Girl of Steel
"I know how hard it is when everything we know to be true changes. But sometimes all we can do is just accept the way things are, and make the best of that." -Supergirl of the Arrowverse
Upon learning Zod had tracked her pod's signal to Earth, Kara turned to leave but still weakened from her years in captivity she nearly lost her balance and was about to fall over when Barry stepped forward and caught her holding her waist with his left and supporting the small of her back with his right hand.
"Whoa, whoa, wait, take it easy. I got you." Barry told her in a warm, empathetic voice.
"I have to go." Kara told Barry.
"No, you need to recover your strength. Your solar powered I'm taking you to the roof and I'm putting you in the sun." Barry said to her in a caring voice. Kara didn't argue.
Barry supported her and helped walk. They came around the table as they did so Kara saw her red and blue kryptonian uniform with her family's crest on it. She weakly reaches out for it. Barry quickly grabs it with his left hand while supporting her with his right hand.
"We'll take that with us." Barry told her.
Kara looked up at Barry weakly with her hair in her face. She didn't trust humans but this one saved her, this one showed her a level of kindness, compassion, understanding, and empathy she had not seen in their kind. In her eyes it seemed like Barry and the other one, this Bruce Wayne, were genuinely good people trying to do right by people and their world by correcting the wrongs their kind were doing.
Kara wished she had met them when she arrived, maybe then her life would have been different she thought to herself. On the roof of Wayne Manor Kara stood on the ledge dawned in her Supergirl outfit basking in the light of the yellow sun feeling its rays heal and empower her beyond anything she had ever felt before. She wished her kind knew about the effects the different color suns had on her people.
When Kara thought about her homeworld and people at the time Krypton was a beautiful, technologically advanced race of intelligent people, filled with hope. But compared to Earth Krypton now seems like a planet designed to imprison their people and hold back their true potential. After all, their planet orbited a red sun that made them no different then humans, and the harsh environment and high gravity further suppressed their abilities.
Had the Krytonains knew about the effects of the different suns and the abilities they gained from them Kara thought they could have prevented the destruction of Krypton or the very least escape to planets out in the universe that orbited different suns other then the red ones. Kara also wondered with the space exploration of old wouldn't the Kryptonains of the past discovered the effects of different color suns had on them? So why was this knowledge kept from them and why stay on a planet with a red sun Kara thought to herself. Thinking about this, something in their history didn't make sense or something was intentionally hidden from them.
However, Krypton had other issues, as her uncle Jor-El stated it was foolish to drill into the planet's core and use it as an energy source. How could they have believed drilling and using the core as a resource wouldn't have world ending consequences then again their sun was dying as well.
The more Kara thought about it the more it seemed like Krypton's destruction was inevitable. Kara also wondered what happened to their sister planet Daxiam and the Daximintes. Kara shook her head, in the end none of that mattered anymore her whole world, family, friends, it was all gone and she was alone on a strange planet with Zod hunting her down and her only allies were Barry Allen and Bruce Wayne.
"Hey, am I cool to turn around now? Are you dressed?" Barry asked slowly, turning around with his hand covering his eyes but carefully looking through the spaces of his fingers at her to see her back to him on the ledge with the sun in front of her and her red cape blowing in the light wind.
Barry stood there in awe of her glory and indescribable beauty. He couldn't deny every time he looked at her she seemed to become more and more beautiful. He told the older Barry during Flashpoint Barry couldn't deny to the other Barry he was in love with her.
He told the older Barry I think I love her, are we in love with her? He described Kara like an angel coming from the heavens, in reference to space being called the heavens and since Kara was an alien who came from space in his eyes she was an angel descending from the heavens.
Barry forgot all about Iris West when compared to Kara Zor-El. Being a superhero, going on adventures with his earth's Justice League like the older Barry told him he did in his timeline, protecting his timeline, his parents was all the motivation and reason Barry had to try to use his extraordinary gifts to go back in time as many times as it took to defeat Zod.
