C H A P T E R   T H I R T Y - T H R E E  

" THE NIGHTMARE AWAKENING "

author's pre-note : i recommend that before you read this chapter, watch the
chernobyl explosion news report (1986) video above, before reading this chapter to understand my references !

anyways, i hope you enjoy this one ! xoxo

OVER 5200 WORDS !

there's a lot of different time-cuts
where i cut to different scenes a lot, so just keep that in mind ;)

OKAY ENJOY !!

･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆  ･ ｡ﾟ

| D E C E M B E R  26th , 1986 |

H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT the cabin the night of the battles in the upside down, Hopper was ecstatic to be back in his own home.

It was surprisingly clean, and fixed up since the Mind Flayer incident of a few months back before they disappeared. Joyce explained that she heard that Mike had been out here a few times, and it was probably his doing.

He immediately showered and changed into clothes that weren't prison attire and sweat drenched. He even asked Joyce to help him out and take care of Y/N and clean her up best they could with her being unconscious.

It took a lot of convincing, but Joyce finally got the rest of the group to go home so their parents wouldn't be worried, and to get some rest.

It was still Christmas Day, after all.

Joyce wanted to stay and help Hopper while the rest of the gang went home, which meant that Jonathan, Will, and Eleven would have to stay as well.

Mike was especially reluctant to leave.

He promised to be back first thing the next day in case Y/N awoke. But she didn't.

That was a day ago. Y/N hasn't woken up since.

"She's gonna be okay..she'll be alright." Hopper continuously tried to put his nerves at ease as he paced Y/N's room.

"Jim, I still think we should have gone to a hospital.." Joyce glanced over at Y/N's slumbering figure as she laid in her own bed for the first time in months, blankets covering her for added warmth.

Joyce's gaze glanced down to where her bullet wound was, where they had disinfected and tended to the wound as best they could.

She was in some sort of coma, a mild one due to the amounts of blood she lost while her powers battled to heal herself.

"What good would that do? You saw her in that godforsaken dimension, you know what we are." Hopper answered with a shake of his head, his hand pressed against his lips.

Joyce sat in a chair in the corner of Y/N's room that Hopper had placed there for him to stay and make sure Y/N was okay overnight. Hopper hadn't slept much at all since they got back, but he was used to the lack of sleep.

Joyce inhaled irritatedly, trying to get through to him.

"I-I don't know what 'you guys are!' Can you please slow down and explain this to me so I can understand how to help?" Joyce finally burst, tired of his constant reply. She was so confused about everything.

How did Hopper and Y/N acquire these new abilities? What were they that Hopper kept referring to them as? How did Y/N manage to save Joyce's life with the simple power of her own mind?

Joyce kept asking for answers, and she never received any. She was getting frustrated.

Hopper placed his hands to his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He took a glance over at Y/N before returning his hands to cross them stressfully. "Joyce, I just.. I don't even know where to start."

Joyce stood up from the chair, and walked briskly towards Hopper to meet his eyes. She placed her hands on either side of Hopper's face, gently holding him to look at her.

"Just talk to me.."

Hopper turned to take a glance at his daughter who laid still on her bed, his eyes watching her take slow but consistent breaths. He walked over to press his hand to her forehead, his empathic abilities picking up on her state.

It broke his heart to see his little girl like this.

It broke his heart to have to fear for her life like he was right now. It was overwhelmingly emotional.

He turned back to look at Joyce, reaching down to grasp her hand before he led her back to the chair that she was sitting in earlier, having her sit back down.

He continued to walk around his daughter's room in deep thought, contemplating how and what to say to Joyce. As much as he didn't want to tell her about what happened to them in the facility, he knew she deserved answers.

Everyone did. "Call everyone here."

Joyce furrowed her eyebrows, "What?"

"Call the rest of the group here, and I'll explain everything." He finished, walking out of the room to go take a minute outside to himself.

He stepped outside, the cabin's night air was cool and crisp, something Hopper and Y/N were used to by now. He walked along the length of the cabin porch, finally stopped to lean his palms on the railing that looked out to the forest.

