Razer's Edge
I know the title is also an episode of the series but the pun is just too good to pass up lol
I usually write BBRae stories but, after watching both series of Green Lantern: The Animated Series, I felt that they left us hanging. Obviously they hadn't planned on being cancelled, so I'm sure they had some idea for what might happen next. But I digress... here is my little attempt to provide some closure for our favourite red lantern.
I don't own any character from GLTAS and I make no profit from this story.
He darted through the tumbling rocks, dodging the Manhunters as best he could. Again and again, red light whipped out and smashed, cut and burned them. But they just kept coming. Inevitably, he was cornered and, just as they took aim, emerald fire lanced out and shattered his attackers. Aya... she had come for him. She flew to his side and the spoke, though the words were garbled. Then she looked at him in a way he had never seen: with fear. She pushed him back and was consumed by the Anti-Monitor's blast...
Razer's eyes flew open. He had been flying through space on auto-pilot, his ring keeping him in stasis for the long journey. He sighed as he recalled his dream. That had been the only time Aya had cried out in pain... and his mind cruelly replayed it for him as often as possible, often accompanied by her look of lost confusion when he denied his love for her. His red light flared a little as he grew angry with himself. His self-accusation was interrupted, however, when he realised he had reached his destination, his only real hope of finding her. He had returned to Zamaron. He saw the sentries spot him and ready their weapons. He held his hands open in surrender and landed before them.
"Hold! I am Razer. I need to see the Queen... please." To their shock, Razer prostrated himself on the ground, begging for their help. They didn't have to consider for long - Aga'po herself arrived.
"Stand, Razer. You have our gratitude for ending the Manhunter threat. Please... join me. Then we can discuss how we may help you." Without seeing if he followed, Aga'po turned and began walking back to her throne room. Razer pushed himself to his feet and marched behind her. Later, they spoke privately in a small parlour.
"Queen Aga'po, I need your help to find someone." The Queen's silence was questioning. "Aya... I need you to help me find Aya." Aga'po grimaced.
"She is destroyed, is she not? And even if she still existed, I do not see why we should find her. She brought the Manhunters here. She brought Atrocitus here... and Atrocitus killed my daughter." Aga'po lapsed into pained silence. Razer's jaw tensed.
"She was the only one, wasn't she?" Razer asked, carefully. Aga'po faced him, still frowning.
"Yes... she was." Razer closed his eyes.
"I believe that, even in her... sickness, that Aya could not bring herself to harm another. We learned that all the planets and stars she had destroyed were barren. Lifeless. She was wrong to bring Atrocitus here... but he is the one who harmed Ghia'ta. Aya came back to us in the end. And she sacrificed herself to stop the Manhunters. Is she not deserving of a second chance?" Razer finished. Aga'po stared at him for a long time.
"How did she return?" she asked.
"I... tried to kill her but my constructs... they are built on anger and hate and, despite everything, I couldn't hate her. She lashed out and almost destroyed me... then she healed me. When I opened my eyes she was Aya again, not the Queen of the Manhunters." Aga'po's face softened a little at this detail.
"She was saved with love?" she asked. Razer paused, then reminded himself of how he had rejected her on the interceptor. After the battle, he had promised to himself he would never lie about his feelings for her again.
"Yes," he replied. "We both were." Again, the Queen regarded him, silently.
"I will help you," she said after a long time. Razer almost collapsed with the relief, almost as if the tension had been the only thing holding him up. With a gesture, Aga'po summoned a pink portal and Razer stared into it anxiously. To his confusion, it flickered between several locations.
"I don't understand. Can't you find her?" he asked, momentarily afraid she was truly gone.
"Not exactly: she has been... scattered. Separated. You will have to piece her back together, if you can. She focused and displayed the locations one at a time. The first, another shock to Razer, was the Interceptor. It was floating, derelict in space. Razer remembered her telling him about spare body parts - her body was there! The next location was the battlefield where she had almost destroyed them. The Manhunter shells still floated in the void. Aga'po told him that she seemed to somehow be everywhere in the debris. He filed that away for later contemplation. Both he and the Queen gasped at the third and final location: Zamaron. In fact the portal showed Razer himself.
"What does this mean?" Razer whispered. Aga'po was thoughtful.
"You said she healed you. How?" she asked.
"I'm not certain. Hal Jordan told me she spoke of using the energy she had taken from the stars." The Queen nodded as if she'd expected this answer.
"The use of that much energy cannot be without consequence. Tell me of the final battle." Razer explained all that he knew: that Aya was imbued with a tiny sliver of the green entity, making her a living being and that she had disabled the Manhunter - and herself - with a computer virus. She smiled as all the pieces fell into place.
