???? ??????? || D. Grayson

??????

Hal's gaze sharpened, the green light from his ring flickering unevenly, shadows dancing across his face. His jaw worked like he was chewing on words he didn't want to say.

"You... you've always had this reckless streak," he spat, voice tight. "But this... this is on a whole other level, Zaria! You can't just... just hold all of this power like it's a party trick!"

"I'm not holding it like a toy, Dad!" I snapped, my own Rings flaring faintly with the surge of my frustration. "I'm trying to control it! I'm trying to learn—"

"Learn?!" Hal barked, taking another step toward me. "Do you even understand the kind of catastrophe you could trigger? The kind of enemies that would come for you? Do you realize I... I watched you die! Once! And now this madness is happening before my eyes!"

The words tore out of him like something broken loose, raw, unfiltered, and far louder than he meant them to be.

I froze.
Kyle did too.

Hal never talked about that day.
Ever.
He refused to acknowledge it actually happened.

"Hal..." Kyle tried gently, "you don't mean—"

"Don't tell me what I mean," Hal snapped, and the green light of his Ring flared hard enough to cast jagged shadows across the walls. "You didn't hold her body in your arms, Kyle. You didn't feel her body turn cold!"

His voice hit the room like a shockwave.

Even Kyle shut up.

I felt my stomach drop straight through the floor.

Dad never talked about it.
Not once.
Not in passing.
Not in jokes.
Not even by accident.

But now the words were spilling out of him like a wound he didn't know he had.

"Hal," Kyle tried again, stepping forward carefully, hands raised as if soothing a wild animal. "You're tired. The trial's been—"

"Stay out of this!" Hal snapped, and his Ring flared violently, bright enough that the air felt tight for a second, like oxygen itself recoiled.

Kyle flinched.

"Dad..." I whispered, barely recognizing the look in his eyes. "What's going on with you?"

"What's going on with me?" Hal repeated, voice low, voice shaking, but not with fear. With something closer to fury. "What's going on with you, Zaria? Nine Rings? Nine? Do you have any idea what that looks like to the Universe?"

"I didn't choose it—"

"You think they care?" Hal roared, and the green aura around him flared so violently Kyle stumbled backward. "You think anyone out there cares what you meant or didn't mean? You're a threat now, Zar... Far bigger than you've ever been."

I swallowed hard, trying not to step back again.

"Hal, you're scaring her," Kyle said quietly and stepped in front of me, "She's trying her best and-"

"Her best!?" He echoed, a harsh, humorless sound slipping from him. "Her best got her killed once!"

Kyle sucked in a breath like he'd been punched.

I didn't move.

I couldn't.

The words hung in the air, sharp, ugly, and soaked in something Hal Jordan would never willingly weaponize against me.

"Hal," Kyle tried again, voice cracking. "Take a walk and get your bearings. You're tired and this is going to end badly if you don't stop."

Hal didn't even look at him.