"Block!"

Nia hissed as she lifted her arms, summoning energy around them just as the girl of steel's fist slamming into them. She knew they were only training and Kara's strength was reduced but each punch from Kara felt like a truck being thrown at her.

"You're getting better at blocking, Nia. That's great." Kara smiled weakly, rubbing her eyes softly. She hadn't been able to get much sleep thanks to the Monitor and what he'd shown her. The only way for the multiverse to survive was for Supergirl to die. She needed to make sure the world would be safe if she was gone. "Let's try a little sparring now."

Nia nodded slowly, her breath heavy. Something was different about Kara today but she couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe she hadn't gotten used to Kara's new Supersuit yet or maybe it was something else, she didn't know. "Okay."

Nia was almost instantly pushed back into a defensive position once more, barely blocking the onslaught of punches from the experienced hero. She knew training was supposed to be hard but she never expected Kara to be pushing so hard. She needed to take it seriously, forget Kara was her friend for the moment.

Nia closed her eyes for a brief moment before letting the rest of her dream energy explode out of her body, catching Supergirl off guard. She quickly took advantage of the mistake, punching towards Kara with everything she had. Kara was easily blocking it but to Nia's satisfaction, she could see the girl of steel was being pushed back.

Nia's flinched as Kara slammed her hands together, a shockwave erupting from the Super's hands with more than enough force to send Nia to the ground. "Damn."

"That was a good idea using your dream energy like that." Kara smiled softly, offering her hand towards her friend. It was clear just from that attack Nia used she was getting stronger and better with using her energy. "But you let out too much of it at once, not leaving enough behind to support yourself."

Nia nodded quickly. Even if Kara was being so much rougher with her than usual she knew she was only trying to make her stronger. "Okay."

Kara bounced back a short distance, getting ready to fight once more. "Good, then let's try something else."

"Like what?" Nia tilted her head in confusion, her eyes widening as Supergirl's eyes started to glow red. "Oh no."

Nia quickly put her hands forward in front of her, forging a wall of her dream energy to appear in front of her just as the heat vision beams fired. Kara had never used her heat vision during any of their previous sparring matches.

Nia took in a deep breath, forcing the wall of energy to fall onto the heat vision so her energy wrapped around it. She spun around quickly, moving the energy around with her before launching it back at Kara.

Kara smiled, easily dodging it with her super speed. She appeared to the side of Nia, throwing punch after punch. She couldn't help but be impressed by Nia's ability to adapt to her situation.

Kara's smile faded as the message the Monitor gave her echoed in her head. She saw many possible futures, more futures than she could count. She saw the people she cared for the most burn to smoke in the anti-matter wave. Alex, Nia, J'onn J'onzz and Lena all gone in the blink of an eye.

"Kara?" Nia hissed in pain as Supergirl's punches started to get stronger and stronger. "That's too much."

Kara continued to punch, Nia's words landing on deaf ears as she continued thinking about what she saw. She could remember in some futures it would be her and Alex being the last to get swallowed by the anti-matter wave, some futures it was Lena and some it was Nia. In some of the futures, it would be her, Oliver and Barry standing together at the end. Watching helplessly as the world crumbled around them.

"Kara!" Nia yelled, bearly having any time to block the oncoming punches. It was clear that Kara was lost in her own thoughts, completely oblivious to how much she was hurting her.

Kara quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she felt her hands being grabbed, stopped in place. She frowned in confusion, looking to the side to see an upset J'onn J'onzz standing next to her with his hand over her closed fist. "J'onn? What...what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?! Kara, you almost tore Nia's arm off!" J'onn answered before turning his attention to Nia. He knew Kara would never normally hurt her friends but for the past few days, she had been acting differently.

Kara's eyes widened as she realized what she'd done. Nia walked away with J'onn, clutching her arm close to her chest.

"Nia...I-I'm so sorry." Kara apologized. She hadn't even realized she had started to punch harder than she should have. "I didn't mean to."

Nia shook her head as she glanced back at Kara. "It's fine, don't worry."

"Let's get you to the infirmary." J'onn shot Kara another confused look before he led Nia out of the training room.

Kara looked down at her trembling hands, wracked with guilt.

-

"So what you're saying is there's no way to stop the wave of antimatter?"

Lena watched as Kara paced back and forth in front of her desk, seemingly growing more aggravated by the second. "That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that if there's a way I haven't found it yet. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to. It just takes time."

"Time isn't something we have right now," Kara muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "We're running out of time. Every second I try to put off the inevitable is even more time wasted. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you in the first place. I had no right to ask you to do this for me."

