Green Lantern #2

In our Darkest Night (Part Two)

"Memories"

by
E. J. Questell

The fight. The creature. Being absorbed. As Kyle wakes up memories of how he got here rush into his mind. He remembers now, and frustration starts to sink in. He couldn't save the child, or the nurse, or the doctors for that matter. And on top of that all, he lost the ring as well. That is, assuming he's still alive.

Around him there's only darkness. Around him there is only a void that seems to stretch to the limits of his vision. Kyle looks down at himself, trying to find some reassurance that he is indeed alive. That maybe, just maybe this is all a dream.

But it isn't. The weakness he feels. is pretty much real. The sense of loss and desperation that constantly assaults him is pretty much real. And the nausea that he experiences as the void around him starts spinning and changing is pretty much real.

Outside time seems to slow down. As the ring falls Dusk simply stares at it. At last the prize was before him. After so much the key to his future was his. The man starts walking towards the ring, the universe awaited.

The world around Kyle has become a very distinctive and alien. art studio. Or at least that is as much as the Green Lantern is able to figure out. He has become somewhat transparent, but in the torrent of strange happenings that seems to be the less of his worries.

In front of him an alien being sits working on some kind of canvas. The being is painting, yet his hands remain on his lap as he does so. The colors appear out of thin air on the canvas, and it is then that Kyle gains some understanding. "His mind. he's using his mind to create the painting," the man from Earth whispers completely enthralled by the revelation. His attention goes to the artist and Kyle frowns.

The artist looks oddly familiar with that gray skin of his.

Dusk has finished his approach to the ring, and stands over it. He looks down and a voice inside him pleads for him to stop. But he can't stop. He won't ever be able to stop. "This -is- my destiny," he says, not as determined as he would have liked to sound. Slowly he kneels down to pick up the ring.

Another change takes over that strange realm that Kyle is trapped in. Gone are the canvas and the room, as the surroundings shift and flow into what appears to be a courthouse. Even though everything around him is alien when compared to what he's used to, something tells Kyle that he's in the middle of a courtroom. Almost like a whisper.

There's a judge, or what would pass as a judge for us and then there's the artist and his. family, a little girl and a woman.

"You have violated our laws, our traditions. You have been found guilty of subversive practices. Treason!" the judge exclaims, and the artist is left speechless.

"Art /is/ a crime?" Kyle whispers, confused. "But why." he adds as his voice is ignored by those present in the room.

The power of the mind. says a whisper inside Kyle's head. And Kyle understands. The artist was literally creating the painting with his mind, not unlike how Kyle uses the ring. When your mind can affect reality in such a way anything that gives form to the soul's expression can in fact be quite dangerous.

So in this world an artist is an oddity that must be purged. Their civilization had become stagnant and sterile, but in their eyes this was the only way of preserving it.

Kyle watches as the child is taken away from him to be purged from any traitorous thoughts that may have been inherited from the father. The wife is pulled in another direction to make sure that she's not infected as well.

And the man is left alone, a victim to his own creativity.

And Kyle can only watch.

Dusk is crouching over the ring, the object of power still lying on the ground untouched. The ring will allow him to reach where his shadows have never reached. To make them feel the eternal void inside him. No longer will he have to slowly consume planets to make them feel his pain. With the ring.

With the ring he will make them all pay.

The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott isn't someone that would be considered a pushover. Yet as he tries to stand up shaking away the pain and confusion from a recent attack on his person Alan finds himself asking if it would have been better to not get up from bed today.

The attack had come out of nowhere, and it felt like sea waves suddenly crashing into him. Except. that there was nothing there. Only the trees and some benches that made up the park that Alan had been flying over when he was attacked.

The Sentinel manages to come to his feet and pushes his cape back as his gaze wanders around the area searching for the attacker. Nothing. Not a single thing.

And then it comes again.

This time, though, he's prepared and an emerald brick wall quickly appears in front of him. Whatever energy was powering these attacks was invisible.

But it carried sound, a very high-pitched sound.

"Show yourself!" exclaims Alan rapidly getting tired of playing the mouse for an unknown cat in this little game.

He floats up surrounded by a faint green aura as green birds appear around him. The birds move to scout the area.

The birds don't have to look for long as the high-pitched sound strikes again throwing the birds into disarray. The Sentinel releases a bolt of emerald energy towards the source of the attack, but it only manages to take out a chunk of the ground.

The faint buzzing sound behind him surprises Alan, and the man starts to turn back very slowly. A figure watches him, standing on one of the branches of a tree. The shadows provided by the tree make it hard to see the face staring back at Alan.

There is a chuckle, "I've a message for a friend of yours," the figure says, amused. "And I want you to deliver it."

The scenery changes again and Kyle is now in front of a burned down house. The alien flora around it has also been destroyed. In front of the house lies a kneeling figure, and as Kyle walks closer, the figure is revealed to be the beaten up artist. Somehow he had escaped his prison only to find that escape was but an illusion.

