So I have some things I want to explain at the end of this chapter and just be prepared for a lot of thoughts. Anyone that actually reads my rambling at the beginning and end of chapters I really appreciate.

It didn't take long for things to go straight to hell when they tried to capture Pennywise. Richie knew it had all been too easy, but why couldn't it be easy just one fucking time! And of course the clown hardly gave them time to think before he was dividing their group.

Richie found himself scrambling down a tunnel with Eddie close at his side as Pennywise pursued them. Richie was so focused on what was behind them that he nearly toppled over Eddie as he suddenly came to a halt. He was just about to snap at the other when he saw what had caused the near collision, making the words die in his throat. Three doors stood before them, each with a label that stared mockingly at the duo.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Richie shouted.

Richie should have known Pennywise was going to pull something like this. But he had learned his lesson and chose to open the opposite door that he had chosen the first time. But it wasn't that simple because he ended up having to slam the door on the torso that was rushing toward them.

"He's not fucking with us" Richie said as the Very Scary door slammed.

Because of course that damn clown was one step ahead of them. He almost didn't want to open the Not Scary at all door to see what other sadistic horror the demon had imagined up to torture them. But to his surprise it was clear. That was until they had turned around at the disappearance of the worm creature. And of course when they turned back there just happened to be a Pomeranian looking up at them.

"Very funny, no way am I falling for your tricks you little bitch" Richie hissed.

"It's kind of cute though" Eddie said.

No sooner had that statement left Eddie's lips when the dog suddenly transformed into a twisted demonic Picasso version of itself. The creature lunged out, snagging Eddie by the leg.

"Richie!"

The cry quickly spurred Richie into action, taking ahold of Eddie's arms. The creature didn't give up on its prey though and Richie was losing grip. Just as he braced his feet against the doorframe he felt a wave of strength surround him, building up in his muscles as he pulled. Something in the back of his mind felt Mike's presence with him as he grew stronger. Eddie's grip tightened against Richie's so much he could feel his pounding heartbeat, matching the terror in Eddie's eyes.

"Get your fucking claws off him!" Richie snarled, bashing the creature's head with his flashlight.

The monster cried out and finally let go, the door slamming as they fell away from it. Richie could hear the rushing of his heart in his ears as he tried to calm down. He didn't even realize how tightly he was still holding onto Eddie until the other spoke.

"Richie-"

"Are you ok Eds?"

"Yeah" Eddie said before he took notice of his friend's behavior, "are you ok?"

Richie was silent for a few moments. The urge to tell Eddie everything once again swirled around him. He was so very tired of being afraid to tell the truth. But just as he opened his mouth to speak a yell from the main cavern had both their heads turning. Richie cursed silently as they got to their feet, rushing back the way they had come.

Richie was the first to reenter the main cavern and as childish as the action was he started to pick up rocks and throw them as he shouted out insults. His trash mouth seemed to successfully draw Pennywise's attention, maybe a little too well since within a few seconds of the clown turning to him Richie suddenly found his vision flooded with a blinding white light.

Eddie realized in the rush of events that just occurred he dropped his makeshift weapon and by the time he finally found it he could already hear Richie's voice shouting at the clown. As he rounded the corner he gasped as he saw Richie was caught in the Deadlights. He could feel the fear that had suffocated him all his life crawl back into his body. But as his fist tensed he felt the cold metal of the fence post in his grip.

"This kills monsters, if you believe it does."

Beverly's words echoed in his mind as he stared at the weapon.

"You're braver than you think."

Something in Eddie finally snapped. Richie's words flooded his mind with a courage he never thought he was capable of. This weapon was going to kill Pennywise, he wasn't going to let his best friend die, not this time. He let out a battle cry of a yell with a surge of energy coursing through him as he threw the weapon with deadly accuracy. There was a roar of pain and Richie fell back to the ground.

When Richie's eyes opened again he was laying on the ground with Eddie over him. He only caught a few of his words before a splash of warm liquid covered his face. A look of shock was twisted onto Eddie's face as he was lifted into the air. Richie watched in horror as his best friend was thrown down a pit, a huge hole torn in his chest. Richie cried out Eddie's name as he rushed to his side. In an instant his entire world was gone. His Eddie was fading and there was nothing he could do.

