A/N: Hi, so I usually write a lot of W.O.W fanfic, but I love the JL and thought it was time to write something! Just a 'what if' story, a lot of this is totally wrong, for example: In this story Kara and Clark are born roughly around the same time, but still Kara is younger and stuff like that. If it's too much anathema for you hardcore fans, sorry. If not read and review :3
~8~8~
The fortress of solitude was, like its name, a cold lonely place. It was created to mimic a part of the long dead world of Krypton but Superman had never called it home, it was only a place to get away and ask for advice when such was needed. He had often thought the name should have been change from fortress to dungeon, for it always seemed so unwelcoming. Perhpas it was just growing up around humans, but that's how he always felt when coming here.
The crystal of the fortress thrummed to life in a myriad of colors as a lone blue blurred figure swooped into the icy palace and landed gingerly on the crystalline floor causing a low echo to resound across the room.
"Welcome back, my son." Jor-el's monotone serious voice echoed through the home away from home of Superman.
"Thank you, Jor-el." Kal-el replied dryly, as he ran a hand through his jet black hair shifting ice that had formed from his fast trip. Draping his snow covered cape over an uncomfortable clear chair he sat with a tired sigh escaping his lips.
"The villainous ilk of Darksied has been vanquished?" His father's voice ask mildly, but sounded more like a statement having all faith his son could conquer any thing the evil lord of Apocalypse threw.
"Yes, the crystals I took were a big help in channeling the oa and star heart power to beat back Darksieds minions and his son." The man of steel drifted off into a brooding silence after he replied. He was uninterested in telling the voice the details of the battle, his mind was on another subject. Family.
He always thought of family when he came to the fortress, perhaps it was because of the grand larger than life statue standing in the great hall. His strong father and elegant mother side by side, looking confident, loving, and regal as their stony eyes looked down upon him when he looked up at the monument. It always reminded him that he was alone, the last son as some had termed him. Of course he had his parents back in Smallville and certainly considered them his family, but blood kin was what he meant. Hell, even Darksied had family! Yet all he had was the voice of a long dead father who cared more about the kyrptonian legacy living on than the son itself.
"Good." The voice replied totally oblivious to the deep thought his son was having. There was a slight hint of relief and slyness in Jor-el's tone, triggering warning bells in Kal-el's head. "Now you may give them to the robot to replace them and reset my security functions."
Superman shrugged, taking the crystals out of a bag. They were cold to the touch and reflected the light from the fortress in every direction when he put them up to the brilliant light. "Why bother, I can do them myself."
"No!" Jor-el cried out ferociously, the crystals around changing hue to a panicked crimson before becoming clear again in a flash. "No." It said again in a confident calmer, tone but knowing the damage was done. "It's better if the robot does it."
Kal-el hadn't the chance to take a good look at the room when he taken the crystals, in such a hurry to combat the Lord of Apocolypse. Until a few months ago he hadn't even known it existed, the fact the Jor-el desired to keep him away was motivation enough to explore it properly. He ignored the reasoning voice of his father as he flew to the room. The crystals given to him were security crystals that protected all the many functions of the fortress from data recovery and memory scans, Jor-el had given them to him to deflect the rays from an omega beam cannon the scientist on Apocalypse had managed to create threatening worlds with a fiery doom if they had refused to submit to the reign of the evil apocalypse.
While he had taken the crystals the fortress had remained mostly venerable, meaning there was nothing between Kal-el and the memory banks to stop him from looking at what his father was attempting to hide. Both Kal-el and Jor-el knew he couldn't be stopped from entering with the crystals in Kal-el's grip.
Crystal doors opened to reveal a dim room, covered in crystalline cobwebs, a few chairs and a panel of dark crystal's with only one, a dull red, blinking slowly. He went over to the panel looking at it in curiosity. Swiping the dust from it, the one illuminating crystal kept a steady pulsing red like a heartbeat almost.
"Jor-el, what is this?" He asked knowing the machine had no choice but to answer.
