Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Michael Wheeler couldn’t believe his eyes, and after spending middle school through his first two years of high school dealing with supernatural monsters and powers, that was saying something. He thought for sure he was a goner. The military base had been reduced to bullets flying and screaming bloody murder, with Mike’s mind torn between objectives. Protect the kids. Help Will. Will, who had spent most of their escapade through the military base half-awake with blinding pain as the military laid into the Demogorgon. It pained Mike to hear his best friend’s blood-curdling screams knowing there was nothing he could do to help ease the pain. 

But then Vecna exited the gate, and everything got a whole lot sinister. It was like the air around them was at his command, strangling anyone in his path, his presence was so suffocating. Mike considered himself lucky thus far for not encountering the villain face to face in all their years of dealing with the Upside Down. Now, though, in the presence of a monster—the monster who hurt his best friend—he couldn’t help but wonder how Will survived. 

He watched Vecna massacre the soldiers, telling the kids to keep their eyes on him like he said. Then a particularly large explosion set off and Mike was flung into the hood of a vehicle. He probably hit his head, then. He must’ve blacked out from the pain, for when he came to, the Demogorgon were dragging the kids towards the portal by their feet. Mike’s shoulder sparked with pain at every move, but he pushed himself up anyway. He had to help the kids. He couldn’t be reduced to a useless nobody this time, bringing everyone else down because he couldn’t use a weapon properly. 

Vecna was talking to Will. 

Joyce was unconscious on the ground across the tarmac. 

Mike, frozen with fear and indecision, watched Vecna wipe his nail across Will’s cheek before dropping him and walking back through the portal. The gate in the ground opened again, allowing another demo to crawl out of it. Mike finally clambered to his feet, black dots in his vision. 

Will Will Will Will Will

He had to get to his best friend. The demo was going to kill him. 

But it didn’t turn to Will. It turned on him. 

Mike’s body seized, muscles refusing to obey his brain’s command to run god dammit. His fingers twitched, his legs shook, and his heart leapt to his throat. The demo’s petal shaped mouth flapped open, gooey spit flying as it leapt into the air, claw raised to kill him. 

Part of Mike wondered if his death would make things easier, knowing that a liability was no longer tagging along simply because he thought he could help. The other part of him, the heart, was screaming at him to move. He had to make it back to his Party. To El and Lucas and Dustin and Will, to his sister who he’d been getting closer with since the quarantine was put in place. He had to help rescue Holly. 

A bloodied claw reached for him. 

He didn’t have enough time. 

Mike squeezed his eyes shut and brought his arms in front of his face as if it’d do anything against nails that could cut clean through metal. He awaited death with fear. He didn’t want to die yet. He needed to say so many things his cowardly brain refused to let out. He needed to finally get his shit together and start acting like someone worthy of sticking with the Party. Mike thought he’d have more time, dammit. 

Death didn’t come instantly like he thought it would. After a full ten seconds, he lowered his arms, eyes wide at the sight before him. The demo was stuck midair, its claw just barely a foot over his head. The monster’s limbs spasmed, wanting to escape whatever invisible prison it was put into. Mike watched the clawed hand tremble, the need for blood completely overtaking its system. 

When Mike glanced around, half expecting to find two members of the Byers family dead, he was rendered speechless instead. 

He always knew Will Byers was special. Ever since that day on the swings, something drew him to Will. He thought it was the boy’s quiet nature, and Mike’s complimentary ability to be able to read his mind and vocalize for him. Or maybe how their creativity seemed to overlap, creating intricate D&D lore and campaigns. Maybe it was the soft look in Will’s eye, like he was expecting the world to crumble around him at any moment.

Either way, he knew Will was special. He didn’t know that meant Will had powers like El. 

Will, across the tarmac, with his hand outstretched toward the demo with milky white eyes. His muscles seemed locked in position, holding the demo in place. He had a scowl on his face, hair damp across his forehead. Mike looked on in awe. He couldn’t help it. All these years, he’d been right. Will was a sorcerer. And he was saving Mike like a complete badass.

His eyes never strayed from his best friend. He watched Will’s other arm snap up, pointed in a completely different direction. Then his head tilted to the sky, chest heaving with heavy breaths. A moment later, his hands clenched, and his arms returned to his sides, and Mike jumped as the demo in front of him broke like a twig. It landed in a heap in front of him, motionless. 

Will fell to his knees, wiping a streak of blood from his nose as his body swayed, eyes locked onto Mike. 

And Mike smiled. Despite the loss of the children, he smiled, because they just gained another upper hand. Will had always been a spy of sorts, but it was a double edged sword. The Mind Flayer could easily tap into Will’s mind just as Will could tap into the hive mind. Maybe now, with Will’s new abilities, they would be able to spy on a one-sided communication line. 

Seeing Joyce up and hugging Will, Mike ran over despite the pain flaring in his shoulder. Will was smiling, too, the same smile he had just before all of this when they were talking near the tunnels. The kind that showed all his teeth and let the skin around his eyes crinkle, and made his eyes sparkle with warmth and humor. 

So yeah, holy shit indeed. Will had powers.

“You’re a sorcerer! A real-life, honest to God sorcerer!” Mike exclaimed as he barreled into his best friend, squeezing him, hoping it would convey his gratefulness. 

Will’s arms wrapped around his middle, hands splayed against Mike’s back. “Mike.”

A question, a concern, a sigh of relief that hit Mike’s ear. Mike pulled back from the hug with a nod, still in disbelief over what he saw. Will seemed okay, if only a bit exhausted going on the way his eyes remained half-lidded, even as he scanned the destruction around them. 

“The kids…” he said dejectedly. 

“There was nothing we could’ve done to stop him, honey,” Joyce tried to comfort with a hand on her son’s shoulder. “We need to group back up and figure out what to do next.”

Mike nodded, coming to Will’s side to wrap an arm around his shoulders for support. “We need to call Dustin—”

“—male, approximately five foot nine, brown hair, accompanied by a woman and man.”

His head whirled towards the building the kids were being held in. A man stood outside, a walkie-talkie raised to his lips with wide eyes. Another soldier stood in the doorway of the building, staring at the three as if they were aliens. 

“Shit! Go, quick!” Joyce ushered them. 

It was hard to move when Will was nearly dead weight. The surge of power must’ve drained his battery, like El. Still, Mike grit his teeth through the pain and pushed through, his arm around Will tightening considerably. Will’s footsteps were uneven, stumbling along incoherently. They swayed from side to side. Mike was quickly losing balance. 

“Will, you’ve gotta put one foot in front of the other. Just a bit more and we’ll be safe, okay?” Mike said, watching Will’s eyes grow heavy and limbs become like jelly. “Will—”

He hadn’t been watching where he’d been stepping. He’d just been hoping he wasn’t stepping on a corpse and moving along, eyes trained on the shell-shocked soldiers. Mike should’ve been paying better attention, should’ve been more acute to his surroundings, which would’ve saved him a whole lot of trouble. 

He reached to take his next step and his foot continued to fall. Ice cold fear washed over him as his heart leapt to his throat. The kind of fear when you realize you were going down the stairs too fast and your foot didn’t come in contact with the next stair, sending you tumbling to the floor. Except these were no stairs; they were interdimensional portals to a mirror version of Hawkins. 

A shout tumbled out of his throat as he fell, his tight grip on Will bringing him down with him. Joyce’s eyes were wide with horror, her hand reaching out to them, but she wouldn’t be able to stop them. 

Mike’s foot pierced through the layer of cobweb-like goo, then his body, and Will fell with him. 

Mike heaved himself from the crack in the ground, pulling Will up beside him with much effort. Will pushed on the ground, managing to sluggishly pull himself out of the portal. Mike followed a moment later, lying on the concrete beside him. His shoulder was really starting to hurt. He couldn’t tell if he’d dislocated it or just pulled something, but it hurt like a bitch. He lay face-first on the ground, sucking in pained breaths, wondering just how bad his luck had to be to get them stuck in this position. 

“Mike, the gate,” Will said, voice laced with fatigue. 

Mike begrudgingly sat up, watching the portal’s cobwebs reform where they’d fallen through. If they were easy to break, they could easily break back through to the right side up. Mike crawled forward, reaching his arm down. Every muscle in his body protested, white-hot pain flaring in his head and arm. He let out a pained groan, retreating to sit on his knees. 

“We’ve gotta get out of here,” he said through gritted teeth. 

As Mike stood, helping Will to his feet, he took in the Upside Down for the first time. He was violently reminded of Will’s voice transmitting through the radio when he was missing.

“It’s like home! But it’s dark! It’s so cold! Mom!”

He shook away the memory. The sky was overcast with deep clouds, red lightning providing milliseconds of light. In front of him stood an exact replica of the town square, except it was like a zombie apocalypse movie. The buildings were covered in vines, no light to be seen at all. Behind them, Mike froze. The other military base stood menacingly behind them, electricity bright like a beacon calling them to the right side up. Mike knew better than to trust the military. They had to go back through the gate.

“We’re gonna jump back through,” Mike said.

Will looked at him with raised brows, sweat coating his visible skin. His eyes were wide, fluttering around the Upside Down like a demo was going to appear out of nowhere. “There are still soldiers on the other side. They were calling in backup. We can’t go back through this way, we have to find a different gate.”

“There’s one right in front of us!”

“We can’t fight off the military on our own! You’re injured and I don’t think I’ll be able to pull a stunt like that again for a while,” Will countered.

“We’ll have time to run if we don’t stand here arguing over it!” Mike bit back. 

Suddenly, Mike’s vision flooded with white. He screwed his eyes shut, raising his arm to protect his eyes as he slowly adjusted to the change. 

“Over there!” a gruff voice shouted. 

“Goddammit,” Mike hissed.

The sound of engines roaring had Mike’s heart in his throat. The military in the rightside up had alerted the group in the Upside Down. He could only hope Joyce got away in time with her life. They would be captured, too, if they didn’t get a move on. In their injured/tired states, running would be futile, but they could try. The military may have had extensive maps of Hawkins, but he and Will grew up in town. They knew many places the military didn’t. 

Mike turned to Will, only to pause when laser red dots littered Will’s body. There were at least two on his forehead. Mike’s body flooded with adrenaline. He grabbed Will’s hand and took off, clenching his jaw and ignoring the seeping pain in his shoulder. He heard shouts and roars behind him, Will’s rugged breathing, and their footsteps crunching on broken glass. As far as Mike knew, the tunnels weren’t necessarily part of the upside down. He didn’t even know if they existed in the hellish land, so it was off the table. He could run them back to his house, but it was an obvious move to run back home. They reached the edge of the town square when Will flipped his palm to properly grip Mike’s hand. 

“Castle Byers,” Will huffed.

Mike squeezed his hand in affirmation. “We have to hide first, get them off our backs.”

“Where is there to hide over here?”

Mike saw the headlights slowly catching up to them. He quickly glanced around. Their vehicles wouldn’t be able to fit in the alleyways, but they could easily run and corner them. As they passed the movie theater, Mike changed trajectory. It was a risk he’d have to take. He led Will into the alley behind the theater, up the stairs, and through the back door. The hinges squeaked loudly as he opened and shut the door as quickly as possible. 

Inside, it was nearly pitch black. Those white fuzzy things floated in the air like slow-falling snow. Will’s tired eyes scanned the theater while Mike stood at his side, trying to come up with a good plan to keep them safe for the time being. 

Years ago, when Nancy and Jonathan were starting to date, Nancy would sometimes let Mike tag along if only to appease their mother. Not on the date, of course, but to the movies. Mike made a habit of sneaking around the teenage workers who gave less of two shits. He knew these hallways like the back of his hand. He knew where they kept the food, the drinks, where the employee break room was, all of it 

A car door slamming brought him back to reality. 

He gripped Will’s hand tighter to make up for his sweaty palms. He raised a finger to his lips and beckoned his best friend to follow him. Will nodded, trust evident in his eyes. Mike led Will through the back of the theater as quickly as possible, running his other hand along the wall to support himself when hopping over vines. He avoided the creaky spots in the wooden floor, Will following close behind. He could feel Will’s breath fanning the back of his neck, the way his feet planted exactly where Mike’s had been seconds ago. It definitely wasn’t a good time for Mike’s face to flush, but he was suddenly grateful for the dark nature of the Upside Down to mask his burning cheeks. 

They weaved through the back rooms of the theater until they reached a stairwell to the second floor just in time for them to hear the back door slam shut. Will gently closed the door behind him and they ascended the stairs, tiptoeing to the best of their ability. They entered the second floor. Mike recognized the doors to the projector room; each door had white numbers painted on the doors, chipped away as the Upside Down seeped its filth into the world. He jogged light on his feet to the ladder at the end of the hall. He gestured for Will to go first. He held the ladder steady as Will climbed. 

“Come on,” Will ushered in a whisper, holding his hand out once he was on the roof. 

Mike placed his foot on the ladder. The screws holding it in place were unstable. He cursed mentally, knowing it was going to shake and make noise as he climbed. Mike bit his tongue and ascended as quickly as possible, cringing when the metal rattled against the wall. He took Will’s outstretched hand just as his shoulder gave out, letting his best friend pull him to the rooftop. Will closed the trapdoor behind them without a sound. 

Mike gestured for Will to stay put before getting on his knees and crawling to the edge of the roof. He peeked over the edge, finding the military vehicle parked in the street and two men standing guard by the back door. He watched another car pull up, and a woman in a uniform emerged from the vehicle. Mike watched her intently. Short white hair, a permanent frown etched on her face, she had an air of authority. He bit back curses. This wasn’t good at all.

“Is he here?” the woman said to the two guards. Her voice was snippy. 

“They ran into the theater. We’re searching for them now,” one of the guards informed. 

The other tightened his hold on his rifle with a snicker. “They won’t get far.”

He felt Will crawl next to him before he heard him. He stopped Will with a hand to his chest, shaking his head. The boy stilled, lowering his body closer to the roof.

