Eddie had one non-negotiable condition before speaking with Isaac and that was to be allowed visitors first. He could not go into this meeting without speaking to his loved ones first because there was no guarantee that he would come out sane on the other side of the conversation that was about to take place. Owens allowed three people to come and see him, though he stayed in the room to ensure that none of them ventured over to the side of the room where they were stashing Isaac behind the curtain.

He sat up with his legs hanging off the bed when Chrissy, Max, and Dustin came in. It looked like there might be a mad dash and possibly a fight between Chrissy and Max to see who would get to hug him first, but Max conceded out of respect for Eddie and Chrissy's relationship. In seconds, Chrissy's arms were around his shoulders, gentle, but reassuring. As he wrapped his own arms around her waist, Eddie could smell her lilac perfume but saw that she was in the same clothes she had been in when last he had seen her which told him that she had not gone home to change since arriving at the hospital.

"You're shaking," she whispered. "Are you cold?"

Eddie shook his head, not wanting her to let go of him. Owens had forbidden him from telling anyone about Isaac until they were sure that the being that the Upside Down had spat out wasn't going to attack them. If it turned out that Isaac was no longer himself, no one would ever know that he had come back, but Eddie couldn't tell them that he was dreading the moment when he would have to face what remained of his brother. He wanted Chrissy's support, her comforting words, and the constant pressure of her hand in his when he confronted the thing on the other side of the curtain, but he couldn't have any of that.

Holding his head against her chest, she told him in no uncertain terms, "I am never letting you 'go get what you forgot at the shop' ever again. When you didn't answer on the radio, I thought…I thought that…"

"Me too," he breathed.

They had come so close to the end and might have taken the gold for most unpredictable reason for a breakup in Hawkins history if he had died en route to the hospital. He imagined how it would have driven him to the brink of insanity if he had been on the radio with Chrissy and heard her quite literally dying on the other end and then–silence. She thought he had died when she didn't hear him responding and had most likely pulled up at the hospital preparing to find his dead body because he knew she had seen his blood-stained van if she had been only minutes behind him.

Chrissy tilted his head back to look down on his face and examine him. She must have been crying something dreadful with how swollen and puffy her face and eyes were and he couldn't help but feel extremely guilty for putting her through that even though he had no way of predicting when and if he would even have to put her in that situation.

"Eddie, you look like you did when we came out of the Upside Down. You have that same look in your eyes. What's wrong? What did Owens tell you?" Chrissy rounded on Owens who was still standing guard at the end of the curtain. "What did you tell him?"

"As I told you outside, I'll fill you in after Eddie does this favor for me. Right now, it's best if you're kept in the dark, and I know that is the worst possible thing I could tell you, but I need you and the rest of your friends to trust me. You know you can. I haven't let you down yet."

Not looking convinced, Chrissy turned back to Eddie in the hopes of weaseling something out of him, but his lips were sealed.

"Wayne's here," she said quietly. "I called him once we knew you were stable. He left work to come and see you, but you were asleep. He's been sitting in the waiting room for hours."

"What did Owens tell him?" It was so unlike his uncle to leave his job for anything but then again, Eddie had never had so much as a broken bone before that required Wayne to leave work to come and attend to him.

"The story is that you were impaled by a piece of metal scaffolding from the remodeling on the mayor's office, which is where you and I were walking when the earthquake hit."

"Convenient."

Finally, Chrissy released him and made way for Max who sat down beside Eddie to gingerly lean against him and take his hand. Unlike Chrissy, she did not look as if she had been crying but did appear shell shocked and pale. She rested her head on his shoulder and he pressed his head to hers. "Hey, kiddo."

"That was too close," she said in a distant voice, no doubt revisiting the memory of her brother dying in front of her. "That was–that was horrible and I am not putting up with any shit from the Upside Down ever again trying to take someone from me."

"Well, I'm sure if you ask nicely, the Upside Down will apologize and promise to be good from now on," Eddie joked, though it was a shallow one.

"I'm serious," said Max, looking him in the eye. "Never–again."

He didn't know what he could tell her in response to that. He could make no promises that either of them were safe or that nothing would happen that might jeopardize their futures. He had no answers and no solutions.

"What's happening out there?" he asked to dodge around Max's proclamation.

"News reports aren't sure what to make of it because of the fact that there's lava running right through Hawkins, but they've built a few makeshift bridges over the cracks so people can leave town if they want, which is definitely what a lot of them want. It's been steady traffic all day of people saying they've had enough weird shit happening in our town," said Dustin. "Nothing besides red and black storm clouds coming right out of the fissures, though. No sign of any creatures, anthropomorphic or otherwise."

"That's comforting."

"But not conclusive," said Owens. "We think this will be happening in waves, and the creatures won't spill out just yet but when they do, we'll need to be ready."

