We have finally reached the end of my version of season 3, and many things are happening in this one! This is one that's definitely changed from the original!

I know it's been pretty rushed, but I am VERY excited for what's to come in this story, and I think those still reading will be too :D

"What's he doing now? Max asked, as El turned to look at them, breathing hard. She stood and went to the kitchen sink and got herself a glass of water. Eggo, happy and now full of food, rubbed against El's legs, stopping and falling on her side, swatting at El's ankle. El crouched down to pet her. She had no clue how long Hopper had been gone, but she knew Eggo probably hadn't been fed for a few days, and her heart hurt at the thought. She'd probably thought she'd been abandoned. El picked her up and held her close to her chest as she finished her water.

"And that's not normal, right?" Nancy asked. Max looked at her.

"Billy staying in his room on the Fourth of July? No, that's not normal. Not at all."

"He wants us to find him." Will said.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of." Nancy said, arms crossed over her chest. "If we go to Billy, then the rest of the flayed know where we are."

"It's a trap," Mike agreed. "We'll be ambushed."

"We won't be surprised. We'll know that they're coming," Lucas said, looking around them and slamming his fist into his open palm, "and we will kick their flayed butts!"

"You mean El will kick their butts." Max replied.

El put the empty glass on the counter and leaned against it for a moment, letting out a sigh. She looked at the box of Lucky Charms Lucas had been eating out of, and picked it up as memories of what happened to her mother flashed through her mind.

Papa!

No.

Rainbow.

Three to the right, four to the left.

Sunflower. Rainbow.

"It's too risky." Jonathan said. Eggo crawled up to El's shoulder and purred directly into El's ear.

"Yeah, and unnecessary. Killing the flayed won't stop the Mind Flayer. We have to find out where it's spreading from. We have to find the source."

"Billy knows it. Billy's been there. To the source." El said as she walked back into the living room, Eggo still perched on her shoulder. El did the hook gesture with her finger at Mike and he smiled at her for a moment, before getting back to the problem at hand.

"Yeah, but-" Mike started.

"It's a trap. I know." she told him. "We can't go to Billy, but I think there's another way. A way for me to see where he's been."

El walked over to the TV and turned it back on, and as she settled on the floor, Mike knelt beside her. Eggo hopped around the two for a moment before getting on Hopper's chair, licking at her paws.

"El, I know you think you have to do this, but you don't." he said softly. She looked at him. "It's just, you've only done this once before. And your mom, she loved you, and wanted you to know what happened. And Billy's mind is... is sick, diseased. The Mind Flayer is in him."

"He can't hurt me. Not in there." The look in her eyes nearly killed him.

"We don't know that." he said, shaking his head. She turned her body towards him and took his hand.

"Mike." she whispered. "I need you to trust me."

"Yeah. I just… I…" he wanted to say it so badly, but instead, "I know. Just... be careful. Please."

"I will." she told him. He sat back in Hopper's chair, and she tied the blindfold around her head.

In the void, Billy sat on his bed, quite a distance away, staring at seemingly nothing. She slowly walked towards him, the closer she got, the more she noticed. The marks all over him, the sweat.

She leaned down and grabbed his hand. His fingers wrapped around hers but he didn't look at her.

"Billy." she whispered. "Can you hear me? I want to see. I want to see what happened." he looked up at her, and after a moment, he grabbed her arm, hard.

In the real world, she started breathing hard, fingers scraping at the carpet underneath her as though she were trying to grip onto something.

"Something's wrong." Mike said, immediately alert.

"Stop! No! No! No!" she fought him, and finally, he let her go, and suddenly, she was falling. "No!"

She screamed as she saw flashes, of Heather and Tom, of the monster attacking them. Heather in the bathtub. Billy getting attacked.

As she saw his car slam into a tree, she hit the ground, and she heard water splashing, but she was no longer in the void.

She stood, looking around as the waves crashed against her feet, looking around the beach. She heard Mike's voice, echoing around her.

"El, are you okay? Are you okay?" he repeated, ready to snatch the blindfold off her himself.

"I'm okay." she said, her breathing calming down.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I'm... on a beach." she said softly.

"Okay, I may be dense, but the last I checked, there weren't any beaches in Hawkins." Lucas said. Max rolled her eyes and asked,

"What else do you see?"