The woman got in the face of the smirking soldier. “I want them both alive. One of them is like her, and if I can’t have her, then he’ll have to do. Bring them to me alive, you hear me?” 

Mike swallowed, breathing to try and ease his racing heart. He shared a look with Will. A look of we’re so fucked passing between them. He watched the woman retreat to her car and drive away back towards the direction of the military base. 

“We need to get to the treeline. We’ll be safe once we reach it,” Will whispered, face inches from Mike’s. 

Mike shouldn’t have been so distracted by the proximity, or the fact that he’d held Will’s hand for a prolonged period of time, or the lingering feeling of his breath fanning his neck. He definitely shouldn’t be having those kinds of thoughts about his best friend, especially not when they were literally being hunted by the military, but his brain didn’t care. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Will’s. They were full of fear and determination, like he was ready to fight for their lives. Mike couldn’t look away. His eyes were always gorgeous, a mix of deep brown and elements of green.

Stop it! You’re literally about to die if you don’t move!

Mike blinked, realizing Will had been waiting for a response. “Yeah, yeah, uh… we could hop to the building next door and escape through there.”

Will seemed to disagree with the plan but couldn’t deny it was their only option. He conceded with a sigh, nodding at Mike. The two rose to their feet, carefully making their way to the edge of the roof. Mike was about to jump down when Will’s hand brushed his chest. He stopped, glancing at his best friend in confusion. Will wordlessly pointed to the sky. Mike watched the red lightning flash insistently, followed by brief bits of booming thunder. 

Jump when the thunder roars, he pictured Will saying, though his lips didn’t move. 

Mike nodded, watching Will as he started counting. When Will jumped, Mike followed, the thunder above covering the sound of their feet hitting concrete. 

“Wait, we should go down a few more buildings. We’re still too close to them,” Will uttered. 

“Okay.”

They timed their next few jumps, listening for any changes with the military. They reached the end of the line before opening the trapdoor to the corner store. They carefully made their way through, stepping over vines and shards of glass. Mike scanned the shelves, surprised to find actual food occupying them. Granola bars, candy, potato chips. He wondered if expiration dates existed in the Upside Down. Mike snagged a handful of granola bars just in case, stuffing them into the inside pocket of his jacket. 

Will glanced out into the street, looking left and right before waving Mike through. The two kept low when crossing the street, stilling at every little noise. In the distance, they heard a shout from one of the men. An order, maybe. Still, the two picked up their pace. The buildings ended, leaving a stretch of road and a football field’s distance between them and the forest. 

Will broke into a run. Mike followed close behind, risking glancing behind him for good measure. The closer they got to the treeline, the more convinced he became that they lost the military. They heard the engines of their vehicles humming close by just as they reached the trees. Mike and Will continued to run through the woods until the town disappeared from view. Once they couldn’t hear the engines anymore, the two finally stopped, gripping their sides and leaning against the trees to catch their breaths. 

Mike consulted his mental map. They were just on the edge of town, closer to the Byers’ house than the Wheelers’. Castle Byers was a good distance behind the Byers house, which put their estimated time of arrival somewhere between half an hour and forty-five minutes. 

He took the moment of stillness to really look at the environment around him. The Upside Down had to be hell. White particles in the air (were they toxic to breathe in?), countless vines on the ground and on the trees, and flashing lights and thunder overhead. Not to mention the demogorgon lived there, and now they were in their home territory. Mike cursed himself for not carrying any sort of weapon, or not thinking to grab one of the dead soldiers’ guns. Then again, he didn’t think he’d literally fall through one of the portals into the Upside Down, so sue him for not coming prepared. 

The thought of a demo coming out of nowhere and killing them kept him on edge. After the fight they just witnessed, seeing the military be slaughtered by the monsters, Mike was even more terrified of them. He knew the damage they could do, he’s known for years, but it was one thing to hear about it and one thing to see it for yourself. It made him feel utterly useless in the grand scheme of things. 

Because he wasn’t Nancy. He couldn’t shoot a gun, not without the risk of taking someone else down with the monster. He wasn’t Dustin, the genius who always managed to figure things out and come up with good plans. He wasn’t as physically strong as Lucas. He didn’t have powers like El or Will. He was just Mike, and that wasn’t enough to kill a demo. Now, stuck in the dimension the monsters lived in, keeping Will safe was his number one priority besides getting home. He doubted he could even do that right.

He had to keep Will safe, had to get them back home to their family. Mike would not let Will be taken from him again. 

“We’re almost there.”

Mike and Will walked side by side, shoulder brushing with every step. Will hadn’t physically been in the Upside Down since he was taken, but Mike knew he had enough nightmares to last him a lifetime. He knew Will had been fearing something like this happening for so long, and Mike just had to go and fuck everything up because he couldn’t watch where he was going. 

He saw the way Will never seemed to stare at one thing for too long. He looked at the shadows as if Vecna were there, simply waiting for the flies to stumble into the trap. Mike’s hand itched to hold his, if only to provide a sense of stability and comfort. Mike, truthfully, was just as scared, but he felt a lot better knowing Will was by his side. If Mike were stuck in the Upside Down alone, he feared he wouldn’t be able to find his way out that easily. 

Which came to another worry of Mike’s. For the Upside Down being the home of the demos, there seemed to be none around. Demogorgon didn’t take vacations. Sure, some were busy with whatever Vecna had planned for the kids, but surely there would be some just roaming around? Or demodogs? They hadn’t seen those guys in years. 

The forest was scary in the right side up, but even more so in the Upside Down. The floating particles made Mike feel like he was losing his mind. What he thought was a figure moving in the dark turned out to be a trick of the eye. Every time the thunder sounded overhead, it felt like the Upside Down was trying to alert every demo in the area of their location. 

Through his fear, he watched Will carefully. The boy walked almost like he owned the place, but with a tint of caution. His footsteps were light, barely audible other than the crunching leaves. Will never really talked about his experience in the Upside Down—completely understandable—but he almost wished he knew. He wanted to know how Will survived this hellhole for a whole week before Joyce and Hopper found him. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to know what happened when Will was trapped here. On the other hand, he didn’t want past trauma to resurface when so much more shit happened to pile on top.

Mike sighed in relief as Castle Byers came into view. Tucked between trees, the wooden fort stood tall. It was just as Mike remembered before Will destroyed it. The sign nailed onto the top painted in white, proud to share a name with one of the strongest people Mike knew. A tarp draped over the top and hung down the walls. His heart ached at the sight of what it represented.

Mike remembered Will’s excitement when running into the woods, gripping Mike’s hand, showing him Jonathan’s shoddy hammer work. Back then it felt like their fortress of imagination. A place where dragons dwelled nearby and Will cast spells of protection around the castle so they could be safe. Approaching the entrance to the tiny fort, he could picture himself and Will, probably five years old, using sticks as swords and claiming to see monsters approaching from the forest. Mike pushed aside the stinging in his chest. He knew they’d have to grow up one day. He just didn’t know how fast it’d come.

Will entered the fort tentatively, holding it to the same standard as that of sacred grounds. Mike hesitated in the doorway before realizing he was being stupid and stepping through the threshold. Will flopped onto the thin mattress laid on the floor, sighing against the wall. Mike sat near the door, across from Will, exhaling as his shoulders relaxed. The pain was still ever present, and after all that running and climbing, a headache began to throb at his forehead. He leaned his head against the cold wood. His eyes studied the interior of Castle Byers. 

It had been years since he’d entered the castle, but he remembered most of it. The blankets on the floor, the single pillow Will brought to use as a cushion. Sticks of various sizes sat in the corner, bringing a smile to Mike’s lips. Their swords. On the walls of the fort were pictures drawn by Will. Will always had artistic talent, even as a child. The drawings depicted dragons and people fighting them, specifically certain Party members. All around the fort, Mike was reminded of his D&D alter ego, Mike the Brave. 

He didn’t really feel like a Paladin. Mike was almost envious of the others and how they easily stepped into their roles. Lucas was the Ranger with his slingshot and deadly aim. Max was their Zoomer, quick witted and strong-willed. Dustin was their Bard through and through, loving music and academia. El was their Mage, she always was. And Will was their Wizard. Well, sorcerer now. Everyone, at some point or another, had stepped into their fictional roles, and where did that leave Mike? 

Terrified to pick up a sword but unwilling to let his Party falter without him.

The heart on Mike the Brave’s armor spoke to him in ways he couldn’t ignore. Will always told him he was the heart of the Party, the one who kept everyone together. Now, he didn’t believe him anymore. Everyone seemed content without his leadership. Hell, they never looked at him for what to do anymore. It made him feel… unwanted. An ugly feeling, envious and festering, curling around his body like a toxic gas refusing to rise into the atmosphere. Who needed plain old Mike Wheeler when superpowers and guns existed?

“You okay?” Will asked, nudging Mike’s foot with his own. 

Mike startled, tearing his eyes away from one of the drawings. “Yeah. I think so.”

Will tilted his head with a fond look. “What’s wrong?”

A lot of things, things that I can’t tell you because I don’t even know what they mean to me yet.

“My shoulder hurts a bit,” he said instead, not quite lying but not telling the full truth. He gave an experimental roll of the shoulder, grimacing as soreness and stinging pain stabbed his body. “Ow, ow, ow. Okay, not doing that again.”

“I could take a look if you want,” Will offered with a meek shrug. 

The idea of Will getting in close proximity with him again made him flush, and made his brain whisper things he definitely should not have been thinking. With these new, intense, weird thoughts came the nerves. With the nerves brought moments where Mike couldn’t control his mouth. 

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” he said, cursing himself as he said it. 

Will scooted until they were sitting parallel to each other, hips touching, though they faced the opposite direction. Mike pushed himself off the wall so Will could take a look. 

“You’ll… you’ll need to take off your jacket,” Will said. Did Mike detect nervousness in his voice?

“Might need some help with that.”

Mike shimmied out of his jacket, with Will helping pull the material off his injured side when he couldn’t move it anymore. He sat still as his best friend slowly raised his hands, placing them around Mike’s shoulder. He pressed, he felt, with touch as light as a feather and as heavy as a car. Mike took deep breaths. He could do this. Whatever odd feeling was crossing his mind at the proximity, he could work through. It was just Will. He shouldn’t be feeling like it was Judgement Day because Will’s body happened to be pressed against him. 

Mike definitely shouldn’t be looking at his eyes. Or his cheeks. Or his lips, wondering what if…

He jolted, pain shooting through his body. 

“Sorry,” Will was quick to apologize, though he made his touch firm as he prodded Mike’s skin. Mike was once again grateful the Upside Down was a dark place, lest Will see his beetroot red face and shaky hands. “I don’t think it’s dislocated. You probably just bruised it really bad, or maybe pulled a muscle.”

“Great, just what we needed when being hunted in an alternate dimension,” Mike sighed.

Will didn’t move from his spot. His eyes flickered over Mike’s head, his lips pulling into a frown. “Does your head hurt?”

“Kind of. It’s not that bad.”

Will’s hand reached, fingers barely brushing over the cut on his temple.

Deep breaths, Mike. He’s just being a good friend. Stop looking into it so much.

“There’s nothing we can clean up your face with here. There’s no water in the Upside Down,” Will informed, letting his hand fall much to Mike’s relief (dismay). “You’ll just have to deal with it until we can get back home.”

“It’s not bothering me much. I can barely feel it.”

“Sure.”

Mike glanced around again, eyes trailing the drawings when a thought occurred to him. “Wait, why is Castle Byers still standing? I thought it was…”

“Time works differently here,” said Will, more like a theory than a factual statement. “It’s… El said she opened the gate the night I went missing. Maybe since she opened it that day, it took on the exact same look town had and didn’t change. I don’t think what we do in our world matters in this one.”

“So the Upside Down is a permanent recreation of the night you went missing?” 

Will shrugged. It only made Mike sadder, knowing his best friend was stuck in a living nightmare, and now having to return to that nightmare. If anything, Will was the brave one. 

“It’s all exactly as I remember…” the teen said. Will’s gaze locked on one of his drawings. The Paladin and Cleric, teaming up to take down a monster. He smiled something soft, and Mike’s heart did a flip in his chest. “Everything’s still here. All my drawings, my blankets.”

“You were here, then? When you were taken?” Mike asked softly. The Upside Down was a sensitive topic for Will. He didn’t know how much he’d be willing to share, but Mike would take anything. Anything to understand him more, to help him overcome his trauma. 

“This was the first place I ran to. It was my sanctuary.” Will traced his fingers along the earth. His gaze was distant, remembering. Reliving. “I had grabbed Dad’s gun from the shed but I didn’t think to grab all the bullets. The Demogorgon was on my trail. I had no choice but to run.”

Will knew how to shoot a gun, too. Mike had almost forgotten. Almost, because how could he forget the day Will came up to him at school with misty eyes, saying his Dad made him shoot a deer? He remembered hugging Will, telling him it wasn’t his fault, that his Dad was a dick and that a sleepover was happening that night whether their Moms said yes or no. They ended up staying up real late reading comic books and coming up with new D&D plotlines. 

“The demo probably lost sight of me when I hid here. For a while, it didn’t get me. I just kept hiding, singing my song, hoping and praying that the nightmare would be over.” 

Mike remembered Will’s voice, static in the radio. 

Should I stay or should I go?

That, like many other things regarding his best friend, would haunt him forever. El had brought him hope that Will was still out there, concrete evidence that he was alive. He would be grateful for that until the day he died. Mike couldn’t help but compare their situations that happened at the same time. Will, stuck in hell and fighting for his life. Mike, stuck in hell and fighting bullies that called Will and the rest of the Party all sorts of names. Looking back on it, Mike should’ve snapped sooner, before El came along. It might’ve saved them some time and mental problems. 

Mike shivered as the chill seeped in like a rolling fog. He grabbed his jacket and slid back into it only to realize Will didn’t have a jacket. Sure, there were blankets in the fort, but like everything else in the Upside Down, they were damp. Will had always run cold, even more so after the possession. If Mike looked close enough, he could see the fear gripping his shivering shoulders.

