SPOILERS for Season 7

As the Sun Rises, Darkness Falls

Part One: Shadow of a Secret

Disclaimer: Kara Zor-El, Kal-El, and Lex Luthor are the property of DC Comics.

Chapter One: Aglow

The first time she opened her eyes, everything was a blinding shade of white. A guttural cry was torn from her throat at the sudden pain, and she squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness. She heard the faint crackling of fire nearby and felt the heat even with her newfound invulnerability. That was when the last sixteen years hit her like a freight train.

Kara Zor-El whimpered at the memory of Krypton's destruction. The crystals that had been so carefully built and pristinely maintained came crashing down to crush people she had known her entire life. Most had shattered at the impact with the ground, which shook with every impact. The red sun had reached a critical level, just like her uncle had predicted.

She had been one of the witnesses to many meetings of the counsel where Jor-El had plead his case to its apathetic members and had been disappointed each time. Now that the destruction was upon them, there was no stopping it. Krypton had destroyed itself through its own ignorance. It had paid the price.

She'd crawled into a spaceship made of dead crystals despite her own protests. Her parents insisted that she protect the baby Kal-El when they completed their journey to Earth, a strange planet a few galaxies away. She undertook her mission with tears and painful goodbyes, and then she slept.

Her eyes had not been opened in sixteen years, and the yellow sun was brighter than anything she'd ever seen. Meanwhile, her body was brimming with invisible energy, and everything was tingling, down to the tips of her fingers. Taking a deep breath, she covered her eyes with her hands and slowly opened them. The darkness was a welcome sight, and she took her time lifting her hands to gradually allow her eyes to adjust to the light.

The sky was blue, and the clouds were white. The grass around the smoking crater the ship had created was green. Before she had time to absorb all of the colors, she noticed the flames flickering in a large circle around her. True to what Jor-El's research foretold, when she opened her mouth, she felt a cool puff of air in her throat. She blew it out, and a trail of frosty air easily extinguished the fire, which left harmless steam in its wake.

She couldn't help the small, surprised grin from curving her lips. There was a sense of freedom that came with the power thrumming inside her, but she could not forget her purpose. The black crystals from the ship were mostly intact, but a few of them had broken from the impact. Her eyes burned when she used her heat vision to melt the pieces together, but the burn wasn't unpleasant.

She looked up at the sound of voices nearby. It was one male and one female. She could not afford to be discovered. She could not decipher their language, but her sensitive hearing told her that they were coming closer. Lifting the ship that she would never have been able to budge back on Krypton, she flew through the air at an amazing speed. It was so fast, in fact, that she heard a sonic boom behind her.

Flight was exhilarating. She closed her eyes as the wind buffeted her hair and cried out in pleasant surprise when she went through a cloud. The mist inside soaked the white robe that covered her body. Before she could fully enjoy her experience, however, she reminded herself of the ship in her hands. She needed to find a place to hide it where no one would ever find it.

It took her nearly an hour to find a wasteland that was remote enough to bury it in. She recognized the material as it filtered through her fingers. Most of the glass in Argo City was made from this sand, but it was a different color here. Instead of being a dark crimson, it was tan, a color she'd never seen on Krypton. It didn't take long to completely bury it and cover up any evidence.

The sun was especially concentrated here. Even though it was setting, she could feel it charging her cells. Even after digging and flying for so long, her body was renewed with energy that seemed to come from its rays. Granules of sand seemed to follow her as she launched into the air once more to find Kal-El.

After sleeping on the roof of a busy factory, she could hear everything in a five-mile radius. Instead of shutting the ability out, she listened to each and every separate voice and tried to comprehend their language. Eventually, the exercise became tiring, and she needed to be somewhere quiet.

Despite her wish, somewhere quiet was not where she ended up.


Lex Luthor let out an undignified grunt when the sheriff slammed him into the trunk of the patrol car. His arms were forcibly wrenched behind him. Cold metal clicked as the handcuffs closed around his wrists a little too tightly. Among his numb shock, he could barely hear the words being spoken as if the man were reading off a grocery list.

"Alexander Luthor, you are hereby under arrest for the murder of your wife, Lana Luthor." The man followed this with a list of his rights, though he suspected that his actual rights were few and far between.

That was how he found out that his wife was dead. Immediately, images from his photographic memory assaulted him. Lana's coquettish green eyes, raven hair like silk, and a sultry little smile like she held all the secrets to the world. He felt something inside him tear. He had put all of himself into her and trusted her despite his suspicions about Clark.

The last time he'd ever touched her was when he slapped her. It was a mistake, but her words were like spears being slowly pushed through his heart. Saying that she never loved him as much as she loved Clark was the final straw. As much as he wanted to do something violent, he remained docile and tempered his rage. He'd even called her cell phone and left messages in an attempt to apologize.

