Here's another chapter for you guys. I just thought of ways to start this chapter off a bit different and more slow burning than the others and this is what I came up with. Anyway, I don't know if anyone had caught on to this but I'm thinking this story will be about as long as the actual show, so like eight or nine chapters because we're cutting in close to the ending. 

Enjoy!

Her eyes snapped open, stinging from the bright light shining above her. Squinting, she tried to sit up but something tightened around her wrists and ankles, forcing her to fall back down, her head thumping against the hard pillow. She lifted her head, eyes traveling down to her feet where she found two ropes tied around each of her ankles. Frowning, she brought her gaze up to her hands and wasn't surprised to find the same thing done to her wrists. 

Heart hammering within her chest, she forced herself to stay calm, taking deep and even breaths to calm her nerves, because this was completely normal. With her chest rising up and down slowly with every inhale and exhale, she took a look around her surroundings, becoming more confused with the unfamiliarity of it all. They must have moved her into a different room after she had fallen asleep the night prior. 

Her attention drifted over to the door as the lock clicked, and the doorknob slowly turned before it was pushed open. A tall man with thinning white hair and deep wrinkles drawn over his forehead she recognized as her Papa stepped into the room, followed by two guard, and two other young adults. Much like herself, they were dressed in hospital gowns. They walked further inside, Papa coming to stand at the end of the bed with the two young adults on either side of them, their eyes never leaving hers, and the guards started to untie the ropes around her joints. Once they fell to the floor, she sat up, pulling her legs into herself as her right hand rubbed her left wrist gently where one red angry mark imprinted itself onto her tan skin. 

Papa cleared his throat and she tore her gaze away from the picture and back up to his cold, icy blue eyes, giving him all her attention. He gestured halfheartedly to the young man to his left, introducing, "Eleven, I would like you to meet Seventeen and-" He then gestured to the young woman, who looked to be around her age, to his right. "-Fifteen. Just like you, they acquire special skills. Unlike you, they do not have Telekinesis or Telepathy. Seventeen is able take control of other's minds and teleport wherever he may like. Fifteen is able to time travel people to and from the past or the future." 

Eleven didn't respond, not knowing much vocabulary, but she was very observant, so she scanned them over, taking in Seventeen's muscular frame, tan skin, deep blue eyes, and short golden blonde hair, and Fifteen's long black hair tied into a high ponytail, icy blue eyes, and slim frame. They looked like the people you did not want to mess with. 

"Now that that's taken care of..." Papa trailed off as he stuck his hand into the pocket of his white lab coat, pulling out a folded piece of paper, and handing it over to Eleven. With a bit of hesitation, she grabbed it, unfolded it, and peered down onto a photo of a young teenage boy with dark hair and eyes, lips tugged into a bright smile, dressed in a green cap and gown. Beside him was a girl whom's face she couldn't see. "Do you know of this boy?" 

"No," Eleven answered simply. 

"You've never seen him before?" Papa asked and she shook her head. He nodded thoughtfully and moved around the bed to sit on the edge of it in front of her. "Well, I'm here to tell you that he's a very dangerous individual. Here, let me show you." He stood, striding over to the door, everyone in the room following, including Eleven. 

In the hallway as they walked, Eleven in the middle of everyone, scientists and other doctors gave her curious glances, almost like they didn't know who she was, which she tried to ignore because she'd lived here for her whole life, right? Why would they not know who she was? Or act like they didn't know? Shaking the thought away, Eleven followed Papa into a small, darkened room surrounded with small TV screens. The surveillance room. 

"Come here, Eleven," Papa demanded softly, and she went to stand beside him, barely flinching as he set his large, calloused hand on her shoulder. He pointed at one of the black and white screens. Eyebrows furrowed in mild confusion (why was he making her look at the weird screen thing she doesn't recognize?) but as she looks at the sight playing out. 

There was a group of about ten people, some older than younger, crowding in a hallway that looks oddly familiar but she can't figure out why. They're holding weapons she'd seen Papa's men carrying around the building, some even keeping them hidden inside holsters. Eleven squints at the screen to get a better look and something nagged her at the back of the mind as her eyes pause on a young man, not much older than her, with high cheekbones with freckles splattered across him and his large nose, and his lips are pressed into a thin line as his dark eyes filled with fury look around the narrow space. His black hair is messy and she had the urge to reach through the screen and run her fingers through it until it looked presentable, but she pushed the feeling away because she doesn't know him, right? 

"Who... is that?" Eleven pointed at the man she'd been staring at. 

"That is the boy I've warned you about," Papa told her, setting a hand on her shoulder. 

Eleven frowned. "The picture?"

"Yes, that's right," Papa said. "The boy in the picture. And you must stay away from him at all costs. He is on his way here to take you away from your family. Away from me, your dear Papa. You wouldn't want that would you?" 

