For Kara Zor-El, her dream was to chase the dawn.
She could never hope to keep pace with it, the celestial event far beyond her mortal imaginings, blue sun rising on the horizon and bathing her home in light. It rippled across the city like the tide, a sapphire glow radiating the crystalline skyline of Argo in warmth, comforting the inhabitants of Krypton with the promise of a new day.
They shimmered, the towers that soared towards the sky, silver, white and gleaming, standing for generations uncounted and affirming the manifest destiny of an entire people. Kara had lived here for her entire life, within the borders of this one metropolis, and as she mapped the skyways with their perfect symmetry, she still had to wonder what else lay just beyond it, touched by the rising of a new sun.
For now, unable to live within her wildest fantasies, she was forced to bask within the glories of her own people, which was scarcely a punishment. From horizon to horizon her city stretched, no stranger to grandeur, and as her friends were often keen to point out, Kara was the Princess of her corner of it. The House of El, amongst a handful of others, were as close to Royalty as the Kryptonians would boast, and there was little that lay beyond her reach if she so desired it.
It was a sentiment that she found hard to believe right now, the teenager scarcely able to keep up with her current ambitions. She was running, the skyway before her stretching out to a seemingly, increasingly distant destination, her pace persistent and yet faltering. Beside the young blonde, setting the pace for the teenager with high aspirations, was her mother, Allura Zor-El, High Protector of Argo, Shield of Krypton, beloved Patriarch of the House of El and, today, simply faster than her daughter.
Kara was determined to keep pace, regardless of how red her cheeks turned or how much her lungs burned, she buried her discomforts down deep beneath an avalanche of will. With legs beginning to shimmy, the teenager pumped them all the harder, berating herself for every moment of perceived inadequacy, terrified that she might be found wanting within the eyes of her mother.
She dared to peek sideways, only to find Allura not showing even a hint of exertion, her mother not exhibiting even the smallest sign of distress. As if detecting scrutiny, the taller blonde looked to her only daughter and smiled, not unkindly, the epitome of benevolence.
“You can head home if you like,” she offered without condemnation, “I won’t be long.”
“N...no!” Kara managed to force out the reply, almost strangling herself as she resisted the urge to exhale an explosion of breath, “I...I’m fine, I can do this all... all day.”
“Which isn’t to say that you have to,” Allura assured, wrapped in mild amusement.
“I do!” Kara shook her head, her cheeks puffing, driven by pride, her infamous, stubborn pride, the Princess of Argo made manifest. “That is, I can, all day.”
“Alright then,” Allura nodded, her pace unfaltering as she looked back to straight ahead, “meet me at the promenade.”
Without warning, her pace quickened, pulling ahead of her teenage daughter with exasperating speed. For one, futile moment, Kara attempted to keep up, but she knew that she was doomed to failure, a cry of frustration accompanying her own, sudden stop.
She stood alone, with hands on hips and exhaling deeply, reminded again of how short she was of her ambition, and how far behind her mother she still remained.
**********
The canvas remained blank.
Zor had been unable to bring paint to paper, his inspiration fleeting, abandoning him now as it had done so this last year. He leaned back, Father, Husband, Artist and, for the first time in his life, feeling utterly inadequate to fulfil any of those roles. With a deep sigh of frustration he rubbed his eyes and set his brush down, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be completing anything today, leaving his studio behind to focus on more immediate concerns.
He hadn’t been born into the House of El, and so the grandeur of his home had always made him feel oddly isolated, the wide open spaces and expansive collections speaking of a pedigree that wasn’t his. He was proud to wear the shield, of course he was, but that didn’t make it any less heavy to wear about his neck, and Zor was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Allura to understand the mistake that she had made.
As he moved to the balcony, Zor could see the entirety of Argo, as was befitting of their Status, and as the blue sun rose he could watch his world coming to life. Industrious, progressive, vital, inspired.
Doomed.
