Raya had rarely set foot in Kandor when it was still part of Krypton, but it still felt incredibly good to be back. When the city had gone missing, everyone had feared the worst, yet the place looked in good condition, and the people content. On the surface at least. She wondered what she might find underneath…

No-one spared her or Kelex a second glance. There were probably few around now who would recognise her face. Although her knowledge of the city's geography was somewhat limited, it didn't take her long to realise the robot was leading her towards C.P.C headquarters. That was just great. Had Lana gotten herself arrested?

The main building wasn't somewhere she could just walk around freely, so she'd have to hope either someone recognised her or she was on their records somewhere. Identifying herself to one of the guards, she asked to speak with whoever was in charge.

"That would be Sergeant Kimda," explained the guards on the right. Raya couldn't hide her surprise. Mostly because Kimda had vanished before Kandor did, but also because he was the last person she would have expected to be here. More likely to find him at his lab, probably trying to find an escape or at least some way of making the citizens day-to-day living easier. Not in the C.P.C, and certainly not a sergeant. She said none of this, because ignorance was something best kept to herself for now.

"Take me to him then."

"The Sergeant is extremely busy, and can't be disturbed at this time."

"Go to him and tell him that Raya is here. He will see me," she said,

Minutes later, she was escorted up to his office. Kimda blinked in disbelief, before leaping to his feet and embracing her warmly. She returned it. She felt like crying, but didn't. No doubt the memory of The Phantom Zone would haunt her, but she would keep that pain to herself. Right now, she had a mission. And she also wanted some answers.

"You haven't aged a day," said Kimda. "Although your eyes look… older, I guess. Harder."

"Yours too," said Raya. "Which is interesting, because otherwise you look an awful lot younger than when I saw you last."

"You've already guessed I'm a clone. So what's your secret?"

Raya's eyes narrowed. Cloning had been outlawed on Krypton some time ago after a lengthy civil war. Krypton had never fully recovered from those events, and she was unable to believe Kandor had started using the clone banks again. She pushed this aside… for the moment.

"Clean living? Or maybe The Phantom Zone had something to do with it."

"Oh Raya… I can't… What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," said Raya. "I hate to have to tell you this, but Krypton…"

"Was destroyed?" finished Kimda with a bitter smile. "Kal-El told me. I'd guess, since we don't often have visitors, that you're being here is something to do with him. So Brainiac was successful?"

"Partly. He released Zod, but I managed to trap him in a crystal Jor-El gave me. Someone else escaped the Zone with him though, and they're still free. And Kal-El's mind seems to have been shut down completely."

"I see. You've come to ask for my help?"

"No. Even Jor-El isn't capable of restoring him. He sent me here to find a girl named Lana Lang."

She couldn't help but notice Kimda flinch at the mention of Jor-El's name. The two had been friends in college, but had also built a fierce rivalry. The words 'even Jor-El' would be seen by him as a slight, although that had not been her intention.

"Jor-El is still out there?" asked Kimda, recovering quickly.

"His AI is. He's instructed me to find Lana and get her back to Earth. Is she here?"

"I'll take you to her."

888

Lana was wishing she'd kept her big mouth shut. An awkward silence had fallen between Faye and herself, and the girl kept glancing at her suspiciously. She could have used an ally right about now. She had no idea what had happened to Clark, and no idea what to do if he didn't come back for her.

"I'm sure he'll be okay," said Faye finally, noticing her worry. "There aren't many people who'd have just tackled those guys like he did. I know he can handle himself."

"Yeah… thanks," said Lana, not convinced but appreciating the attempt at comfort nonetheless. Before she could say anything else, Kimda had strode into the room alongside a female Lana didn't recognise. There was one thing beside her that was familiar though; the robot, Kelex, had been in The Fortress.

"Which one of you is Lana Lang?" she asked.

"That would be me," said Lana warily. If Clark wasn't here, and this woman had been in The Fortress… Could this be Brainiac in disguise?

"Kal-El is alive, but he's in a kind of… coma. My name is Raya. I'm a Kryptonian like he is. Jor-El sent me to take you home."

"It's true, Lana," said Kimda, watching her hesitate. Raya pulled out a crystal that looked exactly like the ones in The Fortress and held it out to her.

"This will send you back," said Raya when Lana didn't take it.

"What about you?" asked Lana. Raya shook her head.

"Jor-El intends for me to stay here. He will send for me if he needs me."

"But what about Clark? Is he going to wake up? Can't Jor-El help him?"

"He can't simply wake him up, if that's what you mean. But I think he is planning something. Kal-El is simply too important to be given up on. When he wakes up, send him to me. I would very much like to meet him properly."