"Aren't you just the chipper type today," said Eddie darkly.

"Okay, move over, Max, it's my turn," said Dustin as he seized Eddie in a gripping, suffocating hug. Eddie tried to withdraw, but that only seemed to make Dustin hold on tighter until Eddie had to wheeze, "Henderson, we don't like this right now. You're hurting me."

"Sorry." Dustin withdrew but was still beaming and this time Eddie truly could not figure out why. There was absolutely nothing to be pleased about. "You're just–you're a survivor, man, you know? Having that wound open up and beating it even though we have no idea why it's there. It's badass."

"I didn't beat it," Eddie corrected. "I drove myself to the hospital."

"But you gotta admit, that's pretty metal. Your van looks like a murder scene and as far as anyone knows, you survived being impaled during an earthquake. The admirers will flock to you in droves."

"They can go flock the fuck off. I don't want or need anyone knowing about this so you tell the party to keep it on the down low, yeah?"

"Sure."

"Are you ready?" asked Owens, cutting their interactions short.

Eddie didn't want to be left in a room with the doctor and the thing behind the curtain, but he had agreed to this, and he had a contingency plan. It was just mustering the courage to go through with it that was the current problem.

"Eddie, do you want me here with you?" asked Chrissy, and he knew she absolutely would fight Owens on this to remain by Eddie's side if he asked her to. He wanted her there, but he knew this was something he had to confront alone, so he stood up to kiss her forehead and promise to see her again in a short while.

Once Chrissy had led Max and Dustin out, Owens called for a few nurses to come and make final preparations. As one nurse fed Isaac's IV some sort of fluid that would help waken him, Eddie considered asking for his gun that had been confiscated until he was discharged. He wanted something in his hands, a weapon at the ready in case Isaac happened to be hosting Vecna's penchant for violence and gory murder.

They had moved Isaac's bed a bit further up so Eddie could observe from behind and wait for Owens to signal him that it was safe to come around and be seen by his brother–if that even was his brother. Eddie had chewed his already short fingernails down to bleeding point as he watched the back of Isaac's head. Owens checked his watch and told Eddie that it should be happening any moment now.

Isaac came to suddenly as if he had been shocked awake. Eddie retreated even though he knew Isaac couldn't see him. He watched Isaac try to sit up only to find that his limbs and chest were strapped down and he started straining to free himself.

"Those are just a precaution, Mr. Munson," said Owens quickly. "You wouldn't know me, but I'm a friend of Eleven's. My name is Sam Owens and I was bringing Eleven back into town when the hospital staff informed me that you'd been found on the side of the road in the woods not too far from here."

"How do you know who I am?" asked Isaac, and Eddie's heart pounded hearing his brother's voice. It wasn't just in his head this time or in a dream or memory. This was real and what's more, it sounded just like it had before. That, at least, had not changed.

"Because there was someone else admitted to the hospital you're currently in around the same time you were who was able to identify you. It also helps that you were telling the people who found you that you had a brother by the same name."

"If you know Eleven, you'd know what happened in the Upside Down and that the thing that used to be Henry Creel killed my brother."

So Eddie had died, in another dimension, it would seem. And he was fortunate enough to get to witness that death in a dream that turned out not to be a dream at all. Lucky him.

"As a matter of fact, that's not the reality that I've been led to assume. You've been missing for four months, presumed dead by your friends and by your brother. See, in the Hawkins that you came from, Eddie is still alive and it was you who died."

Isaac took that better than Eddie expected someone who had just been told they were supposed to be dead would have with a nod and a faraway voice that mused, "That would make sense…after everything."

"Do you remember what happened to you after you killed Vecna? Do you recall where you've been and how you've managed to survive all this time, and if so, would you mind sharing it with those people who went into the Upside Down with you?"

"You mean Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler, Max Mayfield, that group of people? You can stop treating me like I have amnesia, doc, I remember everything, even if it doesn't make sense with where I am now and what's happening. So what is happening?"

That sounded so much like the man Eddie knew. Short, no-nonsensical, to the point, bordering on being curt. Decidedly human.

"If you agree to tell us everything you know, we'll do our best to try and sew your story and your friends' story together to make the most sense of things. Eleven has been entering the void multiple times a day to try and fill in some holes and find some answers, but there's only so much she can see. She said she saw you months ago, that you told her to tell the rest of us to be ready. Do you remember that?"

"Yes."

"Then you must know for what we've been preparing."

"I only knew it would be devastating when it happened, but I didn't know exactly what it would be. I could just feel it, like it was a memory, but it wasn't mine, like it was planted there."

It sounded to Eddie like someone or something had purposely given Isaac the wherewithal to warn them not for the greater good, but for amusement, as if watching a small town of resilient people prepping for war was a source of entertainment.

