The Betrayal
"I tell you, he's trying to get us killed!"
Low ignored his partner's protestations. It was not that he dismissed Raggedy-Man's assertion but that he was wise enough not to give voice to it.
"If we run into Superman," he rasped, "Superman-Prime will take care of him." Truth be told, he could not understand why Sinestro wanted to attack Earth, again. And he had manipulated The Corps for his own ends, to force The Green Lanterns to change their ways and kill. To kill them. Raggedy-Man's paranoia, in this case, at least, was not unfounded.
"It's not Superman I'm afraid of." His partner replied grimly. "It's our fearless leader."
The city was in chaos. From the sounds of it, WWIII had broke out. Slobo cursed loudly. He couldn't see a fraggin' thing, and the world was fallin' down around his ears. His body was falling apart, his runt DNA givin' out. And he was separated from his friends. Just fraggin' great.
A dim yellow shape appeared just within his limited field of vision, and laughed.
It wasn't a friendly laugh.
Raggedy-Man quickly found himself separated from Low. The fighting was intense. Earth had many super-beings and all of them seemed to have come out to fight The Sinestro Corps. He was convinced now. It was all a plot. Sinestro was leading them all to their deaths. At least he'd had the decency to allow poor Kryb to remain on Qward and heal. He had only two real allies, and Kryb was one of them. She'd suffered enough because of Green Lantern stupidity and Black Lantern horror. Raggedy-Man's slender, yellow-swathed form dodged in, out and between the fighting. He wasn't looking for a fight. After seeing action against The Black Lantern Corps, he was sick of it all.
"You fraggin' chicken! Stand still and fight me like a man!" Slobo shouted, as the yellow figure vanished, only to kick him to the ground from behind. He cursed and growled and leapt back to his feet, assuming a fighting stance. "Do you honestly think you have a chance?" The voice mocked, "A mighty Czarnian. Ha! A pitiful, blind cripple! Maybe if you beg for mercy I'll let you live. . ." Slobo screamed in rage and began swinging blindly. The freak was toyin' with him, like a cat with a mouse. If he'd stick to the ground, Slobo would tear him a new one, but he didn't have the guts to face him. He knew that he was royally screwed, but was still hoping to land just one good shot. . .
Raggedy-Man watched as panicked crowds fled for their lives. Cars burned, people were stampeding like cattle.
If Sinestro was right, and rule by fear brought order, why did he see only chaos, destruction and madness?
He saw that the infamous Batman was pounding Maash's three faces into the ground. Raggedy-Man made no attempt to help him/them. Maash was a sadistic freak and deserved what he/they got.
Besides, he was an inveterate coward.
He stopped short over a blind alley half-concealed by fallen rubble. Something had caught his eye. Romat-Ru. He hated the Xudrian with a passion, but he was a powerful and influential member of The Corps. He was the most wanted serial killer in the galaxy, having murdered thousands of children on his home world. He was a disgusting blemish on the universe.
His first glance at the Xudrian's opponent was a powerful shock.
He had only seen the despicable creature known as Lobo once, but it was enough for him to recognize a Czarnian when he saw one. In keeping with Romat-Ru's cowardice his opponent was only a boy. But there was something else. The way the boy moved. His misdirected blows. Dear God. . .
He was blind.
Something snapped inside of him.
Slobo heard an inarticulate cry of rage, a second of utter shock and terror. A flash of yellow light and the warmth of blood on his face, the sound of three objects, two of them bodies, crashing to the asphalt.
Somebody just got fragged.
He saw it coming. Raggedy-Man wanted him to see it coming. Romat-Ru saw his death just before the energy sword sliced his head from his shoulders. It was far better than he deserved. The elation was short-lived. Raggedy-Man's Yellow Power Ring vanished before the Xudrian's corpse could hit the ground, and he himself crashed painfully into the rubble.
"Who's there?" The boy asked, as the stunned man struggled to his knees. "What's goin' on?"
Before he could respond, shouts came from the street as several teenagers rushed into the alley. The boy's friends. They'd been just about to rescue him when he made his traitorous strike.
Raggedy-Man laughed, but there was no humor behind it. He'd just needlessly thrown away his life. . .
"Who's there?" The boy repeated to a dark-skinned girl who had rushed to his side.
"A dead guy with no head and a masked guy dressed like a yellow mummy." She replied.
One of the boys landed before the weakened Corpsman. He easily recognized the youth by costume.
Superboy.
Superboy was confused as hell. He had seen the lethal strike, knew that this being had saved his friend's life. But he had been using a Yellow Power Ring. He was a member of The Sinestro Corps. Why would he kill one of his own?
"Who are you? Are you a friend or an enemy?"
The voice behind the featureless mask sounded infinitely tired. "I am a fool and a dead man."
Once Sinestro learned what he had done, his death would be slow and horrible. If he had killed a lesser member of The Corps, it might be forgiven, even applauded. But Romat-Ru was a pillar of the Corps. His death would not go unavenged.
But The Green Lanterns knew that he had been present at the death of their teammate, the guardian of Sector 3333. He would likely face a death sentence. Though he had not actually killed the man, he had been a party to it. Still, Sinestro's punishment would be far worse than any means of death The Green Lanterns handed out.
"Why? Why did you do that?" The Czarnian was angry, frustrated by his own weakness. His pride was wounded. It was bad enough to have his friends feeling sorry for him, but his enemies! It was humiliating. He shouted in Raggedy-Man's general direction, "I don't need your pity! I can take care of myself!"
He didn't know what to say. He didn't blame the boy or think him ungrateful, it was frustration over his limitations, not truly directed toward him.
"Romat-Ru deserved to die." He replied finally.
Raggedy-Man saw dozens of yellow streaks racing towards the heavens. The Sinestro Corps was in full retreat. And he was trapped here.
Everyone gaped in shock as a horrific, yellow and black-clad form appeared. The creature was blue, over six feet tall, muscular, with black taloned hands and a worm-like neck ending in a moist, circular, tooth-filled maw. Tiny black eyes ringed that horrible orifice. A raspy voice emerged. "By The Black Eggs of Azathoth! What the hell have you done?"
Low couldn't believe it. Romat-Ru was dead, and Raggedy-Man was drenched in his blood. From the damage, it was obvious what had happened. His partner had murdered a fellow Corpsman. Though he had no love for Romat-Ru, he had been a valuable member of The Corps. Low had never suspected his partner capable of such an act. He'd openly hated Romat-Ru for his crimes. Some species had a strange and intense psychological desire to protect the young of any race and punish those who would harm them.
Low's race was not one of those species.
He didn't know what to do. His friend had betrayed The Corps. The youths around him were extremely dangerous, Superboy, Robin, several others he didn't recognize, and a Czarnian, of all things. Sinestro had ordered a full retreat. It was too great a risk to try to fight them.
"Low." The fallen Corpsman turned to face his partner, "Escape while you still can," Raggedy-Man's voice was high and shaky, "It's too late for me." He paused. "I'm sorry I disappointed you."
The vermicular horror fled into the sky without a word.
Moments later, The Green Lanterns arrived to take the fallen Corpsman into custody.
Weakened by the loss of his Power Ring, facing certain death at the hands of his former allies, the only thing Raggedy-Man could do was surrender peacefully.
To be continued. . .
The timeline for this story is totally different from that of canon. Everything is out of order and, as Slobo would say, all fragged up. That's why it's called fan-fiction.
Low killed Penn Maricc, Lantern of Sector 3333, in my short story 'Low'.