Hal Jordan was dealing with the mental assault of the immobile Hector Hammond, a force which was pushing him down as if an industrial press had been installed above his head. His ring-energy lanced out, but bounced off a telekinetic shield Hammond had about his person. The motionless man was one of his deadliest foes, a human hyperevolved into the sort of man who might exist 300,000 years from now. The Green Lantern constructed a cube of green power about himself, but its top and sides strained and began to buckle.

[Now, Green Lantern, be sure to tell your fellow Corpsmen on the other side that the last foes you fought were known, collectively, as the Triumvirate of Terror,] Hammond telepathed to him. [Go to hell, Hammond,] Jordan sent back, sweating with will-effort.

In response, the sides of his green cube were studded with deadly spearpoints, elongating towards him. It took all that he had to push them back into the sides of the cube. Then he formed a huge green hammer, saw, and steam-drill, and sent them all to assault Hammond's invisible force-shield. None of the effort did much good.

One of the yellow-clad Zamaron guards aimed her weapon at the Green Lantern. Her superior struck down her arm. "No," said the guard in command.

"But our queen--"

"Our queen gave orders that she and her allies would battle the Lanterns alone, if battle were joined," the commander said. "Obey, or the next bolt to be loosed in this room will be directed at you."

Reluctantly, the big woman holstered her blaster. Then she joined the other guards in watching the six-person battle before them, and waiting for what was to come.

John Stewart tried to reach Hal to offer help, but got blasted back by a huge boxing glove formed by Guy Gardner's ring power. He answered with a green clamp that slammed the renegade Lantern against the opposite wall, from which two Zamarons leapt away. "So what made you side with the enemy, Gardner?" called Stewart. "I never liked you, but I thought you had more class than that."

Guy Gardner gave back his sardonic smile, even as he cut through the clamp with a green buzzsaw. "The enemy I've got is Jordan," he said. "I lost a woman because of him. I lost a mind because of him. Now I've got a new mind... and I like it just fine." Freed from the clamp, he shot the green buzzsaw blade flying at John like a Frisbee with teeth. Stewart leaped above the blade's path. The large disc slammed into the marble wall of the throneroom, above more Zamaron guards who were hugging the floor, and chewed halfway through it before it stopped.

Katma Tui was struggling with Star Sapphire herself, pitting her ring's power against the purple energies of Carol's sapphire tiara-gem. The grappling tendrils of power she sent against Sapphire's oval-shaped energy shield were cut off by its edges, or broken against its surface. As she looked upon it, and wondered just what sort of power with which to counter it, she saw her vision going purple...

...and then felt something solidifying about her head.

"Your ring will probably protect you from asphyxiating," Star Sapphire said, constructing the energy-box about Katma's head. "But I doubt it'll save you from unconsciousness."

The Korugarian woman grasped the solid purple box about her head, trying to shake it loose, trying to find some air to breathe, sending a command to her power ring to break her free. Then she felt the pain of a mallet-like blow indenting her stomach and sending her off her feet. It would have knocked the air out of her, had she been able to breathe.

Katma landed on her back on the topaz-tiled floor, with Star Sapphire looking on, smiling while she massaged her knuckles.

A green power-shoot sprang from Katma's ring, intruded into the small space between her neck and the purple box, surrounded her head inside with a thin aura, and expanded. The cube of sapphire power held for a few seconds, then buckled, then cracked apart with a sharp report.

The red-skinned woman sucked in sweet air, then leapt to her feet. Star Sapphire was already directing another bolt at her. She deflected it off a green shield.

"Hit me when I can't see, will you?" grated Katma. "Hal Jordan was right. You have no honor, now. If you ever did."

Star's mouth was open, about to release a curse or a taunt.

Katma Tui shot forward, boosted by ring power, and smashed her fist into Carol's mouth. It spun the queen around and sent her to the floor herself. A green cage stabbed points into the floor around her, surrounding Star Sapphire and keeping her there.

A plane of purple power sliced through it, and a jack of energy knocked the top off the cage, enabling the cruel queen to fly free. She fixed Katma Tui with a smile of confidence.

