Lena wakes up with a start, coming to awareness all at once in an unknown place. Her heart is hammering against her ribs, she feels dizzy, and before she can get any sense of where she is, she's on her hands and knees, retching the content of her empty stomach. There's a salty taste in her mouth, her tongue is heavy and cumbersome, a bit like she has a hangover except she doesn't remember drinking anything. She struggles to get up and to remember what happened, thinks she fell maybe, but from how high ? Her hair is sweaty, plastered grossly to her damp forehead but when she goes to push it away, she stops.

There's blood on her hands. So much blood. And she can't tell if it's hers, if she's bleeding to her death, or if it's someone else's. She doesn't feel any pain, doesn't feel anything really.

Her heart beats wildly in her chest as she tries to assess the situation. It's dark all around and she can barely see past the bloody hands she's extended in front of herself. She can't even make sense of her own body, couldn't be sure she even exists if it weren't for the erratic sounds she makes.

A part of her hopes it's a nightmare ; one of these easy ones with blood and dead people and she's going to wake up and cuddle to her girlfriend. It's not a dream this time though, is it ? The blood on her hands is too wet, too real, for it to be a dream. Is someone dead ?

She treads forward clumsily, unsure of every step on the uneven ground. The air is damp, earthy. Is this a forest, a basement ? She can't remember how she got here. Her feet get caught on something and she stumbles, catching her hands on something supple and wet, something that whimpers and breathes, something that smells familiar. She scrambles up immediately, almost screaming out in shock but she doesn't want to alert to her presence.

There's no need for such precautions.

"Don't worry," a cold voice that she knows so well sounds all around her, "she's not dead. Yet."

"What did you do to her ?" Lena spits, feeling for Kara's face in the shadows. There's blood everywhere.

"What I had to do to stop her," Lex says matter-of-factly, voice smooth through what are obviously speakers. "Supergirl was proving to be a real danger to society."

"You made her do that !"

"Potayto-potahto."

"You sick bastard !"

She needs something to stop Kara's bleeding but she can't see anything, can't see where it's coming from, can't see what the most pressing wound is. Kara groans when she brushes her face and she thinks her nose might be broken.

"I believe that out of the two of us you are the bastard," Lex says, "but I suppose garnering Mother's affections must have made you confident."

"She needs medical attention..."

"Mother ? Well yes I suppose she does."

"Kara !"

Lena is starting to feel dizzy from all the screaming, and her throat is parched. She still feels leadened, heavy, but from the bandage she can feel under her sweater, she knows she's been taken care of, unlike Kara.

"You're a doctor, figure it out."

"Not that kind of doctor Lex. You know that !"

"Not my problem."

She can almost picture the dismissive shrug that must go with his words and it makes her so angry, so fucking angry, that for a second she considers just screaming, but she doesn't have any energy to spend on that.

"Lex please... If you ever cared about me at all..."

"Bold of you to assume that's the case but I suppose I can at least give you some light. I'll send the electricity bill to L-Corp."

"Yes please ! Light, water, anything !"

There is nothing left in Lena to hate the desperation in her voice. She'll do anything to save Kara at this point. Anything.

Lex sighs in contentment. "I'm going to enjoy watching you fail to save her."

He turns on the lights, and Lena wishes he hadn't with such fervour that her empty stomach upturns once more, bile-tasting saliva dribbling down her chin.

Kara- Kara doesn't even look like Kara anymore.

Her nose is broken, like she thought, the cartilage pushed all the way to the side, and her jaw hangs slack open, dislocated. Half of her skull has been shaved to allow for a long cut running from her temple to the back of her neck to be made, exposing the smooth metal underneath ; and that's only the beginning. Her skin is marred with angry cuts and bruises, her right shoulder looks like it's been put through a meat grinder, her left knee is definitely not where it should be and her left arm is bent at an awkward angle, part of the bone having pierced through the skin. Her torso is entirely black and caved in some parts where her ribs have given way under Lex's hits. There's no way she's alive and yet she is breathing.

