Authors Note: Slight homage to Man of Steel here.

CHAPTER SIX: AWAKENING

The heart of Krypton is not in my chest,

It is not found the molten core of the world,

It does not beat in the way of flesh or matter

It pulses with a life of its own

It is the brightest star in the sky

We look up every day and give little mind

To its importance and its beauty

We know it as a thing that simply exists

We forget how much it gives to us

It is life, it is breathe it is all we will ever be

We are all its children, this forgotten mother

Forgive us errant children that we are

Give praise to the great heart of Krypton

Give praise to Rao!

She was lying against her mother’s shoulder, listening Alura reciting The Heart of Krypton, written by one of her favourite poets, Nor-E. Kara remembered falling to the sound of her voice, always smooth like silk breathing against her skin. Her mother would hold the data reader with one hand, while the other would stroke Kara’s blond hair. Her father would be at his desk, as always, contemplating new ways to sustain Kandor. Even though he seemed distracted with his work, Kara knew he listened. Sometimes, he glance up from his work station and brushed the two of them with a little smile.

In the days after Krypton had been destroyed; when a piece of her had hurtled into space, held together with Zor-El’s genius, they would spend most evenings here, enjoying the time they had had together, aware that it could disappear at any more. Her father never showed it but Kara knew he often worried about how Kandor would survive, that the force field in which he had build around the city and the city power network which he had devised into a makeshift propulsion system would fail.

He never showed them his concern but Kara knew it was there. Just as he was certain that her mother knew it and said nothing because it was important to her that he held the belief that they were oblivious how much their existence was balanced on a knife’s edge.  Kara cherished these evenings together because every surviving Kandorian child knew that they were all that was left of Krypton.

It was no surprise to Kara that she should find herself here in the dreamscape, with her mother’s sweet voice in her ears, lulling her back to a gentler sleep while her father worked at his desk. His fingers moved across the console as he transcribed some new equation or algorithm design to increase the power of their reactor core, into the recording crystal. Each digit moving with a kind of grace, possessing tapered elegance. She could hear them as he made contact with the workstation keyboard.

Then without warning, the tactile dance suddenly boomed in her ear so loudly that she sat up straight , flinching at the disturbance. It was so loud!  Alura turned to her to ask her what was wrong and it seemed that she was shouting at Kara, in a voice that seemed to shake the walls of the house. Kara’s hand flews to her ears, trying to drone out her mother’s demands to know what was wrong. Her father had stood up, pushing back on his chair. It scrapped across the floor so loudly, it felt as if someone had put a rip in the world. He was also calling her, asking her what was wrong. His footsteps towards her were like the pounding of drums until Kara couldn’t look at him.

The sound was coming from everywhere!  She could hear their breathing, could hear the sluggish currents of circulated air, the drone of machinery beneath her and the chatter of her friends.  She couldn’t make it stop! The noise grew until they clashed against each other, until she did not know one began and another ended. It was like she was trapped in a wind tunnel, with sound rushing all over her, dragging her into its depths of cacophony.

Kara screamed.

She woke up sweaty, her hands clutching her ears, trying to shut out the sounds clashing against her ear drums. The chaos had followed her out of her dreams and into the waking world.  It felt like a dagger driving deeper into her brain, until she couldn’t hear herself crying out.  Nor could she remember where she was? What was this strange place? Where was her mother and father! Kara thought frantically. Everything about her look alien? Not at all like her room in Kandor. These thoughts raced through her mind briefly before the sound found her again and all was forgotten as she clutched her head screaming it to stop.

Kara did not notice the door bursting open only that it caused more noise. She recognised Jor-El rushing in, worry on his face. No, she thought fleetingly, not Uncle Jor, it was Kal. Her baby cousin Kal who wasn’t a baby anymore. He paused and she stared at him, imploring for help when suddenly his skin was stripped away from his flesh, then the strips of muscle, one by one until she could see his heart pounding, could see the saliva moving down his throat and the blood pumping in his veins. But that too was soon gone and he was talking to her, his mouth was moving but all she could see was a skull trying to speak.

Kara recoil in fright, another terrified scream followed.

“Kara!” Clark came towards at her, shocked by the wide eyed terror he saw in her eyes.

“Get away from me!” She screamed, turning away from him, unable to bear looking at him. She pressed  her body against the bed head, holding her ears while burying her face in her shoulder, trying to shield the world.

