The aftermath of the battle is a bit murky to Kara. She remembers rushing after Ghim in a clumsy tumble to catch her lifeless body. She remembers failing to right herself in time to land gracefully and teetering over the edge of the crater falling further down in an uncouth array of limbs, half of them not hers. She remembers screaming until her throat was raw for no other reason that she felt like screaming at the time. Someone must have sedated her, and in fact, she vaguely remembers Alex saying she was going to do just that, because she's now waking up in the med bay again. She's woken up in hospital beds enough times to last her for her long long life.

She's not alone. In fact, the room is so packed with sleeping bodies that it feels a bit cramped. Kara counts the heartbeats around her ; Lena, Alex, Taylor, Max, Ghim, Nia, Brainy, J'onn ; and Kelly who joined them sometime between then and now. They're all alive, thanks Rao for that, but their intermingling breaths render the air tepid and humid and after spending so long cooped up in her sealed helmet, Kara wants nothing more than to breathe fresh air.

She rises carefully, steps around the cot that has been set up next to her bed and on which Alex and Kelly precariously rest in a tangle. She spares a long minute to look at Lena, plunged in a peaceful but artificial sleep. The monitor besides her beats with a reassuring regularity and Kara holds on to it like a lifeline ; she did not kill her love. She goes to brush her fingertips on the hollow of her cheek but draws back immediately, unsure of if she still has the right to touch her. She would understand if that weren't the case.

She exits the room with one last look, and with at first no idea of what she intends to do, starts a long trek down the DEO's corridors in the sole company of her own heartbeat and the shuffling sound of her socks on the concrete flooring. She takes the backroads, slipping into empty rooms to let patrols pass her by and dipping into unlit stairwells at the smallest sound all the way down to the second to lowest level, where they keep their prisoners awaiting transfer. She does have to show her face then and, drawing her shoulders back, standing tall like she would in her full suit, she salutes the guards on duty and walks into the jail.

She walks by Selena's cell, ignoring her when she attempts to morph into someone who might be Alex and shrieks when her skin bubbles instead under the effect of the power dampeners. She walks past Magog and Solomon Grundy, their broad frames both much too big for their respective sleeping cots, and then by Indigo, who presently is mostly a pile of nanites in a cardboard box with an unknown level of consciousness. She doesn't feel one ounce of guilt about it.

Finally, after what feels like ages, she stops in front of the Empress. The cell isn't big per se, but it takes her a moment to find her, prostrated in the far left corner of the room, swallowed by the magnitude of her ample green garments. She looks ghastly, not in a frightening way but like she's on the brink of death and it takes a lot for Kara to reign in the look of pity she feels rising on her face.

"Came to gloat ?" the Empress spits without lifting her head to look at her. "You've already taken everything from me, what more do you want ?"

"I came to talk," Kara answers simply ; and it's the truth, even if she came here without knowing what she was seeking. She sits cross legged on the floor, then rises in a hover so she'll be at eye level, should Emerald Empress decide to look at her. "I have questions," she continues, "and I think you have the answers I need."

"What do I have to gain from it ? I have nothing to return to. You made sure of that."

"Peace of mind," Kara replies, again rather simply, keeping her voice measured and low. "A fair treatment. I can ensure that you are returned to your time where you'll be judged according to the laws of your own era."

"Are you deaf as well as ruthless Supergirl ?" the Empress seethes, "I told you I have nothing to return to. My Eye of Ekron was all I had left and you took it from me."

"You seem to have forgotten something," Kara says softly. "I now know that I will kill your father in the future, and if you tell me everything, I can strive to spare him."

She hates every single word that leaves her mouth, hates that she's bargaining a life, hates that she's lying. It seems to her that killing a being from the future in the present, like she did by destroying the eye, isn't something that can be changed with a simple mind wipe but still, there's no telling what she will actually remember once Taylor goes back to the future and the competent authorities will have recovered the Empress ; there's no telling if she will remember the flimsy promise she's now making.

The Empress releases a long breath, so long that Kara feels a tiny part of herself dying as she waits for it to end. Then, she finally lifts her head and her sharp green eyes drill into Kara's with an intensity that makes her nauseous. She hasn't really had the opportunity to look at her until now, having been otherwise preoccupied both times she encountered her, and she finds herself stricken by her beauty. Even as she sits curled on herself, Kara can see that she's tall, and the face that peeks from her high collar is fair skinned and statuesque in its features. Her hair is dirty, covered in blood, goo and ashes, but somehow, it still shines with the strength of an alien sun to the point that Kara doesn't dare to look at it for too long.

