In the end, it was a coward's way to go. To leave her the ring and the note in the box of things that would be given to her when I didn't come home – because I knew, from the moment we announced the mission, that my luck wasn't good enough to get me through the assault and home again. But I was always better at expressing what I felt for her when she wasn't watching me with those beautiful eyes, and she deserved better than the fumbling proposal that I would have managed if I'd been there.

What we were doing was an ugly thing and everyone knew it, but war was an ugly business. With most of Western Europe underwater and the prospect of much worse ahead, the Amazons had to be stopped before they could escalate the war any further – it wouldn't stop the Atlanteans, but we could only fight one battle at a time. Oliver Queen's weapon would have been enough to destroy Thymescria in a single stroke, were it not for the force field that none of us knew existed when the plans were drawn up - best laid plans of mice and men, after all. With Carol having safely ejected and mine the only plane capable of bearing the weapon to its target, I pushed the stick forward into a final nosedive and waited for the end.

But in those final few seconds, the horribly ugly reality we lived in went away. I found myself outside Abin Sur's craft again, but this time he didn't make it – his ring found its way onto my hand, and I found my way into the Green Lantern Corps. Me – Hal Jordan, the hotshot pilot who wouldn't have even made it into the air again if it weren't for the war. I lived adventures most men could only dream of, flying through space and using my ring to create anything my mind could imagine. I saw Coast City destroyed in a wave of fire, and my twisted attempt to recreate it against the wishes of the Guardians of the Universe. I sacrificed myself to restart the sun and became the living instrument of God's will. I came back to life and rejoined the Green Lanterns, fighting wars against Sinestro and the Black Lanterns and a thousand different villains of all shapes and sizes.

Far from being a failed test pilot, I was a hero. I knew Batman and Superman, served at their sides in the Justice League. The world was a better place, marred by tragedy but brighter than the one I'd spent my life in. As the bomb went off beneath me, mushroom cloud rippling upward and battering the air around me, I could feel the tears on my face as I imagined that life. Would this desperate strike against the Amazons give someone a chance to see it? I certainly hoped so, because I knew that I'd never have that opportunity. The world burned white, and I shut my eyes against it with a final goodbye.

See you in another life, Carol.