Archive of Our Own

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March, 1986 — Eddie

Hell was cold, dead, and dry. Red skies hovered over blue landscapes, bathing the world in unnatural light. The whole place just looked wrong, warped and twisted in a way nothing was ever supposed to be. Tainted, tarnished. All sorts of big fancy words that said something without saying anything at all.

Some quiet, hysterical part of Eddie said something about it being a "cold day in hell", but he couldn't muster any amusement as he spent a second or two just processing what it was that he found himself looking at.

Horrific screeching tore through the air, snatching Eddie's attention. He froze entirely as those things— those mutated bats— took down Nancy Wheeler. Nancy Wheeler, who always looked so strong, a pillar of stability for the little ragtag group of survivors, was being strangled and chewed on. She screamed, sound muffled by the tail wrapped around her throat. Even in that moment, Eddie knew it was a sound he'd never unhear.

Eddie couldn't move. Nancy writhed on the ground, waving her arms weakly at her sides as the two things tore through her shirt like paper and dug right into her flesh. Blood quickly poured from where they were chewing into her, and her movements did nothing to help.

Five seconds. It took five seconds for something in Eddie to snap, and he rushed forward. Five seconds of watching, of dread and nausea as he realized he was just standing there as another innocent died. Five seconds of once again letting himself be a coward. After just five seconds, Eddie snapped. He refused to let it happen again.

He didn't even realize he had a weapon in hand before he was swinging. He ran on pure adrenaline and spite as he slammed the oar into the nearest bat, then turned and hit the second one. It didn't solve the problem of the one strangling Nancy, but it helped.

In all honesty, he didn't think he would survive the encounter. A fighter, Eddie Munson was not. The three bats, while small, were ferocious. In any other timeline, Eddie would have been mauled alongside Nancy Wheeler and no one would have realized what happened to them.

The timeline Eddie Munson found himself in was an outlier.

People. There were people in the Upside Down, dressed to the nines in apocalypse gear. Eddie hadn't even heard them approach, but they were there, literally ripping the things in half. One second they were there, the next? The two bats in the air were just gone. Then, the real life action heroes turned to the final bat and with no hesitation, they stomped down. One foot landed on the tail, the other on the body.

The bat's entire chest caved in with a wet crunch and the bat's tails loosened on Nancy's neck, letting her scramble away.

The two figures turned to them slowly, and Eddie got the distinct impression that while he and Nancy were just visiting, those two had made their home in Hell. Even more than that? He knew both of them. At the very least, he recognized them both. After all one was like him, and the other? Well, the other was a king.

But that was wrong. Robin Buckley was supposed to be dead. Mauled by a bear, they said. An entire hunting party went out and proudly came back with the bear that'd offed her. Eddie, himself, had gone to the memorial. While she was never his friend, they had clocked each other as being alike. It felt wrong not to pay his respects to the only other queer kid in Hawkins.

Steve Harrington wasn't supposed to be there, either. He was supposed to be off in some big city living it up after he ran away from Hawkins. Any time Eddie had gotten down, thinking he might be stuck in that stupid little town, he'd thought of Steve Harrington. If King Steve could get out, then so could Eddie. At least, that's what he told himself. It turned something hollow in his gut. The cold comfort turned sour. Apparently, Harrington never did escape. If that was the case, how could Eddie?

Neither of them were supposed to be there, in the Upside Down. In a Hell dimension connected to Hawkins. It was wrong. All of it was so, so wrong. With that information, it felt like the world twisted around them even further. Eddie didn't know if there was any way to turn it back.

Nancy stumbled to her feet, barely managing to catch her breath.

"Steve?" her voice broke, and she already looked pretty disoriented from her previous attack, but she was looking at Steve like she was seeing a ghost. "What—?"

More screeches sounded nearby, and they turned to find an even larger flock of those bat things headed their way.

"We have to run," Steve fucking Harrington said, authority just dripping from his voice. Not that fake shit either, real understanding of their situation and the ability to take control of it.

"Now," the man emphasized. And the conversation was put on old for more important matters, such as survival.

They took cover in the woods, and paused at Skull Rock to bandage Nancy's wounds. With the bandages they just… had on hand. It was a gruesome thing to watch, the way they peeled the ruined shirt away from shredded flesh, most definitely taking bits of skin with it.

"We need to clean these as soon as possible," Robin told her. "Everything is toxic. Water bottles are our best bet."

"Our closest safe house is the Wheeler's," Steve added. "There should be supplies there."

"Until then, the bandages should work. Let's go," Robin finished.

It was weird. Deeper than weird. They weren't just finishing each other's sentence, they were picking up where each other left off, giving the same feeling of listening to one person talk uninterrupted. There was no pause or hesitation. It felt scripted.

Before the group could really get moving, Robin and Steve stopped them in their tracks.

"Sorry, be careful where you walk. The whole place is connected," Robin warned.

"Step on a vine and the whole army comes running. Not good," Steve went on. They even moved in sync. Like a body with two heads. There was probably a creature he could homebrew based on that. Later, he promised himself. Later.

They went on, and with each step the sense of something being off only became more prominent.

The group stayed close to each other, never further than an arms reach apart. Eddie stayed on alert, watching their surroundings carefully. It was impossible not to, when one of the Demobeasts could just climb out of the woodwork. Nancy remained just as alert, if not more so.

Neither Steve nor Robin carried the same wariness. They didn't completely slack, but they watched their surroundings with a casual sort of awareness that didn't match up very well with Eddie and Nancy's paranoia. It seemed backwards, but Eddie didn't have a way to articulate it, let alone bring it up. He still kept it in the back of his mind. He just added it to the pile of things that didn't quite make sense.

"Steve, what— what are you doing here? I mean, what happened to you?" Nancy asked, only barely stumbling through the pain.

Steve sighed, giving Nancy a heavy look. He let the silence hang for a moment

"I didn't run away," he said, exhaustion that wasn't present at any moment prior soaked the four simple words. It carried a book's worth of implications behind it, and that fact was only made worse with the way that Nancy flinched. Steve ignored it.

"Robin didn't get mauled by a bear, either," he went on. "We've been here. This whole time, we've been here."

November, 1983 — Steve

"I'm sorry," Nancy apologized for the third time, as she and Barb prepared to leave.

The cut on Barb's thumb definitely needed stitches. Barb let Steve inspect it, leaning heavily on his first aid lessons, but she refused to let him help her bandage it. Nancy didn't hesitate to announce she would be going to the hospital alongside Barb.

"Don't be sorry, Nance, just go. Stitches are a bit more important than some dumb party," he assured.

He'd already offered to drive them, himself, but Barb rather soundly refused. She shoved her keys over to Nancy and stormed off to the car.

Nancy gave him another apologetic smile and followed after Barb, leaving Steve in the house with no one but Tommy and Carol for company, which didn't really count since they were fucking in his parents bedroom. He told them that they had to clean up after themselves.

He knew that they wouldn't.

Steve walked back to the pool and sat down on the diving board, feeling sorry for himself in the privacy of his own backyard. The Thing practically came out of nowhere, and by the time he even realized something was wrong, it was too late.

On the Other Side, somewhere else, Steve ran. He ran far and fast. Somewhere between here and there, he lost the Thing and found himself alone in Hawkins, but it wasn't Hawkins. It was wrong and cold and empty. More than all of that, it was dead. He didn't know what to do, so he just ran and barely stopped.

He didn't stay long enough in any house to hear anything. If he had, he'd know that no one knew he was missing for a week and it was only when the school called the cops due to his absences that they realized he wasn't there. He was ruled a runaway and the case was open and shut. No one looked for him.

The only person who even realized something was wrong was Nancy Wheeler, but her attention quickly turned to other matters: Barb's disappearance, Jonathan, and Jonathan's brother to name a few. By the time she noticed Steve's absence she had no more energy to investigate. She accepted the story for what it was. She didn't look, either.

In the Other Place, he sustained himself on bottles of stale water and sludgy cans of food that tasted too sweet to eat, but he forced down anyway. He scavenged houses and didn't let himself stay in place for too long. He ran into the Thing a few times, but he managed to evade each time.

Then, the Thing vanished, and he was alone.

November, 1983 — Robin

It was dark as Robin Buckley was biking home. School had been just as boring as any other day. No one talked to her, and she kept her head down, and it was all just very plain. She did her work and answered when called on and she didn't do anything to gather too much attention.

Her bike ride was actually pleasant. The air was cool but not so much that it was chilly. Wind brushed through her hair and the streets were empty. She was content.

The pebble really came out of nowhere.

The bike jerked and her foot slipped. The rough plastic of the pedal dug into her heel, scraping off a thick layer of skin, bloodying her sock. From the bottom of her backpack, she pulled out a large first aid kit— mostly empty, with a few odds and ends. She dug through, hoping for any bandaids she could find, but came up empty.

"Guess I'll just… bleed," she muttered.

She didn't see the Thing until it was too late.

Robin Buckley didn't arrive home that night. Her parents reported her missing right away. Her bike was the only indicator of where she had been. The search lasted two days before people in suits swooped in and took over. They declared that Robin Buckley had been mauled by a bear. They claimed a small hunting party went out in search of the offending creature and even showed a bear carcass to celebrate their victory.

The world moved on.

Just like Steve Harrington, when she found herself in a world of death and decay, she ran. She ran far and fast, only encountering the Thing once, but it was enough to leave her terrified. Too terrified to leave her base, or to even think about taking a single step outside of the sheriff's station. She forced herself to remain silent and still. She drank from stale, cloudy water bottles and ate from sludgy cans of food. She spent most of her time listening to the conversations of people who couldn't hear her.

Most of the conversations were mundane. Paperwork and coffee and all things boring. She had come to the sheriff's station for a few things: help, other people, weapons at the very least, but she came up empty. She hadn't exactly hoped to hear news of her own death.

She didn't know what to do with that information.

It stung, too, that no one was looking for her. The self pity lasted her a while. It lasted her until she heard the tale of Steve Harrington's disappearance. Harrington, who no one even realized was missing until a week later. They declared he ran away. Case open and shut.

She hated him. She hated his guts and his stupid hair and his bagel crumbs, but… they didn't look for him. No one had even known he was gone, except for the school, whose job it was to know if he was there or not. She hated him, but for a minute, she pitied him.

Still, she had bigger things to deal with than the King of Hawkins High, and she had other things to do. For the days she'd been at the station, she'd been hearing rumblings just outside, which forced her to stay even quieter, to hide in little crevices and cracks. She'd heard things, but suddenly it had all stopped. Things were quiet. Way too quiet.

What she did was stupid. She knew it was stupid before she even did it, but she had to check.

She went outside to figure out where the noise went, but it was nowhere. That Thing that had taken her seemed to be gone. She wasn't stupid enough to think it was gone for good, but she went exploring for supplies. She gathered more food and water and first aid. When she felt satisfied with her haul, she got things for entertainment. Things to pass the time.

She even created a good system for herself. A routine in what she figured out was an alternate dimension. (She read a sci-fi book that delved into that topic that was very helpful). Things weren't great, but they were better than when she'd been hiding in her den like a startled rabbit.

She even tried her hand at building defenses for when that Thing came back. They weren't the best, but they were something! Robin was quite proud of her survival abilities, actually.

It was because of those on point survival abilities that she noticed the differences immediately. She'd stopped at Melvald's for something or other and while meandering her way through the shelves, she realized that it looked different than she'd left it. There were less of things, like someone else had come in and grabbed stuff while she was gone.

Like someone else was there with her.

The idea both excited her and terrified her in equal measure. Someone else. Someone to survive with. Except, it was a person and people were dangerous. If she tried to find this person it could be the best thing she did or the worst thing she did. Either way, she knew she had to do it because the curiosity would kill her if she did nothing.