He cursed the day his Brother-In-Law had brought them the news, the acclaimed Jor-El and his proclamations of Armageddon. Extinction, he claimed, their world was at an end, the final hour of Krypton fast approaching.
Allura had been unable to assuage her brother’s fears, other scientists contradicting his own findings; she had been unable to dissuade him from his course. Jor-El, however, had managed to convince him.
He leaned forwards, hands upon the railing, searching the skyways for two figures although he knew he would not find them. Allura believed, she always believed, that they would always find a way, that she would find a way, just as she always did, and Zor wanted to believe in her too.
But he could not afford to.
Zor stepped back, unconsciously thumbing the emblem about his neck, barely aware that the floor was shaking...
**********
By the time Kara caught up with her mother, she felt as terrible as she looked, crippling stitches wrenching both of her sides and feet leaden, the young women exhaling a deep, ragged breath before collapsing back onto a bench. She slouched, not caring a damn about her posture, and decided that this is where she was she had fallen, and this was where she would remain for the rest of her days. Such a notion struck her as perfectly reasonable at the time.
“Kara,” her mother called from behind her, Allura looking out across the city that stretched out far below them, the streets of Argo filling rapidly with its people in the morning sun.
An exasperated groan escaped the teenager, knowing full well when she was being summoned by her families Patriarch. With a heave of effort, the young women peeled herself off the bench and slouched her way on over to her parent, the older blonde looking all the world as though she had just been out for a gentle stroll. It was... frustrating to say the least.
“Harder than you expected,” Allura couldn’t keep the smile from her own features, although she knew it wouldn’t help her daughter’s prickled pride.
Through force of will, Kara forced her aching frame to standing up straight, every muscle in her back and thighs protesting, threatening to snap under further exertion. “Its fine,” she lied, not convincingly, “I’m fine, just winded.”
“Then you’re ready for the return trip?” her mother baited, already knowing the answer.
Kara moaned, her discontent more than audible and yet failing to find the correct words to express appropriately high levels of unhappiness.
“I’ll have your father come pick us up,” Allura’s smile grew only wider, a hand massaging the scruff of her daughters neck, efficiently relaxing cramped muscles, “I might have pulled something.”
“Ok,” Kara visibly relaxed, slumping again as her stubbornness was provided with a way out, “if you think it’s best.”
“I do,” Allura nodded, stroking her teenage daughters back to calm her breathing, “Do you see that tower?” she asked, changing the subject. It was impossible to miss it, even amongst a skyline of such splendour, the House of Zod having reached a prominence within Kryptonian Society that almost matched her families own. They had been allies for generations, and in the last fifty years, that patronage was bearing fruit.
Kara nodded, not entirely sure where her Mother was going.
“My Father, your Grandfather, built that tower,” Allura continued, her tone becoming one that Kara was more than familiar with, one that suggested that she should be paying attention. Not that she always did. “He was an architect; his footprint can be felt all over Argo. Your Uncle is a scientist. You’re Great Grandmother was a Green Lantern,” Allura laughed then, remembering fondly the women’s rebellious streak, “which didn’t go down overly well at the time.”
Her daughter stood back up straight again, one hand on hip as she was beginning to feel slightly better.
“Kara,” Allura turned about, setting both hands on the younger women’s shoulders and looking her only child in the eye. “You are my Daughter, you will be the Patriarch of the House of El after I am gone, and nothing can change it. But beyond that, you, above all Kryptonians, you have the freedom to be whatever you want to be.” Allura paused, looking upon Daughter intently, hoping that she would understand, knowing that she didn’t, “The last thing you need to be, is me.”
She didn’t answer, the young Kara looking down and fidgeting with her feet, behaving as though she had failed some manner of test.
Kara opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out, a moment of clarity passing as the ground began to tremble. It was not entirely unsettling, a growl that rumbled with persistence, one that sent a tremor throughout her body, one that caused her heart to skip. It ended as quickly as it started, and the teenager’s response was one of exasperation.
