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Chapter Text

Perilous Lands, 909 A.D.

„Quiet, I’m done listening to you. She’s done listening to you,” the man shakes in front of Morgana, the high priestess, and takes a step back.

“Yes, of course, your highness,” he mutters, forgetting he was supposed to be silent. There’s a shift in the air and he shivers.

The Goddess is here.

“Now, my love, it wouldn’t do any good to kill him,” the priestess lowers her voice, calming the powerful deity.

She flies just above the ground, her eyes glowing fiery red, despise written all over her face. Otherwordly, beautiful, dangerous.

“Humans. You are not worth our time.” Her is voice cold despite of the warmth that radiates from her body. She tilts her head and turns to her priestess: “Do you need this one for something?”

“He could turn to be useful, yes,” she rises from her throne, black dress slithering on the stone floor, fingers crawling to lift the his chin. Green eyes so light they seem white as the bones she wears as a necklace. Still beautiful as the witchcraft she can channel. The man can’t force himself to look away from them.

“Savages, all of them,” the Goddess remarks, hoovering behind her in a protective way.

“There was time you didn’t think that, my queen,” Morgana whispers without looking at her.

“There was time I didn’t know you,” the Goddess crosses her arms on her chest.

The priestess looks up to her now and smirks. “I appreciate the sentiment, love. Still, you know I might’ve exaggerated a tiny bit back then. You do remember I’m human?” her voice turns soft and caressing.

The Goddess turns her back and shuts her eyes for a brief moment, shoulders dense.

“I remember all too well,” her voice is hushed, barely there.

“Hey, that’s not what I meant, don’t go there,” Morgana takes a step, reaching out to her, desperate to catch her eyes.

That’s the moment the man chooses to attack, taking advantage of both of them being distracted with each other. A small dagger appears in his hand and without hesitation he runs it through Morgana’s back. There is a brief second in which the Goddess doesn’t realize what’s happened and still hasn’t turned around, but a sigh that escapes from the priestess’s lips sets her into action. Morgana is still breathing, as she falls on the floor, fingers twitching to try to catch something. The Goddess kneels beside her, stroking her face with her hands, leaving kisses to her restless fingers, mumbling words that don’t make any sense. The last life force leaves Morgana and then there is silence. The Goddess is still shaking her, but nothing happens. For all her powers, healing is not one of them. Then comes the scream.

The man, who had been lurking towards the exit, falls on the ground. The Goddess doesn’t even look at him, her eyes glowing in various colors, hands fisted, beating the stone floor with all her strenght, lungs just screaming and screaming. It doesn’t take long before the stones start to crack, the walls coming apart with it. The mountain shattering and leaving all but dust in its crater. A doom for the Goddess and her priestess.

*

Present day

Lena startles awake at her ringing phone. She squints her eyes, trying to see what time it is and 3.57 am does not mean well for the person on the other end of the line. She curses and accepts the call without looking who it is. “You better have a good excuse,” she says without really expecting one, people always seem to assume she’s available 24/7.

“Lena! Lena, we found it! Can you believe, after all these years, we found the location!” Jack’s hoarse and hyper voice carries through, not even trying to hide the excitement.

Lena’s heart skips a beat and she sits up, all of the sleepiness forgotten.

“You, you found it? Tell me it’s not a prank call at 4 am, Jack!” she can hear herself talk, thoughts already flying somewhere else.

“No! You know I wouldn’t… Listen, we’ve been so close the entire time, The Lost Temple of Zor-El, it’s right there, underneath the surface, bordering the ruins of the Cave of Nimueh and listen, Lena, it is cleared of all dangers of collapsing. It used to be a,”

“A closed off area, I know, that’s why we never got close enough to dig deeper and it’s such a small area that,”

“That we didn’t consider the temple even could be there. All the signs showed it should be at least five times bigger, but I’m sure this is it!”

“You have aerials?” Lena puts the phone on speaker and dresses hurriedly in her jeans and uni sweatshirt.

“Just sending them to you, with the exact coordinates. It was a local stratigraphy group, some of their finds crossed with our preliminary ones and the reference sent our alarm blaring,”

Lena opens her laptop, “and you’re saying we’re allowed to go there now?”

“Yes!”

The excitement they both feel bubbles through the speech, interrupting each other and talking over. It’s been close to seven years since they started to look for the temple, actually believing it was real. They had always been fascinated by the mythological lost worlds like Avalon and Krypton and Atlantis, that’s what brought them together as friends when they were just kids trying to survive their families. But they never thought it could be real, not until that find seven years ago.

A woven carpet of supposedly a goddess and a priestess, the colors faded, except for the red S symbolizing the deity and the green of priestess’s eyes. It wasn’t a rare picture, there had been similar findings. Usually the goddess was pictured with horns on her head, sometimes with a bolt of lightning, but on this one she had wings instead. Not the only winged picture of Zor-El, there were two others. The wings here were made out of words though.

It wasn’t clear since the strands of the carpet were not entirely undamaged, but on the further examination Lena was able to determine the shapes as symbols or runes and words. Words that no one was able to translate or even understand what language they were in. Perhaps Zor-El had been real and had come from a place hidden from the outside world? After all, the area had once been called Perilous Lands suggesting people didn’t dare to set their foot there. It still belonged more to a fantasy book than acceptable science theories (even the popular science magazines refused to publish the idea), but it gave new energy for both Jack and Lena to truly devote to finding the lost temple and perhaps find the true origins of this particular deity from there.

And now, there is a chance to find some of the answers!

Chapter Text

900 A.D.

There’s a loud crack roaring throw the night air, making Morgana steady herself against the stone fountain. Pebbles of sand slip through the rocky ceiling, almost as if the Earth herself had been trembling. There’s light coming from outside and then it all settles into calm once more.

“Morgana? Morgana, you in here?” Rowena’s voice echoes from the opening.

“Yes, what just happened?”
“Did ya see that?” Morgana throws her a look, as if she’d been able to see anything being cooped up down here. “Looked like lightning, but I ain’t a witch if that was something natural. Seemed nearby, Triden village most likely. As if something fell from the skies, only I saw no shooting star, more like the whole mountain shattering.”

“That’s Fisher King’s territory,” Morgana whispers as she steps closer to her friend.

“Used to be, dearie, used to be. Hasn’t been around much nowadays, now has he?”Rowena links their hands from the elbows and drags Morgana outside.

“I can’t see a thing,” it’s too dark to understand what might be happening a long distance away.

“Use your magic, remember?”

Conjuring the light into her eyes isn’t difficult. “There’s people, they’re gathering around the mountains,” doesn’t seem like the smartest move, but that’s always been the trouble with humans.

“Told ya, didn’t I?”

“It’s still hard to see any details,” Morgana mumbles, concentrating on what’s going on. She can’t use any spells without knowing what it is she’s supposed to see, but something, some pull out of this world makes her curious. “You think we could get closer without being noticed?”

“No doubt in my mind. You sensing what I’m sensing, the power so fierce it could light up this whole land?”

“Perilous Lands are already dried out, with Fisher King gone Krypton with all it’s sources remains hidden,” Morgana pulls on a black hood and checks if she still has her knife on her.

“A miracle!” “A God, that’s what it is. Came from the skies to save our land!” “If that thing is a God I am a rotten apple!” “Well, have ya seen yaself in the mirror lately?” “People, people, make way, passing through!”

They slide among the mass of villagers, holding their ears and eyes open.

“But there were markings on the stone, the olden markings from when the king was still with us.”

“Whaat? You believin’ in fairytales now? Next you’re gonna tell me Krypton is real.”

“Well, all the stories and arts don’t come from nothing, Sebius!”

The talk around them seems neverending until a figure emerges, floating just above the ground. Her clothes almost burnt, probably from the crash, the smell of melted hair surrounding her. Her eyes full of fear, but the stance still powerful and proud.

“Hi?” she waves with her left hand, tiny jolts of light flying from her palm, digging into the ground. Some seem awed, some frightened, some ready to attack. Morgana catches the eyes of the newcomer. They seem warm, like the sun. If you look too long into the sun it’ll burn you to a pile of ash.

“I’ve seen enough,” she turns away from the crowd, baffled Rowena torn between following or staying.

*

Lena’s following the markings with her hand. It looks similar to the S she’s seen before, but it’s mirrored and obviously huge.

“Lena, come on, we’re losing daylight!”

“Coming! Is Sam here yet?” she yells back to Jack as she grabs the bag around her neck. No answer follows, she frees her hands and carefully lowers herself down from the stonewall she’d been so intrigued about. She came out at the crack of dawn as she glides on the ground the sun seems to be somewhere high above. She adjusts her hat and settles the bag back on her shoulder.

“Miss Luthor, I’m sorry it took me so long, there was this conference in Prague about Kamas I simply had to attend and,”

“Please, call me Lena, we’ve talked over the phone last few weeks so many times it’s like we’re old friends,” she wipes her hand from the stonecrust and sweat and reaches it for Sam to shake. She looks younger than Lena thought she would, being a mother to a teenager and a known expert on died out languages.

“Oh, right,” she smiles and gives a firm handshake, “I hope you didn’t have to wait for me to get started?”

“No, that would have been they had to wait for,” James steps up and nods to Sam, “today’s the big day though.”

“James is our landscape expert, and the guy to guide us through the danger zone. James, this is Samantha Arias, she’ll be joining us to the caves.”

“Yes, Jess told me about it.”

