A sister saved, and a plan to save others.
Chapter 3: Going Back
It was an extremely odd feeling for John. After two months in isolation while performing some trial and error tests, he'd finally managed to find a way back to the altered present. While in isolation he didn't want to know what was happening around him so he refrained from any form of outside contact. He knew that he'd succeeded in returning to the actual present time though as he could feel his thoughts transitioning to reflect the directions that he'd told his past tense self to make. He was relieved upon the feeling of those memories being added to his mind. It was a pleasant surprise though that he was still able to keep his original memories as well. He wondered if in more time that they would simply be overwritten by the changes that he'd left instructions for. As he waited for his memories to clear, he remained seated on the bed in a hotel room, the medallion in his hands resting on his lap.
The odd sensation that John felt was when his body seemed to merge with his past self upon falling back together in the present time. It made him feel queasy and lightheaded at first. If he could've stood, he would have likely visited the restroom for an unwanted session with his head hanging above the toilet seat. Eventually though the sick feeling subsided and the lightheadedness dissipated to where he could once again focus on what he'd missed. He thought hard about it for a time until a memory came to him. In this memory he was in a store purchasing a journal. Perhaps his past self had kept an account of everything that he'd done just in case it was needed. The journal was easy enough to locate, and sure enough there was a detailed account of everything that had taken place since he'd met with himself. He'd learned that the expedition went on in search for the Triangle of Light, but had yet to find it. His past self had worked up until there were seemed to be no more evidence passed the pillar before finding a reason to drop out of the hunt. They hadn't even located any more of the bullion to keep the team motivated.
With less and less new information to go off of, eventually some of the team became frustrated and wanted to return to the pillar site. Arnold eventually relented as he had to admit finding nothing but dead ends after quite some time. He decided also to split up the findings so as to keep the team motivated, but upon receiving their portion of the finding, some still departed. It was at that time where John chose to break off and return to his life, stating that he had loans in need of payment that couldn't wait any longer. With a valid reason in place, he was given his share and left to return home. Although he instead paid for a hotel and began keeping his journal from that point, waiting until his future self returned.
John took a few hours to read through everything, wanting to be certain that he was aware any relevant detail before venturing back out into the world again. Once he was comfortable that he'd caught up with everything, his focus returned to the medallion and its powers. Having the knowledge that he could return to his own time, he wondered just what could he do with this power? Were there changes that he could make to the world for its betterment? A greedy man would go back and start enhancing their wealth with betting, stock exchange information, or altering their own spending choices that turned out to be bad decisions. That would certainly not be acceptable he'd decided. Instead his mind went back to a memory, a memory of pain.
~~ 20 years ago ~~
A little girl was following her older brother in the middle of winter to a pond so that they could go ice skating. The girl loved skating, and had to wait constantly because her parents couldn't afford to go to ice rinks very often. So when the weather was cold enough, she was always anxious to lace up her skates and head to the pond with her older brother. He was always her protector whenever their parents weren't around because of working to make sure bills were paid and food was on the table. On this day, she woke her brother up in the morning; she was already fully clothed and ready to head out when she jumped on his bed. "Go away Sarah." He muffled into the pillow he'd covered his face with to block out the light.
"I need you to come with me so I can go skating." She responded. "Please."
"Can't it wait til tomorrow?" He asked.
"You said that yesterday." She complained. "And the day before. You promised this time."
"Okay, okay." He conceded. "Just give me five minutes to get dressed."
The little girl squealed in joy as she jumped off the bed and headed to the front door of the house. She waited, watching the clock as it ticked slowly towards the five minutes her brother had asked for. After the sixth minute had passed, finally he came down the hallway with his jacket on, ready to take his little sister out. They'd only been out for fifteen minutes when it happened. He turned his attention to some of the children his age that were playing football in the field next to the pond. It was then that he heard the scream, a scream that would haunt him for the rest of his life. "JOHNNY!" His sister yelled as the ice around her gave way to her weight, causing her to plummet into the pond.
"SARAH!" John yelled as he sprinted onto the pond before his friends managed to catch up to him. "Sarah needs help! Help her!"
The adults that had been there with their children went onto the pond and worked their way to where the girl had fallen in, but with the increased weight, the man that was closest broke through the ice as well. He struggled still, trying to save that little girl, but eventually the effort to get him out took precedent as the girl had disappeared from the surface of the ice, lost forever.
