There were 3.9 billion Black Lantern soldiers. The scale of it, even just imagining it, confirmed the reputation: universal catastrophe.
She ordered the Zerg forces to hold near Oa and wait for instructions. In the original timeline, Scar had turned traitor and imprisoned her fellow Guardians—but Thea didn't know how things would play out here. Her read was that either the Guardians or the Green Lantern Corps could hold the line for a few hours. Several thousand Green Lanterns using hard-light constructs in coordinated defense could stall a breach for a while. The Zerg could be more useful later.
With the Zerg in position, she shed the Goddess of Souls' regalia and changed to a different set of armor. Considering the number of battles ahead, she canceled the avatar and sent her true body instead. Zamaron needed to be secured first—the Star Sapphires were too valuable to lose.
The Ankh Amulet gave her the ability to teleport between any living beings. She went to find Saint Walker.
On Odym, the star of hope, the ambient concentration of hope-energy was so dense that even Black Lantern rings couldn't approach. Both Saint Walker and Sister Blue were waiting for her here. Sister Blue was visibly tense. The Firstborn sat with his great sword across his knees, eyes closed, utterly still in meditation.
"Darkness comes. Abin Sur didn't build this in vain. Let the light of the Blue Lanterns shine across the universe!" Thea looked out at the assembled Blue Lanterns in full readiness, and let her voice carry.
"Nok!"
"Nok!"
The Blue Lanterns' distinctive call went up across the gathered corps. Half moved to contact Blue Lanterns elsewhere in the universe, calling them in. The others began coordinating with the Yellow Lanterns, setting up transport.
Yellow Lanterns for aggression, Blue to restore vitality, Indigo to replenish energy—under Thea's coordination the three corps had been moving toward tighter integration over the past weeks. She planned to anchor everything at Odym. The dense hope-energy made it nearly impregnable, and with Mogo available as a deterrent, this was the most defensible fortress in the sector. Tonight she'd be stretched across two fronts—Earth and Odym—but if both held, they'd already won the majority of the battle.
"Where are Ganthet and Sayd?" she asked Saint Walker.
"Ganthet had a vision of Blackest Night. He's gone back to Oa to warn the Green Lanterns. Sayd traveled to Okaara—she's searching for Larfleeze."
Larfleeze. The name surfaced in her mind and her mood dipped immediately. In the original timeline that creature had squatted on Earth and written out a full page letter to Santa demanding presents. Worthless creature. She took a breath and consciously moved her attention elsewhere.
"Alright, first—" She stopped. Something. "Keep setting up here. I'll be right back."
She translated out without a flash of light—the era of showy teleportation signatures was long past. She reappeared in an underground structure, two small boxes stacked behind her, two hooded figures standing before her.
"Those two boxes behind me—you hid them here, didn't you?" She addressed the taller of the two figures. "Old friends. You've returned to the physical world and you didn't come find me?"
The taller one pulled back his hood.
Sinestro. It had been years since she'd last seen him. Still lean, still tall—but visibly worn out. The shorter figure bowed slightly: Lyssa Drak, as sensitive to otherworldly presences as ever.
"Why aren't you speaking? I remember we weren't enemies."
Sinestro said nothing. Lyssa stepped forward quickly. "Lord Sinestro was badly wounded in the antimatter universe. His voice—"
"That's nothing." Thea extended a finger and touched the air. A brief pulse of white light. Sinestro reached up and felt his own throat, something like surprise crossing his face.
"There. I said it before—we're still friends. Are you looking to return to the Yellow Lanterns?"
Sinestro looked at her steadily. His voice came out hoarse, rough-edged. "I won't grovel. My voice—you can take it back."
Another stubborn one. Thea reached for the bigger move.
She held out both hands, ten fingers pale and clean as carved ivory.
"Look at my hands. I don't need rings anymore."
A yellow haze materialized between her palms. "This is fear—what you know best." The color shifted. "This is Blue Lantern hope." Another shift. "This is Red Lantern rage." Another. "This is Indigo compassion."
Sinestro stared. The world he'd known had Green and Yellow. That had been the full spectrum in his mental model. All of this—what was all of this? The world had moved on faster than he'd tracked.
"We're worlds apart now," Thea said. "You're not a threat to me anymore. So I'll tell you this as an old friend: the universal upheaval has already begun. If you want power—real power—you'll have to give something for it."
Sinestro's expression sharpened. "You're trying to recruit me? Against the Green Lanterns?"
Thea let just a trace of the mysterious into her voice. "Tonight. Don't look at me like that—I'm not a primitive, I know how planetary rotation works. I mean tonight literally: no matter the local time anywhere in the universe, everything will be engulfed in blackness. Unless you hide yourself in the antimatter universe, you will be caught in it." She caught a transmission coming in from a distance. "We can't fight this alone. It's not just targeting Oa or Earth—your Korugar won't be spared either. If you want help, come to Odym. Blue, Yellow, and Indigo are already there."
She left Sinestro to think it over and teleported back.
"Zamaron still refused to accept our help?"
Sister Blue gave her the expected bad news. The Zamaron Queen had declined their offer of alliance. In the Queen's estimation, the Star Sapphires could withstand any enemy through the power of love. Love conquered all. No outside help required.
"All units, move out. The Star Sapphires are a critical force and we can't afford to lose them. Save what we can." Thea couldn't do much about it. One decision at the wrong moment could produce consequences that couldn't be undone—and the Black Lantern rings traveled faster than she could negotiate. Zamaron was probably already past saving. She could only do what she could do.
Whoosh. The Blue Lanterns combined their power and opened a large-scale portal, and the three corps reached the outer system of Zamaron in two hops.
What had been a high-tech world wrapped in love was now burning from horizon to horizon. Hundreds of Black Lanterns swarmed the outer atmosphere, running rampant. The Violet Lanterns were in disarray—they didn't understand why their fallen sisters and heroines had come back wrong, wearing black and moving wrong.
"This lot is worth coming out for personally?" Sinestro had made up his mind before the corps departed, catching up to the group just as they launched. He'd put his Yellow ring back on. Looking down at the chaos below on Zamaron, his voice held nothing but contempt.
"Their power battery has been destroyed. Violet energy is running out, and there's no way to replenish it." Thea issued orders in rapid sequence. "Arkillo—take your unit and intercept those Black Lanterns. Saint Walker—stabilize the line with him. Sister Blue—take your people and get the civilians out."
The order landed. Arkillo moved. Sinestro's expression darkened—his most loyal captain, moving without so much as a glance in his direction. If even his closest lieutenant ignored him now, the rest of the Yellow Lanterns were clearly beyond his reach.