Selah could already tell that she was losing the fight, even when it had scarcely begun.

This was far from the first time in her life that she had been beaten up. But usually she was able to hold her own, or at the very least, defend herself. She wasn't sure if it was due to the mindscape weakening her powers or if the woman had somehow gotten stronger, but it reminded her of when her mother used to drain away her strength and then attack her.

And even if she was able to fight to the best of her abilities, Beta was still able to dodge and swerve easily and deftly; far more gracefully than she could. No matter how much she focused or how hard she tried, she couldn't avoid the volley of blows that were being hurled onto her. Pain blossomed up on her body in the wake of each hit, on her face, her arms, her stomach. All of it felt amplified by the emptiness in the mindscape, and it was hard for Selah to focus on the fight while her body was screaming out in agony. She had felt pain plenty of times before, but this was exponentially worse than anything that she had ever experienced in the real world.

After taking a particularly harsh hit to her jaw, she tried to dodge the left hook that Beta thrust at her. Instead, she stumbled backwards over her own feet and spilled onto the ground.

"Let me guess," she spat as she scrambled back up and ducked away from another swing. "Your preposterously rich father paid for you to get private mixed martial arts lessons when you were away in boarding school?"

"It is always important that a girl knows how to throw a punch, and how to defend herself," the woman replied. "Clearly that was not a lesson that your mother was too keen on instilling into you. I suppose that she was too busy inebriating herself and offering absolutely no contributions to society as a whole."

"You don't get to talk about my mother," Selah said, narrowly evading another punch that was aimed at her face.

"Well, why not? It's not like there is much that I can say about your father, that man had no idea that you even existed for most of your life. And your sweet kind, emotionally unavailable aunt, who worked herself to the bone to support you after your mother disappeared, she-"

"She didn't disappear," she interrupted. "You took her."

"Perhaps, but she was certainly more than happy to give up your freedom in exchange for her own. That alone should earn her a 'mother of the year' award."

"And who forced her to make that decision?" Selah demanded. Beta laughed airily, disengaging from the fight for a moment. She stepped back and began to idly examine her cuticles.

"Your mother was meaningless before I found her, in the same way that you are meaningless. I introduced you both to a potential for greatness, and you squandered my gifts." She began slowly approaching Selah, who refused to back down, trying to hide her apprehension. "I could have made you into a god, and we could have vanquished any foe who dared to stand in our way. But you were too stubborn and resistant; you were afraid of what I could transform you into, afraid of what you could become. You never allowed yourself to submit to my power for the greater good."

"So what I'm hearing is that you weren't strong enough to do the things that you wanted to do, so instead you deliberately sought out every vulnerable person that you could, and you exploited them," she stated, shrugging. "It sounds to me like you're nothing more than a coward."

The director's hand flashed up, clawing itself into Selah's braids and pulling her down to the ground. Her body was slammed onto the hard floor, and the wind was knocked out of her lungs, an experience that was new and deeply unenjoyable for her. The woman slapped her across the face twice, and before she had the chance to slip away, Beta got behind her.

She crouched herself overtop of Selah, and her arms snaked around her neck. One of them was wrapped tightly over the other, with the girl's throat trapped behind the woman's elbows. She tightened her grip further and began to strangle her, rigidly pinning their bodies together.

"You are going to die now," she muttered excitedly. "This will finally mark the end of your resistance."

"Selah?" Nia's voice asked, distantly echoing into the mindscape, but it was slurred and muffled.

"It's too late for them to do anything," Beta whispered, and she knew that it was true.

"What's going on?" the woman continued, her voice anxious. "Your brain activity is all over-" she was cut off abruptly, and the director chuckled.

"Perhaps you should have taken me up on the Sun-Eater deal. This was almost too easy. I must admit, I expected more from you. I thought that you would put up a better fight than this." she said.

Selah gasped desperately for breath, but she couldn't manage to get any air into her body. Panic began to rise up inside of her, hot and electric. She felt prickly and anxious as she writhed around in Beta's arms, trying her best to break free. No matter how much she struggled, it was no use. The woman remained unmovable. She was cradling the girl tightly, her sharp body pressed against Selah's, her hips digging into the girl's ribcage. As the oxygen in her body steadily began to dwindle, Beta began stroking her hair. Her hand was unusually gentle- if a little bit clumsy and stiff- as it brushed over her braids, unraveling them more and more with each pass.

"It will all be over soon," she crooned in a sickly-sweet murmur.

The adrenaline that had built up in Selah's body began to evaporate as it rapidly shut down, but the prickly feeling remained. A shrill buzzing began to ring in her ears, and on top of that boomed the throbbing of her own heartbeat. With each deafening beat, her vision blurred, and it began to take on a hazy light blue tint.

