Prologue:

HOUSE OF EL

It tore me apart, watching my world rip itself into pieces right before my eyes. The imprisonment of General Zod had done little to diminish the rebellion he started. Sometimes I find myself sympathising with their cause, a stand against Krypton's dictators, were it not for the fact that they weren't fighting for peace or liberty, or what was right. They embodied chaos in its basic yet unnatural form. Murder, corruption—they sought a way to throw us all in degradation. Seeing as only those who joined in their rebellion would be allowed to live, whose House shall be allowed to flourish.

I sighed.

It all started with the prohibition of space travel a mere century ago. The destruction of the space ports and interstellar research centres by the Elder Council. We were completely cut off from the rest of the cosmos, left to fend for ourselves even in the harshest of times, and Zod was not helping.

Still, I could not shake off the feeling of dread and confusion in my head. The calculations were solid. There was no question. Sometimes I even feel it in the ground. We had harvested the planet for far too long without giving time for the planet to recover. That and the constant explosions and chemical warfare has accelerated the process of implosion. We were all going to die.

I had presented my findings to the Council. As a well-known and respected scientist at the United Institute, I expected to be taken a little more seriously, but I was laughed off. Even the Book of Rao explained that the planet would die if we didn't look after it, then there was the fact it also said that the sun was slowly drawing the planet closer. If it wasn't the core's reacting, then it's the sun's blazing inferno. But I was made a laughing stock.

When I continued to push on they even threatened to imprison me in the Phantom Zone with Zod and his Rebel leaders. Funny, it was I who discovered the algorithm to open the gateway to that dimension. When the Council took the formula, I explained it's possible use to imprison deadly criminals in them, there they will have the opportunity to begin anew without bringing harm to Krypton. A more than fair enough deal if you ask me. But now I would be trapped in the very thing I helped bring in.

From my balcony I watched the events unfold. A simple protest against artificial population had escalated fast. What started off as citizens voicing complaints had become an inquisition, killing the majority. What had the world become?

I walk inside to find my study empty. I knew what I had to do, with so little resources left. I looked at the small spacecraft in the centre of the room. There were similar crafts all over Krypton, as a means of transportation, but five thousand feet above the first atmosphere was the limit before the craft would begin to malfunction. This one however, was the only one capable of space travel. I modified it a great deal using a similar engine as the scout ships of our pioneering age.

With a limited amount of time and resources, I was only able to make such a small ship, I was left with one conclusion.

I hear the door open and in comes a beautiful dark haired woman. I smile as my wife greets me, a covered baby in her hands.

She was part of the Kryptonian police once, my wife, before marrying me. But the corruption and the fanaticism were too much for her. In fact it was when she was assigned to protect me and my research team that our government showed their true faces.

They had attempted to enslave our kind with a tool to control minds. They used a super computer, hybrid with sentient supremacy—a brainiac, to override our consciousness and replace them with quite singular purposes. All of those purposes had us bowing down to the Council like they were gods. I saw the power they wrought. Blasphemy to Rao.

'Is it finished,' she asks, approaching me with a suggestive sway in her hips and a sympathetic smile on her face.

I groaned in my hands, tired. 'Almost,' I respond, 'just a few more alterations.'

'By Rao, Jor, you need to rest, take a break for a while. A breather.' Even with that tone I look at her and it doesn't escape me how beautiful she is. I praised Rao for his favour in winning the heart of the most beautiful creature on this planet. I have to tell you, she is hot and I question why a woman of her beauty would court let alone marry such a useless scholar like me.

'Lara, I can't. Not yet,' I snap but then my tone calms. 'This planet will explode within thirty days, if not sooner. I can't…' I was very, very stressed. Pinching the top of the bridge of my nose with my fingers, I sighed. 'The Council will not help us. I've given the blueprints to my brother for his own ship, hopefully theirs can hold them all.'

I watch as Lara's face falls. 'So there is only space for one?'

I nodded, simply, my head down, looking at the scribbles on my data-pad. 'The Council will never allow its citizens to leave, not now.'

'But Kal is only a child, Jor!' She hugged her son closer to her breasts, kissing him on his naked head. 'Unless your ship teleports outside the planet's atmosphere, I don't see a way he could get out safely. And even if he does, the course to Earth will be long. He'll die out there. And when he does make it, on Earth he'll be different. They'll call him a freak.'

I shook my head. I had done the math. The baby in her arms, my son, I look at him as I always do and feel the pride, a father's pride. 'He will be fast, virtually invulnerable—'

'He will be isolated, sad, and alone.'

'No,' again I shook my head and walked over to the ship where there was a control panel beside it. I pressed a button and a green crystal appeared in the middle. I took the mineral and examined its components. 'He will not be alone…. He will never be alone.' I see the top of the crystal begin to reshape. Its top surface now took the appearance of my symbol—the symbol of the House of El.

