S2, E10 | Corruption

Season 2 Finale
\ Realm Beyond - Eternal Office /

Nothing more than the unknown beneath them, Suzie and Lincoln stare at each other from opposite ends of the mezzanine, only the heavens above allowed to light their impending duel. “I’m sorry, sister” Lincoln remarks in a raspy voice, his horrifyingly-punctured right hand mustering just enough strength to match Suzie’s gesture, pulling back to summon his oceanic blue service dagger from the thinnest of air.

As the ground shakes, Suzie and Lincoln pull further away, their respective sides of the mezzanine reached before their weapons take aim. “Razul, Kazro- stay down” Suzie commands, a smirk worn across her face as she watches Lincoln wince, his left hand entirely immobilised, the advantage already in her favour.

“Stay quiet” Jared whispers, his arm reaching around Rachel’s back, holding her close as they remain veiled, protected only by the desk they seek refuge behind. Her own arms reaching around Jared’s waist, Rachel tucks her head into his chest, comforted by his warmth and consoled by his protection.

Quick tempered and eager to put this long, drawn-out nightmare behind herself, Suzie surges forward, the service dagger held beside her head as warfare is initiated. With as much to lose as he does to gain, Lincoln follows the woman’s lead, crossing his right forearm to the left side of his body, the dagger held just over his left shoulder whilst his neck is shielded.

Silent, the pair prepare for a collision in the chasm’s centre, prepared to deal the other a fatal strike as their hands pull back. The distance closed, Suzie and Lincoln propel their arms forward, weapons plunging through the air just one moment too late. Their momentum extinguished, the siblings’ straight-shots are sent out of control, a pair of bodies colliding with them from above before a single blade has the chance to pierce flesh.

Falling from the air like a plane with an inoperational wing, Suzie crashes into the mezzanine’s floor, Lincoln quick to suffer a similar fate. “Aw, what the fuck!?” Suzie exclaims, her teeth pressing together as she crawls away from the platform’s ledge, a glance across the floor from herself revealing Lincoln’s mostly-unharmed frame climb to his feet all the same.

“What the hell did you do!?” Lincoln exclaims, barking at his sister under the assumption that the interference was of her doing, his initial belief quickly thwarted. Their unsteady feet tapping against the floor as they, too, ascend from the floor, Scarlett and Vic capture the invading sibling’s attention with ease, drawing their collective ire.

Patting herself down, Scarlett’s hand presses into her body, able to feel the sensation of touch with each slap. “Were you in another paradox!?” Vic worriedly qualms, her hands shaking as she glances across the foyer, the blonde’s eyes as widened as her own are. “The two of you are really starting to get on my nerves” Suzie groans, neither Scarlett nor Vic looking toward each other any longer, their shared sights laying upon the participants of kinfolk conflict.

“Where the fuck did you even come from!?” Lincoln exclaims, his mangled left hand held against his chest as he winces in pain, “this isn’t your fight!”

“Apparently, it is” Vic replies, a softer tone taken than that of the kinspersons before her, “the thing you were talking about- the delusions- that’s how I got here.”

“Me too” Scarlett replies, a passing look shared with Vic as her eyes drift back toward Suzie and Lincoln her tone softer than before as well, “that woman with the mouth sent me here.” Eyes narrowing, Suzie looks to the girls with ire, her nostrils flaring as she steps forward, service dagger returned to the realm.

“I don’t care if the King of England sent you down here- this isn’t your fight!” Suzie shouts, sharing her brother’s sentiment. “Maybe it is! Maybe we were sent down here for a reason!” Vic interjects, she and Scarlett beginning to close the relatively small gap between themselves and the siblings, “hell, our timing was fucking incredible! Maybe we were sent down here to stop the two of you from killing each other.”

With a scowl on her face, Suzie stares into the girls’ eyes as the room goes silent, only remaining that way for a moment before the sound of laughter refills it. Chuckling to himself, Lincoln shakes his head, mentally erasing the excruciating pain his wounds have inflicted. “The two of you just don’t-fucking-get it, do you?” Lincoln shouts, nearly hunched over in laughter as the mezzanine begins to fill with a thunderous roar.

“No, I guess we don’t” Scarlett replies, the humoured smirk slowly falling from Lincoln’s face, “please, enlighten us.” Grousing at the girls, Lincoln puckers his lips and takes a few steps forward, his left hand beginning to wrap itself in the tattered, blood-stained shirt he wears. “Fine” the man murmurs, his steps forward stopping suddenly, the grouse turning into a scowl, his voice lowering as his still-wounded right hand trembles.

