Black Mercy

Kara POV:

Oh my Rao. Today has been really stressful, I tried to tell Joe all about Dr Wells and that he was the man in yellow, he didn't believe me. Alex yelled at me for telling Joe about my suspicions about Wells, and Wells himself is very suspicious about me. I am worried that he knows that I am Supergirl.

To top everything off, it is the anniversary of the destruction of Krypton. I miss my home, I am tempted to go and see Kal today, I have the need to spend some time with my Kryptonian family. Mostly though I just want to get in my pyjamas and watch the wizard of oz again.

Flying into my open window I went straight for the freezer and went to grab a pint of ice cream. As I was searching in the freezer I could hear a noise in the room. I looked around and the noise happened again.

Moving around the room I noticed a goopy mess on the coffee table, as I was examining it and then there was a crash, I looked up and saw...

Alex POV:

I had to go and apologise to Kara for yelling at her earlier, all she was trying to do was warn Joe that Barry is in danger at STAR labs and I overreacted. I knocked on her door holding her favourite pizza and potstickers. I waited for a response but there was nothing, knocking again I called her name, but there was still no answer.

At this point I was panicking, she never not answered me, even when she was annoyed. I called Winn to make sure that she wasn't at work or out being supergirl. When Winn confirmed that she had gone home I began to panic.

I hunted for the key that I know Kara keeps hidden in case of emergencies, and let myself in. I dropped the food on the floor when I saw the sight that greeted me. Kara was laying on the floor with what looks like a weird flower on her chest. I called Winn and in a state of desparation, I also called Joe, figuring that I can bluff my way through this.

When Winn arrived thirty minutes later Kara's vitals were dropping, and I did not know what to do. I knew that she needed medical attention but I did not know of a place where I could bring her that could cope with her special needs.

By the time Joe had arrived Kara needed emergency medical intervention, she was almost hypoxic and her heart rate and blood pressure were spiking.

"Alex. What the hell is going on in here, why is Supergirl on the floor?"

I knew that I had to think of an excuse, and fast, but I had no idea what to say. But this time it was Winn who saved the day.

"Detective West. I don't know if you remember me, I am Winn Schott Jr and I am a friend of Barry's. Look I know this looks a little crazy, but Alex and I know Supergirl, and when Supergirl was in danger she called the two of us to help. Now I will explain how we know her later but now we need to get Supergirl medical help, and we cannot go to a regular hospital, so where do you recommend?"

"Star labs, they won't judge and they have technology that a hospital doesn't have. They have been looking after Barry for a while now, but that is not important, we need to get Supergirl some help."

We both agreed and we carried Supergirl down to Joe's cruiser, and flicked on the lights and sirens and bombed it down the road. Joe thrust his phone into my hands and told me to dial the number for STAR labs, and then he radioed for back up and raced through the town.

We arrived at STAR labs faster than I could have imagined and there waiting for us was a woman with red hair and a Hispanic man, and they had a gurney with them. The redhead started barking commands.

"Quick get her on here we have set up ready for her. Who found her?"

"I did, Alex Danvers. I am a doctor and I have a doctorate in biomedical engineering. Supergirl is a friend of mine and a symbol of hope for the people of Central City. You have to save her."

"Alex I promise you that we will. And Danvers, any relation to Kara Danvers?"

"She is my sister. Why?"

"She just comes here to visit Barry, almost every day, does she know that you know Supergirl."

"No it is secret, and you can't tell her that she is here, no one can know that she is here okay. The are plenty of criminals who would take advantage of her absence to wreak havoc on the city."

"I promise."

We walked into a huge round room, with a couple of smaller rooms off it, in one of the rooms I could see two beds, one of which was already occupied. It was Barry, I hadn't been to see him since he ended up in the coma, but I knew that the event devastated Kara. But right now it was not about him it was about Kara.

We hooked Kara up to the monitors and watched her vital signs, they kept plummeting and the amount of solar energy in her cells kept dropping too, it was like the creature whatever it was, was sucking the life right out of her. The red-headed doctor was running around trying to get as much data from this thing on Kara's body as possible.

"It seems to be gripping her torso with over 100 pounds of force. What is it?"

