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Apparently, they’re not going to talk about it. Which sucks for Mike because ever since they got to the Radio Shack and entered the safety of their tunnel system, he’s been itching with anticipation to talk about it. For anyone to acknowledge aloud what just happened.
The cause for the aforementioned topic of conversation, however, is currently passed out on the couch in their bunker, Joyce pacing back and forth in front of her son’s unconscious body, biting her nails, her hair mussed up from running her hands through it so many times. Mike tried to get past her to sit next to Will so he could be right there when he wakes up, but Joyce had given him a look that said don’t you dare come closer, not right now.
So, Mike is stuck here sitting awkwardly across from Will with an agitated Joyce Byers being the source of the only movement in the room. And he can’t stop thinking about what happened.
It’s Will.
Will.
Mike’s best friend, Will.
And he just snapped every bone in the body of a demogorgon without so much so as blinking. Will.
The scene has been replaying over and over in Mike’s head. Mike was knocked out cold and when he woke up, all the soldiers were dead, along with half their weapons destroyed. He’d looked over at Joyce, just to check on Will, only to see that she’d been knocked aside too. Will was nowhere nearby. He saw the demogorgon before he saw Will and he had felt a sudden chilling fear flow through his bones. Like after everything they’d been through, it would be a single demogorgon that brought on his death.
There was nowhere for him to run because the demo would simply be able to follow. He was stuck. All the kids they’d just saved were gone, and he knew. He knew they had lost.
But then, the demo froze in midair. This is it, Mike had thought. I’m dead, and this scene is going to replay in my head over and over for the rest of time. It was his plan that failed, and this was his karma for it.
He had looked over to the side, where Will was — because that’s usually where his gaze seems to trail off to these days — but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Will. The Sorcerer.
And suddenly, Mike’s mind was far, far away from the demogorgon hovering just feet away from him. It was like he was in a trance, unable to look away from Will; Will, who had his arms up, palms facing towards the sky, who was controlling the demo with his sheer willpower (pun not intended).
Mike smiled. Despite what he had been thinking just moments before, he had never felt more alive than he did in that moment.
His best friend, the Sorcerer.
He wouldn’t have noticed the demo’s bones cracking in half if it wasn’t for the grotesque sound it made, but he only looked over for a moment, before turning back towards Will. He could hear the demo’s body thumping to the ground but it was like Mike had tunnel vision, like the only thing that existed, that even mattered, right then and there was Will, Will, Will.
When Will collapsed to the floor, Mike was the first one by his side.
“Will! Will, hey, wake up,” he murmured, trying to prop up Will’s body. Joyce had hurried over and joined his effort. Together, the two of them were able to drag him, unconscious, to the Radio Shack where the tunnel they’d been trying to reach was located. Mike continued to talk Will through it, despite knowing that he couldn’t hear him.
“Will, we’re here now, you can lay down, get some rest,” Mike told him as he and Joyce laid Will down on the couch in their underground base, where all their tunnels connected up. Joyce had quickly pushed Mike aside to check on her son and Mike has been planted in the other seat since.
Now, he pushes himself out of the seat. He looks over, just for a second, to check on Will. He looks so… vulnerable like this. Mike can almost pretend that Will is just asleep, that they’re having a sleepover and Will dozed off in the middle of a movie. He can pretend that Will wasn’t knocked out from overexertion in the middle of the end of the world. He feels an urge to brush Will’s hair out of his face.
Mike looks away.
“I’m going to radio the others again, see when they’ll get back,” he announces, even though he knows Joyce is barely listening.
Mike heads over to the setup where Joyce normally sits to communicate with Hop. He wants to be away from Will for as little time as possible, but he allows himself a moment — just a moment — to breathe before he clicks on the microphone.
“Lucas, Robin, do you copy?” He pauses for a moment before trying again. “Lucas, Robin, do you copy? Over.”
It’s silent again for a moment before Mike hears crackling coming from the other end of the line. “Mike.” It’s Lucas. “Yeah, we copy. I just ran into Robin and Erica in the tunnels. We’re headed back to the Squawk. Mike- he has the kids. Over.”
Mike’s eyes drop down for a moment. They were so, so close to saving them all, but all it took was one faulty pipe for Mike’s entire plan to fall apart. He knows it’s not his fault. Realistically, they never could’ve anticipated that the pipe would burst, and there was nothing they could’ve done about it. But some evil part in the back of his brain still blames himself.
