Spike always hated waking up with bright lights shining into his weary eyes, and what he hated even more was when the light blinding him was an emerald color, because it usually meant trouble. With a groan, he lifted his hand and moved it in front of the light, barely seeing the back of his hand through blurry eyes. Yet, the weariness and exhaustion melted instantly when Spike realized that he was looking at the back of a scaled purple hand. His hand.
"My hand's back!" Spike cried excitedly as he sat up swiftly...and subsequently got punched in the face when he slammed his skull into the knuckles of the hand that had been dangling over his face. With a groan of pain, Spike clutched his hands to where he had been struck, rubbing away the pain before blinking his eyes twice and looking around the room.
He was sitting in a strange bed in a large room that held many numbers of Lanterns within it, most of whom were horribly hurt or covered in emerald bandages. But his attention was focused mostly on the two beings that sat on his right and left at his bedside, one of them being the Blue Lantern who had always been by his side, and now had tears running down her face. But the other was a figure that Spike hadn't seen in five years, but he knew him still, because he wore a green mask over his face and was a Lantern that none forgot.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Spike, both figuratively and literally," the Lantern said with a sigh of relief while he lowered his white gloved hand and got the light out of Spike's eyes.
"Hal...? What are you doing here?" Spike weakly muttered as he started to sit up, only to feel a wave of nausea wash over him, and he nearly threw up on the bed. But while he clamped his hands to his mouth in an effort to stem the vomit, Spike looked down at himself to realize that his body was one hundred percent normal dragon. "And...I'm back to normal! Those Guardians did it!"
"Yes, they did," Sweetie said in a voice that was half happy and half sob, before she rested her head against his chest, her blue light helping to ease the nausea that plagued Spike. "Despite three days of not knowing whether or not they'd do it, you're back to normal. All of Brainiac's influence over you is gone." The moment she spoke the machine's name, Spike's eyes went wide and he started to glance around the room, hurting himself slightly while the Lanterns calmed him down.
"That's right! Brainiac!" Spike cried as he tried to get up, but Hal's light was more than enough to keep the weakened Lantern in bed. After a few moments, he calmed down to the point where he stopped trying to fight and Hal released his grip on Spike. "The battle! I remember...we freed the Lanterns...did one last push against him and then...what happened after that?" Hal and Sweetie shared a quick look that Spike didn't like, before Sweetie pressed herself even closer to Spike while Hal prepared to explain.
"From what I've heard from the Lanterns who were there, Brainiac was...overflowing with the Lantern energy that he stole," Hal began, but Spike was more focused on how deadpanned Hal's voice sounded. "John battled with him along with other Lanterns, but eventually Brainiac and John battled it out in the center of the city streets." Hal took a pause, which gave Spike a chance to glance down at Sweetie to find that there were tears flowing from her closed eyes.
"John...managed to get the upper hand on him," Hal continued, drawing forth a stunned look from Spike. "Yeah, a lot of the times we forget that of all the Earthling Lanterns, he has the strongest willpower. But after knocking each other around for a bit...Brainiac gave up. Or I suppose, stopped caring is the better word choice. He said something along the lines of the body he was using...being an experiment and that he would destroy the source of will, or something like that. Then...he dropped his space station on the planet."
"What...then how?" Spike began, but Hal held up a hand.
"Getting to that. So with his space station falling to the planet, Brainiac used his other trump card. He destroyed himself to unleash all of the light within his body at once to neutralize the rings of all the Lanterns except for John, whom many assume managed to shield against the blast in time. That left him as the only Lantern who could possibly do something to stop the fall of the station."
"So...what happened?" Spike dared to ask. Hal lowered his head at that moment and remained silent, almost like he was trying to regain control of himself before speaking.
"John caught it." Silence was all that could be heard among them after Hal spoke those three words, with Spike sitting in complete awe.
"He...he caught that massive station?" Spike dared to whisper a moment later, getting a nod from Hal who worked up the strength to continue.
"Yeah. All by himself, he managed to lift something that large and keep it from crashing into the planet, which was apparently Brainiac's plan to destroy the world," Hal clarified softly. "Some say that he held it for what felt like hours, but in reality it was barely a minute. That's when the rest of the Sinestro Corps showed up and helped to lift the burden, throwing the station back into space. And thus, the day is saved." Spike could hear the pain in Hal's voice when he finished speaking, but at that moment Spike was too amazed by the knowledge that John had managed to lift such an massive object on his own.
"He...he lifted it all by himself?! That's incredible! The amount of will and mental fortitude needed to do that would be..." But then a question entered Spike's mind, a question that he hadn't thought of until he looked at Hal, who continued to stare at the floor, and then to Sweetie, who had yet to stop crying.