Lena stood up and walked around her desk to intercept Kara. The Kryptonian almost walked right into her and Lena grasped Kara's forearms, partly to ground the clearly upset hero but mostly to avoid being knocked over herself. "What's happened? If we're going to figure this out, we need to be level headed. Both of us. That means me putting aside my resentment for you...for the moment. But it also means that whatever is on your mind needs to be put aside for now too."

Kara swallowed thickly, locking eyes with Lena. "There's something I have to do, for the sake of everyone. And I'm having trouble coming to terms with it. I'm…" Kara briefly gritted her teeth, her eyes misting with tears. "I'm scared. Not for myself. For Alex, for my family and friends. I'm worried that what I'm going to do may cause harm later on. I'm trying to prepare them for what's going to come but...I lost control. I-I almost broke Nia's arm yesterday when we were sparring. It's like I forgot where I was. Who I was fighting. I don't know what I'm doing, Lena."

Lena let out a soft sigh and glanced toward the couch in her office. "Sit down." She lightly pushed Kara toward the chair and Kara went along, sitting down.

Lena sat down next to her, making sure to keep a distance between them. "If you want me to keep helping you, you have to tell me the whole truth. What do you know? You should know by now that I don't like being lied to."

Kara bowed her head, briefly biting her lip. She released it, resigning herself to what she needed to do. "There's this...god. He calls himself the Monitor. He showed me my future. A lot of futures...billions of possible outcomes for the coming crisis. Every one of them ends with everyone dying. Being caught up in antimatter. Alex, Nia, J'onn...you." She looked up, catching Lena's eye. "All of them but one. Something needs to happen for us to stop this crisis."

"You knew already and you didn't tell me?" Lena asked, frustrated by the news. Once again it seemed like Kara was trying to keep things from her. "Do you know how hard I've been working on thi-?" She was cut off as Kara reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly. She paused for a moment, noticing the pain reflected in Kara's eyes. She felt a tug at her heart and cursed herself. She hated that Kara still had such an effect on her. "What is this solution?"

Kara briefly looked down at their hands, trying to put off having to say it for as long as possible. She brushed her thumb lightly over Lena's knuckles and looked up again. "Supergirl has to die. I have to."

Lena stared at Kara for a moment before recognition crossed her face. She unconsciously squeezed Kara's hand, tight enough that it would have hurt an ordinary human. Her chest felt suddenly tight like it too was being squeezed.

"I've been training Nia," Kara said softly, noticing that Lena was having trouble forming words. "To take over when I'm gone. I just don't know how to tell Alex. I didn't know what I would say to you."

Lena clenched her jaw, trying to compose herself. She realized she hadn't taken a breath since Kara's admission and she quickly inhaled. "Well, then it's a good thing you won't have to tell Alex anything." She stated after a moment. "Because you're not dying."

Kara's brow furrowed. "Lena, it's the only way. I've seen it."

"There has to be another way." Lena snapped, drawing her hand away from Kara's. She stood up, crossing to her desk. "What will the city do without Supergirl? There has to be some kind of loophole in this prophecy."

Kara got to her feet. "What kind of loophole?"

"Maybe you're meant to die briefly but we can bring you back," Lena answered off the top of her head. "I'm not sure."

"Lena, there's nothing left of me to bring back," Kara said gently, taking a step toward Lena. She faltered when Lena spun around to face her, a frown on her face. "I'll be erased by the antimatter."

"Well, then I'll find another way to keep you alive," Lena said again. She perched on the edge of her desk, not trusting her knees to continue holding her up.

Kara's brow furrowed slightly. "Why would you do that?"

Surprise flickered over Lena's face. She didn't attempt to answer the loaded question. She didn't even know the answer herself. At least not one that sat well with her. "Who else knows about this?"

"Nia. Because she saw it when I did. I needed to know for sure if the Monitor was telling me the truth." Kara answered softly. She watched Lena closely, trying to figure out what she was thinking. "I haven't told anyone. Besides you."

Lena stared at Kara for a moment before she sighed and looked away. "We'll think of something, Kara. You can't just give up. Isn't Supergirl supposed to be hope personified?"

Kara let a small smile tug at her lips at the question. "I try to be. I just don't see a way out of this."

Lena was silent for a long moment before she finally managed to speak up. "Tell me again about this Monitor and what he showed you. I want to know every little detail of what you saw. If we're going to have a chance to beat this I need to know everything."

-

"Alex?!" Kara landed hard on the balcony leading into the DEO HQ, barely giving the small crater she'd made a second thought before she rushed into the stone building. She was well aware that if Alex had used her Superwatch to get her attention it must have been serious. "Alex, are you here?!"

