THEY PILE INTO WILL'S ROOM, Mariella trailing behind the apprehensively as Mike hurriedly begins to shuffle through the piles of drawings Will had made. He picks up the drawing of the shadow monster, all of them peering down at it curiously.

"The shadow monster," Dustin chimes.

Mike nods, looking towards him before pointing at the drawing with his index finger. "It got Will that day on the field. We know that. The doctors said it was like a virus, it infected him," Mike explains looking between the group on confused faces. Noticing how Mariella lingered off in the corner of Will's room, blinking her eyes rapidly and biting her lip.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max adds in, more so as a question, her eyes squinted curiously.

Mike nods rapidly. "To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything," Mike responds before his head snaps back to Mariella who tumbled with her fingers dazed. "Mariella Sloane! Come here," He snaps, gesturing her over.

Reluctantly, she complies, situating herself between Mike and Lucas. "Okay, let's slow down," Steve tells them, hands up to signal them to halt.

Mike turns to him. "Okay, so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, so doesn't Will," He says before nudging Mariella on the shoulder. "Mars figured that out before any of this happened," He attempts to lift her down spirit.

She shrugs, Lucas patting her back as a sign of comfort before adding in. "And so does Dart,".

"Yeah. Like Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind," Mike nods, eyes darting between each person.

Steve stares back at him confused. "Hive mind?" He asks curiously.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super organism," Dustin responds as Mariella began tapping her thumb against her thigh impatiently.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain," Mike gestures to the drawing.

Dustin's eyes widen. "Like the Mind Flayer," He says. Lucas and Mike mirroring his expression. Mariella staring at them blankly.

Max and Steve exchange looks. "The what?" They ask as Dustin, Lucas, and Mike rush off, beginning to search the Byers house for the Dungeons and Dragons encyclopedia which was oh-so-worn-down.

The two of them look to Mariella who stood with her eyes shut. "What are they doing?" Max asks her.

She sighs, opening her eyes and rubbing the temple of her nose. "They're onto something," She responds, voice sounding disappointed.

Steve squints his eyes at her. "Isn't that good?" He questions, tilting his head.

Mariella nods. "Yes. But what they're onto doesn't sound good. The Mind Flayer, it's not good," She answers him before turning to Will's bookshelf. "Start searching for a Dungeons and Dragons book. Seems stupid, I know, but trust me," She tells them as she begins to pull book after book off the shelf.

♧

Dustin slams the encyclopedia onto the dining room table, everyone except Joyce crowded around it. "The Mind Flayer," He begins, hands at either side of the book.

Hopper stares down at the book, face scrunched up. "What the hell is it?" He asks.

"It's a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home," Dustin explains, staring at the confused looks everyone except, Mike, Lucas, and Mariella gave him.

"Okay, It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers," He elaborates about the creature.

Hopper grimaces, rolling his eyes at Dustin. "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game," He says. All except the original members of the party agreeing.

"No, it's a manual. And, it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't—" Dustin defends, shaking his head a-matter-of-a-factly before Mariella cuts in, in order to keep Dustin from snapping.

"Considering all the things that occurred last year. In all due respect, Chief, we were right about the Demogorgen," She shrugs her shoulders, Mike, Lucas and Dustin nodding.

"Exactly. It was us who figured out the Gate!" Lucas agrees with Mariella, nudging her shoulder as a way to say 'Nice thinking'.

Nancy sighs, knowing that they had a point before looking at the manual. "Okay, so, this mind flamer thing—" She attempts to understand. All three of the boys and Mariella looking at her unimpressed.

"Flayer. Mind Flayer," Dustin corrects, irritated at the lack of belief everyone shown in his theory.

"What does it want?" Nancy deadpans, looking to Dustin, rolling her eyes. Unimpressed.

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race," Dustin responds, stumbling over his words — searching for the correct wording.

Steve nods before looking to Dustin. "Like the... Like the Germans?" He stammers.

Everyone looks to him with furrowed eyebrows. Mariella rolling her eyes with a subtle laugh while Lucas and Mike exchange looks. "Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin taunts him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis," Steve shakes his head, grimacing slightly at himself.

Dustin groans. "Uh. If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself," He explains, Hopper putting a hand to his face and sighing.

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions," Mike adds on.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it," Lucas butts in to get their point across.

Mariella sighs, leaning into Mike as she puts and arm around her waist to support her. Her mind plagued with nothingness. It was odd, she was always thinking. Today, here, right now, she had nothing. Rubbing her thumb against her lip, she begins to attempt to try to understand.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve begins to panic, turning away from the group and running his hands through his hair.

"Okay, so if this thing is like the brain controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy begins to rationalize.

"We kill everything it controls," Mike interjects.

"We win," Dustin nods.

"Theoretically," Lucas adds.

Mariella speaks up now. "One problem," Her index finger pointed up. All heads turn to her. "We kill it, we kill everything it controls, yeah?" She starts looking between everyone, they nod. "That's it. Will's controlled by the thing, how do we know for sure that it won't kill Will?".

"Okay. If we were to disregard Will in the scenario," Mariella goes on. "How would we kill it?".

"Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper joins in, picking up the manual and beginning to read through the text about the monster.

"No. No, no fire — no fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because... because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the Mind Flayer, it... it... It likes brains," Dustin responds, voice dying off and stammering upon the realization of how stupid the response was. "It's just a game. It's just a game," He shakes his head.

Hopper looks at him. Slamming the manual back onto the table and walking off. "What the hell are we doing here?" He says gruffly.

Dustin calls after him. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup?"

"We are!" Hopper argues.

Mike jumps in. "But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" He asks, voice hurried as Mariella holds onto his arm, cheek presses against it. "You can't just shoot this with guns,".

Hopper looks at him in disbelief. "You don't know that! We don't know anything!" He raises his voice.

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab," Mike argues back with him.

Lucas begins now. "And we know the monsters are gonna molt again,".

"And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town," Dustin adds in.

Mariella breaks from Mike's arm, continuing the train. "In short, we know enough. Exactly as Dustin is saying, they're gonna find a way out. Like El did," She mentions their lost friend.

Last year felt so long ago, the party going silent for a moment before they all nod. The tension was thick in the air and through their deep hidden sadness, none of them noticed the look of guilt flash over Hopper's face as he watches them exchange looks.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing when out of all the people in Hawkins, we know the most!" Mariella goes on, snapping herself out of her mood and looking between everyone in a crazed frenzy. "Are we seriously sitting around?" She raises her arms in anger.

"They're right," A quiet voice says from the hall. All they're heads turn towards it. Joyce. She stood there, staring back at them — eyes glossy and red from the tears she cried for Bob. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it," She continues, Hopper walking towards her.

"Me, too, Joyce, okay?" Hopper starts, once close enough to her. "But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here,".

That's when Mike realizes something, his head darting towards Will with wide eyes before he speaks up. "No. But he does," He says as he begins to walk towards Will's sleeping figure. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know it's weakness,".

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now," Max speaks up, the group trailing behind him.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is," Mike responds, staring at Will.

That's when it came to them. Their plan. Possibly, one of their best plans yet. And so, they set to work. Disguising the shed where all these horrors first began, in the fall of last year. When Will Byers went missing.

Authors Note: I lied. Here's an update.