Barry loved his world, his timeline, his friends, his family, his Batman, and most of all his Supergirl. He'd do anything to save and protect them and to have that life, the older Barry tried to erase from existence or that Zod wanted to destroy to give rise to new Krypton.
The more Barry thought about it between the older Barry trying to undo his mistake and erase their timeline, to Zod wanting to kill everyone and turn Earth into new Krypton the more inevitable it seemed Earth's destruction was inescapable. Barry shook the thought from his head looking up at Kara he refused to believe that. There had to be some way they could win and continue on with their lives Barry desperately thought to himself.
Barry watched Supergirl levitate in the air.
"You're levitating?" Barry said outloud.
Kara's super hearing came in and she started to here everything as indistinctive voices talking loudly in her ear which caused her pain and confusion. This also triggered her X-Ray vision making everything brighter causing her to shield her eyes from the sun. she hovered down next to Barry trying to get a handle on these extraordinary abilities of hers.
Kara had wished she was adopted by a good family and had a chance to live life normally growing up under the light of the yellow sun. Maybe then she'd be stronger, have a better handle, and control of these abilities. As it stands now she was painfully trying to adapt and control all this power and abilities in an underdeveloped, malnutritioned, solar starved body of hers.
"Is it always this loud?" Supergirl asked Barry, rubbing her forehead with her right hand.
"Is it loud?" Barry gave her a concerned look not hearing anything and failing to understand that aside from speed, strength, flight, and heat vision. Barry didn't know about the hearing and x-ray vision because older Barry never said anything when he rambled on about all the different things Kryptonians can do under the yellow sun to Bruce and him.
Supergirl let out a heavy sigh rocking back and forth weakly. She leaned her head back taking in a deep breath with her eyes closed getting everything under control the best she can. Barry stared at her with a worried look.
"Are you, uh, good? Do you feel, um…strong yet?" Barry stumbled around his words awkwardly stuttering nervously.
Kara just turned her head and gave a look. Then turned her head to one of the gargoyle statues hocking a loogie at it shattering it to nothing but dust and broken pieces of stone. Kara turned her body faceing Barry with a smirk. As a warning that now she was becoming strong again people better be careful. She wont be put in a cage again nor will she have any more time stolen from her life.
"Yep, seems strong. You know…" Barry paused for a moment, he had to becareful what he said and what he revealed to Supergirl about their impending deaths. "Old man Bruce, down there, says if we don't stop General Zod, he'll kill thousands of people." Barry said outloud turning his body with his right hand over his left. Supergirl turned her body as well so they were facing the left side of Warne Manor away from the front gate and Gotham City in the distance.
"Billions of people." Kara corrected, giving him a dark look wondering where Barry was going with this and if he was just trying to use her for her abilities.
"Billions…I know…" Barry said with profound sadness looking over to her with a crush and defeated look.
"Of your people." Kara said with disdain and detachment toward the human race. Which was not lost on Barry as he turned to face her.
"They're good people-" Barry went to counter.
"Good people?" Kara snapped at him, cutting him off. Supergirl approached Barry Allen menacingly like the apex predator she was.
"We came to this planet looking for a safe place to live, and they put me in a cage." Kara reminded Barry scolding him in her disdain and anger toward the human race for what they did to her. Barry decided to take a different approach to this conversion then he did before to try to keep Kara from not only leaving but to understand that not all humans are like the ones who tortured her and kept her locked up.
"You're right, You should have grown up in a home with an adopted family that loved you, not in a cage with mercenaries and scientist. For that, I'm truly sorry." Barry told her. Kara just gave him a frustrating look. Despite her anger and disdain toward humans she found it difficult to be angry or dislike Barry.
"But, there are good people with families just trying to live their life and do good by other people. They don't deserve what's going to happen to them. Not everyone in the world is like the Russains you have encountered. This world is full of different countries, nations, kingdoms, and all sorts of people then just the ones you met. I'm not like the ones you meet. Bruce isn't and there are millions, no billions of other people out there in the world who are nothing like the Russains. Alot of humans are worth saving" Barry pleaded, trying to reason and give a counter perspective to the angry and jaded one Kara had of humanity.
