5. On the House of El

Barry Allen.

It was a strange enough name to her ears, Kara thought, to be utterly alien. And in fact, to her, it was alien. As much as she may have looked like a human and a human like a Kryptonian, they were not the same species. They weren't even from the same quadrant of the galaxy. Earth and Krypton were two vastly different planets, giving rise to two vastly different peoples.

But there was something that was altogether familiar about Barry Allen to Kara, and she couldn't get him out of her head even though over a week had passed since his incursion onto Black Zero. That strange nostalgia of something that she had never experienced had coursed through her when she talked to him. Somehow, for some reason, that red blur and yellow-orange lightning that crackled off of his suit was embedded in her mind, tugging at the strings of something just beneath the surface of her consciousness.

Zod had barely cared that Kal had been taken away and that an intruder—or two, according to the ship's security systems after the fact—had breached their base of operations. That was at least a little strange, though in all honesty, she couldn't say that she knew the man well enough to say. Certainly, he had changed after she had been found by them; that much was obvious and expected, given that Krypton had been destroyed by the time that Black Zero exited the Phantom Zone after many human years. Apparently, they had been originally intended to exit their imprisonment after Krypton's destruction, but a malfunction had kept them in stasis for much longer. Twenty-four of Earth's years had passed before they had been returned to the real universe due to a mechanical failure in the Phantom Drive, and that was when Kara herself had been found and rescued. It had taken them another year to fix the ship, and when they had finally received the faint echoes of a Kryptonian scout ship, slowly—at least relatively so—making its way to where Krypton had once been, they had powered toward the source. The signal took years to propagate to them; they crossed that chasm of space in less than a week.

Kara wiped her hair down as she exited the shower, drying herself off. Absentmindedly, she noted with some curiosity that despite Krypton and Earth's differences, they had somehow arrived at the same conclusion about something as basic as washing. It was at least a little odd how something like that had happened, though she wasn't nearly qualified to talk about it. Perhaps if her father or uncle had still been alive, or even her aunt, who she had been told was quite the Thinker herself. They could've analyzed it academically, drawing conclusions from evidence that she wouldn't have even been able to find or thought to look at in a proper xenological observation.

Remembering her family only brought sorrow, so Kara shelved those memories as best she could, dressing in a loose nightgown before slipping back into her bedroom. She briefly touched the crest of her folded skinsuit—the one that her uncle Jor-El had given her before she had blasted off of Krypton—and made her way to the bed. It was a utilitarian affair, hard and barely padded, but it sufficed for sleep, and at any rate, her back had always been fonder of a more solid surface to sleep on than a softer one.

Crawling under her sheets, she stared blankly at the dark ceiling, the only light in the room from the faint glow of soft lights inset into the metal paneling, barely bright enough to register to her vision.

Yes, Kryptonians were nothing like humans. Except that they looked the same, could breathe the same air – at least in one way, could eat the same food, and could live among each other. Her cousin, Kal-El, the Superman according to humanity, was living proof of that. From the records that they had managed to gather by tapping into Earth's many scattered networks, he seemed to have been raised as a normal human by human parents. Scant information existed about him outside of various reports made by third parties, but it seemed like he was a relatively well-known quantity among the people of Metropolis, an urban agglomeration positioned off the eastern coast of one of the planet's major political entities.

That was yet another thing that differentiated Krypton and Earth. Where Earth had many polities and billions of people, the Krypton of her memories had one city, Kandor, and less than a hundred million people. Earth was a flourishing, growing planet by comparison. In the back of her mind, she remembered Zod once talking to her about Krypton's history, a conversation that was, in real time, many years in the past. How Krypton had once too been a flourishing, growing society, reaching out into the wilderness of space to see how tall it could stand amongst the stars.

Perhaps, Kara thought as her consciousness began to fade into darkness and sleep, they were not so different after all.

"Because… you need help."

She looked off to the side for a moment in silence to process his words. There was a small but almost natural feeling of incredulity in her heart at the words. Nobody could be that kind. It just wasn't possible. Not in her experience, not in this lifetime. Strangers didn't help strangers for no reason at all. Yet there was something in his expression that was so genuine that Kara couldn't help but believe him.

"Do you know what this symbol stands for?" she asked, looking down at her chest, where the symbol of the House of El was emblazoned across her skinsuit.

"Su…pergirl?" the second of the identical men hesitantly said, standing behind the first one.

