It was past midnight, and Max was beyond tired. But after everything, they had to make sure to keep each other up to date, so they were all back at Nora's - even Nancy and Lucas - giving their reports.

The Party had rushed Lucas when he had arrived, squeezing him tightly and patting his back, all talking over each other as they demanded to know where he had been and why he hadn't contacted them. Nora had been furious at Eddie for leaving the house. She had gotten back from Lucas' house to find her home empty, and had proceeded to radio them all in a frantic panic.

But that was nothing compared to their reaction when Max told them about what her group had found out about Vecna's victims, and how she was next. Lucas had stared at her wide eyed and Nora had grabbed onto Eddie's arm when she had explained the symptoms of Vecna's Curse, and she still hadn't let go even as Max was winding down with her story.

"- and it was exactly like my nightmares." She was saying. "It was like anytime I would escape one place, a new fear would just pop up in front of me, like he knew everything about me and -"

"What?"

Everyone turned to Nora and Max's words got stuck in her throat. That one word sounded like it had been ripped from her throat and she was pale, staring with wide eyes at the red head, clutching Eddie's jacket so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

"What did you say?" She whispered, and the horrified tone in her voice made Max wish she could disappear.

"I said - I said it was like my nightmares." She repeated, voice shaking. "Like he knew exactly what I was afraid of and just put it there to taunt me."

Nora moaned, a low and broken sound. Her eyes squeezed shut and she collapsed into the armchair behind her, planting her face in her hands and muttering to herself.

"No, no, no it can't. No, no he's dead."

The Party all exchanged fearful looks. Never before had they seen Nora like this. She had survived the lab, she had survived years in the Upside Down fighting countless monsters, but something about what Max had said had scared her more than anything she had already seen.

"Nora?" Eddie called softly, a hand on her shoulder as he looked around at the others. "Does - does something Max said sound familiar?"

The woman whined and they all flinched, never having imagined a sound like that coming out of their best fighter's mouth. When she finally looked up, her gaze went straight to El, and she looked at her sister like she was seeing a ghost.

"How are you alive?" She whispered.

Eleven's panicked gaze searched for Mike, needing comfort before she turned back to Nora and took a shaking hand into her own.

"Nora, honey." Nancy stepped forward and the young woman's terrified gaze turned towards her. "Can you tell us what's wrong?"

Nodding, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She looked like a fish out of water, opening and closing her mouth as she searched for what to say.

"At the lab." She finally croaked. "They used us to fight Russians. There were - there were thirteen of us, all of us with different abilities that Dr Brenner trained us on so that we could be used against the Russians."

"He made me spy." Eleven added, clutching Nora's hand tightly as they shared a look, reminiscing on past trauma. But the eldest looked away before long, returning her gaze to the floor.

"Yeah, they made you spy. Others too, some of us had mental gifts like El, but some us - ours were more physical." She looked down at her hands, as if imagining them engulfed in flames. "They made me - us - they made us hurt them. They brought prisoners in, and they told us to hurt them if they didn't answer their questions."

"They made you torture people?" Steve demanded, hands balled into fists at his sides as the woman nodded meekly.

"It was hard." She continued. "We didn't want to, and we had nightmares afterwards. But... but Number 1... he was nice." Nora was whispering now and she looked up at them with tears in here eyes, a pleading expression on her face, as if she thought they wouldn't believe her. "He was nice. And he could - he could see into people's heads, he could get into their dreams and see their deepest fears and regrets, and Dr Brenner made him go into prisoner's heads and bring up nightmares when they wouldn't answer questions. He said he saw bad things in their minds, and helping the other kids with their nightmares helped him feel better. And one day, I was having a bad dream, I was hiding from monsters or something and I was injured - in my dream - and he was suddenly just there. He chased the monster away."

Nora sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, her eyes returned to her knees as they all stared at her, wondering where she was going with this, why she was talking about Number 1, what he had to do with Vecna.

"My arm was hurt, and I was crying, and he said... he said 'it's ok Lemon Cake'" She let out a sort of half sob half laugh and looked back up at them, a smile on her face even as tears ran down her cheeks. "When we were good, Dr Brenner would bring us treats, and we decided to give each other nicknames based on our favourites. El was Waffle Face."

