Chapter 263: Blood of Krypton
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SPACE – UNKNOWN PLANET
The void stretched endlessly, stars sared into faint silver scars against the black canvas of space. Kara Zor-El soared faster than light could blink. Her eyes glowed faintly blue scanning, tracing the invisible residue of an energy signal only Kryptonian senses could detect.
"That signal definitely ca from them," she muttered under her breath, her voice tight with purpose and unease. "I’m not losing it."
Her flight slowed as a planet ca into view a dead one. The closer she got, the worse it looked. The crust was cracked, cities long turned to dust, what looked like oceans now dried to gray scars. Ash floated in the thin atmosphere like ghosts of what once was. No signs of life...just rubble, silence, and the echo of extinction.
Kara descended through the clouds of ruin, scanning the surface. That’s when she saw it.
A ship sleek, angular, unmistakably Kryptonian half-buried in the gray dust. And outside it, four figures stood waiting. Their armor was dark silver, gleaming faintly even in the dark, marked with the sigils of the old Kryptonian military, power radiated from their suits.
And among them, one stood taller, prouder, and infinitely more dangerous.
Kara’s jaw clenched. "General Dru-Zod," she whispered, landing softly upon the dead rock.
The four turned as one, and Zod stepped forward. His eyes, cold, t hers with the weight of a man who had commanded one of the mightiest armies in the universe and crushed planets beneath his boots.
"Kara Zor-El," he said, his voice deep, smooth, almost regal. "Welco. It seems our signal was not in vain."
Kara hovered just off the ground, her tone sharp as she replied, "General Zod." Her eyes narrowed, the faintest shimr of heat vision burning in them. "How did you escape the Phantom Zone? And what are you after?"
Zod smiled faintly a patient, calculating expression that didn’t belong on any sane man. He began to walk slowly, hands clasped behind his back as if lecturing a student.
"Don’t be like this, Kara. Both you and Kal-El should be grateful." His voice softened, mockingly warm. "You still have people to call your own."
Kara landed fully, the dust swirling around her boots. "Don’t bullshit , Zod."
He chuckled, the sound echoing eerily in the stillness. "Ah, the tongue of Earth...so crass, so simple. But I suppose it suits you now."
He turned away, pacing a few steps, his cape brushing against the ruins. "Look around you, Kara. This world is dead, yes. But it endured. Its people vanished, its civilization erased, but the planet still remains. Solid. Waiting. Ready to be repopulated..."
He turned back, his eyes glinting with a dark fire. "Krypton was the opposite. Our people vanished, our world shattered. There was no recovery. No ho to return to. Only fragnts scattered through the void. And now only a handful of us remain. You, your cousin, and us..." He paused, voice tightening. "...alongside one Jor-El kept hidden. Soone I’ve been searching for."
Kara frowned. "Soone else? What are you talking about, Zod?"
Zod’s mouth curved slightly, though his eyes held no amusent. "Yes. But that soone isn’t important. Just a little mistake Jor-El made...a complication."
Her fists clenched at that word. "What are you trying to say?"
He stepped closer, his expression shifting into sothing almost pleading...almost. "I’m saying I don’t want you as an enemy, Kara. I don’t want you dead. I want you to stand beside . Stand with Krypton. Together, we can restore what was lost. A world greater than this broken, primitive rock your cousin has chosen to protect. We can bring our people back. Make Krypton rise again."
Kara stared at him in disbelief, her voice shaking...not with fear, but fury. "You’re trying to use my ho world as a tool to make
betray Kal. To betray Earth."
Zod’s smile returned, faint and knowing. "I’m asking you to choose family over strangers. To reclaim your birthright. Kal has forgotten what we are...what we were ant to be." He gestured at the world beneath them, the ruin stretching endlessly. "Do you really think that... that fragile planet deserves to shape us? To limit us?"
Kara’s eyes flashed red for a mont, her voice low and trembling with emotion. "You don’t understand Earth. You never will unless you give it a chance. Krypton may be gone, Zod...but the people on that planet, they live. They love. They fight for each other. You’d destroy that for your pride and your deadduty."
For a mont, the silence between them was suffocating. Zod’s soldiers shifted slightly, armor hissing.
Zod looked at her long and hard, his tone grave now. "You speak like Jor-El. Noble. Na??ve. I had hoped you would see beyond that. But perhaps... you still might."
Kara lifted herself slightly off the ground again, her expression hardening. "If you think I’ll ever stand by you...you’ll find out just how wrong you are."
Zod didn’t flinch at her words. Instead he stepped closer, the faint hiss of his armor the only sound in that ruined plain. Up close, the lines of his face were severe worn by exile and hardened by command. He looked at Kara not with hatred but with the cold affection of a teacher addressing a promising pupil gone astray.
"Kara," he said, each syllable asured, as if lecturing a student. "You speak like one who grew among strangers...tossing away heritage for sentint. Do you not feel the weight of our blood? The legacy of Krypton demands more than small rcies. It demands sacrifice. Duty."
She stayed still, fists unclenched at her sides. His voice tried to fold around her like a velvet glove, but there was steel beneath it. He walked in a slow, deliberate circle, cataloguing the ruin with an almost tender contempt.
"I sought you," he began, and his gaze locked onto her, "instead of Kal-El because you...unlike him...saw our world. You rember its laws. You know our rites. You are Kryptonian in your bones. Kal-El was taken as an infant. Nothing ties him to Krypton save the blood in his veins." He stopped directly in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder, the gesture ant to be intimate, paternal. "You left young as well, yes. You barely aged just like us, the Phantom Zone can twist ti. But age does not equal wisdom. He is older in years, perhaps, but not in understanding."
There was tenderness in his cadence, a venomous appeal dressed as kinship. He wanted her to feel owed, to feel lonely enough to reach for the hand he offered.
Kara listened with a face like a shutter closing. For a mont she said nothing, letting the words fall over her like dust. Her jaw tightened; the blood at her temples rose. He expected ekness. He expected waver. He expected gratitude.
Then she moved.
It was not a grand arc of fury. It was a clean motion the kind born of soone who could end a war with a casual gesture but chose instead this rebellion. She stepped in. Her fist drove forward before his thought could finish the sentence. Leather t tal with a sound like a bell struck hard. The impact thudded through the ruined air, a dull boom that scattered ash.
Zod’s helt took the hit squarely. For a blink, his expression registered surprised, then incredulous. The blow caught him beneath the visor; his head snapped back. Sparks flared where the blow had t reinforced alloy. He was not unhurt.
He flew. The general’s body spun, armor clattering as it caught the wind, and he slamd into a cluster of shattered pillars a dozen ters away. The impact shattered stone and sent up a spray of dust and debris. His soldiers snapped to attention, reflexive shields flaring, weapons humming to life.
Kara hovered in the thin air, chest heaving the tiniest fraction, the blonde of her hair a halo in the gray light. Dust drifted around her like a halo. She smiled not cruel, not triumphant in the way of a bully, but quiet and certain, she answered in the only language Zod understood.
"I’m afraid I can’t do that, General," she said, the words soft and lethal both. "I won’t be yours. Since I’m already tied to soone else."
Silence held for a breath. Zod pushed himself upright, rolling from the shattered pillar with a soldier’s grace even while the dented armor complained. His visor glowed faintly as systems reconnected. For a heartbeat his expression was inscrutable hurt, maybe, and then sothing colder.
"You will think twice, Kara Zor-El," he said, voice low, a warning. "You will rember what it ans to be Kryptonian."
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If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support
than check out my patreon at
"spatreon/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want
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