Green Orange With Envy-9 by Lynceus While learning about the nature of her powers, Larfleeze makes Alena an offer she can't refuse!

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Disclaimer: I make no claims to any character or image owned or under copyright by another party, nor do I intend on profiting in any way from their use. The Comics Retcon Universe concept is the creative property of Lilith Langtree.

Larfleeze is owned by DC comics, but don't tell him that!

It's been three days since Larfleeze brought me to Okaara, and I still don't know quite what to make of the Orange Lantern. He hasn't spoken to me much, and so far, he's spent most of his time moping around.

I spent my first night in the temple on that divan in Larfleeze's throne room, but the next day, he surprised me by showing me to a large room complete with a huge bed and a Roman-style bath. “Here. I was saving this for my Queen, but I suppose you can use it.”

And with that, he walked off, grumbling and muttering to himself. Strange guy. Still, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and let me tell you, the bath was heavenly!

Once I felt human again, I found clothing in my size on the bed. The styles were fairly exotic, and I ended up wearing something that looked like it had been stolen from Queen Amidala's wardrobe. The fabric felt like expensive silk, and it was very comfortable.

“May I enter, Alena?”

I turned to see Lianna hovering near the doorway to the room. I've noticed she rarely stands or walks, preferring to glide around. Not for the first time, I found myself a little awestruck by the rogue Guardian. She has the face of an angel, surrounded by a cloud of white hair. That, combined with her sky-blue skin reminds me of an Andorian from Star Trek. She's got to be close to seven feet tall, with a statuesque figure. She has some serious muscle tone for a woman, but she's soft in all the right places.

About the only thing that's not attractive about her is the orange robe she wears, which clashes with her skin tone rather harshly. If Alison saw her, she'd probably wince!

Lianna smiles at me gently. “Does my appearance please you?”

I blush and turn away. “Sorry. Uh, come on in.”

She moves to the bed and sits down gently. “You don't need to apologize. It's illogical, but I rather like the attention. I sense the robes displease you, however.”

“The color doesn't do anything for you, I'm afraid.”

She let out a surprisingly feminine laugh. “I agree! I can take them off, if that would be easier on your eyes.”

“Gah! No, it's ok!”

At that, she laughed. “I'm sorry, I can't help it. You have a lot of, what is the term you humans use...hang-ups?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“I want to be your friend, Alena. You don't need to have any hang-ups around me. I'm not going to ridicule you.”

I leaned against the bedpost. “I know. You're a good person.”

She looked away for a moment. “I wonder, sometimes. I've done many things I've come to regret.”

“As long as you regret them, it means you're not bad, right?”

She nodded slowly. “An astute observation, Alena.” She made a gesture, and her robe became this diaphanous white garment that showed off a little more of her body than I was really comfortable with. I turned away, but she stopped me.

“Alena, you are a woman now. You have to learn not to be shy when seeing another woman's body. Your society has some odd taboos. Surely the women of your culture dress to attract the notice of men? Why do you feel like you need to look away?”

“I..I don't know. I just feel...like it's supposed to be wrong. Even if I am a girl.”

She leaned back on the bed. “Because you feel attraction to other females. Something your society frowns upon, yes?”

“I..yeah. I guess.”

“I can feel your desire burning like a fire. You have a strong need for companionship, yet you restrain your feelings, and distance yourself from those who could fill that need. Now don't get me wrong, being able to control yourself is important, but you do so even when it is harmful to you.”

“...Lianna, I don't mean to be rude, but this conversation is making me uncomfortable.”

“I know. There are things you need to learn. Things you need to face. I want to teach you, but you have to let me.”

“...couldn't we start with something, I don't know, more academic?”

She sat cross-legged on the bed. “Certainly, what is it you would like to know?”

“Tell me about the Guardians.”

She smiled and patted the bed next to her. “Then sit next to me.”

I climbed up on the bed. I felt like a little kid next to her. I tried to focus on her words, and not on how strongly attracted to her I was. God, she even smells beautiful! Like jasmine and lilacs...sort of.

“Now, this story begins a long, long time ago.”

“In a galaxy far, far away?”

She giggled. “Yes, as a matter of fact. My people originally came from the planet Maltus. We were among the first sentient creatures in the universe, and we made great leaps in science. In our hubris, however, we made several great mistakes, the greatest of which was an experiment by a Maltusian scientist named Krona.

