Malgus remembered the cold.
He had been young then, little more than another soldier among thousands sent beyond the Oan system during the Symbiote Hunts. More than half a million years had passed since the Black Night. The Green Lantern Corps was gone, the Vigilants had become nightmares whispered about in military briefings, and surviving symbiotes were still being discovered on distant worlds.
This particular hunt had begun after a long-range probe detected signs of both.
A symbiote.
And a Vigilant.
Too close to Oa.
The transport shook as it entered the atmosphere of the frozen world, its hull groaning beneath violent winds while Malgus sat strapped between other soldiers in heavy environmental armour. Outside, endless fields of white stretched beneath a pale sun, interrupted only by black mountains and the remains of structures half-buried beneath centuries of ice.
The squad commander stood near the forward hatch.
"Listen up. The probe signature originated beneath the southern ruin complex. We have possible symbiote activity and one confirmed Vigilant energy profile. Assume both are hostile. No one separates from their team. Sonic weapons first, electromagnetic disruptors second. If the Vigilant comes online, concentrate fire on the joints and sensory array until heavy support arrives."
Weapons were checked around the cabin.
"Teams One and Two take the western approach. Three and Four clear the upper structure. Five comes with me through the central entrance."
Malgus looked down at the weapon across his lap and tried not to think about what happened to Oans caught by symbiotes.
The commander glanced toward him.
"Malgus."
He straightened.
"Yes, sir."
"Stay with your fireteam."
"I will."
The hatch opened.
Cold flooded the transport.
They deployed.
The ruins had once belonged to some civilization no surviving database could identify. Towering stone structures rose from the ice, their upper levels collapsed while the lower sections disappeared beneath the frozen ground. Wind screamed through empty windows and shattered arches as the Oan soldiers advanced in separated formations.
"Team Three entering."
"Copy."
"Thermal trace ahead."
"Negative identification."
"Hold position until the scan completes."
Malgus moved with four others through one of the larger buildings. Their weapons swept constantly across doorways and broken corridors while scanners searched for movement beneath the ice.
"Nothing."
"Keep moving."
"Vigilant reading is stronger below us."
"Command, Team Five. We have possible subterranean access."
"Proceed carefully. Reinforcement group moving to your position."
Malgus stepped over a collapsed support beam, but the floor beneath his next step cracked before he had time to react. Stone gave way under his weight, and he dropped through the opening as someone shouted his name over the communicator.
"Malgus!"
His shoulder struck something hard on the way down, followed by his back, and he slid through a narrow gap between broken sections of the structure before landing painfully several metres below. For a moment, he lay there unable to breathe, staring up through the darkness while dust and fragments of stone continued to fall around him.
"Malgus, respond!"
His communicator crackled against his armour. Malgus forced himself upright, grimacing as pain spread through his shoulder.
"I'm alive."
"Position?"
"Lower level. Maybe fifty metres beneath you."
"Stay there. We're finding another route."
Malgus looked around the chamber beneath the ruins and immediately noticed something strange. There was no ice. Everything above had been frozen beneath centuries of accumulation, yet this level remained untouched by it, the walls and floor exposed as though something had kept the cold away.
Then he noticed the light.
Emerald.
Faint, but unmistakable.
Malgus slowly rose to his feet. "Command, I have an energy source down here."
"What kind?"
He stared into the passage stretching away from the chamber, where the emerald glow pulsed faintly against the ancient walls.
"Green."
Static answered him for several seconds before distant weapons fire erupted somewhere above.
"Contact!"
"Sonic weapons!"
"Vigilant active!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
Malgus froze.
The symbiote.
They had found it.
Another explosion shook the ruins hard enough to send dust drifting from the ceiling. He should have turned around. He should have found a way back toward his squad and joined the fight, but instead his attention returned to the emerald glow ahead.
His breathing quickened as the battle above intensified. Every instinct told him to go back, yet fear held him where he was. Malgus had heard the stories of corrupted Vigilants tearing soldiers apart before they could even raise their weapons, of symbiotes taking bodies and twisting them into monsters, of entire expeditions disappearing without leaving enough remains behind to bury.
He swallowed and started walking toward the green light.
The passage continued much farther than he had expected, descending gradually beneath the ruins while the sounds of battle followed him through the stone.
"Team Two down!"
"Suppress that thing!"
"Where's Malgus?"
