Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

For over a thousand generations, the Green Lantern Corps had been the guardians of peace and justice across the universe. An army that was three thousand and six hundred strong, each armed with the most powerful tool ever created. A family of virtually every sentient species to ever reach the stars, with an ancient legacy of salvation and righteousness. To be a Green Lantern was to be more than just an enforcer of law or protector of people. The members of the Corps were the stuff of legends and heroes of epic stories.

But stories come to an end. Most have happy endings, where the villains are vanquished and the heroes live happily ever after. Some are vague, hinting at adventures that continue beyond the final words. A few are bittersweet, when victory comes at a price and healing must begin. 

And then there are the tales which end in tragedy. There is no triumph for the heroes, no happily ever after or all was well. Some stories terminate with nothing but destruction and failure, with all of the heights the heroes achieved making their eventual downfall all the more difficult to bear. Such was the twilight of the Green Lantern Corps... 

Ganthet, last of the ancient Guardians of the Universe, struggles to his feet. Golden ichor oozes from a wound above his left brow, dripping down his face and onto the soil of Oa. All around him are bodies. There are so many of them, most of them clad in the emerald and black uniform of the Corps, but some in the red and white robes of fellow Guardians. A few of the Green Lanterns stir weakly, but the rest, including his brethren, lie deathly still. 

Eons ago, the Guardians had fundamentally altered their own biology to achieve immortality. In the process, they had dulled the strength of their own emotions. At the time, it had been considered a necessary sacrifice to govern the universe better and to avoid potential madness as millennia passed. Now, Ganthet considered it a blessing, as he felt pain welling up in his heart at the sight of the ruined Corps. Had he the emotional capacity of a mortal, he thought, the grief would be overwhelming.

Especially once he laid his eyes upon the architect of all this madness. 

Standing alone amidst the carnage was a solitary figure. He was a tall humanoid, with fair skin and brown hair streaked with white at the temples. But what broke old Ganthet’s heart in twain was the symbol the human wore upon his chest, a circle between two horizontal bars. For this was not an enemy’s coat of arms. No, this was the Green Lanterns’ own emblem, and the man who wore it was once the greatest of them all.

“Jordan…” Ganthet gasps. He reaches toward the human, pleading for an end to the madness.  “Hal, please…”

The traitor paid Ganthet no mind, instead striding towards a great emerald sphere and ascending the stairs that lead to an opening in the front. Throughout all the fighting, the Central Power Battery had remained unscathed, standing tall even as the citadel around it crumbled. But now, the rogue Green Lantern does what no other has dared to do in the history of the Corps. 

Hal Jordan gazes into the blinding green light of the Battery without flinching, then down at the ring on his hand. 

As Ganthet watches in horror, Hal Jordan slides the ring from his finger and tosses it aside. The tattered remains of his Green Lantern uniform vanish, leaving Jordan in an olive flight suit under a battered leather jacket. He walks forward, into the shining source of the Corps’ power.

In that moment, Hal Jordan becomes pure energy, burning like an emerald star. It is so bright that Ganthet cannot look directly at the fallen Lantern, and must shield his eyes. And from the light comes a voice.

“In Blackest Day, in Brightest Night!”

Ganthet could not bear the sound of it, of Hal Jordan uttering a twisted perversion of the Green Lanterns’ sacred oath. The shattered pieces of his heart grind further into dust as he picks up Jordan’s discarded ring.

“Beware your fears made into light!”

The last Guardian of the Universe casts a final look at his surroundings, seeing the broken remnants of Oa. He closes his eyes, remembering what once was. A citadel of emerald, with a Corps whole and healthy.

“Let those who try and stop what’s right!”

This is the darkest hour of the Green Lantern legacy. But it will not be its end. For as the Corps’ broken champion utters the final words of a corrupted oath and the Central Power Battery’s light goes out, Ganthet vanishes from Oa…

And appears in an alleyway on Earth…

Chapter Text

May 24, 2010

5:30 PM PST

Even before he got thrown into a dumpster and met a Smurf, Kyle Rayner was having a horrible day. 

