"You look like hell," Cat said as Kara sat her Sushi tray down on the coffee table.

"Thank you, Ms. Grant," Kara said. "It didn't really sink in when the fifty people before you told me the same thing." Kara leaned over, picking up the edited copy for the afternoon update of the Tribune website.

"My, aren't we just little miss sassy-pants today."

Kara sighed. "Sorry," she said. "I had a bad allergy attack last night and I'm still trying to shake it."

"I didn't realize you had allergies," Cat said, and Kara was surprised at the level of concern in her voice.

"I didn't either until fairly recently," she said.

"It's nothing here at CatCo, is it?" Cat asked.

"No. It's this stuff they use where my sister works," Kara said, trying to wave off Cat's concern. She looked down at the copy and smiled. "Supergirl's Super Week?"

"Yes," Cat said. "I thought it was rather catchy. For someone new at the Superhero thing, she's doing an excellent job."

Kara scanned the rest of the article and smiled when she found a number of small critiques. "Not cutting her any slack, are you?"

"Well, why should I? No one else will. She's going to have to be better than Superman, just to keep up."

"Work twice as hard, to be thought of as half as good," Kara said. "Just like any other woman."

Cat smiled. "Good to see you've been listening to me, Keira."

"Always, Ms. Grant," Kara said with a smile.

"So, how goes the quest for the interview with our Maid of Might?"

"Oh," Kara said. "About that…"

"Get a little too big for our britches, did we?"

Kara laughed. "No. It's just… Well, I did talk to her, and she has a list of conditions. It's short, and I don't think it's unreasonable, but she won't do the interview unless you agree."

Cat nodded as she sat aside the proof she'd been editing and picked up her lunch tray, walking over to her desk. "Alright then, let's hear them."

"No questions about her day job. How she pays her bills. Where she lives. No questions about her secret identity, or anything that could lead back to people who are close to her when she's not wearing the suit. Any questions regarding any relationship she might have with the government will be answered with a firm 'no comment'. You agree not to publish her secret identity if anything in the interview gives you a clue to who she is."

"She wants me to agree not to publish her secret identity if I find it?" Cat asked as she took out her collection of chopsticks and went about selecting a pair.

Kara nodded. "She was very clear that the restriction would only be in force if information in the interview revealed who she was. She didn't expect you to hold back if you found the information through an outside source, though she did ask if you could give her some warning if you do ever decide to go public with that so she could get certain people to safety."

"Those seem reasonable," Cat said. "I do hope she understands that I will be reporting facts, not writing some little puff piece."

Kara laughed. "Ms. Grant, I think she would be disappointed if you did anything else."

Cat narrowed her eyes. "You seem to know an awful lot about her, Keira."

"She was excited," Kara said. "I think she admires you, Ms. Grant. I think she looks up to you."

Kara wasn't quite sure what to make of the look on Cat's face, and she didn't get very long to analyze it, before it was replaced with Cat's usual mask.

"Well, of course she does," Cat said. "I'm me."

"Yes," Kara said, not able to keep the smile off her face. "Yes, you are. So, how does Thursday evening sound?"

"Hmm… That will work. Headlines to carry us through the weekend, and a big article for Monday. Any idea where she wants to do the interview?"

"She said she'd come to you."

Cat smiled. "Well, then, I'll look forward to it."

Winn didn't really like to think of himself as a small person. Metaphorically small. Because physically, yeah, he was tiny, but that was beside the point. He didn't like to think of himself as the jealous type. He knew he could be. He knew, when he loved something, he was terrified of having it taken away, because so much in his life had been. His mother. His father.

He also knew he had a terrible crush on Kara. It was hopeless, because Kara told him she was gay the first time they'd really talked. It was so casual, that he might have even missed it, if he hadn't been so enamored of her that he was hanging on every word, but she'd mentioned the toughest part of adjusting wasn't the new apartment or new job, it was that she'd just lost her girlfriend. In a way, it was kind of a relief because he knew there was no chance, so he didn't feel pressure to perform. They were better friends because he could be more relaxed, more himself. The crush was still sort of there, but it was dull, muted. The kind of thing you never, ever act on. And he'd never been jealous of Kara's relationship with anyone.

