Fic: 90 Days (Kon-El/Kara In-Ze)
Title: 90 Days
Fandom: DCU/DCAU crossover
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Kon-El/Kara In-Ze, Clark Kent, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Mr. Mxyzptlk
Words: 3043
Summary: Waylaid on his way back from the future, Kon finds himself in a world both different and familiar.
Author's Notes: THIS IS NOT INCEST!!! DCAU Supergirl is from a sister planet of Krypton, Argo! They are not related! However, they are both still slightly weirded out by the whole thing. Adorably so. *clears throat* This was written for shananagin's Write Superboy in an Unusual Pairing Month" with OMG less than a day to go. :D (For my second entry, so maybe not so much OMG) XD
Day 1:
"Stupid Imp."
Kon looked himself over in the mirror. Something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it. He had the same features, he hadn't changed exactly, but something about this world he had gotten stranded in was different. Everything looked smoother, cleaner. Himself included. This was annoying, to say the least. He had been on his way home from the 31st century, to reunite with his friends for the first time since his death in the Crisis, when that irritating Mr. Mxyzptlk had popped up out of nowhere and screwed with his trajectory, landing him on another Earth. Fortunately, he had landed near this world's Smallville, and Mr. and Mrs. Kent seemed just as friendly here as they were on his Earth. This Superman even seemed a lot more concerned with him than the real one.
"Son? Are you okay in there?"
"Yeah, Mr. Kent! I'll be right out!" Kon splashed a little water in his face and left the bathroom, rejoining Mr. and Mrs. Kent at the table with Superman.
"Now...Kon, is it?" Superman spoke. "If your Mxyzptlk is anything like ours - and they may be one and the same - he usually pulls off one of his pranks and leaves. Sometimes he'll stick around and try to play a game, but once he's gone, he's usually not coming back. He comes back every 90 days, like clockwork, so you don't need to worry - you'll be back to your world soon enough."
"90 days? You call that soon enough?" Kon shook his head. "You don't understand. There's people back in my world...they think I'm dead. I was dead. And I was minutes away from seeing them again, and now..."
"There have been a few times Mxyzptlk shunted me out of time, and when the game was over, he restored everything to the way it was. There's a chance you'll get these 90 days back. Either way, I'll be on the lookout for the imp in case there's a way to reverse this prematurely. Until then, you can stay here with my parents."
"Really? I don't want to put them out or anything."
"Nonsense! I'll fix up the guest bedroom!" Martha smiled. "You say you're Clark's clone, right?"
"Half-clone, actually. But yeah."
"Then you're family! Of course you'll stay with us."
Kon grinned as he thought that at least the Kents seemed to be a universal constant. As Martha hurriedly went to fix up the room, Kon walked up the stairs to scope the place out. It looked a lot like the Kent farm back in his Smallville, but little things were different here and there. The towels in the bathroom were a different design, and for some reason Clark's old room looked like it was designed for a girl...
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Kon suddenly slammed into a blonde teenage girl who had ran down the hallway carrying school books. The books went flying, and she and Kon bent down to pick them up.
"Oh, great. Now I'm going to miss the bus, and Ma and Pa don't like me zooming to school in case people can see me, and - What are you staring at?"
"Are...are you Supergirl?"
"Yeah. You must be this mystery Superboy who fell out of the sky. What, isn't there a Supergirl where you come from?"
"Yeah, there is, but she's really different. Are you Superman's cousin, too?"
"No. Well, yeah, at least that's the story we're telling everyone. I'm actually from another planet, Argo. It was sort of a sister planet of Krypton, that was destroyed too."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Thanks." Kara looked Kon over. "So, are you 'Superman when he was a boy'? You look kind of different from him."
"Yeah, no. I'm actually a clone. Half Superman's DNA, half...someone else. Call me Kon."
"I'm Kara. Kara In-ze. Wow, clones. Crazy." There was a loud honk in the background, and Kara grabbed her books. "Talk to you later, temporary big brother!"
She sped out the door, and Kon thought to himself that this world was already turning out to be pretty interesting.
Day 6:
Kon grabbed the football out of the air as it spiraled towards him at the speed of sound. Kara looked like a tiny ballerina type, but she definitely had an arm on her.
"So you really have a Super-dog? That's awesome!"
"Yeah, he's pretty great. Although if he ever gets Super-fleas, we're all doomed."
