"Let the record state that I still think this is a bad idea," Kara muttered as Selah peered carefully around a corner before quietly creeping into the hallway.

"How else are we going to meet with her?" the girl asked, keeping her voice low. "It's not like we have her phone number. Or a phone."

"So what's our plan? We barge into her office and say, 'Hey man, I'm you from another Earth,'" Kara retorted.

"I don't know, maybe?"

"That's a terrible plan, Selah." They approached a heavy wooden door with a small plaque on it that read Professor L. Lee on it. Selah pointed to the sign, clearly proud of herself, and Kara rolled her eyes.

"Do you want to knock? Am I?" the girl asked, gesturing to the door. "I'll just... yeah." She knocked firmly on the door, three sharp raps that echoed through the dim hallway, and an audible sigh came from the office.

"Office hours were yesterday," Professor Lee called through the shut door. Her voice sounded tired.

"May we come in?" Selah asked. "It's kind of urgent." The door swung open, and Kara's doppelganger glared out at them. Her face was unimpressed, but it shifted once she saw Kara.

"Shut the door," she said quietly, retreating back into her office. Kara and Selah exchanged a quick look before entering the room, Kara carefully closing the door behind her. The office was small and untidy, with large stacks of papers and books on every surface- including the chair across from the professor's desk, which she motioned for Kara to sit in. She awkwardly pushed the textbooks and unmarked essays off of the chair, and Selah began examining one of the bookcases on the opposite wall, running a finger over the spines of the dusty books as she tried to provide the two Kara Zor-Els some privacy.

"I'm sure you have questions," Kara said as she sat carefully onto the well-worn wooden chair. Professor Lee was seated in her office chair, and she didn't respond. "My name is Kara Danvers on my Earth."

"Which one is that?" the woman asked.

"Earth 38. Are you familiar with the theory of the multiverse?"

"Yes. However, you are the first visitors I have met. Who is she?" she asked, nodding to Selah.

"I'm Kal-El's daughter," Selah replied, looking up from an old book that she had begun to idly read.

"Kal-El survived on your Earth?"

"What happened to him here?" Kara demanded.

"His pod never made it to Earth. Mine left first, and his was pulled into the Phantom Zone in the wake of Krypton's destruction. To my knowledge it is still there."

"The opposite happened to me. His was sent out first, and mine was in the Phantom Zone for twenty four Earth years. So you landed in-"

"1979." Linda finished. "I was sent to the Midvale Orphanage."

"So you're 54?" Selah interrupted. Linda raised an eyebrow, and she awkwardly added, "You look good."

"Yes, well if anyone asks, I have a very good plastic surgeon." Linda continued. "When I was fifteen, I was adopted by Edna and Fred Lee, and I moved to Chicago with them. I studied Humanities and Psychology at Georgetown, got my Masters degree in Central City, and then my doctorate. I began my career at the University of Chicago, then I taught in Metropolis for awhile, and I've been in National City for the past five years."

"So you never became Supergirl?" Kara asked.

"Is that what all of this is about?" Linda replied, pointing to Kara's suit.

"When I landed on Earth, I brought Fort Rozz with me. Kal-El and I dedicated our lives to protecting Earth from threats of all kinds, including the prisoners that escaped." Selah zoned out as Kara began the familiar story, how she landed on Earth and realized her cousin was no longer a baby, how she was adopted by the Danvers, and her journey to becoming Supergirl.

"So what brought you here to this Earth, and why are you in my office on a Monday evening?" The professor asked once Kara's story was finished.

"Well," Selah felt Kara's uncertainty and apprehension about how to begin, so she shut the book- sending a plume of dust into the air- and set it back onto the shelf.

"I was taken by an organization that specializes in alien experimentation when I was fourteen," she said, leaning against the bookcase. "I was their primary test subject, and they did all sorts of research on me and my biology. Eventually I was found and rescued by Kara's sister, Alex, but then the organization abducted both of us and sent us here, I guess. We don't know how to get back to our Earth."

"I'm not sure how much help I can be," Linda said, taken aback. "I'm just a psychology professor, I have no experience in the multiverse."

"Do you have any connections that could help us?" Kara asked. "In the physics department, or something?" The professor leaned back in her chair thoughtfully.

"I might know one person," she said.

