Chapter Text
Mike’s eyes were on Will.
Will.
His best friend who just made a demo snap right in front of his eyes. His best friend who he saw unlock his powers. To save him.
Mike had accepted death. This wasn’t the first time where something had seemed so utterly hopeless, yet he had been saved. But when he looked up, he wasn’t expecting to see Will, his hand outstretched. All he could think about in that moment was how incredibly… powerful he looked.
Now, with a dead demo in front of him, his eyes were purely on his friend, looking at him in awe as he watched him wipe the blood from his nose as his eyes returned to normal.
Holy shit.
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips before watching Will’s eyes roll into the back of his head and he fell to the ground.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
His smile fell immediately, and Mike went into action, the adrenaline coursing through his body. He quickly ran to where Will had fallen to the ground. He gently lifted Will slightly off the ground, holding him in his arms, his eyes searching for any visible injuries. He should’ve known this would happen, if Will’s surge of power was anything like Eleven’s.
“Will!” Mike’s head snapped up from looking at his friend before landing on Joyce, who was rushing over to the two of them. His eyes changed from defensive to a look of recognition. He had almost forgotten she was there too.
“Mrs. Byers! I think he’s okay…” He responded, his voice trailing off as Joyce reached them and knelt down to where they were, beginning to check him for signs of injuries. Mike hesitated before awkwardly handing Will off to Joyce as he continued to kneel next to them.
“We need to get out of here before those monsters come back.” Joyce said to Mike, her voice reasonably panicked. Mike knew he should be more worried about that, but all of his focus and worry was on the unconscious Will who lay slack in Joyce’s arms.
Before Mike was about to speak some sort of plan that he had begun to formulate, Will stirred. Without missing a beat, Mike’s attention was on him.
“Will! Will, are you okay?” Mike asked, trying to keep his voice level.
Will sat up slightly, wincing as he braced against his mother for support.
“Baby, are you okay?” Joyce asked her son, her eyes full of worry. Mike reached out and placed a hand on Will’s shoulder to try and ground him. Or at least, that’s what he was telling himself.
“Yeah…” Will said, his voice groggy. “My head hurts so bad.”
“You hit your head pretty hard when you fell.” Mike explained, which caused Will to look at him. Mike could see the flash of relief that crossed Will’s face.
“You’re okay?” Will asked. Mike couldn’t help but smile.
“Shit, Will. You just snapped a demo with your mind and you’re asking me if I’m okay? I’m only here because you saved me. You saved me.” Mike replied in awe, his voice soft.
“Sorcerer.” Will said, a smile pulling at his lips.
“Sorcerer.” Mike repeated firmly, unable to contain his smile.
Joyce looked at her son more so out of fear and shock. She probably had no idea he was even capable of something like this. Mike felt some sort of pride in knowing he had called this earlier.
“Where are the others? Are they okay? Robin and Lucas?” Will asked, turning his attention back to his mom, his tone one of urgency.
“I don’t… I don’t know, honey. Why? Did you see them too?” Joyce asked. Will nodded and he tried to stand.
Mike stood quickly and offered Will some sort of support, which he gladly took. Mike wrapped his good arm under Will’s armpit and rested his hand on Will’s other shoulder.
“I saw them when I saw Mike. There were demo’s after them too.” Will explained. Mike took a second to take that in before his eyes widened.
“You took out three of them?” He asked cautiously. Will turned his head to the right to look at Mike.
“Yeah. At least, I think so. It’s all kind of a blur.” Will admitted, wincing at what Mike assumed was the headache he still had.
“You must’ve. If you took out this one.” Mike said.
“What about the kids?” Will asked. Mike tensed. He knew Will wouldn’t want to hear this answer. Before they went to the MAC-Z, he knew Will already felt strongly about this mission. About saving the kids, and he knew that it had to do with his past with the Upside Down.
“He got them.” Mike said softly. “But we’ll get them back. Now that we have our sorcerer.” He squeezed Will’s shoulder for reassurance. Will looked defeated, but he nodded.
“We need to get out of here.” Joyce said again. Mike turned to look at her, again almost forgetting she was also there. The three of them trekked out of the main entrance to the MAC-Z since there really weren’t any soldiers able to stop them from doing so anymore.
Once they reached the front of the MAC-Z, a frantic Erica met them at the front.
“You guys look like hell.” She said upon seeing them. Mike huffed.
“Erica, have you heard from the others?” Joyce asked urgently.
Erica nodded and held her walkie out to Joyce.
“Baldie’s on the other end. He and Robin are fine, and Lucas checked in with me earlier. He’s injured, but he claims he’s fine.” Erica said, though Mike could tell she was worried.
Joyce nodded in relief and took the walkie from Erica before speaking into it to confirm Murray and Robin’s location. Murray’s truck was in no condition to drive, so they both agreed it’d be safest to take the Henderson tunnels back to the Squawk.
After a long practically silent walk to the Squawk with Mike constantly checking in with Will to make sure he was okay, the entire group rendezvoused.
