"This newfound devotion you have, Ghia'ta, it's unsettling."
"I understand you feel that way, my queen. But I cannot let go of this emotion that has enveloped me. It… It feels so pure, so unlike anything that I have ever experienced. How can you expect me to give this up? To give up this true love?"
Queen Aga'po frowns as she watches her much too young niece smile, her eyes lighting up and her ring- the marker of her love, of this emotion that means more to the Star Sapphire's than anyone else- sparking happily.
She does not mean to ruin her niece, to upset her, or to remove the innocence that her precious younger relation has found, but Aga'po understands that her niece's world cannot hold as it is; it cannot continue on when the object of her affection is not only so far away, but devoted entirely to some other worthy being. She does not want to see her niece, the one who changed the Sapphire's from bearers of hate and jealousy, practitioners of manipulation into steadfast, independent, and strong beings, crushed and maimed by the feeling that turned Aga'po into the power hungry and bitter woman she had been when the Lantern found her.
How can she let her niece experience heartbreak? How can she let her sister's daughter watch as the object of her affections falls deeper in love with a good and just man, someone that it is impossible to dislike for any reason other than the bond he shares with Carol, the beautiful woman who has captured Ghia'ta's heart?
"You do not understand, Aga'po. You never have understood what it feels like to be in love, what it feels like to be so happy and so alive simply because another person exists. Love for you is dominance, is power, is it not? I know you have been changing, but I still think you do not believe."
What is Aga'po supposed to tell her? That she does believe? That she remembers a time, long ago, when a man made her feel the way that her sister feels now? That she fell in love, and felt everything, and cherished every moment until that man changed and transformed, becoming bitter when it was revealed that Aga'po was smarter, more reasonable, more able to take care of him than he was of her? How he spurned her and broke her, shattering her heart into pieces and then leaving her to pick them up, allowing a deep bitterness and all-encompassing hatred of any male to settle into the space that once felt nothing but the purest of love?
Ghia'ta was too young to remember it. She was too young to remember when the Lantern of Love came into her aunt's possession and made her more powerful, allowed her to seek revenge on those who would leave their love behind for any reason. She was too young to remember the separation from their homeland onto a new planet, one which Aga'po took as her own, used for her own purposes as a place for women to come together and fight back against the tyranny of heartbreak.
Ghia'ta was too young to remember when her aunt became so strong and yet so dead inside, so powerful and yet so jaded.
Aga'po does not tell any of this to her young niece. Even though it has been many, many years since she changed, she still cannot divulge the pain, the hatred, the bitterness. The wound is still, in her mind, too fresh to speak of. When she thinks of that man, of the one who broker her spirit but not her mind, who warped her being but left her more powerful, she has conflicting emotions of gratefulness and hatred. Everything is still too complicated to explain.
One day, Ghia'ta will hear her story. One day, she will understand.
But for now, Aga'po watches her, and wishes that nothing will ever harm her the way that Queen Aga'po herself had been harmed. For now, she allows her sister's daughter's newfound passion and understanding of a complex subject transform her Sapphires into true warriors of love.
She allows Ghia'ta to make changes for good, and she hopes that one day soon she will be able to let herself be altered and made different. She hopes that one day, she too will be able to feel love as Ghia'ta does, as so many of the Stars do, and she will again come to understand what it means to have love for someone else.
"Maybe you are right. Maybe I do not understand what you are going through, what you feel. But Carol Ferris of Earth is in love, Ghia'ta. She is in love with Green Lantern Hal Jordan."
"I know, my queen."
Until that day, Aga'po will sit and watch and pray- no, hope- that her niece never loses her light. She will hope that Ghia'ta is always this happy, and that even when she falls out of love with Carol, she will find someone else who can love her back as no one has before. Aga'po hopes that Ghia'ta will never become her.
"Be careful," she says quietly. Ghia'ta pauses, tilting her head as she looks over her niece. "I do not want to see you hurt, little one. I cannot even imagine what I would do if you were hurt by this thing that makes you so happy."
Ghia'ta smiles, softer now. "You see," she starts, and then moves closer. "Love is all about wishing happiness for the other person, my queen. I know that she is in love, and I am happy for her. I am glad to know that Carol Ferris has found this most precious thing, as well, even if I am not the one who can share it with her. Love is thinking of the other as oneself, of wishing only the best for the object of your affection. I love her, and even if I find someone else, I will never stop wishing for her happiness, sister." Ghia'ta pauses, as if she is thinking, an then returns her gaze to her sister's eyes.
"She is precious to me. And that, for now, is what matters."
Aga'po watches again as her niece's ring dances with joy, and her eyes sparkle with some unknown happiness. She says nothing as Ghia'ta walks out of the room, smiling to herself, thinking to herself. Maybe she will never find love again.
Or maybe, Aga'po thinks as her sister leaves, maybe she already has love, of a different variety.