She was dreamless for the better part of the night, but her mind had to have its' say, whether it was being tutored or not.
Flash...
She's looking thru the canopy glass at the regal Zor-El and Alura. She can hear the stasis gas hissing, and smell its' sweet odor. She fights to keep her eyes open... "Mother! Father! No! I do not want to leave you!" The lifting engines power up. Tears fill her eyes as the gas forces them shut... She forces them open to look at them once more... Zor-El hugs his wife Alura, struggling to stay erect under the assault of radiation poisoning. The proud, brown-haired man, clad in a suit of green and red, presses a switch and she hears, "Your ship...is aimed for the planet Earth! Farewell, Kara!" Alura, clad in blue and white, struggles to keep her feet. "Carry us in your heart, daughter! May Rao guide your path. We will be with you always!"
"Mother! Father!" Her blue-clad arms press against the canopy. "No! I don't want to leave you!"
She feels the rumble of the hyperdrive engines as she's shot free of the force dome and the green doom.
"They're all dying! I-I'm an orphan of space now..." Her eyes swim with tears.
Flash...
The stone columns whip by her in a blur. She homes in on the scream's source. Frantically, she enters the stone room. She sees Kal torn and bleeding in the corner of the room, a dark metallic shape hovering over him like the Kraayn, the legendary angel of death on her world. He looks at her with black pits of eyes, no feeling, no soul, just a lust for death. He then speaks to her with the gravelly voice of the Kraayn itself.
"You...rush madly into death. I swear, though, it will come first, for this one who you call cousin, and then you and the rest." A reddish beam from his hand slams into her chest and knocks her into the stone column.
She struggles to get up.
The madman turns to her and continues. "You will be together only in the mists of eternity."
"Uhhh...Leave...HER...be! You're NOT done with me, yet!" Kal struggles to his feet, painfully...and launches himself at the monster.
The gravel-voiced monster replies, "Wrong...You are QUITE done." In slow motion, she sees the horror unfold, but her arms and legs are leaden. The monster levels his hand...and blows a hole in Kal's abdomen.
NO!
She's cradling the dying body in her arms. Staring down at his blonde hair, trying to hold back tears. "Pl...Please...Please stay with us, Kal." Struggling to speak with the blood filling his lungs, Kal says: "I...can't. I...I love you so much for what you are. For how...good...you are..."
He sags.
"Kal! Kal, No! Don't you dare leave me alone!"
She holds him to her chest and screams in rage at the top of her lungs.
He's...gone! I'm alone! The only survivor!
No! It's...wrong! It's not supposed to happen this way!
It didn't happen this way!
The fear, loss and pain overtakes her.
"NOOOO!"
The battlefield drops away in a swirl...and she wakes with a jolt.
Motion in the hall, and then Martha rushes in. "Land sakes, Kara, are you all right?" The tears come even harder, but the words now came in English, even as Martha embraced and comforted her, looking down at the two fist-sized holes punched in the bed...
"I could not help them! I could not save ANY of them! Why? WHY?
With no answers, all Martha could do was rock and comfort her.
Fifteen minutes later, Martha sat at the kitchen table, a mug with warm milk in front of her, and one in front of Kara. "What is odd, Martha, is the second scene WAS NOT me...but it was, somehow." She sipped her milk and, confused, struggled for the words. "It...felt...like it HAD happened, like I was there...reality. Mother and Father were dressed gaudily...they had hair and no bio-suits. They did not ACT right, either. They acted affectionate toward each other, as do you and Jonathan. But it did not diminish my pain at leaving them at all." She sat quietly and sipped more of her milk, lost in thought. "Maybe the best way to describe it, would be: two of me doing the same thing in different ways."
"The second sequence was even MORE disturbing. I was flying through some stone castle, trying to get to a metal monster, a death-bringer, in time. Kal had just screamed in pain. I find the room where he is. He is laying in a bloody heap on the floor in front of this...thing. I try to stop him, but he blasts me back- ward. Kal gets to his feet, and tries to tackle him. The monster blows a hole through Kal...Then leaves." Her eyes tear up.
He's dying in my arms. I'm looking...at his blonde hair, as he tells me, "I love you...so much for what you are. For how...good you are..." Then he dies in my arms, and I'm screaming in grief at the top of my lungs, afraid and alone. The one thought keeps coming back to me: This is NOT how it's SUPPOSED to be!" Kara, red-eyed, stared at the table. Martha paused, handed her a tissue and said, with tears in her eyes, "He DID die once." Kara looked at Martha wide-eyed with horror.
Martha told her the whole story. The monster. The ferocious battle to save Metropolis. His death and burial. The replacements. Jon's heart attack and revelation. Coast City blown up. Clark's return. The villains defeated. Martha paused after she finished the tale, and then spoke again. "Kara, some people down here believe that dreams have hidden meaning that may be of value during your waking hours." She finished her milk, got up and went into the hall. She came back a minute later with a spiral bound notebook and a pen. "Take this and keep it with you from now on. If you wake up as you did tonight, write down what happened. Perhaps it will make sense in the future. You can also use it as a journal, if you want."