“UGH!” she groaned, rolling her head back and complaining, this particular nuisance in her life becoming annoyingly persistent. “I thought this was supposed to be temporary,” she exasperated, the mini quakes that had begun to plague Krypton starting to become part of everyday life. “Weren’t they supposed to stop by now? Settle down already!” she demanded of the planet, her annoyance spiking at the mild inconvenience.
“It will Kara,” Allura assured, although her smile had faded, “like us, Krypton has her cycles, this is just one of th...”
When her world ended, Kara Zor-El was not given the luxury of being allowed to understand why.
She was ripped from her feet, a devastating upheaval rocketing across the length of Argo and launching her into air. The young women fell with a piercing scream, hitting the ground with a pained shout and a popping of her shoulder. The tremor hit hard and without warning, shaking Krypton to its core, panic spreading like wildfire as this was only the beginning.
Kara’s illusions were stripped away from her in a single heartbeat, her world, her city, her home shaking itself apart, a word forming within her thoughts that should have no place in her understanding.
Cataclysm.
Her world heaved again, a howl emerging from the planet that was primordial, a roar that would echo across the ages and reached deep into her soul. The Universe pivoted on this moment, and all she could do was watch it happen, paralysed and with eyes wide open, Krypton delivering its final judgement. Power made manifest on a cosmic scale.
Allura yanked her only daughter to her feet, seizing the young women by the shoulders and shouting, Kara’s senses muffled and distorted. Her mother slapped her, the girl snapping back to the here and now, tears staining her cheeks that she could not remember shedding.
“KARA!” Allura cried, her face a mask of determination, demanding that her child pay attention, “Go home! Get to your Father! Now!”
“NO!” Kara panicked, latching onto her parent as though she were a life raft, “I want to stay! I want to stay with you!”
“NOW KARA!” Allura would not be swayed, a great crack filling the air and promising impending doom, “Your father will know what to do, you have to go Kara, you MUST go!!” She pulled her only child in tight for what she knew would be their last embrace, before pushing the girl away, shoving her in the direction of home before her will could fail her.
“Come with me!” Kara protested, almost losing her footing again as the air rumbled, “we can go together!!”
“No Kara,” Allura shook her head and, for the first time, her daughter saw something there she had not seen before. Fear, regret...doubt. Her mother looked skywards before looking back to her distraught child, “Kara, I want you to understand, you need to understand, I can’t stop this.”
She paused, raising her right arm up to reveal her token of office, a golden bracelet of intricate design, a yellow stone of beguiling beauty embedded at its centre. The High Protector of Argo, the Shield of Krypton.
“I have to try...”
As Kara opened her mouth to plead with her to stop, Allura slammed her palm down upon the embedded rock, the bracelet blazing with cosmic light, radiation from a Red Sun infusing her mother beneath the light of Krypton’s blue. The transformation was immediate, Allura Zor-El infused with God like might and, with a thunderclap of displaced air, she took to the skies like a thunderbolt.
Her daughter could only watch on in horror as her mother sped off to fight the apocalypse, left only with an echo of her last words.
‘I have to try...’
**********
The very fabric of her existence was unravelling, her world shaking itself apart and burying her people beneath an avalanche of hubris. She could hear the people screaming as she ran past, sanity fleeing in the face of Armageddon, all pretences of society stripped away as hope evaporated. The horror of it all was overwhelming, the sheer scale of the unfolding tragedy impossible to comprehend, everything boiling down into a near crippling sickness in her gut.
The very ground itself rippled with an upheaval, gargantuan cracks shredding their way up the sides of buildings as the tips of towers shattered and plummeted to the ground. Her friends were buried beneath the toppling of a city, Kara a witness to their demise with terrifying clarity, every detail etched deep into her memory for all time, a last look of terror before their lives were eradicated in one sudden, brutal instant.
