Kara jerked upright with a sharp gasp, instinct taking over before thought could catch up. She flew up a few inches above the bed, hands clenched, as she scanned the room in a panic. She was getting ready for the banquet on Krypton... after that, she was here.
The first thing she saw was a woman hanging upside down on a couch.
Harley waved with the hand not holding a neon-green gummy stick and continued chewing like nothing was wrong. "Morning, Blondie. You snore a little. Kinda cute."
Kara's head snapped to the side.
Then she saw Hippolyta.
The tall woman who was sitting on the chair beside the bed, a book in her hands, posture relaxed but alert. She was wearing an armor of unknown origin. She stood up and closed the book.
Kara sucked in a breath and immediately grabbed her head.
Pain bloomed behind her eyes as her senses went wild. Sound stacked on sound. Voices far below, wind brushing the windows, the sound of cars. Her hearing sharpened too fast, her vision cutting through walls without permission. She saw people moving outside wearing weird clothes, and they didn't look like Kryptonians. Then she looked toward the door. A man was standing just beyond the door.
Her gaze snapped back to Harley's sour stick.
She could smell it.
Her stomach twisted.
"What is happening to me?" she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.
"You are safe here," Hippolyta said gently. "No one will harm you."
Kara's eyes locked onto her. "Where is here?" she demanded. "What is this place. Who are you people?"
Harley stopped chewing. That alone was impressive.
"Okay," Harley said, flipping upright and sitting properly. "Before anybody freaks out, I am not the kidnapper. I am more like the emotional support clown with a Ph.D. in Psychology."
Kara stared at her.
Hippolyta spoke again. "This is Kahndaq. You are in our home. Your ship was damaged and you were injured, so we brought you here."
"Kahndaq? Ship?" Kara repeated slowly.
She flew down on the bed as she took deep breaths and focused just like she had been trained over the years. The thing is, she doesn't know that all this time she was inside a symbiosis ship. Her physical body was inside a stasis pod and her mind was inside a virtual world or simulation of Krypton. The life she had lived so far was nothing but a simulated world... that's 20 years of her life.
The door opened, and John walked in.
Kara looked at him.
"Yes. But before I tell you the truth, you have to promise not to go berserk and keep control over your emotions because there are too many civilians around us and the truth will change your world forever," John said as he stepped closer. He dragged a chair from the corner and sat down. "Can you promise me that?"
Kara stared at him for a long moment.
Her chest rose and fell too fast at first, then slower. She closed her eyes and pressed two fingers to her temple, grounding herself the way her tutors had drilled into her since childhood. She counted her breaths. She pushed the noise back. The world sharpened, but it stopped screaming.
When she opened her eyes again, they were steady.
"I promise," she said quietly. "I will not lose control."
John nodded once. "Good."
He leaned forward, forearms resting on his knees, voice calm but heavy. "Krypton is gone, Kara."
She blinked. "That's not funny."
"I am not joking."
Her brow furrowed. "My family was preparing for the banquet. My uncle was late. My cousin was showing off again." She shook her head. "This is some kind of test. Or a prank."
Hippolyta stayed silent. Harley stopped chewing completely.
John kept going. "Your planet was destroyed years ago. You were a child when it happened. Your parents put you into a symbiosis ship to save you. Your body was placed in stasis, and your mind was put into a simulated environment based on Krypton. This was meant to protect you and teach you basic life skills like conversing with others and teaching you how to use your abilities until the ship reaches its destination."
Kara laughed once. It came out sharp and wrong. She was slightly trembling. "Okay. That is enough. This is not funny at all."
"I know," John said gently.
She shook her head harder now. "You expect me to believe that my entire life was fake? That my friends, my teachers, my home, twenty years of my life were just a program?"
"Yes."
Her eyes glistened and she laughed awkwardly. "No. That is insane."
John stood. "Then come with me."
...
[Outside]
They flew... Kara knew how to fly, but doing it in her physical body felt different. She followed John, Harley and Hippolyta.
They landed in the northern field where Maureen had placed the ship.
