The stars stretched like brushstrokes across the void as Razor's Edge trailed Lirra Syn's green wake toward Oa. Kael Varn slouched in the pilot's seat, one hand on the controls, the other fidgeting with the ring. Its glow had settled into a steady pulse, but every time he glanced at it, he felt like it was sizing him up. The cockpit was quiet except for the hum of the engines and the occasional ping from the nav, but Kael's mind was anything but calm.
He'd fought pirates, survived a ring choosing him, and now he was flying with a real Green Lantern an alien who looked like she could snap him in half without breaking a sweat. Lirra Syn. Her name alone sounded like a warning. She'd saved his hide back in that ambush, no question, but the way she'd looked at him like he was a problem she had to solve made his skin itch.
"Alright, glowstick," he muttered to the ring. "You got me into this. Least you could do is explain the rules."
The ring didn't answer, but a faint hum vibrated through his hand, like it was amused. Kael snorted. Great. He was talking to jewelry now.
The comms crackled, and Lirra's voice cut through, sharp and precise. "Human, adjust your trajectory. You're drifting off course."
Kael glanced at the nav. He was dead on. "Name's Kael, not 'human.' And I'm flying fine, thanks."
A pause, long enough to make him wonder if she'd muted him. Then: "Kael. Your ship's ion wake is fluctuating. Compensate, or you'll burn out your drive before we reach Oa."
He checked the diagnostics, cursing under his breath. She was right his engines were running hotter than they should. He tweaked the power flow, and Razor's Edge smoothed out. "Okay, point to you," he said, trying to keep his tone light. "But maybe ease up on the babysitting? I've been flying longer than you've been... uh, glowing."
Another pause. "I've been a Lantern for thirty-two of your Earth years. You've had a ring for less than a day. Stay focused."
Kael grinned despite himself. "Thirty-two years? You don't look a day over twenty, uh... mandibles."
Silence. He could almost hear her rolling her eyes or whatever her species did instead. He leaned back, letting the autopilot handle the straight shot through hyperspace. The fight with the Crimson Blades kept replaying in his head those red blasts, darker than normal weapons, and the way his ring had trembled. Lirra had called it the Voidveil, and the word alone made his gut twist. He wasn't ready for cosmic bogeymen. He wasn't ready for any of this.
The ring flared, and a faint image flickered in his mind: Oa, a planet of green spires and endless skies. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Stop that," he told the ring. "I'm going, alright? No need to get pushy."
But the image lingered, along with a feeling urgency, like a clock ticking down. Kael rubbed his temples. He needed answers, and Lirra was his best shot. He keyed the comms. "Hey, Lirra? What's waiting for us on Oa? And don't give me the 'you'll see' routine. I'm wearing the same bling as you now."
Her response was slower this time, her voice measured. "Oa is the heart of the Corps. The Central Power Battery, the Guardians, our training grounds it's where Lanterns are forged. But right now, it's... troubled. The Battery's unstable. The Guardians are searching for answers. And you, Kael, are part of that."
"Me?" He laughed, sharp and nervous. "I'm a pilot, not a puzzle piece. Why's this Battery thing such a big deal?"
"The Battery powers every ring," she said, her tone edging toward impatience. "Without it, our constructs fail. Our will falters. If it falls, the Corps falls and the galaxy with it."
Kael's grin faded. He glanced at the ring, its light steady but somehow heavier now. "No pressure, then. What about this Voidveil you mentioned? Sounds like something I'd rather not meet in a dark alley."
Lirra's voice grew quieter, almost reluctant. "The Voidveil is... unknown. A force that consumes, that feeds on fear and doubt. It's tied to the Battery's instability, but we don't know how. Or why."
"Great. A mystery monster. My favorite." Kael tried to sound flippant, but his chest tightened. He'd faced pirates, storms, even guild enforcers, but this felt different. Bigger. "And I'm supposed to help fix this because... what? The ring's got bad taste in pilots?"
"The ring chose you for a reason," Lirra said, her tone firm. "Willpower isn't about fearlessness, Kael. It's about acting despite fear. You've done that already facing those pirates, shielding me. The ring sees what you don't."
He didn't answer right away. Her words hit harder than he expected, stirring something he wasn't ready to name. He'd always run on instinct, not courage. But the ring hadn't cared about his doubts. It had picked him anyway.
"Yeah, well," he said finally, "let's hope it doesn't regret it."
Lirra Syn flew ahead, her ring's green aura cutting through hyperspace like a blade. Her constructs formed a sleek, avian shape around her, letting her move faster than Kael's ship could manage. She didn't need to look back to know he was following his ion wake was as loud as his mouth. Kael Varn. Human. Brash, untested, and utterly unprepared. Yet the ring had chosen him, and that alone demanded her attention.
Her mandibles clicked softly, a habit she indulged when alone. The Guardians' orders echoed in her mind: Find the new Lantern. Guide them. Protect the ring. Simple enough, but nothing about this felt simple. The Central Battery's flicker, Zorath's death, the Voidveil's shadow it was a storm brewing, and Kael was a spark in its path.
She adjusted her course, her telepathic senses brushing the edges of Kael's mind. She didn't pry ethics forbade it but even the surface was a whirlwind of doubt, bravado, and something else. Resilience. The human had fought when he could have fled, shielded her when he could have saved himself. Foolish, perhaps, but the ring thrived on such foolishness.
Lirra's own ring hummed, its light steady against her claw. She'd worn it for decades, fought wars with it, lost friends to it. The Corps was her life, but it hadn't spared her pain. The Battle of Kryon, where her squad fell to the Red Lanterns. The Purge of Sector 666, where she'd faced horrors no ring could erase. Each scar had hardened her, but the Voidveil's threat felt different. Personal. It fed on weakness, and Lirra had buried plenty of hers.
