Author's Note: I'm not sure exactly where the song lyric idea came from, but dang it's been really fun XD On top of that, it's nice to finally have chapters with names. I love the effect but I can just literally NEVER think of chapter names.
Send me your location
Let's focus on communicating
'Cause I just need the time and place to come through
Khalid, "Location"
"William, you have to stay here," Alex said, her tone bordering on harsh.
She, Nia, Brainy and J'onn were facing off with William, all of them standing in the main room of the Tower. The sun was just starting to rise, golden light puddling through the large window at the front of the room. William, who was honestly feeling a little skittish about windows at the moment, was keeping himself firmly between the four heroes and the opposite wall.
"I hate to play this card," William argued, "but it was my breakthrough that led to J'onn being able to read Lex's mind and find Kara's location in the Phantom Zone. Don't I deserve some demands in return?"
"No, you don't," Alex snapped. "Because believe or not, this isn't about you. We will need all our power just to get to Kara, even with her location, and having you there is just going to slow us down."
"What Alex means," J'onn interposed, laying a calming hand on Alex's shoulder, "is that, however grateful we may be for you help, having you in the Phantom Zone with us is a liability. Wouldn't you rather us put all our effort to saving Kara, instead of spending some protecting you? You have no powers, William; you would be virtual defenseless against anything we may face in the Phantom Zone."
"Besides," Brainy tagged in. "There is a forty-two percent chance that this endeavor to free Kara will lead to us being stuck in the Phantom Zone ourselves. If so, we will require backup."
Nia looked over at him, eyes wide. "Forty-two percent?" she gaped.
"Point-two-six," Brainy added, not seeming to realize how alarming those stakes were.
"Fine," William relented, holding up his hands. "Fine, I'll stay here. But, just… get her out of there. Please."
Alex's gaze softened. "Trust me, William," she told him firmly. "I get her out of there or I die trying." She looked to Brainy. "Are we good to go on the portal?"
He nodded, striding over to a side table where his tablet was resting and turning it on. "Indeed. Silas was able to finish his work on the portal device just last night so that it will be stable enough for us to open it to get in, close it, then re-open it to get out." He picked the tablet up and turned to his team. "Are we ready?"
Nia bit her lip, before striding up to Brainy and kissing him firmly on the lips. Brainy fumbled with the tablet, almost dropping it, and Nia quickly pulled away. "Sorry," she mumbled, not looking at the others. "Just in case we die today."
William dropped his gaze, feeling like he was intruding on something fiercely personal. When he lifted his head again, it was to see the four heroes lined up, Brainy about to open the portal. "Good luck," he offered weakly.
"We'll see you soon," Nia assured him with a smile that looked much calmer and more confident than William currently felt.
Brainy pressed a button on his tablet and a portal opened. William stared in horror at the swirling, fractured sight of the broken Phantom Zone, a few wraiths visible floating through the air even from where he was standing. Nia reached for Brainy's free hand, and J'onn gave Alex's shoulder another squeeze.
Then they stepped into the portal and the whole thing vanished.
W / T \ Y
William spent far too long staring at the blank wall in the Tower, willing the portal to reopen and for Alex, J'onn, Nia and Brainy to hop back through with Kara in tow. The Phantom Zone was a place out of time; it was just as likely that hours for them would be minutes for him as it was that minutes for them would be days for him.
The thought unnerved him, so he took a heavy seat on the couch. After awhile, his moody rumination turned into a light doze. Flashes of the Phantom Zone filled his subconscious, interspersed with Kara, wearing the flattering pink dress she had when they'd first met, alone, scared, hurt.
He awoke sweating, heart hammering in his chest and feeling like he'd just been shot again. William tried to slow his breathing but something was nagging at him.
Then he registered the noise.
William's eyes flew open and he saw the starts of a portal against the wall, letting off a low vibrational humming as it slowly bloomed outwards. He jumped to his feet, the portal coming to maximum size in seconds. There were five figures sprinting towards it at full speed, with no less than twenty phantoms hot on their heels.
"William!" Alex yelled. She was streaked with grime and running closely to J'onn, the two of them supporting Supergirl between them. "Get ready to close the portal!"
William scrambled closer to the portal, frantic and bewildered. "What?" he yelled back, holding out his arms as if that could force the Superfriends to run faster. "How do I close the portal?"
Then he saw a second tablet lying on a table nearby. William dove for it and turned it on, revealing a complicated-looking screen with one not-complicated-looking button that read "CLOSE". William looked back to the portal, priming himself to press that button the second the heroes were through.
But then one of the phantoms swooped down, catching Alex and sending her flying off of portal-trajectory. She crumpled to the ground and threw her hands over her head, thrashing against an invisible foe. "ALEX!" J'onn bellowed, torn between helping Kara the rest of the way to the portal and going after his surrogate daughter.
William made a split-second decision, put down the tablet, and dove through the portal. "Help Alex!" he yelled to J'onn as he ducked under Kara's free arm, already starting to race her to the portal entrance. She was heavier than he'd expected, nearly dead weight, and he tripped across the jagged pieces of stone on their path back to safety.
A phantom screeched above them. William saw Brainy, who had his own hands full supporting a clearly injured Nia, pull the two of them through the portal and race for the abandoned tablet. Safety was within arms reach now, and William put on a burst of speed. He shoved Kara through the portal and was about to leap through himself when ghostly hands caught his arms, dragging him back.
"William!" Nia yelled.
