A Strong And Loving World! Rorschach and Dan Dreiberg discover that Adrian Veidt is behind the attacks on the masked superheroes. They meet Adrian at his South Pole base. Veidt explains his underlying plan is to save humanity from impending nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which will kill half the city's population. The alien (often called the "giant squid" by fans) is a monster engineered by Veidt using the brain of a psychic. He hopes this will unite the nations against a perceived common enemy. He also reveals that he had killed The Comedian, arranged for Dr. Manhattan's past associates to contract cancer, and staged the attempt on his own life in order to place himself above suspicion, all in an attempt to prevent his plan from being exposed. Finding his logic callous and abhorrent, Dreiberg and Rorschach attempt to stop him but discover that Veidt has already enacted his plan.
Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk also go to Antarctica to try to find out who brought the horrors of the 'aliens' to the world. They try to stop Adrian from causing further harm but when he gets through with his plans all the masks present agree to keep the secret of who caused the 'aliens' and the killing of people that united the world, to keep the peace. Rorschach doesn't agree with keeping the secret which results with him walking into his own death because he knows Dr. Manhattan will not let him bring out the secret. In the end, the previously ignored journal of Rorschach is (possibly) picked by the newspaper he sent it to.
