Chapter 1

HER

National City was shocked, even though they could not quite admit it. The reason for that was… well.

Lena Luthor was sitting on her balcony, looking down at the bright city lights. Those lights, that were so beautiful they sometimes made her cry. Yes, deep inside Lena was a dreamer, sentimental and melancholic. Sentimental and weak, as Lillian would say. Her adoptive mother had never liked her which was not surprising as she was her father's love child. Lena's childhood had not been that lovely after the passing of her birth mother. Lillian would mistreat her every time she did something that was not appreciated at home, her father very soon lost to the alcohol. And Lex, who made her think she was his everything and then turned out to be… deranged was probably the right word. Every time Lena saw the city lights she thought of the children behind those windows. Were they happy and healthy? Did they not have a mother like Lillian. Did those teenagers there not miss their late mothers so much they wanted to leave this world? She did not wish it to them. She never wanted everything that had happened to her to happen to another fragile creature. They were worth it; she had not been worth anything better but they were. She was sure about that. Slowly, Lena let her mind wander and carefully wiped the tears away from the corners of her eyes, so as not to damage her make- up any more. She remembered the interview on TV with Cat Grant and the reason why National City was so shocked. And suddenly she felt the need to leave as quickly as she could. It was stupid really, why leave just because of one thing Supergirl had said. And it had not even been shocking to her. Plus, going to Africa was one thing but which country exactly would she visit? And besides, she could not even believe that a billionaire like her had never visited Africa. She closed her eyes tightly. Those thoughts were unimportant and she felt like a ridiculous teenager who had read Out of Africa too many times. She had to get back to work.

Ms. Grant had ordered James to bring her some coffee. Yes, technically James was a photographer and she had had more than enough of her usual Latte order today. But her assistant had gone home and she needed coffee, REAL coffee. It was from Nchi Kavu, a coffee farm in Kenya shipping to the US and number one provider for CatCo Worldwide Media. It provided for a café in Metropolis that belonged to Cat Grant and also for her privately. Even though the farm was rather small, it grew the best beans Ms. Grant had ever tasted. And she had had much coffee before signing off with them. As Ms. Grant enjoyed her treat, or little plaisir as she called it, she reflected on her only meeting with the owners of Nchi Kavu, Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers. Every taste of that unbelievable beverage reminded her of them. They had been so… authentic. Their manners had been flawless and their kindness genuine. But especially Eliza had seemed stiff and not really there. Cat had been able to sense how uncomfortable Eliza felt and how she truly missed her land, her work, probably even her reason to exist. The Danvers had seemed extremely sophisticated and dutifully educated, but Cat would never forget what she saw in their eyes. Their eyes (beside the beverage in her hand) probably being the only reason she was still thinking about them at all, considering how many people she'd met. Which brought her back to the events of this day and to Supergirl. Supergirl and the so unprofessional interview she had given today. Supergirl and her so unnecessary and, yet to say, image- destructive need to provide information about herself. And, of course, how Supergirl strangely reminded her of the Danvers. Supergirl had said it and had shocked the people of National City AND the world. I live in Africa - four words, no more and yet... no less. Cat had pointed out how proud she must be of the USA, even wearing the colors everyday as a symbol. And that was when Supergirl replied, seemingly uncomfortable and undeniably stiff and awkward since the beginning of the live broadcast: Oh this? This has nothing to do with America, these are just colours I appreciate. Cat had been a little taken aback upon hearing this. She had, since the beginning of the interview, attributed Supergirl's hard, somewhat colonial accent to the fact that the girl must have come to earth later than Superman, even though she had yet to figure out how that was possible. But still, Cat had only been a little taken aback. Because she had seen something that caused a disturbance in her mind when she had sat down with Supergirl for the first ever Interview of the hero. She had looked the blonde directly in the eye, piercing blue staring back at her. Supergirl had immediately looked away in awkward embarrassment, but not before Cat had spotted what she had definitely not expected to ever see in this person's gaze. Those eyes seemed to reflect a wild spirit that wanted nothing more than to be where it belonged, savoring what it had been given and screaming in a wide wide wasteland where only those who truly felt earth's matter could hear. What she saw there was so different from what Supergirl represented and Cat would probably not even have thought about it further, had she not seen it a few times before. In the eyes of Eliza Danvers, in the eyes of Karen Blixen in her late photographs and in the eyes of her missionary friend's kids, who had played with white cubs since their preschool years. Combined with the smell, Cat spotted many things that stated that Supergirl was surely not living the typical life of the US - American middle - class millennial. But this left Cat wondering: had Supergirl been adopted by a family in Kenia? Or was she living a wild life, alone and unreachable, among animals? She had no idea what life on Krypton had been like and what Supergirl needed. But why would someone from Africa even spend as much time in the USA as Supergirl did? That way she had had everybody assume she was a National City resident. Did Africa not need her as well? Anyway, Cat Grant was genuinely tired and decided she could deal with the shocked viewers of the interview tomorrow. The girl of steel could wait for a night.

