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Kyle woke up to complete darkness with his head throbbing in pain. The last thing he remembered was having dinner with Allison at Radu’s and then going out for a walk with her. He created a flashlight with his power ring and scanned the area. All that could be seen were 4 stone walls and a barred metal door. He saw Allison lying on the stone floor a couple feet away from him. Checking her out, he was relieved to find she was only asleep.
“Great. I’ve been Green Lantern for almost a year now, and somehow I still manage to get myself mugged and kidnapped.” he thought as he gently shook her awake, disipating his flashlight..
Allison stirred and opened her eyes. “Mmmm...I always wondered what it would be like waking up next to you.” She started to sit up and immediately realized her mistake. Pain shot though her head like a sledge hammer, forcing her on her back again.
“Oh, GOD, that hurt! What’s going on, Kyle. Where are we?” she asked as Kyle eased her back up.
“I don’t know. The headache should go away soon. It must only be an after-effect of whatever we were hit with. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything.” He said quietly, knowing full well he wasn’t instilling her with confidence. This would be difficult. He had to find out what was happening and get them out without revealing to Allison that he was Green Lantern. He could hear Allison shiver in fear.
As Kyle took his leather jacket off and wrapped it around Allisons shoulders for comfort, he heard footsteps from outside the cell.
“Wait here” he said, moving quietly toward the cell door.
“Holy...” He saw a procession of chained prisoners being marched down the cell bay. A procession of alien prisoners. Some of the races he recognized from his journeys in the stars, others were completely foreign. As the line reached it end, Kyle’s jaw dropped in shock. He recognized one of the prisoners. “Arisia?”
He returned to Allison’s side. “Umm...this is bad. This is real bad. I’m not sure how to say this gently, but I don’t think we’re on Earth any more.”
“What? C’mon Kyle, this isn’t funny.”
“I’m serious. There’s some things about me that you don’t know about. Not many people do. I’m sorry. I don’t want you to get stuck in the middle of this.”
“In the middle of what? What did you see out there?”
Kyle sighed in resignation There was no other way to do this. He focused his willpower into his ring and changed into his costume.
Allison’s eyes widened in awe at the transformation. “I knew. Well, I didn’t know, but I suspected. So. We’re being held prisoner on another planet.”
“I’m guessing” Kyle corrected.
“You’re guessing. We have no idea how we got here. We have no idea who brought us here. We have no idea how to get out. Is this a normal day for you Kyle?” Allison smiled, feigning courage.
“Sort of. Things usually aren’t so...mysterious though. This is really odd. Follow me. But keep close, and keep quiet.”
Allison complied, not knowing what else to do. She watched as Kyle silently vaporized the door with his ring and followed him out.
As quietly as they possibly could, they ran in the direction of the slave procession. After about 15 minutes of wandering the twisted corriders of their prison they finally caught up with it. Arisia was chained to the very back of the line, unclothed like all the other slaves, her gaze not moving from the floor. The slavers or whomever were is charge was nowhere to be seen.
With as much subtlety as he could muster, he conjured a pair of bolt cutters with his ring and snapped Arisia free.
She didn’t even realize that her shakles were loose until she was grabbed by an aura of emerald energy and pulled away from the line.
When the aura released her, she leaped up and threw her arms around Kyle. “Kyle! Thank god you’re here!”
Seeing Kyle blush from her embrace, Allison wrapped Arisia in the jacket Kyle gave her.
“Arisia? Is it really you? You’re...you’re dead. I was at your funeral.”
“It’s really me Kyle. Apparently Earth doctors aren’t familiar enough with my alien physiology. All I know, is after the beating I took from Major Force, something happened to transport me here.”
“Do you know where we are?” Kyle asked.
“Do I know where we are? Haven’t you ever been here? We’re on Qward.”
Jade simply wanted to relax. Things were moving too fast for her to keep up. In the past 2 months she’s revitalized her modeling career, regained her powers somehow, was instrumental in the reformation of Infinity Inc., was possessed by 2 entities bent on corrupting her, seduced or been seduced by 6 different women, made an eternal enemy of Neron, who claims to be kin to Satan himself, and managed to ostracize herself from her twin brother. She was desperate for rest and she was determined to do so tonight.
