A/N: I completely forgot that I have a FFN account, and have only been posting on AO3 as of late. But, I know there are some readers still here, so I've decided to post my stories on both sites. This is canon-divergent, and takes place roughly six months after the fiasco with the Medusa virus (episode 2x08). Obviously SuperCorp (or Karlena, if you prefer) with a side of Sanvers. Hope you like it!
Black clouds hang low, swollen in pain and saturated with grief over National City's skyline. Smoke billows upwards, thick and heavy as if in offering to the heavens - a plea to whatever god or deity that what the world had just witnessed was only but a sad, cruel dream. Intermingled with the ashes that still swirl is the rain, blanketing the city in wet, charred "snow" that leaves the once bright landscape darker, flatter - deader - than it had ever been before. The hush that prevails is almost deafening in its silence, broken only by the collective shattering of an entire population's hearts.
The Earth's mightiest hero crawls along the pavement, his suit tattered and broken, cape shredded beyond repair. His left eye is swollen shut, his right barely better, but what little he can see is focused entirely on the still smoking body that's crash landed not more than a dozen or so yards from his own matching crater. He pulls himself along, one hand in front of the other, digging his fingers into asphalt and concrete in his haste and desperation.
"Kara…" he groans, voice raw and throaty. "K-Kara…!"
Superman drags his body the remaining few feet and collapses beside his cousin, fingers pressed to her neck as he frantically searches for a pulse. He nearly chokes on a sob when he finds nothing, trembling as he sits up and cradles her in his arms, clutching Kara to his chest as he cries into her hair.
"Kara… Kara…" he pleads, rocking her gently - tenderly, in the same manner with which she'd once held him as a baby. "P-please, no… wake up… you can't…"
Citizens watch on, suspended in their own disbelief as the Man of Steel begs for Supergirl to return, his English quickly giving way to broken Kryptonese - as if their native tongue would somehow be enough to bring her back. It seems an eternity later that several government issued SUV's race onto the scene, and it nearly takes a Kryptonite-powered tranquilizer to subdue Superman, who almost seems to turn feral at the thought of anyone taking his cousin from him. It's only when Alex arrives, her own eyes puffy with unshed tears, that Clark relieves himself of Kara's body. Though he is blood, Alex has more claim to her adopted sister than he ever will; after all, he'd given up that right the day he left her on the Danvers' doorstep - a little girl scared and confused, but most importantly, alone.
"I-I'm sorry…" he whispers, as Alex sweeps a hand through the blonde's disheveled hair, affectionately tucking a stray curl behind her ear. She looks peaceful - at rest - and if it weren't for the blood caked to every inch of her skin, she could almost be mistaken for asleep. "I didn't know she was i-in this much trouble… I didn't… I mean, I-I came as quickly as I heard, but I didn't… I wasn't fast enough…"
Alex silences him with a watery glance before bowing her head, resting her forehead against Kara's as she cups her cheeks. Her eyes shut, and she takes a moment to let it all sink in; let's her brain catch up with what her eyes are telling her.
"You lied," she murmurs, voice quivering through her tears. "You lied… you said you'd always be there, that it'd always be you and me, but now you're gone, a-and I can't f-follow you… and you lied."
"Dammit, Kara!" Alex cries, hands sliding down to grab the fabric of her suit, fists clenched in anguish around the symbol that had once given a city hope, but was now only a cruel reminder of what that hope had cost. "I told you to wait for backup! I told you to wait for J'onn! For Mon-el! For James! For your cousin! For anyone! But you didn't listen… you never do!"
"How could you be so selfish!" she nearly screams, pounding a fist against Kara's chest. "How could you be so stupid… so reckless… s-so you…"
Her mind flashes back to the battle, Kara valiantly defending the city against the combined efforts of Cyborg Superman and Metallo, who in the wake of Lillian Luthor's incarceration, had teamed up with the single intention of bringing Supergirl down. She had fought them off to the best of her ability, even gaining the upper hand once or twice before the shielding device in her suit malfunctioned, taking one too many hits and opening her up to the crippling effects of Kryptonite.
Clark arrived just in time, taking the brunt of an attack meant to end her life. James, as Guardian, roared onto the scene with Mon-El steps behind, taking Metallo together so Superman could fight his Cyborg counterpart. Things seemed to be going well after that, and they had been certain they were headed towards victory when things took a sharp turn for the worst. Realizing they wouldn't win, Metallo dispatched his opponents and latched himself around the unsuspecting Superman's back, detonating his Kryptonite core in a last ditch effort to bring the heroes down.
It was all or nothing.
Clark only had moments to spare when a newly recovered Kara ripped the man from his clutches and raced towards the safety of the sky. Realizing her intentions, he sped after her, begging her not to do it; but time was not on their side, and she had only just reached the first layer of clouds when Metallo detonated in an explosion of blinding green light. Kara was swallowed by the blast, Clark taking on the subsequent shock wave, and it wasn't long before both Supers fell, plummeting to the earth like twin meteorites.
(Days, weeks, months later, it would be infamously known as the crash that was heard around the world…)
Alex is torn from the memory when something catches her attention, subtle and barely there, but there all the same. Clark seems to feel it as well, his enhanced senses picking up more clearly what she can only hope is real. A heartbeat. He nods, and a moment later, they're calling for a gurney and loading Kara into the back of an ambulance, retrofitted by the DEO to handle both human and alien patients. They don't have much time; Kara's heart, by some miracle, has restarted. But for how long? It was anyone's guess.
