No, it's not a time-skip or an alternate universe. Fair warning, this one gets a little trippy!
(I promise it makes sense by the end!)
Despite her solar-powered abilities, and her diminished need for sleep, Kara Zor-El could never be accused of being a morning person.
The light of Sol filters in through her bedroom window, waking her against her will. There's something of a tingling in her core, photons filtering in through her otherwise impregnable skin and kick-starting the biological processes that make her the strongest woman on Earth. She opens her eyes, the sun's rays trying and failing to burn the fiery orb into her retinas, and sighs – half in resentment at waking up so early, half in contentment at the life she's managed to carve out in this foreign world.
"Hey, you." –Lena says, somewhere behind her. "Welcome back to the world of the living."
Kara turns, a pleasant warmth coloring her ears and cheeks as she drinks in the beauty of her wife. Lena's sat on an armchair, clad only in her thin, gossamer night robe, the sunlight in the room hinting at the curves beneath. She's drinking tea and reading a book she can't make the title of without her glasses, adorned with strange, eye-like designs on its cover.
The blonde hums, turning in bed. "Ugh...I wouldn't say no to five more minutes in dreamland, to be honest." –she grouses. "How'd you sleep?"
"Well enough, considering I spent half the night editing that post-mortem on OsCorp's failed attempt at superhuman enhancement." –she shrugs. "I still cannot believe the crap Norman tried to pull."
Kara barely recalls the nonsense Osborn and his inner circle tried to pull, stopped by her fellow heroes right in its tracks before it could get any innocents hurt. "That doesn't sound too fun."
Lena nods. "Mmm. I do so love filing paperwork, but...not for something like this, no. I'm only glad we stopped this Centipede business before they ever tested their serum on humans."
A chime from the roof draws her attention. "Kara Zor-El, you have a diplomatic meeting in approximately fifty-seven Earth minutes. It is recommended you begin preparations for the day as soon as possible." –a monotone voice drones in Kryptonian.
Kara groans. "Thanks, Kelex." –she replies, rather insincere.
Lena raises an eyebrow. "I think I got...eighty percent of that, maybe?"
"Hey, I've had a translator for eight years and I still mess up English every now and then." –Kara shrugs. "Eighty percent for a language no one else on this planet speaks is pretty dang phenomenal."
"Still, not good enough for me." –Lena grumbles. "I'll never live down barely managing to stumble through our wedding vows after trying to memorize them for weeks."
Kara coos. "Aww, it was just nerves, love."
Lena puts down her book for the moment. "A Luthor? Nervous? Never." –she says, leaning forward. Kara blushes, the thin robe hiding exactly none of her wife's gorgeous body. "Now, shall I help you get ready, or must I summon one of Kelex's little drones to zap you out of bed?"
The Girl of Steel floats out of bed, sufficiently chided. She kisses Lena, morning breath complaints and all, and heads off to grab a shower, half hoping that her wife will join her. She doesn't, likely too enthused by the novel, so Kara instead focuses on the water's inviting warmth – almost too hot for human skin, but merely a cozy boon for her superhuman physiology. The past week has been rather intense; between her duties as Krypton's ambassador to Earth, and as a member of the Avengers, she's barely had a moment to herself, to the point that she's just now noticing a strange ache on her chest – probably a lingering blow from the last training match she had against Hulk and Thor.
It's...odd. A stinging sensation, like she's been freshly punched by a sufficiently powerful individual even though the latest blow she sustained in the area would've happened two days ago. It's right under where the symbol of her House would go, too; a quick examination shows no sign of injury on her torso, aside from that scar by her belly button she...can't quite recall getting.
A shiver runs through her spine. For some reason, and just for a moment, the whole bathroom smells overwhelmingly like blood. She shakes her head, as the sensation vanishes as quickly as it appeared; she hasn't bled at all since she stepped foot on Earth.
The rest of the shower goes on normally, and she gets dressed for the day, picking a rich, red and black Kryptonian robe adorned with metal bands on her shoulders and along her arms. A silver circlet around her forehead completes the look, inspired by uncle Jor-El's usual. She checks her phone to find a photo from aunt Lara of her young cousin Kal-El, wide-grinned and missing a front tooth. She smiles, fondly – and for some reason, wistfully – before heading downstairs to grab a bite and start the day.
One of Kelex's hovering robot servitors hands her a tray with orange juice, coffee, assorted chopped fruits, and a huge croissant filled with bacon, egg, and cheese. She floats over to the terrace outside, where Lena's already having her own – much leaner – breakfast. Her wife has donned a comfortable outfit, not expected to head into the office in the immediate aftermath of the Avengers' mission at OsCorp, the Department of Damage Control crews still hard at work at clearing the rubble and securing any contaminants. She's put down the novel for now, staring up at the sky above New York in well-worn disbelief.
