Chapter Text
[At Rink-o-mania]
The EMTs have arrived. They make sure Angela is alright. Jonathan and Argyle are now there. El is crying and shaking while sitting in a booth. They are all driving home in Argyle's pizza van. Argyle and Jonathan explain to El that everything is going to be okay. They get home, and immediately call out for Joyce. Murray is there? Cooking? "Well, well! Aren't you lot a sight for sore eyes, eh?" Murray calls out to the group of kids. "Hi, Murray." Jonathan waves, "You kids like risotto?" Murray asks, "Yeah." Jonathan states, obviously high. They all are at the dinner table eating, some, trying to eat. Murray explains why he's staying there. Joyce and Murray are planning to see Hopper, they don't tell the kids that. They lie and say she's going on a business trip. Murray catches on to Jonathan and Argyle being high. They are trying to keep up with what has happened. Mike made a snarky comment, which made El leave the table and storm off to her room. When El gets into her room she lays down and thinks about what happened. She gets flashbacks from when she was in the lab with Dr. Brenner.
[Back at Benny's Burgers with the basketball team]
Lucas wakes up and sees that everyone is gone. He hears noises coming from outside so he checks it out. It's the basketball team loading up their car for something. Lucas asks what they are doing. They said gearing up, preparing for the hunt. The hunt of Eddie Munson. They said they aren't killers, just want to chat with him. Lucas said that he'll help.
[Back at Reefer Rick's]
Eddie heard someone coming. He jumped out of the boat and ran to the window to check it out. The door slams open, "Jesus chri-!" Eddie screams at them. It's just Dustin, Robin, Steve, and Max. "Delivery service!" Dustin happily tells Eddie. They all smile at Eddie. Eddie is stuffing his face with 'Honey Combs' and drinking 'Yoohoo' They tell him they have good and bad news. The bad news is that the police are looking for him, they think he killed Chrissy. The good news is that his name hasn't gone public yet. "But, if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you." Robin explains the situation to him, "Hunt the freak. Right?" Eddie asks her, "Exactly." Robin confirms, "Shit." Eddie curses to himself. "So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence." Dustin lays it out, "That's all? Dustin? That's all?" Eddie asks sarcastically, "Yeah, no, that- that's pretty much it." Obviously Dustin has no idea what to do. "Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but, we've actually been through this kind of thing before. I mean, they have.. a-a few times, and- and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this." Robin explains with her hands, "Yeah, see we usually rely on this girl who has super powers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, so uhh..." Steve chimes in, "So we're technically in, in- in more of the..-" "Kindaaa.." Steve tries to explain, "Brainstorming phase." Max helps, "Brainstorming." Steve snaps his fingers. "There- There's- There's nothing to worry about." Dustin sounds doubted. They smile a fake smile at Eddie. They hear sirens wailing outside. "Shi-" Steve whispers to himself, "Tarp. Tarp. Tarp!" Robin tells Eddie to hide. He lays back down into the boat covering himself with the tarp. The rest of the gang rushes to the windows to figure out what's going on. The police are actually going somewhere else.
[At the crime scene]
Nancy is talking to the police about what happened that night. Steve's car pulls up to the crime scene. Steve, Robin, Max, and Dustin get out of the car. Nancy waves. Steve waves back. Nancy smiles at one of them, probably Steve. The police are still asking her questions but she is completely ignoring them.
Nancy's POV
"And after you talked to Wayne, what happened?" The police chief asks Nancy. "I heard barking from the dog, and then he was just- gone." Nancy explains to him, "See anyone lurking about? You know, someone who looks like they shouldn't be there?" Officer Callahan asks her. "No. No, no the- there was no body there!" Nancy frantically explains, " 'Nobody' ." Officer Callahan says while writing something down. "And, I already told this to Officer Daniels. Did you look into Victor Creel?" Nancy asks Officer Daniels. "Sorry, what's that?" The police chief says, "Victor Creel. Wayne got it in her head that the old nut did this." Officer Daniels fills him in. "Victor's locked away tight, hon. You don't need to worry about him, alright? Now, you said last you saw Fred, he was by the picnic tables. Do I have that right?" The chief is back to asking questions, Nancy sees Steve's car pull up. "Ms. Wheeler? He was by the picnic tables. Is that correct?" He asks her again. Nancy watches as Robin, Steve, Dustin, and Max pile out of his car. She sees Robin. Robin. She feels relieved when she sees her. Nancy smiles and waves at them. Well, it was actually for Robin, but she didn't notice. Steve was the one that waved back, of course. She's not even paying attention to the police anymore. She's too busy looking at everyone, mainly Robin though. Nancy smiles one more hopeful smile towards Robin's way.
