"can you believe it happens? now it happens here."

★・・・・・・★

"Please," Amber softly said. "I wouldn't do that! If I knew, I would've saved you!"

"But you couldn't."

Brenner.

"You couldn't save them. Any of them. But now it is time. Time for your last lesson."

"Please. No. No."

"I think you should follow me," he spoke, starting to walk away. Amber tried walking the different way but got stopped by two men. The men who took her that day.

"You should follow him," they spoke in unison. They turned her around and pushed her forward, her falling on her stomach.

She slowly got up, groaning as she did so. She looked around, seeing that the atmosphere wasn't dark anymore and the vines weren't there.

The atmosphere was red.

It looked like what Max had drawn just a few days earlier. Was she Vecna's next victim? Was she Max's replacement? Her thoughts got interrupted by a loud stomp.

"Amber..." he spoke. She turned around and got faced with him.

Vecna.

"You've done well," he complimented. "You've done so well."

"W... What?" she questioned. "What have I done well with?"

"Everything. You fell right into my plan."

"What plan?"

"To destroy the world," he said, trapping her with the vines. The vines wrapped around her wrists and ankles, another slowly wrapping around her neck. "I was happy to see Papa tracked you and got you."

Papa?

Brenner.

"He made you stronger, whether you liked it or not. And it was all for me."

"For you?"
"Yes."

~

Max continued to lightly shake Amber's shoulders. Nancy had gotten out of her trance about five minutes ago. She and Steve had climbed through the gate, Nancy sitting on Eddie's couch as Steve ran to help the others find a tape for Amber.

"Guys!" Max yelled to the others. "Hurry up!"

"She says you need to hurry!" Erica yelled to the group.

"We know!" Half of them yelled back.
"Yeah? No shit!"

"We're trying. We can't find anything," Steve said.

"Seriously, what is all this shit?" Robin asked.

"What are you even looking for?" Eddie exclaimed.

"Madonna, The Police, Queen, Blondie? Music!" Robin shouted. "We need music!"

"This is music!" Eddie yelled.

~

"What do you want?" Amber asked Vecna as he stopped walking right in front of her.

"For you to join me."

"That will never... ever happen."

She started slowly choking as the vine wrapped tighter around her neck.

"Please," she silently begged. "Please. Let me go."

"Before I do, you need to see something. I... want you to tell Eleven. I want you to tell her everything you see."

He reached his claw up to her face, making her see things. See the future. She saw a huge gate open up at Creel House, a huge gate open up in the middle of a road, a huge gate open up at Eddie's trailer, and a huge gate open up in the water.

"No!" she screamed. "No! Stop!"

"Tell her..."
"No!"
"Everything."

She then felt this uncomfortable feeling, like something was leaving her body. She opened her eyes, seeing the mist leave her body. He was taking her power. He was taking her power for himself.

"No! Stop it!"

She closed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, she was back in Hawkins.

"No!" She screamed and sobbed as she fell down. She brought her hands up to her head, lightly tugging on her hair. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her curled figure. She opened her eyes, seeing Max as she kneeled down by her.

"You're okay," she assured her. "You're okay. He's just trying to mess with you. Okay? You're okay. I won't let anything happen to you."

Max held the quivering girl as the others came back to where they all once were. She gave them a look, a look to make them not question anything.

But she knew they were all screwed.

-

"I saw the same thing, too," Amber finally spoke after Nancy finished. "Not the whole Vecna being One and Henry Creel, but everything else."

"What... What else did you see?" Lucas asked hesitantly.

"I saw... He took my power," she breathed. "He said that I fell right into his trap. The people that took me... They made me stronger. And because I refused, he took them for himself. I made him more powerful," she sobbed.

"No. No, you didn't," Robin spoke softly. "You couldn't do anything."

"I could've. I could've tried," she said through sobs.

"Don't do that. Don't blame yourself," Eddie spoke.

"He's just trying to scare you guys. Right?" Steve questioned. "I mean... I mean, it's not real. What he showed you isn't real."

