Chapter Text
"I may be running in circles, and living a lie. This is my paradise."
Man's World was exactly what you thought it would be. Horrid. Smelly. Desolate, even in the big cities. And at the same time, you were at a loss.
You knew why you were here, but Gods, where did you even start? How would you do this alone?
Your mother had slipped you some currency for your troubles. You weren't sure of where she acquired it, but you knew enough to know it wouldn't last long, no matter how long you tried to stretch it.
The trains weren't as interconnected as you felt they should be, but you managed to hitch a ride on a couple until you arrived in a place called Gotham City.
A man, who sat on the edge of the train car, his feet dangling over the lip of the opened crate, was one of the only people to bother speaking to you. His hair was greasy, beard unkempt, voice raspy, but trustworthy. He told you about the city. Darker and even more desolate than the others, but the difference, no one pretended to care about it.
It was the perfect place for you to settle into your mystery and gather yourself anew after your long journey. The perfect place to disappear into man's society.
Before you hopped off, the man asked you of your name, you said the first thing you could think of, "Y/N Prince."
You had no way of knowing that choice would eventually come back to bite you in the rear end.
As you had assumed to be the case, Man's world was stingy with their money, their food, their livelihood. You had to find a way to survive.
You understood the concept of crime, though, Man's World had a lot more rules than Themyscira. A lot more consequences for breaking those rules. Though, you didn't exactly care. You cared about surviving for your mission and that would be done by any means necessary.
So, sometimes when walking down the streets of Gotham, your hand wandered into the pockets of faceless strangers. You're caught, but not by the police, or The Bat that people keep opining about.
No, these people helped you. They falsified documents, transcripts, gave you money, as long as you didn't ask questions and did things for them occasionally.
That had been 5 years ago.
The False Face Society hadn't bothered you since.
Maybe it was because you were too high profile now. They hadn't expected that out of you so quickly. You were rubbing elbows with Gotham's elite. Your job as Editor-in-chief of the Gotham Gazette had taken you to various places. Making it easier to search for your birth parents.
A search that hadn't made any progress since you started.
"Ms. Prince, your 2 O'Clock is here." Your assistant greeted you from her desk as you entered the bullpen.
You noticed the woman standing next to her. Blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. Blue eyes hidden behind big frames. Her shoulders, covered in the fabric of a button up, were a bit hunched but you could tell if she stood up straight she would tower over, reminiscent of the way Diana did. Maybe not as tall, but pretty damn close.
Your eyes narrowed.
You had grown up on an island of warriors, you knew one when you saw one, this woman, was a warrior despite what her outer appearance wanted to suggest. You glanced up into her eyes. This was an odd charade on a beautiful woman. She didn't need those glasses, nor did she always hunch or keep her hair back.
Why the circus act?
"You must be Miss Danvers. My apologies for keeping you waiting, my lunch meeting ran long." You shook her hand, her grip was too loose.
You opened the door to your office, gesturing for the woman to enter. Once she did you closed the door behind her. You sat on the edge of your desk.
"No need for apologies, Miss Prince. I wasn't waiting long. And you can call me Kara," Kara sat on the lone chair you kept in front of your desk. She looked reluctant to touch anything. Despite this she was almost disconcertingly chipper, if not awkward at the same time.
On anyone else you'd find the disposition annoying, but on her it was just endearing. Cute, even. Maybe it was the contrast of her golden retriever nature with the pitbull frame she was attempting to hide. You didn't know, but you wanted to find out more.
"You can call me, Y/N." A rare smile pressed itself onto your red inked lips.
"Okay, uh, great. Y/N. Yeah. So, you're probably wondering why I wanted to meet." Kara's cheeks tinged pink.
You nodded, "I am. Though I have a feeling it's about the recent acquisition of CatCo."
Kara's face took on an expression you couldn't decipher, "No, I know that's above your pay grade. I'd just ask Lena about that."
You raised a playful eyebrow and crossed your legs as much as your pencil skirt would allow, "First name basis with my boss? Interesting...You must be special, Kara Danvers."
Kara stuttered into a topic change, "I w-wanted to ask you about you about a transfer. Well, more of a temporary exchange. I do want to go back to CatCo eventually, but you've gotten so many awards just within the last two years, I think you could teach me a lot-"
"Ok."
Kara stopped speaking abruptly, "Ok? As in you'll do it?"
You nodded your smile just as soft, "Yes. It sounds like fun. Though, I wouldn't think of it as me only teaching you. I'd want us to be equals. We'd teach each other. Besides, I have a side project I think you'd be able to help me with, if you're up for it."
