A/N: Again, so sorry for the late update. I'm v busy and kinda out of sorts. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: mentions of death, murder and torture

Word Count: 4174

     There was no telling just when the elevator would cease its plummeting. The four within surely had no idea, so all they could do until they met their end was to scream.

     And scream, they did.

     Frantically looking around at each other, Steve, Erica, Robin and Dustin screamed at the top of their lungs. Their stomachs had never stopped flipping since the elevator first dropped, and they wouldn't be surprised if one of them hurled their guts up soon.

     "Shit! Shit!" Dustin screeched and flung himself over to the control panel, haphazardly smashing any and all buttons.

     "We're going down!" Steve screamed. "We're going down!"

     "Yeah, no shit, Harrington!" Robin screamed back, still finding the time to be sarcastic.

     "Why don't these buttons work?!" Dustin shrieked. Angrily, Erica forced herself forward and to his side, trying out his exact same method.

     "Press the button!"

     "What do you think I'm doing?!"

     "Come on, press something!" Steve waved his hands about. "Press the button!"

     And just like that, the elevator stopped with a very harsh jerk, sending Steve and Robin to the ground as well as some of the boxes.

     "Oh! My groin." Steve groaned from under one of the fallen boxes. "It fell on my groin. Dustin! Get this off of me!"

     Ever the best friend, Dustin crouched down and lifted the heavy box off of his friend, dropping it back onto the table. "Is everyone okay?" Robin asked from the ground.

     "Yeah, I'm great, now that I know that Russians can't design elevators!" Steve raged, shoving Dustin aside to get to the panel.

     "I think we've clearly established that those buttons don't work." Robin stood.

     "They're buttons. They have to do something."

     "Yeah, if we had a keycard."

     "A what?"

     "It's an electronic lock." She strode to his side and motioned to the lock beside the panel. "Same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate, meaning-"

     "We're stuck in here." Dustin finished.

     "Yeah."

     Erica was the next to speak, her voice rising in irritation. "Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me. But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow and my mom finds out you three are responsible, she's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit. Your. Throat."

     "I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party!" Steve fumed. "Your mom's not gonna be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"

     He received a hard glare from the young girl before Dustin caught everyone's attention. "Hey." He pointed above them. "What if we climbed out?"

     With little conversation, Steve hoisted Dustin out of the square opening in the ceiling of the elevator, following him up afterwards. Their grunts echoed around them as they found their footing. Dustin craned his neck upwards, letting out a sharp exhale at the hundreds of feet of nothing above them. Steve followed his tired stare.

     "What were you saying about climbing?"

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     Jonathan was rudely brought out of his slumber by the ringing of the house phone. He tiredly groaned and lifted his head. Surely by now his mom or brother would've answered it, meaning they must not have been home. But he would be damned if he had to drag himself out of bed for a call that most likely wouldn't even interest him. He glanced over at his alarm clock.

     5:48. He definitely wasn't getting up.

     Flopping back down, he covered his head with his pillow. "God, shut up!" He irritably grumbled. The phone let one last ring out before it went silent. Finally, he was left to sleep the rest of the morning without interruption.

     That was, until the phone started up its ringing again. Jonathan let out a loud and aggravated groan before springing out of bed and marching to the phone, angrily ripping it off the wall. "Hello?" He hardly hid his anger.

     "Jonathan?" Nancy's voice sounded on the other end.

     "Do you realize what time it is?" He frowned.

     "Listen to me, okay?"

     "It's six a.m. and, uh, I had a late night with Fagin and the gang, so, uh-"

     "I'm at the hospital with Driscoll."

     "What?"

     "She's been sedated for a few hours and the doctors are still running tests."

     He shook his head with a scoff. "Nancy, please, tell me you're joking."

     "It's not a joke. And, yes, I know I'm insane and irrational and out of touch, but can you save your lecture, because I really don't give a shit right now. I just..." She went quiet for a second, presumably to regain her composure in a public setting before calmly continuing. "I need you to put me on the phone with your brother."

     "...What?"