"Not yet. But there... there was something else. He showed me... us, gates," Nancy revealed. "Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing. And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

"Four chimes," Max spoke. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

"I heard them too."

"He's been telling us his plan this whole time," Max sighed.

"Four kills," Lucas spoke as they looked at Max. "Four gates. End of the world."

"If that's true..." Dustin trailed off, "he's only one kill away."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Eddie groaned. "Jesus Christ."

"Try 'em again. Try 'em again," Steve said as Max went over to the phone to call everyone in Lenora. She dialed the number as the busy signal went off again.

"Anything?"

"No. Rang a few times, then went to busy signal."

"Maybe you punched it in wrong," Steve said. "Try it again."

"I didn't punch it in wrong," Max snapped.
"Well, I don't know."

"Dude, I think she knows how to use a phone," Dustin came to her defense.

"I'm just saying, she could've typed it in wrong."

"Same shit," she said, hanging the phone back up.

"How is that possible?" Amber asked.

"I told you, Joyce has this telemarketer job. She's always on the phone. Mike won't stop whining about it."

"Okay, yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? It's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong," Max sighed.

"She's right," Nancy agreed. "It can't be just a coincidence. It can't be. Whatever's happening in Lenora is connected to all of this. I'm sure of it. But Vecna can't hurt them. Not if he's dead. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

"Whoa, no, no, no."
"Nope."

"Let's think this through," Steve said.

"What is there to think through?" she asked.

"We barely made it out of there in one piece."

"Yeah, because we weren't prepared. But this time, we will be. We'll get weapons and protection. We'll go through the gate, we'll find his lair, and we'll kill him."

"Or he'll kill us. The only reason why you two survived is because he wanted you to. He's not scared of us."

"And for good reason," Robin spoke as she stood up. "We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling him now?"

"One."
"Vecna."
"One."
"Henry."

"Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven, only a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my... my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. He took Amber's powers super easily. It's not a fair fight."

"So then why fight fair?" Dustin said. "You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand. We know Eleven's strengths. And weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?" Erica questioned.

"When El remote-travels, she goes into this sort of trance-like state. Amber did it once last year. I bet the same is true of Vecna."

"That would explain what he was doing in that attic," Lucas realized.

"Exactly. When he attacks his next victim, I'll bet you he's back in that attic, physical body defenseless."

"Defenseless? What about the army of bats?" Steve asked as he showed his mark from the bat choking him.

"Right. True," he said. "We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow."

"And, uh, how do we do that exactly?" Eddie asked as he started getting up.

"No idea," Dustin said as Eddie sat back down. "But once they're gone, he doesn't stand a chance. It'll be like slaying sleeping Dracula in his coffin."

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings," Robin said. "I mean, at least not one I can decipher. We don't know when he's going to attack next. We don't even know who he's going to attack."

"Yeah, we do," Max said, all eyes looking at her. "I can still feel him. I'm still marked. Cursed. I ditch Kate Bush, I draw his focus back to me."

"Max," Amber started, getting up and walking towards her. "You can't. It's too dangerous. He'll kill you."

"I survived before," she said as she looked into Amber's eyes. "I can survive again. I just need to keep him busy long enough so that you guys can get into that attic. And then you can chop his head off. Stab him in the heart. Blow him up with some explosive Dustin cooks up. I honestly, I really don't care how you put this asshole in his grave. Just... whatever it is... whatever you do... try not to miss."

-

"Check this out," Eddie spoke as he set down a phone book. "The War Zone. I've been there once. It's huge. They got everything you need for, uh... well, uh, killing things, basically."

"Do 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 of Hawkins. As long as we steer clear of the main roads, we oughta be able to avoid cops and, uh, angry hicks."

"If we're trying to avoid angry hicks, maybe we shouldn't go to some store called the War Zone," Erica pointed out.

"Normally, I'd agree, but we need the weapons," Nancy sighed. "So I think it's worth the risk."
"Me too."

