.
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So... Eddie's gone.
Steve has checked everywhere, every room, even under the bed where Eddie occasionally likes to nap even though he denies it. He's nowhere. Steve tries to stay calm, to tell himself that Eddie's probably just at the cabin or something, doing some last-minute planning with Nancy, but something tells him that that isn't the case, that everything they were worried about happening has come to pass, that the Upside Down's whispering finally got too loud to ignore, that Vecna flipped the last switch in Eddie's brain that he needed to control him.
He remembers what happened the last time Eddie left, where he immediately went, and he knows.
He wants so badly to go on his own the way he had last time, to trust that Eddie will protect him from the bats, but he knows that now that there are spiders and Demodogs and tentacle-things that he can't go on his own. He's back in the car and at Nancy's in two seconds flat. He takes his old route up to her window, hoping she's fully clothed before peering inside and pounding on the glass. "Nance!"
She startles from where she's at her desk, jumping up and grabbing her gun before even turning to look. When she sees that it's him she yanks the window open. "What happened?"
"Eddie's gone."
Nancy nods, grabs her go-bag, and throws it over her shoulder. "I'm going to grab Mike, he can use the walkies to tell everybody else. You call Argyle and tell him to get Robin and Vickie."
They get to the cabin before the others, and at the sight of them at the door, loaded down with weapons, Hopper stomps aside to let them in. "What did you guys do this time?"
They explain everything to him as quickly as they can, enduring his yelling (the brunt of which seems to be directed at Mike) for a good twenty minutes until everybody else shows up and Joyce is able to talk him down. "I still don't know why we all have to go in after him." He says, arms crossed.
"Because he's our friend and also he's screwed if we don't!" Dustin says. "And we were going to go in anyway, no matter what you say!"
"Hop, please." El says, hand on his forearm. "I'm not going in, I'm staying here."
"But you're going in there." He says, tapping her forehead. "Which is just as bad."
"I can do this." She says, reaching down to take Mike's hand. "I know that I can."
"I've got her, Hop." Joyce says, reaching up to tug at the collar of his plaid shirt. "I'll be here."
"You're okay with...me going in?"
"As long as you come back out again." She says leaning up to kiss him.
They all politely endure said kiss, Will and El and Jonathan pretending that watching their parent-figures smooch isn't still massively uncomfortable, and then Hopper pulls back, taking in their pile of all of their weapons (mostly guns) for the first time. "They really sell those things to anyone, huh?"
It's the closest they'll get to a blessing from him, and everybody's immediately in game mode, loading everything into Argyle's Surfer Boy Pizza van (where he somehow still works now that they've expanded into Indiana) and going over Nancy's plan at least three times before she finally deems it acceptable, though half of that plan has now fallen apart in the absence of Eddie and the other half is mostly just "kill as many creatures as humanly possible."
Once they're in the van and on the way to the park Steve freezes, realizing something important. "Wait, guys. We have to stop by my house."
Jonathan squints at him. "What? Why?"