“Jess is the person who knows everything and she’s a great survivalist. You should get the equipment from her, oh, before that, would you look at that S marking for a moment,” she gestures to the stone wall, “it’s not part of the temple as far as we know and there’s something… it seems to be a mirror, you might have an idea on the significance of mirrored symbols?”

“I’m not certain. They can represent the opposites or sometimes locks, secret passageways, the meaning as it was perceived perhaps? Mirrors show reflections so it could represent a different point of view. Hard to tell without knowing the full picture.”

“Well, that’s what I thought and that’s why you’re here, to show us the full picture once we’ve gone through the entire area. Where did Jack disappear to? He was just here?” she looks around for answers.

“He’s at the supposed entrance, said he’s taking some examples from the tree. Again,” James sighs and shakes his head. Lena can’t help but smile. Jack has been fascinated by the peculiar tree since they arrived here.

“Come on, I’ll show you to Jess and we can get you ready,” she gestures Sam to go with her and waves to James, “when Jack’s finished will you tell him to find me? I know we already went over the map, but I need to make some details clear with him as well.”

“Sure. Just bare in mind it’s nothing conclusive and we’re lucky to even have some sort of idea what’s waiting for us down there.”

“James, you worry too much. Did I tell you about the time we got trapped in a stone maze once? Fun times, we’ll get through anything, promise.”

“Right,” James does not look convinced, if not even more worried.

“Really, we’ll turn around if it’s too dangerous, as simple as that,” she adds as sincerely as she can and that seems to calm him down a little. “All right?” she pats him on the shoulder as she turns and walks towards their little camp.

“You got trapped in a stone maze?” Sam whispers once they’re out of James’s hearing distance. Lena shrugs. It’s not as if it was the most danger they’d ever been. There was that time in Caucasus when she was certain they’d die and no one would ever find their bodies. She’s still hesitant to go back there. “Yes, it was just behind this fun park back in Central city. We were nine and trespassing an excavation area. To be fair, we had solid evidence to think Queen Lois had been buried there. The boy in our class had found her ring. Little did we know it was stolen from a souvenir shop instead. As I said, fun times! Mother was unhappy though,” she still remembers her rage and the two months that followed in complete isolation from outer world. Of course, she had Jack had built their own line of communication for emergencies, so it wasn’t that bad. “We were trapped the whole night until workers came in the morning. Jess! Brought someone for you!” she shoves the door of the trailer open to find Jess building something.

“Oh, hi! You must be miss Arias? Come on in, I’ve got your equipment right here.”

“I’ll leave you to it. James says we’ll be going in two hours,” she nods and step back outside. It’s a beautiful weather, if not too hot. She’s tempted to go back to the symbol, but decides to find Jack instead. They still need to decide just how far they’re willing to go this time.

Chapter Text

Triden Village, 901 AD

“The Goddess is angry,” the tavern is full of people and it’s not hard for Morgana to remain unnoticed as she listens in to the village elder and his right-hand-man.

“She’s been great to us so far, helped with the building and the weather’s been better for crops this whole year. She saved my little girl from the waters!”

“Yes. And now she demolished two houses, we’re lucky no one got hurt! And I’m not saying we should throw her out, how do you even do that to one of the gods, but I think we should pacify her somehow. She’s angry and we haven’t really given her anything.”

“She doesn’t want anything! She rarely even speaks to anyone, she still lives in the mountain she landed on. The only times she’s out here is when she’s helping someone.”

“And yesterday showed it’s not enough. She’s a goddess, Hellivan, it’s been a whole year, I’m telling you, she thirsts for a sacrifice!”

Morgana’s heard enough at that and slips out of the door the same way she came in, unnoticed. The Goddess as they call her, the kryptonian as Morgana’s started to suspect, has stayed away from the village, sometimes she’s noticed her flying around, even catching her eyes from time to time. The sadness and a splash of curiosity too vibrant for Morgana, so every time she’s turned away, hidden back into the shadows she belongs in. No one knows what the Goddess eats or drinks, no one knows if her powers are magic or something more divine, not really. The only thing Morgana can be certain of is that her power is remarkable and Morgana’s magic desires to be around it. So that means she needs to stay as far from her as possible.

“Oh, dearie! You’re not thinking of her again, are ya?” Rowena appears from the backyard, her red locks impeccable even in the humid air. She wastes her magic on such trivial things… Morgana pulls on the hood to hide her messy hair.

“Whatever are you talking about?” she takes a step towards towards their dwelling.

“Am I not your bestest friend? The God you can’t seem to take your eyes off from. Tell me, has she taken a look back on ya yet?”

Morgana shuts her down with a look.

“Oh, you’re no fun.”

They walk in silence until she can’t help sharing. “They think she needs a sacrifice.”

“Whatever for? If anyone needs a sacrifice it’s us. For being so patient with their looks of distaste. And yet they come crawling if they’re in need of healing.”

“She destroyed two houses,” Morgana falls into thought. It must’ve been an accident. Her power is good, her eyes clear, there is no way she would’ve done it out of anger. Perhaps smashing some rocks, but not houses.

“I’m tellin’ you, you should go and call for her, this whole year you’ve been maddening in this obsession with her. If ya really need to know why she did that you should ask her yourself.”

“I’m not being maddening. You’re confusing me with Nimueh and her obsession with Emrys. Again.”

“Well, you are a priestess as was she. You have an obsession as did she. You live in the same cave….” Rowena tutters away, fishing for a response.

“There’s just something,” Morgana bites her lip, “her presence effects my magic, that’s all. You know it does the same for you.”

“It really doesn’t. I wish it did. The power would be enough to rival Fisherking’s,” Rowena gets a misty-eyed longing look in her eyes. Despite them being friends for two years now, there’s not much Morgana knows about her.

“Rowena, sorry, I’ll catch up later, there’s something I need to do,” she interrupts her.

“Oh, love, you do what you gotta do. But when did ya lose your fighting spirit?” she adds thoughtfully.

When I lost my sister. She doesn’t say it, but walks towards the village boarder in silence. She just needs to see how it looks like. What the damage is. There’s some looks thrown her way, but she just hides under the hood and keeps going. People haven’t feared her for years, since Morgause died and she doubts they even remember that fear. She still does, but it feels distant and foggy, as if the sister she once had hadn’t even been real. And how sad is that.

She gets to the demolished houses. There’s almost nothing left. How could this have been an accident? There’s no one around, the clean up organised for tomorrow. So, before she could change her mind, she steps in to the ruins. It’s cold. There’s a cracked up chimney still standing, a bed with no walls around and papers, papers fill all the floors. A rustling comes from the back corner. She knows before she reaches there, knows from the power surge in her magic, knows from the way her heart speeds up.

The Goddess, the girl, is curled up in a corner, or what would’ve been a corner just a few days ago. She almost leaves. Who is she to disturb her? She doesn’t want to be near her, no matter what Rowena says, it’s not wise, it just isn’t.

She all but runs to her, kneeling in front of the girl, who flinches away from her touch. So Morgana pulls her hands back, settling them on her own lap. She takes a breath, but doesn’t know what to say. So she doesn’t say anything. The girl rises her head, looking more at Morgana’s hands than eyes. “Don’t touch me,” the whisper is barely audible, Morgana swallows and nods at that.

“I’m not, see?” her own voice is a mere hush as well, the girl flicks a quick look at her face then, her eyes looking as if she’s been crying for hours and Morgana needs to hold onto her hands as to not grab her and pull her in a hug.

“I know you. Green. Like cats,” comes through the lips and the woman, the girl, the goddess, wraps her arms more closely around her.

“I, sorry?” she asks and is gifted with another look, this time their eyes locking. The sadness so bare in her eyes. It’s not like Morgana’s never seen sadness before, she has too many times. But it’s so bare, nothing hidden in those eyes that she can feel her own eyes prickle.

“Your eyes, they’re green like cats’. I like cats,” the voice is hoarse, but there’s a shadow of a tiny smile on her face.

“Who doesn’t like cats?” she asks playfully. The little laughter she hears then melts away any fear and doubt she had before coming here. The girl’s shoulders relax and she looks at Morgana without hiding.

“What’s your name?” it comes out before she can stop herself, “sorry, you don’t have to...” she trails off.

But the girl’s eyes sparkle at that and is that a blush? She chews on her lip before saying: “No one’s ever asked me that. It’s Kara. Kara Zor-El.”

Morgana smiles, not even registering the confirmation of Krypton. “Thank you, Kara. I’m called Morgana,” she offers her hand and to her surprise Kara reaches out, still withdrawing her hand the last second.

“It sounds beautiful, Morgana. Please don’t touch me though,” she adds quickly, pleading.

“I won’t. Not unless you want me to.”

“You have magic,” Kara says after a beat.

“And you’re from Krypton,” she counters, perhaps hoping to hear that laughter again.

Instead Kara’s look dims again. “I can never go back home,” and Morgana has to fight the urge to touch her once again.

Kara’s eyes are unfocused for a moment until she shakes her head and gathers herself from the ground. Morgana rises with her.

“I should go, I shouldn’t be here, they won’t like it, I, thank you, Morgana. I’m, I’m so sorry,” she mumbles, hiding her eyes again and Morgana knows she’s talking about the ruins, but decides to not mention it. And to think it was the reason she came here in the first place.

“Where...I wouldn’t want to intrude, but where do you live, Kara?” she asks instead.

“Oh. I don’t even know. I don’t think it’s far from yours though,” she smiles a little and floats in to the air. Most likely not even realizing it’s something odd. It’s probably quite normal to her.