“Yeah,” he breathes. “Yeah, I know. Listen, we’re back at the base, can you guys make it over here? Will… he- it’s easier to explain in person, but he’s hurt. Ms. Byers is with him right now, but you guys need to get here. Fast. Over and out.”
“What, Mike, what happened?” Robin’s voice cuts in, but Mike breaks the signal. As much as he wants to talk about what happened — what Will did — Will being hurt is not something he wants to think about right now.
He quickly heads back down, not wanting to be away for much longer.
“Mom?” he hears from around the corner.
He moves forward into the room to see Will, still laying down, but very much awake. Joyce has stopped her pacing and is now kneeling on the floor next to Will, a hand caressing his face.
“Hi,” she’s smiling, but her eyes are shining. Mike hesitates to walk any closer. Joyce, however, gestures for him to make his way over.
He slowly treads towards them and kneels in the spot next to Joyce.
“Hey,” Will smiles at him and Mike just about melts. He’s okay.
“Hey,” Mike echoes back to him, sporting his own grin.
“Do you remember what happened, baby?” Joyce asks cautiously, looking down at Will with concern.
Will looks away, his smile dropping. He nods. “Yeah.”
“You saved us,” Mike tells him, because he wants Will to know that he’s proud. That there’s nothing to be afraid of. You saved me. “You’re amazing.” He says it in a whisper, almost as if it is a confession, even though Mike knows — he’s always known — that it’s simply just a fact.
Will furrows his eyebrows at that. “But… I wasn’t able to get to them in time. The kids, Derek, Debbie, everyone. They’re gone. I could’ve done something.”
And that just breaks Mike’s heart into a million little pieces because he had been blaming himself for the kids being taken away. He’d never thought that Will might be thinking the same things.
“It’s not your fault,” Mike says, and the words are directed both at Will and at himself. It takes some of the weight off his shoulders; not all of it, but enough that Mike already feels lighter. Like it’ll be okay. “You were in pain, there was nothing you could’ve done to stop it. There’s nothing anyone could’ve done. Don’t worry, we’ll get everyone back home to their parents. Dipshit Derek included. Yeah?”
Will nods but he doesn’t quite look like he believes it.
Mike doesn’t look away from Will until he hears sounds coming from the tunnel, familiar voices chattering away. Joyce has already gotten up from the floor, but Mike stays put.
It’s Robin who appears first, significantly more frazzled than she had been the last time he saw her, which. He can relate. Lucas and Erica follow suit, with Murray in tow behind them. Erica had been at the tower when everything went down, but neither he nor Joyce had thought to check if she was still there when they’d begun to head back here. Mike can’t help but feel a little bad, but he’s glad she found everyone and made it here okay.
“Will, hey buddy!” Robin exclaims, making a beeline towards him. “Glad to see you’re okay!”
“You too, Rockin’ Robin,” Will grins.
“Mike said you were hurt.” Mike doesn’t miss how Will’s eyes shift towards him, no longer smiling, before going back to Robin. “You wouldn’t believe what happened.” She begins pacing back and forth, much like Joyce had been doing earlier, except she’s got her arms up, gesturing as she speaks.
“So basically we were getting chased by these demos, right? So Murray is absolutely flooring the shit out of the accelerator so we can get away, and we think we’ve lost them, but they’re right behind us. And then, of course, we crash so we have to get out of the truck, and I get to the back to see that all the kids are gone.”
“Robin.”
“Anyway, that isn’t the point. I turn around and there’s a demogorgon, right there, like I kid you not, just a couple feet in front of me. And, I mean, I really thought I was a goner, like totally and royally screwed. But then it just… floats there? And dies on the spot? And Lucas said a similar thing happened to him in the tunnels too. So I’m thinking this is totally to do with the hive mind right-”
“Robin.”
“-and I’d recognize Vecna’s murder style anywhere. But why would Vecna want to kill part of his army? That just doesn’t make any sense. So I have a theory-”
“Robin!”
“What!?” Robin says, exasperated, looking at Will in confusion.
“It was me. The demogorgons. I killed them. Not Vecna.”
“What?” Robin repeats, plopping down into the empty seat across from them. Lucas and Erica are now looking much more attentive than they had been just a second ago.