She could scarcely hold onto her own sanity, panic gripping her every limb as the skyway buckled, reaching out as her home lay mere yards away. Kara fell; tumbling towards oblivion, struck by how ludicrous her notion of safety was, the thought that home could be her salvation...
Her father caught her, as if marching through the fires of hell itself to grapple his daughter away from damnation. Zor dragged his only daughter inside, his pace unrelenting as sob encapsulated Kara’s relief, never before being so thankful to be within her parents embrace.
“KARA!” he was shouting, the teenager looking back with wide eyes, the skies outside their windows turning black with shadow. “Kara, you have to come with me, you have to listen!”
“Dad, I don’t, I can’t...”
“LISTEN!” Zor shook his only child, his heart breaking, “you can’t stay here, you have to go!”
She stammered for several moments, her eyes struggling to find focus, his words slowly sinking in, “NO!!” she protested. “Y...you can’t leave me too! You have to stay with me!!”
“I can’t,” Zor shook his head, cupping his child’s cheeks with both his palms, “there is only room for you Kara, only you.”
“I don’t,” Kara shook her head, unable to absorb the sheer enormity of what was happening, “I don’t understand.”
“You will Kara,” Zor assured, stroking his daughters hair, “Your Cousin Kara, you must find him, you MUST find him. He will need you.”
“Dad...”
“Promise me Kara!”
But she wasn’t listening, her blue eyes wide as she could only stare out the window, the sapphire dawn of Krypton obscured by darkness. Her world became as silence, her senses shutting down before the magnitude of what she was witnessing, Kara trapped within one final moment. The world itself cracked open, the crust splitting and swallowing up an entire people, the pressure wave shattering every window before the end was writ large before her vision.
Impossible forces were unleashed as the planets core rushed up to the surface, a tidal wave of magma exploding into existence and swallowing the horizon, Kara’s last memory of Krypton a boiling sea of crimson.
And then oblivion...
TO BE CONTINUED!
She could never hope to keep pace with it, the celestial event far beyond her mortal imaginings, blue sun rising on the horizon and bathing her home in light. It rippled across the city like the tide, a sapphire glow radiating the crystalline skyline of Argo in warmth, comforting the inhabitants of Krypton with the promise of a new day.
They shimmered, the towers that soared towards the sky, silver, white and gleaming, standing for generations uncounted and affirming the manifest destiny of an entire people. Kara had lived here for her entire life, within the borders of this one metropolis, and as she mapped the skyways with their perfect symmetry, she still had to wonder what else lay just beyond it, touched by the rising of a new sun.
For now, unable to live within her wildest fantasies, she was forced to bask within the glories of her own people, which was scarcely a punishment. From horizon to horizon her city stretched, no stranger to grandeur, and as her friends were often keen to point out, Kara was the Princess of her corner of it. The House of El, amongst a handful of others, were as close to Royalty as the Kryptonians would boast, and there was little that lay beyond her reach if she so desired it.
It was a sentiment that she found hard to believe right now, the teenager scarcely able to keep up with her current ambitions. She was running, the skyway before her stretching out to a seemingly, increasingly distant destination, her pace persistent and yet faltering. Beside the young blonde, setting the pace for the teenager with high aspirations, was her mother, Allura Zor-El, High Protector of Argo, Shield of Krypton, beloved Patriarch of the House of El and, today, simply faster than her daughter.
Kara was determined to keep pace, regardless of how red her cheeks turned or how much her lungs burned, she buried her discomforts down deep beneath an avalanche of will. With legs beginning to shimmy, the teenager pumped them all the harder, berating herself for every moment of perceived inadequacy, terrified that she might be found wanting within the eyes of her mother.
She dared to peek sideways, only to find Allura not showing even a hint of exertion, her mother not exhibiting even the smallest sign of distress. As if detecting scrutiny, the taller blonde looked to her only daughter and smiled, not unkindly, the epitome of benevolence.
