"Not to be a wimp, but can I sit in the car? 'Cause, this is gonna totally and royally suck." Robin insisted, the group gathered in the car as they made their way to finally break all of the recent news to Eddie, whose situation was only growing worse each day. "I can't stand to see those dull eyes of Eddie's break again. I really, really can't."

 "At least he can drink himself into feeling better," Steve interjected from the backseat, holding up the six-pack that Eddie had requested Maggie to get for him.  

"Why don't we give it a trial?" Robin started, ignoring Steve. "Hey, Eddie. Uh, good news first this time. We got you some Dustin-approved junk food and that six-pack you requested. Oh yeah, and we found Vecna. Bad news is that he's in that other, darker, much scarier dimension, and the gate's closed, so we have no way of getting to him. He's entirely shut off to us, so basically you're screwed. And, no, I know you were already screwed, but now you're doubly, triply screwed." 

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't put it like that," Maggie returned as they pulled up near to where Eddie had most recently been staying. 

"Oh, shit," Nancy said, her eyes falling on the crowd of people that had gathered there on top of a group of cops. 

Maggie watched nervously as the cops handled the situation of yet another murder before finally holding up a photo of Eddie, officially naming him as a person of interest. "Shit, this isn't good at all." She muttered. 

Dustin's walkie-talkie crackled slightly before Eddie's voice came through. "Dustin, can you hear me? Maggie?"

 "Eddie. Holy shit." Dustin replied, Maggie carefully watching for anyone looking their way and who could potentially hear them. "Are you okay?" 

Eddie chuckled. "Nah, man. Pretty... Pretty goddamn far from okay." 

"Where are you?" Maggie interjected, grabbing the device from Dustin.

 "Skull Rock. Do you know it?"

Maggie nodded. "Uh, yeah. That's near Cornwallis and..." 

 "Garrett, yeah," Steve finished. "I know where that is."

"Hold tight," Dustin called down the device. "We're coming."

"Dude, I'm telling you, you're taking us the wrong way," Steve said, the group taking the path to Skull Rock on foot, relying on Dustin's navigation skills to get them there. 

 "It's north," Dustin argued, looking down at his compass once more. "I'm positive. I checked the map."

"You do realize Skull Rock, it's a super popular make-out spot?" 

 "Yeah. So?" Dustin returned with a roll of his eyes. 

 "Yeah, well, it wasn't popular until I made it popular. All right?" He explained. "I practically invented it." 

"Ah yes, a rock that has probably existed for a lot longer than all of our ages combined, but yet you invented it," Maggie interjected, walking to catch up with the two from where she had previously hung back to talk with Robin.  

"We're heading in the wrong direction." Steve insisted, ignoring both Maggie and Dustin's comments as he headed off in a different direction. 

" Steve. Where are you going? Steve!" Dustin shouted after him. 

 "Stop whining." Steve groaned, turning back to the two of them. "Let's go. Trust me."

Maggie shrugged before following Steve, Dustin begrudgingly following him until the group had arrived underneath a collection of rocks.  

 "Oh, boom! Bada bing, bada boom. There she is, Henderson." Steve said, enjoying his victory at Dustin's expense greatly. "Skull Rock. In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face."

 "Doesn't make sense," Dustin said, looking back at his compass for confirmation. 

 "Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead." He taunted. Maggie attempting to hide her smile at the childish insult. 

"I concur," Eddie said, walking out of the bushes. "You, Dustin Henderson, are a... Total butthead."

 "Jesus, we thought you were a goner," Dustin said, before pulling Eddie into a hug.

 "Yeah, me too, man." Eddie agreed. "Me too." 

"Very happy to see that you are still fine and not dead." Maggie smiled, pulling Eddie into a hug also. 

She felt like she had just gotten him back, the only good thing in the mess that her life had become and the last thing she wanted was Eddie to experience any fallout with Vecna's curse. 

Once everyone else had caught up with them under Skull Rock, the food they brought was quickly demolished as they caught each other up on what had occurred. 