Kara laughed. Kon seemed to have a one-liner for every conversation. It had only been a few days, but she already felt like he belonged here. Clark had said that he'd probably be going back where he came from at the end of the three months, but a part of her hoped, selfish as it was, that Mxyzptlk would never come back.
"Penny for your thoughts, S-girl."
"I was just thinking, this Teen Titans you have back home, it sounds really cool. We don't really have anything like that here. I have a friend in Gotham, Batgirl, but she's in college already. It's nice to have someone here who's my age, who gets what it's like."
"Trust me, I was the king of teen superhero angst back on my world. But dying kind of took the edge off that. Just trust me...I know it all seems hard right now, but you're destined for great things. It comes with the symbol we wear on our chests."
"Thanks." Kara grinned. "You want to race to Oklahoma?"
"You're on!" Kon yelled as they took off in a blur.
-----
Day 15:
The cries were too quiet for the Kents to hear them, but they didn't escape Kon's super-hearing. And they were coming from Kara's room. Kon slipped out of bed and walked down the hall.
"Kara? Everything okay?"
"Yeah." Kara sniffled from behind the door. "Go back to bed. I'll be fine."
"Bad dream?"
"Yeah, the same one every time. I don't really want to talk about it."
"Okay, that's cool. Just call me if you need anything?"
"Sure." Kara said. "Wait! I don't really want to talk about it...but I also really don't want to try to go back to sleep right now."
Kon walked in and sat down at the foot of the bed. "Wow, you're shivering. Are Argoans vulnerable to cold or something?"
"No, it's...psychological. My planet...Krypton died in fire. Argo died in ice. I got a front-row view for the worst parts. Generally every time I wake up in the middle of the night screaming, my dreams took me back there..."
"Damn. I'm sorry." Kon put his arm around Kara's shoulder. "I can't even imagine...how old were you when this all went down?"
"Krypton blew up when I was 10. I was put into suspended animation when I was 14. So four years." Kara found herself shaking again. "Every time I think I'm past it, every time I think I'm moving on, it just comes back full-force."
"Geez." Kon shook his head. "This really sucks. I mean, we're kids. We shouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff."
"That would be nice. So, what about you? That 'we' makes me think you've got some dark secrets of your own."
"I don't really like to share my dreams..." Kon shrugged. "But the guy who killed me, Superboy-Prime...I think about him a lot. He's...gone now, but people in my field don't stay dead long."
"It's just dreams, right? They can't hurt us...no matter how intense they seem."
"Yeah. We get to wake up. Our ghosts don't follow us."
Kara leaned her head into Kon's chest. "Thanks for being there for me."
"No prob. I mean, we're family, right?"
"Not really. You're just biding your time here until you go back. You could have just blown us all off and done your own thing, but here you are, helping me through my nightmares. That's something special."
"Yeah, well, I guess...it feels good to have people here who understand me."
Kara slowly leaned in and kissed Kon, softly on the lips. Kon's eyes went wide, and he pulled back.
"Whoa."
"What's wrong? I thought - "
"No, I mean...you're great and all, but it kind of freaks me out. My world's Supergirl is my half cousin. A little weird."
"But I'm not. I mean, we're not even the same species, right?"
"Yeah, but...you know this can't last. I'm going home in two and a half months. No matter how great you are, I can't stay."
"I know. This doesn't have to be forever. Can't we just see what happens now?"
Kon answered Kara by leaning in and kissing her back. He didn't know what awaited him back on his world, but for now, this was more than worth exploring.
-----
Day 23:
"We need to talk."
Kon felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as Superman's voice appeared behind him. Kara gave him a sympathetic look and ran off to her room as Clark motioned him into the living room.
"If this is about the incident with the dairy cow, I think they like being tipped, and it's probably the most excitement they've had in - "
"It's not about the cow. I didn't even know about the cow." Superman shook his head. "I wanted to talk to you about Kara. I understand you two have gotten...close."
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Don't worry, I know this is your parents' house, and I won't be doing anything they won't approve of."
"That's not what I'm worried about. If you two are getting involved, it's going to have to end eventually, and you know that. I don't want Kara getting hurt when you have to leave."
"She knows that. Believe it or not, she's the one who approached me. She wants this relationship just as much as I do."
"I understand that, but I have to protect her."
"Always trying to protect people. Some things never change." Kon smirked. "Look, she can take care of herself. Both of us know this might not be the best idea in the world, but we'll deal with that when the time comes."