Isaac shifted on his bed, apparently growing restless with the interrogation. He strained his neck as far to the side as it would go, trying to see around the curtain. "Is Eddie here? I'd like to speak to him."

"Why would you assume he's here?"

"Because if you found me going on about my brother Eddie and I'm in Hawkins, the town with a reputation for unexplainable shit like this happening on the daily, you'd have called him to come and identify me, assuming that he's not dead and you're not completely bullshitting me."

Owens raised a hand to scratch at his five o'clock shadow, which was Eddie's signal to approach or bail. Nothing that had been said so far gave Eddie any indication that the person in the bed wasn't his brother, but he had been watching the back of Isaac's head, not looking him in the eye, not seeing his microexpressions and mannerisms up close to gauge for himself whether or not Vecna had given Eddie back some or none of his brother.

So he came around to where Owens stood, arms crossed defensively over his middle as if to protect the hole in his stomach from the thing that had triggered it. He felt his breath hitch in the back of his throat as he met Isaac's gaze and every instinct was telling him to run, but his legs had forgotten how to work.

Isaac stared at him hungrily, taking in his appearance with millions of questions racing through his mind and wondering which to ask first. What a bewildering moment in time for two brothers who each believed the other to be dead finally getting to see each other alive while they both believed the other could not be real.

"Hey," said Isaac at last.

"Hey," Eddie returned.

"Why are you in a gown?"

"Got hurt when the Upside Down opened."

"Hurt how?"

"Just hurt." Eddie didn't know what was making him so distant when he had every reason to believe that this truly was his brother, but some part of him was adamant about protecting himself and not giving whatever was controlling Isaac any ammunition to use against Eddie.

Isaac appeared frustrated and maybe a bit wounded that Eddie held no trust in him and looked down at the straps on his body. "Am I allowed to talk to him without restraints?" he asked levelly.

"If you feel calm and Eddie is comfortable with it, yes," said Owens.

"I'm calm."

Owens looked to Eddie for permission and Eddie gave a quick jerk of his head but took a measured step back all the same as Owens released the straps and Isaac rubbed at his wrists. Sitting forward but not leaving the bed, Isaac pointed to Eddie's stomach. "Are those bandages covering an open wound in your gut?" he asked slyly.

Eddie didn't care for his tone at all, almost like a taunt, like he already knew what had happened and was daring Eddie to lie to him.

"You tell me how you know that."

"Because I saw it happen."

"Where did it happen?"

"In the Upside Down. Eleven had just cut Vecna's head off and the portal was open, sucking everything in, and you pushed me out of the way because one of those vines was about to impale me but instead, you got stuck clean through the stomach."

"Well, in my version of events, I didn't get to you in time and the vine went through your shoulder, latched onto you, and pulled you through the portal."

Isaac pulled aside his gown to reveal a scar in the exact spot Eddie had seen him stabbed between his right shoulder and the center of his chest. "This appeared right after I watched you die."

Eddie gestured at his stomach. "A scar appeared over my stomach about a month after I watched you die. And it kept growing until it finally burst open yesterday when the alternate dimension opened into Hawkins. There's a giant crack in the earth out there and the essence of the Upside Down is leaking into town. It won't be long before the whole town looks like the Upside Down's dead Hawkins version, complete with monsters and storm clouds."

Kneading at his temples, Isaac stared at the foot of his bed, lost in thought. Eddie could see the cogs trying to work in his brain, to find a logical explanation for all that had happened, but there were just too many flukes thrown in to make proper sense of anything. He was trying to be a level-headed man in a time when nothing even remotely bent to logic.

"So you saw me die," he said at last. "Then what happened?"

"I didn't see the exact moment," said Eddie, not wanting to call upon those memories again, especially when the subject and root of their pain was now sitting across from him. "I had a hold on you as the vine was dragging you through the portal but you told me to let go, so I did, and I watched it take you, then there was nothing. The Upside Down was collapsing and we all made it back through a gate inside the Creel house. We didn't see or hear of anything until a month after that when this scar appeared and I had a dream that I'd seen myself die just as you said you witnessed. Eleven said she had been watching it happen in the void and that she saw me die, that she brought me back. I was with Chrissy that night and she said my heart had stopped, that I'd died right there in my sleep."

"You did die, that's what I'm trying to tell you," said Isaac with frustration.

"So did you," Eddie argued. "And we both have scars from how we died in different lives but we're both here now in the world where you were the one presumed dead. Except Eleven saw you in the void the next day, telling us that we needed to be ready. She said she could touch you and that you could see her, so where were you when that happened? How are you here now? What happened?"

He didn't care if these were painful questions to ask, if Isaac was unwilling to answer them. He needed to know, for his own sanity. He deserved to know.

