Synopsis
| - After taking a chainsaw through the chest, Alec Holland is dying - again. Just like the last time, he feels excruciating pain, but unlike the first time, it continues unobstructed by the death that will not come. He falls into The Green, and finds himself surrounded by the Parliament of Trees. But they have not saved him in order to save the world, they have saved him only to prolong his pain. As they die, so will he.
He waited too long, and now the Parliament is dying, too weak to transform him into the Swamp Thing, and too late to prevent the inevitable razing of The Green by The Rot at the hands of Abigail Arcane and Sethe. The trees express their feeling of betrayal, how he had fallen for Abby and refused to kill her. Now she will be the instrument of The Green's destruction.
Alec believes that Abby has the willpower to resist the Rot's influence on her, even as her cocoon is dragged to the Deadlands to Sethe's throne. The trees explain that as soon as she emerges from the cocoon, she will no longer be Abigail Arcane, and she will fell them all. None can refuse the call, the trees claim. Alec turns on them, responding that he had refused their call, not because he was frightened, but because he could see that they have become too greedy; too lacking in restraint. Now he sees how he was needed to give them that restraint. Now, the Parliament is conscienceless. It is no matter to the trees, though, as their end is coming swiftly - unless of course, they change Alec into the Swamp Thing.
The trees are incredulous, having already explained that their weakness prevents them. However, Alec reminds them that all is not lost, because he had saved a bag filled with the last remaining batch of the Bio-Restorative Formula. With it, the trees could gain the brief boost of strength they need to make the transformation. They warn that without their power to help him, Alec will surely be killed by Sethe's forces. Even so, he demands that they use the vials. They further warn that once the change is made, he will never be able to return to his human form. Again, he commands them to do it. However, his sacrifice is not for them or for The Green. It is for Abby.
The trees drain out the canisters of Bio-Restorative Formula over Alec's body, and he feels himself dying as his organs transform from human flesh to plants and vines. He hears a thousand voices screaming for him to change; to become the monster he should have been.
Sethe's minions run in terror at the sight of the Swamp Thing reborn, and he pierces through their useless brains with barbed vines. The monster had been waiting to take him for all this time, and he had refused it for so long. This time, though, the change was his choice. Now, he will bring down war upon The Rot.
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