Chapter Text
Before the Justice League, before Lois Lane, and before Clark Kent became the ever present symbol of hope. There was a boy. On a farm in Kansas. Who dreamed of a better tomorrow.
Before becoming the man he is today, Kal-El fell in love with a girl in his high school. Long before the legendary reporter Lois Lane, there was Lana Lang. Clark's first childhood sweetheart from Smallville. A beauty with fair skin, hazel eyes, and a voice seemingly built for an anchorwoman.
While they did not get together in high school, an adult Lana moved to Metropolis and became a television reporter. While she and Clark would not reunite for some years after their careers began, the sparks still flew. Clark was not yet Superman, and a freshly 22 year old reporter that could barely afford his one room apartment. Yet, when he ran into Lana, their original connection would spark a romance as Lana and him dated for a time. A brief romance that ended after Lana had to move cities and continue her career.
Clark, who was saddened yet understanding, assumed he would never see Lana again. That was, until he heard a knock on his apartment door just two years later. He is 24 now. In his first year as Superman and hopelessly in love with Lois Lane. He had kept tabs on Lana, and how she'd had a baby girl and married a man named Pete Ross. However, when he opened the door, there was Lana, a baby girl barely two years old. Born with her father's bright blue eyes and his brown chestnut hair. For Clark, it was like looking into a tiny mirror. Lana said the girl was Clarks and was too much for her.
Clark, confused yet kind of course, asked why Lana never told him and why this child was too much. Lana responded with the usual excuses of trying to forget him and not wanting to be a burden, but to the later question she froze. Then picked the little girl up telling Clark to watch closely as she let the girl slip from her fingers. Only for the child to stay floating.
Clark was amazed yet understanding. Of course his superpowered child would be a lot for Lana. After all, Clark was a compassionate man and it takes two to tango. He takes the little girl into his arms and asks for her name. Lana says the name, Keria Martha Kent. Clark's heart melts as he mutters promises of protection for the child. Saying he would take good care of her. While Lana backed away, explaining that her husband would freak with a powered baby and how it was all too much. She kissed Keria's cheek, and vanished from their lives for good.
Clark held his daughter close. His Keria. Keria Martha Kent, or as her Kryptonian name would be, Keria Kal-El. A child of a relationship that outgrew itself, and a half alien child. One who would develop powers even sooner than their father had. A child who grew up with two parents that did not love each other, and the legacy of a god on her shoulders. Clark swore that day to protect this child, raise her right, and do his very best to shepherd her powers into a force for goodness and hope. Little did he know, it would not go as planned.
As she grew up, moving from apartment to Fortress of Solitude; school to school after accidentally using her powers to help others. Keria always stood out. Not just because of her powers, but because she was taller than the rest of the children her age. She was also more mature and intelligent than the others, ultimately leading to homeschooling and an early start at crime fighting after her powers developed at just 10 years old. Clark claimed it was to train her, but really? He was still beginning his journey as Superman and his relationship with Lois so patrol was the only time he could really be a father.
Born with the same abilities as her father, yet a less soft disposition, Keria Kal-El would struggle. Struggle with control. Struggle to measure up. And ultimately struggle with the discrimination of being a girl trying to stand in her father's footsteps. Born with powers from the sun itself, a constant on the planet she called home, Keria would learn early that her powers were a curse, not a blessing. At 12 she asked Clark about her mother for the first time, after he'd proposed to Lois Lane. Clark explained that her mother told him she couldn't handle a powered child. That she was not able to teach her or handle someone who could kill her. Raising a child like that, understandably, would be hard for any mother. And that her then husband Pete, would hate the child. Keria nodded and understood, but grew resentful. Unbeknownst to Clark who simply wanted to tell his "Ker Bear" as he called her, the truth. And so, to Keria, she finally processed that she was seemingly abandoned, for the first time in her life. By a mother who truly never wanted her in the first place. And a world that already saw her as a threat.
For years, she would try and try to measure up. To exceed her father's shadows and come into her own. She trained at the Fortress of Solitude. She asked her father for tips and tricks, as he was trying to start a career at the Daily Planet. After all, he was young too and now a husband to Lois Lane. To a respectful Keria, she felt overshadowed, forgotten, and disrespected. To catch her father's attention once more, she would become the second Supergirl after her cousin Kara became Powergirl. As her cousin Kara, who she called Auntie K, was her only friend in the world.
