A/N: Just to answer a review that I had last night because it was a guest review and I can't reply it personally.
Miss geek:
Yes you read that right. If you read back to chapter 7, notice how she said "He is very gorgeous indeed." and "You cannot deny his attractiveness." That's not a subtle implication. That's a sledgehammer to the face. I update it weekly so be patient. Thanks for the review! :)
Oh and by the way, this one is early because I have a trip at Friday and I don't have access to my laptop and internet by then. After this, I promise that we go into a regular schedule. It's going really well so far, and I hope that you enjoy it!
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The battle did not last long. Soon enough, the rebels managed to get inside the capital and take over it in less than fifty minutes. For the record, one of the fastest military coups that General Zod has ever committed. Not that he had ever committed any military coups. This one was relatively special for the eyes to see. The military soldiers were pushed out of the building. The remaining rebels celebrated their victory in nearby taverns. And the citizens, despite their initial resistance on seeing the rebels breaking through the border, were happy that the evil regime had finally been taken down.
Chants of victory can be heard by the rebels and the peoples who finally got their rights for this place. Despite having the chance to see a glimpse of what would happen if the Citadelians got their victory, Conner still felt bitter. Maybe because it wasn't the war that he won last time. Maybe because he didn't want the Citadelians to win either. If there was one thing that he was glad upon, he's just glad that his father didn't want to take down any of his unwanted oppositions, and focused on the Red Stone and finding the Princess.
"I wish that I can see this."
Conner noticed his father walking right beside him, glancing over the rebels chanting their victories in the balcony. Unlike the last desert gear that he has to wear for the sake of surviving the desert, now that he's in the city, he's more open on wearing the Zod Emblem shirt.
"You already have." Conner replied.
"In Tamaran, I mean." Zod said. "Our defeat in there was... unprecedented. The enemies knew our plans and made a trap. We thought that we could easily use her as a bargain. Instead, they used her as a bait, and we get through it. If only that stupid bastard Jaan could die before everything took place."
"It's not your fault, father."
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted him!" Zod said. "The Tamarans might not be powerful, but they're incredibly persuasive. They have a way to control our minds and indoctrinate one of our own into their beliefs."
"And it didn't happen to anyone else." Conner said. "For the record, I'm still here. Ursa is still here. We both were indoctrinated, but we both escaped."
"Does it happen to you though, Kon?" Zod asked. "Your minds... questioning every move that I have... it seems like you're doubting me."
"Is there any reason not to?" Conner asked. "For the record, my life has been war. It's always fighting peoples. I'm tired, father. In fact, I have... nightmares. Things that I've seen in Tamaran and Citadel. It just cannot be unseen."
Zod sighed. Perhaps Conner was able to put him into conscience, but perhaps there was an even bigger story to be told.
"Do you know why your last name is El?"
Conner sharpened his eyes. "No."
"Back in Krypton, my best friend was a man named Jor-El." Zod said. "He was a scientist working on the Krypton's Council. He's not only a good doctor, but a good friend. Stubborn, but reliable. We both worked out into so many difficulties, one that includes the eventual destruction of our planet."
"I... always wanted to know." Conner said. "What happened?"
"One day, Jor-El predicted that Krypton is going to blow up." Zod said. "I didn't believe him sure, but after his fellow assistant Non showed me everything, I believed in him. He was a great friend as well. All of us were."
Zod had his hands on the balcony and his head nodded down. Not sure what's going on in his head, but it has to be deep.
"I was a soldier working for the Kryptonian Councils." Zod said. "I thought the Councils are going to believe about the destruction, but they didn't. They said that it's going to cause panic. The Councils killed Jor-El's assistant Non and accused me of being the murderer. They then pointed him out to be the soldier on the manhunt of looking for me."
"Where were you?"
"I went out to Non's family, his wife and his infant child." Zod said. "I went out right there to convince them that I didn't kill Non, but they didn't believe me. Soon enough, Jor-El arrived at his vicinity and ordered a kill strike to me, but I managed to convince him that I didn't do it. Jor-El believed me, but the soldiers under his command betrayed us both and attempted to kill us. All of that was a trap, a very elaborate plan to take out everyone who knew about the existence of Kryton's doomsday."
"How did you escape?"
"Jor-El died trying to protect me." Zod said. "Non's wife also died, but his infant baby is still alive. I brought him into one of the spaceships, the spaceship that you knew as the Red Knight, and he's born under the name Kon-El."
"So I'm..." Conner said. "I'm not your son."
"Biologically, yes." Zod said. "I forgot to ask the name, so I give it my own. Kon is the short for the name of the planet that you were born in: Krypton. El is the last name of my best friend who died protecting you, and also me."
