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Kara followed Ms. Grant through the large lobby. They were on their way to meet with the CEO of Bio-Technology company that had just gotten off the ground after several previous failed launches. Well, Ms. Grant was going to meet them for an interview, apparently knowing the woman from years ago.
Kara followed behind silently. It wasn’t unusual for Ms. Grant to take her along when conducting interviews, but Kara knew better than to distract the older woman when she was in the zone.
Not that the Media Queen would ever call it that.
They didn’t wait at all before being shown upstairs. All around them people were still setting up their offices. Some places were still being painted. Hardly any doors had names on and the person escorting them had a hand drawn map in her hands.
Kara glanced at Ms. Grant, hoping the young secretary’s ‘incompetence’ wasn’t getting on her nerves. Kara could smell the woman’s frustration and she lifted her hand to pull down her glasses so she could have a look around. Maybe help the younger girl before her boss started insulting her.
“Here we are,” the girl said before Kara finished looking around. She turned to the door and pushed up her glasses, again following Ms. Grant into the room. Kara smiled at the girl, hoping to ease her out of the oncoming anxiety attack, but could already tell she wasn’t successful.
Ms. Grand and the woman greeted each other with smiles and hugs before immediately getting to the interview. Kara wasn’t even spared a glance. Instead of getting irritated, Kara started looking around the room. The CEO had time to move in apparently, as she had several photos on the walls.
Kara smiled at the photos. Most of them were of the woman’s start in her company. People she met and knew during her first years. Men and woman-
Astra.
Kara froze as she looked at the photo. It was from a newspaper clipping. Astra (defiantly Astra. Had to be Astra. She knew that face and hair anywhere) was standing next to a younger version of the CEO.
Scanning the article, Kara learned that Miss Foster had hired a security consultant, Astrid Starr, to break into her mainframes and locking seals. The woman (Astra, not Astrid. Why that name) broke in under 10 minutes. This caused the first failed launch of the company.
Kara just stared at Astra, not quite understanding what was going on. Was this really her? And if yes… what did it mean?
00000
Kara sat calmly in the lobby of yet another company. However this time she was alone. There was no Alex, or Winn or even James. None of them knew what she was going. None of them knew the hours she searched for ‘Astrid Starr’ online. How many times she almost gave up.
They woman (Astra, had to be Astra) was a social media ghost. It was pure luck that Kara found the company ‘Astrid’ had worked for when she was paid to break into companies. Whether physically or digitally.
“Kara Danvers?” the secretary called. Kara looked up as the older man beckoned her closer. Kara jumped up and half rushed to the table.
(She needed to know. She needed to find out. What was going on?)
“Yes?” Kara said, staying polite despite the near two-hour wait.
“Mr. Kale is out of his meeting and will see you now,” the man said before telling her the floor number and door.
Thanking him, Kara heading to the elevator, hoping the man would be willing to answer her questions.
Getting off the right floor and knocking on the door, Kara waited for the come in before slowly entering the office. Once he saw her, Mr. Kale beckoned her over with his hand, much like his son had.
“Miss Danvers. What can I help you with,” Mr. Kale asked kindly.
“I’m sorry to bother you like this without an appointment Mr. Kale,” Kara told him, “As I told your so- secretary, I’m with Cat Co Media and I was wondering if you could answer some questions about an employee, or maybe an ex-employee or yours.”
“Depends on the questions,” Mr. Kale told her and leaned back in his chair.
“Right, of course,” Kara said before taking a deep breath, “how long had Astrid Starr been working for you?”
“Astrid Starr? Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time,” Mr. Kale said.
“How long?” Kara asked him.
“Two- three years? She just one day upped and disappeared. Didn’t come into work and when we sent someone over to her place, she and her husband were gone. Everything was still there. Their cars. Their furniture. Pictures. But them… just gone,” Mr. Kale told her.
“Do know what happened?” Kara asked.
Mr. Kale shook his head, “I’m sorry, no. The police were called of course, but they stopped investigating within months. Their house is still around. Still filled with their things. No one goes in there. The family wasn’t ever very… inviting. People were afraid of them.”
“How long did you know her?” Kara asked.
“Just over six years. Astrid wasn’t very social. Didn’t have friends in the office, nor within her community. She and her husband, I forget his name, just weren’t… people people,” Mr. Kale said.
“Do you know the address of their house?” Kara asked, honestly surprised when the man wrote down the address and gave it to her.
“Everyone knows where that house is,” Mr. Kale told her.
“Thank you. And thank you for your time,” Kara said as she stood up, the older man following her movement. They shook hands and Kara left.