He looked up at the sky, seeing the dark and pale moonlight illuminating the stars even better. It was a gorgeous night, something he and Y/N haven't seen much of for the past few months.

He wished his daughter didn't have to go through this.

He wished that Brenner didn't turn them into weapons, and he wished that they didn't have to deal with the consequences of the scientist's actions.

He looked up as he felt his eyes water, his chest hiccuping as he let out a strangled cry.

Hopper was never one to cry, and yet, Y/N's condition lured it right out of him.

He cried as silently as he could of sorrow and frustration underneath the veil of night, his teary cheeks met with the crisp bite of the cold weather.
He wasn't one for prayer either, but he found himself whispering quiet pleads to whatever celestial there was, begging for his daughter to be okay.

Out of all the months of absolute torture that he went through back in the Russian facility, out of all the shitty pain he's gone through in his life, this was the worst pain he's ever felt.

Joyce did as Hopper asked, and called everyone back to the cabin for an explanation the next day. Within the first couple hours of sunrise, the gang arrived one by one to the cabin, eager to hear answers and explanations.

"Everyone here?" Joyce asked as she opened the cabin door to the small group of younger teenagers.
  They had ridden their bikes here, and their parents were very reluctant to let them leave given the state they were returned to them in.

As the kids filed inside, Joyce noticed all their scrapes and cuts on their faces and arms from their battles in the upside down.

"Yeah, I think so." Mike answered for the group, taking a step inside behind everyone else.
  Mike took a glance around the cabin, seeing that everyone was there. They all wanted the same thing : answers.

"Where's Hopper?" He asked, stepping back as Joyce closed the door behind him.

"With Y/N." She replied simply, yet with a tint of sorrow. Mike nodded, Joyce noticing his anxious stance. He obviously wanted to go see her.

"But just stay in here for now, I'll go get him." She gestured told the living room area where everyone else already sat.

She walked past the living room to Y/N's door that was open just the slightest, knocking first as she pushed it open a bit more.
  She stepped in to see Hopper slumped in the chair in the corner, his hands clasped together in front of his lips as he almost dozed off to sleep.

"Jim." She called, her voice steady as she called him to join the rest of them in the living room.

He got up with one last glance at Y/N still in her coma-like state, and followed Joyce out to be met with the gang waiting in his living room.

He stood in front of Y/N's door, taking a few steps forward as everyone's eyes followed him intently. Hopper knew they wanted answers, but he wasn't sure he knew himself.

"I guess you guys want to know why we did what we did and what it was that you saw, right?" He asked dismissively, knowing it was going to be particularly hard to speak about this. "All those weird abilities me and Y/N could do?"

The group nodded, practically on the edge of their seats. Hopper nodded with agreement, resting his hand over his mouth as he sighed.

"You guys remember that Brenner asshole?" He asked, squinting his eyes sarcastically. "The scientist guy that came after El a couple years back?"

El received shivers just by the mention of Brenner's name, shifting uncomfortably in her seat on the couch beside her friends.

Everyone nodded in acknowledgment, except for the older teenagers who weren't there for the early days in which El was first introduced.

"Well, he's alive." Hopper explained simply, causing an uneasy silence to fall over the group. "And he's the one who did this to me and Y/N."

Everyone could tell that talking about this angered Hopper, his jaw clenched and arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.

"I'm not 100% sure how he pulled it off," Hopper shrugged blankly, "But all I know, is that one minute, me and Y/N were fending for ourselves in the upside down, gathering firewood, then the next minute, some of Brenner's Russian minions got a hold of us."

"Then, me and Y/N were separated. I didn't see her for months. During that time, he started doing experiments on me and Y/N, injecting us with blood from those things you guys like to call, 'demogorgons.' It hurt like hell, it was the worst thing I ever felt, and what hurt even more was that I knew Y/N had to have been hurting too, I could just feel it."

Hopper went on to explain every detail of the hell that he and his daughter went through, even though it pained him to relive it.

"He told us that it wasn't a very reliable experiment, all the other experiments he's done like the ones he did on me and Y/N usually ended up with the subject dying. But we didn't. The experiment actually worked."

