Jenna slowly woke up to her head throbbing and the lights buzzing above. Looking up, she squinted and let out a groan as the pain intensified. Confusion came upon her, unsure how long she had been out. When she managed to tolerate the pain long enough to turn her head and take a glance around the room, she saw that she was completely alone, in which the thought of where the others were at began to terrify her and she didn't know what to do.

Her heart started to beat at a faster pace, trying to think of a way to get the hell out of here and find the rest of the group. Jenna squirmed around her spot on the bench against the wall, attempting to pull her arms out from behind her, only to realize they were tied together and she wasn't able to move them.

"Fuck!" she shouted in frustration, hitting the back of her head on the wall and wincing at the sting. "Ow."

All of a sudden, a keycard clicked and the door opened up, where an older Russian officer--one that was higher up based on his hat and the number of badges and stripes on his uniform--walked in the room. He had a mixture of exhaustion and annoyance plastered on his face as he stood in front of Jenna, staring at her before speaking.

"My men think you will be easy to break," he said in his Russian accent, chuckling a little. "I guess we are about to find out."

Jenna kept her lips pressed together in a tight form, resisting the urge to spit out a rebuttal.

A smug look then came across his lips. "It didn't take long for your friends to squeal like little pigs."

Her blood was starting to boil as the anger rose inside her, clenching her fists and feeling the nails dig in her skin. "What did you do to them?"

He let out a chuckle in response. He then leaned down to Jenna's level, his smirk slowly fading. "Who do you work for?"

Jenna grew even more irritated when the officer ignored her question, and she didn't open her mouth to answer his. She felt her hands starting to shake, keeping her fists closed tightly and her nails going deeper into the palm of her hands.

With each passing second, he became impatient the longer he stared at Jenna. "Who do you work for?" he asked again in a more displeased tone.

She refused to answer again, only shooting daggers at the man, holding it together so that she didn't crack under pressure.

"Who do you work for?" he inquired once more, his voice now very demanding and his expression hard.

"No one," she finally answered.

The officer didn't look too convinced by her answer and kept going. "How did you get down here?"

"The elevator," she replied.

"What were you doing there?"

Jenna took a moment to come up with a believable story. "I was helping my friends get a new shipment of ice cream," she said, hoping he would fall for the lie, as it made sense with Steve and Robin's sailor uniforms, even though they were the only two wearing them.

The man let out a scoff. "You Americans and your ice cream," he commented.

"What, don't believe me?" Jenna retorted.

He chuckled again, shaking his head. "I have heard the ice cream story three times."

Shit. So the others used that story, too. At least they were consistent.

There was another pause as the Russian's smile was getting tight. "One more time. Who do you work for?"

Before Jenna could repeat her answer, tortured screams were heard, sounding like it was coming from down the hall. Her eyes almost went wide when she was able to instantly recognize Steve's voice, and she thought her heart was going to drop as his cries were getting louder. She started to mentally push herself in an attempt to get her powers to rush through her body, but physically, she just didn't have the strength, and the officer was beginning to find it amusing.

"Perhaps my men were right about you," he stated, standing back up straight like before. "You are just as weak."

Jenna was already trying to swallow the lump in her throat and hold back the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. Don't let this asshole break you, she thought.

All of a sudden, a couple of soldiers entered the room, where they waited for the head officer in front of Jenna to turn around and give them permission to speak. After words in Russian were exchanged, they looked back at Jenna, then the two soldiers pulled her up by the arms and dragged her out of the room and down the hall, causing her to grunt in pain from her injuries. Instead of fighting back, she inhaled a sharp breath and endured the tight grip the soldiers had on her, knowing the one soldier who interrogated her was not too far behind them. The soldiers took her to another room, which was similar to the last one she was in, only it looked like she was in a doctor's office based on the medical reclining chair in one corner and a few small tables in the other three corners. Without any warning, Jenna was thrown to the ground with a thud, and she cried out in pain. Next, she could hear the door opening again, followed by a girl's voice that Jenna immediately knew.

"Get your hands off me!" Carlie shouted, letting out a scream as she fell on the floor, a small gasp then escaping her lips when she saw who was next to her. "Jenna?"

"Fancy seeing you here," she mumbled in a light-hearted tone, trying to make a joke after noticing Carlie's face being red and wet from the crying she appeared to have done.

Before Carlie could respond, the soldiers grabbed the girls and placed them in chairs so that they were facing in opposite directions. One of the Russians then took a webbing strap and wrapped it around the girls' chests and arms, making sure it was tight enough that it left no room for them to try and break free.

"Where are our other friends?" Carlie asked, sounding almost desperate. "Where are they?!"

The officer walked around to look at her, then let out a snicker. "They are seeing the doctor."

When the other soldiers started cackling at his words, Jenna was concerned as to what exactly he meant, but she had a feeling that it was far from anything good.

"But do not worry. He is coming to see you girls next." The officer's malice tone was enough to confirm Jenna's worries about this doctor's intentions.

