A/N: Content Warnings: Fear, Language, Disturbing Content, Death.

Hopper and Joyce followed Becky down the hallway to the front door of her home. As they passed the living room where Terry still sat in her rocking chair, Joyce paused to watch the woman.

"Well, thank you for your time. We appreciate it," Hopper said to Becky.

'Hmm, yeah. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help," Becky replied.

Joyce's eyes remained glued to Terry, unblinking, as the woman rocked back and forth and seemingly whispered to herself. She tried to focus on what the words were, but was unable to make anything out from the doorway. A look of concern overtook her face and she gripped the frame of the door tight.

"Good luck," Becky said to Hopper.

"Thank you," Hopper nodded.

After hesitating for another moment, Joyce left the Ives home with Hopper. She slammed the door of her car as she slid into the passenger seat and sighed heavily into her hand.

Hopper turned a worried look on her. "Hey…"

"What?" Joyce whispered wearily.

"We're gonna find him."

Joyce stared hopelessly at the air in front of her. "Yeah, like Terry found her daughter?"

"We're close," Hopper replied.

"Twelve years," Joyce's breath trembled. "Twelve years she's been looking for her-"

"And then she shows up at Benny's five nights ago, which means we've got a chance," Hopper interrupted. His voice dropped to a whisper and he added, "You know what I would give? For a chance? You know what I would give?"

Before Joyce could respond, Officer Callahan piped up over the man's radio. "Hey, Chief, you there? Hey, Chief?"

Hopper grabbed the radio and pressed the button down. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Yeah, a fight broke out here and-"

"Cal, I don't have time for this," Hopper sighed.

"It's Jonathan Byers." Joyce's head swiftly turned toward him, sharing the alarmed look on Hopper's face. "You haven't seen Joyce, have you?"

"Did you hear about what was painted on the marquee at the Hawk?"

He had been walking through downtown on the way home when he overheard a pair of teenagers gossiping. It really was a wonder how fast information moved in a small town. Alas, he was never one for gossip, so he continued his journey down the sidewalk.

"Yeah, I was actually there. Tommy and Steve painted Nancy 'the Slut' Wheeler all over it. She cried when she saw it too."

He came to a sudden stop. That had peaked his interest. But, then again, Steve Harrington always peaked his interest. A few feet away, facing away from him at the intersection, were a pair of high school girls. He recognized Amy - who shared one of his morning classes - and the red-haired girl who frequently hung out with Carol Perkins. He believed her name was Nicole.

He mulled over what Nicole had just said. He didn't know if he would define Nancy Wheeler as a slut. As he recalled the term meant 'a woman with low standards of cleanliness'. From what he had seen of Nancy Wheeler, she appeared to be both well-groomed and incredibly picky. But maybe Steve knew more than he did.

"That prissy bitch deserved it," Nicole said. "Why else would Byers have smashed Steve's face in. They were clearly sleeping together behind his back. Something I would never do."

Well, that didn't add an inkling of clarity for him. Unless sharing a bed was a faux pas. Perhaps this was another one of those euphemisms that he didn't quite comprehend. A physical altercation was certainly a possibility, he supposed, as teenage boys were rather hormonal and irrational. Jonathan might not be a particularly violent person, but he could sense the rage bubbling underneath the surface of that aloof exterior.

"So true. I'm just glad they arrested that creep," Amy admitted. "It was only a matter of time before he went psycho on someone else. Did you know-"

He immediately grew bored and tuned them out, turning and leaning against the wall to consider his next move. The sudden development had made his carefully laid out plans for the day much more complex. He might die soon, or he might not, but he would like to know of friendship before that time comes. Which left the current predicament.

Unluckily, the person he had chosen to be his friend was just involved in a nasty altercation which had resulted in police involvement. He preferred to avoid the police when possible. They asked questions and they looked too closely and they overall complicated too many things.

Luckily, he was great at finding people. He could be also be very persuasive.

The only remaining obstacle in his path was himself, or rather the self he would choose to present. But years of watching others had prepared him for this moment. He had even already come up with a name earlier that week, though he supposed he it would be more accurate to say he was bestowed the name and was finally choosing to accept it.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the objects of his desire. Of the friend he sought and the mask he would wear.

Empty eyes snapped open. "Well, hi there," a soft and slightly feminine voice said.

