The Girl of Steel and the Silver Speedster

by mysteryman10000

Supergirl is a hero. A beacon of hope for the people of National City and the world. But when tragedy strikes, she learns that her heart isn't as unbreakable as the rest of her. In her darkest hour, when she questions her very humanity, who will be the hero that saves her? Will the darkest speedster in the multiverse be the light of hope for Kara Danvers? Can they save each other?

12. Chapter 12:Sorrow Shared, Sorrow Divided

The Girl of Steel and the Silver Speedster Ch. 12

Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowlings and Supergirl the CW. I own nothing and I don't make any money from this story.

Before we get started on the chapter, I would like to take a moment and say WOW. I did not expect the responses I got from the last chapter. I like to try and leave it at either a warm moment that will give my readers hope, or a dramatic moment that will keep you on the edge of your seats until the next chapter. And I guess I succeeded at that, because you guys blew up my inbox with comments. You get why I struggled with this now. Does it work with the story so far, how to do it, is it really any good because I've never seen it before? But I think it's safe to say that most of you liked the big brother reveal. So, thank you.

Chapter 12: A Sorrow Shared, is a Sorrow Divided

_o0o_

Kara flew into the DEO to see Alex talking to J'onn in front of the main monitors. Both looked up as she landed near them.

"Hey, I got Winn's message. What's going on?" she asked immediately.

"We're not sure." Alex began as J'onn moved off to speak to another agent, letting Alex fill Kara in on the situation. "He just said he found something he thought we should see, and he wanted to wait until you got here."

"Well, where is Winn?" Kara asked, the last few days having put her through the emotional ringer, it was making her a little impatient.

The ding of the elevator had them both turning to see if Winn's timing was that perfect. Alex said what they were both thinking, "Maybe that's him now."

It wasn't. But Kara was (happily) surprised when the doors opened, and Lena stepped off the elevator and began moving towards her and Alex.

Kara's hopes started to rise as Lena came stomping across the control room floor with her lips in a thin line and purpose in her steps. Clearly, she wasn't happy. But after the previous days of total silence, Kara didn't care what she had to say. She was just thrilled to hear anything from Lena. Even another emotional outburst, or words of condemnation. Kara would take anything over this stony silence.

Kara stands a little straighter, her palms get a little clammy and her breathing gets a little heavier in anticipation. Lena was almost within arm's reach. Kara opens her mouth to greet her… before a finger is held in front of her face.

She never even breaks her stride as she stomps past Kara with a dismissive, "I'm not here to see you." And Kara's heart drops like a stone as Lena stomps past her.

Alex is still standing nearby, gritting her teeth in empathized pain after witnessing that seemingly inconsequential interaction. She knew that had to be brutal for Kara. She raised her arm like she was going to put it on her sisters' shoulder but stopped halfway. Unsure if her efforts would really help in this moment.

Kara's barely audible "She hates me," firmed her resolve. She reached out and laid her hand on Kara's shoulder. Kara reached up and grasped Alex's hand in unspoken appreciation.

This moment of sisterhood was broken when Alex's curiosity peaked. "Wait. If she's not here to see you, then who is she here to see?"

Suddenly curious herself, Kara shared a perplexed look with Alex before they both turned their heads to see where Lena had disappeared too.

_o0o_

She found him in the main gym that the agents exercised in. He was running on a device that somewhat resembled a treadmill. But the fact it could keep up with his blurred limbs and seemed to be absorbing the excess static discharge he was giving off indicated it was more than your standard piece of fitness equipment.

"Lena," A voice to her right grabbed her attention. She hadn't even noticed Winn was in the room. Apparently monitoring Harry while he ran. "What are you doing here?"

She didn't have time for this. "I need the room, Winn."

Winn's head pivoted from looking at her to looking at Harry, who had come to a stop on the treadmill, but wasn't making any move to leave the room.

Lena wasn't in the mood for dealing with his hesitation. "Now Mr. Schott." She practically barked at him. Winn hastily grabbed his personal tablet and practically ran out of the room. Lena waited till she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore before she closed the door, giving her and Harry some much needed privacy.

"I take it there is something you would like to say?" Harry said by way of greeting as he stepped off the treadmill in his black and silver suit. But as she had done with Kara mere moments before, Lena held a finger in the universal sign of one moment. Reaching into the purse at her side and pulling out a device roughly the size of a credit card, but much thicker, and pressing a button on it that started a row of green lights to start blinking one after the other. She set that down on the desk Winn had just vacated. Reaching into her purse again, she pulled out a device that looked like a wireless speaker. She set it down next to the first device before pressing a button on top illuminating it in red light.

_o0o_

"Ah, jeez." Kara exclaimed as she clamped her hands over her ears.

"What's wrong?" Alex inquired from where she was standing over Winn. They were all curious about what had brought Lena to them today. And when Winn entered the room saying she apparently needed to speak to Harry, J'onn immediately told him to pull up the security cameras in that room. Which started out showing the two of them but was currently showing nothing but static.

Growing more concerned by the second, J'onn told Kara to listen in with her super-hearing. Kara hesitated but gave in to J'onn's order. Then out of nowhere, an ear-piercing high-pitched buzzing filled her senses.

"Somethings wrong with my super hearing. I try to focus it and all I get is nails on a chalkboard." She explained.

"Why do I get the feeling that isn't a coincidence?" J'onn asked with a resigned sigh.

_o0o_

"There, now we have some privacy." Lena explained, finally breaking her silence.

Harry didn't say anything. Though Lena clearly had a plan, as evidenced by her bringing electronic and Kryptonian jamming equipment. So, he was going to let her take the lead in this conversation.

But that may not be the right move. Harry thought to himself as he watched Lena fidget in front of him. Granted, he hadn't had many interactions with this Lena on this Earth, but in the short time he had known her he had never seen her so nervous. Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, toying with her cuticles, and looking at everything in the room except him.

Harry could guess what had her on edge. And was just about to break the silence himself when Lena made a visible effort to act like the formidable woman that she is and look him in the eye.

"We need to talk." She began, a barely noticeable tremor still in her voice.

"Words every guy likes to hear." Harry jabbed, hoping to cut the tension between them.

Lena ignored him. "Last night I… didn't handle things very well."

"Or at all." Harry threw out. Lena looked away from him again at the uncomfortable reminder that she had gone practically catatonic after he said the words 'big brother.' Harry spent five minutes trying to get a reaction out of her after that. Snapping his fingers, (gently) shaking her shoulders, he even pinched her arm and got no reaction from her. Needless to say, he had decided to put their conversation on hold until Lena felt ready to talk.

"Yes, alright. I didn't handle the news at all." Lena continued heatedly. "But in my defense, finding out I had another brother wasn't something I ever expected to happen. And given our brother's recent history I wasn't even sure I want-"

Lena was cut off by a loud scoff of disgust from Harry. He clearly didn't like her mentioning Lex. A reaction she found confusing. If he feels that way about Luthors, why would he even admit we're related?

She watched as Harry wildly gesticulated as if he were trying too physically push the implication away from himself.

"Bloody hell, please, please don't ever imply any connection between me and that psychopath you are forced to call a sibling." Harry spoke as he stopped with the wild gestures. "I have seen far too many monstrous versions of him, many of whom have tried to kill me, to ever think of him in a good light. Even a light shined by you."

Lena shook her head before squaring her shoulders and continuing. "I hate to break this to you, but if you're related to one Luthor, you're related to all of-."

"No, no, no." Harry interrupted her again. Which was starting to get on Lena's nerves. "You and I have the same mother. You and he have the same father. There is no blood connection between me and that loathsome git."

Lena's eyes narrowed. "How is that possible? Wouldn't I have to have the same parents to be the doppelganger of the Lena you met on that other Earth?"

Harry shook his head in the negative. "Doppelgangers look and sound the same, but they don't always have the same parents, and they certainly don't lead the same lives. And, while not particularly relevant at the moment, there are couples who are doppelgangers whose children aren't."

That just confused Lena more. "Then how can we look the same? What is it, some kind of cosmic joke?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders helplessly, "Its genetics not a magic trick. Think of the similarities. You and I both got moms green eyes, cheeks and ears," before she realized what she was doing, Lena held a hand up to the side of her head. First at her cheek bone before moving it back to lightly grasp her own earlobe. Then she looked up to scrutinize Harry. He was right, Harry had the same ears she saw every time she looked in a mirror. And Lena had always loved her cheek bones. A quick glance confirmed that yes, Harry had those too.

"But now think of what you got from Lionel. Black hair, fair complexion, the slope of the nose, the shape of the chin." Harry chuckled at something must have crossed his mind, "Apparently, it doesn't matter what Earth you're on, Lily Evan has a type."

Once she thought about it more Lena realized it wasn't really that surprising. There were only so many combinations of black, brown, blonde or red hair, with brown, green, blue or gray eyes in the world. Identical twins shared the same DNA but they were never exactly the same. The differences were just so small and so few that they were almost invisible. By that logic, Lena supposed that she and her doppelganger simply weren't xerox copies of each other.

With the most obvious questions answered, she was able to think about the situation more fully. That's when it hit her like a ton of bricks, she wasn't limited to a dead mother and father, a stepmother who despised her, and a brother who hated her. She wasn't alone anymore.

She had more family.

She brought her hand up to cover the smile she wasn't able to stop from spreading. The same thought repeating on loop in her head. I have another sibling. I have a brother.

Hand still covering her smile, which was quickly spreading to her cheeks, she fought hard to stop the prickly feeling in her eyes from turning into tears. I have a brother.

Then she had a realization that was like a cold bucket of water right on her head. The smile dropped from her face and her hand came away in horror as she fought not to lose her breakfast inside the DEO. "Oh my god. I flirted with my brother."

Harry blinked a few times before he let a slow chuckle escape his lips; he laughed again and again. It grew louder, the rich deep baritone growing until it was loud guffaws of laughter as he wiped a stray tear. "Tell you what, I'll never bring it up again if you don't."

His words brought a smile back to Lena's face as she takes a step closer to him. "I can agree to that."

Harry's smile turns mischievous before he opens his arms wide. "Is it too soon to ask my little sister for a hug?"

Lena gave a small chuckle before holding up one of her hands to stop him. She could tell he was only trying to defuse any lingering tension, but as endearing as Lena found it, she wasn't ready for that. "Let's take things one step at a time."

