MARLEY // Max Mayfield

Unity

They moved to the basement, hidden behind a shelving unit stacked with old folders and boxes filled with miscellaneous tapes. Marley hesitated at the top, doubt clouding her mind. Mike's words had stuck with her, but she still found herself struggling to get over the fear of Vecna taking control, of any plan being exposed and seen by him. Steve noticed, Lucas stayed, the two of them looking at her with concern, Steve from the bottom of the stairs, whilst Lucas lingered on the step below hers.

"Marley, I've said it once, and I'll say it again, if Vecna could see through you, we'd have been discovered ages ago, you'd have killed us all, and he would have won," Lucas said, but Marley hesitated still, her expression distant. Lucas sighed and took her hand, tugging her into the basement after him. Steve pulled her close, his arm resting around her shoulders as he kissed the top of her head.

Nancy set up the projector, a grid appearing over the map of Hawkins that had been pasted to the wall. Will searched around, finding a retractable pointer and began brainstorming quietly, staring at different locations on the map as everyone settled in to listen. There was a vacant chair next to Joyce, and Marley was placed in it, her eye closed.

"Ok," Will said softly, nodding to himself, "ok, the Turnbows live here. We wait in a van across the street, and as soon as they're asleep, we move in, we grab Derek, and we take him to...here," he tapped the end of his pointer to where Brunson, Sturbridge and Pennwood met, "the McCorkkle farm. It's completely isolated. It's abandoned. The only thing is, we need to make sure he doesn't see us or know where he is. So we'll need to blindfold him."

"Wait, wait, hold on. What?" Steve said, his hands out in a gesture of total bewilderment as Marley cracked her eye open.

"So that Vecna can't find him," Robin explained, but Steve just shook his head, rubbing his eyes.

"What? And Mom, you're okay with just kidnapping a child?" Jonathan said.

"We're saving a child...via kidnapping," Joyce said, and Marley's brows furrowed in utter confusion. "It's fine. I think. Yes. Now's not the time to play it safe, Jonathan."

"I don't think it's about playing it safe, more like...playing it legal? So by the end of this, we can live our lives outside of a jail cell," Marley said gently, and Joyce bit her lip.

"If I may," Dustin said, turning off the projector as he stood in front of it, "though I'm not morally opposed to any of this, there are a few holes."

Lucas adjusted in his seat, nodding, "Yeah. Like, what if Derek falls asleep before the Demogorgon attacks him?"

"That's one," Dustin hummed.

"Or what if Derek wakes up before we grab him, alerts his family? Like Marley said, we'll go to jail," Nancy added, and Dustin pointed at her with two of his fingers held up.

"But the third and most gaping hole is...even if by some miracle this plan even works, Holly is still missing," Dustin finished. "Hop and El, still MIA. This doesn't bring us any closer to finding Vecna. This plan just buys us and Derek some time. That's it."

"Not necessarily," Mike spoke up, standing as he glanced around for his backpack, "there might be a way," he unzipped it and pulled out his dungeon master bag, "a way to save Derek and find Holly."

Everyone slowly migrated around the table in the centre of the room, watching with bated breath as Mike poured out the pieces.

"This is Derek," Mike said, picking out a piece and placing it on the table. There was movement to Marley's left in the corner of her eye, and the gentle weight of Nancy's head rested against her shoulder. "And this is the rest of the Turnbow family." Mike pushed the rest of the pieces forward as Marley hesitantly nestled a hand in Nancy's curls. "We're gonna need to recruit someone that the family trusts. Someone who can gain access to the house. This person will knock the family out."