Good morning, lads - just cause I'm awake doesn't mean I'm enjoying it. How's y'all's April been?
Chapter 34: The Blood
Jor-El had given her a few moment's warning before the alien breather suddenly retracted, yet Lois still couldn't help but gasp a little when suddenly exposed to the cold air of the alien craft. She took a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart and found the atmosphere breathable, though it felt a little thinner than what she was used to - or maybe it was just her heart beating too fast for her lungs to keep up, which considering how scared she was, did not seem too unlikely.
"The crew will be alerted at any moment, so you will need to move quickly," Jor-El told her as soon as she had caught her breath. An alarm blared somewhere nearby and Lois flinched at the sound before realizing that it was probably an atmospherics alert. The Kryptonians had to wear breathers because they couldn't breathe properly in Earth's air unless they had adapted like Clark and Darcie, so this favorable turn of events gave the 'Earthlings' an advantage.
"Retrieve the Command Key," Kal's father ordered, indicating the glow port. Lois obediently reached for the Key when it slid partway out and tucked it into her pocket as Jor turned to the door, making an 'open' gesture with one hand. The wall slid upwards and out of sight with a sharp hiss, allowing the pair to exit the cell, and the holographic Kryptonian led her through the starship's dim halls with calm and careful ease, hopefully towards wherever Clark was being imprisoned. Lois wasn't exactly the praying type, but she hoped to God he was all right.
They rounded a corner and were instantly confronted by one of Zod's soldiers, who wasted no time in being surprised at the sight of the human prisoner and raised their blaster to fire with a grim snarl. Jor-El made another quick gesture, causing a door to instantly descend between the escapee and the soldier at his command, striking the Kryptonian on the wrist and effectively relieving them of their blaster just as the door slammed shut. Lois glanced from the firearm now lying on the floor to Jor-El in surprise, "Did you do that?"
He nodded. "I did. Pick up her sidearm."
She obeyed, hefting the alien gun in her hand and finding that it wasn't too different from the ones she had grown up practicing with, back when she had still lived on military bases with her parents and made a hobby out of doing reckless shit with her sister. Lois was familiar enough with guns to know that they tended to be universally simple - just pull the trigger and shoot, and the blaster in her hand seemed no different. Unfazed by the unfamiliar design and feeling a hundred times more confident than she had a couple of hours ago, Lois hurried after Jor-El down another of the Black Zero's winding passageways.
V*V*V*V*V*V*V
The first thing Kal noticed when he came to was a very bright overhead light shining in his eyes and half-blinding him in his first moments of consciousness. The second thing Kal noticed was that he was laying on something hard and cold and a bit uncomfortable. His thoughts still felt somewhat hazy, though he remembered the basics instantly: Zod had summoned him. He was on Zod's ship. There was something wrong with the air. He had started coughing up blood and Lois-
Lois was on the ship.
They had taken Lois.
He was fully awake in an instant, still trembling somewhat from the effects of the heavy air as he made an attempt to get up off of the hard thing beneath him and find Lois - who knew where they had taken her, what they might do to her…
Kal paused, suddenly discovering that his attempt to get up and search for her would be a bit more difficult than initially anticipated simply because his wrists were firmly strapped to the platform beneath him. He couldn't move - he was trapped.
Kal grimaced, struggling against the bonds, but he was not nearly strong enough in the Kryptonian atmosphere to do much more than tighten them. He grunted in frustration, and was about to try again when a familiar voice spoke up.
"I knew your father, Kal," Dru-Zod said in a soft tone, and the prisoner turned his head to see the General standing a few paces away, staring up at the low ceiling contemplatively.
The Kryptonian was still garbed in the heavy combat armor he had worn at their first meeting, and in the harsh light Kal caught a glimpse of an ugly scar running down one side of the soldier's face, yet somehow instead of giving him an air of ferocity, it made the General seem more fragile. Older, quieter, weighed down by years of war and having earned nothing but scars. Kal realized that maybe Zod was in fact a bit like Darcie - an old soul with almost nothing to show for it - but the older Kryptonian before him at least remembered where he had come from.
"He acquitted himself with honor," the General continued, reminiscing mournfully at the space above Kal's head, unable to look the prisoner in the eye, "Unfortunately, he committed a crime that could not be forgiven - he stole Krypton's only chance at another generation of survivors. And I… I did what I had to."
