Here's my Christmas gift to you guys! Enjoy!

Back in the dining room, Dustin set down and opened the Dungeons and Dragons manual, everyone (with the exception of Joyce) grouped up and looking at it. As he got to the page the Mind Flayer was at, he told everyone else as he pointed at the picture, "The Mind Flayer."

Hopper looked puzzled. "What the hell is that?" he asked him.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know where it originated. It enslaves races from different dimensions by taking over their brains with its highly-developed psionic powers."

The police chief sighed. "Oh my God, it's just a kid's game. None of this is real."

He gave him a disapproving glare. "Okay, first of all, it's not a kid's game. Second of all, this is just a manual."

Terry also looked at him. "As unbelievable as it sounds to me, Jim, it's the only good analogy we got to explain that thing." Jane was a little confused about her mom calling the chief Jim, but she decided to let it slide since it was important right now.

Kali looked at the picture and said, "So this mind flyer-"

"FLAYER, Kali, Mind FLAYER," he corrected her.

She huffed and shook her head. "What does it want? What can it gain?"

"It wants to conquer us. It believes it's the master race."

"Like the Germans?" Steve asked, Kali giving him a weird look as well as Dustin.

"Ya mean the Nazis?"

Realizing he didn't say that right the first time, he nodded and said, "Y-yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis."

"Uh..." Terry saw Hopper rub his face, probably frustrated. "If the Nazis were from another dimension, then yeah." He looked at everyone else. "It views other races, like us, as inferior."

"It wants to spread and take over other dimensions," Jane added.

"Bringing the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas also added.

Steve looked like he was about to freak out at any second. "Oh, great. That's great. That's fantastic." He walked away from the table and ran his hands through his hair. "Jesus Christ..."

Kali was just as frustrated as him, but tried to keep her cool. "So if that thing..." She pointed at the picture of the Mind Flayer. "If it's like a brain controlling everything...if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls," her sister finished for her.

"We'd win," Dustin stated.

"Theoretically," the dark-haired boy also stated.

"Alright, then how do we kill this thing?" Hopper asked, taking the manual and looking at it. "You shoot fireballs at it or something?"

Dustin actually chuckled at that. "Oh no, no, no, not Fireballs. You just summon an undead army because..." Hopper gave him a look of disbelief, knowing that the solution he was saying was absolutely impossible and ridiculous. "Zombies...you know, don't have brains, so they wouldn't be, uh, affected by the Mind Flayer..." He shrugged. "It's just a game, it's just a game."

Hopper couldn't feel more frustrated about this. "Then why the hell are we here...?" He closed the manual and slammed it back on the table, beginning to leave.

The curly-haired boy gave him a disapproving look. "I thought we were waiting for your MILITARY BACK-UP!"

He turned to him with a sharp glare. "We ARE!"

Jane returned his sharp glare. "How are the...the MILITARY going to solve this?! You can't just solve this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know ANYTHING!"

"Jim!" Terry shouted at him, making him look at her. "We DO know something: it killed everyone in the Lab!"

"And we know that the monsters are gonna molt again!" Lucas added, now the police chief looking at him.

"AND we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach to this town!" Dustin also added.

"They're right," said...Joyce, still sounding distraught. Everyone turned to her, surprised to see her out of her room. Though her eyes were red from the tears, she looked a little lax, nodding. "We have to kill it." Hopper frowned and began to approach her. "I want...to kill it."

"I know, me too," he replied to her.

"I-"

"Me too, Joyce, okay? But how the hell are we gonna do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." She huffed shakily in disbelief of what he said.

Jane looked at her unconscious friend and said, "But Will does." Everyone looked at her before looking at the boy in question. She slowly walked to him and continued, "Only Will could know how to destroy this thing. I mean, he's connected to it, right? He'll know its weakness."

"But I thought we can't trust him anymore," Max replied. "He's a spy for the Mind Flayer now, isn't he?"

She nodded as everyone got out of the dining room and into the living room with the tomboy. "Yeah, but..." She thought up of another idea. "If he doesn't know where he is, then he can't spy." That idea sparked up how to execute it for everyone else.

...

Jane and Hopper got out to the backyard, the girl opening the shed up and turning on the light. The police chief looked inside and nodded. "Yeah...this can work."

...

When Hopper cleaned out everything in the shed, Steve and Kali worked together to staple dark cloth and put duct tape around the interior of the shed. As he held up one edge of the cloth and stapled it to the wall, his girlfriend looked up at him and wondered if she should talk to him or not. She's been gone for a couple days, he must have been worried sick.