"It means hope, right?" the first replied quickly.

"Hope, yeah, does it mean hope?" the second concurred, immediately switching his answer.

She almost wanted to smile at that.

Almost.

"Krypton was a beautiful… place," she said, memories flooding with a childhood of joy and laughter and love. Parents that doted on her. An aunt and uncle who went out of their way to spoil her. Friends. She swallowed. "We are a people of hope," she explained, shaking her head, "not war."

She turned to see the many viewscreens to the side, playing footage of conflict. In them, she could see the tell-tale shape of a Kryptonian gunship firing indiscriminately. Explosions and fires filled the screen. On another, a Kryptonian prison barge loomed large in the distance, hovering over the skyline of a city.

"Zod may be from Krypton," she continued, "but he is not my people."

"So…" the second man slowly began, "you're saying…"

"Yes," she interjected. "I will help you fight Zod."

Kara screamed as she awakened, pushing herself up against the bulkhead as a cold sweat dripped from her forehead. Her head was in complete and utter pain, a splitting torment unlike any she had felt before. She pressed her hands against the side of her heads in a vain attempt to press out the pressure, but it was no use. The agony continued, and the images of memories she never experienced split her mind.

One hand reached out to her nightstand, groping for the medication that Jax-Ur had prepared for her for over a year. It was stronger, much stronger, than the one that Glora had once procured for her on Krypton, Kara thought between bouts of suffering and flashes of a life she never lived, and it was so much more effective in dealing with the recurring headaches. Why though? Why now? She had taken one just last week. Another lightning strike of pain. No, no questions. Yes, she needed it. She couldn't wait. It hurt. Ear-splitting misery a jumble of images—

she needed it

her hand felt the container and she grabbed

thoughts became jumbled in distress

the orb was in her palm

swallow it

pain split her skull

she did not need to think

fighting against the currents of time

could no longer think

that was all she needed

all she had to do was eat it and it would all be over

a return to life

an end to this anguish

memories of another

no pain

only—

"I've got you," a voice called out in the recesses of her memories. A familiar voice, yet one that she had never heard before. There was no one else in the room with her.

Kara crushed the medication in her hand with the sensation of it crumbling to dust in her palm, and she felt the back of her head smash against the bulkhead with a thud as she crumpled onto the bed and blacked out.

When she awoke again, the hull lights were nearly at full power, indicating that it was the local sunrise based on the geosynchronous orbit established by Black Zero. They had long since adapted to Earth's twenty-four-hour routine so as to better work at the cadence of the humans and understand when they would be at work and when they would be off duty. Kara hadn't slept in this late ever in her time on the ship.

Her black hair, damp from sweat, was splayed across her face, and she brushed it aside as she sat up. The residual soreness of her head, like the morning after a bad sickness, sapped her strength, and the back of her head was also surprisingly tender. Her body felt sticky despite showering the night before, and she gingerly crawled out of her bed and stood up.

A bout of nausea afflicted her, sending her tumbling to the metal floor. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out but a dry heave and cough. But even as she shivered on the floor, the memories flooded in. Memories of a life she had never lived. Memories of pain she had never felt. Memories of comradery she had never experienced.

And there he was, that one red-blur of a gap in her mind, now perfectly filled. Barry Allen, ever-present in her thoughts as a conundrum, was finally explained. The pains she had felt were finally understood. It wasn't even the same Barry as far as she could tell, with this world's version having a distinctly different lower face and voice, but in spirit all of the Barry Allens that ever existed may as well have been the same person to her.

"It's all his fault," Kara whispered out loud to herself as she saw conflicting yet complementary memories run through her mind. Which life had she even lived? "What did he do?"

She pushed herself off the ground and into the shower, relishing the cold water running over her body and hair. Even so, her mind was still focused on Barry Allen. In one lifetime, she remembered things so clearly – her childhood, growing up under the watchful eyes of her parents, before the end of Krypton beckoned. She had joined the Sword of Rao, had seen the mass protests that turned into riots. The Council had sentenced her to what they had believed to be death. And now… she was here.

Yes, that was the lifetime that she had lived, not the life of the Kara she could also remember.

