Khalil POV

I spent most nights like this. AWAKE. It was better than the nightmares. So much death is on my hands. My memories are like a bloody museum with projections of my kills playing on the walls. I wonder if this life will ever offer me peace. It wasn’t likely dealing with Painkiller.

I sat up pondering my next move. The plan was to be out of Freeland a week ago. I had found sanctuary in my old cable car “apartment”.At least temporarily till I figured out where I was actually headed. Cutter had really done a number on the place I guess looking for Jenn and I while we were on the run. It was still inhabitable though and the ramen was still in the cabinet.

The last conversation between Jenn and I played over in my head more times than I’d like to admit. I couldn’t blame her or her reaction. It would be asking for too much. Why would anyway want to be around someone who could kill them or their family at any moment?

“Don’t take another step”. Jennifer held her hand out with a fireball of electricity ready to light my ass up as I approached her on the roof. “Yo, it's me, Jen. Khalil.” I tried to reassure her.

“For how long? You know, my sister was right about you. I don't know how I was so blind.” She snapped. Anissa had every reason to doubt my control over Painkiller since we’ve had our share of run-ins. Her telling Jennifer not to trust me was a given.

“I came to apologize. Look, I... I'm not myself anymore. I don't know who I am. But I do know that Painkiller is a part of me and he's not goin' away. And I have to learn to live with him.” I tried to plead my case. “ I don't. I know you can't see him... but when I look into Painkiller's eyes, there's nothin' there but death.” She rebutted. “Odell made me a weapon, but I know... I know deep down that I still have a soul, Jen. And I need you more than anyone to believe that.” I didn’t have many connections left in Freeland or life for that matter.I didn’t want Jennifer to see me as a monster. She had believed in me in all the dark moments even when I wanted to give up on myself. It helped me to keep fighting.I didn’t want to let her down.

“What Odell did to you was evil... but I can't love a weapon that's pointed at my family, even if it does have a soul.” At that point, I knew anything I said she wasn’t hearing it.I didn’t doubt she cared about me but I put her in an impossible situation.It was heartbreaking nonetheless.I felt a pain pierce through my chest. “See you around, Khalil.” She dismissed me and I knew it was over. I had to let her go right now. “No. You won't.” I assured her as I jumped off the roof. We had shared so many moments up there. This might have to be the last.

“Are you done?” Painkiller snarled. “Not right now PK” I replied. “You’re gonna have to get over that Pierce bitch one of these days and I mean if I had it my wa---.”You're not gonna have it your way” I interrupted. PK began pacing around our shared headspace. “You think you’re in pain? you have no idea track star” he scoffed.I didn’t want to go back and forth with him. He was good at striking a nerve. What he really wanted was a fight and so a fight he was gonna get.

photo credit:  superherocaps

WE ARE BACK! Here’s the season 3 finale recap episode :It's So Hard To Say Goodbye Ft Baby Lightning and Khalil's Backshots .

WE DISCUSS ALL THINGS 3x16 and what we want to see in season 4.

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/struck-by-black-lightning-podcast/id1484227773

Anchor:

https://anchor.fm/struckbyblacklightning

Stitcher

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/struck-by-black-lighting/struck-by-black-lightning?refid=stpr

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/show/4ICENF0UUlbyke2aKpHYTj

Thanks for listening! See you in Season 4!

Authors note: Here’s part 2 guys! I don’t know how long this “book” will be but everything within “ThebookofFortitude” will be tagged as such so you can find it.Ignore typos and weird wording I got kinda tired lol Enjoy!

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Brandon’s apartment 

“Aye, you got a hoodie?” Jennifer asks as she stands up ready to investigate. “Yeah” Brandon replies running over to his closet grabbing two hoodies. He throws one over to Jennifer. They both zip up and put on the hoods trying to conceal their identities. Brandon opens the door and its chaos.Residents in the apartment complex  are evacuating while Brandon and Jennifer are going the opposite way. Brandon nods his head directing Jennifer to a staircase towards the end of the hall. They keep their heads down as they rush to the floor above them.Once they reach the floor its completely abandoned. There’s debris shattered around the halls and broken light fixtures. Jennifer takes the lead and walks forward looking for the location of the sounds. Brandon follows behind her. She walks two doors down and apartment 301’s door was completely kicked in. 

Jennifer motions for Brandon to come forward. She sees soldiers sprawled out on the floor.” Yo, Jenn be careful” Brandon says as Jennifer gets closer to one of the bodies. A few of the soldiers have their helmets missing. Jennifer inspects their faces. Their eyes are completely black and there seems to be prominent black veins covering their faces.”Looks like Markovians”she says. “Maybe we should go” Brandon insists.”Hold on” Jennifer stalls as she squints to get a better look.”It looks like some kinda venom” she says turning to Brandon. “Jenn” Brandon says trying to get Jennifer to come back to his apartment with him. “You scared?” Jennifer asks chuckling. “No!” Brandon says unconvincingly. “It’s just not safe, how do you know they are really all dead?” Brandon questions. Jennifer lets out a sigh.”I can see electrical impulses, trust me I know the difference…...I can feel it”. Brandon looks saddened by that new insight. A vibration comes from Jennifer’s back pocket. She reaches back and grabs her phone. “ Ugh, it’s my dad” Jennifer huffs. “I gotta go but you think you’ll be okay without me?” she questions. “Come on, you’ve seen what I can do” he assures her. Jennifer rolls her eyes “uh huh”.

