Robin had to admit, seeing Victor Creel had creeped her out. Seeing his memories, what had happened to his family, what One had done, made her shiver, and wished, not for the first time, that she didn't have her powers.
Yet, talking with the older man had helped. Not only did it confirm that One had murdered his family, the kid in Victor's memories looked too much like One for it to be a confidence, but they finally knew how to help Max.
Music. Music was the key.
It was only when the three of them had managed to escape the guards, Mike's panic in the situation confusing the older men, allowing them to run away, that Robin got a sick feeling in her stomach, the telltale signs of One attacking someone's mind.
She hated to admit that she was used to the feeling, it didn't hurt as much anymore. But it didn't make her any less scared.
"Robin? Robin, are you okay?" Mike asked, jumping into the backseat while the girls sat in the front, and she shook her head, frantic.
"No no no no, One has someone. He's attacking someone!"
Nancy's eyes widened. "Max!"
Nancy slammed her foot onto the gas, steering away from the building and headed towards the graveyard.
Robin knew that they wouldn't get there on time. She had to warn them. She had to warn Steve.
She closed her eyes, her hands tight against the seat, and searched, searched for the silence among the noise, the calm among the storm, and found him.
Steve! Steve, Max is being attacked! Steve!
No response.
"Robin?"
She shook her head, searching for another mind that would let her in.
"I couldn't get through to him."
"Tell Will. You've accessed his mind before, right?" Mike added, and Nancy nodded.
"Yes, she has! It might make it easier for you!"
Robin shakily took a deep breath, listening to their advice and searched for Will's mind. It wasn't too hard to find, a mind that was calm, calmer than most, yet still carried a wave of worry.
Will! She yelled, thinking as loud as she could. She couldn't let Will pass this off as a mind trick. He had to know that it was her. Will, Will, listen to me! Max is in trouble! Tell Steve! You have to tell Steve and save her! Can you hear me? Will!
So…loud…
Robin knew, as those words entered her mind, that she was doing something right. She just hoped that she wasn't hurting him.
Will!
A tense moment passed, Robin waiting for a response. Will seemed confused, scared, and slightly pained, but his voice broke through the chaos once again.
Can you slow down? Steve told me that it's you. What's going on?
She breathed a sigh of relief. Will. I can feel One. He's attacking someone right now!
Panic burst forth in Will's mind, and she knew that he had heard her. He didn't respond, and she could tell that he was telling everyone else, and that they had realized it was Max.
Finally content that her job had been done, at least for now, until she got more information on the situation, she let herself fall back into her own mind, opening her eyes to the car and the street in front of her.
But that wasn't what she opened her eyes to. She was back on her roof, outside of her bedroom, the sun that used to be high in the sky gone, replaced by the moon. She shivered, cold air hitting her bare arms, and looked around.
This wasn't right. Had she gotten stuck in her mind? It's never happened before, but it was always one of her biggest worries, especially since Steve got trapped by One.
Wait…One. Had he trapped her in her own mind? But, he was attacking Max right now!
"Hello? One? Or, should I say, Henry?"
Silence.
Robin frowned, rubbing her arms, trying to get some heat into them. Why wasn't One here? Was he hiding, waiting to trap her, or was it him at all? What if she had accidentally done this to herself?
No. She forced herself to breathe. Don't panic. You need to be calm right now.
"One, if you're trying to scare me, it's not going to work!"
Again, silence.
She sighed, letting herself sit on the roof, tucking her feet under her. She looked around at her surroundings, hoping to get an idea of what to do, because she needed to get back, she had to, yet nothing had really changed. She knew that this was the night that Chrissy had died, that Steve had run to her house and sat with her on the roof, calming her down. Yet, Steve wasn't here, it was only her.
A gray sky soon blossomed on the horizon, flashing red lightning breaking through the darkness, growls of monsters reaching her ears, and Robin flinched, getting to her feet.
It scared her. Whatever this was…it scared her.