He felt a hand on the back of his head before his nose was smashed into the vehicle. Blood trickled down his face. The hand then shoved him into the back of the car and slammed the door on his overcoat. He allowed his head to lull to the side. His vision was blurry, but it was clear enough to see that he had no chance of escaping this. The wire separating the back seat from the front was impenetrable with his hands behind his back.

He barely saw the wave coming from the corner of his eye. His mouth dropped open, and he didn't have time to react as the water swept the car off the bridge. He heard a deafening splash, and the car was suddenly surrounded by water. It was flooding through the air conditioning, and it was already up to his ankles.

He shouted for help in a futile effort and hit his skull against the window in an attempt to break it. After the first near-concussion, it became obvious that the window was not going to crack. The outer pressure was far too great. His scientific mind calculated the amount of force it would require to even fracture the glass, and it would take more than he had available.

This was it. He was going to die. He gasped in desperate breaths as the water reached his mouth, but it was hopeless. It was only just that he would die with Lana on his mind. After all, he was accused of killing her. Her death had to have been violent. When the water closed the last gap of air near the roof, Lex was thinking of how she always smelled like vanilla.

The sunlight was almost unbearable. The light seemed to attract his attention, and he knew why the moment she floated down into his life. She was an angel. It seemed like a tired cliché, but with her golden hair that flowed ethereally in the water and the white fabric that drifted around her body in time with the waves, he knew that she was a heavenly creature.

Her eyes, bluer than the water he was drowning in, gazed back at him for a moment before she pulled the door from its hinges. It seemed like a dream as she lifted him from the seat, held him close to her, and started moving upwards. It felt like they were flying through the water. Maybe they were. After all, she was an angel. Where were her wings? He would've let out a laugh at the delirious thought that they were going in the wrong direction. After all, shouldn't it have been Lionel dragging him down to hell when he died?

When they finally broke through the surface, he sucked in deep breaths. It didn't work out well when he tried to expel water from his lungs at the same time, and he was coughing hard. An impossibly warm hand touched his back gently, and he knew that it was hers. He looked up into her eyes once more and saw uncertainty in them. He could almost see the desire to run in her expression, and he raised his hand to stop her.

"Wait. Who are you?" he asked frantically.

It was the wrong thing to do. Something flickered over her virtuous features, and in the next second, she was gone. He dared not to blink lest he miss the blur in the sky that filled him with awe.


Kara had never considered herself to be heroic before, but saving the drowning man felt so natural that it made her think twice about it. Right now, she had to look for Kal-El. She knew for a fact that he would have landed in this area, but when she did a surface scan of the fields, she could find no sign of another ship landing.

Perhaps he had been delayed by something. The thought struck fear in her. If her infant cousin was lost somewhere in the galaxies, how was she supposed to find him? It would take years to search all the planets.

Her solution was to keep looking. Maybe he had arrived ahead of her by a day or two, or even a week since she couldn't find markings in the ground from his ship. The next day, she spotted a large group of children playing on primitive devices.

She tried to keep out of sight, but she had to remain close to discern the facial features of the children. After examining the crowd of shouting toddlers for nearly five minutes, she decided that Kal-El was not one of them. Several of the adults peered over at her. It was time to leave.

She parted from the place with a blur of motion that was barely detectable to the human eye and went about checking other locations. There were many children outside at this time, and she made her rounds as quickly as possible. The humans watching over the children were acting strangely, and she didn't like it.

She was ready to give up when someone took her by the arm and forced her to run far more quickly than any human could. Her confused glance was met with a look of determined anger in the aqua green eyes of her competitor. She was struck with an odd feeling of recognition as she looked at the bone structure and dark, wavy hair of the man who stood nearly a foot taller than her.

He opened his mouth and spoke words that she couldn't understand, but his tone clearly implied that he was outraged. His body language was stiff, and his face was unreadable. He was far more complex than any human she had encountered. How had he run so fast?

"(What are you?)" she asked in precise Kryptonian. She didn't have time to react to his hostile shove, so there was no grace involved when she stumbled backwards into a tree. The wood splintered under the force, and the cracking and thud was probably audible for miles as it fell to the ground.

In Kara's eyes, the tree was a crystal tower on Krypton. Seeing it fall brought back the pain. It was easy to dodge his next blow and send him flying through the air with gritted teeth. His backwards descent dragged him through the mud before he finally stopped. She rose into the air and landed at his location with renewed fury.

"(How did you escape from Krypton?)" she demanded. His powers were all too familiar. He was definitely another of her race, but his presence was unaccounted for. His temper shone in his eyes when he stood and spat words back at her in the language she still couldn't comprehend. She did, however, recognize the word "Kryptonian" in his speech before he sent his fist into her jaw.

