"All parties copy, this is Eddie and I've got Isaac with me now, so from here on out if you're on channel 7, code words only." Eddie tucked the radio into the pack he had at his feet as he drove the car to the first distraction point, but noticed how Isaac kept his eyes on the pack almost hungrily.

"It's stupid how easily your whole plan could be blown if I just grabbed that radio, tuned into another channel, and listened to whatever all the soldiers and Hopper are telling each other," said Isaac airily. "I'm not gonna do it, but I could. At least, I'm gonna try not to do it. I make no promises for whatever Vecna feels like doing."

"If you show any signs of trying to sabotage this, I have measures in place to make you straighten your act right up," Eddie promised. He hadn't told Isaac or anyone else that he had procured a taser from an unused locker in the sublevels of the lab, but he figured he needed something less than lethal that he could use to force Isaac into submission if it appeared that his brother was about to turn up the Vecna levels. And now that he thought of it (he had missed out on thinking a lot of these plans through), Isaac was likely to start showing signs of Vecna's distress the second any flames touched the forest floor. When that happened, Eddie would be at risk of getting the full brunt of Vecna's fury through Isaac and would be faced with the choice to either run from that danger or stay by his brother's side and hope the fire didn't consume them both.

He had about four hours, give or take a couple minutes depending on his and Isaac's running endurance levels, to figure out how he was going to face that unsolvable problem and so with that happy thought sitting at the back of his mind, he pulled the car over on the shoulder and began rifling through music stations.

"So the plan is to sit exposed on the side of the road listening to crackly music through beat-up car speakers?" Isaac guessed, rolling down his window to tempt in the putrid breeze, courtesy of the Upside Down.

"You got straight-A's in school; you can figure out the real plan," said Eddie patronizingly.

Judging by the look on Isaac's face, he had already guessed the real plan before either of them had said anything, but he had been waiting for Eddie to confirm it. "Does it matter what genre?" asked Isaac as Eddie turned the dial in search of a proper station.

"Not classical. Something loud, obnoxious, overpowering, something with a strong beat."

"So anything you might have a tape of at home?"

"Here, hold this." Eddie held up his right hand middle finger as his left hand continued to browse until he landed on some heavy rock which he then set at the highest possible volume that made the car windows tremble. "Time to bail," he said as he climbed out and slung his automatic and his pack over his shoulder. He and Isaac shut their doors so the UDC's would have a harder time accessing the radio but didn't stick around to find out just how long it would take them to locate the source of disturbance.

Thanks to the Upside Down storms, the normally humid air was now riddled with an unseasonal chill and so they were not sweating too profusely as they set off at a light jog to pace themselves for the next several miles. As had been planned, there were vehicles stationed at every mile marker and while some had to be hotwired to life, others were still in working order for them to pick a station and turn up the radio.

Eye of the Tiger played on one vehicle, Bad Moon Rising on the next, and every song played in a continuous loop in Eddie's head until they made it to the next car and played the next song. To keep Isaac in sight and focused on something other than waiting to be possessed again, Eddie had him do most of the heavy lifting in hotwiring the cars and finding appropriately loud and obnoxious music, for which Isaac seemed satisfied. It was almost pleasant, working together doing what was essentially a repetitive and mundane task with some fifteen minutes of cardio in between. If not for their imminent doom, Eddie would have enjoyed himself and only wished they could be doing this–or perhaps something akin to this but actually legal–at some other point in time. Besides that morning they spent doing laundry in Wayne's trailer back in March, this was the most time the two of them had spent together in years and a part of Eddie didn't want it to end. A part of him wanted to remain on this road for all eternity, catching snippets of songs and bringing crashed cars to life by illicit means. It would have been better than what awaited him when they finished.

At their seventh or eighth car, Isaac had spent a good ten minutes trying to get one particularly stubborn wire to accept the spark from the other and when they finally heard the engine roar to life, Isaac asked for the water bottle from Eddie, swigging a gratuitous mouthful around before gulping it down in one go.

"Can I ask you something?" said Eddie as Isaac dabbed at a very small collection of sweat across his upper lip.

"I'm sure you can, but whether or not I'll give you an answer is up for debate."

"Why d'you say that?"

"Because you've had this doom and gloom look on your face for the last half hour, so I know something's up."

"Well, gee, the fact that we're out here risking our asses for the cause and could potentially die at any second might have me slightly worried. Just spitballin' here…"

Isaac straightened up to show he was listening and serious about whatever Eddie was about to ask him.

