Chapter 7 Mind Puzzle Pieces
"I was alone before Will came into my life, El. Alone and scared. Terrified even," said Mike as he and El sat in his room. "He means the world to me and he doesn't believe that anymore. Every time I try to convince him, I do something stupid. I lose my temper over stupid things."
"I know you care," said El. "I saw you push Troy when he called Will a fairy and the only time you were ever mad at me when you thought I had lied about Will being alive."
Mike cringed at the memory of berating El over her supposedly lying about Will being alive. She had calmly taken it until she found a way to show Mike what she couldn't express in words. She had taken his temper as calmly as Will used to. Like Will, there was pain in her eyes. They were a lot alike.
"I'm sorry about that," said Mike. "I should have known."
"You couldn't have known," said El. "Papa made a very convincing fake body. I knew it was fake. I knew Will was alive, but had to show you." She remembered the feeling of desperation she had, knowing that Will was still alive and in danger from the demogorgan and Hawkins Lab. She had known that she somehow had to convince the others.
"I still regret it though."
"I'll talk to Will," said El. "But I'm going to give him time. People need to be patient with him."
"I know," said Mike with a sigh. El leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Mike wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He didn't know when he'd be able to see her again. His 16th birthday was a month away and he'd be able to drive soon. They'd be going to college in a couple years and could go to the same school if they wanted.
Mike remembered when he and Will planned to go to the same school and design video games together. He wondered if Will still wanted to do that. He remembered how they used to escape to their own imaginations together when they were little. Will was always better at drawing and writing, but his stories and pictures had always brought comfort to Mike. They hadn't really discussed their career plans in a couple years. Will had tried a couple times after recovering from the Mind Flayer possession, but Mike had brushed him off to spend time with El. After a while Will stopped bringing up the topic.
Mike internally cursed himself for not seeing that Will had been trying to ask for help when he wanted to play D&D or talk about their stories. Mike himself had found comfort in those things when he'd been through a lot less than Will.
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Will was eager to get home. He knew that the answer to defeating the Mind Flayer and the threat of the Upside Down was somewhere in his mind. He just had to figure out how to unlock that secret. He and El were working together and he knew they could figure it out. He had discovered two abilities the day before and he wanted to tell his sister and perhaps Sarah and Jane as well.
"Ready to go?" asked Jonathan. Will looked up to see Mike and El coming down the stairs. El looked at Will.
"Yes," she said.
"Can I talk to Will alone for a minute before you go?" asked Mike. Jonathan glanced at Will who shrugged before following Mike into the Wheeler's den. He silently waited for Mike to speak.
"Look, I'm sorry about making you come here when you told me you didn't want to come and I shouldn't have said you owe us. You don't owe us anything Will," said Mike.
"Thanks," said Will.
"I know that I keep screwing things up, but it just sucks that you aren't here anymore. The truth is that I'm miserable without you here."
Will made a skeptical noise.
"It's true, Will."
Will shook his head. "It's not my absence that's making you so miserable, Mike. It's El's."
"Of course I'm miserable without El here, Will, but I miss you too."
"We both know that if Hopper hadn't disappeared and it had been just me that moved away, you wouldn't be miserable. I'm sure you'd miss me, but you wouldn't be miserable like you are now."
Mike sighed. "Can I ask you something?" Will nodded.
"We saw blood in the snow yesterday. What happened to you?"
"Just a bloody nose," said Will.
"Are you sure that's all it was?"
"Do you see any cuts or bruises on me?"
"No, it's just that the blood was where your foot prints ended... Holy shit, did you-?"
"Don't ask, Mike. Don't even finish that thought," said Will. He looked frightened.
"But-"
"Mike, don't! Please!"
"Okay, I won't," said Mike. He stepped forward and pulled Will into a hug. He realized why Will's foot prints had suddenly stopped. He had used his powers, whatever they were.
"Don't try to get involved in this Mike. Keep Lucas, Max and Dustin out too. I don't want anything to happen to any of you," said Will as he returned Mike's hug. It was the first real hug they'd shared in a long time. It gave Mike a little hope because it showed that Will still did care about the party. He also felt a sense of dread as he realized that Will and El were going to try something dangerous,
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"We're home!" Jonathan called as they entered their house. A lot of things were packed up. They were greeted by the dog that Will had been visiting at the shelter. She ran right up to him wagging her tail.
