Chapter Text
It had been a little over an hour since Kara, Alex and Lena had been put under asleep to find Samantha Arias, and Mon-El was slowly losing his patience, and his will to keep his promise to Kara to keep her in, even if things went south.
Watching Kara growing weaker by the minute under the effect of the magical eclipse was one of the hardest things he had ever done in his entire life.
Mon-El heard Kara gasp loudly, her fists clenched tight as though in pain.
“Ten minutes to totality. She can’t take much more.”
Brainy informed them and moved to bring Supergirl out of the trance.
“Keep her in.” Mon-El ordered.
Brainy continued without acknowledging him. “She’s only got minutes.”
“I said, keep her in.” He repeated himself in a firmer tone. One that no Legionnaire would disobey.
Oh how he hated himself for prolonging Kara’s agony, but this was it. This was why she had trusted him, and Mon-El would rather die than to break his promise to Kara.
Mon-El paced nervously across the Legion ship’s spotless flooring, chewing on his bottom lip, and fidgeting with his ring, all the while his eyes glanced faster than humanly possible between Kara’s distressed form and the map on the monitor in the middle of the commanding room which was supposed to show them a signal to find the Word Killers’ hiding place.
Seconds turned into minutes.
A soft beeping sound suddenly filled the room.
“It worked! We’ve got a location!” Imra claimed, causing him to turn sharply towards Brainy.
“Pull her out, now!”
The super smart Coluan nodded fast and wasted no time to rush to remove the white piece from Kara’s forehead.
Mon-El’s heart was racing way too fast.
Not a second later, Alex and Lena jerked awake, panting. Kara on the other hand didn’t wake up with them.
Mon-El felt his heart dropping like a stone.
She should open her eyes any moment now. He thought to himself.
Seconds were passing by very fast.
“Brainy!”
Needless for him to actually put in words, Brainy reached for his device to scan Kara once again.
“She should have woken up with them!”
Alex and Lena just caught up on what had happened.
“Supergirl?!” Alex gripped at her sister’s shoulders and shook them gently. Exactly what Mon-El was about to do, hadn’t Alex stepped forward. “Ka- Supergirl, can you hear me?” There was a distinct shake in her voice. Nerves almost caused her slip Supergirl’s secret identity in front of Lena Luthor.
Kara never opened her eyes and only kept tossing her head and breathing heavily as if trapped in a nightmare, unresponsive to anything.
Mon-El clenched his fists so tight that it would crumble the strongest of steel.
This can’t be happening! This is my fault!
Mon-El felt the tremors of the ship, indicating its full stop.
“We’re on location! We should go now!” Imra urged them and only then Mon-El remembered what their mission had been all along.
They really needed to move fast, otherwise they’d lose their chance. This was what Kara had sacrificed for.
His eyes moved from Kara to meet Alex’s equally worried ones.
“But Supergirl is –“Mon-El spoke what he knew Alex would’ve wanted to say as well, but Imra cut his words.
“Brainy can watch over her and we’ll be back soon to help! If we don’t go now, we’ll lose them again!”
“But –“Alex protested as her hold on Kara’s shoulder tightened.
J’onn who had been quiet all this time spoke up with a stoic expression.
“As much as I’m worried for her, we can’t lose any time. Others are here to look after her. Let’s go!”
“Brainy, please take care of her. “ Alex asked with a pleading voice, to which he confirmed in assurance.
“Don’t worry Alex, I’ll stay and help Brainy.” Lena added and Alex nodded reluctantly before letting go of Kara to go and suit up along with others.
“Mon-El?” Imra whispered urgently to him, who hadn’t moved an inch, causing him to finally snap out of his terrified daze and move to follow her out begrudgingly.
***
In the dark Kryptonian valley Juru, Kara witnessed as Lena and Alex both turned into bright blue lights and dissipated as though being written out of existence. She expected the same to happen to her right away and closed her eyes momentarily, bracing herself to wake up. She had to admit without her powers in this place she actually felt quite intimidated by Reign. Especially when she could feel her stamina fading by the second.
The moment though, never came.
