"Oh my god... here... here..."
Two small figures hovered above a massive planet. Besides them, many debris floated in space, most of which were so damaged it was hard to recognize them, emitting a heavy atmosphere of decay and destruction.
Kara slightly opened her mouth, staring at the cities on the surface. Even though they hadn't entered the planet's atmosphere, her Super Vision already showed her the ruins of the cities.
"No time for nostalgia," Clark said, "Oliver sent a message, Hai'er is attacking the sun like crazy. We need to find a way to stop him before the Shield's energy runs out."
"Let's go down," Kara said.
The two of them flew towards the surface of Krypton.
Krypton was much smaller than Earth, and there weren't as many oceans as on Earth. Just from the topographic conditions, it was more like Mars.
The Kryptonian civilization was quite advanced as well; they had already reached the stage of alien colonization, and the entire home planet had been transformed into a massive city, serving as the capital of the entire civilization.
Even so, it's obvious that there was a more prosperous central area on this planet. Kara tried hard in her mind to search for memories of when she lived here, and finally pointed in a direction, saying, "Over there, over there is the Breeding Center."
They flew towards a tower-like building in the center of the bustling area. Clark also searched his brain for the details of his memories.
Kryptonians have memories from birth; even as infants not long born, they can remember certain things and store them in the depths of their super brains.
After coming to Earth, Clark lived a very happy life, so he almost never thought about how he got here. But thinking back now, he could still retrieve some scattered fragments of memory.
He couldn't help but start talking to Kara:
"I remember lying on a platform, with two very bright lights overhead. Someone grabbed my hand, then wrapped me in fabric and carried me out hurriedly."
"He... he seemed to be wearing a protective suit without exposing his skin. He ran with me for a long time, then put me in a seat. I smelled a scent, felt very sleepy, and then fell asleep."
"When I woke up again, my father was holding me. My mother ran out from the house, but at that time I couldn't understand them. They took me into the house and placed me in front of the fireplace..."
"It seems your foster parents treated you well," Kara smiled and said, "Your parents made the right decision. At that time, many wanted to send their children away, but most failed. Even the successful ones, like me, got swept into some mysterious space, unable to come out for decades."
"I always feel like they knew a lot," Clark said, "It's definitely not a coincidence that I managed to escape."
Kara thought carefully and then said, "True. How did they know the exact coordinates of Earth?"
"Kryptonian civilization was so advanced, they might have discovered Earth long ago. But there's no reason to send me so far away. In the sector where we landed, near the Green Lantern Base, there are clearly many other civilizations and it's not far from here..."
"This indeed seems odd. Let's check out the Breeding Center first, then take a tour of your home, we might discover something."
The two arrived at the entrance of the Breeding Center. In the long-term absence of use, every place was piled high with dust. Clark took a deep breath and blew it out violently, dispersing the dust, and the two walked in.
There was nothing notable on the ground floor, mostly some operation rooms. The machines had long since been destroyed and were of no use.
Finally, on the top floor, they saw the core breeding facility—a massive circular hall. Against the walls were several pieces of equipment, with a transparent chamber in the middle of the equipment. What might have contained some kind of liquid there was now empty.
Both noticed two pieces of equipment were missing. Clark walked to the empty space, pointing at the severed cables and irregular equipment interface said, "Looks like it was dismantled violently."
"This proves Zod wasn't lying to us," Kara said, "He likely was the one who dismantled these two breeding facilities, and it seemed quite dangerous."
Clark moved towards an intact facility next to it. Just as he was about to check if there was anything left inside the transparent chamber, the panel near his arm lit up.
Clark quickly pulled his hand back. Kara walked over, glanced at the text on it, and said, "You've activated it, but it shows insufficient power supply... wait, how's there still energy here?"
The two exchanged a glance, realizing something was amiss.
Logically, after Krypton's destruction for so long, with nothing supplying power to the machines here, they shouldn't have reacted at all.
"Why do I feel like these devices were just activated by someone?" Clark looked around the room, but indeed found no signs of recent activity and could only step back, standing still to ponder.
Kara tried another machine. She placed her hand on the machine's panel, but it had no reaction. She then called Clark over, and when Clark placed his hand on it, the machine lit up.
Though it still showed insufficient power supply, it was clear only Clark could activate the machine.
"Why is it like this?" Kara furrowed her brow, looking puzzled.
"Could it be related to the 'Central Treasure' I carry?"
"No," Kara said, "it's just a book. You can think of it as a reference manual. Do you need to carry a manual with you to start your fridge?"