"That's all I can ask for, I suppose. Just treat her well. She might not be blood...but she is my family."
"Hey, none of my closest family is blood. I get it, Supes. And I know it's going to hurt her when this ends. It's going to hurt me just as much."
-----
Day 45:
It was halfway over. This didn't escape either Kon or Kara as they sat on the hill, watching the Smallville sunset.
"So...is Batman really as big a jerk here as he is in my world?"
"Oh, totally. Although his villains don't seem as scary. He's still crabby all the time, though."
"I'm pretty sure he's going to be crabby in all 52 worlds. Universal constant and all that."
"So...52, huh? Have you seen many of them?"
"Not me personally. I kind of...created them when I died. It's a wierd story. But there's one where all the heroes are villains, one where Batman's a vampire, one where Superman's a commie, and one where Wonder Woman's a hairy guy. The truth is out there...and it's scary. Then there's this one, which is the first one where I wouldn't expect everyone who lives there to be stark raving mad. It's actually a really nice place."
"Do you think...once you go back, I could visit your world one time? Maybe if we find a way that doesn't rely on crazy imps?"
"I dunno." Kon looked away. "Look, this whole crossing dimensions thing is...tricky. I don't want to make any promises. Leaving you is going to be hard enough. I don't want to make it harder by giving you false hope."
"We're superheroes. We're all about doing the impossible, right?"
Kon grinned. Kara's relentless optimism always managed to put a smile on his face. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"So promise." Kara grinned as she bounced into Kon's lap. "If we manage to find a way back to each other, we'll take it. No matter how crazy it is."
"I promise."
As Kara snuggled up against Kon's chest, the sun faded beneath the Smallville skyline. Alone in the starlit sky, day 90 seemed a million years away.
-----
Day 62:
"And now, you shall all kneel before ZOD!"
Kon picked himself up from the ground at the sound of the evil yell. The lunatic had already trapped Superman in the Phantom Zone, and he didn't know how long he had been out. Kara was alone against Zod, and from the way the Argoan conquerer had hit him, she was probably outmatched. Kon staggered towards the sounds of the battle, and found Kara lying on the ground, badly beaten, as Zod stood over her.
"The last daughter of Argo. Pitiful. What a disgrace you are to our proud warrior culture. I'd rather our planet die here, than have you carry it on!"
As Zod raised his fist to strike Kara, Kon powered up a blast of TTK and fired it into his face. Zod sneered and glared at him.
"The Kryptonian half-breed. You think you can stop me?"
"I can try."
Zod lunged at Kon, faster than he thought was possible. He found himself knocked to the ground as Zod pummeled him. It all seemed so familiar...being up against a powerful force that wanted him dead, knowing deep down that he was outmatched and might not make it out. Zod gripped his left arm and wrenched it back, dislocating his shoulder. As the pain blinded him, he braced himself from the last blow.
No. Not this time. Never again. Kon's eyes landed on Zod's phantom zone projector, the one he had used to trap Superman. With a burst of energy, he forced the fight in that direction. Using his TTK, he grabbed hold of the projector and pulled it towards Zod.
"Say goodnight, Zod."
Kon pulled the trigger, and Zod disappeared screaming in a flash of light. The searing pain in his ribs from Zod's attack got to him, and he fell to his knees. He extended his hand to the injured Kara.
"You...you going to be okay?"
"Yeah...I think so."
"Awesome..."
Kon felt Kara's hand lightly grip his as they both slipped into unconsciousness.
-----
Day 70:
The rebuilding efforts were well underway. The hero community had pitched in together to fix Metropolis after Zod's invasion, and Superman was leading the charge. Kon watched the screen intently, wishing he could be there, but Martha made clear to both him and Kara they weren't to do anything strenuous until they had finished recovering from Zod's beat-down. He flexed his shoulder, grunting. It was getting better, but it was still nowhere near full-strength.
"Still hurting?" Kara asked as she flew over.
"Eh, I'll manage. How's the knee?"
"Getting better. It's easy to stay off it like this, but I hate using crutches at school. But hey...we saved the world. Worth the pain, right?"
"You bet." Kon pulled Kara close in his good arm. "This world seemed so nice, so peaceful when I arrived. But your Zod is just as much of an ass as ours."
"We should go out to celebrate, now that we're mostly healed." Kara grinned.
"I don't know. I like the idea of getting back in action as much as you, but Mrs. Kent is pretty tough in this world. You know she wouldn't like us breaking doctor's orders."
