20. Game Plan

A.N Hello my lovely readers,

Another chapter, here we go!!! I am here to yet again advise: VOLUME 2 SPOILERS UP AHEAD!!

This is also an advisory that I will be elongating the next chapters to be longer than what they typically are. The reasoning for this is because prongsxwolfstarr has convinced me to dive in deeper to other perspectives of the Stranger Things characters. Which also means I will be giving you all the stolen povs that Volume 2 has robbed from us all with the "two days later" mess they handed to us.

But anyways, back to the story we go my dears.

Xoxo,Nik <3

☾.˚˖⁺✦ Game Plan ✦˙⊹˚☽

TW // Horror

Song Guide: Every Breath You Take By The Police

Dustin's Pov

Nothing felt worse than the feeling of knowing a person's life depended on you, nonetheless, it being your sister's. The second Dustin looked into Steve's eyes, he saw the confirmation he had been searching for this whole time. Did Steve love his sister?

It had all been there, all the emotions of love. He knew her favorite song, he had been so confident about it. Not even him being the brother meant that Dustin had a single clue of what it could be.

He wasn't even torn of whom to trust in this moment, Steve knew and Eddie didn't. There was nothing against Eddie because he knew his sister could be one of the most closed off person to get information out of about herself. That is how it had always been.

Victoria was the type of person to give their all to people in order to protect them, but she never once cared what the aftermath meant for her. Not even speaking about the times she needed someone to be there for her, she was always too embarrassed to ask. Had Dustin failed at being a brother?

He had been so distracted by everything having to do with the Upside Down, he neglected to even consider being more available for his sister. The simplicity of knowing her favorite song was taunting him. He knew for a fact she would know his if their places were switched, and now he couldn't even return the favor. 

If there was one person he loved most in the world, even more than his mom, it was his sister. They had always been inseparable, even when inseparable meant distant at times, but the point is a world without his sister would be a world without him in it.

How could he live and be the same if he had lost the one person who deeply understood every little thing about him even when she made him feel like she never pays attention. He knew she did, she was always a bad liar.

Dustin's hands were aggressively shaking as he pried his bag open trying to look for the cassette. Biting back tears, he scavengered through his things. Angry with the amount of things he always kept, he began throwing things out of his bag. "Fuck, where is it!"

Everyone was scattered around in Eddie's room, some in the search of his sister's song and the other's in search of one to bring Nancy back. He hated himself for thinking this, but he wanted everyone to be focused on Victoria. The younger boy couldn't bring himself to even dare think the thought of his sister dying right now, he wouldn't let it happen.

Erica ran into the room, "Steve says you need to hurry!"

"Yeah, no shit! I can't fucking find it!", Dustin yelled back feeling the panic settle in.

Max saw the desperation in his eyes as he yanked the bag out of Dustin's hands, dumping it upside down as everything fell out. Scattering through all the items across the floor, a few cassettes had been hiding in between his things. Grabbing each one of them, he then heard the devastating screams from Steve.

Dustin's heart stopped. Quickly grabbing all the cassettes he saw fly out of his bag. Stumbling back to his feet, he met eyes with Max. They both knew what had to be done. The whole group began to run out of the room.

The young boy stumbled back to the sight of his sister levitating off the ground. His heart sinking deeper into himself. "No, no, no. Someone get her down!", he cried out.

Max shook her head, "How are we supposed to reach her?"

Steve's eyes were filling with tears, he had climbed his way back up to them leaving Nancy alone. Robin was quick to climb down to her, trying to figure out which of the many songs Eddie had could bring the girl back. Eddie was speechless, his eyes wide with his face pale.

Steve tugged on Max's arms. "Get on my shoulders?"

"What?"

"You have to put the headphones over her ears, please."

"Okay, yeah, okay."

Max handed the walkman to Lucas as she looked directly at  Dustin, "Put her song in now!"

Steve knelt down as Max swung her legs over his shoulder. Dustin couldn't seem to pull his eyes away from Victoria. The crippling fear freezing him in the worst possible moment. Lucas shook his shoulders, "What's the song? Dustin, what's the damn song!"

Looking down at his hands, he scanned through quickly until her song finally stuck out of him. Dropping any other cassette in his hands, he gave the right one to Lucas as he took Max's song out storing it away safely into his pocket. Placing in the the other cassette, he handed the walkman back to Max.

