."

"So, what, your room went back in time or some shit?" Billy asked.

Nancy looked at Billy like this gave her an idea, running to her diary on the bedside table, picking it up, flipping through the pages, finding the last date in the diary.

"What is it?" Eddie asked.

"Nancy?" Robin asked. "You're freaking me out."

"I think the reason that my guns aren't here is because they don't exist yet," Nancy admitted.

"They don't... exist?" Ruby repeated.

Nancy turned to face them. "Billy's right. This diary should be full of entries. It's not. The last entry is November 6, 1983. The day Will went missing. The day the Gate opened. We're in the past."

Ruby, Billy, Robin and Eddie had to process this.

Billy shrugged slightly. "Well, at least I was right about something."

Ruby realized what this meant. "Wait, that means that the Reed house... it should still have all of Natasha, Nadia and Niko's armory in there."

Billy snapped his fingers, pointing to Ruby. "Bingo."

"So much better," Ruby agreed.

Robin, Eddie and Nancy smiled in relief.

Eddie frowned, looking around. "Where are Steve and Nadia?"

As if on cue, they heard Steve and Nadia calling out from downstairs. "Hailey? Dustin? Dustin! Hailey!"

∰

Living Room

Steve and Nadia were trying to get Dustin and Hailey to hear them through the dimensional barrier, to no avail. "Dustin? Hailey?"

"Can you hear us?" Steve called. "Hailey! Dustin! Hello? Hel... hello!"

Ruby, Billy, Nancy, Robin and Eddie walked downstairs.

Robin frowned. "Maybe both of them have rabies."

"Nadia, Steve, what the hell are you two doing?" Billy asked.

Steve and Nadia turned to face them.

"They're here," Steve answered. "Hailey and Henderson. Probably all the little shits, they're here. They're like... in the walls or something."

Nadia rolled her eyes, tilting her head. "Not in the walls. Through the barrier. They've gotta be in your house on the other side, Nancy. Our side. Listen." She called out. "Hailey! Dustin!"

Steve continued to yell for them hysterically. "Hailey? Hailey! Dustin!" He looked around. "Dustin!"

"Dustin, Hailey, can you hear us?" Nadia called.

Ruby raised her eyebrows, whispering to Billy. "Maybe we're not the only ones that have lost our minds."

Billy smirked slightly.

But then they heard Dustin's voice, echoing through the barrier. "That brings us to the next question."

They heard Hailey's voice. "And what is the next question?"

Nadia gave Ruby a look. "You were saying?"

Ruby smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Holy shit."

∰

Hawkins

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Lucas and Erica were sitting at the kitchen table.

Dustin and Hailey were standing, pacing.

"How are Vecna and Mirage able to cross the barrier with psychic connection to use you to open Gates, like El did with the Demogorgon?" Dustin asked. "Maybe it's because with the dark alter ego, and the dreamwalking, and the powers, your powers are similar to theirs?"

Hailey shook her head. "No, because if that was the case, then Vecna and Mirage would equal the Demogorgon, and El and I would be the equivalent in the situation, but that's not what's happening. Technically, I would be in the Demogorgon position in this situation. I would be the Demogorgon with the ability to open Gates, even through psychic connection. Vecna and Mirage would be like El contacting us to open the Gates."

Lucas pointed to Hailey in agreement.

Hailey could faintly hear Steve, Nadia, Robin, Ruby, Billy, Eddie and Nancy calling out for her and Dustin, frowning in confusion, looking around, not sure if that was in her head or not.

∰

Upside Down

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Now, Ruby, Billy, Nancy, Robin and Eddie were going around the house, calling out, trying to find the loudest source of their voices, trying to get them to hear them. "Dustin! Hailey!"

They all ended up in the kitchen.

Steve shone his flashlight around. "All right, either they can't hear us or they're being total douchebags. Shouldn't Hailey be able to sense us like with Vecna?"

Ruby took the flashlight from Steve. "Let me see that."

"Vecna technically let Hailey sense him to lure her into a trap to make sure that she couldn't stop Patrick's death, and made her powers go all cablooey before she even exploded," Nadia pointed out. "And I think that only works with monsters, but who knows at this point?"

"Will found a way," Nancy pointed out.

"What?" Ruby asked.

"Will," Nancy answered. "He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights."

"Lights?" Billy repeated.

"Yeah," Nadia answered.

Nadia and Nancy both tried to turn on the lights, but it remained dark in the house.

Steve pointed to the switch on the wall. "Oh, the switch. Try the switch."

Nancy flipped the switch. "It's not working."

Ruby turned around with the flashlight in her hand, shining the light onto the chandelier over their heads, making the chandelier lights glow with energy, frowning in confusion, not sure if that was real or not. "Guys? I know I said I would stop asking this, but... do you see that?"

They all followed Ruby's gaze.

As Ruby fully shone the light on the chandelier, all the lights there started to glow.

All the teens walked closer, watching the faint glowing aura around the glowing lights, illuminating the falling particles in the air around them.

Ruby was entranced by the lights and aura, reaching up to wave her hand through it, making the glow even brighter.

In Hawkins, it made the chandelier lights even brighter than they were before.

"Whoa," Eddie said.

Ruby continued to wave her hand through the aura next to the light, unable to help a small smile. When she took her hand away, in Hawkins, the light dimmed again.

There were seven lights around the chandelier in all, as Nadia, Steve, Ruby, Billy, Nancy, Robin and Eddie all stood around the chandelier at each light, and reached up a hand to wave through the air next to the lights, making them glow more brightly, also making the lights in Hawkins so much more brighter.

"It... tickles," Steve said.

Robin smiled. "It kinda feels good."

Nadia realized what she could do. "Morse code. If they can't hear us, we can do that."

"The last time that we had to use Morse code, the kids had to use a translator," Nancy pointed out. "I doubt any of them learned more after that."

"Hailey did," Nadia answered. "I taught her, some at least."

Steve nodded, unsurprised. "Of course you did."

∰

Hawkins

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Hailey still couldn't shake the feeling that someone was there, standing. The irises of her eyes and the gem in her head started to glow and pulse.

Dustin was too busy pacing to notice, while Lucas was looking down.

Erica had her head propped up on her hand, looking at Hailey in confusion. "Why's Hailey's eyes and gem doing that?"

Dustin and Lucas looked at Hailey.

"Shit," Lucas said. "That's what happened when she tracked Vecna to the attic."

"Hailey?" Dustin asked.

Hailey shook her head. "It's not Vecna. I swore I heard someone call our names, Dustin. I couldn't tell who it was, but... it sounded familiar. Faint." She looked around, following the sense of who was there on the other side, as it led her to the chandelier, seeing the lights on the chandelier glowing brightly, and blinking in and out like Morse code, walking closer. "Morse code."

Dustin, Lucas and Erica followed her.

∰

Upside Down

Wheeler House - Kitchen

The teens stood around the chandelier.

Nadia was tapping out the Morse code for the message she wanted to send, hoping Hailey could see it.

Ruby let out a shaky breath. "It's working."

∰

Hawkins

Wheeler House - Kitchen

Hailey walked closer to the chandelier, translating the Morse code. "S.O.S. G O T S U C K E D I N."

"Got sucked in?" Erica asked. "Who got sucked in?"

Hailey, Dustin and Lucas realized that their worry had been right earlier.

"Nadia, Steve, Billy, Ruby, Nancy, Eddie and Robin," Lucas answered.

Hailey, Dustin and Lucas looked at each other worriedly.

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Outside

Natasha, Joyce, Nadyr, Murray and Apollo had to ditch the car some time before reaching the prison, walking up to the four guards outside.

The four guards saw them, starting to aim their guns, but immediately, Natasha and Apollo, on both sides of the group, raised their hands, so Natasha could form her gold-glow tint shield, and Apollo's glowing green, misty hands could conjure a hard light crystalline construct of a shield, both thrusting their arms toward a guard (two in total), to send the shields flying into the guards and throwing them into the wall of the prison hard enough to bash their heads to either knock them out or kill them, the same time that Nadyr's hands emanated a red glow as he shot plasma blasts out of his hands toward the two guards in front of them, right in the heads before they could shoot or alert anyone, burning them and knocking them down, most likely killing them. Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo all lowered their arms and continued walking with Joyce and Murray, all of them walking away without ever stopping even while taking the four guards down, starting to make their way inside.

"Joyce?" Nadyr asked. "Murray?"

"We're off to find the command center," Joyce answered. "Don't worry, Nadyr. We got this."

Joyce and Murray went one direction, while Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo went another.

∰

Elevator

Apollo was taking the elevator in order to get to the balcony above, trying to split up the guards, while Natasha and Nadyr were taking the stairs in order to divide and conquer any guards that could have seen them.

When a guard made their way into the elevator where Apollo was, Apollo had seemingly disappeared.

Apollo was just on the ceiling, holding himself up between the walls to try and stay hidden.

Another guard walked into the elevator.

The elevator doors closed, as the elevator started to move.

Unfortunately, Apollo slipped slightly with his hold propping himself over the two guards, making a squeaking noise.

The two guards looked up at Apollo.

"Shit," Apollo complained. "This usually works in the movies."

Apollo jumped down, using both legs to kick both guards to the ground, kicking the gun out of Guard 1's hand to the ground. Guard 1 stood, punching Apollo in the face. Apollo spun around to kick him in the chest, knocking him back into the wall behind him, before conjuring the glowing green mist around his hand which emanated out of his hand to create a crystalline construct of a glowing green sphere, shooting it into Guard 1's face, knocking him down to the floor, stepping over his back to jump into the air and punch Guard 2 in the face, kicking him in the chest, sending him falling back into the wall and falling to the floor. Guard 1 stood, trying to punch Apollo. Apollo caught his arm, spinning beneath his arm to twist it painfully. Guard 2, trying to punch Apollo as he finished the spin, but Apollo ducked, leaning back enough to make him miss, letting his glowing green light shine through his body before conjuring it out from his feet to create a glowing green light crystalline construct of a booster that he kicked right into Guard 1 with enough strength to send him flipping through the air and landing on the floor. Guard 2 grabbed Apollo, slamming him into the wall, trying to slam him into another. Apollo still had his hard light boosters on, running up the wall, flipping through the air with extra strength added due to the boosters, landing on his feet, kicking Guard 2 right in the back, making him hit face first against the wall, before spinning around and kicking Guard 2's legs out from underneath him, making him fall to the ground. Guard 1 stood, trying to attack Apollo from behind. Apollo raised an arm to block the move, punching him in the face viciously. Guard 1 grabbed Apollo to lift him up from the ground, which only made it easier for Apollo to wrap his arms around Guard 1's neck, spinning his body around so that he could kick himself off the wall and kick Guard 2 as he was getting up from the floor, making him fall and hit the floor again, finishing the spin to flip Guard 1 through the air to the floor, as Apollo landed on his feet.

Apollo looked at both guards. "This has been fun, but I've got some place to be."

"You little--" Guard 1 started.

Apollo's glowing green, misty hands shot out hard light beams right at Guard 1 and Guard 2 with enough force to generate a shock wave and send them through the elevator wall, making them crash through the wall and fall down the elevator shaft to their deaths.

Apollo turned to the sliding door, looking at the card reader, raising his hand toward the panel, trying to guess the password, waving his finger around. "Eenie, meenie, minnie..." He lost his patience, conjuring his hard light fist, smashing the card reader, bending the wall completely. "Moe."

The doors opened, and Apollo walked out.

∰

The Pit

Hopper, Dmitri and all the other prisoners were lined up in the pit.

Ivan and a couple of other guards were in the pit with them for the time being.

Ivan held up a key, speaking in Russian. "This key here will give you access to that weapons locker. Choose any weapon you like." Once Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo got up onto the balcony above, out of sight, they could see into the pit. "Work together or alone."

Natasha saw Hopper in the pit, looking stricken and worried sick, but in intense relief at finally seeing him again after a full year, when they had been taken and separated by her father and put into two different hells after they both had nearly died together. The emotion and love in her eyes could not be hidden or fought anymore after everything she had been through, with or away from him.

"What is happening here?" Apollo asked.

Nadyr was focusing on the Russian. "They're being told rules."

"Rules for what?" Apollo asked.

"I have a feeling we're about to find out," Natasha admitted.

Ivan paced in front of the prisoners, speaking in Russian. "You wait for the buzzer. You wait. You move before the buzzer, you will be shot. Is that understood? Is that understood?"

"Yes," the prisoners answered in Russian.

Ivan sighed. "I'd wish you luck, but it won't help you."

Ivan tossed the key to the ground, walking away. The other guards followed.

Dmitri spoke to Hopper. "Let us hope your prayers have been heard, American."

When the Demogorgon snarled, roaring from behind the closed doors of the pit, the prisoners' heads all snapped toward the sound.

On the balcony, Natasha's head snapped toward the sound in recognition, realizing immediately what it was just by the sound, just like Hopper did. "Oh, no."

"What?" Nadyr asked.

"It's a Demogorgon," Natasha answered.

"The monster you said that Nadia killed a bunch of and you fought against one too?" Apollo asked. "And Niko and El killed one together?"

"Yeah," Natasha answered. "How the hell did these guys get their hands on one?"

"Question for another time," Nadyr replied. "I think we're all gonna get the chance to fight against this one now." He spoke into the comms. "Joyce, Murray, hurray."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Day - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Eleven was sitting at the peg board again, dropping a red disk down, watching it bounce all the way down to slot 5.

Young Apollo was sitting at a table with metal spheres, using green hard light constructs to move the spheres around in a maze.

Eleven and Young Apollo exchanged a look from across the room, when they felt that they were being watched, turning their heads to see Four, Five, Six and Seven glaring at them murderously, even though they hadn't even ratted them out, but Sabina had used her powers to see who had done it.

Four and Five were focusing on the spheres in the maze in front of Young Apollo, making the spheres crash together, nearly crushing his hand, but Young Apollo ripped his hand away before they could, avoiding his hand getting hurt.

Six and Seven telekinetically threw Eleven's red disks out of her hands.

Eleven nervously started to pick the red disks up.

Henry knelt in front of Eleven, helping her pick up the disks. "You open for something a little more challenging?"

Moments later, Eleven and Henry were sitting at a table, playing chess.

"Try not to show any emotion as I speak, okay?" Henry asked. "Just keep playing the game if you understand." Eleven moved her next piece. "Four, Five, Six and Seven just got out of the infirmary from recovering. That's why they're so angry at you and Ten. They're being watched now, but once they're not, they're going to attempt to kill the two of you. Right here, in this room. And Papa and Mama will allow it to happen. In fact, they want it to happen. They've been planning it for some time now."

"Why would they do that?" Eleven asked.

"Mama..." Henry trailed off. "Let's just say that this isn't the first time that she's pit numbers, people, against each other, to see how they react to betrayal. Abandonment or otherwise."

"What do you mean?" Eleven asked.

"What do you think happened to One, Two and Three?" Henry asked. "Two and Three betrayed One. They escaped, fled. Left him behind. And Mama helped them do it. Allowed them to escape and betray One. Just to see how he would react to such a betrayal."

Eleven frowned in confusion. "And how did he? Where are all of them now?"

Henry didn't answer. "Focus on the game." Eleven moved her next piece. "There's a reason why Ten was let out of his room last night, when he shouldn't have been. It was so he could come in here with you. And there's a reason why Four and the others were able to escape their rooms last night. Why the security cameras were turned off. Why Mama and Papa punished them today. They don't even realize it, but they are moving them like pieces on this board here. Driving them to do exactly what they want. Just like Mama did with One, Two and Three."

Henry took one of Eleven's pieces.

"Why?" Eleven asked.

"One, Two and Three frightened them," Henry answered. "Mama wanted to see how far they each would go when they were pushed to a limit. I think they're doing the same to you and Ten now. Just like the first three, you two are more powerful than the others. And they also know they can't control you both. That's all they want. Control. I saw all this happening. That's why I wanted to help you, but I only made things worse."

Eleven frowned. "Helping me... made Papa and Mama hurt you."

Henry nodded. "And it is why you must escape. Today. But they are watching us. Closely." They both glanced at the camera on the wall. "If you want to make it out of here alive, you must do exactly as I say. Do you understand?"

Eleven took one of Henry's pieces. "Why do you still help?"

Henry gave a slight smile. "Because I believe in you. It is time you are free from this hell."

Henry handed a card to Eleven from beneath the table so the camera didn't see.

∰

Reality

Night - Clandestine Camp - Inside

Calliope was laying inside, on a table, slowly starting to wake up.

Jonathan and Mike were waiting for her to wake up, worried.

"She's gonna be okay," Mike told him. "I know you two are friends now or whatever, but Calliope's one of the strongest people we've met, right?"

"Yeah," Jonathan answered. "One of."

"So you know she can make it through this," Mike told him. "And we're gonna find El, Niko and Will, and she's gonna find Apollo."

"Right," Jonathan agreed. "And if any one has got a cure for this, it's gotta be Sabina and her people, right?"

"We can hope," Mike answered.

Jonathan nodded barely. "So we get there, we find Will, Niko and El, and Apollo. And we save Calliope."

"Damn right," Mike agreed. "Because I think she's becoming a friend to me too."

Calliope had a slight smile from hearing that, surprised but touched, slowly opening her eyes weakly. "You two are gonna make me cry. Not."

Jonathan and Mike sighed in relief, having small smiles, standing, walking closer. "Hey."

"Hey," Calliope replied, noticing that she had an IV in her arm, confused. "What's this?"

"Rachel set it up," Jonathan answered. "Uh, you said that your Clandestine friend Daniel was killed by this virus?" Calliope nodded. "Rachel said that they found out that this was the only way they could prolong the outcome. Trying to give us some time until we can get the cure and save you."

Calliope nodded barely in understanding, though clearly she didn't believe that there was a cure that could save her. "Okay. Thank you."

"And Rachel's calling in for a submarine for us," Mike added. "She said that she'll let us know where we can go to go get it and take it."

"All right," Calliope agreed.

"They also checked on your gunshot wound to make sure that it's treated and getting better, even after everything that's going on," Jonathan added.

Calliope looked down at her side, where her wound was better treated and bandaged. "Oh, yeah."

"How are you feeling?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope sighed, shaking her head. "Ask me tomorrow."

Mike and Jonathan nodded in understanding.

"They said that we could stay until the submarine's ready," Mike explained. "Until then, we can shower and change."

"Good," Calliope replied. "Because we're definitely gonna need mission suits for this. Because I doubt either of you want your clothes to be ruined about what's to come."

Jonathan and Mike shrugged in agreement, both concerned about Calliope, worried, but knowing not to push.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Wheeler House - Living Room

Holly was laying on the floor, playing with her Lite Brite, making a bunny with the pegs, watching them glow with light.

Lucas walked over to unplug Holly's Lite Brite.

Holly looked up in complaint. "Hey!"

Dustin ran over to grab the Lite Brite, running away. "I'm sorry!"

Lucas ran over to grab the bucket of pegs, running away. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Hailey handed a bag of Skittles to Holly. "For your understanding. We'll get it back to you as soon as we can, promise." She turned to Erica. "Come on, come on, come on."

Hailey and Erica ran after Dustin and Lucas.

Holly watched them go in confusion, offended that they stole her Lite Brite.

∰

Upstairs Hallway

Hailey walked down the hallway, eyes and gem flashing, pulsing red, leading Dustin, Lucas and Erica after her so she could track where the other teens went in the Upside Down. "Nancy's room. Go!"

∰

Nancy's Room (Both Sides of the Barrier)

Dustin, Lucas, Hailey and Erica burst into Nancy's room.

Hailey could sense the older teens right at the edge of the bed, her sclera still white, but her irises and gem pulsing red. "Here, here, here."

