CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
RECRUITING STEVE HARRINGTON

"IT'S HERE." JONATHAN began as he hurried over to the table to grab the bat, Athena holding the frying pan up defensively as she gripped on to its handle tighter.

"Wait, what's here?" Steve disbelievingly inquired, eyes widening at Athena and Jonathan's odd actions. "Where is what- woah! Easy with those!"

"Where is it?" Nancy called over the sound of the lightbulbs rapidly flickering on and off, Jonathan and Athena hurrying over to join her as they formed a small circle in order to cover every base.

"I don't know." Jonathan shook his head cluelessly.

"I don't see it." Athena concurred as she furrowed her eyebrows, the girl whipping around to try and locate the creature, the urgency of the situation now heightening instantly.

"Where is what?!" Steve yelled, eyes wildly darting between the trio as he was utterly stunned at the entire scene, which seemed to only increase in its incomprehension.

Neither of the other three answered him as they were clearly preoccupied with their current quest, Steve's eyes widening as his voice increased in tone. "Hello?! Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going o-"

Interrupting Steve's quickly-strung words, the sound of a loud thud caught their collective attention, each of them now whipping around to face the roof, which was now completely caving in, the Demogorgon's long, stringy arms gradually tearing through the thick mahogany.

Nancy shot at it, though her attempts were to no avail as all the Demogorgon did in response was cry out angrily and continue to rip through the roof, Jonathan advancing towards Nancy, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, and pulling her back towards him and Athena. "Go! Go, run, go!"

Steve was entirely filled with paralysing bewilderment as he stared at the Demogorgon with limitless terror, Nancy just grabbing his hand and securely pulling him with the group as they hurried into another room, neither of them missing the booming roar the Demogorgon let out.

"Jump!" Athena called out as Steve had no choice but to follow her orders, the boy jumping over the bear trap as each of them now entered one of the bedrooms.

Steve, throughout all of this journey, was yelling out petrified, "oh my god!", screams, the boy not being able to conceptualise what he just witnessed.

As Steve stumbled into the room behind the trio, he darted his eyes wildly between the group. "Jesus, what the hell was that?! What the hell was that?!"

Athena, Nancy and Jonathan glared at him with unfounded irritation as they all simultaneously called out, "shut up!", before they whipped around to face the door again.

Athena held her frying pan out, Jonathan holding the bat with nails in it and a lighter tightly, and Nancy aiming her gun towards the door.

Steve's breathing was erratic, the boy still completely befuddled at this entire experience, and as the group listened to the Demogorgon take thudding steps away from the house carefully, they soon came to realise that it was leaving.

"What's it doing?" Nancy quietly started, directing the perplexed words to Athena and Jonathan.

"I don't know." Jonathan released a shuddering breath as his eyebrows creased inwards.

"I think it's leaving." Athena breathed out as the sound of the Demogorgon's retreating, thudding steps signified that it was surrendering—at least, momentarily.

As the lights stopped flickering, the yo-yo didn't trigger, and Athena, Nancy and Jonathan shared brief, puzzled looks before their—once determined—expressions faded.

"Do you hear anything?" Nancy inquired softly.

Jonathan closed the lighter lid as he shook his head and verbalised Athena's thoughts. "No."

Just like that, Jonathan, Nancy and Athena began to cautiously make their way out of the room, Steve huddling oddly close to Athena, as she was the last one to leave the room before he did, who shot him a disgruntled look and whispered out an irked, "get away from me", as she moved closer to Jonathan and Nancy.

The three abruptly turned the corner, weapons still raised due to the foreboding nature of the scene, and when there was no trace of the Demogorgon, they each visibly deflated. Despite the Demogorgon's lack of presence, neither of them could remain relaxed, as they knew it would come back eventually—especially Steve, who was entirely attached to Nancy, face filled with utter trepidation.

Steve began to quietly mutter to himself in an attempt to make sense of whatever he just saw, though his seemingly conflicted thoughts had only reinforced his clear, unbridled unrest. "This is crazy...this is crazy...this is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!"

Then, Steve jolted towards the telephone attached to the wall and began to dial the station until Nancy hurried over, snatched the telephone from his hands—effectively ripping it off its socket—and roughly threw it to the ground, eliciting even more shock from Steve. "What are you do- what are you doing, are you insane?!"

"It's going to come back!" Nancy called over his loud protests, her voice entirely firm as she immediately shut him up. "So you need to leave. Right now."

Steve evidently didn't need to be told twice.

