Chapter 3: Birthright Part 3(Final)
๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ
-Jor and Lara-
-The citadel primary landing bay, thirty minutes later-
...
Jor-El and Lara, both clothed in their finest research robes, were facing the fast approaching craft. It has been a long time since Jor-El met with his alien colleagues, since the Beyonders invaded their realityโฆ "How many trillions of lives, across the cosmos, have been lost to those heartless bastards?" He thought.
Lara took his hand, sensing his anger. As the vessel landed, the hangar's atmospheric processors and gravity platings activated to make the meeting more livable for his distant workmates. A ramp extended down, touching the ground, and three tall greyish blue bipedal people got out of the ship.
"Rami, Sayd, Ganthet! It's good to see you all in good health." Jor-El said.
"It is good to see you too, my young friend." Ganthet politely replied.
"And this beautiful young Lady is the Lara you cannot stop gushing about, I presume?" Said Sayd, the female member of their group.
Lara, not forgetting protocol, bow to the ancient beings in greetings and respect.
"Yes. She is." Jor told her, smiling.
Rami, their last member, approaches Jor-El and claps his shoulders with all his strength. Jor doesn't even flinch. Maltusians were possibly the first intelligent life forms in the Universe and may possessed vast psionic powers slightly superior to kryptonian levels, and energy manipulation on a Cosmic scale, but were nowhere near close to a Kryptonian physical's might, even without an orange or yellow sun.
"Jor-El! It has been too long! Look at how much you have grown. And you finally have a beard! Ah!" Rami cheerfully said.
Pleased, Jor-El rubs his beard and loses himself to his thoughts. "Yes! Praise the Mighty beard! Zor-El can go eat a-" ''JOR-EL!" Lara discreetly stomped his feet, her polite smile still on her face, not wavering for a moment.
"Ah! I like this one!" Rami for his part did seem to enjoy their silent argument.
"You have our congratulations." Sayd telepathically told the couple as she approached Lara, but stayed at a comfortable distance. Her eyes on Lara's belly. The other Malthusians nodded to give their regard to the woman and her pregnancy.
"We have much to discuss." Ganthet told Jor-El.
"Yes. We doโฆ" Jor seriously acquiesced.
"Well, as you three go talk about your Science. Lady Lara and I will make some tea. And please don't go running trying to save the universe without us." Sayd said to the group of men, and talked to Lara about some beneficial herbs from Maltu as they left.
"Well, that just happens." Rami said.
"Quite." Ganthet agreed.
"... This is going to take some time, so it's better to get comfortable. Shall we?" Jor said, gesturing to the entrance of the Citadel hangar's bay.
...
-Lara Private relaxation chamber a few hours later-
...
An emotionally drained Lara, was sitting between the Malthusian Sayd and her three "adopted" girls. The tea had been helping her unload tensions and worries upon their shoulders, which the trio have been happy to take.
"Believe me, I know how you feel. Watching your world at a precipice with only limited choices." Empathically said Sayd
"You do?" Asked a young Kara.
"Oh yes. I do. Between bad choices and worst choices, sometimes you have to quickly make your decision... Or watch your world burn."
"What did you have to choose?" A naive but gentle Thara asked. After a few short chuckles and a sigh, Sayd spoke.
"His name was Krona, he was a friend. And unlike me, he was a good scientist. He was smart, maybe too smart for his own good." She let her cup of tea float to the table, she looked at both of her palms. "He was a happy, humble, and kind man. He had two wives and a child, and was engaged in scientific study, a little too much if you asked me at the time."
"But one day, his contentment ended when tragedy struck, and he lost his family. A simple freak accident, a house fire caused his home's StarCore to go nuclear... He mourned them, for hundreds of years, wearing the cloak representing the White Entity of Life itself. And after a long time, with renewed fervor, during Maltus' golden era of discovery, he became obsessed with the truth, the past... life and death. Emotions."
"There were no lines that he would not cross in the pursuit of knowledge. He tried to open a forbidden window, to the beginning of time, on the first spark of creation. I never was as good as Krona, Ganthet or Rami. But my calculations were right. His experiment would have flooded the beginning of the Universe with enough entropy for the universe "to be born old"."
