Insects chirped loudly outside of Hawkins Lab.  Drowning out the screams and yells coming from the interrogation rooms occupied by Hopper, Joyce, and Gloria.  Joyce sat at the chair, handcuffed from behind as she calls out to anyone to listen.  Demanding them to let her go.

"Let me out of here! Somebody, please!" She yells and grunts at the painful tightness of the metal cuffs as they basically cut into her skin, "Let me out!" She grits her teeth in anger as she looks around the small black room.  Only thing you could see was the light above, the black walls, two-way mirror and the table and chair. 

Soon, the doors unlock and when the door opens, Joyce looks up and sees who walks in.  Dr. Brenner!  Familiarity covers her face as she sends him an angry glare.  Her breaths come in and out heavily as she feels her rage rise.  She finally meets the man who took her child away from her.  Who kidnapped that poor girl and her sister.  

Dr. Brenner sighs as he sits down in front of her, giving her a gentle look, " Your son. We know you've been in contact with him." He states. 

Stammering, Joyce could barely get a word out, her anger was making it hard for her to even talk, "You have to let me—"

"When...and how did you make contact with him?" Dr. Brenner asks. 

Joyce gives him a confused look, "What?"

"Hmm?" Dr. Brenner waits for her to talk, but she practically seethed at him, "Six." He suddenly says. 

She frowns at him, "What?"

"Six. Six people have been taken this week. This... thing that took your son..."  His voice drops to a softer, gentle tone as he tries to sooth her into his voice. "...we don't really understand it. But its behavior is predictable. Like all animals...it eats. It will take more sons. More daughters. I want to save them. I want to save your son. But I can't do that. Not without your help." He gently begs her. 

She scoffs at him, "Stop. I know who you are. I know what you've done. You took my boy away from me! You left him in that place to die! You faked his death! We had a funeral. We buried him." Her voice cracks, "And now you're asking for my help? Go to hell." She says. 

Gloria sighs as she sits calmly at her chair, knowing that the bastards were watching her, she looks up and sees the security camera pointed at her.  She lifts her cuffed hands and flip the camera off.  

Soon, the door opens and in comes Dr. Brenner.  Oh, she was waiting for this so much.  Dr. Brenner sighs heavily as he sits in front of her. 

"Dr. Gloria Stein, born May 5, 1928 in Poland, Germany.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was when the great Hitler took over the empire.  Lost your parents in the concentration camps at age 9, then came to America at age 10.  Married to Richard Stein till his untimely death in the 'Nam war.  No children.  Then, you became a doctor for this town.  Like you, that's all we want to do.  To help these people.  But, in order to help, we need to know..." 

"Oh, give me a break." Gloria scoffs, cutting him off.  "I know everything you've been doing in here.  What you did to those poor kids.  To Will.  You had the chance to save him, but what did you do?  Hmm?  Covered it up and planted a fake body for his poor mother to see." She leans in closer, "I don't care what you do to me.  You've seen my file, you know I've been to hell and back.  Whatever you do won't compare to what they did to me.  Want my help?" She scoffs.  She balls up her fists together, intertwining them and slams them into his face, making him fall back against the ground and clutches his nose. 

Dr. Brenner's men storm into the room and grabs a hold of her arms as he gets to his feet, wiping away the little blood from his nose.  

"Do your worst, chicken shit." She snarls at him.  

Dr. Brenner couldn't help but grin at this woman's fire.  He could see fear and yet, bravery in her eyes, but she wasn't going to go down without a fight.  He could see that.  

Meanwhile, as Brenner was trying to break Joyce and Gloria, Hopper was being tortured in his room.  One guy tasers him over and over as the woman agent watches.  Hopper groans in pain as he's tasered again.  Sliding down against the wall as he pants in exhaustion.  

"Okay, now what do you know?" The woman asks. 

"I'm sorry. Did I stutter? I told you. Everything." Hopper says as he glares at her.

The man moves and hits him again with the taser.  Hopper winces and groans as the electrical shocks jolt through his body.  

"What do you know?" The woman asks again as the man stops. 

Hopper pants, "I know you do experiments on kidnapped little kids, whose parents' brains you've turned to mush.  Killing parents by making it look like an accident. And I know you went a little too far this time and you messed up in a big way. I mean, you really messed up, didn't you? Big time. That's why you're trying to cover your tracks. You killed Benny Hammond, you faked Will Byers' death. You made it look like that little girl just ran away. See, I told you. I know everything." He says. 

The woman sighs, no use to hiding it, "All right, who are you working with?" The man demands. 

"Nobody. But I did give all this over to my friend at the Times. He's gonna blow this thing wide open." Hopper baits and chuckles.  

The man hits him again with the taser, making Hopper groan as drool sprays and drips from his mouth.  It was becoming unbearable.  Two men come in and grabs his arms to force him to stand and sit as the woman prepares a syringe loaded with some sort of drug. 

