Rise of the Ryu-onna
Prologue
Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics.
Thunder boomed and rumbled across the surface of a planet, lightning flashed and the clouds were dark beyond blackest pitch, shrouding the planet in shadow. Across this flew a figure surrounded by a bright yellow aura.
The figure was that of a man, a man with red skin, black hair, and slightly pointy ears. His face was sharp, dignified, and clean cut save for a pencil thin mustache while he wore an outfit of black and yellow. The uniform covered his chest, shoulders, upper back, back of the upper arms, forearms, hands, and legs from the knee down in yellow with a triple point in the front over his stomach and bands around his waist in a belt-like shape while a symbol like that of a lantern adorned his chest.
This man is Sinestro, leader of the Sinestro Corps, which used the yellow light of fear as a weapon. He'd come to this distant and primitive backwater of a planet because of an energy source, a source that he recognized as coming from the Oans', arrogant and corrupt blue skinned bastards the lot of them, greatest enemy, a member of the Arielian Empire's leading race; the Arielians.
Traveling across the planet, he honed in on the source of the energy, honing in on the Arielian, and coming in close he could tell that the individual was powerful, VERY powerful, and Sinestro, as the only living survivor of the massacre that took place in the Ariel System, of when hundreds of Green Lantern Corpsmen were slaughtered like sheep by the starships of the Arielian Empire, could sense that the Arielian he was tracking was hiding the biggest part of their potential.
Finally arriving, he had no more than a few seconds to get to the ground as a bolt of raw plasma slammed into the ground with earth-shaking force and thunder BOOMED like a thousand cannons across the plains. Getting to the ground, he moved to the kneeling figure, only to discover that it was a woman, a woman with raven-black hair that fell to her hips and wore armor, or what was once armor anyway. The downpour, once only in the distance, came down HARD upon the two now soaking both to the bone in rainwater.
Her armor was cracked, broken, scorched, and shattered where it remained on her legs, arms, and body and was covered in gouges and slashes while blood stained the pieces, getting trapped in the cracks. The cloth under the armor was in tatters, cut and shredded to ribbons it barely held together and protected the woman's modesty in the back, but was equally blood stained and burnt while a tail, covered in smooth, red scales, laid on the ground behind her.
When he finally walked in front of her, his mouth opened in shock as he beheld the damage. Her armor in the front was GONE, completely destroyed and jagged on the edges. Her robes in front were burnt off and the cloth that was supposed to protect her upper body's modesty was sliced open and charred black, a gruesome and burnt gash running down her lightly-tanned but heavily cut up and slashed open skin from her collar to her waist, her breasts were exposed to the open air and rising and falling laboriously from the effort to draw in air, but he could see the arrowhead-like fringe that fell to the bridge of her nose while her bangs framed her face.
Her eyes cracked open, and he rose his vision to her face, once beautifully aristocratic with high cheekbones and lips that seemed like they'd once been lusciously light pink. He could see the dark brown orbs for the first time, see the lack of life in the orbs as her hands rested in her lap, and her head dropped until her chin painfully touched her chest.
He barely heard her hiss of pain, and instantly respected her inner strength, to be able to keep from moaning loudly in pain from the injuries he could see spoke greatly of her strength of will.
Sinestro noticed the muscles in her elbows flexing, and looking down towards her hands, he saw the broken swords for the first time, he also saw how she was turning what remained of the blade of the sword in her right hand so that it was aimed at her tight, lithe stomach, in order to cut from left to right.
"Wait, why do you do that?" Sinestro asked, the woman looking into his eyes as if just now noticing his presence.
"My swords... In my last battle they were ... shattered, and ... with them, a piece of my ... soul was lost... I have nothing ... to live for now."
"My apologies, my lady. I too know what it feels like to lose a piece of yourself. I would like to see that you live. I am Thaal Sinestro."
"Hiroshi ... Amarante." came the woman's reply.
"I offer you one of my Corps rings, Hiroshi. With this ring you can create new swords and regain what you have lost, take vengeance for your soul. My ring is the ring of retribution through fear." Sinestro told her and to his surprise he heard a pained 'humph' come from her lips.
"Retribution ... through fear? How ... useless. What good would ... that do me when the foe who ... broke my swords knows no fear and can ... march across worlds without ... fear of defeat or retribution."
"I have made the most fearless man in all of history cower before me. Should you change your mind, Hiroshi, my offer of a yellow power ring will remain open."
"Arigatō Sinestro-dono."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, 'Thank you, Lord Sinestro.'" came her reply and he smiled mightily in response. He then saw her drop the broken blades, but then stumble as she fell forward, reaching out and catching herself as she placed her left hand on the ground, coughing up blood that splattered on the ground, and attempted to stand, her right leg shaking terribly as it moved, until she now stood on one knee with her right hand resting on her knee.
Amarante's body seemed to shake uncontrollably as she attempted to stand, the first time failing and depositing her on her side, her blood-stained teeth gnashing and gritting together as she fought the need to scream out her pain.
She once again made an effort to stand, and Sinestro watched as she returned to one knee, and then attempted to regain her feet, failed again, but refused to give up and once again returned to one knee, and his pride soared as she managed to get both feet under her, wobbling and stumbling as if drunk, but she remained standing. Sinestro moved and put her right arm over his shoulders while his left arm went around her waist to her left hip, helping her to stand and move before saying "Hiroshi. I'm taking you to my homeworld of Korugar, so that you can heal from your wounds."
"Domo Arigatō, Sinestro-dono. In ... return I ask that I be allowed to ... have a spar with you. I can sense that you are ... very powerful and I would ... like to test myself against you ... after I have healed."
"I would gladly spar against you, Hiroshi."