Chapter Text
Will and Zero squared off for half a minute after Will’s bold declaration. Zero can’t believe he’s being challenged this way...by Will of all people.
“Are you serious?! You against me? You don’t have what it takes Will and you know that I do!”
“What it takes? Being willing to kill you mean?” Will snorted. “That isn’t strength Zero.”
“Says you!” Zero sneered. “I avenged Eddie didn’t I?”
El, meanwhile, stays on the sidelines as the two face off. She remembered what was said in the plan and knew that, whatever she did, she had to make it count.
All the while Jonathan, Steve and Hopper were hammering at the ice barrier with fire axes and whatever else they could get hold of, not that it was doing much good, the ice was too thick to be taken out easily.
Zero had regained his confidence too and was starting to hurl out ice bolts...while Will was shooting them down with flame ones!
“Fire against ice...fire always wins. Simple physics remember!” Will taunted.
Zero just sneered back. “Yes...but which of us will tire first? My powers have taken all the way...you’ve just awakened yours haven’t you?” He couldn’t help but notice Will’s body was straining more at the effort.
Robin and Nancy had joined the assault on the ice barrier but they all knew they wouldn’t be able to break through in time.
Zero lurched forward, going fist to fist with Will and ended up smashing him into a wall.
Will had no time to recover before Zero grappled with him, grabbing both his arms.
“Now doesn’t this look familiar, hehe ahhh!” A heavy table flew into him from nearby propelled by El.
“Raagggggh! Bitch!” Zero responded by flinging an icicle back at her. She dodges it but not completely as it cuts her cheek in flying past.
Being distracted earned him a knee in the gut from Will however, forcing him to back off.
Vecna, meanwhile, had mentally piggy backed into Zero’s head and was enjoying the fight remotely of sorts.
*Yes Zero, make her suffer and bring me our prize!*
Jonathan and Steve were now hammering at the ice with some sledgehammers they’d found and were making some impact but it was taking too much time!
In despair Hopper aimed his gun through the narrow window...but he knew even if he could get a clear shot he couldn’t take it. All he could do was watch impotently as the battle raged on...
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The wheels of fate were taking another turn just outside of Hawkins as a car approached on the main road...namely that of the Wheeler family.
“We should have come back sooner,” Karen was muttering as she checked back to see Holly was ok.
“I’m still not sure they’re letting anyone back in yet!” Ted weakly protested. “Is that gunfire?”
He sped up away from the sounds which were, in fact, the last gasp of the army’s battle against the Champions of God. Ironically this meant he went straight through the unmanned checkpoint as all of the troops were engaged....and then unnoticed back into Hawkins. Well, not totally unnoticed. A black carapaced insect made note of the intruders...
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Back at the hospital the battle was still at full intensity as Zero and Will locked powers. Will was blasting out a raging inferno flame while Zero countered with a full ice blast.
“Hehe looks like you’re flaming out Will!” Zero cackled. Unfortunately he wasn’t far wrong. Will had only just finished absorbing his new abilities which meant his body hadn’t got used to the strain yet. Zero most assuredly had and so was winning the endurance battle.
El, meanwhile, was stuck in an ice block against the wall after another of her interventions hadn’t quite worked.There was a left handed boon from this though, being stuck like she was had enabled her to notice something that could turn the tide in their favour over in the corner of the room. It was plugged in and running but it would require a lot of her power and strain to work it.
Looking back at the fight gave her added incentive. Will was on his knees and a giggling Zero was closing in on him!
Luckily Will met her gaze as she pointed to the corner and he nodded, keeping up the fight and the flow as much as possible.
“Feeling burn out Will?” Zero laughed manically as he closed in overwhelming Will’s flames with his cold ice.
“Only hate for you Zero!” Will retorted. “It doesn’t matter if you win here or not, you’ve stolen my friend from me and I feel nothing for you!”
“Heh, then you’re more like me than you think!” Zero closed in further and grabbed Will’s arms, choking off his flames. “Heh did you really think you were going to beat me? Always playing defence and looking to ‘protect others’ eh Will? That’s why you never win!”
Will didn’t react as Zero thought to his bringing up the old D&D habits. “I wasn’t looking to win Zero...I was just looking for a minute or 2!”
Zero had concentrated so much on Will he didn’t notice that El had, with major effort, mentally moved the ECT machine closer. She’d switched it on and was now floating the pads into place around his head! Before he knew what was happening both pads were in place and firing up.
“Wha....AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Despite the electricity flowing into him as well Will grabbed Zero’s arms not letting him remove the pads.
“Nnnnnghh keep going.....agh don’t...stop!” Will managed although he knew El likely couldn’t hear him over Zero’s agonized screaming.
El was certainly not letting up. She was in turmoil about hurting Mike but knew this was the only way of purging Vecna’s evil from him and she kept the power flowing even though his screams tormented her.