"Still not used to it, huh?" –Kara prompts, sitting down at the outdoor table.
Lena hums, her eyes locked with the planet Krypton, dominating the horizon – the same distance away as the Moon but looking about five and a half times as large. "I know, it's been years; I'm sure children in a generation will feel nothing strange about our solar system's ninth planet." –she muses. "But having grown up with only the Moon for company...well, having a sister world will take some getting used to still."
"Tenth planet." –Kara corrects, reflexively.
"Ninth. Pluto's a dwarf planet, love." –Lena reminds her. "It no longer counts."
Kara crosses her arms. "Pluto meets the Kryptonian definition of a planet." –she pouts.
"All well and good, but do recall you're in our solar system now, my dear."
The blonde sighs into her orange juice. "Boy, are we ever." –she agrees. "I can't even imagine what humanity's first thoughts were when a planet half again as large as Earth suddenly popped into existence just two-hundred thousand miles away."
"Panic, for the most part. You would not believe how many people claimed that Planet X was finally going to crash with the Earth." –Lena says, deadpan. "Then confusion, as it became obvious the orbits in our solar system somehow weren't being affected by a whole damn extra planet."
"That's what happens when you turn an entire interstellar empire's economy into a new, artificial planet, a gravity manipulation engine, and a spatial translocation system in a desperate attempt to avoid extinction." –Kara shrugs.
Lena tilts her head. "Well, it certainly worked. And I know more than a few vocal individuals aren't entirely comfortable with the idea of sharing a solar system with your people, your father-in-law among them, but..." –she says, examining her wedding ring, a polished green stone on a simple silver band that suddenly makes Kara woozy, for no real reason she can identify. "Well, I'm not complaining."
"I'd hope not." –Kara says, sticking her tongue out and digging into her breakfast.
Half an hour of food and small talk later, Kara rises and heads back inside – giving the soft green glow of her homeworld's atmosphere a last glance with a sense of rather unbidden melancholy, considering she can book a shuttle back to Krypton without too much issue these days. She's hosting a diplomat at her home in just a few minutes, so she double checks for stray crumbs, brushes her teeth, and heads back out to await them.
"Kelex, who am I talking to again?" –she asks, checking her tablet for any relevant info.
"Apologies, Kara Zor-El. I have no data on your guest."
Kara's eyebrow raises. "Uh...how is that even possible? You're hooked up to my office's database."
"Your schedule may have been tampered with; the information on this meeting seems to have been deleted." –Kelex reports. "There is no record of any modifications, however."
The Kryptonian winces as a sharp stabbing pain manifests under the scar in her abdomen. She tries her best to ignore it, browsing through her tablet in an increasingly anxious attempt to find out who she's supposed to meet. It's strange; she's usually fairly confident about meeting with people, even if she's done little-to-no prep – a necessary skill when she might be fighting a supervillain one moment and talking to a delegate the next. For no real reason she can discern, this encounter is filling her with dread.
She shakes her head, trying to clear her mind. "It's fine, Kelex. Just let him in so I can get it over with."
...strange. Kelex didn't tell her the diplomat had arrived, let alone their gender. Sure enough, though, the doors open, and a sharply dressed tall man steps inside – maybe ten or fifteen years older than her, his wavy hair a shade of brown so dark that it's almost black, similar to his strangely unnerving eyes. His face is...familiar, but she can't quite place it. He wears a pristine business suit adorned with a circular lapel pin featuring an emblem in green, red, and black of what looks like a small isosceles triangle squeezed in between a couple of lightning bolt-like shapes facing each other. The symbol looks to her like some sort of strange, angry mask.
"Good morning." –she says, offering her hand. "I don't believe we've met – Kara Zor-El, Kryptonian Ambassador to Earth."
"Oh, we've met, in a fashion." –the man says, shaking her hand nonetheless. "But I can't exactly blame you for not recognizing me."
Kara tilts her head. "How so?"
He shrugs. "He created this form so we'd be able to hold a civilized conversation." –he says. "Subconscious to subconscious."
The man turns away from her, and walks towards the windows. For no reason she can discern, his steps sound heavy and metallic. "Fascinating reality you've built for yourself." –he says, his tone approaching praise as he stares up at Krypton. "A picture-perfect fusion of everything you hold dear; the woman you love, the home and family you lost, and of course, your work as Supergirl. I almost envy you."
"What are you talking about?" –she demands. "Who are you?"
He scoffs. "Please. You already know, Kryptonian." –he retorts, turning back to her. "But I suppose a sort of denial borne of trauma shrouds your eyes."
The man doesn't transform, but just for one second, they're somewhere else entirely – an ancient looking underground stone dwelling filled with computer equipment and other such strange machines hooked up to a somewhat opaque sarcophagus, occupied by a tall figure. Beside it, and behind the 'diplomat', stands another figure, which barely turns to acknowledge her before returning his attention to the monitors.
Kara pales; she recognizes, of course, the armored man in the cruel mask and rich green robes. "You stand before Victor von Doom, King of Latveria." –the man says, his horrid alter ego vanishing from view. "But that is him, and this is us. I am simply Victor – and we have much to discuss, Kara Zor-El."
While the Labyrinth survived the death of its creator, and a subsequent attempt at resurrection, Nico's not entirely sure it'll survive the mythical brawl unfolding around them.
It happened way too damn fast; before Dr. Banner could even begin to transform, a figure clad in silver armor and green robes burst forth from beneath the ground, intangible like Ellie and carrying some kind of horrible alien plant; he attached it to Kara's chest, which immediately rendered her unconscious somehow, like a puppet whose strings have been cut, and took her with him back down through the stone floor.
Hercules wasted no time, charging forth even as Kara was forcibly phased into the floor, attempting to smash Doctor Strange into paste, but the Hulk's gigantic arm caught the mace mid-swing, knocking all of them but the Norse god and the emerald giant back from the sheer pressure released. All hell broke loose after that; the masked magic users ran at them, wands, curved swords, and staves at the ready, and Hecate began to charge some sort of spell, forcing the heroes to defend themselves.
"This is nuts!" –Ellie shouts, barely turning intangible in time to avoid a chunk from a marble pillar, launched by the Roman god. She blasts an ecto-ray back at him, but one of the masked men hisses a word Nico can't parse at this distance, and a clear barrier suddenly blocks the searing beam, the energy flaring out and coloring the room neon green.
Between the mortuary masks and the fact that their magic makes his blood boil, he's pretty sure these are Egyptian magicians, like the Kane siblings. Nico doesn't know a lot about them, even having met the Kanes and Anubis' host; he knows they fight using some form of spoken magic, but that it's fairly limited without them becoming hosts to one of the Egyptian gods, as they use their own life force to fuel the magic otherwise. Hercules smashes through his own ally's barrier, barreling towards them, but Thor lands in his path, bringing down his divine hammer upon the Greek god's head.
Nico's no expert on Norse mythology, but he's pretty sure no one should be able to shrug off a blow from Thor's mighty weapon with only a grunt and a stumble.
Undeterred, Thor blasts the former demigod with lightning, but the son of Jupiter, while unable to control electricity himself, appears largely immune to the current; he takes it in stride, surging through the wildly flaring arcs and grabbing the Norse god's neck, lifting him up and driving him halfway into the ground, no intangibility required.
Hulk picks up the slack, tackling Hercules and driving him through several pillars as Thor recovers, shaking the bits of marble from his golden locks, looking excited about duking it out with this particular foe. One of the magicians shouts: "A'max!", and a torrent of flame bursts from the mouth of her mask, seeking to envelop the god in magical flame. Strange is quicker on the draw, though, transmuting a block of marble above the pair into water and letting it fall atop the flames, dousing them on the spot.
Thor looks a bit annoyed by the help, now dripping wet – he probably could've shrugged off the fire, after all. He nonchalantly throws his hammer, and Nico winces as it hits the magician's chest dead center and her sternum audibly fractures – she won't die from it, he's pretty sure, but that's a hell of an injury to recover from.
Another of the magicians pipes up. "Ha-di!" –he barks, looking at him. His blood boils, like full-body heartburn, warning him of the power snaking its way to him, so he dives out of the way, the spell exploding the stone behind him and pelting him with heated fragments. The magician prepares to shout again, but he suddenly sinks through the floor up to his mouth, courtesy of Ellie, who then splits in half and sends a couple of his fellow magic wielders flying with quick, superhuman punches.
Nico rushes to join her, but he glances at Hercules grabbing the Hulk's massive foot and using the jade giant's whole body to try and crush him; he tries to throw himself backwards, but Strange manages to put up a large, mandala-like shield atop him, which the Hulk is slammed against. Hulk roars, slapping Hercules away like he's a particularly annoying fly and using Strange's shield as platform to jump from, slamming his fists down on Hercules' chest just after he lands.
