Summary:

Brainiac-5 helped Kara out of her mind prison after her battle with Reign. It was only fair she return the favour…

Notes:

This story is based on my own personal speculation that Vril Dox/Brainiac-1 will end up in the present at some point to wreak havoc in National City. Takes place after "A Visit from the Future" and "Sleeping Beauties".

"I don't understand," Brainy breathed as he looked around.

The darkness stretched for miles.

"Shouldn't there be another room or something here?" Kara asked. "We're supposed to be in some weird version of This is Your Life, so …" she let the sentence hang.

"You were helping me through the memories," Brainy began, the pieces slowly fitting together. "HE didn't like that. I think—I think the only thing HE wanted, was my despair, but this…" he indicated the darkness surrounding them. "This is worse than memories. It's… nothing."

"How is that possible?" Kara asked. "I mean, if this is your mind, there has to be SOMETHING here. There has to be another door! We just have to find it." She grabbed Brainy's hand and began to pull him along behind her.

"Kara, don't." Brainiac-5 tugged his hand back and planted his feet.

She spun on him, "Querl, we are NOT staying here!"

"You can leave any time you want. Just take off the cerebral interface."

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"He has been stopped. That's all that matters. You are needed out there. No sense in staying trapped with me."

She shook her head, "There has to be a way." She looked around the darkness, still looking for a doorway, then stopped. "Hope!" she gasped.

"Hope?" he repeated.

"That's what you need! Hope!"

"I don't think I ever lost hope," he replied, brow furrowed. "There are far too many good people in the world to ever truly lose—"

Kara interrupted with a finger to his lips, "Not hope for the world," she clarified. "Hope for YOURSELF. Quick - what's your last memory of Kajz?" she asked. "Before you came to the 21st Century, I mean. What did you two talk about when you last saw him?"

"Kara, he…" Brainy took a deep breath, "The last time I saw Kajz, he was dying. That was several months before Imra and I decided to go back in time to stop Pestilence."

"And we DID stop Pestilence. That prevented The Blight from ever happening, right?" Kara asked.

Brainy shook his head, "Kajz died of old age, not The Blight. I mourned his loss for some time, but I finally came to a place of acceptance."

"And yet, you're still feeling despair. If not over Kajz, then what?" she puzzled.

Brainy sat down on whatever the ground was and looked up at her.

"Even trapped in here, I can still sever our link through the cerebral interface. You know your sister will kill me if I let you stay."

"You're in a coma. Killing you would be pointless." Kara eased herself down beside him, the endless darkness making her unsure of where to move her body. "And don't you dare cut that link. I swear, Querl. If you let yourself be stuck here, I'll never forgive you! C'mon, you're a 12th Level Intellect. What's causing this darkness?"

"I don't know. There's nothing I'm particularly desolate about. I have made my peace with my childhood demons – and while I will always wish people could accept me for who I am and not fear me because of my relatives, I am happy with the non-related family I have made. I can think of no reason why—" he stopped, his eyes immediately going to her. "Oh."

"What? You thought of something?"

"No. Well, yes, but it makes no logical sense."

"Emotions never do," Kara replied. "What is it?"

"Love," he replied.

"Love?" Kara repeated. "Your friends love you."

"It's not platonic love that I'm speaking of," he sounded embarrassed by the very thought.

"Oh…" Kara replied quietly.

"As I said, it's not logical. And it is also not something I would think should cause this," He waved a hand towards the darkness, "Unless…" it hit him then. He met her eyes. "This is his plan. Vril wants to punish the one Brainiac that rebelled against his Kin - that chose the Organics over his legacy."

"What do you mean?" Kara asked.

"As you said, I have friends who have bonded with me as such. But there is ONE emotional bond I will never have. It is a bond no Brainiac has ever had."

"Why do you think you'll never have that?" Kara asked. "You have the capacity to love, they don't."

Brainiac-5 suddenly became agonizingly alert as his earlier awareness of Vril Dox's presence heightened.

"You have to leave, Kara! I can feel his mind growing stronger now. He's in custody, yes... but he is also starting to wake up. Once he does, there will be little you can do to fight him here - and it does no one any good for Supergirl to trap herself in a Brainiac's mind."

"No," She placed a hand on his cheek, turning his face towards her, "I'm not going."

"You must," he met her eyes pleadingly. "Vril has me where he wants me. Perhaps one day, I will find a way to free myself through other means, but until then-"

"Perhaps?!" she interrupted. "That's not a guarantee!" She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his, a thumb gently stroking his cheek. "I won't leave you alone here. I can't."

His eyes closed in response to her soothing actions. "The world needs Supergirl more than it needs me."

"I need you," she replied.

He met her eyes once more, surprised at her words.

"Apologies if this question is presumptuous," he began apprehensively as he pulled away from her touch. "but… is your current affection towards me platonic... or amorous?"

"Querl…"

He stood up, pacing anxiously for a moment before he stopped and turned to face her.

"I only ask because I am 99.9% certain I have fallen in-love with you over these last many months, but I dared not attempt to calculate the odds of this being requited as I was sure they would be quite low. If I am misinterpreting your actions in any way, please forgive me."

Kara pushed to her feet, closing the last few inches of distance between them- before the ground suddenly vanished, sending the two tumbling into darkness, and back into the real world...