A/N: I'm not sure where the idea for this fic came from, but here it is.

The Planet Krypton: In a city made of stark white ice, a lone fifteen year old girl made her way down the various hallways adorning the capital city of Kryptonopolis. She attracted some strange stares from the various other Kryptonians as she made her way towards her destination, but she paid them no mind. Their strange stares were not so much a result of her physical appearance, she was striking beautiful to anyone's eyes, but to her strange manner of dress. Put simply to those walking past her, what she was wearing was simple indescribable as they had never seen such clothes before. And because Kryptonians, for the most part, were exceedingly polite, none of them dared ask her about her manner of dress and she was also polite enough not to make mention of their glances.

Besides that, she was headed for the residence of one of the members of the Kryptonian Council, the esteemed scientist Jor-El, and her appearance closely matched that of the daughter of another noted member of Kryptonian Society named Zor-El who was Jor-El's brother. In that case, it was best not to make either of the two brothers mad at them for any reason. And so the young woman continued on her way unhindered by outside interference.

Her final destination was a white door that blended in so well with the surrounding wall that if one didn't know to look for it then they may have passed it entirely without notice. But the female knew it was there and she knocked in a couple of times and waited in silence. She did not need to wait long as the door opened and an older woman appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, Kara, please come in it is so good to see you again," the older woman said with a bright smile on her face. The younger woman also brightened at the sight of the friendly face.

"Hello Aunt Lara, how have you been?" the young woman, properly named Kara Zor-El, asked as she entered into the home of her aunt and uncle.

"Busy as always," Lara confessed. "The work of a historian is never done when history is being made all around them."

"Yes, I know," Kara agreed as she noticed some sculptures and other objects that had either fallen over or were scattered on the floor. "I see the ground quakes have reached this far as well."

Lara's expression almost seemed to turn sullen for a moment at hearing mention of the quakes that had been wreaking havoc across the planet and were growing more and more frequent with each passing month, but immediately returned to its former state when she noticed her niece's examination of her.

"But that is why my husband along with your father are working so hard to make sure that these quakes are not signs of anything to be concerned about," Lara reminded her. Kara nodded her head at that. She was well aware of the long hours Jor-El and Zor-El were spending toiling away on some secret project that supposedly would stabilize the planet. Kara had never seen what they were working on but that something was being done gave her hope that soon things would return to normal on their planet.

"Yes, you're right as always," said Kara verbally trying to allay her own fears. Lara nodded her head and then finally noticed what her niece was wearing. She raised her eyebrows in confusion and surprise as Kara finally blushed at the recognition.

"I may not be as young as I used to be, but I'm pretty sure what that's not the current style of the youths in Kryptonopolis, Kandor or Argo," she responded. Kara laughed lightly at that into her hands.

"It's not, it's the current style in America," the youth responded a little timid. That word was lost on Lara and so Kara clarified.

"It's a country on Earth," she further stated. That was when realization dawned on Lara and she nodded her head.

"Yes, I keep forgetting how fascinated you are with that primitive planet," her aunt told her. "But I suppose I can't blame you since your father and uncle are as well."

Kara nodded her head. Since she'd been a youth her father had filled her head with stories about a small blue and green planet in a distant galaxy that he and Jor-El had discovered one day and the people that inhabited it. She had found the idea of these aliens fascinating and had really latched onto the cultures of that other planet and was always trying to learn as much as she could. Jor-El had even built her a very powerful telescope so that she could observe the planet from afar with the warning that the light of the images she was seeing were incredibly old.

But to know what was currently going on with that planet, and in much greater detail than her telescope could provide, it required more sophisticated technology that only her father and uncle could have access to. And so Kara was constantly asking for information about Earth and for replicas of objects from that world that she could get her hands on. And so her loving father had reproduced the objects he had observed from a small object called a paper clip to larger objects such as a human bed and to Kara's extreme joy, clothes that were worn by the teenaged females of that planet. Clothes like what she was wearing right now.