Okay, maybe he'd been a little bit jealous when he found out she'd told Maggie about the Supergirl thing too, but that had been fleeting and momentary, because Maggie Sawyer was freaking awesome, and aside from a little ribbing over some of his costume designs, they'd actually become fast friends. A lot of that was because Maggie had taken one look at the Alien Conspiracy Website he contributed to and dove in head first. He'd listened to her rant for hours about all the details that were wrong, and learned more about the weird shit that happened in National City in one night than he had in all the years he'd live there.

But James Olsen was not Maggie Sawyer and Winn did not like the way he looked at Kara. Not one little bit. Because James Olsen looked at Kara like she belonged to him. Which is why, when he found James standing in the alley where he was supposed to be meeting Kara, he had to bite his tongue to avoid saying something he'd probably regret.

"Hey," James said, "what's up?"

"Nothing, nothing," Winn said, casting around for some reason he'd be in the alley. "I… like to come out here to smoke. Which I like to do in private."

"Actually, I'm meeting someone out here, so…"

"Yeah, you can meet them inside the building."

"No, uh, my friend likes to make an entrance."

"So does his," a voice said from behind them. Winn smiled as he turned around to find Maggie walking down the alley towards them. "Also, you're outvoted." She lifted her hand, gesturing back towards the entrance to the alley with her thumb. "So, do us a favor, and take a walk."

James looked back and forth between them, slightly panicked, and Winn couldn't help feeling a little smug, right up until he heard the tell-tale swoosh of the cape. He looked up, just in time to see Kara turn and drop down for a landing.

Winn looked over at James, expecting to see surprise, but he moment he saw the look on James's face he knew, and he turned back to Kara.

"You told him?" Winn asked.

"You told them?" James asked at the exact same time.

"My cousin told James," Kara said, "and we've had some words about that." Then she looked at James. "I told them, because they're my friends and they deserve to know what that means. They're here because they've already proven themselves."

Winn felt himself stand up just a little taller at that. Something about the idea that someone like Kara respected him made him feel better about himself and a little less frightened of the shadow looming over him.

James held up his hands, a little defensively.

"Sorry," he said.

Kara nodded. "Okay, this thing is off to a good start. The plane, the bank robbery, the fire, but right now, it's important that I be seen out there, helping people."

"Is this about your interview with Cat?" James asked.

Winn looked at James, then back at Kara. "You're giving Ms. Grant an interview?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kara said.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Maggie asked. Which Winn was happy about because it meant he didn't have to.

"I know it seems a bit weird but right now, Supergirl needs as much public exposure and as much positive press exposure as she can get. So yes, in a way, this is about my interview with Cat, but it's also about convincing Astra that there are better ways to help this planet that what she's planning."

"Who's Astra?" James asked, and Winn felt that smug feeling come back, because here was something he knew, something Kara had trusted him and Maggie with, that James didn't know.

"Long story," Kara said. "I'll fill you in later. The point is, right now, I need to be out there, helping people, and to do that, I need your help."

"I'm in," all three of them said at once.

"Next time, can you stop a robbery at a salad bar," Maggie said as she grabbed another slice of pizza and dropped down onto the couch. "If I keep eating like this, I'm going to have to get bigger pants."

Kara laughed as she put her feet up on the coffee table. "Maggie, we both know you're too butch not to have at least one pair of pants at home with some extra room in them."

"Okay, I would like to say that I am not comfortable with the direction this conversation is heading," Winn said. He shifted a little closer to the table as he worked on unhooking the laptop from the police scanner. "It's a little too close to hearing things like that about my sister."

"And I feel like I'm missing something," James said.

Kara looked over her shoulder to here James was leaning against the counter, a bottle of water in his hand. The last two days had been good. It had taken a little time, but Maggie and Winn had both eventually warmed up to him, and Kara had started to settle into a relationship with him that didn't revolve around pining or guilt.

She turned back to Maggie. "You explain it," she said.

"Oh, no, Danvers. You told the joke, you gotta explain it."

Kara thought about it for a moment, and decided right then and there she'd rather fight Darkseid, Doomsday and a dozen White Martians at once, than explain packing to James Olsen.

"Sorry, James," she said. "You're gonna have to figure that one out on your own, or get Winn to explain it."

"That will happen right around the heat death of the universe," Winn said. "Sorry, James, you'll have to figure out the mysteries of lesbian humor on your own."

"Lesbian... Oh," James said.

Kara turned around again, and saw a look of shock on James' face. A small part of her wanted to jump up and do a victory dance, but there was another part that wanted to make sure to drive the point home.