She chuckled, the others smiling hesitantly at the surprisingly sweet memory of the lab. "He said 'it's ok Lemon Cake, nothing can hurt you here. This is your mind. You have control.' and a first aid kit appeared out of thin air, and he stitched my arm back up. But when I woke up the next morning, my arm was bleeding. I had little holes where he had stuck the needle in me in the dream. And when Dr Brenner found out that he could affect someone's physical state while in their mind... I don't know what happened, but he must have made Number 1 do things. He stopped talking, he stopped eating, he stopped visiting our dreams. He was always pale, with dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheeks. He never smiled anymore."

The Party listened, none of them moving, none of them speaking even as images of what Dr Brenner could have made Number 1 do that would affect him so much rose to the forefront of their minds.

"It went on for years, until I was thirteen. We were in the Rainbow Room playing, everyone was there except Number 1. When he got there, he slammed the door open, looked around and then just stared at Number 3. And a second later, Number 3 was on the floor with a broken neck." The occupants of the room gasped, but Nora wasn't done. "We didn't have time to scream before Number 5 suddenly had a bloody patch growing on his grown, and then Number 10's head caved in. By the time I realized it was Number 1, and that over the years he had managed to grow his power until he could enter a person's mind even while they were awake, half of them were dead."

Then she looked straight at El with a pleading expression. "I was going to fight. He hadn't got to me yet, I was going to burn him. But Number 7 grabbed me and took us away. I tried to fight, El, I promise. I tried to protect you, but Number 7 teleported us away."

The room was silent as Nora broke down into uncontrollable sobs, no longer able to speak. Eleven rushed at her, held her tight in her arms whispering soothing words, and Max couldn't do anything but stare. The others were of a same mind, stuck in their own heads as they assimilated this new information, what Number 1 had done and what his abilities were. He could access your mind and your nightmares, like how she had been faced with her greatest fears, and anything he did to you in your head would show on your physical body, leading to inexplicable injuries, just like Chrissy, Patrick and Fred.

They had their culprit.

"What happened between you and Number 1, El?" Mike asked, bringing them all back to the matter at hand. The story wasn't finished, there were still holes that Nora couldn't fill, but El was looking at them all with wide eyes and something told Max that El couldn't fill them either.

"I don't know. I can't remember any of it."

"No." Nora said, clearing her throat and wiping her eyes. "You were six, and it's known that children that go through traumatic events can bury a memory. I had assumed you killed him, but after what Max said..."

"Agreed." Steve said and everyone nodded along. "This is too much of a coincidence, there's too much that matches for Vecna to not be Number 1."

"What if she sent him to the Upside Down, like she did with the Demogorgon?" Will asked.

They barely had time to consider the theory before Nora was on her feet, snarling.

"He was there? He's been right in front me this entire time! I'll kill him!"

Eddie and El jerked back as flames burst to life around Nora's hands and the others gaped in awe at the sight of the woman's eyes, fire pouring out of her sockets. That had never happened as far as Max knew. She had seen her set her arms on fire up to her shoulders, she had seen her set the top of her head on fire, but never were her eyeballs covered in flames. Looking around at the others to ensure they were seeing the same thing as she was, Max had to hold back a snort at the expression on Eddie's face.

Mouth open, eyes wide in wonder, he was staring at her like all of his dreams had come true, like he couldn't decide whether to be terrified or turned on. A strangled sound beside her had her turning her head to look at Steve, who was biting his hand to stop the giggles from escaping and she snorted when he winked at her.

"Nora! Nora! Hey!" Mike was shouting, trying to get close to the woman and shake her out of her fury without getting burned. Her fiery gaze turned up him and he took a step back at the hate on her face. "We'll get him, ok?" He said. "We'll get him. Together. But first we have to figure out how to stop him from getting to Max."

"But she already told us that."

Even Nora's flames died down and everyone turned to Dustin, who was staring at them all with a slightly confused expression.

"What?"

"She already told us how to save Max." The boy repeated. Seeing everyone's blank looks, he sighed and explained. "Number 1 told her! He said -"

"You have control." Nora finished, realization dawning on her face. "He's right! Max! It's your mind, you have control! Number 1's ability allows him access, it allows him to see, it doesn't give him control!"

"Like... like a lucid dream?" Will asked hesitantly, looking around in confusion.

"Exactly! It's fake! You can do whatever you want, just like Number 1 made the first aid kit appear in Nora's dream!"