No, that Kara had lived a different life. She was a young girl when it happened, when Krypton's collapse became imminent, when Zod had rebelled and taken over. He had toppled the Council, smashing their forces into oblivion, and after she had been pushed into her pod by her frantic uncle, the first thing she remembered after waking up was the torture at the hands of humans. She remembered the rescue, how she had been brought out into the yellow sun for the first time and felt the strength flow. She remembered flying through the blue skies of Earth, like the Superman she had just met. Her cousin, Kal – she could remember, yes. She could remember in complete detail how Zod said he had killed—

Kara punched the metal paneling of the shower's walls, leaving a slight indent in the alloy even as she drew a little blood on her knuckles. She shook with anger, a low growl rumbling out of the throat before she could even stop it – if she had even wanted to stop it at all.

Zod.

In her heart, she was conflicted between the memories—her memories—of the man she knew and the memories of a woman who had fought against Zod. He wasn't like that, no. The Zod she knew would never murder infants and destroy entire worlds.

Would he?

Like a ghost, the voice of her uncle could be heard whispering in her ears, the faint echo of a distant conversation from a world long destroyed.

"Zod is not a man that takes things lightly, and when he does make up his mind, he is willing to go to whatever lengths he deems necessary to achieve his goals. Today, he achieved them."

That day, Zod had indeed achieved his goals. He had shown his strength to the Council, tacitly persuading them to imprison—and save—he and his people from the destruction of Krypton. That much Kara could understand, despite her self-acknowledged political naivety. But the Zod from the other world was not the same Zod; no, that Zod was a warlord, a butcher of babies and plunderer of planets. He had scoured the stars for a world to feast upon, and when he had finally found it, he set to work building a new Krypton on the bones of billions. He had killed Kal, slaughtering an innocent infant for his own gain.

That wasn't who Zod was, right?

Kara turned the shower off, lingering in the mist and damp stall for a little while longer as water dripped from her hair to the floor. She shook her head, flinging droplets out of her hair. No, despite their identical appearances, the two Zods didn't seem that alike to her. But then again, she couldn't really say that she knew him all that well. At least, not as well as her uncle or father had.

Drying herself up and slipping into a non-descript black skinsuit, she had almost walked out of her room before her eyes fell on the folded blue-red skinsuit, the symbol of the House of El almost calling out to her. She ran a hand over it. On Krypton, it had been the exclusive symbol of their family. But from Kal, she could see that it had become something more – it had become the symbol of Superman for the people of Earth. In a twist of fate, their family symbol had become a beacon for humanity.

She reluctantly withdrew her hand from the outfit and exited her room, her mind set with intent. The lift took her three levels up – not quite to the main command deck, which was still one level higher, but to the auxiliary logistics center, where Faora could usually be found during her on-duty hours. The sub-commander had taken her duties onboard quite seriously, at one point noting that Zod and his top deputies should never be on the same level in the event of a disastrous attack on their ship. Zod had largely waved away such concerns due to the sheer discrepancy in technological prowess between them and the humans, but Faora had still stayed on the lower deck as a result.

It was good that the arrangement was so. Kara didn't think she could stand to see Zod's face. Not yet, at least.

And when the lift reached the level and its doors opened, Faora's back, complete with her flowing dark cape, was immediately visible in the middle of the room.

"Sub-commander Faora," Kara spoke out, causing the older woman to turn to her.

"Kara," Faora greeted. "You are later than usual today."

"Yes, I… had some things to deal with."

Faora had a slightly curious look on her face but otherwise said nothing.

"I require a dropship for my own use," Kara finally said, steeling herself. "I need to speak with Kal."

"Do you still believe that Kal can be persuaded to join us?" Faora asked, crossing her arms.

"He must. I am the last of his family, and we are the last of his people. If not with us, then who could he be himself with? I'm sure that I can persuade him to see this truth."

In her heart, though, Kara wasn't sure at all. But Faora didn't need to know that.

There were a few seconds of silence as Faora seemed to ponder Kara's words.

"Very well, daughter of El," Faora stated, nodding. "You will have forty-eight of the planet's hours to persuade your cousin. After that, you are to return with or without him because General Zod will move to the next phase."

"Thank you, sub-commander," Kara bowed her head slightly. "I will return as soon as I can."

Faora's slight nod and turn back to face the viewport of the deck signaled the end of the conversation, and Kara slipped back into the lift. Instead of going down the number of levels needed to reach the hangar deck, though, she first keyed for the level back to her own cabin. Quickly entering, she took her red-blue skinsuit that her uncle had crafted for her and tucked it under one arm before she reentered the lift to reach the hangar.