"Okay, this thing around my waist and down to my ankles is what they call a skirt," said Kara immediately launching into an explanation of her choice of dress. "And this upper part is called a blouse with this smaller thing over it called a vest. Finally, the shoes are what they call high top sneakers."

Lara nodded her head, Earth fashion was beyond her comprehension, but as long as it made her niece happy, it was fine by her. Although certain drawbacks did exist from wearing such items in public, that was more of her sister-in-law, Alura's, area of concern. Still, the clothes seemed to make Kara even more radiant, beautiful, and especially striking in contrast to her peers.

"So, where's chubby?" asked Kara cutting into her thoughts. Lara shook her head at Kara's term of endearment.

"He wouldn't be so 'chubby' if you didn't indulge him in sweets so much when you see him," Lara responded as she led her niece through the extravagant accommodations and into a smaller room to the side.

"I swear I have nothing to do with any of that," Kara insisted innocently. Lara snorted at that in a friendly manner.

"Let's just say that your uncle occasionally insists that we weigh him before you leave with him and then weigh him as he comes back," Lara told her as they entered into the room and approached a stark white crib where happy gurgling sounds were emanating from. Inside was a six-month old baby who was happily waving its arms and feet for attention that immediately brought a smile to Kara's face.

"Hello little Kal," Kara cooed as she reached in and lightly picked up Jor-El and Lara's infant son, Kal-El. "I'm glad to see somebody around here who is happy to see me. Oof, you are getting heavy. You keep packing on more pounds and I may not be able to hold you any longer without having back problems."

The infant stopped moving its appendages but continued making happy noises at being held in his cousin's arms, oblivious to Kara's comments.

"He really does love you, I can tell," Lara pointed out as Kara passed the child over and the two left the room. "And thank you for agreeing to watch over him for a few hours. I'm afraid Jor-El's work is taking up more and more of my time."

"Oh you don't need to apologize. It's not like I had anything else planned today," Kara answered truthfully as Lara fit Kal-El into a carrying device and then helped strap it to her niece. "Kal and I are going to go have a wild night on the town, isn't that right?"

Kal continued making incoherent baby noises as Lara laughed at that.

"Six months old and he's already a heart stealer," his mother commented. "Have fun you two and be safe. We don't know when another tremor could hit."

"We will," Kara promised and left back into the outside hallway as Lara closed the door. It was only then that she realized she'd forgot to warn Kara about giving Kal any more sweets. But before she could open the door again, her husband poked his head in from his workshop insisting he needed help from her. Sighing, Lara joined her husband in preparing a large crystalline device that Jor-El insisted could travel the stars.

Outside: Kara wandered down hallway after hallways before emerging in a major thoroughfare which was hustling and bustling with business from assorted shops. Kryptonopolis was a much larger city than her home on Argo and it was easy to feel overwhelmed in the crowds. Plus the fact that she wasn't too familiar with the general layout of the city beyond how to get from the transfer pods to Jor-El's dwelling left her having trouble thinking straight as she looked at the map for places they could go to.

"Well there's always the zoo," she commented as she sat on a bench overlooking one of the many chasms that dotted the landscape of Krypton. "But I think Aunt Lara said you'd already just been there. Oh, Kal, I just don't know what you'd find exciting in this place."

She lowered the map and looked out at the chasm and noted the various pieces of structural damage caused by the quakes. Already teams were out repairing them as behind her the crowds hustled and bustled like always, seemingly in ignorance that something was very wrong with the planet they were walking on. It made Kara mad, but she was only one person and if her father and uncle couldn't convince the populace they were in danger, she didn't know what chance she had.

She looked down at Kal who was looking up at her forlorn face before she brightened up like her Aunt had done earlier and she leaned her head down and kissed Kal on top of his head to relax him. Kal then looked down at the map and moved his free spit soaked hand across the map until it stopped at a point on the map. Kara leaned down and lightly rested her head atop his and looked at it.

Her younger cousin's hand had stopped over the words on the edge of the map indicating the route back to Argo City. Kara looked at the description and leaned back as she thought about it.