The whole Labyrinth seems to groan from the impact, dust and stone fragments exploding from the newly formed crater and falling from the ceiling. Concerningly, the walls separating the rooms and passageways around this temple-like structure begin to crumble, even partially collapsing in places – and Nico can feel as the magic within them starts to become erratic. Hercules, however, seems to take it in stride; he laughs, somewhere between joyful and cruel, and easily kicks the Hulk off of him. "Don't disappoint me now, mortal." –he says, dusting off his armor. "I hear your strength has no limits! The same has been said of my own; shall we prove the myths right?"
Hulk rises again – and to Nico, he looks even bigger and angrier than he did before. He takes a deep breath, and claps his hands.
Now, Nico's been in the presence of many gods and other such powerful creatures, but in his experience, it's very rare that any of them ever fight on a level beyond what mortals can reasonably achieve; there's exceptions, of course, such as their battle with Typhon during the modern Titanomachy, but the gods seem to prefer keeping it relatively low-key. The Hulk has no such self-imposed restraint; when his hands make contact, a pressure wave goes off like a gods-damned bomb, shattering support columns and walls alike, and blowing the closest Magicians away before they can protect each other.
The same fate almost befalls them, but Ellie manages to turn him and Strange intangible in time, letting the force and debris pass through them unharmed, while the Sorcerer Supreme motions with his hands at the crumbling ceiling, which becomes reinforced by amber magic like he used at the entrance to the Blind Pig.
Ellie shakes her head, the intangibility wearing off. "Man, I think he's gonna kill us before he kills Herc." –she mutters.
"Hercules is immortal, so you're objectively correct." –Nico concedes the point.
As if to prove his point, Hercules laughs off a few hits from the emerald berserker, each powerful enough to shake the room. "I'm more concerned about New York above." –Strange admits, blasting a couple of amber bolts from his hands that force a handful of magicians to summon those clear shields of theirs. Thor, out of nowhere, lands in their midst, lightning falling all around him, instantly downing two magic wielders and forcing the others to dive for cover – and out of reach of Mjolnir. Strange sighs at the violence. "The bones of the Labyrinth may be stronger than most any man-made structure, but even Daedalus' marvelous engineering has its limits."
Ellie snorts. "Do you always talk like you're in a fantasy novel?"
The largest of the magicians suddenly appears out of thin air right in front of them, yelling "Sun-ah!", then raising his curved blade at them. Nico manages to deflect the strike and its follow-up, then jabs quickly at the man's mask with his sword's pommel, which breaks it and sends him stumbling back. Bitter, he prepares to end the man's life with a thrust at his gut, but he grins a bloody smirk. "Heh-sieh!" –he hisses, and Nico finds his sword pulled forward and then making a U-turn, headed straight at Ellie. The half-ghost heroine gasps, trying to turn intangible in time, but Nico can tell she won't succeed; fortunately, a small portal opens and the Stygian Iron sword goes through...
...straight into Hercules' back.
The god howls in pain, and Nico instinctively pulls the blade away as the portal closes. The golden ichor coating half the sword is consumed quickly – Nico can almost feel his weapon's ravenous hunger for more. The momentary lull in the action doesn't last long; Hercules turns towards him, enraged, and all but bitch-slaps the Hulk away.
"Oh, Styx." –Nico swears, as the son of Jupiter charges. He prepares to dodge, but Strange opens a portal just in time, just in front of him and behind him, so Hercules passes like a speeding freight train, tackling the bulky magician that caused all this and sending him flying with a sickening crunch.
Hercules turns and tries to bring down his mace in an overhead arc, but Mjolnir comes in and sweeps him off his feet, just enough that Nico avoids imminent death yet again. "Oh, he's pissed at you." –Ellie smirks. As if to illustrate her point, Hercules gets tackled by the Hulk as he glares at Nico – the Roman god manages to toss Hulk away, trying to single-mindedly charge at him again. Ellie grabs him by the neck of his cuirass and flies him up with ease, which prompts Hercules to leap and try to grab them, only for Ellie to turn them intangible and let the former demigod pass through and into Thor's awaiting hammer swing.
Nico takes a hand to his chest as his heart beats a mile a minute. "You say that like it's a good thing to have a god wanting to kill you." –he grouses, as Ellie lets him back down on the ground.
"It might just be." –Strange says, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course it is! Look at him, he's like a bull!" –Ellie says, nodding at Hercules, who barely fends off a couple of hammer swings from Thor before setting his rage-filled, bloodshot eyes on Nico again.
"I don't particularly feel like playing the part of a bright red cape." –Nico says, sarcastically.
"You may not have to do it for much longer." –Strange tells him. He blasts a purple bolt at an approaching magician, and her staff suddenly becomes too heavy to lift, pulling her down to the ground and trapping her hands underneath. "Keep him busy, and I'll prepare the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak."
