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It’s raining on Odym when Saint Walker first arrives. His ring shields him, keeping the cold off his skin and the water out of his eyes. It reminds him of home, not because it rains there but because it doesn't. Rather unfortunate for an agricultural world, but it was the difficulties he endured there that sparked the hope that brought him the blue ring.
The rain also makes Odym feel more lonely, all the animals hiding in their dens, and all the leaves drooping under the weight of the water. There's an aura around the Central Battery, keeping it dry, but that just makes it more obvious there's no one around to care for it.
Others do. Saint Walker heard many stories about the other Central Batteries’ wardens on his way to Odym. Green Lanterns returning from their journeys bonded over the lessons they got from the warden drill sergeant on Oa, Star Sapphires talked of the Zamarons’ kindness, and the Red Lanterns whispered how scary the people they met on Ysmault were. But Saint Walker had never heard anything about Odym, and now he knew why.
It made sense. A Blue Lantern’s nature was hope, and the power of not only the ring but also the Central Battery and the oath meant they could do so much with it. Healing, that was the power the battery gave. A selfless power, and a completely external one, unlike a green's longevity or a red's deadliness.
If you had the power to heal, why would you stay on an empty planet?
Saint Walker was among those who left Odym, but he eventually found his way back.
He probably should have stayed on his homeworld. He’d used his ring to do great things before he’d gone on his journey to learn the oath and charge his ring on the Central Battery, and his homeworld had benefited a great deal from his newfound healing abilities. He could have continued his old life there, but it all seemed so small compared to what he’d seen among the stars. Special, sure, but very small.
He wanted to do something bigger. Guide and inspire those who guided and inspired countless other planets.
It was a different kind of hope, but Saint Walker found himself believing in it.
He only felt more confident in his decision when Blue Lanterns began arriving to visit the Central Battery. They were often surprised to see him, but they almost always stayed to share a meal and a conversation around a fire before settling down for the night. Saint Walker got to hear dozens of stories about the conditions that sparked such deep hope in so many people, and the plans the Blue Lanterns had for using their rings to better the places they came from.
He usually didn’t get to hear how those stories ended, but there was hope in that, too, wasn’t there? Hope was sort of an open-ended thing.
Brother Warth was the first to return to Odym, and he was the first to stay.
Saint Walker didn’t realize just how lonely he was until there was another person there with him for more than a couple of days. He’d forgotten what it was like to have your life revolve around a person, to weave past each other through daily routines and come together at the end of each day. Blue Lanterns still came to visit the Central Battery, yes, and they still shared meals and conversation, but it was Brother Warth who was there when they left, and that somehow filled Saint Walker with more hope than the Blue Lanterns’ tales did.
Still, Saint Walker always imagined Odym would have more wardens, that there would one day be more than just two people living on her surface.
He was surprised that the next person who stayed on Odym was not a Blue Lantern at all.
Saint Walker thought he took it rather well, but a Red Lantern was about the last type of being he expected to join him on Odym. The planet itself dampened their powers, but apparently that was part of the appeal for Razer.
“I don’t like that I’m so angry,” Razer told them when he arrived. He seemed nervous about it all, almost shy, even bashful. Completely unlike a Red Lantern. He wanted to stay, but he didn’t want to ask. “When I came here on the Interloper, you seemed so… peaceful. I want that.”
Ah, yes, the Interloper. What an adventure that had been. Kilowog, Hal, Razer, and Aya’s visit had marked the day he was recognized as the Central Battery’s warden, the ship’s crew spreading word to the rest of the intergalactic highway young Lanterns traveled along.
He’d spoken to Razer back then, but Saint Walker couldn’t remember what they’d talked about. It was a little humbling that he could just forget something that had clearly had such an impact on Razer.
