Chapter Text
Holly’s eyes flutter open, her vision slowly clearing with every blink. The more her vision clears, however, the more panic fills her chest.
Mary. Debbie. Joshua. Even Derek.
A quick count tells her there are 11 other kids, including her, and they're all restrained and with some sort of vine-like tube covering their mouths. Looking down at herself, Holly realizes she’s in the same predicament.
If that isn't bad enough, a look upwards makes her heart beat faster, fear filling her.
Vecna...
“if Vecna wakes up right after you, you might not be able to escape from wherever he's keeping you.”
The ceiling is cracked, opening up to the level above the room she's in. It’s up there where Vecna hovers high above the ground with vines coming out of his back, which seem to suspend him in the air. His eyes are shut and he seems oblivious to the fact that Holly is now conscious.
He does know though; back in Camazotz, he saw her escape. He tried to stop her and would’ve succeeded if not for Steve.
“If I can keep him here a little longer, you can get a head start on him."
Forcing herself into action, Holly moves her arm, pushing through the slimy, skin-like mucus holding her in place. Puncturing a hole and freeing her hand, she reaches up and yanks the vine from her mouth, gasping for air.
She fights to break free, fights to escape. She forces a foot free, gets her other arm out. With both hands freed, she reaches up towards her chest and rips the wall of skin-mucus in two.
With nothing holding her anymore, Holly falls forward, tumbling as she hits the ground hard.
Gasping for breath, she coughs harshly, trying to steady herself. When she feels a bit more stable, she looks around in confusion. It’s a room, but not one she recognizes. There are toys scattered across the floor, with others stored in cubbies. There’s a rainbow painted on the floor, and Holly can see the colors of the rainbow wrapping around the walls-
The Rainbow Room, she realizes, thinking back to Steve’s retelling of waking up in Camazotz.
Except this isn’t Camazotz. With the spores in the air and the vines wrapping around the room, this has to be the Upside Down.
Spotting the double doors, Holly pushes through and starts to run.
She knows the Rainbow Room is in Hawkins Lab, and she has a vague idea of where the Lab is, but she doesn’t know where inside of the Lab she is.
She just needs to get outside.
Finding a stairwell, Holly starts racing up the stairs, taking note of each floor. Subbasement… Basement… First Floor.
Slamming the door, Holly stumbles out onto the first floor and looks around. There has to be an exit sign or something somewhere, right?
The building rumbles, a distant angry roar echoing from below.
Vecna!
Holly resumes running down the hall, finding and following the exit signs all the way to a lobby of sorts, the letters HNL embedded in the floor. Spotting the large double doors, Holly picks up the pace, doing her best to avoid the vines.
Outside at last, Holly comes to a stop, eyes wide as she stares ahead.
“After you get through the portal, I don't know exactly where you'll wake up, but if Vecna took you, you have to be in the Upside Down."
"The alternate version of Hawkins," Holly recalled.
Holly had an idea what the Upside Down would look like, but actually seeing it now?
It’s dark. It’s cold.
Lightning turns the sky red before it returns to its normal blue. The spores are floating everywhere and the trees in the distance look dead.
Thinking back to the mine, Holly recalls the instructions Steve gave her.
“You get as far from wherever you were being kept as possible. No matter what you do, don’t touch the vines; that’ll give Vecna a signal and tell him and his monsters where you are.”
Holly nodded in understanding.
“Find a place you recognize and orient yourself; from there, I need you to get on Denfield, you know it?”
“Yeah,” Holly confirmed.
“Okay, you keep going until you see a large oak tree. Turn right on that road; it’s a dead-end, but you’ll keep walking for about five minutes. That’ll get you to a cabin.”
“Got it.”
“Tell me,” Steve ordered.
“Denfield, oak tree, right, five minutes, cabin,” Holly recited. “And avoid the vines.”
Another rumbling in the ground makes Holly flinch and she starts running, following the road all the way to the fence. A quick look around tells her there’s no other way out or around.
She’s going to have to climb.
With shaking limbs, Holly hauls herself up and over the fence, panting with the effort. When she’s only a few feet above the ground, she jumps down and lands on her feet.
The next second, she’s running again.
As soon as she reaches Mirkwood, she lets out a sigh of relief and recognition before pausing. There's a discarded bike on the side of the road, and considering how far she is from Denfield...
Well, it’s not like they’re going to miss it, Holly reasons before grabbing the bike.
When she spots the oak tree, she starts to peddle faster, turning right as instructed and racing for the dead end.
Ditching the bike at the end of the road, Holly runs into the woods, sticking to as straight a line as possible. Keeping her eyes peeled, she searches and scans the woods, until finally she finds it.
The cabin.
“Okay, when you get inside… You’ll see these… it’ll look like glowing dust,” he continued. “Once you're sure you're safe, I want you to tap SOS in Morse code. Like this.” He demonstrated three rapid taps, three slower taps, followed by another three rapid ones. “Got it?”
“Three fast, three slow, three fast,” Holly repeated.
Holly doesn’t waste time, running inside and shutting the door behind her. The glowing dust floats around a lamp; a beacon of hope and a promise of escape all in one.
“You hide, and we will come and find you,” Steve promised. “Okay? I will come and find you."
Looking over Mike's shoulder, Holly spots Steve as Dustin, Max, Robin and Jonathan enter the cabin behind him.
"Hey Little Wheeler," he greets.
“And this is the Base-ment,” Dustin says, sweeping his arm out grandly.
Once they brought Holly, Hopper and El back from the Upside Down, everyone quickly agreed to relocate to the Squawk in order to figure their next move against Vecna and gear up. The Wheelers, Sinclairs and Byers took the Squawk van back while the Hoppers along with Max, Dustin and Robin all took the tunnels.
The van obviously reached the station first, though Steve had been confused upon entering and not seeing anyone.
Until the others showed him the hidden staircase.
