Barry was watching the Xandarian wildlife. One of them bore a resemblance to a dragonfly, only it was purple. And three times the size of a dragonfly. It scooped up a small mammalian-looking creature with brown fur and stripes, which whimpered and wheezed as the insectoid flew away with it. And then he heard a snapping sound. It was a plant, like a blue version of the Venus flytrap, consuming an amphibious creature. Nature was as cruel on Xandar as on Earth.

Barry was just trying to distract himself from the current situation. Hal and Carol just stared down Alan Scott, all of them glaring at each other. He, Jay, and Jessica were left to just stand there and watch.

"It was nice knowing Alan," Jessica whispered to break the silence, shaking her head. "But with Hal and Carol pissed off at him…I wonder who's going to pay for his funeral."

Jay gritted his teeth. "Now, you knock it off with that tone, young lady."

Barry said nothing. Neither did Jessica. They came to the silent agreement to just watch and see how things would play out.

"Okay, I admit it. I was extremely out-of-line. And for that, I apologize," Alan began as he took his seat. "I can see how that was petty. However, I want you to know that I was simply trying to do what was best for you, Hal."

Hal scoffed. "Some way of showing it."

"I'll be blunt, Hal. Your willpower is potentially greater than any other Green Lantern I've seen. However, I feel that you are quite uncreative with your powers. John Stewart designs his constructs almost as if he designed him on a blueprint first, and Kyle Rayner has an artist's imagination. You are better than Guy, but you are still lacking in design and creativity."

"I know people often want to be spared the lecture, but it seems like it would've been better to just give us the lecture as opposed to this bullshit you brought upon us. I mean, for Christ's sake, Alan! You put us in danger!"

Alan pointed at Hal. "We've battled against the Fire Demon Surtur once! I knew we would survive!"

Barry did have to give Alan that. It wasn't just the fact that they had almost the prevented the end of the world against HYDRA and Surtur. It was that they faced all sorts of threats throughout the years, or decades in the cases of Jay and Alan. Dying from quicksand would not have been a noble end.

"Still a pretty shitty thing to do," Carol countered, her arms crossed. "And they say Namor used to be the big jerk of the Brigade back in the day. And he can still be a dick. But right now, you're giving Namor some stiff competition."

Alan bolted up at Carol's remark. "Let me tell you, had Jay and I tried to reign Namor in during the war, he eventually would've gone on to flood New York or some other major city! But that's besides the point!"

Barry wanted to speed up to Alan's face and demand to know why he dragged the others into this. Even if his questionable plan against Hal was somehow justified, to bring the others into this was simply wrong.

"This is still pathetic, you know," Hal barked towards Alan. "All of this work just to get me to use a little more imagination. It's ridiculous. Well, even that is probably putting it nicely."

"Way too nicely," Carol added on.

Alan threw his hands up into the air. "I confess. I used my ring to jam Hal's and trick it to send us to an area with bad weather. Then I brought us here, where I had checked the weather forecast a few days in advance. I stand by the notion that I did not put us through anything we were not capable of overcoming, but perhaps I went a little too far."

Everyone, even Jay, scoffed when Alan added that unsatisfying 'perhaps' to his justification.

"Why here?! On vacation?!" Hal said, pointing to Alan.

"I'm a busy man with a company to run! I don't have many other opportunities for this!"

"Why look for an opportunity at all!"

"Because I want you to better apply yourself, Hal! If you would just focus on improving yourself, you could do wonders! Not just with your powers, but with other aspects of your life!"

Barry cringed. Alan veered on the edge when it came to openly discussing the feelings between Hal and Carol. Even if that didn't factor into his plan, the fact that he brought it up at all…

Just then, there was a faint snapping sound. Barry glanced around to see the source, but saw nothing. Then it happened again. Barry raised an eyebrow. The second time, it was more clear that it came from underground. But if it was underneath them, how did he hear it? The others continued to talk amongst themselves, while Barry continued to look for the source of the sound. Perhaps he was just hearing things. But in this universe, it could've been very real. Then the snapping sound morphed into a boney crunch. It was at this point that Barry looked over to the others.

"Um, guys, do you hear anything?"

Everyone paused for a moment. And then the crunching sound repeated itself, twice as loud as it had been before. Hal looked over to Alan.

"Please, for the love of God, tell me you had nothing to do with this."

Alan shot fed-up eyes towards the other Lantern. "After the discussion we just had? No! I don't know what's happening!"

Then a reptilian hand burst from the ground. Energy glowed from the hands of Carol, Hal, and Alan. Jay adjusted his helmet, Barry pulled his mask up over his face, and Jessica readied her venom blasts. Hal created a machine gun with his ring and began firing at the hand ad nauseum, but that was not enough to stop the creature from emerging out from the underground of the Xandarian wilderness.

