El simply looked at Steve as he gathered his thoughts.

"I've been dreaming about Eddie," he told her. "I thought it was just my subconscious dealing with the guilt of leaving him there, but now I'm not so sure. I don't think he's dead, I think he's like me."

"Why do you think that?" El asked.

"Because he looked like this," he flashed his claws to illustrate, "before I knew I did too. And ..." he wasn't sure how to explain it. "And I think we're connected."

"The demobats were all connected to Vecna," El said, her little frown back as she considered it, "it is possible, because you were both exposed before he died, that a reflection of that was passed on."

Steve didn't really like the idea of being a throwback to Vecna, but it made a weird kind of sense.

"What do you want to do?" El asked.

"I want to go back in and get him," Steve said without hesitation.

"That would be dangerous," El pointed out. "The gates are unstable."

"I know," he said, "and I know you didn't know him, but Eddie sacrificed himself for Dustin, for us. He's all alone, El, and he's terrified. He needs our help."

He wasn't really expecting the curt nod to that, but almost immediately El was standing up and taking his hand.

"We need to speak to Dad," she said and basically dragged him back towards the cabin as he internally panicked.

"El," he said, finally refusing to go any further as they neared the door, "what are we going to tell him?"

"Everything," was her simple and straightforward response.

El's tone was so resolute that Steve couldn't argue, but as he let her lead him into the house, he was terrified.

"Dad," El said, finding Hopper sitting at the table reading the paper, "we need to go back into the Upside Down."

Hopper's hands tightened on the edges of his paper and Steve found himself on the end of a judgemental glare.

"Eddie's alive," was the best he could do to explain himself.

"He sent you a message?" Hopper asked, his glare lessening at the news.

"You could say that," Steve said.

"What's going on?" Hopper asked.

El looked at Steve and gave him a small supportive smile, and wasn't that a kicker, the teenager supporting the legal adult.

"The bat creatures," Steve said, even as his heart thudded in his chest, "there was more to them than we guessed. Eddie ... I ..."

He couldn't find the words. Feeling like he was about to step off a cliff, he picked up the very solid knife from Hopper's breakfast toast plate and bent the handle in half like it was plasticine. For a terrifying few seconds, Hopper just stared at the twisted piece of cutlery. Then his eyes flicked up to Steve's face and Steve could barely breathe.

Jim Hopper was the closest thing he had to a father figure who gave a damn about him and if he lost that it might just break him.

When Hopper reached out and took the knife, testing it to see if it would bend back, Steve just let him.

"How did you do that?" Hopper asked.

"When the demobats tried to kill me, I bit one of them," Steve said, still utterly terrified. "I tried to spit out all the blood, but I didn't get it all. I think it's been changing me ever since. That's why I came to see El, I needed her ... needed ..."

"He needed me to tell him if he was dangerous," El took over for him. "He isn't."

Hopper looked between the two of them.

"It's not just the strength, is it?" he said.

Steve shook his head and El squeezed his hand, giving him another encouraging look. He so didn't want to, but he knew he had to. Reaching down inside, he let the otherness rise to the surface.

Hopper's eyes went wide and, like he was at that moment, Steve could smell the man's instinctive fear. If El hadn't been holding his hand, he might have run.

"Holy f...cow," Hopper said.

"Yeah," Steve said, voice cracking as he tried to speak.

He allowed Hopper to get a good look before putting the genie back in the bottle.

"Have also picked up a taste for steak, raw," he said.

"And what happens if you don't get it?" Hopper asked.

"Think of one of the girls with PMS, only I bite," he replied.

Hopper just looked at him for a while longer before finally sighing.

"Shit, kid, you never catch a break, do you?" were Hopper's surprising next words. "Both of you, sit down and tell me what this has to do with Eddie Munson."

Steve almost cried with relief, doing as he was told before his knees betrayed him and gave out.

"Eddie was killed by the bats," Steve said, "but I don't think he actually died, I think he was contaminated, and he changed, like me."

"And how can you be sure?" Hopper asked.

"I can't," Steve admitted, "but either I somehow knew what I was going to look like when I finally changed, or I've been dreaming about Eddie for weeks in exactly the same state."

"So, he's running around in what's left of the Upside Down?" Hopper checked.

Steve nodded.

"It feels like he's running on instinct," he did his best to explain. "He's surviving, but I don't know for how long."

"And how do we find him if we do go back?" was the next sensible question.