Closing her eyes, she fought to get back to reality, facing resistance, so, so much resistance, as if someone didn't want her to get back. She pushed harder, breathing heavily, sweat accumulating on her forehead. With a scream, she gave one final effort, slamming back into her physical body with a jolt.
"ーMusic! Give her music! It should help!" She heard Mike exclaim, and she dizzily looked towards Nancy, who watched her with fear in her eyes.
"Robin, where were you? You were staring out the window at a really bad time, did something happen?"
"I…I don't know. I'll explain, or, try to explain, later, when all of this is over. But what happened here?"
"Max is dying, One has her, like we thought." Nancy stated simply. "She fell into a trance. Mike is telling Dustin to get her to listen to music. It's the only way I can think of getting her free from One."
"Dustin said that he would try it." Mike said, "But we have to go faster!"
"What about Steve? Did he say anything about him?"
"Just that he wasn't sure if Steve could help. Steve had been trying to wake her up from her trace but nothing was working."
Nancy gave Robin a concerned glance before stepping on the gas, breaking every speeding law under the sun, but Robin couldn't blame her. She could feel the panic flowing off everyone in the vehicle, the worry, the grief, the guilt, yet she pushed it all away. Max needed her. And, some part of her knew that Steve needed her, too.
As the minutes passed, the road in front of her seemed to fly by, the panic in her stomach growing.
"Can we do anything to help them? To save her?" Robin said, her fingers intertwining with one another nervously. "I mean, I know that we found out that music helps, which should help her, too, but I feel just useless sitting here and not doing anything!"
"Robin!" Mike said, reaching forward and putting his hand on her shoulder. "Just…take a breath, okay? Panicking won't get us anywhere."
Nancy nodded stiffly. "As much as I hate to say this, Mike's right. We need to stay calm."
"But how am I supposed to stay calm when Max is literally dying? I can feel it, you know! I can feel her fear, One's anger…and there's nothing I can do?"
Nancy's eyes widened. "Wait…maybe you can. You went into Steve's mind with Dustin when One was attacking him, right?"
Robin couldn't really understand why Nancy was bringing this up, but there was nothing else she could do but respond.
"Yes, why?"
"What if One works the same way? What if he's using kids with trauma because he can throw them into a mindscape, a plane of existence where he could hurt them using their pain and their hurt?"
"Like Steve and the glass cage? His fear of drowning?" Mike asked, and she nodded.
"Exactly. Robin, if you could save Steve一"
"I could save Max." Robin finished, finally understanding, finally being able to breath through the panic that coursed through her. She knew that the two of them were right, she should be able to get into Max's mind, right? It would be exactly like getting into Steve's mind, exactly like saving him.
But, what if One was stronger now? What if Robin got thrown into that weird memory place again? What if she couldn't save Max?
She wished Steve were here. He would know how to do this. He would know how to help her.
But he wasn't, and Robin had to learn to deal with it.
Taking a deep breath once more, she steadied her hands on the seats, closing her eyes.
"We're here, Robin." Nancy said, "You can do this. I know you can."
Robin managed a small smile, and forced her breathing to be steady, opening her mind once again. Max's mind was easy to find, easier than normal, but it was no doubt due to the sheer amount of fear radiating off of her.
"Sorry, Max." Robin muttered nervously. "This is a little invasive but I have to do it to save you. Hopefully."
With a small push, Robin broke into Max's mind, and what she saw shocked her to her core.
Everything was red and dark. Black pillars seemed to be covered in vines, dark, thick vines that didn't seem to end. The area around her looked to be ruins of a house, destroyed and beyond saving.
This wasn't what Max's mind should look like. Something was wrong. One was here. He had to be.
But all of that wasn't what caught her eye. What she noticed was a tall man, his skin appearing burned, tentacles or something too disturbing to look at covering his body. Long claws made up his hands, and one of them was held over a figure who was trapped by vines, her blue jacket the only bright, happy color around them.
The figure struggled, breathing heavily, heaving, and the monster just let it happen, studying the figure like it was a bug.