[At the Byers' household]
Will and Mike are sitting at the table trying to eat breakfast. Mike notices El still hasn't gotten her eggos he made her. Jonathan suggests they go watch Police Academy 3, Will said they should just stay home today. Cool down. Mike gets up and takes the eggos to El. He knocks on her door, "Hey, El. I, um, made you some eggos but they're getting kinda cold." Mike tries to tell her, she ignores him. He enters her room. "Hey, that's cool. Hop's cabin, right?" Mike asks, she nods her head. He places the plate of eggos next to her. They start to get into a deep conversation. "I am different. I do not belong." El explains to him, "You mean in Lenora?" Mike is confused. "Anywhere." El starts to tear up, "Come on, y- you can't actually believe that." "Everyone looks at me like, like I'm a monster." "Well, they just don't know you." "You think I'm a monster too." "What?" "Yesterday. The way you looked at me. You- You were- You were scared of me." "No, no, ugh. No that's not- that's- that's not true. I was surprised. Uh, maybe I was a little upset in the moment, but, I mean, I'm sorry I just- I didn't know what to do. I mean it just it was so crazy. It happened so fast. But- it doesn't change anything. It doesn't matter. I- I care for you.. so much." " 'Care' . But you don't.. you don't love me anymore?" "Wha- Who. Who said that I didn't." "You never say it." "I say it." "You can't even write it, Mike. From Mike. From Mike. From Mike. From Mike. From. FROM!" "O-Okay, Okay, Okay! Okay. Okay. Eleven you're being ridiculous. Wh-Wha What like.. What is this?! Yo- You know what I think of you. You're the most incredible person in the world. And you can't let these mouth breathers ruin you. Ruin us! I mean they're nobodies! They're nobodies. And you're a superhero." Mike rants to her. El is crying, she pauses to think, "Not anymore." Will and Jonathan are downstairs watching TV. They hear the doorbell ring. "Ten bucks says mom forgot something." Will bets Jonathan. "Yeah. I'm not taking that bet." Jonathan says as he walks over to the door. He opens it. It's the police, "Hi, does uh Jane Hopper live here?" The officer asks Jonathan, "Uh, yeah. Um, what is this about?" Jonathan asks confused. "Is Jane's father or mother around?" "Uh, no, no her- her mom's outta town. Um, I'm her brother. Um, stepbrother. But, uh.. I'm sorry what.. uh, what is this about?" Jonathan asks the officer, "You may or may not be aware of an incident that happened last night involving Jane at the Rink-o-mania." The officer says seriously. "That was an accident." Will defends her. "We have a warrant here that says otherwise." One of the officers back up why they're here. "A warrant? Co- Come on, that's crazy. That doesn't need to happen." Jonathan stands his ground, "Hey there. .. You Jane Hopper?" The officer asks her. They handcuff El. Explaining her the laws of getting arrested. Mike and Jonathan start arguing with the cops while they are dragging her into the cop car.
[Outside of Eddie's trailer at the picnic table.]
