They sat there together for a long time. Kara and Brainy, the last adventurers standing, the last remnants of their valiant little band.

It was Kara, at last, who broke the silence, sniffling a little as she reached out to take Lena's cold, still hand in her own. "You have to ride for Nia," she said, her voice rough and shaky with unshed tears.

Brainy looked puzzled. "Nia? Why?"

"If anyone can...can bring Lena back, it's Nia. You know the mountains. I saw you watching when Mon-El was guiding us; if anyone can find the way, it's you. You know how to find the dwarves' cottage and one person travels faster than two. Please, Brainy."

He reached out, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Kara, you don't have to beg me. I'll go. I don't know how much Nia can do, but you're right, she's our best chance. But I confess, I don't like the idea of leaving you alone. You're still a princess. You're still Sleeping Beauty. What happens if you fall asleep again?"

"Then you'll find me. I'm staying right here. With her." She gestured listlessly toward Lena's still form. "I can't leave her."

"And the dragon? What if she comes?"

Kara laughed a little, a sad, regretful laugh. "Funny enough, I thought Lena was the dragon." She hadn't meant to make her suspicions known, but what was the point of hiding them now that Lena was gone? And Brainy didn't seem surprised by them either. Of course. Kara should have expected that if anyone else would have made the connection between Lena's eyes and the dragon's, it would be Brainy. Brainy never missed anything. But in this case, the similarity was nothing more than pure coincidence. "Don't worry about the dragon, Brainy. J'onn taught us their weak spots. I'll hide from her if she comes. But I doubt she will. We haven't seen any sign of her in a long time."

Brainy nodded, but he didn't look convinced. To his credit, though, he didn't argue further. He just crossed the clearing and mounted up with quick, sure movements, obviously not intending to waste any time. "I'll be back," he said softly. Kara nodded mutely. There was nothing to say, really. Who knew whether he was riding off on a fool's errand? Who knew if there was anything Nia could do? This was their only course of action, and it might very well prove to be futile.

Brainy tapped his heel against his horse's side, glancing back once or twice at Kara with a look of concern as he turned toward the mountains from which they had come. As he vanished into the distance, Kara sat staring after him, holding Lena's hand, until he was nothing more than a speck on the horizon. But eventually the sound of his horse's hoofbeats faded, and Kara found herself completely and utterly alone.

She had never been so alone before. The world seemed too big, too vast, and she felt hopelessly lost in it. This was not what she had counted on, not how she expected her quest to end. The adventure she had craved and daydreamed about as a little girl was so much harder when it was real. She had sacrificed so much, lost so much since the start of this quest. And now that she had nothing to do, nothing to think about, nothing to focus on but the pain of that loss, the emotions that came surging into her heart threatened to overwhelm her.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to be back, safe in Kryptonia where she never had to worry about curses or dragons or magic ever again. She was beginning to wish she had never come on this quest at all. There were so many things she missed, so many things she would have given anything to have in that moment. Her cousin's gentle blue eyes. Alex's teasing sarcasm that had always made her laugh. M'gann's motherly tenderness, J'onn's solid, dependable strength. Mon-El's well-intentioned bumbling. Winn's laughter like a ray of sunshine. Lena's lovely smile. All were things that she had lost. All were things that she would have given anything to have again.

And where were they now? What had her quest gotten them? What was the price her friends and family had paid for following her into the unknown? Her cousin would soon be facing an incredible danger he didn't even know was coming, and who knew whether he and the kingdom would be able to withstand it. J'onn and M'gann had found true love, and then had it snatched away from them in the cruelest and most heart-wrenching of ways. Winn was trapped in servitude to his family once again. Alex- Kara's best friend, Kara's sister- was walking straight into the hands of her mortal enemy. And Lena...Lena...

That was what the quest had gotten them. That was what Kara had achieved. Nothing but pain, and heartbreak, and tragedy anywhere she looked. No way to turn things around. No hope left.

Her hand closed on a chunk of rock at her side, and she stared at it for a moment before the muscles of her face tightened. She took the rock in an iron grip and threw it as hard as she could at the trunk of a tree, listening to the dull, hollow thud. She followed it up with another and another, faster and faster, hurling rocks and clods of dirt as she screamed her fury into the wide, empty stillness all around her.

When at last she stopped, sobbing for breath, that stillness weighed on her like a smothering fog. Her heart felt as empty as an eggshell and as heavy as a pail full of water. Too much. It was all too much. Too much to bear, too much to take, too much to handle. She had been carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and it had finally brought her to her knees. There was nothing she had left to lose.

