The Swamp Thing's physical body had been beaten to a pulp, but that didn't mean that he was dead.

It was no further than the truth.

Instead, the Swamp Thing's inner being entered the Earth Thing's body through the cracks in its rocks and stones.  It latched onto the rhizosphere pumping through the thing's carcass.  Swamp Thing's germs mingled with the fungi and bacteria coursing through the creature.  He secreted nutrients to form a micro-organism growth, accelerating his metabolic rate.

And armed with a boric acid that pumped through his being, he began to eat the Earth Thing from the inside out.

On the mount, Aragon was still preaching to his Illumination.  The souls of the damned continued to climb the Tree of Blood, attempting to enter the gates of Heaven.

"We are closer than ever before, my children," Aragon told the crowd.  "Your sacrifices will not be in vain."

As he continued to preach, throwing the crowd into a frenzy, Grace snuck up behind him.

She lunged out, grabbing the amulet from around his neck.

"What have you done?" he barked.  "Give that back to me!"

But Grace ran away with it.   She stumbled back down the mount, gripping the amulet tightly in her fist.

From overhead, the Earth Thing began to falter.  As Swamp Thing's boric acid continued to eat through its hide, it stumbled onto one knee.  It yelled in pain, burping up molten lava as it slowly died.

The lava ran down the hill.  The crowd, looking around at one another in disbelief and amazement now that Aragon had lost the amulet, was buried beneath the lava.  Their screams filled the dark night as they died a most brutal death.

"Damn their souls to Hell," said Aragon, glancing at the remains of his adoring throng. 

He turned, looking for Grace in the commotion, but could not see her. 

From the Bleeding Tree, the damned souls began to fall back down into the bowels of Hell.  Their screams matched those which had moments before been burned alive.

Aragon buried his head in his hands and began to cry.  He had been so close. 

And that's when the rocks from the Earth Thing began to fall.

Aragon held up his hands in a vain attempt to cover himself.  He screamed as one of the massive boulders fell on top of him.  It crushed his mortal body into a paste of gore and bone.  His spirit lifted upwards, drifting away on the hot breeze created from the lava.

He had meant for Grace to be Earth's martyr, but had now, instead, found his own self taking her place.  And in a strange, bent way, he embraced his fate.  He now knew what it was like to be loved and to lose everything one had worked for.  He had, indeed, found his Illumination.

Meanwhile, from the remnants of the Earth Thing, Swamp Thing crawled out.  He wasn't yet fully formed.  He was missing his left arm and both legs, but the rest of his body was attuned.  Though still weak, he managed to clear himself of the debris. 

"Let me help you," said Grace.  She rushed over and grabbed Swamp Thing's right hand.  Gently, as he pushed his crippled body across the ground, she led him over the Bleeding Tree.  He rested back against its dark hide.

"Thank you," said Swamp Thing.

"You're welcome," replied Grace. 

For a moment, the both of them were silent.  Their eyes fell on the massacre at the bottom of the hill, and the crushed body of Aragon.  Clouds of dust still billowed upward from the Earth Thing's corpse.

"I want you do me a favor," Grace said.

"What would that be?"

She took Swamp Thing's right hand and opened it.  Inside it, she placed the amulet.

"Please," she said, "take this and bury it somewhere safe.  I don't even want to know where you take it.  I trust you."

Swamp Thing grasped the amulet in his hand and nodded.

Grace stood up.  She straightened her dress and forlornly looked down at him.  There were tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry you had to witness all this," she told him.

"I believe in destiny," said Swamp Thing.  "I was meant to be here."  He held out his hand and pointed at the Earth Thing's remains.  "That was waiting for me."

Grace only nodded.  Then she bent down and kissed his verdant forehead.

"Thank you," she said.  And then she followed the hill down the rest of its crooked way.

Swamp Thing watched her go.  Grace had ignited something within him that sometimes he felt he had lost.  He longed for the touch of a human woman.  He wanted their smell and flesh and companionship. 

He now decided that he would return to The Green.  There, he would heal his broken body.  And there he would call upon the one thing he now truly wanted: 

Abby

"I've killed another one."

Pilate Voorhees lit himself a cigar.  He watched as the smoke billowed above his head, creating a macabre halo.  He was far from angelic.

"Who was it this time?" he spoke to his intercom.

"Some rube in Kentucky," replied Romero.  "He'd had contact with the girl, too.  I didn't want to squander any loose ends."

"Kentucky?" asked Voorhees.  "Isn't that a bit out of your way?  I thought you said you'd tracked the girl to Louisiana?"

"I have," Romero told him.  "She's heading right back to the bayou.  She isn't very hard to track.  She's traveling with some disfigured bastard.  He's ugly as sin."

Voorhees thought about Romero's appearance.  She didn't have much room to talk.

"Fine, fine," he said.  "Just make sure the girl isn't hurt.  Gustav is already preparing the tests to run on her."

"Nothing bad will come of her," replied Romero.  And then she laughed.  "I promise."

"Make sure of it," Voorhees told her, and then he killed communication.

He leaned back in his chair and took another puff of the cigar.  Romero was one evil bitch.  She'd already killed three people, and probably wouldn't stop there.  He laughed at her disdain for this disfigured passenger riding along with Tefe.    Romero wasn't disfigured, but she was still one ugly bitch.