"Maybe to you." Kara said in a dark voice levitating above Barry. Barry looked up at her with a pleading look.
"But I'm not a human. I'm a Kryptonian." Kara reminded Barry in a harsh tone before flying away toward Gotham. Barry just stood there looking utterly defeated and crushed. No matter what he did, now matter how hard he tried, everything just kept playing out the same as it did before. Bringing Barry back to that notion with time that states what will happen is going to happen and there's no changing it. Barry lowered his head in defeat and was deeply discouraged.
Later, Bruce found Barry sulking in front of the Bat computer reading up on everything he can find on time travel, paradoxes, space-time continuum, he was also monitoring the news about the world's response to Zod, as well as images on the world forger.
Bruce wore black shoes, black pants, a black sweater, with a blue button up shirt and a blue tie. He quietly approached Barry watching him from the steps looking over to see Barry had set up a murder board with notes, times, and drawings of the dozen of attempts Barry tried to do to save them and win the battle before older Barry went back in time and reset the timeline. Since they were a day early and they didn't waste time building that chair to give the older Barry his powers again. Bruce saw Barry sitting in the dark broken and alone with his pain.
"She's gone…" Barry said in a low voice with his long dark hair parted at the top and the bangs covering his face.
"She'll be back." Bruce said with utter confidence.
"No matter what changes I make, everything keeps playing out the same. Maybe it really is inevitable and nothing we do in the grand scheme of time or the multiverse matters." Barry said in a defeated and hopeless tone.
"We have more time then we did before thanks to you, last time we had very little time from saving Kara, getting older Barry his powers back, and then it was the fight. This time thanks to you, I got my powers, we saved Kara, and we have a little over 22 hours to figure out a battle plan because tomorrow afternoon Zod arrives, we fight, and we die." Barry said hopelessly.
Bruce saw a journal on the desk of the Batcomputer with torn pages scattered around. Barry's notes on the battle to come. Bruce grabs a piece of paper that caught his eye that was a summary of notes of Barry's failed attempts to save them and win. Bruce was reading it over then looked at the murder board in deep thought.
Barry had tunnel vision; he was so focused on desperately winning this one battle he couldn't see the big picture or the writing on the wall. Bruce thought maybe a fresh pair of eyes may yield a different result. Still, from what Bruce was able to skim Barry was correct in one thing it did seem like everything played out the same no matter what they did.
Either the gun ship or the space giant killed him, and in every timeline Zod kills Supergirl, with Barry running back and forth trying to save them both, prevent their deaths, and win the battle, in certain attempts Bruce saw Barry was able to hold off the Kryptonian army so Supergirl can fight Zod but this time around their is no older Barry so his Barry will get overwhelmed trying to hold off the Kryptonian army, while Batman is overwhelmed by their sky power and Zod over powers and kills Supergirl. It really did seem inevitable that they would die, Bruce thought to himself.
"Tell me something. With your abilities you can go anywhere. You can go to another timeline, another universe." Bruce walked around to Barry's left hand side sitting on the desk with Barry's notes in his hand looking over at the murder board.
"You don't have to stay and fight to save this one. You can take Kara and leave, you two can survive, you don't have to stay here and die tomorrow." Bruce said in a pleading, but stoic tone he was known for.
"This is the world I come from, this is the world where my parents, Kara, and you live." Barry said with a crushed, defeated, hopeless look of despair on his face. Barry lowered his face. Bruce saw his suffering, his pain, his sadness. It was as if everything that was about to happen was designed to make Barry Allen suffer under the guise of something else. Bruce looked at the murder board, Barry's notes, then back at Barry, then back at the board and saw a truly horrific pattern.
"Want help?" Bruce said emphatically.
"From Batman? Yeah!" Barry said.
"So, I guess the plan is why don't you go take a break, get some coffee, see your parents, and I'll look over your notes and see if I can't come up with a battle plan or catch something you missed." Bruce suggested.