"Is it hard, knowing you're about to die and being able to face it?" said Eddie before his nerve could fail him for posing such a childish question.

"Why are you asking me that?"

"It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that we might be dead in a couple of hours. Not a chance." Fixing Isaac with the most annoyingly obvious expression of no, duh, Eddie continued, "It might be because I think today's the day I die."

"You're not," Isaac assured him through empty words. "But if you were, you should already know the answer to that question because you walked willingly toward your death once already, twice if you consider what happened in my dimension where you knowingly and willingly pushed me out of the way before I could get skewered by that vine. But you knew the risks of having Vecna burned out of you and you knew that there was a high probability that you wouldn't survive, but you laid down on that table, let them put restraints on you, and told Steve to make the call all with a smile on your face. You've faced your death before, so how hard was it the first time?"

Pretty damn hard.

He'd put on a brave face for those around him, but he had been terrified of going into that situation, willingly allowing himself to be strapped down, knowing he might be burned alive with no good memories to send him off. It had been far more difficult to think he might die as an empty shell of himself in the lab rather than to think he might die in the company of friends and family when facing Vecna the first time. He joked about death as a way to counter his fear of it but he wasn't fooling himself; he didn't want to die when he felt like his life had only just started a few months ago.

"When you were stabbed by the vine in the Upside Down and told me to leave you, what did that feel like?"

Isaac's gaze held sympathy but also slight irritation. "I don't know. I didn't die, bro. That was your dimension, not mine. I never experienced being stabbed by any vines just like you didn't. I don't have any memories of facing death because I didn't have to except for being burned halfway to hell. So I'm not any more qualified to answer that question than you are, but I don't want you thinking about it when there's still work to do. I don't know what that work is, but whatever we're doing here has to have some part in it, right? So, let's keep at it."

It was still confusing trying to wrap his head around the fact that both Eddie and Isaac had and had not died and bore scars of things that they had technically never experienced. Eddie didn't know what he had hoped to garner from asking Isaac what it felt like to face death, maybe some semblance of courage for what he knew was coming, but he supposed that no one alive could actually answer that question because no one knew what it felt like until they actually looked death in the eye and it would be a different experience for everyone.

The next car that needed to be tuned up was the one Eddie had hoped to avoid altogether, but as it was a central part of the plan, there was no getting around it. As the graveyard of crashed cars came into view at the now infamous pileup site, Eddie could see that the road was maroon right in the center where it looked like someone had dropped a paint bomb on the asphalt. They approached slowly: Eddie because he didn't want to get any closer and Isaac because he had been shown this place by Vecna. Isaac stood at the red spot for a moment before he went to his knees and Eddie momentarily thought that his brother was having a breakdown, but Isaac actually brought his face down to sniff the ground and then stood back up rather hastily.

"Old blood. Some of it other people, some of it Wayne."

Eddie was on the verge of asking how Isaac knew it was their uncle's blood or if he was just using deductive reasoning, but decided against it. He didn't want to know.

Isaac dug his fists into his pockets, searching about wildly for something to focus on and looking like the lost, confused, bitter teenager Eddie had seen on Isaac's last night as a resident of Hawkins.

He came awake with a start, not from fright, but excitement that he recognized the voice that was arguing with his uncle. The sound of Isaac's voice drove him from his bed and he hurried to the barely cracked open door, but paused to listen.

"I'm not staying here, not after what I just saw my own dad do. I'm gonna grab some things from the house, but then I'm outta here."

"What about Eddie?" asked Wayne.

"He'll be okay with you. And don't look at me like that; you know he's better off with you. I'm still fresh outta high school, so you tell me what I'm supposed to do with a kid his age? Expect me to raise him and provide for him? I'm not qualified for shit. I don't wanna dump him on you, but you're all he's got. You're all he's ever had, really."

"Horseshit. He's had you longer'n he's had me."

"But I'm just his brother. I've never been his parent and that's what he needs right now."

"He needs his family. He needs kin an' I ain't as close to 'im as you are. You walk out on 'im, don't be surprised if he resents you for the rest've his life."

"I know that, dammit!"

Eddie had never heard Isaac snap at anyone like that. He had heard his brother and his dad argue, but Isaac was never one to raise his voice. Hearing the shaky quality to that voice now frightened him because Isaac wasn't afraid of anything, so if this scared him, what chance did Eddie have of getting through it alone?

