Late Bloomer

Chapter 1- Something Was Very Wrong

Things had been quiet. Calm. In hindsight, Kara should have known something was about to happen, because ever since the day she saved Alex's plane from crashing, nothing in her life had been calm or quiet. If it had been a few days, weeks even, that would have been one thing, but Kara's life had been, dare she say normal for months now. Sure, she was still adjusting to Earth Prime and its small idiosyncrasies and differences from her old Earth. Of course, there was still the occasional less-than-subtle alien disruption and plenty of cats in trees to occupy her Super time. That being said, there was a distinct lack of invading alien warlords, evil metahumans, and plans for world domination in Kara's life.

Kara wasn't complaining. No, she was quite the opposite of complaining. She was able to manage her Supergirl duties, see her sister, work on repairing her friendship with Lena, and even found time to do her actual job as a reporter. She was making progress on all fronts – National City was safe, she had written a few good articles on topics deeper than "Supergirl's New Bangs", she was being a supportive sister, and had even resumed weekly lunches with Lena, which is probably why she metaphorically closed her eyes and covered her ears and hummed when signs began popping up that something was NOT right.

The first time she noticed something it was easily brushed off. It was actually before things had calmed down, when things were crazy, during Crisis. It wasn't really anything or didn't seem to be at that time. She couldn't describe it, the feeling, but when she held little Jonathan Kent something just tugged. It was like a hook in her navel, pulling at her, towards what she didn't know. Holding him in her arms, she looked down at his ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes and felt a pang of want so strong her stomach clenched. She shrugged it off, passing him back to his father, and tried not to think it about. It wasn't in the cards for her, and dwelling wouldn't do any good.

You see, Kara had long resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn't be able to have children of her own. Clark could, and now he did, but he wasn't Kara and Kara wasn't him. Kara was Kryptonian in a way that Clark never would be, never could be. Clark was an anomaly, Kryptonian in body but human in soul. He was raised on Earth, which Kara was not, and even before then, before they landed on Earth, Kal-El was different. He wasn't born from the Matrix, like Kara and every other Kryptonian. He was conceived naturally, carried inside his mother, and born instead of being plucked like a ripened fruit from an artificial chamber. He was much closer to being human, even then on Krypton. Kara was a product of the Matrix, a hand-picked selection of genes and traits that would best represent the House of El. She was created with a purpose in mind and genetically engineered to fulfil that purpose – primed to ensure prestige for her house by way of the Science Guild.

There was an old tale on Krypton, and Kara didn't know if it was true or not, but she couldn't help but believe in it, at least a little. She knew that it could just be a story, a convenient myth made up to encourage compliance in the arranged matches, but still. She believed. It said that before the Matrix, all Kryptonians had a soulmate. One person that was perfect for them that Rao deigned they were destined to be with. When the Matrix was created, they accidently messed with Rao's plans, and so none of the babies born from the Matrix ever grew up and found their soulmate. To fix this, Rao was consulted and the tradition of arranged marriages between the High Houses was started. Each Kryptonian that was designed in the Matrix had a match. With the blessing of Rao, a soulmate was made for them. Genetically engineered to be compatible, most Kryptonians were paired before birth and then married by their mid-20s.

Kara, being of the House of El, had had such a match. Jana Ke-No was her name. Kara had known her, been friends with her, had classes at school with her. She had grown up knowing that she'd eventually marry Jana Ke-No and join their houses together. That when the time was right, they'd make arrangements, combine their genetic material in the Matrix and create a child who would grow up with his or her own match. When she landed on Earth, she mourned Jana Ke-No, though not as much as she had mourned her family and her planet. When Krypton exploded, she not only lost her past, but also her future. Sure, she was alive, but her life would never be as Rao had destined.