About 30,000 kilometers outside of Argo's protective shield a familiar long, silver craft with glowing neon blue energy ribbons emerges from hyperspace. As the Legion ship makes its final approach toward Krypton's last vestige, Brainy is seated in the pilot's chair at the navigation console operating the ship's flight and communication systems while Kara sits beside him in the co-pilots chair looking at the image of Argo City, floating on the last livable remnants of Krypton's surface, coming into focus on the view screen. In preparation for their arrival and extended stay Brainy has reactivated his image inducer and changed into a casual tan tunic with light brown pants. Kara, still wearing her Supergirl bracelets, has dressed in a lightweight, flowing, u-neck, baby blue dress with the House of El crest on the chest. While continuing to fondly stare at her childhood home on the view screen, from behind her, she hears footsteps and senses a comforting heartbeat approaching.
"I know this is only my second time making this trip," Lena conveys with an unmistakable sense of wonder, "but I think I can confidently say that seeing that amazing place from out here like this will never get old."
Kara swivles her chair and is stunned by the vision standing before her. Lena's wavy raven hair is flowing down on each side of her glowing, sparsely adorned face and she has changed into a forest green dress similar in style to Kara's, including the House of El crest. Kara stands up from her seat, walks over to Lena, takes hold of one of her hands, and soflty caresses her cheek with her other hand. "Wow!", she remarks in a quietly captivating tone.
Lena blushes, leans her cheek more deeply into Kara's soft palm, turns to kiss it, lifts her head back up, smiles affectionately, and asks suggestively, "You like?"
Kara smiles lovingly, leans in, and their lips meet in a long, slow, passionate kiss. After a few moments they break from the kiss, Kara takes Lena's other hand, steps back holding her fiancée's arms out in front of her, takes another admiring look at her in the dress and says, "You look so beautiful in that dress and that color. You are stunning."
Lena pulls her fiancée back in and envelops her in a tender, passionate embrace. As she rests her head in the crook of Kara's neck she whispers, "When you look at me with that gaze of love and passion in your eyes I cannot help but be thankful you unlocked in me something the rest of the world never could. Before you, I never truly comprehended the extent to which I could care for and love someone so completely. When I think back to the person I was before you entered orbit of my life I see nothing but a shadow of the person that I am today. I am better for everyday we've shared and everyone we have yet to share."
Kara strokes Lena's hair gently, smiles passionately, and as she inhales the aroma of her scent whispers back, "I simply was never blinded by the veil hoisted upon you by circumstance. From the first moment I looked into your eyes I saw who you truly wanted to be and I was bound to you from that moment to stand by you and share that journey to wherever it led. I've always seen you… the true you… no shadow… and all I have ever wanted to do was cherish and love you." As the pair stand frozen in each other's grasp, momentarily oblivious to their surroundings, they are suddenly snapped back to their senses by the awkward clearing of a throat behind them.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this tender moment," Brainy swivles his chair and utters trepidatiously, "but I've transmitted the clearance code Alura provided and we'll be entering the protective dome in a few moments. You should both prepare for our landing."
The pair release each other from their shared embrace, collect themselves, and turn smiling towards Brainy. As Kara lets go of Lena's hand and steps back over to the co-pilot's chair Lena clears her throat and asks, "Brainy, can I pilot us through the shield and bring the ship in for its landing outside the house?"
Brainy looks proudly at Lena, motions to the central command chair floating in the ship's main hub behind her, and replies, "I'll transfer flight control to the command chair. Take her in, big sister." The look of excitement on her face is all encompassing as she takes her place in the command chair and raises her hands to activate the circular holographic navigation interface.
Kara grins broadly at the look of excitement on her love's face and says, "I didn't know you could pilot the Legion ship."
Brainy looks at Kara, thinking back to the look on Lena's face many years before during their battle with Reign, and comments, "She's a natural. The first time she sat in that chair she knew exactly how everything worked. I was floored by her innate ability to command this vessel. It was in that moment I truly began to appreciate why you fought so hard to have her in your life."
Kara nods, smiles, and then gets a curious expression on her face. "Big sister?!?"
Lena winks at her as Brainy remarks matter-of-factly, "Well, she is roughly a 1,000 years older than I am." Kara grins from ear-to-ear, giggles sweetly, and nods in understanding.
The door to the House of El draws open as Alura and Zor-El step out into the bright light of a new day. Stepping outside, they start making their way across the spacious, green front clearing. Looking up, they lift their hands to shield their eyes from the bright glow of light reflecting off the surface of the Legion ship as it slowly turns and glides down in a picture perfect landing a few meters away from the family crest monolith. Quickening their pace the couple makes it into the long shadow cast by the ship as its ramp lowers and three familar figures make their way out.