Nicole Moore was standing near an intersection downtown, talking about the local drama in Hawkins with her friend Amy. Without warning a loud shattering sound echoed out from behind them. The sudden noise caused them both to jump in fright.

The girls turned and looked down to see a bag of groceries scattered on the pavement, liquid and broken glass spilling out of the bottom of one of the sacks. When Nicole looked up, she spotted a familiar boy in rather eclectic clothing running off down the street.

The two girls turned and met each other's gaze, Amy voicing Nicole's exact thought. "I hate that freak."

At the Hawkins Police Station, Jonathan sat and waited to find out what his punishment would be. He was currently handcuffed at an officer's desk as the older woman who answered the phones escorted Nancy back to the staff lounge. He couldn't believe what he had done. That he had battered Harrington's face. That he had actually been arrested, too. He had been told his entire life by his mom that, by bottling all of his emotions inside, he would one day blow up and regret the fallout.

And he definitely did.

He had injured a police officer, he had gotten Nancy in trouble with the law, and he had nearly beaten Harrington to death. Not that the last one was a real loss or anything, he hated the guy's guts. But he wasn't like that. He wasn't like his dad.

But when Harrington had kept making those digs at his family, especially that last one about his brother being dead, Jonathan had seen red. His hand still ached from where he had repeatedly slammed it into the rich teen's face. What would his mom say? What would Will say? Would Will be scared of him like he was scared of Lonnie? He didn't get to dwell much more on that when Nancy hesitantly approached.

"Found some ice," Nancy said, appearing next to him and lifting a wrapped towel.

Jonathan avoided looking at her, instead focusing on his handcuffed wrists. "Thanks," he quietly replied. He shifted a little closer and awkwardly tilted his head as she held the ice to his face. He could feel her watching him closely while he stared mindlessly at the desk. Finally he met her eyes, but she looked away.

"Everything okay?" He asked. Of course it wasn't, he had just almost killed her boyfriend.

"Yeah. Everything's fine," Nancy replied, meeting his eyes again. A small smile spread across her lips and she lookd away.

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it would all be alright.

Several miles away, Mike and Dustin walked their bikes through the woods, crunching over the leaves and branches that littered the forest floor. They had been looking for Eleven for a while, but they hadn't found any sign of her, despite what the strange teen near the grocery store had said.

"Eleven!" Mike yelled out. Maybe he shouldn't have trusted the stranger. He was starting to think they had been purposely misled. But, then again… why would the blond lie?

"El!" Dustin shouted too before sighing and turning to him. "Maybe that guy gave us the wrong directions."

"I don't think so." Mike looked around, searching for any sign of the girl. "He was at Will's funeral. I think he's friends with Jonathan."

"Maybe," Dustin sighed. "Doesn't mean he was telling the truth though."

Mike didn't respond to that. He kept pushing his bike as he continued to call, "El! Eleven!"

"Eleven!"

"Did you think his voice sounded familiar?" Mike suddenly asked with a frown. It had been bothering him ever since they talked to the boy. He could have sworn he had heard it before.

"Not really," Dustin replied blankly. "Just sounded kinda girly. Looked kinda girly, too."

Mike rolled his eyes and shot his friend a glare. "Shut up. Will gets picked on for being girly. People are just different, okay?"

"Yeah, I guess you are right." Dustin smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "He looked cool though, I bet Will would-"

"Shhhhh." Mike came to a stop as he heard the sound of a breaking twig underfoot. And it couldn't have been them who had broken it. "Hey, stop. Do you hear that?"

"What?" Dustin looked around, brows furrowed.

"El!" Mike shouted again, scanning the area. "El?" The source of the noise revealed itself, but it was not Eleven. It was their school bullies, Troy and James.

"Hey, there, Frogface," Troy said as he glowered maliciously at them.

"Toothless," cackled James.

"Shit!" Dustin dropped his bike and begin to panic, turning and running away as he called back, "Run, Mike!"

"What?" Mike asked, dropped his bike too and following after Dustin. He wasn't quite sure why they were fleeing like they were in danger of dying, but Dustin usually didn't react this way for no reason.

"Run! Come on!" Dustin implored him as they continued to sprint away.

He heard the branches and leaves behind him followed by Troy yelling, "You're dead, Wheeler!"

