Chapter Text
Once Jack’s bots have located and infiltrated the lab, everyone uses the hive mind to peer through them, evaluating the facility’s layout, personnel, defenses, and weaponry— entirely kryptonite-based, and all designed to be non-lethal at that. Once they’re certain they know all they need to, they enact Kara’s plan.
Yu twirls, now looking exactly like the little clone of Clark, hospital gown and all despite Kara knowing full well they’re naked. Jade is entirely too happy to shuck off her clothes and be fully invisible now, and they all feel Meri’s relief when she follows suit, no longer having to deal with itchy Earth fabrics.
“Again,” Kara grumbles, “you are only temporarily allowed to be nudists.”
“Yeah, yeah, jeju, we know,” Jade drawls, taking advantage of the fact that a few people present are not in the hive mind and racing over to flick Brainy and Jess, neither of whom seem surprised despite their having no way to know she was coming. “Aw, c’mon, kir ie and kir ue, weren’t you at least a little startled?”
Jess fiddles with her ring and a moment later Jade yelps when she sends the girl a mental pinch before raising her shield again. “We grew up with all of you, so no,” Jess drawls. “And unlike Brainy I am used to the hive mind because I joined it as soon as jeju and Mum took me out of my pod.”
Lena looks at Kara with wide eyes, already wondering how the fuck a baby being in the hive mind works, and Kara shrugs. “Her being in stasis as an infant probably prevented her from learning any languages but joining our hive mind probably, uh, sped that along pretty quick.” She feels Jess’ amusement and smugness and comes to the conclusion that she’s definitely going to be bossed around by a baby in a thousand years.
Brainy manages to locate Jade despite her being invisible still and flicks her, and when she tries to get him back he easily dodges. “And I have never been in the hive mind so simply memorized your most common strategies,” he says smugly.
“Children,” Astra says mildly, “please wait to tease one another until after we rescue the toddlers.”
Yu gasps. “I’m not the youngest anymore!” They squint at Jess. “Am I still the oldest?” Much like Allo-Ruby, Kara finds it both fascinating and odd that Yu looks so much like… baby Clark? Blue? Lucas? They even sound like the little boy.
“I was conceived at the same time as jeju and Mom, so sure?” Jess gives the child a considering look as Astra and Kara open three portals. “I don’t know when exactly you… came into being, wai aoe, but I don’t think there was any time travel involved except to send you to the Phantom Zone initially, and you were older than baby Super Kara so… at the very least you have been aware longer than me and thus count as being older.”
“It will… take awhile for jeju and Mum to get you to age from what I have heard,” Brainy mutters, looking away when Yu-Lucas looks at him with wide eyes. “So you will be the youngest again… sometimes.”
Enna, Brainy, and Ruby are set up with laptops and have already hacked into the lab’s system, Jess has the laptop that lets her watch Jack’s feeds and is on backup surveillance, and Lena is seated with them all, eyes already closed and most of her focus on Yu, who will act as her conduit.
Yu-Lucas trots to the portal Kara opened, Meri and Jade fully invisible and flanking the tinier-than-usual child. Allo fiddles with her image inducer and a moment later looks exactly like… Kara’s little clone, Red, Lyra?… and Kara scoops the girl into a one-armed hold before grabbing Lena’s hand and sending her a rush of energy. “Ready, baby girl?”
Lena takes a deep breath and then nods, and they set out— Yu-Lucas and Meri and Jade through a portal that opens into an empty storage room within the lab, Astra and Nia through a portal near the hidden emergency exit to the facility just in case anyone tries to escape, and Kara and Allo-Lyra to the hidden entrance at the base of the mountain.
Kara and Astra both have their watches pre-set to open a portal near Yu’s if need be, but for now their groups hide and wait, watching through the three inside as the chaos begins, Jess already using the bots Kara gave Jack to conceal the real Lucas and Lyra’s presence, the twins none the wiser to the fact that only they can see each other now, their cells appearing empty and the bars bent to any who pass by and the cameras throughout the lab already ‘glitching’ thanks to Enna.
Yu-Lucas scampers around the lab, latching onto the sleepy and now very confused adults long enough for Lena to go through their minds, crying about Red being missing and Mr. Luthor being scary and not wanting to be in trouble but needing his sister and—
Kara sees through some of Jack’s bots when the real Lyra wakes up, sitting bolt upright and staring at Lucas in confusion, able to hear him elsewhere in the lab and crying for her, and she wakes the boy up with a quick poke. “Blue,” Lyra hisses, “Something’s happening!”
Lucas sits up and rubs his eyes blearily. “Wha’s goin’ on?”
Yu-Lucas has made it through the few awake adults already and has burst into the sleeping quarters of the remote facility, Meri and Jade keeping the now even more confused and frantic scientists from following, and as the small child runs bed to bed long enough for Lena to skim through the people’s minds, Lyra and Lucas both clamber to their feet, now watching as the humans race past the small room their cells are in without even looking at them.
“What’s going on? HEY, ASSHOLES!” Lyra yells, but no one even glances at her, Jack’s borrowed and actually-fancy bots blocking the sound (Kara gets a few pinches for that thought). The girl glares, her anger already prickling at Kara’s mind, and the skin around her eyes glows for a second before flickering out.
Yu-Lucas finishes with the last adult and hides from the people trying to grab them long enough to shift into a perfect replica of Allo, invisibility and all, and they follow Meri and Jade to the small room with the cells, all of the scientists now awake and frantically searching for the two missing Super toddlers. Yu tugs the door closed and no one even notices. Well, no one aside from Lyra and Lucas.
Meri and Jade both grab the glowing green cell bars and bend them, the minion who had called Edge in the bad ending now screaming in another room to get the facility on lockdown and Kara sensing Ruby’s smugness when they can’t, the girl having temporarily revoked their access to their own system. They can’t even get into the small armory they have, the automatic door not allowing anyone clearance anymore.
As Lyra and Lucas watch the bars bend with narrowed eyes, no one there despite the three other heartbeats they can hear, Kara opens a portal directly into Lucas’ cell and Allo-Lyra darts through long enough to grab the boy and pull him out, bundling him into Kara’s arms.
“Huh?” Lucas asks, looking between Kara and the girl he instinctively let drag him backwards in utter confusion. “Red? And… a big Red with yellow hair? But Red was in her cell too?” He looks at the sky and gasps. “Is this outside? It’s weird!” He huddles closer to Kara and she feels his fear and confusion rippling through her. “I want Red…”
Kara pats the boy’s back. “Don’t worry, kir chahv, your sister will be joining us soon.”
Lucas looks at her with wide eyes and Kara can tell he’s about to cry even as she hears his thoughts racing as he tries to figure out a way to escape, so she pulls her secret weapon out of one of the pockets of her battle suit— an enormous candy bar. She shifts her hold on him long enough to open it, the child’s eyes already locked onto the colorful wrapper, and when she hands it to him tiny hands take it, and if not for the green still flashing in his veins he’d probably crush it, but for now he just ogles it.
“For me?” Lucas asks, not looking away from the chocolate. His nose twitches as the smell of the candy reaches him, and Kara hears his thought, then, that if she takes the chocolate away he might cry for real, even if having a lookalike of his sister nearby is working to keep him calm. She can feel his annoyance at his own observation and has to bite back a laugh.
“All yours, I have some for, uh, Red, too,” Kara says, and Lucas is suddenly very focused on eating the candy, taking the tiniest of nibbles as Allo-Lyra does her best not to laugh at him, Kara holding him securely now and refocusing on what’s happening inside.
Yu has shifted into a Lucas lookalike again and has grabbed Lyra’s hand. “C’mon, we gotta get outta here while they’re all confused still!”
“Hell no,” Lyra growls. “You aren’t Blue. Where’s my brother? Who are you?” She starts spewing profanity when Jade grabs her shoulders and steers her after Yu-Lucas.
“He’s outside already, jeju has him,” Yu-Lucas chirps. “I’mma be quiet once we’re around people again but you need to cuss them all out while we run away, just follow me, okay?”
Lyra is still squirming and trying to get away, eyes glowing sporadically… and then Meri leans down and whispers, “Blue is eating chocolate right now, and once you get outside you can have some too.”