As he moved to shrug his jacket off again, his leg hit something firm. He glanced down to see something glinting beside his knee, covered by one of the blankets on the makeshift bed. He removed the blanket. The amount of relief he felt seeing a double-barreled shotgun should be studied by scientists for generations to come. Mike carefully grabbed the gun, the weight foreign in his hands. He wondered how Nancy dealt with it. 

Will’s eyes widened. “I thought I’d lost it when the demo attacked.”

He gently took the weapon from Mike’s outstretched hands and pushed down the barrel, frowning when there were no shells. He lifted the barrel back up, locking it in place with a click, and setting it on the ground beside him. That was a new image Mike saved in the back of his head. Who knew Will handled a gun so… familiarly after not using one for years?

“Do you know where we can find more ammo?” Mike questioned. “Maybe we could use it?”

“I think there’s some in the shed. If not, I don’t know.”

“My Dad has a handgun somewhere in our house. Nothing special, just an heirloom from his Dad.”

“You want to make a trip right now?”

“N-no. We can wait.”

Will laid down, his head hitting the mattress. He curled his legs. After all, there wasn’t enough room in Castle Byers for two grown teens to extend their legs. Mike brought his legs to his chest, leaning against the wall. Will’s foot dug into his side. He didn’t care. It was a reminder he was still with Mike and not locked up in some woman’s military base. 

As Mike began to wind down, his brain recounted the events of the day. The main thing on his mind seemed to be Will’s display of power. Never did he imagine he’d be lying in the Upside Down, trying to sleep when there could be demos stalking them. Not to mention the military was now exclusively hunting them, and Mike knew it was only a matter of time before they used their maps and cars to find the sanctuary of Castle Byers. 

Most importantly, his brain focused on these new thoughts regarding Will. Well, they weren’t exactly new, just more frequent. Abundant. He’d always had a stray thought approach here or there saying something like Will’s eyes are pretty or his smile is lovely and bright. The thoughts were the kind of things you could find on a kid’s scrappy Valentine’s day card, but they were exactly what Mike felt. 

He shook those thoughts away with a racing heart. Nope, not dealing with those right now, especially not with the object of those thoughts literally right beside him. 

“Mike?”

He startled at the sudden noise, unable to stop the flinch. “Yeah?”

“What do you think she wanted with me?” Will pondered, voice low with sleep. 

It would do neither of them any good to speculate, and for Mike’s mental health, he didn’t want to think of what the woman wanted with him. It was easy to imagine her intent. Memories of heart monitors and needles digging into Will’s skin resurfaced, amplified by the thoughts of a mad scientist on the search for their Mage. She wanted his power.

“I don’t know,” Mike said instead. “Don’t think about it too much. We’ve gotta focus on getting out of here.”

“I know, I just…”

Mike heard it—the underlying fear. The terror of an unknown woman with unknown intentions hunting them through the town. There was a constant looming threat, whether it be the demogorgon or the military, and it was enough pressure to drive Mike into a hole in the ground. If he could hide Will from both forever, he would. But he couldn’t rest easy knowing that they were in enemy territory, with double the danger hunting them.

He sat up, a surge of confidence rolling over him as he gently placed his hand on Will’s knee. Will’s eyes opened with surprise at the sudden contact before quickly sobering. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that she wants to study you. If she’s anything like all those scientists from Hawkins Lab, they’re going to experiment. They’re looking for answers at the expense of your life,” Mike said honestly. 

“She wants power,” Will supplied knowingly.

Mike hesitated before nodding. “Yeah. But we’ll be out of here before she can find us. By the time she realizes we’re gone, we’ll be back at the Squawk regrouping with the others.”

The other boy’s gaze rested on Mike’s hand for a moment, darting around quickly before settling back on him. He didn’t say anything. He simply nodded and shuffled around trying to get comfortable. Mike followed suit, retracting his burning hand and turning on his side. Will’s leg was pressed flush against his, just like when they were kids having a sleepover. Mike would lay his head at the foot of the bed and Will would take up the opposite position. Sometimes, the flip flopped positions led to pushing and shoving while giggling, because who wants their friend’s feet in their face? 

Mike smiled at the memories, feeling a surge of affection and something else that he shoved down to deal with later. He’d wondered how he managed to live a day without Will in his life before they met. 

“Thank you, by the way,” he said.

Will turned over so their eyes met. “For what?”

Mike huffed. For what, he says. “For… everything. For saving me.”

For being my best friend. For putting up with me when I'm acting like a complete asshole. For making me feel like I can do anything. 

For making me feel brave.

Will's lips upturned into a smile that made his eyes sparkle again. “I'll always have your back. Get some sleep, Mike. You're gonna need it.”

Mike always found it difficult to deny anything Will asked of him. Despite the horrors of the Upside Down revolving around them, the walls of Castle Byers kept the Paladin and Cleric safe, allowing them to rest and recuperate free of monsters and dark wizards.

“Mike, get up! Get up!”

Will’s hushed, urgent tone woke him up with a stutter in his chest. Mike sat up straight just for his best friend to shush him. They sat in tense silence, listening. Waiting. Outside of Castle Byers, thunder boomed and lightning zipped across the clouds. Mike held his breath. Beside him, Will’s chest rose and fell with nervous breaths. 

An inhuman screech rang out nearby.

Mike’s heart flipped. “We’ve gotta move.”

“Wait.”

Part of Mike’s brain told him to listen to Will, that Will had extensive experience in the Upside Down and knew exactly what he was talking about. The other side of his head, the one full of fear, told him to run regardless of what was out there. But listening to Will was the best way to ensure their survival. 

They listened and waited. And waited. Another screech rang out, closer. Mike watched his best friend. They were practically on top of the hive mind, now, and it made Mike nervous knowing Will’s connection to it. What if Will couldn’t move, accidentally locking into the hive mind? 

Will’s gaze found him, more specifically, the side of his head. He shook his head, muttering something under his breath. “They’re coming. Where do we go?”

“My house. We’ve gotta get my Dad’s gun.”

“What about the police station? They have guns.”

“Do they also have food?” 

“Of course they will.”

A loud thump sounded outside. Police station or home? Which one was closer? Will’s old house was a ten minute bike ride from his house, which meant it was around a twenty minute walk. The police station was back in town, closer to the threat of the military, who was actively searching for them. It was a half hour walk back. 

“My house. It’s closer,” Mike whispered. 

Leaves rustled. Thunder boomed. Will held eye contact, questioning and fearful at the same time. Mike watched him grab the shotgun and rise into a crouch. Mike followed suit, swallowing his racing heart and nodding at his friend. Will peeked outside before beckoning Mike to trail after him. The two didn’t run like Mike wanted to, but walked quickly, occasionally speeding up into a jog. Mike’s eyes continued to assess their surroundings.

He had to remind himself of the vines with every step. No more than ten times had he nearly tripped, earning a knowing smirk from Will. The closer they got to Mike’s house, the more he worried about how still the Upside Down felt. Sure, it was literally a place where time was frozen, and yet it still felt like the rug was being pulled from their feet. There were no signs of any demos aside from the thumps and roars outside of Castle Byers. There were no claw marks on the trees or any dirt kicked up from a hasty pursuit. Demogorgon aside, there was no light other than the red flashes above. Mike had to remind himself that this was all going to end soon, that a place identical to their home would soon be destroyed. Otherwise, the thought of going home after being in the Upside Down made him anxious beyond belief. It already made him anxious, had been for years, but it would drive him crazy knowing exactly what was on the other side of their reality. 

Around halfway into their journey, they deemed it safe enough to slow to a speed-walk. They continued on in silence to catch their breaths. Mike made a mental promise to start working out after they got home. He couldn’t keep getting winded after a light jog. He couldn’t handle the idea of not being able to help carry his best friend to safety because what if Mike couldn’t carry him and something happened? Something almost happened on the tarmac. If the demos weren’t so focused on the guys with guns, they surely would’ve gone after Will. Will, who was incapacitated for the count, and who needed assistance getting to safety. 

He didn’t think he’d be able to live with himself knowing something happened to Will because of him. 

“Other than ammo, what should we grab?” Will questioned. 

Mike studied him. His hair seemed to be stuck in a permanent state of damp, splayed across his forehead. His skin was covered in a light sheen of sweat, illuminated by the blue-ish tint of the dimension. His lips were parted as he took even breaths. 

“Some food and water, maybe? Who knows how long we’ll be stuck here until we can sneak back home. We’ll need backpacks, flashlights.”

“The gun.”

“Of course,” Mike snickered. He nodded at the shotgun strapped to Will’s back. “Maybe we can find some ammo for your gun.”

“Okay, so food and water and ammo. We should try and find some blankets or jackets. It won’t get any warmer here.”

They treaded uphill before the familiar street came into view. Five minutes later, they were at the edge of the treeline, the backyard of Mike’s house in view. The two didn’t waste any time in running to the basement door, pushing it open with effort and closing it with a sigh. They were safe for now. 

Mike blinked, trying to adjust to the darkness. The basement didn’t really change over the years other than the location of some items. Mike’s heart sank, looking around the basement to find old toys his mom had taken to charity. In the corner, a chest was halfway open, Will’s purple cape sticking out from it. The table in the center of the room was exactly as they left it. Mike’s dungeon master book was open, sturdy and tall. The board had their figurines on it, including the demogorgon. A reminder of a time where fighting monsters was just fantasy instead of their real lives. A time when friendships remained true and the one thing on their minds was the game. 

Call him sappy, but Mike wished he could go back. If only to play one more game with the Party without alternate dimensions on their minds. He shook the thoughts away, trying to calm his racing mind.

“There’s definitely some blankets down here. You know where they are,” Mike said. “I’ll run upstairs and grab some bags, try and get into the safe.”

Will nodded, though his gaze seemed thousands of miles away, locked on the D&D table. It was sad, nostalgic, grieving for a time that passed far too quickly for either of their liking. Mike itched to reach and pat his shoulder, give him a hug, anything to take his mind off of things out of their control. Instead, he retreated upstairs with his hands balled into fists, resisting. 

Mike headed straight for his room. He kept a duffel bag in his closet for when he and Will planned sleepovers at the Byers house. He always brought too much stuff, whether it be comic books or his D&D manual, he needed all the space he could get. Mike tried not to let the unsettling sight of his home in decrepit darkness affect him, and instead took the stairs two at a time. He jumped over the last stair which was covered by a thicker vine. To his surprise, his bedroom door was cracked. 

He pushed the door open the rest of the way. Mike had gone through a bit of change as opposed to the basement. His current room was covered in posters of movies like Back to the Future, or artists he found through Eddie that he really liked. His decor had less of a child-like influence and more the vibe of an angsty teen. He’d forgotten how innocent his room looked back then with the walls being covered in Will’s drawings of their D&D campaigns. He didn’t really own any posters back then, but he used to cut out little snippets of things from magazines his mom would leave on the kitchen table. 

In a way, it felt like he was stepping back into his old self. The one who took charge and actually kept the group functioning. He wondered where exactly he deviated from that path. 

He opened his closet, finding clothes too tiny to fit anymore and stacks of comic books on the floor. He reached to the back right of the closet, his hand closing in on the strap. He pulled the duffel bag out, the sound of the gooey cobwebs breaking sending goosebumps down his spine. He pulled the bag over his head, allowing it to cross over his body and rest on his hip. Mike left his room before his mind could wander any more, instead going to his parents’ bedroom. He raided the closet, bringing out three of his heavier jackets he wore to work in the winter. Then, he turned to the safe below his Dad’s nightstand. 

Mike crouched next to it, pulling the safe out to rest it on the lumpy mattress. A numerical combination. What would Ted Wheeler put as his combination? Certainly not any of their birthdays. Maybe Mom’s. There had to be some sort of love still there.

Before he tried the combination, he pulled the handle. Nothing happened. He huffed and sat on the bed, studying the lock as if it’d open on its own. What was the code? 

He tried his Dad’s birthday only to receive a negative beep. He tried his mother’s birthday—nada. He tried all their birthdays to find nothing. Mike wracked his brain for an inkling of a clue. Ted Wheeler was the embodiment of a lazy man. He went to work, came home, sat in his Lay-Z-Boy all night and even fell asleep in it. He didn’t seem to care about his children’s whereabouts or accomplishments at all. The only thing he really seemed to like was golf.

There was one thing he always liked to mention with golf. The story of how he won his school’s tournament with a hole-in-one, leaving the tournament with a score of 40 for nine holes.

“This better not be it.”

The lock was a four digit code. He put in the code 4-0-1-9. Nothing happened. It should’ve been a relief to him, knowing that his dad didn’t care about his high school golf record over his own kids, but he feared he simply put the code in wrong. He tried again: 1-4-0-9. 

“God fucking dammit, Dad.” 

The safe opened without a hitch. Inside lay a large pistol, one Mike couldn’t tell you the name of. He took it out of the safe with a grip that would surely have Nancy laughing at him. He turned the metal over in his hands, watching it gleam even though there was no light in the room. It was silver with a brown handle, the barrel lengthy and sturdy. He studied the weapon. It’s not like Mike was completely unfamiliar with a gun after spending years fighting alongside their firepower, but he knew he didn’t trust himself to shoot one.

Mike found the release for the magazine and clicked it. The mag slipped out with a shink, weighing heavy in his empty hand. He checked the top. There were bullets inside. Mike checked the rest of the safe, finding a moldy box of ammunition with identical bullets inside. He took the box and stuffed it in the front pocket of the duffel bag, frowning when he didn’t find extra ammo or weaponry. Mike made sure the safety was on before tucking the gun in his waistband, grabbing the coats and heading downstairs. 

Will had moved to the kitchen, the multicolored blankets he found resting on the dining room table. He was looking through the fridge when Mike stumbled into the room, flinging the duffel bag on the kitchen island. 

“Find any shells?” Will asked, not looking up from his task. 

“No. Find any food?”

