Chapter 109: Days of Future Present

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

Proxima Centauri, two years later

"Order! This meeting will now come to order!"

Kara looked around the vast meeting hall. Its design was as basic as you could get, just a vast circular room with many rows of seats. The Senate of Ancient Rome would not have looked out of place here, neither would the Science Council of Krypton or the governing bodies of any of a dozen other worlds. That was intentional, of course. Everyone was supposed to feel comfortable here.

She suppressed a chuckle. People were supposed to feel comfortable inside the greatest war machine that had ever been built by mortal hands. Thankfully the former War World no longer looked the part and only a few dozen beings knew what it had once been. These days the artificial planetoid that circled Proxima Centauri served as the central hub for the growing interstellar alliance that still wasn't called the United Planets.

No official name for the former War World had been decided on yet, though quite a few people were pushing to have it named in honor of Dhor's prime minister Weber Va, whose idea it had been to rebuild the War World in the first place.

Kara looked around the room. Representatives of the 'founding members', so to speak, were present, of course. United Nations delegates from Earth, a group representing the different worlds of Vega, diplomats from Alstair and Dhor, and Vril Dox, aka Brainiac-2, who had been named the official ambassador of Colu. For the first time, however, there were also official representatives from the worlds that had been colonized by the survivors of Vukar Tag. Braal, Winath, Carggg, Thaar, and Bismol had sent delegates of their own.

Kara had been pleasantly surprised to see that the delegate from Thaar was none other than Shamara. The two of them had spent an hour catching up on recent affairs.

"First order of business," the elected chairman of the alliance council, a representative of Rann, looked at the screen in front of him. "Despite the fact that our alliance has existed for quite a few years now and has now grown to encompass several new worlds, it still lacks an official name. Kara-El of Krypton has requested to speak a few words on the matter."

Kara walked up to the speaker's podium. "Thank you, mister chairman. I know that a lot of people have unofficially called our union the 'Kryptonian Alliance' for quite some time now. I have actually done so myself a few times. But while I thank you for the honor, I would humbly request that a new name is chosen. For all the love I hold for my lost world, its society was isolationist and regarded all outsiders with suspicion. I believe our alliance holds to very different principles, thus I would ask for a better name, one that looks to the future instead of the past, and celebrates the strength we hold in our united diversity. Thank you."

"Union?" Kona whispered to her as Kara sat down beside her daughter. Kona had accompanied her to this session to become more familiar with the workings of the alliance. "Subtle, mum, but I told you before, just go ahead and tell them to name it 'United Planets'. We both know that is the name it will end up with eventually."

"It should be their choice," Kara once again insisted. "I am so done with time loops, predetermination paradoxes, and all those things. And if it means the 30th century might have to replace a few name tags, so be it."

Kona sighed. "Is this a bad time then, to tell you that Wally has finally mastered travelling through time without the aid of his treadmill?"

Kara perked up upon hearing that. "He has? Great, then I can finally have him close that last time loop that's still open."

"That we know of," Kona told her teasingly. "Maybe you still have to travel into the distant past and become the goddess Rao or something."

"Don't jinx it, missy! I will be a happy woman if I never have to travel through time again. Well, maybe a visit to Imra and the girls, but otherwise? No, thanks!"

Kona laughed. "Just don't punt Wally into orbit before you send him on his way, okay, mom?"

"No promises!"

When the session finally ended a few hours later, the council decided to give their alliance an official name. It was now called the Free Worlds Alliance.

"Well, they have a thousand years, give or take, to come up with the proper name," Kona sighed as they prepared to head home. "Maybe I can convince them to call it the Super Alliance for a century or two."

Kara just shook her head, laughing.

Metropolis

As offices went, the office of K-Solutions in Metropolis was on the smaller side, occupying but a single floor in a larger office building in mid-town. Given that the company, despite its international acclaim and massive profits, was a think tank and concept foundry, the office workers were mostly busy taking care of the administrative side of things. Bills needed paying, books needed balancing, those things. The actual work was mostly done remotely.