She opens her eyes, one of her eyes anyway, the other blocked by a swollen purple eyelid, and grunts in recognition.

"I'm going to take care of you," Lena whispers. "This is going to hurt, a lot, I'm so so so sorry. But I'm going to take care of you. You're going to be okay."

Kara moves her head, half-nod, half-shake, and the small motion seems to cause her great pain, tears welling up in her one open eye.

"I'm going to start with, with your jaw. Okay ?" Lena says, narrating as much for herself as for Kara. She needs to clear her mind, and fill the silence with something other than Kara's pained noises. "I'm going to put my thumbs in your mouth, alright ? It's going to hurt a little, but it'll be quick I promise."

She's got nothing to sanitise her hands and they're covered in blood and dust, even after wiping them on the too small sweatpants Lex appears to have changed her into, but it'll have to do. Taking a deep breath, she slides her thumbs inside Kara's mouth, sets them on her lower back teeth, wraps the rest of her fingers under her chin and pushes it up in one snappy motion, hoping for the best.

The good thing is, it does work. The bad thing ? It allows Kara to scream so loudly and so suddenly that Lena topples over her in surprise, crushing her already damaged upper body under her own. She hurries up as fast as she can, careful this time not to put any of her limbs where they shouldn't be.

She finds herself straddling her, thighs quivering from the strength it takes to hover over her at a safe distance. Leaning forward, she cradles her face into her hands, smoothing her thumb over her bloody and cracked lips.

"Lee-" Kara tries. "Lee-Na."

"That's me yes," Lena whispers. "That's me darling. I'm here. I'm going to help you. Everything is going to be okay." The lie tastes sour in her mouth, but she has no other option but to utter it. Otherwise, Kara might give up just like she herself wants to.

"Am- Am-" Kara coughs a little, flickers of blood invisible on her beaten skin. "Am sorry."

"I'm sorry too darling. I'm sorry too."

It's far from enough. There's so much more Lena wants to say, so much more she has to say. But right now, that's all she has time for.

"I'm going to do your nose now, okay ? One step at a time. You're going to have to breathe through your mouth for a while. Do you think you can do that for me darling ?"

Kara makes a small noise that Lena takes as a yes. In any case, it's not like either of them has a choice ; Lena needs to get the small injuries out of the way before she works herself up to the big ones, the ones that necessitate surgery, anaesthetics, a real doctor. She doesn't have anything to insert in Kara's nose, and she almost laughs at the idea of asking Lex for a speculum, so she has to insert her pinkies in Kara's nostrils before she gives it a sharp tug to the left setting it back into place with all the grace of someone who's never had to do that.

Kara shouts in pain, but her nose is mostly right now and Lena will take the small victory where she can find it. She doesn't have anything to plug her nostrils with, nothing to hold her nose in place until it heals, but there's a gash in Kara's boxers and Lena uses the leverage to tear a long piece of fabric that she rolls into two small balls she shoves into her nose.

Kara frowns in confusion. She almost looks cute, almost like herself. Lena smoothes the crinkle between her eyes with a kiss, barely there, more of a comforting motion than anything.

"Hurt," Kara mumbles.

"Yes you're hurt darling. I'm doing all I can, I promise."

Kara shakes her head minutely. "No. You hurt."

Lena glances down at her hands, still covered in grime and blood, notices part of her bandages showing through the collar of her sweater. "I'm fine, you're more hurt than I am."

"T's okay." Kara mumbles. "M'fine."

"Not really no."

"T's okay."

She's crying, and Lena knows she's crying too, her cheeks wet with tears. Things have never been less okay and Lena realises with a surprising lack of emotion, that even Kara dying was better than that.