She managed to keep her footing and used her weight to drive her knee into his groin. She read the pain on his face with satisfaction, but while she was gloating, she missed the signs of another attack. He blew air from his mouth, and the power of it flung her into the air several hundred feet.

Her back hit shallow water and rocks beneath it, and she shouted a curse at the smack of water and the rocks piercing her back. Incredible pain shot through her body as the shards seemed to send a pulse through her wounds into her bloodstream. She was mystified when she raised her shaking hands and saw her veins standing out. Her skin looked as if it were tinted green.

She could hear him running to her area, presumably to harm her even more. In an act of desperation, she twisted her face in pain and gave a short burst of flight, though she remained horizontal and close to the ground. When she could manage it no longer, she yelled as her body flipped on asphalt. It scraped her skin hard, especially her cheek and elbows.

She had enough energy to roll from her back to her side before she fell unconscious.


Lex had been cleared of all murder charges in less than a day. When they found all the messages left on Lana's phone, it was obvious that he was trying to reconcile with her. Not only that, but his father had paid someone to come forward and confess to her murder.

Lionel was still missing, but Lex knew his style when he saw it. His presence was still here in Smallville, no matter where his physical body was. His private investigator was working on it. Pontius was reliable, but he also didn't like to be rushed. Lex found that the quality was worth the wait. He was also working on any sightings of his mystery girl, the one who had saved him with no reservations.

He had spent the entire night sketching a drawing of her in charcoal, but somehow, he couldn't get all the features right. It was one of the first times that his photographic memory failed him. Her beauty was not something that could be captured by a human hand. He was Hephaestus to her Aphrodite, unable to tame her but still hopelessly in love with her.

He wasn't sure if what he was feeling was actual love. It was not something he had experienced often. Even with Lana, there were times that he faltered, and she was not something to be worshiped. Not like this girl. He could see her in his dreams, surrounded by a halo of white light. He was fixated on her celestial blue eyes.

Daydreaming while driving wasn't exactly a good habit, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. Even when he stopped by the Talon to get a cup of coffee, he didn't speak to anyone. He hardly noticed the silence when he walked into his own establishment. It was a small town, and everyone was biased in their own way. Most of the people just happened to be against him.

No matter who his father paid to confess, these people would always believe that he killed Lana Lang. They would believe it because it fit into their small-minded ideology. The big, bad billionaire's son came to the small town, ruined it with his fertilizer factory, and then stole the town princess just to kill her. He could imagine Jonathan Kent hating him from his grave.

In his smirking reverie, he almost missed the lump in the road in front of him. He braked quickly and swerved to avoid it, but something drew him to look closer. He pulled over at the sight of golden locks spread over the asphalt. Could it be her?

He got out of the car and knelt by her side. It was his mystery woman, yes, but she was obviously injured. There was a pool of dark blood under her, and he noticed shards of glowing meteor rocks embedded in the flesh of her back. Her complexion had taken on a green tint, and she looked deathly ill.

He doubted that she was even conscious. Her eyes were only half-open, and they were glazed over. Her face possessed the angelic beauty that he remembered, but the sickness made her veins stand out against her skin. His thumb grazed her cheek before he regained his senses. After a few minutes, she was lying in his back seat, and he was on the phone with his personal doctor.

He told him that it was an emergency, but it was strictly confidential. He needed lots of equipment. He had a feeling that she couldn't hang on much longer. As invulnerable as she had seemed, she was dying now. He could feel it, and it bothered him.

The silver Porsche made it to the mansion in three minutes, and the good doctor's helicopter made it in five. His security team carried the girl inside and put her in one of the guest bedrooms. When Dedalus saw her wounds, he shook his head and muttered in frustration.

"She looks like she's already dead, Lex." The tall man began unpacking his supplies anyway. He knew that this was an emergency call, and Lex wasn't going to give up. His eyes went to the glowing meteor rocks, and he ran his hand through his short, brown hair in a nervous gesture. "What have you gotten me into this time?"

Lex was irked at the doctor's audacity to ask him a question so bluntly, but he was one of the only medical professionals that he could trust. Lionel had fired Dedalus five years ago, and the doctor had a family to provide for. Not only did Lionel fire him, but he also blacklisted him. Now, Lex paid him far more than he would ever need.

"She's…different," he admitted. "I want you to remove the meteor shards from her back. All of them."

Dedalus shook his head. "With pieces this small, it's in her bloodstream by now."

"I don't care what you have to do, Dedalus. The meteors are clearly the cause of her condition. Clean her blood, and get a sample. I want you to do the tests yourself. This is a special case, and I want absolute secrecy. I'll pay you five times your usual salary." He fought to keep his voice smooth and tucked his hands into his pockets. This was a major find. If she wasn't a meteor freak, what was she? The meteors wouldn't harm her if they had been the source of her powers.