El looked around until she saw a blurry vision of a woman holding a yellow hat, wearing a flowy white dress.

"A woman. She's… pretty. I… I think she's looking at me."

"Woo! Yeah! You did it!" the woman exclaimed.

Then she saw a young boy running out of the water with a surfboard. He looked… familiar.

"There's… a boy."

"Did you see that?" he asked, excited.

"Yeah, I saw that!" she exclaimed, kissing him on the forehead.

"That was at least seven feet."

"I don't know what it was, but it almost gave me a heart attack." she laughed.

"Ten more minutes?" he asked sweetly. She looked out at the water for a moment, and then turned back to him.

"Yeah, okay, ten more minutes." she agreed.

"Okay."

"But any longer than that, Dad's gonna be mad, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Billy?" she called, and El realized. This was a memory. "Watch out for rip currents!"

"I know."

"It's Billy." El said.

"It's California. It's a memory." Max said quietly.

El heard thunder, and immediately looked in the direction of the sound. Dark, swirling clouds off in the distance, lightning flashing every few seconds.

"I think I see it. The source."

As she walked closer, she saw flashes of memories. Of Neil hitting him, calling him names, threatening him. Hitting Billy's mom. His mom leaving him with his dad. A memory of meeting Max and her mom for the first time, years ago. Memories of Neil hitting him and screaming at him over the years, and she saw moments where Billy acted exactly like his dad.

She walked closer, through the storm, until she finally stumbled upon a big warehouse, where most of the storm was coming from.

"I found it."

"Where, El? Where are you?" Max asked.

El turned to look at the sign at what seemed to be the entrance of the building.

"Brimborn… Steelworks."

Jonathan stood and rushed to the kitchen, grabbing the phone book and flipping through the pages as he looked for the name.

"Here. Okay, uh, steelworks, steelworks… Uh… Here, steel. Uh… Found it. Sixty-five twenty-two Cherry Oak Drive." he looked at the others.

"That's close." Nancy said.

"El, El, we found it. Get out of there. Get out."

Mike's voice echoed around her once more and she closed her eyes, focusing on coming out of the void. As she came out of it, everything happened in reverse. She saw everything that happened to Billy again, up until the moment she came into the void. She snatched the blindfold off, breathing hard, and looked around.

No one was there.

"Mike?" she asked, heart slamming against her ribcage as she looked around, as though he would just appear. "Mike? Mike?" she stood up, letting out a quiet cry as she sobbed out his name. "Mike! Mike!"

"He can't hear you." Billy's voice echoed as he walked out of Hopper's room. She stepped back, eyes widening.

"You shouldn't have looked for me." he said. "Because now I see you." he put a cigarette out in Hopper's ashtray, the noise loud in the silence. As he stepped closer to her, she stepped back. "Now we can all see you. You… let us in. And now… you are going to have to let us stay." tears were gathered in his eyes, in Billy's eyes. Not the Mind Flayer. This was the Mind Flayer speaking, speaking through him. "Don't you see? All this time, we've been building it. We've been building it… for you."

El continued backing away, warm tears rolling down her cheeks as he continued, her heart clenching with each word.

"All that work, all that pain… all of it... for you." El hit the table, and she clutched the sides, gasping for breath. "And now it's time. Time to end it. And we are going to end you." she scrambled away from the table, backing up towards the kitchen sink. "And when you are gone, we are going to end your friends."

"No!" she sobbed.

"And then we are going to end… everyone." a single tear ran down his face.

"Get away!" she screamed, throwing her hands out, tossing him through the air.

"No!" she screamed, yanking the blindfold off and turning to where Mike was supposed to be. "Mike!" she cried as he pulled her in his arms once again. She put a hand on his face, as though to make sure he was real as she gasped for breath between sobs, her entire body trembling.

"El, you're okay. It's... It's okay." he said, hugging her tightly, looking around the room at everyone else. She shook her head. "I got you, you're okay."

The group heard fireworks booming and squealing in the distance, but it did nothing to calm their nerves. Eggo was now hiding under a table by the door, terrified of the screams let out, and now the booming fireworks.

"He said he was building something. That it was all for me?" El said, looking around at them. She and Mike were still seated on the floor, limbs tangled together as Mike held her protectively. His heart stuttered every time he heard her hiccup, wiping stray tears away for her every time.