"Still below!"
He ignored them and kept moving as the emerald light grew steadily brighter. Eventually the passage opened into a circular chamber, and Malgus stopped at its entrance.
Something floated at the centre.
A person.
No.
A Green Lantern.
For several seconds Malgus could only stare.
The Lantern hung motionless inside a transparent containment field, emerald energy flickering weakly around his body. His uniform was damaged and worn, its design belonging to an age so distant that no living Oan had ever seen anything like it outside surviving records and reconstructed images.
Malgus could hear his own heartbeat.
A Green Lantern.
A real Green Lantern.
There had not been one for more than half a million years.
He approached slowly, unable to pull his eyes from the figure. The containment controls were built into a nearby console, most of them long dead, yet the field itself remained active, apparently drawing power from something deeper within the ruins.
Malgus touched the panel.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, and a warning appeared in a language he did not recognise. He stared at it for a moment before beginning to bypass whatever safeguards remained.
The containment field collapsed.
The Lantern fell.
Malgus rushed forward and caught him before he struck the floor. The alien was frighteningly light in his arms, his body weakened almost beyond recognition beneath the damaged uniform.
Then his eyes opened.
Barely.
The Lantern stared at Malgus for several seconds before a flicker of recognition entered his expression.
"An... Oan."
Malgus could not speak.
The Lantern tried to lift his head, but even that small movement seemed to cost him.
"You came."
His voice was weak, each word separated by difficult breaths.
"You received... the signal?"
"What signal?"
"My ring."
The Lantern looked toward his hand.
"This world... strange energy. Interfered with transmission. Couldn't reach the Battery."
He coughed weakly and closed his eyes for a moment before forcing them open again.
"Been trapped... don't know how long."
Malgus looked down.
At the ring.
The Lantern's hand tightened weakly against his armour.
"Help me."
Another explosion shook the chamber. The Lantern attempted to sit upright but could barely move.
"My ring... damaged. Need to get off this planet."
Malgus hardly heard him.
He was still staring at the ring.
A Green Lantern ring.
The greatest symbol Oa had left.
For half a million years, his people had remembered the Corps as something lost beyond recovery. Their cities still carried its symbols. Their children still learned the stories. Entire generations had grown old beneath monuments dedicated to Lanterns who had died before their ancestors had been born.
And now one of those rings was resting only centimetres from his hand.
Malgus imagined returning with the Lantern alive.
The Corps might live again. This stranger could become everything Oa had been waiting for, the first light after an age of darkness.
And Malgus would remain what he had always been.
A soldier.
One among millions.
The thought came and disappeared almost immediately, but another followed before he could stop it.
Why him?
Half a million years of silence. Half a million years without a single Green Lantern while Oa suffered, fractured and declined.
Then Malgus had fallen through the floor of an ancient ruin and found a ring waiting beneath it.
Fate had placed it directly before him.
Or perhaps it had been something greater.
Perhaps Ion himself had brought him here.
The Lantern looked up at him.
"Please."
Malgus made his decision.
He raised his weapon.
The Lantern's eyes widened.
The shot struck him through the chest.
His body jerked once in Malgus's arms before going still.
Silence filled the chamber.
Malgus remained frozen over the body, staring at the wound he had made. For several seconds, he could not fully understand what he had done. The weapon remained clenched in one hand while the dead Lantern rested against him, his open eyes staring at nothing.
Then the ring moved.
It slipped from the Lantern's finger and rose above the body.
Emerald light filled the chamber.
Malgus reached for it.
The ring darted away.
He lunged forward and caught it between both hands, but energy immediately burned across his gloves as the ring struggled against his grip.
A voice came from within it.
"Unauthorized contact."
Malgus gritted his teeth and tightened his hands.
"Searching for eligible bearer."
"No."
The ring pulled harder.
Malgus held on.
"You're staying."
He tore one glove away with his teeth and threw it aside. The ring immediately tried to escape again, but Malgus seized it with his bare hand and forced it onto his finger.
Green light exploded through him.
Malgus screamed.
Power tore through every part of his body at once. Every nerve seemed to ignite as energy flooded his muscles, sharpened his senses and pressed against his thoughts with something so vast that, for one terrifying moment, he believed it might tear him apart from within.
The ring spoke again.
"Bearer incompatible."
Malgus clenched his fist.