"It's disappointing you're not Hal," she murmured. "But you'll be a good warmup."

The Guardians who were left, those who remained alive after the great Crisis, were clustered about the viewscreen through which they followed the progression of the battle on Zamaron. They were, ostensibly, as emotional as many of the other races in the universe. But they had mastered the art of concealing their concern a few billion years ago. Had they known the game of poker, the Oans would have been master players.

The emotions they sought to conceal from each other would have tested their poker faces greatly.

"It can be argued," said one, "that in using his power for a personal matter, Hal Jordan is technically violating his oath."

The one beside him fixed him with a look even colder than usual. "It can also be argued that Hal Jordan and his comrades are acting to prevent a known enemy from becoming a clear and present danger," he said. "Such is not unheard of, in the Lantern Annals."

"True," said a third. "Yet, a ring-bearer is required to act upon clear action of evil, not when an evil act can only be hypothesized. If in question, the bearer must present clear evidence of evil intent during a board of inquiry."

A fourth said, "The Guardian will note in review that Hal Jordan did not attack the Zamaron queen. He stated his mission to be one of peace, and made a persuasive speech to her in hopes of reforming her. Would the Guardian state that a mirror is an offensive weapon?"

"Perhaps the deadliest of all, my fellow," the third said. "Yet, it is one's judgment that Hal Jordan is within the letter of the law, as are the two fellow Lanterns with him. Also, if Hal Jordan acts from the motivation of love--" He glanced at the image of the Zamaron guards watching the battle. "--Perhaps the Guardian can empathize with such emotion."

The small blue man whom he addressed looked upon one of the guards, who was not quite so stocky as the others and in whose face was a hint of more than conventional beauty. Briefly, his mind flashed back to an incident over five billion years in the past. To the Parting.

It took him a great pause to say, "One can, perhaps, so empathize. Let us watch this battle to its end."

"Agreed, my fellow," said the fourth. "Definitely agreed."

So the Guardians stood and watched.

Hector Hammond could barely suppress his glee. After all these years, after all the plans and plots that had come to naught, no matter what pawns he worked through... the Green Lantern was finally in his hands. Well, as a figure of speech. Hammond could do nothing with his hands. A more appropriate term, he judged, would be that he had the Lantern in mind.

They had first crossed paths when Hammond was anything but a little, large-craniumed man in a mobile chair. Back then, Hector Hammond had been a middle-aged but dashing man about town, who had come across what he dubbed an Evolution Meteor. The rock from the skies had the power to speed up the evolution of those to whom he subjected to its power. At first he used part of its might to turn several scientists in his employ into geniuses, whom he used in an attempt to gain great power. Of course, the Lantern had to poke his ring hand into matters, but even then, Hammond almost triumphed.

When he was released from jail, Hammond had gone a step further, and used the meteor on himself. It shrank and wizened his body somewhat, turned him into a big-domed caricature of a genius, but he had anticipated such. It was the price of having one's mentality and dormant mental powers boosted to such a degree that many of the things the Lantern did with his ring, Hector Hammond could do with his mind. At that time, Hammond was still mobile, and threw in with a gang of other powerful crooks to attack the Justice League.

In that, they failed again. Hammond did another short jail term, got out, and gave himself another boost of meteor power. This time, it had an effect he hadn't anticipated, even with his greater mentality: it boosted his mind-power yet again, but it left his body completely immobile. Save for those functions necessary for life, such as breathing and blood circulation, Hector Hammond could not move.

But he could move things with his mind, telekinetically. He also had other powers, which he used, once he adjusted to his new status. The immobility only made him hate Green Lantern more.

In his first encounter with the Lantern after immobilizing himself, Hammond had managed to take control of the power ring itself. The hero countered that by ordering the ring to run out of power once he was within range of Hammond, and then by knocking Hammond unconscious. When the mind-master awoke, he was within a prison cell again. He could easily have escaped, simply by mentally ordering a guard to free him. But Green Lantern would simply have put him back again.

