This world so inexplicable
Parallel universe ticks out of time
Guess if the gods have gone crazy
Then we found the place for us to dive

If I am all you found
An extra arm to wrestle down
Will you keep me around?

Turin Brakes

The pain in Mon-El's chest was getting worse, but he continued to ignore it, as he had been all morning. Kara was right – he should be healed, but instead it felt as if all his strength was slowly sapping away. The second this battle was over he would get himself checked out, but at that very moment, he had to help their friends, "So what's the plan?"

"Well, Savitar aims to kill Iris – so we stop him before he gets to her." Barry explained.

"Yeah, but the plan is?"

"He's expecting me but he won't be expecting the combined forces of us all, I went to the future and checked, and originally I thought I could do it alone, and that's why I lost. So I'm not gonna do it alone. And we're gonna win."

"Okay, but… Plan?" Mon-El suggested, and Kara stomped on his foot. A couple of his toes broke and he flinched slightly, but otherwise gave no indication that he was hurt, but unfortunately, she'd felt it through her boots.

"Did I just break your toes?" She asked, shocked.

"Only two of them, I'm fine." He said stiffly.

"That shouldn't be possible, I didn't even stomp that hard!"

"Lead? Poisoned? Powers weakened? Any of this ringing a bell, Kara? Can we just get to the damn plan please." Mon-El groaned and she drew back slightly, offended.

"Ah, yeah, so I know for a fact that he will be in this warehouse in an hour, because this is where he met me for one of our many battles, according to the future. So, we tag-team. We take him on together – Cisco can vibe people behind him, Kara and J'onn can get him from the sky, Mon-El, Wally and I will use our superspeed on the ground, Alex and Guardian can use their collection of alien weapons, Winn and Julian can be our eyes and the Arrow team can make sure he stays in the building."

"Sorry, you brought us here to play defence?" Oliver asked incredulously.

"No, I brought you here to battle an incredibly powerful villain who wants to kill people and take over."

"Fine, we'll man the exits." Oliver said bitterly.

"Cool."

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask, where's Iris?" Kara asked.

"I sent her away to Star City – she's staying at Oliver's until this whole thing is over, Joe's with her."

"Oh. And Caitlin?"

"You know what, we should talk more about Mon-El – how did you two meet?" Cisco interrupted, feigning cheeriness.

"I fell out of the sky in an alien pod and she trained me to be a superhero, what happened to Caitlin?" Mon-El was genuinely concerned; he liked Caitlin – she had done everything she possibly could to save Kara and Barry, and she had been nice to talk to while he sat at Kara's bedside.

"I don't think we need to…" Cisco trailed off, glancing at Julian.

"She was dying. There was an explosion and she was hit with shrapnel and she was dying, and the only way to save her was to release her meta-human powers, so she could regenerate. But I couldn't get the necklace back on in time and…" Julian rubbed his forehead.

"And Killer Frost was released onto Central City." Wally finished for them.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Diggle asked.

"One problem at a time, guys." Barry said quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Barry." Felicity said.

"That's okay, we'll get her back. But first we need to get rid of Savitar so more people aren't hurt."

"Yeah, okay buddy." Oliver said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"So, I know I sound like a broken record, but what's the actual plan?" Mon-El asked hesitantly.

An hour later they were all in position, and Mon-El was feeling worse. He agreed with Alex – he had been sure they'd gotten all of it – he'd felt fine when he woke up, but now it felt like it did before. He considered saying something, bowing out, but the thought had barely crossed his mind before a portal opened in the centre of the warehouse and a figure stepped out. They were obscured by the glowing light and the waves from the portal, and everyone immediately adopted defensive stances.

"Savitar! I hope you don't mind, I brought some friends!" Barry called out.

"So did he," Queen Rhea said, stepping into the light.

"Mother?" Mon-El said, shocked, "No, you can't be here!"

"Yes I can, Mon-El. Your friend who created the portal didn't do a good enough job. All my soldiers had to do was reverse engineer it, and we followed your signature here. Within moments, Savitar found me and offered me a chance to get my son back, so of course I jumped at the opportunity."

"I'll die before I come back with you." He said defiantly.

"That can be arranged." She said darkly.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Kara said.

"Why not? He hurt you." Rhea said, savouring the taste of the nasty words on her tongue.

"No, you hurt me, it wasn't his fault."

"That's not what he thinks though, is it Mon-El? You know you hurt her – you know that you're no longer worthy of Supergirl's attention. You know that you're weak."

"No, he's not, he not weak." Kara crossed her arms.

"Yes he is. Weak like his father, and too fond of a pretty face," She turned to face her son, "Your little girlfriend took her torture with dignity, but you didn't, did you?"

"Shut up." Mon-El snapped, and everyone's eyes flicked between the three of them. Even Barry was hanging back just to see what happened, despite wanting to know where Savitar was, and why he wasn't there.

"Barely an hour you were in that cell with those guards and by the fifth minute you cowered like a child. I thought I had raised you better. Apparently I was wrong."

"She tortured you?" Kara looked to her boyfriend.

He shifted his weight anxiously, "I'm fine."

"What did she do to you?"

"I didn't do anything – he tried to escape and my guard acted accordingly."

"What did she do?" Kara's voice was sterner.

"The same thing she did to you, but with more beatings in between."

"What did she do?" She said, completely devoid of emotion.

"Between the blood machine torture sessions, Prince Humperdinck style? Mostly just being sliced, diced and stabbed… Occasionally being pummelled in the face for talking back. You know, standard torture stuff."

