"I used to think that I would never have a normal life, that I would never find love, that I would live my life alone. But I was wrong. I found love when I found Lena, when I learned that she loved me back. But, do you know what I love most about her? She lets me feel normal. She accepted Kara Danvers and Kara Zor-El as the same person. She doesn't put one over the other like some others do. She lets me be myself and it's one of the greatest gifts anyone's ever given me. She makes me feel normal. She gives me everything that I've ever wanted in my life. With her and with my friends, I found a new family. It began with the Danvers and then it grew as I made new friends. It might be little and occasionally broken, but it's still good. My friends and family gave me everything I never thought I would have. I need to go back."
"Oh, my daughter," Alura said through her tears. "This is the decision I hoped you would make. It is far too early for you to join us in Rao's light. However, before you return, you need to accept the trauma that has happened to you. Your brain is shutting it out and you must acknowledge it before you return. We will do our best to help you through it and perhaps we can share some information on your foe, but first you need to remember."
Kara took a deep breath and tried to search the recesses of her mind. She replayed the fight with Reign, every punch, every hit, every moment, except for the last few. Kara remembered Reign holding her by the front of her suit, Reign letting go, reaching up desperately trying to stop her fall, then nothing. "I can't."
"Yes, you can. You must. Perhaps, it will help to meditate for a moment," Alura soothed as she motioned for Zor-El to come closer as she sat down on the floor with Kara.
Alex stirred in Maggie's arms a few hours after J'onn had left the room. She stood up and adjusted her twisted clothes and messy hair. As Alex stretched to try to loosen up her sore muscles, she caught sight of Maggie sprawled out on the couch and smiled. Alex felt her heart skip as she felt the happiness and joy permeate every one of her cells, ecstatic to finally have Maggie back in her life. As she looked around the room, she saw Eliza sleeping on the other couch in the room and Lena asleep in her chair, her head lying on top of Kara's unbroken hand. Alex quietly walked over and draped a blanket over Lena's shoulders as she heard the young CEO mumble something about a window. The older Danvers sister took a moment to look at her younger sister. She had never seen Kara look as small as she did now. The Super was clad in nothing but a hospital gown as tubes came out of her arms, her mouth, and her chest, bandages all over her body, along with bruises and the occasional cut. Alex was glad that someone had gotten the blood off of Kara's face, she and other doctors were so caught up in saving Kara's life that no one had thought to wash it off, such a task quickly fell to the bottom on the list of important tasks. No one had considered how hard it would be for Lena to see all the blood on Kara's face. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked at her broken sister, praying that she would wake up soon, praying that she would survive all of this.
Alex sighed as she walked out of the room, not noticing that the level of solar energy in Kara's cells had gone up by several percentage points, currently sitting at 19% saturation. She walked into J'onn's office to find him watching ZNN on the TV in his office. "Agent Danvers, I think you should see this."
"What?"
"Just take a look at the footage that ZNN is showing." Alex turned toward the TV and was shocked at the sight of the size of the Supergirl memorial in front of CatCo. The news helicopter zoomed out and drifted a little bit higher to show the House of El symbol burned into the helipad at the top of the building.
"The emblem burned into the helipad at CatCo's headquarters has been considered a symbol of hope for National City for years, particularly after the strange incident 3 years ago. After Press Secretary Cat Grant's statement, the people of this city have turned out in droves to lay flowers for the Girl of Steel as she, hopefully, continues recuperating. We at ZNN wish the Girl of Steel a speedy recovery and will continue covering the situation in National City as the mysterious villain that took down Supergirl continues to stay dormant and the city reels after the Christmas battle that raged through the city just last night. Merry Christmas."
"Oh my god," Alex gasped. "Kara would be grateful to see something like this. After the Red K incident, she's always been worried that National City didn't trust her anymore, even more so after the Daxamite invasion."
"Yes, she would. Alex, perhaps you should join Director Lane in the command center and keep an eye on the situation together. I am aware that you prefer to dive into work in these types of situations, but please don't shut everyone out. Lucy is here for you if you want her to be, and Maggie is extremely happy to have you back. You have great people in your life, remember that."
"Yes, sir."
"Oh, and Agent Danvers, if you find yourself in your lab, as I imagine you will, please try not to blow anything up this time."