“Wait, what do you mean you killed them, Will?” Lucas asks slowly.
“Yeah,” Erica says. “Last I checked, you were at the Big MAC. Lucas and Robin were nowhere near you.”
Mike can tell Will is hesitating, unsure about what to say in response. He catches Will’s focus and nods, once, to reassure him. It’s okay. I’ve got you.
“It was the hive mind,” says Mike. “We all know some part of Will is still tethered to it, even after we exorcised the Mind Flayer. But everything in the hive mind is connected, right? They see what the others are seeing, feel what the others are feeling. So what’s to say they can’t do what the others can do?”
Will nods in agreement, “I’ve never been able to control it before, and it always came when I least expected it. But this time, I was able to, somehow, tap into the hive mind. To use it to my advantage. I’m not sure how, exactly, but when I reached far enough, I could control it, instead of it controlling me.”
“But that still doesn’t explain how you were able to reach us from that far,” Robin wonders.
“Yeah,” Lucas adds. “I don’t think El has ever been able to control two things in different places at once, ever.”
“Three things,” Mike interjects. “He killed three demos, not two. There was one after us at the MAC too.”
All of them are silent for a moment. What are you supposed to say when something you never thought would happen — something you never even imagined — actually happens? Just because Mike had had a theory that Will could control the hive mind, doesn’t mean the fact that it’s real is any less surprising.
“We’re going to need a new plan,” Joyce finally speaks up. “He’s got all the kids he needs to do whatever it is he’s planning to do, so we need to act fast.” Will makes a move to get up but Joyce quickly stops him. “You’re staying here to get some rest. Mike, honey, can you keep him company?” Will tries to protest, but Joyce shakes her head. “I’m not hearing it. I’m not gonna let you take on that son of a bitch if you aren’t fully recharged, got it?” And that shuts him right up.
The others soon head off to formulate a plan. Mike itches to go with them, to be useful somehow, but the urge to make sure Will is okay and not alone prevails, so he lets them leave without protest.
“So…” he starts, attempting to break the silence.
“So,” Will repeats.
“Thank you for saving me-” “You were right-”
“What?”
“What?” Mike asks.
“You were right,” Will says again. “About the whole… sorcerer thing. You were right.”
Mike shrugs. “It was a lucky guess.” But his voice feels small as he speaks.
“A lucky guess that helped save all of our lives.”
“Are you kidding? I had nothing to do with any of that. That was all you, Will.”
“Sure, but-” Will starts. “I wouldn’t have even thought to try that if you hadn’t brought up the idea.”
“You need to give yourself more credit. You’re the one who tapped into the hive mind and stopped all those demos. Not me.” Mike can’t help but feel kind of annoyed. That even after Will did something so amazing, he still finds a way to self deprecate. “You’re amazing.” They’re the same words Mike had said earlier, but this time they feel heavy. Like a confession, something taboo that Mike was never supposed to let out, was always meant to stay locked in the back of his head, now that Will is fully conscious and fully paying attention to Mike’s words.
“Yeah, just cause I have superpowers now.” Mike knows it’s a joke, but the words still make him sick to his stomach.
Now that he’s started, he might as well keep going.
“You’ve always been amazing to me, Will. Sure, because you have superpowers now, but you’ve always been amazing, with or without them. You’re the bravest and the strongest person I know, and I need you to know that.”
Maybe if they were in normal circumstances, if it wasn’t currently the middle of the night, Mike’s parents in the hospital, and half of their friends lost in the Upside Down, Mike wouldn’t have taken Will’s hand. But they’re not under different circumstances. So something in Mike gives him the strength to do just that. To take Will’s hand.
“Okay,” Will whispers. His eyes aren’t on Mike, focused instead on their intertwined fingers. Mike doesn’t have the energy to feel self conscious about that anymore.
“Yeah?” Mike asks.
“Okay.”
Mike thinks they’re going to be okay. His parents will get better and they’ll find Holly. They’ll be able to defeat Vecna, with Will’s help of course, and Mike will be cheering him on the whole time, wondering how someone this perfect agreed to being his friend. And maybe, he’ll secretly wish it was more than that, and he’ll acknowledge the signals they’ve been discretely sending each other for the past eighteen months. Maybe he’ll even act on those signals.
Mike doesn’t know what’s going to happen in between, but he does know that they will be okay.