Chapter 11: The morning after

There is a point between joy and ecstasy. A point where the mind and body just fill with contentment which would make one neutral to the rest of the world. Jane had never felt this feeling of content. Just not wanting to do anything was not in her nature. There was always something she wanted to do but at the present, she felt that contentment. The feeling of not needing anything and just lay back on her bed doing nothing without a care to the rest of the world.

The irony was that she came to this feeling after a night of doing a whole lot of other activities. And she had the alien who she was treating as her personal pillow to thank for that. Without moving her head she looked around a little bit and was relieved that darkness had yet to go away. Which means that she still had some time before sunrise. Not that she was going anywhere as she was supposed to stay in her apartment because of her injury.

Her bedfellow on the other hand does not have the luxury to take a day off. Now, that made her think about what exactly Cerion was working on with the government. She frowned but knocked that thought away and pressed her body further into Cerion. She didn't know how long she laid there in her bed with her head resting on Cerion's heart. The steady heartbeat most likely lulled her to sleep but she woke up when a pair of fingers glided through her locks of hair. It was soothing and almost therapeutic and she let out a groan of satisfaction at the ministration.

"Jane are you awake?" she heard Cerion ask. She didn't bother to respond but merely snuggle further into Cerion's chest basking in the warmth she felt.

"Jane it is morning. It is time to get up." said Cerion this time slightly shaking her.

"Five more minutes." she groaned out.

"I don't think that's a good idea Jane." said Cerion which disturbed her peaceful sleep and her plans for using Cerion as a pillow.

"What is the hurry? Did you forget today is Sunday?" she mumbled

"I know but I have to do something urgently." Version insisted and she could hear a hint of panic in his voice.

"Do what?" she asked as she dragged her head up with a considerable effort to look properly into his eyes which she found to hold needless alarm in them.

"I've got to burn your bed and the sheets."

Jane blinked confusedly at Cerion. "Come again?"

"I've got to burn the sheets, your bed and we need to clean this whole apartment."

Now she was sure she was not dreaming as she was now faced with a hysterical Cerion which was a first.

"What do you mean?"

She didn't get much of an answer except a panicked look from Cerion.

A few minutes later she stood witness as Cerion packed up her sheets into a plastic bag. Her bed was folded up and carefully tucked under Cerion's arm. She watched all of this with a disapproving frown as she sat on her couch wearing only a t-shirt.

"Be right back." said Cerion and then he blasted off into the sky from her open window. She had no idea where he went but this is the most bizarre experience she ever had with another guy.

If anything she should have been the one to panic. Till yesterday she had no idea alien civilizations existed. Now, she slept with an alien and somehow she was not the one panicking.

A rustle of wind blew her hair all over the place and before her stood Cerion with a relieved look. She watched him with a frown as he opened her refrigerator and began gulping down water from a bottle.

"What was that?" Jane asked with folded hands.

"Sorry. I had to ensure nothing remained of our early night activities." He said uncomfortably.

"Huh...what do you…? Oh!"

Now she understood why Cerion was behaving as if the Russians were after him.

"Aren't you being a bit overly paranoid?" she asked tentatively.

"There is no such thing as overly paranoid Jane."

"But the government – this SHIELD won't just go through my room, right? Right?"

Cerion merely gave her nod and she gulped nervously now feeling seriously worried about her privacy.

"Well, they shouldn't be doing that." she said indignantly.

"I am sure they have their reasons. I am an unknown alien entity and it would be remiss of them to not use every trick in the book to acquire an advantage over me."

"Are you defending them now?" she asked with a frown.

"No. Merely making an observation. You should get some rest and rest your arm a bit."

Jane blinked and looked down at her supposedly broken arm. Strangely she could not feel an iota of pain or discomfort from her injured arm.

"Actually, my arm has never felt better." She said before taking some experimental swings. "Huh, how about that!"

*******

Cerion let out a tired sigh as he sat back in his seat tired of looking through piles of data he pulled from the Hubble and the star charts he currently possessed in his ship. The stark difference in technology made the data that he mined from earthly instruments almost useless. It would require a whole lot of different algorithms to weed out the data he mined.

Nonetheless, the data that he pulled would accelerate his plans in finding out a distant planet where he could set up his new home. The only saving grace in this situation was that he had the drones working for him and by the end of next month he would be able to launch a scout ship.

He was fortunate that he had ended up taking an exploratory vessel from Krypton. It housed four scout ships and a myriad of technology. Without all of this, he would have surely struggled. The only thing he lacked is a Genisis chamber and a World Engine. But he did have the specs secured in the memory banks of the ship.