Kara jogs down the ramp and over to her parents. With a glowing smile, she throws her arms around their shoulders drawing them into a loving, three-way hug, and says, "Mother… Father! I've missed you both so much!"
Alura, Kara, and Zor-El all close their eyes as they clench tightly in their family embrace… something they so rarely get to experience and for so many years all feared they would never feel again. "We have so missed you, too, Inah!", Zor-El mutters emotionally as Alura quietly sobs and nods in agreement.
Lena and Brainy look affectionately at the sight, turn to look at each other with warm smiles, and slowly make their way toward the trio. As they get closer, Kara and her parents release their embrace, Alura steps around Kara, walks toward Lena, and pulls her in for warm, loving embrace. "Welcome home, Inah. You look so happy and beautiful." Zor-El walks up, puts his arms around them, and says, "We are so grateful and happy you have both returned to us again daughter."
Tears begin to form in Lena's eyes as she chokes back a lump in her throat and she looks over at Kara whose eyes are glistening as a bright, glowing smile fills her face. Lena closes her eyes tightly, soaks in the affection, leans into the embrace, and utters through her sobbing, "We're so happy to be home." As Alura and Zor-El release Lena she wipes the tears from her cheeks, puts her hand on top of the family crest on her chest, and says, "I cannot put into words how extraordinary it feels that you have accepted me into your family and trust me so fully with your daughter's heart. She is my world and I love her."
Alura glently wipes more tears from Lena's cheek and then rests her hand on her shoulder. "We know that you and Kara have traversed a turblent path to find your love and, though this life will never cease to present its challenges, the resolve you've both demonstrated to hold onto each other through trying times tells us that there is no one else in all of time and space that loves our Kara more than you." Lena smiles, reaches up to her shoulder to squeeze Alura's hand, and nods profusely in agreement.
Zor-El steps past his wife and Lena and reaches out his arm to Brainy who steps forward, grips Zor-El firmly by the forearm, and remarks, "It is wonderful to be back on Argo once again. Thank you for welcoming me so warmly into your home, my friend."
"You my friend," Zor-El begins with a reassuring grin, "are family, too, and you are always welcome here."
"Thank you," Brainy replies appreciatively.
As Lena makes her way over to Kara, Alura makes her way over to Brainy, and offers him an embrace which he happily accepts. "Welcome back to Argo and congratulations on your recent wedding. The girls told us how lovely it was. We wish we could have been there."
As they release each other Brainy nods appreciatively and responds, "Thank you. It was an amazing day and we wished you could have been there, as well."
Zor-El pats Brainy on back as they all turn and start walking toward Kara and Lena. "Let's head inside and get you three settled in. We have a lot to discuss."
A few hours later, Alura, Zor-El, Brainy, Kara, and Lena are sitting around a table in the dining area enjoying a mid-day meal and discussing details of the first of the monumental tasks they have to tackle.
"So," Brainy queries, "what can you tell us about the asteroid and its debris field?"
Zor-El gets up from his chair, walks over to a console on the wall at the far end of the room, inserts a command crystal into a slot, presses a few buttons, and a holographic scan of the asteriod appears above the center of the table. "So, as mentioned before, Tor-Ze has confirmed that the path of this asteroid is stable and the surface area is more than sufficient to house everything in that bottle, as well as the protective shield we'll have to erect around it." He turns back to the console, presses a few more buttons, and the hologram switches to a live view of the asteriod. "As for the debris field…"
"The debris field does not appear to be too overwhelming," Brainy interjects, "but there are several larger sub asteriods caught in its gravitational pull that will be challenging to eliminate." Zor-El nods in agreement.
"So," Alura asks, "what's the plan for clearing the debris? We don't have any tools or weaponry on Argo powerful enough to do the type of damage necessary to clear the larger ones."
Kara smiles, turns her head to look at Lena, and says, "I'm pretty sure Lena's got us covered on that front."
"Well," Lena adds, "if there is one thing my old family was good for, particularly Lex, it was designing powerful weapons. I dug back through some of his old designs and I've outfitted the Legion ship with a powerful plasma netting array to obliterate the smaller pieces and a couple of high yield plasma cannons to help break up the larger ones."
"Help?" Zor-El asks curiously.
"I'll also be out there working on breaking up the larger ones, too, so we can safely clear them out as smaller chunks with the plasma netting," Kara remarks.
Alura looks at her daughter with a worried expression. "I know if you leave Argo's protective dome the rays of the yellow sun in this solar system will restore your powers, but you still need a breathable atmosphere to function and survive. How can you assist in the vaccum of space?"
