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Chapter Text

Early May 1985

Eddie

“Did you get it?” Gareth asked as they stepped out into the warm spring afternoon. “Did you pass?”

After the shit show of last Fall, he was surprised each time either of them wanted to spend time with Eddie. They had been thrust into his world of dangerous government agencies, monsters, and alternate dimensions. He would have survived if both of them never talking to him again after that ride to and from Chicago. Instead, they continued to treat Eddie like the stoner drama queen he was. It was still a respite from the way most of the rest of the party sometimes treated him - like a one trick pony, someone good for his powers and little else.  

“Yeah, yeah, it’s right here.” Eddie reached into his backpack and grabbed the final paper Gareth asked about. It was already graded and returned to Eddie. Mrs. Kravitz was cool about prioritizing his grade. He had turned it in that morning, and she graded it over her lunch break, returning it to him when he dropped by after school. He showed Gareth the top page. It had a prominent B- in red with a smiley face next to it. It was officially his last grade before finals, and it meant that as long as he passed each final, literally only passed, he would be graduating this year. 

“Holy shit, Eddie. You fucking did it!” Gareth danced in front of him, grabbing both his shoulders to use them as leverage to jump up and down. 

“I know, I know!” Eddie hadn’t done it yet, but he was close. Between how hard he’d been working this semester and how much studying he was planning to do with Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan in the next week, he would pass. 

He’d be graduating this year. 

Gareth’s joy didn’t stop even as he realized what this meant. “Fuck, man. I’m going to miss you.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll still be in town. Got no plans except for the jobs and making Corroded Coffin a paying gig.” Thatcher Tire had hired him for the summer with the unspoken agreement that if he survived there through the heat of August, he’d have an apprenticeship after that. They specialized in tires and repairing the odd luxury motor car in Hawkins. It was actually why Eddie knew to apply at all. Steve had been taking his car in for an oil change when he noticed the help wanted sign and asked about it. 

Eddie thought if he didn’t like Thatcher Tire, at least he’d have a job on his resume in addition to the bookstore. Eddie had picked up a shift a week there this summer, too, but Mr. Kaufman was cutting hours now that the mall was gobbling up the customers who used to shop downtown. 

“But Hellfire won’t be the same without you.”

“That’s the whole point.” He elbowed Gareth. “Don’t even pretend you aren’t excited about it, man.” Eddie shoved Gareth away as they walked on towards Gareth’s new car. He’d bought it with the money his Mom and him had earned flipping their trash to treasure finds. 

Eddie knew they were good at finding and repairing hidden treasure - he’d seen some of their work - but he had no idea it made them money. Not until Gareth drove to school the weekend after his seventeenth birthday, back in February. It was a burnt orangey-red ‘78 Pinto hatchback. Small, for sure, but it drove just fine and was Gareth’s outright. 

That was more than Eddie could say for himself, still sharing his ride with Wayne.

Eddie still had savings left from last summer. Only a little bit, and all of it was earmarked for weed and beer to celebrate graduating. Even with two jobs planned for the summer, he was still a long way away from earning enough for the van of his dreams. Something with enough space to store and tow all of Corroded Coffin’s equipment. Something they could sleep in for a week of touring next summer. 

 “I am excited,” Gareth protested. “But it’s different being a DM than a player.”

“Yeah, being a DM is better.” He raised his arms to the heavens as if channeling cosmic power through his body. “The power. The control. Everyone looks to you and you alone for every moment in the world.”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Wizard.” Gareth giggled like he was stoned.

Gareth got into his car first and leaned over to unlock Eddie’s door. The car was already broiling inside. It had no A/C, which was already starting to suck and it wasn’t even properly summer yet. They rolled down the windows and cranked up For Whom the Bell Tolls before Gareth pulled out of the school parking lot. 

They passed the Middle School on the way out, and Eddie shoved down the small flare of guilt he felt. El and Will wanted to get together sometime this week and practice using their talents. Eight months later and they were both still keen on seeing exactly how far and how much they could do together now that they knew about Will’s special talent to amplify and control their talent together. 

Eddie didn’t see the point. The whole group knew the Mindflayer was destroyed and the gates were closed. They knew everything was over because they’d asked Eddie to look. There was no point in messing around with their talents anymore except to play. 

That wasn’t exactly a top priority for Eddie. Or even in the top five. His priorities were graduating, succeeding at his new jobs, saving enough money for his van, handing Hellfire over to Gareth, and getting a real paying gig for Corroded Coffin. That was what he cared about. 

He was avoiding them for now, making it to as few of their sessions as he could get away with before they complained and pulled out their big guns - twin pairs of disappointed eyes silently begging him to train with them. 

They pulled up in front of Gareth’s house and dashed inside to the air conditioning. Gareth’s mom and sisters were home. They passed his younger sister, Hazel, on their way to the kitchen to grab some pop before heading to Gareth’s room to start strategizing for next year’s long campaign. 

When Eddie had announced he thought he was actually going to graduate this year at the last Hellfire game, he’d asked everyone to think about who would like to take over for him. Declaring he’d give them help over the summer if they could decide before graduation. They’d all looked at each other before Gareth stood up and announced his candidacy. The rest of the club had already figured out Eddie was graduating and had weeks of debate about who wanted the role of president and DM next year. Gareth liked to say he was the sacrifice but Eddie knew he was honored to take on the role. 

Gareth’s Mom was in the kitchen. “Hey, baby.” She gave Gareth a kiss on the cheek as he passed by to the fridge. “And Eddie!” She greeted. “How are you doing?”

“Got good news today.” He said, pulling out his B- paper and handing it over. Gareth grabbed two cans of pop from the fridge and slid one over to Eddie on the countertop. 

“Does this mean you’re graduating?” She asked.

“As long as I pass all my finals. And I expect to pass.” Eddie bragged.

“Congratulations, sweetie.” She said and turned to the fridge. “You guys want a celebratory treat or something? I’ve got a box of brownie mix in the cupboard I could make up if you want.”

“Hell yeah, Mom,” Gareth said as he dragged Eddie to his bedroom.

“Thanks, Mrs. Tremblay,” Eddie said, tripping on the carpet after Gareth.

Gareth dropped his backpack by his bedroom door. Eddie followed suit before bouncing down on the bed next to Gareth. 

Gareth was already twisted around, grabbing his copy of the Dungeon Master’s Guide and a few modules from his bedside table. “So I was thinking Vecna for next year's BBEG.”

Steve

“Good old wage slaves,” Steve whispered to Robin as Martin, their Scoops Ahoy manager, walked away. They were left in a small group of other new Scoops employees waiting for their training to start. A two-hour-long experience detailing the ins and outs of how to be a Scoops Ahoy Captain or whatever they were called. Steve hadn’t even started working yet and was already dying inside. 

In front of them was a TV and VHS mounted on wheels. It was playing the official training video. 

“Ahoy there!” A young man on the screen called out. “And welcome to the first day of your adventures on the Sea of Flavor.” He gestured around him to huge cardboard cartons of ice cream surrounding him. “By the end of this training video, you’ll understand Scoops Ahoy’s vision of sharing an ocean of flavor with every skipper. You’ll also know our dress code, rules of conduct, safe food handling best practices, and the best way to make a banana split.”

Steve tuned out the video. Their training was today, but the work properly started the day after graduation. It was good timing as far as his wallet was concerned, but maybe not great timing for the inevitable hangover he’d have after grad night. 

“Every skipper, our term for customer at Scoops Ahoy, should be served by one captain, our term for customer service representative. Or you!”

Steve nudged Robin with his elbow, but she wasn’t paying attention to him. She had already told him she was going to pay attention to the training video. She was really passionate about safe food handling, and she was nervous about getting fired. Already. She couldn’t seem to understand they would never fire her, no matter how clumsy she was and how bad at customer service she ended up being. Only so many young people in Hawkins were willing to be seen in public in the Scoops Ahoy uniform. Since, for some ungodly reason, Robin got them a job here that meant Steve was now one of these young people too. 

He'd survive as long as he didn’t have to wear the hat every day.

“All parts of the Scoops Ahoy uniform are mandatory.” The man on screen said as if he was staring into the depths of Steve’s soul and making sure his worst nightmares were made real. 

Robin helped Steve fight off sleep with her pointy elbows while he decidedly did not learn anything about Scoop’s Ahoy’s dress code, rules of conduct, safe food handling best practices, or the best way to make a banana split. 

The video finally ended. Martin had told them it was two hours. He’d even given them a mandatory break after the first hour. Yet it seemed way too late when they finally stumbled into the parking lot. The sun had set, and there was only the faintest smudge of orangy-pink on the horizon.

Steve was driving Robin home, of course, because he drove her everywhere. At this point, it was expected not only by Steve and Robin but all the kids, pretty much everyone at school, and Eddie. A little flutter of nerves spiked in his stomach thinking of Eddie, and he pushed it away. That had been happening more frequently as the year progressed, especially after the confirmation of everything with the Upside Down being over. 

Once his heart had started to mend from Nancy and his nightmares started to calm down, he’d been left with a really great friend in Eddie. He didn’t know when the spikes of nerves started, but they’d been getting worse as they ramped up their accountability buddy thing and started having mega-study sessions after school together as their schedule allowed. 

Eddie was nice. Kind, funny, and weird, but in a fun way. Kind of like Robin. But Robin didn’t make him feel the same way Eddie did. It was something he worked very hard to not think about.

“God, why did I think this was a good idea?” Robin asked as she walked to the passenger side door. Steve followed and unlocked it for her. “I am not cut out for customer service, Steve.”

“I’m not sure anyone is cut out for customer service. It all seems like it kinda sucks.” Steve countered. “It’ll be better with you around.”

“Of course it will, dingus. I’m your best friend. I’m not worried about that.” She ducked into the car. Steve followed suit on the driver’s side. “I’m worried about Ma Skipper and her hoard of mini-skippers, all demanding samples. I’m going to stress out, drop the food, and forget to wash my hands after handling money. Someone will get salmonella and die because of me! And you won’t even be allowed to help because it’s one Captain per Skipper.”

“Who even came up with that metaphor?” Steve asked. “Aren’t Captains and Skippers, like, the same thing?”

“Do I look like I go sailing?” Robin asked. 

“No?” Steve guessed.

“No, I do not,” Robin assured him. 

“Wanna go grab some burgers or something? From Dave’s on Route 26 before I take you home?”

Robin looked at him for a moment before she sighed. “Sure, let’s get burgers.”

“We don’t have to. I’m hungry. But if you’re not hungry?” When had he turned into such a pathetic try-hard? Was he so desperate for real friends he couldn’t even give Robin space when she obviously didn’t want to hang out more after a long day?

“No, no, we can get burgers.”

“Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll just drop you at home.” Robin looked relieved, and Steve knew he’d fucked something up. Maybe it was this conversation. Maybe it was before today. He didn’t know when, and he didn’t know what he’d done, but he’d fucked something up with Robin. 

“Thanks, Steve. It’s been a long day.” She said, but it didn’t help ease the panic building in Steve. 

They spent the car ride home listening to music. Robin didn’t really chat, which was unusual for her. That continued to freak Steve out more. 

As she got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride. See you tomorrow for a ride to school?”

“Bright and early as usual.” He said, and she frowned. 

Normally, he’d warn her against being late. She had a tendency to lose track of time in the morning, and Steve had spent many mornings this semester driving them to school on back roads so he could speed and make up the time. She’d gotten better at doing her liner and mascara in the car instead of doing them while he waited in the car. 

“Bye, Steve.”

“Night.” He called out. 

The drive back to his place wasn’t that far from Robin’s. A lot like the Byers, actually. All three houses skirted the forest the kids called Mirkwood. Instead, he drove over to MacDonald’s. It wasn’t Dave’s, but Dave’s was for hanging out and enjoying himself. MacDonald’s was for the drive-thru that kept his interactions with people to a minimum so he could wallow in peace.

Robin had been pulling away from him. She’d been increasingly distant as the semester went on. At first, after all the shit went down in November, they were as thick as thieves. Steve had never had a friend like that. He hadn’t even gotten along with Carol or Tommy as well. If Robin hadn’t been so adamant about being friends, Steve would have said he was falling in love with her. 

If there hadn’t been the other thing. The thing he didn’t think about. 

He’d started to act on that intensity because he was a dumb ass. He’d hung out with her more, included her in things automatically, and carved out a space in his life for her. In turn, like with everyone else, she pulled away. 

If she’d gotten a boyfriend and needed to put distance between them to stop the guy from being jealous, Steve would have understood that. It happened with Carol, too back in seventh grade when she started dating Tommy. It had shaken up their dynamic for a while, but eventually, by high school, when Steve was gaining his reputation as a stud on campus, it had evened out into the three-way friendship that functioned for years. Until it didn’t in Junior year. 

Robin didn’t have a boyfriend, but she was still pulling away. 

Steve knew he was a lot for people. He could be clingy. He was dramatic and loud. He was frequently mean and pushed the boundary for a lot of people between funny-mean and just plain cruel. 

Steve paid for his burger and drink and parked in the parking lot across the street from McDonald’s at the Big Buy. He unwrapped his burger and took a bite. 

He was still popular in a vague way. No one was really his friend, but people still wanted to be liked by Steve. Hell, he’d gone to prom and been nominated for King. Expect none of those people cared about him and would forget him before they even left for college. 

Of his two real friends, one of them was pulling away for no reason he could understand and the other was nearly impossible to hang out with now. Because of the thing he didn’t want to think about. 

He hadn’t gotten into any of the schools he’d applied to and his parents had cut him off. He was working a low wage job and had no future prospects to even aim towards. He hadn’t actually graduated high school yet, but he knew he’d peaked already. 

If the Upside Down still as a threat at least he could protect the kids, keep them safe. But they’d managed to defeat it and the one thing he had discovered he was actually good at, was gone. Which was such a horrifying thought. He was glad it was gone. It was an actual living nightmare, but it had also given him purpose. 

Now he had nothing but a shitty job and a nice car. 

No wonder Robin was pulling away. She must be realizing she had stuck with a loser. 

Chapter Text

Mid-May 1985

Eddie

Grant’s birthday was early in June, so their trio now could officially become a quartet. The Hideout wouldn’t let anyone under sixteen play at their open mic nights, and that had kept them a lean three-player band for the last year. Now, that was all changing, and they had to be ready for their first open mic night of the summer with their newly turned sixteen-year-old member. 

Recently, band practice was about reconfiguring their set list to have a lead and a rhythm guitar while ensuring the bass line still worked with the additional guitar line. Gareth still went to town on the drums like he always did. If anything, he had to go harder just to be heard over the new level of noise the front of the band could make. He’d been working on some more advanced fills lately. Eddie liked the sound of them and hoped they’d make it into one of their songs soon.

That being said, they’d been practicing for a few hours already. They were fucking tired, and their hands hurt. Gareth was at risk of blisters on his fingers; he’d been going so hard today. 

Jeff was still plinking around on his guitar. He’d been biting at the bit, waiting for his promotion - don’t tell Grant - from bass to rhythm guitar and was overjoyed to be playing. Just as Eddie had predicted last year, Flight of Icarus was going to be sick now that they had a full band. 

Over the sound of Jeff’s guitar, Eddie heard the faint roar of skateboard wheels on the pavement. He knew that meant some of the twerps were stalking him. What he didn’t know was why. Soon enough, he saw three of them turn the corner of Gareth’s cul-de-sac. 

“Madmax, The Wise Wizard, and Ellie Bellie!” Eddie called out. Will and El were biking. Max held on to the back of El’s banana seat on her skateboard. From the telltale trickle of blood below El’s nose, she was using both her muscles and her talents to drag Max and keep up with Will.  

After a lot of deliberation at the beginning of the school year, El had chosen to keep her name as El. Her official records had her as Jane, but her middle name explained away the nickname. If anyone asked. Apparently, no one had since all her friends called her that on her first day. She still responded to Jane from teachers but was happy using El with everyone else. Eddie followed her choice. 

“Hey, Eddie,” Will said as he jumped off his bike, letting it fall to the ground, cushioned by the grass on Gareth’s lawn. 

Max let go of the back of El’s bike and coasted until she stopped short in front of Eddie and kicked her board up. “Hey, loser.”

“Twerps two and three.” Eddie snapped back.

El dismounted and used her kickstand. She loved using her kickstand, unlike the rest of the hellions who dumped their bikes wherever they landed. Eddie understood. A bike wasn’t something to take for granted when you’d spent the first years of your life in the same windowless box. It was pure freedom to move wherever you wanted as long as you could move yourself there. That kind of freedom was something precious, and she transferred that love onto the bike itself, taking care of it however she could. 

El hugged Eddie but kept her silence otherwise. She turned to Max, “Play the song.”

Max rolled her eyes good-naturedly at El. “It’s not Eddie’s kind of music.”

“But he can learn anything,” El stated as fact. Eddie was flattered, and flattery went a long way with him. He was a little worried about where the conversation was going and why they were arguing about his musical ability in the first place. 

“What’s up? What can I learn?” Eddie asked as he stretched. He hadn’t even realized how long he’d been hunched over his guitar until the interruption of the kiddos. 

“El wants you to play a song at her birthday party next month,” Will said with a faint blush, looking down at the ground. 

“Aw, you want a concert?” Grant teased from his seat on the cooler. “Big brother Eddie’s gonna have to with that pout.” The boys laughed as El pouted deeper, her bottom lip trembling to keep up the expression, her big brown eyes liquid with unshed crocodile tears. 

“Damn, she’s good,” Jeff said. “If my sister could have done that, I would never have gotten away with anything. And I’m the baby.”

“I know it’s not metal,” El said. “But it’s my favorite song right now.”

Eddie had known he was beat the minute the girls started arguing about whether or not he’d play a song; of course, he’d play anything for El, but he felt holding out for a minute under El’s assault was the least he could do. She had to work to earn it. “Alright, fine, hand ‘em over.” He gestured to the Walkman in Max’s hands. 

Max did with a glare that said, “If you say one mean thing about this song, I will end you.” She had a very expressive face. 

Eddie put the headphones over his ears and pressed play on the Walkman. The thunk-clunk of the button under his fingers and the tape starting was always satisfying, even when the music playing from the headphones was horrible pop music.

The song started out bright and poppy and only got worse. “Walking on Sunshine?” Eddie moaned. “For real, El?”

“For realest.” She said solemnly and then giggled to Max and Will. 

He listened closely, trying to ignore the pop-ness of it all and focus instead on the layers of sounds. The drum line, the guitar, the base, the lyrics. Melody and harmony as they interposed around each other, dancing together. Was the song vapid? Yes. Was it easy as fuck to learn? Also yes. 

“You want the whole band?” Eddie offered. If he had to suffer, they had to suffer. 

“Hey,” Jeff shouted out from the back of the garage where he’d grabbed a pop from the garage fridge at Gareth’s house. “Don’t volunteer us for anything.”

El pouted again, this time aiming her weapon towards Jeff. 

Gareth looked back and forth between Jeff and El before he started laughing. “We’re fucked.” He gasped around his laughter. 

“We sure are, Gare-bear.” Eddie said. “Alright, El. We’ll play Walking on Sunshine for you at your party.”

The three soon-to-be freshmen started cheering. “If we can also play some of our setlist. Edited to thirty minutes and made safe for parent’s tender ears.” Eddie knew Hopper was more likely to have an issue with their music than any of the kids at the party. 

Jeff came over and listened to the song as it bled out from the headphones. “No way am I singing that.” He said. “I can sing metal. Not pop.”

“I can take a stab at it,” Eddie offered. He didn’t have a good voice, but he knew Jeff hated how his voice sounded outside the screaming they did for their own show. A lot of metal gods had beautiful, operatic voices, but that wasn’t Jeff, and it wasn’t the sound Corroded Coffin was going for when they performed. 

“I’ll allow it,” Max said, acting like she had the upper hand in his negotiation.

“I’ll allow it.” El mimicked, which made all the kids burst out into giggles. 

“Can we go to the mall now?” Max asked the other two. 

“I’m already tired,” El whined. “Max is heavy.”

“Hey.” She pushed El gently, acting mock affronted. 

“I can take Max the rest of the way,” Will said. 

“We can take the bus back?” El asked.

“Not with our bikes.” Will shrugged. “They don’t allow them on the bus.”

“Soon-” El said and then looked over at Eddie as the other two slapped at her shoulders. “Soon, uh, we can, uh, ask Gareth for a ride.

“Nice save,” Max whispered with sarcasm Eddie didn’t understand. 

“What?” Gareth cried out from the garage. “No way, I’m not taking you goblins anywhere.”

“Goblins?” Will cried out in mock offense. Seeing the kid play along with gentle ribbing from people outside the Party was good. He was quiet in most situations, but Eddie always worried he was quieter now for all that he’d had to endure that Eddie should have been able to prevent.

Thank God he didn’t have to worry about that shit anymore. Predictions over, and psychic talents no longer needed. No matter how much Will and El were harping on them to join him for “training.”

“No, no, let the man speak,” Eddie said. “I think goblins is a perfectly good description. Small, mischievous, and full of trouble.” Eddie ran into Will, putting his shoulder to the kid's stomach and forcing him into a fireman’s carry. 

“Eddie!” Will cried out as the girls laughed. “Put me down.”

“What? Run around?” Eddie asked as he tried to jog with Will on his shoulder. It wasn’t actually possible. Maybe if he were as athletic as Steve, he’d be able to do this, but his strength came from lugging equipment around, which usually didn’t kick and squirm. 

“Eddie!” The kid called out again, breathless.

Eddie bowed forward on the grass, letting Will’s feet touch the ground before he pulled away. The kid stumbled a bit and regained his footing before he started chasing Eddie immediately. El giggled and started in on the chase as well as Eddie ran down the cul-de-sac chased by children Max called out, “We’re never getting to the mall today, are we?”

Steve

Finals were next week. One more week, and then he’d be done. 

Today, however, was for relaxing and not thinking about finals or his life after high school. Today was for hanging out with Eddie. 

Steve knocked on the trailer door. Eddie answered in his boxers and a t-shirt, looking down at Steve for a moment without recognition before his eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, shit. It’s noon?” He looked at his ever-present wristwatch as if Steve’s arrival wasn’t all the confirmation he needed. 

Steve was always on time, unless it was better to be late, like when he was going to a party or meeting with Eddie. “No, dude, it’s twelve-thirty.”

“Fuck me,” Eddie said, running a hand through his hair and turning around, letting Steve follow behind him.

A small spark of attention lit up Steve’s spine at the declaration, and he shoved it down. This was getting out of hand. This need he had to be around Eddie or pay attention to whatever Eddie said or did. Like Eddie was a girl he wanted to date. It was getting ridiculous. 

He had to cool it. That was the key. Keep it cool.

Eddie came out of his bedroom, zipping up the fly on his jeans, socks stuffed in his mouth. He grabbed his socks and started to put them on, hopping around to stay balanced. “What do you wanna do today?” He tried to mime smoking but had to put his hand out to steady himself against the wall before he could really finish the pretend toke. 

“Eh, as long as we’re not studying, I don’t care.”

“That I can fucking drink to!” Eddie said, grabbing two beers from the fridge. He tossed one to Steve. Shlitz was Wayne’s brand by choice and Eddie’s by availability. “Maybe we can get a nice crossfade going and watch a stupid movie?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Steve said, sitting down on the corner of the sofa furthest from where Eddie was stalking. 

“God, I’m glad I got my graduation weed last week. Did you hear Rick got busted?”

“Who’s Rick?” Steve asked. His knowledge of the local drug scene was limited in comparison to Eddie’s. Steve only knew one or two dealers in the high school and even then, only from rumors. Previous to hanging out with Eddie, Tommy had been the guy who got weed for the Harrington parties. After Eddie, he barely had to do anything else but hand over a ten every once in a while to pay him back for all the weed he freely shared.  

“Rick’s my supplier, man. I don’t even know where the hell I’m gonna get my hook-ups if he gets locked up.” Eddie lamented.

“That sucks.” Steve tried for sympathy before he couldn’t help but laugh. “‘Cause you’re my main hook-up.” He immediately regretted the turn of phrase. 

Eddie wiggled his eyebrows at the double entendre but otherwise let it go, thank God. 

“The only other guys I know who might deal are not worth the hassle.” He made a face Steve couldn’t interpret. “One of them was actually named Weevil, man. And he wasn’t even the tweaker!” 

Eddie started to tell him the kind of story Steve had come to think of as a “lab kid” story. Usually, they took place in the lab, but this one didn’t. This one took place two Christmases ago and was like the drug dealer version of The Gift of the Magi. 

The key to a “lab story” from either El or Eddie was the right mix of tragedy and comedy. The story would always start off actually funny, but then came the full tragedy of the situation. That then paired with the horror Steve had when neither El nor Eddie fully understood how horrible, dangerous, or plain shitty what they were saying really was. He’d shared a look of horror with nearly everyone in the Party during one of the stories and was a little bummed no one was around to hear this one.

“Oh, shit. It was weird, wasn’t it?” Eddie asked. 

Steve tried to school his face into at least polite neutrality but was obviously failing from Eddie’s expression. “I mean? Uh, maybe?”

“Huh, I always thought Wayne overreacted to that one,” Eddie said, clearly recalculating the experience. “Well, I’m all good, and no one was hurt, so it’s fine.”

“Right, right. It’s fine.” Steve thought for a moment. The gun in the pants, threatening dangerous people, getting baked, and driving home. Yikes. “Never tell that story to any of the kids.”

Eddie’s eyes widened in real horror. “Oh my god, no.”

They hadn’t started smoking yet, still caught on what movie they should rent before they drove to Family Video when he heard a knock at the door. Steve kept arguing from where he sat as Eddie went to the door. 

Steve could hear a few voices at the door and dismissed it as some neighbor kids or something until he heard, “You promised.” He recognized the voice. 

Steve got up and peeked around Eddie. He saw El and Will at the base of the stairs. “Hey guys,” he said.

“Hey, Steve,” Will greeted him.

“Eddie.” El stomped her feet before she flashed a blinding smile at Steve in greeting. 

Steve liked El. She was probably the first of the brats he’d bonded with between the first Operation Nostradamn-us meeting. (The name was a private joke between Steve and Nancy once upon a time. Now, he was pretty sure he was the only one keeping it up.) Unlike pretty much everyone else in on the saving the world plan, he had time and money to burn, and more importantly, he had skills she desperately needed. He’d taken it upon himself to start teaching her all about how to fit in with other teenagers way before they’d even been sure she could go to school. 

“How’s school?” Steve asked, ignoring the silent stand-off between the kids and Eddie.

“Fine,” Will said with a shrug.

“Good,” El nearly shouted as she turned her full attention towards Steve and away from her standoff with Eddie. Will leaned away from her exuberance. “I am graduating and going to high school next year.” 

That was impressive, and for a while, Steve knew she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t be held back. 

She was learning everything that semester - the course material, how to behave in a classroom, what to expect from a teacher, and how to interact with peers. He knew she was still getting tutoring help from Nancy and Jonathan. He also knew the Party would help her with any of her schoolwork. The problem was everything else. No one in the Party seemed to think all the other gaps were important, but they were important, just underappreciated by nerds. Steve had been cooking with her every other week to ensure her social education wasn’t being neglected by the nerds she surrounded herself with. 

“Congratulations,” Steve said.

“And I made Sarah C. ‘fail under pressure’ yesterday.” Fail under pressure was a phrase Steve had used ages ago to explain how to react or sometimes not react to a bully to get them to raise the stakes. That would force them to either get caught by an authority or look like a dumbass without El looking like a tattletale. 

The majority of the work was being the right kind of aloof. For example, how to stay silent in the right way when you weren’t sure what was going on. She hadn’t really understood until he started using role-playing to work through the scenarios together. It made Steve feel uncomfortable at the time, a weird reminder of when he’d been friends with bullies but had obviously helped El in the long run. 

“Nice!” Steve knocked Eddie to the side a bit so he could hold out his hand for a high-five. 

Will looked confused before he asked, “Is that why she shouted at you and then ran away after third period?”

“She what?” Eddie nearly shouted at Steve before he looked at El with that concerned older brother look that made butterflies flit in Steve’s stomach.

“Yes, she wanted to get a rise out of me.” Steve could hear her quoting him when she said it. “And I was a-”

“Bored brick wall?” Steve asked excitedly.

“Yes!” El giggled her affirmation. 

“What the hell is a bored brick wall?” Eddie asked.

“It’s when you act above whatever the person is saying. A little bored side-eye after they get nasty can really sell it too.” 

El added to his explanation. “You think in your head while you look at them, ‘Is that all you can do?’ and they get very mad.” 

“Right, now the next step?” Steve asked.

“Um, it is the end of the school year, so-” El looked into the middle distance as she thought. “I think I will give her a fake compliment Monday, like we’re friends but not friends because that will piss her off. If she continues being a bitch next year, I will make rumors.”

“Start some rumors.” Steve corrected. “And we can brainstorm.”

“What the fuck have you been teaching my sister?” Eddie asked as he finally let the kids into the trailer. 

“The social stuff you guys would never.”

“Max helps, too,” El said.

“I bet she does,” Steve agreed. She’d have a very Max point of view on it, but she was leagues better than the rest of the nerds. 

“I’m a little disturbed by this,” Eddie said, but Steve could hear the affection for his sister leaking through. 

It made Steve feel better to know he was helping her. 

“When were there lessons?” Will asked. 

“Since she came back.” Steve took his lighter out of his pocket and flipped it a few times. “She needed help I could give.” He decided after a few moments of debate. 

Eddie made a soft noise but otherwise didn’t react. Will scrunched up his nose thoughtfully before he nodded like it made sense and let it go.

Both kids turned back to Eddie. "Steve can come too," El said.

"I can come to what?" Steve asked.

"Training," El said.

"He's been ditching us for weeks," Will said, pointing to Eddie.

"Ditching is such a strong word," Eddie said, starting to weasel out of whatever he had promised the kids. Both El and Will glared at Eddie. Eddie sighed dramatically, his body folding nearly in half to one side before he rolled down and then stood back up with a big breath of air. "You know what that means," he said, turning to Steve with an evil glint in his eye. "We've got Coach Steve with us."

"Coach Steve?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, we've got a sports ball guy right here ready to coach us and help get us in top shape for the league."

"I'm pretty sure this is one thing I can't actually help you with." Steve laughed because what the hell was Munson even talking about?

"Where's the can-do spirit now?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah, Steve," El said, leveraging all of the body language Steve had taught her to goad someone into doing something. "Where's your can-do spirit now?"

Steve knew a lost cause when he saw it and folded, just as he was pretty sure everyone here knew he would.

It only took them a few minutes to get ready. Steve raided the kitchen for a few snacks and thought about the equipment he had in his trunk and how he might be able to use it when they got out to where they went to train.

It turned out they trained in a few different locations, mostly in Mirkwood behind the Byers' house or out in a field between Hopper's old trailer and the cabin where he and El lived now. The field was near the marsh that turned into Lake Jackson, Eddie's favorite hiding place. Just like there, the bugs kept people away from the location, and it was in just enough of a valley on its own for you to hear people tramping down the hillside towards you from a good distance away. 

“You don’t have to be here if you have something better to do,” Eddie said as they got out of Steve’s BMW. El was already walking towards the practice field they favored.

“It’s good,” Steve reassured them. “I was planning on hanging out with you. And that’s what I’m doing.”

“The sessions are pointless now,” Eddie grumbled as Steve started digging through his trunk. Will and El made it down to the field ahead of them. “The gates are closed. All the monsters are dead or locked away from us. We're safe.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I don't have to use my talents ever again if I don't want to.”

"Do you not want to?" Steve asked. He was surprised. If he could move things with the power of his mind, he’d use it all the time for stupid stuff, like turning off his light when he was already in bed. Or moving soda cans from the fridge to his hand when he was watching TV and there wasn’t a commercial break coming up anytime soon.

Eddie didn’t say anything, just shrugged. 

“So, what do you guys do out here?” Steve said, changing the subject. He pointed to the kids who were already out in the middle of the field waiting for Eddie.

“For El? Anything she wants to practice; the girl is seriously strong,” Eddie shrugged. “For me? Anything that requires either precision or brute strength. I’m all about moving small to medium-sized, stationary objects. Will’s the same as me. Although he’s getting stronger, I don’t think he’ll reach El’s heights, but he’s got a knack for it. For all of us? They love to practice amplification with Will piggybacking one or both of us.”

“Alright, so a little solo practice and some teamwork. I can do that,” Steve said, grabbing some of his baseball gear.

“I thought the baseball season was over?” Eddie asked, looking at what Steve had grabbed.

“Haven't put my gear away yet,” Steve answered with a shrug. He turned back towards the car and gestured for Eddie to follow. “Somehow, I didn’t think you cared enough about school sports to know when the season ended.”

“I, uh, don’t,” Eddie said with a blush before he turned away from Steve. “Come on, before El gets bored, and she levitates us over to her.”

“She can do that?” Steve asked, looking over at El, who was waving both her arms and shouting in their direction. Not that they could hear what she was saying from where the car was parked.

“With Will’s help. Maybe? Probably,” Eddie guessed.

“Jesus, alright,” Steve said, with his gear bag slung over one shoulder and a bat in his hand.

Steve walked with him to where the kids were fooling around, waiting patiently for a pair of thirteen-year-olds.

“You took too long,” El said.

Maybe not that patiently.

“We’re here now,” Eddie said, sticking his tongue out in her direction.

Steve took over the conversation before the siblings could devolve into a fight and explained he was going to hit balls toward each of them to catch. “To practice speed and precision,” he said, and they nodded. He walked out until he was in shouting distance of the trio before gesturing to El to move away from the other two. When he thought she was singled out enough, he shouted, “Ready?”

“Yes!” El shouted back with enthusiasm.

“Alright!” Steve shouted. “El, catch!” He tossed a ball up in the air with his left hand and swung with his right, lobbing it directly toward her with practiced ease. El didn’t even have to put her hand out to guide the catch or return it to Steve. Right into his hand. “Nice job, El!”

