A/N: Preview for "Lantern's Light- Extinguished", part of my "Justice League Hellmouth Series".
"Couldn't sleep either?" Vi asked Dawn as she walked out of the berthing. The brown haired teen was standing at the memorial wall. It was something Vi and Dawn had both insisted be added onto the ship before launch- to serve as a reminder as to why they were doing what they were doing.
Dawn shook her head. "Are we really sure Xander can help?"
Vi shrugged. "Stark seemed to think he had a plan. And it's not like he could hurt at this point- everyone else seems to have given up completely."
Seeing the remnants of both The Avengers and The Justice League pretty much self-destruct hadn't been pretty.
Looking at the memorial wall, Dawn reached up and touched Buffy's name. "Can you blame them? After the Battle of Wakanda, hope is in short supply."
Vi's gaze settled on the the plaques for Willow Rosenberg, Harry Osborne and Gwen Stacy, her primary mentors, and sighed. "At least we're doing something. Accepting things like the others have, seems like admitting defeat... And defeat in this case is unacceptable."
"But... But what if there isn't anything Xander can do? What if the only way to bring everyone back was with the Infinity Stones?" Dawn asked, her self doubts finally being brought to the surface.
"You're not asking me anything I haven't asked myself a hundred times," Vi admitted.
Ganthet looked at the Dark Knight judgingly. The human looked as if he'd been through a warzone. His black plated armor was riddled with chips and cracks and some parts were discolored by scorch marks. "Batman of Earth, why have you come to Odym? Rage and Fear will not serve you here."
"I've come in search of hope," Xander answered honestly.
Ganthet frowned. "To what end?"
"I... I am not entirely sure," Xander replied as his shoulder's slumped in defeat. "My plan, such as it is, has very little hope of succeeding."
"Then I cannot help you," Ganthet said with dismay. "Batman, I must warn you. You MUST find your Hope soon, for dark times are coming. Without hope, the War of Lights will go unchecked and Blackest Night will fall upon all skies, across all worlds."
Thaal Sinestro sat in his cell, calmly accessing his situation. Try as the Green Lantern Corps might try to hide it, something major was going on. They were too panicked for anything else.
Not to mention, half of the prisoners had suddenly turned to dust simultaneously.
There was also the fact that Kilowog was seemingly studying him with a frown on his face. Most who frowned at him, did so with disgust or even hatred. Kilowog had once been among them. Not so much at the present moment, however. If anything, Kilowog looked as if he might be trying to figure him out.
"Thaal, what is it that you know that we don't," Kilowog inquired.
Sinestro chuckled. "Would you like a list?"
Now Kilowog's frown was one of disgust. "Trillions... Quadrillions... All across the Galaxy have vanished. Those left are in a panic. Various planets are mobilizing their forces, and not just the more militant ones like Hala or Skrullos, but even Aerie and Daxam are readying for war. We've already had several skirmishes with both the Red Lanterns and your own forces and yet you react to none of it."
"Is there a question in all of that?" Sinestro asks calmly.
It takes Kilowog great effort to not lash out at the prisoner. "What do you know?"
"Why not ask the Guardians?" Sinestro counters with a question of his own. "I've been in my cell with no contact with the outside universe."
Kilowog's hateful glare and his silence is damning.
"I take it they are no longer an option?" Sinestro asked rhetorically in a mocking manner. "All I have is conjecture at this point. The Book of Oa is the largest respository of knowledge in the entire Galaxy... Possibly even the universe."
"Your point?" Kilowog replied, beginning to lose what little patience he had with the former Green and Yellow Lantern.
"Try asking your ring about 'The Black Book'," Sinestro responded.
"A black book?" Kilowog asked, greatly confused.
"The Black Book," Sinestro corrected. "I guarantee you, your ring will not know of it. You see, the Guardians loved to hide information from their chosen agents. The Manhunters were merely the tip of the iceberg. The atrocities they committed goes far beyond what the Guardians were willing to admit. My ring would only mention The Black Book, though not it's contents, because I was there when it was recovered."
"Say I believe you, what was in this 'Black Book'?" Kilowog inquired.
"I cannot say."
"Can't? Or Won't?" Kilowog said accusingly.
Sinestro leveled Kilowog with a glare of his own. "Can't. I wasn't the one who recovered it and thus I did not read it. Afterwords, the book itself was given over to the Guardians and we were ordered to never speak of what we found or where we found it. My guess is prophecy. Beyond that, you need Finn- or rather, his ring- the Ring of Abin Sur."
"You WILL tell me what I want to know!" Riley demanded, his body alight with a menacing red glow.
His battered and beaten opponent, a Green Lantern, responded by weakly attempted to lift his ring in retaliation, sending a weak blast at him.
Riley, overcome with rage at his former comrade's defiance and refusal to cooperate, supercharged his aura- causing the blast of green energy to have no effect. He then sent a blast of his own at the Green Lantern.
"Useless..." Riley spat and turned away from the fallen Green Lantern in disgust as Dex-Starr jumped onto his shoulder. "Bleez, Razer, we're done here!"
Riley then ripped open a crimson portal as the two Red Lanterns joined him, all three of them stepping through it.
Behind them, completely unobserved, three green glowing rings and two yellow ones, flew off to parts unknown.
Planet 0259-S a.k.a. "Garden"
As the shadowy figure moved through the lush growth, everything around him withered and died. It didn't take him long to discover the abandoned cottage. With a wave of his hand, a miasma of black energy rotted the cottage and everything in it away, turning all but a skeleton to dust. The skull was a short distance away from the rest of it.
"Fools," It commented with a sadistic smirk and an amused chuckle as It picked up the skull and began to chant.
"The Blackest Night falls from the skies,
The darkness grows as all light dies,
We crave your hearts and your demise,
By my black hand, the dead shall rise!"