Chapter 2

"Hal Jordan is dead."

She watched the man collapse to the floor, the light in his eyes fading away as Sinestro laughed.

"Is M- Was anyone else aboard the Watchtower hurt?"

The alien continued to gloat over his fallen foe, completely ignoring Milagro where she leaned weakly against the wall. Shock was her overwhelming emotion, but there was another portion of her mind screaming for the teen to get up and fight back. Unseen to either of them, Jordan's dropped ring began to glow faintly.

"The other Lanterns were able to get Static and Huntress out of harm's way before Sinestro was defeated and his monster set free."

"What? How?"

Gaze hardening, Milagro pulled out the collapsible bo staff she'd trained with over the years, extending the weapon to its full length. The first sign Sinestro had that he was under attack came when the lightweight but highly durable metal slammed into the side of his skull. Shouting in pain, he stumbled forward, ring emitting a shield to protect him from further blows.

"Coward! Murderer! Monstruo! Get out here y peleas conmigo, tu diablo!"

"...Jordan's ring. It went to the nearest suitable bearer, who then beat Sinestro within an inch of his life."

She'd been startled but not overly worried when the green power ring suddenly flew up and slipped itself onto her finger. Sinestro glanced up, finally getting over the ringing in his head, just in time to see a massive fist of green light plow straight through his shield as if it were glass and begin to pound his face.

"Milagro Reyes is Earth's newest Green Lantern."

-AN-

She was hovering over El Paso when Jaime finally found her. Despite knowing that time had passed just as much for his baby sister as it had for himself, the man was always shocked to see someone other than the adorable toddler he'd given piggy-back rides to. Instead, bathed in a glow from her new rin and wearing a form fitting black, green, and white suit, Milagro looked more grown up than ever before.

"Hola, hermano," she said quietly as he flew up beside her.

"Hey, hermanita. You're looking gloomier than I expected. Not excited to get to go see your first alien world?"

Milagro turned to stare at him, and Jaime grew concerned to see a pain in her eyes that hadn't been present the day before, when she was still just a civilian communications assistant on the Watchtower.

"A man died because of me, Jaime." And just like that, the years melted away, until he was once again staring at a little girl, one overwhelmed by everything that had just happened to her. "How am I supposed to live with that, ring or no ring? To know that I cost him both his power and his life?"

"Oh, Milagro..." He wrapped his arms around her as the tears started to flow, holding his baby sister close as she let out the emotions of the hellish night. "Estara bien, hermanita..."

"No! No, no lo hara Jaime! It won't be okay! How can you even say that?" She pulled back from his armored form, looking up into lens-hidden eyes.

"Because a man died to give me my power, too. His death might not have been directly on my head, but in those early days I felt plenty guilty about taking his name and place." Gradually, the elder Reyes sibling was able to comfort the younger, as the pair continued to hover over their home city.

-AN-

After three months of training under both Kilowog and occasionally Guy when he visited Oa, Milagro didn't think she'd ever be so happy to her home planet again. Laughing as she spun herself around an asteroid, brushing dangerously close to its pitted surface, the eighteen year old knew she'd have even more fun pulling tight turns and fast maneuvers around skyscrapers and mountaintops.

"Havin' fun there, kiddo?" Guy hailed her from a little ways off. "You're fallin' a bit behind, y'know."

"How can I fall behind when it's so easy to overtake you, Gramps?" She tauntingly called back, suddenly rocketing forward and shooting past the smirking man.

"Oh, yeah, snark in spades, this one." He snickered to himself before suddenly sobering. Wish you could'a seen this kid, Jordan.

"Hey! There it is!" Milagro had slowed slightly so that she could savor the sight of the distant green and blue planet they were approaching. "Are we gonna have to check in at the Watchtower, or can I swing by my house first to see my parents?"

"I think you'll be more interested in what's waiting for you at the 'Tower, kid." Surprised, she arched an eyebrow at him, and began a wheedling campaign to get the older Lantern to spill. If there was one place in which they were equally matched, though, it was stubbornness, and by the time they reached the League's space station neither had given up on getting the other to break.

"Fine! Guess I'll have to just beat you inside and see for myself!" Milagro huffed, causing his mentor to chuckle.

"Yeah, you do that, kiddo." The teen stuck her tongue out at him, then flew on ahead to the hangar bay doors. There'd been a few changes since she was last here, renovations undoubtedly added into the rebuilding after Sinestro and his pet dust cloud attacked. Unwanted memories tried to surface in her mind, but Milagro firmly squashed them back down, determined to enjoy her homecoming.

It seemed, though, as if no one else had realized this was the date of her return. Wandering through one empty corridor after another, Milagro kept her senses peeled for a sign of anyone being around, and came up with zilch. Not until she got closer to the central halls did her ring indicate John Stewart's presence ahead of the teen's position.

Eager to find at least someone, she picked up the pace, flying towards the main foyer. Just as Milagro entered, there was a bright burst of light, which forced her to stop in place and shield her eyes.