"I tried so hard to talk him out of it. As expected, he refused to budge, and the others believed it was just the rambling of a mourning man, that his time-bending technology was a hoax. No one wanted to do something..." She shook her head sadly.
"No one but you." Indigo said, and Sayd confirmed it by a nod.
"I stopped him. He was so close to succeed, and he almost did." She took a short breath. "His window exploded before activating, and a being known as Volthoom appeared before us, but that is a story for another time."
"How did you stop him?" A curious Kara asked.
"I stepped behind him, and I put a dagger in my friend's back." Sayd said, her face a mask.
"Ohโฆ" โ "It was a logical solution." โ "This is sad..." Kara, Indigo and Thara respectively said.
"Yes, young Thara, it is."
...
-Jor-El personal workshop at the same time-
...
"Are you sure? I have enough to run a few experiments for quite some time." Jor-El said.
"Nah kiddo, I'm good. The readings are really something, yea, but I have too much work already. Maybe in the next century." Rami replied.
"Neither do I have time." Ganthet confirmed.
"So, Rami, are you going to tell me why you are here?" Jor asked and Rami shrugged sadly.
"We need your-" Rami cuts Ganthet before he can finish.
"You mean I need his help? Oh don't look at me like that Ganthet. I made a mistake, not you, nor Sayd. I fucked upโฆ Sure, no one died, but still. I believed I knew better, even after Krona."
"What did you do?" Jor-El asked him.
" 'Have used your Phantom Zone telemetric data and deep scans, toโฆ Create something." He told himโฆ Jor-El took a few seconds to compute what Rami just said, he then replied.
"And?" Rami looks at him like he has a second head.
"What do you mean-"
"I told you so Rami." Ganthet cut Rami, "Did I not?"
"Yesโฆ Yes you did... But! Something happens, Jor-El. I don't know what, but something touched my work, "it" did โฆ I don't know what it did exactly, but it did! I created another ring. It came as a result of study into the Emotional Spectrum. I started after seeing the Power Gauntlet of Krona."
"Wait, aren't emotions supposed to be heresy to your people?" Jor asked. Rami only nodded to his question.
"A facet of its design was that it could access any form of emotion in the spectrum and unlike the seven prototype power rings of the Green light, it had open access for any wielder to utilise instead of a select number. But it did not. So I tried to scrap it. And nothing I did worked. I have tried 5,612 methods, including twelve black holes, Zeta-Beams, Nth Metal and the Kryptonite you gave me."
"But why are you coming here? If you could not destroy it, what makes you think I can?" Jor curiously asked him.
"Because it's starting to make me go insane, Jor." At Jor-El's curious face Rami continued. "It was supposed to take its power from the complete Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. Nowโฆ Now I don't know. The scans I did show that the energy signatures are extremely similar to the ones found in the Phantom Zone. But, it looks like a warped version of the emotional Spectrumโฆ Or something who wants to look like it."
"Like a Phantom Spectrum?" Jor stupidly asked, "No way its-".
"YES! you understand! Exactly like a Phantom Spectrum. Huh! And I was even going to call it "The Phantom Ring" before it went all to hell! That's what I call irony." A happy Rami said.
"Are you sure you're well? You are starting to scare me, old man. But again, why come here?" Jor-El asked again.
"... It whispers to me, 'I can still hear things, poems, words, ideas that aren't my own." A doubtful Jor-El looks to the saner Malthusian, only for Ganthet to give him a grave nod.
"Wellโฆ Shit." Jor-El sighed heavily. "She brrought you hereโฆ" Jor-El muttered. "They are things from the Phantom Zone that I didn't show you, here, let me send you the full survey data." With a few gestures, a TING is heard on Rami's and Ganthet's dataslate, and a minute of reading later, both have their eyes bulging.
"A Primal Entityโฆ That explains a lot. Normally they tend to stay as far as possible from other beings outside of their realms, or voids in that case. But what it has to do with... " Rami doesn't finish and seems to gain a distant look.
"With what, Rami?"
