Chapter 33: Future Past and Present (Out of Time – Part 6)

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Legion of Superheroes belong to DC. No infringement is intended.


Eleven years ago (and 1,000 years in the future)

Kara was sitting on the roof of the Legion of Superheroes club house and looked out across the vast city. Her fingers pulled at the suit she was wearing, which fit her figure perfectly, but still seemed uncomfortable and constricting to her. On her chest was the House of El coat of arms, a symbol that should have meaning to no one but herself, but was revered and honored on a hundred worlds and more by billions of sentient beings.

Because of her. Because of things she had yet to accomplish.

It had started out as a terrific adventure. Being taken into the future, 1,000 years into the future, by a group of super-powered teenagers calling themselves the Legion of Superheroes. Fighting a space magician named Mordru the Merciless who wanted to conquer the universe and wasn't shy about boasting, either. Meeting a whole host of other teenagers with super powers.

Every single one of them could fly.

Well, most of them needed a special flight ring to do it, but still. Flying with other people was so much better than doing it alone. In some strange way, being with others as she flew through the air dispelled that feeling of utter loneliness she always felt inside of her, that huge empty space where her home world had once been before it had died in a silent flash of light.

It had been confusing at first, even a bit scary. Fleeing from her own time in a sphere that moved through the centuries with ease. A murderous magician hot on their heels (and finding out that her invulnerability was of little use when it came to magic had been a bummer, too). Then the fight against Mordru upon arriving in the future, which levelled the so-called Time Institute in Metropolis and destroyed every single time sphere they had. For a long, seemingly endless moment she had feared that she'd be stranded here in the future, never to see Kal again, until the chief scientist of the Institute, a charming insectoid man called Circadia Senius, had reassured her that it was simply a matter of rebuilding. They would need just a few months to reconstruct their equipment and then they would be able to put her back in the exact moment she had left from.

From that moment on, it had been like the world's best vacation. Knowing that Kal... Clark wouldn't miss her, that the Kents wouldn't even notice that she was gone, she had thrown herself into this adventure with abandon. For months she didn't really question why Mordru had travelled back through time 1,000 years specifically to kill her. Why the Legion had followed him to save her. Why so many people cheered when they saw her flying through the air, wearing the symbol of the House of El prominently on her chest.

The Legion of Superheroes had the entire galaxy as their playground. They were a privately sponsored group of exceptional individuals with super powers, officially sanctioned by the United Planets' government as a peace-keeping and law-enforcement group. They had space ships, they travelled to other worlds, they fought super villains and alien warlords, and they took her along on their fantastic adventures.

She had quickly become great friends with Imra and several other female Legionnaires. There was Tynya Wazzo, Phantom Girl, who could phase through solid matter and danced as if the world might end tomorrow. Projectra, a princess from a medieval world who could create illusions and wasn't half as arrogant and snooty as she pretended to be. Luorno Durgo, Triplicate Girl, who could split into three girls, all of them with slightly different personalities, all of them loveable dorks. And Salu Digby, Shrinking Violet, who was so terribly shy that she would probably never act on the very obvious crush she had on Kara.

They had girl nights on the Sorcerers World, where Projectra spun illusions of dragons and knights for their entertainment. They enjoyed a spa on Durla, recommended by Legionnaire Reep Daggle, where the masseuse could morph as many hands and arms as were required to work out the kinks in Kara's back. They went dancing on Imsk, where the dancers shrunk down to dance between molecules. They just generally had a great time. No hiding, no pretending, no thinking about all that she had lost and the responsibilities ahead of her.

She even shared a few kisses with the green-skinned Coluan member of the Legion, Querl Dox. The fact that he had named himself Brainiac 5, after the old Kryptonian master computer, had weirded her out a bit, but she had refused to think too much about it. She lived in the here and now, it was a vacation, and she knew better than to ask too many questions of a holiday fling. At least for a while.

The Legionnaires called her Supergirl. And finally, yesterday, she had asked who had come up with the name and the costume they had provided her with. Why so many people cheered when they saw her.