Dustin and Lucas sat down at the edge of the bed with the Lite Brite. Hailey and Erica sat next to them, as they all started to fill the Lite Brite board with the pegs as quickly as they could.

While in the Upside Down, Steve, Nadia, Nancy, Robin, Ruby, Billy and Eddie were sitting around the bed, waiting.

"Come on, come on," Billy whispered in slight frustration.

In their world, the younger teens filled the board completely.

"Okay, that's it, that's it," Dustin said. "Go, go, go, go, go, go."

"Yeah, okay," Lucas agreed, taking the plug, and plugging it into the wall.

The entire board lit up.

"Okay, you guys seeing this?" Hailey called.

In the Upside Down, Ruby passed her hand over the place where the Light Brite would be, causing the same ethereal glowing aura to appear as she swished her hand through it, chuckling lightly.

Billy smirked slightly at Ruby's amusement of this whole light thing.

In their world, when Ruby passed her hand through the aura, it caused the lights on the Lite Brite to become blindingly bright.

Erica, Dustin and Hailey cheered, smiling and laughing that their idea worked.

"Holy shit!" Erica said.

Dustin wrapped his arms around Hailey in a celebratory embrace, both holding onto each other for a moment before pulling away with laughter.

Hailey held her hand toward Erica. "Nice work."

Erica high fived Hailey. "Hell yeah."

In the Upside Down, Ruby was still swishing her hand through the aura, still enticed by it since it reminded her of her more tame, pretty hallucinations that had a sort of calming effect like she had explained to Billy earlier that night.

Billy chuckled. "Ruby."

Ruby took her hand away. "Sorry."

Billy shook his head, having a subtle smile at something small being able to make Ruby smile or content like that even for a moment.

Nadia, Nancy and Robin smiled slightly.

In their world, Hailey called out. "We're not moving it, but we're gonna unplug it. Stand by."

Dustin gave Lucas a thumbs up. "Yank it." Lucas pulled the plug, powering off the Lite Brite, causing the aura glow in the Upside Down to fade away. "Okay, try it now."

In the Upside Down, Nancy was trying to think of what to say first. "Okay. Um... uh..."

Nancy put her hand close to where the Lite Brite would be, causing the glowing aura to return, as she drew a line.

In their world, Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas sat side by side as they saw the line appear on the Lite Brite, lights shining, causing all of them to smile in awe and laugh in relief.

Nancy finished making her first letter.

Hailey read it. "H." Nancy finished making the second letter. "Hi."

Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas all called out, "Hi, hey!"

"That worked!" Dustin cheered.

In the Upside Down, the older teens all smiled in relief, celebrating with small cheers.

Eddie was more obvious with his cheering. "Yes, yes! Hi!"

Nadia reached her hand into the glowing aura to draw the next message. "Okay..."

In their world, Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas all spelled out Nadia's message. "S... T... U..."

Nadia had to pause since the three letters took up the whole board.

"Stu?" Erica asked.

Dustin frowned. "Stupid? Stupid?"

Once the first three letters faded, Nadia finished writing the last two letters.

They all spelled it again. "C... K."

"Stuck," Hailey realized. She called out. "Stuck?"

In the Upside Down, all the older teens were nodding.

"Mm-hmm," Billy answered.

"Yep," Ruby answered.

"Yes," Steve answered.

"We are," Robin agreed.

"No way out from what we can tell," Nadia remarked, drawing a check mark in the aura, and thereby on the Lite Brite, to tell the kids yes.

In their world, Lucas looked at Erica, Dustin and Hailey. "They're stuck in the Upside Down."

"Uh, you can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin called.

In the Upside Down, the older teens looked confused.

"What the hell's Watergate?" Billy asked.

"'Cause it's in water and it's a Gate?" Robin suggested.

"Oh," Steve said.

Eddie tilted his head. "That's cute."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Oh."

"Right," Nadia said.

"Um, no," Nancy answered. "It's..."

Nancy drew the next message three letters at a time because of the small board on the Lite Brite.

In their world, Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas watched a G appear on the board.

"That a six?" Lucas asked.

"G?" Erica asked.

"Yeah, G," Hailey answered.

"Yeah," Dustin agreed.

They spelled out the rest of the word Nancy was writing. "U... A... R... D... E... D."

"Guarded?" Lucas asked.

"Okay, guarded," Hailey said. "Uh, Watergate's guarded."

In the Upside Down, the older teens heard Hailey, nodding.

Eddie clapped his hands.

"Perfect," Nadia said.

Ruby wrote the three letter word in the aura to answer the kids. "Yes, yes, yes."

In their world, Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas saw Y-E-S appear on the board.

"We think we have a theory that can help with that," Dustin called.

In the Upside Down, the older teens sighed in relief.

"Yes," Nancy whispered.

"Genius children," Robin complimented.

In their world, Dustin called out to the older teens. "We think Watergate isn't the only Gate. That there's a Gate at every murder site. Hailey had to open them."

In the Upside Down, all the older teens frowned in confusion.

"Hailey had to open Gates?" Billy asked.

"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asked.

Steve, Eddie and Billy shook their heads. "No."

"No fucking idea," Ruby answered.

Nancy drew a question mark.

In their world, Erica, Dustin, Hailey and Lucas saw the question mark appear.

Dustin was annoyed. "Okay. Seriously? How many times do we have to be right on the money before you guys just trust us?"

Hailey swatted Dustin on the head. "Dustin!"

In the Upside Down, Steve and Nadia both shook their heads, rolling their eyes.

"Jesus Christ," Steve complained. "This kid's gotta get his ego in check."

Eddie looked over at Steve and Nadia. "It's his tone. Right?"

"I know," Steve agreed.

"Absolutely," Nadia answered. "Kid's gonna be lucky to avoid a kick in the ass when we get home."

Ruby smirked. "Steve, Nadia, sound more like parents." Steve and Nadia smiled sarcastically. "And is it bad that I could literally hear and see Hailey hitting Dustin on the head like she always used to?"

Steve and Nadia smiled in agreement.

Robin grinned.

Billy smirked in amusement, shaking his head.

Nancy and Eddie chuckled.

"But seriously, what the fuck are they talking about?" Billy asked.

"Hailey's powers, maybe," Nadia answered, realizing. "When they kept lashing out after each kill."

Billy and Ruby flashed back to Hailey's powers ripping at the tree and air when Aaron had been killed, realizing they were right. "Holy shit."

Eddie remembered this in his trailer with Chrissy, and at Lover's Lake with Patrick. "Yeah. Holy shit."

"So there's two Gates in the trailer park alone?" Robin asked.

"There should be," Nadia answered.

"So how far is the trailer park?" Nancy asked.

"Seven miles," Ruby, Billy and Eddie all answered, exchanging a look.

"Nancy?" Robin asked. "Uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?"

Nancy nodded. "My family has four. Mine, Mike's, and two that my parents used to use."

"That just leaves three more," Steve pointed out.

"Well, if your theory is right and everywhere is frozen in time, there should be three more at my old house just down the road," Nadia explained.

"Where we can stop by and get weapons," Ruby pointed out.

"Just enough that we can carry to get safely to our world again," Nadia agreed. "If we need anymore weapons after that, we can get more in the real world. I have a mini arsenal in my car anyway."

Billy nodded sarcastically. "Of course you do, super spy."

Nadia tilted her head, giving him a look before looking away. "Still nothing compared to the one in the house though."

"Well, what are waiting for?" Eddie asked. "Let's go."

∰

Hawkins

Wheeler House - Living Room

Powell and Callahan walked out of a room to join the parents in the living room.

Max followed, putting her headphones on to listen to her song.

"So, anything?" Karen asked..

"Nope," Powell answered. "She's sticking to her story. They went to the lake for a night swim. Nancy showed up at some point..."

Max looked toward the foyer.

Hailey was there, waving for Max to follow her, as both were mouthing to each other indistinctly.

Max walked out of the living room to follow Hailey through the house. Hailey took her hand to pull her along faster to explain everything they had learned while she had been interrogated by the cops.

"What's going on?" Max whispered as they ran to meet up with the others.

Powell continued to speak to the parents. "Pretty much all she told us. She stuck to her guns."

"Honestly, shouldn't have gone with her first," Callahan remarked. "She was, like, kinda mean."

"We'll find your daughter, Mrs. Wheeler," Powell told her. "Don't worry."

Callahan pointed at them. "One of these little brats is gonna squeal. I just know it. Where are they?"

"Upstairs," Daniels replied. "Moping."

∰

Upstairs Hallway

Callahan walked upstairs, calling out tauntingly. "Oh, little pigs. Oh, little pigs." He walked up to Nancy's room, lightly rapping his fingers against the door. "Let Officer Callahan in."

∰

Nancy's Room

Callahan burst into the room, only to find that the teens were gone, and the window was wide open. He walked toward the window, looking outside, seeing that the kids were grabbing the Wheelers' bikes and running off. "Hey! Excuse me! No, get back here!"

∰

Outside

Dustin, Hailey, Lucas and Max each had a bike from the Wheelers (who had more bikes now than they did in the past, since Mike had to get a bigger bike as he got older, and Holly also got a bike). Erica was using Mike's old bike from season 1 and 2 when he was 12/13, while the teens older than her were using Mike's new bike for teenage years, Nancy, Karen and Ted's.

Erica used a hair pin to stab the tires out of Powell and Callahan's cop car, making the air pop out with loud bursts. "Guess it's just a minor misdemeanor."

Hailey used a mini blade to stab the tires of Daniels' cop car to make the air pop out with loud bursts. "Erica, come on!"

Hailey and Erica ran to catch up with the others, all getting onto the bikes and starting to ride away.

Karen, Ted, Claudia, Sue and Charles all ran outside.

"Lucas!" Charles shouted. "Erica!"

"Dusty!" Claudia called. "Dusty!"

Lucas, Dustin, Hailey, Max and Erica were already riding the bikes fast down the road, so the parents stopped running, knowing there was no way they could catch them.

"Lucas, Erica, get back here!" Sue called.

"Dusty!" Claudia called.

The parents were left breathing heavily in worry, not knowing what to do.

The cops behind them couldn't follow the kids with their tires taken out.

∰

On the Road

In an aerial view overhead, Lucas, Dustin, Hailey, Max and Erica were riding their bikes down the road as fast as they could, in a V shape to make room for all of them, Hailey in the lead front and center, Dustin and Max slightly behind her, and Lucas and Erica slightly more behind them.

As they passed by the old Reed house, the camera shot panned over them, down in front of them to show them upside down, transitioning to a parallel in the Upside Down.

∰

Upside Down

On the Road

The older teens had already gotten all the bikes they needed and all the weapons they could use for now, including guns for Nadia and Nancy, and more arrows for Ruby. On top of the daggers, Billy also had a baseball bat. Steve had a staff attached by a strap over his back. Robin and Eddie both had shield like weapons.

Armed up, Nancy, Robin, Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy, Eddie were riding their bikes down the road as fast as they could, in a V shape to make room for all of them, Nadia was in the lead front and center, Steve and Ruby slightly behind her, Robin and Billy slightly behind them, and Nancy and Eddie slightly more behind them.

A Demobat on a light pole saw them, roaring.

∰

Creel House - Attic

In the destroyed, Upside Down version of the Creel House, Vecna looked over his shoulder at sensing/seeing the older teens through the hive mind, smirking.

∰

Mirage's Lair

Mirage sensed/saw the older teens through the hive mind, and even in his snakely form, smirked, letting out evil, hissing laughter.

Both Mirage and Vecna were recovering from Niko's powers earlier that night, nearly healed already.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Day - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

This was the scene that was shown in 4.01, with the psionic children gathered around the rainbow room.

Younger ones, in toddler years, were crawling and chasing after toy cars that drove along the rainbow lines and colors.

Older ones were practicing their powers on other toys, playing chess, or any amount of other games and activities there were in the rainbow room.

Young Apollo was sitting by himself, playing with his eight ball.

This time, Eleven was shown at the side of the room, coloring, watching the time anxiously.

Sabina and Brenner walked into the room, splitting up to go train with two different children.

Sabina sat next to Young Apollo. "She looked at the 8 ball in his hand. "That's your favorite, isn't it? How are you feeling now, Ten?"

Young Apollo frowned. "Okay. Better, I guess."

"Are you up for some more lessons?" Sabina asked.

Young Apollo shook the 8 ball, showing the answer to Sabina; "Signs point to yes".

Sabina gave Young Apollo a smile, taking Young Apollo by the hand, leading him out of the room.

Eleven had been watching nervously, and now in defeat; she had hoped to bring Young Apollo with her since he was the only one nice to her and Henry had made it seem like he was in just as much danger as she was to get into her head, but now she knew that while Apollo was with Sabina, she couldn't bring him with.

Eleven glanced at the clock again, seeing that it was almost three, standing, walking toward the orderly standing guard. "I feel dizzy."

"Dizzy?" the orderly repeated.

Eleven nodded. "Yes. And the light. The light is hurting my head."

As expected, the orderly suspected this to be part of Eleven's concussion and was obligated to take her back to the infirmary where she would be able to rest.

∰

Hallway

The orderly led Eleven down the hallway.

∰

Nurse's Office

The orderly walked into the nurse's office to see her finishing working on Four, Five, Six and Seven after they had to check in again after earlier. "Sorry to bother you."

"Everything all right?" the nurse asked.

"Not sure," the orderly admitted. "She says she's still dizzy. Lights are hurting her."

"Hurting who?" the nurse asked.

The orderly turned around, only to find that Eleven wasn't there.

∰

Hallway

Eleven walked down the hallway, taking out the key card Henry had given her from her slipper, using it to unlock the doors in front of her, pushing past, running off.

∰

Basement

Eleven ran downstairs into the basement, looking around, but getting scared by steam suddenly hissing out of a pipe, jumped and backed away, bumping right into Henry behind her, turning to face him.

Henry placed a finger to his lips. "Quiet." He beckoned with a finger, walking away. "Follow me." They knelt at the base of a pipe. Henry took the crate off of a pipe that would lead to Eleven's escape. (which was shown to be how she escaped in season 1, through the piping that led away from the lab). "Now, it's going to be a bit scary in there, but this, this will lead you out beyond the lab fence to the woods."

Eleven frowned. "But you're too big."

Henry took her hand in his. "I'm not going with you, Eleven." Eleven frowned. "I meant what I said when I called this place a prison. And everyone here is a prisoner, not just you. Not just your brothers and sisters, but the guards, too. The nurses. Me." Henry took her hand and pulled his hair aside, putting Eleven's hand to his neck for her to feel the bump of a microchip underneath his skin. "Here. Can you feel it? Your papa and mama call it Soteria. I've had it since I was 20 years old. It weakens me. It tracks me. Even if there were another way out, they will find me. And if they find me, they will find you."

Eleven thought for a long moment. "What if I make it go away?" Henry looked slightly darker, like he was getting exactly what he wanted. "You helped me. I help you."

Henry gave a slight smile.

∰

Reality

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - The Pit

Mere moments after the last Russian scene, the prisoners were awaiting the alarm, getting more nervous by the second the more they heard the snarling from the Demogorgon behind the door.

Dmitri spoke in Russian to everyone. "Stay calm. Stay close. Stick to the plan."

Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo were all trying to find a way down there without getting caught and getting everyone into a bigger mess, because there were many guards here that could shoot Hopper or any other prisoner on sight if they made the wrong move, but they knew that the time was wearing thin and they didn't have much other choice but to start acting soon, no matter how they did.

The alarm sounded, signaling the prisoners to hurriedly grab the key from the ground and run to unlock the weapons cabinet, grabbing whatever they could.

Dmitri tossed a spear to Hopper, which he caught.

Hopper leaned against a pillar to tie his cloth around the spear.

Natasha looked at Nadyr and Apollo. "Go, now."

They all ran out of hiding just as guards were about to find them anyway, starting to take them down.

Natasha had two metal staffs, jumping Ivan, kicking his rifle to the ground, slamming her staffs into his face, knocking his head back. Ivan took out his batons, holding them ready to use. They ran toward each other, trying the same move with a staff/baton, ending up blocking the move. Natasha used her staffs to beat Ivan in the face twice. Ivan tried to hit Natasha with his batons. Natasha blocked the moves, hitting him twice. Ivan tried to hit Natasha twice, swinging toward her stomach. Natasha jumped back to make him miss. Ivan tried to repeatedly hit her with his batons. Natasha used her staffs to block, hitting him in the head with one. Ivan swung toward her. Natasha spun out of the way, turning to face him. Ivan tried to hit her with both batons. Natasha raised her staffs in a cross shape to block the move, kicking him in the back of the leg, making him fall to his knees, swinging her staffs down, hitting him in the head viciously, hitting him in the stomach and in the ribs with the staffs repeatedly, ramming one into his chest, making him fall to the ground completely, spinning her staff in her hand to stab it into his head, killing him, leaving the staff in his head as she pushed him to the ground.

Nadyr and another guard were trading blows. The guard tried to hit Nadyr repeated. Nadyr used his arms to block all the moves, spinning around to kick him in the head. The guard tried to kick him. Nadyr ducked, spinning around to stand behind him, turning to face him, kicking his batons out of his hands, kicking him in the back, making him roll over the ground. The guard grabbed one baton, standing, swinging it toward Nadyr like a baseball bat. Nadyr ducked, kicking him in the chest, making him back away into a stone pillar, swinging a vicious punch at his head, punching him nastily in the face. The guard ran closer to try and tackle him, but Nadyr spun out of the way, standing behind the guard now, spinning to backhand punch him in the head, kicking him in the back so hard the same time that he clotheslined him with his arm against his head, so hard that it made him flip backward in the air and fall to the floor, kicking him in the head hard enough to bash his head against the ground, either knocking him out or likely killing him.

Apollo saw two guards walking up to them, punching Guard 3 in the face, slamming Guard 4's head on the wall, elbowing him in the face, making them both fall. Guard 3 lunged for Apollo to push him back. Apollo ducked, sliding between his legs over the floor, punching him in the crotch on his way behind the guard, turning to face him in a crouch, standing, running closer to kick him to the ground, letting glowing green mist float from his hands as he conjured glowing green crystalline constructs of hard light into spheres, throwing them into the heads of Guards 3 and 4, knocking them both out or bashing their heads hard enough to kill, smirking smugly.

While they had been fighting, the prisoners were preparing for a much worse one; they didn't even notice the fighting going up on the balcony because of it for good reason, also because they couldn't see or really hear much of the fighting, as Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo were trying to do this without alerting all of the guards at once.

Another alarm sounded.

The doors down below started to open.

Dmitri spoke in Russian. "Whatever comes out of there... hold your ground. Hold your ground!"

Hopper hurriedly poured Russian vodka over his makeshift torch, walking up next to Dmitri, taking out Ivan's lighter.

Nadyr spoke through comms. "Joyce, Murray, what's the hold up?"

Joyce and Murray were inside, sneaking their way to the command center of the prison, which was easier than thought, since most of the guards were outside to maintain the Demogorgon in case it got out of control, leaving only a couple inside.

"We're almost there," Joyce whispered. "Just give us time, Nadyr."

"We don't have much time," Nadyr told them, walking determinedly across the balcony. "Hurry."

∰

Inside - Hallway

Joyce and Murray had a guard, without his gun or weapon, cornered.

Murray placed a gun to a guard's back, speaking in Russian. "You move so much as an inch, I'll kill you."

"What is this?" the guard asked. "Some kind of sick joke?"

"It's no joke," Murray answered in Russian, before speaking in English. "Just that the Americans are very tricky."

∰

Outside

In the Pit, Dmitri nodded to Hopper.

Hopper flicked the lighter and tried to light it. "Oh, come on! Come on, come on, come on."

Dmitri watched anxiously in horror. "Tell me that's not out of fluid."