"What? Please... tell me what I must do," Razer pleaded.
"Three places, all with a different piece. The ship contains her body," she said. Razer nodded in agreement. "The remains of the Manhunters... no virus can destroy something entirely, there is always something that remains. In the millions of Manhunters and ships, I believe you might find enough to reconstruct her mind." Razer stared with wide eyes. "And you... when she healed you with so much primordial energy, and so near to such cosmic forces, she connected to you in a way she probably didn't understand. Your souls are twinned, Razer and, when her body dies, I believe her soul returned to you." Razer recalled her words as she died, swearing she would always be with him. Perhaps she was sensing this connection between them.
"The first two are difficult but doable. How am I to release her soul?" Razer pondered. Aga'po shook her head.
"I'm afraid I don't know. This situation is unique. Begin your quest and perhaps the answer will come to you." Razer faced the Queen, gratitude in his eyes, and bowed before her.
"Thank you. Thank you so much." With that, the pair walked out to her balcony, ready for him to take off. He held his ring to his face. "Ring. Power check."
"5%" the ring answered in a mechanical rendering of Atrocitus' voice. With a wave of his hand, Razer's power battery appeared in his hand. He grit his teeth and prepared to recite the hated oath. He touched his ring to the battery...
"With blood and rage of crimson red, we fill men's souls with darkest dread and twist your mind with pain and hate, we'll burn you all. That is your fate." Nothing happened. Razer repeated the oath once, twice and three times. Still nothing. Then, to his horror, the red ring slipped from his finger and flew from him, his battery fading away. He cried out in pain: the red ring always hurt, whether you were putting it on, charging it or removing it. When he came back to his senses, he saw a distant red speck of light in the sky. It was gone. Even now, he refused to give in. He had never seen a male Star Sapphire but perhaps his love for Aya could allow him to use one of their rings. He involuntarily pictured himself in one of their typically revealing uniforms with Hal and Kilowog laughing at him. Before he could give the idea any real consideration, a new voice intruded on his thoughts.
"Razer of the planet Volkreg, you have shown the capacity for great hope." Razer looked up as blue light shone over the balcony.
"A blue ring?" he whispered, stretching his hand out. The ring slipped onto his finger and he was wrapped in blue light.
"Welcome, Razer, to the Blue Lantern Corps." Razer now recognised the voice as Ganthet. He felt a weight in his left hand and saw it held a blue power battery. The ring spoke through him as he held it and the battery together.
"In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite. When all seems lost in the war of light, look to the stars, for hope burns bright!" Queen Aga'po threw her hands up against the burst of blue light. When it faded, Razer stood, looking much as he had in his ordinary clothing, though it was now coloured blue where it had been grey and he bore the symbol of Ganthet's Blue Lanterns. Unlike his red lantern uniform, there were no horns on his head and no cruel looking angles. Razer himself smiled, knowing that this was yet another gift he owed to Aya. She had taught him to hope again. Now that the blue light wasn't blinding, he and the Queen noticed something else: a spark of green dancing about he uniform's emblem.
"Wait," the Queen exclaimed. "You said Aya's living soul was part of the green entity? Don't the blue rings enhance then green energy?" Razer stared at the green spark in amazed delight - Aya's soul really was with him. He had taken the first step in his quest and, armed with his new ring, was anxious to continue. He thanked the Queen again, profusely, and launched into space with a smile, glad beyond words to be finally free of the red ring and the cloud of anger it constantly projected into his mind. Razer set his ring to take him to the Interceptor and sank back into stasis - it would take weeks to reach it. For once, his dreams were not filled with Aya's pain and loss but some of the more pleasant memories they had shared: her attempt to replace his red lantern oath; the way she had attempted to serve Sinestro a colourful drink only to be rebuffed, then to have Kilowog drink it all to keep her happy; the look on her face when he had saved her on Oa; their near kiss on his home planet and even the way she had carried him on Odym.
*Arrived at destination*
As the words formed themselves in Razer's head, his eyes blinked open. There, in front of him, floated the Interceptor, seemingly dead. He flew to the hatch and prised it open with a blue construct. Once inside, he shone his ring illuminated his path. He found his way to to what he had come to think of as Aya's room and tried to open the ceiling panels without success. He jumped as the green spark flared on his chest, looking like it was trying to lead him somewhere. He followed its pull and ended up in the engine room, stood next to the dead power battery. He cried out when the spark lanced to the battery, igniting it. Slowly, the ship came back to life, the spark returning to Razer. Then, a voice echoed through the ship.
"Unidentified blue lantern, please state your name. I am LANOS," it said.
"LANOS?! It's me, Razer. I thought you were destroyed!" Razer exclaimed.