Kara opened her eyes in confusion only to see Sam – no, not Sam, Reign – walking to her with glaring red eyes, inching closer and closer like a predator hunting its prey, with only one thought on mind. To sniff the life out her.
Her mind was instinctively shouting for her to flee. Yet her knees felt weak, rooted to the ground like the trees out there, in that haunted lightless place.
Predictively Reign clasped her fingers around her neck and closed them on her wind pipe in an iron grip.
“Now die!” Reign ordered vengefully.
Kara clawed at the stone cold hands over her throat and kicked out with choked breaths, seeing dark splotches spreading over her vision. She was losing consciousness very fast.
“Sa- Sam! Ugh… Plea- DON-
Impassive to her struggles, the ruthless bioengineered monster never loosened her hold. On the contrary she added to the pressure.
Tears streamed from the corners of Kara’s eyes, her hands and legs went limp. All the fight was leaving her. Maybe this was it. This was how Kara Zor-El’s story would end.
She hated it. There was still so many things she wanted to do. So many things left unsaid.
Kara thought of Alex. How she doubtlessly would blame herself.
And Mon-El…
His worried face filled Kara’s rapidly fading mind vividly. She made him promise that he would keep her in this Rao-forsaken place. He would never forgive himself. She was sure of that.
Kara’s heart clenched excruciatingly, more tears escaping her closed shut eyes. Why’d she always hurt him like this?
Just when she was at the brink of fainting, somewhere in between, she unexpectedly found herself breathing again in huge gulps.
It took her minutes to find herself again. She was lying on the foggy ground and no hand was strangling her anymore.
Kara looked around in dismay as she tried to recover from oxygen deprivation and spotted a figure no so far from herself. She instantly recognized the blue simple hospital clothing against the gloomy background.
“S- Sam?” Kara called against the pain shooting through her throat and coughed a few time.
Her vision finally came completely in focus and Kara saw how her poor scared friend was crouching in a corner, head bowed down and completely resigned.
“Sam, can you hear me?”
Kara tried to stand up in order to go to her, but fell down, dizziness taking over her. She was still too weak.
“Please Sam, you need to fight it! You didn’t kill those people! It wasn’t you! It was Reign!”
She started crawling towards her, hopping she would respond eventually.
Then it occurred to her that if Sam was back in this place that meant Reign was out there, wreaking havoc.
Her friends were in danger. Fear gripped at Kara’s heart and pushed adrenaline through her veins, allowing her to get back onto her feet successfully at last.
Kara made it to the vulnerable human who seemed to be in some sort of hypnosis and sat in front of her, taking her hands in hers.
“Listen to me! Sam? Remember who you are! Remember Ruby! You have to fight through this for her! Rise up Sam! Your daughter needs you! We all need you!”
Sam finally raised her head, face drenched with tears and eyes unfocused like she couldn’t see Kara.
“R- Ruby?”
She choked out between her mumbling and Kara nodded profusely, glad to be able to get through to her at last. “Yes! Ruby! She’s is waiting for you to go back home!”
“No!”
Sam suddenly snapped and pushed Kara harshly away from herself, before sobbing and screaming uncontrollably. She gripped her head as though being haunted by ill thoughts.
“Sam Stop! Remember your daughter! Ruby!”
“Shut up! Shut up!”
Sam rose to her feet and stormed away, disappearing among the thick fog surrounding them.
***
Mon-El landed a punch, as hard as he could muster, on Reign’s jaw, sending her back only a little. To his surprise the magical eclipse was affecting him too. Even though the Legion Ring was supposed to protect him against such things – and not allow his cells to deplete as fast as they were – he felt himself growing weaker quickly in that unholy place.
His mind was heavy under concerns, first for Kara who was lying unconscious in the ship and then his partners who were engaged with the other two world killers. Mon-El let his eyes stray from his foe briefly to glance at others.
J’onn was sparring with Purity, meeting each of her bellows with equal strength and escaping her high pitched ultrasound shrieks by phasing through them easily.
Mon-El spotted Imra thrown into a corner by Pestilence, but she recovered immediately and threw some boulders at her opponent by levitating them with her telekinetic powers.
