Outfits Link:

https://urstyle.fashion/collections/194779

Same Night - Day One

Night - On the Road - Hailey's Car

Hailey was driving intensely down the road, very fast in her black sports car, with Dustin in the passenger seat.

"I don't know what you really want me to do, Hailey," Dustin admitted.

"I'm gonna drop you off at my house, and I need you to go up to my room and grab the watch that Nadia left me when she and Niko left," Hailey answered in a rush, having no time to slow down after what she had just gone through and witnessed that night, and where she had to go because of all that happened. "It's on my nightstand. Niko left one for Will too when they left. Since we can't call them or radio them because people could be listening and trying to track them down, or me, El and Ruby could be found out, the watches are the only things that can help us contact them, but we could only use them in real emergencies."

"Like tonight," Dustin realized.

Hailey nodded. "Like tonight."

"What are you gonna do?" Dustin asked.

"I need to get to the trailer park," Hailey answered. "I need to make sure that Ruby and Billy are okay, if Max got hurt if she was involved. And Chrissy..." She knew that Chrissy was dead because of the pain that she felt from Chrissy and Aaron's deaths, but she was in denial that she lost her new friend that helped her with so much at school and made things a little more bearable outside her friend group. "I just need to see and figure out what to do."

Dustin nodded in understanding and agreement. "Okay, I'll use the watch to contact Nadia."

"Thank you," Hailey told him.

"Just be careful, okay?" Dustin asked.

Hailey nodded, pulling over outside the house. "Go, hurry. My parents left town again, and Steve's probably still at the video store."

Dustin got out of the car, closing the door, running up to the house.

Hailey drove away, tires squealing as she sped down the road.

∰

Harrington House - Hailey's Room

Dustin hurriedly ran through the whole house, up to Hailey's room, reaching her bedside table, finding the watch, and picked it up instantly, hitting the call button on it. "Come on, Nadia. Please, please, please." 

∰

Trailer Park

Ruby, Max and Billy were staring at Aaron's body in shock and horror, and at the red aura energy from Hailey in the air where Aaron had been killed, as the red energy seemed to be surging, charging or ripping at the air, before it started to fade away.

Eddie was terrified because the same thing had just happened to Chrissy in front of him in his trailer, running outside, even more scared and horrified when he saw Aaron the red power in the air above him, looking at Ruby, Max and Billy, who were just as rattled as he was, but not as much in shock given they had gone through something like this more than once. "Oh, no. It happened to you too?"

"Eddie?" Max asked.

"Too?" Billy repeated.

Eddie pointed to his trailer, stuttering from his shock and fear. "Chrissy, she, uh..." He gestured to Aaron and the fading power over his body. "That."

Hailey drove up to the trailer park, tired squealing as she pealed to a stop, hurriedly getting out of the car and running closer. "Ruby! Billy! Max?"

Max was relieved to see her friend after what just happened. "Hailey?"

Max ran up to Hailey, as Hailey reached her, both reaching for each other's hands.

Hailey looked at Aaron's body in complete shock, remembering the pain she had felt of his death before her power exploded out of her. "Oh, my God."

Hailey saw her own power fading completely from the air, leaving it completely dark.

"That looked a lot like your power, Hailey," Ruby told her.

"That's because it was," Hailey answered, all rattled to the core about all of this. She was for sure that Chrissy was gone now, but she was still in denial, tears in her eyes. "Chrissy?"

Max and Ruby looked at Hailey in concern and worry since they knew they were friends.

"She's gone," Eddie answered, freaking out. "How the hell are all of you so fucking calm? I need to get out of here. I need to--"

"Eddie," Billy spoke over him.

They heard the sirens of the police in the distance.

Ruby got worried. "Billy, Eddie, you have to go."

"What?" Billy asked.

"She's right," Max agreed. "Billy, you said that you already beat up two guys at the Alibi, the one that drugged her--"

"Because of Aaron here," Ruby interjected, kicking Aaron's leg, not caring that she was kicking the leg of a corpse, since it was the corpse of the guy that literally abused her, got her drugged and tried to beat her to death.

"And then one that told you what was happening," Max finished.

"And whoever called the cops saw you beating the hell out of Aaron most likely, even if they didn't see what happened next because they were too busy calling the cops," Hailey finished. "And Chrissy was last seen with Eddie. They're not gonna believe any of us."

"They're gonna try to pin it on us," Billy finished, completely angry and overwhelmed, turning to his car, hitting it. "Goddamn it!"

"You've gotta go, Billy," Ruby told him worriedly, looking at Eddie. "Both of you."

"We'll find you," Max promised. "We'll figure it out, but right now, you have to go."

Eddie ran toward his car, getting in, starting his car and instantly driving away in fear, not wanting to go down for something that he didn't do.

Billy hesitated while looking at Ruby and Max, glancing at Hailey, not really wanting to leave after what happened that night especially with Ruby, but knowing that he didn't have another option at the moment, had to turn around and get into his car, starting it, and starting to drive away as fast as he could as Ruby and Max watched worriedly.

Hailey slowly turned toward Eddie's trailer, slowly walking toward the trailer.

Max turned her head to see what her friend was doing. "Hailey, I wouldn't do that..."

Ruby was still recovering from being drugged and nearly beaten to death, looking up in concern, but couldn't stop Hailey from going inside. "Hailey."

∰

Hailey's Hallucination

Eddie's Trailer

Hailey slowly made her way inside, seeing Chrissy's body on the floor, tears in her eyes at seeing her friend dead, horribly killed in such a way, and remembering the pain that she felt, and the things that she saw before Chrissy died. She hated that she couldn't save her friend. "No." When she heard something, she turned around. "Hello? Who's there?"

Dark Hailey walked into view. "Just you, Hailey. Always just you."

Hailey looked at her in shock. "You're not real."

Dark Hailey stalked toward Hailey. "I am. Inside your head, at least. Ready to take over anytime, anyplace, to tear apart anyone. You know those dreams where you kill everyone you love? Those are going to come true, Harrington. You're the monster that is going to end the world. There's no sense in denying it."

Hailey backed away. "Stay away from me!"

Dark Hailey turned into a monster, more human in form, eyes, nose and mouth hollow, glowing with red light. As it burst free from her body, her shredded skin fell away. The monster from within was glowing with red aura, tendrils of energy waving around its body. The power of the monstrous form ripped the earth to shreds, causing it to glow brightly, dangerously, tearing everything around it to pieces, including everyone that Hailey loved. As the victims looked up in fear and shock, Dark Hailey's monster form roared, releasing a blast of red energy that exploded out in a wave toward them, burning them, incinerating them into ashes, making Hailey watch in absolute fear and shock, refusing to believe that this was real.

While still in the hallucination, a dead bird fell to the floor behind Hailey, startling her. Hailey gasped, turning to look at the dead bird on the floor that was now in front of her.

They heard more crows squawking, a rumbling noise that surrounded her, and at least a dozen dead crows falling to the floor in the shape of a circle all around Hailey, encasing her in the circle of dead black birds.

She could hear the voice of Mirage reaching out to her, taunting her. "You can't stop us. You can't save the ones who will die. You can't even help yourself. Don't you see? You're in the middle of everything that's to come. Which is why we brought you into it, Hailey. We need you. We will feed. We will rise. And you all will bow before us. Even you."

∰

Reality

Eddie's Trailer

In reality, Hailey snapped out of the nightmare/vision, gasping for breath, the gem in her head glowing, the sclera of her eyes black as her irises glowed red. She gasped for breath, starting to calm down, as she forced the glow to fade from both the gem and her eyes.

Max hurriedly walked in. "Hailey, the cops are almost here..."

Hailey started to cry. Max looked pained by her friend's pain even if the two had started to drift apart because of the things they both had to go through over the last year, both of their issues they had to work through on their own. She instantly wrapped Hailey in an embrace, and Hailey returned the hold, both rattled to the core, tears in their eyes.

∰ Worlds Colliding (Stranger Things) ∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Living Room

Joyce had found the watch that Niko had left for Will, holding it in her hand while she was on the phone with Murray.

Murray was at home, packing his bag. "I'll be there as soon as I can, but how are you going to get a hold of Nadia and Niko when they don't have a phone and none of us have a number?"

"Niko and Nadia left call watches with Will and Hailey so that they could call if they're ever in an emergency," Joyce explained. "I'd say that us getting a note that Natasha and Hopper are alive is an emergency." She hit the call button on the watch, praying under her breath. "Please work. Please work."

Murray was confused. "How would they even be alive at all?"

∰

Flashback 1 - 3.08 "Battle of Starcourt"

Night - Russian Base - Underground

Also a slow motion scene, Joyce was trying to flip both the keys, looking out to Hailey, Niko, Hopper and Natasha as they were just finishing the rest of the Russians off.

Natasha and Hopper were still too close to the light ray key.

Hailey and Niko knew that if Joyce flipped it, that Natasha and Hopper could die, in denial, but both were completely spent that they couldn't use their powers. Hailey for the time being until she recharged, and Niko had just lost his completely.

Hopper and Natasha knew, nodding for Joyce to go ahead, tears in their eyes.

Natasha was building up one of her biggest and strongest shields yet in hopes of it being enough to protect her and Hopper from death, since they knew that they needed to turn the keys now.

Joyce had tears in her eyes.

Niko and Hailey started to cry, not being able to look, turning away while crying.

Joyce closed her eyes before turning the keys, and causing the light ray key to explode epically.

The explosion sent Natasha and Hopper flying through the air toward the end of the balcony they were on, but Natasha's shield remained in front of them, protecting them from being obliterated in the explosion as they fell off the balcony and several feet down below, both knocked out by the force.

With the key destroyed, the gate sealed back up.

Joyce, Hailey and Niko all turned to look at the destruction to find nothing but burned charcoal, unable to see Natasha and Hopper through the destruction, and soon had to go on the run when Russians were storming into the place, so they had no time to stay back and search through the destruction to try and find them, believing at this moment, they really were dead, while down below, through the smoke, charcoal and destruction, Natasha and Hopper were bruised and cut, but not blown to ashes due to being saved by Natasha's shield, though they were unconscious and vulnerable when the Russians found them and took them.

∰

Now

Outside Chicago, Illinois

Morning - Gas Station

Nadia and Niko had to park the car and talk about what to do next, pushing the double doors open together, walking into the gas station.

"Hey, sorry, we're still closed," the clerk told them.

Niko and Nadia ignored him, exchanging a look.

"I had the last one," Niko reminded her.

"Well, I had the two before that," Nadia replied.

"So?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"So?" Nadia repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?" the clerk asked.

Nadia and Niko didn't look at him, both speaking at the same time. "Shut up."

"Best out of three?" Nadia asked.

Niko shrugged. "Your loss."

They started to do rock paper scissors while the clerk was watching in complete confusion.

The first round, Nadia drew rock, while Niko drew paper.

"Damn it," Nadia said.

Niko laughed smugly. "Ha ha told you."

"Two more," Nadia reminded him.

"Okay, you both need to--" the clerk started.

The siblings ignored him again, while Niko drew a knife from his back pocket, throwing it at the wall without looking at the clerk, making the knife drive into the wall right next to his head, making him stop in shock.

Nadia and Niko spoke together again. "Shut up."

They played the second round, while this time Niko drew paper, and Nadia drew scissors.

"Losers luck," Niko told her.

Nadia gave him a look, tilting her head. "Final time."

They played a gain, this time Nadia drew rock while Niko drew scissors.

"Fuck," Niko complained.

Nadia smirked. "Yes, in your face." She nodded to the clerk. "Now knock his ass out."

"No fair," Niko complained, walking toward the clerk.

"Wait, what are you--" the clerk started.

Niko grabbed the clerk by his tie, jerking him forward to slam his head on the nearby counter, knocking him out, letting him fall unconscious.

"See, not that hard," Nadia told him sarcastically.

Niko turned to face Nadia. "Well, I could knock you down now too if you'd like."

Nadia rolled her eyes. "Hilarious."

Nadia walked toward the food, taking a bag from nearby.

Niko drew another knife, throwing it at the security camera to destroy it, walking toward the register, seeing it was low on money, scoffing. "Shit, only 60 bucks."

"Seriously?" Nadia called over.

Niko shrugged. "Maybe we should have waited until he was open." He turned to the clerk on the floor, who was still knocked out. "Sorry, dude whose name I don't care enough to know."

Nadia walked closer with the bag full of food. "Okay, so this should be enough for a while, until we get to the closest place with a computer."

Niko was gazing off at something, walking away. "Holy shit."

Nadia frowned. "Hello." She followed Niko, who stopped at one of the fridges. "What?"

"Look," Niko told her.

Nadia turned to look, seeing it was a fridge full of cherry Slurpees, scoffing.

Nadia and Niko exchanged a look, smiling, high fiving. "Jack pot."

Nadia and Niko opened the fridge to get some when both of their watched went off, making them stop and look at each other.

∰

Outside

Nadia and Niko walked outside with their Slurpees and food bag.

Niko stopped drinking his for a moment. "Okay, so I get a distress signal from Will's watch, and you get one from Hailey's. That can't be coincidence."

"It never is whenever more than one of us is going through something," Nadia agreed. "Hailey would only ever use the watch to call me if it's happening again in Hawkins."

"But we closed the Gate," Niko pointed out. "Again."

Nadia scoffed. "Yeah, like that worked out so well the time we tried to close it before the last. It doesn't work. Something always happens and we're left to deal with the chaos that follows."

"Yeah, but Will is in California," Niko told her. "That's nowhere near a Gate, so something must have happened to him."

"So we have to split up, don't we?" Nadia asked.

Niko turned to look at Nadia in surprise. "Well, you came to that conclusion quickly. Not that I'm surprised, since the last time we talked about it, you didn't want to leave Hawkins."

Nadia sighed. "Well, you didn't exactly leave me much choice, did you?"

Niko nodded in agreement, flashing back.

∰

Flashback 2 - One Year Ago

Day - Reed House - Basement

Nadia and Niko were having an argument, before they left Hawkins.

"This is stupid," Niko told her. "We're obviously going after Mama. If she is alive, which she has to be. We're not gonna find her by sitting here and doing nothing."

Niko walked downstairs.

Nadia followed. "Doing nothing? You mean making sure our friends are okay?"

"The Gate is closed," Niko pointed out. "We already made sure Ruby and Hailey, and even Hive Mind Michael Myers--"

"Billy," Nadia corrected.

Niko shrugged. "Whatever... are okay. And we don't have any powers, okay? It's not like there's much we can do here even if we stay here."

"Look, I know," Nadia told him. "And I want to find Mama as much as you do, but like you said, we don't have our powers, so where the hell do we start?"

"I don't know," Niko admitted.

"Well, we might not know where to start for looking for Mama, but we know where to start for helping Hailey and Ruby, and our other friends, and even Billy," Nadia pointed out. "Hailey is literally practically a ticking time bomb with her dark alter ego."

"And we'll stay long enough to try and teach her to control it, but that's it," Niko told her.

"Yeah, and if we leave and she loses control again and hurts and almost kills Dustin, Steve, or anyone else?" Nadia asked.

Niko sighed in frustration. "I don't know, Nadia. It's not like we can help much with that anyway."

"Ruby and Billy's madness which we all know will get out of hand eventually without Ruby's power helping keep them sane?" Nadia asked.

"Again, not much we can do," Niko repeated.

"Except for keeping them in control so they don't hurt anyone like Max or anyone else close to them," Nadia replied. "We know where to begin to help them. We don't know where to begin on where to help Mama and Hopper."

Niko took a deep breath and let it out. "Look, I get it. You want to stay because you're worried about them. I'm worried about them too, okay?"

Nadia sighed, looking away. "I know you're gonna say we can't stay even if we want to. The Russians, the Americans, everybody is after us now."

"Exactly," Niko agreed. "Leaving is the best choice."

"But if we leave, then we leave everyone here vulnerable," Nadia replied. "And if the Russians find out about Hailey even after you guys destroyed Grigori's files on her when he took her, and if they find out about Ruby, then so do the American program, and they could find El too, and what then?"

"Then you leave a distress watch with Hailey to make sure that doesn't happen," Niko told her. "I'll leave one for Will in case he needs help with El."

"That only works when there's danger already happening," Nadia pointed out. "That doesn't give us enough time to come help them before they get into trouble which could lead them to being captured and killed."

"Then we create enough of a mess away from here to draw everybody to us and away from them," Niko stated. "And don't pretend, Nadia. I know this isn't just about keeping everybody safe. It's also because of you and Steve."

Nadia scoffed. "Right, well, if you think that, then I know the reason why you want to leave most is because you can't stay since you know Will is gonna leave."

Niko scoffed, starting to walk away. "You want to stay? Fine. I'll deal with this on my own. It's not like I can't handle myself."

Nadia reached out to touch Niko's shoulder. "Stop it, Niko."

"Let go," Niko told her, intense and angry and grieving because of everything that happened.

Nadia shook her head. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" Niko asked.

"Push me away," Nadia answered.

"I'm not," Niko denied.

Nadia gave him a knowing look. "Yes, you are. Just talk to me, okay? We're all we have left in this world. It's just you and me, okay? We don't push each other away."

"I can't stay here, Nadia, okay?" Niko asked, his voice breaking, tears forming in his eyes. "Everywhere I go, everywhere I look, I just remember seeing Mama and Hopper there, waiting for the thing to blow up, and me not being able to do anything about it. I can't eat, I can't drink, I can't sleep. I need to make this right."

Nadia had tears in her eyes, from both his pain and her own. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"Well, it feels like it was," Niko told her.

Nadia sighed heavily. "We're not gonna see eye to eye on this, are we?"

"I see your point, and you see mine, but we don't agree with each other's decisions," Niko answered. "We're both right, you know." Nadia nodded. "But this is what we have to do now. I guess we're gonna have to go old school at this."

Nadia realized what he meant, scoffing, smirking. "Family tradition? Seriously? We haven't done that in at least three years, Niko."

"Well, it's been three years since we've had to fight like this," Niko replied. "You know the drill. Unless you're scared."

Nadia smirked, shrugging. "I'm not scared of anything. Show me what you got."

Rostov family tradition was when two of the family were mad or in an argument, and both knew that they were right and couldn't decide on their own, they would fight it out, literally, until first blood was drawn, to see who won and who's choice they would go with.

Nadia and Niko were obviously very well matched with each other. Nadia kicked at Niko, as Niko blocked with his hand and kicked at Nadia. Nadia ducked the high kick to her head, punching Niko in the stomach with one hand, then in the face with the other. Niko punched Nadia in the side, trying to punch her with the other hand, which Nadia blocked, leaning back to deliver a high kick to Niko's chest, spinning around to try and kick him in the face. Niko dodged back just slightly to make Nadia miss. Nadia stood straight, going to backhand punch Niko in the face. Niko raised an arm to block the move, kicking Nadia in the leg, pushing her back. They both circled around each other with an intense and competitive look in their eyes, swinging and punching and blocking each other's blows, but landing quite a few hits on each other. Niko went to kick Nadia's ankle, but Nadia jumped up and spun around, sending her leg backward to kick Niko in the chest, sending him stumbling back, landing on her feet, turning to face him. They both faced off, ready to fight more. Nadia fake lunged at him, making him tense back just slightly to fake him out, and send a kick to his stomach, before a punch to his face. Niko raised his arm to block the punch, punching Nadia in the face. They continued to block each other's hits and kicks, but managed to get a few on each other. Nadia did a high in-to-out crescent kick, but Niko ducked underneath that, circling around to stand up. Nadia grabbed Niko by the shoulders and kneed him twice in the stomach. Niko broke free, pushing Nadia back, punching her twice, spinning around to try and kick her with a roundhouse, but Nadia ducked back into an arch to make him miss, before standing up straight, kicking Niko in the leg, punching him in the chest. Niko sent a punch to Nadia, but Nadia ducked, crouching down, spinning around to leg sweep Niko's feet out from underneath him, making him fall to the floor, as she spun up to a standing position, raising her leg up to try and bring it down on Niko with a fierce kick, but Niko rolled out of the way. Nadia went to kick him as Niko was getting up, but Niko blocked the kick and grabbed onto Nadia's leg, spinning around to throw her to the floor. Nadia sent a kick up into Niko's stomach, sending him stumbling back so she could flip backward over the floor and up to her feet, standing up. They faced off again, to see what the other sibling would do and how to counteract it. Nadia lunged forward with a spin and a kick, but Niko spun out of the way, and both finished their spins as they circled each other until they were face to face again, both immediately going for punches and kicks, landing blows on each other while also blocking each other, both evenly matched. Nadia spun around to kick Niko in the face, snapping his head to the side. Niko lunged at Nadia to flip her to the floor, but Nadia aerialed through the air and landed on her feet, grabbing Niko by the shoulders, kneeing him twice in the stomach, jumping up to wrap her legs around his neck and flip them both to the floor, landing next to him, but immediately rolled up to her feet. Niko was getting up just as Nadia sent a kick to his face, blocking her kick with his arms in an X shape. Nadia swung a punch, but Niko raised his arm to block that move, grabbing onto her arm and leg, hauling Nadia up over his shoulders as he stood and flipped her to the floor. Nadia stood, and as Niko walked closer, Nadia kicked him back. Niko jumped up to kick Nadia from the side, which she blocked, faking her out so he could spin and kick her in the face with his other foot, landing on his feet, swinging toward her. Nadia ducked, leaning forward so that she was back to back with Niko, sending her leg back to kick him literally in the ass, sending him stumbling toward the wall, but Niko caught himself against the wall and spun around to swing a backhand punch at Nadia. Nadia ducked, trying to punch him and send a high kick to his head, both of which Niko blocked, but he wasn't prepared to block the next punch and the kick to his chest, sending him back into the wall. Nadia ran closer, jumping up the wall and out toward Niko and kick him squarely in the chest, sending him back a pace or two, as she landed on her feet, sending two kicks to his chest, which he blocked, spinning around to send a high kick to his head, which Niko dodged by arching backward. They both continued to block and hit each other, with Niko finally getting the upper hand. Nadia grabbed Niko's leg and pushed him back into the wall, punching him twice. Niko sent his elbow into Nadia's face, against her nose, spinning around her to send his elbow into her back, turning toward her to punch her in the chest, taking Nadia by the arm, twisting it around as he turned away and then back, twisting it so hard as he kicked her in the knee, making her fall to her knees, punching her in the face. Nadia punched him in the crotch, but not hard enough to bring him to his knees, breaking free, standing up, grabbing him by the shoulders, slamming her head into his. As Niko grabbed Nadia and tried to throw her down, Nadia reversed the move and used her momentum to flip them both through the air to the floor. They both stood, facing each other. Niko sent a punch, but Nadia ducked, tackling Niko, making them roll across the floor, kneeing him in the side as she had him in a restraint from behind. Niko stood with Nadia practically on his back, slamming her back into the wall behind them, making her grip break, as he grabbed her arm and flipped her over his shoulder to the floor, grabbing a vase, slamming it over the wall above her head, making it rain down without much harm, but just to draw first blood. Nadia stood, as Niko grabbed Nadia by the shoulders, kneeing her in the stomach twice, punching her in the stomach and chest twice, before punching her in the face twice, and leaning back and lunging forward to deliver a brutal side kick to Nadia's chest, sending her stumbling back and falling through the door behind her, tearing the door down.

Finally, Nadia was bleeding from her nose and a couple cuts on her cheek. She wasn't even mad, as this was tradition, and fair was fair. She sat up, looking at Niko, tilting her head. "Not bad, little brother."

Niko smirked slightly, taking a cloth from nearby to clean his hands, showing the blood on it, tossing it down at Nadia. "There. First blood. Which means we're leaving."

Nadia sighed, nodding.

∰

Now

Gas Station - Outside

Nadia and Niko both snapped out of the memory.

Nadia sighed. "I have to go back there, Niko. I have to make sure that everyone's okay. If it's happening again..."

"Then they need help," Niko finished. Nadia nodded. "Okay. You go back to Hawkins. Help them out with whatever's going on. I'll go to California. Will wouldn't call me unless it was life or death. Not since..."

"You broke up with Will?" Nadia finished.

Niko sighed. "Yeah, that."

Nadia nodded knowingly. "Your first time seeing him since you broke up with him. You gonna be okay?"

"I'll deal," Niko answered. "You? You haven't seen or talked to Steve since you told him not to wait for you, Nadia. Breaking up with him."

"I couldn't have really broke up with Steve if we never got the chance to be together," Nadia replied. 

"Doesn't matter if you two told you that you loved each other," Niko returned.

Nadia looked away. "I'll be fine. I hate splitting up like this. Especially across the country."

"I know," Niko agreed. "I do too. But we gotta do what we gotta do, right? For our friends."

Nadia nodded in agreement. "For our friends." She pulled Niko protectively into her arms, as both hated to go separate ways after 'losing' their mother. "Be careful out there."

