See "Disclaimer" at the beginning of Chapter 1.

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Three-Fifteen AM: Wheeler Basement:

Most of the kids had fallen asleep sometime around two so it was only Mike and El who remained conscious. They were laying on makeshift mats and holding hands until Mike suddenly pulled away. Confused, the girl looked over at her boyfriend with a questioning expression.

"Mike, is something wrong?" EL asked.

"I... I'm sorry El," was his only response.

"Sorry? What are you sorry for? You have nothing to be sorry for, Mike," she said with puzzled intonation.

"You have no idea," Mike whispered barely audibly. Silence filled the room for five minutes before Mike suddenly shot up and yelled: "Everyone up! Now."

Bleary-eyed, the other kids looked around until settling their gazes upon Mike.

"What are you doing, Mike? It's the middle of the night," Lucas queried. The others echoed this sentiment before being cutoff.

"We don't have time to discuss this. I need everyone to just follow me here, alright? We have to leave now. I mean now. There are bad men coming as we speak and we have to go. I'll explain later but there's no time to waste," Mike ranted.

Several objections and expressions of confusion filled the room before Mike looked at El imploringly.

She paused before saying: "Okay. Everyone get ready. We have to trust each other." Mike simply looked down and blushed with what the others didn't recognize as guilt.

The kids scrambled to get dressed as Mike continued to ignore their questions. Finally, they gathered next to the door and were ready to leave when Mike froze.

"What's wrong?" Will asked cautiously.

"I can't... El, I need you to knock me out and take me with you. Can you do that?" the boy asked solemnly.

"Mike, what... I would never... Mike?" El stammered in shock.

Turning promptly, Mike addressed Max: "Just do it."

"You better have a good reason for this later if El tries to kill me," the redheaded girl said as she swung a bike lock down on the teenager. He dropped to the floor and was picked up by a frazzled Lucas and Dustin.

"I'm so confused right now," Dustin said.

"Honestly, I've wanted to do that for a while now. Felt good," Max said with a wry grin. El glared at her.


Four AM: Woods near the Wheeler Residence:

The kids had taken up position in the woods a good distance from the house. They now waited to see if their friend had been right to wake them up in the middle of the night. Suddenly three black vans came down the street and stopped in front of the Wheeler's house. Their occupants jumped out in matching black and rushed to the basement door. As soon as they broke through, Will gestured for everyone to back away. They now knew that Mike had been right to warn them.

A couple of hours later the group had situated themselves in a forest ravine. Mike was beginning to move and El stroked his hair. The girl had placed the boy's head in her lap. She didn't understand how Mike knew about the looming danger or why he wanted to be knocked out but she knew he loved her.

"Moya golova kruzhitsya," Mike whispered. [My head is spinning.]

El barely heard him and exclaimed: "Mike! What are you saying?".

The boy didn't respond for another few moments until he opened his eyes. All the teenagers had gathered around to see their friend regain consciousness.

"You okay, Mike?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah; your girlfriend didn't completely kill me," Mike said with sarcasm.

"You did ask for it," Max replied.

"True," Mike sighed.

"Do you feel well enough to answer questions?" Dustin asked.

"Just give me a minute," Mike answered feebly. After a quiet waiting the boy finally sat up. Max didn't hit him as hard as he had feared. He was beginning to feel better: in physical terms at least.

"I don't know if you're feeling up to it now but we need to discuss things so we can put together a plan," Max said.

"Yeah, fine. Let's get this over with," Mike said.

"You okay?" El asked softly.

"I'm feeling fine, El. Don't you worry," Mike replied with a half-confident smile.

"How did you know that those men were coming?" Lucas asked.

"Why did you ask me to knock you out?" Max added.

"What's going on?" Dustin interjected.

Holding up his hand to stop the cascade, Mike spoke: "Everyone should sit down. This is going to take a bit of explaining and a hopefully not a lot of violence."

The friends sat down in a circle around Mike. El was clinging tightly to the boy's shoulder.

"So most of you don't know as much about me as you think you do," Mike started.

Everyone exchanged glances before fixating once again upon the dark-haired boy.

