Work Text:
As the only one capable of doing anything worthwhile, Thaal was satisfied with his position of leader for this mission. Of course, it did mean the Guardians would be free to blame him if anything went wrong, but being able to officially order other Green Lanterns around more than made up for that.
So far, the trail had been fairly easy to follow, all Thaal had to do was listen to his ring, but that changed when he came upon a fork in the path. He halted, hesitating for just a moment as his ring scanned for an answer, and Hal took the opportunity to bound up to Sinestro's side.
"What's taking so long - oh," Hal interrupted his own question, no doubt noticing the two different paths. "Are we gonna 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe' it? Hang on, I've got this." Without waiting for an answer, Hal continued forward and spoke his strange meaningless words again, his finger alternating between pointing at the two paths.
Perplexed, Sinestro rubbed at his chin, then, when explanation eluded him, he moved to stand beside Hal. "Jordan," he began, though not quite sure what he planned to say. Something along the lines of inquiring after what Hal was doing.
"It's this way," Hal announced, before Sinestro could continue, pointing at one of the paths. He didn't seem to have noticed Sinestro's confusion, just flying to the entrance of the path like he expected to be listened to. When no one followed him however, he turned around, frowning slightly. "Did you have a better idea?"
Just then, Sinestro's ring informed him the path to take was in fact the opposite to Hal's choice. "Yes," Sinestro answered, and started off in the other direction. There he stopped, at the entrance, and glanced towards Hal who hadn't moved, apparently committed to his wrong choice of path. "Jordan…" Why did Hal have to be so difficult?
"I don't see what's wrong with this way, they look pretty much the same to me." All Sinestro heard from Hal's musing was an inherent need to question every order given, even when the right choice was obvious. The ring had told them the correct path, no amount of Hal's insistence otherwise could change that.
But apparently, it wasn't just Hal who wanted to act the fool. "Well, I think he's got a point there," Ch'p piped up. "There's not much difference, we might end up coming back to take the other path anyway, why not check them both at once?" Small feet scampered on the ground and Ch'p took his place at Hal's side, arms crossed.
In Thaal's view, Hal had just usurped control of the mission from him, had made the Green Lanterns question what was clearly the reasonable thing to do. This was Sinestro's mission, not Hal's, why couldn't the human just do as he was told for once in his life?
"It would be unwise to split our group," Sinestro advised, careful to keep his tone neutral, not letting any sign of his annoyance slip through. "This is the path we are taking, that is final." Neither Ch'p nor Hal moved, exchanging glances, and Sinestro's stomach twisted with a sudden mixture of anger and frustration. "Do you defy my judgement?"
"I'm not defying anything," Hal rebutted, sounding affronted. "Like Ch'p said, better to check both paths, isn't it? If we need any help, we can call you, I don't see what the problem is." Even a few of the other lanterns were starting to look agreeable now, though Sinestro was still firm in his trust of his ring. It had told him to go one way, so he would.
"It is unnecessary. This is the correct way, I will not jeopardise this mission simply because you want something to do, Jordan." By this time, a bit of a snarl had crept into Sinestro's voice, despite how he tried to hold it back, and Hal was getting fired up to.
"That is not what this is," Hal shot back, hands clenched into fists. "How do you know you're not going the wrong way, huh? You and your ego - we should have all our options covered, or don't you even trust me with that?"
"Perhaps I don't," Sinestro snapped. In the silence that followed, Hal looked like he'd been slapped, and Thaal had to shove any thought of regret away. This entire thing was ridiculous, there was no chance he was wrong, and the way Hal kept insisting otherwise made Thaal feel just a little inadequate, or at least like the human didn't trust him.
"Right," Hal said bitterly, nodding his head, "because you only trust me when I agree with you. You only trust me if you can control what I do. Well guess what." In a couple of long strides, Hal was standing before him, nostrils flared with anger, and his finger jabbed into Sinestro's chest. "You don't control me, Thaal. I'm going whether you like it or not so - so deal with it." With that, Hal spun on his heel and stalked down the incorrect path, Ch'p following cheerfully after.
There was no point in trying to stop him, Sinestro recognised that, and he didn't want to anyway. If Hal really was so deluded as to believe Sinestro was lacking trust in him, then good riddance. Besides, it might be easier to get things done without Hal interrupting.
That theory was quickly disproved as Sinestro made his way down the path he'd chosen, the rest of the small group of Green Lanterns following him. They spoke quietly to one another, didn't include him in the conversation, not that he wanted to speak to any of them anyway. But he wanted to speak to Hal.
As irritating as the desire was, it only grew as time went on, and Thaal was done with being angry, done with feeling undermined, he just wanted to hear Hal ramble on about something inconsequential. Such thinking was very distracting but, as he reasoned, Hal must have cooled down by now, setting things right with a call would be fairly easy to do.
Hal didn't answer. Sinestro tried several times to get through but his ring only returned with errors. Either Hal was ignoring him or, and this was unthinkable, something had happened, something not good.
"Excuse me," was all Sinestro said as warning to the other Green Lanterns before he was gone, speeding back the way he'd come. At the place where the path had split in two, he almost flew into Ch'p who was speeding in the opposite direction.
"Sinestro!" Ch'p exclaimed, clearly startled, but he recovered quickly. "It's Lantern Jordan, he fell down a hole and I can't contact him. We were just talking and then he was gone, you have to help him!"
"What do you think I'm doing, you idiotic squirrel," Sinestro growled, and stepped around Ch'p to continue on his way. "Where is he?" There were no holes he could see, but Ch'p shot past to show the way, a small furry body that blurred into one mass Thaal had trouble focusing on. Soon enough, however, that no longer mattered, and Sinestro could see the hole.
Without further delay, he dived down and hit the ground in a roll after quite a significant fall. "Jordan!" As soon as the shout left his lips, Sinestro spotted the human, a small figure in the distance, recognisable only by the glow of green around him. And there was someone with Hal, someone Thaal didn't recognise but the unknown alien was soon running at him, weilding a yellow sword stained with red blood.
The implications were obvious, but Thaal couldn't think about that right now because he was under threat. He dodged the first slice, leaping back out of the way, then slammed the alien's arm into the wall. The sword he snatched, gripping the handle, and drove the blade into the alien's side, taking care of that problem.
Just before Hal hit the ground, Sinestro caught him, fingers pressing against the stab wound. "Hal, can you hear me? Ring, keep him alive or I swear…" If more energy was needed, Thaal would burn up a star, any sacrifice would be made, he couldn't lose Hal, not like this.
The argument they'd had seemed even more stupid now, and he should've been here, he shouldn't have let Hal out of his sight. What did this mission matter, what did the Green Lanterns matter, if Hal wasn't there anymore? It didn't, and if Sinestro had only seen that, but he'd been too selfish, too arrogant, and now Hal was going to pay for it.
"This should never have happened," Sinestro murmured, and he brushed Hal's hair back from his forehead. Still, the human didn't move, but his breathing was shallow, he was still alive, though for how much longer, Thaal didn't know. All he could do was wait for his ring to give him the go ahead to fly to the nearest hospital.