Princess Lena had been raised on a certain notion: she had been lucky. Everyone her age wished to be her, or at least in her place, when she was younger she took pride in the feeling; but now that she is older and a bit wiser, she realised that little else matters in the face of freedom.
You see, her parents, the Luthors, were unable to conceive after their first child: Alexander, or Lex, as he liked to be called. And since it had been a set standard that each Kingdom had had at least one son and one daughter, they had become desperate. Lionel turned to one of the many serving girls, young and beautiful, she could have been mistaken for nobility if it weren't for her hands, those that made it quite obvious she was a mere serving girl. The king had secretly had an affair with said girl, and roughly a year later, Lena was born. But, nobody else besides the King, Queen, and their son knew of the circumstances of Lena's birth. Lillian, the Queen, made sure to get rid of the "witness".
Lena looked down from the battlements, a guard , with his stance relaxed, stood far enough behind her so he would not disturb, but would also protect her if something were to go amiss. The Princess looked down at the neighboring villages, and watched as children played around, some couples sat together, holding hands and watching the sunset. They were lucky, Lena thought. She would never get the chance to fall in love, be happy, because when one is forced to do something, it would only make them hate it more.
When Royals have children, they decide who they're to marry during their first year. Nobles being the arrogant fools they are, and despite the Luthor kingdom being at war with Kypton, the latter had followed in their footsteps and started mating those of Noble blood "accordingly", although they had been much more successful at it than the Luthors. Soon, all Kingdoms; knowing that both Krypton and the Luthors were superior to all of them, succumbed. Trying their hardest to give birth to the perfect warrior and diplomat, perfect body, perfect mind, one who would unite them and get rid of the Luthors once and for all. And though Kryptonians kept to themselves, they had powerful allies and better weapons than the Luthors would ever dream.
But all of that changed when her father decided to start a war, the Luthors also had their allies, and unlike Krypton, they did not care who or where their Knights came from, usually peasants trained their whole lives to become Knights in order to eagerly serve their King. That in itself resulted in Lena's kingdom outnumbering the Kryptonians, whom only knighted those of noble families.
And so the war started, and it had been a massacre, Lena's brother, Lex, was killed during the war and it left her father devastated. Heartbroken, the King directed his whole army towards Krypton, even leaving to go fight, himself, just to end up plunging his sword in the heart of Zor-El and his wife, the King and Queen of Krypton. Lionel made sure to destroy everything in the enemy Kingdom, he took their riches, and killed every single Kryptonian there was, causing the kingdoms that were allied with Krypton to cower in fear and pledge allegiance to him. And after he left the now broken down castle, he made sure to celebrate, songs and drinks and women all over his Kingdom to sing his name for a month long.
Lena did not know how to feel, yes, her father was back home with the promise of her protection, and not making the same mistake as he had done with Lex. But war was not a solution, killing was not. Lex had lead the war, he killed the prince of Krypton, Kal-El, only then did the Kingdom take action. And as far as the Princess knew, they did not have a daughter. The young Luthor was amazed at how her Father managed to eradicate a whole Kingdom, she knew their families were mortal enemies, but it had never come to such an end. But she realised that dwelling on it would only make her upset, and questioning it would make her father upset, so she'd let it go, and leave it behind her.
Catherine was an owner of a good estate, she had wealth and a certain amount of power over most things that happened in the Kingdom of the Luthors, and so when she had heard of a peasant house being catching on fire and that only a younger girl had survived, she decided to take her in since she was...unable to conceive. She was very generous after all.
When the brown haired girl first started living with her, she never spoke, only nodded or shook her head, five years later and the girl still won't utter a word. But Catherine was fine with it, the girl was training to be a Knight, and was doing an even better job than most of the young men living in the village, Catherine was proud.
At first Catherine had tried to get the girl to speak, she tried all sorts of things, gifts, mild punishment, chores, scolding, all sorts of things..But she came to the conclusion that nothing would make the girl speak if it's not what the Gods wanted. And so, you could imagine her utter surprise when she heard a shrill scream come from her back yard. She surprised, surprised and terrified, because when she ran to see what was wrong with Alexandra, she saw a figure sprawled on the ground, it was raining, and the figure was covered in mud, so when they-No, when she looked up and uttered a weak "help me" before collapsing face first into the ground again, the only action Catherine could take was asking Alexandra to help her move the stranger into their house. The blonde woman gasped when she took a look at the girl's armor, it had the crest of the house of El on it, the noble house that ruled Krypton. But that's impossible she had thought, they were gone, all dead. But before she could question it more, she cleaned the dirt off the stranger and took her armor off carefully, before placing a healing potion next to the bedroll she made for her.