Hopper still tried to light the torch. "Come on! Come on!"

Up on the balcony, more guards saw Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo, trying to shoot, who all ducked and ran for cover, splitting up so that the guards had to split up to track them down to have an idea time taking all the guards down.

Natasha raised her arms to form her clear gold-glow tint shield all around the base of the guns in the guards hands, who were attacking her, using her shield to compress the guns so intensely with enough power that she was able to make the guns explode, throwing the guards down to the ground with bursts of gunpowder explosion, making them all scream in pain, before throwing shield saws into each one, cutting them down literally to size, taking them down and watching them bleed out, walking away without another care, trying to find a way into the Pit to try and do something before the Demogorgon attacked, but the Pit was blocked off by a glass wall from the balcony up above, so she couldn't get through. Each door to the Pit was locked and strong enough to keep the Demogorgon from escaping the Pit, so of course the doors were strong enough to withstand any powers.

The glass wall also kept the prisoners from hearing the battle up on the balcony.

Natasha was worriedly trying to find a way through the glass wall, like a gap in it that she could go through. "Damn it."

As a guard came closer to Natasha, Natasha held her hand toward the guard, forming her shield inside of him, inside his own body, shocked that she could do so, which she could tell she did by the guard glowing faintly gold from the inside. She widened her hand to expand her shield inside the body of the guard little by little, to the point that she destroyed his organs from the inside, and quite literally made him explode in a rain of blood and flesh.

Nadyr and Apollo saw this from their places, shocked but impressed.

"Did you know that you could do that now, Natasha?" Nadyr asked.

"No," Natasha answered. "But that's sure as hell helpful. Especially against that thing out there."

As more guards came toward Nadyr, Nadyr absorbed much energy around him to shoot plasma from his chest out at the guards and everything around them, setting it aflame, burning the guards alive, as they either died, or ran for cover, still severely injured.

As more soldiers came for Apollo, Apollo let his glowing green light shine along his arms, solidifying the light leaving his body into crystalline constructs of several weapons, thrusting out his arms, throwing the hard light weapons into each soldier that came for him, taking them all down one by one, either by stabbing, bashing, or any other variation of things that could lead to soldiers being killed or knocked out.

∰

Inside - Hallway

Murray still had the guard at gunpoint.

"If you wanna live, then whatever sick, twisted game this is, you're gonna stop it and you're gonna free our friend," Joyce told him.

"Then I'm afraid you're going to have to kill me," the guard replied. "Because your friend is already dead. All of your friends are."

∰

Outside

In the Pit, Hopper was still trying to light his torch. "Come on! Come on! Oh, come on! Come on!"

After what seemed like an endless moment of waiting and just hearing the monster growl and snarl, the Demogorgon finally leaped out toward the prisoners, ferally snarling, jumping right over Dmitri to attack the prisoner behind him, his face opening up so that he could feed instantly on the head of the prisoner, killing him instantly but gruesomely.

On the balcony, Nadyr and Apollo watched this in shock and horror, as they had no idea how bad it could have been except for stories from Natasha and Joyce, but seeing it in person was something else entirely.

"Fucking hell," Nadyr said.

"That's a demon," Apollo stated.

"Yep," Nadyr agreed.

"Did we know that there were gonna be demons?" Apollo asked.

"Nope," Nadyr answered.

"We did not know there were gonna be demons," Apollo said. "Got it."

Natasha was all the more worried, forming a saw, throwing it at the glass wall blocking the balcony from the pit, but it was the same type of glass that ricocheted her shield in Mikhail's glass cells in the psionic prison, so Natasha's saw ricocheted, bouncing around, making  Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo all duck for cover until the shield saw disappeared.

In the pit, in a matter of seconds, the Demogorgon had killed the first prisoner. The rest tried to shoot the Demogorgon to stop it, but of course that wouldn't work. The Demogorgon grabbed Prisoner 2, throwing him into a beam so hard that he fell and bashed his head open, killing him. He grabbed the body of Prisoner 1, throwing it into Prisoner 3, taking him down, grabbing Prisoner 3, slamming up up on the stone balcony (underneath it) to bash his head so hard he left a big blood stain on the stone, before slamming 3's body to the ground. It turned toward the remaining prisoners left alive, roaring, the inside of his face completely covered in blood.

There were only three more prisoners left alive besides Hopper and Dmitri.

The three unnamed prisoners were backing away quickly in utter terror, breaking the plan.

Dmitri yelled at them in Russian. "What are you doing? Stay together, you fools!"

Hopper was still trying to light his torch. "Come on, come on, come on!"

Up on the balcony, Nadyr absorbed the energy around him to transform it into plasma, emanating with glowing red glow, hands held out at the glass wall.

"Nadyr, no!" Natasha told him, already knowing that it was going to ricochet just like her shield.

As expected, the blasts of plasma ricocheted, causing Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo to duck, as both Natasha and Apollo conjured clear gold-glow tint and glowing green crystalline shields to protect themselves and Nadyr from the glowing red plasma that soon bounced off the shields and landed nearby, setting the ground on fire.

In the pit, finally, Hopper's lighter lit the torch, setting it ablaze, causing Hopper to gasp in relief.

Dmitri swung a mace at the Demogorgon with a yell.

The Demogorgon demolished the mace completely within a second, letting it fall.

Dmitri was quickly backing away from the Demogorgon as it stalked closer to him.

Hopper ran forward with the flaming torch, yelling. "Get back! Get back!" The Demogorgon was forced to back away, but wasn't burned by the fire yet, as it was backing away too quickly for Hopper to burn him with fire, as he already felt the heat of the flame from a distance and recoiled in fear. "Get the hell back! Get back! Get back!"

Up on the balcony, Natasha sighed in relief as Hopper found a way to buy himself and the others some time, but knew that they still needed to get past the glass. "Apollo, do you remember what you did to break Mikhail's glass cell? Almost, at least."

"What did you do?" Nadyr asked.

Without missing a beat, Apollo let his glowing green mist surround his hand, conjuring it into making his hand be surrounded by a hard light crystalline construct of a large fist that would grant him extra strength, screaming as he punched the glass wall, creating a sound wave of green light that caused a fracture in the shape of a star to shatter in the glass, making it spider and splinter outward. "That."

Nadyr raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Not bad." As two guards ran toward the three of them from either side, Natasha held her hand toward the one coming at them from her side, conjuring a clear gold-glow tint shield saw, throwing it into his neck to slash his throat and kill him, the same time that Nadyr held his hand toward the one coming at them from his side, which emanated a glowing red light, shooting a plasma blast out at the guard, shooting him through the chest and out through the back, setting his body on fire as he killed him, as both Natasha and Nadyr watched the bodies of the guards fall. "Apollo, do it again."

Apollo punched the glass with the hard light fist again, creating another sound wave of glowing green light, and a fracture in the glass outlining the first, in the shape of a star again, making it spider and splinter outward even more.

Clearly, this was going to need a few more tries, but they were surely to take it down.

In the pit, the Demogorgon jumped over Hopper to get past the torch, and toward Prisoner 4, who was trying to climb out of the pit, throwing him to the ground, and chomping away on his head brutally and viciously, killing him almost instantly.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Joyce and Murray took the guard they had held at gunpoint into the control room.

Murray aimed the gun at the guard, shouting in Russian to another guard. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him! Toss your gun, over to me!"

Guard 2 put his gun down, sliding it over to them.

Joyce picked up the gun, aiming it at Guard 2. "Stay back."

Murray forced Guard 1 to walk toward the guard that was sitting at the control table, gun still aimed at his head, still speaking in Russian. "You, open all the doors below. You understand? Open the doors!"

"You open all the doors, that monster will get loose in this prison and we are all dead," Guard 1 warned in Russian.

"I will pull this trigger!" Murray threatened in Russian. "Open the doors!"

The control room guard looked down, conflicted.

∰

Outside

Dmitri and Hopper were now the only two left alive, running toward the steel doors, with Dmitri trying to pry them open with a crowbar, while Hopper was trying to keep the Demogorgon back with his torch.

Up on the balcony, Natasha was watching worriedly in horror.

"Apollo..." Nadyr trailed off.

Apollo punched the glass with his hard light fist one more time, creating another sound wave of glowing green light, and a fracture in the glass outlining the first, in the shape of a star again, making it spider and splinter outward even more, until finally it shattered, and the rest of the glass fell away completely, destroyed. "I got it!"

Immediately, Natasha, Apollo and Nadyr jumped over the wall of the balcony, standing on the edge of it, holding onto it.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Murray was still threatening Guard 1 with his gun, while yelling at the control room guard in Russian. "You think I won't do it? Open the door!"

The guard took a shaky breath, before his resolve took hold, speaking in Russian. "If I open those doors, I condemn not just myself, but all of my comrades to death. In good conscience, I cannot. I will not."

Murray nodded in acknowledgement, smiling sarcastically, laughing mockingly, speaking in English. "I gotta hand it to you commies. You're committed."

Murray instantly used his gun to pistol whip Guard 1 in the back of the head, making him yell in pain.

The control room guard gasped, clearly not a fighter.

Murray pushed the unconscious Guard 1 to the ground. Control room guard stood to try and do something, but Murray kicked him in the chest. When Guard 2 lunged closer, Murray turned to kick him in the chest, snapping them both backward, punching control room guard in the face, pistol whipping him in the head to knock him out, turning to kick Guard 2 in the chest, punching him in the head, knocking him out as well. Once all three guards were down, Murray finished in a fighting pose, gun raised toward the ceiling in one hand, and the other hand held out in a karate chop motion.

∰

The Pit

Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo were still hanging onto the edge of the balcony, hanging into the pit.

One hand still holding him to the balcony, Apollo held out his other hand, letting his glowing green light mist waft away from his hand, before conjuring it out to create a glowing green light crystalline construct of stepping stones in the air leading down to the ground for them to run across, in front of himself, and Natasha and Nadyr. All three of them were careful but quick as they ran down the stepping stones.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Murray and Joyce sat at the control board.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay," Murray said.

"What are you doing?" Joyce asked worriedly.

"I have no idea," Murray admitted. "There's a lot of buttons."

∰

Outside - The Pit

Hopper and Dmitri looked up to see the stepping stones and what just looked like figures running over their heads, unable to see their faces (not that Dmitri would recognize them anyway, and Hopper would only recognize one), both confused and stunned, not knowing what was happening. 

When Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo reached the end of the crystalline stepping stones, they flipped through the air and fell toward the ground, landing in front of the Demogorgon just as it was running right for Hopper and Dmitri, their backs to Hopper and Dmitri, their faces still hidden from them.

Nadyr stood in front of Natasha and Apollo, and therefore Hopper and Dmitri behind them, charged up enough to shoot a supersized plasma blast from his chest with a yell, right at the Demogorgon, setting it ablaze with a fiery burst, making it screech and roar in agony.

Hopper, given the chance to help, threw his flaming spear right into the face of the Demogorgon, making it scream and screech in agony.

As Nadyr was holding the Demogorgon off with the plasma beam, and Hopper's spear imbedding into his face was also rendering the Demogorgon completely unable to go after them, Natasha held out both of her hands, forming her shield inside of the Demogorgon, both of their noses bleeding heavily to do so, enlarging her hands to expand the shield within the Demogorgon little by little, to the point that her and Nadyr's powers combined made the monster explode in a rain of blood, fire and flesh.

Apollo conjured a hard light dome over the heads of Dmitri, Hopper, Natasha, Nadyr and himself to protect them from the splattering, exploding remains of the Demogorgon.

Hopper and Dmitri watched in shock but awe, confused now more than ever.

Hopper's eyes landed on the back of Natasha's head; even with her hair cut so short, he seemed to realize who it was before even her face, stunned speechless.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

On the Road

Erica, Dustin, Hailey, Max and Lucas were still riding their bikes to the trailer park, down the road.

As they rode their bikes, they saw the Creel house in the middle of nowhere on their way to the trailer park in the middle of nowhere, all glancing at the house uneasily before continuing on.

Hailey felt the most dizzy she had felt, and intense pain as she was breathing heavily and nearly crying out and screaming in pain, which caused Erica, Dustin, Max and Lucas to look at her in surprise and confusion.

"Hailey?" Max asked.

Hailey went into another fainting spell, crashing her bike in the middle of the road just by the trailer park, landing hard on the ground and rolling across the cement.

Dustin instantly rode his bike up to Hailey in worry. "Hailey!"

Dustin got off his bike and threw it down, kneeling next to Hailey worriedly in concern and horror, especially after this happened three times in one night.

Erica, Max and Lucas also came to a stop, worried.

"What's happening?" Erica asked.

Dustin took Hailey in his arms, trying to wake her up. "Hailey. Hailey, wake up."

"You guys said that you think this kept happening because of her over usage of powers and NIko trying to get through the psychos to get to her, right?" Max asked. Dustin and Lucas nodded, all of them more worried. "Look, we're not that far from the trailer park. It's just a street over. Come on, we can get here there from here even if we can't wake her up yet."

∰

Kamchatka, Russia

Russian Prison - Outside

As soldiers started to storm into the pit, all firing their guns at Natasha, Nadyr, Apollo, Hopper and Dmitri, but Apollo kept the hard light dome over their heads for protection, though of course, the bullets were quickly putting holes into the dome, starting to take it down.

Hopper turned to Dmitri, who was still trying to get the door open behind them. "We're running out of time here!"

"I'm trying!" Dmitri replied, but to his dismay, the crowbar broke in half at the handle when he tried to open the steel door.

As Apollo's dome was nearly completely destroyed by the bullets, Natasha instantly raised her hands and conjured her clear gold-glow tint shield all around the group to protect them, much stronger and more durable against the bullets than Apollo's dome.

Seeing this power, even with the new glow to it, and seeing how much stronger it was, only proved to Hopper what he already knew to be true, as he couldn't take his eyes off of Natasha in shock but relief.

Nadyr spoke through the comms. "Joyce, get this door open!"

Hopper looked at Nadyr at Joyce's name, relieved that his friends were okay, and that he hadn't gotten them killed like he had thought.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Hearing the urgency in Nadyr's voice, Joyce started to push every button on the board.

"No, no, no," Murray told her. "Joyce, we have no idea what these buttons do. You can't just press away like that."

"Nadyr said do something," Joyce replied. "They're all about to be shot down. I have to do something."

"Joyce, just relax," Murray told her. "Come on!"

∰

Outside - The Pit

As Natasha was still holding up the shield, Nadyr emanated with red glowing light as he shot plasma blast after blast at the soldiers out there, setting some on fire instantly, or causing their guns to explode and throw them back through the air.

Apollo conjured razor sharp hard light constructs to throw into the chests or heads of soldiers to take down and kill, or deeply harm, so they could no longer shoot, as it was clear that Natasha's power was draining.

Finally, inside, Joyce hit the right button, and it opened the steel doors behind the group.

Dmitri noticed first. "American! Whoever else you are!"

Dmitri ran through the doors.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Joyce and Murray noticed through the security feed that the doors opened, both cheering.

"That did it!" Murray cheered. "That did it!"

∰

Outside - The Pit

Nadyr grabbed Apollo and ran with him through the doors, both calling out. "Natasha, come on!"

"Natasha!" Hopper told her.

Natasha held up the shield to the last second she needed to, backing away toward the doors behind her, toward Hopper, who was still waiting outside for her to get inside, next to Nadyr and Apollo, the three of them refusing to go inside until they were sure Natasha did as well.

As the soldiers closed in on them with their guns still firing, Natasha used a burst of her strength to thrust the shield out at them, using all of her energy to throw them through the air with as much power as she had, and send them flying to the ground, some landing with broken bones, including necks, or cracked skulls. Because of this, Natasha swayed on her feet, but Hopper caught her arm and pulled her past the doors, inside, as Hopper, Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo backed away inside, but Natasha kept a shield up to protect them from the remaining guards left alive to fire their guns at them.

∰

Inside - Control Room

Joyce and Murray saw that they were all inside.

"Close it, Joyce," Murray told her. "Close it!"

Joyce hit the button to close the doors.

∰

Demogorgon's Cage

Once the doors closed, Natasha finally let the shield fade, breathing heavily from having to expend so much power.

The doors were strong enough to keep a Demogorgon trapped, so of course it was strong enough to protect the group of bullets.

Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo were all breathing heavily, noses bleeding profusely, wiping the blood from their noses.

Hopper couldn't take his eyes off of Natasha in relief and shock.

Natasha returned the gaze just the same, both stunned speechless at each other alive, face to face, after all the hell they both went through over the past year, since they almost died side by side, giving Hopper a small smile. "Hi, there... Jim."

Hopper let out a hysterical chuckle.

Dmitri pointed between Hopper and Natasha. "I take it this is Natasha."

"Yeah," Hopper answered, catching his breath, looking to Natasha's brother. "Nadyr? Taking the fact that the rumors about you being alive were true?"

Nadyr smirked, shrugging, raising his eyebrows, tilting his head. "In the flesh."

"And the kid?" Hopper asked.

"Long story," Nadyr replied. "Apollo, Hopper. Hopper, Apollo."

Apollo waved. "Hi."

Behind them, the door of the cage buzzed open, letting them out of the cage. Dmitri, Hopper, Natasha, Nadyr and Apollo walked out one by one.

Natasha nearly stumbled because of all the excess power, and the fact that she was still wounded, but fought the hardest she could in order to get Hopper back to safety.

Hopper reached out to catch Natasha by the arms, steading her, both of them giving each other a small, stunned smile. Natasha looked so relieved and emotional to the point that she could cry, wrapping her arms tightly around Hopper instinctively, embracing him for dear life. Hopper returned the embrace, so stunned, but realizing that it was finally over, and they were both safe and alive, and together again, he smiled in complete relief, tears in his eyes like he could cry, closing his eyes, pressing his lips to her head and smiling into her hair, in the most emotional and tender moment either of them had ever had before.

Nadyr and Apollo smiled at this, exchanging a look, nodding. Apollo held out his fist, so Nadyr fist bumped him.

Joyce and Murray walked closer to see them all okay, smiling at the sight of Hopper alive again, and seeing Natasha and Hopper so content in a moment of peace after all of the chaos.

Joyce looked to Nadyr, and Nadyr nodded to her in gratitude, giving her a slight smile. Joyce smiled in return, nodding.

∰

Clandestine Camp

After getting showered and changed, Calliope was sitting outside at the Clandestine camp, seeing the camp was trying to have some fun and blow off some steam, having bonfires and floating lanterns.

Jonathan walked closer, sitting nearby Calliope. "Wow. Floating lanterns. Psionic and soldier children running around that you helped save. You're a hero to these people."

Calliope scoffed, shaking her head. "I'm no hero, Jonathan."

"You sure as hell saved me and Mike," Jonathan pointed out. "More than once."

Calliope tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Had to do a lot of bad to do it, though. And a lot of bad to save the kids here."

Jonathan shrugged slightly. "Pretty sure everyone has to do a little bad in order to do some good, right?"

"Yeah," Calliope agreed. "I guess so."

"How are you feeling?" Jonathan asked.

"Like shit," Calliope answered. "But good enough for what we need to do."

"Which includes finding a cure for you," Jonathan told her.

Calliope ignored him. "Look, there's something I need to ask you."

"What?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope showed him a necklace. "This was my mother's. I need you to give this to Apollo once we find him."

Jonathan knew that she was doing this because she had no faith that she would survive. "Callie..."

"Jonathan, please," Calliope told him; despite the desperation in her voice, she clearly hated showing this much weakness, as she thought in her head she was, but needing to say this. "I don't know how much time I have, and I need to know you're gonna be there for Apollo once I'm gone."

"Why me?" Jonathan asked.