As he looked between the group and Jonathan's front door, it was obvious, to Athena, at least, that the boy had internally made his decision to leave, and he sped over to the door, stumbling over his own feet as he slammed the door shut behind him.

There wasn't even a moment of calm before the lights flickered violently on-and-off once more, signifying the Demogorgon's impending arrival.

Arming themselves with their selective weapons again, Athena, Nancy and Jonathan circled together once more.

"Where is it?!" Nancy exclaimed over the sound of the threateningly loud flickering lights.

"Come on!" Athena called loudly, trying to lure the creature inside so they could kill it as soon as they could.

"Come on, you son of a bitch," Jonathan furiously gritted out through his teeth. "You see it?"

"No." Athena and Nancy both attested with shakes of their heads as they all continued to whip their heads around to get a glimpse of the monster.

"Come on," Jonathan grew angrier with every passing second, the tension substantially increasing and contributing to the group's collective anxiety. "Where are you?! Come on!"

Then, the lights entirely shut off.

There was, almost a poignant, moment of silence before a low, rumbling growl suddenly sounded from behind Jonathan, and as Athena and Nancy whipped around, they both widened their eyes and simultaneously shouted out a loud warning. "Jonathan!"

The lights flickered back on right as the Demogorgon pushed Jonathan to the ground, the boy releasing a pained groan as he involuntarily released the bat and fell back-first to the wooden floor.

"Jonathan, no!" Athena screamed as her and Nancy watched the incident with pure terror, the lights now rapidly flashing on-and-off and briefly obstructing their view of the monster.

The Demogorgon's slimy hand clasped heavily atop Jonathan's chest, thus restricting the boy's ability to properly breathe, and as it gradually lowered his head down to Jonathan's level with a chittering growl, a trail of gooey slime dripped from its chin and right onto Jonathan's face.

The creature then opened its huge mouth, baring its thousands of razor-sharp teeth and roaring out a booming sound, thus eliciting Jonathan to widen his eyes entirely, the boy filled with bone-chilling dread as his, already narrow, breathing involuntarily accelerated.

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" Nancy exclaimed furiously as she gritted her teeth and rapidly shot bullets at the creature, causing it to abruptly stand up and face the girls in surprise.

Athena took the creature's momentary stupor as the perfect opportunity to swing the heavy frying pan right to the side of its pulsing head, an adrenaline-ridden yell tearing through her throat as she advanced towards the Demogorgon in order to do so.

Her attempt was surprisingly successful, and as she used a good portion of her upper arm strength to slam the heaviest part of the metal frying pan right into its head, the Demogorgon cried out and stumbled back in minor injury, causing Jonathan to finally inhale a good portion of air and cough out strained breaths as the creature's grip released from his chest.

Athena knew that the damage, and momentary paralysis, that she caused within the monster would not last forever, and she immediately stumbled back and over her own feet to join Nancy, her breathing involuntarily quickening in utter perturbation as she kept her fearful eyes entirely focused on the Demogorgon.

Nancy attempted to shoot at it again as the girls both terrifyingly watched the Demogorgon slowly rise and recover from the previous attack, though to her and Athena's incredible dismay, her gun had now run out of bullets.

The creature confrontationally advanced towards them in a quick movement, opening its face to reveal its razor sharp teeth, and as Nancy and Athena stumbled back, the sound of a loud yell caught their attention, and Steve Harrington had managed to slip between them and the Demogorgon, effectively switching the creature's focus from them to him.

"Steve?!" Nancy ripped out a disbelieving call at his presence.

As the monster jolted towards Steve, the boy just swung the bat with nails, that he had previously secured from the ground, right towards it, the weapon resolutely connecting with the Demogorgon's stomach and eliciting a tortured, low scream from it as it stumbled back.

Steve let out a determined yell as he swung at it again, and once more, the bat violently connected with the monster.

Steve seemed to have found his momentum, and he twisted the bat around with one hand before he gripped onto the handle with both—it looked as though the scene in front of Athena was out of a movie as Steve swung more firmly—, and sending the monster falling back, right on to the bear trap.

Triggering the yo-yo, the Demogorgon was now stuck in the bear trap, Athena and Nancy jolting forward to join Steve as the boy called out an authoritative, "he's in the trap!".

"It's stuck! Jonathan, now!" Athena commanded out an exclamation as all eyes were focused on the Demogorgon struggling to release its ankles from the sharp, piercing confines of the trap.

Steve and Athena both gripped the handles of their respective weapons tightly, their hardened eyes shooting daggers into the creature as they were suddenly overtaken with an otherworldly sense of tenaciousness, Nancy still holding on to the empty gun as Jonathan hurried towards them with the lighter.