Steve did the same for Eddie next, who didn’t catch the ball nearly as quickly or elegantly as El did, not really having it fully under his control until it nearly smacked him in the face. He also didn’t return it nearly as neatly as El did, and it almost hit Steve’s car.

“Good job, Munson. A little careful on the return there next time,” Steve said. Eddie had joked about the coach thing, but Steve took it seriously. You didn’t shout when you were trying to teach; you guided a player and corrected them if necessary until they could handle it on their own.

After a few rounds where everybody had a chance to go, Steve shouted, "Right! That was a good warm-up, guys!"

"Warm-up?" Eddie shouted back across the field to Steve.

"Would you rather I made you jog a mile?" Steve asked and then laughed as each of the three faces skewed into different expressions of horror. "I'll take that as a no," he said.

He jogged over and started coordinating with each of them about what they would like to work on. Mostly, Will and El, just as Eddie predicted, wanted to strengthen their teamwork.

"All right, I can work with that," he said, thinking about how best to do that.

"Too bad we don't have a beat," Eddie said. "The best thing about music is that there's always a beat, and once you find the beat as a band, you can do anything together."

"Or a fight song," Steve added. "Something to pump you up, get your blood flowing, get you ready to fight."

Eddie looked defeated when he said, "A fight song? How did you turn music into sports?"

"An angry song?" El asked.

Before either of the older teens could say anything, Will said, "No, like, a song that makes you feel like you could conquer the world."

"Exactly," Steve said, pointing to Will, who blushed and grinned back at him.

"What's your fight song?" El asked Steve.

"Oh, wait," Eddie interrupted before Steve could say anything. "Let me guess, it's Eye of the Tiger?"

Eddie started to mimic the song's driving beat as if he were playing the guitar line. Before he could chicken out, Steve joined in with the first line of lyrics, mocking them as much as he was singing, "Rising up, back on the street/Did my time, took my chances."

"I didn't know you could sing," El exclaimed.

Steve shook his hands in front of him and said, "No, no, not really, just kind of funny stuff. Fooling around."

"No, Harrington, you've got a pretty good voice. Give it half a chance; I bet you could front for us the next time Jeff gets laryngitis."

"If you are a pop band, maybe," Steve said, "but I'm definitely not a metal singer."

"Well, I thought you had a nice voice," Will said, "even if you were just messing around."

"All right, well, we don't have a boombox anyway," Steve said, "so we have to make do. Think of that fight song; we'll bring it out here next time. This time, you’re just going to have to feel it in your heart."

"Thanks, Coach," Eddie said with mock enthusiasm.

Steve jogged away from the trio and pointed, this time to Will first and then to Eddie, just because Eddie had teased him about singing in the first place. "All right, I want you to work together. Send me a pitch, guys." 

The point of this exercise, Steve hoped, was to boost Eddie's powers of precision and concentration while working on his stamina, with Will providing the extra boost to the powers that had been fatigued from their earlier warm-up. 

If Will's power was to boost other people, then he needed something to boost. Working exhausted was never fun, but sometimes it was exactly what you needed to do to gain a critical edge. When you could depend on your body to hit the ball even when you were exhausted, you could still manage to hit a home run that could win the game. 

Sometimes sports were like that—a game of attrition and a willingness to power through exhaustion rather than any real finesse. Steve's first Little League coach had said something that stuck with him: "Practice and perseverance beats talent any day." Steve was still pretty sure talent got you on the board, but practice and perseverance had both served Steve well. Without them, he wouldn’t have been one of the top players on his teams.

They played like that for the next hour, Steve pushing all of them against their limits. El and Will worked together well, nearly flawlessly. Will and Eddie were rougher, more likely to break concentration or fail to complete their task. 

He’d gathered Eddie had been trying to ditch the kids today, which was fair since they had plans to get wasted and watch a dumb movie, but Steve thought maybe he’d been ditching them for longer than that. The kids had suggested as much, but the difference in ability when working as a team was stark.

The spring light started to fade in the sky when Steve called all of them back to the car. By then, even Steve was exhausted from either catching or batting at baseballs with only a few breaks. He was happy he'd grabbed a few supplies from the Muson trailer, planning to stock them back up the next time he came over. In his trunk, he'd stashed some bottles of water, orange slices, Cracker Jacks, and a bag of Doritos for them all to split.

Eddie skipped right over the water and the oranges for the chips; Will followed behind him, while El gladly accepted the water from Steve. "Nacho cheese, my favorite," Eddie said as Steve offered him some oranges too. Eddie refused, but Will grabbed one.

"Look, at least drink the water, okay? You need it after all that.” He forced a bottle of water at Eddie. “Of course, I brought Nacho Cheese; they're your favorite, and I got them from your house," Steve said. He pulled out a box of Cracker Jacks and handed them over to El.

"How'd you even know? You got some mind-reading ability we don't know about?" Eddie asked.

"I grabbed what I know you guys like from the trailer. I just pay attention. You guys," he pointed to Will and Eddie, "always go for the Doritos when we're hanging out. El loves Cracker Jacks because they've got…"

"A prize inside," El finished for Steve.

"Exactly, it's not that hard," Steve said, trying to keep his shoulders from climbing up toward his ears in discomfort. Now he felt like a try-hard. He wanted to make sure they didn't pass out after practice. That was all.

"Hey, maybe it's easy for you because you're like a good person or something," Eddie said, and Steve felt a flush crawling up his neck. "I'm a feral beast and have never paid attention to shit like that in my life."

"Well, after years of sports, I know you need something right after. Also, you guys better eat your orange slices; they've got good sugar and electrolytes and sh— stuff," Steve trailed off as he looked over at El. He still remembered Hopper's threats if he dared to corrupt his daughter with foul language.

They ate in silence for a few minutes. The only sounds were the rustle of the chips bag or the small sound of delight when El found her prize—a small lick-'em-and-stick-'em tattoo. It was of an anchor and a heart. Will showed her how to put it on the back of her hand.

She was admiring her new tattoo and munching on her Cracker Jacks when she leaned around Eddie towards Steve and asked, "Steve? I've heard you're good with girls?"

Steve tried to keep his face neutral but could feel it pinching up in distaste. There was nowhere good that question could go. But she frequently used their hangout time to ask the kind of social questions others didn’t or wouldn’t answer. 

Eddie couldn't stop laughing, but Steve noticed Will looking down at his shoes. "Oh, yeah, Steve's a real lady killer."

"Lady killer?" El asked.

"It means good with women. They're interested in him, and he's interested in them," Eddie clarified for her.

"Are you a lady killer, too?" El asked earnestly. Now it was Steve's turn to laugh at his discomfort.

“Uh, well, no.  I’m the nerd king, so no one’s interested. Not in my- Not in nerds in general.”  Eddie said. 

He looked a little embarrassed, and Steve wanted to jump in and reassure the guy. “Oh, come on.” Steve shoved his shoulder, and Eddie rocked back into the shove. “You’re a musician too. You’ve got a band. That’s got to count for something.”  

“Hate to break it to you, dude, but a trailer park metalhead nerd does not get action in Hawkins.” Eddie shrugged, and Will nodded his head in agreement. 

“But Mike’s a nerd?” El piped in. “I’m dating Mike, and he’s a nerd.”

Eddie ran his hand over his face. “Great, two thirteen-year-olds have more game than me.”  

“Not every thirteen-year-old,” Will muttered under his breath. Steve wanted to tell him to buck up too, maybe give him some advice, but one thing at a time. He should focus on El since she was in the process of asking a question first.

“That’s great. You’ve been dating since?” Steve asked.

“For a year. He asked me out last year on our first date, April fourteenth.”

“Wow, a whole year,” Steve said, trying to keep anything but enthusiasm out of his voice. That was a long time to be dating that young, right? He’d dated at thirteen, but nothing lasted more than a month if it lasted past a first date and a first kiss. “And you guys are happy together?”

“Yes, very.” El smiled up at Steve like she knew she’d asked the right guy. “Expect, recently.”

“Oh?” Steve asked 

“What?” Will asked, clearly startled by that announcement. 

“We were looking at our yearbooks.” Right the Middle School yearbooks came out a week earlier than the High School ones because they ended a week earlier.  

“Wait, when?” Will asked again. Clearly, he was even more confused than Steve or Eddie, and Steve could not figure out why. 

“I found all our pictures in it. Max’s was the best.” El looked into the middle distance. “She’s very pretty. I told Mike that, and he said I was prettier.”

“Good response, El. If he likes you, he should tell you that you’re the prettiest girl.” Steve said.

“But that is not what I meant.” El shifted, clearly not able to get across what she meant. “She is pretty. Mike is pretty.” 

Steve felt his stomach drop as a cold sweat broke out down his back. He was pretty sure he knew what that meant. He glanced up to Eddie and Will, who had both gone white as sheets. “I told Mike I thought about kissing her like I kiss him.” She shrugged her shoulders in defeat. “He did not understand. He got mad.”

“Uh,” Steve said, trying to think of a response quickly. Any response. Eddie looked over at him, and he ran his hand over and down his face, a look of panic dancing across his eyes. Will looked sick.  

“El?” Eddie asked, stepping in while Steve’s brain tried to reboot. “Was Mike mean to you after you said that?”

“No. Maybe. He was quiet. But the quiet felt mean.” She said, her voice small and sad. “What did I do wrong?”  

Steve saw Will flinch before he turned away from them all. El shrank in on herself even more. Eddie was clearly caught between both kids while Steve tried to keep his panic down. This was a nightmare. This kid was accidentally saying stuff that could get her hurt, really hurt, in Hawkins. Steve trusted Will and Eddie not to hurt her, but it still wasn’t safe, and Steve didn’t know what to do.

Eddie knelt down in front of El, grabbing her chin to tilt her head up. “Ah, shit, El. You did nothing wrong, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fuck up.”

“Fuck up? Because we’re fuck ups?” She asked, clearly recalling Eddie’s pep talk from the last crisis. Steve had never really understood why it soothed both of them to call themselves fuck ups, but after sitting on it for a while, he’d decided if it helped them, it helped, and his confusion didn’t matter. 

“Do I need to make amends?” She asked.

“Not this time,” Eddie said, and he took a deep breath, glancing up at Steve for a moment, his eyes wide with something. Fear maybe? Steve tried to reassure him with a quirk of a smile, but Eddie didn’t catch it before he turned back to El. “You know how in the Lab there are all these rules, and if you break one, you're punished?” They both shivered. Will turned back around, his eyes red with unshed tears. “Well, out here, there are a bunch of unspoken rules that have punishments that suck just as much.” 

El nodded. “Steve has been teaching me a lot of the ‘unspoken rules.’”  

Well, not that one. He tried to keep the internal feeling of shame from overtaking him. Why hadn’t he thought to warn her about this shit? But what would he have even said? He could barely articulate this shit to himself.

“And you walked into one of them.” Eddie continued. 

“I’m going to be punished?” She said, her voice so small.  

“I don’t know.” Eddie swallowed. He took a deep breath, and the moment stood still. Steve was entranced. “I was.”

“You were?” She said and started crying, fat tears rolling down her cheeks as she caved in towards Eddie. He caught her and held her.  

“When I got out, Wayne put me right into seventh grade. I met a girl named Beth, and she had green eyes. I’d never seen green eyes before. They were so pretty.” He sighed, and Steve could feel the kind of crush he was talking about. The kind you got as a kid that was all fluttery feelings. “I had the biggest crush on her. I’d also seen lots and lots of movies at that point, and they all ended with a kiss. So, one day, I went up to Beth and said, ‘I like you’ and kissed her. I think we held hands for about two weeks before I think we both kind of got bored. But it was nice.” 

Eddie took a fortifying breath. “The next year, there was this boy.” Eddie looked at Steve for one second, a flash of his gaze, and Steve couldn’t move. “I think his name was John. He had the cutest freckles across his nose. I loved to stare at them. I couldn’t look away. It felt just like it did when I saw Beth and her pretty eyes. Hell, I was planning on how I could go up to John and kiss him, too.” Will gasped. Everyone turned to look at Will for a moment, but he didn’t say anything else, and Eddie returned to his story. “Thank God, before I could figure out how to do that, other kids caught me looking at John.” 

Steve vaguely remembered rumors about a kid a grade above him. They had been wild, obviously fake things. He wondered if they had started there. With Eddie’s innocent crush on a boy in his class. 

“They called me names and beat me up. After that, I started getting beat up a lot. Called names in the hallways, at lunch, everywhere. It felt like every day.” Eddie finished. 

He looked back towards Steve, steel entering his eyes, before he turned back to his sister. “I like both, and maybe you do too?” Steve knew he was talking to his sister, but it felt like he was talking to Steve. He had to work not to nod alongside El. “That’s called bisexuality. I’m bisexual. That’s not what they called me. They called me a bunch of nasty words meant to hurt me.”

“Punishments.”

“Exactly, punishments.” Eddie sighed. “You can like whoever you like. It’s important you know that. But out here, you can’t say you,” he pointed to El, “like anyone but boys and I,” he pointed to himself, “can’t say I like anyone but girls. Or punishment.” Eddie shrugged like he hadn’t blown Steve’s mind wide open. 

The thing Steve had been trying very hard not to think about had a name. He’d only managed to keep his footing before because he thought it was one or the other, and he liked girls. Now, that was no longer the solid base he thought it was, and he was falling into an abyss. 

“Are Steve and Will going to punish us?” El asked, still sobbing.

Will screeched, “What?” 

That shook Steve out of his free fall. Whatever he felt didn’t matter right now. Right now, El mattered, and Eddie mattered. Hell, even Will mattered. Steve knew the rumors that circulated about him around Hawkins. 

“Nope. No punishments!” Steve said, trying to keep the panic from his voice and obviously doing a shit job. “Holy shit. No punishments.” He paced around them, stopping at every turn to put his hands on his hips and look at them before he began pacing again. “Oh my God, this is so beyond.” He muttered to himself. How the hell was he going to do this? He only had one chance.

“This is so far out of my area of expertise that I don’t even know what I’m doing. And Eddie is right that being gay, homosexual, uh, bisexual-” Fuck, what was the right term to use here? “Is frowned on by a lot of people. Probably most people in Hawkins? I don’t know. But it’s not a universal opinion.” He took in a deep breath to calm himself. “It’s not my opinion.” 

Eddie scoffed.

“Hey, it’s not dude. It’s not.” He turned his attention back to El. “It’s not safe to tell everyone, but it’s not a bad thing to be or to feel.” He gave in to his urge to touch. “Can I give you a hug, El?”

She nodded, and Eddie stepped out of the way but kept an eye on the two of them. Steve could feel the protective energy radiating off him. “You aren’t bad. There will be no punishments from me or Will.” 

He looked up at Will, who nodded before saying, “Right, yeah. No punishments.”

He stood back from El and wondered briefly if he should hug Eddie before dismissing the idea. He probably didn’t want someone like Steve offering him that kind of comfort. “It’s not bad, both of you. Okay. It’s not bad.”

Steve looked at El again. He thought about what he’d want someone to say if he was in her place. If he was as brave as she had just been and said, “Can I make you a promise, El?” She nodded, and Eddie shrugged his permission for Steve to go ahead. Steve knew Eddie was waiting for him to crash. “I swear I will not tell anyone about you liking Max and Mike without your permission. And I promise that I will not treat you any differently now that I know that about you.”

El dove into his arms again. Steve tucked her head under his chin as she sobbed against him. “I swear all the same to your brother too.” He said, looking right at Eddie. “No harm, dude, I swear.”

Will solemnly spoke up from behind him. “I swear, too. On the Party. And my Granddad’s grave.”

“And El,” She whimpered into his chest. “Let me know if you need me to talk to Mike. Okay?” He felt her nod, and he thought, at least for now, she was going to be okay.

The afternoon was shot after that. Steve dropped Will off at his house before dropping Eddie and El off at the trailer. Clearly, they both wanted to be together, and he knew El could get a ride home from Hopper or Wayne that evening. 

On his way home, alone with his thoughts, his brain felt like static. The feeling of being in freefall came back, and he had no idea where the hell he was going to land. 

Chapter Text

June 8, 1985

Eddie

It was a hot day for the class of ‘85’s graduation. This year, Eddie sat out in the scalding hot folding chairs, in the stupid Hawkins green cap and gown combo, bouncing his knee and waiting for his name to be called.

Steve had already been up and over the stage, cheered by the whole school like all popular jocks got cheers. Hoots from their teammates, screams from girls trying for one last chance, and a general enthusiasm from the rest of the school that was more than the mere mortals received who came before or after him. However, the loudest of all was the Party at the back of the Friends and Family section. Dustin somehow found a loudspeaker and used it to amplify their cheers for Steve. 

Of all the groups cheering, that had been what caught Steve’s attention on stage. Eddie watched the moment he realized the Party was watching him walk. Right after he’d grabbed his temporary diploma from Higgins, there was a small, almost too small to see, hitch in his step when he heard the cheering. He broke out into the biggest, most honest grin Eddie had ever seen Steve offer up on school grounds, and he waved to the stands. A small, almost shy wiggle of his fingers that contrasted with the mega-watt smile literally melting the panties of the girls in the crowd. 

Honestly, if Eddie hadn’t been so worried that this would turn into a nightmare - his current worst-case scenario was Higgins announcing his walk across the stage only to shout “PSYCH!” and snatch the diploma out of his hand right at the last second - he’d be creaming himself too. 

Steve and Eddie had spent too much time together over the last semester for Eddie’s heart or his dick to belong to anyone else. Call him a hopeless romantic. Call him a helpless virgin with delusions about a straight boy (and oh, boy, did he ever call himself that). He was so fucking gone on Steve Harrington that it would be embarrassing if he wasn’t in the company of over half the school. It had gotten so much worse after last week when the guy promised to basically be a white knight—literally vowing to protect poor queer Eddie and his little sister with such heartfelt ease that it had stunned Eddie into silence. Like it hadn’t been a fucking revolutionary pledge.

Finally, the M’s were announced, and Eddie’s row walked to the stairs at the side of the podium. First, Martin, Mason, Miller, and Mitchell were announced as Eddie swayed back and forth in impatience to cross the stage. Finally, Munson was called by Vice Principal Russel at the podium. Eddie bounced up the stairs, too amazed to finally be participating in his last useless and somehow stupidly meaningful High School Ritual. 

People called him and Hellfire Satanists and cultists, freaks and weirdos. But the real weirdos were the ones who came up with all these rituals for high school students to jump through and navigate in order just to graduate. Spirit Week, Homecoming, Winter Formals, and Prom. Eddie hated them all. Hell, for Prom, Eddie had ditched and jammed with Corroded Coffin all night. Steve had said it was fun, even if his date was kind of a bust. But, of course, he’d been in the running for Prom King. 

Eddie walked across the stage, Higgens holding out his hand to shake. In his other hand was the temporary diploma they gave to every senior crossing the stage. Eddie grabbed Higgen's hand and flashed the devil horns to the photographer, sticking out his tongue like he was on the cover of a KISS album. The flashbulb went off in his face, and for one moment, he was blinded. 

Cheers erupted from the Friends and Family section. As his vision cleared, he saw the giant Corroded Coffin bed sheet sign being held up by Jeff on one side and Grant on the other. Both standing on chairs that must have been pulled out from the official seating. The Party, including El, her curly bob bouncing with her, were jumping up and down around it. All wearing their white gowns from the Eighth Grade Graduation ceremony that had happened earlier that morning on the same field. He saw Robin and Nancy cheering while Jonathan took photos. From the corner of his eye, back in the audience, he saw Steve standing on his chair in the graduating student section. Eddie grinned and bowed, and after he grabbed his diploma, he turned around, flipped Higgens off, and jogged off stage. 

Steve, rich boy that he was, hosted the Party’s graduation celebration for both himself and Eddie. Not to mention the brats graduating from the Middle School. 

Eddie thought before Will Byers went missing, when Steve was still on track to be a total jock asshole, this would have been a very different party. Eddie could see it. Lunch at the country club with his parents, followed by a rager at the Quarry with the rest of the jocks, cheerleaders, and assorted hangers-on. Keg provided by the King in a show of beneficence. 

Or maybe it wouldn’t have looked like that. Eddie knew now that Steve’s parents were barely present, so he could probably scratch out the country club lunch. Somehow, he also doubted Steve’s soft heart would have survived all four years pretending to be an asshole to fit in with his friends from Middle School. Either he would have been a bitter shell of a teen by graduation or he would probably have ended up alone - alienating the friends he had and alienated from the rest of the population by the reputation he’d built for himself.

It could have been the crush speaking, but Eddie couldn’t see a way that Steve graduated as the same asshole he had been two years ago. 

Not the guy who befriended Dustin and the rest of the dweebs. Not the guy who had taken Eddie’s sister under his wing, taught her how to do her hair and how to dress for herself until she passed as a quiet nerd in the last semester of eighth grade. She’d probably never be popular, a curse Eddie wouldn’t want for her anyway, but she would survive high school with her soul intact. 

The real party wasn’t a rager, but it was fun. The teens were here, the elder members of the Party, as well as Hellfire. The kids were here. Even the parents of the Party were all in attendance. 

The kids screamed as Dustin shouted, “Cannonball!” and jumped into the pool. Nancy and Robin were sunning themselves on loungers, and Jonathan was, naturally, taking pictures of the event. Grant and Jeff were hanging out by the cooler while Gareth stayed in the shade, already turning a lobster red from this morning on the field for the graduation ceremony. 

Mike and El were back together and holding hands near the side of the pool. Eddie still wasn’t sure he trusted Mike not to use what he knew about El against her, but she trusted Mike. According to El, Mike had apologized for being shitty and making her feel worse. She had apologized for making Mike worry about her crush on Max. They had hugged and made up. No matter how scared he was for her and how much he wanted to protect her from a broken heart or worse, Eddie knew he had to let it go. 

Steve was running around the party, trying to make sure the cooler never looked less than full and that the trays of food - catered from somewhere - were out at the table. He’d left grilling hot dogs in Hopper’s capable hands. The man looked thrilled to be able to man the grill and talk to Wayne and Joyce. That was probably Steve’s whole plan. 

The food, drinks, and swimming held the party for a long time, even if Eddie noticed Steve never got to jump in the pool himself and relax. As the sun started to dip behind the trees and a late spring evening breeze started blowing, the pool became a little less comfortable than it had been all afternoon.

Reluctantly, the kids were dragged out and dried off. The party and all the food were dragged inside. Then, like it was a kid’s birthday party, there was a cake from which all graduates got a chance to cut a slice - Steve first, then Eddie, then El, then the rest of the Party. 

Then the presents started. Small trinkets from the Party to their friends. New dice for Dustin, new wheels for Max’s skateboard. That type of thing. Eddie knew they’d all been saving up for the presents and had pitched in together. 

Steve got some fancy pan he’d been eyeing. He looked over at Robin and said, “How did you guess?”

“You literally drool over it in the catalog every time it comes in the mail. You asked for it for Christmas from your parents, but they got you that watch instead. Like, it wasn’t hard to figure out.” She rolled her eyes at him and gave him a hip check.

“We helped too!” Dustin said. “I collected all the money, and my Mom wrote the check to send to the catalog.” Steve looked misty-eyed as he ruffled Dustin’s wet curls. “Not the hair, not when it’s wet. Jesus, Steve, you know that.”

“Not when it’s wet.” Steve mockingly repeated. “Yeah, I know. And who taught you that?”

“Exactly, you should know better.”

“Boys, boys. Both of you are pretty. Now let’s keep the presents coming.” Eddie interjected, batting his eyelashes at Steve. 

He caught Wayne’s small shake of his head - most likely in silent laughter at Eddie using the moment as a chance to flirt, however briefly, with the current object of his affections. It did work to shut them both up before it escalated. A few presents later, Eddie caught Steve looking at him. His bright, brown eyes considering in a way that made Eddie heat up. 

Stupid, stupid straight boy crushes.

For some reason, Eddie was the last to receive a gift. It was in a small box, and if Eddie had to guess, he thought it was probably the new Casio watch he’d been eyeing at Melvald’s in their locked case. For obvious reasons, watches were a staple in his wardrobe, and he liked having a few to choose from as he saw fit each morning.

He looked at the green and yellow ribbons, crossing each other and tied neatly in a flouncy bow that he knew was El’s work. He shook the box a bit and heard a little jangling sound. Maybe it wasn’t a watch. But what else could it be? Everyone in the room was looking at him with a very intense energy. He couldn’t begin to guess what the hell was in the box. 

He opened it, and inside were two small car keys on a single ring. Identical keys. The master and a spare. For a Chevy.

“What?” He looked up at Wayne in confusion.

“Surprise!” Dustin, El, and Will all called out at the same time. The rest of the Party, adults, teens, and kids, all started talking at once, trying to explain what the hell was happening. It was too much, and Eddie couldn’t parse anything anyone was saying.

“Hey! Slow down!” He shouted, and everyone stopped. 

Wayne walked up to him from his spot across the room. “Come on, kid. It’s in the garage.”

“What is?” Eddie asked, still in denial about what the hell this could mean.

“Don’t be a dip.” Wayne grinned at him.

“Yeah, Eddie.” Mike cut in. “Don’t be a dip.” And he followed Wayne. That broke the silence, and everyone started talking again as they all walked to one of Steve’s house’s many garages. It was, in fact, Steve’s garage. That was a single-car garage and fully separate from his parents’ two-car space.

Steve opened the door and flipped the automatic garage door opener, letting in the last light of the day and making room for everyone who had followed him. 

In the middle of the room wasn’t Steve’s beemer like he’d half expected. (Now that Eddie thought about it, he’d noticed Steve parked it outside earlier that day when they’d come back from the graduation ceremony.) Instead, there was a 1973 Chevy Shorty. It was not the exact one Eddie had been eyeing, but it would have been if he’d noticed it for sale around town. 

“What?” He asked. “How?”

“Where, when, why?” Max snarked from behind him.

“Your friends saw the van and came up with the idea for it on their own,” Wayne said, patting his back.

“You’ve been saving up, right?” Nancy asked.

“I thought if I was lucky, I could maybe afford one by the end of the summer,” Eddie admitted.

“Well, we speed up the timeline, man,” Jonathan said. 

“Steve sped up the timeline,” Dustin said. 

“We helped.” Mike cut in, and El nodded alongside him, gripping his hand.

“We all pitched in. Wayne, especially.” Steve said.

“Kid’s being modest. This is mostly from him, but he’s right that we all helped.” Wayne explained. “I’d been saving up money hoping to help you with the purchase when the time came, but the kids came up to me a few weeks ago with an idea to help.” 

There was no way Wayne had money to help him out. Their van had died in January, forcing Wayne to buy the pick-up truck he’d been planning on getting months earlier than he wanted. It was good for Wayne, but it had pushed Eddie’s dreams of a van for Corroded Coffin off that much longer. Originally, he was supposed to get the old van for graduation when Wayne got his truck—the ill-timed breakdown had dashed those hopes until now.

“But this must have cost, like, five hundred dollars.” Think that was way too much money for him to spend on a van.

“Not nearly that much, Ed. Who do you take me for? Found it for a steal and just about took it off the guy's hands for no more than it would have cost him to junk it. Spent the last few weeks fixing it up over here in Steve’s garage, with help from your friends.”

“Who?”

“Uh, yeah.” Gareth coughed. “And the other guys.” He pointed to Jeff and Grant, who smiled at Eddie. 

“What’s good for you is good for the band,” Grant said. 

“Oh, my god.” Eddie let his legs fold underneath him and sank into a deep squat, holding his arms around his legs while the two keys jangled around his finger. “I don’t-”

Wayne knelt down, wincing as his left knee creaked and popped. “We’re proud of you, son.”

“Happy graduation,” Steve said. 

Eddie looked up into Steve’s earnest eyes and realized everyone in this room loved Eddie enough to help him get one step closer to his dream of leaving Hawkins on tour with Corroded Coffin. “Thank you,” Eddie said, standing up. “Thank all of you for helping with this. I can’t believe. It’s-”

“Never thought I’d see the day Munson couldn’t find the words,” Hopper grunted from the back of the pack of people lining the garage walls. 

“It’s amazing,” Eddie said. 

“Great,” Steve said, slapping him on the back. “Because now you can share ride duty with me, hauling the kids around.”

Everyone slowly filtered out of the house with the cake done and the presents given. Even Wayne took his truck home since Eddie now had his own ride. 

Until all that remained were Steve and Eddie. 

“Gonna take her out and show her a good time?” Steve asked, patting the hood of the Chevy.

“Probably going to go home. I don’t know about you, but I have work at the bookstore tomorrow.”

“No way, man. You just got your own wheels. You gotta take her out. Show her the road and how well you can handle her.”

“Are you giving me dating tips or talking about my van, Harrington?”

“I’m trying to get you to go out tonight and have some fun.” He winked. “So maybe it’s both.”

“I have work tomorrow.” God, Eddie was already an old man. He’d been a graduate for only a few hours and was already going to bed early for work.

“So do I,” Steve said. 

“Don’t you want to go to one of the ragers happening tonight? Say goodbye to your friends?”

“I want to hang out with you.” He countered. “I think a good toke at, I don’t know, Lake Jefferson might be a nice way to end the night?”

“The site of my biggest failure?”

“Think about it as the place where we started our friendship, right, accountability buddy? You got me through this senior year, and I helped you. Now we’re graduates and everything.”

The day Steve had stepped up to Tommy in the hallways was like the birth of it. Or maybe it was earlier. When Steve had ordered pizza for everyone as they gave Eddie space to mourn his lost sister. Those had been the moments when Eddie’s idea of Steve Harrington was changed forever - from douche to alright guy. Lake Jefferson and Eddie’s failed graduation last year was the start of their actual friendship.

He patted down his pockets. “I don’t have any weed on me, though. Didn’t think to bring it to the party with Hop and the kids here.”

“I got two in my room with our names on ‘em,” Steve said. “I may have been planning this as part of the celebration for a while.”

“Alright. Then what are you waiting for? Let’s get going!”

Eddie wished he’d had his tapes on him because the inaugural song in his new ride was going to have to be perfect. Steve offered up Queen or KISS, some tapes he had with him that he thought might be heavy enough for Eddie, but Eddie waved him away. “We ride in silence until I can get Lucifer’s Ride in here or some Metallica.”

“You are one weird dude, dude,” Steve said, but he jumped into the passenger seat, and they road out to the Lake. 

Steve

Eddie drove like it was one of twenty things he was doing at the same time. Speeding up to stop signs, running every yellow they went through - all of two - and when the road ran out into gutted ruts for the last few hundred feet of the drive, he took them as if he couldn’t ruin his brand-new suspension. 

Steve seriously hoped Eddie was good with a wrench from working at Thatcher’s because he could never afford the repairs otherwise. 

Unlike many of the lakes around Hawkins, Lake Jefferson wasn’t some idyllic spot - blue water, green trees, bright clear sky. Jefferson was muddy, stagnant, and bug-ridden. On hot summer afternoons, it sometimes smelled like rotting fish. 

However, Lake Jefferson at night was grand, like a ballroom out of a fairy tale. 

The annoying bugs had mostly gone home, and Steve had a citronella candle to drive off any lingering mosquitoes and the stagnant smell of the water. “I remember what this was like last year, Eddie. I grabbed my family's lake picnic box for supplies.” 

Thousands of fireflies lit up in the trees and the lake, flickering and darting through the air. The still water might have been a health hazard, but it reflected the moon and stars above them as if it were a perfect mirror. Points of light floated above, below, and around them. It was like Steve and Eddie were floating in the air, surrounded by a million stars with only the light of a single candle between them. 

Eddie lit one of Steve’s joints. He’d bought it from a guy at school a few weeks ago. After Eddie mentioned his whole adventures in dealing with that guy named Weevil, he wondered if that’s where this joint originated. 

The flicker of the flame from his lighter added to the warmth of the light from the candle and reflected in Eddie’s dark eyes, making him look even more elven than Steve, very secretly, thought he looked. His heart fluttered, and he fought down a dreamy sigh.

Bisexuality. That’s what the feeling was called. Well, no, the feeling was called a crush. It was just as nice as what he felt with Amy, Crystal, or Rebecca. Or Nancy. Buzzy anticipation, horny nerves, gloriously stupid romantic daydreams. He loved this shit with girls. Because they were both guys, Steve added nausea and terror into the mix when he thought about Eddie. However, the rest of those feelings were present and accounted for, too. Meaning he had to work extra hard not to look like a fool.  

“Here ya go, Harrington.” Eddie passed the joint to him. “You’re not even high yet, and I’m already losing you.”

“Sorry.” He focused on the joint, grabbing it without touching Eddie’s fingers, bringing it to his lips, and feeling the slight dampness at the roach end. He definitely did not allow himself to think about how sharing a joint was almost like kissing. That would lead to madness. “Big day.”

Eddie laughed and leaned back on top of the van. “Big day is underselling it, dude.” Steve took a drag and handed it back to Eddie, who took another drag before he continued. “I can’t believe I did it. After last year, well, if there hadn’t been all the Upside Down crap coming, I think I would have dropped out. You know?”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Steve said after his second toke. 

“I’m glad I didn’t either. Wayne told me I’d regret quitting more than I’d regret sticking it out another year.” He looked up at the stars, and Steve let his gaze linger on Eddie’s profile before looking toward the stars, too. “And I am glad I went back. Don’t get me wrong. I’m never going to school again—no fancy community college associate's degree for me. I’m going into trade and going to try to make it big in the metal scene. A dream and the backup.”

“I bet you guys will get huge. Like, uh, Metallica huge.” Steve said. 

Eddie looked over to Steve. “You think?”

“Yeah, you guys are awesome. A little rough, but you’ve got two more years of playing locally until all of you graduate, right? Think about how amazing you’ll be in two years of playing live gigs and practicing.”

Eddie kept looking at Steve as Steve pointedly kept looking at the stars. “That’s-” He coughed and cleared his throat. 

“We’re only halfway through the joint. There’s no way you’re already losing your train of thought.” Steve joked. 

