Chapter 43

Three years have passed since Harry and Kara recovered the bottled city of Kandor from Brainiac. The two stepped into the city and went to face Kara's mother Alura, who had been standing in the midst of the city with a smile on her face.

"It's been a long time," Harry told Alura. "But, we're getting closer to extracting you from the city, along with the rest of the citizens of Kandor."

Alura leaned back, looking extremely thoughtful in the process. She had been in this bottled city for so long, that while she wanted to come out of it, the fact of the matter was it almost frightened her to be out of it, after all of those years. She did not know what would happen and how she or the other Kandorians would react.

"I know you're afraid," Harry said. "Anyone would be."

"It's not fear I'm concerned with," Alura said. "It's...what might happen when all of us our out of the Bottle."

"I don't know, Mother, it seems a lot like fear to me," Kara told Alura.

Alura just looked on with a smile. Her daughter, had been very perceptive many times, almost annoyingly so. Regardless, Harry reached in and put a hand on her shoulder. Alura closed her eyes for a few seconds and came to a decision rather quickly.

There had been a lot of decisions made which lead to the end of Krypton. And it would be easy to blame those decisions on irrational impulses, but in fact, it had been quite the opposite. They had been quite calculated and very rational. Which might be the problem.

Brainiac blindsiding Kandor could not have been foreseen. Then again, there may have been some advanced warning in the Council did not isolate themselves from the city.

"Mom, are we ready to run the trial?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Lena told Harry though the ear piece. "Sam, Gwen, Karen, Caitlin, and I are all ready. Alura needs to stand in the middle of the town square for it to work."

"Alura, please stand in the middle of the town square."

It would be quite different extracting Alura safely from the bottle then it would be bringing Kara and Harry back out of the bottle. They had done this trial process at least two times before and once, Alura had been out of the bottle and had to be put back inside, because she struggled to breath.

"I'm ready," Alura said.

A flicker of light brought Kara and Harry back out. Alura waited for something to happen. A beam of light shot through the city and almost extracted her. Something went wrong the moment Alura reached the top of the city. The light blasted her back down and caused her to land, down on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Kara asked her.

"I was so close I could feel it," Alura said.

"Something went wrong," Kara said.

"I know, honey, it did," Alura said. "But, I was close ...keep up with it Lena."

"Yes, I will," Lena said. "I need a stronger power source and a field which will safely assimilate you to Earth's atmosphere, without destroying the rest of the city or trying their own power source ...I'll be back to work on that."

Alura smiled, so close to leaving the bottled city of Kandor, and yet so far. Yet, she remained very optimistic she was going to be breaking out of this bottle sooner rather than later.

They could wait. It would be done in no time.

Ruby Arias waited in the downtown visitor's area of L-Corp and ran a hand through her blue-streaked hair. She had a friend with her, Cassie Sandsmark, who had been crashing with Ruby and her mother while Cassie's mother, Helena, had been out of town on expedition. The two teenage girls became fast friends after their mothers had worked together on a project.

"So, your mom's not checked in yet?" Ruby asked.

"No, and...well it's weird, I mean, it's not unusual for Mom to run late on a project," Cassie said. "She gets….well she gets wrapped up into her work, you know what I'm saying?"

Oh, Ruby did know what she said. The plights of being a child of a single mother. They did everything possible to be their for their daughter, but work and playing the roles of two parents, just got in the way of spending enough time. Thankfully, Ruby had been allowed to help out on certain things at L-Corp, although not everything. There were projects which were a bit too dangerous and a little too advanced for her.

A flicker of light erupted and suddenly there was a loud pop. Ruby jumped up to her feet.

"What's the matter?" Cassie asked.

"Someone disabled the security system," Ruby said.

As if on cue, the door leading to the guest area opened up. A woman with short blonde hair appeared. Cassie's mouth opened in confusion.

"Power Girl?" Cassie asked.

"No, not Power Girl," Ruby said.

"I'm here for Ruby Arias."

Why? That was what Ruby wondered.