"Over time, with every injection, our bodies kinda melded with the demogorgon DNA, until pretty soon we shared 50% of our DNA with a creature from the upside down."

This created murmurs throughout the group, a small chain of gasps arose.

"And so I guess with that DNA, came weird side affects, which explain our 'abilities'." Hopper wrapped his explanation, "So to answer your question, that's what we are."

Everyone sat in a silence filled with awe, see Hopper look down at the wooded flooring with angered eyes.
Just speaking about his experiences in the facility made him angry to even think about, and it showed.

"I'm pretty sure what Brenner was doing underground was illegal, so he didn't want anyone knowing he was alive until he was sure he could get what he wanted."

Hopper pushed himself off the wall, walking towards the kitchen. "They're dealing with insane nuclear reactors, which will not end well."

"Whoa.." Dustin muttered, his eyes wide as he stared at the ground with a surprised stricken face. His one word pretty much summed up everyone else's thoughts as well.

Hopper grabbed a glass from his cabinet, and held it under the drinking faucet to fill it up.
He hadn't realized that his hand was shaking until he reached it up to his lips, willing his hand to stop shaking.

He then set the glass down with a frustrated grunt, leaning his palms against the counter as he stared at his glass angrily.
He had been having this shakiness since they returned, and he concluded that it had to have been one of the side affects from the gate being closed.

He walked out of the kitchen to walk through the living room area to then approach Y/N's door, opening it to check on her.
He leaned against the doorframe of her door, thoughts circling his head as he saw his daughter's unconscious form.

Jim noticed he had just been so tired, and felt just weak in general since the gate closed, which would also explain why Y/N's healing ability wasn't working as efficient as it would be if the gate was opened.

They derived all their powers and abilities from the upside down, so to have the link severed, it made things a lot more complicated.

Complicated, because he knew that that wasn't a good thing. He didn't want to say anything to the group about his theories though, because he didn't want them to fear Y/N or Hopper.

They weren't ready to hear that yet.

They weren't ready to know that the reason Hopper and Y/N can do what they can, might be because they are connected to the upside down by their blood.

Hopper was so lost in his own thoughts as he analyzed what his theories meant, that he didn't realize that the younger teenagers were also trying to peer over Hopper's shoulder, trying to make sure Y/N was okay.

Hopper decided to push the door open a bit more, allowing them to be able to see her from afar.
He saw the sympathetic looks on all their faces as they looked sadly at Y/N, now somewhat understanding what's happened to her.

"She's been through hell." Hopper muttered with a shake of his head, more to himself, but the teenagers heard him. 

El looked at her adoptive sister, knowing she must have gone through a lot, maybe even something similar to what El went through.

"Is she like me now?" El asked quietly, her curious voice making Hopper look down to where she stood beside him.

Hopper exhaled deeply, his gaze then returning to Y/N. Not by a long shot, He thought to himself.

"No, she's different.." Hopper sighed, "She's very different."

~

"Jim..?"

Joyce's faint voice called into the dark living room in the middle of the night that only had one lamp on to provide a light source.
The TV was on, the channel was set to the news as she saw a figure sitting on the edge of the couch, leaning over so that his elbows rested against both knees.

Her arms crossed over herself in an attempt to warm herself a bit more, somehow in the midst of all the chaos of the last couple days, she forget that it was in the middle of winter.

She walked out of Hopper's bedroom, in which he had insisted on her taking it instead of him.

He loved Joyce, but he understood that she might still feel a bit new to all these newfound feelings for each other. They might've had a thing in high school, but they were entirely different people now.

He didn't want to rush her or rush into this 'thing' between them, so since the night he returned, Joyce got Hopper's bed for the night, and Hopper willingly slept on the couch.

But that's the thing. He never even slept.

He hasn't been able to sleep at all these past few nights he's been back, and this night was one of them.

Joyce walked past Y/N's open bedroom door, giving Hopper a way to sit in the living room while also keeping an eye on Y/N. She looked to peaceful while she slept.

