. (afrit) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-04-05 23:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, huntress, supergirl |
Who: Kara and Helena
What: Meeting & Sads
Where: Gotham
When: Recently
Warnings/Rating: None
Kara left before sunrise. She hadn't escaped, precisely, because it hadn't been as carefully planned as that. She had risen before Jason, House of Todd, and she'd left the unfortunate place he called home before the sun was high in the smoggy Gotham sky. She'd returned to Sanctuary, where she'd collected Krypto, and where she'd checked on Kandor. Then, after setting the alarms to alert her, no matter where she was, she'd returned.
By the time Kara found herself on those smoggy streets once again, she was on her feet, wearing a pair of white sneakers borrowed from Siobhan. Her blonde hair was tucked into a grey cap, and she wore a white t-shirt and grey hoodie. Jeans finished off the ensemble, and she was counting on it being enough to keep anyone from recognizing her as the girl from the altercation with Hood.
Kara had no reason to think anyone would recognize her. She'd been on this planet under a month, and no one seemed to remember her face. The government had experimented at her, shot at her, and tried to kidnap her, but they all overlooked the blonde girl in jeans. If she wasn't wearing the suit her father had made for her trials, they didn't see her. She wondered if that was just a symptom of this horribly violent planet. Individual people didn't seem to matter here like they did at home.
Again, Kara found herself wondering why Kal had been sent here. Why did this little place matter? She had been sent here accidentally, she knew that now, but Kal hadn't. She tugged on Krypto's leash, pulling the white dog to a stop at the edge of a street corner. As always, when she stopped actively trying to block things out, sounds filtered in. She could hear Hood across Gotham, and she could hear all the people in the houses around Crime Alley. She couldn't hear Kal, because there was no Kal to hear, and she sighed. A woman's scream filtered into the noise, and Kara forced herself not to move, not to open the backpack at her shoulder and go charging in.
She wasn't here to save this planet. She'd tried, and they'd done nothing but hurt her in return.
There were reasons that Helena preferred the night and more reasons as to why she was avoiding it altogether. Nights were too full of Bats that she still didn't want to talk to and memories that were better off left somewhere else instead of rolling around in her brain to stab at her gray matter.
The one thing she missed about the night though was her ability to change into her uniform and do something. A purple bat, even one that was as slim as she was, was likely to stick out like a beacon and Helena just didn't feel like dealing with that.
But ignoring a woman screaming? Suit or not, (the latter in this case, as Helena was wearing a pair of navy slacks and maroon button down) Helena couldn't do it and cursed softly as she ran in the general direction of the scream. She didn't have Kara's hearing and didn't know what she was running into, but run she did, her soft-heeled boots thwacking on the pavement. Rounding the corner, she did a little leaping half step to avoid barreling straight into the girl with the grey hoodie in jeans.
"Sorry, sorry, sor--" she started until she saw the girl's face. Even with her hair tucked up, it was Kara. Right there. Beautiful and wanted so badly that Hels let out a noise like all the air had been punched straight out of her as she leapt at the other woman, arms tight around her neck. "Kara!" She whispered, temporarily forgetting the screaming woman as she dropped a quick, dry kiss on her lips.
"Oh God, I can't believe you're back," she said in a rush, completely missing the fact that this Kara had a dog and her Kara never had. Hels was through and through a cat person and dogs tended to make her want to hiss and arch -- and they never seemed to like her much in return.
Another scream cut the air and Helena released the other girl as quick as she'd latched on, except her hand slid into Kara's as she started moving toward the sound again. "C'mon! We have to help her!"
Kara heard the heavy fall of running feet, soft-heeled boots or not. She heard, because she had become used to being chased in this place. The men with guns and knives, they always ran. They couldn't fly, not like she did, and not like the machines that flew, the ones that only became airbound to fire missiles and try to kill. She noticed the running feet for this reason alone, and she tensed as the girl rounded the corner.
Kara stepped back as the girl apologized, tenseness making the words foreign at first. It still took effort to understand earth speech, even with H'El's gift of language. Like keeping out the voices in her head, it took effort, work and concentration. She stared back at the dark-haired girl in confusion. Realizing, a moment after the second repetition of the foreign word, that she wasn't really listening. "I'm sorry," she said in Kryptonian. She would have said more, but the girl spoke her name, and then ran toward her. She backed up, but it wasn't quick enough. The girl leapt at her, and Kara was all wide blue eyes after that kiss.
