After being driven away from Earth by Kal-El, Kara had spent all her time wondering where she was supposed to go next.
Her mind felt completely chaotic.
Especially whenever she began thinking about why she had killed that member of the Green Lantern Corps.
It was almost like a conditioned reflex.
The moment she thought about the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians who led them, an endless wave of murderous intent surged through her mind.
She wanted to find a way back to Krypton.
But she simply could not find where the path home even was.
Krypton, located in Sector 2813, should have been extremely close to Earth in Sector 2814.
Yet she wandered aimlessly across the universe, risking suffocation and the loss of her powers as she entered countless red star systems, only to never find the Krypton that existed in her memories.
It was like being trapped inside a dream.
No matter how desperately she tried to reach a destination, she would always crash into endless fog before arriving.
Forever unable to reach it.
This was another yellow-star system, merely one of countless temporary 'refueling stations' she had drifted through during the past several days.
Kara landed upon the system's only planet.
The violent winds sweeping across the surface scattered her golden hair, carrying sharp stones along with them.
But to a Kryptonian, all of it felt little different from a gentle breeze.
It was a rather strange planet.
Although it possessed an atmosphere and sunlight temperatures suitable for most lifeforms, its surface was completely barren.
Nothing existed except desolate wastelands, endless deserts, and a distant ocean as motionless as stagnant water.
Still, there was nothing particularly unusual about that.
In an infinite universe, even among the countless planets capable of supporting life, actual life itself remained incredibly rare on the scale of the cosmos.
After days of interstellar travel and visits to thousands of star systems, Kara had long since grown used to sights like this.
At this point, she felt that no matter how strange things became, she probably wouldn't be surprised anymore.
Then, in the very next second, every nerve cell in her body began screaming warnings at her.
In the distance came the sound of an atmosphere igniting.
Within an instant, Kara's gaze locked onto the incoming figure.
The black armor covering the newcomer's entire body was unmistakably Kryptonian in both design aesthetics and material composition.
Especially because the right shoulder plate bore the engraved designation:
Sword of Rao - 1555.
Even from several kilometers away, the blonde Kara could clearly feel the overwhelming hostility directed toward her.
"Who are you?"
The armor blocked Kara's x-ray vision, forcing her to question the stranger aloud.
Despite the distance between them, she knew the other person could hear her perfectly clearly.
The armor covering the newcomer's face flowed backward like liquid, receding across the body and revealing a face completely identical to Kara's own.
The white-haired Kara stared at her clone from afar like someone gazing into a mirror.
"I can't believe my face is capable of making such a stupid expression."
"What?!"
Seeing the white-haired Kryptonian already less than a hundred meters away, the blonde Kara immediately moved backward.
"What are you supposed to be? Some kind of clone?"
In the blonde Kara's memories, humanity had spent twenty years trying to create a new Kryptonian while she was imprisoned inside the laboratory.
But until Joey rescued her and destroyed the entire facility, not a single successful specimen had ever emerged.
All those insane and extreme experiments should have ended in total failure.
So why had another clone with her exact face appeared here?
The white-haired Kara's missed punch carved harmlessly through empty air.
She clearly had no interest whatsoever in explaining anything.
"You're too weak!"
She twisted her joints and leapt lightly forward, instantly catching up to the retreating clone before delivering a horizontal blade-hand strike.
The liquid metal composing her armor extended alongside the motion of her fingers, forming a sharpened blade aimed directly at the clone's throat.
Whether in speed or reaction time, the armored Kara vastly outclassed this exhausted clone who had wandered the stars for so long without replenishing her energy.
Kara could already see the uncontrollable fear rising in her clone's eyes.
There had never been any suspense in this battle.
She had come here intending to kill.
Meanwhile, the clone was still foolishly trying to defend herself passively.
Given the overwhelming difference in strength between them, there was no way the clone could dodge this strike in time.
The terrifying lethality of Kryptonian metal under a yellow sun had already been proven before on her little cousin.
Anything originating from Krypton itself seemed to become dramatically enhanced beneath a yellow sun.
