Cammie, Steve, Robin and Nancy were crouched underneath the legs of the rocket shaped climbing frame opposite the Creel house. The demobats were swarmed on the roof and they were waiting for Erica's signal to say they were moving into phase two.

The air was even colder now they were closer to the Creel house and Cammie's headache was unrelenting, but she had Steve holding one of her hands and Robin and Nancy on her other side, the three of them forming a small huddle around Cammie to protect her if any problems came out.

"Okay, Max and Lucas have copied. Max is moving into phase two: distracting Vecna," Erica's voice came faintly through the light glowing above them.

"So far, so smooth," Robin said.

"Yeah, we're not even at the hard part yet," Steve said.

The bats on the roof of the Creel house shrieked, chittering around in the air as thunder cracked above them.

"Take the bait, you son of a bitch. Take the bait," Nancy whispered.

Cammie closed her eyes, forcing a few deep breaths into her lungs. She squeezed Steve's hand tightly and he looked at her.

"Max has got this. We've got this," Steve said.

"I know," Cammie whispered. "Still, though. Not fun being away from her."

"Yeah, I know. I'm worried, too," Steve sighed, wrapping his arm around Cammie's shoulder as they waited for the next signal to come.

After about ten minutes, Erica's voice came again.

"Okay, she's in. Initiate phase three," Erica said. 

"She's in. Move on to phase three," Robin said into the walkie.

"Copy that. Initiating phase three," Dustin said back.

A few seconds later, the opening notes to Master of Puppets by Metallica came faintly from back near the trailer park. The bats screeched, flapping into the air and flying away.

"Okay, it's working. Let's go," Nancy said.

The group quickly climbed out from under the rocket, Cammie letting go of Steve as she clenched her fists at her side. She set off first, dodging the vines as she walked with the others following her.

She could feel her fingers prickle the closer she got to the house and she focused on it, imagining like she was bringing it all into her body as energy. The sound of Eddie playing guitar made her head feel fuzzy, but not in a bad way.

It gave her something to focus on, center herself with. She knew where she was and what she was going to do, and things were going exactly to plan. She still had a headache, but she didn't feel as weak as she had when they first entered the Upside Down.

They got to the house as Eddie finished playing the song, the bats having reached them way too quickly for Cammie to actually think possible. Then again, they were going to fight a dark wizard from another dimension and their best chance at winning was currently the scrawny little blonde Harrington who, honestly, was kind of a fucking mess, so what did Cammie know about what was possible and what wasn't?

Steve pushed the door open and they winced, seeing there were vines everywhere on the floor. Everywhere. There was barely a way for them to get through. They'd have to be careful. Step on one and it was like a bomb going off. They'd all die if one of them misstepped by the smallest inch.

"Oh, shit. That's not good," Steve muttered. "Okay, uh. Me first, then Cam. You ladies got the rear? Keep her protected from all sides until we get up there, then it's her turn," Steve said.

"Shit, okay," Robin whispered.

Steve put his torch in his mouth, carefully starting to hop between the vines covering the floor. Cammie waited a few seconds before starting to hop after him, watching Steve wobble. She quickly jumped beside him into a gap, steadying him with her cold hand.

"You got this. You're okay," Cammie said.

Steve nodded, squeezing her hand before hopping towards the stairs. Cammie looked over her shoulder, seeing Robin and Nancy starting to follow. Cammie turned back around, following Steve towards the stairs.

"How are you feeling, Cam?" Nancy whispered.

"I think the adrenaline is kicking in," Cammie whispered back. "But let's not waste any time. Gotta save Max before he kills her and opens the gates," she said.

"What she said," Steve nodded, starting to creep up the stairs on his tip toes.

Cammie followed, wobbling slightly as she landed a little too close to the end of the step she was on. She quickly jumped up to the next one, biting her bottom lip as she looked up. More vines were everywhere above them and her stomach turned.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Cammie whispered, freezing where she was.