The unexpected greeting caused Kara to forget even more of the new, strange language. "I don't know you," she said, again in the foreign language. And, perhaps, closer scrutiny would make it clear why she looked confused. She was younger than the dark-haired girl. No older than eighteen, her expression younger still. The white dog at her side barked, just shy of growling, and Kara looked down, just as the girl pulled on her hand.
Kara followed, but only because she wanted to know why the girl knew her name. She realized they were running toward the screaming, and she tugged back on the girl's hand a moment later. "We cannot go there," she said, remembering the earth words at last. She didn't trust whatever they would find at that screaming. It might be a trap, someone sent to capture her. The dog barked, as if agreeing.
The barking caught Hels' attention too, especially as it seemed like Kara was determined to take the dog along with them. "When did you get a dog?" She asked, casting a look down at the animal. Once she had tried to like them, really like them, but they never seemed to like her -- ever.
She shook her head at the words -- all the words coming out of Kara's mouth. "I still don't understand your language, Kara." Give her an Earth language, any of the romance languages and she could almost puzzle out what was being said, but Kryptonian? Forget it. She knew 'Kara', 'Kal', and 'House of El' and that summed up her knowledge of their language.
"And we have to go. Someone's being hurt." Why was she being so weird? Hels glanced back at her again, her grip loosening slightly. She'd missed the details before, but they were starting to fill out now. The dog, her speaking Kryptonian, the fuller cheeks -- this one was younger. How much younger? Hels hadn't met her Kara until after she'd been on Earth long enough to be fluent in English.
"C'mon. We'll talk after this," she promised and gave the other girl's hand another tug. Leaving Kara here was out of the question, not when they were finally reunited. As long as she didn't think about how this might not be her Kara, she could do this.
Kara understood the question about the dog. She glanced down at the white dog, all labrador in his makeup, and then she pointed at him. "Krypto," she said. If this woman knew her name, would she know the dog's, as well? "It is Kal's dog, but there is no Kal here," she said, her English heavily accented, thick, even coming from her youthful lips. "I could not leave him."
It was a lot of words for Kara, all in English, and all in a row, and she looked at the dark-haired woman, wondering if it had been useful to speak them. This woman knew her name. What else did she know? Not Kryptonian, as indicated by the woman's next words, but that became unimportant when the woman indicated that someone was being injured. "Everyone is injured here," she said, forcing herself to continue speaking in English. "There will be men with weapons."
Kara didn't want to be chased. "Jason, House of Todd, said I should not go near them." The men with the weapons. And, honestly, after being tested and experimented on in a facility by Simon Tycho, Kara didn't much want to be caught, either.
Kara didn't move, even when the dark-haired woman tugged again.
Jason? Hels paused again. Jason knew -- and there was another scream, only this one cut off far too quickly. "Yes, and right now they're using them to hurt someone!" She said urgently, tugging on Kara's hand again.
What was her bestie's problem? If she didn't get moving, Hels was going to have to leave her here and what if she disappeared between now and when Helena came back? "We have to go!" Because as much as she didn't want to leave the other girl behind, leave her standing here on some strange street corner with a weird dog and a weirder accent, she had a job to do. And if Kara didn't move, Hels was going to have to leave her. "C'mon! We can talk about Uncle Kal after."
Kara moved, but it was sluggish and slow. "I do not save people," she told the dark-haired woman, following her reluctantly. "They will lock me up, and they will do things that are painful. I do not want to help anyone," she muttered. But she followed. She could tell the woman wasn't going to let up otherwise, and Kara still wanted to know how she knew her name. "I have no uncle called Kal," she added, stronger in this admonition. Kal had been a baby when she'd been sixteen and ready for her trials. "My uncle was Jor-El," she said, moving a little quicker when Krypto tugged on his leash, and beginning to wonder if this woman knew some other Kara, and was just mistaken.
Kara moved until the screaming woman came into view. There was a man with her, his hand clenched in her hair. Kara remained still, and she sighed. This place was terrible. It was a repeated thought, and her feet wanted to move forward, but she stopped them. Every time she had attempted to help in this world, they had come for her. This time she wouldn't help. It upset her, and all the voices in Gotham fought their way into her head.
Kara stepped back.
