Chapter Twelve: Family Reunion.

Lara's eyes opened and shut as she tried to get used to this unsettling situation. To be honest, she did not know where she was and that could be a slight problem. The blonde woman stood on her feet and her bright blue eyes were opened as she turned to Jor-El, who stood before her. She did not really have the most stable relationship with her new husband, although they tried to make the most out of the situation that had been forced on them by their two families.

"Lara," Jor-El stated for a second time in a professional and brisk tone of voice.

"Jor-El, it is good to see that you are in optimal health," Lara responded in a calm voice, wondering what was going on here. She had a feeling that she would find out about it all too soon. As of right now, she kept her eyes focused on Jor-El and her breath flowing in and out.

"It is excellent to see you are here as well," Jor-El responded as he looked at her. "But, you should not be here."

"And why shouldn't I be here?" Lara asked but she turned towards Harry and Kara. "Alura, is that you?"

"Actually….." Kara responded but Lara moved over to hug what she thought to be her friend. The blonde wrapped in the embrace, which lingered for a moment of time, before she broke apart.

"It's so good to see you again, I thought…but it doesn't matter," Lara responded as she planted a light kiss on Kara's forehead which caused Harry to watch them, rather intently. Lara spun around, a smile crossing her face. "Well Alura, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Kara smiled, seeing Lara checking out Harry, not really paying any mind to Jor-El as he stood there. Of course, they hadn't been married for a couple of decades like they were towards the end of Krypton. Although the more the blonde thought about it, there was a certain amount of formality towards their marriage that she noticed more and more as she thought about it.

"This is Harry….and there's something that I've got to tell you," Kara responded as she closed her eyes. Spitting this little statement out was going to be a bit harder than she thought it was going to be before.

Jor-El, even without super powers, was what one might call observant. He had what humans would call a touch of OCD and therefore he noticed when things were off. He craned his head, frowning as he looked towards the bushes, watching everyone shift around him.

"There's someone here."

Harry figured that was the case and Kara stood rigid. Even Lana, who stepped out onto the steps, watched with a careful expression on her eyes.

"Get inside, please, both of you, and don't open the door for anyone," Kara stated in a tense voice as she ushered Jor-El and Lara into the Kent Farm. Her breath became extremely labored as she inhaled and exhaled before her eyes locked with those of her husband's.

'So, we're going to have a problem,' Kara thought to Harry and the wizard nodded.

'Big problem, there are at least three scouts I can see,' Harry thought to himself. 'And that's on top of those that I can't see out there.'

'Wonderful,' Kara thought, focusing her X-Ray vision a little bit but her eyes twitched open to see there were people stirring in the shadows. They were moving around to avoid detection but with her super powers, they were not fast enough.

Kara edged around one side and Harry edged around the other side. The super powered coupled prepared to box in their enemies and take them down one at a time.

One of them pulled a weapon on them but Kara aimed her heat vision at the attacker. It cut through the air and burned the weapon in his hand. The blonde propelled herself forward like a corkscrew and nailed her enemy in the hard in the face, sending him flying backwards with a thunderous impact. The enemy slumped to the ground and rolled over, massaging his jaw.

There was another enemy down but there was another one that was still there to go. Harry jumped into the fray, before he twisted his wrist and sent his enemy flying down to the ground. Two ankles rolled from one side to the next and the enemy crashed awkwardly to the side, shattering his elbow from the impact.

The third attacker tried to flee but Thara used a wall of flames to block his escape. He bounced back and this allowed Kara to fly towards her enemy and nail her enemy with a rocket buster of a punch, knocking him out cold. The enemy fell to the ground with a solid clatter and Kara spun around, arms folded and a bright smile crossing her face as she looked back towards Thara.

"That was a nice one," Kara stated in an approving voice.

"Thanks, but don't look now, another one is trying to escape through the back door," Thara stated in a fretful voice but it was Lana who flew forward and tripped up the adversary to the best of her abilities.

"And that was a pretty good one, as well," Kara responded with a bright smile that went across her face which Lana returned.