To be fair, the after-school detention was entirely his fault for getting caught while skateboarding in the hallways during lunch. Nothing about this fact really made Kyle feel any less grumpy about having to stay in school for an extra two hours. A punishment that was compounded by a gratingly campy video of Captain Atom lecturing kids about the importance of following rules. By the time Kyle kicked open the doors of North Hollywood High to leave, he was in a truly foul mood. Amazingly, this was just the beginning of his problems.

On his way to the bus stop, Kyle noticed a small crowd of his classmates gathered around the entrance of an alleyway next to the school. A closer look indicated that most of the group were athletes from NoHo’s football and basketball teams, and they were jeering loudly at something. Curiosity overcame irritation enough that he decided to see what was going on.

While Kyle was on the taller side of average for a fifteen year old, he was still shorter than most of the jocks who were blocking his view. He resorted to elbowing and pushing his way through to the alleyway itself. Finally, he found the source of attention: a big musclehead with spiky frosted tips standing over Terry Berg, a skinny fellow freshman who was in the same art class as Kyle. 

It took a second, but Kyle recognized the blond too. The second-string quarterback “Comet” Maddock, who he’d known back in elementary. He’d had brown hair back then, but even when they were little kids, Maddock had been a bully. Kyle scowled. Some things clearly didn’t change.

“Really, Colin?” Immediately, the jock’s head whipped around at the sound of his hated first name. “Hazing a freshie after school? Could you be any more of a cliche? What is this, a John Hughes teen movie? Are we on camera?”

Maddock’s forehead wrinkled, as if he couldn’t believe someone was interrupting him. Before he could rub his remaining two brain cells together, Kyle strode over to stand in between Maddock and Terry. The freshman quickly made a hasty exit, pushing past the crowd and out of sight. At least one of them had some sense, Kyle thought, before turning his attention back to Maddock, who was looking rather vexed by this turn of events.

“You should’ve stayed out of it, Rayner. The fag had it coming.” Maddock did his best to loom over Kyle, an effort hampered by the fact that there was only a height difference of three inches between them

“You kiss your mother with that mouth? Bet she’d be real proud of you for using adult words.” Kyle scowled. “What did he even do, mess up your math homework?”

“No, it was a bio test! His answers were all wrong, but he still passed while I flunked!”

Kyle stared down Maddock for a solid two seconds before bursting into laughter. “Dude, are you for real? How you gonna blame Terry when you were too stupid to realize there were multiple versions of the test? No wonder the football coach keeps you on the bench!”

Pain exploded in Kyle’s gut, cutting him off. He stumbled back a couple of steps as Maddock’s eyes bulged and spit flew from the jock’s mouth. “Don’t call me stupid!”

“That,” Kyle panted, holding his stomach. “all that you got… stupid?”

Stars dance across Kyle’s vision as a meaty fist connects with his left cheekbone. Suddenly he’s being lifted up by his shirt front, and falling into a smelly pile of boxes and black trash bags. “Stay down, gutter trash!” Maddock shouts as he slams the lid of the dumpster down, leaving Kyle in the dark.

Kyle lay amidst the garbage for a few seconds, waiting until the pain in his stomach had subsided to the point he could breathe normally again. Well, as much as he could while lying in literal garbage. Antagonizing Maddock like that hadn’t been the best way to defuse that situation, but after the day he’d had, Kyle hadn’t been feeling very diplomatic. 

Pushing himself up with a groan, Kyle reaches up to lift the dumpster lid. He climbs out of the dirty metal box and into the alleyway, dusting himself off and picking up his discarded backpack and skateboard. Thankfully, none of the jocks had broken the board, though there was a footprint on the bag. A small victory that barely made up for how shitty this day had been. 

As Kyle moves to leave the alleyway however, a flash of green light blinds him. With a cry, he falls backward onto his butt. Once the spots in his vision clear, Kyle looks up to see a tiny blue man in a red robe standing on thin air.

“Oh man.” Kyle blinks. “Just how hard did Colin hit me?”

“Hmm… yes.” The Smurf floats down to hover at Kyle’s eye level. He looks like an old hippie turned blue then shrunk, with long white hair tied back in a ponytail and a face marked with deep age lines. His red robes are tattered, and he looks Kyle over with green eyes that seem to look through him rather than at him. 

