Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Daughter of Krypton

Kara POV:

The world was falling down around us. The quakes had gotten strong enough that even the reinforced sunstone constructions of Argo City had started to collapse. Our home was doing better than most, but I could still see cracks starting to form on the walls.

“Kara! Get in, now!” my father shouted across the room from the terminal where he was frantically working.

“We love you, Kara. Never forget that,” my mother said as she embraced me in a hug before pushing me forcefully into the highly illegal space pod they had somehow constructed without anyone knowing. “Your cousin, Kal-El will have arrived before you. You must take care of him as he grows up. Teach him about Krypton.”

“What about you?” I asked frantically. “You will come after us, right?”

Mother just kissed my forehead before saying with a sad smile, “Goodbye, Kara.”

“No!” I shouted and tried to fight my way out of the small space I had been placed in, but the hatch had slammed shut. I felt the mental suppressors take hold and the world fade to black as I drifted off into a state of suspended animation.

I fought it as much as I could, and at some point before I was completely out I could feel a ‘thud’ jerking my pod. But eventually, there was nothing I could do to resist the call of unconsciousness.

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After what felt like something between a second and an eternity later, I felt my eyes twitch open. In front of me was uncle Jor-El, dressed in a blue solar-suit similar to mine, but with a red cape on his back. He had also shaved his beard, for some reason.

“Uncle Jor-El? What happened?” I asked before taking in my new location.

We were in a simple sunstone room without any form of decoration. I could hear a loud beating sound, two rhythmic tracks of ‘du-dum’ playing repeatedly. A little behind uncle Jor-El stood a strange looking creature.

She was cute, in a way. Her skin was a muted purple, and her eyes were bright, almost glowing crimson. On her head were two curved, black horns, followed by a mane of black hair. Other than those features, she could be mistaken for a Kryptonian. Her expression looked almost… pained?

“Where are we?” I asked as I turned my attention back to uncle Jor-El. He was looking at me with an expression that was much warmer than I had ever seen on him before. As he spoke, it was with a strange accent as well.

“I am not Jor-El,” he said, somehow in a soft but very loud tone. “I am Kal-El, your cousin.”

“Kal-El is a baby,” I insisted, slamming my hands against my ears to dampen the loud sounds. I was growing wary now. “What are you talking about? And why are you being so loud?”

“You have been out for a long time, Kara,” he explained calmly. “Your pod was stuck in orbit around a yellow sun for over thirty years. It has enhanced your hearing. All your senses, actually. And your body. I will help you learn to control it.”

“What about mother and father?” I pressed. “Where are they?”

This must be some kind of strange prank. Which made me even more wary. Neither uncle Jor-El or my father ever did pranks. Lara or mother, perhaps, but there is no way they would get either of their husbands to go along with it.

‘Kal-El’ looked a little confused and concerned as he answered me.

“I’m sorry, Kara,” he said. “Krypton was destroyed. No one else made it off.”

“You’re lying!” I protested, slapping away the hand he tried to put on my shoulder with a deafening ‘CRACK!’, before throwing myself out of the pod.

I slammed into the wall, leaving cracks in the near-indestructible sunstone before landing hard on the floor next to the strange purple-skinned girl. She jumped in surprise, but a moment later she sat down next to me. Her hand twitched as if she had also wanted to put her hand on my shoulder, but she stopped herself. Why was she crying?

“Eve!” ‘Kal-El’ let out an ear-piercing shout and made to move, before the purple girl quickly raised a hand to stop him.

“It’s okay, Kal-El,” she said in a voice that sounded lower than a whisper, but I could somehow hear it just fine. It was the first sound I had heard since waking up that wasn’t deafening.

“Who are you?” I demanded while scrambling to my feet. She followed me up, keeping her teary eyes locked on mine.

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“I’m Eve,” she said, still in that comfortable airy voice. “I’m Kal-El’s… apprentice, I guess. I wanted to be here to meet you.”

“Why?” I demanded, trying to sound angry, but her soft voice and vulnerable expression made it hard to keep up. “Why should I trust you? I don’t know you.”

She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Kal-El, don’t do anything, it’s fine,” she said to him before reaching out an arm to me. “Grab my arm.”

“Eve,” ‘Kal-El’ said in a warning tone. He was still a little loud, but Eve’s soft voice must have made him lower his as well.