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"He's a bit eccentric," Linda warned as they walked across campus. She had given Kara a mauve cardigan and a long skirt to wear over her super suit, which meant that they attracted far less attention this time. The bottom of her cape still stuck out of the bottom, but Kara was doing her best to ignore it. "And he's only been teaching for a few years. But he's your best shot at getting home." They entered the physics building, a tall, grey-bricked building with ivy trailing up the walls.

"Are you sure he's still here?" Selah asked. "It's almost eleven at night."

"He stays here until two or three in the morning on most nights," Linda replied. "I think we'll be fine." They reached a wooden door, which was slightly ajar. The professor knocked, and a loud groan came from inside the office. She frowned and knocked again, and the door swung open all the way.

"What?" the man demanded. He had dark hair and eyes obscured by a large pair of safety goggles, and his lab coat was badly singed down one side. "I'm right in the middle of-"

"Winn?" Kara interrupted. Selah could feel the hero's surprise and familiarity with the man. For the first time, he seemed to actually look at the three people standing outside of his door.

"Wha-" he stammered, pointing back and forth from Linda to Kara.

"Can we come in?" Linda asked. When he didn't reply and continued glancing quickly between the two women, his eyes wide, the professor simply pushed past him into the room, and Kara and Selah followed behind her. His office was uncomfortably warm, and even untidier than Linda's. There was yards of tangled wire spewed across the floor, various mismatched machines lining two walls, and burn marks on the ceiling. His desk was stacked high with a vast array of papers and empty coffee cups, and there appeared to be three taxidermied owls stacked beneath it.

"What is going on here?" he asked Linda, finally able to make a complete sentence. "Who is she and how does she know me?"

"I know you from my Earth," Kara replied. "You're Winn Schott, you're one of my best friends."

"Winn Schott Junior," he muttered.

"She's me from another Earth," Linda said. "These two have gotten stuck on our Earth and they are trying to get back." Selah waved at the man as his eyes flicked over her, clearly trying to wrap his mind around everything that he was being told. He smiled awkwardly at her.

"And you want me to help them with that?" he asked, turning back to Linda and removing his goggles so that he could run a hand over his eyes.

"That would certainly be very nice," Kara answered.

"Okay, okay." He began scurrying around the office, digging through boxes and drawers. "Look, I have a paper that I wrote around here somewhere about the theory of the multiverse. That could maybe be helpful." He opened a desk drawer- disturbing the owl stack and sending the smallest one sprawling, before crossing to a few filing cabinets beside the window. The room was growing steadily warmer, the heat seemingly coming from a machine in the corner that was pulsating gently, and Kara took off the cardigan. "Oh, it was in the-!" Winn began, whirling around. "Why are you wearing a cape?"

"Oh, um." Kara looked down at her suit. "I'm a superhero on my Earth?"

"Yeah, cool. That checks out," he replied quietly, trembling slightly as he turned to Linda.

"Kara and I are from a planet called Krypton. We process solar radiation more efficiently than humans, and that gives us certain abilities."

"I have several questions."

"Later, please." Linda insisted, putting a hand on Winn's arm. "You were finding that paper." He turned back to his filing cabinet, muttering lowly.

"When do we tell him I can read minds?" Selah whispered to Kara, who shoved her gently.

"Don't you dare, he's too excitable for that today and we need him right now."

"I found it," Winn announced, pulling a folder out from the cabinet and throwing it on the table. "Ugh, why is it so hot in here?" Linda pointed to the machine, which was now shaking violently, and he let out a yelp, rushing over to it. The room grew warmer and warmer as he fumbled with the dials on the side.

"There's a valve inside that's letting out too much ammonium chloride," Selah said, crossing over to him. "If you cut off the water supply, it should stabilize itself." He flipped a lever and the machine's shaking began to slow.

"Thanks," he said, exhaling. "Why don't you have thumbs?"

"Kara cut them off so that we could escape a terrorist organization that kidnapped us and was conducting experiments on me," she replied. Kara buried her face in her hand, sighing. "I'll go open the window." She walked to the far wall as Winn shook his head, going back to the folder.

"So, um. I'm going to process all of that later. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was one of the first theorists of the multiverse when I was still at Princeton. I also made blueprints for a device that would allow you to travel from one Earth to another."

"To breach?" Kara asked.

