He stood above her with a hole in his throat and his eyes screaming out in pain. It wasn't just from the bitter cold of the arctic, either. He was dressed appropriately enough for that, but what brought him pain, what ate at him so ravenously was the fact that he, Jason Todd, was brought here, to this place.
And then Jason Todd looked at her and bit his lip hard enough to bleed it in remembrance. She, Supergirl, Kara Zor-El and his girlfriend was laying there, cold and lifeless in a terrain that exemplified both those traits in spades.
He remembered the day she died three months ago. Hellspont had invaded the Earth and it took the combined might of every team worth knowing and every team worth forgetting and every team in between to stop him. Superman had ended up with a broken arm, Wonder Woman with a broken leg, Kara with a broken neck and Jason with a broken heart.
At first, Jason thought he could get over it. People die in war, he'd parroted to himself. I died and I remember where I went, so she should end up in the same place, right?
But he didn't remember where he went, not entirely. All Jason could recollect was a long gauntlet of heroes on both sides, clapping for him, patting his back and ruffling his black hair, saying 'good job' and 'you did right by the oath', but nothing after that.
Maybe that was a gift after coming back, or maybe it was only an illusion he constructed to keep himself sane. He didn't know for sure, save for one thing: he held a potion in his hand, one that would dull the pain, at least for a little while.
Slowly, he began to pray with the ancient incantations of the all-caste and the well of souls, sprinkling the waters of the most ancient, most powerful Lazarus pit in existence over her, Kara's, well preserved body.
"Please let this work", Jason begged with his trembling voice. "Please let this work," he added with more force, repeating over and over with more zealotry until finally, he sensed movement.
Like Snow White from her glass coffin, her eyes shuttered and opened as if she'd only ever been sleeping. She blinked a few times until, before registering the cold or the snow, she reached out for Jason in a tight hug with heated tears streaming down her warming face.
"Jason!" She wept, holding onto him for dear life. "I had..." she sobbed over his shoulder and into his ear. "I dreamed I died in your arms and you were screaming and my cousin was there and New York had almost been destroyed and I-"
"Shh, now, Kare-bear," Jason calmed her, running his leather gloved hand through her golden locks. "It's fine. You're back now. Everything is-"
"I'm 'back'?" Her tears evaporated into smoke as she moved to look Jason directly in the eyes. "Jason," she paused and he knew he'd messed up. "What did you do?"
"I..." He hesitated, not sure how to proceed. Finally, he spoke back up. "Kara, you died. I brought you back and I... I missed you, alright?"
"How?" She asked, her voice now serious as they grave she'd just risen from. "How did you bring me back?"
Jason took a long pause as he scrambled frantically for the right thing to say, for the right way to say it. Ultimately though, he resolved himself with a deep breath and looked her dead center in her unearthly blue eyes.
"I told you about the all-caste, right?" She nodded, signalling him to continue. "I cut a deal with them, Kara. In return for you coming back to me, I have to become a guardian and teacher of the fraternity," he swallowed back his tears, laced with anger.
"We've only got 30 days until the contract's up and I go with them."
A long silence fell upon the both of them, forcing Kara to look down at the fresh snow of the arctic tundra. "Jason..." she mumbled, blinking hard. "How could..."
"Kara," Jason reached for her, getting slapped hard for all his troubles. "Ow!" He shouted, his face forced hard to the left. "What the hell, Kara?!"
She slapped him from the left this time, forcing his face to the right. "How can you be so stupid?!" She screamed at him. "I wanted... I wanted you to live, Jason! That's why I knocked you out of the way from Hellspont! How can you... how can you treat my sacrifice like a returned gift?!"
"Well excuse me, Princess!" Jason hollered back at her. "I was expecting a bit more gratitude, but if you don't want to-"
"Jason," she cut him off with a hug. "What you did was give me something I can never really think you for, really, but..." she starred at him more intensely now, with her hands on both shoulders. "When someone dies for you, you don't let that death be in vein. I died for what I believed in, Jason, and that was you. Now?
"Now we'll both be alive for a very long time and never be allowed to see each other. And that, to me, is even worse than having my neck snapped and knowing, as it happened, that I'll never be able to see that stupid prideful grin or hear you make fun my Star Wars obsession again and that's even worse than dying, you stupid Caveman," she stopped with her hand on his cheek, curving it around his neck and pressing his forehead to hers. "Do you get it now?"
"You deserved better than what happened, Kara," he could barely look her in the eye.
"I did have better, Jason," she turned his head to face hers. He could feel her hot breath on his face and he knew she felt the same sensation. "I had the best," she pressed his cold lips against her own. "I had you."