The Pendulum

A/N: This story is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and The Pendulum. I do not claim ownership of Supergirl nor of Poe's work. I merely used it to create a story I hope you will all enjoy!

Kara didn't remember how she lost consciousness exactly but she was slowly but surely regaining her senses. She first felt a stinging pain at the back of her head, which momentarily confused her since there were not many f things on Earth that can physically harm her. She kept her eyes closed for now as to not make her headache worse, and tried to listen to her surroundings instead.

Nothing. She didn't hear anything at all, which unsettled her greatly.

Usually, with her super hearing, she could pick up the softest of sounds from miles away. The absolute silence frightened her slightly. Still opting to keep her eyes closed, she tried to remember where she was, and what happened before she was knocked out. Tuning out the continuous stinging pain in the back of her head, she concentrated, and the memories came flooding in.

She recalled she had been sent out to respond to a Cadmus attack on a school. She remembered the man, if one could call it that, a being covered in fluorescent green crystals protruding from his arms, legs and shoulders. It was Cadmus' Experiment 13, also known as Kryptonite man, as Alex had informed her through her comms. Her sister had also theorized that it was highly likely that Cadmus was targeting that school since a couple of its students were aliens.

Kara remembered wanting to keep the young kids in the school safe and had slammed into the mutated man so he couldn't harm innocent children. In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest idea to fight a man that was made from the only existing material on Earth that could physically harm her, which also might explain the splitting headache she still had. Second, it might also have been a rather stupid idea to face said man without any backup whatsoever. She faintly remembered her sister yelling at her through the comms to not engage him and wait for her and her team to arrive but she couldn't just wait and let that mutant wreak havoc in a school. She decided then that, in the future, it would be wiser to listen to her elder sister more so that she did not end up in a situation she found herself in right now again.

Having recollected her thoughts, she now had to assess said situation, she finally opened her eyes.

Darkness.

Almost complete darkness greeted her.

That, combined with the utter silence made her feel even more uneasy than she already felt. She then looked around, as best as she could in her weakened state, to figure out where she was. She was sitting against a wall in what appeared to be a square shaped room. The wall in front of her had a door right in the middle of it. She couldn't see much of it, due to the darkness surrounding her, but she could make out the faint grey coloring of a steel door. She slowly stood up, using the wall as support before she made her way towards the door. She felt weak, her legs shaky and unsteady, and she kept an arm stretched out in front of her to make sure she didn't hit anything.

When she finally did make it towards the door, a journey that took way longer than it should have, she grabbed the handle and tried, with all her might, to yank it open. The steel door clattered softly against its own frame with way less force than she felt she had used. The uneasiness she felt increased by the second.

Had her fight with Kryptonite Man weakened her so severely she couldn't even force a steel door open?

Trying to ignore the uneasiness that was slowly turning into fear, she used the wall as a guide to step around the room to assess how big it was. She counted 13 steps from the door towards the corner of the room. If the door was placed in the middle of the wall, which she was pretty certain it was, meant that each side of the room was 26 steps long. If she assumed the room was square, which she was not yet certain it was. To confirm her assumption, she placed her hand on the other wall, with the intent to do the exact same, measure the length of the side of the wall with her footsteps.

As soon as she made contact with the wall she yanked her hand away with a pained hiss. Upon closer inspection she immediately took a couple of steps back. The wall was a very dark emerald green. Considering it had burned her the material couldn't be anything other than Kryptonite. This confused her since usually Kryptonite was a light, fluorescent green, just like the crystals that had protruded from Kryptonite Man. She also noticed it didn't hum like other Kryptonite she had come across. Nevertheless, she went ahead and measured the entire length of the weird Kryptonite wall, while soothingly rubbing the burnt flesh on her right hand with her left thumb, trying to ease the pain.

She counted 26 steps, confirming her initial assumption that the room she had found herself in was indeed square shaped. She had no idea if that information was useful in any way, shape or form but the restlessness induced by the lost fight made her try to walk around. It was better than just sitting and doing nothing.