"He didn't know," she said, turning back to Maggie. "Maybe I should have gone with a flannel suit and a rainbow cape."

Maggie snorted, choking a little on a bite of pizza before she managed to swallow it. "I'd suggest a tattoo, but trust me, guys will completely ignore it."

"Noted," Kara said. "Seriously, though, I want to thank you guys. The last couple of days have been amazing, and I think the city is really starting to believe in Supergirl."

"That's all you," Maggie said.

"She's right," James said. "You've been amazing out there."

"Especially with Fluffy," Winn said.

Kara turned around and glared at him. "It was a snake, Winn."

Whatever Winn's reply would have been was lost to the knock on the door. Kara looked through the door, and saw Alex standing there, looking like a kicked puppy. The only thing about it that surprised her was that it had taken this long.

"Maggie, would you get the door?"

"Why me?" Maggie asked, suspicion dripping from her voice. "James and Winn are closer. And you might want to change first."

Kara smiled, "Because I've been waiting for this for months, and I'm pretty sure my sister knows I'm from Krypton."

"You know, your obsession with pimping me out to your straight sister is a little disturbing."

The knock came again, and James stood up. "I'll get it," he said.

"I will melt your face if you open that door," Kara said. She gave Maggie a small push. "Go."

"Kara, I know you're in there!" Alex shouted through the door."

Maggie stood up. "Fine," she grumbled. "But if she's not hot, I'm kicking your ass."

Kara watched as Maggie walked across the room, and it was all she could do to keep from bouncing excitedly on the couch, when Maggie unlocked the door and swung it open. Alex looked up and stopped dead for just a moment, before her jaw dropped. Kara wasn't entirely sure she would have needed her super hearing to hear the small pop of Alex's jaw when it happened.

"Um…" was all Alex could seem to get out, and Kara had to fight not to squeal at the look on her face.

"You must be Kara's sister," Maggie said. "I'm Maggie."

"Oh," Alex said. "Uh… Hi."

The sound of Winn and Kara both bursting into laughter seemed to break the spell, and Alex looked past Maggie, into the apartment, and the vaguely punch-drunk expression shifted into pure, annoyed big sister the second Alex spotted Kara in the Supergirl uniform.

Maggie turned around, following Alex's line of sight to care, and laughed. "Oh, somebody's in trouble."

Ten minutes later, Winn, James and Maggie were gone, and Kara was in civvies, pouring both of them a cup of tea.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to tell your friends who you are?" Alex asked.

"You know what," Kara said, "after that stunt at the DEO two nights ago, I don't think you get to question how *I* am handling this." She reached over and grabbed the sugar bowl, taking out three cubes and dropping them into her tea.

Alex winced. "Okay, sorry. I didn't come here to fight. I came to apologize. What happened at the DEO was a mistake."

Kara nodded. "Mine," she said. "I shouldn't have told you about Jeremiah or I should have trusted you and J'onn with everything. Fuck if I know what I'm doing."

Alex flinched at the sound of Kara swearing. "Why didn't you?"

Kara sighed and looked down at her tea. "I couldn't," she said. "There are so many moving parts, so many dangers and threats and I absolutely could not take certain risks. When we were setting this up, the entire plan, the entire strategy centered on preventing Myriad from ever being deployed. In order to do that, I have to convince Astra to give it up. The thing is, I didn't know where Astra would be up until a week ago, and in order to preserve that knowledge, I had to make sure everything, or as much of it as possible, played out the exact same way as in the original timeline."

"Original timeline?" Alex asked. "Kara, are you saying you're from the future? Because that's what it sounded like you were saying at the DEO and that's what it sounds like you're saying now."

Kara took a drink of her tea, then looked up at Alex. "Sort of," she said. "It's complicated, and I'm not a Time Master, so…" she shrugged.

"Time Master?" Alex asked.

Kara reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm too sober to have this conversation," she said. "Where's J'onn?"

"Back at the DEO," Alex said. "He's… Vasquez quit. The moment you cleared the base's radar envelope, she stormed into the training room and ripped into him. Her girlfriend tried to defend him, and Susan told her, 'You can pack your shit and get your ungrateful ass out of my apartment.' Then she threw her badge in Hank's face and just stormed out."

"/ .,rao, i dovrrosh/" Kara said, and reached into her pocket, digging out her phone. "Konex."

"Yes, Lady Kara," the robot replied as it decloaked.