"Thank you, I've been practicing," Lana stated, looking rather pleased with herself.

The thug was laying on his face and to be fair and honest, he had seen better days. In fact all of them saw far better days but they had been knocked around a fair bit. Harry spun the thug around and held him up, holding him in the air by his ankle. The thug swung like a pendulum, as Harry prepared to talk to him.

Kara, Thara, and Lana did a sweep of the outer area of the farm but found no one. If they were there, they were gone now.

"Nothing?" Harry asked them but they shook their heads. Harry kept his jaw set as he turned to the figure hovering from one side to the next above the ground. He performed a few charms and now it was time to wake him up.

Lois and Clark arrived at the farm a little bit late to the party all things considered and both of them paused for a moment, feeling themselves shaken a little bit. First Lois stood up and watched the situation that manifested itself around her.

An armored thug spun upside down and Harry and Kara were about to interrogate him.

"What is that guy doing here?" Lois asked as Clark inclined his head. Without his powers, he felt extremely vulnerable with them.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Lana stated as she watched him, and saw Harry and Kara about to rip him to shreds. "You know, it might be a good idea if you're going to talk because I don't think I can hold these two back much longer."

"Forget it, I'll never talk," the thug responded, as he watched Lana and a snarl appeared on his lips. What was she going to do to him anyway?

"Oh, you'll talk, even if I have to pull the words out of your vocal cords," Harry remarked in a crisp voice.

"Yes, you wouldn't want me to start breaking bones, would you?" Kara asked, grabbing his finger and bending it back with a loud crack, which caused the individual in question to scream out in agony.

"You better fess up what you were doing quickly," Lana told him in a calm voice as she watched them.

"You can't get anything out of me…." the thug stated, trying to bite down but the cyanide filling he had in his tooth was not there.

"You're dental plan has been cancelled, a pity," Harry responded with a smile. Switching spells were rudimentary but damned if they were not effective more often than not. A smile crossed Harry's face and it was easy to see why many feared Harry. He could be quite scary if his mind was set to it. "So, now that's out of the way, along with the two poisons that you've had on your body and the explosive device, maybe you should tell us."

The thug was bold and Kara grabbed his hand.

"You can kill me but I will serve the great one forever and a day!" the thug stated but Harry held his tongue in place with a magical charm.

Clark frowned as he stood there beside them.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?"

Harry sighed; Clark and his idealism sometimes did get in the way from getting what needed to be done, done. The wizard was not about to argue or belabor the point about it. Instead he essentially ignored Clark and kept his eyes on the thug. Lois held Clark's arm, because he didn't have the powers to safe guard himself against doing something stupid.

"So, who sent you here?" Harry asked.

Kara had another question. "What are you after?"

The man spat at Kara but suddenly he felt a burning sensation through his eye.

"You better learn some respect, it's a virtue that you'll need before you die," Harry responded, crossing his arms. "So, what were you after?"

There was silence before he added.

"Don't make me ask you again!"

The thug shuddered, this young man, he was rather scary all things considered. The thug swayed a little bit in the air, moments away from being cut down but he stayed the course.

"Fine, the great one believes….that your little book of RAO has the ability to cleanse the earth of the wicked."

"The Book of RAO?" Clark asked, this was the first he ever heard of it but Kara hushed him and turned towards the thug, her eyes narrowing.

"How does he know of the Book of RAO?" Kara asked in an icy voice, her eyes narrowed with a glint.

The thug struggled for a moment but he snapped his eyes towards them.

"I do not ask such questions, I merely do what I need to ensure that the master's will has been carried out," the thug responded as he tried to twist out of the bindings but found himself completely unable to.

Kara frowned; she really wanted to know how a human terrorist, even one like Ra's Al Ghul, would even come across a reference to the Book of RAO. Even by Kryptonian knowledge, the actual purpose of the book did have some vague properties behind it. The blonde frowned, shifting her shoulders for a moment but her thoughts remained puzzled and unclear.

Harry thought along the same things, this book, whatever it was, for lack of a better term, was dangerous.

