The underground basement of Wayne Manor seemed somewhat old and dim, making the conversation between Shiller, Batman, and Sinestro seem more like a medieval interrogation.
Despite Sinestro being completely uncertain as to why the energy of the Yellow Lantern was not under his control but obeying the commands of the man in the black tight suit before him, and not understanding why he couldn't call upon the energy of the Yellow Lamp Furnace, the only thing he knew was that without the support of the Lantern ring's energy, he had nowhere to hide.
"Can you talk about your background? Or, how did you become the leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps?"
Sinestro squinted his eyes, he didn't expect Shiller's first question to be this, he said, "It seems that you already know something about the Lantern Corps, but as far as I know, the Lantern Corps has no development in the sector where Earth is located, and there's only one Green Lantern on the entire Earth..."
"That's correct, but we probably know more than you think."
"Such as?"
"You better answer my question first."
"If you don't tell me what you know, then what do you want me to talk about?"
"No need to distract the topic, I know what you are thinking. Don't think about fooling us with those speeches you use to fool the natives of remote planets. I just want to know how the greatest Green Lantern turned into a Yellow Lantern."
"It seems you really know a lot." Sinestro took a breath, apparently not wanting to hide this. He said, "Because I peeked behind the Green Lantern Corps, or all Lantern Corps, the dirty conspiracy."
"Oh?" Shiller leaned forward, showing significant interest. He asked, "What is it?"
"You should know the origins of the Lantern Corps, right?" Sinestro sighed then began to tell the story of the origin of the Lantern ring and the Lantern Corps himself.
Everything started from one of the oldest and most advanced civilizations in the universe, now they are referred to as the Guardians of the Universe, but many comic readers prefer to call them "Little Blue People".
They belonged to an ancient, advanced civilization in the universe that had developed to its apex. They then started to think about protecting the universe, harnessed the Emotional Spectrum in the universe to create Lantern rings and developed the Lantern Corps.
"When I first joined the Green Lantern Corps, I thought the will of the Guardians of the Universe was supreme, they were a race with great wisdom and noble character, dedicated to protecting the universe."
"But then one day, I was summoned by another great being. He whispered to me, telling me another story..."
"Those who proudly call themselves Guardians of the Universe are just a group of selfish and arrogant aliens, who actually never protected the universe from the start."
When Sinestro got to this point, Shiller touched his temple, looking into Sinestro's eyes and asked, "You're saying, someone told you the truth? Who is he?"
"I don't know, but he showed me the evidence. At the time, I was the most powerful Green Lantern, so I could access the total energy of the Green Lantern Corps, and there, I discovered it, Parallax."
"That voice told me, it was those who claimed to be Guardians of the Universe who put Parallax into the total energy of the Green Lantern, making it the weakness of the Green Lantern. They did this just to better control the Green Lantern Corps."
"The Green Lanterns have been their tools to control the universe all along, those so-called maintaining justice and peace in the universe, are all lies."
"So you rebelled from the Green Lantern Corps?"
Sinestro sighed and said, "After discovering all this, I had not yet made a decision, because I knew that the person who told me this also must have wanted to use me to do something, he is not necessarily more noble than the Guardians of the Universe."
"But, my investigation of the total energy of Green Lantern was discovered by those Guardians of the Universe, they started to suspect me. I couldn't stay in the Green Lantern Corps anymore, so I seized an opportunity, released Parallax, and left the Green Lantern Corps with it."
"Did that voice contact you afterward?"
Sinestro shook his head. He said to Shiller, "I guess this person might have a vendetta against the Guardians of the Universe, but I can't be sure. The civilization of those blue-skinned Guardians of the Universe is quite advanced, their lives are high-level, anyone who can oppose them doesn't necessarily need to use me to do anything..."
"Or perhaps that person couldn't do anything temporarily..."
By the time Sinestro got to this point, Shiller had a suspicion in his heart, because the biggest enemy and opponent of the Guardians of the Universe is the "First Lantern".
The grudges between these two parties have to start from the origin of the Little Blue People.
This race is indeed very advanced, they are perhaps just a bit too advanced. Their thought process, their way of doing things, they are simply beyond the comprehension of carbon-based life forms, and perhaps it is even a bit too early for any intelligent life form.
If we were to summarize this race's portrayal in the comics, it would be: always causing trouble but always failing, always thinking but always confused, always making decisions but always wrong, and always messing things up.