And Harry nods, not taking it personally, before dropping his arms to his side. Smile still on his face. "We can move at whatever pace you like."

His response brings the smile back to Lena's face. With her previously sour mood taking a good turn, she decided to tease him back a little. "Of course, you know this means you are going to have to show me more magic right? I mean, I refuse to believe that there isn't a scientific explanation for the things you can do. And now that I have the opportunity to test that, I intend to take full advantage," Lena declared with all the enthusiasm of a scientist with something never seen before to study.

Harry though, was less than enthusiastic, as evidenced by the hefty sigh he released at her words. "If it makes you happy, I'll be your guinea pig."

Lena's good mood dropped again. Worried she had already offended her new sibling. "I'm sorry, you don't have to help me with any experiments. I didn't mean to offend you."

"Oh no, Lena," Harry waved his hands in denial as this time he approached her. "I don't have a problem with letting you study me. I just don't like using magic if I can help it."

She was starting to understand some of Kara's complaints about him now. Lena felt like she was on an emotional rollercoaster. She shook off her confusion at his words to get some clarification. "You don't like using magic? How can you say that? The ability to teleport, reshape or conjure matter and the multitude of simple solutions to complex medical issues. Magic is fascinating, it's amazing."

Harry just shook his head in exasperation. "I used to think so too. I used to love magic. That's what everybody thinks at first. Ooh, ahh, magic can do so many wondrous things, it's so amazing." The pitch of his voice rose higher at the last sentence. He was clearly mocking somebody, but Lena didn't think it was her. "Until you're twelve years old and have to fight a basilisk to save your friend's life. Or steal an egg from a dragon's nest for a sporting event you never wanted to be a part of. Or being hunted by dark witches and wizards all your life. And let's not forget, being forced to live with people like Vernon and Petunia because your parents were murdered by another magic user. That will tarnish the wonder of magic really quick."

Lena swallowed down the bile she could taste in her mouth. Suddenly realizing that the books she had read weren't all a fanciful tale meant to entertain people. But a record of the life of a real living person, and all that he suffered. It changed the very nature of it all when you realized that the books written about Harry weren't a wondrous mythical world imagined by Rowling but the truth about horrific events. Like the Diary of Anne Frank.

Now, I wish I had gotten that hug. Lena thought morosely.

"Anyway, I just want a chance to get to know you. And if letting you experiment with my powers is the price, then I'll be your lab rat. I promise I'll do anything to make you happy." Harry said with such feeling that Lena knew it was true.

It was a little overwhelming. Even when she was younger and Lex used to be nice, no one had ever said that to her. The Luthors weren't a family that put stock in things like happiness or empathy. Emotional well-being didn't matter as much as superiority.

With her throat a little choked by emotion, Lena decided it was probably time to change the subject. Harry seemed to think the same.

"We'll talk more about it later. Come on now, I think Winn has something that requires our attention." He gestured toward the door, and Lena took the out. She switched off her jamming devices and returned them to her purse before the two of them made their way back to the main control room. Both feeling much better than when they arrived.

When they reached the control room J'onn, Alex, Kara and Winn were all waiting for them.

J'onn began the proceedings. "Mind telling me exactly how you managed to selectively shut down every piece of surveillance equipment in my government facility?"

"I'd like to know what was causing the buzzing that was hurting Kara's ears?" Alex piled on. Kara looked curious about the same thing but looked too unsure of the reaction she would get to ask about it.

"I'd just like to see the tech that you used to do it, cause we could sure use something like that here. Every time I've tried to design something that could do that, it was always big and bulky." Everybody in earshot gave Winn exasperated looks.

Lena didn't want to get into an argument about proprietary technology or privacy rights. Fortunately, she didn't have to, as Harry intervened. "Cashmere sweaters. Christmas is coming up and Lena wanted to make sure I knew what to get her."

Now everybody (including Lena) was giving Harry strange looks. "You don't honestly expect us to believe that, do you?" Kara asked, her tone extremely dubious.

Harry just smirked at her in that way that Lena knew aggravated Kara the most. "Of course not. I expect you to respect our personal privacy, and have the good sense to let the matter drop. Now Winn, I do believe you said something about waiting for Kara to arrive before showing us something?"

"Uh, right. Let's all head to the big monitor and I'll pull up the video." Winn led the way as everybody moved on to more important things than their failure to eavesdrop.

Lena took the opportunity to nudge Harry with her elbow and whisper to him. "I saw what you did there. Are you sure we weren't talking about wool socks instead of sweaters?" Her subtle way of complimenting him on his ability to chastise and throw them off kilter at the same time.

"Say what you will about Dumbledore, and I could say plenty, but the man was a master at evasions." Harry whispered back as he smiled at his sibling. Lena smiled back.

Tablet in hand, Winn started talking. "A submersible was surveying the local waterfront this morning. You know, looking for damage from the submarine attack. While they were down there, they found this." He pulled up video footage from the external cameras of the sub. They watched as an underwater view suddenly revealed something enormous trapped within the rock face. As they watched the video, the object seemed to light up before a hole or hatch opened at the top. A flash of light signaling some kind of energy discharge was fired at the submersible. That was the point the footage cut out.

"What the bloody hell?" Harry asked the room at large.

"It was attacked?" J'onn said in astonishment. Though he wasn't sure why he was surprised. Finding an alien spaceship underwater, just another day at the office for the men and women of the DEO.

"Nobody was injured, thank goodness. Their emergency systems kicked in and the crew made it back to dry land. But they could have easily just been taken out." Winn helpfully summed up.

"What else can you tell us?" J'onn shook off his surprise and got down to business.

Before anybody even realized what was happening, Lena stepped forward and started scrutinizing the image. "Definitely a spacecraft from what we can see of the exterior. The rock face has grown over most of the object, indicating that it's been down there for several millennia. But there was no visible damage to the hull. No rust or damage from external pressure. I don't know of any metal on Earth that can handle that and remain intact. Definitely not of Earth origin. And those glowing lines along the hull. I'm guessing power conduits for some kind of cold fusion generator. I've theorized about a similar design in some of my works. Kara, you've seen more spaceship designs than any of us, does this look at all familiar to you?"

There was silence for a moment. Given recent history, nobody had expected Lena to just jump in and help them like that. No to mention, provide such an accurate and clinical assessment.

She was so surprised that she was even speaking to her that it took Kara a moment to remember that Lena had asked her a question, and swiftly tried to stumble out an answer. "Oh um. Well, maybe uh," she gave a small cough to clear her throat of nerves before looking back at the image displayed on the monitor again to give it a more thorough evaluation. "It has a few typical characteristics you would see in any spacecraft. But nothing that would distinguish it as belonging to a particular race." She looked back at Lena to see her reaction and was pleased to note that not only was she looking right at her, but she wasn't grimacing or glaring.

"Who built it, and how it got down there doesn't really matter at this present moment. We can't leave it there. Mr. Schott, can you pinpoint for us its exact location?" J'onn asked in that tone of voice that indicated he was actually giving an order.

Winn nodded his head. "Absolutely. The USGS geothermal scan. I can use it to pinpoint the ship's position." Winn started typing fast, and in a matter of seconds, the ship's location was brought up on the screen. "Okay, from what I can tell Lena's assessment was spot on. The rock face its buried in indicates it's been down there for at least twelve thousand years. And the metal it is made of doesn't correspond to anything on the periodic table. But I would like to run some more detailed analysis before we go looking for it. Give me five minutes?"

It was at this point that Lena made her presence known again. "In that case, do you mind if I borrow Kara for a moment? I need to have a word with her." She was speaking to J'onn but she never took her eyes off of Kara while she spoke. Until she glanced at Alex as she took a small step closer to Kara. "In private, if you don't mind."

Alex opened her mouth to say that she did mind. She wasn't about to let Lena go off on her sister again. But Kara gave her such a pleading look, just begging her to let the two of them speak and not protest that all the fight just left her.

Alex nodded at her and left them alone. Kara gestured to Lena for them to move toward the back of the room. Away from everybody else currently gathered around the main monitors. Once they were far enough away, Kara finally spoke.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Kara prompted, utterly thrilled that after days of silence Lena was not only speaking to her but also being civil. But she was still too afraid of how Lena was going to react to get the ball rolling herself. So, she was going to let Lena take the reins of this conversation.

Lena squared her shoulders and gathered herself. "I owe you an apology." Kara's eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline. "I shouldn't have yelled at you and stormed off the way that I did. I'd had a very emotional and trying day, and you were just the last straw. So, I'm sorry for how I reacted."

Kara's heart practically leaped right out of her chest she was so happy. Until Lena's next words- "But I'm not sorry for what I said. The truth is I don't know who you are. You've been lying to me since the day we met."

"Lena," Kara tried to stop her. Wanting to deny her words. To explain why she did the things she did. But Lena's raised finger stopped her.

"No. Let me get this out. Let me say what I need to say and then you can talk." Kara closed her mouth, swallowing all the words she wanted to say, and stood wringing her hands as she let Lena continue.

"I understand why you didn't tell me. I do. You were trying to protect me. But that doesn't make me feel any better. It doesn't make it hurt any less." Lena paused to take in a breath to strengthen herself. Her heart started pounding in her chest and she needed to slow down before she lost control again. "And it makes me so angry that of all the people in your life I am apparently the only one you couldn't tell-"

"You weren't the only one." Kara blurted out, unable or unwilling to stay silent anymore. And thankfully, Lena chose to stay silent and let Kara say what she needed to say. "I didn't tell James or J'onn, they already knew when I met them. And Alex told Maggie. Truthfully, the only person in my whole life who I got to tell, other than you, was Winn. And then, it was just after I revealed myself to the world and I was desperate to talk to somebody about it."

"Why didn't you just talk to Alex about it?" Lena asked, knowing her sister was usually the first person that Kara went to with anything.

Kara bit her lip for a moment before answering. "Alex had… already made her opinion about me coming out very clear." Kara was clearly uncomfortable revealing even that vague bit of information. Lena resolved herself to getting the full story later.

"I admit, that does make me feel a little better." Lena spoke, taking over the conversation again. "But it doesn't erase the pain over the fact you waited so long before telling me. It still hurts, and I'm still angry at you."

Kara's head dipped more and more with each word Lena spoke. She couldn't even bring herself to look at Lena shoe's, let alone her eyes.

Seeing her downtrodden state Lena decided to finally let her off the hook. "But I don't want to feel this way. So, I've decided to forgive you." Kara's head shot up. She looked at Lena with such hope it startled her a little.

