Kara woke in a blur of rain and cloudy skies.
She had no idea of how long it had taken for her to scrape her way out of the Orb room but she had noticed the green rock was gone and her fingers were bleeding.
The pain hadn't eased though; screaming through her veins like countless needles scratching through her insides until she lay, shredded and lethargic.
But she was now above-ground… entirely ignorant of how she had come to be here.
"S'ok luv," a thick, Northern-British accent told her, "I gotccha."
And she became aware of being dragged by the arms through the rooted and soaked soil.
Kara was laid by a fire, covered in a blanket and told, "I was never here… ok Sweetheart? But, hey… tell 'im that I'm proud he figured it out. More noodles in the bowl than I gave him credit for."
She struggled to sit up and note the owner of the voice but was shushed and pressed back to the floor.
"Rest up, kid…" she was told, "wait for the sun to come out and get your energy back."
And as her eyes closed, she heard the swoosh of someone leaving her…
Before she fell to sleep.
()()()
Waking felt like Kara was dragging herself up out of mud… consciousness came with the struggle to open her eyes… and the realisation she had been ambushed and lost the son of the Fuhrer.
One slither of sun warmed her skin through the densely packed cloud.
It was enough to make her feel clear-headed. And as the fog lifted, Kara came to the realisation she was not alone.
Sat on the log opposite her was the bleach-blonde man who had rescued her… his muddied shirt was unbuttoned at the collar as his neck strained against the pressure of his grinding teeth.
Kara tried not to stare, but she noticed his forehead was marked with a flaming pentagram.
Who was this guy?
At that moment, his eyes snapped open and for the smallest instant seemed to be wholly red before fading to a more natural shade.
Kara remained as she was… better not to show her strength was growing.
"Feelin' more human, eh, kid?"
"Kara," she corrected.
He laughed, "Already snipping at me. That's a yes then. Wanna tell me what you were doing goin' after the Orb of Horus?"
Kara felt her lips tighten.
"Right…" the man ran a frustrated hand through his hair, "Well then, time for introductions, eh? I'm John… John Constantine."
He had said the name with a type of depth that she supposed was meant to solve all queries…
"Nuthin'?" He asked with an edge of disappointment, "Wow… that stings. Gotta up my game with the whole Nazi intelligence fandango."
"If you're reaching a point," Kara cut-in, "let me know."
John laughed a little, "If all you've got is that plucky little attitude of yours… we're in seroius trouble."
Kara focused on the ground between his feet and shot a bolt of heat-vision to set the ground and leaves alight.
Constantine gave a little jump but settled back into his casual stance a little quicker than she would have preferred… reaching into his coat to retrieve a pack of cigarettes, "Thanks Sweetheart," he winked, plucking a lit twig from the small smouldering pile to light his smoke.
"Those will kill you," Kara said, eyeing him.
The man shrugged, flicking ash to the ground, "When?"
He confused her greatly. "You are unafraid of dying?"
"I certainly am, luv," Constantine countered, "but I'll only meet the same kinda people where I'm heading as I do up here. Kinda like your boyfriend. Nasty, no good types for the most part… but them there's the potential-"
"Boyfriend?" She asked before she noted how his gaze levelled with hers… "He's not my boyfriend."
"You have an interesting need to cut into people's sentences," Constantine observed. Then, he took a deep drag of his cigarette and, spreading his arms to indicate their surroundings, the Englishman exclaimed, "I'm sure it's not every girl he brings on a romantic getaway to Purgatory… Must be something special about you."
"He's only interested in my strength," she said, trying to close the subject.
"Sure he is."
"And what about you?" Kara shot-back, "Why are you here helping us?"
"As maniacal, genocidal despots go… he's not so bad," the blonde man shrugged, "plus… I kinda owe him one. It's a long story."
Constantine stood, brushing the woodland from his hands and pointing down at Kara, "But this makes us even… you tell him that from me."
Attempting to move, but still weakened, Kara winced with the effort and spat, "Tell him yourself."