She spends the next Rao knows how many hours doing everything she can. She moves Kara's knees back into place and straps it in place with a band of fabric she tears from her sweater and the leg of one of two stools she spends several minutes bashing against the wall to break. She uses another of its legs to fashion a spike with which she cuts more of Kara's arm open so she can shove her bone back inside, pushing on it with all her strength and screaming almost as loud as Kara does when it gives under her weight and snaps back into place. She wraps the arm with more of the torn sweater and attaches another of the stool's legs to keep it straight then uses whatever is left of the garment to hold her ribs in place. Half of one of Lena's sweatpants' leg goes to cover her shoulder, at least to keep it safe from more grime, and she uses the other to wrap around her head after she's done her best to put some of her skin back in place.

The result is pitiful, laughable, Kara is sweating with the beginning of an infection and Lena can't even rest. Now that Kara is patched up, she needs to find a way out of here, and from where she is there appears to be none.

The single bright light bulb shines on only a small portion of what appears to be a very large cave. With a lot of huffing and tugging, and at the expense of most of her own ribs, Lena managed to get Kara closer to a wall against which she's sitting now, Kara's battered head on her lap. The room extends far into the darkness, its uneven damp grey ground disappearing about fifty feet from where they are to give way to an impenetrable mass of black. If she had an ounce of courage left, Lena would go explore, but everything she has is devoted to keeping watch on Kara hoping that her fever will miraculously abate.

The ceiling hangs low other their heads. Enough that if she stepped onto the remaining stool and raised herself on her tiptoe, Lena would be able to reach it. There's nothing up there however but a small intriguing and round narrow hole the size of an empty toilet paper roll. Lena can't even get her hand to fit in it, and it certainly isn't a good escape plan.

Its purpose becomes somewhat clearer when what feels like ages after Lena's finished patching Kara up a protein bar drops through it as well as a thin water bottle and for some reason an open packet of trail mix that spills all over the ground. Lena struggles to get herself from under Kara and get to the food before the bottle can disappear beyond the dark and then spends an inordinate amount of time picking up salty cashew nuts from the dusty floor. She can hear Lex's laugh so clearly in her head that for a moment she fears he's hiding there in the shadows. He isn't, and she's grateful for it ; she needs to regain some strength before she encounters him again so she can strangle him with her bare hands.

She shakes Kara awake and feeds her the protein bar, the nuts she recovered and three quarters of the water. Now that her dizziness has subsided a little, her stomach growls with hunger, but Kara needs it more than her and as long as she's out of it Lena intends on taking it to her advantage. She knows the moment Kara regains her bearing, she'll force her to share more equitably. What's left of the water is not enough, and Lena doesn't drink all of it, keeping most instead to clean Kara's shoulder wound, green pus seeping from it and soaking her sweatpants-made compress.

This, doesn't exactly help her feel better. She feels gross, her skin itches, and in the long hours that stretch until Lex drops more food and another thin water bottle, she frantically rubs her hands together, hoping the motion will trick her brain into thinking she's washed them. She dozes on and off, startling awake with increasing panic to check Kara is still there, breathing slow and laboured, before she closes her eyes again only to open then to find a busted container of soup leaking at her feet. Lex's got a really twisted sense of humour.

It's tomato soup. The watered down kind and she drinks a third of it before shaking Kara awake and letting the rest trickle into her mouth, tenderly wiping her chin when she chokes on it and spits it out. This time, all of the water goes to cleaning and redressing Kara's wounds, the process leaving Lena in her underwear after she tears what little clothes she had left to make new bandages.

The next food delivery is anchovies and no water. The one after that is a small box of black olives, and the next, half a pack of salted crackers. Lena begs, shouts into the hole, cries on her hands and knees, promises the fucking moon before Lex drops two water bottles and she finally understands what he wants : entertainment.

Kara is awake when the water arrives and while Lena was making a show of her misery, she's somehow managed to crawl to a sitting position, propping herself on the wall to keep her body upright. She refuses to touch the water until Lena's drunk an entire bottle and when they're both hydrated, she forces her to lie down with her, laying her heavy robotic hand on her chest until she falls asleep.

From then on, Lena never hesitates to make a spectacle of herself. She'll do anything to keep them alive for one more minute, just in case someone is looking for them.