"Is it the flayed?" Max asked.

"It must be." Nancy scratched the back of her neck.

"So he is building an army." Lucas said, pacing back and forth.

"Yeah, but he's not building this army to spread-" Mike started, but Will interrupted.

"He's building it to stop El."

"I'm sure it really pissed him off last year when El closed the gate on him." Mike said. "He knows that once she's out of the way, it's game over." he shook his head.

"He also… said he was gonna… Gonna kill all of you." El croaked.

"Ah, yep, that's nice." Max muttered and Mike kicked her foot. She glared at him.

They heard the fireworks once again, but this time… something else.

Nancy walked closer to the window, pausing, before saying, "Do you guys hear that?"

"It's just the fireworks?" Jonathan said, coming out like a question.

"With Billy- you said it was here?" El nodded.

No one said anything for a moment, and Will slowly brought his hand up to the back of his neck.

"He knows we're here."

They all rushed outside, only to see the large, fleshy being stomping its way towards them, knocking down trees easily as it moved. They ran back into the house, immediately barricading every door and window they possibly could. Nancy went out to the small shed and grabbed the gun inside, and Jonathan snatched an axe out of a tree stump before rushing inside.

"Hey! Get away from the windows!" Nancy ordered, and everyone stood in a circle, backs to each other.

Dishes rattled, the light fixture shook.

"It's close." Will said quietly.

"Where's Eggo?" El demanded. There was quite frankly, nowhere for her to be hiding now. All the doors were closed, Hopper's room was blocked off. They hadn't seen her in the last few minutes.

A coffee mug fell off it's rack and shattered. The lights started flickering.

"Did someone leave the door open-" she started to ask, but suddenly, a shrieking tendril burst through the wall and everyone scattered, cutting her off quickly. El held her arms out in front of those closest to her, as if to protect them, and Jonathan began swinging the axe, hitting the tendril each time. It knocked him into the wall and he dropped the axe, and as it was about to attack him, Nancy began shooting it. She ran out of bullets and she was backed into the wall, and as it attacked, just meere inches from her face, it stopped.

It was El. After a moment of pure concentration, she ripped the claws off of it, and shrieking, it retracted the tendril.

Jonathan was still on the ground, and Nancy was against the wall, reloading. Everyone took heaving breaths- and before anyone could react, the roof had opened up and a giant, ugly head was poking it's way inside, groaning and squealing- a sound that would never leave them. It shot a tendril out of its mouth at the closest person, and it was too fast for anyone to react. Jonathan didn't have time to pick up the axe, Nancy was fumbling with the gun, and El was too busy distracted by two tendrils that broke through the walls at her. She heard a familiar scream- though one like she had never heard before, and even with her mind focused on tearing the tendrils apart, she looked to see what was happening.

"MIKE!" their friends were screaming, Will and Max holding onto his arms for dear life as the Mind Flayer used him as a tug of war rope.

"MIKE!" El screamed, and ripped the claws off of the tendrils once more as Jonathan finally got off the ground and joined Max and Will in trying to save Mike. More tendrils shot into the cabin before she could do anything to save her boyfriend, and she heard gunshots, and suddenly the sound of an axe ripping through meat. Mike was screaming and crying, using his other leg to kick at the tendril latched onto him.

El ripped the tendrils apart once again as Lucas- who was hitting the one that had a hold of Mike- finally cut him loose and Mike went flying towards the floor, landing hard between their friends.

El used every ounce of power she had to lift her hands up and split the head in two, causing it to finally real back and shriek, giving them time to assess the situation. She fell to her knees next to Mike, pulling him close to her as his chest heaved, and then someone ripped the end of the claw that was clinging to Mike's leg off, and his scream pierced everyone's hearts, the sound echoing in their ears.

He truly couldn't remember if he screamed. He just knew his eyes rolled into the back of his head as the world around him silenced and turned white, but only for a few seconds, before he was being hauled up and practically dragged out of the destroyed cabin. His head was foggy as they sped down the road- he heard people calling his name and speaking to him but he couldn't tell if he was responding or not.

"I'm so sorry." El cried into his ear, their sobs mixing together as Nancy sped down the road. "I'm so sorry, Mike." he couldn't make himself speak, not like he wanted to. He tried telling her everything was okay, but his words were slurred and broken through his sobs, and he could barely even understand what he was trying to say.

