Chapter Text
June 2027
Kara’s phone dings with a notification on her coffee table as she’s placing a tray of cookies in the oven. She pads over and sees her sister’s name pop up on the screen.
Alex 🔫💖 : you home?
Kara: Yep! Are you back from the field? Sisters night?
(Alex 🔫💖 liked the message)
Alex 🔫💖: Be over in 10.
Seven minutes later, Kara hears a knock on the door.
“One second!”
She pulls the baking sheet out from the oven with one hand and quickly sets the cookies down on the counter before turning and opening the door behind her, glancing briefly to confirm it’s Alex before returning to the only-slightly-burnt cookies in front of her. “Hey, do you want some? I don’t think they’re as bad as the ones I made last week, but they’re still a bit crispy. How was the mission?” Kara finally turns around to find Alex still in her tactical gear, looking like she’s seen a ghost, staring at Kara seriously.
“What’s wrong, what happened?” Kara leaves behind the cookies she was poking at and strides over to Alex quickly.
Alex shrugs her off when Kara goes to touch her arm in concern.
“Kara…,” she looks nervous, but her voice is firm, “sit down.”
Kara doesn’t move. “Who died?”
Alex shakes her head dismissively. “Nobody died, just, sit down. Please.”
Kara doesn’t listen, just waits for Alex to keep speaking. “Alex, you’re scaring me.”
Alex runs her hands down her face. “Fucking hell Kara, sit down!”
Kara backs up to sit on her couch gingerly, eyes on Alex. Alex stands over her, hands still gripping her tactical vest. Alex looks at the couch, then around the room, considering for a moment before sitting down next to Kara so she’s facing her on the couch. She then stands up and removes her tactical vest, sitting back down again. Kara is watching her every move nervously, but doesn’t speak up again after Alex’s outburst. She grips her own knees in nervous anticipation, learning better than to grip breakable objects at these moments.
“I need you to hear me out.” Kara nods.
“We infiltrated a Cadmus base.”
“I thought Cadmus was gone.”
Alex gives her a pointed look that quiets her. “An ex-Cadmus base, still run by the Luthors.”
Kara’s eyes go wide, “Oh my god, is Lena dead?”
“Nobody’s dead, Kara! Lena had nothing to do with this.” She takes a deep breath. “You need to let me talk. Please, it’s important.”
Kara nods sheepishly.
“We infiltrated one of the Luthors’ bases. We got a tip that there was a resurgence of activity there… and they were right, it was definitely recently active. We went into this room, and we, we found this little boy.”
“Oh no,” Kara mutters.
“Yeah. He’s about… five? He had clearly been experimented on, but we couldn’t tell in what way.”
“You think he was experimented on by Lillian?”
“Or one of the Luthors, yes.”
“Where did he come from? Is he from Earth?”
“He-,” Alex starts to look really nervous again, she runs her hands over her knees. “We found out, he told us and then we DNA tested to be sure, that, well– he was created.”
“Created? Like in a lab?”
“Yes,” she nods. “We think they were trying to make a super-powered person.”
Kara furrows her eyebrows. “So he has powers?”
“Maybe. Kara—,” Alex breathes out and looks Kara straight in the face solemnly. “They made him by using Lex’s DNA and… and yours.”
Kara seems to think about this for a moment. “Mine? They don’t have my DNA.” The look Alex is giving her doesn’t quite match her words. Alex looks like… like she’s nervous about Kara’s reaction, or…
“Kara, we tested him. He has your DNA. 50%, to be exact.”
“Whoa… so he’s like, he’s like my clone?”
“Not quite.”
Winn is staring intently at the computer screen in front of him and Alex. “I don’t think he’s quite a clone. Cloning is creating an identical organism. He’s not identical to Kara, nor to Lex; he can’t be called a clone. It’s more like asexual reproduction… sort of.”
“Wait, Winn, what are you saying? Break it down for me.”
“Well, Red Daughter was a clone, and biologically she was like a twin sister to Kara. But Josiah–,”
“Josiah?” Alex raises her eyebrows.
“Yeah, Josiah.” Winn shrugs, “Lex’s records refer to him as J.S.I.A., Joint Species Intelligence Asset, I just thought, I don’t know that’s a little cold, he needed a name.”
“Okay, yeah sure. Anyway, this kid…”
“He’s half Kara’s DNA, half Lex’s. When you look at his genome structure, it’s like that more of a parent than of a twin.”
“More of?”
“It’s… It’s the identical structure to that of a biological parent, actually.” Winn looks between her and the screen with scrutiny.
“Are… are you saying…?”
Winn squints at the screen. “They actually genetically grew a lab-produced human egg using your stem cells, that’s fascinating… I knew there was a group of scientists in Berkeley experimenting with the procedure, but I didn’t know it was actually possible.”
“Winn! What are you saying?”
“He’s, uh… I think he’s Kara’s son.” He smiles nervously.
Kara stares blankly at Alex until her face catches up with her brain, her face going pale. Alex didn’t even know that was possible.
“ What ?!”