Time is hard to track. At first, Lena tries to find a pattern in the way Lex feeds them but there is none save for the fact it always seem to happen as an afterthought, like he's forgotten he has prisoners to keep alive. She tries counting a few times, but always loses track of it around ten thousands, too thirsty and hungry to maintain the effort ; and the hours that stretch in between each drop are seemingly endless.

Lex let her keep her watch but it serves little purpose, having broken on impact. Sometimes, when time grows too long, threatening to bring her to the edge of delirium and she can't bear to look at the hard set of Kara's jaw anymore, Lena wonders if it wouldn't have been better for them both to die from the fall, if shattering on the ground and dispersing into the ether wouldn't have been a better outcome. She becomes more and more convinced of it with each empty second.

Kara is angry at her. She doesn't say it. Doesn't really speak beyond a few polite words, rough pleases and thank yous, a hum of acknowledgment here and there ; but after what Lena supposes is the first few days, when Kara's fever recedes a little and she gets less hazy, it becomes clear her silence is a choice. And Lena can't really hold it against her, she doesn't want to get into a fight there either, but the tense atmosphere really isn't helping. She begins to wonder after a while, because wondering and torturing herself really is the only thing there is to do there, what's going on inside of Kara's brain, what she remembers, what she forgot, where they left off in her memories, and if she's had the conversations Lena's had with her.

They're lying on the ground right now, Lena's back to Kara's front, both arranged in a somewhat awkward position to keep any weight of Kara's injuries. The lack of sunlight is really starting to show on her pale drab skin. Lena herself as always been rather translucent, but Kara is verging on pasty, her skin grey and unhealthy. Her open wounds are not scabbing properly, and even her Nth metal arm, supposedly everything proof, is starting to show worrying signs of wear, hanging limply from her torn up shoulder. Her stomach rumbles, and immediately, Lena slips from under her stiff broken arm and goes to kneel under the hole. She doesn't feel ashamed about it anymore ; dignity isn't a priority for her when Kara's life is on the line.

"Don't," Kara grunts, pushing herself to a sitting position.

Lena stops halfway through kneeling down, one knee hovering over the ground and the over bent at a painful angle. "You're hungry," she says, body shaking from the incomplete motion.

"I'm sick of it."

"I know you are," Lena whispers, forcing her body up so she can walk back to Kara, her legs shaking underneath her. "But we just need to buy ourselves some more time, regain our strength. They're going to find us eventually and it'll be over. It'll be over soon I promise."

Kara scowls, her face ghastlier than ever. "No. No I'm sick of-" she gestures weakly in Lena's general direction, "of this."

Lena recoils, taking a minute step back without meaning to. "This ? Me ?"

"Of you making a show of yourself ! De- debasing yourself for a maniac !"

"I'm trying to get you food Kara," Lena snaps, struggling to keep her own fury under control. Kara's chest heaves up and down in anger, a bead of sweat rolls down her face. She needs to help her calm down now, or it could be dangerous for her injuries. "I'm trying to keep you alive."

"Well then stop !" Kara screams. "Stop !"

"Kara..."

"Just leave me here to die," Kara bites. "Save yourself. And for the love of Rao, stop pretending you care !"

"I'm not- I'm not pretending. I do care Kara, I love you." With difficulty, Lena manages to sit down again, dropping on her ass with little grace and crossing her legs. "I do care."

"Well you have a funny way of showing it."

"What more do you want me to do ? Lex's got all the power here !"

"Just fucking leave..." Kara whispers. "Fucking leave me. That wasn't so hard the first time, was it ? I'm sure Andrea'll be happy to give you a ride out of this hell hole."

"Andrea...?" Dread descends over Lena, freezing her insides with anguish. "What do you remember exactly ?" she asks softly.

"I don't know what I remember ?!" Kara explodes, her face contorting with such ache Lena wants to reach out immediately, cradle her on her lap, make her feel whole and loved again. But a part of her, and a significant one at that, fears she'll lose a limb if she touches Kara right now, so she keeps her hands to herself, fingers wound tight to keep them from moving.