"Too late."
"Rejection sequence initiated."
The ring flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Malgus stared at it.
Whatever strange energies had damaged its systems, whatever ancient force had trapped its previous bearer beneath these ruins, had left the ring unable to complete the rejection.
The emerald light remained around his hand.
Malgus slowly rose from the floor.
A smile spread across his face.
Then he flew.
The sensation was intoxicating.
He shot through the passage faster than he had ever moved under his own power, instinctively understanding just enough of what the ring could do to throw himself upward. Emerald energy surrounded his body as he smashed through layers of frozen stone and erupted into the open air above the ruins.
The battle below was already turning against the Oans.
A corrupted Vigilant stood among the soldiers, its armour blackened and partially consumed by the symbiote crawling across its frame. Sonic blasts struck it from several directions, but the creature had begun adapting, using black constructs and reinforced sections of armour to shield itself while tendrils lashed through the formation.
One Oan was thrown through a wall.
Another had been pinned beneath a black tendril and was struggling to free himself.
Malgus raised his hand.
The ring responded instantly.
An enormous emerald weapons platform formed above the battlefield, covered in rows of cannons aimed directly at the Vigilant.
Malgus stared at what he had created.
Then he laughed.
"Fire."
Dozens of construct weapons discharged together.
The Vigilant turned just as emerald blasts struck it from several directions. The symbiote was shredded from its body in burning fragments while concentrated energy hammered through the machine beneath. It attempted to raise a shield, but Malgus was already imagining another weapon, and the ring obeyed before the thought had fully formed.
A second construct appeared.
Malgus fired.
The beam tore straight through the Vigilant's head.
The machine collapsed into the snow.
What remained of the symbiote detached itself and began crawling desperately away across the ice.
Malgus extended his hand and vaporised it.
Silence spread across the ruins.
The surviving Oans stared upward.
Malgus descended slowly until his boots touched the ice. Emerald light still surrounded his body, washing across the broken ruins and reflecting in the helmets of the soldiers gathered around him.
Every eye went to his hand.
One soldier whispered first.
"A ring."
Another stepped closer, staring openly.
"By Ion."
"Malgus..."
"You have a Green Lantern ring."
Malgus looked at them.
Then at the emerald light surrounding him.
He knew what he had to say.
More importantly, he knew what they needed to hear.
"Yes."
He raised his hand so every soldier could see the ring.
"It chose me."
Shock gave way to awe.
Malgus looked toward the distant horizon while the emerald light burned around him.
Oa needed this.
His people needed this.
After half a million years of darkness, someone had finally been chosen to carry the light again.
It did not matter how that had actually happened.
Malgus would become what Oa needed.
He would be the light in its darkest age.
==========
Malgus opened his eyes.
He stood atop the largest tower in Ionith, second only to Ion's Tower in the Valley.
The ring remained on his finger.
The same ring.
He flexed his hand slowly.
"My lord?"
Malgus turned.
An Emerald Knight stood several metres away, waiting uneasily.
"Have Haven's forces engaged?"
The Knight hesitated.
"No, my lord."
Malgus's expression hardened.
"No?"
"Neither fleet has opened fire."
"My lord, there is another complication."
Malgus stared at him.
"What complication?"
The Knight swallowed.
"Both fleets are under attack."
"By whom?"
The Knight looked toward the tactical display.
"Green Lanterns."
Malgus went still.
"What?"
"Thousands of them."
The display changed.
Emerald lights moved above Oa, darting between Concord, Directorate, and Haven vessels. They were not destroying the ships. They were disabling weapons, cutting engines, and surrounding command vessels in massive green restraints.
Malgus stared.
"That is impossible."
He ran to the balcony, from where the Central Power Battery could be seen.
And above it were the rings.
Thousands upon thousands of unused Green Lantern rings still floated exactly where they had for millennia.
Malgus's breath caught.
Where had these Lanterns come from?
Something else appeared at the edge of his vision.
Blue.
A brilliant sapphire light was descending toward the Battery.
Malgus stared at it.
"No."
The blue light drew closer.
Malgus's face twisted.
"NO!"
Green energy erupted around him.
He launched himself into the air and flew toward the Central Power Battery.
.
.
.
Turgon flew past the Puff Collective as they descended upon both fleets.