"Now I'm not saying we have a clean slate. We'll both need to make a few changes, but I think we can be friends again." Lena was happy to have that off her chest.

Kara just nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely. We can figure this out. We'll get things back to the way they were in no-"

"No Kara we won't." Lena cut her off. Frustrated that Kara didn't seem to be getting what she was saying. "We can't go back to the way things were Kara. Because the way things were didn't work. This conversation is proof of that. What I'm saying is, we need to find a new normal."

Kara just stared at Lena, not sure how to feel about that declaration. Or how to proceed from there. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Okay, so where do we start?"

"We start by promising each other no more secrets. We can't keep things from each other for our own good anymore. We can deal with any bad reactions or hurt feelings, but we don't hide anything from this point on." Here Lena held out her hand in offering. "Deal?"

Kara smiled, taking Lena's hand in her own and giving it a shake. "Deal."

_o0o_

Winn finished entering all of the information they had and watched as a red dot appeared on a map of the National City waterfront, punctuated by a ping from his tablet. "And there we have it ladies and gentlemen. Our mystery ship can be found directly beneath these coordinates, which I am sending to my equipment now."

"Excellent work Mr. Schott." J'onn praised him from his position on Winn's right.

Winn turned to his left to get an expected pat on the back from their resident speedster, only to see a totally vacant look on his face. His eyes may have been pointed at the screen, but they were unfocused. Clearly looking, but not seeing. Winn watched, fascinated, as sparks of silver began to flash around his irises before he seemingly came back to himself.

To Winn and J'onn's confusion he started to wildly twist and turn as he searched the room for something before looking behind him and freezing. Winn turned in his chair more to see what had grabbed his attention, only to spot Kara and Lena shaking hands and giving each other tentative smiles.

Winn looked back at Harry, to see a pale and utterly devastated look on his face. "Dude, what's the matter?"

Harry's face closed off in a fraction of a second as turned to look at Winn. "Nothing. Nothing is wrong."

"Are you sure? Cause you got the same look on your face as the evil uncle at the end of Prince of Persia. You know, when they stabbed him with a sword," Winn probed for information, in his own unique way.

Harry hesitated for a moment before he moved to approach Kara and Lena while speaking over his shoulder at Winn, "Yes, I'm sure."

Kara saw Harry approaching them before Lena. She looked at him expectantly. But Harry ignored her (which was really starting to aggravate her) and instead spoke to Lena. "As soon as I get back, we need to talk."

Kara was curious about what they needed to talk about, but that feeling was disregarded in favor of something else. Something seemed off about Harry. he was much tenser then when he first walked into the room.

Lena must have picked up on it too because she set her jaw and nodded without saying a word.

Then, Harry turned to face Kara, finally acknowledging her presence. "Winn has the ship's location."

Kara gave a stiff nod to show she heard him. "Then we should get going and find it."

"This is my thinking as well. Come on and give it some stick." He walked off practically dismissing her again.

Kara would have been offended, if she wasn't so confused by his choice of words. She tilted her head in her typical unconscious gesture and looked to Lena for clarity. "Give it some stick?"

Lena managed to swallow her mirth at Kara's confused puppy face that made her think of a golden retriever. "It's the British way of saying 'get the lead out,' or 'put some effort into it.' Which you should do. And I should get to the office. I'll see you later and … we'll talk." Lena finished hesitantly.

Kara nodded her head as she moved to follow Winn, J'onn and Harry. Promising herself she would speak to Lena as soon as possible.

_o0o_

Mere minutes later, the people of National City were treated to the rare sight of two of their superheroes casually strolling down the sidewalk of 122nd street. A few citizens took the opportunity to ask Supergirl for an autograph and even a few selfies.

You could have knocked Harry over with a feather when the first kid asked him for an autograph. But Harry shook off his surprise fast enough and even let the boy take a picture on his phone.

With his mask on, it was impossible to tell how uncomfortable he was with the whole situation. But the urgency at which he ushered them away from the growing crowd had Kara trying to hide the grin on her face.

Thankfully, Winn assured them all that they were zeroing in on the ship's subterranean location. Or, at least that's what he kept insisting. They had to be getting close.

"We should be getting close." Winn said as he moved his device in one direction before quickly moving it in the opposite direction.

Kara kept glancing over his shoulder, praying he wasn't about to declare he had been holding the device upside down or something else along those lines.

"Here, we should be directly over the ship now." Winn said with some satisfaction.

"Okay, stand back. I've seen my cousin do this a few times." Kara adjusted her stance and raised her arms to one side like a ballerina about to perform a pirouette.

Harry almost cringed, he really hoped she wasn't about to do what he thought she was about to do. Fortunately, J'onn had the good sense to stop her.

"How about we try something with a little less property damage involved?"

Kara looked put out at not getting to try something she had seen her cousin do. Winn also lamented the lost opportunity but shook it off fast. J'onn did have a point about the property damage.

J'onn grabbed them both by the shoulders and pulled them uncomfortably close. "This may feel a little strange." Then, as if he just remembered their company had another member, he looked at Harry. "If you put your hand on my shoulder I can-." J'onn stopped speaking as the three of them watched Harry blur around the edges before he dropped through the concrete and out of their sight.

"Show off." Kara muttered before she felt J'onn use his powers and they followed him into the Earth. Rao, that's a weird feeling. Kara thought as her feet finally landed on something solid. Kara half-listened to Winn comment on how weird that felt before asking if they could do it more often.

Taking in the room was difficult. They were definitely inside the ship. But the room was dark. Barely illuminated by the soft blue glow of what she assumed was emergency lighting that wasn't remotely adequate to reveal the room in its entirety. Giving the whole place a foreboding feeling.

Kara could tell that Harry was on edge. His head kept swiveling back and forth, trying to gaze into each shadowy corner. Clearly, he was on high alert.

They all began moving forward toward a room at the end of the short hallway and emerged into a small chamber with several large orange cylinders set along the walls.

"Are those people?" Winn exclaimed, referring to the humanoid silhouettes floating inside the cylinders.

That was the moment when Harry's head stopped swiveling around the room and instead focused on another entrance to the room on the far side from where they entered. His sudden stillness didn't immediately garner their attention. But when he started to growl they all turned to stare at him.

It constantly confused Kara why Harry acted like an animal at times. I mean, it makes sense when he has a fur coat and walks on four legs. But why does he insist on growling like that when in human form?

Kara's thoughts were cut off by someone discharging an energy blast at them from the doorway Harry had been growling at.

The speedster was in motion before the blast even made it halfway. A slight side-step and he was out of its path. It hit Kara but it was little more than a bee sting to her.

He charged for the person standing just out of their sight. He disarmed the assailant before he could get another shot off. Wrapped his clawed hand around his throat and slammed him into the wall at his back.

The figure managed to shout something at Harry. Unfortunately, it wasn't in a language that any of them understood. Harry's only response was to unsheathe the claws on his hand that wasn't holding the man against the wall and ready himself to slash the guy's throat open.

Kara acted quickly and got between Harry and this unknown foe before he could do something he shouldn't. But when she looked at the face of their attacker her heart stopped. She put her hand on Harry's chest and with a flick of her wrist sent him careening back across the room to land on his back and skid across the floor.

"Bloody hell woman what are-"

He was on his feet in a blink, only to stop at the sight of Kara with her hands on the face of Mon-El. A breathless "Kara," passed his lips before he collapsed into her arms. And Kara desperately held him to her chest. Afraid he would vanish before her tearing eyes if she so much as loosened her grip.

_o0o_

Alex came running as soon as she had heard. She had been running full tilt for four floors, unwilling to wait for an elevator to reach her sister. It couldn't be true. There was no way that what she had been told could be true. They did not leave to find a twelve-thousand-year-old alien ship and come back with-.

Her thoughts were derailed like a train wreck as soon as she stepped into the room. Because there he was. Laying on a hospital bed with Kara at his side, clinging to his hand like a drowning person clinging to a lifeline. Winn and J'onn were standing at the foot of the bed staring down at the reunited lovers, probably trying to reason how this was possible. Oddly, Harry was leaning against the glass wall to her right, most likely intentionally out of Kara's line of sight. He too was staring at Mon-El, but with the poker face he had on Alex could not even venture a guess as to the thoughts going through his head.

But none of that mattered right now. By some miracle, Mon-El was back. And if it meant her sister wasn't going to be miserable anymore, she would except whatever twist of fate had caused this without remark.

Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy sharing the moment with Kara. "Oh my god, it's really him."

"I know."

"I mean, my god. It's Mon-El"

"I know," Kara responded as she kissed his hand, never once breaking eye contact with him.

Seeing Kara so happy should have been a good thing, seeing as they had only caught glimpses of her smile for months. But a horrid thought intruded on Alex's rising mood. "He's breathing. How is he breathing." She directed the question at Winn but she was asking anybody in the room for an explanation. She would be disappointed.

"We don't know." Was Winn's discouraging answer.

"According to the samples taken this morning the air should still be toxic to Daxamites." J'onn piled on, just as confused by this mystery.

"It's incredible." Kara clearly didn't care for the how or why.

But Alex wasn't willing to let that go so easily. Not when the answer might mean more suffering for Kara. "Did someone cure you?"

"And what was that language you were speaking on the ship?" Winn questioned. Alex didn't doubt it was an important question, but it wasn't one she cared about in that moment. Unfortunately, Mon-El chose to answer Winn's question.

"Saturnian."

"There's life on Saturn?" Winn asked wide eyed. Alex knew that to be an important question as well, but it too wasn't one she really cared about at the moment.

"Why did you fire on the divers in that submersible?" Came from J'onn. Again, an important question, but also not one Alex gave a flip about right now.

"I didn't. I heard the ship's defense system activate though. Is everyone okay?" Mon-El responded, looking concerned about the answer. That's when Alex noticed something strange about Mon-El's answers. He was only answering select questions. And only the questions that he had to give vague answers to, or ones they could already guess.

"Yeah, everybody got out in time." Kara informed him, never once looking away from his face the whole time they were asking him questions. Still afraid that if she took her eyes off him, he wouldn't be there when she looked back.

"That's an impressive ship you've got there. I've never seen anything like it." J'onn prompted, looking for more information. He obviously noticed the same thing Alex had.