Fear coursed through her veins and she shakes her head, feeling even more confused as dark strands of hair brush against her shoulders. Last time she had checked (which wasn't very often) she didn't have any hair. Eleven looks up at Papa. "No." 

"Then do whatever it takes to keep him away from you," Papa said sternly. "Do I make myself clear?" 

"Yes, Papa." 

"Would you like me to send Seventeen to get rid of them?" 

Eleven looked behind her at the boy a couple years younger than her standing beside the doorway, arms crossed against his chest, eyes shining dangerously. She looked back at her Papa and nodded her head slowly. She'll do anything to protect her and her family, even if it meant having Seventeen end those people out in the hallway. 

A crooked smile appears on Papa's face and he waved his hand in Seventeen's direction. 

Seventeen  vanishes. 

------ 3 hours earlier ------

Mike watched from beside Hopper, his arms crossed against his chest, his eyes dulled and bloodshot from crying the day prior from losing his wife due to the force of the Upside Down, yet again, as his friends argue back and forth on how they're going to sneak their younger selves into the police station. 

Earlier that morning when everyone had agreed on meeting at Mike's house, Hopper had mentioned stopping by the station to gather useful supplies before heading back into the supposedly abandoned lab where they had found another entrance to the Upside Down. Now they're all trying to come up with a plan on getting everyone inside without being caught. 

If Mike's being completely honest, he doesn't really care how the hell they're going to get everyone inside without getting caught by Flo or the other officers. All he cares about and wants is to find El and get her back safely. Then they can all figure out a way to get the younger versions of themselves back to their own timeline so everyone can go on living their normal life before everything began to turn upside down. He and El would continue their jobs at Hawkins High School and have weekly get together in their garage with the party and attend cookouts and holidays at their parents', and maybe they'll think about starting a family. But none of that is possible until El is found. 

"How about they go around the back?" Mike suggests tiredly and he tries not to roll his eyes as they all turn to look at him as if he's a ghost that had just appeared out of thin air. Come on, he may have shut down after yesterday (which was expected after losing his wife) but he still has some sense of reality and importance. And if it means figuring out a way to get everyone inside safely so they can continue moving forward on their plan to finding his wife, then he'll provide them with an answer. 

"Good plan, Mike," Hopper says and pats his shoulder, his lips twitching upwards into a hopeful smile before turning back to the younger versions of the party, and starts to give them very complicated directions on how to get to the back of the station. Mike holds back a laugh as they all roll their eyes because they may be from the past, but they all live in the same area and know how to get to the back windows. "Does everyone understand?" he asks anyway. 

"Yes," the kids say, rolling their eyes before heading around the building. 

Lucas comes into stride beside Mike as they make their way to the entrance to the station and claps him on the shoulder and Mike tries for a smile but it comes out more of a grimace. "Now you're being the Mike we know," Lucas tells him proudly with a bright smile before turning away towards Max who's been watching them with raised copper eyebrows. 

His face scrunches up in mild disgust. Not that Mike thinks one of his best friends is disgusting, not at all, but the fact that he expects Mike to act as if nothing had ever happened is what disgusts him. He'd lost his wife and he doesn't know if he'll ever be able to see her again, and he doesn't think he'll be able to move on, so doesn't he deserve to grieve? Can't he have one day of his life where he doesn't have to meet up to everyone's expectations? Why can't someone else take the reins of being the leader of the group for once? Why can't Mike just have a break? 

He blinks the unshed tears away and follows Hopper inside the station, waving to Flo and ignoring her question on where Jane is because he honestly doesn't know, and he just doesn't feel like answering any questions about her right now. Mike stares blankly at the floor in front of him as Hopper explains they're just grabbing a couple things he'd forgotten and needs help carrying out and Flo lets them pass. 

Mike feels as though he's been hit by a bus when he steps into Hopper's office. There's multiple pictures in frames sitting atop his desks and a few hanging along the walls. Some are of Joyce, others of Will and Jonathan, but most of them have El's smiling face and his heart clenches so painfully within his chest that he gasps. There's one photo in particular that catches his eye and it's one of him and El at their wedding a few years back. They're wrapped in each other's arms, smiling so bright that it's almost blinding, and only then does he notice Hopper in the background, giving Mike a not-so-kind hand gesture behind his back as a joke and he lets out a watery laugh. 

Across the room, Hopper gives him a sympathetic look but Mike averts his gaze away because as much as he's hurting right now, he doesn't want the pity. He doesn't want to play the role of leader right now but he also doesn't want to be looked down upon. His heart might be ripped out of his chest at the moment but his mind is still running a thousand miles per minute, thinking of ways to find El and to bring her back to him and their family safely. 