Still, occasionally the elusive CEO of K-Solutions had to appear in person to deal with things. And recently, whenever the boss made an appearance, that also meant her executive assistant and heir apparent was in the office with her.

"Here are the files you wanted, Ms. Jones-Kent," the secretary said, handing Kona a file folder.

"Thank you, George," Kona replied, smiling at the young man. He smiled back, blushing a bit, and almost ran into a filing cabinet when he walked away.

"Oh yeah, I've got it," Kona chuckled, walking towards her mom's office.

Kara was sitting behind her big desk and there was a huge pile of papers to her right. When Kona had left a minute ago, the pile had been to her left.

"Isn't it cheating using super speed to sign all those forms?" Kona asked, closing the door behind her.

"Baby girl, I am this close," she moved her thumb and index finger less than an inch apart, "from signing over this entire company to you and let you deal with all this paperwork. Then we can talk about how it is cheating to use our Rao-given gifts to make it a tiny bit easier."

Kona laughed and sat down on the edge of the desk. She had only been an official employee of K-Solutions for a few months now, but she was already displaying a knack for it. At first, she had been a bit nervous, figuring that she was somehow usurping Clark's place. Her big brother had merely laughed, though, and told her that he was more than happy that mom had found someone to share the boring business stuff with. As long as she made sure that his shares in the family business retained their worth, he had joked, it was all good.

"Take a look at this," Kona said, now serious, handing her the file folder.

Kara speed-read through it, then gave her daughter a troubled look. "I do not like this."

"Me, neither."

Kara lent back in her chair and Kona could see the characteristic furrowing of her brow that meant she was thinking really hard.

"Have you talked to Lena about this?" Kara asked after a minute.

"I thought we could give her a call together."

Kara nodded and flipped up the screen of her computer. Kona moved next to her as a familiar face appeared.

"Hi, evil sis," Kona chirped. "Got a minute for us?"

Lena Luthor, by now the official CEO of Lexcorp, smiled at her half-sister.

"Sure, what's up?"

"A friend of ours at the patent office sent us a tip that someone has filed a patent for a revolutionary new solar power generator," Kara told her. "The patent is in the name of L. Luthor."

"Is it too much to hope for that that's you, evil sis?" Kona asked.

Lena shook her head. "No, sorry. That's the sperm donor, I'm afraid."

Kara frowned. "You know about this?"

"You think I'm not keeping tabs on what he is doing?" Lena asked. "I have half a dozen private eyes following him at all times."

"Sorry," Kara replied. "I am just a little uncomfortable about this."

"Yeah, the fact that evil dad is apparently dabbling in something so closely related to the source of our powers..."

Lena sighed. "Look, I'm about the last girl in the world looking to defend the guy, but could he be trying to turn over a new leaf? From what my guys tell me, he's been a model citizen all through his probation."

"That just means he was smart enough not to get caught," Kara waved it off. Despite her having spoken in Luthor's favor at his hearing a few years back, Kona knew that her mom was never, ever going to trust the man.

"What can we do?" Kona asked. "Everything is on the up and up. He is not doing anything illegal by filing a patent. Besides, from what I've seen his generator design is pretty neat."

"Probably based on our solar cell design," Kara huffed, crossing her arms.

"I promise I will keep an eye on him," Lena told them. "I have to sign off now, sorry. Meeting."

"See you later, evil sis," Kona said as the screen went blank. "What now?" she asked.

"I like Lena, but I am not going to leave this all up to her," Kara growled. "I'm calling Batman!"

Brussels

The two girls were hiding under a table, peeking out from underneath the tablecloth. One of them had skin the color of gold, while her eyes were a solid green without visible pupils and her hair was a fiery auburn red. The other was a black-haired girl, tanned from plenty of time spent in the sun, and a pair of child-sized Amazonian bracelets were visible where the sleeves of her sweater were pulled up.

