Supergirl: Reflections of Me

Chapter 8

The area around where the epic battle between Brainiac and the combined forces of Supergirl, Power Girl, the DEO and Maggie was littered with broken pieces of the ship and buildings. Several cars had gotten flattened by the falling debris, a few buildings had huge chunks taken out of them as if some sci fi monster had gotten hungry and taken a bite as it walked along, and other signs of destruction from the battle. Thankfully, the casualties were limited to fairly minor injuries, a couple of broken bones, and lots of scrapes and abrasions, but no serious injuries or fatalities had been reported. The DEO had started the cleanup, assisting the city workers in clearing as much as the debris as possible.

The ship itself, like Brainiac, had been taken back to the DEO to be processed and contained. No one doubted for a moment that when the living ship had managed to repair itself, it would have come for Brainiac, and therefore it was contained as securely as its maker. Despite everything that had happened, the citizens appeared thankful, grateful, and appreciative of what the Kryptonians and the DEO had done for the city…even if they had no idea that the DEO even existed. It was just some unknown three letter acronym agency as far as any of them knew, or were even concerned. The threat was over, they were alive, and the city was once more saved from catastrophic danger by National City's guardian angels.

The two Karas had slipped away unseen by the populace at large, and made their way across the city to an area that hadn't been part of the war zone. They walked along the street, seeming for all the world like two sisters going to dinner, chatting and laughing, oblivious to the chaos on the other side of the city. Though that was far from the case, no one observing them knew any different.

The pair had discovered that they had more similarities than they had originally thought, as they both suggested stopping for pot stickers, and then ordering several pizzas after they had made it to Kara's apartment. Then of course were the crullers that were for dessert, along with copious amounts of ice cream of varied flavors practically bursting from the freezer.

After paying the pizza delivery guy, they both sat down in what passed for Kara's living room, with Kara on the overstuffed, comfortable couch, and the older Kara sitting in the matching chair on the other side of the coffee table. Each grabbed a pot sticker, a couple of slices of pizza, and chewed for a moment before Kara bubbled around half a mouthful of food, "Wow…I never would have thought that we'd like so many of the same things. It's…well, honestly, it's incredible, at least to me." She stuffed another pot sticker into her mouth and chewed rapidly.

Karen, as she'd told Kara and everyone else to call her so there would be far fewer slip ups, arched a brow and laughed, a fully exuberant laugh. "What's so surprising? I mean, after all, you are me and I am you, in an odd sort of way." She bit off a piece of pizza and chewed thoughtfully a few times before continuing, "But then again, I see your point. Just as our life experiences slowly became different the more time we each spent on our respective Earths, its possible that our tastes and sense of aesthetics might have diverged as well."

Kara nodded rapidly in agreement and finally closed the pizza box in front of her, and sipped from her glass. She was practically bursting with excitement and curiosity about her doppelganger from another universe. "So, your Krypton was on the verge of destruction, and your aunt and uncle had decided to send your baby cousin to Earth, and your parents sent you to look after him, as it happened to me?" So far, their lives seemed for all intents and purposes to have followed the exact same paths.

Karen also closed her box and pushed it a bit away, and took a drink. "Yes," she answered, adjusting her position to become more comfortable. "That's exactly how it started, and like you, my pod got knocked off course. Once we were clear of Krypton's system and I had verified our coordinates and destination were locked into our navigational computers, I was supposed to activate our pods' suspended animation protocols." She paused a moment, and though she was looking at Kara, the younger woman was sure she was replaying the incident in her mind.

"I was supposed to do the exact same thing," Kara said, recalling her own journey from Krypton, before she was knocked off course and slipped into the Phantom Zone. Her voice grew quiet and she glanced up at the older woman's eyes, feeling her eyes well up a bit. "Did…did you see your Krypton explode? Or were you fortunate enough to be out of range by the time it happened?"

The older Kryptonian's eyes seemed a bit shinier as she paused a moment before answering. "Yes, I saw my Krypton die. It's a sight I'll never forget. Kal L's pod had been launched several minutes earlier, and it was programmed to get clear of the system, and then slow down so our computers could link and we'd fly to Earth together. As I approached the orbit of our moon Wegthor, seconds after leaving my parents' launch pad, I got a very 'good' view of my home when it exploded.

"The shock wave produced by the explosion buffeted my pod, and threw me far off course. The shock also caused the pod's automatic emergency systems to kick in, thus inducing the suspended animation automatically, instead of from my manual input." She paused for a moment, letting the memory wash through her memory, hoping it would fade at least a little before finishing, "So, in cryogenic sleep, I floated around space for years while the pod computer searched for my intended course, in order to resume its preprogrammed flight plan. Once the computer was finally able to triangulate and correlate the path, it turned the suspended animation mode off, and I landed on Earth some time later. I didn't know I'd been adrift for years at that time, and was expecting to have made planetfall a short time after Kal L's pod had landed. Instead, I was discovered by my cousin, only he was a full grown man and had been living on Earth for decades."