"Supergirl!" Alex exclaimed in relief as she rushed down the stairs to her younger sister. She walked past the red and blue superhero, taking her by the hand as she moved past. "We need your help."

"With what?" Kara tilted her head in confusion, following behind the Director of the DEO. She looked around as she walked, starting to get nervous as she noticed the Agents were gearing up like they were about to go to war. "What's going on?"

"These...things," Alex answered, clicking a button on the keyboard she stopped short of. The screens in front of her lit up with images of creatures with dark gray skin and huge, sharp teeth protruding outwards from their mouths. "These things have taken control of a building nearby with people inside. We asked J'onn what these are but he doesn't know."

"Hexorons." Kara's eyes narrowed in anger as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Like the Daxonites, the Hexorons were a race that lived on a planet near Krypton. She thought they all died when Krypton exploded, shards of her home planet destroying the smaller planet. "They should all be dead."

"Why are they taking over a building?" Alex frowned, turning to her sister. She was surprised Kara hadn't mentioned the race of aliens before.

"I don't know. But I'll stop it."

"Supergirl, wait for the strike…" Alex growled in irritation as the Kara flew away, leaving the DEO before she even had a chance to turn to face her sister. "...Team. Damn it."

Alex turned quickly towards the computer, tapping the button to the side of it for the intercom. "Strike Team Alpha and Bravo. Suit up!"

Kara ducked, slamming her palm into the alien's chest before jumping into the air and slamming her other fist down hard into the alien's head. She had to admit that with the Hexorons being from a planet near her homeworld it made them strong. Not as strong as she was but still strong.

She skidded under another of the aliens, yanking on its leg as she stood up and slammed her foot into another's chest. She spun around, throwing the alien she'd grabbed into a small group of Hexorons heading towards her. She could remember what her mother used to tell her about the Hexorons and how she should always stay away from them. Her mother had called them killers and thieves, and it looked like she was right.

Kara kicked hard against the door in front of her, sending it flying off its hinges into the group of Hexorons lying in wait on the other side. She turned quickly to the side, sucking in air as she did. With one quick blow of air she sent more than a dozen of the alien's into the far wall, knocking all of them out. She couldn't help but feel like something was strange about the Hexorons she was fighting. It was as if they were being instructed on where to stand and what to do, something she knew they hated doing. They may have been thieves and killers but they were proud thieves and killers.

She continued up the stairs, working her way towards the hostages while quickly clearing the floors in her way. She couldn't let anyone die. She refused. She sidestepped, her eyes narrowing in irritation as a claw tore through her cape and snapped as it hit her skin. She grabbed the alien that attacked, throwing it through the floor under her so it hit the pile she'd made on the floor below.

Kara quickly lifted her arms up, catching a chunk of the ceiling above as it fell toward her. Her eyes widened as she suddenly started to weaken, her arms aching under the weight of the ceiling as green lines appearing in her skin. She knew what it was immediately but she had no idea why or even how it was there. She barely had enough strength to keep the chunk of ceiling lifted above her. "Kr-Kryptonite…"

"That's right."

Kara looked up at the stranger's voice, her eyes narrowing in anger as she spotted the green glowing stone. A cloaked woman stood a few steps away from the struggling hero, a small green stone in her hand. She glanced behind the cloaked woman towards another woman behind her, this one with crimson hair tied back in a ponytail. "I don't know who you are or what you are doing but I will stop you."

The woman scoffed at Supergirl's warning, taking a step closer to the blonde. A crooked smile crept it's way onto her face as she rubbed the stone against Kara's cheek, the edge of the rock cutting the Kryptonian's skin. "It's amazing how a small stone can bring the girl of steel to her knees," Kara yelled in pain as the cloaked woman stamped onto the back of Kara's leg, forcing her to her knees. "Literally."

Kara looked up just in time to see the crimson-haired woman roll her eyes, stepping away and out of sight. She wasn't sure why but it looked as if the woman was also being affected by the kryptonite even though she knew the woman wasn't a Kryptonian. The only Kryptonians were her and Kal El.

She gasped as she felt the jagged green stone being pressed against her neck, piercing her skin slightly. With only a single tug of the woman's arm, she could easily slice Kara's neck open and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't believe she might be killed, not there or then. The monitor foretold her death in crisis, not in an office building.

"Supergirl, duck!"

Kara quickly lowered her head, surprised to see a bullet fly above her head into the cloaked woman's shoulder. She frowned as she felt the ceiling chunk get blasted into dust by dream energy before being caught by Nia. "N-Nia?"