This one Nico does know about, from what little he's studied of Strange's brand of magic. Ellie doesn't, so she snorts. "Your magic has such goofy names, Doc."
"It does." –Nico agrees. The spells sound like off-brand Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to him. "But I get where he's going with it – the Bands are a restraint so powerful that even a god would be unable to escape them, at least for a while."
Strange forms a bubble of interlacing concentric circles around him, sitting cross-legged in mid-air as he prepares to cast the powerful spell. "How many pharaoh dudes do we have left?" –Ellie asks.
"Five." –Nico says, his battlefield awareness as sharp as ever. Then, one of the magicians attempts to stab the Hulk with one of those curved bronze blades, failing to even scratch the giant's skin, and gets flicked by the annoyed superhero across the ruined room for his trouble. "...make that four." –he says, darkly amused.
Ellie splits herself into two clones again. "Not sure how long we'll be able to hold them off by ourselves." –she warns Nico.
"Don't worry. There are many benefits to being the Prince of the Underworld." –he says, as lightning flares between Thor and Hercules, their respective weapons clashing. He thrusts his blade into the cracks between the marble, the white in his eyes turning black and his irises glowing purple. Skeletal hands burst through the soil, bones knitted together by dark, necromantic energy, and a dozen skeleton warriors in armor from various eras and cultures climb out of the temporary link between the Underworld and Daedalus' Labyrinth. Two dozen empty eye sockets stare at him, expectantly. "I think we can stick it out for a while."
"What the hell did you do?" –Kara grinds out, her eyes gaining the inner glow of her heat vision.
"So you do acknowledge reality." –Victor reposes, with the tone of a scientist jotting down notes on bacteria observed through the microscope. "We were beginning to doubt it."
Kara narrows her eyes, holding her temples. Her mind is split in twain at the moment, scenes from two very different lives alternately flashing before her eyes, each so real she can't discern if they actually happened or not, but so different that some must be fake – thrown from kissing her wife at the altar to getting slapped by Lena in a college dorm room, from that first wondrous flight from Krypton to Earth to looking back as her homeworld dies a fiery, explosive death.
She does know something for sure, however: Victor von Doom is her enemy, whatever he chooses to look like. "Doctor Doom." –she spits out. "I...I remember you."
"I see he's already earned the name. Much faster than usual, as expected of this particular iteration." –he says, raising an eyebrow. "The moniker is misaimed, however. I am not nearly all that is Victor von Doom; the man you've met is rather busy at the moment; as a distilled mental construct of his knowledge and personality, as he was before ever donning the mask, I am to entertain you for a time. As I said, there's much to discuss – I'm sure you'll find me much more personable than the real person."
A nearby glass pane cracks, and hairline fractures trace themselves all over her ceiling – all around Victor, in particular. "What are you doing?" –Kara demands.
Victor shrugs. "Testing the strength of this simulacrum. We've never seen its like before: a perfect mental simulation of a person's idealized version of reality, without the need for any technological, magical, or psychic means to project it. This is biochemistry, pure and simple." –he explains. He walks up to her, and takes the tablet she hadn't noticed she'd dropped between his hands, examining it like a jeweler might a gemstone. "Perfectly solid. Remarkable."
"Quit it with the damn cryptic stuff." –Kara says, morose. "What are you saying? What do you want?"
"I'm saying this isn't your reality, Kara Zor-El." –he says, walking up to the cracked window and staring up at Krypton. "In more ways than one, at that. But let's focus on the immediate." –he says, pointing at her chest.
Kara gasps, as her torso is suddenly wrapped in what she can only describe as a mutant, tentacled rose bush, black and purple in color, its thorny vines encircling her chest, neck, and arms. "This is..." –she says, some semblance of recognition trying to put the word on the tip of her tongue. "It's..."
"A Black Mercy, yes." –Victor nods. "Krypton's preferred method of executing its most heinous criminals. I'm not surprised you remember it: your aunt and uncle were offered this sentence for their crimes, but refused it in favor of eternal imprisonment in the Phantom Zone."
The blonde is barely listening to him; she grabs and tries to pry the Black Mercy off, but a piercing pain in her chest almost makes her black out on the spot. "That would be ill-advised." –Victor warns. "Forcibly removing a Black Mercy, physically or mentally, will kill its host on the spot – no matter how bulletproof she might otherwise be."
Reluctantly, Kara lets the plant go – this fact, she does remember. "Why put it on me? And how did you get one in the first place?"
Victor hums. "It's something of a fascinating dichotomy, isn't it?" –he says, clearly ignoring her. "Execution without death; the plant will sustain its host for the remainder of their natural life, feeding on their hopes and dreams in a macabre mockery of a symbiotic relationship. Krypton's Science Council found this punishment merciful, hence the name, but we consider it rather cruel."