Steve hoisted the girl up as she placed the headphones over Victoria's ears. "Come on, don't you dare leave us now."

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Victoria's Pov

There's two ways that a person can view death. It can be a peaceful thing, coming to terms with the end of your life if you've lived it fully. Or it can be one of the worst things to happen to you, the last second realization that you still have so much to accomplish all for death to rip it out of your hands. It's a cruel thing, death. And the unfortunate part is there's nothing you can do about it when it comes knocking on your door.

All except until you hear your favorite song, in this case. All up until a second, she was ready to grant death's its reward, but now she was taking that reward for herself.

Steve's voice replayed into her mind, "I want you to listen to this song... Listen to this song, and remember this."

She squeezed her eyes shut, listening to every second of their song and watching every memory she had of Steve replay into her mind.

"I remember, I remember, I remember.", she cried out.

Feeling her body loosen, she fell hitting the ground. Looking up she saw Nancy holding a piece of wood in her hands as Vecna turned to face her. The lights began to flicker as Victoria caught sight of a portal opening up in the distance of the hallway. She saw her body floating up in the air, the same way it had for Chrissy and Max.

She turned back to look at Nancy as the two girls met eyes. "Go! I'll meet you on the other side."

Turning to look back at the portal, she saw the sight of all the people who loved her surrounding her. Dustin, Eddie, Lucas, Max, and Steve. But there was one thing she couldn't do, let Nancy get taken in the risk of saving her.

Victoria pushed herself off the ground, "It's either we both leave or we don't leave at all."

Vecna turned to look at the two girls, Nancy in front of him and Victoria behind him. "I only need one of you to get my message across."

He reached his hand out towards Victoria as Nancy charged at him, but he held her back with his free hand. Victoria felt herself be lifted back off from the ground unable to break free from Vecna's grasp.

Nancy yelled, "Let her go!"

And that is what he did. He set her free as he threw her towards the portal.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Steve's Pov

"Come on, work! Victoria, remember!"

Dustin had began to cry as Lucas had his arms wrapped around him. Eddie wasn't sure what to feel in this moment as his expression was just a blank stare. Steve...

Steve felt as if his whole world was beginning to crumble before his eyes. He had began to love this girl, and he wasn't ready to not get to experience life with her.

The brunette boy had spent the past few days imagining their life together from taking her out on a proper date to moving in together and it goes on and on. He didn't normally do this especially with a girl he's gotten feelings for so quickly, but everything with Victoria made sense.

He watched the way she cared for all the kids, the willingness to sacrifice herself for others, to say the least she would be a great mother. And the possibility of there being a future with her was vanishing from his grasps.

"Come on, please come back to me.", he pleaded once more.

Victoria's eyes normalized as she let out a shaky breath. Eddie, being the closest, dove in catching the falling girl as they both stumbled to the floor. He wrapped his arms around her not wanting to let her go, too afraid somehow he would lose her the way they had lost Chrissy.

She pushed through his arms looking around as the rest of the group fell to the ground surrounding her. Dustin was the next to grab hold of his sister.

The younger boy cried, "I'm sorry, I didn't know your song. I'm sorry."

She embraced her brother as she shook her head, "No, no, no. It's not your fault, Dustin, I'm okay. I'm here."

"Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.", Eddie yelled still unable to process what had occurred.

Victoria looked around her as she held her brother in her arms. She was looking for someone. Steve watched her from afar, still in inaudible shock that a few seconds prior he had been convinced he would have been forced to watch Vecna kill Victoria.

Her eyes finally met his, a feeling that filled his body with so much relief and joy. She pushed past Dustin and Eddie as she stumbled onto her feet not daring to pull her eyes away from Steve.

The slowness of time was perfect. As the love of Steve's life was walking towards him. His eyes grew wide as she cupped his face looking him so closely with the softest and cutest smile. "It worked, Steve, it worked!"

Steve smiled trying to hold back his tears and keeping his voice from cracking. "Yeah."

Kiss her, Steve, just kiss her already.

And he did so. Burying himself into her lips, pulling her as closely as he can. This was when he knew, she loves him as much as he loves her.

Steve had been waiting for a feeling like this ever since Nancy had broke his heart. Giving his all to a girl who would never love him as much had caused him to pull back from every other person ever since.