Lena stirred in her chair and for a moment was confused by her surroundings. Then suddenly, all the memories of the night before came flooding back and the reason why she was in a sterile looking, brightly light room became clear. Kara. Lena straightened her back and drew her shoulders back in an attempt to loosen her muscles. She looked up at her girlfriend, hoping to see some improvement in her condition, but found none. "Kara, please, you have to wake up, you have to come back to me." Kara gave no response, the only noise in the room was the hiss of the ventilator and the quiet breathing of the other sleeping figures in the room. Lena turned her head to see Eliza, Alex, Maggie still asleep on their respective couches. She smiled softly before getting up to stretch her legs a little. The young CEO walked over to the large window next to Kara's bed and sighed as she looked down at National City. The streets were bustling as the city once again tried to recover from the catastrophic fight that took place the night before. Some way to celebrate Christmas. J'onn entered the room with a cup of coffee that he wordlessly handed to Lena before walking out of the room, just as quickly as he came in.
Lena leaned against the window as she stared at Kara's unmoving form and felt grateful for the warmth of the sun coming through the window as she felt cold dread fill her chest and clench her heart. She had no clue how long she was standing there when she heard a commotion outside Kara's room. Somewhat annoyed, Lena pushed off the window and walked into the hallway to see what was going on. Finding the hallway empty, she kept walking until she found the source of the noise in the command center of the DEO. Mon-El, looking unusually irate, was yelling at Winn. "What is going on here?" Lena asked angrily.
"He's not letting me see Kara," Mon-El grumbled, pointing at Winn.
"Why would you want to see her? You have a wife, you've moved on with your life, what makes you think that you should be in there with Kara's family?"
"I'm her family! She loved me! What makes you part of her family?"
"No, she loved what you represented, a connection to Krypton. As for me, I'm her girlfriend. I deserve to be in there," Lena retorted, crossing her arms. "I'm not the one who attacked her as he saw her. I'm not the one who refuses to give her back her mother's necklace."
"She gave it me after she told me she loved me," Mon-El shot back, clutching the necklace.
"Well, of course, she said that. Kara's too nice to break up with someone when she's about to send them off the planet in a pod. I mean, come on," Lena paused before continuing. "Speaking of which, the necklace. Give it to me."
"No."
"Mon-El, dude, give it to her. That's not a good facial expression on Lena. That's her scary face."
"Winn, shush! Seriously, give it to me," Lena said, making a give-it-to-me gesture with her left hand.
"No. Kara gave it to me as a memento. I'm not doing it."
"Gentlemen… and Mon-El, allow me to present, Woman Not Caring," Lena pointed to her face as she set her face into an exasperated expression. "Give it. Don't make me do this the hard way." When Mon-El shook his head again indignantly, Lena sighed and cracked her fingers. "Welp, you chose the hard way. Don't say I didn't warn you." Lena took a step forward and quickly grabbed Mon-El by the ear and dragged him over to the balcony. Once she got to the edge, Lena let go of Mon-El's ear and shoved him over. "The things I do for love," Lena huffed as the entire DEO rushed to the balcony to look over the edge and watch as Mon-El fell to the street, screaming obscenities the entire way down. "Now, will you give it back?" Lena yelled over the edge.
"Yeah, okay," Mon-El groaned from the ground.
Lena smirked as someone in the crowd yelled, "Yeet!"
"And my work here is done," Lena said as she walked away, dusting off her hands.
"Nice," Alex complimented as Lena walked away.
"Thank you, Alex. All is a day's work for a Luthor," Lena answered as she grinned at Alex.
"Lena? Lena?" Lena whirled around to find who was calling her name, but couldn't find the source.
Lena startled as she sat up in her stool and looked up to see Alex staring right at her. The younger woman's eyes searched the room as she realized that the events of the last few minutes were actually a dream. "What time is it?"
"It's about 10:30 am. Merry Christmas," Alex added sadly.
"Has anything changed? Is Kara awake?" Lena asked as she quickly turned her body to look at Kara, dismayed to see that nothing has changed. "Oh."
"No, nothing's changed," Alex said, the disappointment seeping into her voice as she picked up Kara's chart from its spot at the end of the sunbed. Alex mumbled to herself as she looked at the chart and looked up at the monitor before going a double take. "Wait-."
"What?" Lena asked hopefully.
"I think that the solar energy saturation of her cells went up a little. It's almost 20% now. It might be a fluke, but it's possible that her body is starting to respond."
"That's good, right?"
"Yea. I hope so, but what worries me is that nothing has started healing. None of her injuries have gotten any better. Nothing has changed. Part of me is really scared that this is a bad sign."