She left a note.

Hello? Are you there? I'm based at the sheriff's station. Meet me. We can survive together.

There. Her own terf. If someone decided to be an asshole she would use her new survival skills to kick them to the curb. She survived the Thing, she could take on some asshole (though she blatantly ignored the idea that the reason the Thing was gone was because the other person killed it).

She headed out and promised herself she would be patient, because she knew it would take a while for the hypothetical other person to find the note and probably even longer before the person would act on it. Didn't mean she had to like it.

She managed to keep herself distracted, though. She read and made more attempts at fortifications, though it looked a little bit more like locking off the rooms with big windows than any real fortifications. She didn't know if the thing could get through walls, but she felt safer that way.

Days, weeks, months, however long later, a very quiet, very polite knock came from the front of the station. She jumped, then perked up. A person. A real, human person who knocked on doors! She rushed out and came face to face with Steve Harrington, who looked a little worse for wear.

She kind of hated him. That didn't end, but it practically melted under the weight of the relief she felt at recognizing someone.

He stood patiently, waiting for her to let him in and he gave her his patented Harrington Smile.

"Hi. Ruby, right? I'm Steve."

And it was so stupid. He was so, so stupid, but she laughed anyway.

"Robin," she corrected. "And I know who you are."

"Well, Robin, it looks like we're going to be partners from now on." He waved the little note she left in front of him and his smile faded into something a little more real. "Survive together?"

"Yeah," she agreed, moving aside to let him in. "Yeah, we'll survive together."

March, 1986 — Nancy

The picture that Steve and Robin painted made something in Nancy clench. Steve was taken from his backyard and nobody noticed. Nancy had just bought what the lab served and didn't think twice about it. Both Steve and Robin, stuck there, with only each other as company, because no one decided to give either of them another look.

It was such bullshit. It was bullshit she contributed to. After she knew what happened to Barb, she didn't ask any more questions? She prided herself on being the one to do exactly that: ask the uncomfortable questions, to look where no one else wanted to look.

She should have known better. She should have seen how suspicious it all was, but she breezed right past it because she wanted a simple explanation. She should have known that Steve wouldn't have run away. She should have trusted he was better than others thought he was. She should have trusted her first instinct, what told her to date him in the first place.

On top of that, there was Robin, which led itself to a whole new level of stupidity. "Mauled by a bear" in Hawkins, Indiana? Really? That was an even bigger red flag that she just ignored. Twice, she let herself be comforted by the governments bullshit.

Nancy didn't say anything, and Eddie only interjected to compliment on their survival skills.

"Very Ranger of both of you," he said, "managing to survive out here for so long,"

Robin and Steve's expressions absolutely lit up.

"Like in that Dungeons game!" Steve snapped his fingers and pointed at Eddie, looking proud of himself.

"Exactly!" Eddie crowed. "You play?"

"We tried," Robin corrected. "In the Wheeler basement there's a bunch of material for it, but we never really got into it."

"You have to let me DM for you," Eddie said. "You know, when this is all over. I'll absolutely make it worth your while. Plus it would be awesome to get your… unique perspectives at the table."

Eddie smiled at them hopefully. He glanced over at Steve, then Robin, then at Steve again. He had a strange look in his eye that Nancy couldn't identify.

"What'd'ya say?" he pressed. "One more attempt with me at the helm?"

Steve and Robin got into a silent conversation, faces twisting at each other in ways that must have meant something to them. To the outside observer (so, Nancy and Eddie), they just moved they eyebrows around and nodded. Then, they turned to Eddie and gave him a similarly heavy look.

They agreed.

They arrived at her house, and even from the outside, it looked weird.

"We have bases all over the place," Steve explained. "We fortify 'em as well as we can and keep everything we need to survive in each of 'em. Bandages, food, water, entertainment, so on."

"Entertainment?" Nancy asked. It wasn't something she had really considered before. What someone would do when living in the Upside Down long-term, but it made sense. Not every second would be a fight for survival.

Steve nodded. "You know, board games, playing cards, books."

"I don't remember you being much of a reader," Nancy commented.

The look he sent her wasn't quite a smile. "It's something to do."

"He's not very good at literary analysis," Robin cut in, face breaking out into a big grin, "but he's getting better. I'll have an english major of him, yet."

"Not likely," Steve shot back. And it was casual, but there was something stiff about it, like it was all scripted. Like the interactions between Steve and Robin were for their benefit more than anything else. It put Nancy on edge.

"Well, if there's one thing I would love to see, it's a survival base in Hell," Eddie matched Robin's expression, clearly delighted. "Shall we venture forth?"

Robin matched his expression and nodded. "We shall."

The inside was even weirder to look at. It was her house, down to the layout of the furniture, it was all the same, but… there was so much more. Homemade weapons covered most of the surfaces, first aid kits stacked up next to books stacked up next to board games. It was a cluttered, organized mess. It looked like they got as cozy as they could in an evil alternate dimension.

"Sit," Steve gestured to the couch, and bustled off to the kitchen to rifle through the cupboards.

"You will not believe how long it takes to make a place livable here," Robin complained, picking at a first aid kit she'd set on the coffee table. "There's so much, just, gunk everywhere, you know? Plus, the pipes don't work and neither does any other technology. No heater, no air conditioning, no fridge, no TV, nothing."

She set out some gauze and other bandages, then after a hesitation, set down medical thread and a needle.

"Just in case," she reassured, then kept going. "Sometimes we can hear people talking, and if we're really lucky, we can hear the TV. We have a pretty good time trying to figure out what's happening in the movies people watch based on the little bits and pieces we can hear."

"Got it!" Steve called from the kitchen, and walked out with some water bottles and a bowl.

Nancy sat up, and braced herself for what would, without a doubt, be an incredibly painful experience, when Eddie asked, "Dustin?"

"Huh?" Steve turned his attention, even as Robin kept her eyes on Nancy.

"Dustin, he's, like, in the walls or something, I can hear him," Eddie explained.

"Yeah," Steve said, and he put on a sympathetic tone, like he was about to deliver bad news. "It's like Rob said, we can hear people's conversations, sometimes, but they don't hear us back. It's a one way radio signal."

Eddie slumped a little in defeat.

"Will found a way," she said.

"Will?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, Will. He got stuck here, too. His mom got him out after a week, though. She said he communicated in the lights."

"…the lights?" Steve repeated, voice disbelieving. "He communicated with the other side using… the lights?"

Robin didn't say anything, but from her expression, it was clear she agreed with his sentiment.

"I mean…" Eddie cut in. "It's worth a try, isn't it?"

So, Nancy was up off the couch and up the stairs, following the path of the voices. After some fiddling, someone flicked on the lights and Eddie managed to get a message through. SOS was good enough.

And it worked. They got the other side's attention and communication opened up.

She really didn't want to think about it. Steve and Robin lived in the Upside Down for years, and they had run out of hope of escape. They got as comfortable as possible and did all they could to take care of themselves. They fully believed that there was no way to get in contact with anyone else. Finding out they were wrong had to have been a kick in the pants.

Even thinking about it, though, it was nothing next to experiencing it. It didn't prepare her for how angry it would make the two of them.

It wasn't a loud anger, either. Instead, it roiled off of them like a physical presence. It poured out of them and dampened the atmosphere. While on the other side, they grabbed a lightbrite, Nancy and Eddie eyed the other two warily.

They didn't say anything.

Eventually, the anger faded to less stifling levels and they managed to get on the same page. They agreed to go to the Munson Trailer to hopefully join up with the rest of the group.

"Forest Hills, right?" Steve asked. His tone was off, but he appeared to calming down. At least somewhat. "We have a base, there, too. We haven't been there in a while, though."

"I don't think it's the one Eddie lives in," Robin added. "The rooms are too boring for that."

Steve hummed in agreement. "He does seem the type to make his walls loud," he said. "But before any of that, we need to get to Nance's injuries."

Nance. Still using that old nickname, as if they were still close. As if he hadn't spent the last two and a half years stuck in the Upside Down. As if she hadn't abandoned him and Robin to survive on their own. As if she was deserving of it.

Carefully, they brought her back to the living room and forced her back sitting.

Then, they forced her to let them stich her back together.

Half an hour later found her riding on the back of her bike with Robin at the pedals. For the whole ride, she bit back sounds of pain and discomfort. It was tough, it was beyond tough, but they didn't have time to be gentle for her, so they did what they could.

The wounds were as clean as they could manage. The stitches were as precise as Robin's hand could provide, and the bandages were the whitest they could get their hands on. It still burned in a way that could only concern. She didn't have the highest hopes of getting to a hospital before infection set in. Still, she wasn't bleeding out, and she'd take every victory handed to her.

Every bump jostled her more, though, and the ache only built. It was nothing but relief when the ride finally came to a stop.

Just as described, one of the trailers was boarded up and protected. It was Max's trailer, right across the street from the Munson's. Nancy wondered what Robin and Steve might have overheard there. If they had been there while the Mayfields lived there. She didn't know what answer she would prefer.

"Here it is," Eddie announced, "the Munson Mansion." His voice wavered, just a little bit.

He pushed his way through the front door and they spilled in after him.

At the exact spot that Chrissy Cunningham died, another gate was open.

The kids made their appearance soon after, tearing the gate opened. On the other side, through the ceiling, Dustin's proud, beaming grin came into view. Dustin took a second to revel in his success before he finally saw— or at least processed— Steve and Robin. His expression dropped in confusion.

"Wait, who's that?"

Eddie grinned back, gesturing widely at the two. "Henderson, meet Lady Buckley and Sir Harrington, our Upside Down tour guides. They've been living here since November of '83."

Steve and Robin both waved awkwardly. They looked nothing like the monster killers who tore the bat's apart with their bare hands. They looked exactly like what they were. Teenagers.

Dustin's eyes widened, jaw dropping. "Since 1983?"

Dustin stopped, visibly shook himself off, then set his shoulders. "Right, not the time. I have so many questions, but first we need you on this side of the gate." He shuffled around and grabbed a bundle of fabric. "If my theory is correct, then…"

Dustin tossed the bundle through the gate, holding on to one end. A rope. Kid made a rope. A strong tug from both sides showed the rope would stay. Next, a mattress was placed beneath the gate, giving a soft place to land.

("Those stains are… I don't know what those stains are.")

When no one moved to go first, even after the test pull, Steve and Robin gave each other that look, again. They had another silent conversation, something clearly passing between the two, though no words were said. It put Nancy even more on edge. She hated it. She didn't know what was going on with them and she hated it.

"Alright, I guess I'm first," Robin spoke after a long moment. She climbed the rope with a grace that Nancy didn't expect, strength hidden by her thick, armored outfit.

Next, Steve turned to Nancy and nodded to the gate. "You're still injured. Munson and I can help you through, then we'll be right after you. Okay?"

While something in her bristled at needing help, the pain in her sides didn't give her much of a choice. She nodded and let the two boost her up and through. She expected to hit the soft mattress. She expected a cushioned fall and something safe to land on. Instead, she hit something hard and cold, and when she oriented herself, she wasn't in the Munson Trailer. She was somewhere much different.

March, 1986 — Eddie

Eddie's mood was already pretty sour when Steve volunteered both his own and Eddie's services to get Nancy through the gate. Eddie would do it, but he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of being volunteered to do anything. Before he could make any complaints known, however, Nancy Wheeler went completely stiff. Back straight, jaw set. Frozen.

It was happening again. Eddie watched her eyes roll back into her head, and his stomach dropped.

It was happening again.

It took an unfortunate amount of thought and effort before he could manage to strangle out, "In my room! Tapes in the crate under the table!"

The kids were off before he even finished talking. Robin stayed where she was, watching. She stayed silent. So did Steve. Eddie wouldn't notice until much later, but something in their eyes was wrong. Not hollow, but dangerous. Predatory, maybe. With the adrenaline of the moment finally drained from his veins, he'd remember that some of his fear was fear of Steve and Robin.