It was a thick-plated, emerald beast, with red skin visible in its nostrils. It bore dark purple spikes across its gigantic back, and a hard light violet underbelly. In terms of sheer length, this reptilian horror was around the daunting size of a full-grown humpback whale. It snarled, and then it roared to the six superheroes.

"What in the name of God?!" Hal shouted as he resumed firing his assault rifle against the monster. "This things are supposed to be found on the opposite side of the planet!"

"Looks like this one didn't get the memo!" Jessica stated back as she, Carol, and Alan all flew up into the air. "I've never known my venom blasts to work on reptiles, but here goes nothing!"

The sound of a humming 'kazat' resounded in the air as Jessica attacked, using her blasts against the monster. Alan created an IBM with his ring and launched it at the creature, while Carol flew down and blasted energy towards its belly. It tried to slash and claw at the heroes, but they were able to dodge its swipes.

Jay zoomed towards the creature's face and took his helmet off. He began slamming his hand into his helmet, creating vibrational soundwaves that echoed throughout and struck the creature. Hal began to form a gigantic suit of armor – not unlike a 'Hulkbuster' suit that Barry had once seen in Stark's laboratory – and used it to boost his powers, launching energy balls at the monster with his arm cannons.

"Impressive, son" Alan stated as he flew around the reptile. Alan created a biplane, its engine almost as loud as the creature's bellows, and sent it crashing into the animal, it let out a deafening moan of pain. Its attention was now directed towards the senior Lantern, and it finally struck a blow. In that instant, its claws dug into Alan's skin, and the force sent him crashing into the ground, taking him out of the fight.

Barry had an idea pop into his head. He began zooming around. In an instant, he was in a Xandarian city; aside from sky-blue shading, circular building architecture, and extravagant fountains, he didn't get to see much of the city. Or any of the other ones that he began to speed by. He was circling around the entire planet, passing by several biomes akin to the ones found on Earth (for Xandar was not a Star Wars-styleplanet with only one single biome). In a few moments, Barry had zoomed back to the forest they had been camping in, where the creature was still bellowing mighty roars as it attacked the other superheroes. Barry jumped up into the air and pulled his arm back, ready to strike the creature. When he neared its face, he extended his arm upfront and punched it in the face. Lightning crackled through the air as it screamed in pain.

Everyone took a moment to watch the creature as it struggled to recover. Alan got back onto his feet and growled as he readied himself for another fight. Barry sped over to him. "You're hurt, Alan. We'll handle it."

Alan pushed him away. "Nonsense. Hal's not the only Green Lantern that's got this."

Despite his gashing wounds, Alan flew up into the air and created several rows of green fire towards the reptile just as it seemed to be regaining its bearings, But even in its injured state, the creature managed to land two more nasty swipes at Alan. He was sent farther away this time, into several trees that came crashing down with him.

"You idiot! You goddamn idiot!" Carol shouted out.

Jay was the one who sped over to Alan to make sure he was alright, while the others focused their attention to the monster.

"Alright, Hal, I'm going to need a power up!" Carol called out as they regrouped.

Hal nodded. "Sounds good. Alright, I'll give you some of my ring's energy. Barry, you create a whirlwind around the creature to distract it!"

"Can you make it quick?!" piped in Jessica, who shot out more of her venom blasts against it. "I can't hold this thing off much longer!"

Barry wasted no time after that. He began circling around the reptile, lighting cackling from his body as he did so. Dust swirled through the air as Barry went faster and faster, leaving the creature hardly able to breathe. He focused all his effort on this. He thought about what he would say to Iris about this when they got home, Suddenly, an explosion of green energy burst out towards the creature. And just like that, it collapsed onto the ground, finally knocked out.

Carol, who was fuming out green energy, breathed heavily, as did Hal. The monster had finally been vanquished.

"That creature put up one hell of a fight," Hal said, before pounding his fists. "But it was ultimately no match for us!"

Carol turned her head over to the forest, where Alan and Jay were beginning to head back over to the other heroes. "Normally I'd be with you, Hal, but we better check up on Alan."

When the two senior superheroes came over, Alan's wounds were glaring and obvious, suffering from major blood loss.

"Jesus Christ, Alan," Hal began. "I've developed a reputation for being reckless and not quitting, but…look at you!"

Alan winced, but looked Hal in the eye. "Yes…I-I understand…I probably deserve this for how I've behaved,"

He fell to the ground, and Jessica helped him up. "Let's not bring up what happened before that thing appeared right now. We need to look at your wounds."

Jessica flew into the air, carrying Alan with her, while Jay zoomed off with them. Barry, in the meantime, turned his attention over to Carol and Hal. "Don't worry. It's Alan. He'll be all right."

Hal shook his head. "I'm not sure. He seemed to be going out his way to get himself killed back there. Go make sure he's OK. I'm going to find a quiet place."