He remembered hearing the squealing of the brakes and wheels and thinking about how their mom wasn't going to like the mechanic bill after tonight, and then the sound of glass breaking, and suddenly, Max was directing everyone on what to do and where to go.

"I skateboard, trust me- I know what I'm doing."

"She skateboards." he muttered, his head felt heavy as he let it fall back, harder than he meant to as it made a loud noise when it hit the metal shelf. He could feel someone sitting next to him. "Ow."

"Mike- hey, Mikey, do you know who I am?" Nancy was a blur in front of him.

"He didn't get a head injury-" Max was saying, but was cut off.

"He had to have hit his head in the fall." Nancy said. "He hit the ground hard. Mike," she continued, looking at him. He squinted. "Who am I?"

"Nancy," he said. She pointed at a red blob. "M-Max."

"Good, good-"

"El?" he asked, trying to sit up a little. "Where-?"

"I'm right here." she said softly. She was the one sitting next to him. He sluggishly turned his head towards her, blinking a few times until his vision cleared a little.

"Are you okay?" he asked immediately. She looked absolutely exhausted.

"Don't worry about me." she told him. Max was doing something down at his feet, and flinched- hard- when she put pressure on his leg. He let out a small noise of confusion and hurt as he looked at her.

"We have to stop the bleeding." Max told him, grimacing as the gauze she held against his leg was already turning a dark shade of red.

"That's not good," he said simply.

"It isn't." she agreed.

Lucas and Will were taking too long to get whatever they had to get, and Nancy had wandered off a little ways down the aisle they were seated in, so Max and El traded places and Max took off to see where they were. Mike whimpered when El put pressure on his leg.
"I'm sorry." she told him.

"Not your fault." he replied.

"Yes it is." she said. "I opened the gate-"

"El… I'm too… I've had too much blood loss to… to argue with you about whether or not this is your fault... it's not." he shook his head, very much resembling a dog drying off. "I've told you… before, that it's not your fault. You didn't open the gate by choice. You were scared."

"It still hurt everyone. It hurt you."

"Better me than you." he replied, and before she could get a word in, he said, "El… I'm sorry that I've kept you inside all summer. I know you… you want to get school done, but I've been pushing you too hard and-"

"I've pushed myself too hard. Not you." she said, shaking her head.

"And I wanted to say I'm sorry, for not trying harder to take you to do things. I'm so happy that you had fun with Max. You and her should hang out more, and I'll stay out of you guys' hair."

"Mike…"

"And she's right, I guess, about a lot of things, but I promise you, all I was trying to do was protect because I… they say it, it makes you crazy."

"What? What makes you crazy?"

His eyes were a little wild, wide open and flickering back and forth between her and the items on the shelf behind her. "You never… you never heard that term?" she shook her head, raising her eyebrows at him. "Um, you know the saying. Blank makes you crazy? Like… the word." she looked at him, confused. "It's something old people say to each other-"

"Old people?"

"God, what I… I'm… why did I decide this moment to say this." he asked, mostly to himself, but definitely loud enough for her to hear.

She knew exactly what he was trying to tell her, and before he could finally get the words out, the supercom lying a few feet away from them started making noise. It was Dustin. El scrambled over to it and tried to speak to him, but there was too much static and they couldn't hear each other.

All too soon, everyone was back with the supplies Max had asked for. She removed the gauze from Mike's leg and placed a couple new pads down, standing on her knees and pushing what felt like most of her weight down on it.

"Fuck." Mike ground out, nails scraping against the floor. El explained to everyone else what happened with Dustin while they were gone, and how they couldn't understand anything he said.

"He probably forgot batteries." Will said. "Steve is always yelling at him about batteries."

Mike swore he'd never been in so much pain, not in his entire life. The initial attack was bad as it is, but now, the wound being cleaned with soap and water and then alcohol being poured on it? That shit burned and he nearly kicked the shit out of Max. He would have, if Lucas hadn't been helping hold his legs down.

Finally, once his leg was wrapped up and stinging like a bitch, El went into the void to look for Dustin. Everyone watched her, quietly snacking on various items Nancy promised she'd leave money for. But Mike knew his sister. She wasn't gonna leave a dime. El had to snap at them a few times for being loud, but finally, she found Dustin.

