Chapter 89: The Calm Between the Storms

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

Hall of Justice, outside Metropolis

When Kara, Clark, and Kona arrived, the party was already in full swing. A cacophony of voices assaulted them when they opened to the door to the great meeting hall at the center of the building. Dozens of colorfully dressed people were present, many of them hoisting drinks, and loud music was coming over the speakers.

"Looks like we arrived just in time," Clark said, grinning.

"Hey, the guests of honor are here," someone yelled. A moment later Green Arrow came towards them, grinning broadly. "We were beginning to think you'd sit this one out, Super-Fam!"

"As if we would dare," Kara said, giving him a quick hug. "And what is that thing growing on your chin there, GA?"

Green Arrow brushed his hand across the blond chin beard he was growing. "Well, I thought it was time for a change, make me look a bit more dashing, you know? Maybe finally convince you to go out on a date with me, darling?"

Kara laughed, knowing full well that the only blonde-haired superheroine Green Arrow had his eyes on was not called Superwoman, no matter how often he flirted with her.

"Get back to me when it stops looking like pubic hair," she told him jokingly.

GA pouted at her for a moment, then put his eyes on Kona.

"Ah, and here is little Ms. Trickshot herself! The girl who took out three Dominator battleships with a single shot."

"Well, I...," Kona began, only to utter a small shriek when Green Arrow hoisted her up to sit on his shoulder.

"Let's hear it for Supergirl, everyone!" he hollered, causing everyone present to whoop in response.

Kara smiled, looking around. Pretty much everyone who had in some way partaken in the battle against the Dominators was here. The entire Justice League, the Teen Titans, Gardner and Sinestro, Zatara, Diana's sisters who had flown the Swan planes, Adam's family from Rann, the EDC pilots who had flown the Javelins, and even some of their alien allies. The Coluans had declined gracefully, wild parties really not being their thing, but several of the Omega Men were present, chief among them Tigorr, who was never one to miss a party.

The only face missing was Batman, but Kara was very much aware that Bruce was not one for big gatherings, at least not in his Dark Knight persona. Imagining him standing in some dark corner, trying to sip his drink without moving a facial muscle... no, that would not work. She briefly considered how Bruce Wayne, notorious playboy, would act if he were here, causing her to chuckle.

"I hear Mexico City is planning on making Kona an honorary citizen," J'Onn said, having walked up to them.

"She deserves it," Kara said, immensely proud. "If not for her actions, we would not have been in time to save the city from bombardment."

"She is not the only one who went above and beyond the call of duty on that day," J'Onn reminded her. "Flash did a great job as well, as did Diana and her sisters. The Zataras. Not to mention Superman and the woman who put it all together and got us through it."

"Don't forget yourself, J'Onn," she reminded him in turn. "Without you, I'd probably still be a prisoner of the Dominion and you took out your own share of battleships, too."

"Let's agree we all did our part then," he said, toasting her with the drink in his hand. "That's what forming the Justice League was all about, was it not?"

She nodded, thinking back to that moment all these years ago. "It was. And it has become so much more than I could ever have dreamed."

Superwoman drifted among the assembled people, shaking hands, giving hugs, and just enjoying herself. Snippets of conversation drifted across the room, her super hearing easily picking them all up.

"The pup just came blasting into the Vega system like the hounds of Hell themselves were on his tail," Tigorr laughed, sharing a drink with one of the Amazons. "Basically just yelled at us to suit up and get moving, he had more allies to gather. I swear he was in and out of the system in less than an hour and we were moving out less than four hours later."

"There was almost an incident during the gathering of the fleet," Adam Strange told Black Canary. "Apparently there are still some idiots loyal to Kanjar Ro on Dhor, one of them tried to start firing on one of the Alstair ships. Thankfully his own crew mates noticed and brought him down before any damage could be done."

"Glad you made it as well, Sinestro," J'Onn greeted the Green Lantern from Korugar. "I am even more glad to hear that the Guardians were wise enough not to reprimand you for your actions regarding the yellow ring."

"Kind of disappointed, actually," Guy Gardner told one of the Omega Men. "Superwoman and her merry band took out over a hundred of these suckers and the moment we turn up, they just give up and run away. I was so hoping for some action."

Diana appeared at Kara's side. "Should we do it now?"

Kara shrugged. "Good a moment as any, I suppose. Feels a bit weird to do this without Batman, but I know he is on board with it."