'Checking for information on the Book of RAO,' Harry thought, even though he knew what was going to happen.

'Inconclusive information,' the lifeline reader fired back.

'You motherfucker,' Harry thought wishing to bang his head against something.

'Harry, its okay…we'll figure it out,' Kara told him, grabbing his hand.

'Yeah…I'm sure there is a reason,' Karen thought to herself before closing her eyes. 'And the higher ups are no better than Death.'

'Meet the old boss, same as the new boss,' Chloe chimed in through the bond link.

'Yes, I can imagine your frustration,' Diana agreed as she sat there. 'Do you need any back up…'

'Not at the moment, but stand by,' Harry told her.

'Will do,' Diana responded over the communication link, sensing her bonded's frustration.

'Chlo, see if you can track those magic users that have gone off the radar," Harry responded to her and there was a few seconds while the link went silent.

'Nothing….they dropped off the map….and off the world,' Chloe thought frowning.

'That's impossible…" Karen thought before she mentally trailed off. 'Unless.'

'I'm playing chess with myself again,' Harry thought in an agitated tone.

Clark edged towards the barn and Kara moved over. There was still a bit of tension in the air between her and Clark. Never the less, the blonde tried to remain rather cool and collected before she drew in her breath.

"Clark, meet Jor-El and Lara, your parents," Kara responded, nodding her head towards them.

Clark did not know what to say, his parents stood there, in the flesh and not as some kind of AI constructs. It seemed almost too good to be true and it likely was. The Last Son of Krypton stared them down.

"My son, you are as I would have imagined," Jor-El stated as he watched him. "I trust you have used your powers well."

"Up until today," Clark responded in frustration.

"You should have…unless your powers have been corrupted by some kind of blue meteor rock or even golden," Lara responded as she watched Clark, although she did wonder if he could be her son. Although he did look much like Jor-El and there were traces of her in his face, so she supposed he might as well be her son.

"My powers were taken away, I don't know how, they just were," Clark responded as he watched them.

"With the Kandorians around, this is a serious situation, as without your powers, you will not be able to properly defend yourself," Jor-El remarked in a crisp tone of voice which caused Clark to stand up straight and take some kind of notice. "I'm not judging that you are unable to defend yourself without your powers but…."

"Inside the farm, until we figure this out," Lara responded, the three of them did not have powers so they were the most vulnerable for attacks.

"If I may hazard a guess, I made my AI in such a matter not to blind me to what needed to be done," Jor-El theorized but that was quite a puzzling notion. There was this fact that he created an AI to potentially guide his son and then it did not work as well as it should have. That was a huge problem and one that Jor-El wished to hammer out before too long.

Clark wondered what his father was.

"Or that was what you become much like Zod," Clark stated, unable to resist.

Lara perked up at the mention of Zod and she wondered about him.

"Dru-Zod is a complex man and it pained me to not be able to help him," Jor-El commented in a crisp tone of voice.

"Zod destroyed Krypton and killed countless," Clark argued and Lana gave him a look as if to tell him to calm down.

"Zod is the monster that I may have made him," Jor-El argued, shaking his head.

"How could you say something like that?" Kara asked, she was not the biggest fan in the world of Jor-El but the fact of the matter was, it was rather curious that this younger version was taking responsibility for what Zod turned out be.

Jor-El remained pensive for short while before he sighed in. His breath was long but he spoke after a time.

"I could have brought him back but I warned Zod of the risks and they outweighed the benefits," Jor-El responded as he turned around. "But perhaps we have been given a second chance to make a second impression."

"Do not confuse the issue, Jor-El, Zod always had the ability to be like that,' Lara argued as she folded her arms, her husband wanted to see the best out of people but sometimes there was not any goodness to be seen out of some people. That was simply the fact of the matter and something that Jor-El would learn to accept.

There was no response for Jor-El for a moment and he turned his head around and watched out the window. Lois and Lana noticed him watching and Raya let herself in.

Raya stopped herself for a second and saw Jor-El sitting there, younger than he was but she sighed for a second.

