12.
Will stares at El as she struggles to break free from Vecna's hold, whimpering in pain and gasping for breath, but it's not just El he sees. He sees Bob, bleeding on the floor of the lap, demodogs feasting on his organs. Max, broken and bandaged and silent in a hospital room. Mike in the projected future, mid-air, screaming as his limbs get snapped and his eyes torn from him. He sees everyone who has been hurt by his actions or his lack of action.
He's not going to add El to the list. He can't. It was his stupid idea to let Vecna take control of his body and so it's his responsibility to keep her safe, to prevent his worst fears coming true.
"Will-" El says. Her voice sounds hoarse.
He looks up at her in surprise.
"Remember… when we met. Properly met. Your mom and Hop were… talking." She gasps for enough breath to continue. "And we… didn't know what to say. We just … smiled."
Will gets what she's doing. Someone must have told her memories helped him gain some control last time. He does remember that first meeting. It was only a day after they got the mindflayer out of him and El closed the gate, and his mom took him to Hop's to say hi. They'd gone outside for a smoke, leaving the two of them alone on the sofa. Both shy, him still recovering and El with limited language, it was never going to be a great conversation. But he'd got so overwhelmed meeting her, the girl who'd saved his life, the girl his friends would not shut up about, that he could barely speak. He'd just smiled at her nervously instead and slowly she had started to smile back.
He senses something behind him and when he turns he sees a new image, one of the closest to him, and he can make out his view of El on the sofa that day.
"And… California, before school," El continues. "When we… we saw the ocean."
El's face is growing redder and she's shaking as she gasps for breath. Will thinks of the memory, concentrating on it until another image appears. He'd never seen the ocean before either but El had been really amazed, staring around her at the white sand in amazement. It had been the first time since they lost Hopper she looked happy. His mom had suggested swimming but El didn't know how and was content splashing around in the area the waves hit the beach. They built sandcastles after that, and dug a hole which they buried Jonathan in.
She's struggling to talk, so he takes over, reminding himself of more of their good memories together in the hope it helps him claw his way back so he can help El.
"And that night when we sat outside and looked at the stars? Mom came out and we thought she was going to tell us to get back inside and warm up, but she just gave us a hot chocolate each and joined us on the grass. We used that old book to find some constellations. You found Gemini, you remember? The Twins."
He doesn't even look at the new image this time, too focused on the desperate scene in front of him, El struggling more than ever. Her hands grip so tightly around the bar against her throat, he can see the white of her knuckles.
He steps forwards, trying again to reach back into his own body. This time, the scene holds for several seconds before splintering away. He sighs in frustration, but knows it's got to be a good sign. He's one step closer.
Aware he doesn't have much time to spare, he hastily brings some more memories to mind.
"And- and what about that time with the paint when you decided it would look better on our fingernails than on the paper? And it was just a joke, really, but Argyle came over and he thought it so cool he wanted you to do his too."
Despite everything, Will manages a small smile. El had been so chuffed at his compliments.
"And that time at Mike's ages ago. Hop had finally let you come so we had the whole party together. And we were playing that stupid card game Dustin brought. It was you, me and Mike against the other three. And we lost. We lost spectacularly. And Mike threw the biggest hissy fit about it which made the whole thing a million times funnier. We were laughing so hard that Coke came out of Lucas's nose and Max threatened to dump him for being gross."
He tries again to step back into his body. This time as he enters the scene, colours blur around him and he hears El crying out and gets a fleeting stab of pain in his head. He concentrates on the tingling of muscles in his right arm and waits for the moment he's able to move it. The second he can, he draws his arm back to his side.
The movement breaks the force Vecna is directing at El. She falls to the floor. The bar that was against her neck lands beside her with a clatter. El gasps for air, her breaths falling heavily, her neck already red and swollen and her cheeks damp with tears. She doesn't mop her eyes but one hand reaches for her neck, while the other's already held out in front of her, ready for action.
The scene blurs and Will knows he only has a second before Vecna regains control.
"El," he says. "Do it!"
She whips her hand to one side, screaming loudly with rage, and he feels his body follow the movement of her arm. He feels a thrill of pride at El fighting back but his eyes snap shut out of instinct, bracing himself for the landing. He slips out of reality just before his body hits the floor. He's glad to avoid the pain, even though he's only really putting it off until later.
