Ch. 7: A Shade of Protection

Flying over the arctic was beautiful. White snow spread out in every direction as Clark flew over the silvery canvas below him. Everything out here seemed so perfect, so pure. A few hundred miles away he spotted a small crystal sticking up out of the ice with his supervision and began his descent.

Reaching his destination, he landed by the crystal and tapped the top of it with his finger, causing the snow before him to rumble as the ice at his feet cracked and broke away to reveal a stairway leading down.

The scout ship that Zod had tried to use to remake the Kryptonian people was the center of Clark's new fortress under the ice. After the madman had tried to use the ship's genesis chamber, Clark decided that humans had the right to exist even if it meant Krypton's future was doomed. After the fighting had ended and Zod lay dead in Metropolis, Clark took the ship to this location and with some advice that Lois had received from Clark's birth father, Jor-El, he was able to build what he referred to as his Fortress of Solitude. Here he could keep the Kryptonian side of himself alive and also be able to escape the stress of his own human life every now and then without having to worry about others finding him.

Since bringing the ship here, he had been trying to fix the main computer and bring back the shade of his father that had been uploaded into it. Finally beginning to understand the energy source, a phantom drive, he was able to fix a piece of the circuitry and a sharp wizzing noise began irradiating throughout the ship. Clark smiled before hearing a familiar voice behind him.

"Hello, Kal," a strong monotone voice rang out.

"No," Clark said, his eyes wide with fear. "It can't be." He turned around slowly to see the face of Zod staring right back at him. "How can this be?"

"When I took this ship to use the genesis chamber, I deleted the existing shade in the system, your father, and replaced it with my own. This allowed me full access to the ship and left me able to control it. When you brought the ship down, the system stopped working, but my shade remained."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't turn this thing right back off and destroy it," Clark shouted.

"Purpose," Zod spoke calmly.

"What?" Clark was surprised by this answer, "Explain yourself!"

"Purpose," Zod repeated, "I already told you that on Krypton, we abandoned natural birth and instead used genesis chambers to have children. This allowed us to give to each child something that natural birth never could. Purpose."

"Are you trying to say that I have no purpose, Zod?" Clark was already becoming angry.

"On the contrary, Kal," Zod responded, "You are the last remaining Kryptonian in the universe. You carry our entire race within you. And because my sole purpose was to protect our people, protecting you is now my sole purpose."

"I don't believe you, Zod, you're a genocidal maniac; you're evil!"

"I'm a lot of things," Zod explained, "And unfortunately you saw me when I was most desperate. But there are many things you can still learn from me about our people, about our way of life. And perhaps, in time, you will come to trust me. Together we can still find a way to bring back our people. On terms we can both accept. Do you trust that?"

"The last time we saw each other, I killed you," Clark growled, "How can either of us ever trust the other?"

"The last time I saw your father, I killed him, and it broke me, Kal. Afterwards my descent into madness was complete. I lost my remaining humanity and became what you saw. But I wasn't always like that. I loved your father. He was my closest friend, and my most trusted advisor. Before the Kryptonian Civil War changed everything, we were even brothers by marriage."

Clark's face turned pale, "Explain yourself!" he shouted.

"Lora, your mother, was my sister. She met your father because of me, and because of me she lost him. I've done such terrible things in my life; especially to the people I cared about the most. This might only be a shade of myself but it's a shade of what I should have been. My purpose got in the way of doing what was right, and as the fate of Krypton now rests solely on your shoulders, that burden has been lifted from mine. If you destroy this computer and erase me, I will understand, but do it to end me, not to end our people's future. Because of me, the contents of this ship are all that is left of our once great civilization and only you can decide if you want to keep the hope of our people alive or not."

"I want to trust you, Zod, but how do I know you aren't lying to me?"

"You don't," Zod answered plainly. "But your family wears the symbol for hope on your armor. Perhaps with a little hope we can begin to fix things."

Clark gave Zod a hard look. His heart wanted to trust him, but his brain told him it was too good to be true.

"Tell me about my mother," Clark suddenly spoke up, "Your sister. What was she like?"

"It's a shame you only got to meet her once," Zod started. "You have her eyes. I see a lot of her in you. Our family was famous for having strong warriors and tacticians. We rarely lost fights, not because of our strength, but because we could outthink our opponents. We anticipated their moves and were able to make them fight us on our terms. Your mother was better at this than me, but her purpose was meant to be a politician. As the warrior, my purpose was to protect the people of Krypton, and as it so happens that is how I met your father. As boys in school, we couldn't have been more different. I was the athlete and he was the scholar, but somehow we were always able to meet in the middle. Your father's purpose was science, and everything he looked at he saw differently than me. I saw a field and thought of what I could build there, yet he saw the same field and could only think about what life was already living there. He opened my eyes to things I had never thought about, and I craved his advice on matters I had trouble understanding. My sister was no different than me. The symbol our family wears is the symbol for Protection on Krypton. And your father was still a young man when he began to research the dangers lurking in Krypton's core. We had been harnessing energy from the inside of our planet and only Jor-El could see the danger of our actions. To protect Krypton, my sister fell in love with a scientist who spread hope that our species would survive. And this mixture of protection and hope is why you are here today. I see now that the two of them made the right choice; the only choice."

Clark's eyes were beginning to water. This was the most he had ever truly learned about his family; about his home planet. His brain was still telling him not to trust Zod, but at this point his heart had taken over and he smiled.

"Alright, Zod," Clark said. "For now I'll just have to hope that the best in you is still alive. If your purpose truly is still protection, then help me protect the people of this world first, and then I'll see if you're fit to protect your own people again."

"I will do whatever you ask, Kal-El, son of Jor-El my friend, and Lora-El my sister."