Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Supergirl flew in the window with a sigh. James was off to pick up Lucy. Of course he was. She shouldn’t expect anything else. Romance was one thing she had failed at, drawing in men she had wanted only as friends, like Winn, or had no interest in at all, like Adam. Was it so horrible for her to want a partner?

She crossed her loft to the refrigerator and reached for a bottle of club soda with a sigh. It was probably just as well. Her perfect partner had probably died with Krypton. She was probably too strong to have a relationship with a human anyway. Kal-El had been lucky, he had found Lois, and his body was raised under the yellow sun, his powers coming in slowly, so that his Kryptonian brain could automatically compensate for the differences in strength. She had powers almost right away, with no sense of what it was like to be without them on this planet, save for under the influence of kryptonite and the effect of burning out her powers. 

She heard a skittering noise and turned, confused. Seeing no threat, she took a sip of water before she saw the strange green thing on her coffee table.She approached it curiously, wrinkling her nose. How had it gotten here? What was it? “What the hell?” She muttered, reaching out to touch the strange thing. It was...slimy.

She heard the strange noise again and glanced up, drawing in a breath and then…

There was nothing.

She woke to the warmth of red sunlight on her face, and blinked her eyes blearily. They didn’t want to focus properly.

“How are you feeling, Kara?” A feminine electronic voice asked.

Kara panicked, sitting up straight, staring at the droid in confusion, breathing hard.

“Reflexes are normal.” What looked like a Kryptonian attendant said, hovering closer.

“What are you?” She demanded. 

“I am Kelex.” The droid replied, tilting her head. “Your medical attendant.” 

“Where am I?” She demanded, looking around the spacious room, familiar and yet not. 

“Your confusion will abate as your temperature stabilizes.” The droid replied. “Would you care to dress?” The droid hovered closer to the bed, pointing out the blue tunic lying on the bed. 

Kara grabbed at the cloth, running it between her fingers and finding it hard to believe. “This is my mother’s tunic. She used to wear it when she put me to bed at night. Where did you get this?” She demanded angrily.

“I gave it to you.” A different voice came from near the windows.

Kara blinked, staring at the woman in front of her. “Mom?” She said after a moment. “How could you be here?”

Alura, or who appeared to be Alura smiled at her. “The military guild called Oli-Var in today, as they are presenting before the Council, and would not allow him to stay home. I offered to take over, since he stayed home with you every day since you were struck with the Argo Fever.”

Kara stood, studying the image of her mother for anything , any hint of where this had come from. “Who?” She said, resisting the urge to reach out. She shook herself, unable to do anything but stare. “This can’t be real.” Panic was starting to bubble up in her stomach. “You died with the rest of Krypton.” She didn’t close her eyes, afraid she would again see the destruction of her planet, or the darkness of the pod. 

Alura shook her head. “Oh, sweet Kara,” she said softly, as if to calm her. “You must have had terrible hallucinations from the fever.” She pulled her daughter into a hug. “But it’s over now. You’re awake, you’re safe, you’re home.” She held her close.

Kara, eyes wide, looked around and pulled away, approaching the long windows of the room, staring out at the city beyond. “I’m on Krypton.” Panic set in a moment later and she threw herself back from the windows. “This can’t be happening!” She declared, “I have to get out of here.” Krypton was dead . She knew it was dead. Krypton lived on only in her, Kal, her memories, the Fortress of Solitude, and what pale copies she could put on canvas. She dreamed it’s demise all too often. 

“Kara, Kara, please calm down.” Alura said, coming up beside her and trying to take her shoulders. 

Kara tried to kick off into flight, only to find that her feet stayed stubbornly on the floor. “I don’t have my powers.” She said, flatly. “Whatever’s behind this is mimicking the effects of Krypton’s sun.”

“We’re on Krypton.” Alura said, trying to keep her voice calm, as if to calm her wayward, confused daughter.

“What? No, someone is manipulating me, by using my memories against me.” Kara began to pace the bedroom, which was, admittedly, not quite the one she remembered. 

The doors opened and in ran a man with sandy brown hair, dressed in the uniform of the military guild. “Kara!” He said, eyes wide, stopping only a few feet away. “Of course you pick the day I have to leave to wake up, but thank Rao you’re all right.”

Kara stepped back, eyes wide, and still breathing hard. Were they going to take her away and send her to Fort Rozz? “This isn’t all right.” She said, “I’m not all right. Who are you?”

The man stopped, his arm stopping extended out to her. “Kelex, I thought she’d be fine when the fever broke. What’s wrong with her?”

The droid buzzed. “It appears to be lingering effects from the fever. The confusion should abate over time.”

“Kara, this is Oli-Var.” Alura said softly. “Your intended.”

“I don’t have an intended!” Kara said, almost angrily. “I was thirteen when I said goodbye to you in that launch bay and promised to take care of Clark...Kal-El.” She could see it in her head but then she met the eyes of the man her mother, or whatever appeared to be her mother, said was her intended, and something clicked. She could see the destruction of Krypton, feel the metal of the pod underneath her fingers, but at the same time...she could remember the warm air of an island, green vegetation, scrapes on her knees, and those eyes.

She took a step toward him. “You were stranded, after a ship went down,” she said softly. “On the Isle of Yord.” Somehow, she could remember that as well. “I remember you looked like some sort of wild man.”

Oli-Var smiled at her, still holding out his hand. “You were on a research mission with the science guild and had wandered off alone, hoping to discover some rare herb.” He prodded. 

“You scared me half to death!” She said, a smile on her lips despite herself, as she took his hand. “But...how can I remember both?” She shook her head. “You can’t be real.” He felt real though, she could feel the roughness of his hand on hers. 

Oli-Var pulled her into his body and wrapped an arm around her, holding her tightly against his larger form. “I’m real, Kara.” He promised. “Listen to the beat of my heart. I’m  real .”

“You don’t understand.” Kara said, trying not to be lulled by the warmth of the embrace. “I dreamed of Krypton every day since I was thirteen. I felt the shockwave when it exploded, the terror of the small pod in the darkness and the cold of the Phantom Zone…” 

Alura let out a small noise of distress. “Kara, the Phantom Zone is a terrible place...”

“I know what it is.” Kara said, almost angrily, pulling away from the embrace that was trying to trick her. “I don’t know how this is happening, but I’m going to find out, and when I do, I’m going home.”

“Kara,” Oli-Var said slowly. “Whatever you need to do or find, let me help you.”

Kara looked at him strangely. It was not an offer she expected from what she thought was a manipulation. “Why?”

Oli-Var smiled and tugged gently on a lock of her hair, before tucking it behind her ear. “Because that’s what we do, Kara. We help each other.”

Kara stared at him. “Even if it means that you’re not real? That none of this is real?”

