Chapter Text
There was some unspoken rule against mentioning it. The last battle. Their final stand against the thing that had taken up so much of their lives for the past five years. No one was voicing that in a few hours they would either have won and finally be rid of what had haunted them all, or they would fail and the whole world would be lost to it. Perhaps it was not to jinx it, or maybe the thought of it was too much to bear.
Would they have to say goodbye to more of their friends? Nancy tried to push that thought as far away as possible. They needed her confidence, and she felt it falter whenever she started thinking about loss before there was even anyone to grieve.
But really, how sure were they that they would win? It all felt so much bigger than them. But at the same time, they were still the ones best suited for the job. She hated that. The majority of them were just children forced to fight a war they stumbled upon while desperately searching for their friend.
The worst thought of them all, however, was the one about them winning. Which felt wrong, but there was this nagging in the back of her mind that questioned how they could move on once this was all over. The trauma was so deeply ingrained in all of them, so what would life on the other side look like?
But it would all be over soon, and how much more trauma could they really get in a few hours?
None of them were saying those thoughts out loud, but Nancy knew everyone was thinking them. That quiet anxiety about the coming battle could be felt throughout the Squawk as they prepared to leave.
Nancy quickly learned that maybe even thinking those thoughts could jinx it.
She was going over the plan one last time with Erica and Mr. Clarke.
Mr. Clarke was nodding along and smiling. He was attentive and, more importantly, kind. Nancy wasn’t sure when the last time she had actually felt heard when speaking with an adult was.
She hadn’t had the pleasure of being in Mr. Clarke's class. When she was in middle school, her science teacher, Mr. Miller, always seemed very uninterested in what he was teaching. Nancy often wondered why he had chosen a profession that bored him so much. Mr. Clarke was the opposite. He was so very passionate about what he taught his students. Nancy could see why he had been the boys’ favorite teacher.
He also seemed to have endless patience, and Nancy wished he had some to spare right now. Erica had done nothing but sigh and give her attitude since Nancy stepped over to talk to them. It was taking everything in her not to snap at the girl. She knew she was being repetitive, going over every step of the plan multiple times. But it didn’t seem wrong to want this one thing to go over without faults. They didn’t have room for mistakes.
Erica and Mr. Clarke were in charge of the first part of this plan, and it was crucial for them not to mess up. If step one went wrong, then there would be no step two.
“So, you guys open the gates the second you see us rolling down the street and-” she started, before the girl interrupted her.
“Yes, we know, we were there when the plan was made,” Erica said, with an eye roll that made Nancy clench her hands. But before she could even try to compose herself and answer, it all crumbled around them.
There was a heavy thud behind her, and Nancy didn’t have to turn around to see what was going on because Steve yelled out before the thud was even heard.
“Dustin! Hey! Wake up, dude, this isn’t funny. Dustin!” Panic was seeping into his voice, and Robin was at his side before Nancy even lifted her feet to go there.
“Is he concussed? You know, he did hit his head a lot the last couple of days. Steve, did you check for a concussion?” She was rambling; that was how she dealt with stress. Nancy had been on the other side of her rambles many times.
“Yes, Robin! I’m not stupid! You know I know the signs of a concussion!” Steve yelled, and Robin flinched while Steve’s eyes widened. Nancy watched them have an entire conversation in silence - apology and forgiveness most certainly part of it.
If it weren't for the fact that Dustin was still lying motionless in Steve’s arms, Nancy would have wanted to study that silent conversation further. The way they seemed to always be in sync fascinated her. But as it was, Dustin wasn’t waking up, and even if that concern wasn’t present, they still didn’t have time for observational studies.
“Let’s get him upstairs and have Vickie take a look at him,” Robin said, and Steve nodded, clearly appreciative that Robin was reaching through his panic and giving him a task to focus on. He lifted Dustin up in his arms and quickly made his way to the stairs.
Nancy went with them, her own concern bubbling up in her. Could they have missed a somehow vital injury in Dustin? Was he bleeding internally?
Dustin had gotten good at hiding the severity of his injuries ever since Eddie’s death. None of them had known how serious his leg injury had been until his mother had strictly put him on bed rest. It was a good thing Claudia was a nurse because it seemed like the minute Dustin had recovered from one injury, another one would spring up.