Normally, Steve was the guy who lost his train of thought when he got high. His thoughts would flit away before they could make an impression. It’s one of the things Steve liked most about getting high; even the shittiest or most terrifying thoughts couldn’t hang around and get a foothold in his mind. 

Eddie, however, was normally very talkative when he was high. He could get on one topic and go forever. He and Robin would talk, and talk, and talk, for hours, stoned out of their minds. 

“Just fucking shocked. Again.” Eddie says finally.

“About what?”

“Please let me preface this with a statement. The Upside Down sucks ass. The Lab was worse than any nightmare I’ve ever had. But in the end, the Lab brought the Upside Down into my life, that brought back El, it brought the Party, and it brought you. Like, I can’t imagine what my life would be like without you in it.” He coughed. “You guys. All of you.” 

“Yeah, I know how you feel. Who would I be right now if I hadn’t gotten dragged into this all thanks to Nancy? Right? Would I still be friends with Tommy and Carol? Would I still be that miserable asshole who couldn’t let anyone else feel any joy?”

“I was always one step away from a breakdown at the thought that the Lab could find me and whisk me away,” Eddie admitted. “Probably kill Wayne, too. However, I think my absolute worst nightmare was them finding me somewhere alone and taking me away. Then Wayne would never know what happened to me. He’d never know, and he would never get any closure.” Eddie took a breath. “Holy shit. That got way too fucking deep. Sorry, man.”

“No problem. I think it’s graduation, right? Like, it makes you think. About life.”

“I fucking guess.” Eddie looked at the joint. “Want the last drag?” 

“Yeah, sure.” Steve grabbed the joint and took one last long drag before he stubbed out the roach. “How about some lighter topics? Sports? Who’s gonna win the World Series?”

“Fuck you, no. You can save that talk for Hop and Wayne, who actually like it.” Eddie moaned.

“Well, then you pick a lighter topic,” Steve said.

“What about, uh, work?” Eddie offered up.

“Nope, I’m not working today, so I’m not thinking about work,” Steve said. 

“That’s right, stick it to the man. You’re no one's wage slave.” Eddie grinned in the candlelight. 

“Expect the thirty-two hours a week where I am.” Steve laughed, trying not to focus on how lovely Eddie looked right now. 

“Right, except for those.” Eddie tapped his nose.

They both quieted down and listened to the frogs sing in the air. If this had been a girl, maybe he would have felt a little more confident calling it a date, but with Eddie, he knew it couldn’t be one. Not really. Not even if he was- If they were both bisexual. 

“Think they’re doing the Fourth of July Fair again?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah, they gotta be. It happens every year.” 

“I was thinking like it could be cool. To smoke a joint and then go out to it. Like on the Fourth or something.” Eddie asked. 

Steve’s heart fluttered. Impossible as it was, that sounded like a date. Steve wished it could be a date. He wished they could get high and share cotton candy. Steve would win a little stuffed bat or something else creepily perfect for Eddie at the hoop toss. Then, they could go up to the top of the Ferris Wheel and kiss under the stars. 

If Eddie were a girl, that would be exactly what he would do. 

He should turn it down. The whole night was only making his crush on Eddie worse, and he had to start pulling back. “Yeah, that sounds cool.” His traitor mouth said. 

“Cool, cool,” Eddie said. “You wanna smoke that second joint?” 

“Yeah, man, sounds good. Work starts at ten, so I’ve got time.” 

Chapter Text

Steve

July 2, 1985

“Henderson!” Steve called out, running out of the back room where he could hear Dustin asking Robin where Steve was hiding.

“You guys really got the job?” Dustin smiled so hard at both Robin and Steve his eyes disappeared behind his cheeks.

“We got the job!” Steve shouted out as he started the secret Henderson-only high five they had perfected after a Star Wars movie marathon together last Spring Break.

“We have indeed been working the job since before you left,” Robin said, leaning on the counter and looking bored at their antics, even if Steve could tell she was delighted. It was all in the eyes with her, the real tell.

Robin scooped Dustin the banana split they had promised him when he got back from brainiac camp. They all sat together at the booth nearest the counter in case a customer came in. Even though it was only the second of July, the summer holiday shoppers were out in droves, keeping them both busy all day. Dustin had managed to come in during their first real break in business while they’d been trying to clean up the place before the next wave came. 

“What did you say?” Robin was asking as Steve focused back in on the conversation.

“Russians,” Dustin shouted.

“What the fuck, dude. Keep it down.” Steve chastised. That kid was always zero or one hundred, nothing in between on anything he did, including volume.

“Suzie likes that I’m loud.” Steve looked over Dustin’s head and mouthed “Suzie” to Robin, but she shrugged.

“Who’s Suzie?” Steve asked cautiously.

“Only the most beautiful girl in the world, Steve.” He said like Steve should already know, but he’d never mentioned her in his letters. “She’s more gorgeous than Phoebe Cates.” He continued. “And she’s my girlfriend.”

Great, a tiny, weirdo - said with affection - had a summer girlfriend before Steve did. “That’s great, dude. More gorgeous than Phoebe Cates. Amazing.”

“She says kissing without front teeth is better,” Dustin said with real pride. At least he didn’t do that tiger purr thing he was into last year.

“Oh, wow. That’s great.” Robin said, looking at Steve with wide, grossed-out eyes.

“Yeah, dude, she sounds great. You met her at camp, right? So she’s super smart, I bet.” Steve said in a ploy to change the direction of the conversation. 

“The smartest.” Dustin sighed. “Which is why we built Cerebro. Because she lives in Utah with really strict parents, so this way we can talk without her Dad interfering. Or long distance charges.”

“Wow, so smart,” Steve said and asked for help from Robin, but she was getting up to help a customer who came in while he was listening to Dustin. Traitor.

“She is. Which is how I found out about the Russians.”

“Suzie?”

“No, Steve,” Dustin said, “Keep up. Cerebro.”

“But Cerebro is related to Suzie?” Steve asked, thoroughly lost.

“Yes, I built it for Suzie, but I managed to capture a Russian message. A secret Russian code.” Dustin spread his arms wide. “Think about it. We could be real American heroes.” Dustin said as Robin rejoined them.

“Why would we want to be real American heroes?” She asked.

“To get chicks,” Dustin said, looking at Steve, even if Steve caught Robin’s eyes widening in surprise. Dustin looked over at Robin, “or more.”

“I like more,” Steve said absentmindedly, only catching the implication when Robin’s eyes snapped to him. 

“Right?” Dustin agreed. “Everyone gets to be heroes. Gets the glory.”

“And we’re sure this isn’t related,” Robin asked, pointing down, her meaning clear.

“Why would it be? I intercepted a Russian message over long-distance radio. It’s probably out of Siberia or something. Doesn’t mean the intel isn’t important.” Dustin argued. 

“Why aren’t the Party helping?” Steve asked.

Robin looked at him with huge, panicked eyes and shook her head.

“Steve, they ditched me. I’m not sharing shit with them.” Clearly, this had been covered when Steve had not been paying attention earlier. 

“Language,” Steve chided to buy himself time to recover from his faux pax. “I just mean, why us, dude?”

“Well, Robin is amazing with languages,” Dustin said, but he didn’t continue. Steve knew what that meant. It meant Steve just happened to be here. Maybe, if he was really lucky and Dustin wasn’t being the world's biggest shit, he’d want Steve there for the adventure. But it sounded like Steve just happened to be working when Robin was on duty, and her skills were needed. Not Steve’s.

Just once, he’d like to be more than a human shield or the idiot who got in the way. But compared to the geniuses in the group, he was just a dumb ass with no talent except for hitting things. Hard. 

“Hey, Steve?” Dustin said, and for a moment, he thought Dustin was going to tell him why Steve was explicitly invited to help. “You’re nose is bleeding.”

“Fuck.” He said mostly to himself and wiped it on his hand. 

“I’d be happy to help. I don’t speak Russian,” Robin hedged, looking away from the blood. She had a thing about blood. “But it can’t be that hard.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Dustin shouted before stuffing his face with a spoonful of banana and ice cream.

Steve washed his nose and hands at the sink before returning to the counter, where he stabbed at the ice cream. “I’ll be happy to help too, whatever I can do.” Even if he knew he’d only help bring the brains some water or keep the customers busy while they worked on the message for the rest of the afternoon.

Which is exactly what ended up happening.

Eddie

Lunchtime - July 4, 1985

The first few weeks after graduation were a blur. 

He spent his work days in a blind panic, learning how to do the work around the office and on the cars. Sure, it wasn’t highly skilled work at the moment, but if he did something wrong, it could cost the shop hundreds of dollars to repair. If Eddie fucked up at the bookstore, the worst was that he lost a book or two. 

It was good he was busy with work because he refused to think about his last meaningful interaction with Steve. They had met a few times between graduation and now, handing off kids or in larger groups, but their last private time was at Lake Jefferson. 

There had been something in the air that night. Something big. He knew he wasn’t making it up.

Steve had been more than accepting after he and El came out two months ago. It still filled Eddie with horror to think about how badly that day could have gone. Somehow, miraculously, it didn’t. Then they shared what could have looked like a romantic, candlelit moment together before Eddie had basically asked Steve on a date to go to the fun fair. 

On the Fourth of July. Which was tonight. And Steve had said yes. 

Eddie hadn’t called him up to confirm. Or go over details. Or said more than three words at a time to him since that night. Maybe because it had been weird. Or maybe because Eddie was making it weird. 

He was nervous about the hangout because it sure seemed like a date. Yet, it couldn’t be because a queer dude like Eddie didn’t get to date a guy in Hawkins. Especially not with the very straight, bat-wielding hero, and Junior Year Prom King of Hawkins High. Not with just a good-hearted, straight dude, Steve Harrington. Who took him out after graduation to a candlelit evening on a lake. Which also kinda seemed like a date. 

And that would start the spiral over again. 

That was why he was here, hanging out with Jeff and smoking. To build up his confidence and help him call Steve. Not that Jeff knew that exactly.

“I am so fucking glad I have today off,” Eddie said, laying back on Jeff’s bed. Jeff was finishing the joint they’d split, blowing the smoke out of his bedroom window. Nag Champa was burning in the incense holder on Jeff’s desk to hide the smell of weed from his parents. Eddie watched the lazy curls of incense smoke as they drifted up and over towards Jeff at the window. 

“Amen.” Jeff stubbed out the roach in his ashtray before flopping back on his bed, his head towards his pillow while Eddie laid down on the opposite end. Jeff, like most of the teenagers of Hawkins who had jobs, got a job at the mall this summer. This was one of their rare days off together. 

Jeff was working at the Great Cookie Company near Scoops Ahoy. He actually ran into Steve and Robin all the time, apparently. Got to see Steve in that salacious blue suit Eddie had spent the last month fantasizing about. No matter the delicious view, Eddie wasn’t jealous. In order to be jealous, he’d have to want to work at the mall, and he’d never work there if he could help it. Not the bastion of Reganite capitalism that was destroying Hawkins' downtown. 

“I hate that I feel guilty about not working, though. You know?” Jeff said with a huff.

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, giving Jeff space. He wasn’t a very talkative guy, so when he brought up a topic, Eddie had learned to give him space to say what he needed to say.

“Yeah.” He sat up on his arms and looked over at Eddie. “Since my mom lost her secretary gig at the Lab.” Eddie began to open his mouth to apologize again for the Lab getting shut down last November. “Don’t you apologize, Munson. Stop.” Jeff threatened. 

“Alright,” Eddie said to the ceiling, unwilling to look Jeff in the eyes.

“It’s just the money’s been tight—less work to go around. My Mom’s new job has a shitty commute and pays less. I had to skip out on my last year of band camp. It sucks, and I’m still panicking that I’m not doing enough. You know.”

“I know,” Eddie said. That kind of panic was part of the reason he’d failed his first go at senior year. Sure, a lot was going on, but feeling like he had to contribute to the household had been one of his biggest stressors. 

“I know you do. That’s why I can talk about this stuff with you.” Jeff admitted. “It’s gotten so bad I’m having the worst nightmares, too. Just out of this world, weird shit. My sleep is wrecked.”

“Fuck man, nightmares are the worst,” Eddie said. Everyone he knew had them. Everyone, in turn, suffered for weeks on end when they got bad. He hated that Jeff was the one suffering now. “Any about last November, or is it all money shit?”

Jeff started to answer when the hiss of the walkie-talkie interrupted him. 

“Eddie? Are you there? Over.” Max’s voice came in over the radio, which sat on Jeff’s nightstand. He’d gotten it last year. It was a “thanks for helping out with the Upside Down crap, now here’s a walkie so you can always stay in touch with us freaks” gift.

“Nooo, I’m too high to give them a ride.” Jeff moaned. The reason the kids called now, mostly, was for a ride somewhere. Which was what the radios should be for, not coordinating heroics to stop the end of the world. He was so glad that shit was behind them. 

“Don’t wanna.” Eddie agreed. 

“Eddie, do you copy?” Max asked again over the radio. 

“Ugh, do we have to?” Jeff complained again as he rolled over on the bed towards his nightstand.

“We can ignore them?” Eddie said. 

“Don’t ignore us, you jerk. Over.” Max said as if she was spying on them. Actually, El could be spying on them right now, and they wouldn’t know.

Will must have grabbed the radio from Max because his voice came next. “We don’t need a ride. This is a code red.”

Both Eddie and Jeff popped up from his bed. The high he’d been riding from the joint bottomed out in his stomach, and he felt sick. Jeff grabbed the walkie-talkie first, but it was Eddie who replied while Jeff held down the button. “This is Eddie and Jeff. Over.”

“You need to come get us,” Will said. “We’re at my house. Over.”

“Who’s us? Over?” Eddie asked. 

“Not over the radio. Over.” Will said, and the scared tone of his voice, coupled with the increased need for secrecy, ripped through another layer of Eddie’s denial. 

“We’re headed over,” Jeff said and tossed the radio to Eddie, who fumbled before he caught it. 

“This can’t be Upside Down related. Someone probably broke a bone. Right?” Eddie asked Jeff as they both got up and tried to shake off their high. 

“I’m too stoned to drive,” Jeff said. “I wasn’t kidding before.”

“I’m not perfect, but I’ve got it,” Eddie said. He hadn’t driven high in a while, but what didn’t kill you, right?

Jeff nodded. “I’m going with a broken bone, too. They’re just freaked out that Hopper or Mrs. Byers will hear them, and then they’ll get in trouble.”

“I’m going to kill them,” Eddie said as they tumbled down the stairs and out the door to Eddie’s van. “Literally kill all of them. With my mind.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Jeff chastised. 

The van was devoid of conversation but not silent on the drive over. Accept’s new album Metal Heart was still in Eddie’s tape deck, and Too High to Get It Right blasted out of his speakers the minute he turned the key in the ignition. 

The tension only ratcheted up as he pulled into the driveway of the Byers house, dirt and dust flying everywhere. No one came out to greet them like he expected. His mind couldn’t help but go back to the last time Eddie and Jeff drove up to the Byers together like this. It had been the Night of the Defeat of the Mindflayer. Jeff and Gareth had driven away, leaving Eddie and El to take care of the Demodogs hunting around the Byers' place. 

It had been the beginning of the longest night of Eddie’s life. Which was saying something, because he'd had some real shit ones. It couldn’t be that again because they defeated the Upside Down. It was gone. That part of his life was over. Now, his life was about music and friends. Or thinking about his not-a-date with Steve tonight. 

As he turned off the car, the music stopped, and he could hear nothing except the sound of songbirds calling each other in the trees surrounding the house. As they both got out of the van, he heard the kids shouting at each other. While still tense, something eased inside him. If the kids were arguing, then whatever it was might be bad, but it wasn’t that bad. 

Yet. 

Here’s to hoping it was a broken leg.

Eddie knocked on the door and called out, “Hey, guys, it’s us. Me and Jeff.”

“Eddie!” He heard El call from inside. Eddie concentrated on the lock in the door, and he opened the door with his talents, wiping the blood from his nose without a second thought. 

“Handy,” Jeff muttered under his breath. 

“Very,” Eddie agreed.

Inside, the kids were gathered together, and from the first glance, he knew there were no broken bones. God damn it. How could he have a real future if he was always going to be fighting the Upside Down?

“What the hell is happening?” Jeff asked. 

“It’s Billy,” Max said. 

Chapter Text

Steve

July 3, 1985

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” Steve said, running up to the doors as they slid closed.

“All right, we can just open the doors again,” Dustin said to Steve. He ignored Dustin in favor of pushing the door buttons over and over again. A lot like he had flicked that light off and on a few days ago during the power outage, much to Robin's annoyance and his amusement.

“Booby trap,” Erica said, as if she had been expecting one all along. Expect this wasn’t an Indiana Jones movie and she wasn’t the cute kid sidekick there to deliver snide remarks and make the audience laugh. This was real life and they were in real danger. 

Steve let Robin and Dustin take over for him. They could probably figure out the right combination of buttons that would open that door up again. Meanwhile, he could try to pry the doors apart. At the worst, it would be a better way to vent his frustration than at one of the people trapped here with him. 

Steve glazed at Erica. She watched everyone here with her own derisive amusement. He remembered two Januarys ago when Eddie had shared his first visions of their possible future. Lucas wondered how Erica ever got involved with the Upside Down. 

Steve tried to slip his fingers inside the seam in the door to get a better grip.

He wasn't ready to admit that this might be related to the Upside Down. He’d been so confident two days ago that it couldn’t be that at all. Up until those doors closed, this was still very much about the Russians. It was about the kind of glory that proved he was more than a pretty face and a meat shield. 

He had a sinking suspicion he was wrong.

The problem was that Eddie had confirmed that there was no more Upside Down. It was locked away behind a closed gate, never to return. The reality in front of Steve, however, said that Erica was here, trapped in this room with a lot of people associated with the Upside Down. That she had been involved with the Upside Down in at least one of those first visions was evidence this wasn’t what he had hoped it would be. 

Not for the first time he wondered if there was such a thing as fate. Why else would Erica be involved in this if there wasn’t?

“Dustin,” Steve snapped in his direction to get his attention, but Robin and Dustin were still arguing about opening the door and how to best go about it. There was definitely some argument about levers and moving the world, which meant very little to Steve but seemed to infuriate Robin. “Dustin!” he said, sharper and louder this time.

“What, Steve?” Dustin asked as he turned around.

“Give me your radio,” Steve said.

“The radio is not going to open the door,” Dustin snarked at him, and Steve could practically hear the idiot hanging off the end of the sentence.

“I'm not going to use it on the door, dumbass,” Steve said. “Just give me your radio.”

Dustin pointed to his backpack he had placed on the ground before he started poking at the door. “It's in there.”

Steve dug through the backpack until he found the radio. He turned it to channel 9, the channel that most people would be on, and he held down the button. “Hello, hello, this is Steve. I have a Code Red. This is Steve with a Code Red,” he shouted into the radio.

Erica watched him and rolled her eyes when he looked over at her. “I don't think radio waves are getting out of here,” she said. “This thing is like a Faraday cage.”

“A what?” Steve asked. The phrase sounded made up. It sounded like it was a Dungeons and Dragons thing. 

“Wait, how do you know what a Faraday cage is?” Dustin said, abandoning the door the minute some geeky topic was brought up. 

“A Faraday cage,” Erica said again. “It's a metal cage that stops radio waves from coming in or going out.” She said it like Steve was a particularly stupid child, and while normally that wouldn't get under his skin—he couldn't be friends with Dustin if that kind of thing got under his skin—right now, trapped in this metal room with who knows what in these boxes full of green glowing goo, he did not appreciate the tone.

Before he could snap at a small child, Robin intervened. She could probably see that Steve was at the end of his tether and didn't want to deal with the inevitable fallout when he'd feel guilty about snapping at a scared kid. “Dustin, would this be a Faraday cage? Do you agree?”

“I mean, it could be,” he hedged.

Steve knew that tone of voice. Dustin used the tone when he hadn’t thought of something. When he knew he should have thought of it before but didn't want to admit it he’d overlooked something big. 

“Oh, great,” Steve said. “We're trapped in a Russian room filled with a bunch of contraband goo, and you're telling me we can't even radio out?”

Dustin was about to say something when the room lurched. Steve's first thought was utter confusion—rooms didn't move, and it made no sense to be in a room that shifted like that. His second thought was that this was an earthquake, but that also made no sense; Indiana had no earthquakes. Before he had time for the next thought, the room shifted again, and Steve's stomach fell upwards as it felt like all his weight disappeared for just a moment, and then he and everything in the room fell.

Eddie

Mid-afternoon July 4, 1985

Eddie saw Max, Will, and El on the couch when they walked inside the Byers’ house. 

The coffee table had been pushed to one side, and the floor around it cleared for what appeared to be a game. An empty bottle of coke was on the ground, surrounded by note cards with people’s names on them. He saw Steve, Billy, and himself, along with a few names of people he didn’t recognize. He guessed they were probably in the incoming Freshman class. Eddie could guess what kind of game they were playing from the blindfold being twisted and wrenched with worry in El’s hand. 

“What’s up with Billy?” Eddie asked. 

It couldn’t be the Upside Down. The Mindflayer was dead, and the gate was closed. Ergo, the Upside Down was over. Billy was probably being his normal, asshole self, or he’d escalated, and they needed real help, but it wasn’t the Upside Down.  

“Billy’s acting weird,” Max said. 

“That is not a Code Red,” Jeff said from beside Eddie, and Eddie had to agree. “That’s normal Hargrove.”

“Like Upside Down weird,” Will said.

“No, not Upside Down weird, because that’s done with,” Eddie argued. 

“Yes, Upside Down weird.” All three of the kids called out together. 

“No,” Eddie said point blank.

“Yeah, gotta say, it sounded like everything got shut down last year.” Jeff backed him up. 

“Eddie,” Will said. “He looked at El in the Void.” Will knew as well as Eddie that the people they watched couldn’t see them in the Void. 

“Worse,” Max added. “Will felt him.”

“Oh shit, the tinglies?” Jeff asked.

Eddie mouthed, “The tinglies” at Jeff in confusion. What the hell were the tinglies? Where they what Jeff called their talents? There was no way Jeff called his talents “the tinglies” sober. How stoned was Jeff right now?

Will nodded seriously in response to Jeff’s question.

Eddie scoffed. “Well, my powers told us this was all over. The Mindflayer is dead. D. E. A. D. Dead. And El closed the gate. So it can’t be that.”

“What if it’s another part of the Upside Down?” Will asked. “What if there’s another gate?”

“Where? The Lab?” Eddie asked. He did not want to go back to the Lab. He’d managed to avoid it since he escaped all those years ago, and he wasn’t going back.

“We do not know!” El threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “We do not know what is wrong, but it is not good. It is not right. We called you because we need help.” 

That deflated Eddie’s building anger and fustration. Whatever was going on was weird; he trusted Will and El’s talents as much as he trusted his own. 

“Fine.” He stomped fully into the living room, pulling Jeff with him. “Fucking fine.”

It turned out they’d called everyone, but only Eddie, Jeff, Lucas, and Mike had answered. Lucas and Mike had yet to arrive, but Eddie assumed that was because they were biking over from wherever. 

“I don’t know about Dustin, but Gareth’s out of town. That’d be why he didn’t answer. And Steve’s at work with Robin today. Both of them bitched about having to work a morning shift on a holiday without hazard pay.” Jeff said as he sat down on the floor next to Eddie.

“You guys got any questions?” Eddie said, making grabby hands at El for the blindfold in her hands. 

“Just check if there’s a gate and if the Mindflayer is back?” Will asked. 

“Ask about Billy?” Max said. 

“What about Billy?” Eddie asked. If he asked about Billy generically, what kind of images was he going to get about the dude? Nothing good. 

“I don’t know,” Max shouted, her own frustration bleeding through. “Just like anything about him and the Mindflayer.”

He couldn’t believe that the Mindflayer was back. His visions were right. They were always right.

Unless they changed the future. What could they have done since last November, to change the future, bring back the Upside Down, and resurrect a bad guy?

Should he have asked every month since January that the gate remained closed? How long did he have to live in paranoia about a dead monster and a closed interdimensional portal?

He laughed at himself and how easily spooked he was by kids who scared themselves with a stupid game. Not that they were making it up but it probably wasn’t even related to the Upside Down. If psychic soldier kids grown in Labs existed, and parallel dimensions filled with monsters existed, then maybe something else horrible existed that they hadn’t known to ask about. This could be something wholly new. 

That thought wasn’t as comforting as he had hoped. 

Someone tuned the radio to static once he’d tied the blindfold over his eyes, and he started rocking immediately. It was easier now than it had ever been in the past, now that he knew how to control his own powers. He had the questions, well, the shape of a few questions to ask. All that really mattered was that he was doing the asking. 

He pushed all those thoughts aside as he slid into the quiet sound of the static. He focused on it until it overwhelmed all his senses and fell into the ready space where he was both in his body and outside it. 

He asked his first question out loud, muttering it to himself. 

“Is the Mindflayer back?”

Nothing. 

It felt as close to a no as his visions could get without the Magic 8 Ball. A “no” response made sense if it was dead, just like Eddie had said. 

“Is Billy possessed by the Mindflayer?”

He saw Billy walking through the Mall with Heather, Chrissy, and Jason. There were Fourth of July sale posters in store windows, and the car for the July Fourth raffle was still on its pedestal in the courtyard, so whenever they were there, it would be soon. 

It was a weird group, to be sure—all popular rising seniors but in very different cliques. 

Billy wasn’t acting weird. No one in the group was acting weird, but they were walking with purpose like they were headed to a movie and were running late. 

That vision was a bust. It didn’t feel like a no, like the blank like he’d gotten before, but it didn’t show anything of value, just that Billy would be in the Mall soon. 

“Is Billy possessed?” That was more generic. That might get a clearer response.

This time, he saw Billy, Heather, and Mike in a locker room. Billy and Heather were in the red swimsuits and sweatshirts from the Community Pool. If he had to take a guess, this was probably a locker at the pool. 

He didn’t know what that could mean. Like the previous vision, it showed him nothing useful or clear. Two useless visions in a row seemed off to Eddie. They weren’t clearly showing he was possessed, but the visions weren’t a “no” either. 

He grit his teeth and tried not to let impatience overwhelm him. None of these were the right questions to get a clear answer. 

“What are they running from?” He asked.

This time, Eddie didn’t see a specific vision of something. Instead, he saw dark skies, red lightening, and slithering vine-like tentacles or tentacle-like vines. He saw a clock floating against the sky. He saw the same clock, whole and grounded, in a hallway in a house as two children ran past. Then he saw the same clock, again, in the same hallway, but this time covered in cobwebs and dust, long abandoned alongside the house. 

Suddenly, Billy ran by the clock, looking over his shoulder as he ran to the front door. Eddie followed him as he started pounding on the slats covering the front door. Eddie heard a voice coming from down the hallway saying, “Billy. it’s time, Billy.”

Eddie winced. That voice. He knew that voice. He tried to focus on the vision, but it blurred and stretched before snapping away. It felt like he was pushed out of the vision as he rocketed out of the scene and into the living room. 

He ripped off the blindfold to find Will holding a box of tissues out for him. He grabbed a handful of the tissues and started wiping the blood off his mouth and chin. He looked down, and there was blood on his shirt. Once again, he was glad he was wearing black because the stain barely mattered. He stripped the shirt off and went to the kitchen to wash it off before he put it back on. 

While he was in the kitchen, he grabbed a glass from the dish rack and filled it with water before downing it in one go. He took a few breaths, looked out the kitchen window, and recalled those long nights in this house last year. 

He always had to have these horrible visions in this damn house. 

He made his way back to the living room and sat down. Everyone looked at him expectantly. “Mindflayer is dead.” He said. It was true, and everyone here needed to know it. The three kids looked at each other like they didn’t believe him. “But something is up. There’s something chasing Billy through a haunted house or something. And there’s a clock? I have no idea what anything meant or what I was seeing, but I saw it against a dark sky with red lightning.” He noticed Will shrink into himself. “And then the same clock in the house before it became a haunted house and the haunted version. 

“The red lightening is the Upside Down,” Will said. 

Right, great. But how did that fit in with the vision he had of the clock in the other two locations?

“How? The gate is closed. You asked about the gate, right?” Max asked. 

Fuck. “No, I didn’t,” Eddie admitted. “I was trying to ask questions to find out what the hell was happening with Billy, and then it was like I was pushed out of the vision. The thing hunting Billy, I couldn’t see it, but its voice was familiar.” He quickly added that it mattered after El’s encounter in the Void. “But Billy didn’t see me.”

“So a gate could be open. And something else could be coming through?” Max asked. 

“The Demogorgon and Demodogs weren’t the Mindflayer,” Jeff said. 

“But they were connected,” Will said. “Through the hivemind.”

“But is there a hivemind without the Mindflayer?” Jeff asked. “Like, are they connected without the Mindflayer, because of the Mindflayer, or only by it?”

“All good questions,” Eddie mused. With Jeff here helping with the planning, he felt a little more in control than any other time they’d done this, more like he was a DM, less like he was a Lab Kid. “I could go back in and ask.”

“We have to go to Billy.” El interrupted. “It feels urgent.” 

Will nodded. 

“I can drive since I’m the one with the car.” He said, looking around. “Hey where’s mama bear Byers?”

“I don’t know. She was talking to Mr. Clark last night, and I haven’t seen her since. I think she has work today.” Will said. 

“Hop is incommunicado.” El said, tripping slightly over the word. “He dressed up in a funny shirt last night and headed out. Max came over after that. He should be at work. He doesn’t carry our walkie-talkie with him there.” Since this was supposed to be over was left unsaid. 

“I’m sorry. I thought it was over.” Eddie said.

“Nothing to be sorry for, man.” Jeff patted him on the back. 

“Talents are unpredictable,” El affirmed. 

The word of the day calendar Hop got her last Christmas had done wonders for expanding her vocabulary. It gave her more of the SAT words Eddie hadn’t realized were missing until she started peppering them into her everyday speech. 

“That they are, Ellie Belly.” He patted the top of her head. 

The door flung open, and everyone jumped in surprise. “El!” Mike called out from the doorway. “Will!”

“We’re in here,” Max called out.

Lucas skidded around the corner into the living room and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Max.” He looked up to Jeff and Eddie. Then he asked, “Code Red?”

Mike went over to El and Will, hovering near them both until he gave into whatever internal dilemma the kid had today. He gave Will a hug first before he gave El a hug. Will looked a little surprised, a little pleased. El smiled at him over Mike’s shoulder before she nuzzled into Mike’s neck, seeking comfort. Nearly two months into the El’s forced coming out and the drama remained minimal, if weird. Eddie had no idea what El’s smile might mean. Will blushed at it and looked down at his hands before reaching out for El as Mike pulled away—his expression set in a grim line of determination. 

El looked over at her friends. “The Upside Down is back.”

While the kids caught Mike and Lucas up on the latest developments, Jeff and Eddie packed for their adventure. They managed to grab everything they might need against a potentially possessed Billy. Blankets, ropes, and blindfolds. He wished he had Steve’s cruel nail bat, but that resided at the Harrington residence. He grabbed the Byer’s massive first aid kit as well. Knowing now, no precognitive abilities necessary, they were going to need it.  

The drive over to the Community Pool was tense and would have been silent except for Eddie’s normal unwillingness to drive without music, so Accept’s Teach Us to Survive blared from his speakers while everyone sat, rigid, in their seats as they bounced down the road. 

The pool closed early on the Fourth. A few kids with their parents laid out near the shallow end, now in the shade from the pool's fence. Otherwise, the throngs of people you’d find on a normal weekday were gone. 

Heather Halloway was there when they got to the front desk, looking bored as she flicked through a magazine. She didn’t even look up when she said, “We’re closing in fifteen. No one’s allowed to enter unless you’re picking someone up.”

“Uh,” Eddie said. They hadn’t really planned for this. Hadn’t come up with much of a plan besides getting Billy into the sauna no matter what. “Hey, Heather.”

She looked up and scanned their group with the same boredom she’d regarded the magazine. “Hey, Munson.” She said, but it sounded a lot like, “Hey, freak.”

Max bullied her way to the front of the group. “I’m looking for Billy.” Matching Heather’s boredom with her annoyed little sister thing. It worked.

“He’s off in thirty. We’ve got to close.”

Max crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine, we’ll wait.” And she smiled like she had gotten one over on Heather. Heather smiled back, the kind of customer service smile that let you know she was real pissed. 

Max pushed the group back to the other side of the small check-in room. “Alright, when Billy’s off, he’s gotta clear the men’s restroom. So, that’s when you-” she pointed to Eddie and Jeff, “use the bathroom. El follows them, sneaky.” She grinned. “Will, Lucas, Mike, and I will stay out here and keep Heather busy.”

Mike immediately protested. In a hiss, he said, “Come on, I can help.” 

Everyone knew why Mike wanted to follow Billy. He loved to play at protecting El, and while Eddie thought she would feel annoyed by his white knight routine, El always seemed to like it. 

Especially after she accidentally outed herself. Eddie didn’t get how such an annoying little brat like Mike could also be such a good kid. From what little El had told him, it only took him a few days to talk to her and work it out between them. Then he’d redoubled his romantic efforts with El and had even started spending more time with his other friends to show her he trusted her hanging out with Max alone. How the hell did these thirteen-year-olds do better at the relationship stuff than any adult Eddie had ever met?

El nodded her agreement, but Lucas and Max both rolled their eyes and then looked at each other. “The more people following Billy, the weirder it looks,” Lucas said. “It’s already weird Jeff and Eddie are going to the bathroom together.”

He wasn’t wrong. 

“I can stay out here.” Jeff volunteered. He was easily swayed by Lucas’ logic probably because Jeff normally stayed as far away from Billy as was possible. “It would look weird.”

Max defended her idea in a whisper. “It does look weird, but doesn’t your dork game pretty much say two magic users need at least one fighter to, like, balance it out.”

“I can be the fighter,” Mike whispered back.

