"Scoops Troop, do you copy?" Mike says into the walkie-talkie, pacing back and forth in front of the mall fountain. Will watches him from where he's sitting at a table with Lucas, Max, and El. "Scoops Troop, do you copy?"

Although he knows he wasn't completely in the wrong, Will can't help feeling guilty about everything that went down with Mike, and now he's starting to feel guilty for feeling guilty.

"Are you okay?" Lucas asks from beside him, playing with his slingshot. Will pulls his eyes away from Mike, only to realize Lucas, Max, and El are all staring at him.

Will raises an eyebrow. "I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you've been acting weirder than normal." Lucas knocks his slingshot on the table. "I know there's the stuff with Mike, but if whatever else you're hiding from us is bothering you, we can help."

His mind jumps to his supposed powers, which he still had to talk to El about. But he can't do that now. Not with everyone else around. "It's nothing, Lucas. I'm fine."

"Scoops Troop," Mike continues by the fountain, "I repeat, do you copy? We're trapped in the mall and in need of emergency transportation."

Lucas puts down his slingshot and looks Will dead in the eyes. "You didn't seem fine when you were bleeding out of your nose."

His cheeks burn. "I don't want to talk about this."

"Then what do you want to talk about, Will? Do you want to talk about Mike? Do you want to explain what's really going on between you two?"

"Lucas," Max hisses, tilting her head towards El who's staring at everyone with furrowed brows.

"Scoops Troop, do you copy?" Mike's voice echoes. "Billy has found us. He has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall. Repeat: Billy has disabled our car and we are trapped in the mall."

When neither Lucas nor Will say anything, El frowns. "What do you mean by what's really going on between them?"

"Nothing," Will says quickly. "We've just been fighting, that's all."

"But what happened?" El asks. "Before you were fighting, what were you going to talk to me about?"

"I just-" Will worries his lip. "I just wanted to tell you what was going on, I guess." He shakes his head, hearing Mike's voice when he said you haven't been a very good friend yourself. The tears in Mike's eyes. "Maybe Dustin's right. I should apologize to him."

"Um, what? No." Leaning forward, Max grabs Will's hand and squeezes it. "You're not going to do shit. The only one who should be apologizing is Mike. He has no right to treat you like garbage, so you shouldn't let him."

"He's not really treating me like garbage; it's just... he's confused." Sighing, Will nods to Lucas. "What do you think I should do?"

"Honestly? I have no clue." He puts a hand up. "I mean, I want everyone on good terms, too, but Max has a point. Mike was the one who pushed you, not the other way around, so it is only fair that he apologizes to you."

Will groans the loudest he's ever groaned before and drops his head in his hands. His friends pat his back.

"But maybe Dustin is sort of right," Lucas adds and raises his hands quickly when Max eyes him. "About trying to figure out your shit, I mean. He's not right about apologizing to Mike. No way. Both of you have to be willing to talk to each other in the first place for him to apologize. But I do think figuring out how to work with each other right now is the smart idea. It's better that you guys can at least handle being near each other without fighting. In case we all need to work together to defeat the Mind Flayer."

"We won't," Max insists, gesturing to El. "We've got El to protect us."

"When she can barely walk? We have the fireworks, which will definitely work by the way, but everyone needs to be together on this. The party's always strongest when we're together."

"Will's mom and Hopper are going to close the gate, and we'll be fine. We don't have to defeat the Mind Flayer ourselves."

"We don't know that," Will mutters.

Max watches him carefully before standing from the table. "Can I talk to you alone?" She ignores the stares from Lucas and El. He stands up and follows her to an empty shop, past where Nancy is inspecting the body of a Russian guard.

"So," Max says, "you haven't talked to El yet, have you?"

Will frowns. "No. Haven't had the chance."

"You need to do it soon. If the reason you haven't talked to her about it yet is because you want to keep it some sort of secret, then you're already past that. At this point, everyone knows something's up. I mean, you blew the lights up. Everyone saw it. The cat's out of the bag. You need to know what to do about it if that thing really does come after us, after El."

Will and Max look each other in the eyes, and he knows she's right. His shoulders slump. "Okay, okay. I'll talk to her."

He starts to head back to the table, but Max pulls him back, lowering her voice. "Sorry, just... before you do that, I'm curious... did something else happen with you and Mike?"

Will gapes at her, a bolt of panic firing through him.

"I mean, you two are really angry at each other. Like really angry."

He swallows, knowing he can't betray Mike by telling her the truth. Yes, Mike hurt him, but if he does this, he'll be no better. And yet, the urge to get this off his chest is immense. "I don't know what you want me to say," was all he could muster up.

"Seriously, Will. What happened with Mike?"

"Don't you already know?"

She puts her hands in the air, palms up. "All you've told me is you had a fight with Mike, he won't leave you alone, and he said he was in love with El even though he's obviously in love with you."

"He's not in love with me. He hates me."

"Oh, come on, Will." Max squeezes his shoulder. "He doesn't hate you. He's just being an idiot."

