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It’s a week after the California crew (and Joyce and Hopper) arrive in Hawkins when Dustin brings it up.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” he starts, and there are groans around the room.
“Please, grace us with your thoughts,” Will drawls, making Mike choke back a laugh.
“There’s a question I think all of us have asked several times, rhetorically, and angrily, and every other ly except for seriously.”
“And what’s that sweetheart?” Joyce asks kindly. Dustin beams at being taken seriously.
“Why does Vecna want Will?”
It’s a question uttered that immediately makes Will wish he hadn’t egged Dustin on. A little chill runs through his body and he shivers, making Mike glance at him.
“Think about it. It could have been any one of us that got taken in 1983, a fluke. But then Vecna came back for Will. And he came back for Will again when he got to Hawkins. Why would he want Will so bad unless Will had something he wanted? Something that makes him a threat to Vecna?”
“Like what?” Hopper asks. Dustin raises a brow at Will.
“Powers.”
It’s silent for a moment before there is chaos in the room.
“Listen!” Dustin breaks in. “When Nancy went to the Upside Down, she said that things were frozen that night in 1983. When Will was there, he manipulated the lights to communicate. I think Will shaped the Upside Down and Vecna knows it. I think Will’s powers mirror Vecna’s, and that he acts as a sort of heir.”
“I think I would have noticed by now if I had powers,” Will says, leaning back against the wall of Hopper’s living room and crossing his arms.
“Have you ever tried?” Dustin presses. Will scoffs.
“Why would I try?”
“Humor me.”
They stare each other down for a long moment, where everyone’s eyes ping pong between the two. Finally Will rolls his eyes and straightens up, facing his shotgun that is set up on the couch across the room from him. He holds a hand out.
“Fine, I’ll humor you, but only because I think you’re so wro-.”
The room falls silent. The gun zips to Will’s outstretched hand. Will turns white.
“El, you didn’t-?”
Dustin doesn’t get to finish his sentence before a drop of blood begins to run from Will’s nose. He raises a slightly shaky hand to wipe it before looking down at his hand, seemingly in a daze.
“Will-.” Mike starts, going to step in front of him before El beats him there. She takes Will’s bloodied hand in between both of hers, ducking her head until they meet eyes.
“Wonder twins?” she asks softly, referencing the silly nickname Argyle gave them when they moved to California. It takes a moment before the ice in Will’s eyes melts and he gives her a small, warm smile.
“Wonder twins,” he acquiesces. He squeezes her hands gently.
~
They prepare.
Both Will and El said that they didn’t kill Vecna, despite their best efforts. They said that he is present, but weak, biding his time until he can grow his strength and attack Hawkins effectively.
El said that she believed that Dustin was right, that Will must be so powerful that he could end Vecna. Said that him being able to levitate a huge shotgun for his first time shows that he’s probably stronger than she is. She doesn’t say that she’s relieved that the full burden isn’t on her anymore, even if it makes her feel guilty that Will has to be involved again.
Mike took the news that Will had powers hard.
He recognized it for what it was. That Will was a pivotal part of the plan again, that he couldn’t protect him, that he had to let Will go into the Upside Down again.
He started stressing Will out and quickly shifted gears, teasing lightly about how he really was Will the Wise now, with the powers of a wizard. That he was the party’s cleric. That he was cool.
Will of course had to take several moments to come to terms with the fact that he had powers. He locked himself in El’s old room, only letting El in after he’d cried to himself silently. He didn’t want the responsibility of defeating Vecna, but he would rather it be him than anyone else. If anyone were to go down, he hoped it was him, and that he would take Vecna out with him.
He and El trained, sometimes with Dustin and Mike spectating, sometimes alone. Will improved by leaps and bounds. Neither of them said that he wasn’t improving fast enough.
Will, Jonathan, and Argyle were staying at the Wheelers, who were in a different state with Holly, while Hopper and Joyce fixed up the cabin. It was decided that Lucas and Erica would stay with Max, in the event that they succeeded or failed during the final battle, someone would be with her. The arrangement worked well, except for the night things began again.
Will sat up straight in Mike’s bed, gasping out loud and grasping the back of his neck. The initial movement was enough to wake Mike, but if it wasn’t, the strangled Mike that came from Will surely would’ve.
“What? What? Will, what is it?” Mike asked, hurriedly kicking himself out of his sleeping bag and scrambling to Will’s side.