“Get it?” Dustin continues. “Because it’s our base, but it’s in a basement-“
“I got it,” Steve nods, humored by Dustin’s eagerness even if he thinks the name is pretty corny.
“Okay.” Dustin suddenly brightens, running over to a corner, “Come check this out!”
Dustin leads Steve to what looks like a small workstation, covered in wires and other mechanical parts. The kid shows him what he calls a telemetry tracker, explaining its role in tracking Hopper during the Crawls.
“You made this yourself?” Steve asks, pride filling him as he turns the tiny object over in his hands. “Shit, that’s pretty awesome, Henderson.”
The kid beams up at him all giddy and proud.
“Speaking of,” Hopper interjects, handing Dustin a similar looking object. “Got banged up during the Crawl.”
Dustin snatches it, immediately delving into a lecture that has Hopper looking up to the ceiling as if asking for patience.
Steve wisely removes himself from that conversation, chuckling to himself as Hopper and Dustin’s bickering picks up.
He observes the rest of the Party as they chat and settle in around the Base-ment, a wistful smile on his face.
There’s so much evidence of their work here, of their fight against Vecna and the military. Maps on the walls, along with logs of military patrols and shift patterns. One map Steve takes note of has four lines intersecting at what’s labeled the MAC-Z; one line originates from Lover’s Lake, the other from Forest Hills, a third from a road and the fourth from the Creel House.
The four gates, Steve realizes.
Turning away from that, he takes in the rest of the Base-ment.
The wall of guns and weapons are no doubt a dream for Nancy and Hop. There's a small area off to the side comprised of four bean bags, with a small table in the middle covered in various books and notebooks. Probably a place where the boys and Max did homework, or worked on their next D&D campaign. One of Max’s skateboards leans against one of the walls. A camera that no doubt belongs to Jonathan set aside on a shelf. Steve’s pretty sure that freezer in the kitchenette is full of Eggos.
There’s just so much life, he can feel the Party’s presence down here-
“Is that my jacket?” Steve asks in surprise.
Closer inspection shows that it is his Members Only jacket, draped over the back of one of the many chairs in the room.
“I asked Robin to borrow it,” Max reveals, coming up next to him, before adding, “It’s your chair.”
Steve’s brow furrows in confusion and Max looks away, shrugging.
“It’s stupid, it just…” Her fingers brushed the jacket’s collar. “It helped me- us… feel like you were going to come back someday,” Max explains, a light pink dusting her cheeks. “Like you were still here with us.”
Steve’s heart feels so full it could burst. That Max thought to keep Steve close in that way, to keep him as part of the Party even symbolically…
He wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side, only half-surprised when she goes willingly. In fact, Max all but presses against him, resting her head on his chest.
“Missed you too, Zoomer," he murmurs into her hair.
The words get a huff from Max but she doesn’t move away, which Steve takes as a win.
The slam of a door makes him stiffen, immediately looking towards the threat-
“I come bearing gifts!” Murray’s voice echoes from the stairs, the man himself clambering down to the Base-ment. He pauses at the bottom of the steps, his eyes fixed on Steve.
“Well butter my buns and call me a biscuit,” the man exclaims. “Look who’s finally awake!”
Steve relaxes at the familiar face, giving the man a half-wave.
With Vickie giving both Steve and Nancy stern glares, warning them to not even consider climbing up and down the stairs, Hopper, Jonathan, Lucas and Mike help Murray bring some of the supplies inside.
“We’ve got ammo for Miss Wheeler and Jimbo,” Murray announces, setting a large box down on a table, “Gatorade for Supergirl, additional parts for Henderson’s trackers, batteries...”
He digs around in the box, letting out a small aha!
“And,” the man continues, “here's a little gift for our newly awakened Sleeping Beauty.” He ignores Steve’s bitch face, pulling out a small box. “I’ve heard these are your favorites?”
“Boppers!” Steve exclaims, his annoyance with the nickname washing away as he eagerly accepts the box. “Shit, I missed these. Thanks, man.”
“Alright, Holly,” Hopper begins, “where’s Vecna keeping the kids?”
“Hawkins Lab,” Holly replies. “I woke up in the… the Rainbow Room?” She glances over at Steve for confirmation. “There were 12 of us, and he was attached to all of these vines.”
“Like in the Creel House,” Robin murmurs.
“But why does Vecna need the kids?” Mrs. Byers wonders.
“Wait, what was it that you guys were saying back in the cabin?” Max interjects. “That sometimes Wizards might not have enough energy or whatever to perform some high-level spells?” She looks around the room. “I don’t know about you guys, but merging worlds sounds like a pretty high-level spell to me.”
“He’s using them as conduits,” Will realizes. “To channel and amplify his own powers in order to cast the spell.”
“And he’s going to a place of personal importance to do it, to draw even more power,” Dustin continues. “Just like how he was based in his childhood home to cast his curse last year.”
“Only now, he’s doing it in Hawkins Lab,” Mike tacks on. “The place he was held prisoner for years. The place where El banished him from.”
“So, we know what Vecna’s planning and how he’s planning on doing it,” Jonathan begins. “The question is, how do we stop him?”
“Well, he doesn’t have Holly anymore,” Hopper points out. “That means he can’t perform his spell now.”
“He could still try,” El counters.
“Or he could grab another kid to take Holly’s place,” Lucas adds.
“Vecna told Holly about merging the worlds together, even if he was misleading her,” Nancy states. “He has to know we’ll see through his wording and figure out his plan.”
“And losing both Steve and Holly might make him desperate enough to try and pull it off, even if it’s not perfect,” Dustin nods.
“And how long do we think this takes? To move worlds?” Steve wonders. “Like, are we talking-“ He slaps his hands together once to mimic an instant collision. “Or is this gonna take some time?”
“We better hope we have some time,” Mike replies, “because if this is all correct, we have to get into the Upside Down, make our way to the Lab, free the kids, and kill Vecna, all before our worlds merge.”
“And if my theory is right,” Lucas murmurs, “he’s going to move worlds tonight. With or without Holly.”