"You too," Niko told her.

Nadia pulled back, handing Niko the hard drive they got in 4.01. "Take this. I didn't get the chance to look through it because they were waiting for me at the library so I had to head back, but I guarantee that if Mama and Hopper are really alive and out there, where to find them should be on this. Zafar was always one of the higher men, so of course he would know where they would be and how to find them."

Niko nodded in understanding. "I got it."

"But you have to be careful, because if you're the one that goes to them, they could take you, and I can't live with that, so you use the watches if you have to, okay?" Nadia asked.

Niko nodded. "Okay. I'm not a little kid anymore, Nadia. I got this."

Nadia gave a small, emotional smile. "I know you do, Niko. You're gonna need a ride though."

They heard a noise, seeing a man on a motorcycle stopping for gas.

Niko turned to Nadia, raising his eyebrows. "I found one."

Nadia smirked. "Really?"

Niko shrugged. "What? Sometimes God makes a pact, and other times you need to pull a Ruby and ride off on a motorcycle."

Nadia chuckled. "Good point."

Nadia and Niko shared an embrace one last time, before heading separate ways.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Trailer Park

Max and Ruby were being questioned by the police, while Hailey stood by her sports car, waiting to be able to get them out of there.

The coroners were taking care of Aaron and Chrissy's bodies, all shocked and horrified and confused by who/what could have done this to someone.

Max was helping Ruby clean up her wounds from Aaron while they were being questioned.

"I don't know how many times I have to say this," Ruby told them.

Powell and Callahan were the ones questioning them. Powell was the new chief after Hopper "died."

"Well, try one more time so we understand," Powell told her.

"Why?" Ruby asked. "You're both the dumbasses that thought I was the one setting fires last year."

In truth, Ruby had done the destruction that were believed to be fires, but they were caused by her powers being so out of control and exploding out of her in episodes due to the Mind Flayer trying to flay her but failing because of the heat of her power, though it did manage to disrupt her power balance and system so that she was a literal walking time bomb until Niko fixed it in 3.05, but they managed to get Powell and Callahan to think that it had nothing to do with Ruby after July 4th, after they had spent days looking for her to arrest her while Ruby and the kids were trying to find Billy and depossess him from the Mind Flayer's influence, making Ruby a fugitive on the run last year.

"We already told you," Max told them in frustration. "Ruby was drugged at the Alibi, and almost taken advantage of. The guy tried to sexually assault her."

"Until Billy kicked the shit out of the guy that roofied Ruby, and the guy that let it happen at the bar," Callahan stated. "And then we come here on a call reporting Billy beating the hell out of Aaron..." He looked at Ruby. "Who we had to arrest you for before because the two of you got into a fight in your motel room two years ago..."

"Because he attacked me that night, and he attacked me last night," Ruby replied. "As you can clearly see that I was almost beat to death last night while being drugged. Isn't my fucking face proof enough? You think I did this to myself?"

Powell and Callahan didn't know how to respond to that, looking away.

"Billy was protecting her," Max told them.

Powell gestured to Aaron's body as it was being taken away. "That's what you call protection? What Billy did to him, and what Eddie might have done to that girl inside his trailer?"

"Billy and Eddie didn't do that," Ruby told them angrily, protective.

"Then who did?" Callahan asked.

Max and Ruby knew that they had no answer that they would believe, since they knew Powell and Callahan would ignore them and think that they were just trying to cover for Billy and Eddie even if it was by telling the truth, which would sound insane to anyone else.

Hailey watched them in concern, not knowing what to do, how to help, while she was still reeling from what they all went through the night before.

Officer Glenn Daniels walked up to Hailey. "Miss Harrington?" Hailey looked at him. "I'd like to ask you a few questions about your friend."

"What about Chrissy?" Hailey asked.

"For instance, what was she doing here last night?" Daniels asked.

Hailey didn't know the answer, looking away in confusion, toward Ruby and Max, as the three girls exchanged a concerned look for each other.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Airport

Argyle, Jonathan, Will and Eleven were sitting, waiting.

Will and Eleven were smiling excitedly while waiting.

Will had a rolled up painting, wondering if now was a good time to reveal it, or if he should wait until being able to show the rest of the party, if they could ever get together at the same place any time soon.

Just getting off his plane, Mike walked into the airport, dressed for California like it was summer, sunglasses over his eyes.

Eleven stood, smiling excitedly, waving. "Mike."

Mike smiled, waving, raising a bouquet of flowers.

Eleven chuckled happily, running up to Mike, as the two instantly embraced and kissed happily, having missed each other so.

"Oh, careful, careful, careful," Mike told her. "You're squishing your present." They pulled away so Mike could hand her the flowers. "It's a gift." Mike took off his sunglasses. "I, uh, I handpicked those for you in Hawkins." Eleven grinned. "I know you like yellow, but now I'm realizing it's too much yellow." Eleven read from the card on the flowers: 'To El. From Mike'. Even though the gesture was sweet, Eleven had a flash of sadness in her eyes when she saw 'From' on the card. "I know you also like purple, so I got purple as well. So I kinda did, like, a 70/30 split kinda thing."

Eleven gave a smile. "They're perfect. Thank you."

Mike smiled at Will. "Oh! Hey." The two friends hugged. "How you doing?"

They pulled away.

"Hey, Mike," Jonathan greeted.

"Hey," Mike replied. "How you doing?"

"Yeah, good, man," Jonathan answered.

"Good," Mike told him, before noticing the roll of paper in Will's hand. "Uh, what's that?"

Will realized that now was not the right time to show it; he wanted to show it to all of the party if given the chance, but not knowing if he would get the chance anytime soon. "Um, it's nothing. Just this painting I've been working on."

Mike nodded. "Cool."

"That's a rad shirt, man," Argyle told him. "Ocean Pacific?"

"Oh, hey, Mike, this, uh, is my friend Argyle," Jonathan explained.

Mike held out his hand. "Oh, hey."

Instead of shaking his hand, Argyle gave Mike a hug, mostly so he could check the tags on his shirt. "Oh, no, no, no." He pulled away. "No, it's a shitty knockoff. Yeah. But don't sweat it. I'll get you the good threads out here. I heard a lot about your sister."

Everything was tense and awkward now.

Jonathan cleared his throat. "Uh, o--okay. Um, should we go?"

"Yeah, this is kinda awkward, man," Argyle said.

Mike nodded in agreement. "Yeah, so awkward."

(Song:) Surf Time - Surf Riders

Mike put an arm around Eleven, as the two started to walk away.

Will, Argyle and Jonathan started to follow.

Argyle looked at Jonathan. "I really thought it was Ocean Pacific."

Eleven turned to Mike excitedly. "I have our whole day planned. First, El Rodeo for burritos."

"What, really?" Mike asked. "Burritos for breakfast?"

"Yes, trust me," Eleven answered.

Mike smiled. "Yeah, no, no, I trust you. It's just... you know, it's a little weird."

Will, while not jealous of Eleven and Mike, was a little distant and annoyed, mostly because of his own breakup with Niko and not having had the chance to speak to him since given Nadia and Niko were constantly on the run and it was dangerous for any of them to have contact.

Eleven continued to explain her plan for the day. "Then, after burritos, I want to go to Rink-O-Mania."

"Rink-O-Mania," Mike stated. "Okay. What's Rink-O-Mania?"

"It's the most fun place in Lenora," Eleven answered. "They have skating and games."

Mike nodded. "Okay, that sounds awesome. Are your friends gonna meet us?"

"Friends?" Will repeated in confusion. "What--what friends?"

Eleven gave Will a look, hitting him lightly in the chest with her flowers. "You know, Stacy and Angela."

Will frowned, even more confused. "Angela."

∰

Outside

Jonathan, Mike, Eleven, Argyle and Will walked outside.

Eleven looked at Mike. "You'll meet them, I promise. Just not today. I want today to be about me and you."

Mike smiled, kissing Eleven on the head.

The group walked toward Argyle's van, walking past Murray as he was putting his suitcase into the trunk of a taxi; Mike, Eleven, Will and Jonathan hadn't even noticed him since Murray had his back turned to them, and now they were gone.

Murray closed the trunk of the taxi, getting into the backseat, closing the door.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

"4819 Lonzo Way," Murray answered. "Let's go. This is life or death. Snap, snap!"

The driver turned the machine on his dashboard. "Yes, sir."

The driver started to drive them away.

(Song Ends)

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Family Video

Having no idea about what happened the night before since they were still in the store after sunrise, Steve and Robin were working, shelving movies.

"Then Vickie laughed," Robin explained. "And it wasn't like a cheap, fake laugh either. It was like... it was a real, genuine laugh."

"Of course she laughed, Robin," Steve told her. "It's my Muppet joke. It's hilarious."

"My point is that Vickie laughed and everything was just like..." Robin trailed off. As Steve walked into the next aisle to reshelf movies, Robin followed him. "It was perfect."

"But?" Steve asked.

"But I'm having this problem where it's like, I should stop talking," Robin answered. "I have said everything I need to say. But then I guess I get nervous, and the words keep spilling out, and it's like my--my brain is moving faster than my mouth, or--or rather, my--my mouth is moving faster than my brain." As Steve walked into the next aisle to reshelf movies, Robin followed him. "And it's like I'm digging this hole for myself, and I want to stop digging, I'm trying to stop digging, but I can't." Steve leaned against the shelf in front of him with his hand, his other hand on his hip as he looked at Robin, waiting for her to realize. Robin realized. "And I'm doing it right now, aren't I?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, you are."

Robin turned to face Steve, sighing, leaning back into the wall behind her. "I'm hopeless."

Steve leaned against the wall next to her. "Eh. We both are."

Robin turned her head to look at him. "If only we could just, like, combine."

"Combine?" Steve repeated in confusion.

"No, think about it," Robin told him. "I know exactly what I want, and I've found the girl of my dreams, but I just can't get the courage to ask her out." Steve nodded with a hum. "Meanwhile, you go on a million dates. And you have no idea what you want. Outside of Nadia anyway, who is currently emotionally and geographically unavailable." Steve nodded with a hum. "So if we just combined, all our problems would be solved." Steve said an 'Oh' in realization. "Because, I mean, alone, let's face it..."

"We totally suck," Steve finished.

Robin nodded. "Totally and utterly." She gasped. "Ooh, I think I found our morning movie." She ran over to pick up the movie, turning to face Steve excitedly. "Doctor Zhivago."

Steve groaned, pushing away from the wall, hands up. "Ugh, you know I don't do double VHS."

"But it's about doomed love," Robin told him.

Steve grabbed the movie cart, nodding, tilting his head. "Oh, well, that's relatable."

Robin gave a smile. "Precisely." They walked toward the counter. "Also, Julie Christie is b-b-bonkers hot in this. Like, seriously, the most beautiful creature I have ever seen in my life."

Robin turned on the TV.

The news was displaying the murders at the trailer park. "We're in the Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County. We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of Pennhurst Asylum escapee Aaron Johnston and a Hawkins High student were discovered early this morning. Police have not released the name of the student..."

Steve frowned. "Holy shit. Aaron Johnston... why does that name sound familiar?"

Robin shook her head in confusion, since she wouldn't know about Aaron.

News reporter: (on TV) "Although we are told they're currently in the process of notifying the families."

Steve had a very bad feeling about this, turning to grab the phone.

"What?" Robin asked.

"I haven't heard from Hailey since the game last night," Steve answered. "I've been here all night."

Steve tried to call home, but Hailey obviously wasn't there since she was still at the trailer park with Ruby and Max until they could finally leave and meet up with Dustin.

∰

Benny's Burgers

This was the same diner as the one Eleven was in in 1.01.

Lucas was in the bathroom, puking his guts out after getting drunk the night before.

Ryan stood outside the door, knocking. "You all right in there, Sinclair?"

"I'm good," Lucas replied.

Ryan smirked, leaning against the wall. "First hangover feels like you're gonna split in two, but you'll live."

Ryan pushed away from the wall, walking away into the main room, where Jason, Patrick and Andy were watching the news, walking to get some cereal for breakfast.

There were other guys from the basketball team all passed out around the place.

The TV wasn't getting very good reception.

Andy sighed in annoyance, walking up to the TV, hitting it, adjusting the antenna, trying to fix it. "Come on. Piece of shit."

"There you go," Patrick told him. "See?"

Andy went to sit down.

News reporter: (on TV) "Is newly appointed police chief, Calvin Powell, who served as deputy under Chief Hopper."

Ryan walked closer with his cereal, taking a bite. "What's this? I thought we were watching ThunderCats."

"Pennhurst escapee and a Hawkins student got murdered," Jason explained.

Ryan raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What?"

"Yeah, it's on every channel," Andy told them.

News reporter: (on TV) "As you can see behind me, Chief Powell and the Hawkins Police Department are actively investigating the scene."

"They say who it is?" Ryan asked.

"The Pennhurst escapee's Aaron Johnston," Patrick answered. "But they didn't say who the student was."

Andy pointed at Jason with a smirk. "Hey, maybe Chrissy didn't stand you up after all."

Patrick gave him a look. "Hey, don't say that."

"Relax, it was a joke," Andy told him.

Ryan and Jason both looked up when they heard police sirens coming closer.

"A joke?" Patrick repeated. "Come on, two people just died and you're making a joke out of it?"

Ryan walked toward the windows of the diner to look outside.

"It was at the trailer park," Andy said. "So probably some druggies OD'd on heroin or some shit. Hell, one of them is a confirmed psycho case who escaped the asylum."

Patrick nodded sarcastically. "Oh, see, that makes it funnier."

"What is up your ass this morning?" Andy asked. "It was a joke."

Ryan put his hand against the wall next to the window, looking outside to see Powell and Callahan pull up to the diner in their car. He frowned, turning back to the other boys. "Guys."

∰

Hawkins High School - Newspaper Room

Nancy, Fred and others were watching the news.

Reporter: (on TV) "We also don't yet know if foul play was involved. But whatever has occurred here, is sure to touch a nerve across Hawkins."

Woman: (on TV) "Ever since that girl, Barb, died a few years ago, it has been one thing after another. I'll tell ya, you start to believe all those things they say, that this town is cursed, that the devil lives here in Hawkins."

Nancy looked tormented by the memories of knowing that Barb died, that Nadia herself had seen Barb's dead body in the Void. Nancy felt so guilty that she had been hooking up with Steve right when Barb was taken and killed.

Fred's voice was echoing in her ears, slowly snapping her out of it. "I don't think anyone's gonna care about the basketball game anymore. Nancy?" He waved a hand in front of Nancy's face. "Earth to Nancy."

Nancy looked at him. "What?"

"I said I don't think anyone's gonna care about the game," Fred answered.

"Yeah," Nancy agreed. "No, I know." She frowned as she looked at the name of the trailer park on the screen. "Forest Hills. That's Ruby's old trailer park. Billy and Max live there now."

"Really?" Fred asked.

Nancy nodded. "Would you be up for a field trip?"

∰

Hallway

Fred and Nancy walked down the hallway toward the exit.

∰

Trailer Park

In an upside down shot of the trailer park that was slowly panning until it was right side up, a crowd was gathered around the crime scene, as the coroners were taking Chrissy and Aaron's bodies away on stretchers, within the body bags so no one saw their faces.

The reporter was still on air. "Many of the residents we spoke to voiced similar concerns to us. Grief, shock, disbelief, anger. Everyone wants to know the same thing. How can so many tragedies befall a once-peaceful town? All eyes are now on the police for answers. Is the new chief of police, Powell, in over his head? Or is he the very savior this tow needs?"

∰

Henderson House - Living Room

Dustin was waiting anxiously to meet up with Hailey, Ruby and Max, watching the news with his mother Claudia.

Reporter: (on TV) "We'll be here the rest of the day, right here on channel nine where we'll keep you posted on all the latest developments. In the meantime, we recommend you keep your doors and windows locked tight. This is Beverly Moss, signing off for..."

Claudia was holding a cat. "My heart can't take it anymore. It just can't take it."

As soon as the doorbell rang, Dustin was up out of his seat, walking quickly toward the front door, opening it, revealing Ruby, Hailey and Max outside, all four of them still shaken up from the night before.

Ruby, Hailey and Max had gotten the chance to change finally after being released from being questioned.

∰

Outside

Dustin walked outside to join the girls, closing the door behind him.

"Dustin, are you okay?" Ruby asked after hearing from Hailey about what happened to Dustin the night before.

Dustin sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Fucking terrified. But Hailey saved me from that monster, so there's that." He took in Ruby's beaten appearance, though Max had helped with helping her clean up. "Jesus, Ruby. Aaron did all that?"

"Yeah," Ruby answered. "Asshole had me fucking drugged so I couldn't fight back."

"Are you okay?" Dustin asked.

Ruby shrugged barely. "Been through worse with my own parents and Upside Down monsters, so..."

Max looked at her in concern because of that statement about her parents and how she tried to act like this was nothing.

Hailey was still upset and grieving her friend, turning away. "Dustin..." Dustin looked at her. "Chrissy's dead. Not just Aaron."

Dustin looked at her in concern and worry, knowing how close Hailey and Chrissy had gotten, walking closer to her. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry."

Dustin and Hailey embraced.

Hailey sniffled. "I just... I had this insane nightmare when I saw her, like that snake creature thing was in my head, and he was mocking. I don't know..."

Max looked at her friend in concern. "Hailey, I'm so sorry about your friend. But do you know why Chrissy would be with Eddie?"

"I don't know," Hailey admitted. "I mean, she's been distant and upset for a few days now at school, but... she never told me that anything was wrong."

Dustin was pacing. "Eddie the freak with Chrissy the cheerleader?"

Max nodded. "Exactly. And Billy's gonna get so much hate for kicking the hell out of the two guys at the Alibi, the one that drugged Ruby and the other that let it happen, and then Aaron right before he was killed. I mean, Eddie and Billy's names aren't in the news yet or anything, but Powell and Callahan are already trying to pin it on both of them right now."

"And it's not like we could tell them anything fucking different," Ruby told him. "We fucking tried. They just thought that we were covering for Billy and Eddie. I mean, and Billy did kick those guys' asses, but they deserved it. But now it's gonna bite him in the ass because everybody's gonna think that he killed Aaron."

"That's crazy," Dustin told them. "Billy's still kinda crazy, but he's gotten better. And there's no way that Eddie did this."

"Obviously," Hailey told him. "It's just that... I don't know how I saw what I saw last night, but the snake monster thing is not the only thing that's out there. Aaron was so insane that he would do anything the other creature said. And he said that he wanted him to go after Ruby."

"Why?" Ruby asked. "It doesn't make any fucking sense."

Ruby was pacing anxiously, trying not to get too angry or overwhelmed in case she lost it.

Hailey, Max and Dustin were worried about her mind state, though all of them were freaking out about the night before.

Hailey ran a hand through her hair. "Billy might still be with Eddie. We have to find them."

"Dustin, did you use the watch to call Nadia?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, yeah, last night," Dustin answered. "I have no idea how far out Nadia is, or if Niko's coming with her or not, though. And you guys were at the trailer park for like four hours."

"Yeah, because the stupid as hell cops kept us back to question us like we did something wrong," Ruby agreed.

"And they're determined to pin this on Billy and Eddie," Hailey added. "And they still don't like Ruby and think that she has something to do with Aaron's death. But of course, they don't have anything on her so they can't arrest her."

"Okay," Max said. "So we have to find Billy and Eddie before the cops do, and wait for Nadia to get here. With how long we had to be at the trailer park, maybe she's already close to getting here, depending on how far out she is. Maybe she could help fill in the blanks on some answers. Nadia, Niko and Natasha always had answers for Ruby's powers or other stuff. Maybe they can tell us what happened with Hailey last night, and why she saw all the things she saw, and everything else."

Hailey, Dustin and Ruby nodded.

"How is something else killing people again?" Dustin asked. "Not one creature this time, but two. We closed the Gate."

"We closed the Gate before, and it still came back," Ruby pointed out.

"That's because the Russians started to open the Gate again and put the Mind Flayer back into business on this side," Hailey pointed out. "So how is it happening again?"

Max shook her head. "I don't know. Hopefully that's one of the answers we'll get."

"Have you guys talked to anyone else?" Dustin asked.

"No," Max answered. "We can't find Lucas or Nancy, and Mike's in--"

"California," Dustin finished. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Steve should still be at the video store with Robin," Hailey told them.

"Well, then Steve and Robin it is," Ruby told them.

They all turned to leave.

Claudia opened the front door to call out to her son. "Dusty, where you going?"

"To see a friend," Dustin replied.

"You heard the news," Claudia told him. "It's not safe."

"Good point, we'll be extra careful," Dustin told her. "Thanks, Mom. Love you, bye."

Hailey, Max, Dustin and Ruby got into Hailey's car, speeding away.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Outside

Murray opened the trunk of the taxi to pull out his suitcase and bag, closing the trunk.

As soon as the trunk was closed, the taxi driver drove away.

Murray walked up to the Byers house.

∰

Inside - Living Room

Murray was sitting on the couch, reading the letter she had gotten in 4.01. "Hop and Natasha are alive. Looking forward to date. Please make reservation for them. Call 7-4-1-5-2'. Blah, blah. 'Open 12 day P.E.T.T. No government, please. Kind regards, Enzo.'" Joyce was pacing in front of him, coming to a stop, nodding with a small smile. "I like it even less in person."

"What do you mean, 'like it less'?" Joyce asked.

"I don't trust it," Murray answered. "For starters, who the hell sent this?"

Joyce shrugged. "A friend?"

"A friend?" Murray repeated.

"Of Hop or Natasha's?" Joyce asked.

"Hop and Natasha are alive, no government?" Murray asked. "This looks and reads like a ransom note, and a bad one at that. There's no proof of life here."

"Yes, there is," Joyce told him, walking closer, sitting down next to Murray. "It's signed 'Enzo'."

"So?" Murray asked.

Joyce laughed incredulously. "So? Natasha and Hopper were planning a date when they, Niko, Hailey and I infiltrated the Russian underground base."

"Sounds like Jim and Natasha to plan a damn date in the middle of an infiltration," Murray remarked.

"They were planning on going to Enzo's, the restaurant they were first to have a date before everything last year interrupted," Joyce explained. "So whoever wrote this, either Natasha or Hopper, or both, trusted enough to make him sign it Enzo. They know that I would know because I heard them arguing about their cancelled date at the restaurant the first time, and Natasha told me about the date coming up before we destroyed the portal key. They're sending me a message."

Murray placed the letter down. "You saw them die, Joyce. You, Niko and Hailey all did."

Joyce shook her head. "We didn't see their bodies."

Murray sighed. "Because they evaporated."

"Natasha was building her shield when it exploded," Joyce pointed out. "Maybe that saved her, and saved Hopper. But since the explosion was so intense... they were knocked out, and we had to run from more Russians, but maybe then they were taken."

Murray wasn't sure, but decided to play along to find out. "Okay. Okay. Let's indulge this fantasy for a moment." He stood, pacing around. "They're Houdini. They're cat people with nine lives. Whatever is it, they survive. What are they doing in Russia? They were captured, that's what. Just like you said, taken. Then they probably met some new friends. And by friends, I mean the KGB. And believe me when I tell you, these people are the worst of the worst. I am talking torture, Joyce. And no matter how strong you think Natasha and Jim are, they will break them. They will get their whole life stories. And yes, that might very well include a planned date at Enzo's. And this could all be an elaborate ruse to capture you, one of their co-conspirators, as well. And to capture Niko and Hailey as they were big parts of that infiltration. Or--or, it's the Russian psionic program who has Natasha, and they're trying to use you to track down Nadia and Niko, and they could find out you have El, and they could rediscover their creation in Hailey, and find out about Ruby, and everyone you know and love could be put in danger."

Joyce frowned, giving Murray a look. "You just made all that up."

Murray scoffed, walking closer, sitting on the table in front of her. "It's a theory."

"I prefer mine," Joyce told him.

Murray nodded in agreement. "So do I." He shook his head. "Doesn't make it right."

"Well, either way, this could be real," Joyce told him. "Natasha and Hopper could be alive."

Murray shrugged. "I suppose there's only one way to find out."

Murray stood, walking toward his suitcase.

"What are you doing?" Joyce asked.

"We're gonna call that number," Murray told her, laying down his suitcase, starting to open it. "And you're going to find out who the hell sent you that letter. Hopefully before Niko gets here, you tell him your theory, and gets his hopes up for nothing. But we're doing it... my way."

∰

Flashback 3 - One Year Ago

Russian Underground Base

Mere moments after the events of the Battle of Starcourt, Natasha and Hopper were still unconscious in the middle of the debris from the explosion.

Hopper woke up first, since Natasha took the brunt of the explosion with her shield to save them. He looked over at Natasha worriedly, trying to wake her up. "Natasha. Natasha! Nat, wake up."