“The realm is one massive, fucked up chess board. Everything you see, this building, the offices, these ‘delusions’- it’s all part of the game” Lincoln replies, his head falling to one side and tilting back, “when was the last time you saw both people win a game of chess?”

Stepping back, Suzie exits the conversation for a moment, refusing to participate in the discourse for her own good. “When-” Scarlett mutters beneath her breath, yet to uncover an answer as she looks toward Lincoln, confused, “-when they tie?” Another chuckle forcing its way through Lincoln, the man shakes his head with a smirk, his injuries having sentenced him to such great amounts of pain that he almost appears intoxicated by its presence.

“Mmm. This realm doesn’t like draws” Lincoln responds, his chin now lowering, his head slightly bowed as his eyes keep toward the girls. “We have a game of chess within a game of chess right now- so how much longer do you think it’ll be before the realm just decides to flip the board over?” Lincoln inquires, his finger lifting toward the heavens above the bonsai tree just as another bout of thunder roars, the smirk returned to his face, “it’s already starting to get impatient.”

Their lips pressed together, Vic and Scarlett watch Lincoln draw closer, prepared to defend themselves at the first sight of conflict. “There’s a lot that the two of you don’t understand. Just because Suzie doesn’t have the gall to say it doesn’t mean that I don’t” Lincoln declares, a third, much louder wave of thunder rolling forward, the mezzanine briefly illuminated by the flash of lightning.

“I was put in your paths long before you came here- just like I was for everyone that came before you” Lincoln confesses, another loud, thunderous clash ringing through the mezzanine. “The realm chose me to rule. And when Suzie decided to slash my throat, it gave me an opportunity at redemption” Lincoln explains, drawing another step closer to the girls, “The realm handed us different sentences. Suzie rebelled for freedom from her purgatory, and I earned freedom from mine.”

“Not true” Suzie remarks from afar, interrupting the discussion as another bolt of lightning flashes through the mezzanine. “I fought for my freedom. I staged an uprising in purgatory and I beat the realm- I bested it” the woman corrects, a few steps taken back into the conversation. “I’ve proven that I’m good enough to take that goddamn throne” Suzie grunts, her stare toward Lincoln now redirecting itself toward the girls, “now I just need to clear my path to it.”

“Yeah, that’s your theory” Lincoln responds, looking to his sister from over his shoulder, his back turned toward Scarlett and Vic, “and somehow- after all these decades- you’re still wrong.” Her head shaking subtly, Suzie crosses her arms, “you don’t know that” she responds, her retort quickly corrected by the man across the platform from her.

“It’s not that I don’t know that, it’s that you can’t see that!” Lincoln replies, his full attention returned to the woman, his right hand swaying freely by his side, “you’re still corrupted. You arrived corrupted, and you remain corrupted.” Eyes narrowing, Scarlett shares in Vic’s confusion whilst holding her own intrigue, unable to prevent herself from reclaiming the narrative’s focus.

“What do you mean corrupted?” Scarlett inquires, the thunder returning as Lincoln glances back toward her with a smile, the thunder roaring again, this time with a much softer rumble. The corner of his mouth arching, Lincoln approaches the girls for a second time, his eyes set squarely upon the young blonde. “Oh, you know?- Corrupted” Lincoln teases, his head swinging from one side to another as he grows closer.

“Someone that’s quick tempered. Maybe, someone that’s irrational, or impulsive- that kind of thing” Lincoln replies, the grumbling roar of the realm’s heavens starting to intensify, “someone the realm brought in to balance the scale, then throw it of course, and set the final stage in motion.”

Their faces scrunching, Scarlett and Vic look at the man with greater bewilderment, uncertain of meaning behind the man’s vagueness. “He’s saying the two of you were chosen for the same reason as us” Suzie interposes, summoning the fiery red service dagger, “one’s a hothead and the other’s composed. You’re close to each other just like Lincoln and I were. The realm tests you, then it judges you, then-”

Stopping mid sentence, Suzie waits for the fiercest roar of thunder to subside before attempting to continue, her thought finished by the bulky man a few paces ahead of her. “Then it forces you to earn your keep” Lincoln concludes, the sights he’d laid upon Scarlett now moving to Vic, her eyes capturing his focus, “forces your hand- even if you don’t want to- and has you prove yourself to it.”

A small gap brought between her lips, Vic peers toward Suzie before returning her eyes to Lincoln. “What are you saying?” Vic inquires, an obvious sense of fear contained within her question. “He’s saying one of you is already corrupted, and the other isn’t” Suzie replies from afar, her thought again finished by Lincoln, who lowers his voice to match Vic’s whispering tone.