Lucas was already there when the four of them arrived. As soon as they got inside, Erica ran to give Lucas a hug, which kind of surprised him, but Mike could tell he was appreciative. Joyce checked out the gash on Lucas’ chest and she and Erica took him into a room along with a first aid kit to patch him back up.
Robin and Murray arrived a little later having been the furthest away from a tunnel entrance. They looked worn out. Will rushed to greet Robin, causing Mike to clench his jaw as he stayed back, leaning his back against a counter and then resting his arms for more support. This caused him to wince. He’d almost forgotten how badly he’d hurt his arm back in the washroom, what with all of the excitement. He pulled away from the counter and tried not to get in Will and Robin’s way as they reconvened.
He was only away from her for a couple of hours. Mike huffed as he sat down on the couch. What could they possibly have to talk about for so long? All Will needed to say to catch her up was “Hey, I have powers now! I saved you!”
Mike sat there, zoning out as he stared at the wall in front of him before Lucas sat in front of him, completely startling him.
“What’s with you?” Lucas asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nothing. Nothing important. What about you? How are you doing?” Mike asked, pointing to his ripped sweater, where the white wrap of bandages could be seen through the tear.
“Never been better.” Lucas replied, flashing Mike a sarcastic and toothy smile. Mike rolled his eyes, but he smiled slightly.
Joyce entered the room where mostly everyone was now and stood in front of them.
“Alright. We need to work some sort of plan out, especially now that Vecna has all of the kids.” She said, her eyes darting between all of them.
Will sat down next to Lucas, now directly in front of Mike. Mike couldn’t help but notice the difference in Will’s demeanor. He seemed more… confident in himself? It was something Mike couldn’t help but admire. Erica sat on Mike’s left, and Murray and Robin sat elsewhere.
All eyes were on Joyce.
“Well, as we all know now, Will has… powers.” She looked as though she had tasted something bad when she said that. “And we think it has to do with his proximity to the hive mind.”
Robin and Will looked at each other when Joyce said that, which caused a pit to form in Mike’s stomach. Why did that bother him so much?
“And since we know that Will can now turn Vecna’s powers against him and use it against the hive mind, I think we need to use this to our advantage to get the kids back.” Joyce continued. Will turned and looked at her in surprise. Mike did too.
Quite literally the other day, Joyce had refused to let her son even participate in the Crawl. Now, if Mike was correct in where he thought this was going, she wanted to throw her son on the front lines. Mike tried to catch Will’s eye, but Will was still looking at his mom. He almost seemed… thankful?
Mike sat there confused. Yeah, Will had powers now. But he wasn’t some super soldier. He didn’t want everyone to start thinking they could just use Will to help them now.
“So what? We play little mind games with this Vecna? Mind games with the guy even Eleven couldn’t beat?” Murray asked, not seeming thoroughly convinced.
“I think these powers are different than Eleven’s.” Will offered. “I can only use them when I’m tapped into the hive mind. I was still the demo, but then I was able to control them… to essentially control myself. I can use Vecna’s power.”
“Right. Which is why, we get Will close to the hive mind. There he can tap into it, only this time he won’t go after a demo. He’ll go after Vecna. One blow, and then this whole nightmare is over.” Joyce said finally. “Those are my thoughts. Any ideas?” She looked at them all expectantly. “There are no bad ideas.”
They all sat there in a silence as they looked at each other.
“I mean, it’s a plan. It’s a great plan, even. A great plan. Right? It’s a good plan.” Robin rambled, sounding less and less convinced of herself as she turned to Murray.
“Yes, it’s a… great plan. It’s just…” Murray said, leaning back in his chair. He as well did not look convinced in the slightest.
“So, Will… you took out that demo with your mind?” Robin asked, in awe of Will. Mike clenched his jaw. Didn’t they have time to talk about that already? Back when they first got to the Squawk and couldn’t stop talking to each other?
“I mean…” Will started.
“Three. To be exact.” Mike interjected, locking eyes with Robin. He could see Will glance at him out of the corner of his eye.
“Simultaneously.” Lucas added.
“Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit.” Murray said, his tone consistent with the sarcasm he always seemed to protrude.
“A real-life wizard.” Robin replied softly, smiling at Will.
“A sorcerer, actually. His powers are-” Erica corrected, playing into the D&D lore they’d been using to describe everything paranormal in Hawkins.
“Innate, yes. Thank you.” Mike said, adding in his two cents once more. He wanted it to be clear he had already had this realization about Will. It wasn’t Erica, and it especially wasn’t Robin.
“Why does that matter?” Lucas asked exhaustively.
“It matters!” Mike and Erica responded together.
“Can we just… focus?” Joyce asked, her tone impatient. Mike glanced from Joyce back to Will, but he could tell something in the atmosphere had changed. Will didn’t look as confident as Mike had noticed he had looked earlier. Now he looked… guilty? Mike couldn’t tell, but he knew something had changed. He frowned.