Hopper felt for Natasha's pulse, sighing in complete relief to know that she was alive, hanging his head.

The team of Russians that had sent Hailey, Niko, Joyce and Murray on the run since they were too burnt out and injured to keep fighting closed in on Hopper and the unconscious Natasha with their weapons all aimed at them, as Hopper looked up in alarm.

Natasha started to stir awake, but was very weakened and in no condition to fight back.

A man named Mikhail Ivanov walked closer through the debris, merely glancing at Hopper, before looking at Natasha, smirking smugly while glaring at her. "Hello, Natasha."

Natasha looked at Mikhail in shock and horror, disbelief. "Mikhail?"

"It's been so long, daughter," Mikhail told her.

Hopper looked between them in shock and confusion.

Mikhail suddenly punched Hopper in the face, knocking him down.

"No!" Natasha snapped. "Jim!"

Natasha pushed herself up, trying to attack Mikhail.

Mikhail caught Natasha by the wrist as she was incredibly weakened and injured, his hand starting to glow a greenish color as he was able to siphon the power of Natasha's shield, and created her shield to push Natasha back to the ground on her back, using a shield to pin both Natasha and Hopper in place so they could not get up and fight back. "Where do you think you're going?"

Natasha glared at Mikhail furiously, quickly recovering from her shock of seeing her father alive and standing before her. "Fight me like a man without cheating your way around it like usual."

Mikhail smirked. "That time will come, my dear. Just not yet."

Mikhail pulled back his hands to pull back the shields in front of Natasha and Hopper, before thrusting his hands down and using the shields to bash their heads against the ground, knocking them out.

∰

Interrogation (Torture) Room

Hopper was strung up and tied to the ceiling by his wrists, barefoot, being beaten and tortured.

A soldier stood next to Hopper. "Tell me, besides Mikhail's daughter, who you work with?"

"I told you, no one," Hopper told them.

The other soldier punched Hopper in the face.

The first soldier held up a picture of security footage showing Niko, Hailey and Joyce. "One is Natasha's son, Niko. The other is an experiment of Grigori's. All the files with her names and information were destroyed." Hopper smirked, since they had done that purposely so that the other Russians couldn't use those files to track Hailey down yet. "And the other woman? Who is she?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Hopper asked. "She's wearing a Russian uniform."

The first soldier turned his head to look at the other, speaking in Russian. "Get the Elephant." Moments later, Hopper was taken down from the ceiling, only to be chained down to a chair. A gas mask, or the Elephant, was put on around Hopper's face. Hopper was breathing heavily, only able to breathe through a tube. "You want to die for these people, American?"

When Hopper refused to answer, the second soldier took the breathing tube in his hands and crushed it intensely, rendering Hopper unable to breathe.

Still, Hopper refused to answer even without oxygen.

The first soldier was keeping time.

Hopper started to struggle for breath, but still refused to answer.

∰

Russian Psionic Prison - Lab

Natasha was unconscious, strapped down to an experimental table, hooked up with experimental equipment.

A team of scientists and Russians were standing behind glass while Mikhail was nearby Natasha.

Natasha gasped awake, taking in her surroundings, remembering what was happening. She looked around worriedly, trying to get free.

Mikhail was pacing in front of her. "Relax, Natasha. I think you'll find it will go easier if you do."

"Where's Jim Hopper?" Natasha asked. "If you hurt him--"

Mikhail smirked. "I think that you know by now that is inevitable. But he's strong. Even without the training of our people. Of your last husband. I see why you like him."

Natasha glared at him. "Don't you dare speak about Valkov." Mikhail walked closer. "Some father/daughter reunion. You're supposed to be dead."

"Many people would say the same thing about you," Mikhail replied. "You should know by now that it takes a hell of a lot more than a simple explosion to kill a Rostov-Ivanov, Natasha. Or Rostova in your case. Ivanova in Sabina's. Sabina and Nadyr are nearly as hard to get rid of as you, Nadia, Nikolai and I."

Natasha processed what he said. "Wait. Does that mean they're alive? Nadyr and Sabina?"

"I think you can figure that on your own," Mikhail told her. "But, on the other hand, you might not have enough time to figure it out. Because you're going back under mind control. And you're going to become an even more powerful weapon for the program, Natasha. Just to think... Valkov died saving you, Nadia and Niko from the program, only for you to fall back into it a decade later, worse than ever before."

Natasha glared at him furiously, struggling. "Valkov is dead because of you! You and Grigori."

"And I would have him killed all over again after what you and Nadyr have done to me in revenge for Valkov's death and all the things I did to the two of you, Nadia and Niko," Mikhail replied. "You thought you killed me. Did you ever think of what you and Nadyr did to Nazary?"

Natasha swallowed. "You're alive. Is Nazary?"

"If you're asking me to tell you Nazary's fate so that you can assuage your guilt over what you did, I won't," Mikhail told her. "You and Nadyr both deserve to live with the guilt of not knowing."

"So Nadyr is alive," Natasha stated. "Mama?"

Mikhail refused to answer that either, turning away. "You should settle in. You're going to be here for a while. And you're not the only one that is going to be here, brainwashed back into the program either. I'm going to find Nadia and Niko. And they're going to join you as they should have stayed for the past 10 years."

Natasha glared at him furiously. "No! You leave Nadia and Niko be."

Mikhail smirked. "You want me to leave your children alone? That's very funny coming from you. But you should know that they're not the only ones that I'm going to be going after either. The American psionics that you and your children grew so close to. Mentored. Taught. Protected. Fought alongside. Even before one of them turned into a psionic."

Natasha realized that he knew all about Eleven, Ruby and Hailey, horrified. "No."

Mikhail smiled in satisfaction. "Yes. Jane Hopper. Eleven of the American psionic program. You started to look at her like a mentee, almost like a daughter, because you and your children wanted to protect her and guide her, and because of your relationship with Jim Hopper. Then Ruby Charlize. You have no idea the real history of her and her family, but thanks to my men being able to crack the codes on Sabina's redacted files regarding Ruby's parents, Melody and Anthony, I was able to. I want her just as much as any of you. She may be a key into creating more powerful psionics, like Nikolai. And Grigori was the one that ordered the experiments for Hailey Harrington, and as you remember, Grigori reported directly to me. Even if my men have no idea about her, I know all about Hailey. More than you or anyone you love do. About exactly what she is now. No ordinary psionic. You and Nadyr were so worried about the monster that I could turn Nazary into, Natasha. But you never realized that I could do the same thing to your little protégé in Hailey, without even being there myself."

Natasha looked sick to her stomach, furious and angry. "You have me here, Mikhail. Don't go after Nadia and Niko. You leave them alone. All of them. I'll do whatever you want if you leave them, Hailey, Ruby and Eleven be."

Mikhail shook his head. "I'm going to get everything I want in the end, Natasha. And I want all of you. Under my control. And the thing is, you know that I can do exactly that. And there's not a thing you can do to stop it."

Natasha glared at him, a slight smirk on her lips, saying the word 'Papa' in seething, furious sarcasm. "You overestimate yourself, Papa. And you underestimate all of us. That will be your downfall."

Mikhail smirked. "We'll see." He nodded to the doctors and scientists. "Begin."

Two men walked closer.

Natasha struggled. "What are you doing?"

"You're going to become stronger than ever, when I have you under my control once again," Mikhail told her. "I need stronger warriors for the future I have planned, my dear. You're first step of transformation begins now."

One of the men held Natasha's head still while the other one injected a needle into her neck. Natasha became more docile and less resisting, more tired, but not enough to fall asleep. The two men walked away.

Natasha struggled to fight against the drug they gave her, which made her nearly asleep though awake enough to be aware of what was going on. She turned her head away in worry, breathing heavily, but angry. "Go to hell." Mikhail grabbed a needle from nearby. "No. No, wait."

"This is for the good of us, my child," Mikhail told her. "I promise you. What do you say to that?"

Natasha glared at Mikhail. "I say..." She barely managed to gather enough strength, powering through the sedative in her system, thrusting her head forward to headbutt Mikhail in the head hard, making him reel back. "That's for Valkov. You son of a bitch." Mikhail glared at Natasha angrily, taking a cloth and rubber strap from next to her head, fastening over her forehead to strap her head to the table so she couldn't do that again. Natasha struggled, knowing that whatever they did to her, it would hurt, angry. "Let me go. Let me go!"

Mikhail put a gag in Natasha's mouth, nodding to the team of scientists nearby who started the experiments through all the equipment, making Natasha scream as the experiments too affect on her body, although she couldn't scream loudly with the gag in her mouth. She started to shake as Mikhail put the liquid in the needle into the IV connected to her and pumped it into her system, and she had to lurch back and scream in pain. Mikhail smirked, leaving the room.

As Natasha was being experimented on with all these drugs that were set to make her even stronger, and upon seeing Mikhail, being back here, it brought up all the memories of her childhood.

∰

Flashback 4 - 1954

Day - Playground

Young Natasha and Young Nadyr were training, getting better and better together.

"You're gonna lose, Natasha," Young Nadyr told her.

Young Natasha smiled smugly. "Nuh-uh, Nadyr. You are."

Young Nadyr caught Young Natasha's arm and flipped her to the ground. "Told you so."

Young Natasha's knee got twisted during the flip, causing her to cry out in pain.

Young Nadyr looked guilty for hurting his sister even during training.

Sabina was watching, walking closer. "Hey. What happened?"

"She hurt her knee when we were training," Young Nadyr answered.

"Your knee?" Sabina asked. Young Natasha nodded. "Aw. It's probably just twisted. We'll get that taken care of in the infirmary. Make it all better. Okay?" Young Natasha nodded, sniffling. Sabina wiped a stray tear from Young Natasha's face. "There we go. Oh, come on, little one. Get up. You're okay. Nadyr, help me with your sister." Young Nadyr and Sabina helped Young Natasha to her feet, leading her to the infirmary. "You're a brave girl, Natasha. Your pain only makes you stronger. Right, Nadyr?"

"Yeah," Young Nadyr answered.

"Yeah," Sabina said.

Young Natasha looked off to the distance where she saw fireflies decorating the edge of the forest around the building, several meters away. "Look. Forest stars."

"Yeah, you know what?" Sabina asked. "Those are actually part of the Lampyridae family." As the three watched the fireflies, Sabina wrapped her arms around both her children. "And the glow, the glow that you see, that comes from a chemical reaction called... bioluminescence. Come on, let's go."

∰

Russian Psionic Program - Outside

Sabina and Mikhail were about to bring nine year old Natasha into the program for training with spies.

14 year old Nadyr didn't want to let this happen, holding Young Natasha in his arms. "Hey, you're gonna be okay."

Soldiers walked closer to grab Young Natasha.

Young Natasha was confused and upset, trying to break free. "Papa! Mama!"

Mikhail looked at Sabina. "I'll handle this."

Young Nadyr ran closer to try and stop them. "Natasha!"

Young Natasha was crying as she tried to pull free. "Nadyr!"

Young Nadyr pushed Soldier 1 away from his sister. "Get away from her!" He kicked Soldier 2's wrist to make him let go of Young Natasha, grabbing the soldier's gun, aiming it as he stood in front of his baby sister protectively. "Don't touch her!" He spoke in Russian. "I will shoot!" He spoke in English. "Don't touch her! I will kill you all!" He spoke in Russian as he held his arm around Young Natasha and she clung onto her older brother. "I will shoot! Don't touch her!"

Mikhail walked closer calmly. "Nadyr." Young Nadyr aimed his gun at Mikhail, hating his father as much as the rest of them. "You need to hand me that gun."

Young Nadyr shook his head. "I don't wanna go back there. You can't take her. You can't. She's only nine."

Mikhail stepped in front of his children, looking Young Nadyr in the eyes. "You were even younger." He took the gun from Young Nadyr. "It's okay. Come here." He knelt in front of his children. "You're gonna be all right." He kissed Young Natasha on the head, who cringed away from him and further into the hold of Young Nadyr. "You know why it's gonna be all right? Because my children are the toughest in the world. You're gonna take care of each other, okay? And everything. Everything's gonna be fine."

Two soldiers came up on either side of Young Natasha and Young Nadyr while Mikhail had them distracted, injecting sedatives into their necks, making them fall unconscious instantly.

Sabina watched from behind Mikhail, lowering her gaze in guilt.

The soldiers picked Young Natasha and Young Nadyr up, carrying them away.

Mikhail stood, watching them go with not a trace of guilt on his face.

Young Natasha and Young Nadyr woke up in a crate with other children set for the spy and espionage program, including Young Valkov and Young Grigori.

Soldiers opened the crate and started to haul the children out of the crate, making them all scream in fear and pain as they were ushered into groups.

A leader was picking out the best of the best, pointing out Young Natasha, Young Nadyr, Young Valkov and Young Grigori. "Those four. They're the chosen. They're legacies."

∰

Now

Day - Rink-O-Mania - Outside

Argyle drove him, Jonathan, Mike, Eleven and Will up to the rink.

Mike, Eleven and Will got out of the back of the van, walking toward the rink.

Jonathan called out to his brother. "Hey, Will." Will turned to face him. "We'll be back at 6:00. Have fun, okay?"

Will nodded. "Okay. You still going to visit the college campus?"

"Yeah," Jonathan answered. "I'll still be back in time, though."

Will nodded in understanding, turning around, walking inside.

Argyle started to drive him and Jonathan away to drop Jonathan off at the college campus for a tour.

∰

Inside

(Song:) You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) - Dead or Alive

Everyone in the rink was having fun with roller skating and dancing along to the song, or playing the many games within the rink.

Mike, Eleven and Will were getting their skates, turning around, walking away.

Eleven looked at Mike. "Bitchin', right?"

Mike nodded. "Yeah, bitchin'. Do you come here a lot?"

"Yeah," Eleven said the same time Will said, "No."

Eleven gave Will a look before looking at Mike. "Will does not, but I go to parties here. It's a big party place." Will rolled his eyes at Eleven's lying. The three sat down to put on their skates. Eleven glanced at Mike. "Oh, I forgot, you need socks."

"Oh, shit," Mike said, looking at his sandals.

"They--they sell them at the counter," Will reassured.

"Oh, okay," Mike agreed, standing, walking away.

Will looked at Eleven. "How'd you forget about the socks? I mean, since you come here all the time."

Eleven frowned. "I--I don't know. I just forgot."

Will nodded, slightly sarcastic. "Right. Why do you keep lying?"

"What?" Eleven asked.

"Why do you keep lying to Mike?" Will asked.

"I'm not lying," Eleven denied.

"You're not?" Will repeated skeptically. "You're friends with Angela and Stacy and you come to parties here?"

"I have been to a party here," Eleven told him.

"For Mom's work," Will reminded her. "That's not what you implied. I just... I don't think Mike's gonna like that you're lying to him. And he doesn't deserve that. When he finds out, he's gonna be mad."

Eleven didn't answer, looking away.

Mike walked back over with socks, sitting down. "Okay, so, I asked for vomit green and I got vomit green. Isn't that awesome?"

The three continued to put their skates on.

(Song Ends)

Mike and Eleven went out to skate together, hand in hand.

Mike chuckled nervously. "I'm so bad at this, I'm like Bambi on ice."

Eleven laughed. "No, you're good. You got this."

As they continued to skate together as a couple, Will looked around, skating on his own, seeing many other couples skating together, feeling lonely and upset, and insanely missing Niko, though he didn't want to admit it after their break up and how it was handled.

(Song:) Rock Me Amadeus (The Gold Mix) - Falco

Angela and her friends arrived to the roller rink.

Angela was surprised to see Eleven there with Mike, who obviously she didn't know, but wanted to use this against her instantly. "Oh, my God, guys. Check it out."

"Who's that twig with her?" one of the boys asked.

Angela chuckled. "I don't know. But it seems like the snitch has a boyfriend."

"Told you spring break's gonna be fun," the other boy told her.

Angela smiled smugly, already up to something.

(Song Ends)

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Benny's Burgers - Outside

Lucas, Andy, Patrick and the rest of the team were outside.

Lucas was standing on some steps, leaning forward against the railing in front of him by his arms, looking around.

Patrick walked up to Lucas, leaning against the railing next to him. "Hey. Look, I'm sure it's nothing, all right? Probably the neighbors complained about the noise or some shit. You all right?"

Lucas nodded unconvincingly. "Yeah, I'm good."

Patrick stood straight, patting Lucas on the back, walking away toward Andy.

Lucas let out a nervous breath.

∰

Inside

Powell and Callahan were questioning Jason and Ryan.

Ryan was leaning against the graffitied wall of the diner, arms crossed, looking around in boredom, tilting his head back against the wall.

Powell sat across from Jason at a table. "And you two were here all night?"

"Yes," Ryan answered. "Ask anyone."

Callahan was pacing. "Oh, we will, but thank you for the suggestion."

Powell glanced around. "I see a whole lot of beer around. You have fun last night?"

"What, you gonna arrest us for drinking?" Jason asked.

Powell tilted his head. "It is against the law, so we could." He glanced at Callahan, who was now next to him. "Should we?"

Callahan shrugged. "I'd vote for trespassing myself. I don't think that Benny's family would be too thrilled to see what you've done to his place."

Ryan looked toward them in boredom. "Yo, people have been using this shithole for years, man. Act like you guys didn't know."

"Ryan, what can you tell us about Ruby Charlize?" Powell asked.

"What about her?" Ryan asked.

"We know that you two got into a fight two years ago," Callahan told him. "You didn't want to report it because you started the fight, but she won."

"Ruby's a psycho bitch that ruined my Halloween night, and I was just messing around," Ryan told them, in a half-lie since he was clearly trying to start a fight with Ruby that day. "She and her psycho bitch friend Nadia are like two peas and a psycho bitch pod."

"And what do you know about Ruby's boyfriend, Billy Hargrove?" Callahan asked.

"Just that Hargrove's just as insane, if not more so," Ryan replied. "Billy used to be against all of other Ruby's friends before, but not now. I know he gets into even more fights than Ruby does, and that he could end up beating someone to death like she almost did to me before Nadia stopped her."

Powell and Callahan exchanged a look, nodding.

"So do you think that they could be capable of something like that, one of, or both of them?" Callahan asked.

"Hell yeah I do," Ryan answered.

"Wait, why are you asking about Ruby and Billy?" Jason asked. "What does that have to do with Ryan, since that was two years ago? And why am I here?"

"You're here because we want to ask you about your girlfriend," Powell answered, avoiding the other questions. "She party here last night?"

Jason frowned. "Chrissy? No."

"That's odd, what with her being your girlfriend and all," Callahan pointed out.

Ryan raised his eyebrows.

"Why are you asking about Chris?" Jason asked.

"When's the last time you talked to her?" Powell asked.

"After the game," Jason answered.

Ryan looked between the two cops. "This doesn't have to do with that dead asylum escapee and the dead student, does it?"

"When's the last time you talked to Ruby or Billy, Ryan?" Powell asked.

"I haven't talked to either of them in years," Ryan answered. "I just saw them at the pep rally yesterday and ignored them both when they mocked me about two years ago."

"Have you ever dropped by their bar, the Alibi?" Callahan asked.

Ryan scoffed. "Once but never went back when I saw it was theirs. I did hear of two guys getting beat up there last night, though. I'm guessing that's because of Ruby? Or probably Billy. Why don't you go talk to them?"

"We're getting character witness statements from people who won't protect them," Powell replied. "Jason, what did Chrissy say when you talked to her?"

"Well, she--she said..." Jason trailed off. "I mean, she said she was gonna go home, get changed, something like that."

"Did she mention anything about buying drugs for the party?" Callahan asked.

"Drugs?" Jason repeated. "No. No way. Chrissy doesn't mess with that crap."

"Maybe someone talked her into it," Powell told them.

Jason shook his head. "No. She's straight as an arrow."

"What about Eddie Munson?" Powell asked. "Ever seen her talking to him?"

Ryan scoffed. "That freak?"

"No," Jason answered. "No way. Wait, what... what does Eddie have to do with all this? Why are you asking so many questions about Ruby and Billy?"

Ryan pushed away from the wall in realization, walking closer. "You think Ruby or Billy killed one of the victims. Don't you? The Pennhurst escapee. You think Eddie hurt Chrissy."

Neither officer knew what to say.

Jason looked at Ryan, realizing he was right, and was instantly in denial, getting angry. "Did Eddie hurt her? Did that freak hurt her? He hurt Chrissy?" When they didn't answer, Jason raised his voice. "Did he hurt Chrissy?"

∰

Outside

Jason stormed outside past the rest of the guys.

Ryan walked outside slowly.

Patrick called out to them. "Jason. Ryan. Hey, guys, you all right?"

Jason was storming away furiously.

"Jason, Ryan, what happened?" Andy asked.

Lucas, Andy and Patrick ran over to Jason and Ryan, followed by a few other of the boys.

Ryan watched Jason storm away to the woods. "Where are you going?"

Lucas, Andy and Patrick stopped behind Ryan.

"Ryan, what's going on with Jason?" Lucas asked. "Is everything good? What did they say?"

Ryan turned to face Lucas, Andy and Patrick, tilting his head slightly, sighing, shrugging. "Got some news for you boys."

∰

Woods

Jason walked around aimlessly through the woods until he couldn't anymore, falling to his knees, crying, sobbing, holding his head in his hands, before screaming in anger and devastation.

∰

Family Video

Steve and Robin were still watching the news, while Steve was still trying to contact Hailey at home.

"Still can't get a hold of her?" Robin asked.

Steve put the phone down. "No, and it's pissing me off. Where the hell is she?"

Steve turned his head when he heard something from the back room, confused.

"What is it?" Robin asked.

Steve walked toward the back room, opening the door, looking into the room, which was completely dark. He could sense someone here though, walking further into the dark room, looking around.

When a hand was placed on Steve's shoulder, Steve jumped and grabbed the arm of the person behind him, flipping them over his shoulder toward the ground without realizing who it was, acting on instinct due to the murders. Nadia was the one flipping through the air, landing on her feet, using the momentum of the flip to flip Steve over her head to the floor, falling with him when they landed. They both pushed themselves up to stand. Nadia reached out to grab Steve's hand to flip him again, but Steve spun out of it before she could do so, making Nadia spin around and grab her in a restraint from behind, his arm across her chest, his other hand keeping hers pinned down against her stomach, meaning both his arms were around her.

In doing so, Steve finally saw her face. "Nadia?"

Nadia smirked, impressed, surprised. "Hey, Steve. Where did you learn those moves?"

Steve was in shock to know that she was back, let alone in his arms, trying to pull himself together and think straight, chuckling nervously. "Uh, indirectly from you, actually."

Nadia nodded in understanding. "Hailey and Ruby?"

"Taught me and Billy," Steve answered.

Nadia easily broke free from Steve's restraint, which he wasn't using to restrain her anymore anyway, spinning to face him, swinging a fist, which Steve ducked and pushed away. Nadia spun, raising her leg as if to kick, only testing how far Steve had come to learn, seeing what he could do. Steve ducked before being kicked, taking Nadia by the arm, spinning her around in the opposite direction, grabbing her arms. The two locked gazes for a moment, before Nadia smirked and pushed Steve's hands off her arms, and the two circled around each other. Nadia did an in-to-out crescent kick that Steve ducked and circled underneath before standing up, trying to grab Nadia's arm to twist and end the sparring match, Nadia pushed his arm away, hard enough to make him spin and face her again, raising her leg to kick him in the chest. Steve raised an arm to block the move, catching her arm a she went to punch, still having hold of her leg as well, using them to flip her through the air. Nadia spun through the air to land on her feet in a crouch, looking up, smirking, standing, taking it less easy on Steve now that she knew how much he could do, spinning to backhand punch Steve in the face, punching him lightly twice in the chest and stomach. Steve kicked her back, trying to flip her to the floor. Nadia spun free of the restraint, trying to punch him in the face. Steve caught her arm, spinning her around like in a dance, pulling her close to face him, both stunned as they looked each other in the eyes. Taking him by surprise, Nadia punched him in the side, pushing him back, spinning to kick him. Steve caught her leg, flipping her through the air, letting her go. Nadia backflipped through the air to land on her feet, spinning to kick him back. Steve caught her arm, twisting her around to restrain her from behind with her arm behind her back, and his arms around her. Nadia easily got out of the hold, catching his arm and twisted it behind Steve's back instead. Steve slipped back out of the restraint to end up behind Nadia this time, holding her arm (the one that had been holding his behind his back) behind hers.

Nadia flipped Steve over her head to the floor, pinning him down with a hand to his chest, winning the match, chuckling lightly. "Looks like you could use some more practice, though. But not bad. Whatever's coming our way this time, we need all the help we can get to get stronger and better at fighting. At least this time you can handle your own."

