voltage ; stranger things

thirteen ; and then you left

"YOU mean you know what that thing is?" Robin asks as they clomp back down the stairs.

          "Not exactly," says Dustin just as Colleen answers,

          "Yes."

          "Well," says Tony as he begins to nervously click his flashlight, "what is it? It doesn't look very good."

          "It's not," she says, then stops when they reach the control room again. There's something missing. Or, rather, someone. "Hey." She looks up. "Where did the guard go?"

          Erica stands on her tiptoes to see out the door's window, her eyes widening. The guard is yelling to at least a dozen other men, clutching his face, and pointing to the control room. She ducks back down when one looks up and sees her. "They're coming!"

          Steve and Tony exchange a glance, then rush the barricade the door just as the guards outside try to bust it down. Everyone begins to yell as Colleen throws her weight against it as well, and then Robin. They look a little silly, what with the four of them holding one door, but they aren't too concerned with that at the moment.

          "Here!" cries Dustin. He opens a metal grate on the floor, revealing a small space just big enough for them to crawl through. He shoves Erica in, then motions for the others. "Come on! Hurry!"

          Robin begins to back away, then rushes to keep the door closed when it begins to open. The guards on the other side are ramming into it, throwing themselves at the strength of just a few scrawny teenagers. "Go!" she cries. "Just go!"

          Dustin starts to argue, then drops into the grate and slams it shut behind him. Just as he does, the four teenagers fail to hold up any longer and they're thrown back as the Russians finally reach them. They scream and shout at them, shoving pistols and rifle barrels in their faces.

          Colleen raises her trembling hands, and the others slowly follow. They're caught.

•••

          "Let go of me, you asshat, douchebag, bastards!" Colleen's howls echo down the metal hallway, falling upon deaf ears. She flails and kicks against the men holding her arms as they drag her down another never-ending tunnel, but to no avail. They'd separated her from her friends and tossed her in a holding room for half an hour, then came and grabbed her like a piece of meat.

          Her cries are silenced as the Russians open a door and drop her on the floor, beside a squirming Robin. Her wrists have been tied as well. They can only look at each other before more guards enter, carrying a pair of unconscious boys. Steve and Tony land beside the girls, but neither of them move. The former sports a bloody face, red oozing from his nose and mouth, and Tony's glasses are gone, his eye already swelling.

          "Steve!" Colleen cries. "Tony! Wake up! Get up!"

          The door opens again and a shorter man, a general or a man in charge, telling from the badge on his hat, enters the interrogation room. He says something in the foreign tongue, and the guards pick the four off the ground and strap them to four different chairs in the corners of the room. The lights flicker a few times as Colleen watches Steve and Tony be tossed about like nothing.

          "Your friends look like they could use a doctor," says the man in charge. He looks between Colleen and Robin, then smiles a sickening smirk. "Luckily, we have the best." He laughs, seemingly giving the guards permission to as well, before exiting the room and leaving them. The door slams shut, throwing the teens into silence.

          "Robin," says Colleen, "Robin. You okay?"

          "Yeah, I'm fine." She looks to the boys. "I don't know if they are, though."

          "Yeah, I don't know if that doctor is gonna be any real help." Colleen looks between Steve and Tony, then decides on the one who seems less beat up. "Tony," she says. She tries to scoot her chair forward, only to find it's mounted to the floor. "Tony! Hey, wake up! Tony!" He doesn't move, so she switches her gaze to the other boy. "Steve. Hey! Psst, Steve!"

          "Collie," says Robin, "they're out." She pauses. "Can you do anything? The lights, or the door, or...?"

          Colleen isn't listening. Instead, she keeps lunging forward in her chair, straining against the straps keeping her in place. "Steve! Hey, hey! Get up! Wake up!"

          "Hey," Steve mumbles under his breath. His head lolls to one side. "Can you stop the yelling?"

          "Oh my god!" Robin cries. "Steve! Oh my god, are you okay?"

          He groans from the back of his throat, attempting to move his arm before realizing he can't. "I mean... my stomach hurts and my eye stings and it feels like I'm gonna die... But other than that, yeah, I think I'm okay."

          They're all quiet for a long moment, each lost in their own thoughts, before Robin sniffs. They look up, expecting to see tears running down her face, but instead finding she's grinning and snorting. She's laughing.

          "I'm sorry," she giggles, unable to regain her breath. "I'm sorry, it's just... I can't believe I'm going to die in a secret Russian lab... with Steve Harrington and Colleen Raynes. Two years ago, if you would have told me I'd die with the school asshole and the weird scar girl, I would have called you crazy."

          Colleen blinks slowly at the floor, exhaling deep. They really are going to die in here, and nobody will be able to find them. "Hopper," she says quietly.

          "What?"

          "Hopper," she repeats. "My name is Colleen Hopper. I'm not Raynes anymore." She takes a breath. "I haven't been for a long time."

          There's a beat of quiet before Steve lifts his head and leans it back against the headrest. "Collie," he murmurs weakly. "Do you remember the Halloween party last year? At Henry's house?" Slowly, she nods. "All the lights burst and the TV burned out and the stereo broke." He stares up at the ceiling, unable to meet her eyes. "I knew that was you."

          She stares at him, her lips and tongue refusing to work any longer.

          "I don't know how, but I knew. And I remember you ran out, all drunk and crying and everything. And I was, too, believe me." He's vaguely aware that Tony has woken up as well, his eyes open and head lifted. But he keeps going. He doesn't care anymore. "I tried to go after you, but when I got through everyone... you left. And I-"

          He's cut off as the door opens again and the general, his men in his wake, file inside, followed by a new man clad in a white lab coat and carrying a silver container.

          "Ah," says the general, pausing between the four teenagers. "I am glad to see everyone is awake. I think you will want to be for this."

          They watch as the man in white produces from the container a vial of blue serum, which he attaches to a long syringe. The needle tip glints in the fluorescent light. "Woah, woah," says Tony, "what's that?"

          The doctor flicks the vial, then grins. "It will help you talk." He moves towards Colleen, then grabs a fistful of her hair and yanks her head to the side. She's only able to scream before he readies the needle, then sticks it into her neck.