The minute Galatea arrived at the building, Kara felt her presence and the fact she disabled the security system caused red flags to spring up all over Kara's mind. The Girl of Steel scrambled to reach the area of the lab and she heard it, through her super hearing.

"I'm here for Ruby Arias."

This looked like a job for Supergirl and suddenly she flew in and nailed Galatea from behind to send her crashing through the window and leading to a downstairs lab.

"Come on," Cassie said. "Why does this….Supergirl clone want you?"

"How should I know?" Ruby asked. "This way! Back room! There's a secret passageway through here."

"It freaks me out how you know all of the passageways around the building like the back of your hand," Cassie muttered, but she followed Ruby all of the say.

Galatea pulled herself up and picked a piece of glass out from her back.

"You blocked the connection, well mostly," Supergirl said.

"Yes, since Cadmus," Galatea agreed. "But, unfortunately not when we're less than a hundred feet within each other. I'm still working on that, but this doesn't concern you, Girl Scout."

The Girl of Steel folded her arms with a steely gaze locked on Galatea.

"Oh, if you're going after an innocent girl, it does," Kara said.

Galatea's heat vision met Kara's in a battle. Galatea, being more advanced, had been stronger, sending the beam of heat vision through Kara. Kara broke, jumped into the air and slammed her fist into the back of Galatea's head. She took Galatea around the arm and sent her into the ceiling before the two of them.

Grabbing ahold of Supergirl's cape, Galatea whipped her around. The Girl of Steel slammed as hard as possible into the side of the building. The attack took Kara's breath away and Galatea slammed down hard against her and sent Supergirl into the lab.

"You don't understand what I'm doing," Galatea said. "I'm trying to save humanity."

"It doesn't have to be like this…."

Galatea tied Supergirl up like a slab of meat and punched away at her.

"You think the best of people, but there's no good in some people. Especially her."

From the hallway, Lena, Karen, and Caitlin ran down from the lab. Galatea turned her attention to Sam and her eyes glowed red.

"You," Galatea said.

Sam's mouth hung half open in shock. She did not know what this Supergirl clone had been on about. She moved, like a corkscrew right at Sam.

Samantha Arias had her life flash before her. Galatea reached in, but suddenly a blur caught Galatea and knocked her back with a single flick of his finger.

"You've been hard to track down," Harry said.

"You don't understand," Galatea said.

"Well, you're not one to explain," Harry said.

"I'll tell you everything when the threat has been neutralized," Galatea said.

"Wrong answer."

Caitlin and Karen both swooped down on either side of Galatea. Galatea went for a punch on Power Girl who blocked the attack and threw Galatea down to the ground. Despite Galatea being more advanced than Supergirl, she was out of her weight class when dealing with Power Girl.

"We're going to have a nice conversation now, actually," Power Girl said.

A pair of inhibiting cuffs slapped around Galatea's wrists and ankles. A blast sent her, transporting her into a L-Corp holding cell.

"That should hold her," Lena said.

"Are you sure it works?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Lex designed it it," Lena said. "It will hold her."

Harry walked over to Sam who had been looking a bit awestruck. He gently grabbed Sam's hand who jumped a little bit off of the ground and relaxed her grip, but she came back to Earth when realizing it was only Harry.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"I think so," Sam said. "But...why did she attack me."

"Good question," Lena said. "We'll find out when we talk to…."

A scream from down the hallway caused the hair on the back of Sam's neck to stand up. The worst nightmare of a mother, hearing her own daughter give such a blood curdling scream and she could not get there soon enough to help. Sam scrambled down the hallway, breathing like mad with Harry, Lena, Caitlin, and Karen coming down the hallway.

"Help, someone help!" Cassie yelled.

Harry blasted open Lena's double doors. Normally Lena would have been a bit miffed about someone destroying her well done security like this, but given time was of the essence, she was just going to have to forgive it for right now.

Ruby Arias screamed on her knees. Broken glass had been on the floor, surrounding them, and a blue scarab attacked to the back of Ruby's neck. Cassie tried her best to rip it off, but all she got was sore fingers and more screams from Ruby.