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Anissa’s Loft

Anissa and Grace are in the kitchen area. Anissa is holding Grace from the back as she cooks some breakfast.”Shonda, play Never Too Much by Luther Vandross”.Anissa tells to her smart house. The record starts to play throughout the loft. Grace chuckles as she places a lid on the food she cooked. Anissa starts to sing along to the track holding Grace’s hands. “oooooohhh my love....a thousand kisses from you is never tooo muchhh”. Anissa sings. They both start to dance and laugh. “Let me see what you got! Grace  says as she shimmies her shoulders.”You don’t know nothing about this!” Anissa breaks out the robot and turns around in a circle. “Woooowww! I hope don’t!” Grace laughs. Their gazes are fixed on one another while Grace bites her lip. Grace felt safe and happy....very happy.... so happy that at times she was scared to be so happy.She felt like as soon as she really got into the groove of being comfortable in the feeling, it might get taken away. But for now she was trying to just live in the moment. Anissa pulls her closer grasping Grace’s booty. “Don’t start nothin you can’t finish” Grace teases. “Oh you know I can finish it” Anissa says confidently while kissing Grace’s neck.

 The music turns down as there’s a knock on the door.” Gambi knocks on Anissa’s door again. “ Anissa, your uncle Gambi is at the door” Shonda announces. Anissa and Grace roll their eyes as their moment is interrupted. ”Shonda, pause music, open front door” she says. Gambi walks through the door with a briefcase and looks at them both. “Am I interrupting something?” Gambi asked. Anissa and Grace glance at each other and smile.They consecutively and sarcastically say “Nope”. Gambi gets the hint. “Sorry to interrupt but I have some important news but first Anissa how are you feeling?” Gambi asks. Anissa is looking much healthier than before her run in with painkiller. Anissa responds  “Honestly a hell of a lot better, between whatever it was you gave me and Grace helping me... I’m feeling a lot more like myself.” 

 Gambi nods and brings the briefcase with a computer inside over to the table. “I’m glad to hear that because it seems that we might have a problem that hits close to home that we may need you to help with.” Gambi explains. “What do you mean?” Anissa questions. “Remember how I said the venom was ten times more potent than a sample I had before? Well it took some time but I was able to match the samples.” Gambi taps the screen revealing information about the sample and a digital photo of Khalil. Anissa hesitated with her response.”Why is there a picture of Khalil?”.“Khalil like your sister’s boyfriend that passed?” Grace furrows her brows. “That’s what I mean.... I was able to match the molecular structures with the sample I already had from one of his darts. Anissa it’s match.” he explains.” “But we buried him!” Anissa shakes her head in disbelief.“ And I know that, so heres the other thing.... I went by the graveyard Anissa... and.... he’s not there.The plot is empty.” He explains sternly. “Someone dug him up? Why would he attack me?” Anissa’s mind thinks of a million questions. “Not just someone, my thoughts point to Odell, and the why I’m still trying to figure out.More then likely with what he did to you, Odell has weaponized him to do his bidding.” He explains further.” “Does Jenn know? My dad? Mom?” Anissa asks. “ Your mom and dad know. I haven’t had it in me to tell Jennifer, your mom said she would talk to her today.I just wanted to warn you and Grace. Although Odell is still recovering I’m sure he has contingency plans so be very careful.

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Brandon’s apartment

Brandon sits at his computer desk looking at a map. He presses the escape button and there’s photos of Khalil and Jennifer. As if he’s been doing some research on them, particularly Khalil. He gets a text message from Jennifer.

 TEXT BEGIN

Jennifer: Hey, you good?

Brandon: I told you, i’m good.I can handle myself lol

Jennifer: hmmm Just checking. It’s been like a week.Didn’t know if whatever that was came back looking for you or something.

Brandon: Nope, I’m good. You still coming by today?

Jennifer: I can’t. My mom wants me to do something but maybe later if it doesn’t take forever.