"Hack the DEO's computer and pull the personnel record for Susan Vasquez, then add her to my phone as a contact."

"Kara! You can't-" Alex started.

"Done, Lady Kara," Konex said, cutting Alex off.

"Thank you," Kara replied, tapping the contacts icon on her screen and calling Susan.

"Hello," Susan said.

"Hey, Susan, this is Kara."

"Um… Hello, ma'am," Susan said.

"Anyone who quits their job for me gets to call me Kara," she said, "especially if they toss their girlfriend out in the process."

"You heard about that?" Susan asked.

"Just now," Kara said, "or I would have called sooner."

"I appreciate that. Um… Don't take this the wrong way, but how did you get my number?"

"Probably not a conversation for an unsecure line, but I want to ask you a favor."

There was an annoyed sigh on the other end of the line. "What would that be, ma'am?"

"Go back to work," Kara said. "I'm going to go back eventually, once my sister and Hank have finished removing their heads from their asses and finished apologizing and maybe done a bit of groveling. I could really use someone there I trust."

"I… I appreciate the compliment, Kara, but I'm not really sure I'd be welcome back and honestly, I'm not sure I want to go back."

Kara nodded. "Okay. I suppose that's fair. Tell you what. I live in Hammersmith Tower, apartment 4-A. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah," Susan said. "I used to drop your sister off on nights when she was too beat up from training to drive herself home. I only live about ten minutes away."

"Cool. Tell you what, I will phone in a pizza order at Antony's. You know it?"

"You have to ask?"

"Not really, but I wanted to be polite. I'll pay for it. Swing by, listen to what I have to say. If you don't want to go back to your old job once I'm done, I'll make a few calls. I might not be able to find you anything in National City, but I know people in Gotham and in Gateway city who will let you name your price."

"You don't have to do that," Susan said, but Kara could hear the gratitude in her voice.

"I feel like I do," Kara said. "And once I've explained why, you might too. Antony's will probably take their usual thirty minutes. I'll expect you in forty-five. Fair warning though, Hank and my sister will be here."

There was a moment of silence on the line, before Susan asked, "Are you sure that's a good idea, Kara?"

"No," Kara said. "But honestly, I don't trust my judgement on a lot of things right now, which is why it's necessary. I just want you here because clearly, the three of us need some fucking adult supervision." The sound of bright, happy laughter came through the phone, and Kara couldn't help but smile.

"See you soon," Susan said, before the line went dead.

Kara looked over at Alex. "Call J'onn. Tell him I said to get his green ass over here. I'm going to order pizza."

"I'd ask how you know my favorite kind of pizza," J'onn said, looking down at the pie in front of him, "but I'd probably just get some cryptic bullshit and I'm not in the mood."

"No more cryptic answers," Kara said as she sat a bottle of root beer on the table for him. "I think all of us have had enough secrets to last a lifetime." She sat handed Susan a bottle of coke. "Sorry I don't have the sugar sweetened kind but I wasn't really expecting you."

"That's okay," Susan said. "I drink this stuff at work, anyway."

Kara dropped into her chair next to Alex. All four of them were sitting around Kara's dinner table. Alex looked nervous. J'onn looked angry. Susan looked nervous, angry, and a little like she felt out of place.

"So, here's the deal. I suck at keeping secrets. Not as much as I used to, but I hate them. I've only been keeping the secrets I have because there are lives at stake. Not a few lives, or a few dozen, or even a few million. When I say lives are at stake, I mean there are literally hundreds of trillions of lives hanging in the balance, across dozens of universes."

She watched both Alex and Susan flinch at that, but J'onn leaned back, looking at her and there was a considering look on his face.

"Susan, before I go any further, you deserve to be on the same footing here as Alex and… Hank."

Susan gave a small nod. "Okay."

"I have knowledge of how a number of future events are going to play out, because I've already lived through the next eleven years. I'm making an attempt to change the outcome of those events in order to prevent a series of disastrous outcomes for Earth and millions of other worlds. Honestly, Susan, I hadn't intended to read anyone other than Alex and Hank in on this, because I didn't want to put the weight of this on anyone else's shoulders. The thing is, I honestly think after what happened the other night, we need someone who's going to be a *lot* more objective than any of the three of us will ever be capable of to yank the choke chain when we get out of line. Since you are the person I trust the most at the DEO after Alex and Hank and since you're apparently perfectly willing to call any of us when we have our heads up our asses, I think you should have the job. But if you don't want it or don't think you can handle it, tell me now, and I will make those calls about alternate employment."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Hey, Susan, do you want a job babysitting the immature brats who are responsible for saving the universe? You don't have to take it, but if you don't, they might be too busy having a hissy fit to stop the apocalypse. No fucking pressure." She picked up her coke and twisted the top off, taking a swig before setting it back down. "Please tell me you have rum to go in this?"

