Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 6: Waking World

Steve stood staring into his pool, unable to look away from the red glint at the bottom. He knew he should be picking up the phone or the walkie, letting someone know a gate was opening up again, but it was calling to him. His mind whispered impossible things. He could hear the voice asking for his help, Eddie's voice.

It was so easy to step up to the edge and dive in, right down into the dark depths. Cold prickled across his skin, but it was like an afterthought. He could barely see without all the pool lights on, but the red glow drew him. There were no vines on this one, no remnants of Vecna, and he acted before he could change his mind. His arm disappeared into it right up to the shoulder until his flailing hand found something alive.

Acting on instinct rather than thought, he gripped it and pulled.

It was hard, ridiculously so, as if the gate did not want to give up what he was trying to pull through it, but he persisted. When a pale, limp hand finally appeared on his side, illuminated by the glow from the gate, he pulled even harder.

It didn't feel like just a physical thing, either. The pull on his mind he had felt in his dreams with Eddie was replicated, only worse, and he could sense the energy being leeched from him far faster.

All he could compare it to was a birth, as he pulled and pulled, until finally, Eddie's head and shoulders popped through the gate and the rest of him slid out like a baby from a birth canal, naked as the day he was born. Refusing to waste a second, Steve powered to the surface, treading water with Eddie's limp form in his arms as he gasped in precious air.

The water around him began to froth, but he couldn't look down to see what was happening. He also couldn't climb the ladder with Eddie, he just didn't have the strength left, so he swam to the side, using everything he had to push Eddie up and over it. He managed to get half of his burden up the first time and then boosted Eddie a second time, rolling him away from the edge.

All he could manage after that was clinging on to the side himself, eyes closed, panting with the exertion as the once still pool rippled and spluttered around him. It shouldn't have exhausted him like it had, but there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't even have enough strength to pull himself out of the water. He barely had enough to hang on, and that was fading. It was as if whatever was going on wasn't quite finished and it was taking everything he had left.

He began to slip, and he couldn't stop. There was blood in the water, he could just make it out under the lights from the house, and he was pretty sure it was his. To go through everything with the Upside Down and then drown in a pool would be a really shitty way to go.

Then, just when he thought he was going in, a hand came over the edge of the pool, snagging his wrist. It was his turn to be pulled as Eddie dragged him over the lip. He did his best to help, but it was more by luck than judgement that he ended up in a heap next to the other man.

"Thanks," he slurred, only to be answered by a slightly hysterical laugh, but he was passing out, so he didn't really care.

~*~

"Steve! Steve! Oh God, Steve, can you hear me?"

The frantic words and someone patting his face quite hard, dragged him back to consciousness. When he opened his eyes, it was way too bright, so he shut them again very quickly.

"Get him up," he heard Nancy's familiar voice instruct.

He didn't have much say in the matter as he was sat up and someone wrapped him in something nice and warm. That's when he realised, he was cold.

"Eddie?" he asked, opening his eyes again and squinting.

"Jon and Argyle are looking after Eddie," Robin said from just in front of his face. "What have you been up to this time, Steve?"