"... Does the term Star-child have any meaning to you?" Rami asked Jor-El.
And then, Jor-El's whole demeanor changed, from the kind and dorky Jor, to the merciless, battle hardened warrior who fought and killed Beyonders, and then retro-engineered their armors and weapons from their corpses. There were reasons that even after being weakened by the Beyonders' incursion, and only holding one world, that no one was attacking Krypton.
Jor-El was, and still is one of them.
"Be calm Jor-El, and listen to him." Ganthet said with authority. And with a few deep breaths he did listen.
"Here," Rami said, taking a box from...somewhere, and then opened it.
A Ring with harsh cuts, or more of a stone trying to look like a ring, with a symbol on its head, emanating a lightโฆ No. Something trying to mirror/simulate/echo one, and failing miserably.
Some kind of... Unlight or Phantom Light.
The thing he knew for certain, is that one way or another, She was responsible.
"Rami, what do you want me to do with that?"
"Take it. Something tells me that you know for what, or who it is for." Rami replied. And so Jor-El finds himself with another World-Ending artefact. "Ah. And let me give you this." Crates numbered in the thousands, of different sizes and makes appeared in the room.
"Ramiโฆ" An exhausted Jor-El said.
"Hey! This is Vibranium and pure Nth metalโฆ and probably a few others, so don't go complaining." Rami fired back as he seemed to have regained some colours.
"So who wants to experiment on some exotic material?" Jor-El asked them.
...
-Two hours later, same place-
...
"What in RAO's name are you all doing!?"
"Science! We're doing- Whoa!... Lara, love of my life, please drop the- TAKE COVER!" And taking cover they did. As multiple boxes containing exotic and mystical metals flew over their heads.
"Jor-El, a concede seems wise, right about now, wouldn't you agree?" Ganthet sagely said.
"We did go a little overboard with the singularity projector-"
"WHAT?!" Lara yelled as more boxes slammed against the table the trio used as cover.
""Rami... "" Jor-El and Ganthet spoke at the same time.
"Jor-El, your mate needs to calm down. Please do something." Ganthet politely asked him.
"...Let me try that," Jor-El cleared his throat and shouted, "We surrender!"
"You Goddamn right!" She shot back. "So, are you going to tell me why my part of the workshop looks like a damn warzone?"
"... We needed a testing area and a shooting range...?"
"Jor-Elโฆ Why did you not use the ones we already have?" She asked him, hoping that the answer wasn't-
"...I kinda get excited and... forget?" You asked for too much Lara.
"Clean up your mess Jor-El." She said leaving no room for an argument.
"Yes of course. Rami, Gant-" Jor started.
"Well look at the time." โ "It was a pleasure seeing you Jor-El." Both Rami and Ganthet go to Sayd's side. Sayd only chuckled at her friend's antics.
"It has been a pleasure meeting you Lara. And I have given Kelex enough tea for a few cycles. Jor-El." She told Lara and Jor with a bow.
"I look forward to our next meeting, Lady Sayd." Lara said with a smile.
Twenty minutes later, Jor and Lara were alone in their lab.
"Did you have to throw those boxes everywhere, my love?"
"Did you have to destroy our laboratory in the first place, my love?"
"Touchรฉ." Jor sighed. So much to do, so little time. If only they could have more time.
"Jor? What is the glowing blue dust that I can see in nearly every container?" And she was right, there was quite a bit of it.
"Oh that. It's the Exo material in dust-form. We have grinded approximately one hundredth of it for... scientific purposes." He said.
"Let me tried to build another hoverboard?" She said, seeing right through him.
"Noooโฆ?" she looked him in the eyes "I tried to build a faster than light hoverboard. There is a difference." Jor said, and she looked around and asked.
"And where is it?" His silence is telling enough. "Jor, where is the hoverboard?"
"By now? โฆ Probably far outside our star system. And halfway through the galaxy. " Yes, Jor was proud of himself.
"...It's too late for that. Let's go to bed. And don't forget the council wants to meet tomorrow morning, and I don't want another complaint from the guards that you were, again, found armed inside their chamber, please?" She begged him.