The moment Kara saw it, her smile vanished.
The ship was real.
'That's... the symbiosis ship!' She thought.
She stepped closer slowly, her hand hovering just above the scorched hull. Kryptonian symbols glowed faintly on the damaged parts. She recognized them instantly.
Her breath hitched.
"No," she whispered.
John said nothing.
She walked inside.
The corridors felt wrong and familiar at the same time. Burn marks lined the walls. Systems were dead. The pod chamber stood open at the end, shattered crystal scattered across the floor.
She stopped before her pod.
"No!"
Her knees buckled.
Kara sank to the floor of the ship, sitting hard, fingers curling into the metal beneath her. Her breathing became shallow as her mind tried to grab onto something solid and found nothing.
"Twenty years," she said softly. "All of it was fake."
John crouched a few steps away, giving her space. "The feelings were real. The growth was real. But the world was not. I'm sorry."
Her shoulders shook as a quiet, broken laugh escaped her. "I was getting ready for a banquet."
She looked at John as tears rolled down her face.
"My mother told me to wear blue."
No one spoke.
Her eyes were red, unfocused, lost in a way that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with grief.
"I do not know who I am anymore," she said.
Harley walked closer and dropped to her knees in front of Kara and wrapped her arms around her tight, pulling her in before Kara could even react. It was not gentle or careful. It was solid and warm and very real.
"Hey," Harley said softly, her voice losing its usual edge. "Hey, hey, hey. Nope. You do not get to fall apart alone. That is not how this works."
Kara stiffened at first, shock freezing her in place. Then her hands curled into the fabric of Harley's jacket like they were the only thing keeping her from drifting apart. The sound that came out of her was raw and ugly and full of everything she had been holding back.
Harley held on tighter as she let her cry for a few minutes.
"I know," she murmured, rocking slightly. "I know it feels like someone pulled the floor out from under you and then laughed about it. Been there. Different flavor of nightmare, same emotional gut punch."
Kara's voice broke against her shoulder. "They are gone. All of them. I was talking to them yesterday."
Harley swallowed and pressed her cheek against Kara's hair. "Yeah. That part never stops hurting. But listen to me, Blondie. You are still here. That means something. Even when it feels like it shouldn't."
Hippolyta knelt beside them, one hand resting lightly on Kara's back, steady and grounding. "Grief does not erase who you are," she said quietly. "It reveals how deeply you are capable of loving."
Kara laughed weakly through tears. "I do not even know who I am anymore."
John stepped closer. "Then you get to find out," he said. "Take your time. You do not have to decide anything today. And no, you are not alone. We are here for you. And your cousin is alive."
Kara looked up at John with a glint of hope.
"Kal-L is alive. He arrived on Earth years ago and is doing great," John said, with a reassuring nod.
Harley pulled back just enough to look over Kara's shoulder, then flicked her eyes up at John.
"Wait," she said. "Hold up. Supes. Like red cape, Boy Scout, allergic to green rocks Supes?"
John nodded. "Yes."
Harley stared at Kara again, then back at John. "She's his cousin?"
"Yep."
Harley let out a slow whistle. "Huh. That explains the cheekbones."
Kara wiped at her face with the back of her hand, still sniffling, still trying to breathe through the weight sitting on her chest. "You said… my cousin is alive?"
John nodded again, his tone steady and gentle. "Kal-L arrived on Earth years ago. He was raised here. He is doing well."
Her lips parted. Her voice came out small. "Where is he?"
John glanced up toward the sky, where the clouds drifted lazily above the desert. "Right now? Somewhere out there. Doing Superman things. Saving people. Probably stopping a train or talking someone out of robbing a bank."
Kara blinked. "I can just… see him?"
"Yes."
"How?"
John smiled faintly. "Go outside. Fly up and yell his name. He will hear you."
She stared at him, disbelief and fragile hope twisting together in her expression. "That's it?"
"That's it."
Harley gave her a little nudge. "Trust me, Blondie. If there is one thing that guy never ignores, it is someone calling his name."
---
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