"This is the entranceway, and the lock all in one. As of right now, only I have the strength to..." Kal blurred into motion. Panels moved up, down, over. Seconds later, Kal was standing in front of them again. "...unlock the door." The gold designs, once scrambled and seemingly random, now made coherent geometric shapes. The gold now seemed to be lit from behind.

"Your fortress seems awfully small, Kal. My ship's length almost matches its' diameter..." Kal smiled and scooped her up. Then flew right at the metal wall. She fought to keep from wincing. They passed right through it... Into the biggest citadel Kara had ever seen, on earth OR Krypton.

"How did you fit all of this in here, Kal?" Diana breathed. Kal looked over and saw Cassie floating in midair, goggle-eyed in wonder.

"It's bigger on the inside because..."

Kara interrupted, fascinated. "...It's a tesseract of some kind. Using a hybridization of Kryptonian and... earth-based? technology, it looks like. The robot servants seem to display this melding most prominently." She pointed at one of the gold, puck-shaped drones that were approaching now, flanking a standard gold servant model.

One puck flew ahead of the rest and spoke with a metallic baritone. "Please remain where you are, until your identities are confirmed."

"Identify yourselves, please."

Diana was the first to speak, holding very still in midair. "I am Diana of Themyscira, Wonder Woman."

Gold scan rays emerged from the puck and moved up and down. "Person is confirmed. Continue."

A second puck flew up and stopped in front of Cassie. "Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl."

She was scanned. "Person is confirmed. Continue."

Superman dropped to the floor of the Fortress. The robots followed. Seconds later, they were finished with Kara and Kal and they retreated.

"Now that THAT'S over with, c'mon...I'll show you around." Kal scooped up Kara and took off again. For the next ten minutes, all four of them weaved throughout the Fortress's rooms, learning the history and importance behind each of the items. It was when they went back into the main room that Kara interrupted for the first time.

"Kal, I recognize your parents," She said pointing toward a memorial with a set of four Kryptonians supporting a miniature of Krypton with their hands. "...But who are those other two gaudily clad people supposed to be?"

"They are Jor-El and Lara, Kara...or I should say, ANOTHER version of them that I met twice in the Phantom Zone."

Kara paused for a moment and wondered why that Jor-El looked so familiar... That dream! She thought. Father and Mother were dressed like that... "Another version? What happened?" Kara asked.

He sighed. "Basically, It was part of a trap by one of my enemies to trap me in the Phantom Zone indefinately. He terraformed a planet in there, and changed the beings on that planet on the DNA level into Kryptonians like us. Remember how you said Jor-El was facinated by and loved the past? My enemy was able to recreate a Krypton of that past, predating the one we were aware of by over 80,000 years. The program was designed to lure me in, and then kill me by having Krypton hurtling into the sun. To be quite frank, it confused the hell out of me for a while. I didn't know which Krypton was the 'real' one. I wound up going back to help 'Jor-El' save the planet. We weren't supposed to be able to do that, so the program started to break down. After a massive battle, Jor-El was able to modify the program to save Krypton...But to safeguard it in the Zone, he had to seal it off forever." Kal stared up at the brightly colored Jor-El & Lara with a palpable sadness on his face. "I lost Krypton AGAIN..." He paused for a moment. "However, I learned SO much about my 'father' and 'mother' from that reality that I had to honor them this way. These..." Kal pointed to the figures in the bodysuits, "...Were what they were in the true Krypton. While these..." He gestured to the brightly uniformed figures, "Were what they were in their hearts."

His ears perked slightly a moment later and a grin spread across his face. "Wrrff!" A white dog with a red cape came flying up, wagging its tail. "Heh, ladies, meet Krypto...He's from that Krypton." They dropped to the floor, with Krypto in tow. He seemed VERY happy to meet them all, most especially Diana and Kara. Kara was petting him gently, and seconds later he was licking her all over her face. She giggled.

"He likes you." Kal said with a smile, as Cassie came over to pet him.

Kara giggled. "I don't think we had any animals like this on Krypton...Hey, c'mon! Enough!"

"Yeah, and we don't have any like him on earth, either. He has super strength, super speed, flight and heat vision." Three sets of stunned eyes met his gaze. Cassie looked at him, dumbfounded. "Superman, you've GOTTA be kidding me! Heat vision? Super Strength? Flight? Like you and Kara?! On a DOG?! It sounds like something out of a old comic book..."

