Guardians of the Universe

Oa.

The Guardians erupted into a fierce argument.

"We abandoned our emotions long ago, but now we must reclaim them!" Sayd exclaimed excitedly. "The Color Light War —we can no longer bury our heads in the sand; the evidence is before us. The Prophecy of the Blackest Night is about to be revealed!"

"The Blackest Night is nothing but a treatise full of lies, Sayd."

"That's right, it was a lie that prompted the famous Green Lantern, Abin Sur of Sector 2814, to travel to the prison planet Ysmault."

The Empire of Tears successfully instilled fear in him, leading him to believe the lies and ultimately causing his own death.

"Then why did we record Abin Sur's discovery at that time? Why did we include this chapter, along with those Prophecy descriptions about our ultimate Destiny and purpose, in the Book of Oa?"

"Listen up, everyone," a small, unusually old-looking blue figure interrupted their argument. "I have an idea."

"What idea?" Everyone turned to look at him.

"The Green Lantern Corps needs a real leader to stop this catastrophe."

"----Shifting the blame to Hal, is that your brilliant idea?"

"Do you have a better idea? Or do you think you can lead the Green Lantern Corps into the Blackest Night better than Hal? Don't tell me the Blackest Night doesn't exist; we all know it's Destiny that's destined to happen."

"You're right." A moment of silence followed, and this time no one raised any objections.

Earth's Fortress.

Green Lantern was being tortured by Carol when suddenly a large green head appeared on his Ring.

"Hal Jordan, I think we need to talk," Sayd said to Green Lantern.

"Guardians?"

You can call me Sayd.

"Sayd? I thought the Guardians didn't have names." Green Lantern was taken aback.

"Like Ganthet, I've only recently realized that I possess a personal Willpower," Sayd said. "Perhaps—I will leave Oa like him."

"Uh... okay, so what do you want from me?" Green Lantern asked.

"We want you to lead the Green Lantern Corps," Sayd said slowly. "You are our beacon."

"So sudden?" Green Lantern, somewhat puzzled. "Aren't there still you Guardians?"

"In our dedication to protecting the Universe, we sealed our emotions, enshrining them within the Great Heart," Sayd said. "But—perhaps the seal wasn't entirely successful, perhaps losing emotions leads to this strange state—"

The Guardians of the Universe cannot think rationally about everything.

"Indeed." Wonder Woman had been watching the spectacle, nodded. "There are two versions of the story circulating about Olympus. One is that the benevolent Guardians desire to maintain a peaceful and orderly existence for all living beings and carry out their own mysterious daily work; they will never allow emotions to influence their thoughts and actions. The other is— the Guardians are all shameless bastards."

"This----"

"In fact, it's the latter." A large blue head appeared on the screen; it was Ganthet, the creator of the Blue Lantern Corps, who was also Guardians. "What I'm about to say, if the other Guardians knew that I and Sayd had discussed these things, they would all exile us."

"Where else could you be exiled to, the Violet Lantern Corps?" Sayd scoffed.

"Old friend, you're joking now." Ganthet smiled. "That's a good thing."

"Ganthet, what exactly is going on?" Green Lantern asked.

"Before I answer you, I also have something to ask you. Do you know how the Red Lantern Corps came about?" Ganthet countered.

"Yes, in the very beginning, before the Green Lantern Corps was formed, the Guardians of the Universe created the Manhunters, in various..."

"The sector was maintaining order." Green Lantern nodded. "Later, they were reprogrammed by Krona, and they were then programmed to massacre Sector 666."

Have you heard about this in the Green Lantern Corps?

"Huh?" Green Lantern paused, then thought for a moment and said, "It seems not—"

"Because what they're best at is covering up, covering up their mistakes, deleting records of these events, never admitting they've done anything wrong, pushing all the blame onto sentient beings, and believing that all conflicts are caused by the emotions of life," Ganthet said coldly.

"These?"

"Of course, that's not all. When Larfleeze and several criminals obtained the Orange Lantern, the Guardians of the Universe, to avoid war with it, demanded that Larfleeze kill all his companions so the Orange Lantern belong solely to Larfleeze," Ganthet sneered. "In the end, the Orange Lantern's Greed would have led to infighting, and this incident indirectly caused Larfleeze to be consumed by his own Greed, ultimately transforming into the Desire Serpent and falling into Roland's hands."

"This----"

"And then there's that parallel Universe where you fought against the Dark Knights," Ganthet continued. "In that Universe, they concealed the Flashpoint event and demanded that Abin Sur abandon Earth."

"I'll go."

"And before you, no Green Lantern had ever overcome the Yellow Impurity —that's because they deliberately sealed Parallax away."

"Go inside the Green Lantern Main Energy." Ganthet paused. "Using this weakness, we painted our Batteries entirely yellow to guard against Green Lantern attacking them."

"So the Guardians of the Universe were worried about us taking action against them so early on?" Green Lantern was somewhat puzzled.

"Think about the Green Lantern Corps' various rules—restricting the use of lethal weapons with Green Lantern Ring; prohibiting the use of Green Lantern Ring for personal purposes; prohibiting unauthorized travel to other sectors—what do you think these restrictions are meant to prevent?"

"----Goodness, now you're saying Abin Sue's death might have been caused by the Guardians of the Universe, and I'd believe you."

"No, that's not it. However, because of their concealment of the Blackest Night and the actions of Sector 666, Abin Sue distrusted the Guardians of the Universe and even the Green Lantern Corps. He created the Indigo Tribe Lantern Corps to ensure intervention if the situation became irreversible, or to forcibly instill Compassion in the Guardians of the Universe." Ganthet sighed. "That's why I created the Blue Lantern Corps."

"So, if those worms continue to lead the Green Lantern Corps, I don't know what even bigger trouble might occur," Sayd said. "So this is an opportunity—for you to lead us. We will do everything we can to assist you—we are full of hope."

"---- Guardians of the Universe? Is it really that outrageous?" Green Lantern, having dealt with them for years, had a vague feeling that these guys were hiding something, but Wonder Woman was truly astonished. "I thought their goal was Universe peace."

"That's true," Ganthet said helplessly. "There's a Parallel Universe where they extracted the power of the First Lantern and created the Third Legion. Then, using Third Legion puppets, they assimilated all life in the world; the entire Universe had none."

"Life forms with self-awareness naturally find peace."

"This line of thinking... it sounds like what Roland called Beast of Humanity." Green Lantern stroked his chin. "So-called Beast of Humanity is all about human love—wanting to save the world, and then destroying it."