John and Isamot had successfully navigated their way through the asteroid belt in a stealthy and fast pace. The Gordanian ship seemed to be none the wiser of the two Green Lanterns. The two Green Lanterns just as quickly flew to the front of the ship, poised to attack it at the base of its plasma canons. Isamot narrowed his eyes as he noticed the ship did not react in anyway. The Lizarkon could immediately tell that something was just not right. John, on the other hand, was about to blast into the ship without a second thought.

"Hold it!" Isamot threw his arm in front of John to stop him. "Something's not right."

"Like what?" John asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you wanted us to blast this ship to pieces."

"Well for starters," Isamot began with an unamused look before he gestured towards the ship with his head. "Didn't you notice that we're still here and not zapped to a crisp?"

John paused for a moment before nodding, "I see your point. It's a trap then?"

"Most likely," Isamot nodded as he continued to look over the ship. "Just an unmanned cruiser in the middle of space. They wanted us to destroy it. They're probably tracking it and want it to disappear. It'll tell them exactly where we are. They'd probably put ships into hyper-drive and bombard us."

"Or they know Green Lanterns are out here already and want to confirm it. It wouldn't make sense for them to just randomly send a ship out here," John stated. "Someone ratted us out."

"Yeah but only-" Isamot then cut himself off as his eyes widened. Isamot then quickly flew off with John hot on his tail. "Those vah'sekth'mirs! Fucking Euphorians! I knew something was off!"

John frowned, "That's why they were stalling this whole time. They told either the Psions or the Gordanians that we were there. They were just bidding their time until they could get out here."

"We're not going to get there in time," Isamot growled before he looked down at his ring. "I got one shot at this."

John narrowed his eyes slightly, "You're not thinking about doing what I think you are. You won't have any juice left in your ring. It's practically suicide."

"They're sitting ducks Stewart," Isamot argued. "It's our only shot. Unless you got any better ideas."

"Hell even if both of us were to make the wormhole together it'll give us maybe a quarter of our batteries left. There's no way we'll be able to get from Euphorix to Culacao on that," John pointed out. "And that's if we don't run into any trouble on Euphorix when we get there. My gut feeling is that we're going to."

Isamot looked over to John with a look of disdain, "So you just want to leave them on that planet to fend for themselves? That's the coward's way out."

"Of course not!" John scowled. "That's not what I meant. We can't make this into a suicide mission but we don't have much of a choice. We're going to have to use our rings conservatively once we get there and play it smart. Getting ourselves killed isn't going to help things."

"Then we're doing this. It's all or nothing Stewart," the Lizarkon stated with utter conviction.

John deeply exhaled and lightly glared at his fellow Green Lantern, "Fine but if we die Isamot I'm going to kill you myself."

Isamot smirked, "I'd like to see you try nir'satk."

Predictably John found that creating a wormhole with four Green Lanterns are far less taxing than two Green Lanterns attempting the very same. What did not help was that Isamot and John did not have fully charged power rings to begin with. As they exited the wormhole, both of their rings flickered for a brief moment. The drain was more than either of them had thought it would be. The two did not have time though to be preoccupied by this as they saw a massive warship right out of Euphorix's orbit. What alarmed the two was the type of ship it was.

John swallowed, "Isamot isn't that?"

Isamot slowly nodded, "Thanagarian...dammit! The Gordanians even brought them here."

The two were about to descend into the planet's orbit until they saw a green light flying towards them. Just as quickly a power ring sailed by them. Then came another ring, followed by another, and then another.

"No," Isamot softly murmured as he involuntarily shuddered as he hung his head. "I...we didn't..."

"We're too late," John muttered with a deep frown. "We gotta see who's left and try to get them out in one piece."

Isamot placed his hands on the sides of his head as he tightly shut his eyes, "Not again...Vath..."

"Isamot come on, let's go!" John tried to spur Isamot into action. Isamot just silently floated as he shook his head. John put his hands on the Lizarkon's shoulders and roughly shook him, "Come on Isamot! We have to get down there!"

Isamot heavily breathed and his ears rang as he flicked his tail back and forth erratically. It had been five years since Isamot had last worked with another Green Lantern. He had refused to work with any other Green Lantern from any sector following Vath Sarn's death. If Isamot was being openly honest, he didn't want to work with another Green Lantern because he couldn't bear to see another one die before him. He already blamed himself for Vath's death, along with the deaths of millions of Lizarkons and Thanagarians at the hands of the Gordanians. He didn't want to be responsible for yet more lives lost. The only lives he wanted to see extinguished were the Gordanians themselves. Isamot had no other interest in this war other than to decimate Karna in retribution for what they had done on Thanagar.