Kara stood up to hug you. You would have hugged back if your arms weren't trapped at your sides. Though, you still took a certain revelry in the action. You hadn't been hugged in at least 4 years.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you? I just didn't think you'd say 'yes', to be honest."
You smoothed out your orange blouse with your hands once Kara let you go, "No, you did not hurt me, Kara. I am stronger than I look."
A deep blush settled over Kara's cheeks, "Good. So, when do I start?"
"Why not now? I know you will need to go back to National City to retrieve your belongings soon, however, I am not sure it's possible to fly across the country twice in one day without wear on the body. So, I can give you a tour today and tomorrow you can go back to California." You led Kara out of your office without waiting for her to agree.
"Okay, that sounds good."
You pointed toward your assistant, "You have already met, Angel. My lifesaver. Without her I would be running this place from an alley."
You continued your walk around the bullpen, you didn't think Kara was quite listening even though she was staring you down happily.
"You have a question, do you not?" You asked Kara, whose face immediately covered in another blush.
"Yes, it's stupid, but would you, by any chance, be related to Diana Prince? You both have the same accent and obviously last name." Kara scratched at the back of her neck awkwardly.
You had to keep your eye from twitching with a harsh swallow. If you had a nickel for every time you were asked if you were related to that coward, you could buy Wayne Enterprises and Lex Corp twice over.
It was your own fault really. You had the ability to choose your name, your background, reinvent yourself in a way you were not able to growing up on Themyscira.
Yet, you unknowingly attached yourself even closer to a traitor.
"Do we look related, Kara?" There's an edge to your voice that you immediately feel bad about. That voice wasn't for your day job. It wasn't for Kara.
Kara's shoulders hunched even further, "I uh-no-I guess you don't."
Kara didn't know this, but you hadn't even asked her a fair question. Diana and Nubia only shared an eye and hair color and they were twins.
"My apologies once again, Kara. I am just exhausted by that question. We are not related. We both grew up in Greece. My parents bestowed this name on me when they adopted me from Greece. I have never even met Diana." Not since she abandoned you, And you'd like to keep it that way.
Kara's face lit up once again, "I can introduce you to each other. You'd love Diana."
"Oh, I do not believe that is necessary."
"Sure it is. Don't worry, Bruce Wayne is having a gala that I have a press pass for. I'm sure Diana will be there. You can be my plus one."
Kara just looked so happy and proud of herself that you couldn't help but go along with it, at least for a few moments, "Press gets a plus one?"
"Well, no...but we'll think of something. You're you, so you could probably just walk in and they wouldn't stop you."
You placed a hand on Kara's shoulder, "Why don't we continue or tour?"
"Supergirl is on the scene as emergency responders rush to a five alarm apartment building fire in Gotham County."
You rarely watched the news this late at night. Choosing to either sit on your balcony reviewing your star charts, or trying to research anything and everything about your parents.
This night after trying both avenues you had made progress on neither. In your parentage search this was a common occurrence, but your star charts normally gave you some sense of purpose. Not wanting to exhaust yourself into frustration anymore than you already had, you decided to turn on your rarely used television.
The nightly news coverage was the first thing that popped up and caught your eye.
"Supergirl is a long way from home, but I'm sure the Gotham FD is happy she's on their side. Let's go to the scene as one of our reporters gets a closer to look."
Why was Supergirl in Gotham? You didn't keep up much with the superhero business, as it heavily disinterested you, quite frankly, you felt ig man couldn't police themselves they should stew in it, but you knew enough to know that Supergirl was not normally in Gotham.
"Was Batman busy?" You mumbled to yourself.
"Thank you, John and Nancy. We're here at the 500 block of Forman Avenue, where in the middle of the night, a 10 story apartment building caught fire. Gotham Fire Department has not disclosed a cause of the blaze yet, but they have expressed their deep gratitude for Supergirl. Here's what our chopper caught of the scene."
Supergirl had indeed helped, you could tell, the building was catching faster than people could evacuate. She flew around the building blowing the fire into submission with her freeze breath.
The news showed a graphic of everything they knew about the woman. Which wasn't much. She was kryptonian and there was some relation to her and Superman.
You knew little of Krypton, it never showed in your teachings or your charts. You had heard myth from the elders on Themyscira that sounded vaguely of what a kryptonian might be.
"We were able to interview one of the survivors. Here's what she had to say."
"I was terrified, but Supergirl saved me. S-she saved everyone. She's more than a guardian angel."
Youre nose scrunched up. Man, so fickle. They treated Supergirl as if divinity. You knew divinity and that was not it.
Supergirl didn't belong in Gotham. And she damn sure was no God.