If only John had gone out with his sister like he'd always done before. He could've done something, anything to have saved her. She was gone though, and no amount of wishing or wanting would be bringing her back to him. His parents would be devastated. They worked so hard and so much just so that they could give their children everything that they wanted, and now they'd lost one.
John always felt guilt, even if it was misplaced. He believed that his parents secretly blamed him for what happened on that fateful day, and as a result of that he slowly disconnected from them. It made him believe that Sarah was the glue that had kept the family together, and now that she was gone they were all crumbling apart. If only he could change what happened that one cruel day.
~~ Present time ~~
Sarah. That was it! John would return to the past and save Sarah from that cruel fate. She would live, and he'd see to it. He thought back to that day growing up after placing the medallion back around his neck. The date was a memory etched into his brain forever. It wasn't hard at all to recollect the when and the where. The power of time spent, he thought to himself again, and it was then that the medallion began to emit the bright light again. Everything around him once again disappeared and the next thing that he saw was a winter day with a frozen pond. It was early in the morning, and that would give him enough time to gather the supplies he needed. Before leaving the present time, he'd decided to change as little as possible. Therefore he would wait until Sarah fell through the ice, but he would be there to save her this time. This time he was going to be ready. He went over to the old hardware store that his dad had taken him to many times growing up. There he purchased a rope that would work out nicely and a pair of Carhartts to keep himself relatively warm. Once that was done, he returned to the pond and picked a tree nearby to use as an anchor. He tied one end of the rope around the base of the tree followed by the other end around his waist. He then hid from view in the trees picking one that would work nicely to sit and lean against. From that point it was just a matter of waiting for Sarah to arrive.
John watched and waited as children began to arrive around the pond and into the field. It wasn't long before the football game that he'd been so interested in joining as a young boy started up. He knew it wouldn't be long at that point, and sure enough just over a small hill, Sarah came running toward the pond. She wasted little time in getting into her skates and onto the ice, and he watched her as she skated across the ice with such grace and seemingly no effort whatsoever. He didn't realize just how much he'd missed seeing his sister alive and well until now. After watching her for just a few minutes, he saw that she began to head over to that fateful spot from so long ago in his memory. Sure enough just as he recalled it, she fell through the ice quickly while screaming his name. That snapped him out of his reverie and into action. He sprinted out onto the pond. Using his memory, he jumped out at about the same distance away that he recalled the originally seeing the man that had fallen in when trying to save Sarah before. He landed back on the ice and slid for a moment before he too broke through, but he was much closer to his sister. She was at the point of losing her battle to survive when he finally managed to grab hold of her, and pulled her back up above the ice. He used the rope to bring them both back onto land, and once he had them off of the ice he checked on his sister's weakening pulse. It was then that the other adults started showing up to help. They stripped off the outer layers of clothing, and began draping dry clothing from themselves over Sarah as John looked on. His past self was right there by that time as well, looking on in absolute fear while profusely apologizing for not being there.
Sarah was shivering intensely, but was still responsive and that was enough to warm John's heart. He'd done it. He'd saved his little sister's life, but it was then that he felt hypothermia beginning to take its toll on his own body as well before he collapsed onto his backside, and it was then that some of the crowd broke off to attend to the hero of the day for this innocent little girl. Soon an ambulance arrived and the EMT's took over the efforts of the people. They used blankets on the ambulance to wrap around both Sarah and John before loading them into the back and taking off for the hospital. It was at some point then that John fell unconscious.
~~ Present time ~~
The Javelin was just entering space on its way back to the Watchtower. There'd been a mission with Giganta and Grodd outside Metropolis and the Justice League's help was requested by the local law enforcement. Flash was piloting the Javelin back while Wonder Woman was in the back tending to a wound Batman had suffered at the hands of the brilliant ape. "You were just being foolish." She reprimanded him. "Or being stubborn. I don't know which, but either way you shouldn't have done that."
"I saw him taking aim at you from behind." Batman argued. "Flash was down and I made a choice."
"I could've taken the shot Batman." Diana fired back as she wrapped some gauze around Batman's uncovered upper arm. "You don't need to worry about my safety in situations like that. It wasn't life threatening."
