Green Lantern #3
In our Darkest Night (Part Three)
"Requiem"
by
E. J. Questell
‘Can I do this?’ the thought raced through Kyle’s mind as the figure of Dusk stood before him. He had seen the creature’s past, its origin. The amount of similarities between Dusk and himself amazed him, yet… he understood the subtle differences. Dusk had allowed himself to be consumed by his grief. Kyle had more control than that… or did he?
Dusk, the member of an alien species called the Mantelites. A species that was able to create using the power of their minds. Dusk had been an artist in his home planet, this much Kyle had seen while inside Dusk after being absorbed by the darkness the creature wields. A creature, for the man that Dusk used to be once seemed to be long gone.
The use of the mind of creative purposes was prohibited in Dusk’s home planet, and his family paid the price for his transgressions. Dusk’s grief took on the form of a dark power, one that allowed him to create shadow constructs, and use those shadows to absorb living beings. He consumed planets… and he now came to Earth, looking for the one thing that would increase his power. The last Green Lantern Ring.*
(* See issues 1 and 2 for the longer account of these events!– E.J.)
As they stood on the rooftop of the hospital building, the world around them seemed to freeze. For long moments Dusk and the Green Lantern stared at each other. Kyle was trying to size up his opponent; Dusk was trying to understand what had happened. The ring bearer should not have been able to escape! Yet, here he was standing in front of him with the ring once more in his possession.
“You must give me the ring,” said Dusk, standing tall now. Shadows danced around him, eager to lash out at the hero from Earth.
Kyle smirked, closing his hand into a fist. “You want the ring? You’ll have to take it from me,” his words ringed with amusement. Internally, though, Kyle was concerned. He had been badly beaten by Dusk in a previous encounter. There was no guarantee that it would be any different this time.
Deciding that it was time for action, Kyle opened his mind to the power of the ring. An emerald hue surrounded him, and with an uncharacteristic silence for the young man he rushed towards Dusk, an emerald sword and shield forming on his hands.
Earth. In the past, those that lived there believed it to be the center of the universe. It was later proved, that this was not the case. Still… those that live there don’t seem to have understood the idea. Although the people of Earth have in fact been involved in a number of cosmic events, or rather, the heroes of Earth have; there are a number of unknowns that habit the stars.
One of those unknowns is the spaceship, where Sonar now finds himself. He could still remember the expression on the Sentinel’s face. Alan Scott didn’t seem to enjoy defeat at the hands of the unknown stranger that he had faced. It was a necessary evil, one that couldn’t be avoided.
When he had been asked to choose a name, there was a reason he chose Sonar. Not only because of the particulars of the abilities his benefactor had granted him, but for the significance that it had for the Green Lantern. He considered removing the full-face mask of his costume, now that he was here, but decided against it. He would have time to refresh later.
His steps took him towards a large door. He still found it unusual, the spaceship, even though he was not strange to them. He was from Earth, but for a long time he had made his home in the stars. The ship was currently hiding in the asteroid belt of the Solar System. Sonar was quite away from home.
The door went open, allowing Sonar passage into the chamber that his benefactor had taken for himself. As the doors closed behind him, Sonar waited.
A veil of shadows that covered the room concealed the features of the owner of the ship. This was in turn a result of the low illumination that dominated most of the vessel.
“Did you deliver the message?” a voice asked, and Sonar winced at the sound of it. The voice sounded old, older than before, and older than the last time they had spoken. There wasn’t much time left.
“I did. I’m sure he will take it to Kyle,” Sonar responded, at least he hoped as much.
The figure from the shadows nodded. “Good. Too much depends on it… including the life of the woman.”
As Kyle rushed towards him, Dusk smiled. The shadows danced around him in anticipation, it seemed that the ring bearer had not learned from their previous encounter. A wall of darkness came to life in front of Dusk, preparing to accept Green Lantern into its embrace.
A brief flash of green energy appeared in front of Kyle, and a trampoline took form, one that Kyle jumped on and used to launch himself over Dusk’s head. A green winged harness materialized around Kyle’s chest, as he floated behind Dusk. Extending his fist forward, the ring glowed with intense light, the flash of energy visible miles around the building that was serving as the battleground for this encounter. Dusk raised a hand to cover his eyes from the blinding light and a grunt escaped his lips.
“Come on. Don’t you want to catch me?” Kyle taunted. He had to take the fight somewhere else, somewhere where millions of civilians were not being put in danger. The wings on his back changed form and became two rockets. But as Kyle prepared to speed out of the area, he found himself being batted down by a large shadowy hand, the impact of the force sending him down towards the street level. Using his shadow constructs to create leathery wings for himself, Dusk threw himself over the edge of the rooftop to follow.
Now, that hurt, and Kyle had little time to do anything before he found himself hitting the street and splattering all over in the process. Down below, it was just pure chaos. People were trying to rush out of the way of the incoming green object, cars were crashing into each other and some onlookers were just standing there oblivious to the threat coming from above. A tall and large green water tank took form, just above the chaos going on the streets and Kyle prepared himself for the dive.
This slowed him down considerably, but he still ended up hitting the ground as dark tendrils pulled on the tank’s walls and destroyed it. At least, the fall didn’t kill him, even though every single muscle in his body hurt. Slowly, Kyle stood up, using his right hand to touch the edge of his mouth and finding some blood there.
This was the least of his worries, though, as he found himself raising up a giant baseball catcher to try and stop the incoming and speeding up form of Dusk. Dusk managed to break through the emerald creation, hitting Kyle and sending him flying across the street and against one of the buildings. Instinctively, the Green Lantern created a protective aura around him and once again avoided being badly hurt.
