Author's Note: This story picks up where SWAMP THING (2nd series) #62
leaves off and is an alternate timeline. I wrote this to return the Swamp
Thing to his "monster/horror" roots, as he'd become too much of a demigod
under Moore, and *especially* under Veitch. Rather than retread all those
stories (which I enjoy reading immensely) in fan fiction, I decided to
challenge myself to see if there was a way to bring the Swamp Thing back to
the lumbering creature he was originally. Along the way I explain the
inconsistencies between the original series and Alan Moore's run, what the
Parliament of the Trees *really* is (at least for the purposes of this
story), and why shacking up with Abby Cable wasn't the most well-thought-
out idea in the world. It also features a redemption of Matt Cable, without
his having to turn into Eve's Raven as in the SANDMAN series. The Epilogue
was written with a sequel or two in mind, though I have no idea when I will
get around to that.
Legal disclaimer: I acknowledge that all characters presented here, excepting those created in this story, are property and copyright of DC Comics, although I also acknowledge that the stories and original characters are my intellectual property. The story presented here is written purely for enjoyment and for a strong desire to tell a story with characters I love. I strongly stress that NO profit is being made by me or anyone else with this story. Please don't sue, I have no money.
Enjoy!
~~Doc Quantum of The Time Trust
***
Swamp Thing Reversal of Fortune
by doctorquantum
Prologue
Terrebonne Parish General Hospital, Houma, Louisiana...
Abby Cable sat by the side of the body of her husband. She had ceased by now to believe he still existed somewhere in that weakened body. Matt Cable had gone into a coma more than two years ago now, when the evil Anton Arcane, her own uncle, had possessed his body and tried to kill her and destroy Alec.
Matt had been a good man when they were married, but things began to change in the last year of their marriage. He had been sent on assignment from the government agency he worked for -- the DDI -- to South Dakota in order to meet a special courier there, or so he was told. The "assignment," however, had actually been a trap. Dwight Wicker, head of the DDI, wanted everyone who ever knew or heard of Alec Holland neutralized, and they hired Sunderland Corp to do that for them. If killing the party in question would prove too risky, they would settle for the next best thing -- inducing amnesia through electroshock. Upon Matt's arrival in South Dakota he was captured and put into a straitjacket, and then he was subjected to relatively large quantities of electricity at a special clinic set up for this purpose.
This crude attempt at brainwashing was mostly unsuccessful in removing Matt's memories of Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing he had become, but it had effectively reduced him to such a state that he was unable to continue in his career any longer. He was brought back home to settle back into the family life with Abby, but he had changed. They had taken away his dignity and almost everything else he had once prized in himself. Gone was the brilliant investigator he had been trained to become; gone was the Lieutenant Matthew Cable of yesteryear.
Matt and Abby soon found that the DDI had surveillance teams watching them everywhere they went, so they effectively dropped out of the life they had built together, left their home and moved from city to city, each time hoping to start new lives. It was then that Matt started drinking. Everything he had lived for, except his beautiful Abby, had been taken from him, and he attempted to drown his sorrows in booze. He ended up having to take a succession of menial, poor-paying jobs, each one worse than the next, just to survive; and he was successively fired from each and every one of them due to his drinking habit. Matt was at a low point in his life. He was no longer an agent. He could no longer be a providing husband. He no longer even believed himself to be a real man at all anymore. They had taken it all away from him. At the time, Abby believed this to be their lowest point ever and hoped that things could only get better from here on in. Life would prove her wrong.
She and Matt were reunited with the Swamp Thing once again after more than three years since they had last seen him, a time not long before they had been married. Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing, was having some troubles of his own from Sunderland and the DDI. It was soon discovered, moreover, that the electroshock "therapy" Matt had received from DDI and Sunderland had an unexpected adverse effect. It had caused his deepest fears and raw emotions to manifest themselves in the form of "monsters from the id" via some kind of telekinetic ability, and it wasn't until this was discovered that Matt was able to stop drinking and stop these manifestations from happening.