Finally, through the chaos of the kids shouting, Steve spoke. His voice cut through, sharp and firm.

"What's happening?"

He didn't shout, but Eddie heard him as clearly as if he was screaming. Steve held himself at the ready, like a soldier about to charge into battle. Above them (on the other side) Robin held herself exactly the same. Battle-hardened teenagers ready and willing to put themselves in danger (again).

Eddie couldn't get himself to answer. He dragged his attention back to Nancy ans watched for any signs of floating. He kept an ear on the others, and held Nancy's shoulders as firmly as possible. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he worried about bruising, but figured it was better she was bruised than dead.

"What's happening?" Robin asked next, also to be ignored.

"We can't help if we don't know what's going on," Steve insisted.

Right at the moment Eddie was sure she would start floating, Nancy gasped and stumbled back. She caught a glimpse of Steve, and pushed herself back even further, breath going more ragged and panic becoming so much louder. She was alive, though. Not dead, not dead, not dead. Sobbing, tears pouring down her face, unwilling to accept any comfort, but alive.

"What happened?" Steve finally asked, when Nancy's sobs subsided.

Quickly, Nancy's entire demeanor shifted. A cold, steely expression took over her face. Her posture turned stiff. Another soldier in their midst.

"Vecna," Eddie answered after a long moment.

"Vecna?" Steve repeated, "What does that mean?"

Steve's face did something odd, a twist of the mouth, a scrunch of the eyebrow, then it fell flat. If Eddie had blinked at the wrong time, he'd have missed it.

"We should get to the other side," Eddie said instead of getting into it, "we'll explain everything when we aren't in a literal Hell dimension anymore." He was suddenly so much more exhausted than he was just fifteen minutes prior. He didn't know what to do with it.

Steve gave him another long look, then nodded. He turned to Nancy, still silent. Carefully, he offered a hand. She eyed it warily, ten eventually accepted it. Eddie couldn't tell if that was a good thing. Steve and him worked to hoist her through the gate. Despite the palpable relief that Nancy was okay, the feeling in the air was still off.

Eddie didn't have the energy to figure out why.

Eddie climbed through the gate next. His stomach swooped as gravity switched up on him. The pull turning into a push in a way that he'd never experienced before. He hit the mattress and a light laugh forced itself out of his chest.

"That… was fun."

He looked up and waited for Steve to follow after. The guy took a second, just a brief moments hesitation before he followed suit, dropping to the mattress and rolling off right after.

The room watched as Steve and Robin breathed it in.

"It's clean," Steve noted. "The air. It tastes… good."

"I know, right?" Robin loudly agreed. "I had to fight to urge to just, like, lick it."

"But we want to make a good first impression." Steve nodded.

"Exactly!"

Dustin watched each of their movements closely, like science experiments. Max watched them warily, like threats. Erica eyed them with the level of judgment only she was capable of, and Lucas looked at them like he just found two new heroes to worship. Nancy, though, was looking at them with something in her eyes that Eddie couldn't name. Something dangerous.

"We need to leave. Is there anywhere else we can go?" Nancy cut in, eyes never straying from their guests.

Max stepped away and checked out the window, nodded to herself and turned back to the group. "My mom's at work, we can go to my place."

"Alright, perfect. Let's go, then."

The air between everyone was thick with… something. Tense and uncomfortable. No one spoke as they headed out. Then, gathered in the Mayfield living room, the feeling in the air only got thicker.

"So, what's going on, 'cause we've seen monsters and shit but that… that was new," Robin started them off. "What, exactly, is going on?"

"Don't tell them," Nancy said. "First they need to prove that they aren't working for Vecna."

She had that same look in her eye. She stared at both Steve and Robin's every move, like she could see into them, into muscle and sinew and bone, right into the core of each of their beings. Like she wasn't quite sure what to make of it yet.

"I'm still unclear as to who Vecna is…" Robin said, casual as anything. "But as far as I'm aware we aren't working for anyone. Unless we have a whole sleeper agent thing going on, but I'm pretty sure that's not it."

"I saw some stuff in my vision," Nancy said, voice hollow, haunted. "Vecna, he showed me his plans. Four victims, four gates. Once he opens the fourth gate, he's going to split Hawkins in two. He showed me these… awful things. Smoke filling the streets, monsters. He said he'd kill everyone. Mike, Holly, Jonathan, everyone."

She took a deep, steadying breath, then gave Steve and Robin an even harder look. "He said he'd have you two at the helm of his attack. His generals."

Neither of the two responded for a long time, and silence blanketed the group as they watched. Their expressions were hard to discern. Twisting further and further, but remaining silent.

"There isn't much that we can say that would really prove we don't want to work for Vecna, y'know? A spy would probably say the same things we would," Robin finally said.

"Why would they be Generals for Vecna anyway? They seem pretty anti-Upside Down Monster, seeing as they tore those bat-things apart with their bare hands," Eddie argued. He was worried, sure, but they just didn't feel like spies or whatever. It just didn't fit.

Nancy pursed her lips, then went on. "The real question is why was Will possessed, but they weren't?"

"Possessed?" Steve repeated incredulously.

"Fully, loss of control, possessed." Robin and Steve's expressions were identical at that point.

Dustin, bless him, jumped in to clarify.

"He got pulled into the Hive Mind. He wasn't in control of his own body, and the Mind Flayer— and Vecna, I guess— looked through his eyes to gather intel."

"A Hive Mind?" Robin's voice held an edge to it.

"Yeah." Dustin eyed her warily, along with the rest of the group. "Why?"

"We think we know why we weren't possessed when Will was," Robin said. "If it will ease any of your concerns at all."

"Both of you do?" Lucas asked. His tone said he already had a guess as to where they were going, and was just waiting for them to get there.

"Yeah," Steve answered. "Both of us."

January, 1984 — November, 1984

Robin

The first month of "Surviving Together" was… rough, to say the least. Steve and Robin got along fine enough, but so much focus was put on fortifying the police station (which Steve was no better at than Robin, but he brought with him some muscle, which greatly helped).

Quickly, they found and deftly avoided many, many minefield conversation topics. It's all stiff and vaguely uncomfortable but it was clear that neither of them cared all that much because they weren't alone any more. They made it work.

A growing pastime for them became eavesdropping on the Other Side. Hopper, Callahan, Powell, and Flo made up their own sort of entertainment. While Robin would never like any of them, she would at least appreciate the comedic value in two grown men arguing over who put what in the employee fridge like it was the end of the world. Steve made it his own pastime to fill in the other half of the phone calls that Flo got. He didn't make her laugh. He didn't.

Most of their time, above everything else, was spent gathering resources. It was one part necessity based on their continued consumption of food and water for survival, and one part fear. It was quiet on their side of things, but they didn't know how long it would stay that way. That Thing disappeared out of nowhere. What was to stop it from reappearing in the same way?

They hoarded resources. Every other day, they were going on another expedition just to get more stuff that could potentially be useful to them. More food, water, first aid. More weapons. They got anything and everything they managed to find. It wasn't like they were in competition for resources.

The quiet loomed over them, unmentioned. It wasn't the silence of something settling, it was more like anticipation. Like the whole world was waiting. Robin and Steve waited with it.

It was almost a relief when the quiet shattered.

The first sign of actual life outside of each other and those weird vines that both of them refused to touch was the Dog-Thing. Well, Dog-Things, seeing as they found three of them.

Gray, covered in a slick goop, and a face made of pedals. It ticked off all the boxes to show some sort of relation to their captor. The Dog-Things didn't notice anything amiss, luckily for Steve and Robin, and they just traveled from point A to point B. The sight of them was enough to put the two on edge.

They were no longer alone. Something else would be vying for space. Something that came in packs.

Time passed strangely in the Dark Realm. No night or day cycle, no routine movements for the Dog-Things (that they could yet track), no routine times that they could or could not hear the other side. It was all just random.

The food dwindled and neither of them were all to excited about going out again. They had weapons, they knew they were stealthy, but with each trip they had to venture further and further. Each trip was more dangerous than the last. Plus, as time went on, the Dog-Things seemed to multiply, growing in population exponentially. It was all setting up to be a very bad time.

"What if we had another base? Or, like, a bunch? If we're going to be here for the long haul, then we're going to need somewhere to escape to quickly if things take a turn for the worst." Steve, himself, was reclined against one of the desks, tossing a ball into the air.

Robin was nearby, fiddling with a Rubik's cube.

"It could work," Robin agreed. "Where were you holed up before you came to the station?"

"Back at my house," he said. "The basement, mainly. I already raided the other rich-bitch houses, they didn't have much in way of useful stuff. Mainly water bottles."

That was something to get used to, the way Steve talked about his own tax-bracket (or, as Steve continually reminds her, his parents tax-bracket). Resentment boiling under remarks that were just dripping with implications.

"We could probably make a base my house. There's some good scavenging nearby, plenty of houses with plenty of cans of food," she offered. "The windows are smaller, too."

"I'm down if you are," Steve said. "Another base, safer exploration, so on."

Robin stood from her spot and set down the Rubik's cube in it's designated spot, then grabbed two hefty backpacks.

"We'll bring the basics for now, just start with what we need, then we'll gather everything else from mine and the neighboring houses. Yeah?"

"Yeah."

They worked quickly but not quietly. They threw out barbs and jabs as they packed their bags. Robin stopped for a few minutes to explain the book she was in the middle of reading and the implications of the world the author built, then stopped and redirected to make fun of Steve's dating history.

By the time they were ready to go they both looked a little bit insane. Covered with "just in case" armor, the two of them looked like they were getting ready for Halloween in cheap, half-hearted police costumes. Armed with homemade weapons, they were ready to fight those Dog-Things or get their asses kicked and run away with their tails between their legs, but not die. Death wasn't an option.

They didn't really expect to kill anything that day. They were going for stealth and avoiding an altercation at all costs, only packing things for worst case scenarios. They had weapons "just in case" and armor because they couldn't let go of "what if", and on and on, but they didn't really expect to need it. They didn't want to need.

But then they got found by a pack of three Dog-Things and they kind of really needed it.

It wasn't the largest pack they'd seen, some groups gathering up to over ten, but the three were still a lot for them. They won, but barely. Steve got his back scratched to shit and bit on the leg and Robin nearly lost her arm, but they won. Three dead Dog-Things piled on the street in front of them. It was disgusting, but…

"Think they got edible meat?" Steve asked.

"Ew!" Robin shouted, shushed aggressively by Steve. Quieter, she went on, "You cannot seriously be thinking about eating on of those things!"

"Think about it," he insisted. "Everything we've been eating has been mush we eat from a can. This is fresh meat. We cut off chunks of it and cook it, it could be better for us than whatever we've been eating."

"Could," Robin repeated. "It could be better. Or it could be highly poisonous and kill us in very slow, painful ways. I did not survive for as long as I have just to die from food poisoning."

"We're weak," Steve insisted. "Our diet isn't exactly encouraging a healthy body. We need more than we're getting, and the Dog-Things could be the answer."

Robin opened her mouth to argue more, but Steve cut her off before she could.

"One of these days we're going to be too weak to fight back against something and it's going to get us killed."

Robin's mouth snapped shut, and she sat there for a moment thinking it over, chewing on her words.

"Fine," she said finally. "But you're cooking it, and if it kills me, I'm going to be so pissed."

Steve agreed to the arrangement and they dragged a Dog-Thing the rest of the way to the Buckley house. They bandaged themselves to the best of their ability, which arguably wasn't the best, then Steve got to work.