"Ms. Luthor!" Cassie yelled at the top of her lungs. "The case broke. We didn't do anything. I swear! We were standing here….Ruby shoved me out of the way! That weird beetle thing which…..you, Mom, and Harry were studying, it woke up and attached to Ruby."

"It woke up?" Lena asked.

The scientist within Lena had been surprised. They had been working trying to boot up the Scarab's computer for ages, and yet they could not access it. Yet, the moment it latched onto Ruby, it appeared to be waking up.

"Ruby, hang on!" Sam yelled.

"She has been chosen," a modulated voice said from Ruby's mouth.

This was the wrong answer for Sam to hear.

"LET GO OF HER!" Sam yelled.

Sam tried to pull the scarab off only for a pulse of electricity to blast her back across the room. She landed down onto the ground with a thud.

Ruby rose up, the scarab retracting into a blue armor. Now the teenage girl resembled a beetle and now turned, the arm cannon retracting towards Sam and pointing directly at her.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked from inside of the armor. "That's my Mom...NO….STOP….PLEASE STOP!"

"I have detected her as a potential world destroying threat," the scarab said. "She must be eradicated, it is the only way."

"Mom wouldn't hurt a fly!" Ruby yelled. "Oooh, you….PLEASE! DON'T!"

The cannon shut down but not because of the scarab released Ruby from it's hold. Ruby dropped down to her knees, the scarab not active, but at the same time, unable to move. She drifted off into a sleep.

A flicker of energy spread from Harry's fingers as he pulled out of it.

"I don't think I destroyed the scarab," Harry said. "But, it's bonded with Ruby. Lyta's journal...warned us about the possibility."

"A one in a million freak accident it happened," Lena said. "Oh, Samantha, I'm so….."

Sam held up a hand to stop Lena cold.

"No, it was an accident," Sam said. "Is she…."

"Breathing," Harry said. "I've called Genesis, and I'm pretty sure we can all put our heads together and figure out something to help her."

Sam grabbed Harry's hand and plead with him with imploring eyes. Being unable to save her daughter and watching her being taken over by this thing, woke some kind of primal fear within Sam. If she ever detached Ruby from the scarab, she would want to rip it into shreds.

A flicker of red flashed through Sam's eyes, unnoticed by everyone because she was so focused on Ruby. She squeezed Harry's hand tightly and took a deep breath to calm down.

No need to lose her. Between Caitlin, Lena, Karen, and Harry, they would figure something out.

Ruby, with with the scarab, had been tied down to a table. A very worried Sam watched with an anxious gaze, Lena holding her tight. Genesis, along with Caitlin, Karen, and Harry, hovered over Ruby. They studied the scarab and it's connection to her.

"We could get it off of her," Genesis said. "But, there is a high probability the shock will kill her once you try and release her from the scarab."

"That's not what we want," Karen said.

"Interestingly enough, the systems are still damaged," Genesis said. "Because, twice it tried to send a signal back to home base when it woke up. Not something we want."

Harry agreed.

"I'm going to modify it, so Ruby has more control of it at the very least," Genesis said.

"And I'm going to talk to Galatea."

Harry walked out and Lena looked at Sam for a second. Sam closed her eyes.

"Go, and...talk to her…I'll…."

"Stay with your daughter," Lena said. "It shouldn't be too long."

Harry and Lena shifted out and appeared inside of the L-Corp basement where Galatea had been in a holding cell. Red solar energy pumped down on her. Galatea leaned against the cell, very, very bored and looking like she was about ready to fall asleep.

"You should have left me a better book than that putrid Timmy Hunter spinoff," Galatea said. "So, Ruby now has the scarab."

"You came here for that," Harry said. "You knew it was going to happen."

"Yes, of course I knew, and if you had just listened to me, we could have prevented it," Galatea said. "But, now the scarab is in her hands, and it's the first step to the end of the world as we know it."

"How could Ruby bring about the end of the world?" Harry asked.

"Oh, you don't know, do you?" Galatea asked her. "The very thing I came here to prevent, and it happened. I need to get out of this cell."