When Catherine woke the next morning, it was to more screaming, which she recognized again as Alexandra's, she got out of bed quickly, heading to what she believed to be the source of the scream, and saw that the stranger they had saved yesterday had Alexandra pinned to the wall, hands wrapped around her neck. Alexandra was putting up a good fight, but looking at this girl again Catherine knew it wouldn't last long, so she did the only sensible thing she could think of, she took the expensive artifact on the table next to her and broke it over the younger Blonde's head, knocking her out; then made sure to drag the stranger to her room and tie her to her bed, pulling out a wooden club in the process, with Alexandra holding her sword. And so they stood there, waiting for the mysterious stranger (and possible dangerous killer) to wake up.
Kara groaned, her head was killing her, almost literally, she could feel dampness in her hair, a sure sign of either water or blood, but by the pain she guessed it was definitely blood. She opened her eyes slowly, groaning again in the process, what she saw made her freeze, she looked down, taking in the rope that she was tied with. She did not have enough energy to break out AND defeat the women that were in front of her, she recognized the brown haired one holding the sword as the one she had attacked earlier, but the older Blonde she did not know.
Kara struggled with the rope before huffing and glaring at the two women eying her warily before snarling, "I warn you, I could kill you where you stand" she tried, but neither woman seemed to feel threatened, she growled, but before she could make another statement, the older blonde started: "I doubt that, my dear. Seeing your pathetic state currently. Now, would you kindly tell me why you have decided to attack my daughter, the person who had saved your life?" The woman glared, threat evident in her eyes. Kara blinked before she looked at the brunette, then back again at the older woman, the two women seemed to give her time to think, and she started remembering events that lead her here: spending almost the whole of 4 years burning the bodies of the Kryptonians the Luthors had killed, having to hide and kill with her bare hands to eat before she had gathered the strength to at least move a few stones off the destroyed castle grounds to look for ruined armor, tempering it with merely stone and her hands, rendering it only wearable enough. Thankfully her crest was not obvious, or she was sure that she would be dead by now, not that the state she was in was any better.
Everywhere she went, the Princess of Krypton heard stories about her Kingdom, horrible ones, desecrating the honorable name of the house of El, her brother, her mother and her father, their noble knights. Kryptonians were merely diplomats, and had only started taking up arms when the Luthors decided to strike, and so they strived to create the perfect Kryptonian, the perfect specimen, Kal-El had been deemed a success at first, before he showed how reckless and hard headed he was, too self-righteous, neither a diplomat nor a warrior, a certainly not worthy of the title of "Knight" but despite all of this, her and her parents had loved him. But when Kara was born, she was deemed a success, the perfect specimen, finally, after years of noble marriage, planning, sweat, blood and tears poured into their work, they had what they wanted, a leader. Neither a son nor a daughter, but both, she was only called Kara and deemed female when she started developing as one, but her strength was better than that of the mightiest warriors in the lands, and her speed was swifter than that of the most skilled archer in all of Krypton, and possible beyond. She had a good head on her shoulders, learning and training ever since she first started walking, and somehow her brother had never been neglected. The kingdom's nobles were finally free to marry whomever they desired, no chains to bind them anymore, they had created the perfect ruler, and she would bring salvation to the land.
Needless to say, the Luthors did not want that, they hid behind their son's death and used it as a reason to strike down Krypton, the kingdom was betrayed by their once truest ally, Daxam, their cowardice evident in their actions, and Kara's 5 years after the war were fueled by anger. She was hid in an underground dungeon by her parents, it was thanks to them that she survived, but at the cost of her whole kingdom dying. She promised herself that she would avenge her parents, and her kingdom, and then she will find a way to rebuild it. She ran from her Kingdom to the opposite side of the land in a mere 5 days, her incredible stamina supporting her until she reached the outskirts of a village close to the kingdom, where she literally collapsed and crawled the rest of the way on mud and rain, her muscles almost screaming.
Kara looked up at the two women again, "I apologize, my lady. I had forgotten what happened recently and my instinct was what I had relied on during that moment, would you find it in your heart to forgive me?" By now, the Blonde's state was gradually improving and if she wanted, she could rip the rope and flee, but she was at fault and she owed the two women her life.
Catherine, looked at Alexandra with wide eyes as she heard the brunette speak for the first since she had taken her in "I forgive you, but I demand to know who you are and where you come from." Alexandra replied, Catherine looked at the girl again before she added "We have seen the crest on your armor, where have you gotten that?"
Kara swallowed thickly, then ripped the rope, startling the two women, Alexandra gripped her sword tight and Kara slowly put her hands up, showing that she meant no harm. "Fear not, my lady, I was merely disoriented earlier, I would have never attacked a defenseless opponent otherwise. My name is Kara Zor-El, I'am the last living Kryptonian and I come to avenge the death of my people" She said in determination, watching as the two women's eyes widened.
"Well, I'm Catherine, this is Alexandra. And we might have a slight problem."