Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 18

Vandal Savage was currently in one of the many hideouts he'd established over the years, this one located in Metropolis, trying to figure out why these incarnations of the Khufu and Chay-Ara were so different from their prior incarnations, since not only did Chay-Ara have her own weapon this time, but she knew how to use it and she'd actually hurt him with it. He needed to understand what was going on so that he could kill them and maintain his immortality, since he was still annoyed with those Injustice Society morons for killing the previous incarnations and breaking the cycle of reincarnation. Or at least Savage had thought they had.

"What are you doing Mr. Savage?" A new voice said from behind him and Savage turned to see his ally and benefactor, Time Master Zaman Druce, standing in front of him.

"What's natural of course. You know how this works. Whenever Khufu and Chay-Ara are reborn and their powers emerge, I hunt them down and kill them to maintain my immortality." Savage reminded him.

"Except these new Hawks are not reincarnations of Khufu and Chay-Ara. We don't know where they came from, but they are not your favorite victims and if you continue to obsess over them, they will kill you and everything we have done to ensure the survival of humanity and the timeline will have been for nothing." Druce said.

"Even if you're right, without a way to keep my powers charged, I'll die before I make it to the 22nd century." Savage told him, since one of the reasons he killed the old Hawks was because he needed to absorb their life forces to maintain his immortality.

"And do you really think that we haven't been searching for a solution to that problem? Of course you wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't allowed the reincarnation cycle to be broken." Druce said.

"I told those ISA buffoons not to kill the Hawks that night, but they didn't listen. Trust me, I've been searching for them ever since to make them pay for what they did." Savage said.

"Well, we've been scouring the timeline for a way to keep you alive and I think that we've found something." Druce said, though he could tell that Savage was far too obsessed with any version of the Hawks to listen to reason and he knew that he'd likely have to resort to more drastic measures of keeping Savage in line, since they'd already invested too much in him to risk him getting killed now.

"No matter. As long as these Hawks exist, my future is not secure." Savage insisted as he decided that Druce had outserved his usefulness, since he'd already given him access to time travel, so he no longer needed Druce. Which was why he was currently pulling out one of his numerous daggers and whirled around to kill Druce, only to be shot by Druce's stun blaster as several of his troops, who hadn't gone awol from the Time Masters like the Time Captains had, stormed into the lair.

"What are your orders, Time Master Druce?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Take him to the Vanishing Point and prep him for induction. It's clear that we'll need to keep a tighter leash on him." Druce said.

"Sir, are you sure that's wise?" the same soldier asked.

"It's the only option we have. The greater good demands it. Especially since we'll need a general to help us bring our wayward captains back into line." Druce said.

"Understood sir." the soldier said as he produced restraints, which he quickly placed on Savage before he and his fellow flunkies dragged the immortal madman away.

"Let's just hope that Green Lantern doesn't interfere." Druce said, since while they'd granted Savage some leeway in regards to manipulating the timeline, messing with one of this time period's heroes was where he drew the line, since all events regarding the heroes of this time period must be preserved in order to ensure that they reached the future that required Savage to lead humanity against the Thanagarian invasion.

Little did he realize that none of the heroes of the world were still following his script. But he would find out soon enough. And in a big way.