"Clara and I have been scouting around the property lines, some of Zod's scouts scrambled in the other direction when we saw them," Raya informed them.

Clark clutched his fists, feeling absolutely useless as he sat there without his powers.

"Zod knows that I'm here," Jor-El said in a pained voice as he watched before he turned his head towards the outside of the window.

"We don't know that he knows," Kara answered but Thara grabbed her by the hand and shook her head.

"We should assume that he does," Thara responded and Jor-El nodded.

"Let's move," Kara stated as she switched to the bond link.

'Karen, are you there?' Kara thought to her bonded.

'Yes, I'm there,' Karen agreed through the bond link, clutching her hands. 'Outside with Clara and….I see where they are.'

'So, let's get over there and show them what's up,' Kara thought as she flew forward, keeping herself next to them.

These scouts, trained personally by Zod, were among the best in what they did. Kara, Karen, and Harry saw one of them making a run for it, the other ones had long since gotten away.

Clara zoomed in, showing her mettle by freezing the feet of her adversary and brought him down to the count. He was stuck on the ground and tried to pull himself free but despite that fact, he was unable to get free.

"Okay, this has been a long day, so try and make it easy on yourself, okay?" Harry asked, folding his arms and staring down at the individual that he caused to sway in his hands, holding him up.

They never made it easy on themselves but Harry thought that he should know this by now.

"We will never betray Zod…."

There was a squeezing motion as Harry wrapped a hand around the man's throat.

"Do you make this entire harder on yourself than it already is?" Harry asked as he narrowed his eyes. "You best speak, time is running out, for you."

The man twitched, hanging upside down and Harry waited but said nothing. This individual was going to be a tough nut to crack and he was going to have to resort to more deadly elements to crack him. The young wizard watched his adversary hang upside down.

"May I?"

Lara offered that in a sweet and innocent voice that made the entire group wonder what she was going to do. She reared back for a moment and punched him hard in the kidneys from behind.

There was a loud scream of agony as the man swung from his feet, extremely pained and in misery.

"Don't worry, I didn't hit anything vital," Lara stated before she offered a sweet and faux innocent smile towards the enemy. "Well vital for your comfort levels at least but you will live."

The blonde continued to give a sweet little smile and Clara was pleased about how awesome her mother was.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he turned away from Lara.

The scout nodded his head up and down in a frantic manner that woman was rather crazy and he did not want to be at her mercy ever again.

"The book, he's after the book, I swear, he says that it can be used to destroy us."

Lara knew that Zod said that but whether that had any truth to those words she had no idea. There was only one person who had a clear idea and she had a feeling getting the truth out of him was going to be much like squeezing blood from a turnip.

"Did he now?" Lara asked as she knocked him out and Harry, Karen, and Kara sprinted him off of the property lines.

The blonde's mind was going into overdrive for a moment before she turned around towards them, her jaw set.

"We need to speak with Jor-El about this."

"We've got other problems too," Kara responded, wondering if this day could get any worse, because it most certainly was not going to get any better.

"I'm tapping into the satellites and I think that I've got something, some kind of visual," Chloe responded over the communication link but Clark caught this one straight away.

"What do you mean satellites?"

Chloe offered a long and labored sigh; she knew that there was going to be trouble when the "S-word" was brought up. The tiny blonde plowed on through like she had not heard Clark.

"I'm seeing some heat signature that was at the Kent Farm but it popped away, it's like playing tag blindfolded," Chloe responded before offering a pause before Kara jumped in.

"Or playing chess with yourself."

"Or that, yes," Chloe agreed as she tapped into the computers of the Shining Light Foundation and tried to click in a visual on the satellite array.

"Wait, you can see everything that's going around us?" Clark asked in a voice dripping with accusations but Harry sighed.

He was so not in the mood to deal with Clark now.

"Yes, we can," Harry responded in a tense voice as he waited for Chloe to relay it back.

Lana chimed in, having been silent until that moment. "Truly big brother….rather big sister is watching."

"It is to keep tabs on any potential Undesirable activity, although it does have other uses to make sure certain people don't go off the grid," Harry responded as Lara turned to him and to Clark.

