Odym. A planet of hope and healing. Even now, the sunlight was glinting off the surface of its many pristine lakes and winding streams like so many jewels. Squat scrubs with large blue-green floppy leaves and bright pink tubular flowers clung to the many rounded cliffs and buttes. Taller in lowland areas, they obscured a cave in which a young Blue Lantern hovered, cross-legged in meditation. His blue and black suit was more rounded than the red and black one he had worn in his days as a Red Lantern. His eyes were closed, dark eye patches making his long, pale Volkregian face all most skull-like in the dim light of cave.

A slender limbed Astonian Blue Lantern appeared in the cave's mouth, pausing to observe the meditating Volkregian with large, gentle dark eyes. In the silence, he could hear the distant chatter of several Odymian birds, and the quiet sigh of his fellow lantern. He entered the cave, silent and graceful.

"How goes your meditation, Brother Razer?" The Astonian inquired quietly.

Razer opened his rich blue eyes and turned his head to look at him. "Not well, Saint Walker. I know Aya is out there, but, depite what you have told me, I cannot sense or contact her with my ring, no matter how much I hope for it." He dropped his gaze to look at his hand. Curling it into a fist, he turned it so that he could look at the blue ring's insignia. It resembled the form of a rising bird where his old red ring had borne an insignia resembling a charging horned beast. "Maybe this ring was wrong to choose me. I try to use it. I channel my hope in finding Aya into it, but it does not respond. Or when it does, all it gives me is cryptic flashes."

Saint Walker frowned. "You must not lose hope. It is hard for us all when we first try." His face brightened. "All will be well. I know you will find her."

Razer looked at him, somewhat doubtfully, and said, "I hope you are right."

Saint Walker smiled, his head tail bobbing slightly as he jerked his head in the direction of the cave entrance. "Come on, Sister Sercy has prepared a midday meal for us. I believe it is Dyju buns stuffed with fruit and nuts with a side of Ki beans and leaves. Just the thought of it makes my mouth water."

"Beans and bread again?" Razer complained. "Why don't we ever have meat in any of our meals?"

Saint Walker raised his eye ridges. "Because, Brother Razer, Blue Lanterns do not kill, not even to eat."

Razer snorted, and mumbled, "At least that means they don't eat bugs either . . ."

"What was that, brother?" Saint Walker asked, not catching what Razer said.

"Nothing."

Razer unfolded his legs, and let his feet fall to the ground. His gaze wandered to the cave walls. "You go on ahead. I will follow you shortly."

"Very well, I will save you a place at the table." He left with a bob of his head.

Sighing, Razer continued to gaze about the cave. From what Ganthet had told him, this was the very cave that Aya had used all those months ago to speak with a damaged Manhunter. He figured that this place was as good as any to meditate on Aya, but it had all been in vain. The peaceful atmosphere had rendered his results mildly better than the place just off Maltus where Aya had "died". It was not a true death he knew. Not for her. He knew better after his mistake before in the Maelstrom. Aya had seemingly died then, too, but had survived due to her own ingenuity. And he had hope now; hope in finding her once more.

The squawk of an Odymian peafowl woke him from his revere. With a start he realized that he had been staring at the same flattened rock for the better part of a minute. An Odymian minute, which is much longer than that of Earth, or Volkreg for that matter. Wondering, he approached the rock, and, kneeling, laid a blue clad hand upon it. It was the perfect rock for sitting. How had he missed it? Closing his eyes, he let himself hope. His ring sparked, and for a moment he almost sensed Aya; almost knew how and where to find her. Almost. But the sensation came and went before he could get a lock on it with his ring.

"Aya . . ." he whispered.

Then he rose and followed Saint Walker to a meal of bread and beans.

"I almost had her, Saint Walker," Razer confessed over his simple fare. "I almost found the way to Aya."

Light streamed in though the gaps between the tall pillars that marked the boundary between the mess hall and the outside. Above, the celling disappeared into dark shadows. He and the other Blue Lanterns sat about a round table. Except for Ganthet, whose small form floated, white clad, at the table's edge, and Brother Warth, who was too massive to use the table comfortably. He balanced his food on a solid light construct plate in one palm, and delicately picked it up with his long elephantine trunk. Razer had always likened it to the way Kilowog always shoveled up his food with his fleshy tusks, and it made him cringe to look at it.

"See, Brother Razer," Saint Walker praised, "have hope, and all will be well." The approving smile he gave Razer caused the segments of his pale face to shift their shapes.

"Indeed," added Brother Warth, "you are learning to use your ring. It is a good feeling isn't it?" His large black eyes brightened as his deep voice rumbled from his throat.

"Yes," intoned Brother Hymn, a serene smile stretching across his orange pyramidic face, "your hope grows strong, Brother Razer."

"Soon you will find your Aya. I know it," Sister Sercy chimed in. Her voice was as sweet and elegant as her form, and her smile was just visible beneath her segmented mask and loose hood.

Ganthet was the only one who remained silent. Although, there was an approving look on his blue Guardian's face, his bioluminescent eyes remained somber. A soft breeze filtered in from outside to toy with the long white strands of hair hanging loose on his large balding head.

"What is it, Ganthet?" Saint Walker asked, noticing the slight lack of luster in Ganthet's eyes. "Does something bother you?"