Taking a second to float up towards the ceiling of the room, Kara very loudly cleared her throat, causing conversation to quiet down. Someone turned down the music and everyone turned to look at her.

"Thank you all for coming," she started, looking around. "I want to once again thank all of you. The invasion of the Dominators was something that none of us could have handled alone. It took the full commitment of every single person here in this room, along with many, many others, to emerge victorious. So thank you, all of you."

"Hear, hear!" Green Arrow yelled, raising his glass in a toast that pretty much everyone present shared.

"Thank you, GA," Kara said once the noise died down again. "I would like to take this opportunity here to especially mention two young men. First, the Flash, who did what no one else here could have done and managed to protect Earth's cities from bombardment long enough for the rest of us to take out the Dominator ships in orbit. So, let's hear it for the Flash, the fastest man alive!"

Flash blushed almost as red as his suit as the people around him cheered his name and Tigorr slapped him on the back so hard he was sure there would be a huge bruise there tomorrow.

"And the other young man I would like to mention," Kara continued after a moment, "is the one who had maybe the hardest job of them all. As difficult as it is to dive into a battle against overwhelming odds, it is even more difficult to turn your back on a battle that you know cannot be won, to leave your friends and family behind, in order to go and get the reinforcements we so desperately needed. Superman did just that and his timing was impeccable, saving us all."

"Three cheers for Superman," one of the EDC pilots yelled and the room erupted in cheers once again. Clark blushed as well, awkwardly waving his hand in acknowledgement of the cheers.

"There is a reason I am specifically mentioning these two young men," Kara finally said. "Both of them have distinguished themselves, both during the invasion, but also in the years before that. And seeing as they are both now of legal age, I think it is time to make good on a promise I made a few years back. We discussed it among ourselves yesterday and the decision was anonymous. So Flash, Superman, as of today, we would like to invite you both to be full members of the Justice League! What do you say?"

"Hell, yeah!" Flash cheered, jumping into the air.

Kara smiled at the bashful look on Clark's face. No matter how old he got, he would always be her adorable little boy. Congratulations were handed out to the two young men and Kara was grateful to see no signs of jealousy or sadness on either Kona or Zatanna. Well, she had no doubt the Teen Titans would continue on regardless.

The only thing that slightly diminished her happiness was the absence of Batman. He really should have been here for this. She briefly wondered what he was up to tonight in order to avoid this social gathering.

Metropolis University

"Ms. Ruthlo?" a deep voice growled.

Lena started, taken by surprise, and glared at the dark shape standing before her dorm room window.

"Can't you use the bloody door like everyone else?" she asked, getting up.

Batman simply returned her glare. "I believe we had an agreement, Ms. Ruthlo."

Lena sighed in irritation. "Maybe you didn't notice, Batman, but there was that little thing where aliens invaded and conquered the planet. I was kidnapped and taken onto a spaceship! I even helped free Superwoman from captivity, and we flew back to Earth in an invisible plane! Excuse me for needing some time to wrap my head around all of that!"

Batman said nothing in response, simply looked at her.

"Fine, I will take care of it the next time I see him. Promise!"

"You have two days," he finally said, turning around. "Otherwise, I will tell them everything. That will certainly derail your plans, will it not?"

Lena had a retort on her lips, but he was already gone. Muttering curse words under her breath, she returned to her desk, wondering why she had ever agreed to this whole thing. She really should have just said no a year ago.

Sidney, Australia, one year ago

"Let me get this straight," Lena said, scowling at the woman on the other side of the desk. "That bastard, who divorced my mom twenty years ago and sent her packing with barely a dollar to her name, had to go to prison to finally remember that I exist?"

The woman who had introduced herself as Mercy Graves merely shrugged.

"Mr. Luthor did not inform me as to his motivations. He merely tasked me to find you."

Lena laughed. "As if that was hard. For reasons that escape me mom kept his name."

"Ms. Luthor," Ms. Graves said. "Whatever personal issues you might have with your father..."

"He is NOT my father!" Lena interrupted her. "His sperm might have played a minor role in my conception, but that was the only fatherly act he ever performed."

"Regardless," Ms. Graves continued, "you are legally his daughter. And he has asked me to show you this recording. Are you ready?"

Lena briefly considered just getting up and leaving. It was not like she was really interested in what the bastard had to say to her. Her life – as well as that of her mother – had been pretty good since the bastard had cut all ties with them. Sure, they didn't have a lot of money, but they always made do. Lena had a free ride to university thanks to being by far the smartest student her entire school district had ever seen. They certainly did not need a bastard called Lex Luthor in their life.