"I do not know, supergirl has never mentioned a plant type organism that can do this."

The redhead sighed and looked at Winn and I sadly. "She is completely unresponsive to outside stimuli, but her brain activity is still normal. We have to wait while I run some more tests on this thing."

"I can't stand here and do nothing. I am going back to where we found her, I am going to try and find out what this thing is. Can you get some solar lamps on her, try and keep her solar levels up, that will help to keep her alive. Winn keep an eye on her. Joe, I need your car."

He tossed me the keys and went back to watching over Barry and Kara. I sprinted out of the med bay and back to the lift, almost running into a man in a wheelchair.

Once in the car, I raced back to Kara's loft when I entered I realised just how much Kara must have thrashed around as the thing thought to take control of her. I dialled the number of Clark, and told him what was going on, I sent him a picture of the creature and asked him to look in the fortress for the answer. I had just finished on the phone to him when I heard a noise behind me, I whipped around and came face to face with Astra. Ever since her attack on Kara, I placed kryptonite bullets in my gun.

"What do you want Astra? What happened to Kara is this your doing?"

"This is not entirely my doing. I wanted Kara off my back, but I didn't want her dead."

"So who planted this thing? I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it is killing her."

I could see that Astra looked distressed by this news. And at that moment I knew that she would help.

"It is called the Black Mercy. It is an alien parasite, so-called because it kills you nicely. It sends you into your perfect world, so perfect that you don't fight it, and you never want to leave, then it just sucks the life out of you. You only have just a few hours until it is too late."

"Too late to what?"

"To save Kara. So here is what you must do..."

Winn POV:

I felt so helpless watching everyone rush around Kara, trying to save her and all I could do was watch. Alex had already run off, presumably trying to find a way to save Kara, Caitlin and Cisco were debating the best way to remove the plant thing from her chest, Joe was looking between Barry and Kara, I was just standing there looking helpless. Before I knew what my body was doing I was walking over to him.

"Hello Detective West, can I ask you a question?"

"Winn I told you at Christmas it is Joe, and you can ask me anything."

"How do you do it, your son is in a coma and you can just carry on. I have known Supergirl for ages, she is one of my best friends and I cannot stand to see her like this."

"You just have to cope, try and keep it together for her. These guys are great, they will save her that I am sure of. I just have one question to ask you..."

"How do I know Supergirl? And do I know her secret identity? Well to the latter question, yes but that is for her to tell you, and the former... Well, she came to me asking for help, so I designed her suit, put the tech in it to help me monitor her while she fights crime. She even gave me a code name Telle, her god of Knowledge."

Joe nodded, I could tell that he didn't completely believe me but he understood that I couldn't tell him more than that. I heard someone cough behind me, it was Caitlin and Cisco. Caitlin was the first to speak.

"We think that we have a way to get this, thing, off her."

"Go on."

"We are going to try and pull it off her." She ignored the look on my face and carried on. "Cisco has just designed something that can grab this thing and pull it off her with a force greater than what it is holding onto her with. I know that it is primitive but it is the best idea we have."

"Okay try it but if I tell you to stop you cut it. Deal."

"Deal. Let's get to work."

Fifteen minutes later Kara was hooked up to what looked like a giant arcade claw machine. The plant thing was in the claw and Cisco was at the controls. Caitlin looked at me and I nodded my permission to begin.

Cisco started pulling up on the machine and almost immediately we realised that it had latched on tighter than we thought. The moment we started raising the thing Kara's vitals spiked, I started to panic but Cisco just pulled harder.

"Stop it, Cisco stop you are killing her. STOP! This thing seems to have a symbiotic defence. You pull it off her it will kill the host as well as itself, we just have to hope that Alex can discover a way to rid her of this thing."

Kara's POV:

Waking up I was dazed and confused, it took me a moment but I realised that I wasn't in my loft, in fact, I was pretty sure that I was no longer on earth. A robotic female voice, from behind me, startled me.

"How are you feeling Kara?" I jump out of bed in shock. "Reflexes normal."

"Who are you?"

"I am Kellex, your medical attendant."

"Where am I?"

"Your confusion will disappear as your temperature stabilizes. Would you like to get dressed?"

