An Invulnerable Heart | Man of Steel

XV. Life Lessons.

Elaine's heart pounded against a heavy chest as she watched Clark collapse unconscious onto the ground. Salty tears spilled out of her eyes, her arms still holding onto Clark, shaking him gently to wake him up. Suddenly, two equipped Kryptonians pulled her back. Elaine refused to let go of Clark as she started to kick and punch her way out of their grasp. General Zod let out a half-smile, soon knowing Elaine's true feelings for Clark. He motioned Faora to follow Elaine as they entered into a different room from Clark. What were they doing to her? Most importantly, would Clark be okay?

"Let me go! Clark! I need to see Clark!" Elaine cried as tears streamed down her red face. "What are you going to do to me?"

They strapped her onto a hard, cold metal chair that almost resembled a rock. Her heart continued to pound her chest as she watched the Kryptonians converse within themselves. Faora sent her a coy smile before leaving the room.

"This Clark you speak off... or Kal-El, do you know if he holds the codex?" One of the two asked.

Codex? Elaine never heard about a codex before. What was a codex?

"Look. I don't know anything about a codex. Could you please let me go and allow me to see... Kal-El, please." Elaine pleaded, her face mixed with confusion and worry.

The Kryptonians shook their heads and pulled out a long pointed needle. Elaine gulped as soon as the needle was shown. Ever since she was a little girl, Elaine always had that deep fear of needles. Her doctor appointments would end with Elaine either punching the doctor, the needle inserted into the wrong arm, or her mother having a new bruise to add to her growing collection. She scrambled to get up as the one of them approached her, but her hand was strapped in with a strong metal. Remembering the childhood visits made Elaine kick the Kryptonian man with a powerful force. The other grabbed the needle out of his hand and ran toward Elaine. Elaine tried her best to kick the man but he held her feet and quickly injected the needle into her arm.

The needle pierced her skin, making Elaine dizzy and weak. Her vision suddenly became blurred and the two panting Kryptonian men were now a blurry picture to her. Her head started to spin with different memories from her life, including the heart-breaking moments to the happiest days of her childhood.

Then everything went black.

**

Laying on what seems to be grass, Clark suddenly woke up. His head was no longer spinning and he didn't feel weak anymore.

"Hello, Kal." A raspy voice greeted.

Confused and startled, Clark pushed himself off the ground. He looked around his strange surroundings, seeing that he was now in Kansas again. The attire was his usual, a white t-shirt and some fresh clean jeans. Around him was his mother's laundry that always took time to dry.

"Or do you prefer Clark? That's the name they gave you, isn't it?" The voice said again.

Behind the blowing hanged laundry stood General Zod, looking out at the gloomy Kansas sky.

"I was Krypton's military leader. Your father was one of Krypton's top scientists. The only thing we agreed on was Krypton was dying. In return to my efforts to protect our civilization and to save our planet, my fellow officers and I was sentenced to the Phantom Zone. But then, the destruction of our world... freed us. We were adrift, forced to float along the remains of our own planet until we starved."

"How did you get to Earth?" Clark asked, almost willing to hear the rest of Zod's story.

"We managed to connect the Phantom's projector into our Hybrid drive. The connection made a similar modification to the craft that brought you here. And so the instrument of our damnation became our salvation. We sought out the old colonial outpost, searching for signs of life. But all we found was death. Cut-off from Krypton, this posts withered and died long ago. We salvaged what we could. Armor, weapons, even a world-engine. For thirty-three years, we've prepared. Until finally, we detected a distress beacon, which you triggered, when you accessed the ancient scout-ship."