Now was not the time to freak out, but now was the time Cammie's brain decided her adrenaline had done the bare minimum and her anxiety could take over.

This was the same house as the one in her nightmares. As soon as she got up into that attic, Vecna would be waiting for her and he would snap her throat or gouge her eyes out or rip her into a million pieces.

He was going to kill her.

"Hey, Cam, what is it?" Steve said, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Did you touch one?" Robin said, stood two steps below Cammie.

"No," Cammie shook her head, her hands coming up to rest on her head. "I just realised... He's really going to be up there, isn't he?" Cammie said.

The others nodded.

"But it's gonna be okay. You're not alone like you are in your nightmares. We're here, this time," Robin said, putting her hand on Cammie's shoulder.

Cammie nodded, though she still didn't move.

"Robin, you keep going. Cam and I are right behind you," Nancy said.

Robin and Steve looked at Nancy, who nodded to tell them to move.

"You heard me," Nancy said.

"This whole attitude is totally working for my little sapphic self. She's teasing me with my mommy issues," Robin muttered to Cammie, who barely held back a laugh.

"I know, right? Nancy and a gun blew my mind the first time I saw it. Hot, with a capital H," Cammie whispered back, making Robin laugh again.

"Ladies, this bonding is brilliant but let's move, please," Steve said.

Robin rolled her eyes fondly, sidestepping Cammie as she moved to follow Steve further up the stairs. Nancy stepped up behind Cammie, grabbing her hand.

"I've got you. I'm going to be with you the whole time. I know I'm not Max, but I'm here for you. Whatever happens in there, you're always going to have me," Nancy whispered.

Cammie squeezed her hand, nodding.

"Okay. I'm okay," Cammie whispered.

"You're okay," Nancy whispered back.

Cammie let go of her hand, turning back around and moving up the stairs. Nancy followed until the four of them were stood on the middle landing of the stairs, all eyeing the door to the attic covered in vines.

"Ugh," Robin whispered.

Nancy sighed, trying to reach off her backpack. Steve grabbed it, handing Nancy her gun. The thunder was rumbling loudly outside and it didn't make Cammie feel any better as she pulled her hunting knife out of her belt. Steve grabbed his axe, while Robin took the flashlights from the others.

A loud crack of thunder sounded above them and the house shook violently, the four of them stumbling as they grabbed each other for leverage.

"Is this an earthquake?!" Cammie cried, squeezing onto Nancy's arm as she tried not to fall over.

The house stopped shaking and Cammie took a deep breath, shaking her head.

"Fuck this shit. I want to go home," Cammie said.

The sound of something slithering on the floor caught their attention and they all looked down, seeing one of the vines swirling itself around Robin's ankle. They all looked up, eyes wide.

Robin's feet were yanked under her, body hitting the floor before more vines grabbed her by the limbs and hoisted her up onto the wall.

"Fuck! Help!" Robin cried.

Nancy quickly charged forward, starting to hit the vines with the butt of her rifle. Steve charged forward, hacking near Robin's wrist with his axe. Cammie levitated her knife in the air, sending it to Robin's feet to try and free her ankles while she grabbed her own axe and went after the vines near Robin's legs.

Steve's body was yanked backwards and Cammie turned her head, seeing a vine had caught his axe and more were quickly wrapping around his waist. One slithered around his neck, squeezing tightly as he was lifted higher and higher against the wall.

Nancy fell onto her face a second later, screaming as vines grabbed her and pinned her sideways to the wall. Cammie didn't have time to do anything more than send her axe in the air towards Nancy before a vine wrapped around her neck, yanking her towards the high ceiling above them.

Another vine slithered around Cammie's waist from each side and she grabbed the one around her neck, trying to wedge her fingers between the suction it had on her throat as she kicked her legs to try and hit the vines coming towards her.

"Cammie!" Nancy screamed, a vine quickly wrapping itself around Nancy's mouth to shut her up.