Krypto whined in protest, but then he sat at Kara's feet, a whimper escaping his muzzle as he watched the scene in front of them.
"No, Kal's my -- well, adoptive uncle. Sort of," Hels tried to explain. All thoughts of explaining to this strange version of her best friend (or asking her about what she was talking about -- people locking her up?) vanished when she saw the people in the alley. If Kara wanted to hold back -- so unlike her -- Hels wasn't afraid to go running down the alley.
"Hey! Get off her!" What was it with guys that just wanted to beat up on women? He might have been bigger than the both of them, but that didn't stop Helena from running up behind him and jumping onto his back, one arm winding tight around his throat. "Why don't you try picking on someone who fights back?" She gritted out as he let go of the woman to reach for arms instead. Bingo.
"Get out of here," Hels said to the woman. "Go!" She didn't even get a chance to see if the woman listened because Tall Creep got the wise idea to shove backwards and her back slammed into the opposite wall. Not your typical run of the mill jerk, but he was still going to go down like one as she let go, only to slam both fists into his kidneys.
"Kal has adopted no one." Kara didn't consider Kon an adoption, because clones weren't people, and they couldn't be adopted. She might not have spent much time with her cousin, but she knew he had no earth girl that he had adopted. She scanned the brown-haired woman; definitely human.
Kara would've continued her perusal, but then the dark-haired woman was running, and Kara wondered if she was insane. The man was certain to be armed, and the dark-haired woman was not. She wondered if all humans were like this, impulsive in the face of inevitable failure. It made her think of Jason's own attempts to protect her, when she didn't need protecting. Perhaps it was this city, with its grime and dirt, that affected people in a way that made them take unnecessary risks. The men with the weapons would come and assist the woman, wouldn't they? And to what end? From what she had seen, these men repeated their violence over and over again. What was the point, if nothing changed. It was a losing battle. Her father had always said battles were fought to be won. If they could not be won, then a battle was not the correct course of action.
Kara watched as the dark-haired woman jumped on the man, and she watched the woman run. Why had the woman been here? What caste was she? Had she no caretakers? Walking here was obviously dangerous. Did the people of this world not know that?
When the man shoved the dark-haired woman back, Kara stepped forward, Krypto eagerly pulling at his leash. She stopped when the man's kidneys were impacted by the woman's hands. She had clearly been trained to violence; Kara wouldn't have known to hit where those organs were located. "You are trained to harm?" she called out.
It was sloppy of her to let him back her up like that. Sloppy, Hels chided herself and kicked out hard as he stumbled forward, back bowed. The broad part of her boot connected with the back of his knee and he went down, just as hard as she knew he would.
"Next time you drag a woman into an alley," she started, because she knew just like Kara did that the guy was probably armed, somewhere, with something, and she needed to incapacitate him. "Remember that some of us don't like that type of thing," Hels finished as she grabbed him by the nape of his neck and bounced his forehead off the brick wall. "And we fight back." Letting him go, she watched as he slumped to the ground, out for the count. "Ugh," she said under her breath as she fished a zip tie out of her pocket and looped it around his wrists.
With him down and ready for pick up, she finally glanced up at the other girl who was still just standing there. Weird. She'd asked a question too. "Only temporarily," she finally replied as she pulled her cell out of her pants pocket. "I think we should get ice cream," Hels added as she stood up, one hand reaching back to make sure the back of her head was all right -- it was, not even a sign of blood but she'd have a bruise there later -- and with the other dialed emergency.
"Yeah, hi, there's some sort of domestic fight going on in the alley between --" Helena paused as she walked out and repeated the two closest streets. "Hurry," she added before she hung up, unwilling to wait long enough for the GCPD to show up. She'd have to answer questions then and so would Kara. "Time to go. Walk and talk at the same time?"
Kara wasn't sure she would have intervened if something went wrong. She told herself that no, she wouldn't. That she was done with these people and their violence. The situation with Jason had only been made worse by his violence, and she didn't see why the dark-haired woman had to slam the man against the wall. None of it made sense to the girl from the privileged science caste who had been only sixteen weeks ago. But she didn't get to think about it for very long, because the dark-haired woman was alternating between speaking into her listening device, and talking to her and, with her tentative grasp of the language, it was hard to follow what she was supposed to listen to.
"Ice cream?" Kara finally asked, the confusion evident on her features. "I do not require sustenance," she assured the dark-haired woman, assuming this ice cream was a meal of some kind.