Kara was feeling deeply uncomfortable as she was flying home for the night. Mama was going to kill her. And if she should survive this for some reason, Alexandra would finish what Mama had started, that was for sure. She was already trembling at the thought and frantically searching for a solution. She was too tired for this. Could she not sleep in the huts tonight? Then she would come back tomorrow, the fire could not hurt her anyway. But even while thinking about it she knew she could not do that. Had Amanda still been home, Alexandra especially would probably have focused less on being angry at Kara all the time and criticizing everything she did. But Amanda had fled when she had had the chance and Kara knew she had no choice but to discuss her very grave mistake with them until dawn.

Chapter 2

Flying away

'Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road' – Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Out of Africa

Lena Luthor had always loved the idea of 'flying' away. As long as this idea did not involve actual flying. As a child, she had considered herself a poor princess held captive by an evil witch named Lillian. That had been in the early years, before the imaginative spirit of her mother had left her gentle soul. Kindness had remained, but kindness could not help Lena to comfort and empower herself. Back then, Lena would always draw maps of the Luthor mansion and pretend she was about to escape and find a prince to marry. Instead, she escaped to a place called Harvard and found a scientific laboratory to marry. But it had been an escape all the same. Now she had another escape and she would probably have been thrilled if this escape had not involved risking her life. At least that was what Lena expected: to die. She had never known a time when she had not been afraid to leave the ground. Even the cable cars when she had been skiing with the Luthors had caused her to almost pass out. And later on those days, she would pass out when Lillian would drag her into her hotel room and beat her for being scared. During plane rides she would have to be sedated so heavily she lost consciousness. She had later been to therapy and tried different methods but she had never learned how to deal with that in the same way she dealt with everything else that came her way. Therefore, escaping to Kenya did not make her feel to hopeful but rather like getting ready for an execution. She carefully wrapped all of her anxiety medication up and sighed as she looked at the clock. Her jet was waiting.

At first, Kara had not enjoyed the idea of flying that much. She had met Kal El, who had grown up with all these powers and knew to handle them wisely. But she had never had any powers, growing up under a warm radiant red sun. Alexandra always said there had been a time before Kara had acquired a god complex. Kara profoundly disliked this term her sister used to describe her but also could not not see the truth in it. Coming to earth Kara had seen her powers as too much for her, making her a god rather than a Kryptonian, when the latter in fact was as powerless as a human on Krypton. She had had no experience with them and while slipping a few times had in the end herself decided to abandon them. Or, to almost abandon them. There was work to do on the farm and Kara regularly helped as so much work could be done quicker and with less effort thanks to her abnormal strength and speed. But then Kara had changed. It had not even been that long after she had let go of her powers, she might have been seventeen years old by then. Alexandra was right regarding this. She had then become aware of what she could really do and how powerful she truly was. At first, it had been little things. The Kikuyu, the tribe that lived close to the farm and worked with the Danvers, asked for help getting some water from the lake. While Alexandra struggled to lift the buckets, Kara lifted hers and some of the other Kikuyu women's as well. Then the Kikuyu, as pragmatic as they ever were, decided it was of no use to take Alexandra anymore as Kara was 'as strong as many a man'. In the end, they praised Kara's willingness to help repeatedly when talking to her foster parents, but also let her go get the water alone. Then, other things happened. Kara killed a lion that had been terrorizing the farm with her bare hands and went from the 'mtoto wa kigeni', so the 'foreign child' in Kiswahili, to the 'mwokozi mweupe', the 'white savior'. It was then that Kara began to develop a so-called god complex and also then that Alexandra began to struggle more and more to accept her as part of the family. Kara had stolen her title. She had killed a lion at fourteen on a safari with her parents and had ever since been the mwokozi mweupe for everyone on the farm. But now Kara was there and Kara could do it all. And Kara absolutely loved the attention. There was only one who would always compete with her to be the center of attention and who would not back down: Amanda, the youngest sister. Amanda was six years younger than Alexandra and had been only seven years old when Kara had joined the family. Amanda was not a true family person at all and was also very self-centered. She loved fashion and lifestyle and knew most of the make-up hacks a woman on the runway in New- York was to know but certainly not a farmer's daughter in the outback of Kenya playing wild games with the Kikuyu children on the dry land. At two and a half she had been diagnosed with hypermetropia and had been prescribed her first pair of glasses and whoever on the farm was asked about Amanda, they always thought of glasses first. As opposed to Kara, at 7 she could not see much without them and so she had slowly become obsessed with glasses over the years. She would shop them everywhere she could and sported a different pair at least once a week. Yes, Amanda adored fashion and also really needed to wear those glasses of hers but living in this world she had created for herself, in the midst of all these fashion magazines and researching new trends, was also a way for her to escape, to fly away to a world far away from her farm and her family. The Kikuyu had been spending a lot of time with Amanda when she was born, as the parents had had a lot of work back then and had not been able to afford taking time off to tend to their newborn as they had done when Alexandra had first arrived. And so, Amanda had been raised by Kikuyu women as well, thus she knew the Kikuyu language almost as well as her mother tongue Kiswahili. She also knew all their dances and ate all their food and was called the 'mtoto mpendwa' by the Kikuyu, the 'beloved child' in Kiswahili. And from the day Kara was adopted, she always made sure that her sisters, so close to each other while, on the other hand, constantly competing with each other, never dared competing with her in said way.