Astra looked so similar to the way Kara remembered her. So similar to Kara's mother. The only differences were the white streak in Astra's brown hair and the clothing she wore, clothing Alura would never have chosen. Armor. Shimmering black armor like the scales of the dragon, and a pendant from which dangled a glowing green stone. Green, like the dragon's eyes that had never belonged to Lena. Other than that, Astra was the same woman Kara remembered from her childhood. She had indeed been closer to the dragon than she thought. The dragon, the person behind her curse, was her own flesh and blood.

They both stood still and silent, taking in the sight of the other. It was Astra, finally, who broke the silence.

"It almost makes me regret it, looking at you. You have your mother's eyes." There was such love in her tone, so very like the beloved aunt Kara had once had. The beloved aunt who had given her a curse that shook her world. None of this made any sense.

"I always wondered what happened to you," Kara said. "I was so little I didn't remember much of the details. All I remember is you and Mama getting in some kind of argument, and how tense things were after that. And then I woke up one morning and you were gone, and Mama told me you weren't coming back. She never told me why. No one ever told me anything else. It was like you had never existed. But I never forgot. I remembered how you would teach me about the stars. You would tell me all their names, show me how to find them. And then you would tell me about all the magical creatures in our kingdom. Elves and mermaids and fairies and phoenixes. I loved those stories. I loved you, Aunt Astra. So I don't understand why we're standing here now. I don't understand why you did all this."

Astra laughed, hard and bitter. "Of course. Of course you don't. I didn't think they'd tell you the whole of it. There's so much you don't know, little one."

"So tell me," Kara said. "After everything you've done, everything you're still doing, you at least owe me an explanation." She was trying to hold back her anger, but her head was spinning. Everything she had lost to the curse, everything she had had to do on this quest...it was almost impossible to believe that Astra could have done it all. And yet the proof was here, staring her in the face.

Astra drew a long sigh. "It was never about you, little one. I truly did love you. If I had had a choice, I would never have brought you into it."

"But you did."

"Yes. It was about your mother, really. We were living in a magical kingdom, Kara. You must understand that. And as perfect and peaceful as Kryptonia may have seemed, magic always comes coupled with dangers. I was one of the only people to recognize that. Me and your uncle."

"And that was why you and Mama fought."

"Yes. That was why. And finally I made up my mind that if the people of Kryptonia would not see the danger in magic, I would show the danger of magic to them. Non and I paid a great price to learn the ways of magic. Dark magic."

Non. Kara barely remembered her uncle, Astra's husband; he had not been born royalty and always seemed sullen, sneering at the glittering luxury of the court. And he'd never gotten along well with her parents, or Kal's parents either for that matter. Non was the kind who saw enemies everywhere he turned and never trusted anyone.

"Who taught you dark magic?" she whispered. From what Cat had said about her curse, it was not the kind of thing that just any magic-wielder could have cast. Wherever Astra and Non had come by their knowledge, it would have to be from someone incredibly powerful.

"You wouldn't have known her. She kept herself very well hidden. At least she did before Kal took the throne. Her name was Indigo. She revealed herself when your cousin rose to power; she always thought he was too self-righteous, too noble to be king." Astra shook her head. "The odds were against it, but Kal won that fight."

It took a moment before Kara realized what her aunt meant. Her mouth dropped open. "Indigo was the dragon? The one Kal saved Lois from?"

"Is that her name? I wouldn't know. She was only bait for the trap. I never thought he'd marry her. But yes, little one, Indigo was that dragon, just like I am the dragon that's been following you. There are no real dragons left, not anymore, at least as far as we know. Any dragon you come across, you can be reasonably certain it's a warlock in disguise. It keeps us hidden from the fairies' sight. They don't suspect a thing."

"And Uncle Non? Is he a dragon too?"

"When he chooses. But Non's plans are more subtle. There's a wizard in Daxam he's developed quite a vicious rivalry with."

Maxwell Lord. Of course he'd have to be mixed up with the dark side of Kara's family. Apparently Alex's curse wasn't only about her refusal to accept Maxwell as a suitor. That, however, was neither here nor there. Kara shook her head to clear it, forcing herself to focus.

"So you learned dark magic," she said. "Then what? Where do I come into it all?"

"Then we put our plan into action. We began casting random little spells to show the people how dangerous magic really was. A magical lightning-storm there, a will-of-the-wisp to lead travelers astray there. Just enough to get the point across, that's all it was supposed to be. There were never supposed to be casualties, but Non...your uncle doesn't exactly have the strongest restraint. Your mother was furious when she found out."