"WELCOME BACK!" Half a hundred voice rang out, and when her vision cleared the teen was both floored and delighted to see almost the entire League and Team gathered in the massive room, her brother and parents smiling from where they stood center stage.

"Glad I made you come here first, then?" Guy laughed as he came up behind her, prompting Milagro to favor him with a dazzling smile.

"Oh, yeah."

-AN-

"Somehow, this does not surprise me," was all Milagro had to say upon discovering that Lian and Damian had become a couple in her absence.

The younger girl blushed slightly, but refused to allow her oldest friend's knowing grin to phase her. "Oh, shut up."

"Very creative comeback." Both of them had gone up to one of the observation decks after Milagro's welcoming party, eager to catch up and reconnect.

"What about you? No hot aliens in the Corps to gush over?"

"Eh, I guess. But none seemed to be as interesting as the boys we have on this planet. Speaking of..." Coming up the stairs behind them was nineteen year old Luke O'Brian, showing more bare muscle with his new uniform than Milagro could remember ever seeing before.

"Hey, Milagro! My dad and I are heading out in a minute," the boy grinned as he walked over. "But before I left, I just wanted to say welcome back once again, and would you like to go see a movie with me next week?"

"Sure, but I've been out of the loop a while, so I don't know what might be playing..."

"There's a new outdoor theater near my hometown, where they like to show old adventure films, like Indiana Jones, the original Star Wars trilogy, that sort of thing."

"Sounds great!" Milagro beamed at him. "Next Friday, then?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you up here, then we can take the zeta beam down."

"Perfect. See you later then, Luke."

"Same." He waved to both girls, then headed off back down the staircase. Milagro snickered when his triumphant cheer echoed back up to them. She then turned back to Lian, who was staring at her, slack-jawed.

"What?"

-AN-

"Absolutely not!" Jaime cried, outraged.

"Hermano, I have to. You aren't going to be able to argue me out of this - my stubbornness issues are greater than yours by at least one order of magnitude. Maybe even two."

"Milagro, there is no way I'm letting you go into this by yourself-"

"It's not your choice, big brother." She looked at him sadly. "Scarab, will you please keep Jaime from getting hurt attempting to follow me?"

The man frowned and tried to ask what she thought she was doing, when his armor locked into place. "Scarab!"

Apologies, Jaime. But the sister-Lantern is correct with her assessment that only her power ring is capable of surviving the creature's radiation.

"Maldito sea, that doesn't mean we just let her go!" But even as he struggled against the Scarab, Jaime saw Milagro pick up the implosion bomb, activate her green aura and lift off into the air.

Leaving her furious brother behind, the twenty year old soared over the scorched and irradiated landscape, following after the harsh glow of the beast that had been created after an incident within a nuclear reactor. The massive creature looked like an unholy amalgamation of a dog, turtle and Hellfire demon, slowly marching across the Russian wilderness towards the nearest city.

Scientists had scrambled to craft a device capable of bringing the beast down while Justice League members fought to slow it down. Out of the near three dozen combatants, only Milagro, Jaime, and a few others were still conscious and capable of movement. Not that they'd escaped unscathed, though - the Lantern had burns down her left side, the pain of which she was ignoring for the time being. She had too. Jaime's Blue Beetle armor, while tough, had taken a serious beating, protecting him from one head-on blast. What remained of it wouldn't be enough to save him from another.

Milagro's ring would be able to keep her intact long enough to launch the bomb down the creature's maw, making her the only on-site hero left who could complete the mission.

"In brightest day, in blackest night," she began to murmur as the beast came into sight. "No evil shall escape my sight."

As if sensing its impending doom, the huge monster swung its head around to stare at her. "Let those who worship evil's might..."

The lower jaw dropped down, revealing an even brighter orange glow as it prepared to unleash another intense blast of energy. Already, Milagro was sweating from the fiery heat, forcing herself to get closer. "Beware my power..."

Dodging two blasts, she zipped down to a point just in front of the monster, and hurled the bomb in with a final roar of her own. "Green Lantern's LIGHT!"

-AN-

"Santa Madre me ayude, I'm so never doing that again." Milagro murmured, fingering the short, brittle strands that were all that remained of her formerly long locks.

"I don't blame you." Anissa chuckled from the other bed in the room. The two young women had drastically different injuries (Milagro's being mostly burns, while Thunder suffered from deep bruises and broken bones) but were both stuck in the infirmary for the foreseeable future.

"Why'd we get into this life again, 'Nissa?"

"Because I've got a dorky-hero dad, and you've got a geeky-hero brother."

"Mmph."

"Ah, don't tell me you don't love it."

Milagro considered that statement for a while, remembering all the years she'd been just a superhero's little sister, even after she'd started doing something productive to help out aboard the Watchtower. Then she compared those with the memories where she'd been out in the field, bringing down bad guys, preventing disasters, running successful missions and getting to enjoying laughing about them afterward with her friends, rather than just hearing about it all.

"...Yeah. Guess I do."