"Hey, where are you going?" Steve asks, watching as Dustin starts walking down a trail. "Hey, hey!" Steve says, making Dustin turn back. "Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods." Steve scoffs, gesturing over at Eddie.

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max, and Eddie." Dustin says, holding up the compass. "What say you, Eddie the Banished?" Dustin says weirdly, earning Eddie's attention. "I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor. Which, if i'm totally straight with you, i think it's a really bad idea." Eddie answers honestly, making Dustin furrow his eyebrows.

"But, uh, the Shire.. the Shire is burning." Eddie adds, making Ava grow more and more confused as the conversation deepens. "This is like.. definitely some DND shit, right?" Ava asks, pointing over at both Dustin and Eddie, Dustin's jumping proving her right. Eddie stands up, "So Mordor it is." Eddie says, looking over at Ava.

The group starts following Dustin down the trail, Ava asking the entire group what a "Mordor" is, not receiving any responses. "What is Mordor?" Steve scoffs, making Ava turn to him with a bright smile. "My question exactly, no one's answering though." Ava sighs, crossing her arms.

~~~

It was now nighttime, and the group was at Lover's Lake. Dustin takes a look down at the compass, all the arrows being spun and pointed at every direction.

"Something's happening." Dustin says, walking further, the group still following behind. "Dustin? Can you slow down? Dustin?" Eddie says, the boy ignoring him. "I think we're getting close." Dustin says before Eddie grabs his shoulders cautiously. "Watch your step, big guy." Eddie says, looking down at the lake.

"Oh man." Steve sighs, "You gotta be shitting me." He adds. "Yeah. I thought these woods were familiar." Eddie says, "Lover's Lake." Robin says. "This is confounding." Dustin scoffs, "I'm sorry? Confounding?" Ava says, peering over Dustin's shoulder, not knowing what the word meant at all.

"There's a gate at Lover's Lake?" Max speaks up from beside Ava, trying to get a better look at the lake. "Whenever the Demogorgon attacked, it always left an opening." Nancy says, remembering what Ava had said about the gate. "Maybe Vecna's the same way." She adds. "Yeah, only one way to find out." Steve sighs, walking over to get something.

He later comes back with a kayak. "Easy, i.. i said easy, man." Steve scoffs, Eddie practically throwing the kayak down into the water. "Sorry, dude." Eddie responds, "Yeah, i'm just gonna do that." Robin says, stepping onto the kayak carefully. "Yeah, that works too." Steve rolls his eyes, "Someone's sassy today." Ava says from beside him, receiving another eye roll from the older Harrington.

"Wheeler." Eddie says, holding his hand out for Nancy to step onto the boat. "Steve, please let me go." Ava begs, Steve giving her a dramatic glare. "You sure you wanna leave your little girlfriend over there?" Steve says, gesturing to Max. Ava turns around and looks over at Max, whom was just sitting and talking to Lucas.

"First off, she's not my girlfriend." Ava scoffs, Steve raising his eyebrows. "Second, i have powers." Ava says, lifting her arms up, a small amount of black fog appearing from her palms. "You're gonna want to be extra careful, right?" Ava says with a wink, hoping she's subtle. "Whatever, come on." Steve says, waving his arm for the girl to go onto the kayak.

"Hey! Wait!" Dustin shouts, jogging over to the kayak. "You trynna sink us?" Eddie says, gently pushing Dustin. "This thing holds four people tops, okay?" Eddie says, making Dustin frown. "It's better this way, okay? You guys stay here with Max." Nancy adds, "Why can Ava go?" Dustin scoffs. "Wait, Ava's going to go find the gate?" Max says from behind Dustin, looking over at the kayak.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Max says, receiving a weird glance from Dustin. "Who cares? It's unfair." Dustin scoffs, waving his arms around. "Keep an eye out for trouble." Nancy sighs, "You keep an eye out." Dustin responds sassily, "It's my god damn theory!" Dustin scoffs, "You heard Nance." Robin says, "Who put her in charge?" Dustin responds. "I did." Robin says, making Ava smirk at Dustin's defeated face.

"Compass." Robin says, holding her hand out towards Dustin. Dustin scoffs and hands her the compass hesitantly. "Hey, there you go." Steve says, throwing Dustin a backpack. Steve then hopped onto the boat, making Dustin scoff. "You said four!" The boy shouted, "Sorry." Steve responds in a whisper, Ava chuckling from beside him. "Be back soon!" Ava says, waving. Ava noticed Max's worried glance, but didn't think too much of it.

"Bedtime at nine, kiddos!" Robin shouts, making the group giggle. "Miss you already!" She adds.

