Kara had picked up her cousin from school after receiving a call telling her that the child was having a slight fever, which worried her, but knowing it was being caused because of not sleeping at night.
The six year old had been awake for the whole night, not even closing her eyes for a few seconds, claiming that everytime she closed them, she saw the demons, so she hadn't slept at all either.
She had decided to bring the kid to the DEO, hoping to run some test on her cousin and make sure that the child was okay.
"Hey, kiddo" Mon-El ruffled Halley's hair, who smiled a little still with her head resting on her shoulder. "How is she doing?" he asked her.
"Not good" she answered sincerely. "She hasn't slept at all last night" she commented seeing him nod. "So she's exhausted, aren't you, baby?" she asked as her cousin nodded slightly.
"Oh, feel better, kiddo" he kissed her cousin's forehead, before saying goodbye to them.
She went to the med bay, her sister was waiting there for them, asking her to lay down the child on the stretcher, so she tried to do it, but only getting for her cousin to grip tightly to her t-shirt.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm here, baby" she tried to calm her down.
"Halley, kiddo, I need to run some test on you, it's that okay?" Alex asked as the child looked at her for a few seconds before nodding, so she could lay her down.
The six year old moved away when Alex approached her with a needle in her hands, shaking her head as tears fell down her cheeks truly scared.
She had to held her in her arms, the child gripping tightly to her jumper as she whispered reassuring words in her ear, only trying to calm her down, but her cousin's fear increased when her sister started putting some electrodes on her forehead and chest.
"Hey, hey, shh, it's okay, little one" she hugged her tightly, Halley's head resting on her shoulder. "You're just tired, baby, What do you think about sleeping a little bit?" she asked not wanting for the child to feel as an obligation, her cousin shaking her head. "No? Okay, let's watch a movie then" she sighed.
Halley was deeply asleep as soon as the movie started, her tiny hands still gripping her jumper, but not waking up when she laid her down to approach her sister.
Alex was observing cautiously the child's brain waves, studying anything different from how it should be, so she just stood by her side waiting for something to happen.
She saw how her sister looked at the computer screen before looking at the child only to go back to the screen, her eyebrows furrowing.
"Do you see that?" her sister asked pointing to the screen, which made her to look back at her not understanding what she was referring to. "That's Halley's brain asleep, that..." Alex pointed to a specific wave. "That means that she's awake, which she's not, at least not apparently" her sister explained as she frowned.
"Alex..." she hit her sister's arm gently after seeing how her cousin was moving.
Both of them watched how the child's eyes opened, white eyes observing the room before looking at them, seconds in which they were just staring at each other.
Her cousin got up from the bed as she moved to get closer while whispering her name, the child standing in the middle of the room, breathing with agitation before passing out only to fall to the floor.
"Halley!" she couldn't avoid screaming while running to kneel beside the child.
Her cousin opened her eyes between sobs, fresh tears being contained in her eyes as she held her closer trying to calm her down, but she knew that Halley wouldn't stop crying.
"I got you, baby, I'm here with you" she cradled her cousin.
It broke her heart to see her baby cousin like that, so scared of everything, even herself, that she couldn't avoid being mad at whoever that was targeting the child.
Halley calmed down after a few more minutes, her tiny head still resting on her shoulder with her eyes open, not trusting her enough to fall asleep again.
When she looked at her sister, she knew that something was wrong, that the test didn't have the result that Alex was expecting.
"Everything okay?" Mon-El asked entering the med bay, a concerned look in his face.
"Halley, baby, is it okay if Mon-El stays with you?" she asked the six year old, who looked at her for a few seconds as if she was deciding what to do, but ending up by nodding. "Okay, I'll be back soon" she kissed her cousin's forehead. "Call me if something happens" she asked Mon-El before leaving them to approach her sister.
Alex was still studying the results, writing down everything she was seeing, so she just waited by her side, looking from time to time to her cousin and Mon-El, observing how he was keeping the child embraced.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"Not really" her sister answered. "Now we know that her brain is awake during the nightmares, but I don't understand why that's happening" Alex explained. "Maybe you could talk to Dev-Em, he might know something about the worldkillers" her sister looked at her, to what she nodded, maybe she should.
She had been thinking about asking him for a few days, not doing it because she thought that he would know the same as her, but with all of that affecting her baby cousin, she really didn't have a choice.
For the past year, she had been coming down here once a week to tell him how Halley was doing and every single progress his daughter made. However, with everything that had been going on and Halley clinging to her every time she was about to leave somewhere... She didn't have a chance to talk to him for last few weeks.
