Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hal ignored the whispers and stares as he, John, Jessica, and Simon entered the mess hall on OA.

“The Earthmen are here”.

“Still can’t believe they let Lantern Jordan return to duty after everything he’s done”.

“You can’t trust any of those Earthmen. Remember what happened with Senior Lantern Stewart and Xanshi”?

“They probably need all those extra Lanterns in their sector because they’re so weak. Why else would they have six Lanterns from one sector? And all of them are Earthmen”.

“Heard their two new rookies are at the bottom of the rookie class”.

Hal rolled his eyes but kept looking for Guy. The comments didn’t bother him really. The Corps had never really liked humans, and what Hal did as Parallax had made that worse, so he didn’t blame them. He didn’t appreciate the comments towards John, Simon, and Jess, but it wasn’t worth the fight that would ensue. Hal was already on probation and had his rank stripped, he couldn’t afford to get on the Guardians bad side at the moment.

Maybe later though.

There were a lot of Lanterns around today, making it more difficult to find Guy. Hard to believe that they went from one member in August to around 7,200 now in November. Plenty of Lanterns that survived had come back after Oa had been restored in September, and everyone helped with recruiting efforts. Most of the rookies had only trained for less than 2 months, but there were a couple of promising candidates.

He didn’t know if it would be enough to stop whatever Sinestro had planned. At least, not without massive casualties. They needed to find Guy so they could continue the case.

“I always forget how much everyone hates us” Simon mumbled as the group made their way deeper into the mess hall. Hal turned to reassure him it wasn’t everyone when someone shouldered past him roughly.

“Starting problems Ke’haan?” John asked, tone dangerous. The tall horned alien just glared at him.

“It’s fine John. Come on” Hal said. The four of them sat at an empty table nearby, leaving a chair open for Guy. He could find them at this point. “The Lost Lantern’s have their reasons”

The Lost Lanterns were made up of Ke’haan, Boodikka, Chance, Graf, Laira, and Hannu. They were the Lanterns that had been sent to stop Hal when he had been possessed by Parallax and was on his way to OA. He had brutally beaten them and left them for dead.

They rightfully had a grudge.

Most people treated him differently now, even after he had been “cleansed” from Parallax in September. The League was still on edge. Batman never liked him, Hal knew that, but now Hal could feel the man’s eyes on him whenever they were in the same room together. There wasn’t anymore banter between them, since Batman avoided speaking to him unless he had to. Clark and Diana looked at him with pity in their eyes, and Arthur and J’ohn acted like he was going to snap at any second.

The only people in the League who didn’t treat him differently were Dinah, Ollie, and Barry. Dinah acted like nothing happened, which Hal really appreciated. He had only asked her about it once, and she had said that it wasn’t him and had left it at that. He didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wrong. Ollie and him had recently become friends again, and while Ollie didn’t treat him differently, he could still see the sadness in his friend’s eyes. But Hal chose to ignore it, because if he didn’t his guilt would get him. And Barry hadn’t been there when Hal was Parallax, so of course he didn’t treat Hal any different. The stories didn’t deter him because Barry was just nice like that.

“I know you Hal, that wasn’t you”. Too nice really.

“I’m here” Guy announced as he sat down in the only empty seat at the table. He had a beer in his hand.

“Did- did you stop to get a beer?” Jess asked as Guy used a construct of a bottle opener to open it.

“Yeah? Whatsit to ya rookie?” Guy asked before shaking his head and taking a swig. John looked unimpressed.

“What did Salaak say?” John asked, getting them back to the matter at hand. Guy rolled his eyes.

“Guardians are busy or whatever. He’s gonna try to fit us in but it doesn't look like it’s gonna be today. Not like we need to tell ‘em about anything important” Guy said sarcastically. “I think we should just walk in, bypass the red tape”.

“Not smart Guy” John said. Hal’s already on thin ice was left unsaid. Guy took another swig of beer.

Batman had been approached by a yellow power ring. There were yellow power rings now. But none of them could find Sinestro, who was apparently behind all of this.

The Sinestro Corps.

“The Torchbearer is here”!

The mess hall broke out into whispers about “Ion” and “Torchbearer” as Hal turned to see the source of those excited whispers enter the mess hall.

When Hal had basically destroyed the Corps, the Guardians had sent out one last ring with Ganthet in an effort to stop Hal. Ganthet had gone to Earth and had given the ring to Torchbearer. Against all odds, Torchbearer had not only succeeded in defeating Hal, but he had restored the Green Lantern Corps.

The Corps loved him for it, with even Senior Lanterns praising him for his work well done, not caring that he was also an Earthman. Hal was sure even the Guardians and Salaak favored the kid. 

But Torchbearer was a mystery to Hal.

They were from the same sector, the same planet , but Hal didn’t know anything about the kid. “Torchbearer” was a title and rank given to him by the Guardians for carrying on the Green Lantern’s legacy in their darkest hour, but no one could refer to him as anything else since he kept his identity a secret from even the Corps. And he avoided the other Earth Lanterns like the plague, even going as far as changing directions so he didn’t have to cross paths with them.

It didn’t make sense for him to be avoiding the others. Guy and John had mentioned that they had been on good terms with Torchbearer, even giving him advice and kind of mentoring him when he was the last Green Lantern. But Guy had said that when they had seen him just before he left Earth to restart Oa, he had been acting off and hadn’t really talked with either of them since then. And Torchbearer hadn’t really met Jess or Simon yet, both of them saying they’ve never spoken to him but they’ve been around him for Rookie training. There was no reason for him to be upset with them.

With Hal though, that made sense. 

Everything the kid had been through recently was because of him, and Hal actually felt guilty about it. He remembered some of the conversations he had had with the kid as Parallax, and he knew Torchbearer was a good kid. He actually reminded Hal of-.

Hal shook that thought from his head. He couldn’t afford to think about her. Not right now

The kid walked in flanked on either side by Tomar-Tu and Sodam Yat, two of his friends from his rookie group. The rookies had been divided into groups of four to an experienced Lantern due to the sheer amount of rookies compared to experienced members that could train them. Despite the fancy title and a rank that put him above everyone besides Salaak and the Guardians, the kid was still a rookie technically since he never had gone under proper training but he didn’t seem to mind. 

Hal didn’t know a lot about Yat besides the fact that a lot of the senior members were impressed by his potential, but he knew Tu personally. His father, Tomar-Re, had been a friend and mentor to Hal when Hal had first become part of the Corps. Tomar-Re had died on duty (because of Hal), and Hal had the honor and privilege to be the one to recruit Tu, giving the kid his father’s ring. The last member of their group was Soranik Natu, but Hal didn’t know much about her besides the fact that she was a surgeon or something like that on her planet and helped out in the Oa infirmary.

Their group was actually at the top of the rookie class. Though they did have the unfair advantage of Torchbearer being thrown into the deep end and therefore having more experience, Tu being a legacy and therefore having a better basic understanding of all of this before getting to Oa, Natu’s smarts, and Yat just happening to be good at this. Jess and Simon’s group had the misfortune of the other two members constantly dropping out and Jess and Simon’s constant arguing not letting them get anything done (which Hal thinks is over with? He might've fixed that, but that’s yet to be seen).

“Oh yay, my favorite group of people” Guy grouched when he saw Torchbearer and his group walking in. Hal knew he was just upset over the volleyball incident.

As the three of them drew closer to sit at a nearby empty table, Hal noticed Torchbearer was holding something in a sphere construct near his right shoulder. Laira was quick to get up from the Lost Lantern’s Lanterns table and sit with them, and Hal swore Arisia appeared out of nowhere to take the last chair.

“What’s he got?” Guy asked. Hal tried to lean as subtly as he could to get a better look.

“It’s hard to tell from here,” Simon said. Hal leaned a bit too far to be considered subtle and accidentally locked eyes with Torchbearer. Or well, as much as they could lock eyes while both wearing masks. Torchbearers “eyes” widened and he looked away quickly, but the way he moved made his sphere move just enough that-

Oh. 

He had captured a yellow ring. It was zipping all around the inside of the sphere, trying to break free. The five Earth Lanterns that were sitting together all glanced at one another, silently agreeing to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Did you get an audience with the Guardians?” Laira asked.

“Yeah, Salaak said we’d be up next,” Yat replied, leaning back in his seat with an easy grin. “They made an opening just for us”!

Guy’s mouth opened in rage but John put a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. Because Torchbearer was favored by the Guardians, he would get special privileges like an almost guaranteed audience with the Guardians when he asked for it. He also got away with things like not wearing the rookie uniform and sleeping over in his friends room sometimes instead of in his assigned room.

Or going out wherever he and his friends went at night.

“Where’s Sora?” Arisia asked.

“She said she would be here. She must have gotten held up on her home planet” Tu said and Torchbearer shrugged. They turned to him, frowning.

“You have been quiet,” Tu said. “Is everything well”?

“I’m supposed to hear my mom’s will today” Torchbearer said after a few seconds. Arisia put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not like I like, expected or wanted anything but- there was this painting in the house that I used to stare at for hours and I thought- I dunno”.

Hal and Guy locked eyes. Torchbearer’s mom had died recently, and Guy had been around for that. After she had died, Torchbearer had stopped coming to Earth completely.

“What was it of” Yat asked, uncharacteristically serious.

“A boy in a field. My mom and I used to make up stories about it all the time” Torchbearer said. 

“I can understand how you feel,” Tu said. “My father isn’t alive anymore, but I am lucky to have his ring. Something to feel close to him, like he’s still here”.

“After we talk to the Guardians, go back to Earth,” Laira said, her voice gentle. “Get everything settled and then rejoin us. I think we have time before things in this case escalate”.

Hal could see Torchbearer turn to Laira out of the corner of his eye, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by a loud buzzing noise. The ring in his sphere started to go crazy.

“What is-” Tu asked, pointing his ring at the sphere but it was too late. A burst of yellow energy broke Torchbearer’s sphere construct and sent everyone close by flying back, including Hal’s table.

The ring went crazy, zipping all around the mess hall. Hal got up quickly, and he and several Lanterns did their best to try to recapture it.

“It’s too fast” Jess cried out, ducking out of the way as it flew through where she was.

“ New Objective Received. Targeting Ion ” the ring said before flying around Torchbearer. The kid tried to swat at it as Laira tried to subdue it but it was too late, the ring placed itself on Torchbearer’s finger.

“ Ion Captured ”.

Hal ran forward, but with a scream that sounded like he was in pain, Torchbearer was pulled out of the mess hall and off Oa in a streak of yellow.

“ Torchbearer !” Yat cried out as Hal ran out of the mess hall. He could hear people following.

“Where did he go?” Someone else asked as Hal took off into the air. He looked around but didn’t see any sign of Torchbearer or yellow light. He had his ring do a scan.

“Get back inside rookies!” Guy ordered as he flew up next to Hal, looking around for any signs of Torchbearer. A couple of experienced Lanterns had followed Hal outside, but Jess, Simon, Yat, Tu and a couple of other rookies that Hal didn’t know the names of had followed too. The other rookies quickly went back inside, but Jess, Simon, Yat and Tu flew up with the experienced Lanterns.

“That was an order rookies,” John said. “That includes you too, Jess and Simon”.

“John-” Simon argued but John cut him off.

“I need eyes and ears on the ground. Check the damages and report back” John said as a way to get them back inside.

Simon and Jess were capable, Hal knew that, but one person ( from his planet ) was already missing. Hal didn’t know if more rings would come to take more people, so the less people out in the open the better.

The two of them didn’t look happy to do so, but they went back to OA. Yat and Tu however, didn’t move. If anything, they looked more determined to stay. Hal was going to say something but his ring caught his attention.

“Scan Complete. Traces Of Antimatter Detected. Subject Has Escaped Into An Interdimensional Vortex ” Hal’s ring said.

“The antimatter universe” John said and Hal nodded. This wasn’t good.

“What’s th-” Yat started, but a Lantern behind him got their head blown off before he could finish.

“ Sniper ! Keep your head down!” Guy cried out, and the Lanterns got back to back, using their rings to create joint shields around each other.

“Simon!” John barked into his ring.

“John?” Simon’s voice came from John's ring.

“Get everyone inside and stay on OA” John commanded into his ring.

“Understood”. The Lanterns hated the Earthmen, but at least their rookies did as they were told. Sometimes. When they wanted to.

“I’ll take out the sniper” John said, creating a sniper rifle construct with his ring. A wave of something familiar washed over Hal, making him freeze. He knew this feeling, but where did he know it from? A slight sour taste filled his mouth.

“We have more problems than just a sniper,” Yat said. “Yellow Lanterns incoming”!

Hal glanced over his shoulder and cursed when he saw a lot of Yellow Lanterns (because that was a thing now apparently) flying towards them.

=

“How many casualties” Guy asked, John supporting him as they followed Hal into a half destroyed Central Meeting Hall.

“57” Salaak answered, not even looking at them as he looked over multiple monitors.

“58, 59, 60-” the system rang out. Hal paused.

“Why is it still counting?” Hal asked, limping over to where Salaak was floating.

“The Yellow Lanterns that attacked us are long gone,” Jessica said, looking around wearily.

John had been able to take out the sniper, letting the Lanterns on OA to fly out and help them with fighting off the Yellow Lanterns. Jess and Simon had of course fought well and came out of it only a little banged up (Hal was very proud and would have to remind himself to tell them later), but not everyone was nearly as lucky. Now the Green Lanterns were on Oa, licking their wounds and regrouping.

“Yellow Lantern’s all over the universe are hunting down Green Lanterns” Salaak told them. “Others continue to spread fear across the universe”.

Hal felt his eyes widen.

There had to be a lot of them then, much more than the amount that attacked them just now. How were they able to recruit this fast? Or had they been recruiting for a while and the Lantern’s just hadn’t caught them?

“Hal”? Hal turned quickly.

Tu looked a little banged up, but not too bad. Hal hadn’t seen him fight before today, but damn was his style a lot like his father’s. He did good, really good, and Hal knew without a doubt his father would be proud. Hal could easily see why Tu was near the top of the rookie class.

He couldn’t help but remember the first time he had met Tu, who had been maybe 13ish in Earth years at the time. Hal had gone with Tomar-Re to help him solve an issue on his planet and had met his wife, his daughter and Tu then. He remembered how excited the kid was, how much he looked up to his father.

He remembered having to tell them earlier this year that Tomar-Re had died.

“You okay?” Hal asked, aiming his ring at Tu. “Ring, do a med scan’.

“It’s not that bad,” Tu insisted, gently pushing Hal’s hand back down. “We need to talk”.

“What’s up?” Hal asked. Tu made a face and looked up before looking back at Hal, a bit embarrassed.

“You’re not saying hi, you’re not asking me literally, so you’re asking me what is going on. I should know better, Torchbearer uses that phrase a lot” Tu said. “But that ring- Torchbearer found it in sector 424. That sector’s Lanterns had been pursuing it. Torchbearer said he had found it because he had felt something off in that sector, something about a leh-mohn? I am not too sure what that is. He said things were unbalanced, but he found that ring and thousands like it. But even without the yellow rings, there is something more happening in the Universe. Torchbearer said he felt it”.

So recruiting had been recent? Hal didn’t like how fast that was, and how strong they were for just having started. What was Sinestro planning? And what was the something more Tu was talking about?

One step at a time Hal. 

“And now it has taken Torchbearer,” Tu continued. “We have to retrieve him and Ion. Sodam and I are ready to go with you”.

“I- Tu” Hal started but Tu cut him off.

“I know you were already thinking of going to find him Hal. That’s how you are” Tu said. 

“You’re right,” Hal said. “But wherever he is, it’s gonna be behind enemy lines. You did really well out there, don’t get me wrong, but a mission behind enemy lines with a small group isn’t the place for a rookie. We can’t lose three more people just trying to get one” Hal said and Tu frowned.

He trusted Tu, but Hal barely understood what they were up against and he couldn’t trust himself to watchout for Tu. The Yellow’s brought a weird feeling with them that Hal couldn’t place, but it was familiar. To get Torchbearer he needed people he knew that could watch out for themselves and that have a history of doing so. Tu and Yat were rookies. They’ve been training for less than two months and wore the rookie uniform; the base green and black suit with the empty white circle in the middle of their chest. They haven’t gotten the Lantern symbol yet, they needed more time. They couldn’t afford to mess up because they couldn’t guarantee a second chance.

He was going to explain it, but he was pulled away roughly from Tu.

“Ke’haan?” Tu asked, confused. Laira put herself in between Tu and Hal, not even looking at Hal as she spoke.

“You don’t need to be talking to him, Tomar-Tu,” Laira said. “Especially about the details of our case”.

“Really guys? Right now” Simon asked, making his way over.

“It’s fine,” Hal said, putting a hand on Simon’s shoulder. Simon frowned.

“We’re on the same case as you guys,” John said. “After this attack, all the Corps are on the same case. We can work together, let us help you”.

“But even without the yellow rings, there is something more happening in the Universe. Torchbearer said he felt it ” Tu had said. 

“None of us would want your help even if we had a dead ring in a black hole you-” Chance spat, the last word not translating to english. Guy was making his way over now and Hal could feel a migraine coming on. They had better things to do than stand around and fight with each other. They still had no idea where Torchbearer was.

Well, Hal had an idea. If he had been transported to the antimatter universe, he was probably on Qward. Hal needed to get to Qward.

“Who said I would help you even if you did ask?” Guy asked, getting in Chance’s face.

“The Guardians have given their orders” Salaak’s voice came over everyones rings. Everyone who was in the Central Meeting Hall turned to look at him. “All available Lanterns across the Galaxy are to return to Oa to prepare for another attack. Senior Lanterns Boodikka, Ke’haan, Chance and Toren, Lantern’s Omoto and Hannu, and Trainee Lantern Tomar, you will go to Qward to retrieve Ion”.

Tu looked surprised, looking between Hal and the Lost Lanterns. Hal had no idea why the Guardians would put a Rookie Lantern on a rescue mission that should’ve only been experienced Lanterns, but at least it was only one rookie to six more experienced Lanterns. Yat also looked surprised, but there was something else there. 

“Ion is your top priority,” Salaak continued, “Not Sinestro or Torchbearer or any of the Sinestro Corps members. It is a rescue mission. In and out”.

Almost everyone in the room froze, even the Lost Lantern’s who’s mission this was looked uncertain. But Hal felt angry. How could they abandon h-

“Let me go!” Yat said, stepping forward, his eyes bright and determined. “I’ll retrieve Torchbearer”!

“Patience Yat” Kilowog said, putting a hand on Yat’s shoulder as he locked eyes with Hal. “You’ll get yer time to shine”.

Yat looked upset and opened his mouth to argue, but his eyes followed Kilowog’s to look at Hal, and a look of understanding passed over his face as he nodded.

“Alright” Yat said, still not looking happy, and Hal nodded.  

“Yat, Arisia, and all of you,” Kilowog said, gestring to a small group of Lanterns, “come with me. The rest of ya, get to the mess hall and get ready”.

The Lost Lanterns and Tu left for Qward and the other Lanterns went to where they had been ordered, but Hal pulled John and Guy aside, through a hole in the wall that Hal thinks might’ve been made by him crashing through it earlier.

Oh well.

“So we’re going to Qward right?” Guy asked.

“Of course”.

“Without a doubt”.

With the Lost Lanterns and Tu’s priority being Ion, Hal’s could be getting Torchbearer back. Whatever the Yellow Lantern’s wanted with him couldn’t be good, and they certainly weren’t gonna let him keep Ion. The kid probably had no way to defend himself right now, and who knows what they were doing to-

“Let’s go,” Jess said, determined, causing the three of them to whirl around to see Jess and Simon standing behind them. Hal, Guy and John looked at one another before looking at her and Simon.

“You two aren’t going with us,” John said. They looked outraged.

“What? But we-” Simon started but was cut off by Guy.

“Are still Rookies. Stay here and defend with Kilowog’s group” Guy said.

“We’re still trying to figure out what we’re up against, these Yellow Lanterns are a new thing. Besides, you guys are still part of the action, that’s why we said go with Kilowog and not the rest of the Lantern’s. We don’t know what he’s up to, but knowing Kilowog-” Hal shrugged. Jess sighed and Simon nodded. “We’ll keep in contact, and after we get Torchbearer back we’ll all defend OA together”.

Jess and Simon went to follow Killowog and Hal went with John and Guy to the central battery to charge their rings. Hal was worried about the kid. He knew Torchbearer was tough, he had seen it first hand as Parallax, but Sinestro was cruel. And now he had a whole army with rings powered by fear.

There was- there was something familiar about the central battery, but in a bad way. Something in his gut was telling him not to get any closer. The feeling he had was ugly and left a sour taste in his mouth but Hal forced himself to keep going, telling himself it was nothing. They barely started the process of charging their rings, they only got the first line of the Oath out, when something wrapped around Hal and he was consumed. He could barely register Guy and John’s shouts of alarm when he was suffocated by that ugly feeling.

