The Birth of A Lantern

by shenandoahok

John Stewart receives his Lantern ring, travels to Oa, and enters Lantern Basic where he learns how to properly wield the ring. But unbeknownst to Stewart, a massive war happens in the far regions of space that has the potential to spread across the entire universe. With the help of the Lantern Corps, John Stewart must do everything within his power to stop the war.

20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The Lanterns used the Neonodian Winged Fighters that they called Dragon Fighters as scout ships. It was a two-man vessel with one Lantern flying the craft and the other Lantern manning the weapons. The ships were fast and maneuverable in ways that gave them an advantage against the bigger ships in the Decayan and Thaddican fleets. Each Lantern two-man team had its own vessel, and John and Ora named their ship the Equalizer.

"Did you clean out the Equalizer?" Ora Nye asked John. They walked down the narrow hallway to the Duty Room holding hands. There were photos of Corillian Generals on the right wall, but on the left wall was a list of Lantern officers on it.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, "It was pretty dirty too."

John Stewart and Ora Nye stood in the ready room waiting for Brack Lo and Jadicus to report, so they could start their morning shifts. The space station's steel walls sometimes felt like a prison orbiting the moon Ock, but John had learned to love it over the last few years. It was like an island unto itself to him. The space station was parsley crowded with nearly five hundred people on duty at any given time. The crew of the station usually wore black uniforms with a black ball cap that had the section in which they worked written across it. The station had at least two hundred fighter pilots on it at any given time to counter any threat to the solar system.

The crew kept several sweet-smelling air fresheners throughout the station to keep it smelling nice. Every morning, he enjoyed a nice cup of hot Chaka with red, Corillian lava drops. It helped ease his stomach. The first thing they did every morning was to check the schedule even though they already knew the schedule by heart. Usually, the duty list had bits and pieces of information about how the war effort was coming along, and as far as they could tell, the main battles happened far from Corillian's homeworld.

"I got a thirst for some morning brew, Ora," John said as he poured some Chaka, a dark coffee-like substance from the Gorgonian root called Manchee. Due to the war effort on Gorgonia, the Manchee coffee product was hard to find, but Ock had an abundance of the stuff because Coralex and Ock had a lucrative trade agreement with Gorgonia before the war. Often, Ock worked independently of Coralex, but at the same time, tried to complement each other when it came to working with the Federation of Planets.

"Pour me a cup too, hon, but with half the Corillian lava drops?" Ora asked as she tapped her right index finger on the table. She had on a Lantern uniform with a dark green top and black, baggy-like bottoms. In addition, she had hi-top boots with the letter "L" on the back of them. "They make me gassy if I eat too many."

They stood on the space station that floated above the Moon, Ock, in a small room next to the main command center, and it had all the daily briefings located on the table. There was one computer terminal in the center of the long narrow desk in the room, and in the far corner, the Duty Board was attached to the wall. The Chaka machine was situated across from the main entrance to the small room, but the aroma of fresh brew permeated throughout the bridge of the floating island.

On the far wall of the room, a sign in the Corillian language said, "Beware of Time Breachers." Another sign read, "Time Breaching is against the law." Often, John would look at the signs because of the fact that his adopted son, Dorn Dre breached time, but he didn't know why. It was something that had bothered him almost every day for the last two years. Fortunately, Dorn Dre fit into the family structure perfectly, and as far as John could tell, he fit in with the Corillian children at school with no problems.

John and Ora came on duty early in the morning, so they could receive the daily briefings, and Brack Lo and Jadicus worked the night shift. By working the night shift, they didn't have to deal with nearly as much administrative work as the dayshift teams. It didn't bother John that much because working the day shift put him in the limelight with the higher-ranking Lanterns like Kilowog and Katma. In the first year, he already achieved the rank of Commander in the Lantern Corps. It was due to the death of Su'Ban, a Lantern Commander on Coralex who died on Preelix during its destruction. Kilowog was a Colonel and John was a Commander. Ora, on the other hand, was a Lieutenant and one of the top fighters in the Corillian Fleet.

Jadicus was a Sergeant and turned down a leadership position in the Lantern Officer Corps, and even with John's begging him to become an officer, he said he wasn't officer material. After Jadicus had several reprimands for showing up to work drunk, he gave up on ever making his old friend part of the Lantern Officer Corps. Eight months earlier, they had an argument over Jadicus's drinking in the Readyroom on Luciferous. John walked into the bar portion on Luciferous and Jadicus was face down in the far corner of the room. His wings and entire body were sprawled out on the floor, and he had a puddle of throw-up by his head.

John picked up Jadicus off the floor with a green hand from his powering and set him down in the Ready room. There was a long table in the middle of the room with the words "For Doraxia" written in the middle of the table. After John set his friend down at the table, Jadicus began to moan.

"Why can't you just leave me be, man?" He asked.

"You're not living up to the Lantern code, bro," John said, "You're a security risk."

"Don't let those bars go to your head, Stewart," he said, "You're still nothing but a young earthling who doesn't know shit about the verse."

"I know if you don't get your shit together that the Corps will take that ring and send you back to Thanagar," he snapped, "I do know that much."

"Just for a few drinks?" He asked. "Learn how to take it easy, Commander."

John scoffed. "A few? You've been drinking for the last two days straight," John said, "And according to Brack Lo, you had alcohol on your breath when you were on duty last night. I'm just asking you to slow it down, bro."

A, C, and E teams covered twenty-four hours for three days one week, and then two days the following week. They had every other weekend off, and at times, the schedule sucked, but John learned to live with it.

Ora Nye walked over to the schedule board with a cup of Chaka in her right hand, and then looked back at John, and said, "Jadicus didn't show up for work last night." She took a sip of the freshly made brew and shut her eyes for what appeared to be a long minute. It looked like she was enjoying the taste. "That's odd."

"He didn't show up for work?" He asked with an inquisitive look on his brown, chiseled face. Quickly, he walked over to the duty board to see the no-show written next to Jadicus's name. As soon as he replied, Brack Lo walked into the room with a grimace on his large, Rhino-like head.

"I hope he's not somewhere drunk," John snapped.

John shook his head in disbelief because he knew Jadicus was military-minded in every way possible, and wouldn't abandon his post. He'd show up drunk on duty, but he would show up.

"Jadicus and that Doraxian, Tally Nead, left Luciferous after killing two Peridian assassins last night," Brack Lo said, "Tally pulled the trigger from what I saw on the surveillance video and I thought Jadicus would put her butt in custody immediately. Did you see the report on the murders yet, John?"

"I haven't seen the video at all, Brack Lo," he said, "Kilowog told me he was writing up a report yesterday but hadn't finished it by the time we got off work. I didn't even know the subject matter of the report or that a killing happened on the party boat. But with so much death on that ship, I'm really shocked it hasn't been shut down." Brack Lo handed John the report, and then John asked, "But it was self-defense, right?"

"Not from what I can tell from the video," he said, "I've studied it, and it looked like two murders. That little Doraxian, Tally Nead, moved like a trained, Yendorian assassin when she killed those Peridians. I pulled up her profile from the Federation of Planet's database, and she's a trained killer."

"Are you serious?" Ora Nye asked as she looked over Brack Lo's shoulders. "She seemed so polite when Jadicus brought her to the house last week."

"That's a front," he said with a grimace on his horse-like face. "She was trained by a Yendorian named BroRa, an extremely dangerous assassin who died about five years ago on Yendora." He had a tiny notebook that he was flipping through when he mentioned BroRa's death, "I think he's the one who killed the Peridian President for the universe to see. It forced the Peridian government to put a bounty on his head."

"I knew that name sounded familiar," John said while he thought for a moment. "Didn't we read about him in Lantern school, Brack?"

"Yep," Brack Lo said, "He assassinated several heads of state through the years and also a leader for the Yendorian military forces. Apparently, Tally didn't know he passed and wanted to visit Yendora to pay her respects. Jadicus went with her."

John tapped into the knowledge of his ring, and then asked, "Have we made contact with Lantern Drillo Lavier of Yendora?" He was the Lantern of Yendora according to the Lantern database in his ring.

Kilowog, a large creature with a pig nose and pinkish skin entered the room with a scowl on his face. He was wide as a rhino but walked on two legs. "I contacted the Yendorian Lantern first thing this morning to give him a heads up on your boy, Jadicus," he said with a serious visage. "Jadicus is considered a deserter right now and in serious trouble." He paused for a moment, and then said, "His drinking is causing some serious problems, Commander Stewart."

John tried to search the ring's database on BroRa one more time but came to a mental block. In his mind, he saw signs with the words "Top Secret" as he tried to find out more information about BroRa. "I've talked to him about his drinking on several occasions."

"We have access to counselors for this very thing on Oa," Kilowog said, "When we get him back, I want you to recommend him to visit one."

"Yes, sir," John said. "I was accessing information about BroRa. Most of his information in the Lantern database is classified."

"I ran into that roadblock too," Brack Lo said as he was flipping through his notes. "It was extremely frustrating."

"It's a Temporal War matter," Kilowag said, "All knowledge of the events is Top Secret to minimize the temporal damage that occurred around Brack Lo's demise."