     "Jonathan... Please."

     "Uh..." He took a glance down the hall. "He's not even here."

     "Where is he? Is he safe?!"

     "Why wouldn't he be safe...?" When there was no answer, panic began to rise in Jonathan. "Nancy? Why wouldn't he be safe?"

     At the Wheeler residence, the Party was gathered in the basement, intently watching Eleven, who sat on the couch with a bandana tied over her eyes. Beside her, Doc was lying down, resting her heavy and bruised eyes.

     The swelling from the night before had gone down quickly, but the slight discoloration was still there. She had assured everyone that she was fine, but she failed to mention that the use of El's powers still had an effect on her. There was nothing she could do about that, though, so she kept that to herself.

     "I found him." El announced after a long while of television static filling the air.

     "Where is he?" Max asked, referring to Hopper.

     "Woods."

     "The woods?" Lucas frowned.

     "He's with... Will's mom."

     Said boy leaned forward with a start. "My- My mom?"

     "What are they doing?" Max narrowed her eyes.

     "Ill... annoy." El answered with uncertainty. "They're going to Ill-annoy."

     There were a few knocks on the door up the stairs before Karen's muffled voice called through it. "Mike, (Y/N)! Breakfast!"

     "Not now, Mom!" The Wheeler siblings shouted in unison before Mike turned forward again. "Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?"

     El removed the bandana from her eyes and shrugged. "I-Ill-annoy." She stammered. Letting out a long sigh, Doc opened her eyes and carefully sat up.

     "I'm going to the bathroom." She motioned to the other two girls. "Wanna come?"

     They agreed without a second thought and followed her across the room to the bathroom, ignoring the boys' confused stares. Doc closed the door behind her and grabbed her first aid kit off the sink, sitting upon the toilet lid and opening it. In front of her, Max wet a washcloth and began cleaning the blood dribbling from El's nose, the superpowered girl staring at herself in the mirror.

     With El's neck craned up, Max could see the ring around her throat. She worriedly stared as El ran her fingers along it. "Does it hurt?"

     "Only when I talk." El rasped.

     "Well, it's a good thing you're not Mike, then." Max rolled her eyes. "'Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'. And you'd be in constant pain."

     The two chuckled, Doc surprisingly joining in. "You're so mean, Mayfield."

     "But I'm right."

     "Yeah, yeah," She stood from the toilet and walked up to her friends, standing between them with cotton balls and a cream. "Can you guys check my head for me?"

     As Doc bent her head down, El moved her hair at the back of her head out of the way as Max checked the wound. They had discovered that when she was thrown against the wall, it had left a small gash at the back of her head. They managed to stop the bleeding, but Doc was serious about checking it as much as possible.

     Once Max got a clear view of the wound, she frowned at seeing that the gash had minimized itself to a small cut within the last eight hours. It was a bit red, but that was the only thing that seemed to be a concern. "Uh... Doc?"

     "Yeah?"

     "You're, like... healed."

     "I'm what?"

     El leaned forward to get a look. "It's almost gone."

     "What? Already?" Doc straightened and felt the back of her head, not even wincing when her fingers grazed the small wound. "No way..."

     "You think it has something to do with your powers being back?"

     At Max's question, she froze. She hadn't thought of that before. She hadn't considered that her powers might not just be back, but back stronger than ever. The rushing of her blood felt stronger than it had before and the feel of her power coursing through her blood was thrilling, something she hadn't felt before. It felt new, it felt right.

     "What do you feel?" El asked. "With your powers back?"

     Doc gently smiled at her. "You." She suddenly teared up, causing El to do the same. "I feel you again."

     El's smile widened as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to her side, Doc pulling Max into the hug with them. The three quietly giggled as they leaned against each other.

     Outside the bathroom, Mike was pacing the basement. "Something's not right. I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

     Lucas shrugged, a box of cereal in his hand. "What does it matter? The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

     "Up to us to do what, exactly?"

     "Find Billy and stop him."

     "Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El and Doc could find him again, and that's a pretty big 'if', then what?"