Out back, under Robin's careful observation, Steve butchered the Dog-Thing with as much skill as he could muster, built a fire, and roasted the available meat (black and oozing continuously, no matter how long it'd been). It was clear that Steve tried his best to make it as appetizing as possible, but it was still meat from a monster butchered by someone who'd never butchered his own meat before.

"I can't believe you're making me do this," Robin griped. "This is disgusting."

"Just eat the damn dog," Steve shot back, then took a chunk out of his own steak… thing.

His face twisted in disgust, turning a tinge green, but he forced himself to chew and he forced himself to swallow. The whole thing was clearly a fight from beginning to end.

"Guh." He went as far as to stick his tongue out in disgust, like tasting their air around them would be any better than what he just put in his mouth. With as green as he looked, it probably was.

Robin waited for him to drop dead in front of her, and when he didn't, she looked back down at her own "steak". Either a slow acting poison or completely fine. If she had money to put down on it, she'd say slow acting poison. She didn't have to eat the meat. She could watch and wait to see if Steve got any adverse affects, and she could continue to survive even if Steve didn't because she did what any good scientist would do and ran a test, but…

She didn't really want to survive on her own again. She did it because she had to, but it was fucking miserable. With Steve she could laugh again. She could smile and joke and it was stiff at times, sure, and there were things they refused to talk about, but he was also her best friend and she didn't want to keep going if Steve didn't.

"If that kills you, you're not dying without me," she vowed. She took a bite.

It was, in a word, repulsive. Despite being stuck directly in the fire, it was still sludgy and slimy. It was chewy, and sickly sweet. It tasted like rot and mold, like the thing had been dead for months instead of just a few hours.

It took more self control than Robin even knew he had to swallow it. It took even more control to keep it down.

"God, that is rancid," Robin said, and Steve snorted a laugh.

"Yeah, it really is."

They both looked back down at the rest of the meat like death row inmates stared down the gallows. They both made sure there were no leftovers.

They didn't get back to work right away. Instead, Robin brought Steve to the basement and they laid down. Waiting. She took the couch and Steve took the far corner, as far away from any entrance as he could get, but still remaining close to Robin.

"Do you think we're fighting a losing battle here?" Robin asked, after hours of silence.

Steve rolled over, then pressed himself upward into a somewhat sitting position just to get a good look at her. She couldn't see his face, but she still knew he was giving her that searching expression, trying to read her face for… something.

"What?"

She didn't move from her spot sprawled on the couch. It was more comfortable than she was willing to admit for a mildew infested couch in the Dark Realm.

"I mean, this place is empty except for us and those things. The only human food is rancid and the meat we just ate is worse, and that's if it's even edible and isn't slowly working it's way through our systems to kill us. You said it yourself, we're getting weaker and weaker as time goes on. We're surviving, sure, but barely. At what point does our luck run out, you know? Do you think we're just extending our time before we die?"

Steve gave her a long look. "Isn't that what life is, though? Extending our time before we die?"

That wasn't what she was expecting him to say.

"I mean, it sucks here. The food's awful, so is the water. The air is wrong, there's those vines everywhere and we're constantly hiding from those things, but you know…" his tone went gooey and soft. "The company isn't awful."

She pushed herself over to look at him. The smile he was giving her was different than before. Softer. More real.

"Such high praise," she retorted drily. Something built in her chest that she couldn't identify. "You do have a point, though. The company isn't awful."

He smiled at her for a few more seconds then laid back down.

"Even if we are fighting a losing battle, I think it's worth it if it's with you," he said finally.

"Yeah," she agreed softly. She didn't say anything else and she fell asleep feeling uncomfortably sappy.

They stayed in the basement for what they estimated to be around 24 hours total. It wasn't an exact science, but they stayed until it was clear the food had traveled through them and they didn't die. They didn't get sick either. In fact, as much as Robin hated it, it was clear they felt just a tad bit better.

"I guess Dog-Thing Meat is a part of our diet now," Robin acquiesced. "I hope you're happy."

"I would say that I'm thrilled, but I'm really, really not."

They still stuck primarily to their canned food.

Next on their to-do list was to fortify the Buckley House and gather more weapons and more entertainment. They got a better feel of where the Dog-Things would be and when. They found a book on how to make traps and spent a good amount of time trying to DIY their own versions based on limited resources.

("Why does it look like that?" Steve asked.

"It looks exactly like the picture!" Robin defended. She shoved the book in his direction. "See!"

"No, that looks like a di-"

Robin screeched and threw the book at him before he could finish).

The traps, unsurprisingly, did not work. For about two weeks, they did try to capture a Dog-Thing without having to fight. They tried, but they things were too smart and the other Dogs in the pack would break them out before Steve and Robin even knew a trap had been released.

Instead, they moved on to tracking the Dog-Things movements to the best of their ability and jumping in on another group of Three and hoping they'd win the fight a second time. It was stupid and suicidal but it was their best bet, seeing as how they had never seen a single Dog-Thing go off on their own.

"We're idiots," Robin said.

"Complete dumbasses, yeah," Steve agreed.

Robin let out a deep sigh. Steve looked slightly less stupid than he had in their first rendition of their armored outfit, but not by much. The only skin showing was his face, and the rest was in the thickest layers of clothing they could manage. Robin looked much the same.

"Time to kill some dogs?" The confidence in her voice left much to be desired.

"Yeah." And Steve grinned at her, confident enough for the two of them. "Time to kill some dogs."

He gave her a firm pat on the shoulder, like slapping the shoulder of a teammate. Every inch of his body language said that he saw her like that: a teammate, a close friend, someone to rely on. She didn't hate it.

Whether it be through luck or skill, Robin and Steve's careful observation did eventually pay off, and they tracked down a trio of Dog-Things within the hour. Even better, they managed to sneak up on the things and with that upper hand they got out of the fight with three dead Dog-Things and only minimal injuries.

The Dog Steaks tasted just as rancid as the first time. For a few days after she ate it, Robin felt this itchiness underneath her skin and scared herself into a panic spiral so bad that Steve had to physically force her to lay down to get even close to calming. The itchiness didn't go away until she actually managed to get some sleep, which was the same time Robin came to the conclusion it was probably psychosomatic.

All around a net negative.

Still, she was more wary, the third time around. Especially when she got a headache out of the ordeal. Steve told her she was stressing too much and had her lay down again, but there was a tightness around his eyes, like he was more worried about it than he wanted to let on. Robin kind of hated that she could read that off of him. It would have felt better if she could fall for his care-free smile like she did before.

But her head was hurting worse and worse and Steve was scared.

The pain faded again, and Robin was feeling better than she had before. She didn't know if it was because she dipped so low that anything even close to normal felt like a gift, but she felt better and she didn't know what to think about it. Steve's shoulders stayed in a tense line, though. He spent more time just looking at her, like he was waiting for something. Robin couldn't figure out what it was, though.

During that time Steve opened up a bit more. The tone was wrong, though. She couldn't figure out why. A lot was going on that fell just outside of what made sense for Robin.

Still, she felt like she won something. Steve's trust felt like a reward and she didn't see it coming. He told her about his empty house and absent parents. He told her about friends who weren't really his friends that he only stayed with because they were there.

"They didn't look for me at all, did they?" he asked, what could have been late at night.

Robin spent some time wondering if it would be more cruel to lie to him and give him false hope or if it was more cruel to tell him the truth. Too long, by the end of it. The truth told itself, so to soften the blow she made sure it came from her.

"No."

He didn't look shocked in the slightest. He knew his life better than she did. He was smarter than even she gave him credit for. He figured it out on his own.

"Did they look for you?" He asked after a few seconds.

"For a little bit. Then some guys said I got mauled by a bear."

It wasn't funny. It wasn't funny at all, but they both laughed anyway. God, look at them, huh? The two people that no one would really look for.

"Does Hawkins even have any bears?" Steve asked, laughter still evident in his voice.

"No," Robin chuckled. "No they do not."

A few days later, Robin told him about her own parents.

They weren't bad parents, she insisted. They clearly cared about her, but they wanted her to be different than she was. They wanted her to be sweet and feminine and they wanted her to marry a good man and have kids and that wasn't what she wanted and she knew that, but they didn't really listen to what she wanted. They wanted a good life for her, but what they considered to be good wasn't for her.

He listened and he was surprisingly empathetic and understanding, though it really shouldn't come as so much of a shock for her.

It was late in the day (based on their estimates) and she was tired, and she was already feeling vulnerable, so when Steve asked what she did want, she told him about Tammy Thompson. Then, she waited. She waited for disgust. She waited for hatred and vitriol, but it never came.

"I mean, Tammy Thompson is cute and all, but… she's a total dud!" She got something else, instead.

Robin got more comfortable after that. Her biggest secret was out there and he didn't care. He barely batted an eye. After that first bout of confusion, he was whole-heartedly accepting. It was nice. It was beyond nice, really.

She didn't think she would ever get anything that nice, yet there she was. It didn't feel as big, either. They were in another dimension, hiding from monsters, sustaining themselves with the monster's meat, and just waiting for their time to die. Something as mundane as sexuality felt exactly that: mundane.

Reality broke through the high of the moment quickly.

"We don't have to eat it," Steve argued. "If it's hurting you, we can stop."

"It'll hurt us not to eat it, though," Robin shot back. "We'll just get weaker and weaker and eventually we won't be able to fight those things anymore."

Steve's lips pinched together but he didn't argue. "I don't like this."

"I don't like any of this," Robin agreed.

They ate the Steak. For the next few days, she laid in bed at their new base, trying desperately to fight the pain building in her gums, around her nails, and around her eyes. It burned. She knew the pain would fade, but that didn't make it any easier for either of them.

Steve took care of her throughout. He brought her food to make sure she ate. He brought her water to make sure she stayed hydrated. He sat vigil at her bedside, just waiting for some way to help. He constantly checked in on her pain levels to make sure it faded— and it did fade.

He didn't say it, but she was pretty sure that he was scared she was dying. He held her hand as often as he could. He kept his face pressed into the bed beside her even more. He looked a little bit like he was praying. In all honesty, he could have been.

The world looked different after. When she was practically blind with pain before, the world cleared into high-definition imagery. It was all so much more. She couldn't figure out how to describe it. It also looked brighter, like someone brought in extra lights while she was out.

"I feel better," she reported after managing to pry herself into a standing position. "It's gone."

Gone, but not quite. The Dog-Thing's were changing her and she wasn't quite sure she'd survive the change. Each time hurt more and more. If she kept eating the Dog-Steak it'd change her more. There were already differences, and eventually it would be too much. It didn't appear to be doing anything to Steve for whatever reason. Steve would survive. She wouldn't.

If she stopped the change, stopped eating Dog-Things, then Steve would, too. He'd get weak and eventually they'd both die. If she kept eating the Dog-Thing, then she'd probably die or be irreparably changed. Maybe she would turn into a Thing. Maybe that's where it came from originally. Someone got stuck in the Dark Realm and got changed so much they stopped being human. Maybe she would stop being human. Steve would live, though. He'd keep going.

It wasn't really a choice, was it?

The next time they had to eat the Dog Meat, she didn't even give Steve time to try to argue. It didn't even taste as bad that time. Something about the sweetness leveled out into something a little more pleasant, even as the rest of the taste remained just as revolting. Steve pinched his lips together and ate his steak without complaint.

Headache, itchiness under the skin, pain in the nails, the teeth, and the eyes. All of it combined to a fire that flowed through her veins. She told herself the pain would stop and she would be different but it wouldn't hurt and she would still be there for Steve, but it didn't help.

Steve stayed in the bed beside her the whole time. They didn't talk, and they didn't move, just laying in each other's company and holding hands. Steve felt cool to the touch and it was a balm on her burning flesh. It wasn't until the pain was fading again that she realized how odd it was that Steve didn't move at all.

