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As all three Demogorgon's' bones snap and their bodies twist, Will stands triumphant. Mike looks over to him with elation, Joyce looks with fear and admiration. Will’s white eyes turn regular as he falls to his knees and wipes away the blood dripping from his nose. He almost collapses onto the ground but Mike Wheeler rushes towards him, catching him and holding him in his arms. Will’s body, unused to the large toll of taking down three Demogorgon's, was heavy, and his heart beating out of his chest.
“A Goddamn Sorcerer.” Mike says, and Joyce runs over to help. For a moment she struggles to reach out to him, her shock being overwhelming. What did this mean now? Will was going to be in ever more danger, would he ever get the chance to have a normal life now? Joyce was thinking a mile a minute, but all those thoughts cleared when she saw Will’s eyes. Warm, loving, and just like the day she first held him in her arms.
“You did it, you really did it!” Mike exclaims. Will smiled, for a moment, but Will knew now wasn't quite the time to celebrate.
“The kids. Vecna… he got the kids.” Will said, and Mike's expression soured.
“I know, Derek, Mary Glenn..” Mike replied.
“No, not just them.. The others, they never made it out of Hawkins. I could’ve… but I was too late.. He has all of them, all 12… we failed, I failed.” Will said with finality. Mike’s eyes seemed to get caught on the small remnants of blood on Will’s upper lip.
Joyce took one of Will's arms over her shoulder, and Mike took the other. Joyce groaned, her free hand going to her side, and Mike took it as the sign to take more of Will’s weight. The path ahead may have been long and arduous, but they would be damned if they didn’t take it together.
“Lucas?” Mike calls out, seeing his friend down on the ground of the tunnels.
“Shit.” Will calls out, and Lucas turns his head to face both of them walking closer to him. Joyce not far behind them.
“Hey guys,” Lucas says, welcoming the trio as they rush around him. Mike curses when he sees the large wound marring Lucas’s chest. “It’s just a scratch.” Lucas says, attempting to stop the panic, though he continues to groan quietly.
“God, Mike, first aid.” Joyce says, and Mike continues cursing while looking for first aid supplies. He grabs gauze and bandages as Joyce talks to Lucas. “Can you lift it? Show us?” Joyce asks, Lucas readily agrees and does as he’s told. MIke, Will, and Joyce all wince and are taken by surprise.
“That’s- That’s not too bad,” Will says, trying to sheepishly redirect from his reaction. Joyce attempts to stop the bleeding as Lucas continues groaning in pain. Lucas attempts to smile and Will’s words.
“Yea, it looks like just the right amount for a couple of badass scars.” Mike reassures. For a moment it’s quiet, there’s not much positive to say and Joyce needs to focus on making sure Lucas doesn’t bleed to death.
“I’m sorry,” Lucas takes a deep breath, “That I couldn’t protect the kids.” His eyes can’t focus on any one thing, the tunnels aren’t decorated the best and he doesn’t want to see the looks from his friends.
“You did everything you could. You… you fought. You risked your life. Nice swing, by the way.” Will says, with a slight smile. Pure amazement present in his voice.
“You saw?” Lucas asks, lifting his head up to better meet Will’s eyes.
“He more than just saw.” Mike cut in, bragging. Lucas turns his gaze from Will and meets Mike’s eyes. The proud smirk on Mike’s face just barely fills Lucas in on what Mike means.
“So, demos floating, limbs snapping, dying… That was all you?” Lucas asks, still trying to understand. He walks a little slower than normal, breathes a little heavier.
“I mean… yeah.” Will replies, looking a little sheepish. A minor uptick of his lips is all Mike notices.
“Holy shit, holy shit!” Lucas exclaimed, his smile turning up more and more. “You know what this means, right? You’re like Will the Wise, but for real!” Lucas looks at Will, and he can only see a smaller Will dressed up in a wizard’s cloak.
“Not really.” Will attempts to start, his right hand lifting, his left hand staying still like a bag of bricks. It doesn’t matter, Mike cuts him off quickly in his excitement.