Lyra freezes. “Promise?” She looks to where she can hear Meri’s heartbeat, and they all hear her annoyed thought that the assholes in the lab had promised her and Blue sweets plenty of times and never delivered, usually just taunting them with it after. The children could smell the food easily enough to know it would be good, but had yet to ever actually get a taste.
Meri hands Yu-Lucas the small piece of chocolate Kara gave her, and they unwrap it, handing it to a shell-shocked Lyra.
“Eat it quick, kid,” Jade says. “We need you to cuss these asshats out soon.”
Lyra manages to tap into her super speed despite the green flashing in her veins, the chocolate disappearing from Yu-Lucas’ hands. She scarfs it down so quickly Kara wonders if the girl even had a chance to taste it, and suddenly Kara is very glad that Alex has yet to join the hive mind, or they’d all be seeing her sister’s memories of Kara’s first tastes of certain Earth foods, which… were not dissimilar.
A small, sticky hand patting her cheek breaks her from her thoughts even as Jade and Meri shake with laughter, everyone now vowing to have Alex show them ASAP, and Kara blinks, looking down to see bright blue eyes peering up at her, chocolate-stained hands clutching an empty wrapper.
“Big Red,” Lucas says, lip already wobbling and tears imminent. “I ran out.”
Allo-Lyra cackles as quietly as she can and rummages in Kara’s pocket, unwrapping another candy bar and handing it to the eager child.
Kara refocuses just as Yu-Lucas begins the great escape, one hand clutching Lyra’s tightly as the girl gleefully spews profanity and insults at every adult they race pass, yelling everything from “Fuck you” to “You’ll be a baldy like Luthor soon” to telling people who their partners were cheating with in the supply closet.
This is glorious, Jade thinks, I’m showing Aunt Alex when she joins the hive mind.
The minion who had been the last standing in the bad ending skids to a halt between the children and the final door they have to go through, and the little girl’s hatred and fear of the man are so strong Kara feels it without her wife passing it on.
But Yu-Lucas doesn’t stop, and Lyra elects to trust her brother’s lookalike if only so she can hurl very specific insults at the one person she hates more than Lex Luthor, yelling at him that he’s fucking ugly and no one will ever like him and he eats nasty food and everyone here thinks he’s smelly and a kiss-ass and all the scientists laugh behind his back about how he’s Luthor’s little pet when Luthor doesn’t like him either.
The man is getting angrier and angrier, but when he reaches for the children Meri and Jade each grab an arm and flip him as the toddlers run past, and as soon as all four of them are in the tunnel that leads to the main exit Brainy puts the lab on lockdown, Ruby and Enna now ensuring they can’t activate any external monitoring systems or send messages out yet.
By the time Meri, Jade, Yu-Lucas, and Lyra make it to where Kara is waiting, Lucas is on his fifth candy bar and Lena is already helping pick off the most loyal of the scientists— she identifies them, Astra opens a portal to the coordinates Jack’s bots give her, Nia uses a whip made of dream energy to snatch the person through and then Astra closes the portal and hurls them in… well, it’s a cage Kara made for her back on Krypton, and it can hold plenty of people and her mom has already muted it so they don’t have to hear them.
Those who aren’t placed in the cage are laying unconscious at Astra’s feet and have a volcano in their future, from what Kara can tell, and her yeyu is very much looking forward to adding the final minion to the pile, the one who elicited such fear and hatred in a mere three-year-old, though it will have to wait until he’s alone since he’s still screaming at people.
Lyra races over and Lucas wriggles until Kara puts him down, and Lyra grabs her brother in a hug and then… licks the chocolate off his cheek.
“Kir chahv,” Kara says, frowning, “I have candy for you too, please refrain from eating Lucas.”
“Who’s Lucas? I’m Blue!” Lucas chirps, still happily hugging his sister. “Red, look, there’s more of you!”
Lyra looks at Allo-Lyra and Kara suspiciously, and Kara senses she’s very close to trying to run away… at least until Kara pulls a handful of candy bars from her pocket and holds them out with a smirk.
“Don’t eat the wrapper!” Allo-Lyra yelps when Lyra is about to do just that. “That’s what Super Ruby’s weird uncle does!” She snatches a candy bar and unwraps it, and they all watch in fascinated horror as Lyra eats the whole thing in one bite.
“Rude,” Jack says mildly, solidifying next to them and making Lucas and Lyra freeze, wide eyed. Well, Lyra unfreezes pretty quick and scarfs down two candy bars faster than Kara can see, and when she drops the wrappers Kara tuts.
“No littering, kiddo,” Kara says, grabbing the wrappers before turning to Jack. “Did you leave enough bots here?”
“Really, Kara, who do you think I am?” Jack drawls. He takes the wrappers from her and happily eats them and Kara and her older children grimace. “Again, loves, I am doing this for the planet.”
“I’mma tell Aunt Alex to use you for target practice,” Jade says, shaking her head at the man even as she opens a portal. “Now, uzheiu and Nia are gonna be awhile, so I vote we start breakfast before my new little siblings convince jeju to rob a candy store.”
Jade, a stóirín, why would they need to rob it? I could literally buy them a candy store, Lena drawls before going back to picking off the last few loyal minions.
“Who… was that?” Lyra asks, taking a break from devouring candy to look around now, and Kara has to admit that Lyra being so similar to her is a little strange, and then she starts wondering what all mischief her moms got up to since they were identical and the same age... Lyra looks at Kara, clearly having heard her thoughts. “And who’s Lyra? I’m Red.”
“Lucas,” Kara says, scooping the boy up, “and Lyra.” She scoops the very annoyed little girl up as well. “Those are your names now, because my wife says colors should not be names.” She gets a mental pinch from Ruby and a flick from Jade. “Aside from ones that are culturally acceptable as names. I do not make the rules, this is not the planet I am from nor the one I created, please give me a break.” She heads through the portal and her family follows, and once it’s closed, Lucas now clinging to her and Lyra looking around suspiciously, Kara is relieved to find they portalled directly into the kitchen.
Lena, Ruby, Enna, Brainy, and Jess are already there, Lena sitting at the table with her eyes closed as she gets the last few scientists with Astra and Nia and the others already starting breakfast, Ruby being very careful and only touching things she knows can be fixed a few more times.
“Alright, Meri and Jade and Yu, please go put clothes on, Allo start on pancakes, Jack do whatever you can while still helping yeyu open portals where she needs to.” As the children disperse Kara pulls two small outfits from her pocket. “And you two also need to put clothes on.” A whoosh of air later and she has them both dressed, the toddlers looking down at the tiny blue shirts with the El crest and little red shorts they’re now wearing, which Kara had found when she did a quick trip to buy clothes and candy while Jack’s bots searched. She drops the tiny hospital gowns in the trash with a sneer as Yu trots back in, already dressed. “Alright, Yu, do you want to cook or keep supplying these two with sweets until the food is ready?”
Yu elects to be a candy dealer and Kara dumps a small mountain of candy into their little bag… which is definitely a pocket dimension she made now that she’s seeing it in action… as Lyra and Lucas watch with wide eyes. She sets them both in chairs and Yu settles down across from them and slides them both identical boxes of candy as soon as they’re done with their candy bars.
“I like you,” Lyra decides. “Still don’t really understand what’s happening though.”
Kara slips into the chaos of the kitchen, half paying attention to cooking and half attuned to what’s going on at the lab still. “Well,” she says, using her heat vision to cheat and grinning when she senses the twins’ surprise, “do you have any idea how you and your brother came to be?”
“I know we’re aliens or clones of aliens or something and that humans suck,” Lyra says, loud and confident. She pauses then and frowns at the very amused green child across from her. “Uh, sorry if you’re human.”
“Most of use aren’t!” Yu chirps. “Mum and Jack, uh, Uncle Jack used to be, and Aunt Alex and her mom are, and that’s kinda it!”
Jade and Meri return then and start helping with the food prep, Jade mentally grumbling that having two new Kryptonians to feed is too much work and that they better not eat as much as Ruby.
