Chapter Seven — The Ties That Bind
1994; fourteen
"The universe is there, screaming HELP ME. You stand there with bloodied hands trying. It's not enough; it never will be."
Guy Gardner was twenty-eight, he was loud and brash and for the past month or so, since having passed through boot-camp, not just an official Green Lantern but Arley Glucks partner.
Arley walked down the New York City street next to her partner, the pair of them in their uniforms; Arleys hood was drawn up over the head and her hands were shoved deep into her pockets.
Arley loved the ring, she loved the Corps, she hated the stares she got when walking down the street. Everyone's eyes seemed to be drawn to her, judging her for one thing or another.
People judged her for not being around when a forest fire broke out in the Amazon even though another planet was under attack from a warlord and that took precedence. Or they judged her because they hated the clothes she wore; some people thought it was tacky she wore the same clothes over and over and others bashed her for the nice clothes Carol had gone out of her way to buy for Arley. Or they judged the fact she was human or a girl or young or anything else that she couldn't exactly control.
She never seemed to be good enough and people, as they stared at her, reminded her of that fact.
Carol said every famous person was looked at all the time, sports stars, celebrities, anyone with a notable face that went out into public had eyes constantly on them, but that didn't make Arley feel any better.
She just wanted them to stop. She had what she needed— a warm place to rest, food in her belly and a patchwork family she adored —she didn't need notability for doing what she was meant to be doing or the weight of what the lives around her felt was good enough.
She did her best, she kept as many people as possible alive and safe every day.
"What were you thinking for dinner?" Guy asked as they turned left. Carol had been in England the past two days for work and for some reason Guy had taken it upon himself to feed Arley, even though she was perfectly fine feeding herself.
She'd been on her own longer than Guy had been a legal adult; they had learned to use the toaster around the same time.
"Burgers?"
"We had burgers yesterday."
"Burgers are quick, if something happens we need to be ready."
"You're telling me you live off burgers?"
"Sort of," Arley shrugged, "Carol keeps pastas and stuff in the house but if I can't reheat it in a minute or two I don't really eat it."
"All that microwave radiation cannot be good for you," Guy lectured.
Something Arley had found out since Guy had entered boot camp was that though he had gone from parole officer to gym teacher the man didn't just love food, he coveted it in the same kind of way good critics did. Arley didn't see the point, if it filled her and she was able to stomach it then it was fine.
"Yeah but not getting to the emergency in time is bad for everyone else," Arley replied, she could only imagine what people would say if she was late to an emergency she had to prioritize over the others; one that mattered. "Besides, burgers everyday still beat Gotham dumpster food."
People seemed to forget she was a street kid at one point, living off dumpster diving, petty thievery and the random kindness of complete strangers. Food was food.
"Yeah but you don't have to survive off dumpster food anymore, and what's not actually good for anyone is if you kick it before your goddamn time because of all that radiation you eat."
Arley tried not to roll her eyes; Guy was new. He'd get it sooner rather than later, who cared what they ate when they lived on a timer?
Arley would be gone before him— everyday she got closer to the emerald casket that haunted her nightmares —killed in the heat of battle so what did it matter if the microwaves radiation twisted her insides?
If she could, the girl would have stuffed her hands deeper into her pockets. If she could, Arley would have dispersed then and there. Guy couldn't question her if he couldn't see her. People couldn't judge her if she just went poof.
"Lantern Gluck!" Arley turned with a smile as she heard the scratchy voice of Salem Adderson.
Arley had met Salem on Passover Seder back when she had still been new at being a Lantern. She's been walking around much like she and Guy were doing and he had seen her solemn look and invited her in for food.
Food, Salem had said Was better shared than hoarded.
It was during that dinner that Arley had learned a lot about Salem. He had escaped Germany's occupation of the Ukraine during World War Two. He had lost most of his family before the escape— his parents, twin sister and wife had all been killed either from violence or lack of access to medicine —but had managed to smuggle his two young children out of the country through Catholic Orphanages before he himself had left for the US.
Arley had promised she would try to find them and while that had been years ago, the only thing Arley could find— with Bruce and Dicks help —was where Salem's children had been smuggled to once they and the other orphans had managed to get out of Ukraine.
Everything after that went cold. Arley hadn't been able to find anything after Salem's two children Radu and Rachel had been smuggled to the United States via a loosely manned ship bound to Ellis Island.
"Salem!" Arley beamed with a wave, "How are you?"
"I am good Green Lantern, very good!" Arleys brows rose.
"Oh?"
"That man you work with, the Batman, came by last night."
"He did?" Arley asked; Bruce never left Gotham. Every day the city got crazier and crazier and even with Dick Grayson at his side the two of them were struggling to maintain the shaky semblance of order they had started to keep in the oceanside city.