She keyed the comms, her voice calm but firm. "Kael, we're approaching the Oan system. Prepare for drop-out."
"Got it," he replied, his tone lighter than it should be. "Any welcoming committee? Cake? Balloons?"
"Focus," she said, suppressing a click of her mandibles. "Oa's defenses are active. Stray from my path, and you'll be a debris field."
"Charming place," he muttered, but his ship adjusted, hugging her trajectory.
Lirra's senses sharpened as hyperspace began to thin. The Oan system was a fortress, its outer reaches guarded by automated sentinels and Lantern patrols. But something felt off. The psychic hum of the Central Battery, usually a beacon to every Lantern, was faint, like a song half-forgotten. She reached for it, her telepathy probing, and caught a flicker of... wrongness. A shadow where light should be.
"Kael," she said, her voice tight. "Stay close. Something's wrong."
"Wrong how?" he asked, his bravado slipping.
Before she could answer, hyperspace shattered, and the Oan system snapped into view. Oa hung in the distance, its green spires glinting under a sky of endless stars. But the space around it was chaos. Lanterns darted through the void, their rings blazing some forming shields, others firing constructs at shapes Lirra couldn't yet make out. Dark shapes, moving too fast, trailing red-black energy that made her ring tremble.
"Voidveil," she whispered, her mandibles stilling.
Kael's voice crackled through the comms. "What the hell is that?"
Lirra didn't answer. She accelerated, her constructs shifting into a spear-like form. The shapes weren't ships they were entities, amorphous and jagged, like tears in reality. They swarmed a Lantern patrol, their red-black tendrils lashing out, draining the green light from their rings. Lirra's telepathy caught screams fear, pain, doubt amplified beyond reason.
"Lanterns under attack," she said, her voice steel. "Kael, stay back. Protect your ship."
"Stay back?" he snapped. "Those things are eating your friends! I'm not sitting this out."
Lirra gritted her teeth. "You're untrained. You'll die."
"Then train me fast," he shot back, and Razor's Edge surged forward, green light flaring from its hull as Kael's ring activated.
Lirra cursed in Vryllian. The human was reckless, but he wasn't wrong. The patrol needed help, and every ring counted. She dove into the fray, her constructs forming a lattice of blades that sliced through a Voidveil entity. It shrieked a psychic wail that clawed at her mind and dissolved, but more took its place.
Kael's ship weaved through the chaos, his ring's light erratic but fierce. He fired a clumsy beam, missing one entity but scattering another. "This thing's got a mind of its own!" he shouted, his voice strained.
"Focus your will!" Lirra called, shielding a wounded Lantern from a tendril. "Picture what you want clearly and the ring makes it real."
"Easy for you to say!" Kael grunted, but his next construct was sharper a green fist that smashed an entity into fragments. He laughed, half exhilarated, half terrified. "Okay, that's more like it!"
Lirra fought beside him, her telepathy guiding her strikes. The Voidveil entities weren't just physical they were doubt given form, fear made tangible. Each hit drained her, whispering memories of Kryon, of failure. She pushed them down, her will a blade, but the effort burned.
The patrol rallied, their rings bolstered by Lirra's presence. Together, they drove the entities back, green light flaring brighter. Kael's constructs grew steadier shields, spikes, even a crude net that trapped one entity long enough for Lirra to destroy it. He was learning, fast, but his inexperience showed. A tendril grazed his ship, and his aura flickered, doubt creeping in.
"Kael!" Lirra shouted, diving toward him. She formed a barrier, taking the brunt of the next hit. Pain lanced through her, psychic and real, but she held firm. "Stay with me!"
"I'm trying!" he yelled, his voice raw. His ring flared again, and a green chain lashed out, binding the tendril. It writhed, then shattered, and Kael slumped in his cockpit, breathing hard. "What are these things?"
Lirra didn't answer right away. The entities were retreating, fading into the void, but their presence lingered in her mind—a promise of worse to come. She scanned the patrol: three Lanterns wounded, one critical, but alive. Oa's sentinels were mobilizing, their green beams sweeping the system.
"They're the Voidveil," she said finally, her voice heavy. "Or part of it. Come. We need to reach Oa before they return."
Kael didn't argue, his usual quips absent. Razor's Edge followed her, its hull scorched but intact. As they approached Oa, the planet's spires loomed, their light dimmer than Lirra remembered. The Central Battery's pulse was faint, a heartbeat struggling to hold.
On Oa, they landed in a hangar carved from emerald stone, Lanterns rushing to aid the wounded. Kael stepped out of his ship, his ring's armor fading, leaving him in his pilot's jacket. He looked shaken but defiant, his eyes scanning the Citadel's towering halls.
Lirra approached, her mandibles clicking softly. "You did well, Kael. For a novice."
He smirked, though it lacked his usual swagger. "High praise. What now?"
"Now," she said, her gaze shifting to the Battery's distant glow, "we face the Guardians. And find out why the Voidveil struck here."
Kael nodded, his hand brushing the ring. It hummed, steady but unyielding, and for the first time, he didn't flinch. The fight had changed something in him, even if he didn't know it yet.
Lirra led the way, her telepathy catching fragments of Oa's unease Lanterns whispering, the Battery's flicker, a shadow growing. The Voidveil wasn't just a threat. It was a test, and Kael Varn, for better or worse, was part of the answer.
As they entered the Citadel, a figure watched from the shadows a Lantern, their ring dim, their eyes glinting with something darker than green. The Voidveil's whisper followed them, faint but relentless: Weakness... doubt... we see you.