Winter Solstice

Earth 2 – Gotham

A melancholy trip, equal parts remembrance and farewells. The war battered city of her childhood. Helena knew she couldn't leave without at least saying goodbye. This place was in her blood just as it was with her parents.

The light and the dark combined here.

As she moved among the ruins of Wayne Manor memories flooded back. Looters had taken anything of value long ago, but it was never the things that mattered to Helena anyway. The place and the people were so much more important. They were gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Where the world saw Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle or Batman and Catwoman, Helena only saw Mom and Dad. They weren't perfect parents by any stretch of the imagination, but they loved her and that's really all any child wants to know when it gets right down to it.

Her father had such a hard time showing affection, yet somehow her mother was able to get him to open up. Helena smiled as she remembered him teaching her to ride a bicycle. He was right behind her as she weaved through the hallways of the second floor. He told her she was on her own but she knew he never let go of the seat.

Her mother too was different than most imagined. Helena remembered how they had sat in the kitchen together addressing Valentines for her classmates or going to the zoo to see the lions and tigers. It was those little Mom things she did that no one else knew about, but Helena would always treasure.

She remembered when she was a little older being embarrassed at how touchy feely they were with each other. Now she realized it was from that deep love for each other that their love for her began. They each had their own way of expressing it towards her, but it was never in doubt.

Everywhere she looked memories came flooding back. For her the mansion wasn't the grim, haunted place of her father's childhood, but home. Her childhood hadn't been the struggle to survive on the uncaring streets of Gotham like her mother's either, but rather a world family and love.

She moved slowly up to where the Wayne family plot was. Looters had for the most part left it alone, figuring nothing of value could be found among the dead. Tears, something neither of her parents openly succumb to often, easily came to her eyes. The thought that she would never see either of them again was impossibly sad. All the time she was away Helena had tried to pragmatic, but she could never shake the improbably dream that if she ever returned somehow they would be here to greet her. Now even that was gone, just as they were forever.

She noticed the fresh flowers in front of both their graves. In all the sadness it seemed there was one point of light. She knew Alfred was alive and watching over her parents even in death. Earlier in the day she had gone to see him, just to let him know she was alive. She found him in a small, tasteful house just outside the city. Helena was surprised to see he was living with a woman, Claire and apparently they were a couple. The first tears of the day came when they saw each other. He was like her grandfather in ever way that mattered.

He started asking about her plans and she knew he was wondering if she would take over her father's mantle. He was asking without saying it if she needed him to return to his familiar role. As she glanced around the small home, Helena knew she couldn't take him away again. He'd put her father's life ahead of his own all those years ago and then her mother's and hers too. This was his time. Like Ulysses, Alfred needed to come home from the sea and the mission. He had found something of his own here with Claire and Helena wasn't going to take it away from him.

They parted with hugs and kisses, along with vague promises about the future but she'd already made her decision. Coming back was like a trip home from college on break. It was all so familiar, yet something had changed. It would always be home, but her life was elsewhere now. She had made the transition into adulthood and the world of her childhood was the thing of memory.

New York

Karen was tired and troubled. She wanted nothing more than to leave this world, but knew it would take time.

Michael Holt had agreed to help them get back, but he wasn't going with them. He had decided to stay. He explained this world had mountains for him to climb, while he'd already reached all the peaks back home. In the end she had just accepted his decision.

She was a killer now. She had ended Terry Sloan's life. She expected to feel remorse or guilt, but strangely felt nothing different. It had always been this great taboo her cousin had drilled into her, yet now that she'd crossed that line Karen felt numb about it. It was the logic thing to do. If she let him live he would just continue to spread his misery over this world.

In a way it felt as if she were unmoored to the past. This world she'd been so desperate to get back to now seemed as alien as it did when she first arrived. She'd only spent two years here before and her link was her cousin. He was gone. She wasn't a human, no matter how much she looked like them. She had always struggled to fit in here, to be like everyone else. She wasn't though and never would be.

Glancing out the window at the city below Karen could see the statue of the fallen Wonders. They had been so invested in this world, their home that they'd made the ultimate sacrifice. She had so wanted to save them, but wishing and dreaming doesn't make it so. She was 21 and seemed haunted by so many things.

Turning away from the window, Karen closed the curtains and crawled in the bed. She hadn't slept since they arrived and it didn't take much before she surrendered to its embrace.

The dream began some time later. It started as many of her dreams began back on Krypton. It was the world of her birth and childhood. She saw her parents and friend and it was all so vivid like memories come to life. Then things changed.

It was like a bullet had burst through a pane of glass. A hole opened and the spidery cracks began to spread across the surface. The world of her origins began to fragment as the cracks spread until nothing could stop them. Shards began to fall shattering into dust until she was engulfed in it. The winds began to howl and swirl until she was alone with only the dark emptiness of space surrounding her.