"How could this be a bad sign?"
"Well, when a person is getting close to death, a terminally ill person, or a gravely injured one, can experience something called 'the surge.' They get a burst of energy and seem to improve a little before they get significantly worse and eventually die." Lena sharply inhaled before releasing a shaky breath as she looked at Alex with tears welling up in her eyes. Lena turned to look at Kara's face as she brought her other hand up to wrap around Kara's and squeeze tightly.
"No," Lena said as she shook her head. "Kara will be fine, Alex. You were convincing me that I need to have hope literally 6 hours ago. What happened?"
"I'm scared, Lena," Alex sighed out. "I don't want to give myself too much hope and for some reason that means I'm trying to convince myself that this may not be good news."
"It is, Alex. Kara loves you. She would never leave you if she had the choice and here, in this moment, she has a choice and she's not leaving," Lena said with finality.
"You're right, Lena. I don't know what I've been thinking. You know she loves you too." Alex jumped as she felt arms wrap around her waist, but smiled when she saw that Maggie has behind her.
"She's right, Danvers. Kara isn't leaving any of us."
"Exactly, sweetie," Eliza said as she walked into Alex's line of sight.
Lena smiled as she looked at Kara again. "I know and I hope she comes back soon so I can tell her how I feel, too."
Later that same evening, Lena wandered out of the sunroom and found herself standing in front of the collection of screens in the DEO's command center. She stood silently as she watched the footage of Christmas celebrations from all over the world interspersed with broadcasts of news anchors giving updates on all sorts of world events. Lena shifted her eyes over to the TV showing one of the many local news channels in National City as they aired footage of the various vigils and tributes to Supergirl that have popped up around the city since the morning. At the vigil in front of the Supergirl statue, Lena had helped put up, piles upon piles of flowers covered the entire base as citizens stood around it with candles in hand, singing Christmas carols once more. They even sang some of her favorites, inspired by an interview she had given to CatCo magazine the previous holiday season.
"Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting tingle-ing, too… Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…"
Lena sighed as she heard the opening lines to Kara's all-time favorite song. She had once told Lena about how it never snowed on Krypton and how during that first winter, the snow had scared her until Alex explained that it was a normal event on Earth. There were perks to being an alien who couldn't feel temperatures like humans, which meant that every winter as soon as it snowed Kara was always outside playing, enjoying the weather with the same kidlike wonder that she had when she came to Earth. Snow was a rare occurrence in National City given its mild climate, but whenever it did snow, Kara was outside enjoying it. Kara had planned to take Lena to Midvale for New Year's to enjoy the inevitable early January snowfall that always seemed to hit the beachside town.
Lena sighed as she felt the tears start to well up again. Lena trudged back to Kara's room and took her spot by Kara's bedside. Eliza and Alex were still in the lab working on something to try to speed up Kara's healing. The two women had explained what they were doing, but Lena had only half-listened as she stared at Kara's unmoving form. Maggie was unfortunately called away to deal with an emergency at the station because she was the detective on call for the Science Division this Christmas, having expected to spend it alone, still healing from her break up with Alex. But, by some miracle, Alex and Maggie were brought back together by the tragic events of this Christmas, Kara's injuries giving Maggie the push she needed to reconsider her previous decisions. Kara would be so happy to find out that they were back together. She always thought Maggie was perfect for Alex. Lena was extremely happy for the reunited couple as well, but her joy was overshadowed and crushed by her grief over her girlfriend's injuries.
Lena rested her face in her left hand, covering her eyes, as she blindly felt for Kara's hand with her right. "Kara, you have to wake up," Lena said forcefully. "We're all here for you. Alex and Eliza are in the lab trying to create some concoction to bring you back. Winn hasn't slept in two days. He's always in front of his computer trying to find that woman or he's in here with you. James has been in and out as he tries to keep the city from being overrun. Even Lucy came from the desert base. She's with J'onn now as they try to figure this all out. We're all here and you just need to wake up. Please, Kara. I don't know how I'm supposed to do all this without you. I feel like I can't breathe with you in that bed. Please," Lena sobbed out. She tightened her grip on Kara's hand. "Alex said your solar energy levels went up a little since your surgery. That's a good sign, I think. They haven't gone up since then though. What's going on, Kara? Is something keeping you from coming back? Please keep fighting, love. I need you to come back. So does Alex. I know she has Maggie back again, but she can't be happy in this life without you in it." Lena couldn't get any more coherent words out as her sobs became too strong. As hard as she tried, Lena couldn't contain her tears and she kept crying until she eventually cried herself to sleep. The last words on her lips before she passed out from her exhaustion were "Merry Christmas, Kara."