Vecna had been linked to Zero’s mind and had been gleefully watching through his eyes at the time. As a result he got a taste of his own when the ECT shock slammed into his own mind, forcing him to disconnect with a roar of pain that echoed through the shadow hospital.
On the black plane of Zero’s mind he was trying to ignore the pain, push through and strike back as the volts rattled through his brain. When the volts stopped Zero was elated though he had physically passed out. His first thought was to rip El’s heart out when he woke up but then he was suddenly face to face with an enemy he thought was broken and caged...himself. Well, more appropriately Mike Wheeler and he was looking angry!
Hopper and the rest of the group finally smashed their way through the ice in time to see Zero pass out and collapse.
Jonathan went over to prise El free while Hopper and the others checked Will and Zero.
Will was still awake but weak and shocked while Zero was flat out. Once free El came over to check on them as well.
“Is he...?” Hopper dared to start asking the question everyone was thinking.
El touches Zero’s forehead. “Mike’s in there fighting Dad, I can sense it.”
“Should we...?” Steve reached for the pads again.
“No, at least not yet,” El warned him off. “Mike is in there and he’s fighting.”
“But what if he doesn’t win?” Steve was acting on instinct and to keep punching when your enemy was down.
“Then we’ll deal with that if it happens,” Hopper decided. “For now let’s get them both into beds and him restrained for now. I think we just have to play the waiting game.”
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“RRRAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” A roar of pure rage ripped through the Upside Down. Vecna didn’t have any waiting game to play as his link to Zero had been cut and he couldn’t reestablish it. He knew that meant one thing and one thing only: Mike Wheeler had been shocked out of his mental prison and, if he triumphed over Zero there he would soon be back in the game. Using another ECT machine to undo his conditioning...Vecna seethed with hatred and rage at how they’d turned his own tricks back on him. He soon steadied himself however and moved on to the big picture.
The episode had not been a total failure. The chaos Zero had caused had put everyone back on edge. Several dead, the attempts to stablize the town had failed and, most important, his efforts had gained very valuable time. More than enough time for Zero to enhance the breeching portals. Soon they’d be ready for the next phase of his plan. Vecna’s sinister smile returned as he thought of that. It would certainly herald the final confrontation between himself and the Party and for that he could hardly wait. Then he received an update from his demobugs and the hateful smile went wider.
He would accelerate his plans and the portal openings but first he would satisfy more base needs, namely revenge and payback for Zero’s loss! In fact, this was one thing he would attend to personally. His body was healed and he was in the mood to drive a dagger into where it hurt most...
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Back in the real world, they’d moved Zero upstairs to a secure observation room where the Party could observe him through a glass window. All of them were going crazy with the wait.
“Is he ever going to wake up and...can he be Mike again?” Nancy choked.
El nods as she reassures her. “I can feel it, Mike is fighting to regain control.”
“Should we zap him again? Maybe try and help with that?” Steve asked.
Hanson shook her head. “Any more right now and we risk brain damage. We have to wait for him to wake up and see which way it went.”
Will nodded. “I guess we’re staying the night here maybe.”
“No maybe about it, it’s getting close to dusk out there. I’ll have the Colonel send over a few more guards. He’ll be happy about how things went here. Finally we win something!” Hopper grinned. “Now all we need is Mike to wake up...”
“We might have to wait a while for that,” Owens sighed. “The human body can be a fickle thing. Sometimes it heals very fast but other times it just packs up and won’t cooperate no matter how much you try and heal it. He might wake up tomorrow, next week, next month...”
”....Or never,” Dustin hated saying that but everyone was thinking it.
“Yes,” Owens admitted. “Right now Mike’s body is having that debate somewhere inside him...it doesn’t help he’s fighting for control of his mind as well. What does help is having you and everyone he cares about close.”
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“What have those 2 been up to?!” Karen muttered as the rest of the Wheelers arrived home. “It looks like they’ve been having house parties!”
As ever she couldn’t have been wider of the mark if she’d tried it. Holly headed upstairs to her room while Ted and Karen tried to work out just what had gone down in their absence.
They were so engrossed in that they didn’t notice the front door swing open on its own. The first time they realised all wasn’t right was a ‘kreeing’ sound from behind them...and they swung around to find 2 Demogorgons with what looked like Mike standing in between them!
“Michael?! What are those....” Karen looked closer, namely at ‘Mike’ and his hate filled eyes, and realising quickly. “You’re not my son!”
“So you’re more perceptive than I first thought...” ‘Mike’ shifted form and Vecna took his place. “So you can actually think without help? Your lifeguard died screaming in agony by the way!”
“What the hell are you?!” Ted managed.
“Retribution,” Vecna replied coldly. “I’d hoped to use your meddling son to send a message but now that is impossible I need to improvise.”
A scream from upstairs caused Ted and Karen to look up in alarm.
“Holly!” Karen was about to move upstairs but the Demogorgons moved to block.