Now she knew. Imra and Tynya had shown her the Superwoman museum in Metropolis, had shown her the statue in front of it. They hadn't gone inside, Kara hadn't dared, but she already knew more than enough. In the years to come, in her future, she would somehow become a great heroine called Superwoman, someone who changed the world, someone who laid the foundations for this terrific future she had been allowed to visit and enjoy.

She had fled at super speed, trying to run away from this crushing sense of responsibility and inevitability. She was just a lost girl, a survivor. She didn't even know how to take care of her baby cousin, how was she supposed to build a utopian future? She was just a kid, Rao be damned!

"I am sorry," Imra said, sitting down beside her. "I know this is a lot to take in."

She looked over at the other girl, her closest friend in this future time. Her closest friend period, actually. She didn't have any friends back in Smallville. No one wanted to know the weird teenage mother. For the first time since Krypton's death, she had been allowed to be a carefree kid. To play, to enjoy herself, to hang out with friends, beat up super villains, and save the galaxy before dancing the night away. She never wanted it to end.

"The Time Institute has finished their work," Imra informed her. "The time spheres are ready. We can take you back home any time you want."

"I don't know how to go back," Kara muttered, wringing her hands. "How am I supposed to continue my life back in Smallville, knowing all this? Knowing that I am... will be... that I have to do... all this? I can't..."

She looked at her friend with tears in her eyes. "I'm going to ruin it, ain't I? All this is going to get screwed up because I have no idea how to accomplish it. How can I possibly live up to this... this heroine you all think I'm going to become? I don't know how!"

Imra put her arms around her and Kara sank into her embrace, crying. It was too much. The pressure, the crushing weight of expectation, she didn't know how to handle it. She was only sixteen! She didn't know how to be a protector of Earth, a seeder of worlds (whatever that meant). She barely managed to be a mother to a young boy without overdoing it.

"There... there is something I can do," Imra finally said.

Kara looked at her, questions in her eye, but then she understood. Imra was a telepath, the most powerful telepath in the United Planets.

"You can make me forget," Kara said. "You can ensure that I don't remember this... this destiny I seem to have."

Imra nodded. "I can, yes. But... memories work by association, Kara, they don't exist in a vacuum. I can't simply remove some select ones and leave everything around it unchanged. Your mind would... notice the gap, so to speak. If you... if you want to forget about... about your future, then..."

Kara understood and the night seemed to become so much darker all around her. "Then I need to forget all of this," she concluded. "My entire visit to the future, meeting you, everything. Because otherwise I will question why I was here, why you came for me, why Mordru wanted to kill me."

She looked down at her right hand, where one of the golden Legion rings sat on her ring finger. She didn't need it to fly, obviously, but it was more than that. It showed that she was one of them, one of a group of friends, a Legionnaire. Could she give that up? Could she let go of this fantastic adventure, this amazing visit to the future? The feeling of friendship, of belonging? The feeling of finally being a normal teenager?

She sighed, already knowing the answer. She had to go back. She could not leave Clark alone. And if she was to have the slightest chance of ever accomplishing even half of what these people here thought she had already done, then she needed a clear head for it. She couldn't spend all her time dreading that she didn't measure up to the legend these people here had built around her, that she would somehow mess it all up and destroy this wonderful future.

"Let's give it one more week," Imra said, knowing her decision without Kara having to voice it. "One more week of fun, of gallivanting around the galaxy, and hanging out with your friends, Kara!"

"Sounds great," she said, squeezing Imra's hand. One more week.


The Present (1,000 years in the future)

"You've redecorated since the last time I was here," Kara said, looking around the gleaming tower that was Legion headquarters. The headquarters she remembered had been a good deal smaller, a tower resembling an upside down rocket ship. This new one, though, was at least three times as large, contained its own space ship hangar, and looked more like a futuristic office building.

"This is actually our third headquarters," Imra told her as she showed her around. "The one you knew was wrecked by the Fatal Five only a few months after you went back to your time. The second one was destroyed by Computo."

"I thought Computo was taken care of?" Kara asked. She vaguely remembered the insane computer program that, with her memories restored now, had uncomfortable parallels to Brainiac. Especially given the chosen name of its creator.