Lex wanted to do the tests himself. The first thing he wanted to do was to look at her blood under a microscope. However, he did have a Fortune 500 company to run and not much time for anything else. He watched the doctor take out the tools needed to extract the meteor.

"You don't have to stay. I'll take care of her," Dedalus promised with a crooked little smile, which meant that he was very pleased with his bonus.

It took Dedalus the rest of the night to extract the shards from her skin. Through the night, the doctor ran her blood through a filter to collect the rest of the rock.

Even though he tried to focus on Lexcorp's weekly projections, Lex found himself checking up on the girl once every two hours. It was six o'clock in the morning before he finally fell asleep.


Kara awoke in an unfamiliar place. From the second she opened her eyes, her mind and body were alert. She didn't even allow her eyes to adjust in the dim light before she began checking around her for signs of life. She heard a steady heart beat and saw that there was a man in a white coat sleeping in a chair beside the bed.

Slowly and carefully, she lifted the linens that covered her prone form and pulled them from the bed. She took her time stepping on the surface of the floor, which wasn't the crystalline substance she was used to. It creaked lightly when she shifted her weight, but the man did not wake, even when she left the room.

After there was no longer a need for silence, she used her enhanced speed to scale the stairs and emerge on the roof. Kara wrapped the cloth sheet around her to cover her nudity and closed her eyes. The yellow sun was rising, and its healing power was calling to her.

Almost immediately, she felt her exhausted power cells regaining their energy under the charge of the sun. She barely noticed her feet lift off of the cement as she unconsciously floated in a state of relaxation. After five minutes of intense concentration, she felt exhaustion conquering her once more. She allowed herself to float down and backwards, and gravity gently set her on the concrete roof. The sun's rays soaked into her as she rested.

It was several hours before she heard the door that gave access to the roof creak open. Footsteps were coming closer to her, and the human moved into a crouch before touching two fingers to her neck. As soon as they swiped her skin, her quick reflexes allowed her to grab the offender's wrist as she opened her eyes.

It was the man that she had saved from drowning. His silver-blue eyes looked down at her with unveiled curiosity as she sat up and clutched the cloth to her chest. Despite coming from another planet, she had some modicum of modesty. He spoke in English, and she let out a frustrated sigh. Everyone spoke English. No one spoke her language, and the only Kryptonian here wanted to kill her.

The man said something else and placed a gentle hand on her bare shoulder. She could read the comfort in his eyes, and even though she couldn't speak his language, she knew that he wouldn't hurt her like the Kryptonian did. They both stood, and she found that she was a whole head shorter than him.

He motioned for her to follow him before he went back into the castle. She stayed close behind him, mostly because she was completely unaware of any threats that may surround her. The man carried a sense of power, and her state of mind made her want to hide behind him.

He led her into a room much like the one she woke up in, but he passed the bed. Instead, he went to the double doors and opened them to reveal hanging garments. He turned to face her again, presumably to see her reaction, and she couldn't help but smile. These clothes were different than what the style on Krypton was, but they closely resembled the clothes that Kryptonians had worn in the past. Finally, there was something that she was familiar with.

His eyes lit up with amusement at her reaction, but he didn't seem to be mocking her. It was much like a game, and he was playing with her. He said something with a wry smile twisting his scarred lips right before leaving her to choose her clothing.

The closet was so large that she could walk inside, and she had to do so in order to see everything it had to offer. There were so many different types of fabrics, and most of them were so smooth that they felt like water. After putting on the proper undergarments, she selected a richly blue silk top that was sleeveless. From what she remembered in the pictures of the fashion history of Krypton, she should select a dark color to go with it.

The black pants she chose were not nearly as soft as the shirt, but the fabric was still pleasing to the touch. When she was fully clothed, she opened the door and found the man standing behind it. He seemed surprised at being caught, and this time, it was her lips that were drawn into a smirk.

She left the door open and moved further into the room to invite him in. He seemed to get her message as he came near her and said something in English. She could understand that it was something about her clothes, probably complimenting them or making fun of them, but his smooth scalp drew her attention away from the velvet tenor of his voice.

He was close enough that all she had to do was reach up to run her hands over his head. The bald skin was soft and impossibly flawless, and she traced the contours of it as she was memorized by the feel of it. She noted the subtle change in his eyes, the way the lids dropped just slightly while the color changed to a smoky gray from the newfound lack of light.

She ran her fingers over the knob in the back of his skull and felt him tremor ever-so-slightly when she reached the back of his neck, only to come forward and move along his jaw. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down when he swallowed hard, and her super hearing picked up the subtle increase in his breathing rate. One thumb strayed to his lips, and she couldn't help herself as she lightly dragged it across his only visible imperfection, the scar in the middle. It was an interruption in the softness of his lips, and the texture was somewhat different.