Kara shook her head. "I can't get drunk, so the only thing I keep in the house is Alex's Scotch and some beer and tequila for Maggie."

"Think Maggie would mind if I stole one of her beers?" Susan asked.

Kara got up and walked over to the fridge, fishing out one of the Blue Moons from the back. She carried it over to Susan, and used her thumb to pop the bottle cap off. Susan took it and took a long pull from it before she sat the bottle on the table in front of her.

"I'm in," she said. "I may hate myself in the morning but I didn't take the job at the DEO for the pay."

Kara smiled, and turned to J'onn.

"I've been calling the tune for the better part of thirteen months, but I don't want to dictate terms anymore. No more spilling each other's secrets. If we do this, I need you to make the decision. I need you to be all in."

"Okay," he said. He slid back a bit, then stood up, looking down at Susan. "Are you armed?"

Susan shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't have a civilian carry permit."

"Well, at least I won't get shot," he said. Then he shifted, gaining height, turning green. "I am J'onn J'onzz."

Kara rolled her eyes and muttered, "/ :zhaolium zw rroskilahres :dhiviao/"

Susan picked up her beer and downed the rest of the bottle.

J'onn shifted back into his human form and sat back down.

"I feel like I forgot to do a presentation for class," Alex said.

Kara laughed.

"So," Susan said, looking at J'onn, "I take it you're not from around here?"

"Mars," J'onn said. "I'm the last of my people. We were slaughtered by the White Martians. Monsters from the planet's core."

"Yeah," Kara said. "About that…"

J'onn looked over at her. "What?"

"This all starts about twenty thousand years ago," she said. "The history is long, and I'm not going to go through all of it because most of it's not terribly relevant, but twenty thousand years ago, Krypton, Mars and Tamaran were allies. Together, the three worlds held dominion over a sphere of space almost fifty thousand light years across, and we were expanding. At the time, Kryptonians had powers even under the light of a red sun. Then the Guardians and their Green Lanterns came. They broke the alliance, smashed our civilizations, and drove all three of us, Krypton, Mars and Tamaran back to pre-space flight technology. They infected Kryptonians and Tamarans with a plague. Kryptonians were left unable to fully process the less energetic light of Red Stars, while Tamarans were left unable to process anything less than ultraviolet light to fuel their powers. Martians though, didn't use light to power their abilities, so the Guardians split the race, dividing them into Green Martians, which were as they were before, and White Martians."

"It took thousands of years of being trapped on our world, but Kryptonians eventually began to branch out, and spread through the galaxy again. This time, not as conquerors or as empire builders, but as diplomats, scholars, and when necessary, as enforcers of the law. This was fine, except the Guardians noticed that Kryptonian physiology, already highly adaptive, was starting to overcome the plague. Another four or five generations, and my people's power would have been restored."

"The Guardians wouldn't allow that to happen. Almost a century back, they contacted the Coluans of the Brainiac clan who Krypton had been employing for centuries as cybernetic administrators. They are beings who can exist within the cybernetic realm and mold it to their will, and who can also take physical form which is very nearly a match for a Kryptonian in yellow sunlight. The Guardians hired them to murder Krypton, and to make it look like a suicide."

"Minor changes here and there to mining plans, the introduction of slightly corrupted mining technology. The core chain reaction was carefully planned and calculated. My world was Murdered.

"At the same time, knowing that Earth was progressing rapidly and would likely reintroduce interstellar travel to Mars within a couple of centuries or so, the Guardians provoked the White Martians into a genocide of the Green Martians.

"The Tamarans, the least powerful of the three allies, have been kept tied up for centuries in never-ending civil wars, many provoked by the Guardians' agents.

"The Guardians knew there might be a handful of survivors, but what they failed to take into account was how desperate some of us would be to save our planet and they certainly didn't count on my Aunt Astra discovering a portion of the Anti-Life equation."

"I'm sorry," Alex said, "the what?"