"Not as Superboy and Supergirl." Kara softly kissed Kon. "As Conner and Kara. You've been here for over two months now, and we still haven't gone to the drive-in yet. There's a double-feature tonight. Attack of the Killer Aphids and It Came from Beyond the Sun. Just you, me, the moon, and a few hundred atomic mutants. What do you say?"
"A girl after my own heart."
As Kara flew off to change into her civilian clothes, Kon grinned. A girl who knew the appeal of atomic mutants wasn't something you let go of too easily.
-----
Day 90:
Kon felt Kara gently squeeze his hand as they stared at the sky. It was 2:55. 89 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes since he had arrived on this earth. Suddenly, there was an odd series of sparkles in the sky, and the form of a tiny imp in a purple hat appeared.
"Awright, Time's up, Blue Boy! Supes finally caught up with me and made me bring you back. Let's go, let's go!
"Yeah, just give me a minute." Kon glared as Mxyzptlk. He turned to Kara. "I'm sorry. I was almost hoping..."
"I know. Me too. But this is where you belong."
"This wasn't fair to you. I knew it would end eventually, and - "
"No." Kara's eyes narrowed. "We both knew coming into this what was going to happen. We made our choice, and I don't regret it for a second. We got 90 amazing days. That's more than a lot of people get in a lifetime. Now...we go back to the way things are supposed to be. But we'll always have this."
"Hurry up, hurry up! I've got a genderswapping at five!" Mxyzptlk yelled. "Don't make me leave you here!"
"Don't tempt me!" Kon yelled at the imp. He turned to Kara. "I want you to have this. I don't know if it'll work here, but...it's yours."
Kon slipped a small golden ring into Kara's palm. He turned to leave, but turned around and kissed her passionately one last time before stepping into Mxyzptlk's portal. And like that, he was gone.
Kara, her eyes stinging with tears, looked at the ring he had given her. It didn't have a jewel, only a simple gold "L" emblazoned on it. Kon had told her about this, a ring from the future, that took him to the 30th century. HIS 30th century. Would it work here? Would it take her somewhere she could get back to him? She slipped it into her pocket. She would find out one day. Right now, she had to let her love from another world go, before she would be ready to find him again.
Fandom: DCU/DCAU crossover
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Kon-El/Kara In-Ze, Clark Kent, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Mr. Mxyzptlk
Words: 3043
Summary: Waylaid on his way back from the future, Kon finds himself in a world both different and familiar.
Author's Notes: THIS IS NOT INCEST!!! DCAU Supergirl is from a sister planet of Krypton, Argo! They are not related! However, they are both still slightly weirded out by the whole thing. Adorably so. *clears throat* This was written for shananagin's Write Superboy in an Unusual Pairing Month" with OMG less than a day to go. :D (For my second entry, so maybe not so much OMG) XD
Day 1:
"Stupid Imp."
Kon looked himself over in the mirror. Something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it. He had the same features, he hadn't changed exactly, but something about this world he had gotten stranded in was different. Everything looked smoother, cleaner. Himself included. This was annoying, to say the least. He had been on his way home from the 31st century, to reunite with his friends for the first time since his death in the Crisis, when that irritating Mr. Mxyzptlk had popped up out of nowhere and screwed with his trajectory, landing him on another Earth. Fortunately, he had landed near this world's Smallville, and Mr. and Mrs. Kent seemed just as friendly here as they were on his Earth. This Superman even seemed a lot more concerned with him than the real one.
"Son? Are you okay in there?"
"Yeah, Mr. Kent! I'll be right out!" Kon splashed a little water in his face and left the bathroom, rejoining Mr. and Mrs. Kent at the table with Superman.
"Now...Kon, is it?" Superman spoke. "If your Mxyzptlk is anything like ours - and they may be one and the same - he usually pulls off one of his pranks and leaves. Sometimes he'll stick around and try to play a game, but once he's gone, he's usually not coming back. He comes back every 90 days, like clockwork, so you don't need to worry - you'll be back to your world soon enough."
"90 days? You call that soon enough?" Kon shook his head. "You don't understand. There's people back in my world...they think I'm dead. I was dead. And I was minutes away from seeing them again, and now..."
"There have been a few times Mxyzptlk shunted me out of time, and when the game was over, he restored everything to the way it was. There's a chance you'll get these 90 days back. Either way, I'll be on the lookout for the imp in case there's a way to reverse this prematurely. Until then, you can stay here with my parents."
