Will Never Found AU but with a twist.
Will is found in season one. Seasons one and two play out the same.
Instead, Will gets taken back to the upside down after the rain fight with Mike. He’s so low, and feels like he’s losing the people he cared about most when he finally got them back. The people he fought so hard to be back with don’t want anything to do with him. Don’t want to hang out with him. Don’t want to play with him. Are too cool for him. Think he’s childish and that he needs to grow up like them. What did he even come back for? They don’t want him here. Mike doesn’t want him here.
He’s taken back after destroying Castle Byers, and at first, he’s terrified. Rightfully so. But a part of him, a deep primal part of him kicks in. His survival instincts. It’s terrifying, but it’s familiar. He’s been here before. He’s survived here before. He can do it again. He knows what to do, and while still a kid, he’s older now.
And it works, for a little while. He’s still terrified, still panicked, but he’s able to avoid trouble for a little while. Avoid the demogorgons. But only for so long. He’s still just a terrified kid. He was going to be found sooner or later. He’s ambushed by a demo after only a few hours. He’s able to evade it for a moment, but he knew it was pointless. That he didn’t stand a chance against the monster. No matter how much he fought against it. And just when he thought everything was over, that all his fighting the last few years was going to go down the drain-
He opens his eyes and just… stares.
Stares at the demogorgon, mid air, shaking, unable to get to him. That’s when he registers his own hand, vaguely stretched out towards the demogorgon. He registers the ache in his head, and how his arm is shaking with the effort of… whatever he was doing. Before anything else could happen, Will quickly throws his arm back, the demogorgon going flying back with the force of it, and he takes off running again.
He… he had powers. Powers that seemed to have triggered like some sort of survival instinct. Powers he most certainly did not have the last time he was trapped in this horrible place. Maybe, just maybe, he could do something with that?
Maybe he was more useful in the upside down than he was in the right side up.
Meanwhile, back in the rightside up, Mike is an absolute wreck. He and Lucas had made it to Castle Byers, which was not only a wreck, but Will was nowhere to be found. And Mike was panicking. Full on rambling, gasping for air, running around in a manic episode, desperately trying to find Will, even just a sign that he was around. But there was nothing. No matter how much he and Lucas looked, he was nowhere to be found. Will was gone. Again.
When it becomes abundantly clear that Will is gone gone, and not just off on his own somewhere, the group spends weeks searching tirelessly for him. Trying and failing to find any way to get into the upside down just to find him. They have to find him. El tries to reach out to him, to find him like she has in the past, but no matter how hard she tries or how many headaches and nosebleeds she gives herself, she just can’t find him. It’s like he’s vanished.
Nobody knows it, but Will is subconsciously blocking her out with his powers. He’s still hurt, and he doesn’t want to be around anyone. He doesn’t want to be found. He doesn’t necessarily want to be in the upside down, but after discovering his powers, he truly believes he will be more useful in the upside down investigating, fighting, and exploring than with people who have hurt him and don’t seem to even want him back. His powers are taking those feelings and running with it. Running on instinct and survival to do what is necessary to help Will stay alive.
Mike is distraught, absolutely beside himself with the guilt that he’s drowning in. He wanted so desperately to be cool, to be seen as a mature adult that he completely neglected his best friend, who wanted nothing but his childhood back. Who just wanted to play DND with his friends and pretend that they were normal kids. All Will wanted was to have fun with his friends and Mike had stomped all over it. He had been a selfish prick and now he was paying the price.
All he had to do was be a good friend. It was so easy, so simple, and he couldn’t even do that right. Hanging out with Will was as easy as breathing. It always had been. Of course the one time he fucked it up this would happen. They could have been playing DND in his basement. He could’ve been watching his best friend beaming with happiness as he shared the campaign he was so excited about. Instead he was gone. Again. Probably being tortured. Again. Probably in danger, and scared for his life. Again. Probably reliving all of his worst nightmares.
All because Mike was the worst friend ever.
Mike lives on an incredibly short fuse for the next few weeks. Barely sleeping, barely eating, barely taking care of himself. How could he? Will was out there somewhere going through hell and it was his fault. He owed it to him to find him no matter what it took. He was irritable and angry and had an incredibly short fuse, liable to snap on anyone at any time.
It wasn’t until over a month later when Hopper had to sit him down and break the hard truth to him that everyone else had already realized.
With El unable to reach him and no sign of him from any other source, they had to start coming to grips with the very real possibility that this might not be upside down related at all. That this time, maybe Will really did go missing for one reason or another. Reasons no one really wanted to think about. And even if he was in the upside down again, it’d been over a month. Will had hardly survived over a week the first time. There was no way he was still alive if he was there. It wasn’t feasible. El not being able to find him at all was solid enough proof of that.
But Mike refused to listen. Will wasn’t gone. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be. Mike couldn’t go through this again. He’d barely survived the first time. And there was no body. Everyone could say what they want, or jump to whatever conclusions they wanted, without a body, no one could say Will was dead. Not for sure. Mike refused to listen to their bullshit. He didn’t care if they thought he was insane, or reckless, or whatever else. He was going to find Will. Because he couldn’t be dead. He just couldn’t.
Weeks turned into months. Months turned into a year. A year turned into two. Still no Will. But still no body. No proof Will was dead, and Mike would continue white knuckle gripping that straw like his life depended on it.
Mike was basically a zombie by this point. Just going through the motions more than anything. Every trip to the upside down filling him with the hope of finding Will, because he had to be there, and every time the reports from Hopper came back the same. No sign of life aside from demos.
Any time someone mentioned Will being dead, or even alluded to what happened to him, Mike would blow up. It was the only time people saw any real emotions from him.
Cut to the eventual reunion, when Mike finally had enough and ventures into the upside down himself via one of the gates, practically trapping himself there. And after a lot of exploring and some close calls, he finally finds him. Finally finds Will and he feels like he can breathe for the first time in years. His world finally feels like it’s spinning again.
Then his heart is subsequently crushed by the heartbreaking realization that Will basically chose to stay in the upside down. That he felt so unwanted that faithful day in the rain that he would’ve rather been in the place of his nightmares than with his friends and family. That he felt more useful and like he was contributing more by fighting from inside the upside down with his abilities and connections to Henry and the hive mind.
Mike felt like throwing up.
I imagine that they have a long emotional chat and catch up, airing out all their dirty laundry and grievances and afterwards they’re all good other than Mike being ten times more protective and possessive because the last time he fucked up with Will and let him out of his sight this shit happened and like hell he’s letting that happen again. I just don’t have all that thought out and it’s 6am and I need sleep XD.
Edit: Thanks for the love and support! Didn't expect this to blow up holy shit 😳 Here's a little treat 😉