Kara could only imagine that. She remembered clearly Alura's strong sense of justice. Now she knew the reason behind the shouting that had echoed through the palace, shouting she had never understood as a little girl. The servants had whisked her away to another part of the palace and distracted her until she forgot, but still, in the back of her mind, she had always wondered.

Astra's voice was soft, but there was bitterness deep within it, and her eyes were distant and far away. "Alura was so furious," she said, "that she wanted us exiled for our crimes. It didn't matter that I was her twin sister. She didn't care that we had done what we did for the sake of the kingdom. She didn't care that we were right." Astra clenched her fist, and for the first time Kara noticed the twisted black wand she held in her other hand. "In your mother's mind, little one, the ends did not justify the means."

To a point, Kara understood her mother's reasoning. What Astra and Non had done was wrong. But at the same time, magic was dangerous. Kara knew that firsthand. It didn't excuse Astra's actions, but it made them a little easier to understand.

At least, the actions that Astra had explained up to this point. Kara was still struggling to understand the part she played in all of this.

"That's why you left," she said.

"Yes. We weren't given a choice, not even a chance to say goodbye. Kal's father was king then, and Alura convinced him that it should be handled as soon as possible. She didn't want the people to think that the royals favored their own. Any commoner that had done what we did would have been exiled immediately, and so we earned the same fate. Non and Indigo and I, we lost everything that day. Everything we'd ever known, everything we'd ever loved." Her gaze flicked back to her niece, and Kara knew, in that moment, that she had been one of the things her aunt had grieved losing. So why the curse? she asked silently. Why the curse, if she loved me?

"We all coped with it in different ways," Astra said. "Your uncle just wallowed in his bitterness, nursing his hatred for our family. Indigo kept her eyes on Kryptonia, watching for a chance to strike back. She always said it would come someday, and it did with Kal. It just didn't end the way it was supposed to. And he never knew- he still doesn't know- who he was really fighting that day."

"And you?" Kara asked.

"Me? I just thought. I learned. I studied magic until I was stronger than your uncle and Indigo put together. And it was then that I realized. I'd been targeting the wrong people. It wasn't the commoners who needed to see the danger of magic. It was the royalty. It was your mother."

Astra drew a long, shuddering breath, and the muscles of her face tightened. But when she spoke again her voice was light and conversational, as if she was purposely trying to keep the emotion out of it. "So I resolved to find the perfect curse, the perfect way to avenge myself on my sister. Something that would show her how right I was. It took me years, but I found the sleeping curse. I didn't know when to use it, how best to prove my point, until suddenly I remembered you. You were turning eighteen in a week. There was nothing better to take from Alura, nothing else that would have hurt so much to lose. I know that because of how much it hurt me to lose you. How much worse, then, would it be for your mother?"

Kara closed her eyes, fighting to keep back the tears. It had never been about her at all. She was nothing more than a pawn in Astra's plot for revenge.

"Maybe I might have reconsidered," Astra said. "But Non and Indigo somehow found out what I was doing. They convinced me not to back down. To cast the curse. And so I did. I didn't know your parents were already gone by then. Indigo-" Astra's voice tightened in a way that made Kara suspect her aunt had not entirely been grieved by her companion's demise- "chose to withhold that information. It was never meant to harm you, Kara, not really. You'd still have your life to live after. You'd still wake up."

"I did wake up," Kara said. "Earlier than I should have. Why?" She hoped against hope that her aunt would say she had had second thoughts, that it was Astra who had been behind the miracle.

But Astra shook her head. "I don't know. It wasn't meant to happen. No one interfered, no one woke you. You woke yourself. It seems, my dear little niece, that you are stronger than magic. You decided that the world needed you back in it. So you woke up. Although I suppose it may have been your fairy godmother who gave you a little prompting."

Cat. It would be just like Cat to do that, to whisper into Kara's sleeping mind that it was time for her to wake up.

"But what she doesn't know," Astra continued, "is that I still want vengeance. Kryptonia still hasn't learned its lesson. I can bring down the rest of the curse in a moment. Show that foolish, self-secure little kingdom how wrong they were about me." Her eyes flashed green, hard and cold and no longer human. The dragon's eyes. Perhaps Astra might have regretted it. But the desire for revenge was still strong. Astra was still dangerous.

Kara drew a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. And then she opened her hand and let the dagger drop from her fingers. "So finish it," she said. "Finish the curse. If vengeance means more than flesh and blood, then look me in the eyes and take it."