"It's like the universe split in that moment that portal opened and you existed in the one where I died and vice versa. Only, I got trapped on the side that kept me in the Upside Down and that's where I've been," said Isaac. "That's the only way any of this makes sense to me. I saw you die and then everything was still. The Upside Down stopped collapsing and I was just–there. Everyone else was gone. I walked all over Hawkins, looking for a gate to come back, but there weren't any. I was stuck there, but I didn't feel–human. I didn't have to do anything that a human would need to do to stay alive. I didn't eat or drink or sleep or even take a shit. I was just there. But I could sense that Vecna was still alive, reforming. I don't know how he managed to, but I could sense it the whole time while I was just sitting there waiting and then one day, I saw Eleven and I warned her, but that was the only interaction I had with anything until–until I was just here, in Hawkins. I was in the Upside Down and then I wasn't and a car almost hit me on the side of the road. I remember telling the people who found me about you because you were the only thing I could think of, and then I think I passed out and woke up here."

Eddie was at a loss for words. The mere fact that Isaac had been existing these past months without having to tend to any human functions was just proof that he had not come back entirely human. In any dimension, a human needed sustenance to survive and Isaac had had none of that. Throw in the mention of feeling Vecna resurrecting and Isaac had essentially just admitted to being used to repurpose Vecna's soul.

Eddie felt sick to his stomach. This wasn't like what had happened with Chrissy and Max before; this wasn't Vecna trapping their minds elsewhere and attempting to murder them. This was the demon himself attaching to Isaac and infecting him.

Isaac appeared to have guessed Eddie's conclusion and threw back his covers to quickly stand up. He shouldn't have been able to move like that. He shouldn't have been able to move at all in his condition, but the appearance of the body did not match the interior strength, proof that something else was living inside of him, keeping him running.

"I promise it's me, bro," said Isaac, advancing.

"No, don't come near me," said Eddie sharply, stumbling back into the counter behind him. "Do not come near me and do not touch me."

Isaac pulled up short, confused and hurt at Eddie's reaction to him. "You know I'd never hurt you, right? You know that. At least, you did, once."

"I know Isaac wouldn't, but you're not him. Not all of him, anyway. Not all of my brother came back, did he? Because for you to be here right now, it means that Vecna had to inherit some of you. If he was dead and you were dead and both of you are back now, it means he used you to help him come back and he used me too."

It felt sickeningly satisfying to tell him this as if hurtling verbal insults at him could somehow compensate for the pain Eddie was feeling. Someone had to pay for the trauma Eddie had been left in; someone had to own up to the shitfest of a storm that his life had been and had become once again in a few short days. Someone needed to hurt for doing this to him.

"I don't know what happened to me while I was in there," said Isaac with a hard swallow. "I don't know how much of me came back but what I'm seeing right now is my baby brother standing in front of me when I could only think of him dying in my arms for the months that I was stuck in limbo. I had nothing while I was in there but you had Chrissy and Max and you were here, alive and able to exist as a human. I had nothing, Eddie. Of course that's gonna fuck someone up, but it's not my fault, whatever happened to me, whatever I became while I was in there. The part of me that's back is still me, can't you see that? I don't know what I have to do to prove it to you."

"I don't know either," said Eddie helplessly. What would it take for him to accept the person he loved most back into his life? What could Isaac do to rectify all that had been wronged between them because of an entity neither of them could control?

"You don't know how long I've hoped and prayed for this moment, to see you alive again. I lived with the truth that you were dead. I held you when you died. I buried you."

"I didn't get to bury you. There was nothing left."

A beat, and then Isaac clawed a tear away from his eyelashes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left you like that. If I had any control over any of it, I would've tried harder to–to…"

"To what, not die? It's not your fault that the universe split, if that's what really happened. It wasn't your fault if in your reality, I pushed you out of the way."

Eddie had never wanted to be a hero. He was absolutely fine with the cowardice that accompanied him everywhere, that made him try to be a voice of reason to avoid violence, that made him run when the diplomatic approach didn't work out. He figured that he had been brave enough in pumping Vecna full of lead when he was one of the last three people left to fight him. But Isaac had a memory of him that didn't exist in Eddie's past, one in which Eddie had finally played the hero paid the ultimate price and that would have made anyone's mind snap, especially if they had to cope with it alone.

"You look–good," said Isaac in a weak attempt at bringing some sense of lucidness in the conversation. "Did you graduate?"

They were not having this conversation. They were not going to talk about what had gone on in Eddie's life during his absence as if they could just pick up where they left off because the world was once again ending and there wasn't time for this.

"Did Max give you the note I left you?"

That sent Eddie on a whirlwind ride of emotions, to be talking to his formerly deceased brother about the will he had left and discussing it in the present tense.