He threw the lighter as far away from the team as possible, and almost immediately, the ground lit up in bright flames and consequently doused the creature with blinding, burning light.

Steve and Jonathan immediately covered their eyes at the sight, Athena and Nancy squinting to try and protect their irises as they watched the creature disappear behind the flames in horror.

Once the momentary bemusement of the sight was immediately replaced with blood-pumping adrenaline, Jonathan hurried to the side as he grabbed the fire extinguisher and rejoined the team, spraying it all over the burning fire as he called out a direct warning, "Get back!"

Steve kept his eyes focused entirely on the sight ahead of them, and he held his arm out and pushed Nancy, and consequently Athena, back, Nancy grabbing his wrist for extra security as he did so.

The hallway was now engulfed with overwhelming smoke as a result of the pressure from the extinguisher's blast, and as the smoke eventually faded, enveloping the entire house with cloudy ash, the team released throaty coughs to rid themselves of the smoke that began to trickle into their systems.

The sheer amount of fumes from both the fire and the extinguisher nestled into Athena's chest, and the girl felt her chest constrict with every deep cough that she let out in order to rid herself of the dust. It seemed as though the other members of the team felt the same as they each eventually managed to cough out the fumes.

They forced themselves to quickly recover, choosing survival over temporary relief, and as they armed themselves with their respective, and now wordlessly assigned, weapons, they released deep, heaving breaths as they took small steps towards the bear trap.

"Where did it go?" Nancy uttered out the question as each of them furrowed their eyebrows in utter disbelief.

"No, it has to be dead." Jonathan struggled to get the sentence out.

"It has to be." Athena huffed out as they each glanced down at the bear trap, which was now decorated with slimy, bubbling skin from the burned Demogorgon, charcoal now staining a small portion of the carpet below, where the Demogorgon once stood.

As a brief period of perturbed silence overtook the four, Athena just glanced at Steve briefly, the girl blowing out another breath as she slightly tilted her head and referred to his previous actions in luring the Demogorgon to the trap, "I say this with great reluctance, but...nice shot."

Steve returned her brief look with a puzzled one of his own—he did not expect Athena to ever praise him—, before he swallowed and focused on the hallway in front of the group, the boy trying to internally make sense of the completely unbelievable sight he just witnessed and was apart of.

"I think we're okay." Athena spoke up after another quiet moment, her voice underlined with apprehension.

The uncertainty of the moment was immediately amplified as they all watched the lights flicker back on, and the sight signified the fact that they were now safe, though immense apprehension still lingered within each of them.

The teenagers slowly approached the living room, Steve and Athena still holding onto their weapons while Nancy and Jonathan had lowered theirs to their sides, all of their eyebrows now furrowing as they witnessed Jonathan approach one of the, still flickering, lightbulbs, this act starting a new trail of multiple permanently lit up bulbs.

"Mom..." Jonathan whispered in utter shock, proposing the idea that Joyce was somehow in the Upside Down—similar to when Nancy entered the underworld and could still communicate with Jonathan and Athena. "Is that you? Mom?"

Athena shifted her attention to the window by the door, her eyebrows furrowing even deeper as she advanced towards the porch and lowered the frying pan to remain at her side, the rest of the teenagers deciding to follow after her in wholehearted curiosity.

As the group stepped on the Byers' wooden porch, they were now focused on the street lamp a fair distance from their current position, the fixture now lighting up and conveying some movement in the Upside Down.

"Where's it going?" Nancy softly spoke up as Steve rested the part of the bat that wasn't adorned with sharp nails against his shoulder and behind his neck comfortably.

"I don't think that's the monster." Jonathan stated in an overwhelmed, hushed tone, and simultaneously, Athena, Nancy and Steve darted their eyes to the boy in perplexity, Steve and Athena reverting their eyes back to the light while Nancy let her gaze linger on the side of Jonathan's face a little longer.

•

Everyone was currently in the hospital, waiting for any news of Will waking up from his medically-induced coma.

While the teenagers were busy fighting the Demogorgon, the kids were at the school, trying to escape the clutches of Eleven's captors. The attempt was semi-successful, though simultaneously semi-fruitless, as Eleven had managed to get the scientists off the kids' trail, but had somehow disappeared, leaving the kids—especially Mike—distraught.

