Reincarnated as Supergirl (YJ / DC)

Kara Zor-El was having a really bad day, which was great since, last she remembered, she had been poisoned by kryptonite radiation and her body had started to cannibalize itself.

 

Mind you, she was still in a terrifying amount of pain and certain she would die alone, her entire race killed after her planet had exploded, but she was alive, she was still here.

 

So, in hindsight, the day being anything was a pleasant surprise.

 

She wondered if her cousin had made it, his ship had left Krypton earlier than hers and she was certain she could have escaped had it not been for the kryptonite shard that hit her vehicle just as it was about to leave the Rao system.

 

She was certain he had escaped. It was just too painful to think otherwise.

 

Then her mind started to get foggy and she passed out once again.

 

"It's a Kryptoan body, of course it`s fucking valuable." Said a harsh insectoid voice.

 

Waking up to hear someone discussing the value of your still living body was not the most pleasant of experiences but, since she hadn't been certain she would wake up at all, it was not the worst that could happen. By Rao, they had even taken the kryptonite meteorite away from her.

 

“It’s Kryptonian, fucking idiot.” Said a second, kryptonian voice and Kara felt herself being moved. “What kinda freak would ever want a body anyway?”

 

“I got contacts man. Those Psion freaks pay well for this kinda crap. Fuck, after that explosion this gotta be the last Kryptonian they ever see, it’s gotta be valuable.”

 

"Sold a lot of bodies, did you?" asked the second voice in amusement. “Fine, put it on ice so it doesn’t stink up the ship and get back here fast, this beauty ain’t scrapping itself. I dunno how much we can get for the body, but krypto tech is fucking expensive.”

 

Kara felt herself being dragged, but she couldn't move a muscle. Her mind screamed at her to get up, to struggle, to activate the ship’s defenses and resist it, but she couldn’t even open her eyes.

 

Finally, the pain was too much and too exhausting, she stopped even trying to struggle and felt the insect grabbing her body. A minute later, it just threw her into the freezer, the impact sent a new jolt of pain through her body, her mind went blank and she passed out again.

 

"Entry number five, day 102, year 12.528. Five days since acquiring the subject. Subject still showing signs of cellular regeneration despite having been deceased for at least six star rotations.” Said a cold and calculating voice as Kara woke up to the feeling of something digging into her right arm. “It seems the specimen has similar traits to Tamaraneans, at least in the way it absorbs solar radiation."

 

“Still no signs of brain activity on the monitors, and the retrieved samples continue showing signs of cellular division even after separation from the body.” A second voice answered.

 

Kara heard something moving inside her chest, but she was completely unable to feel it. In fact, she was unable to feel anything on her body.

 

“Any signs of full body regeneration?”

 

“Negative. The subject’s cells are capable of limited regeneration, but it requires elevated levels of sunlight radiation with a high energy output.”

 

“A pity, I had hoped the subject’s biology was similar to a Czarnian, but it seems it has truly expired.” 

 

Kara was feeling numb, despite the horror of having some bastard scientist playing around inside her body, she was utterly paralyzed, unable to even move a finger.

 

Thankfully, she was still unable to feel anything and Kara barely registered as they bombarded her body with synthetic solar radiation. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she started to feel a tingling sensation on her skin.

 

“Hmmm, leave its heart in place, but retrieve the remaining organs and insert it into one of the Tamaranean solar chambers for further observation.” The first voice said and seemed to step away from her. “If it’s capable of some regeneration, we may be able to study it for much longer.”

 

Unable to feel anything, Kara heard one of the scientists carrying her away from the experimental room. Soon, they put her inside a tank filled with some liquid and lifted her into a standing position.

 

"The subject really shares many characteristics with Tamaraneans, I wonder if they had interbreed in the past?" Wondered one of the scientists as he locked her body in place.