Upon further inspection of the room, she found that the wall across from the weird dark green Kryptonite wall, was also made from the very same material. Which was very bad news and explained why she felt so weak all the time. During her inspection she also checked out the floor. It was made out of some sort of cobblestone. Her discoveries led her to think she was either locked up in a very old building or some sort of dungeon. Furthermore, she had also found a small hole in the upper left corner of the room, it was more of a pipe really rather than just a hole. 'To draw water out?' Kara silently pondered to herself. 'Or bring water in,' the more melancholic side of her concluded instead. In her weakened state, she was sure her captors could drown her if they so wished.

Shaking her head slightly to get rid of the rather morbid thought of herself drowning, she focused on the last part of the room she hadn't inspected yet, the roof. She instinctively tried to fly up, but she didn't make it very far until she fell back down on her feet. It appeared that the unusual Kryptonite had also affected her flying abilities. Wherever this dark Kryptonite had come from, it had pretty much the same effects on her as the normal equivalent. There was also the time frame to take into account, of course. How long had she spent here exactly? A few hours? A few days? A few weeks? Kara involuntarily shuddered at the thought of the latter. If that were the case, everyone would be insanely worried about her. Alex and Lena in particular.

In one last effort to figure out where exactly she was, she tried her X-ray vision to try to look beyond the non-Kryptonite walls, and perhaps even behind the steel door.

No such luck.

It appeared her captors were very thorough in constructing this room.

The outside was most likely lined with lead, she couldn't see anything past it at all.

Her breathing quickened, she suddenly felt very claustrophobic. She lowered herself to sit on the floor, with her back against the same wall she woke up against, trying to avoid having a panic attack. She suddenly felt like she was in her pod again, all alone and cramped up in a small place. She hugged her knees close to herself and rested her head on her arms, she felt her heart beating rapidly in her neck and in her chest. 'If the citizens of National City were to see their almighty superhero in the state she was in right now, they would find her rather pathetic.' Kara mused.

She didn't know how much time had passed, since it was impossible to know what time of day it even was in her dark prison, when she heard the click of the lock on the steel door releasing. She lifted her head just in time to see the door handle being pushed down as a figure entered the room. If she had not felt so incredibly weak, she would have darted towards the man, tackled him and escaped.

The fear-inducing reality had settled in when she had explored her room: she was extremely weakened, she felt sick and her headache still hadn't subsided. She doubted it ever would, just as she doubted her situation would improve, she wasn't stupid, she knew what was happening. The exposure to the kryptonite in the walls was slowly giving her Kryptonite poisoning. Her fear that her stay in this prison existed for several weeks already was beginning to feel very plausible.

Either her visitor was very quick, or her weakened state had affected her much more than she thought it had. The person, a man, she deduced as he came closer, was holding a little plate with some food on it. As he bent down and put it right in front of her, she didn't miss the knife humming fluorescent green blade attached to his hip.

"Eat." He grunted.

The command was like that of a farmer commanding his livestock to eat. Could this have happened before? She couldn't remember being conscious before she woke up against that wall. Perhaps she simply didn't remember?

Kara was certain that Cadmus was the one that captured her, it was the only logical explanation really. But why keep her alive? Why didn't they just simply bury a Kryptonite laced knife in her gut and kill her? What exactly were they planning to do with her? Perhaps they already had done things to her? Used her as an Alien guinea pig in experiments to improve their methods to get rid of Alien life on Earth.

"Eat!" The man grunted out more forcefully this time, his voice indicating that his patience was running thin.

She took the cutlery provided with the plate of food and dug in. It was a simple meal really, some baked potatoes with a poorly cooked steak that tasted funny, but she ate all of it anyway. 'Beggars can't be choosers' She joked silently to herself. It fell flat, even inside her own head, given her current situation.

As soon as she had finished, the man bent down again to pick up her plate and cutlery before making his way back towards the steel door.

Kara couldn't stop morbid thoughts crossing through her mind. She oddly felt like a prisoner on death roll, awaiting for her execution.

As she heard the lock of the steel door click into place again, she rested her head weakly against the wall, closing her eyes. She felt sick, the burn on her right hand still hurt like crazy, her headache was annoying her beyond words and she was so tired. It wasn't a surprise when sleep took her.

XXX

This time she regained her consciousness because of a rhythmic albeit very annoying whooshing sound. She opened her eyes to find the source of the irritating sound, only to let out a very short but frightened scream at the sight before her. For above her there was a scimitar shaped blade, shining fluorescent green, attached to some sort of arm that made it swing back and forth, aimed directly at her stomach.

She panicked, as is reasonable in such a situation, and tried to get away when she found out that she was bound to some sort of wooden construction. Both her hands and feet were secured to the wood with emerald coloured rings. Now that she was conscious she could feel the burn marks the rings left on her wrists and ankle, she tried not to move too much.

Kara looked up again to watch the blade swing back and forth, slowly descending towards what seemed to be her inevitable death. Despite that, she found herself rather hypnotised by the movement the blade made, it reminded her of the pendulum of a grandfather clock. 'Except this clock is counting down towards my death.' She couldn't help the macabre thoughts that entered her mind. Even further, her mind brought back the previous comparison she made when the guard had brought her her food. She felt like a pig that had gotten fed and was now waiting to be slaughtered.

Kara was most of the time, a very optimistic person, always searching for the good in life, never much focusing on all the bad in the world. But now, in the situation she was in, in her sickly weakened state, she couldn't help but accept the facts for what they were. There was no way she could muster enough strength to break out of her bonds. That blade would descend. She did not know when, but it would. It was not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

Watching the blade slowly descend, she couldn't help but think about Lena.

Despite the fact that inevitable death was looming, thinking about Lena made her smile sadly, as memories of their time together flashed before her eyes.

Their relationship had started simply enough, Kara had been a reporter and Lena the CEO of one of the most successful and wealthiest businesses in the world. They went from acquaintances to friends rather quickly, in Kara's opinion. She knew from the very beginning that Lena was so much more than her last name, that she was nothing like her family. And as the Cadmus attacks increased, so did Alex and J'onn's suspicion that Lena might supply Lilian, whomst they surmised for certain was leading Cadmus since Lex was in prison. Although it wouldn't have surprised Kara if Lex was the one pulling the strings, even behind bars.

Kara had defended her friend against J'onn and her sister, while the friendship between the two of them grew closer and closer as the weeks went by. They had spent countless movie nights together, watching various kinds of different films every time. For example, one night, they had done a Disney marathon since Kara had been mortified when Lena had told her she had barely watched any as a kid. Another night, They had watched something of Lena's choice, Lord of the Rings, the extended versions.

"You have watched every Disney movie but not The Lord of the Rings?" She remembered Lena actually sounding slightly affronted. Kara had found her reaction kind of adorable. It was so dorky, so Lena.

Gradually, they started to spend time together outside of movie nights as well. Kara had often found herself sending Lena text messages, asking to grab lunch with her. Kara had done this mostly to make sure Lena actually took a break from work and ate something. That was also around the time that Kara admitted to herself that she really liked Lena and liked spending time with her. Not only that, but they supported one another. Kara had always been there to listen to Lena rant about how misogynist her board members had been that day in meetings or how difficult it was to sign contracts with certain investors. In return, Lena had listened to Kara venting about Snapper making her life miserable.

This had all happened over the course of a month, give or take a day or two. It had actually surprised Kara a bit how close the two of them had become over a rather short amount of time. After this month though, is when the interactions between them changed slightly. They still did the same activities but they had started flirting with each other, slowly at first, but it gradually increased as time went on. It was at that point that Kara had realised that she liked Lena as more than just a friend.

After a week of the teasing and the flirting, Kara couldn't take it anymore and officially asked Lena out on a date.

She had prepared extensively for the date and the memory still brought a smile to her lips.

Kara had prepared a basket full of food so they could have a romantic picnic at the local beach, not far outside of National City. Lena had said she would take care of transportation and had her personal driver take both of them to their destination. Of course, Kara could have just flown them there, but Lena hadn't known her true identity then. Something she would correct that very day.

Kara remembered the day being an absolute success. She couldn't quite put it into words but being with Lena like that had felt right. After they had eaten their dessert to finish the picnic, Kara had taken the leap.

"May I ask you to dance before the night is over?" She had asked nervously. Lena had blushed but had smiled and agreed. It had been rather clumsy, both of them blushing like crazy, barefoot on the sand dancing without any music. But in that moment, neither of them had cared, they had been swept up in the moment and had only eyes for the other, sky blue eyes focused on jade green.

Kara, after getting her nerves under control, had pulled Lena close to her, as they slowly swayed closely from side to side like one would dance when a slow song was played in a gala.

"I really like you Lena." Kara had started with. Dismissing the entire speech she had prepared for this very moment, deciding to just let her heart speak. "I would very much like for us to become a couple, if you feel the same."

"I do, Kara, I really like you as well." She had answered almost breathlessly, offering Kara a shy smile. "I have no experience with serious non-toxic relationships, Kara, but I really want that with you." When Lena had said that, Kara's heart rate had quicked so much she had been sure her heart would burst from her chest. "You make me feel things I've never felt for anyone else before." Kara's heart had melted at that.

Kara had leaned forward, her eyes closing, Lena had mirrored her and their lips met for the first time. It was soft and tender and magical. It was the only way Kara could describe how it had felt kissing Lena. Back then, Kara had felt like there were a bunch of butterflies in her stomach while fireworks were going off in her brain. As they had pulled away, they both had the biggest smiles on their faces.

"I feel the same, Lena, I want it as well." Kara had decided then and there to just take the leap and go for it. She inhaled, "There is something really important I've been meaning to tell you, Lena. A secret that I would like you to know, especially now that we have begun dating. I don't want there to be any secrets between us." Kara had held Lena's gaze intensely, hoping to portray how important this next moment was for her. Kara had taken a deep breath before continuing.

"I'm Supergirl." She had initially murmured, she had looked away, dreading Lena's reaction. "I'm Kara Zor-El of the House of El and last daughter of Krypton. I was 13 when Krypton exploded." Thinking about the destruction always made her sad, and that moment hadn't been different. She then continued talking about how she had come to earth, being adopted by the Danvers family, growing up and working at CatCo. And when she dared to sneak a couple of glances to gauge Lena's reaction, she had found nothing but interest and awe plastered on the CEO's face.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I wanted to, I real-" Before she had been able to finish that sentence Lena had cut her off by palming her cheek, which had made Kara look up again to gaze into those forest green eyes.

"I understand, Kara." She had whispered as she had pressed her forehead against Kara's. "Thank you for trusting me, it means the world to me." Lena had said before capturing Kara's lips again.

That had been their first date, and many had followed after it.

After they officially became a couple, Lena had offered all of L-Corps resources to help take down Cadmus and her mother. She had often spent time with Winn, improving and upgrading not only her suit but also the sunlamps she used to regenerate. J'onn and Alex' opinion about Lena, after witnessing how dedicated she had been to help both the DEO and Kara herself had quickly changed. When Kara told Alex that Lena and her were dating, Alex hadn't even been surprised. On the contrary, she had wholeheartedly approved of it.

"She makes you happy, Kara, I can see that. I've never seen you this happy before." Her sister had told her.

The blade's rhythmic whooshing sound brought her out of her memories she was reliving and made her face reality again. She had no idea where she was and she had no idea how long she had been here in this darkened room. She felt sick, weak and extremely tired. The blade had traveled a lot further, if she were to guess, it was about two dozen swings away from starting to cut into her flesh. It was of course a very rough estimate, she was way too tired to accurately calculate how long she had left.

Watching the blade swing back and forth again, her thoughts drifted back to Lena once more. They had been dating for little over six months on the day she had faced Kryptonite Man. As she lay on the wooden construct she thought about how happy she had been those past six months. She remembered the gentle and soft kisses they would share on their dates. She remembered how good it felt to cuddle with her during movie nights, how intoxicating it made her feel to hear Lena moan her name during their love making.

She had never referred to Lena as her girlfriend, it sounded too much like those insignificant short lived relationships one would have in High School. Lena was so much more than that. Her partner, her lover, her mate. Kara was sure there were not enough words, in either the English or Kryptonian language, to correctly describe how much she loved Lena. She would give her all the stars that hung in the night sky just to see her smile.

But none of that mattered anymore, for she was now trapped here, with no way out. She would die here, and never see Lena again.

Tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Through teary eyes she watched the blade's slow descent.

Less than 15 swings left.

Suddenly, her sadness and hurt gave way to determination. She would not accept her fate that easily, she would have been the youngest member of the Science council back on Krypton, surely she could figure out a way out of her predicament.

She looked towards the left, glaring at the shackle that kept burning her wrist on contact. She focussed, willing her laser eyes to work. Her headache intensified but she ignored it. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her body, she would escape, she would get back to Lena.

She yelled all of her anger and frustrations out, not caring that they could possibly hear her outside of the room.

Finally, 2 searing hot blue lines shot from her eyes, clearing her hazy vision by evaporating the unshed tears. With a little more effort than she expected, the blue lasers cut through the green metal restraining her. It was then she noticed it was made from normal plain steel, it just had a coating of the dark green Kryptonite on it.

She looked towards her feet, quickly cutting through those bonds with her laser vision as well now that the adrenaline was still working. Her headache was getting worse the more she used it.

Not wanting to use it again, she yanked her right hand free, hissing as the Kryptonite coating burned her flesh.

She fell off the wooden construct, using her hands and feet to scramble away from it.

She looked up just in time to see the blade cut into the wood. As soon as it did, the mechanism seemed to stop before it retracted back into the ceiling.

Kara led out a shaky breath.

Soon after, she could hear voices from behind the steel door, very odd since she hadn't heard anything before. It looked like they were trying to get in, like they were bashing on it.

She listened more closely with her super hearing, ignoring her splitting headache.

If she were physically capable she would have jumped in the air out of sheer joy. She recognised those voices! She was sure she was hearing Alex barking orders to a squad of DEO agents.

She tried to get up, and walk to the door and help them get her out of this hellish place. But she had no strength left in her legs. The dizziness didn't help either.

As the banging continued, she tried to crawl her way towards the door. Until a very loud screeching stopped her death in her tracks. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

The room was still very dark, but she could make out the emerald coloured walls on her left and right. She then noticed that the walls were the source of the screeching. The walls were closing in on her, scraping against the cobblestone floor.

It was then that she heard another very familiar voice from behind the door.

Lena.

Kara could not hear what she was saying exactly but she sounded extremely worried.

Kara kept trying to crawl towards the door, her legs dragging behind her. Meanwhile, the two walls kept creeping closer. It seemed that Cadmus was determined to get rid of her in the most sadistic and cruellest of ways.

Kara stopped crawling, she was exhausted. She looked around to see the walls still closing in on her. She chuckled humorlessly, tears threatening to spill again. She had barely escaped the pendulum in time, both her sister and her partner were right outside the door, trying to get in yet it wouldn't even matter.

She would soon be crushed by the walls, and be turned into a bloody broken mess.

It seemed this place really only brought forth melancholic thoughts.

She closed her eyes and prepared for Rao's light to take her.

It never came.

She opened her eyes again.

The walls had stopped moving, turning her once square room into more of a rectangular corridor. Kara was shocked to see how close the walls had been to crushing her to death.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as the steel door flew open, loudly crashing into the side wall.

"Kara." She heard someone say in a choked sob.

Kara had trouble staying awake now. It had all been too much and she was beyond exhausted, she just wanted to sleep.

She did hear someone dropping right next to her before cradling her head into their lap. She briefly flickered her eyes open, and was met with a teary eyed Lena hovering over her.

"Lena." Kara said weakly, trying to lift her hand so she could caress her lover's cheek.

Despite her best efforts her hand fell lifelessly beside her before darkness claimed her.

A/N: I want to thank you all for reading, this has been my first fanfiction I've written for the Supergirl fandom and I have enjoyed it immensly. I have enjoyed it so much that I'm planning to write a multi-chapter story. It will also be an AU but totally unrelated to this one. I don't know when I'll be writing this story but I hope it is soon!

Until then, I hope you liked this little oneshot, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments below! Have a great day!