"Well, there goes your surprise, Will," said Hopper as he entered the hallway.
"Seriously?" asked Will as he knelt down and scratched behind the dog's ears.
"Well, pets are great stress relievers and you, kid, have been under a lot of stress."
"I'm not going to argue that," said Will.
"Good," said Hopper. "We're all going to be under a lot of stress until Brenner and his people are caught. No point in trying to hide it."
Joyce walked out into the hallway behind Hopper. She smiled at the sight of her children, walked up to them and managed to pull all three into a hug.
Sarah walked into the room carrying one of the kittens. When El was released from her mother's hug, Sarah handed the kitten to her.
"For me?" asked El as the kitten purred. Sarah nodded. She pulled a plastic husky out of her pocket and handed it to Jonathan.
"You aren't allowed to have real animals in your room, so we got you this," said Sarah.
"Thanks," said Jonathan. He pulled her into a one arm hug. She was okay for a moment, then saw a flayed Bruce nearly killing Jonathan, gasped and pulled away sobbing. "I'm sorry, Sarah."
"It's okay," said Sarah. "It's not your fault bad things happened to you."
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In early February, the Byers-Hopper family was living in their new house. Joyce and Hopper were working for Owens, studying patterns and trying to determine where attacks might happen next. Alice regularly visited the house to make sure it wasn't bugged. She also worked with Sarah to help her control her abilities.
Will decided that he needed to tell El about his abilities.. She came into his room one night as his dog, Charlotte, sat at the end of his bed while he studied.
"You have letters from both Randy and Julie," said El as she handed him the envelopes.
"Thanks," said Will. "There's something I need to tell you."
"What?" asked El.
"I think I've discovered a couple of my powers. I discovered them when I was hiding from the guys last month."
"That makes sense," said El. "I thought you must have when they couldn't find you."
"You did?" asked Will. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"Was waiting for you to tell me when you were ready," said El.
"I'm sorry," said Will. "I shouldn't have waited this long."
"It's okay," said El. She leaned over and hugged him.
"We have to figure out how to stop them."
"We will," said El. "My powers are getting stronger again. I can help you with yours."
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A few weeks later, Jane paid them a visit. She'd been living with her mother and aunt: women than El had once believed were her own mother and aunt. Jane had taken a bus to Pawnee.
"How are you doing?" asked Will as he hugged her.
"Still just trying to figure things out," said Jane. "I think my mother recognizes me sometimes, that she knows I'm there."
El remembered something. She ran to her room and grabbed an old picture of Kali. She brought it back and showed it to Jane. "Do you know this girl?" she asked.
Jane studied the picture. "There's something familiar about her. Like she was someone I knew when I was really little or something."
"She's Kali," said El. "She was number 8. I went and found her when I thought I was you. She's trying to find Papa. I haven't been able to find her because my powers are still coming back, but maybe you can find her. Maybe she can help us."
"When did you do that?" asked Will.
"When you were at the lab after you got Hopper out of the tunnel and couldn't remember anything," said El.
"Oh," said Will. "I could remember...I just... just wasn't in control."
"Do you really think she could help us?" asked Jane.
"Yes," said El.
"Then give me that picture and a radio."
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"Wait!" said Will as Jane grabbed her coat after locating Kali.
"Will, I have to get moving. The longer Brenner is out there, the more danger we're all in."
"Just, don't go alone. You've been caught before and he completely changed your memories. We can call Alice and she can go with you."
"Isn't she supposed to be watching over you two?" asked Jane. "And helping Sarah?"
"If she protects you, She protects all of us," said Will.
"Fine," said Jane.
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Sneaking Kali into the Byers home was no small feat as she was a wanted fugitive.
"I don't think I've met a boy your age with gifts," said Kali as she walked up to Will and gave him an appraising look. "They usually die in the lab. You're very lucky."
"Did all the boys die?" asked El.
"All the ones I knew did," said Kali. "So this thing, this Mind Flayer, it possessed you, Will?"
"Yeah," said Will.
"And you think the answer to defeating it is somewhere in your subconscious?"
"Yes, it has to be," said Will.
"I've tried to go into his mind, but my powers aren't strong enough yet," said El.
