Tear Jerker / Kara of Rokyn

• Jara "Jasmine" Vor-Tonn is a jerkass, but not without reason. Scion of a formerly persecuted tribe, Jara starred in erotic vids in order to put food on the table, and became a wrestler as a way to get into acting. She completely lacks any social skills, which is because she blew her chances at wooing Kara, and was so desperate for being loved she hooked up with the first person who pretends to care for her... even though said person was manipulative, outright abusive and racist. At the end, Kara, who had endured Jara's bullying the most, comes to pity her and decides to help her out.
  Kara had seen the exchange as well. Her attitude softened a bit towards Jara. She was, after all, only a human being, not an avatar of Evil. And if Jasmine had brought herself up from the dregs through wrestling, who was she to deny her a moment of glory?
• Pre-Crisis Superman is one of the loneliest heroes in the world. His secrets, his feelings of loss and alienation brought about by the deaths of his biological and adoptive parents, and his own inability to open himself up to his loved ones guaranteed he kept everyone at arm's length and messed up his relationships. A lot.
  Superman sighed. "I've never told you this before, Karaish. I haven't dared. I was...I was afraid for you."
  "Afraid for me?" She blinked at him in disbelief.
  "Yes. Afraid for you. I'd been operating in public, man and boy, for over ten years when you popped out of that rocket in that blue-and-red outfit. I'd made so many enemies I couldn't even count 'em on a computer. And every one of 'em was trying to find a sure-fire way to kill me. A lot of 'em got really close." He shook his head. "When I saw you, I was so glad that I wasn't the only Kryptonian on Earth that I just, well, wanted to swoop you up, take you into the Fortress, and have you stay there forever so that nobody but me would know you even existed. Just so I could know that you were safe.
  "That crazy Lex Luthor, if he really had hurt you, I don't know if I could keep that oath about not harming anybody. All those stupid crooks with their rotten little Kryptonite chunks burning holes in their hands, I could see them crowding up to you like moths to a lightpost. And those Phantom Zone misfits—you hear me out there, misfits?—might try to tear you apart when they got out of there the next time. I didn't want anybody to hurt you, Kara. Not anybody."
  Kara was silent, letting her cousin remove the firewall from his heart.
  "But I, I just couldn't do it. You had to learn how to live. You had to grow up. I couldn't keep you in a bell jar forever. I had to let you get out there and take some lumps, and learn how to deal with things. I—Kara. Do you know I always wanted a sister? I've always been lonely. A brother would have been nice. But do you think..." He was choking back his own tears. "Do you think that...I would've stayed single this long...if I'd grown up with a sister? Somebody who...could teach me about women...? Do you..."
  And now she was holding him against her breast for the first time, and rocking him. "It's okay, Kal. It's okay. I do understand. I do..."
• And that is not counting his relationship with his favorite relative is falling apart during this story.
• The Travelling Clan pays tribute to Jara before her final match with Kara. She is visibly moved.
  When she passed by the small area of the arena commanded by the Travelling Clan, she received a token bouquet from one of their number. For once, Jasmine was genuinely moved. "Honored by the Blood," she said. "This, tanth, is something I will not soon forget." She had no smile when she said this.
  "Make sure you do not, Tynth Jara, and honor the Clan," responded T'Jer Thi-Hali, the old man who was first among them. "Fight honorably, and win."
  Jasmine hesitated, then said, "I will do my best, First Tanth. My house blesses your house."
  "Blessings returned," said the old man, revealing nothing with his eyes.
• Teenager Lex Luthor was disowned by his family when it was obvious he was attempting to kill Superboy and wouldn't stop. His father warned they would take him to reform school and he would never see them again unless he dropped his grudge against Superboy. Unfortunately Lex was too obsessed with Superboy and utterly unwilling to own up to the fact their feud was entirely his fault, so he retorted they were too dumb and Superboy-loving to be his parents anyway. His father slapped him, and his mother tried to reach him out, but Lex wouldn't bulge.
  "So...Jules Luthor tells Lex, get out of here, you're no longer my son. Lex was totally—I mean, totally—he was actually crying. So was Arlene. Lena was sent to the Kents that night. They were about the only family in Smallville that hadn't soured on Jules and Arlene. Lex was begging his dad not to turn him out, said he'd straighten up, all of that stuff. But Jules looked Lex square in the eye and said, 'Answer me this. If we take you back, will you give up your war against Superboy? Will you give up that insane grudge you've got against him, and leave him alone?'
  "At first, Lex was about to say, 'Sure, Dad, anything, just don't kick me out of here.' But he looked up at Jules, and knew that his dad would know it was a lie. He had that hate for Superboy down deep. Way down deep. I don't even think Lex could have gotten it out of him if he'd wanted to, by then.
  "So he just looked at the carpet. He didn't say anything. Finally, Jules said, 'All right, then, Lex.' He told him...that he had ruined the family's reputation, that he had tarnished the family name, that no one would ever remember the Luthors as anything but the family of the kid who tried to kill Superboy. He told him that, after they took him to reform school the next day, they were leaving Smallville, they were changing their name, and he would never see them again unless he gave up his hate for Superboy.
  "And Lex knew, right then, that he'd never see them again. He'd never see his own parents again. All because of Superboy. If there was ever a thing that put the final nail in, that was it. He told me that, at that moment, he knew he had to kill Superboy. If it took him till the last day of his life, if it cost him his own life in the process...he had to get the kid."
• After moving to Rokyn, Supergirl starts feeling as if she has no place in Earth anymore. Several months later, Kara pays a visit to her adoptive parents and finds out they have adopted her depowered clone, who has been posing as her secret identity Linda Danvers, and realizes she truly can't go home again. She will not be missed even if she never returns to Earth, because as long as her old friends know, Linda Danvers never disappeared.
  Kara sighed and took her "sister's" hand. You can't go home again, she told herself. Especially if another you comes back home first.
• If the plan of Dream of the Endless had failed, the lives of the heroes in the only surviving reality would have gone to Hell.
  There was, of course, another reality in which terrible things happened. In that realm, Kara Zor-El never existed. Barbara Gordon was shot in the spine by the Joker, and lost the use of her legs. The Joker went on to beat the second Robin with a pipe, and then blow him and his mother up with a bomb. The Batman would have his back broken by a hulking villain, have to be replaced for a time, and then have his spine reconstructed so that he, impossibly enough, could go back to crime-fighting. Nightwing's and Starfire's wedding would be polluted by a Raven gone demonic. The noblest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, would go crazy and kill his best friends, try to take on a role like unto that of the Anti-Monitor, and mold his Truth's destiny into a different shape. Superman would die, and not be taken by Death, and would return to life. Millions of others, in Coast City, were not so lucky.
  And the Dreamsmith of that realm died, too.
  Nightmares.