She sighed and placed the tape on the small shelf she was taping, saying, "Hey, Steve?" He got down from the chair he was standing on and looked at her. "I just wanted to say that..." He leaned against the wall a little. "I'm sorry for leaving without telling you." Oh, that? He was going to plainly say that it was alright, but then she added, "I didn't want to put you in danger again, so..."

Wait, what? He gave her a puzzled look. "Danger?"

"Me and Jonathan could have been caught doing what we did and paid the price. I didn't want to get you involved if that ever happened."

So...she left and didn't tell him because...she wanted to protect him? As much as he was flattered by that...he scoffed. "Kali, no offense, but I beat a goddamn Demogargoyle-or-whatever with a bat last year. I even saved those little shits from being killed from a bunch of those Demo-dog things like, what, a few hours ago? Some stupid scientists can't scare me."

She chuckled a little at that, but made it die off quick. "But we could have been charged by the law and-"

"Well, you didn't, did ya, Kal?"

She gave him a stern look and crossed her arms. "Steve-"

He sighed and put his staple gun down, getting closer to her. "Listen, I'm just saying that I'm not helpless, alright? I know what's done is done, but the least you can do is call me to tell me that you're leaving."

She sighed as well, knowing that what he said last was right. "I know that, but I also know that they can trace calls, so I wouldn't call you."

Well...that was a good point. But still... "Then why didn't you meet up with me to tell me?"

She was about to answer that, saying, "I..." She then trailed off when she realized why she didn't even want to talk to him. Yes, she didn't tell him that she was leaving because she wanted to protect him, but there was also how he acted earlier that day when she asked him about what happened at the party...

She huffed and shook her head. "Let's just finish this." She then grabbed his staple gun and handed it to him.

He looked baffled to see her try to avoid the question, making him say, "Kal-"

"Now, Steve." Her voice became more stern now. He sighed, giving up for now and getting up on his chair to staple the black cloth onto the wall.

In the kitchen, Jane went through the drawer below the sink to get some materials out of it. Right behind her was Max, taping pieces of cardboard together for the chair they were going to use for their plan. She looked at the curly-haired girl, thinking about what Lucas had told her about Mike...and how close Jane was to him. She smiled a little and ripped off a piece of tape, saying, "Now I know why Mike's your Mage."

She looked back at her, surprised. "What?"

She looked up at her. "Lucas told me all about him."

Now she looked confused. "Why?" He wasn't supposed to do that...it was part of the rules.

"Well...to make me understand why you guys didn't want me to join your meetings and stuff. I mean..." She shrugged before taping once cardboard leg together. "I thought you guys were treating me like garbage because I'm new."

Jane shook her head. "That's not why."

"I know. I'm just saying, he told me so that I would get why you guys treated me the way you did."

They did treat her a bit unfairly, especially Jane for a few days. "Sorry."

Max shook her head. "No, it's alright. After what I've seen tonight, I get it. I mean, it's so unbelievable, but so real."

Jane smiled a little and went back to getting the supplies from below the sink. "Yeah..."

"I'm just saying though, Mike? From what Lucas told me, he sounds like he was really awesome."

Her smile faltered a bit. "He was." Usually, thinking about him would bring both joy and sadness to her. Now it brought her both sadness and a hint of anger due to what he did to Will back at school. Whatever the reason he had for doing that, it wouldn't stop this hint of anger she had for him doing it. She closed the drawer and grabbed all the stuff she pulled out of it before she left.

Max wondered if she should bring up the question of whether or not she should become part of the party, but Jane sounded pretty melancholic when she said, "He was." Plus, "Zoomer" wasn't a thing, right? Why bring that to their party...?

Soon, everyone used whatever was available to cover up every inch and corner of the shed, taping and stapling them on the walls. The chairs were eventually set up while Jonathan carried Will to the shed. When he got there, he and Jane tied him up with the cut clothing line, from his wrists to his ankles. Jane then set up the lights and taped them above the chair across from him. Lucas plugged them both in, lighting them up.

They were all set now, seeing the unconscious boy being limp on the chair he was completely tied onto. Only Joyce, Hopper, Terry, Jonathan, and Jane were in the shed. Joyce and Hopper looked at each other, him asking quietly, "Are you ready for this?"

She nodded and whispered, "Yes." He then walked towards the boy and got out a small piece of cloth. He then opened the gallon of bleach and only dampened the cloth with it for a second. He then placed it under the boy's nose and in a couple of seconds, he gasped, his eyes wide open from its strong smell.

