Yup it's still here, and yup it's still unfinished, but with a couple days off work and some insomnia induced writing attempts I managed a new chapter at least.

This picks up in Lena's thoughts from the last chapter [but it's been so long I don't expect you to remember what those were :)]

Lena finds herself alone again. Cast away to wait with Kara's words still ringing in her ears.

"Sam…I saw Sam."

She concentrates on the feeling of her hands opening and closing.

Feels her heart finally slowing.

But still, her mind won't stop.

Images of Sam and Kara blend together with the mess of equations and calculations she keeps reciting in her head, numbers repeating over and over useless solutions that mean nothing.

Nothing to stop Reign.

Nothing to stop the shadow moving across the sky.

Nothing to stop the feeling of running out of time.

Fingers dig into her palms until her knuckles turn white and then relax again.

It was a familiar ritual born of years of fighting back against the anxious thoughts in her head.

Thoughts that told her nothing was safe, that no one was trusted, that it was only her against the demons in her head and the dangers of the world.

Because for too long she knew nothing else, for too long there was no one else.

She learned it was safer to be alone.

But still she had tried.

First with Lex.

Then Jack.

Then Sam.

She let each of them know a part of herself.

She became a sister, a lover, a friend.

But at each she failed.

The sound of footsteps brings her attention back to the long corridor in front of her.

Lena can see the unsteadiness Kara tries to hide.

Hears it in the steps that are a little too heavy.

Her hands open and close.

She adds Kara's name to the list in her head.

Alex comes up beside her and rests a hand on her shoulder in a silent gesture that holds a kind of apology.

And she knows that if anyone can understand what all of this feels like it's Alex.

Alex who had been trying to save Sam.

Alex who loved Kara.

Who feared losing them both just as much.

They both stand as Kara reaches them and Alex voices the concern that Lena couldn't.

"You should be in the med bay."

Kara doesn't even hesitate to answer.

"I'm fine."

Alex shifts her stance.

"You are not fine."

Kara just ignores her and presses on drawing her sister back into the roles they are forced to play in front of Lena.

"What do we know Agent Danvers."

Lena hears Alex's resigned sigh and tries to break the tension between them.

"That eclipse was like someone grabbed on the moon and pulled. The Earth and the Moon run on an axis, and no amount of technology can change that."

Kara looks at her, nodding slightly at the logic behind her words as they continue walking.

"That's because this isn't technology. This is older than science. Reign, Purity, Pestilence, they were all created by Kryptonian witches to do one thing, kill the world, and now that they're together, they're doing that."

A question raises in Lena's mind.

"How do you know that?"

"There's no apocalypse in the Book of Rao, but there are parables about witches joining hands to create a blessed darkness."

Lena's thoughts shift to the books left to her by her mother. Worn and yellowed pages that spoke of Celtic myths about gods brought to battle.

"So, whatever ritual the World killers are doing, it's creating the eclipse."

Kara nods and they reach the others.

J'onn looks to Winn.

"How long have we got?"

"Two hours until totality."

Lena watches Alex look back to Kara.

"You said you dreamed of Sam."

"It's the same dream I've been having for the last year. I'm in the Kryptonian valley, Juru. Normally, I see the World Killers, but today, I saw Sam."

Lena watches the exchanges around the table, unsure of her place among them, but their faces aren't hard to read, and their questing glances and uneasy language does nothing to quiet the anxiety that has been steadily mounting in Lena's chest. She has to say something. Do something.

"Well, it's not a dream, the valley's real."

She pauses and looks to each of them again. But no one stops her, so she continues.

"When I was working with Sam, she told me of this place. It's an alternate dimension that she would go to when Reign would take over."

Alex shakes her head slightly.

"But how could Supergirl see it?"

But Lena doesn't know the answer to that. She only knows how Sam got to that place.

"On Mars, my people would share memories, emotions, experiences. Sometimes, you would experience a particularly strong mind wholly by accident."

Alex picks up J'onn's reasoning.

"Like picking up a radio broadcast?"

Winn seems more skeptical.

"So, Supergirl just picked up an alternate dimension."

But the logic of it all starts to form in Lena's head.

"It's possible. And if we could go in there, maybe we could wake Sam up and she could send us a message to say where the Worldkillers are."

J'onn asks the question they all must have.

"How do we send Supergirl back to this valley?"

They all look to her again but it's Kara that speaks up.

"You were able to send Sam into the Valley, could you send me?"

But before she can answer, even think if it's possible, Alex cuts in.

"No."

"Alex."

"No. You're already weak and we know nothing about that place."

Lena can hear the worry in Alex's voice, but she knows already that this a fight Kara will win.

"Well, it's all we've got unless someone else has another plan.

They don't, she knows it and so does Alex.

"Can Brainy link her to me?"

Alex's words a quiet and Lena feels the weight of glances that pass between Kara and the others as Mon-el simply nods.

"It's possible."

Alex looks back to her sister.

"If you're going, you're not going alone."

