Disclaimer: The characters Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Superman & Flash and their respective secret identities are all owned by DC Comics. This story is intended for my own pleasure and is not for profit. It has been posted to this site for others to read. Places and characters not own by DC Comics are my own creation.

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Incident at Amwor - A Lantern's Tale
A Justice League Unlimited Story
by BillA1
Copyright August 2006
Rating: (PG-13)
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Synopsis: Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway. - A John Stewart /Droxelle Story

Notes: Spoilers up through "Destroyer." A sequel to Incident at Nagbor - A Lantern's Tale. The Lantern Tales series inspired by an email exchange with crhblack. A huge thank you to Merlin Missy for her beta on this story.

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CHAPTER ONE
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"You only live twice: Once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face." - Bassho

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Fifteen months after Shayera Hol escaped a Thanagarian ambush on an unnamed moon
(A hostel on Altair IV) /center

His eyes snapped open in the dimly lit room. It had taken a lot of practice, but he'd trained himself to wake up before she did. It helped that this room faced the roadway so he could hear the steady droning of morning street traffic outside the door. She, on the other hand, ignored it all and slept through the noise. He shook his head slightly, reminding himself that she was tired from her recent patrol and the squawking of ten mating hadipps wouldn't have awakened her. Still, he'd make a mental note that in the future, when they returned here to their favorite inn, they'd get a room on the other side of the building, away from the traffic and the morning sun sneaking into their room through the vertical blinds.

For reasons he'd never be able to adequately describe to anyone other than himself, he found it very satisfying to know that this powerful woman took pleasure in his company. He'd never met anyone like her before and he secretly smiled as this blue-skinned, blonde haired woman seemed to be trying to crawl up his body in her sleep. He moved one of his left arms slightly and as if they were magnetically drawn to each other, her head cradled itself on his chest. His smile broadened when he heard what seemed to be a sigh of contentment escape her lips.

She draped her arm across his chest and he thought to himself that he would have no regrets if the world ended at this moment, for this was a moment he never wanted to end.

He held her a little closer, but not too tightly as he tenderly moved her hair off her face. The strap of her nightgown had slid down her arm as if encouraging him to playfully stroke her shoulder, but he didn't, for fear of causing her additional pain. It was so hard for him not to stare at the bruises on her upper shoulders and around her neck from her latest encounter with some bad guy on some planet in the area she'd patrolled.

She'd told him the name of the villain and how she had dispatched him, but that wasn't important to him at the time --- or now. The only thing that really mattered to him was that she had come back safe and wanted to take comfort in his arms, comfort he wanted to provide.

Suddenly, the ring on her hand started to flash and vibrate rousing her from her sleep. She jumped up, grimacing as she did so, and ringed a uniform on herself. She looked back over her shoulder at him.

Torr-Chal smiled and mouthed the words, "Good morning." She smiled back at him, but said nothing. He'd been startled the first time the ring called her, but in the several years they'd been dating, he was no longer surprised by anything she did.

Droxelle pointed the ring toward the ceiling and called out, "Green Lantern of sector 872 here." He reached across the bed to the night stand on her side and turned the little alarm clock around so he could see the time. He frowned. It was still too early for them to get up

A greenish holographic image formed in front of her and a little, big-headed man with the same coloring as Droxelle answered, "Greetings, Green Lantern of sector 872."

Torr-Chal had so many questions about the ring Droxelle wore, but he never asked them. She had cautioned him early in their relationship that she was in a dangerous line of work and the less he knew, the better she'd feel. "I might leave on a mission one day and never come back. Let's just live in the moment," she'd said more than once. So he never pressed the issue. After all, they were friends. Just friends, he kept reminding himself, but he knew and he knew that she knew they were more than just friends, much more.