Dev-Em approached the glass when he saw her there, looking at her worriedly as if he was expecting bad news, well, they weren't nice either.
"Did something happen to Halley?" he asked directly, not even letting her time to explain why she was there.
"I'm here to ask about..." she didn't want to worry him, so she was really trying for a way to tell him.
"Worldkillers" he finished her sentence when she couldn't. "I don't know much about them, they were a prophecy, but I can tell you that if someone knew about them, that was your father" he told her, to what she gasped in surprise.
"My father?" she asked trying to process the new information.
"Yes, Kara Zor-El" he nodded. "He helped creating them" Dev-Em revealed as she shook her head, it couldn't be true.
However, that was the exact same thing she thought about Medusa and it ended up being true. She knew her father was no Saint, but creating a being to destroy worlds? They were just another weapon to protect Krypton from invaders.
She shook her head again, that wasn't what she came to talk about, so, even though she wanted to keep asking, she should focus on the real problem they had at that moment.
"Is it possible to be haunted by demons?" she asked making him frown. "You've heard what happened with Reign, right?" she questioned, seeing him nod. "Ever since that happened, Halley has been claiming that demons are haunting her" she explained observing how his face changed.
"She didn't..., we spent days trying to distract her from going to that cell" Dev-Em brought his hands to her face.
"What cell?" she asked.
"Jindah Kol Rozz" he answered in just a whispered. "Can I talk to her?" he asked as she bowed her head not knowing what to answer. "I need to make sure she didn't walk inside that room" he looked at her.
"I guess it will be fine" she said while nodding.
She asked one of the agents to open up the cell for Dev-Em to follow her to the med bay, where Halley was still laying on the stretcher with her head resting on Mon-El's chest and her eyes closed.
"Is she asleep?" she asked getting her cousin to open her eyes as Mon-El shook his head. "Hi, baby" she brushed her cousin's hair away from her face. "There's someone who wants to talk to you" she said letting Dev-Em get closer to the child, who turned her head.
"Dev-Em" her cousin whispered with a shy smile.
"Hi, sweetheart" he smiled while caressing his daughter's face. "You were so little the last time I saw you, and look at you now" he admired her for a few seconds, which made her smile, because she knew that for him that little moment with Halley was really important. "Halley, kiddo, Did you go inside Jindah's cell?" he asked, noticing how her cousin's face changed, that was a 'yes'.
"I... I did" the six year old murmured as if she was scared of being scolded.
"You remembered that mommy told you that it was dangerous, right?" Dev-Em asked the child, who looked at him with her big blue eyes shining so brightly because of the tears. "It's okay, I'm not scolding you, sweetheart" he whispered wanting to calm her down. "I just want you to tell us if you remember what happened there" he asked her, but the child just shook her head before burying her face in Mon-El's chest, who embraced her tightly.
The three of them just stared at the six year old waiting for her to say something, because she knew that her cousin remembered what happened that day, but that the child didn't want to tell them.
However, it just took a few more seconds for her cousin to start talking, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"The five year old entered that room even knowing that it was forbidden for her, her mother's words repeating over and over again in her head.
The moment she stept inside, her body shivering while observing the darkness around her, the voices that were calling her still being heard.
She turned around when the door closed behind her, her shaking hands reaching for the door knob, but not getting the door to open, which brought tears into her eyes as she was desperated to run away from there.
"You heard my calls" a voice whispered behind her, making her turn, her eyes widening when she met an elder woman. "Don't be afraid, child" the woman crouched down to her height as she tried to step away.
"I want to go back with mommy" she whispered, fresh tears being contained in her blue eyes.
"With mommy? She didn't even let me go out from here. She's just like her sister, thinking she can control everything" the woman seemed to be angry at her mom. "I bet she didn't want me to reach you, that's she's terrified about what I could do to her beautiful daughter" she moved her face before the woman could caress her cheek.
The High Priestess of the Children of Juru gripped both of her arms to prevent her movement, so she was standing face to face to that woman, really afraid of what was going to happen next.
"You will help me, Child of Light" the woman grabbed her face in her hands. "Your innocence and fears will feed the demons until she Reigns!" the elder woman exclaimed, scaring her, noticing how tears were starting to escape her eyes. "Now, leave and don't ever come back!"
She did as told, running away from there as fast as her legs let her, only stopping when she was far enough from that room. She stood in that hallway disoriented, not really knowing how to go to her room.
"Halley, kiddo" she heard someone calling her.
"Dev-Em" she whispered relieved when she saw him.