As she stood in the elevator she looked at the address. Six years. There were at least six years of Astra’s life accountable. What happened?
0000
The cars were missing tires and doors and random other parts. Kara was honestly surprised they didn’t just steal the entire things. They were nice cars. Expensive cars. Now. Now they say like scrape in an overgrown front yard.
Kara ignored the vegetation and moved to the house, the front door broken and handing off the rest of the house. She pushed past the door, unsurpassed at the mess inside the house. Leaves and cobwebs and dust, a lot of dust, everywhere.
There weren’t much really missing. Mr. Kale was right that people were afraid of the place. The city’s own little haunted house. The one you dare high school children to spend the night in. The one that still seemed alive, so full of ghosts.
Kara walked around the house. Just walked. The kitchen was a mess. Like there had been a fight just before the residences left. There was a living room, and dining room and a small office also located on the ground floor.
Kara fiddled with things in the office, moving papers around on the desk. Stories. And not just any stories. Edited Kryptonian stories. The ‘fairy tales’ she grew up with. Changed to fit human culture.
Was it Astra or Non that wrote them down?
Non, Kara decided when she looked at the small bookcase. The published versions of the books sitting on the shelves. The author’s name bare: Noah Starr. A small time Author. Maybe a few thousand sales in total under his name. She grabbed a few of the books, shoving them into the bag she brought along.
Kara turned from the room and slowly made her way upstairs. What things would she find there? Would her Aunt and Uncle be waiting for her? Ready to tell her their story? She doubted it.
The master bedroom was the closest. The room left like the last thing it saw was a normal morning ritual. Toothpaste still on the sink and makeup and jewelry on the vanity. Closets open and a few piece of clothing missing, all found in the laundry hamper in the on suite bathroom.
If it wasn’t for the dust and filth, Kara would think the owners were coming home after work.
Kara pocketed a few pieces of jewelry, wishing Astra’s sent was still on it.
Leaving the room, Kara moved to the next door. A bathroom greeted her. Kara was about to close the door when she noticed a child’s hair clip. Plastic and easily broken. Bright pink with a bunny on it.
Heart hammering, Kara rushed to the next bedroom. She ripped opened the door and covered her mouth in horror.
A little girl’s room.
Stuffed animals on the bed and in a corner was plastic food and cooking equipment. A toy trunk opened with cars and planes and tools. Another toy trunk filled with babies and dolls.
Kara sat on the bed, the dust going everywhere. She just sat and stared.
She had a cousin. Another cousin.
How old was she? What was her name? Where was she? With Astra and Non? Or did they leave her somewhere?
Did she know about Kara?
Renewed, Kara started to search the room. She pulled out moth-eaten clothes and less favoured stuffed animals. She found toys and drawings and hardened clay. She found her book bag, her school books still inside.
Kara dumped the bag out on the ground and devoured every sentence, ever legible letter. She tried to determine her favoured subject and if she doodled on the edges of her notebooks.
Izzy Starr was 7 years old. In her first year of primary school and loved bunnies. She knew Kryptonese and drew the symbols on her papers. She liked math and wasn’t a fan of gym. She carried chronic medicine with her. She had lists of allergies. She was asthmatic. She didn’t have many, if any friends and…
And she wrote Kara letters.
She wondered about Kara and mentioned if they liked similar things. Izzy (I’zar Astra-Zee) asked her cousin questions and told her about her days. She mentions the people who were mean to her and what she did with her parents.
She adored her parents. The fun activities Astra planned and the bedtime stories from Non. She loved the world trip vacations and had photo books filled with pictures.
She had Non’s ash blond hair and Astra’s smile. She was shy, so unlike her confident parents, and felt like she was alone in the world. Her teddies were her only friends and she loved playing superhero. She wanted to make the world a better place.
Just like her parents.
Tears fell from Kara’s eyes as she went through Izzy’s diary/letters to Kara. She quickly wiped them away, less they fell on the pages. She didn’t want to lose a single letter of those pages.
Kara looked around the room again, disarrayed from her search, “What happened to you?”
Kara turned to the last letter, hoping it would give some insight to where her little cousin was.
Dear Kara
I did it! Mamma and Pappa are going to let me go on the field trip with the rest of my class! It’s that special field trip, the camping one. Remember? I told you about it. We’re going to be in the forest for three days and two nights. We’re going to learn how to build fires and set up tents.
Do you like camping Kara? I know I asked you before, but I really want to know. Pappa said you liked animals. Dangerous ones, with teeth. But I really hope you like camping. We should go one day. Maybe there are forests in Rao’s Light? Mamma said that’s where you are. That I wouldn’t meet you for years and years.