After spending the day trying to gain financial support for Infinty, she returned to her apartment, stripped down, threw on a large t-shirt and a pair of socks, collapsed on her couch, clicked on the TV, and allowed herself to relax for the first time in months. Her peace was to be short-lived however.
It was just after midnight when she was stirred awake by a woman’s voice.
“Jennie-Lynn, wake up. Wake up.”
Her eyes snapped open when she realized that she didn’t recognize the voice. She saw a very attractive woman standing over her. The woman had straight brown hair, tied back in a pony tail, and wore a black silk shift and corsette with black thigh boots and gloves.
Not taking any chances after the last break-in she had, Jade flared up her power pulse and surrounded the stranger in an emerald dome. “Who are you. What do you want?”
“First of all...” the woman shocked Jade by stepping out of her dome. “First of all, I’m here for your help, so please, don’t try that again. Now, can we talk?”
“Sure.” Jade answered simply, her curiosity aroused.
“My name is Darthartheen . My father was a Guardian and my mother was a Zamoran. Right now, I am the only mature progeny of the two races. I need your help to undo a grave mistake made by my parents. My father was the one responsible for creating the propoganda and temporal illusion stating that the Maltusians were created as the very progeny of the universe itself.. The Guardians didn’t want their history to be marred by barbaric beginnings. In their attempt to protect themselves from time-travellers who would wish to eradicate the Guardians at weak point in their history, my father created a story that showed the Maltusians as actually being more and more powerful the farther back that someone looked, as far back as the very beginning of time and that going any further would result in the end of time itself. Only a select few Malusians knew the truth. Little did anyone realize, that this propoganda would drive a Maltusian scientist named Krona to actually seek out the universes origins. He considered the warnings to be inconsequntial. His actions fueled my father’s story even more. Krona’s first experiment became a fable, stating that it was responsible for the creation of “evil” in the universe. The fable is patently false. His supposed true crime occurred during his little known second attempt to view the beginning. Instead of viewing backward through time, he looked forward hoping to view the beginning after the end of time. In doing so, he supposedly created a loop, connecting the all encompassing entropy of the end of the universe with the very beginning, allowing the entropy to pour though. Before the loop was disconnected, the universe lost a billion years off of it’s life. At least that’s what everybody believed. My father recently attempted to reach back in time and close the time portal before the entropy could pour though, effectively restoring the universe’s lost billion years. This attempt, this act of contrition of my father is truly what was responsible for the entropy loop. Myself, my brother, and my own parents are the one’s truly responsible for eradicating one billion years of life and evolution from the universe. I’ve spent the last couple years searching for a way to atone, to try to fix the damage. I think I finally found a way. You’re body used to be a host for the power of the Starheart. When you destoyed it, you lost the source of your power. Your body though, is superbly suited to carry Oan energy. I saw that and infused you with the energy of the next generation of Guardians. Kyle Rayner is the last of the old Guardians legacy, but right now, you’re the first of the legacy of their children.”
“Wow. This is way too much for me right now...You heard my prayer when I saw Nightshade falling?
“Actually, that was just coincidence. I was on my way to personally give you the power, when I saw that happen. I forced the power into you at that time so you could rescue her and was too weak to come to you and explain. I’ve finally been able to recharge myself and ask you to help me. I want to go back in time, ten billion years to Krona’s time and try to exonerate him. If he learns what is to happen, perhaps he will stop his probes. Please Jennie-Lynn, I need your help. I need you to accompany me and protect me. My own energy is severely depleted and I don’t know how long it will take to recharge. I need you to be my champion. I need you to help me save the universe. Please.”
“You want me to go back ten BILLION years into the past with you to help save the universe? Well, I’ve only saved the universe once so far this month, so I haven’t met my quota yet, so sure, I’ll help!” Jennie-Lynn smiled. “Who needs sleep anyway?”
“Thank you! We must leave immediately. I managed to reconstruct some of my father’s viewers over the ruins of Oa. Hopefully that, combined with any residual energy left by the Guardians will be enough for us to travel that far back in time.
Jade pulled her t-shirt off and willed her power pulse to put her in costume. She levitated a couple inches off the ground and held her hand out to Dartharteen “Well, what are we waiting for?
III
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