“Have I mentioned how much I hate your theory?” Robin mutters.
“Me too,” Erica scoffs.
“What theory?” Steve asks quietly.
“I hate all of this,” Hopper grumbles. “But at least now we know what we’re up against and what we need to do... we just need a plan.”
He turns to the whole group. “We storm the MAC-Z in Murray’s truck; it’ll have plenty of room for us and the kids. We drive to the Lab, kill the freak, rescue the kids, drive back out.”
“And if the military, I don’t know,” Dustin begins sarcastically, “shoots us before we even make it through the gate?”
“We shoot back,” Hopper says like it’s obvious.
“And how are we getting through the gate in the first place?” Mike questions, crossing his arms. “There isn't a burn scheduled, so how is the truck making it through?”
“We drive quickly and punch through,” Hopper replies, some bite in his voice.
“What?” Mike frowns.
“Idiot,” Murray whispers.
“Punch through,” Lucas repeats slowly.
“Every time the military flips over, they burn the gate- which immediately grows back, by the way,” Dustin reminds them all. “We have no idea how thick the membrane is or if we’ll just crash on impact.”
“If anyone else has a better idea to offer, I’m all ears,” Hopper states, his voice getting louder. “It’s a risk we gotta take. We ride or we die.”
“Ride or die,” Murray echoes, sounding almost too excited at the prospect.
“Well then, I guess we die,” Dustin scoffs.
“We’re not gonna die if we commit to a plan!” Hopper snaps at him.
As they start arguing, everyone else starts getting drawn into it, from Robin’s “You’re not even listening to each out” to Murray’s “Don’t take that shit, Jim.”
Everyone gets louder and louder, arguing and bickering. Even Holly adds her own frustrated thoughts, huffing, “I thought you guys knew what you were doing.”
Steve rubs his head, feeling a headache forming at the building noise. He takes another bite of a Bopper, chewing before pausing. He looks at the box of Boppers in contemplation, brows furrowing.
He quickly swallows as it clicks in his head and he pops up to his feet. He takes two steps before pausing, considering. Walking back towards the map he saw earlier, he runs it over in his mind, the pieces falling into place.
That just might work-
“Steve!”
He whirls around, finally noticing the silence in the room. Everyone’s eyes are on him, various levels of concern on their faces.
“You’re... you're not cursed again, are you?” Robin asks, wringing her hands.
“Wha- no,” Steve counters, before realizing what it must’ve looked like to them; him staring off at seemingly nothing and apparently not responding right away. “No, sorry,” he continues. “It’s just… gates are like Peanut Butter Boppers, right?”
The silence continues in the Base-ment, everyone’s concern turning to confusion.
“What?” Dustin frowns.
“The outside is, like, crunchy and tough,” Steve elaborates, “but then you bite down on it, it gives way to a gooey, creamy core.”
“Dude, what are you talking about?” Jonathan wonders.
“Are we sure the coma didn’t give him brain damage?” Erica asks the room at large.
“Erica!” Lucas scolds.
“We don’t need to burn the gate,” Steve explains. “We can just cut through one, without risking a crash, and be close enough to not need the truck to get the kids out.”
Everyone continues to stare at him in silent confusion.
Turning back to the map, Steve removes it from the wall before moving to the overhead projector. Grabbing one of the viewfoils and a marker, he turns the projector on and writes out HAWKINS at the top of the sheet.
“Okay. This is Hawkins, and this,” he draws a horizontal line under the name, all the way across the sheet, “is the Upside Down. Now Vecna‘s body is in the Upside Down, same as the kids, holed up in the Lab.” A square, labeled LAB, is drawn and a stick figure labeled VECNA is added inside the square. “But their minds,” he draws a dotted line coming from the stick figure’s head, then a large bubble at the end of the line that fills the majority of the sheet, “are in Camazotz.”
“Vecna’s mindscape,” Mike supplies as Steve writes out CAMAZOTZ.
“Yeah,” Holly nods. She takes over while Steve continues to draw. “It’s a maze of interconnected memories. Each memory is a room.” There are circles in the Camazotz bubble now, each with various lines connecting them to each other to indicate the different paths and maze-like quality to the mindscape. “And Henry had me in a memory of the Creel House.”
“Which we can assume is where he has the other kids, but through the woods, is the cave,” Steve adds on, labeling one circle CREEL HOUSE and the other CAVE with a single line connecting them.
“The memory Vecna can’t go in,” Dustin remembers.
Steve overlays the Gate map on his drawing, lining the two up so his drawing of the Upside Down Lab lines up with the Lab in the Hawkins.
“The four gates are sealed with metal plates, right?” he continues. “So, El and I rip out a couple of plates behind Hawkins Lab. We lift them up and let them drop down. Gravity does its thing and the plates fall, ripping the Gate open.”
Steve picks up a couple of magnets and walks towards the projection. “A team goes into the Upside Down and they’ll be right outside of the Lab.” One magnet goes next to the drawn Lab.
“When you’re in position inside, that’s when El makes her move and enters Vecna’s sick mind, but she brings me along for the ride,” Steve explains, adding two other magnets inside the Camazotz drawing. “I guide her through the mindscape, we ambush Vecna- boom, in your face, dickhead,” he declares, turning back to the others, “stopping the spell. I get the kids to the cave, you guys wake them up in the Upside Down, El kills Vecna and we’re all home in time for dinner. Voila; it’s perfect.”
“I like it,” Erica nods.
“I do too,” Dustin grins approvingly.
“But there’s a problem, a big one,” Mike counters.
Steve frowns. “What?”
“I can’t reach inside Henry's mind,” El reveals.
She can't? Steve wonders. Why?
“Can’t you just try?” he wonders. “Now that you know where he is, wouldn’t you be able to reach him?”
“Not if there is something blocking me,” El answers, “and for the last 18 months, I haven’t been able to find him. He has to be blocking me, it’s the only answer.”
