The group was walking down the train tracks to where they were trying to hear the growing from. Julia had a small smile on her face from what just happened. Steve walked next to Dustin.
"Took you long enough." Dustin mumbled up to him. "It really did. But when I started thinking more about her, I saw something in her I haven't before. How she always lit up when she sees you and your friends. How she knows everything about me and knows what to do to make me forget about anything bad. She brings out a different side of me. "
"Alright dude I get it, I'm trying to keep my lunch down. Break her heart I'll cut your hair." Dustin threatened, only joking a little bit. Steve's eyes widened, pushing his hand through his hair.
He walked faster to catch up next to his girl, linking their hands together. "You're positive that was dart?" Lucas asked. "Yes. He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."
"He was tiny two days ago." "Well, he's molted three times already." "Malted?" "Molted."
Julia defined it, "Its when he sheds his skin to make room for growth." Steve nodded, looking around the woods.
"When's he gonna molt again?" Max asked. "Its gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."
"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats." Julia's eyes widened after Steve said that. Lucas stopped Dustin, "wait. He ate a cat? Dart ate a cat?"
"No, what? No" Dustin was a horrible liar, everyone could tell. "What are you talking about? He ate Mews." "Mews? Who's Mews?" "Dustin's cat." Julia sighed and placed a hand over his mouth.
Leaning up to him, she whispered in his ear "they didn't know Dustin kept him. They thought Dart ran off by himself." "Oh fuck." Steve mumbled into her hand.
"Did you know about him?" Max asked Julia who removed her hand from covering Steve's mouth. "I literally found out about him while he was eating our cat."
"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas yelled at Dustin. "No!" Dustin tried to come up with an excuse, but nothing worked. "Dust, don't lie." Steve wrapped his arm around Julia, pulling her close to him.
Dustin sighed, "he missed me. He wanted to come home." "Bullshit!" "I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"
"Oh, so now you admit it?" "Guys, who cares? We have to go!" Max tried to stop the arguing. "I care! You put the party in jeopardy! you broke the rule of law!"
"So did you!" "What?" "You told a stranger the truth." Julia rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as Dustin shined the flashlight in Max's face.
She scoffed, annoyed at Dustin. "A stranger?" "Both you get your heads out if your asses! You both broke a rule of law. But we can talk about that when there aren't hundreds of Demogorgons walking around Hawkins." Julia yelled at the arguing teens. A loud screeching echoed through the trees. Steve and Julia looked at each other before slowly walking over to where the screeching echoed.
"Guys?" Julia mumbled out to them, while they continued to argue back and forth. "Guys!" Steve yelled, grabbing their attention. Another screech echoed through the wood. Julia and Steve raised their bats and ran.
They stopped at the edge of a cliff, looking over the foggy town of Hawkins Indiana. "I dont see him." Dustin frowned. Lucas used his binoculars, "it's the lab. They were going back home."
Julia took a deep breath. Ever since El told her what they did to her there she refused to ever look at that building. Julia leaned forward to see dim lights drove down highways, Steve instinctively put his arm out in front of her chest making sure she didn't fall.
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Julia stayed in the back of the group while Steve lead them, incase anything were to come out at them. They walked out of the woods to see Jonathan and Nancy at the gate of the lab.
"Steve?" "Julia?" "Nancy?" "Jonathan!" "What are you doing here?" Steve returned the question. "We're looking for Mike and Will."
Julia stood behind Lucas and Max, her hands on their shoulders. Her head snapped in the direction of the lab when the screeching became louder than when they were back on the tracks.
Everyone stood there looking at each other. "Well shit." Steve walked over to her, embracing her in a hug. He wasn't sure if they were going to make it out, all he could do was hope they would.
"We're gonna be okay. You me, the kids, everyone will be fine." He lightly held her face and kissed the top of her forehead. Nancy pushed through the two, "the power's back."
They ran towards the gate, attempting to open it by pushing a button. Jonathan repeatedly hit the button, "Let me try." Dustin offered to help.
Dustin used his thumb to frantically push the red button, but it remained closed. Julia watched as her brother cursed at the button, kicking the machine.
The gate finally slid open, Dustin thinking he did it. "Hey! I got it!" Everyone stood at the gate, Steve stood up, flipping his flashlight in his hand.
"Guys." Max drew everyone's attention to two cars speeding towards them. "Guys get back!" Julia pulled Dustin and Lucas towards the others at Hopper pulled up. "Let's go!"
Steve crawled in the passengers side letting everyone get through to the back. Julia sat next to Max as the red headed girl picked at her chipped nail. "I'm sorry this is how you're welcomed to Hawkins."
Max let out a small laugh, "hell of a lot more adventures than California." Max slowly leaned her head on Julia's shoulder, she scooted down a bit so the young girl could reach better.
Julia somehow was good with teens, and to Max, Julia seemed like an older sister that she'd always wanted.
