Chapter 11

Betty and Barry arrived at Ellesmere Island up in the Canadian Arctic where her fortress was. It was located in the side of a snow covered hill and the only sign it existed was a door that seemed out of place. Even though it was almost 10:00 pm it was still daylight out because of how far north the island was.

"Jeez it's summer and it's frigging freezing," Barry chattered as he held himself and shivered.

"Really? Huh I didn't notice," Betty replied.

"Well let's get inside, it's warm in there right?" Barry asked.

Barry went to open the door but it didn't budge.

"This door locked or something?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, but the key's right here," Betty replied.

She knelt down and lifted up a rock to reveal a key that was a rather yellowish metallic colour. Betty picked it up and held it out to Barry.

"Here," Betty said as she offered it to Barry.

Barry took the key and he immediately dropped it to the ground.

"What the hell," Barry exclaimed.

He tried to pick the key up but it felt so heavy he couldn't move. Betty chuckled as she watched him struggle. She then the grabbed the key and picked it up herself.

"This key is made of something called dwarf star material," Betty explained. "It's incredibly dense so that this small key actually weighs several tons."

"That's insane," Barry said. "I mean that should be physically impossible."

"I don't really understand it myself," Betty said. "But I don't want just anybody walking in here."

"Can you maybe explain this inside?" Barry asked. "I'm freezing here."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," Betty apologized as she unlocked the door and opened it.

She let Barry in and then put the key back. As she turned around she heard a blaring alarm.

"Intruder, Intruder!"

"Betty, what's going on?" Barry asked nervously.

"Stand down!" Betty ordered. "He's with me!"

Just then a robot that was sort of a floating ball with a head that looked a bit like the intake of a supercharger and too skinny arms approached.

"Oh Kara Zor-El you have returned," the robot said.

"I told you to call me Betty," Betty chastised the robot. "Now shut off the alarm, Barry here is with me he's my friend."

"Yes Kara," the robot responded much to Betty's frustration, it then looked at Barry. "My apologies Mister Allen; Betty has not given us a visitor list."

"You didn't tell me that I had to," Betty said with annoyance. "I figured the lock would keep everyone out."

"You look cold Mister Allen, would you like a hot beverage?" the robot asked Barry.

"Um, sure," Barry agreed.

Beside him Betty snickered. A moment later a second robot appeared holding a mug which it handed to Barry. Barry took a sip and then looked at Betty with a confused expression.

"This is just hot water!" Barry exclaimed.

"Well what were you expecting?" Betty asked.

"I dunno, coffee, tea, hot chocolate," Barry replied.

"You're talking about a pair of alien robots that know more about Kryptonian customs than they do Earth customs," Betty said.

"Fair enough," Barry admitted. "Although you never told us that you had robots."

"Well the robots are actually the ship," Betty said. "It sort of split apart and turned into them. It's kind of hard to explain since I don't really understand it myself."

"Huh, and how about this uh, Fortress of Solitude?" Barry asked.

"Fortress of Solitude, hmm interesting name for it," Betty said. "It sort of grew out of a crystal that was in the ship; again hard to explain it's one of those you had to see it things."

"Well I can see the end result," Barry said as he looked around. "This is pretty impressive, although the décor is rather sparse."

"Hello Barry Allen," a female voice.

"Jesus… damnit fuck!" Barry cursed as he spun around to see a blonde woman standing behind him dressed in white and pink robes with two small pendants that had the same S logo as on Betty's costume.

"Barry, let me introduce you to my birth mother, or at least a sort of AI hologram of her, Alura," Betty introduced with a chuckle.

"This is a hologram?" Barry asked as he reached a hand out towards Alura.

Barry's hand passed right through her as the hologram of Alura smiled at him.

"My apologies for startling you," Alura apologized.

"Whoa this is freaky," Barry commented.

"Did you come here to introduce your friend to us?" Alura asked Betty.