Steve was sitting beside Mike's sleeping father, face entirely blank as he was internally processing what had occurred earlier, Athena currently sitting beside Nancy with her arms crossed over her chest and her brain racing with millions of conflicting thoughts, Mabel to the other side of her older sister and resting her head on Athena's shoulder as she stared at the ground sadly, Dustin and Lucas sleeping soundly next to Mabel, and Mike just forcing himself not to cry in the seat beside Lucas.

No one uttered a single word, each of their faces filled with downcast emotions and revealing the obvious fact that they were all trying to internally piece together their own respective, traumatic experiences, though Will's safety and status of life was the main priority on their minds, despite the memories of their own confronting events still being fresh.

As if on cue, Jonathan entering the waiting room and catching everyone's attention signified the fact that Will was okay, Mike and Mabel immediately sitting up and making movements to head into the hospital room, Mike waking up Lucas and Dustin on the way. "Guys, guys, he's up! Will's up! Come on!"

Athena managed to smile fondly at their excitement, and both her and Nancy stood up to follow after their siblings.

The kids burst through Will's hospital room, each of them letting out relieved and happy calls of his name as they each engulfed Will into a tight group-hug.

"Be careful," Joyce let out a small chuckle as she watched the kids enthusiastically greet their friend. "Be careful with him."

"Guys, guys, go easy on him." Jonathan huffed a laugh at their unbridled excitement as he stood in front of Nancy.

Will hugged the boys and Mabel back, wide toothy grin plastered across his face as they each pulled away.

"You won't believe what happened when you were gone, man." Lucas began, wide smile plastered across his face.

"It was mental." Dustin affirmed with a grin.

"You should've seen everyone, Byers!" Mabel giggled excitedly.

"You had a funeral." Lucas chimed in, Will's eyebrows raising as he tried to digest the immeasurably confusing information he was currently being fed, eyes darting between his friends.

"Jennifer Hayes was crying." Dustin added with a chuckle.

"And Troy peed himself." Lucas nodded happily.

"What?" Will managed to let out a weak, surprised inquiry as he tried to use as much energy that he could muster to widen his eyes.

"Yeah, it was so funny!" Mabel grinned widely.

"In front of the whole school!" Dustin affirmed with raised brows as the kids all watched Will laugh before coughing right into the back of his hand, their, previously eager, smiles now steadfastly fading at the sight.

Letting out a small breath as she watched the kids reconnect with Will, as well as taking note of Nancy and Jonathan's careful surveillance over them, Athena made the decision to turn around and head back to the waiting room, the girl abruptly stopping at the sight of Hopper engaged in a hushed, yet heated, discussion with none other than her mother at the end of the hallway.

Athena felt her heart nauseously drop to her feet at the sight, and she involuntarily uncrossed her arms as she just watched her mother's expression twist into one of fury at Hopper, who was trying to calm her down from the sight of his hands going up to make a 'relax' gesture.

Athena, not wanting Hopper to deal with her mother, just released a long and sympathetic breath and made her way down the hallway, the girl catching the brunt of the argument as she appeared beside them.

"No, don't tell me to calm down, Jim, these are my daughters!" Eleanor practically screamed in Hopper's face.

"Eleanor, stop yelling, your daughters are fine. Okay? They're safe, they're fine." Hopper tried to soften his tone, though Eleanor's immense rage was making it immeasurably hard for him to remain calm.

"Why won't anyone tell me what happened?! Athena and Mabel could've been hurt, they could've died, Jim! My daughters!" Eleanor's voice wavered as her previously heated glare on Hopper slightly faded at the morose thought.

"We're fine, mom. Like Hopper just said, we're okay." Athena calmly interjected, now effectively catching Eleanor and Hopper's attention.

"Oh, Athena, honey," Eleanor let out a relieved breath as she just engulfed her eldest daughter into the tightest bear hug she could muster. "When I got the call that you and Mabel were involved in some incident at the school, I had a heart attack. I didn't even tell Dave where I was going, that's how panicked I was."

Athena wrapped one arm around her mother as she gently stroked her back, the girl sending Hopper a 'thank you' look as the man nodded at her and gently patted her shoulder once in wordless support before he retreated back to the waiting room with the others.

"What the hell happened?" Eleanor couldn't even bring herself to scold her daughter for not informing her of her whereabouts as she pulled away from Athena and surveyed her with a quick swipe of her concerned eyes.

At the words, Athena was suddenly overtaken with the urge to hug her again—a semi-unfamiliar feeling for her. Usually, she'd be self-sufficient and would find other ways to soothe herself—primarily because she didn't want any comfort from someone who would unwaveringly support her verbally abusive husband over her biological children—, but Athena was exhausted.