 

Somehow, she was able to feel the invigorating sunlight hitting her naked and heavily damaged body. It felt absolutely divine, to the point that she lost several hours just basking in the sensation of the sun hitting every piece of her body, knitting her flesh closed and, together with the fluid around her, starting to regenerate the damage done by starvation, exposition to kryptonite and a vivisection.

 

Then the light started healing her damaged nerves and she started to wish she had died with Krypton. The pain was unbearable and she couldn't even scream. It must have lasted centuries, getting worse and worse as her nerves became better and better.

 

Thank Rao her body could still shut down and return to hibernation.

 

“Entry number seven, day 107, year 12.528. Ten days since acquiring the subject.” Kara woke up with a startle, she was actually able to feel as the knife dug into her chest and the Psion pried her ribcage open. She wanted to scream, to shout, to fight back, but her body continued to refuse her. “Hmm, it seems like the subject will need at least a week to fully regenerate its organs. Make sure to harvest them every time its ready.”

 

Kara wanted to cry when she felt the devastating pain caused by exposure to kryptonite, she could feel her veins throbbing and her muscles spasming even as her body didn’t move.

 

“Intriguing. The body quickly deteriorates once exposed to the exotic radiation.” Kara felt the scientist cutting into her flesh. “Skin resistance is almost immediately neutralized once exposed.”

 

“I wonder... does the exposure also cause pain?” A second voice said in a tone of conversation. “Would proximity or quantity of radioactive material increase the pain? A true pity we can’t find out.”

 

Suddenly, the pain proved to be too much and Kara just passed out.

 

Next time she woke up, Kara was resting inside the healing pod, her body being constantly bombarded with sunlight radiation. She still couldn’t feel her body or even open her eyes, but she swore she could see a petite woman looking at her from behind the glass of her pod.

 

A spike of pain went through her mind and she felt her consciousness becoming muddy, her life flashed through her mind and she asked herself, was it the end?

 

She remembered her uncle Jor-El presenting her with his own son Kal-El, the new head of house El. The baby had been so small, so fragile, not at all like those released from the birthing matrix. Kara remembered his little hand squeezing her finger as she wondered how she could take care of him by herself.

 

She remembered the first time she had built something worthy of House El. It had been a simple gravity stabilizer that used 1.2% less energy than the average model while using the same materials. Zor-El had been so proud of her, already innovating before ever completing her apprenticeship.

 

She remembered meeting her parents for the first time, the way her mother had actually hugged her, the way her father had nodded his approval with a glint in his eye as she stepped out of the birthing matrix without stumbling.

 

Then she remembered dying, she remembered the hours spent on a hospital bed as her organs failed her after getting hit with a truck. The memories came back to her with the same force as the truck.

 

Years of life on Earth, a different family, different age, and different gender even. She remembered being Jace Brown, a college graduate on his first job, reading about places like DC, Marvel and thousands of other stories. The memories overwhelmed her mind and she passed out.

 

“Entry number twelve, day 124, year 12.528. Twenty seven days since acquiring the subject.” Jace woke up to a new voice. A different Psion scientist was looking at his body. He felt the sharp pain of Kryptonite exposition hit him before a needle pierced his neck. “Subject’s resistance continues to increase with solar radiation, exposure to material 12A233 is now required to operate on the subject. Starting procedure nine.”

 

Jace felt utterly lost. No, he wasn’t really Jace anymore was he? His name was Kara now, Kara Zor-El. He/She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, was she really in DC right now? Reborn as Superman’s cousin and being experimented on by Psions?

 

For a second, Kara wasn’t certain which one was the real her. Was she Jace having a hallucination on his deathbed on Earth or was she Kara doing the same inside a Psion vessel?

 

Then she felt something boiling hot enter her body, filling her veins with head and pain, her mind screamed and rebelled, and such questions lost all importance. When the pain became too much, she passed out.

 

“Entry number fifteen, day 132, year 12.528. Thirty five days since acquiring the subject.” Kara heard the Lizardman say as a new round of experiments started.