He had already lied about how he got injured, so it wouldn’t surprise her if he had also lied about how hurt he really was. Nancy was hoping it was just exhaustion, and all he needed to do was lie down for a bit, and perhaps get a sip of Gatorade when he opened his eyes again, and then he would be ready to go.
She felt panic rise in her at the possibility that he would need more than a quick minute to rest, because what would that mean for the plan? They were running on a tight schedule at the moment, and they couldn’t do this without everyone present.
The last time they fought Vecna, they were split up, and they lost. They couldn’t let that happen again.
Before they even reached the top of the stairs, Nancy heard yelling from outside.
“Hopper!”
“Hop!”
The panic was clear in El, and Joyce’s voices, and Nancy quickly made her way out to them, knowing that Steve and Robin would get Dustin to Vickie.
Hopper had been out there helping Murray pack the last of the guns and supplies into the van. What could possibly have gone wrong?
She was met with the sight of Hopper on the ground, eyes closed, nonresponsive - just like Dustin. Before she could start speculating about undisclosed injuries on his part, another panicked yell joined the ones already stuck in her mind.
“Lucas! Someone help!” Max screamed from somewhere inside, and the absolute devastation in her voice made Nancy turn on her heel and run to her. She did not doubt what she would find. But it still didn’t make it easier to see Lucas collapsed with Max crying and cursing out her inability to get to him.
Nancy’s head was spinning. What was happening? It had been easy to delve into explanations when it was just Dustin fainting, but she didn’t have that luxury now. The echoes of Lucas’s 'I don’t believe in coincidences anymore' rattled in her brain.
All at once, she knew exactly what this was.
Vecna.
She only realized she was frozen to the spot when she felt Jonathan glide past her over to Lucas and Max. But just as she pulled her roots from the floor to join them, she heard the deafening sound of another yell. Will.
“Miiiiiike!”
And Nancy felt cold dread settle in her stomach.
She locked eyes with Jonathan, and he nodded at her, silently screaming at her to go. He got Max and Lucas covered. Erica pushed past her and ran over to her brother, and Nancy wasted no time turning around to do the same thing.
Nancy was suddenly reminded of the vision she had tried to bury deep in her memories after Vecna had captured her last year. It resurfaced once her parents were attacked and Holly was taken. She had hoped Mike’s fate wasn’t sealed with that vision too.
Once she got there, she held Mike close to her and waited for the next panicked yell of a name - maybe it would be hers. She wondered if this was it, if they had just lost.
It felt like an eternity before someone pried Mike from her and helped her up. They led her into the common room, where everyone else had gathered too. Felt sort of right to admit defeat in the room where they first started forming the plan.
Vecna had been one step ahead, and it was only a matter of minutes before he got to the rest of them. So she waited. She waited for his voice to pierce her mind and tell her it was over. Tell her that it was pointless to fight anymore.
Instead, it was Steve’s panicked voice that met her ears. And she was pulled back to what was happening around her.
“We’re in a radio station, for god’s sake! What are you doing? Someone get some music playing!” He was still holding Dustin close, and Nancy could see the helplessness swimming in his eyes, the tears threatening to spill over.
Erica was trying to shake her brother awake, trembling with fear and uncertainty - such a contrast to the sassy and confident girl who had looked Nancy in the eyes before it all went wrong.
“Music won’t help,” Robin said, keeping a barely steady hand on Steve’s shoulder, and Nancy could see that she was trying to hold it together for him, “It’s not that kind of trance.”
Steve looked up at her, silently begging her to explain, but it was Will who spoke up.
“Robin is right. This is like Max’s coma, like my trance. Vecna’s not inside their minds-”
“They’re in his,” Max finished.
Just like Holly, Nancy thought. Vecna had captured both of her siblings.
“But why?” Steve asked, “Why them?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Erica snapped, and Nancy would have been glad to hear that sass back in her voice if she didn't know Erica was only trying to mask her panic, “He figured out our plan, and now he’s trying to sabotage it.”
“Yeah, I get that, tiny Einstein, but why wouldn’t he take all of us?”