Dustin was now pacing, talking animatedly and grinning at her "Shit! Oh my God, shit! That's it! Max, you just have to fight!"

"But wouldn't the others have fought?"

The excitement died down at Eddie's words. He was standing in front of the armchair, arms hanging listlessly at his sides and fear in his eyes.

"I mean, they wouldn't have just let Vecna get them right? They would have fought back." He said, and no one spoke for a moment, mulling his words over in their head.

Max thought he was right. She could fight as hard as she wanted, she'd never beat someone that had powers like El or Nora. She would die tomorrow, just like Chrissy, Fred and Patrick, and the Party would be left to find her cold and broken body.

"Well yeah, but... they wouldn't have known, right?" Dustin responded, his voice much more hesitant than it had been before. "I mean the hallucinations seemed real, they wouldn't have had any way of knowing it was all in their head. They wouldn't have treated it like a lucid dream where anything is possible, they would have treated it just like real life. Right?"

"Right, yeah!"

Will's agreement prompted everyone else into voicing their own positive thoughts, but Max wasn't fooled. They all just wanted to hang on to hope, they didn't want her to die so they held on. It was enough for them though, and Max didn't dare bring them down. Not at 2am when Nora was standing at the door with a smile, waving the older members of the Party off after having told the kids that she had already told their parents they were staying the night, so they may as well go to sleep.

The girls all bunked in Nora's room that night, Eleven choosing to give her room up to some of the boys and join Max on the floor. The house soon fell silent, its occupants deep in slumber, but Max laid awake all night, thinking of her upcoming death.

The next morning found the youngest members of the Party and Eddie sat at Nora's kitchen table, conversing loudly over breakfast, but Nora wasn't paying attention to the bickering. Instead, her eyes were trained on Max, who was pushing her waffles around on her plate. It hadn't escaped her notice that the young redhead hadn't voiced her agreement the night before when they were talking about fighting off Vecna, and she worried that she had already given up.

Getting Max's attention by way of kicking her ankle under the table, Nora sent what she hoped was a reassuring smile her way. It didn't work.

"I think I want to go see my mom and Billy."

The conversation around the table ceased, everyone looking at Max as if she had announced she had spent the night planning her funeral, which going by the look on her face, Nora supposed could be the case.

"Why?"

"To say goodbye."

"No!" El commanded, slamming a fist against the table. "You will be fine! You are going to fight, and you aren't going to die!"

"I know!" Max reassured. "I know. I just - just in case."

The kids were still staring at the redhead like she had betrayed them, but Nora understood. After living like any day could be her last for so many years, it was important to her to contact Hopper and El every night just to hear their voice, just to say goodnight. Family was everything.

"I think it's a good idea." She said. "This isn't us giving up, this is just Max taking comfort in her family before she has to fight for her life."

The others grumbled but ultimately agreed, not that they really had any say in the matter considering Max could do what she wanted and go where she wanted, but it was a reassurance that they wouldn't leave her alone today. Whatever happened, Nora wanted to be there to support the girl she had come to see as a second sister.

Eddie smiled softly at her from the other side of the table and she could feel the heat begin to spread on her cheeks and the corners of her lips begin to rise automatically before she tore her eyes away from him, determined that today would be about Max and no one else, though she couldn't help the flashes of memory from the day before when the man had been so sweet to her.

It was ultimately decided that both Nora and Steve would drive, as no one wanted a repeat of the car cram from the day before, but when Dustin went to move his bike out of the way of her car, he paused and stared intently at the handle.

"Dustin?" Nora called out the window. "Yo, Dustin! What are you doing, man?"

The boy looked back at them, frown on his face as he detached the compass that rested in the centre of the handles.

"My compass is pointing East."

"So?"

Lucas gasped from the backseat and pushed himself forward so he could see Dustin more clearly.

"A gate!"

"What?"

"Last time the compasses went wonky, it was because the gate had a greater magnetic force. There's another gate!"

"Hey Nora, do you have any maps in your house?" Dustin called.

The woman sighed, knowing exactly where this was going. It happened that she did indeed have a map of Hawkins in her basement, left over from when the mayor had wanted an engraving of the town to hang in his office.

"Yes, it's in the basement." She announced. "Can one of you stay with him and Eddie, help them track it? That way we won't have to bother Steve for another car."