Then they were on the way to the mall, the car full of teens, snacks, and fireworks tied on top of the roof. They arrived, sneaking up the stalled escalators in case there were any guards, only to find a bunch of men in black roaming around the food court, one slowly walking up to one of the counters, where from their angle, four heads could be seen. The men below held guns. Big guns.

"Who the hell?" Lucas whispered, and Max kicked at him. She and Jonathan were currently holding Mike up. He could walk a little, but the strain on his leg was killing him.

The one closing in on the people hiding raised the gun, and with a flick of her head, El made the car alarm go off, distracting them. The men investigated, and she flung the car at them like it was a toy, knocking them all out.

Dustin, Steve, Erica and an unknown girl stood from their hiding spot, and the group up top rushed down, El taking over for Max.

Dustin hugged his friends, laughing as he told El,

"You threw that thing like a hot wheel!"

"A hot wheel?" she asked. She heard Lucas exclaiming his sister's name a few feet away.

"It's a toy." Mike told her. She nodded.

"What in the hell happened to you?" Steve asked, gesturing to Mike's leg.

"The Mind Flayer." Will said.

"That bitch is back?"

"Excuse me? How did that car just get thrown across the room?" Robin asked.

"Oh, that was El." Dustin told her casually.

"Who is El?" Erica asked. El raised her hand awkwardly.

"Who are you?" Nancy asked.

"I'm Robin, I work with Steve."

And then they all started trying to talk at the same time, Dustin talking about Russians and a secret basement and something about the gate, and everyone was talking over each other. Mike's leg was burning and his head was getting fuzzy, vision going to shit once again.

"Mike?" Dustin asked, noticing Mike's silence. "Mike, are you okay?" Mike nodded and waved him off, reaching a hand up to act like he was scratching his eye. He slowly took a few steps away, searing pain shooting up his leg with each step. He clenched and unclenched his hands a few times, they felt weak, like they did when he woke up out of a deep sleep. Before he knew it, his leg gave out on him and he hit the ground hard, his shoulder taking most of the fall, and he let out a quiet groan.

"Mike?" Steve noticed the fall first, and upon saying the name, everyone looked at him and rushed over, El kneeling by his head.

"Mike? What is it? What's wrong?"

His leg continued burning, getting worse and worse until he started trying to reach forward, trying to take the bandages off.

"His nose is bleeding." Dustin pointed out, voice breaking at the last word.

"Is it your head? Mike?" Nancy tried to get him to focus but he was writhing on the floor now, kicking his leg out, only making the pain worse.

"My leg." he moaned. "My leg."

Then there were gasps and noises of disgust as his infected leg was unwrapped, and then a couple of screams as they saw something moving around inside. Jonathan jumped up and ran off, and everyone was freaking out above him and he couldn't breathe- he couldn't breathe- and now someone was moving him into someone else's lap- El's. His head was in El's lap and her hands were in his hair, using her wrist to wipe the blood away and brushing his hair out of his face.

"-gonna get it out, Mike, okay?" Nancy was telling him. "Try to take deep breaths, okay?"

Mike nodded and tried to do what she said but it was so hard to focus on breathing when something was crawling around inside your leg, digging into the meat as if trying to go deeper. He was squeezing someone's hands, he had no idea who and he didn't really care.

Now Jonathan was in his face, shoving a wooden spoon in his mouth and telling him something was going to hurt- and he was right. He was cutting into Mike's leg and then digging inside it with two fingers in only a few seconds and Mike knew he was screaming this time. He used every bit of strength to fight back, trying to get Jonathan off him but he was being held down by multiple people.

"Please!" he sobbed around the wooden spoon. "Please stop!"

"Stop!" El yelled. "Jonathan, stop!"
Nancy kind of shoved Jonathan and he ripped his fingers out of the open wound and Mike let out a broken sob.

"I can do it." El said.

"No!" Mike sobbed.

"We have to get it out, Mike." Nancy told him, panic clear in her voice.

"It hurts!"

"I know. I know it hurts. El's gonna make it stop. Right El?"

"I'm gonna make it stop, I promise." El told him confidently. She took one hand out of his hair and made sure the wooden spoon was in his mouth, and then motioned for everyone to get back.

