You can't have everything...

The surface of Okaara was still, silent, cold, devoid of any life or activity. The only source of any light off the planet was a single man-made structure, a temple that glowed with an orange glow from within. That glow soon turned into a blazing kaleidoscopic inferno of colours when the temple exploded, sending stone and priceless metals scattering in all directions. Firing up and out from the ruins of the temple in a streak of orange light, Larfreeze screamed out in pain. Zatanna, driven mad with desire sunk her teeth into his shoulder, drinking deep of his blood before several of his minions managed to grab hold of her and pry the vampire off their master and flung her across the temple ruins where she came to a stop in the air.

Licking at her lips and fingers in craven thirst, Zatanna’s eyes glowed an intense orange, lost in her avarice. She wanted more, she wanted everything, everything to be hers. Gold, money, men, property, territory, space, food, drink, wealth, attention, BLOOD! She wanted it all. All and more! Always more.

“You took my blood! YOU TOOK MY BLOOD!” Accused the little jackal creature, clutching at his injured shoulder in disbelief and back to his holographic minions, looking to all their vacant faces to see if they shared in his shock. “GIVE ME BACK MY BLOOD!!!”

“Mine…” Purred Zatanna, wiping a thumb over her lip, her orange eyes never left her gaze with the hunched little creature. “All mine! Your blood, your treasure, your SOULS, I want it all!”

“No! No, no, no, NO, no, no, no!” Screamed Larfreeze, wringing his fists and having a childish temper tantrum tumbling in circles in mid-air. The mad orange lantern screamed and wailed, furious that anyone or anything would have the idea to take anything that was his. “I AM LARFREEZE! I AM THE ORANGE LANTERN CORPS! EVERYTHING HERE IS MINE! MINE! MINE!!! THIS PLANET, THESE TREASURES! THESE SOULS! THEY’RE ALL MINE! I KILLED THEM! THEY’RE MINE!”

“They’re dead?” She asked, an eyebrow raised as the orange glow in her eyes intensified, raising a gloved hand, Zatanna made a simple gesture, one that pulled at the orange holograms protecting their master. To Larfreeze’s surprise, he found his minions all turning to right back at him. “I control the dead, OWN the spirits of the departed, they are MINE to control…”

“What are you doing? They’re MY souls!”

“Not anymore…”

Narrowly avoiding a strike from one of his minions, and dodging an energy blast from another, Larfreeze suddenly found himself fending off his own corps. Watching the little creature face off against an army of spirits, Zatanna looked down at all five rings on both of her hands and smiled a manic grin. “Yes, they are mine, ALL mine, everyone I have ever killed, everyone I have ever fed off and claimed, they are MINE to control, mine to possess!”

Both arms spread out wide, the woman used the power of her orange ring, laughing as it conjured a holographic embodiment of everyone she had ever killed. Thousands of people and aliens appeared all around her, men, women, and children floating around her to the point of crowding any space she had to see around her. The sight of which made her laugh, until she spotted something amiss, or more likely, what was missing.

John Constantine wasn’t among them.

Darting her head back and forth at the crowd of souls floating all around her, she no longer paid any attention to Larfreeze’s cries as he fought off his orange lanterns. Floating from one group to the next in desperate effort, Zatanna became more distraught. He should be here, she was responsible for his death, he should be here among the souls of all her victims, but no matter where she looked, he was not with them, he was not with her.

“John? Where are you? You’re MINE! Why aren’t you mine?” Confused, the orange glow in her eyes faded, flickering between other colours and other emotions. Fear, regret, worry, her eyes flickered between yellow, violet and indigo over and over again, clutching her smoking hands together as the combined powers of the rings burned at her fingers. “Where are you?”

“KILLER!”

Distracted, Zatanna turned her attention to the source of the accusing voice, looking up to find a man; one of her many victims staring down at her and pointing a finger down at her. Originally, he was orange, but now, other colours were swirling into his projection.

“You killed me! You killed ALL of us!”

“Murderer!”

“Killer!”

“You killed my family!”

“Murderer!”

“You killed us!”

“Where’s my family? What have you done to me!”

“Killer!”

“MURDERER!”

All five colours were now blended together in all of her projections, all of the souls her orange ring had conjured for her, and unlike Larfreeze’s victims and minions, they were now being powered by the other emotions. Love, fear, compassion, desire… But most importantly, will. Her eyes going yellow, Zatanna shivered to herself, surrounded by thousands of her victims accusing her, berating her, begging her. Clutching at her heart and then to her ears, she could not take it anymore. Hot tears were flowing down her cheeks

“No… I don’t want this, I don’t WANT this… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m SORRY!” Looking down at the five rings in her hands, she whispered over the deafening cries of people demanding answers all around her. “I can fix this, I can fix this… The rings…The next ring, where is the next closest ring?”

“The closest lantern unvisited is the Red Lantern corps, they are currently based on the planet Ysmault under their new leader…”

“TAKE ME TO YSMAULT!”

With an explosion of orange, green, yellow, indigo and violet light, the accusing spirits and Larfereezes armies were evaporated when Zatanna blasted up out of the planet’s atmosphere and escaped, travelling faster than the speed of light to her next destination. Lying battered and bruised on the remains of his temple and the damaged remains of his treasury, Larfreeze looked up at the stream of colours and sighed, waving his clawed hand dispassionately.

“You know what?... Keep the ring… I didn’t like that one anyway…”