"I'm staying with Max." Lucas immediately responded, earning him a small smile from the girl.

"I'll stay." Mike grumbled and followed Dustin back inside.

The drive over to Max's house didn't take too long, but it felt like forever due to the tense atmosphere. Max wouldn't speak, only sent half hearted smiles whenever anyone tried to reassure her, and before long everyone had given up on the idea of lightening the mood. Once they arrived, the young girl was out of the car the moment it was parked. She was gone for a while and if possible the mood got worse while she was out of sight, Lucas jostling his leg and Eleven biting her nails nervously.

Sighing in relief when they finally saw the redhead coming back down her driveway, the group's fears were temporarily assuaged. It was at Billy's that everything went to shit.

Nora still remembered the days when seeing Billy involved detailed fantasies about punching him in the face. She actually did do it one time, on a memorable day when he had spat at Lucas' feet once Max had left. The crunch of his nose beneath her fist was something that still made her smile to this day, even if he had gotten so much better since his possession. After the events at Starcourt, they had tried to explain the whole situation to him but he had refused to listen, plastering his hands over his ears and insisting he didn't want to know and that he just wanted to forget the whole experience.

Clearly, though, seeing the Party - especially Max - fight the Mind Flayer had birthed a respect for them all that he didn't have before. He smiled at his sister now. He said hello to them on the street. He even shook Lucas' hand once. Of course, that didn't stop him from moving out as soon as he finished school and leaving his step sister to his father's tender mercies, but baby steps.

The door opened to reveal Billy smiling welcomingly - something she never would have imagined a year ago - and they all filed in to the trailer. The area had been opened back up the day before once the police had gathered all the evidence they could, though Eddie's trailer remained firmly closed off with even the windows having been boarded up, and Nora could only be relieved at the timing.

"What can I do for you all?" Billy asked, gesturing at them all to sit.

"I just..." Max began, playing with the hem of her shirt. "There's stuff happening in Hawkins again - stuff you don't want to know about. But - but I'm in danger, so I wanted to come see you."

Billy's smile had faded quickly and morphed into a look of concern, barely hiding panic as his eyes flitted back and forth between them all.

"What? What's happening?"

"You don't wanna know, Billy."

"You said you're in danger." He pointed out, stepping closer. "Do you mean all of you or you in particular?"

Max glanced over at Nora, who tried to convey as much reassurance in one look at she could, before she turned back to her brother. "I mean... all of us, I guess but - but yeah, me in particular."

"Then I damn sure do wanna know!" the man shouted, putting his glass of water on the counter a little harder than necessary. "What is it? Is it that - that thing again?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Nora noticed Will frown, staring down at the floor as if in confusion. He began to lift a trembling hand up to his neck and the young woman's concern grew.

"No, no, it's something else. It's a guy we call -"

Max stopped talking abruptly, causing the Party's eyes to go flying to her.

"Max? Max!"

"What the hell is wrong with her?"

The shouted, they shook her, they clapped in her face, but one look at her and Nora knew what was happening. She had spaced out, her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, and she was unresponsive. Vecna had taken her.

One moment she was in Billy's trailer with the Party scattered around her, the next she was in her house. It was night time, the lights were on, glinting off of the empty bottles of Jack on the coffee table. Her mother could be heard sobbing down the hall in her parents' room, barely drowned out by her step father's screaming.

" - didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you what would happen? You thought I wouldn't find out?"

A sharp cry pierced through the house as he struck, and Max bolted for their door.

"Walking around in public in that! You call that a swimsuit? You fucking whore!"

Another thud, followed by her mother's pained shout sounded out just as Max bounded through the door.

"Max!"

"Come on Max, fight back! Fight back!"

"Will someone explain what is going on, please!"

Her step father smashed into the closet, gasping as the redhead's hand tightened around his throat.

"Don't touch her!"

A slap, a punch, and her hands returned to his neck, squeezing tightly.

She expected him to push her to the floor, to hit her back, kick her while she was down like he had done so many times before but instead the man in front of her looked her in the eye, tonguing at his split lip, and he chuckled. When he spoke, it was not the voice that she remembered and had learned to fear. It wasn't the threats and insults she had come to expect. Instead, his voice echoed, and was deeper and more gravelly than usual.

"You're just like me."