“What if we got you closer?” Nancy suggests. She walks to the projector, drawing a square to indicate the Lab on the Hawkins side of the sheet. “The Upside Down Lab is parallel to the Lab up here. I know it’s shut down, but maybe some of the equipment is still there from Brenner’s experiments, including-“
“The bath,” El realizes. “I’d be almost right on top of him.”
“And your powers will be amplified,” Dustin nods.
“Great, problem solved,” Steve states.
“There’s another problem,” Holly says, raising her hand slightly. “What if he leaves?”
“What do you mean?” Hopper asks.
“Vecna,” Holly emphasizes, “what if he leaves Camazotz before El can kill him? If he realizes the others are escaping, that you’re breaking them out, he could wake up to kill all of you.” She motions to the rest of the Party in concern. “To stop you before you can rescue them.”
“Then Steve comes with us instead,” Lucas suggests. He walks up to the board next to Steve, grabbing one of the magnets from Camazotz and placing it within the Upside Down-Lab. “He has superpowers now; he can attack Vecna’s body while El attacks his mind.”
“Two-front attack,” Mike realizes.
“Except the mindscape is a maze,” Steve reminds them, pointing back to the Camazotz bubble. “We’re on the clock here; El can’t waste time or energy trying to find her way to the Creel House.”
“I can do it.”
Everyone turns towards Holly again, who steps forward with her eyes fixed on El. “When you go into Vecna’s mind, if you can go to a memory he has of me… I can guide you. I can get you to the house and while you fight him, I can get the others to the cave.”
“Holly…” Nancy protests.
“I can do it, Nancy,” Holly insists.
“I’m sure you can,” Nancy acquiesces, “but Vecna needs you for his spell. We can’t risk taking you back to him.”
“And you can’t risk going against Vecna without backup!” Holly protests. “He’s powerful, Nancy. He’s really powerful. If he wakes up and you’re all still there… Steve has to go with you guys.”
Nancy hesitates, glancing over at an equally worried Mike.
“He will wake up,” Will says faintly, “to try and keep as many of the kids with him as possible.”
“So El kills Vecna, then we get the kids out,” Erica shrugs.
“If the brain dies, so does the body,” Will reminds them, no doubt thinking back to his own experience being held by the Mind Flayer. “We have to get the kids out of Camazotz before we kill Vecna. Otherwise, they might die, too.”
“She can do it,” Steve says, looking at Nancy and Mike. “I don’t like it, but if it can’t be me, then Holly’s our only other option. She knows where to go, and she knows the way out.”
Nancy and Mike exchange a worried look, silently considering the idea.
Finally, they both nod. “Alright,” Nancy says, “but you have to be careful.”
“I will,” Holly promises.
“Perfect,” Steve nods. “El and I kill that shriveled up douchebag, kiddos get rescued, we come home heroes. And if Lucas is right and Vecna’s moving tonight, then we don’t have a lot of time. We have to move fast.”
From there, it’s a matter of gearing up and setting up. Murray, Hopper and El go to scope out Hawkins Lab and ensure it’s free of military presence while the rest of them prepare back in the Base-ment.
There’s a spare jacket and cargo pants in Steve’s size that he changes into, not too different from what Nancy, Lucas and Robin purchased from the War Zone last year. Considering everyone is wearing their own versions of the outfit, Steve guesses they must have cleaned out the War Zone before the military arrived. He can’t imagine the soldiers would let the weapons store stay open during their occupation.
Even though Steve knows he has powers now, it still feels weird to head into the Upside Down without some sort of weapon on him. He contemplates a Glock before it’s practically ripped from his hands.
“Have you ever handled one of these before?” Nancy demands, a ghost of a smile on her face.
“Not exactly,” Steve replies, feeling slightly embarrassed, “but, you know… BB guns. Air rifles… Duck Hunt.”
“Duck Hunt?” Nancy repeats, her smile turning teasing.
“He is remarkably good at it,” Lucas declares, coming to Steve’s rescue, “but I have a better idea.”
The kid walks off and Nancy gestures for Steve to follow him, a knowing look in her eyes.
Steve isn’t entirely sure what she knows that he doesn’t, but he follows Sinclair all the same. Lucas leads him up the stairs, and Steve catches up with him just as the kid pulls out an object from his backpack.
He turns, holding Steve’s nail-bat out in his hands.
“I figured you’d want this back,” the kid says.
Steve takes the bat, staring at it with a small grin. He gives it a single twirl, the familiar weight a comfort in his hands. After a moment, though, he holds it out, offering it back to Lucas. “How about you keep holding onto it for me?”
Lucas’ eyes light up. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, man,” Steve nods. “I know you’re all about the ranged weaponry, but from what I hear, you’re pretty handy with it.” He gestures to the bat, silently insistent.
It’s worth the wide grin that comes on Lucas’ face as he accepts the bat back. Lucas hesitates after a moment, frowning, “Then what are you going to use?”
“Steve, where the hell are you?” Dustin calls out, sounding agitated.
“Let me see what Henderson wants,” Steve says. “And hey, don’t worry about me. You focus on what you need to do, alright?”
Lucas nods in agreement and Steve heads down the stairs, taking them two at a time as Dustin continues calling out for Steve.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here, what’s up?” Steve wonders.
Dustin doesn’t say anything, merely leads the way to one of the side rooms that’s been repurposed into an armory. Steve watches as Dustin pulls away a tarp in the corner, revealing a spear leaning against the wall, a shield propped up against it.
Eddie’s spear.
Dustin grabs it almost reverently. “This baby is deadlier than it looks,” he says, before offering it to Steve.
“You sure?” Steve wonders. He’s not surprised Dustin saved Eddie’s make-shift spear and shield. If the four gates opened, the Munson trailer must’ve been completely destroyed, meaning there wouldn’t have been anything for Dustin to grab to remember Eddie by.
“Yeah,” Dustin nods. “I mean, I know you’ve got those superpowers now,” he continues, “but you gotta preserve your battery for fighting Vecna.”