"You're one of the best people I know," Calliope answered. "And you know what it's like. You want your brother back so badly, and I don't want Apollo to grow up here. I want him to have a stable home. His life has already been hard enough. I want him to be in a better place. And you gave that to Eleven. Even if you can't give it to Apollo yourself, please just make sure that he's okay, somewhere safe."

"I don't think he's gonna be happy, not without you, Calliope," Jonathan pointed out.

"He is gonna have to," Calliope replied. "So promise."

Jonathan tilted his head, surprised by the pain that this conversation was putting them both through. "Cal."

"Promise me," Calliope insisted.

Jonathan took a deep breath. "I promise I'll do my best to take care of Apollo."

Calliope nodded. "Thank you."

"And his sister," Jonathan added.

Calliope rolled her eyes, looking away. "Seriously?"

"What?" Jonathan asked. "You said promise, and I did."

Calliope smirked barely. "You're an idiot."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and you seem to love that enough to be a friend to me, so shut up."

Calliope smiled for a moment before returning serious. "I think you should tell Nancy."

"What?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope turned to look at him. "About college."

Jonathan scoffed. "Now you wanna talk about me and Nancy?"

Calliope shrugged. "Well, no time better than the present."

"Really?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah," Calliope answered. "And don't change the subject. From what you said, that girl is crazy about you, and she wouldn't want you to be doing this to yourself."

"You think I should give her that pressure?" Jonathan asked. "If I tell Nancy about what I feel like I need to do, to go to college close enough to Will and my mom to take care of them, she'll throw away everything she's worked for and go to the college I go to."

"Maybe," Calliope agreed. "Maybe not. I think you should give her the respect to choose what she wants for herself. And if she dumps you, well, we can always get drunk after."

Jonathan chuckled. "You know, for somebody who doesn't have a boyfriend, you kinda give good relationship advice."

Calliope chuckled. "Okay, now you're just being mean."

"I'm serious," Jonathan replied, chuckling.

Calliope looked down, brushing some hair behind her ear. "Well, never really a time for a relationship. Besides, boys aren't really my thing."

"What is your Calliope Pierce thing, exactly?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope smiled. "Yeah, don't really have that figured out either. I guess as long as she likes me back and all that."

Jonathan was surprised by that. "Wait, she? As in like..."

"Not a he, Jonathan," Calliope answered slowly.

Jonathan smiled. "Holy shit."

Calliope smiled, knowing that Jonathan wouldn't have judged her given Will and Niko. "Yeah."

"That's awesome," Jonathan told her.

Calliope laughed. "Thanks, dude."

Jonathan laughed lightly, before realizing. "You know, I have this friend--"

"You finish that sentence and I'll break your arm," Calliope warned.

Jonathan laughed lightly. "Jeez. You are a lady magnet."

Calliope hit him on the arm. "Shut up."

Jonathan smiled. "Yeah, yeah."

They looked into the field to see Mike was walking through the crowd, accidentally bumping into a woman carrying arrows, making her drop them. The woman was Jessica, one of the girls from the Clandestine flashback mission.

Mike leaned down to help her pick them up. "Oh, I'm sorry. Let me help."

"Thank you," Jessica told him. "I'm taking them to the range. Come on."

"What?" Mike asked. "Okay." Jessica led Mike to the range. Mike looked back at Jonathan and Calliope. "Um, looks like I'm gonna go deliver some arrows."

"Oh, you're gonna deliver some arrows?" Calliope repeated in amusement.

"Yeah," Mike answered. "Make myself useful, you know."

Mike walked away with the arrows.

Jonathan and Calliope exchanged a look, chuckling. They stood, walking toward Rachel, where he was sitting with her brother Aris.

"Hey, Aris," Calliope told him.

Aris looked at her in surprise. "Calliope, you're back. I didn't think it was true."

"Yeah," Calliope said. "Yeah, home sweet home. Let's not get emotional."

Jonathan tilted his head. "Excuse her."

"It's okay," Rachel told him. "We're used to her."

"I was wondering if you could help us," Calliope admitted.

"What is it?" Aris asked.

Jonathan took out the coordinates and map. "We compared the coordinates we got from a location we think might be where my brother Will, Calliope's brother Apollo, and our friends Niko and El are."

"But it's in the middle of nowhere in the ocean," Calliope explained.

"Were you kept anywhere near that?" Jonathan asked. "Maybe talked to another psionic like you who might have?"

"Aris is not psionic," Rachel explained.

"You're not?" Jonathan asked.

"Nope," Aris answered. "I was taken to be tried to turn into one."

"But do you know where this could be?" Calliope asked.

Aris shook his head. "No, sorry. We were kept underground, and there was no water. As for the people with me, including psionics, since the ungifted trainees could still interact with the experiments, the ones with powers were all underground."

"Aris says it's a miracle we found them at all, the ungifted ones," Rachel explained. "Because Mikhail and his men kept them moving around."

Aris nodded. "It felt like something big was happening."

"What about Apollo and the other gifted ones?" Calliope asked. "Any idea where they could be?"

Aris started to remember. "Maybe. There was always this story around the center about a city. A city where some where taken and they get to live freely. We always hoped that maybe we were taken there, and maybe Apollo and your friends are there. They said a black haired angel helps you get there."

Jonathan turned to Calliope, whispering. "A black haired angel?"

"Sounds a lot like our scientist Peter Pan," Calliope whispered back.

Jonathan nodded. "Sabina."

"You think this is where the coordinates lead you?" Aris asked.

"Maybe," Calliope answered.

"It's possible," Jonathan agreed.

Calliope swallowed worriedly in horror, sighing shakily. "So I just have to find this city."

"I don't know how you're gonna do that, Calliope," Rachel told her. "Even though I've already got the lead on the submarine."

Calliope took a deep, shaky breath. "I'll figure it out. I figured out everything this far, haven't I? I'll figure out the fucking rest. I'm going to get Apollo back."

"And your cure," Jonathan added.

Calliope tilted her head, sighing.

Rachel gave her a look, concerned. "You could've told me that you had the virus."

"I know," Calliope agreed. "I'm sorry. I just... I know how close you were with Daniel, and I didn't want to--"

Rachel shook her head. "Don't. I'll help you with anything that you need for your mission, but you have to promise me to be careful."

"Of course," Calliope said softly.

"Okay," Rachel agreed. "I know where the sub will be in the morning."

Calliope nodded in understanding.

"Thank you, Rachel," Jonathan told her.

Rachel nodded.

Calliope looked around in confusion. "Where's Kirill?"

Rachel sighed, looking down. "He left for a mission in Karachi, Pakistan. He didn't have all the details because of people listening on the phones, and so he couldn't tell us what it was about exactly. But he never came back."

Calliope realized what this meant, upset to know that another friend of hers was dead. "How long?"

"He was supposed to be back a couple days ago," Rachel answered. "No contact since."

Calliope nodded in understanding, taking a moment of silence for their fallen friend.

Across the field, Jessica led Mike across the field toward the range.

Mike looked around at other Clandestines training. "I just love how you guys know exactly what you wanna do and you spend your whole lives getting really good at it. I wish I was more like that. It's like every time I get moderately good at something, I just quit and start something new. But I just know my own limits, and I'm not gonna waste my time chasing something that will ultimately be a disappointment for me. That's not me."

They reached the range.

Jessica called over to the thin boy from the Clandestine mission flashback in 4.05. "Indi, hey." Indi walked closer. Jessica nodded to Mike next to her. "Let him shoot."

"What?" Mike asked in surprise.

"If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing," Jessica told him.

Mike frowned in confusion.

∰

Later

A little while later, Mike was practicing more with the bow and arrow, shooting one into a target, shocked when he saw that he got it so close to the bullseye, smiling, mouth dropping, calling over to Jonathan and Calliope. "Hey, Jonathan! Calliope! You see that? That was awesome!"

Jonathan and Calliope smiled slightly in amusement.

"Looks like he found something he's good at," Calliope remarked.

"Yeah," Jonathan agreed. "Jesus."

Mike let loose arrow after arrow into the target, practicing for hours, never quite making it into the bullseye, but getting closer and closer.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Trailer Park

Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica had gotten Hailey to the trailer park, having her sit on the bench as she was coming to.

"Easy, easy," Lucas told her. "You fainted again and crashed your bike pretty badly."

Hailey groaned, part in pain, part in annoyance. "I'm fine."

"That didn't look fine, Hailey," Max told her in concern. "You looked like you were in pain."

"Sure as hell sounded like it too," Erica added in her usual sass, but still showed a sign of concern.

"Hailey, take a beat," Dustin told her. "After everything with your powers, and Niko, and Dark Hailey and Mirage earlier..."

"I'm fine, Dustin," Hailey told him. "But I know that right now, we need to get Steve and our friends out of the Upside Down, now."

Hailey stood, swaying slightly on her feet, but Dustin and Max both reached out to steady her.

"Whoa," Max said. "Like we said, easy."

Hailey sighed heavily. "I'll be good. Promise."

Max was trying to cheer her up. "Since when are you ever 'good'?"

Hailey smirked slightly, smiling a bit at the friend banter. "You know what I mean."

Lucas looked around the nearly abandoned trailer park. "Where is everybody? This place is like a ghost town."

"My mom said that special agents came to clear out the trailer park and relocate most of the people living here to another place after the murders," Max answered, confused. "Including her, which is why she's been MIA. But there are a couple of people that still stick around, like in the RV on the other side of the trailer park."

"Why would they evacuate the trailer park?" Erica asked.

Dustin looked toward the tree where Aaron was killed, pointing to it. "I'm guessing that's why."

They all followed Dustin's gaze to the cordoned off, covered tree, but even though it was covered, it clearly had a red glow beneath the cover, and the Gate's edge was growing along the tree, though completely managed to blend it with it.

"Holy shit," Lucas said.

"You guys were right," Max stated.

"Who would cover it up?" Erica asked. "The guys that evacuated the place."

Hailey nodded. "Probably people tied to Hawkins lab and Owens."

Dustin pointed to the tree. "So can't use Treegate. Looks like we gotta use Trailergate for them to get back."

Max rolled her eyes. "Seriously?"

"I didn't know what else to call it," Dustin admitted.

"Do you think they'll know to use the one in the trailer?" Erica asked.

"Yeah," Hailey answered. "The one in the tree is too small for them to use anyway. It's like micro-tiny."

"Each Gate you opened, it got bigger with each one," Lucas realized. "More power you had to use, that exploded out of you."

"Yep," Hailey agreed. "Let's go."

They walked toward the trailer.

∰

Upside Down

On the Road

The other teens were riding their bikes down the road toward the trailer park, armed up in case anything came for them.

As they rode their bikes, they saw the Creel house in the middle of nowhere on their way to the trailer park in the middle of nowhere, all glancing at the house uneasily, especially with how much more eerie it was in the Upside Down with the red thunderstorm behind it, before continuing on.

Ruby was definitely more offset by the house than the others especially after 4.04.

∰

Trailer Park

The older teens rode the bikes into the trailer park, riding right up to the sight of Aaron's death.

"That's gotta be a Guinness World Record," Robin remarked. "Most miles traveled interdimensionally."

"Right here," Ruby said, stopping in front of the tree outside of Billy and Max's trailer.

They all looked at the Gate in the tree, which was glowing red, and in the shape of a star with the red goo-like substance as the entrance of the Gate.

"Yeah, that's just like the one in Lover's Lake, except way smaller," Steve explained.

"They got bigger each death," Nadia realized. "Same with the bigger explosions of Hailey's power each death."

"You think the kids are right?" Billy asked. "That these assholes are making Hailey open these?"

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" Robin asked.

"Sadly, it does," Nancy answered.

Eddie looked into the gate. "Too small, and it looks like it's blocked off on the other side. Or something."

"Wouldn't be surprised if Owens and his men were trying to cover it up," Nadia pointed out.

"Let's check the one in Eddie's trailer," Ruby stated.

They all got off their bikes and let them fall, walking toward Eddie's trailer, with Eddie leading the way.

Steve coughed up the particles that he accidentally inhaled. "Just inhaled a bunch of that crap. It's stuck in my throat."

∰

Eddie's Trailer

The older teens walked into the trailer, looking up at the Gate on the ceiling.

The Gate was slightly larger than the Gate outside but not as big as the one in the lake, this entrance big enough for one person to go through at a time, while the lake one had been big enough to let a couple through at a time. It was still in the shape of a star and glowing just like Hailey's aura. The growth of vines and tendrils around the Gate was bigger than the actual entrance, all of which had a soft red glow too.

"Goddamn," Billy remarked.

"This was where Chrissy died," Eddie said. "Like, right where she died."

"This was definitely made by Hailey's power," Ruby remarked.

"Not sure how we didn't see that before," Nadia admitted.

"Probably because we were too busy dodging death," Ruby answered with honest sarcasm.

Nadia tilted her head in agreement.

Robin looked up at the Gate. "I think there's something in there."

They watched as something as protruding through the goo.

"What the hell is that?" Billy asked.

Something poked out through the goo-like substance of the entrance, popping it with a violent burst, causing the older teens to jump and back away slightly, as Robin and Nancy both yelped.

Once the goo was popped, it was revealed that it was a stick that popped it, coming from the other side of the Gate from their own world.

The older teens walked closer to the Gate, looking up through the popped entrance to see Eddie's trailer with Hailey, Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica all there, and all looking Upside Down from their point of view.

"No way," Steve said in disbelief.

Hailey, Dustin, Lucas, Max and Erica smiled in relief to see Nadia, Steve, Ruby, Billy, Nancy, Robin and Eddie through the Gate, as the kids saw the older teens from an Upside Down point of view too.

Dustin laughed.

Hailey waved. "Hi, there."

The older teens managed small smiles back. "Hi."

Nadia waved. "Hi, guys."

Ruby was completely intrigued by the Upside Down view of the kids and the trailer. "Holy shit. This is trippy as fuck."

Billy chuckled in agreement.

Max, Billy and Ruby were especially relieved to see each other considering their curses and Max had no idea if they would be okay without their music, and Billy and Ruby had no idea if she would be okay period.

Max sighed shakily in relief. "You're both okay."

"Yeah, we're okay, Max," Billy answered.

"We're all okay," Ruby agreed.

Dustin laughed, cheering. "Bada-bada-boom!"

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Basement

Henry was sitting on the floor.

Eleven was standing in front of him, readying to take out the Soteria.

"Remember, you can't hurt me more than they already have," Henry told her, putting a belt between his teeth, readying for the pain. Eleven let out a breath, holding out a hand, telekinetically moving the Soteria in Henry's neck, as he bit down hard on the belt to fight the pain, which he handled well, until Eleven could rip the device out of his neck completely, telekinetically throwing it away from them to the ground, which landed with a clatter against the concrete floor. Henry breathed heavily in shock now that the device was no longer keeping him weakened and prisoner, standing, walking toward the device, kneeling down to pick it up, glaring at the device. "Huh. Who knew something so small could cause so much trouble?" He looked over his shoulder toward Eleven. "Thank you."

Eleven nodded, wiping the blood from her nose.

Suddenly, several guards burst into the basement, running toward them. "There they are! Stop!"

Henry instantly stood, grabbing Eleven's arm, pulling her with him. "Run!"

They ran as fast as they could, up to the stairs on the other side of the basement, running upstairs to the doors.

∰

Hallway

Henry and Eleven ran down the hallway to try and find a way to escape.

Three guards walked into the hallway in front of them to block their path.

"Hey!" Guard 1 said. "Where do you think you're going?" Two more guards ran into the hallway behind them, blocking both sides of the hall, each one snapping out tasers to use. "Against the wall. Both of you. Now."

Eleven went to do as said.

Henry grabbed her wrist to stop her. "No. You don't have to be afraid of them, Eleven. Not anymore."

Guard 1 smirked sadistically, not thinking that Henry could do anything. "Take 'em."

As the other four guards started to walk forward, Henry instantly turned toward the two guards behind him, thrusting his arm toward them, telekinetically throwing them through the air, making them slam against the wall so hard he broke the bricks of the wall, making them fall.

Eleven watched in shock and confusion.

Henry turned toward the other three guards in front of them, thrusting his hand toward one of the guards, throwing his hand up to telekinetically throw the guard up into the ceiling so hard he tore down ceiling tiles, before throwing the guard down to the floor, before raising his arm toward the guard next to him, telekinetically throwing him into the wall next to him, before thrusting his hand toward him, using much more power to throw him into the wall behind him with enough force to break the bricks of the wall, letting him fall.

The lights were flickering.

Guard 1 held up his hands in complete fear, realizing how badly he underestimated the situation, as all four of the other guards were dead just by that tiny bit of power.

Henry glared at Guard 1, tilting his head to the side, telekinetically snapping his neck, watching his body fall to the floor.

Eleven continued to look at Henry in shock.

Henry led Eleven away. "Come."

∰

Storage Room

Henry led Eleven into the storage room, closing the door behind them, turning toward Eleven. "Wait here. Don't move. I'm going to find us a way out."

Eleven frowned in complete confusion. "Wait. How did you--"

"Like I said, we're alike, you and I," Henry told her, pulling up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the number 001 tattooed on his wrist.

Eleven gasped, taking hold of Henry's wrist with the same hand that had her tattoo, seeing 001 and 011 side by side, looking up at him, even more stunned.

Henry gave a sly smile, turning around, walking out of the room, closing the door behind him, leaving Eleven alone to process what this meant, and wonder about more questionings, while she had no idea what he was truly doing.

∰

Reality

Trailer Park - Eddie's Trailer (both sides of the Gate)

Hailey and Dustin were tying together bedsheets to make a makeshift rope. Dustin glanced at Hailey worriedly, but Hailey just gave him a small, unconvincing smile in return, as both knew that she wasn't okay, but she was trying to be.

Lucas and Max moved Eddie's bed from his room to the living room, placing it down under the Gate, stains prominently seen in the sheets.

The older teens could see them from the other side of the Gate.

Eddie looked embarrassed. "Those stains are, uh... I don't know what those stains are."

Ruby, Nadia, Robin and Nancy gave Eddie a skeptical look. "Hmm."

Steve and Billy smirked at their reaction.

Dustin and Hailey stood, walking toward Lucas, Max and Erica, standing next to them on or around the bed, after they had finished making the rope sheet.

"Not quite sure how these physics are gonna work," Dustin admitted. "But, uh, here goes nothing."

Hailey tossed the rope sheet up at the ceiling, through the open Gate.

On the other side, the rope sheet unfurled out and hung from the ceiling.

Hailey was still holding onto the rope sheet in their world. "There we go."

"And if my theory is correct..." Dustin trailed off, smiling at Hailey. Hailey let go of the rope sheet. They all watched as the rope sheet was staying completely still, hanging from the ceiling on both sides. "Huh. Abracadabra."

Max was stunned and impressed. "Holy shit."

Hailey smirked, calling up to the older teens. "All right, pull on it! See if it holds!"

Billy grabbed onto the rope sheet, pulling on it hard, which meant it was pretty impressive that the rope sheet stayed completely still given that he was so strong.

This caused Dustin to laugh in awe, while Lucas, Robin and Erica were smiling, Nancy, Nadia, Hailey and Steve were watching in intrigue, and Steve, Ruby and Billy were just plain curious, though all of them had to admit that it was pretty cool.

"This is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life," Erica said.

"Yeah, well, take a walk through my mind, and I bet you won't be saying that," Ruby remarked.

"Who would wanna take a walk through your mind, Ruby?" Steve asked. "No offense."

Ruby shrugged. "None taken."

In their world, Erica high fived with Dustin and Hailey, causing Lucas and Max to smirk in amusement.

In the Upside Down, Robin grabbed onto the rope sheet. "Guess I'm the guinea pig."

Robin started to climb up the rope sheet, which held perfectly still despite nothing really holding it up.