“I got some protein bars and chips but nothing that’ll make us full.” Will turned, finding nothing in the fridge. “You got the gun?”

Mike nodded. “There’s extra bullets in the front pocket. We should pack up and get going, try and find another gate to get out of here.”

He took the granola bars he stole from the corner store and stuffed them in the bag. Once the bag was half-full of food, he handed Will two of Ted Wheeler’s jackets, earning an appreciative nod in return. The jackets were big on both of them over the shoulders, but Mike’s was a little short on him. The cold didn’t come so easily, though, which was exactly what he was hoping for. 

They were about to exit through the front door when Mike remembered the garage. His dad always kept a case of bottled water in there for when he went to work. Mike entered the garage, finding the case in question right by the door. He knelt down and took as much as he could, with Will behind him stuffing the duffel bag. 

Mike hoisted the bag over his head, the strap digging into his collarbones. “You ready?” 

Will nodded, and the two made their way out the front door. It was a silent agreement between them to remain silent until they knew they weren’t being trailed by a demo or soldier. They weaved between the houses, never keeping to the roads out of fear of coming across headlights. Mike heard growls in the distance, consistent with the demogorgon when they were on the hunt. He sped up the pace a little despite the weight of the bag dragging him down. 

They passed Lucas’s house as well as Dustin’s before realizing they needed to also figure out a way to contact their friends. They’d either need to find a radio and pray that their friends were tuning in, or hope that Joyce had gotten to the Squawk safely to tell El that they were stuck. She could help them send a message back to the Party, if she still wasn’t in the Upside Down herself. 

“Our best bet at finding a gate and contacting the others would probably be the Squawk. It’s got radios and everyone’s probably gathered there anyway.”

Mike frowned. “We don’t know if everyone’s there. We don’t even know how long we spent sleeping in Castle Byers.”

“It’s worth a shot, Mike.”

“S-so what, we just go to the Squawk and touch some lightbulbs and… what’ll happen?” 

Will sent him a disapproving glare. “We send them morse code through the lights. Mom will know. She always does. After they figure it out, we make a plan and get out of here.”

“One problem. We’re not gonna be able to hear them.”

“No, we will.”

Mike raised a brow, pushing his aching legs up a steep hill. They were probably ten minutes away from their home base. “How?”

Will shrugged. “It’s weird, like everything else here. I think, maybe, the people you want to contact most you can hear the best. At least if they’re in the area. I always heard Mom because I was stuck close to the house. I assume it’s the same elsewhere.”

“What does it sound like?”

“It’s hard to describe. Like they’re far away but close at the same time. Their voices echo.”

“I’m assuming the radios don’t go both ways, then.”

Will nodded. They continued in silence, walking through the familiar forest with a sense of calm. Mike should’ve noticed that the growls stopped minutes ago. He should’ve noticed the growing sense of unease in his gut, the kind associated with the demogorgon as a whole.

Yet he still jumped out of his skin when a demo dropped from the trees in front of them, claws at the ready by its sides, its mouth opening to show a hundred razor sharp teeth. 

“Shit! Run!” Will exclaimed, grabbing Mike’s arm and taking off to the right. 

The shouts of the demo grew close behind them. They couldn’t outrun something that could use all four limbs to its advantage. Mike drew the pistol from his waistband as they ran, careful not to trip over any exposed roots and vines. He risked a glance behind them. The demo was running, using the trees as leverage to push forward faster. Will was gaining a lead, breaking out of the treeline and running onto the road. 

Mike swallowed his nerves. Despite his hands shaking, he stood beside Will and raised the pistol at the incoming demo. It ran and ran until it jumped in the air, claw ready to strike them down with its face open wide. Will shouted beside him, and Mike turned the safety off and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit one of the pedals and did nothing to stop it. 

“Mike!” Will exclaimed fearfully.

Mike grimaced as fire erupted from the side, casting the demogorgon in a painful cloak of ember. The demo shrieked, something akin to nails on a chalkboard, before backing away from them. To their right, a military vehicle rolled up the road, the flame coming from a weapon atop the car. Their headlights were turned off. He saw the driver’s eyes lock onto Will, and he reached for his walkie-talkie.

“Let’s go!” Mike said. 

He watched the demo put its sight on the vehicle, an ear-piercing roar filling the air. Mike took Will’s hand and took off into the grass, using the demo’s distracted state to their advantage. He flinched as bullets sounded, reminding him to turn the safety back on his gun and tuck it away. Mike scanned their surroundings. To their left stood a building, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Loch Nora. They were a good fifteen minute walk from the Squawk. 

They ran alongside the road, hoping the demo stayed distracted and the military remained unaware of their intentions. Mike let go of Will’s hand and they slowed to a fast walk, using the time to breathe. Encountering a demo in its home territory was a fear Mike knew would surely get him killed, and it almost did. If the military hadn’t stepped in, they would’ve been dead, and it would’ve been Mike’s fault. 

“There—” Will started, heaving in breaths “—might be… more nearby. Need to keep going. Fast.”

They walked a few more steps before breaking into a jog. Mike’s lungs were on fire, his legs shaky beneath his weight. His hands shook where the kickback from the pistol hit him. He’d never shot a gun before, but it seemed self-explanatory enough that he figured it’d be easy. Point and shoot. What he hadn’t considered was the weight of the gun. The cold of the metal digging into his skin as his finger curled around the tight trigger. Nor did he consider the way the weapon would snap back at him, a flash of heat and a bruising punch that set his nerves on fire. 

Will slowed to a walk once the Squawk came into view. Just a few more minutes, a walk uphill, and they’d be safe for the time being and in a place where communication was plausible. The two stuck close, shoulders knocking together with every other step; it was a sight reminiscent of hours (or days. How long did they sleep in Castle Byers?) prior, when golden sunlight coated them in warmth and smiles were shared. 

“The demos can smell your blood,” Will said knowingly, glancing at Mike out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ll clean it off when we get inside,” Mike replied, fingers coming up to brush the dried blood caking the right side of his face. He never really got hurt on their crazy plans to foil Vecna’s idea for world domination. He wondered how bad he looked—perhaps bags under his eyes and bruises blossoming on his body. “You should clean your nose, too.”

“I will.”

The two approached the glass doors of the radio station, relief tugging at their shoulders. Mike opened the door, hand itching for the pistol he tucked away. He brought it out again as he entered the building. He swept the main room, luckily finding it empty of demos and Vecna alike. Like his house, it was pitch black, the space feeling claustrophobic with all the vines tangling together on the floors and walls. Mike led them to the back break room where the bathroom was. He dropped the duffel bag on the coffee table in the center of the room, digging through the food and blankets to find a bottle of water. 

“I found a flashlight in your basement,” Will piped up, offering the light to him.

“Thanks,” Mike said. He took the light and entered the bathroom, cringing when the door squeaked. He pressed the button on the light, a yellow glow shining through the blue filter of the Upside Down. He propped the flashlight on the sink, finally getting a somewhat good look at himself.

He was covered in grime, his face smudged with either dirt or Upside Down slime. The blood on his face looked worse than it felt, trailing from his hairline to just below his jaw, his jacket having absorbed some of it. Mike removed the bottle cap, wetting his palm and raising it to wipe the blood. His fingers slid instead of wiping away the grime. He sighed, smudging diluted blood over the side of his face to wet the dried blood. Glancing around, he didn’t see any towels to wipe his hand or face with. He didn’t know the extent of the demogorgon’s ability to smell blood, but having it on him in any dilution made him paranoid that a demo would appear out of nowhere and slash his throat. 

“You’re taking a long time,” Will called from the couch. “We need to keep going.”

“Didn’t we come here to communicate with the others?”

“Yes, but it’ll be more effective if we both try.” 

Mike tried wiping at his hairline. With his hair being nearly identical in color to the wall behind him, he couldn’t tell if he was actually doing anything or not. Another frustrated huff escaped his lips. He blinked, and Will was suddenly in the doorway to the bathroom, glancing at him with a raised brow. 

“Need some help?” Will asked.

“I think I got it.” Mike had tried shining the flashlight above his head and trying to swipe the blood at the same time, making him look like he was trying to do some sort of interpretive dance instead of clean wounds. 

He wasn’t able to speak before Will was reaching across him, gently taking the flashlight from his hand. Mike’s eyes found his, full of nothing but a fond, knowing look that was often accompanied by a quip about how Mike never changed or was so stubborn or prideful. Will didn’t say anything, and instead shook his head, taking it upon himself to shine the light at the wound. Mike couldn’t say anything as Will stepped closer with his hand outstretched to his face. 

“How did you manage to smear blood that was dry?” Will said with a disbelieving grin. 

Mike shrugged, trying to remember to breathe as Will wetted his jacket sleeve with the water bottle and brought it up to Mike’s face. Will’s sleeve went gently over his skin, as if he were cleaning a vintage piece of ceramic worth thousands. Mike didn’t understand why Will continued to be so… nice and friendly towards him after Mike’s behavior towards him the last few years. After being a complete hypocrite and joining another party, after basically forgetting Will’s birthday in Lenora, after their fight in the roller rink and the way Will was a bit distant after that until they got back to Hawkins. He’d been a terrible friend—supposedly best friend—to Will for a long time, now. What best friend doesn’t try and make his friend feel normal for a summer after being subject to nothing but torment for two years?

No matter how he tried to formulate the words, they never made an appearance on his tongue. No matter how much Mike wanted to apologize for his shitty behavior, he couldn’t seem to say it when it mattered. And that’s what his issue has been for so long. He can’t say what he truly means; he has to bury it deep and ignore it until it comes spilling out. Most of the time, he’s alone when it happens (thank God) but at the same time, he wishes he could be brave enough to speak about the things he feels without shame. Because no matter how hard he tried to ignore the unnatural thoughts about his best friend, the stronger they pushed—the more they thrashed about—begging to be spoken into affirmation. Now, having nothing to look at but Will, the thoughts rampaged in his head.

He’s so pretty.

He’s so brave.

He’s so unique. 

He’s so strong.

His haircut looks amazing on him.

Mike winced when Will pressed down on the cut.

“Sorry,” the other teen apologized. “It’s not a bad cut, it just bled a lot.”

“You sure it’s not bad? It feels bad,” Mike replied, trying not to think too hard about Will’s featherlight touch against his skin.

“You’ve fought real life monsters and you’re saying a small cut is bad? You’re being dramatic.” Will wiped across his skin one more time, eyes falling to lock with Mike’s. Even though the lighting was dim, it was like he lit up the room with his gaze. “You’re all set. Mind holding the flashlight for me?”

“S-sure.”

They swapped places, with Will standing in front of the mirror and Mike holding the flashlight, pointed at the side of Will’s face. He’d really grown up, Mike thought. It seemed like the blink of an eye since they were dressed up as Ghostbusters for Halloween or playing D&D for ten hours in the basement, calling each other by their designated classes. Now, Will’s shoulders slumped with the weight of the world pressing on him. His jaw seemed constantly clenched, as if expecting an attack at any moment. Mike didn’t blame him; after all they’d been through, he would be the same way. Every time Mike looked at Will’s face, really looked, he could see remnants of the Will Byers who didn’t have other dimensions on his mind. At least, not in a realistic sense.

Mike’s thoughts drifted back to the theater, where the military woman had appeared. She’d said something about him, assuming it was Will, and her, most likely El. The military had been on the hunt for her ever since her arrival back in Hawkins, Mike knew. He could only imagine what they were planning for her if she was caught. Now, though, Will had become the primary target if only for the time being. Still, it set a bad taste in Mike’s mouth, imagining needles and tests and crushed soda cans and blood and screaming. He would not let Will be caught. 

He blinked, seeing Will’s eyes become glazed with intense worry. The same kind of look he had when he was overthinking something. Usually, when Will was overthinking something, it was for good reason at the cost of his own sanity. 

“What is it?” Mike prodded, nudging Will’s ankle with his foot. 

Will’s eye skidded between him and the mirror. The sight of Will’s sleeve covering his finger, which was stuck up his nose, was entertaining. Mike shook his head. Not a priority, but if he saved away the sight in the mental folder of things that make Will even cuter that was in the farthest depths of his mind, nobody needed to know.

“I was just… that woman. She said ‘if I can’t have her, he’ll have to do.’ She was talking about El.”

“Right.”

“Meaning they think I’m like El.”

Mike nodded, wracking his brain for something to say. He’d been thinking about it since their impromptu stay at Castle Byers, and it made more and more sense with what their intentions really were. “Yeah, but they don’t know the whole picture like we do. You’ve always had the ability to tap into the hive mind. Now, it’s… it’s just amplified. Now you can draw parts of Vecna’s powers and use them how you want to.”

“And what happens if they figure that out? What if Mom didn’t escape and she’s being questioned right now?” Will spouted nervously, checking his sleeve for any more blood and finding none. He whirled on Mike. “She doesn’t know what happened, Mike. She doesn’t understand how I got these abilities or what they even are. I didn’t at first, either, but what you just said makes a whole lot more sense than what I was thinking about. I just—if they find out my connection to the hive mind, what’s gonna happen to me? To my Mom? To Jonathan?”

“Hey, they won’t,” Mike said, confident and firm. His heart hammered his ribcage as he stepped closer to Will, allowing his hand to rest on his shoulder. A comforting weight, an acceptable display of reassurance. “You know why? Because Vecna’s set them back. Because the demo attacked back there. Because they don’t know Hawkins like we do, nor the tunnels. We can keep running and stay one step ahead. They have other priorities right now than to try and catch us.”

Will didn’t look too convinced, his eyes glossed over with worry. “God, what if they have El? We haven’t heard from her in hours.”

The image of needles and sterile walls entered his mind again. He buried the images.

“El can handle herself. I doubt she’s been caught,” Mike reassured. A lip of courage nipped at his cowardly being, granting him permission to rub circles into Will’s shirt with his thumb. “Think about it, Will. The military doesn't know everything we do. They don’t know who we are, what our goals are. They probably think we’re some meddling kids.”