"What do you mean, this time?" Steve asked. Nadia took Steve's hands to pull him up to his feet. "What are you doing here, Nadia? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see you, but... you can't tell me that two people end up dead and you ending up here is a coincidence."

"It's not," Nadia answered, as both were getting serious. "Where's Hailey? She used her watch to call me."

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "I haven't seen her since last night."

Robin called from the front of the store, having no idea what was going on or that Nadia was there. "Hey, what's taking so long, Steve?"

Nadia turned her head to look toward the front of the store, having a slight smile. "I'm sure Hailey, Dustin and whoever else will be here. Come on."

Nadia walked out of the back room.

Steve was completely lost and exasperated about the confusion of the situation and the reunion being overshadowed by what was going on, which he didn't even know about yet, and neither did she. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'll let you know when I do," Nadia replied.

Steve walked into the front of the store with Nadia.

Robin turned around upon hearing them, in utter shock to see one of her best friends back. "Nadia?" She instantly ran closer to throw her arms around her. "Nadia!"

Nadia was surprised by the impact of the embrace, but chuckled, returning the hug. "Hey, Robin. I missed you too."

Robin pulled away. "Oh, my God, what are you doing here? How are you here? Is it safe for you even to be here right now?"

"Slow down," Nadia told her in amusement.

Robin took a deep breath. "Right, sorry."

"It's probably not safe, but it's no more dangerous than whatever happened last night that caused Hailey to use her watch to contact me," Nadia answered. "Niko got a call on his watch too, the one he gave to Will."

Steve walked closer, holding out his hand. "Wait, so you're gone for a year, and you fight me as soon as you saw me..."

"Technically you started the fight," Nadia reminded him. "And I was just trying to see what you could do. Gotta say, I'm impressed."

"And now you're right back into business mode even though the three of us have no idea what's going on?" Steve asked. "That's it?"

Nadia tilted her head. "Steve..."

Robin pressed her lips together, looking away.

Steve shook his head. "No, that's fine. It's fine. Freaking great."

Outside, they heard the engine of Hailey's sports car, pulling up next to Nadia's blue one. Of course, the Hawkins group had no idea that was Nadia's new car yet.

Hailey pulled her car up to Family Video.

Hailey, Ruby, Max and Dustin got out of the car, and instantly walked up to the store.

Hailey and Dustin opened the doors, walking in, followed by Ruby and Max.

"Hey, Steve," Hailey called.

Steve turned to look at her. "Hailey, thank God. I've been trying to call you. And Robin said that I shouldn't freak out, but then I find out you had to call Nadia for whatever the hell happened last night."

Hailey, Dustin, Ruby and Max turned their heads to see Nadia.

Nadia waved slightly. "Hey, guys."

Hailey looked so emotionally relieved to see her, since Nadia was like a mother figure, or in her joke, a father figure while Steve was like the mother. "Nadia."

Hailey instantly went to embrace Nadia.

Nadia was concerned by how upset Hailey was, but returned the embrace instantly, holding her close. "Hey, Hailey. Are you okay?"

Hailey only pulled away after a moment, shaking her head. "Not really. Not at all."

Dustin instantly threw his arms around Nadia. "Nadia!"

Nadia was once again stunned by the force of a hug, but she smiled and hugged Dustin back. "Dustin."

Robin watched the reunions with a smile.

Steve watched contently even with the awkwardness and situation with Nadia; he still couldn't help but smile as he watched Hailey and Dustin reunite with her since he knew how much they missed her.

Nadia and Dustin pulled away.

Ruby walked closer. "Been a while, Nadia."

Nadia, Steve and Robin looked at Ruby in confusion when she stepped forward, realizing how badly beaten up Ruby looked, worried and horrified.

"Ruby, oh, my God," Robin told her. "Are you okay?"

"Like Hailey said, not really," Ruby answered. "Not at all."

Nadia and Ruby shared an embrace, pulling away.

Nadia looked at her face in concern. "My God."

"Yeah, pretty sure the opposite caused this to happen," Ruby replied.

Nadia looked at Steve and Robin. "Do you have a first aid kit?"

"Yeah," Robin answered, walking away to go grab it.

"I cleaned it up a little, but we didn't have time to actually treat," Max explained.

"I got it," Nadia assured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Max."

Max nodded in return. "Nadia."

Robin walked closer with the first aid kit. "Here."

Nadia took it, looking at Ruby. "Sit."

"I'm fine," Ruby told her.

Nadia gave her a look. "Ruby. Sit."

Ruby sighed in frustration but gave in, sitting down.

Nadia sat in front of Ruby to help treat her wounds.

"What the hell happened?" Steve asked.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin asked.

"What happened?" Steve repeated.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin repeated forcefully.

"Uh, two," Steve answered. "Why?"

"Technically three, if you count Keith's in the back," Robin corrected.

Max looked at Hailey, Dustin and Ruby, nodding. "Yeah, three works."

"Works for what?" Nadia asked. "Somebody answer us."

"In a second," Hailey replied.

Dustin took off his backpack.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked. Dustin tossed his pack across the counter, knocking over a bunch of movies in the process, causing both Steve and Robin to stand incredulously in surprise. "Whoa, what are you--"

"My pile!" Robin complained.

Dustin climbed over the counter, knocking over more movies.

"No, no, no!" Steve complained. "My tapes! Dude!" Dustin paid them no mind, sitting at the computer, typing. "What are you doing, man?"

"Setting up base of operations here," Dustin answered.

"Base of operations?" Robin repeated.

Hailey climbed over the counter.

"Hailey--" Steve started, but of course Hailey didn't listen and jumped down on the other side, walking over the tapes on the floor to stand next to Dustin. "For the love of God." Max walked around the counter to stand next to Hailey and Dustin. "Get off of that."

"No, we need it," Hailey told him.

Nadia was quickly treating Ruby's wounds on her face, making her wince slightly in pain from the sting of the alcohol disinfectant.

"Need it for what?" Steve asked.

"Looking for Eddie's friends' phone numbers, since Billy doesn't have any friends besides us," Dustin answered. "We need to find them."

"I would hardly call Billy a friend of mine anyway," Steve replied.

"Who's Eddie?" Nadia asked.

"Eddie is Ruby's ex-neighbor from the trailer park, and now Billy and Max's neighbor," Steve answered. "Also Dustin's best friend Eddie who he thinks is cooler than me because he plays his nerdy game."

Dustin rolled his eyes. "Yes." He realized what Steve said. "I never said that."

"You sound jealous of Dustin and Eddie's friendship, Steve," Ruby pointed out.

"Shut up, Ruby," Steve replied.

Nadia smirked slightly in amusement, looking at Ruby. "Anything else?"

"Bruises all over," Ruby answered. "Long story."

"Let me see," Nadia told her. Ruby didn't move for a moment. Nadia raised her eyebrows. "Let me see."

Ruby sighed, hesitating but giving in, lifting her shirt up a little so that Nadia could see the bruises and cuts all over her abdomen, also having to reveal the scars she had on her stomach and sides from the car crash that had killed her parents when she was eight, the crash that had almost killed and paralyzed Ruby, stunning Nadia, Steve, Robin, Hailey, Max and Dustin.

"Jesus," Steve whispered.

Nadia started to do what little treatment she could on Ruby's torso with the limited supplies she had in the first aid kit. "What the hell happened?"

Hailey and Dustin were still too focused on the computer to answer, while Ruby groaned slightly at the pain of her wounds.

Max walked closer to Ruby, looking at the scars on her abdomen. "Are those from the accident?"

Ruby sighed heavily. "Yeah."

Max looked at Ruby in concern.

Robin picked up the fallen tapes. "Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day."

"All right, look, Robin, I totally empathize, but this cannot wait until Monday," Ruby told her.

Steve rubbed his face with his hands. "Oh, my God."

"What, because calling Eddie's friends to find him and Billy is an emergency?" Robin asked.

"Correct!" Hailey and Dustin answered the same time Ruby and Max answered, "Yes!"

Nadia finished treating Ruby and bandaging her wounds, standing up, walking to the trash can which was next to Steve, throwing away the cloths and gauze she used. "Could one of you please answer the damn question about what the hell happened last night?"

Ruby lowered her shirt.

Steve turned to Nadia, both of them frustrated. "You want me to strangle them, or you want to?"

Nadia smirked. "We could take turns."

Steve couldn't help but smirk.

Dustin looked at Hailey, Ruby and Max. "Can you just fill them in while I do this?"

"Fill us in on what?" Robin asked.

Hailey and Ruby didn't think that they could recall what happened without getting worked up about it, biting their lips as they looked down.

Max sighed, knowing that she likely had to be the one to explain.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Airport

People were getting on and off planes, including Niko who had snuck onto the plane and gotten off, in order to get to Lenora as quickly as possible.

Niko was in line, walking toward the front desk, showing him false identification.

"Business or personal, Mr. Raatko?" the man asked.

"Personal," Niko answered.

The man ran his false identification through the computers.

Man: (on PA) "All passengers are required to pick up their luggage in the baggage claim area of the international arrivals and safety."

An Security Alert popped up on the computer.

"My computer's froze," the man told him. "Can you hold on a sec? I'll be right back."

Niko nodded, knowing better.

The man walked away to alert the guards.

Niko looked over his shoulder toward one guard, over his other shoulder toward another.

Guard 1 walked closer, aiming a gun at Niko. "Down on the ground. Down, down! Put your hands on your head. I said, hands on your head. Kid, I will shoot you."

Niko raised his hands to his head, turning to push the gun away from him, slamming Guard 1's head through glass over the desk, grabbing a piece of the broken glass. Guard 2 ran closer. Niko caught his arm, stabbing him with the broken glass, making him groan a scream of pain, kicking him in the leg, making him fall to his knees, punching him in the face, making him fall to the floor. Guard 3 approached Niko from behind. Niko pulled out a wire to use, spinning to face Guard 3, spinning around him to end up behind him, wrapping the wire around his neck from behind, pulling on it to make him double backward, kicking him in the back of the leg, making him fall to his knees, taking his baton. Guards 4 and 5 ran closer. Guard 4 tried to hit Niko with his baton. Niko caught his arm, kicking his leg out from underneath him, making him fall. Guard 5 tried to hit Niko with his baton. Niko used the baton he had taken to block the move, hitting him in the face, making him fall, spinning closer to Guard 4 to hit him in the head, making him fall unconscious, before kicking Guard 5 in the head, knocking him out.

Niko looked around at everyone staring at him, paying them no mind, as he started to walk through the crowd, all of who backed away from him in fear and let him pass, as Niko made his way to leave.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

On the Road - Nancy's Car

(Song:) Diamonds and Emeralds - The Interior Castle

Nancy was driving toward the trailer park.

Fred was in the passenger seat. "What's our game plan?"

"Game plan?" Nancy repeated.

"Yeah," Fred answered. "When you and Jonathan investigated for Hawkins Post, did you split up, or..."

"Well, first of all, you're not Jonathan," Nancy told him.

"Clearly not," Fred agreed. "I'm here, present and accounted for."

Nancy was getting annoyed with Fred's nosy and annoying attitude. "I've gone through a lot of managing editors. Okay?"

"Ooh, somebody's testy," Fred said in amusement. "Curious."

Nancy sighed. "I'm annoyed he's not here. Okay? Is that what you wanna hear? And yeah, something's been going on with him. But guess what? That's not the mystery we're investigating today. A student and a Pennhurst patient died. And the game plan is for you to let me do the talking, for you to take notes in that little pad there, and for you to follow my lead at all times. Is that clear?"

Fred gave Nancy a salute. "Totally and completely. You said that Ruby used to live in this trailer park?"

"Yes," Nancy answered. "Now her boyfriend Billy and his stepsister Max do. If I could get a hold of Ruby, maybe we could get more answers, but I haven't been able to get a hold of her. So we'll have to do this ourselves."

Fred saw Officer Daniels at his car outside the trailer park. "Shit. Slow down, slow down."

Nancy pulled over. "Just act casual."

"And follow your lead," Fred agreed. "Got it."

Daniels walked up to the car.

Nancy rolled down the window, giving him a smile. "Hi, officer."

"Can't get through," Daniels told them. "Got a crime scene."

"Yeah, um, I was just going to..." Nancy trailed off. "Um... see Max Mayfield and Billy Hargrove. Friends. They live in there. Ruby Charlize might be here too, and she's supposed to be working with me on a project for school."

"We're restricting access to residents only," Daniels told them.

"It's just, um..." Nancy trailed off. "Max's mom is working today, and we would really like to check in on her. And make sure that Ruby and Billy are okay."

"Yeah, Ruby's a friend, and she's dating Billy," Fred told him, trying to help Nancy out. "They babysit Max and we like to help out. Basically their nanny helpers."

Nancy gave Fred a look, mouthing, 'She's 15' about Max, which Fred clearly had no clue about, having thought that Max had been a lot younger.

Daniels narrowed his eyes at Fred. "Don't I know you?"

"I don't think so," Fred answered.

(Song Pauses, replaced by creepy Nightmare On Elm Street like music)

Daniels' attitude took a dark turn. "Yeah. Actually, I do know you. You're Fred Benson. You killed that kid last year."

Fred swallowed nervously. "What?"

Daniels glared at Fred. "That ugly scar on your face. It's from that crash."

Fred's eyes went wide as he flashed back to the night of the car crash that he had caused, only to drive away and leave it as a hit and run. "It--it was an accident."

Daniels' voice became distorted, echoing and demonic, as the sound of a snake hissing filled the air, and snake scales seemed to appear along his skin. "An accident?" Fred nodded. Daniels' eyes became slit and snake-like, as thorns grew along side his face, his teeth rotting and sharpened like snake fangs. "Is that why you ran all the way home instead of calling us?" Fred's scar seemed to be splitting open, bleeding down his face. "You're a murderer is what you are. Everyone here knows it. A murderer. A murderer. A murderer. Murderer. Murderer. Murderer. Murderer. Murderer. Murderer!"

(Song Resumes)

Before the vision/hallucination could get too far, the real Daniels' voice snapped Fred out of it. "You all right there?"

Fred jumped, looking at Nancy and Daniels. "What?"

"I said, you all right, kid?" Daniels asked. "You're looking a little peaked."

Fred realized that what had happened was all in his head. "Fine. I'm fine."

Fred looked away, shaken up.

Nancy looked at Daniels. "He's just, um, on edge. I mean, we all are."

Daniels nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll let you check on your friends, but be fast, yeah?"

Nancy nodded. "Of course, officer. Thank you." She drove into the trailer park, looking at Fred. "Okay, what was that? I said act casual."

Fred looked at her. "Yeah, it's just... sorry."

Fred looked away, still scared of the vision/hallucination he had just received.

(Song Ends)

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Parking Lot

Niko was hotwiring a motorcycle to get to the Byers house, annoyed when it took him a while. "Seriously, who makes vehicles so hard to steal?" He suddenly stopped when he sensed something behind him, standing up, looking around, before ducking to the side just as a knife was thrown toward him, hitting the wall, turning to look in the direction the knife came from. A girl, Calliope Pierce, wearing a mercenary like outfit, was on a rooftop, waving at Niko, smirking. Niko scoffed. "Seriously? Can't I steal a vehicle in peace?"

Calliope darted off, disappearing into the factory, which was the rooftop she was standing on.

Niko, his interest piqued because of Calliope using the knife to get his attention, walked toward the factory, heading inside.

∰

Factory

Niko walked into the factory, looking around, already annoyed. "Okay, whoever you are, you are making a great mistake if you think you can beat me. Spoiler alert? You can't."

Calliope was standing on a platform higher up. "My God." Niko turned around to look at her. "They were right. You are a cunt."

Niko glared at her, tilting his head. "I'm sorry, am I supposed to know who the fuck you are?"

"Calliope Pierce, is the name," Calliope answered.

Niko smirked sarcastically. "Oh, right. I didn't know they were hiring circus acrobats to be assassins. I knew the American government is poor, but not that poor."

Calliope crossed her arms. "Do you always cover fear with sarcasm?"

Niko laughed. "Fear? Lady, you look like you came out of a comic con with that outfit. You don't scare me."

Calliope glared at Niko, taking out a knife, throwing it toward Niko, but Niko ducked, making the knife hit an air duck, releasing a ton of smoke, which wafted out around Niko, obscuring his view completely of the factory.

Niko walked out of the smoke, looking up, but to his surprise Calliope wasn't on the platform anymore.

Calliope stepped up behind Niko, putting a knife to his neck from behind. "I don't think so."

Niko raised his eyebrows. "Okay, I admit that was clever, which is something the America government is not. So you're not with Sullivan and you're not with Russia, so why the fuck are you after me?"

"You wanna know, huh?" Calliope asked.

Niko broke free, turning to face Calliope, swinging a punch at her face. Calliope ducked, spinning out the way.

Niko shrugged. "Okay, never mind. I don't care who you are. I'm just gonna kill you now."

Calliope turned to face him completely. "I have waited a long time for a face to face with a Rostov-Ivanov."

"You know, most people would've brought something nice," Niko told her sarcastically.

Calliope tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. "Humor is the last line of defense you have left. There is no one to stand behind, no one left to protect you."

Niko smirked, shrugging. "I don't know. I'm pretty capable of protecting myself."

Calliope glared at him, shaking her head. "I spent years bettering myself. Preparing, fighting, killing, digging into the psionic human government experiments, so much death. And when I looked for who was behind it all, I found out your family is behind it all, and now I finally got you."

Niko was completely over this, bored, smirking sarcastically. "Cool origin, sis, but this means nothing to me."

"You don't even care?" Calliope asked.

"I don't really have the time for all this conspiracy theorist crap," Niko told her, before raising his voice to a yell. "So why don't you stop your whining and get on with it? I've heard this shit before!" Calliope took out a hand grenade, pulling the pin, tossing it at Niko. "Fucking seriously?"

They both ducked to the side before it went off, as the explosion blew past both of their hiding places.

Calliope ran toward a pipe on the factory wall, spinning herself around it to get up to the platform above, running along the platform. Niko immediately chased after her, spinning himself around the pipe to get up to the platform, chasing after Calliope. Calliope slid along a slight slide, rolling over the floor up to her feet. Niko came at Calliope from the other side of the room, having found another way, and ran to tackle Calliope to the ground. They both pushed each other up to crouching positions, turning to face each other, glaring. Calliope drew two knives from the sheaths on her mission outfit, spinning the knives around in her hand. Niko stood, running toward Calliope to kick her in the face. Calliope raised both her hands to block the move, pushing Niko back, standing up. Each time Calliope slashed toward Niko with a knife, Niko was able to duck and dodge, making sure that Calliope could never slash him or even nick him with a knife, before trying to punch her. Calliope ducked and elbowed Niko in the face, kicking him in the chest so hard she sent him flipping backward to the floor, but in the process, Niko had ripped one of her knives away from her. Niko grabbed Calliope's other knife which had landed on the floor next to her, before standing and going to attack. They both fended each other off with the knives, blocking each other's blows and slashes in a blur of motion, always trying to out do the other, spinning around each other to try and fake each other out and get the advantage. Niko had managed to capture Calliope's arms within his so that he could aim his knife right at Calliope's face, but Calliope held the knife off at bay, struggling to do so, before she headbutted Niko hard in the face, snapping his head back, breaking free from his hold. Their fight resembled much like a dance, they were fast and quick, dodging and blocking each other with the knives or with punches and kicks. Niko grabbed Calliope and flipped her to the floor, raising his knife to go in for the kill. Calliope kicked the knife out of Niko's hand, and Niko sent hers flying into the wall, both losing their knives and having to fight without them. Calliope delivered a brutal kick to Niko's face, sending him stumbling to the ground, so that she could stand up. Niko stood, pissed, and jumped, spinning in the air to kick Calliope in the face, landing on his feet, spinning again to kick Calliope in the chest, making her back away. As Niko went to punch her repeatedly, Calliope used her arms to block the moves, punching Niko harshly in the face, snapping his head to the side. Niko swung his fist at her head, but Calliope ducked, kicking him in the ankle with one leg, kneeing him in the chest with the other, spinning around to backhand punch him in the face, kicking him in the chest to make him back away. They continued to hit and block each other's moves, though it was clear that Niko was better than her, but Calliope put up a great fight. Niko kicked Calliope in the chest, pushing her away from him. Calliope put her hands onto the table next to her, cartwheeling over the table as Niko ran closer to tackle her, landing on the other side of the table, making Niko miss completely. Niko turned back around.

Calliope leaned against the table, arm resting on a shelf next to her, smirking. "I'm waiting."

Niko placed his hand on the table as he jumped over it, holding himself up on the table by his hands as he kicked his feet right out at Calliope. Calliope ducked out of the way, spinning away. Niko landed on his feet on the other side of the table, spinning around to kick Calliope in the head, snapping her head to the side. Calliope picked up a pipe, swinging it at Niko, but Niko ducked, making Calliope hit the breaker box next to his head, making that explode into a shower of electric sparks. Calliope kicked Niko in the face. Niko caught her leg as it was still midair, pulling it so hard that Calliope flipped through the air and landed on the ground hard on her back, kicking the pipe away from her, and placed his foot over Calliope's throat, keeping her pinned down, and could very easily have finished the job by just slamming his foot down on her trachea.

Calliope struggled for breath beneath his boot. "You're better than I thought."

"And you're entirely average," Niko replied.

Calliope hit a button on her gauntlet, making the lights around it start to go off, smirking. "Long time, no bomb fire."

Niko realized what she did. "Damn it."

Niko took his foot off Calliope's neck and ran to take cover as the bomb she had set up started to go off, making pieces of the building start to fall.

Calliope stood up quickly, running toward the window, jumping through the window, making it shatter as she launched herself outside to her escape, ducking and rolling over the ground, rolling up to her feet and continuing to run away.

Niko stood quickly, seeing a nearby window, running toward the window, jumping through the window, making it shatter as he launched himself outside to his escape.

∰

Outside

Niko landed outside badly, standing up, turning to see the factory explode into flames, scoffing. "I need to stop hanging out with crazy girls."

Niko turned around, walking away back toward the parking lot to get the motorcycle, getting on, starting up the bike, and driving away.

∰

Byers House - Outside

Niko was just now arriving to the Byers house, pulling up on the motorcycle he had stolen, irritated after the fight with Calliope, but determined to put it out of his mind for now, turning the bike off, getting off, walking up to the house, knocking.

Joyce opened the door in a hurry, relieved to see him finally there. "Niko."

Niko gave a small, thin smile. "Hey, Joyce. Is Will here? He..."

"No, I called you," Joyce explained. "Come in, come in. I'll explain everything."

When Niko walked in, Joyce closed the door behind him.

∰

Inside - Living Room

Niko was sitting down on the couch, reading the note that Joyce had received, looking hopeful beyond measure. "So you're trying to figure out if the note's telling the truth by calling the note on here."

"Yes," Murray answered. "We were hoping to do it before you got here, but this thing takes forever to set up."

"Well, Nadia and I always thought that Mama and Hopper were alive," Niko explained. "We even went on several missions to find out. We just got this hard drive that might have their coordinates, but we didn't have enough time to break into the hard drive before we had to take off from Chicago after almost nearly being caught again."

Joyce took the hard drive from Niko. "Let me see that. You think that if we get this into a computer, we could find the location of them?"

"Maybe," Niko answered. "Or at least half their location."

"Let's just call this number first and make sure," Murray told them.

"Well, hurry up," Niko told him. "Murray, we gotta make this call."

"One moment, please," Murray told them, typing on the phone tracker he set up. "Voila. Okay, you are now calling from Durham, North Carolina. But if this is KGB, they will still be able to trace us eventually, so keep it brief."

"How brief?" Joyce asked.

"A minute, max," Niko answered. "And you have to get proof of life. I'd call myself, but..."

"You can't without someone hearing you and immediately trying to track you, whether this guy, or girl, we're calling is working against us or not," Murray finished.

"So it has to be you, Joyce," Niko told her.

Joyce nodded in agreement. "Got it." She sat down, making the call on her phone, syncing up the time for Murray. "One, two..."

As Joyce put her phone in the cradle and hit speaker, Murray hit a button on the tracker computer.

The phone number they were calling was a phone booth in Russia.

Dmitri Antonov answered the phone. "This is Enzo."

"Hello, Enzo?" Joyce asked. "This is Joyce. I received your message. And I would like to make a reservation."

Dmitri nodded. "Yes, good, good. But for reservation, you need to make deposit."

"Uh, what--what kind of deposit?" Joyce asked.

"40 thousand dollars," Dmitri answered. Murray, Joyce and Niko all reacted in shock. "You have it in Hopper's trust, for the girl, yes?"

"Uh, yes," Joyce answered. "Yes. 40 thousand."

"Good," Dmitri told her. "Bring to Yuri's Fish n 'Fly in Nome, Alaska."