That's when another thought hit Alex, and she looked over her shoulder. Harry, wearing his black suit sans the helmet, was still standing where he had been when she had first entered the room. He was watching everything going on between them with utter focus. Which was typical for him. But what wasn't typical was the fact that he wasn't saying a word either. He's never been shy about voicing his opinion before. Why now?

"It's ah, its…alien." Mon-El's response drew her attention away from the suspiciously silent Brit, and back to the matter at hand.

Mon-El's answer was so vague that it was basically meaningless. Even Kara, in her reunited love-struck haze, finally noticed what Mon-El had been doing. Or rather not doing, and they all shared significant looks.

"Who's in the other chambers?" J'onn continued, the search for answers now taking on the tone of an interrogation.

"Just passengers." Was the dull answer they received. Mon-El had picked up on the sudden tension.

"Are they dangerous?" Alex continued.

"No. They're umm…they're passengers like me." Alex couldn't see it from where she was standing, but she knew the crinkle between her sister's eyebrows had to be getting crinklier by the second.

"Why did you wake up and everybody else is still asleep?" That question came from Winn. Apparently, he had finally processed the fact that there is life on Saturn.

"I'm sorry guys. I was in hyper-sleep and it's all umm…really hazy right now."

"So you don't remember anything about the other passengers?" J'onn tried one last time.

"There will be plenty of time to ask questions. He really needs to rest." Kara insisted out of the blue, before trying to usher everyone out. Realizing Kara wanted some alone time with the man she loved, Winn and Alex muttered quiet goodbyes on their way out. J'onn of course had to subtly promise they would revisit these topics with a pointed "I look forward to our debriefing," before he too left.

Harry was the last to move towards the door. Kara didn't even have to ask. He just pushed off the wall and made for the door. Before he could exit, he was stopped by Mon-El of all people.

"Paladin." He waited for Harry to stop.

He put his hands on his hips as he turned to face the Daxamite. Still not saying a word.

"Thank you." Mon-El spoke with genuine gratitude in his voice.

Harry's face still gave away nothing of what he was thinking. "For what?"

Mon-El looked right in his eyes as he spoke, "For everything."

Harry paused for only a moment, "Think nothing of it." With that, he walked out, giving the two of them some much needed privacy.

Though Kara was confused with that last interaction she was too preoccupied by Mon-El to try and understand what was being said. She didn't give it a second thought as she moved back to Mon-El and sat herself down on the stool she had occupied since the moment they brought him in and took his hand in hers. Squeezed as tight as she dared in his weakened state. Trying to convey that she was happy to see him, and that she wasn't going to leave.

Ever since he left, she had thought of so many things she had wanted to tell him. Things she feared she would never get the opportunity to say. Now here he was, right in front of her and she couldn't remember a single one. Trying to think of something to say, all she could come up with was, "I missed you."

Mon-El just nodded, not needing the words to say he had missed her too.

Kara struggled for something else to say. She needed to keep talking. She needed to reassure herself that this wasn't another dream. That he was actually here. She needed to fill the silence.

She needed to keep talking.

"It's been um…," Kara sniffled for a moment. "Tough. Seven months of not knowing."

Mon-El finally looked away. Something unreadable on his face. "Seven months?"

Of course, he was in shock. He wouldn't have known how long he was in hyper-sleep. Kara felt the same way after she woke up after being in the phantom zone for twenty-four years.

"I tried to send a message. I tried so many times to let you know that I was okay. But I couldn't. I tried." Kara just nodded her head, as she let her hands rest on his face. Brushing her fingers through his hair. Doing whatever she had to do to convince herself that this was real. Shushing him gently to let him know that he didn't have to tell her that he tried to contact her.

"You can tell me all about what happened later." She kissed him on the forehead. "For now, just sleep."

Mon-El fell silent.

_o0o_

Lena looked up from the forms that littered her desk at the sound of tapping on the glass behind her. Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted her brother (she was still getting used to that) on the other side apparently waiting to be let in.

Very polite of him to knock before entering my office. I'm going to have to have a talk with Kara about her respecting certain boundaries when we finally have that long overdue discussion.

Lena didn't hesitate to open the door for him. But as he stepped over the threshold, Lena could tell there was something wrong as soon as he took off his helmet. She grew up with the Luthors, so she knew when somebody was trying to hide their real feelings about something. And Harry looked completely closed off.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

He paused as he thought about what to say. "Mon-El is back."

Lena's eyebrows rising was the only visible sign of her surprise, not expecting that in the least. "Mon-El is back? How? When?"

"Remember that alien ship the DEO was looking into this morning?" He didn't wait for her to nod before he continued. "He was on it. A passenger. Or so he says."

He didn't sound like he believed that. But Lena was still stuck on Mon-El being back, so they could come back to Harry's paranoia later.

"Is he alright? How is Kara handling this?"

"Physically he seems fine. Just suffering the long-term effects of hyper-sleep. Kara is understandably thrilled. She was all over him at the DEO" He paused to think about that a moment. "Obviously it hasn't hit her yet. What it means that he was down there."

"What are you talking about? What does it mean?" Lena asked while trying to jump onto his train of thought.

"That ship was down there for twelve thousand years, right? That means that it was down there before, during and after the Daxamite invasion. If he was trying to get back to her, why didn't he wake up months ago after his past self-disappeared? Why, if he had the opportunity, didn't he just take up where he left off?" Harry finished with some heat in his voice.

A cold chill entered Lena's heart at Harry's words. What was Mon-El doing on that ship if he wasn't trying to get back to Kara? And how did it get down there in the first place? And worst of all, how was Kara going to react when her elation ran out and she started asking these questions herself.

She practically turned into a shut in for months after she lost him the first time. What will it do to her to get him back only to lose him again? Lena tried to put her mounting fears aside and reason out the problem. But there were still too many unanswered questions. I can't solve the problem without all of the variables.

"Do you think you can get Mon-El to tell-"

Harry abruptly put a hand to his head and massaged his temple as though struck with a sudden migraine. For a moment, it also looked like his eyes flashed silver for a moment. But Lena wrote that off as a trick of the light.

"I can't help." Harry stated brusquely.

"What? Why not?" Lena was incredulous. He clearly had never had a problem interfering with things at the DEO before. Now wasn't the time for Harry to get cold feet.

"Because it happened Lena." His words were somber. "It happened this morning."

Lena found herself, again, scrabbling to board his train of thought. "What happened this morning?"

"Remember when I said that the entities inside the Speed Force sent me to this Earth to complete a task. And once I did I would be able to sense it?"

Lena went completely still. She knew where this conversation was going now, and it scared the hell out of her.

Harry took a deep breath before he continued. "Well, I sensed it this morning. I've done what they sent me here to do, and now it's time for me to leave."

This couldn't be happening. She did not just find out she had another brother (a brother that actually cared about her) only to lose him again so soon. Lena kept her mouth tightly shut, for fear if she opened it she wouldn't be able to restrain the scream that was lodged in her throat.

Lena fought the dampness in her eyes as she silently begged (pleaded) with any cosmic force that was listening for what he was saying to not be true. I did not meet him now, just to lose him this fast.

"It was you and Kara, by the way. Getting you two to reconcile your differences." He continued, much to Lena's confusion.

"Wait." Lena tried to clear her throat. Doing her best to dawn her CEO mask to maintain her composure. She needed that composure if she was going to finish this conversation. "If it was the two of us, why were you sent here during the Daxamite invasion?"

"Probably because when you opened the portal that led the Daxamites to Earth, it was the first time the secrets between you two damaged your trust in each other." Harry answered.

Lena didn't like that answer. "Kara was keeping secrets from me from the first day we met."

Harry shook his head. "Because she was trying to protect you from her enemies. Not because she didn't trust you with her secrets."

Sadness forgotten at this point, Lena was willing to let this matter go. "And what do some extradimensional beings care if Kara and I trust each other?"

"Because you two will shape the fate of this world." Was Harry's prompt response.

Like every other conversation she seemed to have with Harry, this one was making her head spin. Why was it that every time he came by, he always had to drop some kind of emotional bomb like this?

How the hell am I supposed to respond to that?

"Think about it. Kara is the most powerful hero on this Earth. You are the most brilliant mind on this Earth. Either one of you has the potential to change the world in your own way. The both of you were brought up by powerful influential families but had ideologies that were polar opposites. By all accounts, you two should have hated each other from the moment you met. But by some miracle you became friends instead. That doesn't feel like fate to you?"

He stared expectantly at her, waiting for Lena to say something. But again, Lena didn't know how to respond to his impassioned speech. She decided to pick the most outrageous point and start from there. "So, what you're saying is, that despite being a Luthor, I was destined to be a hero?"

Harry shook his head in the negative. "Lena you are not a hero."

Well that hurt to hear. Especially coming from her own brother. Lena felt a stab of pain, for all of a second before he continued.

"And that is a good thing. I don't think of myself as a hero either. Life is too complicated for anything to be pure right or pure wrong. And that is why people like you and me exist."

Lena looked at him, searching for… something, she wasn't sure what, on his face. But since he had her undivided attention, Harry continued. "People like Kara can only see things in black and white. And that's okay. Heroes are supposed to be the examples that are held up for others to aspire to. The symbols that guide people out of the black. But that means she can never set foot in it herself. That's why she has us. We navigate the shades of gray, and when necessary, we venture into the black."

His interpretation of himself (and her) stunned Lena. "Is that really how you see things?"

Harry nodded with a smile on his face. As if this worldview made him happy. "Heroes do what is right. We do what is necessary, so that they have the ability to do what is right." Harry echoed the words he said to J'onn weeks ago.

Lena had to admit, the world looked very different from that angle. And it made her feel a lot better about some of the L-Corp projects she had been working on. Projects that she was honestly dreading telling Kara about when they finally had that talk.

"We will never be called heroes. We will never receive keys to the city and they won't build statues of us in their parks." Harry seemed like he was winding down. Lena wondered if he had given this speech before. "But when Kara, or J'onn, or Alex need somebody to save them, who do you think they will turn to first."

Lena had been caught in a kind of stupor as Harry spoke. Like a spectator to a train wreck or some other disaster. Too stunned to act, and too captivated to look away. That's when Lena realized why Harry was saying all this. He would be departing for another Earth soon, and he was trying to leave her with something. A better understanding of herself perhaps, or maybe a better foundation for her relationship with Kara, just something to build on after he left.

And the conversation came full circle as Lena found herself dreading her big brothers' loss so soon after she found him. "Can't you stay just a little longer?" Lena managed to say past her rapidly rising tears.