Rao's red rays continued to bounce off of the tall silver buildings in Argo City as they lit up Kara's bedroom. The last true scion of the House of El sat with her back to the window as she searched her mind for the hidden memories of her fight with Reign. Kara didn't know why she couldn't remember. Maybe, it was because a tiny part of her didn't want to leave her parents even though she knew that she had to return to her life on Earth. That admission what was allowed Kara to remember. Kara gasped as the memories came flooding back.
Kara remembered how she fell and fell and fell. She remembered how she didn't resist or try to slow her descent. She didn't react at all to her plunge from the top of the building. She just let herself fall. She remembered being too tired to do anything. Too weak to even try. Too beaten to resist her plunge. Too broken to give it a second thought or even a first thought. Too empty and drained. Too everything. So she fell and fell and fell. The fall was much longer than Kara had expected. It was almost as though time had slowed down. It gave her tired brain to think about all the good things in her life. About Lena and all the moments they had spent together as friends and then as something more. Kara had said that she wasn't afraid to die, to join her parents in Rao's light, but she had lied. She was so very afraid. Afraid of losing out on a life with Lena Luthor and of leaving Alex and the rest of her family, her patchwork family, so very much alone. And then suddenly, Kara was too tired to feel afraid anymore. Too tired to feel anything at all as her body crashed into the street and her world slowly started fading to black as she heard the commotion around her. Her last thought before she passed out was how Lena's hugs felt so much like home, a feeling she never thought she would have again. And then everything was black and then it was colored the red and silver of Argo City. Kara's eyes snapped open as she let out a shuddering breath. She looked up from her shaking hands to find herself looking into her mother's grey eyes.
"I remember."
Christmas came and went in National City, not that the occupants of the DEO's med bay would have known. As December 26th began, the mother-daughter team of Alex and Eliza continued to toil away in the lab, not making any progress in finding the cause of Kara's delayed healing and apparent inability to absorb solar radiation. James returned to his duties as the CEO of CatCo and the DEO agents were forced to divert some of their energy away from keeping a lookout for their villain's return. Unfortunately, without Supergirl to keep an eye out, National City began experiencing a mild spike in criminal activity. It wasn't enough to worry anyone yet, but J'onn decided that it would be best to make it known that a Super was still protecting the city, so he called in Superman to occasionally patrol the city. Although reluctant to take his cousin's place, he agreed to begin to make appearances in National City and take over some of Kara's crime prevention duties. He stopped by the DEO to apologize for not being there sooner, having been in the Fortress trying to find information that would help Kara, but ultimately came up empty handed as he had no idea what to look for.
Maggie was also spending the day at the DEO, much like how she used to as the official liaison to the agency. Unable to take time off on such short notice, she used the not entirely dishonest guise of helping the DEO in their hunt. However, she spent most of her time trying to make sure the two Danvers and Lena were actually taking care of themselves. She forced Alex out of the lab to take a shower and get some sleep as she brought Eliza some food, before switching and herding Eliza out of the lab much the same way. Despite her best efforts, Maggie was unable to get Lena to leave Kara's side for anything long than the occasional bathroom break, so she went over to the brunette's apartment to bring her some clothes. When she got to Lena's penthouse, Maggie was shocked to find that Lena had amassed a small collection of t-shirts and other comfortable clothes in her dresser drawers. Figuring they were Kara's, Maggie packed several of them into a duffle bag before returning to the DEO. When she returned in the early afternoon, Lena was engaged in a heated phone call with Jess and it seemed that the CEO was going to take someone's head off if the problem wasn't resolved soon. She cursed as she ended the call and brought up a hand to rub her forehead as the other nervously twirled her phone. Lena blushed slightly when she looked up to find Maggie watching her. "Is everything okay?" Maggie asked as she deposited the bag on the floor next to one of the couches.
"No. Sam didn't come to work today. No phone call, nothing. It's like she suddenly dropped off of the face of the Earth, which means that there's no one to run LCorp."
"Do you need to go in?"
"Yes, but I really don't want to. I can't bring myself to leave Kara's side and I haven't showered or anything in days. I'm still wearing the clothes from the outing with James a few days ago," Lena rambled.