Kara grunts, conflicting images of Astra and Non being banished to the Phantom Zone and peacefully leading an ecological movement in present-day Krypton competing for her attention. "Because it gives you false memories?" –she manages, if only to buy time for her to figure her thoughts out.
"Bleeding heart that you have, your answer does not surprise me. No, we think it's cruel for the rest of us, because it exposes our own reality for how thin and fragile it truly is." –he says. "I should know; I've traveled to many of them, and not a single one feels any more or less real than this world you've unintentionally concocted."
The blonde winces. "You're not making any sense."
Victor sighs, somewhat disappointed in her. "If we never interfered, and you were allowed to continue on with this illusion, you would not be able to realize that this world is merely a neuro-chemically boosted figment of your imagination. You eat, you sleep, you breathe, and love, and you have done so, as far as you can tell, your entire life – the fake years spent on this idyllic false world included." –he explains. "Is that not what humans do, just one layer of reality up from this one? You've even managed to preserve your work as Supergirl in a world that should never have prompted it, a world where you are not nearly the last daughter of Krypton."
The tears come in spite of her, as half of her memories start to slot in, one after another – Krypton's destruction, the trip through the Phantom Zone, crashing on Earth and growing up a Danvers; befriending Winn, falling in love with Lena, working at the Bugle, the Chitauri invasion, taking on the mantle of Supergirl, and becoming an Avenger.
Realizing the truth, of course, means that the fake memories start to become more apparent.
She's no diplomat on behalf of her people.
She's not even in a formal relationship with Lena, let alone married.
And of course, Krypton – the world, her whole species, and her family – is gone.
"Is this not an equally valid form of living, then?" –Victor muses, uncaring of her ongoing crisis. "Perhaps even preferable, as you have some built-in measure of control over this ephemeral universe, however subconscious?"
"What do you even want from me, you bastard?" –Kara spits out. "Do you actually expect me to engage with your twisted little questions, or do you just enjoy torturing me?"
Victor shakes his head. "We take no pleasure in causing you suffering, Kara. But, as the King told you, these are necessary steps in the journey laid before you."
Kara scowls. "You were vague about it before, and then you stabbed me." –she says, caustically. "For your sake, I hope that this stupid little nightmare scenario you've placed me in isn't your whole argument for getting me on your side."
"So dramatic." –Victor says, deadpan, like he's one to speak. "You are on our side regardless of what choices you make, Supergirl. Answer the question, and we will see if you deserve to understand the full measure of your circumstances."
She sighs. Victor is insufferable – she almost misses the cruel, no-nonsense man in the armor – but this at least seems like a way forward. Kara tries her best to parse through what the man – projection, construct, or whatever – has said so far. He claims this existence he's ruined is equally as valid as their own reality, provided no one had interfered with it. The fact that she couldn't tell her memories apart without his 'help' supports this argument, of course, but now that she does, she realizes how senselessly idyllic this fake life has been. Every problem smoothed over, every triumph emphasized – real life just isn't like that, no matter how much she wishes some of these fake events were true.
"Maybe it's valid in its own way." –she says, voice strained by her splitting headache and the tightly wound alien plant around her torso. "But I think a reality that revolves around you like that, that only exists to benefit you at the expense of everyone else..." –she trails off, shaking her head. "You say that maybe it's the same, but I don't even know the full details of my own wife's life; does this Lena even exist when I'm not looking at her? Does the city, the planet? Does this world exist when I'm asleep?"
"It exists within your awareness." –Victor supplies. "But the rest of this simulated universe is not a simple void. It fills out around you, whatever it is that you choose to focus on. You have visited this version of Krypton in the past, in the memories supplied by the Black Mercy; should we go there right now, we would find it as you'd expect it to be, updated accordingly."
"But it wouldn't be real." –Kara argues. "We both know that all that's left of Krypton is the radioactive rock you stabbed me with."
"Now that you're aware of the illusion, yes." –Victor concedes. "But I could easily wipe out the memory of this encounter. Obliterate the trauma we doubtless caused you, the very concept of Kryptonite from your mind. We could leave you to this existence, to a Krypton that continues on, in some measure – if you chose it for yourself, of course."
"So you're tempting me." –she sneers. "That's all this is."
Victor smirks. "Your answer, Supergirl?"