Harry looked as downtrodden as she felt. She knew it wasn't fair to ask him that. It wasn't up to him. But she couldn't help but ask. "I will try to stay until this mess with Mon-El is cleared up."

He didn't say anything else. But he held his arms open in invitation. And this time she stepped into them and wrapped her arms around his torso as she muffled her sobs in his chest.

This could be the only hug she would ever get from her big brother.

_o0o_

When he arrived at the DEO the next day, J'onn wasn't surprised to find that Kara had slept in the medical center. And judging by the large Cappuccino she was holding, saying she slept might be a bit generous.

But he knew better than to try and talk her into going home. No need to stick his head in the lion's mouth.

Unfortunately, Winn and Alex weren't so inclined to leave him alone.

"Hey, so now that we know it was friendly old Mon-El in the ship, maybe you can finally go have that outing with your dad." Winn tried to encourage. He just didn't seem to grasp that they had work to do.

"We still need to learn more about the ship Mon-El was on. There are five other passengers on board we know nothing about."

Alex ignored Winn's comment about how those passengers were 'literally asleep,' and tried to persuade him herself. "The ship is secure. We're monitoring it in case something happens. Or anybody else wakes up. I will alert you if anything happens."

"You should listen to them J'onn." Winn and Alex both nearly jumped out of their skin as Harry spoke from right behind them. Neither of them had heard his approach.

"Jeez, make some noise or something would ya." Winn exclaimed.

"Somebody really needs to put a bell on you." Alex agreed.

Harry gave her a lopsided smile, "Kinky." Harry ignored the shocked look on Alex's face as he turned back to J'onn. "You should be with your father."

J'onn was still hesitant. "I don't think I should be taking time off while there is still a potential alien threat out there."

Harry scowled at his words. He seemed to find his reasoning offensive. "Fine, if you won't do it for yourself, then do it for me."

J'onn didn't know what to make of that, and had no problem showing his confusion. "You want me to take my father on an outing… for you?"

"And Kara, and Winn, and Alex and every other orphaned child who will never know what it's like to get a second chance with the parents that they lost." Harry concluded before walking away, having said his piece. Harry's proclamation hit closer to home than any of them wanted to admit.

Alex and Winn both stared at him imploringly.

None of them expected Harry to make an argument like that, but they all agreed with it. Alex had thought her father Jeremiah was dead for years and he was still missing. Winn grew up in foster care after his father went to prison and his mother abandoned him. So, they both knew exactly what Harry was talking about. And J'onn, a man who spent centuries thinking that he was all that was left of his family, was just as affected by Harry's words. And more than a little bewildered.

Sometimes Harry could seem so cold that he would kill a man without a second thought. Then he goes and says something like that. It made it really hard to get a sense of the man. But for the moment, he did make a fair point. "I'll go get my father."

_o0o_

After leaving J'onn and the others, Harry made his way to a less occupied hallway of the DEO where he leaned heavily against the right wall and tried to massage the soreness out of his temples. He could see some static bolts jump from place to place on his body. He knew his eyes were probably ringed with silver lightning as well.

The feeling was getting more intense. He was starting to have headaches now. They were getting impatient with his stalling. If he waited much longer there were going to be consequences. He was considering leaving right there. He had said goodbye to the only person that really mattered last night. So why was he continuing to stall?

It's not like anybody on this Earth, other than Lena, is going to shed a tear that I'm gone. Kara might even be happy.

He was just gearing up to start running when he spotted something strange. Mon-El, wearing standard DEO sweats, had just stepped around a corner down the hallway from Harry and was nervously glancing down one end of the hall, then the other. Harry swiftly darted behind a nearby pillar before Mon-El could see him. Getting a sinking feeling about what was happening.

He covertly tailed Mon-El down two more hallways before he watched as the Daxamite also hid behind a pillar as some anonymous agent exited the door in front of him. As soon as she was around the corner, Mon-El came out from behind the pillar and squeezed sideways through the closing doors.

Approaching the door himself, Harry's heart sank. It was one of the secured rooms where the DEO kept recovered alien technology. Even if Mon-El hadn't just been found inside an unknown spaceship he wouldn't have been authorized to be in there. Harry knew this wasn't going to end well as he pressed a button on the door control panel and triggered a silent alarm.

Not ten seconds later, Kara came down the hallway in full Supergirl attire. She must have panicked when she realized that Mon-El wasn't in his hospital bed.

Harry honestly wished there was something he could say that would make this easier for her. He knew right then that she was going to get hurt, and he felt sorry for her. But there wasn't anything he could do.

"He's in there." He said before she could utter a syllable and pointed towards the door Mon-El had disappeared through. She didn't say anything, just looked from him to the offending door and back to him. She opened the door and went inside. Harry stayed where he was and watched as a minute later, she literally dragged Mon-El into the hallway by the collar of his shirt. As she passed, she turned to Harry and leveled him with a serious look.

"Call medical. We have two downed agents in there." She informed him as she passed.

_o0o_

About an hour later, Harry stood outside the door to the isolation cell. Mon-El was still unconscious when Kara put him in there, and she had waited in there for the moment he would wake up. Determined to get some answers.

Out of respect for their privacy, Harry had vacated the room so that when Mon-El did wake, Kara wouldn't have to worry about what she said in front of him. So Harry had parked himself outside the door and waited.

And waited and waited.

Finally, the door opened to reveal Kara in her civilian clothes.

She must have changed after she put him in there. Probably thought it would be easier for him to talk to Kara, rather than Supergirl.

Then, Harry noticed the quiver of her chin, despite the tightly clenched jaw. And though she was fighting it tooth and nail, Harry could see a few tears trying to escape her eyes.

Harry resolved himself not to push. He didn't need to know what was said in there. Kara was standing on the ledge of a downward spiral and he didn't want to be the thing that sent her tumbling over. As she turned to make her way down the hall, Harry started to assume that she was planning to ignore him. But then she turned back around.

"You know what's going on, don't you?" She accused him. "He thanked you for something back in the medical bay. What was it?"

Harry could only shake his head at her. "I have no idea why he thanked me."

"That's not good enough." Kara contended, unwilling to trust him at this point. Unwilling to trust anybody after what Mon-El just did. "People don't just say 'thank you' for no reason. What was he talking about?"

"I don't know." Harry kept insisting. "You sent him off planet barely a day after I arrived. I don't know what he could be thanking me for. Whatever it is, I can only assume it hasn't happened yet."

The moment the words left his mouth, Harry knew he had said to much. He watched as Kara tilted her head in confusion at his words.

"What do you mean, it hasn't happened yet?" She nearly growled.

Harry holds up one finger. "Mon-El disappears into space." He holds up a second finger to join the first. "Seven months later, an advanced alien ship is found buried in the rock beneath National City." He lifts a third finger. "The ship's origin is unknown. But it has apparently been down there for roughly twelve thousand years." He holds up a fourth and final finger. "Mon-El is found on board, with several other passengers, but refuses to tell us who they are, why they are here, or anything about the ship itself."

Those were all interesting points, but Kara wanted the answer to her question.

"The only conclusion I can come to about how a man from the present, on a ship from the future, goes into hyper-sleep thousands of years in the past is time travel. Ergo, whatever he was thanking me for may not have happened to me yet." Harry concluded before shrugging his shoulders at her. "I mean, do you have a better explanation?"

Kara was silent as she rolled those thoughts around in her head. Looking for any flaw in his logic. "You think he somehow time traveled to the past, got stuck, and went into hyper-sleep to wait to get back here?"

Harry shook his head, knowing he had to disappoint her. "I think he is trying to get back to whatever point in the future he climbed on board that ship. How else do you explain why, if he was trying to get back here, he didn't wake up months ago after you sent his younger self into space? Why didn't he return to the life that he had?"

Kara hated to agree with him, but he was making some interesting points. And Harry's theory does explain a few things. Like why Mon-El was being so tight lipped. Kara had studied temporal causality on Krypton when she was applying to the science academy, so she knew the effect knowledge of future events could have on the present.

"I need to talk to J'onn." And Kara was gone. Super-speeding down the hall before Harry had even processed her words. He waited a second to see if she would come back. Listening for her footsteps with his ears and even using his panther nose to see if the scent of her floral shampoo faded.

When he was certain that she was gone, he turned and entered the isolation room. Mon-El looked up from his hunched position. At first, he looked wary, probably expecting Kara to have returned for more. But when he saw who had walked through the door his whole posture changed. He jumped to his feet.

Harry debated with himself one last time. There was still time to turn around and walk out. He should have already left this Earth; he didn't have to get involved. He didn't have to have this conversation.

But if it was my presence on this Earth that triggered this, that makes it my mess. He looked at Mon-El to see some hope had returned to his eyes as he gazed at Harry expectantly. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"First," he held up one finger to emphasize his point, "you don't answer any questions beyond 'yes' or 'no.' I don't need to know anything that might or should happen, and you don't want to damage the timeline."

"Agreed." Mon-El hastily nodded his head.

Harry nodded back in acknowledgment. "Did you intend to wake up at this time?"

"No."

"There isn't any threat from your time here?" Harry had to be sure of that before this went any further.

"No." Mon-El vehemently confirmed. Seemingly pleased with the way that Harry had phrased that question.

"Is there a threat to the people on board that ship?"

"Yes."

Harry nodded to himself this time. "Is that why you needed that device you tried to steal? I'll assume it's just damage to the ship. You need to make repairs?"

"Yes." Mon-El was leaning with his hands against the glass of his cell at this point. Apparently relieved with what was happening.

"You just need that device, then you can go back to sleep and wait to return to whatever time you came from?"

"Yes."

Harry gave it one more moment of consideration, "We'll have to work fast." Mon-El almost sagged in relief when he realized that Harry was going to help him. He stood up straight again as Harry pushed the button to open the cell. "Don't do a victory dance yet. You're the one who has to find a way to reason with Kara."

_o0o_

A short time later, Harry watched as Mon-El plugged… whatever it was they stole, into the wall. Something that was almost painfully easy to steal. He would have to have a word with J'onn about building security. Or he would have, if he could have stayed. It only took them five minutes to grab the thing and exit the DEO.

But that wasn't important right now.

What was important was that the big wall console had started to glow the second Mon-El plugged it in. Mon-El stepped back to read whatever alien symbols started popping up.

"Stasis fluid levels are stable. How's the power?"