Karen wasn't sure if she was falling or tumbling, as she had no point of reference. A white light flooded her field of vision, momentarily blinding her. When it winked out she was standing on a city street. It could be this world or the other, she wasn't sure. All around her people moved in every direction. Karen caught a glimpse of her reflection in a store window and turned. She was her present age, 21, dressed in the elegantly casual suit she favored for running her business.

She wondered if she was back in New York, the New York of the other world where she had spent the last five years. A sense of excitement seemed to run through her and she began walking, looking for familiar landmarks. The further along she went the more she realized this dream city was an amalgamation of both worlds. Shops and landmarks seemed to mingle seamlessly into one.

It all seemed fantastic and surreal to her. Karen felt surprisingly calm as she moved through this mixed up city. Some things always remain the same, and she saw a Starbucks. Even here they seemed to be on ever other street. She walked inside and moved towards the counter wanting the familiarity of it. A smiling young woman asked to take her order. Karen glanced at the border and made her decision, but when she looked back at the young woman something had changed. The young woman seemed older, perhaps only by a few years, but the difference was there. Karen numbly paid for her coffee and then left the shop.

The experience with the young woman had rattled Karen for some reason. She tried to put it down as just a trick her mind was playing on her, but when she brought the to go cup up to her lips, Karen couldn't help noticing it had subtly changed too. Most people probably wouldn't even detect the slight difference, but being a businesswoman herself, Karen knew all about product lines. Companies changed things about their designs year to year to give the illusion the product is always new. Retailers such as Starbucks and McDonalds have it down to a science. The company logo stays basically the same but the details all around it change with both the season and the year.

The cup Karen was holding was from three years in the past. It could have been that particular store just trying to get rid of some old stock, but when she looked away and then back, the cup had shifted again to another year's design. Karen stopped and just stared at the cup waiting to see if she could actually see it shift. Nothing seemed to happen. She glanced away quickly and then back at the cup but it was still the same. What had changed was the street around her.

Store windows up and down the block normally would have the latest products and fashions, yet everywhere she looked it was as if each store was in a different calendar year. An electronics store had a huge banner announcing they now had the latest craze, the Ipod Touch 2 while a fashion boutique next door was showed a manikin in colored tights and leg warmers. As she started moving, Karen realized the changes were happening more frequently. One minute a corner store was a hair salon and the next it had morphed into a video rental store.

Whole stores that had been around for decades seemed to shift and change every time she looked away. It was like watching slides of the numerous remodelings each franchise made over the years. Even as time seemed to have come unstuck around her, Karen remained the same, still 21, still in the same outfit.

As her anxiety level raised the changes shifted again. Suddenly Karen was seeing people she knew on the street. They were people from both worlds and every time she looked away, they would change.

"Oh, no, please, no,' Karen whispered as she saw Helena coming towards her. Helena smiled, but with each step she would change ages, older and younger. Just as she was about to reach Karen, Helena shifted again this time to what she might look like as an old woman. The smile died on her lips as she stumbled and fell. Karen started to rush towards her, but it seemed to take an impossibly long time. She was gone before Karen could do anything.

"Don't worry Karen."

She turned to see her parents standing together.

"Mom? Dad?" Karen gasped. "What-What's happening?"

Karen watched in horror as her parents became younger and then older again. They were basically skeletons with bits of flesh hanging out their bones.

"It's the way of this world, Karen, everyone you've ever known is going to die, but not you,' her father's corpse said. He shifted back to the way she last saw him. "You're going to have to watch them all die, baby, I'm sorry."

"No!" Karen screamed and started rushing away from them. All around her the same thing was happening. People she knew, her employees and friends from the other world, as well as the people she knew here would continuously shift in age until they would crumble into dust in front of her eyes. They were all human, all so fragile compared to her. Their lives ended in minutes in the grand scheme of things, while every time she caught a glimpse of herself she was exactly the same, 21.

The times shifts continued, as everything around her seemed caught up in it like a wave washing over the entire city. Buildings crumbled and then new ones shot up in their place. Traffic shifted, cars becoming buggies and then hover cars all mixed together. Chaos ensued, explosions, gunfire, natural disasters, every event for the past hundred years and every event for the next hundred seemed to be happening at once.

Bits of dust began to assault Karen and she realized it was the remains of those all around her. Each time they would shift parts of them would be missing, as the dust grew thicker and thicker. Karen watched in horror as everyone she knew on either planet died in front of her eyes over and over again.

Not quite everyone.

Her vision clouded by the dust, Karen thought she saw a figure in the distance. At first she couldn't make him out, but she knew it was a man and the time shifts didn't seem to be affecting him either. How this was possible she didn't know. A thought flashed through her mind that maybe he wasn't human either.

Clark.

