Questions for Caiera

Both our fists met, a catatonic explosion of sound and force destroying the nearby landscape for miles around. Wildlife and foliage eviscerated in an instant, the ground beneath our feet caving as both of us plummeted to the ground.

Yet as soon as we landed, I was suddenly beset by my opponent once more. Her blade swung, cutting through the air as it came dangerously close to me. That was until her leg swung low, sweeping my legs out from under me, I falling back just as her blade came down in an overhead strike.

It would have been a finishing blow; if I didn't have the ability to fly.

My hands moved quickly, clapping together and catching the blade before it could cut into me. There we remained, I floating mere inches off the ground as I strained to hold her blade from cutting into me. Caiera herself pressed down, teeth grit as she attempted to force her blade further down.

Then the wind came, cutting a deep trench in the ground and spreading further along. All around us, the sound of battle burst back to life, our senses returning to us once more. "This has certainly been fun," I noted with a smile tugging at my lips, quickly striking out with a kick to her stomach that threw her back.

She flipped through the air, feet digging into he ground as she pierced her blade into it to further slow herself down. I myself, rose upright, floating in the air calmly as I looked down upon us. A few bolts struck against me but with my invulnerability, they simply bounced off me harmlessly. I responded in kind, heat vision lancing out and cutting through those that foolishly intervened within our fight.

With Beta Ray Bill now on my side I gave up on waiting.

There was no need after all.

I personally led the bulk of our forces in an open march. Caiera and those forces loyal to the Red King met us upon the march resulting in our current battle. She was, as I had expected from the beginning, a challenging foe.

However, compared to the likes of Thragg and Doomsday, I had little reason to be concerned. I was stronger now than I had been then, in every way. All I had been doing with her was fighting, not toying as I wasn't quite at a level to comfortably fight against her in such a fashion. She was still strong, too strong for me to hold back against, yet also not strong enough for me to go all out against her either. A strange conundrum that made for an interesting change of pace compared to my usual line of fights.

Yet victory here meant nothing.

The real fight would be back at their main base, the capital of Sakaar. That was where Beta Ray Bill and Hiroim were going to lead a small detachment of slaves to finish off the Red King. After they ran a few errands for me first.

I had already dismantled the bombs that would crack the tectonic plates of Sakaar. Without them, the Red King's last-ditch plan would end up in ruins.

"Why do you continue to fight?" I asked, Caiera pulling her blade free as she spat out some blood. Her face as always was serious, set in stone and showing none of her excitement, yet I could hear the pounding of her heartbeat, she was truly enjoying this fight. "Do not tell me you still believe that the Red King is still some kind of benevolent ruler?"

Caiera shook her head. "No, I do not." I rose a brow in surprise, that was good news because it meant that she wasn't stupid. So then why was she still trying to fight me? Why was she still fighting for him? "You were right, I have blinded myself to the truth that deep down, I always knew. The Red King will stop at nothing to get what he wants. For me, it was allowing the slaughter of tens of thousands of my people, to the point only a fraction of our number yet remains."

"So, why still fight for him?"

"Because Beta Ray Bills and your head are the very things he wants most and he will stop at nothing to get you both." Caiera pointed her blade at me, shifting into a ready stance. "Millions will die in the process and I will bring you to him so that those millions might have a chance to live."

"It's admirable but naive," I replied, Caiera frowning angrily. "War cannot be fought without casualties. No matter how smart or strong you are, casualties both innocent and guilty are always bound to appear."

Caiera burst off, I gripping hold of her wrist, while gripping hold of her fist that came around moments later to punch me across the jaw. Without any ground beneath her feet, Caiera dangled there, glaring up at me. "But that doesn't mean I can't limit those casualties." With a shout, she swung feet lashing out in an attempt to hit me in the underside of my chin, but I simply let go and flew back to put some distance between us.

"And how exactly will you do that, when your King won't do the same?" I questioned further. "You think by simply killing me that this will all end. There will always be people like me, unwilling to bow our heads to rulers like him. Rebellions will always happen and when they do, what then? Will you waste your life trying to end our lives here? What about next time around? You're fighting a disease but instead of eliminating the root cause, all you're doing is fighting the symptoms. You're not finding a cure, you're simply delaying the inevitable."

"Shut up!" Caiera roared, leaping at me once more, I meeting her midjump, tackling her in the air and slamming back into the ground. One hand pressed her head into the ground, the other pinning her sword arm into the ground as I dug my knee into her back.

I strained as she fought me every step of the way. "Y-you wouldn't have gotten so angry if you didn't know what I say to be the truth. I didn't lie to you about what the Red King did. I'm not lying to you now and you know it. It doesn't matter if you stop me here to save thousands today. There will be another rebellion after me. Then another and another until the thousands you saved today result in billions dead before you die."

Releasing my grip upon her, I stepped away allowing Caiera to get to her feet warily, carefully watching every move I make. "I'm not here to fight you Caiera, I'm here to help you." I rose one hand up to the sky. "This universe is divided, hundreds of thousands of plants, so many lives that I can't even begin to count scattered all throughout. Beta Ray Bill lost his people, I swore to help him find them. I lost mine and swore to secure an Empire in which they could be safe. Sakaar could be the beginning of that empire. A centrepiece that results in giving birth to many trillions of lives. A few thousand is but a small price to pay for such a future."

"And how does that make you any better than him?!"

"Because I know my mistakes and learnt from them. I know when to sacrifice lives and when to save them. When to kill an enemy and when to spare them. These are lessons I've learned long ago, back when I was a commander of the Kryptonian Military. I've learnt many more since setting out on my own." I explained. "Everyone likes to believe there is always another way and perhaps there is, but sometimes that other way is more costly in the long run. Sometimes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. You wish to be a leader, to save these people, you need to know that sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the betterment of everyone. What the Red King is doing, is the direct opposite of that."

Did I believe everything I said? In a way, yes I did.

Most of my ambitions were just that, my ambitions. But how I went about achieving them, was all up to me and my own moral code. I was not a hero, but I also wasn't going to be the villain. My goal was to be emperor, to conquer all my enemies and stand atop the universe as an unparalleled being.

I couldn't do that by being a hero, nor as a villain. One required sacrificing myself for the betterment of others. The other required sacrificing others for the betterment of myself without any reason.

One would make my life easy in the short term but as time carried on, my list of enemies would grow. The other would mean a hard-fought battle from start to end. But I wasn't a hero or a villain, I was a warrior of Krypton and it was about time I started acting like one. Benevolent and graceful to my subjects and allies, ruthless and merciless to my enemies.

A benevolent tyrant.

"Your king had planted bombs beneath the surface of our planet. The moment he lost, he would activate them resulting in the destruction of Sakaar." Caiera jerked away, shocked and horrified by my words, yet not disbelieving of them. "I dismantled them, the Red King will be unable to do that."

The bombs were another reason why I held off on taking over Sakaar straight away. No point taking over an entire planet only for it to blow up seconds afterwards, was there?

"Now the only choice you have to ask yourself, are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary or are you simply going to stand by and do nothing?" For in that moment, a ship came rocketing down towards us, I turned, heat vision lancing out and engulfing the ship, destroying it and the Spikes inside. "The Red King has already made his decision, sending out Spikes, uncaring of the innocents or his own soldier's lives, including yours."