"The Anti-Life equation is a mathematical formula which robs all sentient life of the seven primal emotions. Rage, greed, fear, will, hope, compassion and love. Myriad is the anti-hope function. Hope is a wellspring. You cannot have will without hope. Deprive a being of hope, and they become a mindless slave, devoid of any drive. The Anti-Hope function is at the core of the Anti-life equation. But Myriad can be broken, because it is just one of the seven functions. If someone were to possess all seven, then they would have absolute control over all sentient life in the universe."

"Your aunt has this?" Susan asked.

"Only part of it and without the other six functions, the Anti-Hope function is easily defeated. Especially since it has to be constantly repeated into the minds of the victims to keep it fixed there. Block the signal transmitting it, and you defeat Myriad, make people feel hope and you burn away Myriad's ability to affect them."

"The only way to protect against the full Anti-Life equation is to have its opposite, the life equation, permanently imprinted on your mind."

"In the timeline that I'm from, J'onn died to protect my and Superman's minds. He used his telepathic abilities to imprint us, but the strain of the effort killed him. Fortunately, I still carry that protection, and I've since found a way to imprint Superman without requiring a Martian to do so."

"Well, that's certainly good news," J'onn said.

"You have no idea," Kara said. "Thirteen years ago, I went on a blind date. The guy ditched me after about fifteen minutes, but I heard that a flight to Geneva, the flight Alex was on, was having engine trouble. I left the bar and barely managed to catch the plane. It was sloppy. Otto Bender bridge was damaged and had to be closed for nearly three weeks while it was resurfaced and recertified for traffic. An engine fell off and the debris crashed through the roof of a store, causing a fire that burned a strip mall to the ground, and it took them nearly a month to fish the plane out of the middle of National City Bay. Two days later, the DEO shot me out of the sky, and I woke up locked in Kryptonite handcuffs, and found out Alex was a member of the DEO and met 'Hank Henshaw' for the first time."

"I made mistakes," Kara said, closing her eyes. "So many mistakes." She started talking, telling them everything, from her first fight with Vartox, through the moment she woke up after carrying Fort Rozz into space. Somewhere around the Black Mercy, she felt Alex take her hand, squeezing it gently as the tears flowed down Kara's face as she described the life slipping from Astra's body. Then there was Red Kryptonite, and Cadmus, and Non deploying Myriad, and her carrying Fort Rozz into space. She'd barely covered a year of the future, and she could see the exhaustion on everyone's face.

"Cadmus was bad," she said, "but it was almost a distraction. We spent all that time fighting it, fighting to protect the alien refugees, not knowing Fort Rozz was still the real danger."

"What about dad?" Alex asked.

Kara shook her head. "I… I killed him." She ignored the soft gasp from Alex. "Cadmus has done things to him, turned him into a cyborg, twisted his mind. He showed up with a lump of Kryptonite embedded in his chest, and destroyed the CatCo building. He killed James and Cat. Winn survived because he was working at the DEO as an agent by that point. I tried Alex, I tried everything, but after he killed Eliza… I knew he wouldn't want to live like that, and when he started for you, I ended it."

She took her hand out of Alex's and picked up a napkin, wiping the tears off her face. "I don't think you ever forgave me," she said. "I know you tried, but I think it was just too much, and there wasn't time. We'd barely finished burying the dead when the Guardians arrived." She shook her head. "They got here while we were literally still putting out the fires from Cadmus. We didn't know they were here at first, but then the Third Army appeared, and everything just went straight to hell."

"They decided that humans would be the basis for the Third Army. It was like an infection. One of them would touch a human, and the conversion would take seconds. By the time it was over, nearly two thirds of the population was just gone. India was empty, most of China, huge swaths of the rest of the world. When we broke the power source of the Third Army, everyone who'd been converted just crumbled to dust."

"That's when Darkseid hit us," she said. "He'd been sitting out there, waiting at the edge of the Solar system. The fights were fast, hard, brutal. Alex and Maggie took down Granny Goodness, which… Be impressed. She's the one who killed Superman." Kara turned and looked at Alex. "You didn't make it though. Either of you."

She turned to Susan. "You held the DEO longer than anyone thought possible. They had to send Kalibak himself to break down the doors."

"In the end, we lost. Darkseid had found Fort Rozz and Myriad. That had given him everything he needed to finish deriving the Anti-Life equation. Sara, Barry, and I, along with a dozen others, spent the next nine years doing everything we could to stop them, but in the end, we knew the only way to stop the war was to prevent the war from ever happening, and the only way to do that, was to prevent Myriad from ever being deployed."