“Uh, no, you can’t.” Eddie hissed. “You are tiny. Your arms are sticks.”

“Jeff isn’t that big,” Mike said with the kind of arrogant confidence that seemed to double every day he was thirteen. 

“Jeff likes to lift weights with his Dad,” Eddie responded. 

“It’s not like I know how to fight,” Jeff added unhelpfully.

“Who’s side are you on, man?” Eddie asked. 

“Uh, the side of me not getting my ass beat.”

“And you’d let a kid take your place?”

“If the kid is that into it? Why not. Give him a chance to get his ass kicked. See how he likes it.”

“Huh, okay. Maybe Jeff can go with Eddie. I can, like, sneak in with El. So there’s not like a small army going to the bathroom.” Mike said, backing off his go-it-alone Paladin stance now that the older kids were arguing about how badly beat down he was going to get instead of how brave he would be defending his girlfriend while she did the psychic heavy lifting. 

“Will should come with me.” El finally spoke up, grabbing Will’s hand. “To help make us stronger. But Mike can come too.” She reached out for his hand and smiled at both of the boys. 

“Fine,” Max butt in. “Eddie can go to the bathroom. Jeff, Mike, Will, and El can sneak in behind him.” She added as an aside, “don’t know how all you guys are going to sneak anywhere together.” She grabbed Lucas’ hand. “And we’ll stay out here keeping Heather busy.”

“We can say you guys went to wait in the van,” Lucas added. 

“We don’t have to say anything.” Max pointed at Heather, who said goodbye as the last families left for the day. “She doesn’t care.”

“We’re closed now.” She said, coming out from behind the desk. She was wearing tiny red shorts over her swimsuit. It was a very good look on her, and Eddie had to pull his eyes over to Jeff to stop himself from staring. He caught Jeff doing the same thing, and they grinned at each other. 

“I’m still waiting for Billy,” Max said, grabbing Lucas’ hand again. 

“Uh, we can wait outside.” Mike volunteered with only a hint of awkwardness. He looked a little flushed and had a hard time peeling his eyes away from Heather as well. 

Jeff took that as his cue. “Yeah, come on guys, let’s go wait by the van.”

“Actually, could I use the restroom?” Eddie asked. 

Heather looked at Munson again and squinted at him before she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, fine. But don’t take too long.”

Eddie dashed back towards the bathrooms before veering off towards the back door. He pushed it open to find the hoard of people coming to lock Billy into a sauna waiting there already. 

“Come on,” Eddie said, holding his finger to his lips. It sounded like Heather had started to vacuum the front area, its shitty carpet littered with little bits of dirt and gravel from the sound of it. Even with the noise, Eddie didn’t want to risk them giving the game away before they got a chance to get to Billy.

The men’s bathroom was next to the changing rooms for the pool. Inside that space was a sauna. Eddie had never been inside. He didn’t see the attraction of going to a pool to beat the heat and then using a sauna. 

Eddie walked by the bathrooms and right into the changing room, where Billy was picking up the towels that had been scattered by the last people using the place. “We’re closed.” He called out with his back still turned to the door. 

“Just gonna piss, man. Heather said it was okay.” Eddie said as he walked closer to Billy. Behind him, El and Will hugged the wall while Mike and Jeff stood in the doorway. Eddie briefly thought about how nice it would have been to have Steve here as backup and how good it had been to work with him as a tag team duo against the demodogs. He shook his head to dislodge the thought. That was his crush talking. He knew Steve was at work, and three super-powered teenagers could handle one Billy Hargrove. 

Billy grunted and continued to mop the floor, not even turning around. Eddie waited until he got closer to the door of the sauna. He turned and mouthed to El and Will, “door,” while pointing to himself. Then he mimed, pushing with his hands, pointing to El. They all nodded. Eddie turned back to watch Billy, and he held up three fingers. 

Then two. 

Then one.

Using his talents, he grabbed hold of the door easily. More easily than expected, with Will here supporting both of them. He nearly yanked it from its hinges. Billy started shouting shortly thereafter as El used her talent to yank him into the sauna like he was pulled by an invisible string. 

“What the fuck. Hey, what the fuck.” Billy shouted as Eddie slammed the door to the sauna shut. Mike ran quickly behind Eddie and grabbed the mop before jamming it into the door handle. Eddie continued to hold the door in place with his talents, acting as a secondary lock. “What the fuck, Munson,” Billy screamed, his face red and twisted with rage. “Let me the fuck outta here.”

“No can do, Hargrove.” He said, trying to keep the delight of a plan well executed out of his voice. “Gotta see something real quick.”

Mike, meanwhile, twisted the knob on the temperature in the room up as high as it would go. High enough, Eddie knew they had to worry about killing Billy with heat. However, before that happened, they’d hopefully see evidence of the Mindflayer or something else from the Upside Down possessing Billy. 

Blood streamed down Eddie’s nose as he continued to keep the door shut. Jeff handed him a tissue. 

Billy continued screaming, and Eddie slowly realized they hadn’t really thought about a lot of the parts of their plan. For example, if the front room could hear people screaming in the bathroom. The sound of feet running down the hallway behind Eddie suggested that perhaps that was an oversight. 

Heather burst into the room as Billy continued to shout, Lucas and Max on her heels. She stopped when she saw everyone gathered around the door to the sauna while Billy screamed inside. 

“Are you trying to kill him?” She shouted in horror as she ran to the door to try to open it. 

“Heather, you gotta trust us. Billy will be fine.” Jeff tried to placate her while Max and Lucas tugged at her arms trying to keep her away from the door. 

“Billy is not fine.” She snapped and pulled free as Billy pounded on the glass, sweat dripping down him in small rivulets, his skin passing from pink to red as the heat inside moved past 170. “You’re killing him.” She got the broom out of the door handle but still couldn’t open it as Eddie held it fast with his talents.

“Just a few more moments,” El said as Heather broke down in horror, starting to cry. 

“You’re going to kill him. You’re monsters.” She spat.

“Do you feel anything?” Eddie asked because Billy was starting to flag inside the sauna. “Anything at all?”

“I thought he would look like Will did when it got hot,” Mike whispered.

“I feel something,” El said. “But it’s not the Mindflayer. I don’t think it’s in Billy.”

At the same time, Will took a deep breath and whispered, “He’s here.”

Everyone looked to Billy, who looked about ready to faint. Even with the obvious fatigue, he was pounding on the glass and shouting to be let out of the room. He looked pissed but he really didn’t look possessed. 

Heather was still tugging fruitlessly at the door handle and crying. She stilled and straightened up as if pulled on a string from the top of her head. 

“Uh,” Jeff asked. “Heather?”

Billy was the only person who could see her face. He slowed down his pounding against the door, shouting, “Heather? Heather, come on. Heather?”

Heather remained silent. Mike, who was closest to the sauna door, looked from Billy to Heather. He did a double-take at her face and gasped. “Uh, guys.”

Eddie looked at Billy, his face was still red with rage and exhaustion, but now his mouth dropped in concern, and the corner of his eyes tightened in fear. That was not the actions of a man possessed. That was not anything like Will was last year. 

Neither El nor Will had felt the presence of the evil of the Upside Down before Heather arrived. Whatever was happening with Billy, he wasn’t possessed. Whatever was happening to Heather wasn’t going to be helped if Billy passed out.

As Jeff and Mike hesitantly started to touch Heather, asking her if she was alright, Eddie made an executive decision and stopped using his talents to bar the door. 

He let the door swing open. He wished he could be anywhere else right now as Billy stalked out of the sauna. He gasped in the cool air of the bathroom and glared at everyone in the room. “You’re all dead.” He looked around the room. “You’re all fucking dead.” 

Eddie was reminded of his visions last year. The ones that featured Billy beating Steve. Sometimes beating him to death, sometimes with other permanent consequences, never without months of pain and recovery for Steve. At best. The psychotic rage Eddie saw on Billy’s face was the same.

Billy wasn’t the current biggest threat in the room, though. That belonged to whatever had Heather in its grip. 

Jeff was shaking her now, trying to get her attention back to reality. Mike was patting her hand and asking her to wake up. El was helping too, her eyes closed in concentration as she tried to do something. What she could do to possibly help? Eddie didn’t know. With Will holding her hand, Eddie believed she could do whatever she was attempting. 

The rest of the kids kept their attentions split between Heather and Billy. Two threats, two unknowns, two people potentially touched by the Upside Down.

“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Billy pushed Jeff out of the way and would have sent him stumbling and falling to the ground, except that Max and Lucas caught him and helped him regain his footing. Billy turned to Eddie and shouted, “Tell me, or so help me, God.” Whatever threat he meant, whatever type of violence the man was picturing, Eddie had no desire to find out. 

“We don’t know. We thought it was you, but-” Mike said from his place next to both Billy and Heather. Crucially, between Billy and where El and Will were doing their thing. Blood flowed from both their noses. Eddie had given him crap for wanting to be a Paladin before, but talking to Billy right now was probably one of the bravest things he could do. 

Billy turned towards Mike, turning away from Eddie, but from the sudden waxy pallor of Mike’s face, there was nothing good in Billy’s expression. 

Billy took a step forward, Mike took a step back, and Eddie threw up his hand, ready to push Billy away from the situation, when El gasped, followed by Will, followed by Heather.

El and Will opened their eyes in unison and turned as one to look at Heather just as the puppet strings that had been holding her upright were cut. She slumped but stayed standing. She blinked a few times before she asked, in a quiet voice that was nothing like the bored, disdainful girl from earlier, “What-?”

She blinked a few more times, and Eddie swore her eyes were bone white before the dark brown returned between one blink and the next. She looked around and, for the first time, seemed to really be seeing where she was and who she was surrounded by. She looked to the sauna and then to Billy. “Weren’t you?”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Billy roared over Heather. He rounded on Eddie again. “You have five seconds to explain before I beat your ass.”

“Don’t you mean five seconds or I beat your ass?” Eddie couldn’t stop himself from quipping. 

“No.”

“Billy, no,” Max shouted. “We were trying to help.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You and your little friends are next, Maxine.” Billy’s mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. 

“I can explain,” El spoke up, and as she did so, Eddie could see her shrug off her exhaustion and pain. She wiped the blood from under her nose. “But you won’t be hurting anyone. Mouth breather.” 

Chapter Text

Eddie

Mid-Afternoon July 4, 1985

“Billy, no,” Max shouted. “We were trying to help.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You and your little friends are next, Maxine.” Billy’s mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. 

“I can explain,” El spoke up, and as she did so, Eddie could see her shrug off her exhaustion and pain. She wiped the blood from under her nose. “But you won’t be hurting anyone. Mouth breather.” 

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Billy asked El as she squared her shoulders. 

Eddie decided to stay on the other side of Billy, near the door. He wasn’t afraid she would be hurt; it took a lot more than a high school bully to hurt El physically. He was more concerned with keeping Billy surrounded by super-powered people, in case shit went sideways. That would keep everyone in the locker room safe, and right now, that was Eddie’s biggest and most immediate concern. 

“I’m El,” El said, taking Billy’s question literally. Billy didn’t seem phased by it, but he was facing El and his face was obscured. Only Will’s flinch let him know something had happened. “I’m the person who can help you.”

“I don’t fucking need any help. You were the ones who trapped me inside that-” he gestured to the sauna. “Tried to kill me.”

“We tried to kill the Mindflayer,” Mike spoke up. Max elbowed him in a warning.

Billy turned his whole attention to the kid and Mike paled. This fucking kid. He meant well. He wanted to protect Will and El, which was great, but damn did he say shit before he thought it through. 

“What happened?” Heather finally spoke up. 

Eddie hadn’t forgotten her in the rush to deal with Billy. Not exactly, but he hadn’t been paying attention to her either. She’d been quiet since coming out of the trance or whatever she’d been in while Billy had been trapped in the sauna.

“I was going-” El began.

“These kids were trying to-” Billy interrupted. 

El put her hand up, and Eddie could feel the wave of power coming from her. “No, it is our turn to talk,” she said. Billy’s feet slid over the concrete floor until his back hit the sauna door. His mouth was firmly shut, and it looked like he couldn’t open it. 

A touch of horror, not unlike heartburn, crawled up Eddie’s throat. He turned to El. “You can do that?” 

“Yes, I’ve been practicing with Will.” She glared at Eddie. “You would know that if you showed up to practice with us more than twice in the last six months.” Will had the good grace to look sheepish even as Eddie could tell he was on her side. Without changing her stance or her glare, El addressed the room, Heather in particular. “Heather, you looked like Billy looked. When we thought he was possessed by the Mindflayer. But we were wrong. You aren’t possessed. You were trapped.”

Heather looked at El and then at Eddie before she turned back to El. “What is happening?” Her eyes were wide with panic.

Eddie realized neither Heather nor Billy were going to cooperate if they were confused and scared. El wasn’t good with context, having no idea what was or was not important in the outside world. Even after a year of freedom, she had problems with it. Will was too shy to help. For good reasons, Jeff didn’t like being the focus of Billy’s attention. The rest of the kids were too bullish. 

Eddie, on the other hand, had years of freedom under his belt. He was another teenager and had gone to school with these people. Not to mention, Eddie was a DM; he knew how to tell a story.

“Alright!” He shouted. 

Heather and some of the kids jumped. Max rolled her eyes. Billy’s eyes scanned towards Eddie, but otherwise, he continued to be stuck to the wall by El and unable to move. 

“El, let Billy go,” Eddie demanded. Then he turned to the bully in question. “Billy, El will pin you back to that wall if you so much as make one move on anyone.” Eddie narrowed his eyes and prayed he looked intimidating enough in his shorts and DIY tank top. “You have no idea what she can do.”

El released Billy as she let her hand fall to her side. 

“Fucking bitch,” was exactly what Eddie expected Billy to say. At least he wasn’t lunging at anyone or threatening direct and terrible violence at the moment. 

“Outside of town, there’s a large Lab. Hawkins National Lab. You know it, right?” Eddie asked. Heather nodded, but Billy looked confused. “It was shut down last year after a chemical leak killed a girl, and they covered it up for a while.” Eddie said. That was the familiar story from the news. 

“It was a girl from school, right?” Heather asked. 

“Yeah, Barbara Holland.” Eddie said. May she rest in peace. 

Billy still looked confused. “It was a big deal around here. But it happened right as you moved. Makes sense you don’t remember.” He took a breath in to center himself. “Right, so that was all a lie. Hawkins Lab was experimenting on people for years, and last year-”

“Right.” Billy scoffed. 

El thrust her hand out, and Billy minutely flinched. She removed her watch, which she used to cover her tattoo, and let them see it. “El. Short for Eleven. Experiment Eleven.” She said. 

Eddie wanted to skip this step so badly, but if El was out there, he was there too. He’d already outed himself as queer for her. Wherever she went, he went. He took off his watch and put his wrist next to hers. 010 visible right next to his sister’s 011. “My first tattoo.” He joked. “Not exactly what I would have chosen. If I had a choice.”  

“Tattoos don’t mean anything,” Billy said, but Eddie clocked Heather staring at the numbers on their wrists. Billy might have been a hard sell, but Heather was quickly becoming a believer. 

“They were trying to breed, I don’t know, tiny psychic soldiers.” Eddie continued. “Super-powered children who would be loyal to their Papa. Aka, the fucker who was running the lab. They wanted us to do whatever he said.” He laughed one bitter bark. “Like we all couldn’t figure out our lives were hell, trapped in that shit hole. Didn’t mean we wouldn’t do what he said, but that wasn’t because we loved him.” 

He knew it was more complicated than that. Inside the Lab, what painful affection Brenner gave them was as close to love as they received. Only Eight and Six had ever known actual love from their parents. Everyone else soaked up the scant approval Brenner would give him as if the sun shone out his ass. Even Eddie had before he had a real name and family.

Only after a few years of living outside that hellhole - with real love from Wayne, with actual friends - to think he ever believed what Brenner gave him was love.

“You have superpowers.” Billy’s dead eyes stared at him even as he figured something out. “It wasn’t that bitch over there holding that door closed.” 

Eddie gulped. He wasn’t keen on sharing his talents with anyone outside their little monster-hunting group, ever, but sharing this with someone like Billy, who he didn’t trust? It was terrible. 

“Was Barbara?” Heather asked, getting Eddie back on track.

“No, Barbara was an innocent victim. A lot of people have died because of the Lab. And everything weird that’s happened in the last few years is the Lab’s fault, too. Our best guess right now is that everything happening is their fault. Again.” 

If the Upside Down was involved, the Lab was too. Eddie went on to explain, as quickly as possible, the last two years of Upside Down horror. The deaths, the monsters, Eddie’s talents for seeing the future, everything.

“If you can see the future, then why didn’t you see this.” Billy sneered.

Max spoke up, a flare of anger inside her enough to conquer her fear of Billy. “Because, dumbass, you have to ask him questions, and if they’re not the right questions-” She trailed off, her anger sputtering out.

“You don’t get the right answers.” Lucas finished for her. 

“You didn’t ask the right questions?” Heather asked.

“I asked if the gates were closed. If the Mindflayer was dead.” Eddie was already sick of his poor questions coming back to haunt them. He didn’t even want these talents, but his failure to use them perfectly caused him to do this all over again.

“But not if it was over.” Heather stated as if that were a simple question.

Eddie ran his fingers through his hair, grabbing it by the roots and pulling it. “What the hell would ‘over’ even mean? The monsters? The monsters live in their own hell dimension. They’re not over. They’re just living their lives. Or Hawkins Lab? It’s over, but how can we ever trust the knowledge won’t get into the wrong hands and come back for us in a different form? What does over mean?” He could feel the panic and the rage pinging around his chest as he continued to shout. “How do you ask a question you don’t even know you need to ask? How do you search for an answer you don’t know you need?”

“Look, we’re not getting anywhere.” Mike interjected, his hands held out to calm Eddie down. “What happened to you guys?”

“Nothing.” Billy said and crossed his arms over his chest. 

Heather said otherwise. “I’ve been.” She shuddered. “I’ve been seeing things. Spiders, shadows. I keep hearing a clock. Earlier today, there was a clock under the lifeguard tower chiming at me.” She said. “Then today, when I saw Billy in there,” She glanced towards the sauna and wrapped her arms around herself. 

“I was so scared. Terrified. And suddenly, I was alone. In here, in this room, but no one else was here. I tried to get out, but I ran into my parents. They were-” She cut herself off. “They were worse than they actually are. Like a twisted version of themselves. I tried to go into the kitchen to get away from them, but as I moved from one room to the next, it was like I was in another house. One I didn’t recognize. 

“It was a big house. I couldn’t find a way out of it. It was like I knew there was something behind me, and if they caught me, it would be bad. So I ran. I kept hearing this voice, this low voice, whispering from behind me. He said, ‘It’s time, Heather.’”

While that had been happening to Heather, they’d seen her freeze, turn unresponsive, and her eyes turn white. Whatever was happening to her, it happened in her mind while her body was trapped and rigidly unresponsive. 

Something in what she said caught in his mind, and he turned it over. “It’s time.” It sounded familiar. It was similar to what he’d heard in his vision; the voice that had spoken to Billy said nearly the same thing.

“It’s like a dream. Like a nightmare.” Max guessed, and El nodded in agreement. 

“A waking nightmare.” El added. “That is why when I saw Billy, he was still, and his eyes were white. We saw him in a nightmare. From the outside.” She tapped her finger on her lip. “I don’t think it was Billy who looked at me. I think it was the thing that trapped him in his mind.”

“A curse.” Jeff whispered, and something unlocked in Eddie’s mind. The same evil lord Gareth was going to build his whole campaign around next year. 

“Like Vecna,” Eddie said. Vecna’s curses were frequently mental attacks that could weaken the target, or make the player a battery to fuel Vecna’s other attacks. It fit. In Eddie’s opinion, it fit better as a metaphor than the Mindflayer did. 

They only had to make sure they didn’t assume the motivations for the character in the game were the same as the ones in the real world. 

“We haven’t played any campaigns with Vecna yet.” Will said. “I don’t know-”

“Vecna is an evil lich, a dark wizard, who has the power to magically attack people from a distance.” Eddie clarified. 

“An undead creature of great power,” Mike said. “One whose powers include psychic attack.” He looked sheepish for a second. “I was thinking of using him in a campaign last year with the Party, but it got too complex.”

“Oh my God, is this the stupid game again?” Max rolled her eyes.

“A game?” Billy said, scorn and venom dripping from his mouth. “This is for a fucking game?” Billy twitched, the first thought of a movement, and El had him back against the wall. “You fucking little cunt.” He spat.

“Stop.” She said, the iron in her spine showing through her meek public exterior. She’d been happy at school but unsure how to hold her own with her peers. Here, up against the most vicious of bullies, one who was so much bigger and older than her, she had no problems standing up for herself and others. She turned to Heather with the same confidence. “We will stop Vecna. We will keep you safe.”

Eddie knew that the promise of one little girl might not mean much to Heather or Billy, but he also knew the depths of El’s courage. She would do whatever it took to heroically lead the charge and protect these people, even if they were both mean. Even if Billy was the worst kind of human.

He also knew that no matter how much he didn’t want to use his talents, with people in real danger, he had to join his sister. 

He stepped forward, standing tall as he imagined Aragorn would stand, knowing he was starting a quest to protect the Hobbits against the dark forces of the world. “You have my promise. We will keep you safe. We will defeat Vecna.”

“And mine.” Will stepped forward. 

“And mine.” Mike and Lucas spoke at nearly the same time. 

“Oh, God. I’m going to do this.” Jeff muttered. “Okay, and mine.”

“Whatever,” Max said, her arms crossed and her mouth a set scowl, but she looked right at Billy when she said. “I’m in too.”

+++

The first stop they made as a group was back to Eddie’s. Heather and Billy rode in his Camero, but the rest rode in the van. Eddie had barely parked before he was running to the door. He needed to get Wayne. Wayne would be able to help them, be able to organize this chaos. Not to mention Billy might actually listen to Wayne instead of fighting the Party on every decision. 

Wayne wasn’t there. The whole place was dark, quiet, and empty. There was a note by the phone. It read: 

Eddie,

Went to help Joyce. Something to do with magnets and fields. I don’t know if I follow but she’s worried it’s the Upside Down again. I couldn’t find you or the walkie. I hope you see this note. I’ll try to call when I know what’s happening.

Wayne

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Something bad was going on, really bad. Things didn’t, historically, ever go well when the Party was split up. If history told him anything, he bet that Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Robin, and Dustin were also up to their eyeballs in something related to the Upside Down.

Mike and Will read the note over his shoulder. “Oh no, Mom,” Will said. “She’s involved too?”

“My thoughts exactly, kid.” Eddie agreed. “It’s never good when we’re all getting sucked into a weirdo crisis on our own.”

“You think Nancy?” Mike asked. 

“If she isn’t already, she will be soon,” Eddie said. 

“What is going on?” El asked. 

Eddie turned the group gathered in his tiny trailer front room. “Wayne is helping Joyce because something weird happened. Something they think is related to magnets? And the Upside Down.”

“Magnetic fields,” Lucas said. “Shit. Gates have magnetic fields strong enough to disrupt stuff that’s sensitive to them.”

“What?” Billy asked, the antagonism dripping from his voice, but he didn’t move or otherwise threaten harm, which was good enough for now. It was like the guy couldn’t cool it. Eddie knew people who were scared sometimes lashed out and got angry, but he could do without Billy’s anger. At least Heather was curling in on herself, becoming passive in her fear. It wasn’t great for battling bad guys, but it was easy enough to herd and useful, for now. 

Lucas explained it politely in the face of Billy’s overt antagonism. “Like if there’s a gate nearby, a compass won’t point north. It’ll point to the gate.”

“Which means, if something went wrong with magnets and Mrs. Byers caught it-” Mike said. 

“There’s another gate.” Max finished. 

“Fuck.” Jeff said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He mirrored Eddie’s own internal monologue. “We’re fucked.” He spun around, and for the first time since they’d heard the kid’s call over the walkie-talkie that afternoon, Eddie paid close attention to Jeff. His skin was paler, almost ashy. He was shaking, and his temples were dotted with sweat. Sure, this shit was fucked, and it sucked to be fighting this all again, but Jeff seemed more.

“Are you alright, dude?” Eddie asked.

“Alright? I am so far from all right?” Jeff said. Eddie could tell he wanted to flail his arms around and get as dramatic as Eddie typically did but was reigning himself in, controlling himself. He was shutting down. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Eddie said. “I need you to take deep breaths, dude.” 

Eddie was already going through his own mental inventory of stuff that might help Jeff. Did they have some more pot left over from their sesh earlier that day? If so, maybe a blunt would be what everyone here needed. Okay, not the kiddies. Or Eddie, who needed to remain sober for whatever the hell was going on, but it would be good for the people who were under Vecna’s curse and for Jeff, who was freaking out.

As if he was cursed.

Wait. 

Heather had talked about nightmares. She’d also mentioned hallucinations, specifically about spiders. 

“Jeff. Jeffy, Jeffersonian. Jeff.” Eddie grabbed Jeff’s shoulders and turned his friend towards him. “You said you’ve been having nightmares. And today, with the spider that I couldn’t see. That wasn’t there?”

Jeff visibly gulped and nodded. 

“Uh, hey, what?” Lucas asked. 

What else did Heather say she saw? “Any clocks?”

Jeff hung his head low, “No clocks, but I heard ticking at the pool.” He admitted. 

Eddie felt a tidal wave of emotion hit him from all angles. He had to spin around a few times, shake himself, and jump up and down before the nervous energy crashing against his ribs calmed down enough for him to talk again. 

“Like a clock,” Eddie repeated. “Okay, okay, that’s okay.” He pulled away, and Jeff followed his hands, leaning towards him for a moment before he froze. For one horrible second, Eddie thought he would watch Jeff do the same thing as Heather did at the sauna, but Jeff blinked, and Eddie realized he had been following Eddie for comfort and was now trying to steal himself against its loss. 

“Jeff,” El said, reaching for Jeff’s hand. Offering the comfort Eddie had failed to give. “We will keep you safe. Just like Billy and Heather. We will make sure you stay safe.”

El liked Jeff. She liked Jeff and Gareth, the two people in Hellfire who learned about Eddie and El’s real past. Eddie thought she liked Jeff more. He was friendlier. More outgoing. More focused on other people than Gareth. El didn’t mind listening to Gareth talk about his interests, but if you didn’t have much in common with those, then Gareth kind of stopped talking to you. It wasn’t because he was a bad guy. He’d still be friendly. It was just that people didn’t hold Gareth’s attention; his passions did, and El didn’t share any of Gareth’s passions. Jeff, in contrast, was a people person. He loved listening to El talk about her life and treated her like the sweet little sister she was. 

“El’s right,” he said. “We’re going to figure this out; we’re going to kill Vecna, and we’re going to make sure everyone lives. Those are the Party’s goals for the quest.” Eddie called out as he pumped his fist overhead. “What say you, adventures.”

The kids, even Max, shouted their approval. Jeff said, “I’m in.” With a small grin. It wasn’t exactly enthusiastic, but Eddie would take it. Heather and Billy looked at him like he was a freak, but what else was new? 

Heather did manage, “I guess, I mean, I don’t have much choice.” 

Billy stayed silent, but he didn’t storm out. 

“Alright, so brainstorm time. What’s next? What’s a plan? How do we meet the goals?” Eddie asked the group. 

“You should ask some questions to see the future,” Mike suggested.

“El can look to see if she can find Vecna or more people he’s attacking,” Max said. Mike scowled; he never liked it when El or Will risked over-exerting themselves. But he kept quiet. At least he realized this was an all-hands-on-deck moment and that everyone was doing their part. 

“We should try to reach out to Nancy and Jonathan,” Will suggested. “And my Mom.”

“And Hopper. And Dustin. If shit’s going down again, then wherever Dustin is, I bet Steve is, and probably Robin, too. But Dustin’ll have the radio.” Jeff added. 

“Okay, so reach out to whoever we can find to coordinate. Um, and we do some psychic recognizance. Any other ideas?”

Heather raised her hand, and Eddie swiveled to point at her. “Uh, I guess we could,” she gestured between Jeff, Billy, and herself, “could see if there are any commonalities or patterns.”

Eddie couldn’t keep his eyes widening in surprise. That was a very good idea. “Yeah, yeah, that’s good. That’s a great idea.” He rubbed his hands together. “El, why don’t you start looking in the Void, right? For Vecna or any of the people we’re looking for. Will do you want to reach out to the others or be the battery?”

He looked at Mike and nodded. “Mike’s gonna use the walkies to see if he can get ahold of the others. I’ll be the battery. First for El, then you?”

“Focus on El otherwise, it sounds great.” He gestured to the three cursed people in the trailer. “You guys look do your thing. Look for, I don’t know, time, manner, place?” Eddie said, throwing out the old adage about what a person needed to support a good trip. Maybe it’d give them a starting place. “Max and Lucas, help me brainstorm some questions to ask. Better ones than I’ve been asking.” He couldn’t stop the self-recrimination from his voice, and El glanced at him, a silent check-in. 

He shook his head. She needed to focus on her own work. It was his fault, after all, that what they thought was over was back. If he’d seen something, they could have stopped it earlier. 

The late afternoon slid into the evening as they worked. Eddie felt exhausted after brainstorming questions and delving into his future visions. El and Will didn’t look much better. Everyone was on edge, but they all had something to report on to the group. Eddie raided his pantry and tossed out snacks, channeling his inner Steve—the guy who brought orange slices and Doritos to a practice session. 

El went first. She hadn’t been able to find Vecna or any other victims. Without a picture to use or first-hand knowledge of the person, it was difficult, even for her, to find someone. Instead, she’d switched to finding people who couldn’t be found via the radio in the extended adventuring party. Hopper was with the adults and some new people she didn’t recognize in Illinois of all places. She’d seen Dustin calling for help on the radio. He was crawling somewhere with Erica Sinclair. Lucas' look of confusion and panic would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so depressing to remember his visions of Erica years ago. Eddie had thought they avoided her getting involved with the Upside Down. 

Worse, El had seen Steve beaten and tied to a chair with Robin somewhere near the Mall. They were both in their Scoops Ahoy uniforms. She hadn’t had time to find anyone else. 

Mike found Jonathan and Nancy were together via the radio. They’d been following some hunch of Nancy’s at the paper. Two suspicious deaths had happened. One last night, the other this morning. It was enough to get the newspaper interested. When they’d gone to scope out the one from this morning, they found it proceeded over by Deputy Powell because Hopper was MIA. The body had been mangled in a way that Nancy and Jonathan both immediately suspected involved the Upside Down. 

Heather went next. The cursed trio found they were all having nightmares. More intense and vivid than any they’d ever had before. No one shared what they were about except to say that there were no thematic overlaps. They also shared what Heather called the day nightmares. Those were the hallucinations of spiders and clocks, the ticking sound, and the general sense of being followed and watched. Heather’s were the worst. She said nearly everywhere she looked, she would see a spider that wasn’t there. 

Billy wasn’t far behind her in the level of intensity. 

Jeff’s were the least intense and frequent. He’d only seen spiders or head the ticking once each so far. Both were earlier that day.  

Finally came Eddie. 

They’d brainstormed a few questions to ask, and Eddie had just enough time to get through them all. 

He’d seen them all at the Mall. He’d seen that ass, Jason Carver, running through the mall shouting at something or someone. He saw his own hand grabbing a guitar from the wall of the music store on the second floor. Thank God he’d seen both Robin and Steve running around next to Dustin and Erica. The worst part, though, was his vision of Billy suspended in the air, clearly under Vecna’s curse, as his arm broke. Max was shouting on the ground below him, tears streaming down her face. 

He told everyone what he’d seen except that last part. 

He was a coward, he knew, but he couldn’t curse Billy to an even deeper knowledge of what horrors lay before him if they didn’t stop Vecna in time. 

He knew what it was like to envision your own death. He’d presaged his two years ago, and while that vision had never popped up again in any of his questions, he’d also never been brave enough to ask directly. 

When the time came, it wouldn’t help Billy, Max, or El. It would only make them hesitate, and they couldn’t afford that. He just had to hope that whatever they ended up changing, thanks to his visions now, would be enough to make sure he didn’t die.

Steve

July 3 & 4, 1985

Steve screamed out in pain as the Russian thug hit him again. He could barely hear anything at all over the pain buzzing in his head, but the Russians left him alone after that. He didn’t know when they’d be back, but they would be back. Through all the shit he had already endured since the elevator fell into the center of the earth and his pile of regrets - that Robin, Dustin, and Erica are here and involved at all, that he’s failed spectacularly to protect anyone - his brain couldn’t help but be selfish and focus on Eddie. He was specifically missing their not-actually-a-date at the fair on the fourth. Tonight? Probably tonight. 

He should have known that the Upside Down was involved. Why else would the Russians even be in Hawkins? He really was an idiot if he believed this time they were going up against only the Russians. 

He thought he was so damn smart. They would all figure out the Russian thing together. They’d all get rewards. Riches that might make the sting of his Dad’s assholery. He thought he could keep them safe until they had enough evidence to bring to the authorities. 

Even after he realized the Russians were in the mall, he still thought it was potentially manageable. He’d been so proud of himself. Being clever and solving a problem for once. All because he realized he stupid kiddie ride near the South Exit played that damn song in the message. What a joke that was. He should have called in the real adults that night. 

Obviously, he had no idea what safe or smart even meant. 

He did know that he was screwed. If he was very, very lucky, the only one who would face permanent consequences was going to be him. Robin would hopefully survive intact and whole because Erica and Dustin could escape and get help from Hopper or even the fucking Mall cops. 

All he had to do was keep Russian eyes on him. Then everyone else would be okay. That was all that mattered.

He had been a weapon before - using force or even his mere presence to protect others. This time, he’d hoped he could use his brains. He knew better now. He fucked up, thinking he could be smart about this. Now, he had to fall back on what he always fell back on his body’s ability to keep going no matter what. 

The torture sucked. 