"Hind sight's twenty-twenty Princess." Batman responded. "We didn't know until after that the weapon was damaged enough that it wouldn't have killed you. It was a risk I wasn't willing to take. I…I mean the world needs you Diana."
Diana heard what Bruce started to say before pausing and changing what it was going to be. Although she wasn't sure exactly what he was going to say, the slip caused certain thoughts to pop back into her mind. Then she became acutely aware of how her fingers were grazing his skin while she finished wrapping his arm. She began to wonder if he actually meant what he'd said regarding not worrying about the proposed plans between Bruce and Diana going horseback riding together around the Manor grounds. She tried looking into the lenses of the cowl, wanting so much to be able to see the eyes behind it so that she could try to read him better, but that wasn't meant to be. Batman realized that she'd been looking at him for a touch too long and moved to get off the medical bed in the Javelin. Just about that time was when Flash called back that they were entering the landing bay of the Watchtower, and just as soon as the exit ramp had opened Batman was gone without a trace. By the time Diana could catch up to confront him about his Freudian slip of the tongue, he'd already teleported away to what was very likely the confines of the Batcave.
Even though Diana was sure that he was trying to hide it, Batman's abrupt departure without a word to anyone at all gave her an inclination that there was indeed something inside that he was hiding. She had a feeling that it had to do with being around her, and the only question on her mind was if it was a good thing or not. She had to admit that she was frightened by the dream she'd experienced, but there was still something inside that told her she needed to investigate just what it was that was actually between her and Bruce. As the days began to pass, that something was only growing stronger and stronger no matter what she did and she could feel it as it grew.
~~ Back in the past ~~
John woke up to find himself in a hospital bed. The grips of hypothermia must have latched onto him a bit stronger than he'd anticipated. He shot up from his bed, wanting to know just how his little sister was doing. He needed to know that she was safe. As he swung his feet over the side of the bed however, he was stopped in his tracks by the sound of the doctor coming through the door to his room. "It's good to see you up and about." The doctor said as he entered the room. "Although I do ask that you stay in your bed for a little while longer so that we can properly check you out."
"The little girl…." John started. "Is she…?" He couldn't bring himself to ask the question. If he allowed his hope to get too high, he just wasn't sure he could go on with the disappointment a second time.
"She's going to be fine." The doctor replied. "She was very lucky you were there today. You're a real hero."
"A…hero?" John questioningly said as the doctor began checking over his vitals.
"Sure." The doctor responded as he continued on with the examination. "Although I'm sure her family would like to know the name of little Sarah's savior. John Doe just doesn't seem appropriate."
"My….my name's John." John started before his thoughts began to come back in full force. He couldn't give his real name, or there'd be a whole new set of questions to answer and it likely wouldn't come from doctors or happy family members. In fact he couldn't let Sarah or the rest of the family see him. He had to get out of there and quickly. "Where…..are all my things?"
"Your clothes were cut off while being transported here." The doctor answered. You didn't have much else other than an odd looking necklace. We put it in this cabinet for safe keeping. It looked to be quite old." The doctor pointed over to a cabinet while he responded before jotting some notes down on the medical chart. "You didn't have anything else though. No wallet or any form of identification. We'll have to have you fill out some information like your medical coverage, but it's all just standard stuff really."
The doctor placed the medical chart in the tray at the end of John's bed when he was finished. "I'll have the nurse come in with all the paperwork we'll need you to fill out." The doctor explained. "In the meantime, is there anyone that you want us to contact? A wife or another member of your family?" John shook his head no in response, and with that the doctor left his room.
No sooner than once the door closed, John was up on his feet and over to the cabinet that contained the Triangle of Light. He slipped out into the hallway, wanting to take just one more look at his sister. It took him some time, but eventually he came across the door to Sarah's room. He looked back and forth down the hallway for anyone else, but finding no one. He then held his ear up against the door, listening for anyone that he didn't want to see him. As an adult he held many resemblances to his father, and if his parents were already there then he'd simply have to return to the present time and hope that his sister did survive the fall into the icy water. After a few moments of silence, he decided that it was safe and slowly opened the door before poking his head in. There his sister was, sleeping peacefully in the medical bed. What he was surprised to see though was the teenage version of himself in a chair next to Sarah's bed staring right back at him. That actually surprised him a bit as well as startled him into not moving at all. The young John stood from his chair for a moment before relief became evident on his face. "You...you saved her." He blurted out. "Th…thank you."