As Joyce continued to ramble on about the plan (Mike had already gotten the gist of it and would probably try to work through something safer for Will as a backup), Mike tried to catch Will’s attention.
“Are you okay?” Mike mouthed when Will finally locked eyes with him. Will nodded, though it wasn’t convincing enough for Mike. He sighed softly. He’d ask Will about it after this.
“Basically, we’re going to need a demogorgon so that Will can tap back into the hive mind.” Joyce finished. Mike turned his attention back to Joyce.
“But Will killed all of them.” Erica pointed out. Joyce nodded.
“That’s true, but…” She started to say.
“We could zap one back to life.” Robin offered. The group turned to look at her. “Okay, hear me out. The Squawk’s got that big tower outside with the voltage that could kill an entire army, seriously. Why don’t we perform a little Frankenstein kind of experiment?” She explained. Murray sighed and covered his face with the palms of his hands.
“You people are seriously something else.” He muttered behind his hands.
Joyce rolled her eyes, but she expressed her agreement with Robin’s plan.
“We need to act quickly so that we save those kids as soon as we possibly can. Everyone, try and get some rest or clean up. Something, but we need to get moving. I’m giving everyone exactly one hour. Got it?” Joyce asked the group. They all muttered their agreements, nobody too excited about the prospect of bringing a demogorgon back to life so that their friend could possess it.
Mike watched as Will walked away from the group first and into one of the empty rooms of the Squawk. The Squawk itself was pretty big, bigger than Mike would have guessed. He followed Will and stood in the doorframe. Will was sitting on the couch. He knocked on the doorframe softly, but enough to get Will’s attention.
“Oh, hey.” Will said softly when he saw Mike.
“Hey.” Mike replied. He walked over to where Will was sitting. “Can I sit?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Will replied, making room for Mike. He sat in the empty spot on the couch.
A silence fell between them before Mike decided to be the one to break it.
“What you did today… it was incredible.” Mike said, his eyes on Will. Will didn’t meet his. Instead, he stared at the wall in front of him.
“It seemed that way. At… at first.” Will replied. Mike nodded along.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“It’s just… like, yeah, it’s great. I have these, these powers. And now we have a chance to save those kids… to save Holly.” Will finally met Mike’s gaze.
“But… now I just… I feel like I’m him. That I’m becoming him. That this… this is what he wanted. To make someone like him. It makes me feel even more connected to this thing that I’ve been running from my whole life. And… what if this isn’t where the similarities stop? He told me that I… that some minds don’t belong in this world and that…” Will rambled, his eyes tearing up as he had turned to look at the wall once more.
Mike got a strong sense of deja vu from when he was there with Will when he was possessed by the Mind Flayer. A small lump formed in his throat as something ached within him. Why did it always have to be Will?
“Hey… hey…” Mike said softly, trying to bring Will out of this mindset. He placed a hand softly on Will’s shoulder. “You don’t have a bad bone in your body. You’re the kindest person I know. So how could you possibly be anything like him?”
Will’s eyes met Mike’s. Mike hoped Will knew that he meant every word of what he said. He hoped Will knew just how thankful he was to have him back in his life after missing him for so long. Mike didn’t want to ever have to miss him again.
“Look, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Mike offered. “Nobody should force you to use this connection. Once Eleven’s back from the Upside Down, maybe she can do something similar to what you can do.”
Will looked at him quizzically, as if he was trying to piece together some sort of puzzle. Mike didn’t know what he said to get that kind of reaction, but it was better than Will being upset.
“No. It’s fine. Those kids need me, and I want to protect them.” Will replied firmly.
“Hey, I do too. But not at the expense of…”
Mike was interrupted by the sound of knocking. He turned to see Robin and he firmly set his jaw, taking in a sharp breath through his nose.
“Sorry, didn’t want to interrupt. Or anything.” She said awkwardly. “I just, uh, wanted you two to know that we got into contact with Hopper.”
Will and Mike both stood in sync from the couch.
“Really?” Will asked, relief flooding his voice.
“Yeah. They’re still in the upside down but they got close enough to a gate. Eleven is looking for Steve and Dustin and the others because I guess they told them where they were earlier? Anyway, they should all hopefully be back soon.” Robin responded excitedly.
Mike was grateful they would all be back together soon, and he was hoping this would potentially stall Joyce’s plan and they wouldn’t need to force Will to tap back into the hive mind.
“Anyway, Joyce also wanted me to come get you-” She said, pointing to Will. “So we could learn some more about those powers of yours.” She smiled and Will nodded, following Robin out of the room. Mike tensed again. So that was it. Was he the only one that cared about Will strengthening his connection to the Upside Down? He knew it was useful and important, but this plan had so many flaws. Will didn’t know his powers very well. He’d just tapped into them for the first time only a couple of hours ago, and now they were going to ask him to do it again? On a grander scale?
Mike could only see all of the problems in this plan and it worried him. He had this impending sense of doom that something could easily go terribly wrong.