Hey everybody. Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, I literally just finished this chapter just now. There's just a lot going on in this one, character-wise and story-wise, not to mention exposition-wise, lol, that it was tough to figure out and get through, so I very much hope you enjoy it!
INT. LIMBO-BARN.
Clark and Jonathan walk up the stairs, ascending into the top of the barn.
CLARK: I don't understand. If I'm not dead, then what is this? Another trial from Jor-El? An illusion? A trick?
JONATHAN: No, son. Jor-El has nothing to do with this.
Clark begins to get frustrated.
CLARK: Then what?
Jonathan takes a deep breath and turns to him.
JONATHAN: You're in the limbo between life and death Clark.
Clark takes a step back, absorbing this information. He swallows hard.
CLARK: So, I am gonna die.
Jonathan steps up to Clark, placing his hand on Clark's shoulder.
JONATHAN: No. Not if you fight. Not if you find the strength to want to live.
CLARK: You think I don't, Dad?
Jonathan takes his hand off of Clark.
JONATHAN: I don't know. Do you?
CLARK: Of course I do. I have a life, friends, mom, people I love! The world needs me! The people do!
Jonathan takes a breath, one of uncertainty, and then finds his footing again.
JONATHAN: You mean the same people you hide yourself from Clark?
CLARK: What?
JONATHAN: You know what I'm saying son. This barn is a symbol of how you've hidden from everything in your life, in one way or another. When you'd thought Lana had left you, you hid in the Blur, when your guilt over what happened to Jimmy was too much, you hid behind this. (points to the S shield on Clark's chest) Your Kryptonian side. Even in here, anywhere, where it's easy to find a distraction. Different places, different people, even people you already know, because they make it easy, because they don't know your failures, or your guilt, and then you hide from that too. Like with Lois.
That catches Clark's attention.
CLARK: You think I was using Lois to hide?
JONATHAN: I know what you've been feeling Clark. Lost, without direction, like your being swept away in a current that's too strong for you, so you cling to a bouy, even though you won't be able to hold onto it for very long. You're trying to find yourself. And that's okay Clark. We all have a period in our lives where we have no idea where to go, and what we want, and we grab a hold of something in an attempt to find it. We try to find the pieces of our lives that make up the full puzzle. And when you couldn't find that piece in your kryptonian heritage, you tried to find it in her.
CLARK: I love Lois.
JONATHAN: I know. You loved Lana too.
CLARK: That was different.
JONATHAN: How?
Clark tries to find the answer to that, but he can't.
JONATHAN: You still lie. You still keep yourself hidden, even when there's no danger, when there's no risk. You still hide.
CLARK: I was trying to protect her!
JONATHAN: Lana or Lois? Because that's never done anything but hurt them.
Clark takes this in. His uncertainty is written all over his face.
JONATHAN: We both know what this is about. You're afraid that if she knew, you wouldn't be accepted. It's the same reason you lied to Lex, Chloe, Lana, and Pete. It's something that's never changed with you.
CLARK: Lois accepted the Blur. She'd accept me.
JONATHAN: You're right, but you've never trusted her enough to give her that choice, that opportunity, even when you know her response. All that fear, I can't blame you for it. The way I'd raised you, it was to be afraid of how people would see you, or treat you, if you showed them everything that you are. It's my fault that you've lost that trust in people to truly be the beacon of hope that the world needs you to be.
CLARK: Dad, that's not true. You gave me the strength to be the hero that I've become.
JONATHAN: But I also kept you from being the hero that you could be. Son, I am so far from perfect. My anger, my fear, it clouded my judgement, and kept me from seeing your true potential. And I let it consume me until it made my own heart give out.
CLARK: You were just protecting me.
JONATHAN: And I would never take that back. But I know that there were better ways to do it. We can't make excuses for our mistakes, Clark. Or change them. We can only move forward, and find a new way to be better than how we've been. You can do that now. You can find your humanity again.
Clark looks down, trying to find a way to respond, a way to excuse. He looks back up to Jonathan.
CLARK: I found that in Lois.
Jonathan takes a breath.