"No promises. I do not trust any of those snakes, not after everything they have done."
"I know, and I am not asking for you to go without one, you know what I mean." She took his hands in hers and started to drag him to their sleeping chamber. And halfway through their small walk Kelor shows herself.
~Lady Lara, I have done most of our work. But I must warn you that multiple collections of Kryptonite of rare variants have been found and properly secure. / I would have destroyed them if there were not so many rare ones /.~
~We have logged our inventory count to your gauntlets. The vaults are holding more artifacts than previously anticipated. / So many weapons.../. But we may have find one in particular who can be of interest to you.~
And trailing behind Kelor in some of her liquid-Geo tentacles, was an Egg twice as big as her head.
"And what is this? An egg?" Unsure of what to do about such a thing. Leviathan confirmed that it was in fact an egg.
-Yes it is, Matriarch Lara. An artificial one. Containing a living specimen, whose species has been extinct for eons; a Kryptonian warhound, the last of his kind.-
-They were given to expecting mothers of noble houses, to serve as a guardian. Legends say, it is supposed to form an eternal bond, in utero with the child, a bond transcending space and time, separation from reality, nonexistence and death. -
Absolute, unbreakable, undying-.-
"A gift for a queen, or a prince." She thought to herself as she placed her hand on her belly. Lara didn't know what to say, so she did not, and hugged Kelor.
"Thank you. Both of you." she whispered, true wonder in her eyes.
~You are welcome, Lady Lara. Would you like for me to clean the workshop?~
As Jor-El was going to tell her yes, Lara shakes her head and said;
"No. I have nothing better to do tomorrow and Jor will be absent. It will help me pass in reviews of what we have and how many End of the world items we have."
"About thatโฆ " Jor-El started.
"Not tonight. I am mentally exhausted and you owe me a long massage session, so let's go." She tiredly said, before remembering something.
"Wait, what about the egg? How does the bonding process work?" She asked.
-The process takes less than a night, but needs to be done in close proximity to the mother.-
"You mean in my bed, are you?"
-Yes, Matriarch Lara, in your bed. But do not be surprised when the egg hatches, it is a confusing moment for the -puppy- and it may seem painful, but it is not.-
"Good. Kelex, can you get me the Black Mercy's oil? Jor has some magic to work on my back and feet." She said half asleep.
And with that, the couple walked in their chamber and closed the door, to pass a good night of rest, not knowing that a conspiracy was being played just under their noses.
...
-The next morning, Jor-El and Lara sleeping chamber-
...
Waking up in the morning is generally pretty mundane, but there are ways to make it interesting. Like the cracking of an egg.
"Jor-El, wake up!" Voice an excited and lightly scared Lara, "It's happening!"
"Hmmโฆ-Ouch! I'm up! I am! You crazy woman." expressed a still sleepy Jor-El.
"Kelor!" Lara shouted, "I need your tentacles right now!...Huh that sounded way better in my head."
~Hello Lady Lara, sir. Ah, it seems it has begun.~
"Do we need anything?" Jor-El Asked.
-No you, do not. But Kelor and I have made a list of the future necessities needed for the correct development of the -puppy-.-
"Look Jor, it's so white and slimy." Comments an excited Lara.
"The question is, what name do we give it?" Jor asked.
~IT, is a HE sir~
Kelor observed.
"Lara? Any ideas for a name?" Jor asked her again. Lara couldn't help but smile, Jor placed a hand on her shoulder and the other on the 'too young to see' and very confused puppy.
"What aboutโฆ.?"
...
-Law Council's chamber two hours later-
...
"I speak to you now, members of the Council, as Zor-El, husband of Alura, father of Kara. Jor-El's proposal to transfer the population of Krypton to another world by way of the phantom zone is simply unfeasible. The resources do not exist to build such a vast projector array or enough ships with phantom drives, on such a short timescale."
"Do you not understand!? Krypton's core is collapsing, we may only have a cycle. Harvesting the core was suicide. It has accelerated the process of implosion. I am not given to wild, unsupported statements. I tell you we must start to evacuate this planet immediately!" Jor-El countered.
