Once everyone got back to the Byer's home, Hopper helped Joyce to her room, telling her to get some rest while the rest of them figured out a plan. Steve, Nancy, and the party sat in the living room, all of them filling Mike in on what happened to them at the junkyard while Jonathan and Kendall sat by Will, who they laid down on the couch.

Jonathan had not left the boys side since they got there. And Kendall hadn't left his side since either. She remembered what it was like when Marcus went missing. What it was like for both of them. So she stayed with him, leaning up against his living room cabinet as she ran a comforting hand up and down his back.

"He's gonna be okay." Kendall muttered reassuringly. Jonathan watched his brother for a couple seconds before he slowly nodded his head. "He was okay last time, he'll be okay this time." He muttered.

Jonathan turned to look at Kendall and broke into a smile when he was met with her own. He looked down and noticed one of Kendall's hands close to his own. He looked back up at Kendall and keeping his eyes on her, he reached out and grabbed her hand. Instantly, Kendall squeezed his hand.

Ruining the small moment, the sound of Dustin's yells and loud footsteps, echoed through the home.

"Kenny! Move!"

Kendall turned her head at the sounds of Dustin's yells. The boy was practically steamrolling towards her and she had no time to process or follow his words before he pushed her out of the way, revealing the drawers to the cabinet she was leaning against.

Jonathan grabbed her hands at the boys harsh push as she glared at Dustin, who opened one of the drawers and pulled out Will's dungeons and dragons book

"Dustin!" Kendall screamed, but the boy barely gave her any of his attention, closing the drawer and running back into the kitchen. "Sorry! This was important!"

As Dustin ran away, Jonathan stood up, his hands out to help Kendall up. "You okay?" He asked quietly as he pulled Kendall up. The girl sighed, nodding her head as she brushed off her clothes. "Yeah, I'm okay." She muttered back, watching as Dustin slammed the book down onto the kitchen table and started to flip through the pages.

Kendall and Jonathan started to walk towards the table, everyone circling it. When Dustin reached the page he was looking for, he sighed, and slammed his finger onto the image of the creature.

"The mind flayer." Dustin said, looking up from the page of his book to the group huddled around the table with him. The party all looked at Dustin with dropped jaws while Max, the older teens, and Hopper watched him with confused looks.

"What the hell is that?" Hopper asked from directly across the table from him. Dustin looked back down at the book and pointed at the small description of the creature, summarizing it for the others. "It's 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 using its highly-developed psionic powers."

With every word Dustin spoke, everyone in the room started to lose hope in his idea. Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose angrily, looking away from Dustin. "Oh, my God, none of this is real. This is a kids' game." He yelled and Dustin's eyes widened at the accusation. "No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids. And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor—"

"Analogy." Lucas corrected. Dustin clamped his mouth shut, slowly turning to glare at Lucas beside him. "Analogy? That's what you're worried about?" He asked and Lucas just shrugged. Dustin watched Lucas for a second before scoffing, turning back to the other. "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

Nancy sighed, leaning forward to rest her hands on the table. "Okay, so this mind flamer thing..."

"Flayer. Mind flayer." Dustin corrected, earning an immediate whack across the back of his head from Kendall standing behind him. Dustin whipped around to look at Kendall, the older girl not even looking at him. Dustin huffed, readjusting his hat that she had moved and turned back to Nancy.

"What does it want?" Nancy asked, finishing her previous question.

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin answered and Steve almost instantly nodded his head. "Like the Germans?" He stammered out. Every head in the room turned to the boy. Kendall looked at Steve with a squinted look. Before she could correct him, Dustin beat her to it. "Uh, the Nazis?"

Steve gulped, he looked around at all the eyes on him before he turned back to Dustin and nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Nazis." He muttered.

Dustin continued to stare at Steve for a couple seconds, a little bewildered by his question before he focused back onto their main topic. "If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. Uh, it views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."

"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." Marcus added from beside Lucas. Dustin nodded in agreement, removing his hands from the book so he could put more exaggeration into his next words. "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."

Kendall slowly brought her hand up to her mouth, rubbing her jaw to hold back scolding the boys for their brutally honest words. Steve scoffed at Dustin's words, pushing himself off of the table to pace around the kitchen. "That's great. That's great. That's really great. Jesus!" He cursed under his breath.

Kendall watched Steve for a second before stepping forward and taking his spot at the table beside her brother, Jonathan following her and standing behind her. "Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it..." "We kill everything it controls." Marcus said, turning to his sister while he finished her thought.