Steve only got up when absolutely necessary. He made sure they ate and took care of their needs, but he was quiet and his expression was pained the whole time. When her mind cleared enough, it didn't take long for her to put the pieces together.

"I'm not the only one who's affected," Robin said. A statement.

"No." He didn't try to argue, or even seem all that surprised.

She let out a sigh and slumped further into the bed beneath her. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Would it have changed anything?"

Robin scoffed. "We would've stopped eating the stuff!"

"No." He left no room for argument. "It's not killing us, it's… making us different. You can see better, too, can't you?"

"I can, but…"

"And things taste different," Steve went on, not giving her time to argue. "It's either change or get too weak to do anything. I'll take change."

He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, then squeezed. Just once.

"It hurts and it's miserable, but eventually, there'll be nothing left to change and either it'll kill us or it won't. Either way, it's better than just giving up and dying."

Robin didn't respond. She got up and she walked away. Steve didn't follow her. The next day, they didn't mention it again. A week later, they went on their usual hunt and they ate their Dog Steak like nothing was different.

That night, the pain in her teeth ramped up to an all time high. She nearly collapsed on the floor and only barely managed to drag herself to lay on the couch in the Wheeler house.

"I hate this," she muttered.

Steve merely hummed in response, very clearly working extra hard not to prod at his gums. The way he'd been prodding at them almost nonstop for hours.

"I-" Steve started. His face twisted sharply, then his eyes widened.

"Fuck!" Steve jolted forward, his hand flying to his face and his expression twisted further into undeniable pain territory.

"Steve?"

He didn't respond.

"Steve?" Robin tried again.

Slowly— so, so slowly— Steve lifted his head and pulled his hand away from his face. Blood. It was way too much blood. It covered his hand and dripped from his mouth. He let his jaw drop open and there in his mouth, covered in red, red, red, there were two more teeth.

Fangs. Steve had fangs sitting in his mouth. If it weren't for the copious amount of blood all over him, she'd even say they were harmless. Sharp, sure, but they were just… there.

Then, pain burst forward in her own mouth. It was so much worse than Steve made it sound. A low level burning turned into sharp stabbing in her gums. Pain turned to PAIN. She couldn't even curse, she just let out a loud string of unintelligible sounds, then grabbed her face as if squeezing her jaw would fix it.

Copper. Warm liquid copper filled her mouth and it was disgusting. She wanted it out, but if she spit it out then she'd have blood all over her hands and that would be so much worse and she hated it. She hated the taste and the thicker-than-water texture. She swallowed it the way she would swallow cold medicine.

Teeth. Two more teeth, sharp and definitely not harmless pushed themselves out of the new holes in her gums and made their place beside her canines. Two more teeth just… there. In her mouth.

"Eugh," she said.

"Eughhh," Steve agreed.

It still hurt, but it was lessening by the second. She swallowed a few more times just to get the remnants of blood out of her mouth (thankfully, her gums stopped bleeding quickly), then she just sat there, letting herself feel the fangs (fucking fangs) in her mouth.

"Think we'll have a lisp?" Steve asked, lightly lisping. "Great."

Robin wanted to laugh at him, but she knew the second she said a single word, she would also be lisping. Knowing her luck, her lisp would be even stronger than his.

She kept poking at it with her tongue. She wished they would go away. She didn't need fangs. Especially in that moment. They were sitting alone in the base in the very center with no windows. They were not in need of any intimidation factor or mouth weapons. Fangs were just unnecessary.

Slowly, the fang got shorter. Or, no. The fang didn't get shorter, they eased their way back into her gums. After a few seconds of very focused thinking, they were hidden completely. The only signs that they were there were the light bump where they were stowed away.

"Fixed it," she said.

Steve gave her a disbelieving look. "Fixed it?"

"Just, like, will them away."

"Helpful."

Steve focused for a few minutes, then worked his jaw. "I'm getting real sick of this shit," was all he had to say about that.

They went back to their regularly scheduled program after that. Neither of them mentioned the way they would sometimes bring out the fangs to practice speaking with them. The lisp vanished pretty quickly after that.

They felt really good, too. In the basement of the Wheeler house, they even found reading material for a game. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

They spent a bit of time just scanning through the rules and all the combined information. They had more fun doing a dramatic reading of the thing than they did trying to make a campaign happen, so the book was quickly stashed.

Robin also got Steve to start reading the books in one of the bedrooms. Nancy Wheeler's Bedroom. They could hear her talking to someone. They didn't stick around long enough to hear who she was talking to. Steve had trouble with the words, but it was clear he was trying. It made her think of class, funnily enough. She hadn't thought about school in so long, but she thought of it then. She watched him with the book in his grip, eyebrows pinched together, as he tried to force the words into his brain.

It was that same look he had in Mrs. Click's history class. The one that made Robin think he was so stupid, before. It was weird, seeing him that way. Two different pictures of the same person. It was all so weird.

They worked through the easier stuff and worked their way up. She asked him questions to test his comprehension and pushed him to give his opinions even if they differed from hers. They discussed and she made sure to only razz on him a little bit to make sure he knew she didn't think less of him.

He knew. She didn't know how she knew that, but he knew.

Steve

Bored was not exactly an emotion he ever expected to associate with living in a Hell Dimension attached to Hawkins, but it started happening more and more frequently as time went on. An itch beneath the skin to just do something that was harder and harder to ignore.

He hated it.

He wasn't stupid enough to complain about it, either. Well, not out loud. But in the back of his mind, when things were completely silent, he kind of wished something would happen. He got the feeling that Robin wanted something to happen, too.

It was a random day when he brought it up.

"We should patrol," he said. "Just to make sure none of those things get too close to our base, you know?"

If Steve had expected any argument, he really shouldn't have. She was up and getting ready the second the suggestion was out of his mouth and they were out of the base not even ten minutes later. Steve didn't mention it, not when they were cautiously making their way through the Dark Realm, not when they were killing a few of those Dog-Things, not when they were cleaning up afterwards, but it felt good.

It felt good to kill those things. The rush of adrenaline, the feeling of power pouring through his veins. It felt so, so good.

So, they did it again. And again. And again. Just under the guise of going on patrol. They stretched their reach through the Dark Realm and they kept eating the Dog-Things and they kept changing. They got stronger and faster. The meat stopped tasting so rancid and started to even taste somewhat okay. Not good, but palatable.

The cold stopped feeling so cold.

They felt surprisingly good, actually. After barely getting by, they felt like they were living instead of surviving.

When they gave up the charade of pretending it was just for patrol, Robin introduced the "You Rule" board. A tracker of who managed to take out what, when. They tied more often than not, but when one of them pulled ahead, it gave them bragging rights for days.

They got used to hunkering down every time they ate some of the dog. Though the impacts that were made shrank each time, it still made them feel better to know they were even more protected when in such a vulnerable state. It was around their fourteenth tie that "surprisingly good" turned to "completely awful" in a heartbeat.

The pain burned through them in ways that they'd never experienced before. No part of them didn't ache or burn as the days passed in a blur. They didn't move from their beds, didn't eat, and they didn't sleep. Their beds, just across the room from each other, gave them ample viewing of each others' rather terrible states.

They didn't talk to each other much. It hurt too much to speak. They just watched, resigned, as the other threw up nothing but stomach acid and cried tears of blood and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. They could feel things within them changing, turning to something else. Nails turned to retractable claws, vocal cords shifted ever so slightly to the left to let them growl and chitter, making inhuman noises as naturally as breathing. Their eyes were just different. When the burning stopped and the blood stopped crusting their eyelids closed, they could see so much more.

The dark didn't bother them like it used to.

Right as the pain seemed to ease in Steve's everywhere, a headache exploded behind his eyes and he laid back and waited. He was either going to die or he was going to survive, which seemed to be the pattern. There was no point in changing so much just to die the last second. He would live and so would Robin and they would be different but alive and that's all they needed. They just needed to live.

The pain wore on and burned through him, and then he could feel pieces of himself stretch. Pushed beyond his own edges, he suddenly became aware that there even were edges to his self, to his soul. He became more, and he met Robin somewhere in the middle of them.

Steve and Robin became an us.

Their minds didn't quite become one, but they weren't quite two either. They were something else. Robin's mind formed the image of a cell either splitting in two or fusing into one. An in-between state.

They didn't die. Just like Steve knew they wouldn't.

The aches in their muscles faded into a distant memory and they peeled themselves out of bed. They stumbled through some sort of routine, though it wasn't any sort of hurt that put them on pause. Instead, the thoughts of the other played in the backgrounds of their minds, constantly getting too loud to be ignored. Sometimes, they'd lose focus and peer through each others' eyes. They'd slip and swap and it was just too much.

"This might be worse, actually," Robin admitted a few hours later, pressed against the wall, eyes pressed shut.

Steve didn't answer. He didn't know what to say. There was a sort of relief there, knowing they already spilled their guts to each other. Less to accidentally read from each others' minds. Less topics that they had to purposefully not think about.

For a while, they stopped with the patrols and the hunting and they stuck to the canned food and bottled water to keep going. They didn't leave the base to make sure they figured everything out. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. It was a learning curve of sticking to their own side of the wall. It sucked and it was miserable and even worse? It was kind of amazing, too. It was impossible to really feel alone, because they never were. Privacy became a thing of the past and they knew way too much about each other and they saw things in each others' memories they never wanted to see, but…

They saw each other. Warts and all, they saw each other, and it was impossible not to love what they saw.

Platonic soulmates, Robin hummed from her side of the bond while they each fiddled with their own activities. Soul bound best friends.

I like that.

'Course you do, Dingus. It's 'cause I'm a genius.

When they got comfortable enough, they went back out. New strength, new reflexes, new senses, they were itching to try it out and with how everything went with maybe-possibly-almost-dying-but-not, they were a little more willing to tango with danger.

On that outing, Steve tore the head off a Dog-Thing and Robin kicked another one so hard it's ribs caved in. The third Dog-Thing turned and ran in the other direction. They carried their two kills to the nearest base and carefully butchered and cooked the meat.

It tasted good. Not just tolerable or palatable, but it actually tasted good, if a bit overcooked.

I'm not eating it raw. Robin cut in. "Absolutely not."

"You were thinking it, too," Steve argued. "Maybe it's just something about our new… everything. We eat meat raw, now."

"Ew!" Robin shouted. "Ew, no! I'm not some animal!"

It panged in his chest when she said that.

"I didn't say that," Steve said quickly. "We're not— We're not. We just…"

He dug through his brain for something to say, but came up empty.

"We're human," Steve insisted after a long moment. "We are still human."

Robin nodded. "Of course," she said. "We're still human. Just a little different."

Comforting someone who could easily see into your brain was a little difficult. He could see her uncertainty as clear as if it was his own. He could feel her doubt in it. Because they were still human, right? They stood and walked and talked and cooked and no other species did that, but…

But they had claws and fangs and they could hear each others' heartbeats and they could smell spilled blood from those Things out in the woods, and they could tear heads clean from bodies and they'd never heard of another human being capable of doing those things.

Well, no other human being bar each other.

Bar Steve and bar Robin. Through either delusion or sheer force of will, Steve and Robin would cling to their humanity because if they didn't… they had no idea what they'd do if they didn't. So they would do it.

Time remained just as weird in the Dark Realm.

They still followed their same routine. They read books, found different combinations of meals to taste as appetizing as possible. They found board games and played card games and Robin spent a good amount of effort teaching Steve what she knew of different languages.

Boredom crept back up on them. They were cooped up. Even with their constant hunting parties and their expansion into other bases, they were somehow still getting bored. They didn't, however, explore. So, one day, with no verbal discussion, Robin and Steve packed up and headed out. Not for food or to kill anything, but for the simple desire of exploration. Input. Something new. Oh how far they came from when they first arrived in the Dark Realm.