“Sam and Jess and Kelly are each gonna eat more than me, yeyu, and Ruby combined the first few weeks,” Kara says, snickering when she feels everyone, especially Jess and Lena’s, dread at that. Ruby isn’t sure if she should feel bad for her mom or be glad she’ll be suffering with her. “And we’ll have a cafeteria and huge kitchen… and greenhouse by then, chill.” She pauses and focuses on shuffling what’s in the ovens and on the stove tops for a moment. “Oh, yeyu wants to know how slow the last guy’s death should be— Lex’s smelly pet no one likes. They finally got him and he was the last one they needed.”
Lyra perks up at that and Lucas freezes. “Someone’s gonna kill him? I wanna do it!” She jumps when Lena reaches over and pinches her.
“You are a child, no,” Lena says. “And none of the other children will be watching either, Jade.” She opens her eyes finally and looks so very tired. “Kara, all of our children enjoy violence too much.”
Jack guffaws. “Lena, love, you pancaked the Luthors and Kara lava caked Edge, I think it started with you two.” He turns long enough to give the very confused toddlers a brilliant smile. “And by that, I mean Lena used a hunk of equipment to smash Lex and Lillian and Kara slowly fed Edge to a volcano, so they’re all very much dead.”
“Baldy is dead?” Lyra asks, her glee filling them all. “Make sure this yeyu person tells his pet before they kill him!”
Astra decides this is a very good suggestion and that she likes this child even more, and Kara tamps down on the jealousy she feels and refocuses on cooking, idly watching as her mom shows Nia how to operate the cage, making it hover and follow the very surprised young woman so she can portal it to the DEO while Astra takes care of those Lena decided should be lava caked.
“Red,” Lucas whispers. “They’re kinda murdery. Is it safe here?”
Lyra turns to him and shrugs. “Safer than where we were, I think. Just eat your candy before I do.”
Lucas gasps and goes back to eating candy, and Kara wonders if the chance of him going to stay with Clark and Lois is higher than she thought… she is luckily not pinched by anyone for that, as she turned her psychic inhibitor back on as soon as her part in the operation was over, so she can now commit as many thought crimes as she wants. Though Lena does give her a funny look, and Kara wonders what exactly that thought made her feel…
“Long story short,” Kara continues, doing her best not to laugh when she sees the looks on the DEO agents’ faces through Nia’s eyes when she portals in with a flying cage of utterly confused scientists, “Red, your name is now Lyra and you’re my clone, and Blue, your name is now Lucas you’re my half-brother’s clone. I didn’t know you existed until today, so now that we have kidnapped you both you will be joining my house. Uh, family.” She watches as Allo makes pancakes that are mostly chocolate chips, sensing that the girl has decided her new little siblings will need bribes to eat normal food, and grins. “The worst of the people in that lab will be dead soon thanks to one of my moms, and those who would have tried to actually contact higher-ups are being put into a cell as we speak. We did leave a few in the lab still cuz we’re hoping they’ll reach out to… other lowly minions, for help or information, and we sent them a digital memo to continue as normal and that their coworkers have been called elsewhere, so to find you two on their own.”
“I couldn’t completely look through all of their minds in such a short period of time,” Lena grumbles, resting her head on one hand now and watching as the toddlers continue to eat far too much junk food. “So just in case a few of them can contact anyone we haven’t found yet, we’re going to leave them be for awhile and see what they do. Jack and Jess will keep an eye on them until it’s time to round them all up, and they will of course never come near either of you again.”
Nia saunters in through a portal then and squeezes in next to Brainy, helping him make the more vegetable-heavy foods and smirking when Lyra and Lucas follow her movement and see what else is being made, both of the toddlers making faces.
“You will both be eating real food,” Lena drawls, sending them a mental pinch and eliciting squeaks from the surprised children. “Speaking of, Yu, a stóirín, slow down the bribes.”
When Yu puts the next round of candy back into their pouch, Lyra and Lucas both pout.
“How come you’re listening to her?” Lyra grumbles.
“She’s our mum!” Yu chirps. “And she made the hive mind, and it’s really fun especially when we can play in each other’s dreams, and she’s really nice!”
Lucas clambers off the chair and runs over to Kara, scrambling up so he’s hanging over her shoulder. “Big Red, I wan’ more caaaanddyyyy.”
Kara turns enough to grin at the pouting child. “Sorry, kiddo, we gotta listen to my wife and yeyu in this house, and they want us to eat plants sometimes.”
“What’s a yeyu?” Lyra asks, slowly eating the few pieces of candy left in her box. “Is she the one killing all those assholes right now?”
“She’s terrifying,” Jack says happily, partially dissolving his torso to have the bots put out a fire Jade started even as he flips an omelet. “And yes, Astra, I am aware you can hear me, don’t pretend you don’t want to be scary at least sometimes.”
“You two are going to have to start learning Kryptonian,” Enna muses, tossing a piping hot muffin in her mouth. “Well, you two are Kryptonian, and jeju already made our planet by the time she was Lyra’s age, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you.”
“The curse words are fun at least,” Jade adds. “Also, I know Jess and Brainy are adults but they’re from the future so call them ‘kir ie’ and ‘kir ue’!” She dodges when Jess tries to flick her and cackles.
Lyra glowers at them all. “That didn’t answer my question— who are any of you?” The box in her hand crumples and when Yu looks at Lena with wide eyes she sighs and waves her hand, and when they’re supplied with more candy Lucas scrambles down and rejoins Lyra at the table.
“If you eat it slower you’ll be able to taste it better,” Kara singsongs. “’Yeyu’ means ‘Mommy’, ‘kir ie’ means ‘little sister’, and ‘kir ue’ is little brother. Yeyu and I are also gonna call you two ‘kir chahv’ a lot, it means ‘little one’. ‘Inah’ is daughter, ‘wehnah’ is grandchild, ‘unah’ is son, ‘aonah’ is child.” She senses when both children easily memorize it all.
“Mum calls us ‘a stóirín’,” Ruby adds, wincing when she cracks the counter by bumping into it. “Sorry jeju. Uh, it means ‘little treasure’ in Gaelic.”
“’Jeju’ means ‘Mom’,” Meri adds, smirking when Kara squeaks at the realization she forgot that one. “And most of us call jeju’s yeyu, whose name is Astra, uzheiu which means grandma, but Lyra is… also kind of her daughter, so I think that’s up to you.”
“What about me?” Lucas asks, and when Kara glances back she is unsurprised to see his face is absolutely covered in chocolate.
“Uhhh you and yeyu aren’t really related?” Kara says, voice hiking up at the end. “My half-brother is… uh, not on that side…”
Lucas actually puts his candy down. “So Big Red is kinda Red,” he says, face pinched in concentration, though Kara gets the sense he’s not actually having to think all that hard, and she can sense Lena and Astra’s suspicion as well, even as her yeyu is mostly focused on the task she’s blocking everyone’s mental view of still. “And Big Red has yeyu… so Red has yeyu… but I don’t…” He makes a small, sad sound. “Red’s still my family though?”
“Course I am, dummy!” Lyra yells. She hurls a small piece of candy at Lucas’ face and he catches it easily and eats it. “I wouldn’t share my candy with you otherwise, hmph.”
“Brainy, Jess,” Kara says calmly, “how complicated is it going to be to introduce new kids to the family in the future?”
“I do not think you want to know, jeju,” Brainy decides.
“Sometimes it takes years,” Jess mutters. “Legion keeps people busy.”
Kara sighs when the pan she’s holding dents, and as she carefully transfers the food to a different pan and begins fixing the other one she feels her wife’s confusion and realizes she forgot to mention something. “Baby girl,” Kara says, glancing back at her, “I know you were planning for our planetary defense force to be a stopgap until Legion is founded, but, uh…”
“No,” Lena says, eyes widening when she feels Jess and Brainy’s amusement. “No no no, Kara Danvers Kieran-El, I am going to be busy with El Corp and you already have two jobs, no.”
Kara hums. “’Ensure everyone makes it home alive’,” she says softly, and senses when Astra more closely tunes in to the hive mind. “Brainy said yeyu makes sure that’s what everyone in Legion lives by.” She smirks when she senses her children from the future’s pride and her mom’s dawning realization. “We did say you’d be in charge of our defense force, yeyu. We just… weren’t planning on building one that lasts at least a thousand years.”
