Alex, J'onn, Nia, Brainy, and M'gann stepped out of the portal into the cold, gray expanse of the Phantom Zone. A shiver made its way up Alex's spine, raising the hair on the back of her neck. She had felt the dead, empty feelings brought on by the phantoms a couple of times when the phantoms made it to Earth, but this was like nothing she had ever experienced. The despair coupled with the vast nothingness around them was suffocating. Alex knew they'd only been there for seconds on Earth, but she immediately felt the distinct dread that came naturally in a place that time didn't pass. It was like she'd been there all her life, like this was all her life would ever be. Alex hated to think of her sister being trapped in this hellscape for so long with that same feeling. If she felt this empty this quickly, what must Kara feel?
"Alex?" J'onn's voice shook her out of her thoughts. "We have to go." Alex nodded, and the team made their way through the rocky desert in search of the blinking dot on the tracker they so desperately hoped was truly Kara. Lena had been able to produce two more prototraps before they launched their mission and repurposed them to send the phantoms into the void of space rather than the containment unit at the DEO. Alex focused on the tracker while J'onn, M'gann, and Brainy surrounded them, pointing their prototraps outward, ready for any phantoms they met along their way. Nia stood next to Alex, hands open in front of her as if she may need to send out a blast of dream energy at any time. They moved slowly, making no sound but the crunch of sand beneath their feet and the occasional nervous breath.
"It's quiet," Brainy said. "Too quiet." Nia shot him a foreboding look. "Now is not the time for movie references, Brainy," she whispered for fear of alerting the phantoms to their location. "I'm serious," Brainy said. "We should have come across at least one phantom by now. Where are they?" The team looked around at each other, realizing that Brainy was right. M'gann held up a hand, signaling for the team to stop moving. "Give me a second. I'll use my connection to the phantoms to sense their location." M'gann took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a moment, her eyes snapped open, wide with fear. "Oh god." she said, her shaking voice betraying any effort she might make to stay calm. "Kara."
M'gann took off in the direction of Kara's tracking dot, the rest of the team at a full sprint behind her. They followed the path laid out for them by a ravine between two cliff faces and came to an abrupt halt about 100 feet from a peculiar looking rock formation. The Superfriends stood frozen in shock as they tried to take in the scene unfolding in front of them. Dozens, if not hundreds, of phantoms surrounded the still form of someone they couldn't quite see, flying around, screeching as they fed off of the life force beneath. The figure was too far away to make out a face, but there was one detail that nobody on the team would miss. The motionless body was partially blanketed by a tattered, dirty, yet unmistakable red cape. "Kara," they all whispered at once.
J'onn's arm shot out to catch Alex as she attempted to run toward her sister. "We have to do this right," he said, sternly. "We'll only get one chance." Alex forced out a breath and nodded. Using hand signals, J'onn conveyed his orders to the team. J'onn, Brainy, and M'gann spread out slowly, surrounding the phantoms, who were too distracted by their prize to notice. On a count of 3, they started firing their prototraps at the phantoms while Nia produced a dream tunnel to protect Alex while she sprinted toward her sister. Alex grabbed Kara underneath the shoulders and dragged her the rest of the way toward the cavernous rocks while the rest of the team dealt with as many phantoms as they could before following suit and seeking shelter.
Alex laid Kara back down, knelt beside her, and gently shook her face with her hands once she was sure Kara was still breathing. Alex saw that Kara's injuries were severe, but she couldn't do anything about them here. "Kara. Kara, wake up. Kara, come on, you have to wake up. We have to get out of here. Come on Kara," Alex begged, trying desperately to contain the sob threatening to escape her throat. Kara stirred slowly, blinking up at Alex. Suddenly, as if at the crack of a whip, Kara shot up to a sitting position, backing away from Alex as far as her diminishing strength would let her. "No. No no no no. Not you. Not now. You have to go. Don't come near me. Go away, go away, go away," she chanted. "Kara, it's me," Alex pleaded. "It's Alex. Focus on me, try to find my heartbeat." Kara tried, but couldn't hold her focus long enough to hear anything but her own rapid breathing.