     "We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

     "Okay, then what?"

     "Then we win."

     Mike blinked. "No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. Doc risked her life to get the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer."

     "How in the hell do we do that?" Lucas shrugged.

     "I don't know."

     "Maybe Doc knows," Will spoke up, the two looking over at him. "She has a connection to the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer. When Billy was activated, that was when her powers came back. That has to mean something."

     A beat of silence followed as Mike turned to the still closed door of the bathroom. "What are they still doing in there?" He whispered.

     "I don't know," Lucas spoke through cereal, standing to Mike's right as Will stood to his left. "Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

     "Why?" Mike pushed away the cereal offered to him.

     "I mean, I don't know."

     "They're conspiring against me."

     Will whipped his head over to him. "That's what you're concerned about right now?"

     "It's not my main concern. It's just a sub-concern."

     "I thought it was already over?"

     "It's not over, okay? We're just taking a break."

     "Don't tell me what a break is. I'm on a break. She said she dumped your ass. That doesn't sound like a break."

     Their conversation stopped abruptly at Max's voice.

     "It wasn't! You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

     Mike turned to Will with raised brows. "Conspiring," He whispered, Will sucking at his teeth and shaking his head. "I told you, they're conspiring."

     There was a sharp knock at the door.

     "Not now, Mom!"

     Nancy's voice sounded. "Mike, open the door."

     Furrowing his brows, Mike hurried up the stairs and ripped the door open, revealing a distressed Nancy and Jonathan.

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     "Code red, I repeat, code red. Does anyone copy? This is a code red, I repeat, a code red."

     Dustin currently paced the top of the elevator he had climbed onto, desperately speaking into his walkie. "This is a code red, I repeat, a code red. Does anyone copy? We are innocent children and we are trapped under Starcourt Mall. The Red Army has infiltrated Hawkins, and if we are found, they will torture and kill us."

     "Hey." Steve popped up from the hole in the floor. "Gotta take it easy on that thing, okay? You're gonna drain the battery."

     "The mall just opened."

     "So?"

     "So, someone could be in range."

     "What do you think, Petey the Mall Cop is gonna rappel down here and save the day?"

     Dustin furrowed his brows at his friend as he climbed to meet him on top of the elevator. "Alright, why are you such a cranky pants after getting to spend the night with Robin?" He whispered, receiving a harsh whisper from Steve.

     "Shh! Jesus Christ. Will you just give up on your creepy dream already?"

     "I heard you guys talking all night."

     "Yeah, we were trying to figure out a way to open up the door while you children were sleeping," He carefully stepped around until he was standing in a corner. "After eight hours, we're still exactly nowhere, which is, you know, probably just a little bit of the reason why I'm feeling just... a tad cranky."

     Dustin frowned at the sound of a zipper. "What are you doing?"

     Steve looked over his shoulder with wide eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking a leak. Look away. Look away!"

     At the sound of a liquid hitting a surface, Robin tore her eyes away from the control panel and towards the sound, scoffing at the sight of urine hitting the wall across the room. "Can you redirect your stream, please?" She called out. When the stream stopped for a second and then moved to the left a little, she let out a sound of disgust. She was just about to return to the panel when she heard the continuous loud clang of metal against metal. Whirling her head back around, she saw Erica hitting one of the vials of green ooze against a shelf.

     "Hey, hey! Be careful, careful, careful!" She rushed up to the girl and snatched it from her. "We don't even know what that is."

     "Exactly. It could be useful."

     "Useful how?"

     A false smile plastered itself onto Erica's face. "We can survive down here a long time without food, but if the human body doesn't get water, it will die."

     Robin raised her brows and held up the vial. "I hate to break it to you, but this is not water."

     "No, but it's a liquid, and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink."

     Robin scoffed again as her shoulders sagged tiredly. She was just about to respond to Erica when she heard the sound of whirring on the other side of the barrier. She rushed over to it and pressed her ear to it, listening closely. Her eyes widened when she realized the sound was nearing them. Without a second to waste, she popped up out of the square hole.