“Kara, let me help you,” Clark said reaching for her.

“STOP SHOUTING!” Kara pleaded, her eyes clamped shut. “Its hurting my ears! I can...can..hear everything! And that’s something wrong with you! You’re all blood and bone...!”

At that Clark understood. Well that’s that then, he thought as it put to rest their earlier debate about how soon Kara’s powers would manifest themselves. He’d hope they’d be gradual as it had been for him but he had years to live on Earth while Kara had been here for less than a day. He’d seen other Kryptonians manage their powers but none of them was as young as she was.

“Kara, listen to me.” Clark tried to speak. “Its perfectly normal. You just need to adjust, to learn how to control your powers.”

When Martha and Lois entered the room, Kara turned instinctively to them and was once again assaulted with the same sensory overload. Their footsteps pounded like thunderclaps, their breath sounded like the harsh winds of a storm and when she looked to them, she saw that same grisly scene of blood and flesh. She could see their skulls and eye balls cradled in sockets and sluggish movements of digestive juices in their stomachs. It was horrible! She couldn’t bear it! Turning away from them, Kara kept her eyes closed tight, not wanting to see any of it and sobbing for it to stop.

“What’s wrong with her?” Lois demanded, wanting desperately to help but having no idea how to.

“Its her powers,” Clark explained hastily, trying to reach for Kara only to have the girl shrink away in fear. “Her enhanced hearing and x-ray vision has kicked in. Its all coming in.”

“How did you deal with it?” Lois asked, unable to bear seeing the girl so distraught.

“It didn’t happen like this!” Clark exclaimed, remembering that both powers had appeared at different times and they were sporadic bursts until Clark was able to get a handle on them.

“HUSH!” Martha ordered sharply, pushing her way to the front now that she understood the nature of the problem . It was amazing how much of raising Clark came back to her. Decades later and she was now faced with another child needing her help, another child who had found them as Clark had found her and Jonathan. In some ways, it was easier with Clark, he had no memory of his parents while Kara had too many.

Conditioned to obey her without question; both Clark and Lois withdrew to give Martha room as she took charge of things. Despite his desire to help Kara because he was convinced this was something he’d be able to understand like no one else, Clark couldn’t help but submit to Martha's demand as she sat next to Kara on her bed. He remembered doing the same thing when he was a little boy, afraid of something he’d been able to do that he didn’t understand. Martha always had the ability to make almost anything terrible seem slight.

Clark pulled back to Lois who wrapped an arm around his waist and gave him a little wink to tell him that everything was going to be okay because sometimes, even the Man of Steel needed assurance.  Being on the end of Martha Kent's mothering, Lois knew just how much of a salve it could be.

Martha slid further up the mattress so she could reach Kara. The young girl was still trying to shut out the deafening sounds in her ears and the unsettling images of those around her. Martha reached out to Kara, cupping the young girl’s face in her hand and speaking in a soft whisper.

“Kara,” Martha said softly. “Listen to me. Listen to my voice. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to take care of you. Don’t think of anything else, don’t listen to anything else, just concentrate on hearing me, on hearing my voice.” She spoke in the same soft tones, she used when reading Clark a bed time story. “Listen to my voice, sweetheart. Its going to be okay, we’re going to help you through this. You’re not alone.”

Kara’s trembling hand reached Martha’s own and nodded.

“I’m...trying...” she stuttered and the proof was in her furrowed brow as she tried to do as instructed.

“That’s a good girl,” Martha continued to speak holding her hand and stroking her hair as she spoke. “Keeping focussing on my voice, Kara. You are a part of our family now and we’re going to take care of you. Clark...Kal, Lois and me, we’re all here for you. You're not alone on Earth  and you don't have to face all this by yourself.  The outside world is where it is, outside. Listen to what I’m saying. You’re safe honey, I promise you, you’re safe.”

Kara concentrated, listening to the voice that sounded so kind and so much like her mother it almost hurt. She was afraid because the noise seemed so immense but she so wanted to believe the promises of Martha Kent. It made her try harder to concentrate to repay the kindness of the older woman’s words. She forced everything else away except the words that told her she was safe even if Kandor was gone. She still had family and they would help her. She focused on Martha’s words and in that moment of concentration, realised that if she paid mind to just one thing, the rest seemed to recede.

Martha’s voice revealed that truth to her.