"Well, I guess Aunt Lara didn't say I couldn't leave the city with you, only that I needed to be back by a certain time," Kara mused aloud. "Plus I'd love to show you my hometown and I could always say this was your idea… Okay, let's go."

She got up with a renewed sense of purpose and headed for the transit station. Thankfully public transportation was free on Krypton and so all she'd needed to do was register her name and Kal's and board the tram car. As she sat down, she was glad she had brought Kal with her because his bubbly nature coupled with his natural baby cuteness meant all the eyes on the tram were directed at him and not her and what she was wearing. Several individuals came up and made complements about him to her. Kara took the complements in stride and didn't bother to correct them when they made mention of Kal being her little brother, although she did quickly reassure one initially disapproving couple that Kal-El was not her child.

The ride with him back to Argo had also allowed her to again forget about the outside destruction caused by the quakes as the vehicle moved past teams worked on repairing the damaged tram lines. Soon they reached Argo City that left the two plenty of time for her to show him around her hometown.

And so she took through her little cousin through every locale she could think of. From the extraordinary sculptures, some of which had been designed by Lara, to the flower gardens that were partly designed by her own mother, Alura, and everything in-between including hidden sites that were dazzling beyond belief.

"Well, I think we'd better head back," began Kara as the two finished watching some dazzling ice geysers sparkle in the darkening sky. Kal meanwhile was nearly asleep in his carrier and Kara was beginning to feel a little exhausted as well with all the travelling the two had done.

She was headed back to the tram when a voice was heard from behind her.

"Well, if it isn't the little 'freak'," said a disgusted female voice. Kara immediately stopped in her tracks and the abrupt change in movement startled Kal back awake although he made no accompanying sounds.

"Yeah, we knew you'd recognize your name when called," said another female voice that Kara recognized along with the first. Immediately three Kryptonian females that were near her age surrounded her from all sides; each with a malevolent look on their faces.

"Oh, I didn't realize the little whore had already had a kid," said the first, a fellow student of Kara's named Klim-Ra and the leader of the trio.

"Yeah and it looks just as ugly as she does," the second Kryptonian observed, another student named Kalen-Dar. "But yeah, there's definitely a resemblance."

The third individual just stood by and said nothing at the moment. And that hurt Kara the most because the third student had been one of Kara's few friends until the other two had somehow turned Mar-Ea against her.

"And what are you wearing now?" continued Klim disgusted. "Is that what they honestly wear on that garbage heap of a planet you're so interested in that you gave an entire class report on it? What was that planet called…?"

"Earth," said Mar finally speaking, albeit in a reserved voice.

"Right, Earth," said Kalen as if the very word tasted sour in her mouth. "If you like that planet so much, why don't you go there and let the rest of us be free of your stench."

These three heckled Kara every free chance they got partly because of how her father was portrayed as a loose cannon in society because of his scientific interests and how he always knew more than the general populace and that intelligence had also been passed onto his daughter. This intelligence sometimes terrified the populace of Argo and that fear turned to anger and resentment that was then passed onto some of their children. Children like these three who decided to voice that anger aloud. Not only that, but Kara's intelligence was coupled with the natural beauty gifted to her by her mother and it was that total package that further fuelled the resentment of these three towards her.

It was their continued verbal, and on rare occasion physical, abuse that drove Kara more towards Earth and its cultures. Earth was far enough away and alien enough that she could dream and hope that they didn't have these kinds of petty problems on their world. And so she dressed like them and pretended to act like she was one of them to sometimes try to disassociate herself from Kryptonian Culture causing her these emotional problems in the process.

Unfortunately all that had done for these three was give further ammunition to use against her like when she used Earth's assorted languages at times so they wouldn't understand her when she tried to verbally calm herself in the face of their onslaught.

"Do you have nothing to say, you little slut?" challenged Klim. Kara was now trying to focus on not being reduced to tears from once more having to endure their abuse, but she could tell her eyes were getting red anyway.

"Yeah," she said with a slight tone of sadness in her voice as she lowered her hands to cover Kal's ears even though she was going to be speaking in an Earth language called English. "At least I'll never grow up to be a bitch like you."

