Asher Hart, Hawkins resident psychopath. There wasn't that many people who hadn't heard about Asher and his family, and that wasn't in a good way. But after helping Dustin out with Dart which led to Asher making new friends, he started to change for...
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The rest of the car ride was pretty much in silence. Jonathan said a few words here and there about what he was hearing, but apart from that, no one said a word. Steve didn't want to speak to anyone in the car, Dustin was too annoyed to speak and Asher wanted to say something, but he knew he would get yelled at if he said something, so he sat with his thoughts instead.
Steve had given him a reality check.
That was all Asher could think about. Asher was too stuck in his own grief that he wasn't there for Dustin, his brother, who needed him. He selfishly but his own needs over Dustin's and abandoned him when Dustin needed him the most. Asher knew he had a lot of making up to do and that started with Dustin. What Asher needs to do is go back to his old self, and to do that, he'd need to finally push his greiving to the side and try to move on.
"Ash?" Lucas asks, getting out of the car, seeing Asher stood with Jonathan, Steve and Dustin.
"Yeah, it's me" Asher says with a small smile as Lucas walks over to him, pulling him into a hug "Whoa, that's a lot of PDA there."
"I thought you had died or something" Lucas says with a sigh of relief, pulling away from the hug "It's good to have you back."
"It's good to be back" Asher says with a smile before looking over at Mike "I'm sorry about Holly. We're going to get her back."
"I hope so" Mike quietly says, walking past Asher and over to Dustin.
"Where's everyone else?" Asher asks Lucas "I haven't seen little El in ages. Kinda need to apologise for ghosting."
"Yeah, that's a long story" Lucas awkwardly says "But short story is, she went into the Upside Down to find Holly."
"You guys let her go into the Upside Down? On her own?" Asher asks Lucas.
"She's the only one with powers" Lucas defends "And Hopper is also there, somewhere."
"I don't care if she has powers or not. She shouldn't have gone in there by herself" Asher says with a scoff "Yeah, she can protect herself, but there are a million of those creature things, as well as Vecna, in there. And what happens if she can't find Hopper, huh? She's left to protect herself down there all on her own when she should at least have someone else there to help her."
"She's going to be fine, okay?" Lucas reassures Asher. Even though he hadn't seen Asher in a while, he knows that Asher views Eleven as a little sister, just like how he views Dustin as a little brother, so of course he's going to be worried about her "El knows what she's doing. Let's just go inside and we'll explain everything to you, okay?"
TIME SKIP BY ASHER FINALLY GETTING HIS REALITY CHECK
"Derek?" Steve asks after they had all caught Asher up on everything he has missed in the past year and Will had explained everything from the night before "Derek Turnbow? As in the Turnbow family? Like Turnbow Realty?"
"The one and only" Robin confirms.
"Whole family's a menace" Lucas mentions.
"How can you be sure?" Nancy asks Robin and Will "Sure that Derek's the next target?"
"Because I saw" Will says "I've learnt that when I'm close enough to the hive mind, I can tap into it, into Vecna's mind. I can see who he's targeting. The first time it happened, I saw through Holly's eyes the same day she was taken. And this morning, it happened again. Only this time, I wasn't Holly. I was someone else. I was Derek Turnbow. I'm positive."
"Why does he have such an obsession with children?" Asher asks, making the whole group look over at him "What, I can't be the only one asking this question? Everytime he goes after someone, it's always someone under eighteen. Pedophile behaviour."
"You finally show up after a year and that's what you have to say?" Mike asks Asher "You're calling Vecna a pedophile?"
"It's a very realistic theory, Michael" Asher argues back "That man is old enough to, and has, a seventeen year old son. So, again, pedophile."
"Hold on. I'm a little lost" Steve mentions.
"Shocking" Dustin sarcastically mutters out.
"About Vecna being a pedophile? It's really--" Asher goes to say.
"Not about that" Steve says, rolling his eyes, before looking over at Will "Were you seeing through the eyes of Vecna or of Derek?"
"Both?" Will awkwardly says "I... I was Vecna, but inside Derek's mind."
"Vecna's like a psychic serial killer" Robin explains "He stalks his victims, but he does it by invading their minds. That's what he did with Chrissy and Max."
"Yeah, but the way he's doing it this time is different" Nancy mentions "We did some digging at the hospital. It turns out before he took Holly, Vecna stalked her. But... he didn't appear as Vecna. He appeared as Henry. As a friend."
"We think he was trying to earn her trust" Mike adds on "Now, why he went through all that trouble, we don't know. But I highly doubt his long-term goal is friendship."
"Maybe he's planning on making, like, an army" Asher suggests "I mean, in the lab, he tried to gain El's trust and he literally got my mom pregnant just to have me help him, right? Maybe he's found a way to give the kids powers and is wanting to use them as little superpowered soldiers?"
"Little superpowered soldiers?" Dustin asks Asher with a scoff.
"Well, with everything that we've seen, I don't think it's such a ridiculous thing" Asher says to Dustin "And since you're so smart, you come up with a more 'logical' explanation, huh? See if you can do that."
"Whatever it is, whatever he's planning" Will says, not wanting an argument to start between Asher and Dustin "We have to stop him. And we have to save Derek."