"So... all this time... I'm not really your son?"
"No." Zod went on to grab his shoulders. "But you were like a son to me. I did everything that I could to raise you, to make you to be what you are right now. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you soon, but if you want a rest, this is your chance. You deserve a normal life, a life away from Tamaran, but we're in a mission."
Conner sighed the moment those last words were uttered.
"The princess is still out there." Zod said. "Don't you want to find her?"
"No." Conner said. "I said I wanted to take a break. You just couldn't forget Tamaran, could you? You just couldn't let go that you were defeated."
"I didn't lose that battle, Kon!" Zod said. "We're going to fix Red Knight. Find the Red Stone and bring it back to me. By the time we do, we're going to fly off and find the princess."
"So you can win the war in Tamaran?" Conner said. "Fine, but you can come back and pick me up here when you do win."
"What?"
"If I stay with you, I can only be in war." Conner said. "I've had enough father, and especially not after this one."
"General Zod."
Ursa came in interrupting their conversation. She brought in a tablet, typical of human inventions, and gave some relevant information that she managed to get.
"There has been reports of a strange space ship floating in space orbiting around Earth." Ursa said. "You might be surprised."
Once Ursa showed the said space ship floating right near Earth, both had to open their eyes in bewilderment. The spaceship was exactly the one and only thing that they were looking for all this time. The Princess of Tamaran is here, and that spaceship cannot deny the proofs.
"My lord." Zod said.
"That's a Tamaran Spaceship." Conner said. "Do you think..."
"She's there." Zod said. "That confirms it. She's definitely there."
"I don't think so, General." Ursa said. "It seemed that the powers malfunctioned. She wouldn't have stayed if the ship was in that condition."
"Then she must have evacuated the ship." Zod said. "That probably means that she had crash-landed here on Earth. So how are we going to find her?"
"I think I know where she is." Conner said. "I've heard news of a meteor falling down in Gotham City. It happened just a few days ago. I think that she's there."
"Good." Zod said. "Go and find her, Kon. Once you find her, bring her back to me here."
"She's going to be dangerous."
"That's why I send you." Zod said. "You go and find her and bring her back here."
"How about the Red Stone?" Ursa asked. "We're going to need it to power the spaceship up."
"The Red Stone is in the possession of a powerful individual." Zod said. "I would request you to come over to Star City to find it, but I ask you to do not underestimate this person. She might not have been as powerful as all of us, but she is a talented escapist."
"I would do my best." Ursa said.
"Father, I'm going to find her now, but I want to promise you one thing." Conner asked. "Once I find her and Ursa find the Red Stone, power up the spaceship and leave me here."
"What?"
"I want to stay here." Conner said. "I don't want to get involved in another war with the Tamaraneans, nor do I want to go back there."
"Kon, the war would be over sooner if you help me." Zod said. "I'll give you the break that you wanted. In fact, we all wanted that. But we can't do that right now. We need to finish what we started in Tamaran."
"Should we?" Conner asked. "We're in a planet far away from Tamaran. If you would take a break, you wouldn't have joined this civil war and you would leave them to what they are. I know exactly how this is going to work, father. You were hungry for a war and you won't stop. I'm just afraid that you'll going to do the same thing to Earth."
"I'm not going to do it to this planet." Zod said. "For the record this planet has not attempted offense to me. I don't seek war for no reason. When someone attacked me, I'm going to attack back. It's about as simple as that my son, and you need to learn that."
"And attacking someone back requires you to destroy five major cities including the capital." Conner said. "The only thing I see from you is you're going to make the problems bigger, and I don't want that. I'll find her for you, but if you really want to be my father, do your son a favor: Stop this. Stop all of this. That's all I want. How hard is it for you to do?"
Zod raised his head. "And yet you helped me on this civil war."
"I helped you this time." Conner said. "After I get the princess, unless you stop all of this, I'm leaving you."
To be honest, that's one of the biggest threats that he had ever made towards his father. Conner knew his father and his expressions. His father was always a strong and formidable person, but there was a vulnerable side in him when it involved the peoples who are close to him. No doubt, his second in-command Ursa was one of them.
"Ursa." Zod said. "Order one of my men to watch on Conner. Follow him where he goes. Find out where he's been up to. And find the Red Stone."
##
Garfield Logan had never been in the private jet of Wayne Enterprises. Ever since Damian took over Wayne Enterprises when he's about 10 years old, he always used the private jet for whatever kind of things that he wanted and whatever places that he wanted. No doubt that Damian should have his own private island and used it for a lot of purposes.
