Chapter One
What if Non had used Astra's funeral as a recruitment chance and what if Kara had taken Astra's place, realising the need for Myriad? This is how it may have changed. Characters are OOC to an extent.
Kara floated in the air facing her uncle, Lieutenant Non, as they stood vigil over the body of her aunt, Astra. Since Hank had killed her Aunt, Kara had been in a deep depression. Now, facing Non, she couldn't think of her hatred for him, but only of her time on Krypton, the fun she had with her aunt Astra in her youth, Non may have been frosty at best, but she recalled she had harboured some love and respect for him, and she believed he also, deep within his heart, cared for her too.
"She would have wanted you here." Non stated, looking at Kara with ill-disguised hostility and with a tone of mournful loss with Astra gone. "It is our custom, for a surviving female to lead the rites." He informed her, as if Kara was unaware of Kryptonian culture. Kara looked at her uncle with a sense of loss, they may have had their differences, but they both loved Astra dearly, on this night, she would not cause conflict with him if it could be helped, they were here, as two people who have been brought together by loss and she would honour her aunt, as she knew he would.
"Do you remember, the prayer for the dead?" Non asked as Kara bowed her head in solemn reverence, placing her hand over the coffin of her aunt, Non and his men also bowing their heads.
Kara steeled herself with a deep breath as she looked upon her aunt's face, from here, it looked as if she could simply be sleeping. "You have been the sun of our lives. Our prayers will be the sun that lights your journey home. We will remember you every dawn and await the night to join you in the sky. Rao's will be done." Kara noticed from the corner of her eye that Non gave an approving nod before he too looked upon the face of his wife once more, sorrow overtaking him as it had her.
Non guided the coffin as it floated off into space as he and Kara looked at one another in silence for a few moments, reflecting in their grief.
"I shall observe the period of mourning-" Non began before Kara interrupted him.
"What is Myriad, Uncle?"
"Ah, so you know of it." Non stated. Perhaps this was an opportunity, if Kara Zor-El could be made to see the benefits of Myriad and why her aunt fought for it, perhaps they could succeed without any resistance.
"What is it? Why did Astra want it before her death?"
"Myriad is how we would have saved Krypton, had we not been stopped. Myriad is how we WILL save this planet, if you join us." Non offered as Kara frowned.
"What is it?" Kara asked. She knew it likely wouldn't be anything good, and she had tried to get Astra to turn against it, but as her aunt had fought for it, she at least would offer it a hearing, if it truly could save the planet somehow…
"Myriad is, to put it succinctly, mind control. We will use it to make the population work together as one to save the planet and its resources, and once they've done it, we can release them, and knowing its success, they will keep on the path to being saved, they will care for their world and allow it to flourish." Non explained. Surely the girl would see, it was just a short term tyranny for long term security and freedom.
"Mind control is wrong!" Kara exclaimed, shocked with the idea that they would remove the freedom of choice from people.
"Do you want to see what happened on Krypton happen here? The innocents dying? The screams of children? Do you?!" Non asked, enraged that the fool couldn't see how this was a good thing.
Kara said nothing, remembering painfully the final days of Krypton. She could still hear the screams of people as the planet died around them, the hopelessness of the final days, as everyone prepared themselves to join Rao's light.
"Do you, Kara Zor-El, wish to see this planet die as Krypton did?" Non asked her again, seeing her resolve weakening behind her eyes.
"…No." Kara weakly stated, recalling the horrors of the final days and realising that what Astra and the others were doing, whilst not perfect and maybe not right, was in the interest of the greater good.
"Then will you join us? Take your Aunt's place in our plan? You are of the House of El, you would be a leader for these humans, a saviour for them, and once Myriad is complete, and this planet is saved, you would be worshipped as their saviour for all time." Non stated firmly. He knew she'd join them now, and together they would make Astra's dream a reality, together, they would save this planet.
"Will the people be spared from harm?" Kara asked, hoping they wouldn't harm the people they were trying to save.
"You have my word. They will only be shown the path to save themselves, and guided along it, once they see the benefits, we shall allow them to save themselves." Non stated. He wanted this planet to live, and Krypton to be able to live once more, through them.
"Ok. If it will save the planet and all the people on it, I will help you with Myriad." Kara sighed, feeling that although this could save the Earth, she was still selling her soul to the Devil.
"You will not regret this, Kara. We will observe the period of mourning before continuing our plan. Once the period is over, come to Fort Rozz, and I shall fill you in." Non promised before he and his troops flew away, leaving Kara alone to her thoughts. She felt as if she was betraying her friends, but she knew that if this would save the planet, she would do anything to make sure that Earth did not suffer the fate that Krypton did.
