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

Chapter 31: Confrontation!

Steve led El and Will out of the bedroom and took up his previous position on the landing, sitting down behind the barricade against the banister as they crouched close to him. Refusing to give in to the rising anxiety he was feeling, he took one of their hands in each of his and sank into the half state he needed to heal them if necessary. 

There was a loud smash and the sound of wood breaking, but Steve did his best to ignore it. He wasn't the muscle this time. He had to concentrate and leave that to other people. Nothing outside was important, only El and Will.

When the nerve tingling electricity of El's power ran down his spine, he knew it had begun. Will's fire soon joined it, and Steve had no time to even think of anything else.

At first it had to have been small things the pair were taking on. His instincts urged him to help them heal themselves, but that didn't last long. Sound was coming at him from all over the place, but it was all just noise as he refused to focus on anything but his task. Will was the first to need more than assisted healing and Steve jumped to it without hesitation.

He could feel the pressure building in both his young friends and he concentrated on countering it. When El finally had to push hard too, Steve felt it like a stab behind his eyes. Casting aside the pain, however, he let his instincts lead him as he did what he had to do. It was all encompassing and the connection he had to the real world dimmed even further.

It was frightening, because he had no idea what was going on around him, what was happening to the others, but he held firm. That El had done this so many times, saved them so many ways at such risk to herself, blew his mind. From the inside he could see exactly what she had risked each time she had put herself in harm's way to save and ungrateful world.

If Steve had anything to do with it, she wouldn't ever be put in such a situation again. Not that he had time to think about that at that moment.

When his connection to El and Will snapped, his mind reeled. He was yanked backwards, hitting the wall hard and the real world slammed back into his awareness. He blinked open dazed eyes to find a man in combat gear standing over him.

"There's more than one of them, repeat more than one," the man was saying into a radio.

Before Steve could so much a move there was a snarling growl from behind him and a dark shape leapt over him, taking the soldier over the landing banister to the floor below. Steve scrambled to his knees, looking through the bars to see Eddie dragging the semi-conscious soldier off the couch where they had landed and throwing him at the wall like some kind of superhero.

When Eddie looked up at him, Eddie's eyes were blazing red and full of fury. The man now on the ground, lifted a handgun, firing at Eddie, but Eddie was too fast. Eddie snarled, showing long white fangs and attacked again.

Steve wanted to watch, he wanted to stare, because avenging angel Eddie did something to his insides, but he dragged himself away.

El already had blood pouring out of her nose as she pushed another soldier backwards, and Will was looking as dazed and confused as Steve felt, clearly having been dragged along the landing. Steve could not reach them both, there was too much space between them, so he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, concentrated, and hoped.

He'd never tried to heal anyone without being in direct physical contact with them, but it was a desperate time. He felt for El and Will, reached for them and the familiarity he had been so focused on. It was like walking through fog. He knew they were there, could feel them close by, but he couldn't quite find them.

Knowing that they needed him, he pushed, hard.

He found El first, as if she had materialised out of the confusion and he wrapped his power around her. The damage she had done to herself was raw and new and he smashed through the invisible barrier once more, healing it without hesitation. Almost as if that was the push he needed, Will coalesced in his awareness as well. Nothing could have stopped him as with laser focus, he returned to his task.