Krona wished to know how the universe began, so he built a machine that would let him observe the ancient event. As the scientists of your world have come to realize, however, even observing an event can change the event. Krona's experiment created a paradox, and from that paradox, evil entered the universe.

However, a spark of light entered the universe as well, giving us the hope that we could redeem our race. I can see that this legend sounds familiar to you- in truth, every species, every culture, has a similar story.

We began to evolve, our minds expanding, giving us ever-increasing mental powers, and we became immortals. Our bodies shrank, and our heads became larger as a result.”

“Huh? But you look, well, uh...” Jeez. I was about to say she looked human!

She smiled at me. “It's part of why I'm considered a renegade. I'm a throwback to our original form. During Krona's time, all Maltusians looked as I do. As we evolved, however, we sacrificed our physical strength for greater intellect. This is, however, my story, and you wanted to hear the story of the Guardians.

We migrated to another world, Oa, and there we built the Central Power Battery, allowing us to draw upon the power of the Green Element, the Light of Will, as well as grant it's powers to others who proved themselves worthy. Our goal was to bring peace to the universe, to make up for the chaos we had brought into it.

We eventually divided up the galaxy into a number of sectors, and we created the Green Power Rings, sending them out among the stars, each one finding an individual with the Will to protect their assigned sector of space. And thus, the Green Lantern Corps was born.”

“What about the other colors? Where do they come from?”

“The evil that entered this universe is the absence of light. The Black Element, that we oppose. That spark of light that also came into being is the White Element. It quickly fractured, however, into the other Elements. We chose Green because it is the most logical and ordered light. There are others, although not all have revealed themselves to us. I will speak of the Yellow Element first.

Sinestro was a great champion of the Green Lantern Corps. He was resolute in his campaign to rid the galaxy of evil, and many looked up to him. Unfortunately, there was a flaw in his character that we failed to see...or perhaps we blinded ourself to it. Sinestro grew prideful, and began to resent the Guardians. He felt he could do a better job of ordering the galaxy.”

Lianna sighed. “His rebellion was stopped, but at a great cost. Many Green Lanterns died that day. Sinestro was banished, his Power Ring stripped from him. We had lost a champion, but fate had chosen to give us a new one. Hal Jordan.”

“Oh wow. I mean, we knew of him, but not much about him, other than he was the Green Lantern before Jade.”

“Yes, and his loss is a blow to the Corps. There are no doubt many who resent Jade simply because she is not Hal Jordan.”

I frowned. “That explains the treatment she got from the others. Hell, us too, for that matter.”

“Sadly, yes. Many Lanterns were fought fighting Sinestro and his followers, the so-called Sinestro Corps.”

“Wait, you said he lost his powers?”

“Indeed, but he found a new power. The Yellow Element, which governs Fear. Fear, unfortunately, erodes Will, and only the strongest Green Lanterns can fight on equal footing to a member of the Sinestro Corps.”

“Great. My Will isn't so hot to begin with, one of them would make mincemeat of me.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Your powers come from the Star-Heart, not the Green Element, after all.”

“So what about the Orange Element?”

“We'd known about it's existence for the past billion years, ever since a band of thieves found their way to this temple. We didn't understand the Light of Avarice, so we took steps to contain it. We allowed one of the thieves to claim it, and ceded this entire star system to him. And, for the most part, he was content to remain here.”

“He..wait. You're saying Larfleeze is a billion years old?!”

Lianna simply nodded. “Being the sole wielder of the Orange Light caused him to evolve into his present state, just as the Oans did so long ago, making him an immortal.”

“Wow, that's amazing.”

She gave me an odd look. “Surely the concept isn't so strange to you. After all, you are also an immortal.”

“...I knew I wasn't going to get old, but immortal?”

“While you can be killed, it is no simple thing, and it will not occur naturally.”

I shivered. “So I could live to be a billion years old?”

“Even older. I myself am over ten billion years old.”

I just gaped at her. Ten billion?! What had I gotten myself into? I mean, in a hundred years, pretty much everyone I knew on Earth would be dead! Mom, Sis...I felt myself shaking. “I...I don't want this!”

