Chapter Text
When he stopped falling, he was still surrounded by darkness. Will briefly wondered if he was somehow still stuck in the Void - barred from entering Vecna’s mind again.
But the hair on his neck standing up ensured him that El had gotten them all into Vecna’s mind. The connection was stronger here. Will could feel Vecna’s presence poison the air.
He was sitting on the edge of what felt like a bed, and once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw light filter in under a door. His legs felt unsteady when he stood up, but it still didn’t take him long to find a light switch to flip, and when he did, the room finally came into focus.
Will drew in a sharp breath.
He knew exactly where he was. El had described the place well enough that he immediately knew where he had ended up. Will or Jonathan would come running to her room on nights when she woke up screaming about Papa, and she would tell them about the horribleness of the lab.
But the place was just that to him, a tale of traumatizing tests and manipulative scientists - a place he hadn’t personally been tortured in.
Which meant that it was still infinitely more pleasant than his previous visit to Vecna’s mind - this time he wasn’t strung up by vines, seconds away from having his eyes gouged out, being forced to be a spy again - but it was scary nonetheless.
The history it held was enough to make anyone uneasy. It became even scarier when he turned the door handle, with shaking hands, just to find that the door was locked.
Panic was rapidly building in him, and he wondered if Vecna had been ready for them, trapping them in the lab before they could even get the chance to find their friends. Maybe Steve, El, and Max were also locked in a room here somewhere.
Will started screaming at anyone to let him out, banging his fists against the door as fear and anger wrapped around him like those stupid vines. Why couldn’t things just not blow up in their faces for once?
When the door opened, he jumped back, his breath coming in short bursts. Relief flooded through him as he saw who entered the room. Will tried to ignore the warning signs flashing in his mind at his friend's appearance. He looked so wrong without his bouncy curls, and the look in his eyes sent shivers down Will’s spine.
“I hear you’ve found your voice again,” Dustin said, before tilting his head, looking at Will’s hands, bruised from banging them against the door, “and a little fight too, it seems.”
Will had felt too passive in the search for Vecna, but Dustin knew this. Will had complained to Dustin for months about his mom's insistence on keeping him on the sidelines. Which was why it hurt to hear him comment on it like that.
In fact, it felt so unlike him, and even the tone in his voice sounded off. But then again, grief had changed Dustin, and he hadn’t sounded like himself for a while, so Will decided to ignore the jab at him.
“We need to find the others and get out of here before Vecna merges the worlds,” he said.
He would have reached out to take Dustin’s hand, and dragged him out the door to search for the others, if it wasn’t for the cold, hard stare that Dustin responded with.
It left Will feeling confused, and a terrifying thought entered his mind. What if Dustin didn’t know Vecna had trapped him?
“This place isn’t real, you know that, right?” he asked, “This is inside Vecna’s mind. You’re stuck in a trance like Max, and I was.”
For a brief second, confusion lingered on Dustin’s face before he got a cruel and uncaring look in his eyes that left Will with unsettling fear.
“Wow, you’re weaker than I thought. The last round of tests must have really messed with your head,” he scoffed, letting a mocking laugh fill the room. He shook his head and left the room again.
As the door clicked shut, Will tried to make sense of it all.
He would have called out to Dustin, told him not to leave, pleaded with him to stay so they could figure everything out together. But he was too stunned by how unnerving that interaction had been to do so.
That was clearly not the Dustin he knew.
His friend might have lost a bit of himself in the Upside Down, clutching a dead body to his chest, but beneath the trauma and grief, Will could still see glimpses of his friend. He saw it in his devotion to Eddie, in the rare smile he let slip out, and in his determination to figure out how to save the world.
This Dustin, however, seemed emotionless and cold. There was something else, though, something buried deep beneath his exterior that looked so familiar. Will couldn’t quite place what it was.
It didn’t matter. It was clear that something was very wrong, and Will was almost certain Vecna had done something to Dustin. Maybe mind control, or even more terrifying, maybe he was flayed - possessed as Will had been.
A part of Dustin’s last words stuck with him. He had mentioned something about tests, almost like a memory he had had of Will that Will didn’t remember himself.
He wasn’t stupid, though; he could use context clues. He was at the lab, and Dustin had talked about previous tests. Which meant Will had existed in this place before he had entered Vecna’s mind. So, Vecna had most likely created a whole new world and changed Dustin and the others to fit into it, fooling them into believing this was all real.
Will wondered if the others were like Dustin - if they were also walking around the lab with a newfound darkness in their hearts. Unrecognizable versions of themselves.
He wondered if Steve, Max, and El were also at the lab or if that was a torture reserved for Will in this world.