Clearly whatever had spooked Dustin had something to do with the bullies. But it wasn't like they hadn't been beaten up before? This all seemed a bit excessive in Mike's opinion.

"Move, Mike! Mike, come on, run!" He complied, picking up his pace.

They ran for quite a while, Mike losing track of time as his lungs started to burn. They broke through the trees and suddenly found themselves running on gravel. He and Dustin rounded the side of a rocky interface on the road to find that they were overlooking Sattler's Quarry - the place the police had claimed Will fell from. He shot a quick look behind them to see Troy still following.

Dustin groaned and suddenly slowed his pace, clutching his side. "Cramp!"

"Just keep going!" Mike encouraged him through a scream. "Keep going!" They had to get out of there. They didn't have time to cramp!

He noticed Troy speed up in his effort to reach Dustin. He and his friend continued to flee, and as they turned their head back forward they spotted James appear in front of them. The bully must have cut through the woods on the other side to corner them.

"Shit!" Dustin faltered. Mike skidded to a stop next to him, trapped between the two bullies on one side and the quarry on another. With nowhere else to go, he snatched a large rock from the ground and Dustin lifted up a stick. They held their make-shift weapons in front of themselves defensively.

"Stay back! Don't come any closer!" Mike yelled, quickly swapping his eyes between the two threats. James took a step forward and he hurled the rock at him. But he was not athletically talented at all and it missed by several feet.

"Nice throw, numbnuts," James replied.

With a wild battle cry, Dustin swung haphazardly at Troy, who dodged the blow easily before catching Dustin around the shoulders and holding a knife to his face. Mike felt his mouth drop as he watched Dustin try to keep his neck away from the shiny blade in fright. What kind of psychopath held a blade to a child's throat?! Especially if that psychopath was also a child?

"Get off!" Dustin cried out. "Get off me!"

"Let him go!" Mike's voice broke as he repeated, "Let him go!"

"Stay back, or I cut him!" Troy did not let Dustin go, instead brandishing the knife at him to prove his point.

"What do you want?" Mike asked, eyes bulging.

"I want to know how you did it!' Dustin whimpered as Troy brought knife closer to his throat.

"How I did what?"

"I know you did something to me," Troy groaned. "Some nerdy science shit to make me do that."

"You mean piss your pants?" Mike spat at him, remembering the assembly. It was epic, and something that the bully had clearly been more deeply affected by than he or his friends had thought.

"Our friend has superpowers, and she squeezed your tiny bladder with her mind," Dustin said, apparently gaining a burst of courage. He guessed if Dustin was going to die he might as well die speaking the truth.

"Shut up!" Troy brought the blade dangerously close to Dustin's mouth this time, and Dustin again leaned his head back in an attempt to get away from it. "I think I should save Toothless here a trip to the dentist. Help him lose the rest of his baby teeth."

"Let him go!" The vein in Mike's throat pulsed. He couldn't watch his friend die. Not like this. " Let him go!"

"I'll let him go, sure," Troy sneered. "But first...it's your turn."

"My turn for what?"

"Wet yourself."

"What?" Mike asked, the absurdity of Troy's request catching him off guard. How did somebody just pee on demand?

Troy nodded at the cliff overlooking Sattler's quarry. "Jump…or Toothless here gets an early trip to the dentist."

"Stop!" Dustin gasped, trying to break free from Troy. "No!" Everyone knew that a jump from that height was a death sentence. Mike glanced at the cliff's edge and stood still, unable to believe what was happening.

Troy inched the blade closer and closer to Dustin's frightened face and snarled, "I'll cut him right now!"

"All right, just hold on!" Mike, unable to stand seeing Dustin so terrified and vulnerable, finally agreed. "Hold on!" He glared at the two bullies and backed up to the cliff's edge, hoping that they would rot in jail after he died.

"Mike, don't do it. I don't need my baby teeth, Mike!" Dustin yelled, voice cracking as he struggled against Troy. "Mike, seriously, don't!"

Ignoring Dustin, he stepped up to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the still water. His heart pounded with adrenaline and his breath seemed to catch somewhere along his airway. He watched a few pebbles fall to the water's surface when his toes met the edge. One more step and he too would plunge to the bottom. The drop was so high. Could he survive? Not likely.

"Mike, don't do it! Seriously, don't do it, man! Seriously, don't!" Mike felt sorry that he was about to scar Dustin for life. He prayed they at least let Dustin go like they promised.