Thousands of them slipped between warships, surrounding weapon batteries, severing targeting systems, and wrapping engines in constructs before either side could properly react. Concord, Directorate, and Haven vessels alike found themselves suddenly immobilized beneath layers of green light.
Turgon raised his ring, and blue energy spread outward from him in a widening pulse.
The effect upon the Puffs was immediate.
Their emerald auras flared brighter as Hope strengthened Will, and constructs that had been struggling against capital-ship shields suddenly hardened enough to crush through them. Hundreds of Puffs cried out in delight as their power increased.
"Okay," Turgon muttered. "That actually worked."
Behind him, Celebriel, Latharon, Nolondir, and Ecthelion were still contained within the blue sphere he had created around them.
Turgon looked back.
"You four want to help?"
Celebriel stared at the battle surrounding them. "What, you just want us to sit here?"
Turgon smiled and moved his ring hand.
Four blue constructs formed around them, each resembling a small open-cockpit spacecraft with wings of sapphire light. The sphere surrounding them disappeared, depositing each Oan safely into one of the constructs.
Nolondir immediately grabbed the controls that had formed in front of him.
His eyes widened.
"This is amazing."
Ecthelion stared down at himself as his construct craft began moving.
"I am a Lantern."
Celebriel flew past him. "No, you're sitting inside someone else's construct."
"I am Lantern-adjacent."
Latharon merely nodded approvingly and directed his blue craft toward a nearby Concord cruiser being restrained by several Puffs.
Turgon pointed toward the fleets.
"Help the Collective. Disable weapons, protect anyone caught in the fighting, and try very hard not to get yourselves killed."
The four constructs broke away from one another and accelerated toward the battle. Nolondir whooped as his construct surged ahead, while the others followed close behind.
Turgon watched them for only a moment before two voices came through his ring.
"Turgon," Jade said. "Get to the Central Power Battery. Now."
Adara followed immediately. "Hurry."
Turgon turned toward Oa and accelerated. Even from orbit, the Central Power Battery was impossible to miss, a vast emerald beacon rising from the centre of the Valley and casting its light across the surrounding cities.
"What about Malgus?"
"He is already moving toward you," Jade replied.
Turgon pushed himself faster, blue light streaming behind him as Oa rapidly grew larger in his vision.
"What does he want with the Battery?"
There was a brief pause before Jade answered.
"Malgus has convinced himself that Ion's absence created a vacancy."
Turgon frowned. "What does that mean?"
"He believes that if he reaches the Source through the Central Power Battery, he can become the new Ion."
For a moment, Turgon wondered if he had misunderstood her.
"He thinks he can become Ion?"
"Yes."
Adara spoke next, her voice carrying none of Jade's usual detachment. "He has misunderstood fragments of ancient knowledge concerning our relationship with the Source. He knows that Ion served as the connection between the Green Light and the Source, but he does not understand what that connection actually means."
Turgon groaned. "Oh, wonderful."
He pushed himself faster and descended toward Oa, reaching the Valley within moments. The Central Power Battery dominated the landscape ahead of him, but it was what floated above it that drew his attention.
More than ten thousand Green Lantern rings hung suspended in the air.
Turgon slowed without meaning to.
He had seen them from Ionith countless times, distant emerald lights above the Valley that had remained silent throughout his entire life. From that distance they had seemed almost abstract, relics of another age arranged around the greatest monument Oa possessed. Up close, they were breathtaking.
He descended among them.
The rings drifted aside as he passed, opening a path toward the Battery without a word or command. For one strange moment, Turgon had the unsettling impression that thousands of eyes were watching him.
Then his feet touched the ground before the Central Power Battery.
Its surface glowed with the same steady emerald light it always had, but Turgon could sense something beneath it now. Something impossibly deep and distant, far beyond the structure itself, yet somehow connected to it.
He looked around. "All right. I'm here."
Jade answered through his ring.
"Direct the full output of your ring into the Battery."
Turgon looked up at the enormous structure. "All of it?"
"All of it."
Adara's voice followed, softer now.
"Hope must reach him, Turgon. Ion can use it to find his way back."
Turgon stared at the Battery for another moment, then raised his ring.
Blue light gathered around him.
"In fearful day, in raging night,
The light of hope shall be our spark."
With strong hearts full, our souls ignite.
Through darkest hours, hope burns bright."
He raised his hand toward the Battery and fired.