Then again, she was burdened with an overdeveloped sense of curiosity. So she leant back and motioned for Ms. Graves to go ahead.

"Hello dearest daughter," the image of Lex Luthor on the screen said. She had never met the man in person, at least not that she could remember. He had divorced her mom when she had been less than a year old. She had seen him often enough on TV, though, to be more than familiar with his condescending voice.

"You are probably wondering why, after so many years, I have finally decided to acknowledge your existence."

"Yeah," Lena snorted. "And I wonder why you didn't always wear orange prison jumpsuits. They really suit you."

"That should be enough of a pause for a sassy response on your part," Lex continued, causing Lena to grimace. "The truth is, my dear, that I never really cared for any of my various wives, nor for any of the kids they pushed out. I did not even care whether any of them were actually mine or not. If there was one thing my own idiot parents taught me, it was that DNA means nothing. If stupid idiots can produce the most brilliant child ever born on Earth, it's all simply a lottery."

"Self-confidence was never his problem," Lena muttered.

"It has recently come to my attention, though," the recording continued, "that there might well be cases where DNA does breed true. So, the possibility exists that there might yet be another Luthor out there in the world worthy of my name. There is a chance, however slim, that it might be you, my dear Lena."

Lena bristled at his tone of voice. She certainly had not asked for that name.

"Of the children I know about," he went on, "you seem to be the one the mundane educational systems regard as the most talented. Your grades are excellent and most of your teachers seem to be just smart enough to recognize when someone else is smarter than them."

"That sounded almost like a compliment," Lena muttered. "The prison food probably doesn't agree with him."

"So here is the challenge, my dearest spawn. Accompanying this message is all the necessary paperwork to give you full control of Lexcorp, the company I created from the ground up when I was roughly your age. And before you ask, the company itself is a completely legal entity. I was very careful to always keep my more... illicit activities separate from the company itself. Congratulations, dear Lena. As of today, you are worth 3 billion dollars at current market value, plus or minus a few millions."

Lena's mouth fell open in shock.

"Now let's see you make something of it," Luthor said, smirking, before the recording cut off.

Metropolis, the present

"Thank you for meeting me, Clark," Lois said. She had been waiting in the coffee house they had agreed to meet at for a few minutes and had worried that he would not show up, but there he was. Big, handsome, and with that oh so dangerous smile of his.

"The pleasure is all mine, Lois," he replied, sitting down on the opposite side of the table. "You said you needed to talk about something? I assume it's not the latest developments in print journalism."

She nodded, smiling. "No. Actually... well, there is... okay, let me start again. You know, I assume, that I had a brief interlude in space together with your mother and some other people during the invasion?"

Clark nodded. "Yeah, she told me. She said you helped her escape when she was too weak to do much of anything. Thank you for that, by the way."

Lois actually felt herself blushing a bit at the completely earnest look of gratitude on his face.

"Well, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter did most of the heavy lifting, but I'm glad I could help, too. Though I must admit that, for most of that time, I was just a second away from full-blown panic."

Clark studied her. "There aren't many people on Earth you can talk to about an experience like this."

"Pretty much, yes. When Wonder Woman dropped us off, all the people who had been imprisoned on that alien ship exchanged contact information. Some of them were up there for days. We might be looking into doing some sort of self-help group or something, I don't know. Still, none of them really know much of what went on up there. I was hoping you could fill in some blanks for me."

"What do you want to know?" he asked, slouching in the chair. "And keep in mind that there will probably be some things I can't tell you about."

She nodded. "I know. Well, the thing that I'd really like to know: why those people? I saw that the Dominators were conducting some sort of scans on humans and picked out a select few, but I have no idea why. Can you tell me?"

Clark mused this over. "Well, we don't really know for certain ourselves, to be honest. The Dominators are regarded as the finest genetic engineers in the galaxy, so we're assuming they were looking for something related to that. Could be that they were simply looking for more Kryptonians hidden among Earth's population."

Lois sipped from her coffee. "I thought of that, too, but that doesn't explain why they took those people. None of them were Kryptonians, were they?"