"Really? I don't want to put them out or anything."
"Nonsense! I'll fix up the guest bedroom!" Martha smiled. "You say you're Clark's clone, right?"
"Half-clone, actually. But yeah."
"Then you're family! Of course you'll stay with us."
Kon grinned as he thought that at least the Kents seemed to be a universal constant. As Martha hurriedly went to fix up the room, Kon walked up the stairs to scope the place out. It looked a lot like the Kent farm back in his Smallville, but little things were different here and there. The towels in the bathroom were a different design, and for some reason Clark's old room looked like it was designed for a girl...
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Kon suddenly slammed into a blonde teenage girl who had ran down the hallway carrying school books. The books went flying, and she and Kon bent down to pick them up.
"Oh, great. Now I'm going to miss the bus, and Ma and Pa don't like me zooming to school in case people can see me, and - What are you staring at?"
"Are...are you Supergirl?"
"Yeah. You must be this mystery Superboy who fell out of the sky. What, isn't there a Supergirl where you come from?"
"Yeah, there is, but she's really different. Are you Superman's cousin, too?"
"No. Well, yeah, at least that's the story we're telling everyone. I'm actually from another planet, Argo. It was sort of a sister planet of Krypton, that was destroyed too."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Thanks." Kara looked Kon over. "So, are you 'Superman when he was a boy'? You look kind of different from him."
"Yeah, no. I'm actually a clone. Half Superman's DNA, half...someone else. Call me Kon."
"I'm Kara. Kara In-ze. Wow, clones. Crazy." There was a loud honk in the background, and Kara grabbed her books. "Talk to you later, temporary big brother!"
She sped out the door, and Kon thought to himself that this world was already turning out to be pretty interesting.
Day 6:
Kon grabbed the football out of the air as it spiraled towards him at the speed of sound. Kara looked like a tiny ballerina type, but she definitely had an arm on her.
"So you really have a Super-dog? That's awesome!"
"Yeah, he's pretty great. Although if he ever gets Super-fleas, we're all doomed."
Kara laughed. Kon seemed to have a one-liner for every conversation. It had only been a few days, but she already felt like he belonged here. Clark had said that he'd probably be going back where he came from at the end of the three months, but a part of her hoped, selfish as it was, that Mxyzptlk would never come back.
"Penny for your thoughts, S-girl."
"I was just thinking, this Teen Titans you have back home, it sounds really cool. We don't really have anything like that here. I have a friend in Gotham, Batgirl, but she's in college already. It's nice to have someone here who's my age, who gets what it's like."
"Trust me, I was the king of teen superhero angst back on my world. But dying kind of took the edge off that. Just trust me...I know it all seems hard right now, but you're destined for great things. It comes with the symbol we wear on our chests."
"Thanks." Kara grinned. "You want to race to Oklahoma?"
"You're on!" Kon yelled as they took off in a blur.
-----
Day 15:
The cries were too quiet for the Kents to hear them, but they didn't escape Kon's super-hearing. And they were coming from Kara's room. Kon slipped out of bed and walked down the hall.
"Kara? Everything okay?"
"Yeah." Kara sniffled from behind the door. "Go back to bed. I'll be fine."
"Bad dream?"
"Yeah, the same one every time. I don't really want to talk about it."
"Okay, that's cool. Just call me if you need anything?"
"Sure." Kara said. "Wait! I don't really want to talk about it...but I also really don't want to try to go back to sleep right now."
Kon walked in and sat down at the foot of the bed. "Wow, you're shivering. Are Argoans vulnerable to cold or something?"
"No, it's...psychological. My planet...Krypton died in fire. Argo died in ice. I got a front-row view for the worst parts. Generally every time I wake up in the middle of the night screaming, my dreams took me back there..."
"Damn. I'm sorry." Kon put his arm around Kara's shoulder. "I can't even imagine...how old were you when this all went down?"
"Krypton blew up when I was 10. I was put into suspended animation when I was 14. So four years." Kara found herself shaking again. "Every time I think I'm past it, every time I think I'm moving on, it just comes back full-force."
"Geez." Kon shook his head. "This really sucks. I mean, we're kids. We shouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff."
"That would be nice. So, what about you? That 'we' makes me think you've got some dark secrets of your own."