Sunlamps are turned on to full power, forcing Alex to sit in the front with the paramedics unless she wished to receive first to second degree burns. Clark sits in the crash seat, clasping Kara's hand the entire ride back to HQ, his own wounds slowly healing as bruises fade and flesh gradually knits itself back together. His ears are trained intently on her heartbeat, once weak and fragile - a mere stutter really - but growing stronger and stronger still. Color returns to her skin, and though she remains frighteningly pale, it's nothing like the deathly white she had been not too long ago.
By the time they arrive back at the DEO, a full team of doctors and medical staff are standing at the ready, awaiting the opportunity to save their hero as she had done so many times for them. The instant Kara is handed into their care, they make a beeline for triage and set about assessing her condition, taking vitals and blood samples and other necessary tests.
Clark and Alex make to follow, neither willing to let their family out of sight, but Superman is immediately herded into an exam room for his own treatment and Alex is told to wait outside. She nearly throws a fit at that, but J'onn threatens to have her sedated if she doesn't comply.
"I need to be with her!" she shouts, attempting to push past the Martian, only to be caught by the hands and held still. "You can't keep me from her! That's my sister in there! My baby sister! I have rights, you know!"
"Stand down, Agent Danvers," J'onn commands, voice gruff despite the gleam of sorrow in his own eyes. "You can't do anything for her in there. Not like this."
"B-but she needs me," Alex croaks, giving a half-hearted tug as the emotional exhaustion quickly catches up to her.
"What Kara needs is for you to be strong," he says, releasing Alex as her arms go lax, dropping like dead weight at her sides. "What she needs is for you to believe - for all of us to believe - that she'll make it out of this okay, just as she would do for any of us."
"I can't lose her…" she whispers, fighting back tears as J'onn gathers her into his arms and holds her. She presses her face against his neck, murmuring between half restraint sobs, "I can't… I can't go through this again. Not with Kara. I can't. I just can't…."
J'onn shushes her gently, leading her in the direction of the barracks where there were beds and showers; a quiet place to rest, unwind, and collect herself. Alex protests at first, insisting she stay nearby in case anything happens, but he assures her it will take time for the doctors to work on Kara, and that he'll send for her the instant they get word on her condition.
"I'm sure your mother has already seen the news, but I'll give her a call," he says, knowing the Danvers matriarch was most likely already on her way.
"If it's not too much trouble," Alex begins meekly, eyes averted, "Could you call Maggie too? I… I just need…"
"Of course," he nods, knowing Alex isn't one to admit aloud when she needs help. "Get yourself cleaned up, and take as much time alone as you need. I'll send Detective Sawyer in when she arrives."
"Thanks…"
J'onn offers a small, but reassuring smile before turning to leave. "Hang in there," he says in way of parting, but Alex dangles precariously over the edge of something she can't quite define, and she isn't sure how much longer she can hold on.
"How're you holding up?"
Clark barely registers the question, focused entirely on the wall adjacent to him. Azure eyes narrow intently, as if willing himself the ability to see through lead, and it isn't until James steps directly in front of him that he declares the endeavor futile. With a shrug that beguiles his worry, the Kryptonian simply sighs and shakes his head.
"Is she…?" he begins tentatively, having only recently arrived.
"No, she's alive, but… but it's not looking good," Clark admits, ducking his head with shame. "This is my fault. I should have been there sooner…"
"Hey man, don't beat yourself up about this," says James, though his heart echoes with similar sentiments. He and Kara had only just reconciled their friendship, and he wonders if only they'd worked things out sooner, she might have been more willing to wait for his aid. (He knows that isn't true, knows that Kara is never one to sit idly by when the city is in danger, but it's the only comfort he can allow himself - a share in the blame to ease his guilt.)
"No!" Clark bellows, hands clenched. "Kara needed me, and I wasn't there! I… I was never there for her - not today, and not when she was a kid! Every time she's needed me the most, I've let her down! Again, and again, and again…"
"She was just so small, and so scared…" he breathes, relaxing his grip as he thinks back on that fateful day when Kara fell from the sky and crash landed into his life. "I only ever wanted to protect her, but all I ended up doing was pushing her away… abandoning her because I didn't know how to handle a child. I was fresh out of college, practically working for free with all the unpaid overtime at my first job, and still learning the ropes of being a hero.
"Kara was sent to Earth with me as a baby, and she was willing to take care of me despite having so much less than that. She swore to raise me, to protect me, to love me despite having little knowledge of Earth and its customs, let alone any of its languages. And what did I do to repay that sort of loyalty? I dumped her on the Danvers' doorstep the first chance I got and barely saw her until she came out as Supergirl…"
James' face softens into something akin to sympathy, and he lays a hand on Clark's shoulder in support. "Look, your roles were reversed when Kara arrived decades later than she was supposed to, and… and yeah, okay, you weren't exactly "Cousin of the Year" material, but I think things turned out for the best. She adores Alex as a sister, and though Jeremiah and Eliza can never replace her birth parents, they provided the stable home life you honestly never could."
Clark casts an offended glance in his direction, as if to say, "I could have given her that!" But James merely raises a brow and his friend relents, both knowing he could never have given Kara half of what the Danvers had.
"You made a mistake," James continues, "And that's okay. No one is perfect - not even Superman. You can't change the past, but you can do better. You can be there for her, starting now, when she needs you now more than ever."
Clark can only nod in response, burying his head in his hands to hide the pain of his failure. He swears he'll do better, swears he'll make up for all he's done wrong, but as his ears pick up the screaming of a flatline in the next room over, he wonders if he'll even get the chance.
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