"Brainiac 5 reused some of its code and technology to cure the sister of Invisible Kid. Unfortunately that was enough for Computo to resurface. He's been reprogrammed now, though."

Kara nodded, remembering her short fling with the Coluan Legionnaire eleven years ago. Back then she hadn't paid much attention to his strange choice of code names, still believing that Brainiac had perished with Krypton. Now she knew better and made a mental note to look up the planet Colu sooner rather than later. Just in case.

Hours passed in a rush of familiar and new faces, reintroductions, hugs, and reliving memories. There were also some sad moments, as she saw the statues of Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid, two Legionnaires she had known during her brief time here. It was well into the evening hours, though, before she finally got to sit down with Imra.

"You know, I expected you to remove my memories, not simply block them," Kara said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I remember all of you again, but… wasn't that dangerous?"

Imra shrugged. "There is no way to permanently remove memories without physically destroying the portions of the brain where they are stored. I could only seal them away. But only a level twelve telepath like myself could even have found the block, much less been able to remove it, and I was fairly certain you never met one of those in your entire life." Her expression softened. "Also, I was kind of hoping that a situation like this might come up some day."

Kara frowned. "Did you know I was going to be here again? Did I write any of this down or something?"

"Not as such, no, but there are some accounts in the historical archives that say Superwoman had experience with time travel, so... I just kind of hoped."

Kara smiled, happy to be reunited with her first real friend, but then her smile slipped. "You haven't asked how it happened that I came to be here yet."

Imra nodded. "I only got an impression of immense anger and sadness from you. I didn't want to snoop."

Kara leaned back and told her about her wayward journey through time. About ancient Greece and Steppenwolf, about the Old West and Katar Johnson, and about her impromptu decision to go to Krypton to try and save it. She waited for condemnation or anger to appear on Imra's face, but there was nothing like that to be found. Only sympathy.

"When I asked you to block my memories, I did so because I was desperately afraid of screwing up otherwise," Kara said, looking down, feeling ashamed. "I feared I would destroy your future, crumble under the pressure. And now I almost did destroy your future regardless. Just because I'm selfish."

Imra took her hand. "You are one of the most selfless people I have ever met, Kara-El. And I doubt anyone would consider saving billions of people from death to be a selfish act."

She tugged Kara under the chin, making her meet her eyes. "Don't you think I know how hard it is? We have access to time machines. The temptation to go back and make changes... it's overwhelming at times. Especially when it comes to people who are our friends. You are here, we are talking, and I could walk over to that computer terminal right now and pull up the exact details of where, when, and how you die. Then I could walk over to the Time Institute, take a time sphere, and go back to prevent it from happening. But we can't, because not even our best computers can calculate how wide-reaching and disastrous the effects might be."

"And if I were to save Krypton?" Kara asked in a small voice, already knowing the answer.

Imra sighed, wrapping both her hands around Kara's. "I cannot even begin to guess. Your legend has certainly grown in the telling, but there is no denying that your deeds, your actions, shaped our time. I don't think the United Planets would exist in their current form if not for you. If Krypton had not died and you hadn't gone to Earth with your son... if you hadn't... well, done things I know you haven't done yet..."

"I get the picture," Kara said. And she did. She really did. What was worse, she knew exactly why Metron had brought her here. To this place, in this time, to these people. Somehow the interfering bastard had known that she had been here before. Had known how much she had fallen in love with this wonderful future where aliens from dozens of different worlds lived peacefully together side by side and walked underneath the same sky.

Had known that she would not be able to just destroy it.

"I am so sorry, Kara," Imra said. "So sorry."

Kara crumbled in the arms of her first friend, crying as she felt like her world was dying all over again.


"Yes, we have found the exa-k-k-k-t moment," Chronarch Sinius said, pointing a mandible at the screen. "There is a slight disturbance in the timestream righ-k-k-k-t where you said it would be, Superwoman."

She nodded, seeing the date. "Yes, that would be the day. That's where that bastard Flash took me out of my time."

The Chronarch, who looked very much like a cockroach walking upright and wearing a blue suit, chuckled heartily. Which mostly sounded like a series of klicks. "Ah yes, the Flash."