"Yep, Cassie. He also seems so smart at times, I'd SWEAR he's thinking like us."

Cassie looked nervous. "Uh, Superman...He IS fixed, right? If he gets into heat like earth dogs, you may be the proud owner of a LOT of half-Kryptonian puppies flying all over. I don't know if he CAN mate with earth dogs, but..."

Kal nodded. "Good point. We have a device in his collar that keeps track of his hormone levels. Kelex can usually keep it under control."

Kelex floated up. "Big Blue, What's happenin'? We've analyzed the rocket, and we've come up with some happenin' findings!" Kal rolled his eyes, and then sighed. "Kelex, let me formally introduce everyone. Cassie, Diana, Kara, this is the head of the fortress operations, Kelex." He looked at Kara, slightly red-faced. "He was speaking normally until about a year ago. one of my friend's nieces, Natasha, did some tweaking on his response circuits. He's been like this ever since."

Kara looked at Kelex for a moment, raised an eyebrow. "Kal, if you have a couple minutes to spare, I can fix him easily." He looked at her for a moment, and then said, "Kelex, get the tool kit please... and bring it to Kara."

"Gotcha, Big Blue! Back in a flash!" Two minutes later he floated back into view with the tool kit. Kara popped open his head access panel and went to work with the speed of a NASCAR pit crew.

Kara looked up ten minutes later. "Okay, let's try it now. Kelex... Are you ready to give us information on the ship?"

"Yes, Kara. It's ready whenever you are. It's been ready for the past half hour. And...thank you for fixing me. If I had feelings, I'd think I'd be...embarrassed ...after how I've been speaking these past months."

Kara put the head panel in place and screwed it tight. She spoke in Kryptonese. "Kelex, you are done. Access primary protocol list."

"Ready."

"NO ONE is to alter any of your internals without Kal-El's SPECIFIC and personal permission from this moment forward. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Kara."

"Good. Record to your primary protocol list and close out."

"Done."

Kara looked at them and spoke in English. "That should do it...Let's try it out." She handed the tools to Cassie, and then looked at Kelex and nodded. Cassie grinned and stepped forward.

"Kelex, come here. I gotta adjust your memory."

Kelex floated backwards and looked at Kal. The Man of Tomorrow shook his head. Kelex looked at Cassie. "You do not have permission, Cassie. Access denied."

Kara looked at looked at Kal and smiled. "There we go...Problem solved." She retrieved the tools and handed them to Kelex.

Kelex nodded his head. "Follow me, please."

Cassie looked at Kara as they walked into the next room. "I guess you've done that on your homeworld a couple of times." Kara looked at her, and shook her head. "My first time. It's amazing what you can learn if you read enough." She cracked a smile. "Besides, they are such simple machines... and almost as easy to fix as one of your toasters." Diana looked at her and raised her eyebrow. "Kara, if that is what you call simple, I'd HATE to see what you consider complicated." Kara responded with a smile and entered the room with her spacecraft.

Kelex spoke to Kal. "Kal-El, we looked for what you thought to be responsible for the premature power activation...and we found it. But in itself, it's NOT entirely responsible. The ship has lamps that simulate yellow sun radiation 65.4845625. This would indeed give Kara's cells a head start, but it would not be enough for her powers to manifest in a month and a half. Her cells needed more time to charge."

Kelex floated over to a console and pressed a few switches. A hologram of Kara's silhouette appeared over a platform to the right of the ship's nose. The silhouette turned a dark forest green.

"This is where she was at, charge-wise, when you and the JLA found her."

Another switch was thrown. "According to the onboard scanners and computers, when she got into the ship on Krypton, she was HERE..." The color changed to an even darker green. "She charged 25 during her journey in stasis. The only logical conclusion was that she was pre-charged while she was living on Krypton, in some manner."

Diana spoke. "How could she be, Kal? Krypton's sun was a red giant. That clearly wasn't the source."

Cassie looked at the hologram and thought for a couple of seconds. Her face brightened. "What about the lights in your home, Kara? Your dad could've replaced the light bulbs with...yellow sun simulators."