His anger built within him as the others began to fight back against Pennywise. He yelled with all his might alongside his friends. But once that fucking clown was finally dead his anger quickly faded.

When he saw Eddie's cold body everything inside him broke. His regret sunk into him as he tried so desperately to deny what he was seeing. Because this wasn't how this was supposed to end. But before his mind could even fully process everything he could feel hands on his body, pulling him away from Eddie. Pulling him away from the man he never had the courage to admit that he loved. He screamed at them, fought against them to let him go. He didn't want to leave Eddie here, not where this clown had taken so many before him. By the time he was dragged out of the house Richie had no strength left within him. He collapsed in Mike's and Bill's arms as his voice continued to scream Eddie's name until he lost it.

He could sense his friends around him, but everything else was completely numb. He didn't even realize they left until he was staring down the cliff and the water below. All of them jumped down into the water, just as they did so many years ago. But even with the water washing off the blood on the outside, it couldn't erase the stain of guilt that struck Richie. He couldn't help the strangled sob that escaped him as he tried to clean his glasses. The gravity of reality sunk in, pressing on his entire body like a massive weight, making it almost impossible to breath. He could feel the comforting touch of his friends as he openly sobbed, wishing the pain would go away.

Suddenly the vision before Richie's eyes shattered. He could hardly register what happened before he collapsed onto the cold cave floor. Richie gasped for breath as he tried to make sense of the world. He suddenly saw Eddie standing over him, speaking strangely familiar words. Richie clutched his eyes as they began to burn and his mind was flooded with a vision he quickly realized was from Pennywise's perspective. He could see Eddie's back and a claw that was aimed at him.

The vision cleared and Richie pushed Eddie out of the way on instinct. He only had time to see Eddie was safely out of the way before a searing pain jolted through his shoulder. He could hear screams from his friends as he was lifted into the air. He could feel the claw move within his shoulder, causing another jolt of agony to tear through his body with each shift.

He felt his body finally fling free as he was thrown down a crevice. His breath was pulled from him as he fell and by the time he reached the bottom every part of his body ached. He could hear Eddie screaming his name, but a crash from above told him the others were cut off by Pennywise.

"Richie are you ok?" Eddie asked, his voice full of panic.

"Just super" Richie grunted.

"How did you know?"

"I have visions remember? I saw what that asshole was going to do."

"We need to stop the bleeding" Eddie said as he removed his jacket.

"Eddie…there's something I need to tell you" Richie said, because he had to say this now, before he threw away his second chance again.

"Richie I swear if this is another joke about my mom-"

"No it's not… I…" Richie paused as he hissed in pain when Eddie pressed his jacket over the injury. He had to take a moment to collect himself before continuing, "I… I've kind of had a crush on you ever since we were kids."

It was silent for a moment between them, Richie not daring to even look at Eddie even when he finally broke the silence, "why didn't you tell me?"

Richie couldn't help snapping his head up in surprise. And he was even more surprised to see happiness in the other's eyes. Everything around them seemed to melt away as they stared at each other. Richie was half expecting to be woken up once again, all of this feeling too good to be true.

"Why? Cause I thought you would be disgusted with me… and after what just happened I couldn't… I- I was more afraid of you not knowing and I-"

Richie was suddenly cut off by soft lips against his. He startled slightly and was frozen, afraid that any movement would shatter this dream. But within seconds his body was responding, pressing back into the kiss. He could feel a surge of energy go through his body that he wasn't sure was from the kiss or something else. When they finally broke he could feel Eddie smiling.

"Beep beep Richie" Eddie said softly.

"Wait…"

"I've liked you too."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"For the same reason you didn't, but since you decided to say something first…"

Richie chuckled as he pulled Eddie in for another kiss, this one feeling lighter, as did Richie's heart. He thought he lost Eddie forever because of that horrible vision, but now he was here, accepting Richie's affections in what seemed like an effortless manor.

"Well it's about damn time!"