Kendall gulped at her brother's words, but he didn't stop there. "We win." He said, a sense of relief in his voice as he shrugged and turned to look at everyone else at the table.

"Theoretically." Lucas interjected under his breath, earning an immediate glare from Dustin. Kendall glared at the two boys, wanting to know what this monster was or at least how to stop it. "Great. So how do you kill this thing?" She asked and Hopper let out an annoyed chuckled, rubbing his jaw in annoyance. "Shoot it with Fireballs or something."

Dustin chuckled at the mans words, shaking his head. "No. No, no Fire... No Fireballs. Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because..." His words slowed as he realized every pair of eyes in the room were glaring at him. Dustin gulped, struggling to make eye contact with anyone. "Because zombies, you know, they don't have brains, and the mind flayer, it... it... It likes brains." Dustin said and Marcus dropped his head and shook it.

"Oh my God." Marcus muttered and Dustin cleared his throat. "It's just a game." Dustin stammered and Hopper slammed his hands against the table, turning and walking away.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup!" Dustin snapped at the man, growing tired of his negativity. Sure, it may have been silly, but at least Dustin was trying.

"We are!" Hopper yelled back, whipping back around to look at the kids.

"How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike yelled back and Hopper took a step closer to the boy, not caring about yelling at a kid. "You don't know that! We don't know anything!"

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab!" Mike yelled, pointing in the direction of the lab. Dustin immediately nodded in agreement. "We know the monsters are gonna molt again." He said right before Lucas jumped in. "We know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." He said, pointing at the table just underneath his fingertips.

"They're right."

Everyone turned their head at the sound of Joyce's voice. The woman stood just outside the entrance of the kitchen. She looked at all the eyes on her before settling them on Hopper. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." She said, walking into the room.

Hopper immediately started to walk towards her, a glum expression taking over his face. "Me, too. Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here." He said sadly.

"No. But he does." Mike said. Kendall turned to look at the boy and noticed him staring at the unconscious Will on the couch. Mike took slow steps towards Will, his eyes never leaving him. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore. That he's a spy for the mind flayer now." Max asked and Mike nodded.

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is."

...

As the Byers, Hopper and Mike sat with Will in the shed, Kendall, Steve, Nancy and the party sat inside the kitchen. Kendall sat beside Marcus, her little brother moving his chair to be closer to her while he rested his head on her shoulder. Kendall ran her fingertips up and down Marcus's arm to help calm him down from the stressful situation when he slowly started to fall asleep.

Kendall turned her head when she felt someone sit in the seat on the other side of her and pressed her lips into a line when she realized it was Steve moving to sit beside her.

"Hey, Kenny." Steve muttered, not being able to tell if Marcus was asleep beside the girl, but not wanting to wake him up nonetheless. Kendall gave the boy a small smile and turned her head away from him. "Hey."

An uncomfortable silence started to grow between them. Kendall clenched her jaw at the aggravation of the situation and Steve's now constantly lip trilling to get rid of the silence.

Kendall looked down at Marcus curled up into her side when she felt him move against her. A small smile grew on her face at just the sight of him. She was so grateful that he was okay.

And Steve was one of the reasons he was okay.

Kendall took a deep breath, preparing herself to say her next choice of words. She turned to face Steve who immediately turned to look at her when he saw her move out of the corner of his eyes. When Kendall smiled at him, Steve's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Thank you." She said and Steve's raised eyebrows immediately dropped into a furrow. "For..." He asked, and Kendall chuckled. "For taking care of him." She answered, looking down at Marcus before turning back to Steve.

He smiled sheepishly, shaking his head to shake off the girls gratitude. "I told you, I love that kid like a brother. As for his friends... God, they were a hassle." He muttered, making Kendall laugh again.

As his own laughter started to die down, Steve shrugged. "But I'm gonna protect them." He answered honestly. Kendall nodded, understanding just how he felt. She would help those boys always, even if it meant risking her own life.

Suddenly, the door to the backyard bursted open, Hopper running in. The ruckus woke Marcus up from her sleep, he and his sister immediately jumping out of their seats to walk towards the table the rest of the party was at.

"What happened?" Dustin asked, him and everyone else in the kitchen watching as the Chief grabbed a piece of paper and a crayon. "I think he's talking, just not with words." Hopper muttered under his breath, starting to write Morse code onto the paper. Kendall couldn't read morse code, but she knew it when she saw it.

As the party, Steve, Kendall, and Nancy started to crowd the table to see what Hopper was writing, the Byers and Mike walked into the home and joined them. Steve shook his head at the Morse code on the paper. "What is that?" He asked, looking up from the paper and to Hopper. Before the man could speak, Dustin, Lucas, and Marcus answered for him.