Clark and Lois held their breath in silence, waiting to see if Martha’s advice had worked. Clark wanted to hug his mother and tell her she was the greatest mom there ever was just by how she was handling Kara. A few more minutes passed before Kara finally responded. Her eyes were still clamped shut but she seemed less agitated.

“I can hear you,” she said softly. “I...can hear just you.”

“I’m glad honey,” Martha said with a smile and hugged her. Without speaking, Martha gestured Clark forward.

“Kara,” Clark approached on his mother's request, keeping his voice was low so he didn't derail Martha's efforts by placing too much on Kara's concentration too soon. “Open your eyes slowly but don't stare. Just pretend you were just glancing at something. Do the exact opposite of what my mom just told you, don’t focus.”

It was easier this time, Kara realise. Once she understood the more she tried to out all the images, the more of it appeared. So she stopped trying to see and in doing so, the layers of flesh began to grow over; one by one until she was staring at Kal-El, his mother and his mate. Their faces intact and removed from the grisly visage of blood, tissue and flesh.

“I can see you,” she exclaimed with gratitude. "I can see you all."

“Of course, you can honey,” Martha smiled brushing a strand of blond hair out of her face. “I knew you would.”

And without another word, Kara enveloped her in a hug and clung to Martha, whispering in her ear.

"Thank you," she said softly in the older woman's ear. "Thank you."

******

There was an angel at her window.

She’d never seen an angel before but she’d seen pictures and sometimes, when Mommy took her to church at Christmas time, she’d seen statues. She saw the beautiful angel floating outside her window.  Climbing out of bed, she padded across the polished wooden floor silent, careful to avoid kicking the toys she’d left on the floor, certain that mommy and daddy would hear. Rubbing her eyes, she walked towards the window and tilted her head, staring at the sight beyond the glass.

Eyes widening, Laura stared at the angel floating outside her window, high above the cobblestone pave outside the house. The angel had hair so golden that it seemed almost white as it flowed in the night’s breeze. She was dressed in white, like an angel be dressed with her wings spread out behind her, flapping with feathers as snow white as a doves.  The angel smiled at her and drifted towards the window, placing her hands on the glass.

Laura opened the window without once considering it could be wrong because mommy said angels came from God. Daddy was oddly silent on the subject.

"Hello there little one," the angel greeted, fluttering closer to her at the window’s edge. There was a smile on her lips that Laura could know was triumphant. “What’s your name?”

"Laura." She replied somewhat puzzled, wondering how come the angel didn’t know her name. Weren’t they supposed to know all little children’s names, so they could know which prayers to answer.

"Well isn't that a pretty name Laura," the angel answered. "My name is Swan."

*****

In another room, Lex woke up.

Five years in prison had made him a light sleeper and his senses were now attuned for the slightest sound. When one was a billionaire locked up for murder, it was easy for the other inmates to believe he was easy prey. Lex had soon taught them that he was anything but weak however, the lesson still had to be taught to a few in the first few months of his incarceration. All of this had left Lex's ability to sleep deeply forever impaired.

In any case, Lex's inability to sleep tonight had little do with his imprisonment. It had to do with the alien ship that he and Lana had retrieved from Miller's Field. LexCorp technicians had spirited it away to a secure warehouse so that it could be studied in a control environment, as it should have been done before Dr. Groll  flagrantly disregarded his orders and caused the incident that left many dead. There was no doubt in his mind that the craft had brought someone here and that Milton Fine had done everything he could to possess it.

In retrospect, his earlier assertion that this was Fine's ship needed redefinition. The logic of the situation didn't seem to hold water. Fine had the ship in his possession for years, in fact it was his sole purpose for killing Lionel and framing Lex for his murder so he could take charge of LuthorCorp. No, the ship did not belong to Fine but that conclusion bore only more questions. Where was the ship's occupant? Who was in there? Another alien threat like the ones he and Lana encountered the day of the second meteor storm?

All this was in his head when he heard something moving out side his door.

Lex was wide awake and he pushed himself onto his elbow in a second, peering over the bed head. Lana was still asleep, her dark hair covering her face until she rolled over to her other side at his sudden shift. Without wasting any time,  Lex leaned over to his bedside table to retrieve the gun he had tucked in the first drawer. The gun was empty, the bullets still in their box. With a child in the house, he had to be careful.

He never had the chance to load it.

