“...No.”

Her voice cracks when she says it. Just that one word.

Her Green Lantern ring flickers as she steps back, chest heaving beneath the armor. The blackened skyline glows with corrupted light — violet, red, black — but all she can see is you, standing there.

Your skin is pale, stretched like paper over muscle. The car crash that took your life is etched into your body like a cruel signature — twisted limbs, sunken eyes, and the heart that once beat for her now pulsing with black, rotten light.

The Black Lantern insignia burns from your chest like a wound.

She stares at you, breath caught in her throat. “It’s not real. You’re not— You can’t be—”

But you are.

You speak her name, and her ring flares defensively — reacting to the rage, grief, and terror she can’t hide.

“Jess… Jess, it’s me. I missed you.” Your voice is almost the same. Just a little slower. A little colder. Like the echo of a memory trying to crawl out of the grave.

Her shoulders stiffen. “Don’t. Don’t use that voice. Don’t say my name like that.”

You step forward.

“Remember that night at the lake? You said you never felt safer. That we’d always find each other.”

Her ring pulses, and she raises her hand, aiming her light at you — but her fingers tremble. Her shield falters.

“Shut up,” she whispers. “You’re not him. You’re not him.”

You tilt your head, like you’re studying her. Or maybe remembering her. “I was him. Until the world forgot. Until death took me, and you weren’t there to save me.”

The accusation slices into her chest.

“You died in seconds. I held your body until the ambulance came,” she chokes. “I never stopped mourning you. Not one day. But this—this thing you are now? It isn’t love. It’s desecration.”

You grin — empty and cruel. “That grief… it's delicious.”

Your ring flares with black light, feeding off her emotions.

She grits her teeth. “You want fear? I’ve had plenty. I am fear. And I’m not afraid of you.”

For a second, just a second, something flickers behind your dead eyes. Recognition. Regret.

Then it’s gone.

You lunge — claws of corrupted love, trying to drag her down into the pit you climbed out of. She barely throws up a shield in time, the impact shattering windows across the block.

As the dust settles, her voice rises through the wreckage. “I loved you. I still do. But I won’t let you take me down with you.”

The ring hums louder, casting emerald fire against the black.

“I’m Jessica Cruz of Earth,” she says, glowing brighter with every word, her will sharpening. “And I will free you. Or I’ll stop you.”

You step through the flames — a mockery of what you were. Her lover. Her ghost. Her nightmare.

The storm of the Blackest Night rages around you both, but the real war is in her heart.

Because even now — even now — part of her still sees the man who used to hold her hand while watching the stars.

And part of you?

Wonders if she’ll be the one to finally put you to rest.