“My place?” her voice rises.

“Oh. Yes, I noticed you. I, I should really go,” Kara shies away, waves awkwardly and disappears to the skies.

Close by? Morgana shakes her head.

Present day

“Watch your steps! The passage is moving downward form here on, do not forget to wear your gloves!” James shouts from ahead. The tunnels are getting deeper and the only source of light appears to be the headlamps Jess had made everyone wear. Lena drags her gloved hand over the solid soil wall, Jack just behind her, mumbling about maple trees and oak trees and how a hybrid should not exist in any kind of world. Lena still thinks his suspicions about the tree have no real basis, but it’s rare for Jack to be wrong about something. He tends to make mistakes only if he’s too excited, too close to solving the problem. Like that time with healer particles, that almost ended up killing him. They were seventeen, you’re bound to make at least some mistakes at seventeen.

The air gets colder as they move on, but it’s not hard to breathe, the passageway is big enough and soon they would get there, to the open space as far as she knows. She can feel her heart thumping, pounding behind her ribs. What if there is nothing left? What if the temple was never real? The walls get harder and stonier, markings carved into them. She stops and directs the light on something her fingers felt. A writing she can’t really make up.

“Sam!” she calls out just as Jack stumbles on her.

“Lena,what’s the hold up? Ooh, that’s interesting,” he eyes the wall and pats the writing. For a brief second the letters seem to simmer, but it’s probably the lights playing tricks.

Sam takes a few steps back to join them, James and Jess also stopping.

“Sam, you see this? It reminds me the S back outside,” Lena raises her eyebrow as Sam studies the lettering.

“Interesting,” she takes off her glove and ghosts the words with her bare fingers, “it reminds me of a manteion writing I saw once, but not the same. Something foretold, something the oracles must’ve seen. It has the star markings, see? But I can’t make up what the rest of it says. I’d guess it’s something about the temple’s close proximity.”

The letters are really surrounded by star marking, now that Sam has pointed it out she can see them clearly. Something else catches Lena’s attention though and she kneels on the floor to look closer.

“This is, it’s figures, right? Why is it drawn so low?”

“More like why is it in this place at all, wouldn’t the entrance or doorway be more logical?” comes Jack’s voice.

“The gloves!” Jess and James reprimand at the same time. Also the same moment Sam puts her bare hand on the drawing, though she pulls it back instantly. “Sorry, I’m used to feel the carvings when I don’t understand them right away.”

“We don’t know what you could touch over here, so best be careful,” James sighs as Jess pulls out the camera and flashes a few pictures.

“I don’t remember seeing those when I secured the path though,” James frowns, but turns back the direction they were going.

“You alright?” Lena asks Sam as they move on.

“Yeah, just wondering about the meaning.”

“Well, hopefully we’ll have more things to wonder about soon enough,” she pats her on the shoulder.

“One person at a time, there’s no room for more, but then we’ll be there!”

Jess is the first one to go through the narrow passage and once her voice comes through James gestures everyone else to follow, leaving himself the last.

And then they are there. In the entryway.

It seems as if they’re still underground, but the air is fresh and there’s sunlight coming through from somewhere. She can see the walls of the temple. Crackled, in ruins, as if a blast had torn them apart.

“It’s beautiful,” she can’t help the whisper escaping her lips nonetheless. There’s a click that awakes her from the amazement, Jess capturing her expression and moving on to Jack’s, taking a step back while doing so and then… she disappears.

Without a word she’s just not there anymore.

“Jess!?” she shouts, looking around, others noticing something is wrong.

“She was just there,” Lena walks where Jess had disappeared, but James stops her, throwing a pebble at the place instead. The air swallows it.

“Where does the light come from?” Jack whispers. “It can’t be the sun.”

“Okay, okay,” Lena forces herself calm. Sure, she hasn’t experienced anything like this before, but surely there’s an explanation. Perhaps there’s a secret room that’s only visible from a certain angle? And is soundproof? “We should go after her,” she voices. The fear has still not set in and it’s Jess. They can’t just leave her!

“No. I’m going after her,” James is pulling a rope around himself, “and you’re gonna pull us out of whatever it is, alright. This is not what I signed up for, but no need to worry, I want all three of you to hold on, alright,” he steps on the spot before any of them could argue, leaving barely seconds for them to grab onto the rope.

“Did he think he was too heavy to pull this shit? No he did not,” Jack presses through teeth as three pairs of hands are holding on.

“Use your legs, use your legs!” Sam is teaching, seemingly the strongest of all three of them.

There’s a pull on the other end and they try to move and pull themselves, but the rope just moves closer to the vanishing point.

“Hold on! Hold on!” she doesn’t know who shouts it and it doesn’t even matter. They are holding on, but instead of pulling they still get pulled. Then there’s a sudden surge of power, the rope yanks unexpectedly, they all fall forwards and then Lena is kneeling alone. The rope has slipped from her fingers. The people she was with slipped away with it.

Now the fear settles in. This is so much worse than Caucasus. People are lost, what if they stay lost? She doesn’t know when she started to tremble, but she does. The fear and the cold and she doesn’t have any helpful ideas. Should she follow? Should she go outside and get help? The light flickers. Turning from warm yellow to colder, much colder blue. She lifts her head and finally sees the source of the light. Inside the temple.

If that’s what’s responsible… anger adds to the fear and decisively she walks into the ruins.

Chapter Text

Cave of Nimueh, 902 AD

“Witch! Come on out, we know you’re in there,” the stones are creaking under the pressure, people trying to storm in. Morgana grabs the viles of potion and hexbags and throws them in a bag.

“Witch! Witch!” she shuts down the echoing. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before. Still gets her hands shaking though, always has, and a bottle of spidervenom falls on the stone floor.

She should’ve left the moment she heard rumors about people blaming her for the storm that not only ruined the crops but also the proper vegetable harvest. She’d gone unnoticed here for longer than anywhere else, but at the end of the day it was always the sorcery that was guilty of things gone wrong. It’s just that… she should’ve left, but she wanted to see Kara at least one more time, to say goodbye. But she’s never been good at goodbyes, so she didn’t. Kara had been more and more cut off from the village. She didn’t put too much effort in getting know the people, not after she’d hurt them. With the exception of Morgana of course. And maybe Morgana had known it wasn’t a good idea. Maybe she had known she’d mean only trouble for the fierce kryptonian.

Bang! they’re ramming the door now. Kara seemed to need her so she had continued their friendship.

“We’re you’re in there, witch! You have hexed the land, made it barren.”

“It’s always been barren!” she can’t help shouting back, “the only reason it worked before was the Fisher King, a sorcerer may I add,” she feels venom rising in her blood, how rich of them to accuse her. Really, she should strike them all dead. Ungrateful little parasites.

She grabs the bag and shuffles to the secret passageway out of the cave. She’d gone to see Kara for the last time, but of course she was unable to tell her it would be the last time.

She punches the door open with her boot and is greeted by a man pointing a dagger at her. She flips her wrist to disarm him, but it doesn’t work. She adds words to the movement, feeling the magic trying to pour out of her, but it doesn’t have direction and just fizzles in her veins. Something is blocking her powers.

“Not so powerful now, are you?” a smirk exposes two teeth and the man, she thinks his name might be Anvar, gestures her to walk out of the caves into the passageway leading to the mountains. There’s two more men accompanying him. With actual pitchforks. There’s only two things that could block her powers like this: the eye of stoneguard or another sorcerer.

The point her back towards the crowd huddled around the cave’s opening. She throws a bottle of lizard slime and Avalon water at them. The greenish smoke covers the people and she runs, not looking back. It must’ve been Rowena, she always was thinking of herself first and if they threatened her… or else a new sorcerer is in the village. If she could only get far enough, her powers would kick back.

She doesn’t get far enough. Being cornered between angry villagers and a trecherous cliff is not something she would have wished for, but it’s not surprising. This is how Morgouse had died after all.

“So, what? You plan to kill me and suddenly you’ll have enough food to last a lifetime?” she spits on the ground angrily.

“Nah, Hellivan here had a better idea. You’ll be the sacrifice to our hungry god, she will make it right,” the grin halfing the elder’s face is chilling. Kara? They think Kara would… what? Eat her? Consume her soul? Make her pregnant? She’d laugh, if only the situation wasn’t so dire. Her sweet Kara who was afraid to hurt people, who waved and smiled when she first arrived?

“She’s gonna use your blood to fertilize the soil again.” Someone answers her unspoken questions.

No. She can’t put Kara into that position. Kara would never hurt her. But she would never want to hurt anyone else either. She cares too much even if she only observes from further away. She’s a protector, that’s who she should always remain as.

Morgana takes a step back. It’s not like she has anything else to live for. No one cares if she lives or dies. They’d rather she died. And if she can save Kara from having to make that decision… the next step doesn’t land on the ground and she lunges herself back, off the cliff, into the doom that awaits. She hears screams, but she’s already falling. Falling towards the ground, a scream escaping from her own lips. It’s not fair. None of it was never fair and she doesn’t want to die, but she was never allowed to really live. She closes her eyes hoping to see Kara’s before she dies.

The rocky ground doesn’t come. She’s caught on strong arms and held against another body.

“I’ve got you,” Kara whispers into her hair as they fly back up.

The stunned silence greets them.

And then Kara yells: “AWAY!” it is so loud the ground shakes from the vibration. People run away, some caught by the soundwave, caught by Kara’s flaming eyes burning holes in their bodies. The screams are filled with terror.