Klim could tell she'd been insulted in a language she didn't know and was about ready to hurl more insults when Kal intervened by spitting on her.

"That baby of yours just ruined my designer clothes!" shouted Klim irate as she looked at the spit stain. She was so furious she raised her hand as if to strike one of the two when Mar stopped her.

"Not here, not now, not with a child involved," she semi-pleaded. Klim looked at Mar and then at Kara and Kal and then slowly lowered her hand.

"You'd better watch yourself," she warned and then the trio left Kara and Kal in peace. Kara watched them go before all the emotion drained out of her and she collapsed onto a nearby bench and began crying into her hands despite herself. After several moments, she finally stopped and sniffled a few times and then looked down at Kal's now glistening head from her tears as he looked up at her.

"I'm sorry, Kal, you didn't deserve to see or hear that," she apologized even knowing he didn't understand her words. In response, he reached out and grasped her left hand with both of his and brought it to himself and then looked up again and gave her a smile that caused her heart to melt.

"You're my chubby little hero," she confessed as she choked out a laugh. "Thank you for standing up for me when no one else will. I can't wait until you get older and then the children of the House of El will make sure that this never happens again to anyone who can't stand up for themselves."

Kal-El began making random baby noises again as Kara got up and straightened out her rumpled clothes and then reached into her bag and withdrew another item from Earth called sunglasses and put them on so that no one could see her reddened eyes. The route back to the tram station wasn't anywhere near as fun as the walk away from it and Kara was so lost on her thoughts that she nearly failed to notice a voice calling out her name.

"KARA!" shouted the deep male voice finally jerking her from her thoughts. Looking over, Kara saw a grizzled but friendly man standing behind a food vendor's stand with a dirty apron on and worn hands from doing lots and lots of cooking for those that passed by his stand.

"Hi, Uncle Oleo," said Kara her spirits a little brightened by the man's presence. 'Uncle' Oleo-Da was not her uncle by blood, but he was a good friend of the family and for any young friends he insisted they call him uncle. And he was always willing to either be a friendly ear to Kara or offer her free samples on more than enough occasions.

"How are you doing, kid?" he asked courteously. "You seemed so lost in your thoughts I was worried you'd come to your senses halfway between here and Kryptonopolis."

"Oh, you know, life," said Kara trying to sound disarming. She knew Oleo could tell something else was up, but he'd never press her for anything she wasn't willing to reveal on her own terms.

"And who is this little bundle of laughs," said Oleo looking at Kal as he then made some amusing looks and sounds as Kal began laughing hysterically and clapping his hands.

"This is my cousin, Kal," she informed him. Oleo nodded his head as that knowledge sunk in.

"You know he was mentioned in the news the other day," he told her and then upon her confused look added. "When they sentenced General Zod to the Phantom Zone, he swore Jor-El and his heirs would one day bow down before him."

"Well he'll have to wait because Kal can barely walk let alone bow," said Kara slowly returning to her jovial ways. "But what's up that you needed me so badly for?"

"Oh, I just thought you'd like to know that your special order is ready," he whispered conspiratorially to her. Kara instantly perked up at that.

"It is?" she said in hushed excitement. "Can I see it? Or better yet, taste it?"

"Of course," said Oleo humbly as he turned around and then produced a small cone with some white stuff atop it. "What did your father say this stuff was?"

"He says they call it ice cream," said Kara pleased that Oleo had managed to create the stuff with only complex breakdown analyses of what the cream and cone were supposed to be made of. "Did you try it first? I don't think we need a repeat of the gum incident."

"Rest assured I tried one first," said Oleo knowingly. The gum had been another experiment with food from Earth, but the stickiness hadn't worked right at first and it had nearly caused the two of them to need emergency surgery after they couldn't open their jaws.

"So how is it?" Kara asked.

"Like nothing else," Oleo told her. "That's why I'm hoping after you try it that you'll go into business with me selling this stuff. We could make a small fortune here and then expand across the planet."

"Ha," said Kara with a broad grin. "Well, maybe some other day. I want to travel instead."