"No," he shook his head, chuckling. "There are really just two Kryptonians here on Earth. Well, three if you count Kona. We figure they were looking for genetic anomalies of some kind. Humans have produced a large number of people with superpowers, after all. Plus, Kona's existence proves the possibility of hybrids between humans and Kryptonians. Maybe they were just interested in humanity's genetic potential in general."

"To figure out whether we were worth keeping?" Lois asked. "I mean, they did 'annex' us, or so they said. Though I got the impression they were not particularly interested in actually making us a tax-paying part of their empire."

The conversation stopped for a moment as the waitress brought Clark a coffee of his own. Sipping from it, he waited until the girl was out of earshot.

"We figure they were mostly concerned about us Kryptonians. Our people were a pretty big deal in the galaxy once upon a time and I guess we made a bit too much noise as of late. But either way, they are gone now. And if you are worried about what it might mean for you that their scanners picked you up..."

"Oh, they didn't," she interrupted him. "I was all clear, I just snuck into the group they did select to see where they would be taken."

Clark just stared at her for a long minute. "You did what?" he finally asked.

She shrugged. "Looking back, it probably wasn't my smartest decision ever, but..."

"I'd say it was pretty much your most stupid decision ever," he said, sounding agitated. "Lois, you had no idea what they would do to you. They might just as well have been looking for specimens to carve up. That was... I don't even have words for how stupid a risk you took!"

A part of her did feel ashamed, she admitted, but seeing him get worked up about it was also kind of cute.

"Careful there, one might think you care about me, Clark!"

Clark's face went from affronted to annoyed to bashful in a matter of seconds and Lois did imagine there was the slightest bit of a blush on his cheeks as well.

"I… well, of course I... you are a very frustrating person, Ms. Lane!"

Lois chuckled. "Worse things have been said about me. Anyway, the others who were on the ship, they all got a positive on whatever test the Dominators ran, so I thought they should know why they were up there. I suspect it's been driving your friend Lena crazy. She does seem the curious type."

Clark stared at her again. "Lena? As in, Lena Ruthlo? She was on the ship with you?"

Now Lois was confused. "Yes, she was. In fact, she was a great help when we escaped. I'd have thought she would have told you about that. I thought the two of you were..."

Clark shook his head. "No, I... we're just friends... kind of. I... I'm not sure what we are, to be honest, we just went out for coffee a few times. But... she never said anything."

Lois shrugged. "Well, she has no idea who you are, right? Maybe she just wanted to spare you the excitement or something."

Clark now looked decidedly distracted. "Yeah, maybe. I... look, Lois, is it okay if we take a rain check here? I think I really need to check some things."

Without waiting for her to answer he got up and vanished, moving only slightly faster than a human being ought to move. Lois blinked. What was going on here? And why was she suddenly feeling the intense need to claw Lena Ruthlo's eyes out?

"No, that's okay, let me take care of the bill today," she sighed. "Not like my mom is an ultra-rich super-powered alien with her own high-tech company, but whatever."

Lexcorp Corporate Headquarters, Metropolis, eight months ago

Lena leaned back in her chair, still trying to wrap her mind around everything that had changed in the last four months. Four months ago, she had been a smart but otherwise completely ordinary university student in Sidney. Now she was the majority shareholder of one of the world's largest companies.

It still blew her mind, to be honest. She had initially suspected some kind of trick or foul play. She had read the documents delivered by Ms. Graves over a dozen times, trying to find any fine print, loophole, or hidden clauses that would somehow screw her over if she signed. There were none. Lex Luthor, the bastard, had done exactly what his recording had said: given her full control over his company, no strings, no conditions. There was no clause forcing her to give it back to him should he ever get out of prison, either. It was hers, lock, stock, and barrel.

She still didn't quite believe it.

There was nothing about the new ownership of the company in the press yet. If anyone cared to look, the majority shareholder of Lexcorp was still L. Luthor. It would remain that way until Lena was ready to face the public (or the IRS came over for another audit). Which was just as she liked it. She was nowhere near ready for this. Smart she might be, but she knew nothing about running a company – any company – and certainly not one as huge as this one. She certainly was not about to name herself CEO or anything. The man the bastard had hired for the job seemed competent enough, for now at least. He was a bit of a sleaze, but knowing that she could have him dismissed from his position anytime she felt like it made him... accommodating.

The only thing she had done was to hire herself as a "Senior Consultant", which included giving herself full access to anything with the name Lexcorp on it. She had spent the largest part of the last few weeks in front of a computer screen, learning all she could about the company she had inherited, if that was the correct term for it.

