Conner was eating a sandwich at the kitchen table, keeping his eyes fixed on the girl sitting across from him.
Raven stared at the plate with a mix of suspicion and caution, but after hesitating for a few tense seconds, she extended her pale hand, took the sandwich, and began to eat in silence.
Conner frowned slightly, immersing himself in his own thoughts.
‘From what I can deduce from her sudden appearance, it’s reasonable to assume that she recently escaped from Azarath and that, by simple coincidence, I was the first person she crossed paths with upon arriving on Earth,’ he analyzed, feeling a pang of worry in his chest.
That represented too many uncontrollable variables, which confused him even more.
He couldn’t fully comprehend how on earth she had appeared in this universe so soon, much less right in front of him.
However, putting aside the reason for her sudden appearance, he now had an even bigger problem to deal with.
At first, when he saw her in the woods, the pure happiness of meeting his favorite female character from the Teen Titans had overwhelmed him.
Excited, he did everything possible to win her trust and bring her home.
But now, already settled here and with a cold mind, the nerves began to take their toll.
“Trigon…”, Conner muttered to himself in a whisper.
“That guy is no joke.”
And who was Raven to Trigon?
To the interdimensional demon, Raven wasn’t simply a daughter; she was his property, his direct ticket to invade the universe, and a weapon he planned to mold in his own image and likeness.
‘It’s over, we’re toast,’ he thought in a sudden burst of panic.
However, Conner managed to calm down quickly by remembering the mystical rules of this world: a being of that magnitude could not invade Earth so easily due to dimensional barriers.
‘At best, for now I’ll only face his emissaries and the cults of the Church of Blood,’ he concluded in his mind, though deep down he hoped with all his heart that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
Even knowing the dangers it entailed, Conner did not regret having taken Raven in at all.
Aside from the obvious weakness of her being one of his favorite characters, she possessed the kind of power and knowledge that kept him up at night the most: magic.
Magic was, alongside kryptonite, the biological weakness of his race.
Having someone of such mystical caliber as an ally in the future was a true blessing.
Conner looked at Raven and, suddenly, the girls’ playful words about finding more women for the group came to his mind.
He shook his head immediately, brushing away those scattered thoughts, and refocused his attention on the cloaked young woman.
“So…
you ran away from home, right?” Conner asked gently.
Raven didn’t articulate a single word; she merely nodded her head slightly without looking up.
Conner narrowed his eyes, sensing that she would keep her secrets well-reserved for the time being, something that seemed completely understandable given her situation.
“Well, you must be tired,” Conner continued, cracking a kind smile.
“You can go to the room I prepared for you.” Inside, he was incredibly grateful that there was still a room available upstairs.
Raven nodded again, finished eating the last piece of her sandwich, and, without wasting time, headed upstairs toward her room.
“Which version could it be?” Conner muttered, leaning his elbows on the table, lost in a mental debate.
“I can completely rule out the comic book version.
‘Well, whatever,’ he thought, rubbing his temples.
‘I’d better start thinking about how I’m going to explain this new resident to the girls as soon as they get back.’
Right at that moment, the echo of footsteps and the murmur of voices at the entrance announced the group’s arrival.
Conner turned around with the intention of greeting them, but froze completely in his tracks, words caught in his throat.
The girls were back, but they didn’t come alone.
They brought an extra member with them.
“Look what we brought,” Karen announced with a radiant smile and eyes shining with excitement.
“Another member of our species.”
“She is…”, he asked with feigned uncertainty.
In reality, he had recognized her instantly by her appearance.
“It seems she has completely lost her memories,” Laurel explained, letting out a sigh as she sat down in one of the kitchen chairs.
Next, Laurel began to relate in detail how they had descended underwater at the Reeves Dam, how Karen had dragged the pentagonal ship to the surface, and how, upon forcing open the capsule doors, the girl had awakened from her suspended animation without knowing who she was.
Upon finishing listening to the story, Conner understood the situation perfectly, and a strong wave of self-criticism hit him.
‘Damn it…
I should have checked that dam,’ he berated himself bitterly.
Technically, this girl’s origin had followed the plot of Kara Zor-El from the Smallville series to the letter.
Conner hadn’t bothered to look for her before because, seeing that Clark wasn’t exactly the same as the one from the series and that key events like the massive high school meteor shower hadn’t happened, it never crossed his mind to check the bottom of the dam.
‘I don’t know why, but I always assumed that if Kara existed in this universe, she would follow the canon of the comics or the movies: getting trapped in the Phantom Zone drifting for decades without aging, arriving on Earth when Clark was already an adult,’ Conner thought, giving himself a mental slap.
‘I speculated wrong.
It never crossed my mind that she could be frozen right here in Kansas.
It was a serious mistake on my part.’
“Well…
so, she completely lost her memory?” Conner asked aloud, trying to hide his frustration.
Both girls nodded seriously.
Meanwhile, the blonde young woman kept her blue eyes fixed on Conner, analyzing him intensely without looking away for a single second.
“Do you know who she is?” Conner inquired, testing the waters to find out if ROB had granted the girls any extra information about Kara’s existence.
Both shook their heads.
Laurel stared at Conner and asked, “Do you know anything about her?
Does she look familiar to you?”
Conner opened his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately.
He had no idea which exact version of Kara he had in front of him.
If he revealed incorrect information now and she recovered her true memories later on, he would get himself into unnecessary trouble.
“Well, what a shame,” Karen commented, though her optimism didn’t waver.
“But you can’t be without a name for the time being.
How about we give you a temporary one while you get your memory back?”
Laurel nodded, agreeing with the idea.
Seeing that the rescued Kryptonian showed no objection, she looked at Conner, expecting his leadership side to provide a good option.
Conner shrugged dismissively.
“Don’t look at me.
I’m terrible at naming things.”
“How about…
Kara?” Karen blurted out of nowhere.
Conner looked at her with a raised eyebrow and an expression of absolute bafflement.
‘Seriously?
Did she come predefined by destiny?’ he thought, amused.
Noticing his gaze, Karen defended herself in an innocent tone: “What?
It seemed like a natural name to me.
Is there a problem?”
Conner quickly shook his head, smiling sideways.
“No, not at all.
I just thought…
it’s fine.
It suits her well.”
Seeing that neither Laurel nor the girl in question opposed Karen’s proposal, the name was officially established: from that moment on, they would call her Kara.
Just as Conner was about to change the subject to discuss the preparations for moving to the island, Karen crossed her arms and flashed a highly mischievous and playful smile.
“Well, Conner…”, Karen commented, narrowing her eyes with amusement.
“Apparently we weren’t the only ones who brought a new member to the house today.”
Laurel said nothing, but directed a highly significant look at her man, full of curiosity.
Conner turned slowly toward the hallway and, sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed.
Raven had come out of the room at some point and now stood in the doorway, observing the living room with her unreadable violet gaze.
Conner cracked a bitter smile as he scratched the back of his neck.
His mind was working at top speed, trying to find the best way to explain Raven’s sudden appearance.