"Well try that first and then tell me that," Oleo responded leaning back and crossing his arms. Kara looked at him for a moment and then tentatively held the cone in front of her mouth as she tried to remember how humans ate these things. So she hesitantly poked out her tongue and took a lick and her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head.

"WOW!" she shouted ecstatic as the eyes of nearby passers were drawn to her briefly. "This is great!"

"I know," said Oleo clearly pleased with her reaction as he reached for something out of sight. "How 'bout a little one for your friend there?"

Oleo produced a small spoon with some ice cream on it and held it out for Kara to take.

"Oh, I don't know," said Kara reluctantly as she took the spoon. "Aunt Lara warned me about feeding him sweets and if I understood the chemical makeup of this stuff, it's pretty fattening."

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Oleo insisted. "Besides, how would you even begin to explain what this stuff is? I couldn't."

"Good point," Kara conceded and she held the spoon close Kal's mouth. "I just hope I can explain to my aunt how I left with a small pink baby and came back with a large pink ball."

But Kal instantly grasped the spoon and shoved it in his mouth and began sucking on the cream and Kara pulled the spoon back out. Kal-El clearly enjoyed the meal and began pushing the extra ice cream covering his face into his mouth as Kara took a napkin and wiped his face.

"Well thanks uncle, but I need to be heading back to Kryptonopolis," Kara informed him. "Stay sa…a….a…fff….eee…."

RUMMMMMMBLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEE

The ground instantly began shaking heavily as the entire area was rocked by a tremendous quake. Voices screamed in panic as objects began falling down everywhere. Oleo instantly leapt over the counter and protectively shielded Kara and Kal as chaos reigned around them. After several violent moments of seismic upheaval, the ground finally returned to its original state, but not after leaving destruction in its wake.

"Thanks Uncle Oleo," said Kara gratefully. She was also glad Kal wasn't wailing his eyes out right now, but had stayed calm during the whole ordeal.

"You'd better get home," he advised her as he looked at the mess of his stand and everywhere else. "Don't bother trying to get back to Kryptonopolis, just go home."

"Umm, right," said Kara not pleased that that meant Lara would know she'd taken Kal far away from home, but it was her safest course of action right now. She gave her Uncle a light hug without squeezing Kal in between them and then rushed home through the mess everywhere around her. Things were in disarray to be sure and the citizens were clearly on wits end with this latest set of events. What this meant for Krypton, Kara couldn't be sure, but it couldn't be good which was she again prayed that her family came up with a solution to the planet's problems and soon.

She entered into her family's estate and saw her mother conversing with Lara on the other end of the communication device. As soon as she saw her daughter and Kal-El safe and unharmed, she breathed a giant sigh of relief.

"Your suspicions were right, they just came in safely," Alura told Lara on the other end. Lara nodded, grateful, and then watched as Kara sat down next to her mother with Kal.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Lara," Kara responded remorsefully as she removed her sunglasses. "I didn't mean to leave Kryptonopolis without permission but I didn't want to take Kal back to places he might have already been to."

"Kara, I'm grateful that you didn't," Lara confessed to Kara's surprise. "That tremor shook the whole planet and we got struck much worse than you did in Argo City. The whole zoo was completely destroyed here."

Kara was shocked by that statement of the quake's far reaches and that she had nearly been in the middle of it all.

"Well you needn't worry about that now, it's over," said Alura comfortingly to her daughter. "And we now have a little guest we can entertain until his mother can come and get him when they repair the tram lines."

Alura pinched Kal's cheek who squealed accordingly.

"Kara, why don't you take him to your room for now until I can prepare something for him to sleep in," her mother requested. Kara nodded and then said her goodbyes to her Aunt and then took one of Kal's arms and waved goodbye with it to the viewscreen before beating a hasty retreat to her room as the two mothers instantly turned to more serious and troubling matters that they had been discussing before Kara and Kal's arrival.

"Gee Kal, I can't wait to show you my room and all of my Earth stuff," said Kara excited as she walked into her room which was setup in stark contrast to other bedrooms across Krypton, which Kara readily wanted to explain to her cousin. And so she finally took him out of his carrier and propped him up on her bed against the pillows.

