Rise of Supergirl, Chapter 4: The Girl Who Was Very Confused (Patreon)

"Lady Kara, your guest is showing signs of imminent awakening," Kelor reported.

"Thanks, Kel," Kara rubbed the bot on the head as she walked past on her way to the medical bay.

Kelor bobbed along beside Kara as she walked, floating through the air as per usual. Kara reached out and lightly tapped the little robot on the top of the head. "Kel, could you please display all of the data gathered on her from the medical scanners?"

Kara had some theories as to the nature of the gifts found in a small percentage of vampires and humans. She just needed to confirm them.

"Of course, Lady Kara," Kelor responded affirmatively. A holographic screen popped up with a 3D representation of Isabella Marie Swan, the girl in Kara's medical bay. The data was concise and simple to understand, even to Kara's untrained eye.

Bella wasn't too out of sorts. She merely suffered from mild exposure and dehydration. Her unintentional trek through the forest, coupled with her emotional distress, was more than enough to cause her to collapse. She was lucky there were so many friendly supernaturals in the area. If the wrong wildlife had found her, she would've been nothing more than a quick snack.

"Display her genome sequence compared to that of a base human female from Krypton's records," Kara ordered while she parsed through the information.

Ancient Kryptonians had been to Earth a few times in the past, the same as many other space-faring empires. Earth was one of the planets chosen by Kara's ancestors to function as a garden world in case the worst happened, and Krypton needed to rebuild from scratch.

What those plans did not include were two world engines working in sync to terraform a planet that was already compatible with their biology! By Rao, the Kryptonians were practically gods under Earth's yellow sun. The only people who would ever try to literally transform Earth into the next Krypton were insane monsters.

Looking at you, Zod.

Kara knew she was probably going to have to deal with the Kryptonian general and his soldiers at some point, considering they would've been trapped in the Phantom Zone with her. Of course, they had been sentenced to imprisonment in that hell for actual crimes, unlike Kara who ended up trapped there thanks to bad luck and a massive gravitational collapse.

"Huh, that's strange," Kara mused to herself as she looked at the data. There were some distinct differences between Bella's DNA and the DNA of a standard human. The biggest difference Kara could spot was what she assumed to be the X-Gene.

It could've been something similar, like the inhuman genetic marker, but Kara was fairly sure about her deduction. Especially since she saw nothing in Bella's genome that was remotely similar to the Kree, on which she also had an abundance of data.

Say what you want about the Kryptonians, but they were one of the most technologically advanced societies in the known universe. They were around for a long time and there probably wasn't much they haven't come across throughout their history. Biological and genetic data on races like the Kree and Skrulls was considered basic knowledge.

So, in addition to everything else, it looked like mutants, the X-Men, and the Brotherhood of Mutants were likely real in this universe.

Joy.

The biggest revelation from Bella's medical chart was the effect long-term vampire exposure had on humans. In short, it wasn't anything good. Bella needed to know about those tools Edward told her about, the ones that make it easier for vampires to hunt their prey, and how they had a real detrimental impact on Bella's health.

Kara entered the medical bay just as Bella woke, her eyes fluttering open as she looked around in confusion.

"Hey there," Kara greeted gently, trying not to spook the timid girl. "I found you in the forest and brought you back to my home. Are you okay? Can I get you anything?"

Bella looked dazed as she struggled to comprehend her surroundings. Kara was sure the events leading up to her abandonment in the forest felt like little more than a dream to Bella, especially after waking in a strange metal room filled with odd-looking equipment.

Krypton's aesthetic standards were very much in line with what humans would consider stereotypical extraterrestrial designs. At a glance, it was very obvious that the technologies and furnishings were not of human origin.

To a girl like Bella, one that managed to suss out a family of vampires who successfully deceived an entire town for years, Kara's ship would be irresistible. What was more mysterious than aliens?

"I think I'm okay. Where am I? What happened?" Bella asked thickly. Her voice was rough from crying and lack of anything to drink.

Kara smiled reassuringly, repeating herself patiently, "I'm not sure what exactly you were doing out in the forest, but you're at my place now. My name is Kara. We're probably an hour or so away from Forks, by car," she guessed.

Bella nodded absentmindedly, struggling to remember how she ended up here.

Kara's sense of distance and time were a little skewed. She knew she could fly to Forks in under a second, but how far away was that exactly? She knew she could hear each individual conversation in the small town if she stopped suppressing her hearing from this distance.