"Did she?" Isaac asked again.

"Yeah."

"And?"

Somehow, that rubbed Eddie the wrong way and he felt himself snap. "What d'you mean 'and'? 'And', what? Was I supposed to have some sort of life changing catharsis after reading that? I've been trying, alright? It's been pretty fucking hard, but I've been trying."

"Well, you don't have to anymore."

How Eddie wished he could believe that, but if his experience with the Upside Down had taught him anything, it was that nothing was permanent, especially not good things the few and far between times they came into being. If Isaac was here now, what was to say he couldn't be taken away just as swiftly and start Eddie back on the process of grieving all over again? It was enough to make anyone hesitant to get emotionally attached again.

"I don't know what else you want me to say, man. As much as I know about who I am right now and what I'm doing here, I want you to trust me again. I know that's a lot to ask for but I can't offer anything more than what I know I am. I'm still your brother, if you can believe that. I still want to be your brother."

"Yeah, me too."

"Is it okay if I hug you?"

Like a child, this was all Eddie had wanted from the moment he knew he was about to lose his brother. Max had done her best to substitute that sibling affection for him and he would forever be grateful to her for being there when he needed her, but he had so desperately needed and wanted to be able to hold his brother. Ashamed at his weakness, Eddie hid half of his face behind his hand and avoided eye contact as he nodded in earnest.

He expected Isaac to be gentle bordering on cautious but it seemed that Isaac had been waiting for this reunion just as much as Eddie had and pulled Eddie's head down to his shoulder to cradle him. For one horrifying moment, Eddie resented the touch, fearful that all the hard work he had gone through to get to this point with being comfortable with physical touch was for naught. It had taken the end of the world for him to accept a hug from his brother, which had opened up his increasing comfort with being hugged by other people, but every particle in his body momentarily rejected contact with this man.

But Eddie's excruciating need to feel safe in his big brother's arms was far more powerful than his uncertainty about who this man was who had come back into his life and he leaned into the embrace. Eddie didn't know how they got there but one moment he was feeling a dam within him breaking and the next, he and Isaac were both kneeling on the floor with Eddie openly choking into his brother's hospital gown and clutching at him with the intent to never let go.

It took quite a while for Eddie to get everything out of his system and when he finally pulled back, he had to use his own gown to wipe at his nose. He ran a section of Isaac's hair between his fingers, feeling the pent up filth and grime of another dimension in every strand. "Your hair…"

Isaac choked back a laugh. "I could do with a shower."

"And a meal, it would seem," said Owens. "How about we set out some fresh clothes for you while you take that shower and I'll have some food sent up, then we'll see about getting your friends in here to try and put together a plan."

/ /

Eddie wasn't yet allowed to shower fully due to his wound but he did get to freshen up and conclude that he was a hot mess when he got a good look at himself in the bathroom mirror. He was pale, but the skin around his eyes was slightly swollen and his eyes themselves were bloodshot. He had lost a lot of weight between Spring Break and graduation and though he had put a couple pounds back on since then, he still had the appearance of some underfed creature. He and Isaac looked more alike now than they ever had.

Steve had brought a fresh set of clothes for him which he slipped into now that he was free from all the needles and wires from the many machines out in the main room. Pinching his cheeks to try and bring some color back into them, Eddie exited the bathroom to see Chrissy and Max already waiting for him. Steve, Mike, and Lucas assisted in bringing in a small collection of foldable chairs which they used to form a lopsided circle after pushing Eddie's bed against the wall. Then, everyone else filed in (including Murray who was back in town after temporarily relocating all of his things to the now shared residence of Hopper and Mrs. Byers) and noticed that there was an extra chair set out as they took their seats.

"Now, I've already discussed all of this with Eddie and he was able to handle himself in a respectable manner to what I'm about to show the rest of you, so I ask you to show the same restraint. No shouting, please," said Owens as he opened the curtain and Isaac stepped out.

The shower had done him some good in that he no longer looked like a filthy corpse, just a regular corpse. He had attempted to cut his own hair and though it was uneven in some places, it was more or less back to its normal length. Owens had provided him with the same sort of button up he used to wear, slacks, and some work boots. But there was no taking away or dressing up his wasted appearance, his unhealthy expression, the fact that he looked like he should not be alive.

There were several gasps, not of terror, but shock and Steve muttered, "Jesus," under his breath.

"I'm sorry, who is this that we are all gaping at in horror?" asked Murray. It wasn't his fault that he had never met Isaac or seen pictures of him, not like Hopper and Mrs. Byers who had been shown a single picture by Eddie some time ago.

There was a smattering of questions, all directed at Eddie and Owens and even Brenner, but they all went silent as Max approached Isaac and everyone waited on tenterhooks to see how he would react, to see if he was the same man they remembered or if something else had come back in his place. Max reached out a tentative finger and poked Isaac's arm to determine if he was real.