Yendora:

The space around Yendor was full of Battlecruisers running raids into the warzone near the edge of their solar system when the Thanagarian vessel entered Yendor's space. When they came into the region, a battle-ridden Yendorian Phantom Fighter escorted them to the planet and then flew back to one of the Yendorian Battlecruisers that was stationed near the ionic storm about a parsec from Yendor. But before the ship returned to its station, the pilot had to make sure no Peridian soldiers existed aboard the Thanagarian vessel. It was the law because Peridia and Yendor were at war after years of a cease-fire.

"I must scan your vessel for signs of Peridian soldiers, Thanagarian!" The Yendorian fighter ordered. "We're looking for Peridians trying to engage in terrorist activities on Yendor on behalf of the Decayan Empire."

"You have my permission to scan the ship," Jadicus said, "Just be gentle."

A panoramic ray came out of the Yendorian vessel, and then it stopped immediately. "Sorry, Lantern. If I had known you were a Green Lantern, I wouldn't have asked to scan your vessel."

"It's okay, soldier," he said, "Good luck to you, and I hope you're victorious in all your battles.."

Jadicus took his Thanagarian ship down to the planet of Yendor, a ship with a golden shine that looked beautiful to the eyes. It was majestic. Tally was in the co-pilot's seat, and when they hit Yendor's atmosphere, the ships' wings expanded. They saw a countless number of Yendorian craft flying through the air like they were patrolling the skies. The Thanagarian vessel traveled for about one hundred miles south until they saw fields of broken-down ships that stretched for miles.

"Look at all that junk?" Jadicus said, "I've never seen that much crap in one location."

It didn't take him long to find BroRa's old compound, and when he landed the ship in the junkyard, a female Dreg greeted them. She was an older robotic woman with synthetic gray hair mixed in with black hairs and olive skin, but she also had biological parts too. It allowed the Dregs to enjoy food and sex when they had biological parts in those areas of their bodies. She came up to the entrance of the ship, and as soon as the door of the craft descended, the Dreg spoke. "It's good to see you, Tally Nead."

"It's equally pleasant to see you, Agatha," Tally said, "It's been a long time." She hugged Agatha, and then said, "Too long." She paused for a moment, and then turned to Jadicus, and said, "This is the Lantern, Jadicus."

"How are you doing, Lantern?" She asked.

"Good," he said, "But I'll be doing better once the war ends."

"Well, everybody is at everybody's throats," she quipped, "I don't know if war will ever end."

"Let me get to the point, Agatha." Tally said, "I had to kill two Peridian assassins who told me BroRa was dead," Tally said.

She frowned. "It's true, little lady. It happened about six years ago," she said, "About twelve Peridian soldiers attacked the compound, murdered BroRa, and ransacked the compound looking for his wife."

"His wife?" She asked.

"Yeah. He married a Vega-Knight with a bounty on her head," she said, "But they never caught her. She was too smart and too fast for them."

"Whenever I try to look up BroRa's history in the Lantern archives, it's marked as classified," he said, "It's like parts of his life have been erased."

"No reason to search it," she said, "It's classified for a reason, Lantern, and it's best to keep it that way. Even the Yendorian computer banks have been sanitized when it comes to the life of BroRa."

"Where's Tumas?" Tally asked.

"The Peridians injured him beyond repair when they killed BroRa," she said, "It was an ugly day and I lost everything. I have Tumas in storage for now until I can find a suitable body for his head."

The Yendorian sun had a bite to it; it didn't even seem that hot, but Jadicus felt the rays of the sun on his Thanagarian skin. Suddenly, his ring beeped, a very low beep that only he could hear, but when it happened, it meant another Lantern was in the area. it piqued his curiosity. "There's another Lantern nearby, Tally." He began looking around for a moment because he thought it was John Stewart.

"It could be John," she said in a quiet whisper.

"I doubt that," Agatha said, "It's most likely Lantern Lavier."

"It is the Yendorian Lantern," Jadicus said with a grimace. He tapped into his ring's database and then got a mental picture of the Yendorian Lantern, Lantern Lavier.

Agatha took them through a maze of junk before arriving at the quaint little house. But when they arrived at the old shack, a tall, dark-skinned Lantern stood in front of it. His sideburns descended down his cheeks and he wore the Lantern, dark-black battle dress uniform, a uniform of the Old Guard.

"What brings you to my abode?" Agatha asked in a stern voice. It was obvious that she was a strong, old Dreg who said exactly what was on her mind.

Lantern Lavier looked directly at her with a grimace on his face. "I'm not here for you, Drek!" He exclaimed, "I'm here for you, Jadicus."

"There's no reason to talk to her in that manner, Lantern," Jadicus snapped, "You know that's a slur against the Dregs."

He scoffed. "You've abandoned your post, Lantern Jadicus," he said, "What are you doing here on Yendora? You're nearly a thousand light-years from the moon Ock."

"I'm on business," he said, "And it's of no concern to you. Besides, with the wormhole map in our knowledge banks, I arrived here in only a few hours."

"Kilowog texted me that you didn't show up for duty," he said with a smirk on his face. He paused for a moment, and then said, "We're on a war-footing, Lantern, so you best be heading back to Coralex before an arrest warrant comes down the chain." The Lantern of Yendor flew up into the sky, and then said, "You need to contact your supervisor before he sends down the arrest order, Jadicus. Don't mess up your career," he said.

Agatha and Tally walked into the house, but Jadicus remained outside with the junk. He watched the Yendorian Lantern fly far away from the junkyard, but at the same time, he had his suspicions of the Yendorian. He could smell the lizards as they crawled through the old ships. Some of the ships still had power flowing through them while most of them were completely dead. The lizards made a ticking sound as they looked for small bugs to eat.

Jadicus flew into the middle of the heap of junk about half a mile from the main house. He saw several lizards crawling around the area and through all the junky ships, and even saw a few Yendorian Owls feasting on the noisy lizards. He could smell the old vessels as they sat in the junkyard. He pushed several buttons on his Lantern watch and contacted Kilowog about his mission. As soon as he appeared on the screen, the pinkish man said, "What do you know, Jadicus?"

"Nothing yet," he said with a concerned look on his visage, "I'm not sure I should be doing missions off the back of my girlfriend's grief."

He scoffed. "She's an assassin, fool," he said, "A merc for hire. She'd kill you quicker than a unicorn eats modu dragons. Besides, she knows the mission."

"I know all about her status as an assassin, sir," he said in a strong, deep voice, "But I still fancy her nonetheless."

"I need to know if we have a mole in the Corps, Jadicus," Kilowog said, "There have been reports of an alliance between Lantern Lavier and Yellow Lantern Po'Lariet Von."

"I just met with him briefly. He thinks I'm the bad guy," he said, "I'm not sure if I like being at odds with my Lantern Brethren, but we can't afford to have a spy in our ranks."

"Sage Warriors do what Sage Warriors have to do," he said, "There are only a small few of us. One of our main missions is to make sure Lanterns follow the code."

"Yes, sir," Jadicus said, "If Lavier is dirty, I'll find out."

Jadicus soldiered almost his entire life and knew the perils of a man leaving his post unattended. He and Tally were walking around the junkyard in the early morning hours-some six o'clock in the morning, and she had on a thick, wintry Doraxian coat due to the frigid morning temps. In her homeworld, the comfortable temp was right around one hundred and twenty degrees on average, so Doraxians usually had to suffer a little whenever they left their homeworld. But what brought them outside in the earlier morning hours was the sighting of Lantern Lavier on one of the security cameras. They had seen Lavier lurking around the property in the morning hours, and wanted to see what that was about.

Tally walked over to one of the old, broken-down military vessels, an ancient Moxian Elite Fighter Jet, and found a forgotten Moxian laser sword sitting on the control panel. "I saw one of these in a museum years ago. They slice through flesh with ease."

"I heard about those," Jadicus said, "They have the ability to slice through steel like butter."

"I'm going to hang on to it," she said with a smirk on her narrow visage. "It's a nice souvenir." When she pushed the button on the side of the weapon, it began to glow lime green, and then she chopped off a section of the Moxian Elite Fighter Jet's nose. "Nice."

"It bothers me to no end, Tally, to leave my post like I did," He lamented as they walked through the piles of junk looking for any traces of Lantern Lavier's tracks. "Brack Lo and John will think the worst of me. I know they will."

"You're on orders," she replied with a grimace, "Not all missions can be known by the masses. It's the way of the military." She paused for a moment, and then said, "It's shameful that I didn't keep in contact with BroRa. He was like a father to me after my father passed."

A soldier who would simply leave his post was the worse kind of soldier in his mind, so when Kilowog asked him to abandon his station without his brethrens' knowledge of it, he tried to turn down the assignment. But at the same time, he knew if the Lantern Corps had a mole within its ranks that he had to deal with.

"The fact that you needed to come to Yendor was a perfect cover for my mission," he said, "Especially since Lantern Lavier might have had something to do with the death of BroRa."

Yendora was cold-just below freezing in the morning hours, and it made Jadicus's joints stiff. Every few hours, the warning alarms blasted because of another series of rockets headed toward the planet from a Thaddican Warbird in attack mode. The Yendorian would take care of one Thaddican Warbird and then another one would appear. Some of the soldiers said that the Warbirds appeared like magic. But fortunately, the planet's defenses took care of most incoming rockets, but every now and again, one or two would penetrate the shields, and wreak havoc upon the world. Some of the bloodiest fights, over the last three years, happened in Yendor, and the triage centers were crowded all over the planet.

