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She had been surrounded by endless darkness for an eternity, a void in all directions, but then there was fire. It had started with fire, a fire that had engulfed everything. It had swallowed all of the light in the universe, banishing Kara far from the soft red rays of Rao into the void. But then fire came again and it was a different kind of flame. It surrounded her as her pod plunged into mysterious blue depths. The harsh light twisted around her, suffocating her, burning her. The end had come.
But then it stopped. Then she saw him.
She had to be dreaming. That pod had been her home for more than her life, but he ripped it open as if its walls were nothing. Light poured in, searing Kara’s eyes with a blinding intensity, but then a strange feeling surged within her. She could feel something inside of her changing as the yellow sun chased away decades of darkness from her skin. She remembered her mother’s words. She remembered her mission. Her sole purpose of survival and her heart leapt to her throat when the blinding light faded and she saw her savior for who he was.
She had thought she would never see anyone again, that she would be alone for eternity in the dark. But like a beacon, he pushed himself through the darkness and saved her. Kal-El. He was a baby when she last saw him, but she knew that the man before her was Kal-El. He wore the crest of their house, but it was his face that gave him away. He looked just like Uncle Jor-El, but he had the warmth of his mother’s gentle smile as he reached out for her. She was confused. Scared. But she was no longer alone.
Kal left her. Kara told him that she had understood, but in truth she hadn’t. All she wanted was to be with him, her only family—the last Kryptonians. But he had other priorities. The Dan-Vers were to be her new family and they would teach her the strange customs of Earth. They’d teach her how to be human, but Kara would never be human. Not truly. But she would try. She would try so hard that she would nearly forget how to be Kryptonian. And as Kara Zor-El shrank herself into Kara Danvers, she wondered why Kara even survived.
The first time that Kara flew was the first time that Kara fell in love with the Earth. On the ground, Kara was constantly reminded of all the ways she was wrong. All the ways she was alien, but in the clouds, being an alien didn’t feel so bad. And the Earth was so beautiful from up above. Kara had never seen so much green and blue before. Her mother’s final parting words constantly sang in her ears, “You will do extraordinary things.” The planet was extraordinary and its sun gave her extraordinary gifts, but Kara was less than ordinary.
The Danvers would become Kara’s family. Jeremiah, Eliza, and even Alex. Especially Alex. She loved them and she even loved being Kara Danvers, but she always longed for more. These powers were a gift given to her by her second home and she knew she needed to return the kindness. She had a responsibility to, but she had a responsibility to the Danvers too. Kara Danvers needed to hide, to silence the alien part of her, but Kara Zor-El needed to fulfill the promise to her parents, to her people. She couldn’t be both, so she was forced to choose.
Over the years, she collected newsclippings of Superman’s exploits and heroics. She was proud, impossibly proud to see their house’s sigil become synonymous with all that was good in the world. Kal-El, Clark Kent, Superman. Kara wasn’t sure how he balanced all of these names, which were facades, which were real, but in each name he embodied the virtues of Krypton. Krypton would live on in his deeds, but Kara …
Her parents had sent her away and Clark pulled her from the void from which she had been trapped. And all she could think was—what do I do now?
Alex was in danger. That was the only thought in Kara’s mind as for the first time in years her feet kicked her off the ground and she flew. She flew higher than she ever had before, performed feats that she had never thought herself capable of, and for the first time in thirty-six years Kara felt a sense of purpose. The Earth sun Sol had given her great gifts, gifts that Kara Danvers and Kara Zor-El had neglected, but Supergirl wouldn’t. She never would again. This was her purpose. This was why she survived—why she was sent here!
“Here. From him.”
When Kara opened the box, she wasn’t sure what to expect, but her heart caught in her throat when she saw the red blanket inside. “Apparently, this cape won't shred,” James said, but its strength wasn’t what made it significant. Kara remembered when Kal-El’s parents wrapped him in this blanket as they said their final goodbyes. It was their first and last gift to him.
And now he was gifting it to her.
And Kara now knew that no matter the distance between them, she was never alone on this planet. She had him. Now and always.
To the world, he is Superman—but to Kara he is so much more. He is Kal-El, heir of the House of El, Last Son of Krypton, and most importantly, he is her baby cousin who grew up far, far away. She looks at him and she sees all that Krypton was, but also all that Krypton could’ve been.
And yet he is human in ways that Kara can never be.
Kara Zor-El tried so hard to be Kara Danvers, to live the life her cousin wished for her, but she chose to be Supergirl. She chose to be both.