Karen found herself running, half blind from the dust, but running towards the figure. The desperation was palpable as she weaved her way in and out of the crowd trying not to look them in the eyes as she watched them die over and over again. As fast as she ran she didn't seem to be getting any closer. It was almost as if he didn't see her and was walking away. In desperation she screamed.

"Clark!"

Karen sat up in the bed, her eyes wide, her breathing ragged. She was back in the hotel on the wrong Earth.

Gotham

Helena had one more stop to make before she left for good. Much of he business district had already started to rebuild and gleaming new towers rose among the rumble. As she walked down the carpeted hallway towards the law offices on the top floor, she could almost feel every eye on her, wondering who she was. She was still dressed in black and had sunglasses on. The firm of Bennington, Marsh, Danbury and Associates had been around for over a hundred years and were considered the top law firm in Gotham and the east coast. Helena walked up to the front desk.

"Yes, may I help you?' The pretty receptionist said, as she answered one of the phones.

"I'd like to see Mr. Bennington or Mr. Danbury, please,' Helena replied. "Mr. Marsh if they aren't around."

"I'm afraid the managing partners are in a board meeting right now, Miss …"

"Wayne, Helena Wayne."

The phone slipped from the receptionist's ear as she looked up to see Helena for the first time.

"W-W-Wayne?" She stammered.

"That's right,' Helena replied with a smile.

"Just-Just a moment, Miss Wayne, I'll get Mr. Bennington and Mr. Danbury for you."

"You might as well tell Mr. Marsh too while you're at it,' Helena suggested.

"Yes, ma'am."

A flurry of activity later, the three senior partners came rushing from their offices and down the hallway.

"Helena? This is a surprise,' Mr. Bennington offered. "I'm sorry, we just assumed you were a causality of the war like your parents."

"No, I was far away from the fighting,' Helena replied.

"Where?" Mr. Marsh asked.

"Some place safe."

There was pause as if they were waiting for her to say more. When she didn't, the three men seemed to get a bit flustered.

"I was hoping we could discuss some business, gentlemen, but not here in the lobby,' Helena finally said, breaking the silence.

"Yes, yes, of course, we don't we move into the main conference room,' Mr. Danbury suggested. Helena nodded and the four of them set out towards the back hallway.

"So what business do you want to discuss, Helena?" Bennington asked as they walked.

"Wayne Enterprises,' she replied. "Since I'm still the largest stock holder I'd like to convert it into a charitable trust run by Alfred Pennyworth."

Marsh and Danbury nearly tripped as they heard this.

"A trust run by your former butler?" Danbury said. "Wayne Enterprises is still a huge company and I'm not sure the board of directors will go along with this, Helena."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I don't need their support or for them to go along with it, isn't it?" Helena replied. "Largest share holder, remember?"

Earth 2 – The country of Dherain

Karen floated several miles above the Earth's atmosphere over the capital. This was the small country Steppenwolf had overtaken while he was exiled here on the planet. He had been Darkseid's point man during the invasion and the murderer of Karen's cousin and Helena's parents.

She knew Helena wouldn't leave until he was brought to justice. Helena would also want to be part of capturing him. Karen wanted those things too, but even more she was desperate to get back to the other world.

She had been hovering up here in space for the last hour high above any radar and sensors they might have, taking in all of Steppenwolf's and the countries defenses. As she suspected before she arrived they were a formidable fighting force. It was probably why the new world government hadn't tried to arrest him yet a war criminal. Even they weren't sure they cold defeat him and his army.

How many more lives would be ruined and lost trying to make him pay for his crimes?

She saw his prodigy or lieutenant, Fury; the supposed daughter of Wonder Woman training and Karen could fully believe Diana was her mother. The warrior spirit of an Amazon trained, as a fighter of Apokolips wasn't going to be an easy battle. If she was even half the warrior Diana was, Karen wasn't sure she could beat her in a hand-to-hand battle.

Karen wasn't going to battle her though. Fury and all of Steppenwolf's defenses meant nothing to Karen. They might be the strongest human fighting force on the planet right now, but she wasn't human. The unmoored feeling had been growing within her. She felt isolated and alone, the last of her kind, which she was. She was a Kryptonian and as she hovered over the royal palace it felt as if the last illusions about pretending to be like everyone else had slipped away.

On this world she wasn't like anyone else. She saw no reason to fight like she was.

Karen waited until Steppenwolf was alone in his bedroom. She could see his smile and imagined he thought he was safe from everything on this world, with his Fury and army he was untouchable. Seeing him smile and remembering all the misery he was responsible for sealed Karen's decision.

It was over in a moment. One quick burst from her eyes. Two red beams shot down through the reinforced roof and directly into his chest. Two holes burned right through him and continued on through the bed and the floor. Another quick burst of her heat vision finished the job, severing his head from his body.

There would be no battle, no long list of causalities. Just his death and it was over.

They had trained all this time for an attack, they just hadn't expected it to be from someone other than the humans.