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It was going too well; he could feel it in his bones. His wolf whined at him in low-grade panic. They made it all the way to the Upside Down version of Creel’s house without anything stopping them. Not even the scent of any demo-creature on the wind, just the rot and death of the air.
When they pushed through the doorway into the front hall of the house and were immediately grabbed by the vines, Steve felt like the trap he’d been waiting for the whole hike had finally sprung.
“Steve!” Robin called out, her voice croaking as the vines tightened around her throat. Steve had a visceral memory of the demobat tail tightening around his own throat as he watched her pulled to the wall. He wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t let Robin get hurt here. He didn’t have to think at all. He raised his axe and started hacking. Subtlety went out the door the minute the vines got them. At this point, Henry knew they were here.
The desperate clawing of the wolf inside redoubled when Nancy was grabbed. Two of the women he loved were trapped and strangled by the vines. Steve struggled not to wolf out. He knew it wouldn’t help free his friends—not when he needed hands to grab the axe. He growled in frustration as he kept hacking at the vines, not making a dent as they wound their way over Robin and Nancy.
Finally, on a backswing, the vines grabbed his axe and then him, yanking him away from Nancy and Robin. His soulmate looked at him with horror as she began to turn blue. The vines grabbed one wrist, then his throat, then the opposite ankle, until he was as pinned to the wall as Robin or Nancy, watching them slowly choke.
He was so tired of fighting. He was so sick of this world, the monsters, of Henry Creel running their lives. He didn’t want to watch his friends die.
He closed his eyes and stopped struggling for one moment. One moment where he felt like he could surrender here. Die before he had to watch his Pack die first.
Nancy still had breath enough to call his name. “Steve!” It was like she knew he was giving up. It was like she could still read his mind, a whole year after everything between them. In that one word, there was friendship, sadness, rage, and love.
It was enough. The wave of helplessness shifted inside him. His Pack needed him. It didn’t matter if he was tired or if he felt useless. His axe was taken from him; he was trapped, but his Pack was dying.
He only had one thing left: sharp teeth and giant claws.
He shifted.
The sudden shift of mass and bones seemed to startle the vines, if vines could startle, and he slipped out of them in his new form. He tore at the vines on Robin with his teeth, cutting through them and letting the black blood flow over and out of his mouth. He kept tearing them away until she could grab them on her own. He moved over to help Nancy, and Robin joined him. Together, they worked to get Nancy free.
Steve shifted back to his human shape and grabbed his axe, the Molotov cocktails, and all the weapons he could hold. He was happy to fight naked if it meant Vecna was destroyed; he didn’t care. From the focused rage on their faces and their determination to end this alongside Steve, Nancy and Robin didn’t care either.
They run up the stairs as a team. As a Pack.
Vecna hung in the middle of the attic, suspended in a web of vines. He looked exactly like an evil Wizard should look: hideous, powerful, and terrifying all at once.
Nancy began the assault with her shotgun. Steve could feel her rage from here. He had smelled it on her since Vecna gave her the vision the first time they all left the Upside Down together. He knew underneath it was fear and hurt - for herself, her family, her town - but Nancy was brilliant at channeling that into a cool rage that fueled and focused her fight.
He was more in awe of her now than when they were dating.
Robin held out one of their Molotovs, and Steve lit it from the gear in her backpack.
He watched Robin toss the flaming bomb at Vecna, who had woken up at the first blast of Nancy’s rifle. Steve lit his own and threw it; his flame joined Robin’s, exploding around Vecna. The fire immediately burned bright and hot, enveloping the man and burning the vines that supported him.
If he was in awe of Nancy, glad to have her as a friend after so long without her, then he felt secure with Robin. She was his other half. Together, their dual flames worked to kill the psycho who had haunted Hawkins and killed so many people for years.
Nancy pumped her rifle again, blasting Vecna with one more shot. Vecna finally faltered, his vines no longer holding him up, and he fell through the window of the attic down to the front yard below.
All of Steve’s instincts told him to follow, to make sure his prey was dead. Over the last year, he had learned not to fight his instincts. He sprinted to the window, shifting as he ran. His human feet lept out the window, and his wolf paws landed on the ground.
Vecna was still writhing on the ground, moaning in pain but trying to stand up. Steve didn’t let himself think. He snapped his jaws and tore out the throat of his prey.
The blood tasted human and like the rot of the Upside Down - it was tainted. If the Russian last summer had been unexpectedly and disturbingly delicious, Vecna was disgusting, like eating rotten meat.
Steve ignored the impulse to release his rotten and diseased prey. Instead, he tore into Vecna, splitting the sternum and belly of his prey with his claws. He stuck his muzzle inside and pulled. The viscera flew as Steve felt Vecna’s lingering life leave him.
“Steve!” Robin shouted from the attic window.
He looked up at her from his place in the yard. His muzzle dripping red.
“He’s dead?” She asked, undisturbed by the predator near her.
He barked one for Yes.
“We’re headed downstairs. I’ll grab your backpack,” she shouted before turning from the window.
Steve met them at the front steps. He could smell the satisfaction and adrenaline singing in their blood.
Robin had both of their bags slung over her shoulder. As a group, they jogged back across the now-dead landscape. What was alive with menace before now felt and smelled inert. Steve kept himself in front of his small Pack, making sure that even if it smelled like a dead world, he’d be the first to attack if anything came close to them.
He heard Dustin first. Wailing. Distress. Then he smelled the blood.
He barked.
Robin looked at him and then turned to Nancy, “Something’s wrong.”
Nancy looked at Steve. “Run, we’ll follow.”