“Kara!” Morgana looks at her friend. “Kara, leave them, please.”

Another roar escapes from the goddess and then she flies them to her mountain.

Present day

Lena curses the flashlight, curses everything that made them come here without proper equipment, without proper cameras, all because they were too impatient. Also to beat Edge to it, but she refuses to think about him right now. The truth is, they were prepared, they had taken all the pictures from above the ground and under it. Maybe preserving evidence hadn’t been their top priority on every step, but survival definitely had been.Jack had even sent the nanorobots to be sure of their steps.

The truth is, she doesn’t even need the flashlight that keeps flickering. Blue glow is so fierce it illuminates everything around her. The whole temple, what’s left of it, it’s marvelous, as if still breathing life through the walls and pillars. For a moment she’s left breathless from the beauty of it all, until the chill of losing her friends reminds her the task at hand. She just needs to find the switch to the trap, it was probably some secret door created to frighten the intruders away. Nothing too serious. They are all just fine, waiting for Lena to open the door again.

She steps towards the light, not neglecting to check every corner for further traps, heart pounding, knife finding a way between her fingers. A turn. Heart gallops as she takes it and releases her breath. Still here, still has a chance of finding the truth. Another turn. The temple can’t be this huge? Is it a maze?

And then she’s hit a wall. The path doesn’t go further, but she could swear the light comes right through the wall. After a moment of hesitation she tears off her gloves and reaches towards the stones, touching the edged with her fingertips, scratching the knife’s blade against the wall, making the temple echo from the noise. It vibrates through the floor and the ceilings, above, around, making the air whisper. Lena swallows but continues to search for something that would open the wall. And she finds it. A smaller stone that she twists to the right.

The creaking sounds old and rusty, the wall moving just a little, turning away from Lena. Slowly, slowly it disappears from the path. She leans onto it and presses through the opening. The light would be blinding if it weren’t so cold and if the air didn’t smell so moldy.

It comes from the back corner, she takes a few steps towards it.

She drops the flashlight, but grips the knife until her knuckles are white and hurting.

No one would believe the sight that she’s uncovered. She probably forgets to breathe, forgets to blink, she even forgets her friends disappearing.

The blue light is cocooned around an unmoving body floating in midair.

It’s a woman, blonde hair loose, dressed in red and blue, though her clothes are half burnt and torn. Her eyes are closed.

The goddess of Zor-El. It has to be the goddess. The real, real goddess. She looks like an angel with the blue light creating a halo to surround her.

It’s all real. Every last thing she’s been searching her whole life.

After a moment she steps closer. “Is this,” her voice is barely a whisper, trying to talk to herself, “some unknown way to preserve a body?” she finds comfort in her own voice, but it’s still so cold. She reaches out, touching the light. A spark burns her finger and she withdraws the hand, trying desperately to breathe.

She rises her head towards the woman again and… the goddess opens her eyes.

Chapter Text

Kitty eyes. Green eyes. Flecks of light, sparks of sun. Light warm green, geen.

Morgana? You came back? She wants to yell and run to her, but the mouth won’t move, she’s still frozen in place. The lights around are so painfully bright.

“Uh, I, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” the voice says. It sounds frightened, hesitant, weak from the sight of her like any other human.

Kara closes her eyes to escape the light. The image of Morgana dying appears instead and pain shoots through her entire body, leaving toes and fingers trembling.

A hand comes to her arm, barely gliding over it, but she can’t help the scream that loosens her mouth as she shoves back, her body shaking and she forces her eyes open again.

“Aaah!” someone shouts, there’s a bang like stones grumbling. Is it the same voice as before? She squints and tries to move deliberately, muscles still full of tiny needles pricking at her skin, the light still too bright, the green, the green still making her ache. She turns her head towards the noise, there’s a woman rubbing her head, collapsed to a stone wall. Again, she sees Morgana in front of her eyes, overlapping her vision, crashing her mind and spinning around. Smiling, holding her, looking at her as if she was good, but not all powerful.

The woman moves and sits up against the wall. Her eyes are closed, shaking her head, mumbling words Kara can’t hear. The thrumming sound of blood and the light is vibrating around her too loudly.

Her body starts to loosen from the ache and invisible bounds and she can finally feel ground under her feet. Her knees give up and she lands on one of them, hands rubbing at the stones, trying to find balance. Everything aches. Her fists demolishing walls around her, stones turning to dust, the cracks in the temple running and running, seemingly never stopping. Morgana’s body in front of her feet. The sound of thunder, the sound of screams, the sound of memories screeching at her… A sound comes out of her mouth. It’s not a scream, feels more like a sob. She just wants to go back to sleep. Everything hurts.

She registers a shuffle near her. Someone crawling closer.

There’s a hitch in silence. Breathing. No words. “I… are, are you alright?” the whisper makes her flinch away. She lifts her head and looks around. Not at the person beside her, anything but her. It’s the temple. She’s still stuck in here. Inside. Never leave. Trapped in a world not her own without anyone else.

The person moves and she glances at her. She’s rubbing the back of her head.

“You’re hurt.” She wants to say, but the words don’t sound right. Nothing seems right any more.

“You pushed me into a stone wall, it can hurt a normal person you know!” the angry answer comes before the woman clasps her mouth shut, fear in her eyes. Green eyes. Warm green.

“It’s not your fault, I mean,” she says carefully, as if she could spook Kara away. As if she’s a dangerous animal ready to attack her. “Could you help me, please?” it sounds small.

“Help you destroy everything like all humans do?” she spits out, feeling the strength coming back to her body. The woman might remind her of Morgana, but she is not her.

“I’m sorry,” she flinches and bows her head. Like so many humans before her. “My friends, they disappeared,” she talks to the floor, “I’m scared for them.”

“There are no such things as friends. There are allies and partners and lovers and enemies that can be disguised as all of them. There are humans not worth a glance. There are...” she stops, Morgana flashing in front of her eyes again. There are humans taking your breath away. But then, Morgana was a witch, not a human.

“I’m sorry,” she keeps saying that. As if it meant a difference, as if it changed anything.

“They disappeared right in front my eyes.” Is this woman relentless?

“Yes. Humans do that. They disappear, they leave, they turn on you,” she rises slowly. There’s still dizziness, the light is still too bright, but she is not weak. Has never been weak.

“No, they, they literally vanished into thin air,” the woman raises her eyes, looking up at her. Begging. Why do they always beg, is that what they think she wants?

“This temple is not built for everyone. It never was. Least of all now that they’ve set traps on every step. I was not around anymore, I am not to blame for their demise.” She search the room for a door.

The woman jumps up and grabs her arm. Again. Kara glances at her with a pointed look. She’s lucky to remain alive.

“They are not dead! They’re not! This isn’t,” she shakes her head, pain clouding her eyes. Probably forgot she’d hit her head. “No matter what’s happened, it always ends well. This is how it goes with us. I refuse to believe anything else. They are not dead, just trapped somewhere and you know where, you have to know, this is your temple! You are the goddess of Zor-El!” she almost shouts at her. “You’re the goddess,” her words repeat in a whisper.

“It always ends well? It ends well when a person you love is killed in front of you? It ends well when they set your home on fire so many times you need to build from stones and hide it? It ends well when all you do is help them and they fault you for every thing that goes wrong in their lives? It ends well when your whole world dies and you’re the one they curse with an escape? It ends well when they bind you with spells and drive you off a cliff? It ends well when they lock the door and forget you exist? It ends well when all they do is hurt and hurt and hurt? It always ends well!??”

She didn’t mean to shout it all out. There’s silence ticking around them, her breaths still rapid and angry. She’s about to turn and leave, knowing she has every right to that, almost expecting the woman to apologize yet again.

“That. Was. Not. My. Doing.” A response she doesn’t expect comes instead. It feels like a slap in the face and the woman takes a step closer, her eyes lit with fire. “My friends are not responsible for that. And I am not about to turn my back on them. I am not about to disappear on them. I am not about to vanish on them. So you help me or you get out of my way!”

She rushes past Kara to the doorway, head held high, holding back any trace of feelings.

“Wait!” The woman stops, but doesn’t turn around. “There’s a trap on the way out. You need to press against the left wall to pass safely,” Kara says with a sigh.

“Thank you,” tension leaves her body as she holds to the left.

“I deserve to know your name,” she tells to her back.

No response. She gives up on finding it out, when the answer fills the air

“Lena. You can call me Lena.”

Lena steps ahead quickly, as if afraid to look back. Kara follows, not even properly knowing why.

Chapter Text

Perilous Lands, 902 A D

“You should not have done that,” Morgana keeps saying, keeps pacing back and forth, shuddering as if what she’d done was the most vile thing she could think.

“And what? I should have let you die? Why didn’t you tell me,” Kara’s struggling to keep her emotions reeled in, to not cause any accidents in her fury. They were going to kill her! Not seeing any reason, not seeing Kara could never do what they wanted no matter what was at stake. “Damn it!” she crushes a rock with her fist and Morgana flinches. “Sorry, I, I’m not angry at you,” she whispers. But maybe she is. They could’ve done something before, they could’ve left together, anything! And now there’s so much rage she still wants to burn the whole village. It would be easy. A lot easier than trying to control herself. She should just let it die, like she lets everything die, it all always dies in the end anyway.

“Kara,” there are careful fingers traveling on her arm, bringing her back from the thoughts, “Kara, you need to breathe, right now,” comes Morgana’s voice.