"What did you do to our friends?" Carlie inquired, her voice cracking.

This time, the officer didn't answer as he made his way back to the other side of the room and to the main door, opening it and leading the other soldiers out before shutting it behind him.

"Hey!" Carlie yelled, squirming around in her chair. "Let us out, you assholes!"

"I don't think calling them names is gonna help our case," Jenna pointed out.

"Well, we gotta figure something out," she said, sniffling. "Especially if Dustin and Erica's plan of getting help falls through."

"Wait, the Russians didn't get them?" Jenna asked.

"No, we held the door long enough for the kids to escape."

Jenna let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God." She didn't want to imagine what would've happened if the two of them ended up being held captive and interrogated by the Russians.

"Speaking of which, was that what you tried to do before? Hold off the Russians so that we could get out?"

Jenna pressed her lips together, hesitant to answer the question, as she knew where the conversation would eventually lead to. "I was trying to give you guys a chance to escape," she finally said.

"And what made you think that was a good idea?"

She couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Carlie scoffed in response. "I didn't think I'd be held prisoner in an underground Russian base with one of the biggest bitches of Hawkins High, but here we are."

The words hit Jenna a bit harder than expected, especially coming from Carlie, who came across as not having a mean bone in her body. "Look, I know I haven't exactly been the nicest to you--"

"That's putting it lightly."

Jenna did her best to hold back her snappy rebuttal at the rude interruption as she continued on. "But I'm not the same person I was back in high school."

"So why have you been so mean to me these last few days?" Carlie asked, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Because..." Jenna trailed off for a moment, almost finding it embarrassing to admit the reason to her, but she went ahead and spoke again. "Seeing you look at Steve from across the food court and being all buddy-buddy with him just made me sort of...jealous." She paused again and took a breath before finishing her confession. "It just looked like you were doing all that because you were into him."

There was a moment of silence as Jenna waited for Carlie to reply. She was wondering what was going through her mind right now. Would she laugh in Jenna's face for making such an assumption? Would she get defensive? Jenna was already starting to get anxious over Carlie's reaction.

"You thought I was into Steve?" Carlie finally inquired, breaking the silence, sounding genuinely surprised at what was just admitted to her.

Jenna furrowed her brows in confusion, even though Carlie couldn't see her, and the anxious feeling was suddenly gone. "Wait, you don't have a thing for him?"

"Hell no," she replied. "I mean, Steve's been fun to hang around since we started working at the food court, but I wasn't doing all of that for him."

"So who was it for?" Jenna asked.

"Well..."

Once Jenna was given time to think about it, the realization finally hit and her eyes went wide. "Oh."

"'Oh,' is right," Carlie muttered.

"So...all of that was for Robin."

"Yeah."

Jenna nodded her head, clearing her throat before things got too awkward. "Do you think she feels the same way?"

Carlie shrugged her shoulders, which rubbed against Jenna's body. "I don't know. We've been so focused on cracking the Russian code that I haven't noticed any signs." She paused and let out a shaky breath before continuing on. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone else, especially her."

"I won't," Jenna assured her. She was starting to feel stupid at how wrong she was about what she saw between the two of them for the last few days at the mall, despite all of the signs being so obvious. Except looking back on it, she now understood that what she interpreted as romantic was simply platonic and nothing more.

Carlie then snorted with "I can't believe you thought I had a crush on Steve Harrington."

Jenna rolled her eyes in a playful manner and chuckled with her. "It looked a lot like flirting from my point of view, okay?"

"Whatever you say." Carlie was silent for a moment as she stopped laughing, then spoke up once more. "What's the deal with you two, anyway? We all noticed how tense it got back in the elevator."

The smile on Jenna's lips faded, her stomach stirring while thinking of the words to her explanation. "We ended things off on a bad note before I left Hawkins last year."

"Oh, shit," Carlie mumbled. "I didn't know you two were a thing."

"It wasn't like that," Jenna clarified. "Well, it almost was, but I fucked everything up."

"By breaking his heart?"

"Yeah." Jenna huffed a sigh, the tears slowly coming back and the familiar ache deep in her chest. "And I also broke mine, too."

Carlie stayed quiet for a moment, then cleared her throat to respond. "Damn. I could tell you were kind of a sore topic for Steve, but I didn't realize why it was so touchy."

Jenna furiously blinked to try and get rid of the tears before they could fall down her face, though she was unsuccessful. "The worst part is, I'm gonna have to do it again after this is all over."

"What?" she asked in shock. "Why are you leaving Hawkins again?"

"Are you really asking me that given the situation we're in right now?"

"Right, good point." Carlie stalled her talking for a moment, then kept going. "But if we can get the Russians out of Hawkins--"

"It's not just the Russians," Jenna cut her off.

"What do you mean?" Carlie then let out a small gasp. "Wait, are you referring to that big...what did you guys call it? The Gate?"

"Yeah." Jenna wasn't sure if telling Carlie all of this was a good idea, but since she already started saying something, she figured finishing it was the only way for everything to all make sense to her. "We closed it last year, and now the Russians want to open it back up for some reason."