William scrambled for purchase on the rocky ground, adrenaline pumping through him. All at once his vision blurred and filled with a new sight, like the one from his dream. Kara was crumpled on the ground in front of him, just out of reach, a pool of blood spreading in every direction.
It's not real, William reminded himself, shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut tight. It's just the phantoms, making you see this fear.
But when he opened his eyes again, Kara was still there. And when he finally managed to scramble to his feet, she felt so incredibly real, skin leaching heat as the blood ran out of her, the warmth of it soaking into the knees of his pants. Her eyebrows creased in pain as she groaned, dying but unable to be at peace. Tears stung behind William's eyes, and he realized that this was real. Kara must have come after him, broken away from safety. And as a result, she was going to die.
"Kara, please," William begged, clutching at her hand. "Come on, get up. Open your eyes, Kara, please."
Then he was being ripped away, torn from her body. William fought the hands dragging him backward but they were stronger than he was. He twisted around, and suddenly found himself on the floor of an industrially-decorated building, a vision fading as a portal closed behind him.
There was a long, long moment when nobody spoke, the heroes too focused on catching their breath and recovering from the adrenaline rush and shock. William slowly pushed himself to his knees, covered with alien dust.
"Is everyone okay?" Alex asked hesitantly. She didn't seem too worse for wear, but had a scrape on one cheek and was favoring her left side.
"I think so," Nia replied. She glanced down at her torso, which was drenched with blood. "Brainy, could you take a look at this, though? I'm not sure how deep it is."
"Of course," Brainy said immediately, putting an arm around her waist and leading her carefully out of the room.
William finally built up the nerve to look at Kara. At the sight of her, pale and grimy, slouched against a table with a boneless neck like her head was too heavy to hold up, a scone-sized lump grew in his throat. He was about to stand and make his way to her, but Alex got their first.
"I'm so glad you're home," she breathed, pulling her sister into a tight hug. Kara hugged her back, tucking her chin over Alex's shoulder and squeezing her eyes shut tight.
Kara pulled away first, and her gaze met William's. "Alex," she said softly. "I think that William and I need to talk about some things."
"Yeah, okay," Alex agreed reluctantly, squeezing her shoulder and then backing away. She and J'onn followed Nia and Brainy's earlier path through a side exit, leaving Kara and William alone.
"Who told you?" Kara asked quietly, her voice dull.
William swallowed, unable to read an expression past her exhaustion. "Nia," he said. "But… don't blame her, Kara. It was only because I pushed."
"It's okay," Kara sighed, shoulders dropping. "I did want you to know, William, I just… I mean- you saw what happened today! The way you rushed into the Phantom Zone without even a thought about your own safety…" She paused. "Do you remember how wary you were to let me help with the Lex investigation?"
William nodded, having been unable to think of anything but his worries in that regard for the last week and a half.
"I feel the same way about you being involved with the Superfriends," Kara said.
"So you expect me to just sit on the sidelines, when every time I hear that Supergirl's gone to fight an alien threat or Supergirl's being shot at I'm going to know it's you?" William demanded.
"This is why Nia never should have told you!" Kara cried, striding towards him. "Because now you're going to be putting yourself into constant danger and it'll be my fault."
"I don't care about danger, Kara; I'm an investigative journalist!" William protested, frustration and worry bubbling over. "What I care about is the fact that I spent the past week and a half worried sick about you all because I thought you'd been- been taken by Lex or killed, only to find out that you were stuck on an alien planet occupied by phantoms, while I had been doing absolutely nothing to help!"
"Well, what I care about is the fact that you finding out that I was stuck on an alien planet occupied by phantoms led to you almost getting yourself killed!" Kara yelled.
"Well, what I care about is you!" William exploded.
They stood in the center of the room for a moment, glaring at each other, before the angry redness in Kara's began to fade a little. "Really?" she asked, her voice soft.
William took one last step forward and kissed her.
Kara stumbled in surprise, but William wrapped a stabilizing arm around her back, one hand cupping her jaw. She tasted like… well, like dirt, which was unfortunate for a first kiss, but William was too focused on the miniaturized fireworks show going off in his brain to care.
He eventually drew away for lack of air, but pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I was terrified that you were dead, Kara," he murmured. "It was like- like Russel all over again, but a hundred times worse."
"I'm sorry," Kara whispered, burying her face in his neck. "I didn't realize- I didn't even think about how not telling you the truth might make things even harder."
"It's done now," William assured her. "And you're safe."
Kara drew back, not looking at him. "William, this isn't going to be the last time something like this happens," she warned. "I'm Supergirl. I have a city to save, and sometimes -a lot of times- that responsibility comes at the cost of my own safety. To be on this team, you have to come to terms with that risk… for yourself, and for the people you care about." She met his gaze, eyes soft.
William nodded seriously, before a teasing smile broke through. "So… does that include me?"
Kara ducked her face back to his shoulder, hiding a grin. "Yes, William. I care about you, too."
I'm only acting like this 'cause I like you
Just give me the vibe to
Slide then oh I might make you mine by the night
Khalid, "Location"
Author's Note: Hehe we love a good first-kiss scene. I cannot wait to see how they do it on the show (it's so fun to have something like that to look forward to) :D :D :D Any theories or hopes for that cannon first-kiss scene?
I miiight want to do a Brainia side of the story for this chapter. If so, that'll probably end up on the Brainiac and the Dreamer so if you're interested keep your eyes posted. No promises. But it could happen.