"Hal?" Spike began as his heart started to sink into his stomach. "What happened to John?" For the longest minute of Spike's life, Hal stared at the floor to avoid the answer. He then slowly raised his head to look at Spike, but all Spike needed to do was look into Hal's eyes, which held the answer for him. "No..."
"He's gone Spike. He's dead," Hal confirmed. Spike said nothing while the news washed over him, but he fell back onto his pillow as if he had been struck down by a hammer. For a minute he just stared down at his legs, trying to wrap his mind around Hal's words but found himself unable to believe them.
"It...it can't be! He's too strong to have died," Spike stammered out, but Hal simply shook his head at Spike's reaction. "There has to be some mistake! Did...did you check his ring? If it's still on him then that means that he's-"
"Spike, haven't you noticed yet?" Sweetie spoke this time, gently motioning her head towards Spike hand. Slowly Spike looked down at his right hand to see a ring of emerald light resting upon his middle claw. Tears began to stream down Spike's face as he gazed at the ring, knowing that his ring was too far gone for this one to be his.
"It chose you almost immediately after John died," Hal clarified for Spike, looking down again as the dragon bit his lip to prevent himself from sobbing. "And if I knew John as well as I did, I bet he knew that it would choose you as well. It made a good choice, one worthy of the man who wielded it before you."
"How...how can you be so calm?" Spike choked out, trying to fight his pain with rage, but was unable to do so.
"I've lost plenty of friends in this career, Spike. Many whom I've had the honor to fight alongside against the forces of evil. But that's just the way this job goes," Hal said with bitter venom in his voice. "A Green Lantern never retires, because there's only one way out of this job. And John knew that when he took on Brainiac. I just wish...that I could have been here sooner. Maybe, then this wouldn't have happened!"
For a moment Hal seethed with rage, but only a moment because he regained control of himself and glanced over at Spike. Spike was holding Sweetie Belle close to him and was doing his best not to sob loudly, while Sweetie comforted him softly, not bothering to try to hide her tears. Hal's face softened as he extended his hand and gently placed it upon Spike's shoulder, joining the pair in their sorrow: In Spike's sorrow for his lost mentor; Sweetie's sorrow for the loss of an ally; and for Hal, who lost one of his closest friends.
|)O(|
Spike, Sweetie and Hal stood in respectful silence next to the emerald coffin, while the rest of the Green Lanterns trickled out one by one, eventually leaving those three as the only beings left in the chamber where John had been laid to rest. It wasn't a fancy coffin, nor was it particularly large, and Hal had informed the two young Lanterns during the small funeral that that was the way John would have wanted it.
"Still can't believe that none of the Guardians showed up to pay respects," Spike spat with a cold venom while he glanced around the empty room for the little blue men. "It's not like John saved their whole stinking world or anything--oh wait, that's exactly what he did!"
"Calm yourself, Spike. Now is not the time for rage, especially not here," Sweetie spoke calmly to the dragon, whose rage fizzled out as he glanced down at the emerald coffin, tears streaming from his eyes once again. "Try not to cry, Spike...all will be well."
"That's why you're a Blue and I'm not Sweetie, because I don't know if I could say that with a straight face right now," Spike muttered back somberly. Another ten minutes passed in silence before Hal let out a sigh and lifted his right hand, constructing a platform upon which he placed the coffin before turning to the younger Lanterns.
"I'm going...to be taking him back to Earth. Bury him back home, y'know? He...he deserves that much...and so much more. If the two of you want, I can drop you off on Equestria before I head back to Earth," Hal offered. "The new warp-speed system they installed in the Interceptor should make it a quick journey in case you...don't feel like talking that much." Spike and Sweetie nodded somberly as they followed Hal Jordan out of the small chamber with the emerald coffin in tow.
The pair floated slowly through the streets towards the hangar where their ship rested, their eyes drawn to the damage and rubble that had resulted as the fortress nearly crushed all of the city. Many of the tall skyscrapers that had once reached towards the emerald sky had been laid flat, and all that remained of their might were craters filled with debris.
Numerous Manhunter remains were strewn across the entire city and needed to be cleaned up as well. Many Lanterns were hard at work either collecting or straight up destroying the remains of the Manhunters, all of which had gone offline the moment that Brainiac had exploded, Hal informed the two.
Yet as they observed the destruction, the three were also aware that all of the Green, Blue and even Yellow Lanterns that they passed all either bowed in respect or, in the case of the Yellow Lanterns, nodded as they passed by.
"Don't worry, Spike. Even if the Guardians won't acknowledge his sacrifice, all of the Lanterns who were here know what happened...and who saved all of Oa...and maybe the cosmos," Hal comforted Spike. "And don't worry, I'll make damn sure that the heroes of Earth honor him for what he did."