As he regained his breath, he looked around, seeing everyone around...where was he? He couldn't recognize this place. When he tried to move, he noticed that he was tied down, looking down and being surprised. "Wh-what...?" he said, trying to break away from the wires, but failing. "What is this?" He looked around, still not knowing where he was, and continued trying to break free from the wires. "What's going on?" No one answered, having solemn faces. "Why am I tied up?"

Joyce walked in front of him and crouched down, saying, "Will, baby, we just wanna talk to you. We're not going to hurt you, okay?"

He looked like he didn't give a damn about what she said and asked in a louder voice, "Where am I?"

Hopper also walked to him and crouched down a little, showing him his drawing of the the mind flayer. "You recognize this, kid?" he asked him. He still looked concerned about where he was than what he was looking at, making him shake his head. "Do you recognize this?" He still shook his head.

"Hey." He looked at his mom once again. "We just wanna help you. But if we need to do that, then we must understand how to kill it."

Now Will looked angry, yelling, "Why am I tied up?!" That shocked everyone in the shed for a moment, especially the brown-haired woman herself. "Why am I tied up?! WHY AM I TIED UP?!" As he kept yelling that, the lights began flickering rapidly, everyone else getting worried for him as he thrashed around. Hopper was holding him back as best as he could. "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" His voice got deeper as he screamed.

Everyone else, who was in the house, saw the lights flickering rapidly as well. Kali was the first to look out the window to the backyard before everyone else followed suit. They all wondered what the hell was happening in there. Hopefully, it wasn't the worst-case scenario.

Will continued yelling to let him go as Joyce buried her face in her hands to hide the fact that she was going to cry and Hopper was still holding him back. Everyone felt awful to see him act like this...so possessed and unlike himself.

However, he began to falter in his yelling, then his thrashing around. "Let me go...let me go...let me..." The lights went back to normal as he began to calm down. "Go..." Everyone was relieved that was over, seeing that maybe he wasn't all that possessed after all. Still...

Joyce took a deep breath and sat on the chair across from her son, looking at him straight in the eye. She managed to loosen herself up a little and give him a small smile. "Do you know what March 22nd is?" she asked him. He didn't answer and looked down with a saddened face. "It's your birthday, YOUR birthday." He looked up at her a little as she continued, "When you turned eight, I bought you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colors." He still wasn't saying anything.

She still went on, "All of your friends gave you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do to draw with your new colors. You drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. I-it was YOUR spaceship." She smiled big and pointed at him, her eyes tearing up from the happy memory. "You called it a 'Rainbow Ship'. And you must've used..." She shrugged. "...EVERY color in your box." She shook her head, still looking happy. "So, I...I took it to Melvald's and put it up. I told EVERYONE who came in, 'My son drew this.'" Terry also smiled, remembering that when she entered in the store that five years ago. She thought it was cute and a bit impressive that he used every color she could think of. "And you were embarrassed...but I was so proud of you. So, SO proud." He still didn't answer, but had a slight change in his expression.

Jonathan breathed shakily, but then decided to ask, "Remember the day Dad left?" He walked to his little brother as he looked at him now. He crouched down and continued, "We stayed up all night building Castle Byers, just the way you drew it. It took so long...because you were bad at hammering." Him and Joyce began to chuckle at that. "You missed the nail every time." Now the boy's lip began to quiver a little as his brother began crying a little. "It started to rain too, but we still stayed out there. We were sick for, like, a week after that. But we still had to finish that, didn't we?" The boy now began shaking a little, one of his hands moving a little. "We had to." The boy looked like he was close to breaking, feeling a flurry of emotions hearing these stories.

Since sharing memories with him made him see that way, Jane decided to join in too. Though her eyes were watery, she smiled a little and asked in a sentimental voice, "Remember the day we first met, Will?" He looked at her next, now feeling a warm feeling when he saw her. She walked into the light and continued, "I-it was the first day of kindergarten." She sniffled as she began to cry a little, making her mom feel sad. "I...I knew nobody, so I had no friends. The girls made fun of me for being so quiet and alone and...not looking girly. I thought I was always going to be alone, that nobody would like me." Terry felt awful that her daughter felt that way during the first day of kindergarten, but this wasn't about her.