Like when Brother Warth joined him, there was an adjustment period. Razer knew how to live with others, but he still prickled and snapped. More than that, his species had a pretty different diet from Saint Walker and Brother Warth, Razer mostly eating meat whereas Saint Walker’s people were farmers, and Brother Warth was a grazer. Not particularly difficult to adapt to, but it did mean exploring another side of Odym.
“I find it meditative,” Saint Walker told Razer when he complained how boring it all was. “You come from a more industrial world, yes? I imagine Odym’s pretty different.”
Razer nodded. “We had- um, Hal calls it specialized labor. Some people farmed, some people mined, some people collected wood, that kind of thing. I never did any of this stuff.”
Saint Walker made a noise of acknowledgement. “It makes me feel more in tune with Odym to do all this. Even if having my ring makes it a lot easier, you have to be pretty deliberate about it. Not taking too much, making sure you only take from places that will replenish.”
Razer stopped complaining so much after that. He was an odd one. He said he came here to learn to control his anger and find something within himself, but all the things he thought would help him be calmer just made him angrier.
Saint Walker thought he made fairly good progress by the time Kilowog, Hal, and Aya came to take him off to his next adventure, though.
He still missed him.
“Was this how it felt before I came?” Brother Warth asked, and the question didn’t make much sense, but Saint Walker knew what he meant. The planet felt emptier without Razer’s presence. Just one being filled Odym with so much life, and Razer had certainly been a lively one.
They missed him, sure, but they didn’t let it distract them. Odym still had new Blue Lanterns come from time to time, and Saint Walker and Brother Warth still had their usual day-to-day chores and routines to go about. Collecting water, tending to the plants, trading with nearby worlds, sleeping, reading, eating…
It was rather exciting when Razer returned. With a blue ring too.
When it was just the wardens, Saint Walker usually didn’t do the whole campfire and chat thing. Their rings kept them plenty warm, and there were faster ways to cook food than over a fire. He set it all up for Razer, though, even going out to collect the wood instead of just using his ring to construct a fire. Saint Walker sensed they’d need the ambiance for the talk to come.
Aya had died, it seemed. The Guardians had tried to make automotons fueled by the green power to police the universe millennia ago, and they had been reactivated by another Guardian’s creation. Razer had danced around the details of exactly how Aya had been involved in its destruction, but it was clear she had sacrificed herself to save him in a great act of love. Yet, instead of a violet ring appearing, Razer ended up with a blue one.
Love colored the moment, sure, but hope was what Razer clung to in the end. Hope that this wasn’t Aya’s end, hope that she was still out there somewhere, hope for what could have been…
“I never wanted to be red, but I don’t know if I want to be blue,” Razer told Saint Walker and Brother Warth, wrapping his arms around his knees. “I thought being hopeful would be better than being angry, but this just feels worse.”
He sounded frustrated, and Saint Walker understood. “I hear this is something Star Sapphires struggle with. Receiving a Lantern ring, in a way, means that an emotion you felt in one moment is remembered forever. Some Star Sapphires don’t take the oath and charge their rings because they don’t want to be defined by how they feel about another person.”
“Charging your ring means that it will never die,” Brother Warth added. “Some people like having a ring that only responds when they are in the right headspace.”
Saint Walker made a noise of agreement. “It is a way of remembering they are someone outside of the ring and what it represents.”
“I wish someone had told me that before I went to Ysmault,” Razer huffed, turning his hand to look at the red ring still sitting on his middle finger. It wasn’t glowing, and Saint Walker wasn’t sure if that was because Razer had a second trigger, because Razer’s hope overpowered his rage, Odym’s natural suppression of the red power, or some combination of the above.
“You don’t have to charge your ring here,” Saint Walker told him gently. He sort of assumed that was why Razer came back here, but there was certainly value in making a journey to the Central Battery even if someone didn’t plan to charge their ring there.
Razer shook his head and got to his feet. “No, I want to.”
Brother Warth and Saint Walker exchanged a glance as Razer began walking in the direction of the Central Battery. Neither had thought Razer would want to charge his ring that night, but it seemed a moment of conviction had overtaken him. They were doing this now.