When the lift finally opened again, she was greeted by the myriad of ships, ranging from the odd skimmer that had somehow made it onboard Black Zero before Krypton's destruction, to a pair of heavy gunships. But what she was looking for a simple dropship, of which Black Zero had a half-dozen.

Walking toward the nearest one, she entered it and activated the controls, feeling the hum of its engines powering up and the craft lifting off the hangar floor. She gunned it, blasting off out of Black Zero at near the dropship's top speed before realizing she had a major problem.

She had no idea how to find Kal.

Vaguely, she knew where Superman operated, but Kara decided that landing in a city would likely cause a negative reaction from the humans charged with the defense of the city. The continent he inhabited lay before her as she sped toward it from orbit, but it was a vast land. Finally, she decided to pick a non-descript central location within the continent. After all, Kal could fly on Earth, and there would undoubtedly be a response from him should she land.

When the ground approached, she reversed speed and pulled the dropship upward, bringing it to a near full-stop with only the slightest moment of acceleration on her body before the ship's inertial dampers kicked in.

Kara found herself hovering above just about nothing as far as human civilization went. Grass, one of the primary local flora of Earth, covered the land in varying shades of green and yellow. Lowering the ship down, she activated her rebreather mask on and disembarked to see a land flatter than any she had ever experienced before. Krypton's lands were filled with deep valleys and tall peaks, rocky in most places with the occasional flowing stream of water to break it up. Even where there had been flora, it was on rolling hills that would have dwarfed any that she saw before her. It didn't even seem as if there was anyone living here.

A faint pop in the sky above alerted her, and she looked up to see a rapidly approaching object. Within a matter of seconds, a man dropped from the sky and came to a rapid halt a few paces away from her, floating in the air. His red-blue skinsuit shone in the sunlight, with the yellow of the crest on his chest becoming all the more apparent by contrast. His short hair fluttered slightly in the breeze.

Kal-El, the last son of Krypton.

"Kal," Kara began, before another sound—crackling this time—took her attention away with a sudden turn to her right. In a second, the familiar sound of electric motion came to a stop in a plume of dust, and Barry Allen came to a stop in front of her beside Superman.

"Am I late?" he asked. His eyes darted between Kal and Kara, lingering perhaps slightly too long on her for it to be entirely innocent. "Sorry, I was caught up—"

"It's all good, Barry," Kal said, his eyes never leaving her. "I'll take it from here."

Barry looked at Kara, and she felt like she was under scrutiny from the man, but nodding, he took off as quickly as he had arrived in another blast of electricity, leaving the two Kryptonians alone again.

"Kara," Kal greeted. "What brings you to Earth?" It wasn't exactly a cold tone, but it was relatively frosty and made Kara halt slightly. She hadn't expected that a grand and warm welcome, but they were family.

"I came to see you, Kal," Kara said truthfully.

"You keep calling me that," Kal responded. "I assume that's my name. The name that my birth parents gave me?"

"Yes, your parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van," Kara explained. "My uncle and aunt."

"Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van," Kal repeated, as if he was trying out their names. "I see." He uncrossed his arms and floated down to the ground. "On Earth, my name is Clark. Clark Kent."

A stray memory intersected in her mind.

"Clark is his human name."

Yet another thing that remained constant between lives. One day, she was going to have ask Barry Allen about it like for many other things, but today her focus was on Kal – no, on Clark.

"Clark," she said, mirroring Clark's earlier repetition. She smiled slightly. "It suits you."

Clark beamed a wide smile. "Yeah, right? I think it does." He looked out into the horizon before turning back to Kara. "Do you want to meet my parents?" he suddenly asked. "My human parents, I mean. I think my mom and dad are probably home right now."

"Yes," Kara quickly replied. "I would like to meet them."

"Great," Clark continued. He frowned a little. "Can you fly?"

"In my craft, yes. Like you?" She paused. More memories of her soaring through the air like Superman through the sky—Earth's sky, she now realized—filled her mind imagination."I don't think so," she finally responded. "But maybe I could."

"Well, you can take your ship this time, and if we've got time, we can see about whether or not you can fly." Clark grinned with emphasis on the last word. Kara nodded and retreated back into her dropship, powering it up and following Clark out back into the blue sky.