"Our intel," the little blue man said, "believes that Daan-Ro, the leader of the Legion of Fire, is hiding on the planet Amwor in your sector. Kilowog broke up his gang on Bolovax a month ago; however, Daan-Ro and a few of his gang members escaped. We want you to bring him back to Oa so we can incarcerate him in the sciencells. The Green Lantern of sector 2814 will arrive at Amwor in two of your days. He will assist you in the capture of this criminal."

The little man paused. "Any questions?"

"No questions. Expect him on Oa shortly."

The blue man was silent for a moment and then he said, "Good luck, Green Lantern. Graila out!"

The image faded and Torr-Chal sat up. He glanced at the door, then back to her. "Do you have to go right now?" he asked, knowing what her answer would be.

Droxelle leaned across the bed and kissed him on the forehead. "Duty calls," she said as she walked to the door. He got up, retrieved his smock that he'd placed on the chair next to the table the night before, put it on and followed her. She opened the door, faced him and said, "I'll be back the day after tomorrow and then you can remind me how much you miss me."

He smiled, gently held her by the shoulders (reminding himself of her bruises) and kissed her. "I miss you already."

She stepped out of his embrace, grabbed his upper right hand and pressed it against the side of her face, kissed it and stepped back on to the terrace. "Be sure to hold that thought. See you in a couple of days."

He watched her shoot toward the heavens and disappear in the red morning sky. Before he stepped back into his room, Torr-Chal noticed the Thanagarian couple who'd recently bought the inn had watched Droxelle leave as well. He waited the half-second it took for the woman to notice him looking at them before he waved at her. The couple waved back as the woman yelled, "Good morning," to him in Basic. He returned her greeting and closed the door.

Inside the room, he silently prayed to his gods that they would allow Droxelle to return from this mission. And if they did, he'd marry her if she would have him.

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There was only one settlement on Amwor, a little planet rotating around a blue sun. Its small population of two hundred would have immediately noticed any new arrivals. She nodded to herself. All she'd have to do was make a couple of inquiries and she'd find this Daan-Ro character quickly. He was clearly a foolish man because this arid, desert-like planet with its limited technology was not the place for an outsider to hide.

As she approached Amwor's atmosphere, Droxelle considered that she looked forward to working with her trainer again. It had been several years since she'd seen John Stewart last and more time than she'd like to admit since he quietly, but firmly, told her he wasn't interested in her in that way.

A long time ago she realized that Stewart wouldn't be interested in her as long as Katma was interested in him. Then she met Torr-Chal and didn't give John Stewart another thought. She'd heard the rumors from other friends in the Corps that after Stewart and Katma split up, he fell in love with a Thanagarian who worked him over pretty good. Those same rumors said he'd since taken up with a human female, but Droxelle knew it wouldn't last. Just as a ciongaclack wouldn't eat in the same place it slept, John Stewart would never fall in love with one of his own kind.

Anyway, Stewart's love life wasn't her problem. She had Torr-Chal and knew that when the mission was over, she would go her way and John would go his because that's what Lanterns did. At least, that's what she was going to do.

She'd arrived on Amwor about fourteen hours ahead of John Stewart by her estimate; that was assuming he was coming from the center point of his own sector. More than enough time to find Daan-Ro and maybe even apprehend him before Stewart got there. After all, she'd had plenty of missions since her sector assignment. She wasn't a rookie anymore, having been tested by the bad guys of her region over the years and easily besting them all.

Upon landing, Droxelle made her inquiries and was told of a stranger who frequented the only bar in the settlement. She had little difficulty finding the place. The entire settlement was comprised of twenty multi-storied buildings, ten on each side of the single street that ran through the center of the town. Shops and stores were on the first floor and residences were on the upper levels.

The tavern, from the outside, was the kind of drinking establishment she expected to find in the seedier sections of her homeworld Chelor. The inside of the bar lived down to her expectations as well. There were no stools at the bar counter, but there were five tables with two chairs each in the center of the dimly lit room. There were perhaps five people in the place counting the bartender and Droxelle. She noted upon entering the place everyone looked up at her except for one man, seated at a table, who ignored her and continued to gaze into his drink.