Kara stands up, steps away from the table, and taps the bracelet on her right wrist causing her super suit to materialize. She pauses for a moment, looks at her parents, and then taps the family crest on her chest which triggers her suit to transform into the Kryptonite protection armor. "Lena developed this suit for me many years ago to protect me from the affects of Kryptonite when a couple of Lex's associates tried to kill me by seeding Earth's atmosphere with an aerosolized form."
Lena smiles and adds, "Over the years we've made numerous improvements upon the original design. The suit is equipped with a perpetually recycling atmospheric system that allows her to survive in outer space for an indefinite amount of time, a yellow sun emitter to counter the affects of a red sun environment, and… knowing that for this mission she'd need to access not only to her heat vision but potentially something more energetic… I upgraded the helmet with an energy barrier face shield so she can discharge more energetic blasts of her heat vision through and installed deployable Lexosuit gaunlets for each hand in case she needs something as powerful as the Legion ship's plasma cannons while she's out there."
"Is there a potential that the suit could lose power and the energy face shield fail?" Zor-El inquires with an air of concern.
Lena gives him a reassuring smile. "I've designed in a redundant physical face shield that will automatically deploy and instantaneously repressurize the suit if power falls below 25%." She pauses for a moment, looks over at Kara who smiles confidently at her, and continues, "If that happens she knows to return to the Legion ship as quickly as possible to finish the mission from there." Kara taps the family crest again to switch back to her regular super suit, and then her left bracelet to return to her regular clothing.
"What is the current location of the asteriod?" Brainy asks as Kara returns to her seat.
Zor-El replies, "It is within approximately 75,000 kilometers of Argo as we speak and should remain comfortably in range of us for the next several Earth weeks. By this time tomorrow it should close to within 12,000 kilometers for approximately two days which is our best window of opportunity to make an attempt at clearing the majority of the debris field."
Zor-El removes the command crystal from the console, the hologram dissolves, and he makes his way back over to sit between Alura and Kara. They all look around the table at each other, each taking the hand of the person next to them, and nodding reassuringly. Just as Kara is about to say something an older man and a woman enter the dining area behind them and the man says gregariously, "Zor-El! Apologies… we did not intend to interrupt your family during meal time."
Zor-El releases Alura's and Kara's hands, pushes out his chair, stands, and offers a welcoming hand to the man and his companion. The woman nods politely and the man grasps Zor-El's forearm firmly as Zor-El says, "No problem, Tor-Ze... Ahsha… welcome to our home."
Tor-Ze looks around the table and catches Kara's eyes. A wide grin fills his face and he says joyously, "Kara Zor-El! It warms my heart so to see you well and all grown up. We all feared we'd lost you forever all those years ago. Alura and Zor-El have told me so much about your amazing life on Earth. We are so grateful you and your friends could return to Argo to assist with this massive endeavor."
Kara rises from her chair, smiles, gives the older man a gentle embrace, nods politely at the woman, and says, "Thank you, it is wonderful to see you, too. Please, let me introduce you to the rest of my family." She turns, walks over to Brainy, places her hands on his shoulders, and proudly says, "This is my brother, Querl." A bright smile fills Brainy's face as he nods toward Tor-Ze. Kara walks back around the table, offers her hand to Lena who accepts it, and rises from her chair as Kara says, "And this amazing woman is the love of my life, my intended, Lena." Lena looks at Kara with a radiant smile and then back at Tor-Ze.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Lena remarks still glowing from Kara's words.
"The pleasure is mine," Tor-Ze warmly replies. "And, please, allow me to introduce to you my niece, Ahsha Lo-Zar." The woman smiles warmly at them all as he continues, "Ahsha is member of our team at the science academy that has been working on the Kandor project."
"What brings you by our home, old friend?" Zor-El inquires.
Tor-Ze pats him on the back and replies, "We received word from the council this morning that Kara's ship had arrived and, seeing as the asteriod will be at its closest proximity to Argo soon, we were hoping to get an update on the plan to try and clear the debris field."
Zor-El smiles and nods. "Yes, of course. We had actually just finished discussing the particulars ourselves just before you arrived. If you can give me about 20 minutes to finish my meal with my family I can meet you both at the academy lab to go over it with you both in detail."
"By all means," Tor-Ze responds. "Again, apologies for interrupting your family meal." The men reach out again and grasp forearms as Tor-Ze bows to them all, and says, "We'll see you at the lab when you finish up here, my friend. Thank you all for your time. Enjoy the rest of your meal."