Oli-Var took a step forward, and put his hands on either side of her face, tilting it up towards him so that he could look into her eyes. “Whether this is real to you or not, to me it is, and if you need this, I will do everything in my power to give it to you, Kara Zor-El.”

Kara couldn’t help but smile up at him. “You’re too perfect to be real.”

Oli-Var just laughed at that, the seriousness on his face melting into a smile. “You really don’t remember.” He teased. “You call me Grumpy too much to believe that.”

Despite herself, she smiled at him. Yeah, there was no way that this was real, and she knew she shouldn’t, get attached, that she couldn’t let herself get attached, but the temptation was there. Oli-Var was going to be the most dangerous part of whatever it was. If being Supergirl had taught her anything, that also meant he was probably the most important piece of it all.

Alex Danvers was not surprised that Winn somehow had her cell phone number. It was a Kara thing to do, give out her sister's cell phone in case of emergency. What did surprise her was the fact that Kara hadn’t shown up at work. Kara loved CatCo, and for her to miss work, there had to be something very wrong. Vasquez swore Kara wasn’t out on DEO business, the news crawlers had picked up nothing. Kryptonians didn’t get sick on Earth. She had thought that perhaps the solar storm had overloaded her, but a call to Clark had disabused her of that notion. So, when she met up with Winn and James at Kara’s apartment building, she was barely holding back her worry and yes, even fear. 

She might have even kicked in the door just to get Kara to yell at her if she was wrapped around a water bottle and eating ice cream due to Kryptonian PMS because she deserved it if she wasn’t answering her phone. Breakfast at Tiffanys was not on the TV and there was no copious junk food or secret edibles to be seen.

Instead, there on the floor, still in her suit, was Kara, unconscious and gripped by some strange, alien plant. “Don’t touch it!” She ordered the boys, before reaching for her phone and calling the DEO for medical evac. It said something about how stressed she was that she didn’t even think of sending the two CatCo employees away as they drove back to the DEO. All that mattered was her sister. She was going to save her, no matter what it took.

Chapter Text

Kara was pacing, putting her analytical mind to the challenge set before her. “Something has to be causing this.” She said flatly. “I don’t understand, but something has created this lie.”

Alura looked despondent. “Kara, nothing is wrong. No-one is lying to you. I’ve told you, you’re safe at home.”

“This is not my home!” Kara shouted, though before this she couldn’t say that she wouldn’t have thought it was. “My home is back on…” She froze, her mind suddenly unable to give her the details she needed. The name,  the knowledge , it should have been there, but she couldn’t seem to wrap her tongue around it. “Back on...back on... Earth! ”

“Earth is thousands of light years away.” Alura argued. “And why would I ever send you to that primitive planet?”

“Alura, stop, this isn’t helping.” Oli-Var argued, as he saw the panic rise in Kara again. He took several steps forward and held out a hand. “Come with me, Kara.”

Kara stared at his hand, suspicious. “Where?”

Oli-Var smirked. “I can’t tell if I like the novelty of getting to do everything with you like it’s the first time, or hate the fact that you’re so suspicious of me.” He said, shaking his head. “Somewhere to help clear your mind.”

Still suspicious, but unable to be in the room with the thing that was so like her mother for a moment more, she put her hand in his, and let him take her out of the bedroom where she had awoken. 

They walked through several round doors and hallways from the residence where she had grown up, and then he took her down an elevator. She studied him as they walked, trying to understand what he was, when he walked her right into a Klurkor studio. 

“Oh no!” Kara protested, throwing up her hands. “I only reached my first rank before Krypton was destroyed.” 

Oli-Var laughed at her, an honest-to-Rao belly laugh, and at first she huffed, hands on her hips, but soon after, she couldn’t help but crack a smile, and then chuckle despite herself. “What’s so funny?”

“Kara, you and I have a running tally of who beats who.” Oli-Var said, shaking his head. “Much to your father’s disapproval, and my cousin’s amusement, but if it makes you feel better, I’ll go easy on you. We’re not strict Klurkor when we spar. Just do what comes naturally. The whole point of this is to clear your head.”

Kara frowned, but went into a fighting stance anyway, she was Supergirl, after all, and Alex had pushed her to train with the...without her powers, so she wasn’t as hard-pressed as she might have been otherwise. 

It was still obvious, at first, that he was going easy on her, and that irked her. Kara narrowed her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she found herself falling into forms she knew existed, but she had never learned, flowing from one movement to another and it got progressively harder as she did what he suggested and stopped thinking. 

“Hey, cheater!” She protested, as he pulled a very illegal move, and as she fell to the mats, she pulled him down with her. 

“No such thing.” Oli-Var advised her, his hands bracketing her shoulders, his face hovering above hers. “Take any opening your enemy gives you, Kara.”

“Any opening?” Kara asked, looking up at him, thoughts she should not have pressing into her mind as she looked up at the man above her. She licked her lips, making a decision, when her eyes rolled back in her head.

Oli-Var had a brief moment of panic, shifting away and kneeling by her side. “Kara?” He said, watching in horror as she began to seize. “Kara!”

The claw was a brute force attempt, but when Max failed to give them anything, Alex had run out of options. She didn’t know what they were dealing with, and she didn’t know how long Kara could survive in whatever state she was now. It was her last idea. “The claw is made of a titanium alloy. We just need to pull it off, slow and steady.”

“Claw is secure.” Hank observed. “Commence extraction.”

At first, the creature seemed to come up from Kara, but as what appeared to be a mouth lifted from her body, it made a noise, and Kara began to struggle, almost seize on the table. 

“Her heart rate is spiking, brain waves are off the charts!” Alex reported, eyes flicking between the monitors, her vulnerable sister, and the creature in the claw. 

“Pull it off her!” Hank barked. 

Alex couldn’t do it, not to her sister. “She’s crashing. I’m stopping it...I’m….” She reversed the claw and released the creature. 

Kara’s body relaxed as the creature fell back against her.

“Hey beautiful, you back with us?”

Kara blinked back awake on the mats of the Klurkor studio, a hand on her cheek, staring up into blue eyes. “What happened?”

“You seized, because someone thought it was a good idea to spar with you when your fever had just broken.” Another voice said.

“She was panicking, General, I wanted her to calm down.”Oli-Var defended, as he pulled away. “Her mother was making it worse.”

Kara blinked, sitting up and looking around, she spotted her aunt and began to smile, when her memories began to fight again, making her pause.

“My sister has her flaws.” And then Astra was kneeling beside Kara. “How are you feeling, Little One?”

“Confused.” Kara admitted, putting a hand to her head, and getting to her feet. She stared at Astra for a moment as she stood, and then something clicked. “ You did this.” She said after a moment. “You did this to me!” She took several large steps back from Astra. “No, I understand now. You and Non are behind this.”

“Kara, Non was sent to the Phantom Zone years ago.” Oli-Var said, taking hold of her shoulders. “He’s been gone since before you found me.”