They had two possible goals in mind. One: They find something new. Anything new, really. Something to tell them more about their environment. Two: Find something to do.

While they didn't find something to do, they still found something new.

During their casual meandering, they found a group of Dog-Things. A big group. They didn't run away. They didn't run into a fight. They strayed a ways away and followed. And followed. And followed some more.

What they found were tunnels. Well, what looked like tunnels, running through the Dark Realm. Fun! With the size of the pack of Dog-Things going in, they made the executive decision to avoid all of it like the plague, or unless they decided to commit suicide by mauling.

They were good, but they weren't that good.

Still, they made a mental note of the tunnels. They wondered, not for the first time, how many creatures were living there with them. How many Dog-Things scattered through the fake version of Hawkins? How big were those tunnels?

The fight broke out about halfway though their little trek. It would be a bit of a mislead to say it was a surprise. They heard the Dog-Things as they approached, they just let things play out.

The fight didn't last long and they were almost disappointed.

Two dogs attacked each of them. They let their minds go blank, standing back to back as they tore through the small group of them (and since when did they consider four Dog-Things a small group?). It felt good, though. It felt good to feel bones snap under their strength, to kill and to tear through flesh. They carried two of the dogs back to the closest base.

The meat tasted even better that night. Neither of them mentioned the fact that they were eating it raw. There was a lot the didn't talk about.

They went Dog Hunting even more than they had before. The "You Rule" board got bigger as they each earned more points. They learned more about their… extra-human features. Their pupils turned to slits and their eyes reflected light like a sharks. They could see in the dark. They could heal much faster than they used to. Their blood didn't quite look right, though. A bit too dark, tinged with something else.

But they were fine. They made even more bases, they passed the time. They came up with new competitions and filled the empty space. Time passed and they got older and they forgot what their families looked like, what they sounded like. They forgot about their friends in class and what they did in their free time Before. They forgot a lot, actually.

It made it easier to get comfortable in the Dark Realm. It made it so when the world shuddered and something closed that they didn't know what's open, they weren't all too upset about it. A while later, they went back to see the tunnels again and they were gone.

The Gate was closed and they didn't bother to ask why they felt something was missing. They just moved on. There was a lot of questions they never ended up asking, a lot left unsaid.

[Art by @ciriceart on tumblr | @__cirice on instagram] 

March, 1986 — Dustin

The story is… insane. A hivemind of two crafted because they ate Demodogs? That didn't make any sense, but with the way they behaved around each other, the way they talked and finished each others' sentences, it was possible. A sort of protection crafted from said hivemind? That should be impossible. The larger hivemind would be stronger, if it tried it would be able to take over, but maybe something else was at play.

"Why didn't you tell us right away that things were different?" Nancy asked, still not cracking.

"We were working on it," Steve shot back. "We would have when we sat down with everyone, but, well… things got a little chaotic, if you didn't notice."

Nancy pinched her lips together. "How are we supposed to know you aren't working with him?"

Robin shrugged. "I guess you don't."

The group watched Nancy think, as she visibly chewed on her thoughts. "The way he talked… he likes you two. That's undeniable."

Steve and Robin shivered, either at the look in Nancy's eye or what she was saying, it was unclear. Their expressions twisted, and seemingly subconsciously, they scooted closer together.

"For us that can be he likes you and has you as allies, or it could mean he likes you and will do whatever it takes to make you his allies, in whatever form that comes to mean." Nancy didn't sugarcoat it, and Steve and Robin's reactions were telling. They didn't like what Nancy was saying at all.

Two options of what to make of the Steve and Robin situation rose in Dustin's mind:

Option one: They were telling the truth. Somehow, they managed to slip out of Vecna's bubble of control and stay somewhat separate beings. In which case, they would be an invaluable help. They knew how the Upside Down worked inside and out, they had safe houses and could tear through the monsters like it was nothing. Their help would be monumental in killing Vecna, which they definitely would have an interest in doing, seeing as he was the number one threat to their safety.

On the other hand there was option two: They were spies. Either active spies or sleeper agents. If that was the case, then it was too dangerous to tell them anything because they could at any point turn on the group. Any information to get back to Vecna and then their plan would be ruined before it would be enacted.

The question was of worth. Was the risk of it all worth it? Was having Steve and Robin as allies worth the risk of helping Vecna?

He took a second to really look at the duo. Steve and Robin, Robin and Steve. He always trusted his own intuition about people. The Bard of the group, the one with any people skills. He usually got a good feel for whether to trust someone or not, and that sense told him that Steve and Robin were safe. It had never failed him before, so he decided to trust it again.

"Vecna can't hurt you if he's dead," Dustin reasoned, trying to provide at least a little bit of comfort. "So we just have to kill him and we're all home free!"

"Oh, we just have to kill him? That's all?" Eddie half-mocked, half-demanded, something a bit hysterical in his voice.

"Yeah, what's your plan, then, genius?" Robin probed. Steve leaned towards Dustin in interest. It was odd, looking at them. The two headed beast. Something about them was the same and something about them was so very different.

"We have to go back," Nancy said. "We know where he is and we need to get him before he get open another gate."

Robin didn't fold under the weight of Nancy's stare. "What's the plan? We can't just go trudging through the Dark Realm for this Vecna guy. In all our time there, we've never encountered the guy and from what you've said he's powerful. We can't just off him with the power of friendship."

"No," Dustin agreed. "We have to do something else. Luckily for us, we know more about him than we did before and we can use that to our advantage."

"We know he's like El," Lucas agreed.

"Exactly!" Dustin pointed at Lucas, to emphasize his tone, "Which means he has the same strengths."

"And the same weaknesses," Max finished.

"We know that when El goes into her Void she goes into a trance, leaving her physically vulnerable which means that we can attack when he goes into his trance."

"Vulnerable, yeah, sure, except for the army of bats, dogs, and those other things that he has at his disposal! Did you forget about those?" Steve argued.

"So we need a distraction," Dustin added on. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Okay, even if that works, we don't know when Vecna is going to attack next," Robin reasoned.

"Yes," Max said. "We do."

"No," Lucas didn't give her even a second to explain her point. "Absolutely not."

"I can still feel him. I'm still marked. If I lose the headphones, we'll know exactly when to attack, so you make a distraction and a team goes in and kills the asshole."

"It's too dangerous," Lucas argued.

Max glared at him, not letting up. "Okay, do you have a better plan? We don't know who else will be attacked, if anyone else will be attacked, and music isn't going to work forever."

"There has to be something else," Lucas tried, but it was weaker.

"There isn't." Max didn't speak any softer or change her demeanor at all, but something was still different.

"So we have three pronged attack." Dustin refused to think about all the weight of their actions. The plan would work. It would. "The physical attackers, the distraction, and the bait."

He looked around the room at everyone available to them. "How far can you stretch your hivemind?"

"Why?" Robin asked instead of answering.

"If we separate you two, we'll have a more effective walkie talkie. One of you would be in the attacking team and the other will be in either team distraction or team bait. That way the other team can get a play by play of what is happening exactly."

"We haven't ever tested it. It's better to stick close together. Watch each others' backs," Steve said.

"If it's like the dogs, then the hivemind should be able to stretch pretty far," Dustin reasoned.

Steve and Robin leaned even closer to each other uncomfortably, mouths pinched as they most likely discussed in their heads.

"Maybe." They both spoke at the same time, seemingly unaware that they did it. Dustin didn't know how to visualize it. So much time, constantly hearing each others' thoughts, aware of one another in a way that should have been impossible. It was beyond awesome. It was terrifying, too.

"Well, even with the Wonder Twins separated, we're still going to need weapons," Eddie cut in. "Not everyone has knives attached to their hands."

"We have some weapons already," Steve argued. "We made them, and they worked completely fine."

"I don't trust the integrity of those," Eddie shot back. "No offense, but everything in that place looked like it was falling apart and they rely pretty heavily on the strength of the wielder. I was thinking of something with a bit more firepower."

Steve didn't back down. "How do you plan on getting that? What? Raid the police station?"

"Luckily for us, we aren't going to need to," Eddie grinned. Summoned from God Knows Where, he put down a newspaper advertising the War Zone on the coffee table.

"Check this out. The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh… well, killing things, basically."

"You think fake Rambo has enough guns, there?" Robin asked. "Is that a grenade? I mean, how is any of this legal?"

"Well, lucky for us, it is, so… This… this place is just far enough outside Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of the main roads we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks." Eddie gave the room a tight smile.

"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone." Erica's voice gave little room for argument, but in the room was Nancy Wheeler who argued even when given no room at all to do it.

"Normally, I'd agree, but we need the weapons. So I think it's worth the risk," she said.

Lucas nodded his agreement. "Me too."

Dustin didn't spent too much time looking at the weapons offered, instead he eyed the address listed.

"Is it worth the time?" he objected. "It'll take all day to bike there and back."

"Who said anything about bikes?" Eddie asked. He had that look in his eye, the one he always wore when he was idly fiddling with a monster he was about to unleash on the party in his free hand. The one when he was about to change the board permanently.

Steve leaned towards Eddie's space and raised an eyebrow. "You got a car we don't know about?"

"It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine, but, uh…." Eddie shrugged, "It'll do."

Steve

The entire thing was so, so weird. It was even weirder how weird it was. Everything was normal and that's what was so odd. They were back, riding in a stolen Winnebago, looking out the windows and watching the passing trees and it was all real. The trees were alive and green, the air was clean, and it was all so normal.

It wasn't supposed to be like that.

Robin was just as uncomfortable with it all as he was. She didn't leave his side, and if she tried he was pretty sure he would lose every shit he had. One plus side was that the rest of the group seemed to know they needed space and they all dutifully gave them plenty of t.

The ride wasn't exactly silent, but they tuned it all out in favor of just watching. Waiting. The shoe had to drop eventually, and they wouldn't be caught off guard when it did.

They stayed in the Winnebago at the War Zone. There were a few notable reasons for that, extending beyond the fact that they were supposed to both be dead and/or missing. Nancy didn't explain and they didn't press.

Nancy went in, along with Erica and Max. Not exactly the group you'd expect to go in, but it was better than nothing, which was their only other option.

They did manage to get their supplies and they left in a hurry. Nancy cited something about Jason Carver, which was a name that Steve only vaguely remembered. Recognition as opposed to any recollection.

They found themselves in an open field crafting Molotov cocktails and homemade spears and sawing off the ends of shotguns. It was a beautiful field, too. Lush and green and just the right amount of warm. Steve spent a little bit too long just taking it in, breathing the fresh air, enjoying the soft breeze. Robin didn't call him out on it, and he didn't call her out on it when she did the same thing.

Eddie and Dustin rough housed nearby, Erica and Lucas bowed their heads in discussion and Max helped Nancy with the shotgun and it was strangely peaceful and Steve kind of wanted it to never end. It was just so nice.

Robin bumped their shoulders together in agreement, then stuffed another rag into another bottle.

"It won't always be like this," Steve muttered.

Robin hummed, nodding.

"We could go back. Not like anyone will miss us. We can go back and it'd just be us again. I know if we ask for it, they'd probably bring us some new books and stuff so we have more to work through."

It was a thought that he knew she already had. Multiple times, in fact. She'd tried to squirrel it away each time it popped up, but it was heavy. It was a thought that Steve had just as much as she did. He didn't really want to come back. He wanted food and showers and more forms of entertainment. He wanted a warmer bed and a cleaner world but he didn't want the rest of it. He didn't want his parents or dating or the popularity contests.

"I don't want it, either," Robin said, as quiet as possible so as not to be overheard. "Beside that, we might not have a choice. We're different, now. If we are on this side when the Gates close, it could be seriously bad."

Steve pressed his lips together.

"Yeah," he said. "That, too."