Thus, Hammond frequently worked through pawns against his foe thereafter, choosing first the Lantern's Modoran enemy, Sonar. But Sonar failed him, as did all the others. Now, with a combination of the right choice of allies and handling things more directly, he had hit upon a winning combination. This time, the Lantern was doomed.

[That's what you always think, Hammond.]

WHAT?

Hector Hammond cursed himself at hypermental speed. He must have been literally thinking so hard he was telepathing to the Lantern. Damnably dangerous in a fight, telegraphing one's punches.

He looked at the Lantern, huddled there in his green cube with the walls pressing in on him. A bit more, and you'd probably be able to see the juice spurting.

But the Lantern was looking at him, and smiling.

Hammond hadn't fought the man more than a dozen times without learning something about him. A smiling Lantern was a dangerous Lantern. He concentrated on compressing the green walls about his foe, and withdrew his telepathic extrusion...

...or tried to.

Again, Hector Hammond tried to close down his mind link. It could not be done. The thing remained open, like a telephone that couldn't be hung up, or a pipeline open at both ends.

The metaphor hit him like a tidal wave and he tried to shut everything down. Too late.

First the Lantern was in the cage, then he was out of it. Hammond saw the walls collapse beyond what a cockroach could have comfortably fit into.

Then he felt a pressure in his own mind. A pressure which rivalled any to which he had subjected a foe. The mentalist's defenses went into operation, but it was a bit late. After all, when an enemy has transformed his body into an analogue of mental energy and sped up the telepathic pipe into your mind, such an action is closing the gate once the horse has bolted.

A flash of green light permeated his mind.

Hector Hammond slumped even more in his chair, completely and totally unconscious.

It was impossible to perceive the energy-Hal Jordan leaving Hammond's oversize brain and converting himself into normal matter again. All one could see with the unaided eye was a Green Lantern, standing beside a senseless big-domed man, in a spot where he had not been a second ago.

Guy Gardner, still fighting with John Stewart, saw Jordan standing there and guessed what had happened, or something like it. "You!" he seethed. He created a battering ram, against whose thrust Stewart was barely able to erect a force-shield. The impact of the ram caromed him off a wall and bounced him into three Zamaron guards, against whose yellow armor his shield dissipated. "Pardon me, ladies," he said, disentangling himself.

"Come on, Gardner, if you think you can do it," challenged Jordan, hovering three feet off the floor. Guy's ring blazed almost as brightly as his eyes, in response.

A green wall sprang up between them and blocked the force of their blasts. "Back off, Hal," ordered John. "Mr. Moe Howard Haircut ‘n' me started this fight. And we're gonna be the ones to finish it."

Gardner turned to him and sent a green flying tiger shark in his direction, mouth open, teeth sharp. "Wrong, boy. I'm gonna be the one to finish it."

With a flux of will-power, John Stewart jammed the verdant shark's jaws with a green, expanding log, created a green lasso, snagged the great fish's tail with it, and swung it with all his might at the throneroom wall. It smashed a hole in the stone, splattering itself into green energy-motes. "People 1, Jaws 0," Stewart cracked.

His foe didn't bother answering with words. A blast of power, undefined but deadly, was already pouring forth from his ring. John guessed that to touch the blast would be certain death. Hal Jordan had already powered up a shield to ward it off, but some of Gardner's doom-burst was penetrating it.

Stewart was standing fairly close to one of the Zamaron guards. "Pardon me, miss," he said, and grabbed the helmet off of her head, much to her dismay. Then he went into a football quarterback's stance and pitched the golden headgear as hard and as accurately as he could.

It went through energy-burst and shield without stopping and crashed into Guy Gardner's head.

The man who could have been Earth's first Green Lantern tried to hang onto consciousness, tried even to stay aloft, but knew it was a losing gambit. Especially when John Stewart vaulted above Jordan's shield, hurtled towards him, and smashed a hard right hand into his jaw.

Guy Gardner fell ten feet towards the floor and bounced up several inches from the green net Hal had created to stop him. He fell back once more, and sprawled senseless in the mesh.

John looked at Hal. "Why'd you bother doing that?"

"Well, after all," said Hal, reasonably, "he is a Green Lantern."