There's a knock on the back window and Mike snaps his head up, anxious for what or who they're going to find but his shoulders relax when he remembers its only the past versions of them waiting to be let inside. He watches as Hopper opens the window and explains that they're going to hand them things and they're going to run it back to the cars quickly. 

Mike sits back, staring at a picture of only El from when they were only teenagers. She looks so young and innocent and happy, her inner demons locked away from the world for the moment of the picture being taken. His friends and father-in-law bustle around him, grabbing papers that might help and the weapons they can find, and not one of them calls out for him to help and he doesn't really know if he's relieved or upset. Maybe a mix of both. 

"-done," Hopper announces. "Mike, we're done." 

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Mike mutters, blinking himself out of the daze he's been in for the past ten minutes and Dustin plops a box of useless papers that can be thrown out into his arms, telling him to go along with it. Confused, he grips the box tightly as he follows Hopper and the rest of the party back into the main part of the building, forcing a goodbye smile at Flo, again ignoring her tell Jane I say hi, and exits the building. 

Almost immediately after leaving he's setting the box down on the sidewalk and taking a deep breath as he leans forward, hands on his knees. Mike closes his eyes and continues to keep his breathing under control. His friends are asking if he's alright but they all sound as though they're all underwater and he can hardly hear it over the ringing of his ears. His knees start to wobble and he slides to the ground before his body has the chance to fall over from the lack of oxygen its receiving. 

He doesn't really know what it is that caused the panic attack to pop out at him, though he takes a wild guess that it was all the pictures of her in the office. Its random but he knows attacks are almost always random and they can almost never be predicted. Sometimes you can feel them coming on and have time to calm yourself down before they can get bad, but this is not one of those times. Mike's had anxiety issues in the passed, ever since the demogorgon's first appearance in their world and he's always been able to calm down with the help of El's soothing voice whispering in his ear. 

"Mike?" he hears Will ask but it sounds so far away and he can't respond. 

Settling up against the wall of the building, Mike curls his nimble fingers into his dark locks and closes his eyes because everything has blurred into colored blobs and the world is spinning so fast and all he can hear are El's laughs and soft voice, and it's all too overwhelming. There's a hand on his shoulder and he knows it's just his best friend but he flinches away anyway because he doesn't want anyone touching him in this state. 

Suddenly Hopper's in front of him, his booming voice telling him to snap out of it and Mike just shakes his head because he can't and nothing feels real right now. How are people from the past surrounding him? How is the lab suddenly under work against after years and years of it being abandoned and shut down? How has the Upside Down reopened and managed to take El away from him for the second time? Nothing makes sense and nothing seems real and this all has to be a bad dream, right? Right? El is really sleeping next to him peacefully and they're going to go out for breakfast at a cute little cafe he used to work at during high school before heading off to work and then they'll have lunch together in his classroom and once work ends they'll go home and cook dinner together before settling on the couch and watching a movie before bed. 

But when he opens his eyes and his vision becomes clear, Mike is brought into reality and it hits him that nothing had been a dream and everything is really happening. Their past selves are really here. The lab is actually opened. The Upside Down is up and running again. And El is really gone and there's nothing he can do about it. 

"Mike?" Hopper asks again, softer. "Come on, kid. Don't shut down on us now." 

"Don't shut down?" Mike growls and shakily gets to his feet, settling a hand against the wall as he sways a bit due to the lack of oxygen and it takes another deep breath. His hands clench into fists and his gaze fixes in a glare. "Shut down? What? You all expect me to be the leader and- and have the inkling of an idea of what we're supposed to do? I lost my wife yesterday and I'm still supposed to meet up to your expectations? When can I just have a break?" 

Hopper frowns. "Mike, we've been over this. We're on our way to the lab right now and we're going to find her. We are going to find her. You have to repeat that through your head whenever you feel doubt creeping up on you. We will find her." 

"Okay," Mike whispers and nods. "Okay." 

"Good. Now let's go find her," Hopper says and leads him back to the car. 

------

A nervous lump forms in Mike's throat as he sees the lab that had haunted so many of his dreams as a teenager and young adult. The lab that had caused all his PTSD. But also the lab that had brought him and El together. The large looks lifeless and bland, and Mike is still having a hard time accepting that El very well might be trapped inside there again, and just the thought of it makes him want to kill anyone who lays a hand on her. 

Hopper pulls the car alongside the woods that surround the building, parking where they've been parking for the passed couple days, and Mike swallows the now formed lump in his throat as the doors unlock. He steps out into the early summer air that sends goosebumps across his pale skin and he follows Hopper around the car to the trunk where their weapons lay. 

The cars of their other friends follow close behind and soon they're all crowded around the trunk of Hopper's chief of police car, and accept the weapon they're given from the man himself. He hands Mike a pistol and he twists it in his hands a couple times, wondering why it feels so right in his grip. He hasn't had much experience with guns but having Nancy as your sister and the chief of police as your father-in-law, there's a few free lessons you can sneak into your schedule. 