'Then what of the rebellion? No ship will ever make it out of the orbit. If the journey doesn't get him, then our own people will!'

'I know.' I stand up and walk over to her. I take them both within my arms. My loves, my family—people I'd do anything, risk anything for. 'But we have to try, Lara.'

'I know, but I just can't.' It was then that I knew her complaints had more levels than what she displayed outwardly. She looks into Kal's bright eyes full of wonder. He had his mother's blue eyes, as bright and blue as the Seas of Corinth. 'We'll never get to see him walk…' she whispers, tears forming under her eyes. 'We'll never hear him say our names.'

I open the spacecraft and inspect the inside. There was room in there, at least room enough to grow. I look at my wife, distraught with a grief she shouldn't be feeling yet. It pained me, a lot, but ultimately it had to be done. Were all intellectuals so heartless? I could never tell. I walk to her, an understanding smile on my face, trying with all my skills to hide the sadness behind them. I try to calm her, to reassure her…as well as myself. 'Lara, out there, amongst the stars…he will live.'

I give her a long kiss on her lips. There was so much, so much in that kiss and I was afraid to ever let them go. This was going to be the last moment where I finally have the family I've ever wanted. And now Krypton was going to tear it from my very arms.

Such a cruel universe.

I took my red cape bearing my House Sigil and wrap young Kal-El in it's warmth. Lara then placed our child within the spacecraft's cockpit.

With the crystal in my hands, the information needed to teach and train our child, prepare him for his life on Earth, I inserted the device into the ship's main computer drive. I was using a specific brainiac program, different to the ones most of the universe was using—Brainiac Type 5. Hopefully it will not corrupt.

We both step up to our son's side, I was holding Lara close to me as I feel the rumble beneath us. Apparently the planet's final process was accelerated even more. Once we had thirty or so days. Now I pray we be granted a few hours.

'You will travel far, my little Kal,' I said, allowing my words to reach him.

Then Lara started, trying hard to hold back her tears. 'We will never leave you...' her voice quivering, '…even in the face of our death.'

'The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that we have, all that we've learned, everything I feel... all this, and more, I...' Then I too feel my resolve weaken. I look to my son, smiling up at us and my heart breaks. '…We bequeath you, my son. You will carry us inside you, all the days of your life. You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son.' I then feel my wife's soft touch on my cheeks, wiping away the tears I never knew were there. I close my eyes, trying to fight these tears back as I finish. 'This is all I... all I can send you, Kal-El.'

I then close the ship and it begins to hover into launch position. With Lara in my arms she whispers to me, 'You know they'll come for him as soon as the computers pick up the launch signal.'

'…I know.'

And so it started.

I opened the ceiling hatch for departure and on cue, the doors began knocking. The authorities had arrived. I found it surprising that they could find the time considering they were at war! So while I got the ship ready, putting in the coordinates, Lara had taken out her battle armour and gun.

'You sure you can handle them?' I asked her to which she turns to me with that infuriating minx of a smile she had.

'If Rao has blessed me with one thing, sweetheart, it's how to bash people up.' Oh do I love her.

A grumble echoed through my halls, 'Jor-El, you are under arrest, forfeit the spacecraft or be prosecuted for violation of The Interstellar Restriction Act!' Once they breached our home, I rushed to make the calculations and once they engaged my wife in an intense gun and martial fight, I pressed the button and the space ship took off. At the same time we felt the rumbling in the ground, almost knocking us all off our feet. Krypton was dying and finally, like a veil was lifted off of the police, they saw and ceased their fighting.

'What's going on?!' cried one of the policemen.

Lara drops her gun and walks up to me. She puts her delicate hand in mine and we both stare at the ship above us. The first vehicle with space travel capabilities Krypton has ever seen in centuries. It would be the vessel of their final hopes. 'Make a better world than ours Kal.' I hear her whispers, a last request, and I can't help it. As our planet begins to implode, I hold her close to me. Huge collumns of fire spit out of the grounds around us, the earth opens up and swallows my people into the planet's raging core. I hear screams...so many screams.

I take Lara's lips in mine. This is our final moments here, and…sorry, I'm out of time…

Author's Note: There were so many things I did not like about Man of Steel, not that I hated the entire film, I loved it, but I had a few problems with the writing and some of the concepts. I understood the whole thing about making Superman more darker and realistic but I saw a lot of Superman fans that didn't have a fun time watching it. Superman was supposed to be about hope, about a brighter future. And the whole saving humanity or being a better form of being had always come from the Kents first and foremost, I didn't get that with Jon Kent's speech about letting people die for his secrets. And the whole Jor-El being able to kick ass, I found a little bit too unrealistic. Still, I hope Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice does a better job at conveying the meaning of Superman.