In their world, the younger teens were watching.

"Let's clear the landing pad," Hailey told them.

Lucas, Max, Hailey, Dustin and Erica backed away off the bed.

When Robin passed through the Gate and into their world, she was suddenly hanging upside down despite going the same way as she had when climbing up, and she started to fall without the ability to hold her weight up upside down. "Oh, my God!" She landed safely on the bed, sitting up with a slight smile. "Oh, thank God. That was fun."

Hailey smiled, offering Robin a hand. Robin took Hailey's hand to let her help her up off the bed, moving away from it.

In the Upside Down, Steve, Nadia, Ruby, Billy, Nancy and Eddie each exchanged a look, not knowing which one who would go first.

Eddie shrugged, not caring. "All right, guess I'll go."

Eddie started to climb up the rope sheet.

"Easy, easy," Nadia said.

When Eddie passed through the Gate and into their world, he was suddenly hanging upside down despite going the same way as he had when climbing up, and he started to fall without the ability to hold his weight up upside down, landing safely on the bed, sitting up with wide eyes and a big smile. "That... was fun." Dustin smiled, offering Eddie a hand. Eddie smiled, clasping Dustin's hand. "Shit."

Dustin helped Eddie up, away from the bed.

Nancy smiled, starting to climb up the rope sheet.

"You got this, Nancy," Hailey told her.

When Nancy passed through the Gate and into their world, she was suddenly hanging upside down despite going the same way as she had when climbing up, and she started to fall without the ability to hold her weight up upside down. She landed safely on the bed, sitting up with a slight smile and a head tilt. "Not bad."

Hailey offered Nancy a hand, pulling her up, but instead of helping her, it was to throw her through through another Gate that seemed to appear out of nowhere in the shape of a glowing red star repeated in outlines, making Nancy scream in shock and fear as she passed through the portal, revealing that Nancy ended up falling into a Vecna hallucination just as she went through the Gate.

∰

Nancy's Nightmare

Upside Down

Harrington House - Outside (Pool)

Nancy landed in the middle of the Upside Down version of the Harrington pool, which was void of water, but filled with vines and tendrils. She was groaning in pain, sitting up, breathing heavily, slowly rising to her feet. She looked around in complete confusion.

This was the exact location where Barb had died.

∰

Reality

Eddie's Trailer (Both sides of the Gate)

Nancy stood behind the rest of her friends in their world, which was why none of them noticed she was in a trance yet, waiting for Steve, Nadia, Ruby and Billy to come through.

In the Upside Down, Steve looked at Nadia, gesturing for her to go next if she wanted, smiling. "See you on the other side."

Nadia nodded with a slight smile. "On the other side."

"Up you go," Ruby told her.

Nadia started to climb up the rope sheet, much easier and faster than the others, but when she passed through the Gate, she flipped through the air to try and land on her feet, only for the trailer to completely disappear and be replaced by a black, endless void, making Nadia fall for what seemed like forever, making her scream out in shock and confusion.

As her fall in the black void was slowed, Nadia was shown the same image of Barb's dead body that she had seen in Eleven's Void in 1.07, the image that had haunted Nadia over the course of book 2, which hurt her so much since Barb was one of her only friends before everyone else. She was breathing heavily at the sight of Barb's body, decaying with a tendril slipping out of her mouth, but she didn't have much time to process it, as she was thrown through the watery floor of the void, which seemed to shatter, making Nadia burst through to the other side with a rain of glass and water.

∰

Nadia's Nightmare

Russian Psionic Program

Nadia fell through the black sky from above like she was coming from the darkness of the sky from the black void, water and glass shattering and splattering everywhere along the sky, as Nadia fell right toward the cliff outside the psionic program building. She reached out to catch the edge of the cliff before she could continue her fall into the water below, gasping heavily in shock and pain from the seemingly real hit and ache from landing on a cliff and from catching herself from falling more, cuts appearing in her skin. She started to pull herself up to the edge of the cliff, climbing up to solid ground.

Nadia looked around the cliff, and the building built upon the cliff, realizing where she was, in her childhood prison, shaking her head, swallowing, trying not to show fear, but already just the sight of this place was bringing back all of her trauma that she tried not to let take control. "No. No, no, no."

She heard Steve's voice, part of the nightmare to torment her. "Nadia!"

Nadia instantly turned around, seeing Steve standing behind her on the cliff's edge. "Steve?"

Nadia instantly reached out to grab Steve's arm to pull him off the edge, but when she did, the cliff's edge started to crumble and nearly made them both fall, barely keeping them from falling.

Steve held onto Nadia's arms. "Nadia? What's happening?"

Nadia looked at Steve warily, shaking her head. "This isn't real."

Mirage appeared within his orange and purple energy behind Steve, his snake tail wrapping around Steve's throat.

Meanwhile, Nadia heard Vecna's voice laughing in her head. "You don't know what's real, Nadia."

Mirage dangled Steve by his throat over the edge of the cliff.

Nadia tried to stop him. "Steve!" Vecna's tendrils launched out around Nadia's ankles and wrists to keep her from moving, as Nadia fell to her knees in front of Steve and Mirage. Mirage smiled a snakely sadistic smile, before he threw Steve off the edge of the cliff as Steve screamed. Nadia broke free from the tendrils, running to the edge of the cliff, shaking her head in horror at being forced to watch Steve fall off the same cliff that she had seen her father die. "Steve!"

Nadia looked over the edge of the cliff as Steve hit the water, every bone in his body breaking, blood drifting through the water as Nadia watched in horror and torment, closing her eyes, trying to remind herself that this wasn't real, shaking her head.

∰

Reality

Eddie's Trailer (Both sides of the Gate)

Nadia had landed on the bed in their world after making it through the Gate, moved slightly out of the way, kneeling on the floor out of the way.

Steve climbed through the Gate, and flipped downward to land in their world.

Hailey sensed what was happening before anyone could see what was going on, turning toward Nadia and Nancy in worry. "Nadia? Nancy?"

They all looked at Nancy, standing, behind everyone, and Nadia, kneeling on the floor, both stuck in trances.

Steve knelt next to Nadia worriedly, trying to shake her awake. "Nadia? Hey. Hey. Stay with me. Nadia! Hey!"

"Nancy?" Max asked.

"Nadia?" Robin asked worriedly for her friends. "Nancy?"

In the Upside Down, Ruby and Billy looked up through the Gate to hear what was going on.

Ruby realized instantly, worried. "Vecna. Mirage."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Ruby went silent and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Billy turned toward Ruby, noticing this. "Ruby? Ruby, hey." He grabbed her shoulders, trying to shake her awake, worried sick after what happened last time. "Ruby, wake up! Wake up! Ruby!"

Everyone in their world looked up through the Gate toward Billy and Ruby, realizing the same thing was happening.

"Ruby!" Max and Robin both called worriedly.

Before Max even turned to her friend, Hailey was already doing it before they were aware. "Hailey..."

Max trailed off when she realized.

Hailey had already let the sclera of her eyes turn black, and her irises and gem glow red, as she went into a daydreaming state to start to dreamwalk.

∰

Upside Down

Creel House - Attic

Vecna was levitating with the tendrils attached to his back, eyes closed, in a trance.

∰

Mirage's Mind Lair

Mirage was slithering along his mind lair in the castle, jumping along from structure to structure until he reached his throne, using purple and orange energy to tap into Vecna's nightmares that he was giving to Nadia, so that he could confront her himself within the nightmare.

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey appeared in her mind lair of Maze of Mirrors, looking around instantly for glowing edges of mirrors as the red thunderstorm raged on behind her, which was stronger and more violent than ever in her own mind.

Of course, with this being a literal maze of hundreds of mirrors, Hailey had to look hard for the right ones so she could save Nadia, Ruby and Nancy.

∰

Nancy's Nightmare

The Upside Down

Harrington House - Outside (Pool)

Nancy was looking around in utter fear.

Like Vecna had showed Nadia, he showed Nancy the dead, rotting body of Barb within the pool, a tendril sliding out of her mouth.

Nancy gasped in horror and devastation, backing away.

She heard Vecna's voice. "Do you remember what you did, Nancy?" In her mind, Nancy remembered hooking up with Steve, while Vecna was showing her memories of Barb being attacked and killed by a Demogorgon in 1.03, playing on her guilt even more. "Or have you already forgotten? When I kill someone, I never forget."

Vecna showed the last thing that Barb said before her death was screaming for Nadia and Nancy for help, before she was killed.

Suddenly, the pool started to be filled with thick, viscous black blood, which surrounded Nancy and threatened to drown her alive, much to her shock and horror.

Nancy screamed in fear. "No!"

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey managed to find Nancy's mirror first, which was glowing red around the edge, running up to it, able to see and hear everything that Vecna did, which was pretty tame compared to what he would show Ruby, and what Mirage was going to do to Nadia.

As proven that she didn't necessarily need music to help her save victims, but it just helped with Ruby, Max and Billy's cases because Vecna and Mirage had been trying everything to make sure that Hailey didn't save them, Hailey knew that Nancy didn't need music now, especially since she didn't actually see Vecna or Mirage anywhere near Nancy in her nightmare.

Hailey let the gem in her head, along with her irises glow red as she made the sclera of her eyes turn black, as red glowing astral energy aura tendrils appeared around her, from within her body, trailing from her back as her aura appeared all around her. She held out her hands and thrust them toward Nancy's mirror, able to send them through the mirror without breaking it, and out toward Nancy in her dream, as she called for her worriedly. "Nancy!"

Nancy heard Hailey, and saw her powers reaching out for her from above the pool. This gave Nancy the relief and strength to run across the pool through the black blood, and start to climb up the ladder to reach up to Hailey's powers. "Hailey!"

Hailey's red glowing energy tendrils became solid and reached down to Nancy, enveloping her and lifting her out of the pool before she could be drowned in the black blood. As soon as her powers saved Nancy, Nancy instantly snapped awake in the real world.

This was as easy as it was to save Ruby, Billy and Max the first time before their real nightmares started, as Vecna and Mirage didn't actually plan to kill/curse Nadia or Nancy at all.

Young Hailey suddenly appeared next to Hailey, looking about 9 years old, only in her own dream world/vision. "You know it's a distraction."

"What?" Hailey asked. "Why am I talking to young me?"

"Because you don't like talking to Dark you," Hailey answered.

Hailey rolled her eyes at the good point. "Okay, but what's a distraction?"

"Nancy," Young Hailey answered. "They're using her as a distraction against you. To keep you from finding who Vecna and Mirage are really after."

Hailey realized. "Nadia and Ruby."

Hailey ran off to try and find Nadia and Ruby as fast as she could.

∰

Nadia's Nightmare

Russian Psionic Program - Outside

Nadia stood on the cliff, hearing and seeing the same thing that Vecna was showing/telling Nancy, because of Nadia's guilt that she couldn't save Barb in time no matter how hard she had tried, and her guilt for leaving Barb alone that night while Nancy went to hook up with Steve.

Nadia was trying to find a way to get free and escape. When she looked up, Nadia saw the sky shattering, along with a red thunderstorm behind it, and glowing orange/purple energy hurtling toward her with the intent to harm, as huge glass shards fell from the sky all around Nadia, stabbing into the ground, trapping her in a cage, as the area turned completely dark. Nadia looked into the glass shards all around him, seeing his reflection repeated in each piece of glass, breathing heavily, as she squeezed through the mirror shards to escape the cage.

Even as Nadia escaped the cage, it didn't mean that she escaped the nightmare.

Mirage appeared in front of Nadia, making her jump. "You couldn't save Barb, Nadia. And she wasn't the only one that you couldn't save. Like how you couldn't even save the image of Steve. But your father? Another reality altogether."

Mirage, with a wave of his snake tail and a purple and orange glowing aura, conjured the memory of the night that Valkov died right on the cliff they were standing on now.

Nadia looked toward the memory, in shock to see Valkov with Natasha, Young Nadia and Young Niko. "Papa?"

In the memory that Mirage was making Nadia relive, Valkov knew that his family was in no shape to fight after all they had to do already, taking them around the corner to have them hide in cover. "Here, hide here."

Natasha reached out to stop him weakly, knowing what he was going to do. "Valkov, no! Don't you leave us. They'll kill you."

Present day Nadia knew what Mirage was showing her, shaking her head in denial, throat completely going dry, but she couldn't look away no matter how much she wanted to.

Valkov looked at his family in utter pain, not wanting to leave but knowing that it was the best plan that he had in order to save them. "You take them and go, Natasha. No matter what happens to me. You save Nadia and Niko. That's all I care about. You three being safe."

Young Nadia and Young Niko reached for Valkov's hands. "Papa."

"Please don't leave us alone," Young Niko told him.

Valkov held them close for a moment, all four of them crying, before pulling away and drawing his rifle. "Go, Natasha! Run!"

Valkov turned and ran toward the oncoming group of soldiers with his rifle, prepared to fight to the end to save his family.

Natasha, Young Nadia and Young Niko could barely see the fighting given their weakened states, their drained minds and bodies and their blurred visions, but they could see Valkov fighting for them with all he had.

Nadia knew exactly what was coming, shaking her head in denial, trying to push the memory away, trying not to see it. "No."

Valkov was suddenly shot in the neck, gasping, dropping his weapons.

Natasha, Young Nadia and Young Niko screamed in horror and devastation, knowing that there was no way he could survive that. "No!"

Nadia gasped upon having to see it now, so clearly compared to the younger, traumatized version of herself that had been so weak after all night of fighting, shaking her head, tears burning in her eyes that were threatening to spill, which she tried to fight with everything within. "No!" She couldn't help it when a few tears fell. "Papa!"

Valkov stumbled back weakly toward the edge of the balcony and the cliff they were on, his hands pressed over his wound in his neck as he turned his head to look at his family, blood gushing from his neck over his hands and down the rest of his body. He could no longer stay standing and fell backward over the railing, flipping through the air and falling straight into the water below (miles to fall), with a drop so far that it would kill him instantly even while landing on the water.

Natasha, Young Nadia and Young Niko screamed as they watched him fall. "No!"

Nadia couldn't help the sob that escaped, putting a hand over her mouth. "No."

Nadia slowly, hesitantly walked toward the cliff edge, looking over the edge. But all she could see from where she was, looking over the cliff's edge, was every bone in Valkov's body breaking, and blood floating through the water.

In the nightmare, Steve's body was shown dead next to Valkov, every bone broken as their blood drifted all through the water, turning the ocean ice water into pure blood, as Nadia watched in horror.

Mirage appeared behind Nadia once again. "Yes."

Nadia spun around to face him, moving away from the cliff edge so she didn't fall, backing away from Mirage, knowing that this wasn't real and that whatever she tried to do to him wouldn't hurt him in reality. "What the hell do you get out of showing me this?"

"I'm just showing you our history," Mirage answered sinisterly. "I plan on showing you much, much more."

Nadia backed away from him. "Isn't this breaking the pattern? This is Vecna's terrain, not yours."

"Your silly names mean nothing to us," Mirage replied.

After a moment, he let the mirage of the snake monster fade away, to reveal how he really looked as a human, in reality, but being so burned and half dead and rotten after the power that Nadia and Niko had used to try and destroy him in the process of sending him to the Upside Down, his voice still rough and monstrous, but not so much snake-like anymore. "But I've always been one to break the rules for you, Nadia. You.... and all the girls like you." Nadia frowned in confusion. Andrei laughed mockingly. "What's the matter? You don't recognize me? Then again, I do look kind of different. And sound different." Andrei walked closer, creating a mirage on himself that made him look and sound exactly as he had before he was sent to the Upside Down, before everything came crashing down for the Rostovs. "How about now?"

Nadia felt a chill run down her spine at Andrei's voice, even if she didn't clearly remember him due to Sabina's interference. "Who the hell are you?"

Andrei smirked. "Sabina must have really did a number on you to try to make you forget me. But deep down, you know who I am, Nadia. You were always my favorite."

As realization struck, Nadia backed away out of shock and trauma, as Andrei was ripping it all up from the past, breathing shakily. "No."

Andrei stalked closer, making Nadia back away toward the cliff's edge. "Yes. You never remembered the doctor's face or voice clearly because of your grandmother trying to take those bad, bad memories away. But I can show you all of mine and the ones we've shared together. Do you want to see for yourself?"

Nadia glared at Andrei furiously, pushing him away from her, punching him in the face, kicking him back. "Get the fuck away from me!"

Andrei smirked, as anger crossed his eyes, and he lunged forward so fast like a snake, grabbing Nadia by the arms, restraining her with a psychic hold so that she couldn't break free no matter how hard she tried and struggled. "Looks like you do need a lesson in history after all."

Nadia struggled as much as she could, and no matter how she wanted to be strong and furious, which she still was, she was also traumatized knowing that he was the main person who was hurting her back then, and Mirage, AKA him, used that to torment her all over again. "Let me go!"

Andrei gripped Nadia's throat, as he made a mirage of a gunshot wound appear in Nadia's neck, right where he had forced her to watch Valkov get shot in the neck.

Nadia started to gasp for breath as she felt blood flood her throat and lungs; even if it wasn't real, it still felt deadly realistic.

Andrei smiled evilly and sadistically at Nadia's look of horror at making her live through what Valkov's death was like, after having just made her watch and relive it. "It'll be a hell of a ride, Nadia."

Breaking free from the psychic restraint, Nadia pushed Andrei off of her, stumbling back weakly toward the edge of the balcony and the cliff they were on, her hands pressed over her wound in her neck as blood was gushing from her neck over her hands and down the rest of her body and clothes. She tried very hard not to fall off, holding onto the railing of the balcony.

Andrei suddenly appeared in front of Nadia, ripping her hands off the railing with immense strength, and pushed her right off the balcony, making Nadia flip through the air and fall straight toward the water below (miles to fall), just like Valkov and the hallucination of Steve before, watching her fall so far off the cliff toward the water below.

While at the same time, Andrei was forming purple/orange pockets of energy all through the air all around Nadia as she fell, showing her each memory that Sabina had taken away, including the more gruesome memories of the "smiley men" hurting Nadia and the girls like her, including Andrei, and everything that Niko had remembered in 4.06, showing her that he had almost destroyed her family, and that Nadia and Niko had indirectly created Mirage and by blasting Andrei with the power of the experiment he conducted, and sent him to the Upside Down before it became what it was now, and showing how he was the reason all of the family had been so weak to the point that Natasha, Nadia and Niko couldn't fight or use their powers to defend themselves against Grigori and Mikhail and their men to save Valkov, and why Valkov had been so injured that he was killed, showing Andrei's part in almost every major trauma from Nadia and Niko's childhood, and making her live through what Valkov's death was like when he made it appear to happen to her directly, after showing her a hallucination of how it happened to Steve.

Nadia couldn't even look away from the memories playing all around her, and if she did, it didn't make a difference, as every memory was playing through her mind as she was attacked by tendrils and snakes in the air all around her as she continued to fall. She looked below her as she fell, seeing that the icy ocean water had turned completely into blood from Steve and Valkov's blood.

Valkov and Steve were waiting for Nadia, zombie-fied, Vecna-victim looking as every bone was broken in their bodies, their eyes were completely white and bloodshot, and blood was trailing from their eyes like tears of blood, with spiders and snakes crawling and slithering all over their bodies. They were waiting to drown Nadia with them, reaching for her.

Valkov and Steve spoke in Andrei/Mirage and Vecna's voices, traumatizing her even more. "Join us, Nadia."

Nadia couldn't help it when she screamed. "No!"

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey found Nadia's mirror before she found Ruby's, and seeing Nadia's nightmare, hearing what was said, and seeing that she was falling just like her father had died, even shot in the throat like that, made her sick to her stomach and so worried and protective of her sister/mother figure.