"Okay, according to my dad this bedroom is set up to look like a bedroom of girls my age on Earth," began Kara as she took off the carrier and set it on the floor and flopped down on her bed as it squeaked accordingly and Kal looked around confused as to where the noise had come from. "Yeah, this bed is filled with springs. It's not really as comfortable as our Kryptonian beds and I might change it out later, but for now it helps complete the scene."

Kara looked around at the various sheets of paper that adorned her walls with images on them.

"Now, those posters have images of famous people of Earth on them," she began as she stood up and walked up to some of them. "I'm not really sure what all of them did or even who some of them are, but these two guys, Beethoven and Mozart, they're musicians and this guy over here is called Lincoln. He's what they call a 'president', but I don't really understand how Earth's governments work because they have different countries with different systems and most of them have one person at the top and then a council below him or something like that. It's all very strange, especially because there's no unified world government on that planet."

Kal was threatening to doze off with her convoluted and boring explanation and so Kara laughed at that and then walked up to one of her wooden shelves and pulled some items off of it and brought them to the bed.

"These are items my dad made for me that he's seen youths use on Earth," she told him and held up a round object. "This is called a marble. Again I really don't know what uses it has except that it can roll and it looks really shiny, but I'll try and figure out what they used them for so we can play a game with them when you're older."

Kal tried to reach for one and Kara moved it just out of his grasp.

"You'll eat anything you can get your hands on and I'm not having you choke on this," she told him when she was his questioning look. Kal looked like he was about to start crying when Kara immediately handed him a black tile shaped object with white indents on it.

"That's called a domino," she informed him as Kal stuck part of it in his mouth and began sucking on it. "Again, it's used for games of strategy that involves some math so I've actually understood some of the basic rules for it."

She then pulled out a plush animal which Kal instantly recognized.

"Of course this is an Earth animal called a dog and Uncle Jor-El was willing to clone you one in the form of Krypto," she began and then pulled out another stuffed animal. "This is called a cat and dad's thinking about cloning one for me. I don't know if that's such a good idea, but we'll see."

Kal dropped the domino and pulled the stuffed dog closer to him and nuzzled his face into its soft side.

"Course, this is something I want," Kara continued as she produced a model of a strange contraption on four wheels. "It's called a car and on Earth, you get to legally drive one when you're sixteen and have friends in it. I don't know where I'd drive it around here, but it would be awesome if I got one when during my next birthday. No more public transportation for us, Kal!"

Kal looked at the model car confused as he continued clutching the toy dog before his eyes were drawn to a large oval shaped object leaning up against one of Kara's walls.

"That's called a surfboard and the humans use it to ride waves of water," she informed him. "We don't really have many large enough bodies to ride it on around here so dad said he'd build me something more useful called a snowboard. Then I could go out to the glaciers or snow capped mountains and ride down one of them on it. Make my own extreme sport on this world."

Kara then remembered something and smiled widely as she got up and walked over to a covered object nearby that she then threw off exposing the object underneath. It was a wooden object with a thick end coupled to a slender neck with strings across it. Kara threw the strap attached to the object around her neck and walked back and sat on the edge of the bed.

"This is the pride of my Earth collection," she informed her cousin. "It's called an electric guitar and it plays music. Course, I don't really know what modern Earth music sounds like, but dad says they call it rock and roll."

Kara put her left hand on the neck and then produced a small wooden object with her right and then strummed the instrument and it made a sound. Kal clapped his hands and then reached for the object as Kara pulled it back.

"No way, there's only room for one guitarist in this band, but you can play something else instead," explained Kara as he got up and walked over to a large drum set and pulled out a smaller object.

"Here, you can play the tambourine," she informed her cousin as she put the drum shaped object with cymbals adorning it in his lap. Kal instantly began beating on it laughing at the noise it produced as Kara continued strumming her guitar and produced an equivalent to the first few lines of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

"Good stuff," said Kara after a few moments. "You get older and you can graduate to the drums and by that time hopefully I'll understand how these instruments work and we can make our own band. Call ourselves 'Kara and the Kryptonians' or something like that."

