Chapter 29
“It’s Kara right?” The voice broke Kara out of her focus on her book and she glanced up, her eyes widening when she spotted Alex standing next to her table. Sunday brunch at Noonan’s was typically a slow time, so Kara usually met up with Lena, Megan (M’gann), or Sara whenever she was in town as a way to get out together for the week and not have to worry about people being nosy. It paid to still be on a first name basis with the owners and managers of the place.
“Yeah, um, yeah, Alex right?” Kara sputtered out a bit, pushing her book to the side.
“Are you here alone?”
“Uh no, well yes, but no, I,” Kara internally cursed her inability to not stutter when around beautiful women. “I’m waiting for a friend of mine, but she’s running a little late, so I’m alone at the moment.” It had been a little over a week since the confrontation in the hills between her and the DEO, and she hadn’t seen the other woman since then. Granted, she had been a little busy getting rid of the supercharged axe, but she had seen evidence of the agency around National City when she returned. Several days previous, an alien had been rampaging downtown and she subdued it, dropping it off at the police station. The DEO swooped in and made it disappeared, as if the alien had never existed in the first place. Kara was furious that these aliens weren’t getting the same rights guaranteed to even the worst of human criminals, but there wasn’t much she could do.
“Do you mind if I join you, just while I’m waiting for my order?” The blonde waved the other woman into the seat across from her and Alex took the seat, glancing at Kara’s book as she sat down. “ ‘Through the Looking Glass’ ?”
“ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is one of my favorite books, and I love the books that come after it.”
“Any reason why it’s your favorite, I’ve never read it, didn’t care much for the movie so I never bothered.”
Kara looked down at the book fondly and her fingers caressed the worn edges of the hardback book. “It was one of the first books my mom gave me after she adopted me, so it holds a fond place in my heart.”
“You’re adopted?”
“Ah, uh, yeah, my parents died in a um, in a fire when I was thirteen,” Kara replied, sipping lightly at her latte.
“Oh Kara, I’m so sorry,” Alex replied, regretting that she asked the question in the first place.
“Ah, no, it’s fine, I mean, it still hurts, but I have a great mom, and a little brother, and some of the best friends since I moved to National City, so it all worked out in the end,” the blonde told her, waving away her apologizes. “And most everyone in my life knows that I’m adopted, so Maggie probably would’ve told you at some point. How long have you two been dating?”
“A little over a month, we’ve been friends for longer, since she moved to National City since our jobs kept intersecting. We decided to try dating when we both admitted we were attracted to each other.” Alex wasn’t sure why she was telling Kara all of this, she barely knew the other woman, but it felt like she could trust Kara. It was probably the wide, sparkling blue eyes, they were impossible to stay no to and Alex knew that if the blonde was in law enforcement, she would have a one hundred percent solve rate because the criminals would confess to those eyes. “She’s probably my best friend really.”
“Maggie’s great,” Kara told her. “I mean, I only really got to know her when she was with… but well, she was always really nice.”
“I know all about her exes Kara, you don’t have to censor for me,” Alex smirked, “Especially the most notorious, Kate Kane.”
“Notorious is one way to describe her,” Kara smiled, thinking of the redhead.
Before Alex could speak again, Lena entered Noonan’s and strolled up to the table. “Sorry I’m late Kara, I’ve told them repeatedly no business on Sunday, but they never seem to listen.” Kara stood up to greet her friend with a hug, and when she released her, Lena turned a critical on the seated brunette who was looking at her in suspicion. “And you are?”
“Um, right, this is Alex Danvers, I told you about her, she’s dating Maggie Sawyer. Alex this is-”
“Lena Luthor,” Alex interrupted, rising to shake the other woman’s hand. “I’m aware who she is.”
“And that face is the face of someone aware of the various crimes committed by my family, public and private,” Lena mused, an amused smirk on her face. “Are you one to judge someone before meeting them Danvers?”
Alex grit her teeth together but the server behind the counter called out her name, signaling that her order was ready. “I have to go, Sawyer worked the late shift and I promised I would stop some food and coffee off for her. I’ll see you later Kara,” she nodded at the blonde before turning a suspicious glare at the brunette, “Luthor.”
“Lovely woman,” Lena mused as she took the seat Alex had vacated. “I mean physically, your wife is gorgeous, reddish brown hair, hard, intelligent brown eyes, damn. But personality wise, she’s a bit of a bitch.”