"Just give in," Beta urged, and part of Selah wanted to obey, as she began to sense a quiet stillness that laid somewhere just beyond the excruciating pressure that was building in her head.

There, in that stillness, she knew that her body wouldn't ache anymore, and that she would no longer have to worry about Beta returning and threatening her life again. She would be able to rest without fear of what would await her when she woke back up. She wasn't sure where the stillness would take her, but she knew that it would be safe and quiet there. She would feel peace and security. The simplicity of it felt alluring, and it tugged at her like a siren's song. The effort of only having to let go and give in felt much more manageable than what it would take for her to get up, and to keep fighting.

Her body began to go numb and she grew weaker and weaker, until she wasn't able to struggle against the woman very much anymore. Her limbs felt limp and heavy, and darkness began seeping into the edges of her eyes. As it crept further and further in, her field of vision became smaller, until eventually it was just a tiny bluish dot that darted around frantically on an ocean of empty blackness.

She was a little bit surprised by how unbothered she felt about all of this. She was dying, but it didn't seem to faze her very much. She didn't particularly want to die, but she was too tired to muster up the strength it would take to feel upset. It felt like her brain was going numb along with her body, and she was experiencing everything from a separate, distant, much calmer place.

And then suddenly, Selah heard a voice in her head.

She figured that it must be a hallucination coming from the lack of oxygen in her brain. She couldn't quite hear what the voice was saying, the words were too hard to discern, but she knew who was speaking. It was Kara's voice. As it grew clearer, she was able to hear it properly, and she recognized what the woman was saying.

Her mind seemed to be replaying a conversation that she and Kara had soon after she got out of the first mindscape- just after they had learned that Beta was still living in Selah's head. As the words grew louder, the girl began to visualize the scene in front of her eyes, and with a snap, she found herself immersed in the memory. She began to relive it again.

"Did you really not know that it was me?" Kara asked. She posed the question in a gentle manner, but she didn't really try to mask the sadness that laid behind her words. Selah could feel the guilt and hurt in her voice, and she glanced up at the hero.

It was late in the evening, and they were alone together in Alex's lab. The room was dim and warm and soft, and most of the DEO workers had left for the evening, so the building was relatively quiet. Kara and Selah had spent most of that day holed up in the DEO together, partly because Alex had wanted Selah to be hooked up to a few monitors, and partly because they knew that it would be the safest place for them to be if Beta was to reappear.

At first, they had talked about relatively inconsequential things, cracking jokes and telling stories as a way to distract themselves from everything that was going on. However, the fact that Selah had just woken up from a coma felt unavoidable, so finally they had begun to talk about the mindscape, and all that had occurred. They went over all of the times that Kara had gone into the girl's mind, and the hero laid out every interaction in excruciating detail. She made sure to include every miniscule part, so that she could begin to sort out which interactions were actually real and which ones weren't.

('This is just like The Hunger Games,' Kara had said, trying to offer up a joke to ease some of the tension. Selah had raised an eyebrow, unamused, so she elaborated. 'Real and not real? C'mon, you have seen The Hunger Games, right?')

Now, with that topic exhausted, they were sitting together on Selah's cot. The girl was curled up on top of the yellow blanket, resting her head against Kara's knee as the woman sat with her quietly. She had promised her that she would stay the night, insisting that it was because she wanted to make sure that Selah would have someone familiar nearby in case anything went wrong, but she could easily see through the half-truth. She could feel how anxious Kara got every time she left a room. She felt the flow of the woman's memories stir up, from all of the times that she had to watch, defenseless as Selah was dragged out of their cell, away from her. Any time they were separated, she knew that the woman was tracking her heartbeat, monitoring it for any sign of distress or danger.

Sometimes she forgot that Kara got scared too. The hero was good at hiding her fear, and using distraction to point everyone's attention in a different direction, but it was always there- often overwhelmingly so.

"I didn't know for sure," Selah replied, shifting a little bit so that she could look up at Kara, and she poked at the cuffs. She still wasn't used to them being there yet, and the thick, heavy plastic felt foreign and awkward against her skin. "I guess that in hindsight, Beta wasn't really all that convincing, but I was so confused about what was going on in general. I didn't really have time to sort it all out for myself, y'know?" She paused, chewing on her lip. "It was always so weird in there. I never knew what I could trust, or what was real and what wasn't."

"You can trust me," the hero said simply, smiling down at Selah.

"Yeah, well I know that," the girl gently retorted.

"When I finally got you to come back, what changed? What made you believe that it was really me?"

"Well for one thing, you called me a dummy." Kara laughed, and she continued, smiling despite herself. "I'm serious! Beta's insults were usually much more well crafted, and intellectual. I think that you might be the only person in the multiverse whose go to insult is 'dummy.' That was a bit of a giveaway."