“He’s more like a sorcerer, than a wizard.” Mike says. Lucas side eyes him.
“Okay, yeah. I mean, sure.” Lucas continues to look at Mike with a furrow in his brow. “But you get what I’m saying, though, right? Like, this totally changes the game. We got our second El.” Lucas finishes, with a lightness in his voice no one has heard since Max….
“I don’t have powers, I’m not like El. I’m just, siphoning, stealing, Vecna’s.” Will explains. “And to do that, I have to be near the hivemind and Vecna’s not coming back.”
“But his demos might.”
“I don’t think so, they came for the kids, he’s got them all, I mean he has his vessels.” Will states, his eyes turning towards the ground. The Demogorgons views of those poor scared kids flashing through his mind.
At that, Mike and Lucas share a quick look, before turning back to Will.
“Vessels?” Lucas asks, his eyes darting between Mike in a shared question and Will.
Will's eyebrows pinch together, his lips turn down and he refuses to look at his friends. In this lighting, at this angle, neither of the boys can see Will’s irises fully.
“That’s what he called them. He said, ‘vessels for reshaping the world’” Will finished. His gaze turns downward once more. Like just looking at his friend weakens his… resolve.
“I just hope your theory’s wrong.” Mike says, looking towards Lucas. Joyce’s head snaps up, looking at Lucas.
“What theory?” Joyce asks, tone shaky.
“November 6th, The day all this started, is the day it ends.” Lucas explains. His own words hurt his heart, especially as he looks at Will. Lucas turns away and Mike rushes to comfort him. Will stares at the ground, his face scrunches and he leans on his mom more, though careful not to hurt her.
Will's eyes dilate, twice. His left hand feels heavy, like an anchor. His right hand clings desperately to his mom.
The group starts to exit out of the tunnels. Mike helps Lucas up, giving words of reassurance as Joyce keeps Will behind.
“I wonder if there’s a way we can jack back into the hive mind and access his powers again.” Joyce holds onto Will, and Will's right hand finds its way back to Joyce. Holding onto her as a scared child holds onto their mom’s hand when going to new places, or in a crowded room.
His left hand lays limp once more, no real intent behind any of its movement, yet. “That’s not possible, not unless–” Will starts.
“The hive is close, I know. But Will… tonight, what you did tonight, none of us thought that was possible either. I’m just saying, what if… what if this time, you don’t use your powers against his army, but against him, against Vecna. You didn't fail tonight, what you did was extraordinary, you are extraordinary.” Joyce says, looking into the eyes of her son. A son she has grieved, a son she has seen do the impossible, be the impossible. A son she has seen go through horror and still wake up the next morning with a smile and the kindest eyes, with a heart and love that was so beautiful and good, even if some people would never accept him for it.
“Vecna chose you, because he underestimated you. I think we all have, I have, but Will, I will never make that mistake again, but I know he does, and when he makes that mistake, it will be the last mistake that son of a bitch ever makes.” Joyce finishes. She reaches out to hold Will’s face, her thumb rubbing close to Will’s left eye. Wiping away the tears that fall from it.
It was unknown to Joyce just how soon Vecna would underestimate Will. As Will lays unconscious after helping Max and Holly, he is haunted by Vecna. Will feels surrounded, suffocated, by the vines, and as he sees Vecna’s left hand move in closer to his face, his breathing quickens. From quick breaths to gasping and screaming, he feels blood drip down his face.
Will feels tortured, he feels Jane trying to help him find him, but it feels like it’s for naught.
Will can tell Vecna is searching through his mind, through his eyes, for Max’s location, and though Jane might try to help, it's too little too late. Vecna is so close to Max he’s practically breathing on her. Try as he might, Will has no where near enough power to fight back, even as he hears Jane trying desperately to wake him up, he can feel the vines encircle him more than he feels his mom’s hand on his, he can feel the vine wrapped around his mouth, pouring eggs into his stomach more than he can hear her voice. He can see the layout of the hospital more than he can see the light banging against his eyelids.
