"You must go now." Alura commanded, voice shaking. Kara turned away from her mother, only to turn back a second later and run back, clinging tightly to her waist. She didn't want to leave her parents. She didn't want to be responsible for protecting her baby cousin on a brand new planet. She didn't want to lose everything. She was just a kid. "Go," her mother said, and the next thing she knew, her home disappeared into a ball of flame.
Kara felt the shockwave of her planet's explosion as it rocked her pod. Her eyes reeled against the bright light, and she felt herself enveloped by the heat. There was nothing left of Krypton. Nothing left of her parents, her aunts and uncles, her best friends. Nothing but fire and ash circling around her pod as it drifted off course. No bodies to bury, no place to bury them. Nothing but white hot heat reminding her of what used to be and what would never be again. Spent energy, burning bright and fading into black, nothing but her own despair left in its wake.
Kara woke up, drenched in sweat, struggling for air. She was used to this nightmare. Even before her return to the Phantom Zone, she'd wake up with visions of her planet in flames, her mother's last words echoing in her ears. But this time, this time was different. She could feel the fire burning through her body, threatening to turn her into embers, just like her parents. Or, was that totally true? Something tugged at her memory. She remembered talking to her mother about her time on Earth. How could she have done that if her mother were dead? "She survived, remember? Your mom is alive. Alura is alive." She heard her own voice in her head, trying to bring her back down to Earth. "Ha, back to Earth. Ironic," she thought. Her brain was so scrambled that she couldn't hold onto a thought for long enough to understand it. She remembered conversations with her mom, but she also remembered them with her dad. New ones. Ones that didn't happen on Krypton. Was he alive too? "Not anymore," her voice continued. "You lost him again. You lose everyone eventually."
Alarms blared in her ears, and she felt something poke into her arm. Everything hurt, but she didn't care. As far as she was concerned, she was on fire with her planet, and part of it felt right, like that's what should have happened all along. She held her eyes closed tightly and waited for the flames to take her. Instead, she felt something cool on her forehead. Water, maybe. Her head lifted, but not under her own power, and she felt someone pull something over her face as oxygen tickled her nose. The new sensations pulled her back from her delusion. She let her head roll to the side and dragged her eyes open just slightly. Worried green eyes looked down at her. "It's okay, Kara," a voice said. "We're going to fix it. Everything's okay." She couldn't quite place the voice or the eyes that went with it, but she knew they were familiar, safe. The cool water left her head only to return a moment later, fresher somehow. Kara realized that someone else was with her, wiping her forehead with a wet washcloth. The voice continued, assuring her that everything was fine. She let herself take comfort in whoever these people were taking care of her as she drifted back into darkness.