“I AM breathing,” she clenches through teeth, suddenly realizing that maybe she isn’t. Air comes rushing in, making her dizzy as she searches Morgana’s eyes.

“Don’t scare me like that, Kara, okay?” the soft voice calms her a bit and she lets Morgana hug her. What if she’d lost her as well? The panic starts to build again.

“Shhh, you’re burning too hot, my girl, don’t want you to burn me,” Morgana sounds terrified, but she’s trying to joke. It’s not really a joke, Kara could do that, she can feel her skin burning. A choking sound escapes her lips.

“I hurt them,” she tries to mumble, maybe she succeeds, but all she hears is the ragged breathing coming from her lungs and the tingle in her ears and Morgana’s hands holding her even closer. And why won’t any of it just stop.

“I’m here, you hear me? I’m right here, Kara. Not leaving you, not going anywhere without you. Kara, Kara, Kara,” Morgana keeps chanting her name as if it was a prayer and it is. “It’s not your fault, you hear me, Kara Zor-El? You’re the kindest soul I know.”

Present day

Lena steps ahead without looking back, hoping to everything that her shivers are not visible. She could feel herself tremble in front of the goddess, fear settling in without a warning. It’s a normal reaction, she supposes, as is the curiosity peeking beneath it. The glimmer of something amazing and beautiful But how is all of this real?

A hand lands on her shoulder and she flinches.

“Stop, right now,” the voice commands right into her ear.

She glances at the goddess from the corner of her eyes. Her eyes are fixated on something on the opposite wall and Lena turns to look more carefully at it.

There are two black holes in it. She doesn’t remember those from before, but she was upset. She would still be if she didn’t have something else to be upset about. Mainly a power behind her back contained in a woman’s body.

“What?” she whispers back, “it’s just some holes in..,” she stops her sentence and takes a step back. The holes are moving, sliding downwards slowly.

“He won’t hurt you. Unless you’re here to demolish the place of course,” the woman steps in front of her, her voice turning softer, “how are you still alive?” she reaches her hand towards the… creature?

There’s a gurgling noise and the holes, the eyes, blink as something inside the stone wall moves.

“Don’t go near it!” she tries to tug the burnt fabric from her companion’s clothes, but she jerks back violently and shoots her a look that makes her still. Fear settles in again as she lets go.

“Kurat, hey, it’s me, Kara, you remember me?” the eyes that had just shot daggers at her were suddenly warm and loving.

Dark grey stone moves again and paws reach out of it. Claws and fangs and wings, the creature has wings and the blackest eyes! The wall trembles for a moment and then it’s right in front of Kara. The creature is not too big, about the size of a large dog, but it, he, hisses at Lena, eyes turning red for a moment.

“I know, it’s not her. But I don’t think she came to destroy things on purpose.” Kara seems to somehow understand the hissing noises and flattening of ears.

“What, what is he?” Lena can’t help asking.

“Who, not what. He was, is, the temple guardian,” she answers in a cold tone.

“Ssshhh, Kurat, it’s, I know, you and me both.”

Lena takes another step back feeling as if she’s intruding on something.

“You’ve been waiting so long,” Kara’s voice turns to a whisper, “I’m sorry you had to wait for me,” she strokes the head and the wings wrap around her, her body relaxes into the embrace. Black eyes blink again and look directly at Lena. As if trying to tell her something, but she doesn’t understand. It feels like a dream.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Yes, me too,” Kara sounds like she’s on the verge of tears and Kurat gives her face a lick with his split tongue.

Then he turns into stone crust and dust.

“Is this real?” Lena whispers without thinking.

Kara, the goddess, is still couching next to the pile of crust, her shoulders shaking from grief and Lena wants to hold her, but more than that, she wants to understand.

A long sigh. Then Kara rises from the ground, all evidence of tears swiped away.

“I’ve never known what’s real. We should move on.”

“Okay. What about?” she gestures at dust.

“He’s gone. There’s nothing left, only stones she made him from. You want to find your friends or talk pointlessly the rest of your life?” she snaps at Lena and hurries out of the room.

They walk in silence. Kara telling her instructions from time to time, but not looking at her. Lena avoids doing that as well, a restless feeling of grief and fear surrounding them. Then they seem to be out of the temple. Kara leans on a pillar and breathes a lungful of air.

“This the way you came from?” she points at the tunnels.

“Yes, but that’s not where my friends are. They disappeared right here.”

“Well, that’s where I’m going. You’re welcome to search for them.”

“What? You said you’d help me?” she doesn’t have a chance without her. She doesn’t even have a clue what happened.

“I really didn’t. And even if I did, I have a right to change my mind. I don’t need you and I don’t want you around me.”

“Fine! Then go and be slayed out there. Not like you have anywhere to go. You are out of time and you’re out of place, you might as well die right here.”

“I cannot be killed!” Kara shouts, her eyes flashing with light, ground shaking beneath their feet. Okay, maybe she really can’t be killed.

“You used to be angel for some, you know,” Lena tries a different tactic, remembering the picture that had ultimately led them here.

“You do not get to say that to me,” the danger in Kara’s voice is real and Lena has the urge to kneel in front of her. “No one gets to say that to me.”

She turns on her heels and steps away.

“Wait!”

Angry eyes snap back at her, but Lena only points at the floor right in front of Kara. “That’s the spot they disappeared.”

“There’s nothing here,” Kara tilts her head, burning eyes and looking through the stone. “Oh. Did someone perhaps touch something they shouldn’t have?” she asks Lena, a resigned sigh hiding in her voice.

“Maybe? There was a figure drawn,” she remembers Sam touching it with her fingers. “But she wasn’t the one that disappeared first?”

“Doesn’t matter. The damage is done. Humans. Come,” she grabs Lena’s hand and steps into the vanishing ring.

Chapter Text

Perilous Lands 903 A.D

“Nothing I ever do is good enough for them!” Kara is on the verge of losing control, fingers balled into tight fists, eyes furious.

“You helped that girl and she was thankful, right? Katerine? She called you an angel when you pulled that man away from her,” Morgana said like she’d been doing for the past half an hour.

“And yet they still hate me. Hate you!”

“No, no, Kara, this is not about me, listen, alright? I have always been at the verge, never a part of them. You can’t… love, you can’t make them like me as much as you wanted to, you hear me? This is not about me or you and perhaps even they are not at fault here,”

Kara’s eyes flashed red and a stone in front of them cracked into pieces.

Morgana’s arms wrapped around her. “Sshh, it’s fear, it’s things they do not know, it’s… I do hate them. Most of the time. And that’s why you can’t, you can’t let them get to you like this. You don’t need their approval, you are amazing as it its, you hear me?”

Kara nods against her shoulder. “I just… before they seemed to like me, but what I did, why can’t they see past that?”

“Perhaps it’s me, perhaps they are just too scared. It doesn’t matter what they think, it doesn’t. Now, how about you cut some stones that need to be carved for this place we are building?” she can feel Kara smiling.

The truth is, no matter what she says to Kara, she hates them every time she doesn’t see or feel that smile. Hates them every time she feels powerless in protecting the girl who cares so much. Still cares so much despite everything that has happened.

Present day

The passage is dark and feels like falling. This whole day has felt like falling, also like a hundred years. Lena glances a look at the goddess. She is also covered by darkness, but something inside her seems to be glowing. It is not a light, more like the eye of the storm, the eye of the darkness. Her being always at the center. How old is she? Kara draws symbols in the air and for a moment there really is light and then they fall through a door.

“Sshh, don’t make a sound!” she clasps a hand on Lena’s lips and whispers. It is still dark, but as her eyes get used to it Lena can see an archway.

She mumbles against the fingers, still worried about her friends. They are not here, there’s still just the two of them. Kara shakes her head and removes her hand.

Water drips somewhere.

“It’s the old cave system, come, we can get through here more safely. Do you want to save your people or not?” she adds impatiently when Lena’s still crouching on the ground.

Kara’s fingers slip on hers and she pulls her up.

Their steps seem too loud. The dripping water seems too loud, her heartbeat seems too loud.

“Don’t listen, just come with me,” Kara says as if she could read her thoughts, “the walls here amplify everything. It is why they wouldn’t dare to come here to set traps.”

Lena swallows, but grasps her hand tighter. Almost jumping back when she remembers who it is, but follows anyway.

Kara needs to tell herself on every step that it is not her. Even if she wanted it it is not her, it can never be her again. They had made sure of that. No resurrection for magic. And it’s not even as she, Lena, her name was Lena, feels like her. She doesn’t. It is just her eyes that brought up the illusion, everything else is different. The way she holds her body, the way her hands are nervous and want to wrap around each other, the way she’s not picking her words while talking to Kara. She was always so careful to express herself the right way, so careful to make Kara feel better, safe. Sometimes not even sparing a thought about herself while doing it.

The way there is no magic flowing through her…

Kara blinks back the tears that threaten to come again. It happened just yesterday and yet, also hundreds of years ago. All this time she felt it both ways. Frozen, yet somehow still knowing.

She almost walks too far and needs to stop so abruptly that Lena bumps into her back.

“This wall should separate us from them.” She listens carefully. Only the water and their breaths. She’s too weak to use her hearing properly. She knocks on the wall three times.

Echoed knocks and silence. They both hold their breaths as finally there’s three knocks coming from the other side.

“Can’t we just go through?” Lena asks, feeling the wall with her whole body.

“Not if you want to die. The creature on the other side will waken as soon as we are too obvious.”