Until Victoria.

He had always seen the girl in the past, sometimes he would like to ponder on the times they had exchanged with one another, knowing it was meant for something more. It was meant to lead them two together.

It was more than a coincidence all those instances he had to rescue her or crossing paths at just the right time. Everything had a much deeper meaning that lead up to this moment.

It was always them, who would end up together, he was so sure of it.

"Guys! Guys!!! Nancy's back!", Robin yelled after them.

Victoria and Steve pulled apart as they brought their glances upwards looking at Robin holding the other girl in her arms.

Victoria gasped, "Oh my god, Nancy!"

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Victoria's Pov

"He showed me things that haven't happened yet. The most awful things. I saw a dark cloud spreading over Hawkins. Downtown on fire. Dead soldiers. And this... this giant creature with... a gaping mouth. And this creature wasn't alone. There were so many monsters."

Victoria began to feel her stomach twisting in knots as she uncontrollably bobbed her left knee up and down from the nerves of listening to Nancy.

"An army. And they were coming into Hawkins. Into our neighborhoods. Our homes. And then... he showed me my mom. And Holly. Mike. And they... they were all..."

Victoria felt Steve's hand gently press against her knee for her to relax as he sighed looking up at Nancy. "Okay, but... he's just trying to scare you, Nance. Right? I mean... I mean it's not real."

"Not yet. But there... there was something else. He showed me gates. Four gates. Spreading across Hawkins. And these gates, they looked like the one outside of Eddie's trailer, but... they didn't stop growing."

Feeling how quickly her heart was panicking from inside her chest, she found herself grasping onto Eddie's hand. Her friend had been slightly trembling within her touch, he had been as freaked out as she was.

"And this wasn't the Upside Down Hawkins. This was our Hawkins. Our home."

The room fell silent, every single one of them being tightly held by the unwelcoming feeling of fear.

Max was the next person to break the silence. "Four chimes."

Victoria glanced over to the red headed girl who was leaning against the wall. "Vecna's clock. It always chimes four times. Four exactly."

The brunette girl sat on the couch as she pulled out her free hand counting the many times she had heard the clock chime. The first time had been well.... Her first time with Steve.

The second time had followed to be that exact night when she had the nightmare, she vividly remembers hearing the clock tick then. And the third, the third had been when they went to Victor Creel's home. The vision she had, the clock had practically been going insane.

Then the fourth, the clock had made its final sound when Victoria had snapped out of the vision she had when she was stuck in the past for what felt like days. That was the last time she recalled hearing the clock, and afterwards Vecna had finally presented himself to her.

"I heard them too.", Nancy spoke.

"Guys... I've only heard the clock chime four individual times and that's when Vecna came after me and, um, Nancy."

Steve furrowed his brows with a face of hurt. "You've heard the clock four times?"

The way he had been looking at her had been a painful struck look of him wishing he had known, but she had been to worried about everyone else's well-being to even think about hers.

Max interrupted directing the issue. "He's been telling us his plan this whole time."

"Four kills. Four gates. End of the world.", Lucas blurted out what everyone had been thinking.

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

"Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.", Eddie panicked as he rubbed his head panicking.

"Wait, wait, wait. But why didn't he kill Victoria? He had the perfect chance to.", Dustin pointed out.

Victoria stood as all the puzzle pieces were fitting in their rightful places. "I was the fucking distraction. He knew to get to me, the way he did, would distract from the fact that he needed someone to be the messenger, Nancy!"

Nancy nodded, "You were the bait, so he could show me everything without anyone trying to pull me out."

The two girls nodded at each other finally understanding Vecna's thought process. "Think about it, it wouldn't have made sense for him to kill me right then because I was in the same exact place Chrissy had been killed... It wouldn't have opened up the final gate."

"What does that mean then he's gonna come after you at a different time? He's, what, fucking teasing us?", Steve questioned.

The brunette boy shook his head vigorously refusing to accept the thought of it, he pointed over at Max. "Try 'em again. Try 'em again!"

Max walked back over to the phone, she began to ring the Byler's household. If there was anyway they were going to save either her or Max from being the final gate opener they were going to need the help of a superhero.

Everyone waited with angst crossing their fingers for someone to answer on the other end. Victoria paced back and forth rubbing her arms in a sense of self-security.