Isaac mustered a weak smile for her and gave an almost bashful, "Hey, kid."

"Hey," she returned, fitting her arms carefully around him as if afraid of breaking him if she hugged too tightly. He rested his cheek on top of her head as he returned the affection, relieved that someone other than his brother recognized that he was still a person. When Max stepped back and bunched up his shirt to see how it hung off of his waist, she commented, "You're skinny."

"He was always skinny; now he's starving," said Eddie. "Where's that meal you promised him, doc?"

"Right here," said Brenner, holding up a tray laden with what actually looked like appetizing hospital food for once.

At the sight of Brenner, Isaac went rigid, his eyes momentarily blank as he considered the doctor before him. Then without warning, he lunged, only he never got one step closer to Brenner, held back by a solid barrier almost as if invisible arms were restraining him. His teeth were bared, his brown eyes nearly black, and a vein was throbbing in his head from the effort of trying to break the hold on him. The lights above them flickered rapidly and Eddie understood.

He saw Eleven with her head tilted slightly down, eyes fixed on Isaac and a small line of blood trickling out from one nostril. And Isaac had those horrible blackened web marks spreading up the side of his neck to blossom across his now ruddy face. An inhuman sound came from within his throat, deeper, darker, and not at all his.

Eddie put himself between Isaac and Brenner, tapping his brother's face with the back of his hand to rouse him from this intense stare-off. "Hey, snap out of it. Whatever you're doing, stop it right now. I mean it, this shit's not funny. Hey!"

Isaac blinked, choked, and fell forward onto Eddie. He was not prepared to catch his brother and both of them hit the floor with Eddie largely using his body to cushion Isaac's fall. Hopper and Steve moved in to restrain Isaac if necessary, but Owens held out a hand for them to stop as he knelt in front of Isaac and asked urgently, "What did you feel just now? What emotions were going through you? What did you see?"

The webbing was retreating back into Isaac's skin as if it had never been there but he was still panting as if he had run a mile. Hanging off of Hopper and Steve's arms with this confused, desperate expression on his face, he looked so helpless that Eddie's insides burned with the injustice for what had been done to his brother. He had known that Isaac's return would not be whole, that something else had to have happened, but he hadn't expected any of this–this evil.

"It's very important for us to know, Isaac," prompted Owens.

"I felt…rage," said Isaac at last. "And hatred. I wanted to kill him," he nodded at Brenner, "but I don't even know who he is. It was like…like someone else was feeding me those emotions. Like they weren't mine." He stood up between Hopper and Steve who kept a precautionary hold on him and said to Brenner, "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," said Brenner understandingly. "As I suspected, you are playing host to a part of Henry Creel, or as you all have called him in the past, Vecna."

"That's impossible," said Nancy. "We killed him. He's dead."

"We didn't destroy the body before the portal took him," said Isaac despairingly. "He was able to reform. And he'll be coming back for those who escaped him last time, only now he can come straight into our world in the flesh now that the Upside Down is spilling into Hawkins. He won't need to do everything through the mind."

"How can you possibly know that?" asked Mrs. Byers.

"I don't know, I just–can feel it. I can feel him."

"Alright, that's good enough to start the ball rolling here," said Owens, pushing the tray of food on Isaac. "Eat up. Now, I've spoken to Doctor Brenner here about what Isaac revealed to us concerning where he's been since March and how he survived and we've pieced together what we believe is the most logical explanation."

Brenner took over here and Eddie got the impression that this was a man who enjoyed delivering upsetting news disguised as some breakthrough scientific discovery. "Based on what Isaac has told us and what we already know, we can conclude that time and space split the moment that portal opened up and created two scenarios: one in which Isaac saw Eddie die and was left alone to survive in the portal, and one in which Eddie saw Isaac die and returned to our world. In Isaac's scenario, Henry–who you all call Vecna–wasn't completely destroyed when the portal consumed him and Isaac and while trapped in there, he latched onto the only living thing he could find, which was Isaac. He used Isaac to reform himself, gain strength, and open the bridge between our worlds on a large enough scale that he was able to completely infiltrate Hawkins. Now, he is in our dimension and sending forth the very essence of the Upside Down to make our world like his. He has full access to our world."

"Yeah, and that's great but it doesn't explain why that hole opened up in my stomach the second the earthquake hit," said Eddie.

"Again, this is only our best guess, but it would seem that when time split, you and your brother both were marked. Your girlfriend mentioned that the night before your graduation, you had a seizure in your sleep, that your heart stopped beating, and that you momentarily had black veins spreading out across your body. And Eleven tells me that she was able to see the scenario in which you died, so she can confirm this, confirm that you did die and she helped pull you out of it. We have seen these marks on people before, people who have been infected and possessed by something in the Upside Down. William Byers, for one, and–"

"My brother," said Max in a small voice.