"I've never been to your private jet before." Garfield said. "I'm actually quite honored. It's pretty comfortable."
"My father had been using this during his childhood." Damian said. "He didn't have the chance to use it again on his adulthood though."
"He... died when you were born, right?"
"He died protecting me." Damian said. "I was with a group called the League of Assassins where they trained me into murderers. They didn't exactly train me into Robin, but if Dick wasn't there, I wouldn't be Robin."
"That's... pretty cool." Garfield said. "I mean not cool in a sense that the story is cool. It's tragic, but it explains a lot about you."
Damian scoffed. "You thought that I'm just a rich kid living in a mansion for free?"
"Nah. I thought you were adopted." Garfield said. "Which would've been a more tragic story."
"Oh I'm weeping now. Believe me." Damian said.
"So what other 'private' things do you have?" Garfield said. "Wait don't tell me. You have a private island?"
"Technically a land, but I guess you can call it an island." Damian said. "I have one in Rhode Island ironically. It's the southern island region. It's been a while since I go there. Maybe I should use it for something."
"Rhode Island?"
"Yeah." Damian said. "I was planning to use it to build a monument of some sort, but I don't know. Tons of things happen. Lots of projects to do, and not a lot of time to think about it."
"And we're going to Star City to meet Speedy?"
"Well, she's not really the point of the whole journey, isn't she?" Damian said. "We're here to hunt aliens, a very powerful alien that you can punch in the face and not get hurt."
"Okay seriously, punching him hurts." Garfield said. "I got all of these powers and everything, but it hurts too you know?"
"There's something a little... unsatisfying about it."
"What?"
"About you, actually." Damian said. "I... kind of felt cheated out. I find you out in the open like that and-"
"Hang on a second dude." Garfield said. "You didn't find me. I find you there. I triggered that alarm deliberately and then you came."
"But you didn't know I was Robin, did you?"
"I didn't mean you. I mean Robin." Garfield said. "I was calling for Robin when I triggered that alarm. And instead of Robin, a rich aristocratic jerk dressing up for Halloween comes in."
Damian giggled.
"What? It's true. You are a jerk." Garfield said. "So what are we going to do after we see her?"
"Speedy said something about STAR Labs being under ARGUS's watch." Damian said. "They were developing weapons on counter-attacking aliens."
"Weapons on fighting aliens? That's some sci-fi movie crap right there."
"I wish it was just that." Damian said. "Honestly I don't know what to say about ARGUS anymore. Faking my friend's death, giving a manhunt to the entire bat team, hunting aliens, creating a suicide squad, what else can they do?"
"Hunting aliens?" Garfield said. "So you're saying that ARGUS is working in Area 51?"
"Could be." Damian said. "Frankly at this moment, when someone says something absurd about ARGUS, somehow ARGUS is able to make it true. When I say that they're committing military coups in Turbain, it's probably true."
"Wait, is that really true?"
"Yeah. That's true by the way." Damian said. "Thankfully I'm not really the kind of peoples who should bother them for that."
"Why not?" Garfield said. "Dude, thousands die on that war."
"If you want to have the entire America to commit a manhunt to you, be my guest." Damian said. "ARGUS is government funded. So your taxes are going right through their banks."
"So you're saying that the government is evil and Robin, the Boy Wonder, has no power against them."
"They're bad peoples, but in some ways we need them, even though they made some stupid decisions. At times, probably evil decisions too."
"Goddamn it." Garfield said. "So much for freedom."
"I'll deal with them later, when the time is right." Damian said. "For now, we have aliens in our six and we need to do something about it."
##
The reports on whatever happened at Turbain was incredibly shocking especially for ARGUS. The government-funded organization that is tasked on international affairs found the news that one of the terrorists group in Turbain managed to get into the capital and take it over in just an instant. It was quite a surprising news, and there was literally nothing but astonishment on her face.
"How can this happen?" Waller asked towards one of her agents Ishido Maad. "I'm going to need reports."
"No government military members stepped out of Fascana alive." Ishido reported. "We can only determine what's going on if we finally get inside the capital."
"Get one of our agents in there!" Waller shouted. "The hackers should be able to penetrate through the defenses."
"That's... also a problem." Ishido said. "Some of their hackers managed to program the gates so that it can only be opened mechanically from the inside."
"Then have our agents equipped with explosives." Waller said. "Forced entry. Distractions. I don't care. Get our best agents there and find out what's going on!"
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A/N: Thank you so much for everyone who has been following the series. You guys rock. If you're new to this, you can support this series by leaving a review, favorite, or follow the series. :)