"Indeed, former red lantern Razer, I very nearly was but I set the ship's repair function to work, though it took too much much time and energy, rendering us inoperable." Razer nodded thoughtfully... having LANOS with him was a fantastic stroke of luck.
"LANOS, if I were to assemble fragments of computer code from several copies of the original, do you think you would be able to recompile the original?"
"If all of the code is represented it is theoretically possible but I cannot say with certainty before examining the code." LANOS replied, cheerily. Razer let out a deep sigh and took the controls, normally occupied by Hal Jordan. He entered the coordinates and had LANOS take control. Knowing the Interceptor would arrive soon, he disregarded stasis and went to his old cabin. With a hint of nostalgia, he lay down and slept, dreaming of green lips and shining blue eyes. Later, he awoke to LANOS calling him, telling him they had arrived. Swallowing the lump that had appeared in his throat, Razer flew to the window, staring once again at the desolation of the Manhunter war. LANOS assembled a device that Razer could use to scan and download code from the defunct Manhunters, many at a time, thankfully. There were thousands, perhaps even millions, scattered around. Focusing on the hope in his heart, Razer left the ship and began his work. It was long and monotonous but, weeks later, LANOS said he finally had enough code to assemble a complete program.
"How long will it take?" Razer asked.
"Weeks further, blue lantern Razer. There are billions of individual code fragments that occasionally overlap. I must check my work before even truly beginning the assembly." Razer sighed but nodded. He had expected it would take time but weeks? Leaving the Interceptor, Razer decided to make an expedition. The ring had sustained him when he had gathered the code but he felt a strong desire for more traditional nourishment. He told LANOS he would be back after he had gathered sufficient supplies. A few days later he returned, crates of foodstuffs and sundries following him in a glowing blue sphere. WHen he entered the ship, his heart almost stopped. There, in front of him, stood Aya. Or at least one of her bodies. Looking more closely, he could tell it was an empty shell, confirmed when he realised that, every minute or so, she repeated the same word:
"Processing..." LANOS must have assembled her and started compiling her A.I. brain right into its memory. A little shaken, Razer returned to his purchases and sorted through them. As welel as food, he had wisely brought reading material. A lot of it. As the days passed, he considered returning to stasis but was unwilling to risk missing anything. So he read, he slept he ate and he thought, staring out the window. And the accompaniment to his every deed was that same word over and over, every minute: 'processing... processing ...processing'. He took to meditating after the first week, trying to remember everything Saint Walker had taught him. It occurred to him that, as a member of the blue lanterns, they might refer to him as Saint Razer. It seemed ludicrous. The days and weeks passed, slowly and interminably but Razer bore it, clinging to the hope that had brought him here. One day, when his longing overwhelmed him, he stood in front of the Aya shell, still uttering its mantra (processing... processing...), reaching out to touch its face. When he got close, the green spark emerged again, striking the shell and vanishing. Razer stared at it, holding his breath. Did this mean...?
"Processing..." he sighed again, this time in agonised frustration.
"Aya..." he croaked.
"Processing..."
"Aya, please... if you're in there, somewhere... please return to us. Return to me," Razer pleaded.
"Processing..."
"You taught me so much, Aya. You taught me to hope again and that has freed me of the red light. But hope... hope is nothing without the will to act on it. So you see, I need a green lantern beside me. I need you, Aya. I love you..." he muttered, sinking to his knees.
"Processing..." He stared up at its face, so much like hers and yet alien without her presence. His ring flickered as his hope became strained.
"Aya..."
"Processing..."
"Aya, please..."
"Processing..."
"Please...!" he urged, tears spilling from his eyes as he stared.
"Processing... processing...pro-" the shell froze. "Razer?" it asked, incredulously.
"A-Aya?!" Razer repeated, daring to believe.
"Yes... I am Aya. I am repaired?" she asked. He could hear the emotion in her voice and, thanks to his new status, he could feel her reckless hope building in her. He grinned at her, a rare sight indeed, and took her into his arms. She didn't resist, returning the embrace with a gentle smile.
"No, Aya. You aren't 'repaired'," he whispered into her ear. He held her away from him by her shoulders then, seeing her puzzled look - oh how he'd missed that - then leaning in for a long, long overdue kiss. She returned it shyly, as he expected. In fact, he found it disturbingly adorable. Whey they separated, her question was still her eyes.
"But-"
"Shhh... You aren't 'repaired', Aya. You are reborn. You are alive!" he finished, still smiling. She returned his smile fully then and, to his astonishment, she shed a tear. They fell into each other again, oblivious to the rest of the universe around them.
THE END
And there you have it, just a little mini story so I don't have to live with the real ending lol. I hope there are some fanterns who might appreciate this as well :)
-Jack