Kara shakes her head. It barely takes a moment of deliberation. "No. I don't want this." –she says, the vines loosening slowly but surely. "As much as I'd like to hug my parents one more time, to wake up in the morning to my wife's loving smile – to look up in the sky and see my homeworld, even more beautiful than I remember..." –she trails off, half of the vines becoming slack and withered. "Give me my truth. Give me the friends and family I've made, despite everything the world's taken from me, and the prospect of a love I've earned, not a fairy tale I've been handed."
"We will give you no such thing." –Victor says, sternly, before nodding sagely, in what seems to be approval. "But you are certainly welcome to take it for yourself."
Victor fades away, leaving her alone with her choice. The Black Mercy is nearly detached, by now, but Kara can tell that it could just as easily latch on again, if she changed her mind. She gives her fake home one last, sorrowful look – and feels the gaze of her false wife on the back of her head, tempting her one last time – and rips the plant off her chest.
Kara gives a pained shout, shooting upright on what seems to be a hospital bed. Looking down, the Black Mercy seems to be wilting before her eyes – not wanting to take any chances, she hurriedly slaps it away, which sends it flying into a nearby wall, splattering into dark goo and withered plant matter.
She sighs in sorrow and relief. The Black Mercy is no more.
The Girl of Steel examines her surroundings; she's still in the Labyrinth, judging by the architecture, but this place is clearly one of Doom's bases, considering all the tech and strange machines arranged around the sizable room. Doom himself – the real one, she assumes – stands where she expected him to be, working at a computer bank hooked up to a sarcophagus-looking contraption. Behind it all, a massive, hourglass shaped device, maybe three stories tall and hooked up to the ceiling, is connected to the coffin thing; instead of sand, the machine contains blindingly bright energy, which coalesces into a miniature singularity where the narrow pass for the sand on a regular hourglass would be. The energy flows up, and directly out of the sarcophagus' occupant – a tall, olive-skinned woman looking no older than her mid-thirties and dressed in some kind of futuristic Greek-inspired garb, unconscious but clearly pained by the process.
Kara tries to fly up and rip the lid on the coffin open, but she only succeeds in stumbling out of bed and onto her knees. Doom turns, finally acknowledging her. "You will find your strength lacking for some time." –the man cautions, his tone back to the cold, remorseless one from before, filtered through the hideous mask.
"Hiding behind Kryptonite again?" –Kara taunts, struggling to pull herself up by grabbing onto the bedframe.
The man's eyes narrow. "Doom has no need for such supplements; Kryptonite was merely used to make a statement. Your fatigue is borne of the Black Mercy's effect." –he says. "You impress, Kara Zor-El; not many sapients have the strength of will to reject the paradise offered."
"Maybe I would've taken it if it'd been offered by anyone but you." –she says, sarcastically. She can feel her strength building, but she's not yet ready to charge.
"You would not. You wouldn't be yourself." –the man says, matter-of-fact.
She scoffs. "Don't pretend to know me." –she spits out. "You have no idea what I've gone through, even if you took a trip into my psyche."
"Doom pretends nothing. You are a known quantity because you've been monitored during your stay on this planet, and the trials you've survived so far only prove the hypotheses rendered from such observations." –he explains.
"I told you already: quit it with the cryptic bullshit." –Kara warns. "Tell me what you want, so I can tell you to go screw yourself and beat the crap out of you, already."
Doom hums, perhaps slightly amused. "You are welcome to try. But you were promised an explanation for choosing correctly, and Doom honors his word, subconscious or otherwise."
He turns around, and starts to manipulate some holograms projected from his computer. It's the perfect time to strike, her strength seemingly back to normal, but...well, she does want to know what the hell he's on about. In the interest of figuring out how best to stop the madman, she stays her hand.
The hologram projects a black void all around them, obscuring everything but the two of them. He motions with his hand for her to join him, and reluctantly, she does. Between them, a perfect projection of the Earth appears. "You are aware that you're foreign to the planet Earth; a refugee from the dead planet Krypton, destroyed in a cataclysmic seismic event." –he says. Mercifully, though the hologram displays Krypton beside Earth, it's not shown exploding.
"Congratulations, you know about as much about me as S.H.I.E.L.D. does." –she says, caustically.
Doom continues on, like she didn't speak at all. "You travelled here through the Phantom Zone, and crashed on Earth after an indeterminate amount of time spent inside that temporally challenged dimension. You have spent the past eight years making a life for yourself here, which has led you on the path of becoming Supergirl."
"We are officially caught up, and you haven't made any more sense than before. Running out of reasons to care about what you have to say."
"The blunt approach, then." –Doom retorts. "For the past eight years, you have been under the impression that your journey was merely astronomical, a voyage through a glorified wormhole from point A to point B in the same universe." –he says. "When, in fact, it was inter-dimensional."
