In this one, our hero realizes what he'd been looking for was actually inside him all the time, and learns to embrace the void instead of tryna fill it. Also, don't hate me that I decided to kill Chekov off—it's me corresponding to Anton Yelchin's death in real life and also, his accent seemed to fight me. That's why I refused to write him in the previous two chappies.

Chapter Tres!

"Your new toy won't save you, Kirk." said Khan. "And yet you still resist, hoping that your luck hasn't finally run out. Unwilling to accept the truth that you die today...how pathetic, and how very like you."

"You have no idea what to do with that ring, do you, Kirk?" Sinestro added. "It's almost too cruel to watch."

The Green Lanterns watched as their newest addition struggled with two adversaries, and then, suddenly, Kirk said "I think I'm getting the hang of it!" before knocking Khan and Sinestro away.

"No time to waste!" said Hal as he and the other three got back up, and, together, they took the oath:

"In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight.

Let those who worship evil's might...

Beware my power—Green Lantern's light!"

Meanwhile, Kirk was having fun. "This is incredible!" he cried. "I just imagine it, and it happens!"

Suddenly, yellow restraints were put on him. "Oh, please," said Sinestro, "You're like a child fumbling with a bomb. It will be a mercy to kill you before you kill yourself."

Then again, Sinestro got caught by an octopus construct from Hal. "Give him a break, Thaal." Hal said, "We were all rookies with a ring once. Even you."

"Ready for round three, ugly?" Guy called out to Khan as he came in with Kilowog.

Meanwhile, John was talking to Ganthet. "Hello!" he greeted.

"You know me, stranger?" asked Ganthet.

"Trust me, we go way back." John said, smiling.

Sayd chimed in. "You all bear the same ring! Impossible..."

"Only because, in this reality, the Guardians haven't created the Corps yet. Hopefully you'll get the chance..." said John as he jetted off to join the others.

In orbit above, the Enterprise was under heavy fire from Klingons. "They're demanding our surrender!" cried Uhura. "Still no contact with Captain Kirk on the ground!"

"We're outnumbered and outgunned! Shields at 9%!" cried Sulu.

"All power to aft shields. Maintain evasive maneuvers. Plot an intercept course to the captain's last known location on the surface." Spock commanded.

Meanwhile, Scotty was talking to his new girlfriend. "Carol, gimme yer ring! I'll try and recharge it somehow, it might be our only chance—"

Ferris cut in, and said "Without a power battery, it's no use. But mayhaps...I don't need one." She then cupped Scotty's face and demanded "Kiss me, Monty."

"Auch, I'd love to, dah-ling, but we're in a bit of a wacky situation at the moment—" Before Scotty could finish his sentence, Ferris pulled him close and kissed him. And in no time at all, she was in full Star Sapphire gear.

"Everything I need has been right here all along." declared Ferris. "Love powers my ring, and this starship...it's filled with it!"

"Commander!" an ensign alerted, "Shields have been amplified—to near-invincibility!"

"Fascinating!" said Spock. "Mr. Sulu, ready all weapons and change course...to engage the enemy!"

Now, everything went loco! While Ferris and the Enterprise took down the Klingon ships one by one, the Green Lanterns were dealing with Khan and Sinestro on the ground. Suddenly, Hal flew forward and kissed the Yellow Lantern, full on the lips, catching him off guard long enough for him to be subdued. Meanwhile, Khan was ready to finish Kirk off when suddenly, he felt himself weakening. "What the—?!" he yelled.

"Your ring's dying, Khan!" declared Kirk. "Your Augment army's finished. Their rage can't fuel your ring anymore!"

Khan looked over to see his beloved crew, all knocked out by the damned Green Lanterns. A single tear fell from his eye, followed by more, and more, and more, until they were replaced by red light flowing out of his eyes.

Rage at 100%.

And now it was Kirk's turn to be surprised. "Holy bagumba!" he cried, and, panicked, tried desperately to escape.

Error. Rage at 117%.

Error. Rage at 181%.

Error. Rage exceeds—skwaaak—

Malfuuuunctkrxbltdz—

Deep within Khan's mindscape, the First Sacred Door was shaking uncontrollably. The lock was breaking and shadows were making their way out.

Inner Khan took a deep breath, knowing that it was finally time.

The ring worked by rage.

