"Hey!" Kara exclaimed, her voice rising with excitement as she flapped her hand against the floor to get Selah's attention. "Look, look, look!"
They were still in the mindscape, which currently looked like the white room. In the past few hours, it had changed a few other times. Earlier, it had been the living room of Selah and Nia's apartment, and before that it was a city park. Kara still wasn't used to the lurching sensation that came with the shifting, but she found that each transition became a little bit less intense. Selah didn't seem to be nearly as affected, which was surprising, considering how it was her mind and all. The girl was curled up on the rug, facing away from where the hero was seated on the couch, and she glanced over her shoulder to see what had made her so excited. Kara held out her hand gleefully, showing off the solved Rubik's cube in it.
"I solved it!" she announced proudly.
"That proves it," Selah announced dryly, sitting up a little bit more. "It's a fake cube."
"That's so rude!"
"My brain probably created its best interpretation of a Rubik's cube, and it's somehow rigged to make it solvable for anyone."
"This is a really big accomplishment for me."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just saying that it probably shouldn't be." Kara scowled, hurling the cube at Selah- who tried to duck out of the way, but she wasn't fast enough.
"Ow," she protested, rubbing her shoulder where she had been hit.
"Sorry," Kara replied, in a tone that was decidedly unapologetic.
"I don't have my powers down here, man," Selah pouted, picking the cube up off of the floor. "This thing has sharp corners."
"You were being rude!"
"I'm sorry for being rude, there's just a lot going on." Sitting all the way up, she gently lobbed the cube up into the air in front of her, where it disappeared with a soft whir.
"Like what?" Kara asked. "Besides the obvious, I guess."
"Well, for one, I'm stuck inside of my brain with someone who has zero impulse control," she grumbled, still poking at her shoulder. The hero slid off of the sofa and sat on the floor next to her, bumping her knee gently.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Beta had some... interesting things to say earlier. I'm just thinking about what she told me."
"What do you mean?"
"She said that I'm breaking the rules by having you in here with me."
"Okay," the woman said slowly, frowning. "What does that mean?"
"Well," Selah trailed off, chewing on her lip as she waited for Kara to catch on.
"Absolutely not."
"Kara-" she tried to protest, but the woman cut her off before she could say much of anything, standing up and crossing her arms firmly.
"No, Selah. We agreed on this. I am going to be in here with you."
"Okay, well we also agreed that this is my decision to make."
"I'm not leaving you," Kara insisted. The girl rolled her eyes and stood up, taking a few steps away and turning her back to the woman.
"Nia," she yelled. There was a quick humming sound that reverberated around the mindscape, and then Nia's voice came in, echoing slightly.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Is Alex around?" Selah replied.
"Don't you dare," Kara interjected, but the girl kept her back turned.
"Yeah, she's right here," Nia answered. "Do you want to talk to her?"
"Selah, don't you dare," she hissed. Selah glanced at her, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Can you beam her in, please?" the girl asked, not breaking eye contact.
"This is ridiculous!" Kara scoffed, throwing her arms in the air. "Nia, please don't do that."
"She can't hear you."
"I can't believe that you're calling Alex on me. You know that I'm right."
"No, Kara. You know, you're not always right."
"Beta wants you to be alone. She wants you to feel vulnerable and isolated so that she can overpower you. We're not giving into that."
"We don't have any other option. Unless you want to fight a freaking Sun-Eater."
"Maybe I do!" Kara yelled, hating how out of control she felt. "Maybe that's a better choice!"
"You're being so dramatic." There was another swift hum, and Alex appeared a few feet away.
"What's happening?" she asked, obviously alert and ready for whatever situation was at hand.
"What's happening," Kara stressed, beginning to pace, "is that my opinion and my experience are being blatantly ignored, and my authority is being usurped because Selah thinks that she is disposable. She's making a hasty decision without looking into other options, and she's disregarding all of the very real potential for danger."
"I saw Beta," Selah said, doing her best to ignore the hero's rambling. "She said that I have to face her alone, without having anyone else in here with me."
"I don't like that," Alex said.
"That's what I said!" Kara exclaimed.
"We don't have another option," she argued. "If I have to fight Beta alone, then I'm going to do that. This needs to end now, before anything can escalate further."
"Or maybe we need to re-address and find a better solution."
"Kara, we keep hashing out the same exact argument over and over again. Why do you continually refuse to see my perspective on this?"
"Because you are not using good judgment," the hero argued.
"Yeah, well you are clouding your better judgment with a fear of me getting hurt. You're not thinking rationally or logically."
"Yeah, well why would I ever worry about that, Selah?" Kara asked. Her voice had been escalating as she spoke, and it grew louder as she paused her pacing to stare directly at Selah, getting more and more frustrated. "What would make me scared of something bad happening to you?"