"A panel." It replied as a matter of fact.
"Stop dodging." The man of steel growled. "I don't know why you don't want me to know about this but I want the full story about it, now."
The voice was silent for so long, Kal-el thought it had shut itself down so he wouldn't answer but programmed to answer any and all questions from Kal-el he doubted it. A small halo-screen came up, fuzzy at first but cleared out just a bit to make out a few figures. One was his mother that other some one who looked like his father but off. When the voice finally did reply it was in all but a whisper. "These three crystals you see before you were made to monitor a living heartbeat in the Phantom Zone. The dulled crystals mean that some one has died."
Kal-el frowned in disapproval, his brow knitting together in confusing. None of this was making any sense at all. "There's only one left but Zod and his gang are still alive, so why are two dark?"
The images on the halo-screen began to speak in fuzzed tones. "Jor-el, my wife is pregnant!" Zor-el said enthusiastically with a wide broad smile, his blue eyes flashing happily. He looked exuberant and proud, like any father to be, but still the man of steel was confused, why show this image?
"You do not want to know anymore, my son." Jor-el replied in what might have been a regretful tone.
Kal-el sunk into the chair with a pondering expression, his blue eyes like glass as he watched other images blur past the fuzzed screen. "Tell me, what is that blinking light?"
There was a moment of silence, then a rather human sounding sigh. "I don't what it is, but I know who it is. Your cousin."
It took Kal-el a few moments to register the words. When he did, his eyes widened. Cousin!
"Let me explain." Jor-el added quickly. "It is a long story, one that will change all you know of how you came here."
"One I want to hear!" The man of steel replied adamantly. He didn't care now, all he knew was that suddenly, for something that should have been routine and trivial, something was very wrong.
The computer sighed in resignation. "Very well, it began like this. As you know I had a brother. Zor-el. He was…brilliant, so was his wife. It was he who warned me of the coming planets destruction, but at the time like those above me I paid no heed. Years before our planet exploded my brother revealed to me a secret project he had shared with no one but his pregnant wife. It was a prototype ship only big enough to house one being."
Kal-el's eyes went wide with shock; he leaned forward in the crystalline chair, his hands griping the cold dusty panel, not believing what he was hearing. There was a sinking feeling deep in his gut but he forced himself not to stop the voice.
"When I came to realize that my brother had been right and Krypton was going to be destroyed, I had to do something to save my heir and carrying on the line of krypton in whatever way I could. I had no time to build my own craft." The solemn voice paused for a moment, a linger air of regret chiming through the room. "I stole the craft from my brother and had him and his wife banished to the phantom zone. It was the only way I could figure my brother wouldn't die a horrible complete oblivion as I and my wife. It was meant to be a kindness, but I even now wonder…" The voice trailed off slightly and Kal-el let that part slide not wanting the details. "That blinking is the heir of my brother." The voice finished, almost ashamedly.
The man of steel leapt up, slamming a fist against the old panel causing it to split in a wide crack. "So you lied to everyone, stole your brother's ship meant for his child and banished them to a place that makes hell look like breakfast at Tiffany's! How could you keep this from me!" Kal-el asked outraged his emotions in rocky turmoil. What was meant for another, his family, had been stolen by he father in some skewed form of righteousness on his part.
"How could I not? You are my son. It was their life over the hero of earth!" Jor-el replied as if attempting to reason for his despicable actions.
Kal-el was silent, his hands clenched. Quickly he turned around exiting the room in disgust with the blinking crystal.
"My son, what are you going to do?" there was visible dread in Jor-el's tone as if he knew the words that were going to come out of his son's mouth.
"Finding a way to pull the only family I have left out of the phantom zone." He replied determinedly. He could barely bear the thought of having family, unjustly imprisoned for his sake. Although it was his father who had done the deed, he felt ashamed as if he had stolen it himself.
"That would be unwise. Everything that has ever escaped the phantom zone has been evil. It is a realm of prisoners." The monotone voice countered simply.