“Lena…”
“What? She is, first she leaves you all spent and sweaty, passed out in bed after a night of passion, prior to which you got married by the way, and then she shows back up, not remembering who you are, or that you’re married, dating someone else and working for a shady agency bent on arresting aliens, and then she treats your best friend like she’s some kind of leper,” Lena sniffed, “That might be the worst offense of all.”
Kara rolled her eyes, “Always so dramatic.”
“Someone has to be,” the brunette replied. “So what did the wifey want anyway?”
“I don’t know, I guess she saw me sitting here and sat down for a chat while she waited for her food,” Kara replied.
“Mhm, I don’t buy it, there were plenty of other places to sit while she waited for her food, she wanted to talk to you specifically,” Lena told her, a grin on her face “And judging by the way she was looking at you, she was definitely interested in more than just conversation.”
“If you have forgotten the last few minutes, I told you that she was dating Maggie. I’m not going to be the other woman.”
“Technically you are married to the agent, so that would make Maggie the other woman.” Kara glared at her and Lena raised her hands in surrender, “Fine, fine, I won’t mention it again, just mark my words, you’re going to end up in a weird love triangle at some point.”
Kara groaned, “Don’t even joke about that, that is one of my worst nightmares.”
“It’s going to happen,” Lena stated as if it were already fact. “Now, brunch? We’re here for brunch, is M’gann coming?”
“She’s in Gotham again helping out some of her old friends,” Kara told her. “She’ll be gone for a few months at least, left the managers in charge of the bar while she’s gone.”
“So I won’t be able to frequent that place for a while then…”
“Lena…”
“What? You know that my family’s name is synonymous with xenophobic hatred, and that most aliens in the city despise or fear me. It’s not really safe for me to go there when M’gann is out of town.”
“Most of the regulars know you Lena, they know you’re different from your family and that you’re trying to do good.”
The conversation paused as the waitress came by to take their orders before disappearing back to the kitchen. “Do you remember that organization I mentioned to you?” Lena asked, “Cadmus?” At Kara’s nod, the brunette continued, “I’ve discovered more information about it, not a whole lot though, they’re covering their tracks pretty well, but it looks like an anti-alien terrorist group that works in conjunction with secret, rogue factions of the government.”
“Why did you find records of it in your company then?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if certain family members of mine were involved, but I haven’t found any proof, not yet.” Lena ground her teeth in irritation, “So when I finally remove myself and the company from this hatred of all things not from this planet, then I’ll rest easy.”
“Just be careful Lena, you know that Lex is dangerous. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to stop your investigations from behind bars.”
Lena snorted, “If there’s one thing a Luthor never does is underestimate her opponents.”
Kara stood on top of the Capital Bank tower, her eyes gazing out over the city as her senses stretched out around her. The building was one of the tallest in the city since it was the west coast offices for the nationwide bank, though not as tall as CatCo headquarters or the future L-Corp tower. She had decided to keep her distance from both buildings for now for the safety of her family and friends. Her eyes fell on Maxwell Lord’s building a few blocks away and her face twisted into a grimace; she hoped that Lena would be able to buy him out or chase him out of the city. While her main cause for disliking the man came from his anti-alien rhetoric, it was his continual pursuits of her mother that was really sickening, especially since she had to read all of his emails and notes he sent with his gifts. Kara had asked Lena to invent brain bleach, but so far her friend has had no luck.
There was a stillness in the air as Kara surveyed the city. It was a quiet night, just petty crimes that the police could handle without her intervention, but she was too wound up for a night in her apartment binge watching her favorite shows. It was almost too still. Kara brought her senses back in before sending them out again, this time searching. She thought that it was the DEO again, watching her like they have been for the past few days, but this felt different, this felt more calculating.
Before she could identify the source of the feeling, a blow to the back sent her flying off the skyscraper. She corrected after falling for a few moments, more stunned than anything else, and charged back to the top of the building. When she saw who was standing there waiting for her, she froze, unsure if she was seeing correctly or not. “Aunt Astra?” Kara whispered, landing softly on the roof.
“Hello Little One,” the woman murmured, trying to maintain an aloof expression to keep distance between them. It hurt, to be this close to Kara, her little one, without touching her, without hugging her. She had grown used to it over the years of watching Kara growing up with the Fierce One as her mother, never approaching her but just observing from a distance, listening to the Cat lady as she told her stories of her niece.
“Wha, how are you still alive?” Kara asked, her eyes wide.