He wants it to stop, he wants to go home, he wants to go back to days sitting with Jane and Jonathon in Lenora, listening to music and eating half cold and soggy with syrup waffles. He wants to go back to playing DnD, beg Mrs. Wheeler for 20 more minutes. He wants to feel Mike’s lips on his own, and Lucas’s strong hugs. He wants to laugh at the silly arguments Dustin and Mike would get into, he wants to be there, at Max and Lucas’s potential and far off wedding. He wants to be.
Joyce screams when Will shoots up halfway out of the bed, and the door separating the living room and the small bedroom Will is laying is thrust open, and Mike almost rushes forward to hug Will. Hopper is the one who opened the door, and he almost exclaims with joy before he recognises what’s happening. Will, barely able to see what’s around him as half his vision is still that stupid hospital, still that crowded room in the upside down, grabs the nearest sharp looking object with his right hand. Mike runs out to try to stop him, attempts to wrestle with Will to stop it from happening, but it’s too late.
Will’s left hand even tries to stop it from happening, covering his left eye. Will’s right hand shakes off Mike and continues its journey, taking the sharp object puncturing it into his left hand and his eye. Blood immediately starts falling, from his hand, his eye, his nose. Jane rushes out of the bath, Kali helps her. Blood mixes with salty water on Will’s clothes and the bed, Mike’s tears feel salty against Will’s skin.
Will can finally breathe, and he barely speaks enough words before passing out to let the team know of the situation.
“The demodogs, they’re in the hospital, looking for Max, they don’t know where she is but they’re close.” Will says, and the world goes dark.
It’s later, and he wakes only slightly to the feeling of a hand holding his. He knows who it is simply by feeling the writer's bump on Mike’s finger. He slightly holds Mike’s back, before grimacing at the shout that leaves Mike’s mouth. It isn’t long before more people enter the room.
He feels a little sorry for missing the action, Dustin, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, are back, even Max and Vickie are there. He’s been moved back to the radio station, and he can tell they were in the midst of planning.
Will feels the bandages wrapping around his left eye and hand. A matching circle in both of the wounds. Tears well up, but they don’t quite leave his eyes.
“Welcome back to the land of the living.” Dustin teases. It’s a little late, by the time Dustin said it some people filtered out of the room after making sure Will was still alive, and Will was filled in on what happened while he was out.
The only people left in the room were family and close friends, Mike holding his right hand, still. Lucas, Dustin, and Max, were on his left. His mom and Jonathon at the foot of whatever he was laying on, Hopper and Jane a little away from them. Through the gap in the door, Will noticed Robin loitering around the entrance of the side room, and she slightly jumped when she noticed Will’s one eye staring at her. Will raised an eyebrow and she shuffled in, Mike looked between Will and Robin, his face a grimace.
There were words exchanged, relief he was still here, and Will cried as he hugged Max. It was a short moment, it felt like it went on forever. Mike’s hand never left his, not until Will slightly tugged it away and tried to sit up more.
“I think I owe you all an explanation.” Will said finally, after minutes of seeing his friends cut sentences short and smiles not quite reaching their eyes.
“When I was under, Vecna tried to make me his spy once more.” The party grimaced, and Joyce’s hand found Hoppers, Hopper squeezed her hand lightly. Will’s eye slowly found its way towards Max, and though he smiled, his heart still hurt seeing the pale look of her eyes or the way she laid in that wheelchair.
“He tried to find Max, through me. I tried what I could to stop him, but it wasn’t working. I could feel El trying to help me break out but… it wasn’t quick enough to stop Vecna from finding Max.” Jane grimaced, and Lucas found his way to be closer to Max, though the moment had passed left over fear of being trapped in the hospital with seemingly no way out haunted the team.
“I was scared, almost too scared to even attempt to break free.” Will’s eye crinkled with the memory, and wetness started to leak from his eye. “He showed me things, horrible scary things, but they weren’t coming from his plan, or from the past, they were coming from me. He was showing me all the things I’ve been too scared to face or risk coming true.” Will's voice started shivering, and despite the pain, both of Will's hands formed fists.
