12.

"ᴵ'ᵛᵉ ˢᵉᵉⁿ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ˡᵒᵒᵏ ⁱⁿ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵉʸᵉˢ,
ⁱᵗ ᵐᵃᵏᵉˢ ᵐᵉ ᵍᵒ ᵇˡⁱⁿᵈ."
—ᵐᵃᵈⁿᵉˢˢ ᵇʸ ʳᵘᵉˡˡᵉ

Once they were all back at the Byers house, Jonathan gave up his bed for Violet to take care of Amber. Violet had kicked everyone out of the room besides Nancy so she could give her a hand with everything. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, worried for Amber but also for Will who was the main reason for the massacre at the lab. They all were talking about next steps and Hopper decided to make a phone call to try and get some assistance.

Nancy had walked out of the bedroom down the hall, closing the door behind her. The teenagers jumped from their seats wanting to get an update on Amber.

"Ms. Hayes did the blood transfusion and stitched her up. Amber's vitals seem to be returning to normal. She's still passed out but her mom said it should be soon that she comes to." Nancy informed them. They all seemed to let out a breath of relief they were holding. Glad to hear that Amber would be fine. Violet Hayes came out of the room a while later to let her daughter rest as she went to check on the kids and then Joyce. Violet had gone into the bedroom after Jim had come out, sharing a brief nod before he headed out towards the kids who were discussing what to do.

"His army." Mike let out in realization from their conversation.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"His army. Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike told them as he went to grab Will's drawing.

"The shadow monster." Dustin said.

"That's the thing Amber saw?" Steve questioned.

"Yeah. I can imagine scarier than the drawing though." Dustin commented as the kids looked slightly confused at the two.

"When Will was having his episode in the field and Amber started to space out, she was seeing what Will was seeing. She saw the shadow monster. She couldn't sleep for a few days." Dustin tried to briefly explain.

"Does she have true sight too?" Lucas questioned.

"Who knows. I wouldn't be surprised at this point." Dustin answered him.

"When it got him in the field, the doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike brought up.

"Yeah, Amber said it was swarming him. Like straight out of a movie." Steve nodded his head following along.

"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything." Mike listed off.

"Whoa. Slow down. Slow down." Steve said slowly starting to get lost by what Mike was meaning by everything.

"When the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will."

"And so does dart." Lucas added to what Mike was saying.

"Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." Mike told them.

"Hive mind?" Steve wondered.

"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin informed the older teenager.

"And this is the thing that controls everything. It's the brain." Mike pointed to the picture.

"Like the mind flayer." Dustin connected as Lucas and Mike understood what Dustin was talking about.

"The what?"

"What?" Max and Steve let out confused. The kids began to debrief the rest of them on the mind flayer. Jim stood unamused at the child game references and Violet Hayes seemed to take it in almost like she knew everything the kids were saying.

"They're right." Joyce spoke up, all of them turning to the grieving woman. "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." Jim said to the woman.

"No. But he does. If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. Amber could have a slight clue but that's a gamble. But Will, we know he's completely connected to it. He'll know its weakness." Mike pointed out.

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore? That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max wondered.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike told them. They all began to get to work to remodel the shed to the point Will would have no idea where he was when he woke up.

Steve was out in the shed, stapling the tarp to the wall with his mind on the unconscious girl inside. Violet Hayes had told him he could go in to see her which he didn't hesitate for a moment to go into the room. But seeing her lying there with her eyes closed, all he could think about was how she was hurt and in pain but she played it off so well. He felt stupid for not noticing sooner even though she made it impossible for him to even know that she was hurt in the first place. Steve had left the room after sitting with Amber for a while, knowing he needed to go help everyone else.

"Hey." Nancy spoke up, grabbing Steve's attention as he turned to look at her.

"What you did, um, helping the kids with Amber, that was... really cool." Nancy told him.

"Yeah. Those little shits are real trouble. I don't get how she can put up with them all the time." Steve said.

"It's because she cares for them. And they also adore her so they aren't as bad, especially when she's used to it all." Nancy said with an amused smile before glancing up at the boy who instantly went back to working on covering the wall instead of continuing to carry a conversation with Nancy.

As the adults stared down at the boy tied up in the chair, they all prepared themselves to see how well the plan would work out. Hopper held the cotton ball in the alcohol in front of Will's nose as the boy gasped awake.

While Will had awoken in the shed, Amber's eyes fluttered open. Slowly looking around the room before she struggled to push herself up off the bed. A small groan escaped past her lips as she took out the needle that was in her arm before she stood up next to the bed. She glanced down to see herself in a new tank top that had the bandage on her side peeking out.
The girl headed out into the hallway. Her eyes fell onto Max and Lucas sitting in the hall and then Nancy who was at the end of the hall.

"Amber!" They exclaimed. Steve Harrington was in the middle of swinging his bat when he heard them. He dropped his bat to rush around the corner. His eyes falling onto the girl, a soft look spread across his face before he quickly made his way towards her.

"What are you doing up? You should be resting!" He exclaimed as he placed his hands on both of her shoulders to scan over her in concern.

"I'm fine. Are we going to kill the shadow monster?" She questioned.