“What, knocking isn’t obvious enough? And what creature is it this time?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Of course I do. Why do you think I’m here in the first place? Jack is in there! I am not going to leave him and I need to know what we’re up against!”

“Why are you here?” Kara turns to her, taking in the defiance and fear in one body. “Why did you come here?”

“To find your temple.”

“Why? What is so important about this place?”

“People don’t believe it exists. Not me and Jack, we always knew. Why do people do anything? My whole life I have been curious, wanting to find answers, fuck, even questions. And I found you!” there seems to be amazement in her voice. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be still asleep?”

Perhaps she would. Less feeling. But then again, more. Experiencing passing of time in two different ways.

“What creature?” Lena demands again.

Kara sighs: “You said your friend touched something she shouldn’t have. If we are not careful the creature will wake inside of her.”

“What? Like possession? You’re telling me that can be real?” her voice raises and Kara can’t help but laugh a little.

“Why is that harder to believe than me being here right now?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. Are you telling the truth?”

“I have no reasons to lie so do not ever assume that I am.”

Lena swallows visibly. One of the few tells that she is afraid of her. She should be.

“So, Sam, can we still help her?”

“Reign was constructed to defeat me, so I have no idea,” she really doesn’t. And at the shape she’s in right now she’s not even sure she could fight her if the need would come. Maybe it would be better to be defeated like that. It certainly wouldn’t be her problem what would come next. If she was gone. Would she see her again? Or are they so apart now that their time spent together will be the last forever.

“But we can get to them, right? You said we can.” She’s brought back from her thoughts by Lena’s insistent tone.

“Yes. We will need to move together, at the same time. Our secrets were built for two.” always for two.

“Okay. What do I need to do?”

She sends her three steps to the left and places her hand at the height of her eyes, two fingers on the wall and takes the same position on the other side. “Three lines on the same spot, finger long from left to right for you. Ready? One, two, three,” they draw the lines and the wall starts to creak, a cloud of dust filling the air. Once it settles there’s a human-sized hole near the ground.

Lena crawls besides it: “Jack? Jack! Are you there?” she whispers loudly to the other side.

“Lena!” finally there comes an answer and Lena laughs from relief. “Where are you?”

“Jack! Just follow my voice, we’re gonna get you out of there! Are you all alright?”

“Jess sprained her ankle, but other than that, yeah, I think so!” the voice is a bit nearer now, echoes of other voices surrounding it. How many people are there?

Finally a man crawls out, smiling broadly at Lena when he collapses into her.

“Jack! Don’t scare me like this, it’s not our last adventure together.”

The man, Jack laughs and comes up to his knees.

“Hey, Jess! Give me your hand, James has you, here we are,” he pulls out a woman who is soon followed by another man. And then there comes Sam. Kara knows immediately it is her. She remains quiet, being the first to notice Kara. “Who are you?”

She does not sound like reign, but it is clinging to her like a parasite.

Chapter Text

The Fisher King’s castle, Perilous Lands 903 A.D

“What are we even doing here, Morgana?” Kara flies through the almost ruins, careful not to touch the molded walls still standing.

“I just need to find something and then we can go on our way. We are going to make our home the safest place possible.”

“I don’t see how anything could help with people crowding the door every few months, demanding we come out and face their anger. Or the few beggars that happen to pass by,” she can still remember the last one. Thrown out of his own village, barely alive, dropping to his knees when the door opened at last. Of course, being grateful had not stopped him from selling them out and pointing the secret door to the village elder. It had not ended pretty. Two dead, several more injured. They had at least let them be after that, too scared to have the same fate. She had only blasted a force field at them! Perhaps she could’ve held her power better, perhaps chosen to flee, but she had been tired. Sometimes Morgana still asked if she was alright. She didn’t want to talk about it and Morgana started doing protection spells. Whispering them on every stone, every door and corner. She was mesmerizing like that.

“There it is! The spark of life,” Morgana kneels on the stone floor and blows on the dust settled there. A glimmer of magic pours out of her as the golden coin shines.

She casts a spell and the coin freezes midair.

“Come,” Morgana doesn’t say it to Kara but to the coin. It flies to her palm.

They leave the same way they came, fearless through the barren lands.

“To think they blamed you for these droughts. After this is done, Kara, we will find peace.”

“What?” for the first time Kara is worried about what’s on her mind. “Morgana, what are you planning?” dread fills her and she grabs Morgana’s arm.

“I’m tired and I will put an end to this.” she won’t meet Kara’s eyes, but she can feel her magic growing. Growing and getting darker.

“Morgana? Whatever you’re thinking this is not an answer!” Not her. Whatever she’s planning it cannot be her. Kara will not let it fall on her.

“Rise and destroy!” Morgana pushes the coin through a stone, magic swirling in the air. Kara tries to put it out, but it’s too powerful even for her.

The stone grows and grows until it turns into an animal. It’s eyes fixated on Morgana, reading her eyes, reading her thoughts. Then it takes off and flies towards the village.

“Morgana?” she’s scared to even whisper the name, seeing the tears in those green eyes. Full of all the emotions but above all is regret and Kara takes off without a thought.

“Kara!” she can’t hear her as she flies after the beast, to stop it, anything.

She is not entirely late and to her surprise the animal seems to understand her the same way it did with Morgana. But half of the village is already in flames and all that the people see is her and her burning eyes.

Morgana cries weeks after that.

Present day

“Umm, Lena? Could you tell your new, ah, friend here to stop crowding me?” Sam turns to Lena after Kara has made a circle around her, sniffing out whatever she was talking about earlier.

“Why do you think she would listen to me?” she whispers back angrily.

“I can hear you both. Of course there is no gratitude, I only saved your lives. I don’t know why I bothered, humans never learn.”

Jack gives Lena a look she understands all too well.

“I, guys, I found the temple?” she tries to start the story.

“Well, that’s great! But can we come back later once my leg is fixed properly? Not to be a downer here but I am really not very useful like this,” Jess gets up from where she’s sitting. Lena runs to help her.

“Well, I am certainly leaving. Goodbye, Lena,” the goddess takes the sight for the wall, apparently trying to melt it away.

“Wait!”

“What now?” she doesn’t turn around, but doesn’t move away either.

“Sam. You said something happened to her?”

“What happened to me? I don’t feel any different! Who is this woman?” Sam steps closer again. She doesn’t look evil or possessed.

“It hasn’t happened yet. Even if it did there is nothing I can do. Reigns were created to destroy me and every new version has been stronger than earlier.”

“What is she talking about?”

“Please, don’t leave without us,” Lena tunes out everyone else. Looking at the back of the woman with her shoulders slumped and clothes burnt. Standing on ground, not floating any more. As if she didn’t have the strength. Only for a second. Then her posture changes and her back is straight again as she turns around, face set in stone.

“Why? I have no reason to help you.”

“You will need our help. In the world, it’s not the same anymore,” Lena doesn’t even know what the fuck she’s saying. She just knows she can’t let her get away. Can not let her leave.

“Good. Then it won’t mind this time when I burn it to the ground,” she starts to turn again, eyes so close to dead.

“Don’t! Please, what’s your name?” she knows her name, at least she has her suspicions, but she cannot be sure.

“You are not her so don’t act like it,” the answer is quiet and poisonous.

“I’m not.” she needs to try again. “whoever you’re talking about I am not her and I don’t want to be. I only want to know your name so I could remember you, not the goddess I once saw.”

“My name is Kara, but you already know that, don’t you?” she turns quicker than lightning and is face to face with Lena. So very very close. So beautiful.

“I only guessed,” she whispers and swallows in front of that power.

Kara searches her face, perhaps detecting lies but all Lena can see is how mesmerizing she looks.

“All right.” Kara finally takes a step back. “We’ll go out together. Lena.”

“Yeah, hi, we’re still here?” Jack waves in front of her face now. “How about you fill us in on who she is?”

“Right,” Lena can’t help but smile at him. “She’s, uhm, well, and you’d better believe it Jack, I swear to… she’s the goddess of Zor-El.”

Jack laughs before turning serious. “She’s the? What?” the next moment his face lights up like a christmas tree. “Oh, wow, nice to meet you, then!” he looks at Kara wonder.

“Well, goddess or not, which way should we go now?” James cuts in and looks around.

“I vote for the same way they came in!” Jess points above. “Cause falling from up there was not a fun experience.”

“Your name is Kara? Zor-El?” Sam tilts her head, suddenly becoming part of the conversation again.

Kara looks like she’s about to murder her before she frowns. “What of it?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We should get going at some direction right?” she changes the subject again.

Kara nods, but continues to look at her, frowning.

Chapter Text

Perilous Lands, 904 AD

Morgana is laughing. It doesn’t happen often these days, at least not the happy laughter.

“Finally, it’s ready! The fortress for us, only us,” she clings to Kara, eyes sparkling.”It will protect us from anything. And Kurat will certainly do it as well, for both of us. Can you believe I really finished?” she laughs again, almost silently and Kara can’t help but kiss her on the cheek. Of course, she could protect them, so could Morgana with her magic. But she does like the warmth oozing from the stones, it’s like a castle built for their hearts. The last moons have been quiet, not many people bothering them. And after Morgana’s coin trick they’ve kept to themselves even more than usual.