Rao, if Kara opened all her senses to the limit, she would be able to hear everything happening on the entire planet, much less the closest small town.

Bella sat up and swung her legs off the bed, the fog of sleep quickly leaving her. As her brain rebooted, she remembered what it was she was doing before she woke up here. Her eyes widened and she let out a devastating cry of pain, collapsing in on herself as she broke out into tears.

"Oh, Edward!" Yep, there it was. Poor girl.

Kara winced in sympathy. Bella obviously just remembered her horrible breakup with Edward. She'd hoped they could have a little conversation first before Bella broke down, but Kara could wait until Bella processed her heartbreak a little.

Kara sat down next to the sobbing girl and gently pulled her into a hug. Bella latched onto her like she was the last thing keeping her together. Kara normally didn't mind holding a pretty girl, but she was ugly crying really hard.

Kara didn't begrudge anyone a good cry, but getting tears and snot all over her new outfit was not cool. It's a good thing her ship had an amazing laundry service, and she could fabricate any clothing she needed to. Ah, she really did love highly advanced alien technology. Thanks, mom and dad.

"It'll be okay, sweetheart," Kara rubbed Bella's back in calm, soothing circles.

"You don't- You don't understand," Bella sobbed, her emotions running rampant. Kara just held her tighter, trying to absorb as much of her pain as possible. 

"I do understand, Bella. I know everything," Kara said while she leaned back and mimed fangs coming out of her mouth with her fingers.

"What!? You know about vampires!?" Bella asked in alarm.

"I do," Kara confirmed. "I know about the Cullens and your relationship with them, as well."

"You- You know about-" Bella stuttered.

"I know about Edward, yes," Kara finished for her. Even the mention of her ex-boyfriend's name caused Bella to shrink in on herself.

Bella was so lost in her own misery that she didn't even question how Kara knew these things. If she did, Kara's answer would've just been, 'I'm an alien, of course I can find things out.' Kara had a feeling she would be using the alien excuse for a while. It was easier to explain than her reincarnation as a fictional character. 

"How much do you know about vampires?" Kara asked, hoping to distract Bella a little, though she wished she had something to talk about aside from vampires.

"Almost everything, I think," Bella bit her lip nervously, deep in thought.

"I'll skip the basics, then, and move on to what I found in your medical reports. Vampire biology is not as hard to understand as those old fossils might make it seem," Kara explained. "What they don't know that I do is that vampires have a peculiar effect on humans after long-term exposure."

Kara discovered quite a bit in Bella's medical scans. Aside from her X-Gene, which displayed hints of its power even when dormant, Bella's body exhibited similar symptoms to hardcore drug addicts.

Bella obviously didn't take heroine, ecstasy, cocaine, or any other hard drug. Kara thought that this was likely a side-effect of constant vampire exposure over long periods of time. It was easy to heal the damage with her medical tech, but it left Kara more wary of the vampires of this world.

"A vampire's pheromones and venom have a very interesting effect on humans. Everything about a vampire is designed to lure in their prey. Their scent acts like a drug when it gets into a human's system, dulling their mind and survival instincts. If a vampire's undiluted venom enters the body, but not the circulatory system, say through a kiss, for example, you wouldn't stand a chance. You wouldn't turn into a vampire, but you would become unable to go against their will," Kara continued.

Bella's eyes widened in horror and disbelief. She instinctively wanted to deny what Kara was saying, but something inside her told her to wait and hear her out.

"It's not your fault you became so obsessed with him to the exclusion of everything else. The more time he spent around you, the more addicted to him you became. It was a physiological response. You had very little choice in the matter, though I'm not saying he maliciously forced you into anything. It's just the natural interaction between your two species."

Bella's haunted eyes regained a little bit of life as she listened to Kara's matter-of-fact explanation. "I didn't realize that was one of the dangers of being around vampires..." Bella thought back on her times with the Cullens.

She recalled the times she'd first interacted with Edward and how they both changed over time. Realization struck her like a bucket of cold water dumped on her head, her sorrow fading slightly as clarity washed over her.

As Edward became more comfortable around her, more used to her scent, she in turn became more obsessed with his everything. His scent and taste were like the most sinfully exquisite dessert, but that wasn't natural, was it?

