"Energy at 41.19%."
Hearing the Black Lantern ring's readout, Thea did the math. It wasn't far off her estimates—an hour at most before Nekron would cross over into the material plane.
The Green Lantern Corps had to be rescued immediately. Without the other corps backing them up, the Greens couldn't destroy a single Black Lantern, and conversely, the other six corps were equally helpless without the Greens. Each corps needed the others. That much was non-negotiable.
First, she contacted Kerrigan, who was lying in ambush in the outer reaches of Oa's system. That Guardian who'd fled earlier had almost certainly run straight back to Oa, and Thea was not pleased. The little blue coward hadn't said a word—just bolted. Letting him return would dilute Ganthet's authority among the remaining Guardians. Better to have him "hosted" by the Rachi Swarm for a while.
Besides, Thea had been curious about the little blue men for a long time. A thorough round of harsh interrogation might turn up something interesting.
Kerrigan in a one-on-one fight was slightly outmatched by a Guardian, but the Swarm never believed in fair fights. Thousands upon thousands of insects piling onto a single target—Thea had no concerns about the outcome.
After a brief update to Diana and the others, she teleported back to the Blue Lantern homeworld.
Her clone had arranged everything on this end. All that remained was departure.
"I'm not helping you. I'm helping myself. Remember that, Blue Lantern." The speaker was enormous—broad-shouldered, thick-bodied, encased in crimson armor, with a massive skull and the build of a walking wall. This ferocious alien was Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lantern Corps.
Compared to him, Saint Walker looked thin as a reed. But the Blue Lantern's faith was absolute, and he met that furious gaze without yielding an inch.
Thea wasn't about to let her people get pushed around. She stepped in front of Saint Walker and sized up the bristling Red.
No energy beams. No emotional shockwaves. Just her gaze—and it was enough. Atrocitus, whose heart was a furnace of perpetual rage, went quiet.
"Atos—"
"My name is Atrocitus!" The Red Lantern leader made one last attempt at defiance.
Thea acted as though she hadn't heard. "Atos. That's the name you abandoned a long time ago. I know who you are. If you don't want to be part of this fight, leave. I have no shortage of rage."
Her eyes blazed with literal fire as she stared him down.
He held it for two seconds. Then he chose to back off—temporarily.
Thea turned to the other side, where an orange figure was huddling in the shadows, trying to make himself invisible. "And you. You greedy old dog—do you dare come out and face me properly?"
Larfleeze gaped at her. "You told me I wasn't allowed in your sight ever again!"
Thea was fairly certain a vein had started throbbing at her temple. She forcibly suppressed the urge to strangle him.
With her return, the roster was complete: Sinestro for Yellow. Saint Walker for Blue. Indigo-1 for Indigo. Atrocitus for Red. Larfleeze for Orange. Carol Ferris for Violet.
The six corps stood in clearly demarcated groups, each keeping its distance from the others.
Yellow had the largest numbers. Even after Thea had culled the most violent members, they still fielded over a thousand.
Indigo came second with close to eight hundred.
The rest were dismal.
Violet had fifty. Red had brought thirty. Blue had four. And Orange had Larfleeze—solo commander of a party of one.
She'd intended to depart immediately, but in her experience—from both movies and real life—leaders were expected to say a few words before battle. Saint Walker had told her as much: regardless of circumstances, there had to be a morale speech. Give everyone hope. Make them understand what they were fighting for. Tradition before a major engagement.
She considered her phrasing and opened with: "I know many of you are wondering—why rescue the Green Lanterns? Aren't they our enemies? Let me tell you the reason."
"I want compensation. I don't do anything without compensation..." Larfleeze was squatting on the ground, clutching his orange lantern, muttering to himself.
Thea pretended not to hear and pressed on.
"The Black Lanterns must be destroyed. They are the enemy of all living things. They will fill our bodies with death, and endless emptiness will consume the universe—"
"Emptiness? That must mean my stomach. I haven't eaten in two hours..." Larfleeze continued mumbling.
"One more word and I will kill you!!"
Fire erupted from her eyes. Larfleeze shrank instantly, trembling from head to toe.
Interrupted twice, whatever rousing eloquence she'd been building had evaporated completely. Thea hurried through the rest—that without the Greens they couldn't destroy Black Lanterns, and without the other six corps the Greens couldn't do it either. After repeating the point once more, she waved her hand and gave the order: teleport. Move out.
"Your Divine Majesty—have you seen Ganthet?" Guardian Sayd asked quietly.
Sayd was Ganthet's partner. The two had been together for over a hundred million years, which was, by any standard, remarkable. Even after the Guardians had their emotions stripped away, Sayd had never left Ganthet's side.
Thea had genuine affection for the pair. They were among the few decent Guardians. Not like that other one—the one Diana had rescued in Central City—who'd been mediocre in ability but acted like he owned the universe, flying off without so much as a goodbye. That sort she dealt with without a second thought.
But with Ganthet and Sayd, she was always polite. "Don't worry, Lady Sayd. Ganthet is still on Oa. We'll concentrate our strength and bring them all home."
Using Indigo Tribe teleportation, they arrived at Oa.
The planet's outer perimeter had once been lined with Guardian defense installations and anti-air defenses. All of it was destroyed now. The defenses that the Guardians had spent enormous effort building, that the Green Lantern Corps had helped construct over more than a hundred million years—more than half of Oa was shrouded in black.
Only faint flickers of green showed through the gaps—proof that someone was still fighting in there.
Thea closed her eyes. She could use telepathic communication—not as refined as Martian Manhunter's, but serviceable.
With a slight frown, she connected with Ganthet. Thirty-six hundred sectors, two Green Lanterns per sector—that was 7,200 active members, plus an equal number of reserves. As the universe's police force, the Green Lantern Corps had always been the largest.
But on Oa right now, Ganthet had fewer than 2,000 at his side. Even accounting for some who'd been in their sectors and couldn't return in time, the optimistic estimate was that they'd lost nearly half their force. After the Blackest Night, even with every reserve activated, they'd barely manage one Lantern per sector.
Those 2,000 were holding against hundreds of thousands of Black Lanterns—hundreds of thousands of beings who, in life, had each been among the "greatest Green Lanterns ever," fully capable of ring constructs.
And that wasn't all. Plenty of enemies the Green Lanterns had defeated in the past had also risen. Thea spotted a massive figure among them: Mongul. In his prime, he could take on the entire Justice League singlehandedly. In this timeline he'd gone to Oa instead of Earth, and had been brought down by the full-strength Green Lantern Corps. His corpse had become one of the Guardians' trophy displays. Thea still had his son's body in storage—she'd sealed it away on the New Continent as a precaution against exactly this scenario.
Now Mongul had predictably risen. Combined with a horde of resurrected cosmic criminals, the Green Lantern Corps was on the brink of total annihilation.
Ganthet had taken the field multiple times, but could only manage fighting retreats.
"Hold." Thea ordered the main force to stop. She crouched and began inscribing a magic circle on the ground.
"Why aren't we charging in? Ganthet is in danger!" Sayd said urgently.
Indigo-1 held her back. "Lady Sayd, please wait. Oa's spatial barriers are extremely sluggish—we can't teleport in, and they can't teleport out. Lady Thea appears to be working on a higher-level spatial breach."
Sayd recalled—before her exile, she too had been a Guardian. She knew this. Teleportation wasn't especially advanced technology; psionics, magic, and mental powers could all achieve similar effects. Naturally, the Guardians had locked their own space down tight.
Which created a predicament: the Green Lanterns inside couldn't join them, and they couldn't fight their way in.