"What do you think they are talking about?" the black-haired girl whispered, pointing at the group of adults gathered at the other end of the room.

The golden-skinned girl shrugged. "Some boring adult-stuff, probably! I was hoping to meet Supergirl!"

The black-haired girl was called Donna and she was the adopted daughter of a certain Amazonian princess. The golden-skinned girl, on the other hand, was a princess in her own right. Her name was Koriand'r, and she was a visitor from the planet Tamaran.

"Mom told me she would be here," Donna assured her new friend. "Aunty Kara is supposed to come, too."

The two girls had first met less than an hour ago, when the delegation from Tamaran had arrived on Earth for some summit or other. Donna's mother Diana had been present to greet them, having first met them years earlier during the Citadel War. Lacking anything to do while the adults talked about boring things, the two girls had immediately drifted towards one another. And thanks to the Tamarans' ability to learn new languages simply through physical contact, they had immediately hit it off.

In the process Donna had learned that Koriand'r really, really, really wanted to meet Kona, who was kind of (but not really) Donna's cousin and sort-of big sister. Learning that Donna knew Kona had nearly sent Koriand'r into a babbling frenzy.

"When I'm just a little older," Donna told her new friend, "I will be in the Teen Titans with Kona."

"What is a Teen Titan?" Koriand'r asked. "Can I be a Teen Titan?"

"I don't know. Can you do stuff?"

"Stuff? What stuff?"

"You know, powers. Like, are you super strong? Can you shoot energy from your eyes?"

Koriand'r looked down, a bit morose. "No, I can't do stuff." Then she thought of something. "But, oh, oh, I can fly! Does that count?"

"Really? You can fly? Cool!"

"Everyone back home can fly," Koriand'r told her. "Well, only if we spend enough time in the sun."

"You can fly due to sunlight? Cool, that's almost like Aunty Kara. And Kona, too."

Koriand'r beamed. "You mean I'm like Supergirl? Wow!"

The two girls started as the tablecloth they had been hiding underneath was yanked up.

"What are you doing there, Donna?" Princess Diana asked, doing her best to look stern despite the smile on her face. She was no stranger to her daugher's antics.

"Weren't you supposed to wait in the other room with your minders, little princess?" Koriand'r's father, King Myand'r asked, also failing to hide his mirth.

"Mom, I…," Donna began.

"It was my fault, papa," Koriand'r said. "I was hoping, well, ..."

"She was hoping to see Supergirl," Queen Luand'r said indulgently. "She has been going on and on about that ever since she learned we would be visiting Earth."

"Well, she is in luck then," Diana said, pointing to the far side of the room.

Koriand'r's eyes went wide when a trio of people walked into the conference room. All three were dressed in rather similarly styled clothes, colored blue and red and sporting the same symbol on their chests. Just about everyone else was focused on the eldest of the three, the woman walking in the middle, but Koriand'r only had eyes for the younger woman by her side.

"That's SUPERGIRL," she squealed, causing all three of the newcomers to look in her direction.

"Looks like you got a fan, little sis," Superman said, grinning.

"Ah, how time flies," Superwoman said, putting a hand to her heart. "My little girl already has her own fans."

Supergirl gave them both the stink eye but was quickly distracted as a little golden-skinned girl flew out from under the table and hovered in front of her, babbling at super speed how she was her biggest fan and had seen how she had pounded the Citadel ships and how she would be just like her when she grew up and could she pretty please become a Teen Titan, too.

Kona tried to mouth 'save me' to her mother and brother, but the two of them were far too busy laughing.

Smallville

"Really?" Lois asked. "Smallville?"

Clark chuckled as Lois looked at the town sign in front of them.

"Yes, Smallville."

"This isn't something you built at super speed just to mess with me?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Scout's honor," he replied. "It's really called Smallville."

