Beyond the Sun

39

Waking up was a surreal feeling, even more so considering he seemed to be home; Clark was home, he turned and looked about at the farm surrounding him. He frowned and looked down at himself, he was even wearing the clothes he wore before suiting up and going to find Annie. To say he was confused was an understatement. He was beyond confused, he had so many questions running through his head, how did he get here? Where was Annie? If he was truly here, where was his mother? Where was Zod? Where was the ship? Where was everyone else?

"Hello, Kal," the questions running through his mind stopped when he heard the sudden voice speak out from in front of him. Clark looked up with a frown, Zod was just standing there, arms by his sides, looking at him with an emotionless mask of an expression and dull dark eyes. There was nothing in his gaze, most people had some sort of emotion present all the time, even when at their worst, yet all Clark saw in Zod's eyes was nothingness. There was nothing but apparent annoyance, or low burning anger being kept at bay by sheer will power. "Or do you prefer Clark? That's the name they gave you, isn't it?" Zod continued simply. "I was Krypton's military leader, your father, our foremost scientist; the only thing we agreed on was that Krypton was dying." He paused to watch Clark take on board this information before continuing. "In return for my efforts to protect our civilisation, and save our planet, I and my fellow officers were sentenced to the Phantom Zone. And then the destruction of our world freed us. We were adrift, destined to float amongst the ruins of our planet until we starved."

"How did you find your way to Earth?" Clark asked, it was a valid question, he didn't know how far his original home planet was from his current home planet. He presumed it had a greater distance than he could originally ever think of.

"We managed to retrofit the phantom projector into our hyper drive. Your father made a similar modification to the craft that brought you here. And so, the instrument of our damnation became our salvation. We sought out the old colonial outposts, looking for signs of life. But all we found was death. Cut off from Krypton these outposts withered and died long ago. We salvaged what we could, armour, weapons, even a world engine. For thirty-three years, we prepared, until finally we detected a distress beacon, which you triggered when you accessed the ancient scout ship." Zod watched as Clark processed this, "You lead us here, Kal. And now it's within your power to save what remains of your race. On Krypton, the genetic template of every being yet to be born is encoded in the registry of citizens. Your father stole that registry's codex and stored it in the capsule that brought you here."

"For what purpose?"

"So, that Krypton can live again...on Earth." Clark stared hard at Zod, and he just looked back at him simply. He tore his eyes away from the General when the surroundings around them began to destroy itself. It was something which he would never wish to see, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes dangerously back at Zod. "Where is the codex, Kal?"

He glanced down at himself, noticing that now he was back in his suit. He frowned slowly and mulled over his next words before speaking them in as level of a tone as possible. "If Krypton lives again, what happens to Earth?"

"A foundation has to be built on something. Even your father recognised that." Zod said while watching as the ground on which Clark stood on began to move and sink.

He looked away from Zod and looked down at the shifting ground beneath his boots. He struggled to remain upright, he watched as the soil on which he was standing on was transformed into thousands upon thousands of human skulls. He tensed and shifted, trying to get himself free; but he was seemingly stuck. No amount of fidgeting and pulling was getting himself free. It was like the quick sand effect, the more he moved the more he seemed to sink. "No. Zod, I can't be a part of this." Clark said while straining and looking to him.