Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Kas Eddie
Steve's POV
It has been five fucking months of absolute hell on earth, or at least hell on Hawkins, but finally the endgame was in sight.
Vecna was killed with extreme prejudice, the mindflayer was flayed (how's that for a taste of its own medicine) thanks to the help of the military (bout fucking time they did something), and most of the portals have been closed thanks to El.
They were actually on the last portal, a great rift in the ground in the forest surrounding Hawkins. The whole party was present despite heavy protests from the adults that the kids should stay behind, stay safe. But they deserved to see this ended, considering how much they had to grow up before their time due to Upside Down bullshit. They are least agreed to stay back, a group of soldiers surrounding them to keep them safe as another group protecting El moved in, getting closer to the portal.
They all lost something, Steve thought to himself. The kids lost their innocence, Joyce had lost her son for a bit, and her family permanently lost Bob, El had lost her whole childhood and her siblings, Max lost three months of her life in a coma (she woke up after Vecna was killed) and Eddie…. They had all lost Eddie.
It felt weird to so deeply mourn a man he'd barely known, but there had been something there. They had shared heated looks, kept being drawn close to one another, when Steve told him not to be a hero, it was because he wanted him safe. Wanted to see him later, wanted to work out his sudden sexuality crisis with Eddie.
But instead of finding him and Dustin safe and sound, they found Dustin crying over his body. Steve tried to revive him, but Eddie was already long gone at that point. And with the Upside Down beginning to heave and swell around them, all he could do was close Eddie's eyes and get back through the portal, back to a burning and split open Hawkins.
And now here they were. Beaten and worn down with loss, but finally able to see the end of the tunnel. Here he stood, alive and persevering, standing guard around El along with the other adults of the party and some military goons. Their group walked forward, about 100 yards from the portal before stopping to let El get started.
Everything went well at first, the portal was shrinking before their eyes, but as it got to the halfway point shit went down. Suddenly demobats flew through the portal, the majority of them diving down at the foremost group while a few went for the kids further back. Gunfire filled the air as the soldiers reacted, followed by screams as everyone panicked, but thankfully stood their ground.
Never one to favour guns, Steve pulled out his trusty nail studded bat and swung at anything that got too close. A quick glance back showed that El was still focused, the portal still closing. The demobats didn't seem to be going for the kill, more like they were a distraction.
Looking around Steve noticed some demodogs prowling close. They were sticking close to the ground, blending in to the deadened ground around the portal, Steve counted three and as he noticed them, they noticed him.
"Demodogs!" He shouted, getting the attention of Hopper and a military man.
Hopper charged forward with his sword, swinging at a dog that, while dodging his blade, didn't seem to be very interested in attacking. The military man had the same luck, shooting at the creature but, while some hits landed, didn't really slow the dog down.
Steve meanwhile focused on his own dog, but unlike the ones he encountered before, this one didn't attack him. Just moved away from his bat.
Too late Steve noticed that the dog was luring him away, he had separated from the group, gotten close to the portal, and that's when it struck. He didn't know what it was, couldn't get a close look before he was tackled to the ground. The last thought Steve had was that he was so dead, then what felt like a hand grabbed the side of his face, driving his head into the ground, and everything went dark.
Dustin's POV
Dustin was hunkered down with the rest of the kids, kept behind a protective wall of bodies, but he heard Steve call out. Not knowing what he yelled, Dustin stood up and searched for his brother.
He quickly spotted him driving back a demodogs with his bat. At first he felt proud, Steve was such a good protector after all, but then he saw Steve draw up short and realised at the same time, that Steve was too far away, too far removed from the safety of the group. But as Steve tried to move back, he was tackled by something.
Yelling in fear and rage, Dustin broke away from the protective circle and ran towards Steve, determined not to lose another friend, headless of everyone crying out for him.
Closing in, Dustin saw as the thing on top of Steve suddenly smacked the side of his head into the ground, causing Steve to go limp on the ground. Then it wrapped its arms around Steve's middle and started to lift him.
Then the figure lifted its head and brought Dustin up short.
From his place on the ground, Eddie looked back at him, smiling with dimples, but where teeth should have been were fangs. "Dustin~," He sang, "take care of my sheepies for me. I'll take care of this one." Then, giant black wings springing from his back, Eddie gave a great flap of his demobats looking wings and took off with Steve in his arms.
Before anyone could do anything, Eddie was through the greatly diminished portal, and the demobats and demodogs followed him in, bypassing Dustin completely.
"El stop! Don't close the portal, he took Steve." Dustin was hardly aware of the tears running down his face, he was just running towards El, prepared to make her stop if necessary.
But the soldiers stopped him, keeping him back even as one of them yelled back, "Are you crazy, she has to close them. This has to end. Your friend is as good as dead, just let it go."
Then they were flying through the air, thrown away by El as she rushed to hug him, hiding him close as she said, "It's okay, I stopped in time, it's small but I can make it bigger for Steve. We'll get him back, we will." El was crying as well, looking past him to where the portal once was.
Turning as well, Dustin could see that there was a small sliver of portal left, just a barely visible hint of red, smaller than the length of the baseball bat that was on the ground close by. Nothing big could get through, certainly not Steve, but with El still speaking in his ear he held onto the hope that she could widen it. Friends don't lie afterall.
The world came rushing back and Dustin started crying in earnest, but his friends were there, having taken longer to break free of the soldiers, but now they were here and they all spoke at once. They would not lose Steve, they would not lose another person to the Upside Down.
They would get him back, and then, they would save Eddie.