"Thanks, maybe a run will clear my head." Barry nodded, getting up then in a streak of blue lighting running through the waterfall exit of the Batcave.
Bruce got to his feet walking over to the murder board and saw the pattern of events. They fight Zod, they die, Barry runs back in time over and over again in an endless loop trying to save them. Bruce saw that no matter what Barry did he could try a million times they were going to lose.
The one thing that has been nagging in the back of his mind was originally before Flashpoint, Barry was suppose to die along with the rest of the human rest without ever getting powers, Bruce would die in his manor alone during the terraforming along with billions of others then Kara would eventually be found in her cage and killed by Zod.
Then when older Barry decided to play God and create Flashpoint his Barry was given powers, Bruce became Batman again, they saved Supergirl, then they went to fight Zod only to die over and over again. In both timelines the original and Flashpoint they all die and Earth becomes new Krypton.
Yet, the thing bothering Bruce the most is after the older Barry reset the timeline they should have been on the path of the original timeline for their Earth, yet, Bruce woke up with his memories of Flashpoint in tact as if someone intervened to ensure Bruce would keep his memories, so that he could give Barry his powers, so they could save Supergirl then go to the battle tomorrow to try and stop Zod and save their world. Only this time there is no older Barry to reset the timeline and nothing to stop Barry from running back in time over and over again to try and save them.
Bruce thought about his spaghetti analogy and how his Barry could destroy the space-time continuum running back in time over and over again. The damage it would cause as he would be stuck in a never ending unwinnable battle watching the two people he has come to care for die over and over again along with their world and at the same time unravel the very fabric of everything in all so that Barry Allen would suffer greatly.
Bruce was sure of it now, there was something else or someone else behind the scene manipulating events to cause the maximum amount of suffering to Barry Allen and damage to the space-time continuum. Then another thought struck Bruce, who would go through all this trouble and be willing to destroy other universes and timelines just to watch Barry Allen suffer and fail. Whoever is doing this was committed and obsessed with making Barry suffer and Bruce knew one other thing: this force or person truly and deeply hated Barry Allen and was willing to destroy everyone and everything to make him suffer. Bruce looked at the murder board and events and realized this was all being done out of rage.
This meant that their losing battle with Zod wasn't an inevitable intersection, or an unchangeable event, this force or person in the shadows, that was the inevitable intersection and the only way to draw him out was to win the battle and defeat him. It was their only shot at having a future.
Bruce saw it now, it was like one big game of chess and the force or person was on the other side moving Zod and his forces around keeping them in checkmate and now Bruce needed to make use of his pieces, the soldiers, Supergirl, The Flash, and himself to get them out of the checkmate status and put pressure on them. Bruce needed a hail mary strategy to win and draw out this mysterious enemy who wanted Barry Allen to suffer and was psychotic enough to destroy everyone and everything to do it.
"You want to get nuts? Let's get nuts!" Bruce said outloud moving drawings and events around clocking time and coming up with a battle plan and events to avoid or even delay their deaths to give Barry more time.
Bruce realized in order to win they might have to be willing to sacrifice themselves. While Bruce was working on a battle plan going through Barry's notes he realized something else, Barry really was close to winning had it not been for the older Barry's resetting the timeline or this mysterious enemy in the shadows Barry could have done this and this. Bruce hangs up the pictures Barry drew and the sequence of events triggers through his series of failed attempts and saw how they could approach and handle the battle differently.
Elsewhere, Supergirl is flying hard and fast breaking the sound barrier flying through the mountains and hills toward the metropolis through the open desert area where the army is gathering to meet with Zod at the end of the 24 hours.
Supergirl hoovers seeing the military in a rush to set up their camp, get their tanks, weapons, and planes in position. She still had time as she looked down at them like they were foolish insects. Supergirl couldn't get Barry's words about humanity being worth saving out of her head so she decided to use this time to see the rest of the world. She wanted to see if there was validity in what Barry was telling her so she flew off to go see the rest of the world, the world Barry and Bruce wanted to protect…