"No, no, he hates me." He sighs. "When I told him I was in love with him, he said I can't because it's not right."

Max raises her eyebrows. "What? He said that just now?"

"No, at the cabin. He wants things to go back to the way they were before, but I don't think they can."

"Yeah, definitely. Not after he said that to you. Hey." She puts a hand on his. "Just so you know, he's wrong."

He bows his head. "Is he, though?"

"Yes. Will, you can't think that he's right. He's not. He's lost his mind."

Her words bring him no comfort. Looking away, he hugs himself. "I think I hurt him."

"What do you mean?"

"When we were arguing, I think... I don't know. I think what I said hurt him."

Max scrunches up her nose. "You think you hurt his feelings? Well, that's bullshit. If you hurt him, he deserved it after everything he's been doing to you."

He wants to believe her, but the more he thinks about the look on Mike's face during their argument, how Mike was almost crying, the more he wishes he'd never even gotten angry at Mike in the first place. "Max, that's not fair. I don't care what he did to me; I don't want to hurt him."

"You're too good for him."

"He didn't always act like this, you know, and I've done shitty things too. He's just..."

"Will, stop trying to give him excuses. He did what he did, he has to pay for it and own up to it, and once he's ready to apologize and change, then you can forgive him." She sighs when Will's face contorts. "I'm sorry. I get it. You've known each other longer than I have, and obviously your relationship is complicated, but just remember not to let him take advantage of you. Don't let him string you along."

"I'm not going to."

He knows the look she's giving him right now, a solemn smile on her lips, is out of pity, but no matter how much she disapproved, he knows he can never truly let go of Mike. Over at the table, Lucas continues to practice with his slingshot as El watches. Mike is still pacing over by the fountain.

Will and Max move to where Jonathan is watching Nancy pull a gun off a Russian guard's dead body. "You're gonna kill him, aren't you?" Max asks.

"This is just a precaution, okay?" Nancy assures her.

"And not just against Billy," Will says. "If he knows we're here, so does the Mind Flayer."

Mike continues with the walkie-talkie, "Scoops Troop, I repeat, we are in need of emergency transportation. Do you copy? Scoops Troop, do you copy?"

"No chance that thing'll drive, right?" Nancy says, gesturing to the car El had flipped over.

"We don't need it to drive," Jonathan says, his eyes widening. "We just need the ignition cable."

Will, Max, Jonathan, and Nancy all look to each other before rushing over to the car. Currently, its hood is blocked by the wall, and the only way to get the ignition cable is if they get the car back on its wheels. Nancy calls Lucas, El, and Mike over and explains what they need to do.

Before everyone starts to push the car, Max nudges Will. "Hey," she says, "maybe you should talk to El about you-know-what right now. While we get the ignition cable."

Will glances at El who's hobbling to the side, barely able to stand on her own. "Yeah, okay." He goes over to her, nodding to one of the tables. "Hey, El, do you want to sit down?"

"Oh, no." She puts her hand on the car to steady herself. "I'm fine. I can help."

From a few feet away, Mike gestures to them. "El, I think you should sit down. We can push the car down ourselves."

Will squints at him, trying to see what Mike's getting at, but Mike looks back at him with sincerity. Beside Will, El shuffles her feet. "Okay."

As everyone helps push the car, Will and El sit down at one of the tables. She looks like she hasn't slept in a month. Folding his hands together, he leans forward. "How are you doing?"

She blinks before giving him a smile. "I'm okay."

"I'm sorry about earlier. With Mike. I didn't mean to throw you in the middle of everything."

"It's okay. I was just confused what happened."

"How-" He struggles to come up with the right words to ask her. "How do you do it? Your powers, I mean. How do you... how do you control them?"

Her eyebrows knit together, and Will knows he needs to explain further. "How exactly... how did you know you had powers?"

She bites her bottom lip. "I've had them for as long as I can remember."

"But how... I mean, how exactly do you know how to use them? How do they work?"

"Papa taught me. He had me do tests, and I just knew what to do."

"Oh... right." He wrings his hands together. "But – when you use them... is there a certain thing you think about? What do you do exactly?"

"I..." She furrows her eyebrows. "I focus on the anger."

"Anger?"

She nods. "I find something that angers me, and I channel it."

"You... channel it?"

She nods again.

"Do you ever wish you didn't have powers?"

"Sometimes." She looks him in the eyes. "Will?"

"Yeah?"

"When the Mind Flayer took over you, could anyone reach you?"

He pauses, furrowing his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Your friends. When they spoke to you, did you hear them? Did you know what was going on?"

Will thinks back to the year before. The Mind Flayer inside him. How the only thing to bring him back, to get him to keep fighting and gain an ounce of control, was his family and Mike. "When – when the Mind Flayer had me under his control," Will explains, "I was able to break through because of my family. When they were in the shed, and they were telling me stories, memories, I was able to come through. Take back control of a part of myself."

"Memories?"