Lena sighs even as she begins to reconfigure some of her plans, and Kara laughs when she hears her wife’s muttered thought that they’re all going to have to keep each other from overworking and that she’s definitely pulling Sam and Alex in to help with Legion.
“We’ll do introductions once yeyu is back,” Lena says, the twins’ confusion at all of this only growing, and when she uses her powers to make the next round of candy fly around the children’s heads they both freeze… and then Lucas snaps the little chocolate pieces out of the air with his mouth and Lyra watches him a moment before copying him. Lena flushes when everyone else gives her a funny look, mumbling mentally that this is the best way to get them to eat slower right now.
“Mum, me too!” Allo scampers over and Yu tosses some more candy pieces out, and Lena flies the little chocolates around her as well, and Kara almost laughs aloud when she realizes Allo is pretending the candies are the robots that had expanded their apartment.
While Kara, Jack, Brainy, Jess, and Nia begin plating the food and taking it to the table, Ruby and Enna hesitantly approach Lena, and then Meri and Jade do as well, and Kara has the delightful experience of watching all of her younger children now chasing candy around, all at varying difficulty levels, and at some point Yu decides to join, though their goal seems to be to steal some from the others.
Meri lets Yu steal a piece without incident, Jade turns it into a brief duel and only loses because Yu shifts into a faster species, Enna’s candies are whirling in complex patterns and it takes them both a moment to figure out which will fly down next, Allo helps Yu corner her swarm of candy, Lyra does her utmost to not let Yu get a single piece but ultimately fails because Yu again shifts to another species and she’s still kryptonite-poisoned, and Lucas almost cries when Yu catches a piece, but calms once Yu hands it to him.
“I still win,” Yu says primly.
“The worst of all,” Jess quips, patting the child’s head. “Just don’t tease them too much cuz they’ll be bigger than you soon.”
Lyra gives Jess a funny look. “I don’t think that’s how that works.”
“I can’t grow up right now,” Yu chirps, snatching another piece of Jade’s candy and popping it into their mouth. “I’m older than jeju kinda, but I was also the youngest til you two got here.”
“Youngest what?” Lucas asks, snatching two handfuls of candy and stuffing them all in his mouth.
Astra portals in then, and Kara winces when she sees parts of her mom’s battle suit stitching back together. “The youngest of the hoard of children my daughters have gathered,” she drawls, brushing some ash from her suit. “I… may take a quick shower.”
“Yeyu, how close to the lava did you get?” Kara asks.
Astra gives her a sharp smile. “The last one to go in got… special treatment.” She turns to Lyra then. “And he was indeed very upset to learn Lex Luthor was dead, kir chahv.”
Lyra’s grin is feral. “Fuck yeah!” She pauses when Lucas latches onto her hand, his fear lapping at their minds. “Blue, they wanted me to cuss people out, I don’t think they’ll be mad I’m cussing.”
“But what if they have the green stuff?” Lucas asks, whimpering. “It hurts!” His fear is real, though Kara gets the sense that his actions and thoughts aren’t exactly aligned.
“Once the kryptonite, uh, green stuff, is fully out of your systems I’ll make it so it can’t hurt you anymore, little ones,” Kara says softly. She picks up the two very surprised toddlers. “From now on, the only green stuff you need to worry about is all the veggies my wife is going to make us eat.” Lena predictably sends her a pinch, and Kara just grins. “Now, I’m gonna clean you two up while yeyu speed showers cuz you’re both more chocolate than child right now.”
Lyra gasps in outrage before actually looking at her brother and then herself. “Fine, uh, who’re you again?”
Kara freezes then. “Um, all the other kids are calling me jeju but I’m still not… sure if you’re gonna want me or yeyu to officially be raising you and your brother…” Astra also pauses at that, staring at the twins with her head tilted as she considers it. Kara can tell her yeyu wants to, is already enamored with the child she’s decided to think of as her daughter’s twin and is quickly warming to the boy as well, but she also doesn’t want to keep them from having siblings, or steal them away from Kara and Lena… and Alex and Sam, once Allo gets her way.
Ruby, however, is already very hungry and decides to speed things along. She pulls both toddlers fully into the hive mind, shocking not only them but also her mum and everyone else, and then shows them Astra’s memory of a baby Kara insisting she had two mommies and a daddy, and when she’s done she gives a flushed Kara and Astra an evil grin.
“Well, Lyra, what do you think?” Ruby asks cheerfully.
Lyra hums. “Okay, so you’re jeju and she’s yeyu.” She nods. “But! Lucas is my brother so you hafta be jeju and yeyu for him too.”
Lucas gasps. “I’m your brother! Who’s Lucas?”
Lyra reaches over and pinches him even as Kara notices Brainy and Jess roll their eyes and Lena and Astra watching the exchange with their brows crinkled. “Red and Blue are what that stupid baldy called us,” she smirks when Lena has to muffle a laugh at a toddler calling Lex stupid, “so we’re Lyra and Lucas now.” When her brother is still staring at her and about to cry she sighs, and Kara idly wonders how long it will take them to realize just how much their being in the hive mind reveals to the others. This is all a show, though she isn’t yet sure of the extent of it. “You’re Lucas, not Blue. I’m Lyra, not Red. We’re still us and we’re still brother and sister. Got it?”
“Uh…” Lucas’s confusion is palpable… or at least he wants it to be. He’s doing a fairly good job at projecting it, though Meri and Enna are both focusing on him a bit more and Kara can feel them resisting the urge to mentally poke him. She can tell Jade and Allo couldn’t care less if he’s putting on an act or not, though they’ve both decided he is. “Then who’s Big Red?”
“She’s jeju,” Lyra drawls. She points to a very amused Astra, who Kara can tell is doing her best not to remember the many times Kara had poorly concealed her intelligence as a baby, her parents not realizing until much later that they perhaps should not have let so many things slide (they realized she was smarter than she let on, just not… how much smarter, is how they’d phrased it when they’d had to face the upper echelon of the Science Guild for Kara’s having accessed volatile materials by solving a theorem she shouldn’t have been able to). “And she’s our yeyu now, yes, yours too, and she’s our mum,” Lyra continues, pointing to Lena. “And we have a lot more siblings now I think.” She glares at Yu. “And one of them owes me candy.”
“Where’d the other Red go?” Lucas asks, looking around, and this time his confusion is genuine. Kara hears his thought, then, that he was too busy eating chocolate to notice where his sister’s lookalike had gone
Allo turns her image inducer on and Lucas squeaks. “That was me, it was fake, go get cleaned up before Super Ruby eats the table.”
Kara takes the two toddlers, Lucas still mildly confused, into her bathroom… via a portal, which confuses both of them now… and cleans them up while Astra takes a quick shower, and within a few minutes they’ve all reconvened in the dining room… Kara and the twins again via portal.
Even as the meal starts, everyone is watching Kara oddly, and eventually she sighs and puts her utensils down. “What?”
“Inah,” Astra says, “why can you not enter the living room, specifically?”
Kara stiffens, and is yet again grateful for the psychic inhibitor hiding her flash of memory. “That’s… where my ship is,” she manages after a long moment. When everyone continues watching her she hunches her shoulders, head ducked. “It was the finish line, and she… destroyed my security system,” Kara whispers, and even as she feels it click for everyone but the new arrivals, an already very messy Lucas clambers into her lap.
“Big Red,” the boy whispers loudly. “Uh, jeju I mean. You okay?” He puts his tiny, food-sticky hands to her cheeks and Kara is pulled from her thoughts, blinking rapidly to see big blue eyes staring at her worriedly. “You havin’ a nightmare?”
“She can’t have a nightmare when she’s awake,” Lyra drawls, and Kara is pretty sure the girl steals a piece of pie from Yu. “Didn’t feel good, whatever it was.”
Kara takes a shuddering breath and hugs the tiny child on her lap, hiding her face against his soft, curly hair and focusing on the heartbeats around her. “Just some bad memories,” she mumbles after awhile, feeling her family’s worry and guilt now. She raises her head and gives them a wan smile. “We’re moving today anyway, and I don’t need to be able to go in there to have my stuff relocate, so it’s fine.”