"I'm not walking out on him. I'm gonna come back as often as I can, but this town can't be home for me anymore. I've been trying to hold on for his sake for years now but this, what my dad just did…I'm done. This is the chance I've been waiting for and I'd be stupid not to take it."

Eddie had heard enough and threw the door open with the panicked strength of a kid taking flight from his room in fright after thinking he saw a monster under his bed and he ran down the hall to the living room where Isaac was standing before Wayne with his hands deep in his pockets, his head bowed, his foot scuffing at a spot on the shag carpet. At the sound of Eddie's footsteps, Isaac glanced up and for the first time in living memory, Eddie saw his brother's face fall at the sight of him.

"You're going away?" asked Eddie.

"Just a couple towns over, bro. I'm not going far and I'll be back," Isaac promised.

"Don't leave me here," Eddie begged. "I wanna come with you."

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't have any money to take care of you. You wouldn't be able to go to school or have any new clothes or even eat. I'm gonna be living outta my car for a while but you've got a bed here with Uncle Wayne and he'll make sure you've got everything you need."

"If you don't want me, you can just tell me," said Eddie, eyes brimming. A decade later, he would wonder where those words came from, who was feeding them to him, how he had managed to sound beyond his years, and how he had known to say those words that would wound his brother the most. Even then, he understood the gravity of what he had said.

"Don't ever say that," Isaac snapped. "You're the only reason I've stayed as long as I have and if I did what I wanted to do, I'd take you with me, but that's not what's best for you, so I can't be selfish. I gotta put you first this time, and that means you gotta stay here."

"Okay, whatever."

Eddie hadn't known what else to say at the time. He had heard Isaac say that whenever their parents said something particularly hurtful and it was Isaac's way of deflecting the blow of their indifference toward him.

Then, Isaac had placed his hands on Eddie's shoulders. He hadn't knelt to come down onto Eddie's level but was addressing him as an equal nonetheless. "Nothing will ever stop me from coming back to see you. I promise, I'll always come back."

Eddie should have recalled those words when Isaac was taken from him the first time. He should have remembered them before Isaac's turn being roasted alive. But they came to him now and though they were words of comfort from the older brother to the younger, they were still a lie because no one could guarantee they would come back, especially someone with heavy connections to assholes from other dimensions.

Isaac had gone off the road now to look for a vehicle that might still be in working order, but Eddie could hear him sounding congested like he had suddenly developed a head cold. Eddie came to stand behind him, unsure of what to say as they stood here at the site of their uncle's death. The silence was broken only by Isaac's fiddling about in various cars and in that silence, Eddie could hear the UDC's converging on Wayne, swarming him, devouring him…and he had never made a sound through it all.

"Did he say anything to you at the end?" Isaac asked after a while.

Eddie had to hammer the heel of his hand against his ear to drown out the echo of Wayne's last moments. He thought back, racking his brain for anything meaningful his uncle might have said to him, but once they were at the roadblock to recover the generator supplies, there had been no time to talk. The last interaction Eddie had with his uncle was to see that proud but wounded look in his eyes.

"I don't remember," said Eddie half-truthfully. "But I thought Vecna showed you what happened, so shouldn't you know anyway?"

"I saw, but I didn't hear, thank God."

"There wasn't really time to say anything. There was lots of shouting from Hopper and the others and lots of UDC noises, but I think Wayne told me to drive the Humvee because I was at the wheel when–when he went back."

"And did you drive?"

"No," said Eddie somewhat shamefully. "Hopper had to hold me down and Nancy took over. I just watched out the back hatch."

"Well, you've done a lot of good since then, even if you froze in the moment. Wayne knew you were needed more than he was and he knew you'd be okay…eventually. Sucks to admit it and it even sounds bad, but with you, it's been reassuring, knowing you could take care of yourself whenever we had to leave you behind. If something ever were to happen to me I knew you'd be okay. You–"

"Shut up. I had to read those words once and I don't need to be reminded of them. I read your will that you left for Max to give to me and I don't wanna hear how I'll find some way to move on without you. This isn't about just losing you, not when Max and Chrissy are still in danger and Dustin's a hostage and we're about to face a battle we probably can't win. I won't be okay if you die. I won't be okay if anyone dies and someone is going to die, so let's assume that at the end of this, I will be as far from okay as it's possible to be."

It was lucky that Eddie heard Mike over the radio just then because he didn't want to hear another rallying speech from his brother when he couldn't even be sure that the words coming out of Isaac's mouth were his own.