"So, you're saying that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, It's from the Upside Down?" Nancy gets this straight, "If the shoe fits." Steve answers. "Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse. Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know." Dustin fills her in, "All we know is that, this is something different. Something new." Max adds on, "Doesn't make sense." Nancy can't wrap her head around this. "It's only a theory." Dustin tries to ease things up, "No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense. I mean, why them?" Nancy is curious, "Maybe they just were in the wrong place. They were both at the game." Dustin suggests, "And near the trailer park." Max realizes, "We're at the trailer park. Uhhh, should we maybe not be here?" Steve trails off. "There is something about this place. Fred started acting weird the second we got here." Nancy remembers, "Acting weird as in?" Robin asks. "Scared, on edge, upset." Nancy explains. "Max said Chrissy was upset too." Dustin states, "Yeah, but, not here. She was crying in the bathroom, at school." Max corrects him. "Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right? So, maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman.-" Robin thinks, "Vecna." Dustin corrects Robin, "I don't know about you guys, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone." Steve says. "Maybe they did. I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelley's office. If you saw a monster, you.. you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your-" It hit Max, "Your shrink." Robin cuts Max off, she nods her head. They all start to walk to their cars. Nancy walks to hers instead of Steve's. "Woah, woah, Nance. Nance! Nance, where you going?" Steve calls out, "Oh, there's just, something I wanna check on first." She says pointing to her car, "Something you maybe wanna share with the rest of us?" Dustin screams out. "I don't wanna waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark." Nancy's insisting on going alone basically. "Yeah, okay. Are you outta your mind? Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. Alright, you need.. you need someone to... Here ya go, I'll stick with Nance alright? You guys take the car, check out the shrink." Steve says while tossing his keys to Robin. "I don't think you want me driving your car." Robin tries to tell him, "Why?" Steve asks, "I don't have a license." Robin says, "Why don't you have a license?" Steve thinks that's ridiculous. "I'm poor." Robin says with a slight frown, "I can drive." Max offers, "No, no! Never again. Please! Anybody but you. No." Steve yells at her, Dustin makes a 'what about me' face. "No chance." "Come on!" "No." Steve is insistent that the children aren't driving. "All right, okay, this is stupid. Us ladies will stick together. Unless, you think we need you to protect us?" Robin says sarcastically, with a shit-eating grin then sticking her tongue out ever so slightly. Steve makes a face at her. Robin walks away to Nancy's car. Nancy shrugs at Steve, like that didn't just make her slightly flustered. "Be careful!" Steve shouts at the both of them, earning a peace sign from Robin. Steve starts arguing with Dustin, telling everyone to get in the car.
[At someone's garage with the basketball team]
The basketball team pulls up to where 'Corroded Coffin' is practicing. They start asking where Eddie is. It ends up turning into a fight. They get some information out of Gareth. Saying that Dustin Henderson was looking for Eddie.
[At the Lenora Police Station]
Eleven is getting processed so she can be sent off to Juvenile hall. Jonathan, Will, and Mike are complaining to the lady and the front desk and then they leave.
[At the Hawkins Library]
Nancy and Robin arrive at the library. "Okay, help me get this straight. Eddie's uncle, Wayne, thinks that Victor Creel escaped from Pennhurst Asylum, and that he's the one running around Hawkins committing all these murders?" Robin makes sure she has this straight, "Pretty much." Nancy sounds annoyed. "But, Victor, committed the eyeball murders, like, way back in the 50's." Robin is a bit confused, "Well, '59." Nancy says with a bit of hope. "So, that means these murders predate Eleven in the upside down by about 30 years?" Robin is curious, "Yeah." Nancy quickly responds, "Which makes spooky Victor Creel like 70 years old." Robin kind of rambles, "Yup." Nancy has to be annoyed. Nancy rings the bell at the front desk. DING! "So, he's a grandpa murderer, who can turn invisible and lift people into the air." Robin says in a somewhat sarcastic tone. "It doesn't make sense. I know. That's why I said it was a shot in the dark." Nancy says as she rings the bell again. "I know. I just thought that by 'shot in the dark' you were being modest, or hiding something super solid up your sleeve that you were gonna wow us with later. But, this is like really, truly a shot in the dark. Like we are snipers with blindfolds on who've been spun around 50 times." Robin rambles. Nancy is continuously ringing the bell now. DING! DING! DING! "Coming!" The librarian hears the desperate dings. "Hi. Sorry, we're in a bit of a rush. Could we get the keys to the basement archives?" Nancy puts her best 'nice' tone on, "Of course, gimme one sec!" The librarian goes to the back. "Did I come off mean or condescending or something?" Robin quickly turns to Nancy, "No." Nancy says swiftly and nicely, "Right. Sorry. It's just you seem annoyed. You don't know me very well. I don't really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues." "Okay." "So if I say something that upsets you, just know that I know that it's a flaw. Believe me, my mother reminds me daily!" "Got it." Nancy seems so over this. "All right, ladies. Here ya go! Have fun." The librarian says as she's giving Nancy the keys. "Yup. We'll try." Nancy takes the keys. Robin shrugs at the librarian then follows Nancy down to the archives. They both are now looking at everything about Victor Creel that they can find. "Anything.. juicy? over there?" Robin decides to ask Nancy, "Nothing new." Nancy says with a fake nice tone, "Yep. Same here. Victor seemed like a normal guy. Dead family, missing eyes, took a plea deal, sent to Pennhurst. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah. What are we looking for exactly? Nance?" Robin waits for an answer, nothing, so she knocks a pattern into the machine. Nancy leans over to look at Robin. "Any mention of dark wizards or alternate dimensions? Things in that vein?" Robin adds a little hand gesture at the end. "I don't know, okay? It's starting to seem like this was just a big waste of time. And you're obviously bored. So, why don't you just call Steve? I'm sure he'll come pick you up. And, I mean I'm not really in danger here, so.." Nancy nods then storms off. Robin gets up and follows her down. "You do know that Steve and I are, like, totally not a thing, right? So, I figure that you and Jonathan are still going strong 'cause you guys are going to college together. And, you're like one of those unstoppable power couples, but I.. I just, I wanted to make sure that you knew that Steve and I are just friends. Like platonic with a capital P." Robin makes sure to get this all out. "First off, me and Jonathan broke up. So, no we are not a unstoppable power couple anymore." Nancy fills Robin in, "Oh, well, um. Just in case that's adding any tension between us." Robin continues her rant, "It wasn't." Nancy quirks up her tight lipped smile. "Holy shit. The Weekly Watcher. I can't believe they have this." "Don't they write about, like, bigfoot and UFOs?" Nancy remembers, "First of all, UFOs are absolutely real. Bigfoot I'm still on the fence about. But, may I remind you that we are looking for information on dark wizards? If someones gonna write about that, it's gonna be these weirdos." Robin reminds her. Nancy has a amused look on her face. They begin looking through it. "Ah. 'Elvis cloned by Aliens.' !" Nancy reads off the screen, "You never know." Robin states while looking at her. "Ugh." Nancy sighs out, "What?" Robin asks caught off guard, "It's you! I can't keep doing this!" Nancy practically yells at her, clearly upset. "W-What? Did I miss something?" Robin stumbles over her words, confused. "Never mind!" Nancy yells as she cups Robin's face, slamming their lips together. Robin freezes, shes shocked right now, tense. Nancy Wheeler is kissing me?!? Wow, I can get used to this, the taste of Nancy's soft lips; bubblegum chapstick. So many thoughts are running through Robin's head currently. Nancy smells really good. Like, sweet floral perfume and vanilla. Of course, how very Nancy. But she snaps back into reality, relaxes into the kiss. Robin decides to get bold. Robin stands up and puts her hands on either side of Nancy's waist, Robin pushes the shorter girl into the machine. One of Nancy's hands finds it's way to the bottom of Robin's hair, pulling gently, earning a small gasp from Robin. Robin's grip roughens and travels lower, to the dip right above Nancy's ass, soft moans escape Nancy's mouth. They deepen their kiss, getting as close as they possibly can to each other, Nancy's other hand is now gripping the collar of Robin's jacket very tightly. Robin is obviously using the height difference to her advantage. Then, all of the sudden, Robin must have pushed Nancy too hard into the machine, the whirring of the pages moving is audible. Robin opens one of her eyes to look at the screen, lips still locked with Nancy's. "Mmmm- Nance! Look! Victor Creel claims vengeful demon killed family. The murder that shocked a small community." Robin reads in a weird voice, "Ha, ha. That's very funny." Nancy sounds annoyed, again. "I'm not kidding. Turn around." Robin says in a serious tone, causing Nancy to turn around and look. "According to several insiders, Victor believed his house was haunted by an ancient demon. Victor allegedly hired a priest to exorcise the demon from his home. Pretty novel for the '50s. 'Exorcist' wasn't even out yet." Robin continues reading, "Ke- K-K-Keep going." Nancy wants to know more. Robin scrolls further down, "Okay, so Victor claimed this exorcism failed, but it angered this demon, which then murdered his family, removing their eyes. Victor believed he was spared as a punishment." "Yeah, well that's pretty convenient for Victor." "Yeah, or, super inconvenient. Victor was declared legally insane by the court, right? Well, what if this is why? I mean, it sounds pretty insane. It just didn't go public because-" "The plea bargain. Th-The records were sealed." Nancy definitely had a light bulb in her mind. "What if a demon did invade Victor's home? It's just, this demon wasn't any old demon." Robin explains, "It was Vecna." Nancy says, Robin nods. They get up and start leaving, but Nancy grabs Robin by the wrist. "We'll talk about what just happened later, alright? I don't just want to forget this. But first let's go find Vecna." Nancy says in a commanding tone, "Oh, uh, right yeah. Sounds good." Robin is flustered by the thought, Nancy releases Robin's wrist from her grip. They exit the building.
