part 2 to im alive when? omg im obsessed!!
There's A World
Steve Harrington x fem!reader
Part 1 Part 2
Summary: After you tell Steve that he's actually stuck in Vecna's mind along with everyone else, you both will do anything to get them out of his mind for good.
Warnings! Angst, conformity gate, swearing, fighting, PTSD, anxiety, loss of hope, stress, realizations
Word Count: 2.7k words
a/n: I'm so so sorry this is late! I'm posting this wayy later than I wanted to, but life got in the way! When I was writing the first part, I didn't even fully realize that I wanted to do conformity gate until the end, but I had a vision of a plan. So here is the long-awaited part two, based on another Next to Normal song: There's A World
Taglist ✧ @counterstr1ke @onlyangel-444 @somethingsfishy23 @amirafloral @wettbaby @ireadmorethantalk @kurtsworld96sworld @whoxoxovi
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You woke up with a start at the WSQK in the Upside Down. You and El were hiding out there until you had a plan to save the others. After you both woke up after “dying,” you ran so you could regroup and figure out what to do. It took a lot of convincing to get El to go with you, but it was the only option. You guys ran and ran through the abyss, which, unlike Vecna’s mind, was filled with Demo’s. You finally made it to the gate to the Upside Down and have been hiding there ever since. It was just constant time spent trying to get in touch with the others through El’s void. El was trying to get in contact with the party and you with Steve and Robin.
“Y/N? Are you alright?” El asked, just waking up herself.
“Yes. We did i,t El, I got in contact with them. They’re going to find a way out,” you replied, relieved.
“I also got in contact with Will. They’re on their way to the WSQK. What do we can we do to help them?”
“We should keep playing their songs, and we need to come up with a plan where we can actually end this shit,” you said with a new determination.
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When Steve and Robin finished catching up with Nancy and Jonathon on their side of the conversation, everyone else showed up. They all worked to explain what happened with you and convince them it wasn’t just Steve. That's when Will spoke up and explained how he had seen El and how she told him the same thing.
“If your little theory is true, where do we even start?” Hopper asked, still hesitant to believe.
“The tower, its dial color. It’s wrong, it should be gray, but it’s red,” Steve explained.
“Just like the roundabout at school,” Holly said, understanding.
“That means we need to make our way through Henry’s mind again. Once we get through our memories, I can guide you through Vecna’s mindscape,” Max said, realizing she never really made it out of his head in the first place.
“Everyone has five minutes to get supplies, and then let's get the hell out of here. We don’t know what will be there on the other side.” Nancy said, already walking off to get a gun.
They all met up armed at the tower where the dial is. Once they got there, the lights started flickering again, and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” started blasting from seemingly nowhere. “They’re helping us; we need to hurry,” Steve wasted no time after Dustin spoke and turned the dial. A door seemed to open from the side of the dial. Hopper walked through cautiously with everyone following.
“I’m glad they’re alive, but I hate that they were right. This is eery” Robin stated as they stared at themselves back at the kids' graduation day. They were in the back, and the music went away, watching as Dustin gave his valedictorian speech.
“What do we do now?” Mike asked.
“We find something wrong. A color change,d or an item isn’t in the right spot. Something that just shouldn’t be there. They all spread out, but looking around, realizing no one in the crowd could notice them. The speakers started up with a new song sent from you and El. “Running Up That Hill” started to blast through them. Jonathan was staring at the graduates like he was confused.
“Hey, Nancy?” Jonathan called out to her, and she ran over to him in response.
“Did you find something?” she asked.
“What color were our graduation robes?” he asked her.
“What?”
“What color were our graduation robes? I don’t remember them being orange.”
Nancy’s eyes widened in realization of what Jonathon was saying. “That’s because they were green. That’s it, that’s what's wrong! Everyone, it's the robes they should be green, not orange!” Nancy shouted to everyone.
They all started to look around where the graduates were seated when Lucas found an empty seat. His seat.
“Over Here!” He shouted. Sure enough, he was right: at the bottom of the chair was the gate to the next memory. They all quickly went through and ended up at the first time they saw Venca in 18 months. He was holding up Will, talking to him, when the demogorgans started to attack Mike. Music seemed to flood their ears again, and “When Doves Cry” by Prince started to play.
“We’ve been stuck in his mind since this moment,” Joyce said, distraughtly.