"He found my Rachel," Salem beamed, "Or well—" Salem shrugged, "—He found my granddaughter Mary. Oh Green Lantern, I have a granddaughter!"
"That's great Salem, I-Bats, he didn't tell me," Arley grimaced; she wouldn't take credit for work that wasn't hers, "But a granddaughter? How old?"
"Older than you. She has a family of her own, the Batman he gave me pictures and a number to call." There were tears in the man's eyes; Arley had eaten dinner with Salem from time to time since meeting him and never had she seen the man beam the way he was.
"Salem, that's awesome," Arley congratulated. She let out a laugh as Salem with thin, wrinkly hands grabbed hers out of her pocket.
"Thank you!"
"Salem I didn't do anything, it was Bats."
"The Batman's letter said that if it weren't for your persistence in finding my daughter he would have never been able to keep on it."
Arley felt herself blush; sure she kept looking for Salem's children and sure she asked Bruce if he had any updates every once in a while but it wasn't like she had hounded the Dark Knight.
Arley looked at Guy who's brows had risen. She then looked at Salem.
"It was nothing Salem, Bats did the heavy lifting."
"Still—" Salem sniffled, "—Thank you."
"Have you called yet?" Arley asked as she took her hands back from the elderly man.
"No. I am scared."
"What?" Arleys brows rose, "Of what?"
"What-what if my daughter dose not remember me. Or what if she dose not want to hear from me?" Salem expressed.
"Why wouldn't she want to hear from you?"
"I abandoned her and Radu, I meant to stay close by but I lost them for all these years."
"That's not your fault Salem, you had to hide." He'd done what he had needed to for both him and his children to survive and that had meant putting visible distance between himself and them.
"And if she dose not see it it that way?"
"Then she's forgotten what sacrifice means, if my father had done what you did Salem I would never turn him away!" Arley argued.
She didn't even know what her father looked like; there were no pictures. Arley would give anything to know something about the man outside what could be scrapped together from his immigration file— once her father had smuggled himself into the country he had applied for asylum —and the paper thin police report on his murder.
"Thank you," Salem sniffled. A moment later, "Green Lantern?"
"Yeah?" There was the ghost of a smile playing in Arleys lips.
"Do you think you could come and make that call with me? I do not wish to be alone." Arley looked to Guy who had been silent; they had been trying to get dinner after all. Despite that though, the red heads eyes flickered upwards as he nodded.
Arleys head swiveled back to Salem, "Of course Salem."
"Thank you."
..
An hour and a half later Arley and Guy sat in Arley's favorite East Side diner with half eaten burgers in front of them.
Salem had needed to ring his daughter twice before her daughter Mary had picked up; Salem had gotten so weepy at the start of the call Arley had taken the phone from him— she had introduced herself to Mary and explained what the rather random Tuesday call was all about —while Guy had helped the elder man calm down.
After that it had been smooth sailing; Kathrine had remembered her father. She too had been looking for him and her brother; she and Radu had been separated upon entry into the United States. Him to a seminary and her to a nice loving Catholic family that hadn't been able to conceive any children of their own.
When the two Lanterns had left Salem had been making plans to go to Nebraska to visit his daughter and reunite.
"It's sweet, what you and Bat did for the man," Guy said.
"It was nothing," Arley shrugged. "When he told me what happened, how could I not try to help?"
"Kid—" though it annoyed Arley to no extent when Guy called her kid, she didn't snap at him to stop; when Guy called her kid it wasn't because he was talking down to her; he said it just as he would any nickname. "—You reunited a man with his family."
"I didn't do anything," Arley said, "Bats did the heavy lifting, I just brought it to his attention."
Guy leaned in his booth and opened his mouth as if he were to say something only to close it; his milkshake was empty and Mary's Hunt'— who had been picking up the wayward night shift for her daughter's book money —scooped the glass up with a smile.
"Thanks Ms. Hunt."
"It's no problem ma'am," Mary shrugged with a smile, "I'm just doing my job. Now do you two want a refill?"
"I could go for another milkshake Ms," Guy said while Arley shook her head; she was full.
Mary disappeared into the kitchen in the back before either of them knew it only for her spot at the head of their booth to be filled by an alien.
She was younger than Arley, her skin was pink and eyes near black; she wore an I survived my trip to NYC shirt that was far too big for her.
She didn't have hair; she had lekku. Lekku were two appendages that protrude from the skulls of Twi'leks. Twi'leks were from the planet Ryloth and though they were considered the most common species in the galaxy they looked oh so very alien on Earth.
Though Arley was sure that would change in the years to come; the longer she seemed to have her ring the more integrated Earth seemed to become in the universe.
One day Earth would be like most of the other planets out there, intergalactically diverse
Guy smiled down at the Twi'lek. Arley held back her sigh.