Kara narrowed her eyes in thought. "We didn't use light bulbs, we used illumination panels. But...the panels could've been adjusted...the crystals' light range modified... Kelex, estimate: Knowing the typical Kryptonian day and night, with typical activities indoors for a girl of my age... How many years would you estimate I would have to be charged by the light panels to get to the base charge level that I was at when I entered stasis?"

There was silence as Kelex floated quietly in the air for a full minute. "I would estimate...at a similar efficiency level as the lights in your ship...approximately 6.5621 Krypton cycles."

"So, if we're right, Zor-El modified your panels when you were, what, 9?" Kal looked at the hologram with a frown on his face.

"No, Kal. I was 11 cycles old when the end came and I entered stasis. I must've physically aged about 4 years during the 50,000 light year trip here. Father must have modified things when I was about four and a half cycles old."

Diana spoke. " Once you got here and started meditating in the sun..." Cassie interjected, "Your cells started absorbing the REAL sunlight, which topped off your…batteries, and kick started your invulnerability first..." Kal nodded. "That was the first to manifest with me."

Cassie continued, "Then your strength and heat vision. I guess your other vision powers would probably be next." She paused for a moment and looked at Kara. "It was your families' last gift to you."

Kara turned away, walked over to her ship. Rested her hand on it and remembered. "No, Cassie, it probably wasn't intended as a gift...at least from the perspective of my parents. It was likely deemed a necessity. They probably wanted me to use them to rule over you all...and I'd imagine that Kal's parents were hoping for the same from him." The sad look crossed her face again as she continued.

".The rebirth of Kryptonian culture." she muttered, almost under her breath. Her shoulders drooped. She stared at her spacecraft for a long minute. "I can't do it now, Cass. Sheol, I couldn't do it even if I WANTED to. After all the wonders I've seen in this past month and a half...everyone I've met so far, who's made me feel...human..." She sighed. "Why would I want to recreate that...coldness? That lifelessness? Looking back now, that was apparently all my people were willing or capable of achieving. They were...SO afraid of change...afraid of death...afraid of each other." She frowned. She turned her head and looked at Kal. "Batman surprised me, Kal. He was very much correct, and all HE knew of Krypton is probably what you told him..."

She startled as a hum began inside the ship. A panel on the nose opened and a small round sphere lifted from it into the air. A turquoise beam flashed around, scanning everyone in the room, and then locked onto Kara. A pause, and then an iris opened on the sphere's surface. A moment later, two regal Kryptonians stood before her. Kal spoke to Kelex, who turned on the translator. Zor-El looked at Kara with that sad smile of his and began...

"Greetings, Kara. If you are receiving this message, we will assume you have probably landed on earth by now.

We have left this message to encourage you, and, perhaps to be a bit of comfort.

Your body will doubtless surprise you rather soon after your arrival. Earth's lighter gravity and younger yellow sun will likely have an astounding effect on you physically. You will have tremendous strength, speed, and most likely vision powers of some nature. We also believe you may be able to defy gravity at will. We have tried to estimate what their sun would give you and artifically duplicated it while you were here. Without this precharging, you would have to wait about 15 earth cycles before your cells would be charged enough to manifest these abilities. God-like gifts of power for the Last Daughter of Krypton. We would ask you, Kara, with your powers..."

Here it comes, Kara thought.

Alura continued."...to improve their world."

What?!

"...Guide them. Help them. Learn from them."

Zor-El spoke. "Jor-El sent us all the earth visuals he received via our long distance telescope and relay satellites. We learned about their cultures and bits of their languages via audio bits from the transmissions they were bouncing off their own satellite systems. This was used, between the both of us, early on, to determine the best system to send you to, and later, young Kal-El. Jor-El stated that they were a terribly primitive culture, very warlike, and very confused. He felt they would need a strong guiding hand to help advance them, to train them in our proper fashion. To help create a New Krypton."

Kara rubbed the bridge of her nose in embarassment.

Zor-El shifted slightly, nervously. "I initially agreed with my older brother and believed you would make a wonderful queen."

Kara could swear she felt three pairs of eyes hitting her from behind. She felt her face turning beet red. Great Rao, be merciful, please let it end! she thought.