Steve let his attention drift back to the field they were at, lush and warm and so, so nice. He let himself hope that they'd go back there before anything final was decided. He pictured laying down in the grass and watching the sky get darker and darker. He imagined stargazing. He'd never went stargazing before, but he figured it'd be nice.

Robin hummed her agreement in the back of his mind. She pushed forward images of a picnic under the stars. He let the picture warm him. They'd do it. They'd have a nice night, and they would be okay. They kept going because they'd be okay.

They finished their work, and the others finished with theirs and they gathered in the RV.

"Team Distraction, Team Bait, and Team Flambe," Dustin started. "I think our best bet is if Steve and Robin are split up, one with Team Flambe and one with Team Bait. As long as their bond can stretch, then we're all good there."

"But what if they turn on us?" Nancy argued.

"Then we shoot them in the face, problem solved." He said it like it was nothing. It made Steve wonder. It was none of his business, but he did wonder.

Nancy didn't look happy with that. Steve couldn't blame her for it.

"Look, it's either we risk it or we're down two people and we're stretched thin enough as is," Dustin pushed. "They've shown no signs of any desire to do anything except survive and I have a good feeling about them. I don't care if you trust them, I just need you to trust me."

Nancy's jaw worked, hard. She kept her arms crossed over her chest and she barely moved, then she nodded. "Fine. I want Robin with me to take out Vecna."

"Then Steve and I can be bait," Eddie jumped in. He dropped an arm on Steve's shoulder casually, but there was a tenseness in his muscles. He was scared.

"That leaves Lucas, Dustin, Erica, and Max," Nancy said. "Max draws Vecna into her mind, Erica signals for timing, Dustin watches Erica, Lucas watches Max."

The kids argued. (They were freshman in high school, practically babies. Never mind the fact that neither Steve nor Robin ever got to even graduate). The argument didn't start coherent and it didn't get any more coherent as it grew. Louder and louder, the voices gained on each other as each of the children tried to be heard over the others and the world was already so loud and it hurt so much. For the first time in years, Steve brought his fingers to his lips and let out the most ear-piercing whistle he could physically manage.

The entire RV went dead silent.

"Are we done acting like animals now? Did we get it all out of our systems?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Good. Now, if you'd just asked instead of arguing like children, we'd tell you it's because we need to keep the groups small in the Dark Realm—"

"Upside Down," Dustin interrupted.

"Which one of us lived there?" Steve shot back with zero hesitation.

Dustin looked down uncomfortably, so Steve went on.

"We have to keep the teams small and quiet and we keep only the necessary members. This Vecna guy will be in a trance, so he won't exactly be difficult to fight from that angle and me and Eddie won't be going in for a fight. We're trying to draw everything in the Dark Realm to us, even if we had all of us doing just that, we'd still lose that fight."

"Listen to the Dark Realm expert on this," Eddie piped up.

"It's the Upside Down," Dustin said again, but he sounded much more whiny.

"No way, dude. They lived there, they get to name it. Besides, the Dark Realm sounds metal as hell." Eddie sent a wink in Steve's direction as if he was the one to pick it when it was absolutely Robin.

(He even nudged her to bring it up, but she quickly shut it down with a very strong opinion that they let that one lie, for whatever reason. She refused to say why).

Steve was honestly surprised that Nancy let him go on the tirade, and that she didn't jump in when it was over. She just watched. When it was clear that the kids couldn't come up with a suitable enough argument and they didn't say anything else, she nodded.

"None of it works if Steve and Robin can't communicate over distances, though, and we'll have to do something else!" Dustin threw it out as a Hail Mary, and Steve knew it. Before, the kid definitely would have wanted them to be able to do it. It was clear the kid thought the idea of telepathic communication was awesome. After the plan was unfolded, he definitely wanted it to be impossible over long distances so he had an argument for going to the Dark Realm.

"We'll have to test it," Nancy agreed.

"Okay," Robin replied cheerfully. She stood up and walked out. Steve followed at her heel and he could feel the others right behind them. Robin walked out to the center of the field when she turned back to him.

"I will walk in that direction," she pointed randomly, "and I will stop when I can't hear you or feel you anymore. Okay?"

Steve didn't like it. Robin didn't like it either, no matter how she was acting. It was only because Robin didn't like it either that Steve even agreed.

"Okay."

They didn't listen to anyone else, and she turned and walked away. The group stood in the field, quiet for a lot longer than Steve thought they were even capable of before Dustin started his questions.

"What does it feel like? Is it getting quieter or does it feel like a stretching? Can you feel it at all? Is it different?"

"Feels about the same, but I can tell she's getting further. She's running now, by the way. The air tastes good, like tree sap and fresh dirt and whatever chemical makes plants green."

"Can you taste what she does?" Dustin sounded like he thought Steve and Robin were the coolest people in the world.

"Not technically. It's like remembering what something tastes or smells like, not actually feeling it."

Dustin nodded emphatically, taking the information in with a crystal clear focus.

"How fast is she running?" Eddie asked. He stood closer to Steve than even Dustin did.

Steve gave Eddie a sharp grin then answered simply, "Fast."

Fifteen minutes later, with Robin on the other side of Hawkins, the answer became conclusive: the bond held.

Steve and Robin didn't manage to get in any showers before they had to split for the plan to work. They tried, they tried very hard, but it just didn't pan out the way they wanted. So, no shower. Of everything to focus on when they were on their way back to the Dark Realm felt ridiculous, but he couldn't get the thought out of his head. Water was too scarce to even consider using it as a form of hygiene.

Steve would have given anything for a hot shower, but they had bigger things to be doing so they had to skip it.

("Trust me, man, we all want you to be able to shower. All of us," was Eddie's helpful addition to Steve's complaining).

At the Creel House, the youngest members of the group gave a halfhearted argument one last time before they scattered to their positions and Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie could head on their way.

"Good luck kicking his ass," Steve told them. Robin gave him a tight hug and tugged even harder on the bond. They would win and they'd be okay and they would both have long, long showers. They would be okay.

"Not going to need it," Robin muttered softly into the hug.

"Still, it's good to have."

Eddie and Nancy were watching them, clearly unsure of what point it became acceptable to intervene. Steve and Robin split before they would have to.

Eddie gave Nancy and Robin a smile. "Give him hell."

Robin nodded seriously, and Nancy gave her spiel about sticking to the plan.

"No changes, no variations."

Eventually, it was just Steve and Eddie.

"I always wondered how to barricade a house in the case of an apocalypse. Why don't you show me how?" Eddie gestured widely to the trailer, and they got to work. So much to do with so little time.

The Dark Realm felt exactly like how they left it. Dark, moldy, damp. It welcomed Robin like she was coming home. The way to the Creel House wasn't exactly peaceful, but Robin knew her way well enough and was quiet enough to guide Nancy there without interruptions.

Nancy didn't trust her. Robin didn't blame her. She could feel something tense in the air. She'd never been aware of the way she could feel the Dark Realm, but after stepping away from it and having that sense go away, it increased tenfold. She hated it.

She didn't tell Nancy what she was feeling. There was no specific reason for it, nothing for her to point at and say "there, right there," but she wasn't exactly calm and complacent with everything. She kept an eye and an ear out, and didn't let Steve fade from the front of her attention for too long. At the first sign of real trouble, they'd both be aware of it.

The music started playing right on time, a chord ripping through the stale silence of the Dark Realm. The Bat-Things peeled themselves away from the Creel House and fluttered off towards the trailer park. A bit further away, Robin could hear a pack of Dog-Things making their way over as well. Steve acknowledged her warning, but didn't say anything else. She could still feel how he split his attention between the hoard of monsters coming for him and Eddie, and what she was doing.

They signaled Erica, waiting only a few seconds to receive the signal back before they were off again. Into the Creel house, up the stairs, dodging vines at every step. Careful as careful could be. They touched nothing and nothing touched them.

Panic flashed from Steve's end of the bond. He'd finally caught sight of the hoards of monsters, all making their way to the Munson Trailer. For just a split second, barely any time at all, Robin's attention got dragged away. It was a lot. Eddie shredded on the guitar and he didn't look, but it was all Steve could do. Things of all sorts came from all around. Hoards of Bats, packs of Dogs, and a smattering of the Big Things, all with one goal.

Robin's foot barely brushed the vine, but it was enough to get the whole house to wake up. The nearest one jumped out and pulled, wrapping around her limbs as quickly as possible. Squeezing and squeezing. To Nancy's credit, no matter how distrustful she'd been, she still jumped to help. She fought the vines, hacking at them with her axe and tearing through them with as much might as she could muster.

Robin fought, too. With all her strength, with all her available energy, she fought. It wasn't her best work, but it was better than nothing. She could feel the panic from Steve, bolstering her on more. She clouded out everything else and focused on the little bit of air she had left in her lungs, even as the vines tried to squeeze it out of her. She focused on Nancy across from her, just as pinned as her. She focused on survival, because she swore that they would both be okay. She swore it, so it had to be true.

The vines let go and there was no discernible reason why. She didn't argue, and she didn't hesitate. Neither did Nancy. They were up the stairs and the first Molotov cocktail was lit and flying through the air as quickly as she could manage. Then the next, and the next. Nancy readied her shotgun and unleashed.

Vecna woke up. Nancy didn't stop.

Blast after blast, straight into Vecna's chest. Distantly, in a disconnected sort of way, she could feel a tugging from something else in her mind. Something Not Steve, something rotten and bad, but then Nancy hit him with another blast and it flickered and cut again.

Nancy stepped forward, Vecna stumbled back. A step forward, another few feet back. Finally, with a few more stumbling steps, Vecna fell through the window and wall and landed with a heavy thump on the ground below.

Not good enough.

Rage took over. Rage Robin didn't even know she could feel burned in her chest, carried on through Steve and echoing back at her. That fucker. That absolute bastard ruined everything. They were fine but then Vecna's monsters took them and took their lives from them, making them something else.

There was no active decision making in what she did, jumping after Vecna, letting herself drop to the ground below and tearing into him. Claws and teeth and snarls. First the arms, the legs, then finally the head. She shredded him to ribbons. She didn't pay attention to Nancy approach from ground level, watching from a distance. She didn't pay attention to the sounds of the Dark Realm around her. It was just her, Steve, and Vecna.

"He's dead," Nancy cut in, when Robin didn't stop.

"It's okay, you can stop, he's dead." Nancy's voice remained level and calm. "He can't hurt you. He's dead, you killed him."

Robin stopped in her tracks, heaving in lungfuls of air. She didn't look away from Vecna, smeared across the ground in front of her.

"He's dead," she repeated hollowly. "I killed him."

"You did." Nancy approached carefully, then placed a hand on Robin's shoulder. "You're going to be okay now. Let's head back."

"Okay, yeah. Yeah, okay. Let's do that." They turned and left Vecna to rot. The only thing Robin could bring herself to regret was how she could still feel the blood smeared on her hands. Luckily for her, she could see a nice, hot shower in her future. Everything would be okay.

She promised, after all.

Steve

Part of Steve, if he was being entirely honest with himself, didn't think that he would make it out of the Dark Realm. His insistence that they would be okay was just a comforting lie he told himself to make it easier to deal with, and he was so, so sure that he would have to make some dumb sacrifice at the last second to make sure the plan went well.

He almost did. When Eddie clearly got the same stupid idea in his head that a sacrifice play had to be made and he almost threw himself to the wolves to make sure things went right, Steve pulled him back. They got themselves to the other side of the gate and ran like their asses were on fire. Or, more accurately, Steve dragged Eddie through Hawkins until he couldn't hear the pissed off sounds of those Things anymore.

It had been a lot of them, too, all battering at the walls. It was only a matter of time before they got through. No more than a minute before they would have been swarmed, so they got the fuck out of there. Even as they were running, Steve could hear them dropping one by one. He could feel thin little threads connected to him somewhere in his chest snapping. A connection he never wanted and never asked for falling away one tiny cord at a time.