“If the three of us die, Suzie gets to put her theory to the test” Lincoln murmurs, obviously not taking the possibility with seriousness, “If the three of you die, I’ll finally get to take the throne that should have always been mine.” His voice lowering further, Lincoln instals a bend in his knees, lowering his height to the girls’ level. 

“And- if Suzie and I die- the two of you will be left to finish the game” Lincoln whispers, his smirk reappearing as the mezzanine begins to flash rapidly, struck with various bolts of lightning. “And when the dust settles, and the last pieces are in order, the game will draw to a close” Lincoln concludes, an overwhelming glee taken in his declaration, “one of you will live to be king, and the other will die.”

Snarling at the man, Vic summons her service weapon, its radiant blue flash prompting Lincoln to back away, reestablishing a safe distance between himself and the realm’s devoted keepers. “Let’s stop wasting so much time then” Vic replies, stepping away from Scarlett’s side, refusing to allow Lincoln to refuse the conflict he’d entered the mezzanine searching for.

“Oh no. Not here” Lincoln replies, his whisper having become a growl, “this fight isn’t gonna happen in the realm!” Though interested in watching the clash unfold, Suzie voices her agreement with Lincoln’s refusal. “We may be able to die in here, but the two of you can’t” Suzie replies, scrunching her nose as she shrugs, “at least- not yet.”

“Why not kill us before then?” Scarlett wonders aloud, hands kept at her side, refusing to escalate the struggle already beginning to amplify. “I need the two of you to outlive this scumbag, you already know my reason” Suzie answers, the collective faces turning to the large, muscular figure desperate to maintain his distance.

“I- I have- I have my reasons” Lincoln stutters, his eyebrows lowering as he continues to back away, his sister’s voice capturing his ear after a few, defensive moments. “Oh my god- it’s ‘cause you can’t!” Suzie exclaims, her eyes widened as if she’d made a life-changing discovery, “the realm’s started it’s game with the girls- so if you killed them, you’d be defying its interests! You’d be corrupting yourself!”

“Hold on, what’s happening?” Vic interrupts, her question disregarded as Suzie’s declaration continues, each step she takes closer matched by Lincoln, who takes one step backward. “You were gonna use those kids to bait the girls back home, weren’t you? You were gonna send them on a collision course with me!” Suzie continues, continuing to advance upon her brother, “but when I found you, the plan switched. So you hid them here to buy yourself time to think of a new plan!”

“Stop talking!” Lincoln shouts, resummoning his service dagger and extending it toward Suzie, her face sharply lit by the wave of blue light. Trembling, Lincoln’s pain vanishes for a brief moment, his face shaking rapidly as he continues to retreat. “I’m doing what I have-!” Lincoln declares, his paranoid rambling ceased at the sensation of a sharp, plastic shank ripping through the flesh on his back.

“Aaahhh!” Lincoln barks, falling to his knees as the service dagger is relinquished, the pain brought by his assortment of wounds hitting him at once. Turning around, Lincoln presses his hand against the puncture in his back whilst his eyes stare upward, Jared’s angry face meeting his own. Still armed with the bloodstained shiv, Jared pulls his hand back for a second time, aiming for Lincoln’s trachea with fatal intentions.

In the last moment, Lincoln snaps his fingers, barely able to avoid his own execution as he vanishes into thin air, allowing Jared’s swing to fall short of its mark. “Fuck!” Jared shouts, the veins in his neck protruding as he hurls the sharpened fragment at the ground, frustrated at the thought that he’d yet to fulfil his vow.

Nothing left for her to tend to, Suzie follows Lincoln’s lead, Razul and Kazro vanishing alongside her as her fingers snap. Turning back, Jared’s eyes widen, his pupils dilating as he discovers familiar faces. Silent, Jared looks to Scarlett, the woman’s presence taking his focus more than Vic’s. Equally mute, Scarlett steps forward and wraps her arms around the man’s neck, pulling him in for an embrace as the air settles, the thunder subsiding as tranquillity is restored for the time being.

= Dream Sequence is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards =

\ Realm of Reality /

Returning to the realm above, Lincoln stumbles into the reinforced walls of his bunker, the open wound on his back beginning to spill blood along the ground with every step. “Argh fuck!” the man exclaims, gasping for air as he presses his hand against the open door’s frame, his face partially cloaked in the light of a cloudy sky. Struggling to lift himself over the top-most step, Lincoln spills onto the lawn of his backyard, its grass wetted and dirt turned to mud.