"You guys are the sector Lanterns right?"
"You got that right sweet pea." Guy boasted; the alien child turned to Arley. Her eyes gleamed brightly under the diner linoleum lighting.
"You saved my father."
"I did?" Arley blinked "When?"
"Two years ago, you saved him from being attacked," the alien answered and Arleys eyes narrowed as she tried to remember. She tried to pick out the familiar features on the girl's face. "Back then we were living in Nevada."
"Oh, no shit." Arley remembered with a small smile. While the MIB had never come out to the public about their refugee program they had stopped going to their previous lengths in hiding the aliens they placed.
Thus— accidentally —starting a media smear campaign against aliens. It wasn't all media outlets, in fact it was only a handful of the Right-wing outlets preaching about literal illegal aliens.
The Godfrey show was the loudest in their anti-alien propaganda. They had invited Lex Luther onto the show; Luther was a billionaire who's mission in life was to make Clark's life harder.
Luther had mentioned how they were facing an economic downturn and how taking in aliens— Luther couldn't have sounded more disgusted than when he had said aliens — would inevitably take the food out of good hardworking human American mouths just to put it in front of some Six foot tentacle alien with no job because obviously the aliens were here on Earth to live on government assistance since it had run out on their own planet.
Carol had done what she did best alongside the MIB media liaison and had coached Arley to near exhaustion for her interviews; not that she had minded.
Arley, who usually hated the lights-camera-action, hadn't actually minded the pro-alien interviews she'd had to give. She got to talk about her job and the Corps and the places she had seen and for the first time since Carol had first gotten her in front of the camera Arley got to talk about the important stuff.
Aliens weren't their enemies. The aliens fleeing their home worlds, they were victims and the economy, it wasn't just the United States taking them in but aliens lived all over the globe.
Still though for a moment everything had gotten incredibly hostile. The MIB had checked in with the aliens under their care constantly and given them alert buttons incase of something terrible happening.
Kanan Syndulla had been one of the handful of aliens to have pressed the button the MIB had given him. He was— had been —a cab driver in Vegas. He had, one night, been pulled from his cab by a group of White Supremacists; when Arley had found him he'd been near dead.
Arley usually held herself back on Earth; she so rarely used the extent of her Corps training when it came to humans and yet, she had sent all twelve adults to the emergency room before prison.
One of them had been touch and go; the media had jumped on that and at the moment all the heat that the aliens had been getting seemed to refocus on Arley.
She was too young. Too reckless. Too emotional.
Even the likes of Bruce had agreed with the news; she'd let herself be blinded by anger but how couldn't she? All she had been able to think about was her father. He'd been beaten and robbed. Kanan had talked about his girl, his—
"Jana," Arley said. The girl beamed.
"You know my name!" The Twi'lek bounded on the balls of her feet.
"Yeah, how's your dad?" Arley had held his hand in the ambulance. She'd left when he had been taken into the operating room; his blood had covered her suit.
She gotten used to blood covering her suit; blue, green, purple or red it didn't matter, Arley didn't flinch at the gore on her uniform anymore she saved it for her nightmares.
"He's great, Agent O relocated us to New York and now I'm in the third grade and my father owns a grocery store!"
"He does?" Jana nodded,
"It's a few blocks away, we sell a bunch of stuff from off world."
"No way!" Arley said in an over exaggerated tone of amazement.
"Jana?" Three parts of eyes flew to the purple Twi'lek man that had stepped out of the bathroom. "What are you doing?"
"I'm talking to the Green Lanterns!"
"Oh." The Twi'lek— Kanan —breathed in deeply. He had a scar running down his face; from his eyebrow to jaw, and another one peaked up from the collar of the shirt he was wearing, stopping just below his jugular. "Green Lantern Gluck."
"Kanan," Arley greeted, "I'm glad you're well."
"Of course I am, you saved my life; did Agent O pass along my gratitude?"
He had tried to give Arley the fruit basket the Twi'lek had put together only to keep when Arley explained she did the best she could not to take anything for doing her job.
It had felt wrong.
Carol had taken her in, Bruce and Dick and Clark and Agent K all treated her as their equal. Her life had changed already because of the ring, she didn't need to be showered in gifts because of it.
"He did, thank you."
"No, thank you, you saved my life. I would have died if not for you Lantern."
"I just did my job Kanan, it wasn't anything."
"To you," Kanan said softly as he picked his daughter up; Jana clung to her father, "But to me Lantern? It was my life."
Arley guessed. She shrugged her shoulders, Kanan then turned to Guy.
"Your partner is amazing."
"I know," Guy boasted; "Though I'm coming for that spot."
Kanan threw his head back and laughed as Arley leaned forward.