“You can head home if you like,” she offered without condemnation, “I won’t be long.”
“N...no!” Kara managed to force out the reply, almost strangling herself as she resisted the urge to exhale an explosion of breath, “I...I’m fine, I can do this all... all day.”
“Which isn’t to say that you have to,” Allura assured, wrapped in mild amusement.
“I do!” Kara shook her head, her cheeks puffing, driven by pride, her infamous, stubborn pride, the Princess of Argo made manifest. “That is, I can, all day.”
“Alright then,” Allura nodded, her pace unfaltering as she looked back to straight ahead, “meet me at the promenade.”
Without warning, her pace quickened, pulling ahead of her teenage daughter with exasperating speed. For one, futile moment, Kara attempted to keep up, but she knew that she was doomed to failure, a cry of frustration accompanying her own, sudden stop.
She stood alone, with hands on hips and exhaling deeply, reminded again of how short she was of her ambition, and how far behind her mother she still remained.
**********
The canvas remained blank.
Zor had been unable to bring paint to paper, his inspiration fleeting, abandoning him now as it had done so this last year. He leaned back, Father, Husband, Artist and, for the first time in his life, feeling utterly inadequate to fulfil any of those roles. With a deep sigh of frustration he rubbed his eyes and set his brush down, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be completing anything today, leaving his studio behind to focus on more immediate concerns.
He hadn’t been born into the House of El, and so the grandeur of his home had always made him feel oddly isolated, the wide open spaces and expansive collections speaking of a pedigree that wasn’t his. He was proud to wear the shield, of course he was, but that didn’t make it any less heavy to wear about his neck, and Zor was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Allura to understand the mistake that she had made.
As he moved to the balcony, Zor could see the entirety of Argo, as was befitting of their Status, and as the blue sun rose he could watch his world coming to life. Industrious, progressive, vital, inspired.
Doomed.
He cursed the day his Brother-In-Law had brought them the news, the acclaimed Jor-El and his proclamations of Armageddon. Extinction, he claimed, their world was at an end, the final hour of Krypton fast approaching.
Allura had been unable to assuage her brother’s fears, other scientists contradicting his own findings; she had been unable to dissuade him from his course. Jor-El, however, had managed to convince him.
He leaned forwards, hands upon the railing, searching the skyways for two figures although he knew he would not find them. Allura believed, she always believed, that they would always find a way, that she would find a way, just as she always did, and Zor wanted to believe in her too.
But he could not afford to.
Zor stepped back, unconsciously thumbing the emblem about his neck, barely aware that the floor was shaking...
**********
By the time Kara caught up with her mother, she felt as terrible as she looked, crippling stitches wrenching both of her sides and feet leaden, the young women exhaling a deep, ragged breath before collapsing back onto a bench. She slouched, not caring a damn about her posture, and decided that this is where she was she had fallen, and this was where she would remain for the rest of her days. Such a notion struck her as perfectly reasonable at the time.
“Kara,” her mother called from behind her, Allura looking out across the city that stretched out far below them, the streets of Argo filling rapidly with its people in the morning sun.
An exasperated groan escaped the teenager, knowing full well when she was being summoned by her families Patriarch. With a heave of effort, the young women peeled herself off the bench and slouched her way on over to her parent, the older blonde looking all the world as though she had just been out for a gentle stroll. It was... frustrating to say the least.
“Harder than you expected,” Allura couldn’t keep the smile from her own features, although she knew it wouldn’t help her daughter’s prickled pride.
Through force of will, Kara forced her aching frame to standing up straight, every muscle in her back and thighs protesting, threatening to snap under further exertion. “Its fine,” she lied, not convincingly, “I’m fine, just winded.”
“Then you’re ready for the return trip?” her mother baited, already knowing the answer.
Kara moaned, her discontent more than audible and yet failing to find the correct words to express appropriately high levels of unhappiness.