Steve nods in agreement and takes the spear. “Thanks man,” he says as Dustin grabs Eddie’s shield.
He briefly thinks about what Max said before, about his jacket helping her feel like he was still around. Like he was there. Having the spear and shield in the final fight will no doubt bring Dustin that same comfort about Eddie.
It’s sweet, in a way, that Dustin trusts Steve with Eddie’s legacy. Not wanting to ruin the moment, Steve simply nods his thanks and starts heading out of the armory-
“Hey Steve,” Dustin calls out.
Steve stops midstep, turning back to face the kid.
Dustin, however, doesn’t meet Steve’s gaze. His eyes don’t seem to focus on anything, far away and glassy as he sets the shield down.
“About… about your letter,” Dustin begins nervously.
Steve stills, because during the last 18 months trapped inside Henry’s mind, he somehow forgot about those letters. His ‘death’ letters, the ones he wrote as a fail-safe and gave to Nancy, “just in case.”
Steve didn’t realize everyone had gotten them, though.
He died, but it hadn’t been permanent. El brought him back, even if he wound up stuck in a coma. Thinking it over, Steve understands why Nancy decided to deliver the letters; if El kept looking for him in the Void with no luck, if the doctors’ prognosis wasn’t promising, if they all kept playing his song without no success…
Yeah, Steve doesn’t blame Nancy at all.
So he wracks his brain, trying to remember exactly what he wrote to Dustin. Steve recalls the gist of it; praising Henderson’s genius, warning him to stay in school and make good choices, emphasizing how much Steve loves the little shithead… He doesn’t remember what he could’ve written that’s making Dustin look so crestfallen.
“Henderson?” Steve prompts, because he needs the kid to tell him what’s wrong so he can fix it.
Dustin hesitates before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a folded up and worn sheet of paper.
Steve swallows roughly at the sight of it, recognizing his own handwriting when Dustin unfolds the letter. He keeps it on him…?
“‘I think part of me knew it would end this way,’” Dustin reads stiffly, “‘that the Upside Down would finally get me. Though if I’m being honest, I thought I’d go out fighting a demogorgon. Keeping you and the other shitheads safe.’”
The words make Steve wince.
“Dustin,” he tries to interrupt.
Henderson doesn’t let him, pressing on. “‘I think I’d prefer that,’” he reads, his voice growing harsh, fingers threatening to rumple the paper even further with how tightly he’s gripping it. “‘A hero’s death. Going out with a bang,’” Dustin continues, almost angrily. He tears his eyes from the paper, staring up at Steve.
“Look, I wasn’t exactly in a good place when I wrote that,” Steve tries to explain. Obviously, his mind supplies. That’s why you were cursed in the first place…
“And now?” Dustin practically demands.
The question makes Steve hesitate.
That hesitation makes Dustin freeze.
“Hold on,” Steve rushes to explain. “Just- hear me out, okay? I’m… I’m better. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I’m fine, that everything’s okay, because it’s not. I mean…” He shakes his head. “Dustin, you gotta understand; I was trapped in that hell for 18 months. I thought I’d be there forever. And, yeah, now that I’m out and I’m back and with all of you, of course it’s better. It’s just gonna take some time for me to adjust.”
“You were going to stay behind,” Dustin mutters. “In the mine.”
“But I didn’t,” Steve reminds him. He gives Dustin a small smile. “Had to go save another kid.”
“That’s the problem!” Dustin explodes, throwing his hands up. The anger takes Steve by surprise, his eyes widening as the kid glares at him. “You didn’t even try to save yourself! You only got out because you were trying to fight Vecna, before even realizing you had powers!”
“Holly was in danger,” Steve defends. “I couldn’t just let Vecna get her!”
“But that shouldn’t have been your only motivation,” Dustin argues.
It almost sounds like he’s pleading, and Steve doesn’t understand. It’s what Steve does; it’s what he’s always done ever since he ran back into the Byers’ house and picked up that nail-bat.
No one’s ever had a problem with it before. Steve would even go as far as to say that it was expected of him and now, with these new powers, even more so.
“Look, at the end of the day, that’s my job,” Steve tries to explain. “I keep you shitheads safe, remember?”
“You always try to get yourself killed,” Dustin counters, grabbing onto Steve and practically shaking him, “and I can’t let it happen again!”
Steve freezes as the words spill out of Dustin, the younger boy’s grip on him tightening as his voice breaks.
“Stop being so selfish, please,” Dustin continues, his voice breaking. “If you go up against Vecna, you can’t be thinking like this,” he shakes the letter to emphasize his point, “because if you do, then you’re gonna die and I can’t deal with it again. You can’t die because I can’t deal with it again.”
Again.
Because even though Steve’s back now, Dustin watched him die. He felt Steve take his final breaths and watched as his body went perfectly still. Dustin witnessed the gate opening with the knowledge it was happening because Vecna killed him.
Surprise fills Steve’s core, his face softening at the realization. He never really considered how much his death and subsequent coma hurt the Party, or what it did to Dustin.
When Holly told him that Dustin had been getting into fights, that he seemed quieter than usual, Steve assumed it was just about Eddie. Looking at and hearing the kid now, though…
“We just got you back, and you’re already throwing yourself into danger,” Dustin cries, “because that’s what you always do. You always try to get yourself killed, but you died. You died, Steve, and I can’t do it again.”
Steve gives the slightest nod, but it goes ignored; now that Dustin’s started, he can’t seem stop.
“Don’t let it happen again. Please,” Dustin pleads with a whimper. “Please don’t let it happen again.”
He launches himself into Steve’s chest, arms wrapping tightly around him as he cries, “Not you. Not again.”
Steve doesn’t hesitate, hugging Dustin in return. One hand immediately goes to cup the back of Dustin’s head, holding him close.
“I’m sorry,” Dustin sobs, and Steve can almost hear the kid thinking: It was my fault. You died and it was my fault.
