The stars blurred past Razor's Edge as Kael Varn piloted through hyperspace, his ring's green glow casting shadows across the cockpit. The coordinates it had shown him a hidden world, pulsing with the Voidveil's essence felt like a hook in his gut, pulling him toward something he wasn't sure he could face. Oa was behind them, its Battery flickering, its Lanterns fighting to hold the line. Kael's job was simpler but heavier: find the Voidveil's heart, stop it, save the Corps. No pressure.
Lirra Syn, Toren Kade, and Sala Vereth flew alongside, their green trails a faint comfort against the void. Kael's eyes flicked to the scanner, tracking Sala's position. That red-black flicker in her eyes on Oa hadn't left his mind. She'd fought with them, saved them, but his ring hummed with suspicion, and his gut agreed. Lirra trusted her mostly but Kael wasn't so sure. Trust was a luxury they couldn't afford, not with the Voidveil turning Lanterns into puppets.
He keyed the comms, keeping his tone light. "So, anyone got a plan for when we find this Voidveil central? Or we just wing it?"
Lirra's voice came through, steady but edged with strain. "We locate the source, assess its defenses, and destroy it. The Voidveil's heart is its strength and its weakness."
Toren's crystals chimed, calm but cautious. "The heart will be guarded. The Voidveil learns from us. Expect resistance unlike anything we've faced."
Sala's voice followed, smooth and cryptic. "Expect truth, too. The heart reveals what we hide. Be ready to face yourselves."
Kael's grip tightened on the controls, his ring pulsing with unease. "Great. More soul-searching. My favorite."
Lirra's telepathy brushed his mind, a fleeting touch of reassurance. "Stay sharp, Kael. We're with you."
He nodded, though she couldn't see it. Her trust grounded him, even if he didn't trust himself. The ring had chosen him, but the Voidveil's whispers fraud, failure, alone hit harder with every step closer to its heart. He wasn't a hero. He was a pilot who'd gotten lucky. But luck only stretched so far.
The nav pinged, and hyperspace dissolved, revealing a system that made Kael's skin crawl. A black star hung at its center, its light not shining but consuming, surrounded by a ring of shattered worlds. At the heart of the debris was a planet gray, jagged, pulsing with red-black veins that matched the Battery's corruption. The Voidveil's heart wasn't just here. It was the planet.
"Welcome to Nightmare Town," Kael muttered, his ring flaring as he scanned the surface. "No welcoming committee. That's a first."
Lirra's voice was grim. "Don't count on it. I'm sensing... something. Alive. Watching."
Toren's crystals dimmed. "The planet's energy is sentient. It's the Voidveil's core."
Sala's golden form gleamed, her voice low. "Land at the central pulse. That's where the heart lies."
Kael's ring hummed, confirming the coordinates, but his suspicion of Sala spiked. "You seem awful sure about this place, Sala. Been here before?"
Her silence was a beat too long. "I've studied the Voidveil's traces. This is its origin. Trust me, Kael."
"Trust's earned," he said, his tone sharp but controlled. Lirra's telepathy touched him, a silent warning, but he didn't back down. Sala was hiding something, and he wasn't walking into another trap blind.
They descended, Razor's Edge landing on a plateau of cracked stone, the air thick with a psychic hum that pressed against Kael's skull. Lirra, Toren, and Sala touched down beside him, their rings casting green light across red-black veins that snaked through the ground. The planet felt alive, its pulse a heartbeat that matched the Voidveil's whisper: You are ours.
Kael's armor formed, steadier now, though his heart raced. "Creepy doesn't cover it. Where's this heart?"
Lirra's telepathy probed the terrain, recoiling at a surge of malice. "Beneath us. A chamber, deep and shielded. The Voidveil's protecting it."
Toren raised his ring, scanning the stone. "The veins are conduits. They channel the heart's power. We follow them."
Sala nodded, her eyes scanning the horizon. "But we move quickly. The Voidveil knows we're here."
Kael's ring flared, a vision flashing a cavern, a crystal larger than the Battery, pulsing with red-black light, surrounded by shadows that weren't just shadows. "Yeah," he said, his voice low. "It's waiting."
The descent was a gauntlet. The veins led to a fissure, its walls lined with obsidian that reflected their green light in distorted, mocking shapes. Tendrils lashed from the shadows, smarter than before, targeting their doubts with precision. Lirra's constructs blades, shields cut through them, but each strike cost her, the Voidveil dragging up Kryon's screams, her squad's fading rings. She pushed it down, her will a blade, but the cracks in her resolve widened.
Kael fought beside her, his constructs—nets, hammers stronger now, fueled by a defiance that surprised her. His ring's light burned bright, but his mind was a storm, the Voidveil's whispers hitting hard: You'll fail them. You always do. Lirra's telepathy caught his struggle, and she sent a pulse of strength, not words but a feeling: You're enough.
Toren's crystalline beams were a beacon, his clarity holding the team together, but even he faltered, the Voidveil showing him his shattered homeworld, his people's cries. Sala moved like a shadow, her constructs fluid and precise, but her silence was deafening, her eyes avoiding Kael's.
The fissure opened into a cavern, vast and oppressive, where the Voidveil's heart loomed a crystal the size of a spire, red-black and pulsing, its light a living thing. Shadows swirled around it, not tendrils but forms Lanterns, their rings corrupted, their faces familiar yet wrong. Lirra's telepathy recoiled, recognizing them: not real, but echoes, drawn from the Corps' history, its failures.