When the couple made it back to Agatha's abode, she went directly to the kitchen to make some food. In the kitchen, Tally cooked some lizard eggs with uni-bacon, some biscuits, and Booshi juice. The aroma of uni-bacon permeated throughout the entire house and had Jadicus rubbing his stomach. She wore a long t-shirt that went down to her knees, but it could barely conceal her curvy body. Agatha sat at the kitchen table reading the local newspaper on a tablet computer. For a moment, it seemed quiet until Agatha started talking.

"I saw Lantern Lavier sneaking around the grounds last night," she said with a grimace. "In all honesty, I never trusted the guy."

"What makes you say that?" Tally asked.

"When BroRa was murdered by the Peridians, I was at the local market with his wife," she said, "We were buying unicorn meat, apples, and some veggies." She paused for a moment, and then said, "It's over a hundred miles away. But when we returned, eight Peridians were dead along with BroRa and Tumas. Only a Lantern would have the power to take out a skilled fighter like him. "

"But why BroRa?" He asked.

"It had to do with his wife," she said, "She traveled through time and corrupted the timeline."

"Damn!" Tally said, "No wonder it's classified."

"If Lavier had anything to do with evilness, then we'll find out and bring him to justice," he said, "It's what we do." He paused for a moment, and then said, "I have a feeling the mole is Lantern Lavier. He's possibly teaming up with the Yellow Lantern Corps."

Every world seemed to have one thing in common: the rich side, the poor side, and the poor people who thought they were rich. Yendor was no different. Lantern Drillo Lavier was an unfortunate soul with very little possessions in his youth, and often went days without eating as a child growing up on the streets of Tussle, Joust. Often, he stole off the carts of street vendors to feed himself, and when the cold months hit, he made his way into the sewers to live off sewer rats or whatever else he could find in the murky waters.

When he was about the age of sixteen, he met a wealthy real estate mogul named Cardo Cabal who taught him how to buy and sell land to make a profit. By the time he was twenty, he had nearly ten million credits to his name and owned rental properties throughout the state of Joust. In addition, he founded four Children's Homes in the city of Tussle to help impoverished kids. By the time he turned twenty-three, the Lantern ring came to him, and he went off to Lantern Basic with Po'Lariet Von.

"I was reading the file on Lantern Lavier," Jadicus said as he flew with Tally to the military base, Hatchet. "He seems like a normal person. Generous with his wealth."

"Most criminals do," she said softly. "But you said something earlier about him graduating Lantern Basic with Po'Lariet Von?"

"That's true," he said, "And Sinestro was the head instructor of that class."

"Great Ptah!" She exclaimed. "Maybe that whole class should be under investigation because Po'Lariet and Hal Jordan also trained in that class under Sinestro."

"I can't automatically accuse Lantern Lavier of being allied with Po'Lariet Von because they were in the same class," he said, "But I will definitely keep that in mind."

The Military Base Hatchet was a large installation with several Battle Ships on the installation being upgraded to meet the requirements of the war. "Look at them all," Tally said with a grimace. "I once got to visit the Demon class ships on Doraxia. All those ships were planet destroyers. I have that same feeling right now looking at all this. War is ugly."

"I heard about those ships," he said, "I thought they were a myth."

"Well, Doraxia decommissioned them because they didn't align with our values," she said, "Those ships were meant to destroy worlds and that's not Doraxia. We try to bring order to the chaos."

Once they flew past the large vessels, they soared over a city full of buildings that were like skyscrapers. They landed on top of one of the skyscrapers, and then went down to the office areas. In the far corner on the fifth floor, Lantern Lavier had his office decorated with photos of several of the properties that he owned. He possessed the entire building and ran his real estate business out of it. But when they walked on the fifth floor, they saw Po'Lariet Von walk around the corner in her Yellow Lantern uniform, and sit in his office.

"That's Po'Lariet," Tally whispered, "What the hell is going on?" The office area had several people in sleek, black uniforms, the uniforms of the business, so Jadicus immediately donned the same black uniform. It was his Lantern ring that allowed him to change clothes so quickly. The ring allowed him to change his appearance by concealing his beautiful wings, and within seconds, he looked like every other person walking around the office.

"I don't know what she's doing here," he said, "But I'm going to find out." A beam of light came out of his ring that traced the lines in the wall, and he connected the light to the Lantern Lavier's office. He did it so he could listen in to what Po'Lariet and Lavier were discussing.

"If you think Jadicus merely left his post to follow some Doraxian whore to Yendora, you're crazy like a Yendorian fox," she said, "Jadicus is a Sage Warrior. That means he's top tier and in the same class as Katma and Eli Ga'Narian. If he's here, it means he suspects you of wrongdoing."

He scoffed. "Top tier? I'll believe it when I see it," he said with a grimace, "I doubt any of the recruits in the last five years are on par with us. Eli hasn't even tapped into her telekinesis."

"It's that kind of thinking that will be your undoing, Lavier," she said with a grimace on her face. "Lantern Jordan wants you to keep a keen eye on that winged warrior. We think he knows something."

"What's to know?" He asked, "Once Moxia wins this war, we'll have control of the Dark Corridor. This means we'll have unfettered access to the mines of Fraragon." He paused for a moment, and asked, "Have you tried to recruit your cousin to join us?"

She laughed. "Eli'Ganarian Von is a Sage Warrior," she said, "We already have enough Lanterns on our side to take over Oa and bring the Guardians to their knees. But when it comes to Eli, she bleeds green for the Corps. Don't underestimate her either," she said. "Do you remember when we killed BroRa?" She asked.

"Yeah," he said, "He nearly killed me."

"His wife came after me when I assassinated Sir Thoridic Von on Moxia," she said, "She nearly decapitated me, but I played dead."

"How?" He asked.

"We called her the Cosmic Speedster," she said, "She has the power of the god Hermes to run faster than the speed of light. After she thought she killed me, she turned herself over to Eli'Ganarian and was sent into the Speed Force, imprisoned for all eternity. I knew the Cosmic Speedster by another name and I thought she was weak, a spoiled rich kid from Vega Star. But she told me to my face that she'd take the head of anybody who was involved in Prince Nefare's death, and she almost did it. So, when I say don't underestimate your enemies, I speak from experience."

"Hey! Who are you two?" One of the office workers asked Jadicus. The man was a dark-skinned Yendorian with curly hair and broad shoulders. He wasn't quite as tall as Jadicus, but the man was wider than him.

"I'm new here," he said in a soft voice. "Just trying to learn the ropes." He shrugged his shoulders in a way to try to give the man the impression that he was merely lost.

When he grabbed Jadicus's left shoulder, it caused him to break his concentration, and then he morphed back into his Thanagarian body. Immediately, the office worker screamed, ran to the security alarm, and pulled it. That caused Po'Lariet and Lantern Lavier to run out of the office.

"What do we have here?" Lantern Lavier asked with his hands on his waist. He looked like he was in complete control of the situation and acted somewhat cavalier in his mannerisms. It was like he didn't fear being found out he was a traitor to the Green Lantern Corps.

"You're a traitor to Corps, Lavier," Jadicus snapped, "I order you to hand over your ring."

"You order me?" He asked laughingly. "How about no."

A long green sword protruded from Jadicus's ring, and then he took a fighting stance. "Prepare for battle, Lanterns," Jadicus said with a Thanagarian snarl on his face.

"It's two against one," Po'Lariet said with a smug look on her face. "Are you really that good, Jadicus?"

Suddenly, Tally came from around the corner with her Moxian saber, took a fighting stance, and the lime green light lit up the room.

"The whore came to die," Po'Lariet said with a smirk on her face. "I won't take it easy, Doraxian trash." She looked at Tally holding the weapon from her homeworld, and asked, "Do you know how to use that old, antiquated Moxian saber?"

"We'll find out," Tally said.

Suddenly, Po'Lariet charged the Doraxian holding the light sword, and the green light came inches from Po's face when she swung it. On the second swing, Po blocked the sword when the two emerald lights met nearly twenty times causing major sparks to fly in the room. When the sparks hit the floor, small fires started.

Jadicus then flew through the air and swung on Lavier, and the force of the swing caused the Yendorian Lantern to fly across the room, hit the far wall, and then fall to the ground. After that, Jadicus shot a laser at Lantern Lavier but missed, and the laser cut through the wall, killing the office workers in that room. The emerald laser cut through the civilians effortlessly, and it happened so fast that they didn't have a chance to scream.

"This is bad," Tally said, "We need to take this fight away from this office building."

"Everybody who doesn't want to die, get the hell out," Lantern Lavier screamed, "It's going to get messy." After people started running for the exits, Lavier looked directly at Tally, and said, "It's better to die in the business empire I created with my bare hands."

"So be it," Jadicus said, "We all have to die sometime."

Lavier shot a laser at Jadicus, and one of them hit him directly in the right arm and caused him to fly back into the wall. But as he hit the wall, a laser came out of his ring, and it tore into the floor, causing the entire room to collapse into the room right below it. The laser burned through the floor with the precision of a surgical instrument, and it actually went through several floors causing structural damage to the entire skyscraper.

When Lavier hit the next floor, a piece of metal was sticking up from the ground that punctured his left side. He began to scream loudly and hollered for Po'Lariet to save him.

"Help me, Po'Lariet!" He screamed as blood began to pour from his wound. "I'm injured badly."

