Chapter Text
KARA was resting on the farm’s roof, staring at the stars, when it all began. She liked to stay up at night and look at them. Without the yellow rays of Sol (she couldn’t call it the Sun, even then, when almost two years had already passed. Mind it, Kara had never been religious, but something deep inside of her still felt it was wrong to call anything that wasn’t crimson by that name) burning her eyes, she could almost pretend.
Pretend it was all a nightmare, that she had just programmed her bedroom’s holoscreen to show an alien sky, that her dad would soon appear to tell her to sleep, that she had class in the morning, that she couldn’t keep using her sunstone to message Val and Thara all night long…
But then, her eyes would focus themselves, and Kara would see one of the thousands of space trash -satellites, Kal called them satellites- that the humans cluttered their sky with, or she’d hear Martha’s heart beating below, or she’d notice she had been floating for a little while now. Even during the night, it never went away.
Their bodies were batteries, Kal had explained, his eyes shining with excitement at being able to tell this to someone who’d get it. They store up the yellow “sun” light during the day for further use, to power the bioelectric field that lets them do all those amazing, impossible things. But all Kara could think about as he talked was how terrible his accent was, as if he had learned Kryptonian through recordings.
And then she realized that he had done that, and that this’d be the only way she would ever hear her tongue again, because her parents are dead and her friends are dead and everyone she knows is dead except for her baby cousin who’s older than her now because of course her ship was delayed and all she wants to do is cry but she can’t lose control because her eyes shoot fire now and- breathe, Kara, breathe.
The first few months were hard like that. She lashed out at Kal, for having a human wife and human friends and human parents, or maybe just for not remembering. She couldn’t bear it, to carry that responsibility. To be the only one who remembered what it was like . He was her family, of course, and they shared the burden of being the last of the House of El. But he was too young when they fled, all he knew about Krypton came from cold sunstone holograms. He grieved, sure, but how much can someone truly grieve what they did not see alive? And all of his attempts to care for her and to help her acclimate only increased her misery. To adapt to a life on Earth would be to accept they were truly gone, and that was the one thing that she couldn’t do, at least back then. Besides, she was the older cousin, even if it didn’t seem like it. She should be the one to hold him and protect him, not the other way around.
However, even after Kara slowly started to get used to Kal’s Rao-awful cooking and to Lois’ incessant tappings on that weird writing machine, the powers overwhelmed her. Kal had had his whole life to learn how to control them, but she didn’t have that luxury. She could fly faster than thought, burn things just by looking at them and break bones with a touch. Not to mention the senses. Everything was so loud, it hurt. Kal -or Clark or Superman , seriously how many names does one person need- had to call some of his crime-fighting friends just to try to reinforce her room enough to stop the sound, and to replace the burnt furniture.
But, she was forced to admit, things were looking better at this point. Kara had gotten enough of a handle over her powers for her cousin to let her fly around saving people. They even threw a parade in Metropolis for the Supergirl from Krypton, and she managed to not make a fool of herself in the accompanying Daily Planet interview. After a couple years, she was finally starting to believe Earth could be worth a shot.
Why, then, was Kara Zor-El on the roof that night, picturing a place she could never return to? Because it still hurt, that’s why. Because it would remain hurting until she stopped breathing, and maybe beyond. She would carry that pain and that loneliness for the rest of her life. Nothing would change that. But, still, there had to be more to life than that, than grieving. Even if she would never stop mourning, she had recently come to the realization that she couldn’t devote herself only to mourn. Kal had no need of a protector anymore, nor a sidekick. What would she be, then?
The answer came to her with a bang. More specifically, a loud crashing sound that she heard, coming from the fields surrounding the Kent farm. It didn’t sound like anything Kara had ever heard before, in her time there, so she decided to go check it out. Who knows? Maybe a little superheroing was just the thing she needed to clear up her mind.
