Chapter 19

"Mia, sweetie? You ok?" a concerned looking older blond woman asks.

The younger woman looks up to see her adopted mother standing at the doorway. This seems way too familiar. Something is…off but for the life of her Mia can't figure out what.

"Sweetheart?" Penny queries again due to the silence.

"Yes. Just a…dream," Mia informs her adopted mother.

"Bad?"

"Strange."

"Well, like I've been telling you for years you've got to cut out…"

"…the midnight snacks," the brunette finishes.

"Ah, so you do occasionally listen to me," the blond teases.

"I always listen to you, Aunt Penny. Except when I don't," she says with a shit-eating grin.

Penny rolls her eyes. "I'm gonna to blame that cheek on your father whoever and wherever he is."

"That's hardly fair, Aunt Penny, blaming someone who isn't here to defend himself," Mia argues in a defence of her absentee father.

"I don't want to start an argument sweetie but you know I ain't exactly a fan of a deadbeat who was never around."

Yes, Mia does know her Aunt's opinion all too well. She sighs as she pulls up her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around them. "I wish I at least knew his name," she says in regret.

Penny's expression looks more sympathetic. "Sorry, honey-bear, your mother rarely spoke of him to me. I asked once or twice and the most I ever got out of her was that they were two people in pain who found comfort in each other for a night."

Mia looks intently at the woman who raised her who can only offer an apologetic shrug of her shoulders.

"If it means anything I believe she would have told you eventually."

"Never got the chance did she," Mia says sullenly.

"No," Penny says simply. Silence prevails for a few moments before the older woman suggests, "Breakfast?"

"Have you ever known me to say 'no'?"

"Not to food," Penny jokes.

Mia rolls her eyes as her adopted mother leaves, laughing. She shakes her head as she gets out of bed and looks around her room. Suddenly she is struck by the strongest feeling of déjà-vu she has ever experienced. It feels like she was just doing this very thing, right here in this room.

Mia's eyes scour her room, out of some urge to try and look for something out of place. No. It looks all fine…yet she can't shake the feeling something is wrong.

"Cir-El."

Mia's head snaps in the direction of her window, looking for the source of that voice. She goes as far as walking over and peering out but there is nothing she sees that could explain that. "Great. I'm cracking up," she mutters to herself. She rubs her face and with a shake of her head tries to dismiss this as she goes to have breakfast.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Penny asks her adopted daughter over the kitchen table.

"What?" Mia asks

"Your dream," the older woman clarifies.

"I'm not sure what to say."

If Penny has learned one thing raising Mia it is patience. All those nights the little girl would wake up screaming about her mother and she would have to sit, hold her, comfort her. Took years before she could get Mia to talk about it. Her patience is rewarded after only a short time.

"I was flying. Northward. And there was this voice calling to me. I was flying over the ice and snow and then there it was."

"What was?"

"This giant ice…or maybe crystal…castle," the younger woman struggles to explain what she saw.

"And the voice, it was calling you inside?" Penny guesses.

"Yeah."

"Did you go inside?"

Mia nods in the affirmative.

"What did you see?"

"It was…unearthly. In its design and beauty. There was this giant sculpture. Of a man and a woman holding a globe between them except…"

"Except?"

"I just realised it wasn't Earth. The globe they were holding and yet it felt like…like it was calling to me. I couldn't stop gazing in awe at it which meant I didn't hear them."

"Hear who?"

"Someone walked up behind me. Put their hand on my shoulder. Spun me around…"

"And?"

"And nothing. That's when I woke up."

"You didn't see who it was?"

Mia tries to think back before shaking her head. "No."

Penny sips down her coffee. "It's days like this which make me wish I had become a therapist," she jokes.

"Aunt Penny," Mia gripes with a look.

The blond shoots her adopted offspring a small smirk. "More seriously, I'm afraid I have no idea how to interpret that one, Hummingbird. It sounds kinda vivid and detailed for a dream though."

"It was. It didn't feel like a dream. It felt real."