"I don't really like to share my dreams..." Kon shrugged. "But the guy who killed me, Superboy-Prime...I think about him a lot. He's...gone now, but people in my field don't stay dead long."
"It's just dreams, right? They can't hurt us...no matter how intense they seem."
"Yeah. We get to wake up. Our ghosts don't follow us."
Kara leaned her head into Kon's chest. "Thanks for being there for me."
"No prob. I mean, we're family, right?"
"Not really. You're just biding your time here until you go back. You could have just blown us all off and done your own thing, but here you are, helping me through my nightmares. That's something special."
"Yeah, well, I guess...it feels good to have people here who understand me."
Kara slowly leaned in and kissed Kon, softly on the lips. Kon's eyes went wide, and he pulled back.
"Whoa."
"What's wrong? I thought - "
"No, I mean...you're great and all, but it kind of freaks me out. My world's Supergirl is my half cousin. A little weird."
"But I'm not. I mean, we're not even the same species, right?"
"Yeah, but...you know this can't last. I'm going home in two and a half months. No matter how great you are, I can't stay."
"I know. This doesn't have to be forever. Can't we just see what happens now?"
Kon answered Kara by leaning in and kissing her back. He didn't know what awaited him back on his world, but for now, this was more than worth exploring.
-----
Day 23:
"We need to talk."
Kon felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as Superman's voice appeared behind him. Kara gave him a sympathetic look and ran off to her room as Clark motioned him into the living room.
"If this is about the incident with the dairy cow, I think they like being tipped, and it's probably the most excitement they've had in - "
"It's not about the cow. I didn't even know about the cow." Superman shook his head. "I wanted to talk to you about Kara. I understand you two have gotten...close."
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Don't worry, I know this is your parents' house, and I won't be doing anything they won't approve of."
"That's not what I'm worried about. If you two are getting involved, it's going to have to end eventually, and you know that. I don't want Kara getting hurt when you have to leave."
"She knows that. Believe it or not, she's the one who approached me. She wants this relationship just as much as I do."
"I understand that, but I have to protect her."
"Always trying to protect people. Some things never change." Kon smirked. "Look, she can take care of herself. Both of us know this might not be the best idea in the world, but we'll deal with that when the time comes."
"That's all I can ask for, I suppose. Just treat her well. She might not be blood...but she is my family."
"Hey, none of my closest family is blood. I get it, Supes. And I know it's going to hurt her when this ends. It's going to hurt me just as much."
-----
Day 45:
It was halfway over. This didn't escape either Kon or Kara as they sat on the hill, watching the Smallville sunset.
"So...is Batman really as big a jerk here as he is in my world?"
"Oh, totally. Although his villains don't seem as scary. He's still crabby all the time, though."
"I'm pretty sure he's going to be crabby in all 52 worlds. Universal constant and all that."
"So...52, huh? Have you seen many of them?"
"Not me personally. I kind of...created them when I died. It's a wierd story. But there's one where all the heroes are villains, one where Batman's a vampire, one where Superman's a commie, and one where Wonder Woman's a hairy guy. The truth is out there...and it's scary. Then there's this one, which is the first one where I wouldn't expect everyone who lives there to be stark raving mad. It's actually a really nice place."
"Do you think...once you go back, I could visit your world one time? Maybe if we find a way that doesn't rely on crazy imps?"
"I dunno." Kon looked away. "Look, this whole crossing dimensions thing is...tricky. I don't want to make any promises. Leaving you is going to be hard enough. I don't want to make it harder by giving you false hope."
"We're superheroes. We're all about doing the impossible, right?"
Kon grinned. Kara's relentless optimism always managed to put a smile on his face. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"So promise." Kara grinned as she bounced into Kon's lap. "If we manage to find a way back to each other, we'll take it. No matter how crazy it is."
"I promise."
As Kara snuggled up against Kon's chest, the sun faded beneath the Smallville skyline. Alone in the starlit sky, day 90 seemed a million years away.
-----
Day 62:
"And now, you shall all kneel before ZOD!"
Kon picked himself up from the ground at the sound of the evil yell. The lunatic had already trapped Superman in the Phantom Zone, and he didn't know how long he had been out. Kara was alone against Zod, and from the way the Argoan conquerer had hit him, she was probably outmatched. Kon staggered towards the sounds of the battle, and found Kara lying on the ground, badly beaten, as Zod stood over her.
"The last daughter of Argo. Pitiful. What a disgrace you are to our proud warrior culture. I'd rather our planet die here, than have you carry it on!"