That was not all she had learned, though. The bastard had insinuated that there were more Luthor children out there, so Lena had looked them up. All in all, it seemed the bastard had sired no less than seven offspring (herself included) with his various wives and mistresses. She chuckled, figuring that it would be quite the spectacle if the bastard were to die soon, and all those children were to turn up and demand their share of the cake. Well, maybe not that Lenny guy who lived in Nevada. He had ended up in prison himself for armed robbery. A real chip of the old block, it seemed.

Lena briefly entertained notions of meeting her siblings, but a closer look at the files the bastard had on them quickly dissuaded her. As much as she hated to admit it, the bastard had been right about one thing: she really seemed to be the smartest of the bunch. All the other Luthor kids seemed to be perfectly average people. No reason to diss them for it, of course, but Lena doubted they would have much in common. Lena had never really been able to make many friends among her school mates, there was no reason it should be any different with newly discovered family members.

The next thing she discovered were the bastard's numerous and extensive files on Superwoman and her interest was piqued once again. The old man had certainly been obsessed with Earth's most powerful superhero, that much was easily apparent. In that first year after her appearance, he had poured millions of dollars into researching every aspect of her. An entire division of Lexcorp had been busy with nothing else but studying her. Her powers, her habits, her appearance, her identity...

Lena paused, staring at the screen in front of her. Apparently, a researcher in the service of Lexcorp had formulated the theory that Superwoman had a civilian identity, living a secret life among the normal humans. At first Lena scoffed, finding the notion ridiculous. She kept reading the file, though, and learned that the bastard had fired the researcher in question for wasting his time with such a nonsense theory. Which was reason enough, Lena supposed, to keep reading.

Two hours later Lena Luthor knew that Superwoman was living a double life as Karen Kent, CEO of K-Solutions. Something the bastard had apparently never bothered to learn despite it being right there in the files.

"What do you know," she muttered under her breath. "A few weeks on the job and I know more than you do, bastard!"

Now the question was simply what to do with this information.

Smallville, Kansas, the Present

"I wish to go to school!"

Kara looked at the girl standing before her. Sandy had aged herself more or less consistently since their return from deep space, currently appearing to be about seven or eight years old.

"Why this sudden interest?" she asked, sitting down at the kitchen table, motioning for the girl to do the same.

"I think it is the necessary next step in my development," Sandy said, hopping onto a chair. "So far, I have spent most of my time here on the farm, plus a few very short outings into the town. I believe I am ready for more social interaction."

"Really?" Kara raised an eyebrow in question. "Forgive me for saying this, Sandy, but your appearance aside, you very much talk and sound like an adult." An adult named Kara, to be exact. It still creeped her out sometimes, she had to admit, how much Sandy sounded like her. Not just the voice, but also in how she spoke, the words she used, everything.

"Which is why I need more interaction with humans closer to my apparent age," Sandy countered.

Kara mused this over. "Do you have any long-term plans, Sandy?" she asked. "Any idea what you want to do with this life you have been given? If going to school is your next step, what is the one after that?"

"I have no idea," Sandy said matter-of-factly. "I do know, however, that I want to experience new things. Due to how I came to be in this world, I know everything that you know, Kara. Up until the moment the Phantom Zone Projector exploded, at least. Going to school, interacting with other children, is something that you never did here on Earth. It would be my chance to add my own experiences."

Kara had to admit that this made sense. Despite how young she had been upon arriving here on Earth, between her emerging powers, taking care of Clark, and preparing her plans for the future, the notion of going to school here had never been on the table. It had led to some very lonely times at first, she mused, but she believed it had all turned out for the best in the end.

The very fact that Sandy wanted to do something different, make herself different from the woman of whom she was a near-perfect copy, was probably a very good thing.

"Okay, we can give it a try," she finally said, causing a smile to appear on Sandy's face. "We will need to work on your speech and mannerisms, though. We can explain some oddities with the trauma you supposedly went through before coming to live with us, but you cannot speak and act like an adult in school."

"Gosh, mom," Sandy said, her voice suddenly an octave higher. "You think Jamie Peterson pulling my pigtails means he likes me? Like, really likes me?"

Kara could not suppress a chuckle.

Lexcorp Corporate Headquarters, Metropolis, four months ago

"You are sure this is everything?" Lena asked.

