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Raven looked at Arthur and crossed her arms, trying to hide her flustered expression with fake confidence. "Look.. I..."
Arthur tilted his head slightly.
Raven's lips pressed together. "I honestly thought I'd find you here with Kara doing…" She stopped herself, her words trailing off into the air.
Arthur raised an eyebrow, utterly composed. "Doing what?"
Raven groaned softly, looking away. "You know what. Don't make me say it."
Arthur smirked faintly. "Oh… you thought that I was..."
"Yes!" Raven interrupted, glaring, her face still flushed. "Now don't make me say it."
Arthur couldn't help but chuckle. "How did you come to that conclusion?"
Raven exhaled, finally turning her gaze back to him. "Kara's heartbeat was… abnormal. So I thought.."
Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly, the humor fading. "I see... you did just mention that you put some kind of spell on her. What kind of spell, exactly?"
Raven straightened her posture, defensive but honest. "I cast a spell that monitors her wellbeing, her heartbeat, her emotions, her energy flow. It's not invasive, it's.."
"That's a bit.."
"She agreed to it," Raven cut him off sharply.
Arthur raised a brow again, amused at her quickness to defend herself. "Though that's a bit concerning…"
Raven sighed. "Yes. That's what I'm trying to tell you now."
Arthur after taking a long drink from a bottle of water. "Then she's clearly in some sort of trouble," he said, almost casually.
Raven frowned, crossing her arms. "Aren't you worried? Shouldn't we do something?"
Arthur looked up at her, calm as ever. "Nah. She'll be fine."
Raven blinked in disbelief. "Do you even know her current whereabouts?"
"No," Arthur replied simply, placing the bottle down. "She was stubborn about it. I agreed not to monitor her through a shadow. But…" His tone darkened slightly. "I did order my shadow lanterns in space to keep watch from afar. If anything happens, they'll report back."
Raven's shoulders relaxed, a trace of relief softening her expression. "Alright. Fair enough."
The air suddenly shifted a faint ripple of darkness expanding beside them. A portal of black and violet energy opened, its edges sparking like dying stars.
Arthur's gaze sharpened. "Speak of the devil."
From the swirling void stepped Shadow Sinestro, bowing his head. "My king," he said, his voice deep and composed. "One of my lanterns, assigned to watch over Supergirl, has just reported a battle. Something happened."
Arthur's demeanor shifted instantly from relaxed to commanding. "Location?"
Sinestro extended a hand, opening another portal this one showing a flicker of a desolate planet. "A distant dead world."
Arthur's eyes glowed with fierce violet light. He turned to Raven. "Let's go."
Raven nodded once, the hesitation gone, her aura flared around her. "Right behind you."
Together, they stepped through the portal the shadows swallowing them whole.
****
The ruined plain groaned under their boots if boots could be said to make any sound at all on a world that had already died. Ash drifted in slow eddies, catching in the folds of Arthur's black cloak. Craters cratered into craters. Every surface told a story of violence gouged metal, melted stone, swirls of blackened dust where fire had licked for minutes that felt like hours.
Arthur moved through it with the calm, patience of a man reading evidence. He crouched by a scorched stone and ran a finger through it, following the smear. His violet eyes narrowed.
"She fought them here," he said, voice low and certain. "Look at the burn patterns... That's heat-vision. Not to mention everything else around us.."
Raven hovered a beat behind him, wings of shadow folding tight to keep the ash from settling on her cloak. Her stare was hard almost angry and she hissed through her teeth. "You say it like you're reading a recipe. Why are you so… calm? We need to get to her. Now."
Arthur straightened slowly, brushing ash from his knuckles. He gave a breath that wasn't quite a laugh... more an acceptance. "Because Zod is not stupid, Raven. If he'd wanted to kill her outright, he'd have done it. He's not interested in suicide-by-provocation because they are not strong enough, they can't be. Clark's anger is a tool he knows how to use. He'll hold her as leverage perhaps, not as a corpse. That's the pattern of tactical conquest."
Raven's eyes snapped to his. "So we let him hold her? You sound like you're letting your own gir..."