Steve ran, flying through the dead underworld, following Dustin’s cries and the scent of blood—blood he recognized.
It made his heart squeeze in panic, and he bayed. Dustin had to know he was on his way, that help was coming.
He heard the answering call, “Steve! Steve! We’re over here!”
He bayed again to let Dustin know he was almost there.
So close.
Finally, he saw them. Dustin kneeling over a figure covered in blood.
Never before has he wished he could bite and turn another person. Eddie Munson was surrounded by a pool of his own blood. If it had been Steve, he could have shifted and survived. If he could gift Eddie with that ability right now, he would do it without a thought. As a human, Steve had no idea what would happen.
He couldn’t do anything as a wolf, and his modesty had long since disappeared. He shifted back to his human shape. He was more helpful now with hands than with fangs.
He started to go through his first aid training, re-upped every year since he was 14, and first started his stint as a Junior Lifeguard.
Eddie was bleeding but still cognizant, if not coherent. “You’re naked again.” He slurred. “Hairy.”
”Yup, Munson.” He said. “Well observed.”
He guessed Dustin was going into shock because he didn’t give Steve any shit for being naked, but he couldn’t spare a second to check him over. He heard Nancy and Robin jogging up behind him. “Robin, in my pack. Get the first aid kit.” She rooted around for it immediately. “Nancy, Dustin’s going into shock. Check him for any injuries.”
Nancy focused on Dustin, and he focused on Eddie with Robin next to him. Her shoulder bumped into his, and he felt some of the adrenaline coursing through his own body start to waver. It wanted to rest. He was done; his prey was dead, and he wanted to rest with his Pack, but his Pack was injured, and he needed to help them. He had to keep going.
They wrapped Eddie’s injuries enough to keep him intact as they made their way back to the gate. Steve squatted down, and Robin dropped Eddie’s limp arms over Steve’s shoulders. Suddenly, he was glad to know his wolf strength carried over in either form. This would have been impossible without it, but now the only hard part was to keep going when his body wanted to stop.
He carried Eddie piggyback-style to the trailer and managed to get both of them through without worsening any of Eddie’s wounds. He went back through and did the same thing for Dustin. Nancy and Robin look as exhausted as he felt but they were able to make it through on their own.
“Clothes,” Robin said, darting back to the trailer to grab some clothes for Steve: boxers, gym shorts, and a black tee-shirt featuring a metal band Steve had never heard of before. Nancy and Steve used that time to get Eddie situated in her car. Steve changed while Nancy and Robin helped Dustin.
“This is Team Shotgun and Team Metal Concert. Checking in. We are on our way to the hospital. Eddie is bitten, Dustin is in shock. All others are fine.” Robin called out on the radio as Nancy broke every speeding law in Hawkins to get to the hospital.
“This is Team Distraction,” Lucas’ voice came in strong over the walkie-talkie. “Erica and Max need medical attention, but it’s not life-threatening.”
“You need it too, dumbass.” Erica was clearly next to Lucas, wherever they were.
“None of it is an emergency.” Lucas reiterated. “Max says he’s dead?”
“Nancy got him with a shotgun, I got him with some Molotovs, and Steve ripped his throat out,” Robin confirmed.
“Really dead then.” Max’s voice was tense with pain, but it eased something inside Steve to know they all got out okay. At least his Pack in Hawkins was all currently alive. He looked at Eddie and vowed to keep him alive.
“Tell them I’ll get them after I drop you guys off at the hospital,” Nancy said.
Robin spent the rest of the ride to Hawkins General coordinating with Lucas and Nancy. Nancy dropped the four of them off and sped away to go pick up Team Distraction.
Steve carried Eddie into the ER bridal style, his head limp and unsupported against Steve’s chest.
“We need help!” Robin called out, panic leaking out. “Help!”
Nurses rushed toward them. “He was attacked.” Robin gestured to Eddie. “And he’s in shock. His ankle.” She gestured to Dustin, who was still supported by her arm.
Hands reached out for Eddie. Steve forced himself not to growl at them. Instead, he helped lay Eddie down on a stretcher and watched as he was wheeled back into the depths of the ER, doctors shouting orders out as they disappeared behind double doors.
He turned back to his friends and found Dustin limping behind another nurse. That left only the two of them in the ER waiting room. A nurse came over to them to give them a quick once-over, making sure they weren’t also injured, that the blood on them was only Eddie’s, and that they weren’t going into shock, too. After a few minutes of letting her fuss, they both got the all-clear.
Once it was clear they weren’t also new patients, the nurse got Dustin and Eddie’s information from Robin - though Eddie’s was mostly a guess. The nurse was shocked to learn the bloody boy they had taken a few minutes ago was the infamous Eddie Munson.
“He’s innocent.” Robin protested.
“It doesn’t matter,” the nurse said, her voice calm, trying to placate them. “We’ll treat him regardless, but I have to call the cops.”
They both nod. It was inevitable.
“Let me know if you guys start to feel anything off or if you suddenly start hurting too. Sometimes, we only notice pain after a little bit.” The nurse said with real kindness.
“Okay,” Robin agreed.
Steve remained silent. He felt like he had lost his speech. There were no words left in him, only animal instinct. He wanted to shift and curl up with Robin but couldn’t while he was in the hospital. He had to tough it out until he knew Dustin and Eddie would survive - until Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Munson came to watch over their children. For now, he collapsed against Robin, breathing in her scent - Baby Soft, smoke, spent fear, exhilaration, and underneath it all calm. Pack. Two survivors together after the world tried to end.