Instantly with as much power as she could manage and as quickly as she could, Hailey let the gem in her head, along with her irises, glow red as she made the sclera of her eyes turn black, as red glowing astral energy aura tendrils appeared around her, from within her body, trailing from her back as her aura appeared all around her. She held out her hands and thrust them toward Nadia's mirror, able to send them through the mirror without breaking it, and out toward Nadia in her dream, as she called for her worriedly in horror. "Nadia!"

Nadia heard Hailey, looking up into the sky, and saw her powers reaching out for her, going as fast as they could to reach Nadia in time. "Hailey!"

Hailey's red glowing energy tendrils became solid and reached out to Nadia, wrapping around her to catch her before she landed in the blood water with Valkov, enveloping her. As soon as they touched Nadia, Nadia instantly snapped awake in the real world.

∰

Reality

Eddie's Trailer (both sides of the Gate)

One moment after another, Nadia and Nancy both gasped awake, nearly falling, both gasping for breath, Nadia definitely more traumatized, but Nancy had certainly been traumatized too.

Everyone sighed in relief to see Nadia and Nancy both waking up, concerned by how badly they got shaken up by Vecna and Mirage.

Steve pulled Nadia into his arms protectively in relief, closing his eyes. "Oh, my God. Nadia."

Nadia held onto him tightly, needing the comfort after what she had just experienced, relieved to see that he was okay after the nightmare, but still hurting and tormented. "Steve..."

"Shh, shh," Steve shushed, holding Nadia protectively, brushing down her hair with his hand to try to comfort her and calm her down. "It's okay."

Hearing that Nadia and Nancy were awake, Billy looked up through the Gate, minutely relieved, but still more focused on the fact that Ruby wouldn't wake up, freaking out.

Robin and Erica were comforting Nancy.

"It's okay," Robin told her. "It's okay."

Max looked up through the Gate toward Ruby and Billy worriedly in horror. "Billy, Hailey's still dreamwalking. Nadia and Nancy are awake. Is Ruby up yet?"

"No," Billy answered, freaking out. "I swear if those assholes are trying to stop Hailey again.... Ruby, wake up! Ruby!"

Ruby couldn't wake up.

Steve and Nadia looked up at them through the Gate worriedly.

∰

Maze of Mirrors

Hailey was searching for Ruby's mirror frantically, but she couldn't find it anywhere, no matter where she looked. "Where is she? Where is she? Ruby? Why the fuck can't I find her?"

Dark Hailey appeared in the place of Young Hailey. "I told you it was a distraction."

"I like talking to Young me more than Dark me," Hailey replied, glaring at Dark Hailey furiously for the mind fight earlier that night. "Get the fuck away from me."

Dark Hailey smirked smugly, walking closer. "I think by now you know that you really can't tell me what to do, Hailey. You can't keep me locked up forever. And why would I leave you alone? So you can find Ruby? Maybe that's not what we want."

They both sensed a new mirror glowing, turning toward that mirror.

In the mirror that started to glow, it showed Mirage, in full snake monster form, in his mind lair, as he let out his evil, twisted, hissing laughter. "You can't find Ruby.... because she's not in her dream."

"Then where the fuck is she, you child torturing psychopath?" Hailey snapped furiously.

Dark Hailey tilted her head at Hailey. "We both know the answer to this, Hailey."

Hailey realized, speaking the same time as Dark Hailey. "Vecna's."

"He pulled her into his mind this time," Hailey stated.

This time, Hailey tried looking for a mirror leading to Vecna's dream, but of course Vecna could hide his dreams from Hailey's dreamwalking, just like Mirage could control whether or not she saw his.

Dark Hailey watched her in annoyance. "You really just don't get it, do you?"

Hailey turned toward her in frustration. "Get what? I don't have time for this!"

"Well, I haven't liked my time in the back of your mind, where you try to keep me locked away nice and tight," Dark Hailey replied. "You find out that your powers are being used to help the destruction of the world, and the first thing you do is go help that bunch of dumbasses you call friends."

Hailey glared. "Don't call them that."

Dark Hailey snapped, her voice deep and monstrous. "Quiet!"

A red lightning strike struck down near them.

Hailey gasped silently, glaring at Dark Hailey. "What are you doing?"

"I'm so sick of you and your pathetic goodness," Dark Hailey growled. "I have been here for a year, locked away, watching you hide from being me from behind your deep, cowardly, full of fear eyes. And I'm just so fucking done with you."

Hailey rolled her eyes, not caring about this. "So basically what you're saying is that you have no life other than being a pain in my ass? 'Cause I'm already aware of that."

Hailey tried to run past Dark Hailey to try and find Ruby.

Dark Hailey pushed Hailey back, stalling her, laughing sarcastically. "Oh, I get it. You think you know everything. You got your little gang, your power and your cute little boyfriend. You just know what you're talking about. You don't know jack shit, Hailey. But you know what? Go on, save your friends. But I'm giving you this one and only warning. Watch your back. Because there will come a day when I'm not so kind as to let you go. You've already seen what I could do to you and Niko. Believe me when I tell you that I, and you, can do so much worse."

Hailey could only glare.

∰

Vecna's Mind - Ruby's Nightmare

Flashback - 10 Years Ago

Day - Charlize Home - Living Room

Ruby suddenly appeared in Vecna's mind, his plan to keep Hailey from finding her and waking her up until he had already showed her everything he wanted to, but in the memory of hers that he dropped her in.

Young Ruby was recovering from a beating by her parents, bruised, cut and bleeding, only 8 years old, shortly before the accident that killed her parents and almost her. She was crying softly, sitting in the corner, leaning her head against her knees.

Melody and Anthony walked closer.

"Oh, Ruby, don't be such a baby about it," Anthony told her, clearly drunk.

"What did we learn to day, darling?" Melody asked.

Young Ruby looked down. "Not to take food from my friends. I didn't steal. Jesse gave it to me."

"Yes, but we didn't get to eat for a while, did we?" Melody replied. "We didn't have enough money for food."

"You get to eat when we do," Anthony told her, both of them clearly past the point of reason.

"I was hungry," Young Ruby told them. "So hungry."

"Don't you think that we are too, Ruby?" Melody asked. "It doesn't fucking matter--"

Melody took a deep breath to calm herself down.

Anthony threw his glass against the wall, making it shatter just above Young Ruby, making her duck and cover her head with her arms.

Young Ruby got cuts in her arms that would leave scars for years to come.

Ruby looked at the scars on her arms now, that she still had from that moment, looking down.

She heard Vecna's voice in her head. "You said that you missed them, Ruby. That you missed the way they treated you. Hurt you. Like you deserved. Just like they did. Like how Billy hurt you last year. Like you both deserved."

Ruby looked up, glaring, not seeing Vecna yet, but knowing he would hear her. "Fuck off."

Melody looked at Young Ruby. "You know what? I'm half tempted to not let you near Jesse anymore after this. She can't give you food if you're not her friend anymore, can she?"

"Mom, please," Young Ruby begged. "Jesse's the only friend I have left. Everyone else says that I'm crazy. That my family is."

Ruby could hear Vecna's evil, ironic laughter, which caused her to close her eyes in annoyance, as she tried not to let him get satisfaction by giving him a reaction to what was happening here.

"Crazy, huh?" Anthony asked. "Well, there are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain, the mind must leave reality behind. Awareness is the enemy of sanity, for once you hear the screaming, it never stops."

Melody knelt in front of Young Ruby, placing a hand to her cheek, which caused her to flinch after the beating that she had just gotten. "Shh, shh. It's okay. I'll tell you something that someone who used to be very important used to tell me when I was your age. It's a mad, mad world, Ruby. And in a mad world, only the mad are sane."

"What does that mean?" Young Ruby asked, completely lost.

"For me, insanity means super sanity," Melody told her. "The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity. Lack of the free will to live how they're supposed to, and not by anyone else's rules they follow. Most people believe most of the things they believe, only because they believe that most people believe them. And when enough insane people scream in harmony that they really are healthy, they can actually start to believe themselves. Or put even more simply, people with overlapping delusions get along wonderfully. Like me and your father. It's so much easier that way, Ruby. To be with someone just as crazy as you, someone who understands."

Anthony laughed lightly. "See what we mean? You gotta be crazy. Ain't no time to be sane. Never attempt to apply logic to madness, Ruby. For there is none. It is the nature of madness to be illogical, so don't try to understand it. Other people calling it crazy or lunacy makes it easier to explain the things they don't understand."

Melody brushed back some of Ruby's hair. "Everybody looks a little crazy if you're looking close enough, and if you can't look that close, then you don't really love them."

Young Ruby was completely lost by the gaslighting of her own parents, having no idea what they were talking about. "They called me crazy for seeing things that weren't there. For talking to myself. That I have delusions to escape reality."

"Delusions are hardly an escape from reality," Melody told her. "It's a way of understanding insane people living in a backwards world. I'm talking to myself in two different personas. I'm reaching for a full-throttle meltdown, and why not? Why stop halfway? Why not just go for it, jump on and ride the wave?"

"Maybe you're normal, and they're the crazy ones," Anthony told her. "Ever think of that? Maybe everyone should talk to themselves. Your mother and I sure do. Why not everyone? Maybe they're all just afraid of what they would say."

Melody shrugged. "Perhaps if you know you are insane, then you are not insane. Or you are becoming sane, finally."

Anthony poured himself another drink. "Seems to me that there is a fine line between insanity and dedication. I call that line commitment."

Anthony took a drink.

"It's also a fine line to walk between insanity and reality," Melody agreed. "The lines are not made of rich, black charcoal, but that of a nebulous gray watercolor. The transition so vaguely defined that it might as well not even be there. And when the line's so arbitrary, we find ourselves lost between right and wrong."

Anthony raised his glass in a toast. "The threads of sanity and insanity are interwoven in each of us beautifully, Ruby. You can choose to scrutinize one thread and let people judge us or observe both and admire the magnificence."

Whenever Melody touched Young Ruby, Young Ruby seemed seduced deeper into the madness and darkness, like she agreed more and more with each word, even if she didn't understand them completely.

Melody's nose bled a little, which she reached up to wipe away, with the hand that had the tattoo with the number 002 on it.

Anthony raised his glass with his hand that had the tattoo with the number 003 on it, taking a drink.

Ruby had known for two years that Melody and Anthony had been 002 and 003 because of Nadia and Steve looking into it, and she knew that she got her powers from them even without Ruby herself being involved in the program, but she had had no idea what their powers had been as she had been too young, and they had never obviously used them in front of her.

But Ruby recognized the signs of what Melody was doing to Young Ruby, her own daughter, and looked at them in realization and horror, betrayal. "She had madness manipulation. Like me. Mom. She... she did this to me."

She could hear Vecna laugh darkly in her head, even though he sounded furious. "And you're not the only one she did this to."

Ruby was overwhelmed and confused, shaking her head. "I don't understand. I forgot how fucking crazy they were. They make me look like I'm sane."

Melody and Anthony suddenly turned their heads toward Ruby.

"Is that so?" Anthony asked.

Ruby was surprised and unsettled, having thought that this would be just a memory, backing away.

Melody walked toward Ruby, her voice mingling with Vecna's voice, tilting her head darkly as she glared at Ruby. "And you don't even know the half of it, Ruby. To know it all, you have to go back to the beginning."

Melody backed Ruby toward a grandfather clock that had suddenly appeared behind Ruby.

Ruby looked back and realized that it was the Creel/Vecna grandfather clock, trying to move away quickly, but Melody pushed Ruby right into the clock, and seemingly right through the glass as if it was water, making Ruby gasp and let out an echoing yell.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Storage Closet

Eleven was waiting where Henry told her to wait, pacing.

When she heard the alarm start blaring, Eleven gasped, stopping where she was, looking toward the door.

∰

Hallway

Eleven walked out of the storage room, into the hallway with the five dead guards that she had seen Henry kill.

On the floor, one of their walkies was going nuts, the signal scrambled, but a little girl's scream was still very audible through the radio.

Eleven walked toward the walkie, picking it up, turning to nob to hear the station clearer, only to hear more screaming.

She started to hear screaming from the distance as well.

Eleven stood, walking out of this hallway and into the next.

The lights were flickering badly, and blood was staining everywhere, bodies all over the building.

Eleven looked into the testing room, seeing that Young Apollo and Sabina were both knocked unconscious by the door that Henry had hit them with, but left them alone thinking that they were dead because their heads were covered in blood.

Eleven too thought they were dead, back then, gasping in horror at seeing Young Apollo, her only friend here, "dead" on the floor next to the woman that she had grown to call Mama.

Eleven continued walking, finding many more bodies of orderlies, psionic children, guards and nurses alike. She even saw Brenner on the floor, looking half dead himself, but of course he had survived this attack just like Apollo, Sabina, and Eleven herself had.

As Eleven continued down the hallway, and she saw the bodies of the younger children, she was crying in horror and devastation.

Hearing more screaming, Eleven walked around the corner of the hall, finding more bodies, and looking down the hallway toward the double doors that led to the rainbow room, where the screaming was coming from. She started to run down the hallway toward the rainbow room.

∰

Rainbow Room

Eleven ran into the room, pushing the double doors open as she did, looking around the blood covered, body-filled room in horror.

All of the older psionics had been in this room, the bullies, when they had been killed. Some younger ones too.

Now covered in blood, Henry telekinetically had Four pinned to the wall, arm raised toward him as he glared, making him shake and convulse, his eyes turning white and blood dripping from his eyes like tears. Henry's eyes rolled into the back of his head as his nose bled, clenching his fist, making Four's eyes explode out of his head, before letting him fall to the floor, dead.

Eleven gasped in horror and fear.

Henry was looking down at Four's body with a look of darkness and insanity, seething quietly, wiping the blood from his nose, raising his head, turning it to look at Eleven from over his shoulder. "I asked you to wait."

Eleven turned toward the doors, trying to open them to run. "No!"

Henry turned to face her, tilting his head, using telekinesis to slam the doors closed.

Eleven tried to open the doors again with a yell, but couldn't, giving up, turning to face Henry in terror.

Henry slowly stalked toward Eleven. In the mirror behind him, Young Eleven's reflection was shown, a scared, traumatized little girl, shaking with fear, crying in pain.

Henry stood in front of Young Eleven, placing a finger under her chin, raising it for her to look up at him. "Why do you cry for them, Eleven? After everything they did to you? Hmm?" He took his hand away. "You think you need them, but you don't. You don't. Oh, but I know you're just scared." Eleven was shown as present day El again. Henry wiped her tear away. "I was scared once too." Eleven turned her head away. "I know what it's like to be different. To be alone in this world."

∰

Vecna's Mind Space

Destroyed Creel House

The grandfather clock was floating, as Ruby fell through the glass like water and fell to the ground, hitting the broken steps, making her groan in pain as some splinters and spikes from the wooden steps cut her skin.

Ruby pushed herself up, realizing she was standing on the steps of the destroyed Creel house, looking around the red mind space that she had seen in 4.04, dreading to be back here. She slowly stepped down from the steps toward solid ground, taking shaky breaths, looking up toward the grandfather clock over her head as it was ticking away.

The clock chimed.

She heard Vecna, close, like it wasn't just in her head anymore, but nearby. "Welcome back, Ruby. At least this time I brought you here myself. And Hailey's not going to save you this time. Not until I'm done."

Ruby showed more anger and aggression than anything. "Done with what? You son of a bitch."

Vecna's voice echoed all around her, making Ruby look around for the source of the voice, but never saw him, as he was playing with her mind once again. "Your friends have been looking for me, but you've been closer than them without ever even trying. So close. So close to the truth. You saw more than anyone else ever did. You saw the family home in your dreams. You saw what I did to victims and saw old, blind, dumb Victor before any of this even begun. I wonder if he missed me. I've been meaning to check back in, but I've been busy. You have no idea how ironic it is that you put Aaron into the asylum next to Victor, just like someone we both knew did to Victor the same way you did."

Frowning in confusion, Ruby turned around again, only this time to come face to face with Chrissy and Aaron's bodies strung up by tendrils on the stone pillars, backing away with a start, closing her eyes, knowing that she should have remembered that and not be spooked by it, but it was hard not to be even if she had seen it before.

Suddenly, the door with the rose stained glass window appeared in front of Ruby, which was glowing with sunlight behind the door glass, causing Ruby to walk closer curiously despite her best efforts not to.

∰

Flashback 1 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Foyer

These flashbacks were mostly the same flashbacks from 4.04 showing the Creel family, but from a different perspective that showed the entire truth, intercut with Henry and Eleven scenes in the scenes she remembered.

The Creels walked into their new home, looking around, taking in everything around them.

Young Victor looked at Virginia. "What'd I tell ya?"

Virginia smiled. "Wow."

Alice walked through the foyer excitedly, looking around. "This is amazing." As she turned around to face her family, Ruby was revealed to be watching the memory, confused as to why Vecna was showing her this. "It looks like a fairytale. A dream."

Alice ran upstairs.

Cheryl looked back at Young Henry, nodding for him to come with. "Come on, Henry."

"In a minute," Young Henry replied.

Cheryl shrugged, running past Ruby and upstairs.

Ruby turned to look over her shoulder to watch Alice and Cheryl run upstairs, confused, lost.

"Alice, Cheryl, no running," Virginia warned.

"It's so big," Cheryl told them.

Young Henry stayed standing behind his parents, his eyes closed, keeping to himself.

Young Victor put his arm around Virginia, sighing happily. "This is nice."

Virginia smiled, nodding, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Ruby turned toward Young Henry, seeing that he had his eyes closed.

Cheryl turned back on the staircase, looking over the room, glancing down at Young Henry, as both shared a significant look.

Ruby noticed the exchange, confused.

She heard Vecna's voice in her head. "Like you, Cheryl didn't fit in with the other children. Something was wrong with her. All the teachers and the doctors said she was... broken. Insane." Ruby didn't think that she could stay in the foyer, so she followed Cheryl up the stairs, trying to see more about her. "Soon, she made her brother just the same."

Ruby followed Cheryl into another room.

∰

Flashback 2 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Living Room

Cheryl and Young Henry were sitting down at the coffee table.

Cheryl scoffed. "They think that a fresh start in Hawkins is going to fix anything. That it's going to cure me. It's absurd. As if the world will be any different here. And the way Alice treats me like a monster doesn't help any."

"I know," Young Henry agreed. Cheryl gazed off as she seemed to be seeing things in her own mind, tilting her head, closing her eyes as she relished in whatever she was seeing in her mind. Young Henry was drawing in a notebook, looking up at Cheryl curiously, wondering what she saw. "What do you see when you go away like that, Cheryl?"

Cheryl tilted her head upright, opening her eyes to look at Young Henry. "You really wanna know?"

Young Henry nodded.

Cheryl smiled, reaching out to grab Young Henry's hand.

Young Henry gazed off at nothing.

In Young Henry's mind, he could see nothing but spiders, black widows, crawling all around.

Cheryl's nose started to bleed a little as she showed Young Henry what his madness would see.

Young Henry looked around the room, as the lights flickered, due to his own powers. He looked at Cheryl, as Cheryl nodded.

Ruby watched them in confusion but starting to realize what was happening, even if she didn't realize exactly just yet.

Vecna's voice continued. "But then to our surprise, our new home provided a discovery."

Young Henry smiled, taking Cheryl's hand, leading her to the door. "Come on. I want to show something that you'll like."

∰

Den

Young Henry led Cheryl into the den, the same room that Ruby and Billy had investigated in 4.05.

Ruby followed them in.

Young Henry led Cheryl right to the vent in the floor that Ruby and Billy had found the jars of black widows.

Young Henry and Cheryl knelt next to the vent.

"What are you doing, Henry?" Cheryl asked.

"You'll see," Young Henry told her, opening the vent, placing the vent aside.