"I don't know anything !" Kara screams. "Anything !"

She lifts her broken arm with the probable intention of hitting her forehead but upon realising she can't bend it slams her head hard against the wall behind her.

"Don't do that please..."

"Don't tell me what to do." She breathes out slowly through her mouth, closing her eyes to try to calm down nonetheless. "I thought, I thought I could trust you but now..." She opens her eyes again, fixes her dark blue gaze on Lena. "Do you know what it's like," she asks slowly, "to be locked inside of your head ? To see and hear yourself do terrible things with absolutely no choice in the matter ? To fight and rage against yourself knowing you're going to destroy everything anyway ?"

"No," Lena admits when Kara leaves a blank long enough for her to answer, "no, I don't know what that's like."

"And I don't know," Kara continues, "if I said those things, or if Lex made me say them. If I heard you speak to me, or if Lex put your voice in my head. All I know, all I know for sure, is that you broke my heart. How can I be sure of anything else, how can I believe anything at all, when I can't trust myself, and I can't trust you ?"

"I- I don't know," Lena admits softly. "I don't know. I want to explain myself to you. I want to- I- But I don't if I can."

"Please. Explain yourself. That's what you should have done from the start. If you'd came to me and said : 'Hey Kara !'" Kara mimics in a thick ridiculous accent. "'Love of my life ! I have a dumb plan to get my crazy brother off our backs, do you want me to walk you through it ?' I would have listened."

Lena shakes her head, biting back a smile. "You're too stubborn," she whispers. "I knew if I didn't do something radical, you'd fight back. You'd find another idea, you'd cling onto me and make me change my mind and it was too dangerous. I thought, and maybe I was wrong, clearly I was wrong, that I had to break your heart to protect you."

"Oh you were wrong."

"But I broke my own heart long before I broke yours."

"Is that supposed to be comforting ?"

"No. No, it's just the truth."

Lena shuffles forward, dragging her ass in the dust. Slowly, very slowly, she reaches forward until she can put her hand on Kara's robotic one. She isn't sure Kara can feel her anymore, her body too busted for that, but when she encounters no resistance, she tangles their fingers together, carefully moving the metal so it looks like they're holding hands.

"I wanted to tell you," she continues. "Even on the roof, even after I'd kissed Andrea, I wanted to tell you. And I felt- I felt so disgusted with myself, so gross, but he had a gun aimed at your chest. He had a gun aimed at your chest and I knew that if I gave you an opening, if I let you hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay, I would believe that lie, and he would kill you. I let it go too far, and then I didn't have a choice."

Done with her verbal diarrhoea, Lena forces her mouth shut and looks down at her hands. For some twisted reason that she is only now starting to understand, Lex let her keep her bracelet and ring. One has become dull from the grime she's been rolling in since her brother dropped her here and the other is still caked in blood, flakes of it clinging to the metal no matter how many times she's tried to rub her hands clean. Kara is not wearing hers.

A tear spills from her eye and rolls onto her hand, creating a pale path on her dusty grey skin. Kara remains silent but the strong emotions that radiate from her have changed from hurt and anger to a sort of quiet aching understanding. When Lena looks up at her, she's crying too.

"I'm sorry I can't offer more," Lena whispers, "I really wish I could do better, but I thought I didn't have a choice. You didn't grow up with him. You don't know what he's like."

Kara frowns in a strange display of concentration, and a second later, Lena feels her metal fingers squeeze her hand. She smiles, a bit sadly, and says, "maybe you didn't. Maybe you really didn't have a choice."

"You believe me ?" Lena asks before she can stop herself, failing masterfully at keeping her bewilderment out of her voice.