"You sound like you know him?" Kara asked.

"Everyone who studies time travel knows of the Flash," he said. "Why, the stories we k-k-k-could tell..."

His voice trailed off as he saw Imra raising an eyebrow. "Eh... are stories we should not tell to someone from the past, all things k-k-k-considered."

"Thank you!" Imra said. "So we can bring Kara home then?"

"No problem at all," the Chronarch said. "Just tak-k-k-e one of the time spheres, I have already programmed the k-k-k-coordinates."

"My thanks, Chronarch," Kara said.

"Whenever you are ready."

As they watched him walk away, Imra turned towards her friend.

"Do you...," Imra began, then trailed off.

"... want you to block my memories again?" Kara finished for her, causing the telepath to nod.

Kara had thought about that almost from the moment she had regained her memories of the 30th century. Back when she had been a headstrong teenager, trying her best to push away the painful memories of Krypton, her plans for the future of Earth barely more than half-baked notions, it had made sense to forget. It had been necessary to forget. She had learned too much about her own future, too many things that she hadn't even conceived yet. The pressure had been too much for a young, damaged teenager. Now, though?

Her plans were well underway. She was set on her course and just knowing that – 1,000 years later – her plans might contribute in some way, big or small, to this world, this utopia, didn't really change what she planned to do. She had avoided learning any details. She didn't know why she was called the Seeder of Worlds, for example, and she didn't want to know. Was it really dangerous that she knew – in general – what her plans might help create 1,000 years away from her own time?

And then there was that other thing, of course. The reason why Metron had brought her to this time in the first place.

"I think I need to remember this time," she told Imra. "The temptation to try and change my own past, to save Krypton... I am not sure I can resist it without knowing about... this!" She gestured to encompass the whole of the 30th century.

Imra nodded. "Very well. And maybe this means that you will come visit us again some day."

"Well, I am relatively sure I'll be meeting some guy named Flash soon, who I hear is notorious among time travelers. Maybe he can drop me off for a spot of dancing on BGZTL in return for me not punting him into orbit."

"Tinya would love that." Imra said. "I am happy that you will remember us this time, Kara. You still have your Legion flight ring?"

She nodded. "Sure do."


Smallville, eleven years ago

Kara blinked, wondering when exactly she had set down on the ground again. Hadn't she just been floating over the fields in order to reign in her temper? For some reason it felt as if she had been here for days. Checking the watch on her wrist, though, she saw that only minutes had passed.

"Weird," she mumbled.

Well, she did feel calmer, more relaxed. Maybe it was time to head back to the Kent farm. She did owe Martha an apology, after all. And Clark was probably getting a bit worried about where his mom had gone. It was still a weird thought, being his mom. She wondered if she would ever get used to it.

As she walked back towards the farm, Kara idly played with the golden ring she wore on her right hand, the one with the letter 'L' engraved on it. If asked, she would not have been able to say where exactly she had gotten it. But it was definitely one of her most prized possessions.


The Present (1,000 years in the future)

The time sphere faded from view, taking Superwoman back to her own present day with Imra as her driver. Garth Ranzz, better known as Lightning Lad, watched for a few seconds, then waved at someone hiding around a corner.

"She's gone, you can come out now!"

Clark Kent, better known as Superboy, stepped out from behind the lead-lined wall and sighed in relief.

"I was sure she had spotted me that one time!"

"Relax, Superboy! Your mom won't ground you for staying out 1,000 years past curfew!"

Clark frowned. "I hope you are right! You've never seen her in full angry-mom-mode!"

Garth laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. "Well then, just in case, you should make the most of your remaining time here. When was the Flash supposed to pick you up again?"


End Chapter 33

Author's Note: Keen readers might have noticed Kara having a Legion flight ring in her jewelry box back in chapter 19. And remember Martha musing that "maybe we'll see even more teenage superheroes in the future." Maybe a bit vague on the foreshadowing, I admit, but I hope you still enjoyed our wild ride through time. As you may have guessed from those last few paragraphs, it won't be the last time. Next chapter will see the Out of Time storyline conclude as Kara returns to her own present day.