JONATHAN: You can't find that in one person, Clark. It's in your friends, your family, it's in everyone and everything around you. Everything that you've turned your back on this past year. You've proven that. You threatened to destroy a whole community over Lois. You've been angry, and violent. You've lost yourself, son. (starting to choke up, with tears in his eyes) You've pulled away from everything that matters. That's why you were so easily ready to leave the world defenseless, to abandon it all.
CLARK (becoming angry): I was trying to save the world!
Clark is so distracted by the conversation at hand that he doesn't notice the environment starting to change around him again.
JONATHAN: You were trying to run away from it. You knew there were other ways. Better ways.
EXT. LIMBO-CORNFIELD-CONTINUOUS.
We're back in the cornfield, in the same area where we left off, in front of the scarecrow post.
JONATHAN: But you ignored them.
Clark then catches on to the change, looking around briefly, before returning his sight to Jonathan.
JONATHAN: You chose the path that would take you away from your problems, away from your life. Even though you were needed.
CLARK: I left a team of heroes to protect the world.
Jonathan's voice takes on a grim tone.
JONATHAN: That won't be enough. You let Zod stab you over nothing. And now you need to understand what that means.
Suddenly Clark finds himself strapped to the scarecrow post. Again. Lana's kryptonite necklace instantly appears on him as well, causing him to grit his teeth, strain his muscles, and groan in agonizing pain.
INT. HOSPITAL-HALLWAY.
Chloe and Emil walk up to Tess' hospital room, opening the door to see no one in there. The room is clean, the bed is made, there's no sign of Tess being there at all. Chloe scans the room, then looking with worry in her eyes to Emil. She sees a Nurse outside the room, and rushes past Emil into the hallway.
CHLOE: Hey! (gets to the Nurse) There was a patient in this room. Tess Mercer. Where is she? Was she moved?
NURSE: I'm sorry, but I can't release any information to non-relatives.
Emil exits the room, into the hallway, and up to the Nurse as well, pulling out his hospital I.D. and showing it to her.
EMIL: It's okay. I'm a doctor here. And she's the patients friend. You can tell us.
NURSE: Okay. (looks to Chloe, with remorse) I'm very sorry, but Ms. Mercer passed away last night.
A clear sense of alarm is triggered in Chloe.
CHLOE: What? How? She was here for face burns.
NURSE: She went into cardiac arrest. Her heart gave out.
CHLOE (guilt passes over her face): Her heart? (her voice choking) That would mean it was weakened somehow to begin with, right?
NURSE: I suppose.
CHLOE (becoming upset): Th-Thank you.
NURSE: You're welcome. And I'm sorry again for your loss.
Chloe nods, tears springing to her eyes, and turns around, covering her mouth with her shaking hand, as the Nurse walks away. Emil notices.
EMIL (concerned): Chloe, what is it?
CHLOE (voice choking with tears): This is my fault.
EMIL (confused): What?
Chloe turns back to face Emil, letting her hand fall back to her side.
CHLOE: When I had to stop her heart to shut off the tracker Checkmate gave her, I hesitated in saving her. I let her lay there longer than I should have. I was gonna let her die. Everything in my head was screaming for me to.
EMIL (horrified): Why?
CHLOE (disgusted with herself): I don't know. There was a time when I would've sooner died than do that. What's happened to me?
EMIL: Chloe, listen, you need to calm down, and take a breath. You need to stay focused, okay, remember-
CHLOE: That's what I'm doing! I'm broken, Emil. I have been for a while. And I can't save Clark. I can't even trust myself to save Clark. Something is seriously wrong with me.
EMIL: Look, Chloe, I realize how hard it is to not fall apart considering everything that's happened today, but you need to, because right now no matter what you think you might be the only way we have to save Clark.
Chloe looks down, pondering Emil's words, and then realizing something.
CHLOE: "Everything that's happened..." (looks back up to Emil) Tess died last night. Oliver's abducted, we lose communication with the team, and Tess dies, all in one night... That can't be a coincidence. We need to see Tess' body.
EXT. NANDA PARBAT-MOUNTAIN-ESTABLISHING.
INT. MOUNTAIN-INNER CAVERNS.
The smoke that shot out of the Armored Being flows throughout the caverns of the mountain, entering an open chamber-
INT. MOUNTAIN-CHAMBER-CONTINUOUS.
