His Red, Her Blue || Max Mayfield

Papa

"Cal..."

"Cal, wake up..."

"Cal..."

"Come on Cal..."

"Cal..."

"Cal."

"Cal!"

With a gasp Cal opened his eyes, his consciousness returning back to his body. His heart pounded against his chest, his breathing coming in short gasps, as his eyes stared straight into the person in front of him.

Steve stood there scared and worried. From what he saw Cal had placed his hand on Nancy's temples, closing his eyes, before his arms fell back down, while the rest in the real world tried to find music. After a few minutes Nancy had woken up again, but not Cal, so Steve rushed to the boy, after making sure Nancy was alright, and tried to wake him up.

Which leads us to here, Steve standing in front of his younger brother, hands on his shoulders, as he looked at the boy with worryful eyes, noticing the welling of tears in Cal's eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey." Steve gently said, pulling Cal into a warm hug, "It's okay, it's you're here. You're here."

Cal didn't move, still processing everything he was shown by Vecna. The lab, Project FAILSAFE, Max's curse. The young boy slowly snapped out of his thoughts and returned the hug, closing his eyes

The two brothers stayed in each other's embrace, Cal opening his eyes to look at Nancy, who gave the boy a small reassuring smile as he gave one back before frowning. Cal then broke the hug and looked at Steve.

"I need to tell you... everyone, what I saw." Cal explained.

Before Steve could ask, Nancy spoke up, "I do as well.'' She stated, her voice quiet, as the brothers turned to look at her, "Cal can tell his story first, I... I need some time to think." Nancy said, her voice quieting down more as she spoke.

Steve nodded his head slowly before turning to look at his brother. The two held each other's gaze, having a silent conversation with their eyes, before Cal nodded with determination and a hint of fear.

"Alright, first let's get out of this place." Steve sighed out, the other two nodding in agreement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The three were now out of the Upside Down, reunited with the others, as the group now stood in Max's trailer, the sun now out. Cal was standing next to Nancy, who was sitting in one of the chairs, as he told the others what he saw, what he remembered.

"He showed me past events, events that I experienced." Cal explained, his eyes glued to the floor, as the others listened intently to the young Harrington, "He showed me my past at the lab, what I did there, what I was a part of..." Cal trailed off, hesitant to continue the story.

"And... What were you a part of?" Dustin asked what everyone was thinking, his tone gentle to not push his friend into telling.

Cal raised his head to look over at Dustin before a sigh escaped his lips, "I-I was chosen for a program, a special project. Project FAILSAFE." He explained, the others looking towards one another confused while Max's eyes never left the boy, "The project made me a failsafe, to stop Peter or One or whatever is name." Cal exclaimed, his hands lifting up in frustration.

"How exactly were you the failsafe?" Lucas questioned, confused on the matter.

Cal sighed, "The fuckers at the lab made me estabilsih what they liked to call the 'block'" Cal said, doing air quotes when saying 'block', taking note of the confused glances from everyone, "The 'block' allows me to block people out of my mind, making them unable to get in for however long I wish." Cal explained.