After escaping Jack Sullivan's men, Mike, Will and Jonathan attempt to save Harmon from his gunshot wound. He insists that they need to warn Sam Owens and that Eleven is in danger, uttering "Nina" before dying. Will notices a car following them and shouts for Argyle to get off the main road. Jack Sullivan and his men search the Byers household, and he finds Eleven's note for Mike, and he orders the wounded Wallace to give up her location. Twelve hours earlier, Owens and Eleven are dropped off at a door in the middle of a desert, which turns out to lead to an underground missile silo made to house "NINA", a large machine. To Eleven's horror, she is approached by a scarred Brenner, having survived the demogorgon's attack. He promises to help get her powers back, but Eleven, overwhelmed by her memories of his abuse, tries to run, but is sedated. Brenner promises that "everything's going to be alright" as she passes out.
Having been returned to Kamchatka, Hopper is beaten by guards for escaping and dragged through an arena with a blood-soaked weapon on the ground. He is thrown in a cell with Dmitri Antonov and several other prisoners. Antonov explains that he was sold out by Yuri Ismaylov and convinces Hopper not to kill him. Defeated, Hopper asks after Joyce.
A restless Eddie calls Dustin's supercom to ask for beer, and Nancy picks up, ignoring him when she notices Max has vanished from the basement. She walks over to Dustin waking him up upset that he didn't watch Max and Y/n wakes up hearing their conversation equally as worried. Nancy, Y/n and Dustin go upstairs to find her eating breakfast at the table, listening to "Running Up That Hill" and drawing what she saw in Vecna's lair. As she wonders how she got into his mind, Dustin muses that hiding from him for so long granted her access to his mind, and that the key to defeating him may lie in the drawings. Nancy realizes that Max is drawing the Creel house.
Eleven awakens with a shaved head in Hawkins National Laboratory, much to her horror. She traverses the halls and finds herself back in the Rainbow Room, with all of the children still alive and a younger version of herself in the mirror. Disoriented, she runs into a strange orderly who reminds her not to be late for lessons. She runs through another door, only to end up back in the Rainbow Room with the orderly again. Eleven is revealed to be inside NINA, which is a powerful sensory deprivation tank. Owens expresses worry that she may die, but Brenner insists she will survive.
The California group buries Harmon's body in a junkyard while Argyle expresses horror at the situation until Jonathan tells him to go smoke. Mike again expresses regret to Will about how he handled his and Eleven's fight, Will agreeing that it is tough to say how you really feel, because what if they don't like the truth? Argyle tries to make a headstone with Harmon's pen, only for Mike to realize it does not work because it is a container for something, finding a phone number inside.
As Russian guards clean out human remains from the arena, Antonov tries to get Hopper to help him bribe a guard, only to find him unresponsive. Hopper recounts his experiences mixing vats of Agent Orange in the Vietnam war, musing that its effects on children of those affected marked Sara Hopper for death, but he had her anyway.
After meeting Eleven, Y/n and Joyce, he realized that he needed them, but by asking for Joyce to save him, he has marked her for death as well. He concludes that he wasn't cursed, but that he is the curse. Antonov listens as a demogorgon snarls from a gate behind the arena. Owens' men search Wayne Munson's trailer, noting a strong signal of energy coming from the fissure in the ceiling. They order him to leave the area. At Chrissy's funeral, Patrick hallucinates a grandfather clock. Jason pulls photos of the Hellfire Club from the school yearbook, proving Lucas's involvement with them and concluding that they are hiding Eddie. Jason gives the group a list of all the locations the members have been seen at, and a teammate notes that he should add Rick Lipton's house, as two fishermen spotted someone inside despite Rick supposedly being in jail.
Joyce and Murray have been tied up in Yuri's plane, who explains he is selling them out to provide for his mother. During the flight, Murray repeatedly requests to go to the bathroom, and Joyce realizes Yuri cannot hear them over the sound of the engine. She kicks a box of peanut butter jars until they shatter, and Murray grabs a shard of broken jar with his foot to cut their binds with.