Vines slithered around Cammie's arms, pulling her hands away from her throat to stop her from fighting. Cammie froze in the air, holding her breath as she tried to figure out the pattern of the vines seemingly breathing around her neck.

When she stopped fighting, they didn't squeeze too hard. She could still breathe if she stayed calm, which would mean ignoring the fact she was way higher than the others and was floating in the middle of the air.

Cammie closed her eyes, taking a few shallow breaths to try and calm her racing heart.

When she'd imagined dying in the Upside Down, she had not imagined dying before she even got to Vecna. It seemed so stupid to die because of some fucking vines. Like, vines, of all things to kill Cammie, it would be the things she could supposedly control herself.

It was like a lightbulb went off above Cammie's head.

"I'm so fucking stupid," Cammie whispered.

Nancy, Robin and Steve's eyes snapped up to her, eyebrows raised in the questions they couldn't physically ask.

"My tentacles. They're the same as the vines. I can control them. I just don't know how," Cammie whispered.

Cammie cursed herself now for being so pissed off at Callum after the mall for possessing her. If she'd stopped being so selfish and butthurt and actually bothered to talk to him before Vecna appeared, she would've been able to retrain with these final two gifts she didn't understand or know how to control.

She would be more prepared and she'd actually be able to do something. And she figured that right now would be the worst time to dip into the void and take a minute to have a lesson, so it was up to her to figure out a way to get free. Right here, right now.

Cammie clenched her fists at her side, forcing a portal to open up in front of her. She tried to move forward, but the vines wrapped tighter around her neck, her throat starting to cave shut from the pressure. Cammie let out a small whimper before the vines wrapped tighter, the portal slowly flickering out as Cammie tried to bring her hands up to her throat to stop the vines from choking her.

Nancy tried to pull herself free from the wall. Cammie was choking above them, her body trembling as the vines seemed to try and squeeze the life out of her wide eyes. Steve was forcing his legs to try and kick his own vines off, while Robin was crying and trying to yank her arms free. Nothing they did seemed to free them, leaving them to watch as Cammie choked for air.

Cammie closed her eyes, chest panging with the lack of oxygen. She was freezing and the vines were sticky on her skin. Her eyes rolled back in her head, vision going dark, but Cammie forced her eyes open, starting to kick her legs beneath her as hard as she could.

Her fists clenched around the vines holding her in the air by her wrists, the electricity stinging in her fingers. Cammie's eyes fluttered shut again, the white light dying on her fingers before it could really grow into more than some sparkles.

Steve let out a strangled scream, banging his head on the wall behind him to try and wake her up. Cammie's hands twitched, eyes forcing themselves back open as she squeezed the vines around her wrists to try and either crush them with her strength or control them enough to stop suffocating her.

Cammie focused entirely on the white light forming at her fingers, forcing it to move inside of the vines as they all tried to squeeze tighter, fighting to get away from the growing white light now starting to brighten the dark space. Cammie whimpered again, head burning from the lack of oxygen.

Her eyes were closed, eyes moving from left to right under the eyelids as she fought to move the vines choking her. Her entire body felt like it was burning from the feeling of the vines on her and the lack of air in her lungs, though Cammie forced herself to keep going.

They were all relying on her. They needed her.

But Cammie's head was pounding and she could feel her energy slowly disappearing, body weak and shaky. Someone was powerbanking her, but this didn't hurt like when Vecna had. This felt more familiar, like El, but it didn't make sense. El didn't have her powers back.

Then again, El had been in the void when Cammie and Callum talked. He hadn't owned that memory, but Eleven had shared her own memories several times with Cammie in the void and they all felt similar to the memory of Peter getting sent to the Upside Down, so El must have something to do with this.

The white light in Cammie's hand disappeared against the surface of the vines around her wrists, entire body going limp in the air. Steve could feel tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared at his little sister, unsure if she'd just stopped trying or had succumbed to the suffocation.

