9.

"I was just talking to her," Lucas says, "and then this- this vine whipped out from under the bed and grabbed my leg, started trying to pull me under."

He's talking so fast that Will's not sure anyone outside the party would be able to distinguish the words.

"And I'm on the floor, trying to get free, and I can see underneath the bed there's a whole load of vines coming for me, as if we were in the Upside Down."

Mike and Dustin both crouch down beside Max's bed to look underneath it. Will doesn't. He can sense there's no longer anything there. El doesn't check either.

"Nada," Dustin confirms.

"That's the thing, they vanished as quickly as they arrived," Lucas says. "I even thought that maybe I imagined it, but-" He stands, placing his foot onto the edge of the bed and pulling the cuff of his jeans higher up his leg. There are swollen red lines around his ankle from where the vine had been. It looks like the ones around Mike's neck and wrists.

Something tugs at the back of Will's consciousness. At this point, he's not certain if he's actually had an idea or if it's Vecna trying something new. It almost feels as if he's still there in his dad's old shed, gun to his head, willing himself to end everything. It's as if, even though he didn't do it, only a ghost of him remains anyway. He stares blankly at Lucas' injured ankle and wonders if it would have been spared had he accomplished what he'd intended to.

He jumps as a hand touches his arm. Mike's gripping him much tighter than he needs to, but it brings him back to reality.

"What if we're wrong?" Mike asks. There's hope woven into his raised eyebrows and upper pitch of his voice. "I mean, this is the same thing that happened to me. We thought it was Vecna using you because you were the only one who could see them, but-" he faces the rest of them, "Will wasn't even here this time."

"I dunno, man," Lucas says. "I could definitely see them, but-" He breaks off to shoot an apologetic look at Will. "I've not had any of that other shit happen to me."

"I… I've thought of something," Will says, so suddenly he surprised himself.

Everyone's eyes turn to him.

"Vecna keeps everyone he kills, right?" he says. "And- and not just those he's directly responsible for, but everyone that the Hive Mind's taken. El and I saw them. Their… their bodies, souls, I don't know." His gaze falls to his knees as he comes to this next bit, not sure if he can get through it if he can see his friends' reactions. "But-" He takes a deep breath. "But Max and I both died too, it's just we were brought back, me by my mom and Hopper, and Max-"

"By me," El interrupts.

Will forgets his resolve not to look at anyone and turns to stare at her. Everyone else is doing the same. He'd had his suspicions but El had never said for definite and medical miracles can happen even without the intervention of a girl with superpowers.

"You- what?" Lucas asks.

"I… brought her back."

"Let me get this straight," Dustin says. "You can resurrect people?"

El blinks. "Res-er-?"

"Resurrect. Bring people back to life."

"I never knew you could do that," Mike adds. He sounds faintly offended that El never told him.

"I didn't know either," she says, softly. "I just… tried."

There's a few beats of silence. Will doesn't know what to say to that revelation and he suspects everyone else feels the same.

"Oh." Mike clears his throat. "Right. So, back to your theory then, Will."

"Right." He'd almost forgotten he'd been halfway through a sentence before El had dropped that on them. "Um, so, like I was saying, he keeps everyone he's killed. Except he can't keep me and Max in the same way, can't keep our- our bodies because we're still… well, using them." It feels weird to say it out loud, to talk about his own death in this way. "I- I think that may be why I have this link, this connection with him. He's… kept me too, in a way."

"And now Max," Lucas adds.

"I guess so, yeah."

Mike looks frantically between them all, as if he's just figured something out. "So, because of whatever El did to suppress him from using you for his actions, he's moved onto Max. The vines attacked Lucas through her."

"But Will, you're going to be a lot more use to him than Max is at the moment," Dustin says. "No offence, Mayfield, if you're listening."

"Maybe that doesn't matter," Will says. "It's not like anything he did through me required me to be awake and mobile. The only difference is that Lucas could see the vines when he tried it through Max, he couldn't through me and neither could Mike or Jonathan."

"You must have, like, absorbed the visual somehow," Lucas says. "But Max can't. Maybe that's why they showed themselves to me."

"So, what's the plan?" Dustin looks to El. "You'll go inside Max's head again and fight him there?"

"It won't work," El says. "I need 001 to stop hiding. Then we fight."

"How do we get him to stop hiding?"

A shiver runs down Will's spine. "Incentive," he says. "We give him what he wants."

"Explain, Byres."

