The Girl Who Fell to Earth
Summary: What if Kara Zor-El was eighteen years old rather than' sweet sixteen' when she'd arrived on Earth and Kara and Bruce Wayne found that opposites most certainly do attract? An AU telling of Superman/Batman: Supergirl #8-13 and beyond.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to DC Comics. No profit shall ever be gained from this work.
Chapter 1
He'd been the one who'd brought us together, although he refuses to admit it.
However, if Clark was honest with himself, he'd own up to his part in this. After all, he'd been the one who'd sent me after her.
It had begun a month after she'd fallen to Earth. We'd quarantined her inside Superman's Fortress of Solitude and had been busy examining her spacecraft once more. Clark had been looking for clues to support her story; I'd been searching for evidence to disprove it.
As we'd wound down our investigation for the day, I'd heard her pleas through one of the thick titanium bulkheads that had sealed off the rest of the Fortress from the hangar. While Clark climbed out of the ship's cockpit, the heavy metal door had buckled then had shattered spectacularly. Suddenly, there she'd stood, her golden blonde hair flying all about her too-good-to-be-true angelic face as she leaped through the opening she'd forced and sprinted toward us.
"It hates me!" she exclaimed as she chanced a quick glimpse over her shoulder then turned and locked her frightened aquamarine eyes onto the blank lenses of my mask. "I didn't do anything to it, I swear!"
I drew my batarang gun from my utility belt and aimed it toward the ruined door scanning for danger while she slid to a halt in front of Clark. "Kara," Superman said in his pleasing baritone, "calm down. What's chasing you? Has the fortress been breached?"
Then she pointed to the fierce thing that had pursued her. When I recognized the Kryptonian creature chasing her, I holstered my weapon as Clark's barking dog cornered the girl behind the body of its master.
While Clark scolded the dog, Kara said to me, "I've tried to get Krypto to like me, but—"
"Enough," I snapped, cutting her off. Now, I admit, at that time, I was annoyed, not by her and the dog's hijinks, but by the frustrating lack of evidence either way to prove or disprove the validity of her story. "Go to your quarters. We will discuss this later."
When she regarded me with a wounded look, whispered, "But I didn't do anything wrong," and fled from my presence, I didn't have to see the expression on Clark's face to realize I'd been a bit harsh with her.
"Go talk to her," Superman said. "She's obviously upset."
I knew that but I didn't want him to know I cared that she was upset. So, I changed the subject. "Clark, doesn't it bother you at all that your four-legged, cat-barbecuing fleabag hates her?"
He snorted. "Bruce, Krypto hates everybody, so don't use him as justification to condemn Kara. Now, go and talk to her!"
Rather than dignifying him by saying anything, I gave him one of my patented 'bat-glares' and strode toward the opening in search of the girl.
#
He was the first Human I'd truly met on Earth. Forsaken, confused, and alone, I came upon him that frightening night. He, unlike the others, did not fear me. Somehow, I sensed he'd suspected where I'd come from. He'd spoken to me, his voice low and soothing while he'd held out a green rock, causing my nightmare to fade into oblivion.
I'd awakened inside his cave, covered by his machine. At first, I thought he'd captured me, had wanted to experiment on me. Now, I'm embarrassed to say my temper got the best of me, for he'd done nothing to harm or restrain me. Then, though, I'd smashed his device and had taken to the air. Then, as my eyes had begun to glow, a flying man in a bright red and blue uniform had grasped my ankle and told me to calm down.
The flying man had turned out to be my cousin, Kal-El, my uncle's infant son who I'd been sent to protect on this planet. Somehow, though, my ship had never made the trip under its own power. It had turned out enough time had passed that my cousin had aged twenty-eight years while I spent all that time in suspended animation. So while he'd become a mature adult, I was still eighteen years old.
While Kal accepted me without reservation, the same could not be said for his dark friend. Batman made me feel like I was under suspicion. He didn't trust me. He always questioned me while he searched for proof I was a fraud.
On one occasion, I'd asked Kal if all Humans were as unfeeling as his friend.
Kal had simply chuckled and said, "No, I can honestly say he is unlike anyone else on Earth. And Kara, he's not as callous as you think he is. In fact, I dare say he cares too much but goes to great lengths to hide the truth from everyone, including himself."
I remember rolling my eyes at Kal's explanation at the time. I didn't need him to tell me how wonderful Batman truly was. I needed him to explain why I so hated that man yet cared what that man thought of me.
On that day when Krypto chased me into the hangar and Batman snapped at me, I ran from his presence and sought refuge in Kal's intergalactic zoo. I was standing there with my arms crossed, trying to sort through my feelings when I heard his approach.
"You really ought to try your bogeyman act on somebody else. I can hear your heart beat a mile away…that is, if you had a heart," I grumbled.
He said nothing in response. He simply stared at me through the blank lenses of his mask.
I sighed heavily then dropped my arms down to my sides as I faced him. "Why can't you just leave me alone? You'll never understand me."
He padded carefully toward me, his body completely wrapped inside his cape and said, "Then talk to me until I do."
We entered Kal's Hall of Krypton where my cousin honored the memory of my Uncle Jor-El and Aunt Lara. Then I turned to Batman and said, "I'm glad Kal was spared the horror of losing his parents right before his very eyes."
At the time, I'm sorry to say, I couldn't fathom why the heart of a man I'd deemed to be so cold had suddenly skipped several beats. All I know is when I recognized his anxiety for what it was, something inside me wanted me to reach out to him. It was in that moment everything between us had changed.
#
As I questioned her about her memories of Krypton, I suddenly noticed she was staring at my lead-lined cowl. Blinking twice, I paused and wondered if her powers had evolved. Could she see through lead now even though Clark couldn't? Had she grown more powerful than Superman?
Then I studied her eyes and spied something far more dangerous than the evolution of her powers. Now, I saw compassion and longing for me inside them.
When had this happened? my mind screamed at me. It was then I noticed she'd stepped closer to me and I began to sweat profusely. Moments later, she closed her eyes and leaned toward me.
Cynically refusing to believe that something pure and true had fallen into my lap, I raised a finger to her luscious lips and halted her advance. "You can't make me trust you this way, Kara," I said.
Suddenly, her eyes flashed open and that's when I realized how terribly I'd misjudged her. As her aquamarine eyes welled with tears, she whirled, uttered a wounded cry and fled from the hall…fled from me, as I stood there transfixed by the haunting sounds of her pain.
#