Kara smiles, attempts a little shrug that her broken body doesn't allow her to complete. "Of course I believe you. Look where we are, I've seen the length Lex can go, I have no choice but to believe you." She marks a pause, eyes her with a deep sorrow that makes Lena thoroughly uncomfortable ; she caused that. She caused that pain, that hurt. She may not have been the one who cut Kara open, who tainted her skin with bruises, who filled her body with sickness and death, but she's the one who burrowed deep enough inside to poison her with a worse kind of infection. "And I would have believed you from the start," Kara adds, "if you'd only told me."

"Can you really blame me for thinking you'd push back ?" Lena asks, annoyed at her poor choice of words.

Fortunately, Kara seems beyond taking offence. "I can't," she sighs. "I would have pushed back. I would have tried. I'm a hero. Was. We never stop trying."

"You are a hero. No past tense here. I won't allow it."

"I'm not sure everyone else is going to agree with you."

"You've done more good than bad Kara, people will come around again. Wonder Woman was the literal god of war for a full year and people still worshipped the ground she walked on when she stopped breathing conflict. Superman levelled an entire city trying to stop Lex and people still love him."

"Superman," Kara says lowly, "is not a cyborg with a propensity for murder."

"Well Superman's a dick," Lena fires back, ridiculously proud of the fact that she doesn't miss a beat despite her sluggish brain.

Kara snorts. "What is this ? Fifth grade ?"

"Made you laugh," Lena says softly.

She looks away, toying for a moment with Kara's stiff fingers. "Listen," she says after a while, "I know I can't promise you everything is going to be okay out there. It'd be a lie. It wouldn't be fair. But as long as- As long as we stick together, maybe we'll be okay. If you still want to stick with me that is. I'd understand if that weren't the case."

"Of course I'm sticking with you," Kara says. "I want to marry you. I want to see and do everything with you. Just because I thought you'd stop loving me, doesn't mean I stopped loving you."

"I never stopped loving you," Lena whispers.

"I wasn't exactly aware of that," Kara replies firmly, but with no anger.

"I know. I know. But you have my heart, I'm so sorry I ever made you doubt that. And if you let me, I'd like to love you until the end. Whether the end is in five minutes, or in fifty years."

As if on cue, which knowing Lex, it probably is, their single source of light goes out.

"Fuck."

They wait, both frozen, Lena by design and Kara because she doesn't have much of a choice, for something to happen, and when it doesn't, time stretching unseen in the dark, Lena huddles closer to Kara until she can rest her head on her chest.

"I really am sorry," she says.

"I know," Kara replies, barely over a whisper.

"I love you."

"I know."

"We need to find a way out of here."

"I know."

The light doesn't come back on.

Lena tentatively, and frankly desperately, tries to wiggle the light bulb by climbing on the stool but all she gains is new cuts on her skin and shards of glass in her hand when she finally finds the bulb but tumbles from the stool, effectively ripping it off the ceiling.

In the dark, time stands still, and the only indication it passes at all is the pressing thirst in their throat and the weight of hunger in their stomachs. The food deliveries stop and after a while, Lex's presence in whatever this place is becomes uncertain.

"I guess we stopped being entertaining," Lena mumbles, a dry cough immediately following her words.

"Maybe we could, I don't know, light me up ? I'm full of wires and stuff, I could be useful."

Kara sounds desperate, even more so than in their first days in the cave and Lena tries not to snap at her but her frustration is in increasing need of an outlet.

"You're not a tuna can Kara. I'm not going to pry you open. And I don't know if you noticed, but you are out of battery."

"I didn't even know this could happen," Kara sighs.

"Neither did I," Lena snaps. "I very obviously did not know this could happen. Otherwise, I would have outfitted you with a back up." Slowly, she exhales through her nose. "Sorry. I'm not angry at you just-"

"You just don't want to die here like a dog in a ditch. I get it."

"Lex tampered with your beacon. And then the fall must have damaged the battery and it stopped retaining power. If I could get a good look at it maybe I could do something but..."

"Open me up then," Kara suggests again.

"And how exactly do you suggest I do that in the dark with a wooden spike ?"