Saint Walker saw the Central Battery every day, so it lost some of its magic, but he still knew it was a rather grand sight. Odym was a lush world, so the Central Battery really stood out. It was a massive thing, and it was even more brilliantly blue than Odym itself. A faint light washed over the clearing it sat in, and that light only grew more intense as Razer approached it.
Saint Walker and Brother Warth hung back, having done this themselves and having seen it many times. Repeated exposure made the surge of light sting their eyes a little less, but Saint Walker still lost sight of Razer in the glow. Still, he knew he was there, soaking in the blue power, the words filling his mind.
“In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite. When all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars— For hope burns bright!”
The Blue Lantern’s oath was similar to the green one, Saint Walker knew, even if he didn’t know the exact words. He wondered how it compared to the red one.
Razer seemed rejuvenated when he stepped away from the Central Battery, and they returned to their campfire. The conversation shifted away from Razer’s regrets about the past and more toward the future, about his plans to find Aya. Saint Walker had known he wasn’t staying, but it still hurt a bit to hear.
In the years that followed, Saint Walker did still see Razer from time to time. Hal Jordan taught him how to use his ring to communicate over long distances, a feature that most Lanterns rarely utilized, so Saint Walker talked to Razer on occasion, particularly during the moments he felt his hope wavering the most, and Razer called ahead when he was near Odym, always stopping to spend a couple of days with his old friends.
The visits and calls did eventually slow, though. Saint Walker probably went a couple of years without hearing from Razer before he appeared wearing both a blue and a red ring.
He and Brother Warth had been so shocked they couldn’t even find the words to greet him.
Razer seemed happy to see them, grinning widely and wrapping his arms around them in an uncharacteristic display of affection. “Let’s set up the campfire, yeah? I’ll help get the wood. I have so much to tell you!”
Razer had… Well, it wasn’t another trigger event, but it was something close. A crisis of faith, and then a breakthrough. He’d found balance, something Saint Walker had never heard of a Lantern who’d had two trigger events experiencing. One of Earth’s Lanterns had second triggered from green to red, and Hal had told Saint Walker he just switched which ring he was using depending on the occasion. That seemed to be the norm, only being able to use one ring at a time, not that Lanterns with two rings were at all common. Razer had done something really unique.
“I talked with Kilowog a bit after it happened,” Razer told Saint Walker and Brother Warth as they fed the fire. “I think- I think I know Aya’s not out there. I had all these what-ifs, like what if her consciousness transferred to some old piece of Guardian technology or something, but I know it’s just not likely. But that’s kind of what hope is. Holding on even when the odds are stacked against you.”
“And the red?” Saint Walker asked.
Razer shrugged. “I think it’s like what you said when I first got my blue ring. I’m not just one thing. I think my rings just… figured it out. There’s a part of me that wants to fight and destroy, but in the same breath, I want to help and heal. It doesn’t have to be two separate feelings.”
“Poetic,” Saint Walker commented, smiling a bit. Razer made a bit of a face, but he didn’t complain. “What’s next for you then? Are you still going to look for Aya?”
Razer nodded. “I kind of have to, don’t I? I think I’m going to have another journey, though. You know, a pilgrimage. I wanted to see the blue Central Battery again, and I was planning on going to Ysmault again after, but I think I might try visiting the other Central Batteries too. Not to charge my ring or anything, but just to learn, I guess. Maybe it’ll give me some inspiration.”
Saint Walker didn’t see what good that would do him, but, like Razer said, that was kind of what hope was. Belief and faith in something that wasn’t necessarily tangible were what kept the future alive.
Razer hugged Saint Walker and Brother Warth again when he left, surprising the two yet again. He’d come to see how much he appreciated his old friends, it seemed, but Saint Walker still didn’t expect to see him again for quite awhile.
He certainly wasn’t expecting him to return after just a couple short years with Aya in tow.