Something in his tone made Kal want to back away from the man, but restrained as he was, he could not do much more than look up at him in a mix of rage and fear. It was painfully clear that General Zod considered Jor-El to be a criminal - a traitor to his people, and as Commander General of Krypton's Military, it was Zod's duty to eliminate the threat.
"You… killed him?" Kal asked in a choked whisper. Zod only inclined his head in solemn affirmation.
"Not a day goes by where it does not haunt me, Kal… but if I had to do it again, I would," he answered softly, his grim frown hardening with each word, "I have a duty to my people, and I will not allow anyone to prevent me from carrying it out. We are on the verge of extinction, Kal-El, and our sole hope of survival is the Codex you have in your possession."
"The Codex?" Kal repeated, genuinely confused, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Zod's frown deepened a little more, "The Codex of the Registry of Citizens - your father stole it from our planet's Genesis Chambers and stored it in the capsule that brought you here. Where are you hiding it?"
"I don't know what you mean-"
Kal's words were cut off by the violent clash of Zod's fist against a nearby wall, followed by the sound of something snapping and the General's heavy breathing as he fought to contain his rage.
"Our people are dying," Dru-Zod seethed, "and yet you continually refuse to cooperate! The only way we can ensure the survival of another generation is through the Codex - without it, we have no way to provide a Genesis Chamber with genetic material, and without it, there will not be a next generation."
His countenance changed with the words, his anger slipping away like a mask to reveal… sadness. Deep, bone-tired, sadness and loss and mourning as Dru murmured, "Krypton will die with you, Kal-El, unless you choose to change that."
"I'm sorry," Kal insisted in a soft tone, "I wish… I wish I could help you, but I honestly don't know where it might be."
The General only nodded tiredly as if he had expected such an answer.
"You are young and ignorant," he sighed in response, "Maybe you are telling the truth and do not know where it is. Then again, maybe you do and are hiding it to further plans of your own. The only way to know for sure is to break the truth from the humans who raised you."
It took Kal a moment to realize what Zod meant by the words, but the moment he did, pure terror and fear washed over him like a tidal wave.
"No!" he screamed, eyes bright with rage, struggling to get up and stop him before he could threaten his mom. The General did not respond, any quiet sadness that had been on his face a minute ago suddenly replaced with a hard and authoritative demeanor typical of a military commander. Without another word, he turned his back on the prisoner and marched out of the room, leaving Kal to fight against his bonds with renewed vigor.
Zod wanted the Codex - something from Krypton, something that had come with Kal to Earth. But Kal didn't even have much of an idea what it was, much less where it was, and the only person who might know was… his mom. Lord only knew what Zod might do to her to discover the truth.
The alien straps around his wrists only tightened in response to his efforts to escape and he groaned, a fresh wave of nausea washing over him at the sudden movement. He paused to catch his breath at the same moment a tall, male Kryptonian entered the room where Zod had left - Kal noted that he wore dark, flowing robes instead of armor like the soldiers, but the man's deepening frown revealed that he shared the same distrust of outsiders.
The Kryptonian silently crossed the room to a console of sorts, eyeing Kal disdainfully as he entered a few commands into what looked like a small alcove of minuscule metal spheres floating in midair. A moment later, one of the spheres pinged lightly in response and Kal's captor produced an alien syringe from the depths of his robes. Kal couldn't help but flinch when he saw it and instinctively tested his bonds again, but to no avail.
"You are wasting your efforts," the scientist sneered in a thick, apparently Kryptonian accent as he lifted the syringe. A pair of pincers snapped open at one end to reveal a very sharp-looking needle as if to emphasize his statement.
"The strength you derive from exposure to the sun of this planet has been neutralized aboard our ship," he continued, lining the menacing tool up with the inside of Kal's forearm, "In this environment, you are as weak as a human."
Kal had to grit his teeth against the pain, biting back a low moan as the needle was inserted through the suit into his skin. To his relief, the procedure was over in a moment and the syringe was withdrawn for examination of the glass globule now containing the prisoner's blood. The scientist moved a few paces away, giving it a small shake as he held it up against a light and leaving Kal with a small blood spot on the dark blue of his suit.
The pain faded quickly, along with the heaviness in his lungs that had been a constant annoyance ever since Kal had boarded the Black Zero. It suddenly occurred to him that he was breathing easier now, and the familiar warmth of solar energy was slowly trickling back into his veins, evidence that his powers had somehow returned. Testing the theory, Kal flexed his wrist and couldn't help but grin as the strap that bound him to the surface snapped with surprising ease.
