but it was happening here, in san francisco, in the middle of a fight. it felt wrong that she would be face-to-face with a green lantern ring after all these years because dinah lance could think of a dozen other times she should have recieved this kind of power. granted, she never wanted that power, but she could have hand picked some more opportune moments.
it sat there saying she had the ability to overcome great fear, that she was being welcomed into the corps as one of their own. surely there were more suitable candidates that would earn the worthiness of this ring, but if she knew one thing from all her time traveling with hal and oliver, it's that when a ring chose it's bearer, it was for good reason. but why now?
she thinks back to the beginning, when she and isla were strangers and they had to learn to trust one another in order to survive. dinah remembers back to when she was shot, or kidnapped by lackies or anything similar. she thinks of how she laughed in their faces, but praised them for their gumption going after her. she may not have had the same kind of power that the others did, but wasn't that always her thing? dinah's power was in her bravery, her stubbornness, and her compassion. she fought with her fists, not her powers because those were always just a back up. a fail safe. they were the kill switch she used to get out of bad situations. and over the years, hadn't she been in worse situations than this?
she wonders why she didn't get the ring after she tried to kill slade. that was a turning point in her life, one she wasn't happy about, but one that she knew shaped her into the person the ring wanted today. it was the first domino to fall that started their story, but that was nothing to fear. after owen had left isla, she had fallen into a pit of despair that she barely climbed out of. perhaps that was why she was so easily possessed, and why the ring didn't come to her. she was scared of who she was becoming and how much her life had drastically changed following the loss of a child and a love.
and then she thinks of how brave she stood in front of slade, putting herself into the direct path of his wrath, waiting for him to take her down with him if it came to it. that man had taken her entire heart and she couldn't bear to go on without him if that flame bird was to take him down with it. she wasn't afraid to stare pain or death in the face, but in the wake of destruction, she nearly lost it all to fear. fear of him, fear of losing him, fear of the raw power she saw that month in others. a power ring would not have sought her out then, either, and she didn't blame it.
when she was kidnapped and thrown in a cell with dozens of other people, forced to fight for entertainment, she wasn't scared. dinah was good at fighting. really good, in fact, so she reveled in it. it wasn't an ideal situation, but she and everyone else around her made it work to their advantage and they got out in one piece by banding together. there was nothing to fear that time, but she was so physically and emotionally weakened that she was laid up for what seemed like months.
what scared her now were very different things. she wasn't afraid of the things that used to scare her. she had a new set of fears, real fears. dinah lance was most terrified of leaving her son at home and never seeing him again. she was afraid of him becoming an orphan, afraid of him becoming a target. she was afraid for him, for he was but a powerless infant that displayed no sign of having a metagene, and she prayed to god he didn't.
despite her fears, she still went out every night. she suited up, she walked along rooftops and down alleyways, and even though there were dozens more just like her, she did her part. even though she was but one person in a world full of disease, despair, death and evil, she still stepped out every night and did her job to keep it all away from her son. it wasn't that she wasn't afraid, because she was. dinah was terrified. but she looked that fear in the eyes and told it to go fuck itself every goddamned time because she was going to make this city a safe place for her child to grow up. even if it meant losing her to save him, and dozens more, she would continue to pull her fishnets and boots on every single night.
that unphased, unobtainable, indomitable willpower that kept her laughing in the face of danger was the reason a green power ring hovered in front of her. even if she didn't want that kind of power, she slipped it on her finger.
welcome to the green lantern corps.