A massive beam of blue light struck the Central Power Battery.
Emerald energy surged across its surface, colliding with the sapphire beam and spreading through the structure in branching currents. Green and blue wrapped around one another until the entire Battery seemed to burn with both colours.
Turgon held the beam against the Central Power Battery, forcing more and more of the Blue Light through his ring.
Ten seconds passed.
Then twenty.
Thirty.
Something moved within the Battery.
Turgon felt it before he understood what he was sensing. A presence stirred somewhere beyond the emerald light, impossibly distant yet suddenly closer than it had been moments before.
An emerald blast struck him from the side.
Turgon was hurled across the Valley. He hit the ground hard, bounced once, then skidded through the grass until his ring automatically wrapped a blue shield around him.
"Warning. Hostile attack."
"No kidding."
Turgon pushed himself upright as green light descended from above.
Malgus landed between him and the Central Power Battery.
For a moment, Turgon simply stared at him.
This was the Oan he had worshipped since childhood, the hero whose name had been spoken with reverence throughout the Concord, the Green Lantern who had supposedly brought light back to Oa after half a million years.
The same Oan who had murdered his parents.
Malgus looked him over slowly, his gaze moving across the blue robes, the ring on Turgon's hand, and the symbol of Hope burning upon his chest. Disgust twisted his face.
"What monstrosity have you become?"
Turgon rose fully to his feet.
"There is only one monster here."
His eyes hardened.
"And it isn't me."
Malgus attacked.
An emerald blade formed in his hand as he crossed the distance between them and swept it toward Turgon's neck. Turgon threw both arms up, forming a blue shield just before the blade struck. The impact drove him several metres backward, his boots carving through the ground, but the construct held.
Malgus struck again.
"You have no idea what you are interfering with."
Another blow crashed against the shield, sending ripples across its surface.
"All I have ever done has been for Oa."
"Is that how you justify murdering people?"
Malgus's expression darkened.
A second emerald blade appeared in his other hand.
Turgon reinforced the shield as both weapons slammed into it together. Cracks of light spread across the construct, but he held his ground.
"You think Oa survived because of scholars and priests?" Malgus demanded, striking again. "I held the Concord together."
Another blow.
"I rebuilt it."
Again.
"I made our enemies fear us."
Turgon waited until Malgus committed to another strike, then drove both hands forward.
Blue light erupted from the shield in a violent pulse.
Malgus was forced backward, his boots tearing across the emerald ground as the wave of Hope pushed him away from the Battery.
"You're starting a war with Haven!"
"A war that was inevitable."
Malgus answered with another construct, hurling it across the space between them. Turgon raised a blue barrier and caught the impact, the force driving him back a step before he steadied himself.
Then Malgus stopped.
His hand jerked violently.
The Green Lantern ring began vibrating on his finger.
Malgus stared down at it.
"No."
The ring flashed.
"Bearer authorization conflict detected."
His eyes widened.
"Stop."
The ring vibrated again, harder this time.
"Primary network connection reestablished."
"STOP!"
Malgus clenched his fist until his knuckles whitened.
The vibration ceased.
For a moment he stood completely still, breathing harder than before as he stared at the ring as though it had betrayed him.
Turgon watched him carefully.
"What was that?"
Malgus looked up.
Whatever fear had crossed his face disappeared beneath rage.
An enormous emerald fist formed beside him and struck Turgon before he could react. The blow sent him crashing into one of the lower platforms surrounding the Battery, blue light flaring around him as stone fractured beneath his back.
Turgon groaned and tried to rise.
Malgus descended after him.
"Do you have any idea what I sacrificed?"
A construct hand closed around Turgon before he could regain his footing and slammed him back into the ground.
"Oa would have broken into a thousand pieces without me."
Turgon coughed, forcing enough air back into his lungs to answer.
"You didn't save Oa."
Malgus drove him down again.
"You made it afraid of everyone else."
The blue shield surrounding Turgon cracked beneath the impact, fractures spreading across its surface while Malgus tightened the construct around him.
"And now," Turgon said through clenched teeth, "you think you can take Ion's place?"
Malgus stopped.
For the first time since arriving, the fury left his expression. Something almost serene replaced it, a certainty so complete that Turgon found it more disturbing than the rage.
"Ion requires a vessel."
Turgon stared at him.
Malgus's voice remained calm.