She sniffled again, wiping the tears from her face before new ones came. "During recess, I sat on one of the swings alone and thought about what the other kids said about me. And then suddenly, I saw you come up and sit on the swing next to me. I didn't think you were there to talk to me, but then you said, 'Hey.' I looked at you and said, 'Hey' too." She then smiled and continued, "You talked to me about how lonely I looked and how mean the other kids didn't like you. Then I said they didn't like me either. You finally asked, 'Do you wanna be my friend?'" She sniffled once again, her smile widening. "I said 'Yes.' I said yes." She chuckled a little. "I never felt so happy in my life when that happened. I was so happy that when I got home, I told my Mama about you." Terry had smiled as well as everyone else in the shed. "It was the best thing I've ever done in my life...because now I'm friends with you. You're a great friend, Will." The emotions Will felt when she talked about that memory strengthened a lot.

Terry was the last to join into that, saying, "I remember when I first met you. Do you?" He looked at her, her being in the light with everyone else. "It was a week after Jane told me you were her friend. Jane asked me if she could have you over for a sleepover and I said, 'Yes.'" She paused to crouch down, his eyes trained on her. "You came over and you were very kind. You even had good manners for your age when it was dinner. It was no wonder Jane liked you as a friend." The girl mentioned smiled at that. "In fact, before I went to sleep, you gave me a drawing of...well...me." She pointed at herself as he continued staring at her with teary eyes. "You drew that for me because you thought I was nice and pretty, just like your mom." Joyce smiled at that as well. "I still have it because it was so sweet of you to draw that for me. I'm glad you like me as much as your mom." His emotions began to strengthen more by that...

"Will...baby..." Joyce said to him softly, the boy looking at his mother once again. "If you're in there...then please...please just talk to us." He looked like he was about to cry at any second, that he would finally show himself. "Can you do that for me, honey? Can you please talk to us?" His breath became shaky and his lip was quivering. "Please...I love you so much, baby." He was about to break...

But then, his expression went blank and he said coldly, "Let me go." Everyone felt completely saddened that sharing memories with him didn't get him to break, Joyce sighing and sniffling with Jane and Jonathan. What the hell were they going to do now...?

Hopper's sad expression changed when he noticed Will tapping both his fingers against his chair in some kind of pattern. Then he thought of something.

Everyone that was in the shed (with the exception of Will) went back inside the house, Hopper grabbing a piece of paper and pulling out a pen. As he sat down at the table and clicked his pen open, everyone gathered around him. "What happened?" Dustin asked.

"I think he's talking to us," the man said while scribbling something on the paper. "But not with words." He finished scribbling, everyone seeing that he drew out a message in Morse code. He then proceeded to translate it, writing the letters underneath each symbol.

"The hell is that?" asked Steve.

"Morse code," most of the kids answered.

"H...E...R...E..." The police chief spelled out the message as he finished translating.

"Here," everyone read out loud. A flicker of hope came up to all of them.

"Will's still in there," he stated, looking up at everyone. "He's communicating with us through Morse code." With his fingers? Well, what else could he do? However, this raised everyone's hopes up, especially those that were in the shed with him.

Jonathan had brought a boombox to the shed, playing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by the Clash. With this, he, Joyce, Jane, and Terry would be able to share their memories with him while working out a system. Hopper would pay attention to his fingers, then send the Morse code to someone back in the house to write it out and translate it. Steve was in charge of getting the code, the kids were writing out the dots and dashes, and Kali was going to write out the translation.

During this process, Jane told Will, "So then, the party had to escape into the sewers before suddenly getting swarmed by these big insect things. You all were still level one..."

Further into her story, she also said, "And you casted Fog Cloud and saved us! You saved the WHOLE party, Will!"

...

Terry then said to Will, "When you and Jane were riding back to our home, you fell and scraped your knee. I got out and tended your knee inside. You were crying, but I keep telling you that it's going to be okay..."

...

Joyce was telling him two more memories before...

Kali was done with writing out the message. She held up the cardboard she was writing on, the kids and Steve looking straight at it. All of them read out loud, "'Close gate.'" Gate?

The phone on the wall suddenly rang, shocking them. Dustin and Kali ran up to him, him exclaiming, "Shit-SHIT!" He then picked up the phone before putting it back. They were all relieved for a second before it started ringing again. Frustrated, Kali ripped the phone right out of the wall and threw it, much to everyone's surprise. She sighed deeply and rubbed the side of her face.

"H-he didn't hear that, right?" Max asked.

"It's just a stupid phone," Steve replied, looking at her. "Could be anywhere...right?"

Will had noticed the ringing as well as everyone else in that shed. His eyes suddenly closed, his breathing became fast, and his eyes moved around while closed. With everyone confused, Joyce moved his arm a little and asked, "H-hey, can you hear me, honey?"