"The First Lanterns," Sala whispered, her voice raw. "The Voidveil keeps their shadows."
Kael's ring trembled, its light flickering. "Ghosts? Seriously?"
"Not ghosts," Toren said, his crystals dimming. "Manifestations. The Voidveil's memory, given form."
The shadows attacked, their corrupted rings blazing with red-black constructs spears, chains, claws. Lirra's blades met them, her telepathy guiding her through the chaos, but the shadows were relentless, their psychic weight crushing. Kael's shields held, his ring pouring out raw force, but the Voidveil's voice was louder now: You're nothing. You'll break.
"Shut up!" Kael roared, his construct a massive fist smashing a shadow apart. It reformed, laughing, and he staggered, doubt creeping in.
Lirra dove to his side, her ring flaring as she blocked a strike aimed at him. "Kael, focus! You're stronger than this!"
He met her eyes, her trust a lifeline. His ring blazed, and he fired a net that trapped two shadows, giving Toren an opening to shatter them. Sala fought alone, her constructs weaving through the fray, but her movements were off, her ring flickering with that red-black pulse Kael had seen before.
"Sala!" Kael shouted, his ring warning him as a shadow lunged for her. He dove, his shield taking the hit, the impact rattling his bones.
She turned, her eyes clear but haunted. "Thank you," she said, her voice soft, but Kael's suspicion didn't waver.
The heart pulsed, and the shadows merged, forming a single entity a colossus of red-black light, its face a shifting mask of every Lantern it had broken. Its voice was a chorus, deafening: "You created us. You feed us. Surrender, or burn."
Lirra's telepathy plunged into the colossus, searching for a weakness, but it was a void, a mirror of the Corps' guilt. She saw Kryon, her squad, her failures, but she also saw Kael's defiance, Toren's clarity, even Sala's struggle. "We're not you," she said, her voice steady. "We're Lanterns."
Her ring blazed, her constructs a storm of blades striking the colossus. Kael joined her, his hammer smashing its flank, while Toren's beams pierced its core. Sala's constructs wove with theirs, her light bright but unsteady, and the colossus staggered, its form unraveling.
But the heart pulsed again, and a rift opened above it, red-black and vast, spitting tendrils that weren't just shadows but memories the Corps' darkest moments, given life. Lirra's telepathy caught a truth: the heart wasn't just the Voidveil's power. It was its mind, a collective of every doubt, every failure, the Corps had ever faced.
"We can't destroy it," Lirra said, her voice raw. "It's us."
Kael's ring flared, a vision guiding him not destruction, but containment. "Then we lock it up," he said, his voice steady. "Like the Shard."
Toren nodded, his crystals glowing fiercely. "A construct cage. Combined will."
Sala hesitated, her ring flickering, but she joined them, her light merging with theirs. They raised their rings, green light weaving into a lattice that surrounded the heart, sealing it. The colossus roared, the rift pulsed, but the cage held, the heart's light dimming as its power was contained.
The cavern shook, the planet itself resisting, but Lirra's telepathy guided them, her will unyielding. Kael poured everything into it his fear, his stubbornness, his need to prove he wasn't nothing. Toren's clarity anchored them, and Sala's precision shaped the cage, though her eyes flickered red-black one last time.
The heart stilled, the rift collapsing, the shadows fading. The planet's pulse slowed, its red-black veins dimming. They'd won for now.
But as they stumbled back to Razor's Edge, Sala lagged behind, her ring dark, her face unreadable. Kael's ring hummed, a warning he couldn't ignore. "Lirra," he whispered, his voice low. "She's not right."
Lirra's telepathy probed Sala, catching a flicker not corruption, but a choice. "Sala," she said, her voice firm. "What did you do?"
Sala turned, her golden eyes gleaming with something new resolve, not doubt. "I carried the Voidveil's touch since Korrath," she said, her voice steady. "I hid it to fight. To help you. But the heart... it spoke to me. It offered truth."
Kael's ring flared, his armor forming. "Truth? You mean betrayal."
"No," Sala said, raising her hands, her ring glowing green again. "A warning. The Voidveil isn't just the Corps' failure. It's alive, and it's evolving. The heart was one mind. There are others."
Lirra's mandibles clicked, her telepathy confirming Sala's words but not her loyalty. "Why hide this?"
"Because you wouldn't trust me," Sala said, her voice soft. "And you needed me."
Toren's crystals glowed, his voice calm but sharp. "You've endangered us all. Step back, Sala."
She did, her ring dimming, but her eyes held Lirra's. "I'm still a Lantern. Use me, or lose me."
Kael's ring pulsed, his instincts screaming, but Lirra's telepathy held him back. "We take her to Oa," she said, her voice low. "The Guardians decide."
As they lifted off, the planet crumbling below, Kael's ring guided him to new coordinates another world, another mind. The Voidveil wasn't done, and Sala's truth, whatever it was, was a crack they couldn't ignore.
Lirra's voice came through the comms, quiet but fierce. "We're not broken yet, Kael. We keep fighting."
He grinned, his ring blazing. "Damn right."
But as they jumped to hyperspace, Sala's eyes lingered on the stars, and the Voidveil's whisper followed, faint but alive: We are not done.