Pelted by sparse raindrops, Lincoln presses his eyelids together, huffing for each breath as his blood begins to mix with the small puddles he lays in, his will to fight starting to deplete. “Don’t move!” an unwelcoming voice shouts, the sound of it prompting Lincoln to open his eyes, his head turning toward the side of his home. “Put your hands in the air!” an officer indiscernible from any other orders, a gun held upon the wounded homeowner.

Refusing to adhere to the commands given, Lincoln presses his knuckles into the soft dirt and begins to sit up, earning himself yet another warning. “Put your hands where we can see them and stop moving!” the officer exclaims, a fleet of seven other officers following closely behind him, a large number of his fellow deputies already having been stationed in the home’s backyard.

Disobeying the instructions given yet again, Lincoln turns onto his knees as his hands rest lamely by his side, the raindrops dripping off his nose as his head hangs toward the ground. “Stay- the fuck- still!” the officer shouts for a third time, removing one hand from his firearm to retrieve the cuffs on his waistband, a gesture Lincoln notices the sound of.

His lip curling, Lincoln’s face takes on another smirk, a hushed laugh coming over him as the officer nears closer. Reinvigorated, Lincoln brings his arms across his body, pressing them against his chest before throwing them outward. “I will not warn you ag-!” the officer howls, his words vanishing just as his life does, the shockwave Lincoln unleashes hurdling him into the air with forces great enough to carry him kilometres away.

As trees are toppled, houses are levelled, cars are turned into contorted, metal frames, hydrants are popped and telephone poles are ripped from the ground, Lincoln kneels at the sudden, impossibly strong blast’s epicentre, both as its origin and as its maker. Surrounded by a sinister silence, Lincoln’s knees dig further into the moist ground, the grass that once stood around him having been plucked clean, a dirt-covered lot now all his once-residency has been turned into.

Seething, Lincoln pulls his head up, staring at the damage he’d caused in every direction, the place he’d been unearthed into now unrecognisable from what it had been seconds prior. As the sounds of sirens draw closer from the distance, Lincoln braces against his tramatas, fighting through the searing pain yet again to wage war against humanity. Climbing to his feet, Lincoln stares back to the heavens before entering them, leaving the ground and throwing himself into the sky.

|

\ Realm of Reality /

“And you really don’t remember me?” Scarlett inquires in a soft voice, sharing the sofa with her guests, sat on Rachel’s left whilst Jared occupies her right. “I know who you are, yeah” Rachel replies, unable to recall the young woman’s name or where she knows her from, “I don’t remember what you’re telling me.” Mustering a smile, Scarlett tries to offer her close friend comfort, struggling to conceal the great ache her unfamiliarity brings forward.

“I’m sorry it happened, though!” Rachel remarks, noticing this sadness contained within Scarlett’s expression, “you shouldn’t have been forced to leave us behind.” Holding back tears, Scarlett quietly nods to her friend, rubbing her shoulder before turning to Vic. “Can you take over for a second?-” Scarlett struggles to remark, turning her sights toward Jared as Vic approaches, “-and can we talk for a second?”

Leaving Rachel’s side, Jared makes room for Vic to take his seat as he walks after Scarlett, joining the young woman on the patio, offered a breathtaking sight of the Arabian Sea. “Well this is certainly nicer than Praireville” Jared jokes, the snicker he draws from Scarlett bringing a smile to his face. “I can’t argue with you there” Scarlett murmurs, her forearms crossed as they press into the bannister, supporting her weight.

His right hand wrapped around the railing, Jared leans his hip into the transparent border between the hardwood platform he stands upon and the calm, warm waves below. A smooth, cool breeze running past them, Jared looks to Scarlett as the woman stares into the clear water, the moment between them spent in momentary noiselessness.

“Have you been good to her?” Scarlett abruptly queries, the question not what Jared had been expecting to answer. Puckering his lips, Jared’s chin drops, unable to look at Scarlett for long without the need to squint at the sheer brightness of the nearby sun. “That’s not really a question I can answer, is it?” Jared responds, drawing Scarlett’s face in the direction of his own, “I’ve been there for her as much as possible. Whether or not that’s been enough is for her to decide.”

Taking down a wad of spit that’d built up in her mouth, Scarlett nods, another look taken toward the water as locks of her hair sway with the wind. “Where was this Jared when I was dating him?” Scarlett quips, sharing the laugh with the young man beside her this time around. Though the question wasn’t raised for an answer, Jared chooses to give one anyway, a gesture that captivates Scarlett.