Joyce then walked past the next room by Y/N's, the next one being El's, while there was only one spare room that Hopper offered to Jonathan and Will to share.
It was a makeshift room, but they appreciated it greatly since they didn't have a home in Hawkins anymore.

"Jim.." Joyce whispered, rounding the couch to see his blank stare into the TV's screen, as if he were watching the news, but she knew he wasn't because he hated the news.

That face was his 'deep in thought' face.

"What are you doing up?" She walked around the coffee table to approached the couch cushion next to him, sitting down to look at him with concern.

At first, Hopper didn't answer. He couldn't seem to come back from his thoughts, until he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder.

What was he doing up? When Joyce's hand made contact with his shoulder, his empathic abilities picked up on her emotions of concern.

When she was met with silence, Joyce was about to drop it, until Hopper spoke up.

"I'm terrified, Joyce." He breathed shakily, his eyes still staring straight ahead of him. "I've never been more scared in my life."

Joyce leaned forward to see Hopper's face a bit before, seeing his eyes wide and serious as he stared ahead of him. "Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't want my daughter to die." He shook his head, pressing his fingers to his lips. "I don't know what's going to happen to us now that the gate is closed."

"I know, Jim. But you did everything you could for now, so the most you can do right now, is just be patient. You said it yourself, she'll pull through."
Joyce's eyes stared at his side profile, confusion now etched into her eyebrows. "What do you mean, you don't know what to do with the gate closed?"

Hopper inhaled stressfully, exhaling with puffed cheeks. He knew what he meant by his statement, but he didn't know if he wanted to disclose it yet.
But as he looked over and met Joyce's eyes, he saw nothing but pure concern and care radiate from hers, making him feel at ease. He felt at home.

"I don't know what we are. I don't even think we're entirely human anymore." Hopper admits, shaking his head as he looks down at his hands.

Joyce furrowed her eyebrows, remembering what Hopper had explained to the group earlier about his DNA makeup.
He was now technically 50% demogorgon, which is concerning, understandably.

"Are you worried?" She asked quietly, as if she were going to wake up the entire house with her heavy statement. "T-That you'll turn, or something?"

Hopper visibly tensed at Joyce's assumption, not knowing if he wanted to answer that. But this was Joyce he was talking to, one of the very people he trusted.

"Honestly.." Hopper inhaled, as if he were about to deliver a difficult truth. "Yeah..yeah I am. There's something..wrong inside us, I can feel it."

Joyce seemed to tense at these words as well, knowing that Hopper must be going through a difficult time again, just as well as Y/N.
She didn't have the slightest clue of what he must be feeling, but the best she could do, is comfort him.

To simply be there for him and Y/N.

She reached to place her fingers atop Hopper's clasped hands, his gaze now turning to look at Joyce's with surprise.
He didn't expect her to be so understanding and calm about this, and yet she was, and for that he was grateful for her.

It made him fall that much more for her.

But as deep as their loving glances were, their gaze was broken upon the breaking news report signal from the TV, their attention turning to the small boxed screen.

"Breaking news, tonight it is clear that the Soviet Union has suffered the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power."

Hopper's attention was peaked at the mention of Russia's Soviet Union, his body practically radiating anger at the mention.

"A day ago, there was an abrupt explosion of an unknown nuclear reactor in an underground facility in Kamchatka, Russia that was previously disclosed to outside knowledge. Thousands of workers and civilians were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation."

Hopper listened intently, his hands pressed to his lips as he took in the information. Could this really be the end? Could it really be over?

"Oh my god.." Joyce shook her head sympathetically, her attention being lured.

"That explosion was so large, that it then put forth a chain reaction to set off the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukraine, miles away.
This has caused dangerous quantities of radiation releasing in waves reaching limits of other cities."

"Holy shit.." He muttered, his theories now confirmed.

This explosion must have been because of Y/N and Hopper activating the reactors to high levels in order to power the gate to open to let them escape. The reactors never powered down.

Brenner's underground facility imploded, his work was forever lost. But that came at a great price.

"What the hell did we do..?" Hopper whispered under his breath, earning a questioning look from Joyce.