It was pain that went past what he thought he could endure. There was nothing they wanted to know he could tell them. Nothing to make them stop. 

It was endless.

Even when he was left alone by the Commander and the lackeys that followed him around, there was always that one guy lurking just out of sight. His whole presence reeked of malice and harm. He, more than anyone else in that room, scared the shit out of Steve.

Steve watched a spider crawl over his knee. He jumped as if that would shake it off, but it kept on its merry way, using Steve as a bypass to get to wherever it was going. He had to endure it because he could do nothing to make it go away. 

Then the Commander came back in with a new goon—a bigger guy with even bigger fists. 

+++

After that last punch, he wasn't expecting to wake up again at all. But he did, and Robin was there with him. He’d been hoping she could escape when he had been beaten in that room, but here she was tied to him. 

He wasn’t expecting Robin to be drugged alongside him. He wasn’t expecting the drugs at all. 

The puncture, the burning sensation of whatever they gave him, made him scream in pain. After the beating he’d suffered, he had no idea how much of the pain of the injection was the surprise and shock of the needle, how much was from the prior beating, and how much was the fear of the torture yet to come. 

He was already dizzy by the time Robin screamed. 

The warmth. The dizzy, joyous warmth was very unexpected and very good. It was like the best painkiller Steve had ever had. 

When Steve had his wisdom teeth removed last year - the upper and bottom one on his right side - he was prescribed Vicodin. He remembered thinking it was like the best drunk-high crossfade you could ever have. It felt good, but this mystery drug felt so much better. 

This he could crave. He could crave this kind of ease and joyous, goofy delight. It was nothing he could ever grasp by himself. 

He only got it when he was with friends and relaxed and high. It was why he loved smoking out with Eddie. It was why he loved being keg king and kept that record going for as many parties as his sophomore self could stand. 

Now, he was uncoordinated, dizzy, unfocused, and he didn’t care. Dustin and Erica, two small children, rescued the teens. That was funny because it was backward. Teens rescue children. Steve protects the tiny, teeny children.

“We’re not tiny children.” 

“Speak for yourself. I am a child, and this whole thing is child endangerment.”

They came because they were his friends. Friends that care about him. It was so nice of them to come to help him and Robin out like that. 

“Of course, I’m your friend, Dingus. Didn’t Eddie, like, see us together forever in the future or something? We are fated to be together. No matter that I don’t even- I mean- uh, I don’t know what I mean.”

Steve got himself through the last two years by thinking of himself as a protector who could keep other people safe. This experience proved he had been wrong, delusional as always. 

Pure self-aggrandizing bullshit. 

“Alex P. Keaton’s Mom?” He turned back to the water until Robin ripped him away.

No, Steve was useless. He hadn't helped anyone stay safe; he hadn't helped anyone escape. Even Robin could follow the plot of a dumb movie when they were so high he could barely walk.

But Steve was useless, and what did that mean? He couldn't do anything. He was never going to protect anyone. And if he couldn't do anything and he couldn't protect anyone, what was the point of Steve?

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

Chapter Text

Early evening July 4, 1985

Eddie

“The compass is pointing to the Mall,” Lucas said as everyone stepped outside Eddie’s trailer. It was pointing west, but the mall was the only thing in that direction from his place.  

Eddie would have pegged Dustin to always to have a compass on him, but not Lucas, seemed like he’d underestimated the kid’s willingness to be prepared. 

He remembered the kid he met a year and a half ago in Wheeler’s basement. Eddie remembered Lucas’ skill tree - all his points given to the next smart skill to build at the time, but what seemed like no long-term strategy. It was as good a way to play as any other. Dungeons and Dragons was about playing together with other people, not building a God. The strategy lent itself to building a broad skill set, and Eddie could see how that inclination played out in real life. Lucas was resourceful and had learned to be prepared for the next time from each of his encounters with the Upside Down. Even when there wasn’t supposed to be a next time.

“Well, that’s fucking great,” Mike said. “So there’s a gate at the mall.”

“Do they have another Eleven?” Max asked. “Is there another Lab Kid out there who can open portals? I thought you all had your own thing?”

“There could be?” El hedged as she looked to Eddie for confirmation. Eddie didn’t think anyone else had the power to open gates but El. 

“I don’t think so,” Eddie said. 

“Maybe someone is using a machine to open a gate?” Lucas asked. 

“A machine?” El looked disgusted at the idea. 

“If no one else can do it, then, like, yeah, a machine could potentially do it,” Lucas said. “Everyone involved in this stuff is an evil mad scientist. Some of those guys are bound to work on machines, not people.”

“I do not like the idea of a machine,” El said, as everyone around her started to organize into the two cars. 

Max handed Billy a walkie-talkie so he could be updated with everyone else. They shared a brief, tense bout of eye contact. 

It made Eddie think back to his time at the Lab. Back when Brenner taught the Lab kids a twisted kind of love that bonded them together as a family. One that emphasized power, fear, and control. 

He wondered if Max and Billy were bonded the way Eddie had been with Two. Two was a bully and an asshole who would have done anything to stay in Papa’s good graces, but he was still Eddie’s sibling, and his death pained Eddie the way the death of every other kid in that Lab pained Eddie. Two should have had the opportunity to grow up outside the Lab and learn what real love and safety felt like. He should have had his own Wayne to teach him. Instead, he was dead in a Lab, his body buried in an unmarked grave somewhere with the rest of them. 

Eddie watched Billy and Heather peel out of the trailer park together, forcing everyone else to ride in Eddie’s van. That suited Eddie just fine. The longer respite he had from Billy's broiling anger or Heather's put-upon princess act, the happier he was. He cared that they were cursed and potentially marked for death, but their mere presence was making everything harder than it had to be.

He got behind the wheel of his van, tossed the walkie to Will, and kept the music quiet enough for Will to coordinate with people as Eddie drove. 

“Where are you guys?” Will asked over the radio, talking to Jonathan while Nancy was driving. 

“We’re still stuck downtown,” Jonathan said over the radio, a frantic edge sliding into his usually calm demeanor. When Jonathan was on edge, shit was going down. He was normally a taciturn and quiet guy. When that changed, Eddie had learned, it was the end of the fucking world. Judging from Will’s expression, he was thinking the same thing. “The power’s gone out all over town, and the lights are all blinking. Everything’s a stop sign. Over.” He said. In the background, everyone could hear Nancy swearing at another driver.

“The gate could be causing the power outages,” Mike said.

“If it were a machine, it’d take a lot of power.” Lucas agreed before he nodded towards El. “Sorry.”

Eddie couldn’t see her face in the rearview mirror, but from Lucas’ apology, he figured she was still pretty sour about the possibility of a machine doing the work. 

“Tell ‘em we’re five minutes out,” Eddie said, gripping the steering wheel as Will relayed the message. 

Nancy and Jonathan were coming from the newspaper downtown. He wasn’t sure, but there was an implication they walked out of their jobs? Or something had happened while they were there, and now they were free to go? Nothing explicit was said, but the meaning came through between the lines.

“We’ll get there ASAP,” Jonathan said. “Over and out.”

“We’ll be there. Over and out.” Will said. 

The trailer was on the edge of town and out by the mall; there were only state routes and the rare four-way with a stop sign—no issues with crispy fried electronics, possibly thanks to the weirdo energy spikes from the gate. They were sure to get there before Nancy and Jonathan.

Accept’s Bound to Fail cut off as Eddie parked the van a few hundred feet from the mall, well outside the ring of cars that crowded near the entrance in case they had to make a quick exit in the near future. Billy parked even further out than he did. Heather and Billy got out as soon as the van parked. 

“We’re here, so what’s the plan?” Billy asked, walking with a falsely confident swagger.

“We’re waiting for Jonathan and Nancy. Then we can go inside.” Mike said. 

“Hey, Billy! Good to see you!” Someone called from behind the van. Just what they needed right now. More people. 

From the other side of the van walked Jason Carver. Under his arm, Chrissy Cunningham smiled and waved with her fingers. Patrick McKinney, another basketball asshole - though not as big an asshole as Billy or even Carver - walked on Jason’s other side. 

He’d seen Jason in his visions less than an hour ago. Eddie couldn’t decide if this was a good or bad turn of events. 

“Lucas, man, what are you doing here?” Patrick asked with a breezy, curious tone. 

As one, all the kids turned to look at Lucas. Expect Max, who smirked like she knew something the other kids didn’t.

“Hey, Patrick,” Lucas said cautiously, like he didn’t know how to act around his friends and these jocks suddenly. 

Wasn’t that interesting? Was Lucas up to something the rest of the kids didn't know about? Max certainly did, but she was good at keeping secrets. 

“You here with your girlfriend?” Patrick waved at Max. 

Max waved back with a friendly smile. For her. “Hey, Patrick.”

Billy scowled at the whole affair, and if Eddie had to guess, he probably didn’t like Patrick for the same reason he didn’t like Lucas and Jeff. Well, not all the same reasons, Patrick wasn’t a nerd after all, but the big one. The dangerous one.

Interestingly, Jason made sure he was in between Patrick and Billy—just a little, even as he smiled at Billy like they were friends. Eddie didn’t know the machinations of the upper classes of Hawkins High, but apparently, Billy had been clocked as a violent racist by at least some of the people on his team. 

“What you guys doing hanging with the Freak?” Jason asked, chummy and shitty at the same time. There was the Jason he knew and hated. 

Patrick glanced around at all of the people gathered in the parking lot—a weird bundle of them, here on the evening of the Fourth of July. Heather and Billy were still in their Lifeguard outfits. Though Heather had put on a sweatshirt over the swimsuit and shorts at some point. 

None of your goddamn business," Billy said, any attempt at cheerfulness gone. As much as Billy’s good moods always seemed like a front, it was still terrifying to watch them slide from his face and show the real anger beneath.  

Chrissy looked at Heather with a worried frown.

Patrick continued, undaunted by Billy's muted anger, said specifically to Lucas and Max, "You guys want to hang out with us today? We're just at the mall having some fun before we head to the Fair." As he said it, he physically herded Max and Lucas away from Billy and the rest of the group. 

If the Upside Down weren't involved, if there wasn't a gate in the mall, and if people in their party weren't missing, Eddie would absolutely hope Lucas and Max went with Patrick, Chrissy, and Jason. Traitorous as it would be to his nerd heart. 

Lucas hedged and played down the weirdness of the encounter to Patrick. "No, man, you guys can go ahead. We got some..." And he trailed off, obviously unable to come up with anything plausible this group of people would be doing together. 

Patrick raised his eyebrows in a perfect expression of disbelief. Jason scowled more at Eddie than at Billy, but there was definitely scowling, and Billy was at least somewhat included in it. 

Eddie was just about to open his mouth and probably stick his foot in there when he heard a screech of tires. Everyone's heads whipped around at the arrival of Nancy and Jonathan.

Nancy didn't even bother parking, so much as stopping the car near the group of people, straddling at least three parking spots. Jonathan jumped out and immediately went to Will, "Are you okay?" he asked. Tunnel vision set to ensure his family was fine before he even bothered with anything else. Eddie would potentially have been worried for the other kids if it hadn't been Will at the center of the last two times this all had happened. Honestly, he was probably already like that with El. He never got to see it from the outside like this. 

Nancy was more cautious than Jonathan, surveying the landscape of the unlikely group standing before her. 

"Hey, guys," she said sedately as if she hadn't just pulled up, screeching to a halt in her station wagon. "Is everything okay?" 

“Nancy,” Eddie greeted her, trying to keep the manic lilt that threatened to worm its way out of him. He knew he was failing, "What a coincidence. Were you just headed to the mall? We were also going into the mall." She looked around and gamely decided to play along with Eddie, thank God. 

"Yup. Why don’t we all go together." She agreed with him, keeping her voice flatly chipper.

The suspicion radiating from the trio of recent newcomers- Jason, Patrick, and Chrissy - kept everyone rooted to the ground until El smacked her palms against her thighs. She told Nancy and Jonathan, "We think the gate is in the mall. Steve and Robin need help." 

Nancy looked towards the strangers in the group, potentially thinking she could minimize whatever was happening, but Jonathan moved faster and asked, "How can it be in the Mall? There are hundreds of people in there all the time. How would they not see it?" 

Eddie wanted to interrupt, to keep whatever was going to happen from happening, but he couldn’t think of a thing to say. 

Nancy looked towards the mall once and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment. Letting go of any pretense, she asked, "How do you know there's a gate open in the mall?" 

Lucas pulled out his compass again and said, "Electromagnetic fields are disrupted by gates, and you can find the location of one with a compass. See, that's West." He pointed towards the Mall, the sun close to setting behind the building. 

Nancy looked at the compass and said, "But the compass is pointing as if it’s North. It's disrupted." 

Lucas nodded. 

Mike, who was never known to let a good brainstorming session go if he couldn't get his word in, said, "It doesn't matter anyway. Jason was in Eddie's vision, which means he's supposed to be here too, which means we all have to go into the mall together." 

Chrissy eeped out a small gasp, her eyes darting between Jason and Eddie, but Jason scowled, a storm across his face, fists clenching. "What the fuck is this freak saying about me?" he asked. Just because Billy was a bigger shark, it was like he’d forgotten Jason was a shark at all. He felt caged in by the twin threats of Billy and Jason on either side of him.

Chrissy let out a gasp again.

Eddie was focused on Jason and his sudden inflection of rage. Like a diver in one of those shark documentaries, he was wondering if his cage would hold or if the shark could attack him. Eddie wasn't going to risk getting walloped by Jason. He did not want to suffer the ill effects of getting his ass beat while they were trying to fight the Upside Down. 

Heather let out a startled yelp, and Eddie looked towards her before he followed her gaze. She was looking at Chrissy, who was standing stock still, her eyes rolling back in her head. She looked like Heather had at the pool. 

“Oh, shit, she's possessed,” Mike said. Eddie couldn’t blame him for not understanding the delicacies of how you may want to talk about Chrissy around the hyper-Christian, hyper-protective Jason Carver. It was possibly the worst thing he could have said. 

Of course, Jason reacted like a bull in a china shop—all rage and destruction without any thought. He grabbed Eddie by his vest and pulled Eddie towards him until they were face to face. Meanwhile, Chrissy looked on in blank horror at whatever nightmare she was living in her mind. 

“What the fuck did you do to her, freak? Visions and possession?” He shook Eddie by the lapel. “What the hell did you do?” Everyone started shouting at that point, shouting at Jason to calm down, shouting at Chrissy to wake up, shouting at Eddie to step back, as if Eddie could do anything except flail as Jason kept him locked in step with him. The ugly sound of Billy laughing only served to build the cacophony of panic. 

"I'm not doing anything, man," Eddie panted, trying to push away from Jason. "This isn't me," he protested again. 

Patrick was tugging on Jason, trying to pull him away from Eddie, and he said, "Jason, Jason, this isn't—you gotta help Chrissy." 

"I am helping Chrissy," Jason said as he pulled his arm back. At that point, El, who had been paying more attention to Chrissy, flung her hand out, and Jason and Eddie parted like the Red Sea parted before Charleton Heston in that one movie. Their feet dragged over the asphalt of the parking lot. "What the fuck,” Jason panted in surprise. 

"Eddie," El cried while she gestured at Chrissy, "help me." 

Eddie turned towards Will and El, who were trying to help Chrissy. "I don't know what to do," he said. 

He looked over at Chrissy again and realized Chrissy wasn't as short as he had expected her to be. When he looked down, her heels were no longer on the ground, and soon only her toes were brushing it. 

"Holy shit, holy shit," he heard one of the kids say over the screaming static of horror that filled his brain. His heart felt like it was falling apart in terror as if it couldn’t find a rhythm, and his breath couldn’t come in quickly enough. 

This was beyond anything that they had experienced before. The horrors Eddie had seen the previous times were monstrous but physical. Even the Mindflayer was “visible” to Eddie’s extra senses. Whatever the thing they had dubbed Vecna was, this horror was invisible. Not only acting on its victims in their minds but, apparently, physically able to manipulate them too. 

He grabbed a hold of Chrissy’s shoulders and tried to push her down as if whatever was lifting her up could be removed with a simple application of human muscle. But, of course, it resisted him. 

Heather continued to scream in the background. Nancy told her to shut up. As someone who was trying to think while Chrissy was levitating up and up into the air, he did appreciate not having to think while Heather was screaming.

Jason had finally gotten with the picture and, alongside Patrick, was trying to push Chrissy down with Eddie as well. He was openly crying. In his efforts to get Chrissy to wake up, he shouted, "Chrissy, Chrissy, please! Chrissy, you're stronger than this!" 

Silently, Eddie hoped Jason was right. Whatever was happening in her head, whatever nightmare she was seeing, Eddie had to believe she was stronger than the thing stalking her. He hoped she could overcome the curse because it didn’t look like anyone here could do anything for her. 

He looked over to El and noticed Will was holding her hand as she stood, her eyes closed, blood dripping from both of their noses. 

Eddie realized, like before, she was trying to get into the mindscape where Chrissy was trapped. Before Eddie could try to figure out how to support El and Will, Chrissy gasped again and fell down to the parking lot. Luckily, she was only a few feet above the ground. She fell on top of the three boys surrounding her. 

Eddie would have expected her to be crying and screaming when she came out of her trance. Or for her to curl up in fear like Heather. Instead, she blinked a few times as she looked around at the group of people gathered around her and the guys below her. The foggy white of her eyes brightened back to their normal deep blue. She bit her lip and looked down at the pavement. She seemed almost embarrassed as if she had been rude instead of possessed by an evil wizard from another dimension. 

"I'm so sorry," she said, "I—I don't know what happened. I'm so sorry." 

Jason reassured her, "Everything's fine, babe. Everything's fine as long as you're okay." 

Nancy looked over to Eddie. "This is what’s been happening?" 

Eddie nodded. 

She pointed to Billy and Heather. "It happened once to each of them," Nancy asked for confirmation.

"And Jeff," Eddie added, “well, he hasn’t.” He gestured towards Chrissy. “Done that, but he’s cursed too.” 

It was like saying his name caused him to materialize as Jeff waved at Nancy. “Yeah, the spiders and the clock.”

Chrissy looked up from her seat on the ground, Jason’s arms still wrapped around her. “You’ve seen the clock, too? I thought I was going crazy.”

Eddie slowly realized Jeff had been staying away from the parking lot drama. Had turned silent for the whole ride to the mall. He had been pulling away all afternoon. 

If Eddie really thought about it, he’d also been pulling longer than that. He had been pulling away since last November when the Upside Down came into his life. When his Mom lost her job later that month. He’d been pulling away so slowly and so quietly Eddie hadn’t even noticed until today that he wasn’t the vibrant, funny Freshman Eddie remembered befriending his Sophomore year. 

Nancy, as always, perceptive of the people around her, grabbed hold of Jeff's hand and said, "Jeff, I am so sorry. We will solve this." 

Jeff looked startled at her promise and her attempt to help and reassurance. 

Eddie realized Jeff really had been left out of the circle of care the older teens had created over the course of the year spent planning to save the world from Eddie’s dire visions. Even Robin had been part of it since Steve dragged her everywhere he went. Steve had prioritized her inclusion even when things had gone sour for Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan during their little drama from last Fall. 

Jeff had been excluded from that, not on purpose, but because Eddie had always thought of him as his friend from Corroded Coffin and Hellfire. He’d tried to protect Jeff from the Upside Down, even after he’d been exposed to it in the Junkyard and the Chicago Adventure. Eddie had hoped that since Jeff had avoided the worst of the fighting, it hadn’t affected him that badly. 

Gareth hadn’t seemed phased by it at all. More pissed off Eddie hadn’t told them he was a real-life wizard than scared about monsters or alternate dimensions. 

Eddie had failed Jeff because he’d been so desperate to pretend everything was normal once he thought the Upside Down was gone for good. Except, it wasn’t gone, and Jeff wasn’t fine. 

Eddie didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to help his best friend. He didn't know how to help Billy, Heather, or Chrissy either. His powers were useless against a dark wizard. 

Nancy stood up straighter, and Eddie knew she was taking charge. He was so, so glad for that. He didn’t want to be in charge, and he didn’t want to make any more decisions. He wanted someone else to make better decisions than Eddie could. 

Nancy said, "All right, you say the gate’s in the mall." 

Lucas nodded. 

"And you're telling me that whatever that attack was is because of the gate.” 

“That's our best hypothesis right now. We think there's a dark wizard using a gate to get through," Will said as he reached around and touched the back of his neck. "It doesn't feel like the Mindflayer," he said. "It feels like something new, something familiar but unknown." 

El agreed. “Yes. Familiar and unknown.”

"All right," Nancy said. "We're going to go to the mall, all of us.” She gestured to everyone standing there. Jason looked like he wanted to argue but couldn’t get a foothold when Nancy was in her element. “We're going to find out where that gate is, and we are going to destroy it." 

The sentiment could have been funny coming from someone as small as Nancy, someone as easy to overlook in so many ways—tiny and feminine, petite and a priss. Yet, when you saw her like this, you stood up straighter and said, "Yes, ma'am." 

Eddie was so glad to let her lead.

Steve

“Have you ever been in love?” Robin asked as Steve was still laughing over her peeing her pants. Maybe he was still drugged, or maybe after days of being without enough food, water, or sleep, he was too loopy to calm down. He didn’t even know at this point.

“Yup,” He answered easily. “Nancy Wheeler. First semester, senior year.” He pointed a fake gun at his chest and squeezed at the same time he made a soft gunshot noise. Thinking about it still felt like he had been shot. 

“Are you still in love with Nancy?” She asked, and he thought it was a good question. 

He might always be a little in love with her. She was the first person he ever loved romantically. She was why he changed, even before the Upside Down forever altered his existence. She made him think he could be a better person and want to live up to her expectations. 

He’d failed her when he spraypainted “slut” on the marquee with Tommy’s help as Carol cackled at them from the street. He was used to feeling ashamed and belittled when he failed. It was certainly what his parents did when he failed to live up to their expectations. 

Nancy’s searing disappointment and Jonathan’s disgusted acceptance that Steve would never change had kicked the ice off of something frozen over in Steve’s heart. His parents had always frozen him out when he failed, making him feel like his behavior was inevitable. Jonathan hadn’t expected much, and Steve still failed to live up to it. Nancy had expected a lot more and was so hurt he couldn’t deliver. It made him look around and take stock of what the hell he’d been doing with his life.  

He’d failed her again by not taking her need to help Barb’s family and putting her friend to rest seriously. 

Despite that, he was still a better person because he loved her. 

But he didn’t love her like that now. “No.” 

“Why not?” She asked. If it was real love, how did he fall out of it? What had changed?

He thought about Dustin and El. All the kids, really, but those two were the ones he spent the most time around. Both were friends and mentees. They looked up to him not because he was Keg King or his parents were rich but because his insight and help were valuable to them. They loved him, and he loved them right back.

He thought of Robin, who was gorgeous, funny, and so damn smart. Who he was in love with in a way he couldn’t fully articulate to himself, let alone anyone else. She didn’t make his heart flutter; he didn’t want to spend hours making out with her, but he wanted to share his life with her forever. 

Then he thought of Eddie. He also wanted to share his life with Eddie forever. But Eddie did make his heart flutter. He did want to kiss the guy. Until a few weeks ago, he hadn’t really thought it was an option because Steve thought you could only like one or the other. Steve liked girls, which meant he couldn’t like guys. How he felt about Eddie was something to push to the side and not think about.

Now he knew better. What remained to be seen was if he could love Eddie the way he’d loved Nancy. But better because he’d learned what not to do. 

“It’s complicated.” He hedged. “I’ve found a person. Well, two people who are better for me than Nancy. I’ve been unsure how to tell either of them how important they are to me. One of them, I think, could be my best friend. More than just a best friend, if that exists.” He thought about how lit up he felt around Robin, how true to himself, and how much he wanted to make sure she felt the same way around him even as she pulled away. “And the other one. I feel like I could maybe love them.”

Robin was silent, and that made him nervous, so he continued. “The girl,” He said, meaning Robin. He couldn’t talk to her about Eddie; that wasn’t something you just blurted out even to your best friend, but he could let Robin know how important she was to him. “The girl is a person I’m so damn glad I’ve been hanging out with for, like, nearly a year. You know? Even though she was suspicious of me at first. Which she had every right to be. I was an asshole for so long, so concerned with what Tommy H. thought of me that I stopped doing the right thing.” He sighed, and his face hurt as the drugs finally started to wear off. “She’s hilarious. She’s so funny. I laugh harder with her than with anyone else in my life. And she’s smart, way smarter than me. She’s honestly like no one else I’ve ever met before.”

He waited for her to say something, but there was only silence from the other stall. “Robin?” He tapped on the stall wall. Normally, he’d assume she needed time to think, but with the drugs obviously still running through their system, his brain immediately leaped to the worst outcome. “Robin, did you just OD in there?”

“No. I’m still alive.” She said with a watery sigh that Steve knew meant she was upset. He decided to slide under the stall wall to sit with her. “That’s disgusting,” She said as he sat up against the stall wall, facing her.

“Well, I got a bunch of blood and puke on my clothes, so-” He settled against the wall but couldn’t meet her eye. “What do you think?”

“About?”

“This girl.”

“She sounds awesome.”

“She is awesome.”

“The problem is that you don’t really know this girl, okay? Like if you really knew her I don't think you’d want to even be friends with her.”

He leaned forward, brushing his arm against her leg. She didn’t pull away, but she looked deeply uncomfortable, and he pulled away a little, letting her have the space. “No way is that true, Robin.”

“Steve. I’m not like your other friends. I’m-” She looked up to the ceiling as if weighing what she would say next. “Remember what I told you about Click’s class months ago? About being jealous of you?”

He did remember. They’d been passing a bottle of his Dad’s whiskey back and forth just after spring break at his house. Just shooting the shit when she’d told him about her first impression of him. The one that made it so hard for him to become her friend in the first place. 

Now that he thought about it again, that had been right before she’d started pulling away. When she started only hanging out with him in groups, she was always tense when it was just the two of them. 

“It wasn’t because I had a crush on you.” She said it with ease, and something in Steve relaxed. He didn’t want that from Robin, and he figured she hadn’t wanted it from him, but this confirmation felt good. Affirming. “I had a crush on her.”

Steve’s brain squealed to a halt. “Mrs. Click?”

“Tammy Thompson.” She said, looking anywhere but at Steve.”I wanted her to look at me, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away from you.”

“But Tammy Thompson’s a girl.” He said as his brain started to catch up with what was happening, what she was saying.

“Steve.” She said plaintively. 

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“Holy shit.” She was like Eddie. Like El. 

Like him.

“Yeah, holy shit.” She said. 

“Wait, do you like both? Or just girls?” He asked. 

“Steve, I’m not going to date you.” She said. 

“Good, right. That’s good. I don't want to date you either.” He said. 

“But, you said.” She asked.

“I want to date Eddie.” She looked up at him quickly and mouthed Eddie at him. He wasn’t ready to talk about that, so he pushed forward. “I want to be your best friend. Or whatever is the next step up from that, but without kissing.”

“What?”

“Like I said. You’re funny, and you’re smart. You are, like, so awesome in every way.”

“But you don’t want to-?” She asked. 

“Date you? I mean, in another life, maybe. You are totally a catch and some girl.” It was a weird thing to say it out loud. He felt the warning tug of apprehension and disgust in his gut telling him to avoid naming or looking at it too closely. For her, though, he pushed through. He’d do anything for Robin, even if it meant he was uncomfortable or terrified. Hell, he’d just gotten himself tortured to keep her from being the focus of the Russian’s interrogation techniques. He could do this. “But in this life, I just want to hang out with you, dude.” 

She looked like she didn’t believe him. Like this was all too good to be true. “You can’t still want to be friends after-”

The expression she wore was the same as the one he’d seen on her face a million times since spring break. He’d been reading it all wrong for ages. She wasn’t angry at him. She was scared. She was scared of what he’d do if he really knew her. 

He got it. Eddie had visions of the two of them together. She had been told they were fated to be together or something. That was a lot. Steve might have heard that and gotten excited because he’d never had anything like that in his life. A grand destiny with another person. Someone always by his side. And he had to admit, months ago, he could see them together romantically. He was being honest with her that she was a catch. 

If she only liked girls, then she was probably pretty scared of what those visions meant. She would have been worried that she would be trapped by destiny in a lie. 

There weren’t any role models out there for what they had. There was nothing that showed a man and woman together forever as friends. Except that’s what the visions were showing. Steve was sure of it. Whatever it was between them, Steve knew it was for life, but that didn’t mean it was romantic. 

Steve knew Robin. He knew how to turn this conversation around. “I do, Robin. I still and only want to be friends with you.”

He knew she would believe him if she could relax. There was only one way to make Robin relax. 

“But Tammy Thompson, really?” He bitched. 

“What?” She asked, disbelief smearing her face.

“Like you can do way better than her. Like I said, you’re a catch.”

“Tammy Thomspon has dreams.” 

“Dreams of being a Nashville star when she can barely hold a note.” He imitated the way Tammy would warble instead of using a real vibrato, keeping his voice as nasal as possible.

“She doesn’t sound like that. You sound like a Muppet.”

“She sounds like a Muppet!”

Robin descended into giggles, and Steve followed alongside her. “Oh my god, she does sound like that.”

“I’m not wrong about Tammy.” He said and then started singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. Tammy’s favorite choice from last year. An assault on the ears that left a lasting impression. 

Robin kept laughing, trying to sing along with him as Dustin and Erica burst into the bathroom. “Okay, what the hell?” Dustin asked, sounding exactly like his mom when she was fed up with Dustin's precociousness. 

It just made them both laugh harder. 

Chapter Text

Early Evening July 4, 1985

Steve

Steve thought it would be easy to get out of the mall. The crowds were thin, and the few people who were even there were streaming out of the doors - they were probably headed to the fireworks show near the Fun Fair. The four of them should have blended in the crowd. Two were only food service workers walking out of the mall alongside their customers as it closed. Certainly, the two kids would have been invisible to any guards. 

It didn't take more than a few seconds of hesitation from their little group when they got to the front of the exit line before one of the Russians noticed them. The Russian shouted to his comrades and started to chase their group back into the heart of the Mall. 

Steve ran, leading the way, with Robin, Dustin, and Erica following right behind. Steve paused to let them pass like he was the team captain of their escape. He kept them all together and herded them down the escalators, using the solid, silver surface between them as slides. “Go, go, go.” He shouted like he was running them through a drill. He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw the Russians on his tail. They were too damn close. 

He slid down the impromptu slide and jumped up to keep ushering his group forward. They couldn’t escape, but they could hide. Maybe he could devise a plan if he had a second of time to think. He gestured to the counter at the Great Cookie Company, and they all ducked behind it. 

Steve steeled himself for action despite his flagging energy and headache. Despite the way his vision crawled with black dots, like every where he looked was covered in spiders. This is what he trained for during the school year. The ability to keep going no matter how exhausted he was, to make sure he could take the winning shot or to make sure the people he cared about could escape the Russians. What mattered was his ability to keep going no matter what. He would defend them with his life if he had to. 

He was pretty sure he was going to have to. 

He was glad Robin had a chance to come out to somebody and be accepted. She deserved it. He wished he would have been able to come out to somebody, too. He wished he had been brave enough to say something to Robin or even further back to Eddie and El. Both times, he realized they needed acceptance more than camaraderie. Or at least that's what he told himself. Now, he wished he’d had a chance to be his whole self with someone else, if only for a moment. 

Steve rolled his shoulders. He could do this. He was going to draw fire from the Russians. That would give the rest of the group the critical time to escape. Without this sacrifice, he knew there was no other chance of escape for any of them. 

As he was about to jump up, he heard a horn blare and rubber screeching across the tile. The cacophony was followed by the hovering silence of frozen shock. 

The silence was followed by the sound of twisted metal and breaking glass. 

The noise unfroze Steve. He rocked up from his crouch behind the counter. He saw an overturned car had crushed the Russians who had been chasing them. Behind him, Robin, Erica, and Dustin popped out from the counter and looked at the car crash. As one, all four of them looked from the car to the center of the mall where the car had been moments before. 

Above the platform, on the balcony of the second floor, Eleven and Eddie stood at the front of the group. Eleven had her hands outstretched in front of her, and blood was running down from her nose. She saw their group first and started down the stairs to the first floor of the courtyard, Eddie and everyone else hot on her heels.

Dustin stepped around Steve and ran towards El, shouting, “You flung that thing like a Hot Wheel!”

Erica was right behind him and shouted, “Lucas?”

“What are you doing here?” Lucas looked at Erica before he looked back at Eddie. 

“Ask them; it’s their fault,” Erica said, pointing to Robin and Steve.

“True, yeah, totally true,” Steve admitted. “It’s our fault.”

“This is great and all, but what happened?” Chrissy Cunningham asked from beside her boyfriend, Jason. He looked green, still staring at the car, the dead Russians, and back at Eleven.

“El has superpowers,” Dustin said simply, pointing to Eleven. 

“That’s El?” Erica asked.

“What happened to you?” Eddie asked, his hand reaching out towards Steve's face but falling back as his eyes slid over to what seemed like half of Hawkins High basketball team and a host of new people not usually involved with the Upside Down. Steve knew them all well. He had moved in circles with them at parties and lunch tables.

Steve felt torn in two. Part of him desperately wanted a kind touch from Eddie. He wanted someone to hold him and tell him everything would be okay now. Steve had been holding his little group together, taking the hits for them, and he longed to finally rest. The rest of him tied up in high school and small-town politics, couldn’t imagine he could be anything less than King Steve in front of his old schoolmates. 

Steeling himself to play it cool, he shrugged and added a brag. “Robin and Dustin cracked this code.” 

“It was mostly me,” Robin said as Dustin squawked behind her.

“You would all be nowhere without my help,” Erica added. “But she is how we found out about the Russians in the first place.”

“Russians? What Russians?” Jonathan asked.

“Didn’t you get our code red?” Dustin asked.

“Those were Russians?” Max asked incredulously.