"That's part of the reason for my visit," Betty replied. "But I've got questions for you and Zor-El."

"Kara he is your father," Alura said.

"It's Bet… you know what never mind about that, Hal Cooper is my father. He's the man that raised me," Betty said. "But I don't want to start this argument again."

"Very well what did you come here to ask?" Alura inquired.

"I read the journal of a woman named Mary Munroe back from 1774," Betty said. "It was pretty interesting she talked about meeting two apparent angels named Zoriel and Allara, sound familiar."

Alura stood with a small smile on her face but said nothing.

"No, not going to answer? Where's Zor-El?" Betty asked.

"Hello Kara," a man's voice said.

"God damnit!" Barry exclaimed again as he spun around in fright to see a dark haired man behind him.

"Barry, this is my birth father, Zor-El," Betty introduced.

"He's a hologram too, right?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, the real Zor-El died," Betty replied. "Of course I have a question about that. How long ago, in Earth Years, was Krypton destroyed?"

Neither Alura nor Zor-El answered for a long moment. Finally Zor-El spoke.

"Krypton was destroyed in the year 1775 by this planet's calendar," Zor-El said.

"1775? Jeez Betty that makes you, like… 241 years old!" Barry exclaimed.

"So it took 224 years for the ship to travel from Krypton to Earth?" Betty asked.

"Because you were an infant the ship was unable to travel at light speed, although it could go close, as it could cause development issues," Alura said. "Krypton was located 194 light years from Earth."

"Okay, but back to my original question, were the Angels that Mary Munroe met you two?" Betty inquired.

"Yes, we were," Zor-El replied.

"And what were you doing on Earth? I thought you were confined to Krypton," Betty demanded angrily.

"We were supposed to be on Krypton, my brother Jor-El and his wife covered for us as we made a quick visit here to Earth," Zor-El answered.

"At the time I had just become pregnant with you," Alura added.

"Well why did you just stay here?" Betty asked.

"We were still working on trying to save Krypton," Zor-El replied.

"But we knew that if we couldn't save it, well we needed there to be a place for you to go," Alura explained.

"A place for her to go, what does that mean?" Barry asked.

"We came to earth because a probe had detected life forms that greatly resembled Kryptonians and we thought perhaps this would be a good place to send you to live," Zor-El told Betty.

"Mary Munroe was one of the humans we encountered when we landed on the planet to study them in more detail," Alura replied. "We learned that she was unable to conceive properly so we decided to fix that. However in doing so because we were using Kryptonian medical equipment her DNA was resequenced with latent Kryptonian DNA, specifically mine."

"Latent Kryptonian DNA… what does that mean?" Betty asked.

"It means that if you were to have intercourse with one of the descendants of Mary Munroe you would most likely conceive a fully Kryptonian child," Zor-El replied.

"Is that even possible?" Betty asked.

"Totally," Barry answered. "Scientists on Earth here are doing it to bring back extinct species like the Buffalo and they might even be able to do it with the woolly mammoth. So since you're fully Kryptonian it would totally be possible."

"That's just…" Betty said and trailed off. "Technically I'm a member of the Munroe family and they're also my descendants… god this is so confusing."

"Are you sure it's not just dementia setting in?" Barry asked jokingly.

Betty glared at him angrily.

"What? You're the 241 year old," Barry responded.

Betty clenched her fist and raised it causing Barry to flinch but she then lowered her fist and did nothing.

"Thanks, mom, dad," Betty said the words feeling odd. "This has been… awkward but informative."

"Will you be staying the night?" Alura asked. "CX-1 and CX-2 have prepared quarters for you and your friend."

"Oh, I've always wanted to spend a night in the arctic," Barry said.

"You have?" Betty asked him in surprise.

"Well no not really," Barry replied. "But staying in an alien dwelling in the arctic, no human has ever done that before… that I know of."

"Fine sure," Betty said throwing her hands up. "I guess it is getting kind of late. We can head back in the morning."

