The Byers Girl (On Pause until season 5)

Chapter Eight: Papa

*Long Part*

In 1979, a young Eleven uses the last of her powers to close the gate to the alternate dimension she banished One to. After Dr.Brenner enters the Rainbow Room and sees the carnage inside, he asks Eleven what she had done, but Eleven faints from overexertion.

Back in 1986, Y/n, trapped in Vecna's curse, observes a younger Brenner tattoo One, and is shocked when he acknowledges her presence. Exiting, she finds herself in the halls of Hawkins Lab the day the massacre occurred, dead bodies and screaming littering the hallway as she attempts to flee. In reality, Steve yells for the crew to hurry and find some form of music to play for Y/n, but they can't find anything. Y/n finds a door covered in boards, and desperately breaks them off slowly as Vecna begins to approach her, saying he wants to show her where he is going. When Y/n finally breaks through, Dr. Brenner tells her to take a seat as the lights go out. When they come back on, Y/n finds herself strapped down to the tattoo chair as Vecna approaches her. Looming over her, Vecna says he wants her to tell Eleven everything she sees. Using his abilities, he forces her to see a psychic vision of Hawkins being destroyed by the Upside Down's invasion showing the deaths of her friends and family much to Y/n's horror. Vecna finally releases her back to reality, causing her to fall into Steve's arms as he holds her tightly scared that it'll happen again, she cries into his chest shaken and out of breath.

In the gulag in Kamchatka, the Russian Demogorgon becomes rogue and attacks the arena while the guards attempt to fight it. In the security room, Murray forces guards at gunpoint to tell the guards outside by radio that everything is under control, while Dmitri Antonov interrogates a doctor on how to escape, and Yuri Ismaylov remains tied up. Meanwhile, Joyce dresses a cut on Hopper's arm as she tells him he is the hero of Hawkins, and that Eleven and Y/n miss him dearly. Murray cuts off their conversation and alerts them that the demogorgon has climbed out of the area and has begun killing more guards. The group hear noises from another room and slowly approach it, discovering a vivisected Demodog tied to a gurney, thrashing around and screeching in agony.
Hopper puts it out of its misery with a gunshot to the head, but the group notices there is more to the room; inside, several demodogs are preserved in tanks, and Joyce, Hopper, and Murray recognize a piece of the Mind Flayer trapped inside a large box. Dmitri alerts the group that he has found a vent that can lead them out of the prison, and the group slowly file in.

In Nevada, Eleven is resuscitated after her experience of what happened in Hawkins National Laboratory, inside the Nina Project's sensory deprivation tank, having a brief vision of her mother Terry Ives before fully regaining consciousness. Ignoring Brenner and Dr. Sam Owens, she wordlessly lifts the NINA tank off its hinges before lowering it back down to the ground, finally regaining her powers and earning an approving look from Brenner.

Right outside Las Vegas, Jonathan, Argyle, Mike, and Will continue their search for Eleven in the Surfer Boy Pizza van. Mike expresses concern that Eleven won't need him anymore once she regains her powers, and Will expresses sympathy. He hands Mike the painting he was intending to give him at the airport a mural of Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas in D&D regalia fighting a large dragon. Impressed, Mike asked if he painted it, and Will said he did for Eleven since she commissioned which is a lie, since Will refused to show the painting to anyone. Jonathan, driving and noticing the lie, eavesdrops as Will points to Mike's character on the painting having a heart. He tells Mike that he is the heart of the Party, and without it, they'd fall apart, especially Eleven. He begins to say that El has been so lost without Mike, and that it's hard for her to make friends since she's different and feels like a mistake. But he says Mike gives El hope, and if she was pushing him away, it was because she was scared of losing him. Will finishes his analogy and says that El will and always will need him, easing Mike and cheering him up. Will, however, turns away to window and sobs silently into his hand, heartbroken he can't express his true feelings. Jonathan, disheartened, continues to drive silently.
Will thinks about a talk that him and Y/n had two years ago.