A LONG TIME AGO, IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

This was it. This is what he had been trying to tell them about. Yet time and time again, the High Council ignored Jor-El. Jor was no doubt a brilliant man. In fact, he was considered one of the smartest people in the world. He had won countless awards, and achieved so many breakthroughs in the world of science. For almost all of his adult life, Jor was regarded as one of Krypton's greatest. Yet, the Council ignored all of that. They told him it was impossible. They told him he was a madman for thinking so. They ridiculed him. They stripped him of his pride. The Council ignored Jor's latest discovery: Krypton's end.

"Where is he, Lara? I need to speak to him immediately."

Jor knew that voice.

"He isn't seeing anyone right now, Dru. Your leaders betrayed him, and now you come begging to him because he was right!"

Jor decided that he needed to intervene before his uninvited guest made a move.

"Lara, calm down. There's nothing to yell about. Dru, what exactly are you doing here?"

The man standing before both of them was General Dru-Zod, leader of the Kryptonian Military. He and Jor had been friends for years, despite their differences and their political viewpoints. By almost all accounts, Dru-Zod was a fearless, yet stern leader. And here he was, standing in the El's living quarters, in full armor.

"Jor. They're here."

Jor looked out the window. He could see exactly was Dru was talking about. Winged creatures that looked like people, yet hideously disfigured. Jor knew all too well who's doing this was.

"Steppenwolf." Jor said in a small whisper.

"I've been sent here to evacuate you three to the nearest shelter. It's your only chance of survival."

By three, Dru was referring not only to Jor and Lara, but also to their newborn, Kal. It had only been several weeks since he was born, and now it seemed as though he was about to meet his end with the rest of Krypton.

Jor considered Dru's words for a moment, then slowly turned around. Jor was always known to be a tad overdramatic, even a bit stoic at times.

"No."

"It wasn't an option, Jor. I'm sent here by the High Council, and they are wanting everyone to be evacuated as soon as possible."

Jor tried to hold back his laughter, failing miserably.

"The High Council, Dru? Why would I want to listen to them when they refused to listen to me? I predicted the imminent invasion and apocalypse, yet they elected to ignore my warnings. Not only that, but they belittled me as well. After everything I've done for them." Lara looked at her husband in both panic and anger.

"Jor, what are you doing? This is our only chance to make it out of this alive! Please. Don't you want to protect our son?"

Jor looked at her. She looked exactly the same as when they first met. Those beautiful blue eyes, her majestic blonde hair. He leaned in close to say something so Dru couldn't hear.

"I have a plan."

He didn't have time to say what it was, as two more officers ran in urgently: Commander Faora-Ul and Lieutenant Tor-An.

"General! The parademons have attacked our transport ships. We have no way to get our people to shelter."

Dru looked at the female officer in sheer disbelief. From the way she made it sound, Krypton was truly done for. He thought for a moment, then sternly spoke to them.

"You two stay with me. We're going to get Steppenwolf off our planet." Tor-An spoke up.

"But General! The odds are completely against us! We'll all die!"

"Not if I have something to say about it."

And with that, Dru stormed out of the room, with Faora close behind. Tor stood bewildered for a brief moment, then soon followed. Jor and Lara were now alone with Kal.

"So, what was this plan you were talking about?"

"To be completely honest, I don't think you're going to like it."

Dru and his acolytes stormed out of the El home, and immediately began firing on the parademons. These creatures, however, were not easy to hold back. It seemed as if the more they fired, the angrier the demons got. Dru noticed that the demons were taking people and carrying them away, assuming they were to be kept as prisoners. At this point, the people were not his priority. Right now, he just wanted to get to Steppenwolf and cut his head clean off with his rapier. Dru soon realized that this would be easier said than done, as parademons began swarming the three of them on all sides.

"General, what are to do?" Faora asked, almost panicking.

"Simple. Stay calm, and follow my lead."

Dru pulled out his rapier. Faora and Tor did the same. The three of them charged at the demons.

"Jor, what is all of this?"

"Something I've been building since the Council denied my thesis."

Lara looked around. In his lab, Jor had built a ship. It was painted blue, with hints of red and yellow. Lara noticed something off about it.

"Are we going to escape in that? It's much too small!"

"We're not going to escape, Lara. But he is." Jor gestured towards Kal, who was fast asleep in Lara's arms.

Lara looked at him in horror. Kal was only a few weeks old. She had already grown so attached to him. Jor spoke once again.

"Lara, we've already had our chance at life. This will give him a chance of one too."

"But where will he go?"

"I don't know. But wherever he does end up, let's hope he will be a reminder of what was here."

There he was. It had been a hard journey, but the three soldiers had finally made it to Steppenwolf. He had been waiting for them, patiently and eagerly.

"General."

"What do you want with Krypton, Steppenwolf?"

"Oh, General. Always so foolish. I don't want your filthy little world, so I'm going to destroy it."

Dru looked at Steppenwolf. Dru himself was already a big man, but Steppenwolf dwarfed him in comparison. Steppenwolf wore heavy armor, painted in a dark red substance that one could only assume was blood. His helmet had two large horns on each end. And to top it all off, he wielded a large flaming axe.

Dru looked at Tor. He was shaking in fear. Dru understood. He probably would've done the same at Tor's age. Then he looked at Faora. She was much calmer than Tor, but still showed significant fear. She looked back at him, and attempted a small grin. Dru smiled back, then spoke to her.