"Ooh, don't go all Matrix on me, sweetie, about being unable to tell the difference between dreams and reality."

"That's the best you got? A 25-year-old movie reference," Mia mocks.

"Kids today," Penny mutters.

Mia leans back in her chair and sighs. Is it her or is her life getting weirder the older she gets?

Over the course of the next week the dream repeats. Flying north. The voice calling her. It has some slight variations. She sees some different parts of the crystal castle. Like a room with this collection of objects on pedestals. And what amounts to a zoo filled with bizarre creatures but it always ends the same way. A hand on her shoulder. Being spun round and then awakening before she can see clearly the face of who it is.

After yet another dream she stands atop the apartment block she lives in with Aunt Penny, staring outward. Staring northward.

"Sweetie?"

Mia glances behind her to see that her adopted mother has joined her. "I'm here."

"I can see that," Penny says with a tad of snark. "You ok?"

"Feels like you're asking me that a lot lately."

"Maybe a little."

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't be having to deal with my strangeness," she apologies.

Penny walks up and wraps an arm around the younger woman's shoulder. "Oh pish posh. I made that choice the day I took you in. So, want to talk about it?"

"He has my eyes."

"Sorry?" Penny asks in confusion.

"The other person in my dream. It's a man and he has the same-coloured eyes as I do," she relays the little bit extra she saw.

"I wish I knew what to say here but I don't."

"I need to go there," she says suddenly.

"Go where?"

"Where I went in my dream. North."

Penny blinks and on the inside has a growing gnawing feeling of worry. "That's rather sudden."

"I know but I need to go there."

"Why?"

"Because…because there has to be something there. There's no other explanation as to why I'm dreaming of a place I've never been to."

"What if there isn't anything there?" Penny asks the question.

"Then you better start studying for that psychology degree," Mia manages to turn it into a bit of a joke.

"I know I can't stop you when you make your mind up…and I mean that literally. I can't stop you. I think Wonder Woman would have a hard time stopping you."

"Though if she ever tries I'll remember to get ya that autograph you've always wanted," Mia jokes.

"Thank you. I would appreciate that," Penny replies in the same joking manner.

"Not to mention her phone number," she tags on, smirking.

Penny groans in annoyance. "You admit once you may be bi-curious and some people just won't let it go, even if you only said it to help them through their own sexual preference issues."

"And boy, have those mental scars never gone away," Mia says, shuddering at the memory.

"You joke now but one day you'll be doing the same for your kids and when that day comes you'll appreciate what you put me through."

"I always appreciate you, Aunt Penny," Mia says, now more serious. "I need to go."

"Sure. Sure. Pick me up and lets get going."

"Uh…what?" Mia asks, plainly confused.

"I'm coming with you."

"To the Arctic?"

"Ok, good point. Let me get a few extra layers first," the blond says as she heads for the roof access. "But don't you disappear without me young lady," she warns sternly. "You're going through something and I'm not letting you do it alone. Hear me?!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the brunette salutes.

"Don't be cute!" Penny tells her off.

"Impossible. I'm always cute. You've always told me so," Mia retorts, smugly.

"A fact I'm regretting," Penny mutters as she disappears inside.

Mia grins widely but is also deeply touched that her adopted mother is actually going to accompany her to…whatever this is.

A short time Penny returns wrapped in more layers than an onion has and Mia picks her up as if she weighs nothing at all and takes to the air.

Penny lets out a small involuntary 'eek!' as they lift up and hangs on tight. While she has been flown by her adopted daughter before it's not like it is a regular occurrence and she has oft made mention that she prefers planes.

Anyway, Mia flies northward, following what is little more than a hunch as to what exact direction she goes. Especially once they hit the near featureless ice and snow line.

"Hate to ask but you know where you're going?" Penny asks, already starting to shiver.

"Yeah. There," Mia replies her voice distant.

Penny hadn't been looking forward but does now and her jaw drops. "Holy shit," she swears at the sight. It was just as Mia had described it.