Astra looked completely taken aback by this. “My darling niece, I could never hurt you.” She said, moving closer. “I only want your happiness. I even took sides with Moira Der-En to have the council approve your courtship.”

“No, I...I fought both of you, days ago, back on…” Her mind scrambled for the word. She could see it in her mind, but couldn’t find the word, it was like it was laying awkwardly on her tongue. “Um...why can’t I remember?”

“Earth?” Oli-Var offered. “The angrier or more scared you get, the more you seem to lose, Kara.” He placed his hand on the small of her back. “Take a deep breath.”

Kara did, and then stared at her aunt. “But I still feel it.” She said, slowly. “I have glimpses of...flying from the yellow sun.”

Oli-Var nodded, holding her close, and holding up a free hand to stop Astra from speaking. “Did you do this often?”

“No...yes...not at first.” Kara said, struggling with the memories. “The people there, they couldn’t fly. I was forbidden after...after Alex and I got caught sneaking out.”

That made Oli-Var’s eyes widen and his voice change slightly. “And who is Al-Ex? He repeated, trying to keep his voice even. “Your intended on Earth?”

That made Kara laugh, turning to him in amusement. “My sister there!” She said, shaking her head, “Her family the…” She struggled for the name. “They took me in.” She shook her head. “Alex has always been there when I needed her.” She shook her head. “I have friends there who need me, family…I have to get back.”

Astra shook her head sadly. “What of your friends and family here who need you?” She asked. “Me, your parents, Oli-Var, Kal-El...he’s been asking for you since he heard you were awake.”

“Kal-El?” Kara repeated, eyes wide. “He has his own life, with Lois. He barely speaks to me.”

“Kara, he’s only twelve ahmzeht old!” Astra said with a laugh. 

“I was stuck in the Phantom Zone for twenty-four ahmzet and two lorakh.” Kara said, shaking her head. “He grew up without me, and left me with friends.”

Astra shook her head, walking toward her. “Kara, Kal-El adores you. He would never abandon you like that, just like I would never be your enemy.” She held out a hand. “Come, see for yourself.”

Kara couldn’t help but want to see Kal, and took a few steps forward, not quite trusting Astra, and fighting to understand why. Part of her desperately wanted to take her hand and hug her aunt, and the other half wanted to throw up her arms in defense and run, but...Kal-El. “All right.”

They headed to the door, and surprised, she turned back to see Oli-Var still standing where she had left him. “Are you coming?”

Oli-Var shook his head. “I need a moment, Kara. I’ll be here when you’re finished visiting Kal-El.” He gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Jor-El doesn’t like me much.”

Kara tilted her head in confusion at him, but nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Alex knew the hologram of Alura couldn’t give her more information than she had been programmed with. She was an AI, not a person. She wasn’t deliberately holding out on her, but Alex felt powerless and needed someone to take it out on, and the hologram was, through no fault of its own, stonewalling her. 

Which was how she ended up back in Kara’s apartment, trying not to cry as she looked at old photos and wishing she had been a better sister from the start. Then she caught sight of the person in the mirror, so like the hologram, and dropped the picture, drawing and firing in one swift movement. She continued firing, moving to her back up, against Astra, and then the enemy changed the game. Astra had her hand around Alex’s throat, which was starting to blur at the edges, but Alex heard the words anyway.

“I came here to help Kara, not fight.” Astra said firmly, holding the agent in her grip, and then letting go.

“You tried to kill her before, why should I trust you now?” Alex demanded.

“Kara saved me from a death without honor.” Astra replied, eyes sparking. “As a fellow soldier I expect you understand the meaning of that.”

Alex paused, running a hand through her hair. She did know what that meant, but she didn’t know whether to trust it or not. She didn’t want to trust it, but if Astra knew anything that could help Kara, she had no choice.

“Kara has been attacked by a telepathic parasite known as the Black Mercy.” Astra informed her.

“It has her in some sort of coma.” Alex agreed. “Her brain waves are still active. It’s like as if she’s awake.”

“The Black Mercy has her trapped in lifelike hallucinations. Her perfect fantasy life. One that grows more and more real with each passing moment.” Astra explained, looking almost as concerned as Alex felt.

“How do I wake her out of it?” Alex asked, not sure she could be more horrified. 

“Kara must reject the fantasy herself.” Astra explained. 

“But if she doesn’t know it isn't real, how can she reject it?” Alex asked, wondering at the paradox. 

“I can tell you how to help her.” Astra said, something like grief in her voice. “But you have to trust me.”

“Last time I trusted you, six soldiers died.” Alex bit back.

Astra caught sight of another picture of a much younger Kara and Alex. “I knew there was more to you and my niece.” Astra said, caught by the sight of Kara much closer to how she had remembered her. 

“She’s my sister.” Alex replied. 

“If she is your sister and I am her aunt, what does that make us?” Astra pushed. 

“Nothing.” Alex replied, blandly.

“Do not allow your hatred for me blind you now. Are you ready to listen? Or not?”

Kara had loved playing with Kal-El, seeing Aunt Lara and Uncle Jor-El. The sight of the puzzle xube, and showing Kal how it opened, twists and turns and pressing the right glyphs brought back moment of her own childhood, and staring at the projection, the sight of Krypton, the stars around them, all bathed in Rao’s light, like she had thought she would never see them again had done her heart good. Or had it? Because now she didn’t know what she believed. She had begged off more playtime and slowly walked back to the Klurkor studio where she had left Oli-Var. She knew if this wasn’t real, he was the least real of all, because no matter how far she dug she couldn’t recall him from before… before she had gone wherever it was she had gone, but he was the only one who listened, who didn’t tell her she had been dreaming, who didn’t try and tell her that her memories weren’t real. That made him important. Even if he wasn’t real.

She found him still in the studio, destroying a bioelastic gel opponent with what looked to be extreme prejudice. She watched, concerned, for a few moments, before speaking. Somehow, she knew he was upset. She didn’t know how she knew, but just like she knew he had been stranded on the Isle of Yord, she knew he was upset. “What’s wrong, Oli?” She said after a moment.

Oli-Var stopped, turning to look at her, with something unfathomable in his eyes. “That’s the first time you’ve called me Oli since you woke up.”

Kara blushed furiously, fumbling. “Oh...well...that is...look, what’s wrong?” She knew dropping the name of his House from his name was more intimate, something generally done only between family, but it had just…come out. She didn’t want to think about why. 

Oli-Var prowled towards her like a yagrum from the Scarlet Jungle, with something unfathomable in his eyes. “I fight, Kara.” He said, a little flatly. “It’s what I do. I fight, and I strive, and I attack the enemy. Sometimes I think it’s all I know how to do since the island.” The tone in his voice made a shiver go up Kara’s back. “But I don’t know how to fight this. I don’t know how to fight enemies I can’t see, to fight  memories that want to take you away from me.” 

