"The mind flayer." Dustin started, dropping the D&D book on the table and making the older teens share a look. Nancy and Hopper had joined them now, the girl giving Christine a confused look.

"The hell is that?"

"Its a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains by using highly-developed psionic powers." Dustin explained, Hopper quick to shut him down.

"Oh my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." Hopper complained, everyone looking at the pages of the manual.

"No, its a manual. And its not for kids. Ad unless you know something that we don't this is the best metaphor--"

"Analogy." Lucas corrected, Dustin giving him an incredulous look.

"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Dustin said, shaking his head at the stubbornness of the group he was with

"Okay so this mind flamer thing--"Nancy started, only to be cut off.

"Flayer. It's flayer." Christine corrected Nancy, the girl glaring up at her before continuing.

"What does it want?" She finished her question.

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin answered.

"Like the Germans." Steve added, Christine looking at him in confusion.

"Uh, the Nazis?" Dustin asked, trying not to say anything to discourage Steve who was really trying to understand.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve said, Christine clapping a hand on his shoulder as she shook her head at his comment.

"Uh...if the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Christine was getting lost, the others not far behind her as they lines between reality and the fictional game started to blur.

"It wants to spread and take over other dimensions." Mike added in.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it." Lucas said, making Steve take a deep breath in.

"That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" Steve said, shaking his head and turning away.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." Nancy said, grabbing the book and looking at it.

"We kill everything it controls." Mike confirmed, that being one of the only things that had made sense in the last few minutes.

"We win." Dustin said, giving them an out. All they had to do was kill this mind flayer.

"Theoretically." Lucas added.

"Alright great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Hopper asked, grabbing the book from Nancy and looking at it. Dustin laughed as he answered, Christine throwing her head back in exasperation and exhaustion as she felt the need to sleep hit her.

"No. 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. It's just a game. It's a game."

"What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper said, closing the book and throwing it back on the table.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup." Dustin said to the chief, everyone looking to him.

"We are!"

"But even if they come how are they going to stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike asked, standing from his chair as Hopper turned to him.

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper said, shaking his head at the kids.

"We know its already killed everybody in that lab." Mike snapped back.

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas added in.

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

"They're right." A voice said from behind Christine. The girl turned completely, looking at an upset and pained Joyce Byers who was looking at Hopper. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

"Me too. Me too Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." Hopper said, walking up to Joyce.

"No. But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness." Mike said, walking towards Will who was laying on the couch.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max said, recalling what Hopper had said to them in the car.

"He's the spy right?" Christine asked, looking to the boy who was unconscious on the couch.

"Yeah , but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike said, everyone sharing a look as he did.

"What are you saying we should do?" Joyce asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she walked further into the living room. Mike proceeded to explain that we needed to put Will somewhere that he couldn't recognize, somewhere where he had no idea where it was. The next hour was filled with Hopper and Mike blurting out orders, everyone else following along with the plan because frankly, it was the only one that they had. Hopper had instructed Christine to gather as many blankets as she could in the house, the girl taking the time to look everywhere. Finally she walked out to the shed carrying a very big pile of blankets, her arms almost overflowing with them.

"Yeah, trust me...I know." Christine heard from the shed, the familiar voice making her mood already worsen. Christine sometimes wished that she didn't hate Nancy, that she could have Nancy as a friend and not as her own person nemesis, because having a friend was better than having an enemy. But every time she had tried as children, Nancy never saw her as an equal, and even now she didn't.

"So you a--" Christine was quick to cut the other familiar voice off, a grin on her lips as she ruined their blossoming conversation by entering the room.

"Oh I didn't mean to interrupt." Christine said, Nancys eyebrows raising at that as Steves face fell. He let out a short breath, stepping down from his spot and making his way to the girl who was sporting a mischievous little grin that very much confirmed that she had in fact meant to interrupt.

"Thanks." Nancy said, looking at her cousin with an expectant look as Steve took the blankets from her arms. Christine didn't get the memo that she was supposed to leave though, the girl backing up and sitting on a stool, picking at her cuticles as the other two shared a look.

"Don't you have something to do?" Steve asked, desperately wanting to speak to Nancy alone for a moment. Christine shook her head, shrugging her shoulders and once again letting her devious little smile cross her lips.

"Nope. All done." She said, giving the two of them a contented look. Steve let out a sigh, realizing she wasn't going to leave and going back to what he was doing.

"You! Christine. Go grab some more tape from inside." Hopper said as they all filed into the shed. Christine gave him a salute, standing from the stool and shooting one last look at Nancy as the girl realized she had missed her opportunity to talk with Steve because of Christine. Before long she returned, the entire crew transforming the shed into an unrecognizable place, perfect for their plan. After they were done Steve, Nancy, Max, Lucas, Dustin, and Christine were instructed to stay in the house unless they were needed, everyone finding a spot to inhabit and trying to relax. Christine saw that the couch was finally freed up, the girl dropping down onto it and stretching out. It felt amazing to lay down on something comfy, the girl letting out a groan as she finished her stretch.

Steve was swinging his bat near her, the girl turning her head so that she could watch him do it. She laid her hands on her stomach, her lips turning up at the corners as he kept swinging.

"Steve did you play baseball?" Christine asked from the couch, the boy in question turning his head to look at her but not moving. He stopped swinging, dropping the bat onto his shoulder and answering.

"Freshman and sophomore year. Why?"

"I can see why you quit. Your swing is terrible." Christine said, closing her eyes and turning her head away from him. He scoffed at that, looking at her in disbelief as he wondered where exactly she got the audacity from to act the way she had been acting for the last hour.

"I'm sorry, are you really judging my swing? This swing saved your ass today and you weren't complaining then were you." He said to her, the girl still not opening her eyes and just slightly chuckling at his words.

"And that ass got me into this situation in the first place. So I don't know what your argument is." Christine said back, Steve once again scoffing, his mouth wide open as he looked around for anyone who was paying attention to him so someone could be a witness to the way she was acting.

"Well if you're the swing master then you must show me yours." Steve said, pointing the bat in her direction and putting his other hand on his hip. Christine sighed, her eyes opening as she sat up from the couch. She grabbed the bat from his hands, shooing him away and then setting her feet. She swung the bat, the girl imitating a crowd cheering, her hand going up to shield her eyes as if she was looking at something far in the distance.

"Home Run Stevie." She said, holding the bat back out to him. He narrowed his eyes, reaching for the handle of the bat but she was faster than him, the girl pulling him by the grip on his bat towards her. She adjusted his grip, fixing the bat and putting it in place, Steve studying her face as she concentrated on setting him up to swing. "Gotta put power behind it buddy."

Steve watched her as she pat him on the cheek, the girl scooting over and gesturing for him to swing. He swung, the girl mimicking an enormous crowd for him. He smiled at that, dropping the bat down to his side and shaking his head at her.

"How did that have anything to do with whats going on?"