As we sped thru space, leaving the Milky Way galaxy and heading towards Oa, Annabelle finally stopped trying to break free. She was pushing my willpower to the max, but this time, I was not going to falter. She was going to answer for what she had done. Maybe I should have listened to Ganthet and had destroyed her when I had the chance.

Not destroy. Murder her. And that is not the way I do things. At the time, she hadn't done anything wrong. It's just amazing that she became so drunk with power so quickly. Hopefully the Guardians can do something. Maybe separate her from this Phoenix force and send it back where it came from, while Annabelle gets the proper punishment.

As I sped thru the Fenri Galaxy, I started to think of Oa. Hard to believe that I considered it as much my home as I did Earth. Than again, I have spent so much time there. From training as a Lantern, to being stationed on the planet for my first couple years in service to the Guardians. Course, it helped that it was such a beautiful planet. I often joked that it was really Oz, cause of all the emerald structures there. And of course all the different races of life forms that the Guardians had recruited to be Lanterns really made it as close to a melting pot as one could get.

And there was the fact that it was the center of the universe. It is where all life expanded from in my universe. That, of course, had made it a constant target for the standard cosmic nihilist. Like anything else, if the center goes, everything else will crumble around it.

"What a pity that would be" I heard in my head. I came to a sudden and complete stop as I turned to face Annabelle. "Awww, poor baby thought he was keeping me out of his head. Like a pathetic human like you could stop the Phoenix!" the thoughts echoed thru my skull.

I stared at her, our eyes looking. Hers red with fire, mine as green as my powers, neither one willing to look away. At that moment, without even thinking it, we both knew what the other was going to do. She was going to destroy Oa, wanting to end life everywhere all because of her own loss. I would die to stop that from happening.

She smiled at me, as my face got red with anger, and I shouted at her "You are going to condemn everyone to death, every living being in this universe, all because of your own personal loss?"

Than came the laugh. So cold and wicked, ringing in my head. "My personal loss? You foolish child. This body is my vessel. It was due to her loss that I was able to latch on. I always need a host, but this one, with her mental powers, reminded me of my favorite host from another universe. One I have longed to get back, but this woman, she is so close in power, how could I resist.

"It didn't take much to bond with her. Once she remembered what had happened. She longed for revenge and I offered it to her. A chance for retribution, and to be young again. I even convinced her that I will reunite her with her husband. Of course, once she was able to see what I was doing to those males, she tried to fight back. By than though, she had given away too much of herself to me, and she is just a helpless witness."

I floated there, shocked. It finally dawned on me why it was so imperative to capture this entity before it bonded with a person. On its own, it couldn't act. Once it had a living being, it took it over and used that person as its puppet. That's all Annabelle was to it now. She hadn't committed those crimes after all. Or at least not directly. The Phoenix used her for her own sick, demented pleasure.

"Finally figured that out. And you are supposed to be a big hero." And than her "wings" those flame wings, shout out and destroyed the cage I had her in. "I've been waiting to do that for hours now. But, I figured I'd play along and wait for your mind to relax a bit. Once I felt those thoughts of Oa, now that caught my attention."

"No!" I yelled, as I pointed my ring and shot at her. I wanted it to hurt, so I made the ray take the forms of hundreds of spikes. Problem was none of them reached her. She stopped them with her mind, effortlessly, as I sat and strained trying to will them to move, but it was no good.

"Poor dear" she said, "trying so hard to beat me. Such willpower you have. If I had known that, I would have sought you out to begin with. No matter, for now, I bid you good-bye. I need a nice snack, I am famished. Until we meet again, Jake Corrigan. I'll see you on Oa."

I felt the pull, I tried to stop it, but as I tried to think, my mind went………………….

Blank? I was still in the same spot as before, but Annabe….the Phoenix was gone. I got mind fucked. That bitch completely fucked my mind over. I started back up to Oa again when I saw it.

The Phoenix force in all it's glory. It was light years away from me, at the center of the Fenri galaxy, yet the image was so big, it still dwarfed me. It was feeding off the sun. I started to head towards her, when it all went black. She had drained the sun of all its energy and left it a burnt out star. The Phoenix had just doomed this galaxy. Without the sun, all life would eventually die out for these inhabitants. More so than on Earth, this galaxy relied on its sun. Its inhabitants sustained their lives by the solar rays of it, and now, it was gone.

I finally realized it. I can't win. I can't stop her. The Phoenix is too powerful. It just doomed an entire galaxy, all because it was "hungry". She had done nothing but manipulate and toy with me since the start. No, I couldn't defeat her.

At least not alone. It was time to call them. Time to bring in the Green Lantern Corps