He faded to dust before her, disappeared even as her hands closed around nothing, and the rest of the room soon followed. Then she was at Starcourt. She and Mike came running into the main hall just in time to see Billy catch one of the Mind Flayer's meaty arms that was meant to hit El, giving the girl enough time to get on her feet.

"It's not real Max! Remember!"

"Fight back! Come on please!"

"Max!"

"She's my sister! What's happening to my sister? Tell me, please! That's my sister."

Instead of El getting up and throwing the Mind Flayer back with her powers, saving Billy in the process, she fell to the ground unconscious. Another meaty arm appeared and the front opened up to reveal a mouth full of teeth, before it snaked forward and slammed right into Billy's side.

"Billy!" Max cried, but she could do nothing but watch as a third and final arm appeared, skewering the man in the chest.

She could hear him as if he was right next to her, gasping for breath and choking on blood as it welled up in his mouth, and she cried as he took his last breaths. Giving his life to save El, their last line of defence down.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. This wasn't how it happened at all.

"This isn't real!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, but it is, Max. It's very real."

It was that same deep gravelly voice that had come out of her step father's mouth, and she twisted around to face it even as the Mind Flayer and the Party turned to smoke behind her.

Slowly, Max began to rise from her seat, jolting everyone into stumbling backwards. Her eyes were still rolled back into her head, she was still unresponsive, and now she was floating like a puppet on strings.

"Oh my God!" Lucas and Will screamed.

Billy jumped forward to grab onto her shoulders and pull her back down and El desperately thrust a hand out, trying to use her powers to keep Max on the ground, but it was useless. They grunted and heaved in effort but she kept rising slowly.

"Nora do something!"

Jolted out of her panic, Nora did the only thing she could think of. She rushed forward and clamped a hand around her wrist - now level with the top of Nora's head - and tried not to retch at the sound of sizzling skin. Max flinched and frowned, the first reaction they had gotten from her since she first spaced out, and Nora released her arm, stepping back and watching with wide eyes. And then...

"No."

"No."

Staring down at the perfect handprint burnt into her forearm, Max focused her entire being on what she wanted to accomplish, closing her eyes to picture the image as clearly as she could.

When she opened them, Vecna was before her, a humanoid figure with no skin, only bright red and irritated flesh as if he had been skinned alive, a 001 barely visible on his wrist, staring at her in what she could only hope was fear. Because she was on fire. From head to toe, burning bright and hot but not painful, not even burning through her clothes - because she didn't want it to.

With a grunt of effort, she threw her hands out before her like she had seen Nora do so many times, columns of flames pouring out with a billowing roar. Vecna screeched as the fire reached him, scorching the arms he had lifted to protect his face. It lasted barely a second before the floor beneath Max gave out and she fell into a pool, dowsing the flames and knocking her focus. By the time she had made it back out, an army of Demodogs stood in front of her, snarling and snapping.

As one, they bounded forward and the girl let out a cry, closing her eyes and willing a wall into being between her and them, then held her hand out and yanked it back towards her. Vecna came flying, smashing straight through her wall and falling to the ground, sliding against the tiled Starcourt floor with the momentum. Snapping his head back up at her, he snarled and a hundred black widow spiders as big as her hand came into being, scuttling rapidly towards her.

Using her flames once again, she scorched each and everyone of them before turning the inferno back onto the creature before her. A metal door appeared before him, shielding him from the fire until it eventually died out.

"Your flames hold the kiss of nostalgia, child." He said, voice echoing all around them as if it was coming straight out of the walls. "Show me!"

The scene changed, blurring around them until Max was dizzy from the spinning, occasional images from her past propping up left and right. When it finally stopped, they were back outside, it was night and the tall imposing building of Hawkins Lab stood next to them. She could see the Party - including herself - waiting by two cars in the parking lot, and Max suddenly knew where they were.

Launching herself physically at Vecna was all she could think to do to distract him from the lab doors opening, to stop him from seeing Hopper leading Nora out. She didn't want him to see her, didn't want him to know what she looked like so that he could find and haunt her. Digging her nails into the junction at his neck, Max screamed as she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him back and causing him to fall onto her. He let out a roar of rage and backhanded her once, twice, splitting her lip.

In a grim imitation of her step father in their first scene, she licked her lip and smiled up at Vecna.

"Lemon Cakes says fuck you."

And then the fire exploded outward.