She’d been worried, at first. But then Morgana started on her work again, on what she had already planned. She’d weaved the magic threads, borrowing the Kryptonian energy from Kara to put a soul into their new home. And now the soul has a name. The creature being embedded with both of them. He had shrunk smaller after that one night, perhaps sensing the way Morgana had felt, trying to disguise himself and become invisible. At some moments he is. Only his eyes almost glowing against the heavy stones. The place is small, no castle walls or hidden tunnels, but it is deep inside the mountain. Sometimes Kara can feel the Kryptonian energy field here, making it easier to breathe for her. And Morgana’s powers have always been stronger here, the way Kara herself makes her stronger.

“Can you feel it?” Morgana places her hand to a warm stone, “The heartbeat?”

She doesn’t even need to feel it. She can hear just by standing there. Kara smiles.

“Is it only him or is there something else here as well?” she asks, when her fingers catch a slightly different wave of something. Not a sound, but a feeling.

“There shouldn’t...” Morgana frowns and concentrates, tapping her fingers on the wall, “oh, you’re right!” she lights up so bright Kara almost thinks she’s back on Krypton, full of gold and light and home.

“I can’t believe...Kara! I can’t believe it’s real!”

“What?” she tilts her head, mirroring Morgana’s smile and catching her eyes.

“It’s us! Well, not us us, but that energy I used for the protective shield, our energy combined, it’s still vibrating in the walls and the stones. It’s truly a home,” Morgana looks to Kara, her fingers caressing Kara’s cheek and their foreheads finally touching. “It’s our home,” she whispers again, their breaths swirling together and the kiss is quite inevitable.

Present Day

Kara keeps eyeing that Sam woman. There is something inside of her, but it is still hidden, it is still so very weak. But so is she, she doesn’t even know how weak her powers are. There was a moment there where it felt like she would collapse, but catching Lena’s eyes helped to get over it. She tries to avoid looking at Lena as much as she can, but something about the woman feels like a magnet. Probably the past trying to relive itself.

Lena fits well with the others, especially Jack. They don’t talk much, but those two still keep whispering at each other, looking at Kara. How even dare they look at her? She knows they’re not the only ones, they all do. And their eyes… it feels like they burn her skin, feels like they’re leaving fingerprints with their eyes. And she hates it. She had always hated it, but now… they are complete strangers to her and she doesn’t feel like herself. She probably won’t for a long time. And time… she can’t think of time.

Suddenly, the walls crack around them. They’d managed to get through the room of whispers, but they’re closing in on the heart now. The walls can still, after hundreds of years, sense the invasion of strangers.

“How did you find this place?” Kara asks without turning around, her back to the others. She hears someone gulp at the crackling sound but their hearts seem to be calm enough.

“Science,” Lena and Jack answer her together, both giggling a little at that. Lena’s laugh is peculiar. It doesn’t make her remember another moment from things long dead, it doesn’t…. it’s not like the eyes that match … hers so strongly. The laughter… it’s not completely new, but like another side, like a mirror.

“Science? Do you mean real science or do you mean sorcery?” she looks at Lena, demanding the answer from her and ignoring how Jack seems to want to say something.

“Sorcery? No, that would be silly this day and age,” Lena huffs. Does she despise magic? How interesting.

“It was frowned upon back then as well, doesn’t mean it’s not real. You’ll see soon enough,” she adds, gathering her strength and hoovering above the ground again.

Lena avoids her eyes and her laughter dies on the lips. Good. She doesn’t need those things.

“I believe in magic,” the girl with twisted ankle says, Jess was her name, she recalls.

“Really?” James looks at her in bewilderment.

“Yeah. My grandma has a ghost in her attick, walks around every night at one o’clock,” she shrugs, “hasn’t caused any trouble ever though.”

She says it matter-of-factly, others seeming skeptical.

“I don’t know much about ghosts,” she says, her mind going to the one she kept seeing for months until … “but magic is right here,” she finishes, locking the thoughts about ghosts and green eyes helping her deeper down again to point at the archway they’d reached.

It’s the oldest part of the temple, deep inside the mountain that used to be here. They’d used most of it to build it all. She lands on the ground again, he palm caressing the stones. There’s still warmth here and she withdraws her hand as if someone bit her.

“What is it?” Lena’s voice sounds small and far away. The energy is still here, small traces of her energy. She doesn’t want to go in there. She won’t want to go out the other way anymore. She can almost hear her heart, but it’s twisted with time, frozen in place, crumbled to dust and pebbles. The energy is not the same as it was the fist time. It got tainted even before…

“My, uh, goddess? Kara?” Lena doesn’t touch her this time, her hand hoovering over Kara’s shoulder, wary of another attack. But she is still close, worried look… Kara needs to close her eyes to compose herself. Not her.

“Right. We need to go through this if we want to avoid all other traps of this place. There are many, from us and from them. But the magic will feel like electricity to humans,” she doesn’t say that it will also create a doorway to dreams or fears, the strongest feeling the visitors possess.

“We can handle that, right?” Sam looks around. In reality she should be the one most worried. Along with Kara herself.

“Alright then,” she nods and leads them through the archway to the heart room.

Chapter Text

Present day

The stones here seem to radiate warmth. At least they’re warm to Lena.

“How come,” she wants to ask how this can be the heart of the temple. She’d always thought it would be the altar room. But Kara’s stony profile makes her grow silent again. There’s waves of cold now and she can almost hear a heartbeat. It must be their footsteps. The path leads downwards, the walls made of pure stone and the ceiling arching clumsily. Then they’re in a bigger room. The thumping resonates in the air. It’s not really something one could hear, but rather like air vibration. Soundless, but crackling. It reminds Lena a performance she once saw. The atmosphere back then had been similar, the power of words, that were still waiting to be said. It bites the hair on her arms like static electricity.

Then it changes. She can’t see anyone else anymore. There are no screams, but they are just gone and she is alone in the dark.

It smells like water, air thick and full of lungfuls of something sticky. Something that aches all over and wants to be free. It feels like she’s trapped, alone, and the waves will come crashing down any second. There’s a light ahead, but it disappears after a few seconds.

“No, wait!” she shouts, but the voice won’t come out. Only waves all around her, the watery substance blocking air, crushing inside her.

“Mom!” fear tangling her and she tries again, but it only gets harder to breathe and she’s drowning.

The waves rush above her like a heartbeat. She tries to hold her breath, but is still suffocating.

She hears a cry of help and moves towards it, but she can’t, can’t move at all, can’t save anyone, the least herself. She can’t hear her heart anymore, only the waves and nothingness and she’s ready to give up, to give into the helplessness inside her. She doesn’t have a real family anymore, only Jack, but Jack is gone now, she couldn’t even hear his cry, she’s certain he’s gone and she couldn’t even try to save him.

There’s that faint light again.

“Can you hear it?” someone says and she wants to shout, that yes, yes she does, why won’t you hear me? But she’s still without a voice, without a breath in her lungs and she closes her eyes. Dying in the heart of the temple she spent her entire life looking for… her body goes limp with that final thought, but she can still hear something.

“That’s one way to do it,” the voice becomes clearer, a little amused, “sshh, you’re alright,” she opens her eyes and stares into her own, no, into a mirror of her own.

“Who are you?” she doesn’t so much ask as just thinks it.

“Hush,” a hand lands on her chest, just above her heart, “hear it beating?” and she listens and listens and finally she does, it’s still a quiet hum of a beat, but it’s there and the waves don’t seem so crushing anymore.

“Mine doesn’t anymore. You should have it, she won’t.” And Lena instantly knows that she means the goddess.

“What?” she can finally hear her own voice again, it’s quiet and tiny, barely above a whisper.

“We don’t have time, the nightmare will soon turn into a dream and then you’ll be back in your own world and I have to, I need to see her one more time before it’s all over,” she looks around and Lena notices how very similar they are. A mirror, a memory, a past… but she’s not real, her body shivering and starting to turn transparent.

“There’s no one else I’d give it to, well, except for her, but… you’ll understand one day. I… I’m sorry it happened this way, I am but magic and I won’t remain, but she will see you. Take it,” there’s something in her hands, it is glowing with green light and then it disappears, “Go!” she pushes into Lena’s heart and the world clears once again.

She barely blinks and there’s bright sunshine and she’s by a river, heart thumping, grass tickling her bare feet. Her mom is right there and Jack and Jess and the sun… she feels happy and calm and content for the first time, sitting on a stone, toes in the water. She still has the hat on, protecting her so she can’t see the sun, but she can feel it embracing her, not too hot, but springlike and smiling. She closes her eyes again, wants to stay here, she feels strong. Stronger than ever before and it comes from within?

“Lena!” there’s a voice and she thinks she recognizes it. Must be the goddesss, Kara, her eyes fly open. Wasn’t she just still in the temple? With that… that clone of hers. She rubs her chest, nothing seems wrong with her, she wonders what she wanted to give her. She didn’t give her anything, she doesn’t remember taking anything. Must’ve been a dream, a hallucination.

Oh. She realizes she must be in a dream now and should probably wake up. Others must be worried about her by now. She squeezes her fingers into fists and braces herself to leave this calm place.

*

Kara feels needles and ice and her home is gone. She’s prepared for this illusion though, it has been a frequent nightmare and she knows how the magic in the heart works. There’s still a part of herself in it, the way she’s been woven into Morgana’s powers. So she knows it, she knows how to control her panic, how to breathe and keep her head on. Morgana dying does throw her off for a moment. Maybe longer than a moment, she screams and she wants to attack something, someone who isn’t there, but in the back of her mind she knows it’s a nightmare. She’d keep the nightmare if she could keep seeing her, the real her… there’s nothing real left in the stones, only an echo of centuries forgotten.