The girl didn't reply. She stared evenly back at Kara, so the hero feigned ignorance, pushing her point further.
"Oh, gee, I don't know," she continued. "Could it possibly be the fact that you have a continuous pattern of being impulsive, and you end up putting yourself in danger, all because you're too scared of letting anyone else help you deal with your problems? You've gotten yourself hurt more times than I can count, all because it's easier for you to act without thinking it through. Regardless of the consequences, you don't seem to understand how to let other people in or how to take care of yourself, and I am terrified," Kara's voice broke, but she kept speaking. "I am terrified that you are going to do something stupid without fully weighing out what is going to happen, and then I'm going to lose you."
She only realized that she was yelling after she was finished, and it took her a second to notice that she had also taken several steps forward. Selah didn't reply, staring back at Kara. She looked rattled, and maybe a little bit hurt; her face was stoic but underneath her guarded expression, the hero could see that her words had hit home.
"Okay," Alex said steadily, breaking the sharp tension that had suddenly built in the room. "Let's calm down for a second."
"I'm just saying that we need to think this all the way through," Kara said lowly, fighting to keep her voice even.
"What exactly did Beta say to you?" Alex asked, addressing the girl.
"Um," she replied, clearing her throat. It took her a moment to gather her thoughts before replying. "That we had to face each other one-on-one. She kept being sarcastic and making little jabs at me, so it's not like she laid out a bunch of bullet points that I have to follow. The only thing that she made super clear was that she's only going to actually face me if it's just me and her."
"Can you fight her?" the agent pressed, ignoring the indignant noise that Kara made behind her. The girl glanced at the hero, her eyes troubled, before meeting Alex's even gaze.
"Yeah," she replied firmly. "I can."
"You're sure?" Selah nodded.
"I'm sure," she affirmed.
"Kara?" Alex asked, turning to look at her sister.
"I don't like this idea," she restated flatly.
"I know that you don't," Selah replied.
The hero was silent, her brain whirring as she tried to find another solution, another way out. She ran a hand through her hair, impatiently pulling through the tangles that her fingers caught on. She didn't want to agree, and she definitely didn't want to say it aloud. Throwing caution to the wind like this, it felt like she was signing off on Selah's life, and throwing her away. Looking back at the girl, she saw that her guard had slipped even further, and Kara was suddenly struck by how tired she looked. That morning in the lab, Kara remembered noticing the dark circles under Selah's eyes, but this was different. She looked exhausted and desperate, like she was on the brink of fading away.
As much as it hurt Kara to admit it, she knew in her heart that it was time. This was going to be their best shot at beating Beta, and they had to face it head on.
"You're positive that you're ready?" she asked, hating herself for even saying it out loud.
"I am."
"You're not allowed to lose."
"I won't," the girl promised.
"Okay," she said, finally conceding.
"Okay," Alex repeated. "I should get back to the team, but I'll see you soon." She glanced between Selah and Kara, both of whom were still frowning, before going to the girl and giving her shoulder a squeeze. "I'll give you two a minute."
"Thanks," Selah murmured.
Alex disappeared, and the void suddenly felt emptier, much more than it had been before the agent had arrived. The girl was quiet, fidgeting with the tag on her zipper, and her posture was tight and apprehensive as she tried to avoid eye contact.
"I didn't mean to yell," Kara said, trying to keep her voice gentle and calm.
"It's okay."
"It's not."
"I'm sorry that I haven't always let you in," Selah said, finally glancing up to meet Kara's eyes.
"It just feels kind of unfair," the hero admitted, sinking to the floor. "You hear the thoughts of everyone in the whole world, and you get to know every single thing that I think, but I never see what's going on in your head. You have a lot of walls up, and I'm not saying that it's your fault, I get why you're so guarded, I just..." Selah sat down beside her, and she sighed. "You have to let me in when big things are happening."
"Because you always respond in a very reasonable and understanding manner," she muttered quietly, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Kara pursed her lips.
"I'm sorry if I was a little bit intense," she replied, a bit more tersely. "I reacted strongly because I care about you. A lot."
"I know."
"You know that I have lost a lot of people in my life. You are not going to be one of them." She nodded, and Kara took a long, slow breath, tucking a loose curl back behind Selah's ear. "I mean it. You said that you're ready, and I trust that, but you losing is not an option. You are not disposable, and if any part of you feels like you're not fully prepared to face her, we can find another way."
"I already killed her once, technically. It'll be a piece of cake the second time around."
"Don't joke about this, I'm serious." The girl half-smiled, glancing sideways at Kara.
"I'm ready. I promise."
"Okay," she said, swallowing hard. "How soon is this happening?"
"There's not really a time limit, at least not one that I know of."
