Chapter 2 – Answers
Both Martha and Jonathan were stunned by the scene in front of them, the girl had moved from the door to where Clark was, in no time at all, so fast that their eyes couldn't even follow her.
Martha was still in the dark about what was going on, she hadn't seen the girl's bracelet yet, nor had she heard the girl's explanation for Jonathan, what she did see was how much the girl cared for her son. Martha had mixed feelings about this, on the one hand, she was glad Clark wasn't alone any more, but on the other hand, she was afraid, afraid that the girl would take away the son she already loved so much from her.
After a few minutes, Jonathan decided to cut in what clearly was a reunion for the two super-powered kids.
"Young lady, you haven't told us your name yet, and can you explain to us what is going on as well as how did you find us? If you can track us down, we don't want to know what the government can do. And from what I can see, we can all agree that we don't want the government to know about you two."
The girl regained her composure, reluctantly set Kal-El down, who gave her a bright smile and ran to the other room to find something to play with. Martha was about to follow Clark when the girl stopped her.
"Mrs. Kent, please stay, you both need to hear this, I will watch over your son from here." Kara requested calmly and gently, she decided to refer Kal-El as their 'son' to calm the two Kents down.
Martha turned around, and went to standby her husband, she regarded the girl carefully and asked, "How do you know my name? And how are you able to watch over our son from here?"
Kara had decided to tell them the whole truth, from what Lara and Jor-El told her, this family values truth more than anything.
"I can see through solid objects, and before you ask, yes, your son will be able to as well when he is older. As for how I know your name, and how I found you, it is a rather long story, and I am going to tell you all about it, eventually. For now, if you let me, I would like to give you a condensed version of that story, hopefully, it will answer most of your questions, and if you have any more urgent questions after that, I will answer to the best of my ability. Does that sound fair, Mr. and Mrs. Kent?"
Jonathan and Martha shared a look with each other, in a way that only soul mates could, in that look, they had said everything that was needed to be said, and they gave each other an infinitesimal nod, before Jonathan turned to the girl and said, "Yes, it does, let's go to the living room, the sofa is a much more comfortable place to sit."
"Would you like something to drink?" Martha asked kindly.
"Just water please, thank you." Kara replied, to be honest, she didn't know what else on earth was drinkable yet.
When the trio finally settled down, Jonathan started, "How about you start off by introducing yourself? Given you seemed to know us already."
Kara was rather embarrassed by her own lack of mannerisms, she was taught better than that, but in the midst of worrying for Kal, she had forgotten about everything else. She immediately stood up in a very formal manner, raised her right forearm across her chest, and gave the Kent's a small bow, and introduced herself with confidence. "I am Kara Zor-El from planet Krypton, you can call me Kara."
Jonathan and Martha were somewhat put off by the young girl's formality and didn't really know what to do, so they nodded as a sign of respect. The 'Krypton' bit didn't freak them out as much, given how they found Clark in a spaceship.
Kara sat down and carried on. "I only know you as Mr. and Mrs. Kent, Jor-El, your son's birth father, he wasn't sure whether your parents named you Gene or Jonathan. As for you, Mrs. Kent, I don't have any idea what your name was, I just assumed you are Mr. Kent's wife."
Both Jonathan and Martha were shocked by this information, very few people knew Hiram wanted to name Jonathan Gene, he couldn't help but ask. "How did Jor-El know my father wanted to name me Gene?" Then Jonathan remembered his own mannerisms, or lack thereof, he introduced himself and his wife to the girl. "Before you answer that, I am Jonathan, my mother had finally won out. And you are correct, this is my wife, Martha."
Kara smiled and nodded politely, she answered, "Like I said, it will make more sense if I gave you a condensed version of the whole story, so I will start from the basics."
Kara took a deep breath, and constructed her speech in her head, before she carried on.
"Clark, as you call him, his birth name is Kal-El, Jor-El and Lara's only son. Kal-El and I are the last survivors of our home planet, Krypton." Kara said solemnly. "Jor-El was one of the most renowned scientists on Krypton, he had foresaw the possible destruction of our home planet, and had warned but was ignored by the ruling Council of our planet, so he had built a ship for Kal-El, and sent him here to save him and as his redemption."
Martha's jaw had dropped, the idea of a whole planet, a whole civilisation gone was quite a shock for her, and having the last two survivors of said planet under her roof didn't help either. Jonathan had put his arm around Martha and carried on listening to Kara, he was speechless himself.