"Sara was the captain of a Time Ship called the Waverider. The original Captain had died in the war. We had a White Martian on our side. It was enough. They brought me back to last September, the night I moved into this apartment. The Martian used a telepathic booster to allow her to tear my consciousness from my future self's body and force it to merge with my younger self."

"That's… quite a story, Ms. Danvers," J'onn said.

"You don't believe it," Kara said.

"You have to admit, it's a lot to swallow," J'onn said.

"It's the part about the White Martian, isn't it?" Kara asked.

"That and the part about the Guardians of the Universe."

Kara nodded.

"What if I could provide you with proof?" Kara asked.

"That would be a good start," J'onn said.

"Konex," Kara said.

"Yes, Lady Kara," the robot said as it decloaked.

"Contact Kolex. I need the caskets."

"Yes, Lady Kara."

A moment later, there was a bright glow in the empty corner where Konex usually hovered when in stealth mode, and the robot drifted over and picked up a large featureless white case off the floor, and carried it over to the table, setting it down in the middle. Kara reached up and pressed her hand to the top, and the surface glowed briefly where she touched it, then the top split lengthwise down the case, and the upper half of the case folded down, half on each side of the bottom, revealing three smaller cases. Each of them was hexagonal, with solid end caps connected by a translucent center section. Inside each was what looked like an old-style lantern, and an ornately-carved signet ring. One of them was a deep, angry red, another was the bright, brilliant blue of the sky on a new day, and the last was a soft, warm violet that felt like safety and home.

J'onn, one moment, was sitting at the table, and the next he was standing five feet back from his chair, eyes fixed on the red case as if it might explode at any moment.

"What are you doing with that?" he asked.

Kara looked up at him. "My best to never take it out of the case," she said.

"You shouldn't have it on this planet," he said.

"I agree," Kara said, "but we've both done things we aren't proud of J'onn. That's one of mine."

"Um…" Susan said, "either of you care to fill in the unenlightened?"

Kara nodded. "Sit down, J'onn."

Slowly, reluctantly, he returned to his seat.

"The Green Lantern Corps is one of nine different factions that have similar abilities," Kara said. "Eight of those factions use rings as the focus for their powers. The ninth uses a staff. These are power rings and their power batteries."

"The violet one is one of the Star Sapphire rings, created by the Zamarons and bears no connection to the Guardians of the Universe. The Blue Lantern Rings were created by Ganthet and Sayd, who had broken away from the Guardians and lack the back doors and other traps built into the Green Lantern Rings. The Red Rings were created by the demon Atrocitus, forged from pure rage and christened in blood."

Kara took a deep breath, tearing her eyes away from the red case. "There are seven base emotions common to all sentient life. Anger, desire, fear, will, hope, compassion and love. Each emotion is connected with a color. Red for anger and rage, orange for desire or avarice, yellow for fear, green for willpower, blue for hope, indigo for compassion, and violet for love. Hope is the strongest of them all, but impossible to wield without will. Red rage, and the violet light of love are the extreme ends of the spectrum. The further you move from the center, from green, the more the rings can influence the person who wields them."

"I have these, because I can wield them. Red, Blue, Violet." She looked up, right at J'onn. "If I put on one of these rings and I use the telepathic link to show you what I've seen, will you believe me?"

"And if I say no?"

Kara looks over at Alex. "If I open the violet case, that ring will not even hesitate," she says, before turning back to J'onn. "That would be on your head."

"Wait," Alex said, "what do you mean?"

"The rings," Kara said. "They chose the person who best embodies the emotion they channel. If I open that violet case, that ring will go straight for you."

"Me?" Alex said.

Kara nodded. "I have seen you on the edge of destruction, seen you fighting as you were literally torn apart and in all that, the one thing that never faltered was your love." She reached up, putting her hands on the violet cask. "But I wouldn't wish that on you."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"The further you get from the center of the spectrum, the greater the influence the ring can have on you. Love is a powerful emotion. It can overwhelm you, consume you just as easily as rage, if you let it."

"You've worn one?" Alex asked.

"A violet ring? Yes." Kara said. "It was no more pleasant than the red ring. Not for me."

"No," J'onn said. "No. If you wear the ring, Kara, that's enough."