Voorhees then turned his attention to the progress Gustav was making with the material from the Swamp Thing.  It seemed to hold some regenerative power.  Its color had turned from a dull green to a dead gray, but yet the thing still lived on.  If he could harness its power, it would save him millions in lost wages spent on disability for his employees.

"The Swamp Thing is dead, and soon I will have its daughter." 

Pilate let loose with a laugh that made one of his guards, standing like a statue at the doorway to his suite, flesh crawl. 

"There's no stopping me."

Abby cried as she left the abortion clinic.

She had wanted to murder the baby, but she felt she had no choice.  She wasn't in a position to take care of another child.  Already she had Tefe, whom she hadn't seen in days, to worry about.  Another one wasn't what she needed at this in her life.

The abortion had only taken minutes to complete.  It was true that she had her doubts about killing Johnny's baby, but still she went through with it.

She hadn't had a choice.  Had she?

As she stepped from the clinic, making her way towards her car, she heard the voice begin to ring in her head.

ABBY, it called, I NEED YOU.

It was Swamp Thing. 

COME TO ME, ABBY, it continued, MEET ME IN THE BAYOU.

Her heart skipped a beat as she heard his voice.  The passions she held for him reignited in her body.  There was no doubting her love for the Swamp Thing but, like the baby, did she need him in her life right now?

She wasn't sure.

I LOVE YOU.

Abby stopped for a second and began to cry.  This was all too much.  First there was the baby, and now the Swamp Thing.

"I love you, too," she said aloud.

And then she went and got into her car. 

She turned the opposite way of the swamp and headed home.

The sound of the chainsaw cut through the silence.

"Get your asses out of the way," said the logger.  "We have a job to do."

Pam and Reggie stood their ground in front of the large oak.   They weren't about to move.

"What are you doing to do?" asked Reggie.  "Kill us?"

The logger sighed.  He let his chainsaw ground to a halt.

"Just get the hell out of the way," he said.  "You're holding up progress."

From atop the oak, another voice rang down.  Trish wasn't about to move, either.  She was hoisted high into the air on one of the oak's limbs.  She wasn't about to let the loggers cut it down.  And if they did, she'd ride it down to her death.

"Are you willing to kill people just for the progress of humanity?" she called.  "Are you that selfish?"

The logger turned around.  He went back to the bulldozer idling loudly.  He climbed aboard and tapped the driver on the shoulder.

"Give me that cell phone," he said.  "I'm going to have to call the boss on this one."

As the stand-off continued into the brisk summer morning, light filtering down through the tall trees, Perv pulled his van up to the site. 

"What are they doing?" he asked Tefe.

"It looks like they're not willing to let the tree be cut down," Tefe said. 

"Oh great," said Perv.  "Does this mean we have to get involved?"

"Let's just see what's going on," Tefe told him.  "Stop the engine."

Perv did as he was asked.  He followed Tefe who climbed out of the van.  She strode pass the bulldozer.

"What's going on here?" Tefe asked Pam.

"They're trying to cut down the old oak," she said.  "But they're going to have to go through us first."

From behind them, the bulldozer roared to life.  And the logger climbed down, his chainsaw again buzzing.

"I've got orders to cut through you," he said.  "Now either move or you're going to get your candy asses hurt."

Reluctantly, Pam and Reggie moved to the side.  Tefe looked up as Trish continued to perch on the branch.

"Kill me," she cried out.  "I'm not going to move!"

"Why do I always get myself into these situations?" Tefe asked Perv.

He shrugged.  "I guess you're just a trouble magnet," he said, feigning a smile.

Tefe closed her eyes and concentrated.  Then, she reached out her hands.  The limbs turned into spiky flora that shot out.  She grabbed both the logger and the bulldozer operator, lifting them high into the air.

"What the hell is this?" asked the logger, floating higher-and-higher.  He dropped his chainsaw, which slammed into the ground and cut the engine.  "Let me down!"

Tefe did as she was asked.  She dropped the logger and bulldozer driver back to the ground with a THUD.  Both of the men rolled around as they collided back with the earth.  They were both unconscious as Pam and Reggie went over to look at them.

"That was fantastic!" said Pam.  "Can you do that every time?"

Tefe shrugged.  "Sure," she said.

"Then join our cause," said Reggie.  "We could use someone like you in our war on the logging community."

Tefe held out her hands and shook her head.  "Sorry," she told them, "but I have my own agenda."

Pam and Reggie looked at each other.  Tefe thought they both were going to cry.

Then Pam turned and looked at Trish up in the tree.  "It's safe to come down now," she called. 

"Okay," replied Trish.

As she started to climb down out of the tree, the branch she was standing on suddenly broke.  Screaming, Trish fell out of the tree.

"Oh my God," said Reggie.

Pam ran over to where Trish lay awkward on the ground.  It was easy to see that the fall had killed her.  Her head lay askew on her broken neck.  Blood dripped freely from her nose and mouth.

"What happened?" asked Reggie.  "She was being so safe."

Tefe watched them both as they huddled over Trish's corpse.  She hated to say what was on her mind, but she felt she had no choice.

"It's The Green," she said.  "They hate all humanity."

Pam turned towards her.  "What are you saying?" she asked.

"I'm just telling you that you're trying to protect something that hates you," said Tefe.  "And that's just the way it is." 

Pam and Reggie watched as Tefe returned to the van.  Perv followed her.  He started the engine and then backed up, turning away from the site.

"Did you have to tell them that?" he asked.

"I just wanted them to know," said Tefe, "that sometimes the truth hurts."