Soon enough, though, Clark motioned to descend, and she followed him down to a little human construction, ostensibly a residence. Taking care not to hit anything, she avoided the rows of what appeared to her to be crops and landed beside the strange metal contraption that sat outside the habitat. Exiting, she saw Clark beside her as two older figures exited the door of the residence.

"This is my parents' house," Clark said. "And those are my parents, my Pa and Ma. Jonathan and Martha Kent."

"Clark!" the woman greeted happily, running to envelop the larger man in a hug. "Welcome home."

"Glad to be back, Ma," Clark returned, positively beaming.

"Son," the man—Jonathan Kent, then, if the woman was 'Ma'—simply said, though his voice wasn't cold like Kara had remembered her own father's had been at times. "How're you doing in the big city? They treating you okay?"

"Well enough," Clark answered. "Can't say I miss the noise, though. It's always loud in Metropolis."

"Oh gosh," Ma Kent suddenly spoke up, looking at Kara. "Clark, you haven't introduced us yet!"

"Oh, right." Clark slung an arm over Kara's shoulder and pulled her in toward him, which she acquiesced to despite it being a strange motion to her. "Ma, Pa, this is Kara Zor-El. Her first name's just Kara. She's my cousin. Our birth fathers were brothers."

A moment of silence passed as the wind blew through.

"Cousins?" Ma Kent finally said, eyes wide. Her husband remained silent, looking at Kara. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "Well, you guys better come on in then so we can have ourselves a proper chat. I think we've still got a little left over from lunch if you're hungry."

"That'd be great, Ma," Clark smiled, gesturing for Kara to follow. "Are you hungry, Kara? I know Ma says that it's leftovers but trust me when I say there's enough for a feast in there."

In truth, she was at least a little curious about human food and felt a bit of hunger. "I don't think I can, Clark," she said, tapping on her rebreather mask. "I can't take it off."

He frowned. "Are you sure? I mean, I'm breathing it." He paused. "Well, there was a bit of an… adjustment period when I was younger," he admitted. "I'm not sure how that'd go for an adult."

Kara simply nodded.

Ma Kent nudged her husband slightly. "Jonathan, stop gawking out here."

"Alright, alright," he said, throwing his hands up. "It's just that this thing's not exactly a Chevy, you know?" His hand ran down the side of the dropship. "It's actually a lot like his pod."

"You still have his pod?" Kara asked.

"Yep," Pa Kent noted, his hands on his hips. "Towed it into the shed all the way back when he first landed. It's been there ever since."

She looked at Clark. "We might want to look at that."

"Later," Ma Kent's voice came, in a tone of voice that seemed all too familiar to Kara despite never having met a human woman before today. It was the kind of tone that broached no dissent. "First, let me get some good, hot, and homemade food into you both."

"Uh, I am sorry—" Kara wanted to explain her mask, but before she could fully speak, Ma Kent had already disappeared back into the house. Pa Kent shrugged his shoulders.

"She's like that," Clark's human father said. "Always has been. That's why I married her."

"Give us a couple minutes, Pa," Clark spoke up. "We'll be in soon."

Pa Kent nodded and retreated into the house as well.

"I think you should take off your mask," Clark remarked suddenly.

"Why?" Kara asked, though she couldn't deny that she also had a longing to take it off. Despite it being temperature-controlled and mostly transparent, it was still uncomfortable to wear. She wanted to feel the natural air on her face, a sensation that she hadn't felt since Krypton.

"Our…" he trailed off, as if struggling to find the right words, "species gains certain abilities on Earth. But we can live and breathe in its atmosphere. I don't think you should be afraid of it."

Kara hesitated slightly, but reached up to her mask nonetheless. She remembered the cacophony of noises that had come when she had finally been broken out of the prison cell in another lifetime. It had assaulted her senses, bombarding her ears with sounds from far away. But here, it was… quiet. Other than the wind, there was almost nothing.

Disengaging the clasp, she pulled off the rebreather apparatus entirely, letting it fall to the ground as she took her first deep breath of Earth's air.

And immediately regretted it as she dropped to her knees in pain. Her eyes could see more than ever, and the very sight in front of her, be it her hands or Clark's legs, flickered between clothing, skin, muscles, bone, and everything in between. She shut her eyes closed as hard as she could. Even out here, there were still so many sounds; she could hear Ma and Pa Kent inside the house, the announcement of something from a digital source, the sound of running water, the bubbling of fluids inside a tank, even the—

She felt a pair of strong arms clasp around her midsection and the sensation of weightlessness take over. Opening her eyes, she saw herself and Clark ascend into the air, high above the ground until the dropship and the house became tiny by comparison. Up here, there was far less sound, though she still shut her eyes again.