Mercy Graves nodded. Lena still had a hard time figuring the woman out, there was hardly ever an emotion to be seen on her face, but she was extremely competent and never batted an eye, no matter what Lena wanted from her. She was also fairly certain that Graves was loyal to the one who signed her checks and no one else. Which was her these days, not the bastard.

"Everything that can be obtained without explicitly breaking any laws," Graves said. "You were very specific about that."

"Yes, thank you," Lena replied, looking over the files. "I suspected it would be harder to get information from Donovan and Westfield."

There was the slightest hint of an expression on Graves' face. Lena might have called it a snort on any other person.

"Both men are stuck in prison for life," she said. "Also, Donovan is not exactly sane. It took very little prodding for them to start talking about the Cadmus Project."

Lena already knew quite a bit about the Cadmus Project, of course. Its existence was a matter of public record, as was the fact that the project was responsible for the existence of Supergirl. That the bastard had somehow been involved was also an open secret, but the full extent of the involvement was another matter. The whole thing had gone down after the bastard had already been in prison, so there were no files or any other information to be found at Lexcorp. Still, Lena wanted to know EVERYTHING the bastard had been up to, if for no other reason than she still suspected that he was somehow tricking her with this entire Lexcorp thing.

What she had learned was surprising to say the least.

"And she really visits him once a week?" Lena asked, looking at the copy of the prison sign-in sheet Graves had procured.

"There have been a few exceptions," Graves said, "usually coinciding with alien invasions, big super battles, those things. There is also a nearly six-month gap, during which the sightings of any of the Supers were very, very sparse in general. But overall, she is a regular visitor."

Lena mused this over, studying the files in front of her. The files regarding the Cadmus Project. The Human-Kryptonian hybrid called Supergirl.

The girl who, apparently, was also Lex Luthor's daughter.

Metropolis University, the present

"Why didn't you tell me?" Clark asked as Lena opened to the door to her dorm room.

"And hello to you, too, Clark," she said. "Do you want to come in?"

"We've met at least three times since the whole invasion mess," he kept on, storming inside. "You never saw a reason to mention that you were one of the people who were kidnapped by the Dominators?"

Lena shrugged. "Well, you never saw a reason to mention that you were Superman, so..."

Clark froze in mid-motion, staring at the red-headed woman he considered a friend, possibly even something more.

"What?" he finally asked.

"See? Some things just aren't the sort of thing you just casually drop into a normal conversation."

"What… how did you come up with that crazy idea? I'm not Superman!"

Lena chuckled. "Sure you're not. You just happen to share a last name with Karen Kent, who is Superwoman. You also happen to look just like him when you stop slouching, take off those glasses, and comb your hair differently. And you disappear from campus every single time Superman shows up somewhere to help out. All just coincidence, I am sure."

Clark opened his mouth, only to close it with a snap. He really needed to get better at this whole secret identity thing. First Lois, now this. And she knew about his mom, too? What was going on here?

"I don't know what you think you know," he started, "but..."

"Let me put any fears you might have to rest, Clark," she interrupted him. "I have no intention of outing you or your mom. Had I wanted to, I would have done it eight months ago when I first found out about her." She chuckled. "I really have to tell you about that, so you can tell her. She is so going to get a kick out of learning that it was Lex Luthor's arrogance that kept her identity secret for so many years. But don't worry, I deleted all the files."

Now Clark was more confused than ever.

"Lex Luthor? What has Lex Luthor to do with any of this?"

Lena chuckled again. "Really? And here I thought I was being a bit too obvious. But okay, let's get this officially done with."

She extended her hand. "Great to meet you, Clark Kent aka Superman. I am Lena Ruthlo, aka Lena Luthor, owner of Lexcorp and daughter of the world's greatest bastard, Lex Luthor. Pleased to meet you."

Clark was too stunned to do anything but shake her hand.

Batcave, Gotham City

"I cannot believe you did not tell me about this sooner, Bruce," Kara growled.

"I would have, had there been any danger," he replied, not looking up from where he worked on his computer. "I have been keeping a very close eye on Lena Luthor the entire time."

"She was close to Clark the entire time," Kara countered, angry beyond words. "They went out on dates, for Rao's sake. You did not think this was something I needed to know about?"

Batman looked up at her. "And what would you have done, had I told you?"

"I would have... I... I would have thought of something!"

"I am sure you would have," Batman told her. "Nevertheless, by the time I learned of her, she was already aware of your identity. Instead of forcing a confrontation with her, I wanted to approach this in a subtle way to learn of her plans."