But the confusion didn't keep Kara from moving, because she didn't want to be there when the men with weapons came. With the end of Krypto's leash tightly in her hand, she moved as quickly as her legs could carry her while still appearing human and normal; nothing to be concerned with.
"I do not understand why the people of this planet show such hate and violence," Kara finally said, coming to a stop a few blocks away from the altercation. "Who are you? How do you know my name? Jason, from the House of Todd, did not know who I was." The question hidden in that confusion was clear: Do I need to leave? Is it dangerous here?
"Ice cream. It's more a treat than sustenance," Hels explained. "It's good." And they were still going to get some because it would give them a chance to talk away from everyone else.
The dog was still weird though.
Stopping when Kara did, Helena looked at her -- really looked at her. She was definitely younger than what Hels remembered, but otherwise she looked like the same Kara she'd known for years. "I'm Helena Wayne. Hels. And I know your name because my best friend was you. Is you." She frowned slightly, trying to figure out if this Kara was from the past (not optimal but she could work with that) or a completely separate universe (which she didn't hope for at all). "My best friend, where I come from, is named Kara Zor-El. She trained with Uncle Kal. Kal-El." Of the House of El, but Hels would be the first to admit she wasn't up to date on her Kryptonian history.
"You've been my best friend for almost six years." She could say that without it feeling like someone knocked the breath out of her, really. Hels was sure of it. Even a different Kara was better than no Kara at all, right? Her gaze dipped down to the dog. "And you didn't have a dog." And she was definitely going to have a talk with someone after this, but she wasn't moving urgently. As for the unasked questions, Hels wasn't sure how to answer them.
"I do not eat," Kara said, but she still followed the dark-haired woman. Helena Wayne. The name was unfamiliar. In her dealings with Watchtower, brief as they had been, she'd only know Batman as Batman. She listened to the story that Helena told, and she was silent throughout the tale. She didn't know what to make of it, and she didn't know where she fit into it. Her best friend was in a bottle, asleep, with Kara unable to wake her. And H'El, H'El was gone, probably dead. "I am Kara Zor-El," she said finally, because that was simple truth. "I have not trained with my cousin. I have been here nearly thirty suns, but I have seen Kal only a few times. Before that, Kal was a baby. I took care of him after classes on Krypton. Before ending up here, I had turned sixteen, and I was awaiting my trials and gene matching results." Her voice had softened, gone more accented as she spoke of the home that no longer existed. "My home is Argo. I am a member of the science caste."
Kara glanced down at Krypto. "He belongs to Kal. He was the family dog when I was a child, and Kal had him in the Fortress here. I did not think he should be alone." There was no Kal here, and she felt very, very alone; it showed on her pale features, though she managed to keep her lip from trembling.
Forcing herself to stand straighter, Kara motioned to the dark, foggy grime of Gotham, her displeasure clear on her face. "Why is this place like this? Do you know Jason-Todd?"
"What do you mean you don't eat? Like at all?" Helena frowned, line appearing between her eyebrows. Not that her Kara ate a lot (she didn't), but she'd still eaten and anyway, ice cream didn't really count. "You can try some of mine then."
She was quiet as she listened to the Kryptonian's story. It didn't sound a lot like her Kara's past, but her Kara hadn't really talked about it either. It was all about getting back home and how to do it and how much they missed the people back there. Sometimes it was about now and what was going on this very moment, but not always. Hels shoved both hands into her pocket, shoulders hunching slightly forwards, her own discomfort showing.
"He probably shouldn't be." Dogs couldn't take care of themselves, they need company, and walks, and you couldn't just cut open a bag of food and leave it for them to munch on for a week until someone showed up.
"This place? Gotham? It's always like this." Sometimes it was worse, but she didn't want to scare the other girl off by saying that. "And yes, I know Jason. We're in the same family." He wasn't brother to her like Damian was and no matter how often he tried to correct her that he wasn't one of the Batkids, Helena still considered him to be one of them. "You don't have to go back there if you don't want."
"I do not eat or sleep, unless I am at Sanctuary," Kara explained. She was caught between thinking this woman understood, and the beginnings of understanding that Helena didn't understand at all. It made her sag, that realization. Unlike Jason, Helena had known her name; Kara had gotten her hopes up. And Helena's posture made Kara realize she was a disappointment too. "I am sorry that I am not who you wished," she said truthfully; it would have been easier if they could each be what the other needed.