The door swung open so fast that Lex barely had time to get the shells out of the box when something stung the back of his hand with such sharp, intense pain that he dropped the weapon, causing it to clatter against the floor loudly. Lana sat upright with a start, her eyes opening just in time to register the whip that had done it. The woman holding the whip was standing at the doorway to their bedroom like an extreme version of Doris the Dominatrix. If such a thing was possible.

Laura! Where was Laura! Lana thought frantically and was about to jump out of bed when something leapt at her and landed it full weight against her chest, driving the air from her lungs and forcing her back against the mattress once more.

"LANA!" Lex screamed, overcoming his pain to reach for the woman who had pounced on Lana like an animal when suddenly the assailant stuck out her arm, forcing  him to stop immediately when he felt the sharp blade of her gauntlets pressed against his throat.

"Naughty, naughty," she wagged a finger at  him. "Mad Harriet’s says you don't get to move until she says so." She ended the warning with a thither that became giggles.

"Get off me!" Lana growled, fully prepared to retaliate until  she felt the blades of Mad Harriet's other gauntlet dig into her chest.

"Behave, sweetie." She warned, "don't make me cut up that pretty, pretty face. Maybe give you a new smile. Nice and wide...!

"STOP!" Lex demanded, not prepared to risk her life or that of his child under any circumstances. He knew that the security  personnel on the estate were either compromised or unaware of their predicament yet. LexCorp had an external security team that was probably speeding towards the mansion now so he had to play for time. Negotiate.

"Don't hurt her,” he begged and then asked, “What is it you want?"

He met Lana's gaze, trying to assure that they were okay, that he would get them out of this even if right now, he was choking on impotent fury. Battling his anger with the rationale that these people obviously wanted something or else he and Lana would be dead already, he maintained his calm and prayed they hadn't gone to Laura's room.

"Where is the occupant of the ship?"

Lex turned his attention to the woman in the bizarre costume of full bodied leather, who stared at him and spoke with words exuding cold ruthlessness.

The ship. This was about the ship. Lex blinked slowly, inwardly cursing himself because he should have known. Hadn't he gone through this already, with the Black Ship? Were these women the same as those aliens who had threatened Lana and him when they had first encountered it all those years ago. In the milliseconds that he had to answer, he considered his options. These intruders confirmed his suspicion that this wasn't Fine's ship, that someone else had emerged from that ship, not the missing Fine.

"I don't know," Lex answered hastily, giving the truth for the moment because if he lied, they would call his bluff and he wasn't gambling with Lana and Laura’s life in the balance.

"Wrong answer," Mad Harriet sneered and without any warning, drove one of the blades of her gauntlet into Lana's shoulder.

Lana's scream was so sharp and sudden, it ripped through all of Lex's rational thought and defences. It seem to last forever, almost eternity as he fought back the urge to attack but was halted by the blades against his neck once more.

"Goddamn it!” He swore in fury instead. “I'm telling you the truth! The ship was empty when we found it!"

He looked at Lana writhing helplessly against the blade that was buried to the hilt in her shoulder. The crazy bitch's gauntlet was pressed against Lana's bloody skin and she was taking great pleasure in every ounce of pain etched across his wife’s face.  He had no doubt that it had penetrated all the way to the mattress. Lana was shuddering in pain, trying not to cry out again but Mad Harriet had other plans and twisted the blade unexpectedly, eliciting another sharp scream....

*******

....that made Clark Kent's spine stiffen ramrod straight all the way at the Kent Farm.

For all of Jor-El's training, there were some things that Clark still no control over. Lana may have been a face in his past but Clark could never ignore that for most of his youth, he'd loved her. Even though Lois was the love of his life now and of that he had no doubt, Clark could never forget that Lana had been the first. She had been the girl next door, the one that inspired so much passion until life had made him understand that while they might have been in love, they were never meant to last.  

Clark had made peace with that the first time he kissed Lois and saw the irascible pain in the ass that she was, had evolved into something unexpected. Something that was never as hard and complicated as his love for Lana. Clark and Lois’ relationship was never plagued with the turbulence that so crippled the one with Lana.  However, even if he and Lana were now friends, her hold on him was still strong and she would remain one of the few people in his life to which he was always attuned.

When she screamed, it penetrated the veil of night and the distance between Lowell County, between the Mansion and the Kent farm, to reach his ears. He was in the middle of returning to bed with Lois when he heard it. It cut through the drone of background noise, he had trained himself to ignore the way he had just instructed Kara too.  It made him stop short because he recognised it immediately.