     "We've got company."

     Dustin and Steve shared a wide-eyed look before they all burst into action. Robin and Erica were hoisted up on top of the elevator and the hole was covered back up, everyone peering into the room from the light panel below them. They heard a beep before watching the barrier slowly rise to reveal two guards. The men waited for the barrier to be completely out of the way to walk inside. The first guard picked up a box, but the second stopped in his tracks and said something in Russian. Steve's heart dropped as he silently prayed for them to leave promptly.

     Thankfully, whatever the second guard brought up was dismissed by the first and they continued their transport of boxes. Steve looked up at the three, silently pressing an index finger to his lips as he tried to think of a quick plan. Erica noticed how his gaze froze in her direction. Her eyes fell to the ooze in her hands before she looked up, finding his eyes glued to that and not to her.

     The barrier began to close once again and the four waited until the cart the guards rode on was nearly out of sight before Steve's hand shot out, placing the vial of ooze in the way before the barrier could meet the ground.

     "Let's go!"

     He caught Erica's backpack that dropped to him and slid it between the gap just before she dropped down as well. "Go." He urged as she wiggled between the gap. "Go, go, go, go, go."

     "I'm going!" She sassed as Dustin dropped down.

     "Henderson. Go, go."

     Dustin dropped to the floor and rolled out of the elevator. Robin dropped down after him and wiggled between the gap. This just left Steve. Grunting, he scooted his way out of the elevator, watching the force of the barrier crack the vial. He felt the barrier hit his back before he yanked himself out, the vial cracking just a second later. The barrier slammed closed and the ooze splattered to the ground, emitting a sizzling sound.

     "Jesus Christ." Steve scrambled to his feet as well as everyone else, the four grouping to get a good look at the ooze that had burned several holes into the ground. Robin turned her head to Erica with a smirk.

     "You still wanna drink that?"

     Erica gave her a look as Dustin straightened, turning around to be met with a tunnel that seemed to never end, illuminated by a blue light. He realized that the tunnel was their only way out.

     "Holy mother of god."

     The three turned around to see what he was looking at, visibly deflating at the thought of walking the very long pathway. "Well... hope you guys are in good shape." Steve walked past them, gently patting Dustin's chest as he went. "Looking at you, roast beef."

     At his word, the other three followed him down the start of the tunnel. Dustin, offended by Steve's words, looked to Robin. "Why me?" He whispered.

     In the Wheeler basement, Nancy and Jonathan stood before the Party, the former explaining the events that unfolded for her the night before. "It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year. And look at this," She flipped over a paper from Doris's file that contained a list of numbers. "Look at the body temperatures."

     They all leaned forward to get a look, all of the temperatures ranging between ninety-five and ninety-six degrees. Will shared a look with Doc before looking up at Nancy. "He likes it cold."

     "Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-"

     "Mrs Driscoll." Nancy cut off her brother.

     "Right, yeah, Mrs Driscoll. What time was this attack?"

     "Last night."

     "Right, but what time last night?"

     "Around nine."

     Jonathan frowned at his girlfriend. "You waited all night to call?"

     "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."

     Will narrowed his eyes at his brother. "You weren't there?"

     Jonathan threw up his hands. "Well, I'm here now, aren't I?"

     Nancy scoffed with an eyeroll. "Hallelujah!"

     Lucas winced, vocalizing everyone's feelings. Slightly embarrassed by her outburst, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Um, so, wha- what time was your... sauna test?"

     "Around nine." The kids answered in unison.

     "Well, that proves it." She widened her eyes. "That proves my theory!"

     "She's flayed," Mike agreed. "Just like Billy."

     "Flayed?" Jonathan questioned.

     "The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him."

     Doc nodded. "I saw it." She spoke up, earning everyone's confused attention. "When I used my power on Billy yesterday. I saw... what happened to him. It was so similar to how The Mind Flayer took over Will. It... inserts itself into its victims. It was horrible."

     "Wait," Nancy shook her head. "(Y/N), your powers are back?"