Jadicus and Tally were dirty from all the debris, but they hadn't obtained any serious wounds from the falling bricks and mortar. "I could kill you right now, Lantern Lavier."

"You haven't won yet, Jadicus," Po'Lariet said as she flew down to the next floor. "I can promise you that we are a legion of ringed warriors who will rule Oa." She walked over to Lantern Lavier as he tried to reach out to her, but he was losing blood rapidly. She placed her right hand on his head gently caressing it.

"I'm dying," he said in a brittle voice, "I didn't want to go like this."

"You aren't dying," she said with a look of sadness. "You are a brave warrior."

"We will stop you, Po'Lariet Von," Jadicus said, "It's what we do."

Suddenly, Po'Lariet grabbed Tally around the waist with a green hand from her ring and threw her off the skyscraper. She tumbled faster than Jadicus realized, so he had to move like the wind. The evil Lantern flew out of the broken building with Lavier, up into the air, and away from him, but he had to save his girlfriend. With fast thinking and the power of his power ring, he latched onto Tally's right leg with a lasso from his ring right before she crashed to the ground.

7 Years Ago:

Tre'Yan gave the eulogy at Prince Nefare's funeral a few months earlier, and she was extremely upset about his death. She tried to forget about him at first, but couldn't because his demise haunted her dreams. She was the one who wanted to travel to Vega Prime, and the thoughts weighed heavy on her soul. When she went to sleep, she often had vivid dreams about him and then would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold, unpleasant sweat, screaming for him to return to her.

Narious was the only one injured in the abduction when a Thaddican soldier shot him in the head with a laser that was set on stun. She thought he was a hero because he tried to save the Prince but the opposing force was too strong. He had told her several times that the Thaddican soldiers had approached them while they loaded the hoverboards back onto the ship.

"The Prince fought like an ancient Moxian warrior against the Thaddicans, but there were just too many of them," Narious said with his arms folded. Tre'Yan could tell that he felt bad about the Prince's demise, but at the same time, she doubted parts of his story. "I can't even believe I survived being shot in the head."

Prince Nefare's funeral was a massive affair with all the royals and heads of state involved, including high-ranking government officials from Vega Star and Vega Prime. Prince Nefare's casket didn't have his body in it because it hadn't been retrieved or confirmed dead, but the royal family wanted closure on the subject matter as they prepared for war with the Decayans and Thaddicans. Tre'Yan noticed the Lantern ensemble in the back of the stadium including Katma, Hal Jordan, Drillo Lavier, and Po'Lariet Von.

When the event came to an end, Tre met with Narious on the veranda of Prince Nefare's apartment with Eli's servant serving them some uni-meat and Poridian carrots. In addition, they ate peppered bread with Foralian honey bee syrup. It was one of Prince Nefare's favorite meals. Tre had a somber look about her and her eyes were red because she had been crying off and on since the Prince was declared dead. She picked off a piece of her peppered bread and took a small bite like she didn't really want it. She then said, "Why are the royals so quick to declare him dead, Eli?" The bitterness in her voice carried a certain amount of rage with it.

"Sister, the Senate of Moxia will now have the go-ahead to declare war with Decay and Thaddica," Eli said with a grimace. "The entire Dark Corridor will be drawn into this conflict." She sat down beside Tre with her plate of food and sighed. "Let's just hope Vega Star isn't drawn into this because we estimate billions across the Dark Corridor will die."

Narious scoffed. Tre looked up at him and could see the gash on the side of his head where the kidnappers shot him. "If Moxia goes to war then we'll follow with full military support like we always do. Moxia will never stand alone as long as Vega Star exists."

"The Prince knew if the enemy hurt or killed him that it would lead to a major war in the Dark Corridor," Broady said with a mouth full of food. "I'm not saying he planned it or anything, but he did know."

"Why must everything be a conspiracy with you?" Tre'Yan asked with a grimace. She looked over at Narious, and asked, "Did you even get a look at the Thaddicans who took him and shot you in the head?"

"Not really," he said, "It happened so fast that it's all a blur. I woke up with an aching headache, tried to wake you guys up, but couldn't," he said, "But the Thaddican ship was gone when I woke up. I just knew they had him."

Eli then cleared her throat, and Tre turned her head toward her, and asked, "What, sister?"

She held up her right hand and it had the emerald Lantern ring on it. "I've been accepted into the academy," she said with a smile. "Po'Lariet will be my sponsor."

"Congratulations," they all said.

"With that ring comes a lot of responsibility," Tre said, "I'm not sure if hanging with Broady will be allowed once you're finished with your training."

"Listen? I haven't stolen a ship in…" He began counting on his fingers, and then said, "Six days."

Tre'Yan threw her napkin at him, and then said, "You're addicted. Why don't you steal me a Decayan Battle Cruiser?" She laughed. For a moment, she looked like she was okay, and then she started crying again and Eli hugged her.

After the funeral, she returned to Vega Star and sat in her cozy apartment for a long time-nearly two months before she started mingling with other people and trying to return to her old self. Due to the way she felt, she didn't want to meet up with other Vega-Knights on a daily basis, but every now and again, she would invite a group of old friends for some drinks. Her mind played tricks on her because she thought she saw the Prince standing in her living room several times. Plastered on the back wall in the living room was her Vision Tube. Directly in front of that was a nice, ambered colored uni-sofa with a pink cover across the top of it. The small table in front of the couch had a cup of tea on it that she loved to drink every night.

She took a sip of her hot tea while the Vision Tube was on the local news. Sleep came quickly, but she tried her best to fight it off, and when she opened her eyes around two o'clock in the morning, she saw the Prince standing directly in front of her.

"I thought you were a warrior," the image of the Prince said. It was like he was mocking her. "You're a disgrace to your ancestors."

"You died!" She screamed. Suddenly, she hopped off the couch, knocked the tea off the table, and began sobbing loudly. The liquid covered the floor directly under the table. "Why can't you come back to me, Nefare?" She plopped back down on the couch, cried, and then fell back to sleep. This had happened on several occasions until one day she said, "Enough!"

Her father, Val, was a man of means, an owner of several luxury hotels that catered to the nobles from other worlds, but in his youth, he was an elite soldier with the Vega-Knight military. Half of the soldiers were robots and the other half, true Vega-Knight, flesh and bone individuals. But for the humanoids to compete with the robots, they wore an exoskeleton that they referred to as the Extra Layer. It was powered by solar radiation and nuclear power.

Val kept his skeleton secured in a vault in his mansion on Crimson Hill, a large compound where he spent all of his time when he wasn't working. After he left active military service, he spent another ten years in reserve service but obtained three military-grade Extra Layers on the black market.

Tre entered his compound on her hover early in the morning one morning about two months after Prince Nefare went missing. Due to her DNA, the security field around his compound allowed her to float through without any issues. The mansion sat on two thousand acres of land, and in the front of the house was a Vega-Knight made pond full of modu dragons. The creatures lived for almost seventy-five years and had nearly eight hundred offspring a year. The modu dragon food source was so abundant that Vega-Star sold the meat to other worlds in an attempt to try to keep the beast under control.

Val had almost one hundred and ten unicorns on his property, but they were spread out over the two thousand acres. But in the evening time-somewhere between six o'clock and eight o'clock-the unicorns fed voraciously on the modu dragons, and that was how the numbers stayed significantly low on the property.

When Tre'Yan entered her father's home, several robots met her at the door, and when she saw the first robot, she said, "Hello, Ra'Air." Ra'Air wasn't merely a robot, but a brother to her and a son to her father, and treated as such. He walked around the mansion like a member of the family and lived as a Vega-Knight citizen.

"How are you doing, Tre?" Ra'Air said, "The modu dragons are quite noisy today."

"Yes, they are," she said with a smile. "Maybe the unicorns will eat the offending modu dragons."

"I can only hope, dear," he said, "They are truly noisy."

"Where's dad?" She asked.

Ra'Air scoffed, and then said, "I overheard your call with him about the Extra Layer."

"It wasn't for your ears, Ra'Air," she said.

"Maybe not, but it's foolish to start your own war over the death of the Prince," he snapped.

"If I don't find out what happened to him, then I'll go mad," she said with a grimace. "I can't continue to live in the dark like this."

He shook his head in disbelief, and then said, "I see your passion will be your undoing."

She and Ra'Air walked into his study with Ra'Air slightly ahead of her, and he said, "She wants that Extra Layer." It almost came out as a snide remark, but it upset her nonetheless.

"I can talk for myself, brother, without the condescending attitude," she snapped.

Val sat behind his desk and rested his head on the back of the chair. "Don't come in my house with your negativity, Tre," he said, "Ra'Air cares about you as I do."

"I know, father, but I have a hole in my heart right now," she said, "I'm going to Moxia to meet with the King and I need the Extra Layer for protection."

"These are weapons," he said.

"Dangerous weapons," Ra'Air chimed, "Of mass destruction."

She looked over at her brother with the thought of punching him in the face, and then turned to her father, and said, "I know, father. You taught me all about the Extra Layers until my mid-teens or have you forgotten?"

"I have not," he said. He walked over to his vault, punched in a series of numbers, and when it opened, it was three Extra Layers hanging on hooks on the back wall. She walked over to one of the suits, felt the material and it felt coarse to the touch. It almost looked like a brand new layer, and it would increase her strength by tenfold, allow for her to fly, and had level ten positronic cannons on them that looked no bigger than a fountain pen located on the wrist portions of the suit.