She was both physically and mentally exhausted from, not only the dull ache in her bones that resulted from the non-stop action she had recently been apart of, but also the toll that internalising every single event that took place, all within the span of a few days, took on her mentality.

All of the newfound knowledge of the entire other world that Athena had come to, just now, process was hitting her all at once, and all she craved was one moment of peace. One moment to let her mind think of something other than impending doom.

All she needed was a hug from her mother.

So, taking advantage of the rare instance of her mother actually prioritising her for once, Athena just shook her head and uttered out a quiet response, the girl trying her best not to let herself let, even a singular, tear slip down her cheek—if she let herself cry, she knew the wave of emotions that would follow wouldn't let her stop for a while.

"It doesn't matter, mom." Athena sighed as she just took a step forward and wrapped her arms securely around her mother's torso, Eleanor raising her eyebrows in momentary surprise before reciprocating the act and sliding her arms tightly around Athena's waist.

•

ONE MONTH LATER...

The kids were currently playing a round of D&D, Mabel watching as uninterestingly as usual, and when Athena had come by to pick up her sister after several hours too long, she had been effectively trapped into an intervention, of sorts, by Nancy.

"Am I supposed to watch you guys basically make out the entire time I'm waiting for my sister?" Athena cringed at Nancy and Steve, who were sitting on the Wheeler's couch, Steve's arm wrapped around Nancy and Nancy's head resting on his shoulder.

Nancy rolled her eyes at Athena as she sat up at the words, Steve shooting Athena a brief glare in disagreement. "Okay, no one is leaving until we fix this weird tension between you guys."

"As soon as Jonathan gets here to pick up Will, I'm leaving with Mabel." Athena raised her eyebrows at Nancy as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"One thing we can agree on." Steve muttered, earning himself an exasperated look from his girlfriend in response.

Athena narrowed her eyes at the boy as she fired back an insult. "Just because I complimented you once, doesn't mean I like you."

"Okay, that's it, I've had enough of you guys hating each other," Nancy abruptly interjected before either of them could protest, her voice firm as her eyes flickered between them. "Steve, Athena is my best friend. Athena, Steve is my boyfriend. You guys have daily tutoring sessions, and in saying that, there'll be times where we'll all be together, so you're both just going to have to deal with spending time with each other for certain periods of time. Got it?"

Athena narrowed her eyes slightly at Nancy, but simultaneously knew that the girl had a valid point. There was, unfortunately, no way to escape Steve, no matter how hard she tried—especially because he was currently dating her best friend, as her said best friend had just outlined.

Athena didn't want to admit it, considering the fact that she knew that Steve was incredibly stubborn—possibly more stubborn than she was—, but it seemed as though he was thinking of the same thing from the way that he let out a small sigh of agreement.

They both managed to share a small glance, and simultaneously flickering their eyes to Nancy, who had now raised her eyebrows and glanced between them intently, they each nodded in understanding.

"Fine," Athena reluctantly spoke up. "I'll try to...give him a chance."

Nancy smiled in approval at Athena before she turned to Steve and raised her eyebrows. "Steve?"

Steve shot Nancy an unamused look before he took note of the unwaveringly determined look behind her eyes and decided to let out a hesitant sigh, unsatisfactorily glancing away momentarily before shifting his eyes back to Nancy. "Fine."

Nancy's smile grew in satisfaction at their mutual—unwilling but mutual, regardless—agreement, and she shifted her eyes between the pair happily. "Thank you."

As if on cue, Mabel jumped up the basement stairs and appeared in the entrance of the living room, catching her sister's attention. "Thena, do we have to go?"

Athena stood up, the girl sending her sister a tight-lipped smile as she approached her. "Unless you want a lecture from Dave about the importance of a curfew."

Mabel frowned at her sister. "But Jonathan isn't even here to pick up Will yet."

As if on cue, the sound of a few knocks on the front door caught the group's attention, Athena raising her eyebrows as she glanced at her sister. "Now he is."

Mabel released a protesting groan of annoyance as she rolled her eyes, but made her way towards the front door, anyway.

"I'll see you on Monday, Nance." Athena huffed out a small chuckle as she turned to say bye to Nancy before she began to follow after her sister.

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
season one is officially finished!
🥳🥳🥳

i promise, season two (and three) will be so much more entertaining than season one! all the character growth, fun scenes, and ship development is all in the other seasons, i can't wait to publish more chapters and refine, not only athena and mabel's characters, but athena and steve's relationship too. they're so cute, i can't wait for you to read their relationship arc 🤭

© voidvaleska