"Morse code." They answered in unison as Hopper started to write the translation under the code.

H-E-R-E

"Here." Marcus read out and Hopper nodded, looking around at the kids surrounding him. "Will's still in there. He's talking to us."

They decided Hopper, the Byers and Mike go back into the shed and remind Will of old memories while everyone else stayed in the kitchen, Marcus waiting beside the walkie for Hopper's codes to give to Kendal who would write out what was being past from Will, to Hopper, and to Marcus.

Marcus listened to the beeps the walkie emitted. He didn't need the translator Hopper offered him, him and Will learning and perfecting Morse code when they were nine so they could talk during movies without either of their siblings getting mad at them for talking when they were at each others homes.

C.

L.

O.

S.

E.

G.

A.

T.

E.

Kendall let out a small breath as she wrote the "E", leaning back into her seat so everyone could read what was written. "Close gate." They all muttered. Kendall looked from the words, to Nancy sitting beside her. Before either girls could speak, the song of the phone ringing made everyone freeze.

It took two rings before anyone did anything. Dustin and Kendall were the first to get up, both running to the phone. "Shit. Shit." Dustin cursed under his breath. Since he got there first, Dustin picked the phone up off the wall and immediately put it back down, ending the call. Dustin let out a sigh of relief and slowly turned around to Kendall. He chuckled as a way to ease his own and her nerves, but his smile was quickly washed away when the phone rang again.

Both him and Kendall turned back to the wall and just before Dustin was about to grab the phone, Kendall grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Instead of grabbing the phone and just ending the call, Kendall ripped the phone off the wall entirely. her chest raised up and down in panic, feeling a little bit bad for destroying the Byers' phone, but she'd pay them back.

Everyone watched Kendall with wide eyes, shocked that she ripped the phone off the wall. "Do you think he heard that?" Max asked nervously, looking up at Kendall with scared eyes. Kendall only looked down at the girl, not knowing how to respond without worrying her. Before she could even think of how to respond, Steve shook his head from beside her. "It's just a phone. It  could be anywhere. Right?" Steve asked.

Kendall turned to the boy and huffed nervously, subconsciously bringing her nails to her mouth nervously to chew on her nails. As if to answer Steve's question, roars from demodogs from the front yard echoed throughout the home.

Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Marcus all ran into the living room to check the windows as Hopper ran in from the backyard with three shotguns in hand, the Byers and Mike hot on his tail.

He headed straight to the living room with Mike, leaving the Byers in the kitchen. His eyes widened at Dustin, Marcus, Lucas and and Max leaning over the back of the living room couch to look out the windows. "Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" Hopper screamed and immediately, the five backed away but not by much.

Kendall ran into the living room at Hoppers yells, not knowing what her brother was doing. The Byers, Steve, Nancy, and Mike all came into the room with her. Hopper turned to the huddle of people and held out two shot guns. "Do you know how to use these?" He yelled to Steve and Jonathan.

The two boys eyes widened at the question. Jonathan's eyes bounced between Hopper and the guns. "What?" He asked quietly and Hopper grew more panicked, shaking the guns in front of the boys voice for more emphasis. "Can you use these?" He yelled.

Before either boys could answer, Nancy and Kendall stepped in front of them. "We can." Nancy said. Without a thought, Hopper tossed the guns to the two girls. Kendall caught the gun with ease and once she made sure it was loaded and the safety was off, she looked up.

"Marcus..." Kendall said, turning around to find her brother and Dustin standing right in front of the windows. Kendall leaned forward and tapped the two boys shoulders to get their attention. "Hey, hey. Get behind me." Kendall said, not giving the boys time to reaction before she pulled them behind her herself.

Kendall turned to her left and noticed she was side by side with Lucas who was using a sling-shot as a weapon while Max hid behind him. Kendall took another small step forward so she was technically in front of the two of them along with her brother and Dustin.

"Where are they?" Max whispered, her voice barely audible over over the monsters growling outside of the home.

For a while, all they could hear were monsters growling and roaring at each other before one by one, loud thumps and whimpers started to replace the anger. Kendall's hands shook holding the gun, worry and fear over the situation fueling through her body. She held the gun in her hands tighter despite how clammy her hands were getting.

When the noises coming from the creatures suddenly stopped, Kendall's chest tighten. Her grip on the weapon stayed unbearably tight, as she took in a shaky breath. A cold shiver slid down her spine at the eery silence that took over the home. All she could hear was everyones nervous breaths.