"Focus on my voice," she heard, almost booming despite their close distance. "Focus only on it. Remember what it sounds like, and then find the right volume for it."

She tried to apply his words. Slowly, his voice returned to what she remembered a normal voice would be like beside her. It still wasn't perfect—her head ached from the effort—but it wasn't as nauseating or disorienting as it had been.

"That's it," he whispered. "Now open your eyes."

Slowly, she cracked open an eyelid. Her vision still flickered between layers.

"Find one thing and focus on that," Clark said.

Kara picked the crest on Clark's chest. The lines and curves of the House of El's symbol were something that she had grown up staring at, and now they were flickering between the skinsuit, the skin underneath the skinsuit, and the muscles, organs, and bones beneath that. She focused on those lines and curves, trying to see them and only them.

A few minutes passed, but eventually her vision did stop flickering as much between them. It was still not quite stable, moving in and out of focus and threatening to return to the multitude of layers that she had been able to see but not properly process before, but it was better. She could almost live with it.

"Great," Clark said, noting her expression. "You feel better, Kara?"

"A little," she admitted. "It is still not quite perfect, though."

"And it probably won't be for a while longer," he replied. "It took me a long time to get used to it. I don't expect you'd be able to figure it out instantly, even as an adult."

They slowly descended back to the Earth, landing onto the ground in front of the Kent homestead. Clark let go of her and took a step back.

"Shall we?" he gestured toward the door.

She nodded and made her way toward it, noting that it wasn't automatic and that she had to pull it open. Reaching for the knob, though, she crumpled it in her hands before she could open it, and then when she pushed, the entire door shook and came off its hinges.

"Oh," she heard Clark say before her. "You're going to need to be more careful. I've got the door." He took the door by its sides, and once they were indoors, he put it back into the doorframe, albeit unattached. "I'll fix it up later."

"In here!" Ma Kent's voice called out from another room. Kara made her way around the house, making sure to avoid bumping into anything, and found herself in a small room that was mostly attached to the kitchen beside. On the small table, various alien dishes were laid out, and Clark immediately took a seat.

"Any of them work," Clark motioned to the seats. Kara took one beside Clark. He reached for a rectangular-shaped food that threatened to crumble in his hands, and he placed one on the plate in front of Kara and one on his own.

"Cornbread," he explained, taking a bite out of his. "It's a staple around this household. Homemade and fresh." He devoured his in just a few bites.

Cautiously, she nibbled on hers. It was light in taste, without much in the way of offensive flavor. A little sweet, though there was a certainly flavor she couldn't quite describe and had no analogue for in Krypton's culinary ingredients.

"It's made from corn, a staple crop here," Clark explained, plating himself a second piece already. "Let's see." His eyes darted around the table, and within moments, he was scooping an orange-yellow gooey mess with objects inside, and what appeared to be shredded meat—if humans had a similar culinary practice with their domesticated animals as Kryptonians did—layered on top of a white, orange, and green bed of other ingredients.

"Mac and cheese," Clark noted, pointing at the first mess of gooey food, "and pot roast with mashed potatoes, carrots, and celery." He pointed out each of the components individually so that Kara could associate the name with the color and object. "For the mac and cheese, by the way, the mac is the pasta inside," he picked up a little half-circle object from the food, "and cheese is, well—"

"We have—had cheese on Krypton as well," Kara interjected. "Just… not in this form."

"Well, I'd expect alien cheese to be a bit different, at least," Clark said with a smile. "Please, dig in." He picked up his metal utensil and began to prod, pull, and poke his food with it.

Mimicking his movements, she began to dig at the food, first starting with what Clark had called, "mac and cheese." Some of the cheese dripped off her utensil, which was slightly off-putting in her opinion, but when she put it into her mouth and the mix of pasta and cheese hit her tongue, the savory flavor and creamy texture made her eyes light up almost instantly. It reminded her of a childhood favorite from Krypton, a common dish made for children. She took care not to rip off the front of the utensil with her teeth as she savored the food. Waffling the rest of her helping down, she preempted Clark by spooning herself another serving.

"Seems like someone really likes mac and cheese," Ma Kent said, walking over after finishing with the dishes.

