"You are an [b]old soul[/b], child..."

[i]Two floors down. Left at the seated Buddha. Right past the golden tapestry. Inside the third door. 

For as long as he could remember, Kai-ro dreamed of a place inside the temple that he had never been. A wing damaged during the Chinese invasion of Tibet. It was forbidden to pass down those halls. He had never been there.

Except in his dreams.

...had it been a dream?

The memories were so vivid. So real. Hallways that were just as they were in his dreams. 

Inside the third door was a room. Empty, except that hadn't always been the case. Someone had lived there.

...had [b]he[/b] lived there?

The back corner concealed a loose floorboard. There was a box underneath a coarse piece of canvas. It had been waiting for Kai-ro to find it. 

Or had Kai-ro been waiting for it to find him?

He knew what lay inside it, even though he had never opened the box. Not even in his dreams. It was a ring. A single jade ring.

Kai-ro was one of the young monks who was believed to be the reincarnation of a teacher. But which teacher? It was a question that the elders seemed at an impasse to decide, even as Kai-ro grew older.[/i]

"You are an old soul, child. The question is, [b]whose[/b] soul?"

[hr][hr][center][h1][color=lime]G R E E N   L A N T E R N[/color][/h1][b]"MARY JANE'S LAST DANCE" || PART II || [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziZJeM25tzg]POST THEME[/url][/b][/center][hr][hr]
[b]"KID!"[/b]

Ch'p and Aya's panicked voices permeated the thick fog that seemed to be suffocating him.

Which, for the record, was not helping matters.

Green light pierced the darkness, illuminating the wreckage as the emerald hued figure pushed himself up. A large slab of concrete and rebar rested on top of the young figure, a collapse of the floors above him having sandwiched Kai-ro between several layers of a building that was teetering on the verse of a complete structural failure.

Except there was a lifesign, buried far within. Someone was still in here. 

Someone had to help.

On his hands and knees, the child coughed as he tried to get his bearings. The wind had been knocked out of him, and now he found himself struggling to catch his breath. His vision was blurry. A sense of vertigo washed over him, as he could feel his consciousness start slipping...

Aya's voice interjected inside of his head. [color=azure][i]Your physiology is still that of a juvenile of your species, Green Lantern. Your ability to maintain this level of activity is not sustainable without considerable risk.[/i][/color]

Breathe in.

[color=lime]"In brightest day..."[/color]

Breathe out.

[color=lime]"...in darkest night..."[/color] As he spoke, he seemed to find a [b]second wind[/b]. The Tibetan boy's brown eyes flashed with an otherworldly, eldritch light as they turned a brilliant shade of green. Slowly, the boy rose to his feet. The large slab of concrete falling from off his back as he casually came up from the ground. 

How many hours now? Five? Ten? [i]Twelve?[/i]

He didn't know. It didn't matter. There was still more work to be done. There were still more people who cried for help.

The boy felt his nose running. Sniffling, he brought his hand up to his nose and saw his fingers stained red as they came away from his face.

Omicron Ceti IV needed a hero.

Instead, it had a ten year old with a gaudy fashion accessory.

Swallowing, the boy tasted the acrid copper on the back of his throat. Steeling himself, he pushed further inside the collapsing building. A sweep of a green hand lifted debris out of the way, revealing the huddled and broken form of an older woman crumpled to the floor.

Cradling the woman in his arms, the child's green aura began to spread across the stranger's body.

She was still alive. She was still [i]here[/i]. 

Kai-ro wasn't a hero. But maybe he could make a difference.

The boy started to lift the woman up from the floor when he heard the sound.

People breathing. 

He turned his head. His eyes connected with theirs. People. Ordinary, normal people. Frightened people. Huddled together in a corner, unable to move. Unable to run. Unable to make a sound.

The building came down on top of them before Kai-ro could even open his mouth.