"You don't have to thank me." The adult John responded. "I…I know how important a sister is. I'd do it again."
"Who are you sir?" Young John asked. "You look really familiar."
"John…" The adult John started, which startled the boy since he never gave his name. "I don't know how to tell you this in a manner that you'd believe. In the future…when you grow up…you'll have the chance to do something very important. It could be life and death. I…" John paused to think. Just how much should he tell his younger self? Would the teenage version of himself even believe any of it?
"What would I do that could be life and death?" The teenager asked.
"In the future… you're going to meet me again." John answered as he pulled the Triangle of Light out and showed it to his teenage version. "I'll look exactly the same, and I'll show this to you. I need you to listen to me then because then you'll be better prepared for what I have to tell you."
"What is that supposed to mean?" The teen asked with a lot of confusion and distrust evident in his voice.
"Just trust me." John cryptically answered before starting to make his exit. "I have to go now, but I'll see you again. All you have to do is take what I have to share with you seriously. Take care of Sarah."
John wasted no time whatsoever in slipping away before the past version of himself could make it to the door and attempt to follow. He knew that teenage John wouldn't venture far from his sister after what'd happened, so he quickly turned down another hallway and ducked into a room with an open door that he figured would be safe. This room was busier and seemingly frantic, and he had to use a curtain to hide himself from plain sight. There were nurses running around prepping the room, and they were too busy to notice who was around them to notice John hiding behind a curtain. He couldn't help but to overhear the conversation the nurses were having as they worked. "Who's coming in Suzy, the president?" One nurse asked the other.
"No Jan, I was told that the Wayne's were shot outside of Park Row Theatre. Suzie answered as she continued laying out the tools that might be needed for surgery.
"Oh dear lord." Jan gasped. "That's terrible. Dr. Wayne and his wife were always so kind when they came in here. I hope everything's…."
"Jan, Suzy, there's no rush on the room now." A doctor dejectedly said from the doorway of the room.
"What happened?" Suzy asked.
"They didn't make it." The doctor replied solemnly. "The EMT's called it. Both Thomas and Martha were DOA I'm afraid."
The nurses were shocked by the news and continued to chat about what the Wayne's meant to the hospital, but before long duty called and they were needed elsewhere, leaving John alone in the room. He waited for a few minutes before coming out from behind the curtain and closing the door to the room so that he could begin the process of returning to the present time. He again focused his thoughts on returning to what was now an uncertain time for him. When the light began to emanate from the artifact, unlike last time John could now feel himself being pulled through time. He could see images as new memories when they began to pop into his mind. Thoughts of being places such as attending his sister's high school graduation and taking her to her college dorm when she started her freshman year of college. She was attending a different college than he had, but still was following in the family interest of archaeology. He knew though that he had one more stop to make. If he didn't revisit himself once again when the opportunity to travel to North Africa came, then he may never come in contact with the Triangle of Light and could potentially stop his trip back to save Sarah from ever happening. He wasn't about to let that happen, and he knew that seeing the adult version of himself would be easier to convince than the teenage version he'd started to explain it to in the hospital. For now he had to push images and memories to the side and focus on his task at hand.
~~ Underworld ~~
Just above the realm of the underworld better known as Tartarus, there lies a divine chamber that housed three sisters that had come to the realization of something that was amiss. Atropos, the cutter of threads was in a heated argument with one of her sisters. Lachesis, known as the measurer looked over a thread that had been returned to her as it held two markings for selection of this mortal life's end. This had never happened before in all their time that the Fates had spun, measured, and cut the threads of life for each mortal in the world. The bickering amongst the sisters had been loud as they pointed fingers at one another in blame for what was the cause of this issue. The ruckus reached a level so loud in fact that it was bringing about unrest in the entire Underworld. This in turn brought about the lord and Olympian God to their door steps. "What is the meaning of this disruptive dispute?" He barked as he entered the room of the three sisters.
"See for yourself Lord Hades." Clotho said as she snatched the thread from Lachesis' hands before handing over to him to view it with his own eyes.
"Why are there two separate markings for this mortal's thread?" He asked after inspecting it.
"That's what the problem is, Lord of the Underworld." Atropos responded. "We've not seen this occur at any time before, and none of us is claiming responsibility. It appears there is meddling taking place outside of our hands."