"Well, we know what his plan is. He's going to use me to carry on killing people. Or maybe Max now, I don't know. But what we do know is that from his hiding place he's only been able to throw around a few vines. He wants more. So, we let him take control. And then once he's in control, El can fight him properly. She can force him back to his own body, which is already injured, and then kill him from there. Except, Vecna's got Max currently and she's already too hurt to put in more danger. We need to draw him back to me."

"No," Mike says.

"Mike-"

"Listen to yourself, Will! You're suggesting you put yourself in danger!" Mike's chin trembles and he hesitates before he gets out the next words. "You promised me you wouldn't. Remember?"

Will sags. It's not exactly what he promised, but he can tell Mike's still hurting from earlier and he hates that he's the cause of that pain. "I'm sorry," he says. "But I have to! I think this could work."

"You don't have to."

"So, you're saying we should put Max through that instead?" Lucas interjects and his voice is full of pain too. "I know you've never liked her, but-"

"I didn't say that!" Mike throws out his arm in outrage. "And I do like Max! What I meant was that it was a stupid plan and we're not-"

"It's a good plan," El says and everyone shuts up. She looks at Will. "Better than your first plan."

"What was your first plan?" Dustin asks.

"Doesn't matter," Will says quickly, throwing a pointed look at El. "This is better," he agrees.

"I will have to hurt you though."

Mike gives a groan of frustration.

"It's fine," Will says, ignoring the nerves in his stomach. "It'll be worth it."

"Will!"

"Mike," El says, beating Will to it. "Think about it. This is the best idea we have."

If Will can hear El's thoughts beaming into Mike's head, he's sure Mike must be able to too. This is better than Will killing himself, El's saying through that intense look.

"What aren't you three telling us?" Dustin asks again.

They all ignore him.

"Fine." Mike folds his arms in front of his chest. "But I'm not happy about it."

Will wishes he could give him a hug. "So," he says, instead. "We just need to figure out how to get him to me."

There's a silence.

"He's after us, right?" Mike says. There's clear reluctance in his voice. "All of us. So if we were to stop visiting Max then he'd be forced back to you to get access to us."

"Not happening," Lucas says.

"Lucas-"

"No! Look, the only thing I can do to help her right now is to be here. They say- they say she might be able to hear…" He leaves the statement hanging, as if daring any of them to contradict him. "So I have to come, don't you get that? I have to read to her in case she can hear. I have to be here in case she wakes up."

"It's just for a little bit, Lucas," Dustin tries.

"You don't know that! None of us know how long it will take. None of us know it's definitely gonna work!"

"I know it's a big ask," Will says. He knows staying with Max is important to Lucas right now. He can tell it's the only thing keeping him going. "But, Lucas… if Max can feel him- feel Vecna," he shudders. "It's horrible, okay? The best thing for her is to get him away from her as quickly as possible. And I think- I think that Mike's right, and us all staying away is going to be the quickest way to do that."

Lucas stares at him for a moment. He looks like he's so deep in thought that Will's not sure he's even remembered to breathe. But then he covers his face with his hands and Will can hear all the air come out of him.

When Lucas removes his hands he's looking down at Max. Only at Max. He takes her hand in his as best he can while she's covered in cast right up to her fingers and gently strokes his thumb across hers.

"I'm sorry Max," he says, softly. "I won't be able to see you for a little while. I'll be back with you soon as I can." He places the book he's been reading her on the bedside table. "I'll leave this here for you just in case you wake up and you want to know how it ends," he says. "I'll let you read ahead, just this once."

Will stares at the gifted book. He thinks it's one of the saddest things he's even seen.

As El talks, nervous energy pulses through his body and, as hard as he tries, he can't stop his leg from twitching. They're side by side on Hopper's couch. His mom and Hop sit either side of the dining table, angled towards them as they listen. There aren't enough seats for Jonathan too, so he hovers halfway between them and their parents, looking uncomfortable and yet more himself than Will's seen him in months.

"You did what?"

There's an edge to Hopper's voice and Will senses El glance nervously towards him. He continues to pick at his nail. He'd thought his mom's reaction when they'd revealed about the vines he's been seeing was bad enough, but this could be worse.

"I did the piggyback-"

"Rules, El, we agreed rules!" Hopper interrupts. He rubs a hand over the back of his head where his hair's yet to regrow. "You remember? No powers except here or at Joyce's."

"Nobody saw." She glances again at Will, like she's expecting him to back her up. "Steve's fences, they are very high."

Will nods.

"You think they can't find ways to see over high fences? God, El. Fuck. That was stupid to-"

"Hop," Will's mom says softly, laying a gentle hand on his arm.

"What, Joyce? You don't think what she did was stupid? Reckless?"