Kal yawned and his eyelids began drooping as Kara gave him a light smile and took the tambourine and the toys and put them all away and put her guitar back on its stand and covered it back up.

"Don't go to sleep just yet, there's still one last thing I need to show you," she informed him as she got back on the bed and laid down and pulled Kal onto her chest as he was nearly out of it. She produced a remote and pressed a button and the lights dimmed and a holographic image appeared above their heads of nine celestial objects surrounding a yellow star.

"This is the Terran Solar System," she explained and she pressed a button and the image zoomed into the third world covered with green continents, blue oceans, and two icy areas on both poles. "That's Earth, Kal. Isn't it beautiful?"

Kal stared up at the image with a look of wonder on his face and he reached out for the image with both hands.

"One day you and I will go there," she promised and then yawned deeply. "We'll voyage to that world our fathers discovered and leave all of our problems here on Krypton behind. It'll be you and me against the universe, Kal, and nothing will stop the children of the House of El. You…and…me…"

Kara's eyes drooped closed at that in the midst of the darkened room and soon she was lightly snoozing away with Kal also fast asleep in her arms as the Earth hung above their heads. From the doorway, Alura watched them sleep with a saddened but happy expression on her face. She walked into the darkened room and slowly removed Kal from Kara's arms and held him in her own. Although still asleep, Kal almost seemed to shift uncomfortably as if not wanting to leave his cousin's side, but Alura made some soothing noises and motions to calm his unrest. She looked back in the room at her sleeping daughter and up at the image of Earth and then pressed a button on the wall and the image shut off and she closed the door behind her and placed Kal in Kara's old crib and silently wished both of them sweet dreams.

Next day: A knock was heard on the door in the early morning and Alura went to answer it and let in her sister-in-law. The two entered into the kitchen where Kal was making a mess of his breakfast at the table as Kara had given up trying to clean up his mess and was just silently eating her own food. The two turned to see the new arrival as Kal's expression turned to recognition and then excitement upon seeing his mother who promptly picked him up.

"Thanks again for taking such great care of him," Lara told her niece as the two headed for the door. "And I know Kal is too because whenever we leave him with anyone other than you, he just gets cranky and fussy."

"Well, blood is thicker than water," Kara remarked as she yawned. "But still, he is a handful."

Lara nodded her head as she placed Kal back in his carrier and strapped it to herself.

"Still, it's good to know that Jor-El and I can rely on you to care for him when we're not around. That proves that you have great inner strength," she further informed her niece and then added cryptically. "One day, that may become very important."

Kara smiled lightly at the compliment but chose not to make any remarks about the other statement.

"Well, goodbye you two," Lara told Alura and Kara. "Say goodbye, Kal."

"Buh-buh," said Kal to the two. "Kar..kar…"

Kara smiled at that near reproduction of her name and kissed Kal on the cheek.

"Goodbye my chubby little hero," she told him. "And I'll see you soon sometime. School ends in a couple months and then maybe we can go on a tour around Krypton. Bye, bye. And just so you know, I love you too."

Lara and Alura exchanged a darkened glance at the statement about when school was supposed to end that Kara didn't notice and then Lara picked up one of Kal's hands to wave goodbye and soon was gone. Alura closed the door behind her and then after breakfast began working with Kara Zor-El to clean up the mess the ground quake had made to their home.

Three weeks later Krypton exploded.

…

"Kal?"

"Yeah, Kara, what is it?"

"I just wanted to say, thanks. Thanks for watching out for me since I've arrived on this world."

"I'm only happy to help,"

"I know, it's just...when I found out you were now much older than me...I didn't know how you'd react to someone you probably didn't even know,"

"While I don't remember much about home, I do remember some things. My parents, the stark white of the planet...and a little girl who would go to the ends of existence to watch out for me. I've been waiting for years to return that favor so I should be the one thanking you. After all, it's now you and me against the evil that exists in this universe. So...,"

"So let's go save someone,"

And then the two children of the House of El flew off into the morning sky.

End.