A/N: Thanks to Alverrann again for reviewing, again. You're the best!

Since this story has been cooking for literally four years, I'm a lot more familiar with GL lore now than these earlier chapters might reflect. I've been making certain edits to the story as I've been proofreading; this is one chapter which, while it didn't change all that much, definitely has more nuance now than it did before.

Enjoy!

Chapter Five: Rivers of Red

Wally was used to working nights for the League and for the CKPD, but that did not mean he didn't enjoy his sleep. He did not like it when someone unexpectedly interrupted his precious slumber, and he especially didn't like it when they knocked on his apartment door in the middle of one of his rare nights to himself.

"Oh, good grief," he moaned to himself as he swung his legs out of bed and blearily noted the time. "Just once," he muttered, as he made his way to the living room. "Just once why can't I have a full night's sleep?"

He pulled open the door and was astonished to see who was out there. "Hal? What the –"

"Can I come in?" Hal looked lost and in need of a friend, and regardless of the fact that it was two-thirty in the morning Wally was that friend.

"Yeah, sure, come on. You want coffee?" he offered as he shut the door.

"No, thanks."

"Just for me, then. Let me make a cup – it'll only take a second – so I can wake up and listen to you properly."

In literally one second, the sleepy Scarlet Speedster had whipped up his espresso and was sitting opposite Hal in his small living room.

"How did you even get here?" Wally wondered. "Last time we spoke you still hadn't managed to get your ring working. Don't tell me you drove from California to Missouri in the dead of night."

"No, I've been able to fly for about a week now," Hal admitted, examining the weak glow of the ring on his finger. "But I still can't make any constructs."

"Oh." Wally stifled a yawn and took a sip of coffee. "So, what's the matter?"

"How did you do it?" Hal blurted.

Wally was bewildered. "How did I do what?"

"How did you pull yourself back together after your uncle died?"

Wally winced; even after more than a year, it was still a sore subject. "I'm not sure what that has to do with –"

"I can't use the ring, Wally," Hal burst out. "I can't be Green Lantern, I can't help people, I seem to piss off every woman around me – it feels like I've taken giant steps backwards. I feel like I have no idea who I am anymore."

"You're Hal Jordan," Wally said simply. "You're Green Lantern, a Founder of the Justice League, and my best friend."

Hal managed a small wry grin. "I thought that title belonged to Nightwing?"

"One of my best friends, then." Wally waved a hand dismissively. "That's not the point."

"No, it's not." Hal shook his head, solemn once more. "What do I do, Wally?" he asked in a small voice. "How do you move on from the loss of someone so close but still find it within yourself to believe in good and justice?"

Wally exhaled. "You stop dwelling on the loss and look around at all the other people you've managed to save. You look at the people around you who believe in and are fighting for the same cause you are. You accept that when there's so many honorable and admirable people who believe in you, then you must be good enough to keep fighting with them."

Hal blinked. "You really had that hard of a time after your uncle died?"

"Maybe not quite as bad as you've had it," Wally conceded, "but the principle was the same. I still needed people to believe in me and to be my emotional support, and I was lucky enough to have folks like you and Linda and Dick to help me through the grieving period."

Hal looked up. "Me?"

Wally rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you."

Hal smiled, this time a real, proper smile. "Thank you, Wally."

"Anytime. Hey, look, your ring's glowing." Wally pointed; Hal snapped his gaze to his ring, but instead of being happy that it was working again, like Wally expected, he looked dismayed. "That's good, right?" Wally said uncertainly.

"That's not me," said Hal with growing apprehension. "That's a distress signal from Oa." His eyes widened in horror. "Arisia." She'd said she was going back there. "I have to go." He stood up abruptly, his Green Lantern uniform appearing over his clothes.

"Hal, wait!" Wally exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "How are you going to help without a properly functioning ring?"

Hal experimentally curled his fingers into a fist; the glow of his ring intensified as he created a simple tentacle of green energy – his first construct in over a month. He whipped it back and forth to test his control; it obeyed him perfectly.

"Looks like it is functioning."

"Just like that?" Wally was amazed.

Hal only spared a few seconds thought before answering, "I guess I just needed a big enough reason to use it again."

Without another word, he said goodbye to Wally with a quick glance, then he used the tentacle to open Wally's window and flew out into the night.

The warning beeping of his ring became more frenzied the closer Hal got to Oa. He was developing an extremely bad feeling about this unprecedented distress call, so much so that he was pushing himself to travel faster through space than he ever had before. Between his intense worry for Arisia and his single-minded drive to reach Oa before it was too late, Hal's mind had no place for the doubts that had been plaguing him for the past two months, and thus he was able and willing to make full use of his ring.

Hal's intuition turned out to be erroneous. The situation was not bad; it was horrific. There appeared to be chaos everywhere he looked. The normal, natural green of Oa had been overtaken by the blazing yellows and oranges of fire and the dirty brown cracks in the ground; the very sky was dark and overcast, though it was the middle of the Oan day. Many of Oa's proud and majestic towers and buildings had been reduced to smoking and broken ruins. Hundreds of Green Lanterns hovered in Oa's atmosphere, trading both physical and energy blows with numerous humanoids in orange and gold uniforms, who wielded what appeared to be yellow lightning bolts to deadly effect. Hal's gut tightened when he saw how many Corps members' bodies littered the ravaged Oan landscape. The remaining Green Lanterns who were not dead or fighting were working near the ground to save the Oan civilians and protect them from the battle raging above.