Kara swallowed hard. Had anyone ever wanted her that much? She didn’t know, and faces blurred. She fought for rationality in the wake of his words. There was her sister, yes, but she had been a burden in the beginning, Kal-El...had abandoned her. There were friends, somewhere, she could see their faces, if not recall their names, but it all seemed a little less important. “Do you want to?”

If she thought he would smile, she was mistaken, as he growled instead, and took another step closer. “Until my heart is black and blue.” He replied. “I’m never giving up on you, Kara Zor-El.”

Not knowing how to react, Kara did the only thing she could think of, even though she knew it was terribly improper by Kryptonian standards. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, hard, with all the confusion, anger, desire, and dare she even think it, love his words had stirred up mixed with a mishmash of memories that she didn't know if they were her own or not.

Chapter Text

When Alex arrived at CatCo, Winn got worried. When they dove into their unfinished office and it turned out that the DEO agent masquerading as Kara was, in actuality, the intimidating head of the DEO, Winn thought his overtaxed and over-worried brain was going to break into pieces. “Okay, so, so, you were her?” Winn clarified. 

“I don’t have time for explanations!” Hank snapped, before turning on Alex. “There is no way you are doing this. This is way too risky.”

Winn shared a look with James, unsure if he was more scared, amused, or hopeful at the straight up paternal scolding the usually taciturn man was using, albeit scarily. 

“It’s the only way we can stop the Black Mercy!” Alex argued, hands out in half-supplication, even as her voice rose. “We can modify our virtual reality tech so I can enter into Kara’s mind and convince her to reject the hallucination.”

“Unless Astra’s playing you.” Hank shot back as he moved across the room.

“Have either one of you considered what would happen to Kara if you do this?” James asked, giving words to Winn’s worries.

“You’re basically yanking her out of heaven.” Winn pointed out, unable to help thinking about what had happened when Willow had done that to Buffy in season six. He really didn’t want a season-six-Buffy version of Kara. Somehow he doubted either he or James could pass for a Spike. “I mean that’s going to be slightly traumatic.”

“Agent Danvers has considered it.” Hank said, voice firm. “Which is why she came here.”

“Kara is going to need James and Winn by her side when she wakes up.” Alex said, surprising Winn, because hadn’t they just been thrown out of the DEO? “I know there are security issues…”

“Take them.” Hank said, rubbing the spot between his eyes. “Take them.”

Alex seemed as surprised as Winn felt at that. “I thought I was gonna have to argue that point a lot harder.”

“I’m beginning to see why she values them so much.” Hank said, and Winn felt pride well up in his stomach. Kara had always seen something in him, something he had mistaken for interest back in the day, but this, this was different, and at the same time, it was all because of Kara.

“Going out, Kara?” Zor-El asked as Kara swept into the living room. 

Kara paused, looking around. “Oh, I didn’t realize we had visitors.” She smiled at Aunt Lara and Uncle Jor-El, and quickly wrapped Kal-El into a hug. 

“It was unplanned, dear Kara.” Lara said, wrapping her up in a hug after Kal-El had let go. “If you are going somewhere important, please don’t let us delay you.”

Kara hugged Aunt Lara back, taking a deep breath of the woman’s perfume, which she had always remembered, even moreso than her face, when she was in her fever. “I was only going to meet Thara Ak-Var to go shopping.” She said, waving it off. “She’s complaining that I haven’t been to see her since the fever, and both her brother Tom-Var and Oli-Var have been annoying her. Especially Oli-Var, who she’s been grilling for status reports.”

“It’s always good to be close to those who will be family.” Lara said, patting her head. “I have been likewise blessed with you, Alura, and Zor-El. My mother could not stand her sister-in-law Tris.”

“Oh, Kara and Thara were best friends long before Kara met Oli-Var.” Alura observed with a laugh. “They would finish sentences for each other, and you would swear they could share thoughts, back in the day. She’s quite pleased Kara’s marrying her cousin.”

“I still don’t know why you accepted this, Zor.” Jor-El grumbled from his seat. “That boy spent far too much of his youth on Daxam.”

Zor-El shrugged his shoulders. “It’s hardly the boy’s fault that his father was the best engineer in the Artist’s Guild, and was sent to keep the peace there for a time. Had Ro-Var been meant for the science guild, I don’t think you’d have as much issue.”

“I would if I thought the Gands of that Rao-forsaken planet were going to cause trouble.” Jor-El replied. “Rumor has it Laurel Gand wanted him.”

Zor-El waved a hand. “You should know better than to listen to whispers, Jor. Laurel is only distantly related to the ruling Gands, from one of their White Triangle asteroid colonies. I doubt she has any interest in him.”

Kara made a face. “If she did, she’d have to face me.”

“Kara, really !” Jor-El complained. “You are a scientist. Be rational .”

Kara smiled at her uncle. “Rationality is not everything, Uncle Jor.” She pointed out, gently. “It was Erok-El falling in love with Milia, daughter of Uved, that founded our house, and brought Krypton civilization.” She raised an eyebrow. “And you married Aunt Lara for love, would you have Father deny me the same?” She grinned, tactfully deciding not to point out that Kal-El had not come from a birthing matrix. That was still quite a scandal, and not something one brought up in polite company. Still, the Els were a house known for romance, and really, he was one to talk. “Besides, rationally , I know I could beat her.”

Alex didn’t know what to believe when Hank brought forward the idea of the solar storms not being a coincidence. She knew he had to be right, but at the same time it was Astra who had given her the idea to merge their consciousnesses. What if it was another ploy? To take out the most devoted of Kara’s guardians before staging an attack? That meant she shouldn’t be doing this.

But if there was a chance, even a fraction of a chance that Astra had told the truth for Kara , Alex had to try. No matter what it took, she had to save her sister. 

Which is why Max Lord was currently out of his cage. She would do anything to save her sister.

Even work with that piece of scum. ‘The enemy of our enemy’ had so many layers right now that she couldn't even be amused by the irony. Or was it poetic justice? She was a scientist, not an English major.

Kara didn’t think it odd when Thara invited her on a family trip to the Fire Falls. She had dragged Thara on trips with her parents, after all, and they were family, or would be soon. Ak-Var and Bex had always been kind to her, and Oli-Var had been staying only two doors down from his family, so it made sense that they would both be invited, what with Moira and Ro-Var still in Kryptonopolis. She thought it a little odd, when everyone else busied themselves and Oli-Var had suggested a climb to the top of the Fire Falls, but she didn’t expect anything. Perhaps she should have.

Oli reached the summit moments before her, and as she pulled herself up she couldn’t help but smile at how the red light of Rao caught his hair. Kara pulled herself up easily, adjusting her ponytail. “It’s been awhile since I’ve done that,” she grinned. “Last time I came here, Mom insisted on taking a pod.”

“That takes all the fun out of it.” Oli remarked, and smiled when she nodded. “Come,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” Kara repeated, taking his hand. “What?”