But this time, he's not back inside his own consciousness. He's still watching El, her face twisted in rage, blood trickling from her nose, but he can't feel his arms or legs anymore. He definitely can't control his limbs or what comes from his mouth. It feels cold and yet at the same time it stings as if he's sat too close to an open fire. And he doesn't think he's here alone.
Although he can't see or hear them, he feels the presence of many other people, hundreds of them if not more, feels their breath upon his skin, their whispers in his ear, the steady thump thump of their heartbeat beneath his hand. He senses their emotions, their anger, grief, fear, despair, sorrow, dance around his mind as if they were his own. All strong emotions, all negative, and yet as Will drinks them in, it makes him feel larger, stronger, more powerful.
He understands then. This is Vecna. Somehow, he's entered Vecna's mind, reflecting his own power back against him. As he tries to figure out what this means, fear rockets through him. Is this it then, have they lost? Now that he and Vecna are both inside each other's heads, has that turned them into a singular person, into that monster that kills all his friends?
But Will doesn't think so. Not yet, anyway. He knows how it feels to lose control, to have his own thoughts blend with ones that don't belong, and this isn't it. And now that he understands where he is, he finds he's able to sort through the souls around him, separating each into their own identity. He hears a young man begging for mercy, hears the pained screams of a child, a woman crying not my baby, no, a screech of brakes, a smashing of glass, someone shouting you useless piece of shit.
He knows who died as the gates ripped through town, who was choked to death by vines or torn to pieces by a demodog and who had their bones snapped and eyes pulled out. He can tell who died suddenly, whose deaths were painful and drawn out and who thought they were ready to go until those last few seconds of fear.
He knows who are strangers to him, whose paths have crossed with his, however fleetingly, and who was part of his life. And he can sense which two identities feel lighter than the rest, looser tethered, those belonging to him and Max, the part of them that Vecna kept when they died temporarily.
Being able to feel all these memories sickens Will. He doesn't want to experience their pain, their anguish. That's Vecna's realm, not his. These are individuals who deserve to rest in peace, not serve as nourishment to the monster that killed them. He remembers Bob's funeral and Hopper's memorial and how there had been stories of their lives, wonderful, uplifting stories, celebrating the best bits. It gives him an idea.
Vecna feeds off their suffering and uses it to make him stronger, to power the nightmares he puts in people's minds himself. So, if Will can switch their suffering to something more positive, he weakens Vecna.
He starts with himself. He thinks of his mom and Jonathan and Mike and El and the rest of the party and the good times they've had together, of how they've stuck together through everything and how they actually, somehow, seem to care for him as much as he does for them. Nothing changes immediately but then he gets the faint scent of chemicals of paint and Reece's pieces and salt from the ocean and his mom's perfume and he knows that must mean something.
So, he keeps trying. He thinks of Max. He thinks of her quick-witted responses, her tight bonds with Lucas and with El, and her surprising him with a hug and a quiet I'll miss you, Byres in his ear on the day they said goodbye and moved to California. The memories are followed by the faint sound of wheels on tarmac, high notes from Kate Bush and a familiar laugh.
And then he thinks of the others. Of Barb, of the times they were both visiting the Wheelers at the same time and he'd see her and Nancy eating pizza in the kitchen or dancing to a song. He thinks of Bob, of how he laughed harder at movies than anyone else Will had ever met, how he actively tried to get to know Will better, how he made his mom smile in a way that Will hadn't seen before. And he thinks of Eddie, who he'd never met but who loved D&D, who got the biggest thrill out of being dungeon master.
And then it's as if more souls are coming towards him then, asking to be reunited with their happier times. And Will doesn't know them but he somehow finds he can help, reminding them of the day they had their first child, their wedding celebrations, playing piano in front of a huge audience, that holiday in Hawaii.
Around him something is changing. The souls are getting both louder and quieter at the same time, more desperate and yet already happier. And Will's dizzy, disorientated with it all, but he can tell that's coming from Vecna as much as himself. It's working. Vecna's already getting weaker. He can only feed off his victims when their memories are rooted in unhappiness.
And once he's weaker, that leaves him vulnerable to death. Free for El to kill.