This earned a chuckle from the magician before her, "Oh no… I've out-stayed my welcome in Natzi-planet. Time I high-tailed it out of here…" and as an aside, he added, "You know, there's no other planet in the multiverse that saw them win."
"The what?"
"Multiverse…"
Kara felt her strength give and she lay-back on the ground, this man had to be kidding, "Don't tell me you believe in that nonsense too."
"Oh!" Constantine goggled, "It's real… hundreds of thousands of possibilities sprouting an infinite number of Earths… but only this one has seen the Natzi party spread through the planet… That's why the others call this Earth X."
She supposed he was trying to be mysterious but Kara was taking a very different lesson from this tale, "We were the only true superior race in the whole of existence?"
Looking slightly worried by the twist of his tale, Constantine frowned, "That's one way to think of it."
"How else would you describe it?"
Shaking his head, the mage began to weave his hands until a golden glow appeared in the air, "I think I've described it a little too much… and, given the version of me on this Earth was a student of Rasputin… I'm getting the hell out of here before he senses me. Don't want to be getting into that fight again."
She couldn't help herself, "Rasputin's dead."
"Is he now?" Constantine asked, with a tilt of his head that felt more patronising than genuinely curious. "Look… I think he whammied you with Kryptonite."
"Whammied?" She asked.
"Knocked you out," he explained…
But she also needed to know… "What's Kryptonite?"
That really stumped him. And as he began to ask, "You don't know…" as Kara's eyes began to burn and he surrendered with, "ok. Ok… alright…"
With an incomprehensive incantation, a projection lit the middle of the space, depicting a perfect blue and green planet…
It wasn't Earth…
"Krypton…" Constantine supplied. "Where you were born."
That made her blink… she was only told of this place… she had never seen it. And it was wonderful…
Constantine spread his fingers and the planet before them began to crack and tear apart… "When it was destroyed, great chunks of the planet were thrown out into space…" he gestured again and seemed to zoom-into a familiar pod escaping the wave of destruction followed by several chunks of green, irradiated rock.
"They are of you," he explained, "of your planet and, as such… well… can kill you."
Kara blinked.
She had wondered if anything could do that… then remembered Olivers "Green Room" where they started their training sessions.
He had known about these chunks of her home-planet…
"The mineral is called Kryptonite," Constantine continued. "And wherever a Kryptonian is… there is Kryptonite. Like a stinging nettle and a dock leaf."
"A what?"
"Never mind," he shrugged, "Doesn't work anyway… better to try milk…"
This man was insane. "Look," she held out her hands, feeling stronger, "if you have something useful to say-"
"I'm sayin' it!" He insisted, "Stay away from glowing, green stuff and best of luck!"
With that, Constantine waved his arms to spark a thin line of fire in the air which he whirled into a deep circular expanse of crackling energy.
"Time for me to scarper," he said, turning to her with one more piece of advice, "Slade wants you and Oliver dead… his reasons are just but he's hyped up on Mirakuru… it was made somewhere far away but you'll find more on the old shipwreck off shore."
The what? "I didn't see a-"
"Magic luv," he winked and was gone.
Kara felt herself burn with rage.
Magic.
Could this be a weakness?
No.
No!
She couldn't believe it.
The whole card-trick, slight-of-hand and mirrors bullshit was one thing.
But the first Fuhrer believed in mystesism.
Magic was simply an understanding not trained to a simple mind.
And Kara was Kryptonian.
Was this why Oliver had brought her to this place?
This was what she needed to overcome.
And to overcome these odds she needed to be more.
More powerful… faster and stronger.
Each fibre in every muscle forced her to crawl into the light.
Her muscles may ache now… her bones may bend and her nails shatter against the tough ground… but the sun sustained her; its heat, its power and its fury rushed through each cell beating through her heart.
Soon she was floating above the cold, hard ground of this pitiful place… soon she was miles above the island itself… in the angry and untampered thunder of the sky.
Lightning bent about her… it was merely the power of the earth and she held its commanding star within her veins.
She was going to find that allied piece of scum and end him… the though alone fired trough her blood.
And, she thought vaguely as each small millimetre soaked in the light of the yellow star… Oliver would be with her again.