Astra stared at her for a moment before looking away. “Your mother, my sister, locked me away in Fort Rozz.”
“Fort Rozz,” the blonde murmured, “How… why?”
“For speaking out, for daring to speak the truth, for trying to save our world.”
Kara shook her head, “That… that might be how you avoided the destruction of Krypton, but how did you get here?”
“Same way you did Little One.”
It took Kara a few minutes to understand what she meant, “You mean Fort Rozz is here? It crash landed here, that’s why there are all of those aliens angry at my mother?”
“Your mother served as judge, jury and executioner, is it surprising that many are angry and seeking revenge?”
“Why did she lock you up? Did you come seeking revenge too?”
Astra shook her head, “I tried to save our world, save it for you so that you would have a future there. I wouldn’t allow you to die, so I tried to tell people what was happening, tried to stop it, something forbidden by the high council. I was imprisoned, and Krypton died. I had long thought that you had perished as well until…”
“Until what? When I saved the plane?”
The older woman didn’t say anything, just continued staring at Kara causing the blonde to shift uneasily on her feet. “I wondered if you would follow in your cousin’s footsteps,” Astra said finally, “Protecting these foolish humans.”
“I have the power to help them, it would be wrong if I didn’t.”
“They don’t deserve you Kara, they never did. The humans are a weak, selfish race with an inherent hatred of anything, anyone different.”
“They’re just like every species, they have potential for great evil, but also potential for great good, they just have to be given the chance.”
Astra scoffed, “The chance, they’re already well on their way to doing the same thing that we did to Krypton. This planet is dying, and we have to stop it, we can stop it. Will you help me Little One? Will you help me save the world? Save it from the humans?”
Kara thought about Astra’s words, her motives. They were clear and good intentioned but something was wrong, something felt off. “Why did mother sentence you to Fort Rozz?” She asked again.
“I told you-”
“There’s more to it than that, there has to be, what did you do?”
The woman looked away from her niece, the piercing blue eyes seemed to read every fault in her soul. “There was an incident, a guard was killed, it was a small sacrifice that had to be paid in order to save the world.”
“I remember hearing about that…” Kara murmured, “That was you? That guard had a family, people who cared about him, and you just, you killed him.”
“Non killed him, but we had a world to think of. We were the only ones who had the courage to do what was necessary to save us all!”
“Is that what you want to do here? You want to do whatever is necessary to save the world, sacrificing who you must in order to meet your goals.”
“That is the way the world works Little One, you sacrifice the few to save the many,” Astra said stepping forward towards her outraged niece.
The furious expression on the blonde’s face had her retreating those few steps though. “I want to help the humans, not hurt them, this is my world now too.”
“Yes, meaning that you have to do whatever it takes to make sure that it doesn’t share in Krypton’s fate.”
“That’s not the way to do this Astra, I can’t let you do this.”
“If you’re not with us, my niece, you are against us,” Astra stated firmly. “I will not let this world fall to ruin. I will go through you if I must.”
“Us?” Kara started before she sensed another impending blow to the back of her head. She took off out of the way, but a different blow landed on her opposite side and she went whirling through the air. “Non,” she muttered when she righted herself and saw her uncle floating in the air next to Astra along with several other men she recognized as soldiers that were directly under her aunt.
“You may have been trained to be a hero Little One, but you are not a warrior,” Astra said. When she finished speaking the soldiers attacked, each one attempting to beat Kara into the ground. Kryptonian warriors, much like Amazons, were taught to fight together as a unit to tear down a common enemy. However, the Amazons were still very individual in how they fight, and they taught that individuality to Kara, expanding on what Kate had already taught her. She dodged out of the way, her cape giving her extra maneuverability in the air, and she retaliated with a sharp kick to the closest one’s shin, knocking him back into one of the other soldiers. Kara knocked the rest of them away before Non hit her into the ground. He followed after her, his fist raised to deliver a sharp blow to her face when Astra called him away. “Enough Non, leave her be.”
“But we can end her now General, and not have to deal with her later,” he protested, stepping away from the fallen hero.
“A victory without honor is not a victory Non,” Astra stated, “We will fight another day.”
The other Kryptonians took off and Astra shot her niece one last look before leaving with them. Kara pushed herself up out of the asphalt and shook the debris out of her hair and clothes. “Why couldn’t you have just told me?” She asked the figures hidden in the shadows, not turning her masked face in their direction. “Why couldn’t you have told me that Fort Rozz was here when I asked you?”