"Awesome!" Barry exclaimed clapping his hands.

"Rise and shine," Betty said as she poked Barry.

Barry was sleeping on what served as a bed. It was a strange crystal structure with oddly soft crystals on top to lie on. There were no blankets but the crystals actually seemed to warm up as needed. It had taken Barry quite a while to fall asleep just because of how strange it all was.

"Ugh… do I have to get up?" Barry asked.

"You don't have to," Betty replied. "But if you don't I'll leave you here and you won't be able to get out until I come back."

"You're kidding, right?" Barry groaned.

"Could you pick up that key?" Betty asked.

Grumbling with annoyance Barry slowly got to his feet. One of the robots was floating behind Betty holding a mug that it offered to Barry

"I hope that's not hot water again," Barry said.

"No it's coffee," Betty replied.

Barry took the mug and took a sip.

"Whoa, that's strong," he said.

"Yeah well I told CX-1 you needed it strong to wake yourself up," Betty said. "Come on let's go, I'm sure the others are eager to hear back from us."

As they were heading to the door they were met by Alura.

"Be careful Kara," Alura warned her. "There is a growing movement against people like you and your friend."

"I know," Betty said.

"I fear something catastrophic will happen quite soon," Alura stated ominously.

"No offense but you're a hologram, how can you have a feeling?" Barry asked.

"Zor-El and I are able to process much of the various traffic of this world's internet as you call it," Alura responded. "I am perhaps more aware of what's going on the than any person or computer on this world."

"Okay, we'll be careful," Betty said.

The two of them left the fortress and as Barry stepped outside he began shivering once more.

"God I forgot how cold it was!" he complained.

"Oh quit your bitching," Betty scoffed. "We'll be back somewhere warmer in five minutes or less."

The two of them then took off south heading for home.

Sheila, Jughead, Cheryl, Ginger and Dilton were all gathered at the barn when Betty and Barry returned.

"Hey you're back!" Sheila exclaimed upon seeing them as she got up to hug Barry.

"Yep, I have to say that was interesting," Barry commented. "I mean I got to meet Betty's parents, or well holograms of them. You would have liked it Dilton it was very Star Trek."

"So what did you learn from your parents?" Dilton asked.

"Well…" Betty began.

"We learned that Betty is 241 years old," Barry interrupted. "And… ow!"

Barry rubbed his arm where Betty had hit him.

"You'll heal," Betty said. "Anyway we also learned that my parents actually did come to earth and were the angels that Mary Munroe had claimed to see."

"So why did they come to Earth?" Ginger asked.

"It was part of a contingency plan if they were unable to save Krypton," Betty replied. "They encountered Mary Munroe who they, well abducted I guess. Anyway they discovered she was unable to have kids so they fixed that but it left her with latent Kryptonian DNA; my mother's specifically."

"Wait are you saying that your family is actually related to you?" Cheryl asked. "That you're actually a great… I don't know how many times aunt, to your own mother."

Betty didn't reply and just crossed her arms in front of her chest and frowned.

"You've got that right there Cheryl," Dilton said. "She'd probably be about a fifteen times great aunt, obvious if we look up the family tree we can get and accurate…"

"Okay enough!" Betty shouted as she waved her arms around emphatically.

"Look Betty we're just having some fun," Barry said as he patted her on the back. "Admittedly at your expense, but come on, who else do we know that's older than America?"

Betty grumbled as she sat down on the couch.

"Now what Betty failed to tell us was that not only does she have hologram AI's of her parents, she also has two robots!" Barry said.

As Barry told the others about his own experiences at the fortress Betty sat back and thought about the warning that Alura had given her. She knew about the rising hatred, she'd seen it first hand on the first day of school and with Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump coming to Riverdale in the coming week that hatred was likely to get intensified. Betty realized things could get rather hairy in the near future.

A bit of a transitional chapter, next chapter Trump will make his appearance in Riverdale and we'll see what mayhem comes with him. Please Review!