The silence broke when a demogod was thrown through the glass window of the Byers home. The body almost hit Kendall, but the four kids hiding her each grabbed a limb and pulled her out of the way.

"Holy shit." Dustin screamed, his grip on Kendall's wrist still tight even though she was safe. He tried to sneak a peak of the demodog in front of Kendall, but the girl took a step in front of him, blocking him from the creature's way. Marcus attempted to lean over Kendall's other shoulder and immediately took a frightened step back at the sight of the monster. "Is it dead?" He whispered.

Hopper, who was closest to the creature, slowly poked the tip of his gun to the it's head, awaiting any sudden movements. When the monster didn't move, confirming that it was dead, Hopper sighed in relief and lowered his gun.

Bringing back the fright that had just left everyone's bodies, the lock on the door slowly started to creak. Every body in the room jumped and turned to face the door, everyone who did have weapons raising them.

They watched as slowly, the door unlocked and started to open. Kendall's jaw fell as Eleven, now a year old and wearing black makeup and carrying a new style, walked in.

Mike pushed his way through the front of the group, his eyes already watering at the sight of the girl. "Eleven." Mike whispered. Eleven's eyes widened at Mike, a small smile growing on her face. "Mike." She whispered back.

"Holy shit..." Kendall muttered in shock. She turned beside her to Jonathan. When they locked eyes, Jonathan looked just as surprised as her. Kendall looked back to Mike and Eleven just as they pulled away.

Mike smiled down at Eleven, shaking his head in disbelief. "I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for..." "353 days." Eleven whispered, finishing Mike's sentence. "I heard."

Kendall watched as Mike's started to shake his head faster. "Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" He asked as Hopper walked up to them.

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper said, making all eyes in the room turn to him. El's once happy expression fell into a glare at the sight of Hopper, but the man ignored the glare, continuing to walk towards her. "The hell is this? Where you been?"

"Where have you been?" El spat. Instead of answering, Hopper pulled El into a hug. Kendall's eyebrows furrowed. As far as she could remember, Hopper and El didn't interact that much. How were they this close.

"You've been hiding her." Mike breathed out. Dustin turned to look up at Kendall, but when he noticed she was just as confused as him, he turned back to Mike, El, and Hopper. Mike suddenly shoved Hopper, ultimately shoving El. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike screamed. Hopper turned around in a second, grabbing onto Mikes shoulder tightly. "Hey!" Hopper yelled and immediately, Mike froze like a deer in headlights, staring up at Hopper in terror. "Let's talk. Alone." Hopper said.

While Hopper dragged Mike into one of the bedrooms, Dustin and Lucas ran up to Eleven to pull her into a hug. Marcus, staring at her with wide eyes, slowly walked up to them with Max trailing behind him. He never got to officially meet Eleven after she saved his life only ever seeing her for the few seconds she'd be in the upside down. Now, she was right in front of him. He felt like he was meeting a celebrity.

"We missed you." Lucas breathed out.

"I missed you, too."

"Is that her?" Marcus heard Max whisper. He turned to look at the redhead, the girl squeezed by his side out of nerves of Eleven standing before her. When Marcus nodded, Max stared back to Eleven with wide eyes.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin chuckled out as he and Lucas pulled away from their hug.

Instead of laughing with him, Eleven raised her hand and pushed her thumb against Dustin's mouth. "Teeth." She said, making Dustin's eyebrows furrow. "What?"

"You have teeth." Eleven stated. Dustin, finally understand Eleven, cracked a smile and started to laugh more. "Oh. You like these pearls?" He asked as Marcus took a few more steps forward, now completely in the huddle with Eleven, Lucas, and Dustin.

Elevens eyes turned to the boy who joined the circle, her eyes widened when she saw Marcus, alive and well, standing in front of her. "You're here."

Marcus let out a shaky breath, giving her a small smile. "You're real." He breathed out lightheartedly. When Eleven smiled back at him, Marcus shoved his hands into his pockets. "Thank you. For saving me. I never got to and I just... Thank you, Eleven." He said, his words difficult for the girl to understand from how fast he was speaking, but she got the gist of it.

Eleven doesn't respond, but she does walk up to him and pull him into a hug. Marcus froze, not expecting Eleven to hug him so soon into them meeting. "El." The girl corrected. Marcus chuckled, hugging her back. "El. Thank you, El."

—MARCUS AND EL BEING CUTESY LITTLE BFFS MY HEARTTTT
i felt i need to put more of him i love him to death

i desperately need to go back and edit this fic but right now... I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

I KNOW THERE WASNT MUCH JENDALL BUT THERE WILL BE MORE TRUST