"Everyone can find at least one of their favorite foods on your table, Ma," Clark replied, watching Kara almost inhale the contents of her plate.

The pot roast was almost as good – the meat was soft, tender, and juicy, with the assortment of vegetables making for a nice texture and taste contrast and the mashed potatoes a strong base for the entire affair. Sooner rather than later, Kara cleaned the last bit off, left her utensil on her plate, and leaned back in the chair with a satisfied groan. She hadn't had food like that in a long while; Black Zero's rations left much to be desired.

"There's more where that came from," Ma Kent noted, hands on her hips. "If you're still hungry."

"Thank you," Kara responded, sitting back up in her seat, "but I'm fine for now. The meal was excellent."

Ma Kent beamed and took their plates back over to the sink. Kara turned to Clark.

"The pod?"

Clark nodded, standing up. "Sure, I'll show you where it is." When they got back to the front door, Pa Kent was already there with a box of what appeared to be tools, and he was replacing the metal hinges from where Kara had pulled it off by accident.

"Pa, I've got that," Clark started, but Pa Kent waved him off.

"Go do the stuff you need to, Clark. An old-timer like me can still do this kind of thing." He powered on a tool and removed a metal implement from the hinge.

"Sure, Pa. Thanks." The two of them slipped past the older human man and back out into the front yard of the homestead.

"Over here," Clark gestured, and she followed him into a neighboring shed. It was lined with various things on the walls that she didn't recognize, and the middle of the space was dominated by another contraption that seemed similar to the one outside, but also different in its shape and design. Clark walked past the contraption and grabbed two wooden panels that Kara hadn't even noticed inset on the ground, pulling it open and revealing a chamber underneath. He dropped in and she followed.

In the center of the underground space was the same pod she had remembered seeing in her uncle's laboratory all those years ago. It was dustier than she remembered, and she was fairly certain it had a few dents it didn't used to, but it looked largely intact to her.

"My parents said that after they had pulled me out of it, it closed, and they could never get it to open again. For some reason," Clark said, "I can't actually see through the pod, and I didn't just want to punch my way in. I assume that the Kryptonian construction is different from that of Earth's. Maybe the metal used?"

Kara ran a hand over it, looking for an external access panel. "Krypton's metal alloys are denser than Earth's." Her hand finally caught on a lever, and she pulled it, revealing a small display that flickered to life. Seeing Kryptonian script in such a place, the middle of an alien world and far away from civilization at that, was strange enough. Navigating through, she finally found what she was looking for and stepped back as the pod's entryway expanded. Almost instinctively, she reached for the console where she saw their house's symbol sitting in the data port. She pressed on it to release it from the port, feeling the small thin data chip fall into her hand.

"What is that?" Clark asked as she brought it out and showed it to him, dropping it in his open hand to let him examine it. He ran a finger over the crest that adorned the top of the chip.

"A Kryptonian data chip," Kara explained. "But to read it, we'll need a console. The pod's doesn't seem like it has enough power left."

"I might know where to find one," Clark stated, looking up. "But we're going to have to fly there. I'm also not sure we want to show the military where it is."

Kara frowned. "I thought you were working with the human military. And I already flew my dropship to your parents."

Clark chuckled. "It's more out of convenience than anything for working with them, and I'm pretty sure that Swanwick already knows who I am, considering I can't exactly escape all the facial recognition tech out there. But they also know who I am, and as long as I'm not a danger, they'll leave it be. I'm not so sure they'll exercise that much restraint if they realize there's another Kryptonian ship already on Earth."

"Another Kryptonian ship?" Kara's brow furrowed. "We didn't send anything to Earth before announcing our presence."

"No," Clark agreed. "I think it's older. Maybe much older. Perhaps you can tell me when you get there."

"So, are you going to fly me all the way to wherever you left the ship, then?"

Clark scratched the back of his head as he ascended out of the underground chamber. Kara followed him by jumping up and pulling herself out. "Actually, I was going to take the opportunity to see if maybe you could fly."

Those memories of another Kara speeding through the air returned.

"I would like to try," she admitted.

Clark beamed. "Great. Let's get out of here first." They exited the shed and stood beside the Kryptonian dropship.

"Now, I'm not entirely certain about the science behind it all," Clark started, "but for myself, it took a little while before I could actually float. For most of my childhood, I was generally just jumping really high and far."

