It's the final chapter everyone. This is where we say goodbye.

Epilogue: Business As Usual:

Apokolips

April 10, 2018

Time Unknown, Time Zone Unknown

Though Vandal Savage kept a straight face, inwardly, he was actually surprised. This was not the news he'd been expecting to receive. He'd made a quick Boom Tube-aided trip to Apokolips to meet with Darkseid regarding the minutia of the invasion of Earth they were planning for the following New Year's Eve. He'd left The Light's forces on Earth under the joint command of Lex Luthor and Ra's Al Ghul, trusting them to handle anything that came up until he came back. When he'd first gotten the call, he'd initially reacted with annoyance, but now he was intrigued.

"So what you're saying," he began. "Is that the original Kid Flash was transported to another dimension during his alleged death. From that dimension, he was able to develop the technology to teleport between different universes. As a result of his testing of the prototype, Nightwing and Artemis ended up there as well. Nightwing returned first and founded A.R.G.U.S. Due to the potential risks of travelling while pregnant, Artemis and Wally stayed behind, until the actions of a "villainous" organization forced them to return home." Luthor nodded his head in agreement, and behind him, Darkseid scowled in frustration.

"Ordinarily," Luthor replied. "I would suggest we use this to discredit A.R.G.U.S. and possibly suggest that Nightwing isn't even human, playing up the population's xenophobia that we've been building on since the Krolotean Invasion. The only problem is that we'd need to hard evidence to support what we want the people to believe. A few fabricated documents aren't proof enough, because for all their gullibility, the masses collectively have enough sense to not believe something just because it's on paper. We'd need actual video footage of the teleportation, and unfortunately, A.R.G.U.S. has gone out of its way to keep a lid on that."

"The question now, though," Ra's added. "Is whether or not we should postpone our plans for Darkseid's invasion, or accelerate them?" Vandal frowned as he looked to the faces of the other six leaders of the Light on the computer screen. Though the leadership of their cabal was nominally a joint effort, because of his immortality and experience, the other leaders looked to him for suggestions in difficult situations like this. And for the first time in his long, immortal life, he did not have an answer for them. This will actually take a lot of thought to puzzle out, he mused to himself as he informed them that he needed time to come up with a solution and ended the call.

"In all the years I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you this upset about anything," Darkseid commented as Vandal turned away from the monitor and began the trek bac to his guest quarters in the dark god's temple of death. Vandal Savage had been friends with the lord of Apokolips since long before The Light was founded, having accidentally stumbled upon an Apokoliptan scouting party and inadvertently traveling to Darkseid's throne room via Boom Tube. The immortal caveman quickly impressed the dark emperor with his fighting skills and cunning mind, and they had been firm friends ever since.

"That's because for the first time in my life I'm at a complete loss for how to handle this situation," Savage admitted. "Any move we make now will cripple us and set our plans back by decades."

"There is no need to worry so much, old friend," Darkseid replied. "Godfrey practically controls the general public, and without an actual confession from any of your associates back on Earth, A.R.G.U.S. can only delay our plans, not cripple them. The return of these three is of no consequence. They will die when we conquer your world regardless of whether they interfere or not." Savage smiled an insidious grin, reassured by his old friend's words. Reinvigorated, his destination changed from his quarters to Darkseid's war room. It was time to get back to work.

A lot of Young Justice Season 3 fanfiction stories have Darkseid doublecross Savage, but the handshake between the two of them at the end of Season 2 gave me the impression that they had been friends for a long time and held a great deal of respect for each other, so I ran with that in my own story.

Well, that's it folks. Cut Off One Head is over. I'll be spending the rest of the summer working on my Acolytes of Chaos story Kingdom Hearts IV: Connected Worlds, so depending how long that takes, in all likely hood, I won't get started on I Had Strings (But Now I'm Free), the third and final installment of the Secret Identities Trilogy until late August-Early September at the latest. Until next time, dear readers. I hope you've enjoyed the second installment of this universe, and I look forward to hearing from you all again in the next act.