A buzzing noise filled Harper's ears and she felt like she was lying there in Victor's arms for hours, fading and waking and fading and waking. Her agony was the only thing keeping her alive. It was the only thing she could feel anymore. She remembered being rushed into S.T.A.R Labs, assuredly because her injuries were inflicted by supers and this place was the only one equipped to deal with such matters. The building was as cold as dead skin, the hallway crowded with scientists and doctors, but reeking of illness.

The memories came in flashes. She would lose consciousness for an undetermined amount of time before waking up again for a few brief moments. Her next recollection was after arriving in a seperate room, with a doctor leaving with a notepad full of notes and Victor watching over her like a protective guardian. He held her hand in his own, and though the metal was usually cold, it felt warm to her dwindling body. She wanted to reach towards him and beg Victor to extend that warmth to the rest of her, but she couldn't move or speak. She could only stare at the dull, white ceiling.

"I'm gonna go talk to my pa." She heard Jessica Kent's voice floating through the air, somewhere far off, in a time and place that she could no longer determine. "Then I'm gonna turn myself in...I'm so sorry about what they did to her, Vic."

"She'll be alright, but that's only thanks to you stopping the others when you did." Victor answered, and suddenly Harper realised that he was no longer holding her hand. He hadn't been for a while. He was on the other side of the room, but she didn't remember seeing him get up or hearing him step around the bed. "Are you sure you want to turn yourself in? We have no prisons that could hold you...if you do this, you'll have to be disciplined enough to stay there by your own will."

"I'm sure." Jess replied without a shred of reluctance. "It took a while, but I've finally realised that I've become someone that I really don' wanna be. Besides, I won' be alone. Dionysus and a few others agree that this has gone too far."

"Well...good luck. I'm sure your mother would be-" Victor's voice suddenly drifted into the background. He kept talking, Harper could hear the slight lilt of his voice, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

She blinked. At least, that's what it felt like. In reality she wasn't sure what had happened or how much time had passed, all she could really determine was that once she opened her eyes Jess was no longer there and Victor was back at her side. She still couldn't move but the old television blared it's Cathode rays throughout the room. From that small box she heard the familiar voice of Superman say "Good Afternoon."

Harper willed her body to move, but it wouldn't respond - as if it were still asleep and her mind was left to drift in and out of consciousness. With the last of her effort she tried to at least avert her gaze from that wretched white ceiling, and finally succeeded. Her green eyes drifted to the television and she saw a sight that filled her with relief. The Justice League stood addressing a crowd of reporters...well, some of them. Superman was in front, as always, with a dozen microphones all being held up towards him. With the sunlight of Metropolis beaming down on him once more, he looked a little younger than he had at the farm. His long hair had been cut, and though the grey streaks still remained on either side of his temple, that signature curl had returned to grace his forehead. His costume was relatively the same, except the 'S' was decorated with a black background instead of white.

Behind him stood an ensemble of heroes; The Flash, Kaze, Power Girl, Nightwing, Starfire, Wonder Woman, Bastion, King Orin, Queen Camille, Hawkman, and The Ray. They remained silent as Superman prepared to speak, knowing that he was most suited for an announcement of such magnitude. "Many of you may remember us. We have been away for a while. That was our mistake. In our absence, a new breed of Metahumans' has risen... A vast phalanx of self-styled 'Heroes' unwilling to preserve life or defend the defense-less. A legion of vigilantes who have perverted their great powers...who have foresworn the responsibilities due them. We have returned to teach them the meaning of truth and justice. Together we will guide this new breed with wisdom...and, if necessary, with force. Above all, we will restore order. We will make things right again."

The end of his sentence triggered a riot of questions from the crowd. One of the reporters shouted "Will their be others joining your cause?"

"Our ranks will grow." Superman replied with He sort of confidence that made it difficult to doubt him.

"Are you prepared to shut down those who don't honor your principles?" Another called.

Superman didn't even budge at the question before answering "I don't anticipate anyone acting without our sanction."

"Anyone?" A reporter for the Daily Planet questioned. "Would that include Supergirl? Wasn't it your own daughter that took up that mantle when the previous barer became the very same Power Girl standing behind you? Are you truly prepared to confront her after so long ignoring the problem?"

This time Superman's face fell into darkness and shadow. It was an expression that didn't suit him well at all. It was full of such sorrow that any reply that he might have given was consumed by it...thankfully, Wonder Woman stepped forward to assist. "Supergirl has been incarcerated, by her own will, as has my own son and several others. They have agreed to stay behind bars until a court and jury determines a suitable punishment for their actions. That is all."

