Maiden of Might and Light

A Lot of Life

AN: This is my favorite Photon Maiden song. Also view this as a "Chap 0"/prequel as it precedes "What Are You?"

A deep red horizon, a setting sun, stars beginning to dominate the sky. A midnight breeze, spreading shining magic all around the cosmos. Below, Kryptonians of every shape and size and color went about their days and nights. Their cities illuminated, reflecting and reflective of the heavens above. Kara Zor-El stared out her bedroom window at it all. Her home planet was beautiful, no doubt, bustling and full of life, but...

There was a melancholy and longing ache in Kara's heart tonight. It was wanderlust for something she'd never known. She felt loneliness despite being surrounded by Kryptonians, but she did not know how to properly articulate her desire for that which she'd never known. Her bedroom was silent, but the hum of life was right outside the window. What an oddly fitting metaphor. So close, and yet so far...

"Such a life, it is only us," she finally sighed. Loneliness, Kara was beginning to realize, was just a natural part of life, for better or worse. And it wasn't just the kind of loneliness that ached for a friend, family, or lover. It was the kind of loneliness that came with the realization that no matter how connected she felt to another individual, the "individual" part of it would always override everything else. But that was not to say that kindness and relationships were false. "The reason why we interact with others..."

It was the other side of the coin. If existential isolation was all part and parcel of the weird, wild Wonder Trip called life, then so too was the desire for closeness, and the endless quest for understanding despite the isolation that inherently kept individuals apart. There was something beautiful and bittersweet about it. To be born alone, yet for everyone to still seek out connection, and to understand that connection and desire for it. Even if the nature and truth of reality was to live and die alone, living beings were made to find each other.

"We share the same time and so we erase our melancholy." Of course, not everyone shared exactly the time same—science was weird, and so was all that flim-flam Timey-Wimey stuff—but it was a metaphor. This was how to erase melancholy: to share time with others, to feel in community and similarity with others, despite any initial differences. In other words, the experience of life was universal, even if the details were not. It was the red thread of fate that bound them all together in the circle of life: the finite loop of time they had alive, and what they did with it.

Kara's attention returned to the horizon. Little white and gold stars peeked through an ever-darkening red atmosphere. She didn't even realize it, but suddenly, she was smiling.

The universe is made of light. It never fades all day or night... Just as the desire for closeness was the other side of the coin of existential isolation and loneliness, the bright stars were the other side of the coin of the vast emptiness and darkness of space. It was the beauty in the tragedy.

Our actions overlap, so no one is ever completely alone, and the stars keep on living, surely. We rely upon, and need, each other... The universe wasn't just made of or for life. It was life, and light. And all that life and light is shining brightly white!

It rippled out across space and time. Overcoming sadness, that was their world. The history of the universe was nonstop stories of life persisting against all odds, harnessing the power of nature to make things a little easier for everybody. In a universe of grief and loneliness, what else was there to do except relentlessly pursue joy and newness? In a universe of death and darkness, what else was there to do except to learn what it really meant to live, and to love?

ooo

Lena Luthor understood loneliness better than anyone. She knew all too well how hard it was to get someone, anyone, to see past the surface. And it wasn't always because they were closed off from her or her family name. It was just an inevitable facet of life.

We can't understand each other, maybe at least not completely, 'cause the body has a border, can't become one even if we can touch...

She rested a palm on her bedroom window, the cool glass a sharp contrast to her warm hand. The sky was alive with shining lights tonight, some from the city skyline over the horizon, and some from the twinkling stars above. Despite herself, the tiniest of smiles played slowly across her lips. The universe was just so beautiful sometimes. It inspired her towards the future, no matter how alone she felt in the present. Was this what they called hope? People hold loneliness, and so we spin the future!

"I don't know where it comes from," she whispered to herself, "but I know that something better is out there, waiting for me." She had no scientific evidence of any kind, but it was a feeling that came from so deep within that it felt primal. And when she looked at the twinkling stars above, so tiny and yet so bright, it reminded her of hope. No matter how dark the sky became, light was always there somehow.

To keep looking to the future, no matter how murky the present... Lena held onto her loneliness because it was what motivated her to spin and work towards a better future. It was the story of the persistence of life all over again, from the magnitude of the entire history of the universe down to one of the countless living creatures that filled it. There was a challenge, she would overcome it, somehow, someday... And if there was anyone on Earth who had a right to wallow in how dark the world could be, it was a Luthor, but upon this night, as melancholy as she felt—

The universe is made of light. It never fades all day or night! Even if each is a small, weak and fleeting glow... Lena's hazel eyes swept the starlit city she called home. In every single window that was illuminated, she knew someone was inside. Even if each was a small, weak, fleeting glow, every person was their own star, and made up a glorious constellation that was the entire city. There was a light inside of everyone, and all that life and light was shining brightly white.

Lena imagined her hands cupping the stars, pressed against glass, overlapping with the night sky outside. She held loneliness, she held hope, she held the future. Holding hands because we're lonely, that's our world.

Yes, even Luthors needed connection. It was the story of creation and existence! The eternal search for understanding and community.

Lena shook her head abruptly. Where was all this sentimentality coming from? Why was it that when Lena looked at the countless multitude of stars above, she was also thinking of the countless multitude of stars and humans below? Maybe the Luthor felt disconnected from the rest of the world, but the aching loneliness, though painful, was beautiful too, because it was her humanity. She was not as much an alien among humans as she felt. She had a hand on that universal red thread of fate too. It was the beauty in the tragedy.

Someone's pain, our prayers and smiles, if we connect them... If we can reach across space and time to find each other...

Just before Lena turned away from her bedroom window, shooting star streaked across the black and white, starlit, midnight sky.