Disclaimer: I do not own Supergirl, Superman, or Valor
Story Title: The Traveler
Chapter 3
DEO Headquarters
Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, stood on the balcony of the DEO main office, overlooking the National City skyline. She felt a sudden breeze blow her long hair from her shoulders. She turned and smiled at the sight of her cousin, Kal-El, aka Superman, as he landed beside her. "Clark," she said a broad smile on her face as she hugged her cousin. "Hi Kara, good to see you," he replied, his blue eyes shining as he pulled out of the hug. "I'm doing good. How's Lois?" Kara said smiling. Clark blushed slightly at the mischievous look in his cousin's blue eyes. "She's doing good." "You haven't asked her yet?" Clark visibly gulped. "I'm going to, but I always get interrupted," he replied adding emphasis to the last word. Kara's eyes widened. "Oh Clark, I didn't mean to interrupt, if I only knew… I…" Kara began to ramble. Clark put his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Kara. I'll ask her, but your call, this is important. We don't know what he'll be like when he wakes. Eliza did say he might have memory loss, right?" Kara nodded. Still upset that she interrupted Clark's proposal. "Yes, she said that it appears that the hibernation pod had some type of malfunction, she didn't know how. She also said that the pod did indoctrinate him to Earth customs, but mostly language." Clark listened, thankful that he should be able to communicate with the alien, but not knowing how much he would know about Earth or anything really. He sighed. "We're just going to have to wait and see." Kara nodded. "Come on, let's go inside and see the patient." Clark nodded following her through the DEO.
As the two entered the facility a line of agents on either side of the walkway lined up to see the Man of Steel, the greatest hero on Earth. Superman smiled and shook hands as he walked through the facility, stopping when he was greeted by J'onn and Alex. Alex hugged him; Clark letting her know that he had heard about Jeremiah and that he would help find him when they knew more. Clark approached J'onn shaking his hand. "I won't be here long J'onn, don't worry," Superman said. J'onn nodded. "Follow me, I'll show you the way to the med bay." Clark followed J'onn.
Alex and Kara stayed behind. "What's that all about?" Kara questioned. Alex frowned. "I don't know but I'm going to find out." They both jogged ahead to catch up to the two. They reached the med bay to see Clark and Eliza pull away from their greeting hug. "It really is great to see you again Eliza," Clark said. Eliza smiled. "I wish we could all get together without it being a crisis." "Me too." "Mom, any change in his condition?" Alex asked. Eliza walked over to the bed with the alien on it. She looked at his readings. "He's still the same, but I have noticed some increased brain activity over the past hour."
J'onn walked up to the other side of the bed. "As we've told Kara, Kryptonite radiation appears to not have an effect on him. He can be cut by a needle with a Kryptonite tip, that's how we got the blood sample. Eliza confirmed the results three separate times. He is half-Kryptonian." Clark stood at the foot of the bed. "You still have no idea what the other half is?" Eliza frowned. "No idea, except that the DNA of the other half is close to Kryptonian but different enough to be considered another species."
Clark shook his head. "I don't know what that could mean. Kara, any ideas?" Kara tried to remember what it could mean, but then an idea crossed her mind. "Daxam," she said. J'onn looked up at her his eyes widening slightly. "It might be, but we do not have a Daxamite sample to compare it to." Clark rubbed his chin. "The fortress might have a copy." Eliza smiled. "Could you download a copy and bring it to me? I can make a comparison." Clark nodded. "No problem… Kara, would you like to go with me?" Kara looked at her cousin. He'd offered to take her many times, but she always refused. She went that one time with James, but she really never thought about going back. The place brought up too many memories. Alex motioned for her to go. Kara sighed. "Okay, I'll go with you." Clark's smile lit up the room.
The two cousins flew out of the DEO before hitting the upper atmosphere and increasing speed many times the speed of sound. They landed on the arctic ice, the fortress in the background. Clark led Kara up to the main doors, grabbing the dwarf star key allowing the door to be opened. The two walked inside, Kelex greeting the two as they entered. "Good to see you again Kara Zoe-El." Kara smiled at the robot. "Just call me Kara, Kelex." "As you wish, Kara." Clark smiled as the two followed the robot into the facility and to the visual database. Clark touched the panel; the figure of Jor-El appearing before them. "It's good to see you, Kara," the Jor-El artificial intelligence said. "It's good to see you. We can't stay long, but do you have a DNA sample of Daxamite DNA?" The hologram of Jor-El paused for a split second. "Yes, I have downloaded the data to the Earth data storage device." Clark smiled. "You mean a jump drive?" The hologram seemed to grimace. "Yes, the jump drive." Clark wanted to chuckle. Kara just stared at the hologram, envisioning that it really was her late uncle. "Thank you," she said. The Jor-El hologram smiled. "You are most welcome Kara, it was good to see you." She smiled and turned around, walking out of the fortress. Clark ran after her. The doors to the fortress closed behind them. Before he could say anything to Kara, she turned around and pulled him into a hug. She cried into his shoulder. It had been so long since she'd seen her uncle; the sight of him brought up so many good memories. She was glad Lara didn't appear or she would have broken down on the spot. She pulled out of the hug, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry, it was just hard seeing him." Clark smiled. "It's okay, I forget that you actually knew him. You know I'm jealous sometimes that you did." Kara smiled. "He was a great man. You remind me a lot of him." Clark smiled, his eyes slightly watery at what his cousin said about him. "We better get going." The two flew off, heading back to National City with the DNA data that they needed.