Kara nodded, finished her milk and took the offered book. "It was said in the history records that the people of Argo City in the Fifth Age were masters of what we called DreamWaking. It was a form of self-hypnosis before sleep set in. The information on that was sparse, though. Much was lost in our wars. From what I understood, if you did it correctly, you would be concious in the dream and be able to interact normally with the characters in it."
Martha nodded. "Lucid dreams. That's what we call them here. A few of my friends in town have had them. They've told me that all they did was to tell themselves before they went to sleep that they were going to dream that way. It's happened to me occasionally too." Martha smiled. "One time, I was able to will myself to fly through the air, like Clark does. So real...It was wonderful! I do envy you both a bit in that regard. I'd imagine that is a dream of almost every human on this planet. If you can dream like that, it might be helpful to ask questions of the characters in your dream."
Kara quietly took it in and nodded. "I would like to go back to sleep. I am sorry, Martha, for waking you." They both stood up. Martha guided Kara out the kitchen doorway as she switched off the light.
"It's no problem, child. Heaven knows the number of times we did the same thing with Clark when he was growing up. If you get married, you'll probably do the same with your kids." Martha stepped in the room and turned on the lamp's night light by the bed. Kara got into bed with her notebook. "Sleep well, dear..."
A pause. "Kara, one more thing..."
"Yes, Martha?" Martha paused, measuring her words. "Down here, a lot of us believe in a heaven where our dead loved ones watch over us...If it counts for anything, I think your parents are there now...They KNOW how much you loved them and how much you miss them. I believe that they'll always be watching over you with love and pride...and someday, you'll meet them again." Kara looked at Martha, tears rimming her eyes and nodded. "'Night, Kara."
"Good-night, Martha...Thank you." Martha went down the hall. Kara looked at the notebook for a long time, and then opened it to the first page and started writing in Kryptonese shorthand. She finished thirty minutes later, put it aside and went to sleep.
The rest of the night was dreamless.
Kara woke up to a shaft of sunlight resting across her lower face from the part in the curtains. She turned the headband off, removed it, and then went to open the curtains. She stood there, with her eyes closed for seemingly an eternity, just enjoying the warmth and the light. She paused a second, and then removed her headpiece. Mmmm. Better, she thought, and continued to revel in the warmth.
Until something rubbed against her legs and nearly frightened her out of her mind. Looking down she saw a orange haired, four legged animal with triangular ears making a vibrating sound and looking up to her with gold eyes. Kara squatted down and observed it closer. It put its' front feet on her right knee and stretched up to sniff her face.
Jonathan's voice rang out. "Morning, Kara. I see you've met our cat, Streaky."
"Why do you call it Streaky?"
"It's a he, and look at the white shapes on his body."
She looked at the jagged white streaks running the length of his body. "Oh." Seemingly of their own accord, her hands were gently massaging Streaky's head and neck. The vibrating sound grew louder. "Why is he making that noise?"
"He's purring, Kara. It's a sign of affection...You took off your headpiece?"
"Yes, Jonathan. I wanted to feel the sun on my whole face. It...hindered...the feeling."
"Well, when you're done here, we've got breakfast ready downstairs."
"Thank you, Jonathan. I will be down shortly."
"And Kara..."
"Yes?"
"Please call me 'Pa'. Clark does. You can call Martha 'Ma' if you want."
"All right...Pa."
Kara entered the kitchen a few minutes later, followed by a little orange shadow. He must be attracted to me, she thought. Not sure why, though.
"Mornin', sleepyhead!" Martha chimed in.
"Good morning, Ma."
"You get back to sleep all right? Any more dreams?"
"No, after I wrote it and some other thoughts down, I went right back to sleep. I do not recall anything happening."
"You slept like a log." Pa replied with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Like a...log? How do logs...?" She studied his face. Ah, an idiom. "Yes...yes, I did, Pa."
"I see your hair is starting to grow in." Martha responded as she continued setting the places at the table. She stopped and lightly rubbed the golden fuzz on Kara's head. "Why did your people make you shave that anyway?"
"We did not...that was one part of the suits' two part repression function. Hair was not deemed necessary or desirable."
"What was the other function?" Martha asked curiously. "Hormonal modulation. It prevented the biological urges to copulate." Martha stared at her, in shock.
"One thing I never understood, the way Clark described it, Kara, is why your people treated yourselves like you did?" Jonathan cracked his egg open and continued. "I mean, to have everyone isolated from each other, repressing your emotions and drives, and living on logic like that guy on that TV show, while doing nothing every day...that sounds like a HORRIBLE way to exist."
Kara looked at Martha and raised her brow. "Guy on TV show?"
Martha nodded. "Yep. Character was an alien. Pointy ears and eyebrows, lived on a spaceship. I forgot his name. As I recall, his people embraced logic to quell their emotions. Very much like your people. Their planet had higher gravity, like yours, too. I think you'd find it interesting, but, getting back to the point, dear, why DID your people isolate yourselves?"
Kara thought for a moment, and then responded. "They taught us that 'Proximity breeds conflict.' After 1,000 cycles of the Clone wars, which decimated most of our planet, we thought if we minimized our contact with each other, we'd minimize chances of another war."