"Uh, you want me to go to Alaska?" Joyce asked.

"Yes," Dmitri answered. "You give Yuri money, Yuri gets me money. I give him Hopper and may be able to help with freeing Natasha. Simple trade, understand? Just be sure that Nadia and Niko stay away, as they would only be caught and captured and returned to the program like Natasha."

Niko paled at the thought that Natasha was really back in the program, swallowing nervously, whispering. "I knew it."

Murray mouthed to Joyce, 'Proof of life'.

Joyce nodded in agreement. "Uh, uh, first, we--we're gonna have to speak to Natasha and Hopper. We need to know they're alive."

A woman was outside the phone booth, banging on it while speaking in Russian to Dmitri.

Joyce, Niko and Murray could faintly hear the Russian woman, but not loud enough for them to understand what she was saying.

Dmitri spoke into the phone. "I'm afraid not possible."

"Why not?" Joyce asked.

"Your friends are, uh, stuck," Dmitri answered. "But you give me money, I make them unstuck. You must trust me."

"How do I trust you?" Joyce asked. "I don't know who you are."

They could faintly hear the Russian woman telling off Dmitri again, but couldn't hear her words loud enough for Niko and Murray to be able to translate.

Dmitri knew he had to end the call soon. "40 thousand. Yuri's Fish n' Fly. Two days. Do not call again."

Dmitri hung up.

Joyce hung up her phone, while Murray turned his tracker off.

"Well, that wasn't the KGB," Niko remarked.

Murray shook his head in agreement. "But it wasn't a friend either."

"So we were both wrong," Joyce told him.

Murray nodded.

Niko frowned, completely confused and exasperated. "Who the hell was that?" He sensed another telepathic episode coming. "Oh, no."

"What?" Joyce asked.

Niko's eyes glowed purple-blue-pink as he was given a vision of a person in the same faded colors, able to see more in this vision than the last one, seeing that it was a dark haired woman, but unable to see them directly, unable to tell who it was, or where they were.

Due to the telepathic episode, Niko's powers resurfaced, only long enough to lash out and fade, as his hands shot out bursts of fire that Joyce and Murray both barely ducked in time to prevent being burned, in shock to see Niko use even a burst of his power after so long.

Niko held his hand out, hand glowing with power, almost attacking Joyce and Murray, but Joyce stood and used a pot to block the fire that shot out at them, knocking it away and tossing the pot aside.

"Shit!" Murray complained.

Niko, still under the influence of the telepathic episode, turned around, walking out of the house without looking back.

Joyce and Murray were both breathing heavily in confusion and shock.

∰

Calliope's Car

Calliope was sitting in her car, using a radio to listen in to Mikhail's men's channel, trying to figure out what they would do next.

Man: (on radio) "Next target decided, the Byers brothers. Tracking Will as we speak. Jonathan already found at Lenora Hills Community College. Going in now."

Calliope scoffed. "Oh, great."

Calliope took off speeding down the road.

∰

Rink-O-Mania - Outside

A van with five mercenaries were getting ready to enter Rink-O-Mania, getting their guns ready.

"You know the drill," the leader told them. "Get in, get Will Byers, get out."

The others nodded. "Yes, sir."

One of them saw something ahead, confused. "What the hell?"

The others followed his gaze.

Niko was standing in front of the van, still in his psychic episode, putting out his hands, making them glow with power, shooting a powerful blast of fire that made their car light on fire, making the mercenaries scream, and the car to explode soon after that.

Niko, still in a trance given the psychic episode, didn't react at all, turning around, walking away toward the building, heading inside.

∰

Inside

(Song:) Tarzan Boy - Baltimora

The party at the rink was still going strong. No one heard the explosion from outside because it was further down the street, and the music was playing so loudly.

Mike, Will and Eleven were having milkshakes at a table.

Mike was humming in pleasure and satisfaction. "Yup, mine's better."

Eleven shook her head. "No, it isn't."

Angela and her friends skated up to them. "Milkshakes? Yum." She stopped at the table, leaning forward against it, looking at Mike. "Where, oh where have you been hiding this handsome thing?"

Will and Eleven both got worried, but neither of them knew what to do.

"Uh..." Eleven trailed off. "Angela, thi--this is Mike, my boyfriend."

Angela smiled, offering her hand. "Angela. Pleasure."

Mike shook her hand. "I've heard a lot about you. It's really cool to finally meet some of El--" He remembered that she was going by Jane in Lenora since that was her real name. "Jane's friends."

"Friends?" Angela repeated. The bullies laughed. "Yeah. Super cool." Angela looked at Eleven. "Come on, friend. Let's skate, shall we?"

Eleven nervously picked up her milkshake. "I wanted to finish--"

One of the boys took the milkshake. "I'll hold onto that."

Angela took Eleven by the hand, pulling her up, skating away with Eleven and her friends. "Come on." Will stood worriedly, having no idea what was about to happen, but knowing that it couldn't have been good. Angela pulled Eleven out to skate with everyone else. "Why are you so nervous? We're just having fun."

The other bully boy from Angela's group had a camera, trained on Eleven.

Will saw the boy with the camera, having confirmation that something bad was about to happen, shaking his head. "Oh, no."

Mike stood. "What?"

"El, she hasn't been telling you everything," Will explained.

"What are you talking about?" Mike asked.

"She's lying to you, Mike," Will told him.

Mike made a face. "Bullshit."

Will was frustrated, exasperated. "No, listen to me. She's having problems here."

"Problems," Mike repeated. "Okay, what kind of problems?"

Angela led Eleven out to the middle of the rink. "Stay put."

Angela laughed, skating away.

Niko walked into in the building after blacking out, coming to within the skating rink, his eyes finally returning to normal, looking around in confusion, not sure how he got there, just like in 4.01 when he ended up in the street when he came to. "What the fuck? Not again."

(Song Ends)

The DJ turned the song off, speaking through a mic. "All right, everyone." Mike and Will turned their heads to look at the DJ. "This next song is dedicated to Jane, the local snitch."

The DJ turned a spotlight on Eleven, and played the next song.

(Song:) Wipe Out - The Surfaris

Everyone in the rink skated around Eleven, mocking her, calling her names, taunting and laughing at her. "Freak! Go home! Loser!"

Angela was skating around Eleven, leading the bullying charge, laughing smugly.

Mike and Will watched in shock, not knowing what to do.

Niko looked at Eleven in shock. "El?"

All the while the skaters were tormenting Eleven, the boy was filming her on camera, laughing mockingly.

Eleven nearly slipped because of the skaters being too close to her, yelping as she struggled to stay standing.

The bullies continued to torment mercilessly, taking each other by the hands as they continued to skate around her. "She's a little baby! Baby!" Eleven held her head in her hands, nearly crying, trying everything in her power not to. "Gonna cry to Mommy?"

Niko, Mike and Will were all getting furious by seeing Eleven being treated so badly, though Niko hadn't seen Mike and Will there yet, and Mike and Will hadn't seen Niko.

Mike was determined to do something to stop it, storming up to the DJ stand. "Hey! Hey, hey, turn it off."

The DJ was dancing around, pointing to his ear. "Sorry, I can't hear you, dude."

Mike leaned closer, speaking loudly. "I said turn it off."

The DJ smiled. "If you say so."

The DJ halted the record with a scratching sound as he turned the music off.

(Song Ends)

Just as the music stopped, the circle of bullies around Eleven disbanded, skating away, so that one of the bullies in Angela's clique could skate up to Eleven with her own milkshake.

"Wipe out!" the DJ called.

The boy tossed the milkshake's contents all over Eleven, making her fall to the floor as she slipped, landing hard on her back, all of the skaters exclaiming, "Oh!" before they started to laugh.

Niko, Mike and Will were absolutely in shock in their different places throughout the rink.

Angela skated smoothly up to Eleven, leaning down to look at her mockingly. "Didn't you see the sign, dummy? 'No food or drinks on the rink'."

Angela laughed, skating away.

Mike started to skate closer. "El! El! El! El!" Eleven was in the process of breaking down into tears, standing, skating away through the crowd. "El!"

Eleven looked around as all the skaters laughed and watched her go. "Stop. No."

Mike was trying to push his way through the crowd who were blocking him from getting to his girlfriend. "Hey, get out of my way! El! El!"

Eleven skated off to hide before anyone could see where she went, including Niko and Will.

Will looked around for Eleven in worry, trying to find her and comfort her, but instead he saw Niko across the rink, looking at him in shock.

Niko felt the gaze, turning his head to look at Will, stunned to see his ex-boyfriend in person for the first time in a year after having broken up with him. Neither of them could look away even if they wanted to.

∰

Lenora Hills Community College - Campus

Jonathan was at the college campus that he wanted to go to to stay close to home, looking around during a tour.

∰

Lobby

Calliope was walking through a lobby of a college building, dead set on a mission.

A guard tried to stop her from heading in. "Hey, wait."

Calliope pushed him to the ground without looking at him, walking past.

Another guard tried to stop her. "Identify yourself."

Calliope twisted his arm to make him let her go, pushing him to the ground. "Get off me."

Calliope walked away without looking back.

∰

Lecture Hall

Jonathan was touring a class to see if this was the right place for him.

Calliope searched the campus high and low until she found Jonathan in the lecture hall, calling out to him. "Jonathan! Jonathan, get down!" Jonathan looked behind him in confusion, only staring Calliope in confusion and surprise since he had no idea who she was or the danger that he was about to be in. "Jonathan! Get down! I said get down!"

Men stormed into the lecture hall with guns and rifles, firing, causing everyone to duck for cover, screaming and starting to run out of there.

Jonathan was hit in the shoulder with a bullet because he was too high to react in time in order to duck before being shot at, groaning in pain as blood stained his shoulder and neck.

Calliope ducked past the running crowd, climbing over the lecture hall seats, jumping down over the wall in front of the seats to the floor, ducking the bullets and running toward Jonathan, while she held her own gun aimed at the men shooting, shooting them down, but knowing there were more out there. She grabbed Jonathan, pulling behind the podium as a place for them to take cover, taking out a smoke grenade, pulling out the pin, tossing the grenade out on the floor, making the grenade release so much smoke to provide them cover and a chance to escape without the men being able to see them.

"What is going on?" Jonathan asked in pain, holding his hand to his shoulder.

"Explain later," Calliope told him, grabbing him, pulling Jonathan to the door. "Right now, we gotta get the hell out of here."

∰

Hallway

Calliope led Jonathan down the hallway toward the exit doors, running, pulling him with her. "Hurry up!"

"Where are we going?" Jonathan asked, having trouble keeping up because of his shoulder, but powering through the pain in order to keep running.

A man was several yards behind them, trying to shoot them, but Jonathan and Calliope ducked and took cover behind a wall corner.

Calliope pushed Jonathan into safety. "Get down!"

Calliope put her back to the wall, raising her gun, looking over her shoulder around the corner to see two men walking closer with their guns. She spun around the corner just enough to be able to fire her gun at the two men, who both ducked, but got shot in the arm and shoulder respectively. Before they could fire a shot at her, Calliope ducked back into cover, before looking around the corner and firing her gun at the two men until she hit them both badly enough to take them down and render them unable to come after them.

"Who are you?" Jonathan asked in shock.

Calliope looked over her shoulder at Jonathan. "Shut up."

All seemed clear for a moment, so Calliope lowered her gun.

Jonathan held his shoulder in pain. "Is it over?"

There was a door behind her, and a hitman came through, slamming his gun over Calliope's head just as she turned around, knocking her down. Calliope pushed herself up. The man tried to aim his gun at her head, but Calliope caught his wrist and pushed his gun up to point at the ceiling, twisting his arm to try and make him drop it. The man pulled his arm free before she could, gun still in hand, using his other hand to punch at Calliope's stomach, only to be blocked by Calliope's other hand. Calliope slammed her gun arm against the hitman's gun arm to make him stop before he could aim at her, kicking him in the stomach, backing him back away, running at him to knee him in the stomach so hard she made him snap back and hit the wall and door behind him, trying to aim her gun at him to shoot. The hitman caught Calliope's wrist with her gun and twisted her arm to make her stop before she could fire a shot, trying to aim his gun at her. Calliope caught the hitman's wrist, spinning around to where she was now side by side, literally, with the hitman, both of them holding each other's wrists to try and stop them from firing at each other, and the man's arm across Calliope's throat. Calliope was trying to eject the hitman's gun magazine so he could no longer fire, but the man broke free before she could do so, sending his elbow back against her throat, making her hit the door behind them, both now free from the other's restraint, as Calliope slid to the floor and dropped her gun. The hitman tried to shoot her twice, but Calliope rolled across the floor to make him miss both times, kicking him in the crotch, making him groan a yell of pain and back away and fall to his knees, buying herself enough time to grab her gun and stand up. The hitman rose to his feet, trying to punch her. Calliope caught his wrist, spinning around underneath his arm to twist his whole arm and flip him to the ground, kicking him viciously in the face, aiming her gun. She hesitated briefly before slamming her gun against the hitman's head so hard she knocked him out.

Jonathan was watching all of this in shock, not knowing what to do or how to react.

Calliope was breathing heavily as she ran a hand through her hair to pull it back, catching her breath, turning to Jonathan.

Jonathan looked at Calliope, breathing heavily in pain, holding his shoulder.

Calliope walked closer, pulling Jonathan up to his feet. "Get up. Come on."

Two college campus guards walked closer with guns aimed at Calliope, viewing her as the bigger threat.

"Campus security!" one guard told her. "Put the gun down!"

"We will shoot!" the other guard told her.

Calliope held Jonathan in front of her with her gun aimed at his head, glaring at the guards for the inconvenience.

"All right, calm down," Jonathan told them. "She saved my life, all right? I just..."

Jonathan didn't know what else to say because he still didn't know what was going on himself.

Calliope opened the door behind them. "Don't follow us."

Calliope pulled Jonathan through the door so they could walk up the stairs up to the roof.

"Who are those guys?" Jonathan asked.

"They work for Mikhail Ivanov," Calliope answered. "They're looking for you and your brother Will because they know that you're housing Jane Hopper, AKA number Eleven of the American psionic program. And they know that you have history and possibly still have contact with Nadia Rostova and Niko Rostov."

"How do you know all this?" Jonathan asked.

"I've made it my job to know," Calliope answered. "I've been tracking Sabina Ivanova, Mikhail's ex-wife, because they ran the Russian psionic program, and Sabina didn't have enough, so she started the American program too. Which your surrogate sister Eleven is apart of. So was my brother."

"Your brother?" Jonathan repeated in confusion, but realizing that this was why she made all of this her business.

"Apollo Pierce," Calliope explained. "They named him number Ten. And I'm gonna find him if it's the last thing I do. And you're gonna help me."

"How the hell can I help you?" Jonathan asked.

"By taking me to Niko," Calliope answered. "I've already had a run in with him that didn't end too well. My kick-ass-first-and-ask-questions-later thing didn't work out this time. So you're my Plan B."

"How can Niko help you?" Jonathan asked.

"Did I forget to mention that Mikhail and Sabina are Natasha's parents?" Calliope asked. "Nadia and Niko's grandparents?" Jonathan was in absolute shock to hear this. "If anyone can get me close enough to Sabina to find out where Apollo is, it's Niko and Nadia, and since she's not here, he'll have to do. And you're going to take me to him."

"Why would I do that?" Jonathan asked.

"Because I just saved your life, and you really don't have another choice," Calliope answered, holding up her gun to prove her point. "And I can help you with your little gunshot wound so you don't have to go to the hospital or freak out your mother in the process."

∰

Rooftop

Jonathan and Calliope got to the roof.

"Okay, but how the hell do we get out of here without those guys finding us?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope looked around, noticing that the side of the building they were standing on had a slight slant in the glass. "We go for a little slide."

Jonathan looked down, noticing what she saw, and knowing what she meant. "Oh, hell no. I--" Calliope gave Jonathan a slide push, making him start sliding down the side of the building as he yelled out hilariously. "Fuck!"

Calliope smirked, tilting her head, shrugging, sitting down, sliding down the side of the building, quickly catching up to Jonathan, grabbing his shirt to keep him close and to keep either of them from falling for real, as they continued to slide toward the ground, stabbing her gun into the building to slow down their fall before they got to the ground, flipping them both through the air to pass by the fans at the base of the building, and both spun through the air before hitting the ground hard.

Calliope quickly stood, walking closer to Jonathan, aiming her gun to remind him that she was still threatening him in case he decided to back out of taking her to Niko. "Hurry up."

"This is nuts," Jonathan muttered. Calliope reached down to grab Jonathan by the shirt, pulling him, dragging him along. "This is nuts! Insane!" Calliope saw more hitmen making their way outside, leading Jonathan up some stairs onto a small roof, leading him along at a run to the edge. The men were closing in on them, quite a bit back. "I'm dizzy. Fucking exhausted." Calliope took off her backpack, handing it to Jonathan. "What is this?"

"Hurry," Calliope told him. "If we get caught, we'll die."

"No way," Jonathan denied. "Who the hell are you?"

Calliope aimed her gun at him. "Follow me."

Jonathan knew that he didn't have another choice, and following Calliope was better than being caught by Mikhail's men. "Okay." Calliope took a grappling hook from her backpack which Jonathan held. "What the hell is that?"

Calliope aimed the grappling hook at the building across the way, setting her sights, shooting the hook from the launcher into the wall of the building across the street, setting up the harness for her, putting it on with a click of a belt around her waist, quick and easy to do.

Calliope took out an explosive device from her bag and put it on the rooftop.

Jonathan frowned.

"Not for you, trust me," Calliope told him.

"Trust you?" Jonathan repeated.

"This is gonna keep those guys from coming after us and your family," Calliope replied.

Mikhail's men stormed closer. "Drop the gun! If you hand over the boy and surrender, you'll live."

Jonathan looked from Mikhail's men to Calliope nervously.

Calliope shook her head. "Not a chance in hell."

Calliope fired her gun at the men in a straight line through them, the automatic gun shooting all of them and buying them enough time so that Calliope could grab Jonathan and jump up, letting them glide across the wire of the grappling hook she shot straight toward the building on the other side of the street.

But in the process, Calliope was shot in the arm, just a graze, but it nearly made them fall. Calliope groaned in a lot of pain from the shot to her arm, more than she should have from a graze, like the bullet was laced with something. 

Calliope groaned in exasperation. "Fuck this."

Calliope looked over her shoulder as she activated the explosive device on the building, which exploded and killed the men on the rooftop, ensuring that they couldn't come after her or the Byers, or Niko anymore, just as she had said, also saving both her life and Jonathan's in that moment, again.

As the fiery flames leapt out at Calliope and Jonathan, Calliope made sure not to fall or drop Jonathan in the process as they were gliding away on the wire.

Jonathan was yelling hilariously, before the excitement, horror, adrenaline and blood loss caused him to start to pass out. "Holy shit! No..."

Calliope tried to shake him awake. "Hey. Hey!" Once they got past the building in front of them, they landed around the corner in a courtyard, both of them falling and landing badly, but Calliope was better off than Jonathan obviously. Calliope stood, turning to Jonathan, who was completely passed out now. "Shit." She walked closer, kneeling next to Jonathan, knowing they needed to hurry, tapping on his cheek to wake him up. "Hey, wake up." She felt for Jonathan's pulse, sighing in relief. "You're alive. Thank God. Come on."

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Family Video

Nadia, Steve and Robin were being filled in by Max, Hailey and Ruby while Dustin was still on the computer.

"So, just to clarify," Robin told them. "Hailey got pulled into a weird head space mirror dimension or something and saw the nightmares of Chrissy, Dustin, and saw what Aaron was doing to Ruby and Billy in real life before these creatures or whatever killed Chrissy and Aaron?"

"Yes," Max answered.

"Exactly," Hailey answered.

"That sums it up," Ruby answered.

Hailey looked down sadly at the loss of her friend.

Steve looked at his sister sadly, knowing how close she had gotten to Chrissy, walking closer. "Hailey..."

Hailey looked up, shaking her head. "I couldn't save her, Steve. And when I saw her... her body... I had a nightmare too. Dark Hailey. And she and that snake voice thing told me that I'm at the middle of everything and that I'll end up killing everyone without even meaning to. Whatever that means. And I saw all of you ripped apart, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Stop her. The dark me. All of you died, and it was my fault."

They all looked at her in concern.

Dustin turned toward her. "Hailey..."

Hailey turned away, but Steve was right there when she did turn away.

Steve rubbed Hailey's arm as she was trying not to cry, wrapping his arms around her to calm her down. "Hey, listen to me, all right? I'm right here, okay? We're all right here. We're alive, we're breathing. Okay? We're right here." They pulled away, as Hailey was trying to pull herself together. "And if anything did happen, it wouldn't be your fault. I'm not saying anything will, and I highly doubt that would ever happen, but I want you to hear it from me. It would not be your fault. Do you understand?" Hailey didn't answer. "I said, do you understand?"

When Hailey didn't answer, Steve reached up to brush a tear of Hailey's away.

Seeing Hailey like this, so miserable and guilty for something she never even did, it caused Steve, Nadia and Dustin's hearts to break just by looking at the pain on her face, and Robin, Max and Ruby were concerned and sympathetic.

Nadia stood, walking toward Hailey. "Listen, okay?" Hailey weakly nodded. "Whatever happens, it will not be because of you." She put as much emphasis on 'not' as she could. "Do you understand?"

Hailey looked between Nadia and Steve, before looking at Dustin, who gave her the same look they did. She glanced at Robin, Ruby and Max before nodding. "Yeah."

Steve and Nadia both sighed, exchanging a concerned look. No matter what was going on between them, even when they hated each other in book 1, they would always be on the same page about taking care of Hailey and the other kids, no matter if they could take care of themselves.

Dustin walked toward Hailey, trying to force a smile, to at least try to lighten the mood, but couldn't bring himself to do so; not with the guilty and depressed look on Hailey's face, so he just pulled Hailey into a comforting embrace, placing a hand on the back of her head, pulling her close to his chest. Hailey sniffled, slowly calming down, while Dustin lightly brushed his thumb up and down the back of her head.

When Hailey was finally calm, Dustin and Hailey pulled away. Hailey nodded to everyone to let them know she was okay.

Nadia put an arm around Hailey, trying to make her feel better by looking at her outfit, which was part of her phase. "What the hell are you wearing, by the way?"

Hailey couldn't help but chuckle barely, as did the others. "Long story."

Nadia nodded in understanding. "Okay." She brushed Hailey's hair down, giving her a slight kiss on the head. "It's gonna be okay." Hailey gazed off. "Dustin, what about you? Your attack last night."

"Dustin, tell them about the vision and monster," Max told him.

"The vision and monster," Dustin repeated. "I don't know. Like a version, or a vision of Dark Hailey showed up, trying to make me wish that she was normal so she didn't have to suffer anymore, but then when I refused to make a wish, she disappeared, and that monster freak from my nightmares showed up."

Hailey frowned in confusion. "Wait. You've seen that monster before?"

"Only in my dreams," Dustin answered. "Well, nightmares. It's this recurring one I've had since I was a kid. The thing that always scared me the most."

Hailey pointed at Dustin. "And this was all in your head. The monster was real enough for me to kill it, but you were dreaming."

"Aaron was hallucinating like crazy," Ruby added.

"And Eddie said that Chrissy went into a trance like dreaming like Dustin was in last night," Max finished.

"So what does that mean?" Robin asked. "Especially since Hailey saw all of this?"

Nadia looked at Hailey in realization. "You're a dreamwalker."

"A what now?" Steve asked.

"Dreamwalker," Nadia answered. "Dreamwalkers have the ability to enter the dreams of others, though doing this is extremely dangerous. They can also be drawn into the dreams of others against their will, but only when the dreamwalker is untutored or in very exceptional circumstances. Like what happened last night. Dreamwalkers are very rare, especially in psionics. I've never even heard out outside of being psionic, and there's only one or two I've heard of before that are psionic."

Dustin smiled, trying to cheer Hailey up. "Dreamwalking? That's awesome."

"Not last night it wasn't," Hailey replied.

Dustin dropped the smile, tilting his head in acknowledgement.

"Looks like we found Hailey's mental power," Ruby quipped.

"Wait, but Aaron wasn't dreaming when Hailey saw what he was doing to Ruby and Billy," Robin pointed out.

Steve pointed to Robin. "Right."

"So how did Hailey see Aaron's reality?" Max asked.

Nadia was thinking. "Well, Ruby, you said that Eddie told you that Aaron went completely insane again after you lost your powers last year. Because you're the one that fixed his sanity."

"Yeah, after screwing it all to hell," Ruby remarked. "After I lost my powers, he just went so nuts that he had to go to Pennhurst."

"Before he ended up breaking out, somehow," Nadia pointed out. "Hailey, you said you heard one of the creatures tell him to go after Ruby."

