"So, where exactly are we going again?" Steve asked for the umpteenth time as the trio sat in silence in his BMW. He had heard the answer several times but he still couldn't register it. Or didn't want to.

"The Lab," One answered calmly, her eyes glued to the dreary scenery passing by outside the passenger window.

"And why are we going there again?" Steve asked. He was trying to keep a brave face to impress One but his leg that wasn't on the gas pedal was trembling.

"Hopper might be in trouble," Eleven answered next from the back seat and Steve's eyes darted up to the rear-view mirror to catch her concerned gaze.

One turned to look at Steve, who was in the midst of chewing his lower lip like a piece of gum, and rested a hand on his. "Thanks for giving us a ride," she said with a warm smile in an attempt to calm his nerves.

"N-no problem," Steve stammered, returning the smile. He wrapped his fingers around hers and gave her hand a soft squeeze. Their hands remained this way until they reached the Lab.

The three sat silently in their seats after Steve parked the car as they stared up at the ominous building looming before them. Each had their own terrible memories of the place but it seemed to hit One the hardest. She had been there recently before she stayed with the Byers', but seeing it from a distance through a fence and seeing it up close were two different things. It had been a long time since she had been this close to the place that had imprisoned her for almost half her life and a shiver ran through every bone in her body.

Once she took some deep breaths and collected herself, One turned in her seat to face both Steve and Eleven. "I'm going in alone."

"No you're not!" both Steve and Eleven shouted in unison.

"We don't know what's in there," One argued. "Brenner could have gotten out, or maybe something even worse. I don't want to risk losing you two."

"Bullshit!" Eleven yelled, eliciting a look of surprise from both One and Steve. She was getting sick and tired of One's constant need to risk herself. "I'm glad you're my big sister and I know you're just trying to protect me but I'm not a baby. I have powers too and I've used them against Brenner before. I'm not scared and I'm not letting you go alone. He's my dad too!"

Steve looked back and forth between the sisters before speaking. "What she said." Steve paused when he realized that some of it didn't directly apply to him. "Well, minus the whole sister thing...and the powers thing...and the dad thing. So just mostly the bit about not being scared and not letting you go alone. Okay, just the bit about not letting you go alone."

One bit her lip as she tried to think of a response. She knew that she was possibly being a little unfair and a little selfish, but she couldn't help it. Fear was driving her far more than she'd like to admit. It had been since the beginning. But she also knew that there was no way to actually prevent Eleven from coming with. Even if she was somehow able to convince Steve to stay in the car, he wouldn't be able to stop Eleven from following after. It looked like they had won this argument.

"Okay," One said at long last, resting her hand on the door handle. She made eye contact with Eleven and then Steve, giving them both a curt nod. "Let's do this."

☆ ★ ☆

"You're behind all of this, aren't you?" Hopper asked, taking a few cautious steps towards the bars and the person standing on the other side of them. He had to be careful to avoid Brenner, who was still writhing on the floor. "Why?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," James answered with a malicious smile. "You're just a delusional man who went crazy from being trapped in the same cell as his worst enemy. Or at least, that's what I'll tell One."

"If you do anything to her I swear to god," Hopper growled. He moved his hand slowly towards the gun at his hip, careful not to make any sudden moves.

"Don't you worry, my intention is not to harm One," James reassured him before his sly smile returned. "I can't say the same for the rest, however."

In one swift move, Hopper unstrapped his gun from its holster and pointed it straight at James.

The smile on James' face grew even wider as he stared down the barrel of the gun and a low chuckle emerged from his throat. "Did you already forget what I can do?"

Hopper was about to respond when he felt a strange feeling creep up his spine and he watched in horror as his arms swung to point the gun away from James and towards Brenner, who had finally stopped spasming and was lying still on the ground. He tried to fight his twitching finger, which had begun inching towards the trigger.

"No, please, don't!" Dr. Brenner began to beg, his one good eye swelling with tears. Hopper struggled to meet his gaze as the gun shook in his hands.

"Come on, don't you want this?" James asked. "He took your only daughter away from you. Tortured her, abused her. And worst of all? He tried to fill your place. Made her call him papa.  For the longest time she considered him to be her only father."

Part of Hopper yearned to give into James' control and shoot Brenner dead; to watch his blood pool around his body as he watched the life sap out of his only eye. He had wanted to kill Brenner since the second he watched the tape left on his doorstep and discovered that he had faked Sarah's death. It would only be fair, wouldn't it? It would only be right.

"What are you waiting for?" James asked. "This isn't even full power. I'm giving you the option to kill him of your own accord, to get your revenge. Take it!"

Hopper continued to wrestle with what he knew was right and what he wanted. Despite the deep, deep hatred he harbored for Dr. Brenner, he couldn't just kill him cold-blooded and defenseless. What would his daughters think? He had an example to set. He had to do right by them and for them. "No!" Hopper screamed at last, pulling his finger off the trigger.

James' features contorted and he dropped his relaxed stance. "Wrong answer," he seethed.

Bang.

☆ ★ ☆

"What was that?" Steve asked as they stepped through the front doors of the Lab just in time to be met with the echo of a loud bang that reverberated through the building.

"It sounded like a gunshot," One answered with a look of concern. She swept her short blonde hair behind her ear and began to rush towards the source. She knew that Hopper always kept his gun on him, but the question was whether he had been the one to dispense it or whether someone else had.

Eleven and Steve followed on her heels, armed and ready for whatever was ahead. Steve had made sure to grab his spiked bat from the trunk of his car before they entered the Lab. After his last experience, he had learned to keep a weapon close at all times.