She wasn't expecting it when his hand wrapped around hers. It wasn't rough. He wasn't telling her to stop. Still, he guided their joined hands down to his chest and pressed them against it. He spoke a single syllable word in English, and then put their hands on her chest. He seemed to be waiting for something, but she only felt puzzled by his actions.

He repeated these ministrations twice more before her eyes lit up with understanding.

"Lex," he said each time their hands were on his chest. She took it to mean that it was what he was called, and he was expecting her to give her name. The fourth time he said his name, she said it with him. A smile quirked his lips and his eyes lit up. He was obviously pleased with her. When he put their hands on her chest again, she was ready.

"Kara," she returned with a questioning glance. He was still smiling when he repeated her name to himself.

There was a quiet moment between them before she heard footsteps in the hallway outside. Unsure of any kind of secrecy between them, she stepped back and slipped her hand from his just in time. The man who was sleeping beside her bed this morning looked incredibly annoyed. His emotions were plain on his face and specifically written in his intensely green eyes.


"Dedalus." Lex didn't bother to hide his own irritation as he surreptitiously put his hands in his pockets. He wasn't just irked by the doctor's interruption, but also his own emotions toward this girl who seemed like an angel. Kara. He couldn't stop saying her name in his mind. It fit her so well. He had tensed when she started touching his head, but the sensations had immediately become pleasurable.

It had only been a few days, and she was able to melt him with one touch. He couldn't deny his arousal in the situation, but there had also been a sweet innocence to the whole experience, even when her fingers touched his lips. He couldn't stand not knowing her name, and the exercise had gone well. He hadn't expected her to catch on as quickly as she did, but he was glad to learn that she was intelligent. Even though she couldn't speak the language, he could sense such depth in her.

That little fact did not pass by unnoticed. Many other people in the world didn't speak English, but she was in Kansas. Surely immigrants didn't come to America to see all the goddamned corn. There was that and her incredible power. He had a feeling that flying was only the start. The way she looked in the sun, so golden and perfect, couldn't be just a coincidence. She didn't seem to be in any pain, either. Any human would have been in bed all day from the wounds she'd suffered.

The way the meteors affected her made him cringe. If he wanted to study her, he would have to examine her under the effects of the green rocks, but her pale face kept coming back to the front of his mind. Could he deliberately do that to her, this mysterious angel, who was so cute and sweet? It wasn't like him to be this weak. He needed to spend time away from her, but he had to show her the basics of living. He knew that she wouldn't know where to go in order to get food or how she was entertained.

"What the hell have you gotten me into this time?" Judging by his tone, the doctor was not happy. Lex simply waited for the red-faced man to express his obvious frustrations. "I took a sample of her blood from the meteor rocks. It's not like anything I've ever seen before."

"Look closer. Some kind of foreign substance must have gotten mixed in with the blood." Dedalus was not usually this dense. Lex chalked it up to sleeping in a chair all night. Because he had overslept this morning, Kara was allowed to explore the house on her own. She could have easily run off. Instead, Lex had found her lying on the roof and taking in the sun. Any doubt of her beauty from the effect of the meteor rocks had been completely erased when he saw her skin lit by the rays of the sun.

Dedalus shook his head. "I filtered out the dirt and gravel. Whatever substance I tested was already in her blood." He seemed to notice Kara's presence for the first time, but she was exploring the room without seeming to have any part in the conversation. "Does she speak English?" He didn't really care if she understood him or not, but it wouldn't do any good to speak of top secret lab results around nosy, mysterious women, especially if she liked to gossip.

"No, she doesn't. I've only heard her speak a few times," Lex replied loftily. "I want you to get another sample to erase this anomaly. The meteor rock mutated her blood, and prolonged exposure to it turned it into something unrecognizable. Your results were simply distorted by its presence." He thought about her abilities and paused for a moment. "However, she may be a meteor mutant. She has exhibited unusual capabilities."

"How can she be a meteor mutant if the meteor rocks are harmful to her?" Dedalus's question brought back vivid memories from years ago. Clark Kent was shown in full color as he told Lex that he was allergic to meteor rocks. His face had been twisted in pain as he lied through gritted teeth again. Lex's train of thought was abruptly stopped when he saw Kara wandering into the hallway.

"Kara," he called, and she turned immediately. She probably felt that since she wasn't part of the conversation, she should leave. He looked at those wide, innocent blue eyes and wondered briefly if she would lie to him like Clark had. How could she? She didn't even speak English. It was both a blessing and a difficulty, mostly because he couldn't tell her to stay on the grounds. She seemed to see the question in his eyes and motioned her finger in a circle, which he took to mean that she was going to do more exploring.