"You okay? Are you lost?" he asked, to what she nodded wiping her tears. "It's okay, sweetheart" he smiled at her while picking her up. "Let's go find mommy"
She rested her head on his shoulder while closing her eyes, not really wanting to remember what had happened previously, being afraid of the meaning of the woman's words, Were demons really going to haunt her?"
Her cousin had ended up crying, so she had picked her up to keep her embrace, the six year old keeping her face buried in her neck as she kept sobbing.
She rubbed circles on her back trying to comfort her, but the little one just kept crying as she tried not to start crying as well, but she could feel her cousin's pain and it was really breaking her heart.
She managed to calm her enough to gave her back to Mon-El, who embraced the child as tight as possible, as she walked outside the med bay along with Dev-Em.
"Jindah wanted her" she heard him say, which made her look at him. "She was using her to get information and now they have whatever they want, they know all your weak points, Kara Zor-El" he told her.
"What can we do?" she asked helplessly, only wanting to end her cousin's fear.
"They're not going to stop until Reign defeats you, so the best thing to do is to separate Halley from you until the Worldkillers are gone" he answered as she frown. "If you do that her nightmares should be better, a least not every night and the possessions should stop" he explained. "I know it's going to be hard, but it's the best thing for both of you" he said.
"I guess we should try" she whispered.
"Just let me know how things are going" he asked.
"I will" she nodded.
"No! No! Don't leave me!" Halley screamed clinging tightly to her t-shirt as she fight her own tears.
She sighed while closing her eyes, not baring to see her cousin's disappointed eyes piercing her soul for longer.
She knew that it would be hard, that the six year old was going to cry the moment she would leave her at her sister's apartment, but she didn't imagine that they would need three persons to pull her away.
Her heart sank when the child hugged her legs with all the strength she could, begging her to not leave her, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Halley, baby, look at me" she kneeled in front of her, her hands scooping her cousin's face. "It's okay, little one" she tried to calm her down, wiping the child's tears with her thumbs. "I know you're scared, I am, too, but it only will be for a little while" her cousin shook her head in her hands. "Baby, you're going to be fine here with Alex and I'm still here, you can call me whenever you want to talk to me" she tried to convince her, but Halley just cried even louder. "I love you, baby girl" she embraced her for a few seconds before kissing her forehead and try to pull her away, only wanting to end that scene for their sakes.
She looked at her sister, then to Mon-El asking for help, she was sure that she would end up crying if she stayed longer in that place with her baby cousin clinging to her legs.
It was Mon-El who approached them, trying to remove her hands from her legs, but Halley was really refusing to make things easy as she just started kicking the moment he managed to pull her away.
She observed how the little one sobbed once she was in Alex's arms, still calling her as she was forced to walk outside the loft, her own tears falling down her cheeks the moment she let herself cry.
"You okay?" she heard Mon-El asking her, which made her look at him for a few seconds.
She hadn't even realized that he was by her side observing her, she was so focused on not keep listening her cousin's sobs and screams, that she had stopped paying attention to what was happening around her.
"I... I just want to be alone" she said while turning around to walk towards the closer window.
She couldn't stay there for much longer, not with Mon-El looking at her with so much pity, so she leaped into the sky.
Her cousin's screams were still echoing in her head, sobs trying to escape her throat as she closed her eyes in pain, because, even though she knew that Halley was safe with her sister, she couldn't avoid feeling like she had abandoned the child.
She stept inside her loft through the window, her right foot landing in something hard, looking down to find one of her cousin's toys, which brought tears into her eyes, it was the dragon Mon-El bought Halley after they had broken up.
'How's Halley?" she texted her sister.
'A little bit calmer" her sister texted her back.'She's fine, she's gonna be okay'.
'I know, just protect her for me' she asked feeling completely broken.
Her sister didn't answer back, but called her, which made her try to calm herself down before picking up her phone.
"Alex" she whispered.
"Hey, How are you?" her sister asked her.
"Umm..., I miss her" she admitted in just a whisper. "What is she doing?" she asked.
"She's watching a movie" Alex answered. "Hey, kiddo, do you want to say something to Kara?" her sister questioned.
"No" she heard to her cousin's disappointed voice.
"You sure?" her sister asked again, but the child answered the same, which definitely broke her heart. "Don't worry, she's just a little angry, but she will get over it soon" Alex tried to make her feel better.
"It's okay, she has the right to be mad" she whispered. "Call me if something happens, love you" she hang up before hiding her face in her hands to start crying again, she wasn't sure if Halley would ever forgive her.
Hi!
I've been writing and rewriting this chapter for a while, not knowing if I was making a right decision with separating Halley from Kara.
Let me know what you think, thanks so much for reading,
Ayrin