"At least Brainiac went out before John did," Spike growled. "Glad that that sick freak is finally gone for good." The sigh that Hal let out caused Spike to sigh as well and he glanced up at Hal, who was shaking his head slightly. "Let me guess, the bastard isn't dead."
"That's the problem when fighting Brainiac, Spike, he never truly stays beaten. As long as a piece of him survives somewhere, he'll come back and he'll probably be stronger than he was before," Hal growled with rage in his own voice. "Why is it that the villains never stay dead?"
"Because evil never truly dies," Spike snarled, before shaking off his rage as the three of them finally reached the hangar, one of the few buildings that had escaped any damage from the assault by Brainiac. Yet, to the mild surprise of the Lanterns, they found a number of other beings waiting for them at the base of the parked ship.
"Nattily, Saint Walker, Razer and...Ali?" Sweetie asked in confusion when the three approached the strange beings that were gathered around the Interceptor, and who ceased speaking with each other at the arrival of the three Lanterns. "What are you all doing here? I thought that you and the other Blue Lanterns were going to head home?"
"We are, Sister Belle, but first we wished to catch you and your friends to...pay respects one last time to the one who helped to save us," Lantern Razer stated as he gently rested a blue hand on the top of the emerald coffin.
"But we also wished to thank the two of you as well, for you fought Brainiac just as hard as John did," Saint Walker added before bowing to both Sweetie and Spike, then looking at the former with a large smile upon his face. "I am glad to see that you were able to find your hope once again. And I have hope, that you will be able to spread that hope across the cosmos for those who have none."
"That's what we do, isn't it?" Sweetie replied with a half-smirk before she bowed in response to Saint Walker. She then turned towards Razer with a smile as well. "And thank you for helping me to reclaim what I had lost. Without you, I would still be a slave to my rage...or most likely dead."
"I am just happy to help," Razer replied before bowing to her, then raising a curious eyebrow while Spike walked up to him with a look. "Yes Lantern Spike, how may I be of aid to you?"
"You're...the one who saved Sweetie's life when she was a Red Lantern, right?" Spike asked before letting out a sigh when Razer nodded in response. Spike then seemed to swallow hard before he bowed in front of Razer. "Thank you for saving her!" he quickly said before standing back up and crossing his arms while looking away.
"It was my pleasure. And, I am glad to see that I was able to prevent the two of you from suffering the same pain that I endured," Razer replied before slightly bowing to Spike and then turning to bow to Saint Walker. "I will see you soon, teacher," Razer said before a blinding flash of blue light went off, revealing when it faded that the Lantern was gone.
"And I must be getting back as well, though for different reasons," Saint Walker stated before holding out the bottled battleship of the Red Lanterns. "I must return those who have been trapped to their homes. Fortunately, the Green Lanterns learned of how to reverse the effects. But I must leave soon, for it is a bad idea to bottle up rage. Are you ready?" Saint Walker asked the Star-Sapphire beside him, leaving Nattily to walk forward and awkwardly rub the back of her head.
"Well...guess this is goodbye for now," she said behind them while holding another bottle with a violet planet inside. "I need to get back to my sector and return the Star-Sapphires to normal."
"Need any help?" Spike asked, but Nattily shook her head before looking down at the small planet that she held in her fingers.
"No, Saint Walker was kind enough to offer to escort me there and help me fix my home," Nattily informed the two of them with a small smile. "But it was nice to meet both of you. The two of you have been really good friends to me. So, I guess this is...goodbye for now. But if you're ever in the sector, come see us!" She floated over beside Saint Walker while she said this, waving to both Spike and Sweetie as a flash of blue light went off and sent the two on their way. That left the Guardian Ali as the only being that stood between the Lanterns and their ride home.
"Before the three of you go, I would like to congratulate you on the success of completing the mission. You both did well for such young Lanterns," Ali praised in an emotionless voice while he nodded to both Spike and Sweetie before casting a glance at Hal. "Try not to crash it this time, Jordan, we're tired of having to build new ones."
"Yeah, I'll remember that the next time I have to save all your bald butts," Hal snarked in reply. Ali shot him a glance before floating past the three as he headed towards the exit, but then he came to a brief stop beside the coffin and looked down at it. Yet, Spike was the only one close enough to see Ali's eyes, and for a brief moment he saw what looked like...sorrow in them. But then Ali blinked and the emotion was gone, leaving the Guardian to nod to them all one last time before floating away.
"Well, whaddya know? Maybe he wasn't such a jackass after all," Spike muttered with a small smile. Hal caught Spike's smile and shot a curious glance at Ali, before shrugging his shoulders as he turned to the Interceptor and used his ring to open the ramp up onto the ship.
"Come on guys, it's been a long day. Let's get you home."