Another flurry of questions broke from the crowd, but this time the group of metahumans left without a word. Their silence didn't matter. They had announced their comeback, and despite any small doubts, it was the best news this world had received in a long time.

"You did it..." Victor said from beside Harper's bed. His voice was filled with awe, and his hand was holding hers again. "I should have know better than to doubt you."

She wanted to speak, but her body wouldn't let her. Now even her eyes wouldn't shift from the television screen.

"I'll just have to add it to the list, I suppose." He murmured, seemingly deep in his own thoughts. She could hear the bittersweetness in his tone and wondered why, with the Justice League back in action, he still sounded so glum. "I wouldn't have told you this back then, but I always kept myself at a distance from you. No matter how far our relationship developed, even after you brought Lara home, there was some part of me that refused to surrender. I think it was because of the guilt, you know? I couldn't give you what every other man could have. I couldn't give you a biological child, or even engage in anything intimate like that. I couldn't even hold you with my own hands... I couldn't feel you in my arms. After you died I regretted how distant I had kept myself, but not as much as I hated the fact that I hadn't met you before the accident."

Harper's eyes flickered shut, her mind reeling with his words, but unable to stay awake for much longer. She tried to claw her way back to the light...but the darkness dragged her back down.

"I guess it wouldn't have mattered either way." She heard Victor say just as her mind was succumbing to that same unending void. "It wouldn't have been you. It would have been some other clone, right?"

His presence fell away from her...only for a second. That's how long it felt to her, at least, but when she awoke everything had changed again. The television was on, but to a different channel. There was screaming and running - a city, a world, in panic. Victor had moved from his spot beside her again, but she could hear him near the door muttering "An invasion?... God, Bruce was right."

There was someone scurrying around the room...a scientist. She held a needle in her hand, filled to the brim with clear liquid which she emptied into Harper's veins. "That should keep her conscious."

Victor hurried to her side and lifted Harper into his arms without any effort at all. "Thank you. Get someplace safe until I return."

The scientist rushed into another room, but Harper's eyes were still too inactive to follow her path. Instead, she watched as Victor hurried into the hallway and hastily placed her into an old, broken wheelchair. "Wh-What's happening?" She managed to say even through her immovable lips.

"An attack on Earth." Victor said bluntly, yet refused to elaborate any further as he guided her out of S.T.A.R Labs. A boom tube opened just outside of the door, and as Victor pushed her through it, they were transported to the inside of the Hall of Justice.

"Took you long enough." Someone huffed, and as Harper regained control of her neck muscles, she was able to turn and spot the much taller, much stronger, much prettier clone of herself leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Did you figure out how to send her back yet or not?" Victor hissed. If his immense dislike for this woman wasn't obvious before, than it definitely was now.

"Of course I have." The woman retorted blandly. "We're gonna have to leave the vicinity after I activate it."

An unreadable emotion flashed across Victor's face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. He leaned down at Harper's side; his hand reaching out to touch the side of her face gently. It was the only goodbye that he could bare to give before hurrying out of the hallway. He didn't look back, because if he did he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from asking her to stay.

"I'm not entirely sure where you'll land." The clone explained soon after Victor's departure. "It was a struggle just to ensure that you didn't get stuck in space. Moving people through time is one thing...but making sure they land in the same place is something completely different."

"Well, if I end up in space and die I'll know who to blame." Harper quipped, finally able to move her lips into a smirk.

The woman frowned, placing the singularity device onto the ground and timing it to activate within two minutes. She didn't leave straight away. Instead she pulled a USB out of her pocket and tucked it into Harper's. "You managed to do what I couldn't...without any superior powers or advantages. Clearly, my creator was mistaken. Don't make the same mistake twice...and take care of Victor for me."

The clone's words only brought Harper immense confusion. She wanted to ask what exactly she was talking about, but before she could even open her mouth the muscular woman had exited the room in the same direction as Victor. The singularity device hummed, then buzzed, then trembled to life. A wormhole appeared out of thin air; swallowing every painting from the walls and dragging Harper towards it.

Harper fell for what felt like a small lifetime; surrounded by nothing but darkness until she finally felt the ground rise beneath her once more. Her breath hitched and her eyes blinked, then suddenly she was in the middle of a lush green field. The flowers sprouted our from beneath the long blades of grass and the needles of the pine trees, freshly washed to a deep, rich green, shimmered with droplets that blinked like clear crystals. She was definitely on Earth, that much was clear by the fact that she could easily breathe the air, but the real question was where on Earth...and when?