Chapter Text
Everything was wrong, and Lara couldn’t remember the last time she ached for her family the way she did now. Due to YJ missions, she wasn’t a stranger to staying away from home. Hell, she had even gone weeks in space without Earthly contact, and, yet, here, standing in a familiar bathroom is where Lara feels truly alone.
She had wanted to take a shower and wash away the events she couldn’t even remember, but the instability continued when she saw the lack of her hair care and hygiene products. It was good to see some things were multiversal; this Jordan used the same conditioner as her Jordan did. Lara also found Jon’s aftershave behind the mirror cabinet.
Lara didn’t even want to think about the lack of Conner’s perfume.
Her towel was missing too. So was her room, and she didn’t even exist.
Was she too young for an existential crisis?
Lara shook her head, wet hair swinging limply in the air, and tried to focus on her task.
Clothing. She had her still clean underwear, but she didn’t want to walk around in her suit the entire day.
And looking at the state of this Jon’s closet, it wasn’t going in her favour. Certainly, it was fashionable clothing, but none of it was what her brother would wear. None of these pieces was soft enough for Jon’s skin, and it was another reminder that she wasn’t home.
All of them had powers, but the way they manifested was different. Conner, made in a tube, didn’t have to adjust to using his powers the way they had to, as most of his ‘training’ was done before he gained consciousness. Jordan’s powers came in steadily at fifteen, with indestructible skin and super strength being the first to activate and slowly started awakening the rest as time went on. Jonathan’s power came later and simultaneously, yet also different from his twin. Still the same abilities, but other effects. Jon’s skin indestructible was but also incredibly sensitive to everything.
Lara, age ten, had exploded.
(She wished she was joking.)
Lara tugged on her towel, tightening it around her chest as she heard the thundering footsteps of the twins. Quickly, she grabbed the nearest sweatpants and t-shirt she could find and got dressed. They were on their tiptoes, but she would have heard them a continent away; she could pick out her family’s heartbeat in a crowd of billions.
“Do you think she’s trying to set my clothes on fire?” Jon whispered, peaking through the doorway, Jordan doing the same from the other side.
“Don’t know,” Jordan replied in the same manner. “Didn’t mom say she was from Dad’s side, though?”
“Rao!” Lara groaned, resisting the urge to squeeze the bridge of her nose the way her father did. “You’re idiots on every earth, aren’t you?”
They stumbled at the sound of her voice, and Lara turned towards them, unsurprised to find them squeezed in the doorway.
“Jon?” Lara blurted out.
The heartbeat was the same, even the sheepish smile and nervous shrug of his shoulders, but…
“You’re blonde?”
And younger than she remembered. Shorter too.
The horror in her voice was unmissable. It wasn’t possible; Lois had dark hair, and Clark had black hair. How the hell did they make a blonde baby? Was Grandpa Lane blonde on this earth?
Jordan snickered, huddled in his hoodie, and Lara found relief in how he looked almost exactly like her Jordan. Right down to the messy curls and slouched spine.
Jon coughed. “Am I not on your Earth?”
If the smaller statures of the twins weren’t enough evidence of timeline alterations, the way his voice cracked was the nail in the coffin. Her brothers were almost eighteen and steadily filling out to resemble their father – Jordan was shorter, but Jon was leaner –and their voices had settled years ago.
Lara shook her head slowly, wide eyes still stuck on his light hair. “I didn’t think it was possible for a Kent kid to have anything but black hair. Different shades of blue eyes, sure, but hair? Even Conner has it.”
“Conner?” Jordan asked.
Lara ignored him. “It’s weird.”
“Weirder than being on a different earth?” Jon crossed his arms with a pout.
“Been to Mars before,” Lara shrugged. “Nothing’s strange after seeing hundreds of people shapeshifted into you.”
“Shape shifted?”
“Mars?”
Lara grinned at the surprise on her not-brothers’ faces, deciding to answer Jordan first. “Yeah. Mars. Went for a wedding.” She sighed, remembering that debacle. “It was called off, though, thank goodness. The groom deserved better.”
The twins shared a shocked look, and Lara frowned at their silence.
“What?” she asked.
Jordan stepped forward. Lara eyes the way he was slightly in front of Jon. “We didn’t think about other…”
“Aliens?” Lara raised her eyebrow. “You didn’t think you were the only ones? What? The world is limited to humans, Kryptonians and alternate universes?”
“I didn’t really think about it,” Jon said sheepishly, discomfort obvious even to those who didn’t know him. It was another thing that set him and her Jon apart; she couldn’t remember a time when Jon ever looked uncomfortable in his skin. It just reminded her of how painfully young they were.
Which reminded her. “How old are you?”
Jordan was the one to answer. “Fifteen.”
Lara’s frown darkened, eyeing the almost skittish way they held themselves. Something wasn’t right. What did Jon mean he just didn’t think about it? They might not have been superheroes, but they were all raised with the knowledge of their alien nature and somewhat prepared for the chance of powers kicking in. They were raised knowing their dad was Superman, and Lara was starting to suspect that it wasn’t the same on this earth.
Jordan’s head titled one way – Lara focused – before saying, “Our parents are waiting for us.”
That confirmed one twin’s powers, but by the scrunched eyebrows on Jon’s face, it was clear to see it was a source of discomfort.
“Yeah,” she said, observing Jon as he shifted from foot to foot. “I heard.”
Jordan lit up, a broad smile stretching across his cheeks. “Cool.”
She could only imagine how cool he found the prospect of her. Unlike this Jordan, she and her brothers were never alone when it came to being freakish. Not only did they have each other, but they had the entire Justice League and Young Justice filled with powerful people to look up to.
How lonely it must have been, Lara thought, following the boys as they walked to where Lois and Clark were waiting. She couldn’t imagine a world without flying with all her brothers, looking to them for guidance when her father struggled to understand. Her father was great, but there were just some things one needed to be half-Kryptonian to understand.
Walking past the pictured walls of the hallway was a struggle. Some were familiar, but most she would have recognised was missing.
This was giving her a headache, which was surprising considering how she shouldn’t be able to get those.
Lara really wanted to go home