During the conversation with the doctor, he had seen her examining the things in the room. She had opened dresser drawers and seemed subtly surprised by everything she saw. Her delicate fingers had touched almost everything. He classified her immediately as a tactile learner. The thing that somewhat puzzled him was that she looked as if she didn't have knowledge of anything here, from common household items to the expensive original paintings that hung on his walls. Even foreign countries had brushes.

His angel theory had faded with her experience with the meteor rocks. He didn't believe in God anyway, but she was the closest thing to Heaven that he'd ever seen. If nothing else, she was a scientific experiment that would actually challenge him. He could make billions if he isolated the healing compound in her blood and found a way to make it work in another person's body.

He hadn't properly mourned Lana yet. There was a sense of finality that weighed on him if he allowed himself to think about it for too long, that he would never find another woman who could stand him. Unless Kara was willing to be his companion. The notion was almost dismissed, but he thought deeply about the obsession he had with her. It was possible. If he treated her with care and gave her a place to call home, she would be grateful. He felt the ghost touch of her fingers over his lips. Innocent or not, she seemed willing to stay here. She seemed comfortable with him.

He reminded himself to nod at her request, and she seemed to understand that this meant yes. While she was leaving, he sensed Dedalus looking at her as well and tried not to glare when he turned back to face the doctor. "I don't know what she is," Lex said quietly. "That's why I want this to remain absolutely confidential. No one receives this information but me, and you're the only one doing the work. Understood?" After Dedalus's nod, Lex resisted the urge to snarl. "My presence will be required with all of your visits with Kara, whether it's to draw a vial of blood or to perform an experiment. Your tests are subject to my approval, of course. During your stay, you will be in the second guest bedroom. Charity will show you to your room after I speak with her."

He could tell from the look on his face that Dedalus was suspicious and a small bit disappointed. He wondered if the doctor was planning on torturing her. Not anymore. Lex had burst that bubble as soon as he possibly could. "Of course, Lex. I wouldn't dream of betraying you." A small smile appeared on his face, telling Lex that he knew what would happen if he did. "I need to draw blood from her."

With a slight inclination of his head, Lex led the way into the hallway. It didn't take long to find Kara. Charity's gun was drawn, and Kara didn't seem to know what to think. Lex didn't either when he first met her. She was part of a bodyguard agency, one that he usually didn't hire from, but he had been desperate to find new security that was incorruptible from his father. Charity didn't look like a bodyguard, which was one of her best assets. The Native American woman had dark blue eyes that stood out against her tanned skin, not to mention the jet black hair that trailed down her back in a single braid. She was shorter than most, but she packed a punch when she was unarmed. It was her tenacity and her pledge of loyalty that made him hire her.

"Stand down," Lex commanded. Charity looked disbelieving as she lowered her gun and slowly placed it back in its holster. His eyes flickered over to Kara, who looked visibly relieved. Apparently, Charity had done some shouting to scare the poor girl before he came along. Then again, his head of security had been unprepared, and he blamed himself for overlooking that little detail. "Charity, this is Kara. She'll be staying in the main guest bedroom. She has access to anything in the house, but I want you to try and keep her on the grounds if possible. We'll be down in the laboratory. After we're done, I'll need you to escort Dedalus to the second guest bedroom."

"Sir, if I may ask, who is she?" Charity's tone was far from insolent. Nevertheless, Lex wasn't going to stand for it.

"You may not ask. You may wait for Dedalus to finish in the lab," he snapped. Kara seemed to tense at the hostility in his voice, but he placed a hand soothingly on her arm. The three of them left the foyer behind as Lex led the way to the lab, softly rubbing Kara's elbow along the way. She seemed distracted by the paintings, as if she were trying to take in each and every one.

It took quite a few hallways and a set of stairs leading to the lower levels to reach the entrance of the lab, which was guarded by a thick, steel door. He pressed his thumb into the scanner and stated his name before the doors opened for him. He felt Kara hesitate, but it was only momentary. She followed him to a bed, and he motioned for her to sit. She did, but she was throwing nervous glances at Dedalus. Lex glanced at the doctor, who was putting on rubber gloves and readying a needle and a few vials.

He could see her eyes glistening in fear at the needle and watched her shift uncomfortably. The first time Dedalus took her arm, she jerked it back in surprise. Lex saw that she didn't trust him, and he waved Dedalus off for the moment while his hands ran over her cheeks. Instead of looking at Dedalus, she looked at Lex, and he could see the confusion radiating from her eyes. The fear was coming off her in waves. He stroked her skin slowly, and this time, Dedalus could take her arm without resistance. He tried to send the message that it was okay through his eyes, and it seemed like he was succeeding. He glimpsed down at the needle just in time to see it snap in half when Dedalus tried to puncture her skin.