I hope it’s not too long… I really wish you were here. That we could play together.
…
Kara continued to read, smiling at the girl's antics. She stopped smiling when she saw the name of the forest the girl had gone to.
The same one that burned down two and a half years ago. The same day she was interviewed for her position at CatCo. She remembered looking at the news report as she spoke to Ms. Grant.
Kara took out her phone and google the fire. Only to find a school field trip class hand been caught in the flames, unable to escape. Everyone was dead. Kara desperately looked at the names of the dead 6-year-olds. There, near the bottom: Izzy Starr.
Her cousin was dead.
She was dead and no doubt her death caused Astra and Non’s current actions.
But that was almost three years ago. What had they been doing this entire time?
Kara grabbed the journal and the photo books, shoving them into her bag. She looked over the soft toys. They weren’t in very good condition, but she could pick out her cousin’s favoured bunny. Too many photos not to. She grabbed it and put it with the rest of her things in the bag.
Kara dusted herself, but it didn’t do much. She was covered in dust and filth. No longer caring, Kara all but ran from the room. She couldn’t be in there anymore. No wonder Astra and Non left it like that. Knowing that their child was gone, gone when they could have saved her.
Kara could have saved her.
Sighing, Kara angrily whipped the tears away as she once again searched the house. But found nothing.
In one last desperate attempt, Kara used her x-ray vision, finding a small lab under the house. The entrants in the small tools shed behind the house.
0000
The lab, no doubt belonging to Non, was clean. The airlock had stopped not only insects but dust from entering the place.
The lab was advanced, far more than humans have come. Kara wondered if the equipment came from Fort Rozz, Non stripping his old prison to create this space.
She turned to the computers, the consoles coming alive mearly at her touch. She looked through the logs, ending calls from her sister and friends as she read everything.
Astra and Non left the earth a year or two after Fort Rozz crashed. They learned of Krypton’s destructions through the media but refused to believe they were the only ones left.
They, along with several other Kryptonians, took off to the stars and search for other surviving Kryptonians. Astra specifically looking for Kara. They looked for years. Eventually finding Argo City.
Only to find corpses littering the city. The shield had failed, the air disappearing within months after lift-off, slowly killing everyone in the city.
Kal- Clark had found the City a few years earlier and fixed the shield, but the damage was done. Argo City was nothing but filled with ghosts.
So they returned to earth, all of them attempting to make lives for themselves. Astra and Non moved here and started a family. Non wrote stories as Astra worked among the humans.
Their daughter was sickly. Non suspected it was because the body was unsure what to do with the strange energy inside it. Breaking the body apart. He and Astra were sick too when they arrived on earth, their older bodies fighting the infections faster. It might be years before her sickness left and her powers manifest, Non theorized.
They never found out.
After Izzy died they returned to Argo City. This time to retrieve a program called Myriad. They didn’t talk much about Myriad, but Kara assumes it’s what they were using right now for all their plans.
They were devastated after their daughter’s death. Realizing that they were no better than the High Counsel. Trying to ignore the warning signs of a planet nearing it’s end because of sentiment. They had to save the planet. Save it before even thinking of bringing any new children into the world. Save it from the humans. From their destructive ways.
They became obsessive, Kara realized. They hid behind this grand plan, refusing to confront their child’s death. The pain was building up in them. Non with his anger and Astra with trying to ‘save’ Kara from herself.
Kara doubted confronting them would be the best. They would be angry with her for invading their daughter’s room. Invading their house. The past they desperately were trying to shove into the back of their minds.
Astra and Non had a past on the plant. They had jobs and a child and they lost everything. All they had left was their anger and hate and desperation.
Standing up, Kara went home. They DEO didn’t need to know about this place.
No one did.
0000
Kara pulled out the most recent family photo. The three were at a beach.
Astra was in a sundress and a large hat. She was sitting on a beach towel, one hand holding her hand as she looked into the camera, smiling at her husband and daughter actions.
Non was in swim trunks on the opposite side of the picture. He was the one holding the camera in one hand, taking the picture. His other arm was around Izzy, who was in a one-piece suit, hands outstretched as she desperately tried to grab the camera from her father’s hand. Non was grinning while Izzy pouted, annoyed at father teasing her.
Kara smiled at the picture before slipping it into the new photo frame. She then placed the frame next to the one of her and Alex as teens.
She wished she knew her cousin. Wished she knew her Aunt and Uncle so carefree. So happy.
So full of hope.