“You shall have to do.” The Smurf murmurs before holding out his hand. Above his palm, a green ring floats, gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.

“Wh-what?” Kyle stammers, backing up. “Hey man, I don’t know what you want, but-”

He gets no further before the little blue man’s eyes flash, and another burst of green light fills the alleyway, forcing Kyle to shut his eyes. When he opens them again, all that remains is the green ring, still hovering before him. Kyle stares at it for a long moment before taking hold of it.

Made entirely of bright green metal, the ring is heavy and cool to the touch, though it quickly warms in Kyle’s hand. It looks like a simple band that is wider at one end, which is flattened on the outside and marked with a circle between two thick horizontal bars.

Kyle swallows hard, his heart beginning to pound; he knows this symbol, has seen it before many times in newspapers and photographs. It’s the symbol worn by one of the world’s greatest superheroes. The Green Lantern, or at least one of them, was a member of the Justice League, and up until a week ago, the guardian of Coast City, which was just an hour’s drive away from Los Angeles (on one of those rare days without traffic). 

Two weeks ago, Coast City had been wiped off the map by an alien warship. School had been canceled for the entire week, as the whole nation was in a state of shock and mourning. The Justice League arrived to drive the invaders away, but too late to save the millions who had lived in the city, presumably including Green Lantern, who had not been seen during the battle or since. 

Was this his ring? Kyle knew there were two others, a black man and a redhead, but they hadn’t been seen for even longer than the one from Coast City. Maybe one of theirs? But if this ring belonged to one of them, why had the Smurf given it to Kyle, and not their relatives? Or the Justice League?

The blue man was definitely not from around here. Maybe he thought all humans look the same, and thought I was related to Green Lantern? He seemed like he was in a hurry to get out of here. Kyle thought to himself, as he pocketed the ring. Not that I blame him, this place stinks. I stink. I should get home and shower, then I’ll figure out what to do with this ring.

Kyle hurried to the bus stop, just in time to see the yellow vehicle disappear around the corner. His shoulders slumped and he cursed loudly, realizing that he’d have to skateboard home. While smelling like the dumpster. What a horrible day.

Chapter Text

May 24, 2010

6:09 PM PST

By the time Kyle arrives home, he’s not just smelly and in pain, but also sweaty and exhausted. As much as he enjoys skateboarding, the distance between his apartment and school is more than he would willingly travel on board, especially on a hot afternoon with a swollen face. He tosses his backpack and dirty clothes aside before jumping into the shower, eager to wash the grime and sweat of the day away.

Finally clean and pressing a bag of frozen peas against his bruised cheek, Kyle fishes out the ring from his pocket and examines it. The whole journey home, he’d been wondering what to do about it. It wasn’t as though he could contact the Justice League, and even if he could, what was he going to say? 

“Hi, this little blue man appeared to me after school and gave me a ring that has the same symbol that your dead teammate used to wear.”

Yeah, if they didn’t laugh or hang up immediately, they’d probably arrest him for trying to prank call them less than a month after Green Lantern perished along with the rest of Coast City. Forget after-school detention, he'd probably get thrown into Blackgate, or even worse, Arkham.

Even so, Kyle sits down at his mother’s desk, and Googles the Justice League, hoping there is someone he can email or something. Unfortunately, the Justice League doesn’t even have a website- all he finds are fan forums talking about the various members and their heroics. None of them prove to be particularly helpful, it’s mostly horny losers drooling over Wonder Woman and trolls going on about how Batman is actually Bruce Wayne (“the butts match!”). As amusing as it is to imagine Gotham’s resident airhead billionaire dressing up as a bat to beat up criminals- Kyle files that one away as a future sketch idea- it’s not really helping him find a way to get rid of this ring.

Kyle sighs as he leans back in the creaky wheelie chair, running a hand through his damp hair. Maybe his mother will know who to reach out to, when she gets back from work in a few hours. But until then, it was just him and the Internet, which so far was proving to be useless.