"No." Arthur's voice grew harder at the edge. "We take her back. But we do it without playing into his theatre. If he wants a war staged in public, we'll give him a closed-room fight he can't possibly win. He might know how to deal with Clark but he didn't count for me." He let the last words hang.
A ripple of darkness opened beside them like a curtain parting. Shadow Sinestro stepped through with that measured glide of his kind, cloak trailing violet smoke. His face was as unreadable as ever, but his posture bore news.
"My king," Sinestro said, voice low and steady. "The Shadow Lanterns are on their trail. They followed the signatures until the pattern broke then picked it up again. We have direction... and a last known heading."
Arthur's eyes flicked toward the bruised sky. For a second the monarch's mask slipped, "Good. Pinpoint?"
Sinestro's fingers tapped a space in the air and a ghost-map bloomed a lattice of orbital waypoints and star coordinates, the trail highlighted in violet like spilled ink. "Here it is my King."
Arthur's shadow-lanterns had been dispersed to the edges of the universe on his order, but he hadn't expected them to be this efficient like a true Corps. "Then we don't waste breath."
Raven's jaw set. The old edge in her voice softened only slightly as she asked, "Do you want backup? The Titans? Anyone else?"
He looked at her. "Not yet. Zod will expect Superman to come charging in. He'll expect big firepower. That's how he draws the net. We go small, We hit them fast, recover Kara, and get rid of them before they become a bigger problem."
Raven's fingers tightened until her knuckles whitened. "You make it sound simple."
Arthur's smile was quick, almost apologetic. "I make it sound possible because it is."
He turned, and for a heartbeat the shadow at his heel straightened like a salute. "Prepare the Lanterns for a strike team," he ordered. "Sinestro, you are to command everyone including Atrocitus, Greed and Ring. We hit the Kryptonians the moment we find them."
Sinestro inclined his head, solemn and efficient. "It will be as you command, my king."
A wind of dust lifted, and the ruined ground seemed to answer. Raven stepped closer, shadow curling to meet his. "All right," she said. "Let's go get her."
Sinestro bolted towards the sky back into space to rally the lanterns. Raven's cloak snapped as she moved. They left the battered plain with the single, precise aim of ripping Kara back from the hands that would display her as a bait.
****
PLANET ORENA – SECTOR 3333
The ship cut through the void of space, a sliver of steel and Kryptonian fine design, precise, silent, and terrifying in its simplicity. The stars stretched into white veins around it as it slowed from its faster-than-light burst.
Before them loomed an old world its atmosphere faintly tinted green and gold, Lightning crawled across the upper clouds.
General Zod stood at the observation deck, hands clasped behind his back. The armor he wore reflected faint light from the planet's sun. His eyes sharp, swept over the world in silence, studying its contours as if it were prey.
Behind him, Jax-Ur's voice broke the hum of the ship's core.
"Readings are stable now, General. The planet's magnetic field is weak, but not dead. According to the old Kryptonian archives, this was once a scientific outpost."
Zod turned slightly, one eyebrow raised. "An outpost?"
"Yes," Jax-Ur replied, tapping his control panel. The holographic projection flickered a rotation of the planet appeared before them, annotated with ancient Kryptonian glyphs. "Designation: Planet Orena. It was one of the first terraforming experiments before the World Engines were perfected. The records mention several constructs laboratories, containment domes... and at least one early-model World Engine buried near the equator."
Zod's eyes gleamed faintly with interest. He stepped closer to the projection, folding his hands behind his back again. "A relic of our true era," he said softly, almost reverently. "When Krypton still reached for the stars, not shackled itself in arrogance and bureaucracy."
Faora stood near the viewport, her hands resting on her hips, gaze fixed on the swirling clouds below. "If the World Engine is intact," she said, "it could be repaired. Reawakened." Her tone was cool, calculated her warrior's mind already running through possibilities.
Zod nodded. "Good. We'll need it." There was a pause then, he turned fully toward the crew pit. His voice sharpened, commanding and absolute.
"Prepare for landing."
/-\
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