“That has connections to El. If they find us, El will come running. We’ll be setting up a trap for her,” Will argued.

“We don’t know that.”

“Exactly! We know nothing, Mike. We’re running around here like—like nothing important is happening when we don’t know where El is, we have no idea if Lucas is okay, and Dustin and the others could be dead in the Upside Down and we don’t know.”

“Lucas? What happened to him?” Mike asked with furrowed brows and alarm bells ringing in his head. 

“He was bleeding when I saw him in the tunnels,” Will explained hastily. His breaths came in short bursts. “I don’t know how deep he was cut, and he seemed fine, but he was bleeding. And Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan drove into the Upside Down yesterday and they’re still MIA.”

Will’s spiral seemed to be a combination of a multitude of things he’d been worrying about since their last crawl went wrong. Mike didn’t blame him, but being on the receiving end of such a panic, his tongue struggled to offer reassuring words. Because even he didn’t know if Dustin’s group was okay, or if Joyce managed to get away from the military, or if Lucas wasn’t dead in the tunnels. In the end, it made him feel powerless once again, for he couldn’t help anyone around him. 

That’s not true, he thought. Standing in front of him was his best friend that did in fact need his help. 

“Will, look at me.” Mike tightened his grip on Will’s shoulder, squeezing until he saw brown mixed with green. The Upside Down’s darkness made them look black. “Our Party is strong. Every single one of them. And that woman? She’s not important right now. I mean, yeah she is, she’s hunting us, but she’s not important to me right now. Right now, I…”

His brain faltered, with Will gazing at him, hanging onto his every word as if they were the only things that mattered. The sight of full trust, of full faith, had him reeling. He allowed himself to relish in the sight, to memorize the way Will’s eyebrows lifted and furrowed, or how his lips parted when anticipating Mike’s next words. 

“Getting us out of here is what’s important to me right now. Making sure you’re not caught is my top priority. The military can fuck off. We’re getting out of here, and so is everyone else who's stuck in here right now. We’re going to go home and regroup, and we’re going to come up with a plan to end all of this. That’s what's important right now. Keeping you safe and getting home.”

Will swallowed, a puff of breath escaping him as his shoulders lowered. He swiped the back of his hand under his nose, sniffing like he had a cold. His eyes met Mike’s again, this time something calmer, more determined shining bright in them. 

“Let’s go home.”

Mike nodded, turning to go back to the living area when he heard it. It was faint, echoing, exactly as Will described. Voices overlapping one another, stumbling into the bathroom. Mike felt a gust of air pass through him. He looked back at Will, sharing a moment of surprise.

“The lights—” 

Lucas.

“Will! It’s Will!”

Joyce. Beside him, Will’s figure melted with relief.

“You sure it’s not a demogorgon?”

Erica?

“He’s trying to talk to us!”

“Mike, we have to touch the lights. Morse code. Remember?” Will said quickly, fingertips reaching up to brush the lightbulbs above the mirror. 

Mike remembered most of the Morse code he and the Party learned in late elementary school. They mostly used it to communicate across the classroom, often sharing test answers without the teachers batting an eye. The only time they didn’t try morse code was in Mr. Clarke’s class because they had too much respect for him to try and cheat in his class. That, and they had a sneaking suspicion the man knew Morse, too. 

“What do we even say? The only one who knows Morse is Lucas, but he hasn’t had a reason to use it for a while,” Mike countered.

“Just say we’re fine.”

They pressed the lightbulbs at the same time, holding them for a short length three times to make an O, then another dash, dot, dash for a K.

“They’re okay!” 

Thank God, Lucas had a good memory. 

“Baby, tell us what’s going on?”

Will seemed desperate to just shout, to scream and hope his voice carried past dimensions, even if he knew it wouldn’t work. “Military after us.”

It took some effort in remembrance on Mike’s part, though he followed Will on the letters he couldn’t remember. It took time, because spelling using dots and dashes was efficient until the users and listeners were rusty in the language. Eventually, they managed to spell it out, though it must’ve taken them five minutes. They heard a collective uproar from the other side.

“Why?” Erica questioned.

“They know about Will. About his powers,” Joyce said.

“Do they know about the hive mind?” Lucas theorized.

“They need to get out of there.” Robin, in her usual nervous tone. 

“Yeah, we can’t have our second upper hand stuck in the Upside Down. Where’s the nearest gate?” Murray, ever helpful. 

Will reached for the lightbulb again, Mike following suit. 

“Closest gate is the lab,” Mike offered.

Together, they tapped their message into the lights. 

“The lab? The one that has security cameras pointed at the gate?” Thanks, Murray.

“It’s their best shot. Will, head for the lab. We’ll meet you there, okay honey? A-and if you run into Jonathan, bring him home.”

“I will,” the teen muttered, reluctantly bringing his fingers from the glass bulb. 

The voices left the room, planning, leaving the two in silence. Lightning flashed outside. 

“We should eat something and then head out,” Mike suggested. “Recharge batteries.”

Will followed him wordlessly to dig two granola bars from the duffel bag. They ate in silence, too much on their minds and too little time to talk about a coherent plan. All they could do was hope the military was distracted long enough to not know what direction they ran off to. After eating, the two downed a water bottle each before zipping the duffel bag shut. Will shrugged it over his shoulders, shaking his head at Mike when he tried to reach for it. 

They reached the front of the building, doing a quick scan of the outside before stepping back into the deep rumble of hell. Will checked both ways before nodding, and they took off back the way they came. The plan was to follow the road until the woods came back into view, where they would veer off to hide amongst the trees. They made quick work, jogging and stopping for breath. Mike checked his watch. Time didn’t really matter in a place like the Upside Down, where it was frozen, but he clenched his jaw seeing that a full day and a half had passed since they fell into the dimension. It allowed him to increase his pace, the drive to get home more powerful than ever. 

They passed the elementary school they grew up in, decrepit and covered in vines. They passed the middle and high school, where they took another water break and surveyed the area for more military vehicles. At the school, there were bikes locked in the bike parking. Mike nodded at them with a questioning gaze, and Will’s exhausted expression couldn’t hide his relief at the faster mode of transport. They broke the locks, the metal having gone a bit rusty under the Upside Down’s toxic atmosphere. 

The bikes felt like gamechangers, even though the noise was making Mike’s heart race. Who knew if there was a pack of demos nearby or if the military was right on them? Mike could only hope the answer was no to both of those scenarios and keep pedaling even if his body screamed at him to take a break. In the overworld, they had cars, which put their drive to the lab at maybe fifteen to twenty minutes without delay. Mike and Will had left the Squawk probably half an hour ago, if he were going by his internal clock. 

They were passing by the outskirts of town, right by a coffee shop, when the rumble of engines overtook the thunder above. Headlights came into view on the horizon. 

“Shit!” Mike cursed, following Will as he swerved towards the back of the cafe. 

They hopped off the bikes and hid behind the cafe. The engines grew nearer, and with it, every fear Mike had been considering for the last twenty minutes. He leaned against the wall, ignoring the gooey vines smearing his hair, and hoping the cars would keep going. They were already loud enough to alert any nearby demos of their location, and Mike knew in his gut that if a demo showed up, they wouldn't be able to fight it. Will was still a bit weak from his new powers, and both of them knew what little damage bullets did to the monsters. They were strung thin in strength and firepower. 

“What do we do?” Will whispered shakily. “I-I can feel it. There's two nearby.”

Two? Two? Mike bit back every bit of profanity that threatened to fly off his tongue in favor of thinking of something. There would always be a high risk with biking alongside the road with the military crawling through the Upside Down for them. They could ditch the bikes, but it would prolong their journey to the lab further. They had a few miles left with nothing else despite forest in between the cafe and lab to cover them. 

“How far are they?”

“They're following the cars. If they stop, the demos will attack.”

Their best bet was continuing on foot. It would eliminate the noise they carried with them and ensure the military couldn't predict their path. Mike motioned for Will to ditch the bike. As they set the bikes down gently, the sound of the cars stopped in front of the cafe. Doors slammed. Mike's heart leapt to his throat.

“Fan out! Every inch of this place is to be checked!”

That woman. Mike felt Will's body tense beside him. Mike reached for his Dad's gun, the weight making him feel unbalanced but confident at the same time. 

The building shook when they kicked the door in. Will jumped, gripping Mike's arm with intense strength. Mike knew they had to get out of there, but with the military closing in from both the inside and around the side of the building, they would be spotted immediately. Mike knew he didn't have the strength to outrun the military, let alone a demo, at the moment. All of their energy was going towards shaking in fear.

Footsteps thundered inside. Vines cracked as soldiers began searching the side of the building. Mike used his empty hand to grab Will's. They would have to take their chances and run. 

Two things happened at once. A scream erupted from the front of the building, and the ear-piercing roar of a demogorgon flew through the air. Mike jumped hearing assault rifles go off. He gripped Will’s hand tighter.

“Now's our chance!” he hissed.

Mike dragged Will from their hiding spot and ran towards the tree line sixty yards away. Feet slammed against pavement, Will's fingers had a death grip on his, and shouts echoed behind them. Mike didn't look back. He gripped the gun and Will, feeling the other boy beginning to falter. 

Will fell, bringing Mike down with him, slamming painfully into the concrete. 

“Will!”

Will was writhing on his back, chest heaving, eyes squeezed shut. Whatever the military was doing to the demo, Will was feeling it. Mike had been beginning to wonder when Will's sensitivity to the hive mind would become apparent. He was surprised it didn't happen when the first demo attacked them. 

“Will! Come back, we need to move! Will!” Mike said, panicked. He tucked away the pistol and brought his hands under Will's armpits, hoisting him up. The weight of another human being and the duffel bag made it extremely difficult for Mike to get a good grip. 

Then, to Mike's horror, Will started screaming. Blood-curdling screams that rang in Mike's ears and made his stomach turn inside out. At the same time, he could hear the demogorgon's pained cries. Mike cursed, watching the diner for any movement as his best friend continued to scream. 

We're not getting anywhere.

Mike breathed heavily as he dragged Will behind a thick tree, lying him against the bark and watching him seize with pain. 

“Will! Will, please.” 

Mike didn't even know what he was begging for. For him to stop screaming, for him to stop hurting. He was desperate to make it stop, to provide some sort of relief, but what could he do? What could he say to get Will out of the hive mind when they were physically in the hive mind?

All he knew was that Will's screams would alert the enemy of their position. He thought about putting his hand over his mouth, but he knew it wouldn't do much to mask the noise. He crouched in front of Will. In his adrenaline induced state, his only solution was to grab Will and tuck his face into his chest. 

The sound lowered considerably, but was still loud enough to notice. Mike' s hand found the back of Will's head, locking him into place and allowing his fingers to sprawl through the teen’s hair. He rocked them back and forth, ignoring the earth digging into his knees and the throbbing pain in his arms from catching his fall. 

“Shh, Will, it's okay. It's okay, shhh, please Will, you're okay. They're gonna…” 

No, that probably wouldn't be the best thing to say to the one in excruciating pain. Telling him that his screaming was going to make their location known was definitely not the best thing to say. 

Will's shouts delved into pained sobs. There were many sounds that broke Mike's heart, and most of them came from the boy he cradled. Even years back, when everything first started, hearing Will in any sort of distress was like lighting Mike on fire. 

Back in first grade, when Will tripped and scraped his knees, he cried and it was the first time Mike remembered feeling intense panic. It was also the first time he felt a surge of something, whether it be protectiveness or worry, that helped Mike comfort Will until they could get back to the Byers household and clean the wounds. In fifth grade, Will had come over to Mike's house for D&D with a bruise under his eyes and a cut on his lip. That was the night Will told him about his dad, even though Mike had put the picture together already. Dustin and Lucas had taken it upon themselves to ransack the basement for first-aid, while Mike took Will to the bathroom, where Will whispered to him his father's rage.

He remembered the anger that ignited in his heart. Mike remembered in too much detail how much Will's tears broke his heart, knowing that he would have to go back under the same roof as that douchebag. All Mike could provide was comfort and friendship, no action against Lonnie Byers. 

Sitting in the Upside Down, cradling Will, he felt the same rage, the same ache in his heart whenever tears sprung in Will's eyes. Now, though, he was bigger. He was (supposed to be) stronger. He could finally do something after sitting on the sidelines for so long. 

Will's breath fanned his collarbones with every exhale. Mike shushed him, whispered that he was okay, that they would make it back home, when he heard a twig snap. Mike's body stilled. Dead leaves crunched under a boot. He shuffled, sitting with his back against the tree and Will between his legs. Mike raised his legs to act like a shield, his one hand holding Will's neck and the other reaching for the gun. The safety clicked off.

“You can't hide forever, boys. It'd be much better for you to come out now.”

Mike found the woman's voice grating. He didn't get a good glance at her from the roof, the darkness of the Upside Down masking her features. From her voice, he figured she had to be around mid-fifties. Toughened by a military career.

Twenty yards away, leaves crushed to dust.

“We can protect you from those monsters. We can help bring you home, but we can only do that if you show yourselves.”

Will's body trembled against him, huffs escaping his lips and sweat rolling down his face into Mike's shirt. Mike held him tighter. He made a promise he intended on keeping. Will would not become a lab rat. He fixed his grip on his pistol. He'd only fired one shot at the demo earlier. He would have a full mag otherwise. The trigger was cold.

The footsteps stopped ten feet away. 

“I'm trying to help you two. You've had good luck staying alive this long in this world. It'd be a shame if your luck ran out.”

Mike swallowed thickly, trying to control his uneven breaths, as a second set of footsteps ran their way. He hugged Will impossibly tighter, finger on the trigger.

“Doctor Kay, we found a pair of bikes around back, but they seem to have been abandoned for a long time. There's no sign of them here. One of our cars has been ravaged. What do you want to do?”

Mike didn't dare make a sound. He wrapped the open part of his jacket around Will's face to mask his breathing. 