He was standing at the airfield, 8 years old and clutching his Dad’s jacket to his chest as he eagerly watched his Dad fly by. He waved and smiled when his Dad got a bit closer, unsure if his Dad was even looking at him. But just in case!

“Carol!” Hal said eagerly to the girl standing next to him, also 8 and wearing a dress. “My Dad’s flying that plane”!

“You’re Dad’s gonna die”. Hal snapped his head to Carol, who looked at him with cold eyes.

She was supposed to say “ I know dummy. My Dad owns that plane-”.

“He’s gonna die. Why won’t you save him?” Carol asked, tilting her head. Hal looked down at the ring on his finger and willed it to power on, but nothing.

“Why- no!” Hal cried out. He heard screaming around him and he looked up. The plane was going down. “No! Dad, no ”!

Hal ran forward, clutching the jacket tightly in his hands. The plane was miles away, he wouldn’t reach it in time. But he had to! He needed to -

The plane hit the ground and he wailed, falling to his knees. He pounded his fists against the ground as he sobbed, not wanting to look at the flames. It didn’t happen like this! He didn’t have the ring, and Carol wasn’t supposed to say that. He-

The air tasted sour , and he could barely breathe. His hands were shaking but- he knew this feeling. He remembered feeling cold, nauseous and like he couldn’t- this was fear . But not just any kind of fear. The same type of fear he felt when he was-

Everything around him was yellow, he realized as he stood up and looked around. The airfield, the sky, his mother, his brothers- they were all yellow. This wasn’t real, this- he was doing something he- where were John and Guy? He had to find them and find Torchbearer. He couldn’t-

“You’re afraid”. Hal knew that voice, but there was something different about it he couldn’t pinpoint. “Just give into it, just like your Father did when he died”.

“You’re not here, you died! You’re gone!” Hal argued, pulling his Dad’s jacket closer to his chest as he looked around frantically. He couldn’t see it anywhere, but he could hear it.

“What do you think your father’s last words were?” it continued. “I don’t think it was Geronimo”!

“Stop it!” Hal shrieked. He was feeling suffocated, it was getting harder to breathe, but he just clutched his father’s jacket tighter.

“Let’s watch again, maybe we can hear his screams of fear this time” it said, and Hal was standing at the airfield, 8 years old and clutching his Dad’s jacket to his chest as he-

No! He couldn’t watch this again he- he couldn’t give in. He had to find John and Guy, they had to save Torchbearer. He couldn’t go through this again, he couldn’t let-

“No” Hal said, and he was no longer at Ferris Air, he was no longer 8 years old and clinging to his Father’s jacket. He was on his knees surrounded by a yellow abyss. He stood up, only hesitating a bit before calling out, ”Parallax”?

But Parallax couldn’t be here, it was gone and Hal was free. It was stupid for Hal to even think about being afraid of being Parallax’s host again.

The yellow faded and Hal realized that he was on Qward, surrounded by Yellow Lanterns. Thousands of them.

This was bad. He could feel the fear buzzing in the air despite not being afraid himself, but at least Parallax hadn’t been real.

“Hal Jordan” Sinestro said as he stepped out from a group of Yellow Lanterns. Hal glared at him.

“Where’s Guy and John? Where’s Torchbearer?” Hal asked, glancing around. He didn’t see any of them, and he didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Guy Gardner and John Stewert? They’re around” Sinestro said, unimpressed. “You may have overcome your fears for now, but they are weak. Screaming and crying”.

Hal was ready to fight, but no one else seemed to be. They all just stood around, looking down at him with grin’s that told him they were waiting for something. What was Sinestro up to?

The air was still thick with the acidic feeling of fear, and Hal understood something new about the Yellow Lanterns. Green Lanterns got their strength from willpower, the ability to overcome great fear. Yellow Lanterns seemed to be the opposite, they got their strength from fear. But not feeling fear, no one wearing yellow right now was afraid. They got it by causing fear.

Just like Sinestro had done on his home planet.

“As for the Alley Rat” Sinestro said with a grin. “He’s been dieing to see you. Come and say hello”!

The acidic fear in the air quadrupled, and while Hal wasn’t afraid (he couldn’t let fear control him again), the intensity of it was almost suffocating. He almost gagged at the sour feeling in his mouth. The familiar wave washed over the area and Hal froze. He was freezing again, and he could barely breath despite all of his efforts. Imagined flashed in his mind, his worst moments like his Dad’s death, Barry “dieing”, seeing Coast City destroyed, learning what Ollie did, his mother-

He quickly shoved those images away.

No . It couldn’t be. That had just been a fear induced hallucination, it wasn’t really he-

“Hal Jordan”. It hadn’t been a fear hallucination. He looked behind him and couldn’t help but let his jaw drop.

Oh God . This is worse than he could’ve imagined. He failed.

Behind him was Parallax, but instead of being the huge bug looking thing, it was Torchbearer .

Chapter Text

Hal was horrified. He didn’t expect Parallax to even exist anymore, much less be here and have taken Torchbearer as its host. But like how the Green Lantern’s had Ion, the Yellow Lantern’s seemed to have Parallax.

It was wearing something similar to Torchbearer's regular Lantern uniform, but with shoulder pads and a cape. His crab-like mask covered more of his face than usual, there were white streaks in front parts of his hair, and his mouth now was filled with rows of sharp teeth.

Parallax was hosting Torchbearer. Hal took any fear he felt and channeled it into anger- no, into will .

“Parallax. Let him go” Hal said, his ring sparking with green energy. Parallax bared his teeth in a way that Hal guessed was supposed to be a smile.

“Not nearly as much willpower as you, but the creativity in this one is something you couldn’t possess in your wildest dreams,” Parallax said, then tilted his head, as if thinking about something. “I think I’ll keep him”.

Hal suddenly understood why Parallax’s voice sounded different. When Hal was Parallax, he could always hear Parallax’s voice in his mind, he knew that voice intimately. But right now it sounded like it had more than one layer, and there was an undertone of a broken, terrified voice at the bottom layer when Parallax spoke. Torchbearer’s voice.

Oh Hal was pissed .

“I’d like to see you try” Hal spat, and the fight began.

It was not an easy fight. For one thing, the Yellow Lanterns were spreading fear all around the universe that Parallax fed off of, which made him and the Yellow Lanterns more powerful. Parallax also took full advantage of the creative constructs Torchbearer was known for to knock Hal right on his ass again and again. But Torchbearer had fought Parallax and had saved Hal, and Hal would do the same for him.

He didn’t know him well, but he was a Green Lantern, he was from Earth, he was a really good person . Hal wasn’t leaving him behind.

At this point, the other Yellow Lantern’s joined in, making the fight completely unfair in Hal’s opinion. But even with the mounting fear thick in the air, Hal still didn’t feel afraid, he wouldn’t let himself. He wouldn’t let Parallax win again, he couldn’t . He’s been through worse, he reminded himself as the Yellow Lantern’s immobilized them

“Look at you,” Amon Sur, son of former Green Lantern and Hal’s predecessor Abin Sur, said. “You’re alone. Your fellow Lanterns hate you and will never forget what you did to them. You dieing here will be a favor to them really. Because even after all that you gave, all the ‘good’ you’ve done, you will always just be a pawn to them. And now that you're not useful, now that you’ve shown you're not worth the effort, no one cares what happens to you. Are you sure you aren’t afraid”?

“Unfortunately for you all, he’s a Green Lantern”. Hal turned and almost laughed. The Lost Lanterns (and Tu!), had arrived. “And we do not leave our own behind”.

The battlefield erupted into chaos again as Hal was set free. He spun around, looking for Parallax, but he didn’t see it anywhere. But he could still feel it, almost like it was surrounding the area, but Hal didn’t let that shake him.

“Thanks for the save Ke’haan”!

“It wasn’t intentional. You just happened to be here”.

“Damn”.

“What are you doing on Qward Jordan?” Boodika asked as she knocked away a couple of Yellow Lanterns. “You’ve been working with the Yellow Lanterns, haven’t you? You always were obsessed with glory, do you miss your time as Parallax so much that you would come back to be praised”?

Hal rolled his eyes. He was used to people believing the worst in him, he’s lived that way since he was a child. But now that John and Guy weren’t here, he didn’t expect anyone to jump to his defense.

“Lantern Jordan is already fighting to stay in the light. I don’t think he would fall back to darkness that easily” Graf said as Hal blocked an attack from another Yellow Lantern. They really just kept coming.

“I’d have to agree,” Parallax said, drawing everyone’s attention. “The old man isn’t worth anyone’s praise anyways”.

Now Hal was offended. He was 32, that didn’t make him an old man. Was it the white hair? But he was pretty sure he dyed those before he left Earth. Wait, were his roots showing?

“Parallax!” Tu gasped, but then his eyes widened in realization. “ Torchbearer ? No, it can’t be”!

Hal suddenly wished Tu and the Lost Lanterns weren’t here. After what Hal had done, just Parallax’s name put everyone on edge. Hal would never escape the hatred, the disgust, the fear that came with his time hosting Parallax. But he accepted that, he was fine with it. He was lucky that the people closest to him looked past that and stuck with him anyways for some reason. But he didn’t want that for Torchbearer. Hal had already put the kid through so much, he didn't want Torchbearer to end up like him.

The Lost Lanterns hated Parallax the most, and Laira was friends with Torchbearer. God, Tu and Torchbearer were close. Hal didn’t want them to see Torchbearer like this.

“Then where’s Ion?” Ke'haan asked. He had a neutral expression, but Hal heard the disbelief in his voice.

“I’m getting readings for Ion somewhere below us, maybe underground” Laira growled. “They took Ion out of him and forced Parallax into him”.

“There was no force used,” Parallax laughed cruelly. Laira’s ring glowed almost as dangerous as Hal’s as a ring of Yellow Lanterns formed around them.

“You lie ” she said angrily as the Green Lanterns got back to back. Hal was surprised with how angry she was, how quickly she jumped to Torchbearer’s defense.

“Stay strong guys, don’t let the fear in” Hal ordered.

“They would know about fear, old man” Parallax said easily, floating around them. “The Lost Lanterns right? Yes, I remember you. I defeated you easily last time. I can do it again”.

“Hannu. So scared of relying on a ring that you don’t use it” Parallax purred as it stopped in front of Hannu. When Hannu looked unbothered, Parallax moved to Boodika. “ You fear me, right? I took your hand, a piece of you. You will never be whole again, and everyday the empty space is a constant reminder. Hal Jordan is a constant reminder”.

But Boodika didn’t break either, just laughed at him. Parallax’s eyes narrowed and Hal got ready to attack, but Parallax decided to sink it’s teeth into someone else instead.

“Chance. The wannabe Guy Gardner. You fear your family. They hurt you, humiliated you, and there was nothing you could do about it. They proved you were weak, unworthy ”.

Chance faltered, moving back to be closer to the circle.

“Chance,” Hal warned. “Chance, don't listen to it”.

“ Too late ” Parallax hissed before tearing Chance apart with the yellow light that his fear now made him vulnerable to.

“ Ring Status Report ” Chance’s ring said as it slipped off his finger as everyone stared at his lifeless body in shock. “ Lantern 17.1 Deceased. Scanning Sector 17 For Repl- ”.

Parallax grabbed it and crushed it in it’s hand, laughing.

“Chance!” Boodika yelled and Hal glared at Parallax. “ Torchbearer killed Chance ”!

“ No ,” Hal snapped. “That is not Torchbearer”!

People refused to separate Hal and Parallax, and he didn’t want that for Torchbearer. He didn’t know Torchbearer well, but he knew the kid wasn’t a killer. The kid saw the best in everyone, and gave chance after chance after chance, even when Hal didn’t deserve it.

“ Hal Jordan is a good person” Torchbearer had said during Hal’s trial on Oa, after he had cleansed Hal of Parallax. “ He has shown again and again that he’s a good person. He’s saved the Universe with the Corps multiple times, risking his life for people he never knew or will never even meet, and he does it without question. Everyone always had good things to say about him. He was corrupted by something out of his control, and he wants to make up for it. He deserves another chance, and because of him and the sacrifices he’s made for all of us, we are alive and free to give second chances”.

Hal was going to save Torchbearer, and when all of this was over, Torchbearer would not go through what Hal went through. What Hal was still going through.

“Torchbearer’s fear is delicious,” Parallax laughed. “He was so easy to break, and even now I can hear him screaming and crying inside, clawing to get out. He’s not like you Jordan. You fought me every step of the way. But enough reminiscing of the past, who’s next”?

“It doesn’t matter. He killed Chance!” Boodika snapped, powering up her ring. “Now I’m going to kill him”!

“Boodika no ” Tu yelled, surging forward when Boodika did. Hal got his shield ready, but he didn’t need it.

“ Green Lantern Attempting Lethal Force. Action Unauthorized. Automatic Lock And Power Down Enabled ” Boodika’s ring said as it shut down. Tu used his ring to protect her from the unwanted effects of being in space as her uniform left with her rings power. Boodika stared at her ring in shock as Hal defended her and Tu from an incoming blast.

“We don’t have any cover up here!” Hal called out, making his shield stronger as a second blast came.

“There’s a tunnel system underneath the ground,” Laira said. “But I don’t see a way down. Guess we’ll have to make our own”.

Laira shot towards the planet's surface and used her ring to break through it, the other Green Lanterns following after her. The rubble fell in a way that would block out the Yellow Lanterns for now, but it wouldn’t hold forever.

They ended up in a huge tunnel that they had to use their rings to light the way of. Boodika growled about her ring being turned off as Hal looked around, ignoring her. He needed to find John and Guy, and then the three of them could focus on saving Torchbearer.

“Ring, find Senior Lanterns John Stewert and Guy Gardner” Hal said.

“Ring locate Ion” Laira said at the same time.

A green beam shot out of each of their rings, guiding them towards their objectives, but they were going in opposite directions. Tu looked between the two beams with a frown and Ke’haan sighed.

“Let’s move out team” Ke’haan said, gesturing to Laira’s beam. Hal narrowed his eyes.

“What about not leaving our own behind?” Hal argued. But he understood. Their orders were to secure Ion, and they all knew Hal’s goal was to save Torchbearer. It was an agreement Hal had with Yat, and it was unspoken that both groups had their own objective they would focus on to free up the other.

Hal could free Guy and John himself.

“I will go with Hal,” Tu said. 

“As will I” Graf said, and Hal was surprised, but he wasn’t going to complain. Hal was even more surprised when Ke’haan took over keeping Boodika safe with his ring from Tu.

“Ke’haan, you can't seriously -” Boodika started but Ke’haan flew in the opposite direction with her, Laira and Hannu following. He looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with Hal, and Hal nodded in understanding.

“Let us retrieve Ion” was the last thing Hal heard him say.

Hal led Graf and Tu deeper into the tunnels, following the light his ring provided.

“Hal” Tu said, flying a bit faster so that they were next to each other. “I hope you don’t mind me asking but- you’ve been possessed by Parallax before. Will Torchbearer be alright”?

Tu asked with concern, not disgust or hatred. Not fear. But Hal always knew Tu was good, he’s known it for sometime now. Hal was glad he and Torchbearer were friends, that they watched out for one another. Hal wished he could give Tu a reassuring answer.

“We’re gonna save him Tu” Hal said instead of saying what he wanted to say. “I promise”.

He didn’t want to think about the after effects.

Good News? They found John and Guy, each tied to a pillar in yellow chains. Bad news? Of course they were being guarded by “The Keeper of the Book of Parallax”. So while Tu and Graf untied John and Guy, Hal proved that he could do this by himself by taking out the bookkeeper lady.

“ Warning: Ring Power At 1.0% ” Hal’s ring alerted him. 

Oops. He never did get to charge his ring.

“Gah that sucked” Guy grouched, stretching a bit. John was bracing himself against a pillar, looking a bit lost.

“You two okay?” Hal asked as he made his way over to them.

“Yeah had some nightmares boo hoo” Guy said, waving him off and cutting off John who was just about to speak. “We need to find the kid and get back to Oa”.

Hal could tell that whatever Guy had seen was bothering him, but he didn’t push. Not only would Guy not take that well, it wasn’t the time and place. Maybe they all needed a group field trip to Mogo after all of this was over.

“Any idea where he could be?” John asked, standing up straight and looking more alert. Hal frowned.

“Senior Lantern Stewart” Tu said, getting both Guy and John’s attention. “Torchbearer has been possessed by Parallax”.

Guy and John whipped their heads around to stare at Hal with wide eyes, and Hal sighed.

“ Parallax is back?” Guy asked. “Damn, good thing we left the rookies on Oa”.

“Yeah” Tu agreed quietly, looking away. Graf looked amused.

“We’re getting him back,” Hal said, looking around. His ring was low; he needed a weapon or- oh!

He made his way over to a table with yellow Lantern lamps and rings and put one on his finger.

“Hal?” Tu asked. Hal turned around to show off his yellow Lantern ring.

“My ring’s basically dead, I need to use something if I wanna be able to to fight back” Hal said. “I’ll be fine though, I’ve basically mastered fear”.

Parallax was kind of sorta good for something after all.

Hal powered the ring on and winced in pain. It worked, but it was weak. Maybe mastered wasn’t the right word. This wouldn’t be close to what he would need to get Torchbearer and get off Qward. Hal looked back at the table and grabbed several more rings, putting them on each finger. He powered it on and almost cried out because of the pain. He was fine.

“Let’s go,” Hal said with a grin he hoped didn’t look forced.

They fought their way out of the tunnels, and Hal didn’t want to admit it, but he was in agony . He couldn’t do much with the yellow rings, and he was using the remaining power in his green ring to keep his uniform on so he wouldn’t suffocate in space, so he really had to rely on his fellow Green Lanterns which sucked . They made it out of the tunnels, and Hal felt it before he saw it.

The thick fear in the air and the feeling of wanting to vomit with how strong the sour taste in his mouth felt. He tried not to outwardly shiver from the cold, but he was suddenly freezing , and breathing was beginning to become a challenge.

Sinestro was waiting for them, and right behind him was Parallax with an army of Yellow Lanterns and a couple of Manhunters.

“ Fuck ” Guy said as Parallax waved at them happily. “I’m gonna kick your ass Sinestro”

“Hal Jordan,” Sinestro said, ignoring Guy. “Look at you thinking you can harness fear and its power”.

“Maybe you did teach me something Sinestro” Hal said with a smirk and Sinestro laughed.

“You can barely turn the rings on, much less use them to even 10% of their potential” Sinestro said, waving his hand. The nearest Manhunter opened up, depleting the power off all of Hal’s rings. Hal cursed, but luckily John used his ring to envelop Hal when Hal’s uniform disappeared, leaving him in his civilian clothes and jacket.

Damn.

“It’s over Jordan” Sinestro said as the five Green Lantern’s got back to back as Parallax started circling around them like a shark again.

“Give us back the kid and we don’t hurt ya too much” Guy threatened. Several Yellow Lanterns laughed and Parallax stopped in front of Guy. “Come on kid, he’s not so tough, fight it”!

“No amount of will power in the world can get you out of this” Sinestro said. Hal didn’t even have time to respond to that, as the ground erupted underneath them and they were surrounded by will power.

Everything seemed to be bathed in green, and the ache in Hal’s bones from being thrown around and from using the yellow rings seemed to fade. Breathing was easier, and the sour taste was replaced with the most satisfying burn. Parallax was quick to flee unfortunately as a giant green glowing fish rose from the ground. It was ridden by Boodika and was guided by Hannu and Laira.

Ion.

“ Ring Power at 100%, Powering On ” Hal’s ring said and his uniform formed around him. Alright !

“Let’s get out of here” John said, dragging Hal after the giant fish.

“What? But Torchbearer !” Hal said as Guy, Tu, and Graf flew with them.

“Parallax left,” John said, “and we won't be able to help Torchbearer if we get captured by the Yellow Lantern’s. Again”.

Hal hated it when John was right (which was almost always unfortunately), so he flew alongside them when John let him go.

“Where is Ke'haan?” Tu asked, looking around.

“Dead,” Laira said, not looking at any of them. No but- that was two people they had lost just on this mission.

“How?” John asked, but Laira didn’t answer. No one pushed her.

Hal knew Laira and Ke’haan had been close. He wasn’t sure what kind of relationship they had, but they were close . There was nothing Hal could do to make this better, so he kept his mouth shut and took the moment to mourn both Chance and Ke’haan. Despite the fact that they hated him, they were good Lantern’s and had died trying to save the Universe.

Thankfully when they returned to OA, there was no fighting and no Yellow Lanterns. Several Lanterns stared at them in shock as they walked past with Ion.

“Boodika, Graf, Hannu and I will take Ion to the guardians” Laira said. “The rest of you should help with preperations”.

Hal actually really wanted to give the Guardians a piece of his mind. He was pissed off that they would just throw Torchbearer aside after everything he did for them, for the entire Corps! Sure, they had done the same to Hal, but they had a soft spot for Torchbearer so Hal thought-

Well maybe that spot wasn’t soft enough.