"Go for Eddie," he said.

"How far are you to the last car?"

"We're at the second to last one, so I'd say another twenty minutes at most."

"We may not have that much time."

"Then tell them to go ahead and we'll just compensate."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm gonna have to be, aren't I? Make the call."

"Copy that."

Isaac put on Foreigner as he managed to get one of the cars from the pileup working and then Eddie pointed to the road again. "One more to go, but we're gonna have to run for it. Think you can manage that?"

"Says the guy who somehow managed to flunk gym class twice. I'll race you."

It was awkward trying to sprint with his gun smacking against his back with every step, but Eddie kept one hand on it and took to the challenge like he was being graded on this last hurdle and would fail life if he didn't manage to complete the mile run in under twenty minutes. Isaac was in his element despite years of being out of practice from his days of track and field and he was always about ten strides ahead of Eddie.

A storm was rolling overhead, but it might be the one time Eddie was not happy to see it because they needed the fire to burn high and brutally if they wanted it to deter Vecna from attempting to come to the lab by any other way than by road. The goal was to start the forest fire at the furthest point outward and behind the lab and then have it circle toward the road, effectively blocking off all routes while the fire starters ran like hell to whatever safety they could find. But if the rain began to fall and soaked the surrounding woods before they could start the burn, they would be shit out of luck on all fronts.

Mike must have held off for another few minutes before giving the signal to set the trees alight, but he had evidently still given it because that high-pitched screeching that Eddie had come to associate with the Upside Down's own voice could be heard not too far off.

Isaac was starting to act strange, twitching and wincing as if he was constantly receiving an electric shock and Eddie knew it was the part of him that was feeling Vecna's pain as the parts of the Upside Down that had leaked into the woods were being put to the flame. As the champion he was, Isaac tried to ignore his discomfort for as long as possible, but he finally pulled Eddie to a halt and pleaded in such a pitiful, forlorn voice that Eddie almost gave in and revealed their plan.

"What did you do to make him so pissed off right now? It fucking hurts, man," he moaned, clutching his stomach and bent double.

"I can't tell you," said Eddie apologetically. "I can only tell you to stay with me and keep running. Once we reach the last car, we can drive back to the lab and you'll feel better from there."

"Bullshit."

"Yeah, it's bullshit, but I don't know what I can do for you and knowing what's happening out there won't make you feel any better. You gotta stand up and run with me one more time. We're almost there."

"Or you could just leave me here and go finish that yourself. I don't think I've got it in me to go any further."

Seeing as how that wasn't an option, Eddie draped Isaac's arm around his shoulders and started walking, surprised at the strength within himself to support almost all of Isaac's weight when the two of them probably had less than ten pounds difference between them. No one would have blamed Isaac for keeling over and flat-out refusing to be moved another inch after the torture he had endured from his own body, but he was still trying to force his feet to walk with Eddie even as his groans of pain grew louder.

At last, they came upon the final car, left with the keys in the ignition by one of the teams for easy access and Eddie set Isaac down beside the open driver's side door, reaching inside to turn on the vehicle when Isaac's head snapped up and he said, "Someone's coming."

The fact that he had said someone and not something should have been enough for Eddie to not go for his gun, but he was running off of paranoia and desperation, so he trained his sights in the direction Isaac was looking and saw someone in a stained and singed white button-up stumbling onto the road, holding fast to a wound in his right arm. Brenner's thick and immaculately styled grayish-white hair was disheveled and he had a nasty gash across his brow. He caught sight of Eddie and Isaac and staggered toward them on a slight limp as he favored his left leg.

"What happened?" Eddie asked him even though he had a pretty good idea what had happened already.

Brenner showed them what looked like melted plastic on his pants, the remnants of a walkie-talkie. "The plan is working, but Henry's creatures have been hiding out in the woods and are being driven toward us. My team was overwhelmed, and by the sounds we heard across the board on the radios, other teams were as well. I tried to radio for backup, but my device was destroyed."

It was here that Eddie noticed, stupidly, belatedly, that while Brenner's bleeding arm hung limp at his side, that hand was gripping a revolver and the crazed, fiery look in his eyes that barely masked either brilliance or madness was focused on Isaac who had stood up at Brenner's approach but was still handcuffed and defenseless.

"Doc, why don't you let me have that gun?" Eddie suggested.