The woman huffed, annoyance dripping from her tongue. “Are there any specimens to take back?”

“No, ma'am, one of our men torched them.”

“Great… round up the men, we're heading back to base. But tell every unit that is out right now to keep searching. Search every god damn inch of this shit hole. I will not go back empty handed next time.”

“Ma'am,” the soldier acknowledged. 

Two sets of footsteps retreated the way they came. Mike waited. And waited. He waited until he was sure the two were out of sight and out of earshot before unveiling his jacket. Will's face was slack, peaceful as he slept, his breaths finally coming through evenly. 

The adrenaline evaporated from his body, leaving a heavy body and heavy heart behind. Mike's entire body relaxed, every muscle aching from being tense for so long. It was his turn to breathe heavy, for him to realize just how close they were to being captured. 

Mike slumped against the trees, letting his legs stretch out. He was too exhausted to make anything of the sight of Will's body pressed against him, between his legs, or Will's lips being dangerously close to his collarbones. He shouldn't have been having those kinds of thoughts about his best friend in the first place, but Mike had realized when in California just how differently he treated and regarded Will in comparison to the others. There was something there. Something wrong and ugly festered in his chest, something he was powerless against in the face of Will Byers. 

Michael Wheeler was a coward in a Paladin's armor. He accepted that those thoughts would never taste the air from his lips. The only thing he could do was hold Will closer and pretend those thoughts didn't exist. For his sake and Will's. 

Mike barely slept, his senses too high on alert to calm down, and when he did manage to drift off, every sound the Upside Down produced forced him awake with a jolt of raw fear. With the threat of literally everything in the Upside Down out to get them, Mike couldn’t afford to let his guard down. Not when Will was incapacitated. 

The chill of the dimension had begun to sink its teeth into his hands again. Mike reached for the duffel bag, digging out the blankets Will found earlier and draping the fabric over them. The blankets worked wonders in fighting off the chill and somehow providing a bit of comfort in hell. Will sighed after a few minutes, moving slightly to adjust. His nose brushed against Mike's neck, and good God was it torture in the best way possible.

A new development that came with the unspeakable thoughts was the constant desire to be near Will. Not just proximity, but attention. Mike couldn't stand it when Will gave someone else his full attention. Having Will's full attention was like having sunshine after a thunderstorm, and Mike wanted all of it. If he knew emotions better, he would've found a label in the word “jealousy,” but Mike was never really smart in the emotions department.

Shit, he was so, so selfish, but he couldn't help it. Not everyone was deserving of Will's attention. 

Mike eventually got used to the feeling of Will's face so close to his neck, and managed to calm his brain for the millionth time since he fell through the gate. His already flimsy strength was stretched thin, and the blankets were luckily helping him begin to drift off for good. In the times he jolted awake, he kept track of time on his watch. He witnessed the numbers change from 1 PM to 3PM, and from 3PM to 4PM. They were a hundred percent late to their rendezvous with the others. He could only hope they had half a mind to remain in the right side up. 

At some point, he swore he saw a flash of white light overhead instead of red. It screamed danger, but Mike chalked it up to his extremely sleep-deprived mind. Who knew, maybe it was normal in the Upside Down for that kind of thing to happen every day that passed? Maybe it was some sort of beam of light that kept the dimension stuck in a permanent recreation of November 6th. 

Just when Mike’s eyelids began to feel like lead again, Will stirred. It was a change in breathing, a deep breath manually controlled, and eyes fluttering open. Mike forced his heart to calm down as Will sat up, rubbing his face. 

“Mike? What—” Will started, coughing into his hand. 

Mike produced a water bottle from the duffel bag and offered it to him, which Will took gratefully. The other boy scooted away from Mike, which he tried not to take to heart. It was definitely a weird sight to be waking up to your best friend letting you use him as a pillow. He sighed, bringing his legs to sit crisscrossed as he collected the blankets, watching Will greedily drink from the bottle. After a moment, Will turned to face him, questions on his tongue.

“You don’t remember anything?” Mike tried. He was surprised by the roughness of his voice after not being used for hours. It was almost painful.

“I remember running… falling. And fire.”

“The military burned the demogorgons that were chasing us. You were so close to them that I guess it triggered your connection to the hive mind.”

“Oh.” Will fiddled with the half empty bottle. His brows were furrowed, eyes deep in thought. “How did they not catch us? We were out in the open.”

“They almost did,” Mike said with a grimace as he stretched his tense limbs. Something in his leg popped. “You were screaming so loud, I thought… but I managed to get us past the treeline and hide, so… yeah. Not caught.”

“I was…” Will muttered. His shoulders rose like when he got anxious. His wide eyes found Mike’s, staring for a moment before quickly turning away. His head was down, as if he were ashamed of what happened. “We’ve waited long enough. We’ve gotta get to the gate.”

“Hey, hey hey, hang on—” Mike interrupted, hand shooting out to grasp Will’s shoulder “—you need to sit down, take a break, have some more water.”

“We’ve taken long enough, and we’ve still got a long walk ahead of us. I… I can feel them. Running around.” Will’s body shook, and Mike saw goosebumps peeking out from his sleeve. “They’re looking for us, too. Getting home as fast as we can is our best bet at survival right now.”

“But—”

“Mike.” 

Will was already on his feet, dark circles under his eyes but looking full of determination. His one hand gripped the strap of the duffel bag, and the other balled into a fist by his side. Mike couldn’t help but worry about his best friend, considering not three hours ago he was screaming his throat raw. He could try and argue with Will about resting all he wants—he knew he would get nowhere because Will was right. They’d waited long enough, and waiting even longer made them even more susceptible to surprise attacks. They could rest when they saw sunlight again.

Mike swallowed his concerns, despite wanting to yell and argue. “Okay. Lead the way.”
Will’s shoulders relaxed. He offered Mike a hand, which he gratefully took. On his feet, Mike swayed before quickly grounding himself with a shake of his head. He ignored Will’s side-eye and started through the woods. The idea of sunshine was like heaven, enough to keep him pushing forward. The thought of regrouping, coming up with a plan to save his sister, filled him with renowned strength. 

There was no wind in the Upside Down, and yet the cold seeped through his clothes. It didn’t help that they were constantly rolling around in the weird sticky slime that seemed to coat every surface, dampening the fabric of their clothes. Mike suppressed a shiver, his chest rattling with a shaky breath. The metal of the gun in his waistband was like a personal AC unit. His hands were paler than normal, and tucking them into his pockets or armpits seemed to do jack shit. It was like being stuck in a permanent winter day.

“How are you holding up?” Will asked quietly after another fifteen minutes of silence. 

“You’re asking me that now?” Mike scoffed. His eyes trailed to look at his feet. He felt Will’s expectant gaze digging into the side of his skull. “I mean, I’m fine. It’s just a lot to take in, you know? Everything that’s happened.”

“Yeah.”

Mike and Will never really had uncomfortable silences in all their years of being friends. The only times Mike remembered having such silences were in regards to the exact dimension they found themselves walking through. Mike wanted Will to trust him enough to talk about his time in the Upside Down whenever he was ready, and Will never talked about it, even after reassuring Mike that he trusted him completely. Some things were better left in the dark, Mike was quick to learn, because if Will did tell him about the days he was missing, Mike probably wouldn’t have handled it well. The guilt of not doing more, not helping more, would’ve finally eaten him whole. 

Safe to say, whenever tense silences made an appearance, it made Mike anxious. Like he was about to be accused of a horrific crime. But this was Will. He knew Will like he knew his own heartbeat. Whatever he had to say, it was important enough to make him anxious to talk about it. 

“You’ve never been here. In the Upside Down,” Will observed. 

Mike shook his head, stuffing his freezing fingers into his jacket pockets. He didn’t find much warmth. “It’s exactly like you said. Cold and dark, but like home.”

“It feels weird walking around with you here.”

“How so?”

Will pursed his lips. “It’s not as scary.”

Mike looked off to the side to hide an uncontrollable smile. He relished in the way his chest grew warm. That kind of feeling was exactly the kind of reassurance he wished his presence had on his friends. He wanted to be the one people looked to for confident words and plans, for reassurance and safety. Mike was suddenly reminded of one of his last conversations with Holly before she was taken. He’d known his sister had an interest in action and adventure, and figured she’d love playing D&D. He’d created a character profile for her in the event she was interested enough to play, dubbing her Holly the Heroic. A brave character, a strong leader who held her own and wasn’t afraid of anything. 

His storytelling skills often resulted in him projecting his subconscious thoughts into reality. When creating Holly the Heroic, he was starkly reminded of Mike the Brave. The Paladin, the heart of the group that didn’t falter in the face of fire-breathing dragons. Especially after realizing some monsters were real, Mike was envious of his namesake. The stronger, more level-headed and powerful character. His shield protected others when they couldn’t protect themselves. It felt kind of stupid, comparing himself to a fictional character he created, but it got him thinking. 

Much like Holly the Heroic being all the best of his sister, Mike the Brave was the good qualities of Mike that had lay dormant for too long. Now that he was literally in the center of the danger, which hadn’t happened in a while, he felt the urge to protect. The urge to ensure he was the one taking the hits like a sturdy shield. In a way, Will’s words mixed with the thought of a Paladin, sent a wave of courage through him that he’d been lacking for so long. He was older, which meant he could do more damage than he thought. 

“It’s still kinda scary,” Mike jabbed with a playful grin.

“Oh, yeah, of course it is,” Will chuckled. “I’m not as jumpy, is what I meant to say. It’s always better to brave something terrifying with a group of people. It makes me feel better knowing someone else is here to keep my mind in check.”

Keep his mind in check? As for hallucinations? Was Vecna nearby? Mike’s heart skipped multiple beats. They certainly weren’t ready for an attack from their most formidable enemy, and Vecna knew it. From what Mike understood about the Upside Down, if Will could feel it, so could Vecna, and Will said that the demos were looking for them earlier. Vecna knew one of his greatest threats was in his home territory and decided to try and take him out for the count. 

Mike tried to ignore the spiraling thoughts. It would do him nothing to speculate now when the others surely found something worth their while in the time they were gone. “Do you feel anything weird?”

“No. We’re getting close to the lab.”

“You think we’ll find Jonathan? Nancy?”

“I really hope so,” Will said.

Another brief moment of silence passed, serene, unlike the tense silence earlier. After being so close to losing Will on so many accounts, Mike found himself growing intense with fear at the prospect of losing Will. Regardless of those thoughts recently appearing, he didn’t remember life without him. Will and Mike grew up together, their fates already intertwined whether they knew it or not. Mike had done everything in his power as a child to spend every day with him because he couldn’t picture a day without Will. Now, it was the same. Now, there was a threat looming over them, creating urgency in Mike’s mind. He had to tell him. He needed to know, he had the right to know, and Mike’s silence would condemn him to a life of regret if he were to make it out of all of this. 

Glancing at Will, his heart stuttered. He always found Will captivating. It didn’t matter if he was drawing at Mike’s desk or rolling the die at their campaigns, or smiling at a morse code message Mike tapped on his desk—Will was always there at the center of Mike’s orbit. If he were to lose that sun, the object of which his gravity was tied to, where would he end up? 

Mike’s face flushed, his heartbeat in his throat. Just talk to him. Speak the truth for once.

“Will?” he said. 

Will hummed, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye as they began the ascent of a steep hill. 

“I um… I just wanted you to know that…”

Talk to him. Tell him the truth. 

He deserves to know.

He’ll hate me.

At the top of the hill, Will stopped, turning to face him with confusion. Mike’s tongue seemed to have lost its courage, his brain trying to come up with something to say that didn’t incriminate him, but let Will know how much he meant to him. Seeing his eyes, so full of mirth and trust, made Mike feel like he didn’t deserve any of it. He knew he didn’t, after everything horrible he’d said to Will in Lenora and the hypocrite he was after Will left. But would it be fair to Will to dump such a horrid secret upon him? A secret that could kill them both? The other part of him, his heart, told Mike that he had to know.  

“I know I haven’t been the best friend I was when we were kids as of late,” Mike started, and with it, the floodgates were easier to open. He took a breath before continuing. “I’ve been a hypocrite a-and I’ve treated you like shit for no reason at all. I’ve been trying to make up for it these last 18 months, and I just hope I’ve done a good job at that.”

Will’s brows furrowed again. Confusion. Worry. “Mike, what are you—”

“I’ve been afraid of so many things that it’s made me blind to everything in front of me. I’ve missed hanging out with you and the others. I have a lot of things I regret and a lot of things I need to say—”

“Wait, Mike, what is this? Where’s this all coming from?” Will said, his eyes alight with alarm. He peered into Mike’s eyes, searching. He must’ve found something, for the alarm increased tenfold. His hands found Mike’s upper arms. “Is it him? Seriously, Mike, don’t lie to me, is it him? Are you having headaches? Visions?”

“W-what? No! I—why do you think it’s him?”

“You’re saying all of this like you’re gonna drop dead any second.”

“No, I’m not cursed! I promise, I’m not cursed,” Mike said.

“Then why—?” Will trailed off, uncertainty lacing his tone. 

The warmth radiating from Will’s hands traveled through his arms to the tips of his fingers. He didn’t even think about how his speech would sound to someone who wasn’t him. Did Mike seriously never talk about how much he loves his Party, about how much they all mean to him, to the point where it’s so rare that Will thinks he’s dying? God, what a testament to Mike being an awful friend. 

“These past few days, I…” Mike tried, finding it difficult to focus when Will was so close, so concerned. “I’ve realized how easily this could end. This isn’t a campaign, this is real life. I can’t control the ending to this story and it’s been driving me crazy. I guess… I just wanted you to know that whatever happens, I’m sorry for being such a douchebag, and you’re always going to be my best friend. Um… yeah.”

Mike had seen Will rendered speechless plenty of times in his life, but this time it felt right. Like Mike had finally said his piece and told Will exactly what he’d been wanting to say for months now after wallowing in his pity party. It wasn’t the entire truth, but it was a start. Maybe one day, after the Upside Down disappears and everything goes back to normal, Mike would get another wave of courage to tell the real truth. 