"Hayes, you should be laying down." Steve told her as the kids had swarmed them.

"I will rest when I know we stopped this thing. But I'm fine, truthfully. Just a little lightheaded." She said Steve led her over to the couch to have her sit down. Nancy walked over with a glass of water that Amber took gratefully. Steve sat down next to Amber, almost afraid to let her out of his sight now. He watched her carefully even as she drank her water. Max had sat down on the other side of Amber as Lucas, Dustin and Nancy stood in front of them. Dustin had briefly caught Amber up on what she had missed and how her mom had become a 'badass' and was instantly to the rescue with helping her.

"Harrington, can you stop looking at me like that? It's starting to freak me out a bit." Amber spoke up, the boy's face flushed slightly before he scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry. You just almost died on me for a second, Hayes. I'm still in shock." He brushed it off.

"You're being dramatic. You aren't getting rid of me that easily." She told him. The lights began to flicker in the house as Nancy and Dustin walked towards the window while Steve grabbed his bat and joined them.

After a few minutes everyone who was outside with Will came inside. Moving around to join them, Hopper instantly grabbed a paper to start writing on.

"What happened?" Dustin asked.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." Hopper told them.

"What is that?" Steve wondered.

"Morse code." Amber told him. Her voice had briefly caught the attention of everyone who came back inside. Her mother instantly came over to hug her carefully. Violet scanned over her daughter before smiling and kissing her cheek. Mike then rushed over to the girl, hugging her a bit too tightly which caused her to groan. He muttered an apology before they all turned to see what Hopper had written out from the code. 'HERE' it said, Will was communicating that he was still in there which was a good sign for them.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us." Hopper informed them. So they agreed to keep doing what they were doing before, bringing up memories to him while Hopper watched to tap it back to the kids over the walkie. Nancy wrote down every letter the kids would tell her and eventually they had gotten the phrase, "CLOSE GATE." The telephone rang which scared all of them before they realized.

"Shit. Shit." Dustin mumbled as he ran to the phone to pick it up and hang it up. But then it began to ring again which caused Nancy to rip the phone off the wall and throw it.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere. Right?" Steve said.

"It's his phone though. He'll know." Amber told him. All of them heard the howls in the night as they gathered together in the doorway into the living room.

"That's not good." Dustin commented. The others rushed back inside with Will as Hopper came in with two guns in his hands.

"Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" He told the three kids who were peeking out.

"Do you know how to use this?" Hopper questioned Jonathan as he held the gun up.

"What?" Jonathan let out.

"Can you use this?" Hopper repeated.

"I can." Amber and Nancy said simultaneously. The two girls looked at each other. Hopper threw the shotgun to Nancy before he pulled out the gun from his waistband.

"I know that you know how to use it." He commented to Amber before he tossed her that gun and he kept the other gun from the lab for himself.

The teenage girl checked the gun quickly before turning off the safety. Cocking it slightly as she pointed it in the direction they were facing.

"Since when did you learn how to use a gun?" Steve asked.

"Since I found out about there being another dimension with monsters." Amber told him.

"Makes sense." Steve said before he glanced over at her again before looking away. "It makes you look badass though." He commented which caused a small smile to appear on her lips for a second. Almost all of them were armed with something. The howling grew closer as they all prepared for mayhem. They jumped when they heard a loud growl.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked as the bushes rustled outside the house and they all turned their bodies with the noise. They heard a screech outside before everything went quiet then one of the demodogs was thrown through the window, all of them yelling. But then they realized that the creature was laying there motionless.

"What the hell." Amber let out. They began to inch closer to it as Hopper touched it with his foot, confirming that it was dead. But their attention was then turned to the front door that began to unlock, readying their weapons until their eyes fell onto Eleven whose nose was bleeding. Mike stepped in front of everyone on the verge of tears as he saw the girl. They both smiled at each other in relief before they instantly rushed to hug each other.

"Who is that?" Steve whispered to Amber.

"Eleven." Amber told him.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were there? That you were okay?" Mike asked her.

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper spoke up before he walked over to the younger girl. "The hell is this?Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?" El asked.

"You've been hiding her? You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike snapped, pushing into Hopper.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper grabbed Mike by the shirt before they disappeared down the hall.

Eleven looked around before her eyes fell onto Amber. The older girl sent a welcoming smile before Eleven walked over to her.

"There's my pretty girl." Amber said, El let out a whimper before hugging Amber. Amber groaned slightly but hugged the girl back.

"I missed you." El said.

"I missed you too." Amber told her as the girl pulled away.

"You're hurt." El observed.

"I'm fine. Just another little scratch." Amber brushed it off. El looked from Amber to see Steve besides her.

"Boy."

"El, this is Steve. Steve, this is Eleven." Amber introduced. El sent a small smile his way before she headed over to Lucas and Dustin.

"Do you think she likes me?" Steve asked.

"That's what you're concerned about right now?" Amber raised her eyebrow.

"No... no." He shook his head. Steve didn't break eye contact with Amber for a while until Amber awkwardly shifted in her place.

"I'm going to get some more water." She excused herself from the situation and headed into the kitchen.