"Max." Robin breathed, finally recognising who it was, fear spiking in her stomach once more, and she stood frozen, watching the interaction happen.
She had to do something. She couldn't just let this…this thing hurt Max. But, what could she do? She couldn't move objects with her mind. She didn't have any weapons.
Or, did she?
Robin could hear that thing, that thing that must've been One, talking to Max, Max fighting against him, and she frantically looked for anything that could be used as a weapon. She saw spiders, tons and tons of spiders, and dead bodies hanging on the other poles, but she didn't let it distract her. She would puke later. But, now, she needed a weapon.
There. A perfect sized wooden plank, with two nails sticking out of the end of it.
Distantly, she thought that Steve would be proud of it.
Quickly grabbing it, Robin ran towards One with a battle cry, her feet slipping over the water…一is that blood?一 that covered ground. One turned to her, a scowl on his deformed face, but before he could do anything, music cut through the tension in the air, the telltale voice of Kate Bush shocking all of them. A portal of sorts appeared in the distance, and Robin could see Steve, Lucas, Will, and Dustin standing below Max's floating body, basically silhouettes against the sky.
Robin could hear them screaming for Max to wake up, all of their voices desperate, Steve's pleading, and one glance to Max told her that she could hear them, too.
Max spared a glance to Robin, but still couldn't move, her limbs useless against the bonds that held her.
"Join me, Max. Don't you want to die?" One said, his voice, gravely, deep, spooky, a stark difference to his voice in Steve's mind.
"Don't touch her!" Robin screamed, and with a thrust of One's hand, Robin was thrown to the ground, her makeshift weapon tumbling out of her hand. "No!"
Max began to shake, and Robin fought to get back to her feet, only to be pushed back to the ground. Kate Bush's voice didn't stop, and, as if a switch had been flipped, Max reached up and pulled out a tentacle from One's skin, causing him to cry out in pain. The vines around her loosened, and Max fell to the ground. She hesitated for a second to glance at Robin, terror and worry in her eyes.
"Run!" Robin screamed. "Get out of here! Don't wait for me! You have to make it out!"
Max obeyed and she began running, tumbling through the liquid and rubble towards the portal, towards the light. Robin scrambled to her feet, Max's attack on One seemingly distracting him enough to free Robin.
She wasn't complaining. Now she could finally take him down.
Picking up the board once again, she ran just as One began dropping rubble ahead, beside, and behind Max, as if trying to stop her. With a strangled cry, Robin swung the board into One's head. He stumbled forward, but quickly recovered. With a gasp Robin felt his clawed hand around her throat, tightening, squeezing, and she struggled to breath, eyes wide.
"You don't take orders very well, do you, Twenty?"
She couldn't respond, all she could do was watch as Max got closer and closer to the portal, no obstacles stopping her now. Robin managed a smile despite the pain, relief flooding her mind and heart.
Max would be okay. She would be okay.
"You may have been able to help her, but hers, and your time will come." One said carefully, watching her, studying her, and Robin hit his arm desperately, fighting to break free. "And it will come soon, I guarantee it. All of Hawkins will fall, and there will be nothing you or Nineteen or Eleven can do about it.
Her vision began to go dark, and she distantly wondered if it was possible for her to die in Max's mind. Would she go brain dead? Would her heart stop, freaking out Mike and Nancy, who were still in the car? Would there only be her body left of her?
Her thoughts wandered to Steve. He would be heartbroken if she died. She couldn't put him through that, he had been through enough already.
She wouldn't be the reason that he suffered. Never.
With as much strength as she could muster, she slammed her hands down onto One's chest, some invisible force, a strong power, pushing her out of his grip and far, far away from her. One crumbled to the ground, getting on his feet seconds later, but Robin wasn't ready to give up yet.
"You…" She whispered, greedily taking in lost air, "You're not going to win. Ever."
Instinctively she thrust out her hand, screaming, and One was thrown back. He thrust his hand out towards her, causing her to stumble, and Robin prepared for another attack. Yet, before it came, Max reached the portal, and everything went white.