Lois shook her head as they kept walking.

"When you told me that your family lived in a small town in Kansas, I figured that it made sense somehow," Lois said as they walked. "But that the small town in question is actually called Smallville..."

"It's not because it's small," Clark explained. "It's named after its founder, a guy called Ezra Small."

"Okay, but if I were to establish a new town and name it after myself, I would first change my name to something a little more impressive than 'small'."

"Well, if this were Lanetown, someone would no doubt ask where the 'lane' is."

Lois stopped and looked at him. "Okay, Clark. That was a terrible pun, even for you."

They chuckled and resumed walking. Clark pointed out some of his favorite spots in town, regaling her with stories of what had happened to him there during his childhood. The entire time, though, Lois was a bundle of nerves. She and Clark had been a couple for over two years now and she had known about his identity and that of his mother even longer than that. Now, though, she was about to encounter the entire Kent family at its most private. She was about to see how they lived when they were not students, CEOs, or heroes. She was being extended a level of trust she was not sure she deserved.

"Something wrong, Lois?" Clark asked as they walked out of the Smallville town center (such as it was) and began making their way towards the distant farm.

"Just... are you sure it's okay? That I am here, I mean?"

He smiled. "Lois, we talked about this. I spoke with mom, I spoke with Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Martha, and Kona was consulted as well. All of them agreed. You've kept our secret for years. We know you are trustworthy."

"Okay," she muttered, still not entirely convinced.

"Besides, Aunt Martha desperately wants to meet the woman who has snatched her boy's heart, as she put it. She basically ordered me to bring you over."

Eventually they reached the farm in question. Looking at it, Lois figured that it could have been a picture right next to the word "farm" in a dictionary somewhere. Everything looked so... rural. There was a house, a barn, a wooden fence, even a tractor. Nothing here screamed "aliens live here" or anything. Which was the point, of course.

"Lois, welcome," a voice made Lois start.

Karen Kent, aka Superwoman, aka Lois Lane's idol and role model, was coming towards them, wearing Jeans, a flannel shirt, and glasses. She looked entirely different than Karen Kent, CEO, or Superwoman, while still clearly being the same woman. It was really amazing. Also, Lois knew that the woman had to be at least in her mid-thirties but could still easily pass for a woman in her twenties. Now that was unfair!

"Thank you for inviting me, Ms. Kent," Lois said, hoping her voice sounded somewhat steady.

"None of that now, Lois," Ms. Kent said. "You've been my son's significant other for two years now. I think it is time for you to call me Karen. Or Kara if you prefer."

Without waiting for her to reply, Ms. Kent... Karen... came to her side and linked arms with her, all but dragging her towards the farmhouse. Lois gave Clark a somewhat panicked look, but the idiot just laughed at her.

"Mom, dad, Lois is here!" Karen announced as they entered the door. A woman whom Lois estimated to be in her early sixties looked up from where she was preparing some food or other. There were still some traces of reddish brown in the woman's mostly grey hair and her face was tanned and sported numerous laugh lines.

"Oh, I am so glad to finally meet you, Lois," the woman who could only be Martha Kent said, coming towards Lois with open arms. Before she knew what was happening, she was caught up in a hug.

"Uh... glad to meet you, too, Mrs. Kent."

"Call me Martha, Lois," the woman told her, holding her at arm's lengths. "We are practically family already, after all."

"We... we are?" Lois asked, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"Hello, Lois," another voice said. A man who had to be Jonathan Kent had entered the kitchen. He was in his sixties, too, hair fully grey, but looking quite fit for his age. Thankfully he only shook her hand instead of hugging her.

Lois regarded the two elder Kents, being amazed at how utterly normal they looked. These were the two people who had, by sheer chance, had two alien children fall into their laps, one a teenage girl and the other still a baby. And somehow, they had not only managed to deal with that situation, but they had also managed to raise both of them into two of the most wonderful, heroic, and altruistic people she had ever known. The very thought how different the world might look today if Karen and her son had fallen into the hands of less benign people... it gave her nightmares just thinking about it.