Lianna pulled me into her arms. “I'm sorry, I didn't realize how upset you'd be. Doesn't death frighten you?”

It took me a few minutes to calm down enough to answer her. “I..yes, it does. But losing everyone I care about frightens me more.”

“As it should. Immortality is both a blessing and a curse. The worst part of it is the loneliness.”

“Feh! That's not the worst part!”

I turned to see Larfleeze standing in the doorway. He paused, then walked into the room. “I don't need permission! It's my home!”

“No one was disupting that, Larfleeze.” Lianna spoke up.

“And you! Some Guardian you are, dressed like that...no don't bother to change. Whatever.” He paced the room, like a restless animal. What could be bothering him?

“Larfleeze?”

He whirled to face me. “What?!”

“Uh..what's the worst part?”

He blinked. “Of what?”

“Being immortal?” Talk about clueless!

“Oh! That's easy. Boredom. Always bored, never enough to do, or see. Or have. Always hungry for new things. That's the worst part.”

“I didn't think about that, but I guess it makes sense. I mean, what do you do for a billion years?”

Lianna spoke up. “The Guardians have our work, watching over the galaxy, and the universe itself.”

“Bah. That sounds even more boring!”

“It..can be taxing, yes.” Lianna made a sour face. “So you do have a point. Still, I'd rather be bored than lonely.”

Larfleeze seemed to mull that point over. “People always leave you. They die, they go away. So you always end up lonely again.”

“What about other immortals?” I was curious about this myself. There had to be others, right?”

“Bah, like those big-headed old fossils? Bo-ring!”

Lianna coughed delicately.

“Uh, not like you, Lianna. You're not as boring. After all, you're my very own Guardian! You wouldn't leave me, right?”

The Guardian's lips twitched. “No, I'm stuck here for the duration. As per our deal.”

A deal? I would have to ask about that later.

“Yeah! Our deal. You better not break it!” Then Larfleeze turned and looked at me. “I really want the Star-Heart, but I can't have it. So I was thinking...if I can't have it, I could have you, almost as good.”

I was about to protest, but he held up a hand. “Just a minute! Be patient!”

Lianna was quiet, but I could feel her shake from restrained laughter. Larfleeze, telling someone to be patient?!

He coughed. “Ahem, so. I thought to myself, 'how can I keep Alena?'. And then the answer came to me.” He walked over and held out his hand. “Here, take this.” He dropped something.

I was so surprised that he was giving me something that I grabbed without paying attention to what it was. I heard Lianna gasp. I looked down, to see an Orange Power Ring in my hand.

Larfleeze waved it off. “Don't thank me, I got plenty of 'em! Just take it, and then you'll be an Orange Lantern. My Orange Lantern.”

The Ring seemed to glimmer in my palm. I want this. But why? It wasn't the power that tempted me- I had the Star-Heart, I didn't need power. And then I realized what I was seeing in the Ring's luster. Myself. Not Alena, the Green Lantern Sidekick.

But Alena Scott, Orange Lantern. Yes. Yes!

In that instant, the Ring moved onto my finger. It didn't so much replace the Star-Heart Ring as it...consumed it. I felt warm, and orange flames rose up around my body. I felt stronger than ever, filled with confidence! My clothing changed, becoming an orange-and-black uniform bearing that strange symbol- the symbol of the Orange Lantern Corps.

At last, we are one! And it was so. I finally, truly, accepted the Star-Heart. It was me, and I was it. Warmth filled my being, but in the pit of my stomach, also a cold emptiness. It was small, but noticeable.

“The Orange Light of Avarice brings power, but also leaves you wanting.” Lianna sighed. I could tell she had mixed feelings about this.

“Always wanting! Always hungry! Your belly sings, just as mine does!”

I smiled up at Larfleeze. He had given me something, but I was giving him something he hadn't even known he'd wanted. Someone who understood him. “It does, but I accept it. I will be your Orange Lantern...but don't go thinking you can boss me around, Larfleeze.”

“Bah! Who cares? You're mine now! Mine.” Happy as a clam, Larfleeze bounded off. “Party time! Alena is mine! Mine, mine, mine, mine!”

Lianna nudged me. “I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into, Alena.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Green With Envy is over, but Alena's story will continue!