“I’m sorry, there are Russians now too?” Patrick asked. “Not just the whole-” He trailed off as if that explained anything to anyone. Expect, everyone around him seemed to understand. 

“The Russians, the Russians!” Steve said, “The reason there's a gate.” He looked at the rest of the non-party again and thought he shouldn't say anything more.

"You saw the gate," Eddie asked, not caring about the audience. They must be clued in for a reason, even if Steve couldn’t imagine one. 

"Yeah, we saw a gate, and it's under the mall," Erica said.

Robin nodded in confirmation. “There was a giant machine. It’s what’s been causing the power outages, we think.” 

“The power outages have been happening for a few days now,” Nancy said, clearly starting to put something together.

“I’m still stuck on there being Russians in Hawkins,” Patrick said from the back of the group. 

“Or how that little girl just killed people?” Jason asked. 

“Not people, Russians,” Erica said.

“Erica!” Lucas said, aghast.

"That's where whatever Vecna's magic is coming from! That’s where he’s getting through from the Upside Down," Mike said from behind Eddie.

"What the fuck? Vec-? Vec-wha?" Steve asked, totally confused now.

Lucas turned to El. “The Russians do have a machine.”

El scowled at him. 

“Okay, whoa, okay,” Nancy said, crossing and uncrossing her arms in front of her in an attempt to rein in the chaos that was starting to brew around her. "We need to share this information systematically." 

Heather raised her hand as if she was in class and asked, "Here at the mall?" 

Eddie looked around before he stated, "No one else is here at this point, except maybe some Russians?" You could hear the question mark, the lilt of his voice turning up as he looked towards Steve and Robin. 

"I don't see any Russians right now," Robin said. 

"What do Russians even look like?" Billy growled, and Steve tried not to step away as Billy’s anger made Steve's stomach turn with unease. 

"Tall, blonde, not smiling," Dustin started to list, describing Billy in front of him, and Steve whacked him on the shoulder. 

"The ones under the mall are all in uniforms," he said, keeping it as crisp and concise as possible. "The ones we saw above the mall had guns." 

"Great, you guys go first. What happened?" Nancy asked. 

Dustin explained their misadventures under the mall, leaving out much of what Robin and Steve went through. Steve hoped it was because he hadn’t figured it out. 

Jonathan asked, “They were acting drunk? And you left them at the movies?” 

"We weren't drunk," Robin said.

Dustin kept explaining, "We left him at the movies, and they wandered off. Our escape delay is because of them." 

Steve went to pinch the bridge of his nose but flinched back when he realized it was too tender to touch. "Dustin, dude, we weren't drunk; we were drugged by the Russians," 

Eddie muffled a small whine and made an aborted move toward Steve. The small gesture made something inside Steve spark as he resisted leaning towards Eddie. He desperately wanted Eddie to touch and comfort him.

"I still don't know what this has to do with Chrissy or what happened to Chrissy," Jason interrupted everybody.

Jonathan turned to him, frustration flashing in his eyes. "I'm going to need you to shut it," he said. "We are solving the problem, but right now, too many people know too many different parts of it, and we are not going to be able to make this work unless we know all the facts."

Nancy and Jonathan were next to go while Carver fumed. 

They shared that they had been going rogue, researching an article no one at the newspaper wanted either of them to write. Taking off work to do it and risking getting fired. They had been investigating and found a string of people reporting all sorts of varying injuries and hallucinations. There was a five-fold increase in people being given 48-hour holds at Pennhurst. All of it painted a picture of something going wrong all over town, but nothing specific to point to.

“We thought it might be groundwater poisoning. From last year's tunnels in the Upside Down.” Jonathan said.

“We?” Nancy scoffed, angling her body away from Jonathan. “I speculated it was from the spores last year. You dismissed me and said it was all over.”

That wasn’t a great tone. Steve wondered what Jonathan had done to earn that kind of ire from Nancy. 

Eddie and the kids went next. Apparently, thinking Billy was possessed, they had tried to force the Mindflayer monster out of him. Instead, they watched Heather get possessed while Billy was trapped in a sauna. El and Will had tried to get her out of it but were unsuccessful. They weren’t sure they were why she’d escaped whatever had happened to her. On top of it all, there were two more potential victims - Chrissy and Patrick. That explained the whole group of teens now swarming the mall courtyard. They all shared these weird symptoms like hearing and seeing clocks, and hallucinations of spiders, not to mention headaches, and nose bleeds. And nightmares.

If Steve hadn’t been having nightmares for years at this point, if he hadn’t just had the shit beaten out of him explaining the tiny black dots swimming in his vision and weird ticking noise, he’d think he was cursed too, just like the rest. 

Steve was concerned about Jeff, Heather, and Chrissy being attacked. Hell, if he had to really dig deep, he could find it in himself to worry about Billy, too, especially since the attacks seemed to be getting longer and more intense as they hopped from person to person. "But why?" he asked out loud, and everybody in their gigantic group turned to him. 

Of course, Steve didn't buy the "there's a wizard doing it" reasoning, but that was only because it had never been a thoughtful creature before, just a monster. Even Eddie used to complain the kids were assigning motivation to monsters that probably had little real motivation. Steve didn't understand why he was doing it himself now.

"What?" Nancy asked. 

"But why are you guys cursed, and why the curse to begin with? There's a gate, open or opening, and monsters can come through. They do enough damage. Why curses? It’s always been monsters before." 

Nancy opened her mouth to explain and then shut it, and then Eddie opened and shut his, and then the people who had never been part of this before all kind of started complaining at once. Steve wished he had kept his mouth shut because that was not what he expected to happen. Usually, he asked a stupid question, and he got told he was stupid, and he shut up. 

It didn't really matter; he always asked before he thought anyway. He understood that it was a dumb move. It was part of his whole useless thing, asking stupid questions that didn’t help anyone. 

El spoke up, and the rest of the conversations died away. "Everyone who is attacked is sad and scared." 

Billy bristled, but the rest of them didn't seem to argue the point. 

“Vecna preys on their fears and insecurities." Her mouth downturned at the corner as if she couldn’t contain her own pity for the victims. 

"Why?" and this time, Robin spoke up, so it probably wasn't as stupid as Steve thought his own question was. "How does he know that they're afraid? And, like, what’s the litmus for ‘afraid enough’? Aren't we all afraid of something? Enough for what?" she asked. 

Steve glanced over at Robin, suddenly afraid she might be targeted next. He now knew exactly what she feared.

“Back at the lab,” Eddie began, his head titled to the side, deep in thought. 

“What fucking lab?” Jason asked. “Now there’s a lab?”

“The Lab where he was raised.” Mike said the “you idiot” strongly implied. Honestly, it was funny when you weren’t the target of his adolescent ire. 

Eddie ignored both of them. “There was an unspoken secret. If you used your emotions, you could be stronger. The stronger the emotion, the more oompf it supplied.” Eddie wiggled his head a bit. “Papa didn’t like that. He always wanted everything to be sterile and emotionless. Just like he was.” He let out a small, bitter laugh.

El spoke up. “I used Mama’s emotions to find my way into her mind, her memories of me.”

“Last year?” Eddie asked.

El nodded. “Maybe Vecna is using other people’s emotions to fuel something.”

“Like Will can be a battery for El or Eddie?” Mike added. 

Lucas snapped. “The gate. He’s using negative emotions to fuel the gate. Or fuel the machine that can open the gate?”

“So Vecna’s the Russians?” Jonathan asked. Steve was glad someone was keeping up because he was just as confused as before he’d asked his question. 

Steve heard stomping boots behind him before anyone could answer Jonathan’s question. He turned, ready to tackle whoever was from behind them, giving everyone else time to get away. Expect that it wasn’t the Russians behind him. It was Hopper, Joyce, Wayne, and two other guys Steve had never seen before. 

Steve immediately relaxed. There was something about seeing them arrive - knowing capable and trustworthy adults were here to take over - that set everything at ease in Steve's mind. They could give him a bat, gun, or ax and point him in the right direction. Steve could take the hits and dole them out and keep everybody safe.

"Thank God we found you, kids," Joyce said. "We've got to get out of here. We think there’s-”

“There are Russians in the mall," Steve finished for her. 

"What? In the mall? No, in Hawkins," Joyce said, and then the bald guy spoke in Russian, which made shivers run up Steve's spine. 

The other guy with the glasses and the Slurpee listened and then answered the bald guy, who turned to the rest of the group and said, "Yeah, the kid's right. Actually, they're under the mall." 

Hopper turned to the guy with the Slurpee and said, "You couldn't have told us that before our adventure at the Fun Fair?" 

But the bald guy rolled his eyes and said, "Apparently, he thought we already knew that part since we knew where his location was outside the mall." 

Chrissy raised her hand before she said, “Um, should we start story time over again?”

“Yes, thank you, Chrissy,” Nancy said. She pointed to Robin, and so it began again.

Steve and Robin told their part of the story, leaving out the torture, the drugging, and the confessions under the drugging. Although the guy with the Slurpee did look a little longer at Steve's face after Robin mentioned they got caught. Then Nancy told her part of the story. Then Eddie went, and everyone explained why the teen side of the party had grown to the size of a small gathering, as opposed to the comfortable lunch table it had been for years. 

Joyce told her story about the magnets, Mr. Clark and Wayne. When Hopper was brought in, Wayne split off to follow a hunch. Then, the rest of the adults tracked down Mayor Klein’s Russian buddies - including the scientist. The Slurpee guy, Alexi. And Murray, the translator. 

Then Joyce asked Steve’s original question. “Why is this happening now?”

"Well, I think I may have the missing puzzle piece.” Wayne stepped up to tell his side of the story. “One of the things we found when we were looking for Alexi was information about the Lab and how it connected to the Creels." The adults’ best guess was a Russian spy had gotten some of the original documents from the Lab when it was being shut down. According to the documents, Henry Creel was taken in by Martin Brenner. “I had to go to Pennhurst and talk to Victor.” Wayne’s face told Steve everything he had to know about his adventure at Pennhurst.

"The Creels?" Nancy questioned.

“Wait, like that spooky story you used to tell me? About the old mansion on Hawthorn?” Eddie asked Wayne.

Wayne nodded at Eddie. "Turns out Victor went mad when his son, Henry, killed the family. He took the blame because he thought the son had died, and he couldn’t bear the pain. But the kid didn't die. Apparently, he's one of you lot." He gestured to El and Eddie. “Brenner renamed him One.”

"There was no One.” Eddie denied. “We started at Two; we weren't supposed to talk about it. I always assumed he died." 

“One what?” Heather asked. 

"One," El said from her place between Eddie and Max. The group waited for her to continue. Her face screwed up in confusion or maybe concentration. "One," she said again. This time, her hand twitched, and her head snapped to the side. 

Steve got a sudden sinking sensation that something would go very wrong. 

El collapsed, twitching and screaming. Steve lunged for her as she fell, narrowly keeping her head from hitting the tile floor. 

She clutched her head and screamed in agony—everyone else around her flew into a panic. Hopper and Eddie dropped down beside her. The party ran to help, but Wayne herded them away to give El space. Expect Mike, who slipped through, knelt beside her, and clutched her hand. Eddie took Steve’s place, holding her head while Steve moved back to help Wayne. 

She screamed so loud and so long the shop the window next to them shattered. Then, the window next to the first shattered, followed by the window next to that until all the glass fronts of all the shops around them had shattered, forcing everyone to duck and cover from the rain of sharp glass shards. 

Eddie paid the glass no mind as he cradled El’s head in his hands while she convulsed on the ground. Steve tried to protect them from the worst of the falling glass. 

The last of the glass plinked in silence as everyone checked each other over. El remained panting but unresponsive on the ground. Her body was rigid with tension. Her back arched off the ground. Steve kept his hands on her temples and watched her breath go in and out, looking for any sign she was getting better. Or worse. 

It didn’t take long for El’s condition to begin to worry everyone around them. “Can you reach her? In wherever she is?” Hopper asked, and Steve realized he was talking to Eddie.

“It’s not- I’m not great at it, but yeah. I can try.” Eddie said, looking to Will, who nodded his head. 

Wayne sat beside them both and put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. "You do what you need to do, son." 

Eddie looked at him for a beat before he nodded. 

Jonathan moved into the empty gap where Eddie had been cradling El’s head as Eddie moved away to do his thing, rocking back and forth like he always did when he went into one of his trances. One of the kids had tuned a walkie-talkie to static. Will sat down beside Eddie and placed his hand on his shoulder. His nose trickled with blood almost immediately after closing his eyes.

Everyone in the know waited patiently, trying to soothe El or each other, but otherwise, they kept quiet so Eddie could do his thing. It was only the people who had never seen this before, the ones who had no idea about the Lab, or Eddie and El, who tried to ask questions. Max and Lucas shushed them. The newcomers grumbled, and it looked like no one would listen to two thirteen-year-olds until Hopper looked away from his daughter to glare at the people talking. Finally, everyone else shut up.

A few minutes passed, and El’s tiny body relaxed. Steve relaxed with her. As if on cue, the three psychic kids gasped in unison. El sat up quickly and looked at Eddie, and they both said, "One."

El said it with anger and wonder. 

Eddie said it with fear and dread. 

Hopper and Wayne herded everyone over to the center of the mall courtyard and away from the glass. Mrs. Byers and Chrissy ran to the food court and grabbed sodas for everyone. Mike grabbed pretzels from Hot Sam’s and passed them to the group. Finally, when everyone had a chance to catch their breath, Heather asked, “What was that? What happened?”

Eddie began. “I wasn’t sure what to do, but I had to try. I knew El had tried to go into what we call the Void to try to help you earlier.”

“What the hell is the Void?” Jason asked with suspicion. Steve remembered Jason’s prayer circles before each practice and each game. The guy was enough of a Jesus Freak to get weird at Eddie just for his Dungeons and Dumbasses club. He couldn’t imagine Jason would react well to the actual weird stuff in Hawkins. 

“It’s a psychic in-between space. We can find people there.” Will explained. 

“I tranced out, trying to get to the Void, but it was like I was pushed into one of my visions instead. It felt out of my control. Like when you guys ask me questions. This time, I was seeing what was clearly the past, though.”

“At least there was no coma this time,” Lucas muttered under his breath. Steve had a flashback to Lucas at  Eddie’s bedside last year, reading one of the nerd books they both liked. 

“Normally,” Steve explained to the newcomers, “Eddie only sees the future.” Patrick and Chrissy both looked at Eddie, impressed. Everyone else looked vaguely pissed off or scared. 

“I was there with Eddie and Will,” El said. “I had been falling until they came. It felt like I was falling into the Upside Down with no hope of stopping, but once Eddie was there, I was back on solid ground, and we were together.” She reached across the table, around Eddie’s drink, and squeezed his hand. Eddie smiled at El in return.

“Right, but the solid ground was different than it normally was,” Eddie said.

“It’s usually like being suspended in all black, except for what or who you’re looking at,” Will added.

“This time, we were in that house I’d seen in my visions earlier. Expect it was bright and warm. Like a real house, not the haunted version. Two kids ran past us from the living room into a dining room.” He looked over at Wayne. “I think it’s the Creel House.”

“Henry lived there,” El affirmed. “He was a kid.”

“It was wild. If that’s what you normally feel like when you get your visions, Eddie, I don’t know how you stand it.” Will said around a bite of pretzel. Mike was still rubbing his back as he looked at El. 

“We watched them move in together as a family. Everything seemed fine. Then Henry started doing things around the house,” Eddie said.

“Bad things,” El added. 

“Killing rabbits and making spiders pour out of the bath faucet.” Will shuddered. That sounded pretty horrible to Steve. 

“He had powers like us, but it was definitely before the Lab,” El confirmed. 

“Then we watched him kill the whole family. His Mom, his sister.” Eddie’s eyes glassed over with unshed tears. “It was horrible. He broke them like they were dolls.”

“And in the vision, only his Dad survived, singing this one song,” Will said, his bangs hiding his eyes. 

“Dream a Little Dream of Me?” Wayne asked, humming the tune.

Will looked up at Wayne, clearly startled. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“Victor Creel apparently listens to it over and over. Says it keeps the demons away.” Wayne said. 

“Then we saw Brenner take the kid to the Lab after he’d been ‘rescued’ from the house.”

“Papa gave him a tattoo. Zero zero one.” El said.

“But as soon as the other kids came in, he was made an orderly. Once I saw him all grown up, I recognized him,” Eddie said. “We called him Peter. I remember him behind quiet and not as mean as the other orderlies.” Eddie shook his head as if he couldn’t believe the man he knew was the same as the man who might be behind all the horrors they had experienced since 1983.

“He was nice,” El affirmed. “He- When I was littler.” Eddie placed his hands over hers, and Will held onto her shoulder. Whatever they had seen together was a lot. “I did not remember this part. I still don’t remember it all. But I do have a small memory of Eddie now.” She turned her face towards her brother and smiled at him. “With his Magic 8 Ball.” She giggled. Eddie crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue at her. 

She turned serious again, stiffened her shoulders, and looked back at everyone around her. Even the teens who had no context for any of this were listening. “When I was smaller than when I escaped. Maybe a few years before then. He saw that I was struggling. That Papa was frustrated with me and punished me because I was not as good as the others.” Steve saw Eddie nod his head as if confirming what she said with his own memories of the same time. 

“This all happened shortly before I escaped,” Eddie added, which meant right before the massacre Eddie had mentioned a few times. Steve wasn’t sure of most of Eddie’s early life in the Lab, but he did know that the massacre happened first, and then Eddie escaped. He’d had a vision of it right before it happened. A vision that knocked him out so badly that whatever had killed everyone else passed by him. Steve shuddered. 

El continued. “Peter was nice. He helped me learn how to be stronger—and told me to use my anger toward the others. And I got better. Papa was so proud.”

“You told me that the first day I found you. When Will was missing.” Eddie said. “I learned the ‘trick’ from him, too.” He sat back in his chair, clearly thinking of the past. “I bet we all did.”

“When I met you, I didn’t remember learning it, only that I knew it was true. And to keep it a secret from Papa.” El nearly whispered. 

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, Brenner wanted us to be pure little automatons. I’ve always thought he saw it as dangerous to feel anything for anyone else. Hatred and love are, like, two sides of the same coin. If you could use hate, you could use love to do the same thing. Probably better.” Eddie mused. 

Steve thought about his own talents, not that they were the same thing in any way. His love for the team, his desire to win, and the agony of defeat were all key reasons he was a good athlete. Emotions fueled the game and his skill as a player. 

“I would like to use love,” El said. “Now that I know what it feels like.”

“Well, you should.” Eddie squeezed her hand.

“Peter helped me. And then he asked me to help him. He-” El began, but it was like she hit a roadblock. Eddie seemed at a loss for words, too. 

If Steve had to guess, he thought they were probably stuck in their memories of the events. Whatever it had been was bad. He knew that much. 

Will jumped in to explain. “He tricked El into helping him. Said they were going to escape together. But when El took out this little thing that was blocking his powers, he started killing everyone. All the guards, all the doctors, all the kids.”

“Oh my God,” Joyce said off to the side, her hand covering her mouth. She put her hand on Will’s shoulder and squeezed like she was trying to discreetly hug her little boy who had seen the horrors of what El and Eddie had survived. They probably would have gotten the same squeeze if she had been closer to either of the other two. 

Will continued. “El worked so hard to stop him. Kept fighting him. He tried to kill her too, called her a betrayer.”

“Like Kas!” Mike said. “Kas the Betrayer, who was Vecna’s right-hand man. He was a corrupted Paladin in Vecna’s service before he killed Vecna with his own enchanted sword.” He looked proud of El. So did most of the other geeks. He even saw Jeff’s face light up in recognition and respect. 

“But to do it, El had to open a portal. She pushed Henry through.” Will said, and the implications were clear. Even to Steve.

“It’s been Henry all along,” Eddie said as he looked down at his hands. “That’s why I was always asking the wrong questions. We didn’t know who was behind it all or why. We didn’t even know enough to ask the right ones. Didn’t have the right target to begin with. We’ve been fighting henchmen this whole time.”

“No wonder he wanted Will,” Joyce said. 

“He would have used me like a battery to rip open the gate between the worlds and destroy Hawkins. Destroy El.” Will nodded, and he looked green as he said it.

“I thought it was Vecna? The guy who’s doing all this? Who was Russian?” Heather asked from the other side of the group. For once, Steve wasn’t the most lost person in the group. It felt kinda good. 

“It is Vecna.” He spoke up. “Who’s-”

“Also, Henry,” Robin said from beside him with a smile.

“Slash One,” Steve said.

“Slash Peter,” Robin concluded. “They’re all the same guy but with a million names.”

“Oh,” Heather said as if that didn’t clear up anything. Everyone else was looking between Robin and Steve, leaning against each other in exhaustion but smiling at each other. 

“Alright.” Hopper clapped his hands, grabbing everyone’s attention. “We know who the enemy is. We know he’s got powers like El, Will, and Eddie. Probably stronger if he’s survived in the Upside Down for what like-”

“About six years,” Wayne said. “That’s how long Eddie’s been with me.”

“Six years in the Upside Down.” Hopper continued with a disbelieving shake of his head. He’d been in the Upside Down. Steve had seen Will after a week of being trapped there. He had been close to death when they pulled him out. He couldn’t imagine how strong he had to be to survive there for six years. 

“But how do the Russians fit in?” Billy asked. “You were all about the Russians just a few minutes ago, and now you’re talking about fantasy land bullshit.”

Lucas stepped forward. “They said,” he pointed to Dustin and Erica behind him. “That there was a machine that was opening a gate down there. Right?”

Steve nodded along with the rest of the group that had been down there. 

“So, Vecna’s working with the Russians. To open the gate from both sides.” Max said. 

“Or using the Russians. And they don’t even know it.” Patrick spoke up from the back of the crowd. Everyone stared at him. “What? It could be a coincidence that he’s taking advantage of.”

“Like finding a hole in the other team’s defense,” Steve said, nodding at Patrick.

“And then exploiting the opportunity,” Jason added. 

“So we need to stop both sides from opening the gate,” Nancy said, tapping her finger against her chin. “Taking away Vecna’s power sources wouldn’t be a bad start.” She looked over at the gaggle of teenagers who had been targeted by Vecna already that day.

“Alright, so we get the targeted teens as far from the gate as possible,” Hopper said, looking at the floor. Steve realized everyone they were sure was a target was standing nearly directly above the gate.

The plan came together quickly after that. Steve still felt like there were gaps and unknowns. Why exactly was Vecna doing all this? To get back to the world? He could have done that when El opened that gate in ‘83. So what was different now? 

Steve figured there were probably implications flying over the top of his head, and it was probably dumb to want to know why now. The team knew the important stuff—the who, the where, and the targets to protect. 

Everyone started to split up into groups. Steve stood up to follow Robin and Dustin out of the mall. His arm brushed against the fake plants, and he flinched back, surprised by the sensation. It felt like something crawling on him, all over him. He brushed off his arm with a wrinkle of his nose.

He took a few more steps and felt a wave of dizziness pass over him. He tried to shake it off. He couldn’t stop now; he was needed. He kept his head down and took a few more steps. He heard Robin call out, “Steve? Hey, Steve.” 

He looked up at her, but the mall was gone. 

He was alone in his house. 

Where the hell was Robin? Where was Dustin? Weren’t they right next to him? 

He caught a glimpse of his reflection in a small mirror. One of many that his mom had added to bring in and reflect the light from the windows in the back of the house. He looked fine, like he hadn't been beaten in by the Russians.

He shook his head. That wasn’t right. Why would he have been beaten by Russians?

“Because you’re worthless.” His Dad’s voice whispered from behind him. 

Steve spun around, but no one was there.

Then, he heard his parents fighting upstairs. They hadn’t done that in years. Mostly because they were gone, when they were home, they maintained a frigidly happy demeanor, even in front of Steve, as if he was the same kind of stranger as the grocery clerk. 

He wondered if maybe he had dreamed everything that had happened at Starcourt. Maybe even everything to do with the Upside Down. Like maybe what he thought were the last few years of his life was just a hallucination. A bad trip from some laced acid Tommy had scored. 

Did that mean Eddie was a dream? Did that mean how he felt about Eddie was a dream? It would be easier to brush that off, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to. 

He turned to go outside. Maybe the pool would feel less haunted if Barb was still alive. 

He heard a crash. Someone broke something fragile upstairs. Right. His parents were home and arguing. This was as bad as his parents' fights when he was a kid. He remembered running to his au pair, Brigitta, during them, wanting a hug or reassurance of some kind. She had always soothed and kept him quiet through the storm of his parents' marriage. 

He heard his mom scream and rage. His dad’s deeper tones were lost through the barrier of their door. 

Steve looked around and noticed a nest of blankets on the couch. Had he just been sleeping? Why had he felt safe sleeping downstairs? His Mom would only yell at him for making the living room a mess. He gathered the blankets into his arm. Hopefully, he could fold them in his room and put them away before his Mom noticed. 

He heard his mother's voice call to him from upstairs. “Steven, get up here. Right. Now.” 

His shoulders tightened against his will. He didn’t want to go up there. Not when they sounded like that. Nothing good ever happened to him when they sounded like that. 

He knew he had to go to them no matter how bad the fight was. It would be worse if he didn’t come when called. Yet all he wanted to do was run away from that voice, as far away as possible. 

"Steven, do not make me ask you twice," his mother called again. This time, the voice doubled and echoed. Behind it, he heard a deeper, almost male voice, as if his father was speaking over his mother in the same cadence and tone but deeper and even more malevolent. 

Steve was a child again. The kid who thought he could run away from his parents and their rage. He wished that he could be safe in Marta’s arms. Safe and away from their anger. 

Even though Marta was long gone, let go years ago as he outgrew the need for an au pair, he followed that impulse to run. He knew it would only make things worse. He pushed down the hallway and towards the front door. 

Eddie

Of course, the plan immediately went to shit. 

Right after they started towards the cars, Steve stood up and then stood still. Strung up, like Heather and Chrissy before him, on invisible strings like a puppet. 

“Fuck, fuck, no,” Robin cried out. “No, Steve.” 

Eddie had no idea what Steve was seeing in his mind, what horrible images Vecna was showing him, but from the few things he’d seen in his visions, he knew it wasn't good.

Eddie felt a call and response with Robin in his heart as he pleaded with Steve. “Please, please, Steve, wake up. Come on, Steve, come on, Steve.”

Steve already looked so wrecked. It was hard to tell if anything worse was happening to him, but Eddie swore he saw blood dripping out of Steve's ear that hadn't been there before. If that wasn’t bad enough, Steve started lifting off the ground after only a few precious moments of standing still, locked inside his mind.

It hadn't hit Eddie yet, not even with his vision, that they could really lose somebody. He even had killed two people already in town, and Eddie still hadn’t thought it could happen to anyone he cared about.

However, that was before their joint memory-vision thing. Now they knew they were dealing with Henry Creel, who killed his own family. They were dealing with One who killed indiscriminately at the Lab - victim or perpetrator. Vecna was a cold-hearted bully. He picked on people. People who were sad. Sad like Jeff and Steve were, apparently. Eddie considered them two of his closest friends, and he had no idea they’d been so sad. Watching Steve’s feet leave the ground, Vecna was no longer a specter haunting people in Hawkins, or the silent boogie man of his escape from the Lab, but somebody who was targeting people Eddie loved. 

Steve lifted higher into the air than Chrissy, his feet raising well above the floor. Higher and higher until Eddie grabbed his ankles as they dangled in front of his face, worried Steve would wake up and hurt himself in the fall. Or, worse, that he would rise forever till he hit the glass ceiling above them and popped through it, doomed to be torn apart in the upper atmosphere while Vecna destroyed his mind. 

Eddie felt someone tug on his shoulder. He turned to snap at them, to tell them to help him save Steve. He saw Will, his huge brown eyes staring up at Eddie, and he realized Will was reaching out his hand for him. On Steve's other side, El was reaching out her hand. Eddie saw that they wanted to form a triangle around where Steve had stood and below where he floated. A desperate attempt to save their friend from a dark wizard. He didn’t know how it might help, but he was willing to try anything. 

He grabbed their hands and shut his eyes. The boost Will gave them meant they were immediately in the Void, the endless black of it all around them. Above them, Steve floated. He looked less like a puppet on strings in the Void and more like he had been pierced through the back by a spear and lifted up. A gruesome trophy on display.

"What are we looking for?" Eddie asked. His voice boomed and echoed in the Void.

“I used my love for Mama to find her memories. Maybe I can use my love for Steve to find my way into his mind, too.” She said.  

“Be careful,” Will said. “Your Mama loved you, but Vecna-” 

Even in the Void, she closed her eyes. Eddie could tell she was somewhere else. Her mind was no longer fully in the Void with Will and Eddie but somewhere else. Her eyes twitched under her eyelids. Eddie anchored himself in the Void, letting El find Steve and Will as her battery. 

El’s eyes snapped open, and she said, "I found him." Eddie wasn’t exactly sure who she meant - Steve or Vecna. 

He let El keep doing her thing. He focused on Steve floating above him. Eddie heard small,  pained, panting noises coming from above as if whatever torture Steve was facing inside his own mind was so great his very breath gave away the pain he was in. No one else had made a noise. Eddie didn’t know if that was good or bad. If it meant El was helping or Steve was further gone than any others. 

El started screaming just as Steve's arm whipped out straight by his side like someone had grabbed his wrist and yanked it. Then, just as quickly, the arm moved again at an unnatural angle. With a snap he could hear over El’s screams, Steve’s arm broke at a ninety-degree angle. 

Eddie was too shocked to stay in the Void. He was ripped out of it, falling to the ground as someone moaned beside him. Screams and shouts of panic filled the air. He took two deep breaths in before he opened his eyes and sat up, forcing down the nausea of being yanked out of the Void.

"Steve! Steve, come on, come on, Steve!" Robin was calling out, and Eddie looked over. Steve had fallen to the floor. Eddie could see his chest rise and fall in short, painful pants. Thank God he was alive. "Come on, come on. Wake up, Steve!" Robin was cradling his head in her lap and brushing his bangs out of the way of his forehead. He flinched a little when she got too close to his nose, brushing his hair from his forehead. 

"Stop touching my face," Steve complained. 

"I'm not touching your face, dingus. I'm trying to keep the hair out of your eye," Robin whispered. Eddie could hear the care in her voice.

Steve tried to sit up, but it took a few attempts. First, he tried using his broken arm to push up, only to collapse in pain. 

“Guess that won’t work.” He laughed at himself, but no one else laughed. Dustin looked like he was going to be sick. 

When he managed to sit up, everyone tried to keep him on the ground, but he fought against it, wanting to stand up. That took even more attempts than sitting up and when he finally managed it, with Robin on one side and Hopper on the other. He only said, "I'm just a little dizzy. I think it will pass." 

This was the worst attack they had seen, and Steve had come out of it with a broken arm, which was bad enough. No one else had been dizzy or so clearly disoriented after an attack. They had been exhausted and wiped out emotionally, but not this level of dizziness and stumbling. 

Hopper let go when Steve was upright and stable, but Robin stayed by his side. Joyce and Hopper immediately sprung into triage. Robin leaned him against one of the planters. Joyce gently touched the sides of Steve's face and his ear while Hopper looked at his arm and said, "We have to set it, but after that, you should be good to go until this is all over. Then we’ll get you to a hospital." 

“We need first aid supplies,” Joyce called out. 

Erica pointed out a mall drug and medical supply store, but Eddie said, “I grabbed the Byers’ first aid kit this afternoon.” That seemed like ages ago. 

Hopper nodded at both Erica and Eddie for the information. “Go grab the kit, Eddie. Make sure there are painkillers. And I want,” He scanned the crowd. “The lifeguards and Nancy. Go to the medical supply store. I want slings and splints. That kind of thing.”  

Eddie turned to Lucas with his keys. “I can’t leave him.”

Lucas nodded. He understood Eddie’s need to make sure Steve was okay. Instead, he grabbed Dustin’s shoulder and pulled him away. “Come on, let’s get Steve some help.”

Eddie was thankful Lucas thought to grab Dustin. The kid looked close to a total breakdown. Erica followed behind Dustin and Lucas without being invited explicitly, but Eddie thought it might be because she also needed something to do. She had been with them against the Russians, and she had, after all, recalled the medical supply store. 

When he was done directing people to work, Hopper returned to Steve and said, "Do you think you can handle it?" Steve, still held by Joyce's hands as she looked at him and stroked her thumb over the shell of his ear, nodded even as he turned green. 

"Just do it, Hop," Steve said, gritting his teeth. 

Eddie put his hand on his belt and said, "Wait." He whipped his belt off, and he folded over.  "Sorry, this isn't clean," he said before he stuck it in Steve's mouth. "All right, all right, I think he’s good," Eddie said, and he stood back to let Hopper do his work. 

Hopper said, "All right, on three. One, two-" Hopper yanked before he got to the count of three, surprising Steve, who gave out a sharp yelp of pain around the belt in his mouth. It wasn’t the scream Eddie expected, but something even more primal. It reminded Eddie of the sound of a dying dog hit by a car. 

Eddie's stomach turned. He looked around and saw the group watching. Everyone looked on in sympathy and fear. Jonathan had El and Will by him, protecting them and keeping them from watching, holding his arms around their heads and pulling them towards his chest. Mike huddled against El and reached out for Will across Jonathan’s chest. It didn’t strike Eddie that he was dismissive of Steve’s pain, but as always, Mike wanted to make sure El and Will were okay first and foremost. 

Robin looked green herself but hovered around Steve, recalling something about a soccer match that made Steve look like he wanted to throttle her. Max had her hand on Robin’s back, soothing her while not daring to look at Steve. 

The rest of the teens, not sent out to get supplies, watched on in horror. Jason kept looking at Chrissy, clearly comparing the pain Steve was in currently with the potential for her own suffering. He held her hand tenderly, brushing his thumb over her knuckles. Chrissy's eyes were red with unshed tears. Patrick stood next to his friend, his shoulder pressed against her in support. 