“You’ll see.” Oli promised, drawing her along the paths, and across one of the bridges to a shield bubble where they could let their personal shields drop around the lava. 

Kara gasped at the sight before her. Inside the bubble was a picnic, all laid out on a round blanket, the entire thing strewn with flower petals. “Oli,” she said, unsure of what to say, completely touched. “This is amazing.”

Oli grinned at her. “I wanted to do something.” He admitted. “For just the two of us.”

“How delightfully improper.” Kara teased, letting him pull her into the bubble and down onto the cushions. She leaned over and kissed him gently, looking over the feast. “I love it.”

“Well, you know me, five years stranded on a desert island, I think most of society’s rules are unnecessary.” Oli replied, before wrapping a hand in her hair and kissing her back. “And I would do anything to see you smile like that.”

“You didn’t need to go to all this trouble.” Kara murmured, resting her forehead against his with the smile he spoke of, amused. “You make me smile by doing far less.”

“But you deserve it.” Oli replied, settling in beside her.

 They traded kisses and stories as they ate Kvornish pork and little cheese tarts filled with various feast tree fruits, while Rao sunk lower overhead. It was really a lovely evening, and Kara cuddled into Oli’s side, despite the warmth of the lava near them, resting her head on his broader shoulder as she sipped the spiced thoni tea he had brought out when the stars emerged in the velvet darkness of the sky.. 

“I wish this could last forever.” Kara said, wistfully. 

“We’ll come back.” Oli promised, holding her close. “We have all the time in the world, Kara.”

Kara smiled, staring up at the stars. “We do, don’t we?” She glanced up at him. “You’re unfair, you know. I never had a chance against your charms.”

“That’s the thing about me, Kara.” Oli replied. “I don’t play fair. I play to win.” He shifted again, pressing her back to the cushions as he kissed her again. “And you’re all I could ever want.”

“ Sweet dreams ,” in Max’s voice was the last thing Alex heard before everything went white and something in her mind seemed to shift. It didn’t even disquiet her like it normally would have. She had made James promise, and all that mattered now was…

“Kara!” She ‘ woke ’ in Kara’s hallucination gasping for breath, and sitting up. She looked around in amazement, still breathing hard, at the windows and the strange circular room, taking it all in, while a sinking feeling filled her stomach. “Oh my God.” She breathed out. “I’m on Krypton.” She hadn’t known what to expect from Kara’s perfect world, but strangely, she had not considered this option. A world where she was raising Clark? Absolutely. A world where she and James were happily married? Sure. She had even entertained a culmination of Kara’s power crush on Cat Grant, but she hadn’t considered Krypton . How was she supposed to convince her sister to leave a living Krypton?

She pulled her phase pistol and started down one of the hallways, clearing rooms as she went, until she heard a familiar voice. She had just argued with that voice earlier in the day, or a facsimile of that voice. 

“ Kara was a natural bringing evidence into court today. ” Alura was saying. “ It made me wish she had been for the Military Guild and become a judicator. Kal-El, you would have been so proud of your cousin.”

Then another voice spoke, as Alex moved carefully forward, one by context clues, she assumed was Zor-El. “ I noticed your mother and I were not the only ones who came to watch you today. ”

Another male voice spoke, as she moved closer, picking up speed. “ It was her first time in court. I wanted to be supportive! ”

“ And make sure Del-Or didn’t get any ideas. ” Another feminine voice teased. 

“ Del-Or is just nice. He knows I’m betrothed .” Kara’s voice said with exasperation, making Alex speed up her movements again. 

“ Speaking of your betrothal, when are we going shopping for your wedding outfit? ” The non-Alura feminine voice asked. 

Alex came upon what appeared to be a pod family room, and peered carefully through the window. Kara was seated between a young boy... was that supposed to be Kal-El? ...and a man, who was seated beside her, very carefully a proscribed distance away from Kara, but looking at her like she had hung the moon...or Alex supposed, moons, herself. Across from them on another couch were Alura and Zor-El, seated closer, and a brown-haired young woman. 

“Now Thara, we don’t need to rush Kara to the altar quite yet.” Zor-El said, sounding like every father about his daughter. 

“Dad…” Kara drew out the word. “The traditional lorakh of weddings is approaching, and you know it. ” Alex knew the look on Kara’s face, it was the I-love-you-but- really -Alex-you’re-being-overprotective look. 

“I’m just saying you don’t have to get married this ahmzet.” Zor-El defended. 

Alex then watched as the man beside Kara put his hand on the couch beside her, being very careful not to touch her. “I swear to you, sir, I will do everything in my power to make Kara happy. We’re staying in Argo. We’ll be close by for you and for Kal-El. I want Kara to have everything.”

Kara turned smiling to the man, and from the side, Alex could see the pure happiness on her face and it made her heart hurt, even before Kara spoke. “You do make me happy, Oli-Var.”

“I swear to Rao, you two are too cute.” The young woman, Thara, according to Zor-El, said, somewhere between amusement and disgust. 

Alex’s heart hurt. Not only did she have her family back, her parents, and Clark at the age he should have been in comparison to her, but she had love. Alex had been the one Kara had cried to about failed dates, breaking boys’ noses when trying to kiss them, and then when she had stopped crying at all, and started pining from afar, certain she couldn’t have love. Alex was fairly certain half of Kara’s attraction to James was the fact that he was taken, and she knew it couldn’t go anywhere, because if he was taken, then fact that she was Kryptonian and they couldn’t be intimate couldn’t be an issue. She loved from afar, like a princess in a tower. Here, though, with someone like her, she was engaged , and obviously in love.

And Alex...Alex had to ruin it all.

Chapter Text

It had been an exciting but nerve-wracking day for Kara. She had been called upon as a representative of the Science Guild to offer evidence in the development of an illegal bioweapon that was used against the Rankless, by one of her own Guild. She had been nervous at first, but the support from her friends and family helped her be more confident, and somehow, in between explaining how she had traced the bioweapon and how she had called the peace officers, she had gone on a passionate tangent about the need for Krypton to unite, for everyone to look out for each other, Rankless and Great Houses alike.

Oops.

Afterwards, though, everyone had congratulated her, her father claimed she sounded like her mother, and the rather large group headed to the Zor-El apartments in the residence towers. Some ochourikk juice and some cuddles from Kal-El later, she was feeling much better. Better enough to even stay amused as her father playfully tried to postpone her bonding, and Oli-Var reassured him. Better enough not to blush when Thara teased about how ‘ cute’ they were.

That better mood did not last through the strange woman barging into their living room, saying her name. Kara was startled, and yet...the woman seemed familiar. She stood a moment later than her parents and Oli, unsurprised when he defensively tucked her behind him. Normally, she would have complained, but in this case, it seemed appropriate. She wasn’t frightened, however, and spoke around her intended’s bulk. “Who are you?” Even as she asked, she felt she should know the answer to that question.