"Plenty of people say dummy."

"Only if they are under the age of seven."

"I don't know why you're making fun of my word choice if it was the thing that saved your life," she said. She felt Kara's body rise and fall slightly as the woman yawned and she frowned.

"Actually, I guess that there was one other thing."

"Hmm?"

"Looking back on it, I remember noticing that you were more... real than her, you know? I could pretty much always sense a difference in real-you versus Beta you, I just didn't know if that was somehow Beta intentionally changing her demeanor to be confusing or manipulative." Selah furrowed her brow, musing on this new tidbit of information. "You were always much kinder, and gentler. She was stiff and awkward whenever she tried to pretend to be nice to me. And she didn't really blink ever, and her hands were always so cold, and she never breathed-"

The memory disappeared as abruptly as it had come, drifting up into the air like wafts of smoke. Taking its place again in Selah's limited vision was the blue dot. It was still moving around, although it was slower now.

"Something isn't right." she thought to herself, and her brain seemed to wake up a little bit at the thought, becoming ever so slightly more alert and lucid. The dot slowed even more, steadying itself enough that the girl could properly focus on it. She concentrated, forcing herself to wake up even more. The dot began to get larger.

"She never-" she thought, the realization hovering just outside of her reach.

Beta was still caressing her hair- the braids had now fallen out almost all of the way, but her hand stuttered to a stop as she noticed that the girl was not losing consciousness anymore.

"You're not actually strangling me," Selah said to her, her voice a hoarse croak.

"What?" the woman hissed. She cleared her throat, and even though her windpipe was still trapped behind the woman's arm, she took a long, deep breath.

"This isn't actually happening," she repeated, more clearly this time. She took another breath, but was surprised to find that her body no longer felt like it needed the oxygen. Feeling sprang back into her hands and feet. With one blink, her vision was fully restored and the pressure in her head dissipated. "Not to my physical body, at least. I don't need to breathe in here, because this is all happening inside of my head." She stretched her hands out in front of her and watched as the bruises faded off of her skin. "This isn't actually my body, so you can't hurt it."

Selah sat up, easily pulling herself out of the woman's grasp and spinning around to face her. She wasn't sure if Beta had stopped trying to restrain her or if she was simply not as strong anymore, but she certainly seemed much less imposing as the girl stared squarely at her.

"What are you doing?" she asked dangerously.

"Nothing in here can hurt my body. You've been corrupting my mind and making me believe that you were hurting me, but you never were. My body is safe, at the DEO," Selah replied. "There were a lot of times when I was in here before, and I couldn't hear anything. My powers were never actually gone, were they? You made me think that they were gone, but they weren't." Beta didn't reply, but she didn't have to. "It's just like how you pretended that you could shapeshift when you couldn't. All this time, I thought that you had some special ability that I didn't have access to, but you never did. I never was weaker than you, you only made me think that I was."

"I never had to make you believe anything," the woman spat, although her words lacked the venom that they usually carried. "In every way, you are inferior to me, and you cannot blame me if now that you are finally beginning to recognize the truth."

"But it wasn't the truth. Nothing you say or do is truthful."

"You do not understand what you are saying-" Beta tried to argue, but the girl interrupted her.

"That's why you didn't want Kara in here with me, isn't it? Because you wouldn't be able to lie to her in the same way that you lied to me. She couldn't even see you, so I can't imagine that you would be able to make her see all of the things that you conjured. You wouldn't be able to manipulate her mind in the same way that you can do with me."

"I wanted to offer you the meager gift of not forcing your friend to watch you die," the director tried to explain, but the girl wasn't interested in hearing her lies anymore.

Selah shut her eyes, concentrating hard, and when she opened them again, they were standing in her old apartment.

"You put me here," she said, staring evenly at the woman. With a blink, the mindscape shifted into the DEO. "And here," she said. "And-"

"Enough," Beta roared, as Kara's loft appeared around her. "Congratulations, you learned a funny little trick and you now have a skill that is equivalent to that of a magician who performs at children's birthday parties. This will change nothing. You are still insignificant and alone-"

The fire had returned to the woman's eyes, but it was less controlled than normal. Selah could see a frenzied light in them.

"Actually I'm not," she interrupted. Looking around at the familiar, comfortable loft, she smiled. "I used to be, but I'm not anymore."

Beta lunged at her, her face monstrous and unhinged, but this time the girl was ready.

In an instant, they were both underwater, as the mindscape shifted into one of the tanks at the Agenda. Bubbles burst out of the director's mouth, and they rose up to the surface in a silent scream. Selah remained composed. Before she had a chance to recover, she dropped to the cold metal floor as the girl emptied the tanks of water. Her tight red dress was drenched, clinging awkwardly to her body, and dripping tendrils of her usually slick hair fell into her face.

