When Joey walked past the outer area of the cells in Section E on Level 3 and entered the Justice Hall of the Watchtower, he happened to run into Starfire, who was pacing inside the hall.
Their eyes met—but both quickly looked away in the same instant, each feeling a trace of guilt.
Joey felt guilty because he was considering whether he should reconcile with Krypton for Earth's safety. He knew that—even as a temporary measure—cooperating with Krypton might be the most rational choice.
That would mean a complete shift in his stance. And if that happened, Starfire's blood-deep vengeance would no longer be something she could achieve alongside him.
Worse still, Joey himself might end up walking the path of Krypton.
The Great Kryptonian Expansion was no empty phrase—it would be a brutal, bloody era of conquest.
Conquering the universe was not something accomplished with words.
In his previous life, Joey had once played a space strategy game rated only PEGI 7 to pass the time. That game had taught him a very simple truth—that wiping out an entire planet, or even half a universe, might sound difficult, but in reality… it really wasn't.
Especially when you possessed absolute power.
Right now, Joey had almost no choice. He could only choose between Krypton and Earth.
And Starfire… was the one being abandoned.
He didn't even dare imagine how she would react if he told her the truth.
She would probably try to kill him on the spot.
That was why Joey couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes.
But then again… Starfire had just acted the same way.
So what was she feeling guilty about?
It seemed both of them were hiding something that could be crucial to the other.
They stood there in the Justice Hall, until Joey finally broke the silence:
"Let's talk somewhere else?"
The Watchtower had only just been partially repaired by Cyborg after the earlier damage from battle. If they started fighting here, Cyborg's robots would probably have to spend the next few days doing repairs all over again.
Starfire nodded.
"Okay."
The Arctic. The Fortress of Solitude.
Inside this fortress—constructed from Kryptonian crystals—the systems had fallen into temporary dormancy after its master left.
Sensing Joey's arrival, all systems except the external communications were reactivated.
The central AI processor projected a countdown for the arrival of the Kryptonian fleet.
Only 3 days and 22 hours remained.
Looking at the projection, Joey unconsciously let out another sigh.
In almost every universe, Superman names this place the Fortress of Solitude—because he is one of the last survivors of Krypton.
But now, Joey felt he no longer deserved that name.
He was anything but alone.
Soon, tens of thousands of fully armed Kryptonians would arrive on Earth to 'reunite' him with his father.
In fact, Starfire—standing beside him—was more deserving of this fortress.
Because soon… she would truly be alone.
Joey's sigh caught Starfire's attention. She looked at the Kryptonian text in the projection, but couldn't understand a single word.
Perhaps because Krypton had been isolated from the universe for tens of thousands of years, even the Green Lantern ring—capable of translating most languages—couldn't decipher such a short piece of Kryptonian text.
Starfire cared about that projection, because it made Joey seem even more troubled.
"What does it say?"
"It's nothing, just…"
Before Joey could finish, Starfire chose to find the answer herself.
She suddenly reached out, hooked her arm around Joey's neck—and kissed him.
"Mmph—"
Their lips met. The soft sensation caught Joey completely off guard—he had been preparing to confess everything, and now this?
His breath hitched, and instinctively he tried to push her away.
But the kiss was both gentle and forceful, leaving him no room to escape.
Her fiery orange hair began to blaze like flames—a sign that a Tamaranean was unleashing her full power.
Joey had no choice but to stop resisting, letting himself be pushed down to the ground.
His hands moved to her shoulders, naturally responding to her kiss.
Since arriving in this world, his mind had been under constant, intense strain.
And at this moment, for the first time, he finally relaxed—
Letting go of all the pressure and frustration, if only temporarily.
He had already stopped the war between the Amazons and Atlantis, calmed an earthquake that could have devastated half of Europe, and dealt with a crazed Kryptonian and a Kryptonian scout in succession.
The looming threat of Apokolips lingered in the shadows, while out in the open, the Kryptonian army was almost upon them. Why was being a hero of Earth this exhausting?
No one knew how long it took before their lips finally parted.
But Starfire's arms, still wrapped around Joey's neck, showed no intention of letting go. Pressed cheek to cheek with him, her emerald eyes stared directly into his slightly evasive gaze:
"Maybe… I like you a little, Joey."
She wanted to take things further.
Joey did too—but he understood that making such a choice in this moment would not be a good one.
When you're starving, you shouldn't go grocery shopping—because hunger will make you buy things you don't actually need.
Likewise, when someone seeks love out of loneliness, they may end up choosing the wrong person.
Starfire was exactly in that state.
She was the last of her people. The Green Lantern Corps had chosen to avoid direct conflict with Krypton, surrendering every region illuminated by bright stars.
Her heart was filled with loneliness and despair, driving her to cling to anything she could grasp.
Like Joey—someone she could rest upon in that moment.
But relying on him was only a temporary comfort, nothing more
"Let's stop here, Koriand'r. What you're feeling right now isn't love—it's just loneliness."
Joey spoke to halt things from going further, but to his surprise, the words he spoke were in a language he shouldn't have known—the Tamaranean language.
"What's going on?"
Starfire, her face still inches from his, replied fluently in Joey's language—Kryptonian:
"This is an ability of the Tamaranean royal family. Through contact like this, I can assimilate languages. Now I can understand the text on the screen—it's a countdown."
At the mention of the countdown, the brief relaxation Joey felt from the kiss vanished, and his brow furrowed again:
"It's the countdown to the arrival of the Kryptonians."
The mood instantly cooled. Starfire, who had been full of energy just moments ago, also felt the weight of it. Both of them calmed down.
Only then did they remember why they had come here.
Each of them had something they had been hiding—something too difficult to say.
"Koriand'r—""Joey—"
They both started speaking at the same time, only to stop together.
"I'll go first!"
Joey reached out and gently covered her lips.
"No… let me."
Then he told her.
How he was the only son of Jor-El—the most dangerous Kryptonian war leader in the universe.
How he could choose to side with Krypton, in exchange for sparing Earth from conquest.
That would mean no regime change, no military occupation, no violent suppression—and Earth would avoid the same fate that had befallen Starfire's homeworld.
No one would lose anything in this choice.
Except one person.
Starfire.
She still held him close, but Joey felt that in the next moment, she might tighten her grip and snap his neck.
Fortunately, she didn't.
She simply sighed.
"My father, the king of Tamaran, used to say something often—'Tamaran above all else.'"
And for Joey, it was clear:
Earth above all else.
How could she blame him for that?
The fact that Joey even showed a trace of guilt already meant a great deal to her.
Tamaraneans were emotional, passionate, ever-changing. Starfire wielded a Green Lantern ring—a weapon that required immense willpower—because she had never abandoned her desire for vengeance.
That burning will was what powered her.
For revenge, she could sacrifice her life without hesitation.
But she could not allow innocent blood to be spilled along that path.
And she, too, had been hiding something.
Something that mattered not just to Earth—but to the entire universe.
"I have a secret I haven't told you either. Do you want to know?"
This time, Starfire tightened her arms around him. Her hair and skin blazed like living fire, leaving Joey no easy way to escape:
"If you want to know… you'll have to find out yourself."