"What do you want to know ?" the Empress asks, jutting her round chin at her. Somehow, her voice sounds both defeated and full of venom.

"We could start at the beginning," Kara offers, infinitely proud of herself for the way her tone doesn't so much as waver. "What's your name ?"

Emerald Empress marks a pause, and Kara holds her breath in time with it. "My name is Falyce," her prisoner finally says, "and I was born on the barren Orando."

Kara opens her mouth, intending on, probably, spouting a generic greeting or another but Emerald Empress, Falyce, sees right through her, and she retreats with a hint of shame.

"You are not happy to meet me, and I ask that you do not lie about it."

"You're right," Kara concedes even if she doesn't feel great about it. "I'm not particularly happy to have made your acquaintance."

"There was nothing for me on my home planet, there was nothing for anyone," the Empress continues. "I was raised in a gutter, so deep in the stench of a purulent city that I didn't know what fresh air smelled like for the first two decades of my life. All I had then was my father. He would go to bed hungry so that I would be fed, would steal clothes off people's back so that I wouldn't go naked. Not once did he ask for anything in return because I too was all he had."

"I'm really sorry," Kara says there, mostly because it seems like an appropriate thing to do.

"Sorry doesn't mean anything to me," Falyce spews, her beautiful features twisting in anger for a split second before she falls back in her distressing memories. "When I was seventeen of your Earth years, my father contracted the plague. It wasn't uncommon, but it was incurable, and highly contagious. I was dying when the Eye found me."

She marks a pause then, a long one, looking for all intents and purposes like she's forgotten how to speak. Her face contorts in pain. Not in the phantom one of recollection, but in genuine present and terrifying pain. Kara drops to her feet ready to help, to take that woman's pain and make it disappear, but the Empress halts her with a firm outstretched hand. "I was dying," she repeats, "when the Eye found me."

Kara gets the prickle of a half formed thought at the back of her head, the barely there sensation that the answer is right in front of her but that she's gone blind, and can't perceive it.

"It took me as its own, saved me and moulded me as I am more than my father could ever have. Through our bond I grew stronger, I saved my father, I saved my people, I became the Emerald Empress."

"What did the Eye want in return ?" Kara asks, guided by that same prickle that's telling her she's not getting the full story. "I destroyed it. There's no harm in telling me now."

"You took everything from me !" Falyce screams, springing to her feet so suddenly Kara startles back a couple of steps and almost falls on her ass. Her fist comes banging on the glass that separates them and she repeats, in a rage filled thunder, "EVERYTHING !"

She heaves, chest lifting up and down furiously and a dollop of blood trickles out of her right nostril, spreading slowly all the way down her chin.

"I'll ask you one more time," Kara says, finding herself surprisingly calm and measured considering the situation. "And then whatever your answer is, I'll go get medical help. What did the Eye of Ekron want in return ?"

"Total and utter surrender."

The answer comes in a rushed whisper, not low enough that Kara can't catch it, but still faint in a way that speaks of disgrace and discomfort.

"It takes tremendous strength to withstand the connection with a being of Ekron," the Empress adds, prideful even in her downfall. "And in the end, it was mutually beneficial, and even if I did stray under its guidance, it never warranted you killing my father for it."

"So I won't go insane ?" Kara asks hurriedly, so relieved by the admittance that she forgets to be polite. "I won't kill your father in a mad frenzy ?"

"I see now that you've destroyed my connection to the Eye, that I'd fallen prey to an illusion," Falyce murmurs. "You and your crew caught wind of my achievements," she says, pausing on every few words with unmasked contempt, "and you decided to take matters into your own hands. You went after my Eye, and I'd sworn to protect it. Just as my father had sworn to protect me." She pauses. "But knowing it does not change the way I lived my father's death, and by forcing me to see the truth, you've done nothing more than make my life a lie."

She spits the last few words with a venom that almost makes Kara recoil again, but she holds on, and says instead, "for that, I am sorry. Truly. But if making you see the truth doesn't change your experience, it also doesn't change that you went after my family."

"Are you going to make me pay for my crime Supergirl ?" Emerald Empress asks with a smile so twisted Kara fears she's been tricked and Falyce is going to melt away into a different person.

Her horrendous expression is terrifying. Not so much because it scares Kara, but because it shows, clear as day, that somewhere along this intricate line of events, something broke deep inside of the person standing before her, and it can't be fixed.