"Lana," said Faye, stepping forwards. She looked nervous, licking her lips, hesitating over something. "You'll come back and let us know Clark's okay?"

"Of course," said Lana. "Thanks again for…"

The crystal began to glow softly, and Raya quickly thrust it into Lana's hands.

"Remember, Lana… Kal-El is the only hope for all of us. If the time comes, you may have to give him up for the greater good…" said Raya, voice fading as Lana was absorbed into the light.

888

Although she had wept for herself many times over the years, Lenaria had rarely wept for others, at least not since reaching adulthood. She wept for them now. When the station had lost power, the cells containing the mutants she created for Mongul had opened, and the creatures had utterly savaged her knights. She had used her special hearing in the hopes that some might have survived, but had found only servants of Luthor's, scavenging the remains of her base. Not in the best of moods, she had killed them horribly.

The knight in front of her now had been called Georg, and he had been the first to join her cause. Many had rejected her before she met him, and she had lost almost all hope of finding anyone who would love and serve her willingly. Then she found him; raised by a too-strict religious family, he had come to resent his parents and his God. Ultimately, he lost faith in everything. And she had told him, in her enlightened wisdom, that there was yet hope for his planet. Under her, a new perfect world would be created.

Their relationship had been sexual, at least at first. She'd had needs, and while she felt no real attraction to him, he'd helped fill them. He was most displeased when she replaced him with Edward, who was far more pleasant to the eye. He'd borne her dismissal with a great deal of bitterness, but had known better than to protest too loudly. And she had made very clear what would happen if any harm were to befall her new favourite.

Although all of her knights were required to love her dearly, those had been the only two she'd been intimately involved with – she was not some kind of slut, after all. Yet she said a prayer for all of them, said it to anything that might be out there to listen. She was not convinced there was anything – no surviving Empireth would, surely – but felt the need to anyway. She also cursed Brainiac and Clark Kent. It was the former that had left her home little more than a tomb, and if not for Kent she could have been here to protect her servants.

And that was just one more reason in a long list of why she would make him suffer, The Phantom Zone was top, of course – to think how close she had come to spending eternity in such a place haunted her. Fear of being sent back had driven her to leave The Fortress without investigating the bottled cities. One she recognised as Kandor, the others were unknown to her. She had also left without killing Raya. A pity.

Still, she was glad to see Luthor hadn't come across the tools she was looking for. These were an essential part of her revenge against Kent, an idea she'd had, in a moment of malice, while trapped in The Phantom Zone. She'd healed the wounds she'd suffered there, but she would not forget. The score would be settled. Along with the equipment, she fetched a few items she could sensibly carry with her (just because she could lift mountains did not mean it was practical to do so). Plenty of clothes, for instance. She would not be caught practically nude like that again. She had not amassed many possessions in her time, but she also took her jewellery and a few choice gifts her knights had given her. The least extravagant of these, yet the most precious, was one that her late husband had made for her.

It had been popular among her people, and her favourite game in her youth. When she'd described it to Edward, he had crafted the octagonal board himself from wood, and painted it. There were no pieces; they came from the mind, and were different between each game. Each would represent something that was important to the player, an object or a person usually. Various factors determined each pieces strength. The game only really came into it's own when played by two telepaths, but even so, Edward had understood it well, and was a wonderfully exciting player. He'd never beaten her, but she'd had to work for her victories.

Before she could finish packing, she sneezed. Everything she'd gathered was blown around the room. She blinked. She must have caught something in The Phantom Zone. She'd healed the wounds she'd suffered, but nothing else. Easy enough cure herself… though interesting that even her sneeze was so powerful. And hadn't Zod used some sort of ice breath attack in The Fortress? Clark hadn't developed any such ability yet, but her telepathic cells would have absorbed the potential.

Pushing the thought aside, she gathered her things and said farewell to the place that had been her home for several years. She'd gotten used to moving on by now. Fleeing her home-world during the war. Fleeing Kandor before they could lock her in The Phantom Zone. Well, at least this time she wasn't running from anything. She buried her knights in the desert. They would not be easily replaced.

"I will miss you," she said, eyes shimmering.

The mutants she left on the station. Lex's servants had taken care of them, and they could rot there as far as she was concerned. She had created them based on creatures from Earth's mythology, augmenting their strength and passing the best subjects onto Mongul. She had fetched the equipment she needed to make more. Mongul was dead, thankfully, but then, this wasn't supposed to be created for combat. No, this one would be more of a… pet. By rights, Sheriff Ethan should have that fate for his spurning of her, but she figured she would simply kill him. No, it was Lana Lang she was interested in. She would make a fine pet.