"Yeah," Hailey answered. "It was like a direct order or something. I mean, Aaron had no issue with doing it because he wanted revenge, and he was like hallucinating all the time, but..."

Nadia pointed to Hailey. "There we go. That's our answer. The reason why Hailey saw everything Aaron was seeing is because Ruby drove him so insane that his mind was in a constant state of hallucinations, which are waking nightmares, affecting his perception of dream and reality."

Ruby made a face, shrugging, clearly not feeling very guilty. "Whoops."

"Whoops?" Robin repeated skeptically, amused. "That's all you have to say?"

"The guy tried to beat me to death twice, after abusing me when I was living with him, Robin," Ruby replied. "He literally burned me with cigarettes and threw glass at my head in an attempt to blind me. Excuse me for not giving a damn."

Robin shrugged. "Fair enough."

Max looked at Hailey, Dustin and Ruby, pointing to Nadia. "See? I told you that Nadia would have answers. Natasha, Nadia and Niko always do."

"About the powers, yes," Nadia agreed. "But not exactly about what these monsters are."

"Well, it always takes us a while to figure out the monsters," Dustin pointed out. 

Steve shrugged. "So let's figure it out."

"First, we gotta find Billy and Eddie," Nadia pointed out.

Ruby and Max nodded in agreement.

Hailey sighed heavily. "Let's start making calls."

∰

Flashback 5 - One Year Ago

Night - Torture Room

Hopper was completely bleeding and beaten, tossed to the ground, but he still hadn't said a word to them.

A doctor knelt next to him, checking his pulse, looking up at the soldier next to him, speaking in Russian. "Still alive. But he is barely breathing." The soldier knelt next to them. "More of this, he will die."

The soldier patted Hopper on the shoulder, speaking in English. "You are strong, American. Perhaps the Motherland could use that strength." He spoke in Russian to his soldiers. "Send him to Kamchatka!"

(Song:) Monologue de Ibn-Hakia: Scene 5 - The National Bolshoi Orchestra

The soldiers walked closer to drag Hopper away through the night outside, while it was snowing.

The doctor looked at the soldier in charge, speaking in Russian. "I never knew you to be generous."

The soldier chuckled, smoking a cigarette, also speaking in Russian. "You clearly do not know Kamchatka, Doctor. This man does not deserve the peace of death. So I have sent him... to Hell."

∰

Flashback 6 - One Week Ago (at most)

Day - Russian Psionic Prison - Lab

Natasha was strapped down and experimented on, on and off for the past year, groaning in pain, as she was unable to break free.

Mikhail paced around her, mocking his daughter. "Now, now, Natasha. Stop resisting. All that I want is for you to become something greater than what you are now."

"What you want is to make me suffer, like you haven't done that already," Natasha replied. She received a shock from the experiments, groaning a scream, breathing heavily, but still had the energy to mock Mikhail. "Oh, that felt good."

"Don't worry," Mikhail told her. "It's going to get much, much better. It doesn't have to be like this. For you, Nadyr, Nadia and Niko. You could all give in. Along with Hailey, Ruby and Eleven. Stop fighting us. Embrace what you can become. You can put an end to all of this."

Natasha glared at Mikhail. "Go to hell."

Mikhail clicked his tongue. "Have it your way. I'll find them on my own, and then you can watch as I destroy you all."

"Whatever you do to me, I'll survive," Natasha told him. "I'll always survive like I always do. Question is, the next time I try to kill you, will you survive it that time? Or will I destroy you like you've destroyed my entire life?"

Mikhail just huffed, walking away out of the room. "Have fun, daughter."

Mikhail closed the door and walked away.

Natasha was becoming so desperate to find a way to help her children, brother and the girls that she and her children fought alongside who became like family to them. She closed her eyes, focusing for all she had mentally to project her thoughts out. "Mama? Sabina, I don't know if you're really out there or if Mikhail is just messing with my mind. I don't know if Nadyr is really out there. But I know if you are out there, you can hear me. You always kept track of us even behind Mikhail's back to keep us safe once we escaped. I really need you to hear me. Nadia and Niko need your help, Sabina. Nadyr needs your help. I need your help. Please. Whatever I have to do to get you to agree to help them, and El, Ruby and Hailey, I'll do it. Just please tell me you're out there. Please, Mama." She looked more vulnerable and worried and scared than she had been about anything in so long. "I need to know that you're alive."

(Song Ends)

∰

Flashback 7 - 1954

Training Montage

There was a montage to show what it was like for Natasha, Nadyr, Valkov and somewhat Grigori while they were being trained by the best of the best to become the best of the best in the regular warrior program of soldiers like Valkov and Grigori always remained, without powers, while eventually, Natasha and Nadyr were subjected to experiments by Sabina and Mikhail to give them powers, and Sabina had subjected herself to those experiments to give herself her own powers, while Mikhail had been born with his ability to siphon off the abilities of others.

In flashes of memories, Natasha could remember being brainwashed by underlaying messages in cartoons, trained to be proficient in weapons and fighting hand to hand, practicing their undercover acting for everything they had to do, and becoming killers, assassins and everything that they wanted to turn them into.

Mikhail and Sabina would eventually choose Natasha and Nadyr to experiment on them and give them powers, while Valkov and Grigori were left without powers, but they were still some of the best of the fighters, spies and assassins the program had to offer.

Young Natasha woke up in her bed where she was housed with the other assassin spy kids. This included her future husband Valkov and Grigori as mentioned in book 3, before they were older, and Natasha, Nadia and Niko were experimented on and given powers, while Valkov died saving them from the program because Grigori sold them out to their superiors.

Each kid in their bed were handcuffed to their bed to make sure they wouldn't try anything in the night.

Mikhail walked through the room, unlocking each handcuff chaining each kid to their bed, including Young Natasha and Young Nadyr. "Hello, daughter. Son."

"Hello, Papa," Young Natasha and Young Nadyr told him.

"Are you ready to begin today?" Mikhail asked.

Young Natasha and Young Nadyr nodded. "Yes, Papa."

Mikhail nodded, walking away. "Nadyr, follow me."

Young Nadyr stood, following Mikhail away, leaving with him.

Young Valkov looked at Young Natasha. "Psst. Natasha."

Young Natasha looked at him. Young Valkov took out some food that he had hid in his pillow, a few pieces of candy, handing some to Young Natasha.

Young Natasha grinned, taking the candy and eating some. "Thank you, Valkov."

Girls and boys alike were divided and shown movies, indoctrinated and brainwashed through the films they were forced to watch and learn by heart. Showing the behavior how they were supposed to act to not raise any suspicions, and also through subliminal messages embedded in the movies, brainwashed.

The kids of the program went about their days as usual. Training with fighting hand to hand, taking down anyone that they trained with.

Young Natasha was fighting another girl as Mikhail watched. Both girls kicked at each other, circling around each other. Young Natasha ducked two punches, punching the girl in the face, snapping her head backward, punching her three times in the torso, twice in the face, taking her arm, spinning around to flip her through the air and to the ground. The girl flipped up to her feet, facing off with Young Natasha, both in a fighting stance. The girl attacked first, but went too blindly in for the kill. Young Natasha remained calmed and composed, easily able to evade her by spinning away out of her reach, turning toward her, kicking the girl in the back of the knees the same time she pulled backward on her arms, making her fall to her knees and arch her back before putting her into a headlock, looking toward Mikhail.

Mikhail nodded for Young Natasha to finish the job.

Young Natasha only had a brief moment of hesitation before she snapped the girl's neck.

∰

Flashback 6 - One Week Ago (at most)

Day - Russian Psionic Prison - Lab

Picking up where Flashback 6 left off with Natasha trying to mentally contact Sabina as Sabina was an extremely powerful telepath, Natasha was strapped down and experimented on, on and off for the past year, groaning in pain, as she was unable to break free. "Mama, please."

As Sabina made contact, Natasha's eyes started to glow bright blue-pink-purple, revealing that Sabina was the one contacting Niko in present time.

However, since Natasha had complete access to her powers and she had been actively trying to open her mind and reach Sabina, Sabina could better communicate with Natasha, able to pull Natasha into a dream state, bringing her mind to a safe space to make sure no one could hear them or check Natasha's brain scans to see if there was anyone listening.

∰

Natasha's Mind Space

Day - Field

Natasha appeared in the field, in the bright sunlight, walking through the field, looking around in confusion.

In the dream state, Valkov was walking toward Natasha.

Natasha looked at him in shock, emotional to see her dead husband. "Valkov?"

Valkov appeared next to Natasha, brushing back her hair. "Hello, Natasha." Natasha wrapped her arms around her husband, as Valkov held her close. "You've got this, Nat. You're gonna be okay."

They pulled away.

"This is a dream," Natasha told him. "You can't help me. You're not real, Val."

"Something real is actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact," Valkov told her.

Natasha frowned. "That sounds like something my mother would say."

Valkov chuckled. "There's a reason for that."

Natasha sighed, shaking her head. "I don't care. I'm glad that you're here."

Valkov laced his fingers with Natasha's, holding her hands. "A dream is an experience, and an experience is real. Do you understand?"

"Maybe," Natasha replied. "No."

"You'll get out of this soon, Natasha," Valkov told her. "If anyone can, you can. Right? Say it."

Natasha nodded. "If anyone can, I can."

Valkov smiled softly, brushing back Natasha's hair. "You're gonna need your strength. It's okay if you want to move on. You've held onto me for long enough. You have no reason to feel guilty for that. Moving on and finding happiness again."

Natasha looked at him sadly, but knew that he was right, and she had started to move on but felt guilty doing so. Valkov kissed Natasha on the head, as Natasha closed her eyes, a tear falling down her cheek.

Valkov turned his head to look across the field.

They heard Sabina's voice. "Natasha?" Natasha followed his gaze, turning her head. Sabina stood in the mind space, in the middle of the sunlit field. "Natasha, it's me, Mama."

Natasha looked at her mother in shock and relief, gasping softly, emotional to see her mother, despite all that Sabina had done to her children and grandchildren before, she was still the reason why they got free in the end, and Natasha couldn't help but feel relieved upon hearing her mother's voice. "Mama?"

∰

Reality

Day - Sabina's Home

In her own home, Sabina, with her eyes glowing the same bright blue-pink-purple color, smiled at finally being able to reach her daughter telepathically and speak to her again, wearing a headset with wires to strengthen her connection to Natasha to be able to speak to her. "Yeah."

∰

Natasha's Mind Space

Day - Field

Sabina walked toward Natasha. "It's me, darling."

Natasha took several deep breaths, reaching out to her. "Oh, my God." Sabina smiled, brushing back Natasha's hair. "You really are alive." Sabina wrapped Natasha in an embrace. Natasha hesitated only briefly before returning the embrace, closing her eyes in relief. She hadn't known how much she had actually missed her mother even after everything. "Is Nadyr? Is he really alive?"

They pulled away.

"As far as I know," Sabina answered. "You're the first one to reach out to me for me to confirm. I haven't been able to sense Nadyr for quite some time, but that's usually because he's shutting everyone out."

"I need you to find him," Natasha told him. "I'm with Mikhail."

Sabina's expression dropped immediately as she became concerned. "You're what?"

"Mikhail found me," Natasha answered. "He's trying to take control over me again, after he makes me a stronger weapon. He can't put me under control while making me stronger otherwise it won't work and it'll backfire. And he wants to do the same to Nadyr, Nadia and Niko. And other psionics that we care about."

"Which ones?" Sabina asked.

"Eleven from the American program," Natasha answered. Sabina instantly knew who she was talking about because of having been the former leader of the program. "Ruby Charlize." Sabina already knew about Ruby as well, tilting her head in thought. "Hailey Harrington. Grigori turned Hailey himself and reported it back to Mikhail."

"What's the issue?" Sabina asked.

"Nadia, Niko, Ruby and El lost their powers from what Papa's told me," Natasha answered. "They need help. Because it's not just Mikhail that will come after them, Nadyr and Hailey."

"It'll be everyone," Sabina finished. "I'll find Nadyr and give him your message. I'm sure that he'll be able to find your loved ones in order to find you and release you from Mikhail's hold. I'll find a way to contact Niko. Telepath to telepath. And help him, El, Nadia and Ruby get their powers back so they can defend themselves. Hailey still has her powers?"

"As far as I know," Natasha answered.

"I'll handle it, Natasha," Sabina told her. "I'll help you. You have my word."

Natasha let out a shaky breath, knowing that even with all of Sabina's mistakes and flaws in the past, she could trust her with this. "Thank you... Mama."

Sabina smiled softly at hearing Natasha call her that once again, brushing back a strand of Natasha's hair. "Of course. First things first? Finding your brother. Nadyr can be even harder to find than you."

Natasha chuckled in agreement and acknowledgement.

∰

Reality

St. Joseph, Missouri

Nadyr's Hideout

Nadyr was training in his own home, working out nonstop, weight lifting, doing pull ups, anything to keep him in shape, though for the past decade or so, he hadn't had very many experiences where he could use those skills and his own powers, having led a somewhat boring life, which he didn't like much at all.

When he felt a tingling in his mind, Nadyr tilted his head, frowning. He tried to block off his mind, but soon, he realized what was happening, looking up, opening up his mind to let his mother's telepathic influence in, as his eyes glowed the bright blue-pink-purple color of Sabina's power. "Hello?"

Sabina had spent hours at least trying to find her son from her home, her eyes glowing. "Nadyr? Nadyr, can you hear me? It's Mama."

"I can hear you, Mother," Nadyr told her. "I thought you were dead."

"Not so easy to get rid of a Rostova-Ivanova, as you well know," Sabina replied. "I thought you too to be gone. As did your sister."

"You've spoken to Natasha?" Nadyr asked.

"Yes," Sabina answered. "And Natasha needs your help, Nadyr. So do my grandchildren."

"What's wrong with Nadia and Niko?" Nadyr asked.

"They've lost their powers," Sabina answered. "And they've gained some psionic friends along the way that lost theirs too. Around Nadia and Niko's ages. Jane Hopper, AKA Eleven, Ruby Charlize and Hailey Harrington. And Natasha's been captured by Mikhail."

Nadyr was in absolute shock to hear this, horrified. "No. No, Mikhail's supposed to be dead."

"I think we've already covered that it takes much more than what we think to officially kill a Rostov-Ivanov," Sabina told him. "I'll give you all the information you need. But tell me this, son. Are you ready to come out of retirement to save your family and their loved ones?"

"What the hell do you think?" Nadyr replied, smirking slightly. "Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Sabina smirked a slight smile. "That's my boy."

Nadyr sighed heavily. "Though Natasha's probably gonna want to kick my ass for me letting her, Nadia and Niko think that I was dead for a decade. I was supposed to meet with them, but I couldn't. I had to protect them."

"Well, good luck with your sister's wrath when you reunite," Sabina told him. "But you and I both know that once that anger is out of her system, both of you will be thick as thieves once again."

Nadyr chuckled lightly. "Yeah. So tell me everything."

Sabina nodded barely in agreement, about to explain all the rest.

∰

Now

Hawkins, Indiana

Day - Field

A helicopter was taking landing, as Sullivan and his men got out of the helicopter and walked toward more men.

A soldier saluted Sullivan. "Present arms." Sullivan saluted before both lowered their arms. "Lieutenant Colonel, welcome to Indiana."

They shook hands.

∰

Benny's Burgers

The basketball team was gathered.

Jason was showing them yearbook photos of Eddie and Billy. "Eddie Munson. Billy Hargrove. They're the ones suspected to kill Chrissy and that inmate escapee. Ruby Charlize was questioned but they couldn't arrest her even if they still suspect her because they had nothing on her, and she had a reliable defense and other people backing her up. Hailey Harrington and Max Mayfield." Lucas frowned in confusion and concern, wondering what was happening, knowing that it had to be something serious. "Eddie's part of that freak devil cult, Hellfire."

∰

Morgue

Sullivan and his men were viewing Aaron and Chrissy's bodies.

Jason: (voice over) "The cops, they say Chrissy went to Eddie to buy drugs."

∰

Benny's Burgers

Patrick frowned, shaking his head. "Drugs? No."

Ryan pointed at Patrick. "That's what we said. Chrissy would never touch that shit."

∰

Morgue

Sullivan paced around the bodies as the mortician was taking pictures of the bodies.

Ryan: (voice over) "They wouldn't even show her parents her face. And that inmate was Aaron Johnston.."

∰

Benny's Burgers

Ryan looked at the boys to explain. "Ruby Charlize's foster father who went nuts and tried to beat her to death last night." Lucas' eyes widened in shock and worry. "She's already insane enough to deserve to be in Pennhurst, and so is Billy Hargrove. Who fought two guys at their bar the Alibi for messing with Ruby before beating the hell out of Aaron before he ended up dead. Whatever Aaron did, he probably didn't deserve to go out the way he did."

Lucas scoffed softly, knowing that Aaron deserved whatever he had coming.

"I don't care about whatever Billy did to Aaron," Jason told them. "But it means that he's just as deranged and psychotic as he is, and same for Eddie. I don't know what that freak did to Chrissy, but he did something sick."

"He probably sacrificed her, drained her blood for the devil," Andy told them. "I hear Satanists do that shit."

Ryan pointed to Andy. "That's what I'm saying. And get this. Eddie is friends with Ruby and Billy. They might all be in this together."

Jason nodded. "It's this cult Eddie's in. Maybe Ruby and Billy are apart of it."

Lucas finally spoke up. "Hellfire isn't a cult, and Ruby and Billy aren't part of it." Everyone looked at him. "It--it's just a D&D club." He looked at all their confused faces. "D... D&D? Dungeons and Dragons? It's like a... it's like a game. It--it's fantasy. Eddie wouldn't hurt Chrissy. And whatever happened to Aaron, I don't know, but Ryan literally just said that he tried to beat Ruby to death. He's done that shit to her before, before he ended up in Pennhurst. If Billy was defending her, then..."

Ryan walked closer intimidatingly, arms crossed over his chest, standing face to face with Lucas. "And how exactly is it you know all of that, Sinclair?"

Jason turned to face them, crossing his arms, looking just as intimidating.

Lucas was nervous about how they would react, knowing that now was not the right time to pick more of a fight, since just by the stances of the boys, he didn't know what they would do. "Uh... well, you guys know I used to date Max Mayfield. She's Billy's stepsister, like you said. I know Ruby and what she went through with Aaron because of Max, and I know that Billy would've just done whatever to protect her, but murder like that? I don't know. Like, they've both been getting better. And as for Hellfire... it's my sister. Yeah, she's like... she's like a total nerd. You know?"

Ryan nodded sarcastically, skeptically, glaring Lucas in the eyes. "Yeah."

"Nerd," Lucas repeated. "Like, she plays a lot sometimes--"

Jason reached out to place a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "I'm sure your sister isn't killing people, right? But, shit, I've read the wrong person plays this game, it can warp their mind. They confuse fantasy and reality, and innocent people die. I mean, it's been happening all over the country. It's an epidemic."

Patrick nodded. "Yeah, I've read about that shit. It's real."

"And I think Eddie..." Jason trailed off. "He's the wrong type of person, right? He got lost. He thought Chrissy was just a part of his--his sick game. And chances are, he's still in the game. Meaning..."

(Song:) Psycho Killer - Talking Heads

Ryan shrugged. "Eddie could kill again, and I don't care if you think that Ruby and Billy have been getting better, but to me, they're still psychos and both could end up to be killers, and they could kill again, too. Crazy in love, am I right?"

"That's right," Jason agreed. "Even if Billy was just defending Ruby from Aaron, he still killed someone. She could still be apart of it. And they could kill again. All of them could. But not if we can help it. Would Chrissy want us to just stand by while the cops go around pursing some bullshit leads, spreading rumors saying she's some druggy?"

Ryan, Patrick, Andy and the others (besides Lucas) answered, "No!"

"No, she's want us to go out there," Jason told them. "To do something about it, wouldn't she?"

Ryan, Patrick, Andy and the others (besides Lucas) answered, "Yeah!"

Ryan hyped up the crowd. "Then let's go hunt some freaks!"

Jason, Patrick, Andy and the others (besides Lucas) agreed, "Yeah!"

"For Chrissy!" Jason told them.

Ryan, Patrick, Andy and the others (besides Lucas) agreed, "Yeah!"

Ryan ripped out the year book pictures of Billy, Ruby and Eddie, mostly just because he hated Ruby and wanted revenge enough to add her to the fire, literally, even if no one could prove she did anything wrong, or prove that Billy and Eddie did. He put the pictures into a bowl, picking up a book of matches, taking one and striking it against the match book to light it, tossing the lit match into the bowl with the pictures, burning them, as the rest of the team, except for Lucas, were all cheering, hyped up to go hunting.

∰

Video Store

Dustin, Hailey and Max were making calls on the three phones of the video store, while Robin and Steve were working, and Nadia was at the computer to give the numbers out to Dustin, Hailey and Max, and Ruby was crossing out the names of the people that hadn't seen Eddie or Billy.

Dustin spoke into his phone. "Have you seen or heard from Eddie recently? He might be with Billy Hargrove. Okay. Sorry to bother you."

Hailey spoke into her phone. "Eddie Munson. Billy Hargrove. Seen them? Know anyone who'd know where they are? I really don't think they're at the arcade. Yep, I'm pretty sure."

Max spoke into her phone. "When's the last time you talked to Eddie Munson? My stepbrother Billy Hargrove might be with him. Do you know of anyone who would know where they could be? Reefer Rick? No. Does this Reefer Rick have a last name? I mean, it's kind of..."

Hailey, Dustin and Max all looked at Ruby, shaking their heads, causing Ruby to cross out the names of the people they were on the phone with, narrowing it down.

Nadia brought up more numbers for them to try.

Robin was checking out a movie for a male customer, who then left.

Steve walked up to a girl customer with the movie of the morning. "All right, Doctor Zhivago. It's a double VHS. It's long. But that's because it's filled with action and romance, and a little bit of suspense."

Nadia glanced over at Steve and the girl.

"So, my boyfriend won't, like, totally puke when I bring it home?" the girl asked.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Oh, your boyfriend?" Nadia smirked slightly. "Uh, no. No." Steve glanced over at Nadia, and Nadia looked away quickly. "He's gonna... he's gonna love it." Steve checked out the movie for the girl. "Yeah."

"See ya," the girl told them.

Steve nodded. "See ya later. Alligator." Nadia snorted softly. Steve looked over to Nadia, tilting his head, giving her a look. Ruby and Robin both noticed the interaction between them, smirking knowingly in amusement, exchanging a look, while Hailey and Dustin were eyeing Steve and Nadia, which both Steve and Nadia noticed. They knew that the others would more than likely tease them all to hell about everything sooner or later, causing Steve to sigh. "Goddamn it."

(Song Ends)

Hailey, Dustin and Max hung up the phones.

"Hey, guys, I might have a lead," Max told them.

"Seriously?" Ruby asked, more uplifted with the thought of finding Billy and Eddie and making sure they were okay.

"Yeah," Max answered. "Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there. And if he's still with Billy..."

"Maybe Billy and Eddie are at Reefer Rick's," Dustin finished.

"Sounds promising," Robin told them. "Where does this Reefer Rick guy live?"

"See, that's the thing," Max told them. "No one knows. He's more of a--a legend than someone that people actually know."

"What about a last name?" Hailey asked.

Max shook her head. "I don't know that either."

"Bet the cops know a last name," Steve remarked without thinking, causing everyone to look at him.

"What?" Nadia asked.

"Cops," Steve answered. "I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he's been busted at some point. Means he's in the system."

"The cops?" Dustin asked skeptically. "Really, Steve, that's your suggestion?"

"Hailey, Max and I've already been questioned brutally by the cops, who all think that we're covering for Eddie and Billy," Ruby told him. "Callahan and Powell are dumbasses who still think that I set those fires last year."

"Technically you did, Ruby," Steve pointed out. "But that was your power going out of control."

"That's not the point, Steve," Ruby replied. "They also arrested me the night that Aaron attacked me in my motel room."

"The night that you drove him out of his mind," Robin pointed out.

Ruby rolled her eyes, giving both Steve and Robin a look. "Both of those were all accidents. I couldn't control it."

"And now they just want to pin this on Billy and Eddie because of the fighting that Billy did to the two guys in the bar, and Aaron, to help Ruby, after she was drugged and nearly beaten to death," Max added. "And because Chrissy was with Eddie."

"You should know by now that the cops are always a no go in situations like this, Steve," Nadia told him. "Especially since these cops are not Hopper."

"Okay, well, I just thought that if they could understand a bit more, they could help us find Billy and Eddie," Steve told them.

They all gave him a weird look.

"You do realize that they don't understand because they want this case closed, and they don't like Ruby after her brush with the law two years in a row, right?" Hailey asked, before looking at Ruby. "Three now."