"I was adopted. It was before I knew most of you. Will, I think you were the only one that knew that," Mike said.

Eyes traveled to Will who nodded lightly before returning to their previous object of fascination.

"What none of you know is where I came from. My parents, the Wheelers that is, think I was adopted from an orphanage in Indianapolis. That's partially true but the part of the story they don't know is that I am originally from the Soviet Union," Mike continued before pausing for the predictable gasps of shock.

"So you're from the commie homeland. So what?" Lucas asked.

"Well, I'm getting to that. You see, it wasn't a mistake that I ended up in Hawkins," Mike said with a choking sound at the end. After a moment he carried on: "I am a spy."

There were many noises of shock and disbelief from the group of friends.

"What do you mean a 'spy'? How can you be a Soviet spy?" Dustin asked with shortened breath.

"I mean exactly what I said. I am a spy for the KGB. I was planted here to help them infiltrate the Hawkins National Lab and Brenner's research," Mike answered sharply. The boy now drew himself inwards, making him look both smaller and less exposed.

"I don't believe you," Max said.

"Vy dolzhny nachat' verit' mne. Ya dolgosrochnyy agent KGB na meste. Ya ne lgu tebe," Mike snapped. [You should start believing me. I am a long term onsite agent of the KGB. I am not lying to you.]

"Was that Russian?" Dustin asked. Most of the group had become near catatonic. Their trusted friend and sometimes leader was a spy for their country's great enemy.

"Da or yes," Mike said with a short-lived smile. Silence once again covered the proceedings.

"How could a five-year-old be a spy for the Russians?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"I was put in an intense psycho-training program at one year old. My parents were devoted members of the CPSU and turned me over to the KGB when they asked for me. They taught me English, indoctrinated me into their service values, and prepared me to be an American child," Mike said softly.

"You were turned into a weapon too?" El asked softly.

"I suppose you could look at it that way," he said with downcast eyes.

"So you just acted like one of us this whole time?" Lucas asked accusatorially. He seemed the most outraged.

"Yes. I mean in many respects I really was one of you. I just had this huge secret," Mike said feebly.

"So you speak Russian?" Dustin asked.

"Yes, Dustin! Move on!" Lucas shouted at his friend.

"Da. Ya govoryu po-russki i po-angliyski," Mike said with a kinder tone. [Yes. I speak Russian and English.]

"So those guys back there at your house were Russians?" Lucas asked. Anger was increasingly his dominant emotion through the course of this difficult conversation.

"Yes. They work for the KGB and were here to take El away. The USSR is trying to explore the same technology as Brenner. When the lab under Starcourt Mall was destroyed they decided to take her and continue the work in the Russian heartland," Mike answered calmly.

How did they know El was there? Did you tell them?" Lucas then accused.

Mike hung his head again and responded: "Yes. I reported to my handler that she was with us in the basement. They told me they would come for her at four. If their plan had gone properly I would have been picked up next week."

Now the real shock set in. Mike had sent the new 'bad men' El's location. He had betrayed them.

"Mike?" El queried.

"I'm so sorry, El. I hated myself the whole time I was doing it but you don't understand! I didn't have a choice. The pain! I can't control it most of the time. I'm so sorry," he cried while erupting into tears in his girlfriend's lap.

"I understand. I understand a lot, Mike," she said as she stroked his head comfortingly. Then, she leaned down and placed a kiss on his forehead softly.

"What do you mean pain?" Max interjected. Things were far too dire to allow time for emotions to rule the proceedings.

"It was part of the training. I was conditioned to be loyal to the KGB above all. Anytime I try to resist them I get an immense pain in my temple. It's horrible," he said weakly.

They all stared for a few minutes before he continued again looking at El: "I managed to do it though. I couldn't let them take you. I couldn't let them take you back to their horrid laboratory to be experimented on for who knows how long."

"So is that why I knocked you out tonight?" Max asked pointedly.

He answered sincerely: "Yes. I was afraid that if I saw them I would betray you all again. I couldn't allow that."

"Wait. If you're not actually 'Mike Wheeler' then do you have a different name?" Dustin asked. Trust Dustin to take the major shocks like everyday occurrences and focus on the small implications. It was endearing in Mike's mind actually.