Okay, so the Justice League was a bust, but what about searching Green Lantern directly? Most of the results are predictably news articles about Coast City, but there are some fan sites that describe sightings of the three superheroes that share the name (in the present day (apparently there was one who fought in World War II, which was news to Kyle), as well as details of some of their adventures. Much more helpful.

For the next half-hour or so, Kyle scrolls through the websites, drinking in as much information as he can and taking notes on his sketchpad. Most of it has to do with the Green Lanterns’ powers and where they operate, which leads to a rather interesting rabbit hole on whether their rings are the source of the Green Lanterns’ abilities, since all three (four if you count the old one from the 40s) wore them and seem to create their light constructs from them. The rings' creations seem to be tied to their creators' imaginations, as each Green Lantern tended

Kyle stares at the ring sitting on the computer desk. The fan sites were just speculating, but here he was with the opportunity to find out if it was the truth, that the ring was what gave the Green Lanterns their powers. He picks up the green metal band.

There’s a million reasons why this is a bad idea, how it could go terribly wrong. Kyle’s more of a comics and anime nerd than a bookworm but he’s watched The Lord of the Rings movies and remembers how the One Ring cursed anyone who put it on. So he knows full well that this is incredibly stupid. 

But he’s also been searching for any way to reach someone more qualified than him to deal with this and come up with nothing. Hell, for all he knows this ring is just a hunk of metal and does nothing. 

Or maybe, just maybe… 

Holding his breath, Kyle slides the ring onto his finger. Immediately, the symbol on the ring’s face flares a blinding green, forcing him to close his eyes. A feeling like hot wind blows over Kyle’s skin, making his hair stand on end. When the spots in his vision fade, he can see that his hands are covered in glossy white gloves, and the ring, which had been too large just a second ago, now fits perfectly on his middle finger. 

Kyle stumbles to the bathroom and stares at his reflection in the mirror. A green domino mask covers his wide eyes, and his Star Wars pajamas have been replaced by a green and black bodysuit with the Green Lantern emblem prominently displayed on the chest. It’s the exact same suit that the Green Lantern from Coast City wore, though he had the muscles to pull it off way better than Kyle’s skinny frame. 

As soon as he yanks the ring from his finger, the green and black suit winks out of existence, leaving Kyle in his pajamas. He stares at the loop of green metal in his hand for a long time before coming to two conclusions. He's now certain he knows whose ring this had been, and there is no way he can tell his mother about this.

Chapter Text

May 24, 2010

7:45 PM PST

As it turned out, getting punched in the face turned out to be a blessing in disguise. There was no hiding the mottled bruise on Kyle’s cheek, even after icing it for several hours. By the time Kyle’s mother arrived home, the swelling had gone down at least.

Maura Rayner, like most mothers, had an uncanny knack for knowing when her son was lying to her. So when Kyle first tried to distract her with the fried rice he’d cooked for dinner, then tried to tell her he’d slipped while skateboarding, she was having none of it.

 Maura watched her son squirm. The fact that he wasn’t making eye contact was a dead giveaway that he was hiding something. “Well, if you’re so insistent that you hurt yourself while skating, I’ll just have to confiscate your board.”

“What- Mom!” The outrage in Kyle’s voice was definitely honest.

“Then you tell me the truth, Kyle Aaron Rayner.” Maura said, deliberately using her son’s full name. “How did you actually get that bruise on your face?”

Kyle remained stubbornly silent for another moment before finally breaking. This time, he met his mother’s gaze evenly. “I got in a fight after school. Some jock was pushing around another freshman, and I wasn’t gonna just stand by and let it happen.”

Maura was quiet for a long moment, her face unreadable. Eventually, she asked, “Did you win?”

“Wha-uh, no…” Kyle sputtered, clearly not expecting that response. “Wait, you’re not mad that I got in a fight?”

“Well, I’m certainly not happy about it.” Maura sighed. “But I suppose there are worse reasons to fight than standing up to a bully.”

“Yeah, you always did tell me to stand up for what I believe in and help others.” Kyle’s grin is noticeably lopsided. It hurts to smile normally.

“You’re still grounded, though.”

“Oh come on Mom!”

“It’s only for a week.” Maura shook her head. “I don’t want to encourage you to brawl with other kids.”