Ruby nodded, tilting her head, rolling her eyes. "Still not my fault."

"They'll never believe us or want to help us," Max agreed.

Dustin gestured to Nadia, Ruby, Hailey and Max to agree with their points, giving Steve a look. "And maybe, we'd have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to flirt and make Nadia jealous..." Nadia raised her eyebrows at Dustin, while Steve held up his arms in a 'what the hell', innocent gesture. "And more time trying to find Billy and Eddie."

"I'm not trying to make Nadia jealous," Steve denied, the same time Nadia said, "I wasn't jealous."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure."

Nadia gave Ruby a look, tilting her head. Ruby returned the look back to her, shrugging.

Steve held out a hand toward the door. "Somebody has to attend to the customers."

Robin winked. "Especially if they're babes, right?"

Steve pointed to Robin. "Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike." Hailey nodded sarcastically, hands on her hips, tilting her head, feigning curiosity. "We've got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for these people."

Robin got an idea, smiling. "Yeah, it can be." She slid into the chair at the computer next to Nadia. "Scoot."

Nadia slid over closer to Ruby on her right side, to make room for Robin on her left. "What are you doing?"

Hailey, Dustin and Max stood behind Ruby, Nadia and Robin as they looked at the computer.

"Maybe we don't need a last name," Robin told them, going into the customer archives for the video store, typing in Rick, hitting enter. Steve walked closer to stand on the right side of the group (next to Hailey and Ruby), looking at the screen. "Twelve Ricks have accounts here."

"Lot of Ricks," Max pointed out.

"So let's narrow it down," Robin told them, clicking on the first profile. "Rick Alderman's latest rentals are Annie and Dumbo. What are the chances our drug dealer has a family?"

"Not likely," Hailey answered.

Robin went to the next Rick. "All right. Rick Conroy. Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, Romancing the Stone."

Steve, Hailey, Ruby, Nadia, Max and Dustin all said, "No."

Robin went to the next Rick. "Okay. Rick Joiner. Mask, Footloose, Grease."

Steve, Hailey, Ruby, Nadia, Max and Dustin all said, "No."

Robin went to the next Rick. "Rick Kimbrough. The Blue Lagoon, Splash."

Hailey, Max and Dustin all chuckled and said, "No."

"Definitely not," Nadia answered.

"No way," Steve agreed.

"Thank you, next," Ruby told them.

Robin went to the next Rick. "Okay. Rick Lipton. Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cheech & Chang's Next Movie, Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams. Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke."

They all knew by the second Cheech & Chong's movie listed that they had the right Rick, having slight smirks or smiles.

"Bingo," Dustin told them.

"Lipton?" Max asked.

Nadia nodded. "Spelled like the tea. 2121 Holland Road."

"That's out by Lovers Lake," Hailey told them.

"Middle of nowhere," Ruby agreed.

Robin smiled. "It's a perfect place to hide."

Ruby patted Robin on the shoulder. "Nice one, Robin."

Robin smiled at Ruby. Ruby smirked a slight smile in return.

∰

Outside

Without hesitation, Nadia, Hailey, Steve, Dustin, Ruby, Max and Robin all ran outside.

Nadia got into her car with Robin, Ruby and Max, while Hailey got into her car with Steve and Dustin. The blue and black sports cars sped away from the video store to head to Lovers Lake.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Desert Field - Calliope's Car

Calliope had to drive herself and Jonathan to the middle of a desert field so that neither of them could be found by Mikhail's men, so that she could treat both her wound and Jonathan's wound from being shot. Though Calliope had only gotten a graze on her arm while Jonathan got full shot in the shoulder, Calliope's wound seemed to be a lot more painful and bad, as if the bullet she had been shot with was laced with something.

Jonathan was groaning in pain as Calliope was treating his shoulder gunshot wound. "Fucking hell."

"You'll live," Calliope told him.

"It still hurts," Jonathan replied. "Those guys were really working for Nadia and Niko's grandfather?"

"Yeah," Calliope answered. "You're lucky that I was there to save your ass."

"Yeah, only so you could threaten me to take you to Niko," Jonathan retorted.

"It's better than you dying for nothing back there," Calliope countered. "Trust me, they would have no guilt or hesitation about putting a bullet into your head instead of a shoulder this time."

Jonathan sighed heavily. "And you swear you're not gonna hurt him? Because I won't do anything if you even think about hurting him."

"You don't have a choice," Calliope pointed out, tapping her gun in her belt holster. "But yes. I swear. It's not Nadia or Niko that I want, Jonathan. I just want to find Sabina to find my brother."

Jonathan accepted this, sighing heavily. "So you obviously know all about us, and the only thing I know about you is that you're looking for your brother. What's your name?"

"Calliope," Calliope answered. "Calliope Pierce."

Jonathan nodded in understanding. "Well, wish that there were better circumstances to meet you, Calliope."

Calliope smirked. "Oh, I'm sure you do." While she was about to pull the bullet out of his wound, Calliope was distracting him with talking so that she could do it without causing Jonathan too much pain. "So you thinking about going to that school?"

"What makes you say that?" Jonathan asked. "I was just touring. Nothing special."

Calliope nodded sarcastically. "Oh, yeah, I'm sure."

"What?" Jonathan asked. "I was touring. I'm supposed to be going to college with my girlfriend Nancy."

"Yeah, and where is she?" Calliope asked.

"Why do you care?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope quickly pulled Jonathan's bullet out, making him cry out in pain, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been if she hadn't been distracting him with talk. "Because it's a good distraction from pain."

Jonathan groaned, nodding barely in agreement. "Good point. If I tell you, promise you're not gonna tell anyone, are you?"

Calliope tilted her head sarcastically. "Jeez, I was hoping to gossip about it over margaritas at mercenary bingo night." Jonathan gave her a look. Calliope smirked. "But sure, promise. Fess up."

Jonathan shrugged. "I don't know. Nancy was supposed to come with her brother Mike, but she said she had to work over spring break. But part of me expected her to be on that plane. Or something. Just like, 'Hey, surprise! Here I am. But also, I felt this... I felt this intense relief when she wasn't there."

"I'm pretty sure that's the weed talking," Calliope pointed out. "It's fucking obvious you're stoned as hell, dude. Guess that's also why this isn't hurting you as much as it would without you being high."

"It hurts plenty," Jonathan replied.

"You didn't answer the question about the college," Calliope reminded him.

"Yes, I did, you just refuse to believe me," Jonathan countered.

Calliope took out a letter, holding it out. "That's because I found this in your pocket."

Jonathan looked at her incredulously, taking the letter from him. "You pickpocketed me? When the hell did you have time to?"

"When you were passed out," Calliope answered like it was obvious.

"Why?" Jonathan asked.

Calliope shrugged. "Why not?" Jonathan scoffed. "You got accepted into Lenora Community. So that wasn't just a tour, because you already applied. So you're not going to college with Nancy."

Jonathan sighed, knowing that he couldn't hide it anymore, giving in. "No, I'm not. She just doesn't know it yet."

"And why not?" Calliope asked, bandaging Jonathan's shoulder.

Jonathan was clearly still freaking out about the entire situation that day, but focusing on this made it more easy than focusing on the fact that he was almost killed by Mikhail's men to try and track down Nadia and Niko. "Like, I--I can't leave my mom and my brother to-to-to chase a dream that isn't mine."

Calliope smirked. "You're dead, man. You're so dead."

"What was I supposed to do?" Jonathan asked.

"Not lie," Calliope answered.

"Not lie?" Jonathan repeated.

"Yeah," Calliope answered.

"Not lie?" Jonathan repeated again, this time loudly, and kind of comedically.

Calliope nodded. "Yeah."

"What, so I just tell her the truth?" Jonathan asked.

"Yes," Calliope answered.

Jonathan shook his head. "No. No. Because--because if I told her the truth, then she'd just throw her dreams out the window to come out here and be with me. And I--I just can't take that. Like, you know? Like this--this huge knot of resentment would build, like--like some cancer, until eventually she hates me. And then, before you know it, we're just like my mom and dad. We're divorced, my kids hate me."

Once Calliope was done with Jonathan's wound, she started treating her own, wincing and groaning in pain. "Shit!"

"Yeah, shit!" Jonathan complained. "I mean, it's all shit!" He groaned. "The cycle never ends."

Calliope nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, your nightmare cycle. Things could be worse. You want it to stop, but what is your approach here? To just slow motion break up with Nancy?"

Jonathan had no idea. "I guess."

Calliope rolled her eyes. "Seriously? The weed you've been smoking must have killed whatever brain cells you had before."

Jonathan sighed, throwing out his arms. "I know, I know. I don't know what to do." He groaned in pain as throwing out his arms left him in more pain than before in his shoulder. "Fuck!"

Calliope smirked in amusement. "And looks like you need more weed just to get through the pain. Hell, I could use some right now."

Jonathan realized that he still had some in his bag, reaching for it. "Wait, yeah, yeah. I got some."

"Really?" Calliope asked, unsurprised but amused. "Hell yeah, then. Could knock out the pain."

Jonathan took out a joint, lighting it. "To knocking out the pain."

Jonathan took a hit, offering the joint to Calliope.

Calliope nodded in agreement, taking the joint between her fingers. "Knocking out the pain."

Calliope took a hit, tilting her head back as she released the smoke in the air, smirking slightly.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Trailer Park

Nancy was knocking on the door of a trailer.

When a woman suddenly opened the door, Nancy jumped, before speaking. "Um, hi, I'm Nancy Wheeler from the Hawkins Tiger--"

The woman brushed her off. "I've talked to enough reporters, yeah."

The woman closed the door in Nancy's face.

Nancy and Fred walked through the trailer park together.

Nancy pointed to another trailer. "Okay, well, what about that one? With the flag?"

"Yeah, I tried them twice," Fred answered. "They were actually quite rude. I am not doing that again. I'm telling you, we've talked to everyone."

Nancy noticed Max's dog in his fenced cage, smiling. "Nope. Not everyone." She walked over to the cage to say hi to the dog, kneeling in front of him. "Hi there. Hi. Did you see something last night, huh?" The dog whined, clearly having been scared by the events of the night before. "Oh, you wanna tell us everything?"

"Nancy, come on," Fred told her. "Let's get outta here."

Nancy looked over her shoulder at Fred. "But he's just the cutest little witness." She looked across the way toward the Munson trailer, seeing Eddie's uncle Wayne sitting outside. "Stay here." Nancy stood, walking across the trailer park toward Wayne. "Hi. I'm a friend of Max Mayfield and Billy Hargrove's, over there. Mostly friends with Ruby Charlize, if you remember her living here two years ago."

"I do," Wayne answered. "Aaron always had something to say about Charlize, or hurt her with. Didn't shock me that he came after her again."

Nancy frowned in concern. "You're Wayne Munson, aren't you? Eddie's uncle?"

"That's right," Wayne answered, taking a hit of his cigarette.

"The neighbors, they were--" Nancy started.

"Like to gossip," Wayne told her. "And I'm not interested in gossiping no more. Certainly not to a reporter."

Nancy chuckled nervously. "What gave me away?" She walked closer to sit next to him on the bench table. "Look, let me level with you, Mr. Munson. The paper that I write for is... small. We don't have the staff to keep up with the big guys. And I'm just... looking for something, anything, really, about what happened last night."

"Why?" Wayne asked. "Far as I can tell, you all have it figured out already. That Billy Hargrove finally snapped, protecting Ruby from the insane foster father. My nephew's a freak. They killed that psycho and that girl. Ain't that about right?"

"Let me guess," Nancy told him. "You've been speaking to the Hawkins Post? Chuck Bailey? Yeah, I used to work with him. I mean, that guy doesn't know his ass from his elbow." Wayne nodded in agreement. "Let me tell your side of the story."

Further away, Fred was writing notes.

When he heard the tell tale chiming of a clock, Fred looked around in confusion, as the clock continued to chime six times, but he saw no clock around him at all.

Wayne was explaining to Nancy. "I know Billy's not all right in the head. Just like I knew that about Ruby when she lived here. But they wouldn't do something like this, no matter what those other people think." Nancy smiled softly in relief at someone believing that. "And Eddie may look dangerous, but he didn't do this either. It just... ain't in his nature. No matter what anyone says, and they will say things, believe you me. But this... wasn't Eddie. And it wasn't Billy. The man who did this... who killed Aaron and that poor girl... he's... pure evil."

"Man?" Nancy asked. "You think you know who might've done this?"

"You ever hear the name Victor Creel?" Wayne asked. Nancy frowned in confusion. Fred was drawn away from the trailer park, though he wasn't sure why, as the chiming had already stopped, but he could still hear the ticking of a clock. "I guess you're too young, but back when I was a kid, everybody knew the name Victor Creel. He lost his mind. Killed his whole family. Kids and wife. Took their eyes. Cut 'em right out."

Nancy frowned. "God."

∰

Woods

Fred wandered into the woods, looking around for the source of the sound in his mind, lured away from the trailer park to where he was alone and vulnerable.

Wayne: (voice over) "Aaron and Chrissy? Same exact thing. So I'm thinking, maybe he broke out, like Aaron did."

∰

Trailer Park

Nancy looked at Wayne. "Victor Creel is still alive?"

Wayne nodded. "They locked him away in Pennhurst Asylum. Yeah, as far as I know, he's still there. That is, unless he broke out."

"Like Aaron," Nancy agreed.

Wayne nodded in agreement. "And like that... what's his name? White mask and killed the babysitters?"

"Michael Myers?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah," Wayne answered. "Michael Myers. You ask me, Victor's like that. He's a real boogeyman."

Nancy felt a chill up her spine as a sudden gust of wind blew their way. She looked toward where Fred had been, only to see that he had disappeared. "Um, I'll be right back." She stood, running off, trying to find her friend. "Fred? Fred!" She called into the woods. "Fred?" She looked around the park. "Fred?" She walked off, away from the woods, to continue looking. "Fred?"

Max's dog was barking, going nuts, like the poor dog knew what was coming.

∰

Woods

Fred walked through the woods, finding a coffin in the middle of the woods, with the grandfather clock resting atop the coffin.

The coffin suddenly opened, and the victim that he killed sat up, turning his head to glare at Fred.

Fred gasped, backing away. "What do you want?" When the corpse didn't answer, he screamed the question. "What do you want?"

When the corpse answered, he spoke with Mirage's voice. "I want you to make a wish."

"A wish?" Fred repeated in complete confusion.

"If you had one wish, what would it be?" the corpse asked. "You could reverse what you did to me, Fred. You could take it all back with one... little... wish."

"I--I could make it like it never happened?" Fred asked.

The corpse nodded. "Your victim would live. And your suffering and guilt would be over. Is that your wish?"

Fred swallowed. He believed in his mind that this wasn't real, that it didn't matter if he made the wish or not because it wouldn't change anything, even though clearly it would change everything and sign his death sentence. He just wanted the pain and guilt to end and reverse the damage he had done. "Yes. That's my wish."

The corpse held out his hand toward Fred's.

A candle seemed to grow from Fred's hand, the wick flickering with flame. It caused Fred pain as it grew from his own skin, but he could barely feel it at the same time.

"Make your wish," the corpse told him.

Fred closed his eyes before blowing out the candle, making his wish.

∰

Flashback 8 - One Year Ago

Kamchatka, Russia

Day - Prison

Hopper was sitting in a prison uniform, his hair being shaved off. He looked around unsteadily.

Soldier: (voice over, in Russian) "You are no longer men."

∰

"Bathroom"

This bathroom was just a space outside, covered in show, where Hopper had to stand naked while a soldier sprayed him down with a hose.

Soldier: (voice over, in Russian) "You are cogs in a machine. A machine in service of our great Motherland."

∰

Outside

Hopper and other prisoners were lined up along a barbed wire fence, bundled up against the cold.

The soldier speaking to them in Russian paced in front of them. "And if you are foolish enough to attempt escape, you will be hunted down. You will be captured. And then you will suffer greatly as you perform your final act for the Motherland. There will be no second chances." He stopped in front of Hopper, speaking in English so he was clear that he understood. "Run, you die. You hear, American?"

Hopper nodded.

∰

Now

Day - Russian Psionic Prison - Lab

Natasha was sitting down. Her off and on experiments that lasted for a year had finally come to an end for good.

A woman was cutting Natasha's hair to fit for the program, not completely cut off, but into a short pixie cut that could be easy to use in undercover operations, if Natasha was fully under their control, but that had a while yet to go.

Natasha: (voice over, to Sabina a week ago) "They're finishing the experiments for good in a week. Then they can start the brainwashing without it interfering."

Natasha got shower and to change into another prison uniform.

Natasha: (voice over) "I don't know how to keep them out of my head."

They tried to use brainwashing on Natasha once again, but even though Natasha was pretending that it was working, it clearly wasn't.

Sabina: (voice over) "You leave that to me, my dear."

Natasha kept her eyes closed so that they wouldn't see that her eyes were glowing bright blue-purple-pink, as were Sabina's eyes, from where she was at her home, using her head device to strengthen her telepathy power so she could connect to Natasha mentally, using her power to make sure that they couldn't brainwash Natasha.

Sabina: (voice over) "I have it all handled. I won't let you fall further into Mikhail's clutches or control. But you need to make them believe that you are, for your own protection, or all of this will be for nothing, Natasha. You need to give Nadyr time to find you. Even if it means doing what they want you to do."

Natasha opened her eyes, which were now normal, as Sabina no longer had to use her power to protect her mind from the brainwashing.

Natasha: (voice over) "I understand. I always do what I have to do."

∰

Fighting Ring

The fighting ring within the psionic prison was for the warriors and psionics here to train and weed out the weak from the best.

This round was a no-power round, and Natasha was ordered by Mikhail to step up to the plate.

Natasha stepped into the fighting ring, knowing that if she didn't fight full blast, and if she didn't finish it off like she was ordered to do, that they would find out that the brainwashing wasn't work, and all of it would be for nothing, just as Sabina had said.

Though Natasha didn't need her powers to win a fight. 

Natasha was hanging from the bars of the cage/ring to suspend herself in the air, kicking the man she was fighting repeatedly, knocking him into the barred wiring of the cage/ring, making him fall, smirking smugly, jumping down.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Living Room

Joyce and Murray were replaying the tape.

Dmitri: (on tape) "Your friends are stuck. But you get me money, I make them unstuck. You must trust me."

Joyce replayed the tape again.

"Joyce, whoever Enzo is, the answer is not on that tape," Murray told her.

Joyce was trying to focus on the woman in the background. "Wait, you don't hear that? In the background?"

"So he's outside," Murray stated. "Someone's talking. Not surprising."

Joyce paused the tape, giving Murray a smug look. "I think she's talking to Enzo."

Murray sighed, sitting next to her. "Play it again."

Joyce replayed it. "Can you translate that?"

Murray shook his head. "Uh... I can't understand it. It's too low."

Joyce realized what she could do, taking the tape out.

∰

Joyce's Room

Joyce walked into her room, placing the tape into her player, turning up the volume as loud as it could go, playing again.

∰

Flashback

Kamchatka, Russia

Prison - Hallway

Two guards were leading Hopper back to his cell.

Several men in their cells were banging against the cell bars, taunting Hopper in Russian.

Another Russian prisoner made a slicing motion over his neck.

∰

Now

Day - Russian Psionic Prison - Fighting Ring

Natasha climbed up the barred wiring of the cage/ring, turning to launch herself off toward the man she was fighting, punching him in the face viciously, spinning around to kick him in the face with both feet, knocking him into the barred wiring. The man lunged forward, ducking a punch from Natasha, swinging at her. Natasha leaned back enough to make him miss, trying to punch him from either side with either arm, though he raised both arms to block the moves, so she used her arms to propel her weight up as she jumped and kicked the man in the chest, falling back into a backward arch, flipping out of it and kicking the man in the face with both feet as she did, landing on both her feet, spinning around to kick him in the head. The man caught her leg, pushing her to the floor, grabbing her by the back of her head, kneeing her in the face, pacing around the cage/ring, arms held out as he tried to hype up the crowd. Natasha spit out blood to the floor, with a slightly bleeding cut on her cheek underneath her eye, wiping her lip.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Joyce's Room

Joyce and Murray were listening to the tape again, which was much louder.

Dmitri: (on tape) "But you get me money, I make them unstuck."

Murray was wearing headphones to hear more clearly. "Turn it up."

Joyce did so.

Dmitri: (on tape) "You must trust me."

Joyce: (on tape) "How do I trust you? I don't know who you are."

Murray could finally hear the woman clearly. "She wants to use the phone. She's mad at Enzo. Calls him a 'moosar'."

Joyce frowned. "Moosar?"

"It's slang," Murray explained.

Joyce tilted her head. "For what?"

∰

Flashback

Kamchatka, Russia

Prison - Hallway

The guards led Hopper up the stairs to the top level for the cells, toward Hopper's cell.

Murray: (voice over) "Literally, moosar translates to trash or garbage. It's like 'pig' here, often directed at cops."

∰

Now

Day - Russian Psionic Prison - Fighting Ring

Mikhail was watching the fight intensely, testing Natasha to see if she was really back under control of the program, of him.

Natasha rose to her feet, in a fighting stance, arms held up. The man tried to punch her. Natasha ducked, spinning around him to stand behind him, kicking him in the back. The man grabbed her, trying to flip her to the ground, but Natasha used their momentum combined to spin herself around his head, locking her legs around his neck in a scissor move, so she could flip him to the floor, and flipped through the air to land on her feet as she did. The man stood, trying to punch Natasha. Natasha raised an arm to block the move, kicking him in the groin, tackling him to the floor, putting his head in a lock with her legs, until he managed to roll himself over even though he was still in the lock, standing, lifting Natasha while she still had her legs wrapped around his neck, trying to throw her off, but Natasha caught onto the bars above her head, twisting her legs so that she could turn the man away from her, locking her legs around his neck again, knowing it was over.

Joyce: (voice over) "Cops?"

Just like in the flashback to her childhood, Natasha glanced at Mikhail as he was watching.

Mikhail nodded to Natasha to finish the job.

Natasha knew that she had to sell it in order to protect herself and buy herself some time, using her hips to twist the hold her legs had on the man's neck violently with enough strength to snap his neck.

Murray: (voice over) "Or guards."

∰

Flashback

Kamchatka, Russia

Prison - Hopper's Cell

Hopper was put back into his cell.

Joyce: (voice over) "Natasha and Hopper are stuck."

A guard pushed Hopper to the ground, making him groan in pain, before closing and locking his cell door.

Murray: (voice over) "And Enzo can get them unstuck."

Hopper slowly rose to his feet.

Dmitri stood out of his cell, not the guard that pushed him down, but one of the guards that brought him back to it. "Yeah, it's not exactly the Ritz, is it? Welcome to your new home, American."

Dmitri walked away.

∰

Now

Lenora Hills, California

Day - Byers House - Joyce's Room

Joyce and Murray both realized.

"Enzo's a prison guard," Murray stated. "Not for Natasha, since she would be trapped with the Russian psionic program like he said, but for Jim."

"Maybe Hopper bribed him to try and get out, to try and free Natasha," Joyce told him. "And Enzo specifically said 'do not bring Nadia and Niko' because it's dangerous for them. Hopper would say that, to not bring them."

Murray nodded in agreement. "Sounds like Jim, doesn't it?"

Joyce chuckled in relief.

∰

Russian Psionic Prison - Fighting Ring

Natasha was still hanging from the top of the ring, her arms around the neck of the dead body that she had to kill, letting the body fall, before she jumped down.

The crowd was chanting her name. "Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha! Natasha!"

Natasha looked around the crowd as they chanted her name, feeling absolutely nothing.

Mikhail smirked, pleased by what he had seen, turning around, walking away.

Natasha watched Mikhail go with a glare, hating that she was back in this position, determined to not let history repeat.

∰

Lenora Hills, California

Byers House - Living Room

Joyce was walking through the room, grabbing a bag, determined to get Natasha and Hopper back.

Murray walked downstairs. "Joyce, where are you going?"

"The bank," Joyce answered, walking to the door. "I'm gonna get Enzo his damn money." She opened the front door, turning to look at Murray, pointing at him. "And we are getting Natasha and Hopper back."

Murray nodded. "Okay."

They walked out of the house, closing the door behind them.

∰

Rink-O-Mania 

(Song:) Burning Up - Donnell Pitman

Mike looked into the girls' bathroom, looking for his girlfriend. "El?"

"What the hell?" a girl demanded. "Get out!"

Mike quickly ducked out of the bathroom, letting the door close, walking toward Will.

"Not there?" Will asked.

"No," Mike answered. "You should've told me she was having trouble."

"I didn't know they were gonna be here, Mike," Will defended himself.

"Yeah, but you knew she was having trouble for a year and didn't tell me," Mike replied.