Dusk slowly walked towards him, a faint smile of victory on his face. He stood before the Green Lantern. “Hand over the ring, now,” he simply stated.
Kyle looked up at the figure, and coughed. “No…” he croaked, coughing once more. There were still some curious bystanders nearby, that were either frozen with fear and panic or just didn’t seem to grasp the situation at hand and the danger to themselves.
He was running out of options, Kyle wasn’t sure he could continue with the physical fight anymore. “Listen,” he started, pushing away the pain. He paused, considering his words. “No… don’t listen, watch,” and with that a small glow surrounded the Green Lantern’s ring and an image was projected from it. The image appeared between Kyle and Dusk, and the image took on the shape of a canvas, and on the canvas lines formed up to slowly create the same work of art that Kyle had seen Dusk working on while Kyle had been trapped inside him. No, not Dusk, but the man that Dusk used to be.
The Green Lantern extended his creation to show that same man working now on the canvas. Dusk watched this, and couldn’t move. He was just staring at the recreation.
“I know what happened. It was wrong,” Kyle started, trying to stand up, but finding his legs didn’t agree with him. “But what you did to them, was wrong too. Your family was killed, but you killed millions of other families. Millions of little girls, just like yours,” and the recreation of the artist working was substituted by the figure of a small Mentalite girl, Dusk’s daughter.
The images that the ring bearer was presenting to him sent waves of confusion all through Dusk’s mind. Something…. Someone inside him screamed at him to see the reality in what the Green Lantern was showing him. ‘They killed your dreams,’ the voice said. ‘And you became a nightmare. The universe’s nightmare.’
‘You avenged us, a long time ago, Bolan,’ another voice spoke. He barely recognized it. It sounded like… his wife. ‘It is time you forgive yourself,’ the voice continued.
Emotions continued to assault Dusk and the essence of the man he was once. His eyes were just fixed on the emerald construct resembling his daughter. He reached towards it, and in his mind, he was reaching towards her. Wanting to caress her face, to hold her in his arms, just one more time. He had tried to bring them back to life with his shadow constructs. He had believed that by creating a universe of shadows, shadows that would answer to his will, he could create at least a shade of what his life was before. But deep inside him, he knew the truth. His daughter, his wife… his life was already lost to him.
Lena, the Green Lantern that existed trapped inside Dusk’s shadows felt guilty of using the creature’s memories like this, but this lasted just a moment. For if the universe was to have a chance, there was no other choice.
Kyle could see that it was working; at least, it looked like he had managed to stop Dusk for now. Dusk reached for the construct, as if trying to touch it.
The man that was started to take control over the nightmare. It was Bolan, not Dusk. He remembered now. He looked at the construct of his daughter and wanted to cry, but felt he could not. Then the image of his daughter started becoming more real, or rather beyond that image there was a girl. A human girl, one that looked very like his lost child, and one that was in grave danger… from the wall that was about to collapse on her. “NO!” Dusk screamed.
The Green Lantern grew concerned. He didn’t understand why his opponent was screaming, until he turned around and saw the wall shaking and the people that were in the line of danger. His eyes fell on a very particular girl, one that was just standing there eyes wide open and staring at both Dusk and Kyle.
Kyle willed his ring to create a construct of a giant robot, but before he could do anything with it, Dusk was already standing behind the girl, his shadow constructs holding the wall and the building that was about to collapse with it together. The little girl was just staring at Dusk, and didn’t understand what was happening.
“Get the people out of the way… ring bearer,” Dusk said between grunts, it was obvious that the concentration to keep the building in place was taking its toll on the man.
“But…”
“Do it, NOW!”
And that is what Kyle did. Slowly, Kyle floated up in the air, surrounded by a bright emerald glow. Constructs appeared all over the place in different shapes and forms. They moved people out of the way; they flew into the building and got people out of it. Kyle even created a construct that was an amalgam of himself and the Flash, and used it to scout the inside of the building to make sure that there was nobody else left in there.
Through all that, Dusk stood there, his shadows holding the building together. His powers diminishing now that his eyes had been opened to the truth, now that he was slowly awakening from the nightmare that he had become.
Kyle floated in front of him, the bright green light still surrounding him. “They’re safe,” he said quietly, somewhat puzzled at the turn of events.
Dusk looked amused, “I guess…you win, ring bearer,” he said, and for the first time he was able to do what had been denied to him when he became Dusk. Slowly, a shadowy construct took form… the form of a little girl, Bolan’s daughter.
Bolan looked at Kyle, nodding his head. “Thank you,” and he closed his eyes. The shadows holding the building together disappeared, and the building collapsed on top of the Mantelite.
The Green Lantern slowly floated to the ground, tears running down his cheek. An artist. Dusk had been, an artist. And because of that, he and millions of others paid the ultimate price.
Kyle’s apartment was a mess, but he didn’t care about it. All he cared was about getting some sleep. He could have gone to the hospital, claiming to be one of the victims of the little incident with Dusk. But he wanted to be alone. He could walk, but his body was still hurting and sore all over. He was lying on the bed, just staring at the ceiling.
And a sudden crashing sound forced him to sit down. Painfully, Kyle made his way out of the room and found the somewhat beaten up figure of Alan Scott there on the floor.
“Alan? What-“, started as he rushed to the side of the first Green Lantern.
“No time,” Alan started, wincing in pain. “Jen, we need to save Jen.”
Next issue: Whoa, who is this new Sonar and the mysterious figure? And what happened to Jade? More on the mystery surrounding both questions in our next issue!