“It’s okay,” she insisted before making a small gesture. Urging me to grab her forearm.

I hesitated. I didn’t know if this was some sort of trick, but I couldn’t see how or why. If they had wanted to hurt me, they already would have. I reached out my hand and carefully grabbed her wrist, which— ‘Crack!’ -snapped like a twig under my grasp.

“Eve!” ‘Kal-El’ called out, but she only let out a whimper as she lifted the finger of her other hand at him.

I quickly withdrew my hand, shocked at how easily I had hurt the strange girl that was now gritting her teeth in pain. She spoke again after a few seconds, but I could hear a whimper in it now. She was in pain.

“You are too strong,” she explained. “I can’t hurt you, even if I wanted to. If you can’t trust me, you should at least know that you hold all the power.”

“I-I’m sorry!” I stuttered out. “I didn’t mean to!”

“It’s okay,” she assured me, with a weak smile. “I knew this would happen. I can fix it. Look.”

She held up her broken arm for a moment before I heard some more cracking sounds, and she started flexing her fingers.

“See?” She shook her now completely healed arm to demonstrate, a still-weak grin on her face. “No lasting harm done.”

I stared down at my hands for a moment before speaking again.

“How did I do that?” I looked up at her. “How did you do that?”

“Kryptonian under a yellow sun,” she reiterated what Kal-El had said earlier. “And I can heal with magic. A broken arm isn’t easy, but it’s still within the scope of the spell. Please don’t tear it off though. ‘Greater Restoration’ is still a long way off.”

She managed another small smile, not as weak this time. I was too stuck in my own thoughts to notice it though.

Father had told me that the planet they would send me to — Earth — had a yellow sun. Kryptonian cells absorbed radiation and used it as sustenance. The radiation of a yellow sun had long been assumed to enhance us far beyond normal Kryptonian capabilities.

“So it’s true?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper. Eve’s weak smile faltered. “We’re on Earth? And Krypton is…”

Without warning, she threw her arms around my neck. Her movements looked slow to my — what I now realised was — enhanced senses. It wasn’t an attack. I could see her face distorted in worry and compassion. It was a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered in my ear, barely disguised sobs between her words. “It’s all gone.”

I stood there for a few seconds, trying to make sense of her words before my tears joined hers and I felt the grief of my entire species fall down on me.

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Eve POV:

Kara and I ended up spending a long while on the floor just hugging each other. I had to heal up some cracked ribs a few times when she lost control of her strength, but I refused to let go. It was obvious that she needed this.

Kal-El had realized that he was completely unprepared to deal with her trauma, and had left us to set up a more comfortable room. Sunstone was incredible and half an hour later, when Kara had calmed down a bit, the AI projection of Jor-El had guided us into what looked like a high-tech crystalline living room.

It would, of course, take Kara much longer before she would be anywhere close to alright. When we were sitting on the couch and she was able to make coherent sentences between the sobs, I prodded her to talk about Krypton and her family and friends.

I wasn’t a psychiatrist by any means, and I didn’t even know if the Kryptonian psyche was anywhere close to humans, but I tried to get her to talk. Talking about what she had lost should help her process it, and — hopefully, eventually — move past it. That was what my old psychiatrist had told me, at least.

She told me about the massive sunstone constructions of Argo City and Kryptonopolis, and the breathtaking view of the Fire Falls. She told me of her friends, Tali and Thana, and how Thana would always chew them out for their antics, but follow along regardless. She told me about her family, Zor-El and Alura and Jor-El and Lara. She started crying again when she told me how her mother had kissed her goodbye and her pod had closed, right before she woke up here on Earth.

She fell asleep while crying, and I stayed right there with her on the couch.

Kal-El had apparently realized that she would probably do better with a familiar environment, so he had the Fortress make an entire apartment for her. The next morning, when Kara halfheartedly managed to drag herself into the shower, he approached me for a talk.

“Thank you,” he said, a little helplessly. “I hadn’t realized how much she would be hurting.”

“I don’t think I do either,” I said with a sad shake of my head. “My world still exists, even If I can’t go back there. I don’t want to either. And I know this world, even if it’s new to me. Kara… she’s lost everything.”

“Will you stay with her?” he asked, nearly pleading. “Please, she needs you.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a glance towards the bathroom, “I’ll stay as long as she wants me here. Tell the team, will you?”