“It’s happening,” Will ground out, kicking the blankets off and disappearing down to the basement faster than Mike could process. Within moments, there was movement from the basement and Will was back in the room.
“We have to go. Now.”
“Oh fuck, now?”
“Now, Mike!”
And it was a testament to how serious the situation was, since Will raised his voice at Mike and shoved the pre-packed bag at him before hauling ass to the front door to put shoes on. He heard thundering footsteps come up from the basement, indicating that Nancy, Jonathan, and Argyle had gotten the memo to hurry the fuck up , and Mike snapped into motion.
He dove under his bed for his walkie, hurriedly turning it on and sending out the distress signal.
“I know,” El’s voice crackled back. “We are ready. Over.”
“We’ll be at the cabin in ten,” Mike spat out. “Over and out.”
He threw the walkie into his bag before booking it, grabbing his and Will’s jackets and running to the front door. Once he’d thrown himself in Argyle’s van, he was panting, clearly not made for athletic purposes. Instead of making fun of him like he would normally, Will just shot him a glance filled with concern.
“I’ll be fine,” Mike muttered, handing him the jacket as Argyle hooked a left and threw them all to the side. They heard the tires squeal and Argyle didn’t even crack a joke about it.
When they were about two minutes away, Mike’s walkie crackled to life.
“Where are you guys? Robin and Steve just got here!” Dustin’s voice said.
Will took the walkie from Mike’s bag, leaning into Mike’s side when Argyle made another tight turn.
“We’ll be there in like a minute, over.”
“We’re ready to head into the gate as soon as you get here, over!”
Will took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the seat, fingers flexing. Mike watched as they trembled slightly.
“Hey,” he said softly, in the voice reserved for the boy beside him. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I’m not strong enough,” Will said, just as soft. Both boys could feel the other three passengers tuning into their conversation.
“Hey,” Mike answered, impossibly softer than before and ignoring their audience. He leaned into Will’s space, grabbing onto one of Will’s hands. “You’re the strongest person I know.”
Will took a shaky breath as Argyle threw the van into park and they clambered out and toward the front of the cabin where everyone else waited.
It was time.
~
Really, they should’ve known that Vecna knew they were coming.
They entered the gate and were immediately separated into small groups, demo-demons swarming to keep them apart instead of in the united front they planned on. Even more than that, they kept Will and El separated.
Dustin, Robin, and Steve were taking on a demo-dog or three, Joyce and Hopper a demogorgan, Will, Argyle, and Mike a swarm of demobats. El, Jonathan, and Nancy were busy chopping and shooting and exploding vines that were doing their damnedest to try and entrap someone fighting a demo-being.
Will’s group finished with the swarm of bats and he jumped in to help El, Jonathan, and Nancy keep the vines at bay, Mike swinging wildly with his crowbar and Argyle swinging his bat. There was a rumble, and a change in the air, and everyone’s hairs stood on end.
“Will Byers,” Vecna rumbled, descending with his vines. “Come to join me?”
“Absolutely not,” Will bit out, raising his gun to take a shot at Vecna as El raised her hand. Vecna redirected the shot to turn around and hit Will in the shoulder, who cried out at the impact. Before anyone could react, a vine wrapped around his waist and flung him somewhere to the right.
“Then you’ll have to die, right along with everyone else.”
“ Will!” Mike screamed. He abandoned his post swinging at a demodog and scrambled after Will, dropping to his hands and knees over top of him.
“Will,” he said desperately, hands reaching up to touch his face. He heard the sound of El crying out as she was thrown behind him, but he didn’t take his eyes off of Will.
“Come on Will, wake up,” he said, patting Will’s cheek. Will frowned, eyes closed, head turning away from the slaps.
“Mike,” he rasped, blinking his eyes open before shutting them again.
Mike heard the rumble behind him indicating Vecna’s approach and ignored every protective instinct in himself to turn his back on Will, facing Vecna head on. He spread his arms out, creating what he knew was an incredibly weak barrier between Vecna and Will.
“I won’t let you touch him,” he swore, voice breaking. Vecna merely tilted his head.
“You’re not worth the effort to kill, Micheal Wheeler,” he said. “I’ll let a demogorgon do it for me.”
There was a chittering and Mike’s heart dropped as a demogorgon came ambling behind Vecna, who made way for it. Mike picked up his crowbar, holding it in a batting position. He wasn’t good for much, but he meant it when he said he wasn’t going to let anything touch Will.