The aliens with blue skin could be referred to as troublemakers of the universe. They always manage to make bad decisions at the wrong time and place causing a significant impact, then they create a lot of mess and let other sentient beings in the universe clean up after them. Simply put, they cause trouble, play out of the bounds, run away, and pass the buck.
The main point I want to discuss is their propensity for blame-shifting. This trait has characterized their history from beginning to end.
In the beginning, the Little Blue People had the idea of protecting the cosmos, in other words, they got the idea of stirring up trouble. At this time, The 'First Lantern' from another universe came to save their destroyed home, seeking help from the Emotional Spectrum Energy. When he met with the Little Blue People, they hit it off and began to study the Emotional Spectrum.
At first, everything went smoothly, but eventually, the Little Blue People realized that the power of the emotional spectrum was just too strong!
So what did they do?
They decided to eliminate their own emotions.
From the perspective of carbon-based beings, these two things seem unrelated. But this so-called advanced race of wisdom thought and acted this way.
Then, during the experiment, the Little Blue People found that after applying the power of the Emotional Spectrum to the 'First Lantern', he was also too powerful!
They then thought, wouldn't it be nice to eliminate the 'First Lantern' as well!
But as the 'First Lantern' had become very powerful, the Little Blue People could only imprison him.
From the grudges and disputes between the Little Blue People and the 'First Lantern', I can say without a doubt they deserve the criticism.
Having found the Emotional Spectrum to be a very powerful force, the Little Blue People blamed their emotions and decided to eliminate them. When they realized the 'First Lantern' was a very powerful entity, they blamed him and decided to eliminate him as well.
Yet, even if they were really determined to carry through with these plans, inside their own organization there was chaos. Some wanted to eliminate emotions, some didn't. Some wanted to utilize the power of the Emotional Spectrum, while some feared it to be too dangerous.
In the end, they came up with a compromise. They created the Green Lantern Corps and threw an ancient entity representing fear into the lantern, making the yellow power of fear the Green Lantern's vulnerability. Finally, they painted their whole home yellow, thinking this would keep the Green Lanterns from attacking them.
In any case, this way of thinking is somewhat difficult for humans to grasp.
According to Sinestro, the 'First Lantern' contacted him, revealing the secret of the Little Blue People, asking him to check the total energy of the Green Lantern and unleashed Parallax, establishing the Yellow Lantern Corps. However, this still does not explain why all these things happened ahead of schedule.
The only change is that Shiller remembers there wasn't any plotline in the original story where the 'First Lantern' contacted Sinestro. So what's the deal with the 'First Lantern'? Is he about to escape, or has he already escaped? If it's the latter, this could be dangerous.
The 'First Lantern' is a very powerful entity, capable of almost restarting the universe in the comics. The fact that he contacted Sinestro implies that he's planning something.
Shiller's thoughts stretched far into the future. There had been too many unexpected developments recently. First, he had always thought that the Laughing Egg could not be born in this universe, but he dug up an unhatched Laughing Egg from the depths of Bruce's dream. This was not normal.
Secondly, the 'First Lantern' took early actions, creating the Yellow Lantern Corps. This might mean the conflict between him and the Little Blue People is about to escalate.
Could these two abnormalities be related?
Shiller thought a lot, but he didn't share any of this with Batman. Otherwise, Batman wouldn't be able to sleep for an entire year.
Currently, Batman, who hasn't even left Novice Village, doesn't have the capacity to participate in cosmic events. However, clearly, these continuous changes could bring about a crisis beyond Batman's capability at any moment, which could lead the entire cosmos into danger.
To prevent this situation, a plan gradually took shape in Shiller's mind.
When Shiller and Batman stepped out from the underground of Wayne Manor, he told Batman, "You may want to find a safer measure to lock this guy up, he might be useful later."
"Moreover…" Shiller pulled out a keychain from his coat pocket. Apart from a series of keys, a couple of rings were also hanging from it.
He opened the keychain, took down the rings, and handed them to Batman, saying, "These are the lantern rings attracted by me earlier. The energy of the rings has all entered the dream, so the remaining physical entities can no longer return to the Corps. You can try to decipher the secrets within..."
Batman regarded the pile of rings in his hand with his usual skeptical gaze. His conversation with Sinestro today made him aware of the vastness and dangers of the universe beyond Earth.
"Are you feeling anxious? Are you planning to intensify your training program? Actually, I have a better idea..."
Batman turned to look at Shiller, but Shiller didn't continue speaking. Instead, he turned his head away.
"Batman..." Shiller's voice dropped, just like the first time they met in the alleyway, he said:
"...Have a good dream."