Harry stared at the back of his head for a moment. "How the bloody hell would I know? I can't read any of this."

Mon-El didn't even look over his shoulder at the stumped look on Harry's face. "Grife. The coterrian pump is jammed." He said to himself, too engrossed in what he was reading.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Harry tried again to make his point.

"Just reset the circuit on the end of the first pod." Clearly Mon-El wasn't paying any attention to Harry.

Harry was just about to call him on his cluelessness but was stopped by the sound of a throat clearing behind him.

Apparently, we were both being a little clueless. Harry chastised himself before turning to find Kara standing right behind him, flanked on either side by J'onn and Winn. Winn look worried, J'onn looked resigned, and Kara was fuming. "What the hell are you two doing?"

Mon-El turned at the sound of Kara's voice and moved to stand by Harry. Harry gave him a silent look, hoping he would say something to mitigate Mount Kara before she erupted. But Harry knew it was in vain. Mon-El couldn't offer any explanation that would explain anything without altering future events.

But Harry couldn't see another way around it, so he decided to go for broke. "We're trying to make repairs to this ship so Mon-El can go back to sleep and wait to return to the point in time they're trying to get back to."

All of them, including Mon-El, looked at him like he was nuts.

"And you thought that this justified stealing from the DEO?" J'onn questioned, unhelpfully.

"I'm sorry, did you intend on keeping them prisoner here." Harry fired back, getting tired of their self-righteous attitudes. "We all know that if Mon-El hadn't been on that ship you would have happily aided them in whatever Doc. Brown, 'Back to the Future' help you had to. Anything for a few less aliens among- AHHHH."

Harry's frustration driven tirade was cut off by a sudden splitting pain in his skull that had him clamping his hands on the side of his head in a misguided attempt to keep it in one piece. The sudden hatchet to the cranium feeling was so intense that Mon-El had to quickly grab him by his shoulders to keep him from falling to the ground. They all watched in confusion, as he looked up at them, and his irises were ringed in silver lightning.

Kara didn't know what was happening. A swift glance at their faces told her that Winn and J'onn were just as clueless as she. But a look at Mon-El showed a face of dawning understanding, and horror.

"Oh no." He quietly muttered, clearly more in the know than the rest of them. But before Kara could ask him what it was that had Harry doubled over in pain another problem was piled onto their already overwhelming heap.

The wall panel displaying the status of the pods suddenly started flashing red. Mon-El ran to check the readings, nearly dropping Harry in his rush. But the speedster had apparently gotten enough control over himself that he could stumble over to the control podium, with Winn right next to him, and do what little he could to help.

"What's happening?" Kara asked the room at large, gazing up at the wall as well.

"Power to the chambers is failing." Mon-El answered as he rushed to the control panel that Winn and Harry were both failing to understand. Mon-El shouldered them both out of the way and began typing rapidly on the console.

"I've managed to reroute power to all of the pods except-…" Mon-El trailed off as he turned in horror to a pod whose figure was thrashing wildly inside. "No."

"What's happening?" J'onn asked, trying to get a handle on the situation. "Is she waking up?"

"No, she's drowning." Mon-El yelled at them as he frantically started beating his fist against the glass. Trying desperately to break it with no visible success.

"Damn it." He cried as his fist collided with the pod again.

"Its white dwarf glass," he pounded the glass again and again. "I can't break it."

Kara took a step forward to try and break the glass herself, but Harry got there first.

"Outta the way." Harry told him as he put his helmet on. He held his right palm toward the pod, placed his left against his own chest and shouted, "Reponere."

In the blink of an eye, Harry was gone, and an unknown woman was standing in his place. More like collapsing in his place. But Mon-El moved quick enough to catch her before she hit the ground.

They all listened to Mon-El call her Imra while checking to see if she was breathing. Eventually, he looked up at them all, "She's alive."

There was total silence in the room for a few seconds until it was broken by Winn. "Umm, does anybody know what happened to Harry?"

POP, splash. Winn and Kara both backpedaled from the gush of… whatever fluid that had been inside the pod with Harry. "Sorry, I had to apparate the water out with me. I tried to vibrate through, but that glass is denser than it looks."

If she didn't know this was only the second time they had been on this ship, Kara would swear Harry and Winn had rehearsed that just to get the timing right.

_o0o_

Hours later found them all back at the DEO. Once he knew the other people in the pods were stable, Mon-El wasted no time in seeing to the health of the still unconscious woman whose pod had failed.

The woman, 'Imra' he had called her, was still unconscious and currently being looked after by Alex and Winn in the medical bay. The good news is they could tell that she wasn't in any imminent danger. However, being unfamiliar with her people and thus her physiology, they weren't able to discern much else.

And Mon-El didn't seem to want to leave her alone, even with people he thought he could trust.

His concern for her, and apparent familiarity, gave Harry the suspicion that the two of them were more than friends. A suspicion that Kara shared. Or so he suspected, if her sudden reluctance to be in the same room as Mon-El could be taken as a sign.

Speaking of the resident Kryptonian, she was currently in the thankfully vacant main control center. Having a quiet word with the resident Speedster.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMN MIND?" Kara exploded at him as he casually leaned on the central table. "Mon-El breaks into a secured area and tries to make off with a piece of Alien tech. You help me catch him only to turn around and help him steal the thing?"

Kara paused in her rant to stare expectantly at him. Harry had been silent up to this point. Weathering Kara's fury like a stone weathers the rain. After she finished, he only continued to stare back at her.

Kara's frustration level was reaching critical, "Well…aren't you going to say anything?"

Harry just lifted an unconcerned eyebrow at her. "Forgive me but given the volume at which you've been shrieking at me, I had assumed you were being rhetorical."

Kara grit her teeth and shut her eyes in an effort not to set him on fire with her heat vision. "You don't think we would want an explanation after everything that happened?"

"No, Kara, that thought completely escaped me, having been born yesterday on the back of a turnip truck." As usual, Harry's dry British humor was almost enough to push Kara over the edge.

Fortunately, Mon-El chose that moment to come down the stairs.

"Please, don't be mad at him. He was just trying to help," he intervened on Harry's behalf, moving to stand in front of Kara and stop her from focusing on Harry.

"As you probably already know, Harry guessed I had come from the future. But he hadn't decided to help me save everybody else on my ship until after he had discerned why we were here."

Kara couldn't hold herself back any longer. "Why are you here?" She asked, assuming that they might actually get some answers out of Mon-El now.

"Don't answer that." Harry spoke before Mon-El could utter a syllable. "You know the rules."

"Rules? What rules? What are the two of you hiding?" Kara was at the end of her rope. Mon-El was here, but he wasn't. Harry was constantly going behind their backs and doing Rao knows what. And she still hadn't found time to talk to Lena. Her nerves were stretched as far as they could go and if anybody dropped one more bomb on her today, she was going to lose it.

"The rules about time travel. Anything he says about when he's from or what he's done could alter said events. This is why he and I agreed to limit things to yes or no questions. And if you want to get any answers out of him I suggest you do the same." Harry urged them.

Kara could understand the reasoning in that. But there was one question she had to know. "How long?"

Harry gave Mon-El a blank look and Kara wasn't sure if he was trying to remind him not to answer, or just waiting to see if he would.

Mon-El didn't spare him a glance. He only had eyes for Kara at the moment. He sighed. "The thirty-first century. That's how far in the future I was and when the others are from."

"No," Kara shook her head. "How long?"

Mon-El would've given anything for her to not have asked that question. Because whether he answered with the truth or silence, he knew he was going to hurt her. "Seven years. I've been living there for the past seven years."

Kara put her hand over her mouth to hide how her lips were quivering. Seven years. He had been alive and in the future for seven years. More than enough time to move on and build a life. Which explained his closeness to the woman in the medical bay. Still, Kara needed to know for sure. "Who is Imra?"

"No. Do not answer that. You've risked enough by bending the rules as far as you have." Harry ordered Mon-El as he moved in front of Mon-El. Breaking whatever spell he and Kara had been under.

His actions brought Kara's anger back to the forefront. "I think I have a right to know."

Harry whirled around to face her. "A right to know what? The future? Nobody gets to know their own destiny, Kara. The rest of us have learned to live with that, you'll have to as well."

Kara's control snapped, too outraged at his words. "Why, because the only person allowed to break the rules is you? The only person who gets to know the future is you? Because in your vast experience across the multiverse you know who deserves to know the future and who doesn't? Because you get to decide who should be maimed and who should be killed? Is that because you think that you're right, or is it really because you're just another psycho who gets pleasure out of killing people?"

"NO. NO." Harry roared right back at her. So far, he had maintained his cool façade. Content to let Kara vent her frustrations on him, like a parent weathering their child's tantrum. But it seemed Kara had finally hit a nerve because now he looked pissed. "Not for pleasure. Never for pleasure. I do what I must to get the job done. Because I don't have a choice. You can judge me for my actions. You can condemn me all you want. But don't you ever say I take pleasure in any of this."

Kara felt horrid the moment the words left her. She didn't actually mean it. She knew it wasn't true. It was too much. All of it, the whole day was just too much. She was just hurt and angry and wanted to make somebody else as hurt and angry as she is. Harry was just the most convenient target for her feelings. So she said things she knew weren't true. Things she knew she would regret.

When she was caught in a dark moment while living with the Danvers, Eliza would always tell her the same thing to get her to talk. 'A sorrow shared is a sorrow divided.' Unfortunately, on the flipside a misery shared is a misery multiplied.

Kara was about to apologize when she was stopped by the arrival of Winn and Alex.

"Hey, we heard yelling. What's going on?" Alex asked the room at large.

And because they could never have one moment of peace in their lives, that was the moment Harry brought his right palm to his forehead and his eyes flashed silver again.

"Dude that has been happening since yesterday. What is going on with you?" Winn asked in confusion.

But Harry had suddenly gone pale as a sheet. "I waited too long."

Winn was just opening his mouth to ask what he meant when a sound like a shriek echoed through the DEO. Shivers ran down the backs of the five people in the room. The sound, whatever it was, was unlike anything they had heard before. Like a combination of shattering glass and a horror movie scream. Even Alex, a trained agent of the DEO had chills.

Kara would swear the whole room had to be able to hear her heart pound in her chest in the silence that followed that sound. Nobody in the control room was moving or speaking, she wasn't even sure they were all still breathing. They were all standing and listening for the source of that sound.