"And I will suffice."
Turgon's expression shifted.
"You really believe that."
"I know that I am destined for it."
Turgon fired a blue blast at point-blank range.
Malgus crossed one arm and formed an emerald shield, catching the attack in a burst of green and blue light before answering with another strike that sent Turgon skidding across the platform.
A construct slammed into Turgon's chest and drove him hard into the ground. Before he could recover, Malgus planted one boot against him and forced him flat against the shattered platform.
Then Malgus looked into his eyes.
His expression changed.
"Those eyes."
Turgon went still.
Malgus leaned closer, studying him properly now. "I should have recognised them."
Turgon's blood went cold.
Recognition settled over Malgus's face as an old memory returned.
"Sanctuary."
Turgon's fists clenched.
"You know what you did, you monster."
"Oh, yes."
Malgus looked almost disappointed by the accusation.
"I remember when your kind came to Oa carrying their heresy."
He spat the final word.
"You intended to create another Corps. Another Battery. You wanted to replace Ion himself."
"They were trying to help him." Turgon struggled beneath his boot, blue light flickering around his hands. "You massacred them."
"I did what I believed was necessary."
"You murdered my father."
Malgus's expression did not change.
"You murdered my mother."
Still nothing.
Turgon's voice shook now, anger and grief tightening around every word.
"Thousands of people."
Malgus pressed down harder.
"And Oa endured."
Pain tore through Turgon's ribs, forcing a cry from him as he twisted beneath Malgus's weight.
"You don't deserve that ring."
Malgus stared down at him.
Then he laughed.
It began as a quiet sound, almost disbelief, before growing louder.
"The ring chose me?"
Turgon's expression changed.
Malgus slowly shook his head, looking genuinely amused by the idea now.
"No."
He raised his hand between them, emerald light burning around the ring.
"No, Turgon."
His smile disappeared, leaving only cold certainty.
"I chose the ring."
Turgon's eyes widened.
Malgus smiled.
"I took it from a dead Green Lantern."
For a moment, Turgon said nothing.
"He was weak," Malgus continued. "Begging for help."
Horror spread across Turgon's face as he understood what Malgus was telling him.
"So I killed him."
Malgus's voice hardened, any trace of amusement disappearing beneath the conviction that had carried him for centuries.
"And I became what Oa needed."
He turned his gaze toward the Central Power Battery.
"I used this ring to lead our people. I held them together when every coward around me was willing to stand aside and watch Oa decay."
His eyes burned with absolute certainty.
"I gave them a hero."
Malgus spread his arms, emerald light gathering around him as though the ring itself were part of the declaration.
"And now I will give them Ion."
A sound interrupted him.
It was quiet at first, almost like someone choking.
Malgus looked down.
Turgon was laughing.
His brow furrowed. "What is so funny?"
Still pinned beneath him, Turgon slowly raised one hand. Something small rested in his palm, half concealed between his fingers.
Malgus stared at it.
"What is that?"
Turgon smiled through the pain.
"A system broadcast injector. It hijacks every emergency broadcast on Oa, even Haven's."
The colour drained from Malgus's face.
Turgon's smile widened.
"For five minutes, apparently."
==========
Across Ionith, every public holo-display flickered at once.
Conversations stopped as images vanished and emergency channels overrode whatever had been playing before. In streets, homes, government buildings and crowded public squares, the same figure appeared across thousands of screens.
Malgus.
His voice followed.
"The ring chose me? No. I chose the ring."
People stopped walking.
Heads turned toward the nearest display.
"I took it from a dead Green Lantern."
In an apartment overlooking central Ionith, an elderly Oan slowly rose from his chair. Around him, several generations of his family sat in stunned silence, none of them looking away from the image.
"He was weak. Begging for help."
The old Oan's face tightened.
Then Malgus spoke again.
"So I killed him."
=========
In Eregion, thousands gathered around one of the enormous public screens overlooking the central transit plaza.
Malgus's confession played again.
One woman covered her mouth.
A soldier standing nearby removed his helmet.
Someone in the crowd whispered, "He lied."
=========
On Haven, families who had been watching reports of the coming war now watched Malgus standing over the Blue Lantern.
"I did what I believed was necessary."
Then came Turgon's accusation.
"You massacred them."
Silence filled homes across the planet.
=========
Aboard a Concord battleship, Admiral Calendir stared at the tactical display.