Motion caught John's eye on the other end of the room. "Speaking of which," he said, and started to rise in the air again. Hal turned quickly, and saw what he suspected: Katma Tui and Star Sapphire still battling it out. It seemed a pretty even match.

Hal shot past John Stewart, and crashed just a second before him into a wall of half-green, half-purple.

"Mind your own business!" yelled Katma Tui, bleeding a bit from the nose.

"What she said," agreed Star Sapphire, showing claw marks on her left cheek.

John asked Hal, "Should we let ‘em?"

Hal looked at both of them, weighed what he owed to Katma against what he hoped for from Carol, and made a decision. "Yeah. She'd probably kick both our butts back to Aldebaran if we didn't."

"O-kay," said John, and formed a floating sofa for both of them to sit on, just beyond the shield.

Katma and Carol were both locked in a grapple physically, but that was only secondary to the real combat. A starburst of power hung in the air over their heads, tied to dual lifelines: one coming from Star Sapphire's gem, the other from Katma's power ring.

It was a test of wills, the most primal one for a Green Lantern.

Both women were panting as if they'd run a marathon. Their costumes were sweat-stained, and their muscles trembled with effort. They alternated closing their eyes in concentration and trying to stare the other one down.

Katma could see what Hal meant about the Predator in Carol's visage. It had twisted her face into one of the most cruel and arrogant aspects she had ever seen on a woman, on Korugar or elsewhere.

But in the depths of her eyes, Katma seemed to sense something more. Something a bit trapped, a bit different.

Encouraged, she tried pouring on more will. It had to be enough. It had to reclaim Carol from the Star Sapphire.

The Zamaron queen started out with a growl, amplified it to a scream, and sent every bit of mental power she had through her gem and into the burst of power.

In another moment, the glowing powerball was forced in Katma Tui's direction, finally touched her, and made her shriek. She let go of Star Sapphire's body and fell, limply, towards the floor.

Hal tried to catch her first, but John scooped him. Katma's lovely form landed square in his arms, a good five feet from the marble.

John looked up at Jordan, grimly. "All right, that's it, Hal. You've got your answer. There's nothing left in that woman but a bitch. Let's get out of here."

But something was happening to Star Sapphire.

The powerburst, still extant, hung just outside of her body, in a mingled fury of green and purple. Star herself, barely able to make the effort, barely able to hold herself aloft, seemed to be keeping it away from her.

Then she looked up and said, in a tone of desperation, "Hal! Help me!"

The Green Lantern didn't have to be told twice.

Hal streaked to Star Sapphire's side, the dual force-shield having dissipated by now, and started to encircle the energy-burst in a green globe. "No!" she shouted. "Don't wall it off! Keep it away, but..."

"But what, Carol?"

"Leave it open! I've got to... got to..."

"John," snapped Hal. "I think we've got a problem."

Stewart deposited Katma on a newly-created green bed and soared to the rafters again. "Just what am I supposed to do to solve it, green brother?"

As he looked at Star Sapphire, he froze in shock.

The woman's face was distorting as if she were a stretched dough-person. Part of her was being drawn towards the power-burst. A beam from Hal Jordan's ring had formed a pair of pincers, which was holding the quivering burst in place, several feet from her, but it was striving to break free and touch her. "Help me hold this thing," he hissed, his other arm wrapped about Carol.

Obediently, John formed a second pincers with his ring, and felt the ball of energy resisting him strongly. "What's happening to Carol?"

Hal didn't answer. He was too busy watching.

Part of her seemed to be spinning away, like ectoplasm emerging from a medium's flesh. Her original mass wasn't visibly affected, but another self was being brought forth. It was vaguely coalescing, dummying up into a homuncular shape.

And it was the most horrible thing Hal Jordan had ever seen, but he knew it had to run its course.

It took all his strength to hold Carol back, for her physical self was being drawn to the power-burst. More than that, it took the might of two power rings and her star sapphire gem to keep them apart. The Zamaron guards below watched in terrible fascination at what was happening to their queen, and wondered if they should shoot the Lanterns down, or if the aliens were trying to save her.