Kellex gestured to a blue tunic, I recognised it instantly, I was the same tunic that my mother wore every night as she tucked me into bed. What was it doing here?

"This is my mother's where did you get it?"

"I gave it to you."

I spun around so fast I was my head spin, there was my mother standing there, looking a little older than when I last saw her, but alive and healthy. I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing, then it dawned on me I was back in Argo city, I was back on Krypton.

"Mum? How... how can you be here?"

"I stayed home every day while you recovered from the Argo fever."

I shook my head at the absurdity of it all. Krypton was dead, this is not real, none of it, no matter if I want it to be or not.

"This is not real. You died, you died with the rest of Krypton."

My mother's face showed a feet deal of sadness. "Oh, my sweet Kara... You must have had terrible hallucinations from the fever, but everything is alright now, you are safe. You are awake, you are home."

Alex POV:

I had raced back to STAR Labs, hoping beyond all hope that I wasn't too late. Pulling into the car park I slammed the door closed and raced for the entrance. Bolting into the elevator I kept jabbing the button, willing it to move faster yet it felt like an age had passed by the time I made it to the cortex. Everyone looked at me as I sprinted in panting.

"I... I know... I know what that thing is... It is called a black mercy. It is a type of alien parasite."

"Alien?!" The Hispanic guy shouted.

"Yes, alien. Did you not know that Supergirl is an alien?"

"Well I knew that superman is, but I was unsure about her."

"Their cousins' doufus. Anyway, there is no time to argue, I found out how to save her from the Black Mercy. We need to create a device that we can enter Ka... Supergirls mind." If anyone noticed my slip up, then no one mentioned.

"You need a what?"

"A device that can enter the mind of Supergirl, something that I can use to enter her mind. She is trapped in her perfect world, and I might be the only one that can help pull her out of it. We are really close, you could call us sisters. And now she needs us. Winn can help he is a demon when it comes to tech."

Winn and the Hispanic guy looked at each other and nodded in confirmation that they could do it. They quickly left to the lab or workshop, wherever they need to go.

Kara POV:

I was pacing around the room yelling at the image of my mother, as she was trying to get me to calm down.

"Kara, please it is just the fever talking. Kara."

"No someone is manipulating me by using my memories of Krypton against me..."

A model that I made for my father caught my eye, why would anyone put this much detail into my hallucination?

"I remember this, I made it for my father when I was eight. I remember getting so upset that I couldn't get the wings right."

"And he told you that it was perfect, and he loved it, and you with all his heart."

I put the model down and tears started welling in my eyes just thinking of these moments.

"He made me feel so proud, and so happy. Like.he always did."

"See you do remember."

"Yes but I also remember saying goodbye to you on the launch bay, and hugging you so tight and never wanting to let go. I remember promising to protect Clark... Kal-El, I remember the feeling of despair as I saw Krypton explode knowing that I would never see you again. I remember the pain of it all."

I paused for a moment to regain my composure before carrying on, "I have fantasized about this every day since I have left. I don't know what is happening but I am going to find out, and when I do I am going home."

Alex POV:

I was sat next to Kara, holding her hand whispering to her so no one could hear me. Winn and Cisco, I finally found out everyone's names, were busy adapting some VR tech that STAR labs had built. Caitlin was off on a coffee run, Joe has gone back to the precinct to inform the Captain of what is happening, and Dr Wells. That is strange why was he not here? This was his lab and Cisco said that he hasn't left yet.

But Kara, Kara is the priority, we need to get her better. I am just worried about pulling her out of her perfect dream world, would she hate me for it? I do not know, what I do know is that she is going to need a lot of love and support when we get her out of there.

I had just got up to recheck Kara's vitals when I heard a noise behind me. Turning around I could see a streak of yellow, with a little red lightning mixed, in racing towards Kara. Before I could even move I found myself thrown across the room, and the thing, no man, the man in yellow plunged a glowing green knife into Kara, at the point where the Black Mercy had not latched its self to, and then almost as quick as he arrived he disappeared again.

Dragging myself off the ground I ran over to Kara and saw that the blade if the knife was made of Kryptonite, and to make matters worse the Kryptonite was weakening her body to the point that she really was dying. I didn't know what to do.