Yue

 14th September

16:32 GMT -5

Her eyes close for a moment, and I think she might have gone back to sleep. Then she opens them again and takes a look around the room. Then she sighs with relief. "Krypton, I'm on Krypton."

"I'm sorry, Miss-."

She focuses on Kon's chest-. Where the 'S' of House El is marked on his chest plate because I have issues prioritising when merged with the Ophidian. Then she looks up at his face. "Who are you?"

"I'm K-."

She loses focus again and flops back on the bed. "I was… I got into…" Kon lightly squeezes her hand. "Ohnoohnoohnoohno."

"Miss Zor-El, do you remember what happened?"

"Yes, yes I remember." Her voice sounds like she's trying to cry, wavering and unsteady. "Krypton's gone. And… And I was trapped…"

She looks at Kon's face again, and he nods. "You were in there a while, but you're safe now. You're on Earth, and-."

"K-Kal? Little Kal?" She clumsily reaches out with her right hand. "You've.. grown up."

"No, I-. I'm not Kal-El. But he's-" He glances at the doorway. "-on his way. We had to bring you straight here because it's the only place that knows how to treat Kryptonians."

"And… The voice I heard was Uncle Jor's neural imprint." Kon nods. "It actually happened." Kon nods again, his eyes dipping further. "W-? How did..? Where is this?"

"Jor-El included some sort of auto-fabrication device in Kal-El's pod. Left alone for a couple of years it extracted materials from the surrounding rock and built this place. We're currently on a large island near Earth's northern pole. And slightly underground."

She manages to nod. "But if-" She looks at Kon again. "-you're wearing-. Are you his son?"

"Not.. exactly." Kon looks up, his eyes meeting mine for a moment before moving to the far wall. "A local genetics lab was doing work on Kryptonian DNA and.. made me."

"You're a.. clone..? I mean, not that that's a bad thing or anything-."

"No, I'm a mix of Kal-El, a Human called Lex Luthor and… And a few other things."

"What?"

"Yeah, Human science is kinda crazy. Oh, and, ah… Earth has a yellow sun, so you're… Things are gunna be a bit different."

"I'll be really strong, really tough and I'll be able to fly."

"And have laser eyes. You got a dose of sunlight when we dug you out, but at the moment we're excluding the relevant wavelengths from the light here."

"Why?"

"When we recovered you, your heat vision activated and the Kryptonite in the rock exploded. We all nearly died. That's part of why you're in a medical facility. So, until you're healthy enough to learn self-control, we can't let you get powered up."

She nods. "Okay, that's… Yeah."

"We're also-."

A tube extrudes itself from a nearby device and extends itself towards her mouth. "Kara, please swallow this."

"Uncle-?" The slight lift to her spirits fades almost immediately. "Right. What.. is it?"

"A nutritional supplement designed to restore your strength as quickly as possible. You were near-starving when they recovered you."

She nods and sits-. Tries to sit up, then Kon and I help her when she finds that she can't. The crystal of her bed shifts position to support her as well as she takes the end of the tube in her mouth and starts to suck whatever it is down.

"Recognised, Superman, Zero One."

We release her, and she leans back against her new support as she continues feeding. "Aw-?" She nudges it aside for a moment. "How long as it been?"

"Since Krypton..? About thirty four Earth years." She nods. I'm not sure.. how much of this she's really processing. My training relating to extremes of stress mostly focused on how to calm them down in the short term. "We think what happened to you was that a lot of rock got dragged along when you went into hyperspace, then your pod put you into suspended animation."

She nods, then notices that the tube isn't providing her with food any longer. "That's it?"

"You were getting starvation-level nutrition for thirty four years, Miss Zor-El. Your body-" Kal-El strides into the room, cape billowing. "-needs to get used to food again."

"Kara." I step aside and he takes my place on her right. "I almost can't believe you're really here."

"Kal?" She looks up at him, not quite believing what she's seeing. Then her eyes drop. "Thirty four years. I remember you being a little-" Her arms shake as she tries to lift them, her hands moving to indicate a small object. "-baby."

"You and Mom can compare notes-."

"Aunt Lara's here?"

"Oh." Kal-El looks momentarily stricken at his misstep. "I meant my.. adopted mother. I was brought up by a family on Earth. I didn't see my.. natural mother's face until I was in my teens."

"Oh. No, that… I'm glad you.. had someone."

"Once you're well enough, I'll take you to meet them." He catches my eye for about half a second, then turns his gaze to Kon. "You're invited too."

"I am? Ah, I mean… Thanks?"

Nice to see that his diplomatic training hasn't been completely wasted. And it's nice to see Kal-El making an effort. "Oh, Kal-El? When you've got time, I need to talk to you about how it went with Shazam, but-" He nods. "-not urgent."

Kal-El looks down at Kara again. "So how are you feeling?"

"I'm starving, weak, irradiated, I lost thirty years and everyone I ever knew is dead." This time she does manage tears. "What am I going to do, Kal?"

"First thing is, you're-" A chair extrudes from the floor and he sits on it. "-going to get stronger. And when you're well, then you've got your whole life ahead of you. Earth's.. not Krypton, but I think you'll come to love it just as much as I do."

"It… Do you want me to get a couple of G-Gnomes in?" They both look at me. "It just occurred to me that Miss Zor-El doesn't speak any Earth languages. And a telepathic tutor could fix that in a few hours."

Kal-El gives his head a small shake. "Not.. right now, Orange Lantern. Maybe later." I nod as he turns back to Kara. "Is there anything you need, anything I can get you?"

"I just… I think I'd.. like to sleep for a while?"

He nods, then stands. "We'll be right outside if you need anything."