With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

17th February
22:32 GMT -5

I dump the last of my furniture into subspace, then turn to face Ghia'ta and Tula. "How do you want to decorate?"

"I think that I would like to use natural materials. Wood and linen."

"Alright, but if you don't want fluorescent light bulbs then good luck on getting Batman to sign off on candles or a wood fire." I frown. "And what are you planning on sleeping on?"

"Cloth? Is that not what humans sleep on?"

"Not in this part of the world." Tula smiles. "In Atlantis, the water takes our weight so we don't need anything to make the bed soft. But on the surface, their beds have metal springs."

"Oh."

"But we could probably make you a bed with natural sponge if you wanted. Not.. sure what it would be like to sleep on, mind you. Or some sort of linen hammock?"

"Sponge." Her eyes glow for a moment as her ring feeds her the information she wants. "I think that I will try that."

"Ooh, if you want to go totally crazy, we could have Euanthe make it out of living wood. She could probably work out how to make wooden bedsprings."

"Is Euanthe an arboriculturist?"

"Both the subject and the object." I point my left hand at her, then hesitate. "Are you alright with me sending you data packets?"

"I should be." She tentatively raises her right hand, her ring shimmering as she does so. "Could you think of the one you love while you do it?"

I take a moment to picture Alan when he made a tour of the cancer ward of the John Hopkins Hospital, the joy he clearly felt at being able to help people, to restore their hope.

"Sending."

A small ball of orange flies from my original ring and impacts hers. There's a sort of.. violet fizz around it for a moment, which puts me in mind of how Guy's ring used to crackle when he suppressed his anger. Her eyes flicker a moment later as she takes some of the information in. Or given that she's half-Maltusian I suppose that she might have taken in the whole thing.

"Why is your ring doing that?"

"I was raised in an environment of intense sororal love. Focusing on that.. helps me."

"What the heck have they been telling you about the other colours?"

"That.. green leads to close-mindedness-."

"Hah! I mean, they're not wrong, but you'd think they'd look in a mirror sometimes."

"What do you mean by that?"

"For all the disagreements I have with the Guardians, they've been using their light to fight.. what might tentatively be called 'evil', for millions of years. While your matrons have been sitting on their collective tod, aside from the occasional korugari booty call. Flipping Larfleeze managed to do more than that and he sat in a cave the whole time."

Tula frowns. "Wasn't Larfleeze the alien whom you fought for the Orange Central Power Battery? How did he do any good?"

"He drew the most avaricious beings in the galaxy to him and killed them. We've gone over the rings he made from them to get details of their personal histories and they were some nasty pieces of work." I look away. "And it wasn't really a fight."

"As uncomfortable as hearing you say that makes me, I believe the same thing. That is why I am so grateful that Dame Carol is giving me this opportunity. I believe that the violet light of love should be spread across the galaxy, so that all people can feel the same joy and security that I have always known."

I nod, smiling.

"Do you.. feel the same?"

"I don't know. I don't know what the galaxy would look like with an active Star Sapphire Corps. I can't say that I'm invested in the idea, but I am curious. So if you want to make it happen, go for it."

"Why?"

I shake my head. "I don't understand. And while I could take a look I'm sure you'd rather that I didn't."

She nods, then stops, frowning. "Why don't you mind?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it wouldn't be yours. I could understand that you want there to be an Orange Corps because it is yours, but I don't understand why you would want there to be other Corps."

"You accept that I can still feel love?"

She nods.

"I feel anger, fear, determination, hope, compassion and love. These feelings are mine. They are a part of how I see the universe, how the universe I exist in is. Why would I want to cut away one part of myself? Why would I want to make myself less than I am? Why would I make myself a part of the orange light rather than make it a part of me?"

She nods uncertainly. "The woman who you love. Where is she?"

"On a planet on the periphery of Reach space."

"And that doesn't trouble you?"

"I love Jade as she is, not as some best match to a fantasised ideal woman I have in my head. Jade needs to fight and to feel useful, purposive. She hates to be dependent; that's something we share. But I'm very powerful. I realised early on that she'd.. be better off establishing herself somewhere away from me so that we could approach each other as equals. I do miss her, but this is what's best for her, for our relationship in the long term. I want her to be herself to the fullest extent that that's possible."

I lean forward.

"I don't intend to seal her in a giant block of orange crystal."

Tula frowns. "Of course not. Why would you even…" Ghia'ta is looking down. "Ghia'ta?"

"… Yes. That is why Dame Carol wants me to learn about love from you, from the people of Earth. Some.. Zamarons… Think that things should be… Different."

"Yes. Monochromatism can have some unfortunate effects. And that's why-" I pull Drakul Karfang's ring off my finger and toss it to her. She doesn't catch it, but she doesn't flinch too much. "-I want you to try using that as well as your own."

"Because you do not want me to become fixated."

"Because I hope that you don't want to end up like that either. You followed your desires to come here when you could have stayed in the loving embrace of your sisterhood. I think you might make a good Orange Lantern, too."

"You have done all you can to allow the one you love to flourish. I think that you might make a good Star Sapphire as well."

I hold out my right hand and smile expectantly.

She looks slightly awkward.

"But I don't have a spare ring for you to prove it."