“The gate, it has to be the gate. It’s where Vecna came from. If we have been in his mind since this moment, there's no other place; it has to be there.” Will was sure about this, so everyone headed towards the gate
They all worked their hardest to sneak around Vecna, not knowing if it was really him or not. It was just their memory of him, and he couldn’t hurt them, but they still took their time just in case. The memory played through as they were moving along, but it wasn’t ending as they remembered. They all stopped watching, not knowing if it was Vecna or what really happened.
While Vecna was talking to Will, more demogorgans came behind Joyce and Mike, knocking them unconscious and dragging them to the portal. More demos eventually appeared after them, dragging Robin and Lucas into the portal. Vecna then walks into the Upside Down with Will still floating behind him, but his eyes are white; he’s already in Vecna’s mind.
Nobody moves, nobody speaks. Other than the music blasting, they are stunned into silence. They didn’t lose the kids that day as they thought; they lost everything. They hadn’t noticed; it all felt so real.
“It was a trap,” Dustin whispered. “It was a trap from the beginning. He wanted us to come rescue the kids; he wanted us to come to him. It was never about the kids; the entire time, he just wanted us. And we played right into his hands.”
“How did we not realize it? It seems so obvious now; it was too easy. Nothing was there, no Demos, just him. He didn’t even fight back; it was too easy, we should’ve known it never would’ve been that easy,” Lucas said.
They all just stared at where Vecna and Will stood moments ago, feeling hopeless. None of them realized what was going on, and they hated themselves for it. With everything they’ve been through, how could they not have noticed? The final notes of Prince's song played, and now they were left in true silence.
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You and El were taking turns switching the music and gathering supplies to go back into the abyss. The others wouldn’t have any weapons with them when they woke up, so you needed to bring them. You had three guns slung over your shoulders, one for you, one for Nancy, and one for Hopper. You had knives strapped at your waist, a shield, and Steve’s baseball bat. El had a backpack filled with grenades, smaller weapons, and Lucas’s wrist rocket. She also had a spear and axe strapped to her back to hand out.
Both of you were prepared to leave, and now it was just a waiting game. Prince stopped playing, and now it was time for you to change it to “I Think We’re Alone Now.” When you sat back down, you started playing with the lighter you stole from Steve a year ago. El was looking in her void to see how close everyone was to the exit. The timing was the most important aspect of your plan. If you go to the lair before they can all wake up, everything would be messed up. You would have no backup and have to fight on your own.
“I found them,” El said. “They are just standing, in a memory, not the way to escape.”
“Can you talk to them? They need to hurry; it's only a matter of time before Vecna notices.” You say.
“I’m trying, I can’t get their attention.”
“Bring me into the void with you, let me help. Steve will listen to me.”
You reach out and grab El’s hand and are brought into the void. You see them all staring at one spot, not moving. They saw something that shook them all. You didn’t know what it was, but you knew they needed to snap out of it.
“Steve!” You call out, and his head snaps towards you. He runs to you immediately, and you meet him in the middle. Right where Vecna and Will stood moments ago.
“Y/N,” Steve said.
“You need to go, we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Y/N, you don’t understand. We’ve been stuck in here since the kids were taken from us. Except we were the ones taken, not the kids. We can’t beat him. I don’t know how we ever thought we could. There's no point,” he starts crying.
“Steve,” he turns to look you in the eyes. “I need you to listen to me, all of you,” you say, looking at everyone.
“There's a world. There's a world I know, a place we can go where the pain will go away. There's a world where the sun shines each day.” Everyone’s listening to you, beginning to walk to you and Steve. You fully believe what you're saying, and you know they need something to fight for.
“There's a world. There's a world out there, I'll show you just where and in time, I know you'll see. There's a world where we can be free. Come with me,” you hold your hand out to Steve.
“How do you know we just won’t get stuck in his head again?” Max speaks up.
You lightly shake your head at her, signalling not to worry. “Come with me,” you repeat, hand still out to Steve.
“We won’t,” Steve says, looking into your eyes.
“How are you so sure?” Mike speaks up.
“Because I have hope,” Steve finally takes your hand, and he’s able to actually hold it. You’re no longer just a vision, you’re real.
“There's a world where wе can be free,” emphasizing your point as you start to lead everyone to the portal.
“We have to keep fighting, for everyone who has died and everyone who has been hurt. We have to finish this, once and for all.” Will says with a new determination. You smile at him with tears in your eyes. You turn towards the portal.