“No, no, no,” Steve soothes. “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he insists gently, patting the back of Dustin’s head one more time. “I’m right here, I’m okay.”
Steve takes a deep breath, trying to ground Dustin in the feel of it. The rising and falling of Steve’s chest is hopefully a reminder that he’s here, that he’s not going anywhere.
When Dustin’s breathing evens out, sounding steadier and calmer, Steve pulls back to look him in the eye.
“Dustin, I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for you these last 18 months,” he begins. “And the last thing I wanted was to make things worse; that’s not what the letters were meant to do.” He swallows roughly. “I need you to understand something, though. If it comes down to saving my own ass or protecting one of you, I’m protecting you guys. Every single time.”
Dustin shakes his head, but Steve continues before the kid can interrupt.
“It’s not like it was before,” Steve insists quietly. “I don’t… I don’t want to die. Not anymore. I mean, been there done that, you know?”
Dustin stills and looks up at Steve, his eyes shining with both relief and heartache.
“I have these powers now,” Steve continues, “and I’d never forgive myself if I let anything happen to any of you. Especially now that I have the ability to stop it from happening.”
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” Dustin pleads quietly. “I know you have to fight, but just… be careful. Please.”
Steve looks at him in the eyes and nods. “I promise.”
“You die, I die,” Dustin reminds him.
Steve feels the weight of those words. He can see a younger Dustin in his mind, uttering them with so much confidence and passion. He remembers referencing them in his letter and telling Dustin to keep on living, even if Steve died.
He knows what Dustin’s telling him, what he’s asking of Steve.
So Steve nods. “You die, I die,” he replies. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you… including coming out of this alive.
Dustin seems to understand, the tension leaving his body as he leans against Steve again.
“I really missed you,” Steve confesses, placing a hand on the back of Dustin’s head again. “I missed my best friend,” he finishes.
He can practically feel Dustin smiling into his chest. “Yeah, I missed my best friend, too.” Taking a step back, Dustin looks up at him with a grin, “And your Bopper plan? Seriously, only a genius could’ve come up with that.”
“Yeah, well… I learned from the best,” Steve says, ruffling the kid’s head.
“That’s true,” Dustin hums, ever the modest one.
“So what do you say?” Steve claps a hand on Dustin’s shoulder, squeezing it gently. “Ready to kick a wizard’s ass?”
Dustin grins and nods. “Hell yeah.”
They have to split up.
Even though it was his own damn idea, it gnaws at Steve. He tries not to think about their last fight against Vecna, or the fight in Starcourt in ’85. Hell, even the tunnels in '84 had been a close call, their distraction helping El and Hopper but nearly killing the kids.
Steve tries to tell himself it won't be like those last times. No one is compromised this time; no one is possessed, or Flayed, or missing their powers or cursed. Even Nancy's cut seems to have lost most of its sting, Vickie bandaging it up tight while lamenting the fact that Nancy is absolutely going to tear her stitches.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, Steve thinks.
They leave Vickie at the Squawk with Erica to watch over Holly while El draws the young girl into her mind. Having secured the lab and short-circuiting the surveillance cameras, Murray and Hopper are setting up the bath inside of the Lab for El to attack Vecna. That leaves Steve and the others to go into the Upside Down to rescue the kids.
When the Upside Down group heads behind the Lab and towards the metal plates, Steve lets out a low whistle at the sight, hands on his hips.
“I didn’t realize the gates were that big,” he states.
In the back of his mind, he thinks about how he caused this, how the four gates that ripped Hawkins apart came to be because he died.
Robin huffs lightly, standing next to him. “I think one plate should be fine,” she muses.
Steve nods in agreement, but doesn’t say much else.
After a few moments of silence, Robin nudges his arm gently. “You okay?”
Steve leans into her briefly. “Ask me again tomorrow?”
Robin lets out a watery chuckle, looping her arm with Steve’s and nodding minutely.
As the others adjust their gear and make their final check-ins, Steve merely contemplates the sealed gate, and what awaits beyond it, in silence.
“Rescue Team, this is Bald Eagle,” Murray’s voice comes across the walkie. “Supergirl’s in position, ready on your signal.”
It’s time.
With everyone else’s eyes on his back, Steve feels a slight sense of pressure.
As if she can sense it, Robin leans in and whispers, “Hey. You killed three demogorgons, at the same time. You fought Vecna long enough for you and Holly to escape.” She lets him go and starts backing up after whispering, “You got this.”
Drawing on his memories of Henry’s memories, and isn’t that a mind-fuck, Steve stretches his arm out. His aims his hand at the metal plate in front of him and focuses on it. The plate starts groaning under the force of his powers. Slowly, it shifts until Steve breaks it free.
The plate hovers parallel to the ground, the red glow of the gate illuminating from underneath. As Steve lifts his own hand, the plate rises up in the air, guided by his powers.
“Sorcerer,” he hears Lucas whisper behind him.
“Wizard,” Dustin corrects.
“Shut up,” Max grumbles.
Once the plate is high enough, Steve extends his wrist and watches as the plate follows the movement, going from parallel to perpendicular.
Just like a Bopper, Steve tells himself.
He slams his arm down.
The plate doesn’t just fall; it plummets towards the gate, punching right through membrane and disappearing into the Upside Down, leaving a hole behind for them to climb through.
Wiping the blood from his nose, Steve turns back to the others with a nod.
“Bald Eagle, this is Rescue Team,” Dustin says into the walkie. “Breaching now. Stand by for signal.”
Finding the Rainbow Room is easy enough; Steve’s been trapped in the memory of this place for 18 months. When they’re just outside the doors, Steve raises a closed fist, signaling the others to halt.
He nods to Dustin.
After Dustin’s last transmission, it doesn’t take long for the signal to come over the walkie.
—. —
Go.
Hopper gives two slow knocks on the exterior of the bath, giving El the heads up.
Let’s end this, kid.