"How much of Henry is in you right now?" Brenner asked Isaac, ignoring Eddie completely.

Isaac's nostrils flared but he took a step back in an attempt to not be goaded into action. His voice, however, had that dual tone of Vecna's within it as he answered, "Enough for you to know the answer to that question just by looking at me."

"I won't let you use this man anymore to try and kill me, Henry. He's had enough."

Eddie was not aware of having raised his weapon, but one second he was watching Brenner prepare to shoot Isaac through the head and the next, Brenner had dropped his revolver, clutching his already bleeding arm which, in addition to having claw marks in it, now also bore two bullets courtesy of Eddie's sharpshooting. Brenner never even made a sound, staring in shock at Eddie that he had dared to do such a thing as if Eddie somehow owed it to the doctor to allow him to shoot Isaac just because Brenner had played a key part in all of this. All Eddie could convey was an unapologetic look that told Brenner: I warned you.

Following the gunshots, Isaac started forward, but Eddie warned him off, relieved that his brother's eyes were their normal color, his face tense but not inhumane. His anger was not Vecna's, however, and that made it a bit more difficult to reason with him over what had just nearly occurred.

"No," Eddie told him firmly.

"What d'you mean no? The son've a bitch just tried to shoot me in the name of mercy for my lost soul when I'm still here!"

"I don't like him or what he did anymore than you do, but you can't kill him."

"I don't want to, but it might not be my choice this time."

"I'm telling you that I'm not going to let you kill him."

"Tell that to Vecna."

Eddie stuck the live end of his taser against the back of Isaac's neck and his brother went down with a garbled cry. Placing his heel on Isaac's shoulder, Eddie warned him that he would get another shock if he tried to move and it seemed that at least for the moment, Isaac was in control.

"My brother and I have a job to finish up, doc, so you should try to get yourself somewhere safe and for the time being, that's somewhere where we won't be."

"You won't make it back to the lab," said Brenner vindictively. "All of my men have orders to shoot him on sight because of the danger that he poses."

"They aren't your men and that wasn't your call to make," said Eddie. "I told you what would happen if you tried to pull some shit like that. And you had bigger problems than him but now that Vecna knows you're willing to kill Isaac, you just made him your biggest problem. For your own sake, you need to leave us now–and do not reach for that gun."

Brenner had been eyeballing his fallen weapon out of the corner of his eye and though Eddie admired his persistence, he would not hesitate to shoot the doctor again.

"Don't you see what Henry has done, how he has manipulated both of you to achieve his own ends?" said Brenner pressingly.

I kinda figured it out a long time ago, Eddie wanted to tell him, but he couldn't reveal what he knew, even though he had suspected that everything would lead to this from the second he saw Isaac laying on that hospital bed beside him.

"By taking possession over the person you care for most, Henry made it impossible for anyone to harm him. And now, when we are at our most desperate and most vulnerable, you are choosing your brother's safety over everyone else's. Henry is known for doing these things to people and I would have thought you would have learned that after what Eleven told you about him. You cannot sacrifice the world for your brother, Eddie. We need you more than we need him and he isn't as committed to your survival as you are to his. He's tried to kill you before."

Eddie was hardly listening anymore because it was the same bullshit over and over again. He wasn't choosing Isaac over everyone else because he was prepared to kill his brother if he needed to, but he had also found an avenue where both ultimatums could be avoided and since Brenner didn't know about Eddie's escape route, there was no point in trying to argue with him over something already set in stone.

"Look, I'm not asking you anymore, I'm telling you that you need to leave while you still can."

"Let me up," said Isaac.

"Not yet."

"I'm good. I'm in control," Isaac insisted.

Was he, though? In such a precarious situation, Eddie didn't trust himself to know the difference between Isaac being manipulated to say something and Isaac saying something of his own accord and that was an extremely dangerous game to play.

Still contemplating whether or not he should grant Isaac's request, Eddie was unprepared for Isaac to buck upward and throw off his balance. Vecna must have known that Eddie would either tase Isaac again or shoot him if he tried to make a move for Brenner, so instead he did opted to make Isaac do the least violent thing. He dived into the car, cranking up the volume on full blast and moments later, they heard thunderous crashing coming toward them at full speed from seemingly all sides. Isaac regarded Brenner with an expression of regret but behind it was malice that was not born from him.