Jeff bumped Eddie's shoulder in a show of his own support and understanding. Eddie tore his eyes away from Steve, surrounded by the adults, and Robin, offering up her own weird brand of support. He looked towards Jeff. How the hell could he protect two of the most important people in his life from an invisible wizard? Even if he’d known the wizard in a previous life, he’d survived his last encounter with him by pure chance. 

It didn’t take long for everyone who had been sent on a supplies excursion to return. Wayne came over from where he’d been supporting Hopper and Joyce. “How are you guys holding up?”

“I’m fine, Wayne. But we gotta get Jeff away from here.” Eddie said.

“I’m good, Eddie,” Jeff said. 

“No, no, you’re with the rest of them. Everyone getting out of town.” Eddie affirmed. 

“That’s the plan.” Wayne reminded Eddie. “Get all of you guys out of town and away from the gate, then close the gate with the help of our Russian friend.”

“But you have to go now. Go faster. We can’t wait.” Eddie desperately needed the people he loved to be safe from this monster. 

“We’re moving as fast as we can,” Wayne reminded him.

“No, Jeff has to be safe. This can’t happen again.” Eddie said. 

“It could happen to any of us. At any time.” Jeff said. 

“No, Jeff. We have to get you to safety.” Eddie said.

“No, Eddie.” Jeff snapped back. Loudly enough, a few people looked over at them before turning back to Steve as his arm was splinted. “I’m sick of being sad, and I’m sick of being scared. Vecna didn’t start any of this,” he gestured to himself. “I was sad before him. But if helping others is something I can do, I’m going to do it. I can’t fight back against a wizard. That’s your thing. I may be just a human fighter here, but dude, I refuse to be an NPC.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt.” Eddie reached out for his friend.

“You can’t protect me from everything.” He said, gesturing to Steve. “Okay? But I know we will try our hardest to stop Vecna from attacking anyone else in his dimension, and that’s what matters.”

Chapter Text

Just past sunset July 4, 1985

Eddie

The Party split off into three large groups at the doors to the Mall. 

Most of the adults went down into the Russian base, Wayne and Hopper as the muscle and Murray and Alexi as Russian speakers. Plus, the dude with the Slurpee knew his way around the base. Importantly, he knew how to shut down the system that opened the gate and let Vecna attack. After some debate, Joyce went down with the rest of the adults. Something about fitting in the air ducts Erica was adamant was important, but Eddie didn’t fully follow. 

Nancy and Jonathan declared themselves in charge of the rest of the kids and teens. Confirming with Murray to get the keys to his place in Illinois.

“I’m my own fucking ride,” Billy said. 

Nancy looked like she was going to argue, but Heather jumped in. “I’ll go with him. We’ll be okay.”

This left Eddie, Steve, Robin, Erica, and Dustin to go to the top of Weathertop and set up Dustin's radio. Dustin and Erica were on comms relay for the team, Eddie was there to do his vision thing out of the line of fire if necessary, and Steve and Robin were there to keep them out of the way since they were roughed up and pumped full of drugs. El said it was far enough away to keep Steve safe-ish and Steve wouldn’t leave any of the “Scoops Troop.”

He understood they needed to do something because people were getting hurt. People were injured. People had already been killed by Vecna. He might be able to predict who would be next, but even with El’s piggybacking idea, they didn’t know how to help people once Vecna had them under his spell—with no way to help them when they were attacked, no amount of prediction mattered. 

That brought Eddie to this moment, speeding down Route 37 as Dustin shouted directions at him from the back of the van. The B-side ended, and Steve flipped the tape over, pressing play. The music jumped right into Metal Heart, and Eddie started tapping his fingers to the music. 

Steve turned towards him, a grin threatening to turn into a grimace as the van went over a pothole. “Fight song?”

“Huh?” Eddie asked over the music.

“Is this your fight song?” Steve said, louder this time. 

Eddie thought back to a month ago. The day had been overtaken by the pain of the forced coming out, but he remembered Steve talking about fight songs with Will and El. “Maybe not this one.” He said. “If I had to pick one from this album, it would be Up to the Limit.” 

Steve moved to fast forward. “Where is it?”

“Two songs ahead,” Eddie said.

Steve pushed fast forward and waited a few seconds before pressing play. He looked at Eddie who shook his head no and continued to do that until it was just at the end of the song right before. “Yeah, stop here.”

“We should have a fight song against the Upside Down.” Steve joked. “Something to get us in the mood to kick Vecna’s ass.” 

“That’d be fucking great. Just metal shredding in the background while we destroyed the gate with fire.”

"Right here, right here!" Dustin shouted from the back seat. “Turn here!”

Eddie had to remind himself never to let Dustin give directions again because this kid would kill them all. He kept expecting Eddie to make hairpin turns like Steve McQueen in Bullitt, not Eddie Munson driving a Chevy van. 

“You went right by it.” He whined loudly when Eddie decided not to tip his van over and instead slammed on his brakes as he passed the turn before he backed up at full speed. 

Steve groaned in the passenger seat. He clutched at his arm, trying to keep it steady, and was obviously already expecting yet another sharp stop. 

Eddie squeezed the brakes as hard as he could, getting the van to stop. With everyone headed towards the Fair for fireworks tonight, no one was out on the back roads of Hawkins, so no one was behind them to rear-end his van. Steve continued to moan instead of complain or bitch at Dustin, which would have been at least a sign that he was feeling okay, if not better. 

"Dustin, I swear, just give me a heads up if you know where the turn is. At least a couple hundred feet ahead of time." Eddie bitched. 

"Well, how am I supposed to know how long a couple hundred feet is?” 

“Football field length," Steve tried to bitch at Dustin, knowing full well that Dustin would never measure anything by any sports measurement. Dustin was about to turn his full attitude toward Steve when Eddie may have pulled around and down the unpaved road a little too quickly, forcing him to focus on keeping upright in the back.

Dustin called the hill Weathertop. Eddie was the first to acknowledge that he loved the kids naming all the places around town after something more grand and imaginative than anything the world around them provided. Weathertop was way better than that one hill on Route 37. But he wished they picked more places with paved roads instead of these rutted-out, barely there backroads. If Steve had bitched about the road out to Lake Jefferson being rough, this was pretty obviously killing him. 

Eddie drove the van up as far as it could go, but he had to admit defeat early on the hill. He might be more aggressive than Steve Tendertouch Harrington about his own car, but he wasn't about to destroy his brand-new baby. 

They had to hike the rest of the way up the hill. It was a scramble for everyone. They were exhausted already, although from what he’d gleaned, the rest of this group had gone without real sleep, food, or water for days. Even though they’d grabbed something at the mall, Eddie grabbed a few water bottles from the back of his van and passed them out as they walked up. 

Dustin and Erica scrambled ahead, bickering over My Little Pony for some reason. Robin pushed Steve up the hill as he stumbled and swatted at her. 

“Stop fusing over me. I’m fine. God,” Steve said. 

“Right. Fine.” She said blankly as she continued to help him up. Eddie jogged up with his water bottles handing one to each of them and then holding up Steve’s other side to make sure both of these assholes he called friends made it all the way up to the mega radio Dustin had built.  

When they finally reached the top, Dustin immediately started setting up his radio. It had been left out, tarped down to protect against rain. Once that was pushed to the side, it only took a few flicks of some switches, an antenna placed in its cradle, and a test of the batteries before the superpowered radio, Cerebro, was up and running.

Robin sat down next to Steve and smiled at him, holding her water bottle in a toast that Steve reciprocated. “Thank God we made it.” She said. “I hate hiking.”

“You hate the outdoors.” Steve said. 

“Right, which includes hiking.” Robin muttered back. 

Steve smiled at her. His real smile. Eddie had wondered what happened with them down with the Russians because they had been close before, growing closer throughout the year, but this was different. It made a small, horrible part of Eddie a little sick to see. A flare of jealousy churned through Eddie’s gut, and he looked away from them, back to Erica and Dustin, who were tuning into the walkie-talkies in the Russian base. 

Eddie knew his role, so he decided to focus on that. Bereft of the bonuses he got from Will's help, went into the Void as quickly as he could - trancing out until he could find his way to the right head space to start asking questions and predicting the future.  

He asked one simple question, “Who is Vecna targeting next?” and felt himself pushed into a vision of the near future.

Steve

Steve sat in near silence next to Robin. He turned his head slowly back and forth, listening to Robin breathe, Eddie’s chains jingling as he rocked, and Dustin calling out on his radio. His right ear seemed fine. When it was pointed to Dustin, Robin, or Eddie, he could clearly hear them, but it was muffled when he pointed his left ear toward them. Hard to parse out what he was hearing. Dustin’s loud voice was the clearest through that ear, and Robin’s breathing didn’t even register. 

The truth serum/feel-good drugs were out of his system enough that the pain had started to become hard to manage. Sitting on the damp grass in the warm evening didn’t help. If anything, without something else to do, something to focus on, he felt the pain more. He still hurt everywhere, his arm most of all, overtaking even the left side of his face where the Russian thug had spent most of his energy—the right-handed jerk. 

The important thing was that no one else who had gone down into the Russian base with him came out injured. Robin got drugged, but otherwise, she seemed okay, and the kids were untouched. Steve might not be good for anything else, but at least putting himself between his people and danger. 

Out of the darkness and the quiet, Eddie gasped a breath and opened his eyes. 

"We gotta go," he said, standing up and nearly toppling down the steep slope. "We gotta go. We gotta go. We. Have. Got. To. Go." He turned around, looking right at Dustin and Erica. "If there's one thing I know, you guys have to stay here. The radio has to stay open, and you have to be here to man it." 

Both Erica and Dustin, with uncharacteristic seriousness, nodded. 

Eddie turned to them and said, "All right, Steve, Robin, unfortunately, you're both needed with me." He started down the hill, making his way back to his van. 

They scrambled upright, Robin supporting Steve more than he liked, and started off after Eddie. 

Erica called out, “Take a radio! This one has new batteries.”

Robin ran back up the hill, her hand on her side the whole time trying to massage out a stitch, and grabbed a radio from Erica’s outstretched hand. 

They made it down the hill to the van before Eddie explained what he had seen. Steve was in the passenger seat again, Robin ducking back into the same seat she’d previously grabbed. Eddie whipped around, backing out down the rutted road as Steve tried to keep his broken arm as still as possible, biting back everything but the smallest of whimpers to not disrupt his friend's concentration. From the frown on Eddie's face, he thought he wasn't doing a very good job of it.

“Shit goes sideways. Again,” Eddie said. “Not sure exactly what because I didn't ask every possible question for my stupid power-”

Steve tried to interrupt with an aborted, "It's not stupid."

Eddie continued on regardless. "I didn't ask every possible question, but I watched Heather die.” Steve watched as the weight of the future pushed Eddie down. It wasn’t his fault that he saw the future. He tried to stop the bad outcomes, but the guy wanted to take responsibility for it all. That was impossible, but he never listened to anyone when they said he had to chill out about it. “I think Billy and Hopper are in danger too." He bit his tongue down and stopped talking, watching the road as he drove. 

"So we have to stop Vecna before he gets to Heather?" Robin asked. "Are we still calling him Vecna since we know that he has a bunch of other names, too?”

“Henry-slash-Peter-slash-Vecna-slash-One,” Steve joked, trying to lift the weight from Eddie’s shoulders.

“Whatever,” Eddie said uncharacteristically, not willing to play along with them. "Robin, get the radio?" 

"Here ya go," Robin said, trying to hand it to Eddie.

But he shook his head and said, "No, you got to relay it to them. While I drive."

She flipped a few switches on the radio and tested it out. 

Dustin responded. “Cebrebo to Scoops Troop. You’re being boosted.” He said. and they knew that they were going to be boosted by Cerebro. No matter where they were in Hawkins, everyone would hear them. 

"This is Robin reporting on behalf of Eddie, who just had a few of his visions,"  Robin said into the walkie-talkie.

Steve was pretty sure they weren't supposed to be called visions over the walkies, but code words and phrases kind of went out the window when the Upside Down came back, and everyone's lives were on the line. "Heather, Billy, and Hopper are in danger," Robin said, clearly waiting for Eddie to tell her more. 

Eddie had not explained why or what. Eddie shouted from the front, "Hopper needs to stay away from The Terminator!" As if that made sense. Robin relayed what he said.

Immediately, Joyce asked, "He's here?"

Eddie shouted a frantic, "Yes," 

Robin said, "Yes!” 

Joyce said, 'Copy,'

Wayne, over their same radio, said to Joyce, 'I'm back up.' 

Steve watched Eddie press his lips together, clearly unhappy Wayne was putting himself in harm's way. If it turned out anything like last year, Wayne would make all the difference. His presence in the Tunnels with Steve had, according to Eddie, kept Steve and the kids safe.

“Get Heather on the radio,” Eddie said. “We have to keep her safe.”

“Even with Cerebro, I hope they’re not still in range,” Robin said before she held down the button on the radio. “Scoops Troop calling The Griswalds. I need to speak to Heather.”

There was nothing but static for a moment, and the whole van waited. 

“Scoops Troop, this is the Griswalds.” Jonathan’s voice came in clear over the radio. “I have some bad news about Heather.”

Oh, shit. She was already dead.

Robin’s finger hovered over the button as Eddie sped up towards the mall.

“She’s not with us. She’s back at the mall.”

“I know,” Eddie said between gritted teeth. “Is anyone with her?”

“Is anyone with her?” Robin relayed Eddie’s question.

“Billy,” Jonathan said. “And a few others.”

“El,” Eddie said

“In your vision?” Steve asked.

“No, just a guess,” Eddie said. 

“Max, Mike, Will, and El are with them,” Jonathan confirmed. 

What the hell was going on if half the kids were with Heather and Billy?

“Do they have a radio?” Robin asked but Steve knew it was futile. If they weren’t responding right now then they probably didn’t have one on them. 

What the hell had happened to get them separated so quickly? 

They went over another bump in the road and Steve jolted in his seat. The pain in his ribs and his arm overwhelmed him and his vision fuzzed out for a moment. Robin continued to talk and Steve drowned out the sounds of other people as Eddie drove them, his van's engine roaring towards the mall. 

The lights of the town grew brighter and brighter as streetlights popped up in his vision, and he squinted against the invasion. All he wanted to do was lie down and give up. Still, he had to keep on going. 

He tried to tune back into what was happening. He heard something about planks being constant, but he wasn't exactly sure what exercise had to do with anything. Even if holding one constantly would be effective. 

He swore he must have tuned out again because, out of nowhere, Dustin was singing. 

Steve looked back toward Robin. She smirked, and he snickered before they started stifling their laughter. Robin said to him, "That's Susie, that's his girlfriend."

He said, "Oh, shit, she's real," and they both started giggling. 

After that, there was some nerd game of one-upmanship, full of, "I can't believe you forgot" and "How could you ever not know?" But eventually, some numbers were spewed out over the line, and then Joyce said, "Got it," as they pulled into the mall parking lot.

Chapter Text

Early hours of the morning July 5, 1985

Eddie

It didn't take long for two other cars to reconvene next to Eddie's in the parking lot. At this point, it was nearly midnight, and most of the town was asleep. There weren’t even any Hawkins High assholes doing donuts, only an empty parking lot as far as the eye could see.

"Well, that was pointless," Jason said as he got out of his car. Patrick, Chrissy, and Lucas crawled out after him. If Eddie was ever going to agree with Jason, and before today, he would have said there was no chance in hell of that happening, then apparently it happened when the world was ending. 

Nancy, Jonathan, Jeff, and Mike got out of the station wagon.

"Why the hell did people split off from the plan?" Steve asked, cradling his arm in his splint. Eddie could tell he was counting the kids in his head and hated that he couldn’t account for all of them, even minus the two up on Weathertop.

"Billy wouldn't leave," Nancy explained, "and Max wouldn't leave if Billy wasn't leaving, and Heather wouldn't leave if Billy wasn't leaving. You get the picture."

"Why the hell wouldn't Billy leave?" Eddie asked.

Jeff ran his hand down his face and said, “he thought he should be going with a Russian team.”

"He's cursed, but he won’t listen," Chrissy said as she balled her hands into fists. This was the first time she had really spoken up since she had been attacked. He was glad to see a touch of color in her cheeks. “He’s so sure he’s right.”

Jonathan sighed the deep and heavy sigh of someone who had to deal with Billy again. 

The poor guy had been stuck with him last time, waiting for him to arrive at the Byers’ house while his little brother was being rescued from the Mindflayer in the shed next door. He’d done a great job distracting Billy by kicking his ass. Unlike Eddie’s visions of Steve, who hadn’t fared so well against Hargrove, Jonathan came out on top. The fight also earned him Billy's weird, macho brand of respect. 

Granted, it was a brand of respect that usually involves a lot more violence from Billy. However, Jonathan was nearly always holed up in the darkroom if he wasn’t in class. Access to the darkroom required passing through the art room and by the art teacher, Mrs. Mae. She was a wisp of a woman who seemed like a stiff wind would blow her over, but as at least two generations of art students had discovered, she didn’t back down. If you asked, and Eddie had asked, she said something about rage being an art form in itself. 

At some point, Billy had dropped it and Jonathan had stayed in the darkroom or the library with Nancy for the rest of the year, not changing his schedule one iota for Billy. 

"Where do you think they are?" Steve asked. “We have to get to Heather before whatever Eddie saw comes true.”

He’d seen Heather’s death inside the nightmare landscape of that damn haunted house. The one with the clock. That didn’t help him locate where she was in the real world. Eddie had seen visions of Billy running in the mall at least twice. In both of them, he had looked rough. It was worse than the last time he'd seen Billy, back when they were separating into groups. That meant Eddie’s visions had yet to happen. Which meant he was probably in the Mall. 

"I think they’re still in the mall. I’ve seen Billy in my visions in the mall, twice." Beside him, he felt Steve shiver. 

"Okay," Nancy said with a decisive nod, "well then, I guess we're going to the mall. Everybody grab your weapons."

At this point, everybody armed themselves as well as they could. Steve grabbed a crowbar from the back of Eddie’s van, and Jonathan pulled the nail bat from the back of Nancy’s station wagon, "Trade you."

"Oh, hell yeah," Steve said. It made for an awkward trade with only three useful hands between them. 

Lucas knocked on the trunk of Jason’s Jeep. Jason turned his way and Eddie could see a glimmer of respect in his eye for the kid. "Awesome, Sinclair," before he opened the trunk. Out popped boxes and boxes of fireworks.

Chrissy looked a little sheepish but said, "We were thinking about what weapons we might have. If we had to stop and fight before we got far enough away.” She grabbed a box from Lucas. “Jason realized he had fireworks at his parents' house. We’d planned to set them off tonight over the old deserted farm on Route 56.” She said it with girlish glee that belied the violent purpose of the explosives. 

Eddie was happy to see she was starting to perk back up from her attack now that she’s survived the evening. Eddie would have been scared of her going into battle if she had been still silent and scared from a few hours ago.

The minute the group entered the mall, Eddie saw Billy. Exactly as he’d looked in one of his visions. He was stripped down to his tank top and red swim shorts. He was running and clearly shattered. 

Behind him trailed the rest of the kids, including El. She looked distraught and exhausted. Heather was nowhere in sight. Eddie had a sinking feeling he was too late to stop the vision he’d seen on Weathertop.  

The group shouted at once to get their attention. Billy and the kids turned quickly, and El called out, "Heather is dead.”

Eddie ran up to her and enveloped her in a hug. He wished like hell that Hopper and Wayne were here. She needed all the people in her life around her. “I’m so sorry, El.”

“I told her I would keep her safe.” She cried into his chest. 

He tightened his arms around her. This was Bob all over again. Or worse than Bob. At least Eddie had never seen his death coming; didn’t know it was something to try to prevent. No, he’d known Heather was in danger, had seen her death in a vision, and still failed to save her in the end. She may not have been kind to him, ever, but she still didn’t deserve to die at the hands of some asshole from the Lab. 

“It’s my fault,” Eddie said.

“No, I promised,” El said. 

“We both promised her.” Eddie countered, unwilling to let her take on that burden by herself. 

Eddie looked around at their small group. Everyone looked grief-stricken and exhausted. He caught Steve looking over everyone, too. One arm braced against his chest in a sling, the other gripping the handle of a nail bat, bags under his eyes, and he leaned on Robin as if he couldn’t hold himself upright. He looked like a wounded hero about to enter his last battle. Eddie was terrified, exhausted, and defeated, but he still wanted to fight by Steve’s side. 

“Alright, guys.” Steve said. He looked like he wanted to clap his hands together to get everyone’s attention but thought better of it. “I know we’re exhausted, and what happened to Heather is shit.” Everyone here was exhausted. Everyone here was terrified and hurt and sad. Still, Steve rallied them. “But we can do this.”

“Fuck off, Harrington,” Hargrove growled. 

Steve’s eyes flicked towards Billy but dismissed him in the same movement. “Look, half of us have done this before. We’ve gone up against monsters and shit and come out the other side. To the new guys,” he scanned the small crowd of teenagers around him. “It’s just like when you’re in your first Varsity tournament. Right?”

Eddie thought going with a sports metaphor would have been a losing proposition with the normal Party members, but most of the people who were new to this were more like Steve than like Eddie - popular jocks. 

“Right,” Jason said, and Patrick nodded along. 

“We just have to keep going. No matter how hard. We know how to do that.” Chrissy said. She sounded how the cheerleaders talked when they were pumping up the crowd at assemblies. 

“This seems a little in bad taste,” Eddie heard Jonathan whisper behind him. “Heather just died.” Eddie had to agree, even if it was obviously working for the new guys. Even Hargrove seemed more focused than a few minutes ago. 

“If it gets them to help instead of running scared, I don’t care how Steve does it,” Nancy said. 

Eddie wasn’t sure they could do it, but he was happy to have Steve’s stalwart belief buoying up the rest of the group. Maybe they could do this after all. 

The ground shook, rocking everyone off balance. Eddie watched the banners above them swaying as the building moved around them. "Team Russian Infiltration went radio silent right before Heather was attacked," Max said, pointing to the floor, "and the ground's been shaking off and on since she-" She choked on the words. “Since then.”

"I can feel something.” Will touched the back of his neck, “I think he's here.”

The ground shook again, and everybody tried to stay upright. For a half-beat, it looked like Robin's attempt to hold Steve still would topple them both over, but he grunted and dropped his bat to keep them upright instead. 

Eddie took stock of the people around them, checking that there were no new injuries. They needed to radio the adults downstairs. They needed to escape the mall and get the vulnerable people away from the Russian Gate. 

Before any other questions could be asked, before anybody could try to walkie the adults down under the mall or back to Cerebro, Max screamed, "Billy!"

Billy stood locked in silence, his eyes vacant and staring at nothing until they rolled back in his head like he was having a seizure. They normally had a few moments before one of Vecna’s victims rose into the air, but it seemed like the moment Max screamed, Billy’s feet were leaving the ground. Eddie wondered if the focus he’d attributed to Billy while Steve was motivating everyone was really the first stages of a missed attack. 

Will, El, and Eddie started to form the triangle, not that Eddie knew what he was doing. He couldn’t go into whatever vision Billy was having. He could only be an observer of future attacks. 

Max kept chanting, "Billy, Billy, no, no, Billy," louder and louder as Billy rose in the air and his body shook with tension. 

El closed her eyes.

First, one arm snapped and then the next in rapid succession. Eddie heard Steve let out a raw moan of sympathetic pain as everyone watched Billy. 

El’s nose started to trickle before her eyes flew open. She was breathing heavily as she looked up at Billy. 

Max's chanting had turned to wailing when Billy's leg snapped. Then, in succession, faster than Eddie could blink, faster than he could comprehend, Billy’s last leg snapped. The sound echoed the silence of the mall.

His whole body was mangled like it had been run over by a Mac Truck. He was suspended in the air like a puppet. Unexpectedly and adding to the horror, his eyeballs were sucked back into his skull as his mouth was forced open, his jaw audibly cracking in the mockery of a scream. 

From somewhere beside Eddie, someone screamed. Maybe it was Max. Or someone else. Eddie didn’t know. He felt like he was watching this play out in a vision. Like he wasn’t fully present for it.

Billy’s body hovered in the air for a breath, a mangled corpse locked forever in a scream before it dropped to the ground. His arm brushed Eddie’s, and he reeled back with a shout as if Billy’s death was contagious. 

It felt like his ears were ringing; it felt like he was going to throw up. Was this what was going to happen to Jeff? Or Steve?

"Oh fuck, I'm going to be sick," Jeff said from somewhere behind him, and Eddie heard the sound of retching. On autopilot, he went over and started to rub Jeff's back. His mouth spoke without any conscious thought, spewing a stupid platitude, "We're going to stop this motherfucker before you, before—before." But he couldn't continue the sentence; he couldn't get the words out that would protect Jeff and keep him safe. Instead, he said, "Maybe you should leave. Maybe you should run away. Run away, take my van, get away from here. Okay? Take Steve and Chrissy, too. Just go."

Jeff looked up at him from where he had been retching, and it was like he had purged the part of himself that was afraid. He looked strong and resolute as he stood before Eddie, wiping the bit of vomit from the corner of his mouth. "No. I'm not letting that fucker win. I'm going to stay and fucking fight. We're going to beat this asshole. I have to fight. I have to, Eddie."

Steve looked green as he approached Jeff and said, "Yeah, we are. We are not fucking back down now." 

Chrissy left Jason’s side to join them, and she smiled at the two other cursed. It was a tight smile that looked more like a fearful grimace than something true. She said, "I am going to use so many fireworks, and I'm going to shove them right up his ass."

"That's my girl," Jason said as he came up to rest his hand on her back. "We're going to kill him together." 

It was good that she had two people with her as Patrick settled up to the other side and said, "We're going to keep you safe, and we're all going to beat him together, right?" He looked toward Eddie and the rest of the people in the Party, and he said, "Right?"

Mike stood near El and in front of Will. Truly, the fighter willing to do anything to protect his magic users in a campaign. "Exactly. We're going to kill him before he has a chance to kill anyone else." 

El sat on the ground, her arms wrapped around Max as she wailed over Billy’s body. Eddie's heart went out to her. No one deserved a brother like him, but no one deserved to have to deal with his death, either. There was no clean break with a person like Billy in your life, no resolution you could come to when all he had left was a legacy of hate, terror, and pain for you and your friends. 

Last year, Eddie's vision had spared Steve and Lucas from being the target of his anger and violence. There had been no outcome for either of them that didn’t leave them with, at best, lasting injuries. 

From the little bits of the bad futures he had seen, the fight and its fallout cost her any relationship she had with Billy, but she gained a boyfriend and a better, if surrogate, big brother. While her relationship with Lucas had not suffered with the changes, she had no relationship with Steve. They didn’t share a bond forged because Billy had targeted them. Eddie couldn’t be sad that he had cost them a relationship by sparing Steve's health. Except, now that Billy was gone, she didn’t have Steve to help her through it. 

Maybe if they all got out of this alive, he could point Steve in Max's direction. Maybe if they were all very lucky, she could have a big brother without the complications and without her loyalties feeling torn. 

It was the very least he could do to take one good thing from the horrible visions he had seen and give it back to the people who deserved it.

Lucas was already on the walkie-talkie, calling into Dustin. "Scoops Troop, have you heard from Bald Eagle? Scoops Troop, come in, Scoops Troop."

"Scoops Troop here," it was Erica's voice over the radio. "Dustin's strengthening the signal, and I'm manning the radio. Bald Eagle checked in 30 seconds ago. What is your check-in? Over." Eddie did not let go of the breath he was holding yet, not until he had confirmation that Wayne was alive and Hopper, Joyce, Alexi, and even Murray were still okay.

"Heather and Billy have been attacked by Vecna. They are dead. Over," Lucas filled in, his voice strong against the weak radio signal but kind as he relayed the horrible facts.

Eddie could hear Dustin swearing in the background of Erica's radio as her finger stayed on the button and left her channel open before she finally responded, “Copy that. Over.”

The radio was silent for a while as the ground rumbled again. People were better prepared this time, and no one lost their balance, not even Robin. Then the radio crackled to life, and Erica's voice popped back up. "Freakazoid to Scoops Troop, Freakazoid to Scoops Troop, come in, Freakazoid. Over."

Lucas picked up the radio again and said, with a roll of his eyes and the deep sarcasm that only a big brother could have for a very annoying little sister, "Freakazoid here, Scoops Troop. What's the news? Over."

"Bald Eagle just responded something has come out of the gate, but that Terminator is terminated. Over."

Eddie wondered if they had been fighting against the Terminator this whole time or if he was the last in a line of Russians that they'd had to defeat just to get to the gate in the first place. 

In his mind, he couldn't help but see it as a video game. Like in Gauntlet, when all the bad guys were between you and the treasure. Each level ended in a mini-boss before finally reaching the end, where the player inevitably had to fight the big boss. 

He started to giggle.

"Dude, not the time," Jeff said.

"I know, I know," Eddie moaned. "I just—I pictured— The Russians were like minions, the Terminator was like an end-level boss, and Vecna is-” He sniggered. “The big boss. We’re gonna have to fight the big boss.”

“Oh, he’s lost it.” Steve said, patting Eddie’s back.

The Earth shook. This time, it was hard enough that the rest of the earthquakes beforehand felt like a prelude to the true chaos as the earth lost all stability under them. Jeff and Eddie worked to keep Steve from falling on his bad arm, which meant he fell on top of them instead of the tiled floor as they all lost their balance.

The wall at the far side of the court crumbled as the earth buckled beneath it, kicking up dust. Everyone who remained upright took a few steps back, looking around to see if anything threatened to fall. The wall had been near a central hub of the employee hallways that ran throughout the mall. It was right where Steve and Robin had described the Elevator to the Russian base being located. 

Vines shot out from the gaping hole left in the side of the mall. Vines like the ones that had covered the gates to the Upside Down, like the vines that Will had drawn in his visions last year as he had been possessed by the Mindflayer. They moved quickly, covering the floor, the ceiling, the walls. 

Everyone in their little group screamed and shot back, unsure what was happening. 

El stood up from where she had been wrapped around a crumpled Max and moved to the front of the group. Eddie took a deep breath in and realized no matter how much he wanted to run away from all of this, no matter how much he wanted to be his own kind of normal weirdo, no matter how much he wanted to put everything with the Upside Down behind him, it was here again, and he had to do this. Again.

Through the dust and falling rubble, more vines slithered out of the dust. These ones were different looking. The inky black of the Upside Down faded into some sort of monstrous intestinal pink. As if a fetal pig laid open on Eddie's biology desk had come to life, twisted itself, inside out, and walked around.

This time, no one screamed. It was too horrifying to scream, so horrifying that the scream itself lodged in his chest and stuck there, creating a spiral of terror that could not force its way out of him. Eddie had been scared many times going up against the Upside Down. Had known a variety of flavors of terror. But he'd only been this scared once, and that was when he had escaped the Lab. The night of the massacre. 

In the ensuing silence, he could hear someone talking, but he couldn't make out the words. If anything, it reminded him of Brenner back when he would make the kids in the Lab listen to him pontificate on how they were the next moment in evolution. How they were the people who would change the world forever, all under his guidance and tutelage. 

Even never setting a step outside the Lab, it had made Eddie scoff at the hubris. Safely, in his own mind, where Brenner would never know. 

The voice created a similar reaction in Eddie now. The fear he felt as the vines turned to flesh and crawled through the mall couldn’t stand up to the internal annoyance at the preachy, masturbatory tone of the voice coming from the darkness behind the fallen wall. 

Eddie realized, in that moment, that no matter how terrifying Vecna was, he was also just a person. He was just another self-important person with too much power. He might have talents, he might have survived in a place like the Upside Down, and he might be a terrible and formidable opponent, but in the end, he was still a blowhard. He was an asshole who targeted innocent kids, and honestly, at this point, Eddie was ready to fuck some shit up. 

Vecna emerged from the cloud of debris dust suspended in the center of his pink, writhing tentacles. He looked like a spider at the center of a web. Waiting to strike his prey. 

Eddie didn't want to give Vecna the power of that image, though. No, he refused to think of Vecna as a terrible, all-powerful monster. He wasn’t an evil Lich from a game. He was a human. He was a horrible human, but he was a person just like the rest of the people surrounding Eddie. Instead, Eddie pictured Henry as an ugly, motherfucking fly at the center of a web. 

Henry Creel didn’t know it yet, but he was going to die today. 

Steve

Vecna emerged from the debris as Steve coughed. The movement jostled his arm enough to remind him he was in a tremendous amount of pain. He kept pushing it down, and at some point, he was going to fall over from it. He just couldn’t do it now. 

He focused on the song running through his head, which had been stuck there since Wayne mentioned it a few hours ago. While I'm alone and blue as can be, Dream a little dream of me. It wasn’t his first choice for a fight song, but it could have been distracting him from his pain and helping him keep going. 

He heard Eddie whispering something about a spider to a fly or something like that, and he shook his head, hoping perhaps to clear it up. His left ear continued to be foggy, and he continued to ignore what that might mean in the long term. Anything past the next five minutes was too far in the future to consider. 

Despite the ongoing issues with his left ear, Steve could hear Vecna/Henry/Peter/One. 

“That's right, you're all served up to me just as I intended.” The pink, naked figure in the middle of the tentacles looked over everyone gathered in the courtyard of the mall. Then he looked directly at El. “Hello, Eleven. Ah, and hello, Will. It’s been so long, both of you.” Vecna looked around again, and beside him, Eddie shrank back. “Where's my other brother?” 

Even during his theatrics, the tentacles slithered over Billy’s body. They enveloped him and dragged him towards Vecna like a trophy collected by a five-year-old. Loosely held from one hand, dangling and ready to be dropped the minute something else shiny came along.