His lips parted in shock at the new phenomenon, and Dedalus looked just as surprised. When he looked back at Kara, he felt sorry for her. Her eyes were squeezed shut. She was waiting for the pain of the needle. Her ability was extraordinary. It seemed like there was no end to what she could do. It was amazing, even if the meteor rocks could disable her in seconds.

"Do you have any of the meteor rock left?" The sudden stroke of brilliance hit him like lightning. Dedalus wandered over to the work area and came back with a tray of meteor shards.

He didn't expect to be affected by the distrust in Kara's eyes.


Kara was already trembling from the effects of the meteor rocks. She felt ill, and a sudden nausea swept over her. Why was he doing this to her? Even with Lex's hands on her face and his soothing eyes, she couldn't distract herself from what the other man was doing. What Lex was letting him and helping him do. The rocks seemed to mock her as they glowed, and she saw the veins in her skin stand out.

Miserably suppressing a gag, she tried valiantly to use her eyes to get Lex to stop the other man, but he simply ran her hands through her hair. The sensation would have felt good were it not for the poison strategically placed near her as the man tried the needle again. This time, he succeeded in piercing her skin. The sudden, unfamiliar sensation of pain made her gasp and jerk, but Lex's hands slipped down to her shoulders to hold her still.

She couldn't help the tears leaking from her eyes, because the feeling of the blood being drawn from her body was terrible. She could feel it sucking underneath her skin, and the unpleasantness of it all made her draw Lex close. She buried her face in his black shirt, one hand in the middle of his back while the other was being held still so that the needle would stay in.

His muscles tensed underneath her, but he soon relaxed and stroked her hair. He was cooing foreign words into her ear and trying to comfort her, but she felt every second of it until he finally pulled out the needle and moved the meteor rocks away from her. Once they stopped glowing, she had her health back, but the memory of the experience left her feeling haunted.

The man was talking. Whatever he said caused Lex to pull away from her and look down at her arm. When she did the same, she found that her skin was healed, and there was only a tiny trace of blood. The man wiped it away with a strong-scented liquid on a ball of cotton. There was no wound, and that fact made Lex's scarred lips twist into a thoughtful frown.

"Lex." He looked surprised when she said his name, but when she told him through her eyes that she wanted to be elsewhere, he understood her. She felt the comforting gesture of his hand running through her hair again as he helped her stand and exit the lab. The woman who had tried to attack her earlier was glowering outside, but Lex didn't pay any attention to her and simply led Kara upstairs.

When they entered a large, spacious room with lots of free space, the delicious aroma of cooking food hit her, and she couldn't help flashing her teeth in a grin. She hadn't eaten since her arrival here, and she was eager to see the differences between Kryptonian cuisine and that of Earth. Her stomach rumbled in response to the smell, and Lex threw her an amused glance.

The person who was heating all of the food was an older woman with fiery red hair that was frizzy from the humidity of the kitchen. There was a small device that was playing soft music that made Kara want to sway with its smooth rhythm. When the woman noticed them, she looked up from her cooking immediately with her dark green eyes and stood attentively. When Lex raised his hand in a calming gesture, her posture relaxed, and she kept an eye on her cooking.

Lex said a few words that Kara didn't understand, but then he made clear that the woman's name was Kelly. The woman held out her hand. She seemed to be expecting something. From the corner of her eye, Kara sensed that Lex was watching her closely and heard his soft snort when she took Kelly's hand, turned it over, and examined the palm. Nothing was wrong with her hand. Why was she offering it to Kara? Kelly's laugh seemed to be more uncomfortable than Lex's, but the pressure was taken off of Kara when Lex and Kelly began to talk amongst themselves.

While they were speaking, Kara tried not to become frustrated, as difficult as that was. She was in another world where she was desperately unfamiliar with the customs and language, but she couldn't do anything about it at the moment. Getting angry wouldn't do her any good, especially when Kal-El was still out there somewhere. The sooner she could learn the language, the sooner she could start asking people if they had seen him. She didn't have a hologram of him, so it was impossible to ask about him unless she could describe him.

While listening to words that made no sense to her, she leaned over the heating machine and looked at the different foods. Her sharp sense of smell detected a variety of things while her eyes saw many different colors. From what she could tell, some of it was made from some sort of grain, while others were flavored with spices. She also smelled cooking meat, which must have come from some sort of creature. She wrinkled her nose. On Krypton, creatures lower than the Kryptonians were respected. They lived side-by-side with them and were careful not to taint their environment.

