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The air inside the Fortress of Solitude fractured and a tear in the air opened.
Reality itself rippled, and in a blinding glow of blue-white light, H'El stepped through. The tear sealed behind him with a crackle.
H'El's boots touched the crystalline floor, no sound, only the whisper of static and wind echoing through the alien cathedral.
He stood still for a moment, breathing in the air that felt like home. His face was a mask of calm reverence, but his eyes were alive with a sharp, dangerous longing.
"You never could've imagined it, could you, Father?"
He reached out, brushing his hand across one of the tall crystal pillars. The structure reacted instantly, lines of light running across its surface. Glyphs began to rearrange themselves, bending and warping to his command.
"You built this place to serve Kal-El," he murmured, voice low, almost tender. "For a child who never understood what you gave him. But I..." he smiled faintly, coldly.. "I will honor it."
A low hum filled the chamber. H'El's hand sank into the pillar, merging briefly with the light itself, data streaming into him, Kryptonian code, archives, genetic libraries, schematics. The Fortress shuddered, systems reconfiguring at his will. In the far corners, dormant drones stirred, crystal panels shifted, and the great heart of the Fortress, began to glow, pulsing brighter and brighter.
Then, the air shimmered again.
A familiar voice spoke from behind him.
"Stop this, H'El."
He turned slowly. The holographic form of Jor-El stood there, composed of soft white light. His eyes carried the same calm wisdom that had once guided Krypton… and the same pain.
H'El regarded him with the same respect he always had.
"Father," he said quietly. "Even as an echo, you come to lecture me."
"You are desecrating what was meant for peace," Jor-El's voice resonated through the chamber. "This Fortress was designed to protect, to preserve.."
"..And that's what I'm doing," H'El cut him off, stepping closer, tone hardening. "Preservation. Survival. Continuation. You gave me a purpose once, do you remember? You called me your solution, the key to ensuring Krypton's survival beyond its doom. I'm fulfilling that purpose now."
"By violating another world?" Jor-El asked softly. "By forcing rebirth on the ashes of the innocent?"
H'El's lips curled. "You're not him. You're a projection, a static mind trapped in light and code. You speak of ideals, of restraint, because you cannot evolve. If the real Jor-El were here… he would understand."
The hologram's expression wavered sad, knowing. "If the real Jor-El were here, he would tell you that legacy is not born from tyranny."
H'El turned back toward the Core. His eyes glowed a deep red as he reached out both hands, connecting himself to the machine. Energy coursed up his arms, wrapping him in lines of crimson light.
"Legacy," he repeated under his breath. "You speak of it as if it were choice. Krypton didn't die because of nature it died because it grew weak. I will not let weakness claim us again."
The Fortress responded to his command. Pillars extended from the floor, reconfiguring into pods growth chambers, embryonic units beginning to pulse with pale light.
"This world will serve as the seedbed," H'El continued, voice echoing through the hall. "Its soil, its atmosphere, its sun all of it will feed the resurrection of Krypton. Not Kal-El's dream. Mine."
The Jor-El projection moved closer, his expression now lined with quiet sorrow.
"And what of Earth, H'El? You would extinguish one world to birth another?"
H'El's voice lowered, calm, chillingly certain.
"One world dies, another is reborn. It is balance. It is justice for our extinction. You would not understand what it means to be the last true son of Krypton."
"You are not the last," Jor-El said softly. "Nor the truest. You are what remains of what Krypton could not let go of...its obsession with control. You are becoming its ghost."
That made H'El pause. Just for a second, the faintest tremor crossed his features, anger buried under the weight of old affection. Then his jaw set again, his tone steady.
"Then a ghost will have to do what the living could not."
He turned, placing his palm on the Core's central crystal. A shockwave of light surged outward, rattling the walls. Ice cracked. The sound deepened into a roar as the Fortress itself began to change no longer the sanctuary of Superman, but the womb of a dying world reborn.
Jor-El's projection flickered under the strain, his voice fragmenting.
"H'El… stop this before it's too late. Do not mistake this for salvation."
H'El didn't look back. His long dark hair rippled in the rising energy, eyes now burning pure red.
"If saving Krypton means defying even you, father…" he said quietly, almost a whisper,
"Then so be it."
The Fortress of Solitude trembled. The Core Chamber pulsed to life. reshaping the fortress into a world engine.
And then, in a blur of red and blue, Superman crashed through the roof.
The impact sent shards of ice and crystal flying in every direction, a thunderous shockwave cracking the frozen ground. The fortress recognized him instantly.
Kal-El rose from the crater he'd made, cape torn and tattered, face bruised, his body steaming with residual heat from the Watchtower's fight. His eyes heavy with a fury he rarely allowed himself to feel.
Across the chamber, H'El turned slowly, noticing how the fortress reacted to Kal even in its current state, his expression torn between disbelief and rage. The reflection of the Fortress's warm light played over his face.
"So," H'El said, voice low but trembling with venom, "You made your choice."
He stepped closer, each word sharper than the next.
"You destroy everything Krypton stood for... its order, its destiny.. and yet it chooses you? You, the son who abandoned his birthright for this… mudball?"
Superman said nothing at first. His chest rose and fell in controlled, shallow breaths, the light of the Fortress flickering brighter around him, as if reassuring its rightful heir. He looked around, saw the Core Chamber pulsing like a heart ready to burst, and finally turned his gaze back to H'El.
"This isn't what Krypton stood for," he said quietly. "This is you trying to resurrect a corpse."
H'El's lip twitched, a cruel smile breaking through his calm facade.
"You don't understand because you didn't live it. You never walked the corridors of Kandor, never heard the cities sound at dawn, never felt what it was like to stand under Rao's light."
He spread his arms, voice rising.
"You grew up here... among them. You call them your people. But they are not! They never were!"
Superman's eyes softened, though his tone cut through. "Maybe not by blood. But they chose to believe in me… and I chose to believe in them."
For a moment, silence. The air thick with energy, both of them standing like twin storms ready to collide, two remnants of the same doomed world.
Then H'El's eyes glowed crimson, voice breaking with barely contained fury.
"So in the end, you chose wrong, Kal. You chose them."
Superman's own eyes flared, brighter the glow searing through the mist between them.
"I already gave you my answer."
The Fortress trembled again with a high, sharp vibration, as if the world itself recoiled from the tension.
And then
A piercing scream ripped through the Arctic winds above.
A jet engine cutting through the cold like thunder.
Both Kryptonians turned their heads just as the Batwing streaked over the shattered roof of the Fortress. It slowed, hovering. For a second, the dark silhouette eclipsed the light, before a figure leapt from the cockpit, cape snapping behind him as he dropped through the opening.
He landed beside Superman with the grace of a predator, boots crunching against the ice.
Batman straightened, expression grim beneath the cowl, frost collecting along the edges of his armor.
Superman frowned,
"What are you doing here, Bruce?"
Batman's voice came low, gruff, but calm, his kind of calm, the one that meant everything's already on fire, but he's three moves ahead.
"I thought you might need some help."
The tension between the three men was immediate Kryptonian heat against human steel.
H'El looked at the new arrival with something close to disgust, a flicker of genuine disbelief passing through his gaze.
"An earthling," he hissed. "You bring a lowly earthling into Krypton's sanctuary? This is how far you've fallen, brother?"
Batman tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing behind the white lenses.
"he talks too much."
Superman shot him a sidelong glance, equal parts annoyance and appreciation before turning his gaze back to H'El.
"He's not wrong, H'El. You've done enough talking."
/-\
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