"It's not you!" Kara exclaimed. "You're dead! You're all dead. You're just here to remind me that I killed you. I know I killed you. Just leave me alone! Let me die here. I deserve it. Please, please let me die." Alex tried to ignore her heart shattering as she inched slowly toward her sister. "Kara, it's Alex. I don't know what you think happened, but I'm not dead. I'm here and so are J'onn, Nia, M'gann, and Brainy. We're so sorry it took us so long, but we're here to bring you back home." Alex spoke softly, trying her best to reassure her terrified sister.
Kara thrashed in Alex's arms, using energy she didn't even know she had. All she knew is that, if this really was Alex, she had to get away before Kara killed her yet again. Alex couldn't be here. She couldn't. She could never be safe with Kara. Alex held Kara as gently as she could, trying to calm her sister's jerky movements so that she didn't aggravate her injuries. Despite her efforts, Alex noticed several old wounds across Kara's body had resumed bleeding. "Okay, Kara." Alex said. "I need you to listen to me. You're hurting yourself. I need you to slow down and breathe with me so we can get out of here." Alex looked at Kara, who was muttering desperate disagreements and still trying to squirm away. "Alex, we can't hold the phantoms off for much longer," she heard J'onn bellow as he and the hoard of phantoms got closer to their refuge.
Alex was growing desperate and wracked her brain for anything that might help convince Kara to go with them. She couldn't have J'onn try to forcibly remove Kara like this. Not with her physical and mental state as fragile as they appeared. Alex thought about what Kara must have experienced with the phantoms and remembered that, when she had fought them before, she couldn't feel anything but cold. She looked at Kara and grabbed her wrist, digging her thumbnail into the flesh. Kara stopped moving and stared straight at Alex, confused. "Do you feel that, Kara?" Kara didn't move, but Alex knew she did. "This is real. We're real."
Kara's eyes, previously a foggy blueish white, altered due to the relentless attacks from the phantoms, cleared slightly, and Alex saw her pupils focus. "It's ... it's you?" Kara whispered, raising a shaking hand to Alex's face. A tear fell from Alex's eyes as she nodded. "It's me," she said, finally allowing herself to smile. "Let us take you home." Kara kept her eyes trained on Alex, but Alex could see the fog returning to the edges of her irises. "Stay with me, Kara, we have to go. We have to go right now."
"Alex, I can't … I can't hold on … the visions are coming back … you have to get .. get away, get away from me, I'm gonna hurt you, I always hurt you, you have to get away," Kara gasped out the words, clearly struggling to stay tethered to reality. Alex dug her thumbnail deeper into Kara's skin, the fingers of her other hand squeezing Kara's shoulder. "You can do this Kara. You just have to hold on long enough for us to get through the portal. I know the phantoms make you feel like what's real isn't, I know the visions hurt, I've felt them, but I promise you this is real, and you're going home." Alex was trying to help Kara, but she saw the panic on her little sister's face give way to crushing sadness. "You? No …" Kara's voice broke. Kara wasn't sure what was happening, but she knew what she felt now, and she couldn't stand to know that her sister had experienced this pain.
"Alex, I can't hold on. I can't focus. Help me." Kara's desperate plea nearly broke Alex in two, but she choked back her tears and nodded. "I can give you something to make you sleep until we're back home. Do you want me to do that?" Alex offered. Kara's eyes widened once more. "No sleep, please. No sleep. No more dreams," Kara whispered. "Oh, Kara," Alex said, running her fingers briefly through Kara's hair. "The medicine will help you sleep deeply. No dreams, I promise." Kara nodded in agreement, and Alex pressed a button on her belt, releasing a small syringe. She pulled Kara into her lap and injected a vein in her neck with the medicine. Kara stared up at Alex, eyes growing dark with sleep. "Thank you," she croaked out, and succumbed to the darkness.
J'onn quietly moved over the sisters and picked Kara up in his arms. The SuperFriends shared somber glances, and Alex pressed the button to conjure the portal. They walked through, finally bringing their lost hero home, but with no idea how to help her heal.