"Sure, yeah."

"Does it work?"

"Well I never actually built one," he admitted. "I needed a bigger energy supply that what was available to me, and I couldn't get the grant money."

"But you could build one?"

"Maybe? I still don't have the resources."

"Could I power the device?" Selah asked, joining the table. "I have psychic energy that I can project onto stuff. For example, just today I learned that I can delete Kara and I from security camera footage so that we can't be tracked down."

"Okay, that's cool," Winn said. "Um, maybe? I'll have to look at my designs again, but it could work."

"How long will it take?"

"A few days, at least. I can start working on a prototype tonight, but it will be at least a day until it's ready to be tested and powered up."

"If we are of no further assistance to you, then I would like to go home," Linda said, stretching. "It's past my bedtime."

"Yeah, I have a lot of information to digest," Winn muttered, looking down at his folder. "I don't think I can handle more insane facts about how one of you can breathe fire or something." Selah opened her mouth to comment, but Kara elbowed her sharply.

"Do you two have any place to go?" Linda asked. They looked at each other, and then back at Linda uncertainly.

.

A few hours later, Kara was sitting on a twin bed, trying fruitlessly to pull her boots off.

"Nanites," she grumbled. She and Selah were in Linda's guest bedroom, a small room that had two twin beds adorned with matching floral bedding. There was one nightstand with a pink lamp resting on it, and a window that was dressed with the same fabric as the bed sheets.

"Any progress?" Selah asked. She was already lying down in the other bed, and was watching Kara in great amusement.

"When I first got this suit, I never stopped to think 'What about zippers? Wouldn't zippers come in handy at some point? Should I ask Brainy to put a few zippers in, just for fun?' It never crossed my mind that I might get stranded on another Earth and that I would be stuck in the stupid thing."

"When we get back, I'll remind you to ask him about the zippers."

"Thank you." She flopped backwards onto the bed in frustration, giving up on getting the boots off.

"Linda's a pretty big fan of mauve," Selah stated, staring up at the pale pinkish walls.

"Hey, she is letting us stay here for as long as we are on this Earth. We're not allowed to complain about the color of the walls."

"She's very nice, I'm not complaining," Selah insisted. "It's weird how different from you she is."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, maybe it's just because she's older, but she's a bit more..." the girl trailed off, choosing her words carefully. "Reserved. Like, everyone's thoughts sort of have a color that's associated with them, and yours is bright yellow, but hers is-"

"Mauve?" Kara interjected.

"No. They're a dark reddish color. Like a pomegranate."

"I guess our lives on Earth haven't had a lot of similarities. She landed almost 25 years before me, it was a very different world then."

"And she didn't have Alex, or Kal, or J'onn."

"So today we learned that without Alex, your favorite color would be mauve."

"What did I just say about not making fun of her?" Kara demanded. "Besides, mauve is significantly better than the cell we were in at the Agenda."

"They did have pretty poor hospitality."

"Have you heard anything from Beta?" the girl shook her head slowly.

"I thought about trying to reach out to see if I can find her, but I don't want to give her any information about us." Kara nodded, and crawled underneath the pink flowered duvet, trying to remember the last time she slept in a bed. "What do you think it's like back on our Earth?" Selah asked.

"I don't know," Kara replied. "I guess we'll find out soon."

"Yeah," the girl pulled her arms out from under the blanket and began examining her hands. "I wish my thumbs would grow back."

"How long does that usually take?"

"About a week for them to be full grown, but they haven't even started yet."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Whenever they would cut off one of my fingers before, they would do it when my powers were gone and then they would bring them back right away. This time, we did the opposite. We cut them off when I still had my powers and then I blew them out right afterwards. I don't know if that is going to change how they grow back or not."

"Are they still going to come back?"

"Not sure," Selah tucked her arms back under the blanket and rolled onto her side to face Kara. "So when we get back to our Earth, the first thing you're going to do is tell Brainy you need zippers, and the first thing I'm going to do is tell Alex I need thumbs."

"Sounds like a plan," Kara replied, smiling. "Will you get the light?" The girl shut her eyes and twitched her head gently. The light switched flicked off, and the guest room was bathed in darkness. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"We're almost home," the hero murmured into the dark, quiet air. "Goodnight, Selah."

"Night, Kara."

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