Beverly's voice broke through their moment, bringing both of them back to reality as they jumped apart, Richie grunting as his shoulder protested the quick motion. He could hear movement as the other Losers finally made their way down towards them.

"Wait what?" Richie asked in confusion.

The yells and clawing at the cavern from Pennywise once again seemed to fade into the background. After everything that just happened he honestly felt like less of a threat then he used to. Or maybe it was because they were now back together again.

"Oh come on you two used to pretend to fight over the hammock just to be close. Not to mention you were always hanging off of Eddie's shoulders. It was completely obvious" Ben said.

"Wait, did all of you know?" Eddie asked.

"Yes" came all of their replies.

"And no one said anything?" Richie whined.

"Like you would have believed us" Mike said.

Just then a particularly louder bang from above them finally jolted the group back to reality and reminded them of the problem they had to deal with. Eddie tied his jacket around Richie's wound, securing it tight enough to help slow the bleeding.

Richie tossed a thanks to Eddie before turning to the group, "so what are we going to do now?"

"Did anyone else feel something when we were separated?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, I felt it when I threw the fence post, what does that have to do with anything though?" Eddie questioned.

"The ritual…the reason it didn't originally work was because they didn't believe they could kill It. But we nearly killed him once before" Mike said.

"That's right w-we ganged up on him when we w-were kids" Bill agreed.

"And showed we weren't afraid of him" Beverly finished.

"That's a little harder to do with him being the size of a building" Eddie said.

"The cave entrance, when we were coming in we had to squeeze through. So if we can get there-" Beverly began.

"We can shrink him down" Ben finished.

"There's a passageway over there, it might lead to a way around" Eddie said, pointing to the tunnel he had noticed a moment ago.

"Well that's convenient" Richie said.

The group carefully made their way through the passage. Once they came out Richie had to hold his head for a moment from a sudden dizzy spell. Eddie helped him sit down in a hidden spot, there was no way he was going to be able to run with the rest of them. They counted down and took off for the tunnel, but unfortunately Pennywise was faster and blocked the exit. The group scrambled away from him, but not before he lunged out. The action caught Eddie's right leg with the large claw, the same leg the devil dog had grabbed earlier.

Eddie's cry of pain pierced the air as the Losers surrounded him, glaring up at the clown. Eddie's body shook from the shock of the impact. This was worse than when he broke his arm because he could feel the claw dig into his skin, cut through his muscle. He felt the tear as the claw retracted back and from the streak of red now staining the ground and surrounding his leg the gash was pretty deep.

As the others kept the clown occupied Bill bent down to Eddie, picking him up and bringing him over to where Richie sat hiding. He was quick to remove his button up shirt and stop the bleeding. Eddie hissed as Bill pressed the cloth into his wound.

"Were you trying to one up me in injuries?" Richie joked.

"Can't have you hogging all the glory, that would just inflate your already oversized ego" Eddie shot back.

Richie chuckled as he tuned back in to what was happening across the room just as Bill secured his shirt around Eddie's leg. All of them were shouting at the clown and the more their voices echoed across the darkening cave the smaller the demon was becoming. Richie had to admit, out of all the ways they could have beaten It, yelling insults was not one of them. Bill joined the group as they cornered him, taking them out of Richie's view. Moments later the Deadlights began to fade, quickly swallowing the cave in darkness once more, the only light now coming from the flashlights the group had with them.

Richie felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. Now that it was over the adrenaline rushing through his body had disappeared, leaving him with the urge to close his eyes and rest. But he fought against that urge, they still had to get out of there. Richie's gaze was pulled forward when he saw Beverly and Bill crouching down in front of them.

"Did you kill that fucker?" Richie asked.

"Yeah, Mortal Kombated his heart right out of his chest" Bill said.

Richie chuckled, but then groaned in pain, his body was just now registering how much damage that fucking clown had done. Richie glanced over at Eddie, glad to see the other still had his eyes open as well. They exchanged a glance before Mike was helping Richie up.

"Can you walk at all Eddie?" Beverly asked.

Ben helped Eddie to his feet, but as soon as he tried to take a step his leg instantly folded from the pressure.

"That's a no" Eddie hissed.