One made it halfway down the hallway when an all-too-familiar growl entered her ears. She came skidding to a stop and held out both arms to prevent Eleven and Steve from running any farther as a demodog rounded the corner ahead of them. One's hands lit up bright blue and she was about to lunge when she spotted another demodog in her peripheral vision.

"Um guys?" Steve caught their attention and gestured behind him. Two more demodogs joined their party from behind, encircling them in a ring of claws and teeth.

One, Eleven, and Steve pressed their backs together with their weapons (or in One and Eleven's case, their hands) facing outwards.

The first demodog lunged at One and she zapped it with a bolt of blue electricity, sending it tumbling to the ground in a fit of convulsions. The next one went for Eleven, who sent it flying against the wall so hard that it became momentarily stunned. She wiped away the blood dripping from her nose and looked to Steve, who was fighting off the third one with his bat. The three demodogs that had attacked didn't take long to recuperate from their injuries, however, and the trio was quickly surrounded once more.

Wave after wave of demodog attacks came, and One, Eleven, and Steve were able to fend them off but it was starting to take its toll on them. They were quickly realizing that they were wearing down a lot faster than the demodogs were and it wouldn't be long before they were too tired to prevent the demodogs from turning them into a late night snack.

One suddenly realized that the only way to win this was to send them somewhere else; somewhere where they couldn't hurt anybody else.

"Cover me!" One called to Steve and Eleven as she focused on the ground beneath one of the demodog's feet and pictured the place she hated almost as much as the Lab: the Upside Down. A portal opened beneath the unsuspecting demodog and gravity did the rest, sending it back into the hell it had come from before snapping shut.

One tried to focus on a spot beneath the next demodog but it wouldn't stay still long enough for her to trap it. She instead decided to focus on a water stain on the dull, white wall to her left and felt some relief when a portal opened, although this one had taken a little bit longer.

"Eleven!" One called for Eleven's assistance and Eleven immediately complied. The demodog lunging for Steve was ripped through the air and thrown into the portal seconds before One shut it.

Two down, two to go.

One was nearly caught off guard by the third demodog as it leaped at her from behind, but last second she was able to catch it with a portal behind her back and it disappeared into the black abyss. She had been so preoccupied with the third demodog that she hadn't even noticed the fourth demodog jump on Steve and topple him to the ground until it was too late.

"Steve!" One shouted, running towards the demodog with her hands lit.

Eleven tried to lift the demodog from Steve but her abilities were tapped out and her face was smeared with dried blood. Steve was able to hold the demodog off with his bat, but its snapping teeth grew closer and closer to his neck.

One felt the electricity flare from her fingertips and shoot up her veins into her heart, lighting a fire within her. Right before the demodog could wrap its grotesque mouth around Steve's neck, One leapt and tackled it to the ground. She wrestled with the demodog across the hallway, rolling and tumbling in a ball of blue electricity. The demodog slashed through James' leather jacket and tore at her skin with its teeth and claws but her sheer anger had made her numb.

Steve shot to his feet and tried to help get the demodog off of One but there was no way to get close enough without getting electrocuted by a stray bolt of lightning leaping off of the dueling pair. Eleven tried to channel any last ounce of power within her to help her sister but she couldn't find any energy left and her shout of frustration echoed down the hallway. The two could only watch the person they cared most for fight for her life against the monster.

In her struggle, a thought crossed One's mind that renewed her willpower to fight. In the dark pit of the demodog's maw, One saw herself and Hopper sitting on Joyce's couch as Hopper revealed to her that he was her father. While her life experiences hadn't provided much competition, this was her happiest memory and she was reminded that Hopper was still somewhere in the Lab, possibly injured and in need of help.

One tuned into the memory and let the strong emotion it elicited take over her body. She could feel a powerful surge growing within her chest, and despite the jagged fangs that were only inches from her face and the foul stench clogging her nostrils, it continued to expand until it had reached the tip of every finger and toe. A wave of blue energy exploded from One's body, striking the demodog and sending it flying ten feet in the air until it landed on the ground with a high-pitched shriek that would be its last. The residual effects of One's blast shot down the length of the hallway, nearly hitting Steve and Eleven who had ducked just in time.

After Eleven and Steve had watched the blue light fade once it reached the end of the hallway, they rushed over to One to make sure she was okay. One placed a hand in each of theirs as they hoisted her to her feet. It was then that she realized how much damage the demodog had actually done as blood soaked through her clothes and dripped down her body, but she didn't have time to worry about it yet. She had to get to Hopper.

With the demodogs seemingly out of the way, One raced through the rest of the Lab towards her room with more confidence and determination. The dull cement walls passed by her in a blur, the numerous cracks decorating them blending into their own intricate pictures that One didn't have the time or knowledge to decipher. Instead, she let them point her in the right direction as she followed them towards Hopper.

One, Eleven, and Steve were closing in on the door to One's old room when someone stepped out and brought them to a screeching halt.

"Don't go in there!" James shouted to them, racing to meet them halfway down the hallway.

"James?" One asked with a look of confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"It's your dad," James informed her, his eyes wide and worried. One studied them in an attempt to find answers, but found nothing.

"What about him? Is he okay?" One started towards the room but James stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

James gave a solemn shake of his head before answering, "I was too late to stop him."

"Stop him from what?" One was nearly shouting at this point and her breath was ragged. In reality, what was only mere seconds stretched into minutes as One waited for James to answer.

"Your dad killed Dr. Brenner."

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★