So, she went downstairs and quickly changed into her costume, modeled after ceremonial Kryptonian wear, even if the bright colors would be considered a bit too childish. Her long blond hair was hanging loose, flowing into her red cape, while the blue shirt, adorned with her House’s crest, was separated from the similarly colored skirt by a yellow belt. She hid her sunstone -no, her cellphone - in one of her scarlet boots. And all that in less than a few seconds. Kara only briefly stopped when she looked at her reflection. If only she wore a headband, and the colors were a bit less vibrant, she could almost see her mother, coming home from work. All she missed was a few stress lines in her face. She was growing up, wasn’t she? She was old enough to choose a Guild, even…
No time for nostalgia, now. Supergirl had people to save.
Kara soared through her window, and flew to the origin of the sound. But what she found there was certainly not what she expected. There was a glass structure, a sphere of some sorts, landed on the ground, slightly cracked. There were holographic panels inside, flickering in and out, but no sunstones to be seen. Whatever this technology was, it wasn’t from Earth nor Krypton. And there were three people, presumably its passengers, nearby, talking in some language that she couldn’t understand. But they weren’t standing. They were floating over the air. Well, so was she, but it’s not like she had a lot of company in that regard. Who were they?
She decided to adopt a more careful approach, and used her powers to get a better look before confronting them. They seemed humanoid in appearance, but there were enough things about them to point at an alien origin. The tallest had a slight gray-ish tone to his skin, and his hair, cut short, like Kal’s, was the darkest black she had ever seen, which all made his deep violet eyes stand out even more. He wore a lavender bodysuit, with silver metallic circles in his chest and some black accents in his pants, all topped off by a golden belt with an L-shaped symbol.
The girl was more inhuman in her appearance, with eyes a bit too big for her face, and eyebrows pointing outwards. Her ears were pointed, like the alien smart guy in that programme she watched with Martha, and her irises were bright pink, while her skin was a lighter shade, as if she was blushing permanently. The only thing familiar in her was blond hair, cut at neck-length. She wore a red and white suit, with a small ring skirt over pants, and there was a symbol on her chest shaped like that planet near Earth, the one with the circles around it. She had a similar belt as her friend.
Finally, the other boy was the most human of the bunch. He had red hair styled in locks, and dark skin. The only thing really unusual about him was the big lightning-shaped scar that crossed over one of his eyes, with that eye being an electric blue, while the other one was an earthy brown. He wore a blue and white suit, with big yellow lightning patterns all over it, only interrupted, of course, by the belt. One of his arms was also clearly a robotic prosthetic of some sorts, being slightly transparent, though the tech required to do that wouldn’t be out of place in Kara’s homeworld.
She made a final x-ray check, and confirmed her suspicions. Their internal organs not only were different from anything she had ever seen, but also from each other. What could have brought three teenage-looking aliens from different species together in Smallville, of all places? She thought about looking through a few more electromagnetic wavelengths, but, at this point, she was tired of waiting. She went there to confront them, but they apparently had noticed her first, and the lavender kid was flying her way, saying something in that weird-sounding language. She made her eyes shine red, with the beginnings of heat vision, just as a warning not to get too close.
Yes, maybe that was a bit aggressive for people she didn’t know, but she was owed a chance to let off some steam. It’s not like Kal was here to complain about it. But the boy, even if he looked surprised, didn’t seem very much threatened. No, Kara could only see wonder in his eyes, while his electrical friend just scowled at her. At least that made them stop following her. Now she could focus on finding some way to ask them why they were here and/or to get them to leave, whichever one worked faster.
However, suddenly, a voice appeared out of nowhere, ringing in her head. Do not be alarmed, Supergirl, it said. We mean neither you, nor the people here any harm. The sound wasn’t coming from anywhere in particular, and all she could see was the girl, staring at her. What was this? Some kind of mental communication? A simple way to describe it, perhaps. she replied. But accurate nonetheless. I am from Titan, and I share the telepathic abilities common to my people. Please, I understand the experience can be disconcerting at first, but we need your help.