But there's a lot of victims of the hive mind and Will doesn't know if he can get through them all quick enough on his own. He needs help. And those only one other living person who may be able to reach this part of Vecna's mind. Max.
El's learnt from her hesitation earlier and now doesn't hold back. It makes her think of Papa, always pushing, always another lesson, a demand to try harder. It fuels her anger and she directs it at 001, trying not to think of what she's doing to Will. It's a balancing game, hurting him enough so that 001 is forced out, but not so much Will can't safely return to his body and recover.
She lifts him off his feet throws him across the room. He flies through the air, crashing into the wall high up, not far from the ceiling, and falling to the floor. As he lands, she hears a crack. Trying not to look at the pained expression 001 is pulling on Will's face, she uses the time while he's recovering to make her next move. She raises her arm, lifting him up again and throwing him back at the wall. The distance is less this time, so the impact harder, and she catches him before he can hit the floor, smacking him back against the wall, and then doing the same again and again, a bit like she watched Lucas do with a basketball, that summer before they left for California. She sends him back to the wall time and time again, never letting down, until she feels her knees buckle. She hits the floor the same time as 001. Will's face is bloody. There's a matching patch of blood on the wall.
001 moves, first pushing himself into a kneeling position, mirroring her, and then climbing to his feet. She quickly does the same. But even though 001 is standing, he doesn't look right. Will's body is limp, his legs shaking and his head bobbing forwards as though he's about to pass out. El understands the sign. It's no longer 001 forcing Will's body into position, it's 001's powers holding him upright by using the same thing she does, the thing Mike calls telekinesis. And she knows what that means, Will's body is verging on unhabitable. 001 can only move it through his powers, and that means he only has so much power left to direct at her.
As suspected, when 001 throws out an arm to send her backwards through the air, he collapses to the floor, ending off worse than she did from his minor force. She steps forwards and lifts him up.
Will's body hangs limply in the air.
She thinks about 001. She thinks about Henry, who befriended her when she was bullied and lonely, and she thinks about Vecna, the monster who tried to tear Max to pieces, who terrorised Will for years, who killed her siblings at the lab and so many others. Then she thinks about Will, her brother, who had fought 001's attacks more than once and survived, only to put himself back in danger once again, all for the love of his friends and family. She thinks of the two of them as they are currently, 001's consciousness in Will's body, and then she thinks of them separate.
Her hands tense mid-air, sending the force of her power to her fingertips. She latches on to that same bit of her brain she uses to move things without touching them except this time, takes hold of Will in her left hand and 001 with her right. She concentrates on the two of them, on how 001 is rooted in hate, and Will in love, and slowly moves her hands apart from each other. As she does so, she can feel a resistance, but she keeps going, pulling harder and harder.
In the air, Will's body starts to twitch. His head falls back, his mouth open. His arms and legs jerk in odd directions, rigid, disturbing movements like she remembers when they were thrown into his. memories. His back arches and his chest heaves and there's something black coming from his mouth. El can do nothing to help him other than keep going, keep pulling 001 out of his body. She's so close to freeing Will, to getting the chance to fight 001 properly, she's not going to give up, not going to let everyone down.
Then all at once, the force between her hands vanishes, Will's body crumples to the ground with a thud, and she's left looking up at a transparent version of 001, looking like Henry. She staggers, trying to stay upright. Henry, in a cloud of dark vapour, is gradually turning into Vecna, getting more solid looking as he does so. He's different to last time she saw him in the flesh. So many of vines that creep around his body are burnt, he's more grey now, than red, and there's a notable gap of vines in his chest, where Nancy had shot him.
She knows he's fully back in his body when he takes a step towards her.
"011," he says. It's his own growl this time, not Will's voice.
She feels something shoot through her body, nerves or excitement or determination, she can't tell. But she knows she has a fight ahead of her. Things are about to get dangerous.
"Will!" she shrieks. "Get out, go!" Out of the corner of her eye, she can see he remains where he is, not moving. "Wake up, Will," she shouts. Her voice breaks. She can't tell if he's unconscious or worse. "Will!" she pleads, anyway. "You have to go!"
She wishes she could run to him and help him, but she can't give 001 that opportunity to take attack. Instead she uses her powers to slide Will's limp body towards the door. She takes her eyes off 001 for long enough to see strong arms grab Will.
Then she feels herself get thrown across the room.