"Jor-El, be warned. The Council has already evaluated this... outlandish theory of yours."
"You can't ignore these facts! It's suicide! Worse! Genocide!"
"It isn't that I question your data. The facts are undeniable. It is your conclusions we find unsupportable. I tell you Jor-El, Krypton is simply shifting its orbit." Vond-Ah said.
"Jor-El, be reasonableโฆ" Lor-Em told him.
"I have never been otherwise. The madness is yours!"
"This discussion is terminated! The decision of the council is final." High Eminence Ro-Zar snaped firmly.
"Let it be known to all that Jor-El speaks only for himself, as I have openly disagreed with my brother's predictions of apocalypse. "
"The rest of the Science Council and their conclusions are clear, Krypton is not about to be destroyed." Ro-Zar acknowledged Zor-El words with a firm nod.
"Any attempt by you, Jor-El, to create a climate of fear and panic among the populace must be deemed by us an act of... insurrection."
"You would accuse me of insurrection? Has it now become a crime to cherish life?" Jor-El replied.
"You... would be banished to endless imprisonment in the Phantom Zone, the Eternal Void, which you yourself discovered." With reluctance Ro-Zar said.
Deadly silence follows.
"Will you abide by the Council's decision?"
"I will remain silent." Jor-El said after a long pause, not allowing his mind to succumb to anger as it was already focused on what to do next.
A few minutes later, outside of the tower Kelex approaches him in a hurry.
"Good. Kelex contact Zod, we have-" Kelex interrupted him,
~Sir! Something happens at the Citadel. An Explosion in the workshop.~
~Lady Lara is still inside!~
...
-The "Incident", a few minutes before, the Workshop-
...
"Are we sure the house of EL stands for hope?" Lara asked no one. "Because if the answer is yes." She continued. "Then why? WHY do they own so many weapons!?" Was she angry about it? ...Maybe. "Two hundred eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and twenty weapons. Unregistered, illegal or both. Look at the numbers of weapons with the labels -PROTOTYPE-, -ALIEN WEAPONRY-, -DO NOT TOUCH!-, or my favorites, these two, -MAKE PEOPLE DANCE- and -MY LOOT!-."
"I knew the house of EL liked to take trophies. But this is ridiculous! They were obsessed with exploring, looting and stealing everything not nailed to the floor, and even then, that didn't stop them. I understand how and from where Jor-El got this compulsion."
~Lady Lara, I have find another one.~
"Not againโฆ" Lara said, her forehead against the surface of the smooth table. And after taking a deep breath she asked. "What is wrong with this one Kelor?" Lara sighs "If this is another sentient weaponโฆ"
~Technically, nothing. It doesn't even have a warning attached to it. But it seems intelligent without being sentient. You should read the description, Leviathan is still very interested in it.~
"Leviathan, can you give me a short, but detailed review of the thing?" Lara was now curious rather than irritated.
-Yes, Matriarch Lara.-
-Name; TACTIGON.-
-The tactigon is an alien weapon platform of unknown origins. It is a very powerful weapon capable of adapting to
ANY threat, to what extent is unknown. It is capable of changing its shape to conventional or esoteric weapons to fit whatever the situation requires of it.-
-Only downside. It needs to bond itself to the arm of a host.-
-A perfect weapon. The more you fight, the more it evolves.-
"Well, that isn't terrifying at all. Store it within your own tesseract, I don't want someone like Zor-El or Faoraโฆ Especially Faora, to have that kind of power if they stumble upon it."
-Affirmatif. I have taken the liberty, with Kelor assistance, to store the vibranium, Nth metal and Exo-material not in dust-form within myself.-
"Thank you both." She said, "What does he even need and want to do with that much dust?"
~Something about a new kind of Faster than light travel.~
"... He wants to build another hoverboard is he?" She sighs "At least he is-"
โ๏ธโ๏ธโ๏ธ
-Matriarch Lara!-
-All alarms of the Citadel have been remotely deactivated! Sensors too. I am BLIND. Please seek shelter IMMEDIATELY!-
Not arguing, she starts to move for the workshop containment field, only to see mechanised insects of unknown design emerging from the ground all around the chamber.