Ruby watched them curiously.

Another voice played over the scene, as it intercut between Henry/Eleven, and what Vecna was showing Ruby of the past now.

Henry: (voice over) "And a newfound sense of purpose."

Young Henry reached into the vent, toward where a black widow was crawling along its web.

Henry: (voice over) "I found a nest of black widows living inside a vent."

The black widow crawled onto Young Henry's hand, as he lifted his hand out to show Cheryl the spider on his hand.

Cheryl couldn't help but smile in awe as she looked at the spider, both completely unafraid.

Ruby watched in intrigue, stepping closer, as she herself had never been scared of black widows, shown before in her hallucinations and in reality in 4.05.

Henry: (voice over) "Most people fear spiders. They detest them. And yet, I found them endlessly fascinating. More than that, I found a great comfort in them. A kinship that I shared with Cheryl."

Ruby was watching so intensely that when she heard running behind her, she jumped as she turned around, seeing Young Henry and Cheryl run past down the hallway in another memory, starting to follow them.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry was speaking to Eleven. "Like me, they are solitary creatures. And deeply misunderstood."

∰

Flashback 3 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Attic

Ruby followed Young Henry and Cheryl into the attic, seeing that they were sitting surrounded by lit candles, and looking at black widows in jars.

Henry: (voice over) "They are gods of our world. The most important of all predators."

Ruby walked closer, seeing Cheryl start to sketch a spider as a gift to Young Henry since she knew how much he loved and bonded with spiders.

Even for an eight year old, Cheryl was incredibly talented at drawing.

Ruby frowned at the drawing, remembering one of her own drawings looked a lot like that when she was younger.

Henry: (voice over) "They immobilize and feed on the weak, bringing balance and order to an unstable ecosystem."

Cheryl looked to Young Henry, handing him the picture. "I hope you like it, Henry."

Young Henry gave a smile. "I do. Thank you, Cheryl." Cheryl looked down. "What's wrong?"

"It's just Alice," Cheryl answered. "She called me insane again."

Young Henry shook his head. "It's okay. Remember what I always told you. It's a mad, mad world, Cheryl. And in a mad world..."

Ruby was shocked to hear this quote after Vecna just showed her a memory of Melody telling her the exact same thing, finishing the quote with Young Henry and Cheryl, all three speaking at the same time. "Only the mad are sane."

Young Henry nodded to Cheryl. "That's right. You're the one that taught me that, little sister. You've opened my eyes to everything I was missing before."

"I made you see things as much as I see things," Cheryl replied. "I didn't mean to do it too much. Just to answer your question about what I saw when you said you wanted to see."

Young Henry nodded. "I know. But you have liberated me, Cheryl. And together we can liberate the world, if you want. What do you say? Even if they all think we're insane for it."

Cheryl tilted her head in thought. "For me, insanity means super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity. Lack of the free will to live how they're supposed to, and not by anyone else's rules they follow. Most people believe most of the things they believe, only because they believe that most people believe them. And when enough insane people scream in harmony that they really are healthy, they can actually start to believe themselves. Or put even more simply, people with overlapping delusions get along wonderfully. Like me and you. It's so much easier that way, Henry. To be close with someone just as crazy as you, someone who understands. Even if I had to make you understand."

Ruby was even more shocked to hear Melody's quote from Cheryl like this, and the way she spoke about making Henry understand by making him just as crazy as her, realizing what this meant, but was confused and in denial, not knowing what to really think.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry turned to face Eleven, going on to speak about the insanity harmony that Cheryl had just been talking about in the flashback. "But the human world was disrupting this harmony. You see, humans are a unique type of pest, multiplying, and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a structure of their own. A deeply unnatural structure."

This speech was so close to what Anthony and Melody were telling Young Ruby in their flashback, which Ruby could hear every word of, especially since Vecna was also going to show her everything at Hawkins lab as well.

∰

Flashback 4 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Living Room

Ruby followed Young Henry down the stairs.

Young Henry watched the grandfather clock intensely as it was ticking away.

Henry: (voice over) "Where others saw order, I saw a straitjacket. A cruel, oppressive world dictated by made up rules. Seconds, minutes..."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry continued his rant to Eleven. "Hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, eat, work, sleep, reproduce and die. Everyone is just... waiting." He stepped toward Eleven, who looked so confused, both in present time and for her younger self. "Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day."

∰

Flashback 4 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Living Room

Ruby watched how intently Young Henry was watching the grandfather clock, confused, not sure how much of this was Vecna showing her things, or if it was just a cruel trick of her own mind, but part of her knew that Vecna was showing her this, and showing her the truth.

Henry: (voice over) "I could not do that. Neither could Cheryl. We could not close off our minds and join in the madness."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry stood in front of Eleven now, pointing to his head. "We could not pretend. And we realized we didn't have to."

∰

Flashback 4 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Living Room

Young Henry was still watching the clock, closing his eyes, using telekinesis to move the clock backwards as if in time, making it back the same distorted chiming that was always present during the Vecna and Mirage attacks.

Cheryl walked toward Henry, watching him, smirking slightly.

Ruby looked between the two nervously.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry continued to explain to Eleven, which Vecna was also allowing Ruby to see/hear to explain to her as well. "We could make our own rules. We could restore balance to a broken world. Predators... but for good."

Ruby saw a glimpse of this memory of Henry talking to Eleven after the massacre, confused, before being pulled right out of this memory and thrust into another so fast that it made her dizzy.

∰

Flashback 5 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Outside

Even though there was a playground across the street from the Creel House, since the house was in the middle of nowhere, no one could see Young Henry using his power to mutilate the animals that had scared the Creel family.

Cheryl had touched two of dogs and drove them completely insane, literally rabid, as the two dogs literally fought each other to the death, ripping each other apart. When she touched another dog, she turned it so insane that it started to use its own teeth and claws to tear at itself harshly and brutally, starting to bleed, biting itself over and over, ripping itself apart, going so insane with madness, just like being rabid, until he ended up killing himself.

Ruby looked stunned and sick to her stomach as she looked away, putting more and more pieces together, since she knew that the dead animals were a sign that was related to Vecna.

Henry: (voice over) "As we practiced, we realized we could do more than we possibly imagined. I could reach into others, into their minds, their memories. Cheryl could give hallucinations and turn others completely insane. She could also make them more sane, but she never did that."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry was pacing, explaining to Eleven, which Vecna also allowed Ruby to see/hear. "Cheryl thought that more should be like her and I. So we wouldn't be alone in this mad world, where only the mad are sane. At first, like with me, she couldn't control what other people saw. But with time and practice, she could control any hallucination that she wanted to give... and even helped me find a way to do that in my own way." As Ruby was watching and listening this part, where Henry was explaining to Young Eleven, she was gasping softly at the revelation, knowing exactly what it meant and how bad it really was. "We became explorers. We saw our parents as they truly were. "

∰

Flashback 1 - 1959

Day - Creel House - Outside

Just before the Creels walked into their house for the first time, Virginia and Young Victor smiled as they wrapped their arms around Young Henry, Cheryl and Alice, all the kids smiling at the house.

Ruby saw this family, seemingly perfect, from a few feet away.

Henry: (voice over) "To the world, they presented themselves as good, normal people."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space / Vecna Showing Ruby

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry was pacing, turning to face Ruby and Young Eleven. "But like everything else in this world, it was all a lie. A terrible lie." In the memory, altered to explain, Henry turned his head to look at Ruby who was being forced to watch from the corner of the room next to several bodies. "They had done things, Ruby." Ruby looked up in surprise, looking toward Young Eleven, but of course she showed no reaction. "Such awful things. Letting our sister Alice get away with the way she treated Cheryl for all of her life, and then me when I became like her, was just the beginning."

∰

Flashback 6 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Living Room

Young Victor had fallen asleep in a chair, reading a newspaper.

Cheryl was standing beside Young Victor, placing a hand on her father's arm, as she was teaching Young Henry his way of altering the visual damage that he could do to others with his telepathy rather than madness manipulation.

Ruby was forced to watch, including the nightmare that they gave their father together, able to see it clearly in front of her as if it was happening to her right then and there.

In Victor's waking nightmare which Ruby could see, a baby in a crib appeared within the fireplace, crying as it was set on fire, burning alive.

Ruby let out a shaky breath.

Henry: (voice over) "We showed them who they really were. We held up a mirror."

Cheryl and Young Henry exchanged a victorious smirk, smiling.

∰

Attic

Ruby appeared suddenly in the next memory, watching as Cheryl and Young Henry (one or the other, or both) gave Young Victor a hallucination of the attic.

Young Victor walked through the attic, paranoid, shaking with fear, as he looked all across the attic to see things that weren't supposed to be there, including old dresses, a baby stroller, and so much more.

Young Victor turned to see an old wheelchair behind him, walking closer to the dirt covered wheelchair, frowning in confusion, somehow thinking that this being here when it shouldn't have been was the most disturbing, especially as he saw that the shadow of the wheelchair was moving across the floor even though the wheelchair itself wasn't moving.

Even Ruby looked deeply unsettled by the wheelchair for the mere fact that she had almost had to use one for the rest of her life after the car crash when she was eight.

In the next shot, in reality, it was revealed that none of the things that Victor had seen in his hallucination were there at all. The attic was almost completely empty with little to nothing there.

Henry: (voice over) "Our naïve father believed it was a demon cursing them for their sins."

∰

Flashback 7 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Cheryl's Room

Cheryl was sitting on her bed, drawing whatever she saw in her hallucinations.

Ruby was watching Cheryl draw, recognizing most of the drawings as things she also saw in her hallucinations which she herself drew to try to get them out of her head, but clearly, Cheryl was drawing them to immortalize them so she would never forget.

Alice walked past Cheryl's room, looking into the room, glaring at Cheryl suspiciously.

Cheryl looked up, seeing Alice's glare, returning the glare with one of her own, much more intimidating and dark than Alice could have imagined.

The glare from the eight year old, broken minded girl sent chills down Alice's spine, as she ran away.

Henry: (voice over) "Alice believed that the demon chose to haunt us because of Cheryl and her hallucinations that came long before we ever moved to town. She constantly called Cheryl a monster, soon did the same with me when I started to be like her, and our parents did nothing to stop it. Alice was so very wrong, but so very right."

∰

Flashback 8 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Dining Room

Ruby suddenly appeared in the dining room.

The Creels were gathered for dinner, sitting around the table.

Ruby walked around the table, looking at Virginia next to her as she heard Henry's voice in her head.

Henry: (voice over) "But our mother somehow knew. Knew it was we who were holding up that mirror, and she despised us for it. Even worse than Alice did."

Cheryl and Alice were glaring at each other from across the table.

Ruby looked at Alice, then at Cheryl and Young Henry.

Cheryl stabbed her fork into her food, eating it, tilting her head.

Young Henry looked between his sisters, looking somewhat amused by the rivalry, knowing that it would soon end.

"When are you going to get Cheryl more help?" Alice asked. "Her insanity's the reason why this demon chose to haunt us. I'm sure of it."

"Alice," Virginia said gently, shaking her head meekly.

Ruby looked at Virginia curiously, as she could see the fear on her face.

Henry: (voice over) "She called doctors, experts. She wanted them to lock us away, to fix us, even though it wasn't we who were broken. It was them."

"She needs more help than we can give her," Alice accused. "She needs to be locked up."

Cheryl glared at Alice furiously, turning her head to look at Young Henry.

Henry: (voice over) "And of course our sister believed the same as our mother. And so would our father eventually. And so they left us with no choice. No choice but to act. To break free."

Henry closed his eyes, looking down.

Suddenly, the radio on the mantle buzzed to life, playing Victor's favorite song.

(Song:) Dream a Little Dream of Me (Single Version) - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong

Ruby turned her head toward the radio as the song started to play, remembering that Robin and Nancy had said that Dream a Little Dream of Me was the song that "saved" Victor, turning her head to see Young Victor on her other side, before looking back to Virginia.

Virginia, Young Victor and Alice became tense and scared.

Young Victor stood, walking toward the radio.

The radio was fritzing between stations, going back and forth between radio news and the song.

As Young Victor reached out to turn the radio off, he stopped only when the lights started to flicker dangerously.

(Song Ends)

Alice looked up at the lights in fear.

Ruby realized that Young Henry was doing this after he and Cheryl had given each other the nod/signal, looking at the lights, then at the two of them.

Virginia stood, but Young Henry used his power to levitate Virginia, high in the air, making both Young Victor and Alice jump in shock.

Cheryl looked up at Virginia, frowning, not a trace of emotion on her face.

All of Virginia's bones started to crack, snap and break in every which way, her eyes going white and bloodshot as they started to bleed, before her eyes burst right out of her head.

Ruby gasped softly, even though she had known what was coming, it didn't make it any easier having to watch it, especially knowing what Vecna was trying to tell her now, letting out a shaky breath as she had to watch this family, a family she was connected to, die like this.

Young Victor screamed in shock and horror.

Virginia's body fell onto the table in front of Young Henry, Cheryl and Alice.

Alice started shrieking in utter terror.

Young Henry had no reaction as he wiped the blood dripping down from his nose away with his hand.

Cheryl looked at Virginia's body with a hint of a smirk on her face, arms crossed over her chest.

Ruby looked utterly shocked.

Henry: (voice over) "With each life I took, I grew stronger. More powerful. They were becoming a part of me."

∰

Foyer

The lights were still flickering, as Young Victor was trying to rip open the door, but it refused to move due to Young Henry keeping it closed, leaving them trapped inside the house.

Young Victor started to throw himself at the door in an attempt to break through. "Come on!"

Cheryl reached out to put a hand on Young Victor's arm, using her madness manipulation on him one more time to drive him out of his mind completely slowly over time instead of all at once, giving him the strongest hallucination she had given her family yet (and there had been plenty of them). "Dad!"

As Young Victor threw himself against the door again, this time it did burst open, but it burst open into his own waking nightmare.

Henry: (voice over) "Cheryl got stronger the more sanity she drained out of each family member. Like making them more insane, like me, like her, made her stronger. Gave her the power to do more than just give hallucinations in a few seconds. But make them last like a living nightmare, able to control them."

∰

Victor's Nightmare

Burning Home - Living Room

Young Victor walked past the door that had just burst open, looking around the home that was set aflame, burning brightly.

Ruby stood in the house behind Young Victor, as she was even being shown this to show how strong Cheryl had become, how strong technically Ruby could become if she harnessed her madness manipulation the same way Cheryl had.

Young Victor walked through the burning home, until he found the one thing that he was hoping not to find.

A baby was in his crib, which was on fire, as the baby was crying, screaming as he was burning alive.

∰

Flashback 8 - 1959

Night - Creel House - Foyer

Young Victor was in a trance, as Cheryl still had her hand on his arm to keep him in the hallucination.

Young Henry had just killed Alice in the same fashion he had killed Virginia, and Chrissy and Aaron had been killed.

Both Cheryl and Young Henry looked so drained from all the power they used to train, to get better, stronger, and to torment and kill their family, both with blood dripping from their noses.

Henry: (voice over) "But we were still children. And we did not yet know our limits. And it nearly killed us."

Young Henry fainted, falling into a coma first.

Cheryl let go of Young Victor, turning toward her brother slowly, groggily. "Henry?"

Cheryl wiped the blood from her nose, before she too fainted, falling into a coma.

As soon as Cheryl had fallen into the coma, Young Victor was let go of his hallucination, added with the fact he heard his song playing from the other room. He came to, turning around, seeing all three of his children on the floor.

Alice was killed, all of her bones broken, her eyes burst out of her head, blood dripping from her eyes down her cheeks and over her nose as her head was turned to the side when laying on the ground.

Young Victor knelt next to Alice, gasping in horror and devastation, placing a hand on her head.

Young Victor noticed that Cheryl and Henry could not wake up, holding both of them in his arms, trying to shake them awake, crying, screaming, but they couldn't regain consciousness.

Ruby stood behind Alice and Young Victor as she watched him rock Cheryl and Young Henry in his arms, utterly in shock and horror.

∰

Later

Young Victor was slammed into the wall by cops to be taken in.

Henry: (voice over) "He was arrested, blamed for the death of our sister and mother, just as we had planned."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry continued to explain. "But we were far from free."

∰

Flashback 9 - 1959

Day - Hawkins Lab - Infirmary

Cheryl and Young Henry were slowly waking, wearing hospital robes, attached to IVs.

Henry: (voice over) "We woke up from our comas only to find ourselves placed in the care of two doctors. The very doctors we had hoped to escape. Dr. Sabina Ivanova, and Dr. Martin Brenner."

Younger looking Sabina and Brenner walked closer. Brenner had a head full of brown hair.

Henry: (voice over) "Papa and Mama."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Henry continued to explain. "But the truth is, the truth is they did not just want to study us. They wanted more. Just like back in Russia with the first program. They wanted to control."

∰

Flashback 10 - 1959

Day - Hawkins Lab - Examination Room

Cheryl and Young Henry were strapped to two chairs, as Sabina and Brenner were giving them tattoos.

Ruby was watching the whole thing.

Sabina and Brenner finished giving the tattoos to Cheryl and Young Henry respectively.

Ruby already knew what both the numbers were going to be, but she still wasn't prepared for it.

Young Henry's number was of course, 001.

Cheryl's number was 002.

Ruby let out a shaky breath. "Mom."

Cheryl looked up, annoyed with all of this.

Henry: (voice over) "When Mama and Papa finally realized they could not control us, even with Sabina's telepathy, they tried to recreate more of us. First starting with a boy our age, named Charlie Goode."

∰

Flashback 11 - 1959

Day - Hawkins Lab - Experimentation Room

Charlie Goode was a little boy with red hair, undergoing painful and lengthy experiments, as Cheryl and Young Henry watched from behind the glass with Brenner. All three of the kids were in hospital robes with their hair cut short.

Ruby was watching within the experimentation room, next to Charlie, and next to the one who was giving him experiments, Sabina.

Henry: (voice over) "Charlie was not a born psionic from experimentation like the rest of the American program that came after him, but he gained his powers at a young age, and he was very quickly and dangerously powerful."

Once Charlie had displayed power for the first time, showing that the experiment was a success, Sabina gave Charlie the wrist tattoo with the number 003.

Ruby watched distantly. "Dad."

∰

Rainbow Room

Cheryl and Charlie (Two and Three now) were sitting together in the rainbow room.

A baby Four was seen in a crib nearby (1 or 2), as Young Henry was looking over him.

Henry: (voice over) "And soon, others were born."

Charlie looked at Cheryl. "Did you know that Four said that he thought my real name Charlie was spelled with a Z."

"Where do get Z in Charlie?" Cheryl asked.

Charlie shrugged, smiling, shaking his head. "Beats me."

Ruby was watching, as Vecna was still showing her everything, realizing that was how they came up with their fake last name, which Ruby still had. "Charlize."

"Can you show me again?" Cheryl asked.

"Show you what?" Charlie asked.

Cheryl tilted her head. "Come on, you know what?"

Charlie smiled, holding out his hands, letting them glow with bright light, like the sun.

Ruby was stunned to know that she got her madness manipulation power from Cheryl, naturally, and her sunlight/energy beam power from her father.

Sabina walked through the room, seeing Cheryl and Charlie chatting around happily, clearly drawn to the other as they were growing up.

Young Henry noticed this too.

Henry: (voice over) "But Charlie fell for Cheryl, and Cheryl fell for him. Sabina let them be together with the thought that when they were older, they would have a more powerful child than they thought possible. One with both of their abilities, both natural, and experimentational. And when they both turned 16, Sabina finally got her wish, but none of us wanted to stay there for the child to be born."