     "Yeah, they came back during the test. I think it's all connected somehow. And I... think I can heal myself now."

     Everyone but El and Max gawked. "You can what?"

     "But that's not important right now." She waved her hands. "What's important is that, yes, Billy and Mrs Driscoll are flayed and they're connected."

     Lucas looked up thoughtfully. "Well, if there are two flayed-"

     "We have to assume there are more." Will finished his thought.

     El inhaled shakily. "Heather." She slowly sat up as a terrified look gleamed in her eyes. "Billy was doing something to her."

     In the distance knelt Billy on the ground beside someone, the person who was whimpering in fear.

     "She was scared... She was screaming."

     Blood-curdling screams sounded from the person on the ground before the both of them vanished.

     "Bad screams."

     Lucas's face scrunched up. "What's a good scream?"

     "Max said-"

     "Doesn't matter." Max and Doc interrupted hastily.

     "I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy rapidly blinked. "Who is Heather?"

     "Brenda's older sister." Doc answered.

     "Heather Holloway?"

     "Uh, duh."

     Nancy and Jonathan whipped their heads to share wide eyes. "Tom." They gasped in unison.

     "W-What about Tom?" Doc nearly jumped out of her seat. "Is Mr Holloway acting weird, too? Is he flayed?!"

     "H-He could be. H-He might be-"

     "What does that mean for Brenda?!" When no one could answer her right away, Doc sprang off the sofa and charged to the stairs. "We need to go now!"

     "(Y/N)!" Nancy grabbed her bag, she and everyone else following. "(Y/N), wait!"

     The group emerged from the garage with an anxious Doc leading them all, and once they were all piled into the car, they were off.

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     The quartet currently made the long trek down the blue-lit pathway, seemingly already growing tired of the bothersome stroll. "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive." Dustin commented.

     "What are you talking about?" Steve disagreed. "It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell."

     Erica raised a brow at this. "They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners."

     "To be fair to our Russian comrades," Robin chimed in. "I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking. I mean, think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting that cargo."

     "It all comes into the mall like any old delivery." Dustin added.

     "And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser."

     "You think they built this whole mall just so they could transport that green poison?" Steve wondered. Dustin shook his head.

     "I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something."

     "What the hell is promethium?"

     Robin answered, "It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components."

     Erica groaned and pressed her hands to her stomach. "You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill."

     "No, no, no." Steve became defensive. "No, don't lump me in with them. I'm not a nerd, alright?"

     Robin gave a cheeky smile. "Why so sensitive, Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?"

     "No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus."

     "Promethium," Dustin corrected. "Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something."

     "Or power something." Robin suggested.

     "Like a nuclear weapon?"

     "Totally."

     "Walking towards a nuclear weapon." Steve nodded. "That's great. That'd be great."

     "But if they're building something," Robin started. "Why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places. At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland, but maybe that's it."

     Steve and Dustin stopped in their tracks, allowing the girls to walk a few feet ahead of them in order to quietly talk amongst themselves.

     "You think the Russians know?" Steve stepped closer to him. "About the-"

     "They could."

     "So, it's connected?"

     "Maybe."

     "How?"

     "I don't know, but it's... possible-"

     "-Possible."

     The girls turned around to look at the boys. "I'm sorry, is there something you two would like to share with the class?"

     They looked at each other, considering the option of spilling the information, but a string of Russian messaging sounded from Erica's backpack. Instantly, the four grouped and dropped to the ground, the girl fishing the walkie from her bag and handing it to Robin. The teen pulled up the antenna and listened to the code she had listened to countless times before.

     "'Poyezdka v Kitay zvuchit khorosho, yesli deystvovat' ostorozhno'." She mumbled along with the voice, a smirk sneaking onto her face. "It's the code."

     "Wherever that broadcast is coming from-"

     "It's close." She finished Dustin's thought. "And if there's one thing we know about that signal..."

     "It can reach the surface." He then finished her thought with a smile.

     "Let's go."

     The four quickly rose to their feet, hurrying their way down the rest of the hallway.