"I'm here Ka...Supergirl. I'm here." Nia spoke with a soft smile on her face, slowly rising to her feet. She turned just as the cloaked woman stood up, blood dripping from her shoulder. "I could use some help here."

"Done."

Kara let out a breath of relief as Alex dashed in front of Nia and herself, punching the cloaked woman hard in the face with more than enough force to send the stranger off her feet. "Alex, watch out!"

Alex ducked, stepping to the side as the crimson-haired woman lunged towards her. She blocked the punch, throwing the woman over her onto the ground before pressing her pistol against the woman's head. "Stay down. It's your only warning."

"I can't do that!" The crimson woman answered, kicking Alex off her. She quickly rolled onto her hands, pushing herself back to her feet before turning her attention to Nia. With both Supergirl and Dreamer against her it was clear the fight wasn't going to go her way even if Kryptonite was affecting the hero still. "It's time to leave!"

"What?!" The cloaked woman stood up quickly, her voice strained with anger. The last thing she wanted to do was to leave when she had the Kryptonian in her grasp. It was only a Naltorian and a human, two species she could handle with ease. Supergirl could still barely stand. "Like hell we are!"

Nia turned quickly as she sensed something behind her, her eyes widening in horror when she spotted one of the Hexorons lunging at her with its teeth ready to bite into her. She flinched as a knife flew past her, impaling the mindless alien's forehead. It collapsed harmlessly to the floor. "Thanks Alex."

"That wasn't me." Alex let out a long sigh, turning towards where the two women were a moment ago. They had some kind of teleporter similar to the watch Lex used. She had no idea why the crimson-haired woman would save Nia but she was thankful for it at least, even if it left her with more questions than answers.

Kara hissed in pain as she stood on her own, taking a step forward towards her sister. "Alex I…"

"Save it, Kara." Alex turned quickly towards her sister after making sure there wasn't anyone around them to overhear. "We'll talk about this later. Nia, could you get her out of here while me and the Strike force deal with the hostages?"

"S-sure." Nia nodded quickly. She could easily tell that Alex was angry at her sister, angrier than she had ever seen her before though she understood why. If she and Alex were a minute later, Kara could have been seriously hurt or even worse. She knew that Supergirl was supposed to die in crisis but she knew better than most that time can be changed.

Alex stepped toward Kara, briefly inspecting her wound. When she was convinced that it was only superficial she let out a sigh and shook her head.

Kara swallowed thickly and averted her gaze, not wanting to see the disappointment in Alex's eyes. As Alex walked away Kara felt her knees buckle but before she could fall, gentle hands gripped her arms. "Nia?"

"Let's get you back to the DEO," Nia said softly, offering Kara a small smile. "It'll be okay. Alex will come around."

Kara nodded mutely and gratefully leaned on the shoulder Nia offered her. She watched Nia grimace slightly and quickly took some of her weight off of Nia. "I'm really sorry about your arm. I would never intentionally hurt you."

"I know. Don't worry about it." Nia answered reassuringly. "I'm more worried about you right now."

"I'm fine," Kara answered quickly.

Nia shook her head. She knew not to press the issue yet though and carefully led Kara out of the office.

-

It was freezing. That was Lena's first thought as she was dragged from her peaceful slumber back to consciousness. She gripped at her blankets, pulling them tighter around her so she wouldn't have to get out of bed. She'd had a late night as it was and she knew that if she let herself wake up any more than she already was, she would inevitably be up all night working.

"Lena Luthor."

Lena froze, her eyes shooting open at the sound of a voice coming from across the room. She froze for a couple of seconds, icy fear rushing down her spine before she pushed herself up in bed, looking around the room. She fumbled at the side of her bed, looking for the knife she kept tucked down the side.

"Don't." The warning came from across the room and Lena's eyes flitted to the corner. She vaguely noticed that her window was wide open, the curtains blowing in the breeze.

"What do you want?" Lena saw a flash of green as the person across the room shifted.

"To give you a warning."

The voice was unmistakenly female though Lena could tell that the voice was being disguised by something. "A warning about what?"

"Supergirl. Soon enough, Kara Danvers will be lost to you forever. Perhaps."

Lena swallowed thickly, her mind racing. Whoever this woman was, she knew that Kara was Supergirl. "Perhaps?"

"Perhaps not. Soon enough you'll have a choice to make. I came here to ask you to do what's right."

"What do you mean?" Lena moved to slide off the bed, taking her eyes off of the woman for a split second. As her feet touched the ground and she stood up, she saw that the woman was gone, leaving her alone in the room. "Damn it!"

TBC