“Come on, motherfucker,” he hissed. The demogorgon lunged forward but was immediately propelled backward before exploding. Mike choked, wheeling around to see Will propped up on his knees, looking seconds from falling forward with his left hand over the gunshot wound on his right shoulder, right hand outstretched in front of him. Once the demogorgon was no longer a threat, Will fell forward and caught himself on his right hand with a noise of pain.
“Will!” Mike gasped. Before he could stumble forward to grab him, Will pushed himself to his feet and staggered forward.
“Get behind me,” he said lowly, and it was a tone that Mike had never heard from Will before. It was angry, resigned, full of vengeance. Mike looked over the landscape and watched as his family and friends fought for their lives.
“Mike!” Will barked. “Get behind me.”
Mike scrambled to do as he was told and Will staggered forward.
“I’m so, fucking sick of this,” Mike heard Will growl in between heavy breaths. Will raised both of his hands in front of him, one covered in his own blood, the other white from how hard he was clenching. He screamed, so full of anger and grief and volume that his voice went raspy. In response to the scream, the demo-beings turned from attacking their friends and family to facing Vecna.
“Impossible,” Vecna said.
“I’m the heir to the Upside Down,” Will ground out. “And it’s time for you to get out of my way.”
Vecna tried to command the vines to lift him up and away, and it worked for a split second before Will took control of those too. Vecna was brought down to ground level, where the snarling beasts he once commanded turned on him.
Everyone’s eyes were wide as they watched Vecna cry out and get torn into by the demo-beasts, seemingly frozen by the sight. The beings backed off after a moment, bats still swirling above them but not attacking, demo-dogs waiting for a command from Will.
Will was not his father’s son. He was not filled with malice, and anger, and bigotry. He did not raise his hand at anyone or crave to have anyone cower in fear of him. He did not pick on those weaker, or smaller than him. He was his mother’s son, filled with compassion and creativity. He was the son Jonathan raised him to be, responsible and kind.
But sometimes, Will was not the son that his mother and brother raised him to be.
Will held his hand out to the right where his gun had been thrown with him, levitating it to himself so easily it was like he was born to do so. He approached the dying Vecna briskly, ignoring the shouts filled with fear of his name, shotgun raised and firing bullet after bullet into his body. Once he was upon him, he put a bullet in his head, finally ending it all.
But that wasn’t enough.
The indirect violence wasn’t enough for Will, and he turned his shotgun around to bring the butt of the gun down onto Vecna’s head repeatedly, as hard as he could. He barely registered the “ fuck you, fuck you!” that escaped his lips with every hit, losing track of how many times he hit the body. He wasn’t aware of the ragged sobs leaving his mouth, either.
Thick arms wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his body and restricting him from hitting Vecna again. Those same arms picked him up an inch off the ground and pulled him back before his heels hit the ground and he was dragged.
“It’s okay,” Hopper was saying in his ear, grunting with the effort it took to pull the grieving boy off the interdimensional monster that was responsible for his grievances. “It’s over. You did it, Will. You got him, he’s dead. It’s okay.”
As Hopper dragged him back and away from Vecna’s corpse, Will’s left hand curled into a claw, trembling with the force.
“ Die,” he spit out. Everyone jumped, raising their weapons as a chorus of agonized shrieks and wails from every demo-demon started up before they imploded on themselves, one by one. When the Upside Down finally fell silent, once and for all, Will passed out.
Hopper grunted at the dead weight, staggering to a stop. Jonathan and Mike ran to him, grabbing onto Will and asking frantically what was wrong. Hopper placed his fingers on Will’s pulse, sighing after a moment.
“He’s fine,” Hopper said. “Probably passed out from exhaustion, maybe blood loss. He just did a lot, after all.”
“Let me take him,” Jonathan said, and it wasn’t a request.
“He’s not the little boy he was, kid, he’s heavy and it would be better if I-” Hopper started before Jonathan interrupted, watering eyes hardening and meeting him.
“He’s my baby brother, Hop.”
Hopper sighed once more, knowing that both Byers boys were just as stubborn as their mom, and acquiesced. He and Mike helped Jonathan pick the boy up, head tucked into Jonathan’s neck and arms thrown around his shoulders, legs hanging around his hips. Jonathan’s hands held Will around his back and under his thighs in a sad recreation of every time he’d carried a sleeping Will home from the Wheeler’s house. Everyone around them, Joyce and Dustin and El and Nancy and Robin and Steve, teared up as they watched Jonathan stagger forward before finding his footing and beginning the long walk toward the nearest gate.