It felt wrong. It left something hollow in his chest. Something remained missing. It wasn't freedom, it was loss. He hated it.

It killed the question of if they could go back or if they were going to stay on Earth. Even if they went back, there would be nothing for them there. It wasn't a choice anymore. They would just die with everything else.

Two tethers remained, strong and heavy in the center of his chest. One tether pulled him towards the Dark Realm, to the land itself, the other pulled him to Robin. In the choice between one or the other, it wasn't a question at all. He gripped his connection to Robin tightly and ignored the way the other tried to call to him. It sounded like desperation. It sounded like home.

Over the walkies, they managed to get a basic story from Team Distraction. Max was injured and they were pinning everything on Jason Carver, because that guy and another Basketball Jerk came and attacked and it was easier to believe a human did it than to believe a monster from an alternate dimension did it. Max wasn't unscathed but she was alive. Dustin reported that Lucas had ran off to call an ambulance, so they didn't need any help there.

Steve, for his part, proudly regaled them with Robin's excellence. As he went into detail of how she made sure the bastard stayed dead, Robin sent over a mental image of the You Rule chart, with thousands of tallies under her name. She had been the one to cause the death of every creature in the Dark Realm, however indirectly. Steve didn't begrudge her that.

Dustin cut Steve off a few minutes later to announce the arrival of the ambulance.

"Good luck," Steve said. A long pause. "Over."

"Thanks, Steve. Over and out."

When Nancy and Robin met up with them, it was straight back to business.

"We should wait for you to make any public appearances until we can get in touch with Sam. He owes both of you everything we can wring from them. If he knows what's good for him, he'll help you get your lives back with interest. He's also going to be clearing your name, Eddie."

Steve wasn't sure what changed. Before, Nancy was looking at them like they were bombs seconds away from blowing. In that moment, she looked at them like they needed to be protected. A very quick switch from distrustful to loyal. Steve couldn't say he didn't like it.

"So where do we go for now?" Robin asked. Nancy turned to look at over and her expression softened.

Steve knew that expression. It'd been years, but it was impossible not to recognize what Nancy looked like when she liked someone.

"We'll keep you hidden. While it's in disrepair, our best bet would be to hide you at Hopper's cabin. It should still have running water for you to clean up in, and we'll bring you food. Okay?"

"How deep into disrepair are we talking?" Eddie asked. "I know these two have been hoofing it in Hell, but I do have some standards."

"It's our only option right now before your name gets cleared," Nancy argued. "Unless you want to spend a few days in the Hawkins PD lockup."

Eddie glared but didn't argue any further.

"I'll drive you to the cabin, then I'll meet up with the kids at the hospital."

Turned out, 'disrepair' was a kind way to phrase how the cabin was doing. Neither Steve nor Robin were willing to complain when there was running water. Besides, Eddie complained enough for the three of them. It was clear, though, that it was mostly theatrics.

Mainly, Eddie filled the time explaining what the two of them missed out on while in the Dark Realm. When it was just the three of them waiting for something to happen, Eddie told them about Tommy Hagan's fall from grace and Billy Hargrove and the Mall and everything and anything that came to mind. It should have been uncomfortable, but he just made things feel normal. He treated them like anyone else.

Later, Nancy dropped off some food and promised to keep them updated. She even stayed a few minutes to explain that Max would make a full recovery, and that Jason Carver was the one taking the blame for sure, and that Eddie's name was fully cleared.

"You can make your appearance if you want," Nancy offered.

Eddie didn't answer right away, instead giving Steve and Robin a long look. "Nah," he said. "I'll stick around a little longer. It's not so bad hoofing it with some Rangers."

Eventually, Nancy came back to let them know they were meeting back up with the team in California, including one girl with superpowers who would be shutting the gates. Permanently, Nancy made sure to promise.

"It's done," she said. "This time, it's finally done."

The California Crew, as Dustin called them, came back in a pizza van. There were heartfelt, teary reunions and hugs all around and Steve and Robin stood back and watched. It was a lot. It was loud and there were so many people and for some reason, both of them wanted to crawl into each others' skins to hide. It was too much for them to deal with. It was so much that they only barely noticed Will Byers' approach.

They could feel him. Standing so close, it became clear. It was faint. More of an echo of an echo, but they could feel him distantly connected to them. He looked at them, not like a puzzle or a scientific discovery or a horrible reminder of how bad things could truly be. He looked at them like they were the answer to his problems.

"How'd you do it?" Will asked.

Robin frowned. "Do what?"

"How'd you survive?"

The answer, while honest, wasn't pretty. Steve didn't know if the kid needed pretty, though. Based on how he was looking at them, he had a pretty good feeling that he needed the ugly truth. Robin agreed.

"I don't think either of us did," Steve said. "Not really."

Will nodded like he understood. He did. They didn't say anything else, but he didn't leave their side. Steve pulled Robin into his side, where she pressed her head into his neck. Will stood there and watched the proceedings with them. Eventually, the group came to the conclusion that Steve and Robin would be with El as the gates closed "just in case". Neither of them bothered to tell the group that there would be nothing to worry about.

Will gave both of them a long, hard look. He didn't say anything either.

"I want to go, too," Will cut in. "I need to see."

No one argued.

They went to Patrick's gate first. The youngest gate, the weakest. A boat floated in the center of Lover's Lake and the girl brought it back with just her mind. Steve, Robin, Will, and El climbed into the boat while the others stayed on the shore, watching. They didn't hurry to the center of the lake, either. Instead, they let the boat drift and sat in silence.

When they got right above the gate, they could feel it. The four of them stopped moving and stared down.

"How close do you need to be?" Robin asked. "Do you have to, like, swim down there?"

"No. Here is good." Jane/El looked down into the gate with a level of focus that was palpable. Power pulsed around her as she stared something down that only she could see. The power pressed on them from all sides, growing stronger and stronger. A droplet of blood poured from the girl's nose— no older than 15— then the power cut and something in Steve's chest gave way.

Steve's stomach swooped, his vision went fuzzy, and he tilted heavily before everything righted itself and he could stop himself from falling out of the boat entirely. Steve took a second to recover and came face to face with Robin who was struggling just as much as he was.

The tether to the Dark Realm was weaker, and he felt so, so much worse.

"That looked bad," Will commented.

"We're fine," Steve assured. "Just some backlash, nothing to worry about."

Robin nodded her agreement, but it didn't ease any of the tenseness in Will's expression. He didn't believe them, but they didn't need him to. They just needed him to stay quiet about it. He did.

Jane watched the two of them carefully, expression unreadable. She didn't say anything about it, either.

When they got back to the rest of the group, they got rushed off to the next gate. Fred's gate. A stronger gate, older. It felt wrong in that it felt way too right. It called to him, telling him to get closer. The tether pulled on him and the only thing that was keeping him in place was Robin's hand gripped tightly in his.

Robin felt it, too. It was why she was gripping Steve so tightly. A house of cards came to mind. Two flimsy playing cards holding each other up through sheer willpower alone.

They braced themselves that time. More ready for it. The gate shut slower, tether slowly eroding in their chests rather than snapping cleanly down the middle. The dizziness wasn't any easier to deal with, though. It hit them harder. The world vanished from beneath their feet and when they came to, the kids were huddled around them. The kids were afraid.

"We're okay. Just… just the backlash," Robin said.

"Backlash," Will muttered. "Right."

"We should take a break," Eddie cut in. "Jean Grey over there isn't looking so good and our Wonder Twins aren't doing any better. How about we all take a minute to let them recharge and we can get back at em tomorrow."

"No." It was Jane who spoke up. "I need to close the Gate. Now."

Jane gave Steve and Robin an all too knowing look.

"Everything will be okay." She spoke with gravity. She spoke like what she said was absolute truth. Even knowing what they knew, it eased some of their worries. They felt just a little bit better.

They went to the Munson trailer.

Will, Jane, Steve, and Robin stepped into the trailer and the Dark Realm screamed. It pulled and pulled and pulled and Steve found his feet moving without his say so, until he was standing right below the gate staring up into it. Robin stood right at his shoulder, staring with him.

He couldn't hear anything. Static filled his ears. His nerves fizzled as every sense focused on the gate.

Pain. Burning, tearing pain through his chest into his arms. All awareness beyond the burning in his chest vanished. In a strange, distant way, he felt himself fall to the floor. Sandpaper tore at the edges of his voice and only then did he realize he was screaming. Something in his chest pulled and pulled and pulled until it snapped and he was gone.

A warm breeze gently caressed Steve's face. Soft grass brushed up against his neck and the soft earth hugged him from below. The air smelled clean and fresh. A sigh slipped out without Steve's say so. He just felt so, so nice. It was jarring, but he couldn't keep a grip on that thought. Something was wrong, right? But, no… laying in that field enjoying the nice warm breeze, he felt so nice.

But something was missing and something was slipping away from him.

Steve took a deep breath and tried to focus. He smelled grass and wildflowers and the fresh dew and sleep tugged at the edges of his mind, but no. No, that was wrong. He just woke up he wasn't supposed to go to sleep, right? No, yeah. He took another deep breath, with his mouth. He ignored anything he smelled and he focused because something was wrong.

He was missing something. Something big.

Why was he there? Where was there? The field. The nice field on a nice day. He promised himself he would come back to the field and have a picnic. Right, yeah. With lemonade and blueberry pie and anything else that they'd missed since… since what? And who did he make the promise with?

Everything was heavy and it was pressing on his mind, smothering his thoughts. He just felt so nice, but that was wrong because he was missing something— no, he was missing someone. Someone was missing.

He reached out, and he felt something brush his hand. He grabbed on tightly and it gripped back. Another hand. The hand squeezed it's way through his grip, fingers folding into his. It was a familiar hand. He knew the cracks and crevices and calluses as well as he knew his own. He knew that hand it was Robin's hand. God, how in the world could he forget Robin?

He turned and there she was, laying beside him in the field. Yes. Yes, that was right. He was fading, though. The sleep that wasn't sleep tugged at him and he was so tired, but Robin was right there and they hadn't had their picnic yet. He gripped her hand harder and pulled her toward him. She pulled back just as hard and the exhaustion faded and the world got a little bit crisper.

He could feel her. Faintly, at the back of his mind. She was scared. She was tired. They were just somewhere else, she said without saying. They were somewhere bad but they weren't there anymore and that was worse. Why weren't they there anymore?

He tried to remember and pieces came back to him. Pain and fear and burning. A red glow. Someone else was there. Two someones.

The pieces slotted together slowly and the fuzziness faded. The gate. The Dark Realm. The Things. Eddie and Nancy and Dustin and Jane and Will and everyone else.

Steve blinked. The field disappeared completely. Steve and Robin were instead laying in a completely empty void. Shallow water stretched out in all directions and it was pitch black with an unnatural light emanating from everywhere and nowhere. It was warm. It was very, very nice.

He blinked again and the field was back.

[Art by @CorrodedHeartsClub on tumblr}

We need to get back, Robin said. We need to make sure.

Steve agreed but he didn't know how. The field was safe and it called to him, still. She pulled him away, tugging at something in his chest and he tugged with her. Away from the field and the safety and the warm breeze that smelled like grass and wildflowers. The field vanished and they were back in the void, then they blinked and they were on the floor of the Munson trailer, surrounded by worried faces.

The gate wasn't there anymore. The only sign that there was anything amiss was the thin crack in the center of the ceiling. They were alive and they felt better and the gates were closed.

The Dark Realm was gone for good.

As Steve pulled Robin into his side and stared up at where the gate once was. As he ignored everyone else in the room with a single-minded focus, he could only ask one question: what next?