Nancy's POV
They pull up to the library. Robin is rambling to her, her tone and actions come off as if she's annoyed. She's not. She is just is trying to keep her cool around Robin, trying not to do anything that would express her feelings for the taller girl. Being around her is certainly not helping this situation. Is Nancy even sure she likes Robin? I mean shes known that she has always liked girls, but she just tried to push it aside. Be 'normal' like everyone else would want her to be. So, she would get with Steve and eventually Jonathan. But, if she's being honest there was nothing even there for them, yeah she loved them. Did she love them like that, though? She couldn't even say 'I love you' to them. This is new, this is scary. "It's Robin though, it'll be fine." She thinks. Yeah right. When they were looking through the archives things got a lot harder. More tension in the air, closer proximity. Nancy got to a breaking point. She just couldn't handle it anymore. She snapped, but in a good way, I guess? "Ah, 'Elvis Cloned by Aliens.' !" Nancy read the screen, not amused. "You never know." Robin says in that somewhat cocky, hot, raspy voice of hers. She loses it. "Ugh." Nancy sighs out, upset that she can't handle this anymore. Earning a concerned, "What?" From Robin. "It's you! I can't keep doing this!" Nancy gets frustrated, "W-What? Did I miss something?" Robin is at a loss for words right now. "Never mind!" Nancy yells out and just goes for it. She cups Robin's face, charging at her lips. "Oh, no. Did I do something wrong? Did I read this wrong? She's not moving." Nancy thinks, about to pull away. Just then, Robin kisses her back. Nancy feels so relieved that she possibly feels the same. The smell of Robin is so intoxicating. She smells like pumpkin spice and cologne in the best way possible. Her lips are gentle yet hungry, the taste of her sweet cherry chapstick. It's all maybe a bit too much for Nancy. Robin stands up, gripping her waist and pushing her into the machine. Nancy could die right now. Her knees start to buckle at this gesture, but she keeps her composure, leaning into the machine more. Nancy brings one of her hands up to Robin's neck, then to the hairs above it. She tangles her fingers into Robin's hair pulling gently, Robin lets out a small gasp, making Nancy crack a small smile at that. Nancy is sure that her face is bright red now. Robin's grip on Nancy gets rougher and lower, Nancy can't help but to softly moan at the action. Robin tries to say something with their lips still together. Robin then backs off saying something. Nancy misses the touch. They talk about what the article says. Then, they are going to leave and notify the others about what they found. But, Nancy wants to make sure her and Robin talk about what happened, just not now. Another time. Time to focus on Vecna. Bring him down.