"It's not your powers," said Kali. "It's because he's awake. His defenses are up."
"Why would I have defenses up against El?" asked Will.
"You're suppressing bad memories," said Kali. "At least part of your mind is. I think her looking into that part of your mind will work better if you're asleep."
"She's right," said Alice. "I should have thought of that."
"You didn't know what we were doing," said Will. "So how does this work? I've been keeping a dream journal."
"Any insights yet?" asked Alice.
"Not really," said Will.
"It'll still probably help," said Kali. "If you're already training your mind to remember your dreams, you can write down what you see when your sister goes into your mind. So it's important that no one bothers you after you wake up until you're done writing."
"This can't hurt Will, can it?" asked El.
"Have you hurt anyone before when you've done this?" asked Kali.
"No," said El. "But my powers were stronger. I don't have them all the way back yet."
"Then let me help," said Jane. "My powers are the same as yours. I can help you stay in control."
"I-I can help too," said Sarah.
"Sarah, you're probably going to see a lot of scary stuff. My mind...well it was taken over by the Mind Flayer a couple years ago."
"I need to start controlling my abilities and how I react to visions," said Sarah. "The more eyes we have on this, the better chance we have of figuring it all out. I'm tired of waiting for other people to take care of things."
Although Will was a little anxious about having three people looking into his mind, he did have to agree with Sarah. "Okay, are you guys ready?"
"Now?" asked El as Will grabbed a pen and his dream journal."
"Yes, Sarah's right. I'm tired of waiting. This has been going on way too long. Are you okay to do this, El?"
"Yes."
"How about you two? Jane? Sarah?"
"I'm ready," said Jane. "Let's figure out how to take these assholes down."
"Yeah, let's get our lives back," said Sarah.
"I can give Will a sedative to make him sleep," said Alice. "She pulled some needles out of her case."
"Hang on," said Sarah. She grabbed the needle from Alice and held it for a moment. "Okay. It's clear. Sorry, Alice. We can't take any chances. No offence."
"None taken," said Alice.
"I'll keep watch and create an illusion if anyone comes," said Kali.
"Great," said Will. Jane grabbed some blindfolds and turned on the radio to a static frequency. Will sat on his bed. Charlotte jumped up next to him and put her head on his knee. He watched her react to the others. She had been a little nervous around new people, but seemed okay with everyone in the room. That gave him some comfort that he was doing the right thing. He scratched behind her ear and she wagged her tail.
"Okay, Alice, give me the shot," said Will. El sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him. "It's going to be okay, El. We're taking control."
Alice injected the sedative into Will's arm. His eyes became unfocused and drifted shut. El cradled his head and lowered it to the pillow. She kissed his forehead and took a blindfold from Jane. She held Will's hand and she sat on the floor next to the bed. She saw Sarah take Will's other hand before she put on the blindfold and started to focus.
It was easier for her to go into Will's mind than it had to go into other people's minds. Part of her wished that Mike was there with them.
El found herself in the void. She spotted Will sitting in a corner staring ahead at nothing. His face showed a mixture of fear, sadness, and anger. She knew he'd been holding a lot of things in for a long time. She realized she may see those things and that his subconscious might resist.
"Will," said El. "Let me see, let me see what your mind saw."
Will shook his head. "He won't let you. It's not safe."
"He can't hurt us," said El. "Not if we're together."
Will looked up. There was a haunted look in his eyes. He slowly reached up and grabbed El's wrist; more gently than Terry Ives had and far more gently than Billy had. El felt herself slowly sinking into the ground.
Instead of seeing one of Will's memories, she saw one of her own. She was five years old. It was the first time Papa had locked her in the closet when her powers failed. She was terrified of the small dark room. She screamed and begged as she was dragged by two orderlies. The door closed and El watched as her five year old self was engulfed in total darkness.
She suddenly saw a five year old Will wake up in his room at their old house. He started crying and tried to stifle the noise. El heard Lonnie shouting from down the hall for Will to keep quiet. She heard Joyce angrily chastise Lonnie before coming into Will's room.
"What's wrong, Baby?" asked Joyce as she pulled Will into a hug and began to rock him.
"Don't know, Mommy, Don't know, I'm sorry!" Will sobbed.