It was also humiliating for the Lizarkon to admit that his greatest fear was now death itself. A death-fearing Green Lantern was hardly useful in battle let alone a war. Isamot had been careful to keep this fact hidden from even the Guardians. He didn't know what they would do with him if they found out. His second fear, which once was his greatest fear, was losing his power ring. Isamot could not stomach the thought of being stripped of his power ring when Thanagar needed him most.

Isamot found it oddly easy to work with John, despite their heated introduction to each other. He knew at their core that Lizarkons and Thanagarians were very much similar in personalities. Knowing who his wife was, Isamot could only imagine what John had to deal with back on Earth. So it didn't surprise Isamot that John knew how to handle him. That and John, unlike most Green Lanterns, had a reason to return to his homeworld in one piece. Isamot didn't have fear that John would die. He instead found himself growing an increasing amount of respect for the human; especially after Boodikka had told Isamot of all of John's accomplishments from his time in the Honor Guard and before.

The Lizarkon then felt John roughly shake him again, "There's no time for this man! Snap out of it!"

Isamot exhaled and opened his eyes. It seemed that John had finally got through to him and he nodded, "Yeah we gotta go. Stop dillydallying Stewart and move it!"

The scene John and Isamot flew into on Euphorix was more or less a disaster. A ship suddenly soared past them and unleashed five missiles. Each missile found their target turning the terrain they hit into a giant fireball. Another ship then began to open fire with a laser cannon at the ground below. John and Isamot could see a green wall forming on the ground below, shielding the Green Lanterns from the bombardment of the attacks.

"We got Thanagarian Star Cruisers and Gordanian Star-Slides," Isamot grumbled with a frown before turning to John. "Take down the Thanagarian ships first. They're designed for planetary takeovers. They have more fire power with their ion cannons than the Gordanian ships."

John swallowed before he nodded. It had been a long time since lethal force had been authorized for standard Green Lanterns. The last time he had been authorized to use lethal force was back when he was in the Honor Guard. Even then John could count on one hand the amount of times he had utilized that privilege. What was making this even more unpleasant was the fact he was going to exercise this on Thanagarians now and just not Gordanians. As much as John resented the Thanagarians for the invasion, he still felt it wasn't right.

"Got it," John quietly muttered before he flew after the Thanagarian ship still firing down onto the ground below.

John momentarily looked at his ring and contemplated making a construct. He decided against this as he knew his ring's charge was already low enough. He needed to try to conserve the ring's energy as much as possible. John quickly maneuvered in the air so that he was behind the ship and then unleashed a spread of rapid fire shots from his power ring. The ship's rear thrusters becomes filled with holes and smoke upon impact before they exploded. The evident damage caused the ship to spiral out of control down towards the ground.

John was about to move onto the next target before an ion beam barely missed striking him. John quickly arced through the air as he was followed by a Thanagarian Star Cruiser. Ion beams were streaking across the sky as their shots were just missing the Green Lantern. John then smirked to himself as he continued to weave around and dodge the shots from the Thanagarian ship. Right now he was extremely grateful for the flying lessons that Shayera had insisted on doing with him. According to her John didn't know how to properly fly or at least not up to Thanagarian standards. While John knew he was nowhere near as graceful as she was in the air he found that he was much more nimble than before.

John made a tight U-turn and flew underneath the ship. He then unleashed a simple power beam against the hull of the ship. The beam must have struck the engine as black smoke billowed from the undercarriage. The ship then began to slowly fall from the sky, undoubtedly to crash to the ground below. John smirked in triumphant until another ship came into his peripheral vision. He turned his head to see a missile flying towards him. Before he could react, a green wall appeared before him. The missile struck the wall and exploded. Thankfully the construct had absorbed the explosion and had left John unscathed. Just as quickly an axe construct, which John recognized to be an Nth metal axe by the design of it, appeared and slammed into the Thanagarian ship, slicing it in two and causing each half to explode. Isamot then floated in front of John.

"You're welcome," Isamot said with an unamused look. "Don't get sloppy on me Stewart. Always keep your eyes open."

