Between family members, the conversation never ran dry. Kara was still chattering nonstop about her life on Earth, showing off for her father like a child presenting a trophy collection. High-speed flight, heat vision, freeze breath—she demonstrated every last ability, then landed with a face full of excitement, practically bouncing on her heels as she waited for praise.
"...Can I do all that too?" Zor-El was stunned. Flight he could wrap his head around. Heat vision and freeze breath were something else entirely.
Fewer than three hundred warriors remained among the surviving Kryptonians. That didn't sound like much, but if all of them absorbed solar energy—even Thea's nerfed version, well short of Superman's ceiling—three hundred super-powered soldiers were still an extraordinary force. If all three hundred went at it together, they'd steamroll Doomsday like it was nothing.
The enhancement question was inevitably pushed to the top of the agenda.
The conversation naturally required Kryptonian. Fortunately, all of them spoke it. Yes, including Batman. Heaven only knew when he'd taught himself.
"The truth is, every one of your people, regardless of role, can achieve these abilities. Only the degree varies." Thea needed to maintain her aloof goddess image, so the explaining fell to Batman.
His tone was anything but friendly. "You'll need to accept oversight from the Justice League. You'll need to take on regular peacekeeping assignments. You'll need periodic inspections to ensure no one is engaging in unauthorized super-evolution. You'll need to—"
Zor-El's expression went cold on the spot. "You rescued me and my people, and I'm grateful for that. But if I'm not mistaken, we are not slaves."
Superman and Supergirl looked embarrassed. Batman's delivery was blunt to the point of brutality. Supergirl rushed to intervene. "Father, what he means is... mutual cooperation..." Her face flushed as she groped for better phrasing and came up empty.
Kryptonians weren't slaves, but humans—well, Batman—didn't trust them. Bridging that gap was genuinely difficult.
The instigator herself sat off to the side, fingers laced, wearing a serene smile as she watched them argue.
Batman kept shooting her looks. She pretended not to notice. Finally, Superman broke down and asked for her input.
"How about this: I'll cast a spell and put everyone into a shared dreamscape. Inside the dream they'll gain extraordinary power. Let's see what choices they make." Thea wasn't sure whether to impose a blanket restriction or gradually ease the limitations, so a simulation seemed like the logical move.
She wasn't the master of dreams, but generating a basic virtual environment was well within her reach.
"That would violate our right to priv—" Zor-El was still mid-sentence when the virtual world swallowed him whole.
A hundred thousand people entered the dreamscape without exception. None of them knew they were dreaming. They lived out the consequences in earnest.
A hundred thousand choices unfolded before Thea's eyes. Some were brave. Some were drunk on their own power. And some, predictably, used that power to do whatever they pleased.
Batman's concerns weren't unfounded. By the virtual world's third year, Zor-El had died under mysterious circumstances. The moderates were driven from the planet. The once-earnest Kryptonians, having tasted contact with Earth's cultures, corroded at breathtaking speed. They enslaved the entire Solar System and declared the Sun a sacred gift from Rao.
What followed was escalating warfare on a galactic scale. Eventually, their enemies launched a suicide mission and destroyed the Sun. Kryptonian civilization flared and vanished, dragging the Solar System down with it. Nothing gained, nothing left.
"Impossible! What kind of sorcery did you use on us?!" Zor-El shot awake, drenched in sweat. The two guards at his side looked equally shaken—in the simulation, one had been slaughtered during the coup, the other assassinated by humans with kryptonite.
"That was a faithful reflection of who you really are. Every decision was your own." Thea interlaced her fingers, considering the problem.
The evidence was clear: give any race enough power, and none of them could truly remain peaceful. Krypton didn't even need many resources. Their energy recycling technology was already highly mature. Yet overwhelming military strength had still driven them down the path of rapid expansion.
Superman's upbringing was a one-of-a-kind story. Thea couldn't exactly round up a hundred thousand Jonathan Kents and a hundred thousand Martha Kents to re-raise every Kryptonian.
Even if she could, these people weren't infant Clark. Their worldviews were fully formed. Accepting an entirely new value system was next to impossible.
"You're right. Left unchecked, Kryptonians really would cause a catastrophe." Thea delivered the verdict to Batman with total sincerity.
"Therefore, I've decided—"
Zor-El cut in. He pointed at Thea. "You seem to think you're the judge here? Our fate is entirely in your hands? I was under the impression you people had a democracy!"
Thea pursed her lips. Supergirl was frantically signaling with her eyes—please, for my sake, don't blow up at my dad.
"Then do you have a suggestion? This has nothing to do with democracy. We rescued you, and then what—we let your people enslave Earth? Wouldn't that make us spectacularly stupid?"
The retort left Zor-El momentarily speechless.
"I wasn't prepared last time! Do it again—your witchcraft—use it one more time. I'll show you the light of Krypton's hope!" he said, speaking rapidly.
Thea figured there was no harm in a second try. She flicked her wrist. Off they went.
A hundred thousand Kryptonians re-entered the virtual world. This time they reined themselves in considerably. Even the hawks chose restraint. Kryptonians were powerful, yes, but their weaknesses were glaring. If the end result was dragging the entire species to extinction, fighting was pointless.
The early trajectory looked promising. But as years passed, inherited Kryptonian genes weakened with each generation while Earth's civilization surged through multiple technological booms. By the time the entire Kryptonian population had undergone enhancement, humanity's army was already at their doorstep. Synthetic kryptonite bullets annihilated them down to the last soul.
And when the human army stormed Kandor, the Kryptonian parliament was still locked in debate.
"HA! Oh, this is too much..." Thea doubled over, clutching her stomach with laughter. "This is your 'light of hope'? HA!"
Zor-El's face turned an impressive shade of crimson. He still managed a defense. "Even if our democratic process is somewhat slow, this time it was your Earth that invaded Krypton. That much you can't deny!"
"Fair enough. I apologize for laughing. I'm sure you all see where your strategy needs to go. Push each other, check each other, coexist—that's the only viable path. Walk it without wavering." Thea's tone was uncharacteristically serious.
There was no getting around it: these people were a genuine headache. Too strong, disaster. Too weak, also disaster. Discussing century-long national policy right now was premature, but the two simulations should have planted some seeds. In the time ahead, New Krypton would find its footing.