Vecna kept on pontificating as Steve’s hearing and concentration waxed and waned. “Pain, fear, and death are like batteries to we who wield real power. I used this,” he gestured to Billy’s body now hanging from the pink and black tentacle-vines. Billy’s horrible grimace in a permanent shout of horror. “To fuel the pathetic machine the Russians built.” Vecna glanced back down at the Russian base beneath their feet. “They will be rewarded with a quick death for their work on cracking open the weak barriers between this world and mine.”

Max whimpered and stared at the body of her brother as it swayed - pushed and pulled by the tentacles that writhed and never stopped fully moving. 

Everyone was standing there, staring at this monstrosity in the center of his own weird tentacle farm or whatever, and Steve was having none of it. 

He bumped Robin to get her attention. She immediately turned with him, followed his gaze to the box of fireworks, and nodded. 

Their friendship had always felt one step from crumbling beneath his hands. No matter how he struggled, there was a wall, and Robin had hidden behind it. The bathroom had ended that. He felt a bond between them that solidified into something as hard as steel but as golden as, well, gold. Whatever, Steve wasn't a poet. The important part was that it was strong and true.

Steve pointed to the box of fireworks and then the balcony of the second floor. "Come on, guys. We're going to do better up here than we are down here." That was all it took for everyone’s focus to snap away from Vecna. Jason, Chrissy, Patrick, and Lucas grabbed the boxes. Max, her face filled with rage and vengeance, wasn’t far behind. Mike had a hand on El’s shoulder and on Will’s. He whispered something to them before he turned to run to the balcony. While El and Will stood their ground next to Eddie and Jeff in the courtyard. 

Steve couldn't go up the stairs until he had grabbed Jeff and got him out of harm's way. He yanked on Jeff’s arm, and Jeff startled. Badly. Unlike the others, he was unwilling to take his eyes off Vecna. Steve waved his one good hand and said, "Come on." He was sorry he scared the guy, but he also couldn't let him face down Vecna with no psychic powers of his own. "Come on," he waved again, and this time, Jeff followed.

A couple of people in the group had their own lighters, including Max. Steve was pretty sure that it was Billy's Zippo; she must have grabbed it from his body before Vecna had stolen it.

Between Steve and Jason, two people who understood how to direct a group under duress, they lined up boxes and passed them out to pairs of lighters and throwers. Steve was paired with Robin, but because of his arm, was relegated to using his own Zippo to light fireworks for Robin to toss. As he’d discovered last year, when push came to shove, instead of her normal, klutzy self, Robin discovered an unknown ability to aim and throw that rivaled the best softball players Steve had ever seen.

Dream a Little Dream was still on a loop in his head. It wasn't exactly a song that really got you up and going, but he still found himself humming it under his breath. Robin looked at him askance and said, "Seriously, that's what you're singing?"

"It's stuck in my head. There's nothing I can do about it right now." He shrugged and lit another firework.

"I don't know. Try any other song. Any other song. That one is creepy." She made sure the firework was lit before she tossed the explosive. It landed in a tangle of vines and detonated. Some of the vines ruptured, spewing black bile over the tiled floor, and others withered back from the site of injury. 

"I don't know. It's appropriate. It's what Victor Creel apparently was singing to himself when Henry attacked the first time, right? So, it’s a tradition now," Steve joked as Robin lit another M80 and tossed it towards Vecna. It pinged off one of the pink tentacles and exploded behind them, shredding two of them. 

A few days ago, he’d been focused on the damn song in the Russian message. That had backfired for him spectacularly. Now he had this new song stuck in his head. Even though it felt weirdly appropriate, it still wasn’t a fight song. It still didn’t amp him or Robin up. Or El and Will, the true MVPs of the situation. 

Too bad he couldn’t play music to help them. Like Dream a Little Dream had helped Victor Creel.

Something clicked inside Steve's head, "Robin, take the lighter."

"What? I can't, Steve. This is a three-hand job. Minimum."

"Take the lighter.” He pressed it to her hand. “I have an idea. Like the Indiana Flyer." For one beat, he thought she would argue again, but she turned to him, her eyes wide with understanding. 

“The music!” she said, "Oh my God, the music, Steve." Steve nodded because, once again, they were in sync. He only had to give her the smallest of clues, and she had already put together what he had just put together. Something no one else had thought of yet.

"Steve, there's a Guitar Center behind us." She pointed to the store he’d never really noticed before. Not after listening to Eddie’s rants about the store robbing the soul from independent music stores across the US. 

Steve was good at coming up with a plan on the fly. When you practiced as a team, you ran through plays frequently to make sure you could work together without any thought. However, as a Captain, you had to be able to remember and use those plays during the game, call out new plays to your team when you figured out the other team’s play, or just follow the spark of inspiration. It was a role that required a lot of improv under the pressure of a ticking clock. 

Yeah, that’s right, Steve could win games under the pressure of a ticking clock. Take that Vecna and your stupid clock obsession.

He knew they needed a new play. Something different than what they were doing right now. It was working, but not fast enough, and they’d run out of fireworks soon. He had the play, now he needed the right players. 

Steve looked over the railing and then to the courtyard. He said to Robin, "You grab Jeff,” he pointed to where Jeff was stationed next to Chrissy and Patrick. “I'm grabbing Eddie. No argument, just go. I'm faster." 

Even injured, he was faster than almost anyone else here. He dashed down the central staircase towards the courtyard. He could feel his feet rabbiting down the steps with no input from his brain while he surveyed the landscape before him. He ignored the pain in his arm, the throbbing in his head, and the foggy numbness of his ear. Instead, he focused on hopping over the black vines that had wound their way around the ground floor level. 

Eddie was behind El and Will, supporting them in some psychic way he didn’t understand. Deep in his belly he knew Eddie, superpowers or not, would do more good in Steve’s plan than he would do down here. 

Steve yanked on Eddie’s collar. He dodged a tentacle that whipped towards the both of them, pulling Eddie out of the way. Even at the cost of aggravating what he was pretty sure was a broken rib. He whispered, "Eddie, the key is music. We have to get upstairs."

Eddie turned to Will and El. "I can’t leave them here alone, Steve."

"You're going to do more help upstairs,” Steve said and put his whole heart into it as he looked Eddie right in his eyes. 

Whatever Eddie saw there changed his mind. He nodded once and closed his eyes. Steve assumed Eddie was reaching out to his two psychic siblings, letting them know that he was safe and that he was going upstairs or something. However, they did their weird psychic bond thing. 

Getting Eddie back up the stairs was harder than running down them. Eddie wasn’t as good at dodging the vines and one managed to wrap around his ankle. The only reason he didn’t brain himself on the first step of the staircase was Steve’s quick reflexes as he steadied Eddie. Then Steve smashed the vine with his own foot. It let go, and Steve didn’t stick around to make sure it slinked away from them before he dragged Eddie up the stairs. 

Robin and Jeff met them at the top of the stairs. Robin was holding a master key - one that worked on all the security gates in the mall. 

“I close all the time, I always have ‘em with me.” Jeff said with a shrug.

"You’re a lifesaver,” Steve said as he grabbed the keys. He placed his forehead against Robin’s briefly. Inhaling the smell of her sweat like it would give him strength to continue. He loved her so much “Go back and keep tossing the fireworks."

“You sure you don’t need me?” She asked. 

“We’re good,” Steve said and he felt the trust that flowed between them.  

“Let’s get you guys set up,” Steve said.

“What are we doing?” Jeff said. 

“It’s the music, man,” Steve said. “It stopped Vecna when he went after his Dad right? It’s like a fight song.” Saying it out loud made Steve rethink his inspiration. Maybe he was taking key fighters out to follow a stupid idea. 

“Oh, shit,” Eddie said, his eyes widening. 

“Steve,” Jeff said at the same time, “that’s a great idea.” Then he looked at the Guitar Center and then back towards Robin. “But Eddie can wail on his own. I need to fight. I need to tear this guy apart.”

Eddie looked at the Guitar Center behind Steve and said, "Just me, a guitar, and the loudest amp we can find is all we need."

Jeff turned around and chased after Robin, grabbing Steve’s zippo from her hand as they ran together. 

"We can do that," Steve said. He jogged over to the Guitar Center with Eddie trailing behind him. 

It took him only a second to unlock the gate and push it up until it took over and started sliding all the way up. He flipped on all the lights, still working despite the damage on the other side of the mall and the frequent power outages. 

Expect, Steve realized those were all thanks to the Russians. He bet if you timed the mall's power outages to the accidents and suicides around town, they’d match up. Vecna had been stalking this whole town with his curse, using the fear and the pain of the people here to help the Russians open the gate from the other side. 

He looked down at his own broken arm. The weeks he’d spent sliding into a funk. Despite having a job with his best friend. Despite graduating from High School. Despite whatever Eddie and him had going on, a thing that was very real even if it felt impossible at the same time. It made Steve feel sick to know that he’d been preyed upon. His insecurities made worse by an invading mind. Physically and mentally assaulted by a monster. 

In the time it took Steve to turn on the lights, Eddie had already found the display guitars and amps. He was busy making sure they were plugged in and started flipping them on one at a time. He was using some sort of control board with toggles he could press with his feet.  

Both of them grimaced when a high-pitched whine emerged from one of the speakers. Eddie fiddled with the dials on one of the speakers behind him. He laughed, something small and embarrassed that seemed wrong coming from Eddie as he said, "Helps to turn it up to 11, mostly."

Steve didn't get it, but he knew it must reference something. 

Eddie shook his head before Steve could say anything. "I've got to get y-” Steve's ears fizzed again, “Spinal Tap." 

Even with his broken arm and with his ear on the fritz, Steve felt a rush of bravery. Tonight should have been a maybe date if the Upside Down hadn’t interfered. They’d need another shot at that something between them. “Sure!” He agreed. “It’s a date.”

Eddie’s head snapped up from focusing on the pedal-thing on the ground. His eyes were wide with surprise but soon crinkled and collapsed with the force of his grin. 

Someone along the balcony screamed and threw a firework. Right, they had to hurry.

Eddie grabbed the pick from around his neck and ripped it off before swinging his arm up in one movement. "Fuck you, Vecna," he shouted, and with a forceful downward movement of his arm, he strummed the first notes of a song on the stolen guitar. 

Steve watched, entranced as Eddie’s fingers flew over the frets, his other hand strumming hard as the song's driving beat poured over Steve, toward the balcony, and down across the courtyard. Steve followed the sound and ran to the railing again. He ended up between Jason and Mike on one side and Robin and Jeff on the other. Everyone was lighting and throwing fireworks, even if a quick check of the supplies showed they were nearly out. 

The initial surprise of the attack had worn off, and Vecna looked pissed. Steve could tell El and Will were flagging even with their backs to him. He watched as the music reached them, not just the sound but the recognition of it. 

Steve wanted them to be bolstered, held up, and strengthened by the music. They were. A little. El was leaning forward, her arms outstretched in front of her, but her knees knocked together, and that might have been the only thing keeping her standing. Will didn’t fare much better. He looked like he was leaning on El as much as he was giving her support with his own powers. 

Eddie kept wailing on his guitar. It was something metal. Not anything that Steve knew well to name. He figured Will and El might be more familiar with it, but they obviously weren’t getting the second wind they needed from a song they loved. 

Eddie needed to switch it up. 

Steve turned away from the railing and back over to Eddie, waving his arm frantically until he saw Eddie’s eyes were closed as he wailed on a guitar solo. Steve tapped Eddie with his one good arm to get his attention. After a few beats, he finally looked up at Steve. 

Steve shouted, "Play something else. Something El likes. Do you know what she likes?"

Eddie looked confused for a moment before he looked down at his guitar and laughed. "The  timing couldn’t be more perfect. I do, yeah, but I’ll need a singer." 

Jeff. Jeff was the lead singer for Corroded Coffin. Steve glanced back towards the railing, but Eddie grabbed his good wrist before he could run. 

"Jeff can’t sing this one. Besides, he needs to fight Vecna that way.” Eddie said. 

Steve looked back towards Jeff, who looked delighted to be throwing explosives at Vecna. He’d been haunted just like Steve had for the last few weeks. His own brain assaulted and robbed of joy. If he needed to hurt Vecna, Steve wasn’t going to deny him that. 

Eddie interrupted his thoughts. “Do you know Walking on Sunshine?"

Steve thought about it. He’d heard it enough on the radio. It was a fun song. "Yeah, I can probably get into the song if you can do the intro."

"Oh, big boy, I've been practicing this intro for weeks." Steve's face must have asked the question that was on the tip of his tongue because Eddie said, "El begged me to play it at her birthday party.” 

Eddie took a second, hummed a few bars while moving his finger around the frets until satisfied, and started playing Walking on Sunshine.

It only took a few moments before Steve realized he knew the song and the lyrics well. Well enough for the end of the world. 

Steve grabbed a mic from the stand next to the guitars. He realized it was plugged into the same control system Eddie used for the guitar and the amps. He flipped the little switch on the side of the mic and was immediately hit by a squeal of feedback. 

“Step away from the amps,” Eddie called out to him. 

Steve took two giant steps toward the front of the store and the balcony, at the same level as Eddie but a few feet away. Steve started singing.  

I used to think maybe you loved me now baby I'm sure
And I just can't wait till the day when you knock on my door

He began tentatively, but as Eddie’s guitar wailed and thrashed around the pop-y music, his voice grew stronger.

Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down
'Cause I just can't wait till you write me you're coming around

This time, he couldn't run to the balcony to see the progress of the fight; he could only hope that what they were trying to do was going to work. He could see Nancy, Jonathan, Robin, and Jeff ahead of him throwing the last of the fireworks. Jason, Chrissy, Lucas, Max, and Mike all screamed in furious joy.

I'm walking on sunshine, wooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
I'm walking on sunshine, woooah
And don't it feel good!

A blaze of fire shot up from the ground floor of the courtyard, and Steve prayed Will and El were not caught in it. Finally, it seemed like the combined forces of El and Will, the music, and the fireworks, had finally started to work, and Henry was weakening.

I used to think maybe you loved me, now I know that it's true
And I don't want to spend my whole life, just waiting for you
Now I don't want u back for the weekend
Not back for a day, no no no
I said baby I just want you back and I want you to stay

He swore he heard El scream as the fire grew large and hot enough to trigger the sprinkler system. 

Time slowed down as he watched Jeff and Robin scream over the balcony. 

Inside his own mind, as he continued to sing, he felt a presence disappear. Some dark malignancy he hadn’t even noticed blinked out. It felt as if the force of the joy of the music evaporated some sort of permanent bad mood. The bad mood, Steve thought, was probably named Vecna. 

Steve could tell Eddie wanted to know what was going on, too, but both were too afraid to stop playing in case the music was still the critical factor. As they started the song a second time, slowly, people started clutching at each other's shoulders in joy. 

Still, neither of them would stop playing. It wasn't until Robin came over, pulled Steve into her arms, and said, "You can stop; it's okay. We won," that he even let himself think they might be okay.

It wasn't until later, as they all fled the mall when he saw Wayne and Joyce and Hopper and Murray and a very injured Alexi find their way out and towards everyone, and the ambulances were coming, that Steve let himself think for a moment that this might finally be over.

Chapter Text

July 5, 1985 and the Future

Steve

To be honest, Steve doesn't really have any memories between Robin telling him Vecna was dead and sitting in the back of an ambulance with a blanket around his shoulders. He knew somehow that everyone had survived. He knew somehow that Will and El both believed the gate was closed. He knew Vecna was dead, and the Upside Down was gone for good. He also knew Eddie had vowed to check every day with his powers if it was necessary to confirm that the Upside Down was gone for good.

However, Steve had no idea when he was told these things, where the conversations happened, or even if they were told to him or only relayed to him by a third party. Between Robin telling them it was over and sitting down next to Robin in the back of the ambulance, Steve drew a blank.

He should probably tell somebody about that. He'd been hit too hard by the Russians not to be a little worried about a concussion. Hell, he should probably tell people about his ribs and whatever was going on with his ears.

"What's going on with your ears?" Robin asked.

"Did I say that out loud?" Steve asked back instead of answering her question.

"You're kind of grumbling, you know. You do that, right?" she said. "You know, when you're trying to sort things out, you grumble to yourself."

"Don't grumble to myself," Steve said, denying it completely because he was embarrassed anyone had noticed. He knew he did it when he was home alone, but it didn't matter because no one was there to hear him. A school counselor had told him once he was an "out loud processor," which apparently meant he needed to talk through his thoughts instead of coming up with them whole cloth. Different than anyone else he knew in real life who seemed to be fine “processing” inside their own mind. 

It helped him feel a little less dumb at the time, but it still meant that people thought he was an idiot because what they took for a complete thought was actually him just starting to think. He just needed to say it out loud first. Honestly, he didn't even need anybody there to talk to; hence the grumbling. 

"You totally grumble to yourself, but it's cool because whenever you do, you always come up with a good idea. I just don't get why you grumble," Robin said, and she knocked their shoulders together to show that she didn't mean any harm.

Steve waited for an instinctive self-bashing to pop up in his head, some sort of spiral downwards about his own intelligence or how it didn't matter that he was different, no one would ever care to learn or to notice his needs.

Steve didn't know how long Vecna had been assaulting him in his own mind, but the way he instinctively felt the spiral try and fail to start suggested it had been longer than he had thought possible. Steve wondered if this had happened since they defeated the Mindflayer last year. 

It made Steve feel wobbly to know he no longer fully knew his own mind or his reactions. Vecna’s darkness had tinged his whole view of reality, and he didn't know what was him and what was Vecna anymore.

It was going to take time to sort it all out. 

At least he had Eddie. At least he had Robin.

"Parents," Robin's voice fuzzed back in Steve's perception, and he realized that she was sitting on his left side—the side with the ear that had been giving him issues all night, ever since the last and final assault on Steve.

"What?" Steve looked toward her more fully, letting his right ear hear what she was saying more easily. "Could you say that again?"

She looked him over, and instead of saying whatever she had said about her parents before, she said, "Are you okay? Are the drugs still—?" She let the sentence hang, let him fill in with what the drugs could be doing to his own brain. 

He thought about taking the out she offered him for a moment. Pretending would be easier, but he also wondered if the urge to pretend wasn't something left over from Vecna. Certainly, anything that made him feel worse about himself or how others perceived him could be attributed to Vecna. One way he knew to ensure this wasn't a learned behavior from Vecna was to do the opposite of his initial thought to hide.

"No, I think there's something wrong with my ear," he said and tapped his left ear. There, Vecna would never want him to show weakness. Vecna would want him to spend all his energy hiding his issue and worrying about people finding out. 

"Your ear?" She said, surprised.

"Yeah, along with my broken arm, I think Vecna messed up my hearing."

"Oh my God, Steve," she said.

"Just another thing on the list I need to talk to the paramedics about," he laughed. "Don't let me forget to talk to them about my ribs."

"Your ribs?" She asked, aghast.

"Yeah, I think one of the Russians—" He stopped and realized two things. 

That one, this conversation was probably better had with an actual doctor instead of Robin, who was starting to look a bit green. She would spend enough time worrying about him when they were at the hospital; she didn't need to start pre-worrying. And two, Eddie was headed over, and he didn't want to have this conversation with both of them worrying about him. It's not like they could do anything to help him yet; that was for after the hospital.

"Hey, Eddie," Steve said instead of talking more about the Russians or his ribs to Robin.

"Harrington, Buckley," he greeted them both.

"How’s Wayne?" Robin asked before Steve could. She kept an eye on him but seemed cool following his lead and switching the focus of the conversation to Eddie. He had a feeling she was going to make sure the paramedics knew all about his issues before he even had a chance to tell them. 

"Wayne is doing better than Hopper. Hopper is going to the hospital because, apparently, the Terminator was some giant ‘roided out dude who won every fight with Hopper except the last one. Because Wayne shot him in the back!"

"Whoa, whoa," Steve said.

"Yeah,” Eddie said, “You don't mess with Wayne. He is the sweetest guy in the world, but if you threaten somebody he cares about, that dude is scary. How else do you think I've spent years avoiding..." He looked around and said, "You know who if I didn't think I had someone at least mildly terrifying in my corner."

"He just always looks so put upon," Robin said.

"I know," Eddie said with a shake of his head. 

"Sorry about tonight," Steve said.

"I don't really think any of this was your fault, Harrington," Eddie laughed.

"No, we were going to go to the fun fair. You know, watch the fireworks," Steve said. He kicked his ankle against Robin's, and Eddie's eyes followed down to the movement. Eddie’s lips flattened into a grimace as if— if Steve was a sophomore in high school and it had been two girls, he would have thought Eddie was jealous of Robin.

"It's all right, dude. Upside Down ruins all plans, right?" Eddie said, his tone as flat as his expression.

Well, Steve had been brave a lot tonight, and he could be brave again, especially when he knew that while he might give Robin and Eddie a heart attack, they were actually both safe.

"We'll just have to make that Spinal Tap movie a real date," Steve said. "Once I'm cleared from the hospital, of course."

"D-d-d—" Eddie said, sputtering completely on the word 'date,' his eyes wide in horror, as he was obviously trying to figure out exactly how to save the situation.

Robin, unsurprisingly, got there first. "He's the guy," she said. "I'm the girl, but he's the guy."

"Right," Steve said and watched as Robin's face split into a grin so wide it looked like she could eat the world.

What?" Eddie asked, not fully able to form a sentence yet.

Steve looked around and double-checked no one would be able to hear what he said next, except for Eddie and Robin, when he said, "Under the influence of Russian truth serum, I told Robin about my feelings for her and my feelings for you. How I think of her as the bestest friend I’ve ever had, and I think about you as a—" He wasn't sure how to say this because "boyfriend" was maybe going too fast, but it was where he wanted it to head. Instead, he ended up sounding like he was one of the kids when he finished the sentence with, “a kissing friend.”

"A kissing friend," Robin said, disbelief written all over her face. "You went with a kissing friend."

Steve laughed and gestured to her, "Platonic soulmate," and then gestured to Eddie, "Kissing friend. Or more than a friend?"

Eddie's brain finally seemed to reboot as he said in his, "You can't just say that shit out loud."

"It's fine, Robin's safe," Steve said. 

"I'm very safe," Robin said with the kind of over-exaggerated wink that would have seemed at home in a Mel Brooks movie.

"What does that mean?" Eddie asked, panic still threaded through his voice.

Now, Robin double-checked and made sure that no one was near her before she said, "It means I'm a lesbian, you dumbass."

Eddie looked back down to their entwined ankles, then up to their entwined hands, and finally up to their smiling faces, and it was like he finally understood what Steve had been saying all along.

"Wait, more than friends?" he finally said.

"Yeah, Eddie, catch up," Steve said.

He didn't get a chance to discover what Eddie would say because the paramedics finally made their way over to Steve. Eddie and Robin were both there to make sure he got all the care he needed before he even made it to the hospital.

Eddie

El's birthday was the 17th of July; her birthday party was originally planned for that weekend. 

Thanks to Vecna’s attack and the recovery time needed for nearly everyone involved, it got pushed back until the beginning of August. That gave Crodded Coffin a few more weeks to create a setlist. 

Eddie checked in with El that Walking on Sunshine would still be a happy part of her birthday party. She assured Eddie that it continued to be a great song; if anything, she loved it more now. She said it wasn’t just her fight song anymore, because it played at their battle against Vecna, it was now everyone's fight song. 

Mrs. Byers opted to host this one, even though Eddie was sure Steve had been ready to offer up his place to have a pool party, much like the pool party they'd had for graduation. Mrs. Byers wanted to celebrate the end of the Upside Down, and she wanted to celebrate her house for once not being destroyed in the process of defeating the Upside Down.

Eddie didn't really care either way as long as he knew he had enough space to set up his band.  Steve had the good grace to let it go without a fight. At least around everybody else. He bitched about it to Eddie and Robin endlessly.

"But my backyard is so nice," he said, "and it's got a pool and everything."

"You don't even swim in that pool, dingus," Robin said, not kindly because Barb was a tender subject for both of them.

"Wait, what?" Eddie asked.

"According to Nancy, the last location Barb ever was before she got killed by the Demogorgon in the Upside Down was the diving board on my pool. I know it's not a gate or anything, but I can't bring myself to go in it. I'm pretty sure Nancy's the same way."

"Oh, and," he said, "is that one of those—"

"No, that's a pre-Vee thought," Steve confirmed.

He had created a little survivor's club with Chrissy and Jeff. Eddie didn't know what they talked about, only that Steve was trying to draw a line between what he called pre-Vecna and post-Vecna dark thoughts. Pre-Vecna dark thoughts got some other sort of treatment, Eddie assumed, but post-Vecna dark thoughts were something that they talked about in their little club. 

Eddie understood one of the club's rules was that you didn't talk about the club outside of the club. He got it like you can't open up with other people if you think they're going to talk about it, but sometimes Eddie got curious. He wanted to know how Steve and Jeff were doing with everything.

Apparently, the government had offered up some level of therapy to some of the survivors. Not to Eddie, but then Eddie and Wayne made sure they stayed on the periphery of the story about saving the day because the less the government knew about Eddie and Wayne, the better off they both were.

The government remained constitutionally uninterested in a poor factory worker and his equally poor foster care nephew who now worked two jobs and was in a metal band. It was like you could watch these middle-class government clowns glaze over the minute they were confronted with Wayne's brand of "Aw, shucks, just doing my part" Appalachian charm. They didn't want to look closer, so they didn't, which kept Eddie safe but kept him out of some of the bigger rewards and away from the medical care people like Steve had received. 

Steve didn't take them up on the therapy because, as he said, "I don't trust that I can say anything to their approved therapist, so how’s it gonna help me? What would they even do, hash out some sort of Edible complex with Vecna or something?"

"I know you know it's Oedipal," Robin said.

Steve laughed. "Yeah, yeah, so we were in the same English class together, and you're right. I may have even given a presentation on that play. It's fun to play dumb."

Robin stuck her tongue out at him, and Eddie marveled at the changes in his kissing friend. Maybe boyfriend. Ugh, there was no term for them, and it drove Eddie crazy. 

The day of the party was unseasonably cool, which meant it felt great instead of being balls hot like a normal August day. Perfect weather to have a party.

Jeff and Eddie were untangling the cords to the amp together in the Byers' backyard. "How's the club coming?" 

"It's good," Jeff said. "It's going to be weird when school starts up. To be friends with Chrissy Cunningham. Weirder to be on okay terms with Jason and Patrick."

"Yeah, I wouldn't call them friends exactly." Eddie nodded his head. 

"I'm kind of starting to get what you must have felt like last year when Gareth and I stumbled into all of this."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, like, they don't have any of the background, but they were still there for an important part of a really weird thing. They watched Billy die. They fought a monster and got a first-hand look at how crazy everything could be. But at the same time, I’m not that close to them, and I don't really want to be either. So I’m like bonded but not."

"Okay, hold up," Eddie said. "That is not how I thought of you or Gareth last year at all. We were friends before, and we were friends after."

"But I wasn't really part of that Monster hunting group," Jeff said. "I wasn't part of your Visions, and I wasn't part of the collection of people you had bonded with because of those Visions. I was somebody outside of that."

"Look," he said, "whatever you think I thought is wrong. I felt like a dumbass for dragging you guys inside all that. I felt like I had risked your lives for nothing. I felt guilty."

Jeff looked up from the tangle of chords right at Eddie and said, "Oh."

"Yeah, dude, and then the Lab closed, and your mom lost her job, and things got harder for you, and I felt worse. Gareth, at least, well, he's Gareth. You know, nothing bothers him; it rolls off his back."

"You thought I was going to be like Gareth."

"I blindly hoped you would be like Gareth," Eddie confirmed.

“I am so high-strung,” Jeff said. “I am like the opposite of Gareth.”

Eddie had never thought of Jeff as high-strung; he thought of Jeff as quiet and contemplative. “I guess you do a better job of hiding that you’re a mess than Gareth.”

"Stop talking about me over there," Gareth said with a laugh. "I know you all want me, but there's more than enough to go around."

Jeff finished untangling the knot of chords and plugged everything into the amps in the right order before he said, "Yeah, I'm starting to understand I was better at hiding stuff than I thought I was and that I might have to speak up more."

"You know me and the guys were always going to listen." Eddie said. 

Jeff fiddled with the cords for a bit longer, even if now they were all fine and organized for the show. "I'm working on that," Jeff said, finally.

"Well, we're just going to have to work harder to make sure you really know it," Eddie confirmed. 

Before all this started, Eddie wouldn't have thought he could have this kind of conversation with Jeff. He wouldn’t have thought he could have any kind of real conversation of any depth with his friends. He had been hiding so much about himself that he didn't have the time or energy to consider what other people might be hiding. Now, it was out in the open, and they could be honest with each other. It was as terrifying as it was freeing.

As the first sounds of the concert began, Gareth filled the air with an elaborate fill, and Jeff welcomed everybody at the party to celebrate El and her 14th birthday.

 Eddie let his hands take over, and his mind focused on what had changed in the last few years. It had taken getting a little sister for him to start focusing on other people. It had taken three different ends of the world to grow up.

+++

Eddie wasn't lying when he told everybody that he would check in once a day, if necessary, with his visions to ensure that the Upside Down was gone.

Once everybody was out of the hospital and they had celebrated a "we survived" party and El's birthday party, Hopper pulled Eddie aside and said, "Here, start asking these questions maybe once a week. I think Nancy will probably hand you more as we go. Let us know whatever you see."

And that's what he did. 

He started asking questions about foreign governments, Russians, Gates, and Vecna/Henry/One/Peter. He also asked more open-ended questions that could be answered in a million ways and let his visions roam where they needed to. It was exhausting at first, and then easier and easier as he got better at the skill. He still wasn't crazy about his role as a prophet in their little group, but the more he saw nothing of consequence, and the more frequently his answers were benign, the more in control he felt of what was happening.

By the time a hoard of teens graduated in the spring of 1986, pretty much everybody was willing to admit that the Upside Down was probably gone. 

By the time July 4th, 1986, came and went, and El had her 15th birthday, everybody was ready to admit that it was gone for good. He still promised to check once a year or more frequently if anybody needed any reassurance, but at this point, they all thought they might really be done with everything.

+++

Robin went to college in Indianapolis. Steve and Eddie followed. 

Eddie got a job at another repair shop. Thatcher had been nice enough to actually call the guy and schedule a meet-up before he even got to Indy, which meant Eddie had a job ready to go the day they moved in. 

It didn't take long for Steve to find a job himself, two jobs actually—one as a barista at a fancy cafe that served this thing called espresso and one at a queer bar. He was a bar back because he was under twenty-one and couldn't sell liquor. However, he would be twenty-one in another six months, so the bar was willing to teach him everything he needed to know in order to become a bartender the minute he was legally able.

Robin focused on her studies, using her savings and government hush money to avoid a part-time job. At least for the first year or two of college.

"I've been going to school and working so long I don't even know if I can not work, you know," she said.

"As long as you're in the dorms, you shouldn't work. And once you move in with us," Steve said, gesturing between the two of them, "we won't let you work. We already have a two-bedroom apartment we can afford. When you come live with us, you can put some money in the pot for groceries and utilities. That will be enough for us."

And it would be enough for them until Robin graduated and they all moved. Or went their separate ways. Or whatever the future held. 

Eddie had looked into his future once. 

Late at night, shortly after they moved to Indianapolis. He still feared the government would find him or the Upside Down would come back and kill him. So, just once, he decided to look and see what the future held for him.

He turned on the TV; it was late enough at night that event the test pattern had ended. Their 13-inch TV was tuned to static and he turned the sound down. Loud enough if he sat near the TV, he could hear the static, but Steve wouldn't be woken up by the television. He rocked and shook himself into his altered state.

"What happens to me after Robin graduates college?"

He saw Steve and him at Robin's side while she was in a black gown with a graduation cap on. Her parents were there, and they were joking about all going out to dinner afterward.

He saw Steve and him arguing in a motel room. He knew Robin was in the bathroom, that she was taking one bed that night, and they were taking the other. Something in him said they weren't really angry at each other, just bored after three days on the road making a cross-country move.

He saw them walking up the steps to a Victorian-looking house on the hill. At first, Eddie in the present wondered if it was in San Francisco, but inside, he knew it was a Queen Anne in Seattle. Someplace called Capitol Hill. Chosen by all three of them because there was a great music scene, a good queer scene, and lots of jobs. 

He saw Steve go back to school with a fancy new diagnosis of dyslexia, a hearing aid in his left ear, and accommodations set up to help him succeed. Eddie saw him studying with a new friend Steve called his new accountability buddy. 

Eddie watched himself joke that that accountability buddy better not be the first step in a romantic partnership, or Eddie would sabotage it before it began. Steve was reassuring him that they were an anomaly and not how accountability buddies normally worked.

The years sped up, and Eddie saw briefer and briefer glimpses of the future. He thought it wasn't because these things were too far off. It was like the further Eddie saw into the future the more chances there were to change what he was seeing and the greater the flexibility there was between the vision and the reality that Eddie would end up living.

He saw Steve and him exchange wedding bands.

He saw Robin move in with a succession of girlfriends until she, too, was exchanging wedding bands with someone.

He saw one adoption, and then another, as Eddie and Steve started to have kids.

He saw trips back to Hawkins and Wayne getting grayer and older.

He saw Steve's gray hair thin at the top of his head. He was in a hospital bed and on either side of the bed sat their two children, older adults, the eldest graying at his temples. Steve was hooked up to machines, and Eddie, in the vision, was worried that this would be how Steve died, stuck in a hospital. He could feel how much older Eddie wanted Steve home in bed with him instead.

Eddie tore himself out of the vision, yanking the blindfold from his face. He didn't want to know more. 

He knew that they would both die at some point in the future, and he didn't know if what he saw was actually the end of Steve's life or just a shitty visit to the hospital, but he didn't want to know either. 

What he did know was that he had every chance at happiness ahead of him, and he didn't need to know more than that. 

He turned the TV off and padded back into the room he shared with Steve. He crawled into their bed and wiggled back until Steve, who was still asleep, wrapped his arm around Eddie's chest and pulled him close. Eddie fell asleep listening to the sounds of Indianapolis outside his window and the soft breathing of Steve in his ear.