The moment they breached into the lab, their abdomens started to expand dangerously.
Lara did the only thing she could do, she deployed her gauntlets, projected the most powerful barrier her weapons could conjure, and prayed.
...
_Dreaming_
She is terrified. Part of her thinks that maybe the end is not coming that fast, it cannot be. Maybe, just maybe the Aethyr is wrong. Maybe they can live their lives and help prepare the next generations to save Krypton. But she knows that those thoughts are just dreams.
A life is inside of her. Her Kal-El. A life created from her and Jor, made through love and devotion. To each other, to Krypton, to what their people and culture used to be.
"I'm so sorry, Lara." Jor tells her, when she still dreams.
...
...
-Nineteen days later, Citadel's Healing chamber-
...
An extremely pale Lara was lying in a medical bio-bed. She was fighting to not sleep until Jor and Leviathan could finish their scans, and tell her what was wrong with her baby.
"He is starting to develop nodules of the Exo-material throughout his whole nervous system. They seem to react to electrical stimuli. But it's โฆ" Jor-El didn't have the courage to finish his explanation.
"..Tell me. Is heโฆ Is our baby going to be alright?" A barely conscious Lara asks.
Jor-El didn't know how to say itโฆ How could he have known that the material was so mutagenic to fetuses? All his simulations have shown that the kryptonian body of adults would have easily eliminated the substance from their systems. He could say that the lack of knowledge and pure data on pregnancy were at fault. But Jor-El knew better. It was his and no one else's fault. Well, until he "finds" who tried to destroy their lab and research, or find enough evidence to incriminate his brother, and then ask him whyโฆ. before removing his head.
"Steel yourself Jor-El." And he started to talk.
"The nodules are developing too fast, and the waves of dark energy they're emitting are killing you from the inside. If we don't do something, and do it fastโฆ You'll die, and him with you."
"It's a nightmare, it's not real and I am going to wake up." Was her thoughts.
"Lara, it's gonna be alright, I promise." He said with a smile, trying to reassure her. " Please, Leviathanโฆ explain to her the procedure."
-Affirmatif.-
-The procedure consists of using Nth metal symbiotic properties to help in a multitude of ways.-
-The modulation of gravimetric fields and adjacent effects of the nodules, and its restorative capabilities on already damaged cells. The symbiotic metal has the capacity to adjust and augment itself in order to better aid its host.-
-First downside; It limits to a grand extent, if not outright negates, the practice of the magical art; He will forever be 'magically' โฆcrippled.-
-Second downside; It may cause constant sensory and psionic overloads, as the metal has the passive effect of enhancing a user's physical and mental capabilities."-
"And how are we... going to do that?" she mumbled.
Jor-El was silent for a moment before responding.
"We are going to link Leviathan and the baby together. The operation will be done from the inside. I knowโฆ It's not what we had in mind, and that-"
"Do itโฆ I feel myself slipping away. We don't have much time." She professed, and Jor nodded sadly.
"Kelor, Kelex you know what to do." He approached Lara and kissed her forehead. "I love you."
"... 'love you too." She responded and started to close her eyes, letting sleep claim her.
-One and a half cycle later, the Ecto-Ship, the Citadel secondary hangar-
-Two weeks before Krypton implosion.-
Jor-El has been blaming himself since the incident, and Lara didn't know what to do to cheer up her now official husband.
Thara, the ever religious and kind girl that she was, had officiated the ceremony, and the other girls; Kara, Indigo, Alura, Astra, even Ursa and a strangely excited Faora, that particular image still gives her the chills, had participated in the ceremony in a form or another.
But nothing of that mattered anymore. Their world was at an end.
Lara didn't change much, except her pale complexion and the golden tint under the skin of her glabella due to the Nth metal infusion that had spilled into her during the operationโฆ And maybe a little bit of weight. No one could prove anything, and if you did, she would strangle you before you could talk. Fortunately, the Solar therapies gave her back some of her strengths. The solar projectors were a godsendโฆ Until the newly born puppy found himself right under them.