There was no conceivable way that anything could possibly be worse. Eddie and Isaac were both marked men, Eleven would most likely have to battle Vecna again, Max was having to relive her worst nightmares. Vecna was in heavy competition with Jason Carver as the worst possible thing to ever happen to the town of Hawkins.

"The Mind Flayer attached to Will from the other side but Billy was attacked on this side when the Mind Flayer had a physical body. He and all the Flayed drank chemicals to prepare their bodies to be taken over. So unless you've been knocking back cleaning chemicals lately, Eddie…" Mike trailed off pointedly.

"Besides that one time where I thought it was a good idea to inhale a whole bottle of Comet, nothing comes to mind," said Eddie sarcastically. "I haven't been possessed, as far as I know. I mean, yeah, I was pretty much comatose for a month after Spring Break, but that was just–that was depression, not possession. You all should know; you were keeping tabs on me like you thought I might try to off myself. Unless there's some other way of telling if someone has been taken over, I think you hit a dead end on that one, doc."

"He likes it cold," said Will darkly. "I couldn't be near heat when I was being possessed and neither could Billy. Heat hurts anything from the Upside Down, which is why we always tried to use fire to attack back. Billy never got the infection out, but I did because my mom and my brother chained me down and put me in a room full of heat. They tried to smoke it out of me, and it did come to the surface, just like with Billy when we locked him in a sauna. The goal is to make the host inhabitable."

"But we also attacked the hub by burning the shit out of it," Lucas pointed out. "We were coming at the Mind Flayer from two points and if we hadn't burnt the hub, we might not have been able to get the infection out of you."

"That aside," said Owens with a grave look at Eddie, "can you recall having any aversion to heat in the past few months? I'd think it would be pretty apparent, given that it's the middle of summer."

Eddie's stomach shriveled. Yes, he most definitely had an aversion to heat. Swallowing hard, he admitted, "I uh, I didn't think much of it at the time, but yeah. Starting graduation morning, I didn't take hot showers anymore. I don't sleep with the blankets on, and we've got a fan and a/c blasting in my room all night. I cover up in the sunlight and don't go outdoors during the day if I can help it. I spend a lot of time with my head in the freezer. I thought it was just a hotter summer than usual."

The doctors exchanged dark looks.

"Is there a way to test this theory?" asked Isaac.

"There is, but it could trigger a response that might be–violent," said Owens. "We tested it on Will before. I don't think we would need to test it on you, Isaac, because your reaction to Doctor Brenner when you first saw him is already proof that a part of Henry lives in you and reacts to what he considers to be dangerous or what he remembers as something that angered him. He and Doctor Brenner did not part on good terms and so the part of him within you commanded you to attack. With Eleven's help, we were able to prevent that, but it's also a testament to how strong your resolve is if you managed to repel him during such a vulnerable moment. Eddie, on the other hand, hasn't had such an adverse reaction to anything that would normally set Henry off, so it's likely that his case is different–if similar."

Owens held up a cigarette lighter.

"D'you want me to smoke in here?" asked Eddie. "I gave it up months ago, doc."

"No, I want you to sit there so we can watch your reaction as I bring the fire closer to you."

"Well, I don't think that's really gonna work because I'm human and if you try to burn a human, they tend to not like it."

"True, but if some of Henry exists within you, there'll be a much stronger response in place of just shrinking away from the flame. It's the easiest way to know for sure."

Eddie didn't fancy being tortured with an open flame in front of an audience, but he needed to know what sort of precautions he would need to take and how he was supposed to proceed if it turned out that he was playing host to Vecna as Isaac was.

"Okay."

Owens brought the lighter flame to life and leaned in close to Eddie. In the past, Eddie had held a lighter closer than that to his skin many times when lighting up a cigarette but now the fire was a whole two feet away and he had a mad desire to swat the thing out of Owens's hand. He watched it coming closer like seeing his demise ambling toward him and not being able to do a thing about it. Why wasn't he scrambling for the door? Why wasn't he doing anything to keep that flame away from him? He could feel it burning his skin from here and his body involuntarily leaned as far back as it could go in the flimsy metal chair.

"Okay, that's far enough," he said, but Owens continued to advance, motioning for someone to hold Eddie in place.

"We need to see the extent of your reaction to this, Eddie. I promise I'm not trying to torture you here."

Robin took hold of Eddie's hand on one side and Dustin leaned across Chrissy to take the other. Eddie saw them wince as his hands clamped down on theirs.