She feels her heart beat.

And now she’s scared, because she knows what comes next. The dream. And it is a memory and she just stares, staring at Morgana kissing her palm. Everything else in the dream blurs away. It’s there, her home, her family, she knows it’s there but all she can feel is that light touch on her palm and her eyes looking up, smiling. Those stolen moments when they smiled, when the world stilled for them. And she can’t move, she can’t leave. There’s nothing for her out there. Not a world, not a family, she’s been frozen in time that has left her behind. But here.. there’s Morgana smiling at her, those eyes happy. She always wanted to collect that happiness and keep it for hard days. She knows she’s crying, feeling the loss again and again and again and again and she keeps feeling it. Out there, for eternity. She still knows it’s not real.

“Please let me stay,” she whispers, not wiping her tears, “it’s the only place I belong, in your heart.”

Morgana’s arm embraces her and she leans on her shoulder. She can stay.

She can feel someone watching, she knows, but she closes her eyes, she doesn’t want to know. She can stay.

“Please don’t,” the voice is faint, almost nonexistent, fading, but she can still hear it. She shakes her head, but it’s ruined, she knows it’s there. So she slowly lifts her head, takes a breath, another and opens her eyes.

“Kara, my sweet, wonderful, best darling, I love you,” the image of her is transparent, but it’s her, real, the magic she created still here after all this time, the heart of her magic, but she’s fading and she smiles and disappears before Kara can even say anything back. All of her is gone now. Again and again.

The dream is gone as well and she’s standing between the stones and they feel cold now.

None of it will ever come back. She will never come back.

Kara’s eyes land on her copycat, in a dream state. She should wake her, but she doesn’t want to. There’s nothing left.

“Lena,” her voice comes out without thinking. She can’t leave, she seems to be a good person, just not someone she can look at for long.

Lena wakes quickly, almost as if she was starting to wake on her own. Kara looks away, her eyes hurt now more than she feared.

Chapter Text

The Fortress, 906 a.d

“Was there another one?” Kara asks of her and Morgana nods. “Why do they keep coming? This place is for us, you made it for us!”

“I know, but they’re not here to attack us, they don’t even really know we live here, they just...” she shakes her head, trying to make sense of it all. “They just come for assistance.”

“By sacrificing their animals? Who does that? Why would anyone even think I want something like that! And you, you shouldn’t talk to them, we should drive them far away instead!”

“I know, love, but… don’t you think deep down inside you want to help people?” She knows Kara doesn’t want to hear it, but she knows her, she knows that girl who was crying when she couldn’t save someone, it’s not in her heart to leave people to their own devices. It is in Morgana’s heart, she wants them all gone, but she can’t, she just can’t poison Kara like that. Perhaps they are just not good for each other after all.

“It’s not some temple, why shouldn’t we scare them away? How come we haven’t already?”

Morgana shrugs. “Time has passed and they still remember how much you can do. They are afraid of you, but sometimes they also need you.”

“I don’t trust a single person coming through these doors.”
“There’s enough traps, we’ll always be safe here,” she assures her, “maybe we can try helping some of them out? It could be a new start?” at least for Kara. Not friendship, but perhaps there could be some respect there.

“Until they turn on us.”

“Then I will be the first one to cast them out. We are strong enough to try without fear of getting destroyed. They will never have anything as strong as your power.”

“I… I don’t know. We tried, we already tried, but, maybe? Just once?”

Morgana smiles.
“A girl has been kidnapped. That was her desperate father. We can find her faster and take care of the people who took her.”

“She’s alone?” Kara asks, her eyes sad.

“All alone, but we can help her.”

“All right.”

Present day

Lena blinks, taking in her surroundings.

“Who? Who was that?” she asks, looking at the goddess, Kara, she should call her by her name, she’s too real to be something untouchable. And yet, a shiver runs through her body thinking of her as something real, she’s been a fantasy in old myths for so long, how could she ever call her by name without fear?

“I do not know what your dreams and fears consist of,” she tilts her head, looking a little broken like this.

“Not that, there was...” she gets up, wanting the answers from someone but then reconsiders. What if it really was a hallucination, something in the stones, the so-called magic making her see things? But she doesn’t have anyone else to ask.

“There was what?”

“A woman who looked like me!” it comes out and Kara looks like she’d been punched, she actually recoils and takes a step back, looking almost afraid.

“You couldn’t have seen her… no, there was nothing she would’ve… It wasn’t real,” she settles on and looks into Lena’s eyes for only a brief second. She looks lost.

Lena takes a breath and shakes her head to at least try to get her thoughts into order.

“I know she wasn’t real,” she starts explaining.

“No, you don’t! I do, she wasn’t even a ghost, she was just a projection from a moment long lost!” her voice is strong, but her hands fly on the stones, palms pressing on walls as if she’s trying to get strength from there.

Lena doesn’t know what to say to that, not wanting to upset her, but how could a projection touch her? She can still feel that ghost of a touch inside her chest, a phantom something.

“We should wake your friends if we want to move on and get, get away from here.”

Oh. She looks around for them now, Jess is already getting up from the far corner. She knows she was truly woken by the goddess, but how did Jess find her way back?

“Jess, let me help you,” she gets to her, supporting her so the ankle wouldn’t have too much pressure on it.

“I’m alright. What a weird place, huh? Both dreams seemed so real, but I used to that thing, as a kid, you know the thing where you tell yourself to remember everything and then you wake up after each dream, never really got a hang of lucid dreaming, thank god, umm, thank heaven’s for that I mean,” she glances at the goddess, “I mean, I’ve heard it’s super dangerous. Anyway, told myself it’s a dream and got out of it, took some time though. How’s everyone else?” Jess continues to constantly surprise her.

“Jack?” she has to get to him! She’s finally back in the moment and waking Jack is the most important thing right now. “Jack! Come on, don’t leave me alone here,” she shakes his shoulder, his eyelids twitching, seeing something only in his head or maybe his heart.

“He needs a connection to wake,” Kara steps closer, still carefully keeping her distance from Lena.

“What? How did we wake then? Was it her doing?”

There is no answer, so she places her hands on Jack’s chest, like that woman had done to her.

“Jack, hey, remember when we were running away? We were what, fifteen? And I told you you’re the only man I’d ever marry when you got Lilian’s credit card working without a single lie? And remember that cave in the mountains? That long night, it was cold and you, you kept talking nonsense and I thought it was the cold messing with your head and I was so scared, but it was just you talking anything to keep my thoughts alive? Come on, it’s time to wake up, we’ll have so many new beautiful memories, you don’t need to stay in a dream!”

She can feel his breaths under her fingers, the warmth coming from his body when Jack opens his eyes.

“Uh, Lena? I love you too, but we already canceled that wedding once,” he smiles a little crookedly, eyes twinkling like when they were still kids pretending to be a couple.

“Hey,” she smiles and punches him slightly on the shoulder, “you stupid man, you keep scaring me today, how many times do I gotta rescue you?” she sits on her shins and takes a breath.

“You’re just repaying all the times I have saved you.”

“Guys, I need help with Sam!” James’s voice echoes from further away, seems he’s woken on his own as well.

Kara flies to him instantly, she must still be tired, but she was so worried about Sam and some possession before…

“I can’t seem to be able to wake her,” James is kneeling by Sam’s side.

“Does she have any connection to you people?” Kara asks, her eyes turning steely and she looks ready to attack.

“No,” Lena gets there, “we only just met. As with James.”
“Well, I should be able to neutralize her right now, before the reign awakes.”

“What? No!” Lena steps in front of her, hands going to her arms, shoving her away from Sam. To her surprise Kara does take a tiny step back, before standing like a steel statue in front of Lena. A goddess, eyes glowing with bright light.

“Step away, human, I am only trying to save you all from what’s become of her,” her voice is cold and dangerous, but Lena doesn’t let go. She can’t, if she did, if she did, she doesn’t want to see what would happen.

“Please, there has to be another way, there always is, Kara,” she adds the name with a shaky voice, afraid of the reaction but needing one anyway.

“She will kill all of civilization! She cannot be controlled, she will destroy me and then there will be nothing to stop her from destroying the Earth! Is this what you want?” the rage is real, she can feel it flaring up under her skin.

“No, but, she has a daughter! We’ve talked, I can reach her, I can, please, let me try first!”

The glow in the blue eyes settles down a little.

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me,” she hisses and covers Lenas hands with her own, shaking them off. “Your hands are warm,” she says it with a curious whisper, as if it was the most fascinating fact for her at the moment. Then she looks back into Lena’s eyes.

“Five minutes and then I will deal with her.”

Whatever caused her to change her mind, Lena will gladly take it. She nods and kneels by Sam.

“Sam? Samantha?”

“That’s not gonna work, I tried already,” James mumbles from the other side.

“Sam,” she caresses her face, her hand lingering. “Sam, remember Ruby? I saw her in one of your calls, you know. Such a smart girl. Do you, can you tell me what her favourite ice cream is? Whatever you’re fighting right now, we’ll help you get through this. All of us, whatever thing there is trying to take over, it will have nothing on your love for Ruby, we all know that and we haven’t even met her. Remember,” she desperately tries to find the right words to say, her fingers stroking Sam’s hair, “please, I don’t, we can’t lose you. You wouldn’t be the only one we’d lose,” she whispers, only to her.

There’s a stir and Lena holds her breath. Sam opens her warm brown eyes. Lena leans back and sighs in relief.
Sam sits up, she smiles and blinks and then her eyes become black voids.