If this strike landed cleanly, the annoying clone in front of her would never have to think about anything ever again.
As the image of the clone being decapitated in a single slash flashed through her mind, the white-haired Kara couldn't help revealing a relieved smile.
Creating a clone had been her desperate solution during extraordinary circumstances.
Burying that ugly secret on this barren, lifeless planet was the most suitable choice possible.
Buzz!
A bright white teleportation corridor ignited into existence.
Before the figure inside had even fully emerged, a blast of heat vision fired ahead of them.
The white-haired Kara reacted instantly and dodged aside.
She didn't even need to look to know exactly who had arrived.
Ordinary heat vision wouldn't seriously damage her armor, but her cousin was far from an ordinary Kryptonian.
"Have you seriously evolved to the point of stalking your own cousin with tracking devices like some kind of creep now?"
Faced with his cousin's usual stream of shameless innuendo, Joey didn't bother responding this time.
His eyes glowed red in silence as another blast of heat vision fired out, separating Kara from… well, Kara.
He shot forward and caught the blonde Kara before she lost her balance, pulling her behind him.
"It's gonna be okay."
Still shaken from the near-death experience, the blonde Kara tightly grabbed Joey's cape with both hands, her face filled entirely with relief at having survived.
"Joey, you came! Be careful— that clone is incredibly fast. Maybe even faster than you!"
The white-haired Kara, temporarily forced back by Joey, laughed in anger after hearing that.
"Ha! You pathetic clone, at this point you should stop lying to yourself and accept your—"
"Enough!"
Joey's sharp shout cut his cousin off mid-sentence.
He gently patted the blonde Kara's trembling hands.
"Get farther away, Kara."
The white-haired Kara in her Kryptonian battle armor was not an easy opponent.
Joey had already confirmed that during their previous clash.
In a certain sense, her stats in this state were actually superior to his own.
Fortunately, Joey still had solutions beyond simply punching harder.
"Kara Zor-El..."
The two of them now stood only a few meters apart.
At this distance, any sudden attack had a chance of succeeding.
All he needed to do now was lower her guard first.
Suddenly, Joey remembered the absolutely unhinged joke Cyborg had blurted out earlier.
An idea immediately formed in his mind.
This cousin of his, who constantly spoke in shameless double entendres, had spent twenty years on Earth.
She definitely knew Earth customs.
With that thought, Joey slowly dropped to one knee and pretended to fumble behind his back before pulling out a small velvet-lined box.
"Will you marry me?"
"Huh?!"
The white-haired Kara genuinely had not anticipated this situation.
A flush instantly spread from her neck all the way to her ears and cheeks.
Normally, her conversations with Joey were full of violent threats and shameless flirting, but now the confident attitude she usually carried vanished completely as she fell into total confusion.
"I am your fucking cousin, Kal-El! What is wrong with—"
Before Kara could finish speaking, Joey—who had been kneeling only a moment earlier—suddenly launched himself forward like a bullet and appeared directly in front of her.
He threw a devastating punch straight toward her chest.
In his hand was a fragment of the Helmet of Fate.
Forged from Nth Metal, it was capable of piercing Kryptonian metal defenses.
And alongside it, the priceless gemstone ring Bruce had handed him earlier.
A green Kryptonite ring.
The microcomputers within Kara's battle armor detected the incoming attack even faster than Kara herself did.
The armor's AI immediately redirected metallic material from the rest of the suit toward her chest, forming the thickest defensive layer possible.
But it still couldn't stop the sharp metal fragment.
Bang!
The armor split open with a violent crack.
Green Kryptonite radiation instantly penetrated through the damaged protective layers and flooded into Kara's body.
Caught completely off guard by the utterly dishonorable sneak attack, Kara was punched flying and tumbled across the ground.
Instinctively, she tried to stand but the Kryptonite ring now lodged within the crack in her chest armor made her entire body go weak.
Even breathing became difficult.
As consciousness faded, the final thing she heard was her despicable cousin's smug voice ringing in her ears.
"What was that saying again… You're not focused enough."