[Third person POV]
"Danny! Oh my god!" Sam's voice cracked, her panic cutting through as she sprinted toward him. Her trembling hands pressed desperately against his chest. The warmth of his ecto-blood seeped into her palms almost instantly, a glowing green against her skin.
Her eyes brimmed with tears, the sight of him in this state making her heart feel as though it were splintering in her chest.
Danny leaned heavily against her, his breathing shallow and ragged, each inhale sounding like a battle he wasn't sure he could win. "I got… really worried… when I didn't see you," he murmured between gasps. "Glad to see… you're alright…" His voice was faint, but his eyes tried to meet hers, trying to reassure her even as pain clouded his gaze.
"I told you it was a bad idea," Sam choked out, her voice trembling as she glanced over him, horrified by what she saw. "You should have just let me handle it. My God, Danny—your arm…" Her eyes widened at the grotesque sight: it dangled unnaturally, connected only by strands of flesh, muscle fibers, and tattered cloth.
Danny followed her gaze and gave a weak, almost dismissive smile. "Oh, that… don't worry about it. I just need to… stick it back together and it'll heal on its own." He tried to sound casual, though his voice wavered with pain. "I have a way of… manipulating my spiritual body. Should be able to… fix it after I heal… I think…"
From a short distance away, Ghia'ta and Aga'po stood silently, their expressions solemn as they watched Danny's strength falter. His legs buckled, and both he and Sam sank to the floor. Sam quickly adjusted, cradling his head and shoulders onto her lap. She bit her lip hard, struggling to contain the tears that began slipping down her cheeks. She hated—truly hated—seeing him like this.
Danny tilted his head, looking up at her with a faint, lopsided smile. His good hand lifted slowly, shakily, until his fingers brushed against her cheek. "I'll be fine… You can't kill what's already dead… hopefully," he added with an awkward grin, the attempt at humor failing to mask the pain in his eyes.
Sam let out a short, choked laugh between her tears, lowering her head until her forehead pressed against his. Her hand cupped the side of his face, thumb brushing over his temple in a tender motion. "I'm sorry…" she whispered, her voice raw with emotion. "I meant to take away some of your burdens… but all I did was make them worse."
"Nah," Danny breathed softly, "believe it or not… I actually gained a lot from this whole ordeal. So… I'd say it was totally worth it."
Her lips quivered. "Like what? What could you have possibly gained from all of this?"
Danny's grin widened despite his exhaustion. "Well… for starters, a girlfriend. Which is pretty amazing, by the way… still riding that high. Not to mention I finally learned how to teleport… When I saw… how they pinned you down… I wanted to be reach you as fast… as I could"
Sam gave a watery giggle, shaking her head. "Seriously, Danny…" she murmured, before leaning down and kissing him deeply, ignoring the metallic tang of blood that lingered between them.
Nearby, Ghia'ta floated closer to Aga'po, standing alongside her as they quietly observed the scene. The younger woman's voice was soft yet firm as she spoke. "My lady… they're just children. Do we truly need to punish them for this? Look at them—clearly, they care for each other more than anything. To keep them apart now would be nothing short of cruel."
Aga'po's eyes stayed fixed on the pair for a long moment before she sighed. "Perhaps. But the fact remains, Ghia'ta… they still broke the rules. They destroyed a Lantern ring."
"But did they really?" Ghia'ta's gaze turned to her aunt, her tone carrying an edge of intrigue.
Aga'po's brow rose slightly. "What are you suggesting?"
"Doesn't it strike you as strange—perhaps even too convenient—that just when she was ready to sever their bond, the ring appeared before her?" Ghia'ta asked, her expression thoughtful.
Aga'po's eyes widened slightly as the implication took root. "You can't possibly mean… that the ring willingly sacrificed itself to her, in order to preserve their bond?"
Ghia'ta offered a faint, knowing smile and shrugged. "Who's to say? They say love conquers all. Maybe their love was strong enough to defy reality itself. Perhaps it's not true… but I'd like to believe it is. I think it's wonderful to believe that such a powerful love exists within this universe. It gives us meaning, that our fight to protect such a love isn't meaningless and that there's something out there worth fighting for"
Aga'po nearly chuckled at the remark—it was naïve, idealistic, the kind of sentiment she usually dismissed. And yet… she couldn't deny the beauty in such innocent belief.
"Perhaps—" Aga'po began with a faint, almost reluctant smile… but her words faltered as her eyes widened at Sam's sudden movement.
Sam, still cradling Danny's head in her lap, glanced over his battered form. The sight made her bite her lip hard, a mix of frustration and desperation tightening in her chest. She remembered something Danny had mentioned before—about the Lantern rings and their strange, reality-bending abilities.
'One of the primary functions is to turn thought into physical constructs… Our bond was made using that ring. If that's true, then maybe…'
Sam closed her eyes, drawing in a slow breath to steady herself. Her hands lifted in front of her, fingers curling as though gripping invisible thread. When her eyes opened again, they glowed with a deep, luminous purple light. Between her palms, energy shimmered and coalesced, taking shape in the air—a slender needle, purple in hue yet undeniably made of pure magic, with an impossibly long thread trailing from its point.
Danny blinked at it, too tired to question but curious all the same.
"Danny," Sam murmured with a crooked smile, "you're in luck. I happen to secretly knit in my spare time."
Without waiting for him to respond, she guided the needle toward his mangled arm. The point pierced his ectoplasmic flesh gently but firmly, sliding through without tearing further. The glowing thread wove back and forth, pulling together strands of muscle and ghostly sinew as if she were mending a torn sweater instead of a limb. Slowly—inch by inch—the arm drew closer to its proper place, until the edges met.
The stitchwork was crude but steady, a visible zig-zag of glowing purple holding the wound together. Finally, a pair of shimmering scissors manifested beside her hand. They wobbled clumsily in the air, missing the thread once… twice… three times. Sam's tongue poked out in concentration as she squinted, then—snip!—the string was severed cleanly.
"Yes!" she celebrated with a triumphant grin.
Both Danny and Sam watched as the glowing stitches sparkled briefly before fading into his skin, leaving his arm reattached.
"Nice!" they both exclaimed in unison, raising their hands for a high five.
The moment they met Danny's newly stitched hand drooped at an unnatural angle, the thread stretching comically.
They froze, staring at each other for a beat… then burst into uncontrollable laughter. Danny grabbed his wrist, pulled it back into place with a casual tug, and to their mild surprise, the stitches flared briefly again before vanishing entirely.
"I suppose it'll at least help speed up my healing… as long as I don't put too much pressure on it," Danny muttered, still smiling.
Sam nodded, brushing back a strand of hair from her face.
From their vantage point, Aga'po and Ghia'ta had watched the entire scene unfold. Aga'po, recognizing the technique as one of the Lanterns' most basic abilities, exhaled a quiet sigh. Her sternness softened.
"You were right, Ghia'ta," she said at last, her voice low and almost wistful. "Perhaps such a powerful love really does exist in this universe."
The two women shared a small, knowing smile as Danny and Sam, still chuckling and whispering to each other, remained blissfully oblivious to the rest of the world—wrapped up in their own little orbit.
********************************************
+10 advance Chapters and my other patron exclusive content on: patreon.com/Shadow_D_Monarch3