"'Last year?' You dealt with this before?"

"Unfortunately." Jenna paused, letting out a sigh. "And there were some monsters involved, too."

"'Monsters?'"

"And one of them took Will Byers the night he went missing."

Carlie began to laugh in a nervous manner, almost in disbelief at what she was hearing. "Is there anything else I missed in the last two years?"

"Well, actually--"

Before Jenna could answer the question, the alarm from before rang out, leaving the girls puzzled as to what was going on that set them off. But the answer suddenly burst through the door in the form of two familiar kids, one of which was holding a stun gun in his hand.

"Dustin!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Dustin?" Carlie spoke up.

"And Erica!" the little girl chimed in from the door.

The two ran inside the room to untie the girls, in which they were free in a matter of seconds. Jenna had never been so relieved to be able to feel her hands again, moving them in a circular motion while massaging her wrists.

"Those Commies sure did a number on you two," Erica commented.

"No shit," Jenna mumbled.

"Where's Steve and Robin?" Dustin asked frantically.

"I think I heard them down the hall before I was brought here," Carlie stated.

Dustin nodded his head and motioned the girls to follow him out. "It's a start. Come on!"

So the four ran out of the room and were heading down the hall when three soldiers with guns at the opposite end, stopping in their tracks as the men started running their way.

"Jenna, now would be a good time to get those powers of yours going!" Dustin shouted.

"Did you just say, 'powers?'" Carlie inquired.

"As in, superpowers?" Erica added.

Here we go.

Jenna huffed a sigh and put her hands out in front of her, where the heat rushed through her body with ease, then began to intensify at the palm of her hands, watching as the soldiers dropped their guns and cried out in pain while clutching their heads and slowly falling to the floor.

Weak, my ass, she thought.

"Are they dead?" Erica questioned.

"No, they're just passed out from their body temperatures rising so high," Dustin explained.

"Hold on, you did that?" Carlie asked in surprise as she pointed at Jenna, clearly flabbergasted at what she just witnessed.

"I take back what I said about you being a nerd," Erica said. "You're a straight up freak."

Jenna rolled her eyes. "We can talk about it later. Let's just find Steve and Robin and get the hell out of here."

The four continued on with no more obstacles in their way, passing by doors that only led to empty rooms. It wasn't until they got to the last door that they knew Steve and Robin were in there.

"Okay, here's the plan," Jenna started, looking at the others. "On the count of three, one of you will open the door--"

But before Jenna could finish her sentence, Dustin pushed the door open, yelling as he turned on the stun gun and ran after a man wearing a white coat and apron, jamming it in the middle of his chest and shocking him until he was out cold on the floor.

"That works, too," Jenna stated, walking in to see Robin and Steve tied up the same way she was with Carlie. Her mouth dropped at the sight of Steve's face all bloody and bruised. "Holy shit, Steve..."

"Jenna!" he exclaimed, his smile going big once he locked eyes with her, not paying attention to the concerned look on her face. "My best friend is here!"

"Are you guys okay?" Carlie asked with concern as she began to untie Robin.

"We're great!" Robin replied in a cheery tone, turning her head to look down at the man on the floor. "And you totally kicked that doctor's ass, Henderson!"

"Heeeey, Henderson!" Steve greeted him. "That's crazy, I was just talking about you."

"Get ready to run," the curly-haired boy told him in a firm voice.

"Ooooh, where are we going?" Robin questioned with curiosity.

"Far away from here," Carlie mumbled, helping her out of the chair.

"Like, in a galaxy far, far away?" Steve asked, adding a light chuckle at the end.

"Something like that," Dustin said, ignoring the Star Wars reference as he finished untying Steve from the chair. "Let's go!"

As they spun around to leave the room, two soldiers came through the door, only having enough time to raise their weapons before Jenna used her powers to heat up the guns and made the guards drop them. Then, without any warning, Carlie intervened by swinging a small metal tray at a soldier's temple and knocking him unconscious, followed by Dustin using the stun gun again on the other soldier, resulting in him collapsing at their feet.

"Oh my God, you have superpowers, Howard?!" Robin's mouth was wide open, looking over at Steve behind her. "Steve, your best friend has superpowers!"

"Told you she was a badass!"

Jenna felt her heart racing, though she wasn't sure if it was from the adrenaline or Steve's compliment. Either way, she had no time to think about it as she led the others into the hall, turning to find Steve and Robin stumbling out of the room.

"What the hell is wrong with them?" Carlie asked.

"We don't have time to worry about it," Dustin said. "We need to get out of here now!"

~~~~~~~

A/N: Another chapter!

I have been very excited to write more of Jenna and Carlie, especially this chapter in particular. What do we think of a friendship with them forming? What about Robin and Carlie as a couple?

What did we think of the chapter overall? Ngl, I wasn't too sure about how to end this chapter, so hopefully it's okay.

Comment, vote, we're almost at the end of season 3!

-A