They hadn’t really planned on this, however as soon as they landed in this sanctuary, with Mon-El standing in the middle, the peak of the spear, it was a silent agreement that in Supergirl’s absence he was the one suitable to take on Reign.
The mighty bioengineered weapon never flinched under his fists and only grew angrier and came at him with full force. He was about to throw his cape, but he was slow.
“You are weak.”
The blow threw him to the ground and sent waves of pain through his chest cavity. For a moment he couldn’t see anything, his vision blurred and he feared that more pain would come. Before she reached him though, a glowing red plasma beam suddenly engulfed the cold blooded beast with such blazing heat that he felt his beard getting scorched by it slightly.
The hot impact proved effective when Reign was send back with a groan and allowed Mon-El a few seconds to get back onto his feet and look at the shooter in surprise.
“Thanks Alex. I got this. Check on the others.”
Alex nodded and they both hurried off in opposite directions.
Then the Eclipse became full and everything went downhill.
They were all on the ground, worn out, while two World killers stood. Mon-El felt that all his powers had dissipated with the lack of sun rays. He couldn’t even stand.
They were at the mercy of their enemies and Mon-El feared the worse.
“Julia, please! Julia rise up!”
He heard Alex pleading with the dark skinned woman who was lying not far from them.
***
Kara took a few minutes to finally get back to her feet and tried to find either Sam or Julia. She knew something was wrong when she hadn’t woken up, but what else could she do? May as well try helping these women and her friends out there from here.
She had this sick feeling that something bad was happening out there and she wished she could somehow find out what and prevent it.
Every step was now a feat. She had never felt this weak in her entire life. The eclipse must had become full. Kara felt as though the ground was pulling her down, like gravity had grown twice stronger.
Kara managed to get herself to the rough walls of the unusual structure she had been trapped in, and leaned her weight on it, so she could catch her breath.
That was when her eyes distinguished another figure a few yards ahead. The blonde recognized Julia sitting with her back to the wall, frozen.
“Julia! Can you hear me?”
She touched her shoulders upon getting no reaction.
“Julia Please! We need your help! My friends – they must be fighting now! Please I need you! Only you can fight them back!”
Still no response. The girl was staring into the void, completely unaware of Kara’s presence or voice.
Kara felt tears brimming in her eyes as the hopelessness and weakness was taking over her. Her hands slipped and trembled continuously.
Was all hope lost?
Her wandering eyes at last saw the faint scribbles on the stone right above Julia’s head. Names. They were names. They must have been her friends and family. Her last attempt to save her consciousness.
“I am Julia Freeman. Peter, Mike, Beth, David, Chris…”
Kara read out loud, punctuating each name.
“… P- Peter? M- My friends?” Julia started slurring with difficulty and Kara saw that as a good sign to continue with what she was doing.
And then, with a loud gasp, Julia whipped her head, her eyes wide and unlike before, very clear.
She looked at Kara shortly, before turning away and looking at something only she saw with her features contorted in rage.
Kara held her breath.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY BEFORE? That only one of equal strength can beat you?!”
She did it! Julia was rising up!
And indeed she stood up slowly and charged ahead, before vanishing right in front of Kara’s eyes, most probably to take back her body from Purity.
Her happiness was short lived as Kara immediately remembered what had happened with Sam not that long ago.
Was Purity going to return to this dark reality and try to finish what Reign had started?
Kara pushed herself up and stumbled away in a hurry to put as much distance as she could between herself and where Julia had been, while feeling still very much powerless and fatigued.
Julia or Purity, neither showed up and Kara had no idea what that meant.
She didn’t like this. The foreboding feeling never lessened, never left.
There was no way for Kara to tell how much time had passed.
All she knew, was that she was completely alone and nothing seemed to be changing. She kept walking in circles it seemed, no land mark was visible. She couldn’t even find the door they had walked through.
Kara sighed loudly as a shiver ran down her spine. This place was growing colder and she was beyond exhausted. How long did she had to wait? Even closing her eyes and willing herself didn’t work and she gave up after a few tries. Why couldn’t she wake up?
“Kara Zor-El….”