[At the school counselor's house with Max, Dustin and Steve]
Max is at the door, she rings the doorbell multiple times. Ms. Kelley opens the door surprised to see her, "Max. Hi." Max plays it cool, "Hi. I'm so sorry to bother you over break, but.. do you have a minute to talk?" Max asks. "Um, yeah, of course. Of course." The counselor says as she lets Max inside. "Okay, she's in." Steve says to Dustin, "I'm missing collarbones, not eyes." Dustin is being a sarcastic jerk, like always. "It's just, with everything that's happening, with all the murders, it's.. it's making everything worse again." Max tells the counselor, "You've experienced trauma, Max. And, when you keep your feelings, your pain, bottled up the way you do, it doesn't take much to trigger them again. So now, when it rains, it storms." The counselor explains to her, "Yeah, I know." Max says in a sort of annoyed tone. "Do you think you're ready to talk more, about that night?" Ms. Kelley makes sure Max is comfortable. "I live next door to where it happened." Max blurts out, "I'm sorry?" The counselor gets confused, "To where Chrissy was murdered. The cops asked me a bunch of questions. Did they talk to you? I mean, I know you were seeing Chrissy." "Max, you know I can't talk about Chrissy, or any other student." "Yeah, but, I mean, what if there was a serial killer on the loose in my neighborhood? Did Chrissy mention anything? Anything about who might've done this?" "Max, I'm- I'm sorry, I- I really can't discuss this. You wouldn't want me talking to any other students about you, right?" Max thinks about what she said, "If I were dead and it would help catch the killer, then yeah, I most definitely would." "Well, let's leave that up to the police, shall we?" Ms. Kelley tries to be as nice as possible about this. "Yeah, you're right. The police totally have this under control. .. Can I use the bathroom?" Max sounds like she has something up her sleeve, "Sure. Up the stairs, to the left." "Thanks." Max says as she gets up. Max sees the keys to her office in the kitchen, she looks back to see if Ms. Kelley is paying attention. She's not. Max grabs the keys and heads to the front door, leaving. She runs to the car and gets in, she tells them to "Just drive."
[At Dustin's house]
The basketball team are looking to see if anyone is home. There is no one home. They were hoping to see Dustin. Lucas sneaks into Dustin's room by going through the window above his bed. He rushes over to the radio to talk to Dustin, "Dustin. It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin?" "Lucas? Where the hell have you been?" "Just listen. Are you guys looking for Eddie?" "Yeah, and we found him, no thanks to you." "You found him?" "He's at a boat house on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry. He's safe." "You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?" "That's bullshit. Eddie tried to save Chrissy." "Then why do all the cops say he did it?" Max snatches the walkie from Dustin, "Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at the school. We'll explain later." Lucas sighs, "I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down." Max still has the walkie, "What are you talking about? What bad shit?" Lucas gets caught by the basketball team. He left Max hanging. Lucas leaves Dustin's room. Lucas told the team where Eddie is hiding.
[Somewhere in California]
El is in the police van, getting transported. She gets flashbacks from the lab and the events at 'Rink-o-mania' She hears tires screeching so she looks outside and sees a bunch of black sedans following in pursuit. The cars pull ahead of the van, stopping it. A woman steps out one of the sedans and head over to the policeman driving the van. "Are you transporting a Jane Hopper?" The woman asks the policeman, "Yeah, what is this?" "I'll take her off your hands." She shows her badge and ID. He gets out of the van opening the back doors to let Eleven out. El swings open the doors knocking down the policeman, she tries to runaway and escape but the guys in the suits hold her back. She sees Dr. Owens get out of one of the cars. "Hey, kiddo." Dr. Owens greets her.
[In Alaska on the plane]
Joyce and Murray's plane arrive in Alaska. Joyce wakes up Murray so they can get off of the plane. The weather is very brutal there.
[Back to Nancy and Robin at the library]
They walk out of the library. Robin has the walkie, "Dustin, do you copy?" Dustin responds, "Yeah, I copy." "So, Nancy's a genius. Vecna's first victims date back all the way to 1959. Her shot in the dark was a bull's-eye." "Okay, that's uh, totally bonkers, but I can't really talk right now." "Wait, what are you doing?" "Breaking and entering in the school to retrieve some confidential and extremely personal files." "Can you repeat that?" "Just get your ass over here, stat. We'll explain everything." Nancy starts talking to Robin, "I thought they were talking to Ms. Kelley." "We leave them alone for two hours." Robin says annoyed, putting the walkie away.
[At Hawkins High]
Max puts the key in the door, unlocking it. They all head inside. It's the counselor's office. Max sees the filing cabinet and goes straight to it. "Holy shit." Max exclaims, looking through the files. "You found it?" Dustin's curious, "Yeah, and not just Chrissy's file. Fred was seeing Ms. Kelley too."
[At Hopper's Cabin]
The basketball teams pulls up to Hopper's cabin with weapons. Looking for Eddie. They make a plan and tell everyone their positions. They head towards the house.