Hopper expected the worst, crouching down to him. "It knows," he stated solemnly, shocking everyone. "It knows where we are." It took the brunette woman a mere second to grab the full needle and stick it into his arm. His fast breathing faltered before he was completely knocked out. To make sure those Demo-dogs weren't coming, Hopper, Jane, and Jonathan went outside. In a few seconds, they could hear screeching from a far distance, their heart rates skyrocketing at the sound.

The people in the home heard that as well, looking out fearfully as Dustin muttered, "That's not a good sound..."

Hopper, Jane, and Jonathan got back into the shed, Jonathan yelling, "They're coming!"

"What...?" Joyce asked in shock. None of them wasted any time to untie the unconscious boy, Hopper eventually cutting the wires off. Joyce grabbed the boy and got out of the shed with everyone else.

They all got inside in the living room, Hopper eventually appearing with a shotgun and an assault rifle. He saw the kids looking through a window, making him shout, "Hey! Away from the window!" They looked at him and did so. He then handed the shotgun to Terry, much to her surprise.

"I can only shoot with a pistol, Jim," she told him. He sighed in disbelief.

"I can shoot with that, Mum," Kali said, walking towards her.

She looked at her adoptive daughter with wide eyes. "Kali?"

"Trust me, I know how to handle it. Jonathan's taught me." Both her and Steve looked surprised about that, but then she handed the shotgun to her older daughter. She unlocked the safety and with Hopper with his assault rifle, pointed it at the window. Steve joined in with his bat. Terry got a broom, Lucas got out his wrist rocket, and Jane held an empty candle holder, all to defend themselves.

They all felt very tense as they heard some close growling from outside, Max crying out, "Where are they?!" There were some more growling, raising their anxiety and tenseness a lot. Then there was loud growling from their right, all of them turning and getting ready to face them or escape.

"The hell are they doing...?" the Indian girl muttered, all of them seeing the bushes from outside rustle. They kept looking through there, expecting those monsters to come out of there. Suddenly, they heard loud snarling from the front, making them all face that way again. Those at the front were still ready to kill the Demo-dogs as their screeches continued to be heard...as well as some other noises like snapping and throwing. Everyone was becoming a little confused about hearing those noises as well, but still braced themselves once again for the attack.

But then, the screeching stopped when they heard bones snapping once again, this time closer. Then, in a mere second, one of the windows broke open with one of the Demo-dogs. Everyone turned and screamed, Hopper and Kali aiming at the Demo-dog as it crashed against a table. However, it was completely limp and unmoving, everyone getting more confused. Hopper and the rest got closer to it to make sure it wasn't moving, Dustin muttering, "Holy shit..."

"Is it dead?" the redhead asked. The police chief took it upon himself to move its head a little with his foot. It didn't seem to respond, giving them all the answer they needed.

They all faced the door when they heard a creak, bracing themselves once again. The door began unlocking itself, then it opened. A foot in a black combat boot appeared before the person themselves stepped right inside. Hopper and Terry looked shocked at who it was, the man putting his assault rifle down. The person that just entered...

Was Michael, his nose bleeding. He looked different with his punkish, street-rat-like look...but it was him.

Everyone else looked shocked to see him, especially the kids. Jane, however, had watery eyes the second she saw him. She walked towards him and stopped, making sure it was really him after all this time...and it was. He locked eyes with her, his eyes getting watery from seeing her too. He was so happy to see her again, smiling big and stifling a sob. She covered her mouth as tears ran down her face. She began to sob a little while conflicting emotions went over her. On one hand, she was so happy to see him again...

But on the other...she wasn't so happy because of a certain incident...

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God...they've finally reunited...at last...although it won't be all sunshine and rainbows. How was this chapter, by the way? Any typos or mistakes I might've missed?

We have reached to the final stretch of this season, folks. After the final episode, this is complete until Season 3 comes out, which I'm excited about! Can't wait to see what it has in store and what I could change for this AU!

Anyways...

Yeah, I did change the conversation with Kali and Steve in the shed. It's for good reason though. I also altered the conversation with Max and Jane a little due to them getting friendly earlier in this season, especially with Jane told her that Mike WAS awesome...

Speaking of Jane, I thought it would make sense with her personality in this AU that she would be sad and lonely during the first day of kindergarten because of how much of an outcast she was. I also thought Will would be the one to come hang out with her because of that and ask if she wants to be friends with him. It explains how they're very close to one another in this AU.

I hope you guys don't mind me adding Terry talking about a couple of memories to Will as well. I thought it would make sense since Will and Jane are close friends, it'd be a no-brainer for him to have a couple of good memories with her mom too.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! I'll see you all in the next chapter! :D