Kara flew back to her apartment to reflect by herself and try get some sleep, tomorrow would be another trying day, and she couldn't tell anyone what she was doing, they wouldn't see the need for it, she remembered what happened on Krypton, they could not imagine what had happened and wouldn't understand why she was willing to do anything to prevent that from happening again somewhere else.
Kara flew to the DEO the next day to find Hank and Alex waiting for her, a few DEO agents mulling around.
"What were you upto last night, Kara?" Alex asked.
"What do you mean?" Kara asked, perplexed.
"This." Hank stated, pointing to a computer screen showing Kara floating in mid air near the coffin, facing Non. The news report this was featured on stated "Supergirl gone bad?"
"What were you doing with Non?" Alex asked, accusingly.
"Kryptonian funeral rites for Astra." Kara deadpanned as Alex and Hank's eyes widened in shock. They didn't expect that to have happened. "Per our customs, the females lead the funerals, we now have a two week truce during the mourning period before Non and his friends start up again." Kara stated as the others in the room looked relieved. At least they didn't have to worry about the threat from the Kryptonians for now, and they had two extra weeks to find out all they could about what Myriad was.
"Two weeks?" Hank asked.
"Also a tradition. Two weeks of mourning, where all fights, regardless of why they're happening, are put aside so we may grieve together for our lost ones." Kara supplied.
"So how do we go about learning more about what Myriad could be?" Alex asked.
"I'm not sure, but we need to find out all we can as quick as we can. Too long have we been on the back foot with this, now we have a chance to stop them." Hank asserted.
Kara excused herself, hearing as they tried to figure out what Myriad could be, and went for a walk through the DEO, hoping she could clear her head and work out how to fool the others still. She'd love to explain it to them, Hank may see the need for it, but he wouldn't ever approve of it, and Alex, as caring and loving as Alex was, Alex would not understand it. She would never approve it, she wouldn't even tolerate it. Kara couldn't lose her love or her respect. She had to save the planet, and if her sister hated it by the end of it, at least until she was ready, she'd ensure her sister still loved her.
'It may be selfish, but hopefully by the time Myriad is done, Alex will see that what we have done was for the greater good, and that it has benefitted the people of Earth, and she will support what I have done, for her.' Kara thought to herself.
Kara walked back to Hank and Alex who were just finishing their plans to try and find what Myriad could be, unfortunately, they had no idea where Non and his men were based, and asking the Alura hologram yielded no results. They couldn't send Kara undercover as they did not know where Non was based and Kara wasn't exactly indistinguishable, their best bet was to hopefully come across and subdue one of the Kryptonian soldiers, but without knowing when or where they would strike, it was hopeless to assume they could succeed.
"So, we have to wait the two weeks at least?" Alex asked, voicing her exasperation as Hank nodded.
"Nothing we can do without further knowledge, regretfully. Once we have the knowledge though, we can hit them with everything we've got and stop whatever scheme they have to try and take over." Hank said as Kara looked forlornly away, she wouldn't be dragged into this and she would rather think of her aunt than arguments over what was happening. Either way, it didn't matter what they decided to do against Myriad, she was working with it now and would have to stop the DEO if they tried to interfere.
"I'm going to go to work and check on everything there." Kara stated as Hank dismissed her, Alex following her.
"Kara! Wait!" Alex called as she turned around to meet her sister's gaze.
"What's up Alex?" Kara asked.
"Are you ok? I know what Astra meant to you, I mean, if you need to talk at all, I'm here." Alex said, refusing to meet Kara's eyes for some reason. Kara decided to ignore it, thinking it must be guilt as she works for Hank and Hank killed Astra. Kara would not and could not forgive him for that, she could have brought Astra around and Myriad would be a moot point then. Hank had robbed her of the chance to settle this without any problems.
"Thank you Alex, but I'll be fine." Kara forced a smile on her face and wrapped her arms around Alex in a hug. She would miss this with Alex, she loved her, but Alex would never understand and once this was all over, Alex would likely hate her.
Kara turned and flew away, heading back towards National City as Alex watched her go. She didn't know why, but she had the feeling that something had irreversibly changed between her and Kara on this day, it was probably the guilt of her killing Astra and letting Hank take the blame for it, she didn't know what else it could be.
Landing in her apartment, Kara quickly changed out of her Supergirl suit and into her Kara Danvers costume, before she headed out to go to Catco. She knew she probably wasn't in the right mind to work, but at the same time, she had to stay in routine and in character, nobody could know there was something different about her, they couldn't get suspicious, if she wanted to save the people of Earth, they couldn't interfere in the plans to save them.