Officers around him said nothing.
Malgus's voice continued.
"I used this ring to lead our people. I held them together."
Calendir slowly leaned back.
"Power down the forward batteries."
"Sir, those things have already destroyed them?"
"Oh OK then."
=========
Back at the Battery, Malgus stared at the device in Turgon's hand.
For perhaps the first time in his life, he looked genuinely afraid.
"You…"
He snatched the injector away, but the tiny device continued transmitting from his palm. Malgus crushed it between his fingers until metal and circuitry broke apart, then threw the remains aside.
Turgon grinned through the pain. "Bit late, isn't it?"
Malgus roared.
Turgon fired first.
A burst of blue light struck Malgus squarely in the chest and hurled him away from the platform. Turgon forced himself upright before his body could object, turned toward the Central Power Battery and raised his ring once more.
"In fearful day, in raging night…"
Blue light struck the Battery.
Malgus recovered almost instantly.
"No!"
He launched himself toward Turgon.
"The light of hope shall be our spark!"
Malgus crossed half the distance between them.
"With strong hearts full, our souls ignite!"
The beam pouring from Turgon's ring intensified, blue light spreading across the emerald surface of the Battery as something deep within it began to answer.
"Through darkest hours, hope burns bright!"
Malgus reached for him.
The Battery erupted.
A column of emerald energy exploded from its summit and tore upward into the sky with such force that both of them froze. The more than ten thousand rings surrounding the Battery came alive at once, every one of them igniting as emerald light flooded the Valley.
The rings began to move.
Slowly at first, then faster and faster, they spun around the Central Power Battery while the column above expanded into a vast storm of green energy. Clouds twisted across the sky as lightning formed entirely from Will and struck the land surrounding the Valley, each impact sending tremors through the ground.
Then the storm collapsed inward.
Not upward.
Down.
Straight toward the land beside them.
The ground shook beneath Turgon's feet.
Malgus stepped backward.
Emerald light struck the earth with enough force to blind them both. Turgon threw one arm across his eyes as the air itself seemed to vibrate around him, the pressure from the impact rolling through the Valley.
Then something moved inside the light.
A silhouette.
Someone was walking through the storm.
Turgon slowly lowered his arm.
The emerald energy parted around the figure as he approached, bending away from him as though unwilling to touch him. One foot emerged from the light and settled upon the ground, followed by another as the figure continued forward with steady, unhurried steps.
Turgon's breath caught.
Emerald eyes burned within the fading storm.
Beside him, Malgus stumbled backward.
For once there was no anger on his face, no arrogance, no certainty that history itself had chosen him. Everything that had sustained him for centuries seemed to vanish in a single instant.
There was only shock.
And fear.
Ion had returned.
========
Turgon could not move.
Ion walked toward them through the fading emerald storm, each step slow while thousands of Green Lantern rings continued circling the Battery above. There was nothing grand in the way he carried himself, no triumphant pose or declaration announcing his return. If anything, the figure emerging from the light seemed tired.
Malgus reacted first.
The False Green Lantern stumbled forward, then dropped to his knees so suddenly that Turgon almost thought he had fallen.
"Merciful Ion."
His voice cracked.
Ion stopped.
Malgus looked up at his creator, desperation overtaking whatever pride he had possessed only moments earlier.
"Please. You must understand. I had to do it."
Ion said nothing.
"Everything I did was for Oa. The system was collapsing. The governments were tearing each other apart, the Corps was gone, Haven abandoned us. Someone had to hold them together."
He crawled another step forward.
"I did what was necessary."
Turgon stared at him.
Only minutes ago, Malgus had been speaking about replacing Ion.
Now he looked like a frightened child begging a parent not to punish him.
"O merciful Ion, forgive me. Please. I had to."
Ion finally moved.
He stepped closer and placed both hands gently around Malgus's head.
Malgus's expression changed.
For one moment, hope appeared on his face.
Then a sound echoed around them.
WHUM.
Turgon flinched.
The vibration travelled through the ground beneath his feet.
WHUM.
Louder.
Higher.
Emerald-Red light gathered beneath Ion's eyes.
Malgus began to struggle.
"No."
WHUUUM.
The sound rose into a terrible cosmic roar, like something building toward release.
"No, wait!"
Ion's eyes burned red and green.
