Nikita came to Earth, spent 11 months with Jeremiah and Hank Henshaw at the DEO. She was on a mission with them to terminate 'the most dangerous alien we have ever come across' J'onn J'onzz. She now works at the DEO with a disguised J'onn for whom Kal El of Krypton is a dedicated ally.
“Winn and Kal know how we met.” Nikita said in a forcibly calm voice. “And literally every one here knows I spent 11 months detained in this place prior to that mission. Yet none of you have asked why I was there that night on the precipice or even how willingly I played my role 'did my part'. Which this I can actually understand. It's not the sort of thing one would want to remember. But it is part of my life and so was he. Hank Henshaw would never have acted as you have, but because no one here had ever met him, you didn't have to act like him to play the part. But Henshaw wasn't the only human being I saw every single day when I was here. There was another. And if I hadn't gotten to know him so well, I would think your humanity, as we think of the word was betraying your otherworldly origins. I wouldn't have known there was anything or anyone like YOU, as you are now on this continent, if not for him.”
“You mean Jeremiah.” J'onn said blandly.
“Whatever the word is for 'willingly but not freely' we were that word at the DEO. It was an 'I'm here to help but I don't have to like it' for me. Jeremiah convinced me it was worth it. And was able to convince Henshaw to try a more thoughtful, intellectual approach with me. I don't my people don't do anything in our own individual best interest. You have to convince us it makes sense and is worth it. I followed where I was told to go. 'You can get me to track them you can't get me to hurt them' kind of a thing, because Jeremiah was right and they needed to see that. I wanted to give you guys a more excellent, effective less hare-brained way of trying to achieve your goals with 'those aliens' and we got that done, but it was way more than that, longer, deeper. I...he meant a great deal to me and showed ME a more excellent way just by being the kind of person he was. That's rare on any planet that's not inherently psychic or empathic.” Nikita turned and stared hard into J'onn's eyes. “What was the first thing out of my mouth when you met us that day? Not on the cliff by the fire that night, on the trail in the trees?”
“You put your hand out to your friend and asked me not to hurt him. You said 'tie his hands it makes sense but nothing else, please'. At the time I didn't understand why.”
“Because even though you had absolutely no reason to know this, he wasn't any sort of a threat, willingly or otherwise. You didn't know if our team was there to capture or kill you and I was pretty sure you were a warrior, not a hunter or a barbarian but...but I DID NOT want him hurt. I was there to keep him safe, my personal though obviously not official reason for being. Did you never wonder why?”
(conjunction is missing but this IS all one scene)
“I know he's not being deliberately ignored. Like I said no one knows how important he was. But he deserves to be acknowledged. People need to know that he was the kind of person he was. If Jeremiah had tried to make me feel normal I would have hated him, given what I thought of 'normal' around here. But he didn't, he tried to make me feel alright, acceptable. Something no other human...Hell no other sentient being...in my life has bothered doing. No human I have met has been as dark and blind as Henshaw. No human I have ever met has been as patient and compassionate as Jeremiah. So I can say with assurance that I witnessed the very best and the very worst of humanity, side by side with each other for 11 months. Because you're wearing his face, people know about Hank, at least that he existed and that you are a way better human being than he was. Kal, Jeremiah Danvers was to me who Johnathan Kent was to you, and none of you have ever even asked what his name was. It's kind of annoying!”
“Danvers?” Kal-El of Krypton said in a weak voice.
“Jeremiah Danvers, that was his name. I don't even know what happened to him.”
“I'm sorry, I you didn't know?” Kal-El said in a mystified tone.
“It's time to make SURE we're on the same page.” J'onn said in a deliberate, impatient tone.
“The first thing I can remember after that camp fire was waking up in Clark Kent's house. That is he was standing over me and it was obviously not a house in the Canadian Rockies. For all I knew I'd been either unconscious or out of it for weeks before he...you...found me. As far as not knowing what happened to him, I didn't want to know. Enough crap had happened to him on my account including getting a wooden spear through the ribs, I was basically just afraid of the truth. If he was DEAD he'd probably be better off than whatever else could have happened to him.”
“Nothing bad happened to him Nikita...he's with his daughters.” J'onn J'onzz said quietly.
“He's back with his family?” Nikita said in a trembly voice. “He...He has his happy ending?”
“You thought he died?” The Martian Man-hunter prompted.
“I thought he was living his life more alone than I was.”
“Wait, you both know Jeremiah!” Kal fairly shouted.
“The one time I remember using violence against a human was to get Henshaw quite literally off his back.” Nikita said coolly. “That Creche-ta shoved him against a wall for 'stepping out of line' while interrogating me. I basically football tackled the guy. Yes I know him...why?”
“Guys, Jeremiah Danvers is my cousins adoptive father.”
“I didn't know there were any Kryptonians on Earth except for you.” J'onn quipped.
“She...she hasn't revealed herself as an alien. She's a refugee or an immigrant by most standards, but yes another member of the house of El is here. Kara Zor-el took the name of the family that raised her. She's Kara Danvers to literally everyone but me.”
“Can you tell him I'm here?” Nikita said weakly. “Tell him I'm still part of the fight, this time by my own choice. Maybe, ask him to come see me? There is something I seriously NEED to know from him.”
“If you mean 'did he regret helping you' the answer is no.” J'onn offered.
“What he thought of me in the fracking first place the 11 months I knew him!” She exploded. “I know why he helped me, he knows more of my story than literally any human being on the planet. I've heard and talked about nothing with You, Winn or Kal about anything that happened before that night. Because I only know half that story anyway, Jeremiah IS the other half of that story, a part of it I didn't know how to tell, and frankly didn't think I should. Until today, I didn't think I could EVER find an answer. That's why his being dead or gone sucked so much and THAT is why I don't talk about my former time at the DEO...it reminded me way to strongly of a a dear friend. And the one person on this earth I would want to make proud of me. Not to mention it sucked just on general principle.” At that moment she seemed to realize she'd said something wrong. Pulling herself up and holding her hands flat against her hips she stared J'onn J'onzz in the face. “You were a stranger from Mars when we found you, but that's the extent of your time with them. I was an enemy alien held as a spy because I, and I quote General Elling 'supposedly don't know the name of my own planet.' Which, taken together with the fact that I'd lived here more than 20 years without telling anyone meant I was an infiltrator to this world. You looked more alien than anyone else I'd meet while in DEO custody. That was to your advantage and nothing short of serendipity. It was a blessing, not a condemnation for you. To them, I was an alien and didn't bother showing my 'true form'.”
“I don't understand you told me this IS your true form.” J'onn J'onzz said, sincerely mystified. “That except for having your cardiac organ where their left kidney is physiologically you're the same...that this is what you really look like.”
“And you took me at my word! You could accept that there were aliens out there who were not soldiers for either side, weren't here for vacation, and just want to live somewhere else. Honestly, I don't think it ever entered Henshaw's crystallized, fragile, narrow perfect mind that some are aliens out there who naturally looked more like human beings than your...(realizes she is talking to two aliens) than apes do.
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