"You should try to run," said Isaac, but there was a tick going in his temple as if the part of him that was Vecna was struggling to break out and make its true intentions known. He was fighting back, holding on for as long as possible to remain himself long enough to give Brenner a chance even as Vecna was attempting to orchestrate his death, even though Brenner had attempted to murder him just minutes before. "I'm so sorry."

"Run!" Eddie shouted, and Brenner took off toward the lab even though he, Eddie, and Isaac knew he wouldn't get very far. Eddie considered trying to help him, but his bullets would only turn the UDC's upon him. He could do nothing for the doctor, and so he looked away, hoping he wouldn't hear anything that would paint a visual of Brenner's likely demise in his head.

"Get behind me," said Isaac, scooting out of the driver's seat and spreading himself in front of Eddie as they backed away from the car. UDC's poured out of the woods and rushed past them in an effort to get to the racket coming from the car. Eddie felt his hair rustling in the backdraft as creatures passed within inches of him but thanks to Isaac's shield, he was invisible. How much longer that could last, however, was anyone's guess because Eddie could see Isaac mentally sparring with Vecna to keep control of his own body and it was a fight he was sure to lose.

"Can you run?" Eddie whispered.

"I can try."

"Then we need to go now."

Isaac closed his eyes in resignation, for he was about as certain as Eddie that one of them was not going to make it if they tried, but with the forest fire already spreading and heading their way and the UDC's growing more frenzied as they attacked the car, they had no other choice. A heavy guitar riff exploded over the radio and the two of them broke into the most desperate all-out sprint either of them had ever attempted.

If he could take a peek inside his own body, Eddie was certain that he would see a tear ripping through his lungs, see his heart shriveling with the effort of pumping blood throughout his body to sustain his speed. He didn't allow himself to look back or to either side, not even to try and get a better look at what appeared to be a freshly half-devoured hunk of meat that he hoped wasn't Brenner some ten minutes back the way they had originally come. They passed the battered, broken remains of the cars they had previously left and which now stood as silent ruins upon the road. The UDC's that had destroyed the cars were nowhere to be seen, but if the constantly growing shrieking was anything to judge by, they had fled toward a colder part of town and vacated the woods surrounding the lab. The cars had served their purpose in drawing the UDC's away from the burners but Eddie had no way of knowing what had become of all those teams, one of which included Hopper, Steve, Nancy, and Murray.

He dared not slow down to ask for an update from Mike but as they drew nearer and nearer to the lab, Isaac was starting to break out into spasms and Eddie could see the black veins creeping up from under his collar and along his wrists.

Just a bit longer. Hold on for just a little bit longer, Eddie projected every time he noticed more and more signs of Vecna leaking through. Isaac was doing his damndest to stay alert and aware but with half of the native tree population of Hawkins on fire, his condition wasn't likely to improve anytime soon. Their pace was slowing down, Isaac was starting to lag, and Eddie kept his taser out in his left hand as his right held his Colt since there was no point in pretending that that wasn't what he ultimately would have to resort to in the next several minutes.

Eddie had been just as susceptible to a complete mental breakdown several times over the past week or so as he was now and he thoroughly expected Vecna to take full advantage of his weakness and for the first time, waited for it. He was openly inviting Vecna to pay him a visit but he had had a strong suspicion that his vision of Jason and Wayne the day prior would be the last one because he knew everything he needed to know now, so there was no point in dropping cruel hints anymore. Vecna knew Eddie, knew his heart and his mind, and knew what could push him to the edge. What Eddie was gambling heavily on was Vecna's penchant for overestimating his own prowess and ego. If Eddie pulled this off, it would be the miracle of the century.

Coming upon the abandoned security checkpoint on the winding road up to the lab, Eddie allowed Isaac a break where Isaac swayed dangerously in place and then pitched his head over the out-of-service barrier where Eddie could hear him attempting to puke up mouthfuls of Vecna. Narrowing his eyes to try and make out shapes on the roof, Eddie had just lifted the walkie to his mouth when he was pulled up short by his own doing. It was better–not easier, but still better–to not attempt one last communication. If Chrissy and the others were atop the roof, he hoped they were too busy to be looking down in the next five minutes, but with his luck, they would probably witness the whole thing.

"We're almost there," Eddie told Isaac loudly over the sound of his vomit splattering the vine-strewn ground.

"Good, I can't wait to be in complete agony with a roof over my head. That's a big comfort," said Isaac weakly, running his sleeve across his chin.