Eleven continually tries to escape, but always ends up back in the Rainbow Room with the orderly. Brenner contacts her over the intercom, explaining that the name of NINA is based on an opera of the same name, about a woman whose lover was killed, so traumatized by the incident that she buried it in her memories.
Eleven realizes she is in her own repressed memory and asks to be let out, but Brenner tells her she must find her own way. The orderly again approaches her, and this time, Eleven succumbs to the memory instead of running, allowing it to progress. Her memory of Brenner enters the room, and she and the other children follow him out. In the real world, Owens warns Brenner that Sullivan is closing in on them.
The California group calls the number, only to find that it leads to a dial-up tone. Mike realizes they are calling a computer, and they decide to seek help from Suzie to figure out where they are calling.
Jason, Patrick and Andy investigate Rick's house, forcing Eddie to hide out in the boathouse and frantically call Dustin for help.
The Hawkins group breaks into the Creel house.
Max and Y/n find the grandfather clock from their visions but only Max points it out.
As the group explores the house in duos, the lights on the ceiling flicker. Steve finds mummified black widow spiders under the floorboards, only to get spooked by a live one dropping the jar shattering it.
He runs into Y/n almost knocking her over.
"Do not go in there" he says panicked pointing where the spiders were.
Y/n looks up at his hair trying to hide her laughter.
"What? Are they on me?" he asks panicked before shaking.
She looks down laughing raising her arms up to his hair taking the webs out.
"Their just the webs" she says softly smiling at him.
They stare into each other's eyes with a comfortable silence between them as Steve smiles at her.
"Maybe the eggs will hatch and you'll have little baby spiders" Robin says to Steve laughing.
Steve sighs looking at her.
"She's a lunatic" he says looking back to Y/n.
"Yeah but we love her" she says smiling.
He sighs nodding.
Y/n thinks about telling Steve about her being cursed.
"Steve I.." she stops nervously.
"What?" he asks softly.
"I..." she trails off trying to find the right words.
Dustin notices the lights flickering in a pattern and yells to the others interrupting Y/n and Steve's conversation.
"What we're you going to say?" he asks looking back at her.
"Nothing..it can wait" she says faking a smile.
He nods smiling back.
The group begin following the lights throughout the house.
In Eleven's memory, Brenner tests the psychic abilities of Two with a machine that lights up when energy is put into it. Eleven goes next but fails despite her best efforts, and realizes her hands are covered in blood. Everybody in the room vanishes, and she walks down the hallway, now the day of the massacre. In the real world, Eleven has a seizure inside NINA.
Yuri catches a freed Joyce trying to cut Murray's rope, and Murray frees his hands and fights him while Joyce gets his gun. Murray knocks him out, leaving no one able to fly the plane, and it crashes in the woods.
The Hawkins group regroups and conclude that Vecna's presence is signified by the lights, turning off their flashlights so they will turn on automatically when he is near and track his presence. They follow him up to the attic, despite Dustin's protests. They find Vecna stationary under a lightbulb, revealed to be the spot in the Upside Down where he connects to his tendrils and stalks the minds of people.
As Jason notices the boathouse light, Eddie decides to go out on the water in hopes of escaping. Patrick hears the clock again, but is interrupted by Jason, and they catch Eddie trying to start a boat's motor. As they start to swim towards him, Eddie starts to rowing away. Just before they can catch up to him, Patrick freezes and is pulled underwater by Vecna, before shooting back into the air levitating with his bones snapping the same as Chrissy and Fred. The flashlights and lightbulb explode as he dies, and his body plunges into the water as Jason and Eddie watch resulting in Eddie falling out of the boat out of fear.
Eleven is resuscitated and immediately tries to run, but is stopped again by the guards. She incapacitates them with her returned powers. Brenner praises her for her progress as the door behind her opens, but, wanting to regain her powers in full, she chooses to stay. Brenner addresses her as daughter and she nods, taking his hand and walking back towards NINA.
When will Y/n tell the others that she is cursed too?
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The Byers Girl (On Pause until season 5)
Fanfiction*On hold until Season 5 is out* Y/n Byers is the middle child in the Byers family. Being the babysitter of the party makes her close to them but what happens when her little brother goes missing and her best friend Nancy starts falling for her best...