"Alright, listen in," Hopper demands. "Here's the plan: we're going to sneak in the same exact way as we've been doing for the passed couple days. When we get inside, we're not going to explore the first floor. Before we left the last time, I noticed an elevator that hadn't been there before. We're taking it to each and every floor in that building, but instead of going up, we're going to go down. Understood?" 

There's a chorus of yeses, yes sirs, and nods. 

"Great. Let's go," Hopper says and starts towards the lab. 

-------

Holding onto the pistol so tight his knuckles turn white, Mike takes a long and deep breath to try and calm his nerves as he follows Hopper and the party into the large building known as Hawkins Laboratory. Upon entering, the first thing he notices is that it seems darker than usual, but maybe that's just him because no one else seems phased by it. Dust particles swarm in the air and his younger self sneezes, causing older Mike to roll his eyes. 

Hopper leads the way, going through twists and turns until he pauses in front of a large elevator and Mike realizes that he'd seen this before they'd left as well. Suddenly a burst of anger envelopes Mike. The bad men had taken her away from her family, then the Upside Down had taken her away from him, and now the bad men had managed to rebound and take her away into their world of torture once again. 

He's about to press the button with an upwards arrow engraved in it when someone clears their throat behind the group. Usually Mike is pretty good at telling people apart from their voices, even if it's a simple clearing of throats, but this voice is completely unrecognizable. Mike spins around, along with everyone else, and comes face to face with a tall, muscular, man around the same age as him. His tan skin and bright blond hair seem to glow in the darkness and Mike suddenly wants to punch his lights out because he bets this guy has something to do with El's disappearance. 

"I'm Seventeen," he introduces. "Eleven sent me." 

Mike growls lowly and surges forward but Hopper holds him back, but that doesn't stop him from fighting against his father-in-law's hold. The guy- Seventeen watches him with amusement flashing in his electrocuting blue eyes and it just makes Mike want to throttle him even more than he already does. 

"Eleven saw your group through the surveillance footage," Seventeen explains. "She sent me to take care of all of you because she feels threatened by your presence." 

Mike stops fighting and glares. "She'd never." 

Seventeen gives a cruel smile. "I guess she just never felt that strongly for you. Maybe the relationship had made her feel trapped, so now that she's free... she wants someone to end you." His gaze flickers between all of them. "All of you." 

The elevator doors start to open and Hopper pushes Mike backwards. "GO! We'll cover you!" 

At first, Mike has no idea what he's talking about and is left in a confused stump as everyone crowds around Seventeen who just smirks, but then he turns around and finds the doors wide open. His eyes widen and he slips into the elevators right before the doors slide close, and he lets out a breath he hand't known he'd been holding and leans against the wall of the small, confined space. 

"Didn't think I'd let you go that easily, huh?" Seventeen asks after appearing out of thin air. 

Teleportation, Mike thinks, of course. 

"Today is really not my day, is it?" Mike asks sarcastically, completely forgetting about the gun in his hand. Hey, just because he's been given a couple lessons doesn't mean he's too keen on using one. One slip up and everyone can end up on the floor dead. 

"Nope," Seventeen answers before throwing a punch in Mike'd direction, but fortunately, he ducks. 

Mike clenches his teeth, curls his fingers into his palms, and throws a punch back at Seventeen who claims to have been sent by El. All he sees is read and blood pounds in his ears because this guy standing in front of him has something to do with why El is gone. He's been the vice she'd been hearing all along, luring her into the Upside Down. And anyone who lays a hand on her won't get out of anything unharmed, Mike swears by it. Surprisingly, his fist connects with Seventeen's cheek and they're both shocked. 

Seventeen growls and easily shoves Mike into the wall, knocking him out cold. He chuckles, brushing his hands against each other before he teleports back into the surveillance room where Eleven and Brenner are watching the TVs. 

"It's done," he announces and Brenner gives him a crooked smile. 

"Gone?" Eleven asks quietly. 

"Gone," Seventeen lies. 

Eleven glances down, confused on the feelings swirling inside of her. Shouldn't she feel happy that this threat she'd been told about is gone? Gone for good. Shouldn't she be glad that she's no longer in terrible danger? But as Seventeen continues on how about this boy, Mike, wouldn't be coming back to hard her, and her mind fell back to the picture Papa had shown her. 

She did feel threatened. 

But why did she have a feeling she's known Mike? And why does she feel as though this Mike guy isn't really gone and will stop and nothing to get his hands on her? 

-----

Whew, finished the chapter after months! It's been half written for so long and I finally got the chance to finish it! If I'm being honest, I don't know when I'll update next but I do promise on finishing the story :)