"My father, Zor-El, had known and actually initiated the process of Krypton's destruction," Kara said her father's name with disgust. "He had secretly built a ship for himself, but I found out about it, and told Uncle Jor-El and Aunt Lara about the ship. They made necessary preparations, replaced the ship's hard-drive with one of their own, and sent me off on Zor-El's ship after Kal-El, so he would not grow up feeling alone. And he won't, Kal-El will never be alone until my dying breath." Kara stated the last sentence with determination, both Martha and Jonathan knew there wouldn't be any point to argue, and if they were honest, they didn't want to, as long as this girl didn't plan to take Clark away from them, that was.
"Uncle Jor-El had visited Earth decades ago, he had met your father, Hiram Kent, and had been in this very house. I could find a way to show you that part of his memory later if you want, but that is a matter for another time." Jonathan smiled gratefully for the offer and nodded for her to continue. "He had felt so much love in this house, this family, when he decided to send his only son here, he wanted his son to be raised by someone like your father. I am not sure how are you going to feel about this, but I want to be honest with you, Uncle Jor-El had said your father valued honesty a lot." Kara paused to gauge Jonathan's reaction, seeing he smiled at the mention of his father, Kara continued, "It was no accident that you were the ones finding Kal-El that day, Kal-El's ship was programmed to home in to your blood."
Jonathan didn't know what to say, he was having a range of different feelings, mostly, he was humbled, a renowned scientist of a clearly much more advanced civilisation had trusted his family with his own son, one of the last survivors of that civilisation. Martha's eyes were full of tears, whoever Jor-El was, he had given her a son, and she would always be thankful for that. She said with a smile. "We didn't find him, he found us."
Kara saw the love in Martha's eyes when she talked about Kal-El, and she couldn't be happier. Kara continued somewhat sheepishly, "I myself had snuck into this house with Aunt Lara before, when you were away for Church, in fact, we had a photo of Aunt Lara hidden in this house, I will show you later. And that's how I found you, I came here straight after I woke up in my ship. You don't have to worry about the government, as far as my ship can tell, they were concerned about the meteor shower, but they had not picked up a trail for either of our spaceships." Kara let a breath out and asked, "That should cover all the basics, I know you still have a lot of questions, and you will have the answers in due time, but let's get the most urgent ones out of the way first, so please, feel free to ask."
Martha took the opportunity, she was pretty sure the girl had hinted Clark was going to stay with them, but she wanted to be sure. So she asked the most burning question on the top of her mind since the girl had shown up. "What are you planning to do with Clark, are you going to take him away? Please don't take him away from us." She almost pleaded.
Kara smiled at the bond this woman already forming with her baby cousin, and she answered reassuringly. "No, I am not here to take your son away from you, Uncle Jor-El had chosen for your family to raise Kal-El for a reason. The old me would have. But after Uncle Jor-El and Aunt Lara, as well as my mother's teachings, during the three years it took for me to get here, I realised there was so much both Kal-El and I still needed to learn, especially if Kal-El were to accept his destiny." Seeing both Martha and Jonathan relax, Kara continued hopefully. "So I was hoping if you could let me stay here with Kal-El…" Kara let her sentence trail off while gauging the Kents' reaction.
Martha was about to say something, but Jonathan beat her to it. "We would like you to stay here as well, but could you tell me what that destiny was? I have witnessed your speed, and Clark's strength, and before I make my own judgement, I would like to give you the chance to tell me yourself."
Kara was surprised and pleased by Jonathan's question, he was clearly worried about Kal-El and her turning into some kind of ruler, but he didn't want to make judgement on something he didn't know nor understood. Kara realised how well Uncle Jor-El had chosen for Kal-El's adoptive family. "You are right to be worried, Mr. Kent, with our powers, we could have ruled this planet with strength, and I am sure you wouldn't want to be part of that," Seeing Jonathan nod, Kara continued. "I mentioned Kal-El was sent here also as Jor-El's redemption, he felt responsible for Krypton's destruction, even though it was in no way his fault, he was adamant to not let Earth suffer the same fate as our home planet, and that was an important part of why Kal-El was sent here. Kal-El is destined to be Earth's greatest saviour, I am just glad that he didn't have to carry that destiny alone now that I am here."
Jonathan smiled, but he still added, "Still, that is quite a responsibility for the two of you to carry."