"It's okay, Sweetie, it's okay," said Joyce. "I'm right here."
Jonathan soon came in and joined in the hug. Lonnie came and stood in the doorway. "You can't keep coddling them, Joyce. Will starts school soon. How is he ever going to learn to stand up for himself if you keep coddling him every time he cries like a little fag."
El felt a surge of anger at her birth father. She had heard things about him, but seeing one of those things made it worse.
"Jonathan, stay with your brother for a minute. I'll be right back," said Joyce. El heard her parents start to shout at each other before the scene faded.
Will was standing in the house when the latch on the front door opened by an invisible force. El suddenly had a flashback to herself using her powers to open the latch on the door of the Ives home, then the Byers home.
Will was in the shed as the demogorgan appeared behind him. It grabbed Will. He struggled and the demogorgan struggled to hang onto him. It threw its arm out and a tear opened to the Upside Down, both of them fell through it. Will managed to push the barrel of the gun at the demogorgan and shoot it point blank.
He stumbled, got to his feel and managed to get away from the monster.
El flashed to her initially making contact with the demogorgan, to seeing the door to the Byers home being unlatched.
She saw Will having episodes finding himself in the Upside Down. She saw him look up to see the Mind Flayer rising in the sky. El suddenly saw Papa opening the door to her room and coming up behind her and she clutched her stuffed lion in fear.
Suddenly Mike was jolting Will out of his episode, the Mike was suddenly jolting El out of her memory of being locked in a closet at the lab.
El saw the Mind Flayer surrounding Will and entering his body as he was unable to move. She saw Will drawing pictures of the tunnels that the Mind Flayer was digging under Pawnee. Then she saw herself flipping over Mike's D&D board to show Mike, Lucas and Dustin where Will was. She saw Will sitting next to Mike in the back seat of his mother's car. His eyes were closed and he was looking to see where Hopper was trapped. She then saw herself in Mike's basement sitting over the board concentrating the exact same way to find Will himself in the Upside Down.
El next saw Will trapped in his own mind struggling to regain control as the Mind Flayer spoke through him. Will fought as the Mind Flayer tried to get him to set a trap for the soldiers at the lab. The Mind Flayer advanced on him menacingly.
El saw Papa leading her to the sensory deprivation tank telling her to make contact with the demogorgan again even though her instincts told her it was wrong.
"LET ME GO!" Will screamed at the Mind Flayer as Hopper brought him to consciousness. The Mind Flayer surrounded Will's consciousness and began to suffocate him. "LET ME GO!" he screamed over and over again. In the shed the lights began to flicker rapidly until Hopper grabbed Will and held him until he calmed down and the Mind Flayer's grip on him relaxed.
Will was in a haze in his own mind. Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike were speaking to him, talking about memories. Will saw them all come into focus for just a few seconds as he started to gain control of his own body. Then the Mind Flayer slowly surrounded him again. "Let me go!" Will softly begged the shadow.
El remembered seeing that as it happened. She had just gotten off of the bus from Chicago and was on her way to save them from the Mind Flayer's army. She remembered feeling especially concerned about Will, then barely speaking to him in the following months.
In Will's memories, El saw the Mind Flayer standing menacingly over him. There was a silent threat over Will for him to not warn his friends of the danger. He couldn't speak. He knew the Mind Flayer understood spoken words. Maybe there was something it wouldn't understand. His friends had teased him when he memorized Morse Code, but perhaps now it would come in handy, maybe even save their lives. He focused on making his fingers tap out H-E-R-E.
Will managed to tap the words the Mind Flayer didn't want him to say out loud. C-L-O-S-E G-A-T-E. He was slowly gaining control of his own body until his house phone rang and Will realized he was in the shed behind his house. The Mind Flayer again began to suffocate Will's consciousness again until Joyce injected him with the sedative.
El next saw the Mind Flayer clinging to Will, practically strangling him as Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy burning it out of him. It brought back El's own vivid memory of the piece of the flayed mass clinging inside of her leg.
The memories became more blurry as Will woke up the morning after he was freed from the possession. Mike had told him he'd be there, but he was gone. Will walked out to his living room. Mike and El were sitting on the couch talking. He saw Jonathan and Nancy talking in Jonathan' room. His mother was in her own room crying over Bob as Hopper comforted her. Will quietly went back to his room, crawled under the covers and cried into his pillow. El found herself wishing that she and Mike had checked on him more that morning.