“He was trying to figure out who he was” the young man responds, his amused expression having lowered into one of apologetic concern, “and he didn’t care who he had to hurt in the process.” Their eyes locking, Scarlett pulls away from the bannister and stands straight, their faces now level with each other’s as Jared interrupts the quiet pause once more.

“I’m so sorry for what I did to you” Jared confesses, watching Scarlett’s face sour, not out of anger, but out of the will to conceal deeper emotions, “I’ve regretted it every day since it happened. I was an asshole and you’ve got every right to-” Unprompted, Scarlett interrupts Jared’s admission by throwing herself into his arms, her chin resting on his shoulder as her hands lock around his back, holding him into a tight embrace as tears begin falling from her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Jared begins, half-heartedly reciprocating the hug, mistaking it for a display of sadness. “No, I’m not upset” Scarlett replies, the tears that run down each cheek accompanied by a smile, her eyes pressing together tightly. “Well, what’s the hug for?” Jared responds, his hands resting against the small of Scarlett’s back as she begins to pull away, answering the question whilst wiping loose droplets from her chin.

“I just- I didn’t really think- I didn’t-” Scarlett stumbles, tripping over her words before stepping back, taking a deep breath before organising her thoughts, “I didn’t think you cared.” Confused, Jared tilts his head to the side, watching Scarlett attempt to reiterate her point. “I thought you just didn’t care. Maybe about me, or about what we had. I thought- I don’t know” Scarlett concludes, letting go of the inhale as she shrugs, “I thought it was something about me.”

With vehement refusal, Jared shakes his head, placing his hand atop Scarlett’s shoulder as her head drops, greatly relieved of her long-running predisposition to the contrary. “You were one of a kind. You still are. I fucked up and it’d never been more clear that I needed to get my mind right than after that” Jared confesses, pulling her in for another hug, her forehead pressing against his chest as her hands press into his sides.

After a few, brief seconds, the pair pull apart once more, their eyes retaking to the parlour, a clear view of Vic and Rachel granted in partial credit to the absence of a window. “I used to be so mad at you” Scarlett mutters, gazing back to Jared, who looks at Rachel for a few more seconds before returning his glance toward Scarlett. “I was so angry. I was so- I was so mad” Scarlett remarks, shaking her head as another exhale leaves her lungs, “it feels like so long ago.”

“Well, this is the first time since- well, before your back, I guess- that we’ve even really talked” Jared replies, a chill running down his spine at the thought of time’s passing, “it looks like you’ve grown a bit since then, huh?”

“I can say the same for you” Scarlett quickly responds, a light laugh shared before her eyes take another look toward the living room, her eyes setting on Rachel, “she needs that from you.” Sharing Scarlett’s gaze, Jared places his eyes on Rachel once more, a smile coming over him at her sight. “She needs that from all of us” the man replies, looking back to Scarlett as she does to him, Vic’s phone buzzing from afar just as they eyes retake to each other.

“She might need it a little more from you, sailor” Scarlett replies, bending her index finger and tapping Jared’s chin with it, their breathy humour soon interrupted. “Scarlett!” Vic calls out, eyes widened as she glances toward the screen of her phone, her head soon pulling up to look at the blonde across the room from her, “we need to go now.”

|

\ Realm of Reality /

Rising above the ground, a twenty-story building stands along the top of Praireville’s skyline, it’s reputation as a small city not stripping it of the need for office space. Met with peace and undisturbed, the building remains nestled in a small downtown area suddenly entrenched in a mass frenzy uncharacteristic of its cosy, quiet-life charm.

Able to see his reflection in the windows as he ascends each level, Lincoln rises through the air, stopping four floors below the roof. Summoning his service dagger, Lincoln swipes his right arm to the left side of his body, only a second longer spent staring into his likeness before thrusting his arm forward.

To the sound of shattered glass and wrenched metal, Lincoln slashes a gargantuan wound through the building’s top, the roof destined to crater back toward earth with its supports gone. Taking one floor after another with it, the brick-crafted building topples to the ground, a structure one considered high-rise now nothing more than a cloud of ash emanating from a pile of wreckage, debris and casualties brought on by unfortunate events.

Spinning around, Lincoln stares at the road below, cars having either slammed into each other out of desperation to evade the fate their occupants worry lie ahead, or abandoned entirely. With the streets filled with panicked civilians screaming for mercy, Lincoln hovers away, the damage he’s done not likely to have concluded.

== Dream Sequence ==