Will’s smile was worth every word, though. Bright, happy, a beam of light in the claustrophobic darkness of the Upside Down. He let Will bring him into a tight hug, clinging on to each other as if they were the only thing that mattered at the moment. For Mike, Will was his only priority at the moment. 

“Thank you for telling me, but we’ve always been best friends, even on our bad days,” Will said as he pulled away. If Mike were more awake, he’d probably take note of the way he hesitated to say more. The fond eyes were too alluring to think of anything else. “Nothing’s gonna change that.”

Mike’s eyes grew heavy. Will had that effect on him; the kind of feeling where you knew you were safe, you knew you had the person that mattered most beside you, and that was the difference between staying awake and falling asleep. He would’ve fallen asleep standing up if it weren’t for Will’s hands still gripping his arms. 

“We’re almost there,” Will said, steering them to continue walking. “I can feel it. The gate, and…”

And?

Mike’s stomach flipped. “And?”

Will frowned as they traversed the woods. Every step closer to the lab seemed to bring Will more discomfort. “There’s something else. Something… powerful. Not a person but a thing.”

Great. Their side mission of finding Jonathan’s group was going to have to go on the backburner. First, they needed to investigate whatever this powerful thing was. Besides, Nancy and Steve team-up was like having two aces on your team. They’d been in the Upside Down plenty of times. They knew how to get back. 

The two continued between trees and over vines. Mike had tried to talk about his feelings and it stuck, a major success in his head even if the truth came out in a pathetic stutter of “um’s” and “uhhhh.” He studied Will as they traveled, like he’d been doing for the entire time they’d been in the Upside Down. He couldn’t help but look at him. He was already captivating without his powers, now even more so. 

“So, how did you get your powers? Like, how did they appear?” Mike asked softly. 

Will was quiet for a moment before shrugging. “I think it’s always been there, ever since I got back from the Upside Down. All the weird feelings whenever Demos were around or when I was near a gate were signs of the connection to the hive mind, to him. I didn’t know how taking advantage of it was an option.”

“You just needed a push,” he offered, “something to kickstart the engine.”

“I guess. It felt… natural, but not at the same time.”

“Not every day you turn into a powerful sorcerer.”

Will rolled his eyes, and Mike smirked, glad to still be able to provoke such a reaction. 

“Whatever. You’re right,” Will conceded. He jumped over a particularly thick tree root. “As much as these powers feel normal, it didn’t always feel that way.”

“Do they really feel… normal? Like a part of you now?”

“Yeah. I just… there’s always been this part of myself that I’ve… I’ve been so scared. I didn’t know what it was until we moved to Lenora, and when we got there, the fear got even worse. I figured it out, and it was one of the worst days I’ve had in a while.”

Mike frowned. What did he not know about Will that was causing this much detriment to him? Then again, his words came back to bite him in the ass. He hadn’t been the greatest friend of all time the last few years, and he’d been too focused on trying to keep El close to him to realize anything was causing Will such pain. 

“I thought it’d get better if I just ignored it, but it didn’t,” Will said. “But Robin told me something, before we left the tunnels, that helped me understand what this thing was and how to come to terms with it.”

“And help you unlock your powers,” Mike supplied.

Will nodded. “I mean, there was the added pressure of you guys almost dying, so…”

Mike chuckled before sobering, resting a hand on Will’s shoulder. “Whatever it is that’s causing you so much pain, you know you can talk to me about it, right? I’m your best friend and I want to help you any way I can.”

“You can’t help me with this,” Will said, a look of discomfort crossing his features.

“Sure I can.”

“Seriously, Mike, you can’t.” He brushed Mike’s hand away and continued walking. “You don’t get it. You wouldn’t get it.”

“What do I not get? Is it about the powers?”

“Yes, I-I mean, no. It’s not about that, it’s something different. Can we drop the subject?”

“Will, if something’s bothering you, I want to help. I care about you—” Mike started.

“I know, you made it clear just a second ago.”

“So why won’t you let me in?” he asked, just a twinge shy of desperate. “Why do you shut me out when I’m trying to help?”

Will’s brows lowered dangerously, mouth open and sharp, ready to tear into him. “Because you’re part of the problem!”

Mike stopped dead in his tracks, face falling. Will stopped a few feet in front of him, back turned and shoulders tight. He was part of the problem? What exactly was the problem? Mike had tried to express his sorrow for being a shitty friend mere minutes ago. Was it not enough? What did he have to do to gain back that trust? To gain back Will’s care?

“I-I’m—” Mike stuttered, completely lost. What did he even say to that? “I’m the…?”

“N-no,” Will muttered, nearly lost in the Upside Down’s roaring thunder. “Not entirely.”

“Then tell me what it is so I can stop it! Tell me so I stop hurting you!”

Will stood like a statue for a moment, shaking his head back and forth slowly. “I can’t tell you, Mike. I can’t. You don’t understand.”

“Please, Will, help me understand. Don't shut me out. Talk to me,” Mike pleaded, hand hovering over Will’s arm. “We’re in this together. Whatever the problem is, we can work it out like we always do.”

Mike thought he heard a sniffle before Will’s shoulders rolled back, strong. 

“Not this time.”

Will started walking again, and Mike could do nothing but bite his tongue and follow. He was causing Will pain. Him. Mike was the problem somehow. He wracked his brain for an answer. The last eighteen months, he’d been trying to be the bestest friend ever, and liked to think he’d succeeded. So how was he hurting Will? Was he saying something that he didn’t agree with? No, if he was, Will would’ve told him the day he said such an offensive thing. 

Or would he have? He’s been so quiet lately, like he lived in his mind. Mike thought it was because of Vecna’s attack and everything that happened in Lenora. Never did he think he was the problem unless there was a verbal disagreement or moment of discomfort in between them (rare). Mike had been trying so hard to be better about himself but it wasn’t enough. As much as Mike wanted to get the truth from Will, he knew the boy wouldn’t talk about it until he was ready, which he clearly wasn’t. Yelling at Will wasn’t an option. He promised himself he wouldn’t do that again. 

So silent speculation it was, and it was enough to drive Mike mad trying to think of a reason why he was causing Will such distress. What had changed between them where Mike was the problem? And why hadn’t Will spoken to him about it?

Eventually, the treeline broke into a parking lot, the lab standing in full glory. The lab still stood in the overworld, though it was abandoned after everything that happened with the demodogs. The military still had it under surveillance due to the gate running nearby, which deterred normal people from going anywhere near it. 

“I can’t tell what it is…” Will said, shaking his head. “Then again, I never came here when I was here the first time.”

Mike brought the pistol out again, holding it before him as they stalked towards the lab entrance. If it wasn’t Vecna, it had to be something else that connected the Upside Down to their world. He surveyed the area around the lab. He could spot the red glow of the gate on the hill a few hundred yards away. He wanted to just grab Will and jump through, but who knew if their Party awaited them on the other side? With the military on their asses, it was entirely possible that their surveillance efforts doubled on both sides of the world. 

Besides, if they could somehow communicate with someone on the other side, it would be in the lab. 

Mike reached the doors first, cringing when his boots crunched shards of glass. He nodded at Will to stay behind him as he braved the lobby. Behind him, Will clicked the flashlight on. The yellow circle of the light broke through, forcing Mike to blink to adjust to the brightness.

They passed the spot where Bob had… 

He could still hear Bob’s screams years later. Mike didn’t need an image to know what happened to him, but standing outside, holding an unconscious Will, and seeing Hopper dragging Joyce out of the lab terrified him. They’d been so close to death that day, too. 

Mike pressed forward. He hadn’t stepped foot in the lab since that night, and yet his body remembered. He could see Hopper’s back, Will’s limp body over his shoulders as he led them to the lobby. If they were looking for communications, they had to reach the security room. 

They reached a crossroads.

Left.

Mike peeked at the corners, finding no threats ahead. The hallways were nearly identical to one another, with dozens of doors with different numbers and labels faded with degradation. He led Will down the hallway, eyes checking every door for a plaque of any kind. Numbers, numbers, Doctor names drilled into the wood. Finally, near the middle of the hall, Mike found the door labeled Security. He grasped the doorknob and turned, holding back a frustrated sigh when it clinked, locked. Mike glanced around. The silence of the lab was eerie enough to put him on edge, but making noise to break the silence was like asking for death. Who knew if the demodogs still resided in the lab?

Mike motioned for Will to step back, bringing up the butt of the pistol and slamming it on the doorknob. The sound was deafening, echoing in the vast halls. 

“Mike!” Will hissed, frantically looking around.

Mike hit it again and again until the metal knob fell to the ground with a clank! The door creaked open slowly like a cliche horror film. Will pointed the flashlight inside, finding the room empty. Mike spotted the intercom system and he remembered Dr. Owens gave Bob pointers on where the dogs were. Will observed the lockers, a couple of them blocked by large vines. As Mike fiddled with the intercom, he heard Will open the lockers that didn’t need tampering with. He wondered if there was some sort of power in the Upside Down, something that could cause electricity to work. The intercom wouldn’t work without it—not that they wanted to broadcast their location to the entire lab full of God knows what. 

“Hey, look.”

Will came up to his side holding two walkie-talkies. He handed one to Mike, and together they messed with the antennas and knobs. No static came through. Mike opened the back panel to his walkie, finding it void of battery. He ransacked the lockers, finding no batteries. 

“Shit, no batteries,” Mike whispered. Making any sound in the lab made him nervous, like the demos were going to appear at any second. “Yours have any?”

“No,” Will said, though he didn’t sound too concerned at their lack of power. 

Mike tried to open the lockers blocked by vines. He knew he should’ve grabbed a knife from his house, if only to save them some trouble. Behind him, he heard a soft clatter, and the golden light of the flashlight was gone. He whirled around to see Will taking out the two batteries in the flashlight and putting them in his walkie. 

“Holy shit, I’m so dumb,” Mike snickered as he reappeared at Will’s side. 

Will didn’t say anything, which Mike took as a silent agreement. The walkie crackled to life at the turn of a knob. “Okay, what now?” 

“Do you think we can reach the others this way? Or do we need to do something specific?” 

Will thought for a moment. “Maybe… I don’t know if it’ll work, but I can try something.”

He sat on the floor, facing the doorway and holding the walkie in his lap. Mike didn’t quite follow his train of thought, and instead moved to close the door and keep it closed with a chair propped against it. At least now, he felt better about all the noise the walkie was making. Mike sat in the chair for extra weight holding the door shut, watching Will close his eyes and take a breath. 

Mike watched his eyes move under his eyelids, something reminiscent of the year the Mind Flayer used Will to spy on them. He never liked the lab, finding it too sterile and pristine to be good for anything. And when he stayed with Will in the lab, he hated it even more. It was a reminder of all the screaming, all the agony and tears. He was forced to watch Will slowly be taken over by a monster—one who knew just where to hit them where it hurt. 

Will’s breath sped up slightly.

“Will? What’s happening?” Mike asked frantically.

The walkie’s static screeched before settling to something softer. Through the fuzziness, he could barely make out words. Mike smirked. Superpowers. God, El was probably going to freak out. 

“—are they? They should’ve—”

“They’re probably on their way.”

The voices abruptly cut out and Will lurched forward with a pained grimace. Mike kneeled beside him, hand on his back. 

“They’re at the gate waiting for us. El’s there,” Will said breathlessly. 

“Are we going to be able to go through?” 

“I think so. El can lift the plate and we can crawl through. I’m gonna try again.”

Mike frowned. “Will, you don’t have to—”

“I’m trying again,” Will said firmly, sitting up straight and closing his eyes again. 

Mike sat in front of him, watching as Will went under again. The eyes darting under his eyelids was the freakiest part of it all. The other freaky part was knowing that his best friend had superpowers. Like, how insane was that? Blood dripped steadily from Will’s nose. Mike grabbed his sleeve, balling the fabric in his fist, using one hand to cradle the back of Will’s head and the other to wipe the blood. 

The static broke again. 

“—they’re dead? We haven’t heard from them!” Robin, again.

“Will’s strong, and so is Mike. They are alright. I can feel it.” 

Hearing El’s voice through the walkie sent a wave of immense relief through him. The sentiment went both ways. Mike had been worried about her ever since she went with Nancy to their house, but he knew she could take care of herself. It eased the nerves a bit, but not a lot. Mike and Will faced both threats El faced when she was in the Upside Down, and it wasn’t easy at all to get past either of them. Another wave of respect for Hopper flooded his brain. 

“Can you see them?” Joyce’s broken voice came through.

“No, I cannot. But they’re here.”

“What about Dustin? Steve?” Lucas asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I’m going back in,” came Hopper’s gruff voice. 

“No,” El argued.

“Your friends are in there and might be in danger, and whether I like it or not, we need everyone for this plan. I’m going to go get them.”

“Not without me.”

“You need to save your strength for the big fight.”

“Can we say anything to them?” Mike asked desperately. They were getting nowhere with their arguing. 

“N-no, I can’t…” Will muttered, face scrunching in pain. Mike wiped away the blood that continued to flow, feeling Will’s breath on his face. “Something’s coming.”

Mike quickly turned the walkie’s volume down to hear multiple sets of footsteps coming down the hall. He made sure the chair was propped under the door before drawing the pistol and clicking the safety off. Will’s eyes opened for a brief second before rolling in the back of his head. 

“Fuck, Will—” Mike whispered, though he silenced himself when the footsteps drew nearer. He pointed his gun at the door, both hands clasping the cold weapon to try and stop the shaking. 

Muffled voices echoed down the hall. Static filled the security room, and ice cold fear sunk its claws into Mike’s shoulders. Military or demo, he wasn’t letting anything get to Will. The trigger wound tight beneath his fingers. He had half a mind to turn the walkie off since Will didn’t seem to be focused on it anymore, but he couldn’t abandon his post. The footsteps closed in, and Mike’s chest rattled with every breath. 