She saw Will react in fear as the Mind Flayer was reactivated. He said he was okay when Mike asked him. El's own memory of Kali putting a projection of Papa in her head surfaced.
She then saw Will ripping up pictures and drawings in Castle Byers months later, before destroying the fort with a baseball bat in the pouring rain before the hairs on the back of Will's neck stood up and the moment the Mind Flayer, through Billy's eyes, realized who El was. Another memory of the terror El felt whenever Papa approached her and she knew he was going to make her do something came to the front of her mind.
She saw Will waking from a nightmare. He went to see his mother, but she and El were already comforting each other over Hopper. Jonathan and Nancy were talking in his room. Will quietly went back to his own room and cried into his pillow.
El saw multiple memories of Will repeating the similar actions after they all moved to Pawnee. She remembered all the times he had said "What do I have to complain about?"
El saw Will sitting quietly whenever they visited Hawkins as Mike and El talked. Sometimes Will went to see Lucas or Dustin after Mike asked to be alone with El, Mike would get angry at him for leaving, El saw this repeat multiple times.
Finally, El saw Will leave with Josie (Jane) the night the group had built the surprise Lord of the Rings set for him as a Christmas present. She saw them getting taken by Brenner's people, then Will being thrown into the enclosure with the new demogorgan while Hopper shouted for it to stop.
El saw the portal opening. She had seen that Will was in danger when that happened, but hadn't seen the full event. She saw the demogorgan knocking Will out, then opening a portal to the Upside Down. She saw the sinister pleasure on Papa's face as a brief shadow of the Mind Flayer flashed in front of him. The memory of the flayed mass of the Mind Flayer reaching for El herself came to the front of her mind-
El, Will, Jane, and Sarah all jolted awake. Will sat up, grabbed his dream journal, and closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them and writing furiously. El saw Jane begin to do the same thing. She noticed that Jane's nose was bleeding, as was Sarah's. El ran her fingers under her own nose and saw that there was no blood.
Will put down his pen after ten minutes and Jane quickly followed. El felt queasy in her stomach and ran to the bathroom. Will was at her side in moment rubbing her back.
"Are you alright, El?" he asked. "Did you hurt yourself going into my mind."
"No," said El. "My nose didn't even bleed. I just have a stomach ache."
"I'll get you some ginger ale and you can lay down for a bit," said Will. He helped her to her feet and led her to her room. He then ran to the kitchen and brought her a can of ginger ale.
El took the drink and started sobbing. Will pulled her into a hug. "Seeing some of my memories seemed to bring back some of your own memories," said Will.
"Yes," said El. "But that's not why I'm upset."
"What's wrong?" asked Will.
"It's my fault!" El sobbed.
"None of this is your fault," said Will. "It's Brenner, it's the Mind Flayer..." he trailed off.
"Not that," said El. "It's my fault you've been so sad."
"What?"
"You needed help too, but you didn't get help because everyone was so focused on me."
"El, you had been through way more than I ever went through."
"But you still went through a lot and needed help," said El. "Promise me you'll ask for help if you need it, Will. Promise me you'll stop thinking that you don't matter."
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AN: I can see why some people think that this is a Mike- bashing fic, but it isn't. He's one of my favorite characters, as is Hopper even if they both slipped a couple of notches in season 3 for me. I realize that Mike is 14 and in luuuuve. The thing is that his actions still affect people. A lot if this fic is more of a reaction to other fics rather than the actual show. There are a lot of fics where Mike is super in love with El and treats Will like crap- he's an outright a-hole to Will in a lot of those fics. The thing is, treating his friend like that would affect that friend, who has been through way more than Mike has ever been through. We do see Mike and Lucas running after Will after the whole D&D incident, but once they begin focusing on the Mind Flayer, we don't really see Mike and Will fixing their friendship or Mike making an effort. We only see Lucas making an effort with Will. To Mike's credit, he does admit to El that he was wrong to try to keep her all to himself. Hopefully, we see Hopper admit to El that he was wrong to make Mike lie to her and admit to Joyce that he was wrong to try to push her into a relationship when she was still mourning Bob just because he panicked when he found out she was moving.