The air in the room grew still and silent again for several moments before Kara opened the box and offered Karen a cruller and bit into one herself. She was nodding thoughtfully, "That's almost exactly what happened to me. When the shockwave knocked me off course, and the computer initialized the suspended animation sequence, I ended up somehow or another crossing dimensions into the Phantom Zone, where I slept for twenty four years. My pod reactivated for some reason and found a path free of the Zone, and I unknowingly dragged Fort Rozz out with me."

The two of them sat in silence for a few more moments, each considering the other's experience with rocketing away from home, with only one crucial detail being different, the beginning of the forks in their separate lives. Obviously, more and more differences occurred after each of them arrived on their respective Earths, which led to the two very similar, yet very different, people they were today. It was quite apparent that Karen's arrival on Earth Two happened around ten years earlier than her own, since there was a discernible age difference between them.

"I'm so sorry," Kara apologized after the silence lingered a bit beyond what felt comfortable to her. "I didn't mean to bring the pain that comes with those memories back. I was just so curious as to how different our journeys may have been that I didn't realize how much it'd hurt both of us. We're so much alike, but so different, I guess I can't help but want to know what's different, other than the obvious, or what experiences shaped who you are that make you so different from me."

Karen smiled gently, probably the softest Kara had seen her face since they met, and shook her head. "It's okay, really, Kara," she replied, the images of Krypton Two's destruction beginning to fade from her mental eye finally. "I'm curious too. I remember being a lot like you are now, a lot like you. Bubbly, optimistic, hopeful, almost innocent in a lot of ways. I'm still hopeful and such, I suppose, but Kal L didn't find me until after I'd been on Earth for a while. I was in an orphanage. Luckily, my parents had managed to get language information about the different nations of Earth, so I learned several of these as I flew towards Earth. Thankfully, English was one of them. Mother said that the language files came from old style radio transmissions made on Earth that finally got close enough to Krypton that they could pick them up and record them, and process them through our computer."

She paused, and took a drink of her soda, letting it bubble around in her mouth a moment, and then continued, "It was a way to pass the time, at least. When I landed, I wasn't aware that I was gaining powers the longer I was there, so I set about trying to find appropriate clothing, and I was discovered by a young couple that took me in and kept me safe for a while, believing the story I told about my family all dying in a horrendous vehicle accident, and eventually I went to the orphanage. I'd heard about this Superman that everyone was talking about on their televisions and stuff, but it never dawned on me that this being was Kal L. Kal L shouldn't have been more than a year old by the time we reached Earth."

"My experience was pretty close to that, except Kal El found me right after I landed, and he taught me English, and then he took me to the Danvers' home, and they said they'd look after me," Kara spoke softly. The corners of her lips twitched upwards in a soft, somewhat sad smile. "They were scientists that had helped Kal learn about and understand his own powers when he was a young man, and he hoped they could do the same for me. Needless to say, I was really shocked when this grown man, bearing the El family crest on his chest, pulled the hatch of my pod off and helped me out of it."

Kara picked at a piece of pizza, taking bits and pieces of toppings off the top, then looked up at Karen. "So they told everyone they adopted me, after my parents died in a terrible fire, as you heard earlier in Cat's office, and I got a wonderful and loving family, but I was homesick, of course, and I never really fit in. Even Alex seemed to hate me when I first went to live with them. She resented me coming into their lives and receiving so much attention and leeway, when before, it was just Jeremiah, Eliza, and her."

Karen's brows rose dramatically at that, and tilted her head, "She sure doesn't act as if she resents you now. If I didn't know better, I myself would believe the two of you were actual sisters, adopted or otherwise. Alex is fiercely protective over you, I saw that first hand, and I doubt very seriously she'd let anyone stand in her way of keeping you safe, super powered or not."

Kara let out a barely audible and short laugh, even causing Karen's super hearing to amp up in order to hear it. She ran her hand through her long blonde locks, and looked up again, "It didn't help any that her parents were constantly riding her about protecting me, keeping me safe, making sure I didn't reveal my secret and such. I'd have hated me too, I think, if I'd been in her place. But now? Alex is my anchor, my sister, one of the most important people in my life, and I love her dearly, and I believe…no, I know in my heart that she feels the same way about me."

"I know she does too, Kara. It's not often that you see a human who will truly stand in the face of an enemy that could wipe her from existence with barely a thought, and doesn't back down, all in the name of a loved one," said Karen, shifting her position in the chair. "Alex would chase anyone that hurt you from Starhaven to Rann to Thanagar to Winath, on foot if that were possible, to take someone down that harmed her sister. I can see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and today, I saw it in her actions. That's one of the places where your life and mine is very different, and it goes on from there."