 

She had decided she preferred to be called Kara, she had been a man before, but she had lived sixteen years as a Kryptonian woman and her memories as Kara were also more recent, closer to her mind.

 

With how much pain she was usually in, Kara was convinced this wasn’t some kind of dream or hallucination, she was also pretty sure that both sets of memories were true. At least they felt like it.

 

She had been Jace Brown, She had been born a male and lived for 26 years on Earth, had parents and friends, but she was Kara, and her memories as a Kryptonian were more vivid.

 

Knowing that she’d never see her human parents again hurt but, to her, it had been sixteen years and she had become numb to it. The loss of Krypton was far more painful.

 

She wondered if this was how an amnesiac would feel if he recovered his memories after years. Her memories as Jace were still important, they still affected her, but she was Kara now.

 

The usual pain of kryptonite radiation cut her musings short. “Hmm… it seems like the time needed to fully regenerate its organs has increased.” The Psion said with some disappointment in his voice.

 

Kara couldn’t wait for her body to fully recover, she dreamed of finally opening her eyes and blasting the cursed lizard with her heat vision reducing him to ash. Alas, no matter how much she struggled, it was not to be.

 

“Entry number twenty, day 202, year 12.528. One hundred and five days since acquiring the subject.” Kara woke up to the pain of Kryptonite exposure. Hearing the date, she couldn’t help but become worried. It seems like she hadn’t woken up for months now. “Samples of the subject have finally started deteriorating. The master has ordered minimal exposure to material 12A233 and for one of the subject’s extremities to be amputated for further testing.”

 

Kara heard the lizard picking up a saw and felt its teeth biting into her leg but, at this point, she had gotten so used to pain the amputation felt almost relaxing. No, there was no use lying to herself, the pain was still excruciating, but it was far better than the times they opened her chest.

 

In the end, they finished the procedure far sooner than expected and put her body back into the solar chamber. The solar radiation quickly dulled the pain and she felt her mind relax.

 

“Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. Three hundred and fifty seven days since acquiring the subject.” Kara recognized the Psion’s voice as coming from the first one to have operated on her body, but her mind struggled to even wake her up. “I have finally discovered the reason the subject’s regeneration continues to deteriorate. It seems that constant exposure to material 12A233 has permanently damaged some of the subject’s cells and repeated experimentation has overcome its recovery.”

 

Not for the first time, Kara cursed the Psions in her mind. Gathering her strength, she made another effort to wake up, praying to God, to Rao, to The Presence for strength, it was useless. She couldn’t move.

 

“Thankfully, the subject still shows promise as its body seems to be able to assimilate most forms of radiation. Starting procedure.” The cursed Psion said, Kara felt as her chest was cut open again and the lizard cut off one of her lungs, a second set of hands pried open her eyelid, but she still couldn’t see anything as they cut off her eye. “Transplant 17 is a failure, no surprise there. Transplanting the new organ and closing up the subject.”

 

“Master, should I take it back?”

 

“Yes, the subject is too valuable to continue letting others experiment on it, leave it in the solar chamber until I come to check up on it again.”

 

Kara woke up two more times while in the solar chamber. Her body no longer seemed to recover with sunlight. She also felt tired of fighting, of trying to recover, of holding on and hoping for something that was never going to happen.

 

She wanted it to end.

 

“Entry number thirty eight, day 92, year 12.529. One thousand and twenty three days since acquiring the subject.”  Kara cursed her luck, for a while now she had hoped to never wake up again, but it seems like she was still alive. “One hundred and ninety three days after transplant nineteen, the subject continues to show no signs of rejection. I have decided to halt all experimentation on the subject until the results of the latest experimentation are clear, transplant nineteen is just too important.”

 

For a brief moment, Kara tried to gather the will to care about what the Psion was talking about, but she couldn’t manage it.