"This will not do." Hades commented as he took in what the witches explained to him. "It will not do at all. I will take this dilemma before all of Olympus to discover the one responsible. How much more life has this mortal received Lachesis?"
The measurer of threads held it up and measured to the second line from the first carefully, wanting to be absolutely accurate. "It appears that this one has earned a stay of execution for another twenty mortal years."
"Let them live to that point, and be mindful of any other changes in threads." Hades ordered. "Do not wait to inform me of any other changes. I will have to act accordingly if this occurs again."
~~ Present time ~~
John returned after having successfully convincing his adult self to take the Triangle of Light. It took a bit more convincing than he'd initially expected to get him to believe in something that was so very important to his sister's survival. That in itself even with the argument of having all the details of the day still for some reason left doubt in his past tense's opinion. He couldn't afford to have any doubt whatsoever. So to solidify that doubt, he chose to reveal the power before himself as he returned to the present with the past tense version actually witnessing him leave.
John was relieved when he returned to find that there was another journal with accounts of the happenings again to go through. His sister was alive and well, having entered her seventh year of college at Cambridge. He spent the better part of a week remaining isolated as he worked through all the memories that he had to process and organize in his head. He found that this time it was an incredibly difficult task for him to perform. In fact after he finally had a decent grasp of which memories had taken place now versus before he made any changes to the past he decided to stay a little farther away from his own ties. It would be less strenuous on his mind if his sister was the last family member that he helped unless it was extremely recent where not much in the form of memories would change for him. He still felt that saving lives was the right thing to do, especially those that were deserving of their lives being extended, and he wanted to do just that. He'd have to research each person that he selected to save from their own impending doom first though, and he wasted no time in doing just that. He began researching anyone that received a lot of media attention in the beginning. They'd be the easiest to differentiate the good and deserving versus the bad he thought. It would be incredibly time consuming, but with a power that he now possessed, he knew that it would be terrible if it fell into the wrong hands.
While John researched potential candidates to save, he also looked into finding a place secure enough where he could store the Triangle of Light and have no one would think to look for something of value. With the money that he'd received as reward for his part in the recovery of the gold bullion, he bought a few different places, but the one that he chose was an old cabin with a cellar. He spent time there building a false wall and expanding the cellar on his own so that literally no one would know about it. In that room he placed a small vault and set up surveillance that would instantly trigger on from movement or sound, and simultaneously send the video in thirty second clips to a secure website he created. This prevented anyone from removing the media storage in the video devices. They would also fire up every hour and record a thirty second window to report back as a sort of failure testing to ensure the equipment was functioning properly. Once his cabin was up to standards, he deposited the Triangle of Light there in a hidden location, much like it'd been when he discovered it. Inside the safe was a few thousand dollars to hopefully throw off the scent should anyone make an attempt at stealing from him as well.
John got back to the list and he had almost ten separate candidates that he was debating on. The most prominent names on his mind though were Thomas and Martha Wayne. He couldn't shake the conversation he'd overheard from the nurses in the past about how good they had been for the hospital. All of his research on them only verified that the nurses were correct. Martha was incredibly charitable in her own rights and Thomas was not only that, but also a gifted doctor. The only true detractor he found was what he'd learned about with their son. Bruce had grown to become a womanizer and didn't seem to do anything special to make himself known to as a good man, but he was slightly more charitable with his money than his parents had been. Perhaps if Bruce hadn't lost his parents at such a young age, he could've done something more with his life to continue the legacy his parents had started to build up before their murders took place.
The murders of Thomas and Martha was another thing that John had to study. He needed to know everything there was to know about the alley that night. He was by no means a crime fighter, and if he were to be killed, then the power of the Triangle of Light would be lost forever or worse, used for nefarious means. He read over the entire police report from that crime, learned where this Joe Chill was at the time of the event, as well as where the victims were, time of death, and every other piece of information that he thought would be beneficial or needed. Next on his agenda was that he needed to hide his appearance from anyone. He didn't want someone to trail anything back to his family at all. So he went about designing a costume with tactical gear from surplus stores and a ski mask. Everything was in black to better obscure him from sight. Surprise would be paramount to his success, and once his plan was fully laid out, he decided it was time to act. It was time to save Thomas and Martha Wayne.