Kara nodded again, and she curled her legs up until she could rest her chin on her knee. She fidgeted with the corner of the couch cushion, and glanced up at Karen several times, and swallowed heavily before asking, "Can I…is it okay if I ask…I mean, if it's none of my business, I understand but I feel like I need to understand why you…how you got to the place in your life now, mentally and emotionally, that you're in now?" Her voice had faded bit by bit as she asked, and she was clearly nervous.

Karen studied her a moment, her expression unreadable, even by Kara, who shared her face and expressions, then answered, "Of course you can ask, and believe me, if I felt it was none of your business, I'd damned sure tell you it wasn't." At Kara's expression, her face and voice softened, "You want to know why I'm brusque, often hard lined, and over assertive, and why when handling problems like Brainiac, I'm so aggressive, and so angry, right?"

Feeling like she'd just insulted the older Kryptonian, she looked down again, adjusting her glasses and nodded softly, her voice quiet, "Yeah. I don't mean anything by it, it's just…it's just that that's not something I'd normally do. I need to know what would, and could, change me until I find myself feeling the same way. I don't mean that there's anything wrong with it, I'm more than sure you have perfectly good reasons why you gradually moved to where you are now, emotionally. I just…"

"You just want to know what could change you, so you can fight to keep your outlook as it is right now, you mean?" asked Karen, but without any hard edge to her voice. It was surprisingly soft, and empathetic, and more, her voice was understanding. Her younger self nodded, clearly ashamed of even having thought such a thing, let alone asked it.

Karen uncurled her own legs, and moved to sit by Kara on the couch. Rather than reach out and lift Kara's eyes to her, she let her look up into her eyes by herself before she said, "I'm not the sunniest person you'll ever meet, I know that. I think you do too by now. Even though we're two different versions of the same person, the key word there is different. Sure, there's differences in our lives, differences that started out small and eventually became universes apart from your life to mine. More than that, more than experiences, there's the beliefs that I hold, that you hold, and though our worlds were similar, they weren't the same, so we aren't exactly the same either."

Kara looked as if she were about to speak, but Karen held up a hand lightly, and let that sink in before going on, "But yes, our experiences being different is the main thing, and how we react and respond to those experiences. I grew up in Kal's shadow, always the 'younger' cousin, even though I was actually a teenager when he was born, always having to live up to his example, or at least it felt like I was expected to."

She shifted, turning more towards Kara, and hesitated, but finally took Kara's hands into her own, continuing, "I felt like if I was going to be taken seriously, I had to completely and totally become my own person, with my own identity, beyond Superman's cousin. That's why I'm called Power Girl, why my suit is dramatically different than his, why I don't wear our House sigil on my chest, and why I never in any way let someone see me as anything other than Power Girl, instead of 'that super powered girl that's Superman's cousin.' I had to completely break the mold, and forge my own. Then, of course, there's the anti feminism, prejudice towards women, the idea that we're the 'weaker sex,' and all that bullshit. When people, be it civilians or adversaries, would try to pin any of that on me like a label, it'd make me angry, and I'd make damned sure they knew the difference."

Kara took all Karen said in, and let it spin around in her head a couple of moments. She so very much admired Karen, and would never want to offend her. Despite what she had said, Kara felt like she was a good role model, but at the same time, she couldn't be the same Kara that Karen had become, for whatever the reasons were. Her views and ways were simply too different from hers, at least here and now they were.

"I wish I had your strength a lot of the time, your inner strength, the strength of self that you have. You're always so sure of what you need to do, confident in your decisions and beliefs, so proactive. It's a world where hope and optimism are rare commodities, and I guess, if I'm being honest, that maybe I am naïve to think that the world can be as bright and earnest as I would like it to be. Maybe it's stupid, but I really do want to make this world a better, and safer, place. I want to make it more like I see it, and by being sunny, as you called it, maybe it could influence someone else to be a little sunnier too?" Kara practically whispered. She knew that this whole talk thing was supposed to be fun, and let them bond some, to really seem to be sisters to other people who didn't know better. Yet, she felt as if she had dragged it down into an experience that Karen probably couldn't wait to get away from.

Karen's hands came up to cup her face, and she let their gazes lock for a few seconds, and then shook her head. "It's not stupid, Kara. Never, never, ever think that hope, optimism and goodness are stupid. Nor are you naïve, 'little sister.' Far from it. I wish I could be like you, I wish I could put aside all the terseness and simmering anger, and let the light inside me shine like yours does. You don't have to be like me, your experiences you have yet to deal with don't have to make you like me. I want you to stay as you are, the living, breathing, smiling personification of hope, purity, optimism, and goodness. And for the record, no, I'm not being sarcastic or making fun of you. I mean every word I'm saying to you."