-Where Granny Goodness awaits, standing over a pit, looking into it. The smoke forms into a real human being, or at least into the appearance of one. He is slimey, repulsive, but not ugly, in fact, he is handsome and holds an air of arrogance. His eyes flash of pure darkness as he smiles self-satisfyingly.
GRANNY: Why are you smiling Dessad? Master will not be pleased that you allowed Oliver Queen to escape.
DESSAD: Oh, I think he will. (off Granny's look) I ripped open his mind and touched his darkness.
GRANNY: You should hope that's enough. Because if Knight's information had not been accurate, we would have failed completely due to your incompetence.
DESSAD (swallowing the insult): You should be hoping that this works. The Destroyer is fading in and out. And you know as well as I do, that the pit cannot breath life into one who is not strong enough to want it.
GRANNY (creepily determined): He wants it. Believe me. The preparations are being made even as we speak.
DESSAD: And your certain this isn't a charade, that the pit works?
GRANNY: What do you think we're doing?
Granny looks up and nods. Two more hardened female soldiers standing high above Granny and Dessad in an opening nod back and turn a crank, which pulls chains connected to a rectangular cage out of the pit before them. Inside the cage lays Tess. Now completely healed, and dripping with some kind of liquid. Granny Goodness smiles her twistedly sweet and almost proud smile.
INT. HOSPITAL-MORGUE.
Chloe flips through Tess' file, reading its contents, as Emil scans the log.
CHLOE: Heart failure. It's consistent with what we know.
EMIL: Yeah, but this isn't. (hands clipboard to Chloe) There's no record of Tess being brought down here. Which can only mean one of two things... One: Her body was taken for some reason. Or Two:-
CHLOE: -Her death was faked.
EMIL: It's possible.
CHLOE: Too much is going on. Ollie and Tess are both taken, the same night the kandorians get sent away, there has to be a reason for it. (thinks for a moment) I know what to do... We need the Fate helmet.
INT. WATCHTOWER-LATER.
Chloe enters watchtower, Emil following close behind her.
EMIL: Chloe, this isn't a good idea.
CHLOE: It can tell us how to save Clark and what happened to Oliver, Tess, and the team. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.
Emil stops Chloe, turning her around to face him.
EMIL: And what about the downside? You have no idea what it'll do to your mind, or even if it'll give you anything useful.
CHLOE (takes a breath, contemplates, and then comes to the conclusion): It's worth the risk.
Chloe walks over to a desk, kneels down, and opens the bottom drawer, pulls it out completely, revealing a combination safe behind it.
CHLOE: It's a good thing Carter gave me the keys to the place.
Chloe puts the combination in, which is 8-10-38. She opens the safe, reaches in, and pulls out a set of keys. Chloe closes the safe and stands up, turning around to face Emil. She walks past him, heading for the door, when suddenly the door opens and Chloe stops to see Oliver standing there. Oliver quickly hugs Chloe.
OLIVER: Chloe, thank God you're okay.
Chloe hesitates, but eventually hugs Oliver back, before pulling away.
CHLOE: What happened? Do you know who took you?
OLIVER: No.
CHLOE: How'd you escape?
OLIVER: You can thank Dinah for that.
Oliver nods over at Dinah, who has already entered, and Chloe looks at her.
DINAH: You're welcome.
Chloe gives a nod to her.
CHLOE: We'd thought everyone else had been taken. John went looking for the others to make sure.
DINAH: That's my fault. I had everyone go dark when I thought they were tracking us through our com. I'd have sent Bart to warn you but he hurt his leg.
CHLOE: Is he okay?
DINAH: Yeah. Nothing serious.
OLIVER (O.S.): Oh my God Clark!
Chloe jerks around to see Oliver standing in the main area of watchtower, staring at Clark's bloody battered body. He rushes up to him.
CHLOE: Don't touch him.
Oliver stops.
OLIVER (clearly worried): What happened?
CHLOE: Emil will explain everything.
Chloe turns to head back for the door, but stops dead in her tracks at the last person to enter the watchtower. Adam Knight. Adam recognizes Chloe as well.
ADAM: You've got to be kidding me.
Chloe quickly grabs a gun from her desk, cocks it, and points it at Adam. He's not surprised by this. Oliver and Dinah just stare in confusion.
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