~~~

They were getting closer to where the gate should supposedly be at, Nancy breaking the silence. "Woah, woah, woah, slow down!" Nancy says, noticing the compass spinning like crazy. Both Robin and Eddie slow the kayak down.

"Woah." Steve says, looking downs the compass. "Um, that's normal, right?" Ava asks hopefully, receiving a shove from her brother. "Guys what's going on?" Dustin asks through the radio. "Come on, talk to me." He says. "Uh, Dustin, your compass has gone from wonky to wonky with a capital 'aah!'" Robin says, Steve standing up. "Steve, what're you doing?" Nancy asks.

"Somebody's gotta go down and check this out." Steve says, "Unless one of you three can top being a Hawkins High swim co-captain, and a certified lifeguard for three years, then.." Steve says, taking off his shoes and socks. "It's gotta be me. No complaints, alright?" Steve says. "I can go with you." Ava suggests, making Steve immediately glare at the girl.

"You're lucky you're even on this boat, don't get any funny ideas like that." Steve scoffs. "Well, i'm not complaining." Eddie says, "I do not wanna go down there." Eddie says. Steve then takes off his shirt, Nancy staring at his toned back, making both Robin and Ava glance at each other with wide grins.

Steve grabs a flashlight, ready to go down into the water. "Hey. Good luck." Eddie says, nodding. "Thanks." Steve says, looking down into the lake. Eddie tried lighting a cigarette, Robin immediately slapping it out of his hand. "Gross." Robin says as she does so. "Steve?" Nancy says, making Steve turn back towards her. "Be careful." She says worriedly.

Steve nods slowly before diving into the lake, his flashlight being visible through the water for only a matter of seconds as he gets deeper and deeper into the water. Ava sat on the kayak, her mind thinking of a lot of stuff, but mainly worried for her brother. I mean, if there really is a gate down there, they don't know much about what happens if you get close to one.

"Where are we at, Nancy?" Robin asks, "Closing in on a minute." Nancy responds. "Okay." Robin says nervously, worried for Steve as well. Ava turned over to look at the three watching them from afar, and see them hide behind something. She was soon distracted by something else, though.

Steve came back up from the water, her worried feeling going away quickly. "Oh, Christ!" Robin shouts, "I found it." Steve says, breathing heavily. "You found it?" Nancy says, " I found it, yeah. I found it." Steve repeats, nodding. "Dustin, you are a god damn Einstein, Steve found the gate, we're coming back soon." Robin says through the radio.

"Here, get back up." Ava says with a smile, reaching her hand out for Steve to grab. Steve takes it, but something pulled both Steve, and Ava down into the water. Ava gurgled as an unexpected cold feeling hit her entire body, the water feeling as though it was colder than anything she's felt. She didn't let go of Steve's hand, looking at his foot to notice something pulling them both down.

Ava tried using her powers against it, but the tentacle looking object grabbed her wrist. She could hear the panicked voices of everyone on the kayak, her and Steve were grunting, trying to break free from the creatures strong grip. Ava noticed that they were both getting closer and closer to the gate, so she started to strain and attempted to push back up to the surface. It was no use.

They both were now going through the gate.

{1407 word count}

Sorry for the small chapter, i'll try and make it up to you all in the next chapter! I've been honestly unmotivated to writing so i'm sorry about that, but i hope you guys enjoyed this. I love you all and your support, have a great rest of your day/night!<33