Lucas plops down in her lap and grabs what’s left of her omelet with both hands, shoving it into his mouth and getting even more egg all over his face and lap. Kara blinks down at him and then turns to look at Lyra, who is also a complete mess.
“Baby girl,” Kara muses, “I think our newest children are feral.”
Lena looks at them both then, frowning slightly. “Lyra, Lucas… do you always eat like this?” They all hear her thought, then, that Ruby was already a fairly neat eater by this age, though she would make messes when she was overly excited, and when Lena remembers one such mess, a tiny Ruby grinning manically and a cake looking kind of like it had actually exploded on her and everything nearby, Ruby flushes and Jade nearly chokes she laughs so hard.
“Kids are s’posed to be messy,” Lyra says, shrugging, and Lucas nods vigorously.
Kara tilts her head. “So are you being messy because you’re a kid, or because you think since you’re a kid you’re supposed to be messy?”
Lyra freezes and Kara feels the girl try to prod her mind before realizing her thoughts aren’t accessible. She scowls. “How come I can’t see in your head right now?”
Kara eats an entire breakfast pizza while deciding how to answer. “I had a very bad month and traveled back in time, and I am not willing to risk my family seeing what could have happened, so my thoughts are going to be hidden for awhile. Now, inah, how far have you gone to hide your intelligence from people?”
She feels Lyra’s fear, then, but Lucas looks up at her with a small smile. “Jeju, are you smart like Red is?”
“Lucas,” Lyra hisses. “I’m a potty mouth and you’re a crybaby, remember?”
Lucas looks at her, nose scrunched. “Yeah, but if she’s like you and there’s someone like me… don’t they already know? They’ve been feelin’ suspicious for awhile now, I think.”
“Jeju made a tiny solar system, with a tiny planet, with unique plant and animal species and technology… when she was two-years-old,” Enna says, scowling at her half-finished apple pie. “If Lyra’s her clone… well, you’re probably smarter than you’re letting on, at least.”
Kara hums, smiling when her yeyu plops the terrified little girl on her lap. “I tried to hide how smart I was for awhile, too, y’know.” She smirks then and gestures towards Meri, Jade, Enna, and Allo. “And now I am raising the consequences of my actions.”
Meri chokes on her water and Jade immediately flicks Kara, Enna just groans and Allo snickers.
Lyra looks between them all suspiciously and prods at the sisters’ minds. “You four are some of the species she made?”
“Our entire planet unknowingly worshiped a toddler as our god, yes,” Meri manages, sipping her drink now. “Though given that you do not have any other minds within yours, and you did not receive fifteen years of education while stuck as an infant, I do not know that you could currently make a planet as jeju did.”
“Involuntary education,” Kara mutters, wiping Lucas’ face off with a cloth now. “Jor-El truly never shut up. I guess it did help prepare me for super hearing, though. I’ll take a stadium of screaming sports fans any day.” She shudders as Astra snorts and Lucas frowns.
“Jeju,” Lucas says, face squished as he tries to talk even as Kara scrubs at a particularly stuck-on piece of food, “how come everyone just ‘membered, uh, Jor-El, and he looks kinda like me?”
“He’s our biological father,” Kara grumbles, unable to contain her spike of hatred. “He’s a fucking asshole, though, so if you wanna have ukr be your dad instead feel free.”
Yu sends both toddlers a quick explanation— World Killers, Kara’s three parents, why she’s blonde and what will happen at the meeting tonight, how they’ll be going to Krypton’s past at some point, and quick biographies of other family members: Alex, Sam, Eliza, Alura, Zor-El, and even Cat and Carter. When they’re done everyone has stopped eating to ogle them.
“What? I keep track!” Yu says, annoyance prickling at Kara’s mind. “Kir ie said I’mma be the worst of all about making our house bigger, so I gotta make sure I know who all’s already in it! I also have a list of who we need to kidnap to the future later, but so far all I know is Alura and Zor-El, and Kelly’s family, but I dunno if I’m involved with that.”
Kara finally finishes cleaning Lucas’ face and hands and quickly wipes off the smudges he had left on her cheeks before tossing the cloth to her yeyu, who starts cleaning a mildly annoyed Lyra’s face. “We’re also gonna kidnap Alex’s dad and my wife’s mum, apparently,” she says idly, picking bits of food out of the child’s hair now. “Unah, I think you need a bath after this. Hm, and I think I saw Kenny and his mom at a game night, and since his body was never found and she moved away shortly thereafter…” She looks up when she feels everyone but the twins’ shock. “Uh, what?”
“Ue,” Jess hisses, “what all did you show her?”
“Again,” Brainy grumbles, “how would I know? We do not even know if we had specific instructions regarding that since jeju restricted the access to the data on the bad ending plan in my ring.”
Lena’s fingers are tapping the table and she narrows her eyes at Jess. “We’re all doing introductions now, full names please, and Jess can begin.”
Jess stiffens. “Mum, we are the same age now, you can’t ground me.”
“Nor can I full-name you as I’d like to,” Lena says smoothly. “Introduce yourself, a stóirín.” She arches a single eyebrow and Jess flushes, and they all sense the woman wondering how the hell Lena is already fine calling her that. “I may not have raised you yet, but you have been my family for over a decade, you know.”
Jess’ eyes widen when Lena sends her so much love and happiness that she can feel it despite her Legion ring’s mental shield, all of them able to sense how relieved Lena is that Jess was safe the past four years, and Jess bows her head for a moment, doing her best not to cry, before looking up again and giving them all an only slightly wobbly smile.
“Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Jess begins, and Kara gets the feeling her daughter from the future has done this many times before. “I am a member of Legion’s First Division, though I will be joining El Corp shortly. My skills include surveillance, weapons assembly, field medicine, and anything Mum needs her assistant to be able to do. I am effectively human but will commence destroying everything I touch soon enough,” she smirks when Ruby flushes, “and while I prefer to be called Jess my full name is Jessica Folehn Kieran-El.”
Kara stiffens as her yeyu squints at Jess, wondering why her middle name is the Kryptonian word for ‘purple’, and even as Brainy shrugs Jess meets Kara’s gaze.
“Fuck,” Kara mutters, and everyone immediately looks at her. When Kara just looks down and starts trying to get Lucas to start eating a bit more neatly, her wife sends her a pinch. She mutters a light Kryptonian curse and otherwise is silent.
“My love,” Lena finally says. “Why are we going to give our daughter that middle name, and why are you feeling… surprised and a bit panicked?”
Kara purses her lips. “It’s… nothing bad, though I do… see why we hafta wait awhile before we can go back to get her…” She looks up, nose scrunched now. “I didn’t just give you Aegis, did I?”
“If it was that simple, jeju, I do not think you would have had to wait a thousand years to kidnap me,” Jess drawls. “And your initial shield would have worked as well.”
“Inah,” Astra says, and Kara flinches. “Is there an actual reason you cannot explain what is happening right now?”
Kara looks helplessly at Jess even as Lucas and Lyra both reach for more food, Lena idly floating them a few plates, the children glancing at one another and eating… well it isn’t exactly neatly but they shouldn’t need a bath after every meal at least.
“You can tell our family,” Jess says softly, hand rubbing idly at her chest. “It will take a thousand years to fully recover from… how many times it saved you, but after that it doesn’t actually take much to help me keep Pestilence contained. Once she’s removed it will be free as well, even as… yours continues to sleep.”
“I’ll introduce myself next then, I guess,” Kara says, one arm wrapped loosely around Lucas as he eats an entire casserole without chewing a single bite. “Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Kara begins quietly, electing to follow the template Jess had. “I’m… Supergirl and a reporter at CatCo, and I’ll be helping with El Corp and probably Legion as well. Uh, my skills include bioengineering, weapons assembly, writing, and combat… my name is Kara Danvers Kieran-El, and… while I used to share my mind with Overseer and now serve as the base of our family’s hive mind, I also… am currently sharing my body…” Kara winces when she feels all but Jess’ shock, and she raises her free hand, everyone stiffening when a small, purple orb of flame appears above her palm.
“Jeju,” Jade says, “what the fuck is that? Can you shoot it like a fireball in all those Earth shows?”
