Chapter 198
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Note: Frank, Billy, Hope, and Kilgrave are from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Clarke and Emerson are from the television version of "the 100."
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There had been moments when Frank Castle had wondered what Hell might be like. He had imagined being in a cell, hearing the screams of the damned and the tortured. After being shot by that punk sniper, this is exactly where he found himself. This he could handle, but he couldn't handle the man in the cell next to his. This was Billy Russo, a former friend and comrade, they'd been as close as brothers. But then Billy got involved in a corrupt conspiracy, and go Frank's family killed. They became enemies, and Frank eventually killed Billy. Now, it seemed that they were cellmates in Hell. At least it was cleat that Billy had been tortured already, although Frank feared his time was near.
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Billy: Hello Frank.
Frank: This can't be a coincidence.
Billy: It's not. They like puttin former enemies so close together. Part of our punishment I guess.
Frank: You murdered my family! Why should I be punished for putting you down?
Billy: For that, probably not. But you killed a lot of people, some of whom were innocent. I know I need to make amends, including to you.
Frank: You want to make amends? Try killing yourself so I don't have to look at you.
Billy: I've tried. Every time I succeed, I just wake up right back in this cell.
Frank: Well if at first you don't succeed, try try again.
Billy: Feel free to try yourself, might amuse us to watch.
Frank: Who's we?
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Billy then pointed out some of the other cells on the block. They were clearly positioned to put former enemies next to each other.
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Billy: That's Clarke Griffin, and Carl Emerson. In their world, it destroyed itself in nuclear war. Her ancestors escaped on a spaceship, his ancestors made it to Mount Weather in time. There was a third group that survived the initial destruction. It was natural selection, those that couldn't survive the radiation died off, those that could passed those genes on to their descenants. The mountain men, they never had to go through that. The people on the space Ark, their proximity to the sun helped them develop immunity to the radiation on the ground. The mountain men, they kidnapped those on the surface, grounders, did experiments to develop their own immunity to the radiation that was still on the ground. When Clarke's people came to Earth, 100 years after the bombs, Emerson's people kidnapped them too. Eventually, Clarke released the radiation into Mount Weather, killed every man, woman, and child there to save her own people. Each of them did what they had to do to protect their own people, each wound up in Hell.
Frank: War is Hell.
Billy: Yes it is. And those two there. That would be Hope, and Kilgrave. Kilgrave had this ability, it forced people to do whatever he said. He used Hope, forced her to have sex with him, forced her to murder her own parents.
Frank: If she didn't have free will, why is she in Hell for that?
Billy: Not for that. Hope was pregnant with Kilgrave's child, had an abortion. Probably why she's here.
Frank: That doesn't sound fair.
Billy: Consider this mass incarceration. You used to believe in that.
Frank: Not for turnstile jumpers or low lever drug users. I didn't mind seeing graffiti artists forced to clean up their own mess. But murderers, rapists, they deserved death.
Billy: There's a reason they put enemies together. Each only remembers why they hated the other, makes forgiveness much harder.
Frank: I don't believe in forgiveness.
Billy: Shocking. Then I guess we're stuck together forever.
Frank: Not forever. Just until the final battle. Good wins, those of us still stuck in Hell wind up in some kind of spiritual coma. We get reborn into the next world. Blank slate. Until then, we're stuck together. So let's just agree to stay out of each other's way as much as possible.