"... and the Mind Flayer now knows that she's the only thing that can stop him?" Mike asked. Lily wasn't listening at all. All her mind was on at that moment was Billy. The emotion she saw when he found out she was pregnant, there was fear, happiness, anger and so much more. He was fighting that monster and Lily wished so bad that she could run back to him and in his arms and get that virus out of him once and for all. Then they could go to California on July seventeenth like they said they would and start their lives there.

"And Lili," Nancy said. Lili's attention was gained again and she looked around the room.

"What?" Mike asked, his eyebrows raised. In truth, Lili didn't really speak to him again after what happened before the void. Neither Lili or Mike really cared and either way, they were fighting for the same thing so they would just tolerate each other.

"Lili too. The Mind Flayer is scared now, right? Because you fought it, right?" Nancy turned to the blonde. Lili nodded.

"Yeah, it's 'cause I fought Billy when he was Flayed. At least, that's what I think Billy was trying to say," Lili shrugged and looked down at her hands in her lap. She was sitting on the floor, staring at the TV still on the static station. Her eyes were dull now, fixated on the TV and the bags under her eyes were showing. Her cheekbones showed more since she barely sate the past three days. Her hair was knotted and greasy since she has been sweating and crying a lot.

"He also said that he was gonna kill all of you," El looked at everyone. Lili nodded.

"He told me that too," Lili said. "He said he was going to kill me... then El... then everyone else."

"When he told you this," Nancy turned back around to face El. "It was here, in this room?"

Lili and El both nodded. Nancy walked over to the window facing the fireworks that were going off. "Do you guys hear that?"

"The fireworks?" Lili asked, standing up and next to her.

"No, that rustling noise," Nancy said, not taking her eyes off the trees. Lili followed her line of sight and noticed that the trees were shaking. Not the leaves or branches, the trees.

"It's here," Will said. The pair turned around to find his touching the back of his neck. Those rustling trees might not be from the wind. Lili walked quickly past Will on the couch to the front door, yanking it open and running down the steps. Everyone followed after her to look at what was coming.

Lili stood in front of everyone else and watched as the trees were being forced apart. A big, slimy spider-like creature shoved the trees away and knocked them down, making its way towards the cabin.

"Shit," Nancy mumbled. Lili turned around and looked at the kids.

"Everyone back inside!" She ordered. Jonathan led the kids back and everyone ran back into the cabin. Nancy and Lili were the last ones inside and Lili turned and slammed the door shut.

Lili walked over to the closet where Hopper kept his guns and tossed one at Nancy. She checked to see if there were bullets and then cocked the gun. Lili gave Nancy some more bullets to pocket and Nancy grabbed them. Lili looked at everyone who was staring at her, waiting for her to tell them what to do.

"Board up the windows, grab anything that could be used as a weapon!" Lili shouted at them. They all got to work, Lucas and Mike grabbed the bookcase and slid it over to one of the windows and Lili helped Max board up the window over the kitchen sink. Everyone tried their best to make the cabin a fortified area, but it all seemed too little to Lili.

When Jonathan and Nancy finished hoisting the couch up and blocked the front door, the lights started flickering. Everyone gathered in the middle of the room in a circle. Jonathan gripped his axe, Nancy readied her gun and Lili and El had their hands at the ready.

Suddenly, something bursted from the wall next to the bookcase. The bookcase fell and landed on top of Lili who screamed out in pain. Max screamed and ducked for the tentacle to come in front of El who was holding her arms out protectively in front of Max and Will. Jonathan launched himself at the thing, bringing his axe down to the tentacle and trying to chop it off. It only hacked its way a little bit. It's like trying to cut off a head with a sword- it's not easy.

Jonathan tried to swing again, but the tentacle hit him and made him fly back and into a shelf. Nancy ran up to the tentacle that was screeching in Jonathan's face and shot at it. She missed and cocked the gun again and missed again. El looked at Lili who was still trying to get up since the bookcase fell on top of her.

Nancy cocked her gun again, but there were no more bullets. She looked at the claw in fear and backed up to the wall. She shut her eyes and waited for it to attack. Lili watched helplessly as her friend faced death and gathered her powers in her core, making it burst in one lethal pulse. The bookcase flew off her and she ran up to the tentacle and grabbed it using one of her pulses. El stood next to her for extra reinforcement. Together, the two girls yanked their arms down, ripping the claw off the arm. It shrieked and retracted out the window Max was standing by.

"Holy shit," Max breathed.

"Max, get away!" Lili screamed at the girl who ducked and another tentacle bursted through the wall by her. El caught it with her hand and another one broke through the wooden wall beside her sister and Lili caught it.

The two girls tried to catch their breaths as they held the tentacles in place. El's hand grabbed Lili's and Lili gave it a squeeze. In that moment, the two girls yanked their arms down and cut both tentacles off.

They were breathing hard and it seemed like they won for a second, but then the Mind Flayer smashed its head through the roof of the cabin and shot a tentacle out from its mouth to grab El's leg. She slid on the ground and grabbed Lili's ankle and both girls were dangling in the air. Lili shot her arms out for Will, Mike and Max to grab and looked up (or, in Lili's case, down) at the Mind Flayer who had El's leg clenched in its claws.

"Nancy, shoot!" Jonathan yelled at his girlfriend as she tried to load her gun. She steadied it on the monster and gave Lili a look of desperation.

Lili pulsed the Mind Flayer, trying to get it to detach from El as Nancy shot it. Lili felt the bullets whiz by her, barely grazing her hair with each shot.

Lucas grabbed the axe that Jonathan dropped on the floor and stood on a table, next to the tentacle.

"Lili! Mike!" El screamed for the two. Lili cried out in pain when Mike yanked her arm the wrong way.