"It is not any slight on you, I'm certain, but sometimes when you are in a war, you need to use unsavory means to win," Lara responded, her father told her this when she contested one of his methods in the past.

Clark could not believe he was hearing those words come out of the mouth of his own mother but she threw her hands into the air, making a defensive motion with her hands. The blonde was not about to back down from a fight and she kept her eyes on her son to be.

"If you hope to win any battle in life, especially if it is for your life, you will learn that well," Lara stated as she kept her eyes fixed beadily on her son who stared back at her, not backing down for an instant.

"There is doing the right thing," Clark said as he watched her. "Watching people is…"

"Moral ethics later, right now we've got a big problem on our hand, the fact that half of the world seems to be obsessed with this little bitty book, whatever it is," Lois responded as she watched Jor-El.

Jor-El shifted, a motion that was noticed by Harry and Kara both.

"You know something about this, don't you?" Kara asked and it was Karen who chimed in as she kept her eyes on Jor-El.

Jor-El was someone who did not falter under pressure but he remained standing on his feet, proud and ready to go despite being thrown in that pressure cooker.

"If you hid it…."

"I had it, but I do not know where it is now," Jor-El responded in a delicate voice. "But even if I did, it should not fall into the wrong hands."

Harry was not buying that one for a moment and he knew; oh boy he knew that Jor-El was trying to sell them a bill of goods. Although what that bill of goods was, Harry had no idea whatsoever but he kept a calm demeanor, he would find out what Jor-El was doing in due time. The entire mess felt rather fishy and Harry was not about to say anything against what Jor-El said until the time came.

"Well wherever it is, we'll find it," Lana responded, speaking up for Clark.

'I'm hazarding a guess it's somewhere in Smallville,' Karen thought to them.

'Call it a crazy hunch but you might be right,' Kara thought as she put her hands against each other and threw her head back.

This was going to be a long day, she just felt it, she had no idea why but she felt it. Now it was trying to get some kind of damage control together with the blonde turning her head around and rubbing her eyes.

"I believe it's time to see what your future self had in mind," Kara suggested, curious to see who would be more stubborn, Jor-El or Jor-El.

"Do you think that is wise?" Lara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're there as well," Harry responded and Lara was surprised. "And your personality is so much more appealing than Jor-El's was."

Lara smiled and Clark wondered if his lack of his powers were getting to him. Not only were his mother (a younger clone of his mother who was barely older than Clark, he remind himself) was flirting with Harry but Jor-El seemed to be rather apathetic about the entire situation. There were sometimes where Clark wondered about his father.

"What's up with them?" Clark whispered to Lois.

"I'll tell you later, Smallville, it might fry your brain," Lois answered with a smug smile.

Clark shook his head and Harry spun around.

"Fortress, it's just as well, we should take you there, at least so we can figure this all out," Harry concluded and the group all nodded, before they prepared to do what they needed to do. "It would be easier to transport out of the farm house, because if we get caught by anyone outside, we're going to be put back a few steps."

He pulled out a Portkey.

"This should get us here, just one touch and it will transport us off," Harry stated.

"Fascinating technology," Jor-El responded with an impressed expression in his eyes and Harry did not even bother to correct him.

Clark hoped to get to know his father better, his real father, when all of this blew over. His mother as well, but after Raya told him that his father was a much different person than the AI abomination at the fortress, Clark could not help but be a bit curious.

The Portkey took them off and they disappeared into a flash of light.

"Jor-El say hello to Jor-El or have you two already met?" Kara inquired in a joking manner but she had to plug in the vocalization crystal.

Jor-El, the AI version was a bit miffed at being locked out of his own Fortress so he did not respond to that statement.

"What happened to my powers, Jor-El?" Clark asked him, immediately.

"My son, I have done nothing with your powers," Jor-El, the AI responded.

"No, it was not Jor-El's decision, it was mine," Lara, the AI stated.

"Why would you…."

