Author's Note: The author known as johnsmith has a ficlet collection on the website Twisting the Hellmouth entitled 'The Corridors of a Twisted Mind'. Among these stories is one called 'Dark Tide' concerning a very grim alternative ending to the 2013 DC superhero movie 'Man of Steel' which inspired me to write several omake endings to that. After asking this author, johnsmith has given permission for me to post the following, for which they have my fulsome thanks!
On the other hand, this could've happened instead:
A woman's very acerbic voice came from behind Clark and Zod on the command deck, "Do you have any idea how much it takes to piss off Gaia in order to get her full, personal attention? The total destruction of her biosphere will really do that, seeing how she reacted by filling me up to the brim with her magic and then sent me to deal with you!"
Just before he'd been about to leave the spaceship's command deck to pay a last visit to his human mother in Smallville before the World Engine tore apart the planet, Clark spun around in abrupt surprise at those mystifying words. He gaped at the deck's open doorway where a strange woman in an ordinary blouse and skirt and a much odder long hairstyle of intermixed swirls of black and white strands was glaring at both him and Zod.
That older Kryptonian general who'd earlier helped convince Kal to abandon the human race and rejoin his true people was also staring in total bewilderment at where the completely unknown woman to him was standing there, next to the reporter Lois Lane who should've already been executed a minute ago in her cell by Sub-Commander Faora-Ul.
Indeed, Zod's first words to the human females was, "Where's Faora?!"
"Who?" came in return via a rather puzzled voice from the lady with the black/white hair.
Regarding Clark with absolute loathing, Lois muttered from out of the corner of her mouth towards her new companion, "The bitch you just vaporized with a wave of your hand."
"Oh, right," nodded that woman. She raised an eyebrow at where Zod was beginning to get angry. "Do you want to see where what's-her-name is now?"
"Yes!" snapped Zod.
The strange woman merely shrugged, and pointed at the command deck's viewscreen showing the Black Zero in orbit above Earth. The gazes of Clark and Zod followed this indicating finger, only to see nothing unusual there save for a glorious scene of the peaceful world below unaware of its impending doom.
In the very next second, though, Faora-Ul appeared from out of nowhere, floating in the vacuum of space several hundred meters past the Black Zero's hull without wearing the protective gear necessary to keep her alive in this extremely hostile environment. Sure enough, that Kryptonian woman contorted in supreme agony as her inner organs swelled due to the gases in her lungs and intestines expanded. That torment was accompanied by the bodily fluids on Faora's eyeballs and inside her mouth boiling off into vapor. Around then, she lost consciousness and her exposed skin started turning blue.
From where he'd been watching in disbelief, Zod loudly ordered the other command deck officers, "GET HER BACK HERE!"
Nobody at their consoles even bothered to react to that alarmed command, save for continuing to calmly carry out their previous orders without seemingly aware of what'd just happened. An incredulous Zod tried to step towards the nearest lieutenant and physically shake him into responsiveness…only to find himself frozen in place. Exactly like Clark at the general's side.
"Don't bother," the strange woman dispassionately informed Zod and Clark. "She's already been judged and sentenced by Gaia, but don't worry, you'll join her soon enough. Every one of you."
"What?!" came from an appalled Clark. "You can't do that!"
The woman curtly informed Clark, "Watch me. You really expect to get off scot-free from planning to exterminate humanity and completely changing my home into something else better for you to live? Nope, easier to make sure you're dealt with for once and all!"
His mind whirling in furious thought for some clever strategy to change their hopeless situation, Zod eventually admitted defeat, both in his head and outwardly.
"Fine," he gritted. "You win! Let us go, and I give you my word we'll leave this solar system and never return."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" the strange woman jeered inexplicably at a baffled Zod, since only Clark understood what that meant.
Both of the Kryptonians felt their hearts sink when this woman went on in her previous implacable tone, "I'm honestly supposed to believe that? More likely, you'll just start looking for another world to take over without whoever's already living there also having any say about it. But even if you luck out with a completely empty planet, after you're done fixing it up, it's guaranteed you'll remember how dangerous us humans can be and sneak back to kill us all, this time without any warning! Not gonna happen on my watch, nuh-huh. You lost. You die."
Clark desperately tried to persuade the woman otherwise, "We're the last Kryptonians in the universe! Zod and the rest, they're simply acting on the ideals they were imprinted with! They don't know any better!"