One of the lightning-wielding humanoids saw Hal and attacked, and Hal saw that they were really human but for some minor differences. He also discovered, after his assailant flung a bolt that so thoroughly disintegrated a pillar behind him, that the lightning was in fact anti-matter. This was quickly followed by the realization that the anti-matter weapons were qwa-bolts and the attacking force were the Thunderers of Qward, the fierce and lethal warriors of the anti-matter planet Qward and some of the greatest enemies of the Green Lantern Corps. Hal had never personally fought a Thunderer, but other Lanterns had related tales of war and bloodshed dating from the last time the two factions crossed paths.

Hal blocked the next strike from the Thunderer attacking him, and then molded his shield into a large hammer, which he used to slam his opponent out of the air.

I have to get to the courtyard.

Whatever was going on, he knew the center of it would be in the courtyard of the Guardians. He took out several more Thunderers on his way to the courtyard in the center of the capitol, squashing the guilt he was feeling over not having kept abreast of happenings on Oa. He saw no sign of Arisia anywhere – she surely would have reached Oa by now – but he pushed that aside as well. The most important thing at the moment was to get to the courtyard; too much was at stake, and he could not afford to let his personal emotions distract him now.

The Guardians' outdoor courtyard was in shambles. As Hal had expected, the six Guardians were there, surrounded by a ring of some of the most experienced Lanterns, including Tomar-Re, Kilowog, Salaak, Hannu, Galius Zed and even – to Hal's surprise – Katma Tui. The chair of the fallen Guardian Krona was no longer the only demolished chair – the other six chairs were also damaged; the once immaculate tiles of the mosaic in the pavement had been smashed.

And hovering in the air above them, flanked by several Thunderers of Qward, was Thaal Sinestro.

Hal almost dropped to the ground in shock. Sinestro was wearing a yellow version of his former Green Lantern uniform, and was glowing with a bright yellow aura that to Hal looked excruciatingly wrong on the once-great Corpsman. The source of the foreign color was obviously due to the yellow power ring nestled on the finger where Sinestro's Green Lantern ring had once been, and Hal felt sick to his stomach when he recalled that yellow was the color of fear. The expression on Sinestro's face was a facsimile of the anger and resentment he'd shown on the day of his trial, sharpened by spitefulness and bitterness caused by his banishment.

"Sinestro!" Katma Tui was yelling in fury. "How dare you! Was Korugar not enough?"

"How dare I?" Sinestro raged. "How dare you? I sought to help Korugar, to improve it – but you defied me at every turn, and now you have even taken my place in the Corps!"

"You have betrayed us, Sinestro!" The lack of the Guardians' typical apathy was evident in Ranakar's angry accusation.

"You betrayed me first," Sinestro retorted. "Now suffer the consequences."

Hal decided to intervene. "Sinestro!"

His former mentor looked up and noticed him for the first time, his face twisting with scorn. "Jordan," he hissed. "Have you come to fight me?"

"I don't want to. Sinestro, just leave and don't come back," Hal pleaded. "Go back to Qward."

"Never," Sinestro hissed. "It's become clear to me that the Green Lantern Corps has lost its way – instead of enforcing order and control, you have allowed chaos to intrude by your misjudgment and inaction."

"And do you think yourself to be the one to solve these problems?" Ganthet demanded.

"I am the one!" Sinestro seethed. "I brought perfect order to Korugar and to Sector 1417. But you banished me for it! The time has come for me to reinvent the corps and lead it into a new era, for the good of the universe."

"Sinestro, you're killing people!" Hal exclaimed. "Green Lanterns – your friends – are dying!"

"They are not my friends," Sinestro said coldly. "They insist on following the Guardians so blindly, they are as corrupt as the Guardians themselves. I must bring justice." Sinestro's piercing gaze bore into his former protégé. "You stood against me at my trial, Jordan. I have not forgotten nor forgiven that. You fought so hard for Earth when Parallax invaded, spoke so much of your ideals for justice and peace – I expected you, of all people, to support me."

"Sinestro…"

"You were one of only two Green Lanterns I had ever considered my friend, Jordan." There was an unexpected layer of sincerity in the fallen Lantern's voice, hidden beneath the anger and contempt. "That means something to me, so I am giving you a choice. For the sake of our previous friendship, I will give you one chance to join me." His eyes met Hal's, burning with intent. "Join me, Jordan, and we can remold the Corps together, you and I. We can be great together."

Hal stared at him, unable to believe that Sinestro thought he would agree to the subjugation of the entire Green Lantern Corps. "No. This is wrong, Sinestro."

Sinestro's face contorted into an ugly glare. "Then your second betrayal will be your last. Die with the rest of the Lanterns, Hal Jordan."

"Not if I stop you." Hal assumed a fighting stance, ring at the ready. Sinestro barked a laugh.

"Your ring will not harm me, Jordan," he said derisively, raising his left fist to give Hal a clearer view of the yellow band on his finger. "The Weaponers of Qward fashioned this from the same impurity that restricts the power of green will. The Guardians were so cautious – so afraid of fear," he scoffed, "that they never stopped to think of the power it could wield. They told us that will is the most powerful force in the universe, but they are wrong." His ring blazed yellow. "Fear is the most powerful force, and I am the master of fear."

Hal created a cannon construct and shot a volley at Sinestro, but it dissipated before it reached him. Sinestro smirked.

"You're the same as ever, Jordan. You still don't listen. And today is the day you pay for your insolence."

Without further delay, Sinestro gave the order for the Thunderers of Qward to commence their attack on the Guardians. Hal dove at Sinestro at the same time his fellow Green Lanterns erected a shield around the Guardians.

Around them, the sky roiled with green and yellow flashes and anti-matter lightning, and all over Oa, blood ran in rivers.

A/N: Thus begins the war.

Reviews make me happy! See y'all on Friday!