"Well that won't be their fault, would it?" Kal-el snarled, his blue eyes blazing angrily as he stomped through the lonely fortress, his mind weaving a plan to somehow get the last living relative he had out of the place that made apocalypse look like paradise island.
"You'll never bring them out, to escape is nigh impossible. Only by an accident was Zod able to escape at all! The zone was design to keep people out from freeing the prisoners and to keep the prisoners in without ever escaping, you'll never do it."
"Not without help," Kal-el mumbled, before soaring through the cold air out of the fortress, he had to go see a friend.
"You sure this will work, Zatanna?" Kal-el asked warily as he watched the jovial worker of magic make the finishing touches to a summoning circle of the fortress floor. There would be no help if things got out of control or something went wrong. The project was on a strict need to know basis, those who knew were only Zatanna and Lois.
The magician winked at him cavalierly before placing her top hat firmly on her head and straitening a ruffle in her velvet black magician's coat. "Course, sweet heart, as long as my summoning platform is correct and there's no magic defense up it'll be a breeze. Now stand back while I work."
The enigmatic sorceress, rolled up her cuffed sleeves like a magician about to perform a children's trick, wiggling her fingers for good measure; she liked the drama magic brought. "tropsnart lel-lak nisouc ot htrae."
The magicians' hand glowed an eerie blue as circles surrounded a small summoning platform. Tendrils of gray magic wafted through the air like wisps of fog circling the platform. Kal-el watched as a critical spectator, his muscled arms crossed and a thought full frown etched into his face as the magic brushed against him like a spider's web.
His father's words, although they had been trying to dissuade him from summoning his cousin from the Phantom Zone, had not bounced off him like bullets. What Jor-el said had been correct, nothing that had ever escaped the Zone was good. Of course only criminals had escaped and his cousin had been imprisoned while still in the womb, an innocent, but what he knew about the Zone was that nothing stayed innocent in there for long. The Zone, as he had heard and only faintly glimpsed, was a barren waste where danger lurked at every corner, a hell where time was a paradox meaning it could be literal centuries or more before you died if nothing had claimed you life first. A place where the cruelest and meanest of the universe called home. He couldn't help but wonder what would his cousin be like, how old would they be, and how would their attitude to a completely different place affect them.
~8~8~
Coarse charcoal gray sand shifted upon the tall barren dunes of the Phantom Zone the vicious billowing winds blew the sands in a way where it felt like you were being cut with a thousand tiny razors though once you had lived there long enough it became the norm. Pain had always been the norm in the Phantom Zone. The continuous dusk like light gave little hint to the land around and even if it had there would have only been miles upon miles of waste and little gangs of long forgotten prisoners here and there pillaging others and trying to make whatever life they could scratch out for themselves.
A scrawny rat like animal native to the zone stuck its wet black nose out of the sand, sniffing warily against the wind before wholly surfacing like a lump of sand only to shake the sand away in a tiny cloud. It was an ugly creature, damp oily black fur, two never still tiny red pinpricks for eyes, tattered ears that were perked in alert on its head, a sickly pale underbelly, yellowing long teeth that stuck out near its cracked muck stained paws and a thick pink tail that it wrapped around a hind leg like a rope.
It's piercing yellow eyes squinted in the dust as it sniffed the air again, its whiskers twitching up and down at the motion. It crouched ready to begin hunting for anything to eat when without warning a tall black figure struck, grabbing the creature by its furry bloated bulk. With a hiss of surprise the beast bit at its hunter, sinking his sharp teeth into soft flesh hoping to bite on something critical or at least make the figure drop it. It jerked its fangs out, blood coating the teeth, ready for another bite but was only rewarded with a jarring crack and then a world of darkness.
Kara Zor-el nearly let out a whoop of victory, but suppressed it knowing she was down wind, and someone might hear her jubilant cry. The young kyrptonian was dressed simply in a tattered rough spun shirt she had found on a dead prisoner along with some leggings she stole from a camp in the dead of night held with a length of precious rope around her middle. Her hair was loosely tied behind her in a long dirty blonde ponytail that fluttered in the never ceasing cold winds. She smiled as she held the small limp animal in her hands the head lolling about on a snapped neck, its teeth still bared viciously.
