Where to begin?

Donna took her job as personnel director of CatCo seriously - windowless office notwithstanding. The company, and Miss Grant, relied on her judgment to pick new employees. And Donna expected to rely on them. An editor's nephew who anticipated showing up at 10 and leaving at 3 was in for a major letdown. But could she rely on this slim, bespectacled girl seated across from her? Donna tried not to give much weight to first impressions. But even she could sense the coiled energy, beneath the young woman's polite exterior. A friend from human resources summed Kara Danvers up in two words.

Brilliant.

Baffling.

"Miss Danvers, I've gone over this resume several times. Spoken to your references. Verified what I could. You seem to be a smart, hard working young woman. But I'm not sure you won't leave CatCo a year from now, once something else catches your eye. And there are some…gaps in your background you have been pretty vague about. I'll start with the obvious - 'Birthplace: Canada'. That's it? Not even a province? There are ten, last I heard."

Kara nods, a mock breeziness to her, as she brings up the elephant in the room - or the first of a herd, in this case.

"Plus Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. And I could have been born in any of them."

Donna isn't expecting that reply. Don't children from the poorest, most obscure backgrounds leave some sort of paper trail? Kara is back to business now.

"I am adopted. My birth parents…"

Kara trails off, and shrugs, with a sad half smile. Donna waits patiently. She knows about humble beginnings, though not quite the black hole that seems to loom in this girl's past.

"I am only certain of this: I was born someplace remote, under the radar. And something went wrong."

Kara could feel Krypton tremble beneath her feet, as she looked around the tunnel. The hole leading to the night sky seemed small and far away. Lara and Jor-El bent over their infant son in his nearby rocket. Their whispered farewell was lost in the rumbling, as Kara laid her head on her mother's shoulder.

"It isn't fair", the girl whispered.

"It is our fate", Alura answered in a resigned tone. But that was no way for her daughter to say goodbye to her family, her world. Alura found the strength to step back, and look Kara in the eye.

"But Earth has given you and your cousin a second chance."

Kara nodded, knowing what her duty was now.

"I will do all I can to protect Kal. Their sun, will it really let us do…all that?"

"In time. But remember - there are powerful beings in this universe. Some see power as an end in itself. They think themselves raised up to gods, but what they do only sucks them down. Do not think, Kara Zor-El, that they are something separate from you or I. Anyone who thinks or feels could choose that path."

Alura knelt down, putting her arms on her daughter's shoulders. "You both can help the people the Earth. Not by lecturing from on high. Not, gods forbid, by rule. Simply by helping them. One, or many. As a friend nearby. As a stranger from the stars. It will spread hope like the solar winds."

They turned to look, as Kal-El's vessel rocketed out into the night. Kara gasped, as a crack appeared in the ceiling overhead. Time was short, as the girl crawled into her vessel, fully programmed for the long trip to Earth.

Alura could not leave it like that, and hit the pause button on the controls. It would not matter if Kara's ship was a few minutes behind her cousins's.

"And yes, you deserve your life. To be happy. It is your choice. May all those paths be open to you."

Alura leaned into the craft, and embraced her daughter one more time.

"On Earth, you will do extraordinary things."

"I would rather be ordinary. Here, with you."

Alura stepped back from the vessel. Debris was falling, and goodbyes were at an end. She nodded, and Kara pushed the button to seal the craft.

"Daughter, there is nothing ordinary about you."

The gas for the hyper-sleep filled her lungs. The sounds of Krypton groaning faded away…