Kara looked into the girl’s eyes, and, very slowly, spoke. “Get out of my head”, she threatened. “Or I’ll burn a hole through your skull.”
I can assure you, I’d do so if I could understand you verbally, the girl said, without even moving her lips. I need to introduce a language patch in your mind to allow you to comprehend my friends’ Interlac. It’ll simply be a matter of translation, so we can avoid this ridiculous back and forth of suspicion with one another.
She considered the proposal. “But how can I know if you won’t just mind control me or something?”
You can’t, not really, she answered. But, you should know that if I can project my thoughts at you, it means I am already inside your head. I don’t need to ask for permission. It’s only as a matter of courtesy for your privacy that I do. So, considering I could have robbed you of your will from the moment we met, shall we begin?
Kara stared at her for a moment, considering her options, and then finally nodded. She was starting to believe she might’ve been outmatched there. But at least they seemed willing to talk. Though, she couldn’t let go of how off-putting that mindspeak thing was. It was like her own consciousness suddenly started rebelling and speaking its mind. She had never been comfortable with the thought of someone messing with her…head. Weird. For a moment there, her internal monologue sort of paused. As if someone was rebooting it to install a new update.
“Oh, great, can she understand us now?”, said the black-haired one, taking a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m just so excited. You have no idea how important this is for me. I can’t believe I’m actually meeting Supergirl! And, just to check, you’re Superman's cousin Kara, right?”
“Yes?”, she replied, confused.
“It’s just there are a few theories about your identity back home. I mean, there are some historians who think you are a protoplasmic construct from a pocket dimension, but I’ve always liked this version better.”
“We’re sorry about him,” spoke the redhead, clearly done with this. “He’s a bit of a superhero nerd.”
He also forgot to introduce us, the girl added.
“I was just getting there, okay?”, he said, defensively.
Kara had to hold back a laugh at that. She was starting to think she may have misjudged these people. They really didn’t seem that menacing once she could talk to them. Although, what did he mean by historians?
“Okay”, the boy continued. “I’m Cosmic Boy and these are Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. We are the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a 31st century crime-fighting organization inspired by the legends of your time’s Age of Heroes. We have traveled here in this state of the art Time Bubble because we’re in dire need of your assistance. Please, Supergirl, we need your help.”
“Did you practice that in the mirror?”, joked Lightning Lad.
“Sprock off, Garth”, his friend replied. “Oh, did I just curse in front of Supergirl?”
Rokk, we really need to hurry, we don't have time to waste on fanboying.
“Well, we do have a time machine. We have all the time in the world”, spoke Garth, or Lightning Lad or whatever.
Yes, an irreplaceable time machine, which we can barely force to work on a regular day, let alone when it's broken like this, argued back Saturn Girl.
“Look, Imra, if we start focusing on the negative sides, we're never gonna get off this place, so as team leader it's my job to hold us all together and…”
“For Rao's sake, can you all please shut up and let me think!”, screamed Kara, interrupting Rokk's speech.
She took a deep breath. “Okay, so you three are superheroes from the future who came here because you're inspired by me? And you want my help?”
“Well, your cousin is more well-known and maybe a bit more of a legend to us…”, Rokk spoke, before he was elbowed by Garth. “But the 31st century remembers the story of Supergirl, and I can assure you, it's not one easy to forget, to Braal or Earth or anywhere else.”
“Yeah, I mean, Winath is as rural a planet as they come, and my parents still told me and my siblings about you. How you fought against living suns and mad scientists and alien warlords and beat them all”, supported Garth.
How you suffered through unimaginable tragedy and still used your gifts to help others. Please, Kara. We wouldn't have interfered so drastically with the timeline if we had other choice, added Imra.
Kara thought about it for a moment. She was the one asking for an adventure, wasn't she? For a chance to grow beyond Kal's reach? For a chance to find purpose beyond grief? What better chance would she get than this, than helping these people. They thought she was a legend, a selfless hero. It's time she became one.
“Okay. I'll do it. When do we start?”