There was no doubt in Kara's mind that Karen wasn't lying, or exaggerating, or anything else of that nature. She could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice, and it was a living, breathing thing, so tangible she could reach out and touch it. "I'm not normally this morose," said Kara, pushing her glasses back up her nose as Karen released her face. "I guess that meeting you, seeing you in action, talking to you, getting to know you, I just sort of felt like I didn't measure up somehow. I mean, you are me, and you're definitely more experienced than I am, and older, wiser, and have so much I could learn from you. I don't know why I feel deflated, kind of, like I'm reaching for something my arm will never be long enough to let me grasp."

Karen's back straightened, and she put her hands on her thighs, fixing Kara with a penetrating look. "You feel like you don't measure up? Like you don't measure up to me? I'm older, sure, and I've been doing this longer, yes, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm wiser than you. I can learn just as much, if not more, from you than you can from me."

She grabbed a hold of Kara's arm and gently, but firmly, pulled her to her feet and led her to the window, and they both looked out over the city for a moment. "Look out there," she said, glancing sidelong at Kara. "That's the world, not just the city, but the world, a world made better because Kara Zor El lives in it, and shows them how to provide kindness, hope, comfort, safety, protection, optimism, and you know what? Whether they want to admit it or not, those seven billion plus people out there know without the slightest doubt that there's another way, a better way to live and to treat each other. Your way."

She felt the wind whip past them both, bringing a coolness to stave off the oppressive summer heat as she turned more towards Kara. "I saw the photo of you talking down those robbers in that store, convincing them to give in to their better angels, and think about what they were doing, when you temporarily lost your powers. I heard a broadcast of that speech you gave to snap the citizens of National City out of the influence of Myriad that your aunt and uncle had unleashed on the city. I saw Kal El fall under its influence, I saw Superman fall under its influence, when you didn't. Do you know why you didn't, why you were able to do these things that everybody around you probably told you that you couldn't do, that you would never convince these people to believe in such a thing? You did it because instead of fighting with your fists, you fought with your heart. That heart right there that holds all that hope, all that cheery optimism, all that supreme confidence that not only can things be better, but that they will be better. You did it because you never gave up on them, you believed in them, even when they probably didn't, and because of that, they believed in you. And you're honestly thinking you don't measure up to me in some way?"

The younger Kryptonian's face turned a rather lovely shade of red, and her shoulders rose, while she half laughed, a sound tinged with embarrassment. "Well, when you put it like that…" she said, almost bashfully. "You seriously saw that, listened to that? You think it was the best way to handle those things?"

"Hell yeah, I put it like that," replied Karen with a laugh as she led them back into the apartment. "Yes, I saw that, I listened to that, and no, I don't think it was the best way to handle those things. I know it was the best way to handle them. If it had been me, I'd probably have given those guys a few bruises and let the police haul them off, and I'd most likely still be trying to figure out a way to stop Myriad. So, don't worry about whether or not you measure up to me. Enjoy me struggling, trying to figure out how I'm going to measure up to you."

The two Kryptonians shared a laugh, and even a tight hug before they separated again. Karen glanced at the half eaten pizzas and pot stickers, and then around the apartment. Raising a hand, she made a waving motion to indicate the apartment. "So, what do you and Alex do when she comes over, and you spend sister time together?"

The smile on Kara's face was growing little by little as she shrugged. "Normally, we stuff our faces with pizza, pot stickers, and whatever while watching movies or a TV show, we laugh, cut up, cry on each other's shoulder, or whatever we need to do. Then we each grab a tub of ice cream, eat some, switch, and then eat some more. We sit on the couch and just sort of snuggle up with each other the whole time."

Karen's blue eyes sparkled a little with the bright moonlight pouring in through the large windows and a wry smile slowly worked its way onto her lips. "Well, then, we'd better get busy…Sis. Let's find us something to watch, eat like Cookie Monster, and I'll race you for that tub of Moose Tracks you've got in there," she said, laughing as well as letting that rare smile come out.

Kara had already turned the TV on and had switched to the show she and Alex often watched together. At Karen's challenge, she giggled and put her hair up in a tight ponytail. "Oh, you're so on, Sis," she exclaimed, jumping over the back of the couch and assuming the snuggle position, and though a bit uncertainly at first, Karen joined her.

This is amazing, thought Kara as they both chewed rapidly. I may have had a hell of a fight today, but boy were the rewards worth it. I guess there is something to be said for hope after all. I gained not only a new ally, but a new sister, and learned about myself from myself, which is something I'm not even going to try and make sense out of. I want that Moose Tracks tub!

X

AN - This turned out to be shorter than I expected, but I hope it was an enjoyable read! Thank you so much for everyone that read it, that left reviews, or whatever. I hope I can continue to bring you enjoyable stories and now I can try and figure out what my next fic is going to be! Thank you!