This was a different planet with clearly different customs, but Kara couldn't help feeling an ounce of disgust for anyone who would cut up creatures for food. In these containers, it seemed that there was an abundance of grains, fruits, and vegetables to sustain a normal human without using live meat. A hand swiped against her skin and rested on her arm, and she stepped away from the stove to allow the other woman to tend to it. Lex seemed to sense her discomfort and uttered a few words in English. The aggravation for the new language inside her boiled over.

She let loose a few words in Kryptonian and before Lex could overcome his shock, left the kitchen. She heard his footsteps following her calmly. When she halted in her tracks and turned with irritation in her eyes, she found herself far closer to Lex than she expected, and she could see the surprise in his eyes when he tilted his head downward. This time, it was her heart that sped up when his lips brushed hers slowly and gently. She had seen her parents share a kiss once in her life, and when they realized that she was watching them, they had quickly parted out of embarrassment. Kisses were rare in Kryptonian lifestyle, and one was only to be done with their true love.

This custom was part of why she froze when Lex deepened the kiss, even though he was taking his time and patiently waiting for her to overcome her trouble. When his fingertips brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, her lips parted in a natural response. He took it as an invitation to trace the tip of his tongue along her lips, and she found herself positively electrified when her tongue touched his. She felt like she couldn't breathe. It was absurd, because she technically didn't have to breathe for at least fifteen more minutes, and she couldn't explain the tightening in her chest.

She lost all sense of thought when his tongue massaged hers. It was clear that he was in control of the kiss, but she wasn't about to complain. She didn't have any idea what she was doing, but he was a patient teacher. It didn't take long to catch on, and fifteen seconds felt like a lifetime. The distress in her lungs turned to a pleasant buzzing, and she felt completely trusting as she leaned into him. It was only when her eyes fluttered open that she realized that something was wrong.

She hadn't known that her flying power had unconsciously kicked in. They were floating ten feet above the floor, and Lex's head was an inch from the ceiling. Her lips parted from his, and he looked at her quizzically before taking a look at his surroundings. With one hand on his chest and the other on his arm, she felt his muscles tense immediately. She could practically smell the fear radiating from him.

"(It's alright,)" she told him in Kryptonian. She tried to use the same soothing tone that he'd used with her before, and it seemed to be working, if only a little. Her smile reached her eyes as she continued. "(I have you.)" She wasn't sure how, but she was able to feel the air around them and manipulate it so that the force of gravity no longer had any influence on them. However, she could feel the limit of proximity. He had to stay close to her in order for this to work.

She saw the first real smile flit across his features, as temporary as it was gratifying. His eyes looked bluer than ever, even as he released a shaky breath that he had been holding since he figured out they were floating. She made sure to hold still in the air, though a part of her wanted to fly loops with him and show him the tricks that made her feel free. She had a feeling that he wouldn't like it. It was taking him time to get used to floating, and she couldn't imagine how fearful he would be with actual flight.

Slight tugs on her hair alerted her that he was playing with her hair again, which was fast becoming a habit. She could see that he liked curling it around his fingers and thought that maybe his own lack of hair wasn't a choice. The hand that was on his chest snuck around him to the middle of his back, and her fingers massaged his skin lightly through the soft fabric of his shirt. The other hand went to the back of his neck and ran over it softly before touching his scalp.

They seemed to be mesmerized by each other, and she was able to easily match his stare with her own. She saw honesty and insecurity in him that was meant for her. She was sure of it without knowing exactly how. She showed him the confusion and fatigue that came with being on this planet. She could sense his need to protect her from the world as he leaned in to kiss her again, but she tilted her head down. Instead of kissing her lips, his lips landed on the tip of her nose, and the kiss was sweet nonetheless. Her eyes glistened when she initiated a small kiss directly afterward, her lips on his, nothing between them to stop them.

As much as her customs told her differently, the kisses felt right. She felt like this was where she was supposed to be for the rest of her life, and he was the one she was supposed to spend her life with. Kryptonian bonds were strong, and once they were engaged, they couldn't usually be broken. The duration of the formation of a permanent bond took a long time, however, and she doubted that he would show interest in her for that long.

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought them both out of their daze, and she saw the woman with the weapon on her hip standing in the hall and looking up at them expectantly. She could see the moment when Lex retreated behind his barriers, and she reluctantly lowered them to the floor and stepped away from him. The woman was just as hostile as before and treated Kara as if she weren't even there. She spoke to Lex for less than a minute before he turned his attention to Kara again.

He made a motion with his hand that meant he was leaving. Despite the fear that rose in her, she nodded, which had become a habit that she had already picked up from the day's lessons. When he leaned in, she wasn't expecting another kiss. Instead of his lips touching hers again, she felt them flit over the tip of her nose. She could tell that Lex liked the mistake because of the small quirk in one corner of his lips. He said something else to the woman before leaving, and not for the first time since her arrival, Kara felt a little lost.