"Oh no." Harry finally broke the silence that had fallen over the room. "He's here."

Every eye in the room turned to look at his dangerously pale face. Finally, Alex could take it no longer. "Who is here?"

Kara was more inclined to ask, 'What was here?' Because whatever made that sound couldn't possibly be human.

Harry visibly swallowed before he answered. "My parole-officer."

A flash of red light lured every eye to the open balcony doors to see another speedster with his back to them, seemingly scanning the city skyline. Clad in a black suit not too dissimilar from Harry's own. With the exception of red lightning bolts instead of silver, and instead of a metal helmet he wore a mask that looked similar to a balaclava.

That's the "parole officer" Harry told us about? He doesn't look that terrifying. Kara's thoughts were mimicked by everybody else in the room. Until the … thing turned to face them.

The left side of its mask was torn away, revealing the monster underneath. Its skin, what little it had, was a grotesque pale gray and flaking off in some places to expose the muscle and even bone in some spots. Its left eye was clouded over in decay and it was missing some of its teeth. It looked like a corpse that had crawled out of its grave and put on a speedster suit.

Its yellow rotted teeth parted and it released that same bone chilling shriek again as it laid eyes (or eye?) on them.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Winn practically screamed. It broke whatever spell of terror had kept everyone immobile, and Alex drew her gun and was pointing her weapon at it.

"That's not going to work."

"Don't shoot. Don't shoot."

Harry, and surprisingly Mon-El, hastened to warn them as he moved to stand in front of Winn.

"Alex, you have to lower your weapon. That isn't going to stop him," Harry implored Alex as she trained her gun on the walking corpse.

"What are you kidding me?" Alex growled back. She is a trained federal agent; she knew better than to disarm herself in the presence of an enemy. Especially an enemy that looked like that.

"A-alex," Winn's voice trembled as he tried to speak. "I think you should listen to them."

As if to prove his point, the speedster zipped from the balcony into the middle of the room, leaving a trail of red lightning behind him. This action startled Alex into pulling the trigger.

Alex kept firing until the magazine was empty. When the room did fall silent the speedster was still standing. With an almost negligent air, it opened its hand (more like a claw) and every bullet that Alex had fired dropped onto the floor.

Realizing that they may be outmatched, Alex looked to the other superpowered beings in the room. Mon-El was standing in front of Winn, shielding him. He was doing what Alex needed him to do. Harry had his hand on Kara's forearm and was whispering something in her ear. His words were too quiet for Alex to hear, and Kara's hair was obscuring most of his face so she couldn't read his lips. But whatever he said Kara nodded in return, though she didn't look happy about whatever it was.

Alex watched as Harry carefully started to take measured steps away from Kara and around towards the thing's back.

Careful heel to toe steps. Slow and never making so much as a whisper, always with the thing in his line of sight like he was trying to sneak around a sleeping guard dog. And Alex was surprised to notice it was working. The thing had taken a few small steps but didn't seem to know where to go. It briefly looked right at Harry but didn't seem to notice he was there. It kept swiveling its head around as if it was searching for something. It even appeared to be sniffing the air trying to catch a scent.

Alex thought so anyway. Kind of hard to tell when the thing didn't have a nose.

Which didn't make sense. If this thing was here for Harry, why did it seem oblivious to the fact that he was a meager four feet from it?

A hand on her outstretched wrist pulled her from her thoughts. While she had been watching Harry sneak around to that things blind spot, her sister had shifted closer to her. Kara was lowering her hands that were still pointing a gun at the zombie speedster in spite of the empty mag and previously revealed futility.

Kara looked away from her over the creature's shoulder to Harry and gave a nod. Harry nodded back before raising his arm and vibrating it. No sooner had the silver lightning engulfed his forearm did the thing swirl around and growl at him.

The next thing Alex knew she had her back against the wall with Kara trying to cover her. Mon-El was doing the same for Winn. They were all out of the way of the tornado of red and silver lightning that had filled the room.

Alex obviously couldn't see what was happening, but knew Harry had to be fighting for his life. She couldn't understand why Kara, the only other person here that could move as fast as them, wasn't helping.

She didn't have time to tell Kara to not worry about her, but to get her butt in gear and help Harry. Because the silver lightning vanished from the vortex and Harry slammed into the opposite wall from Alex and Kara.

The zombie speedster had him pinned until Harry vibrated through the stone he was held against. He phased back into the room and tried to take a swing at the monster only to have it grab his arm and deliver a painful blow to his ribs.

Kara was sure she heard something crack.

Harry grunted in pain before grabbing his enemy by the wrist and threw him through the air like he did Kara in Edge's office. It only took a second for it to right itself and turn to face Harry again. But that was all the time Harry needed to starting run and build up a charge.

Kara knew what Harry was doing. She had seen Barry use the same move against Livewire. And sure enough, when Harry stopped running, he threw his arm out and released a bolt of silver lightning right at the black clad creature.

And they all watched in shock as red lightning surrounded it before it front-flipped, grabbed the bolt in mid air and threw it right back at Harry with all the devastating force of an electrified javelin.

He collided back first with the central table and crumpled to the ground. The other speedster was on him in an instant. Raining blow after blow down on him as Harry tried to shield his head with his arms. The thing grabbed one of his arms in an iron grip, yanked it roughly away from his body and brought its closed fist down on his shoulder joint. Another deafening crack like someone snapping a broom handle over their knee was heard before Harry cried out in agony of his shoulder being forcefully dislocated, probably broken.

As hard as it was to watch that happen, what came next was worse.

With one hand still holding the wrist of his now dislocated arm, the other hand reached down and wrapped around his throat. Harry choked for a moment as pressure was applied to his windpipe but made no further sound as the monster lifted him off the ground by his throat.

They watched as he clawed at the malevolent speedster's grip on his throat, but his struggles were growing weaker. And to the horror of everybody watching, his skin started to gray and contract. It began to dry and stretch over his bones as his eyes started to cloud and sink into his skull. His hair paled from midnight black, to gray, to white.

Kara wasn't shielding Alex at this point. She was leaning her full weight against her big sister as she clamped her hands over her mouth in an effort to keep from screaming. Every alien they had faced, every metahuman they locked up, every disaster they had averted and they had never seen anything like this.

James would probably describe it as 'some straight up horror movie stuff.' And Alex would wholeheartedly agree because she had never had to watch as somebody she knew aged a hundred years and began to desiccate right before her eyes.

Harry wasn't even struggling at this point. Just hanging limp in that thing's grip. She was becoming afraid they would have to watch as he 'rotted' to death when he was released. Heedlessly tossed into the middle of the room where he landed in a heap on the cold stone floor.

Alex blinked and Kara was kneeling at his side. She, Winn and Mon-El followed a second later. They all crowded around him as Kara, ever so gently, lifted his head to rest on her thighs. Were it not for the whispery rattling sounds he was making, Alex would have presumed he was already dead. But her hope was restored as he opened his green eyes and color started to bleed back into his skin and hair. She exchanged pleased looks with Kara and saw the smile on her face as tears ran down Kara's cheeks.

She could empathize with Kara's feelings of relief and felt her own eyes moisten. That had been terrible to witness.

Their rising elation was short lived as the sound of footsteps had them looking up to see it approaching again. In an effort she knew was futile, Alex raised her reloaded sidearm to point at it as Kara leaned forward and lay her arms on Harry's chest to try and shelter him from further harm.

It shrieked at them one last time before it left in a flash of red lightning.

_o0o_

Half an hour after that thing ran out on them, they were all inside the medical bay. Crowded around the bed that their resident Brit now recovered in. Kara had carried him in here from the control room before taking a seat at his bedside. She refused to let go of his hand until he opened his eyes.

"And Harry said it was his parole officer?" J'onn asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah, Harry definitely recognized it," Alex answered as she checked Harry's IV and fluids.

Alex had called J'onn as soon as the other speedster left and he didn't waste any time in getting there. The first few minutes before he arrived had been used to get Harry to the medical bay and make sure that he was going to survive. They had spent every minute after that trying to bring him up to speed on what had happened. But it was proving difficult as J'onn seemed to be having trouble making sense of it. Or maybe they were having trouble trying to describe it.

"And you don't think it was alive?" J'onn asked, his confusion growing with every question.

"Oh no, definitely not." Winn chimed in as he pulled up the security footage on his tablet and showed it to J'onn. J'onn's eyebrows rose as he got a look at the close-up of its face on the screen. "I mean, if there really is every possible version of the Earth somewhere out there in the multiverse, then this thing has to be the speedster from the Walking Dead Earth."

"And you say Harry began to age when it touched him?"

Winn answered that question as well. "Yeah. It was like in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when the Nazi guy drinks from the golden cup and turns to dust."

Winn visibly shivered at the memory. Alex couldn't blame him. It was very grisly.

"Could it have been one of those things Harry told us about that police speedsters and how they use their powers?"

"It wasn't a time wraith." Mon-El chimed in from the corner of the room, where he had his arms around Imra.

Imra had just been getting out of bed when they came rushing in. The first thing she did was step into Mon-El's arms and kiss him. Though she was aware of this fact, Kara wasn't able to focus on that right now. Too concerned now with her friend on the hospital bed to care about the woman her ex was currently dating.

However, Mon-El's words brought attention back to them. "What do you mean? What was it then?" Kara asked, finally looking up from Harry's face.

"The Black Flash." Mon-El answered to the alarm of Imra, who put her hand over his heart and whispered his name in admonishment. But Mon-El shook his head at her. "It's nothing they won't learn from Harry when he wakes up."

Imra seemed to take a moment to consider this before she nodded her head in acquiescence.

"The Black Flash isn't one of the time wraiths. But like them, it is an agent of the Speed Force. Sent after speedsters who break their laws," Mon-El explained to them. Though how he knew any of this puzzled Kara.

He hadn't even met Harry until two days ago, and yet he knew more about the speedster then they had learned in seven months. Then Kara remembered that Mon-El was from the future, and apparently already knew Harry. Well enough to thank him for something at least. And what that something was Kara was still curious about.

"The Black Flash isn't just an agent of the Speed Force. It's a constant reminder of what happens to those who misuse the powers of the Speed Force," Mon-El continued.

"What are you talking about? A 'reminder." Alex probed.

"It was a speedster. It used to be as human as you are. His name has been lost to history, but whoever he was, he violated the laws of the Speed Force. And as punishment, he was transformed into what we saw."