“We did tell you that we had something to discuss with you Miss Zor-El,” the lead agent said, melting out of the darkness. “You were the one that chose not to come with us.”
Kara rolled her eyes, “Forgive me for not trusting a shadowy government agency, but I was taught not to take things at face value.”
The man sighed and rubbed at his face for a moment before approaching her. “You can trust me Miss Zor-El, I’m not like most of the other ones you’ve no doubt heard whisperings of, I don’t want to hurt aliens, I just want to protect everyone from the criminals.”
“How can I trust what you say?” Kara asked and she watched in shock as the man’s form began to change, grow until a tall, green alien stood before her. He was wearing dark pants, boots, and a heavy cloak. A large red X was displayed prominently on his bare chest and wrapped around his back. “I see,” she murmured, scrutinizing the being in front of her. “You’re a Martian.” Kara had seen M’gann change into her natural form numerous times since she’s known her, both her White Martian and chosen Green Martian appearance. While White Martians were large and monstrous in appearance, Green Martians were slightly smaller and appeared almost human, except for a few defining characteristics such as the green skin and different muscle tone in their heads and faces. Though while M’gann preferred to have long hair when she shifted into her Green Martian form, usually red hair which fit her personality, the Martian in front of her had no hair at all.
“J’onn J’onzz,” the Martian told her, bringing Kara’s focus back to the matter at hand. “Though I’ve been going by Hank Henshaw for nearly ten years now.” His red eyes narrowed after a moment and looked at the heroine suspiciously. “How did you know I was a Martian?”
“I lived with a Martian for a few years,” Kara replied, “You might know her as Miss Martian.”
J’onn shook his head and stepped closer to the Kryptonian, “I didn’t, I didn’t know anyone else escaped the destruction, how…”
Kara shifted uneasily on her feet; she’s not sure how he’s never heard of the Teen Titans, they’re pretty infamous even though the group has changed members a few times now with the core group getting older. Often times she wondered if National City was in a completely different universe with how oblivious they were to everything outside of Superman. Even the Green Lantern who was only a few hours north in Coast City didn’t get as much recognition as Metropolis’s hero, and now her, Supergirl. “Look, that’s her story, and it’s not really pertinent now. What I need to know why it is that I should trust you and what you know about Fort Rozz.”
The Martian shifted, shrinking back down into his human disguise. “We don’t know much really. All we know is Fort Rozz crash landed around the same time we assume that you did, and those imprisoned there escaped. Since they know that you’re alive, many of them will hunt you to get revenge.”
“I know that, what about my Aunt, do you know what they’re planning?”
“We don’t know, the Kryptonian prisoners that were in the prison have laid low all of these years. We’ve only had a few instances where we spotted General Astra In-Ze in National City since the ship landed, but we weren’t able to track her.”
“She was… she was in National City?” Kara murmured, her mind whirling.
J’onn nodded in confirmation and stared at the Kryptonian curiously, “Do you know what she was after?”
“... No…” Even Kara could tell that the Martian didn’t believe her. “Look, I need to go.”
“Wait, will you work with us? Help us stop these criminals?” J’onn asked as she started to float away.
“I’ll think about it,” was the only thing Kara said before shooting off into the sky. She flew a few loops around the city, the first few faster than human eyes could follow while the last few were almost lazy. She didn’t know if she was trying to out race her thoughts or fly to them. It was dangerous, what her mind was telling her, the connections and assumptions she was making as pieces started to fit together, odd things from her childhood that never made sense. She needed answers and there was only one person that could give them to her, only one person that would be willing to talk anyway.
Banking around the city again, Kara flew to her mother’s penthouse and landed on the balcony, using her super speed to slip through the door and change out of her suit into something she had left over in her old room. “Mom?” Kara called out, locating the woman’s heartbeat and following the sound to her study.
“Kara?” Cat snapped up from her documents and stood up from her desk, greeting her daughter with a hug. “I didn’t know you were coming over tonight, did we have plans?”
“No, I was… Where’s Carter?” The younger blonde asked, just noticing the lack of her brother’s heartbeat in the penthouse. “He’s not with his dad this week…”
“Sleepover with some of the kids from his soccer team,” Cat replied, sitting down on the couch in her office. “Something about a team bonding event since they have their first home game of the season tomorrow.”
“Right, yes, I remember, I put it on our calendars for tomorrow,” Kara muttered, recalling making a note of it when she got Carter’s soccer schedule from the boy.
