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The World Engine was nothing but a smoldering carcass now, a titan of kryptonian metal reduced to molten ruin. Its twisted spires jutted like broken ribs, spewing occasional embers into the ash-filled sky. The air was hot yet calm, a cataclysmic event finally ended before it even began.
Arthur and Kara sat atop the remains of the machine, steam curled around them, streaked with the fading glow of destruction. Kara's cape was torn, her suit scorched in places, strands of golden hair clinging to the dirt and sweat on her cheek. Arthur, rested his doomsday bone gauntleted hands on his knees.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then, Kara let out a small laugh, tired, but genuine. "Well," she said, glancing sideways at him, "That was one hell of a workout."
Arthur smiled a bit. "Yeah," he said, offering her his fist. "Nothing can stop us when we work together,"
Kara grinned, bumping her fist against his, careful, yet firm enough to make the gesture feel earned. "Damn right," she murmured.
The wind tugged at the loose ends of her cape, fluttering it weakly behind her. There was a faint cut along her cheek a tiny scar that marred her otherwise flawless skin. Arthur's gaze lingered there, his eyes softening from their usual steel. Without a word, he reached up and brushed his thumb across the mark.
Kara blinked, caught off guard by the gentleness. His hand was rough, forged by battles now, yet the touch was tender, almost reverent. She inhaled quietly, the closeness of him making her heart stutter.
Arthur's lips curved into a faint smile. "Yes," he said quietly, eyes glowing faintly violet now not with menace, but with a kind of calm power. "All of this… will be over soon and both you will be able to close this chapter and move on."
Kara's eyes flicked toward his, and for a second she froze. That glow unearthly, beautiful, was hypnotic. It stirred something deep in her, awe and wonder. She quickly looked away, trying to suppress the heat that flushed her cheeks.
"Alright…" she muttered, voice quieter than she meant.
But Arthur didn't let the moment slip away. His hand, still warm from brushing her cheek, gently found her chin again. He tilted her face back toward him no force, just quiet insistence. Their eyes met.
Kara's breath caught. She tried to look away again, but this time… she didn't.
Arthur leaned in slightly, the faintest trace of a smile ghosting his lips. The violet in his eyes dimmed, replaced by something human. Kara's lips parted just a little, her heartbeat thundering in her chest.
And then
"Damn!"
A blur of red and gold zipped into existence beside them, followed by a gust of displaced air that nearly sent Kara's hair flying into her face. Barry stood there, hands on his hips, grinning like an idiot. "You guys took it down already?!"
The silence that followed was murderous.
Arthur's expression flattened immediately, and Kara blinked, moment ruined before slowly turning toward the speedster with a look that could have melted titanium.
Barry blinked between them, realizing way too late. "…Wait. Did I just interrupt something?"
Kara's fists clenched, a vein twitching on her forehead. "You…" she hissed, voice tight with barely restrained Kryptonian rage.
Barry raised both hands in surrender, already inching backward. "Oh! Okay, okay, I see that look-uh, I'll just, uh.."
Before he could finish, a shockwave of displaced air sent him skidding backward across the rubble, courtesy of Kara's glare alone.
Arthur sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, though a faint smirk betrayed his amusement. "Did you at least manage to move people away from here?"
"I did! and Hey!" Barry shouted from fifty feet away, dusting himself off. "Not my fault you two were having a slow-motion rom-com moment on top of a death machine!"
Kara turned back toward Arthur, cheeks still faintly pink. He met her gaze, amused, calm.
She exhaled through her nose, half a laugh escaping despite herself. "You owe me another one," she muttered.
Arthur smirked. "Next time," he said quietly, "Let's make sure we finish the job first."
Kara chuckled, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Deal."
****
JUSTICE LEAGUE WATCHTOWER -
The Watchtower was a ruin, the central atrium where the Justice League had rallied a hundred times was a wreckage of broken seats, a shredded comms array dangling from braided conduits, and long gouges in the floor where something had been thrown with godlike force.
Bodies were scattered across the room. Hal's ring lay inert a short distance away, its glow reduced to a dying ember; Diana's sword was embedded in the floor, Martian Manhunter lay on his side, eyelids fluttering as he fought some internal war. They were wounded, beaten, heroes felled by a force they had never expected to meet on their own ground.
At the center of the devastation stood a figure who just displayed terrifying power. H'El held Kal-El by the throat, lifting him until Clark's boots dragged uselessly above the cracked floor. Kal's shoulders were bruised, cape torn, eyes raw with pain, but the steel in them still burned. H'El's posture was both composed and terrible tall and scarred, eyes glowing red with heat vision.
"I will not kill you or the people you adopted brother," H'El said, his voice cold and clear. The restraint in it was worse than a threat; it was the promise of patience. He leaned in, reading Kal. "So I ask you one last time: join me. Help me rebuild Krypton. That is what Father would have wanted, preserve our legacy and restore our people."
Superman's hands clawed uselessly at H'El's wrist, fingers sliding along the strength that held him like iron. He forced his voice out through the pressure and the blood, every word a small, stubborn fire. "No... H'El.. You misunderstan... That is not what my father wanted... He gave both of us a choice...he gave us what you couldn't imagine: the chance to be free. He wanted a future, not a re-creation of the past built on the bones of others. I am here to be something for this planet, to protect its people...not to enslave them or get rid of them the moment I see a chance to rebuild our home planet..."
H'El's face did not change. If anything, his expression sharpened as if the correctness of his own logic . "I misunderstand nothing, I..." he said, but the sentence broke off; the room shifted as his attention snagged on something in the distance. He took a step back and looked toward Earth.
A thin, near-amused smile touched his lips. "It seems you have a powerful ally," he observed lightly then his voice was clinical, detached. "Some form of Lanterns. They saw to the General's end before he could complete his task." He let the words land like cold stones. "Zod fell. He was spared our judgment... well, my judgment."
He released Clark. Superman crumpled to his knees, catching himself, lungs burning, chest heaving. Around them the remaining heroes tried to rise pain and duty knitting them back together but the room felt too fragile, as if a single wrong move might break them all apart.
H'El turned smoothly. "No matter," he said, eyes cold as glacier. "One machine does not make a planet. I will go to your little sanctuary, the outpost our father sheltered made, and reprogram it to serve me since you are not worthy, and use its resources to build what I need. Do try to stop me, brother." He paused, and the weight of the moment made every breath in the Watchtower audible. "This time, if you stand in my way I will kill you and Kara both."
He stepped back once, a measured retreat full of purpose, and then, instead of launching in the air, he folded the space around him rippling like fabric snapped taught. He was gone in the blink of an eye.
Superman remained on one knee, jaw clenched, hands splayed against the floor where H'El had stood. He stared at the place the other had vanished from, anger and failure intersecting in his expression. "Damn it all," he breathed, a bitter curse.
Around him, the heroes collected themselves as best they could. Hal, lungs burning, pushed himself up on one arm. Diana drew her sword free with shaking hands and found her voice soft, fierce. "We must stop that monster...now," she said more to herself than to anyone else, a vow that knifed into the cold. Martian Manhunter sat upright slowly, eyes like wet glass as he focused, finding strength in the fragments of will left to him.
H'El's words hung there an ultimatum and a promise of war and ruin, Kal folded his hands into fists, lifted his chin a grim look on his face, muttering to himself. "I know what I must do."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want