Nancy and Robin were watching Steve, tears on their own cheeks as they saw the devastated look on his face.

They didn't even notice the vines around them slowly unwrapping until Robin hit the floor face first, groaning in pain. Nancy fell after her, then Steve, barely landing on his feet as they stared up at Cammie.

The vines around her limbs were slowly unwinding and her body was lowering itself down, though she still didn't seem to be awake. Steve grabbed her waist when she was close enough, dropping to his knees as he cradled her to his chest, fingers scrabbling for a pulse.

"She's alive. She's alive," Steve whispered, resting his forehead against Cammie's as he started to sob.

Nancy and Robin dropped to their knees beside him, putting their hands on his back to try and reassure him.

"You're getting me all wet with your tears, you big baby," Cammie mumbled from under Steve's hunched over body, shaky hands trying to push his wet face off her hair.

"Oh, fuck," Robin sighed in relief.

"You're okay. I love you. Oh my god, you're okay and I love you," Steve mumbled, squeezing tightly to Cammie.

"I'm okay, and I love you, too. I don't know if I did that, or not. But, uh, I definitely have a headache and it feels like I'm being powerbanked. I'm quite dizzy," Cammie mumbled.

"Powerbanked? By Vecna?" Nancy said.

Cammie shook her head, letting Steve help her to her feet as she took a few shaky breaths to try and stop seeing three of everyone.

"El. I think she might have her powers back. I don't know how, but the memory of Peter getting turned into Vecna was hers and she showed it to me when I needed answers, so maybe she's helping us," Cammie said.

"Whatever it was, it was a miracle," Robin muttered. 

"Then we better not waste it," Nancy said, cocking her rifle. "Cam?" she said.

Cammie nodded, clenching her fists a few times as she tried to prepare herself for what would be waiting for them upstairs.

"Phase four," Steve rasped.

"Flambé," Robin said.

"My rules when we get upstairs, remember," Cammie said, stepping forward and pulling open the door that was now free from vines.

"Yeah, yeah, you're the boss lady. We know," Robin said.

"You better listen to me, or I'll be really pissed off," Cammie said, starting to walk up the deteriorating stairs.

"We will. We promise," Nancy said, ushering Steve and Robin after Cammie.

The four of them slowly stepped into the attic, seeing Vecna was floating in the air in the middle of the room, several vines holding him up into place. Dust particles floated in the air and Cammie felt a shiver up her spine as she stared at the closed eyes of the fucking demon from hell who was ruining her life this time.

Steve, Nancy and Robin looked at her and she nodded, watching Robin bend down and pull out one of the molotov cocktails. She handed it to Steve and turned her lighter on, lighting up the rag in the glass.

The rag lit up in flames, Steve adjusting the bottle in his hand and throwing it at Vecna. The glass hit him in the chest and exploded, Vecna screeching as he started burning. The teens flinched back from the light, but Cammie was already grabbing the next cocktail for Robin.

Vecna's vines quickly burnt and he fell to the ground, looking up at them with a glare. Nancy held her gun pointed at him, but he wasn't watching Nancy. He was watching Cammie.

"Thirteen. How we finally meet again," Vecna whispered, a sick smile on his face.

"Not for long, asshole," Cammie said, Robin launching the other cocktail at him as he started advancing towards them.

Cammie clenched her fists, focusing on the energy she could feel pulsating in this room. A small dust cloud picked up at her feet and she held onto it, forcing it up into the air and keeping it close to her as it picked up in speed, the white glow starting to get brighter as Cammie controlled it in her hands.

"Nancy, go," Cammie winced in pain.

Nancy stepped forward, firing her gun at Vecna as he was pushed back with the impact each time. Cammie clenched her fists and nodded at Steve.

"Nancy, move!" Steve said.

Nancy quickly ducked to the side and Cammie stepped forward, staring Vecna in the eye as he crouched on his hands and knees. He had the same look as Peter had in her void; sick and twisted.

