It's Me Who Won

He-El heard those words and truly could not help wanting to laugh. Then he truly could not hold it in and laughed out loud.

"Ha ha... Father, let me call you Father one last time."

"Joe-Al."

"The reason I went undiscovered for so long was because I truly regarded you as my father, and because I truly wanted to save Krypton."

"As long as I successfully took control of Krypton, I could fully open the Science and Technology Institute and work with you to study Krypton's core. Perhaps we could have solved Krypton's destruction."

"But all of that depended on me surviving."

"You saw the arrogance in my heart and saw my ambition. Did you not see my selfish motives as well?"

"It was not you who sent me into space. I made you send me into space."

"Now that I am aboard this ship, Krypton must have already been destroyed."

"I won, Joe-Al."

A shadow of desolation appeared on Joe-Al's face. Just as He-El had said, Krypton had already been destroyed.

One year and one month after this ship left Krypton, Krypton exploded and was destroyed. When Joe-Al detected Krypton's explosion, he still could not bring himself to believe it.

Though he was only a replicated consciousness program, he still felt an urge to reject the original Joe-Al's order—"Take the ship into deep space, away from yellow suns, and let He-El die in hibernation"—and fly the ship back to Krypton for a look.

Even though it would have changed nothing.

Even now, as they spoke and he learned of Krypton's explosion and He-El's thoughts, he actually felt that perhaps He-El had been right. If they had replaced Krypton's upper ranks, fully opened the Science and Technology Institute, and studied Krypton's core in those final days, perhaps they could have prevented Krypton's destruction.

But it was all too late.

His consciousness program had been locked down by the original Joe-Al the moment the ship launched. He could not change anything at all.

That had also been Joe-Al's decision at the time.

He had chosen exile, letting the depths of space kill his son.

It was the last tenderness he could offer as a father.

Just as He-El had regarded Joe-Al as his true father, Joe-Al had also regarded He-El as his son. Their feelings had both been sincere and genuine.

But that could not stop Joe-Al from ruthlessly killing He-El for Krypton's sake, nor could it stop He-El from wanting to rule Krypton and become Krypton's god.

"I know, He-El. You are searching for a yellow sun. You want to awaken a Kryptonian's true power."

"He-El, my child, I won."

"The ship no longer has any energy, and there are no yellow suns nearby. I will take control of the Dawn System. You have nowhere to run. You cannot even control the ship. You will be buried in this deep space."

"Continue sleeping in the cryogenic chamber. To die without pain in your sleep is your final destination."

Joe-Al suddenly understood why his former self had wanted to kill He-El so badly.

He-El's ambition would sooner or later destroy himself and everything around him.

He-El, your ambition had overflowed too far.

"So why do you think the ship's system and the life-support cryogenic chambers were designed as separate, mutually balancing systems?"

"It was precisely so that the intelligent system could not completely control the lives aboard the ship."

"Did you think it was truly meant to awaken the Kryptonians aboard the ship at the final moment and let them decide the ship's course?"

He-El sneered.

When he realized his father had begun investigating him, he had already made preparations.

But his preparations had not been to struggle on Krypton.

Krypton's destruction had been inevitable.

He-El had merely done what he could to save it. If he could succeed, then he would; if not, there was nothing he could do. But discovering that his father was investigating and obstructing him had truly chilled his heart.

He-El had long known that, in Joe-Al's eyes, he was an out-and-out ambitious schemer, an unprecedented and terrifying terrorist.

It had long been ingrained in Joe-Al's genes that, as one of Krypton's upper class, he had to follow rules that were already unbreakable laws on Krypton.

He simply could not overstep them. They had shaped his entire life at the genetic level.

He simply did not have the courage to break them.

All he had was the selfish theft of the Codex, injecting it into his future son, Clark Kent, and letting his son decide whether Krypton would be rebuilt.

He entrusted everything to a son raised by Earthlings.

He entrusted everything to an infant.

As for the Krypton of old, he would cloak that selfish heart in righteous excuses: the rigid class structure of Krypton, the corruption of the upper ranks, the lack of recognition for his investigation into the core, and so on.

Every class would eventually become rigid, and there would always be upper ranks becoming corrupt.

What was laughable was that in the end, by stealing the Codex and holding Krypton's very foundation in his own hands, he had become the greatest corruption of all.

He let every Kryptonian die to fulfill Superman's kind heart in protecting Earth.

Joe-Al had fulfilled his son.

Drawing upon the future, his ten years with Joe-Al, Joe-Al's conduct as one of Krypton's upper class, and the cowardice and selfishness buried deep in his heart, He-El felt profound sorrow.

Even if Joe-Al and Zod had killed Krypton's upper ranks together, promptly evacuated numerous Kryptonians, and immediately devoted themselves to studying Krypton's core, it would have been better than continuing to obey the Kryptonian Council's rules as he had.

Unfortunately, he had disappointed everyone too deeply.

By comparison, Zod was practically a Kryptonian hero.

And Joe-Al truly deserved to be the scientist respected by Krypton's upper ranks.

"So you were the one who proposed this plan."

"You had anticipated this situation from the start?"

"Your true goal was to leave Krypton before it exploded."

Joe-Al fell silent, then shook his head.

"It is useless. Even if you awaken, you will not be able to issue orders to the ship."

"Go back to sleep! My son."

Joe-Al closed his eyes in pain.

Killing his adopted son did not feel good.

The complexity of human nature was displayed vividly in him.

"I told you, I won."

"Joe-Al, I am very happy to have talked with you."

He-El burst into loud laughter. Seated in a steel chair amid the Main Control Room's three-hundred-and-sixty-degree starfield, he laughed heartily beneath the twinkling stars.

He regretted that he could not save Krypton or become Krypton's god.

But leaving Krypton alive had already achieved his greatest goal.

Under Joe-Al's pitying gaze.

"Mm... ah..."

He-El suddenly clenched his right hand into a fist and viciously drove his thumb knuckle into his stomach. His face twisted savagely, his mouth hanging open as saliva streamed down. The nausea in his throat made him convulse in constant dry heaves.

His right thumb knuckle forced against his stomach, pressing his abdominal muscles inward. He used the thumb knuckle of his fist to push his stomach upward, shoving it straight up into his chest, his throat, his tonsils. His entire face reddened as though he were choking on air.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

He-El vomited a white, fish-bladder-like object from his mouth. It fell onto the floor of the Main Control Room.