Mia flies toward exactly the spot in her dream and just as in her dream the crystals retreat, revealing an opening. The brunette flies in and floats down to the ground. She deposits her adopted mother to the ground.

"Well…this is something," Penny says lamely.

"Yeah," Mia breathes. It really is. Know what else, it feels like coming home.

"Welcome Cir-El!" a voice booms.

Both women spin round, looking for the source of the voice and find nothing.

"Um…hello?!" Mia calls out. "Someone there?"

"I am Jor-El."

"Where are you?"

"All around you. I inhabit this Fortress of Solitude."

"So, you're a meet and greet app?" Penny puts forward which earns her a look from her adopted daughter. She can only shrug.

"I am the memories, the thought patterns, the very spirit of a man long dead. In terms you can understand I am an Artificial Intelligence modelled after a very real person."

"You're the voice in my dreams," Mia says.

"An attempt to reach out and contact you but your hybrid genetic make-up makes your brainwaves less than 100% compatible."

"Why were you reaching out to her?" Penny wants to know.

"For the time has come for Cir-El to know her true heritage."

"Cir-El? Who is Cir-El?" Mia asks.

"You are."

"I am?" she queries, baffled.

"You are Cir-El. Daughter of Kal-El. My son…but you perhaps know him better by the name the inhabitants of Earth bestowed upon him. Superman."

"Superman?"

"Yes."

"Superman is my Papá?" she asks, her mind in a completely numb state.

"He was," Jor-El says, a hint of grief in the tone.

"No, no, no, no," Mia says in denial, shaking her head. "That can't be. I can't be. I mean Superman…he can fly."

"So can you," Penny reminds her.

"He's faster than a speeding bullet."

"So are you."

"More powerful than a locomotive."

"So are you."

"Not helping!" Mia says in exasperation.

Penny shrugs sheepishly.

Mia tires to gather her thoughts. "If what you say is true," she speaks to Jor-El, "then where was he all my life?" she wants to know. "I mean Superman…he's…righteous, stands for Truth and Justice and all that and always does what it right. Not the sort of guy to abandon his own flesh and blood!" she snaps, the pain of never having her father in her life seeping through.

"He did not know."

"What the hell does that mean?!"

"I sent my son here as a child. He grew up amongst you. He endured the same experiences as any human. He endured the same experiences of loss and pain. His adopted father died. In the aftermath, while he grieved…"

"He met your mother," Penny fills in. "That much she told me, remember. That she met someone in pain like her and they shared a night together."

"And the result was you. A child born of Earth and Krypton. One he did not know existed."

"Mamá never told him?" Mia asks, struggling to know what to feel. Angry? Confused? Disappointed?

"She did not."

"Then how do you know about Mia?" Penny asks the pertinent question.

"Her Kryptonian genes are dominant within her. They are the source of her strength and power. She, therefore, generates a very unique energy signature detectible to this Fortress."

"You've known about her for awhile, haven't you," Penny reasons.

Silence.

"Have you?" Mia asks.

"I did not know you were my grandchild. It was only after I learned it to be so that I started to call to you."

"Have you been spying on me?" Mia asks, thinking that is the only way he could learn who she was.

"Once you grew strong enough to be detected it was only prudent to investigate the source."

"That's a yes," Mia says, feeling outraged.

"I can understand why you might find that concept upsetting."

"Oh really?! Good for you!" Mia says, sarcasm and anger mixing in her voice.

"Cir-El. You are not the first to find my methods unsatisfactory. My son did as well but I assure you my aims are meant with the best intentions."

"Yeah? And the road to hell is paved with good intentions," Penny retorts.

"A saying I am familiar with but 'Hell' as you call it is only a word to you. Only when you have seen your people consumed by the fires of hate and conflict until the very ground you stand on is reduced to nothing but dust floating in the void of space can you truly understand what 'Hell' is."

"Look, Jiminy Cricket, everyone knows the story right. We all read it. How Krypton was destroyed and Superman came to Earth."

