Chapter 78: The Journey Home (Lost in Space – Epilogue)

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.

Smallville, two days ago

"Martha!" Jonathan yelled, running into the kitchen.

Martha looked up from her lunch preparations, seeing the excited look on her husband's face. Hope blossomed in her heart.

"Jonathan? What...?"

"Diana just called," he told her, out of breath. "She said they got a signal from Kara. They're on their way to get them right now."

Martha closed her eyes, a weight seemingly lifting from her heart. For endless weeks now, they had worried, all the while keeping up the pretense that the rest of their family was simply away on an extended vacation. Not knowing what had happened to them, whether they were even alive, had eaten away at them with every new day that passed without news.

"They're coming home, Martha," Jonathan told her, wrapping his arms around her. "They're coming home."

Martha merely nodded, hugging him back, tears of relief in her eyes.

Above the planet Okaara, Vega system

Sinestro watched as the last of the Citadel ships retreated, their weapon systems deactivated. He kept watch on them for a while longer, but it seemed they were adhering to the cease-fire agreement, simply returning home. A part of him wanted to blast them all apart anyway, their attempts to nuke civilians from orbit still fresh in his mind, but he pushed that thought away. He and Gardner were in enough trouble already for their unauthorized breaching of the Vega system.

He was about to fly back to the rendezvous point to rejoin Gardner and the Justice League for the flight back to Earth when something else caught his attention. The moon he had just passed, one of a seemingly endless number of planetary bodies in this vexing star system, seemed utterly unremarkable at first glance. A lifeless piece of rock, uninhabited, of no interest to anybody. But there was something there. He could not tell what, but something about that moon called to him.

Thought became action in a heartbeat and his ring blazed brightly as it carried him down to the moon's surface. There was no atmosphere, no sounds, no living things. Yet something was here, he was certain of it. He could feel it in his bones. He quickly scanned the surroundings with his ring and there was an energy signature not far away. It was barely noticeable, muted, practically hidden. Nothing short of a Green Lantern actively looking for something would have picked it up.

He followed the fain energy signature into a nearby cave system and after traversing a number of dark tunnels he finally spotted something. There, straight ahead, was a glow. Something was there. Something that gave off a strange and enticing radiance. He felt the stirrings of fear in his mind, but ruthlessly pushed it away. He was a Green Lantern. Fear had no hold on him. As he came closer, Sinestro's face was bathed in its light.

Yellow light.

Planet Tamaran, Vega system

The planet Tamaran had been one of the last planets of Vega to fall to the Citadel. Their long history of resistance had all but ensured that the Citadel's occupation of the planet was brutal and terrifying. Now, with the Citadel finally defeated, the citizens of Tamaran celebrated long and extensively.

In the royal palace of King Myand'r, ruler of the planet, the festivities were going on long into the night. The king's young daughter and heir, Princess Koriand'r, though, had long been sent to bed. Freedom from oppression or not, her mother had said, no four-year old had any business staying up so long past her bedtime.

Unable to sleep, Koriand'r instead sat on the small balcony of her apartment, looking out into the night. All throughout the capitol city, the celebrations were still going on, music and shouts of joy could be heard far and wide. Koriand'r's eyes were cast upwards, though, looking at the sky.

Koriand'r was old enough to understand that the Citadel had been evil. She had seen their cruelty, no matter how much her parents had tried to shield her from it, and she had known that the appearance of so many Citadel ships in the skies over their world two days ago could not possibly have been a good thing. They had planned something evil, that much she knew.

She had seen the few remnants of Tamaran's military rise up to meet them, fighters and ships hidden in the mountains for the day an uprising might seem feasible. She had cheered with the other children in the palace when ships from other Vega planets had arrived to aid them, flying the flag of the Omega Men. Still, there had been so many Citadel ships. Far too many. They had blotted out the sun, circling the city and the royal palace like a dark cloud of doom.

Until the girl had arrived. By now Koriand'r knew that her name was Kona Kara-El, one of three Kryptonians that, together with the Omega Men, two Green Lanterns, and another group of aliens from a planet called Earth, had defeated the Citadel. Koriand'r understood that the girl had not acted alone, that she had been but one of a team, but on that day, with the fighting going on all around her, the young Princess had had eyes only for that one girl.

She had flown through the sky like an avatar of great X'Hal herself, avoiding the deadly weapons of the Citadel, smashing through their armor plated ships, and brought them down with but a touch. Within half an hour of her arrival, the Citadel had been routed; their remaining ships retreating, the cheers of tired yet victorious freedom fighters filling the city.

As she looked up at the sky, still seeing that flying girl with the diamond-shaped symbol on her chest, Koriand'r made a vow.

"When I grow up," she promised herself, "I'm going to be a hero, just like her."

Deep Space, on route to Earth

"How are things back home?" Kara asked, reclining in the copilot seat of Javelin 1. They were going home, finally. For the first time in weeks, she felt like she could just sit back and relax.

"You have not missed much," Diana replied, sitting next to her. "I dressed up as you a few times and made some token appearances, so no one realized that Superwoman was gone. A few minor villains popped up, but nothing the League could not handle."

"Good to know," Kara said, meaning it. She had formed the League because no single hero could be everywhere all the time.

"Oh, and we have a new member," Diana told her. "Well, provisionary member. No one wanted to fully induct her without you getting final say."

"Who is it?"

"She calls herself Black Canary, a vigilante from Star City."

"The one Green Arrow told us about?" Kara asked.

Diana nodded. "Yes. We approached her several weeks after your disappearance. I am sure Bruce has an entire file on her already, ready for your perusal."

"Her real name is Dinah Lance," Batman's voice came over the com. "Expert martial artist and she is also a meta human. She can emit a powerful sonic scream."

"Does she get the Bat seal of approval?" Kara asked teasingly.

"As if we would ever have approached her without the Bat seal of approval," Diana scoffed humorously. Batman merely grunted over the com. Kara sighed contentedly; everything was as it should be.

"I am looking forward to meet her then," Kara said. A moment later, she was overtaken with a yawn. "Maybe after sleeping and recovering for at least a day."

"We all want to hear the full story of your journey through space, too," Diana reminded her. "Was getting involved in a revolution in Vega the most exciting part of it?"

Kara mused over that question. "Probably, though fighting those space pirates on the resort planet came close. And I think we met further members of Steppenwolf's species, too."

"Now this I must hear," Diana said, leaning forward.

Batman only half-listened to the conversation between Diana and Kara. His compartmentalized mind would enable him to recall every word spoken later on, should it become necessary, but most of his thoughts were elsewhere.

He would never speak it out loud, but the relief of finding Kara and her family was immense. He did consider Kara one of, if not the closest friend he had, independent of the brief physical relationship they had had. There were few people in life that he trusted and she was one of them. The idea of her being gone forever had been... uncomfortable.

At the very least, their preparations for just such a situation had proven to be adequate. The Kents had contacted Diana within hours of Kara and her children disappearing off the face of the Earth and Diana had quickly checked out the polar Fortress. The Fortress' computer had informed her that some kind of energy surge had whisked all four occupants of the base away and that there was no clue where they had gone.

Their emergency protocols had gone into effect immediately. Batman had created a data trail showing that Karen Kent and her children had gone on a last-minute cruise to Europe. Thankfully, the school year was almost over, so neither Clark nor Kona would be missing much in the way of studies. Diana's rarely used cover identity as Diana Prince, executive assistant to Karen Kent, CEO of K-Solutions, had enabled her to cover her boss' absence from work as well.

The rest of the Justice League had been informed shortly thereafter and Diana had made a few appearances in her Superwoman disguise. Both J'Onn J'Onnz and Adam Strange had immediately gone to work analyzing the data recorded by the Fortress' sensors, doing their best to find any trail of their disappeared friends.

Weeks had gone by without a clue, though, and Batman had to admit that he had indeed started to worry. Especially considering a certain piece of information that no one but him was aware of.

"Don't let them take Clark", he muttered, making sure that his com was muted and Adam was too preoccupied flying the Javelin.

Those few words, sent to him through time, had echoed through his mind over and over again these last few weeks. A part of him had wondered whether he had already failed, whether Clark had indeed been taken by whomever. He had done his best to dismiss the notion, telling himself that, if the message had been about this event, his future self would have mentioned the entire family, not just Clark. Still, with every day going by without word, his worry had increased.

Now, though, they were back and he did allow himself that feeling of relief. It only strengthened his resolve, though. He would increase his efforts to figure out the meaning of that future message. He would keep an eye on Clark, an even closer one.

He was the son of his friend. He could not do any less.

Guy Gardner was feeling pretty damn good about himself right now. After months of doing little more than busy work, he had finally been able to put that ring of his to good use. Fending of armadas of evil aliens, saving the lives of millions, putting an end to a big war, now that was the kind of stuff he had been thinking of after becoming a Green Lantern. Being the guest of honor (well, one of them anyway) at a huge party at a royal castle was simply the cherry on top.

Sure, there was that little bit where they had broken some kind of regulations, but whatever. They were Green Lanterns and they had saved a lot of lives. And got to kick some alien butt in the process, too. Life was good.

Not for everyone, though, it seemed.

"You okay, Sin?"

Guy's casual question caused the other Green Lantern to start. He had been utterly lost in his own thoughts, it seemed.

"Uh... yes, I am okay."

"You sure?" Guy asked. "Usually you would have chewed my ear off by now with ten or more ways I could improve the whole flying-in-a-straight-line thing."

Sinestro snorted, the barest hint of a smile on his lips. "As hard as I find it to believe, Gardner, you seem to be capable of flying in a straight line by now. Will wonders never cease?"

Guy laughed. "Now there is the Sinestro I know and can't stand! What's going on, Sin? Worried about being spanked for going against regulations?"

The Green Lantern from Korugar gazed straight ahead, his eyes tracking the two silvery shapes of the Justice League Javelins that were flying through hyperspace ahead of them.

"Not worried so much as concerned," he replied eventually. "There must be a reason that the Guardians have declared the Vega system off-limits for Green Lanterns, though for the life of me I cannot say what that reason might be. None of the local powers were of the sort that they might pose some kind of threat to a Green Lantern, never mind the entire Corps."

Guy shrugged. He had been thinking about that, too, but not too hard. "Well, the blue guys have been around for ages, right? Maybe there once was some kind of big threat or something in that system. Something that dropped dead long ago, but no one bothered to update the stuffy old regs?"

"Possible," Sinestro conceded. "Either way, I assume there will be an inquiry, but given that we aided in the preservation of billions of lives, I do not believe we have much to fear in terms of disciplinary action."

"Hey, we are Green Lanterns, right?" Guy laughed. "We don't do fear!"

Sinestro gazed at his student thoughtfully and finally nodded. "Yes. We do not do fear!"

Guy spent but a second wondering about Sinestro's weird mood, but then pushed the issue aside. He had just helped topple a fascist space empire and had celebrated in a castle on an alien world. Life was so damn good right now!

Smallville

Martha and Jonathan had been standing out on the patio ever since they had gotten the call from the Watch Tower, simply staring at the sky. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they spotted three tiny dots against the orange disc of the setting sun, slowly coming closer. Martha squeezed Jonathan's hand in anticipation, even as her husband's arm tightened around her shoulder.

It felt like an eternity, but finally the three dots resolved themselves into three people. No, four people, one of them carrying a smaller person with her. With the grace of a great bird, the flyers came in for a landing and touched the ground, soft as a feather.

Setting down the girl she had carried, Karen stepped forward and smiled. "Hi mom, hi dad! We're home!"

Martha had no conscious memory of stepping off the patio and crossing the distance, she only knew that her daughter was back in her arms and she never wanted to let her go again. She was dimly aware that Jonathan was beside her, closing his arms around Kona and Clark. Had they gotten taller again? Was that the faintest shadow of a beard on Clark's face? God, where had the time gone?

She did not know how long the embrace lasted. At some point there was a switch and she was hugging Kona and Clark for all she was worth, tears in the corners of her eyes.

"You're home," Martha muttered. "You're all home again!"

Finally she pulled back, releasing Clark and Kona, and looked at her daughter.

"What kind of shenanigans have you been up to this time?" she mock-scolded Karen.

"It's a long story and I promise we will tell you all about it," Karen told her, smiling. "First, though, let me officially introduce you to the newest member of our weird little family."

The little girl made from sand stepped up beside Karen, who put her arm around her slim shoulders.

"Say hello to Sandy Jones, yet another lost sheep of the cursed Jones family."

End Chapter 78

Author's Note: I am certain Green Lantern fans already suspect what Sinestro has found in Vega and if not, the flash-forward in chapter 50 probably gave a big clue, too. Anyway, Sinestro will play a very big role in chapters 80 and 81. As for Batman's thoughts about the whole "Don't let them take Clark" thing, well, that particular issue will come to a head soon, too, though a bit more patience is needed. Batman received the warning about Clark from his own future self (via future Alfred) back in chapter 50.

Black Canary joining the Justice Leage off-panel was a spur of the moment idea, but she will be introduced properly in an upcoming chapter, promise. And I could not resist having Koriand'r (aka Starfire) appear, if but in a small way. That makes two of the canonical Teen Titans to appear in my universe (Wonder Girl being the other).

And speaking of the Teen Titans, they're up next!