"You know Rookie I think I'd be worried if I didn't have to help you write your last debrief."
"How the hell am I supposed to know the grammar structure to Mirialan?" Arley grinned, her teeth bared in Guy's direction.
She had messed with Guy— just a little —when she had told him his debriefs had to be in the language of the planet they'd worked on. Kilowog had done something similar when she had started. She was sure when Guy got a partner, after her, he would do the same.
Arley nearly paused at the thought; her heart twisted at the thought of Guy with a partner that wasn't her. She liked Guy; the more time they doesn't together the more she thought of the man like a friend.
His next partner would probably be an adult, someone the public approved of more. Someone better.
Arleys nails bit into the palm of her hand.
"Stay safe," Kanan said, more so to Arley than Guy, it was obvious with the way his eyes stayed stuck to her, "Please I don't know what our sector might do without you."
Keep turning, Arley wanted to say. When she died nothing would stop; the universe would go on as normal. She could count the people who would miss her on a single hand; though she doubted anyone would miss her for long.
She didn't tell Kanan and Jana that instead she leaned back in her chair,
"Hopefully we don't have to find that out for a while."
"Hopefully."
"Goodbye Green Lanterns!" Jana said from the crook of her fathers shoulders.
"Bye sweet pea, stay in school!" Guy waved. When the two Twi'leks were done the red head looked at Arley, brows raised and a palm scraping against the length of his face.
"What?" Arley asked.
"Nothin', just thinking. We should go, you said you wanted me to meet your ma'?"
"Yeah. She's catatonic but the Docs say she can hear me." Arley wasn't sure how true that was— she wasn't sure she wanted it to be; the thought of her mother being conscious but trapped in her own body was horrifying —but a small part of her hoped they were.
Arley never told her mother about what her job in the Corps was really like; if on the off chance the doctors were right and the woman could hear everything Arley said. She glorified it to her mother the same way she did to Carol and the media and everyone else on the planet.
"It's sweet you still talk to her."
"Whatever," Arley rolled her eyes as she threw down three twenties. More than enough for the food and enough to help out with the textbook— second hand —Mary's daughter needed for one of her classes.
Arley pretended she didn't see Guy's questioning look on their way out or hear Mary's sharp intake of breath.
Arley had wanted Guy to meet her mother; and for a moment he had. They'd barely gotten in the room when their rings had started blaring.
A large, and rather violent volcanic eruption in the southern hemisphere of the planet Nidessi had started a chain reaction of earthquakes and other natural disasters that covered hundreds of miles and impacted millions of lives, and while for the most part the people of Nidessi were self sufficient, the damage done by their planets mother nature was to grand leading to the two Lanterns to tirelessly rescue hundreds— thousands if Arley were honest; she and Guy worked for days after they were called —of citizens from their homes all whilst trying to contain the natural disasters damage the best they could.
The pair of Lanterns, having scavenged an area that had been destroyed by a tsunami for any lives left, sat on the rooftop of a building, their legs dangled over the edge.
Arley felt her shoulders scream as she fought against sagging them. She was Sector leader, and there was so much more work to do, she couldn't rest.
And yet a yawn still built in her chest.
"Hey kid?"
Arley didn't even fight Guy as she leaned against him, her eyes fluttering upwards. "Yeah old man?"
"Old man," Guy huffed, he leaned backwards, he moved from his hands to his elbows. Arley moved with him. Her left eye shut, then her right and then both snapped open.
"You should rest," Guy said.
"We have more work to do," Arley mumbled.
"We're dead on our feet."
And? Who cared; "People need us."
If they took a nap and Nidessian's who had been holding out for the past three days died it would be their fault. Correction, it would be all her fault; she was the sector leader after all.
"We're on what three-four days no sleep? We're shot."
"We have to keep going," Arley argued. "We can't fail."
"Kid, Arley," Guy looked at her, "I don't think you can fail at this gig." It said it softly, more softly then Arley had heard him speak before. His words though, despite their soft tone, rolled right off Arley's back.
"What are you talking about, of course I can." She failed constantly; every time she had to kill on the battlefield instead of managing to talk her opponent down. Every time she made a choice that prioritized one planet's needs over another. Every time she breathed she failed at something.
To some it was an over exaggeration to say everything was their fault and Arley knew not everything was her fault but her choices had consequences, people died when she chose which meant she failed.
Even as she and Guy saved life after life someone else in her sector was dying; they were failing. They weren't enough.
But they had to be.
She had to be. Or what was it— all the blood on her hands, every nightmare and bad day where she walked to one edge of Oa and back —all for?
Arley got to her feet. She steadied her swaying before Guy even got to his feet. He was sturdy on his despite the bags under his eyes.
"Come on," Arley said before she took off from the rooftop, "There's more people out here, I know it."