The craziness of those days continued without respite, however, as the Sunderland Corporation and the DDI then firebombed the Cables' house and "killed" the Swamp Thing in order to dissect him. The Swamp Thing proved much harder to kill than believed, however, and he survived only to discover that he was likely not Alec Holland at all, but a plant version of a "planarian worm" -- a creature which takes on the characteristics of that which it eats. The very idea was horrifying to all of them, Alec most of all, but they were his friends and stayed there in Houma to be there for him, setting up house in a hotel there.
Then things got even worse.
Matt started to get... weird. When Abby took a position at a school for autistic children in Houma shortly after she and her husband arrived there, Matt began to behave irrationally, jealously, and not like himself at all. He would erupt into sudden, lustful rages which startled her at first, but soon began to get her Transylvanian blood boiling, causing her to stalk off in anger. She found herself spending less and less time with him and more time with Alec. Finally he began drinking once more, and one night he drove their car straight into a tree while completely drunk. She knew nothing of this at the time, however.
The next day she saw a new Matthew Cable, one pleasing to her eyes, although something seemed a bit off, somehow. Matt had got a well-paying new job and had put a downpayment on a huge house in the country. Everything seemed perfect. At least on the surface.
The truth came out all too soon, however. Matt had been possessed by the spirit of Arcane, who, although dead, still survived on the spiritual plane. He had been slowly taking Matt over for weeks until the car crash, when her husband surrendered completely, no longer able to fight Arcane's control. Arcane used his possession of Matt's body and her husband's powers to make his dreams and nightmares a reality for his own benefit. And he killed her, flinging her soul into Hell itself. The Swamp Thing saved her and brought her back, of course, after defeating Arcane for the final time, but Matt himself was gone. He was not dead, obviously, but was reduced to the state she now saw before her. Coma.
Abby stood up and pulled her jacket closer to her. The nurses had told her that patients sometimes responded if they were talked to, but she still could not bring herself to say anything. What could she say? She had taken the Swamp Thing as a lover while he was wasting away here in the hospital? She had hoped that her time on Grimoire Island would be therapeutic for her, but the very opposite was true; it reminded her too much of her brief time in the infernal realm, strangely enough, even though she could barely recall any of her time there. She did miss Rose and the kids, though.
She walked away from the bed and towards the door to leave, but something stopped her. She looked back at Matt; he was still unconscious; the harsh throaty breathing still came from his mouth. She came closer to him and finally gave him a kiss on his thin cheek. "Goodbye, Matt."
And as she walked out into the hospital corridor, she could have sworn she heard someone breathe her name...
"...Aaaaaaaa-byyyyyyy..."
***
The Brazilian rainforest...
The Parliament of Trees is not like any other governmental institution on Earth, and its name is something of a misnomer. In truth, the "Parliament" consists of a group of ancient erl-kings, plant elementals and elder trees which have gathered together and rooted themselves into the ground after their short, early years of wandering. Many of them are hundreds of years old, and a few of the elders are thousands of years old. They have spent most of that time here, near the source of the river Tefé in Brazil, guarded by a tribe of jungle-dwelling natives, who hold the Parliament as utterly sacred.
Their "government" over those in their dominion is not often seen, since trees and plants have rarely needed leadership, and they prefer not to do things as the meat-creatures do, who hurry about and die before they have had a chance to live. They are erl-kings, and they operate under different rules than humankind.
The Parliament has rarely held what one might term "meetings," and has only held a small handful of those in the last few hundred years, which is what makes it so remarkable that they are now holding their third meeting in two years. Some of the older erl-kings -- those who have no use for an audible voice any longer -- complain about this, citing the influence of all the youthful trees, those under the age of five-hundred, who have not quite shrugged off their former lives as men just yet and speak audibly sometimes as well as still hurrying a bit too much for the older ones' liking.
Nevertheless, the newest erl-king in their line played a crucial role in recent events, and although he had been missing from the earth for a short time now, he was still being discussed -- not in audible, physical voices, but in the communion of thoughts, which is the preferred method of communication among the erl-kings. Today, however, would prove to be a monumental day in every way.