The scientist turned at the sound, stumbling a little from the effects of the sudden atmospheric change, only to immediately discover the prisoner already half-way free. He clutched at his chest with one hand, gasping in the heavy air as he hurriedly made for the door - no doubt to alert the nearest soldier of the situation. The exit slid open at his command, and an alarm blared somewhere nearby at the same moment, notifying all occupants of the Black Zero that something was terribly wrong.
V*V*V*V*V*V*V
Elsewhere on the extraterrestrial starship, two soldiers pinned Jaora's arms tightly behind her back as they escorted her off the bridge. She had given up struggling once she figured out that she had no chance of escaping them while they were both stronger and focused entirely on keeping her restrained - but that was not to say that Jaora gave up on escaping entirely. Her plan was to wait until they reached their destination (assumedly a dark and cramped cell), then the moment they released her she would go for the throat - they would quickly learn that once freed, she could be very difficult to capture again.
An unfamiliar alarm blared suddenly overhead, drawing her captors' attention and bringing them to a halt as they glanced around for the cause of the disturbance. Jaora hardly noticed the sound, her focus drawn instead to a small porthole window embedded in a nearby wall, looking out over the blue planet below - and the twin dropships descending speedily towards it.
A thousand thoughts raced through her head at the sight, struggling to come up with an explanation as to why the Kryptonians would choose to leave their ship, but only one seemed plausible enough to be the truth. Zod had claimed that he was searching for a 'Codex' of some sort, which he had believed to be in Kal's possession. Clark had never mentioned having any artifacts from Krypton besides his Command Key and the ship he had arrived in - but if the Codex had come to Earth with him, the only other person who would know of it would be…
Martha.
Jaora had made a promise, a promise to protect, so it was understandable that she would be a bit overprotective when it came to keeping that promise.
Overprotective, and thoroughly, justifiably pissed.
Taking advantage of her captors' distraction, she twisted sharply out of their iron grip, not caring about the pain that spiked through her shoulder as she swiftly yanked herself free. No movement was wasted as she turned sharply to incapacitate the soldier on her left with a quick blow to the side of his head, then the other with her boot to his throat followed by an expertly-timed sock to the jaw - within moments, Jaora had rendered both of them unconscious.
Making a quick assessment of her position, she sprinted back the direction she had come, intending to locate the dropship bays and possibly steal one of the remaining small ships. General Zod and his forces had a decent head-start, though Jaora might be able to catch up if she pushed the craft to its limit or even if she flew under her own power - either way, she would have to be fast. Jaora was very quickly running out of time.
She rounded a sharp corner, knowing that the door to the dropship bays was close by and that in all likelihood she would lose precious moments attempting to open it, but to her surprise, it slid back at her approach. Wasting no time to wonder how that had happened, she sprinted through and very nearly ran into the Kryptonian on the other side.
Jaora reacted instantly, dropping to the floor to swing a bone-cracking kick at his ankles that by all rights should have put the man on his back - only that her boot passed right through the hologram instead. She stumbled from the force of her own blow, catching herself to look up at Jor-El smiling softly back.
"Where are they?" she demanded, quickly recognizing that Lois must have been able to activate the Command Key, allowing Jor-El's consciousness access to the ship.
"Kal and Miss Lane are currently unharmed and making their escape," the hologram answered evenly as Jaora clambered to her feet.
"And those dropships?" she pressed, "They're heading for Kansas, correct?"
Jor-El only nodded in affirmation, "General Zod will stop at nothing to ensure that his purpose is fulfilled. He is after the Codex - you must be swift to catch him."
He raised his arm in a sweeping gesture, and the bay doors protecting the inner ship from the void outside raised in response to his command, "Go."
Jaora took a step forward, poised to take flight before she was stopped in her tracks by a single thought - would she survive out there? She had flown through the upper atmosphere before, leading to the frightening concept that she did not need to breathe to stay alive, but it hadn't been very far and she had had Clark with her. This was… this was a much larger undertaking.
The space between herself and the Earth below was large and cold and empty and dark and far and had no air or sound and…
If she didn't go, she would be breaking her promise to Clark. If she didn't go, she would be a coward. If she didn't go… she had to go, even if it killed her.
Jaora took a step forward and inhaled sharply, gathering her strength before taking flight into the unforgiving void, soaring swiftly after the two dropships.