"Yes, I do," Mike said with a laugh. He continued: "My birth name was Mikhail Romanovich Preobrazhensky. So the 'Mike' part isn't exactly a lie."

"You're a traitor," Lucas whispered to himself loudly enough to be heard.

"Technically I wasn't a traitor until tonight. I was a spy," Mike said before laughing sadly into his uplifted hands. He murmured: "I'm so sorry."

"How much of it was a lie, Mike? Are you even our friend?" Lucas interrogated.

"Lucas, of course he is," Will tried to intervene.

"That's okay Will. Lucas has every right to be mad at me. But yes, I thought of our friendship as real. That was never a lie," Mike replied earnestly.

"Does Nancy know?" Dustin asked.

"Of course not. She had no idea about any of it except the adoption. That was kind of the point," Mike answered.

"Well we can discuss this whole mess later. What are we going to do now? Can we go back? What's going on?" Max queried.

"Good point," Lucas added.

"I think all of you except El and I can go back if you want. They only want her and now me probably. It'd be too suspicious if they took anyone else. The American government would certainly take notice of it. Though there's no guarantee they'd leave you alone," Mike said.

"We can't just leave you guys though," Will countered.

"What we should do is go to the feds. They'd know what to do," Lucas postulated.

Silence filled the ravine again before Will suddenly shot his gaze towards Mike and said: "We can't do that! They can't know about Mike, can they? He'd be arrested."

Mike felt everyone's eyes upon him once again before responding: "Yes. They would most likely make me disappear. But this is all my fault anyways, so if that's what you need to do then I understand guys."

"Let's say we didn't want Mike to be taken. Where will we go?" Max asked.

"We don't want Mike to be taken," El said softly. The couple embraced again.

"I don't know anyone who can evade the Russians and the feds," Lucas said with a sarcastic laugh.

"I do," El said suddenly pulling back slightly from Mike.

"Who?" Dustin asked her.

"We need bus tickets to Chicago and I need a blindfold," she said in response.

Nine AM: Hawkins Bus Station:

After some brief explanations El had told them about her sister, Kali, and her ability to evade capture. Using Mike's jacket sleeve she managed to barely confirm that her sister was still in Chicago. Her powers were still weak but getting stronger every week. The kids managed to dodge the police car that rushed towards the Wheeler residence around seven. Karen and Ted Wheeler had probably awoken to a broken basement door and six missing children. Now on a bus, they were pulling away from the small Indiana town most of them called home.

"This is insane," Lucas said to Max. The two were sitting together.

"Yeah, but what's new?" the girl responded.

"Aren't Jonathan and Nancy in Chicago right now?" Dustin asked Will.

"Yeah. You're right. We should call them when we get there. They'll know what to do," Will answered.

Mike and El were having their own conversation in whispers at the front of the small group.

"I can't bear it El. I almost turned you over to bad men. You're my everything and I nearly destroyed that," Mike cried into her shoulder.

"No, Mike. You saved me from them again. I know what it's like to not have a choice. I know what it's like when the bad men take your childhood and make you a weapon. I opened the gate, remember? I don't think you did anything as bad as what I did. At least you didn't get anyone killed. You're my everything too," El replied while grabbing his hand.

"I love you El," Mike said.

"I love you too," she replied before smiling. El spoke again: "How do you say that in Russian?".

"Ya lyublyu tebya," Mike whispered to her. [I love you.]

"Ya liblu tibia," she mispronounced.

Mike gently corrected her: "lyublyu tebya."

"Ya lyublyu tebya," El said after a pause. Mike nodded and shifted to give the girl a hug.

"Why is that the two of you just get more disgusting every time something bad happens?" Will asked with a laugh. The couple turned around sharply and were surprised to see that Dustin and Will had been eavesdropping.

"I'll have to teach you Russian, El, so we can have our privacy back," Mike joked.

Dustin gave a smug look and said: "Nedelya dlinnaya." [The week is long.]

Mike rolled his eyes and shot back: "Pridurok." [Moron.]

Dustin looked back with confusion. Will, Mike, and El laughed.