"Here, climb on my back" Ben offered.

Eddie carefully hopped on Ben's back, the strongman easily standing back up and securing Eddie's legs.

"Show off" Richie teased as Mike looped his uninjured arm around his shoulder, something Richie was grateful for since the room had started to spin a bit.

The group slowly made their way back out, navigating the small passage had been a challenge. There was a lot of swearing and complaining from Eddie, mostly about how his wound was going to get so many infections. And it wasn't long until they came across an even more major problem.

"Oh fuck, I completely forgot about that" Richie cursed as they all gazed up at the tunnel above them.

And as if they didn't have enough to deal with already the group was suddenly disoriented by the earth shaking beneath them.

"That can't be good" Beverly said.

"Mike, you were able to give your strength to us back when we were fighting Pennywise right?" Ben asked, a determined look in his eye.

"Yes, I think so."

"Can you do it again?"

Mike nodded and focused. Eddie gripped Ben tightly as he began to climb. He had never really admitted it before, but he had just a little fear of heights…or maybe it was falling, like he could easily do now.

"I swear if you drop me Hanscom-"Eddie started.

Ben chuckled though it came out quite breathless, "just don't look down Eddie, you'll be fine."

Richie didn't even realize he had been holding his breath until he let out a large exhale when Ben called down they had made it. Beverly was next to climb up which gave Richie time to think about that he was going to do.

"Gonna need your help here too I think Mikey" Richie said.

"I'll climb up right behind you. Just don't fall on me" Bill said.

Richie laughed, "I'll try my best."

Right before Richie began to climb he felt a burst of strength radiate from his injured arm, helping ease his pain. Richie's body shook with the effort as he climbed. He took each ascension slowly and carefully. He could feel his shoulder screaming in protest even though the mask of strength, no doubt it would hurt like hell after this. But despite working with an injured shoulder there was very little issues apart from one minor scare when the earth shook again. By the time the last three reached the top the tremors were starting to get stronger.

There was another protest from Eddie as they began to wade through the water that just made Richie sigh, "yes we get it Eds we'll all get staph infections, just put your leg on my shoulder and we'll keep it above water.

Eddie opened his mouth to protest, but a glare from Richie silenced it. "Don't call me that" was what he finally decided on.

Ben shifted Eddie to sit on his shoulders as he linked arms with Richie, allowing his good shoulder to be the foot rest. As the group crossed the water debris began to fall from the ceiling. Even after defeating that damn clown he was still attempting to kill them in a pile of rubble. Once they were out of the water they were making good time until they came to the well.

"Dammit! I hate this fucking clown's obsession with wells!" Richie cursed.

One terrifying and swear filled climb later the group was practically sprinting out of the building just as the whole thing collapsed. Richie couldn't help glancing over to Eddie, who was still riding on Ben's back. Richie reached out and took one of Eddie's hands, giving it a small squeeze. When he received a squeeze back he felt his anxiety retreating. Eddie was here, he was safe, that horrible vision hadn't come to pass. And more importantly they were together now.

So here is the long end notes. I got some of the ideas in this chapter from another Mat Pat theory video. In his video Mat talked about how each of the Losers had to face their fears in order for the tokens to work. He states that Eddie's death has to remain in the story because Eddie is Richie's true token, but I don't think that has to be true. Richie's fear is telling the truth to his best friend. So when he confessed to Eddie his token was the last to activate. I really liked Mat's theory because I thought something similar when I first watched it and I liked that they were all force to finally face and over come their fears. Also sorry if I broke anyone's heart for a moment with the Deadlight vision Richie had, but I thought I needed to put it in there. From Beverly's vision it seemed the Deadlights showed what the person feared the most in the worst way so for Richie Pennywise would show Eddie's death and having to leave him behind because he knew it would break Richie. And I have said this before but Bill Hader was sooo amazing! That scene where they are in the water and the sob he lets out just breaks my heart every time I watch that scene. I knew he would be able to do the comedy part well, but I never expected to be hurting right alongside his character because he played the heart break so realistically. Ok, ok I'm done. I could go on for awhile about that. Anyways review if you guys would like to tell me what you think.