"Maybe we could wait until morning. That way we can give the rest of the team the night to rest up." Selah raised her eyebrows, and Kara smiled sadly. "Just figured I'd try."
"It's time for this to end, Kar," she said.
"I know."
Kara put an arm around her, and she pulled the girl into a hug, squeezing tighter than she should. Ever since she had first landed on Earth, she had picked up the habit of listening to heartbeats when she was anxious, focusing on the steady rhythm to help ease her mind. Usually it was Alex's- at first just because of proximity, and then later because having the consistency of her sister was the most important thing in her life. As she hugged Selah in the mindscape, she let herself become immersed in the girl's heartbeats, trying not to let her brain question if this would be the last time she would hear it. "You're going to be okay," she muttered into Selah's shoulder.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Okay," Kara said, pulling back again. She refused to let herself cry, not in front of Selah. So, even though she felt tears pricking at the backs of her eyes, and as she swallowed back a lump in her throat, she smiled as widely as she could. She stood up, pulling the girl up with her, and she gave her hand an extra squeeze. "Okay. Go show Beta who's boss. Punch her for me."
"I will. Tell everyone that I'll see them soon."
Kara wanted to hug her one last time, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to stop herself from crying for much longer. So instead, she punched the girl's shoulder lightly, hoping that it didn't seem as awkward to Selah as it felt for her, and she took a few steps back.
"Yeah. Well, beam me up, Nia," she said.
The girl watched as Kara faded from view, her stomach tightening as she disappeared.
"I thought that she would never leave," Beta announced loudly, not giving the girl much time to feel upset before she appeared a few feet away. "Goodbyes are so tiresome. I always say that sentimentality should be reserved for campaign tours and funerals. Although I suppose that this fits into the latter."
"So we're doing this?" Selah asked, unable to keep the frustration out of her voice. "Have I met your demands sufficiently?"
"I suppose. Unless you want to admit defeat now, it would save us both some trouble."
"You're not going to win this."
Beta's eyes lit up blue, and she grinned.
"We shall see," she replied cockily.
The woman began circling Selah, smirking all the while. It reminded her of a nature documentary about sharks that Nia had made her watch, but she pushed the thought out of her mind, trying to stay focused.
"Before I beat you and effectively push you out of existence," she began. "I have a question." Beta raised her eyebrows, seemingly impressed by the girl's confidence.
"Oh?" she asked.
"When I was in here before, you would shapeshift. I asked you then how you were doing it, but you didn't answer me. You were conjuring, weren't you?" Selah asked, already confident in the answer. The woman's slight eyebrow twitch was enough to confirm it.
"Bold of you to assume that I have not already beaten down a shapeshifter and taken their powers," she quipped.
"But you didn't though. You were just manipulating me to make yourself seem stronger than you really are."
"Well, that does sound like something that I would do," Beta replied coolly. Selah could feel the woman's thinly veiled frustration, hiding behind her composed mask, and she chuckled.
"Is that why the mindscape has been shifting? Is that you as well?"
"This 'ask Beta anything' session is growing dull," the woman stated. "I thought that you were ready to finally end all of this."
"I am. I just thought that it might be nice to get all of our cards out onto the table first."
"That is impossible to do when you are playing with a deck that is stacked against you."
"Are you even Italian?" Selah asked abruptly. She saw the woman's steps falter, and it emboldened her even more. "I mean, the accent is a little over the top. It's not very consistent, either. Personally, if I was going to fake an accent to make me seem scarier I'd go with German, or like... Swedish, maybe..." she trailed off.
"I was born in Tuscany but I grew up in Markovia, perhaps that is why my accent does not fit your Americanized stereotypes. Would you like my whole biography while we are here?"
"No, I don't really care that much about your origin story. You were probably just some rich playground bully who picked on the other kids because it made you feel powerful. And now you're a lonely narcissist who kidnaps alien kids because you're still pushing down other people and thinking that it will make you stronger."
"Are you done?"
"Why do you have something insightful to share?"
In an instant, Beta was behind Selah. Her arms wrapped around the girl's pinning her shoulders together behind her back.
"These are bold words coming from a petulant child," she hissed, putting her cheek close to Selah's ear. The girl struggled to break free, but Beta's forearms were immovable behind her.
Panic rose up in her mind as she realized that she was being overpowered, but she refused to let it overtake her. She tried again to wriggle free, but Beta was unshaken. Finally, just as her arms were beginning to lose blood flow from the impossibly tight grip, the woman released her with a shove. Selah landed awkwardly on the floor, trying to catch herself with her numb hands. Beta crouched down next to her, grabbing her face and pulling it up to meet her own.
"You are vermin compared to me. And soon you will be nothing at all," she said, her voice booming through the mindscape. "Now. Enough exposition, it is time for this to come to a close."
.
.
.