Malgus screamed.
Two beams erupted at point-blank range.
The energy struck Malgus directly through the head.
His scream ended instantly.
Turgon recoiled in horror as the upper half of Malgus's skull broke apart beneath the blast, matter disintegrating into glowing fragments before even blood could scatter. The body remained upright for a fraction of a second in Ion's hands.
Then Ion released it.
Malgus fell.
Turgon stared at the corpse.
Ion crouched beside Malgus and removed the Green Lantern ring from his finger.
The ring flickered once.
Then it rose from Ion's hand and joined the thousands already circling above the Central Power Battery, disappearing into the vast emerald formation as though returning home after four centuries away.
Ion remained crouched for several seconds, looking down at Malgus's body.
Then he turned toward Turgon.
Turgon's body tensed instinctively.
There he was.
The Creator of the Oans. Founder of the Green Lantern Corps. Guardian of the universe. The Lord of the Rings.
Every ancient image Turgon had ever seen depicted a kind face, sometimes smiling, sometimes amused, always carrying a warmth that somehow survived even through recordings half a million years old.
Turgon did not see that now.
Ion looked exhausted.
There was sorrow in his face so deep that Turgon could not begin to imagine what could have put it there.
Ion stopped in front of him. For several seconds, neither of them spoke before his gaze drifted back toward Malgus.
"You know…"
His voice was quieter than Turgon had expected.
"That was the first Oan I've ever killed."
Turgon had no idea what to say.
Ion continued staring at the body, and somehow the fact itself seemed to trouble him more than the act that had caused it. After a long moment, he looked back at Turgon and extended one hand.
"Get up, son."
Turgon took it.
Ion's grip was warm, and he pulled him effortlessly to his feet.
Turgon glanced back toward Malgus. "You killed him."
"Yes." The answer came without hesitation.
Turgon looked at Ion again.
"He was fucking evil, kid. It's not like he was some saint like you."
Turgon blinked.
Ion rubbed a hand across his face.
"I was actually hoping Parallax was involved."
He looked back at Malgus.
"I thought maybe he'd possessed him. Corrupted him. Spent a few centuries whispering into his head until everything went wrong."
His expression hardened slightly.
"But apparently not."
Turgon remained silent.
Ion's gaze shifted toward the cities beyond the Battery.
"I suppose I should've known better than to convince myself my creations couldn't become monsters without someone else helping them along."
There was no real anger in his voice, only weary disappointment.
"Oans have free will. That was all I wanted."
Ion gave a bitter little laugh.
"I guess free will includes the freedom to become something horrible too."
Turgon lowered his head. "I'm sorry."
Ion looked at him.
"For what?"
Turgon hesitated. "I don't know."
"Then don't apologise."
Ion placed a hand briefly on his shoulder.
"You didn't do any of this, kid."
Turgon looked up.
Ion's gaze had already moved toward the sky, where distant flashes of emerald light still marked the fleets above Oa.
"Come on."
He started walking.
"We have a system to put back in order."
Before Turgon could follow, hundreds of emerald lights began descending toward the Battery.
Then thousands.
Tiny green spheres poured out of the sky in a glowing torrent, and the moment they saw Ion, whatever formation they had maintained completely collapsed.
"ION'S BACK!"
"ION!"
"HE'S BACK!"
"HAPPY!"
"HAPPY!"
"HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!"
The Puffs swarmed downward in an emerald avalanche.
Turgon instinctively raised his arms.
Ion did not.
The first dozen crashed into him like excited children, bouncing against his chest and shoulders as more crowded around his arms and head. Hundreds more circled overhead, shouting over one another until the Valley filled with overlapping voices.
"ION!"
"WE FOUND YOU!"
"YOU'RE HOME!"
"HAPPY HAPPY!"
Ion laughed.
It was genuine, but Turgon could still hear the grief beneath it.
Ion caught several Puffs in his hands as they bounced excitedly against him.
"You little bastards survived."
"HAPPY!"
Ion laughed again, and this time his voice broke slightly.
He looked around at the thousands of emerald spheres filling the Valley, all of them crowding closer as though afraid he might disappear again.
For the first time since stepping out of the Battery, some of the sorrow left his face.
.
.
Oans kinda went on a genocidal campaign against he symbiotes after the Black night.
En Sabah Nur POV end of next week.
This is how he looks like now.