"Okay, so here's what we're gonna do," Maggie said as she took Lena by the shoulders. "I happened to grab a more businessy type outfit for you while I was at your apartment earlier, so you're going to go grab that bag, take a shower, change, and I will take you to LCorp."
"Maggie, you don't have to—"
"Ah!," Maggie exclaimed, shushing Lena. "Nope, I am taking you there and that's the end of it. Lena, I know how you feel, trust me. But you can't let LCorp go down in flames either. Alex will call one of us as soon as something changes, you know that." Lena nodded silently before being guided to the locker room to start getting ready.
"Where's Lena going?" Alex asked as she walked down the hall.
"LCorp. Jess called her freaking out about the fact that Sam isn't at work and no one can seem to be able to get in touch with her."
"Huh. That is pretty weird. I'll send someone to check up on her."
"Yea, I think that's a good idea. Actually, you know what, I'm gonna go drop Lena off at the office and I can go to Sam's after?"
"That's a great idea, babe," Alex said, not noticing her use of the pet name.
"Babe?"
"What?"
"Alex, you just called me 'babe.'"
"Oh," Alex stuttered. "Are you not okay with that? Is it too early? Oh god, it's too early," Alex said panicking.
"Deep breath, Danvers," Maggie said as she made Alex take a calming breath with her. "It's not too early at all. I actually kinda missed you calling me that. It's nice."
"Oh… Good. I'm glad," Alex smiled. Maggie stepped forward and kissed Alex as they embraced each other. Their moment was interrupted by a sheepish-looking Lena Luthor knocking on the glass a few minutes later.
"That was fast," Maggie mumbled causing Alex to burst out laughing.
"Sorry for interrupting."
"It's okay, Lena," Alex and Maggie said simultaneously. "Let's get going, Little Luthor."
"Maggie," Lena grumbled under her breath. When Maggie and Lena left the med bay, Alex turned to Kara's motionless form and sighed. Checking over Kara's vitals, Alex noted that Kara's solar saturation levels had reached 30%, but her physical condition remained unchanged. The bruises on her face had started to change from a vicious red to a deep purple color as they slightly shrank in size. The blonde hero was still unable to breathe on her own because there was absolutely no resistance to the ventilator and there was no evidence that Kara was starting to breathe over the machine. The chest tube was still collecting blood that would otherwise be gathering in Kara's chest. Despite the apparent improvement, Kara still wasn't getting any better and Alex was at a loss. Alex sat down in the stool that Lena had been occupying and reached for Kara's unbroken hand as she quietly wept, unwilling to have anyone in the DEO to know that she actually can cry.
"Oh, honey," Eliza said quietly as she walked in on Alex crying by Kara's bedside. She wrapped her arms around Alex as the younger Danvers continued to cry.
"Mom," Alex said wetly. "What if she never wakes up? Nothing we do seems to be working. What are we going to do?"
"Alex, you know Kara, she does things when she's good and ready. She won't leave any of us. Just give it time. We need to be patient. The hardest part is already over, so now we just need to wait."
Two hours later…
Alex startled as her phone rang. "Hello?"
"Alex, it's me. I'm at Sam's house right now. There's no one here," Maggie's voice said through the phone.
"Wait?" Alex yelled.
"I made some calls. Ruby's at school. Apparently, Sam dropped her off at a friend's house last night, citing some kind of family emergency. She claimed that she had a crisis to deal with, but didn't give any more details. Ruby mentioned that Sam has been acting weird lately, forgetting large chunks of time and some other general weirdness after some sort of trip to her mother's house."
"When was this trip?"
"Last week."
"Huh."
"I just had a crazy thought. So, you know how Ruby was convinced that same was some sort of hero?"
"Yeah, how could I forget?"
"I've been thinking… Sam start acting strange right before this woman in black shows up. Morgan Edge gets attacked after an attack on Lena that she's only mentioned to me… and to Sam. Shit. Alex! What if that woman is Sam?"
"Maggie, that's a stretch. This could all be a coincidence! Sam is human."
"Are you sure? Alex, a wise man once told me that 'there's no such thing as coincidence.' Listen, it all adds up; we can't just ignore this. You don't think that someone would go through all this trouble to set this all up. We need to consider this as a real possibility."
"You don't think that this is all awfully convenient?"
"A little, but Alex… Listen, I know when to trust my gut and my gut is screaming at me."