"Sir, I have a query."

Cerion faced the main drone that Optima preferred as a medium of communication.

"Ask away Optima."

"Why are you seeking out another planet? The plan was to settle on Earth was it not?"

That is a genuine query from Optima. Before he executed his plans to escape he had planned to stay on Earth and even look after Kal El. It was the least he could do for Joer El who took him under his wing and indirectly helped him escape Krypton. But Kal El is not here and he certainly had no obligation to stay on Earth.

Sure he had some lingering feeling for his former home but that same attachment was also there for Krypton. He felt that he was doing a disservice to all those who perished in Krypton if he did not build a new Krypton.

In this new Krypton, he would build a better civilization. One that would be perfect and not the imperfect failed state of old Krypton. But this was not the only reason he was seeking out a new home far away from humanity.

There was just no way that humanity would be comfortable in sharing their planet with an alien entity. Especially one that is powerful enough to wipe out their entire species in a matter of weeks. He could already see that there would only be conflicts in the future if he decided to stay and integrate into human society.

'Even if I don't turn against humanity there is a chance that one of my descendants will and no matter the cause the end result will be disastrous.' He thought grimly.

He knew he was just wildly speculating but there was a chance that he could be right. He couldn't help but imagine what a catastrophe might that be. His descendants may not have the same temperament that he has and with the stunts that humanity would pull on them…

He shook his head at the thought and sighed. The latest incident with the Baker and his gang came to his mind.

He did not for a moment believe Coulson's act of total ignorance in this matter. He suspected SHIELD played some role in this scuffle with this Baker fellow. However, it was possible that HYDRA may have acted without SHIELD's knowledge to spice things up. He didn't care either way.

HYDRA, SHIELD or whatever they name themselves, they all belong to humanity. And if he knows about anything it was that humanity discriminated against anything that was different. They even find differences amongst themselves. He was tired of living with all these differences and he had no interest in getting tangled in their games. Fury and his colourful friends in tights could go hang himself for all he cared. If they gave human life so little value then there was no point in creating an amicable relationship with the leaders of humanity.

"I have found humanity to be hostile to coexist. It will prove to be a disaster if I decide to stay on Earth. Besides, I don't think it will be healthy for any of my descendants to live on this planet. The human society is extremely greedy and I see their society is rotting from within." He answered Optima.

Despite all this, he realized the merit of staying on Earth for the moment. If he wanted to recreate a new Krypton he needs to fill this new planet with life. He can't just clone his species and expect nature to accept his judgment. That would be unnatural and Krypton's destruction is proof of the danger inherent in a cloned civilization. Not to mention the warning Ancient One delivered was also in his mind. The new Kryptonians must be different from him for their own sake.

Life must be unbound and free to flourish. Most of its excess can be trimmed through building a compassionate society. Krypton's failure came from its lack of compassion and hence it devalued life. Krypton saw life as a means to an end. It coveted knowledge and tried to bring order to something that has always happened through natural selection. Krypton failed to take this into account that nature is the arbitrary judge of life and life should happen with minimal interference.

"Shall I initiate Project Genesis sir?" asked Optima

Cerion looked away from Optima to the sample of genetic material he extracted from Jane's bed along with a whole lot of other samples he collected. While he surely did rush away to destroy any traces of their copulation he thought better of it. So now those very samples he meant to destroy would help him learn of the possibility of creating a human – Kryptonian hybrid.

If such a union is possible he could create hundreds of thousands of hybrid Kryptonians without the harmful effects of Kryptonian cloning. With a wide variety of DNA available from the human species, he could recalibrate the cloning technology to eradicate the degradation inherent in Kryptonian cloning. This was already a given as he had no access to the Codex. The only Kryptonian DNA he has is his own DNA and that would be the base of a new Krypton.

But first, he needed to know whether the human and Kryptonian gene would be compatible. The MCU humans were a different breed than regular humans or the DCU humans. He would find out more about the human genome in the future when he could study a variety of samples.

But one thing was for sure. It was almost impossible to safely procreate with a human female. He had to exert a tremendous amount of self-restraint last night so as not to crush Jane by accident. Tough days were ahead of him and he had so far made progress steadily. But soon that would change as he was going to extract the resources that he would need from Earth and build a new future for Krypton. A new civilization that would be detached from the failures of the past will be born under his guidance.

"Initiate Project Genesis."