Alex couldn’t help but notice the defensive move from the younger man in the room, apparently Kara’s betrothed from the earlier conversation. How often had she done similar moves, when Kara was younger, or before she had developed her powers? To be fair, Kara hadn’t liked it any better then than she seemed to now, but she had done the same move to Kal-El, her hand extended behind her. 

“It’s me,” she said, unable to help the obvious note in her voice. “Alex.” There was no recognition, except an indrawn breath from the man, and she added. “Your sister.”

“I have no sister.” Kara replied, looking confused and defensive. 

“Kara, you’re suffering from the effects of a creature called the Black Mercy.” Alex explained, taking a few steps forward and ignoring the growl from the man. “It’s created this illusion to incapacitate you back on Earth.”

“Earth?” Kara repeated, pressing closer to the man’s back, and holding his shoulder tightly.

“It’s where you’ve been for the past twelve years.” Alex explained, unable to say how much her heart hurt when her sister looked at her with that level of suspicion. “I’ve come to take you home.”

“I am home.” Kara replied, almost flatly. She turned away for a moment, pressing her face into the man’s shoulder, and then, out of nowhere, came the blow from his arm, and everything went dark.

Kara started, fighting the urge to check on the woman, even as Alura sent Thara to call for the Peace Officers. Her mind was screaming that this crazy woman was here to harm her, while her heart was lurching, saying that this was wrong , that Kara should stop this . “Oli, what’s happening?” She whispered to him. “Why do I feel like I’m being torn in two?”

“I don’t know.” Oli-Var admitted, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her into a close embrace, for once not caring what her parents thought of him. “It’ll be alright, Kara. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The thing was, Oli-Var wasn’t sure what that meant . While Kara didn’t seem to remember her post-fever ramblings, he did. He remembered the complete lack of recognition on her face when she looked at him, her absolute certainty that Krypton had been destroyed, that she lived on Earth after decades in the Phantom Zone, and that none of their world was real, that he wasn’t real. He remembered his own spike of jealousy the first time she had mentioned ‘ Alex ,’ before she had explained that Alex was her sister.

And now, here was a woman claiming to be her sister, claiming to be from Earth, using that name. He didn’t know what to do. Should he tell Kara? What would happen if he did? How did he know that this wasn’t some attack on her? That the Argo Fever itself hadn’t been in retaliation for exposing the man just sentenced? Was it a coincidence that the supposed sister arrived on the day of the trial?

He knew one thing, he wasn’t going to let anything hurt Kara Zor-El. Whatever that meant.

Alex came to in what looked to be a courtroom of some sort, with a gasp. Her hands were in the most complicated cuffs she had ever seen, with Alura passing judgement. 

“The High Council has rendered a verdict on the alien spy.” Alura was saying. “We impose the maximum penalty, banishment to the Phantom Zone.”

Alex did the only thing she could do, she took a few steps forward, staring at her sister, who was standing with the man who had knocked her, her father, Kal-El, and Astra. “Kara, if they take me away, you and I will be trapped here.” She said, voice rough with fear. “Until the Black Mercy kills us.”

“Do not listen to her,” Zor-El advised. “Once she is gone, we’ll be happy. Like we were before she came here.”

“Why do you think they’re trying to silence me?” Alex demanded. “It’s because they’re afraid of what I have to say.”

Oli-Var was afraid of what the strange woman had to say, but something about this did not sit right with him. The trial was wrong somehow, and he knew it. “Kara,” He said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder, and forcing a smile as she looked up at him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Kara replied, looking up at him. 

“That’s right,” Alura said simply. “We all love you. This spy is trying to confuse you with lies.”

“No, I am trying to remind you of the truth.” Alex said, fighting against the men restraining her and her own sobs. “Life isn’t perfect. I know it can be hard,  and I know that you can be so lonely. I know how much you wanted family and friends and love, but Kara, we love you.”

Oli-Var tightened his hand on Kara’s shoulder as the spy spoke, still not sure what he would do. He hated the thoughts he was having, the internal battle he was waging. 

“You have sacrificed and lost so much,” Alex said, still in tears. “I wish you could have had a life with your family, I wish you had a Kryptonian to stand by your side, but even if you did, Kara, it wouldn’t be this, because this isn’t real. And deep down, Kara, deep down you know it.”

The foundations of the world seemed to rumble around them, and Oli-Var made a decision. He turned Kara to look at him, and for a moment, the rumbles seemed to stop. “After you came out of the Argo Fever, you told me I was too perfect to be real, Kara.” He swallowed as he looked into her blue eyes. “I’m not. I’m grumpy, and I’m selfish, and I have a past. I’ll never make it to the top echelons of the guild because I don’t take orders well, I brood too much, and I can be overprotective. We will always argue over music, and the quickest way to get places, but I love you.”

“I know.” Kara said, tears in her eyes.

“Kara, no!” Alex said, panicked. “He’s just trying to keep you here! I can’t promise you a life without pain and loss, because pain is a part of life. It’s what makes us who we are. It is what makes you a hero.”

“And apparently your sister likes me as much as your uncle.” Oli-Var said dryly. He held her face in her hands, and ignoring the fact that it would be a scandal for years, he kissed her hard, as if he could hold her to him with one kiss.  When he was close enough for no-one else to hear, he whispered. “Take her and run.”

Kara blinked at him. “What?” She whispered back, voice fragile, shaky.

“I love you, Kara Zor-El. I will always love you.” He whispered, “I can’t let you die, not here, not on Earth. I will always be here.” He touched her heart. “I’ll never leave you, even if we’re worlds apart.” He pulled back from her, noting that the people who should have been scandalized were watching with no real reaction on their faces. “Remember what I taught you?”

“Any advantage.” Kara said, wiping her eyes. 

Alex started fighting with the guards, and Kara looked over at them, her face torn. 

Alex wiped out the guards holding her and ran forward. “You fight everyday to keep people from struggling like you have.” She admitted. “I know you can remember, please. If you try, please. Please try, Kara…because Earth needs Supergirl.”

Kara shook her head, fighting with her own memories again. Oli was talking like the spy was right, and things were happening in a way that wasn’t realistic. Earthquakes shouldn’t happen based on her own confusion. What was happening to her? “Supergirl…” She murmured to herself. That clicked something in her mind. 

“Yes,” Alex said, relieved. “Remember that life, with James and Winn and Hank. Your friends need you, and I need my sister !”

The world around them began to rumble again, and the pillars of the room started to crack. 

“Kara, I can’t choose this for you. You have to choose it for yourself.”

Kara gasped as one of the soldiers punched Alex in the stomach. She moved forward as if to interfere, and then Oli moved.

Oli-Var crossed the room to the prisoner, nodding to the guards as he took hold of the Earth woman. “Be ready.” He muttered under his breath, as the guards fell back, obviously believing he was going to take care of the situation . 