And with that, Hal flew off, quickly disappearing into the distance. Carol looked over at Barry, biting her tongue and pursing her lip. Barry nodded to her, giving her the okay that she could go talk to Hal, while he would stay to help tend to Alan's wounds. And so she flew off as well, leaving Barry alone for the moment.

It wasn't long before Carol found Hal standing on hilltop, staring off into the distance at the cloud-free sky. She levitated down to the ground and paced over to Hal. "So, Barry's right. Despite Alan's attempts otherwise, he'll live."

Hal turned around to face her, his face weary and worn as he sighed. "I knew he'd survive this. And thank God. But still….he was being a jerk."

"True."

Carol pursed her lip and rubbed her shoulder before looking back over to her comrade. "I'm still glad I went on this trip. I wish Alan didn't try to test you, but it's nice to spend time with everyone."

She placed her hand on Hal's shoulder and began to rub it. And in that moment, with nothing but a brisk wind greeting then, she did it for a little while. "And hey, don't let Alan get to you, about you being unimaginative and uncreative. I think you are talented and effective. John is the architect, and Kyle is the artist, but you have your own strengths and you play to them well. Your straightforward tactics are more efficient in my mind. Don't forget that."

Carol knew that Hal wasn't the type to doubt himself. But every now and then, people needed that extra boost of reassurance, to be told by those that care about them that they are doing well in life and should be proud of themselves.

Hal smiled over at her. "You're a good friend. A really good friend"

Carol grinned and replied, "So are you."

And with that, the two of them stared into the eyes of each other. Carol would've been lying to herself if she said that she wished this moment could last a good long while, and for the first time, she thought with absolute confidence that Hal felt the same way. What had stopped them from doing this already, Carol thought. Her hand was still on his shoulder, and she pulled him just a few inches closer. And she thought back to that moment, on New Year's Eve in 2015. When Hal almost died from the overwhelming might of the Power Stone in the battle to stop Surtur from bringing about the end of both the Earth and Asgard. And it was her who prevented Hal's death, by taking his hand and sharing the power, convincing the others to do the same.

And finally, they did it. Carol didn't second guess it for a moment. It didn't seem like Hal did, either. The two of them leaned in and kissed while hugging each other. Hal was as warm as she had always hoped he would be, and she tightened the embrace as they continued the kiss. She felt Hal place his hand on her hair, and he rubbed her head for a moment before they finally pulled away from each other.

Carol took a few heavy breaths. "I heard you were a great kisser. That was true…" she stated, keeping her arms around Hal.

Hal laughed. "I hope they didn't undersell my talent."

"Are you both quite finished?"

The voice had a vaguely British accent even though the person speaking was not from Earth. It was not deep, but it was commanding, and both Hal and Carol turned their heads to see who it was. Their eyes narrowed as they recognized an old adversary

Thaal Sinestro. In that moment of passion she shared with Hal, she did not notice so much as a whirring of energy from Sinestro's ringpower as he would've approached the two. The magenta-skinned alien, donned in yellow-and-black while sporting a trimmed mustache, levitated in the air. The symbol on his chest was black-and-white, unlike the white-and-green one that Hal sported himself. He brought himself down to the ground.

Hal ignited his ring, which began emanating green energy. "I tire of our little dance, Sinestro! And why were you on Earth?!"

Sinestro smirked. "There are some people on that planet that I have found to be worthy allies. Teth-Adam, Victor von Doom, and Erik Lensherr have all become friends of mine throughout the years."

He began walking around the two, with his arms crossed behind his back. "Erik in particular has grown desperate and reached out to me for aid with Genosha. How sad that he's been forced to reach out to the stars to help his country, since Earth's superpowers are too divided and corrupt to lend any meaningful aid to him. Even your teammates from Atlantis and Wakanda."

Carol cracked her knuckles. "Oh, I could go on for hours about that. I have my own problems with Orin and T'Challa over the whole situation. Still they are genuinely trying. But I don't buy it for a moment that you came here just for that."

Then she heard a familiar whirring sound and turned her head to the right to see that Barry had sped over to the scene. He was about to open his mouth, looking as if he needed to remind them they were late for something, but then he jumped at the sight of Sinestro.

"Good timing, Barry Allen," Sinestro said, with yellow light glowing from his ring. "This actually does concern you."

Barry tilted his head. "Um, what do you mean by that? Have the Rogues contacted you or something?"

"Oh no. Someone you'll find much more concerning did." Sinestro extended out his left head and created a construct of a familiar foe. One that years ago had managed to put up a fight against Barry, Hal, and Carol combined. "Eobard Thawne. He and Minn-Erva are here on Xandar."

Sinestro darkened his expression and lowered his head. "And I promise you, they're going to give you quite the fight. Because it was them who sent that monster, to wear you down. They are coming for you."