She asked the bartender to point out the stranger in town. He nodded at Droxelle, then motioned with his eyes toward the man at the table, the one who didn't look up when she entered. "Orders one drink and looks at it all day long," the barkeeper said. "I mean he just stares at it. He's the first customer in the morning and the last one to leave at night, but I don't make another coin from him after he buys the first - not one more coin."

Droxelle nodded in acknowledgment and said, "Give me a Lavian Sloe." The barkeeper nodded and Droxelle turned, leaned with her back against the bar and faced the stranger at the table. The stranger looked up at her as if he sensed she was looking at him.

Suddenly he stood and walked toward her, bringing his drink with him. His floor-length blue tunic and hood hid his face and most of his body as he seemed to glide across the floor to her.

She heard the clunking sound of a goblet being placed on the counter behind her and the bartender saying: "Here you go," but she never took her eyes off the stranger as she watched him walk up to the bar and stand next to her. "That's not the drink of a pretty woman," he said pointing behind her.

Droxelle turned, picked up the blue drink in front of her and then faced the stranger. She thought it odd that she still could not see his face as close as he was. "Are you Daan-Ro?" she asked, not as a question but as an accusation.

The stranger lowered his head and looked down into his drink, turning partially away from her. "Look, Green Lantern," he said softly. "I just want to be left alone. I don't want to hurt anybody. I quit the Legion business months ago. I just want to live quietly by myself here on this planet." He turned and moved further down the bar, away from her. He kept his back toward her.

Droxelle set her drink back on the counter without tasting it, stepped away from the bar, rose in the air and floated toward the center of the room. "The way I heard it, Daan-Ro, you had help quitting," she said. "I'm taking you to Oa to stand before the Guardians of the Universe for your crimes. You can come along quietly or you can come along unconscious. It doesn't matter to me which one you choose." She readied her ring.

Daan-Ro turned and for the first time she could see his small, beady yellow eyes piercing the darkness of his hood. "Why won't people leave me alone? I didn't want to hurt anyone, but they wouldn't give me what I wanted. And now you're not giving me what I want either. Is peace and quiet too much to ask?" He sighed loudly and starting walking toward her. He stopped when he was three meters away. "I'm trying to change. Can't you see that? I'm asking you nicely to leave me alone, Chelorian. I don't want to hurt you."

Droxelle smirked at him. "Unconscious it will be then," she said as she ringed a bubble around Daan-Ro and started moving toward the door with the bubble in tow. The smile fell off her face as she watched him suddenly liquefy and fall out of her bubble. He rapidly snaked in front of her and slithered behind her. She spun to follow. Yellow shapeshifter!

He pointed his fingers at her. She instinctively ringed a shield in front of herself just as he flung his yellow fingers, which assumed the shapes of ice picks, at her.

Droxelle didn't have time to utter a sound as the yellow darts pierced her shield and her flesh as easily as a fish moved in water. She fell to the floor, face first, paralyzed and writhing in pain. She was sure she was being shredded. She heard her own screams filling the bar. She'd never felt pain like this before. She couldn't breathe because she was screaming and she couldn't stop screaming because of the pain. Help. Me. Her ring responded to her mental cry, creating a homing beacon to John Stewart, to any Lantern.

As she lay on the floor unable to move, unable to stop screaming, she could hear Daan-Ro approach. And the instant the hem of his robe skirted her face, she prayed for death or anything that would just… make… the… pain… stop.

Ignoring her screams, he knelt down beside her and whispered in her ear, "I told you I'd changed and wished to be left alone." He placed a gold colored coin on the floor in front of her, and then gently, almost lovingly, repositioned her head so she could see the coin between her screams.

He stood and wiped her tears from his hands.

Just as the darkness finally overwhelmed her, releasing her from the pain, she heard Daan-Ro say, "This is for your suffering, Green Lantern. By the way, your drink is on me."

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