Through Lies, the Truth

Kara watched Kal race along the halls with a gentle smile on her face. His vivacity really was the highlight of her life. Although there was a great deal of things that she was grateful for, and although she was infinitely glad to be back with her family again, the last of her Argo Fever finally subsiding, the one thing she loved most of all was definitely Kal and his endless energy and enthusiasm. He was just so bright and lively. He was so cheerful and endlessly entertaining. He was definitely Kara's favorite thing about being back home and healthy once again.

"C'mon, Kara, catch me!" he pleaded as he ran circles around her.

"I don't play childish games like that anymore!" she pretended to turn up her nose at his offer.

"Awww," he pouted. His bright brown eyes seemed to grow as he pushed out his little lower lip.

"Baby," Kara snickered down at him, but he only continued to look up at her with those wide pleading eyes. She had to mask a smile. The poor fool was walking right into her little trap...

"I just don't feel like playing those little kid games anymore!" she heaved a dramatic sigh as she carefully took a step closer to him.

"But why not? You don't have Council duty today!" he whined, unaware as she took yet another step closer to him. Kara, meanwhile, kept him talking, coming up with all these false excuses about why she couldn't/didn't want to play with him like this anymore.

"I'm a grown woman now!" she insisted. "I don't have time for-" but she cut herself off as she suddenly lunged at Kal. "YOU'RE IT!" she roared with laughter before she went racing away from him, leaving him to stare after her, dumbfounded. It took nearly five whole seconds, but he finally got there eventually and realized-

"Hey! You tricked me!" and then he went sprinting after her while she laughed at him, her taunting echoing the upper hallways.

The two had shared this relationship for as long as Kara could remember. Of course, she remembered looking after him when he was an infant and she remembered feeding him and changing him, but to actually get the chance to run around and play with him was a blessing unmatched and she thanked Rao for it, and him, almost constantly.

"It's funny, though, I can't seem to remember any of the days leading up to this..." she had mused to her mother once.

"It's the fever, dear," she replied tenderly. "Your full memories will restore themselves in time! Just be patient..." and Kara was forced to comply. But it was funny, even though Alura's argument was completely logical, there was still a tiny part of Kara's brain that refused to accept it. No matter what anyone said or did, Kara could never truly feel completely convinced that everything was the way it seemed to be.

The way she remembered it, Krypton had been destroyed when she was about 12 years old, and Kal had still only been an infant at that point. They were both sent to Earth in pods, leaving Krypton to be destroyed while they fled to safety. But while Kal's pod made it to Earth in record time, Kara's was knocked off course by debris from the dying Krypton. It trapped her in a place where time stood still and, for years and years, she remained in that state of suspended animation, until luck finally set her free once again. She finally made it to Earth, but by then, her little baby cousin had since grown into an adult man who did not need a caretaker anymore. Instead, it had been Kara who had needed the caretakers, and Kal had sent her off to live with some old friends of his, the Danvers.

For just over a decade, Kara had been a member of the Danvers family and she had only just recently taken up the title of "Supergirl", following in her cousin's footsteps and becoming a defender of the Earth. That was exactly how she remembered it. Yet as her mother continuously reassured her, this was all nothing more than a frightening and crazy hallucination brought about by a particularly nasty strain of Argo Fever. When she woke up in her bed back on Krypton, she had not been experiencing some intense dream, but rather, she had been waking up from one. With her fever finally subsiding, she had woken up again to her real and true home back on Krypton, which was most certainly not destroyed or on the brink of destruction. All of those years had been little more than a dream, and now Kara was truly awake once again.