“So this is Vecna?” Holly wonders. “Right now? In the Upside Down?”
Being pulled back into a mindscape had been trippy, but Holly thinks she’s doing an alright job of adapting. The dark emptiness that surrounds them is unsettling and she can do without the wet floor, but she keeps those complaints to herself.
“You don’t have to whisper,” El replies, “but yes.”
“Okay,” Holly nods. “So… why can’t we just kill him right here?”
“We have to give the others time to get the kids out first,” El reminds her. “And we can’t hurt him here. We have to enter his mind.”
Holly pauses, glancing around. It doesn’t look like Camazotz…
“Is this your mind?” she asks.
“Yes,” El confirms. “Hold on.”
Holly watches as El reaches for Vecna’s hand and feels her world tilt sharply.
Outside of the Upside Down Rainbow Room, the team flails as the ground starts to shake beneath their feet.
Struggling to stay upright and not touch any vines, everyone grabs onto each other, to the walls, anything they can.
It doesn’t stop, not really. Instead, the shaking turns into a low rumbling, vibrating from the ground.
“Hey Jim,” Murray says into the radio. “Remember that spell the kids kept talking about?”
“Yeah?” Hopper’s replies.
Murray stares at the red spreading from underneath the metal plates, the gate growing underneath.
“I think the Wicked Witch of the Upside Down started casting it.”
El follows Holly through the memories, the two of them moving as quickly as they can to get to the Creel House.
When they reach a basement, Holly races for the stairs. “This way!” the girl exclaims.
They just make it through the door and into a field when three rapid bangs echo around them.
Holly freezes. “What’s that?”
El’s resolve hardens. “The spell,” she realizes. “It’s started.”
Another three rapid bangs, Hopper warning them they’re running out of time.
“How far are we?” El demands.
“That was the last memory!” Holly states. “We have to go through the forest and we’ll be at the house.”
El nods and they continue running, faster than before.
After waiting the pre-determined three minutes, the Upside Down team silently enters the Rainbow Room.
Steve feels his chest tighten at the familiar rainbow painted on the floor and the walls. While the memory had been covered with bodies and blood, this tangible version of the Rainbow Room is covered in vines.
Skin-like mucus wraps the kids up around the room in what Steve would describe as cocoons. And, like Holly said, each kid has a vine covering their mouth, pumping God knows what into their bodies.
Glancing up, Steve feels like the air has been sucked from the room.
Vecna.
He’s hovering in the level above them, the ceiling of the Rainbow Room having been ripped apart to create a double-height space. The vines suspending him create a spider-like silhouette, his shut eyes doing little to make him less intimidating.
So that’s what he looks like when he’s spell-casting, or whatever, Steve thinks to himself.
Glancing over at Nancy, he sees her eyes harden when she looks up at Vecna. Robin’s swallows harshly while Lucas’ jaw clenches, and Steve’s reminded that this is the second time they’ve come face-to-face with this monster.
The ground shakes again, making them stumble again. Steve grabs the people closest to him- Mike and Max- and holds them as steady as he can. Glancing around, he sees that Jonathan has Mrs. Byers and Will, while Lucas grabs a wide-eyed Robin, leaving Nancy and Dustin to clutch each other.
That has to be the spell; Vecna must’ve already started to cast it.
Looking back up at Vecna, Steve’s relieved to see he’s still in his trance and hasn’t taken notice of them.
Yet, his brain whispers.
The ground settles again, that vibration strong than before, so the Party silently signals each other.
Time to free the kids.
Once Eleven sends Vecna flying through the window of the Creel House, interrupting his spell, Holly runs towards Mary and the others.
“Are you guys okay?!” Holly exclaims.
“Holly!” Mary cries out. “What happened? Henry told us a monster got you!”
“No,” Holly protests. “No, listen, Henry is the monster!”
“What?!” the others all demand, their voices and questions overlapping as they argue and question her.
“You all need to go,” Eleven declares, turning from the window back to the kids, “before he comes back.”
“Is she the monster?” Debbie asks, terror filling her voice.
“No, Eleven is a superhero!” Holly explains. “She and I came here to rescue you! Henry has been lying to all of you; he’s the Black Thing and this is Camazotz!”
“She’s lying,” Derek declares. “The Black Thing is controlling her or something-“
“Shut up, Derek!” Holly snaps. “You’re the one being controlled.” She looks at all of them, “He’s using you all to destroy Hawkins.”
“No, no way,” Joshua counters. “We’re saving our world-“
“You’re not,” Eleven counters calmly. “Henry wants to merge a terrible world full of monsters with Hawkins. He is the one who caused the earthquake last year that ripped four cracks across Hawkins, destroying half the town. He is the one who killed Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson and Patrick McKinney. He tried to kill Steve Harrington, too.”
“Harrington?” Derek asks, frowning. “Isn’t he in a coma?”
“His body was in a coma, but his mind was trapped here,” Holly replies, pleading with them to understand. “He was Henry’s prisoner, just like all of us! Don’t you remember being taken? Those monsters work for Henry; that’s why you can’t explain how you got here. Henry messed with your memories, because that’s what he does. Your minds are trapped here."
She steps up to Mary, her best friend for years, and looks her in the eye. “Mary, please,” she begs. “You have to believe me!”
Mary studies her behind her glasses, mouth opening but no words coming out. After a moment, though, there's a flicker in her eyes. Something open and receptive to Holly's words-
“Something is wrong,” Eleven says, making Holly and the others spin to face her.
The older girl is standing still, staring out the window she threw Venca out of.
“What?” Holly worries, coming up next to her and following her gaze out the window. She freezes, fear clogging her throat.
“Where is he?”
“You knew this would happen…” Sara tells him, voice soft and disappointed. “Just like you know what will happen to them.”
The words make Hopper stagger backwards, heart tearing in two-
“I keep replaying it in my mind.”
Hopper whirls around at the sound of Steve’s voice. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a grave, a letter in his hands.