"You're just a junkie. A small town cop who had a really bad week. Took one too many pills this time." The man scoffs at him. 

The woman holds up the needle, "You made a mistake coming back here." She says.

"No, I didn't. Here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna let me, Gloria Stein, and Joyce Byers go...you're gonna give us anything we need, and we're gonna find her son. And then we're gonna forget that any of this ever happened." Hopper states. 

The man scoffs, "Oh, is that right?"

"Yeah. That's right." Hopper says strongly.  He begins to make them an offer they couldn't refuse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jace rotates his neck, making it crack as he groans in exhaustion.  He was worried and stressed out.  For everyone.  He sighs when looks down and sees Fi snuggling against his arm.  He pulls it out of her grip to wrap it around her. Letting her rest against his chest.  When he looks over to the kids, he could see they were agitated and Eleven was exhausted still.  But slowly getting better.  

Mike was starting to notice something.  It was way too quiet and they were short on two people.  He gets up, startling Eleven when she was resting against his shoulder and moves to head out the door.

"Hey, Mike, be careful." Jace warns.  

Mike opens the door and looks around the parking lot.  

"Nancy? Jonathan?" He calls out.  He frowns when he notices that Jonathan's car was gone.  He rushes back inside to alert the party. 

"They're gone." He says.

"What?" 

"Nancy and Jonathan. His car's gone." Mike says. 

Jace frowns and gently lets go over Fi, "Stay here." He gets to his feet and walks towards the door, peeking out.  His frown deepens as he walks back in the gym.  "He's right.  Damn it, Johnathan." He mutters and walks back over to them. 

"They're probably just sucking face somewhere." Dustin suggests. 

Lucas scrunches up his face in disgust, "Gross."

"No. No way!" Mike argues. 

"Did they go with the chief?" Lucas asks. 

"I don't know." Mike shrugs. 

Before Jace could speak, Eleven's voice is heard, "No."

Mike frowns, "What? Did you see them? Do you know where they went?" He asks. 

"Yes." She says. 

"Where? Where did they go?" He asks. 

Fear covers her face as she's hesitant to answer, "Demogorgon."

Mike frowns, but soon realizes what she means.  Nancy and Jonathan have left to deal with the monster themselves.  Jace shares a worried look with Fi as he watches Dustin and Lucas' eyes widen.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After being told about Hopper's offer.  He walks into the room and offers Hopper a cigarette.  Hopper gladly takes it and sighs in bliss when he takes in that first puff.  

"Where are the girls?" Brenner asks. 

Exhaling sharply, Hopper wanted to kick himself for doing this, but he needed to do it.  He had a feeling the girls can take care of themselves, but everyone else...Will was the main priority right now.  He needed to get into Upside Down and save him.  

"You gotta give me your word." Hopper says. 

Dr. Brenner grins, "Nobody's ever gonna find out about this." 

"And those other three kids, those boys, you're gonna leave them alone. Then I'll tell you. Tell you where your little science experiments are." Hopper glares at him. 

Dr. Brenner reaches into his pocket and places a envelope on the table, sliding it towards Hopper. 

Hopper hesitantly reaches and takes it, opening it to find a check and a letter.  All written out for Jace to be accepted into college. 

"As I understand it, your nephew, Jason...has been wanting to go to college for some time.  Unfortunately, it'll be years before he can get in due to the constant bills drowning him and his family.  Tell me where the girls are and he'll go in with everything paid for.  College, debt, throughout his whole life, it'll all be set." Brenner offers. 

Hopper sighs deeply as he looks over the check and the acceptance letter to John Hopkins.  This was what Jace wanted and he wanted to make sure Jace gets everything he needed to start his life.  

Joyce grunts in pain as she continues to yank at the cuffs, but gasps when the door opens again.  Expecting Dr. Brenner, she was shocked to see it was Hopper.  She frowns in confusion and sees Gloria walk in with a worried look. 

One of the soldiers walk in and moves to uncuff Joyce, "I don't understand." She frowns and walks out with Hopper. 

"We came to an agreement." He says as the three of them walk down the hallway. 

"What?" Joyce was confused. 

"Look, everything that's happened here and everything that's gonna happen, we don't talk about. You want Will back? This place had nothing to do with it. That's the deal.  You got it?" He states as he looks at them both. 

Gloria sighs as she frowns at him, "We can't just hand those girls over to this bastard." She protests. 

Hopper continues to have a mad face, mainly at himself for giving up, but what can he do?  What can a mere small town sheriff do against a whole government agency?  He felt powerless and that pissed him off, but a part of him knew those girls will do everything to fight them.  While he was inside, the girls can have Brenner.  

The soldiers lead the three into a room that carried biohazard suits with oxygen tanks and masks.