As Zod raised his fist to strike Kara, Kon powered up a blast of TTK and fired it into his face. Zod sneered and glared at him.
"The Kryptonian half-breed. You think you can stop me?"
"I can try."
Zod lunged at Kon, faster than he thought was possible. He found himself knocked to the ground as Zod pummeled him. It all seemed so familiar...being up against a powerful force that wanted him dead, knowing deep down that he was outmatched and might not make it out. Zod gripped his left arm and wrenched it back, dislocating his shoulder. As the pain blinded him, he braced himself from the last blow.
No. Not this time. Never again. Kon's eyes landed on Zod's phantom zone projector, the one he had used to trap Superman. With a burst of energy, he forced the fight in that direction. Using his TTK, he grabbed hold of the projector and pulled it towards Zod.
"Say goodnight, Zod."
Kon pulled the trigger, and Zod disappeared screaming in a flash of light. The searing pain in his ribs from Zod's attack got to him, and he fell to his knees. He extended his hand to the injured Kara.
"You...you going to be okay?"
"Yeah...I think so."
"Awesome..."
Kon felt Kara's hand lightly grip his as they both slipped into unconsciousness.
-----
Day 70:
The rebuilding efforts were well underway. The hero community had pitched in together to fix Metropolis after Zod's invasion, and Superman was leading the charge. Kon watched the screen intently, wishing he could be there, but Martha made clear to both him and Kara they weren't to do anything strenuous until they had finished recovering from Zod's beat-down. He flexed his shoulder, grunting. It was getting better, but it was still nowhere near full-strength.
"Still hurting?" Kara asked as she flew over.
"Eh, I'll manage. How's the knee?"
"Getting better. It's easy to stay off it like this, but I hate using crutches at school. But hey...we saved the world. Worth the pain, right?"
"You bet." Kon pulled Kara close in his good arm. "This world seemed so nice, so peaceful when I arrived. But your Zod is just as much of an ass as ours."
"We should go out to celebrate, now that we're mostly healed." Kara grinned.
"I don't know. I like the idea of getting back in action as much as you, but Mrs. Kent is pretty tough in this world. You know she wouldn't like us breaking doctor's orders."
"Not as Superboy and Supergirl." Kara softly kissed Kon. "As Conner and Kara. You've been here for over two months now, and we still haven't gone to the drive-in yet. There's a double-feature tonight. Attack of the Killer Aphids and It Came from Beyond the Sun. Just you, me, the moon, and a few hundred atomic mutants. What do you say?"
"A girl after my own heart."
As Kara flew off to change into her civilian clothes, Kon grinned. A girl who knew the appeal of atomic mutants wasn't something you let go of too easily.
-----
Day 90:
Kon felt Kara gently squeeze his hand as they stared at the sky. It was 2:55. 89 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes since he had arrived on this earth. Suddenly, there was an odd series of sparkles in the sky, and the form of a tiny imp in a purple hat appeared.
"Awright, Time's up, Blue Boy! Supes finally caught up with me and made me bring you back. Let's go, let's go!
"Yeah, just give me a minute." Kon glared as Mxyzptlk. He turned to Kara. "I'm sorry. I was almost hoping..."
"I know. Me too. But this is where you belong."
"This wasn't fair to you. I knew it would end eventually, and - "
"No." Kara's eyes narrowed. "We both knew coming into this what was going to happen. We made our choice, and I don't regret it for a second. We got 90 amazing days. That's more than a lot of people get in a lifetime. Now...we go back to the way things are supposed to be. But we'll always have this."
"Hurry up, hurry up! I've got a genderswapping at five!" Mxyzptlk yelled. "Don't make me leave you here!"
"Don't tempt me!" Kon yelled at the imp. He turned to Kara. "I want you to have this. I don't know if it'll work here, but...it's yours."
Kon slipped a small golden ring into Kara's palm. He turned to leave, but turned around and kissed her passionately one last time before stepping into Mxyzptlk's portal. And like that, he was gone.
Kara, her eyes stinging with tears, looked at the ring he had given her. It didn't have a jewel, only a simple gold "L" emblazoned on it. Kon had told her about this, a ring from the future, that took him to the 30th century. HIS 30th century. Would it work here? Would it take her somewhere she could get back to him? She slipped it into her pocket. She would find out one day. Right now, she had to let her love from another world go, before she would be ready to find him again.