 

“I have also acquired two new Tamaranean subjects that are far more interesting.” The Psion paused as if in thought, then laughed. “I had almost forgotten how experimenting on live subjects felt. While Tamaraneans are a known species, my work with the Kryptonian subject has given me new ideas and it is far more satisfying when they can actually struggle.”

 

Kara felt equal parts angry and terrified when she woke up inside the pod. On one hand, it meant that she wasn't going to be subjected to a new set of experimentations and, on the other, that she was still alive.

 

Suddenly, she started hearing the blaring sound of sirens all over the facility, Kara’s remaining eye opened wide at the realization the damn Psions were having problems and she felt a smile on her face.

 

The harsh glare from the artificial sunlight hit her face, causing her to frown. Wait, she opened her eye! Her body responded!

 

Immediately, Kara started struggling with everything she had. At first only her toes moved, then her fingers and then her entire body started recovering, her limbs started tingling and she felt her body come fully under her control for the first time since leaving Krypton.

 

She wanted nothing more than to smash her way out of the chamber and run, escape, scream, do… anything. Still, she waited, absorbing more and more sunlight and gathering her strength. She’d only have one chance to escape, she couldn’t waste it.

 

Looking all over the room, Kara saw the plain white walls of the ship, with no details, wires or even devices. The sunlight projector looked like a two square blocks of white metal sprouting from the floor and connected by a large gray gear. Simple, uninteresting and cheap.

 

At this point, Kara didn’t really care if she died in the attempt, but she absolutely refused to be recaptured, or to die without taking as many of the damn lizards as she could with her.

 

Staying still inside her pod as she heard the commotions around her was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but she spent the time familiarizing herself with what remained of her body.

 

She knew she must have been inside the healing tank for a long time in order to have recovered so much, but she didn’t know how much of her organs were whole at this point. Her left eye was still missing and she couldn’t feel her left leg, clearly, she wasn’t in perfect condition.

 

When Kara heard the sounds of battle approaching her, she knew it was time. She had never killed anyone before, neither Kara nor Jace had even been in such dire situations, but she didn't think she would have any problems splattering a few Psions around the walls.

 

In her previous life, Kara had always felt that most heroes caused a lot of trouble for themselves by sparing their enemies. Kara refused to make the same mistakes, not now.

 

Gathering her will, Kara started experimenting. It took her a few minutes to get control of her flight ability, when she was confident enough, she willed herself out of the tank, breaking through the glass without any effort.

 

Finally, she took a deep breath of air after what must have been years. Kara couldn’t help herself, she screamed.

 

The sensations hit her like a ton of bricks, for the first time in years, she felt the air hitting her skin, she smelt the scent of cleaning products and the dusty must of Psions.

 

The wind hit her and Kara’s body registered the cold, even if it didn’t bother her. She laughed, she laughed long and hard despite the situation.

 

For years now Kara had been locked into a Kryptonian healing coma, barely able to register any feelings beyond pain, barely able to hear anything beyond her short periods of consciousness while she tried to wake up.

 

All the sensations overwhelmed her and she promptly lost control of her flight, falling to the cold, metallic floor in a heap. Still laughing, Kara gathered her will and slowly floated up. 

  

Finally, Kara managed to get into a hovering position, even if it bobbed around, going up and down as she breathed.

 

She knew she should have been moving immediately, not allowing the Psions any time to make a plan against her, but she wouldn't make for a very imposing, or maneuverable, figure hopping around on just one leg.

 

The very thought of everything the bastards had taken from her caused Kara’s flight to grow more erratic, her fists closing tightly at her sides as a strange feeling of heat gathered at her sole remaining eye.

 

The wave of heat she released melted a hole twice her own size in the steel wall. Dazed, Kara looked at the hole and floated closer, lifting a hand. She marveled as she felt the heat on her skin, but it felt more like a warm wind than the result of several meters of molten metal.

 

 With a smile, Kara thought of the Psions waiting for her all over the ship, she couldn’t wait to get to them.