Chapter 14: Mind Games
Having seen the Green Lantern's latest creation, she beat her wings as fast as possible. If the man she loved was going to be saved it would have to be now.
He brought the whirling blade closer to Star Sapphire's face and she tried to turn her head away. "Puh…Please! No!" Star Sapphire cried out. At that moment, a winded Shayera Hol arrived.
"John! Stop!" Shayera yelled, catching her breath.
He paused and turned to look at her. "This is none of your concern Hawkgirl!" the Green Lantern shouted.
Hawkgirl? "Don't do this John! If you do this…if you kill her, you'll lose everything!" Shayera yelled.
"I've already lost everything!" he responded angrily. "And she is the one responsible!" he screamed, gritting his teeth and bringing the whirling blade next to Star Sapphire's neck. Tears began to run down Star Sapphire's face as she realized her death was imminent.
"No!" Shayera yelled flying closer to him. "John, you haven't lost everything! You just think you have! You have friends who care about you! Friends who…who love you! You're in pain, I know, but this isn't who you are! You're not a murderer!"
The blade stopped turning. For a brief moment, the rage was held in check. The death strike abated.
Recognizing his hesitation, she continued to press. "The man I love…the man I have always loved, is not a killer" she said, flying ever closer to him.
"Love? Love! No! You're just saying that to distract me!" he yelled, restarting the blade and bringing it closer to his captive's neck.
"John! Look at me! Look at me!" she yelled. "You once said that you would give your life for me!" she shouted, positioning herself next to him. "Well, I'm asking you for that life now. Her life. Let her go, John. She's beaten. Please. Do it for me".
A sorrowful look came over his face. "You don't understand, she's taken too much" he replied softly. "More than you know".
"You're right John…maybe I don't know, but I do know if you kill her, you will have allowed her to take it all. Everything you hold dear…Katma, your honor, your good name" she stated, slowly putting her hand on his shoulder. "Is this how you want to be remembered? Is this how the Stewart legacy ends…in dishonor?"
His eyes widened as he tried to speak, "Re…No!" Suddenly his head fell into his chest. He cried out as his entire body arched backward in pain. That is when she noticed it, but before she could process what she had seen, he yelled out again.
"Shayera! Get…get back!" he shouted. Before she could move, he had constructed an energy field and had pushed her nearly a quarter of a mile away from his position. He screamed in agony as lime colored flames shot from his eye sockets.
His energy field had knocked the wind out of her, but for the most part she was unharmed. She quickly caught her breath, hovered for a brief moment and then focused her brilliant green eyes on him. Her vision, although not quite Superman's strength, was still eight times more powerful than a human's. She could see the energy field around him, but something about his aura was wrong. Something was different. And then, in that instant, she knew. What she had seen earlier now made sense. She set the electrical load on her mace and activated her Com link.
"On my mark!" she shouted.
"Are you sure about this?" Batman asked.
"Yes!" she yelled.
"But you said attacking him directly wouldn't work" Flash said.
"Just be ready!" she shouted.
She flew upward to increase her altitude and then fashioned her wings into a "V" shape. She turned earthward and allowed her body to gain speed and momentum. At the apex of her velocity she made a sweeping loop that brought her right on top of him. I'm sorry John. Forgive me.
Still reeling in pain, he never saw her coming as she pulled her mace back and then brought it home on the base of his skull. He yelled in agony as the electrical charge from her mace disrupted his brain activity.
"Now J'onn! Now!" she yelled into the Com link. "Do it now!" In that moment, the Martian Manhunter appeared and put his hands on the Green Lantern's cranium. Suddenly, one voice in pain and agony became three voices.
With his higher brain functions interrupted, the Green Lantern's body went limp and the energy fields used to contain both Superman and Star Sapphire evaporated. Exhausted from the battle and unable to maintain flight, Star Sapphire plummeted to earth. However, Superman, now free of Green Lantern's hold, caught her.
Green Lantern began to fall as well, but Shayera grabbed him from behind and put her arms underneath him. She then slowly lowered him to the ground and placed him on his back. She kneeled down and put her head to his chest and listened for a heartbeat. She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally heard it.
She put her hand on his cheek and gently caressed it. I almost lost you again, John.
His eyes were closed, but he began to speak. "Th…Thank you…Hawkgirl".
She immediately recoiled in horror as the lips forming the words were John's, but the voice was that of Gorilla Grodd.