"Happy ones. Important ones, I guess. Like, my brother talked to me about the night we built Castle Byers. My mom, she was talking about a ship I drew once, and she was really proud of it. And Mike, he... well, he talked about the first day we met."

El smiles. "That's nice."

"Yeah, it was."

"Are you still angry with him?"

That's a great question. Is he still angry with Mike? Everything in him is saying yes, but another part of him wishes things could go back to the way they were before. He hates himself for it. When he stares at El, all he can see is a girl who has no idea that Will betrayed her. How could he have been so stupid? El did nothing to him, all she ever was was nice, and he had to go and kiss her boyfriend.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"You didn't answer."

"Oh, right. Well..."

The others groan from where they're trying to push the car off the wall. Will and El look at them, meet eyes, and then stand. Will helps El walk as they head over to the others. Mike looks up at them. "El."

She takes a breathe. "I can do it."

Although hesitant, everyone gets away from the car and stands behind El as she sticks her hand out and knits her eyebrows together. The metal of the car squeals. She lets out a yell, but the car stays in place.

Max walks forward and puts a hand on El's shoulder. "You're probably just burnt out. Maybe we should wait-"

"We don't have time to wait," Mike says. "Billy's out there, and the Mind Flayer's most likely almost here. We need to go. Now."

"Then what should we do?" Lucas asks.

Everyone stares at the car until Mike waves his finger. "I know." He grabs Lucas and Will's arms as if by instinct and pulls them with him to the other side of the food court. The others follow hastily behind except for Max who stays with El next to the car. When they reach where the car used to be in front of Sam Goody, Mike lets go of their arms and kneels down beside one of the queue line ropes.

"What is it?" Nancy asks.

Mike gestures to the posts attached to the ropes. "We can use these to push the car."

"How would that make a difference?" Jonathan asks.

"Simple physics," Mike says and begins explaining how it should work. In the meantime, Will kneels down beside him, unhooks the rope from off another post, and hoists the post up in his arm, balancing it over his shoulder.

When everyone goes quiet and stares at him, he shrugs. "Well, are we doing it or not?"

Mike blinks at him. When Will looks to Lucas, Lucas shrugs and grabs a post. The two of them start back to the car, and soon enough, everyone clambers back with posts in their arms. Max and El raise their eyebrows.

"Here," Will gives Max one and gestures to the car. "We're using these to move it."

Everyone gets to the side of the car, Will finding himself beside Mike, and positions their posts on the edge. They all push at the same time, and the car moves up onto its side.

"All right," Jonathan says, "now, all the way. Three... two... one. Push!" They heave, and the metal of the car squeaks as it falls upright.

Breathless, Mike says, "Told you. Physics."

Nancy and Jonathan struggle with the hood while Will goes to stand by Max, and Lucas and Mike talk a few feet away from them. "How do we get it open?" Nancy asks Jonathan.

"Uh, there should be a latch. Check under the wheel," Jonathan says. "You see it?"

"I don't know, hold on."

"What's she doing?" Max asks, and Will looks over to see El digging through a garbage can. He and Max meet eyes before walking over to her. When they reach El, she's staring at a Coke can.

"El," Max says, and El looks up from the can. "Are you okay?"

She doesn't answer, staring back at the can with a worried expression on her face. Mike trots up to them from behind. "Will, can we talk?"

Both Will and Max furrow their eyebrows at him. "Is now really the best time for this?" Max says.

Ignoring her, Mike's eyes focus on Will's. "I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have pushed you."

Butterflies form in Will's stomach. He's really doing it, isn't he? Mike's really apologizing. He stays quiet to allow Mike to go on. Max watches him warily.

"I mean, all I wanted was for things to go back to how they were before," Mike goes on, "and I just think things are really getting out of hand between us."

Will doesn't respond, unsure of what he could possibly say. This lack of response seems to make Mike grow uncomfortable. "Look," Mike says, lowering his voice. "I talked to Lucas, and he thinks I should apologize to you. And he's right. I should. I've been... I've been a total asshole, and I know I've said that before, but this time I mean it."

When Mike falls quiet, Max crosses her arms. "Is that it? That's all you have to say to him?"

Mike narrows his eyes but instead of aiming them at Max, he looks at Will. "Okay, I know you're upset, but I don't think you're being completely fair. I never told anyone about anything, and I assumed you'd have the sense not to either, but then you go and tell everyone? Even her?" He gestures to Max who sticks up her middle finger. "I don't know what more you want me to say."

As they stare at each other, neither of them saying anything, a sense of dread falls over Will. His hand moves to his tingling neck. He looks up, the sense growing stronger, to see the glass ceiling above them wavering. "Guys..."

They look at him warily until a rumbling reverberates in the distance. Max glances up, and her eyes grow wide. "Mike."

Mike's eyes move from Will to the ceiling as the glass bends and a low growl echoes from above. "Nancy!" he shouts before he, Will, Max, and El tear in the opposite direction. The glass shatters, the ceiling breaking open as the Mind Flayer cascades down into the middle of the food court.