Her father's image continued. "...But then I studied the information in more detail, and considered further. The humans appear to be every bit the fighters we were, and they would most likely defend their homes and ways of living to their dying breaths if you were to try to rule them. We saw examples of that in the light waves that left their planet hundreds of their years ago. They will not tolerate servitude, but would likely welcome guidance. You are aware of my...problem, daughter, as you share it. The humans consider it a gift, rather than a curse, and call it 'intuition'. I often do not trust it, as it is not our way...but the few times I have, in desperation, it has always validated itself. It speaks to me now and says you will likely do better helping them, and...inspiring them...rather than ruling them. They live as our ancestors did, embracing their world's soil. While we find it...distasteful, they must be doing something correct that WE have not, as their planet is still filled with beauty and is alive, while we have all but destroyed our world with our...misguided animosity."

Alura's face twisted into a soft frown. Her image thought for a beat. "We have great technical wisdom, but perhaps not enough, most importantly, of wisdom of the heart. That is why our world will be cosmic debris when you get this message. We...Rao help us...have been lost, morally and spiritually, for far too many centuries, and perhaps it is fitting Rao is now asking us to pay the price for it."

Zor-El continued. "We ask you to help them AVOID repeating our mistakes, if you can. Your life is full of promise. You are full of love, intelligence...and I believe their word is...hope. We have ALWAYS admired you for that, though, regrettably, we had to teach you to conceal it. From what we know you will not need to do so on earth. Live your life to the fullest, and, with your heart wisdom, become a shining example of all that we of Krypton could have been. You are a member of the proud house of El, with Rao as an ancestor, so it is said. We hope he will guide his last daughter in safety and love. If there is someplace beyond death, I pray we will be able to watch you and perhaps guide you from there."

Alura spoke next. "We named you Kara. Your name, in ancient Kryptonese, means 'Rao's Heart' and also 'Child of Love'. It matches you perfectly. BE Love." Alura closed both of her hands into fists, and then stacked them left over right, over her heart, palms facing in...Zor followed suit. "We will be with you always. What we say carries no logical validation that we can see, but it feels correct. Go with our blessings and Rao's, and may he guide you." They both spoke in unison. "Farewell, daughter." The image faded.

Kara stood silently, back to the group, her body trembling slightly.

Diana walked over, somber, and gently turned Kara to face her. Tears rimming her eyes, Kara hugged her and cried. She felt a big hand on her left shoulder. She looked up at Kal, staring at her with tears in his eyes. She quietly hugged him, and whispered, "Thank you." She then felt a hand on her right bicep. Cassie looked at her with sadness and said, "If you need to talk, Kar, I'm there."

"Thanks, Cass...I-I just need some time alone to take it all in."

Five minutes later, Kara had retrieved her notebook and her pen from her bag, made a mighty leap up to the Krypton memorial statues, and sat down at the base of the Gaudy Jor-El, writing in Kryptonese shorthand.

"Journal Entry #4, May 26, 2003.

They didn't want me to rule. Kal, Cassie, Diana & myself went to the Fortress to find out why my powers were kicking on early. It appears that Father went through quite the effort, on Krypton and on my ship, to simulate the radiation from earth's sun. Well, it did its' job...It charged me about a quarter of the way. My sun-meditations on Diana's home apparently did the rest.

I never knew panic like I did when my heat vision kicked on, yesterday. With Rao's grace, Kal was able to get to me within 10 minutes. It is easy to control once you get the 'knack' of it (as they say here). I never realized it could be so POWERFUL, though. I stared at the ground for approximately twenty seconds with it on full...and reduced that patch of ground to magma. Great Krypton, please let Kal be nearby when the next power kicks in!

When all was done, I accidentally activated a holo-corder embedded in my ship. Mother and Father, of course. I expected them to tell me that they expected me to rule over the earth people, to create a New Krypton. Guide them in all matters with a strong hand.

They very much surprised me...

Apparently, father initally thought that I SHOULD rule...Then took the time to think, to use his...intuition. He suggested that I guide and help the earth people, as I've since learned Kal is renowned for doing here. Mother searched herself deeper than I ever expected her to do...She recommended that I listen to my heart wisdom.

I never missed them more than in that moment.

Lord Rao, when you see them, please welcome them to you. They did so much for me. They may not have been comfortable saying they loved me. It was NOT our way. But it was apparent to me. That is the most important. Please let them know that I loved them as well. I cannot bring them back now, but I can honor them...and my heart...by helping those I can."