"When I got to the shore, I tried calling you guys, but, uh... My walkie was busted, man. Drenched. So, uh, I did the thing that I do now, apparently. I ran." Eddie chuckled.  

Nancy paused. "Do you know what time this was? The attack?"

 "Yeah, no, I... I know exactly what time it was." Eddie said, pulling off the watch attached to his wrist. "My walkie wasn't the only thing that got soaked." He added, tossing the watch in Nancy's direction.

 "Nine twenty-seven." 

"Same time our flashlights went kablooey," Robin added, following Nancy's train of thought. 

"Which means what, exactly?" Steve questioned.  

"So, that surge of energy was Vecna attacking Patrick," Maggie concluded, looking around the group for confirmation.

 "Well, we're one step closer." Robin sighed. "We know how Vecna attacks."

"And where he attacks from." Lucas agreed. 

"So now we just need to sneak into his lair in the Upside Down and drive a stake through his heart," Max interjected with a shrug.  

Robin scoffed. "If he has a heart." 

"A stake?" Steve asked. "Is he like a vamp? Is he a vampire?"

Max rolled her eyes in response. "It was a metaphor."

 "A bullet should work on him, right?" Eddie asked. 

 "I say we chop his head off."

 "All of the above, but we can't do any of that 'til we find a way into the Upside Down. We need El to get her powers back."

Steve nodded, turning back to both Eddie and Maggie. "Everything was way easier. We had this girl. She had super-"

"Superpowers." Eddie finished. "Yeah, you mentioned her. Hey, uh, Henderson's not, uh, cursed, is he?"

 "Cursed? No, no. He's fine." Steve reassured. "Mental? Absolutely."

Maggie looked over to Dustin who was pacing back and forth, his eyes glued to the compass in his hands. "Boom!" He suddenly shouted. "Bada... bada... boom. I was right. Skull Rock was north."

Steve scoffed. "Seriously? You're serious? This is Skull Rock." He said incredulously, pointing to the large rock behind them. "You're totally, absolutely, 100% wrong right now."

"Yes. " Dustin agreed, pausing slightly. "And no."

"Oh my God," Steve muttered, rolling his eyes at Dustin's antics. 

"This worked correctly when we left the Wheelers'. Correct when we got in the car on Curly. But it started to slip the further east we went. Now it's way off. When I was leading us here, I wasn't wrong. The compass was."

"So you're using faulty equipment. You're still wrong." Steve argued. 

"Except it isn't faulty." Dustin returned before turning to Lucas. "Lucas, remember what can affect a compass?"

 Lucas paused for a moment. "An electromagnetic field."

"Yep." 

"Uh, I'm sorry," Robin said. "I must've skipped that class." 

"In the presence of a stronger electromagnetic field, the needle will deflect towards that power," Dustin explained. "So either there's some super big magnet around here, or..."

 "There's a gate," Lucas concluded.

Nancy shook her head. "But we're nowhere near the lab."

"But what if, somehow, there's another gate? A gate that we don't know about. It'd have to be smaller. Way less powerful."

"Snack-size gate." Robin nodded. 

"How? Why?" Maggie questioned, slowly starting to gain a better understanding of everything going on.  

Dustin shook his head. "No idea. All I know is that something is causing this disturbance, and the last time we've seen anything like it, it was a gate. And I hope it is because then we'd have a way to Vecna. And a shot at freeing Max from this curse." He finished before turning around and walking down the hill. 

"Hey, where are you going?" Steve asked, quickly moving to get Dustin's attention. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Eddie's still a wanted man. We can't just go hike in the woods."

"This little steel capsule might be the key to saving both Max and Eddie." Dustin returned, holding up his compass. "What say you, Eddie the Banished?"

 The group turned to look at Eddie who was staring at the ground thinking over the situation. "I say you're asking me to follow you into Mordor, which, if I'm totally straight with you, I think is a really bad idea. But, uh, the Shire... The Shire is burning. So Mordor it is."

"What is Mordor?" Steve questioned, everyone moving after Dustin. 

"I think it has something to do with the Hobbit. But don't quote me on that." Maggie returned, not entirely sure about the reference Eddie had made.