And then the only connection between the meta-being and Star Sapphire was a thin silvery thread, which broke like a severed umbilical. It retracted quickly into the main mass of itself, which hardened, coalesced, and defined itself into a humanoid being. One which cupped its hands beneath the purple and green ball of fire. One which was all too familiar to Hal Jordan.

"The Predator," he said, softly.

John Stewart wondered, fleetingly, how what had come from Carol could have formed itself into male flesh and then into a covering of black and silver body armor, complete with three claw-weapons on each hand. But then again, he'd seen a lot more unusual stuff than that in his brief days with the Corps.

"The very same," said Carol's other-self, smiling. "And, though I can't do without my host-body, Jordan, I believe I can do without you two." He raised the ball of power and prepared to hurl it.

A purple burst of light cleaved through the roof of the throneroom, smashed into the force-ball, and crushed it into the Predator's body.

A light of terror went on in his eyes as he shouted, "NOOOOO!", before finally and totally combusting out of existence. Small flaming embers of him fell towards the floor. They smouldered in green and purple fire for a few seconds before going out.

Hal Jordan looked at Star Sapphire, who was breathing hard, but a bit more easily. She looked back at him. In her face was none of the cruelty, arrogance, or hatred of the woman he had seen only a few minutes before.

He looked into the eyes of Carol Ferris.

She looked back, and in a few more seconds she smiled. "Thank you, Hal."

John touched his shoulder. "Before you guys kiss and make up... what about her?"

A woman descended on the air, through the hole in the roof. She wore a uniform identical to that of Star Sapphire, and appeared in all visible ways to be her doppleganger. Some of the Zamaron guards looked baffled, but their commander understood and held up her hand.

"Stand down, sisters," she said. "It is another claimant."

The second Star Sapphire's heels and toes clacked down on the marble floor not far from Katma Tui's reclining form. She took in the scene with a long look, and then folded her arms.

"I am Remoni-Notra, who also wields the power of the star sapphire," she said, formally. "As is my right, I have saved my sister. As is also my right, I claim the right to fight her for the throne."

Hal hesitated a second, then said, "Oh, right. I remember you from the old Secret Society of Super-Villains. The pinch-hitter Star Sapphire."

Remoni shrugged off the insult. "I congratulate you on your victory, Green Lanterns. Nonetheless, I must prove my claim to the crown, as is our custom, by combat."

"Now, wait a minute," said John Stewart, angrily. "This woman's just been through hell and a half. You can't expect her to just get up and fight you like that. I don't care what kind of customs you've got. You do that, and we're gonna show you an old custom from my old ‘hood--the gang fight."

Carol said, "It is the tribal custom, John. There are four Star Sapphires in each generation. They battle until all but one is defeated. The one who remains is the true Star Sapphire. By their law, I am required to... to fight her."

"And by my honor, and my love for you, I am required to defend you," pronounced Hal, standing between the two women with his ring hand upraised towards Remoni. "I warn you, lady, a move made on this woman will be considered a move against all of us."

"Say that again," said John Stewart, smiling tightly.

Katma Tui roused herself and looked up at the hovering figures. "What's happening?" she asked. "A Star Sapphire Corps?"

"If you feel up to it, we may need a hand," called down Hal.

The Zamaron guard commander, Hebe, helped Katma up but held her arm. "Hold, all of you. Remoni-Notra, called Star Sapphire, you are aware of the laws of the challenge. That, in times of recent confrontation, a challenging queen must give time of recuperation to the queen reigning. Is this not so?"

"It is," said Remoni. "But I wish to have this matter done with directly, and it is not our custom to battle to the death. This you know. The time of recuperation is undefined, and if we fight now, the formality is fulfilled."

Carol took a deep breath, then let it out. Then she took Hal's arm away from her, and descended to the floor, standing before Remoni. Tensely, Hal called out, "Carol."

She looked up. "Let me handle this, Hal." Then she addressed her twin. "I must admit to two things, Remoni, if I may."

"Go ahead," said the other.

