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Steve, Nancy and Robin crept into the attic, each of them thoroughly sick of the freezing-ass hellscape that was the Upside Down after having been strangled by vines on the stairs for like the past fifteen minutes. Their enemy hung above them, suspended in the air by a bunch of vine-things plugged into his back like some weird spider at the center of a particularly gross web.
Vecna.
…Slash One.
…Slash Henry.
And… maybe Peter?? None of them could explain that last one, but somehow they each simply knew that that, too, had been one of his names once upon a time.
“That is one nasty-looking bastard…” Steve breathed, looking up at the mutated Freddy Krueger wannabe. Nancy, having already seen what he looked like in her mind earlier, looked unsurprised. Robin, on the other hand, squinted up at the entity with a deeply unimpressed look.
“…Guys, I’m gonna be honest, he doesn’t really look scary? Like, at all?? Like, look at his face; he looks like the goddamn Grinch. And his stomach—look at that teddy bear-ass beer gut. You mean to tell me our Big, Bad Upside Down Wizard (™) has a goddamn dad bod? Holy shit, I just noticed he doesn’t have a nose eith—“
“Robin, shut the fuck up!” Nancy snapped, shifting her grip on her shotgun. “All you’ve done the past week is talk my ear off with your worthless bullshit! Think of something valuable to say or just don’t talk, because Jesus—“
“Alright, alright, goddamn!” Robin said, eyes wide and hands raised in surrender. “You’ve been wanting to say that for a while, huh? Well, y’know, Nance, there’s a lot of goddamn things I haven’t been saying to you that I’ve reaaaally wanted to for a realllyyyy long time, so if you wanna get into it—“
“Robin, shut the fuck up and take the molotovs out so we can light this bastard up. Steve really likes the sound of going home to his own bed right about now.”
Robin unslung the bag from her shoulder and laid it on the ground with a grumble. “How many goddamn times do I have to tell you to stop referring to yourself in the third person, it’s so goddamn weird—“
“Robin, you once asked me if I thought syrup would taste different if it came from a tree that grew near a graveyard; you should be the last person calling anything weird.”
Nancy rolled her eyes as her companions devolved into their usual banter, taking aim at the prone Vecna while they readied the molotovs.
Out of nowhere, though, two slashes of crimson energy sliced Vecna’s arms clean off from behind, geysers of black blood pouring from the sockets. A flurry of smaller slashes cleaved through the vines holding his now screaming, armless body in the air, and he fell to the ground with a splat.
While Steve and Robin clung to each other and screamed their asses off, Nancy “Walk ‘em Down”, “Stone-cold Badass”, “Somehow Survived a Fucking Kaiju By Hiding in a Canyon” Wheeler simply glared calculatingly at the new entity now hovering over the downed Vecna, adapting instantly.
It was some weird, floating black energy being holding a weird, black energy sword. It had a vaguely armored silhouette, but that could’ve just been its bones, considering it looked like a starving, malnourished animal. A pair of huge, spiked antlers erupted from its head. Instead of a face, there was simply a glowing white blotch that shifted around on its head, regarding the teens with something resembling curiosity.
Vecna continued to cry like a five year-old who had just skinned his knee, the tears forming a puddle under his face, which was planted firmly on the floor of the attic. As he did so, his body deflated, at least until he reabsorbed the puddle back into his porous skin. He cried it all back out again soon after, though.
Seeming to grow tired of HenryCreelPeterBallardOneVecnaMindFlayerSpiderLover44-59IDKNoOneActuallyKnowsWhenIWasBornLol’s incessant sobbing, the Knight absentmindedly stabbed their sword into his back, killing him instantly.
It then looked directly at Nancy. Maintaining eye contact the entire time, the Roaring Knight removed its helmet to reveal a familiar bespectacled redhead from the trio’s past.
“BARB?!” Steve and Robin exclaimed in unison. Steve paused and gave Robin a questioning look. “Wait, you know Barb?” Robin, losing her look of horror and shock as quickly as Steve had, glared daggers into Nancy’s back. “Yeah, I know Barb. She was my goddamn best friend until she dumped—I mean ditched me for goddamn Nancy Drew over there.”
Still not taking her stone-cold eyes off her apparently-not-dead best friend, Nancy held up a middle finger behind her. Barb regarded the trio with a look that was a mix of nostalgic and hateful. “Nancy… you killded me by having sex with Steve Harrington. It’s is own your all fault”””
Robin gasped. “Wait, Nancy… it’s FUCKING hecaude of YOU that barb died?!’mm?!?!1 “I’ll fucking kil you!!!!!1
Robin attempted to throw a Molotov at Nancy but Nancy used her shotgun to shot at it and it and exploded harmlessly in midair leaving Nancy unharmed.
Robin screamed and tried to charge at Nancy with her bare fists as snot poured from her face hut Nancy shot her point blank making Steve scream like a little girl. She then turned to Barb smiling. “C’mon babe I killed your ex so lets go but you have to kill Steve first.”
Barb smirked and readied her sword and Steve screamed again but before he had any chance to register the pain—