Kara collapsed back against the trunk of another tree, leaning her head against the rough bark and closing her eyes. She felt suddenly exhausted from her fit of fury, from the trauma of the morning, from everything else that had been buried deep inside her, waiting to explode.

But for once she didn't push it away. For once she didn't bury it. She let it come. She let herself feel. Anger. Fear. Grief. Resentment. Though everything she knew was screaming at her to shut the door on those emotions, she flung that door wide and welcomed them. For a moment she sat there, glassy-eyed and dazed with the intensity of all those feelings, unsure how to react. And then, with a little, sharp, shuddering gasp, she drew her knees up to her chest, buried her face in her hands and sobbed as if her heart would break.

She didn't exactly know what she was crying for, whether it was one thing in particular or all of them at once. The only thing she knew was that she was finally letting herself stop being a princess, stop being Sleeping Beauty, stop being a leader. She was letting herself be human. She was letting herself be Kara.

Eventually, once the tears stopped flowing, she found to her surprise that she felt steadier, more self-assured than she had in weeks. The situation hadn't changed, but it no longer felt as if it was crushing her. She would be alright. She would make it through this. Somehow, some way, this would all come right. There was still hope somewhere, even if she didn't see it just yet.

She repeated the words in her mind over and over and over until she started to believe them. It wasn't over yet. The quest was not yet finished. Cat had mentioned the darkest hour, hadn't she? This was the darkest things could get. Kara had nothing left to lose. After this, things could only get better.

But not yet. They would not get better just yet. There was one thing Kara had forgotten, and she remembered it suddenly when her ears suddenly caught the sound in the distance. The last thing that could possibly have gone wrong.

Distant thunder, growing closer. Brainy had been right to worry, and Kara had been wrong to reassure him. The dragon in the dark was returning. And this time, there was no one except Kara to face it. Just like Nia's dream had foretold, she would battle the dragon alone.

But surprisingly, she felt no fear, only a deep and settled calm. She was ready. There was nothing she could do for the others, not right now. In the end of it all, her own curse was the one she had to fix, the only one she could face. All the rest would come later. This was the curse she had to break.

She crossed the clearing to where her saddlebag rested against a boulder, removing her dagger and holding it in a ready position. Then she walked to the bottom of the hillside to ensure that Lena would be out of the line of fire, and she waited for the dragon.

The creature's shadow blotted out the sun as it passed over her. She looked up at it, taking in every detail of the beast as she never had before. The glistening black scales, the whip-like tail, the massive wings spread wide. This was a creature meant to make her afraid. It wasn't working. For whatever reason, there was no fear left in her now.

She had had her moment of emotion, and now she summoned her strength. She only felt determination. Resolve. Like her cousin before her, she was ready to be a dragon-slayer. She was ready to do what was right. This has to be done. So I have to do it. Nothing else matters.

The dragon, realizing that she wasn't running, turned sharply and circled back around. Kara never moved. The beast swooped down, landing behind her, the ground shaking with the impact. Kara didn't turn, didn't look at it. She remembered the first time the dragon had shown up, how it had seemed uncertain about whether or not to attack. Well, now she was forcing it to make up its mind. It would have to be the first to make a move. She braced herself for the heat of the dragon's fire, tensing her muscles to drop to the ground.

But instead of breathing flame, the beast made a strange sound in its throat. Almost...almost like a sigh. There was a sharp crackle, like a bolt of lightning had struck, and the same bitter, smoky smell that had filled the air when Kara picked up the cursed apple. It was the smell of dark magic.

And then suddenly Kara understood. Suddenly she knew. All the pieces fell together in her mind, and she drew in her breath sharply, but there was no real shock. Just... a realization, as if she had suddenly She recognized what it was that was so familiar about the dragon. Nia's words came back to her, and now she realized what they meant. You are closer to the dragon than you think. She didn't know why the curse had been laid on her, what purpose it had been meant to serve.

But she knew who was behind it. Maybe, deep down, she had always known. Still she didn't turn around.

After a moment, a voice came from behind her. A voice that, like the dragon, was familiar. "I've been waiting for you, little one. I was hoping we might get a moment alone."

"I was hoping the same thing," Kara said. "So that I could ask you why. Why you put the curse on me. Why you did all this."

Now she did turn, coming face to face with the dragon in the dark, the dragon in disguise. "I don't understand," she said, and her blue eyes blazed. "Why, Aunt Astra?"

So sorry about the formatting issues the first time I posted this chapter! It should be fixed now. :)