[At the County Line Cafe]
"Sorry about all the theatrics out there. I- I didn't mean to scare ya. But, uh, you got yourself into quite the little predicament, didn't you? You know, I-I relocated you guys to Lenora because I thought, you know, 'Safe town, small, dull, far from Hawkins.' 'Nothing could happen here.' And what was it, a roller skate or something?" Dr. Owens is talking to El. "Ready to order some food?" The waitress asks them, "I think so. Yeah. I'll just uh, some more coffee and, um, I'll have a uh-uh. How about the club special? Whatever you want, kiddo. It's on me." Dr. Owens tells El. "Waffles, please." El orders, "Never too late in the day for breakfast, that's what I say." Dr. Owen jokes, "Am I in trouble?" "For the roller skate thing? No, no, no, no. We'll make that go away. Don't even.. don't even worry about that." "That's not why you're here?" "To be honest with you, kid, I-I.. I wish it was. Last night, I saw something. Something I've been dreading for some time. I don't know how to say this other than just to say it. Hawkins is in danger. You have fought this evil before and you've won. But this evil, it's like a virus. Each time it returns, it comes back stronger, smarter, deadlier. A war is coming to Hawkins." Dr. Owens explains to El.
[At Hopper's Cabin]
The basketball team look inside. No one is there. Lucas lied to them to protect Eddie. "You sure Eddie was here?" Jason asks Lucas, "Yeah, I- I'm- I'm positive." Lucas tells him. "Let's check around the back. Around the back!" Jason orders everyone and they follow. Lucas sees this as a chance to run for it, so he does. Dr. Owens continues talking, "There are good people, brave friends, who have helped you fight your battle in the past. But they alone can't win this war, not without you. I know it's not fair to ask more of you, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't think this was the only way, if I didn't think you were the only one who might have a shot to hit this thing so hard it can't get back up." El leans forward, "I don't have my powers." Dr. Owens puts his hand out to tell her to 'wait' , "What if I told you there was a way.. a way to bring them back. I feared this moment would come, so I've been preparing, developing the means to restore your abilities. A program that has the potential to not just bring them back, but bring them back stronger than before. But there are others who don't believe in you, who think you are the cause. I believe they're wrong. I believe you're the cure. That's why, if we're really gonna do this, I'm gonna ask that you leave with me now. But you should know there is a very real possibility this program fails. And if it does, you will never see your friends again." He tells her her choices, "My friends, in Hawkins, are they in danger?" El asks, Dr. Owens pauses, "I'm afraid your friends in Hawkins are very much.. in the eye of the storm. You may feel you need to go to them now, but if you do, you will risk everything, risk everyone. They're not the only ones in danger. It's life as we know it. This is why I'm here. Because I believe you are our best hope. Our only hope." El leans forward, "What if I'm not good? What if I'm the monster?" "I don't know you that well, kiddo, but I'm betting the fate of the planet that you're one of the good ones. But I know you have spent too much of your life being told what to do by people like me. I know that. So, you say the word and I will take you right back home. Or... come with me now. Find out for yourself." El decided to leave with him, because by the time the waitress came with their food they were gone.
[At Hawkins High]
Max looks through Chrissy's file and it says headaches and other symptoms that she has also been having, "Can I see Fred's file?" She asks Steve, he responds with a "Yeah." Steve hands Max his file. It reads: severe headaches, nosebleeds, constant nightmares, past trauma. She's had those exact symptoms too. Dustin knows that something is up, "Max, what is it?" She starts to space out. She hears a clock chiming. BLAM! There's a mysterious voice calling her name, "Max." It's Vecna. She turns around to investigate where it's coming from.
[At the Byers' House]
Cars pull up outside. Johnathan, Mike, and Will run over to the door to check it out. The walk out there and see the agents.
[Back to Max at Hawkins High]
Max walks out of the room to go see where the noises are coming from. Tick Tock Tick Tock... BLAM! The chiming catches her attention so she walks towards the noise. Tick Tock Tick Tock... She turns the corner and there it is. Vecna's clock. BLAM! She walks even closer to it. BLAM! She gets really close to it. "Max." The voice calls out again.