Three hours later…
Kara, Clark, J'onn, and Alex sat in the main DEO conference room waiting for Doctor Eliza Danvers to join them. Clark and Kara had been back from the fortress for a little over an hour. Eliza was running the data through a computer analysis checking the DNA of the patient with that of a Daxamite.
"So, if he's half-Daxamite what does that mean to us?" Alex asked. She didn't know anything about Daxam and it appeared based on her question and the curious look that Clark was giving J'onn and especially Kara, that he didn't know anything either.
"Daxam and Krypton had a rather stormy relationship," J'onn said. Kara laughed. "That's saying it lightly. Daxam and Krypton were sister planets and they shared a distant relation; namely that Kryptonians settled Daxam tens of thousands of years before the destruction of Krypton. So, we share some DNA with them, of course over that time Daxamites were created through genetic mutations and environmental differences between planets. However, it was the societal changes that were the main difference. Where Krypton flourished and believed in personal liberty and democracy, Daxam stayed in the past. Daxam was a kingdom, a feudal system that would be quite in line with Earth's dark ages in Europe. They had a class system and slavery was legal."
Clark frowned at the description. "So, what else?"
J'onn folded his hands in front of him. "The worst part was that Daxam was very xenophobic. They did not get along well with others, especially of other species and races. They even had a hundred year war with Krypton."
Clark rubbed the back of his neck. "So, this guy could be some kind of xenophobic tyrant?"
"Or, he could be a refugee, someone that left the planet to remove themselves from an oppressive class system," Alex added. Clark nodded, smiling at Alex's attempt to lighten the situation. "Alex is right. Besides, he's half-Kryptonian too. We don't know what he'll be like."
Eliza opened the door to the conference room and entered; she sat down at the end of the table across from J'onn. "It's official, our mystery man is half-Kryptonian and half-Daxamite." Kara had already known that would be the case. The idea of such a being was troubling. A Kryptonian paired with a Daxamite. How could that have occurred? She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question. "J'onn, you need to increase security in and around the med bay. We shouldn't take any chances." Clark stared at his cousin in shock. "He's not a criminal. We shouldn't treat him like one. Do we really want his first experience with the DEO is him being treated as a threat, as a prisoner?" Alex frowned. She agreed with Clark, but she also didn't like to go against her sister. Kara knew of Daxam. No one else at the table had experience with them. "Superman is correct here. We don't want to scare him when he wakes up, but I will increase security outside of the med bay," J'onn said. Clark nodded, seeing that Kara's opinion outweighed his in this situation, but J'onn at least understood his concerns.
"He should be awake soon, within the next hour most likely. His latest brain scan showed activity increasing," Eliza said, looking down at the report in her hands. "I think it would be helpful if we were all in the room." Kara shook her head. "I don't want Eliza or Alex in the room. If he's violent he could kill both of you without a second thought. We do not know how powerful he will be. He's a hybrid and as we know from biology, hybrids can be stronger and unpredictable." Clark sent a glare at his cousin. "Kara, he's not an animal. He's a sentient being that deserves respect. Not some beast that we need to put down at the slightest provocation." Kara stood up, her hands clenched at her sides. "He's a Daxamite. You don't know them, Clark. They might as well be wild beasts. They are ruthless and violent. Millions of Kryptonians died in the war, civilians not just soldiers. Daxamites could care less about how many they kill. They do what they need to win without any thought of others." Clark stood up as well, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Listen to yourself Kara. The paranoia. The hatred. You can't let your past feelings, feelings that you developed when you were only a child cloud your judgment. We know nothing of this man. We need to be prepared, but we also need to be compassionate. You heard Eliza before, his memories will most likely be gone for a good portion of his life. He may not even know who he is. He may not even know about Daxam."
Kara's eyes were wide. Clark had never talked to her that way before. Eliza and Alex stared at her in shock. J'onn sighed. "Kara, we will take precautions, but we will treat our guest as such until he proves that we need to treat him differently." Kara frowned. She turned and left the room. Alex followed her. Clark sighed before sitting down in his seat. He hated to be the one to set her straight, but someone had to do it. Eliza frowned down at the report in her hands. "Clark, thank you for doing that. I know it was hard, but she looks up to you. You made her listen." Clark shook his head. "Yes, but she still doesn't agree. She can't let the past cloud her judgment. I hope Alex can talk some sense into her." Eliza smiled. "Those two have always been so close. If anyone can it's Alex." Clark nodded, smiling at Eliza. He was so thankful that he had Eliza and Jeremiah be Kara's guardians. He was too young at the time, taking care of his elderly adoptive mother, starting a career as a reporter, and continuing to fight the good fight as Superman, to have raised her appropriately. "I hope so too." He looked a little sheepish at the moment. He didn't want to do this in front of J'onn, but he felt he had to. "I never really got to tell you or Jeremiah how much it meant to me for both of you to take in Kara. I know she probably thought I abandoned her, but I wasn't in the right place in my life to raise her. She needed a full family. She deserved that much." Eliza reached over and held Clark's hand. "As hard as it was for her to get used to Earth, we were always thankful to have her, even Alex was, although she didn't show it at times growing up. I just wish Jeremiah could have been there to see both our girls grow up." Her eyes began to water before she pulled her hand away from Clark and rubbed her eyes. Clark frowned at the sight. "We're going to find him, Eliza," Clark said. J'onn nodded. "Yes, we will."
AN: Stay locked on target more to come.