"First: with the loss of the Predator, a great deal of my lust for power is gone as well. The throne would be nice to have. After all, I do enjoy running things. Hal will testify to that." She smiled at him, briefly, then turned back to her competitor.

"At the same time, I want to retain the power of the star sapphire. I think--I know--I can use it for good purposes. But I want to use it on my own world. I have a family there. I have friends there. And... yes, Hal... I have the man whom I love there, and that's you."

Hal didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. Neither did his two companions. But, behind her white glove, Katma managed to hide half of her smile.

"So, that all boils down to the second thing I have to say. Which is, Remoni... if you want the throne, you've got it. I relinquish my rights to the queenship of Zamora in your favor. Satisfied?"

The other Star Sapphire's jaw hung open. Carol grinned. Hal descended to the floor, and she put her arm around him. "I think I've got the best of the deal."

"But you can't!" Remoni protested. "We have to fight! If you concede, you can't keep the Star Sapphire! It's in our books of law!"

Katma and John came down to flank Hal and Carol. "Write a new rule book," John said. "We've got a couple of prisoners to drop off. And unless you want to fight us all... so long, baby."

"Baby?" raged Remoni-Notra. "Baby? I'll have you... I'll..."

Hebe touched her shoulder. "My queen, it's true that a few rules may have to be bent to accomodate this, but I think we can manage. We are a race of warriors, true, but not without compassion. Or common sense."

"You... you..." The new queen of Zamora fairly shook with anger. Hal, John, and Katma surrounded Hammond and Gardner with green bond-auras and flew with them to the roof and through the hole Remoni had blasted in it.

"Bye," Carol called back. "Thanks for the sapphire."

And it came to pass that, on Earth, not more than a week later, a triple wedding ceremony was held, at which Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance, John Stewart and Katma Tui, and, yes, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris said the words "I do," which, in themselves, may possess quite more power than the Guardians dreamed of in their lifetime. The event was attended by almost as many incognito super-heroes as had been at the weddings of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, and by a number of disguised Green Lantern Corpsmen, among whom were the ever-present Kilowog, Salaak, Ch'p, and Arisia. The young, golden-skinned girl dabbed at her eyes with a hanky and mourned the loss of Hal to Carol, but decided that he just had a taste for older women.

It was also attended by Carl Ferris, who gave the bride away, and by Yvonne Ferris, both of whom were damned glad to have their daughter back, even if they dressed her and Hal Jordan down for eloping like that without even giving them a phone call. Even Jonny Double managed to make the list. He was rather glad that it turned out the way it did, before he even had to tell anyone other than Carl that there might have been foul play. He was even more glad that Mr. Ferris wrote him a check for two thousand dollars.

He never did figure out why Jordan's picture had all those scratches in it, but life is full of little mysteries.

The thing went off rather well in the minister's estimation, though he did wonder, briefly, why two of the rings used in the ceremony appeared to be emerald, rather than diamond.

It would be nice to say that the couples enjoyed a long honeymoon, but that would be encroaching on another story. Or perhaps two.

For our part, let us pull back to the viewscreen on Oa, where almost as many Guardians were watching the wedding as had watched the battle. Their poker faces were a bit easier to hold this time, but only by a tad.

"The wedding of two Green Lanterns," said one speaker. "Not unprecedented, true, but extremely rare. One would hope for the best results from their offspring."

"One could expect hardly less from the progeny of Hal Jordan and his wife, who is the chosen of Zamaron," said a second. "A Lantern of that line could produce wonders, indeed. Is that not so, my fellow?"

"A possibility," allowed the third. "One might even consider the merging of two such lines as a Healing. Might one not?"

"As opposed to a Parting?" offered a fourth. "Is this the meaning one's fellow wishes to convey?"

The third speaker looked into the Oan sky, towards the quadrant which, though their sun was out, he knew the star which Zamaron orbited to be located.

"One could construe that meaning, yes," he said. "And more besides. Yes, perhaps much more. Besides."

The wise little blue man turned from the viewscreen and made his way towards the dais of their great chamber.

Behind him, after looking in the direction of Zamaron, the other Guardians followed.

This one's for Steve Englehart, Gil Kane, and John Broome.