“We need to find Jess and Simon and then plan our next move” Hal said when they were away from the remaining Lost Lanterns. Tu had decided to stay with Hal for now it seemed, but Hal didn’t mind. He trusted Tu.

“How are we gonna seperate the kid and Parallax” John asked. “How were you”?

Hal winced. He remembered sitting in the Science Cells, still fighting with Parallax in his mind. They had always been at a stand still, both with equal control but Parallax using Hal’s fears to cloud his mind, make him act on his worst thoughts. Hal thought that he would have to fight with Parallax until he died, but after so many days sitting there and struggling for the chance to be free, an intense wave of willpower had washed over to the two and Hal has used the tip of the scales to free himself. He thought Parallax had died due to the overwhelming willpower, but now he knew he was wrong.

He should’ve investigated Parallax. Maybe if he had, Torchbearer wouldn’t have been possessed.

“Parallax can only control you if you give into fear, I don’t think it likes the struggle” Hal said finally, his own ego be damned. “Whatever Parallax is doing to the kid is making him afraid, so we need to make him not afraid. It won’t be easy, being possessed by Parallax is constant mental torture, but I was able to overcome it when the kid used Ion to restore Oa. I think that’s why Parallax ran off when we left Qward”.

“So one of us needs to host Ion and cleanse him,” John said, nodding. “Alright, but which one of us, and how are we gonna get the Guardians to agree to that”.

“Of course Jordan’s gonna do it” Guy said rolling his eyes. “Ion can only be hosted by the ‘main character’ and Mr. Willpower here is just that”.

“Guy” Hal said, putting a hand over his heart. “Was that a complement”?

“No. You’re the dumbest motherfucker I’ve ever met in my whole life and you love to insert yourself in everyone else’s business, making you the main character”.

“Damn”.

“And if that doesn’t work” Tu asked. Hal sighed.

“Then we gotta do it the hard way”.

They four of them went to the mess hall and were surprised to see Kilowog’s group had returned. Jess and Simon were both injured, but thankfully it didn’t look too bad. Hal already had to worry about getting Torchbearer back, he really didn’t want anything bad to happen to Jess and Simon.

“What did you guys get up to?” Guy asked as they approached.

“Kilowog took us to defend Mogo” Simon explained. “It was a lot , but long story short, Yat blew up a planet. Well not like a regular planet but like another sentient one? I don’t really know anymore”.

“He even took charge at some point, he’s the main character. Why are we even here?” Jess complained.

From what Hal had heard, Yat held the number one spot in the rookie class, so he wasn’t too surprised.

“I dunno. It’s almost like you guys weren’t originally supposed to be a part of this and were added in due to timeline constraints” Guy said with a shrug. Hal gave Guy a weird look but shrugged.

“Maybe next time you can be the main character,” Hal said, but then thought about Parallax and almost shivered. “But I wouldn’t recommend it”.

“Yeah” Jess agreed before pointing over her shoulder. “Just look at Yat”.

Hal looked over her shoulder to see a bloody and beaten Yat sitting in a chair, trying to regenerate his very torn uniform. He gave them a thumbs up and a bloody grin as Arisia did her best to patch up his wounds

“Damn Yat, what did you do?” Guy said as they all made their way over to Yat.

“Something stupid I’m guessing”. They all looked up to see Soranik Natu walk up to them. She also seemed to be a bit injured.

“Sora!” Yat said happily. “Where have you been”?

“Korugar. Sinestro attacked me there, and here I am hoping to return the favor” Natu said.

Natu thankfully didn’t look too injured, but Hal wondered why Sinestro didn’t kill her. Not that he was doubting Natu, but Sinestro was strong, especially now with his yellow power ring and the fear he was causing in the universe.

He also wondered how the citizens of Korugar were doing. They hated Green Lanterns since Sinestro had enslaved them during his time as a Green Lantern, and to see Sinestro come back and fight their current Green Lantern-

Hal hopes that they at least saw Natu in a better light. For trying to protect them.

“He has an army now” Yat said and Natu’s eyes widened. “Yep made his own rings and everything. The Sinestro Corps. Stupid name I know, but they’re yellow and instead of ‘overcoming great fear’ they cause great fear”.

Natu pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply.

“I leave you three alone for a little more than a day and this happens” Natu said. Then her eyes narrowed and she looked around. “Where’s Torchbearer”?

“He was taken by a yellow ring and the Earthmen went to go find him while the Lost Lanterns and Tomar went to get Ion” Arisia said. Then she frowned and scanned the area. “Lantern Jordan, where are the Lost Lanterns, and Torchbearer”?

“Ke’haan and Chance are dead, but the rest of the Lost Lanterns and Tu were able to get Ion back and are with the Guardians now” Hal said. They looked at him with wide eyes. 

“And- and Torchbearer” Natu asked, but she looked like she didn’t really want to know the answer. Hal didn’t want to say it. Tu didn’t seem to hold it against Torchbearer, but Hal didn’t know much about the rest or Torchbearer’s friends. At the same time, maybe it was better they heard it from Hal. The Lost Lanterns were probably going to say something, and hearing it second hand would be worse.

Tu made the decision for Hal.

“Torchbearer has been possessed by Parallax”.

He said it quietly, and Hal was thankful for that. He was really hoping not to attract too much attention or cause chaos with the P word. Yat stood up from his chair quickly, not even flinching when he did despite his injuries, and Arisia’s hands flew to her mouth. Natu clenched her fists.

He could see the pain, the worry, in their eyes. They were good friends; Tu and Yat wanting to come with Hal and the others to get Torchbearer back, and the group now looked concerned instead of judgmental when hearing that their friend was being possessed by something that the Corps despised instead of just casting him off as a lost cause.

Hal was glad the kid made some good friends. He tried not to think of how many friends he had lost since he joined the Corps to now. He hoped that it was different for them.

“We have a plan,” John said. “And we will be bringing him back”.

“P- but how” Jess hissed. “I thought he was gone”?

“So did we” Hal said quietly. They all stared at him and he wished they wouldn’t.

There were no Parallax or Yellow Lantern sightings, so there was nothing they could do but get some rest for the very obvious upcoming battle they were about to have. 

Because of the damages to Oa during Hal’s time as Parallax, the barracks were still being rebuilt. Before, they slept two (usually sector partners) to a room but because training the rookies and protecting the Universe took precedence over rebuilding, they were now sleeping four to a room until the other half of the barracks were built.

Most of the rookies were put together with their rookie group, since there were four rookies to a group anyways and the rooming situation would be changing when the second half of the barracks were built, but some people had been assigned with their sector partners or people of neighboring sectors. Jess and Simon were rooming with two people from a neighboring sector because the other two rookies in their group were constantly dropping out.

Tu, Yat, and Natu had been placed together, but instead of Torchbearer they had been given Natu’s sector partner Princess Iolande. Torchbearer had been assigned as Guy’s roommate, and Guy was currently sharing a room with Hal and John. It had been awkward at first, Torchbearer doing his best to avoid conversation when he had to be in the room with them, but there were a lot of time where he would be gone before they woke up or he just wouldn’t show up to sleep at all (Hal assumed he went to sleep in his friends’ room, but where would he fit?)

Seeing his empty bunk now though, knowing what was happening to Torchbearer, was horrible.

Hal felt bad sleeping when he should be out there finding Torchbearer, but he knew realistically there was nothing he could do until the Yellow Lanterns made themselves known. So he slept, memories of his time with Parallax trying to haunt him throughout the night but he didn’t let himself give into fear. He couldn’t afford to with Parallax on the loose, and he needed rest if he was going to save Torchbearer.

The next morning after a quick breakfast, Hal, Guy and John went off to find Salaak so they could talk to the Guardians. Surprisingly Laira, Arisia, Tu, Natu and Yat were already there.

“You guys are gonna steal our slot again?” Guy asked, fists clenched. Laira raised an eyebrow, looking very unimpressed.

“We’ve stolen your slot before?” Yat asked, tilting his head in confusion. He looked better than he did yesterday. Guy huffed in frustration.

“We’re actually here trying to get the Guardians to meet with you” Arisia explained and Hal paused.

“Wait, actually?” Hal asked.

“We already told you we don’t leave one of our own behind” Laira said and Hal’s heart warmed. “And if we saved you, we would of course save someone more liked and more important”.

Damn.

“The Guardians will not being seeing anyone at this time” Salaak said.

Damn .

“But this is important” John argued. Salaak glanced up from the monitors.

“I know”.

Hours later, the two groups were joined by Jess and Simon as they sat together at a table in the mess hall. All they could do was wait and help the other Lanterns prepare, and it was agonizing . The more they waited, the more Torchbearer had to suffer, but with no Yellow Lantern or Parallax sightings-

“We should just steal Ion” Guy said suddenly. Everyone at the table stared at him.

“Why do you want to steal Ion” Laira asked, looking at them skeptically.

“It’s not for like, ego or power,” Hal said quickly. “The amount of willpower in Ion is what helped me get free from Parallax. We could use it to free Torchbearer”.

“Not a bad idea, but not just anyone can host Ion,” Laira said. “And we don’t know the consequences of what could happen if you’re the wrong person”.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Hal said honestly. John gave him a weird look but didn’t call him out.

“We might have to steal Ion” John said finally, rubbing his hand across his face. “But we would have to wait for the next attack. If we get Ion too early, there's more of a chance the Guardians will find out and take him back before we do what we need to”.

They started discussing how they would do it, the timings and who would do what, when they were interrupted.

“Lantern Trainee Yat” Salaak’s voice came from Yat’s ring. “The Guardians have requested your presence immediately”.

“What did you do Sodam”?

“Nothing” he said as he stood up. “Well nothing bad. I’ll be back, and I’ll try to see if the Guardians will let us borrow Ion”.

The waiting was really starting to kill Hal. He wasn’t made for this, he was made for action. Yat didn’t come back nearly as fast as Hal had hoped, and John was so done with Hal and Guy’s impatience that he made the three of them go on a walk.

“Have you thought about what we’re going to do after this?” John asked after they walked in silence for a while. Hal raised an eyebrow.

“We get Torchbearer and kick Sinestro’s ass?” Hal said.

“Thought that was obvious Johnny” Guy added.

“ No I meant- what are we gonna do after this war. With Torchbearer” John said. “After you were freed Hal, you weren’t-”.

He didn’t finish, but Hal knew what he was going to say. After you were freed Hal, you weren’t okay.

Parallax had taken a mental toll on Hal in a way nothing ever had before besides maybe his father’s death. When he had gotten back to Earth he had isolated himself from everyone and never left his apartment unless he was fighting crime. He had felt like a shell of himself, and like nothing would ever be the same. And nothing really would feel the same.

The thing that got him out of it was Roy.

Roy had started living between Hal’s apartment and Barry’s house after they had found out that Ollie had kicked him out. He mainly stayed with Hal since Hal had the space for him, but he stayed with Barry when Hal was off world. And then Barry had “died” so Roy had mainly stayed with Hal, but went over often with Hal to help Iris and Wally with the twins. And then Hal had- yeah.

He had felt so guilty that he basically abandoned Roy even if he didn’t mean to, and no amount of depression in the world would make him kick Roy out, so it had just been him and Roy. Roy was the one who kept him from isolating himself, who showed him that while things were different they didn’t have to be bad. Hal still remembered the “Welcome Home” party fondly. Roy, Wally, John, Guy, and Hal’s brother Jim had been there.

From there, he had started seeing Jim’s family again. His wife Sue and their two kids Jane and Howie. After that, he had been able to go see the recently returned Barry and Ollie, and the three of them had become friends again.

He thought Roy would hold something against him for the whole Parallax thing, but nope. Roy had believed in him the whole time, and along with Wally, had been his biggest defender in the hero community. They never gave up on him, even when was fighting the League as Parallax.

God, he loved his nephews.

“We’ll take him back to Earth with us” Hal said before thinking.

“Hal-”.

“He’s an adult, he doesnt have to but- the invitaion still stands. All of us Earth Lanterns are a family whether anyone likes it or not, and that includes him. He’s gonna need us after this” Hal said firmly. “We can’t let him isolate, even if that means we have to help him through his friends”.

Wally was around Torchbearer’s age. Hal couldn’t imagine Wally going through that all by himself.

“I'm in,” Guy said. John smiled softly.

“Me too” John said and Hal grinned. Hal had no idea why the kid was avoiding them, but that didn’t matter. They would get him through this.

“The Guardians have emerged” someone cried out.

“Finally” John muttered darkly. They jogged over to where several Lanterns had gathered, standing by Tu, Laira, Arisia and Natu.

“Where’s Sodam” Arisia asked quietly. Hal looked around but didn’t see him.

“Officers, The Sinestro Corps have forced us to suffer great losses. Many of our Green Lanterns are dead, wounded, and missing in action while the Sinestro Corps continue to spread fear across the Universe. That is why we have decided to rewrite the book of Oa to include 10 new laws”.

“I have such a bad feeling about this” John said and Hal nodded.

“Effective immeadiatly is the first law” one of the Guardians continued.

“ Lethal Force Has Been Enabled ” Hal’s ring said and he looked around to see almost everyone staring at their rings or at the Guardians in shock.

“You are now allowed to use lethal force against the Sinestro Corps”.

Hal thought of Boodika and how she had tried to kill Torchbearer. They had to get Ion and free Torchbearer.

“We are at war” another Guardian said. “And if we want to win this war, we need Ion at it’s helm”.

They wanted to free Torchbearer? This was going better than Hal could have hoped. He was going to step forward, volunteeer his mission and his idea, but of course the Guardians had to pull the rung out from under him.

“We have chosen a new host for Ion. Someone who has shown unbelievable bravery and bears an incredible amount of willpower”.

A lot of people glared at Hal, because yeah he was usually chosen for shit like this, but all he could do was feel betrayed. They were giving up on Torchbearer. They were replacing him.

“Our new Ion, Sodam Yat”.

Wait what ?

Hal stared in shock as he finally noticed Yat floating above them. He was no longer wearing the basic green Lantern uniform like all the other rookies, but something similar to what Torchbearer wore when he was Ion. The suit was mostly green with some black, and there was a glowing circle on his chest.

“A great honor given to a rookie”?

“Yat has proved himself plenty during this ordeal”.

“Better Yat than any of the Earthmen”.

“Better anyone than Hal Jordan ”.

“And what of Torchbearer”?

Hal was quick to leave the area. If they wanted Yat to lead the Lanterns in this war as Ion, then they would be keeping an eye on him. If Ion was leading the charge, Parallax wasn’t going to be fighting in the main part of the war unless it wanted to lose its host. And the Guardians weren’t going to let them borrow Yat and Ion real quick to free Torchbearer.

“Hal?” Guy asked, flying after him and away from Oa. Hal didn’t remember getting so far from the planet.

“We need a new plan” John said and Hal agreed. They were going to have to do this the hard way.

“You're too late” came from their rings. Sinestro .

“Hop off the line Adolf” Guy spat.

“What do you want, Sinestro?” Hal asked. Sinestro laughed.

“To spread fear across the Universe, starting with your planet Jordan. Earth will be our home world, and Coast City will become a mass grave. Parallax is already there now, with your brother”.

Chapter Text

Hal had never flown so fast in his life.

Hal had two brothers. Jack was his older brother by a couple years. He married a nice girl named Janice and they had two kids, Helen and Jason. Hal’s younger brother was Jim, who was married to Sue and they had a son named Howie and a daughter named Jane. When Coast City had been destroyed, Jim had been on vacation with his family out of state.

Jack and his family hadn’t been so lucky.

Hal and Jack had never been the closest, always at each other's throats, but he and his family's deaths would forever weigh on Hal’s soul. He should have saved them.

And now Jim and his family were in danger. 

Hal’s family was in danger.

Hal was suddenly in Coast City and barreling into Parallax, forcing him out of the city. They landed in a desert several cities away, rolling through sand. He didn’t need to be fighting Parallax in a still rebuilding Coast City. And if people saw Torchbearer as Parallax- he didn’t want people to treat the kid like they treated him if he could help it.

“Last chance to do this the easy way Parallax. Let him go and get the hell out of my city” Hal growled. Parallax bared his teeth in a monstrous grin.

“Don’t worry about your city, it won’t be here soon” Parallax said. “You’ll fail just like the first time old man”.

They lunged at each other.

“ Ring Battery Approaching 0% ” his ring said and Hal cursed. How much energy did he burn going that fast?

Parallax hit him hard, sending Hal to the ground, sand flying up around him.

“Hal, Guy and I are almost there” John’s voice came from Hal’s ring. Hal dodged another blow before making a plane construct and sending it at Parallax.

“We need to get him to not feel fear” Hal said, but that was easier said than done.

“Parallax hasn’t struggled once. It’s like the kid isn’t even trying to get out” Guy said as Parallax attacked Hal with some weird and super intricate robot construction the kid liked to use.

“It’s not that easy,” Hal insisted as he dodged another hit. He wasn’t fast enough and went sprawling backwards into the sand. “Parallax is torturing him with his own fears over and over again, it’s not that easy to just not be afraid”.

“Maybe he doesn’t have to feel the opposite of fear,” John said. “What if he just felt another strong emotion? What if we took him to his mom’s grave”?

“How are we gonna find his mom’s grave? I only know her first name” Guy said.

“It’s a good idea John, but we need something faster” Hal said and- “ The painting ! The one he mentioned the other day”!

“A painting? A painting is gonna save him from the fear entity” Guy asked skeptically.

“No, but it’ll help,” Hal said.

“Alright Hal. Guy go get the painting while I go and help Hal” John said and communication was cut.

It was risky. The easiest thing would be to overload him with willpower using Ion, but Yat would be leading the Green’s against the Yellow’s, and Hal couldn’t risk Parallax getting away again. He had to do this now, but he couldn’t do it without the kid’s help.

“Torchbearer, it’s me! Hal” Hal called out as he ducked under another construct, getting closer to Parallax. “I’m gonna get you out, I promise! But I need you to fight with me”!

“You think pretty boy can fight fear?” Parallax asked as it grabbed Hal by the throat and slammed him into the floor. “He’s not like you, he wasn’t chosen for his ability to overcome great fear, he’s a coward ”!

“He’s a Green Lantern, same as me” Hal said as Parallax put it’s foot on his chest. “I know you can do it kid! You gotta claw your way out of there! I know it’s hard, but you’re not alone! I’ve got you, I’m here ”!

“Pathetic” Parallax said, kicking Hal in the face. Hal had to think, and quick.

He thought about his minimal interactions with him. The kid always had faith in him, saw the good in him, even though he didn’t deserve it. Torchbearer just wanted to help people-

“Torchbearer!” Hal called out, grabbing Parallax by its foot and getting it off balance. “We need to stop Parallax from doing more damage, but I can’t do that without you fighting it. Help me stop it”.

“Give it a rest, old ma- argh!” It cried out, reeling backwards with its hands on its head.

“That's it kid! Keep going” Hal said, getting up as Parallax got on his knees. “I’m coming, I-“!

“Power Levels 0%” .

“No!” Hal cried out as his ring powered down, his Lantern Uniform disappearing with it. Parallax took the moment to spring forward and pin Hal down.

“Yes!” Parallax hissed. “And now, you're mine again”!

And then Parallax “ate” him.

Darkness. There was darkness all around him. There was that horrible, paralyzing , sour taste in his mouth, and he felt so cold. Where was he? What was he doing? How did he-?

“Uncle Hal”? Who was-? “Uncle Hal please ”!

“Helen? Helen !” Hal cried out. Everything was black he couldn’t see-!

“Uncle Hal, something’s happening! Stop it, save Coast City! Please !” Helen cried out and Hal searched for her frantically.

“Helen! Helen, where are you ” Hal yelled, but he couldn’t move, he couldn’t see anything. “I’ll help you Helen! I-“!

“You’re too late Uncle Hal”. Wally.

“You let all those people die Uncle Hal. And then you killed so many more”. Roy.

“Uncle Hal you’re a monster ”. Connor.

“Your father would be so disappointed in the man you became”. Mom

“You were better off dead”. Ollie.

“You always let me down. You always show me you aren’t worth my time, my effort ” Carol.

“You let me die”. Barry.

“You let it get me. I could’ve been happy , but you let it hurt me. You promised to save me”. Torchbearer-

Torchbearer ! He had to save Torchbearer!

He shoved his fear down. None of this was real. Parallax was attacking him with his fears again , but Hal couldn’t let it. He couldn’t hurt his friends and family, he couldn’t let himself go through this again! Never again-

“Torchbearer!” Hal yelled. “TORCHBEARER! I’m here! It’s me, Hal! I’m getting you out of here”!

Hal still couldn’t move, but the voices of his friends and family were fading. He needed to find Torchbearer.

“Torchbearer! Where are-“?

“You need to be more mature,” a female voice said. Hal didn’t recognize it.

“I guess you’ll have to do”. Ganthet.

“You think you’re Green Lantern? You think you’ll ever live up to that name? You’ll never be even a quarter of the man Uncle Hal was” Wally.