"I didn't know she was lying to you," Will told him.

"Which is why you were a douche all day?" Mike asked.

"I wasn't being a douche," Will told him.

Mike turned to face Will. "You were. You were. You were rolling your eyes, moping. You were barely talking. You basically sabotaged the whole day."

"She's been lying to you, Mike," Will told him. "Straight to your face, ever since you got here. And I've been a total third wheel all day, watching you two be happy and cuddly and couple-ly. It's been miserable. So, sorry if I wasn't... wasn't smiling."

"Is this about the breakup with Niko?" Mike asked.

Will looked away across the rink, where Niko was looking for Eleven and/or the bullies that did this to her. "What do you think?"

Mike followed Will's gaze, seeing him. "Holy shit. He's here?"

"Yeah," Will answered. "That was a shock for me too. Niko got here around the time Angela humiliated El. And he's been avoiding me ever since he got here."

"I'm sorry, man," Mike told him.

"Are you sure you care?" Will asked.

Mike frowned. "What?"

"You're mad that I didn't talk to you?" Will asked. "You made it super clear that you're not interested in anything I have to say. You didn't care about my breakup with Niko or how it's been here for me."

"That's just not true," Mike told him.

"You've called maybe a couple times," Will told him. "It's been a year, Mike. Meanwhile, El has like a book of letters from you."

"That's because she's my girlfriend, Will," Mike told him.

"And us?" Will asked.

"We're friends," Mike answered. "We're friends."

Will rolled his eyes at Mike missing the point. "We used to be best friends. Dustin and Lucas reached out more than you did. Hailey has literally been calling basically every other night when she has the time, or flying out here to spend time with both me and El, and teaching me how to fight. Yet you couldn't pick up the phone more than at least three times."

Mike knew that he had a point, but was deflecting. "Well, maybe you should've reached out to me more. I don't know. But why is this on me? Why--why am I the bad guy?" Will didn't answer, looking away. Mike sighed. "I'm sorry. About Niko, about everything. Let's just... let's just find El, okay? And then you can talk to Niko and figure stuff out."

Will nodded barely. "Yeah. If Niko stops avoiding me long enough to talk to him."

They both walked along.

∰

Employees Only Room

Eleven was sitting alone in the dark room, crying after the humiliation. She heard her bullies laughing and mocking her from outside the room, standing, walking toward the window, seeing Angela and her friends outside the room, before getting angry.

∰

Main Room

Eleven stormed out of the employees only room.

Niko was walking along, looking around for Eleven to check on her, before finding her. "El."

Eleven turned to face him in surprise. "Niko? What are you doing here? It's not safe."

"Long story," Niko told her. "Explain later." Niko and Eleven embraced, before pulling away. "Are you okay?" Eleven gave him a look. "Right. Dumb question." Eleven looked over her shoulder toward Angela and her friends. "What do you wanna do? It's up to you. If you wanna kick their asses, you know I'm here to help out with that. Especially after what those dickheads did to you."

Eleven looked at Niko, managing a small smile. "I wanna try talking first."

"Talking it out?" Niko asked, nodding sarcastically. "Yeah, sure that'll work. But hey, this is up to you. Just let me know when you wanna go to war."

Eleven nodded, turning around, walking up to Angela and her friends. "Angela."

"Uh-oh," Angela mocked. "Look who it is."

"She looks upset," one of the boys taunted.

Eleven glared at Angela. "You ruined my day."

Angela chuckled. "Oh, no. Did we embarrass you in front of your boyfriend?"

"I want you to say sorry to me, and I want you to tell my boyfriend that it was just a joke and that we are really friends," Eleven told her.

The bullies laughed in disbelief.

(Song Ends)

Angela tilted her head at Eleven, holding out her hand to mock her. "Or what? You gonna hurt us with your mean stare again?" She giggled while the others laughed. "Sorry you can't cry to teacher today. You'll just have to cry to your daddy instead. Oh, wait. Can't do that either."

The boy bullies both scoffed cruelly, and Stacy raised her eyebrows, all three surprised by how far Angela took that, but none of them bothered, as all four started to laugh, walking away.

Niko was watching, quickly getting furious and defensive for Eleven especially after Angela brought up Hopper, flashing back to the day that Natasha and Hopper "died".

Eleven looked devastated but furious, turning to look at Niko, nodding.

Niko smirked, walking ahead.

Eleven walked along, grabbing a skate from a bench, looking over her shoulder as she walked away.

Niko stalked up to the bullies.

Eleven walked closer with the skate in hand, situating it to use as a weapon. "Angela!"

Angela spun to face Eleven. Eleven slammed the skate into Angela's face, knocking her down, making her scream.

Hearing the scream, Mike and Will instantly turned around toward the sound., as did many others.

Stacy knelt next to her friend worriedly. "Holy shit. Angela, you okay?"

Both the boys glared at Niko and Eleven.

"You're psycho," Boy 1 told them.

Niko shrugged. "Takes one to know one. Ask me, I think she got what she deserved. You four think that you're all that, but you don't measure up to what we and our friends can do. And I don't argue with idiots. They will just lower me to their level and beat me with idiot experience. Everybody's entitled to act stupid once in a while, but you all really abuse that privilege to do it repeatedly and over and over again. Unlike your parents when they created all of you. Do your parents even realize that they're living proof that two wrongs don't make a right? It's pointless to make fun of you, because it will take you the rest of the day to figure it out. So why don't I just kick both your asses?"

"Asshole!" Boy 1 exclaimed.

Boy 1 tried to start the fight with Niko, but Niko ducked out of the way, catching his wrist, kicking his legs out from underneath him, twisting his arm to put him in an arm lock on his knees in front of him, making him groan in pain, tossing him down. Boy 2 lunged at Niko. Niko pushed him back. Boy 2 backed away and was about to charge at Niko again, but Niko saw a waiter with a tray of drinks and food walking by them, so Niko tipped the tray over so that most of it landed on Boy 2 (the one that had dumped Eleven's milkshake all over her), making him gasp and yell in in frustration with the food and drinks spilling all along his body and clothes.

Niko smirked. "How's that for just desserts?"

Eleven couldn't help but smirk, before her gaze fell onto Angela, who was coming to after being knocked out by Eleven.

Stacy gasped in worry. "Oh, my God." Angela at first looked fine, but when she sat up with Stacy's help, blood started to pour from the wound in her nose left by the skate Eleven had hit her with, causing Stacy to look at her in horror. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God, what do we do? Shit."

Angela didn't feel the pain until she touched her nose, crying out, shrieking at the blood running down her face and onto her hand, sobbing as her friends tried to comfort her.

Niko raised his eyebrows; even he was stunned by that happening, not realizing that the hit was that bad, but at the same time, he still didn't care after what they did to Eleven.

Eleven was in shock, looking down at the skate in her hand, which had blood on it from wounding Angela. She looked around, seeing that everyone in the rink, besides Niko, Mike and Will, were looking at her like she was a monster.

They were giving Niko the same looks, but Niko didn't care one bit.

Mike and Will ran up to stand next to Eleven and Niko, all four of them looking at the bullies on the floor.

Will was in shock. "Oh... oh, my God."

Mike was stunned, upset in the moment. "Holy shit, El. What did you do? What did you do?"

Because of the way Mike said that, Eleven flashed back to when Sabina asked her the same words in the flashback in 4.01 after the massacre of nearly everyone in Hawkins lab: "What have you done? What have you done?"

Angela screamed, crying, wailing.

Eleven closed her eyes, tears falling.

∰

Hawkins, Indiana

Night - Reefer Rick's House - Outside

Nadia and Hailey pulled their cars up to the house, pulling over.

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

Ruby walked up to the door, ringing the doorbell. When nothing happened, she continued to hit the doorbell impatiently like that would make a difference.

"Okay," Steve said. "Well, that's settled. I guess they're not here."

Dustin walked closer to knock on the door. "Eddie! Billy! It's Dustin!"

Steve nodded sarcastically. "Great."

Hailey called out. "Look, we just wanna talk, okay? No cops. I swear, we just wanna help. Look, Ruby and Max are here, you know that they'd never do anything to hurt you, Billy. And Ruby's your friend, Eddie. Come on."

"Eddie!" Max called. "Billy!"

Nadia put a finger to her lips. "Shh. We don't know who could be out there."

Dustin continued to knock. "Rick! Reefer Rick!"

Steve swatted Dustin on the shoulder. "Don't scream that."

"Rick!" Max called.

"He's not here," Nadia told them.

"Reefer Rick!" Dustin called.

"Dustin," Nadia warned. "Max. Inside voices."

"We're outside," Max pointed out.

Nadia gave her a look. "Okay, secret mission voices so we don't get caught by any number of the things out there out to get us." She pointed at Dustin. "Especially you with that screaming. Don't make me kick your ass."

Dustin looked at Nadia, shutting up quick.

Steve nodded. "Thank you."

"Welcome back, Papa Nadia," Hailey told her.

Nadia tilted her head at Hailey, while Ruby, Hailey, Dustin and Max couldn't help but smirk.

Steve couldn't help a smile.

Robin grinned.

Ruby was walking away from the others, shining her flashlight around, seeing a shed in the back, calling over to the others. "Hey, guys?" The group slowly made its way to the shed. "If they're out here, they probably didn't hear us at the front door."

Robin opened the shed, leading the way inside, staying quiet. "Hello? Is anyone home?"

The others walked in, shining their flashlights around, before turning them off to make sure they were more in secret.

"What a dump," Steve remarked, turning off his flashlight, grabbing a boat oar from nearby, turning to the boat in the middle of the shed, nudging the tarp with the oar.

"What are you doing?" Dustin asked. "What are you doing?"

"One of them might be in here," Steve pointed out.

Hailey gave Steve a look, gesturing to the tarp. "So take the tarp off."

Steve gave Hailey a look in return, gesturing to the tarp. "If you're so brave, you take the tarp off."

"Seriously, Steve?" Hailey asked.

Nadia rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Forgot how much of a scaredy cat you could be, Steve. You'd think you'd be a little bit more braver after learning to fight."

Steve gave her a sarcastic look. "Hilarious."

Nadia smirked, tilting her head sarcastically. "Hmm."

Max stood at the tables, seeing a bunch of empty food wrappers and beer cans. "Hey, look." Ruby walked closer. "Someone was here."

"Maybe they heard us," Ruby told them. "Got spooked and ran."

"Don't worry," Dustin told them sarcastically. "Steve will get them with his oar."

"Scaredy cat," Hailey told him.

Steve looked at Nadia, Hailey and Dustin. "I know you three think you're being funny, but considering everyone in this room has nearly died about a hundred times..." Nadia tilted her head in acknowledgement. Hailey shrugged. Dustin nodded. "Personally, I don't find it funny in the slight--"

Billy, just now returning to the shed, and on edge because of everything that happened, slightly losing it, burst into the shed, not seeing who was there given the darkness and that most of them had turned off their flashlights to stay hidden in the dark.

Eddie burst up from the boat, both him and Billy making the others jump. "Shit!"

Steve swung around with his oar, about to hit Billy. Billy caught the oar and slammed it down, pushing Steve against the wall with a broken beer bottle at his neck.

Steve was trying to calm him down. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!"

Ruby instantly stepped forward. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Billy!"

Max stepped forward. "Billy, stop!"

Billy instantly froze upon hearing Ruby and Max's voice, looking over his shoulder.

Ruby and Max turned their flashlights on to shine around the shed, showing Eddie and Billy who they were.

Eddie, also in fight or flight mode, instantly went to fight, trying to push Nadia back, but Nadia caught Eddie by the shoulders and pushed him against the wall, pinning him.

Dustin walked closer. "Eddie! Eddie!"

Eddie looked toward Dustin, seeing Ruby, still freaking out.

Ruby walked closer slowly to Billy, gently placing a hand on his arm, hoping to calm him down. "It's us."

"Look, there's Ruby, and Max," Dustin told them. "It's Dustin. Eddie, these are our friends. This is my girlfriend, Hailey, the one who never wants to play D&D." Hailey waved. "And you know Robin, from band." Robin imitated a trumpet. "This is Steve, Hailey's brother, and our friend Nadia. Nadia's not gonna hurt you, right, Nadia?"

Nadia let go of Eddie, holding up her hands harmlessly. "Right. Yeah."

Billy started to calm down after seeing all of them, sighing heavily.

"It's okay, Billy," Max told him.

Billy slowly let Steve go and dropped the broken beer bottle, backing away. "Holy shit."

Ruby stepped closer, hand still on his arm, calmingly and in relief. "It's okay. It's okay."

"Are you guys fucking crazy, coming in here like that?" Billy asked.

"That's what makes you call us crazy?" Nadia asked. "What about everything else?"

Billy tilted his head, sighing sarcastically. "Nice to see you too, Nadia."

Nadia waved. "Hiya, Billy."

"When the hell did you get back?" Billy asked.

"Today," Nadia answered.

"What are you doing here?" Eddie asked tensely.

"We're looking for you," Hailey answered.

"We're here to help," Robin told them.

Billy slowly sat down, hanging his head.

Eddie was still tense, looking ready to fight if he had to, but knowing that he didn't have much of a chance.

"Eddie, we're on your side," Dustin told him. "I swear on my mother. Right, guys?"

"Of course," Max answered. "On Dustin's mother."

"Yeah, yeah, we swear," Robin answered. "Dust--Dustin's mother."

"On Dustin's mother," Ruby agreed.

"Yeah, Dustin's mother," Steve agreed.

Nadia shrugged. "Dustin's mother."

"Dustin's mother," Hailey finished.

"Eddie, you are our friend, okay?" Ruby asked. "Mine, Billy and Dustin's at least. We're here to help Billy, and to help you."

Eddie finally started to calm down and trust them, backing away, gazing off at nothing, sliding to the floor.

Billy looked at Ruby and Max. "Jesus Christ..."

Ruby and Max both sat in front of Billy.

"It's okay," Max told him.

Billy noticed how bad Ruby looked even in the dimly lit dark. "Fucking hell, Ruby."

Ruby shook her head. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

Billy scoffed softly at her predictable statement, before glancing at Steve. "Sorry."

Steve nodded. "Well, at least you learned how to apologize. That's something."

Ruby and Max gave Steve a look, while Hailey and Nadia tilted their heads at him.

"Fuck off, Harrington," Billy replied.

Steve nodded, unsurprised by that response. "That's more like you. But apology accepted."

Eddie looked at them all, mostly Hailey, Billy, Ruby and Max since he saw them the night before at the trailer park. "How can all of you be so calm? What the hell happened?"

"We're not sure, exactly," Hailey admitted.

"But we think that we can figure it out," Robin stated.

"We just needed to find you two to make sure that you were safe and knew what was going on," Nadia told them.

Eddie looked at Steve, Nadia, Dustin and Robin. "You won't believe this."

Steve sighed. "Try us."

∰

Trailer Park

Nancy was still looking for her friend. "Fred! Fred!" She walked up to a couple sitting outside. "Excuse me, hi. Excuse me, sorry. Have you seen my friend wandering around? Uh, nerdy, glasses, scar on his face?"

"So, sorry," the man answered.

Nancy turned around, walking away, looking around, walking up to Officer Daniels. "Hey, Officer? Officer?"

"What are you still doing here?" Daniels asked.

"My--my friend from the car earlier, I--I can't find him," Nancy admitted worriedly, getting scared for Fred.

"What do you mean, you can't find him?" Daniels asked.

"He was there and then he was just gone, and..." Nancy trailed off. "Did you maybe see him leave with somebody or..."

Daniels sighed in frustration. "I told you kids to go home. Jesus Christ." He walked away, speaking through his police walkie. "This is Glenn. We might have a situation here."

∰

Road

Fred walked through the woods, drawn to the place of the car crash where he had killed the hit and run victim.

The victim appeared through a fiery orange and bright purple cloud of smoke, which signaled the creation of a Mirage monster, like the one that attacked Dustin in 4.01.

The victim that Fred had wished to be alive again was in fact alive, but more undead than anything, in the form of a zombie that wanted revenge against Fred.

Fred looked at him in shock. "You're..."

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

Nadia, Steve, Hailey, Dustin, Ruby, Billy, Max, Robin and Eddie (otherwise known as the Hawkins group minus Lucas) were all sitting down.

"I don't know how any of this is possible or what happened or why you're all so fucking calm," Eddie admitted.

"'Cause this isn't the first time we had to deal with something like this," Nadia answered.

"Look, what we're about to tell you might a little... difficult to take," Hailey told him.

Eddie nodded slightly. "Okay."

"You know how people say Hawkins is... cursed?" Ruby asked. "They're not... way off."

∰

On the Road

Fred could only look at the zombie version of the victim he killed in shock. "This isn't what I wanted."

The zombie monster grew to be humongous in size, spidery legs growing out of his body and hovering him meters over Fred, ready to go in for the kill.

Fred screamed, turning around, running away as fast as he could.

Dustin: (voice over) "There's another world. A world hidden beneath Hawkins."

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

The Hawkins group sat together.

"Sometimes it bleeds into ours," Nadia explained.

Eddie frowned in confusion. "Like ghosts and shit?"

Max looked down. "There are some things worse than ghosts."

∰

On the Road

The zombie monster followed Fred as fast as it could on its spidery tendril legs.

Fred ran as fast as he could to get away, but the road seemed never ending, always taking him back to the place where he had first killed the kid. "No, no, no."

Fred continued to try and run and escape.

Hailey: (voice over) "These monsters from this other world, we thought they were gone."

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

The Hawkins group sat together.

"But they've come back before," Ruby explained.

"It always comes back," Nadia agreed. "Every time we think that we get rid of them, every time we think it's over. It just always comes back."

Dustin nodded. "And that's what happened last night."

"To both Chrissy and Aaron," Max told them. "And to Dustin and Hailey."

Billy frowned in confusion. "What the hell happened to Hailey and Dustin?"

Nadia, Steve, Hailey, Dustin, Ruby, Max and Robin exchanged a look, prepared to explain.

∰

On the Road

Fred turned around, but didn't see the zombie monster version of the man, backing away along the road.

Suddenly, the spidery tendrils launched out at Fred, wrapping around his wrists and ankles, pulling his legs out from underneath him, making him fall to the ground on his stomach with a yell of pain. More and more tendrils wrapped around Fred, stabbing into him, making him scream as the tendrils were tearing into him piece by piece, lifting Fred up into the air, wrapping a tendril around his throat, strangling him added with all the times that he was using his tendrils to impale him all over his body. Black veins started to creep along Fred's skin all over his body, spreading from his wounds that the tendrils left in his skin and deep inside his wounds.

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

The Hawkins group were sitting together, where Nadia, Steve, Hailey, Dustin, Ruby, Max and Robin had explained everything to Billy and Eddie about what happened with Dustin and Hailey.

Billy was completely frustrated. "So you're telling me that what happened to Chrissy and Aaron, the thing that killed them, isn't the only monster out there this time. And he can create monsters out of Dustin's nightmare and show people their greatest fear like he did with Hailey last night?"

"Yeah," Robin answered. "Yeah, that's basically it."

"But the thing that killed Chrissy was showing her her greatest fear and pain, too," Hailey told them.

"Yeah, and she couldn't move," Eddie told them. "It was like she was under a trance."

"Or under a spell," Dustin told them. "Like I was when the other creature had a hold of me."

"Hailey was like under a spell when she was seeing whatever nightmare that creature from last night showed her when I walked in," Max added.

"But this thing that attacked Dustin wanted him to make a wish," Steve reminded them. "To wish Dark Hailey away before it created the thing that tried to kill him. But both these monsters are using fear and pain."

"Except for when the other one, the snake one, as Hailey said, tried to make Dustin wish for something that would make her happy, to make them both suffer less," Nadia agreed. "Their greatest desire. That's how this one works. By using the greatest fear or greatest desire to kill them. If someone makes a wish and it comes true, it's got to have deadly consequences though."

"Like a trickster genie," Dustin realized. "Like a Marid. But the snake form, the manipulation of other creatures by arousing their doubts and evoking their fears, elevating and crushing their hopes. That's like Yuanti. But he does it all by creating Mirages. Like the Mirage spell."

Billy was annoyed. "What the fuck is he talking about?"

"D&D," Steve answered, somewhat annoyed as well. "He always names the monsters after a monster in that game."

Hailey held a hand toward Dustin to calm him down. "Let's just call him Mirage."

Dustin nodded in agreement. "And the other does things by cursing his victims. Vecna's Curse."

"Who's Vecna?" Ruby asked.

"An undead creature of great power," Dustin answered.

"A spell caster," Eddie told them.

Dustin nodded worriedly. "A dark wizard."

Nadia raised her eyebrows.

∰

On the Road

The zombie monster was not real, but real enough to kill Fred.

Mirage appeared, floating with purple and orange power swirling around his snake form, much to the shock of Fred, who was completely helpless to stop what was coming.

Mirage held out his hands, glowing with power, using that power to wrap around Fred, taking him out of the hold of the monster he had created, but levitating him in the air, making him scream, and started to consume his soul. White soul energy started to leak from Fred's body as his eyes glowed white. The soul energy was floating toward Mirage, so that he could consume the soul energy, only becoming stronger. The energy faded from Fred completely as Mirage consumed his soul whole, leaving Fred's body looking like a hollow, empty corpse.

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

Once Fred's fate was sealed, the sclera of Hailey's eyes turned black, irises glowing red, as her red aura started to appear and glow around her, swirling, more chaotic than it had ever been before, causing Eddie to look at her in shock, while the others were concerned, backing away slightly.

"Hailey?" Max asked worriedly.

"What the hell is happening?" Billy asked.

"This happened last night," Dustin told them. "Get back!"

Hailey, still in a trance and in power form, felt the excruciating death of Fred. She screamed in agony, her aura glowing around her cycling around her like a tornado, her power wanting to burst out of her which she tried to stop, but was failing to keep it in.

Dustin, Nadia and Steve were unable to get close to Hailey because of her power being able to hurt to the touch, with the searing, excruciatingly painful coldness of the power, which left an intense ice burn on anyone who tried to reach out to help her, leaving the skin of the ice burn to become red-yellowish, looking just as bad as any other burn, feeling an intense burning sensation as the skin began to warm up and thaw out.

Nadia knew that her power was about to explode. "Get back, go, go, go!"

Everyone ducked for cover.

Billy, Ruby and Max ducked down next each other, Ruby having an arm around either of them while they ducked down, Billy holding his arm over their heads.

Steve and Nadia ducked down next to each other, both looking at each other in shock and worry for Hailey.

Dustin, Eddie and Robin ducked down nearby each other, covering their heads.

Hailey released a feral scream sounding like a mix of a scream and a screech, head tilted back and arms down at her sides as her aura of red glowing energy exploded out of her, all around, coming from her hands and her chest, tornado-ing all around as it shot outward, sweeping out of the shed and out across town toward its destination.

∰

On the Road

Hailey's red glowing aura lashed out to the specific point of Fred's murder, as the aura ripped at the air all around Fred's death point, before disappearing entirely, leaving Fred's body to fall to the ground, landing on the ground.

∰

Reefer Rick's Place - Shed

Once it was safe for them to come out, everyone stood, looking around in shock.

Steve and Nadia made sure that each other and everyone else was okay.

Billy, Ruby and Max stood, as the three visually saw that none of them got more hurt than before.

Dustin, Eddie and Robin slowly stood.

Dustin ran to Hailey's side, kneeling in front of her. "Hailey?"

"Hailey," Steve said worriedly.

Hailey's eyes slowly returned to normal, as she looked at them all in shock and horror, her nose bleeding heavily from the explosion of power.

"Who was it?" Nadia asked.

"Who else died?" Ruby asked.

Hailey shook her head. "I have no idea. I didn't see anything this time. I just... I felt it. All of it."

They all looked at each other worriedly in concern and shock.

∰

Mirage's Mind Lair (Upside Down-like)

The lair was like an endless, Upside Down-like red and black thunderstorm, with places and sculptures floating in space all around, in pieces. It was dangerous and chaotic, but beautiful in a way.

Mirage returned to his mind lair, smirking at having this kill, and making Hailey feel every moment of it while making her power lash out for what he and Vecna needed it to do. He slithered along the broken, deteriorating pieces and sculptures through the red and black thundering sky, jumping from place to place, to reach the middle of the mind lair, which was like his throne, looking around at his own mind lair, victorious with what he had done just tonight.

∰

The Upside Down

House - Attic

Vecna was in his own lair, but not his mind lair. He was attached to many tendrils going into his back, levitating in the air. He was slowly let down, as the tendrils all slithered away and released themselves from Vecna's body. Vecna stood.

The camera panned outside, revealing what the house looked from the outside, and revealing what looked like the eye of a black and red thunderstorm behind it, as bats were swarming around the house, around the eye of the storm.