“But, I just kept trying to remember the good times, hanging out with all of you, biking around town, or petty arguments that filled the time and space between us, I thought of you all. I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want any of you to die. In a last ditch effort I forced myself to wake up, and as quickly as I could I tried to sever the connection, at least momentarily.” Will said. His eye cast downward, unable to look any of his family or friends in the eye as he talks about what he did.
“I didn’t know if it would work, if the pain would be enough to ground me and kick Vecna out, but it did.” Will paused for a moment, and as he turned to look at Robin he saw such a supportive look on her face, as if she was telling him this was the time, the moment.
“During all of this I realized something, no it might be better to say I gained the courage to fully realize something, I gained the courage to be able to say it. I’m-” Through the tears dripping down his face, Will’s voice cracked, but he kept speaking, unwilling to let this moment pass him by. “I’m like you all, I like all the crappy and good movies we watched, I liked biking through town and sitting in that basement playing DnD, I liked the cheap convenience store snacks and fizzy drinks, it’s just…” Will pauses here, for a moment to catch his breath, winded from how fast and long he had been speaking. For a moment he glances at his brother, and plastered all over Jonathon’s face is the proudest look Will has ever seen.
“I like boys, I’m gay.” Will says with finality. Tears dripping from his eyes as he smiles with a joy none of have seen in a long while. Mike stares in astonishment, and he waits to see the reactions of others before saying anything. Before Will can start talking again, of his fear of losing the people around him, he feels Lucas hug him.
“Thank you, for telling us, for trusting us.” Lucas says, and Will cries harder.
“I was so scared of losing all of you over-” Will starts, but he’s quickly shut up by Mike rushing in to hug him.
“You won’t lose me, not here, not ever.” Mike says, gripping onto Will like a lifeline.
“Or me.” Dustin says, joining the hug. They stay together for a moment, before breaking apart.
“Sorry this sucks but you might have to hug me.” Max says, laughing a little. Will laughs between sobs before rushing to hug her as well. It’s after they break apart that Jonathon rushes in to get his hug.
“I’m so proud of you Will, and we will always be brothers.” Jonathan says. Jane and Joyce follow not long after, and Robin cries while hugging Will.
It’s a tearful moment, full of smiles and hugs. It’s perfect, is what Will decides.
As people filter out, to go continue planning and prepping for the battle ahead of them. Mike notably stays behind. When Jane leaves, she eyes Mike a little, winking at him before grabbing Robin and leaving the duo alone.
Will tests his left hand’s grip a little, grimacing through the pain, before he eventually looks at Mike, who is still sitting to his right. Mike is staring at the ground, seemingly deep in thought. The room around them seems like a makeshift hospital room, and he wonders just how many bandages he cost the group, how much gauze. Will’s vision is worse off, and his left hand is weak, he wonders how much will heal and how much will be a lost cause.
Will takes a deep breath before turning to Mike. Mike’s eyes shift from the ground to Will’s eyes. They sit in silence for a while, Will still enjoying the feeling of being out, of being more free than ever before. Mike can’t tear his eyes away from the bandages wrapped around Will. He worries if there will be more by the end of this, Mike can’t take much more of this worrying, of this premature grieving.
“Mike, there’s one more thing I should say.” Will starts, turning his body to face Mike. Mike’s attention snaps onto Will’s face with no intention of leaving. “Mike, I love you, I’m in love with yo-” Will attempts to keep talking, but he is quickly shut up by the boy of his dreams kissing him. It’s slow, it’s fast, it’s the best thing to ever happen to Will.
In the future, in mere hours, the end of the world might occur. Even meters away from the duo there are people planning and dimensions away there is a man who is angry and there are children in peril. There is a chance that this cycle of violence might continue forever, there is a chance it might end. There is a chance that neither of these two will wake up after this war.
But right now, they are alive in this little room of heaven. They may be hurt, they may be tired, they may be crazy, but they are together, and that’s all that ever mattered.