"What is this?" Joyce asks. 

"Protection. The atmosphere is toxic." One man says. 

Joyce's eyes widen in fear, "But my son's in there. He..." She stutters, fearing the worst. 

"Put it on." Hopper says as he grabs one for himself.  

The three of them dress and prepare to go into the Upside Down.  

Meanwhile, Brenner and his best agent, Connie, were discussing privately in another room.  Connie strongly protests that they shouldn't let Hopper and the women live.  

"I'm telling you, this is a mistake." She states. 

"It's gone. Isn't that what you wanted?" Dr. Brenner says. 

"And if they find the boy?"

"That's not gonna happen." Brenner grins knowingly.  

Together, Hopper, Joyce, and Gloria walk into the lab, seeing how much worse it has become.  The walls were covered in pulsing vines as the fracture is shown before them.  Gloria swallows a lump, pushing away her fear.  They could hear the same low growling coming from the fracture.  

"Come on." Hopper says as he grips on to his gun.  The three of them were given guns to protect themselves.  But the Soldiers and scientists all knew that the guns won't do anything to help them.   

One by one, they all slowly walk through the fracture.  Joyce gasps as she's finally through and sees the horrible sight before her.  She was in the lab, but it was darker.  Colder.  Ash floated and fell all around her. The vines were worse.  It confused her, but she remembered what Will told her.  Like home.  Dark and cold.  She was in Upside Down.  

Together, they walked out of the lab, seeing how it was all the same around them, but so different.  Joyce begins to breathe heavily.  She was so anxious and scared.  She just wanted to find Will.  

"Hey, you all right?" Hopper's voice echoes in her helmet. 

"Yeah."

Gloria moves to stand next to her, holding on to her arm as she helps Joyce walk, "Breathe, Joyce.  Just calm your breathing." She tries to sooth her.  

"She's right. I need you to relax, okay? I want you to slow down your breathing, take deep breaths. In and out. Deep breath in...and out. In and out. In and out." Hopper says as he begins to think about the time when he told Sarah the same thing.  Before all this, before he lost her.  When she was a normal child. 

He remembers her beautiful blond hair flying around in their pig tails as she runs from him when he chased her around the park, pretending to be a troll while she was a princess.  

"It's troll's favorite food!" Hopper's voice echoes from the past as he catches his daughter, holding her in his arms as he growls playfully, pretending to eat her.  Her giggles echo and blend in with is growls. "Princess!" He growls as he buries his face against her belly, tickling her.

"No, Daddy! No, Daddy!"  Sarah giggles and laughs. 

"Roasted princess with paprika and gravy!" Hopper growls and makes yummy noises. 

"No! No, Daddy. No, Daddy." Sarah giggles, but suddenly, Sarah's smile drops.

Hopper continues to growl, but stops when he sees Sarah's scared face.  Her breathing suddenly becomes heavy, as if she couldn't breathe. 

"Whoa, hey! Hey."  He carefully sets her down to her feet, Sarah was struggling to breathe.  "You all right?"

But, Sarah couldn't answer, all she do was breath heavily continuously. 

Hopper's ex wife was with them that day, she moves to watch her daughter cautiously, worried what could be wrong with her, she kneels next to her and Hopper, "What's going on?"

"Whoa."

"What happened? What happened?"

"I don't know. I don't know.  Hey, you all right? Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Relax, relax. Honey, honey." Hopper says as he tries to calm Sarah, but Sarah continues to pant and breathe heavily.  He needed to get her breathing in order.  

"Honey, just breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe. In and out. Slow, slow, slow." Hopper says. 

Finally, Sarah's breathing returns normal.  Hopper and his wife both sigh in relief but continue to help her breathe normally.

"In and out with me.  In..." Hopper's voice fades into the past and turns back to tend to Joyce as her breathing becomes normal.  

"You okay?" He asks. 

Joyce nods, "Yeah. Yeah." She sighs.  

"We'll find him.  He's out here.  We'll find him." Gloria whispers. 

While they were inside, the bad men and Brenner all begin to load up and arm themselves as they head for their vans and cars.  To head towards the school to get Eleven and Five.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Johnathan and Nancy managed to get their stuff back from the station and head towards his house.  Remembering what his mom said about the lights, that was the only way they could see it coming.  They grab everything out the box and begin to set the traps.  Nancy hammers the bear trap in the hallway and Jonathan arms it.  While she loaded up the gun, Jonathan uses the large nails and spikes the baseball bat.  He pours gasoline and makes a trail of it from the trap to Will's door.  Using a yo-yo, he sets it up as an alarm.  Once they reach the room and yo-yo moves, he lights up.  

Once the house was ready and the traps were set, it was time to lay out the bait.  Jonathan grabs two knives from the kitchen.  One for himself and one for Nancy.  They both stood face to face with the knives in their hands.  Going over the plan once more. 