"You two stand back. I have a plan. And it's probably not a good one."

Dru stood up, and started walking toward the beast in front of him.

"So, you've come to challenge me, then. Is that the case, Steppenwolf?"

Steppenwolf let out a small chuckle. As foolish as this man seemed, he had to applaud the General for his bravery. He decided to play along in this game.

"Yes. A challenge. A duel of the fates, if you will."

"Good. I'm sure you of all people know how this works."

"Indeed. Ready up, General."

Dru produced his rapier, and Steppenwolf picked up his axe. Then, in the blink of an eye, they charged directly at each other. Almost immediately Dru was getting pummeled, but he wasn't going down without a fight. He charged once more, this time going for Steppenwolf's eye. He swung his blade right up Steppenwolf's face. Dru looked and nearly cried out. His blade had definitely his Steppenwolf, but missed his eye. Steppenwolf looked up, and started to charge in a blind rage. Zod pulled out his blaster and began firing. He struck Steppenwolf in the face again, then several more times in his torso, but that didn't stop the devil that was coming straight for him. With a frightening blow, Steppenwolf's axe struck Dru across his face. Dru looked back at his allies. There was only one thing left to do.

"RETREAT!"

It took Jor a long time to convince Lara that this was right. He even brought up the fact that his brother was doing the same thing for his daughter. At last, Lara finally agreed, and she gently sent Kal in the small shuttle. She had tears in her eyes. She spoke softly to her son for the last time.

"Kal, I know it hasn't been very long, but… but I hope you make it out there. Please, Kal… Share our story with the universe."

Kal saw that his mother was weeping, and he began to cry as well. Jor came up next to him and spoke.

"My son. I'm afraid that this is goodbye. But that does not mean that this is the end for you. I feel that you will be a beacon of hope for many worlds. My son, you are going to be something… super."

Kal looked up at his father and stopped crying. Jor looked at his son and smiled. It was almost as if Kal understood what he was saying. Jor closed the ship and prepared it for launch.

Dru, Faora and Tor made it an abandoned shelter. Several other soldiers were already there, and there were more on the way. Faora looked up at Dru. She idolized him, and he knew it. What was between them was a secret to the rest of the military. Faora then realized what she was looking at. Dru's face was bleeding profusely.

"I need a medic right away! Hurry up! This is the General-"

"No, Faora, it's fine. Let them come at their own pace."

"But General, there's no time to-"

"As far as we're concerned, time doesn't matter anymore. For right now, just get me a cloth so I can get this blood off of me."

Soon enough, a small army was gathered in the shelter. As for those who weren't there, they were as good as dead. Dru looked at his men and women in arms and began speaking, his face still bleeding.

"My fellow soldiers. We are all that remains of Krypton. Steppenwolf has taken our world, and is preparing to destroy it. We cannot fight back."

The soldiers murmured among themselves for several seconds. At last, another soldier, Jax-Ur, spoke up.

"What do we do then? We can't just let our world die!"

Dru looked at his soldiers as they began agreeing with Jax.

"While I would usually agree with you, I'm afraid we have no other choice. However, there is one option that will spare our lives and the future of Krypton. Although, I must admit it is an option that I would rather not take."

The soldiers began murmuring once more, before Tor spoke up.

"What is your plan, General?"

Dru looked on at his army. They trusted him. They needed him. Faora needed him. With a look of guilt on his face, he revealed his plan.

"The Phantom Zone."

Jor and Lara looked as the ship took off into the atmosphere. Lara began to weep once again.

Dru and his army prepared themselves to enter the Phantom Zone. He saw Faora standing towards the back of the crowd. She mouthed something to him. He wasn't quite sure, but he thought he knew what she meant.

Steppenwolf grinned. He had won.

In space, a small craft floated away to find a new home.

The last survivors float through space in a prison that has no time.

There is a large blast of light.

Nothing.

A/N: I think a lot of people can agree that the DCEU has been in need of a rewrite for a while. But instead of just copying Marvel's formula, I've decided to go about it a bit differently and just rewrite the films that the DCEU already has. Plus, I'm also throwing in some one off films (Joker, The Batman, etc.), some of the CW shows (not all of them) and the DC Universe/HBO Max originals.

Basically, here's how it's going to work. I have a release timeline, as well as an in-universe timeline. Once more stories come out, I'll release the in-universe timeline. The release timeline is for my eyes only. For the CW Shows, I'm only doing 3 of them: The Flash, Supergirl and Black Lightning. Now, for Flash and Supergirl I'm cutting down their seasons because I don't want to rewrite a full 25-episode season. The Flash will have 13 episodes per season, and Supergirl will have 10. Black Lightning will keep its full seasons, since they're much shorter. The DCU/HBO shows will also keep their full seasons as they're usually 13 episodes per season.

As for Man of Steel, this is only the beginning. You've probably also noticed that this chapter heavily focuses on Zod. I felt that Zod is always portrayed in a bad light (he's a villain, duh), so I decided to give a bit of a heroic origin story. Don't worry, he's only being called Dru in this chapter. He'll be referred to as Zod in later chapters. And yes, I am hinting at Zod and Faora being lovers. If you want to nitpick, go ahead. If you think it should've been Ursa, fine. To me, Faora is basically just the modern version of Ursa. They even look the same. And if you know the DCEU well, you'll know that this will not the be the last time that Steppenwolf appears. It's gonna be a while, though.

That's basically it for now. Thanks for reading!