"Is everyone here?" Karen asked.

"We are still waiting on John," Martha told her. "But everyone else is already in the living room."

"Who is John?" Lois asked Clark.

"Cousin John," he told her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "You probably know him better as the Martian Manhunter."

Lois froze in surprise. "The Martian Manhunter? He... he lives here, too?"

"No, he just visits very often," Clark said, smiling. "He has kind of been adopted into the family."

Lois shook her head. Okay, not just aliens from Krypton then, but also from Mars. Well, she could deal with aliens. Her boyfriend was an alien, after all. She could do this.

Walking into the living room at Clark's side, she nearly stumbled.

"P...Perry?" she asked, not quite believing what she was seeing.

Perry White, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet, her boss and mentor, was sitting on the living room couch as if he belonged there, a glass in his hand, and chatting with Clark's little sister Kona.

"Oh, Lois, hi!" he said, looking at her. "Karen told me you would be coming by today, too. How do you like the Super Farm so far?"

Lois just stared at him, her brain refusing to compute. Perry, seeing her stare, gave Karen an exasperated look. "Let me guess! You didn't tell her that I would also be here."

Karen shook her head, smiling impishly. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"How... when... how...?" Lois babbled.

Karen plopped down on the couch next to Perry. "Oh, Perry and I go way back. He figured out my Karen Kent identity... when exactly?" she turned to him, asking.

"Eight years, I think," Perry replied, sipping from his drink. "It was shortly after Clark here went public as Superboy."

"And mom didn't tell me about it until I turned 18," Clark complained good-naturedly.

"Well, it was only two years ago that you first invited me here to the farm," Perry said.

Lois just looked back and forth between them all.

"You... you're telling me you figured it out TWO YEARS BEFORE I DID?"

At that moment the door opened, and a tall blonde man entered. "Hello, everybody! Did I miss anything?"

It was telling that the arrival of a Martian barely registered for Lois.

Keystone City

Wally was waiting outside of the city limit, his foot impatiently tapping the ground at super speed. Okay, granted, he was early. Came with the territory of being the fastest man alive, really. If there was one downside to the powers he had been given by that lightning bolt, it was that everything and everyone else in the world was just! so! slow! Like being perpetually stuck in the cashier's line at the supermarket behind someone who slowly counted out single cents from his wallet to pay a hundred-dollar bill.

Finally there was a woosh of displaced air and the world's greatest superheroine arrived in a blur of red and blue. Well, it was a blur to anyone else. To Wally she moved at a somewhat leisurely pace.

"Thank you for meeting me, Wally," Superwoman said, smiling that dazzling smile of hers.

"No problem," he replied. "What can I do for you?"

"Kona told me that you have refined your control of your speed powers, is that true? She says you no longer need your treadmill to travel through time."

Wally involuntarily took half a step back. The last time Superwoman had met with him to talk about time travel, they had ended up fighting a god. And the time before that it had ended up with Wally being grounded by his mom. Going by that trend, was he in for some kind of multiversal crisis this time? Where he would have to outrace a wall of anti-matter or something?

"It's true, yes," Wally finally said. "But like I promised, I am being very careful. No changing history or anything, no unsolicited travels to the past, nothing."

Superwoman smiled. "Good to hear."

"So…?" Wally prompted her.

"There is something I need you to do for me, Wally," Superwoman told him. "Something to ensure that no further disruptions of time and history can result from this."

"Whatever you need," Flash perked up, eager to please.

Kara took her wrist band computer off (the Super Wristwatch, as Kona called it) and handed it to Wally.

"You will find the space-time coordinates for two different specific spots in history in here. I need you to go to this one," she indicated the first entry, which was roughly seven years ago, "where you will encounter a certain young woman."

Wally chuckled. "A certain young woman, you say? Is she hot?" he joked.