“I’ll have your father come pick us up,” Allura’s smile grew only wider, a hand massaging the scruff of her daughters neck, efficiently relaxing cramped muscles, “I might have pulled something.”
“Ok,” Kara visibly relaxed, slumping again as her stubbornness was provided with a way out, “if you think it’s best.”
“I do,” Allura nodded, stroking her teenage daughters back to calm her breathing, “Do you see that tower?” she asked, changing the subject. It was impossible to miss it, even amongst a skyline of such splendour, the House of Zod having reached a prominence within Kryptonian Society that almost matched her families own. They had been allies for generations, and in the last fifty years, that patronage was bearing fruit.
Kara nodded, not entirely sure where her Mother was going.
“My Father, your Grandfather, built that tower,” Allura continued, her tone becoming one that Kara was more than familiar with, one that suggested that she should be paying attention. Not that she always did. “He was an architect; his footprint can be felt all over Argo. Your Uncle is a scientist. You’re Great Grandmother was a Green Lantern,” Allura laughed then, remembering fondly the women’s rebellious streak, “which didn’t go down overly well at the time.”
Her daughter stood back up straight again, one hand on hip as she was beginning to feel slightly better.
“Kara,” Allura turned about, setting both hands on the younger women’s shoulders and looking her only child in the eye. “You are my Daughter, you will be the Patriarch of the House of El after I am gone, and nothing can change it. But beyond that, you, above all Kryptonians, you have the freedom to be whatever you want to be.” Allura paused, looking upon Daughter intently, hoping that she would understand, knowing that she didn’t, “The last thing you need to be, is me.”
She didn’t answer, the young Kara looking down and fidgeting with her feet, behaving as though she had failed some manner of test.
Kara opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out, a moment of clarity passing as the ground began to tremble. It was not entirely unsettling, a growl that rumbled with persistence, one that sent a tremor throughout her body, one that caused her heart to skip. It ended as quickly as it started, and the teenager’s response was one of exasperation.
“UGH!” she groaned, rolling her head back and complaining, this particular nuisance in her life becoming annoyingly persistent. “I thought this was supposed to be temporary,” she exasperated, the mini quakes that had begun to plague Krypton starting to become part of everyday life. “Weren’t they supposed to stop by now? Settle down already!” she demanded of the planet, her annoyance spiking at the mild inconvenience.
“It will Kara,” Allura assured, although her smile had faded, “like us, Krypton has her cycles, this is just one of th...”
When her world ended, Kara Zor-El was not given the luxury of being allowed to understand why.
She was ripped from her feet, a devastating upheaval rocketing across the length of Argo and launching her into air. The young women fell with a piercing scream, hitting the ground with a pained shout and a popping of her shoulder. The tremor hit hard and without warning, shaking Krypton to its core, panic spreading like wildfire as this was only the beginning.
Kara’s illusions were stripped away from her in a single heartbeat, her world, her city, her home shaking itself apart, a word forming within her thoughts that should have no place in her understanding.
Cataclysm.
Her world heaved again, a howl emerging from the planet that was primordial, a roar that would echo across the ages and reached deep into her soul. The Universe pivoted on this moment, and all she could do was watch it happen, paralysed and with eyes wide open, Krypton delivering its final judgement. Power made manifest on a cosmic scale.
Allura yanked her only daughter to her feet, seizing the young women by the shoulders and shouting, Kara’s senses muffled and distorted. Her mother slapped her, the girl snapping back to the here and now, tears staining her cheeks that she could not remember shedding.
“KARA!” Allura cried, her face a mask of determination, demanding that her child pay attention, “Go home! Get to your Father! Now!”
“NO!” Kara panicked, latching onto her parent as though she were a life raft, “I want to stay! I want to stay with you!”