"Remember...Straight into Will's room. And—" He says.

"Don't step on the trap. Wait for the yo-yo to move." Nancy finishes.

"Then..." Jonathan flicks his lighter on then shuts it.  He sighs deeply, "All right. You ready?"  He asks as they get grip the knives.

"Ready." Nancy shudders.

They both hold the knives over the palm of their hands, getting ready to cut themselves, "On three. One...two..." Johnathan watches Nancy's face light up with fear.  "You don't have to do this--" He stutters out. 

"Jonathan, stop talking."

"I'm just saying, you don't have to—"

"Three." Nancy cuts him off and closes her eyes as she slices her palm while he does the same.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jace begins to load up his gun and cocks it, "Jonathan better know what he's doing." He mutters to himself.  He turns to see Fi watching him, "Hey, can you sense their waves?" He asks. 

Fi frowns and looks towards the door, "The waves lead out in that direction.  Far from here." She says. 

Jace grits his teeth, "Can't believe this.  We can't go out there to find them.  It'll put us at risk." 

"Guys, guys! This is crazy. We can't just wait around." Mike says suddenly as he paces the floor. 

"Mike, in case you forgot, we're still fugitives. The bad men are still looking for us." Dustin states. 

"Yeah, and we don't even know where your sister is." Lucas says. 

"El can find them." Mike suggests.

"Mike, look at her. I still think we should stick to the chief's plan." Dustin says as he gestures at Eleven's weak form.  

"He's right.  We have to stay here.  If we leave, then we're putting the girls in danger, along with ourselves.  We can't risk it." Jace says. 

"Exactly. We stay here, keep El and Fi out of sight and keep them safe. That's the most important thing, remember? Besides, she's okay. She's with Jonathan." Lucas says.

"Yeah, and she's kind of a badass now, so..." Dustin chuckles and gets up to head off. 

"Well, where are you going? You just said stick to the plan!" Mike exclaims as he watches Dustin head towards the door, confused with why he was leaving. 

"I am. I'm just gonna go get some chocolate pudding. I'm telling you, Lunch Lady Phyllis hoards that shit." Dustin says.

Mike scoffs, "Are you serious?"

"El needs to be recharged!" Dustin says as he reaches the door to walk towards the other side of the school to the cafeteria.  

Mike and Lucas look at each other in disbelief while Jace rubs his tired face.  Eleven gets up and walks towards Fi as they move to follow Dustin.  

As the made it to the other side of the school, Fi slowly helps Eleven sit down at one of the tables with Mike as Dustin and Lucas took off to search the kitchen.  Jace and Fi stood at the door that divided the kitchen and cafeteria.  Fi watches Eleven talk with Mike from afar and sighs softly.  

"Hey." Jace reaches and takes her hand in comfort, "You okay?" He asks gently.  

"I was just thinking...after being in the bad place for so long, I never knew there was another world outside the walls.  It's always been something I've believed in.  For sister.  To have a better life than being a weapon." Fi says as she looks up at Jace.  "But can we have this life?  Will it be over?" She asks, meaning all the running and suffering they experienced together. 

Jace sighs, "I believe it will be.  And when it is, you can stay with me till you can have your own life.  With your sister.  Do anything you want to do."

"Can I always stay with you?" She asks. 

Startled by her question, Jace stutters, "Well...um...if you want.  I mean, um...you and Eleven can always stay with me as long as you want." 

"Like a family?" She asks, curiously. 

"Well, uh...something like a family.  Once this is over, I would like to take you out." He says, blushing at his declaration.  

"'Take me out'?" She asks, confused. 

"On...on a date." He stutters. 

"What is a 'date'?" She asks. 

"Well...um...when...a...a guy likes a girl, he takes her out on a date.  To dinner.  A movie.  Just spend time with her and get to know her...and...maybe even kiss her." He stammers.  

She frowns in curiosity, "What is 'kiss'?" She remembers that word from the books she read from his library, but never knew what it meant. 

Jace licks his lips, "Well, kiss is...um...it's..." He sighs.  "Screw it." He mutters and cups her face and leans down to press his lips against hers.  

Fi's eyes widen in shock as she feels something she never felt before.  Something deep inside that made her feel so warm and...her heart was beating so fast.  Her eyes slowly close as she falls against the kiss.  Jace's lips move gently over hers.  This was the best kiss he ever had in his life.  It was literally a shocking experience as he feels tiny shocks moving over his lips.  Faint, but not strong.  He slowly breaks the kiss and moves back to look down at her.  She slowly opens her eyes and looks up at him with wide eyes.  

"That's a kiss." He whispers. 

Fi's cheeks heat up and turn red.  She never been kissed before.  This was her first time.  And she liked it.  She slowly smiles up at him and he returns one as he leans to kiss her once more.