~

Shrill screams echoed in Mike's ears, his breath quickening as he found himself placed in the middle of what looked like the upside down.

He was alone, in the middle of a dark forest, and all he could see was a flickering porch light from what he assumed to be a version of the Hopper Cabin.

"Mike."

A voice called out to him, almost pleading for his attention.

"Mike, can you hear me?" The voice called again, weak as if they were scared beyond belief.
Mike immediately recognized the voice anywhere, sending waves of worry through his heart.

"Y/N?" Mike called out confusedly, worried that she was in danger.

"Mike, please.." She whimpered, "I-I can't get out, I don't know what he's done to me, I
need—.."

He looked around frantically, trying to understand what she meant. "Y/N!"

It was then that a shadowy figure cast an even darker shadow on him, making him look up towards the sky to reveal the monster that was the source of Y/N's turmoil.

And with that, her scream followed.

"Mike!"

Mike shot up from his bed in a cold sweat, his breath uneven as he tried to get it under control. He took a slow look around his room, seeing that it was still dark out.

His body shivered at the feeling that came with Y/N's calls for help, not sure if it was pure imagination of his dream, or if it was something more. He turned to look at his alarm clock, seeing that it read 2:38 A.M.

"Shit.." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he tried to get rid of the nightmare's remnants.

He thought for a moment. Was that all it was? Just a simple, vividly descriptive, nightmare?

There's no way.

Y/N has done something like this before, entering his mind to send him a message like she did to tell him she was alive and about to escape. This has to be the same case.

She's trying to communicate with me.. He thought to himself, his eyes widening. She's unconscious, and she needs help.

He replayed her words in his mind, over and over, trying to piece it all together.
He had never seen the mind flayer in person before, so if that was terrifying to even recall for him, he could only imagine the fear Y/N felt.

He knew one thing for certain. He wasn't going to be able to sleep for the rest of the night.

First thing tomorrow morning, he's going to see Y/N.

~

"Mike?"

Joyce opened the door to reveal the young man, his hair seemingly longer when he leaves it out of its unkept bowl-cut.
He looked tired, and to be up bright and early at seven in the morning on a Saturday, it was understandable. 

"Hi, Ms. Byers, I-I'm sorry if I woke you." He looked at her pajamas before he looked down at his hands before he looked up at her again.

"I-I was just hoping I could see her..now."

Joyce smiled weakly, "Sweetheart, she's still not..she's still not awake yet."

Mike nodded, almost dismissively as if she didn't know something that he did. "Please."

It was the same tone of plead he had when Joyce was about to enter through the gate with Murray, the same look of hopeful desperation from that night as well. She sighed, nodding as she opened the door for him.

He stepped in, hearing the door close with a creak behind him.
Joyce walked around him, leading his gaze to follow her, watching as she opened Y/N's door quietly to reveal Hopper slumped and sleeping lightly in the chair in the corner of the room.

"He's been there all night." She explained, knowing what Mike must've questioned.
"I'll get him to sleep in his room—give you guys a minute alone." She referred to Mike and Y/N, making Mike silently thank her.

Mike stepped to the side as Joyce nudged Hopper awake, seeing him jolt up from his seat and looking up at Joyce with hopeful eyes before his eyes landed on Y/N.
Mike saw as Joyce shook her head, as if to say 'no, she's not, not yet.'

She helped Hopper to his feet, his face groggy with lost sleep. She walked him slowly out of Y/N's room, passing Mike who stood just out of the doorway. "Go ahead, I'll be right there."

Mike nodded, but not before he caught Hopper's sleepy glare. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Mike, a tint of anger behind his glare. But Joyce quickly shut that down, and guided him toward's his room.

Mike then turned his attention back to Y/N, her slumbering form laying still on her bed. Her room looked so complete now that she occupied it again.

He took a hesitant step into her room, as if he were going to wake her, before he couldn't help himself, and rushed to her side. He pulled a chair to the side of her bed, sitting down at her side.

He stared at her with a mixture of fear, and pure awe. Her once cut and bruised face that was healing at fast paced was now calm and looked so peaceful, the way her now short hair fell at her sides and her eyelids were closed lightly.