She focused, and knew that she got a hold of it. Mike knew it too, and could feel it start fighting against her force, and no one knew what kind of noise he made as it started to come out of the wound, wiggling. El started screaming, and Mike was screaming, his voice absolutely wrecked. Glass behind them shattered and finally- finally it was out, and she let out one last scream as she threw it. Mike's scream cut off with a broken, heaving sob as he clung to someone's arm.

Four new people were standing in front of them now, all of them looking just as messed up and crazed as the rest of them. The claw tried to slither away, but Hopper stomped on it.

"Did that child just… rip a claw out of… that other child's leg?" Murray asked, mouth dropped open in shock. The one nobody recognized looked at Murray and spoke, but the only ones who had any idea what language it was, were Steve, Robin and Dustin.

"Russian!" Dustin squeaked, stepping behind Steve.

"He's fine." Murray said, waving the teen off, and turned to speak to his Russian friend.

"What in the actual fuck is going on here?" Hopper asked, lifting his foot to show the squished piece of flesh underneath it.

"I'm gonna puke." Mike croaked, letting the spoon fall out of his mouth and everyone scrambled away from him, except for El, Max and Nancy. The Russian was muttering something, stepping back a few feet as well. Max is who he was clinging to, and he was still in El's lap, Nancy on the other side of him.

"Oh dear." Joyce rushed over to him as he leaned over and the little bit he'd eaten barely thirty minutes ago came back up, coughing and burping, gagging every time he burped.

"You guys are ridiculous, good Lord." Max said, standing up to try and give him some space. "Truly pathetic."

"We need to clean this up before it gets worse." Nancy said and Mike heaved again, tears flowing down his face. His stomach hurt now, from dry heaving, his head was killing him and God his leg was on fire. His face was wet with sweat, tears and blood. And probably a little bit of puke if he was being honest.

"Someone wanna get me up to speed?" Hopper asked, walking closer to them.

"Let's get Mike away from all this glass and do something for his leg and we'll talk." Nancy said, matter of fact, and stood. Hopper walked over to Mike and knelt in front of him.

"Hey kid, is it okay if I pick you up to move you?" he didn't get a verbal response, he just got a glare and then a nod. He put one arm under his thighs and the other under his back, and the teen could barely keep his head from falling against Hopper's shoulder. He almost dry heaved again when Hopper turned an almost three sixty, the ceiling above him spinning rapidly.

Everyone was running around trying to find something a little more comfortable for Mike to lie on but all they could find were some lounge chair cushions from one of the stores, but that was good enough.

They placed them on the square bench that surrounded plants, and Hopper carefully put Mike on top. His head was in Joyce's lap now, and the younger teens were seated at the other tables in the food court, not too far away.

El sat in front of Mike's head, on the floor, and Nancy watched nervously as Hopper carefully inspected the wounds and cleaned them, wrapping them up tightly even when Mike kicked at him with his other leg.

"It's okay, Honey." Joyce cooed at him. "I know it hurts but it's gonna help in the long run." he just hummed something back in response, burying his face in her thigh. He was still struggling to breathe a little, his body didn't know how to react to all the things that had happened in the last twenty minutes.

"I don't like the way he's breathing." Hopper muttered. "Hey kid, does it hurt to breathe?" he just got a glare in response and Hopper huffed. "Look, I don't know what I did to piss you off, but I'm trying to help you out here. Does it hurt to breathe?"

"No." Mike wheezed. "Hard to… hard to focus."

"Try to focus on me, okay?" he said, kneeling in front of him, next to his daughter. Mike nodded shakily. "Breathe in… and out. Just like I did, okay? Breathe in… and out." Hopper breathed with him until he finally calmed down a little, and his chest wasn't heaving as badly. "Just keep doing that, okay kid?" Mike nodded again, and closed his eyes to try and focus on breathing, and not the pain in his leg. When he was sure the teen was breathing okay, Hopper stood and went over to the other group, and they all immediately tried to tell him their own stories at the same time, until he barked at them to be quiet and had Steve and Jonathan tell him.

Joyce gently ran her hands through Mike's hair, pushing it out of his face and using a tissue El handed her to clean his face a little. El dabbed at the blood under his nose with another tissue and he let them, unable to do anything else for himself. He couldn't really tell if he'd fallen asleep or just blanked out for a couple minutes, but suddenly someone was pulling him into a sitting position and forcing him to open his eyes.