"I could find him," El said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Um," Steve said, gaze flicking between El and Hopper, "I think so can I. Ever since, well, this," he flicked one finger and let the claw elongate for a moment, "I have this ... I guess I'd call it an instinct. It's kind of fuzzy at the moment, but I think that's because we're in different dimensions. It feels like I should be able to feel him if that makes any sense."

"Kid, nothing about any of this shit makes sense," Hopper replied, "but either way we have a way to find him. The question is how?"

"The trailer park," El said without hesitation, "it will be easiest to open a gate there. The fabric is still weak, not yet healed."

"Fabric?" Steve asked, not quite keeping up, what with everything else spinning around in his head.

"The fabric of here," El did her best to explain.

"Oh," he replied, catching up, that made sense.

"And you can open a gate without hurting yourself?" Hopper asked, giving El a long look.

"Yes," El said. "I learned a lot of things from Henry when I beat him, and I understand properly now. It is also not so hard with him gone. He had," she paused for a moment, "twisted things," was how she chose to describe it.

Steve was impressed with her confidence.

"There are still things in there," he added, "I've seen them in my dreams, but they're not like the ones we fought."

"The Upside Down is returning to how it was when I sent Henry there," El agreed with a nod. "He made the hivemind and it died when he died, but there were things there before, things that were changed by him and have changed back."

"Dangerous things?" Hopper asked.

El shrugged.

"Not as dangerous as Henry's monsters," she said. "They do not have his purpose. They are like animals."

"So, we're going on safari," Hopper commented. "Better than a monster hunt, I suppose."

"I will protect you," El said with a smile, reaching out and patting her adopted father's hand.

"I don't doubt that, Kid," Hopper replied with a fond smile of his own, "but how about we protect each other."

"I would like that," El replied.

Steve didn't mention the fact he was pretty sure he could take on a Demogorgon with his bare hands now, if there happened to be any left. Being one of the monsters now was still too raw. Pushing those ideas down, he focused on the rest of the planning.

~*~

"Okay, what's this about?" Dustin said as he sat down.

After a long discussion at Hopper's house, they had decided everyone who was in town needed to know what they were about to do. Steve didn't really want the kids near the Upside Down, no matter how de-Vecna'd it was now, and Hopper was on the same page, but they had also both agreed when El had pointed out, with the way things usually went, Dustin, Mike and Lucas would probably notice anyway.

Dustin had been studying the gates ever since the pre-final battle battle, and given that the kid was a genius, the likelihood of him accidentally finding out was high. Way higher than the actual government scientists if El was to be believed.

Erica was visiting relatives with her parents, so that was at least one minor they didn't have to worry about.

Nancy and Robin were a given, so they had a party of eight to deal with the issue. They had convened at Steve's house.

"We think Eddie's alive," Steve said.

Rather than the explosion of noise he had expected, what he got was stunned silence. Dustin was staring at him as if he'd heard the words, but not comprehended them.

"For real?" Mike asked after a moment.

"Yeah, for real," Hopper backed up.

"He is in the Upside Down," El added. "We plan to go in and get him."

"Son of a bitch," Dustin said slowly and quietly.

"How do you know?" Nancy asked, ever the practical one.

"I've been dreaming about him," Steve admitted. "Don't think I really had flu."

"And Steve came to me, and I went into his mind," El continued with the half story they had agreed on because Steve really couldn't cope with explaining everything and preparing to go into the Upside Down at the same time. "Eddie is alive."

"Why you?" Lucas asked Steve.

"Bats," he said shortly.

"You were both exposed," Dustin said, lighting up at the titbit of information, "it could have forged a weak psychic connection."

"It's been months," Mike pointed out.

"Nothing about the Upside Down makes perfect sense," Hopper stepped in. "We don't have all the answers, but we can't ignore what we do know."

"So, we're going in then," Dustin said.

"Some of us are," Hopper said with the weight of authority in his voice. "Me, Steve, El and Nancy and Robin if they are willing."

Both nodded without hesitation.

"We need you boys to guard the gate for us from the other side, make sure nothing gets through while we're busy," Hopper went on.

"You think we're too young," Mike accused. "We weren't too young for Vecna."

"Kid, you're all too young for all of this," Hopper said with exasperation in his voice, "but since we trust the government boys as far as we can throw them, this is how it's gonna be. Are you in, or out?"

The boys all looked at each other.

"We're in," Dustin answered for all of them.