By the looks of the wall and the still open gate, no one had come or gone from the lab since they left it some hours ago. The weapons shed had been left unlocked by the last soldier who had hastened to collect whatever he needed and Eddie made the suggestion that he and Isaac raid whatever had been left behind to gather up and bring inside as they and Eleven waited for Vecna to appear on the road to the lab. Eddie uncuffed one of Isaac's wrists and allowed him to enter the gated locker first. On a table right inside there was a grenade belt with only two explosives left and Eddie looped it over his shoulder before stepping back and watching Isaac squint at the label of a box just to the left of the rolling gate.

He had held out for a selfish hope that there was something to be salvaged, something that would assure him that there was another choice, but it had been a foolish hope to begin with. This was always how Vecna had intended things to be, though probably not quite in this fashion. The fucker had intended to use someone as he was undoubtedly now using Dustin and had intended for Eddie and the others to throw up the white flag of surrender in the name of their love for that unfortunate individual. Sacrifice was always going to be the order of the day, but their last hope depended on Vecna thinking that Eddie was every bit the pretender everyone always believed him to be. A coward, a failure, nothing. Eddie had to sell that for all he was worth and hope, pray, and beg that Vecna had fallen for the ruse because today, Eddie was about to embody the characteristics of every hero he had ever admired.

Before he could take on that persona, however, he had to deal with the last obstacle: Isaac. He knew that Isaac would not willingly allow what was about to happen and that Vecna would also try to prevent it by all means if he knew what Eddie had in store and if Vecna was watching through Isaac at this exact moment, Eddie had to sever that connection to blind the bastard to the goings-on of this wildcard no one saw coming.

Quicker than the flash from Robin's camera, Eddie latched Isaac's free cuff onto one of the gate's chain links and then rolled it shut and slammed the lock closed, yanking out the key before Isaac could get his hands on it.

It took Isaac a couple of seconds to realize what was happening and he rattled his wrist suggestively as if trying to draw his own conclusion that Eddie had just locked him inside the shed.

"Um, what the hell are you doing? Uncuff me and open the gate."

To the contrary, Eddie gave a hard yank on the lock to be doubly sure that it was secure and that even Isaac's superhuman strength couldn't break it. Avoiding his brother's eye, he instead spoke to Isaac's muddy boots. "There's a radio on the table behind you. You tell Hopper when you feel Vecna getting angry and he'll know what to do from there."

No one had ever been able to claim that Isaac could hold a tan or really, any sort of color on his face, but at Eddie's words, he went almost transparent as the blood drained from his cheeks in realization. He looked like the gaunt, emaciated, nearly-dead thing that Eddie had first seen chained down to the hospital bed mere days ago. So great was his shock and horror that his emotions and his grief for what had not yet occurred temporarily drove Vecna out. The black veins retreated and the distorted light from one of the parking lot lamps showed off the very human, very familiar quality of color in those brown eyes that were just like Eddie's.

"You're not doing this," he said stoutly. "Don't be a dumbass."

"You have to let me take the wheel for this one and trust that I can drive. You gotta let me go this time."

"No, you open the goddamned gate right now." Isaac shook the gate to emphasize his point and Eddie feared for a moment that it would break open, but it held. "Open this gate, Edison."

Eddie tucked back his arm and pitched the keys to both the shed and the handcuffs as far into the parking lot as he could where anyone coming out the front doors would be able to see them and eventually let Isaac loose. "You'll know when he finds me. When you know, you tell Hopper and he knows where to go from there. That's all I can tell you."

"Listen to me; you are not locking me in here. Open this gate. I'm coming with you."

"He's got too much of a hold on you now and he'll see me coming through you, so I can't risk him finding out the final steps in the plan. But someone has to initiate those final steps and it has to be someone who he'll show himself for. It has to just be me. I got this."

"Don't you do this to me, not again." Isaac's uncuffed wrist was skinnier than Eddie's and he was able to squeeze his hand through the chain links to grab the front of Eddie's shirt. "Don't you dare do this to me. I already had to bury you once and you are not going to make me go through that again, damn you."

"Tell everyone goodbye for me." Eddie reached through the gate to touch Isaac's face with the tips of his fingers. He felt his voice cracking, his throat burning, but he managed to speak clearly and steadily as he said, "I love you, big brother," and then stepped out of Isaac's reach.

"Eddie, no. Eddie...EDDIE! "

By far the hardest thing Eddie had ever had to do in his almost twenty-one years was to turn away from his brother's cries and listen to Isaac sobbing his name as he left the lab behind.