"I think what they all did was… misjudged, and- and yes, quite risky too, but…" her eyes narrow as she scrutinises his face first, and then moves on to El, "I think there's a lot more of the story still to come."

There's a noise that comes from Hopper that's half groan, half cuss. He leans back against the chair, admitting defeating. "Go on then, kid. Tell me what else there is that I don't want to hear."

"We saw… memories," she says. "Bad memories."

El doesn't specify, which Will is grateful for, but he sees the look on his mom's face and knows she has a good idea of what they revisited.

"Then we fell out of the memories and into where 001 lives. But he wasn't really there. I couldn't fight." She sounds angry, but it quickly fades. "001, he showed us something. A- a vision. Of his plan."

"Like what happened to Nancy." Jonathan finally moves from his spot, and perches on the arm of the couch, gripping Will's shoulder. "What did you see?"

"Um," Will says, quickly, indicating to El he wants to tell this bit. With her sense of honesty, she'd end up giving far more details than he wants to share with his family. "Me. We saw me. Hurting… killing people." He swallows down the bile in his throat. "In- in the way that he… that Vecna does."

His mom gasps. Jonathan's hand tightens on his shoulder. El slips her hand into his. Will wishes everyone would stop touching him, that they'd move so far away he never has a chance of doing them harm.

"No," his mom says. "No." It's as if she's telling him he can't have that third helping of dessert or cycle back from Mike's late at night. "That's not going to happen. No, it's not possible."

"Mom," he says, trying to get her to understand. "He's going to make me."

"No, sweetheart, it was just another nightmare, he's never going to make you do those things."

"Mom." Jonathan tries this time. "He showed Nancy the gates and then-"

"This doesn't make sense!" Her voice is reaching hysteria pitch. "How could- how could Will, your brother, Jonathan, do something like… No." Even from across the room, Will can see her eyes glistening with tears. "That's enough, you hear me? You're not going to hurt anyone, Will."

"Joyce-"

She snatches her hand out of Hopper's. "No! That bastard's done enough to my son. I'm not going to let him do this too!"

"We have a plan," El says.

"A plan," Joyce echoes, incredulous.

"You won't like it," El warns.

Hop groans. "Today just gets better and better."

Will explains the context, about how Vecna keeps all victims of the Upside Down, about how he and Max are the anomalies due to being brought back to life, and how that's allowing Vecna to use their bodies instead of his own incapacitated one. Then El takes over and tells them about how they're going to coax Vecna away from Max and back to Will, and how Will's going to allow himself to succumb to Vecna's control, so she can fight him and kill him this time, while he's already weak, saving Will and Max and the whole of Hawkins.

Hearing it like this, altogether, rather than as they pieced it together, Will thinks it sounds like an even better plan than he'd originally thought.

But then-

"No."

All three voices come at the same time: his mom, Jonathan and Hopper.

"Are you two insane?" Hopper's frowning so deeply, Will's surprised the new scar on his forehead hasn't split back open.

"Uh, not just us," he says. "Mike and Lucas and Dustin helped us to come up with it."

"And that's meant to be reassuring?"

"Will, baby." His mom takes over from Hopper. "Sweetheart. It's not safe. You- you nearly died last time something from there was controlling you."

"But I didn't."

"I know it's all a little… hazy for you, but we very nearly couldn't get it out of you before."

He winces. He'd been lucid enough to remember the pain, and the flashbacks Vecna showed them supplied what his memories did not. He ignores that part of her comment. "Well, we've got El this time. It'll be okay."

"Will, listen-"

As Jonathan speaks, Will almost rolls his eyes at them all taking it turn by turn to try to talk him out of it.

"-that vision Vecna showed you… him using your body to hurt people… don't you think letting him gain control is getting one step too close to that happening?"

It's the terrifying possibility he's been trying not to think about. But there's already been one change between what Vecna showed them and their current reality. The version of him in the vision had been oblivious to the terrible things he'd done, but he's painfully aware. It shows the vision isn't inevitable. It isn't necessarily his fate. And so he's determine to disrupt every element of the vision he has power over, creating as much change as possible in the hope it catalyses further differences. And there's one element he can easily control, anyway. Kissing Mike. And he'd going to make sure that never happens again.

He takes a deep breath. "I know it's risky," he says. "But at least we have a chance this way. The only alternative would be for me and Max to both die so Vecna has nowhere to hide."

"We're not going to let that happen," his mom says.

"Exactly. So you have to let us do this."

"Can it work?" Hopper's question is clearly directed to El.

"It can," she says. "But we need your help."