Cat narrowed her eyes at her daughter and took in her fidgeting and distracted expression. “Kara,” she murmured, setting a hand on the girl’s leg, calming the twitching, “What’s wrong?”
Kara nibbled on her bottom lip for a few minutes before releasing it with a sigh. “I saw my aunt Astra tonight,” she murmured, “My mother’s twin, she’s alive.” She had glanced up at Cat’s face while she had been speaking, and noted that the older blonde did not look surprised at the news, only concerned. “You knew?” Kara accused, standing up from the couch, “You knew she was alive and you didn’t tell me?!”
The older woman sighed. She dreaded this moment from the first time she met the darker woman all those years ago, knowing that this very thing would happen and she would have to explain herself. “Yes I knew,” Cat said softly, “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how.”
“Didn’t know how? What you didn’t know how to just state in conversation ‘oh Kara, your aunt is alive, you aren’t the only one that escaped Krypton’s destruction,’ how about that?”
Cat rolled her eyes, “Don’t take that tone of voice with me young lady, I’m still your mother, and I made a decision that I thought was best for you. I was respecting Astra’s wishes as well as trying to protect your heart.”
“Okay, well, explain it to me now, explain why you didn’t tell me when you first found out Astra was alive.”
The woman sighed and made her way to the wet bar she kept in her office. She knew that her children disapproved of her drinking habits, a fact made known when she found several tumblers of her favorite drinks switched out for m&m’s or almonds. She didn’t really want to deal with this conversation without the familiar burn of scotch slipping down her throat though. “It was a year after you came to live here with us,” Cat said, sitting back down on the couch. “You were in Gotham, Carter was with his father and I was working late at CatCo, you know how it is when both of you are away.”
“You get lonely,” Kara stated, nodding her head. “So you work late at the office, I know, I’ve stayed there with you a few times recently when Carter’s been gone.”
Cat smiled softly and nodded, “Yes, right, well I suspected something ever since that Christmas when we all received those packages from ‘Santa.’ It always felt like someone was watching us, but I wasn’t ever positive who. That night, I found out that it was Astra, she had been coming occasionally to watch you grow, leaving presents when she could.”
Kara slumped down in one of the other chairs in the office, her mind thinking back to all of the gifts she had gotten from ‘Santa’ over the years. She had kept every single one, though some of the hoodies she had gotten over the years have been reduced to painting shirts due to the faded and tattered fabric. “All of these years… And she asked you not to tell me she was here?”
The older blonde nodded, “I knew that it would hurt you if I told you that Astra was here but didn’t want to see you. I kept quiet about it to protect you, protect your heart. From the way she spoke, your aunt looks down on humans and if you were ever to become a hero, you would be on opposite sides.”
“We are,” Kara muttered, her eyes fixated on the texture of the carpet in her mother’s office. “She was imprisoned in Fort Rozz, my mother locked her away for terrorism, treason. The prison crashed not long after my pod did and the inmates escaped. Astra and her psycho husband want to ‘save’ this planet using any means of force, to prevent it from becoming like Krypton…”
“I don’t understand…”
“They killed someone Mom, on Krypton. They were trying to warn people about what was coming, and people died in the process. Astra sees this as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good and is perfectly fine doing that here in order to prevent environmental collapse, but that’s… That’s not the way to save the world, that’s not saving anything,” the younger blonde stated, pressing her palms into her eyes, hard enough to feel the pressure. Cat stood from the couch and moved closer to her daughter, embracing her around her shoulders. “What do I do Mom, she’s my aunt, but I can’t, I can’t let her hurt people and I know that that is what she’s going to do.”
“You’ll do what you have to Kara, you’ll protect people, that’s who you are,” Cat shushed, rubbing the younger woman’s back. “I know you’re hurting because of what I did, what Astra did, but don’t let that stop you from being who you are.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to fight her,” Kara admitted, “I, she’s my aunt. I remember her telling me stories, teaching me about the stars, singing me to sleep at night when my mother and father were busy, I… I can’t.”
“Then don’t fight her,” Cat said, “Save her.”
Kara jerked her head up to stare at her mother uncomprehendingly, “What?”
“Save her,” the woman repeated, “Make her see there is another way to achieve her goals, without hurting anyone.”
“How?”
Cat gazed away from cloudy blue eyes for a moment before looking back at her daughter, “By being yourself, not by being a hero, or the best assistant a CEO could ask for, but by being yourself.”