Krypto was a welcome change in topic, and Kara looked down at him as she began moving again. "I do not know how Kal found him," she admitted, because she didn't know the story of the dog's arrival on this planet, though she was certain there was a scientific explanation for it. In Kara's world, there was a scientific explanation for everything that happened.
"I do not know where I will go," Kara said truthfully. She didn't mean Gotham; she meant everything. Metropolis was the only place she'd been that reminded her of home, but she couldn't go there; there were too many people that wished to capture her there. She looked over at Helena when family was mentioned, sadness crossing her features. "I wish to go home, but there is no home to return to." Any hope of rebuilding Argo had died with H'El. Even if Kal appeared here, he would be with that woman, and in Kara's teenage mind that meant he would be lost to her.
"Sanctuary?" Was that like Kal's Fortress? Her shoulders went up a little more with the girl's apology. Who she wanted was her best friend. Tim. Her real parents. Diana and Kal, even Uncle Jim who wasn't here anymore either. Why did this place have to be like this? Offering hope in one hand and smashing it with the other? Her head dipped down for a moment as she looked anywhere but at the girl across from her that was Kara and not Kara.
"My home is gone too. Where I originally came from--" Hels shook her head and looked up. As much as she wanted her Kara, she wasn't going to leave this one. "My Kara kept trying to get us back there, but there was a lot of science involved that --" her hands came out of her pockets to gesture. "I didn't understand. You might though. Science caste, right? And Argo, is that like a," another gesture, her hands moving wildly, "Town? State? Continent? Some sort of geographical area?"
Kara nodded when Helena asked after Sanctuary. She knew the woman wanted more information, but she didn't trust her enough to give it yet. She had never been particularly guarded or secretive, but this world was making her so. Helena knew her name, and seemed to know some of her story, but it could be another trick to lock her up and experiment on her. And the disappointment that rolled off the other woman in waves only made Kara want to retreat to her haven, to hide herself away. Her grip tightened on Krypto's leash, and she began to suggest that, to suggest that she should go.
"If you provide information, I can check," Kara offered. She knew she couldn't return to her home, had done all the science to know that. Her best chance had disappeared along with H'El. She would start working on it again, but not yet. She wasn't ready for that yet. But looking for ways to help this woman might be distracting. "Argo is the capital city of Krypton," she said, not noticing her use of the present tense. It seemed only yesterday that she had been home; it was all still present tense for her.
Kara stepped away, looking for a way to apologize for not remaining for the ice cream she couldn't eat. Sitting there would only make her feel more alien. But she didn't give excuses. "I think I am going to return to Sanctuary," she said, her blue gaze bright with emotion. "I am sorry to have disappointed you. I can provide you an uplink for your data about your home world." It was a tentative offer, a tentative prospect, but she couldn't bring herself to entirely close the door on the first person she'd met who had known her name without guidance.
"Kara has --" Hels started and paused. Kara had it. She was the one that understood about the quantum tumbler and what was needed to get them back to the place where they had come from. Her shoulders tightened up again and once more when she realized that Kara was trying to get away.
Here was some sort of her best friend and here Hels was, driving her away. It hurt in ways that she never expected. "Yeah, that'd be good," she said quietly, looking everywhere but at Kara. "You should... go somewhere where you're safe. And happy." The last word came stumbling out of her mouth as she turned abruptly and headed back the way she came. She needed to put space between her and this place, this Gotham that had gotten under her skin and made bloody furrows of everything she loved.
Kara stepped back. She didn't understand why the things crossed Helena's features the way they did. She didn't understand how Helena had lost, or why, or when. But she knew loss. She saw it in her own face every morning. She knew it, and she gave Helena space, backing up again. "I will return to Sanctuary." The for now was implied. She wished she could be strong enough to live alone, beneath the sea forever. But she had been sixteen the last time she'd blinked. And she'd had family, friends, and a future. She couldn't go be alone. She didn't have it in her to be that person, even if fitting in here would be harder than anything she'd ever done. But maybe this place, Gotham wasn't the right place.
"I am sorry if your Kara does not come because of me," Kara said honestly. She didn't now how this strange place worked, but she was sorry if she had gotten in the way of what the sad girl wanted.
A second later, Kara (and the white dog) were gone.