∰

Flashback 12 - 1967

Night - Hawkins Lab - Basement

Henry was 20 years old now, and too old to be apart of the psionic children program, which led to Sabina and Brenner to place the Soteria into his neck and keep him as an orderly without risking him going crazy in the lab or in the real world.

Cheryl and Charlie were both 16 now, and Cheryl had just found out she was pregnant.

Henry was leading them to the basement to get them out of there. "Come here." They knelt at the base of a pipe. Henry took off the crate off of a pipe that would lead to Cheryl and Charlie's escape. "You'll be handle this just find without anything scaring you, Cheryl. I'm sure Charlie can too. This will lead you out beyond the lab fence to the woods."

"Thank you, Henry," Cheryl told him. Henry stood, backing away. "You're not coming?"

"You know that I can't, Cheryl," Henry told her. "Not with the Soteria in my neck. They can track me, and track both of you, and bring you two and the baby back to start this all over."

"We can't risk that, Henry," Charlie told him. "Not after everything."

"I know," Henry agreed.

Cheryl frowned, standing, worried. "I said that I would take you with us. We've never been apart."

Henry placed his hands on Cheryl's shoulders. "I know, little sister. But you can't get this device out of my neck with madness manipulation. And if Charlie tried to take it out of me, he would likely burn me to death."

Charlie shrugged slightly in agreement, looking down, tilting his head.

Ruby was watching everything from nearby.

Cheryl shook her head in determination. "No. I'm going to bring you with us. No matter what it takes, Henry. We'll find another way. Won't we?"

Henry had a soft smile at that, though clearly both siblings were too far gone mentally to be able to keep a promise like that if it came to either each other or themselves for survival.

Suddenly, several guards burst into the basement, running toward them. "One! Two! Three!"

Charlie instantly stood, grabbing Henry and Cheryl's arms, pulling them with him at a run. "Run!"

Ruby watched them go as Cheryl, Henry and Charlie ran as fast as they could, up to the stairs on the other side of the basement, running upstairs to the doors.

∰

Hallway

Ruby appeared in the hallway, just as Henry, Cheryl and Charlie ran into the hallway.

Guards blocked their paths, but they were easily able to taser Henry and bring him down in absolute pain, given that he still had the Soteria in his neck.

"Henry!" Cheryl cried.

Charlie glared at two of the guards in front of him, allowing his hands to glow with violent light, shooting sunlight-like psychic energy beams out at the two guards with enough power to send them flying into the wall behind them and shatter the bricks, while burning the two guards completely, killing them within seconds.

When two guards grabbed Cheryl, Cheryl shrugged, screaming. "No!"

Cheryl's scream was pure insanity, as her madness manipulation power was lashing out to the extremes, as she turned the two guards who grabbed her completely insane, making them let her go, backing away from them quickly. She turned toward a third guard and grabbed him by the arm before he could taser her, using her madness manipulation to turn him completely insane. The guard could only see the worse kind of hallucinations in his mind that Cheryl could control, making him fearful, devastated, afraid. While he didn't hurt anyone, he did take out his gun, and aimed it at his own head, as Cheryl glared at him, waiting, watching as he pulled the trigger, killing himself as blood splattered across the wall and the body fell to the floor.

The two insane guards that Cheryl turned insane first glared at each other, turning rabid just like the two dogs that Cheryl had made kill each other when she was eight. The two guards growled at each other insanely, before starting to fight each other brutally, punching, kicking, tasering with each other's tasers, and even trying to shoot each other, until finally, they killed each other one right after the other.

Cheryl, Charlie and Henry watched the three guards die by Cheryl's madness manipulation without a drop of remorse.

A guard behind Cheryl tried to grab her, but Cheryl grabbed him by his head tightly, erasing all sanity within his mind and leaving only madness, but in such a fashion that she was taught to do to leave a victim of hers in a psychogenic coma; a manifestation of a psychotic or psychiatric illness which led to a state of unresponsiveness without organic cause. She left this guard in a coma just by her madness manipulation which could eventually kill him if not reversed, backing away from him without guilt or remorse, glaring at the three guards that she had killed, tilting her head.

Henry started to push himself up from the floor, but was still very weakened from being shocked, and couldn't use his powers with the Soteria still in his neck.

Many more guards started to run closer.

Charlie shot burst after burst out at the guards to kill and hold back as many as he could, both his nose and Cheryl's bleeding. "Cheryl, there's too many of them. We have to go."

Sadly, even though insanely powerful, Charlie and Cheryl had not reached their full potential of power and still drained very easily as they were still just 16 years old, especially since Cheryl was pregnant.

Even Henry at 30 years old in 1979 after having just had the Soteria taken out was more powerful because of age and growth and the power had been waiting to burst out of him.

Before they could make a run for it, Henry included, Henry was shot in the leg by a guard, falling back to the ground with a yell. "Cheryl!"

Cheryl turned back for her brother. "No, Henry!"

Charlie stopped her as they saw many more guards coming. "Cheryl, we can't. Go, go, go!"

Cheryl struggled at first, but saw how many guards were coming, and placed a hand over her stomach, knowing if they didn't get away now, they never would. "Henry..."

Henry knew what they were going to do, shaking his head. "Cheryl, don't."

Cheryl had tears in her eyes, hating to have to do this. "I'm sorry." Charlie took Cheryl by the hand and took off running, pulling Cheryl with him. Cheryl had a tough time letting go and not looking back because of her brother. "I'm sorry!"

Henry screamed after them as Cheryl was pulled away by Charlie. "No! Cheryl!"

Cheryl and Charlie were able to make it to another exit door, which Charlie immediately shot down with intense psychic energy beams as they were fully prepared to fight off whoever else they had to in order to escape and get free.

Sabina walked out of the office behind them, watching Cheryl and Charlie go, as they saw her watching them from outside, but seeing how she also did nothing to stop them from leaving.

Henry saw this from the hallway where he was being handcuffed and punished by the guards, beaten for the attempt to escape, while he watched Sabina let Cheryl and Charlie go, as they abandoned him in their chance to get to safety.

Ruby was watching all of this in utter shock and horror, not knowing what to do or how to process any of this.

Henry: (voice over) "That was the day that I realized I could never rely on or trust anyone. Not even Cheryl. Not even Charlie. Not Mama or Papa. Mama let them go just to see how I would handle the betrayal. How far I would break and spiral."

∰

Flashback 13 - 1975

Day - Hawkins Lab - File Room

Henry had managed to get into the file room and looked through every file he could get his hands on regarding Cheryl, Charlie, 002, 003, or anything that would tell him about where they were today. When he found the files, they were the same redacted files that Nadia and Steve had found on Ruby's parents in 2.03.

Henry: (voice over) "Of course, Sabina knew where they had been the entire time. She let them escape, after all. Helped them get new names and new lives to start with their child. Melody and Anthony Charlize."

Henry scoffed at the last name. "Charlize. Poetic, I guess." Ruby was watching this from the other side of the room, leaning against the wall. Henry turned his head to look at her, as it was clearly Vecna altering the memories and adding a twist again. "And they had you, Ruby. I should've been happy for them. My sister had her daughter and got her away from our living hell of a life. But I couldn't let go of the anger. The betrayal. The hatred. For had Cheryl and Charlie did to me."

Ruby swallowed. "What did you do?"

Henry smirked slightly. "I think you know. I couldn't do anything myself, of course. I was stuck here. But there was always a corrupt guard that would take my side before he was fired, or arrested or killed for what I asked him to do next. Which he had no issue in doing, no matter what the price he had to pay, because he wanted to be free from this prison just like the rest of us. Anyway possible. Even if it meant hunting down and killing two former psionics from the program, and their daughter in a car crash."

Ruby closed her eyes, shaking her head.

∰

Flashback - 1975

Night - Road

Once again, Vecna showed Ruby that night at the road, making her watch the full story this time, not just having her run in after the car was already crashed.

The Charlizes were driving in a car, on the way home in the snowy road.

Ruby shook her head, not wanting to look or watch, but she couldn't even turn her head away or close her eyes. "No, no, no."

The guard's truck sped down the street straight toward the Charlize car, crashing into it deliberately, making the two cars clash and spin around each other, all of the glass breaking, as the guard's truck pinned the car in place, and the pipes that were involved in the crash, fell directly from the guard's truck, which immediately went into the Charlize car from any other side when having the chance, impaling Melody and Anthony when they were unconscious in the crash, killing them almost instantly, and driving the two poles through the car doors and impaling Young Ruby in the sides when she had been unconscious herself.

Henry appeared next to present day Ruby so he could watch. "I didn't get to see it myself. And I only saw pieces in your mind. But this... this was definitely how I imagined it to be like. Absolutely perfect."

Ruby glared, shaking her head, pushing Henry away from her in fury. "You son of a bitch."

Ruby backed away from him.

Henry just smirked.

Vecna appeared behind Ruby, stalking toward her. "I didn't even know you survived." Ruby spun to face him, backing away from him, but ended up backing right into Henry, who held her completely still as she struggled desperately. "Not until two years ago. When you scried into the vines and tendrils in my world. Briefly into my mind, but out of my head just as quickly before I could do anything. Burned the vines and incinerated them to ash. Imagine my shock and anger then. Barely even knowing you, and you were already causing me pain, just like your parents."

"Isn't that right, little niece Ruby?" Henry asked.

"So you killed my parents," Ruby seethed furiously. "Tried to kill me."

"Nearly paralyzed you doing so," Henry agreed. "All when you were eight years old. But they're not gone, Ruby. They're still with me, as much as they're still with you." He pointed to Ruby's head, tapping on her temple, then his. "In here."

To prove the point, Vecna made visuals of Melody and Anthony (Cheryl and Charlie) appear in the flaming, but snowing street.

Melody and Anthony both tilted their heads, looking vicious, then caring, before wanting to screw with Ruby's mind even further, Vecna levitated them in the air, and "killed" them just like any of his victims. Their bones snapped in every which way. Their eyes turned white, and blood dripped down like tears of blood before exploding right out of their heads.

Ruby was struggling not to see that, but had no choice but to watch, ending up breaking free, pushing away from them before they could do anything else, yelling in frustration and anger, completely overwhelmed, but not giving him the satisfaction of watching her break from this.

When all Ruby wanted to do was really fight, Vecna kept moving her around through each memory, taunting her with her powerlessness even when such a gifted fighter, knowing that he would never give her the chance to fight while in his mind.

∰

Eleven's Mind Space / Vecna Showing Ruby

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Vecna made Ruby appear in the rainbow room one last time, telekinetically making her sit down, and trapping her arms to her body like an invisible straitjacket to further mock her, and keep her unable to do anything but watch what happened next.

Even though Vecna was showing her this, he seemingly wasn't in sight, and of course Ruby only saw Eleven as Young Eleven (9 years old), but Eleven was re-experiencing the memory for herself as present time her, but of course couldn't see Ruby there.

Eleven looked at Henry in shock and betrayal. "You killed Two and Three. Your sister and their daughter? Everyone here. You tricked me."

Henry frowned like the insinuation offended him, shaking his head. "Tricked you? No, I saved you. You are a prisoner here, just like me. To your mama and papa, you are nothing more than an animal, a monster, a lab rat to be tamed. But the truth, Eleven, the truth is just the opposite." He gestured around the dead bodies in the room. "You are better than they are. Superior. That is why you frighten them. If you come with me now, for the first time in your life, you will be free. Imagine what we could do together. We could reshape the world, remake it however we see fit. Join me."

Ruby frowned at the words, like they seemed somehow familiar to her, though she hadn't heard them before as far as she remembered, though she felt like those words had been directed at her once.

Eleven looked up, shaking her head. "No."

Ruby smirked slightly. "That's my girl." Henry frowned in confusion. Without hesitation, Eleven thrust her hand toward Henry, telekinetically sending him flying back to the floor, making him bounce up from the floor, into the mirror above him on the wall, before making him fall to the floor again. Eleven glared at Henry with blood dripping down her nose, strong and defiant. "Give 'em hell, El."

Henry was pushing himself up, in disbelief, furious about the rejection, like it was Cheryl and Charlie abandoning him all over again. He turned his head to glare at Eleven in fury.

Eleven wiped the blood away from her nose.

Henry pushed himself up to his feet.

Henry and Eleven stalked toward each other, both glaring murderously.

Ruby watched it all with raised eyebrows, struggling against the bond around her that made it seem like an invisible straitjacket was around her body to keep her from moving.

Henry and Eleven thrust their arms toward each other at the same time, ready to use their powers at once, making the lights flicker dangerously above them.

Ruby glanced up, looking around at the flickering lights boredly, before looking at Henry and Eleven again.

Henry was slowly pushing Eleven back across the floor, her feet sliding across the tile.

Eleven managed to gain solid footing.

Ironically, Eleven thought back to what Henry told her before about finding strength. "He had found his strength in a memory from his past. Something that made him sad. But also angry."

Eleven flashed back to the bullies tormenting her and Young Apollo.

She flashed back to Terry being dragged away. "Jane. No! No! Jane!"

She flashed back to all of the dead bodies of the people all over the building.

Henry thrust his arm toward Eleven, telekinetically throwing her into the doors behind her, making her hit hard and fall to the floor. Then he waved his head around, telekinetically moving Eleven all over the floor like a plaything just to taunt her, slamming her into everything he could, before holding his hand toward Eleven, and levitating her up from the floor, psychically restraining her as she was screaming "No!"

Ruby was watching intensely, worriedly. In her mind, she knew that Eleven won and survived because she wouldn't have been able to meet her years later otherwise, but she still couldn't help but be worried for the Young Eleven, the nine year old that she saw fighting this battle. Especially since Eleven and Ruby had started to develop a bond in book three when Eleven and Max were the main two helping her after the Mind Flayer attacked her and flayed Billy. She struggled, but of course couldn't break the psychic restraint Vecna had on her to make her sit and watch, and couldn't change anything to help Young Eleven in the memory anyway, as that was all it was.

Eleven screamed in pain and fear.

Ruby flinched slightly at the sound. "El!"

Henry glared at Eleven as he held her restrained midair, turning his wrist to telekinetically turn her to face him, holding his hand outstretched toward her even more. "It wasn't supposed to end like this."

Eleven's limbs were trying to fight back, as Henry was trying to snap her bones, starting to go for her eyes, making tears of blood slip down. She wailed in absolute pain.

Ruby flinched again, this time worse, closing her eyes, whispering to herself, hating to have to be forced to watch this too. "Come on, El."

The memory that gave Eleven the most strength was the day that she was born. She somehow remembered when Henry was in her head, and she remembered Terry's face.

Terry smiled. "Jane. I love you. Jane."

Eleven's nose and both her ears were bleeding now as well. A lot of her blood was dripping down onto her hospital gown. She gathered enough strength to fight against Henry's hold on her, raising her head to glare at Henry.

Henry frowned in confusion and disbelief, as this had never happened to him before.

Ruby smirked slightly, knowing that this was where it was about to go down. "Kick his ass."

Eleven thrust her hands toward Henry with a scream, telekinetically throwing him backward through the mirror, shattering it as she pinned Henry to the wall directly behind the mirror.

In Ruby's sight of the memory, Young Eleven fell to the floor and landed in a crouch, arms held at either side of her.

∰

Reality

City of Corinth

Night - Sabina's Headquarters - Nina Lab

Sabina was sitting in her chair with her headset on, her eyes still glowing bright blue-purple-pink as she helped Eleven with her memories, showing her everything, including the parts Henry said about her helping Ruby's parents and the reason why, even though it was bad, because she didn't want to have any more secrets about the past.

Niko's eyes and chest were still glowing a fiery blue, as he was still using his power to help Eleven cleanse from the virus, and all, finally getting through completely when Eleven had accepted her powers completely again thanks to her memory of her saving herself from Henry.

Niko's fiery blue glowing energy dome was still surrounding Nina, and through Nina into the water around Eleven to help cure Eleven and bring back her powers. The dome was swirling with small bursts of electricity.

When Eleven accepted herself in full and accepted her powers back, her energy started to resonate with and separately from Niko's, though hers didn't have a visual tell-tale sign like his, though the air grew thicker with Eleven's energy starting to pour out of her, pulsing around them. Electricity crackled out of Niko's energy like blue fiery strikes of lightning, little by little. It caused Niko to levitate off the floor, and Eleven to levitate from the water while inside Nina, as Niko's power circled around himself and Eleven inside Nina like an aura. Energy zapped powerfully, and the lights started to flicker, as Niko's powers were unlocking Eleven's powers in full, making her become stronger than ever. Both Niko and Eleven let out an echoing scream as a fiery blue burst of power shot out of Niko, and a telekinetic blast of power burst out of Eleven, throwing everything around them into chaos, shattering all of the glass.

Will looked around nervously. "Is that supposed to be a good sign?"

Sabina and Owens both smiled.

"Yes," Sabina answered. "It's working. Eleven's accepted herself. Let it in. Niko's bringing her powers back."

∰

Eleven's Mind Space / Vecna Showing Ruby

Night - Hawkins Lab - Rainbow Room

Ruby was still restrained like with an invisible straitjacket to mock her, while she watched the rest of the scene of Young Eleven defeating Henry.

Henry was still pinned to the wall behind the shattered mirror, struggling, seething furiously.

In Ruby's visual of the memory, Young Eleven stood to her feet, even with blood bleeding from her eyes, nose and ears, blood stained on her hospital gown, still looking so strong. She walked toward Henry slowly, who still couldn't break free. With a scream, she thrust her arm forward, using a massive amount of telekinesis and telepathy, as this was the first time that she accidentally made a psychic connection with a Demogorgon, which caused the Gate to open behind Henry, glowing through his chest, burning him, making him scream in utter agony, as pieces of him were burning away so fast in a chaotic swirl of gray atoms and particles.

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered even though she knew that this Henry and Young Eleven couldn't hear her. "Kill that motherfucker!"

Young Eleven screamed again, using all of her power to finish this off, ripping the Gate open.

Henry was wailing in pain, and was sent flying through the Gate, out of sight.

Ruby watched in shock to know that this was the first time Eleven opened a Gate, to defeat her crazy psychopathic uncle, even if the Gate was an accident.

The power of the Gate glowed upon the room, but not as powerful as the glow of Hailey's Gates.

The growth that had quickly appeared all around the Gate quickly started to disappear back through the Gate, stitching the Gate in the wall closed, sealing it away, as Young Eleven watched in shock and confusion, and Ruby watched in curiosity.

∰

Upside Down

But sadly for Ruby, this wasn't over for her, as Vecna made her watch the final part of the story, placing her now in a memory of the Upside Down before it became the Upside Down that people knew now.

Henry was flying through the air close to the clouds, which were yellow at the time.  He was screaming the entire way because of Eleven's powers having ripped him to pieces, literally, and because of lightning lashing down and striking Henry at every opportunity, making him scream in more and more agony as it went on.

Ruby was able to see each strike burning and melting more of Henry away, until his skin became almost completely dark, burned into an unrecognizable monster, his nose along with the rest of his body completely destroyed.

Ruby realized that she had already figured this out sooner with all of the hints and going back and forth between Vecna and Henry, but she had forgotten about it with the revelation that Henry was her uncle, and that he had killed her parents and almost killed/paralyzed her, and watching Eleven take him down, watching with realization and remembrance. "Oh, shit. No, no, no."

Ruby knew it to be true, which was why Vecna was after her in every way that he was, out to cause her untold pain and agony, all because of her parents betraying Henry and leaving him behind when they left to start a family with her, added with the trouble she had caused for the Upside Down since finding out about her powers. She was still in denial, unable to process everything like this all at once.

∰

Upside Down

Creel House - Attic

Vecna was still levitating with the tendrils attached to his back. The camera panned downward and to the side, toward his wrist, just as a tendril slipped off his wrist, and revealed his tattoo.

001.