"Father?" Ra'Air asked.

"Yes, son," he said.

"I'm intercepting a Vision Tube broadcast about an explosion in Gorgonia," he said, "They're reporting two hundred dead, but the royals are safe. It appears that many of them took to the stars."

Most of the robots on Vega Star had the ability to tap directly into the communications on the planet unless it was encrypted. Ra'Air always kept his ears open to the war effort in the Dark Corridor because he knew many Vega-Knights who were in the military.

"The war is starting, family," Val said with a look of worry on his visage. "Vega Star will soon take on a war effort that will take all her resources."

"It's true," Ra'Air said, "Moxia's military fleet is warping to Gorgonia as we speak."

On two occasions, Tre'Yan traveled to Moxia and met with Prince Nefare's father to see if anybody had offered a ransom for him, but the royal family added him to a long list of royals throughout the Dark Corridor who came up missing and possibly dead.

She sat her ship down in the Royal Air Lot, and it was guided in by the control tower. She flew her vessel directly over the Royal Palace that was covered in silver and gold. The main castle stretched three hundred meters in size with an entire Moxian military brigade surrounding it. There were nearly fifteen military barracks on the outskirts of the palace where the soldiers lived.

It had been some time since she had visited the kingdom on her own, but she was determined to get the King's blessing on what she needed to do to find out what happened to the Prince.

Sir Thordic Von was about fifty-two years old with a graying beard that looked like an upside-down pyramid on his face. His mahogany skin tone looked smooth and without any blemishes. He spoke eloquently in the Moxian, Vega Knights, and Doraxian tongues, and his incisors were sharp like wolves teeth.

When Tre entered into the King's chambers, she immediately fell to one knee, and said, "Pre lay por o vue se yo, Ea Von." Which was to say in the Moxian tongue, "King Von, may I have your time." She looked over in the far corner of his chambers where Po'Lariet stood in an ominous manner next to a golden statue of the god Ptah.

He smirked, and then replied, "Du," which meant, "Yes."

"King, why did you mark Prince Nefare dead without seeing his body first?" She asked when she met with Po'Lariet and the King in his private chambers. She stood to her feet when the King motioned for her to rise. The idea of marking him dead angered her to no end, but she knew she had to control her tone with the Moxian royals. "He comes to me in my dreams, and tells me to fight for the truth." When she spoke to the King, she didn't have her arms by her side and used her hands to speak to the King like he was just anybody off the street.

"Watch your hands, Tre'Yan!" Po'Lariet ordered, "Keep them by your side. He's the King."

"Yes, Lantern," she said, "Sorry about that, sir."

"It's just a dream, child," King Thordic Von said as he lit his pipe. "It's rumored the Prince was kidnapped and killed to start this war. Things have gone from small skirmishes to entire planets being decimated. This is the reason I had the Senate send the Alpha Fleet to Gorgonia."

She had a sad look on her face and went back down to one knee out of respect for the King. "I'm returning back to Vega Prime to ask some questions," she said, "May I have your blessing, sir?"

"My best investigators have looked into this already," the King said in his throaty voice. "What makes you think you can do better?"

"Because I care," she said, "I loved your son. My soul is empty right now, and the only way I can restore it is to find out what happened to my beloved."

He smiled for a moment, and then handed her a key fob, and said, "I have a fleet of Neonodian Cruisers. They're fast and easily upgradable to a fighter cruiser. I'm giving you the one meant for Prince Nefare. I want you to find out what happened to my son, Tre'Yan Pitnick."

"Thank you, sir," she said.

"Please, Tre'Yan, be careful investigating the Prince's disappearance."

"I will, sir," she said, "And I will take the head of anybody involved in his disappearance."

Po'Lariet flew her over to her Nenodian Cruiser, and when she put Tre'Yan down, she said, "Why are you wasting your time with this, Tre?"

"What do you mean, Po'Lariet?" She asked with a grimace.

"The Prince is dead," she said, "At least that's the word throughout the Dark Corridor."

"I don't accept that," she snapped, "I would think you'd be doing everything in your power to find out what happened to your cousin."

"What are you saying, child?" She asked. "Not only am I a Lantern, but I'm a royal. You need to remember that the next time you make your way to Moxia. Show me a modicum of respect!"

She walked up to Po'Lariet, looked her directly in her eyes, and then said, "I'll find out what happened to the Prince, and then take the heads of every person involved in his death."

"If you think the Lantern Corps or Moxia will let you just kill people, you've truly gone mad. There's an order to the universe that we all must obey."

Tre returned to Vega Prime in the Neonodian cruiser that fit approximately four people on the inside that Prince Nefare's father gave her. It had a bay large enough to hold a small, one-man cruiser in it, and that was where her little ship went. Nenonodians resided on a planet called Neo Star, and they built a small space cruiser that traveled at warp four for the everyday person to own. For the last year, she hadn't done much of anything except ponder about the whereabouts of her beloved, but time passed quickly.

After she had left Moxia, she became enthralled in her studies and focused mainly on Quantum Mechanics. Even with the war between Moxia and Decay in the background, she earned a doctorate in Physics, but with emphasis on Quantum Mechanics. Due to the fact she spent most of her time being sedentary because of her studies, she had gained about fifteen pounds. It looked like it was all in her backside, but she still had a beautiful figure nonetheless. But with the extra weight, she no longer had the slender face, but it was somewhat puffier, and with her hair now short with curls, it was almost like she wasn't the same person who took the trip to Vega Prime with Prince Nefare.

She reached into the refrigerator, grabbed some uni-meat, and made a uni-meat salad with a small glass of Booshi wine. She hadn't eaten all day due to the modifications made to her Neonodium vessel and needed some nourishment. The way she prepared the meat had a tangy and salty taste that she loved. On the side of her plate, she had some olive, Moxian grapes grown in the den of a dragon. There wasn't a fruit tastier than Moxian grapes ripened by the breath of a dragon.

Ra'Air walked into the kitchen where she sat, looked at her, and scoffed. He wore a brown sweater, thinly rimmed glasses, and with his hair combed to the left side. She could already tell that he had an attitude, and she wasn't really wanting to hear it while she ate her uni-meat salad. But as soon as he cleared his throat in an inappropriate manner, she snapped.

"What?" She asked with a snarl and a scowl on her face. Her eyes were like guided missiles as he walked in front of her dressed as her father.

"You have a doctorate! Act like it," he said as he grimaced. "You smell like an engine and rage."

"I've been working on my vehicle," she said in the grumpiest way possible. "I'm preparing it."

"For what?" He asked. His voice was calm and antagonizing to her.

"The war," she said stressfully, "It's spilling over into our sector of the verse."

He shook his head in disbelief, and then said, "I thought you had forgotten about the Prince, but you have not. It's been five years since his death!" He paused for a moment after she slammed her hands on the kitchen table. Her wine nearly tipped over. "What are you planning?"

"None of your damn business, Ra'Air!" She exclaimed. "What's with this interrogation?"

"Don't think I didn't look at the modifications you've put on your ship," he snapped. His eyes were piercing and she knew that he knew. "You're using Iron-iod's technology for time travel." He shook his head in disbelief, and then said, "You'll never get your hands on Temporal Steel, and if you do, you'll never live to tell about it."

It took her nearly three days to arrive at Vega Prime from Vega Star, and it was odd because the world didn't have a fleet of battleships guarding the planet like most worlds throughout the Dark Corridor. The space around the planet had many alien vessels on its perimeter sending crews of soldiers down to the planet for a reprieve of their military duties.

Moxia had so many battleships in the region that it was a scary place to be. But when it came to Vega Prime, there wasn't a military force above the planet at all. It was like the anger of war hadn't affected them in the least bit. The ships that she did see were civilian freighters dropping off much-needed supplies for the entertainment district and alien military vessels dropping off soldiers for a vacation, but there wasn't any war over Vega Prime at all. It was a neutral zone.

Vega Prime was a sex haven as well as a gambling and dance hub, but when it came to sex, it was known throughout the galaxy that the Pedalnoids were experts in the area of lovemaking. Most of the Pedalnoids were bisexual and often had multiple partners over their lifetime. Almost every business in the entertainment district had at least forty Pedalnoids on their staff to perform sexual acts on its guests. The Vega Prime Magdalenism was a multi-billion credit industry, and almost every Pedalnoid had enough money to raise a family because of the business. Unfortunately, when she walked into the main district after she left her ship, she saw an abundance of law enforcement hovering over a slain Pedalnoid female, an event that was quite common on Vega Prime. It was a sad situation because a young, Pedalnoid woman's body was on the ground in front of the Royal Casino missing her head. Tre stood across the street from the investigation, and when she looked over to the other side of the street, Margo Prago stood in a light jacket, blue dress, and shades. She had a somber appearance about her, and when she walked up to her, Margo immediately spoke.

"I'm not surprised about your return, Tre'Yan," she said calmly. Margo had a pleasant demeanor about her that caught Tre off guard. It was like she knew her. "It's been some time since Prince Nefare's abduction and murder."

"Five years," she said with a half-smile on her face. "Five long years."

She paused for a moment, looked over at the deceased, and then turned her back to the body. "Since his disappearance, we've had hundreds of Pedalnoid murders from war-torn soldiers looking for a little reprieve from the battlefield." Tre'Yan could tell the deaths of the Pedalnoid sex workers bothered her.