“You’re not Green Lantern. You’ll never be good enough”. Ollie.

“I died because of you. I raised you by myself for years, and this is what I get”? Torchbearer’s mother. Her voice was heavily accented, maybe Irish? Hal didn’t know Torchbearer was-

“I died because you couldn’t take this seriously. Because you weren’t there. What took you so long? What was so important you couldn’t come and save me”. The first voice again.

“Of course we lied to you! Did you actually think you were part of the team? That we cared about you? You’re an idiot! You’re reckless! And you deserved what happened. It was easily preventable, all you had to do was take this more seriously"! Donna.

“This isn’t real,” Hal said. “Torchbearer none of this is real! Fight it! I’m gonna help you, but I need you to meet me halfway”!

“You don’t deserve to be a Green Lantern”. Yat.

“You’re weak, a coward! You can’t even talk to the Lanterns from your own sector” Tu.

“We don’t need you. No one needs you! You should’ve just gone through with killing yourself”. Natu.

Hal could hear the echoes of screaming, Torchbearer screaming.

“None of this is true! Your friends are worried about you! We all are! We never stopped looking for you! And I’m not gonna stop until we get you back kid” Hal said. He forced himself to move and take a step forward, and surprisingly he did. The darkness flickered. “Help me defeat Parallax! Fight it and meet me halfway”!

Hal took another step and there was another flicker.

Images flashed in his mind, too fast to really comprehend but he understood some of it. The smell of burning flesh, the sound of water dropping as an uneven intervals, chains rattling and hitting fle-

“Hal”? His voice was soft, desperate and unsure. Hal almost smiled.

“Yes! It’s me! I’ve got you kid, meet me halfway!” Hal called out and he took another step.

The darkness faded into a vast gray space. A couple yards away was Torchbearer, on his knees with yellow vine like things wrapped around him. It covered him entirely from legs to just above his navel. They seemed to go up his back and wrap around his arms, forcing them outward at the side so he was making the letter “t” with his body. His head was bowed so Hal couldn’t see his face.

“ Hal ”?

“I’m here! You’re doing great, just keep going! We’re gonna get you out of here, I promise” Hal reassured, forcing himself to take another step forward. It was getting harder.

“I- they killed my Mam” Torchbearer said, his voice shaking. “A sentient virus that’s part of the Sinestro Corps, Despotellis. She died because of me”.

“ No ,” Hal said firmly, forcing another step forward. “That is not your fault. I am so, so sorry about your mom kid, but her death was not your fault”.

“She died because of me . Alex died because of me” the kid continued. Hal took another labored step forward. Hal didn’t know who Alex was, but the pain in Torchbearer's voice when he mentioned her name was very noticeable.

“No! That’s not your fault!” Hal insisted. “Parallax is putting thoughts in your head, you have to fight it”!

“None of this has to do with Parallax, Hal” Torchbearer said, his voice pained. “But you need to stop it Hal. Kill me”.

“What” Hal asked horrified. He thought of what he had heard Parallax make Natu’s voice say.

“If you kill me, Parallax won’t have a host and you guys can get rid of it-“!

“ No ! I’m not sacrificing you” Hal said firmly.

“I have nothing left, Hal, it’s okay. No one would miss me”.

And that was- the kid was around Wally’s age and had so much life left to live. But Hal remembered feeling similarly when he had hosted Parallax. The fear clouded everything, suffocated him, and it had made him feel hopeless and that he would be better off d-

“What about Yat? Tu and Natu? Arisia and Laira? Your friends have been looking for you, they even tried to work with John, Guy, Jess, Simon and I to find you. They were gonna steal Ion with us, go against the Guardians”!

The kid was hesitant and the next step was a little easier. Hal had to keep going.

“The Titans would miss you too” Hal continued. Hal knew the kid worked with the Titans before he left Earth because Wally had told him about it.

“ He’s annoying, insufferable really. I just wanna punch him in the face every time I see him” Wally had grouched. Then he looked guilty and sighed. “ But he has a good heart. He wants to do what’s right, help people”.

Apparently mentioning the Titans was the wrong thing to say.

“They lied to me,” Torchbearer said sadly, his voice breaking a bit, and the same vines that were around the kid began to wrap around Hal.

No!

“I know your life recently has been rough,” Hal said, struggling to move forward. “And I know that’s mostly been my fault, and I’m so sorry”.

“What?” The kid sounded taken aback and Hal took another step.

“And I know that I’m still not making things easier for you, and I’m sorry for that too. I know I might not be the best person to do this kid, but there are people who care about you and want you to get back safely” Hal told him, taking another step.

“You don’t understand, I’m all alone ”.

That was where his fear was stemming from? Being alone? Hal could fix that easily.

“No you’re not. We Earth Lanterns are a team, a family , you have us no matter what. You have Guy, John, Jess, Simon! You have me! I care about you” Hal told him honestly. The next step was easier and the kid gasped as the landscape changed.

They were still in the same positions, but now they were in a field with a gray sky

“You don’t even know me,” the kid said softly.

“I know enough. I know basically everything you’ve achieved during your time as a Green Lantern, and I’m so incredibly proud of you. You did it all by yourself during our darkest times when even I failed. Parallax is wrong , you are 10 times the Green Lantern I will ever be and you’re stronger than you know” Hal told him as he took another step. “But you’re not alone anymore, and I promise you you’ll never be alone again. I’m sorry for how I hurt you, but let me make it up to you. Let me help you”.

Hal extended himself forward and held out his hand.

“I’ve got you kid, just take my hand” Hal said softly. 

The vines went higher and grew tighter on Hal, and the sour taste once again filled Hal’s mouth. He struggled as the vines tried to pull him back, and he was bombarded by voices from both his life and Torchbearer’s but he stayed strong. He couldn’t give up, not now when-

A hand grabbed his.

Hal was suddenly on the desert floor with a mouthful of sand and covered in some weird yellow substance. He was breathing erratically and freezing despite being in a desert and wearing a jacket, similar to how he came out of Parallax before but not as bad. He looked around and found Guy and John standing near each other, Guy holding the painting in his hands with care. They were quick to look away, eyes wide.

Hal looked over and saw Torchbearer, but he quickly looked away too. Poor kid was naked, curled into a ball and covering his face.

Kid wanted to keep his name and face a secret, and Hal would respect that.

“I’ve gotcha” Guy said and his ring glowed. The kid coughed roughly several times and Hal went to take off his jacket.

“You can look now,” Torchbearer said, his voice hoarse and raspy. He coughed several more times as they turned around slowly.

Guy had made him some pants and a hat with the ring, the hat pulled down low over his face so that Hal could really only see his face from the mouth down. He was shaking, his arms wrapped around him, and forcing himself to breathe slower. Hal walked over to kneel next to him.

“You okay?” Hal asked. He could see Torchbearer’s tanned skin covered in  bruises, broken skin, and burns all over his body, and the mental toll-

Hal helped the kid into his jacket.

“Kinda. Thank you” Torchbearer rasped.

“That couldn’t have been easy,” John said. “Took a lot of willpower for you to do that”.

“Yeah, good job rookie. Glad you’re back” Guy said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Hal helped,” the kid muttered, head bowed.

“I’m not finished with you yet”!

The four of them turned to see the huge yellow glowing insect that was Parallax lunging at Torchbearer. Before Hal could even think about it, he was jumping in front of the kid, closing his eyes and expecting pain that never came.

Hal opened his eyes when he heard Parallax screech to see Ganthet and another Guardian floating there with a Lantern in each hand. Hal watched with wide eyes as Parallax was sucked into each Lantern. Hal let his arms drop to his side.

“Ganthet?” Torchbearer asked from behind Hal. Hal moved out of the way so that Torchbearer could be seen.

“Hello Torchbearer,” Ganthet said. Hal wondered if he knew the kids actual name.

“Who’s the Smurfette?” Guy asked as Hal stood up, offering his hand to Torchbearer. He was surprised when Torchbearer took it, but tried not to let it show as he pulled him up.

“I am Sayd” the female Guardian introduced.

“I thought Guardians don’t take names” John asked while Torchbearer said “Hi Sayd”.

“Things are changing Senior Lantern Stewart” Ganthet said, handing one Lantern he was holding to Hal and the other to Torchbearer while Sayd gave hers to Guy and John.

“Your fellow Lanterns are fighting above” Sayd said, gesturing to the sky. Hal looked up and could see green and yellow lights in the sky. “They have yet to break through the atmosphere, but is it only a matter of time”.

“Then we just gotta finish this” Guys said with a nod. “Let’s get to it boys”.

Hal nodded and raised his hand to the Lantern to charge his ring but paused. He looked at Torchbearer who stood with the Lantern in his hand awkwardly. After Hal’s trial, Torchbearer had given Hal the ring he was wearing, the one that was originally Hal’s. He didn’t need it because he was hosting Ion, but that meant now he didn’t have a ring.

Hal couldn’t just leave Torchbearer here, especially not after promising him he wouldn’t be alone anymore. But the kid didn’t have a ring, and even if he did, would he want to jump right into the fight after what he had been through?

“Torchbearer” Ganthet said as he produced a ring in his hand. “You’ll be needing this I suppose”.

Hal thought the kid would say no, the kid deserved to say no, but the kid took the ring.

“Hell yeah” he croaked, sounding determined, as he slipped on the ring.

They charged their rings, Torchbearer and Hal’s uniforms appearing on their bodies, before handing the Lanterns back to Ganthet and Sayd.

Hal grabbed the painting from Guy, making sure to be careful with it, before leading the other three into the air. He had an idea on where he could safely stash it.

“What’s the plan?” Guy asked.

“Parallax was sent to attack my family,” Hal said. “I need to check on them, make sure Sinestro isn’t gonna send anyone else”.

“I’m with you” Torchbearer said and Hal nodded.

“Guy and I will join the main battle, find Jess and Simon,” John said.

“Then we’ll meet you guys up there. Good luck” Hal said.

Hal led Torchbearer back to Jim’s apartment. He needed to see his family. See for himself that they were okay. That he hadn’t lost them like he had lost Jack, Sue, his mom, his dad, Jason- They landed on the damaged balcony and Hal peeked through the broken sliding glass doors.

“Guys?” Hal called out. If Parallax knew where Jim lived, what was stopping any of the other Yellow Lanterns from-

“ Uncle Hal !” two little voices shrieked happily as they ran at him. Hal kneeled down and caught them as they tackled him, squeezing them tight.

“Hey kiddos. You two okay?” Hal asked them fondly. They both nodded enthusiastically, but it was Jane that looked over Hal’s shoulder with a questioning expression as Jim and his wife Sue entered the room looking relieved.

“Hi mister! What are you doing out there?” Jane asked and Jim looked suspicious.

“He looks like that thing ,” Jim said, narrowing his eyes. Hal looked behind him to see Torchbearer on the farthest end of the balcony, looking awkward.

“That thing is gone” Hal said firmly, letting go of the kids before standing up and beckoning for Torchbearer to come closer. He did after a moment of hesitation. “This is the newest member of the Earth Lantern family, Torchie”.

“ Torchie ?” Torchie asked, completely flabbergasted. Hal almost laughed.

“Every Earth Lantern gets a nickname. That’s yours” Hal explained. “The stupider the better”!

“Means you really are part of the team,” Jim said, and Hal grinned.

There were multiple people on Earth that answered to the name Green Lantern, and on group missions it made things confusing on who was being spoken to (there were plenty of times where more than one of them or none of them had answered something), and thus the nickname system was created. It had just been Hal, John, and Guy when it was created, and Hal as the most senior member had insisted on picking their nicknames.

John was PC, which stood for Problem Child, because at that point he was the youngest and he started out as the problem child. Guy was One-Hit because of that whole thing with Batman that Hal thought was hilarious (though Hal told any non-Lantern it was because Guy could take out any of their enemies in one hit. Batman didn’t deserve to know that Hal thought something he did was funny, and only the other Lantern’s were allowed to make fun of Guy).

He was going to give himself the nickname Highball, like his call sign when flying, but John and Guy had argued that the name was already tied to his civilian identity and insisted on giving him his nickname themselves.

That was a mistake, as they decided to give him the nickname Captain Crybaby, or CC for short. Captain because of his rank in the Air Force and they got Crybaby from the story about how Hal and Barry had found out about each other's identities. Hal had no idea who told them that story, but in Hal’s defense he thought Barry was dieing! He vetoed the nickname heavily but Batman had approved it and put it in the system anyways.

Bitch.

Simon was Vroom due to his history with cars, and Jessica was Braincell because she was usually in Hal’s (very right) opinion the only one with sense. And now Torchbearer was Torchie. Hal didn’t plan for it to be Torchie, it just slipped out. But it was perfect.

“Oh” Torchie said, face going a bit red.

“Jim, I need a favor” Hal said and Jim looked at him seriously.

“Anything” Jim said, and Hal had no idea what he did to deserve that. Especially after everything he’s done.

“Torchie isn’t feeling his best after- yeah. Can he stay here with you guys?” Hal asked and Torchie made a noise that sent him into a coughing fit.

“I’m fine Hal. I can fight” Torchie said firmly. Hal hesitated, but reminded himself that Torchie wasn’t him. The kid knew his limits, and he was an adult that could make his own decisions.

“Alright,” Hal said before turning back to Jim. “Then could you keep this painting safe? It’s super important to me”.

“Of course,” Jim said, gently taking it from Hal.

“We’ll keep it so safe Uncle Hal” Jane said and Howie nodded.

Hal caught Torchie’s eye and saw him mouth “thank you”. He squeezed the kid's shoulder, resisting the urge to ruffle his hair affectionately.

“We’ll be back Jim”.

~

When Hal and Torchie had left the apartment, they found Sinestro, and after a long chase across several rooftops they subdued him. Arresting Sinestro felt good, especially after that last punch to the face that Hal was pretty sure broke his nose.

The battle in the sky thankfully didn’t enter Earth’s atmosphere, but Hal knew he would still have to talk to the League about it. He could’ve made John do it, they like John better, but it was Hal’s responsibility. Thankfully, all Lantern’s were immediately called back to Oa, so that could wait for a bit. Unfortunately that also meant that it would be longer until Hal saw Jim and the family again, but Hal made sure to fly near his apartment so that they could see that Hal was alright.

They made it to Oa, and two less injured Lanterns grabbed Sinestro to take him to the Scienells until the Guardians decided what they would do with him. Torchie watched them go, not saying anything.

He hadn’t said anything since they arrested Sinestro.

“You okay?” Hal asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. The kid started in surprise before turning to look at Hal.

“Huh?” Torchie asked and Hal tried not to frown. He wished he could see his eyes so he could read him better.

“Let’s go to the infirmary” Hal suggested, gently putting his other hand on the kid's other shoulder. “I know I need to be looked at”.

While he was injured and could use two full days of sleep to even try to curb his exhaustion, he wasn’t that bad. But he wanted Torchie to feel comfortable. Torchie nodded silently and Hal steered him towards the infirmary.

“Torchbearer there you are”!

“Good to see you have returned, Torchbearer”!

Torchie waved at people as he passed, trying to smile and Hal-

Hal wasn’t jealous.

Something deep inside of him was confused on why he wasn’t mad. They went through the same thing practically, but Torchie is welcomed back with open arms and smiles, while Hal is hated and judged. Earthmen had been hated since even before Hal had become Green Lantern, but Torchie seemed to be the exception. The kid broke rules and the Guardians and Senior Lanterns didn’t bat an eye. The kid was hailed as a hero while everyone assumed Hal was a villain. But Hal couldn’t hate him, he couldn’t hold it against him because-

“I heard you arrested Sinestro Torchbearer! We couldn’t have won without you”!

“Oh no, I barely did anything. It was really Ha-“ the kid started weakly but Hal cut him off.

“Didn’t he do great? And they have him training with rookies” Hal laughed good naturedly as he continued to the infirmary.

-because Torchie was such a good person.

Hal was actually happy that the whole Parallax thing didn’t ruin his reputation amongst the Lanterns like it did Hal’s. He didn’t want anyone to go through what he went through. What he was still going through.

They made it to the infirmary where they were received by a Lantern in a cast.

“How bad are your injuries?” they asked. “We have the less injuried in the mess hall and the more injured in the infirmary”.

“I’m okay. What about you?” Hal asked Torchie. He remembered the bruises, burns, and broken skin on the kid, but he would let the kid decide where he wanted to be.

“Um,” Torchie said. Hal suddenly realized he was shaking. He reached out to grab him just as his knees buckled.

Hal’s body still ached to the point where he almost dropped the kid, but two other Lanterns were quick to grab Torchie and take him deeper into the infirmary. A third guided Hal back to the mess hall.

“I- wait!” Hal said as they were separated, but he let himself be led away. Torchie was in good hands, and Hal would go check up on him as soon as he could. Hal didn’t need to take up space in the infirmary that someone more injured would need.

Hal was led right to where Jess, John, and Guy had beds close to one another. He first made eye contact with Guy, and Hal tried to smile before he saw the look of panic in Guy’s eyes. Then he realized that he didn’t see Simon anywhere.

No. Nonono -

“Hal-“ Guy started but Hal cut him off.

“Where’s Simon?” Hal demanded as he was guided to sit in a bed next to Guy. Guy looked taken aback.

“I- he’s okay. He’s in the infirmary, he has injuries to the arm and torso because of barbed wire or something? I dunno he’ll recover” Guy dismissed. “Where’s the kid”?

“Infirmary, he almost collapsed just now” Hal said, relief flooding him that Simon would be okay. Guy, Jess, and John looked relieved to hear about Torchie.

“Tomar and Laira were here earlier, but their injuries weren’t too bad so they got discharged after being bandaged up” John informed him. “I’m also discharged since I’m just bruised and Jess should be discharged soon. Guy is being held overnight for observation”.

“Why?” Hal asked. Besides a few bruises, Guy looked fine. Guy lifted up his arm to show some kind of monitoring device.

“Was infected by Despotellis,” Guy said. Hal must’ve made a face because Guy lifted his hands up. “Hey I’m fine! Natu just wants to make sure there aren’t any lasting effects”!

“I- that’s what killed the kid’s mom. Despotellis, I mean” Hal said and Guy froze.

“Oh. Shit. We should’ve hit him harder”.

Hal couldn’t help but laugh at that as someone came to attend to him.

“Yat is also in the infirmary. He got the shit beat out of him, but like he took out a lot of them” Jess told him. Guy shook his head.

“Kid’s a fucking canon” Guy said. “Apparently Daxamites are discount Kryptonians, and we have a yellow sun”.

Hal whistled appreciatively.

“He really is the main character,” Jess said sadly. “Laser eyes and everything”.

Hal and Jess were discharged soon after, but visitors weren’t allowed in the infirmary at the moment so they were given a meal and sent to their rooms. Hal once again hated seeing Torchie’s empty bunk, but he wasn’t going to lie that Guy’s bunk being empty (and knowing he was okay) made him laugh.

John and Hal met up with Jess the next morning, and they got breakfast and grabbed a now discharged Guy before heading to the infirmary. When they stepped in, they didn’t see Torchie anywhere.

“Lantern Jordan, Senior Lanterns Gardner and Stewart, Cruz. You know we can’t have visitors until we get more people stable” Natu said as she finished bandaging someone’s arm. She studied them for a moment and then sighed. “Come with me”.

They followed Natu deeper into the infirmary. The deeper they got, the more severe the injuries got. Limbs loss, severe burns, people on life support-

They found Simon, but he was asleep so they would leave him be for now.

“Yat was pretty bad when he got here, and I put Torchbearer next to Yat for moral support for both of them” Natu explained, gesturing to two beds in the corner.

It looked like one of the beds was shoved there last minute as it was really close to the other. In the original bed in an upright position was Sodam Yat. He was heavily bandaged, but he was talking animatedly, laughing with big hand gestures. His ring was on the table charging and he was wearing a hospital gown, but Hal knew he still had Ion since he could feel the will power from where he stood. A yellow sun lamp was next to his bed, shining on him.

The bed that looked like it was shoved there last minute had the curtains drawn around it, so Hal couldn’t see who was there. He could tell that Arisia was sitting on the edge of the left side of the bed by the orange legs that were peaking out. Laira leaned against the wall on that side, looking amused.

Sitting in a chair in the narrow gap between the two beds was Tu. Besides the cast on his left arm, he seemed fine. Both he and Yat were peeking through the curtains on the right side as they spoke.

“Lantern trainee Cruz, Senior Lanterns Gardener, Stewart and Jordan” Laira greeted. Hal went to correct her and say he wasn’t a Senior Lantern anymore, but she gave him a look that told him that she knew that.

Arisia leaned forward so that she was no longer behind the curtain to see them, and Tu and Yat also glanced over. Hal went to get closer but Yat pulled a hand up.

“Don’t come closer” Yat said and Hal frowned. If Torchie didn’t want them nearby, Hal was fine with that, but he had thought they had gotten closer. Tu made a sound that caught Hal’s attention.