"Look! In the sky! A flying puppy!" Their, O so naive and gentle Thara, is a treasure they didn't deserve.
And speaking of the little devil.
"Krypto! Come here boy!" The fluffy and white "little" Warhound was easily distracted by the smallest of things. His size barely reached her knees. And apparently, thanks to their bond, will grow at the same time his brother does.
Lara, still petting the puppy and lost in her thoughts, didn't register Jor-El's presence until he was talking to her.
"Lara. It's time." A resigned Jor-El said.
She knew that they had no other choices. Death, in the Phantom Zone doesn't exist.
She knew that her only chance to live through the birth of her childโฆ and to one day meet him again, was here. The Entity didn't really have a need for Lara to survive... but the Aethyr, for some reason, still wanted to help. And Lara wasn't going to throw that chance away.
Soโฆ Here she was, Krypto on her laps, wearing the Cosmic armor of her husband, added with Ecto-containment wards and modified to her measurement. This beauty was created by her Jor-El, with kryptonian science know-how and retro-engineered Beyonders technology. But the best part of it? The Element-X power reactor.
Element-X, also known as Tenth Metal by the Malthusians, and the "fire of the Fourth World" by other civilizations. Legend and myth says that it is supposed to be the purest form of creation itself, the metal of pure possibility and that whosoever wields the Tenth Metal will have their first words etched into the hall of kings.
Jor-El's armor was her salvation, as it will become her tomb. To forevermore roam this Eternal Void as it's Queen. "A small price to pay", she thinks, for one day to see the people she loves.
The phantom projector turned on, and the ship was then launched through the stable singularity and into unreality.
And there the Entity was already waiting for them. A motherly smile sketches upon her face. She simply said,
"๐๐๐ก๐๐ค๐ข๐ ๐๐ค๐ข๐."
Lara had known pain before, during her military career. Well, she believed she knew what pain wasโฆ She was wrong. Oh so, so wrong. The birthing process is long, and is painfully mind numbing. Jor-El does his best to help, but most of the work is hers to do. The Aethyr is by her side, and the armor she is wearing is the only reason why the Entity can have Lara right hand in hers without Laraceasing to exist.
And after hours of work, for the first time in an unreality where life and death, space and time, causality and sanity, have no meaning, the first cries of a child are heard. Lara was so tired. But not enough to not hold him when Jor-El gave her the fruit of their love. He had unreflective black hair, a darker than night mop of hair upon his little head. What was bothering her was that she could barely hear his small cries, weak and nearly silent. He looked so little and fragile in her arms. He was fighting so hard to just breathe, his small shallow breaths sounded like wheezing to her ears.
This didn't escape Jor-El's notice. He rushed to a cabinet to take a breather. The breather came around Kal's small neck and started to rapidly shift to a better size and extend into a transparent helmet. His small breaths came easier after a few tense seconds, and then with difficulty the babe opened his eyes.
A glowing blue, so bright that her eyes needed time to adapt. And once they did-
"Look Jor. Look how beautiful those are." She said with wonder, her fatigue forgotten.
His irises literally shone, like twin blue stars, within a black sclera. And in their centers, black dots, so dark, that looking into them felt like falling into an abyss.
Too many questions go through Jor-El's mind, like what to do now? Has Zod finally finished the construction of the exodus fleet? Has anyone found it? Does my wife lack anything for her long stay here? ...But for whatever reason, right now, Jor-El just grins like a loon.
"๐๐ช๐ง ๐จ๐ค๐ฃ."
"๐ฝ๐๐๐ช๐ฉ๐๐๐ช๐ก."
"๐ผ๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐ก๐๐ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช. ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ฃ๐ซ๐๐จ๐๐๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ข๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐จ๐๐จ."
"๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ง๐ช๐ ๐๐ฎ๐."
"๐ ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ ๐จ๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ฉ๐ก๐ฎ. ๐๐ฃ๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ง๐ฃ๐๐ง ๐ค๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐๐จ."
"๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ก๐ค๐ค๐ , ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐จ๐จ ๐ ๐จ๐๐. ๐ผ ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ค๐ฉ. ๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐จ ๐๐ค๐ค๐."
"๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐ฉ๐๐ค๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ค ๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ก ๐ฉ๐ง๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ช๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ข."
And after three days of rest it was finally time for Jor and Kal-El to go back to Krypton.
"I'll be waiting for you Jor-Elโฆ and you Kal." Lara said as she looked at them with sorrowful eyes. "And please, give him those... For self defense purposes." Taking off her gauntlets in their wristbands form.
"I will come back to you, I promise." Jor-El declared.
"I know." she whispered to him. "Make a better world than ours, Kal." A crying Lara said as she kissed her son.
...
-One weeks before Krypton implosion.-
...
"You think this is over?! The others will make sure you and your Abomination burn for this heresy!" Coughing up blood, the false brother continued. "I should have been the head of the house! Not YOU!" A dying Zor-El gave voice to his anger.
"Noโฆ" Jor-El said, "You? You shouldn't have touched my wife." and then manage to lift his weapon to Zor-El's face.
The shot not only obliterated his head, but his upper torso, leaving behind a gaping hole in the ground and the charred remains of the monster that was once his brother.
Jor's hand then found the glowing green dagger stuck in his left side between his ribs and removed it slowly, fearing to leave a fragment of the blade inside his wound, then threw it far past the border of the landing pad. He took from one of his pouches, a glimmering and small sphere, held it to his wound and cracked it. A miniature shimmering cloud of particles seeps into the tear to burn the radiation away. A scream, kept behind his clenched teeth, is heard through the hangar.
A few minutes later, Jor-El steps over a few dozen corpses and then through the reinforced doors of his workshop, which has become the most secure location on Krypton. Who is currently guarded by Kelex, in her three metres tall Battle-form, and a terrified Krypto. His son, still in an artificial coma, is well secure behind multiple barriers.
~Sir, you are hurt!~
"That's nothing Kelex. Please report." He asked.
~There are five attack ships followed by a large fleet converging from the east. The Citadel's defences are being scanned and evaluated.~
"Where is Zod? He should have already completed his coup by now."
~General Zod is apparently defending the exodus fleet, the council has already fallen. But, heavy resistance pockets still remain. The girls are with Alura and Astra.~
~Sirโฆ We are alone.~
Looking around the room. It took him a second to come up with a plan.
"What about the prototype spacecraft? Is the phantom drive online? And can it fly?"
~Yes, but sirโฆ The craft lack many features-~
"I know Kelexโฆ This is why you will go with them." He told her.
~Sir! We can still-~
"Kelex! I cannot fight with all of you here. They are going to fire from a distance just to neutralise the Citadel defences, and then deploy ground forces. You will leave before the launch bay is damaged or destroyed. You and Leviathan will link to the craft. Hide in dark space and let time remove any memory of us from the universe. And do not trust any signals of Kryptonian origins. We still don't know who we can trust."
"Then find habitable worlds where no one can hurt him. Where he can hide, grow strong and learn. Where he can find a good and kind family... And take this." Taking a small box from a secured compartment, opens it and takes the Alphahedron class sunstone crystal and gives it to Kelex, "You'll need that." He said, exhaustion and sadness radiating off of him.
~...Goodbye sir. It has been a honor.~
"It was good to have you with me Kelex. And do not worry, we'll find each other when he is ready, I promise." Jor-El finished.
As Jor-El prepares for what is to come, he feels the need to say something.
"You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But I will never leave you. Even in the face of my possible end, the richness of my life shall be yours. All that I have learned, everything I feel, all of this and more I have bequeathed to you my son."
"You shall carry me inside you all your days. You will make my strength your own, see my life through your eyes, as your life, in time, will be seen through mine."
"The son becomes the father, the father becomes the son. This is all that I can send with you, Kal-El. And not near so rich a gift as that your mother sends along. Her love." And with those words, the ceiling above retracts, exposing the glow of Krypton sky. And with a muted roar, the pod starts to glide off into the night.
And as the small ship headed out into the intergalactic void, to never again see the light of Rao, Jor-El prepared himself for battle.
๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ๐ โ
-End of Krypton's Arc-