Behind him he heard James say, "Troy, I don't think this is a good idea, man."

His mom was right. Peer pressure really did kill. Too bad he would never be able to tell her. Mike took another small step forward.

"Mike, don't!" Dustin desperately begged again.

Growing impatient, Troy began to count down. "Dentist's office opens in five...four! Three! Two!"

"Mike!"

"One!"

Maybe he would get to see Will on the other side. Mike stepped forward over the edge and heard Dustin shriek in horror. As he fell to the surface of the water he thought about Will, about his family, and lastly... about Eleven. He hoped she would be okay. Suddenly he slammed to a stop in mid air. Gasping in fear, he hovered about halfway down the cliff face, staring down at the water.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Mike shouted, beginning to float back up toward the ground. He saw Dustin and the bullies staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths as he flew over their heads, legs flailing and hair dangling, until abruptly he dropped to solid ground with a grunt. Looking briefly at the bewildered boys, his focus fell on an approaching figure. Eleven marched forward in her pink dress and blue jacket, eyes blazing hit fury.

It was her! She came back! Mike began to celebrate inside. Those assholes were in for it! He resisted the urge to scream at her to fuck them up.

He watched James rush forward to attack El but a sudden burst of energy forced the bigger boy to fall backward. Troy looked down at James in shock then back at Eleven. She twitched her head to the side and the bully's arm twisted so forcefully that, with a ear splitting crack, it was broken. Troy cried out, dropping his knife.

Okay, so maybe Mike had underestimated what fuck them up would mean. Good thing he hadn't screamed for her to do that.

"She broke my arm!" Troy struggled to hold his limp limb. "My arm!" Mike had very little sympathy him, seeing as how he had just held a knife to another child's throat.

Coming to a halt, El glared at the bully, blood pouring down her nose. "Go."

"Let's get outta here! Let's go! James hopped to his feet and took off, Troy running after him. "Go!"

"Yeah that's right! You better run! She's our friend and she's crazy! You come back here and she'll kill you!" The curly-haired boy released the frustration that had been building during his brief captivity. Mike turned to watch them run away as Dustin cheered in victory. "You hear me? She'll kill you, you sons of bitches! She'll kill you, you hear me?"

Turning back to smile at Eleven, h saw her lose consciousness and collapse to the ground, blood pouring from her nose. He rushed forward with Dustin, dropping to the ground next to her and attempting to wake her.

"El, are you okay? El?" Mike grabbed Eleven's arm.

She slowly opened her eyes and stared at him in, sobbing. "Mike...I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Mike smiled softly down at her. "What are you sorry for?"

"The gate...I opened it," Eleven replied through her tears. "I'm the monster."

Even if she had opened the gate, which they would definitely talk about later, Mike knew she was no monster. She was a superhero! "No. No, El, you're not the monster. You saved me. Do you understand? You saved me."

He pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her. Eleven rested her head on his shoulder, tears falling silently down her face and wetting his jacket. He felt Dustin kneel beside them and wrap his arms around the pair. They sat huddled on the edge of the cliff, comforting one another for a long moment.

When that boy had pointed toward the woods, Mike hadn't expected it to end like this. But at least the guy had been right. El really had been out here. Some time later they walked across the field near Mike's house, unaware of the repairman in a Hawkins Power and Light van watching them.

The man pulled out a radio and transmitted, "I have eyes on 'em now. They're heading home."

In the bunker room at Hawkins Laboratory, numerous soldiers began to gear up. They grabbed rifles and sidearms and donned blue jumpsuits that resembled a repairman's attire. Once they had gathered enough ammunition to take down a small fleet, they marched from the building behind Dr. Brenner to a line of waiting white vans. The vehicles joined in a chorus of noise as each engine started one by one.

From a tree outside of the lab's perimeter, Lucas watched the vans depart down the road through his binoculars. He slowly lowered the tool away from his face, blinking repeatedly and expression twisting in horror.

A/N: I know I said I would leave most Easter eggs up to interpretation but I wanted to point out one that might be too vague. The final line of our mystery characters section is a direct reference to Dr. Sleep, and a line that Rose the Hat says after detecting Abra watching her.

Next chapter starts episode 7! We also finally reveal who has been watching from the In-Between (in case it flew over your head.)

Until next our stars align.