“Torchbearer’s ring is charging, his face is exposed,” Tomar explained. “That's why the curtains are drawn”.

“Here” Guy said, making a construct of a cap and throwing it to Tu.

Tu didn’t catch it due to his broken arm, so he had to pick it up before handing it to Torchie through the curtains. Laira and Tu undid the curtains, revealing Torchie in a sitting position in his bed.

He was wearing a hospital gown under Hal’s jacket, and there were several blankets piled on top of him. He still looked a bit pale, but not as bad as he did the night before.

“Hi guys” Torchie said as they now approached. His voice still sounded horrible , and Hal noticed him wince as he spoke.

“Feeling any better kid” Guy asked. Torchie nodded.

“I’m fine, really, but Sora won’t discharge me” Torchie told them. Natu rolled her eyes.

“I’ll discharge you when I know you're ready to be discharged” Natu said and Torchie pursed his lips. “We’ve talked about this. You know what you have to do if you want me to discharge you”.

Torchbearer was quiet as he looked away but Natu didn’t comment on it..

“So what are your plans, Earthmen?” Arisia asked them. Yat snickered and Tu looked down at his lap.

“I have to go back to Earth to settle some things, especially after the light show we put up in the sky,” Hal said, ignoring their weirdness.

“I think most of us are going back to Earth until we get other assignments” Jess said. “I haven’t had the opportunity to ask Simon yet though”.

“You guys going back to your planets” John asked. Yat laughed so hard he went into a coughing fit.

“&$@# no” Yat laughed, the first word not translating. Hal guessed it was a Daxamite curse. “I’ll recover here”.

“I’ll be staying here too,” Tu said softly. Hal knew that Tu’s mother was not happy with his decision to join the Corps.

“I have to go back to my planet soon,” Natu admitted. “Sinestro did some damage that I have to repair”.

“I’m staying here with Laira to help with funeral preparations” Arisia said and this time Laira looked away.

Eventually Natu ordered them away, stating that Torchie and Yat needed rest and that she already broke enough rules by letting them all in. The discharged Earth Lanterns went to check on Simon quickly, who was in good spirits despite his injuries, and they promised to update him on everything that happened. Simon was discharged a couple hours later and by midday, Hal was sitting with Guy, John, Jess, Simon, and Arisia at a table for lunch. Laira joined them halfway through.

“Where have you been?” Arisia asked as Laira sat down.

“I was called in by the Guardians. They’ve been calling people in randomly throughout the day” Laira explained.

“What did you do?” Guy asked, eyebrow raised. Laira rolled her eyes.

“Mine was positive. I was given the rank of Senior Lantern” Laira told them, sounding a bit somber.

“Congratulations” Hal said, but knew she wished that Ke'haan was here for that achievement. Ke’Haan had trained her, he had believed in her even after everything that her father had done, and she became his star pupil.

And then she watched him die.

Hal couldn’t help but wonder that if he never had done what he did, Ke'Haan would’ve seen Laira become a Senior Lantern.

Hal was called in by the Guardians a few hours later.

He assumed it was a reprimand. He knew Laira’s visit was positive, but he knew himself and his relationship with the Guardians. He doesn’t remember the last time the Guardians said anything positive about him.

When he stepped in he saw that Guy and John were already there, so he took his spot next to them and stood at attention.

“Lantern Jordan, 2814.1 reporting” Hal said.

“You Earthmen, especially the three of you, believe that you can do whatever you want when you want. You believe that you are above the rules” a Guardian started out. Hal almost failed to resist the urge to roll his eyes. How many times in his life had he gotten this lecture from multiple people?

“And yet, you always complete your task” the Guardian continued, almost sounding sad like he wanted them to fail.

Damn.

“And that is why we would like to give the three of you the status of Honor Guard” Ganthet said and Hal-

“ What ?” Hal asked, confused.

The Honor Guard was a small group of the best Green Lanterns, handpicked by the Guardians that weren’t restricted to one sector. Tomar-Re had been a part of the Honor Guard, and he was serving on the Honor Guard when he died.

“The three of you have done a lot during this war, and it is because of your actions that we were able to win. The three of you stopped Parallax, and Lantern Jordan and Torchbearer apprehended Sinestro, so we would like to bestow upon the four of you the status of Honor Guard”.

“You want Torchie to be on the Honor Guard too?” Hal asked. “You were going to leave him to die”!

“We know you Earthmen well enough by now Lantern- Honor Lantern Jordan” another Guardian said. “If we tell you not to do something, you will do it anyway and with more enthusiasm”.

Hal couldn’t argue with them on that one. He really wanted to though.

They accepted the position, Guy muttering something about how only Hal Jordan could get his rank stripped from him and get an even higher rank than he had before in less than 6 months. Hal only shrugged because hey, he put in the work for it!

That night Hal snuck out of his room. He wasn’t a rookie, he could go as he pleased at any time, but he knew he still wouldn't be allowed in the infirmary. Thankfully the Lantern at the front desk was fast asleep so Hal just walked in.

The curtains were drawn closed around Torchie’s bed, and Yat was sound asleep in his bed, so Hal sat in a chair that had been placed on the other side of Torchie’s bed. He crossed his arms over his chest and was going to just sleep when a gasp and sudden movement from behind the curtain hit his attention.

“Torchie?” Hal whispered cautiously. Silence, then-

“Hal”?

“Yeah I’m here” Hal whispered. A bandaged hand came out from behind the curtain and grabbed at nothing until it found Hal’s head, patting it twice. “I’m real”.

The hand froze at that before relaxing again a bit.

“Yeah. Yeah, you get it”.

Hal frowned before creating a construct of the kid's weird crab mask and grabbing Torchie’s hand gently, putting it in his hand. The hand went back behind the curtain. After about a minute, the curtain opened.

“What are you doing here?” Torchie asked, trying to sit up but Hal pushed him back down gently. Hal’s jacket was laying over him like a blanket.

“To check on you,” Hal said. “I know I saw you earlier but there were a lot of people around. It was hard for me to adjust after- I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Mentally”.

“I- thank you” Torchie said.

“And I wanted to apologize again. For what I did to you” Hal continued.

“Why do you keep saying that? You didn’t do anything to me” Torchie said, honestly sounding confused.

“Kid, you were avoiding me. I’ve even seen you dive into a trashcan to do it. What else am I supposed to think” Hal said with a laugh, trying to make the conversation not tense, let the kid know he didn’t resent him for it.

“I- that’s not- I wasn’t avoiding you because I was mad I-“ he sighed. “My friends are right, this is so stupid. I was avoiding you because I thought you would resent me ”.

“What” Hal asked. “Why would I resent you”?

“I just thought- I’m the successor you never really asked for. And I’m put on this pedestal by everyone while you’re treated unfairly, when I don’t really deserve it” Torchie explained. “You have to have some kind of resentment towards me”.

“Kid, you didn’t ask for that. Why would I resent you for something that isn’t your fault?” Hal asked. “I meant what I said in Parallax. You’re part of our little Lantern family, and none of us want you to get treated worse just because we are. You’re not alone anymore”.

The kid opened his mouth but then closed it again.

“And I don’t understand why you don’t think you deserve it. You worked hard, you’re a good Lantern. I saw you in action with Sinestro, you did great” Hal continued.

“I just- I don’t think I’ll ever live up to you” Torchie admitted and Hal laughed before slamming a hand over his mouth.

“Sorry, sorry. I-“ Hal took a deep breath. “There’s so many things wrong with that sentence. Why would you want to live up to me? And even if that was a goal, I already told you that you’re ten times the Lantern I am and ever will be. So no more being down on yourself got it”?

He thought about what the voices inside Parallax had said. Wally, Roy, Ollie- but that wasn’t real, those were fake and crafted by Parallax. But- when Hal was Para- when Hal was possessed by Parallax, old memories had been brought up and used against him. Arguments with his brother accusing him of their mother’s death, the fight with Ollie, some of his actions from when he first was Parallax-

He hoped those were fake, that they didn’t actually tell Torchie that.

Torchie tilted his head to the side before smiling a bit.

“Yeah, okay. Thanks Hal” he said. Hal resisted the urge to ruffle his hair affectionately.

“You should come back with us,” Hal said. “To Earth. You don’t have to of course but-”.

“I was gonna ask,” Torchie admitted. “Sora thinks it’ll be good for me to go home for a bit with you guys. It’s why she won’t discharge me”.

“We’ll leave tomorrow then” Hal said with a smile and Torchie nodded. “Get some sleep”.

When the curtain was firmly closed, Hal let go of the mask construct and started to leave the infirmary. He barely got out of what would’ve been Torchie and Yat’s field of vision when he heard voices.

“I told you so. Torchie ”. Hal could hear the grin in Yat’s voice.

“Yeah, yeah. Shut up Sodam”.

Chapter Text

Hal expected to leave first thing in the morning right after breakfast, but there were more things they had to take care of then Hal realized. He had seen Torchie that morning when he slipped in to check on him, had seen John and Guy once to tell them they were leaving as soon as everyone was ready, and hadn’t seen Jess or Simon at all but Guy said he would tell them. When lunch came he was sitting at a table alone.

“Honor Lantern Jordan”? Hal looked up in surprise to see Natu.

“Na- er Lantern Trainee Natu” Hal greeted and she raised an eyebrow as she sat down. “What’s up”?

“I have the medical reports for Honor Lantern Gardner, Baz, and Torchbearer,” Natu said, handing the files to Hal. “I couldn’t find anyone else, but you are the first of your sector even if you aren't the highest rank. And I know you’ll take care of them”.

Hal didn’t know if she meant the report or his Lanterns. He flipped the papers in his hands.

“I put in some notes on care and things to watch out for” Natu said, pointing out a section.

“Thanks Natu” Hal said. Guy’s was short, but Torchie’s and Simon’s were longer than Hal would’ve liked,

A little after Natu left, Torchie sat down at the table with some food. He was no longer in a hospital gown but in his black and white Lantern uniform, green mask covering his face.

“Where have you been?” Hal asked as Torchie chugged a glass of water.

“Got called in to see the Guardians” he explained, putting the glass down. “Honor Guard huh”?

“Yep, the four of us,” Hal said, giving Torchie his untouched glass of water. “You know, Tu’s father Tomar-Re served on the Honor Guard. They pick the best of the best”.

“I don’t- I mean, thanks” Torchie said, scratching the back of his head. Hal could see bandages through the holes in his gauntlets. “When are we leaving”?

“When the others finish up what they need to” Hal told him as he watched Torchie chug the second glass of water after a moment of hesitation. “Gives you time to pack up”.

“Oh. Done” Torchie said, giving him jazz hands. “I left Earth kinda abruptly, so I didn’t really bring anything. My phone is still at Titans Tower”.

Hal had heard that Torchie’s exit from Earth had been quick, but he never found out why. But he left from Titans Tower and-

“They lied to me” The kid had said. Hal would have to ask Wally and Roy what that was about.

It was nighttime when they were finally able to leave. Hal said goodbye to Kilowog while Torchie said goodbye to his friends. Even Yat was allowed out of the infirmary for the occasion, laughing with his friends before things turned a bit serious. At one point, Yat did something to Torchie’s ring with Ion, but Hal wasn’t sure what. Then the flight back to Earth began.

“We need to stop by The Hall first” Hall reminded. When he saw the three younger Lanterns look at him he explained. “When we come back from space trips we have to check back in. Since we all left and came back together, we only need to fill out one report this time so I’ll take care of it”.

“I’ll do it Hal” John said and Hal shook his head. “I have the least amount of responsibilities on Earth, it’s fine. Guy can help me”.

“We’ll finish it in no time,” Guy said. “We’ll even let you look it over before we submit it”.

Guy was being too helpful, Hal could easily tell what they were trying to do, but honestly he was thankful. He had to check on Roy, Jim and his family, make sure Torchie settled back in- one less thing on his plate would be helpful. But still, this had to do with Parallax, Hal wanted to have a hand on how this was delivered.

“Okay, but I’ll be the one presenting it to the League”.

“We’ll use your name and code for it” John promised.

They landed in front of the Hall of Justice and entered.

“ A-7: Green Lantern, A-10: Green Lantern, A-11: Green Lantern, A-17: Green Lantern, A-22: Green Lantern, A-23: Green Lantern “ the system rang out as they entered, brutally reminding Hal how many Green Lanterns they had now.

Hal led them to the main room where the League’s computers were. He was in the middle of teaching the newer three how to do check in and how they would get their report paperwork in the future when the door opened. Hal glanced over his shoulder and sighed.

Batman.

Just behind him and to the side was Robin. Well, his newest Robin. Nobody was really supposed to know about the kid, but Hal only knew because Batman had mentioned it in a League meeting. Like all Robin’s when they started out, the kid was small. He was maybe around 12, and was really pale with dark hair that hung in his eyes at times. He was looking at the Lantern’s with an expression Hal couldn’t read, and it wasn’t just because of the ever present domino mask. Hal waved at the kid but Batman was quick to step in front of the kid, blocking him from Hal’s view.

He was protective of this Robin since his last one was brutally murdered earlier this year.

“It’s night time, shouldn’t you be sulking around Gotham” Hal asked, eyebrow raised. Batman only narrowed his eyes before they softened and locked on someone else.

“Welcome back” Batman said evenly. Hal followed his gaze to look at Torchie. When did the kid start looking so exhausted?

“Thank you” Torchie rasped and then winced. Batman’s face didn’t change as he grabbed something from his belt and threw it to Torchie. Hal looked at the kids hands and realized it was a cough drop. Torchie looked up again, mouth open to say something but frowned.

Hal didn’t need to glance over to know Batman was gone.

“Alright, get some rest everyone and we’ll meet up tomorrow after lunch” John said as he grabbed a League WayneTab that he downloaded the report to.

“Where?” Jess asked. She looked exhausted too and Hal hoped that lunch tomorrow would be enough time for everyone to get enough sleep.

“Hal’s” John said, giving Hal a knowing look and Hal nodded. He sometimes hated that John knew what he was planning, fearing he had become predictable, but this time it came in handy.

“Alright, Simon is going with me tonight so I can help out with his arm” Jess said. “So we’ll be together if you guys need anything”.

“Take this” Hal said, handing Simon his medical report. “Should be helpful”.

He also gave Guy his, knowing Guy was crashing at John’s tonight. Guy didn’t really have a place on Earth anymore, but Hal didn’t pry about that. Hal himself only had a place because Ollie was paying for it while Hal got back on his feet.

Hal felt bad about that. He was an adult and he should be able to take care of himself. He really needed to find a job, but it would be hard to find a job with the flexibility that Ferris Air gave him. That Carol gave him.

Man he fucked up.

He wouldn’t even need a place on Earth if it wasn’t for Roy, but he wanted to give his nephew stability, a place he could always come back to even after he moved out. Barry’s house only had three bedrooms, one for him and Iris, one for Wally, and one for the twins. Roy needed a space of his own, and Hal knew that one day in the future, Barry would want the twins to each have their own bedrooms. So yeah, he took up Ollie's offer to pay, because he knew that some things were way more important than his pride. Roy was more important than his pride.

Everyone left but Hal stayed behind to get himself checked in. After he finished he turned around and jumped when he saw Torchie still sitting there.

“Sorry, didn’t know you were still here” Hal laughed. Torchie hesitated before speaking.

“I uh, I don’t have the keys to my apartment. I actually don’t think I even have an apartment anymore, I haven’t been paying it or anything, and when I came back before I stayed with my mom”. The pain in his voice wasn’t because of his sore throat this time. “I don’t really have anywhere to go, and I can’t talk to my landlord without my phone but even if I had that, it’s the middle of the night”.

Hal could easily tell what he was insinuating, and really he just wished the kid would ask him, but he understood the feeling of feeling guilty about it. Hal hated asking for help.

“Why don’t you stay with me for a couple of days?” Hal asked. “Get everything in order with your place, make sure you’re healing well”.

“A couple of days? Are you sure?” Torchie asked.

“Yeah. Guy is crashing at John’s, and Simon is crashing at Jess’s. We’d all be in pairs” Hal explained, hoping Torchie would feel less guilty about the whole thing.

“I- okay yeah. I'll go with you” Torchie said. Then he cracked an uneasy smile. “It’s like a sleepover”.

“Oh yeah, we can make a pillowfort and everything” Hal joked, and most of the tension slipped out of Torchbearer’s body.

The flight back to Coast City wasn’t that long even though they were flying from New York to California, the rings making it easier. Hal tried not to think about how small his city looked compared to how it was before.

They landed on Hal’s apartment balcony. Hal grabbed the key from where he usually hid it and gestured to Torchie to be quiet before he led him in. Hal actually had no idea where Roy was, but he didn’t want to wake him up if he was here. Though he didn’t think Roy would be there. He led Torchie to his bedroom and started digging through his drawers.

“Here” Hal said, handing Torchie a folded pile of clothes and pushing him towards the bathroom. “Get changed so you can get some sleep”.

While he was doing that, Hal went to the hall closet to pull out extra blankets and pillows and got the couch ready. He lived in a two bedroom, but one bedroom was Roy’s and he wasn’t gonna invade his privacy even if he wasn’t here. He wasn’t gonna make Torchie sleep on the couch either, the kid had just been through hell and if he was gonna hide his face he needed privacy.

Hal has slept in worse places than his own couch.

He went back in to check on Torchie and was surprised to see him already in bed, curled away from the door with Hal’s jacket draped over him. Hal could see bandages around one of his arms that was peeking out from under the jacket. Hal grabbed the blankets and draped it over him, careful not to get close enough to see his face. He grabbed a Coast City Angels cap and put it on the nightstand so the kid didn’t have to use the ring to hide his face in the morning. It took a lot of willpower to use the ring, and Hal wanted the kid to rest.

Hal changed into some more comfortable clothes in his bathroom before leaving the room and turning off the lights, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Hal went to the kitchen to get water and winced when he dropped the cup. He turned slowly, glancing at his room door, but Torchie didn’t come out so he assumed it was fine. He would not be grabbing a cup again after that so he just pulled out a bottle of water.

He was opening the bottle when the door across the hall burst open and there stood Roy with a bat.

“Uncle Hal”? Hal jumped and whirled around to see Wally behind him.

“Sorry did I wake you up?” Hal whispered. He hoped Torchie wouldn’t wake up because of this either.

“Uh kinda? But it’s fine we’re just used to being careful” Wally whispered, stepping around so that Hal could look at both of them at the same time.

Both of his nephews were in night clothes, hair messy and looked happy despite their tiredness. That was good. There had been so much sadness this year that he was happy they were just casually happy.

“Where have you been?” Roy asked, also in a whisper. “And why are you back so early”?

“It’s a long story. There was a war, and Yellow Lanterns and- you know what I’ll give you the details later” Hal told them as he turned on the kitchen light. Wally frowned.

He was examining Hal, and he had so much worry in his eyes that Hal had to look away. He went to the linen closet and got another blanket despite not really needing one before going to the couch.

“Are you okay?” Roy asked, hovering after him. He must have looked bad if Roy noticed it too. The other Lanterns probably didn’t mention anything about it because they all were tired.

“And why are you making up the couch?” Wally asked and Hal realized he wouldn’t be able to hide Torchie. Hopefully the kid wouldn’t mind Wally and Roy being around, but he knew his nephews had other things to do besides being in his apartment all day. If not, he and Torchie could go to John’s.

Hal sighed and sat on the couch, putting his head in his hands. He had to explain this, but how? His nephews were easier to talk about Parallax with than most adults, but Hal was ashamed . He didn’t like reminding them that he had let fear get the best of him, and even though Roy was 18 and Wally was 20, he didn’t want to scare them.

“Uncle Hal isn’t afraid of anything ” they would say when they were little. He would rather them keep believing that.

And what happened with Torchie- that wasn’t something he should just tell everyone. But if Hal knew anyone who understood how Parallax worked and how bad it could get for the host, it was Wally and Roy. They would understand that it wasn’t Torchie’s fault, and maybe they could offer the kid some support when Hal couldn’t.

He felt them kneel in front of him.

“Uncle Hal?” Wally asked. He sounded so concerned that Hal just ripped off the bandaid before thinking about it.

“There was another Parallax situation” Hal told them. There was a moment of silence and then-

“Uncle Hal -“ Roy started, sounding devastated and Hal looked up, quick to grab Roy’s hand and squeeze.

“Hey, I’m okay. It wasn’t me, it was another Lantern” Uncle Hal explained. Wally’s eyes widened.

“John? Guy? Jessica? Simon?” Roy asked and Hal shook his head. Hal didn’t like that he didn’t ask about-

“Was it Four?” Wally asked. Hal had heard Wally and the other Titans refer to Torchie as that before. The fourth Green Lantern, Four. No one used his actual name because not even the Justice League knew it.

He wondered why the kid decided not to share his name or face. Yeah Batman did it, but Batman was a paranoid little bitch. Torchie didn’t give off that vibe, and he certainly wasn’t a little bitch (he had proven that), and his friends in the Corps at least had seen his face Hal had recently learned.

