Clark and Kara dropped to the ground softly in front of Chloe's parent's house. Gabe was away again, so it was safer for them to do so.
"Chloe seemed pretty upset, Clark." Kara eyed the house suspiciously. "Even that the Archive was able to tell us about the blood in the rosaries didn't seem to set her mind at ease."
Clark thought a moment about reminding Kara about eavesdropping, but decided against it. She frowned at him, her blue eyes clouded and worried and then looked back at the house. "Don't worry, Kara. We'll get it all straightened out."
They walked up the porch steps and Clark knocked on the door. Sarah appeared, and opened the door, finger across her lips, warning them to be quiet. In her other arm, she held a large orange cat, who was purring loud enough to be heard in Metropolis.
"Poor thing is still sleeping. I don't understand how she can sleep so much…Hi, you two." Sarah smiled and kissed Kara and then Clark. "I'm glad Chloe caught you."
Kara held out her arms for the cat and Sarah handed him over. He settled into Kara's embrace easily, and most uncatlike, mewed contentedly before purring again.
"She said you had a visitor…a runaway that thinks she's related to you…" Clark replied and Sarah nodded.
"It's a little more complicated than that, Clark." Sarah said, as Kara made her way into the living room with the cat. "She came here with that cat, and he's been following me around for hours, like he's been trying to tell me something."
Kara looked at the cat she was holding. "You think he can talk?"
"No…not exactly." Sarah replied, and then pointed to the girl on the couch. "I think she might understand him and he thinks everyone can." As if on cue, the girl stirred and turned over, revealing her face.
"That's me." Kara breathed, moving closer to the couch silently to kneel beside the stranger. "Clark?" She looked up, and Clark felt his brain go into hyperdrive. It simply wasn't possible, and he ran through the scenarios in his mind – alternate universes, time space disruptions. But something about the girl was most un-Kara like. Kara was ballerina like, long and lean, her slender figure more than deceiving, given how strong she truly was. The sleeping girl was heavier, appearing more strongly built and well, more generously filled out than Kara was, or might ever be. Clark thought back to the time on Krypton. Neither his mother or aunt were built like this girl, and Clark looked up on the Sullivan's mantlepiece trying to think, and his eye fell on Chloe's graduation picture. Eyes wide, he looked at Sarah, and then down at the girl again.
"Where did she say she came from?" Clark asked, and Sarah shook her head.
"She said she came from a small town outside of Gotham City. But the cat has a Luthorcorp tag on his collar." Sarah said, and Kara spun the cat's collar around gently so she could read the tag.
"Luthorcorp? Clark…" Kara looked up. "Why would Lex make such a close copy of me?"
"She's not a perfect copy." Clark said, and the girls eyes fluttered open. In the afternoon light, Karen's eyes were lighter than Kara's too, less indigo and more peacock, and Clark shuddered. It was as if Chloe and Kara had been merged somehow. Karen sat up, and blinked twice, first at Kara, who was sitting on the floor in front of her, holding Streaky, and then up at Clark, who had moved around the couch to study her more carefully.
"I've had dreams about you both. You both look exactly the same. It's uncanny." Karen said, and Kara nodded slowly. "Except I met you in a palace made of ice…"
"I've dreamed about you too." Kara replied, shaking her head. "But you were a child. I thought I was dreaming about my childhood on...back home."
"Who are you?" Clark asked, and Karen sighed.
"I'm Karen Starke. Who I am is what I'm trying to find out." She stood, and Clark was surprised to see she was taller than Kara, and seemed older. Karen seemed to be measuring him, too, and she nodded slowly, as if she had expected his reaction. "I read through my father's research, and apparently I'm her clone." Karen gestured toward Kara, who'd risen to her feet in a graceful motion, still holding the cat. "That's Streaky. He's a lab experiment too." She held out her hands to Kara for the cat. Streaky opened one eye, and allowed himself to be transferred between the girls with no break in his loud purring. "I'm not quite sure what I expected to find, I guess." Streaky struggled free from Karen's arms and dropped lightly to the floor, sauntering to the window to stare outside at the birds.
"We'll help." Kara immediately offered. "In any way we can."
"Kara.." Clark began, and Karen frowned at him. "We can't be sure…"
"Look, I'm fast, strong, I can hear for miles and I can see through things." Karen counted off with her fingers. "According to my 'father's' paperwork, I'm less than a year old, but I look like, well, this. If you want answers and don't want to trust me, buddy, believe me, I'm right there with you." Karen placed her hands on her hips. "Like it or not, somehow, I'm part of her."
Clark nodded, his face solemn. "You said you learned this from your father's paperwork."
"My father used to work for LuthorCorp, something else I just found out. Cadmus Labs. My life has been a barrel of new information in just a week." Karen rolled her eyes. "But I don't expect a guy like you to understand that."
"You don't know anything about me." Clark said, feeling his temper rise. His cell phone rang and he answered it, not taking his eyes off Karen. "Hello?"
"Clark? Bruce. Are you in Smallville already?" Clark heard his friend's calm voice and forced himself to relax.
"Yeah, I'm here. We're with Karen."
"Good. Listen to me. Bring her back here. It's important." Bruce said, keeping his sentences short and clipped. "You can't stay in Smallville with Karen much longer. Lex is looking for her, Clark. They know she's run away from home."
"Lex." Clark closed his eyes. "We'll get her back to Gotham right away." He hung up and looked at his cousin and her clone. "Time to go."
"Go where?" Karen asked. "I'm not going back to Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant."
"Hey, hey…" Sarah interjected. "Those people whoever they are were your parents, honey. You should hear them out."
"I'm a freak, Mrs. Sullivan. I'm a test tube baby that's hyper aged. I'm not going back to them until I know why they did this." Karen retorted, shaking her head. "This isn't some television show where they feed me cookies and tell me how sorry they are for hurting me. I'm not supposed to exist."
Sarah sighed, and reached out to Karen, who flinched away. "You're here, Karen. What went on to bring you here doesn't matter. You must have a reason to exist, and the first thing to do is to listen to Clark so he can help you." Sarah drew her hand back and turned to Clark. "You aren't taking her back to that scientist are you?" Clark shook his head and fixed his gaze on Karen.
"You're going with me to a friends house, where we can keep you safe." Clark told her. "I don't know what you know about Kara, but I'm taking a big risk right now. Kara and I aren't from here." Clark said, and Karen's face softened, her eyes wide. Kara stepped forward, and took her hand. Karen felt something inside her break just a little staring at the perfect face of the girl she'd been copied from. Kara's trust was almost too much to bear, since Karen didn't want to trust anyone.
"We're from a long dead planet called Krypton. We're the last survivors. Somehow, I don't know why, you've been created from me." Kara smiled softly, and squeezed Karen's hand gently. "We're…related..."
"Related." Karen looked at Kara, and then at Clark. "I'm like you."
"We don't know how much so yet, but yes." Clark shouldered Karen's backpack. "I want to get you girls back to Bruce's and then I'm going to visit Lex."