American Heroes: A Stranger Things 3 Fic

My Own Species

Will wakes with a start, not unusual for him, especially these past few days. It takes a moment for him to register where he is, but he relaxes when he recognizes the basement he's spent so many nights playing D&D in. The room is quiet but for the breathing of his sleeping friends. Rubbing his eyes, he peaks at the time on Mike's watch. 5:51. He gets to his feet and goes to the bathroom.

He's washing his hands when he hears a tiny knock on the door. He turns off the faucet, dries off his hands, and opens the door slowly. Eleven is standing there, a small smile on her face.

"Hi, sorry, did you need to use it?" Will ducks past her to allow her through, but she shakes her head.

"No, I want to talk."

"Oh." Will glances around the room to see if anyone else is awake, but they're all curled up in their blankets. He looks back to El. "What about?"

"Billy. We know he's the host now, but what about Heather?"

"Heather?"

"The girl he took. She was screaming, and she was in the bath filled with ice."

"Oh, right." Will leans back against the door frame. He hadn't even thought about that. He figured Billy had killed her, but then he remembers how El said she and Max had visited her house and seen her there with Billy. After she'd been taken by him.

El folded her arms. "Can there be more than one host?"

"I don't know," Will admits. "This doesn't seem like last year."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Mind Flayer was able to get me because I'd already been to the Upside Down. But Billy? When was he ever there?" He chews his bottom lip. "That part of the Mind Flayer that was in me last year is what's here in Billy, so maybe it can have more than one host."

El frowns. "How do we get it out of both of them?"

An exasperated sigh escapes Will's lips. "I guess we'll have to find them both and burn it out of them. Then close the gate."

"We need to be careful," El says. "Billy was... strong. We need to find some way he can't escape like last time."

"Okay. We should see what the others say when they wake up, but you're right." Groaning, he glances back at the others asleep. "How are we going to do all of this? Find Billy and Heather, and get the Mind Flayer out of them. Find the gate, if it's even there, and close it, and we can only do that once the Mind Flayer's out of Billy and Heather. Plus, we still have to save Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica."

"Will." El puts a hand on his shoulder. "We'll figure it out."

"I know, I know. But there's just so much that could go wrong."

"We can do it."

"You mean, you can do it. You're the only one who can close the gate, right?"

"I think so." Her smile wavers. "But how do we keep it from reopening? I already closed it last year. If it keeps opening, I don't know how much longer I can keep closing it."

"We'll have to make sure it never opens again."

"How?"

He draws in a breath. "No clue. Maybe Hopper can do something."

El watches him curiously as he fiddles with the sleeve of his shirt. "Will?"

"Yeah?"

She tilts her head to where Mike is asleep on the floor. "Mike said Hopper threatened him."