“Even if the bully decides to start it next time?”

“Let’s not dwell on hypotheticals.” Maura said, picking up her spoon. “Now, time for dinner.”

Kyle grumbled a bit, but accepted his fate. He ate quickly and put his dish away, before going to his room, claiming to be tired after the day he’d had. Thankfully, his mother didn’t press him any further, assuming that his after-school fight had been the only secret he’d been keeping today. Kyle might not be able to lie to his mother, but he knew that the best way to hide one truth from her was to distract her with uncovering another one.

May 24, 2010

11:30 PM PST

Kyle waited until he heard his mother’s bedroom door close, then waited a little longer before sliding his window open. His mom usually knocked out quickly– working two jobs left her exhausted– but he still made sure to be quiet as he climbed out onto the fire escape.

The Rayners lived on the second floor of their apartment building, close to the ground but far up enough that one couldn’t reach the fire escape when the bottom ladder was pulled up. Releasing the rusty metal ladder would cause a heck of a lot of noise though, and pulling it up again afterward was difficult, so Kyle took an old jump rope out from his closet and tied one end to the fire escape, using it to climb down. 

Now in the alleyway next to his apartment, Kyle crept behind a nearby dumpster. He was wearing a dark gray hoodie over black sweatpants, but he wanted to minimize the risk of being seen by a passing car or something. Once he was out of sight from the street, Kyle reached into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out the Green Lantern ring.

He took a deep breath, then pushed it onto his middle finger, taking care to keep the symbol pointed away from him. Once again, there was that feeling of hot wind blowing over him, but this time Kyle could see a wave of green energy spread from the ring over his body, replacing his hoodie and sweatpants with green and black tights.

Now that he looks at it more closely, Kyle can see the green is shiny, as if metal, while the black is so deep it seems to absorb all light. And yet, when he pulls at it, the entire suit seems to be made from the same slightly stretchy fabric. It’s unlike any other texture he’s ever seen or felt. 

The suit’s definitely the real deal, but do I have the powers? Some of those fan sites said Green Lanterns can fly into space, like Superman. The thought of being able to soar through the sky like his childhood (and current) hero was more exciting than anything else, and Kyle took a few deep breaths. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

He bent his knees, then jumped with all his might, rocketing upward and leaving the alley below. The cool night air rushed through Kyle’s hair, and he whooped. This was it, he was actually flying! Then he looked down, and realized that he was seven stories above solid concrete. Concrete that was approaching at an alarming rate. “Uh-oh, oh no, aaaAAHH!!”

CRACK!

Kyle opened his eyes. Miraculously, nothing felt broken. Heck, he didn’t feel hurt at all, despite the fact that he was lying in the center of a circle of shattered concrete. “How did I survive that?”

The ring automatically creates a force field to protect the wearer. A smooth male voice spoke from the ring on Kyle’s finger.

“You can talk?!”

Yep.

“Wha-uh… how come you didn’t say anything before?” 

Since putting on this ring, you haven’t asked anything that required a response until now.

Apparently the ring was a smartass. Kyle frowned. “So I’m clearly way tougher than normal, but why can’t I fly?”

You were for a few seconds, but then you got distracted by looking down. Flying requires conscious willpower, which can be tough for rookies. Hence the automatic force field and enhanced physical capabilities. Keeps new ringslingers alive.

Conscious willpower? Kyle was pretty sure he’d been thinking about flying. But something else the ring had said caught his attention. “Wait back up a second. What was that about enhanced physical capabilities?”

The ring gives you superior strength, speed, and durability. Hence leaping the height of a building in a single bound.

“How strong are we talking?” Kyle wondered out loud, looking at the dumpster. It was a giant box of solid metal, filled with tons of garbage. Even when it was empty, he wouldn’t  be able to push it even a few inches. But if the ring was right…

Kyle crouched down and gripped rusty metal, crusty green paint peeling off beneath his fingers. With as much effort as he would normally take to pick up his backpack, he lifted the corner of the dumpster to shoulder height. “Hoo boy, you weren’t kidding!”

Was there ever any doubt? The ring’s voice seemed tinged with slight amusement.