"What." he croaked, voice rough.

"Do you want some water? Steve and Dustin went and found some cold ones in a cooler." Max was holding a water bottle out to him. He swallowed harshly- his throat hurt like a bitch- and nodded. He wasn't handed the bottle, but instead Joyce was, and she opened it, holding it up to his mouth.

"Go slow, okay? I'm sure you're thirsty but if you drink too fast you will end up throwing up again." Mike nodded and drank the water as slowly as he could, not even caring if some of it got past his lips and dribbled a little down his chin.

He drank half the water bottle, earning a,

"You fucking fish." From Max, before he slumped back, lifting his arm pitifully to wipe at the water dripping down his chin and neck. His eyes closed again and he felt someone gently wiping his face with tissue, and didn't have the strength to open his eyes. Murray was currently devising a plan with the rest of the group, but El and Joyce stayed with Mike.

"Mike?" El whispered. He hummed quietly. "Why are you mad at dad?" she asked. He just shook his head.

"Can you open your eyes, Sweetie?" Joyce asked him softly. His brows furrowed and he slowly opened them, focusing on El's face in front of him. "Has Hopper done something?"

"It's nothing." he muttered, clasping his hands together in his lap. He eyed his leg, wrapped up tightly in white gauze, an ace bandage holding it all together, tiny beads of red popping through in a couple of places already. He could tell his leg was swollen, with how the skin around the top of the bandage was poking out. He moved his foot, and his leg immediately stung all over, as if tiny needles were stabbing into his skin, but it wasn't too bad.

"How does your leg feel?" Hopper asked, walking over to them, annoyance written all over his face at the arguments going down only a few feet away.

"Tingly." Mike replied, he shifted a little, slowly moving his leg off the bench and planting both feet on the ground.

"I don't know if you should-" Joyce started, but Mike pushed himself up, stumbling a little and wincing when he put a little too much weight on his leg, but he was standing. El scrambled up to help him in case he fell, but Hopper put his hands on the teens shoulders to steady him.

"I think I'm good." he muttered, testing his weight on his leg again. It hurt like a bitch but it was bearable. He took a couple steps past Hopper, slow but steady, and made his way towards his friends. Lucas, Will and Dustin walked towards him and met him in the middle.

"I missed you guys today." Dustin said.

"We missed you too. It's been crazy." Lucas let out a quiet snort.

"I can tell." Dustin shook his head, glancing at Mike's leg.

"I'm sorry we left you by yourself." Mike told him. "I really did have to get El home."

"I know." Dustin said.

"And you know how Neil is." Max added, joining the group.

"Asshole." Dustin muttered.

El hesitantly walked up to them, her hair hanging in her face, and put an arm around Mike's back.

"We're going to be okay." she said, confident.

As usual, with this group of people, plans were made to be followed, and not a single one went down correctly. Hopper and his team were going pretty well, all things considered, and Scoops Troop were safely headed towards Cerebro. The Griswold Family, however, had a few bumps in the road.

"Of course he had to fuck up the car." Nancy growled.

"Mom is so gonna kill you." Mike said. He looked like he was on the verge of passing out- though he's looked like that for quite a while now. It could happen any minute- and will definitely be at the worst moment.

"Shut up." she hissed and he immediately snapped his mouth shut.

Will and Lucas tried to get in contact with Dustin while Jonathan and Nancy argued across the food court, and Mike sat quietly on the bench between Max and El.

Lucas paced around the food court, trying to get in contact with Dustin once again, but no luck in the slightest. Mike didn't speak a word again until after Nancy and Jonathan had the bright idea to take the ignition cable out of the wrecked car on the other side of the food court. As they messed around under the hood of the car for said ignition cable, there was a faint noise of… thundering?

"Is it storming?" Mike asked at first.

"Probably a lot of fireworks going off at once." Max said. Mike shrugged, and leaned his head back, looking up at the glass ceiling and into the night sky. They kept hearing it, and Max noticed as Will turned around, his hand on the back of his neck.

"Uh oh." Mike muttered, vision blurring slightly as the mall shook, and a giant figure climbed on top of the glass. He looked at his sister across the food court as they finally came from under the hood. "Nancy!" he yelled.