She opened her mouth- about to say something. But before she could, they were on the other Earth, both falling through the air-miles above northern Canada. She careened awkwardly, trying to steady herself against the winds that rushed against her. Again, Selah was largely unbothered by the sudden shift as she had prepared herself for the upcoming transition.

"You tried to take everything from me-" she told Beta, her voice booming through the air, louder than the wind.

"Enough," she tried to counter, but her demand was cut off as the mindscape changed yet again. They were now in the dark alley behind Noonan's, a full moon barely visible above them. Something was growling dangerously, and she glanced around frantically, trying to identify it. Before she got the chance to figure it out, the creature -some kind of giant cat- jumped out from behind a dumpster. She flinched away, putting her arms up to cover her face, but the animal was gone again before it reached her.

"I was fourteen years old-" the girl continued calmly, watching Beta's composure slip even further as the mindscape began shifting faster and faster.

Something began screaming, in fragments that were too brief to fully understand. The disjointed interludes of different voices and noises sounded like jumbled radio static, as if someone was cycling through the various stations too quickly. The director looked over at the girl, but she didn't even have a chance to glare properly before everything shifted again and she took a faltering step back.

"You took my friends, my family, my education, my life-" Selah said.

And then- Snow blew around them both in a blizzard, and the flakes shifted just as quickly to become sharp raindrops, and then to nothing at all. Beta tried to take another wobbly step, but she wavered as the ground beneath her flickered. She fell, losing her balance as the floor reappeared beneath her, and she dropped down onto one knee.

"And after I got out and I got away from you, I didn't know if it was going to be possible for me to ever feel whole again. I didn't think that feeling okay was going to be in the cards for me, and I think I'd forced myself to come to terms with that-"

And then- With each shift, Selah could feel the woman becoming more disoriented, her reserves slipping. The world around them shifted faster than even she could properly track, and the blurs of light and color and sound spun around furiously.

And in the center of it all was Selah, standing unflinchingly above Beta, who was cowered on the floor with her hands over her head.

"But I have friends now. I have family, and they stood by me and they helped me heal. And that is something that you will never understand-"

The backs of the girl's eyes began to tingle with overexertion. Switching so quickly was exhausting, but she pushed her tiredness aside, concentrating instead on remaining focused. Her hands began to tremble, but Beta's shoulders were shaking even more. She spurred herself on as she took a step forwards, bracing against the winds that whipped around them.

"You have never been capable of giving or receiving love-"

The sound around her swelled to a crescendo, and the colors and noises became like a tornado, pulling at her clothes and her hair, but she tried her best to ignore it as she took another step.

"And that is why you will never be able to control me again," she screamed.

And then-

There was no sound or movement. The shifting scenes sputtered to a halt, and the mindscape was restored to the empty white room. Beta was curled up on the floor and Selah towered over her. Everything was still.

After what felt like an eternity, the woman stirred slightly, turning to look up at her.

She was alarmed to see that Beta's face was grey and ashen, her skin cracked and peeling. A shrill humming sound began echoing around them as they both stared at each other, feeling unsure of what came next. Finally, Selah crouched down closer to the woman, and the noise grew louder and sharper as another wave of fatigue hit her.

The woman lifted up a hand, which was shaking uncontrollably, and she slowly touched it to the girl's cheek. Her hands were cold as ice, so cold that it felt like fire where each of Beta's grey, wrinkled fingers were touching Selah's skin. Despite that, she didn't move. She stared evenly into the woman's eyes, which were rapidly growing dull.

"What was your name?" she asked. She didn't say it very loudly, and her words were drowned out by the screaming drone that echoed around them, but she knew that Beta could still hear her clearly. The woman's face cracked into a weak smile, and she licked her dry lips.

"It was Erica," she replied in a hoarse whisper. "Erica... Alexandra del Portenza."

Selah nodded, and she straightened up. Her skin still burned in each of the spots where Beta had touched her, but she closed her eyes and ducked her head down. She knew that her powers were close to being depleted, and she had to center herself. Pushing out all of the noise and distractions around her, she took a long slow breath, and she conjured the winds back up.

She kept her eyes closed as they whipped around her, and she waited until the very last of her powers were gone before she opened them again.

Beta was gone. The only remnant of her that remained was a bit of grey ash, drifting listlessly across the floor. Slumping onto her knees, Selah felt the weight of her exhaustion rush over her, but she knew that she couldn't sleep yet. Even as a debilitating fatigue hit her, she mustered up the last bits of the strength that remained inside of her.

"Kara?" she called out, and her body slumped to the ground. Finally, she allowed herself to succumb to the stillness.

.

.

.