Got Your Back, Always

IV.X

Tim explains the snake he saw, "The thing was enormous. It went by the door, and then we lost it on the monitors."

"But we definitely saw it in the north hallway," Bernard adds. "I'm going to have a lifetime of nightmares now."

Cassie chuckles and types into her laptop trying to laptop, "Ran a few searches that breed of snake isn't real."

"So what does that mean?" Tim asked.

"It's magic. Or at least manipulated by magic."

Bernard argues, "I would be bathing in that thing's digestive enzymes if it weren't for Tim. It's real."

"Thanks for the visual," Gar says.

Tim sighs, "I should have tried to kill it."

"That would have been a bad idea," Bernard says.

Dick inputs, "Or a fatal one. Cass is right, this is magic. We're in Jinx's world now. What's your take on this?"

She steps forward, "Well a snake is that crazy lady's signature move, right?"

"Could have been the same snake that killed Lex," Kory offers.

Gar asks, "How did the snake get inside of S.T.A.R. Labs? We have every inch of this place covered."

Cassie looked at Conner and had a worried thought.

Jinx sighs, "Doesn't matter now, does it? The point is that it's here. And Mommy's gonna use that snake to get what she really wants."

"Which is Sebastian. So how do we stop this thing?" Dick puts his hands in his pockets.

"Well I am gonna have to consult the only person capable of handling a snake of this magnitude. Samuel L. Jackson."

Cassie rolls her eyes as Gar chuckles.

Kory tried to cover up her laugh, "Jinx focus, please."

"Okay, okay. It's magic versus magic, right? So if you catch this thing, I will magic your little snake."

Tim argues, "So not little."

"Then I will magic your enormous snake. Happy now?"

"Make cowboy boots out of the thing, for all I care," Dick sighs. "Let's find it. Kory, you and I on the west wing. Gar and Jinx take the east. Conner, guard the silo and make sure nothing gets to Sebastian. Cass you stay with him, check on his wound."

Conner nods as the groups start to walk out.

"Tim and Bernard-"

"Let me guess. Security monitors."

Dick nods, "Yeah. For now."

Cassie follows Conner out to the hallway.

Gar starts to talk over the radio, "We found a dead guy. The snake ate his face off!"

Conner leaned against the wall.

"Hey, hey. Sit down. Let me look at the wound," Cassie grabbed onto Conner.

He tried to wave her off, "I'm... I'm fine."

"I wasn't asking Conner. I was telling. Sit and let me have a look."

He groans and lifts up his shirt, his wound started to open and it looked like it was getting worse.

"Be careful, you do not wanna mess with this thing."

It started to bleed again and Cassie quickly grabbed a few clean bandages from her bag and placed them on his wound, as he groaned in pain.

"I know it hurts Conner, I know. Sunlight won't help the pain, but it should help you heal faster, here take this." She handed him a small solar patch and went to cut it on.

But stopped when she heard hissing behind them. They both quickly turned around to see the snake in front of them.

"Ok it's ok. Just stay behind me Conner, it'll be ok. I'll distract it, you run into the room right there, cut on the solar patch, and try as heal as quickly as you can. I will figure it out in the meantime," Cassie calmly said staring at the giant snake.

The snake lunged for them and Conner jumped in front of Cassie before she had time to react.

The snake lunged at Conner and entered through his mouth making Cassie gasp in horror.

She saw his shoulders relax and him slowly turn around.

"Conner. Conner listen to me, fight it. Ok? Magic is about willpower, just fight it. You can do it I know you can," she slowly started backing away from him. "Conner!"

Kory says as she and Dick walk down a hallway, "This feels wrong."

"Wrong how?" he asks.

"Things would play out differently on Tamaran."

"What do you mean?"

"My people would embrace the uglier option. We may need to reconsider things. Sebastian is right here. We may never have this chance again."

"So you wanna take out the one guy who we've spent this whole time protecting-"

"Well, the book was very clear. So if the prophecy is right-"

"So we should all just do what this picture says? Look we've had it worse with Rachel. We'll do the same thing with Sebastian."

"Mmm-hmm. What if Sebastian is not like-"

"Rachel?" He cuts her off as he sees the white-haired girl in the hallway.

"Hey, do you guys have, like, five dollars?" She asked them.

Kory looks at her, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Getting chips. Why are you patrolling my sodium intake now?"

"Where's Sebastian?" Dick asked.

"In the silo with Conner, like you wanted."

Kory asked, "We wanted?"

"Yeah. You sent him there to give me a break?"

"Was Cass with him?" Dick asked confused. 

"No. Her bag was like right in the hallway though so I figured she just stepped away for a few moments to grab something. What's going on?"

"Conner? What's going on?" Dick asked walking up to him and Sebastian with Kory. "Where's Cass?"

"Dick, just walk away."

"Why don't we take a minute to sit down and just cool off a little bit?"

Conner gently pushed Sebastian aside, "I feel perfectly cool, Dick. When I told you to walk away, I meant it."

He used his heat vision to blast them, but both Dick and Kory moved out of the way.

Kory rushed forward, "Conner, stop!"

Jinx appeared behind him and blasted him making Conner collapse.

"Look, this shit isn't magic, okay?" Jinx looked at Dick, "Well, technically it is. But what I mean is, we've only got three minutes until this guy is up and at it again."

"Did you find Cass?" Dick asked as he walked forward to grab Conner.

"Gar has her, she's still out."

"Out?" Kory asked.

"Uh... we found her unconscious, in a closet, tied up. She seemed ok though, no blood at least."

Dick's face contorted with anger.