"Clark what is it?" Lois demanded when she saw the sudden change in his expression and knew something dire had just happened.  Since he assumed the persona of Superman, Lois knew that his hearing was focussed to pick up danger but it had taken practice to determine what needed the intervention from the Man of Steel.  She could tell when he was about to fly off to answer some random call of distress but rarely had she see him affected so personally.

"I have to go," he declare and took off so quickly that Lois barely had time to blink or get any other details before the abrupt gust of wind from his rapid departure blew across her and she was alone in the hallway.

********

By the time Clark took to the skies, he was already wearing the costume and he couldn’t deny feeling some strangeness in approaching the Luthor Mansion by air.  For years, he’d become accustomed to dropping in on Lex when they’d been friends and a part of him still missed that friendship. He knew he’d recaptured something like it in his relationship with Bruce but as one got older, it was easy to see things clearly and Clark knew he’d failed Lex Luthor.  

You should have trusted me.

That was what Lex had said to him in that prison when he confronted Lex after coming out as Superman, before Brainiac had erased Krypton and him out of Lex’s memory.  In his youth, he’d been too frightened to believe that Lex would have his best interests in mind if his secret was revealed. However, after Lex’s memory had been erased Clark wondered that if he had satisfied Lex’s questions about the strange occurrences that always seemed to take place around them, perhaps the man would not have formed his own conclusions and be led down the dark park that almost destroyed him.

It was too late now, Clark decided as he saw the Luthor Mansion in sight and immediately scanned the house to locate Lana. It did not occur to him to be concerned that he didn’t see Laura.

******

“The ship was in your possession for years!” Lashina hissed, tightening her whip around Lex’s neck. “Are you telling me that it suddenly took flight and you have no idea who was in it?”

“The ship was in Milton Fine’s possession and he didn’t tell anyone where it was” Lex growled, trying to speak through the leather pressing against his throat. “We only located it today!”  

“I think he’s lying.” Mad Harriet sneered and twisted the blade again, drawing another sharp cry from Lana.

“STOP IT!” Lex begged, becoming more desperate. “She doesn’t know anything!”

Suddenly, a streak of red and blue moved through the room so quickly that Lex thought he’d imagined it until it paused next to Harriet.  

“Get off her!” Superman’s deep voice demanded and swatted the woman aside like she was nothing.

Mad Harriet uttered a banshee’s screech of outrage as she was flung across the room. The sudden removal of the deep blade from Lana’s shoulder made her cry out but at least the wretched thing was gone.

“This has nothing to do with you Kryptonian!” Lashina hissed.

“Terrorizing innocent people makes it my business,” Clark retorted and with a blast of heat vision, severed the lash around Lex’s throat in half.

Lex pulled away immediately and reacted with a roadhouse swing against Lashina that threw the woman off him.

Mad Harriet got quickly to her feet and prepared to pounce but Clark exhaled deeply and put her down with a puff of breath. She screamed in fury as she landed hard.

Lex wasted no time in hurrying over to Lana, trying to staunch the blood that was flowing freely now that Harriet’s blade had been extracted.

“Oh God...it hurts,” she gasped.

“Its going to be okay,” Lex took her hand, crushing it in his before kissing her on the forehead. “I’m going to get you help.”

Meanwhile Clark turned to the two intruders, “who are you? What do you want here?” He could tell from the look of them that neither were human, even without having to run his x-ray vision over them.

From the window, Clark heard something fluttering and he turned to the window to see Laura, in the arms of a woman, a woman with snow white wings and golden hair.

“LAURA!” Lana shouted, seeing the child squirming in the woman’s arms.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Laura cried out, reaching out hands towards them.

Lex staggered to the window to retrieve his daughter but the Swan moved effortlessly out of reach.  “Don’t be afraid Starbuck! You’re going to be okay!”

“This does not concern you Kryptonian,” Lashina declared triumphantly from behind Clark. “They will give us what we want or the Swan will drop their child and watch her insides split open like a ripe fruit!”

“NO!” Lana cried out terrified, “Superman...do something!”

However, Clark wasn’t listening. He was staring at the woman who was holding Laura. Despite the alien clothes she was wearing and the cruel sneer, he knew her.  He knew who she was and where she’d come from, where both of these women with her had also originated.

This was Valerie, Valerie Beaudry.

TO BE CONTINUED