Don’t falter, you can’t falter. It’s not going to end this way.

The footsteps stopped outside the door, the voices falling to a whisper, though he couldn’t make out what they were saying over the static of the walkie. In the crack between the door and the floor, he noted the yellow light peeking through. Flashlights. The military’s lights were whiter and attached to assault rifles. 

Mike tightened his grip on the gun, stepping to shield Will from view of the intruders. The door creaked open, the yellow light blinding him when it came up to his face. 

Shoot! 

Don’t!

“Mike?” a voice he hadn’t heard in days said. 

The flashlights lowered, but Mike’s hand didn’t falter. He blinked the dots out of his vision, finding the group Joyce told them to search for. Nancy, Jonathan, Dustin, and Steve stood frozen in the doorway. Nancy and Jonathan looked to be covered in something akin to concrete, while Dustin and Steve seemed perfectly fine. Nancy was missing her shotgun she left with before the Upside Down. 

“Mike!” Nancy said with relief. 

Mike kept the gun raised, his fuzzy brain questioning what he was seeing. Will said something was coming, but this seemed too good to be true. “Stay back!” he said.

Nancy paused in the doorway, her face falling. “Mike, it’s us. Nancy, your sister? The badass one of the family?”

The joke fell flat in tense silence. The walkie continued to crackle. If this was Vecna’s doing, surely something bad would’ve happened to him by now, right?

“How am I sure you’re not some hallucination?” Mike questioned. “Or if you’re some sort of trick? Hm?”

Nancy glanced back at the others, who raised their hands and shrugged. She raised her hands in surrender and took a tentative step forward. “Does Vecna know that you were seriously thinking of having an orange mohawk?”

The absurdity of the statement was enough to convince Mike she was real. He ignored the way his cheeks flushed in embarrassment and tucked the gun back in his waistband after clicking the safety back on. 

“Sorry, I just—” he tried.

Nancy enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug. They weren’t the most tactile of siblings, so it was a bit odd, but welcoming nonetheless. Especially after everything they’d been through the past few days with Holly being taken and their parents being put in the hospital.

“I’m just glad you’re okay. Wait—” Nancy said, pulling away to peer at his eyes, “how the hell are you here right now? What happened? You look like shit!”

“Long story. We need to get out of here,” Mike replied.

Behind him, the static abruptly stopped. Mike whirled around to see Will’s nostrils dripping with blood, breaths coming in heavy and sweat coating his skin. 

“Will!” Mike exclaimed, kneeling in front of his best friend. He wiped the blood away. “Come back, we’re going home! Will!”

“Will’s here?” Jonathan’s disbelieving voice sounded from the hallway. He rushed into the room, coming to kneel by his brother’s side. He took in the sight of his brother bleeding from the nose, eyes stuck at the top of his skull. “What the hell is going on, Mike? What’s happening to him?”

“He’s seeing something, I-I don’t know what! We’ve gotta get him out of here!” 

Mike and Jonathan worked together to get Will on his feet. Will went without trouble, like a ragdoll, which deeply disturbed Mike. If Will was acting like this again, it meant demos were nearby or on their way. He glanced at his jacket sleeve, which was soaked with fresh blood. 

“Shit, there’s gotta be demos on the way,” Mike relayed to the group.

“How do you know all of this exactly?” Dustin questioned, his eyes going between his two friends worriedly.

“No time to explain right now! Get us to the gate!” Mike exploded, which seemed to convey the urgency to the group. 

Steve and Dustin led the group, turning right at the crossroads when Mike said so. They stumbled through the lobby and out the front doors. Nancy took the pistol from him, cocking it back, and effectively reminding Mike that they left the duffel bag with ammo in the security room. 

“On the hill!” Dustin said.

He and Steve took off towards the hill, leaving Jonathan, Nancy, and Mike to carry Will. Will only grew more catatonic, breaths sounding like they were being forced out of him and his voice dangerously gravely. 

“They’re coming!” he groaned.

“Who?” Nancy asked.

“Demos,” Mike provided, tightening his grip on Will. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to stop, to lay down and accept his fate. He was just so tired. 

Like clockwork, Mike heard the Demogorgon's screech from far away and cursed. At the same time, headlights appeared in the parking lot of the lab for a dozen cars. Doors opened, men in full military apparel appeared with the artillery to back it up.

“Holy fucking shit,” Jonathan cursed, trudging along faster than Mike could keep up. 

Mike pushed his legs to go forward. He pushed, pushed, pushed, couldn’t think of anything else. Nancy was shouting something behind him. Shots rang out. Demogorgon screeched as they spotted their targets. Dustin screamed at them from the hill to hurry their asses up, and Mike was trying, goddammit, but his limbs were finally failing him. His grip on Will loosened until Mike was falling face first into the hill. 

“Mike!”

His arms trembled with effort, and he managed to push himself onto his knees. Jonathan had made it to the gate, his gaze resting on Mike with intense worry. Steve was halfway through the portal, shouting. Dustin was yelling, too, though Mike couldn’t hear through the haze.

Nancy fell beside Mike, the pistol gone and blood streaming down her arm. She favored her arm, but grabbed Mike by the jacket and tried to pull him. 

Heat radiated behind them. Will screamed. Mike had to get to him. 

“Move and I put a bullet in your skull.”

The woman from earlier, Doctor Kay, stood in between the Wheeler siblings and the gate, gun raised to their chests. Her hair was frizzy, a cut bleeding on her cheek. Still, she remained steady. Nancy clung to Mike’s sleeve to keep him upright. Jonathan was kneeling in front of Will, who had started convulsing again, the shared pain of the hive mind too much for his fragile body to carry. 

“You have been a real nuisance,” the woman huffed, her gaze landing on Mike. “You and your friend are slippery ones, much like Eleven. Tell me, is it you or him that I’m after?”

Nancy eyed him, looking too much like their mother saying don’t do anything stupid. But Mike couldn’t let the doctor know about Will. 

“It’s me,” he slurred. “Just leave him alone. He’s got nothing to do with this.”

Doctor Kay tilted her head. “But he knows about this place, too. He’s just as important as you. In fact, I’d like to have a word with all of you. Get to know you better.”

Dustin was trying to get through to Will, him and Jonathan’s faces littered with fresh tears. 

“In fact, if you come with me willingly, I can make sure you are taken care of for the rest of your lives. Where do you think I get all this artillery and lab equipment from?” 

“We don’t need your charity,” Nancy bit back. “In fact, it’d be better if you stayed out of our way. You’re the nuisance.”

“You think you’re so smart? So clever with your guns and dramatic plans?” Doctor Kay spat. “You kids know nothing of what this place is, of what it holds. What power lies dormant here.”

“You can stop your villain monologue right there, because we’ve been dealing with this shit for years before you idiots came along,” Mike said, unable to bite back a smirk. “We know more than you ever will.”

Mike chalked it up as divine intervention that Doctor Kay’s body was flung all the way down the hill, crashing into one of her own vehicles. From the gate emerged El, blood dripping from her nostril, and Hopper right behind her brandishing an assault rifle and a scowl. 

“Mike, get to the gate!” Nancy said, helping her brother up the hill. 

El spared them a worried glance before being flung into the fight, fending off Demos and bullets alike. Hopper stood beside her all the while, providing the group with cover to get through the gate. Steve was through, and Dustin was halfway there. Mike could see the bright blue sky. He could see clouds. He smiled. He was almost home. 

Jonathan’s back was turned to the fight. He didn’t see the Demo lurking behind, jumping into the air with its claw at the ready. Mike’s body seized, fear cold as ice in his veins. 

“You’re the heart. The Paladin. You keep the Party together.”

“A Paladin protects his fellow party members with everything he’s got.”

“Mike.”

I need to move.

“Mike?”

The Demogorgon doesn’t care about Jonathan. It wants Will. He’s going to die.

Not if you don’t move. 

Become the man you’ve dreamed of for years. Step into the armor molded from your body. Step into the shoes of Mike the Brave.

Nancy’s hand fell from his arm. His shoes slammed into the dirt, eyes locked on the Demogorgon slowly reaching. Mike’s legs burned, stretching with abnormally large steps. His body slammed into Jonathan, knocking him into the gate. Mike turned his back to Jonathan’s shouts, rising to his full height, shielding Will by wrapping his arms around him. 

Will would not be taken from him again, no matter the cost.

He felt the warmth of the wounds before the pain, the way the Demogorgon’s claws sliced through his skin like he were nothing but a meek blade of grass. He felt the fabric on his jacket tear, the warm blood escaping his body like a river flowing down his back. The warmth, the life, the love he carried with him acting as intended—as a shield. 

There was screaming. He thought he heard Nancy, and he definitely heard El. The rest… he couldn’t tell if it was himself or Will. 

Will, whose eyes had finally returned to their normal spot. Will, who stared up at him in horror, an expression Mike hadn’t seen terrorize his face in a while. It wasn’t right. Will wasn’t supposed to be scared. He was safe. Mike made sure he was safe. It would probably be the only thing he’d do Will right by, and it made his heart ache knowing that one act of heroism would be the thing to take him. He thought he’d have more time. Maybe he would’ve lived to see a day where he finally let go of the chains holding him back and just told Will how much he loved him.

“Mike!” Will screamed. His hands cradled the back of Mike’s head, allowing him to lean on him. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see El breaking the bones in the Demogorgon’s body with angry yells. Blood spewed from the corpse of the monster. Nancy was on the ground, dirt and drops of blood painting her face like a canvas, her eyes full of tears as she stared at Mike. 

Mike couldn’t hold back the pained moans when Will touched his back. He could feel the blood flowing down, down, down, seemingly never ending. When did the human body have so much blood?

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Mike, it’s okay,” Will rambled, struggling to breathe properly. He kept moving back and forth between pushing down on Mike’s wounds and cradling his face to look at him. His own blood smeared across his face.

Mike should’ve felt accomplished in completing his task, in protecting Will. In a way, he did. But then why was Will sobbing? Was it because he was adding to the secret problem that Will harbored?

“You asshole, why would you do that? I could’ve stopped it, I could’ve…” Will’s voice broke. 

When Will cradled his face again, Mike found the strength to raise his hand and take one of Will’s into his own. Was he getting colder or was Will the human embodiment of a furnace? He squeezed Will’s hand with everything he had, which wasn’t a lot. He was so warm. Or was Mike getting colder?

“I did what I—” Mike wheezed, the deep cuts in his back making it hard to breathe without agonizing pain, “what I had to do. You were… danger.”

“I have powers now, Mike! You like to bring that up a lot! Don’t you remember? I can fight back, now!” Will exclaimed over the gunshots ringing out. 

Mike slumped into Will’s touch, too dizzy and tired to fight it anymore. His skin was slick with his own blood to the point where it was hard for Will to grip his face properly.

“No! No! Mike, stay with me, okay? We’re–we’re gonna get you help. We’re gonna s-save you.”

It seemed years passed by before he could peel his eyelids open again. He smiled, seeing Will’s skin untouched by the Demogorgon, and his eyes alight with relief. 

“—ay with me, Mike, we’re g-getting you help,” Will hiccupped. His thumbs stroked circles into Mike’s pulse point on either side of his jaw. It was a nice feeling. “Y-you know who’s coming? Hopper and El. They’re coming to help, okay, just keep your eyes open, don’t close them again.”

“So…” Mike slurred. Goosebumps littered his shaking body. “So… Will, s’cold…”

“I know, but we’re going home. Y-you’ve still gotta make up for being a shitty friend,” Will tried. 

“I think I already did…”

“N-no, no, because we have to do one last campaign. We need to write the ending to our story and we can’t do that without the storyteller.”

Mike’s tongue flopped uselessly, having lost the energy to continue speaking. His eyes slowly slid shut.

“Mike!”

“Will, we need to go!”

“Not without him! Mike, wake up!”

I’m so tired. 

He opened his eyes agonizingly slowly, blinking a blurry Will and Hopper into view. Hopper leaned into his space, face grim.

“Kid, this is going to hurt, okay? But you need to stay awake. Listen to Will.”

Hopper moved, and agony exploded from Mike’s back. He wailed as his body jostled around, his arms thrashing out to try and get it to stop. Fire burned under his skin, and he barely resisted the urge to scratch until bone showed through. It hurt so bad, it hurt. He squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted Will. Where did Will go?

“W-Will—” he called, panicked, opening his eyes to scan for the boy in question.

“I’m right here.” Will’s tearstained face came into view, his bloodstained hand enveloping one of Mike’s again. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m here.”

A red glow overtook his vision as he was gently lowered through the gate, though his eyes never strayed from Will. As soon as Mike was lying on the grass on the right side up, Will was by his side not a moment later, strings from the gate still in his hair and on his clothes. 

Mike cringed at the sudden onslaught of light before opening his eyes fully. The blue skies he’d missed so much, the clouds passing by at a snail’s pace, as if waving him a welcome back. And the sun. Oh, how he’d missed the warmth of the sun. Its rays cascaded along his skin, instantly fighting away the chill of the Upside down. His chest stuttered and he coughed, something warm and thick spewing from his lips. Looking up at Will, he found the boy’s chestnut hair glowing around him like a halo. Tiny red dots littered one side of his face.

Mike raised his hand and swiped the blood, doing nothing but smearing it across Will’s cheek. 

“Mom, help!” Will cried. “Jonathan! Nancy!”

“Will…” he breathed. The boy’s eyes snapped to him again, panic etched in his features. “I’m sorry for… being a coward. I…”

“Shut up, okay? Save your strength! We’re getting you to a hospital!”

Other figures crowded him, but his eyes stayed locked on Will. His best friend he loved more than anything, and he was too much of a coward to tell him, even in death.

The last of Mike’s strength and courage failed him. His hand fell from Will’s cheek, lifelessly landing against his stomach. At least the last thing he’d hear would be Will’s voice. 

Feeling the sun’s warmth one last time, and having successfully kept his promise, Mike’s eyes slipped shut.