Vecna sneered coldly. “Don’t worry about her. I need her alive. You, on the other hand, are a different story. As I was saying since my message was denied I will need another and you’re going to have to be the message!”
With that the monsters advanced and the screams could be heard from down the street...
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Everyone was still waiting outside Zero’s room when a trooper approached Hopper. “Chief? You’ve got a call from the Colonel, sounds urgent.”
Hopper went over to the nearby phone eager for an update and to share news of their victory.
“Colonel? Good news, we managed to take him down in here and...what?” The happiness on his face disintegrated as he took the call much to the shock of everyone around.
“Yeah...right.....right. Yeah I’ll be up there in a minute.” Hopper looked downcast as he disconnected.
“What happened?” Robin asked.
“Nancy...I don’t know how to tell you this but there was an incident at your home.”
Nancy swallowed hard. “Don’t tell me they snuck back home!”
“They did and he was waiting at Maple Street. Holly’s missing, Karen’s headed for the hospital but very badly hurt and...” He choked on the words but everyone knew what he was going to say. Ted had tried to defend his home and his family but wasn’t any match for a Demogorgon.
“That....bastard!” Joyce managed in the end as Nancy collapsed to the floor. It had like she’d been stabbed in the heart all over again.
“Dad, are they bringing her Mom in here?” El asked quickly thinking on her feet with Will alongside her.
“Yes she’s being admitted downstairs,” Hopper replied as Steve, Jonathan and Robin managed to comfort Nancy who was recovering fast. She was looking ready to kill.
El nodded at Will who knew what she had in mind. “I’ll do what I can though I don’t know how much I’ve got after that fight.”
“We need to try,” El resolved and got a nod from Will as he was in full agreement. Mike had just lost his father, they had to try and save his mother and perhaps enlighten her a little in the process.
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Karen Wheeler was waking to a feeling of immense pain. She thought she was dead when she saw the monsters advance. Ted had not stood a chance and was practically torn limb from limb. She was ripped deeply several times and would have had the same fate if her screaming hadn’t attracted the attention of 2 nearby patrols. Vecna, thinking he’d done enough and not wanting a full battle yet, had withdrawn leaving her to bleed out. The troopers had got Karen to hospital but weren’t confident of her surviving as she’d been mortally wounded practically. That was until they got another miracle.
“Nnnnnghhh...” She opened her eyes to see Will standing over her, his nose bleeding, and a girl she didn’t recognise. “W...will?”
Will grimaced and had to be helped to a nearby chair in the private room as his energy levels had given out.
“Sorry...Mrs Wheeler, but I need to rest,” Will fell asleep in the seat though he’d managed to bring her from mortally wounded to just badly.
“Holly! Where’s....aghhh!” Karen tried to get up as she remembered but it just caused her pain to flare.
“We’ll help find her,” El promised.
“Do I...ugh...” Karen was in so much pain she couldn’t even finish the question and closed her eyes.
“I’ll tell you or better yet, I’ll show you.” El gently put her forehead against Karen’s and started doing just that, sharing her memories.
Karen started seeing everything. El’s escape from the lab and her meeting Mike and the Party, their race to find and save Will, then the insidious Mind Flayer and the battle with the Demodogs, Starcourt Mall and Billy’s end, NINA and the fight against Vecna and finally the emergence of Zero and the battle to take him down and restore Mike. Tears flowed from her eyes as she saw the truth. She was finally knowing what bloody fools she and Ted had been over the years. Her children and their friends had been put through hell and she’d never even realised it.
She took a minute to recover from all she’d seen. “Michael? My son...is he...”
“We think he’s ok now, recovering upstairs asleep,” El comforted her.
“Thank you for...watching out for him...” Karen managed through tears as El gently helped her lie back in bed.
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With the team exhausted after a long day everyone settled down in the hospital overnight. Whilst everyone was keen to try and get Holly back some rest was needed after the major battle they’d just had. However there was a complication in the night and a major one at that.
Hopper was, once again, roused off the bench he’d been resting on at 3am. It was Will waking him up this time and he was alarmed.
“Hop...Mike’s gone! He got out of the hospital somehow!”
“WHAT?!” Hopper jerked awake and ran upstairs to find an empty private hospital room, except for the very worried Party outside.
“What happened?” He angrily asked the troopers that had been on guard outside.
“He looked fast asleep so we just went up the corridor to get a coffee,” One said apologetically. “We were only 2 minutes. When we got back he was gone!”
“Didn’t someone handcuff him to the...oh,” Jonathan was examining the handcuffs and realised the chain had been frozen so much that anyone could have snapped it. “He still has his powers!”
“We knew that was going to be the case whatever happened in his mind,” Owens reasoned seeing the window was open as well.
“He must have gone down the fire escape,” Robin realised as she looked out and saw it just a few inches from the window.
“Yeah but which he?” El finished ominously. “Was it Mike who left here...or is it still Zero?”