"The young one... is returning," said Alex Olsen, once called the Swamp Thing himself. He had joined the Parliament over seventy years ago after his time of wandering. "He has... found his way... home... at last..."
"Finally, an end to this episode," said an elder slowly through the communion of the minds. "It has been too long since we have been able to rest... There. It is done. We are ourselves again."
Legal disclaimer: I acknowledge that all characters presented here, excepting those created in this story, are property and copyright of DC Comics, although I also acknowledge that the stories and original characters are my intellectual property. The story presented here is written purely for enjoyment and for a strong desire to tell a story with characters I love. I strongly stress that NO profit is being made by me or anyone else with this story. Please don't sue, I have no money.
Enjoy!
~~Doc Quantum of The Time Trust
***
Swamp Thing Reversal of Fortune
by doctorquantum
Prologue
Terrebonne Parish General Hospital, Houma, Louisiana...
Abby Cable sat by the side of the body of her husband. She had ceased by now to believe he still existed somewhere in that weakened body. Matt Cable had gone into a coma more than two years ago now, when the evil Anton Arcane, her own uncle, had possessed his body and tried to kill her and destroy Alec.
Matt had been a good man when they were married, but things began to change in the last year of their marriage. He had been sent on assignment from the government agency he worked for -- the DDI -- to South Dakota in order to meet a special courier there, or so he was told. The "assignment," however, had actually been a trap. Dwight Wicker, head of the DDI, wanted everyone who ever knew or heard of Alec Holland neutralized, and they hired Sunderland Corp to do that for them. If killing the party in question would prove too risky, they would settle for the next best thing -- inducing amnesia through electroshock. Upon Matt's arrival in South Dakota he was captured and put into a straitjacket, and then he was subjected to relatively large quantities of electricity at a special clinic set up for this purpose.
This crude attempt at brainwashing was mostly unsuccessful in removing Matt's memories of Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing he had become, but it had effectively reduced him to such a state that he was unable to continue in his career any longer. He was brought back home to settle back into the family life with Abby, but he had changed. They had taken away his dignity and almost everything else he had once prized in himself. Gone was the brilliant investigator he had been trained to become; gone was the Lieutenant Matthew Cable of yesteryear.
Matt and Abby soon found that the DDI had surveillance teams watching them everywhere they went, so they effectively dropped out of the life they had built together, left their home and moved from city to city, each time hoping to start new lives. It was then that Matt started drinking. Everything he had lived for, except his beautiful Abby, had been taken from him, and he attempted to drown his sorrows in booze. He ended up having to take a succession of menial, poor-paying jobs, each one worse than the next, just to survive; and he was successively fired from each and every one of them due to his drinking habit. Matt was at a low point in his life. He was no longer an agent. He could no longer be a providing husband. He no longer even believed himself to be a real man at all anymore. They had taken it all away from him. At the time, Abby believed this to be their lowest point ever and hoped that things could only get better from here on in. Life would prove her wrong.
She and Matt were reunited with the Swamp Thing once again after more than three years since they had last seen him, a time not long before they had been married. Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing, was having some troubles of his own from Sunderland and the DDI. It was soon discovered, moreover, that the electroshock "therapy" Matt had received from DDI and Sunderland had an unexpected adverse effect. It had caused his deepest fears and raw emotions to manifest themselves in the form of "monsters from the id" via some kind of telekinetic ability, and it wasn't until this was discovered that Matt was able to stop drinking and stop these manifestations from happening.
The craziness of those days continued without respite, however, as the Sunderland Corporation and the DDI then firebombed the Cables' house and "killed" the Swamp Thing in order to dissect him. The Swamp Thing proved much harder to kill than believed, however, and he survived only to discover that he was likely not Alec Holland at all, but a plant version of a "planarian worm" -- a creature which takes on the characteristics of that which it eats. The very idea was horrifying to all of them, Alec most of all, but they were his friends and stayed there in Houma to be there for him, setting up house in a hotel there.