“I… don’t think that would work well, and, uh, I don’t really know?” Kara winces when she feels everyone’s anger then, and her own eyes fall to the wispy flames. “It’s more magic than science, uh… I think it… used to be pretty powerful, and while it can still do impossible things that tends to wear it out quickly so… it’s been asleep since before I landed here, though it… did wake up long enough to help me stay alive after the second fight with Corben…”
Yu makes their alarmed trilling sound. “Where did you find it? Is it alive?”
Kara tilts her head. “That’s… a good question, actually. It talked to me sometimes when I was a kid but I never checked…” She glances at Jess, who just shrugs, and after making sure Lucas is balanced she raises her other hand, bracelet now near the flickering fire. “With flame of Rao, for life we seek, crown this soul, in fire’s wreath.” A small red flame slips out of her wedding bracelet and races to the purple flame, and to Kara’s confusion it… twirls around it, and the tips of the purple flame begin to grow, dancing with it, and they all just sit and watch in shocked silence as the fires… play together?
“That… is not something I have ever heard of,” Astra finally says, the tiny red flame still spinning to and fro with the much larger purple one.
Kara continues to watch them, brow crinkled. “If this flame belongs to Rao… then is the purple flame… also a god?”
Both flames freeze at that, and a second later the red one recedes back into Kara’s bracelet and the purple one vanishes back into her body.
“I vote we take that as a yes,” Nia chirps, and when everyone glares at her, even the toddlers, she shrugs. “Yes, I already saw all this happen, which is why I know we should move onto ice cream while we continue introductions so Kara can go use the sun bed at the DEO and explain all the people I dropped off and also why she’s so late. I already texted Alex to let her know so she wouldn’t break your door down, you’re welcome.”
“Big Red, I mean jeju,” Lucas whispers. “How come that lady knew what would happen?”
“She’ll tell you in her introduction, cuz she’s going next now,” Kara drawls. “And as for where I found my… apparently divine friend…” She hops up and starts getting the ice cream ready, Lucas happily hanging over her shoulder and Brainy and Jess helping her scoop it all into bowls, Allo and the twins’ portions nearly double everyone else’s. “Um, yeyu,” Kara finally says, handing her very suspicious mom a bowl of ice cream, “uh, so I didn’t… know it was a god, or that it could talk at first, um… and it’s kind of ukr’s fault that it revealed itself to me cuz he scared it, and I didn’t even know how until you told me…”
Astra groans and doesn’t even object when Lyra steals a spoonful of her ice cream despite Nia already placing a very full bowl in front of her. “It was in the medallion you found in that creature’s stomach,” Astra finally mutters. “It must have had a similar function to Kryptonian wedding bracelets.” She blows out a breath and moves her bowl out of Lyra’s reach, ignoring the girl’s immediate pout. “Though why it can speak and even… save your life…”
“Hm, it says jeju found the last one,” Jess says, eating her own ice cream now. “All the other medallions had been destroyed, and since they were so far from their star the energy went to a closer spot… even though it was in a creature’s stomach.”
Kara hums around the delicious chocolate melting in her mouth. “My friend is officially the first being I kidnapped… uh, I’m not counting Overseer since that was involuntary and I still have no clue where she went…” She looks over and sees that Lena, Meri, and Enna haven’t even touched their ice cream, still reeling from the new information, and then glances down to see Lucas already has it all over his face and shirt. Lyra, at least, only has it on her face. “Little ones, is this just habit now? It’s fine, but… you’re wasting quite a lot of ice cream, and I don’t think you can do what Allo did and lick it off your own faces.” She wraps both arms around Lucas when he tries to lunge at his sister. “Nor will I allow you to lick it off each other’s faces… Nia, introduce yourself before my newest children turn into puppies, please.”
Nia laughs but obliges. “I’m Dreamer and also a reporter at CatCo, and based on what Kara said I will have something to do with Legion in a thousand years at least… uh, my skills are writing, sleuthing, combat, and since I’m half-Naltorian, dreaming the future.” She winks at Lucas when he’s so surprised he lets his ice cream fall off his spoon and plop back into the bowl. “My name’s Nia Nal, and your little brother from the future has yet to even propose so don’t you kiddos dare start calling me your little sister— Aunt Nia will do, thank you.”
Brainy flushes, Jess and Jack both cackle and Kara suddenly realizes why her daughter from the future gets along so well with the nanobot man, and Jade boos and immediately calls Nia ‘kir ie’… and then fails to save her ice cream, Nia stealing an enormous scoop.
“That’s cheating,” Jade grumbles, all of them seeing Nia’s very smug thought that she’d seen all of that coming. Jade sighs. “Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium, I’m… not in Legion, but I’m our kir ie’s bodyguard, uh, at least until she can use her powers, and I have no clue what I’ll be doing after that. I’m good at stealth and beating people up, and I can set stuff on fire by ‘glaring’ at it…” She sighs when Kara mentally pokes her. “Fine, and I am starting to enjoy cooking, but I will never admit that again. My sisters and I are all from the tiny planet jeju made. Allo effectively renamed us all so just call me Jade, but technically my name is Jaydarathacatalithiuminus Danvers Kieran-El.”
Kara blinks and mentally repeats the girl’s full name a few dozen times to commit it to memory, only just now realizing she’d never even heard it before despite knowing full well the people on her tiny planet were prone to single, very long names. Everyone looks at her, their confusion prickling at her mind, and she raises both hands in surrender. “Look, I designed their initial biology and tech, they were responsible for their culture. Also, that’s shorter than I would have expected.”
Jade and Meri both send everyone a flick and Jade barely manages to keep Lyra from stealing her entire bowl of ice cream, Allo and the twins already having finished their extra large helpings. When all three children start eyeing everyone else’s bowls Lena sighs and uses her powers to give them each another half bowl, and tops off everyone else’s as well.
“These introductions are going to take awhile,” Lena mumbles, flushing when Kara grins at her. She sighs. “I suppose I’ll go next. Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium, ah, I’m currently creating El Corp with Jess and Jade’s help— and Kara and I will be dragging all of you into things as well somehow, you have been warned,” Lena looks at them all with narrowed eyes and smirks when even the toddlers decide they’re better off giving up now, “and we’ll be creating Legion as well once the… current threat to the world is handled. My skills are predominantly focused on designing and building, ah, anything I find interesting or useful, though the one time I got Sam to spar with me I did knock her on her ass despite all her posturing.” Lena smirks and shows them all her memory of it, and Ruby laughs just as hard as she had back then and Kara snickers when she feels her yeyu resolving to start training Sam as well as everyone else to fight. “I am the creator of this hive mind and have… a variety of psychic powers I gave myself and still have yet to fully explore.” Lena hums. “It isn’t exactly a skill but I’m already filthy rich and that will exponentially increase once we get Lex and Lillian declared dead and I liquidate LuthorCorp. I’m Lena Danvers Kieran-El, and everyone here aside from Kara, yeyu, Jack, and Nia had best call me ‘Mum’.”
Lena narrows her eyes at Lucas and Lyra and they both squeak and nod, then pout when they see Lena’s thought that she’s going to be working very hard to get them to eat more vegetables considering the only non-candy food they ate without making a face was the chocolate chip pancakes Allo made for them. Next she turns to Jess and Brainy, eyebrows raised expectantly, and Kara can feel her wife’s curl of guilt, then, at having sent not one but two children back to the past, Lena now remembering how Brainy had reacted upon learning the person who’d been so injured was Kara’s wife as well as what Jess had said about not wanting to have to come back to this time period.
“Understood, Mum,” Brainy chirps, and when he flicks Jess she mumbles it as well, flushing even though they can all feel her happiness at finally getting to say it again. Jack doesn’t even tease her, just gives her a brilliant smile, one hand on her knee and his thumb rubbing soothing patterns there, and while Kara decides he does at least treat her daughter who is now older than her well, she also considers changing the setting on her earrings so she doesn’t have to know all the sappy thoughts the man is currently thinking, and she sends her yeyu a mumbled apology mentally, because she already finds this much PDA annoying and she hasn’t even raised Jess yet.