"Kal-El, it is within your grasp to restore your powers but there is a certain lesson that I hoped to impart on you and that's humility," Lara responded as she gazed at her son through the crystal "eye" so to speak. "You have allowed your belief that you can get away with much run away with you. It has allowed you to become self-righteous."

"What do I need to do to restore my powers?" Clark demanded and Lara was silent.

"You. Need. To. Learn. Hu-mil-i-ty!' Lara repeated herself putting an emphasis on each syllable like her son was a small child and Clark's expression swam with frustration. "I believe that was already established."

"Humility is a virtue, yes," Lara, the clone, stated as she watched Clark. "Then again, being self-righteous is something that runs smack dab in the middle of the house of El."

"All too true," Lara, the AI, agreed, pleased that her younger self was gaining some perception.

Both Jor-Els were miffed that they were being talked about like they weren't even in the room but there was a sound in the distance.

Kara dashed forward and grabbed the figure in the shadows. The parka hood dropped down, to reveal her face and blonde hair.

"That's…you're the one that I saw!" Lois yelled, piping up for the first time.

"Alura?" Jor-El asked in confusion, turning from Kara to Alura.

"I'm Alura's daughter, Kara, and this is my mother," Kara stated with a smile on her face. "You don't know that you've had a daughter, did you?"

"I learned of it some time ago but I have no memories of you, other than this conversation that we are having," Alura stated, as she reached forward and pulled her daughter into a warm hug with Kara returned. "I wish this meeting could be a bit more joyous."

"I thought it was pretty joyous," Kara responded, seeing her mother, young and most importantly alive once again. Karen smiled, even if it was not technically her universe's version of Alura, she still felt a sense of kinship. "This is Karen, she's an older version of me from an alternate universe, don't ask."

Lara, both the AI and the clone, snickered as Alura cracked a smile.

"So, I guess that will would make you my daughter as well," Alura responded as she hugged Karen as well.

"I'd like that," Karen responded, not able to keep the smile off of her face.

Alura turned, seeing the dark haired and green eyed young man standing before her and a smile crossed her face as she studied his features. She quite liked what she saw and the blonde opened her mouth.

"So who is this?"

"I'm Harry, Kara and Karen's husband," Harry responded as he reached forward and took Alura's hand, shaking it.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise but recovered quickly.

"Among others," Kara offered, not able to resist.

Alura's mind went into overdrive; Harry must have been a powerful young man, given that he would have a collective. Then again, it was hard not to see why several women would feel the need to be with him as she looked up and down his body.

"We need to take this Fortress and shut it down," Alura responded as she locked her eyes onto Jor-El's.

"Shut it down?" Jor-El asked, both the man and the AI.

"It poses a danger should Zod acquire it," Alura responded, hoping that her words would get through.

"He hasn't acquired it yet," Clark protested but his aunt smiled at him.

"If he didn't, he will," Alura responded as she spun around, they did not know the gravity of the situation.

"We are working on a way to keep it out of his hands but we need more time then we have," Thara commented and Kara turned towards her.

"You knew where my mother was, and you didn't tell me?" Kara asked, her voice dripping with hurt.

Thara looked apologetic but Kara turned around, in frustration, unable to believe that her friend would not tell her the simple truth.

"So who is Kara's father?" Alura asked, trying to steer the conversation away from these awkward waters.

Little did Alura know that she spun the conversation around into even more awkward waters.

"Zor-El," Lara, the AI, chimed in.

Alura's eyebrows raised and she was flummoxed. There was only one question that passed her mouth.

"Was I brain dead?"

The Kent Property was completely abandoned which left it ripe and open for a robbery. The figure stepped in, dressed in a black trench coat, a scarf, and gloved hands, as she reached forward, and pulled back a board.

It glinted beneath her and the eyes widened, a bit of pink hair sticking out from underneath the hood and she picked up the Book of RAO and pocketed it, before she vanished with a silent pop, just as a group of shadowed assassins moved in.

"Search the barn, this is our only chance," a dark haired woman in a green cloak stated as they went to search for the Book of RAO.

To Be Continued in the Next Chapter "Snatched Away" On July 23rd 2013.