"Okay, Maggie. I'll think about it and I'll have J'onn go out to visit her mother, but I'm not too sure."
"Thank you, Alex. I have to go now. Talk to you later."
"Bye, Maggie. I love you."
"I love you too." As soon as Alex finished her call with Maggie, she went to fill J'onn in on Maggie's theory about Sam. J'onn agreed that they couldn't ignore the evidence, so he had Winn track down Mrs. Arias. Address in hand, J'onn took a DEO issued black SUV and went to speak to the older woman, hoping to get some answers.
Lena came back from LCorp later that same evening armed with a pile of paperwork that needed to be completed. "For some reason, the whole 'my girlfriend is might very well be on her deathbed because she got caught in the crossfire between Supergirl and a villain' is not a good enough excuse for the board to leave me alone for five minutes," Lena complained. Alex eyed Lena as she ranted. "Relax, Alex. No one knows Kara's secret."
"That's not why I'm looking at you like that, Lena. I'm just finally seeing what Kara means when she said you can be a little extra."
Lena snorted and replied, "Sometimes, one has to be a little extra when dealing with crusty old billionaires who refuse to acknowledge the fact that I'm not a robot."
"You're not wrong there," Alex laughed.
"Oh Rao. I can't believe that happened."
"I know, Kara and I am so sorry," Alura soothed.
"Does this mean I can go back now?"
"Not yet. Your mind is ready to return, but that does not mean that your body is open to waking up just yet. You still have to heal. The fight with the Worldkiller was extremely traumatic and your body is still severely injured. Even when it heals, it will still take some time before you can return fully. There is a risk that you will be rather confused when you wake up, you may not be entirely aware of where you are right away. You need to be prepared to face that."
"Will I remember any of this?"
"You will remember some parts. You will remember that you were in a peaceful place and that you learned something. The information your father and I will tell you will stay in the back of mind, almost as though it were on the tip of your tongue until the memory is triggered and then everything will return to you."
The next few days came and went almost unnoticed by the occupants of the med bay. December 26th ended with Lena passing out with a pile of papers in front of her and a tablet on her lap. Alex and Maggie once again slept on the couch as did Eliza. December 27th was equally uneventful. Lena was able to get the board off of her back by demanding that she be allowed to keep vigil at her girlfriend's bedside in peace, lest they want to feel the wrath of a Luthor. The threat was remarkably effective as was the stream of extraordinarily imaginative curse words that Lena interspersed her sentences with. She decided to give her trusted assistant the power to make business decisions without consulting Lena first, knowing that Jess was just as dedicated to LCorp as she was. James called daily to gave Lena updates on the happenings at CatCo.
December 28th was, unfortunately, a rather active day at DEO. The morning started with Maggie getting called to a crime scene with Alex. The victim was a murdered Starhavenite in what was an open and shut case of a hate crime. Lena was called to LCorp once again when a foreign investor was being particularly argumentative and refused to listen to anyone when they told him that Lena was unavailable. When she got to the office, she found herself stuck in a two-hour long video conference as she tried to reason with the man. Lena was barely able to keep him from withdrawing and backing Morgan Edge. Just as she was about to leave, she was sucked into another meeting with her R&D department. J'onn had returned from a very unproductive trip to Sam's mother's house, but his telepathy did pick up on some thoughts about how Sam was not from Earth. However, he was unable to find any evidence as to what planet she was from, so the team was back to square one. Toward the evening as the entire group found themselves back at the DEO, Maggie and Alex got word of another attack by Reign near the harbor, meaning that Alex and Maggie deployed to lead a strike team, along with Lucy and Vasquez as J'onn directed things from the DEO headquarters. The attack left Lena and Eliza alone with Kara in the sunroom. The two women passed the time by chatting, first about some of the new research that LCorp was doing and then about hilarious incidents with Kara, including the infamous popcorn incident 15 years ago. Eliza and Lena had gotten into a rather easy conversation when suddenly, everything went wrong.
Kara's heart monitor began beeping out of control before the sound of a flatline filled the room. Eliza ran to the wall to get a crash cart as Lena dashed to try to find Dr. Hamilton. By the time Lena returned with Dr. Hamilton in tow, Eliza was already shocking Kara. It was a horrifying scene as Eliza stood over Kara's body, shouting out orders as she sent electric shocks through her body. "Charge to 300! Clear," Eliza shouted as Kara's back arched off the bed and flopped back down. "Charging to 350! Clear," she yelled as Kara's back arched again and slumped back into the bed like a ragdoll. "400!" Eliza roared. "Damnit, Kara! You get your Kryptonian butt back here or so help me! Again!" Eliza shocked Kara again and almost cried when she saw that Kara's heart was beating again. Lena did.