“NOW KARA!” Allura would not be swayed, a great crack filling the air and promising impending doom, “Your father will know what to do, you have to go Kara, you MUST go!!” She pulled her only child in tight for what she knew would be their last embrace, before pushing the girl away, shoving her in the direction of home before her will could fail her.
“Come with me!” Kara protested, almost losing her footing again as the air rumbled, “we can go together!!”
“No Kara,” Allura shook her head and, for the first time, her daughter saw something there she had not seen before. Fear, regret...doubt. Her mother looked skywards before looking back to her distraught child, “Kara, I want you to understand, you need to understand, I can’t stop this.”
She paused, raising her right arm up to reveal her token of office, a golden bracelet of intricate design, a yellow stone of beguiling beauty embedded at its centre. The High Protector of Argo, the Shield of Krypton.
“I have to try...”
As Kara opened her mouth to plead with her to stop, Allura slammed her palm down upon the embedded rock, the bracelet blazing with cosmic light, radiation from a Red Sun infusing her mother beneath the light of Krypton’s blue. The transformation was immediate, Allura Zor-El infused with God like might and, with a thunderclap of displaced air, she took to the skies like a thunderbolt.
Her daughter could only watch on in horror as her mother sped off to fight the apocalypse, left only with an echo of her last words.
‘I have to try...’
**********
The very fabric of her existence was unravelling, her world shaking itself apart and burying her people beneath an avalanche of hubris. She could hear the people screaming as she ran past, sanity fleeing in the face of Armageddon, all pretences of society stripped away as hope evaporated. The horror of it all was overwhelming, the sheer scale of the unfolding tragedy impossible to comprehend, everything boiling down into a near crippling sickness in her gut.
The very ground itself rippled with an upheaval, gargantuan cracks shredding their way up the sides of buildings as the tips of towers shattered and plummeted to the ground. Her friends were buried beneath the toppling of a city, Kara a witness to their demise with terrifying clarity, every detail etched deep into her memory for all time, a last look of terror before their lives were eradicated in one sudden, brutal instant.
She could scarcely hold onto her own sanity, panic gripping her every limb as the skyway buckled, reaching out as her home lay mere yards away. Kara fell; tumbling towards oblivion, struck by how ludicrous her notion of safety was, the thought that home could be her salvation...
Her father caught her, as if marching through the fires of hell itself to grapple his daughter away from damnation. Zor dragged his only daughter inside, his pace unrelenting as sob encapsulated Kara’s relief, never before being so thankful to be within her parents embrace.
“KARA!” he was shouting, the teenager looking back with wide eyes, the skies outside their windows turning black with shadow. “Kara, you have to come with me, you have to listen!”
“Dad, I don’t, I can’t...”
“LISTEN!” Zor shook his only child, his heart breaking, “you can’t stay here, you have to go!”
She stammered for several moments, her eyes struggling to find focus, his words slowly sinking in, “NO!!” she protested. “Y...you can’t leave me too! You have to stay with me!!”
“I can’t,” Zor shook his head, cupping his child’s cheeks with both his palms, “there is only room for you Kara, only you.”
“I don’t,” Kara shook her head, unable to absorb the sheer enormity of what was happening, “I don’t understand.”
“You will Kara,” Zor assured, stroking his daughters hair, “Your Cousin Kara, you must find him, you MUST find him. He will need you.”
“Dad...”
“Promise me Kara!”
But she wasn’t listening, her blue eyes wide as she could only stare out the window, the sapphire dawn of Krypton obscured by darkness. Her world became as silence, her senses shutting down before the magnitude of what she was witnessing, Kara trapped within one final moment. The world itself cracked open, the crust splitting and swallowing up an entire people, the pressure wave shattering every window before the end was writ large before her vision.
Impossible forces were unleashed as the planets core rushed up to the surface, a tidal wave of magma exploding into existence and swallowing the horizon, Kara’s last memory of Krypton a boiling sea of crimson.
And then oblivion...
TO BE CONTINUED!