"Lili! Lucas, do it!" Max shouted at the boy. Lucas obliged and swung with all his strength. The creature shrieked with each hack, but it came closer and closer to coming apart, like a rope about to break.

Finally, with one last swing, the Mind Flayer's claw fell from its arm and it retracted back into what Lili could only assume to be its mouth. Lili fell onto the floor and into Jonathan arms and El fell into Mike's. Mike caressed El's head and asked if she was okay.

"Are you okay?" Jonathan asked Lili. She nodded, touching her shoulder where she's pretty sure it's dislocated. She got up and stumbled to the wall.

"Lili?" Max ran up to her and looked at her with concern. Lili didn't do anything, only aligned her arm and shoulder up to the wall and jerked her body up, making her shoulder pop back into place. Lili cried out in pain at this, it's been so long since she had to do it.

"Are you okay?!" Max asked her. Lili only nodded. Will yanked on Lili's shirt and she turned to see Mike trying to yank the chopped-off claw off of El's leg. Lili pushed Mike aside and sent a pulse to the claw, making it fall off. El screamed out in pain and it looked like she was going to pass out from it.

Lili threw the claw to the other side of the room and it crawled out a hole in the wall. The monster roared from above and everybody stood to get ready to fight again.

The monster roared from the hole in the ceiling and El stood up and limped to the center of the room. Everyone looked at her in fear and she shot her hands out and stopped the Mind Flayer from coming closer. She started to rip the Mind Flayer's head in half and screamed out in pain as she yanked her arms to the side, making the head of the monster rip in two. She fell back into Max's arms in exhaustion.

The monster was back again a second later and Lili shot her hand out this time, keeping the monster from coming closer, like El did.

"Come on!" Nancy shouted at everyone. "Go! Go!" Jonathan, Lucas, Mike, El and Will ran out of the house. Nancy and Max stopped at the door to look at Lili still in the middle of the room, pulsing the monster away.

"Lili!" Max screamed at her. Lili turned to her to look at Nancy, then Max.

"Go!" Lili shouted at the two.

"No!" Max cried, running back into the cabin to grab the blonde. Nancy grabbed the redhead's waist and yanked her back. She pushed the girl outside where El was looking inside in fear.

Nancy took one second to look at her newfound friend. She hesitated by the door, wanting to run back inside to grab Lili and run. Lili saw Nancy still waiting by the door. She put all of her strength into pulsing the monster back. Both of her nostrils were running with blood and Lili locked eyes with Nancy.

"Go!" Lili screamed, making Nancy rush out the cabin and slam the door shut, leaving Lili inside to fight for her life.

"No!" Max cried at the cabin where Lili was trapped inside. Nancy ran back to where Jonathan was in the front with his expression sour. Nancy kept her head down as she approached Jonathan. She hated leaving Lili behind, she hated leaving anyone behind, period.

"No!" Max tried to run past Nancy to the cabin, but Nancy grabbed the girl and yanked her back to face the brunette. Max thrashed in Nancy's arms as she tightened her hold on the girl.

"Lili!" El cried into the night. Mike's arms were tight around her as well, pulling her along the beaten trail. "Lili! No!"

"Let me go!" Max screamed at Nancy. Jonathan helped Nancy yank Max forward and away from the cabin. Lucas and Mike continued to make El walk forward too, sending each other worried glances. Will trailed behind them, looking back at the cabin where his once babysitter and best friend was, using all her strength to keep her and the rest of the kids alive.

"No- No!" Max cried and kicked and screamed as Nancy and Jonathan dragged her away. Will turned back to the road in front of him and did as Lili told him to.

Inside the cabin, Lili was on the floor on her back. Her arms were bent, as if she was holding up the roof instead of an interdimensional monster that wanted to take over the world. She gritted her teeth as she released her hold on the monster.

A tentacle flew out of the monster's side and shot down to grab Lili, but she rolled away in time for it to barely graze her skin. She let out one breath, then another shot out of the monster and attached itself to the wooden floor when Lili rolled again. She shot her hands out again to control the monster but it kept on creeping towards her.

Lili looked the monster straight in the mouth and let out one last cry. She built up the power that coursed through her veins and gathered it in her core once again. This time, she waited a bit longer to grab the most. The monster's head came closer and a tentacle slithered out of its mouth and close to Lili's face. The power in her core burned her skin as she continued to build it up.

And then, she let go. Her body lurched up and her hands balled into fists of rage. The amount of power exerted from her tiny frame would astonish even her in the future. The way her skin glowed a pale gold and the way her blue eyes clouded over with a gold light was beyond her.

The monster cried out in pain and fell away. Lili popped right back up and looked at the empty hole in surprise. She let out a breath of relief. Now would be a good time to run, she told herself. She turned and bolted out the door, falling over the wooden steps of her home and into the dark forest.

Her body stopped glowing, but her hands were brighter than a flashlight. She stared at them and didn't see a branch on the ground and tripped over it, falling onto the cushioning leaves. Lili rolled over and groaned in pain. A roar could be heard from where her cabin was and she quickly got up and sprinted forward.

If I were a group of terrified kids, where would I hide? Lili thought as she came onto Mirkwood. Flashes from her childhood invaded her brain as she remembered Hopper and his flashlight shining on her when she ran away from Philadelphia.

Lili couldn't think of anywhere the group might be, so she settled for the teenager hotspot of Hawkins, the Star Court Mall.

[UNEDITED]

This one's really action-filled lol sorry if you didn't get most of what was going on. For the end part, I would imagine her lighting up like captain marvel, if that helps :)

Side note: if you like grease and Kenickie, then please check out Summer of '59! It's different than my other one :)