She's so beautiful.

Mike cautiously reached his hand to lightly brush against hers that laid at her side above her blankets, gingerly picking it up to hold in his own hand.
When he found that she didn't reciprocate his motion like he blindly wished that she did, his heart sunk as he allowed it to hit him, that Y/N was truly unconscious.

And yet, he still held hope.

He was about to test out his theory that he thought of last night after his dream, before he jerked suddenly at the touch of a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see a soft smile.

"She's strong.." Joyce smiled small, yet proud as she looked at Y/N. "She's gonna pull through."

Mike smiled with pride as well, knowing his childhood best friend was always a strong person. She was always amazing, and she was always the one he truly ever loved.

"It's early, do you want to come get anything to drink?"Joyce offered, "Coffee? Water?"

Mike looked up at Joyce before he looked back at Y/N, "I don't want to leave, she might, uh.."

Mike trailed off, his voice already shaky as it pained him to admit that she was still unconscious.

Joyce nodded, "It's okay. I'll get it." She offered quietly, understandingly perfectly the connection that Mike and Y/N had. She patted Mike's shoulder reassuringly, before her steps trailed off out of Y/N's room.

Mike leaned closer to Y/N's side of the bed, his hand reaching to hold hers again.
"Come on, Y/N/N.." He smiled at the mention of her childhood nickname he would always call her.

He stared as he admired her, the way her dimples would divot as she smiled, or the way her cheeks blushed when she was embarrassed by Mike knowing she liked chick-flick movies.

He just wished she knew.

That after all this time, he loved her, and he hadn't even realized it. He always loved her.

"You have to wake up. You don't have a choice here, you have to.." Mike whispered, his eyes searching her face. "You gotta wake up."

"I need you, Y/N.." His breath began to shake.

"I mean, who am I gonna complain to about Mr. Harris' algebra class, you know?" He joked through a broken smile, his eyes already feeling themselves water.

"A-And who am I going to get my first job with like we promised doing together? Like we promised to do together?" He asked, sniffling as he recalled them making a promise that their first job would be together, and it didn't matter where.

"Who am I going to call every night?" He searched Y/N's face again through his teary eyes, the tears now spilling over. "And talk about everything we did that day?"

Mike looked down at her hand as he stroked the back of her hand that was held in his.
"You're my first best friend.." His voice held such heavy truth.

"You've always been there for me. You know me so well, sometimes better than I seem to." He chuckled through a smile, sniffling.

"And you loved me..even though I never saw you." He paused for a moment, a single tear slipping down his cheek.
"But, I've always.. He trailed.

"I'm in love with you."

It wasn't more than a second afterward that Mike felt a sudden twitch in his hand, his eyes looking down to see Y/N's fingers beginning to move.

His eyes widened as he looked back up to watch as Y/N's head shifted uncomfortably, as if she were waking up painfully. 

And it was then that Mike felt Y/N's hand subconsciously grip onto his before her eyes shot open.

⋆

Author's Note :

WOW ok wow we finally got some content, & we finally moved on to the next few days of the story! pffftt and also wow, finally some mike & y/n scenes

just so you know, THIS IS MY MAIN PREDICTION FOR SEASON 4, THE CHERNOBYL POWER PLANT IS REAL AND IT ACTUALLY EXPLODED AND THATS THE NEWS REPORT VIDEO ABOVE

SO i think st4 will
definitely have something
to do with that,
AND ITS IN RUSSIA,
WHICH IS WHERE HOPPER IS

an e ways..

WAIT SO JOPPER
IS ADORABLE

SO Y/N's AWAKE??
AND MIKE WENT ALL BABY??

yooo JUST WAIT
UNTIL THEY REUNITE
FOR REALLLL

if you have any questions about what has happened in this chapter , just ask, & I'll answer!

N E X T C H A P T E R :
THEY REUNITE FOR REAL!
(drama tho.. ;)

it's not proofread :3

.

what do you think about all this ??

any theories ? any predictions?

thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!

PUBLISHED
October 5, 2020
at 11:04 PM

5240 words

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