He watched as Kara looked around at her family, and the moment he saw in her eyes that she had made the decision, he disengaged the cuffs on the woman. They fell to the ground with a loud clink that echoed in the room, despite the shaking around them.  He pushed Alex straight at Kara, and as the shock of the Kryptonians  wore off, they attacked.

“Oli!” Kara screamed, as what looked to be an entire squadron of fighters seemed to fall on him. 

“Go!” Oli-Var bellowed, taking on all the soldiers that were attacking him as if he did it every week. “I’ve got this!”

“They’ll banish you!” Kara argued. “I can’t let you get sent to the Phantom Zone! I want all of this to be true. I wish I could stay here with you.”

“They have to beat me first, and I can’t let you die !” Oli-Var argued back. “ Go , Kara!”

“ We brought you here to keep her here!” The Alura construct shouted at him. 

Kara shook her head, unable to look at the grotesque expression Alura’s face had taken on. “You’re not my mother!” She shouted. “You’re not real .” She looked back at Oli-Var just in time to see him take a lance to the side, and start to fall, a sob rising in her chest, even as the room cracked around them. Kara fell over from a blow from Kal-El, even as she moved to grab Alex’s hand and everything went white.

Chapter Text

Alex woke with a start, breathing hard, and levering herself from the table. It took a few moments for her mind and eyes to readjust to what she was seeing and the flourescent light of the DEO versus the warm light of Krypton. 

“Alex, Thank God.” Hank said, relief in his tone. 

Alex, once her bearings were gotten, still breathing hard, looked over to her sister and jumped off the table, staring at Kara. “You pulled me out?” She asked, voice tinged with betrayal as she stared at Hank. “How could you?” She turned on James, anger now threaded through her voice. “I told you to stop him!”

“I did!” James defended, hands coming up defensively as Alex angrily flew at him, able to take her frustration out on a more acceptable target than her commanding officer. “She was about to choose us!” Alex said, voice filling with tears as well as the brimming anger. “She was about to come home!”

Hank grabbed her and pulled her back from the photojournalist, even as she sdpat her rancour. “Alex,” he reassured her.

“ Why did you pull me out!” Alex shouted, at James, at Hank, at everyone in that goddamn lab. 

Hank forcibly turned her toward him, saying her name, but she only gripped his arm and shouted at him. “ Why did you pull me out? ”

“I didn’t!” Hank told her, even as her face screwed up in tears.

“Then how did I come back?” Alex shouted.

They were distracted by Winn, who reentered the lab, and crossed to Supergirl’s table. “Cause you did it.” He repeated it, coming up next to his alien best friend, who he had been on such bad terms with before this happened. “You did it. You did it. You convinced her.”

It went quiet as everyone turned towards Supergirl, still hooked up to oxygen, as the Black Mercy released its grip and slithered off of her body.  It made it only a few feet before it seemed to shrink and wither on the floor.

Kara woke with a start, disoriented and pulling off the oxygen mask irritating her nose. 

“Hey.” Winn said softly “Hey. Kara. It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Kara sat up, looking around, her eyes taking in as much as they could, re-accustoming themselves to her enhanced vision. She looked at a distraught Alex, at Hank, at James, listening to Winn reassure her that they were there, and that he had her.

The problem was, none of them were who she was hoping to see. She stared blankly for a moment, unsure how to react.

“You okay?” James asked, taking a step toward her. 

Kara didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, looking up only slightly when Max Lord spoke of the Black Mercy. 

“Kara, are you okay?” James asked again. 

She didn’t answer, she wasn’t sure how to answer, shaky and uncomfortable with the way Earth gravity barely pushed on her body, and a feeling of loss that she thought she had buried, combined with a new pain that felt as if she had been flayed alive. She moved shakily from the bed, trying to control the rage and anger that she kept chained. She swallowed and turned to look at Alex.

“Is he alive?” Kara demanded, voice scratchy, eyes aching, as if they wanted to cry tears that would not come. Alex only stared at her, and Kara went a bit louder. “ Is he alive, Alex?!”

Alex swallowed, unsure how to handle this as everyone looked between the two sisters. “Kara, he wasn’t real . The Black Mercy, it made you a perfect world…”

“No.” Kara cut her off. “No...he was different. Mom...the projection of my mother, she said it brought him there. Is he alive? ”

Alex took a step forward. “I don’t know.” She admitted, not entirely sure she believed Kara’s logic, but unsure what pushing the fact that her betrothed had been a fiction could do to her obviously fragile sister. “I couldn’t tell if the blow would have been fatal, and I...I don’t know what would have happened if he died in that world.”

“You started seizing at one point.” James said, unsure of Kara’s reaction, or who the ‘he’ Alex and Kara were talking about was. He immediately thought of Clark, and his fingers fidgeted with his watch, resisting the urge to press the button and check on his friend. 

“Then...it all depends on if his consciousness was freed before he…” She cut herself off at the look on Kara’s face. “Kara…”

“He’s fine then.” Kara clipped out. She had to believe it. She had no hope of controlling herself if she believed otherwise, and she needed to control herself. “He survived five years stranded on the Isle of Yord. He was a captain on the Isle of Thieves.” Her face was resolute, and it was obvious she would not tolerate any other answer. “Lances were largely ceremonial, and the guards never trained as much as we...as he did.”

Winn extended out a hand. “Kara…”

Kara ignored it, focused on Alex. “Who did this to me?”

“Non.” Alex answered, taking a step forward.

“Where is he?” Kara demanded, voice still eerily flat. 

“I’ve been working on that.” Winn admitted, holding up a finger. He let out an ‘eep’ as Kara turned those weirdly dead eyes on him. “Um...in the command center? Bridge? Main room?” 

Winn mouthed ‘ Wow. ’ at James as Kara went past them, Alex trailing worriedly after her sister. He looked at James and shook his head. “We’re so going to need a Spike.”

“Sounds like she had one.” Vasquez snorted. “Come on, Schott, focus on finding the enemy before you worry about that. I think Supergirl needs an enemy more.”

If Supergirl was honest, she was only partly listening to the debrief. She was walking a delicate balance of paying enough attention to know where Non was, fighting to keep her rage hidden in a closet deep in her own mind, keeping herself from falling to pieces, trying not to resent Alex because she knew Alex had done the right thing and had done it only out of love, and trying not to be overwhelmed and smothered by everyone’s concern for her. She would be fine. She was always fine. She had to stay in control. She had to be better. 

That didn’t mean she was perfect. “Non is mine.” She told Hank, ignoring his expression and his worry. She had no room for either right now. It was time for a much less pleasant family reunion.

