The Psychedelic

Ever since her confrontation with Lena at the Fortress of Solitude, Kara had not been sleeping well. Often she would lie awake until the early hours of the morning. When she would finally fall asleep for a few hours, nightmares would assail her.

Kara spent her days feeling disconnected from people around her, from her job. Everything seemed muted. Everything but the intense guilt, sadness and anger she felt about what she had done to Lena and what Lena, in turn, had done to her.

The worst thing was that Kara knew Lena was planning something. Kara had asked Alex and her friends whether they were still in touch with Lena. None of them were. Brainy had suggested Lena had probably put them all into a tiny box and put the box away in some far corner of her mind.

So Lena felt betrayed, she was alone and she was planning something. The combination of those things scares the living daylight out of Kara. Lena had kept her knowledge of Kara's secret from her so she could manipulate her and hurt her. Kara has no idea what else Lena might be capable of. She has to trust Lena's goodness will prevail in the end. But Kara also knows that all the trauma and betrayal Lena has experienced can do strange things to a person.

So every morning she wakes up wondering whether this will be the day on which Lena's nefarious plan will be revealed to the world. What will be asked of Kara then? Will she be able to do what is necessary to stop Lena? Kara tries not to think about it, but the dread is constantly with her.

Then one day Kara wakes up, and she knows Lena must've put her plan in motion that night. The world around her has been drained of color. Her once colorful apartment is a monotone black and white. Kara flies out of her apartment to see whether the situation outside is different. It isn't. Kara flies straight to the DEO to talk to Alex.

As she barges into the room where Alex is bent over some papers, her mind's so caught up in what may be going on that she forgets to greet her sister and plunges right in: "I'm sure it's some kind of psychic manipulation using Myriad. Obviously it effects vision, but is that just a side effect or is that part of the plan?"

Alex glances up from her desk, frowning. "Kara. Calm down. What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? All the color being gone!"

Kara makes a sweeping motion with her arm.

Alex looks around her. "What?!"

Kara follows her eyes. "You still see color?"

Alex gives her sister a worried look. "Kara, are you alright?"

Kara takes a deep breath. How can this be? She realizes only now that all the people in the streets had been going about their days as if nothing had changed.

So somehow Lena hasn't targeted everyone. Has she only targeted aliens? Only Kara herself? As this last thought lingers in Kara's mind, her blood starts to boil.

"I have to go," she tells Alex tersely and flies out of the DEO.

Moments later, she's in front of Lena's door in her normal clothes, knocking loudly.

It takes a while for Lena to open the door and when she finally does, Kara is bursting to hurl some home truths her way. She opens her mouth, points a menacing finger at Lena, and starts hissing, "You …", when suddenly she stops. She stares at Lena and mumbles, "Your eyes! Your lips!"

In a world that's completely black and white, somehow Lena's eyes are their usual bright blue and green and her lips a gorgeous red. Kara stares at Lena in disbelief.

For a moment Lena looks puzzled, but then quickly her face turns sour.

"I told you I didn't want anything to do with you anymore. You can't just show up here!"

Kara nods. She doesn't know what to say anymore. She doesn't know why she's even here. Why is the world black and white? Why is everything black and white but Lena?

Then it hits her: Lena not admitting to anything doesn't mean she's not responsible for what's happening to Kara's sight. And isn't it an incredible coincidence that out of all the eyes and lips in the world, only Lena's have retained their color?

"What did you do?" Kara hisses.

"Whatever is going on and whatever horrible thing you think I did, I didn't do anything."

"So why can't I see any color?!"

"You can't see any color?"

For a moment Lena looks concerned. Then she forces the sympathy from her eyes and says flatly, "I know nothing about that."

"Oh yeah? Why are your eyes still blue and green then? Why are your lips still red? Why are you the only person in this whole city that still has any color?"

Kara is seething. She stops speaking and glares at Lena.

But instead of a fiery rebuke or a strong denial, there's silence from Lena. Lena looks stunned. Then a sense of shyness comes over her. Lena glances down at her feet. Slowly and hesitantly she looks up again.

"Well?!", Kara shouts at her.

"Kara, I don't know," Lena says gently. Half-heartedly she adds, "Maybe it's some kind of kryptonite?"

Kara looks at Lena's lips again. She looks up at Lena's eyes. How piercing and beautiful they are.

"I, I …," she starts.

Lena raises an eyebrow.

Kara tries to remember what Lena was saying. "Kryptonite," she repeats. "Kryptonite. Yes. Maybe."

Kara looks around her and glances back at Lena's lips. She feels faint all of a sudden. What's happening to her? Perhaps Lena's right and this really is some kind of kryptonite attack.

"Listen, I should head to the DEO and ask Alex to get to the bottom of this."

Lena nods gently.

Kara looks around her and then, in this world that's totally black and white, her eyes involuntarily move back to Lena's lips, to her eyes.

And then suddenly something within Kara seems to break. Or rather, it is as if a dark blanket that blocked out the light and muted the sound has been lifted. For the first time, Kara can clearly hear the longing in her own heart. She is amazed she wasn't able to hear it before.

She looks at Lena with love and awe. And she knows. She knows whoever sucked the color from the world, it wasn't Lena. And she knows however Lena's lips and eyes retained their color, it wasn't Lena either. It was Kara's own heart.