And I'm enraged to an extreme.

But the void was inside me, too.

I cracked open the ring. Pushed it past the light.

I let the darkness inside me escape.

...

KHAN:

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!

I will not cry,

I'm okay,

I tried so hard to play their way...

Hopes and dreams can vanish in the dawn,

I rather have a weapon than a rotten curse,

A rotten curse!

All I ever wanted was love and a family,

Is that too much to ask?!

To them I'm just a little worm,

That they wish to pull me apart!

EVIL SHADOWS:

Enhanced freak

Embarrassment to nature

Each of the greens whimpered and groaned in terror and agony, feeling every pain and every sorrow Khan felt in his life before Hal groaned out, "Please stop! No more! Please!"

"Khan!" Kirk cried in agony.

EVIL SHADOWS:

They'll make fun of you!

They will break your heart!

Then they'll LAUGH at you!

Watching you fall apart...

Joaquin, another one of Khan's crewmates, managed to get himself back up and stared at his leader with fear-stricken eyes. "Y...Your Eminence...?"

"No." Khan growled. "Not Your Eminence. Call me...Dawnbreaker." He then looked at his ring one more time—the emblem of rage engraved upon it now had a crack through its middle.

KHAN:

Doesn't anybody ever get it right?

Doesn't anybody think that I hear?

"Ring?" he asked.

Initiating blackout, said the ring.

"YAAAAAGH!" The helpless screams of Green Lanterns echoed around the Oan airscape.

"Oh god, oh god...HUUURK!" A voice cried out, and was silenced soon after.

Even Sinestro, knowing that this new Khan was a force to be reckoned with, opened a portal and escaped to the source of fear, the Anti-Matter Universe.

KHAN:

I've had enough of your abusing and your hurting!

Prepare to feel the wrath of my destruction,

Your time has come!

Pray or...

I will burn you!

I will burn yoooooooooooooou!

"Ring! Get this off me—!" ordered Kirk.

And the ring said, Construct of unknown composition. Power ring is not operating correctly. Impossible.

"Don't tell me impossible! Just fight back!" Kirk yelled.

Malfunction, James Tiberius Kirk. There is no light. There is no light...

The last thing Kirk felt was being enveloped in warm golden light before Khan's monsters could devour him.

The Dawnbreaker took his time, watching his dark constructs toy with the enemies. He sent some of them up above, to grab suitable sacrifices from the Enterprise so that he could form a lake with their blood. When the dust settled, he swept up his crew in a construct sphere, all 72 of them, and jetted off to an unknown location.

And in the darkness...

I wasn't alone anymore.

"Nnggh..." Kirk groaned as he woke up on a dark Enterprise, the five green rings(including his own) and Ferris's violet ring being the only sources of light in the bridge.

"Oh my God, Jim!" cried Uhura as she rushed over to her captain's side. "Are you alright?"

"M'm fine." mumbled the captain. "Khan...when I informed him of his defeat, he suddenly turned the tables with a fully charged ring."

"What's worse is...he actually found a way to power himself up." Hal added.

"I know." said Uhura. "We all know. Carol...she tried her best to protect us but in the end, a great many crewmembers were taken, most of them red shirts and we're missing a lot of our medical supplies too. And you know what? Pavel...he's been abducted as well."

This made Kirk shocked to the core. Pavel Chekov was a literal ray of sunshine, who else could do it like him? If by any chance, something terrible happened to him...

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Guy. "Let's go and get 'em!"

"Not so fast." said Spock. "We need to locate Khan first."

Speaking of Khan, where was he right now? He was at the distant planet of Ysmault, inside an old temple, tending to his crew with the medical supplies he'd taken when he raided the Enterprise. Sickly red bandages were wrapped around their wounds, while a buncha people were tied up in a corner. The ropes holding them were the same shade of red as the Augments' bandages—the captives were all Enterprise crewmembers, and one Pavel Chekov was included. The poor kid was scared sh*tless, and the other officers tried their best to comfort him, reassuring him that Starfleet will come to save them all. Coalesced hope. Empty prayers. Disembodied faith. Tomorrow, they would all meet their horrible fate.

