Therapy

Parallax:

I feel my power grow as I loom over the home of the Green Lanterns. I can smell their fear. I can taste it. It tastes so sublime. As my power grows ever stronger, no one can stop me as I head for the central battery of the Green Lanterns.

The Man:

"I cannot believe it," Ganthet says, rubbing the sides of his blue head. "Sinestro had unleashed Parallax, but how?"

"I guess," I answer, "With a little help from Superman and his countless resources. We need to stop Parallax before he can destroy the Green Lanterns battery."

"The Green Lanterns Battery," Atroctius repeats, "How can you be sure he is heading there?"

"Well, for one," I say, putting up a finger. "He's floating in that general direction. Two, it's the quickest way to destroy all the Green Lanterns at once. By destroying the battery, all and every green lantern ring will immediately die out, rendering the holder completely powerless."

"And vulnerable to the betas and yellow lanterns," Cold adds, bringing up his cold gun, "But wait, isn't the central power already dead? I mean, wasn't that the whole reason for kicking out Laria and Arisia?"

"No," Laria says, all of us turning to face her now. Walking out from below deck, she had Saint Walker by her side. Laria raises her ring but it glows weakly. "According to the Guardians, our battery was drained of any extra power and damaged but it wasn't destroyed."

"Not yet," I say, turning to see Parallax still traveling. "Not if we don't do anything."

"So what's the plan," Green Arrow says, pulling out his bow and a few arrows. As he does this, everyone else starts to prepare. Cheetah's claws come out. Professor Stein and Jason fuse together. Jaime activates his blue beetle suit, his wings opening and his arm turning into a blade. As everyone else prepares, Saint Walker walks up to Kara. He points at her hand.

"Oh sorry," Kara says. She pulls off the blue ring and gives it back to Saint Walker. Saint Walker puts the ring back on and his blue suit and glow return.

"Hold on," I say, putting up a hand. "Almost everyone is here."

"Almost everyone," Flash repeats. "Who's not here?"

"Arisia. Where is she?"

"I couldn't convince her to join us," Laria says with a heavy sigh. "She's still in the infirmary with the doctor."

"Shoot," I say. "We don't have time to snap Arisia out of it."

"Go ahead," Harleen says, stepping forth. "Go and save the lousy green lanterns."

"Thanks," Laria says.

"I'll stay here and bring in the reinforcement, but first I need said reinforcement ring."

As Harleen holds out her hand, I look right at her. I stare Harleen right into her eyes. As I stare, I see a tiny spark of something.

"Here," I say, reaching into my pocket and giving her the ring. "Best of luck."

With that and a nod of her head, Harleen runs downstairs. Meanwhile, the rest of us walk to the railing.

"So again," Green Arrow says, looking at the yellow storm cloud as it is now firing yellow beams and destroying buildings along its way to the central building. "What's the plan?"

Harleen:

"Where is she," I yell as I kick open the infirmary's door. Running in, I look around but I don't see Arisia anywhere. The only person I see is Dr. Crane with his back against the wall.

"Do you not know how to knock," Dr. Crane yells, patting his chest and picking up a knocked-over stool.

"Sorry for that," I say quickly, "I thought the door was still barricaded."

"It was until the three left."

"The three," I repeat. "Wait, I only saw Laria and Saint Walker upstairs. If Arisia isn't here, then where could she have gone?"

"I don't know," the doctor answers. He rubs his chin and thinks it over for a bit. "With all due respect for Arisia, she had been moping around a lot. If I was her, chances are, I would go to a place where I would just want to be left alone."

With the Doc's words in mind, I can only think about one place.

"Thanks," I shout as I run away. Running through the whole ship, I find the one place The Man told us never to go or else, he would beat us up: his personal dojo.

Running right up to the sliding door, I grab and slam it to the side. As expected, there I see Arisia sitting on the ground, her knees in front of her. When she looks up to see me, I can see tears in her eyes.

"Arisia," I shout as I approach her. I grab her arm and try to pull her up but she stays down. "Come on. The others need our help. Let's go. Here. I brought you this."

I reach into my pocket and show Arisia her ring. However, all she does is stare at me.

"Oh come on," I yell, raising my hands. "Arisia, this is your ring. Put it on, glow green, and let go blast some stupid yellow lanterns."

Once more, Arisia stares at me. She says something but I don't understand a word. I slap myself in the face.

"Oh yeah. You're an alien. You speak some alien language that isn't English. Okay, uhh, charade. Listen to me, Arisia."

I point to Arisia and then cup my ear.

"We need to help Sunglasses Man."

I make circles with my fingers and place them over my eyes.

"Put ring on. Go fight evil yellow lantern."

I put an invisible ring on my finger and pretend to fire off beams.

"You got me?"

Arisia doesn't nod her head. In fact, she doesn't do anything except stare at me with a confused look.

"Okay. So they don't have charades on your home planet. Well, I always hated charades. Okay. Okay. Okay. What to do? What to do?"

I rub the side of my head, racking my brain for an answer.

"What to do? I have a Ph.D. in Psychiatry, not therapy."

I slap myself on the face.

"Screw it. I got nothing else. Arisia, I'll apologize later. After you put this on and understand me."

I take a deep breath. I inhale as much as I can before grabbing and shaking Arisia.

"Snap out of it," I yell right in Arisia's face. "Come on! There's a giant evil yellow storm cloud heading for the green battery! We need your help! I need your help!"

I let go of Arisia and show her the ring again.

"Arisia, I know things haven't exactly been the best, a major understatement, but that doesn't mean you can just sit around and mope all day. Especially now. We need all hands on deck. Please, oh please, put this on."

I offer her the ring for the third time. As I hold the ring between us, I can't help but smile when I see Arisia rises her hand. Slowly but surely, she takes the ring from my palm and slides it on. Now it's my time to cry when I see Arisia gets her glow back.

"Yes," I say, stepping forth to hug Arisia. I hug her tightly, I let go after a few seconds.

"I can't believe my speech work."

"Your speech," Arisia repeats. "What?"

I shake my head.

"Nevermind. Come on. Let's go help Sunglasses Man take down a raging storm cloud."

"Raging storm cloud?"

"Yeah, I don't fully understand it either but it's something."

I turn to leave but before I can, someone grabs my wrist and pull me back. Now facing Arisia once more, she steps forth and hugs me tightly.

"I have no idea what you said," Arisia says, pulling back. "And I hated you for shaking me like that, but you should know this. I really appreciate the prep talk."

Arisia hugs me once more before pulling back.

"Harleen," she says with a glowing green lantern ring. "Lead the way."

Hal Jordan:

I step back when Harleen and Arisia run out of The Man's dojo and up the hallway.

"They need all hands on deck," I think. "What about me?"

I look at my empty finger.

"Barry had my ring. He said he'll only give it back to me as I get my will as strong as The Man."

I close my hand and look at the hallway.

"Time to get back my will."

With one final decision, I follow after Harleen and Arisia, toward the fight for Oa.