Kara snapped her eyes open and saw a Kryptonian demon coming into her field of vision, standing boldly in front of her with a winning ugly grin plastered on its crooked face, cladded in a black shredded robe that was fluttering around its body menacingly. If she wasn't feeling so appalled, she would have compared it with the Dementors from Harry Potter, but right then her mind was blank. How did they even know her name?
“…You belong to the darkness now.”
***
Mon-El limped into the hallways of the Legion’s ship. Reign had gotten him good. Too good for a hunter who didn’t use leg work against the leader of the Legion of Superheroes. Fortunately the eclipse was gone and that meant his powers were coming back, but more importantly, Kara could become stronger and wake up.
“How is she?” He asked Brainy as soon as he set foot into the control room, followed by Alex and J’onn. Imra was taking care of Purity and Pestilance’s bodies.
“No changes in awareness, vitals are dropping.”
Sometimes like now, Mon-El hated the indifferent coldness in Brainy’s tone so much.
“WHAT?” Alex pushed passed him, anger and surprise dripping from her posture and voice. “The sun is back to normal! Why isn’t she gaining back her powers?!”
Lena stepped forward with her arms folded over her chest.
“We think since her mind is trapped in that dimension, she’s not aware of the changes in the real world and as it’s known, our bodies are slaves of our minds and what we perceive of reality. So, Supergirl won’t get her powers back until she becomes aware and believes she can have them back.”
“Someone needs to go back in there and tell her.” J’onn suggested, causing all eyes to turn on him.
“I’m going back in!” Alex declared without leaving any room for discussion and marched towards the chair she had previously been on, but Brainy raised a hand in objection.
“No, that’s not possible.”
“Why the hell not?!” Alex was very irritated. Mon-El feared she would soon turn his smart fellow Legionnaire into a pile of ashes with the new over-destructive gun Winn had given her. The Twelfth level intellectual alien on the other hand seemed totally unaffected. Calm as ever.
“For two reasons. Firstly, Supergirl’s body can not take any more strain than this, by guiding another person’s consciousness into that dimension. And secondly, we can’t simply send you there anymore. Your brain waves will no longer synchronize with hers because she’s already there. It would have only worked if you had gone in together like we did the first time.”
“… Then… then what do we do?”
Alex sounded defeated, reflecting how Mon-El felt.
“We need to replicate the frequency by some means.”
As always, Brainy had an idea how to fix things.
“What do you mean?” Mon-El asked with narrowed eyes, wondering what he was implying. His trust in rainy as his friend might had been shaken when he and Imra broke the Legion’s code of honesty, nevertheless he still had faith in his intelligence.
“Yes, it means I have to use this –“ He brought out a short white rod and held it up like and an antenna, swiping in different directions until he pointed it at Mon-El and stopped there, before completing his sentence. “- to find the only Kryptonian object available, vibrating in the same bandwidth of a Kryptonian brain, to induce it on another’s consciousness and put them under with its help.”
By the time he finished his sophisticated explanation, the Coluan was standing in front of Mon-El and his eyes were glued to a point on his chest, or rather the object hidden there, under his red suit.
“What -?” Alex was looking at them puzzled.
“He means the necklace.” Mon-El pulled on the delicate chain around his neck to bring out the beautiful blue pendant.
He reluctantly opened the chain and put his precious, priceless possession in Brainy’s waiting palm under heavy gazes from everyone, especially Imra’s – who had just arrived – that was burning holes in the back of his head.
The short dark haired man walked away, and Mon-El had to keep himself from protesting, since being parted with Kara’s keepsake gave him actual physical pain at this point. Brainy put it inside a highly advanced equipment which allowed him to analyze the properties and calibrate the main frequency they needed to record and recreate it to save Kara.
Even though Brainy was working fast, it didn’t take a full minute until Alex was again on his case. And who could blame her when all they could hear was Kara’s uneven breathing and the red lines on the monitor behind her, indicating the critical state of all her vitals.
“How long is this gonna take?”
She was already lying on the white chair, searching for the rectangular gadget with which she had last went into that alternate reality with Kara and Lena.