“Yeah” Hal confirmed and Wally sat back, a weird look on his face. “He’s sleeping in my room right now, so if you see him, be nice. I know the three of you didn’t get along, but he’s been through it”.

Both Wally and Roy nodded, Wally making a face. Hal wanted to ask what happened, why did Torchie say they lied, but now wasn’t the time.

“He’ll be staying here a couple of days until we get him settled on Earth again” Hal explained. He didn’t know how long Torchie would want to stay, but Hal hoped it was long enough to get him used to being around the other Lanterns. Hal didn’t want to send him back to his apartment the next day and then never see him again.

“Is it- is it bad ” Roy asked, not looking at him. Hal frowned. He didn’t want to lie, but he also knew that Torchie’s mental state was his business and his business only. If he chose to share it with anyone, that was his decision.

“I don’t think so, but it’s pretty recent so too soon to tell. He’s tough though, I’m sure he’ll bounce back. We can all talk more tomorrow, but don’t let him know you know” Hal said and they both nodded. Hal hugged them goodnight and watched them go back to Roy’s room, waiting for the door to close before slumping down on the couch.

He probably shouldn’t have told them. With how paranoid the League was with Parallax- he didn’t want them to find out and treat the kid differently. He would deal with that tomorrow.

He woke up the next day with pain in his back and a vow to get a better couch. He went to his room, knocking and calling softly before slowly entering. The kid was up, sitting in the center of the bed with his legs crossed, blankets draped over his shoulders and Angeles cap pulled down over his eyes.

“Morning,” Torchie said softly before coughing a bit.

“How long have you been up?” Hal asked and Torchie looked away. Hal remembered the nightmares after Parallax. He still had them. “I’m gonna shower real quick. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.

Torchie nodded and got up slowly while Hal headed to his bathroom. When he finished, he could smell eggs being made in the kitchen. When he poked his head out, he saw Torchie and Roy were sitting across from each other at the table while Wally brought water for the three of them. Torchie was now wearing Hal’s jacket again and was shifting uncomfortably while eating as Roy tried to look anywhere but at Torchie. Torchie had a mug of something hot, probably tea if he knew Wally well enough. 

Hal grinned at them and sat down in the empty chair between Roy and Torchie after grabbing some water.

“Thank you Wally,” Hal said as he looked at the plate of eggs that sat in front of him, and Wally grinned. Roy made an annoyed noise.

“How do you know I didn’t make it huh Uncle Hal?” Roy asked. Hal gave him an unimpressed look. They all knew Wally was a really good cook, while Roy preferred using the microwave and hoping for the best just like Hal.

“It’s not burnt. And Torchie is almost done with his and hasn’t fallen over dead yet” Uncle Hal said. Wally and Roy glanced between Hal and Torchie with blank faces.

“ Torchie ?” Roy asked, amused. The part of Torchie’s face Hal could see was bright red as he went to hide behind his tea.

“Is that his official Lantern nickname?” Wally asked with a smirk.

“Yep! Torchie because he’s the Lantern’s Torchbearer” Hal explained.

Hal turned to grin at Torchie, but Torchie looked away.

“Hey it could’ve been worse” Hal said. The others’ nicknames were stupid too and in his opinion, he went easy on Torchie. Torchie tilted his head in thought and then shrugged.

“Yeah,” Torchie said softly. “I could’ve been Captain Crybaby”.

Hal rolled his eyes and Roy laughed. Hal didn’t know where Torchie learned that, but he had a good feeling he had to strangle Guy.

“You think your friend is dieing one tim e and no one ever lets it go. Whatever. What are your guy’s plans for today” Hal asked before whirling on Torchie. “You don’t get to have plans. Your plans are set”.

It might have been a little too forward for him to say that, but Torchie saluted him as Wally checked the time.

“I have to do some stuff for school but then we have a meeting with Titans A” Wally said. Roy frowned.

“I won’t make it to that today, I have some rehab stuff to do” Roy said.

Wally was a junior at Central City University and majored in industrial engineering with a minor in Mechanical Engineering. He was currently off for Thanksgiving break, but he was always studying, especially with his finals being next week. Roy had dropped out of high school, but was considering getting a GED. His main focus right now was rehab due to his hard relapse earlier that year.

Hal was super proud of both of them.

“That’s fine. One of us will catch you up” Wally reassured him. “What about you Uncle Hal”?

“I have to check out a report on this whole war thing, but other than that we’ll both be regrouping with the other Lanterns today” Hal said. Wally got up and started gathering plates.

“I can do the dishes” Torchie said, standing up too. Wally opened his mouth to most likely protest but Hal stood up and took the plates from Wally with one hand and put his other on Torchie’s shoulder.

“I’ve got 'em. Go get started on your school stuff Wally. And you-“ Hal said as he guided Torchie to the couch and made him sit down, “need to rest. Roy do you need a ride to rehab stuff”?

“I can drop him off,” Wally said and Roy nodded. Hal frowned but nodded. He wanted to help out Roy a bit, but he also had to help out Torchie. He would let Wally do him the favor this time. It would be faster anyways.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys later?” Hal asked and they both nodded the affirmative. They grabbed their bags and other stuff they would need before leaving the apartment, saying their goodbyes to Hal and Torchie.

Hal hesitated before putting the plates on the counter and running out the front door.

“Wally, Roy” Hal called, ducking out of the apartment and into the hall. Wally and Roy stopped in their tracks and turned to him. “About what happened to him- if we could keep that between us. You know how the others can get”.

“Of course Uncle Hal” Wally said like that was obvious and Roy nodded behind him. “None of it was your fault, so it isn’t his either”.

When Hal came back inside, Torchie was sitting with his knees to his chest and playing with the tv remote even though he didn’t turn the TV on. Hal let him be while he did the dishes. He was finishing up when he got a text from Jim. He rolled his eyes but answered back an affirmative.

“Why don’t you start getting ready? You can borrow some of my clothes” Hal suggested as he walked over to Torchie. “We can leave when you’re done but take your time”.

“Where are we going?” Torchie asked. “I thought we were having lunch with the others here”?

“We’re going to my brother's apartment. Going to make sure they’re okay and his wife is gonna make food” Hal told him.

“Are you- would they want me tagging along?” Torchie asked and Hal smiled.

“They invited us, all of us. The other Lanterns already confirmed they were coming. Jim and Sue are grateful or whatever for us saving them even though they don’t have to be. It wouldn’t be the first time they hosted all the Earth Lanterns” Hal said.

Hal had actually been the last one Jim texted, basically blackmailing him into going since the other four had already said yes. It wasn't that he didn’t want to see his brother, he did want to see him and his family actually, he just didn’t want his brother to host and do extra work after Parallax had tried to attack them a couple of days before.

Torchie looked away, gripping the remote a bit tighter.

“Okay. Sounds cool” Torchie said, standing up.

They went back into Hal’s room and Hal pulled out some clothes for him. Torchie wasn’t small, but he wasn’t as big as Hal. He was a bit shorter, his shoulders less broad, his waist narrower, but Hal did his best. He gave the kid the clothes before he left the room to make more of that tea that Wally made the kid, even though he had no idea he even had tea in his kitchen in the first place.

Torchie came shuffling out after about 20 minutes, cap low on his face, in the joggers and loose long sleeve shirt that Hal had left out for him. In his hands was Hal’s jacket. 

“Here. Should’ve given it back earlier” Torchie said as he handed the jacket to Hal. Hal didn’t reach for it.

“Put it on. I know you’re cold” Hal said. “I was cold all the time when I first separated from Parallax”.

He still was, but it wasn’t as bad now. He could still remember laying on the sciencell floor, shivering and disoriented as he tried to figure out whether it was real or not.

Torchie shrugged on the jacket.

“Sorry about taking your bed last night” he apologized as he took a seat next to Hal. Hal passed him the tea. “Oh, thanks”.

“I was gonna give it to you anyways” Hal waved him off. “Sorry I didn’t tell you about Roy possibly being here, I really didn’t expect him to be here today. Should’ve known though, Roy does live here. Didn’t expect Wally to be here, but Roy has the others sleep over here from time to time”.

Roy didn’t expect Hal to come home yet, so of course he didn’t text to warn Hal. 

“Roy lives with you?” Torchie asked before taking a sip of his tea.

“Yeah. He didn't really have a place to stay, and he’s my nephew so of course I gave him my extra room” Hal said, trying not to think about that time. “I know you guys didn’t get along, but was everything okay this morning before I got to the kitchen”?

“I uh- yeah everything was fine. Kinda awkward, but they were nice. I guess” Torchie shrugged. Hal wanted to ask him what had happened with him and the Titans but didn’t.

After Torchie finished his tea, the two headed to Hal’s car and Hal drove them to Jim’s apartment. Coast City was still in the early phases of rebuilding, with only important things Iike some apartments, doctors offices, supermarkets, and schools being built. Everything he had known was gone.

But he still pointed things out to Torchie, like where his high school used to be, or the street his childhood home had been on.

“I work there,” Hal said, pointing out Ferris Air as he stopped a couple yards away from the gate. He actually drove out of his way to show Torchie this, but that little detail didn’t matter. “Or well, worked there”.

He didn’t know where he stood with Carol, and he was ashamed to admit that he was afraid to see her again, to see how she would react to what he had done.

“What did you do?” Torchie asked softly, staring at Ferris Air even after they continued their drive. It took Hal way to long to realize that the kid meant what did he do at Ferris air, not-

“I was a test pilot,” Hal said, unable to keep himself from smirking. “Used to be in the Air Force before that”.

He would not mention his time as an insurance salesman. That didn’t sound nearly as cool as flying planes.

“I’m a freelance artist,” Torchie said, still looking out of the window. “Born and raised in Los Angeles. Got my degree from USC”.

Hal tried not to show how surprised he was to receive that information. He didn’t expect Torchie to just willingly share information about himself so casually, but that meant that Torchie was trusting him more. It almost felt like an olive branch was being extended towards Hal.

“University of Southern California?” Hal asked and the kid nodded. Hal whistled appreciatively. It was a hard school to get into. “So you draw”?

“Yeah. I haven’t taken any commissions since I left Earth in September, but I drew in my free time on Oa” Torchie explained. Hal didn’t want to push, put he couldn’t help but ask.

“How old are you again?” Hal asked, despite the fact that no one had ever told him.

Torchie paused.

“21” he said finally, as if he had to try and remember it. Hal didn’t let himself frown.

They arrived at Jim’s apartment and Hal could barely knock on the door when it was thrown open.

“You’re late, Jordan,” Guy said with a smirk.

“Uncle Hal is here!” Jane squealed excitedly from her perch on Guy’s shoulders. She basically threw herself into Hal’s arms and he held her tight.

She was okay. Howie was okay. Jim and Sue were okay. Everyone was fine. Hal took a deep breath.

“Uncle Hal!” Howie said excitedly as he barreled into Hal’s legs.

“Hey you two” Hal greeted, putting a free hand on Howie’s head.

John popped his head out from deeper in the apartment and waved while Sue made her way over.

“Torchie’s here too! Hi Torchie” Jane said happily as Hal shuffled inside, Howie still hugging him around the waist and making it difficult to move. Torchie followed them inside and Guy closed the door behind them. “Guy said that you and Uncle Hal beat the bad man”!

“Oh there were multiple ‘bad people’. It was a team effort from everyone to beat them” Torchie said as he followed Hal deeper into the apartment. 

“Do you two want anything to drink?” Sue asked as she gave Hal a hug in greeting and sent Torchie a warm smile.

“Water would be nice” Torchie said and Hal chimed in with a “same”.

He could really use a beer but, a weird feeling in his chest made him feel like maybe it wasn’t a good idea.

Hal put Jane down so he could greet his brother, and she ran over to Torchie and tugged him over to the living room with Howie. The two of them always liked playing with new people. Hal remembered when he had brought Jess and Simon over for the first time, and how they were the victims of the kids' attention the whole time.

“He’s wearing Dad’s jacket,” Jim said. It was curious instead of accusatory.

“It’s- It’s cold when you separate from it” was Hal’s immediate answer, a chill coming over his body that he had to shake off. Sue paused from where she was getting water, and Jim’s eyes widened.

“It was the same thing that got you?” Jim asked, eyes darting to his balcony that was now covered by a sheet. Where Parallax had come to-

Jane was okay. Howie was okay. Jim and Sue were okay. Everyone was fine. Hal took a deep breath.

“Uh, yeah. It’s gone now though. He’ll be fine” Hal said. Sue handed him a cup of water and gave his shoulder a squeeze before going to give Torchie his cup.

The kid was sitting on the floor next to Jane who was talking a mile a minute. Howie was nearby playing with some Legos, adding on to Jane’s story from time to time. Torchie seemed more relaxed than he did when he walked in thankfully.

“And are you okay?” Jim asked. Hal opened his mouth to answer but Jim cut him off. “I don’t mean physically”?

Hal didn’t want to admit that being near Parallax again had brought back unwanted memories, unwanted feelings, with an intensity that might've set his healing back a bit. There was still so much of his life that he had to fix from when it happened to him, he didn’t want to make that worse. And he didn't want to worry his loved ones.

Hal pushed Carol from his mind.

“I’m okayish” Hal decided and Jim nodded. Guy gave him an odd look but didn’t say anything while John didn’t look up from his phone. Probably texting Simon and Jess.

Jane was okay. Howie was okay. Jim and Sue were okay. Everyone was fine. Hal took a deep breath.

“Your eyes are so pretty,” Jane said, drawing everyone's attention.

Torchie stiffened from where he sat, and Hal realized that because she was so much smaller than him, she could probably see Torchie’s whole face from that angle. Torchie adjusted his cap a bit, showing her more of his face but hiding it from everyone else, as his posture relaxed. He was smiling.

“Thank you,” Torchie said. “I got them from my mom”.

“She must be really pretty,” Jane said with big eyes.

“Yeah, she wa- she is” Torchie said, smile a bit sad. Hal’s heart hurt a bit.

Jane was okay. Howie was okay. Jim and Sue were okay. Everyone was fine . Hal took a deep breath.

“So” Jim asked, turning back to Hal. “What happened up in space”?

Hal, Guy and John explained the basics to Jim and Sue. At some point in the middle of it, Jess and Simon arrived and the kids paused whatever they were doing with Torchie to greet them. Jess and Simon joined in on their conversation of the Yellow Lantern Corp war, explaining what had happened to them while Hal, Guy, and John were trying to help Torchie.

“Yellow Lanterns,” Jim said. “Does that mean there’s more colors”?

“I- I actually don’t know” Hal answered honestly. He hadn’t thought about that before.

“It took them forever to make yellow, I don’t think we’ll be seeing any new colors any time soon,” Guy said, rolling his eyes. John looked skeptical.

“If they made yellow, don’t you think others will try to do the same with different parts of the emotional spectrum?” John asked. Hal wanted to ask if they thought pink counted as its own Corps, but then he would have to think about Carol.

And he probably shouldn’t mention Carol in front of John. Not this soon.

Thankfully, Jane saved him by coming over and latching herself around Jim’s legs, waiting to be acknowledged.

“Hi Jane,” Jim said with a soft smile as she looked up at him with big eyes. Hal couldn’t help but smile too.

“Daddy can we have more paper? And some colors?” Jane asked and Jim went to get it for her.

“How you healing up Simon” Hal asked, eyeing Simon’s arm that was still in a sling.

“It’s fi- yeah no this actually sucks” Simon said and Jess laughed. Simon didn’t look amused.

Jane ran back towards the coffee table, where Torchie and Howie were waiting for her.

“I have that painting you told me to hold on to the other day” Jim said when he came back. “Jane won’t let anyone within 6 feet of it, so it’s safe”.

“Yeah it’s Torchie’s. It was his mom’s” Hal said as Jane and Howie dissolved into excited squeals in the living room. “We’ll take it back to my apartment today”.

The conversation switched to sports, Jim updating Guy, John and Hal on what was happening while Jess, Simon and Sue had their own conversation. They could hear the kids getting excited about whatever they were doing, but Hal didn’t mind. This chaos was actually peaceful to him.

Everyone was okay. Simon and Torchie were a bit hurt but no one was dead. Coast City was still here, and there were children laughing instead of being still and in the ground.

Jane was okay . Howie was okay . Jim and Sue were okay . Everyone was fine . Hal took a deep breath.

Everyone was fine . Everything was fine, he was-

“Uncle Hal, something’s happening! Stop it, save Coast City! Please!”

Hal couldn’t help but wonder if that actually happened. If Helen had been waiting for him to save Coast City, if she had watched what happened thinking Coast City would be safe because Hal would save them. Did she resent him for failing?

Jane was okay. Howie was okay. Jim and Sue were okay. Everyone was fine. Hal - Hal couldn’t breath.

He just kinda sat there for a second, not really sure what to do. This couldn’t be happening to him again. He had been fine . There was nothing to worry about, everyone was here and everyone was happy. They were celebrating a victory, why was-

“Hal”?

Hal felt his entire body jerk and realized he was grabbing the back of the chair he was straddling way too tightly, so he tried to let go. He couldn’t.

“You okay?” Guy asked quietly, his eyes serious. 

Hal tried to answer him but the words wouldn’t come out, and if he forced them too, Hal would lose control. He couldn’t lose control. He had lost control with Parallax, he had lost control when he came back and freaked out Roy, he- he couldn’t lose control again. Not again, never again. If he lost control now, Jess and Simon would see. Jane, Howie, and Torchie would see. He couldn’t let them see him like that.

So he gave a thumbs up. No one looked like they believed him.

“Breath” Guy said quietly, and Hal wanted to snap that he was trying , but Guy was just trying to help. And Hal appreciated that he was trying not to draw attention to it. Hal would die if he scared Jane or Howie with this.

“Do Uncle Hal!” Jane pleaded. Hal didn’t think he would’ve heard what she was saying if he hadn’t heard his name, but he got out of his chair, not listening to them telling him to come back. He walked over to the kids and Torchie on auto pilot, pausing when he saw what they were doing.

There were a couple of pieces of paper on the coffee table. and Torchie was hunched over another one with a pencil in his hand. The papers were filled to the brim with different drawings and-

“Holy shi-oot” Guy corrected, not taking his eyes off of the art as he came to stand near Hal.

The drawings were of them . Hal could see one of Jess and Simon bickering, Guy with a righteous grin and his fists in the air, John with a calculating expression. He also saw Natu with an amused smile, Yat who looked like he was in the middle of explaining something enthusiastically, Tu looking unamused, Arisia laughing. There were even pictures of the Titans, Nightwing looking sad, Roy shooting at something, Garth doing peace signs with his signature smile, Wally looking bored, and Donna with the softest expression Hal had ever seen on her.

“Kid, these are amazing, ” Hal said as he got closer, his earlier problems melting away.

“One sec” Torchie muttered and Jane giggled.

“He’s in the zone ” Howie explained, nodding seriously. Hal sat on the floor across from them at the coffee table, carefully picking up the page with the other Earth Lanterns to see it better.

They were even better up close. The kid had unbelievable talent. The expressionsions and details made the images almost life-like.

“This is insane, ” Guy said softly as he sat down next to Hal, wide eyes scanning over the pages.

“Mommy, Daddy! Look! He drew his alien friends” Jane said, pointing at the other page of Lanterns.

“He’s friends with the Titans! Isn’t that so cool” Howie said excitedly, and then he paused. “Torchie, are the Titans as cool as they look like on TV”?

“Probably even cooler” Torchie responded after a second, looking up with a smile as he slid the paper away from him and towards the kids. The kids got excited again as they poured over the page.

“Look he drew Mommy and Daddy, and me and Howie, and Uncle Hal and-” Hal didn’t hear the rest of it as he glanced over at the page.

There was a sketch of Jim and Sue, both with smiles on their faces. Nearby was a sketch of Jane and Howie, both making funny faces towards the viewer. There was a sketch of Hal too, a lopsided smile as he gazed off to the side. Hal avoided looking at the last person drawn on the page.

“How did you- this is- wow ” Jim said as he kneeled near Hal. Torchie grinned.

“I’m a freelance artist,” he explained. He didn’t shy away from the compliments or tried to downplay what he did. It reminded Hal of himself and his planes. 

“Went to USC and everything,” Hal said, glancing at his brother. Jim looked at Hal and then at Torchie.

“University of Southern California?” Jim asked. Torchie nodded and Jim whistled appreciatively. “That’s a good school. Hard to get into”.

“And expensive,” John said, not taking his eyes off of the pages.

“I got in on a scholarship” Torchie said like it was nothing as he played with his pencil.

“Of course you did,” Jess said before pointing to the picture of her and Simon. “Hey, if you’re gonna draw me at least do it right”!

Torchie saluted her before holding his hand out, and Jane handed him another piece of paper immediately. Hal almost laughed at their little system as Torchie got to work. Everyone was silent as they watched him work, and after a couple of minutes, he slid the paper to the center of the coffee table. Now on the top left side was Jess with a determined grin on her face. The kids raved over it excitedly and Hal was impressed with how fast he drew it for it to look as good as it did.