“I don’t know, maybe he’s saving his energy by only taking a few.”
“But why not just take El and Will then? They’re the biggest threat to him.”
Steve had a point, but Nancy felt the puzzle pieces shift into place as she thought it over.
“Because they have already been inside his mind and would know how to get out. The others haven’t,” she said.
“Well, lots of us haven’t been inside his mind, so why did he choose those four?” Steve argued, and Nancy couldn’t help but hear the desperate wish to have been with Dustin and not stuck helpless on the other side.
Once again, Lucas’s disbelief in coincidences bounced around in her head, and Steve was right; there had to be a reason. She felt her brain scramble for answers, and when she found them, her heart hammered with anger.
“He is targeting El and Will,” she said, and felt the whole room turn to her, “he took Hopper and Mike because he knew they wouldn’t be able to carry on with the mission knowing they needed help.”
Hopper had taken El in and given her what she always wanted: a home. He had kept her safe and given her a childhood, however brief, and he hadn't treated her like a weapon. Nancy knew he could be a tad too overprotective, but he also never doubted El's abilities. He loved her, and she loved him. Vecna knew El couldn't lose him.
Mike had been Will's best friend since kindergarten. Nancy had watched them grow up together. She knew how much Mike meant to Will - even more so after Will's speech. She couldn't help but notice the way Will's eyes had drifted towards her little brother when he talked about his crush. Vecna most definitely also knew Will couldn't lose Mike.
Even Lucas and Dustin could be applied to that logic. El and Will couldn't lose them either. But Nancy had a feeling there were other reasons why Vecna had taken them specifically.
“And Lucas and Dustin?” Steve asked before she got the chance to.
Max was the one who answered, and the look of guilt in her eyes broke Nancy’s heart. “He took Lucas because of me. It’s revenge for trying to ruin his plan and get Holly out.”
“Well, what about Dustin?”
Nancy could tell that Steve wanted to know it wasn’t somehow his fault that Dustin was taken. But besides the fact that none of them would be able to go on with the plan without everyone present, Steve probably had very little to do with Vecna’s choice to take Dustin.
“Vecna knows he tends to be the one to figure some vital shit out, so he took one of our best players out of the game,” Robin answered. Nancy didn’t miss the silent plea not to blame himself that Robin sent Steve's way.
“That little shit is too smart for his own good,” Steve said with a frustrated sigh.
A silence fell over them. They were all aware that Vecna had won this round. They couldn't move forward with their plan without knowing Hopper, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin were safe, conscious, and free from Vecna.
But he had forgotten how determined they were when it came to their friends, so it didn’t take long for a new plan to be formed. Well, it wasn’t exactly new. It was the same plan, but with the added step of helping their friends escape Vecna’s mind.
El had been the one to come up with it.
They would go to the lab in the Upside Down, and El would go into the bath and enter Vecna’s mind to retrieve their friends.
Will would go in with her because his connection to Vecna could prove useful. Joyce knew better than to try to dissuade him from going. There was no stopping him when it came to his friends.
El also requested that Max join them all the way to the lab instead of staying safe at the Squawk, since she would need her help navigating Henry’s mind and didn’t want to use extra power trying to reach her from so far away. Had Lucas not been the one they were trying to save, he would probably have protested her stepping anywhere near the Upside Down. But Max agreed without hesitation.
Steve begged them to let him come too, and none of them wanted to deny him that right, especially when they heard his voice break as he told them he couldn’t lose Dustin. That was his little brother. His best friend. He meant too much to him to just idly stand by while someone else did what he was supposed to do. Keep him safe. El joked that she hoped they could find a bat for him in there.
The first part of the plan went smoothly. Nancy almost felt that Erica had been justified in getting annoyed with her for continuing to go over the plan with her and Mr. Clarke, because those two executed it to perfection. Not that she ever doubted them.
When they got to the lab, and El went into the bath, Nancy had the urge to convince her to let her come with them. But the more rational part of her knew that she was needed on the other side. She had to protect them should anything physical come for them.
So as soon as Will, Max, and Steve’s eyes rolled back and they joined their other friends in the land of the unconscious, Nancy took her place in front and guarded them with her life.