"You do," the woman with the strange hair retorted. "I was listening on everything that went on here, including that AI getting wiped out from existence, how fine you were with Ms. Lane being murdered, and about to have a horrible goodbye talk with somebody nice who raised you to behave way more decently than you've managed the last couple of hours! You did it all of your own free will, so take the consequences you deserve…Clark Kent."
After the end of those unyielding words, among them the final time he would ever be called the name he'd been given by Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark and Zod vanished from the command deck of the Black Zero...and reappeared outside the spaceship next to Faora-Ul's unmoving corpse.
The two Kryptonians in vacuum immediately underwent the same slow, agonized death as Faora had already gone through. During this, Clark never noticed how the Black Zero itself and the remainder of the crew within completely dissolved into their component molecules, nor did he pay any attention in his last moments to how Zod also excruciatingly passed away nearby.
Instead, Clark spent the several precious seconds before his vision failed at gazing down towards the beautiful blue globe where he'd been sent by his parents on another dying planet to hopefully grow up there into a fine man and a hero, one who'd be admired for his steadfast capacity for truth, justice, and the American way.
Which didn't happen at all in this reality.
Lois Lane reeled at what'd just popped into existence around her now. She gawked ahead at a wide expanse of Kansas farmland filled with tall corn ready for harvest. Glancing sideways at the gravel road she was standing upon which led to a white-painted farmhouse several hundred feet beyond, Lois' attention was diverted by a soft sniffle coming from her other side.
She looked over at where the woman who'd rescued her from those alien monsters now had bright red hair instead of her former monochromatic hairstyle, tears beginning to trickle down her face as she stared off into the distance, seemingly unmindful of Lois.
Lois bewilderedly listened to that lady say sadly, as if to no one else but herself, "I need lots and lots of Xander-hugs to get over that."
"Um…" Lois hesitantly tried, "What happens now?"
Blinking and then rubbing at her face to wipe off the moisture there, the other woman sent a thoughtful expression towards Lois. Jerking her head at the distant farmhouse, the redhead informed Lois, "The hardest part for you, I guess. You're going to have to tell everybody the right story they'll buy, and it'll need to be a total lie straight from the start."
"A lie?!" Lois exclaimed in shock.
The other woman gave a resigned shrug, pointing out to that reporter, "You really think you'll keep any shred of journalistic integrity if you mention such stuff as Gaia, magic, and the witch who saved the world?"
A very strangled "Witch?" came from Lois at that stage, producing a faint smile and an offered business card pulled from the blouse pocket of the other woman.
Dazedly accepting it, Lois read on the card: WILLOW ROSENBERG – ISWC and a lengthy telephone number imprinted below indicating it was an overseas connection.
Looking up in genuine confusion, Lois then heard from Willow, "I'll be reporting to my own people, but don't worry, nobody there will ever contradict anything you say. It's not like we don't have any big-time secrets of ours, quite the contrary. Keep the card or memorize the number and throw it away. If you need to talk to us in the future about strange rumors that could turn real and nasty, we've got a twenty-four-hour line. Well, goodbye, Ms. Lane."
At that, Willow did a casual farewell wave of her hand, and disappeared from sight, accompanied by a faint popping noise.
Lois took a quick step back, unconsciously crumpling the business card she was still holding while she stared in amazement at the empty space on the gravel road where someone had been there a moment ago before showing off real…magic?
Spending a few minutes in intense concentration which included a complete review of the past hours' events, how to best present them to the authorities as not to be instantly committed to the nearest funny farm, and most difficult of all, the invention of Clark Kent as a brave man who'd willingly sacrificed himself to save the world, Lois eventually sighed and started walking towards the Kent farmhouse.
Along the way, without thinking about it, Lois smoothed out the business card and put it securely away in her pants pocket.
Second Author's Note: I had an objecting review on Twisting the Hellmouth that Clark as Superman was more than capable of surviving in outer space instead of dying there in this chapter. I answered by pointing out it's DC canon that Kal-El is vulnerable to three specific things: red sun radiation, Kryptonite...and magic. Willow augmented by Gaia's magic made sure to remove any possibility of him living through her stern judgment upon all the Kryptonians about to murder her world, her family, and the rest of humanity.