“Can I take a picture?” Jess asked and Torchie nodded, and thus started everyone taking pictures of the sketches of themselves.

“You guys can have the pages if you want,” Torchie said. Guy grabbed the page with the Earth Lanterns on them.

“Dibs”! John rolled his eyes as Jane grabbed the one with the family on it.

“Mommy can we frame it?” Jane asked excitedly and Sue laughed, promising her they could go buy a frame for it tomorrow.

“This one's mine of course” Jess said, pointing to the newest sheet of paper with just the sketch of her on it. “I will need you to fill in the empty space though”.

“Sure, what do you want?” Torchie asked. Jess thought about it for maybe 5 seconds before rattling things off, but Torchie didn’t seem to mind. If anything he looked excited.

This was the most positive emotion Hal has seen on the kid since before the whole Yellow Lantern thing. Hal had seen him happy with his friends, when he didn’t notice Hal or any of the other Earth Lanterns looking, but Hal was glad he could find some happiness here on Earth even after everything he’s been through.

After lunch, everyone had to leave. The kids were upset, but Hal promised he would see them on Thanksgiving and they settled a bit, but he could see Jane holding back tears. Hal felt bad but he couldn't give in, so they grabbed Torchie’s painting and gave a quick goodbye. No need to draw it out and make the kids more emotional.

When he and Torchie got back to his apartment, Hal found a note on the kitchen table.

Hey Uncle Hal,

Stopped by but you two were already gone and I really needed to study anyway. I brought Torchie’s phone from the tower, and N got him a new charger just in case he didn’t have one anymore. We charged it during our meeting, so it should be ready to go! He also left this notebook at the Tower so I brought that too. Roy and I decided to give you and Torchie some space, so we’ll see you on Thanksgiving!

Wally (Your favorite non blood related Nephew)

Underneath the note was the newest Waynephone with a green case. Hal had the exact same one since it was standard issued from the League. Wayne donated a lot of money to them, and the phone with their service already paid was a perk of that. Underneath the phone was a black hardcover notebook decorated with a bunch of different stickers.

“Wally brought your- hey? Torchie? What's wrong?” Hal asked, putting the phone down gently.

Torchie’s entire posture had gone rigid, gripping the painting a little too tight, and he was shaking as he stared at Hal’s- refrigerator? Hal slowly got closer.

“Torchie? Hey, what’s up?” Hal asked quietly, but he got no response. Hal hadn’t said anything when he walked in, and he hadn’t done anything besides read the note. What could have triggered the kid?

Hal slowly reached over to him, giving the kid plenty of time to move away or to tell him to stop if he needed to. He didn’t so Hal gently grabbed his shoulder. Torchie jumped, whipping his head towards Hal.

“Hey, it’s just me. What’s wrong? What happened?” Hal asked, gently taking the painting from him. It had been such a good day for the kid too.

“I- the- you- he” Torchie tried before gesturing at the note on the table and then at the fridge helplessly.

Hal didn’t understand. He didn’t see the connection, or why the kid was freaking out but- he carefully put the painting on the coffee table in the living room before walking towards the fridge, hearing Torchie follow him.

“Hal, don’t ” Torchie pleaded, sounding desperate, but it was too late. Hal had already opened the fridge.

There was nothing out of the ordinary besides the fact that his fridge was actually pretty well stocked, probably because of Wally or Nightwing. Hal was going to tell Torchie there was nothing to worry about when he heard hyperventilating. He spun around to see the kid sitting on the floor of the kitchen with his back against the wall opposite to the fridge, his knees to his chest. His arms were wrapped around his knees, his hands gripping his forearms so tightly thast his nails were digging into his skin, and face was buried in his arms.

“Hey, hey!” Hal said as he quickly went to the kids side, kneeling next to him and trying to remember what to do for this. He had seen Barry help civilians through them before, and once he had even been there while Barry coached Wally through one after- “Breathe. Let me go and get you an-”.

Torchie gripped his forearm tightly so Hal sat back down.

“The- the note?” Torchie asked through gasps. Hal blinked.

“It was from Wally. He dropped some things off” Hal explained calmly.

“The fridge”?

“It’s normal? Was there something you thought was in there?” Hal asked. When his nieces and nephews were younger, Hal remembered them having a monster in the closet phase. Was this that? But why-

“A body ”. Hal paused. He had so many questions, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“There’s no body in the fridge” Hal reassured him. “I just checked, there is no body in there. Everyone is okay. You’re okay”.

“I can't breathe. I don’t- I don’t know why-“! Torchie made a noise as his grip tightened on Hal’s forearm. “Help me! I- I can’t- Please help me”!

“I know, you’re gonna be okay. Just-“ breath? Didn’t Hal complain about that earlier? “It’s gonna be okay. I’m right here, you’re safe. I’m not going anywhere, we’ve got this”.

Hal felt helpless . He could only sit there and try to be reassuring as the kid rode it out. He didn’t know how long it took, but the kid's breathing eventually started to go back to normal. After a couple more deep breaths, he spoke again.

“That was so stupid” he muttered. “I’m so sorry”.

“That wasn’t your fault. It happens” Hal reassured. It happened to me too, he wanted to say, but he couldn’t. He really should but-

“But I know better” the kid snapped, moving his hands up to grab at his hair, knocking his cap off. Hal looked away, keeping his eyes on the fridge so he wouldn’t see anything. “I’m better than this. It’s never been this bad before. What’s wrong with me”?

Hal winced. He remembered thinking the same thing when he first got home after being separated from Parallax. That feeling of losing control, and then remembering he never had it in the first place.

“Parallax h- it really can leave a lasting impression huh?” Hal said, laughing bitterly. “Fear is- it's a powerful thing, I'll admit that. It made me relive my worst moments over and over again, and sometimes it would twist things to make it worse. When I first got separated from it I swear every little thing set me off”.

The kid stayed quiet so Hal forced himself to continue. If he could tell anyone this, it would be Torchie. Torchie had been through the same thing, and was feeling the same effects.

“You met my brother Jim, but I have- had an older brother. His name was Jack. We never got along, everything was a fight for as long as I could remember. He was- He and his wife and son were in Coast City when it was destroyed, and they died. And then Jim and his family were in trouble, and at the moment, I was fine. I guess the adrenaline of trying to take down Sinestro took over, but today- even though everyone was safe and I could see that everyone was safe I couldn’t help but think of what would happen if I had failed then again, if I didn’t save them. And I kinda freaked out a bit at Jim’s just like you did just now. I’ve actually uh, I’ve done it a couple of times before. One time Roy even saw it” Hal admitted. “I’m not- I’m not good at this, but I’ve been where you are and similar things happened to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I know what you're going through, and what happened just now doesn’t make you less, or weak. Parallax fucked us up, so things like this are gonna happen, but it’s going to be okay”.

It was quiet again and Hal felt like an idiot. He wished Barry was here. Barry was always really good at this kind of stuff.

“My girlfriend” he heard Torchie say, and he almost looked over in surprise. “Her name was Alex. She was helping me when I first got the ring and- I wasn’t even gone that long! But there was a note on the table that said to look in the fridge and- there she was, dead ”.

“ Alex died because of me ” the kid had said when they were both in Parallax.

That was- that was horrifying. He couldn’t imagine the guilt the kid carried, and how that would affect him for the rest of his life. And having to be the one to open the fridge, to discover the body- did he panic every time he had to open a fridge? Every time he stepped in the kitchen? Hal glanced at where the note was and winced. It was too similar.

“Parallax kept showing me that over and over again among other things. I could hear Alex’s voice telling me it was my fault, and that I should’ve saved her I- sometimes I can’t remember what’s real and I saw the note and-” he cut himself off with a sob, and Hal wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close without even think about it.

“It’s all my fault. She died because of me ”!

Hal tucked the kids head under his chin so he wouldn’t see Torchie’s face as he tried not to think of his own losses. It sucked, it really did. Of course they faced losses in their line of work. Katma, Aya, Tomar-Re, Ke’haan, Chance, Creon, Barry at one point, Jack, Janice, Jason, the last Robin, Terra, Torchie’s mom, Alex-

Torchie sobbed harder and latched onto Hal, so Hal pulled him closer and held him tighter, hoping he could be at least a little bit of comfort to the kid.

But Parallax just had to make it worse . It just had to fuck with their heads, and twist things up and make them doubt -

They stayed like that for a long time, Torchie clinging to Hal as he wailed and Hal just trying to be an anchor for him.

“I’m sorry,” Torchie hiccuped after a while. Hal could feel him wipe his eyes. “About your family. And about freaking out like this”.

“It’s fine, really. I already told you, the same thing happened to me. I’m not gonna judge you for it” Hal said, ignoring the part about Jack, Janice, and Jason. “I’m sorry about Alex”.

Torchie only hummed in acknowledgment as he grabbed the cap, hesitating before putting it back on. He sat up, and they both stood. Hal went to grab a box of tissues, handing some to Torchie.

“Wally came by to drop off your phone and a notebook that you left at the Tower” Hal explained, gesturing to the items on the table. Torchie threw his tissues away after using them.

“Notebook?” Torchie asked as he walked over to the table. “Oh, my sketchbook! I forgot I left it there. I left so fast I didn’t think to grab anything”.

“Why did you leave so fast?” Hal asked as he grabbed a bottle of water for him and one for Torchie.

“Wally or Roy didn’t say anything?” Torchie asked, sounding confused as he took the water bottle from Hal, putting his sketchbook back on the table and his phone in his back pocket. “I mean, I guess they wouldn’t. I wouldn’t”.

“Did something happen?” Hal asked. Hal absolutly adored his nephews, but he had heard horror stories from Ollie about their interactions with Torchie, especially Wally.

“Uh yeah. But-” Torchie paused, glancing towards the fridge again before looking away. “I'd rather not talk about it. Not today”.

“That’s okay” Hal reassured him despite the fact that he really wanted to know. “How about I help you change some of your bandages after you shower? I don’t think you can reach some of the ones on your back”.

He gave Torchie what he needed and pulled out his first aid kit while Torchie went to shower. He was in the middle of setting up when there was a knock at his balcony door. Hal sighed as he stood up and pulled back the curtains that covered the door, revealing a smirking Guy carrying something that Hal couldn’t see.

“Can I help you?” Hal asked as he opened the door. Guy just walked in and set three bottles of beer on the counter before spreading his arms wide as if he had done the most fantastic thing in the world. Which he had.

“All is forgiven, you’re welcome over any time” Hal said as he got closer. He really, really could use a drink, but couldn’t keep alcohol in his apartment anymore. He knew Roy wasn’t drinking anymore and he trusted him, but he didn’t want to make anything harder on Roy by having it so easily accessible. “Why three”?

“One for me” Guy said, taking his and digging through Hal’s kitchen drawer for a bottle opener. “One for you, and one for Torchie”.

“How’d you know he could drink?” Hal asked. He just learned Torchie’s age today.

“Where do you think he and his friends disappear to at night? They aren’t off knitting or having a book club, I can tell you that” Guy said as he opened his beer and tossed Hal the bottle opener. “Oh to be young and able to get drunk off my ass late at night and still function early in the morning”.

Hal laughed as he opened his own bottle.

“How’s the kid holding up?” Guy asked. “I know I saw him earlier today but- we both know how these things go”.

“He uh, he freaked out a bit ago. He was triggered by a note and by my fridge” Hal said cautiously. Guy paused, his eyes sliding over to look at Hal.

“Alex?” Guy asked and Hal nodded, wondering how Guy knew about Alex.

“He was doing so well at Jim’s, you saw. And then out of nowhere-” Hal waved his hands around.

“You know that’s how it goes. It’s always out of nowhere” Guy said and Hal nodded. Yeah, it was always out of fucking nowhere.

Hal would never stop feeling bad that Roy had to see him like that, that Roy had to help him through that. That wasn’t his job, Hal was the adult, he should be taking care of Roy. Absolutely not the other way around.

Soon Torchie came back into the kitchen wearing only a pair of Hal’s sweats and the Angels cap. Hal could see bruises, cuts and burns all over his torso and winced. There were also some on his arms, but he had already bandaged those and probably the ones on his legs with the med kit in the bathroom.

“Oh, hey Guy. What are you doing here” Torchie asked, tilting his head in confusion. Guy being here didn’t seem to make him distressed or awkward thankfully.

“Came to see you. Hope you like beer” Guy said, handing Torchie a bottle and the opener.

“Thanks” Torchie said, opening the bottle with a wince and taking a swig.

“You don’t want Jordan helping you with those. He’s clumsy-”.

“I am not ”!

“Sit, I’ll help you” Guy said, ignoring Hal and gesturing to the chair and area that Hal set up. Fuck him.

Torchie visibly hesitated before taking another long swig of his beer and sitting in the chair. Guy sat in the second chair and got to work while Hal leaned on the counter and drank his beer.

“Where’d you get these injuries?” Guy asked as he worked. Torchie winced as Guy cleaned one of his burns.

“Uh, Parallax doesn’t like to work too hard when taking a victim I guess. They did this and some mental stuff to wear me down enough” Torchie explained, playing with the beer bottle in his hands.

“You're a tough kid,” Guy complimented. Torchie scoffed.

“Parallax still possessed me you know,” Torchie said bitterly. “I couldn’t stop it”.

“Torture is still torture wether it breaks you or not. You still go through it, and you're still alive, so you're tough in my books. And that's the only book that matters” Guy said as he bandaged another wound. Torchie took another sip of his beer.

“Thanks Guy”. Guy waved him off.

“John also finished the report if you wanna check it out Hal” Guy mentioned as he paused to drink some more. Hal nodded and went to go get the WayneTab he had that was connected to the League’s system.

“Also, the League contacted John about the little light show the Corps put on in the sky. John convinced them that it wasn’t a major threat since we took care of it, so the meeting to talk about it’s been pushed to Monday” Guy said as he walked back in and Hal nodded as he took a seat at the table across from where Guy was bandaging Torchie.

“What day is it today?” Torchie asked.

“Tuesday”.

“Then why push it back almost a week later?” Torchie asked.

“Thanksgiving is on Thursday, they probably want to spend time with their families if there isn’t a looming threat” Hal explained as he opened the report John sent him.

“ Thanksgiving is in two days ?” Torchie asked, turning to look between Guy and Hal. “God, I didn’t even know what month it was”!

“That’s what longer stints in space will do to ya” Guy said as he nudged Torchie to go back to how he was sitting before.

Hal tuned them out for a moment so he could read the report. John’s report was concise with no unnecessary details, perfect as usual. But there was one thing that bugged Hal.

“I’m taking out any mentions of Parallax” Hal said as he started to delete and rewrite some sentences.

“Hal?” Torchie asked quietly.

“Parallax is a taboo topic within the League now. It’s too soon to even mention its name without causing panic. It’s locked up and not a problem anymore, we don’t have to bring it up” Hal explained. “Most of them don’t understand what Parallax is, and those same people don’t want to understand. What you went through- you can talk about that with anyone you want to kid, but I wouldn’t talk about it with the League”.

“I- thank you Hal” the kid said softly, staring at his hands.

“The six of us are probably gonna have to have a meeting before the one with the League then” Guy pointed out and Hal sighed as he finished and submitted the report.

“Yeah, probably Sunday” Hal said as Guy finished bandaging the last of Torchie’s injuries. “I’ll put it in the group chat. Oh, and I should add Torchie to the group chat”.

Hal handed Torchie his phone to input his contact information while Guy started cleaning up. Hal almost laughed when he got his phone back.

Torchie 🔥🎨

“I’ll get going,” Guy said. “I’ll see you both Sunday”.

“Thanks again Guy,” Torchie said. Guy stared at him for a moment.

“Can that hat come off for a sec?” Guy asked. Now it was Torchie’s turn to stare, then he slipped the hat forward in a way that the part that went on his head was now covering his face. Guy ruffled his now uncovered hair affectionately.

“If you need anything, contact me. I mean that kid. We’re sector partners, we watch each others backs” Guy said seriously and Torchie nodded. “Good. We have to be better than Hal and John. Not that it’s hard”.

“Damn”.

“What about Simon and Jess?” Torchie asked as he put his cap back on correctly. Guy laughed.

“Even less of a problem”! And Torchie smiled.

They both went to bed soon after Guy left, worn out after their mentally exhausting afternoon. Hal put the painting in his room, the safest place for it, before leaving Torchie be. He climbed back onto his couch and fell asleep almost instantly.

The nightmares came quickly. He saw Carol calling him a monster, himself ripping through the Lost Lanterns, the way he had brutally beaten Guy and John, Coast City being destroyed but this time by him-

Hal sat up with a start, breathing heavily and grabbing at his chest as a scream tried to escape. Once he was sure his heart wasn’t gonna explode, he looked around.

It was still dark out, and when Hal checked the clock on the microwave, he saw that it was 2am. Hal sighed, and was going to go back to bed when he heard someone cry out.

Torchie .

Chapter Text

Hal fell trying to untangle himself from his blankets, rolling right off of the couch and almost into the coffee table. He slipped out of the blankets, ignoring the pain in his hip as he ran to his bedroom.

He threw open the door to see Torchie sitting up and breathing heavily, his face in his hands.

“Hey” Hal said and Torchie jumped a bit.

“Sorry,” Torchie muttered through his hands. Hal waved him off and then remembered Torchie couldn’t see him.

“It’s okay,” Hal said, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. “I was already up. I had a nightmare too”.

He tentatively put a hand on the kids back, and they both sat for a couple of minutes in a comfortable silence as Torchie tried to breathe normally. Hal let him do it on his own, knowing sometimes in situations like this you wanted to save yourself, to know that you could still do it. He kept his hand firmly on Torchie’s back, letting the kid know that he was still there if he needed him. Torchie’s breathing went back to normal (Hal pretended not to see him try to discreetly wipe his eyes) but he didn’t say anything for a while. Hal spoke first

“It’s okay to be afraid, you know,” Hal said. “Being a Green Lantern is all about will power and overcoming great fear, but you have to feel fear in order to overcome it. I feel fear too”.

As if that wasn’t obvious with the whole Parallax situation.

“I know it’s stupid, but it’s hard to believe that you would be afraid of anything,” Torchie admitted, moving his hands up so that just his eyes were covered, but Hal could see his mouth. “All the stories I’ve heard, everything I’ve seen you do, you’re basically fearless”.

Hal laughed bitterly.

“When I first got the ring, I honestly thought I was fearless too, but now I definitely know I’m not” Hal admitted, and he found it wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. “I’m actually a coward. You remember how I told you about my brother Jack yesterday? About how he and his son and his wife died when Coast City was destroyed”?

Torchie nodded.

“He also has a daughter. Her name is Helen” Hal admitted, looking away from Torchie. “You drew her yesterday at Jim’s, she was on the same page as me and Jim’s family. When Coast City had been destroyed, Helen was away at University. She goes to UCLA, all the way in Los Angeles. She had been safe from what happened in Coast City because she didn’t come home that weekend, celebrating her birthday with her friends. But Jason had gone home to celebrate with his friends from home”.

And now Helen was the only one left alive from her family.

“I haven’t seen her since before Coast City was destroyed. Even after everything with Parallax, I didn’t go see her. I’ve been avoiding her because I’m afraid” Hal explained, feeling so, so ashamed. “So yeah, I’m scared too, kid”.

He’s almost died several times fighting things up in space, but he couldn’t talk to his niece that he loved..

“But, why are you afraid? You talk with Jim and his family, with Wally, Roy, with us” Torchie asked.

“It’s different. It’s hard not to blame myself for Coast City, but what if she does? Her entire family is dead because I wasn't there to save my city, she has every right to blame me. And what if she sees me as a monster because of everything that happened with Parallax? Jane and Howie are young, they only know what Jim and Sue tell them, but Helen is 20. She probably saw everything that I did on the news or social media, and I know she would recognize me”.

He wondered how that felt for her. Mourning her family and then seeing her missing Uncle being a supervillain a few days later.

“I avoided you guys because I thought you resented me, but I was wrong. Maybe you’re wrong too” Torchie said softly after a moment. “I don’t- I’ve never met Helen so I can’t guess how she would feel, but shouldn’t you give her a chance to tell you? Like, you’re definitely gonna lose her if you don’t talk to her, so why not take the option where you have a chance”.

Hal hesitated. The kid was right. He wouldn’t know unless he tried. And God he missed Helen, his partner in crime ever since she could walk. Jack had been horrified when he realized that his wife basically gave birth to Hal reincarnated.

Hal had lost his brother, his sister in law and his nephew that day, but Helen had lost her Dad, her Mom, and her brother. Hal really didn’t want to lose his niece.

“Yeah. Maybe I will” was all Hal could say, looking at his hands in his lap.

“In my nightmare, I saw what happened to Chance,” Torchie said, looking away from Hal. “His face before I- we- it-“.

Torchie gestured wildly with his hands.