“Yes and it’s all done and ready for execute, but-” Brainy raised a finger, and stop mid-sentence with confusion plastered on his face upon seeing Alex buckled in the chair and made her react.
“What?!”
“ – No terrestrial physiology can take the initial electric shock generated by this procedure.”
“Then you are going?”
Brainy shook his head. “I could, but I need to stay here to monitor the device and prevent it from getting off course.”
“Then who else?”
Alex’s questioning eyes landed on Mon-El in front of her and he knew what she meant.
“I’ll do it.” He gathered everyone’s attention by his declare.
“Very well.”
Brainy waved at the other empty chair by Kara, asking him to get ready. Mon-El didn’t lose a second and laid down without saying anything further.
Being under multiple intense stares was unnerving, hence Mon-El was grateful when Brainy started talking again.
“I estimate a 41 minutes window for you to find Supergirl and then synchronize her frequency, with your own brain waves which I will be guiding them in order to wake her up.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“Convince her that the eclipse is no more and she can have her powers back. From experience the longer she stays there the harder it’ll be to wake her up.”
Mon-El nodded a bit unsure, but didn’t ask anything else as he turned his head away to let Brainy install the pale small device on his forehead. His eyes locked with Alex’s concerned ones.
“Mon-El –“
“I’ll bring her back Alex. I promise.”
Alex stared at him for a few more seconds, gauging his words and then nodded firmly. She trusted him.
For obvious reasons, Mon-El never dared looking towards where Imra had been standing all along.
Instead he gazed at Kara to his right. Her head had lolled towards him, unrested and brows furrowed. Her lower lip occasionally trembled, reminding him of the few times he had caught Kara suffering from a nightmare, over seven long years ago.
Hang in there Kara, I’m coming for you…
Her face was the last thing he had his eyes on before losing awareness.
***
Kara groaned painfully as she fell down on the rocky ground for the second time in her rush to get away from those grotesque demons who didn’t seem to want leaving her alone. It didn’t help that she kept hearing their hollow mocking laughter from every direction, following her in this labyrinth.
No matter where she went, she didn’t seem to be reaching anywhere. She hadn’t seen Sam either.
Kara cursed in Kryptonian loudly as she removed the sharp stone that had dug into her palm.
“Where are your friends?”
A voice from the shadows asked cruelly and Kara chose to ignore it.
“Have they forgotten you?”
A devilish laughter echoed from that shapeless dark space.
“They must hate you.”
“SHUT UP!” She was losing her temper.
“No one’s coming for you!
“They’ve left you here to die!”
“GO TO HELL!”
The annoying mirth continued and Kara growled through gritted teeth and glared into nothingness with clenched fists, hoping those lowlife beings would get her message and leave her alone. She wished the demons were made out of solid material so she could punch them hard.
Kara’s hand grazed on a wall eventually and she leaned against it, clueless to her whereabouts, and slipped down with sleepy eyes. Even though she feared closing her eyes, it was becoming harder to fight it.
Despite her greatest efforts at ignoring those callous creatures, their words had gotten to her.
Her breaths came in half shallow gasps as though the air had become thin.
Kara looked around her and noticed how the fog had thickened and darkness intensified.
Her heart thumped faster and faster as familiar flashes of memory attacked her.
Endless darkness of the space…
Flames licking the soil beneath, devouring all …
A frightened girl trapped inside a capsule …
And waves of heat sending her farther and farther away from where all she knew once was…
And it was no more…
“STOP! PLEASE J- JUST STOP!”
Kara whimpered, begging herself to stop this train of thoughts, with her hands clawing at her chest, urging them to draw in more oxygen.
She was back in that pod, suffocating.
…Kara…
Why now again? She had been already through this with Psi.
There was no stopping of her tears.
…Because of the earth’s yellow sun, you will have great powers…
Why she had to think of her mother now of all times?
… Kara I love you.
Her mother’s teary face morphed into another familiar tortured one.
...I promise I’m gonna be the man you thought I could be…
She recognized the tell tail signs of a panic attack and pulled her knees into her chest in a fatal position and let her muffled whimpers turn into quiet sobs.