"The environment shapes people," Jude said. "Material conditions dictate what people become. If there is fame and profit in doing evil, more people will do evil. If the consequences are severe and consistent, fewer will. The principle operates in both directions. Seeking favorable outcomes and avoiding negative ones isn't a character trait. It is a biological baseline. Human nature does not arrive pre-loaded with good or evil."
Clark digested this. "I've never considered it that way."
"When people discuss testing human nature, what they are actually asking is whether someone is willing to override their own instincts. They label it a moral evaluation, though most people fail it." Jude shrugged. "If the environment fails to reward good and punish evil, the default setting for the majority is self-interest. That isn't corruption. That is physics."
He looked at Clark.
"I know what you are feeling. You have just watched a version of yourself and a version of someone you love destroyed by a world that simply stopped trying. It is disorienting. It is designed to be."
He paused.
"Do not lose faith in people. Their better side exists. It simply responds to conditions, exactly like everything else. You have always known how to draw it out."
Silence held between them.
"And honestly," Jude added, "everything I just said is entirely pointless. Because the moment someone out there calls your name, you will go."
Clark smiled. A real smile, uncomplicated, stripped of the weight of the past several hours.
"Yes," he said. "As long as someone needs me."
Time stopped.
The Speed Force reserves had depleted while they spoke. The flow of the timeline halted around them, waiting.
SYSTEM: Dark Multiverse crisis event review complete. Please select an intervention point.
SYSTEM: Recommended method: remote deployment of aid items or energy into this universe. The user and Clark must not enter the timeline directly. After deployment, the system will clear all traces and eliminate detection risk.
SYSTEM: ⚠️ Note: the system strongly discourages direct entry into this universe's timeline. Detection by higher-order forces present within is a significant risk.
"When do we intervene?" Jude asked Clark. "My initial instinct was the moment Lois underwent the energy transfer. Intercept Barbatos's influence before it corrupts the fusion."
Clark thought. "That saves everyone who died afterward," he said. "But it doesn't save Jonathan. The shock of hearing I was dead triggered his illness. If we do this, I need him to be safe."
"You want to go further back. Prevent the death entirely."
"What do you think?"
SYSTEM: ⚠️ Warning: Superman's death is a major event with cascading consequences across multiple continuities. Any direct alteration—whether in the prime universe, a Dark Multiverse instance, or adjacent cinematic universes—will attract significant attention from higher-order observers.
"Too visible," Jude said. "Altering a timeline requires precision. The objective is misdirection. You make the smallest alteration necessary to produce the desired outcome, ensuring it appears as a natural progression." He considered the parameters. "Superman has to die once. We cannot circumvent that. We can, however, adjust what happens after."
Clark remained quiet.
"Three days after the death," he said finally. "Immediately following the burial."
"What specifically?"
"The Eradicator will have moved my body to the Fortress of Solitude. It will place me in the Life Matrix. The process will initiate." He spoke deliberately, tracing the logic step by step. "From the Speed Force, I could project my own life force into that body. Feed the resurrection directly. The Life Matrix would still function, but the necessary energy would already be present. The process would accelerate by weeks." A pause. "Jonathan would see me alive before the illness takes hold. He'd know I came back. That should be enough."
"A remarkably subtle approach," Jude said. He addressed the system. "Will this function?"
SYSTEM: Simulation complete. The plan possesses a high probability of success and a strong concealment profile. However: the energy requirement is substantial. Following donation, Clark will experience a prolonged period of weakness. Recovery depends entirely on subsequent energy replenishment.
"Define prolonged."
SYSTEM: Determined by the rate of energy intake post-extraction.
"He can sunbathe," Jude said. "In the films, he recovered from a direct nuclear strike in under a minute. In the comics, he restored himself by absorbing vitality from plant life."
SYSTEM: Clarification: wound recovery and full resurrection are categorically distinct processes. The energy required for the Life Matrix to restore a Kryptonian from absolute death exceeds healing by several orders of magnitude. Accelerating this process will drain Clark significantly.
Jude looked at Clark. "We cannot enter the timeline. The concept remains sound. I can help channel your life force from here, targeting the precise moment and the correct body. The system manages delivery."
He kept his tone flat.
"You won't die. You will be weaker. Possibly for a very long time."
Clark did not hesitate. "It's worth it."
The plan locked in.
"Focus on the moment," Jude said. "Three days post-death. The Eradicator has just secured the body in the Fortress."
The Speed Force shifted them.
The corpse materialized in the timeline. No pulse. No respiration. No vital signs. Whatever had animated Superman was entirely absent. The body remained merely a record of what he had been.
Jude rested a hand on Clark's shoulder.
"Ready."
SYSTEM: Deployment process initializing. Vitality extraction beginning.
Clark's life force moved.
It wasn't a visible extraction. It felt like an immense shift, a sudden tide receding from a shoreline. Clark's skin grayed instantly, the healthy color draining away like desaturation applied to a photograph. The weakness hit his muscles first, traveling inward. He swayed.
Jude caught him, securing an arm across his back.
He's nearly empty, Jude thought, watching the tremor in Clark's legs. A Kryptonian, nearly empty. I didn't fully comprehend the cost.
"That should be enough," Jude said, addressing the system.
SYSTEM: Extraction complete. Initiating delivery.
SYSTEM: Launching.
The life force condensed into a pinpoint of light. It crossed the threshold from the Speed Force into the Time Stream, moving with a speed that left zero impression. It struck the body inside the Life Matrix with absolute precision. It merged. It left no entry signature. The timeline registered no anomaly, simply a resurrection accelerating slightly faster than expected.
"Remarkably clean," Jude said. "Is that it?"
SYSTEM: Not quite. Finishing steps required.
Something moved within the corpse.
A dark power. The exact cold they had sensed during Lois's transformation. It bled out from the tissue, slow and deliberate, a triggered mechanism reacting to interference. It had nested inside the dead cells for weeks, patiently waiting for the resurrection to unfold on its scheduled timeline.
The schedule had changed.
It began to search.
The power expanded rapidly, sweeping across every adjacent vector, scanning anything that might have brushed against the resurrection process.
It found nothing.
The Speed Force existed outside the timeline. Jude and Clark existed outside the timeline. The intervention had left no trace, no residual energy, no thread to follow backward.
"I knew something was nested in there," Jude said, watching the search pattern fail. He let the satisfaction color his voice. "Otherwise, why would the resurrection have taken a full month?"
The dark power swept outward one final time. It found nothing. It went completely still.