Kara nodded affirmatively. "Yes it is. Which is why we need to learn more about humanity first, and I want to propose this plan, see if you are ok with it. I am hoping you could raise Kal-El, and teach Kal-El and I how to be human, teach us the values you were taught. But I also want you to allow me to tell Kal-El about what happened to Krypton and his birth family when the right time comes. In the meanwhile, I will need to train Kal-El how to develop and control all of his abilities, so he won't expose us by accident when you start to send him to school."
Both Martha and Jonathan thought about it carefully, they believed Kara when she told them Kal-El would be the greatest saviour on Earth, and they both just realised the responsibility had been placed on their shoulders. They carried the fate of Earth's future in their hands, and they were not going to run away from that responsibility, they would embrace it and do the best they can, raise their new son with love, teach him about the values that will make him a good man, so Clark would be able to accept that destiny when the time comes. They would do this even without Kara's help, but they preferred having Kara's help, given they had no idea how Clark's abilities worked. Kara's plan was sound, but there were still many details to get through, but one day at a time.
Both Martha and Jonathan nodded with a smile, which Kara returned. "We will do that best we can, we already see Clark as our own son, and nothing you tell us could ever change that. Welcome to the family, Kara." Jonathan said warmly, and asked. "What about school for you? You are going to need an identity, we could arrange to have you adopted as our daughter…"
Kara interrupted them in a hurry, and said rather nervously. "Erm, Mr. Kent."
"Call me Jonathan, what is it, Kara?" Jonathan asked softly.
Kara wasn't sure how to explain this, so she took a moment again to construct her speech in her head, and said. "This is rather hard to explain, please bear with me. As you can see, Kryptonians don't look all that different from humans, and in fact we share very similar physiological traits with humans as well, Kryptonians were where humans are at now millions, if not billions of years ago. But there are many key differences coming from billions of years of evolution. Even back on our home planet, the average life span is almost twice as long as humans, as well as other evolutionary changes, still, on Krypton, Kryptonians lived, married, gave birth, grew old and died just like humans do. But living on Earth under the yellow sun, the sun light empowers our cells, that's the source of Kal-El's and my abilities. Uncle Jor-El had studied intensively about Kryptonian abilities under the yellow sun, and his findings had shown that we will stop ageing once we reach our physical peak, if we stay Earth, for all intents and purposes, we are immortal." Kara took a breath and continued.
"The next part is where our cultures clash. From evolution, and technology advancement, Kryptonians no longer have any defective recessive genes in our DNA, it had been like that for tens of thousands of years, the point is, our culture and specie had progressed to a stage where marriage between cousins are no longer tabooed. Genetically speaking, even children born from a pair of siblings wouldn't be disadvantaged, however, it is still not advised, even in our society. When Aunt Lara learned about Kal-El longevity, she didn't want Kal-El to spend eternity watching the women he will love wither and die, one by one, so she did something to give us a better chance to find love in each other when Kal-El grow up. Aunt Lara was an accomplished medical practitioner, and had managed to halt my biological clock after asking for my permission, and the process will be reversed the first time Kal-El active his ship using the hard-drive that is currently in my ship. So until then, I will remain at the age of 15 biologically, and in order to not raise suspicions, I won't need an official identity as I do not plan to appear in public as myself, I will use the next 10 to 12 years to create a solid background for my future identity and will start what you call 'high school' with Kal-El together. Like I said, I don't want him to be alone. This is not set in stone or anything, Kal-El will make his own decisions when he is old enough, I only hope he will love me as I do him already. And if you are not comfortable with this, I can't say I understand, but consider my father was disowned from House of El when he was found to be the co-conspirator of the Civil War that destroyed our planet; and Zor-El looked nothing like Jor-El's father, given Kryptonians dominant inheritance pattern, it was quite possible that Zor-El wasn't even Jor-El's biological brother, although I can't be certain. I hope you could look past Kal-El and I as cousins, but see us as the two only living survivors of a once proud race, who have nothing left but each other."
Neither Jonathan nor Martha was comfortable from what Kara just told them, but they respected their culture, besides, they still had some time before they needed to worry about Clark's love life. Jonathan offered. "You have us now, too. I can't say I am comfortable with what you just said, but I understand where that come from. At the end of the day, Clark will be raised as both human and Kryptonian, we will allow him to make that decision when he is older. As for how to explain your presence, we can discuss about that later. But do treat this as your own home, like it or not, you are part of our family now." Jonathan finished with a smile, Kara beamed back as well. Martha had finally let everything sank in, and knew she won't lose Clark as a son, so she joined her husband and Kara as well, smiling brightly.