"No," Kara answers after a beat. "I have no intention of making myself your judge or your jury, this will be someone else's job."

She stops, looks at her for what feels like a long time then allows herself to add, the words boiling out of her harshly, "but whether your father is alive or not when you return to your time, if you ever go after my family again, I won't be so merciful."

The threat feels disgustingly good.

After this confrontation, Kara makes her way back up fast enough to not even be a blur on the DEO's cameras. She only makes two stops on her way to the roof, following the sound of a heartbeat she hasn't forgotten yet ; in Doctor Hoshi's office, to signal that one of their prisoners is currently bleeding to possible death, and in the med bay, to gaze upon Lena for a short aching second.

She emerges in fresh air, surprised to find that the night has already came and went, and breathes in hungrily, looking up at the thousands of stars watching upon her before they melt into the new day. Taylor is sitting on the ledge, back to her, eyes fixed on the city below. They cut a black silhouette of which Kara could see every detail, down to the thinnest hair, from where she stands if she wanted to. Instead, she walks up to them and sits down, legs dangling side by side with theirs and asks resolutely, "is it safe to assume you're going home ?"

Two full minutes tick by on their watch before they answer. "That's the plan, yes."

"How long do we have ?"

"As long as we want," Taylor replies softly. "I haven't activated the beacon yet."

"I'm going to miss you," Kara sighs.

"You won't remember me."

Kara's eyes fall on a small object in their hands, no bigger than a lighter.

"Large scale mind wiper," they explain, passing it to her.

Kara weights the object thoughtfully. "Does it hurt ?" she asks, instantaneously feeling somewhat stupid for doing so.

"No, it doesn't. It's adapted from old Martian technology but it's been refined to remove the kinks. It doesn't simply close the neural pathways, but removes them entirely," Taylor explains. "There's nothing to miss."

"Somehow," Kara whispers, winding her arm around their shoulders, "I feel like I'm still going to miss you."

"You'll see me in about four years. I'll be born soon."

"Four years," Kara muses, "it's still a long time."

"It's four years with Lena," Taylor points out wisely. "You'll regret it once you have a screaming baby clinging to you at all time."

"I could never regret you," Kara says with no room for discussion ; and then, "are you going to be okay ?"

"I'm fine," Taylor replies, surreptitiously wiping a stray tear from their eye. "But that's gonna be one hell of a story to tell at Thanksgiving dinner."

Kara laughs briskly, a bubble of levity bursting out of her to spread under the moonlight.

After that, they remain silent for long minutes, Kara preparing herself to ask another question and Taylor giving her the space she needs with no prompting.

"How unethical is it to knowingly change the future ?" she asks eventually.

"Very," Taylor replies without missing a beat. "I suppose you talked to the Empress ? Max is gonna be angry that you beat her to it."

Kara sighs. Far on the ground below her, an ambulance drives by in a flash of blue lights and she uses the piercing sound of its siren to give herself more time to answer.

"I did. And she did bad things, she's in no way innocent, but there's," she gulps, "there's a possibility the way she perceived her father's death was an illusion, and I thought, well I thought if I indeed don't go mad and can spare him, I'd like to do that."

"That's a very roundabout way of saying you don't want to kill someone," Taylor says, bumping their elbow against hers until she looks at them and is forced to behold their teasing smile. "But I'm glad you're not going to go insane Yeyu. And I think that since technically it hasn't happened yet, no one will hold it against you if you choose to save a life."

"I wish there was a way to know for sure." Kara confesses this in such a small voice that it would have gone unheard from anyone other than Taylor. "I almost killed Lena," she adds, still barely over a whisper, afraid of what she'll do if she hears her own words. "What if another illusion causes me to kill the Empress's father ? What if I do go mad ?"

"You'll cross that bridge when you get there. There is literally nothing you can do until then."

"That's not very reassuring," Kara croaks, voice and mind a little askew. "But thank you for saying it."

"Anytime."

Kara has nothing to add to that and so she remains silent, choosing to watch instead what could be the last sunrise she sees with her child for a long time. When the sun is just passed the horizon, the door opens behind them and Lena emerges on the roof, supported by Alex and Max on either side. There is a stern warning in her gaze about anything Kara might say as an apology and so she lets her come sit beside her instead and threads their fingers together gently. They stay like that, together, until the sun is fully up, taking in the new dawn as a family.