After all his friends had fallen asleep, Khan gazed up at the stars, recalling all the weird love stories of the universe. Sevrine of Tellar Prime and her pet beast. Eleen of Capella IV and her worship of a male statue. Kehrar Th'iraalnoth of Andoria and his infatuation with the stuffed corpse of a dead woman. Even something that happened on Earth, that began in the early 2020s—a woman named Lei-yeh-nar Oh and the love of her life, a fictional character known as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was apparently a Star Wars character. Not even close. The Augment summoned a life-sized construct of the USS Vengeance, but it never felt the same. It wasn't him. He wanted the real thing, but it was nigh impossible. The least he could do was have that Vulcan's blood flowing into the soon-to-be-formed blood lake.

I had the most powerful weapon in the whole entire universe on my finger.

But I would have given it up to have my Vengeance.

...

The Next Day

"Dawnbreaker!" Malik called from the temple's grand hall. "The pit is ready!"

Khan smiled. The big day had arrived.

The Augments had recovered and had the sacrifices lined up in front of the pit, Pavel Chekov being the first to offer his life in the creation of the new red corps. As the young man was carried to the point of death, he could hear the screams all around him. 72 supermen chanting for their leader. Hundreds of Enterprisers fearing for one of their youngest members. In an instant, Chekov saw his entire life flash before his eyes—enrolling in Starfleet Academy, boarding the Enterprise, and meeting the love of his life, not caring a bit that he was married. Piercing through them all was a wine-colored vision of the same man that had terrorized the Enterprise back in 2259, swimming before his very eyes like an ancient demon straight out of one of those old cautionary tales that his mother would tell him when he was small.

What do you want, Khan? Retribution? Or just...blood? Did the universe send you back as punishment for seducing a married man?

Before he had his throat slit by the cold, cold edge of a red knife, his mind flashed back to the moment Sulu dumped him. "This has to stop. I can't keep doing this, it's tearing me apart. I love you, but I can't do this to him or to my little girl. I'm sorry." rang through the poor man's head before he blacked out, and then he knew no more.

As he watched the Russian's blood flow into the pit, Khan gave a sick, twisted, smirk. The first blood offering had been made, and the others would soon follow. One by one, the remaining sacrifices were brought forth to the point of death, to be granted a quick end.

By the time the last man was sacrificed, Khan signaled his crew that it was time and gave each of them construct knives before slitting his own wrist and adding his own corrupted blood to the mix. The 72 Augments did the same and offered their super-blood, and when it was all done, the new blood lake began to shake violently before a massive red lantern, not unlike that of the Green Lanterns, arose from the middle. It was the Red Lantern Central Power Battery. Seeing it, he simply entered it as a child would enter their room.

Can you imagine it? The most powerful weapon on my finger...and still I felt vulnerable. Helpless.

I missed him.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I didn't want to be Khan Noonien Singh.

I didn't want to be the Red Lantern.

Standing in front of a lantern...but feeling submerged in shadow. Like I had never been discovered and awaken, like I was still frozed.

And while an enraged superhuman had stepped into the lantern...it was an inhuman monster that emerged. His uniform had changed in shape—it now resembled an evil suit of armor, with metallic twisted wings on the back. As his family looked on in awe, Khan recited his oath:

"With darkness black, I choke the light!

No brightest day escapes my sight!

I turn the dawn into midnight!

Beware my power... Dawnbreaker's Might!"

As the last sentence was spoken, 72 red rings emerged from the blood lake and found their bearers. They all dumped into the lake what used to be their own blood, and thus, the Red Light of Rage had once again been ignited in a new universe.

KHAN:

I used to believe,

In the days I was naive,

That I'd live to see,

A day of justice dawn.

And though I will die,

Long before that morning comes,

I'll die while believing still,

It will come when I am gone.

Someday,

When we are wiser,

When the world's older,

When we have learned,

I pray,

Someday we may yet live,

To live,

And let live...

Someday,

Life will be fairer,

MALIK:

Life will be fairer,

KATI:

Need will be rarer,

JOAQUIN:

Need will be rarer,

SUZETTE:

Greed will not pay,

OTTO:

Greed will not pay,

EVERYONE:

Godspeed,

This bright millennium,

On its way,

Let it come someday...

KHAN:

When the world's older,

When things have changed,

EVERYONE:

Someday,

These dreams will all be real,

Till then, we'll,

Wish upon the moon,

Change will come...

KHAN:

One day...

REDS CHORUS:

Someday...

Soon...