Inside an Interrogation Room:
Clark Kent faced Lois Lane once again.
"Why'd you let them cuff you?"
Lois glanced at the handcuffs on Clark's wrists. She knew full well that with his strength, those soldiers couldn't have forced them on him if he didn't want them to.
Clark looked down at the flimsy metal toy.
"It puts them at ease," he said simply.
Lois's understanding of the man deepened.
He was too kind—kind enough to make her heart ache for him.
"Do you know about the ones up there?" she asked.
General Swanwick had brought her in specifically to extract intel from Clark. After all, she was the only one who'd had direct contact with him—more likely to earn his trust than the soldiers.
And it worked.
"That's General Zod, Krypton's top military commander," Clark said gravely, his gaze shifting to the one-way glass on his left.
"Can he see us?"
On the other side stood Swanwick, flanked by scholars brought in to study the alien and offer advice.
"No way. This is one-way glass—we can see them, but they can't see us," Swanwick assured them.
What he didn't know? There's something called X-ray vision.
A mere one-way mirror couldn't stop Clark from seeing right through to them.
"General Zod is extremely dangerous. My surrender won't make him spare humanity," Clark warned.
"Then why'd you come?" Lois pressed.
"Because I believe in humanity!"
Clark stood, accidentally snapping the cuffs apart with a twitch.
"Sorry, they're too brittle," he apologized, then stepped up to the glass, addressing Swanwick and the others directly.
"I know you're scared of me—because you can't control me. You can't now, and you never will. But that doesn't mean I'm your enemy."
Swanwick, on the other side, now knew Clark could see them—those eyes locked right on him. Denying it would be delusional, and he hadn't risen to general by fooling himself.
"Then who's the enemy? Zod?" Swanwick countered.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about," Clark replied.
"Even so, I have to hand you over. Orders from the top—straight from the President. I can't disobey that, even as a general," Swanwick said.
He didn't want to disobey, either.
"Do what you have to, General," Clark said calmly.
He'd come here ready to face Zod and his crew.
If he wasn't, he wouldn't have shown up.
…
Outside the Military Base:
A bug-like shuttle streaked across the sky, carving a graceful arc before landing in front of the base.
The rear hatch opened, and two fully armored Kryptonian warriors stepped out.
"They're here!"
Colonel Hardy watched tensely from inside the base.
"Relax," General Swanwick said beside him.
"General, do you really think they'll leave once they take Clark?"
Lois, now back with them, couldn't help but speak up.
Swanwick glanced at her.
"Whether I believe it doesn't matter," he said.
He was just a general—following orders was his job.
Decision-making? That was for the higher-ups.
"They won't let it go that easily," Lois said with conviction.
Just then, a Kryptonian sub-commander named Faora approached.
"General Zod wants me to take her too," she said, pointing at Lois in the crowd.
"That wasn't part of the deal! You've got your kin—she's one of ours!" Hardy snapped, frowning.
Faora gave him a cold, indifferent stare.
"Are you saying I should report to Zod that you refused to comply?"
Her tone was flat, her eyes treating him less like a person and more like an ant—or a worm—beneath her boot.
"I don't care how you report it!" Hardy shot back, standing his ground.
Though his back was drenched in sweat.
That woman… her eyes are terrifying!
"No, I'll go with them!"
Lois stepped forward on her own. She wasn't some coward clinging to life. If Clark could stand up for humanity, why couldn't she—a full-blooded human—do the same?
"It's fine," she said, reassuring Hardy.
She'd resented him at first—he was the one who'd dragged her in.
But now? She kind of admired him.
At least he'd had the guts to stand up just now.
Faora ignored the humans' squabbling. To her, they were no different from bugs—pathetic ants she could crush without a second thought.
Why Zod insisted on bringing this human woman?
She didn't need to know his reasons.
Her job was to obey.
With Clark and Lois in tow, she boarded the shuttle. It lifted off swiftly, vanishing into the horizon in moments.
"General, should we prep for war?" Hardy asked.
"You think they'll go back on their word?" Swanwick turned to him.
"Aliens can't be trusted," Hardy said bluntly, his opinion solidified by Faora's attitude.
"Then get ready," Swanwick ordered.
Truth be told, he didn't trust the aliens to keep their promise either—especially after Clark revealed Krypton's destruction.
If America's homeland were wiped out, what would they do?
Simple—take over someone else's turf.
Especially weaker nations—take as much as they wanted.
Did it matter if those nations agreed?
Not at all.
So, putting himself in the aliens' shoes, Swanwick couldn't imagine them passing up a planet right in front of them to scour the cosmos for another habitable one.
That'd be absurd—why look far when the prize was near?
Back at Kent Farm, Azuma Shoyo stood ready in his white-and-gold armor, cape billowing, waiting for Zod's inevitable next move.
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