She found him at the satellite tower, and flew into him at speed, landing a punch and knocking them both several yards away. Her anger buoying her, simmering under her skin, got her to her feet first and she moved to his prone frame, turning him over and straddling his frame, getting into his face. “Do you have any idea what you did to me?” She snarled, lifting his upper body from the ground with both hands. “ You made me lose them again! ” She punched him in the face. “My parents!” Another punch. “My friends!” Punch. “Kal-El!” She tightened her thighs on either side of his frame, feeling ribs crack underneath the pressure she was exerting. “My whole world .” She snarled, punching him again. She knew she should put him on his feet, that it would be the honourable way to face an opponent, but she had a voice in her head telling her to play to win, not to play fair, and to press any advantage the enemy gave her. She would listen. “But that’s not why I’m going to kill you.” She said, her voice going utterly calm. “No, your Black Mercy dragged in someone for me to love and I. Had. To. Watch. Him. Fall. ” She punctuated, each word with another punch. 

She lifted him from the ground, holding him by the neck, as if to strangle him, and began to climb into the air. He struggled against her, but she barely noticed his movements, like a fly in a web. “And you think I’m going to let you take this world away from me, too? You think I’m going to let you hurt them like you hurt me?” They were high above the city now, and she threw him down, pressing hard on his solar plexus as she let them free fall, making sure he could not escape as they impacted back down to Earth creating a crater. They landed hard, cracking whatever tool it was in Non’s hand, but Kara was beyond caring. Back on the ground, she just kept punching. 

“You stupid girl.” Non coughed, bringing up blood. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

“I’m stopping you.” Kara said flatly, bringing her knee down on his chest with a sickening crunch . 

“Your mother believed she could, but she failed.” Non managed, sneering at her. 

“I won’t.”  Kara replied, coldly, refusing him any space as she twisted the arm that scrabbled at the ground beside her. “Because I’ve known pain, but I’ve also known love, and tonight, I’m all out of mercy.” She twisted harder on his arm, all brute force. “The people here are the only family I. Have. Left. ” She twisted again, hearing a pop. “Krypton was stolen from me, but I will protect Earth until my last breath. Even if that means taking yours!”

“You have the Hubris of the Great House of El.” Non said, spitting blood in her face. “Which blinds you to the truth. Humanity...is a disease. Myriad is the cure.”

“I. Don’t. Care.” Kara snarled, using every ounce of strength she could muster against her uncle. “I will later, probably. I may even wish you could have been taught better, but tonight, tonight I just want you stopped .” She was relentless, her only answer to her grief and her anger right now was more pain to the both of them. To be fair, she wasn’t even sure when he had fallen unconscious. 

Then came Alex’s voice over the comms. “Kara, get over here now, it’s Astra.”

Kara glanced, well glared, at the man who should have understood, who should have been her uncle, her family , but instead, had turned into this, and flew off to the one piece of her Kryptonian family she had a chance, however small, of getting through to tonight.

Kara rushed, not caring about the blood speckling her uniform or her hands, unable to help the way her over-abused heart gave a lurch when she spotted Astra lying on the roof. “What happened?” She asked, the rage that had been keeping her contained falling away in pieces. 

“There was a fight.” Alex said, unsure how her sister could handle this after everything else tonight. 

“I killed her.” Hank said, coming up to them. “I’m sorry, but I could see no other way.”

“Kara, she doesn’t have long.” Alex said. 

Kara didn’t want to move forward, didn’t want to see this, but she did anyway., kneeling over her aunt. The anger she had been running on was nearly gone, and she was aching in a way that she didn’t know if she could survive. 

“Hello, Little One.” Astra managed, breathing hard. “I’m so happy to see your sister was able to bring you back.”

The tears started against Kara’s will. “Aunt Astra, I have to tell you,” she managed, swallowing around the lump growing in her throat. “When I was under the Black Mercy, you were there.”

“As your enemy.” Astra managed. 

Kara managed to shake her head, the overwhelming grief feeling as if it would choke her. “As my family.” She managed, voice rough and tears flowing down her cheeks. “You were by my side when...when I seized...and fought the Council so I could marry the man I loved.”

“Kara…” Astra murmured, reaching up to her. “Kara, listen to me. Non cannot be stopped. If you stand in his way, he will kill you, and those you love.”

Kara choked back a laugh, not wanting to tell Astra as she died that Kara herself wasn’t even sure if she had killed him. She had left him basically for dead when the call came that Astra needed her. “He said something about, um, Myriad. Tell me...tell me what it is before it’s too late, please.”

“It already is, Little One.” Astra answered, before she died in Kara’s arms, Kara felt the dam of her grief break more completely, but then Alex and Hank were yelling and she had to move. She had to leave the last piece of her family behind on a rooftop.

Kara was seated in the hologram room, knees pulled to her chest, unsure if she could activate her mother’s hologram. Usually it was a comfort, a reminder of the family she had left behind, but after the Black Mercy, it felt like another lie. After her aunt died in her arms, turning the hologram off would hurt too much. If the information she wanted wasn’t there it wouldn’t be worth it. So instead, she sat there, curled up in the empty room, just crying out all the tears she had to cry. 

Once she had, she took a long shower, washing all the blood off of her after the beating she had given Non. She showered until the water ran like ice on her hotter skin, and then changed into her normal Kara clothes she kept at the DEO and walked home, the long way, like a human, letting the sounds of people and families in the cities soothe the hollow ache in her stomach a little, even as they made it worse. 

She was so far in her own mind that she was actually surprised to open her door and find her friends, her real family, all around her apartment. She blinked, stepping inside and closing the door. “Oh, you guys, you did not have to do this.” She said, trying to sound normal.

Winn spoke first, trying for humor. “Like, seriously, we didn’t? I thought this was mandatory.”

Kara managed a small attempt at a laugh for him. She knew she should talk to them about the Dream Krypton, but she couldn’t, not right now. It was too raw. She did, however,  give them a little concession. “I guess it’s true what they say. There’s no place like home.”

Chapter Text

Oliver Queen woke with a gasp, disconcerted by the birdsong at his window. He took a few deep breaths, trying to wrest away the pounding headache he would have normally associated with a flashback, or a nightmare on the island. He was coated in sweat, as if he had had another panic attack in the night, his sheets twisted and tangled around his limbs and palms bloody from his nails digging into them.

He had never had a dream like that, and he didn’t know why it affected him so. Was it just another form of escapism? If it was, why did the man in the dreams have so much in common with him? Was it just that he couldn’t allow himself to escape the island, or was it something more?

And the girl, well, that was different. He had dreamed of other women, of course, but never in such a... romantic way. Was she just an amalgamation of what drew him to women, or was it a sign that he and Felicity were just not meant to be? Was it some sort of sign that he couldn’t protect her from Darhk? Was it a sign that she would be able to accept all of his history and listen without inserting herself into plans and putting herself in danger? And if it was, why did he dream of her as Kara and not as Felicity?

That headache was not getting any better, and with Thea’s issues and Roy’s return both to the city and to theft, he didn’t have time to think about it. There was work to be done.