“That wasn’t you” Hal told him and Torchie sighed before turning his back to Hal so that he was now looking out the window. He dropped his hands now that Hal couldn’t see his face

“I know. My friends kept telling me the same thing but- it’s hard to- I see it like- you know” Torchie said, the last two words were firm, like he believed it.

“Yeah, I know,” Hal confirmed anyway.

“I thought at least Tu would be- I don’t know disturbed? He was there when it happened, he saw me hosting Parallax. But after it was over, everyone just treated me like normal” Torchie said.

“You have really good friends. Tu and Yat were ready to defy orders to come and help us help you. Natu came to the party later, but she was equally as ready to help” Hal said. He remembered the determination in their eyes, how Yat was so ready to go by himself to get Torchie and how Tu was trying to make plans with Hal to do the same. Hal wondered if anyone besides Roy and Wally thought about him like that, as though he was worth risking everything to be saved.

Well, Torchie apparently saw it like that. Torchie had risked everything to save him.

“I’m so lucky. They saved my life, you know” Torchie said softly. Hal didn’t even have time to think about what that meant when Torchie quickly spoke again.

“So what’s the plan for me? I can’t stay here forever”.

“You can stay here as long as you want,” Hal told him. “Rest and recover. If you want to fast track it, we can start investigating your apartment on Monday after the meeting. Give you some more time to heal, and give your landlord some time to get back from whatever holiday things he might be doing”.

Torchie nodded.

“And speaking of holidays,” Hal continued, “I usually have lunch with my brothers and their families before I go to Barry’s and celebrate with him, Ollie and their families. You’re invited to that”.

This would be the first time in two years that it would be the three of them celebrating the holidays together. After the whole thing with Ollie and Roy, Ollie obviously stopped coming, and then Barry “died”, but now Barry was back and they were friends with Ollie again. Of course, both he and Barry had made sure that Roy had been okay with it (which was a surprise really, he thought Roy would be against it but he said he was fine as long as Ollie didn’t talk to him and Ollie agreed to that).

Hal suddenly realized it would be the first time in a while that he and Jack wouldn’t spend the holidays together.

“Who’s gonna be at Barry's?” Torchie asked, thankfully saving Hal from going down that line of thought.

“Barry, his wife Iris, their two year old twins, Wally, Roy, Max Mercury and Jay Garrick and their families. Oh they’re older speedsters you probably haven’t met them” Hal said, counting it out on his fingers. “Ollie, Dinah, and Connor”.

Hal also realized it would be their first holiday season with Connor too.

“I’ve only met Wally, Roy, Ollie, Dinah, and Connor. Are you sure they wouldn’t mind me going?” Torchie asked. He didn’t sound skeptical this time, which was a victory for Hal, but like he was honestly just double checking.

“I’ve always had a standing plus one that I don’t really use” Hal said with a shrug, his mind drifting to Carol, but he immediately shoved her out of his mind. “Plus I already told Iris I was bringing someone, so you can’t embarrass me now”.

“I could,” Torchie mused. “But I won’t. I’d love to go”.

Hal didn’t know what he would do if the kid didn’t want to go. Jess and Simon had mentioned before the whole Yellow Lantern thing that they each were going to spend the holidays with their own families, and Hal wasn’t really sure what John or Guy were doing but he knew they each had plans. Torchie’s mom had died last month, and he mentioned he had nothing left on Earth. Hal couldn’t imagine just leaving him alone for the holidays.

Hal had no idea how, but they both fell asleep soon after. Hal woke up flat on his back on his bed, staring at his ceiling. He slowly glanced next to him to see Torchie curled up on his side, his back to Hal. Looking over at the nightstand, he could see that it was almost midday so Hal sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Hal?” Torchie asked, sounding half asleep still.

“Yeah it’s me. Fell asleep here last night, sorry” Hal apologized as he stood to stretch.

“S’okay. It’s your room” Torchie yawned, and Hal yawned too.

“I’m gonna shower. You can go back to sleep if you want, or you can wait and I'll make breakfast” Hal said before disappearing into the bathroom.

He took a quick shower, and when he got out, he could hear Torchie talking in the living room.

“-m fine. Well okay, as fine as I can be after everything that happened” Torchie was saying. “Hal’s been great. Really helpful. I kinda thought things would fall apart when I got back to Earth, but I got invited to like two- three different family events”?

Hal couldn’t hear any reply, so he assumed Torchie was either on the phone or talking to his ring.

“Yeah, yeah, you were right. You already gloated Sodam!” Torchie complained. Hal doubted just a bit that Yat had a cellphone, so ring it was. “Yeah I changed my bandages Sora. Guy helped. I- no I think if Guy wasn’t doing a good job Hal would’ve said somethi- I’ll watch for infections”.

Hal was only slightly offended as he walked into the kitchen. Torchie waved at him as Hal pulled the eggs out of the fridge.

“More eggs. Won’t be as good as Wally’s” Hal said quietly, but loud enough for Torchie to hear.

“That’s fine,” Torchie replied before his head snapped back to his ring. “I was talking to Hal- Hal? Tu says hi. And so does Sodam, and Sora”.

“Tell them I said hi back” Hal said as he turned on the stove.

“He said hi back- no he can’t hear you and I’m not repeating that” Torchie huffed from the couch and Hal snickered. “I- yeah I’m sure. I did kind of miss Earth. And the other Earth Lanterns are actually pretty cool- yes I know you told me so. You’re just like Sodam I swear. Nope not apologizing, you got what you deserve”.

Hal continued working on the eggs while Torchie babbled to his friends, trying not to overhear them too much. Unfortunately that meant that Hal was left alone with his thoughts, and he started to think of Helen.

Torchie was right, he needed to talk to Helen. Was he really doing her a favor by avoiding her or was he only giving her more pain? He knew she tried to call him when Coast City had been destroyed, but he wasn’t on Earth, he didn’t have signal. It wasn’t until he had come back to Earth after being free from Parallax that he found his phone and saw he had around 50 missed calls from her, most of them being from that day. 

He tried to imagine it from her perspective. She got the news that her city had been destroyed, that her parents and brother had died, and tried to call her next closest family members. Only one Uncle had answered her, and the other had disappeared. When she saw him again it was probably on the news when the Justice League tried to stop him from destroying the universe, and then he disappeared for a couple of months only to reappear again no longer evil. But he still didn’t contact her, and avoided her when she tried to contact him.

Hal was a monster, and maybe it wasn’t because of Parallax. She needed him and he abandoned her.

But her trying to contact him could’ve been her trying to give him a piece of her mind. She could’ve wanted closure for the death of her family and thought that since he was to blame, he was the only one she could get that closure from. Hal didn’t know, he couldn’t bring himself to listen to the voice messages she left when he didn’t answer.

He remembered when she would take Jack’s phone when she was little and leave him voice messages. It was the only reason he answered Jack’s calls and looked at the messages he sent for a while, wanting to talk to her and Jason even though he was fighting with Jack. He didn’t want to ruin that memory.

He knew there was a huge chance Helen would be at Jim’s for Thanksgiving. He didn’t know where she was staying for break, but she would go home to spend Thanksgiving with her remaining family? Maybe he could talk to her there and apologize, but what if that ruined the holiday? Or what if she skipped lunch and only came for Thanksgiving dinner when she knew Hal would be gone? He hated feeling so unsure.

But Helen wasn’t the only person he needed to talk to.

Carol. Hal hadn’t seen her since before he had gone into space just before Coast City had been destroyed, and that was when they had broken up. Again. But he knew she was alive, she just made no effort to contact him, which, fair enough. They hadn’t left off on good terms and then Hal got possessed by Parallax, so she probably didn’t see him in the best light. But even though he was the one to break things off (for the first time because it was usually her who broke things off), he was still in love with her. 

But like most things in his life, he ruined it.

Should he talk to Carol? At least give her some closure on what happened to him? Or was she already at peace, and him going to talk to her would shatter that? Hal didn’t know.

When he finished with the eggs, he put Torchie’s plate on the table.

“I gotta go I- how do you know about Thanksgiving? Don’t you have anything better to do Sodam? Well recover faster! Sorry Sora, I can’t even begin to imagine how bad you have it. Gag him and say it’s for medical purposes. No but I have to go, bye” Torchie said before getting up. Hal didn’t notice the kid had his sketchbook until he saw Torchie closing it and leaving it on the couch.

“Sorry, I forgot to check in with them earlier this week and I didn’t want them to invade Earth,” Torchie laughed. Hal waved them off.

“How are they doing? How’s Yat healing up” Hal asked and Torchie shook his head.

“He’s almost ready to be released, but in his opinion he should’ve been out the day we left” Torchie said fondly. “He’s a dumbass. But they started letting Tu go on patrol with his sector partner. Uh, Dalor? He’s not having too much fun but he’s excited to be out there. And Sora is trying to fix something on her planet still, but she won’t go into detail”.

He looked happier than he had last night and this morning, and Hal was glad. His voice still sounded rough, and the way he moved told Hal that he was still in pain and not up to full strength, but Hal felt like he was meeting the real Torchie. He was healing .

He wanted to bring it up, to mention that what happened to him- to them wouldn’t wasn’t going to ruin their lives, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment.

They spent the rest of Wednesday just relaxing in Hal’s apartment, and Torchie showed Hal a portion of his sketchbook. Towards the beginning of it, there was a lot of who Hal learned was Alex. She was a photographer, Torchie had told him, and she went to UCLA. They had met at a football game between their two Universities and from there it was history. Alex hadn’t been able to graduate because she died, but Torchie had finished his degree after finishing his last set of classes in the Summer, less than a month before he got the ring.

“My school only has commencement in May,” Torchie explained, “so I haven’t walked yet. I regret not signing up for early commencement though, so Alex and my mom could see me walk. But uh, Alex was supposed to graduate in May too, and I wanted to walk when she did. Celebrate our graduations together”.

“Can I go to your graduation?” Hal asked before he could stop himself.

The conversation reminded him of one he and Barry had years ago, when the League had first started working together. Barry had been in his last year of University and had mentioned that to Hal, and Hal had asked if he could go to his graduation.

The whole League had gone besides Batman, who refused to reveal his identity. But Hal felt like that was one of the first times the League really bonded, really felt like a team . Nightwing, who had been Robin at the time, had also gone surprisingly. Apparently he had really wanted to go, so Batman had let him go under Clark’s supervision.

That was also the day that everyone had first met Wally, who had come with Iris because he wanted to watch Barry walk despite the fact that Iris and Barry were only dating at the time. Wally had always been attached to Barry and Iris even before he became Kid Flash.

“Yeah. That would be nice” Torchie said with a smile. “Maybe the others would want to come too”.

Neither of them mentioned that none of them knew Torchie’s secret identity, so it wouldn’t really work. But maybe it was the thought that counted? Oh well, Hal would at least make sure they celebrated after.

As they continued through the sketchbook, Hal started seeing people he recognized. The League and Titans A mostly, but he also saw sketches of Connor, Joey, and Jackson.

Hal noticed that Wally was often drawn kind of negatively. They were all angry or silly sketches of him looking dumb or getting hit with a hammer. Roy was also drawn similarly, but less often. Torchie laughed awkwardly.

“Oops?” Torchie said as he moved his hand to cover up a drawing of Wally with devil horns. Hal waved him off.

He did love his nephews, but he rather Torchie take out any anger he had by making harmless drawings of them then physically fighting Wally or Roy. None of the pictures were really offensive.

Then they came across a section with sketches of Donna. She was always smiling, looking soft and happy. Her sketches were always done realistically and with a lot of detail even though when he drew someone else the style would sometimes be cartoony or more stylized.

“Um” Torchie said, the part of his face Hal could see going bright red as he quickly flipped through several pages of just Donna. Several. Pages.

Several .

“You like her?” Hal couldn’t help but ask.

“Uh, I mean, we’ve talked,” Torchie said. Hal made an unimpressed noise. “We might’ve had something at some point but it didn’t go anywhere. I don’t really wanna see the Titans for a while. Specifically Titans A”.

“Anything I can do to help?” Hal asked. They were all over 18 now, so he couldn’t do much, but he’s known them since they were kids and could mediate a conversation if Torchie needed it. Torchie snorted.

“No. What’s done is done. There’s nothing I can do to change it, nothing I can do to make it better” Torchie admitted. He sound sad.

“Who needs them when you have us” Hal said with smile. “Green Lanterns are better than anyone in the League or the database. Except Barry, he’s cool. You’ll see when you meet him tomorrow”.

Torchie tapped the open page in his sketchbook in thought. This one was of Kara and Clark.

“Connor and his “team” are cool,” Torchie said. “And Kara too. She was always nice, but I guess that’s because like me she isn’t as close to Titans A as they are to each other. I should text her back”.

Titans A had been a team for almost a decade at this point, and unlike the League they were close. Very close.

“These are from today,” Torchie admitted as he got to the last section of his sketchbook. “Drew it while I was talking with them”.

All the sketches in this section were of Natu, Yat, and Tu, with a couple sketches of Laira and Arisia here and there. Every single sketch was positive, Sodam balancing on something with a grin, Sora making a construct of a medical device with a smile, Tu laughing. There were even some action shots of them fooling around together, and some of what was drawn Hal swore he’s seen them do before. To Hal’s delight, the last page was a mini comic of the volleyball incident. He loved the volleyball incident

They got takeout for dinner, and Hal helped Torchie change the bandages on his back after he showered. The next day a couple hours before lunch, they were once again at Jim’s.

Hal felt a bit uneasy. He knew there was a 99% chance Helen was here, but he had no idea what he was going to say to her. He rehearsed it several times that morning, but nothing was ever right. 

“Uncle Hal! Torchie!” Jane squealed excitedly when Sue answered the door. She wrapped herself around Hal’s leg, giggling, and Hal had to pry her off his leg and into his arms so that he could walk.

“Hey Jane!” Hal greeted as he lifted her into the air. He would never get tired of doing that, and never get tired of hearing her laughter.

He used to do this for Helen and Jason.

Howie greeted Hal excitedly, and Hal was honestly amazed by how the kids always seemed so excited to see him even though they had seen each other three times just this week. Jason and Helen had always been the same way, so were Roy and Wally.

The kids immediately latched onto Torchie and dragged him into the living room. He still has Hal’s jacket on, but Hal gave him some slightly nicer clothes to wear for the occasion and a solid colored hat to hide his identity instead of the Angels one.

Hal steeled himself and entered the main part of the apartment behind Sue, looking around. Jim was messing with drinks in the cooler in the kitchen, the kids and Torchie were sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table with paper like they had been the other day, but there was no sign of Helen.

“What’s wrong?” Jim asked as he approached Hal, handing him a beer. “Everything okay”?

“I- yeah. I just thought Helen would be here” Hal said and Jim glared at him. Hal winced. “I know, I fucked up. I’m going to talk to her, but- I thought she’d be here today”.

Jim sighed, running his hand across his face in a very Jack-like way. Hal avoiding Helen meant that supporting her had fallen solely on Jim and Sue, who were also struggling mentally with the death of their friends and family and finding a way to explain it to their small children.

Hal was a fucking jerk.

“She’s with some friends in LA. She knew you would be here and wanted to give you space” Jim explained. Hal winced.

“Do you think she blames me?” Hal couldn’t help but ask. He couldn’t even try to gauge how Helen felt, how she was dealing with all of this, because he hadn’t seen her. He hadn’t been there for her.

“Hal, what happened to Coast City, what happened to you wasn’t your fault” Jim said, putting a hand on Hal’s shoulder.

Hal wished people would stop saying that. Like yeah, maybe what happened to Coast City wasn’t his fault. But what he did with Parallax?

It was different for Hal compared to Torchie. Yeah, Hal got possessed, but it wasn’t a total take over like what happened to Torchie. Torchie wasn’t in control at all, and all of the actions taken during that time were 100% Parallax’s. But Parallax wasn’t able to take over Hal. Not completely.

It was a constant battle for control between them, and what came out of it was a mix of the two. Hal had wanted power to restore Coast City, Hal had wanted to go to Oa to get it, Hal had hurt and killed those people. Parallax twisted things, and maybe Hal wouldn’t have gone so far, but it was Hal’s desires too.

He never told anyone about this, and he didn’t know if he ever would. He was just getting his life back and he didn’t want to lose it. He couldn’t lose the only family he had left, his friends who were so happy to have him back, his nieces and nephews that looked up to him, Torchie who was just starting to trust him -

“I know” Hal lied. “But she can still blame me and resent me for it. She could still see me as a monster”.

“Hal, Helen lost her parents and her brother and everything she knows. She needs support, she needs her uncles. Both of them” Jim said quietly. “Helen has had a special spot for you in her heart since she was born, I don’t think anything could change that. You’re her hero Hal. You were her hero even before you got that ring”.

Her hero that failed her.

“Daddy, Uncle Hal! Come sit with us” Jane called. They both looked over, and Hal saw that Sue had taken a seat on the floor to watch Torchie draw. The two of them were talking about something while Torchie sketched.

“I’m going to talk to her, Jim. I promise” Hal said before they walked over to join the family. Promising Jim meant he had to do it now.

After just sitting and talking for a little bit, they had lunch together. Torchie told them stories about what he and his friends got up to in space, and Hal wondered how much of it he was watered down for the kids sake.

“Is that the kind of stuff you got into when you were a rookie Hal” Sue asked, looking amused.

“We don’t usually have too many rookies at the same time, usually two or three at most. But because so many Lanterns uh, decided not to come back after the break , we had to recruit a lot at the same time so this is our first rookie class in a long time. There’s enough of them to classify them as a brigade” Hal explained. “When I was a rookie, I was the only rookie so not really anyone to do things like that with. Torchie isn’t even supposed to be doing things like that anyways, he just gets away with it because he’s everyone’s favorite and his friends reap the benefits of that”.

“Whaaaaaaat?” Torchie asked, a smirk on his face.

“How’d this even start anyways” Jim asked. Torchie froze and visibly forced himself to relax.

“Oh, Sodom wanted to go to a concert he heard was happening. We were just put into our rookie groups, so he rounded up me, Tu, and Sora and asked if we wanted to go. It was only a sector or two away, so Sora invited Iolande because she’s her sector partner and we all went. It was supposed to be a one time thing but we kept doing things like that” Torchie said with a shrug, pausing to take a sip of his drink. “Sodom wasn’t allowed to do much growing up, so he likes to explore and try new things”.

And yet Hal always has to do push ups during bunk check because there happened to be one small thing wrong.

A little after lunch, they had to leave. The kids were in better spirits this time, so it was easier to say goodbye.

“Thank you for letting me come over again, especially on a holiday” Torchie said at the door. He went to shake Jim’s hand but was given a hug. Torchie went stiff for a second before relaxing and hugging Jim back.

“Of course. If you need anything ever , just let us know” Jim said seriously as he pulled back from the hug, hands on Torchie’s shoulders. Torchie nodded and was given another hug by Sue.

“Like the other Earth Green Lanterns, you’re family ” Sue said. “Keep an eye on Hal for us. You know how he is”.

Hal rolled eyes, but couldn’t help but smile.

“I will,” Torchie told her.

They powered on their rings when they got to a more secluded spot and Hal led the way to Central City where Barry lived. The rings made it a short flight, and they touched down in a secluded area near Barry’s that a lot of them used when visiting Barry.

“Alright, let me give you the rundown” Hal said as they started walking towards Barry’s house. “Roy doesn’t like Ollie very much for reasons . They try not to even be in the same room unless it’s a League or a mission thing, and if they are they tend to ignore each other unless they have to. Don’t mention it and don’t try to talk to one about the other”.

Hal didn’t want to go into too many details because he knew Roy wouldn’t appreciate it. Most of the rules were for Roy, who was still hurt by Ollie. Ollie desperately wanted to reconnect with Roy, but respected his space and his decision. Hal was happy that Ollie at least knew he was in the wrong.

He hoped they could reconnect one day and go back to how things were. But he knew things would never be the same.

“Barry is married to Iris, who is Wally’s blood aunt” Hal continued and Torchie nodded. “They have twin two year olds named Don and Dawn. I don’t know why they’re named like that, don’t ask. I don’t know if Wally’s girlfriend Linda will be here but don’t worry she’s really nice. She studies computer science at the same University as Wally”.

“Jay and Max are older speedsters, but they are nice. Jay is married to Joan, and Helen is Max’s daughter” Hal said as they got to Barry’s street. “You know Dinah and Connor. She’s married to Ollie, and Connor is Ollie’s son from a previous relationship that he just met this year”.

“Okay, yeah” Torchie said, as if Hal hadn’t just dumped a ton of information on him.

“Worst case scenario, you just stick with me,” Hal said, wrapping an arm around Torchie’s shoulders and squeezing. “Wally and Roy won’t bother you. Even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t try anything in front of Iris and Dinah”.

Torchie snickered.

They stopped in front of Barry’s town house, a three bedroom two story one that was at the end of its row.

“You ready kid” Hal asked. Torchie stared at the house before turning to Hal with a soft smile.

“Yeah. Let’s go”.