"Yeah, but is it worth the time?" Dustin questioned. "It'll take all day to bike there and back."

"Who said anything about bikes?" Eddie said.

"What, you got some sort of car we don't know about?" Steve asked.

"It's not exactly a car, Steve. And it's not exactly mine, but, uh, it'll do. Hey, Red, uh, you got a ski mask or a bandanna, something like that?"

She thought for a moment before going into her room and coming out with her Michael Myers mask from Halloween two years ago.

Eddie put it on and went to the car as the others followed behind. He checked open or unlocked doors and windows before finally finding one in the back. He opened it and jumped in, telling the others to follow him.

"That was suffocating," he grumbled as he took the mask off.

Steve, Robin, Nancy, Dustin, and Lucas jumped in before Amber did. Lucas helped her in and once she got in, she turned around to help Max get in as the rest did so.

"Where'd you learn how to do this?" Steve asked Eddie as he watched him hotwire the car.

"Well, when the other dads were teaching their kids how to fish or play ball, my old man was teaching me how to hot wire," he replied. "Now, I swore to myself I wouldn't wind up like he did, but now I'm wanted for murder, and soon, grand theft auto. So, uh, I'm really living up to that Munson name."

"Eddie, I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving," Robin voiced her concern.

"Oh, I'm just starting this sucker," he said. "Harrington's got her. Don't ya, big boy?"

He finally got the RV started, startling the couple outside of it. They started banging on the door, yelling at them to open the door. Eddie scrambled out of the driver's seat as Steve climbed into it, starting to drive away.

"It's just a car. It's just a car," he reassured himself. "Everybody, hang on to something!"

Amber grabbed Max's hand with her left hand while she grabbed onto the seat with her right hand.

"Drive, Steve! Drive!"
"Go, go, go!"

"Shit, they look pissed."

"I mean, it's not every day you lose your house and car in one fell swoop," Amber commented.

"Hold on! Hold on!"

Steve managed to control his driving and started diving normally to the War Zone.

-

Amber sat next to Max as she looked out the window.

"Hey," she softly said to Max. "So I've been thinking, two of the three of Vecna's victims were seeing Ms. Kelley, right?"

"Yeah," Max replied.

"Okay. So I figure there's a good chance Vecna cursed another one of her students. We go back to her office. We read all of her files. We look for mentions of headaches, nosebleeds, nightmares. We identify his most likely next victim."

"Amber," Max said her name.

"We stake out his house—" Amber continued only to get cut off by Max.

"Amber, stop. We don't have time for any of that, okay? And even if we did, even if your plan did work, we'd be putting a total stranger at risk. A stranger who has no idea what they're up against. I do. He uses my memories against me. But... only my darkest memories. Same with Chrissy and Fred, right?"

"Right," Amber followed.

"It's like he only sees the darkness in us. So, I'll just run in the opposite direction. Run to the light. And maybe he won't be able to find me there."

"Now, how exactly do you plan on doing this?" Amber asked.

"I'm not sure. But it's my mind. Not his, right? So I should be able to control where I am. I just need to... push him away. Find a happy memory and hide there. Hide in the light."

"You got a memory in mind?"

"Yeah," she spoke as she nodded. "It was a time when I was the happiest."

"Was I there?" Amber found herself asking.

"I don't know. Were you there, Shortcake?" Max asked as Amber looked down at her lap and smiled.  "But, yeah. Yeah, you might've been there."

"Okay, but the second you start to lift, I'm calling in Kate Bush. All right?"

"Okay. Deal."
"Deal."

Amber softly put her hand on Max's cheek, caressing it. They both leaned in, their lips touching each other. Amber lightly leaned back, making their foreheads touching as they both smiled.

Amber wanted to tell her that she still loves her, but she didn't know how she would react. But she knew she needed to tell her.