Ganthet looked at Saint Walker, and then at each of the Blue Lanterns in turn until his gaze came to rest upon Razer. Razer looked back at him expectantly.

"Hope is powerful," Ganthet began, "and I have no doubt that it will lead you, Brother Razer, on your journey to find Aya. However, I will say to you what I have tried to tell the Guardian Council." He paused.

Razer nodded for him to continue, curious as to what he had to say. The others seemed just as enraptured.

"When I spoke to the council," Ganthet continued, "I mentioned that I think we need more than the green light of willpower to save the universe. I argued that we also need hope. After all, the blue light of hope acts as a natural super charger to the green light of willpower. The council refused, and when I acted upon my beliefs against the Council's decision, I was banished. This much, I believe you all know?"

They all nodded. The memory of that day on Betrassus when the blue energy came to the aid of his Green Lantern friends Hal Jordan and Kilowog flashed through Razer's head. Briefly, it lingered upon the moment Aya had saved him from certain doom when his red ring became bathed in the blue light and ceased to work. Aya . . .

He snapped back to reality as Ganthet continued.

"The same principals can be applied to the blue light of hope when it is in proximity to the green energy of willpower. For, just as hope brings new strength to will, will gives power and form to hope. You may have noticed an increase in your power and ability while in the presence of a Green Lantern?"

Again everyone nodded, except for Razer who was still so new at being a Blue Lantern that he had never been in the presence of a Green Lantern as one.

"With this strong symbiotic relationship between the green and blue energies, I think that it would be easier for you, Brother Razer, to find Aya while in the company of a Green Lantern. One or both of your friends, Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Sargent Kilowog perhaps?" Ganthet conclude.

Razer nodded, and looked down at his food, considering Ganthet's words. It had been months since he had seen either Hal or Kilowog. In fact, he had seen them last on Oa the day Aya and he had parted ways. After his blue ring had come to him, he had been too preoccupied with learning to use it to think of contacting them. Perhaps it was about time they learned he was a Blue Lantern now. He imagined their reactions: Hal would congratulate him in Earth fashion with that bizarre "handshake" ritual, and Kilowog would doubtless give him another one of those personal space violating Bolovoxian hugs. Razer leaned back, returning his thoughts to the real world. Crossing his arms, he looked at Ganthet. A look that was part excitement at seeing his friends again, and part annoyance that Ganthet thought he needed help finding Aya gleamed in his piercing blue eyes. Even the gentle influence of the blue energy could not soften his hard eyes by very much.

"I will try your suggestion, Ganthet," Razer announced.

Ganthet and the other Blue Lanterns nodded their approval, and conversation moved on to other more mundane matters as everyone continued their meals. Razer, however, was still weighed down by what Ganthet had said, and returned to Aya's cave when the meal concluded to consider things in more depth.

Back at the cave, Razer sat slumped on Aya's rock. In an attempt to prove to himself that he did not need help finding Aya, he had tried to establish the same contact with Aya he had earlier for the past few hours. Although he had come close several times, he had not been able to manage it. With each consecutive try, he became more and more frustrated. With each frustrating moment, his hope became more fleeting, and his ability to control his ring faltered. Eventually, he stopped being able to work his ring altogether, and he fell into his current funk. At least the ring had not left him altogether, he had mused.

Maybe Ganthet was right. Maybe he really did need a boost from the green energy. Aya's "death" had been very unusual. Maybe his search for her required a bit more than just him, his hope, and his ring. And Hal had helped him a lot in the past. So had Kilowog.

Razer groaned, dropping his head into the palm of one hand, staring blankly at the cave floor as he thought. He needed to find Aya, needed to be with her again. He felt so empty and lost without her.

"Brother Razer," the melodic voice of Sister Sercy broke Razer from his stream of thought with a start.

Razer looked up to see her standing in the cave mouth, a solid light construct plate with bread in one hand and a jar of water in the other. The dark tendrils that took the place of her legs contorted in slow, easy motions just above the ground.

"You have been dwelling here a long time," she began. "We began to worry when our rings indicated that your hope was dwindling. I am glad to see that you have not lost all hope and still retain your ring. I brought you food and water in case you wished to sup alone tonight." She indicated the bread and water in her hands.

"Thank you," Razer said after an uneasy pause, "but I am not hungry. My species does not need to eat with the same frequency that the rest of yours do."

Sister Sercy frowned. "Well, I cannot argue with your biology; however, I will leave this here for you should you discover otherwise." She smiled encouragingly at him as she placed the food and water on a small rocky outcropping not far from Razer.

"All will be well, Brother Razer. You will find your Aya." She left as silently as she had come.

Razer stared at the bread and water for a long moment. Bread. Bread baked from roots that grew wild in the forest. It was rich in nutrients and very sustaining, this Odymian bread that they always ate, but somehow it just did not seem like enough to Razer. He craved some meat with his meals. Whenever he mentioned this to the others they reminded him that to kill, even for food, was wrong. It was not the way of the Blue Lanterns. It made him feel shame at his own carnivorous nature. He thought, not for the first time, that perhaps he did not belong with the other Blue Lanterns any more than he had belonged with the Red Lanterns.

He shook his head, dispelling the thought. He hoped, as he always had, that it was not true. He found so much peace on Odym as a Blue Lantern. Razer leaned over and picked up the bread, and started eating. Perhaps he was hungry after all.