~
Will woke slowly.
He became aware of the scratchy blankets over him, the hard pillow beneath his hand, and the hands holding his in that order.
He opened his eyes and immediately shut them at the brightness, turning his head to the side and groaning softly. The hands in his tightened at almost the same time.
“Will?” two voices, male and female, said at once. Will opened his eyes again and came face to face with his mom and Mike, who were leaning over him. He blinked his eyes slowly and looked past them, seeing Jonathan, Lucas, and Dustin gathered by his legs and leaning over to look at him too.
“‘S too bright,” he mumbled, closing his eyes again. There was relieved laughter.
“Oh, my baby,” Joyce said, voice watery. She stood to let go of his hand and grab his face in her hands, kissing his forehead and cheeks borderline aggressively.
“ Mom,” Will groaned, voice breaking and beginning to cough from disuse. He felt lips pressed to the back of his other hand before it was let go and water was put in front of him.
“Drink,” Mike said softly. Will took a sip before guzzling it down, not realizing how thirsty he was. He gasped when he finished the cup and Mike put it down for him.
“Where’s El?” he rasped. Dustin beamed.
“Closing the gates. Not that it’s really needed, seeing that you killed every demo-beast in existence with your mind.”
“Will the Wise saves the day,” Lucas added, smiling brightly with so much relief in his body language.
Will’s eyes widened and he tried to sit up, immediately being hushed and pushed back down gently by his mom, Mike, and Jonathan.
“Max,” he said, voice urgent and fearful.
“Is okay,” Jonathan soothed.
“She woke up,” Lucas said, voice cheerful but eyes beginning to water. “First thing she did was complain that things were blurry and that she was hungry. They think she’ll need glasses, but that’s better than her being blind. Or asleep.”
The tension that built up in Will in seconds faded just as quickly in relief, and he sighed as he closed his eyes again.
“Tired,” he mumbled.
“Rest,” Mike whispered. There was another kiss pressed to his hand that he barely registered. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Will was warm as he faded.
~
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he woke again, though he figured it was night judging by the lack of light outside. He turned his head to the left and saw El curled up in a chair beside him, cradling his hand between hers as she slept. There was a bandage on her cheek, and a bruise on her temple, but she looked otherwise unharmed, which relieved Will greatly. He smiled to himself, squeezing his hand in hers.
“Will?”
He turned his head to the right and saw that Mike held his other hand captive carefully, keeping his gunshot wound in mind, sitting in the chair next to his bed and looking like he hadn’t slept in days. He smiled softly when he saw that Will was awake, squeezing his hand.
“Hey,” he whispered.
“Hi,” Will whispered back. “How long have I been asleep?”
“You woke up this morning,” Mike answered. “But before that you were asleep for three days.”
That floored Will. “Three days?” he asked.
“Mm,” Mike affirmed, squeezing Will’s hand again. “Really scared me, but the doctors said you were fine. El thinks the big display you made was more strenuous than anything you’d been through before.”
Flashbacks of commanding every beast in the Upside Down flashed through his mind and he winced, nodding his head.
“Yeah, probably.”
It was silent for a long moment before Mike let out a long, shaky breath and leaned in until his forehead was resting on Will’s sternum.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
His voice was watery. Will felt warmth bloom in his chest and he hummed, squeezing Mike’s hands.
“I’m glad you’re okay too.”
“I don’t care how cool it was, never do something like that to me again.”
Will wanted to laugh, but he shivered instead. He agreed with Mike; he never wanted to do something like that again.
Mike mumbled something into Will’s side and Will frowned.
“What?”
Mike lifted his head, face flushed pink. “I said you’re important to me.”
That was certainly double the amount of syllables than the initial statement, but Will was too tired to push.
“You’re important to me too,” he whispered, ignoring how true yet untrue the statement was. Sure, Mike was important to him, but probably not in the same way that Will was important to Mike. Will was learning to accept that.
With his last bit of energy, Will freed his hand, wincing from the pull of skin of his wound as he lifted his hand to rest on Mike’s curly hair.
“Rest,” he said, closing his own eyes and ignoring the warmth on his face. He ran his fingers through dark hair, feeling the way Mike went dead weight against his sternum.
He missed the longing gaze of adoration as they both fell asleep.