"And here I thought I'd just close my eyes," John sarcastically retorted.

Isamot scowled, "While you've been playing around in the air I've been shooting down these bastards. Shooting little beams at them is going to take too long. You're a Green Lantern. Use that damned imagination of yours."

"I'm trying to conserve power. Throwing out constructs left and right isn't the smartest move," John pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "As it is we can't make it back to Culacao on our own. I rather not have my ring give out while fighting or, even worse, while in midair. Last time I checked neither of us can fly without our rings."

Isamot immediately opened his mouth to retort but then paused for a moment. He then lightly frowned as he responded, "You've got a point; I'll give you that. I think we took enough of their aerial support down. Let's see what we can do on the ground."

John mockingly gestured for Isamot to go first, "After you then."

"Fir'zerth," Isamot rolled his eyes and mumbled before flying off.

"Kyle, Kilowog on me!" Katma ordered as she maintained a massive wall construct in order to hold back the Gordanians advancing towards them.

Kyle smirked as he created a mac truck construct and had it barrel through a hoard of Gordanians. He lightly chuckled as he had the construct blare its horn, "That never gets old."

"On the double Rayner!" Katma yelled at him as Kilowog was already at her side.

"Always ruining the fun," Kyle sighed and rolled his eyes underneath his domino mask. He created a whip construct to knock back the remaining combatants away from him before he flew over to Katma and Kilowog.

"What's the plan Kat?" Kilowog asked. "We're outnumbered here big time."

"We get back to Boodikka and Chaselon. They're under heavy fire and we can't afford to lose anymore from the Honor Guard," she stated as she glared at the Gordanians attacking her construct wall. She noticed the small cracks forming in the construct with each hit from their staffs. Katma gritted her teeth and focused to repair the damage. She then turned her gaze to Kyle and Kilowog, "And don't forget lethal force is authorized so do take care to exercise it."

Kyle's eyes widened under his mask, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Lethal force? You want me to use lethal force on these guys? You're kidding me right? I've never killed anyone before. I...I can't do that!"

"This is war Rayner," Katma dryly replied. "Either we get killed or they do. What would you rather have happen?"

Kilowog swallowed and then sighed as he placed his hand on Kyle's shoulder, "I get it poozer. It's never easy the first time but Kat's right. It's either them or us."

"Them or us," Kyle murmured as he looked down and frowned. He then sighed as he looked up and nodded, "Got it but what about John and Isamot? If they come back here they'll be walking right into a death trap." Katma and Kilowog were both silent and just glanced at each other. Kyle looked back and forth between them, "We are going to wait for them right?"

"Look kid," Kilowog began with a frown. "John's not a rookie. He'll be able to handle himself and from what I've seen Isamot can too. Sometimes you gotta look out for yourself first before you can look out for others."

"This isn't what I signed up for," Kyle asserted with a light glare. "I signed up to help people, not to go kill and leave behind my friends and teammates." Katma opened her mouth to reply but was immediately cutoff by Kyle, "And I don't give a damn about this being a war. It's not right!"

"I'm sorry to destroy your little, precious bubble but this is your reality now Rayner," Katma scathingly said. "You best get used to it." She then sent out a shockwave from the wall construct, knocking back the Gordanians. She then flew into the sky and looked down to Kyle and Kilowog, "Let's move it!"

Kyle and Kilowog looked at each other and nodded as they followed after Katma. Not far off in the distance an explosion could both be seen and heard. The trio then saw a ship, engulfed in flames, as it crashed to the ground and created yet another explosion. They then saw John and Isamot but before they could garner their attention, the two quickly flew off.

"No wonder things seemed to be getting easier. They were taking down those damn ships for us. At least they got here and we don't have to worry about them now," Kyle stated but then saw Katma narrow her eyes at him. He in turn frowned, "What? It's not like you don't care about John."

Katma lightly scowled, "That's irrelevant at this point. John Stewart is a friend and equal. Like you and Kilowog, I will not let him die so easily if I have a say so in it." The Korugaran then smirked, "I would, as you humans would say, put up one hell of a fight before allowing that to happen."

Kyle smirked, "Damn straight you would."

Kilowog likewise smirked and nudged Kyle, "Don't count me out either poozer. I'll be the one kicking the most ass. Now, let's go help Isamot and John out. They're headed straight for Boodikka and Chaselon's location. They're going to be entering the worst of the battle."