"You think I cannot do subtle?" Kara asked him, affronted.

"Not when it comes to Clark, no."

Kara huffed in anger, though some small part of her had to admit that he was probably right about that. Her first impulse was still to fly straight to this Lena person and damn the consequences.

"And what now?" she asked. "Do you expect me to act as if I do not know that a close friend of my son is actually the daughter of Lex Luthor?"

Batman shrugged. "That is up to you, but unless the young Ms. Luthor is going back on her word, she is telling Clark all about her true identity right now."

Kara just stared at him open-mouthed for a moment, then swiveled her head around to look into the general direction of Metropolis. She needed but a few seconds to zero in on her son.

"He is in her dorm room right now," she muttered. "From the look on his face, she just told him."

"Good to know she is a woman of her word," Batman replied, looking slightly smug.

Kara glared at him. "Why are you having so much fun with this? Do you know what her plans are?"

Batman leaned back. "Let's just say that I have a feeling that Lex Luthor will deeply regret signing over his entire company to Lena Luthor."

Metropolis University, one day later

Kona did not really know what was going on. She only knew that mom had been all sorts of angry last night, muttering quite a few very bad words under her breath, including several complicated ways of murdering a certain caped crusader in Gotham. There had been a long phone call with Clark, too, who had been all out of sorts as well. At that point mom had told her to stop listening and she had reluctantly done so.

Now it was the next morning and they were on their way to Metropolis to visit Clark. Why? Mom had not said, but she was still not really happy, it seemed.

"Are you going to give me any hint why we're here?" she finally asked as they were rapidly approaching the city's skyline.

"Clark wants you to meet someone," mom merely said. "I... I am still not sure it is a good idea, but... well, I have decided to trust Clark's judgement in this case. And Batman's, too." The last three words were said so low she barely heard them.

"What has Batman got to do with this?" she asked, confused.

"You will understand in a moment, I promise!"

They used super speed to enter Clark's building unseen and were standing in front of his dorm room a moment later. Both of them were dressed in civvies, though mom was using her 'Superwoman dresses casually' look as opposed to dressing like CEO Karen Kent or Smallville resident Karen Kent. Kona really needed to start practicing that herself if she ever wanted to get better at the whole secret identity thing.

"Come in," Clark said through the door after they knocked.

To Kona's surprise, he was not alone in his room. There was a redhead there that Kona had seen before. Lena something, she remembered. Were they here to meet Clark's girlfriend? No, it couldn't be that simple, could it?

"Mom, Kona," Clark began. "I would like to introduce the two of you to Lena. Lena … Luthor."

Kona's mouth fell open.

"Hi," the redhead said, looking at her. "I am so glad to finally meet you, Kona. I... well, I always wanted a sister."

In a back alley in Metropolis, far removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, a wind suddenly picked up out of nowhere. None were present to observe this phenomenon save a few stray cats, who quickly removed themselves from the premises when a thunderous boom split the night apart. A glowing tunnel opened in mid-air, lightning crackling around its edges, and two shapes tumbled out of it in a decidedly ungraceful manner.

The boom tube closed and silence fell, disturbed only by a few car alarms going off and some distant sirens. One of the two shapes was on their feet immediately, scanning the surroundings with the keen eye of a warrior. Seeing no immediate threats, they bent down to help their companion to their feet.

"Did it work?" the larger shape asked, the sharp, hard voice that of a female.

Looking around for a moment, the smaller shape took a device from their belt and checked some readings.

"We did it," the man finally said, his voice tinged with just a bit of crazed happiness. "We're out!"

The two escapees embraced for a long moment; relief evident in their every motion. Quickly gathering their few belongings together, the two of them vanished into the night.

End Chapter 89

Author's Note: This chapter went on way longer than I originally intended. Well, I actually had no plans to introduce Lena Luthor into this story at all, but quite a few people asked about her and it sort of just crept into my head and wouldn't dislodge, so here she is. Lena will play a role going forward, not a big one, but she will be there. As will Lex, naturally. Add in Sandy wanting some screen time and you have a chapter clocking in at over 6K words.

Starting next chapter we will begin the countdown towards chapter 100. It will be AoaSF's biggest, baddest, most epic story line yet. So hold on tight, True Believers (wrong company, I know), as a long teased group of major players will finally make their grand entrance in our next glorious chapter, titled "Divine Comedy".