"It's too late, Thirteen. I have Max," Vecna whispered.

"I'd know if you did. You're a fucking liar," Cammie said.

She pushed her hands forward, focusing all of her energy into this one beam of white light. It hit Vecna in his chest and Cammie let out a small whimper, a sharp pain starting to move back up the beam of light and towards her.

It was like he was trying to force it back to her, but Cammie couldn't let him win. He couldn't have Max or she would know. She'd feel the pull to the void, or they'd hear the four chimes. He was a liar.

Cammie would know if Max was dead. She'd know.

Cammie stepped forward, legs trembling as she walked towards Vecna, pushing him back with her energy. Nancy, Steve and Robin had taken cover, squinting through their fingers as they watched Cammie push Vecna towards the wall of the attic.

He seemed to be absorbing the white light, screaming in pain as Cammie fought to stay conscious. He was powerbanking her to send her own energy back up towards her, the light hitting her sharply in her own chest.

The pain was horrific, like being burnt alive or maybe freezing to death. Whatever it was, it was burning Cammie from the inside out, blood freezing in her veins and copper on her tongue as her nose poured with blood, blood starting to leak from the corners of her eyes and mingling with the dirt and tear stains on her cheeks.

The energy in the room was hot and even Robin, Steve and Nancy could feel it getting hotter and hotter. Cammie's entire body was trembling as her arms shook from holding up the energy beam. Her arms bent at the elbows, the light dying off temporarily as Vecna started to get back to his feet.

Cammie let out a strangled groan, voice cracking as she shot one final push at Vecna with all of the energy she could muster. He screeched as he fell backwards out of the attic, the wood smashing with the impact of his weight. The entire room lit up with a bright white light, burning stars into the eyes of the older teens as they recoiled back, the shock of the energy sending them onto their backs on the floor.

Cammie dropped her hands, panting as she fell to her knees. Her hands hit the ground and she bowed her head, closing her eyes as she tried to focus on her breathing so she didn't pass out for the second time in ten minutes.

She was insanely dizzy and she could hear ringing in her ears. Her neck was aching and her limbs felt stiff from the vines holding her hostage in the air. Her body was still burning from the inside out, whatever she'd done with that energy to Vecna now doing the same to her because he had used her own energy to send the pain back to her. If this was dying, Callum was a fucking liar. It hurt like a bitch.

"Cam," Nancy, Steve and Robin were at her side within seconds of scrambling to their feet, grabbing her by the waist and trying to sit her up.

"'M okay. Let's just go home," Cammie slurred out, head spinning as she straightened up.

Nancy grabbed Cammie and pulled her to her feet, wrapping her arm around Cammie's waist as Steve and Robin grabbed the bags. They hurried ahead, Nancy practically dragging Cammie down the stairs as fast as she could. They left out of the front door, staring down at a charred spot on the grass where Vecna should've been lying dead.

Cammie stared at the spot for a few seconds before she felt a sharp pull in her chest, sagging against Nancy's chest as her body started to give in to the agony and tried to send her somewhere safe, like her void.

"Oh, shit. I'm out. I'm out," Cammie quickly muttered, knees buckling underneath her.

"Cam!" Nancy squeaked, but it was too late.

Cammie was unconscious on the grass, eyes rolled back in her head as she slipped into the void. Steve quickly dropped to his knees beside her, hand feeling for her neck. His face paled.

"No pulse."

"Seizure? Or..." Robin trailed off.

Steve didn't answer, staring at Cammie's body as he waited for her to decide what it would be.

A clock chimed faintly behind them and their eyes all snapped towards the house.

"Stay here," Nancy told Steve, grabbing Robin and running back to the house.

They stopped in front of the clock, counting the chimes of the clock.

"Four chimes," Robin whispered, stomach sinking.

"Max?" Nancy looked at Robin, tears stinging her eyes. "Or Cammie?"