Finding the will to continue.

Debris from the space fleet continued to rain down the atmosphere of Okama Prime, filling the sky with shooting stars for several hours still after the entire fleet obliterated itself in an outcry of guilt and terror. The locals watched on overhead with passive curiosity, an epilogue to the attacks they had to endure and survive. The colonies on the planet itself were in celebration where there were feasts and dancing and song for days. The people of the colony held a procession for the lone green lantern, a small funeral pyre was made for the man as loved ones watched. Off in the distance, Zatanna watched from the shadow of a blue palm tree, watching on, and keeping out of sight.

watching the former green lantern’s cremation, Zatanna looked down at her hands and the four rings she already had on her fingers. Their power fed off, complimented, and contradicted each other constantly in the palm of her hands, their intensity so great it literally burned her undead flesh to even wear them. Closing her eyes, she lowered her hands and leaned against the tree for support. With her eyes still closed, Zatanna’s mind swam with a maelstrom of emotions. All around her she could feel the pain of the locals and a deep rooted desire to sooth them of their misery, her heart ached and yearned to reach out to them, ALL of them, she wanted to act, and she wanted to cower in a small corner and stay there. She wanted to find the nearest person in pain and just hug them… Or fall in love with them… OR inspire them to act… Or make them scream in terror. Breathing in sharply, Zatanna hugged herself.

The rings were at war with each other and her mind and body were the battlefield… And she was losing. She could feel it. She did not want to become that monster again in front of the yellow core or face that vision it showed her. Indigo was compelling her to seek out those in need and violet… All she could think about was Hon and what he must be thinking if he could see her right now.

“So, you’re going to give up then girl?”

Opening her eyes, she looked over to the source of the voice and softened when she noticed the disembodied spirit of the Green Lantern Adama glaring down at her with his arms crossed.

“Hello Adama… Seeing me off?” She asked, her eyes flickering between the four colours of her rings as she looked up at the floating spirit.

“Just making sure it didn’t go to a damn green horn, still… Why the HELL are you trying to get all those rings little girl? You’re going to attract the attention of the guardians, that is if you don’t explode first!”

Approaching the ghost, Zatanna let her eyes go red and exposed her fangs, hovering a foot off the ground of her own power to look the ghost eye to eye. “I’m a vampire.” Explained Zatanna, her face looking less predatory after her little display. “I was turned five years ago and twisted into doing… terrible things. Things I can’t forgive myself for.” Raising her hand where thin trails of smoke billowed from her fingers, she revealed the indigo and violet lantern rings on her fingers. “My friends found the indigo ring and put it on me… To keep me from killing them all.”

“So, what do you plan on doing then? Why gather up the others?”

“I was told if I had all seven, I could be powerful enough to bring back those I hurt, and someone I cared about.”

Chuckling, the elderly ghost smirked back at the woman. “What, and I’M not included in that list?”

Finally sharing in the laugh, Zatanna hugged herself tightly, her smile turned slowly to a frown when she felt the rings compete in her mind again. A swarm of overpowering emotions kept her still before she could settle them again. Seeing her in turmoil Adama gripped at her shoulder, his hand passing through her arm, but a token gesture that still got her attention when she looked up with eyes that shifted back and forth between indigo, yellow, violet, and green.

“Look little girl, I don’t know what crazy idea is in your head to walk this path but let me give you some wisdom.” Pointing down to her other hand, Zatanna raised it to show the yellow and green lantern ring, burning her fingers. “THAT is willpower! The drive to see what you want and take it, what gets you off your ass and take a step forward, that is what that ring represents! So, if you want something bad enough, if you want to make up for past sins and NOT die for it, then WANT it!”

Slowly nodding, Zatanna stepped back. Looking down at her hands, Zatanna closed her eyes and made a fist with one of her hands, bringing it close to her lips and opened her eyes, now glowing green with intensity. “Tell me where the nearest lantern core is.”

“The nearest lantern core is the orange corps of Okaara, the planet is listed forbidden by the guardians with a treaty with Larfreeze the Orange Agent.”

Looking back to the ghost of Adama, Zatanna found him gone, finally passing on. “Thank you… Take me to Okaara, now.”

A bubble of green light surrounded Zatanna before she bolted off the ground and shot out of the planet’s atmosphere, the moment she was clear of the planet, her speed increased exponentially and she was just a thin trail of green light in the planet’s night sky, lost in the streaks of falling debris still raining down and burning up on re-entry with the atmosphere.