Kara stroked the coarse oily fur with her bleeding hand, she had gotten lucky tonight, only one bite, these things usually put up more of a fight using their razor like claws along with those spikes of teeth. At least she would have something to eat tonight.
A howl pierced the air like a crack of thunder, snapping the young kyrptonian out of her happy moment. Stuffing the dead beast in her animal skinned pack she made all haste to her small hiding place she was currently calling home.
The hiding place wasn't much, a dune supported by roots of an old blown over tree that made it a safe haven to hide. Kara had lived there for three months, the longest she'd spent anyplace, so it was almost what she considered home. Skittering under a myriad of dried, sharp thorn like branches she entered a small but comfortable haven with a pit dug for fires when she thought it was safe, some yellowing bones in a pile, and a few of her belongings that she carried when on the move.
Taking the rock crafted knife from her side she decided to allow the rare occurrence of a fire to cook the meal, even though she knew of all nights it was a risk to have such. At least cooked the beasts that she managed to catch were a tad less revolting to eat.
She flinched when another howl echoed, fainter, but no less dangerous, making her more cautious side came out. It would be foolish to start a fire with the scent of fresh blood in the wind and the hissing cry of the beast still lingering. Sighing, she began to cut into the beast with her knife a grimace coming to her face as blood splattered her features. "No fire tonight." She muttered to herself cutting off a piece of half warm bloodied meat to devour.
As usual the foul rotting chewy taste nearly made her gag, but it was better than absolutely nothing. Closing her eyes tightly she steadied herself before forcing a swallow of the tainted tasting meat, a gust of cold wind blew past her, but so used to the biting chill of the Zone she barely acknowledged it. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw once she opened her eyes.
The next things she knew, blinding light, brighter than even the campfires she had sat beside all her life filled her vision. It stung her eyes worse than a scorpion's tail and filled her with terror she had only ever known once more in her life.
Her hands dropped the rat like creature and dagger to shield her eyes as she groaned in pain of the luminance. Around her she heard voice, yelling, and screaming in an odd tongue, excited or sounding victorious. The ground under her was cold as a night and felt so different from anything she had felt before. With out thinking she leapt up, now regretting she had dropped her precious blade but going to town with wild swings of her fist. Like the rodent, what ever had caught her was going to get bit once or twice before she went down!
~8~8~
The first thing Clark noticed was that it was a girl, a girl covered in blood, dirt, sand, and other things, smelling to the high heavens but a girl nonetheless. Her untamable golden sun hair flowing down her back like a banner and her flashing blue eyes so outspoken on her dirty face told him that she would be very pretty once cleaned up. If they even got that far. She was rushing to attack trying to pummel Zatanna with a few clumsy punches that all went wide or fell short, simple enough for the wily enchantress to dodge with ease.
"Zee, make her sleep!" Clark yelled, still forcing himself not to get involved just yet.
He knew he shouldn't become attached in anyway just yet, just in case his father's words were true.
The backwards word slipped soothingly from Zatana's lips and he saw the young kyrptonian falter. Her swings became slower, heavier, as she tried to plow on but couldn't seem to muster the energy. Long lashes fluttered sleepily as she fell to a knee. She spoke a slurred word that sounded vaguely kyrptonian and slumped completely to the floor. Only then did Clark deem to walk over, slow and tentative as if she was a possum playing dead in the middle of a Smallville back road.
Cousin, family! The word would not let him alone. This was his family, his kin, his blood!
She was groaning and struggling like she had been caught in molasses when his picked her up in his bulging arms easily. Before she went fully into sleep her eyes fluttered, with almost a hint of recognition. Kal-el was thrilled. Smiling eagerly he spoke two words before she fell into sleep. "Hello, cousin."