As Mon-El paused to let that sink in Imra took over. "Every speedster we've ever met has at least heard of the Black Flash. Some call him the reaper of speedsters. Because wherever the Black Flash goes a speedster dies. They all fear him. What's more, they all fear becoming like him."

"That's what it was doing to Harry." Winn interrupted as he realized what they were implying. "When it touched him and we thought he was aging. But what was really happening was it was turning him into another Black Flash."

"A fate I would like to avoid." A voice with a British accent croaked from the medical bed. And they were all relieved to see that not only had Harry opened his eyes but he was even sitting up in bed.

"Hey, welcome back." Winn greeted him as Alex moved to check on him now that he was awake. In typical doctor fashion, the first thing she did was shine a light in his eyes. Which Kara was pleased to see were back to their normal emerald green. Not clouded with the effects of rapid aging.

"Speedster healing really is amazing. Both pupils are equally reactive to light. The pigment has returned to your hair." She reached down and put her fingers around his wrist. "Pulse is strong, and your skin doesn't feel like dried out beef jerky anymore. All in all, you're ship shape and bristle fashion."

Harry actually chuckled at Alex's poor British slang and her attempt at a joke to lighten the mood. He appreciated the effort, but he knew she was just trying to make light of the fact that he had almost suffered a fate worse than death. He decided to use the opening she provided to change the subject.

"You know, ship shape and Bristol fashion, is actually two different sayings that originated in two different books that were published more than a century and a half apart. Ship shape is from the sea-man's dictionary by Sir Henry Manwayring in the seventeenth century. And Bristol fashion is from John Davis' Travels of four years and a half in the United States of America, published in the nineteenth century." Harry explained. Putting emphasis on the word Bristol so Alex wouldn't make the mistake of saying bristle in front of any other Brits in the future.

"Let me guess, you've read both of those haven't you?" Alex nodded as Harry shrugged helplessly in response.

"We're glad to see that you're alright," Imra says, making Harry take notice of the two in the corner. "What brought him here anyway?"

Any good cheer his banter with Alex had restored was lost at Imra's question. "He was here to teach me a lesson. It's time for me to leave."

Silence encompassed the room as Harry shifted to put his feet on the ground and get out of bed.

Harry was dressed and finished dawning his gauntlets before any of them thought to try and stop him.

"What do you mean it's time for you to leave?" Kara asked, sounding… Alex couldn't really identify what was in Kara's voice. But she clearly wasn't happy.

"I thought you had to remain on this Earth until you had fulfilled whatever purpose they sent you here to accomplish?" J'onn chimed in.

"That's true, and I did. Yesterday, when Lena and Kara finally started talking again, my job was done. It's time for me to leave this Earth," he answered rather dispassionately.

But that wasn't what grabbed Kara's attention. "Wait, so you were sent here to-"

"Fix the relationship with Lena that you broke? Yeah, it looks that way." Harry's glib response shocked all of them.

"Whoa, flag on the play. Unnecessary roughness." Winn tried to joke. And Kara appreciated his defense of her. Harry's comment hurt more than she thought it would.

"Look I apologize. But I knew this was going to happen and now it has. I made friends, I had fun, I got comfortable on this Earth and I knew I shouldn't have. Because now I have to leave," Harry said belligerently, his feelings starting to show.

Kara didn't like it. It didn't feel right to let things end like this. "Look I'm sorry about what I said earlier, but this isn't right. You don't have to go. If you want to stay on this Earth, we'll let you."

"You will let me. They won't. So unless you want the Black Flash returning you aren't going to fight this. This time he was just delivering a message. If I stay, he will come for me again and he won't hesitate to go through anybody that gets in his way. Do you want to find out what it's like when he puts his hands on you? Cause I promise you; I could have gone my whole life without know what that felt like. God only knows the effect it would have on somebody without speedster healing."

That thought had shivers running down all their spines. And it rendered all of Kara's arguments moot. Kara finally realized why this hurt so much. Despite all of the fights, all the arguing, all the things they had said and done to each other, she didn't want him to go. At least not like this.

But as Harry pointed out, what choice did they have?

"Grant me one request?" Harry said as he stepped into Kara's personal space and looked her right in the eye. His focus such that everything and everyone else in the room just fell away, leaving only the two of them. "Look after Lena for me. Keep her safe. And don't let secrets come between you again."

All the things she thought he would ask, and that wasn't even on the list. For a fleeting moment she wondered if something had been happening between Harry and Lena. But that wasn't something she could think about right now. In this moment, trapped as she was by the open look on his face and the honest emotion coloring his voice, all she could do was agree.

"I promise." She whispered.

He nodded in thanks. "I wish you all good luck. Hopefully, you will never have to see me again."

Without another word, he donned his helmet and whooshed out of the room.

Kara felt like crying. He couldn't leave it at that. She had tried to apologize for what she said but he just brushed her off. He didn't say goodbye, just wished them well, and that's not the same thing. He didn't tell Lena that he was leaving. There was still so much to say.

Kara was the first out of the medical bay, as she used her superspeed to follow. J'onn and Winn trailed her at their own paces. But it didn't matter. Kara got to the DEO balcony and had just enough time to find his silver lightning trails in the distance before watching as he vanished in the same blue and white vortex of light he arrived through seven months ago.

He was gone.

_o0o_

Alex watched her sister chase after the speedster. She knew it would be pointless. Harry was still on parole with the Speed Force and had to leave. But despite their differences, she knew that this was going to hurt Kara. She knew her sister didn't mean what she'd said. And now she couldn't properly apologize.

Alex honestly thought the two of them could have been friends given a real chance. Now she would never know.

I mean, come on. If Kara can make friends with Lena, she can sure as hell get along with Harry, Alex thought as she dejectedly cleaned up the medical bed Harry had been using. But it's too late. Now he's just another person that Kara has lost and won't get any closure from.

Alex was once again worried about what effect this would have on Kara. A person could only take so much loss. How much more could Kara lose before she had nothing left.

Alex was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of people whispering. She looked over her shoulder to see Mon-El and Imra through the transparent wall as they frantically whispered to each other. Curiosity getting the better of her, Alex moved closer to the open door to try and glean some of what they were saying.

"This is bad Mon-El. How could this have happened?"

"I don't know. Our presence must have changed something."

"Well, we have to fix it. This is not the way it's supposed to go."

"I know that. But we don't have any control over the Speed Force, so what can we do?"

"We have to do something."

"Have to do something about what?" Alex asked startling the two who hadn't realized they weren't doing a very good job of whispering.

Mon-El fumbled for a moment for something to say to lead her away from what they knew she had heard. But Alex wasn't in the mood for games. They had had enough problems for one day, so she just wanted them to tell her and get it over with.

"Whatever it is that you two are whispering about, you might as well tell me. I mean if you screwed something up by time traveling here then it won't matter if I know. And maybe I can help you fix it." She reasoned with them.

The two of them exchanged concerned looks, and Mon-El shrugged uncertainly before they both looked back at her.

"We're not sure this can be fixed. This is big enough that it may mean the end of our future." Mon-El began ominously before Imra took over.

"A lot of history has been lost in the thirty-first century. But one of the things we know for sure is the impact the heroes of the world will have on it. Supergirl, Superman, the Martian Manhunter and Paladin are all names known to every person on this planet. The impact they have on history will be monumental."

Alex snorted in derision. Imra made it sound like they hadn't already made a huge impact on the world.

"I know what you're thinking, and you're right. But their greatest battles are still to come. But we're not sure they will be able to win now. Not without Paladin's help."

Alex wasn't scoffing anymore. "Wait, are you saying…"

Imra continued as Alex trailed off. "Paladin was supposed to fight alongside Supergirl and avert many disasters for years to come. Do you understand?"

Imra looked beseechingly at her as she begged with her eyes and with her words for Alex to grasp the gravity of the situation.

"He was never supposed to leave."

_o0o_

First, I want to address the fact that some of you are a little disappointed in me. The folks who wanted Harry to end up with Lena. I'm sorry but that was never going to happen. As I've said before, I've known where I wanted this story to end from the moment I started writing. And even though I adore Lena, at most she was going to be a red herring. A heavily hinted possibility to keep you guessing about who Harry was really going to end up with. And to give me a reason to keep her away from James Olsen. Even before their relationship fell apart, I was never sure how they got together to begin with.

Supercorp fans are going to be disappointed too. Because even though I fully support that relationship in other stories (and on the show) it doesn't feel right for where I'm heading. So I'm actually willing to take suggestions. Because I didn't originally plan to have Lena be Harry's sister, I no longer have a plan for her, romantically speaking. So if you guys would like to offer up an suggestions, I'm all ears.

Second, if you guys are wondering about the part where Harry was explaining magic to Lena, I was kind of channeling Jeff Goldblum from "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" when he was explaining dinosaurs to the other scientists. "Yeah, ooh, aah. That's how this always starts. But later there's running and screaming." I was always amazed that after multiple life-threatening situations and near-death experiences that Harry's opinion about magic, or at least the magical world, didn't become more jaded. And for the purposes of this story, he will be. And you'll find out why in later chapters.

Now I have a confession to make. I haven't watched a single episode of season 6 yet. I've been avoiding the most recent seasons of everything in the Arrowverse, because I don't want to risk any hints about the end of Supergirl.

I'm holding off because we all know that this is the last season, and that means the writers are going to try and tie up any loose ends. And I don't want what they write to influence my story. Like I've said before, I've had an end game for this story planned from the beginning and I don't want to risk getting off track. So despite my curiosity begging me to watch, I'm abstaining. I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice in the end.

I'm also trying to get as much done as I can before the Supergirl finale and everybody loses interest in this series. We've all seen it happen. I series comes to an end and authors just loose interest in posting new chapters or stories, or even reading those stories. Worse, some authors develop a weird obsession with rewrite the ending their own way. Like with Harry Potter, after the last book came out there was months where the only thing anybody wanted to post was "The missing 19 years." It was fun at first, but after a while everybody was just reposting the same thing over and over. What I'm saying is I'm trying to get as much of this story done as possible before Supergirl ends and you guys lose interest.

Now, with all of that out of the way, I want to take a moment to say Congratulations to vorhees80s for posting "Can you handle it, Superstar?" I saw it a few days ago, but I wanted to finish this chapter before I sat down and read it. So, I just want to take a moment and say 'thank you' for adding to this crossover collection, and welcome to the club.