The red headed girl slammed the phone frustrated.

"Anything?"

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

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

"I didn't punch it in wrong."

"Well, I don't know..."

"I think she knows how to use a phone.", Dustin said annoyed.

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

"Shhh!", Victoria yelled at the two boys bickering.

Another slam of the phone. "Same shit."

"How is that possible?", Lucas questioned.

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

"Yeah, but this phone's been busy for, what, three days now? That's not Joyce. No way. Something's wrong."

"She's right. 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.", Nancy added as she glanced out the window.

Victoria pondered in thought as she pointed out the window, "I mean, technically, Vecna can't hurt them 'cause his source is right here... Right?"

Nancy nodded. "Right, but that's not to say that he can't get that strong enough which is why we need to kill him. We have to go back in there. Back to the Upside Down."

The quick interjections began from everyone in the group at the plan Nancy had just suggested, but as much as Victoria knew how dangerous it was, Nancy did have a point.

If they wanted to end all of this and stop Vecna from fulfilling his plans, they would have to go to the heart of it all and kill Vecna.

"Whoa, no, no, no. What?", Steve jumped up from his seat.

"Nope. Nope.", Eddie joined in as Victoria saw the literal terror in her friend's eyes.

"No, no, let's think this through!", Steve demanded.

"What is there to think through?", Nancy stood up facing Steve.

"We barely made it out of there."

"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."

Victoria caught sight of Eddie covering his eyes, she sat back on the couch as she took his hands into hers. She leaned forward wiping away the tears that had snuck their way through.

Hating this feeling of wishing she could take Eddie's fears away proved an even bigger thing, they needed to kill Vecna, there was no doubt about it. She couldn't imagine a life where they had to continuously live in fear.

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

Robin had now stood up. "And for good reason. We were wrong about Vecna. Henry. One. Sorry, what are we calling home now."

"One."

"Vecna."

"One."

"Henry."

Robin ignored everyone's recommendations of what to call him as she continued. "Right. We've learned something new about Vecna/Henry/One. He's a number like Eleven, only in a sick, evil, male, child-murdering version of her with really bad skin. But my, my... my point is, he's super powerful. He could turn us inside out with a snap of his fingers. It's not a fair fight!"

"Then why fight fair? You're right. He's like Eleven. But that gives us an upper hand.", Dustin pointed out.

"It does?", Victoria asked now clueless to what he meant.

"Yes, look, we know Eleven's strengths. And weaknesses."

"Weaknesses?", Erica questioned.

Victoria was stunned by the girl, she had forgotten Lucas' younger sister had been dragged to all of this as well. She hated this. They were all just kids, kids that should be living a normal kid life. It wasn't fair.

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

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

"No, wait, you're right! The vision I had in Victor Creel's house. It had been like if I was in third person crossing into his mind. I saw him he was in that trance like state, presumably when he was you know.", Victoria added.

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

Steve interjected pointing at his neck. "Defenseless? What about the army of bats?"

"Right. We'll have to find a way past them. Distract them somehow."

Eddie attempted to stand, "And, uh, how do we do that, exactly?"

"No idea."

Eddie frowned as he 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's if there aren't any other creatures lurking in the Upside Down...", Victoria pointed out.

"That all sounds good in theory, but there is no pattern to Vecna's killings. Well, not at least on that 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."

Victoria stood up as she said in unison with Max, "Yeah, we do."

The two girls glanced over at each other knowing too well the possibilities of the next victim being either one of them.

"I can still feel him", Max muttered, "I'm still marked. Cursed."

The eye opening moment occurred for the brunette girl. It was Max. It was always going to be Max.

Victoria was nothing more than just a bait that Vecna had used for his evil plan, but the realordeal was that his fourth victim was going to be the red headed girl.

The brunette hadn't had any senses of feeling Vecna's presence besides the night Chrissy had died or when she had the visions, but now it was stereo noise. Nothing. It was as if Vecna had set her free.

"I ditch Kate Bush, and I draw his focus back to me."

"Max...", Lucas spoke out with a hurtful tone, "You can't. He'll kill you."

"Lucas is right, Max. You can't put yourself at risk like that.", Victoria agreed.

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

Silence settled amongst them as everyone glanced back and forth at each other. It was the plan they were all going to be forced to take place in because if not they would be risking the lives of every single person at Hawkins.