Then things got even worse.
Matt started to get... weird. When Abby took a position at a school for autistic children in Houma shortly after she and her husband arrived there, Matt began to behave irrationally, jealously, and not like himself at all. He would erupt into sudden, lustful rages which startled her at first, but soon began to get her Transylvanian blood boiling, causing her to stalk off in anger. She found herself spending less and less time with him and more time with Alec. Finally he began drinking once more, and one night he drove their car straight into a tree while completely drunk. She knew nothing of this at the time, however.
The next day she saw a new Matthew Cable, one pleasing to her eyes, although something seemed a bit off, somehow. Matt had got a well-paying new job and had put a downpayment on a huge house in the country. Everything seemed perfect. At least on the surface.
The truth came out all too soon, however. Matt had been possessed by the spirit of Arcane, who, although dead, still survived on the spiritual plane. He had been slowly taking Matt over for weeks until the car crash, when her husband surrendered completely, no longer able to fight Arcane's control. Arcane used his possession of Matt's body and her husband's powers to make his dreams and nightmares a reality for his own benefit. And he killed her, flinging her soul into Hell itself. The Swamp Thing saved her and brought her back, of course, after defeating Arcane for the final time, but Matt himself was gone. He was not dead, obviously, but was reduced to the state she now saw before her. Coma.
Abby stood up and pulled her jacket closer to her. The nurses had told her that patients sometimes responded if they were talked to, but she still could not bring herself to say anything. What could she say? She had taken the Swamp Thing as a lover while he was wasting away here in the hospital? She had hoped that her time on Grimoire Island would be therapeutic for her, but the very opposite was true; it reminded her too much of her brief time in the infernal realm, strangely enough, even though she could barely recall any of her time there. She did miss Rose and the kids, though.
She walked away from the bed and towards the door to leave, but something stopped her. She looked back at Matt; he was still unconscious; the harsh throaty breathing still came from his mouth. She came closer to him and finally gave him a kiss on his thin cheek. "Goodbye, Matt."
And as she walked out into the hospital corridor, she could have sworn she heard someone breathe her name...
"...Aaaaaaaa-byyyyyyy..."
***
The Brazilian rainforest...
The Parliament of Trees is not like any other governmental institution on Earth, and its name is something of a misnomer. In truth, the "Parliament" consists of a group of ancient erl-kings, plant elementals and elder trees which have gathered together and rooted themselves into the ground after their short, early years of wandering. Many of them are hundreds of years old, and a few of the elders are thousands of years old. They have spent most of that time here, near the source of the river Tefé in Brazil, guarded by a tribe of jungle-dwelling natives, who hold the Parliament as utterly sacred.
Their "government" over those in their dominion is not often seen, since trees and plants have rarely needed leadership, and they prefer not to do things as the meat-creatures do, who hurry about and die before they have had a chance to live. They are erl-kings, and they operate under different rules than humankind.
The Parliament has rarely held what one might term "meetings," and has only held a small handful of those in the last few hundred years, which is what makes it so remarkable that they are now holding their third meeting in two years. Some of the older erl-kings -- those who have no use for an audible voice any longer -- complain about this, citing the influence of all the youthful trees, those under the age of five-hundred, who have not quite shrugged off their former lives as men just yet and speak audibly sometimes as well as still hurrying a bit too much for the older ones' liking.
Nevertheless, the newest erl-king in their line played a crucial role in recent events, and although he had been missing from the earth for a short time now, he was still being discussed -- not in audible, physical voices, but in the communion of thoughts, which is the preferred method of communication among the erl-kings. Today, however, would prove to be a monumental day in every way.
"The young one... is returning," said Alex Olsen, once called the Swamp Thing himself. He had joined the Parliament over seventy years ago after his time of wandering. "He has... found his way... home... at last..."
"Finally, an end to this episode," said an elder slowly through the communion of the minds. "It has been too long since we have been able to rest... There. It is done. We are ourselves again."