"Why target them both?" Lena asked. "We need answers and we need them now."

"Oh, you wouldn't want to know the answers," Galatea said. "I tried to prevent the Blue Beetle! iI happened...and they're doomed, and I guess I need to figure out how to fix the mess."

"You know, if you didn't come here, Ruby wouldn't have gotten bonded with the scarab," Harry said.

"Mmmm," Galatea said. "If it wasn't me, it would be the Light trying to steal the damn thing six months from now. And the scarab would attach to her then. So, I guess we avoided that problem."

"You're going around in circles," Harry said.

"And the only thing for certain is that the future will still be bad, although now she has an extra six months to get comfortable with the scarab, I'm afraid how bad it will be," Galatea said.

"Let's work together and figure out how to stop whatever's coming," Harry said.

"Tried, same result every time," Galatea said. "Trying something different this time. I need to get out of here, I will fix it."

Lena wondered if they were going to get anywhere. Galatea locked eyes with Lena and broke out into a grin.

"Rao's Last Light."

A beam of golden light emitted around Galatea and she disappeared from the cell. Lena's eyes widened the second Galatea left the cell and even Harry had been completely baffled by what just happened.

"She's gone!" Lena yelled. "That was...we modified it...not even you could get out."

Yes, there had been magical dampeners, there had been power dampeners, it had been resistant to all forms of penetration, and yet Galatea found a way to get escape the cell. Harry had been baffled about a lot of things regarding Galatea and this had been one of them.

Ruby sat up. She breathed heavily and shook uneasily The scarab was still on, but she felt her body movements were her own. Genesis, Karen, Caitlin, Harry, Kara, Gwen, Lena, and Sam all waited for her. Genesis turned to the rest of the group.

"I have put full control of the scarab into Ruby's hands," Genesis said. "It's the best compromise we can make. It will always suggest violence to her, but that's the best we can hope for. She will have control, unless she consents to give the scarab more control."

Sam just frowned. She could not tell whether or not an alien item such as the scarab, suggesting violence to Ruby was going to be better or worse for her. Regardless, she put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked.

"Fine...it feels weird...being in this thing," Ruby said. "Won't people notice."

"I have functions to conceal my presence," the scarab told her.

"I don't even know how to use this thing," Ruby said.

"Don't worry, we can learn," Harry sai.

"Oh, that would be so cool, and I can be a hero," Ruby said gushing in response.

'I would not trust the Superman,' the scarab said to Ruby. 'He causes strange bio-chemical reactions within you which would be a detriment to your concentration and your ability to focus.'

"It's not all glamorous," Harry warned her. "There's a lot of work to do, training, before you're even ready to do any real heroing, months before you're ready."

"Well, teach me then, teach me everything I need to know," Ruby said. "Between Supergirl, Power Girl, and Superman, I should be ready in no time, right?"

Oh, if only it were that simple. Harry decided to let Sam step in to handle this one.

"Well, you still need to focus on school," Sam said.

Sam had been very conflicted about the cards her daughter had been dealt. Being attached to this scarab, a weapon of mass destruction which seemed to have a very trigger happy approach to things.

"So, she's gone?" Kara asked.

"Yes, and I still don't know what she's on about half of the time," Harry said. "Now she's blocked your connection, it's going to be tricky to pin her down until she comes after us."

What caused Harry much interest is what Galatea meant when she said, they tried it, and it did not work.

Galatea approached a woman in the shadows.

"The World Killer Spawn has merged with the Reach's agent," Galatea said. "Six months sooner than she was supposed to."

"Then we have a problem."

Lyta Zod popped out of the shadows to face Galatea. Galatea stepped towards the legendary Kryptonian soldier, the ancestor of one of the most feared criminals in the Phantom Zone and dropped to one knee.

"Faora's still ready, in case…."

"Not yet."

Galatea nodded. She felt disappointed. Yet, Lyta's voice never rose and for some reason, that felt more unsettling to Galatea.

"Now, we do things my way, and not yours," Lyta Said.

"Of course, if we must," Galatea said.

Like she had a choice.