-

Erica, Robin, Nancy, Steve, and Lucas went into the War Zone as Max, Amber, Dustin, and Eddie stayed in the RV. Amber's leg was bouncing, her being slightly stressed out. She got up from her spot and walked over to Eddie.

"Hey. You got a pack?" she asked quietly.

"Really? Right now?" he raised his eyebrows at her.

"It helps with stress, okay?" she said. "You got a pack or not?"

Eddie grabbed a slightly smashed pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to Amber. She took one, seeing no lighter.

"You got a lighter?" she asked him as she handed the pack back. He found one in the drawer next to him and handed it to her. She took it, slightly hiding the cigarette and lighter behind her hand and turning around to the other two behind them.

"I'll be right back," Amber announced. "I'm just gonna get some air."

"Amber," Dustin started.

"I won't be long," she said.

She walked outside and closed the door. She put the end of the cigarette in her mouth and covered the tip so it would set on fire. It lit, and she put it between two fingers as she inhaled. She took it from her lips, blowing smoke out of her mouth as she heard the door open. She saw Max come out from the RV, standing next to Amber.

"I knew you were coming out here to do that," she spoke as she turned her music off.

"How?" she asked, taking another drag of the cigarette.

"Well, I know you better than anyone, so..." she spoke as the two chuckled.

"Max?" she breathed out the smoke.
"Yeah?"

"I... I still love you. I always will. I don't know what happens after this. Anything could happen. I know I said I will always protect you, but I failed and now I don't know if I could even do that because I don't have my powers. I feel that everyone I love, I hurt. Everything I do hurts someone in a way. I feel that I can't love anybody, because if I do... their life turns to shit. Callie; she's missing. Kristen; she's dead. The party; their life is ruined. You... This son of a bitch is out to get you. I just want all of this to end. For everything to go back to the way it was before The Mind Flayer. Specifically, Halloween Night of '84."

"Why Halloween?" Max asked.

"Because that was when I realized that I love you. I've never felt this way for anyone, and I don't know if I ever will again. I've never been so sure of anything in my life, except you. At first, I thought we were on different paths. But then I realized that... that can't be possible. Because you're my path. You're my everything. And I can't function without you. Maxine Mayfield, I am in love with you. That... That I am sure about."

Max just looked at her with glassy eyes, trying to think of something to say. Amber started to apologize, but Max quickly shut her up, grabbing her face and kissing her.

"I love you, too. I always will. I always have. You're my path, too. We are each other's paths."

Amber let out a teary-eyed chuckle. A happy one.

"Finish your cigarette and then we can go and end this. Okay?"

"Okay," Amber nodded.

Max went inside as Amber quickly finished her cigarette. She saw the others come towards the RV with their supplies. Lucas saw a cigarette in her hand, giving her a disappointing look. Amber opened the door for everyone, she went in first and put the cigarette out as the others came in.

"What happened?" Dustin asked as everyone came inside.

"We gotta go," Steve said.

"Lucas's old friends are here," Erica announced.

"Shit!" Eddie cursed.

"Let's go! Let's go!"
"I'm going! I'm going! Sit down!"

They drove away and through the parking lot. Through the window, Amber could see Jason's glare at the RV.

-

Everyone was in the middle of a random field, getting everything ready for the fight. Amber was with Lucas and Erica, making spears for Eddie and Dustin. From afar, she could see Eddie and Dustin fight like brothers. She then saw Max who was with Nancy. Max looked back at her, grinning as Amber blew her a kiss and she slightly dramatically caught it and touched her heart.

"When were you going to tell us that you started smoking?" Lucas spoke up. At the moment, Amber had a cigarette in her mouth, sitting a little farther away from the two Sinclairs.

"Before all of this was gonna happen," she spoke, blowing smoke into a different direction. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I should've, considering you're like a brother to me."

"Really?" he asked. "I'm like a brother to you?"

"Yeah. You've looked after me for the past couple of years, you took me in when I quite literally had no family whatsoever. I trust you the most out of everyone in the party. I know that one the time when we almost kissed, but... I was