Astra shakes her head, and Lena heard it all and can’t help but remember when Kara had informed Brainy they would all experience it if he kissed Nia without fair warning after she entered the hive mind, and then she and Kara are both flushing, Brainy is hiding his face, Ruby laughs so hard she breaks her chair, and Jade somehow falls to the floor while cackling, already promising to remind Ruby’s moms if Ruby doesn’t.
Brainy mutters one of the less mild Kryptonian curses and elects to go next, and Kara can tell he’s hoping it will make his big sisters who are currently younger than him laugh quieter at least. “Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium, I am a member of the First Division of Legion, I currently work at the DEO, and I would like to assist with El Corp when I am able.” He glances at Lena and smiles when she nods. “Thank you, Mum. Ah, most of my skills lie in different kinds of lab work— I primarily make weapons and surveillance equipment… sorry uzheiu… though I dabble with bioengineering as well, and you all insisted on training me in combat…” He narrows his eyes when Kara muffles a laugh. “Mm, which I unfortunately showed jeju, noted. I can efficiently neutralize most threats, though I maintain that even Kryptonians without their powers and all of my parents and grandparents should never be considered a mere threat.” He huffs and snatches his ice cream before Yu can steal another bite. “Also, it is unfair that kir aoe bullied me when I was a child and now continues to bully me when they are a child.”
Jess flicks him. “They haven’t even learned how to fly yet, ue, you could win if you played dirty enough.” She pauses when Jade outright cackles, everyone else so surprised Kara is pretty sure Jess feels it even with her Legion ring’s shield. “Again, you all were in our lives an inordinate amount, and that includes wai ie Jade, so shut it.”
Jack is utterly delighted by all of this and presses a quick kiss to Jess’ cheek, and then sticks his tongue out when Jade gags and Kara makes a face. “I believe that my being affianced to Jess means I am joining your lovely little cult, family, whatever you want to call it,” he says, waving his hand and smirking when Lena sends him a pinch. “So, ahem, ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” he pops up and bows dramatically, grinning when Jess pinches him and pulls him back into his seat. “I am a very fancy nanobot man who does Lena’s bidding, and I will be working at El Corp because who else would hire a dead man?” He winces when Jess pinches him harder. “Not that I’ll stay dead, love, I promise. My skills are surveillance, whatever the hell Kara’s bots can do— I am keeping them, they are my babies now, thank you— and engineering. Uh…” He glances at Jess. “I get the feeling you’re keeping your last name, love, and Jack Spheer is technically dead and should probably stay that way, so…”
Jess grabs his hand and entwines their fingers. “You can be Jack Spheer Kieran-El, or Jack Folehn Kieran-El, or simply omit the middle name or have any other combination.” She grins. “Most people either keep their old last name as a middle name or choose one they feel is representative of them, either in Kryptonian or their mother tongue.”
“I’ll ponder it a bit, then,” Jack decides, gazing at Jess in a way that both makes Kara happy and disgusts her, and… maybe she should be glad her yeyu doesn’t want anything to do with Cat yet, cuz she hasn’t even known Jack and Jess that long and already feels like she’s watching Alex and Sam. “For now, loves, I’m simply Jack, or Uncle Jack if you’d be so kind.” He sighs when Astra smirks. “Again, Kara’s very scary mother, I already fear you, there is no need to mess with me further. I was of course talking to Ruby and the other children… who are not adults… maturity-wise… Lena, love, your family is getting complicated. We’d best start making you a family tree to keep track of it all soon.”
“I guess you can be my uncle,” Allo decides, and her sisters groan. She happily ignores them. “I’m next! Ehrosh :bem, zury… zrhythrevium! I have no jobs, I wanna go to school with Super Ruby once she can go back to school, and then we can go to Mum and jeju’s schools, umm, I’m good at eating yummy foods and being invisible and pretending to be Super Ruby!” She pauses. “And at keeping secrets but only certain ones.” She smirks when Enna and Meri both send her a flick. “Also, I have no clue what my name is aside from Allo Danvers Kieran-El!”
Meri makes a small, sad sound. “Allocaristhystremelenah,” she says softly.
“Uhh yeah I still can’t say that,” Allo says shamelessly even as Kara and the others do their best to memorize the name.
Meri runs her hand through Allo’s feather-hair, her sorrow rippling through them all now. “Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Meri begins quietly. “I am Miss Grant’s assistant at CatCo, my skills are… mostly geared towards things I would rather not do, so I will be focusing on learning new ones. I can… cut through most things with anything even slightly sharp, though I don’t know the extent of it. I am Merilliafarisanastrali Danvers Kieran-El.”
Kara… is beginning to sense a pattern in these names, and she is glad for a new reason that no one can read her thoughts right now.
“Um, ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Enna begins, one hand pressed nervously to her stomach and clutching at the soft pajama top she’s wearing. “I… would also like to work at El Corp, um, I like learning from Mum and am hoping to join her dream lessons with jeju once they start those again, uh… I’m good at engineering and cooking, and I haven’t manifested my ability yet…” She freezes and looks at Kara when she makes a small, surprised sound. “Jeju?”
“Uh, you can soon, I think,” Kara mumbles. “You… manifested one a month from now, uh, the day I came back…”
“Do not say what it was,” Brainy says before Enna can even ask. “They can choose whatever they want, to an extent, and we likely needed her to have a certain ability then. There is no need to influence it in this time line.”
Jess snorts. “In other words, wai ie Enna, be careful what you wish for for awhile.”
“Noted,” Enna whispers. “Uh, my name is Ennarelistantikarasathyl Danvers Kieran-El.”
Kara bites her lip and elects to not ask why the children from her tiny planet have names she recognizes within their own— Cat, Lena, Astra, and now hers as well. Nope nope nope, no prodding at the future, that thought crime will stay unknown. Though Lena and Allo are both giving her funny looks now.
“Bad jeju,” Allo whispers. “Shh.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Kara mutters. “We have established I will not mess with the future. Ruby, you’re up.”
“That’s not suspicious at all,” Ruby drawls, sending Allo and Kara mental pinches. “Ehrosh :bem zrhythrevium, I am currently stuck taking classes half my parents think are stupid until they get a school up and running, and I have no clue what I’ll be doing after that. I am good at hoarding secrets and breaking things and eating mountains of food.” Ruby sighs and sounds so very tired. “My name’s Ruby Arias-Danvers, but since my first name is apparently blasphemy and uzheiu is Mom’s mom we’ll see how long that lasts.”
Jess and Brainy both muffle a laugh and when everyone looks at them Jess shrugs. “You’ll be keeping two of those names at least, wai ie Ruby.”
Ruby is very pleased with this and begins scheming with Allo, and Yu hops up and runs over to Astra. “Captain uzheiu, I think the twins are gonna go last since they’ve been poking us mentally the whole time and I don’t wanna go til you do!”
Lyra and Lucas both flush at that, and Kara hears their thoughts— they decided to use the hive mind and everyone’s introductions to get a sense of if the strangers suddenly surrounding them are trustworthy or simply a new threat. Kara starts petting Lucas’ hair and the boy squeaks in surprise.
Astra wraps one arm securely around Lyra, who is currently finishing off Astra’s bowl of ice cream, and runs her free hand over Yu’s head before beginning to card her hand through the little girl’s hair. “Alright, wehnah, but I am no longer your captain— you do not need to continue to defer to me.”
Yu pouts. “You were a very good captain, and you’re gonna lead Legion from what Mum and jeju said, and I wanna join Legion when I… am old enough.” They frown down at themself. “Kir ie, kir ue, am I… gonna get to join Legion?”
“Wai aoe,” Jess drawls, “how exactly do you think you’re gonna be the worst of all if you don’t even have access to a ship?”
Yu looks at her with wide eyes and then bounces slightly. “Good! Then Captain uzheiu is gonna be my captain again, so I can keep calling her that!”
Kara watches her son from the future meet her mom’s eyes then. “Wai aoe Yu will never stop calling you ‘Captain uzheiu’, so I suggest you give up now. Do not forget that jeju raised them, even if it was initially only recordings of her.”
Astra sighs and Yu makes their happy, high-pitched noise, and Kara looks down when Lyra snickers and sees Lucas eating the last of her ice cream, which she’d forgotten about after learning her friend is not only a god of some sort but also will be sleeping another thousand years. Kara mutters a light curse and senses when Lyra and Lucas both memorize it easily.
“Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Astra begins, eyes flitting person to person and her happiness at the family her daughter has created growing and making Kara flush. “I will be helping with Legion…” She narrows her eyes when Jess and Brainy both quietly mutter something. “Alright, I will be the main commander of Legion for entirely too long if you both are still calling me that,” she drawls. “Most of my skills are not suitable for children’s ears, so I will simply say that I am well-versed in combat, strategy, and surveillance, and have survived more situations than most believe I should have. I am Astra Danvers Kieran-El, and if anyone hurts any of you I will ensure they regret it.” Her smile then puts Kara and Sam’s to shame, and Lyra of course is gazing up at her with narrowed eyes and already trying to mimic it.
“Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Yu chirps. “I’m gonna be stuck as a kid for awhile but I think Mum will still let me help out in labs so I‘ll probably be at El Corp sometimes. Uh, I’m good at shapeshifting and mimicking others,” they wince when everyone feels Astra and Kara’s annoyance. “I do have to stay close to jeju or wherever she lives for now cuz time wraiths are after me, and Captain uzheiu said I’m smart and kir ie said I’ll help grow our house a lot, so… I’m Yu Danvers Kieran-El, and I’mma be the worst of all,” the child finishes proudly, and Ruby, Allo and Jade applaud them.
Lucas jumps when Lyra mentally pokes him. “Umm I dunno, uh…” He looks around and then sighs. “Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Lucas says softly, the Kryptonian already sounding natural on his tongue. “I am not as smart as my sister but I usually understood what the scientists were trying to do better than they did, I think. I am very good at pretending to be a crybaby and I am… actually clingy, I will admit.” He flushes when he feels everyone’s shock at how differently he’s talking now. “My sister and I decided it was safer to be as ‘human’ as possible, and human children cry and fuss and make messes, at least based on what the adult humans said.” Lucas pauses, looking down at his food-stained shirt. “Though much like Ruby I do seem to get… excited over certain foods, sorry jeju.” He glances up at her, cheeks flushed red. “Um, I suppose I am Lucas Kieran-El now…”
Kara hums and drops a kiss to the small boy’s forehead, and he squeaks in surprise and places both hands there.
“What was that?” Lucas asks.
“A physical expression of affection,” Kara says, grinning slightly. “I thought it was weird when my parents did it at first too but now I quite like it. Welcome to the family, Lucas Kieran-El. We can figure out a middle name for you later if you want, and ‘Danvers’ is of course also an option.”
“Okay,” Lucas whispers. He huddles closer to Kara and peers at Astra and Lena then, wary. “And Lyra and I… can both call you yeyu and Mum?” When they nod, he turns to the others. “And you all are… our siblings now as well?”
“Damn straight,” Ruby says. “Though I think you’re smarter than the dude they cloned you from.”
Kara sniffs. “Lucas can already ‘super think’ and has been able to for all of his development, and while I can attest that a madman’s lab is not a good environment for small children, he grew up surrounded by science and with Lyra as a sister, so of course he’s smarter than Clark.”
“Ehrosh :bem, zrhythrevium,” Lyra says then, pronunciation already perfect. “I…” She nibbles her lip a moment and glances at Kara before sighing. “I dunno if I could make a planet but I’m smarter than that stupid baldy was, and I think I’d… like learning about biology and stuff. I also wanna learn how to use all my powers so I don’t end up stuck in a lab again.” She glowers at the table and comes very close to zapping it before Astra slips a hand over her eyes, Lena flooding the child with calm. Lyra huffs and tugs Astra’s hand down, and to everyone’s surprise she continues holding it after, her own tiny hands trembling slightly. “I don’t wanna be helpless ever again,” Lyra whispers, looking at Lucas now. “I wanna protect myself and my brother, so I’m Lyra Kieran-El, and you all are gonna teach me how to be strong.”
Kara can sense everyone’s slight confusion over Lyra still speaking the same, and can’t help her grin. “Speaking more informally really pisses off certain types. There’s a reason I changed how I spoke when I brainwashed myself the first time.” She smirks when she senses her yeyu’s surprise and amusement, Lena shaking her head at them both despite her own grin and everyone else making a mental note to start paying attention to their enemies’ pet peeves.
“Welcome to the family, Lyra Kieran-El,” Astra says then, and when Lyra looks up at her in surprise, Astra kisses her forehead as Kara had Lucas’. “We shall teach you both all you wish to know, little ones.” She raises one hand and begins carding it through the girl’s tangled brown hair. “Though first, inah, unah, I will be giving you both a bath— yes, inahmin, you are capable of doing so as well, but I suggest waiting until we have taught them to control their strength.” She gives Lena a small smile and nods to the bent silverware the twins had used, and the cracks radiating from the table in front of the places they’d sat, both of their powers rapidly returning, and Kara feels her wife’s mild annoyance fade to embarrassment and gratitude. “Meanwhile, Kara will be going to sunbathe at the DEO, because even though she has yet to join the hive mind I can feel my other inahmin’s worry already, despite the text Nia sent.”
Kara squeaks and jumps to her feet, Lucas still snuggled in her arms. “Alex is gonna kill me,” she mutters, running a hand through her hair now. “Uh, real quick, kiddos— you both are of course invited to the meeting tonight, but before it begins we need to deal with the World Killers, so it’d be good if you stayed inside with Clark and Lois so Reign doesn’t know any other Kryptonians are around.”
“Do we get bribes?” Lucas asks hopefully.
Kara presses a kiss to his sticky cheek. “Plenty of bribes, yes, but if you need a bath after I will be giving you one with super speed, deal?”
“Deal,” Lyra and Lucas chorus.
“Jeju, I wanna stay with them and get bribes too,” Allo whines.
Kara tilts her head, considering, even as she hands Lucas off to Astra. “That’s fine. The main people I need present aside from the World Killers’ hosts are my wife, yeyu, Jack, Brainy, Nia, Ruby, Alex, and Eliza.” She pauses when she feels everyone’s shock that she wants Ruby present. “I understand them better now, and I’ll be showing my :zhao how to separate the… intelligence of the artificial souls from the orders programmed into them by using her powers to create a… replica of Aegis, kinda. Ruby and I will of course be ready to flee if need be, but…” She sighs, crossing her arms over her stomach. “They need to see their families,” Kara says quietly. “Reign and Purity love Sam and Kelly and their families, and I need them to cooperate so I can save them too.” She gives Jess a wan smile. “I was worried about wrangling Pestilence but Folehn should protect you, inah.”
“I know, jeju,” Jess drawls, standing and beginning to gather the empty bowls. “Now go see Ma before she storms in here with Mom and they see Lyra— even Reign can’t persuade herself you aren’t the ‘dangerous Kara Zor-El’ if your clone is a natural brunette.”
Kara looks at Lyra with wide eyes. “Kir chahv, if you have to leave for any reason or Sam is coming, hide your hair, and when we have lunch dessert with them I will of course bring you some but for today at least you are not invited.”
“I don’t care as long as I get sweets,” Lyra says. “I don’t exactly wanna hang out with humans, jeju.” She turns and frowns at Lena. “No offense, Mum, and… Uncle Jack.”
Jack gives a delighted gasp and presses one hand over his heart even as he starts helping Jess clean up.
“None taken,” Lena says, smirking when Kara flushes, already having heard her wife’s thought. “Kara was a xenophobe at your age too, a stóirín, we’ll help you grow out of it.”
“Okay khap ukiem rrip, ehrosh :bem,” Kara says quickly before portaling to the rooftop and heading to the DEO. She nearly flies into a billboard when she hears Lucas calmly asking his new yeyu what his new jeju just said, Kara only then realizing she’d left out a key phrase when she’d told the children translations and that they’d never explained ‘ehrosh :bem’ either. She mutters a curse and then flushes even redder when Lyra parrots it perfectly and requests a translation for it as well, Lena mumbling that teaching the children curses felt less like bad parenting when they had access to Kara’s thoughts and understood the meaning without having to be overtly told, but Astra just laughs and heads for Kara and her wife’s bathroom, Lucas in one arm and Lyra in the other, both toddlers clinging to her and eagerly listening to her explanations.