Kara, seeing a now 13 year old Keria looking for belonging, gave her the title of Supergirl. A mistake to be certain as Keria would lose the title by age 15 after one poorly executed attempt at stopping Brainiac alongside her father. One miscalculation and overheated emotional moment led to a building being demolished by her slamming into it and not controlling her strength. Due to her "uncontrollable" power. She was unable to join teams like Teen Titans and Young Justice. Instead, to "protect her" as he called it, Clark made her quit the hero business all together. Telling her it was too dangerous and that she was too emotional.
It all became worse after her baby half brother Jonathan was born later that year, and even Conner entered the family a year after. Both boys would become the sons Clark never had. His new "perfect" legacies. Kon-El was the right amount of Kryptonian and Human mix. Though it took time for Clark to accept the boy, once he did accept his clone as his son, he saw the good side of him. Conner had enough spunk to be manageable and powers that were controlled. Jonathan, on the other hand, was created with love. Love between Clark Kent and his now wife, Lois Lane. A child that Clark called his "human" child. A funny joke to Clark in the moment, that while overheard by Keria, made her resentful. She was human too, yet her powers and height made that forgettable, according to her. Despite the fact that Jonathan would go on to develop powers. It was the "humanity" Jon had that set him apart. The fact that he could get sick. That he appeared normal, unlike the dejected Keria. Both sons were unlike the supposedly emotionally unstable Keria. Who is seen as nothing more than a failed excuse for a hero. While Jon and Kon became legends in their fellow teen and tween teams. Keria never even had one.
The teenage Keria was outraged of course, and so her rebellious phase began. This only led to more trouble and consequences where she even got outlawed from using her powers. Turns out underaged drinking on a planet with a red sun and a teenage sense of recklessness don't add up well. She was punished for running off and causing issues on that planet with the red sun. Clark of course blamed Kara's influence, and told Keria to stay away from her. Keria was sad when her aunt figure, all she had, left to go join the League on space missions.
During this time, Keria would turn to her brothers. Despite her situation, she couldn't help but love them a little anyway. After all, they were all she had in a world that kept her in the dark. In a world that hated everything she was. And a father, who'd all but given up on his child that was seemingly unfixable. The boys were her only safe place. And by 17, Keria had seemed to have turned over a new leaf. Even volunteering to babysit 2 year old Jonathan.
However, that same year of her high school graduation, Keria finally went looking for Lana. Her mother, as mentioned, had married, divorced, and remarried again. Having children and moving on without Keria. Not even bothering to invite a child she barely knew to her wedding day. Again. Though Clark did try to comfort Keria, she simply told him she'd given up on Lana and that she never needed a mother anyways. Lois would try, more than any stepmother could. But Keria's resentment had grown too strong in her teen years, and her coldness and attitude towards Lois often strained her relationship with her father.
Keria simply could not take that house anymore. A home where she felt unwanted and suffocated. Her father's overprotective nature yet righteous indignation at his wife being spoken down to by his teenage daughter. A step mom who tried but could never relate to a child with the powers of a god and whose birth mother no longer wanted her in a life that had outgrown her. And two boys who had begun their own hero stories. Keria was lost.
So, when she graduated high school, Keria put the supergirl suit to rest in her mind. Quit the need for fighting and recognition and accepted that she was simply not cut out for anything. And tried to live a normal life. She even went to Gotham University, to get away from everything and try to start up a career. Maybe even see her mother, who had also moved on with her life and left the super powered girl all to her father.
While that avenue was unsuccessful, Keria did gain one thing. Well three things, a bachelor's degree in forensics, a job at Gotham Police Department, but most importantly, a friend. A real one this time. Not some imaginary one she made in the clouds when flying over cities. Or a child who got too close in elementary school and got burned. No, because in GU she met a boy. A boy who wouldn't see just the height or powers. A boy who understood expectations and the weight of being the eldest. A boy, who pushed Keria back into patrolling and who would lead to Keria becoming the now infamous Flamebird.