The Martians' fear of fire was artificially implanted into their DNA by an external force.
And the Martian Manhunter was now certain that the masterminds behind all of this were the so-called Guardians.
The Guardians—often appearing as small, blue-skinned beings that reside on the planet Oa at the center of the universe.
They may have existed as long as the universe itself. They are among the earliest advanced civilizations and have relentlessly dedicated themselves to maintaining peace and order across the cosmos.
The Green Lantern Corps, which now upholds universal peace and protects life, is one of their creations.
To the Guardians, the Martian race was clearly too dangerous—so they resorted to such methods to limit them.
That decision left the Martians of a thousand years ago completely defenseless against the psychic plague, leading to their near-instant extinction.
"I'm sorry you had to relive something like that."
Joey felt he could understand the Martian Manhunter's emotions—just as he had once tolerated Starfire when she had chased him down in a frenzy.
First Starfire, now the Martian Manhunter.
Was he somehow destined to keep running into the last survivors of extinct civilizations?
Even by DC universe standards, wasn't this world a bit too dark?
"What I need is not an apology, but the same thing your Kryptonians seek."
The Martian Manhunter finally revealed the true core purpose behind their cooperation with Krypton:
"What we need is revenge—and the right to survive."
"Hold on just a second…"
The amount of information packed into those few sentences was overwhelming.
Was it possible the Martian Manhunter had been deceived by Kara and was now blindly serving the Kryptonians?
But thinking back to the eerie coordination the Martians displayed even without telepathy, Joey doubted they could be so easily fooled.
Besides, the Guardians of Oa hadn't exactly been saints. Across the universe, they are present in almost every catastrophic crises .
Those 'little blue men' had a habit of being involved wherever trouble arose—their evil deeds were almost as numerous as their good ones.
So the claim that the Martians' fatal weakness to fire had been engineered by the Guardians in ancient times… honestly, it sounded highly plausible.
Far more plausible, in fact, than conspiracy theories about Earth's most powerful nation being secretly controlled by shapeshifting Martian lizard-people.
Still, what the Martian Manhunter was asking for wasn't something Joey believed he could provide.
This wasn't a request directed at him—it was directed at Krypton.
He wanted revenge against the Guardians. That was far beyond Joey's ability. He wasn't even sure he could protect Earth right now.
If anything, Martian Manhunter had come to the wrong person. Joey wasn't some enlightened savior—he was more like a clay Buddha trying to cross a river, barely holding himself together.
"You've got the wrong guy. I'm actually preparing to fight the Kryptonians who'll be arriving in a few days."
Cyborg no longer cared whether the Martians would notice him. Since he couldn't signal with his eyes, he resorted to body language—one of his robots raised its hand and made a throat-slitting gesture toward Joey.
If the Martians intended to join the Kryptonian conquest force, then they were already enemies.
And extremely dangerous ones at that. Even without telepathy, their shapeshifting abilities alone could throw the entire Earth into chaos in a very short time.
"There's no need to be hostile. You've clearly misunderstood us."
The Martian Manhunter had obviously noticed Cyborg's hostility, but he showed no fear—because he knew that, in the end, the only being here who truly had the authority to decide is the Kryptonian standing before him.
"Like I said—our agreement still stands. The one we serve is you, not the Kryptonians who are about to arrive."
"And I already told you that I'm not on friendly terms with the Kryptonians. I'm preparing to fight them."
Was this Martian Manhunter incapable of understanding plain Earth language? Joey felt he had made himself perfectly clear, and the other party should know that.
"Whatever it is you want the Kryptonians to help you achieve, that's not something I get to decide."
"Aren't you a Kryptonian as well?"
Martian Manhunter shook his head. Of course he knew Joey was determined to resist the incoming Kryptonian army—but what did that have to do with his own choice to pledge allegiance to a Kryptonian?
"Helping Earth resist an invading Kryptonian force and preserving its independence—that is merely your personal wish."
"No matter how that battle ends in a few days, it won't change an obvious fact: Earth no longer belongs solely to humans."
"No matter who wins, the final outcome will still be Kryptonians ruling Earth."
"I'm not like them! Do you remember the Green Lantern who just left?"
Joey shot back without hesitation.
"Her homeworld and every species on it were completely wiped out by Kryptonians a few years ago. She's the last of her kind. I won't let that happen to Earth under my watch!"
The Martian Manhunter was unmoved. He simply responded with three words:
"Hard to say."
His cooperation with Kara ran far deeper than Joey imagined. They had exchanged a great deal of information—among it, Joey's true identity: Kal-El, the biological son of Krypton's leading figure, Jor-El.
Given Jor-El's current status within the Kryptonian Empire, there was no way his son would ever be abandoned. Naturally, the Martian Manhunter had no intention of letting him go either.
As for Kal-El's unwillingness to leave Earth?
That was merely a matter of time.
Perhaps Kal-El had grown up on Earth, loved his human family, his friends, and Earth's culture.
That love was clearly the greatest source of his determination to protect Earth from Kryptonian rule.
But how long could that love last?
Twenty years? Fifty? A hundred?
Compared to human social structures, the pace of change in human society was astonishingly fast.
Having lived in disguise on Earth for decades, Martian Manhunter understood this well.
Stop an older person on the street at random and ask their opinion about society—ninety percent would express dissatisfaction, along with nostalgia for the past.
They weren't truly longing for the past itself—they were simply lost in an unfamiliar present, clinging to fragments of better times that once existed.
And that was just humans.
As a Kryptonian, Kal-El would feel even more out of place in the end.
By then, Earth might become something insignificant to him.
As for whether humanity would ultimately be wiped out like that Green Lantern's homeworld…
Martian Manhunter might sigh at the thought—but no more than that.
The universe had always been cold and indifferent. No rule stated that every species had the right to survive and develop.
On the contrary, there were those who could decide which species deserved to live—and which did not.
Martian Manhunter had already experienced this firsthand.
Just like his family, his friends, and his civilization—those civilizations and species that quietly vanished for one reason or another…
He could only regard them as insignificant costs along his path of vengeance.