“Come with me.” You say as you walk through the portal with everyone.
When they get to the other side, you’re gone, back to the real world.
“This is the way out,” Holly said.
“Where’s the exit?” Hopper says, surveying the area for Vecna.
“We each have a portal; we just need to find it,” Max says.
“Heroes” by David Bowie fills their ears, a final gift from you before they get out.
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You and El shut the power off at the WSQK tower and started climbing to get to the abyss. You didn’t have a lot of time to get to them, so you needed to hurry. You made it to the top and squeezed through the small crack in the rock connecting to the abyss. El climbed through while you brought out one of the guns, looking out for the many Demo-type creatures that roamed the area.
To your shock, there were no monsters anywhere. They were gone; it was not a good sign.
“Where are the demos?” El asked.
“I don’t know, but we shouldn’t be tempting fate right now. Let's just hurry and get to the lair, you said, already running in the direction you and El ran from so long ago.
You saw the mindflayer's body. You were almost there with no demo attack, but as it seems to happen, things don’t go in your favor. There was a rumble in the ground. You turn behind you and see a stampede of demo creatures heading towards you.
“Run!” you shout.
You both run as fast as you can to the mindflayer's body that kept your friends. El would turn around every so often to put an obstacle in their way. It was not used, though; they were gaining on you fast.
“Do you trust me?” El yelled over to you.
“What? Yes, of course I trust you- Oh!” you exclaimed as El used her powers to jump you both in the air into the mind flayer. The demos stopped advancing; you were safe for the moment. You caught your breath as you took in your surroundings. All of your friends were hung up and had those vines attached to their mouths. Above you was Vecna, and he did not seem to notice your presence yet. It was like he was in a trance; if he was, he would be trying to stop them from leaving his mind. With no time to waste, you signalled to El to start getting everyone down and released from the vines.
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They were almost out; they were running in the mindscape looking for their portal, which ties them to the real world. That’s when Vecna showed up.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said as he held up his hand for the vines to attack them. Hopper and Nancy blocked everyone and started shooting at him. Steve and Dustin were slicing the vines with their spears.
In the real world, you and El split up to release everyone. You went to Max first,t as El went to Jonathon. As soon as you ripped the vine out, a portal opened up in the mindscape.
“Max, wake u,p” you said to her as you got her body down. Across the room,m you hear El do the same with Jonathon.
“They’re waking us up; we need to find our respective portals!” Mike shouts over the fight that they were starting to lose.
“Max, Jonathan! Go, run!” Joyce shouts.
They both ran towards their portals and woke up in the real world. Max and Jonathon are now helping wake everyone up. Jonathan went to his mom, Max went to Holly, you went to Robin, and El went to Mike.
“When you take the vine out, make sure you say their names so they know whose portal it is,” Jonathan says. You all immediately started saying the names of the people you had.
“Find your portals and run! If you just hear your name, go!” Hopper barks out instructions. The four of them ran to their portals and escaped. There were only six of them in the mindscape, and they were fighting tooth and nail to make it through.
Those in the real world wasted no time. Mike went to Will, Jonathan went to Nancy, Max went to Lucas, Joyce went to Hopper, El to Dustin, and finally you went to Steve.
They ran to the final portals, finding the people they care about most. The people they love, names didn’t even have to be said. They knew who woke them.
Steve's beautiful eyes fluttered open, looking into yours. You both started crying at your reunion, relieved that this was finally real.
“You’re here, and real,” Steve said, and his hand rested on your cheek.
“I’m real, but we’re not safe yet. Vecna’s still alive, and we’ve got a horde of demos outside,” you say as you help Steve stand up.
You all knew you didn’t have a lot of time before Vecna fully woke up. You and El quickly distributed the weapons you brought with you, making sure everyone was armed in some way.
“Hey, why can I never have a gun?” Mike said.
“Now is not the time, Mike,” Nancy said, checking that her gun was loaded.
They all stood in a circle side by side so all angles were covered.
“We need a plan,” Dustin whispered.
“We don’t have time for a plan, we just need to survive,” Hopper said.
And with that, Vecna woke up.
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a/n: So don't hate me, but I decided to do a part three.... I just felt like this was so long. I'm going to hopefully post it this week or next week, depending on how busy I get. I really hope you liked it!! Lmk if you want to be on the taglist for part 3 ☆