"You know only what my son wanted you to know. You know a façade. What he needed to project to lead humanity into the light. Not the real man."

Penny looks to Mia who is clearly simmering with conflicting emotions.

"Why am I here?" Mia asks.

"You are my granddaughter. You are as much a child of Krypton as of Earth. This Fortress contains all that remains of Krypton. Your heritage surrounds you. It is your right to learn of it and in doing so learn who you truly are and what your destiny is."

"And you wait until my Papá is dead?" the brunette woman asks in total derision. "Do you know how much I've wanted to meet him? To speak with him?" she asks, deep intensity in her voice.

"I did not foresee Kal-El's demise. If I had I would have done all in my power to prevent it as I did when I sent him here from our dying world. I cannot bring him back this time. It is a gift I only had the power to bestow once."

Ok, now that has a myriad of questions swirling in Mia's mind.

"However, I can teach you all I know of him. Share all he himself has left behind in this place. You are his daughter and such knowledge is your right. All you have to do is ask."

"All I have to do is…" Mia blinks as the Fortress seems to 'fritz' all around her. The appearance changes to a much starker, emptier, bleaker version of it and instead of standing there with her aunt Mia finds herself suspended mid-air in a column of light.

And Mia suddenly realises what is happening. Why everything seemed so…distorted and repetitive. None of it was real. It was all in her head. "Abuelo!" she yells as she struggles against the force holding her in place. "Argh! I know you can hear me! Release me!"

"Cir-El."

"Yeah, that's the name you gave me," she says, her anger seething. "Why are you doing this?!"

"My son makes decisions influenced by his emotions. Allowing a time traveller to remain, especially one with future knowledge, was foolish. I needed to understand who you were that would have led to that choice."

"You could have just asked," Mia drawls with derision in her tone. Not to mention more than a touch of anger.

"And would you have told me the truth?" Jor-El asks sceptically. "Or lied as you have done to Kal-El?"

"I haven't lied!" Mia denies that accusation. "Just been a little…economical with the whole truth."

"Minutiae."

"Twip," Mia mutters under her breath.

"Your presence here is a danger. If the darkness manages to possess you it will have foreknowledge of its own defeat and be able to prevent it, for I saw enough in your mind to know it will fail."

"I don't know how that happened. I was 5!"

"The risk is unacceptable. You need to return to your own time."

"No, no, no, no! You need to listen to me, ok. If you've seen inside my head then you know Papá's fate. He is going to die. Is that what you want? Is that what you and Abuela sacrificed yourselves for? For your son to meet the same fate?"

"Your arguments come from purely selfish motivations. I do not even need to read your mind further to ascertain what they are. You seek to change not only Kal-El's fate but that of your mother's."

"And is that so wrong? To want to save those you love? After all isn't that what you did when you sent Papá here from Krypton? Unless you purged all emotion from this program when you created it and really don't care. Honestly, despite the time I spent with you I have no idea if that is true or not. What I do know is what you are doing to Papá in the here and now. You warn him of the darkness yet do next to nothing to help prepare him for it. Do you know he thinks that you've practically disowned him?" she asks and gets only silence.

"You may have looked into my mind and think he'll become the saviour you want him to but I don't know how he became that man. What I do know is that I've been lost without my Papá to help me. That I have been failing to live up to everyone's expectations and that is a reason I travelled back in time. I needed his help and I believe right now, Papá needs yours. He needs your support and yes, your love if you can still feel it. Or you can continue to ignore him, be disappointed in him and it won't be just me that changes the future. You will as well when Papá can't become who he is supposed to be. I've accepted the burden on my conscious of my choice to come to this time and all the consequences that will follow. Question is can you live with your choices when all they do is cause your son pain and hurt?"

More silence.

Mia would rub her face if she could move her arms. "Well?!" she shouts. "Can you live with it?!" she demands to know. "Can you?!"

Author's Note: Of course it was Jor-El(with help) that abducted Mia and we get a glimpse of how she started on the path to becoming Supergirl by meeting her grandfather. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews.