Kara jerked awake, gasping for air as she scrambled to her feet. Her heart was racing, and she tried to remind herself that it was just a dream, that she was safe, but the cold metal walls weren't a very welcoming sight. She hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep- she had been trying her best to stay awake until Selah returned, but after so many sleepless nights, even she needed rest. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the cell, she desperately tried to make out the shape of the girl somewhere, sleeping on the floor underneath Kara's cape perhaps, but she already knew that Selah was still gone.

This had been one of the longest stretches yet, Kara would estimate that it was well over a full day. Sometimes they would take the girl for only a few hours, but she was usually gone for at least five or six. There had only been one other time when she had been gone for this long. When she had finally returned, she didn't say anything about what had happened, but she cried in Kara's arms for a very long time. They hadn't allowed her to heal completely, and Kara had been able to see a long thin cut that had barely begun to close up, starting at the base of the girl's neck and disappearing down the collar of her shirt.

Selah never said much about what happened in the lab, and she got very fidgety and anxious whenever Kara asked. She had kept pushing once, and asked again what had happened, but Selah became completely mute and didn't speak for hours afterwards. Sometimes she would disclose small things, like if they had done surgery or not, and where they had operated, but aside from those small pieces of information, Kara had no idea what was really going on in the lab. She had tried bargaining with the security guards, hoping to get some information, or to get them to take her instead of Selah, but the guard had only smirked, his face smug.

"Your abilities don't fit Director Beta's needs," he had said. Kara had considered zapping him with her heat vision right then and there, but she ultimately decided it wouldn't be productive, and opted for a regular glare instead.

She had never felt so powerless before. Even though she had her superpowers, they were no good to her here. She couldn't do anything to stop what was happening to Selah. Praying to Rao wasn't doing much, if she ever so much as sneezed too hard around the guards, they whipped out their power draining devices, and she had no way to contact her sister or J'onn or anyone else who could provide backup. Kara only allowed herself to cry when Selah was not in the cell, but right now she felt too frustrated for tears, too angry.

Even though she knew it was useless, she punched the wall as hard as she could. Pain momentarily sprung up in her hand, but it disappeared just as quickly, and the wall was as unmoved as ever. She hit it twice more and kicked it for good measure, before leaning against it and sliding back down onto the floor.

"J'onn," she whispered. "I know you probably can't hear me. But if you can, please come soon."

.

Kara abruptly awoke, choking on the air for the second time that night. As her brain adjusted to no longer being asleep, she stood up, closed her eyes tightly, and took a few long, deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" She whirled around to see Selah sitting against the wall, sporting a bruised face and bloody lip.

"When did you get back?" she demanded, avoiding the question as she ran a hand through her tangled hair, beginning to pace back and forth at the front of the cell.

"About an hour ago."

"You should have woken me up."

"Sorry. I know you haven't been sleeping very well, and I didn't want to disrupt you." For a few moments, the only sound was Kara's footsteps, gradually getting faster and more agitated. "Kara?" She didn't reply, but glanced over at the girl. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay. You were just mumbling a lot in your sleep, and you seem upset-"

"I said I didn't want to talk about it, Selah." Kara interrupted.

"Okay. Sorry." They were quiet again for awhile, until the hero sighed, walking back over to the wall and sitting down next to the girl.

"What did they do to you?" she asked, placing a hand under Selah's chin and looking at her bruised face.

"No surgery this time. They were testing out new weapons," the girl answered, looking down at her hands. "My powers haven't come back yet from it."

"This isn't okay," Kara said, exhaling angrily. "None of this is okay! We have to get out of here." The silence returned, as they both felt the inescapable odds of escape looming over them.

"I'm sorry that you're stuck here with me," Selah said eventually, still not looking up. "It should have been just me that they got."

"We're going to get out," Kara insisted, practically on instinct.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"There was a word in Kryptonian that you kept muttering in your sleep. It sounded like 'dare-ow-ged'. What does it mean?"

"Dhehraoghehd," Kara corrected, her forehead creasing. "Couldn't you read it off of me?"

"Powers are gone, remember?"

"Right." She turned to look at Selah, her eyes stormy. "It means death."

"Oh."

"We're going to get out of here," Kara repeated fiercely. All Selah could do was nod in agreement.

.

"Ehwor, ehworazh, ehworu?" Selah said tentatively.

"Yes!" Kara exclaimed. "How are you getting so good at this?"

"You talk in your sleep a lot." The hero gently shoved Selah's shoulder, and she grinned.

"Okay, smarty pants, how would you say that in Kryptonian?"

"Um. The sentence structure is verb subject object, so... Ehwor fis i zhind rraop rriv."

"Nicely done."

"How do you say 'paternal first cousin once removed' in Kryptonian?" Selah asked, smirking.

"Fyrehb," Kara replied. "It's for any older relative on your father's side."

"What an obscure word."

"You asked." Kara paused for a moment, thinking as she smiled at the girl.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"About?"

"I always thought I was going to be teaching Kal-El how to speak Kryptonian. I guess I never realized how much I wanted to teach it to someone else until now."

"I thought you taught Alex."

"She only knows a few words and phrases. She's not very good with languages, and she got really frustrated with the pronunciations. Winn knows some too, but he learned it on his own."

"Did Kal-El learn in the fortress?" Kara nodded.

"You know, you're about the age he would have been if my pod hadn't gotten stuck." She frowned, thinking. " Or... You're the age he would have been when I was my age? No, like if I arrived on Earth when I was supposed to and Kal was still a baby, and I was still twelve years older than him-"

"I know what you're getting at," Selah said, laughing. "We have roughly the same distance in age that was between you and my father on Krypton."

"So weird," Kara muttered. "But yeah. You're a bit older, I think. He would be almost eighteen, and you're nineteen."

"Twenty," Selah corrected quietly. "Today's my birthday. November 22nd. There was a calendar in Beta's office."

"Oh."

"It's not a huge deal," the girl stammered, her hands twisting themselves together. "My mother never really celebrated my birthday. My aunt would get me cake sometimes, but only if she wasn't too busy at work, and there was never money for gifts or anything, so I'm pretty used to low-key birthdays."

"This is a little beyond low-key."

"Yeah." Selah's face was hard to read as she stared at the bars of the cell. "I didn't think I'd make it this far."

"We just have to throw a bigger party for twenty one once we're out of here, to make up for this year," Kara said. "Plus, twenty-one, you know what that means," she elbowed the girl, who rolled her eyes.

"Would alcohol even do anything to me?"

"Nope." Selah laughed quietly. "We are going to get out of here," Kara reminded. Selah didn't reply, she just looked at the hero for a long time.

"Who's Astra?" she asked abruptly, looking away from Kara.

"What?" Kara asked.

"Sorry. You just dream a lot about her. She was in your nightmare last night too, wasn't she?" The hero nodded slowly.

"She was my aunt. She died soon after I became Supergirl." Selah winced as the wave of emotion washed over her.

"Sorry," she said again. "I didn't mean to pry. I was just curious."

"It's okay. She named me, you know. After the ancient Kryptonian goddess of beauty."

"How fitting."

"She was a good person. She had her flaws, but I know she loved me."

"My aunt named me too." Selah replied. "My mother didn't want much to do with me when I was first born, but she kept insisting that I be named after her mother."

"What was her name?" The girl glanced over at Kara, smiling wryly.

"Sarranindara," she said.

"Oof."

"Yeah. My aunt chose the Andromedan word 'Selah instead. She said that Sarranindara sounded too alien."

"Valid. What does Selah mean?"

"It doesn't translate perfectly. It's a verb meaning to pause and reflect. My aunt always translated it as 'take a breath'."

"That's beautiful," Kara said. "Did you know that El means 'sun' or 'sunlight' in Kryptonian?"

"House of Sunlight?"

"Yup. And Kal means child."

"So your Kryptonian name means 'beautiful sunlight' and mine means 'take a breath, sun-child?" Selah demanded, crossing her arms.

"It's a good name."

"They should have named me Sarranindara," Selah muttered.

"Hey," Kara said, elbowing the girl. "Chin up, sun-child."

"You're the worst."

.

.

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Again, credit is due to Darren Doyle at Kryptonian info for the translations.