"Now wait a minute," Alex said. "If that thing hurts her-"

Kara reached over and put her hand on Alex's. "I'm not going to wear the violet ring," she said. Alex relaxed, and Kara reached up, touching the Blue Lantern Emblem on the blue case. The top slid off, and the blue ring lifted up out of the case, hovering for a moment until Kara reached up and took it gently, sliding it on her finger.

"Kara Zor-El Danvers of Krypton and Earth," a loud voice echoed through the room, "you have the ability to instill great hope."

Blue light poured out of the ring, quickly covering Kara from the neck down. The outfit was not so different from her regular Supergirl costume. The parts of the suit that were normally red were replaced with white, the yellow trim on the El coat of arms was black, the blue was brighter, more vivid, and the Blue Lantern emblem sat above and to the right of the El coat of arms.

Kara pointed the ring at the Blue Power Battery.

"In fearful day. In raging night. With strong hearts full, our souls ignite. When all seems lost in the war of light, look to the stars, for hope burns bright."

It was close to 2 AM by the time the rings and their power batteries were safely back at Sanctuary and Alex and Susan left. J'onn lingered, still sitting at her table, holding a mug of coffee and staring into the black liquid as if it held the answers to all his questions. Kara walked from the door back over to the cupboard, and dug out a pack of Chocos from behind a box of vanilla wafers.

"You going to sit there all night?" she asked as she sat the cookies on the table and slid them over to him.

He sighed. "I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay," she replied.

He shook his head. "No, it's not. I... I've gotten so used to mistrusting people, to having to hide who and what I am. I hurt you after I promised Jeremiah-"

"J'onn," Kara said, "it's okay." She reached out and covered his wrist with her hand. "You and Alex… Look, I loved my father. Zor-El was wonderful, he really was, and Jeremiah was too, but in the time I knew you in that other timeline, you were more of a father to me than either of them. Watching you die sent me to some really dark places. Before that, I'd only killed six people. None of them gave me a choice. After you died, I walked into the armory and I put on that fucking ring and I let my rage out. I lost it. I tore through entire divisions of Apokoliptians and Parademons and I didn't leave anyone alive. I did things, horrible, horrible things. It was like the Red Kryptonite all over again, only I was stronger, more powerful, and I was able to direct my rage at the people I *wanted* to hurt."

"I did it because it was easier to hold on to the rage than to live through the grief of losing another father. I did it because I was afraid that if I let myself feel *that*, I would never come back from it. Alex, before she died, she talked me into taking off the ring. Talked me into letting one of the Blue Lanterns cleanse me of its power. But even the blue ring couldn't take away my anger, my fear, and my grief."

"You have known Alex for two years. You're closer to her than you want to admit. You already care about her like she's your daughter. But me, I deliberately held you at arm's distance, refused to tell you things that could have helped. I did this. I gave you reason not to trust me. I thought it was for the best, but I was wrong."

"The thing I'm having a hard time with, is you knew about the bomb," he said.

"I did, and I was scared. What if I'd done enough to make them decide to use a larger bomb, to make them not care if it looked like an accident? I was terrified. But everything hinged on being able to make contact with Astra, with convincing her not to deploy Myriad. And I knew I'd been able to catch the plane before. It was a risk, but I honestly believed it was less of a risk than sending Alex out into the field on any given mission. And Supergirl is important. That she's out there helping, doing good. If Myriad does get deployed, Supergirl and the hope she will inspire are the surest ways to protect this world."

J'onn sat his coffee down, and tore open the pack of Choco's, eating one of the cookies slowly. "I really got to live out in the open?"

"As much as you wanted too," Kara said. "Honestly, you mostly stuck to your human form, but you were out there with me, J'onn J'onzz, flying through the skies of National City helping people." Kara smiled as she reached over and took one of the cookies. "They called you 'The Martian Manhunter'."

J'onn smiled. "I like that," he said.

"I know. I swear I never told Cat that though."

He laughed. "She does like naming Superheroes, doesn't she?"

"Yeah," Kara said. "I-" she stopped when she felt a faint vibration in her pocket. She reached down, and pulled out the spy beacon.

"I've got to go," she said.

J'onn nodded. "Kara…"

"Yes?"

"Be safe."

Translated from the Kryptonian

,rao, i dovrrosh
Literal: Rao's Shadow
Semantic: Oh, hell

:zhaolium zw rroskilahres :dhiviao
Literal: Fucker who habitually seeks glory
Semantic: Fucking Drama Queen