silver • steve harrington

012

Warning: Unedited
Mind Flaying Nazis

A dark layer of sadness filled the Byers house. Will was passed out onto the couch and his brother held his hand, whispering to him quietly while Nancy rubbed the older boy's shoulder. The kids sat on the table in the kitchen and Hopper yelled into the phone. Silver sat at the table with the kids. She stared at nothing, just thinking about the past day.
"Yes I'm Jim Hopper, Chief of Hawkins Police" Hopper confirmed into the phone. "Yes, the address I gave you is correct, I'll be here"
With that he slammed the phone back on the holder. "There not coming, are they?" Mike asked.
"We'll see" Hopper said.
Mike glowered. "We'll see? We can't just sit with those monsters running around"
"We stay here" Hopper confirmed and headed down the hallway.

On the drive back from the lab Hopper had informed them on what had happened. All about the monsters invading the lab, everyone dying including Joyce's boyfriend, Bob. He also told them about Will spying for the shadow monsters as they called it. Silver shuddered when she heard it.
"We can't just sit here" Mike grumbled.
"Well, what do you expect us to do, Mike?" Dustin asked annoyed. "The cheif's right on this, we can't fight these demodogs on our own"
"Demodogs?" Max asked.
Dustin turned to her. "Demogorgon...dogs" He explained. "It's like a compound"
"Okay, jees" Max scrunched up her face.
"When it was jsut Dart, maybe but there is a whole army now" Lucas sighed.
"His army" Mike mumbled.
Steve looked at the boy. "What do you mean?"
"His army" Mike repeated lighting up. "Maybe if we can stop him, we can stop his army too!"
"Who's he?" Silver asked confused.
Mike groaned and took off. They all followed him to Will's room where he showed them a drawing of a spider like creature.
"Shadow monster" Silver breathed.
"It got Will that day on the field" Mike explained. "The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him"
"So this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked looking at the drawing.
"To the tunnels, to the creatures, to the Upside Down, to everything!" Mike said speaking fast.
Steve grabbed the drawing. "Wait, slow down"
"Okay look" Mike took a breath. "The shadow monster is inside everything and if the vines feel something like pain, so does Will"
"And so does Dart" Lucas pointed out.
"Like what Mr Clarke taught us" Mike said. "The hive mind"
"The hive mind?" Silver and Steve asked at the same time.
Dustin looked at them. "A collective consciousness, like a super organism"
"Oh" Silver said still not knowing what that was.
"And this thing that controls everything" Mike said. "It's the brain"
"Like the Mind Flayer" Dustin concluded.
Lucas snapped his fingers as Dustin.

Soon they all surrounded the kitchen table. Dustin slammed a heavy book on the table. "The Mind Flayer" Dustin said opening to a page.
"What the hell is this?" Hopper asked looking at it.
Dustin smiled. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension, it's so ancient it doesn't even know its own home" The boy explained. "It enslave races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its high developed psionic powers"
"Oh my God" Hopper groaned. "None of this is real, this is a kid's game"
Dustin scowled. "No, this is a manual and it's not for kids. Unless you know something we don't then this is the best metaphor..."
"Analogy" Lucas corrected.
"Analogy, that's what you're worried about? Fine, analogy for figuring out what this thing is"
Nancy leaned over the book. "So this mind flamer thing"
"Flayer, Mind Flayer. To conquer us basically, it believes it's the master race"
Steve lit up. "Like the Germans"
Everyone looked at him. "You mean the Nazis?" Dustin asked.
Steve nodded quickly. "Yeah, the Nazis"
"Yeah sure, if the Nazis were from another dimension" Dustin said and Hopper rubbed his face.
"What is Nazis?" Silver asked whispering in Steve's ear.
"Evil Germans" He replied.
She nodded. "Oh"

"We're talking about the distruction of our world as we know it" Lucas announced placing his hands on the table.
"Oh that's great" Steve said moving away from the table. "That's really great, Jesus" Silver put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He calmed down and huddled against her.
"Ok" Nancy said trying to get everyone under control. "So if this thing is like the brain that controls everything, how do we kill it?"
"We kill everything it controls" Mike answered.
Dustin nodded. "We win"
"Great" Hopper said. "So how do we do that? Shoot it with fireballs or something?"
Silver lit up. "I could do that"
"Oh yeah" Hopper said. "I forgot, you have superpowers too"
"N-no not with fireballs" Dustin chuckled nervously. "Um, you summon an undead army...because you know...zombies don't have brains and the Mind Flayer likes brains..." He trailed off and sighed.
"So no fireballs?" Silver asked disappointingly.
Dustin shook his head. "It's just a game"
Everyone at the table groaned. Hopper face palmed once again and Silver sunk back to Steve's side.
"So what the hell are we doing here?" Hopper asked angrily.
"I thought were were waiting for your military backup" The thirteen year old retorted.
"We are!"
"The monsters are getting closer" Silver said. "The Mind Flayer's still out there"
Hopper looked at the girl. He could see a girl just like Eleven inside her. Lost, scared but brave. He felt like he wanted to protect her because he could also see his own daughter inside of her.
"How would we even kill it?" Mike asked. "You can't just shoot this thing with guns"
"We don't know that" Hopper grumbled.
Mike snarled. "We know it has killed everyone in that lab"
"And we know the monsters are going to molt again" Lucas piped in.
"And we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach the town" Dustin added looking at the table.
Everyone looked at Hopper expectantly. They didn't notice Joyce hobbling out her room. She had the clothes from the lab still on and her black hair was a mess. She looked tired and her eyes were red from crying. "They're right" She said. "We have to kill it, I want to kill it"
"Me too, okay, me too Joyce" Hopper said approaching her. "But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here"
Silver thought about Will who lay silently on the couch, so cold and pale. She thought about what she saw on the field and gasped. "He does" She said quietly.
"Who?" Steve asked looking at her carefully.
Mike looked at Silver and suddenly understood her. "She means Will" He said. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's him. He's connected to it, he knows it weaknesses"
"I thought we couldn't trust him? That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer" Max reminded him.
Mike nodded. "He can't spy if he doesn't know where he is"