His child had been murdered; his wife had been murdered. And all of this happened because he dared to create. He dared to give form to his feelings. He dared to dream.

Kyle wants to reach out towards him and comfort him, but his inability to really interact with the world around him is proof enough that his presence in this place is intended to be as a watcher.

The artist leans over the broken bodies of his family, crying and mourning. It was then that the Darkness was born, and it started with a single tear.

A tear that as it fell over the bodies it slowly started turning black. Darkness. Nightmares. His people had stolen his dreams from him. Now he was going to share his nightmares with them.

Things around Kyle change again, this time causing him pain. He's now in the bridge of a ship and he watches as the artist's world is consumed by darkness. And then another world is consumed, and another and it goes on as the artist who became Dusk travels around the universe sharing his nightmares with everything that lives.

"And now you understand," a voice says. With the words everything seems to rush around Kyle and he finds himself in the original void he appeared at first. In front of him a figure materializes wearing the familiar green, black and white outfit that was used by the Green Lantern Corps.

The figure is a female. Her skin is an orange tone, and her lips a vivid blue. Her hair is blue as her lips, her body humanoid in shape and not much different from that of a human.

"My name is Lena Lerai. And I was a Green Lantern, protector of the sector that Dusk's home planet belonged to. and I failed completely," the woman says with a tinge of sadness in her voice. "But for you and this planet, there's still hope."

Kyle simply blinks a few times at first as he tries to absorb the information. He had half expected to be dead or at least trapped somewhere where there was no escape. And now he had a member of the Corps in front of him telling him that there was hope?

"Well, I guess that takes care of my first question. But. where are we?" Kyle says unsure if he should trust this being or not. The woman appeared to be more real than him, thanks to his current state of transparency. Could this be the work of Dusk? But why would the being show him all he did and then do this. It was obvious that all he was after was the ring. Wasn't it?

"I know there's a lot of questions in your mind. Questions that at one point I asked myself." Lena starts, shaking her head. "But there isn't much time. You haven't been completely absorbed, so we need to act quickly. You are inside him and so am I. You understand what I'm saying, because we are not talking. But thinking." She pauses there, letting the words sink in Kyle. "You need to get out of here. You need to stop him. If he uses his ring. all will be lost. I managed to destroy mine before he absorbed me."

"Hold on a sec here," Kyle starts, as things get more and more confusing. "What is he? What are those shadows of his? And what does he want with the ring??" Frustration was clearly showing in his voice and his expression. How was he supposed to save the universe if he didn't even understood what was going on?

The female Green Lantern sighs. "Alright. Dusk is a member of a race called the Mentalites. The Mentalites were a very advance culture, if a very stagnant one. They got to the point in their evolution where they were able to use their minds to create. but they promptly discovered the dangers behind this. Eventually anything that stimulated the creativity of the mind was banned. Artistic creation of any form was considered treason, as the government was very controlling of anything going on the planet," a pause from the woman. "In his world Dusk was considered a deviant. And he was punished for it."

As Lena explains things start becoming clearer for Kyle. The painting. The trial. "His family was murdered for it." he says.

"That was the end result," Lena responds with sadness in her voice. "Dusk had managed to escape his captivity and found his dead family. The family had been left there as a lesson to what happened to deviants. However, it was the beginning of the end for the Mentalites. The shock of that sight was what created Dusk," she becomes more urgent. "He has consumed many worlds and many people in his insatiable hunger to share his pain with others, his nightmares and his darkness. You have to stop him!"

"But how? We're trapped here."

"Not you. Not completely." Lena gestures towards Kyle. "The reason why you appear transparent is because you haven't been completely absorbed by him. You have a very strong will."

"But-" Kyle stops. Come on Kyle, didn't you learn this lesson already?

The man called Dusk slowly starts putting the ring over the finger on his right hand. He smiles, the smile of triumph.

"Who's the hero? The ring, or you?" Lena asks.

And Kyle knows the answer.

Lena then closes her eyes and starts whispering, "In brightest day, in blackest night..."

"...No evil shall escape my sight." Kyle responds tentatively.

"... Let those who worship evil's might..."

"... Beware my power ..."

"Green Lantern's light!"

Both Lena and Kyle shout the last line out as the later focuses on returning back to reality, back to the fight.

Outside Dusk has put the ring on. The smile of triumph disappears as a bright flash of emerald light illuminates the sky. He feels pain. Pain like he hadn't felt since. since he lost them. His family. Memories that he had tried to purge from him suddenly assault him. So. much. pain.

The ring suddenly snaps off his hand and flies towards a figure standing in front of Dusk now, an emerald glow surrounding the figure.

Kyle catches the ring and returns it to its rightful place. He faintly grins. "Alright. Lets finish this."

Next issue: The final battle between Dusk and Green Lantern as we reach the conclusion of "In our Darkest Night". Also. who's the Sentinel's mysterious attacker and what's the connection with Kyle? Don't miss Green Lantern #3!