"I would hope so; she is a younger version of me."

Wally's eyes widened. "Eh... a younger you? Well... then I am sure that she... I mean you... Didn't we all kind of decide that we are actively trying to avoid any further disruptions in history?"

She gave him a smile. "Our meeting there is already part of history, Wally. I have already lived through it. Now we need to close the loop, so to speak, so it needs to become part of your history, too."

Flash shook his head. "You mean... you're telling me that you met me, current me, long before I met you? Man, this time travel stuff really makes your head hurt."

"It sure does," Kara agreed. "Fair warning, my younger self has no idea who you are and will not be inclined to just go with you, so you need to... well, sweep her off her feet. You need to transport her to the second time and place programmed into the computer, no matter how much she… I... will protest."

"Okay, if you're sure about that," Flash said, wrapping the computer watch around his wrist.

"Oh, and one more thing, Wally," Kara said, sweetly.

"What?" he asked.

Moving at super speed, Kara grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and took off into the air. Dragging the Flash behind her, she rocketed upwards nearly to the edge of space, all the while the young man was screaming. Just a few seconds later they were back where they had started, and Kara let him down.

"What the hell, Superwoman?" Flash yelled, taking a wobbly step back.

"Really sorry about that," she just said, shrugging, sounding not at all sorry. "Just one of those things that need to happen! You'll understand eventually, I promise!"

Flash gave her a wary eye, but apparently decided to accept it – or not to antagonize the possibly mental Superwoman any further – and walked off, preparing for the jump through time.

Watching him walk away, Kara smiled. "Well, that takes care of that."

Elsewhere

The endless vastness of space was lit by the lights of millions upon millions of galaxies, spinning discs of radiance dancing eternally through the emptiness. Between these galaxies, however, there was only darkness. Not the kind of darkness humans were familiar with, but the utter and total absence of any and all sources of light.

Nothing could live in this endless wilderness of darkness. It was a void, empty of everything except the odd smattering of matter that had been cast out of the galaxies to drift endlessly. No one had ever attempted to live in this nothingness and only very few had traversed it. Many of those that tried went mad, their minds unable to cope with the endless darkness.

Not even the light of the Green Lanterns reached here, for the champions of the Guardians of Oa used wormholes to travel between galaxies. Not that there had ever been a need for the green light to be shone here, for what could possibly exist in this emptiness that would ever be a threat to the universe the Oans had sworn to preserve?

In the darkness between galaxies, something stirred. Something ancient that gazed upon the distant islands of light with only one thought in its vast, alien mind.

Drown the light in darkness!

End Chapter 109

Author's Note: Sorry for the long break, my muse was uncooperative.

Reread chapter 28 if you want to refresh your memory of where Wally is going and what he's going to do with a younger Kara (and why Kara felt the need to punt him into orbit). So happy to finally close this loop. The last few paragraphs introduce the final villain of this story, who will help bring this tale to a close. Don't be too upset if you cannot figure out who it is, there isn't really much of a clue in there. And regarding Perry White, discerning readers may have realized that he has long figured out Superwoman's identity due to clues dropped in chapters 82 and 102.

Starfire's ability to learn languages through physical contact is canon (though teenage Kory usually did it via kissing), as is her ability to fly. Her starbolts, however, are the result of genetic experimentation by the Psions, which hasn't happened here due to the early fall of the Citadel. Re-read chapter 78 if you have forgotten why Kory is such a big fan of Supergirl.

Fans of the Legion of Super-Heroes might have realized that the rebuilt War World will, in fact, be named after Weber Va. In the 30th century, the capitol of the United Planets is an artificial planetoid called Weber's World. The character of Weber Va and the fact that Weber's World used to be the War World are my inventions, though, not official DC Comics canon. Oh, and interesting side note: the fact that Smallville is in Kansas was not actually established until 1986.

Five chapters to go. Up next: The Longest Day