Chapter 10: Echoes

It has been a month since Supergirl died. The people of National City were still shaken up over the death of their hero. What do you do when a symbol of hope for the people is destroyed? Everyone thought it was impossible to kill the supercousins, but with one dead and the other still grieving the people did not know who to turn to. That's why Thara and Lor-Zod were out there fighting crime in National City and Metropolis. They wanted to give Clark time to get himself back together, so they took over his job as well as Kara's. On their off time, they would go to the Fortress of Solitude to help Clark figure out how to save Kandor. In their off time, they lived in Kara's old apartment, which was left to Alex. The DEO forged documents for them so they could live among humans as Christopher and Linda Kent.

Alex and J'onn came back from Midvale after two weeks of vacation. Both we clearly still dealing with what had happened, but they needed to get back to work. Lucy hoped that working again would help the two come to terms with the loss of Kara. Alex often spent her free time in the AI room talking with the hologram of Allura Zor-El. Lucy overheard the AI telling Alex many stories of what Kara did when she was still on Krypton. Through these stories one thing became absolutely clear, Kara was never not going to be some sort of hero. She always wanted to help people. This made both Lucy and Alex feel a bit better about her fate at the hands of Brainiac, it's something that Kara was alright with.

Kara Danvers, officially, was missing after in the attack on National City. She was out getting lunch before returning to work and she was caught in the battle that had engulfed the city. Three hundred innocents were killed that day, Kara Danvers would be 301, but no one could find her body. No one except those who knew she was Supergirl, that is. The police had told Eliza and Alex that they were going to do everything they could to find Kara, but the two already knew she was dead. The NCPD had put their best detective on Kara's case, Maggie Sawyer. Neither Danvers payed attention to what was going on, Kara was dead, they had to pretend just to keep her secret identity, secret. It's what Kara would have wanted.

Despite all this, things were slowly, really slowly, going back to normal. Nightwing and Flamebird were doing an incredible job keeping people safe. Flamebird was on patrol through National City while Nightwing was in Metropolis when she got a call about a fire. She went to the fire, but someone else beat her to it. When she arrived the fire was out and everyone was safe. "What happened?" she asked one of the fire fighters, "I was called in to help. Did you guys put out the fire already?"

"No." the fire fighter replied, "I don't know who she was, but she certainly looked a lot like Supergirl."

"Supergirl? But she's dead I saw her die myself." Thara was now confused and angry, someone was impersonating her best friend. The fire fighter just shrugged and went back to helping his co-workers clean up. Thara immediately contacted her husband and told him to meet her back at the DEO.

Once Thara got back to the DEO, she called everyone to a meeting and Lor arrived a minute later. Even Clark was there, although it was not where he wanted to be. "I got called in to help with a fire in the city," Thara explained to everyone, "but when I got there the fire was out and everyone was safe. I asked a fireman what happened and he told me that Supergirl saved the day." This caused a commotion of confusion amongst everyone there.

"Does this mean there's an imposter pretending to be Kara?" J'onn asked then added with hope in his voice, "Or is she back?"

"I doubt Kara is back." Lor said, "If she were she would immediately contact the people she loved."

"We still need to check. Just in case." Clark said. He and Alex wanted Kara to be alive again more than anyone else, they needed to go and make sure that the new Supergirl was not Kara. Lucy told Clark and Alex to go check on that while everyone else looks into the possibility of there being an imposter Supergirl.

After the meeting ends Clark and Alex have a brief conversation and Clark flies off into the city alone. J'onn sees this and immediately is concerned. "Alex why didn't you go with Superman to check on Kara?" he asks her.

"I…I can't do it." Alex bursts into tears again. "I can't see my little sister like that. She was like a ray of sunshine, so full of life, and now…now she's just not." J'onn pulls Alex into a hug, he could not bear to see her still so upset. "I miss her so much. Why did she have to go and be a hero? Why did she have to take that shot for Clark? She left me alone and I don't think anything can ever be the same without her."

"You're right Alex." J'onn said getting Alex's full attention. "Nothing will ever be the same again without Kara. She was a one of a kind person, but so are all of us. It never truly gets better when you lose someone you love. I still miss my wife and daughters just as much as the day they died and I'm sure Kara felt the same about her planet. You will learn to live without Kara. I know you don't want to, but unless Clark finds something, you have too. You have to learn to live with missing her. You can do it Alex, I know you, and you're too stubborn to let this tragedy rule your life." The two of them embraced again before joining the rest of the DEO in finding out who, or what, this new Supergirl was.

CatCo Worldwide Media

The building was surrounded by people asking questions. The fire, a cat stuck in a tree, an armed robbery a superhero had been hard at work today and whoever it was looked a lot like Supergirl. Everyone was wondering if the Girl of Steel somehow had returned, and they did not know where to go, so they went to CatCo.

This frustrated Cat Grant greatly. How could all these people not realize that this had to be an imposter? The commotion was clearly upsetting James and Winn as well, and Cat could not blame them. Their best friend's identity was being stolen by whoever or whatever was flying around National City. She tried to contact Kara's sister, Alex, but the woman just said that they were looking into it.

So, Cat did the only thing she could do, report the news. The title of the article was "Supergirl's Miraculous Return or Imposter Stealing Her Identity". Cat was trying to remind people that their hero was dead and this person, whoever they were, was trying to take credit for all the good Supergirl had done in the world. She did not was Supergirl's sacrifice belittled by someone thinking they can be the same hero that Kara was.

Supergirl's Grave

Clark arrived at the burial site for his cousin. They were going to give her the Kryptonian burial she wanted soon, but he was glad they did not yet. If Kara was somehow still alive he did not want her waking up in a casket in the middle of space. He walked into the entrance under the memorial statue of her. There was a door built in that only Superman could open, just in case he wanted to be closer to his cousin. To the public, he was Supergirl's only known family. He had told Alex and Kara's friends that if they ever needed to go down there he would open the door for them.

Walking through the dark tomb saddened him. A hero as great as Kara had been confined to such a dark and dreary resting place. She deserved better, much better than the humans could give her. He saw the casket and as he opened the lid he prayed to Rao and every god on Earth that she would be missing from there. Rao and the Earth gods apparently did not like him that much because there was Kara's body in her Supergirl suit looking pale. Clark took a deep breath trying to stop himself from crying again. It did not work and tears flowed once again, as if he lost his cousin for a second time.

Then Clark suddenly stopped. He heard something that gave him hope. Hope for everyone on Earth.