"How did you make the transition to actually flying, then?"

He seemed to ruminate for a moment. "It was strange, actually. One day, I just felt it. Like a force around me, and when I focused on it, I found myself about a foot off my bed. Almost put my head through the ceiling too. There's a sort of aura around me when I do lift off, and I can shape it into almost any form around me, speeding me up or slowing me down about as much as I want. And if I want to catch something big…" he trailed off. "Well, let's just say I've saved my fair share of airplanes, and I definitely don't think that I would've been able to hold those without them crumpling if it wasn't for whatever this thing is."

Kara closed her eyes and reentered the memories of her other, past life. She remembered soaking in the yellow sun after being enclosed for so long. It had felt incredibly nourishing, rejuvenating after being in the darkness. And then it had just come naturally. That aura that Clark had mentioned. She could recall her feet leaving the stone railing, levitating above the ugly statues that had decorated the side of the roof.

"And there we go!" Clark's jubilant voice called out, causing her to open her eyes. She was almost above the top of her ship, feet dangling limply as she rose into the air. He followed suit, rising easily to her height. "I'll go slow, so just keep up and follow me, alright?"

Kara nodded, and without another word, Clark took off in a woosh of wind. She tried to track him as best she could, though even at the reduced speed he was flying at, it was hard for her to keep up. Once they had ascended to the point where the blue sky began to noticeably darken, Clark sped up even more, a faint pop could be heard, and a funnel formed around his thighs as he accelerated away from her. Grunting, she pushed herself as hard as she could, feeling the same effect around her as she also sped up, though even then, she still felt herself slowly falling behind him as the gap widened. Suddenly, he curved downward back to the Earth at a decelerating pace, and she sighed in relief as she followed in line.

Unlike where his parents lived, this environment was icy and frozen, a cold and barren land where no one lived as far as she could tell. Were it not for her Kryptonian powers on Earth, she would probably have been shivering; similar locales on Krypton had done that to her. Standing out from the mostly white landscape was a gray shape of metal, and she blinked as she saw the clearly-Kryptonian design. It wasn't quite like any ship she had seen, but she also couldn't quite call herself an expert in the history of Kryptonian ship design either. She came to a stop at an open ramp where Clark stood.

"You'll get faster," he said as she came to a stop, her feet touching the snow beneath. "I wasn't that fast when I started to fly." She nodded and he headed in with her in tow.

The interior of the ship was equally recognizable and foreign to her as they walked through the corridors. While of Kryptonian make, it was almost classical in its aesthetics, and it wasn't at all the same kind of style that more modern Kryptonian vessels, like Black Zero, had. They turned the corner and arrived in what Kara assumed was the main hub for the ship's operations, though it had been converted into something more resembling a makeshift home. A viewscreen with a seating arrangement dominated one corner of the room, while Clark pointed them toward a different wall that had an in-built Kryptonian console.

"Would something like that work?" he asked. "It turns on and hums, but I haven't actually played around with it. Yet."

"It should," Kara responded, though truthfully to her, the console was quite antiquated in its design and somewhat foreign in its function. She could gleam out some familiar controls and the data chip port, but whether it was compatible at all was another question. "There," she pointed at the port, "it should fit in."

Clark nodded. "Alright, let's see it then." He pressed the data chip into the port, pushing it fully in with his palm. The console hummed and the lights above them dimmed for a moment, but then… nothing.

"Is that it?" Clark asked. "That was somewhat disappointing."

Kara narrowed her eyes, looking at the console again. "It should be reading it. I don't know why it didn't work."

"It did work," a familiar voice came from behind them, and the cousins spun around to see a man standing behind them.

"Who are you?" Clark immediately said, his muscles tensing under the skinsuit. Kara, however, placed a hand on Clark's chest as she had immediately recognized the figure.

"How?" she whispered.

"Kara," the vision of Jor-El greeted with a faint smile before turning to look at Clark. "I am what remains of Jor-El," the projection continued as it walked closer to them, "and he was your father."

To Be Continued

Notes:

Well, this chapter got way longer than I expected it to. Also, David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan, my fancast for Clark and Lois in this series, just became the official cast for Superman: Legacy, which is really exciting to see – I think they're going to do a great job in the movie!

Casting:

Martha Kent: Jennifer Connelly (Top Gun: Maverick)

Jonathan Kent: Brendan Fraser (Killers of the Flower Moon)