"If the Thaddicans hadn't kidnapped and killed the Prince, all those beautiful creatures would still be alive," Tre'Yan said with a look of concern on her face. "I definitely believe that."

"Don't know if that's the case or not. Maybe," she said, "What I do know is the clientele from wartorn areas are the most aggressive. A Gorgon pilot made me kick him in his genitals repeatedly or he would turn me to stone with his glare."

"What did you do?" Tre asked.

"I tried to kick him back to Gorgonia," she said laughingly. "He was crying like a newborn Pedalnoid by the time I finished kicking his nuts. He then tripled my pay, and said he would request me by name when he returned the next time."

"Sounds like a win," Tre said with laughter in her voice.

"Unfortunately, I heard his vessel was shot down last year in a dogfight with eight Thaddican Fighter Planes," she said with a look of sadness. "I'm not sure why I feel for him because he was abusive." She grimaced, and then said, "It's that kind of aggressive behavior that gets us, girls, into trouble, but we still miss the abusers when they're gone. These aliens think they own us because they pay us a stipend for our services."

"Did you see anything that night the Prince disappeared?" She asked in a serious voice.

"It was so long ago, Tre. So much craziness happens on these streets daily that I can barely process it all," she said, "I remember seeing you guys leaving the club that night because I was right under that tree right there." She pointed to a small tree on the corner right before exiting the Main District before entering the airfield.

"What else did you see?" She asked. She looked over at the small tree that resembled a fruitless Booshi tree. It had the Booshi, green diamond shade leaves, but it didn't bear any of the delicious fruit.

"But I did hear the Prince say, 'What the fuck, Narious?'" She said, "I remember that like it was yesterday because I immediately stood to my feet. He said it so loud that it sounded over the background noise of the crowd."

"Narious?" She asked. "Are you sure that's what you heard?"

"Yeah," she said, "Then I saw the Thaddican ship leave." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I'm quite familiar with Narious because he comes here often to meet with the Lantern Po'Lariet."

She walked into Katma's office after speaking with Margo Prago, and she didn't know if the information received implemented Narious in anything because he did have a gash on his head when they landed on Vega Star.

The jail in the entertainment district had about seventy cells with steel bars impervious to ordinary phaser weapons, and from what she counted, eight deputies worked in the office, and at least seventeen deputies roamed the entertainment district. The prisoner's cells were on the second floor of the jail and she could tell the place was crowded with all the activity around the facility.

Her heart began beating fast as she thought about that day-some five years ago, and just the mere thought of losing the Prince forced her to sit down quickly before she fell down. Once her breathing returned to normal, she couldn't help but notice how dirty Katma kept her office. It was located in the first room on the right as she entered the front door of the jail.

"It's been a while," Katma said with a grimace. "I see you're out of prison."

"What?" She asked with a grimace. "I've never stepped foot in a prison, Lantern."

"Oh! I see," she laughed in an uncomfortable manner, and then said, "I obviously have you confused with somebody else. Pardon me?"

She sat with Katma in her raunchy office on Vega Prime and asked her if she had heard anything about what happened to Prince Nefare. When she sat in the Lantern's office, the young woman never smiled or showed any emotion, but she did toss some of the trash on her desk into the wastebasket next to her desk. All Katma said at first was, "I warned the Prince that a bounty was on his head that day, but he didn't listen. He should've never come to Vega Prime."

Tre'Yan scoffed and then said, "Since Sinestro bankrupted your economy, the Korugars have done every raunchy thing under the sun to make money. Maybe you guys are involved in this madness."

Katma slapped her hands on the desk and then tried to calm down for a moment. She squinted her eyes and then sighed. "You're angry. I understand, Tre'Yan, but don't disrespect my people. We wouldn't dare cross that line to kill a Moxian Prince." She shook her head slowly in disbelief, and then said, "Since he was declared dead, over eighty thousand Thaddicans have perished."

"I'm amazed that you still remember my name," Tre'Yan said.

"Oh. You better believe I remember you," she said, "How could I ever forget you?"

"Are you blaming me for Prince Nefare's death?" Tre'Yan asked with a grimace.

"I'm not blaming you for anything," she said with a scowl on her visage, "But you need to step away from this case. It's five years old. Let it rest. Even if the Prince returned from the dead, it wouldn't stop the war."

"Would you let it rest if this was your man?" She asked. "I doubt you could ever feel for anybody long enough to have a man, Lantern."

"I don't need a man," she snapped, "And I would find out who killed him by every means necessary if I had one who was murdered."

"The Prince's death precipitated this war, but it's a war over Fraragon's minerals," Tre said calmly. "It's about Temporal Steel."

Katma shook her head in disbelief, and then said, "You don't need to worry your little head about that because it can only lead you in the wrong direction. We have over seven Lanterns guarding the Temporal Steel deposits on Fraragon. In the wrong hands, the rare metal could destroy the verse. It only takes a minute to do a great deal of damage to time."

"I only need a smidgen to travel back to the day of his disappearance," she said.

"No!" Katma exclaimed. "I could throw you in prison for the mere thought of acquiring Temporal Steel for time travel." Katma was dour to her core: no smiling, laughing, or jokes of any kind. She was serious about throwing Tre'Yan in prison if she caught her with the precious, deadly metal.

"I see," Tre'Yan said, "You only really care about Korugar, but when it comes to the rest of us…"

"You best see things clearly," she said with a scowl on her face. "I know you well enough, Vega-Knight, that if you try to obtain Temporal Steel that it will end badly for you."

Tre'Yan traveled back to Vega Star and didn't really know what to do next. She had discussed what happened with Broady and Narious on several occasions, but they didn't seem to remember anything. When she met up with Broady at a seedy nightclub in one of the lower sectors, he was enjoying the comfort of a Dreg named Pre'Yana. Basically, a Dreg was a discarded android rebuilt with used parts for the sole purpose of being a sexbot. With the synthetic skin over the metal, it wasn't easy to tell a Dreg from an actual Vega-Knight, and that was the problem. Due to the sophistication of a Dreg's reproductive system, Dregs could give birth to an actual Vega-Knight, and that was deemed an illicit pregnancy in the year 32920.

When Tre'Yan sat at Broady's booth, he had several Booshi drinks on the table and his eyes were red. Pre'Yana was next to him enjoying a modu dragon pie in her bikini-like clothing. "What's happening here?" Tre'Yan asked with a grimace. "What happened to Eli?" Supposedly, Eli was his girlfriend, and she thought it was strange that he would be seen in public with a Dreg.

Broady looked over at Pre'Yana for a moment, and then Pre'Yana spoke in a high-pitched, nasally voice. "Lantern Corps." She then giggled and took another bite of her modu dragon pie. "Want some?"

"No," she said, "Pre'Yana, I thought you were dating my brother?" She asked.

"Yeah," she said, "But he's all about everything except me. I don't care how big of a house he has or how much money he has. I might be a Dreg, but I'm a Dreg who wants some good ole fashion lovin'."

"Broady, what have you heard about the Prince's disappearance?" She asked calmly. In the background, some soft music was playing, and some Dregs were dancing in the middle of the dance floor by themselves.

"Why don't you join your friends, baby?" Broady asked.

"Okay, sweetness," she said with a smile.

Tre'Yan looked at her as she walked away, and her mahogany-colored butt cheeks were hanging out in a way that made her look extremely exotic. "Damn!"

"I know, right?" He said, "I love me some Dregs."

She scoffed, and then said, "You know damn well that a relationship with a Dreg will permanently mark your entire clan."

He laughed, and then said, "Have you forgotten? I steal spaceships for a living. We call ourselves Vega-Knights, but aren't we nothing more than Torillians? Nearly three hundred years ago we started calling ourselves Vega-Knights as a way to separate ourselves from our people who reside on Shi-Ro. Dregs and Torillians have relationships all the time. I'm a Torillian."

Rolling her eyes, she then said, "Whatever, Broady! What happened that night years ago?" She asked.

"I don't know," he said, "When we landed on Vega-Star was when I woke up."

"That's all I remember too," she said in a calm voice. "I just want to find the people responsible. They'll pay for killing him."

He looked at her for a moment with a calm demeanor, and then said, "So, I stole a Peridian War Bird three days ago," he said, "And in the Captain's journals, he said many of the kidnapped royals were taken to Yendora, and then killed if negotiations failed."

"Yendora? That's in the Penta Pear of Plants," she said, "It would take three years to get there without knowing where the wormholes are."

"I got one word for you," she said.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Lanterns," he snapped, "The Lanterns have maps of these wormholes. I'm sure Eli'Ganarian will have the directions, but she's stationed on Preelix."

"Preelix?" She asked. "The medical space station?"

"Yeah," he said, "It's a sad place. Thousands of casualties go through that place a day."

The next day, she hopped on her hover and flew to the shipyard where her Neonodian Cruiser sat quietly. She had paid fifty credits to have one week's supply of food put on board the ship. Suddenly, she felt a strong wind brush past her face, and it startled her. When she looked up into the sky, she saw large, dark clouds forming, and she knew she needed to move fast if she wanted to make it off Vega-Star in a timely manner. She had her computer programmed to take her to Preelix because she wanted to visit Eli'Ganarian.