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Both cars pulled up to the Byers house. When they walked in, they saw pages and pages of notebook paper with marks on them.
Jonathan sat next to his unconscious brother, Nancy holding his shoulder in support. Julia knocked on Joyce's bedroom door, Hopper had told them what happened to Bob.
"Joyce? It's Jules." The door slowly opened to reveal a distraught Joyce, tears streaming from her eyes.
Joyce didn't say a word, she pulled Julia into an embrace, sobbing into her hair. "He's gone" was all she repeated. The two women stayed like that for a bit before Julia slowly pulled away a bit.
She held the broken mother in her arms as she spoke. "I'm so sorry to hear. But listen, Bob didn't pass for nothing. He got you guys out of there. He's the reason why Will is here. He's the reason we all got back here safe." Joyce took a deep breath, taking in Julia's words.
There was a soft knocking from the door. Pulling away, Julia opened it to revealed a concerned Hopper. They switched places as Julia went into the kitchen and Hopper stayed with Joyce.
She walked over to Mike, placing a hand on his shoulder. He stood up from his chair and enveloped her in a hug. She rested her cheek on the top of his head as he let out a sigh. Steve stood against the sink, a warm smile on his face. He noticed the way Julia always comforted the teens when they needed.
Each time she comforted the teens, he slowly fell more in love with her. The way she cared for everyone in this house the same amount amazed him. He had met no girl with such a big heart as she does.
She sat on the foor, Steve joined her as he slid down the wall plopping himself down. She rested her head on his shoulder, enjoying the warmth from his body. Mike stood up from the table, walking into the living room. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?"
"Really?" Mike turned to everyone, holding a puzzle Bob had brought when he found out Will want feeling to well. "He petitioned the school to start it and everything. And then he had a fund-raised for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?"
"Yeah." "Definitely." "We can't let him die in vain."
"Well what do you want to do Mike? The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demodogs on our own. I mean when it was just dart, maybe..."
"but there's an army now. "Exactly." "His army." "What do you mean?" Steve spoke up.
"Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army too." Everyone turned to each other. Mike ran to grab a picture Will had drawn a bit ago.
"The shadow monster." "It got Will that day on the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him."
"And so this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked, slowly putting the puzzle pieces together. "To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down. Everything." "Woah. Slow down, slow down." Steve begged.
"Okay so, the shadow monster's inside everything. And if the vines feel something like pain, then so does Will." Julia's stomach twisted at the words Mike spoke.
She knew the soldiers had gone down there, burning the vines, meaning in that moment Will felt excruciating pain everywhere.
"And so does dart." "Yeah. Like what Mr. Clarke taught us. The hive mind." "Hive mind?" Julia repeated, not understanding what that was.
"A collective consciousness. It's a super-organism." Dustin informed his sister who nodded. "And this is the thing that control everything. It's the brain."
"Like the mind flayer." Lucas snapped his fingers at Dustin sentence, Julia surprisingly knew about this after her talks with the teens.
"The what?" Steve and Max asked in unison. Dustin slammed his D&D guide book down on to the table. "The mind flayer."
Hopper appeared, "what the hell is that." "Its a monster from an unknown dimension. It's so ancient that it doesn't even know it's true home. It enslaves other races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers."
Hopper rolled his eyes, "oh my god none of this is real. This is a kids game." Dustin got defensive over his book, "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-" Lucas cut him off, "Analogy."
"Analogy, that's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is." Steve bit his lip, intertwining his fingers with Julias.
"Okay so this mind flamer thing-" Dustin corrected Nancy, "mind flayer." "What does it want?"
"To pretty much take over us. It thinks that it's the master race" Julia spoke as she stared at the picture in the book.
"Like the Germans?" Steve everyone turned to him, confusion written on their faces. " uh the Nazis?"
"Yeah, yeah, the Nazis." Steve looked down hiding his pink cheeks, embarrassed that the young teen had corrected him.
"If the Nazis were from another dimension, totally. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself."
"It wants to spread, take over other dimensions." "We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know it."
"Oh that's great. That really great!" Steve walked away, pushing his hand through his hair. "Okay so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything, then if we kill it-" "we kill everything it controls."
"We win." "Theoretically." "Great. So how do you kill this thing? Shoot it with fireballs or something?" Dustin giggled to himself, "no no fireballs, you summon an undead army, because..." Dustin stammered eith his sentence as he looked Hopper in the eyes.
"What the hell are we doing here?" He slammed the book down on the table. "I thought we were waiting for your military backup."
"We are!" "But even if they come how are we gonna stop this?" Julia questioned. "Exactly. You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike stood with Julia.
"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" "We know it's already killed everybody in that lab."
"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." "We know it's only a matter if time before those tunnels reach this town."
"They're right." Everyone turned to look at Joyce. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it." Hopper walked up to her. "Me too, but how do we do that. We don't exactly know what were dealing with here."
"No. But he does."