He didn’t have much time alone before someone else walked through the door. Before they walked in, Will was almost certain it would be Lucas, Mike, or Hopper coming to laugh in his face. Part of him thought that might have been better than who actually appeared at the door.
Vecna - maybe it would be more accurate to call him Henry since he was in human form and not the vine-covered, branchy form Will had seen him most like - walked in, closed the door behind him, and dragged a chair over to sit in front of Will.
In any other situation, Will might have felt intimidated by him; instead, anger allowed bravery to step up.
“What have you done to Dustin!” he yelled.
“What was needed,” Henry replied, with a smug smile, and Will wanted nothing more than to wipe it off his face.
“You have changed him.”
“No, I can’t directly change anyone. That’s not a power I possess. I can only change the things around them.”
“What?” he asked, feeling confusion replace the anger.
“I helped your friend. His mind was weak. It was easily broken into - far easier than the others. He was practically begging for a different outcome. I just gave him that. He’s so much stronger now.”
Will thought about how much grief had consumed Dustin since Hawkins’ fall. Henry preyed on weak minds. It was how he got Will all those years ago and how he cursed Max last year. That must be why it had been easier to infiltrate Dustin’s mind.
At the same time, Will resented that Henry called his friends’ minds weak. They weren’t weak because of the things they had been through. Will was beginning to see that he hadn’t been weak either. Henry was just a twisted kind of evil.
Besides, wasn’t he literally the reason for Dustin’s trauma in the first place?
Will felt seething rage bubble up in him again.
“It’s your fault he longed for a different outcome. He had to watch his friend die because you sent those creatures after them! You’re the reason his mind was so easy to get into.”
“You give me far more credit than I deserve.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing, just that in another world. I might have taken him instead of you four years ago.”
Will was left speechless for a while. He had always thought Dustin was very well-adjusted and happy. Sure, when they first moved to town, he had seemed lonely, and those first couple of weeks, they had invited him into The Party, he had acted like it was a temporary spot he was doomed to lose. But eventually he started to loosen up, and it didn’t take long for him to believe he belonged in The Party.
They rarely talked about things from before the Upside Down entered their lives. Most of their trauma came from that, so it hadn’t felt important to do so. Will was beginning to think that maybe they should have talked more about it. If only to prevent evil wizards from using that trauma to trap them in other worlds.
Something occurred to Will.
“Is that what you did here?” he asked, “Did you take Dustin instead of me?”
Henry shook his head, “No, in this world, I just made sure they stopped looking for you when you disappeared.”
That filled him with both relief and dread at the same time.
Relief because at least that meant the others probably weren’t trapped here like him. It meant that wherever Steve, Max, and El ended up, they would find out he was missing when he didn’t show up at the Creel House, and they would come get him. It should also mean that Lucas, Mike, and Hopper’s lives had resumed after his supposed death, and they were somewhere in Hawkins, thinking this was their actual lives. Will was hoping it wouldn’t be too hard to convince them it was all fake.
Dread came in at the thought of Dustin. There was something Henry was leaving out because Will couldn’t see how Dustin would end up the way he was if all Henry had changed was their success in finding him.
Before he could dwell more on that, Henry started talking again.
“I can make anything happen in here.”
“What?” Will asked because he wasn’t really following.
“Come on, I have seen inside your mind. I know what you want, and if you stay here, I can make that happen.”
Will knew exactly what he was talking about. Mike. The thought filled him with horror. Henry was playing with him. He was trying to manipulate him. But Robin had helped him understand that happiness in his identity came from acceptance, not from chasing something that wasn’t meant to be.
“What makes you think I would abandon my friends for some cheap imitation of love?”
Henry just shrugged, “Desire is one of humanity’s biggest weaknesses.”
Then he stood up from the chair and went to leave. He paused at the door.
“I quite like this new version of Dustin. He’s less annoying, less prying, and much less plan-ruining. I’m most definitely keeping him here.”
Will felt fear and rage encompass him.
“We won’t let you!” he screamed as Henry opened the door.
“I would like to see you try,” he smiled and walked out, leaving Will alone again.
Will was annoyed at how confident Henry seemed in his plan. Didn’t he know them? Didn’t he know that their love for each other was what had prevented his plans every single year? Wasn’t he the one who had trapped four of them and erased their memories, just to try and stop them from doing it again?
They never gave up on each other. It was no different now, and Will was sure Steve, El, and Max were currently working on a plan to get them all out.
Will wasn’t going to let them do all the work alone, though. He knew Dustin was here, so all he had to do was try to get him to remember his real life the next time he stopped by.
The wait was long. There wasn’t exactly a clock, but Will was sure several hours had gone by before the door opened again.
When Dustin walked in, he seemed different from earlier that day. Will could see the tension in his shoulders the minute he entered the room. There was anger in his eyes, and he kept looking at Will like he was the cause of it.
