diff --git a/config/symbols.json b/config/symbols.json
index bba41c71..f4bd82a9 100644
--- a/config/symbols.json
+++ b/config/symbols.json
@@ -23105,7 +23105,7 @@
 { "file_offset": 4549880, "flags": 0, "name": "_network_game_server_next_team_index", "static": true },
 { "file_offset": 4549888, "flags": 0, "name": "_telnet_console_globals" },
 { "file_offset": 4550032, "flags": 0, "name": "_light_volume_globals", "static": true },
-{ "file_offset": 4550212, "flags": 0, "name": "_lightning_globals" },
+{ "file_offset": 4550212, "flags": 0, "name": "_lightning_globals", "static": true },
 { "file_offset": 4550216, "flags": 0, "name": "_damage_globals", "static": true },
 { "file_offset": 4550292, "flags": 0, "name": "_lights_game_globals" },
 { "file_offset": 4550296, "flags": 0, "name": "_processed_bsp_flags", "static": true },
diff --git a/docs/object_matching_logs/lightning_smallest_five_followup_20260924.md b/docs/object_matching_logs/lightning_smallest_five_followup_20260924.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..17707be4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/object_matching_logs/lightning_smallest_five_followup_20260924.md
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Lightning smallest-object follow-up (2026-09-24)
+
+Base: `4d1ebf179023f46efb77929fb599e514601152fb`. This packet corrects
+storage ownership; it does **not** claim a new exact function or a completed
+object. `lightning.obj` remains 8/9 strict exact, with `_lightning_submit`
+parked at zero credit (2,576 padded bytes, 80 relocations, 756 instructions).
+
+The 2026-09-25 Lane C research packet independently identified
+`_lightning_globals` as file-static in the historical PDB (DataKind 5), and
+the symbol is absent from the historical public-symbol list. The previous
+external declaration in `lightning.h` had no consumer outside `lightning.c`.
+The source now defines it `static`, the unused header declaration is removed,
+and the single `symbols.json` entry is marked static. The rebuilt object
+records the global with COFF storage class 3. No function body, data bytes,
+or section size changed.
+
+I read the current September 2025 Lightning worker ledger before probing.
+It already tested more than 100 source shapes and identified the last
+`_lightning_submit` discrepancy as a C2 x87-store/index-reload scheduling
+transpose after a separately owner-gated 3D point-to-vector view copy. Two
+new ordinary-source probes were negative and fully reverted:
+
+- A named shared `real texture_x = u + u_offset` produced a different
+  normalized body hash (`bc07e3e1…`), not January's hash.
+- Writing the second vertex as `vertices[1]` and advancing by two altered
+  the pointer-offset instruction stream and left the reload after the x87
+  store. It was not a byte-close alternative.
+
+The historical `/Od` evidence favours genuine `point_from_line3d` calls in
+the vertex pair, while the current body hand-expands that helper. The
+folded-inline COMDAT policy admits a new copy only with a strict-exact caller,
+so this correction remains held with the fuzzy function; it was not silently
+landed. Likewise, the owner-gated view cast and any fabricated scheduling
+dependency remain unlanded.
+
+Verification after the storage correction: `ninja progress` passed; the
+whole-unit gate stayed 8 exact / 1 residual / 0 unwritten; parks were 83
+active / 0 stale / 0 invalid; admission audit had 0 contradictions; the
+Lightning fake-match scan reported 0 findings; and pytest passed 1,161 tests,
+5 skipped, 26 subtests. `git diff --check` was clean.
+
+Reopen `_lightning_submit` only with a demonstrated natural VC7 source form
+that detaches the second vertex's `texture.x` x87 store from the adjacent
+`fstp st(0)` without moving color or texture-y stores, or a first-party
+January-era source fragment. The complete do-not-repeat inventory remains in
+`research/fifty_objects_20260925/w/lightning/LEDGER.md`.
diff --git a/source/objects/widgets/lightning.c b/source/objects/widgets/lightning.c
index 1c770a79..57322e9b 100644
--- a/source/objects/widgets/lightning.c
+++ b/source/objects/widgets/lightning.c
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ static void lightning_offset_marker_position(
 
 /* ---------- globals */
 
-struct lightning_globals lightning_globals = {0};
+static struct lightning_globals lightning_globals = {0};
 
 /* ---------- public code */
 
diff --git a/source/objects/widgets/lightning.h b/source/objects/widgets/lightning.h
index e48069ad..a0fdda19 100644
--- a/source/objects/widgets/lightning.h
+++ b/source/objects/widgets/lightning.h
@@ -67,10 +67,6 @@ void lightning_submit(
 void lightning_render(
 	void);
 
-/* ---------- globals */
-
-extern struct lightning_globals lightning_globals;
-
 /* ---------- public code */
 
 #endif // __LIGHTNING_H