Jonathan looked at Kara. "I always thought that was so sad. Your people were so far ahead of us, science-wise, and had so much potential still, but couldn't seem to figure out the basics, how to forgive each other, move on, and work together...the stuff spiritually related."
Kara nodded sadly. "From what little I've seen & heard, your people seem to have that down for the most part. Living while suppressing your...feelings takes a great deal of focus. After a number of years, if you are successful...you feel the...stirrings... but can no longer identify what they mean." She saw Martha's face crease with horror and empathy but remained silent. Kara continued. "None of us DARED to rebel against the prevailing mores, overtly, since they DID seem to work...We were NOT at war with each other anymore. Besides, no one wanted to have the Council call out their enforcers, the House of Zod..." Kara shivered in memory. "It was uncomfortable, though. and there was a constant aching and emptiness inside that I thought couldn't be filled. Once I got here, though, the aching disappeared almost immediately. I still feel guilty, though...I feel more at home HERE, than I ever did on Krypton."
At Martha's beckoning, Kara sat down and waited to see what she was going to eat now. Martha came by and put a half of a large round fruit on the plate. Martha spoke. "This is a sweet grapefruit. I have one with my tea every morning." She dug her strange spoon into the fruit, and withdrew a bite-sized pink morsel. Kara followed suit and dug in... SPLISH! Pa Kent tried to hold it back, but couldn't. He erupted in laughter as Kara wiped the juice from her face. Ma shot him a look and went over to Kara with a towel. Kara accepted it and wiped the juice off her face. "I'm sorry, dear. I should have told you that if you dig into these fruits the wrong way..."
"They fight back?" Kara responded dryly.
Ma smiled. "If it's any consolation, dear, it's happened to me MORE than once..." She shot Jonathan a side-glance and continued. "With the same results. You just have to dig in at the right angle." SPLISH! Jonathan Kent wiped the juice from his shocked face. Martha's eyes danced as she threw him the towel. Kara giggled. A couple minutes later, Martha had showed her how to cut into the fruit to avoid getting sprayed, and Kara was savoring her new experience with her eyes closed.
She spoke a minute later. "Not bad, but I think it is a bit too tart for me. I think I prefer the oranges." Two minutes later, Martha had shown Kara how to 'unwrap' an orange, and Kara attacked it with gusto. Martha retrieved the semi-mutilated grapefruit and finished it up. The next treat for Kara was the hard-boiled eggs. She found it acceptable, with an interesting flavor. Lastly, she tried oatmeal. Aside from its'...gross...appearance, she quite liked it. When Ma sprinkled some cinnamon on it...it was love at first bite.
She finished up the bowl just as she felt two little paws on her thigh. She looked down at Streaky. "He wants up," said Pa. "Just pull your arms away from your thighs, and drum your hands on the tops of your thighs like this." He demonstrated. Kara nodded and did it. FLUMP! Kara had to move her head back to avoid the orange tail that swept across her field of vision. Streaky settled and started moving his paws up & down. She looked at Ma, questioning.
"He's 'kneading' your lap. He's making himself comfortable...like you did in the bed last night." Kara nodded and looked down at the now very content feline, who had settled down and was purring throatily with his eyes closed. Again, Kara found herself running her hands through his fur. "Try scratching his belly and under his chin with your fingers." Pa suggested. Kara did so, and the purring became even louder. Streaky snuggled down even deeper. It's like he's trying to merge into my legs, she thought curiously.
"He seems to like me."
"Yes, he LOVES Clark, too, when he's home." Pa said. "I think Kryptonians have a somewhat higher standard body temperature then humans do...For him, you're a wonderful source of heat."
There was a rush of wind outside, and Clark stepped in, cape and all. "Morning Ma, Pa...Kara?!" She looked back at her cousin, asking a question with her eyes. "I-I'm just surprised to see you without your headpiece this soon."
"I felt the sun on my face this morning, and it felt...confining."
"Hmm...Anyway, I spoke to Wonder Woman last night, and she invited you and I to Paradise Island."
Kara looked puzzled. "That would be her homeland?"
Clark nodded. "Yep. Up until recently, It was an island that was for and of females only. It's been recently changed to a teaching center for the world and beyond, with the assistance of her Gods. I mentioned that you are fascinated by a great deal down here and you seem to hunger for more experiences. This would be one of the best places for them."
"Yes..." Kara replied. "There is SO much to experience down here. Right now, I almost would welcome two more of me."
"Join the club." Clark responded with a wry grin. "A lot of people here feel the same way. Especially me. Anyway, she said that you would be welcome to stop by for a week or two to explore and learn from their libraries as well as the way they live... That is, if you WANT to go."
"By all means!" Kara responded. She looked down and thought for a moment, and then gingerly clasped Streaky in both hands, lifted him from his bed in her lap, and lowered the relaxed feline to the floor. Ma Kent gave Kara one of Clark's old knapsacks for her pen and journal, her headpiece and teaching device...and a few items of clothing for when she was ready. Kara promised to come back and tell about all she experienced. She and Clark stepped out onto the porch...and were gone in a moment.