Several Vega-Knight Battle Cruisers orbited the planet, and the ships looked like large boats with serious cannons on them. One Vega-Knight Battle Cruiser was two hundred yards long and nearly fifty yards wide. It was equipped with over a thousand positronic guns and a large gamma cannon in the front of the ship. Each Vega-Knight Battle Cruiser had two hundred fighter planes attached to it, and from what Tre saw, Vega Star had at least twenty Battle Cruisers in flight.

For a minute, she rested her vessel right above the planet and took in the sights. Fighter planes flew back and forth doing practice drills, but this was happening on a daily basis above the planet. Immediately, she took off in her spacecraft, and a lightning strike hit her ship, but it had very little effect on it. The blue electrical spark happened outside her vessel that caused her computer screen to flicker, but it didn't look like it hurt anything. Once she left the planet, she saw several distortions approximately two thousand miles away but didn't think anything of it. Suddenly, she gunned it and hit warp four about two miles from her planet.

"We're under attack," the voice said that came across her radio. "We have a fleet of Decayan ships about a thousand miles from Vega Star."

She was about a parsec from Vega Star when the chatter came across the radio. In addition to the chaos happening near her homeworld, several Thaddican ships came in her general direction traveling at warp one and zoomed past her. Since she didn't have any weapons on her ship, she wanted to make herself invisible, but her ship didn't have those capabilities. The Thaddican fighters raced by her almost as if they didn't see her, but she did activate her Extra Layer just in case she needed to exit the ship to engage them.

"Stay away from Vega Star. We're under attack from a Decayan fleet of ships," the voice said on the radio. "May Ptah help us defeat these monsters!"

"What? This can't be right," she said due to the number of casualties being reported across the airwaves. Two million casualties appeared across her monitor, and then she gasped.

She panicked. Her hands began to tremble, and then she started screaming uncontrollably because she feared her family would be slaughtered by the monsters. At first, she traveled about a light-year in the direction of her world, and then immediately halted her vessel.

"I can change this," she said under her breath. "I just need the Temporal Steel."

She had faith that the Vega-Knights would be able to hold off the Decayans because of their massive military, but the loss of life was unfathomable in her mind. Besides, she only had weapons on her Extra Layer, but her ship was strictly a civilian vessel.

Instead of traveling to the battle on her homeworld, she turned her vessel toward Gorgonia, a world approximately two weeks away at warp four in her small ship, but she only had a week of food stored. Suddenly, two Decayan vessels emerged from the blackness of space and hovered directly in front of her. They were neither friendly nor kind, and when the ships charged their weapons, she flew out the bay door. One of the fighter planes hit her ship with a ray that damaged the front end of her vessel, and when one of her nemesis circled around again, she fired her positronic ray from her right wrist and hit the craft in the tail end. Her lasers were set on destroying mode, and the ship exploded in front of her. She flew through space for nearly two thousand miles and tried to circle around one more time, but the other ship was on her and gaining fast. She flipped over, and began firing at the other vessel, but couldn't hit it no matter how hard she tried. But when the enemy ship fired back, the laser barely hit her on the left foot and it burned her badly.

"Great Ptah, give me strength," she screamed as she flew away from the enemy vessel. One more time she circled back as the other ship continued to fire at her and miss. Looking back at the enemy racing toward her, she fired a panoramic positronic ray at the fighter plane and scorched the ship. It burned the pilot while he sat in his cockpit, but pretty much left the ship intact. It continued to fly into deep space steadily gaining speed.

She was so upset with the whole war that she began to sweat profusely after she returned to her ship. At first, she thought she caught a virus on Vega Star, but that wasn't the case at all; her atmospheric regulator began to malfunction and the cockpit overheated several times. In addition, her left foot throbbed from the pain due to the laser strike. It wasn't a direct strike, but good enough to break the bones in her foot. She limped over to the medical kit on the far wall and grabbed the silver, medical healing device. It was a silver tubular instrument with a red end that turned pink when it began the healing process. Carefully, she placed it over her wounded foot until the bones began snapping into place. The pain of it all raced through her body at first.

"Warning," the ship's computer said, "The atmospheric regulator is damaged." A warning light began flashing on the left arm of her pilot chair.

She tried her best to engage her Extra Layer but didn't have time. Within seconds of the computer warning her about the atmospheric regulator, she passed out on the floor.

Suddenly, she felt some cold air hit her face, and when she awoke, she was inside of a Lantern medical space station called Preelix, a space station the size of a small planet. She had heard about the space station from Broady but did know of its existence. She was inside of the medical bay with legions of aliens from all over the Dark Corridor who had been wounded in battle. There was green, red, white, yellow, and pink blood splattered all over the walls and the floors, and every so often, flying robots would make a sweep around the room and clean everything. But in the back of her mind, she thought nothing could erase the stench of death and feces that smacked her in the face every time she inhaled. When she leaped off her gurney, she nearly fell to the ground, and one of the Lantern nurses caught her.

"Careful, sister," she said in a gentle voice she recognized.

When she looked at the caregiver, she couldn't believe what she saw. It was Eli Ga'Narian with her fancy trinket, green Lantern uniform, and serious visage. "It's you. It's you, Eli," she said in a brittle voice. "This war has taken its toll on my soul, and I'm not even a soldier." She tried to laugh, but she was still dealing mentally from her ship's machinery malfunctioning.

"You must rest, sister," she said, "The engineers have fixed your vessel and fitted it with positronic lasers, a map of all the wormholes throughout the galaxy, and a month's supply of food."

"It's just a personal cruiser," she said, "It's not a battlecruiser."

"It is now," Eli said, "The Decayan attack on Vega Star has brought your world into the war." She walked over to a metal tray, and then picked up a syringe. "I'm going to give you a light sedative to calm your nerves, sister." She injected the medicine into her right arm, and then said, "Listen? Three years ago, the Decayans showed a video of Prince Nefare's beheading on the Vision Tube in Decay. Hal Jordan, a rogue Lantern from sector 2814 retrieved the video from two Decayans he disposed near Doraxia."

"Are you sure it was actual footage, sister?" She asked in a brittle voice. Tears flowed down her brown cheeks, and she couldn't stop the pain she felt in her heart even though four years had already passed.

"The footage." She paused for a moment, swallowed, and then said, "It's real." Her voice broke a little because Prince Nefare was her cousin and they were extremely close. "It was my duty to protect him, but I failed."

Tre'Yan Pitnick began sobbing loudly, and said, "Damn those Decayans to the pits of Hades, Eli. May they rot in the Speed Force with the remains of Hermes and all the demons who tried to overthrow Ptah in the days of old. I hope to kill a billion Decayans for this."

"Sister, we're all hurt by what the Decayans did to our Prince, but we must not let the hate guide us." She looked around the room for a moment, and then said, "There isn't a person on this station or in this room who hasn't lost somebody, but they don't let hate be their guide."

Tre'Yan shook her head in disagreement, and then said, "I don't have your willpower, sister. All I can feel is the hate in my heart for the Decayans, and I don't think that can ever change."

She sighed for a moment, and then said, "We don't know how long we'll be able to treat the wounded on Preelix because of the Decayan War Bird sighted approximately a parsec away."

"Isn't the space station cloaked?" She asked.

"Yes," she said with a grimace, "But the Decayans have tech that can still track cloaked ships and space stations."

An announcement from Fraragon came over the space station's global intercom, an occurrence that happened every few hours. Eli stood up for a second to listen to the communication while Tre'Yan lay on the gurney sobbing. The person on the intercom said that his name was Mooshi, an oddly sounding name to her. "It's with a heavy heart that I come to you with horrible information about the war on Vega Star." His voice was higher pitched and brittle. "But the war has taken a turn for the worse."

"Great, Ptah, save us," Tre'Yan whispered under her breath. She listened closely to what the announcer had to say, but could hardly believe his words.

"Decay has leveled the city of Porvo on Vega Star while losing three of her battlecruisers,' Mooshi said, "Hundreds of thousands are dead and millions hurt. It's an act of genocide on the citizens of Vega Star."

Tre'Yan fell back on her gurney in disbelief at what she had heard. "I must go home, Eli. My people need me."

"Doraxia is sending its fleet of medical ships to Vega Star to help with the displaced and injured," Eli said with a calm visage. "At this point, it's best to stay away from your homeworld."

"Don't tell me to stay away," she snapped, "Would you stay away if your nation was obliterated?"

"Without the Lantern ring, I most certainly would stay away," she said in all seriousness, "The Doraxians have the engineers, medical staff, and machinery needed to assist as many Vega-Knights alive as possible. Let them do their work, sister."

Tre'Yan tried her best to concentrate, but with the rancid stench of rotting flesh coming from some of the wounded patients, she couldn't. She didn't want to eat or anything, and she still felt weak from dehydration. "I'm going to need something to eat even though I don't want it, sister. This all is too much to take in right now."

"We have plenty of Madi meat," Eli said, "I know it's a Doraxian dish, but it's pretty good."

"Do I look Doraxian?" She asked while scoffing. "What about some uni-flesh?"

"Uni-flesh is a luxury dish here, sister," she said, "Meaning that there isn't an ounce of it, so Madi meat it is."

Eli flashed a blue light over Tre'Yan's forehead, and whispered, "There are traitors within the Corps." With the light, the Lantern was checking Tre'Yan's brainwaves to ensure the lack of oxygen didn't damage her brain.