Bella never could bring herself to look away from him so long as they were in the same room. Edward had an aura that drew her in like a niffler to a shiny necklace. Her only hope would've been if he had managed to stay away from the beginning. By the time he returned from Alaska that first week and slipped back into her life, her fate was already out of her control.

Eventually, their relationship reached the point where Bella would do anything and everything for Edward, so long as he never left her. When had that happened? How had she become that girl?

Bella wasn't sure when her life had become so intrinsically tied to her ex-boyfriend, but now that he was gone, it was like she was waking up from a long dream. The blinders were off.

"Holy shit," Bella cursed, breaking out in a cold sweat. The Cullens told her about how vampires naturally drew in their prey, but Bella hadn't imagined she was already caught up in the trap at that point. She shivered in fear.

"Yeah, I know, Bella. I'm sorry," Kara consoled as she rubbed Bella's back. "For what it's worth, there's nothing wrong with being friends with a vampire, so long as they don't harm you. The only real issue is when things get more intimate. Vampires are pretty much entirely saturated with their venom, so any physical contact is going to attract humans like nothing else."

Bella sniffled, barely holding back the sobs that wanted to break free. She'd cried enough today and was determined not to waste any more tears on the jerk who left her so he could move on to other distractions.

"How do you know about vampires?" Bella asked, her curiosity finally rearing its head as she tried to take her mind off her own sorrows.

"Oh, that's easy. I'm an alien!" Kara answered smoothly. She didn't really need an explanation beyond that. Why wouldn't an alien know about vampires? How would Bella know any better?

"What?" Bella gaped in disbelief. "An alien?"

"Yep! An alien!" Kara repeated. "As in, I wasn't born on this planet. In fact, I only arrived here today!"

Bella sat there in shock, unsure of how to respond. Looking around, she could tell that Kara probably wasn't lying. She sat in a room filled to the brim with advanced tech that didn't look human in the slightest. Not even Stark Industries had anything close to this level.

Before Bella could get too lost in her thoughts, Kara tapped her on the shoulder, comfortingly. "Don't worry about it too much. The universe is a big place and people are pretty much the same no matter where you go. Just think of it as the next stage of expansion. I'm sure your ancestors thought people from other continents were fairly alien compared to themselves."

Bella looked at the hand resting on her shoulder like she would a feral cat. An actual alien was touching her, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that. Then again, she had kissed a vampire, so maybe she shouldn't be so squeamish.

"How about I tell you a bit about myself?" Kara suggested, smiling to show Bella that everything was fine and she wasn't in any danger.

Kara perched herself on the edge of her seat and began her tale, strange feelings welling in her chest.

This was her story, but she didn't remember it. Not personally. Only through the memories of fiction from another reality. No matter how much she felt like Kara Zor-El, there was a disconnect, and, until she regained those lost memories, there always would be. 

If she regained her memories, that is. There was a possibility that she was just some sort of body snatcher, and the real Kara was long dead. She hoped that wasn't the case. That explanation didn't feel right, but for now she could only hope.

"My name is Kara Zor-El, daughter of Zor-El and Alura In-Ze. I hail from the planet Krypton, and I am the last daughter of my people, the last Kryptonian," Kara said with steely eyes. It wasn't easy to talk about Krypton, despite her lack of any concrete memories. It was like a half-forgotten dream, full of sorrow and longing.

"Recently, through a series of apocalyptic events, Krypton was destroyed. Big boom. Lots of death. Kinda fucked me up, to be honest. My parents managed to ferry me away from the planet on one of our ships, but the rest of my family didn't make it," Kara scowled.

Bella didn't believe Kara at first, obviously. Who would? Aliens? That was nonsense, right? When Bella thought about it a little, however, she realized that literally anything could be real. She'd already met vampires and there was a billionaire flying around America in a suit of armor he'd designed himself.

They lived in a crazy, messed up world. Aliens were just par for the course, really. 

As she came around to the possibility that Kara was telling the truth, for the first time since Kara met her, Bella looked like she had a spark of life.

"It's a lot to take in, I get it. How are you feeling? We've kind of jumped around a bit in this conversation," Kara said after Bella remained silent for a bit too long.

"You're an alien," Bella said dumbly. "From outer space."

Kara tried hard not to laugh too hard at Bella's discombobulated look. Bella's train of thought was so thoroughly derailed that she still hadn't asked how Kara knew the specifics of her situation. Then again, the only answer she would've been given was, 'Because I'm an alien!'

At least Bella wasn't crying anymore.