He didn’t say anything, and Will had a feeling he would have to start the conversation.
Dustin looked the way he usually did when there was a problem he had a difficult time figuring out - he looked frustrated. Will was hoping it was because he was beginning to feel that something was off.
“Dustin,” he said, trying to grab his full attention, only continuing once Dustin locked eyes with him, “You have to remember the real world.”
Dustin didn’t respond, so Will took it as his invitation to keep going.
“Remember The Party, Lucas and Mike?”
“Hah, those two moved on from your death a long time ago,” he scoffed, finding some of that mirth he had had earlier that day.
Will ignored the way that sentence made his heart shatter into a million tiny pieces. He wouldn’t give him a reaction to that. None of this was real, and showing Dustin that it hurt him would only further his belief that it was.
“No, you guys all found me in the real world. El helped you. You never gave up.”
Dustin started pacing around the room and muttering to himself in a way that was so Dustin-esque that Will felt hope rise in his chest, so he kept going.
“Remember DnD nights in Mike’s basement? Eating too much pizza and sitting by that table for hours, forgetting all about time.
“Remember snowball fights at Lucas’? We used to roll around in that snow until we were shivering.
“Remember listening to music in my room? Or going out to Castle Byers to do our homework together?
"Remember Max beating your high score on Dig Dug? Man, you spent weeks trying to get that number one spot back.”
Will couldn't help the smile that graced his lips at the memories.
“Remember Steve?”
Dustin now had the palms of his hands pressed against the side of his head. He was shaking slightly, and Will thought maybe he was fighting against his memories, but that just meant he had to keep talking, keep trying to get him to remember.
“Remember reading comics in your room? We could get through several issues in a day, and sometimes we would act out some of the scenes.”
Dustin removed his hands from his face and looked up from his pacing. Will smiled at him, certain that he almost had his friend back.
“You know what I remember most from your house?” Will asked, and when Dustin just stared at him with wide eyes, breathing heavily.
He answered his own question, “Your mom’s famous homemade cookies.”
That seemed to flip something in Dustin. Anger washed over his face.
Before Will could even try to think of what could have possibly garnered such a reaction, Dustin held out his hand, and then Will felt himself get lifted into the air.
The air in his lungs got knocked out as Dustin threw him into a wall.
Will was left breathless, staring at his friend in shock.
“I’m tired of people trying to poke at my mind!” he screamed, as he fixed Will with a crazed stare and wiped blood from his nose.
The door slamming echoed long after he had left.
Will drew his knees to his chest and let his head rest for a few seconds, feeling the hope he had before burning to ash. The initial search-and-rescue task just became a lot more complicated. Henry had trapped Dustin in a way that felt almost impossible to get him out of.
It made sense now what Dustin was doing at the lab. How he had ended up here, Will didn’t know, but he had clearly been experimented on like El and gotten powers. Only it had somehow turned him cold and cruel.
Will was sort of glad he didn’t have the memories of this version of him. Because if the lab had turned Dustin into that, and Will had been here too for at least five years, he could only imagine what this version of him had been put through. He had a feeling it would only invite many new and terrifying nightmares into his already vast catalogue.
He only allowed himself to feel lost for a few minutes before he got up to pace the room. He had to get out of here. Hopefully, El, Max, and Steve had had more luck than he had in trying to get the others to remember. But he couldn’t just sit around and wait for them to come get him out. He had to get to them first so that he could warn them about Dustin and they could figure out what to do together.
So the next time the door opened and what looked like a scientist walked in (probably to take him for some of those tests Dustin had mentioned), he shoved them aside, grabbed the desk lamp because he had to have some kind of weapon, and ran out. He scaled several stairs and prayed his instincts led him in the right direction.
He was hoping to avoid any run-ins with anyone, but luck didn’t seem to be on his side.
When he turned a corner, he ran straight into Dustin. It threw them both off course, but Will recovered first, and when he locked eyes with Dustin, he didn’t give him a chance to stop him from escaping. Will swung the lamp on the side of his friend's head.
Dustin went down immediately, and Will flinched when he saw blood start to trickle down his face. But when Dustin stirred a little, Will realized that it probably wouldn’t keep him down for long, so he left him and ran away.
Will was tired when he finally reached the doors to the outside, almost on the verge of collapse. He took in a deep breath of fresh air and spotted all his friends barreling towards him.
Relief flooded through him. He was so glad the others had managed to get Mike, Lucas, and Hopper out of Henry’s control.
Lucas and Mike enveloped him in a hug. They were both crying, and Will would have let the hug linger for longer if it wasn’t for the fact that he knew he had to warn them about who was sure to emerge from the lab at any minute.