“Maybe if I had gone back down there with you, I could’ve helped. I could’ve taken your place,” Steve reads, his voice quiet but firm. Absolutely certain in what he’s saying. “Sometimes I think it would’ve been better if it had been me who died down there.”
Vecna’s voice echoes all around him, “You can’t protect them, Jim.”
Hopper pulls out his gun, spinning this way and that to find the bastard. “Show yourself!” he screams.
“I am a monster,” El tells Mike, bangs framing her face in a way Hopper’s never seen. “I do not belong.”
“In Lenora?” Mike asks, frowning.
El shakes her head. “Anywhere.”
“I have seen into their minds… and now, I have seen into yours,” Vecna taunts. “One daughter dead because of you, and soon... another.”
“No,” Hopper whispers.
“And Steven... so weak and so fragile,” Vecna practically purrs. “I’ve already killed him once, Jim. And I cannot wait to do it again.”
“SHOW YOURSELF!!” Hopper screams.
“You are as you fear… you are the curse.”
Hopper whirls around, coming face to face with Vecna, and he doesn’t hesitate.
He pulls the trigger, once, twice, a third time-
Holly leads the way through the forest, the other kids all running behind her. “We’re almost there!” she shouts, coming to a stop and pointing. “It’s just up ahead!”
The others run past her, Holly pushing them forward and doing a quick headcount to make sure everyone’s keeping up.
After Vecna disappeared, it was easy to convince them to come with her. Eleven can't sense him, so they have no idea where he is, which makes getting to the cave all the more important.
Bang bang bang bang bang
Holly looks up at the sky, brows furrowing.
“El! Why is he signaling?”
Bang bang bangbangbangbang
Eleven stops running when she reaches Holly, looking around with confusion etched on her face.
“That’s not a signal,” she replies.
Holly frowns. “Then what is he doing?”
bangbangbang-
Then Eleven vanishes in a puff of smoke.
Holly gasps. Oh no…
“Mary! Derek!” she shouts, seeing the two at the back of the group. “Get to the cave-“
Holly’s eyes snap open back in the Squawk.
El coughs, catching her breath as she looks up at Hopper.
“What did you do?” she whispers.
“What happened?” one of the kids wonders.
“She just poofed away like a damn ghost!” Derek exclaims.
“Was it the Black Thing?” Debbie worries. “Did the Black Thing take them?”
“Hey!” Mary shouts. Holly had been brave enough to not only escape, but to come back and rescue them. They can be brave, too.
“We keep to the plan and get to the cave," Mary continues. "You heard Holly; the Black Thing can’t hurt us there, and there are people outside of Camazotz coming to rescue us.”
The others start to nod in agreement.
“Holly said the cave is straight ahead, so let’s go!” Mary finishes, starting to lead the way. "Come on!"
It’s a close call, with the Black Thing catching up to them just as they reached the cave. Mary nearly makes it inside when vines wrap around her ankle, pulling her down to the ground and dragging her back.
Her scream is cut off when two pairs of hands grab her arms, tugging her back towards the cave.
Debbie and Derek pull and pull, until finally, miraculously, Mary is safe inside the cave.
“Are you okay?” Debbie asks worriedly, hugging her.
They run further into the cave, Derek pausing to look back and flip the Black Thing off. “Suck my fat one!”
Vickie, Erica and Holly pile into one of the Squawk vans, and Vickie silently thanks Jonathan and Robin for leaving the keys in the sun visor.
She turns the engine on and can’t help but mutter, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Without another word, she shifts the van to drive and speeds towards Hawkins Lab.
Determining that the vines are the thing keeping the kids in Camazotz, they free all the kids from their cocoons first. Without knowing what’s happening on El and Holly’s end, breaking the kids out one by one could tip their hand.
So they’ll wake the kids up all at once.
They all have one kid to attend to, with Mrs. Byers taking two to even things out, and in unison, they yank the vines from the kids’ faces.
The kids don’t all wake up at once; their returns to consciousness is staggered, eyes shooting open and soft gasps echoing all around. They try their best to keep the kids quiet, signaling to Vecna above them to indicate the danger they’re still in.
Wiping Derek Turnbow’s glasses clean, Steve gives the kid a reassuring smile, startled when he’s suddenly being hugged by his former neighbor.
In the back of his mind, he thinks about the infamous Dipshit Derek, how this is a kid with parents as emotionally absent as the Harringtons were. He was a douchebag the same way King Steve had been a douchebag.
In reality, he’s just a kid.
Patting the kid’s back gently, Steve lets Derek go and quickly gets him on his feet.
With all the kids awake and standing, they start to herd them towards the exit when the double doors slam shut, sealing them in the Rainbow Room.
Quickly turning, Steve sees Vecna, eyes open and glaring down at them.
He doesn’t hesitate.
With a shout, Steve quickly lifts his arm up and pushes.
Vecna goes flying through the ceiling, crashing into the floor above his vine nest as the kids scream in shock.
“Go,” Steve orders the others, voice hard as he keeps his eyes fixed on the hole. “Now.”
There’s a handful of protests, but thank God for Nancy Wheeler.
“We stick to the plan and get the kids out,” she barks, and Steve can picture her hefting her rifle in preparation to fight her way out. “Let’s go.”
They get the doors open and run, leaving Steve in the Rainbow Room.
Lifting his hand again, Steve reaches for ceiling, the one he sent Vecna through. It rumbles under his grasp, cracking and shaking. With a yell of exertion, he rips it open and Vecna comes crashing down in front of him.
The shriveled dickhead lifts his head, glowering at Steve.
“You truly do want to die,” he growls before pushing his hand out.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Nancy shouts, leading the way.
They run outside, keeping the kids close as they circle towards the back of the building.
Coming to a halt, Dustin feels his heart lodge in his throat.
“Oh my God,” he breathes.
The Mind Flayer- not a smoke version, not a melted-people sludge version- but the real life Mind Flayer, stands before them, guarding the gate.
It opens its mouth and roars.