The Story Nikita Told

 A young man with dark hair and an open face sat in front of me. “Are you all-right?”

“Yes. Yes I believe so. I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble.”

“Okay why don't we start with proper introductions. My name is Clark Kent.”

“I am...called Nikita. It means 'hidden strength'.”

“Listen it's okay. You're safe here.”

“I don't think you are.” I replied slowly.

“I'm sorry, what?” A middle aged man with dark blonde curly hair said from the other side of the coffee table. He looked more concerned than anything else. But I could tell I had alarmed him.

“I didn't mean that as a threat sir. And I'm not radio-active or anything. But I am I..”

“You're in trouble.” Clark finished for me. “I kind of figured seeing you were unconscious and shaking when I found you.”

“I wasn't running away. I was...an asset. And my D.E.O. taskmaster WILL want me back.”

“D-E-- Department of Extra-normal Operations.” Clark reasoned. “Does that mean you are, from the stars?”

“My home planet is 50 miles past nowhere and yes I am resident alien. Wait – KENT?”

“Uh__yeah. The name mean something to you?” The older man said with an utter lack of hostility in his voice. In face he seemed quite literally nothing except surprised.

“When I first came to Earth, the first...Okay backing up a minute. The name Hiram Kent is treasured for me. I never found him though.”

“You never met him, and yet you value him, why? Or more importantly, what went wrong?”

“First, please tell me, are you descendant from him?”

“I guess that would come first.” Clark intoned. “Proper introductions should have included all of us anyway. Nikita, Johnathan Kent is my adopted father. He is Hiram's natural son.”

“Okay this is almost too cool to be real.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I believe in providence, or something like it. And if I didn't before I would start to believe in it right now. This is more awesome a thing than I could have anticipated. I have no way to convince you, but I will find a way to assure you it was not deliberate on my part. Breth-so-ree Ya Rey Fa Sool.”

“This may be a weird time to say it but is there a reason you didn't give your family name?”

“You mean other than the possible explanation that I disavowed my family name when I arrived on your planet. The very simple reason that I was never given my family's name. My own family that I lived with back home never claimed me. So no real family, no family name to inherit. That's how I came to your planet...Earth I mean.”

“...So you know I'm an alien, it reasons.”

“I know you're Kryptonian from the house of El.” I countered. Both men's necks snapped inward as if someone had dropped a very loud boulder in front of their faces. “It's what I started to explain before. The first friendly face I ever met on this planet was similarly foreign to it. He met me in the some caves to the west of here. As we waited for the rain to pass he told me of a small village, of a woman he had loved with all of his heart. That woman died and he was pursued for her murder. It was a complete accident but he didn't know how to explain it. He told me also of a good man named Hiram Kent who sheltered him from the police and helped him get safely away before the sun rose. This man, who I suppose I would call a friend if I met him again, identified himself to me as Jor-El. And I knew you had the powers a kryptonian derives from exposure to Earth's yellow sun, otherwise you could not have found me in the Canadian Rockies and carried me to the plains of Kansas in as little time as I hope has passed.”

“Did he stay long?” Clark asked me urgently. I shook my head.

“He said with the death of his love he had no reason to stay on this 'fractured planet' anymore. I think he meant by that 'hopelessly divided into millions of exceedingly different individuals'. I went a different direction from Smallville, geographically speaking. Almost 30 years later I was enfolded—that is the only word I have for it-- into the D.E.O. And I have served there for the past six years. Speaking of, I know you're there.” A dark skinned man with almost completely shorn locks and military aspect stepped forward.

“It's good to see you Nikita.” He said mildly.

“And you as well Director Henshaw.” I replied in just as temperate a tone.

“Found some new friends I see?”

“These people most kindly gave me shelter, yes. And yes I kind of like them. I take it...” I stopped myself, I had to be very careful not to break D.E.O protocol. Not just for the sake of Henshaw but so as not to confuse my hosts. “I have an idea but I have to ask for his own sake. Does this mean...Jeremiah?”

“I haven't seen him in three days. I have assume he was killed in action.”

“Johnathan and Clark Kent, Director Hank Henshaw of the Department of Extra-normal Operations. You're the one who mentioned we had been on a mission. I'M not breaking protocol in confirming that.”

“Fair enough.”

I felt the eyes of everyone in the room on me. “Something else happened, didn't it?”

“You could say so. I'd prefer to tell you the rest of it back at headquarters.”

“Then let's get back to the base so we can talk about it.”

“She is not going anywhere.” Clark said, taking a threatening step toward the director.

I shook my head at him. “Clark, while this is a free country I am a ward of his organization. You have no legal grounds to keep me. And that is what you would be doing you know. For the past 3 decades I have been a legal migrant of this country. It's my choice to make and I have made it. If you get in my way, you will be the one keeping me here against my will. . Unlike an old friend of mine, I never had a family to be torn from. The D.E.O. is sadly the closest thing to what a family should be that I can even remember. And in going back to it I am going home.”

We were within proverbial sight of the D.E.O. tower when I turned to face the Director. “It IS good to see you, J'onn.” Every muscle in his hands tensed on the wheel. “I'm an empath, I know you're not Hank Henshaw. You knew not only who Jeremiah was, but where we had been just under 3 days ago. And you do not feel even remotely like the asshole we left unconscious back there. I know Martians are shape-shifters. It was on a very short list of things that made sense.”

“And you're coming back with me? I mean you...won't betray me?”

“Am I going back in my cell? Are you planning on assuming the worst of every single powerful alien you ever meet? If Jeremiah was alive would you force him to follow your orders, against his own conscience?”

“Absolutely not. Of course not, you know that. And by NO means. In that order.”

“Then let's try another way. Let's make the D.E.O. something Jeremiah would have chosen to be part of.”

“I'm glad we think alike.” Was all J'onn said aloud. But I could feel his spirits rise.

“And that's how I came to serve at the D.E.O as a free individual. Under the real Hank Henshaw I was a prisoner, and then something like a ward of the state. I had a job to do and not much choice about whether, much less how to do it. J'onn made me an active agent of the D.E.O. I guess you would say he gave me a commission. But he is a little lax with me on smaller protocols.”

“Like wearing a DEO uniform.” General Anderson inferred.

“He knows what it would mean for me to wear one. And you pleasantly surprise me." Anderson blushed at the vibrant praise.