Brandon: Aight, bet

TEXT END

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Pierce Residence:

Lynn walks in as Jefferson is headed down the stairs. The tension is heavy between them. He looks over at her wanting to talk. “Lynn-”Jefferson is interrupted. “Jefferson, if this is not about our daughter, I don’t wanna talk about it. I already have to have a very difficult conversation with her today. So this... whatever this is between us is gonna have to wait.” She snaps. She walks further in the house. “Jennifer!”she yells out. Jefferson rolls his eyes and throws up his hands. His face is almost healed from the beating he took at the school. He didn’t want to argue with Lynn at-least not now. She gets closer to the staircase and calls out “Jennifer” once more. Jennifer yells “coming” from her room upstairs. As Lynn turns to head back towards the door a small valve falls from her pocket. She doesn’t notice but Jefferson does. Jefferson reaches down to pick up the valve as Lynn is looking towards the door awaiting Jennifer. Jennifer rushes down stairs. “Ready?” Lynn asks Jennifer. “Lynn?” Jefferson says confused about all the recent animosity coming from her lately.Lynn ignores him and rushes Jennifer out the door. Jefferson looks at Lynn and Jennifer get in the car wondering how things got back to this point. He closes the door and bangs his fist angrily. His eyes illuminate and the lights in the house flicker.He inspects the valve with a green substance inside in his hand. “Is this....?”

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Car

Jennifer and Lynn walk towards the car. Jennifer see’s a figure in the backseat. “uh, mom?” Jennifer says. “It’s okay, it’s Gambi.” Lynn explains. Since Gambi is still thought of as dead to the outside world he is using the cloaking device he created allowing him to take the form of a ASA agent. “Mom, what’s this about?” Jennifer questions. “I’ll explain, just get in the car”Lynn says checking over her shoulder. They both get in the car and Lynn starts to drive.

 “ You guys are acting super weird, what’s going on?” Jennifer asks searching for a motive. “Well sweetie-” Lynn stops, searching for the right words to say. “What? Did someone else die? That seems to be an every day thing now. Just tell me I can take it.” Jennifer affirms. “Jenn, It’s not that.....”Gambi takes a breath.. “.Lynn you have to tell her.” “Well, you know I’ve been working a lot at the lab and how your sister had a run in with a meta trying to bring back Tavon. Well we connected the venom sample to someone.”Lynn explains .“Okay?” Jennifer shrugs. “We connected it to..... Khalil......The DNA matches..it took some work but Odell has been hiding him at the lab for some time now.I hadn’t seen anything like it before.” Lynn struggles to get it out. “What! Mom, Khalil’s dead! Is this a joke?” Jennifer snaps. “Baby calm down,I...know...this is alarming news but were being 100 percent  honest with you...I haven’t quite figured out how they did this but what I do know is Khalil isn’t like he use to be.There’s a chip thats been implanted in him and I haven’t figured out how to remove it without damaging his brain or whatever’s left of it. “So, he’s alive? I can’t handle this right now” Jennifer yells. “Yes and....I’ve finally stabilized him enough for him not to try to kill us”.Lynn expresses. “What?!”Jennifer eyes light up.”Baby girl, I know...I know... this sounds crazy. It’s like some Lazarus project, gone wrong but try to calm down, at-least until we get to the lab.” “That’s where we’re going? you’re taking me to him?!” Jennifer questions. “Yes, put this on, you may be his last hope. ” Gambi replies with an empathetic tone. He hands Jennifer a cloaking device.

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The lab

“While agent Odell is in the hospital I have a little more free rein in the lab.We still have to keep this under wraps though.” Lynn states to Jenn and Gambi. “This hall is secret and the only area that I know the ASA agents don’t have access to without Odell.With him in the hospital I made sure the cameras in the room aren’t functioning.”

Gambi and Jennifer turn off their cloaking devices.

Lynn takes Jennifer to the side briefly. “Are you sure you can handle this?”.Jennifer nods taking a deep breath. “I just wanna see him.” Lynn gestures okay as she presses a button on her lab pad opening the door. 

Painkiller is laying down in a relaxed state wearing nothing but grey shorts.They walk in and he sits up. It was like he was in a trance. “Dr.Stewart” he says nonchalantly.

Jennifer couldn’t believe it. The initial sight of him sent a surge of feelings through her. It was like she was seeing a ghost. She felt like she was waiting for her heart to catch up to her eyes .Her heart was in a dark place and she wanted to make sure this wasn’t a dream. She didn’t know if she could handle it if it wasn’t.Jennifer and Khalil stare at each other briefly. His glare was cold and almost lifeless.Jennifer gets teary eyed as she approaches Khalil. “Be careful” Lynn warns her. “I gave him something to subdue him but the chip is still functioning,” she explained.Even the way he blinked was robotic. Jennifer touches his face. “I can’t believe this” Jennifer cries observing his face. Lynn and Gambi look at each other empathizing for Jennifer.Jennifer’s tears flood her face. “What did they do to you?” Jenn voice cracks. Khalil looks puzzled at the emotional reactions of Jennifer. Khalil stares at her trying to gather any memory of her. “Do I know you?” Painkiller asks with a slight attitude. Jennifer’s heartbreaks at his words.She knew he wasn’t himself but this was a lot to handle.The disappointment read strong on her face. She had hoped maybe their connection was strong enough to trigger something for him. “You really don’t remember me?” Jennifer inquires.

photocredit @blacklightningriverdalerants​

Will Jennifer be able to help Khalil? Is he gone forever? What’s Brandon up to? find out in part 3.