Lena closes her hands, the thought of having to send Kara back to that place turning her knuckles white again and this time she holds them closed until the feeling from them fades and wishes she could feel as numb.

Alex knows the guilt her sister feels.

She can see it in Lena too.

She can feel it in herself.

And she knows how quickly that kind of guilt can destroy.

How easily it can become reckless and dangerous.

She sees it in Kara's insistence of self-sacrifice.

In Lena's quiet acceptance of her sister's misplaced anger.

In her own doubt and distrust.

But she will not let them lose themselves in it.

If they are going to save Sam.

They are going to need each other.

They can all fall apart after if they need to, but not now.

Now they need to a way to find Reign.

Brainy seems quiet at first, as if taken back by their request, but after a second he starts to relay their plan back to them as if confirming its ridiculousness, and hearing it out loud from someone else, Alex worries not for the first time that this is a very bad plan.

"Let me get this straight. Your going to use electrical impulses to send Supergirl back into the same dark valley she just came out of. Then you want me to broadcast her consciousness out of said magical dark valley dimension using the same 31st century technology which allowed me to access her mind when Reign punched her into a coma, technology specifically designed to enter human consciousness not alternate realms, just so you can go with her to find Sam and hope she can tell you where Reign is."

Kara is the one who answers him.

"Yes"

And you want me to do this all before the solar eclipse achieves totality, which will happen in less than two hours.

"Yes."

And for a second, Alex thinks maybe she is relieved that it is all too impossible for them to actually go through with, but the relief is short-lived.

"Okay."

And she finally finds her voice, almost disbelieving.

"Really?"

Brainy nods again and just starts to walk past them.

"Yes."

Kara starts to follow before a sudden voice stops her.

"Wait"

Alex hears the halting protest and thinks for a second maybe she was the one who said it, but soon realizes it was Lena who has stopped them.

"I'm coming too."

Alex watches as the questioning look in her sister's gaze becomes one of abject refusal.

"No. We're not risking that."

And Alex knows her sister is already worried enough about her, that she doesn't need to be worried about Lena in that place too. But as Kara tries to move forward again, Lena steps in front of her.

"If I'm sending you into that place. I'm coming too."

And then Alex can't help but wonder then if it's out of guilt or fear.

"I spent the last month working with Sam and Reign, every day. I know how to reach her. If anyone can get through to her, it's me. I get that you may not trust me right now, but trust that I want to get Sam back."

But by the desperation in Lena's voice she thinks maybe it is something else. That there is another reason.

Alex looks at her sister again.

Sees the hesitation in her eyes.

Sees the moment Kara gives in.

Because Lena is giving her the chance to do the one thing she couldn't before, to be there for her, to help her save Sam.

"We will. I promise"

And those last two words scare her more than any other because Kara thinks she has already broken one promise to Lena, and Alex knows she will die before she breaks another.

Kara closes her eyes and grips her cape in her hands, testing the strength that remains and wonders how it could possibly be enough to keep the promise she just made.

"The eclipse is diminishing your strength severely."

She opens her eyes to find Brainy in front of her and lets the fabric of her cape fall away as she clears her throat and tries to ignore the implication of his words, of what she herself already knows.

"How's it coming?"

"Lena's technology will send you into this dark valley, but by me adding the weight of two more minds to yours will weaken you further. Your biology is impressive, but even you weren't built to be an inter-dimensional portal."

She nods but says nothing, looking instead to find Mon-el.

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, everything okay?"

She looks around, making sure they're alone.

"If this thing goes sideways, I need you to promise me something."

"What is it."

"Pull Alex and Lena out, but leave me in until I finish the mission."

Mon-el looks at her confused.

"You heard Brainy. This could hurt you, this could kill you."

Kara shakes her head.

"This is all we've got, you have to promise me."

He looks at her again, confusion replaced by concern, but his voice is quiet and composed.

"I promise."

And she thinks for a second she should thank him, but it seems wrong somehow, so she just nods, and he does the same. Maybe both of them wondering about all the words that have gone left unsaid in their lives. But she isn't left to wonder alone for long as J'onn comes up beside her.

"Your sister asked the same thing once you know."

Kara looks at him, a silent question in her eyes.

"I may not be able to read your mind, but I can read his."

J'onn nods in Mon-el's direction and she thinks she knows what he means, but she asks anyway.

"The black mercy?"

"We almost lost you both because of it."

She wants to reassure him.

"We'll be alright."

But even she's not sure she believes it.

"It's not them I'm worried about."

Kara turns to look at him.

"This isn't the same. I'm not ready to say goodbye this time."

But J'onn hands are the ones to find her shoulders this time and she lets herself be pulled forward gently, the ghost of memories between them.

"Promise me you'll remember that."

And as an errant tear marks her cheek she finds herself making another promise she isn't sure she is strong enough to keep.

At the end of this, there will be some resolution between Lena and Kara I promise. I won't leave them in the same "will they/won't they" limbo the show did. Feel free to leave something below, and as always, thanks for reading.