Owens brought the lighter in close to Eddie's forearm and Eddie's limb jerked away of its own accord. He saw the same black webbing that had been present on Isaac's skin now on his own and heard an animalistic yelp born from his throat.

"That's enough!" Isaac was on his feet, but Owens had already put out the lighter.

Eddie watched the webbing dissolve into his skin with a punch to the gut. Aware of everyone in the room watching him for signs of savagery, he made a brave stab at lightheartedness as he asked, "So, what, does this mean Vecna's possessing me too?"

"It would seem so, though not to the extent that he has control over your brother. Isaac was stuck in another dimension with him, and so he is tied more closely to Henry than you are, but we believe that Henry used the link between you and your brother to burst into Hawkins. Both of you saw the other die, both of you were in the path of the portal, and both of you were infected. Henry has been using that, which would explain why you've noticed that mark on your stomach growing and growing. Once Henry was able to recreate that scene of your death, he was able to bring the Upside Down to Hawkins."

"Henry doesn't need Eddie anymore to stay alive," said Brenner. "You've served your purpose already, so his essence won't be protecting you because he doesn't rely on a connection with you. It's rotten luck that you still have a part of him inside of you, but it wouldn't matter to him if you died in the process of trying to get that out of you. Knowing that, though the part of him that remains within you may still try to fight back, in a controlled environment, we can attempt to burn the infection out of you."

"So what you're saying is that this is gonna suck," Eddie summarized, imagining several people in hazmat suits torching him with flamethrowers.

"It will probably be extremely painful, yes, but the infection will only worsen the longer it resides inside of you, regardless of whether or not Henry is in control of it. It's best to try and get it out while you're still mentally sound and with the opening of the Upside Down, we can only assume that the deterioration process will have significantly sped up."

"Is any of this like, transferable?" asked Eddie somewhat awkwardly. He hoped Owens would get the hint without him having to spell it out.

"Transferable how?"

"Through DNA, maybe? Like if my blood got on Dustin, he's not gonna suddenly have Vecna living inside of him part-time, is he?"

"I shouldn't think so. It seems that Henry has only attached himself to you and your brother based off of where you were during that rip in time. That's not to say he can't inhabit other people, but this infection isn't contagious."

"That's a huge relief." He said it sarcastically, but inwardly, he was absolutely falling to his knees in gratitude because he had been about to open up a whole new Pandora's box of ugliness if bodily fluids could transmit Vecna to another person. He and Chrissy had been careful with using protection, but every single time he had had sex with her had been in the wake of Vecna's first defeat which meant that he had had the demon within him every time he and Chrissy had intercourse–and that thought alone now made him physically ill. There was always a chance that condoms would fail, though, and for the less than one whole dozen times he and Chrissy had had sex, there was always the probability of some of that failure involving Vecna making its way into her.

"So let me throw this out there for consideration," said Hopper. "Eddie is infected but not as closely linked to Henry as Isaac is and it's a safe bet to say that the longer the Upside Down remains open, the worse both of their conditions will get. But we've stopped this thing before by burning the source, so if we go to where the earthquake hit and find this essence of the Upside Down and burn it, that would weaken Henry, right? Couldn't we just send teams with kerosine and torches out there to burn the shit out of this thing?"

"We could, but it wouldn't do any good if we don't have a means of defeating Vecna," said Dustin. "Last time, he was trapped and being peppered with gunfire and going up in a ball of flame while Eleven fought him–from what I understand since I technically wasn't there."

"That's exactly what happened," said Nancy. "He was fighting back with everything he had and so were we, but we managed to weaken him enough for Eleven to finish him off. We hit him with bullets and fire and–and Jonathan nearly took his head off, which helped Eleven do the rest. But this time, we can't just burn the spaces where the Upside Down is leaking through without knowing where Vecna is. We can torch it all we like but it'll just keep reforming as long as Vecna is alive."

"And even if we manage to wound Henry in this manner, he is still locked onto Isaac. As long as he lives within Isaac, he cannot be killed," said Brenner.

In other words, Isaac wasn't back to stay. If they stood any chance of killing Vecna, they would have to kill Isaac too.

"No," said Isaac. "He has a stronger hold on me, that's true, but if you can burn him out of me and you can station enough people to light this whole fissure on fire, and we can pin him down like we did before with all of the whistles and bells, then we might stand a chance. This may sound like the whims of a desperate man here, but I don't have to die–again–for you to kill him. I just have to be uninhabitable. The only problem is that I know he'll try to protect me from any attempts to burn the infection out so you'll need some heavy duty restraints when that time comes. And he won't show himself until he's ready to make a big move, which is probably when the window for destroying him and the leak is closing, so we'll be cutting this all very close. I don't know how much time we have, but it's not a lot."

"So, no harder to kill the son of a bitch than it was last time," said Robin brightly.