Tre'Yan looked at her with a scrunched face like she didn't understand what she meant, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

"In the Lantern Corps," she said, "I've discovered a plot to overthrow the Guardians." She looked over her right shoulder at another Lantern across the room with ears that were long and straight. His skin was pinkish and he had feet that resembled the hooves of the Unicorns. Tre'Yan immediately recognized his race. He was a Nadacan from the planet Nadaca.

Tre'Yan's eyes grew big and round-and she felt the hairs standing up on her lower back. "Are you sure, sister? To accuse a Lantern of being a traitor is a serious allegation."

"I know," she said with a grimace. "And it's more than a few. I've counted over fifteen Lanterns who aren't loyal to the Guardians, and some are on this vessel."

The crowded cafeteria had a slew of sullen, dull faces because of the devastation on Vega Star and the ongoing war near the planet Gorgonia. There were about forty tables in the cafeteria and almost all of them had aliens sitting at them. The room was full of orange, green, yellow, crimson, brown, and black aliens, and not one of them had room to smile. Tre'Yan sat directly across from a Green Lantern with a face like a bird: beak and beady eyes. But when it came to his head, he had a fin that went down the center of it. On his right wrist, he had a large nice looking watch with many blinking lights, a bit of tech that came from his homeworld. "Vega-Knight, my name is Tomar-Re," he said with a somewhat deep, well-spoken voice that almost seemed god-like in its delivery.

She looked up at the alien-creature for a moment, and wondered if he was one of the traitors that Eli spoke about. But at the same time, she didn't feel like she could make any judgments off hearsay, even if she loved Eli like a sister. "Tre'Yan," she said, "I've been in your world a few times. It was truly enjoyable."

"You've been on Xudar?" He asked, "And have you seen the beautiful oceans in my world?"

"Yes," she said with a half-smile. She was looking at the fancy watch he had on his right wrist because it seemed to be tracking ships leaving and coming into Preelix's vicinity. "I swam in the Pelican Ocean."

He smiled. "I was born about two miles from Birds Bay in the city of Birdia. When this war is over, I hope to travel back to my home and find a wife. I will make my home in the Pelican Ocean and retire my ring." After she looked down at his watch's screen, he looked somewhat frightened.

"You make it sound so easy," she said with tears streaming down her face. " I knew love once, but it was all taken from me. Almost in an instance."

"Did your love pass?" He asked.

"Murdered," she said, "Beheaded by the Thaddicans."

He gasped. "Your beloved was Prince Nefare of Moxia?" He asked.

"Yes, sir," she said, "His death plunged the Dark Corridor into a war that probably won't ever end at this point." She noticed that he was still paying more attention to his watch than what she had to say.

"I hope that's not the case," he said, "The Lantern Corps will eventually restore peace to the verse. I believe that, but for now, there's a ship with Decayan signatures entering the area. We're cloaked so we should be safe."

Tomar-Re placed his hands on top of Tre'Yan's when a Decayan ship crashed into the space station and caused a loss of pressure that resulted in several aliens flying out the cafeteria. Tre'Yan held onto the table that was bolted to the floor, but some of the other aliens weren't as lucky as her or as quick in thought. Posthaste, Tomar-Re caught the aliens before they exited the safety of the space station, and took them to the sealed hallway. It lugged about fifteen seconds before the safety protocols went into place and put a force field over the damaged portion of the hull directly over the cafeteria.

She noticed a young man screaming because a piece of metal had impaled him during the chaos. It went through his lower back and up out of his chest, and from what she could tell, he wouldn't last long without medical attention. He fell to the ground when the force shield came online, and she could hear him screaming loudly. "I don't want to die," the man screamed. After he made a few more grunting sounds, the young man expired, and it was at that point that she realized the war was real and all-encompassing. There wasn't a planet in the Dark Corridor that wasn't faced with the crisis.

Suddenly, an explosion came from the main control room and the sound of laser fire reverberated throughout the entire ship. Tre'Yan nearly fell to the ground when the explosion occurred because it felt like the entire space station buckled under the force of the attack. "What's going on?" Tre'Yan asked loudly. "The medical space stations are cloaked. Somebody must have given away our position."

"We're under attack," Tomar-Re said as he used the power of his ring to help lead about fifteen aliens through the dark hallway. "Trust nobody, Vega-Knight. There's a traitor in our midst." He put his hands on Tre'Yan's lower back, and said, "There are two Lanterns fighting the Decayan ships right now. I'm headed out." She knew he was receiving communication through the radio device attached to his left ear, and as soon as he received the info about his comrades, he ran down the hallway, into the shuttle bay, and Tre'Yan remained close on his heels with her laser in her right hand.

"Good luck," Tre'Yan said with a look of worry on her face as Tomar Re flew out the shuttle bay. "May you be victorious in battle and find the traitor within your ranks." He left out of the west shuttle bay, but the east shuttle bay was on the other side of the space station.

"If you have a ship with a weapon system on it, get in it now. Preelix needs your support," Mooshi screamed on the intercom. "Preelix won't survive this without every ship fighting." There was a pause for a second, and then he said, "If you have a ship and an ally of Moxia, help Preelix in Sector forty-two-fifty."

She ran to her ship, climbed into the cockpit, and was amazed at the new control panel that the team of technicians put in place. "This is incredible!" She exclaimed. When she took flight inside the bay, she could see hundreds of aliens broken and wounded ready for one more big battle with the Decayans. But when she flew out the bay, she saw a Decayan War Bird hovering over the west corner of the space station with a gamma cannon pointed directly at it. The space station was probably two hundred times larger than the Decayan War Bird, but it didn't have the firepower of a battleship because it was a medical space station. She never had so much fear in her heart until she saw how intimidating a Decayan War Bird was up close, but at the same time, she didn't have time to wonder about things.

Right before she turned on her ship's weapon system, a Yellow Lantern appeared on her viewer, and it caused her heart to race. "Great, Ptah!" She exclaimed, "I didn't know the Yellow Lantern Corps was fighting with the Decayans and Thaddicans."

The Yellow Lantern fired two powerful yellow lasers at Preelix and tore off a chunk of the space station with little to no effort. Immediately, she noticed the large cannon on the enemy ship turn blue. When it turned blue, she knew it was revving up to hit the space station with one final blow, a blow that would kill everybody on board. She didn't know the majority of the people on Preelix, but at the same time, she couldn't allow the Decayans to simply destroy the medical facility. The Decayan War Bird inched closer to Preelix, and right before it hit the space station with its final blow, Tre'Yan fired her positronic cannon, and all it did was barely damage the laser cannon. Unfortunately for the Decayans, a gamma cannon worked only if the precision was perfect, and if it was damaged in the slightest way, it could cause a backblast that would destroy the entire vessel.

The Decayan War Bird fired its deadliest weapon at the space station. The cannon turned bright blue, and Tre'Yan had to look away from the cannon as she fired her positronic lasers at it. When the ship released its death blast, the entire ship exploded because of the slight damage done to the cannon and killed the Yellow Lantern that flew next to it. The force of the blast knocked Tre'Yan's ship into deep space and she felt disoriented for about fifteen minutes. Parts of the exploding ship rammed into the space station and caused holes in the hull from the center-west corner all the way to part of the center of the ship. The damage to the space station was bad, and thousands of aliens were more than likely killed in the explosion.

She turned the bow of her ship toward the space station, and she could see the western portion of the station was on fire and a large hole where the ship crashed down on the space station. It scared her because she felt that she might have caused the ship to explode. A legion of robots leaped into action and began putting out the fires, but it was Eli who used the power of her ring to remove the large hunk of metal that crashed into the space station.

Unfortunately, the battle wasn't over because the smaller Decayan ships carried out the mission of the Decayan War Bird, and continued their assault on Preelix. They were fast movers, but the little Neonodian vessel that Tre'Yan flew was just as fast, and now that it had positronic lasers on it, she felt she could put it to use.

There were tons of action happening all over the area, and the Decayan fighters tore off the western end of the space station, and it looked like most of the alien ships in that area of the space station made it to safety. Tre'Yan raced across the top of the space station, just hovering above the surface, and then fired her positronic cannons into the offending Decayan fighter that tore off the western portion of the space station. She hit the ship on its bow, and it sent a shockwave of energy throughout the entire vessel, causing it to explode into little pieces.

Tomar-Re flew over her vessel, shot a green laser from his ring, and tore apart another Decayan ship, but out of nowhere, another Decayan vessel shot Tomar-Re in the back, and he looked wounded to Tre'Yan. She flew over the offending ship, came up from the rear, and shot it in the back-causing it to explode immediately.

The body of Tomar-Re flew into deep space away from the space station, but she kept her eyes on it. Quickly, she broke away from the fighting, retrieved his body, and brought it into the ship. It looked like the laser had torn the flesh out the right side of his body; it was obviously a fatal wound. But before she closed the hatch after she brought his body into the vessel, the ring left his finger, flew out the ship, and into space to find its next wielder. She looked down at the body of the heroic Lantern, whispered a few words, and then said, "Bless him, Ptah, and bless the new Lantern the ring creates!" Immediately, she removed his fancy watch because she thought it had pertinent information pertaining to the Lantern's involvement in the war.

She reached into a compartment in the back of her ship for a blanket to cover Tomar-Re's body, and after she ensured the body was completely covered, she set his watch in a secure safe under the pilot's chair.