"Can you tell me about Reign? She clearly has some sort of mission, but I don't know anything about her."
"Reign was one of several Worldkillers that the Science Council created to protect Krypton, but we realized that they were impossible to control and astoundingly bloodthirsty. I was ordered to destroy them once the Science Council had outlawed their use, but one of them was stolen by an agent of the Cult of Rao," Zor-El explained.
"Worldkillers? Cult of Rao?"
"Worldkillers were weapons of mass destruction that were supposed to protect Krypton if we were invaded. Much like what Medusa was supposed to do."
"Medusa?! Do you have any idea what your virus nearly did to my friends?"
"Yes, and believe me when I say that I regret many of my choices in life. As I was saying, the Cult of Rao was a fundamentalist faction of the Mediator Guild that kept many of the ancient, forgotten traditions alive. Reign's purpose was to serve justice and exact vengeance. But, I have no idea what the Cult programmed her to do."
"She said that she was dispensing justice on Earth and punishing me for the hubris of my ancestors. Is there a way to defeat her?"
"There is. Since Reign adopted a human persona for most of her life, there are two sides to her. If you can separate the two, the Reign part of her will be weakened enough that she can be defeated."
"How?"
"There are stories of a black rock found on our planet that were scorched by Rao and could have profound effects under the right conditions, under a yellow sun. That rock should work on Earth. Then you can use the standard weaknesses of a Kryptonian to defeat her."
"Kal once told me of a superheated piece of Kryptonite—that's what we call pieces of Krypton that fell to Earth—can become Black Kryptonite. Someone once used it on him and separated him into a good and evil side. That might work. After that… we can use what Alex used to stop me when I was affected by Red K. A red sun blast and a Kryptonite bullet should be able to stop her." Kara paused and looked at her father. "But what about her other side, will she survive?"
"Yes, she should. Do you know who she is on Earth?"
"No… oh Rao. She said that we both have a connection to Lena- it's Sam! It all makes sense now. But she's my friend…"
"I am sorry, my daughter," Alura said as she hugged Kara.
"I don't know if I can do this."
"You must, Kara. Or else Reign will never stop." Kara nodded.
After the crisis on December 28th, Eliza, Alex, Maggie, and Lena decided that they wouldn't be leaving Kara's side again, even if there was an apocalypse (again). They couldn't let her slip away again. By December 29th, Kara's solar energy levels reached 50% as Kara began to suddenly improve, much to everyone's shock and relief. Alex was able to remove the chest tube and Kara began breathing over the ventilator, so Eliza started to carefully wean her off. Lena watched the doctors bustle around Kara as she quietly thanked Kara for not leaving her and gently stroked her blonde hair. On December 30th, they were able to remove the breathing tube as Kara was able to fully breathe on her own and her saturation levels reached 75% by the end of the day. However, there was still no evidence of her powers returning. On December 31st, J'onn wheeled a TV into the room so they could watch the evening's festivities. By the early afternoon, Kara's injuries had completely healed as though nothing had happened, the only evidence of something being wrong was the fact that Kara was still unconscious and unresponsive. Her solar saturation levels reached 95% and seemed to plateau there. Everyone gathered in Kara's room to watch the countdown as the ball dropped, ringing in the New Year. When midnight came, Alex kissed Maggie, Eliza and J'onn hugged, James and Lucy shared a chaste kiss, and Winn and Vasquez hugged as Lena leaned over to kiss Kara. When she pulled back, Lena found herself staring into the piercing blue eyes that she thought she would never see again. The young CEO gasped as tears began to slide down her cheeks. Lena shoved the sun lamps out of the way and hugged Kara. Alex was about to protest when she saw that Kara's eyes were open. "Oh my god! Guys, she's awake," Alex announced. "Kara? Can you hear me?" Kara looked at Alex blankly.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
(That's not good.)
If you think you spotted the 5 references I made in this chapter, message me and if you're right, you can ask any question about this fic and I'll do my best to answer.
Otherwise, enjoy and let me know what you think...
In the next chapter, Kara tries to remember before the battle against Reign and things get wrapped up into a neat little bow.