Clark scratched his head, puzzled.
"Wait, Oliver messaged me." Clark opened the communication panel, and to his surprise, Oliver had sent him a long message. After reading it carefully, his expression turned serious.
"What's wrong?" Kara asked him.
"Oliver said Barry hasn't returned for a long time, and he might have gone time traveling." Clark shook his head slightly and said, "The Justice League's think tank conducted a rigorous and comprehensive analysis. They believe that Barry might have gone to Hai'er's past."
Kara gasped and said, "Did he go back to Hai'er's childhood? Does he intend to directly kill the child Hai'er to resolve this crisis?"
"That's the problem." Clark looked at Kara and said, "Hai'er wasn't resolved; he just went mad and rammed into the sun. This proves Barry didn't kill him in the past but might have done something else that led him to become what he is now."
"So what did he do?"
"They're still discussing."
About ten minutes ago, Oliver gathered Lex, Harley, and two Batmen to a meeting in the conference room, to study how the current situation was formed.
"It's known that Barry doesn't kill," Oliver said, "To be precise, he doesn't kill any intelligent life, including aliens."
"Why?" Batman couldn't help but ask, though he also didn't kill humans, he was ruthless against aliens. Alien electronic lives and monsters were never spared.
But from what Oliver said, this universe's Barry kills almost nothing—not even humans, nor highly intelligent aliens.
"There's no why," Oliver said, "He's willing to do that. We don't interfere with his choice. But he doesn't mind if we kill."
"Because his Divine Speed is very special." Lex voiced his speculation, "His Divine Speed is intertwined with the primordial darkness of the world, inseparable. And this dark power can lead one to fall, so he must control his negative emotions as much as possible, not giving himself the chance to fall."
"Alright, understandable." Batman nodded and said, "So, with him not killing, why choose to return to Hai'er's past?"
Everyone began to ponder, because it was obviously contradictory. Jumping to a point in the past was originally to kill a then-weak opponent, making the future powerful opponent disappear.
But without killing, that cannot be achieved.
By not killing baby Hai'er in the past, Hai'er at this point in time wouldn't disappear. It's all futile.
But Batman grasped the key immediately, he said, "Jumping to the past to kill baby Hai'er is useless."
Injustice Batman realized this too, he said, "The intelligence you received mentions that Hai'er can exist at every point in time. So killing Hai'er at a certain past point in time may not kill him in all time points."
This sounds a bit convoluted, but Oliver thought of a good analogy. He said, "If he can exist simultaneously at every point in time, it means time is non-linear for him."
"So that means the past isn't necessarily before the future, the future isn't necessarily after the past, but the past, future, and present are lined up parallelly, existing simultaneously, without affecting each other."
"Every minute and second he experiences establishes an independent timeline, and the development on each timeline is independent. This is the root of why he can exist at different time points at the same time."
"The life of an ordinary person is like a dried sausage. If the sausage isn't made, there's no way to dry it. To kill an ordinary person by time traveling, the best method is to prevent the sausage from being made, and the drying process naturally won't happen."
"But for Hai'er, his life is like a bunch of grapes. Each grape grows at its own pace, but all are independent. The Hai'er at this time point is just a grape. To eliminate this grape, it's useless to kill the one that grew first."
"Unless one can directly kill the whole vine, there's no way to eliminate him. Eliminating the earliest one doesn't affect the others. Barry understands the structure of time better than us, he surely knows this."
"Indeed, Barry must have realized this before formulating this plan. So by choosing to travel back to the past, he must have other intentions," Batman said.
"What does he intend to do?" Oliver murmured, then looked at Lex and Harley sitting on the same side of the table.
"I remember the information mentioned that Hai'er detests clones, but he himself is actually a clone," Harley thought and said, "I speculate Barry might want to utilize this to strike him. This could also explain why Hai'er suddenly went mad."
The more Harley spoke, the more reasonable it seemed. She gently tapped the table with her fingers and said, "No creature is without weaknesses, not even Doomsday."
"Hai'er's body is indeed strong, but after all, he is an intelligent being, not some unconscious cosmic natural disaster. Barry might want to start from this angle and cause him mental damage."
"But he doesn't seem like the type who would become despondent after a mental blow and then hide in a corner to cry." Batman spread his hands and said, "Facts also prove that mentally attacking him only made him more frenzied."
"Barry studied psychology well, so he couldn't have overlooked this. This indicates he might not intend to make Hai'er retreat through mental stimulation but has other means."