The middle-aged man standing before Hal wore a pilot's jacket and held a helmet in his hand. His presence alone carried an overwhelming familiarity.
It was Hal Jordan's father.
At that moment, John Stewart finally understood the truth.
Hal was not using the Green Lantern Ring to reconstruct reality or replay past events. He was shaping it according to his subconscious desires, manifesting what he most desperately wished to see.
And in reality, his father would never appear here again.
"Hal," Stewart said quietly, concern creeping into his voice.
But Hal did not hear him.
He stepped forward, his eyes fixed entirely on the man before him.
"Dad."
The man smiled gently.
"Hello, Hal."
His gaze softened as he studied his son, helmet still in hand.
"Are you in trouble, son?"
Hal glanced down at his right hand. A shallow cut bled faintly from the web between his thumb and forefinger, though it no longer seemed to matter.
"Yes. But it is nothing serious now. I am fine. Thanks for asking, Dad."
"Of course," his father replied naturally.
Then, with the same steady tone, he asked, "Do you need me to do anything for you?"
Hal hesitated before nodding.
"I want to talk. About us."
His father did not refuse.
"Alright. Let's talk."
For a moment, silence settled between them.
Hal looked around the reconstructed environment, as if the weight of memory pressed harder than the illusion itself.
Standing here made everything come back. Childhood memories, fragments of laughter, and distant admiration that had never faded.
"The clearest memory I have," Hal said slowly, "is you. I used to watch you and think you were invincible. The way you left marks in the sky, the way people looked at you."
His voice tightened slightly.
"I wanted to be like you. Maybe I became you because of that."
His father remained silent.
Hal continued anyway, his tone growing heavier.
"I always wanted to make you proud. I wanted your approval. Even just once."
The man finally turned away slightly, irritation slipping through his calm expression.
"Hal, that was a long time ago."
Hal's expression hardened. He stepped forward and grabbed his father's arm.
The helmet slipped from his father's hand and hit the ground.
"Just once," Hal said firmly. "That is all I ever wanted."
His voice sharpened.
"But you almost forgot I existed. You praised Jack and Jim all the time. You told them you were proud of them."
His father pulled his arm free and bent down to retrieve the helmet.
"They are grounded, practical people. They achieved real things. But you, Hal, you have always been reckless. You were never realistic. You were just—"
Hal cut him off immediately.
"A failure? That is what you were going to say, right?"
His eyes turned cold.
"Look at me now. I became a hero without your help. Without your encouragement. Without anything from you."
His voice rose slightly.
"And I still did it."
His father straightened, expression firm.
"What exactly did you achieve, Hal?"
The words struck like a hammer.
"I did not see you save Coast City."
Silence followed.
Hal froze.
For a moment, he could not respond.
His father turned away.
"Goodbye, Hal. I have to fly."
He put on his helmet.
"Wait, Dad."
Hal's voice broke slightly as he reached forward.
"I did not mean it. I should not have said those things. I was wrong. Please, just forgive me."
His expression shifted into desperation.
"Please do not leave. I cannot go through this again."
But his father kept walking.
"No, please," Hal whispered, his voice cracking. "Do not do this again."
The world around them began to distort.
The man faded into green mist.
A fighter jet roared to life in the distance.
Hal already knew what would happen next. He had seen it before, countless times.
He covered his ears.
"No… no!"
The jet crashed.
A deafening explosion followed.
Hal dropped to his knees, shaking.
Tears slipped through his fingers.
"Hal."
Hands gripped his shoulders.
John Stewart stood behind him, watching the aftermath with a heavy expression.
"Get up. Do not keep doing this to yourself."
He understood now. This was not reality. It was an illusion formed by Hal's ring, shaped entirely by memory and emotion.
"John," Hal said hoarsely.
"We cannot change the past," Stewart said. "And we cannot live inside it."
"This is not the past," Hal snapped. "This is him. This is what he always thought of me. A failure. No matter what I do, it never changes."
"You are holding it in," Stewart said firmly. "And it is destroying you. Coast City was not your fault."
"It is my fault!" Hal shouted. "I could have stopped it!"
At that moment, the illusion began to collapse.
The house, the garden, the entire reconstructed world started to fade.
"No!" Hal shouted, reaching out. "Do not disappear! I can bring it back!"
The Green Lantern Ring flickered in his hand.
"This is not fair!"
A new voice interrupted him.
"The ring is depleted."
Ganthet stood at the edge of the crater, hands tucked within his sleeves.
"You violated the sacred oath of the Lantern Corps. You used the ring for personal will."
His tone was measured, but final.
Hal stared at him in disbelief.
"Personal will? This is loss. My city is gone!"
"You must not place personal will above the oath," Ganthet replied.
"I am done listening to you!"
Hal lunged forward and struck him.
The punch connected.
Ganthet was thrown backward, skidding across the ground.
Silence followed.
Sinestro, who had just arrived, stared in shock.
"He actually hit a Guardian…"
Hal ignored him and turned to John Stewart.
"Give me your ring."
Stewart hesitated.
"What?"
"The Green Lantern Ring. Now."
His gaze was sharp, unstable, almost feral.
"If you do not, you will regret it."
Stewart understood immediately.
Hal was no longer acting rationally.
"You are going too far, Hal," he said quietly.
"Are you going to stop me?" Hal asked.
A pause.
Then Stewart slowly removed his ring and handed it over.
Hal took it without hesitation and placed it on his finger.
Green light ignited instantly.
His body lifted into the air like a comet.
"I am going to Oa," Hal said coldly. "And I am taking back everything I need."
He accelerated into the sky.
Sinestro watched him disappear.
"You have truly lost control," he said with disdain toward Ganthet.
"Hal Jordan is not stable. He is something else entirely."
Ganthet did not respond. His gaze remained fixed on the sky where Hal vanished.
Sinestro continued.
"You Guardians refuse to intervene directly, even when everything collapses. So you created the Corps to act for you. And now your pawn is starting a war you cannot contain."
Meanwhile, far above Earth, Adrian looked down at the burning planet.
His expression remained unreadable.
He observed the nations that had launched nuclear weapons and silently marked their fate.
Then his gaze shifted.
Beyond the radiation storms and shattered atmospheric layers, he saw Coast City.
A powerful presence lingered there.
One he could not ignore.