"What? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought you noticed in the cell, and then once we got out it didn't seem pertinent. It's not something I really wanted to think about."

"Mon-El." There was pity in her voice.

"I know, I know, I promised no more lying to you, I get it."

"No, that's not what I meant–"

"Oh, so your pretty little Kryptonian didn't know? I thought you loved her? What else haven't you told her?"

"Don't."

"Did you tell her you had a fiancé back on Daxam? Did you tell her that your brother and sister perished when the planet died? Did you tell her that the Kryptonians arrested you for assault on their planet?"

Kara couldn't say anything, she just looked at him with those damn interstellar eyes and he smiled mutedly, "No. I hadn't gotten around it yet. I thought I should bring home to the parents before I uncovered all the exes and family tragedy. And as for the arrest – I was at a bar, someone tried to drag a woman outside, I pulled him off. But because I was a Daxamite and we were on Krypton, I got arrested."

"Mon-El… You don't have to explain anything to me."

"But I want to, Kara," He said confidently, "I want you to…" He faltered slightly and put his hand to his head.

"Mon-El?"

"I'm fine."

"No, he's dying. And he's going to keep dying if you don't let me take him back." Rhea waved her arm nonchalantly.

"What did you do to him?"

"Lernaean lead."

Mon-El groaned and rolled his eyes angrily. Of course that's what it was. He stiffened as the pain crept into his arms; this was definitely not the way he'd planned for this week to go. Kara balled her hands into fists and J'onn looked furious. The blue light from the pulsating portal blazed across the faces of each person, all of whom looked upset, and also mildly confused.

"I thought we mined it to extinction?" Kara said.

"Not quite. Daxam had a small supply of our own, despite the interference by Kryptonians. We used it on our ship during the escape."

"What? What does that mean, learning lead?" Alex asked, before anyone else had a chance to.

"Lernaean lead – so named after the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology," J'onn explained, "It regenerates itself when it gets damaged – which is fantastic for ship repairs if you get stranded in space, but not so good when it's lodged in Mon-El's abdomen."

"So that's why I feel like I have the worst hangover in the world. Who knew?" Mon-El joked.

"You're coming with me Mon-El." Rhea commanded.

"I don't think so," He responded.

"Then you'll die." Rhea said coldly.

"You'd let your own son die just to prove a point?" Oliver barked.

"No, I'm letting him die because he's a traitor to the throne and Daxam."

"Where's the antidote?" Alex asked.

"Why on earth would I tell you that, human? I may be a mother, but I am no fool."

"Take me, let Mon-El go. Let him live here in peace and you can take me and kill me or torture me, I don't care, just… please… please don't hurt your own son." Kara suggested.

"Kara! What, no!? What are you doing?" Mon-El snapped.

"That is tempting." Rhea said, smiling viciously, pretending to think it over, "But I think I prefer my way." She stepped to the side and her soldiers started appeared through the portal, armed with their staffs and guns. The portal shrunk and disappeared behind them until the only light left in the warehouse was the fading sun outside. They formed a huge barricade behind their queen, weapons raised and drawn, and Rhea drew her own weapon: the kryptonite sword. The team adopted combat stances and moved forward as though to fight, but Mon-El wasn't going to let these people get hurt for him.

"ENOUGH." He bellowed and everyone froze, "I don't know how to appease you mother, but I do know how to stop you from getting what you want. And if what you want is me, then I have a solution for that. I'll just let myself die."

"Mon-El, no." Kara said.

"Why not, Kara? If it's the one thing that can stop her from achieving her goal, then why not?"

"Because…" I love you, "Because I won't let you. We will defeat your mother together, as a team, as a family, and I'm not going to stand by while you kill yourself."

"You and what army, Kara?" He rolled his eyes at her tiredly.

"I am an army, Mon-El." She drew herself up to her full height and glared at him.

"It doesn't matter anyway, I'm dead either way."

"Not if you come with me, son." Rhea said.

"Why do you even care, mother? If I don't come with you, you can rule the kingdom until you pass it on, and none of my pesky human rights can get in the way. What could you possibly want with me?"

"I love you, son."

"No, that's bull. Why are you really doing all this?" He paused, and glanced between the woman he loved and the woman who raised him.

"What is it?" Kara asked, but he barely heard.

"It's just to hurt Kara, isn't it?" He rounded on his mother, rage giving him strength despite the aching in his chest, "This whole big plan of yours was just a ruse to hurt Kara, because in your mind, she took me away, and she forced you to kill my father. Well I got news for you, Queen Rhea, but Kara didn't have anything to do with your decision to murder the King, and she didn't brainwash me or take me from you; I just finally got far enough away that I could see the whole picture, and I didn't like what I saw."

"You would be halfway home with us by now, if you hadn't met that… that…"

"Kryptonian?! Yeah, she IS, she is a Kryptonian, Mother! And doesn't that just KILL you inside? That I've met the love of my life, and it wasn't the fiancé you carefully picked out for me, but someone as different to your ideals as I could possibly have found, someone who makes me better just by association? I don't care what you do to me, Mother. You can go to hell. I certainly won't be following." The pain spread to his head and it started to swim uncomfortably.

"You'll die." Rhea warned, and a hint of her motherly instinct could be heard beneath the hard exterior; a tiny tinge of regret in her voice that gave her away, but she wanted to hurt them both too much, and she wouldn't let something pesky like her love for her son get in the way of her revenge.

"I'll die fighting." Mon-El panted.

"Very well. You've made your choice." The portal reappeared and a massive metal man walked out, glowing blue: he could only be Savitar.

"Wrong choice." Savitar said, and in a split second, everything went crazy.