And all hell broke loose.

Again.

Lights were flashing, making Mike's headache even worse, and he truly didn't know how he was still awake after all this. His leg throbbed as he was pulled along with El and Max, hiding under a kiosk and then running through the exit of The Gap as everyone else made their way to the car. However, they weren't so lucky when they finally got outside. They didn't know exactly what happened, they just knew that Steve and Robin saved the remaining members of the Griswald Family from Billy and his car, and now Billy was on foot, stalking them, while the Mind Flayer chased after the newly fixed car.

Mike was only slowing them down, his leg burning and he kept running into rails of the stairs or random pipes in the walls because of his vision.

"Stop, stop." he cried, leaning heavily against the wall, somehow having strength in his arms to keep him up.

"Oh my God I forgot about your leg." Max gasped.

"We need to keep going." El said. "He'll catch up."

"I can't." Mike said, beginning to slide down the wall, but Max caught him and held him up. "I can't. I'm slowing you down."

"I'm not leaving you." El hissed. "You're crazy if you think that."

"You're crazy if you think that." Billy whispered, jumping out at them and causing them all to let out loud shrieks. Max immediately began trying to talk to him, but it was no use, and he was too fast this time for El to even try to stop him. He pushed Max into the wall hard, and she hit the ground, and then slammed Mike against the pipes, leaving the two teens lying on the floor, unconscious.

"NO!" El screamed as Billy slammed her into the wall, just hard enough to daze her and throw her over his shoulder.

As Billy hovered over her, his hands balled up in her shirt as she tried to push him off, she could see it. She could see him fighting. And all she could think about was the void, the tear that ran down his face, his mother.

Even though the fireworks exploded around them, the Mind Flayer screeched and stomped, she barely felt or heard it. She could hear and feel her heart pounding, the ringing in her ears from all the noise going on around her, she was almost numb to it. He stared down at her, his face angry, but his eyes… his eyes told another story.

"Seven… feet." she said. "You told her… the wave was seven feet." Billy's grip loosened and he stared at her. A tear drifted down the side of her face as she looked him in the eyes. "You ran to her, on the beach. There were seagulls. She wore a hat, with a blue ribbon. A long dress, with a red and blue flower. Yellow sandals… covered in sand." he stared at her, taking heaving breaths. "She was pretty. She was really pretty." he nodded. "And you… you were happy." her voice broke at the end. She softly put her hand on his face, and he closed his eyes.

The fireworks stopped, and instead of her own beating heart, she heard the Mind Flayer's screeches as it turned back towards them. Billy looked back and stood up quickly, readying himself as if he were about to take it on himself.

Max and Mike ran in, the latter being held up by Max, and skidded to a stop as they saw the monster screaming in Billy's face. One of its tendrils came out of its mouth, opening up as it prepared to attack.

"No!" El cried over and over as she scrambled back.

Billy grabbed it, before it could get to her, and he fought it. He fought it like hell. Then another tendril came around, and grabbed his side and he screamed, but still tried to fight. Another one got his other side, and El was too slow. She couldn't stop it from killing him.

El raised her arms and screamed, every ounce of power she had left in her pushing the Mind Flayer back. It knocked down anything that was left standing, the car crunching under one of it's giant, spindly legs. Those above scrambled down the escalator, and Lucas barely made it past the monster before it shifted, knocking the escalator completely down as he ran to his girlfriend, who was sobbing over her step-brother's body. She was crying, and speaking, and he couldn't make out anything she said. Steve and Robin skidded to a stop behind them, letting out shocked gasps. Mike leaned against a pillar behind them all, staring at his girlfriend as she screamed, her arms raised high in the air, trying to kill the beast in front of them. He could hear his heart pounding, hardly able to hear his sister talking to him. He was too focused on El.

And just like that, the monster froze, before slowly falling to the ground in a heap, unmoving. It'd grown silent, now, besides everyone's heaving breaths and Max's cries. El turned around, blood pouring out of her nose and ears, and sprinted towards her boyfriend, grabbing him and clutching his wrists, practically shoving Nancy out of the way.

"Are you okay?" she asked, trying to get him to look at her. "Are you okay?" she repeated. He nodded, swallowing harshly, and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly.

"They closed it." Will said, looking around at everyone. "They really closed it."