"Do you know where the beacon is in my arm ? Maybe if you punch me...?"

"Are you seriously suggesting I hit your deltoid repeatedly until you come back online ?"

"Yeah that does- that does sound stupid," Kara whispers.

"Well I'm all out of ideas that don't include walking around in the dark searching for a hypothetical door so you're in luck."

Lena feels around for her wooden spike and when she finds it, struggles to hoist it in her hands, the flimsy wood suddenly incredibly heavy. She knows it's useless, knows she'll either be too weak to hit hard enough or it'll shatter on Kara's arm. But she also knows they're both too weak to wander aimlessly in the dark, knows there's a good chance Lex just portaled them here and there isn't even an exit, so she hits. It produces a noise she wasn't expecting.

"Did you hear that ?"

"Do you hear something ?"

Uselessly, they search for each other's eyes in the dark. The noise, a sort of dull humming doesn't come from Kara's arm, but from beyond the dark, and it's one Lena would recognise anywhere, because she hates it with a burning passion.

"Helicopter."

"Are you sure ?"

"It's a helicopter Kara."

A bubble of hope inflates in Lena's chest, filling up all the space left by hunger and despair. She scrambles up, refusing to acknowledge the wave of nausea that washes over her.

"Lena..."

"Kara please. You hear it too right ? It's a helicopter."

"It could be a trick..." Kara counters weakly.

Lena is aware of this. She is very much aware of this. But if she doesn't look for the source of the noise, if she doesn't move now, she thinks she'll definitely go insane. "I'm gonna go check it out."

"I'm coming with you."

"You can barely sit. I'll come back for you I promise."

"Don't- Don't leave me behind. Please."

The noise pulsates, like the helicopter is circling the place they're held in. It could go away at any time. Swearing under her breath, Lena finds Kara in the dark and, gathering a strength she didn't know she still had, starts pulling her up.

"Push on your leg," she grunts, not fully convinced her plea is audible. "You've got one good leg push on it Kara please."

The humming noise is closer again and, advancing choppily, Lena uses it to guide herself forward, walking until she hits a wall. She has no idea where she is, her heart is in her throat, beating its way into escape, and Kara is hanging heavily at her side, making it impossible to walk straight. She tries anyway. Now that they're up she fears that if they sit again, it'll be to await their death and so she keeps walking, pulling Kara behind her, right hand scraped from being pressed onto the wall. The helicopter gets further again, she hurries her steps, miraculously catching Kara when she stumbles.

They advance like that for what feels like hours, the helicopter close to them, then far again, then so close and so loud she would swear it's right other her head. When the ground under her feet finally changes, the uneven dusty surface giving way to something smooth, something like waxed concrete the roaring is so loud it's deafening.

"We're almost there !" she shouts. "Kara we're almost there !"

She breathes in shakily, smells clean fresh air, not musty, not humid ; they're getting close to an exit, and she hurries again.

The darkness hasn't abated one bit but she's sure there's a reasonable explanation for that ; there has to be.

"Come on Kara, almost there."

"I can't-" Kara croaks. "I- I can't."

Lena tugs at her, the motion destabilising them both and sending them to the ground, the concrete cold and smooth under Lena's bruised cheek. The sound above them changes, gets further and further away quicker now and Lena panics. She's up in a flash, rocking dizzily on her feet, and before her brain can fully catch up with her body, she's galloping down what is hopefully a straight corridor.

"I'm coming back ! I promise I'm coming back for you !"

The black before her gets greyer, the air lighter and colder, and finally, finally, she emerges into the night. And she's too late, the helicopter now nothing but a retreating shadow against the bright backdrop of hundreds of white stars. She sinks to her knees, a low guttural cry tearing through her throat and she screams, and screams, and screams.

Her body comes apart around her, she becomes nothing more than a scream, and it's been, she thinks, a long time coming ; years and years of frustration, of mistreatment, accumulating in her to the point of explosion. If this is how she disappears, if this is how she dies, at least it gets the helicopter to turn back.