Krypton vanishes, and the hologram zooms out from Earth, the solar system, and the Milky Way, into what she can only imagine is the entirety of the universe – a dark, swirling mass of light, each dot a galaxy in its own right, each galaxy filled to the brim with billions of stars, and likely trillions of sapient beings. A label above it reads 'Earth-199999'. "This is our universe, merely one of an untold number of alternate realities within that which we call the Multiverse..."
Earth is then cloned, but...not, somehow; the major landmasses appear largely identical, but she can spot at least a few differences; slightly different country shapes, new islands, or outright missing ones. Above the new planet, another label appears. "...and this, Kara Zor-El, is yours." –Doom says.
The words glare back at her, as if daring her to deny it. Something shivers in her core, like she's staring at forbidden knowledge, but it also clicks immediately – a similar feeling wonder and foreboding to the one you might get when fully realizing that a singularity of random factors in sequence have rendered you into a living, breathing being, existing at a certain point in time and surrounded by similar miracles of life, somehow arranged into a functioning society. She knows, at once, that Doom isn't lying – she really isn't from around here, in many more ways than just being the last daughter of Krypton.
The label reads 'Earth-16'.
Eyyy I'm so very excited to finally get here! With this chapter, we've officially caught up with everything I wanted to include in some way from the original version of this story! After this, we're in uncharted waters (for you, not for me of course), and we can almost start barreling towards the finale of this first arc.
...maybe we can get to the end of the story sometime before 2050! :P
Judging by the reviews, I imagine some of you expected the fight to be the focal point of this chapter, but as longtime readers know, I don't consider myself very good at writing battle scenes. More to the point, Kara's psychological journey and confrontation with Doom always was meant to be the meat and potatoes of this arc - since, y'know, it's her fic at the end of the day. Still, I tried my best to write this first half of the fight as well as possible, and I hope it was enjoyable enough!
Anyway, some trivia for y'all, since I had the time for it while editing the chapter:
• I'm so enamored with the idea that things like water that's way too hot for humans and staring at the sun for too long just...wouldn't affect Supergirl at all
• The book Lena is reading is Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception". Don't read too much into it, I've never read the book myself and only picked it because it was recommended as a trippy book on a quick google search. It's just meant to represent that Kara's in for a weird time in this scenario
• I know Kelex is a robot, but the idea here is that Kara's subconscious combined Kelex and JARVIS into one entity that can control robot servitors. Keep this in mind for later!
• Kara only wore a translator for a year, during which she learned English. She hates how unreliable translators can be for human slang
• Given that Kara's only 20, she would've married Lena super young at 18 in this reality. Not to deride people who marry young for whatever reason, but Kara wouldn't – this is meant to illustrate that the Black Mercy illusion cuts a lot of corners that verge on out-of-character behavior to fit the host's ideal world. This also goes for Krypton hanging out in the sky, the Black Mercy handwaving away the catastrophic consequences such a cosmic event would have
• The small breaks in reality – like smelling blood in the shower, for example – are due to Victor's influence; if he hadn't invaded Kara's subconscious, she really wouldn't have ever noticed this was an illusion
• Planet X is not a reference to Groot's homeworld, but rather the Nibiru conspiracy theory, which I personally find hilarious
• Victor is supposed to reflect Doom as he was before everything that made him the man he is now – arrogant, insufferably smug at times, brilliant, charming, and ultimately, not too concerned with anyone else but himself. It's a part of Doom's subconscious that he's willfully buried after everything that happened to him, making him the remorseless supervillain with good intentions he is today. If you find him wildly out of character, that's the intent! This is the Victor von Doom that the world outside Latveria knows, kinda like a more twisted version of the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Batman's identities
• Being super honest, I can't remember if the hieroglyphs in Egyptian magic visibly appear, but the headcanon here is that Nico can't see them as a Greek demigod and our secondary POV this chapter
• I didn't forget that Hecate is casting some magic in the background, don't worry. Next chapter you'll see what's going on!
• The PJO wiki seems to imply that Stygian Iron could kill a god, but that's not the case here. Nico couldn't kill Hercules even if he left the sword in place, though he could weaken his physical form enough to defeat him
• Hercules is stronger than Thor as he is now. Remember Thor has a lot of power he doesn't know he has, though! He's also stronger than baseline Hulk, but also recall that the Hulk's potential strength is infinite. I think Herc would be evenly matched with Kara, if they ever fought
• I'll also explain the reason these magicians have aligned with Doom later! Promise I didn't forget!
• Everything Victor and Doctor Doom say is true in some way or another. I don't think of Doom as a liar. Also, I kinda hate writing around Doom's tendency to speak in third person, but that's the character, it is what it is
• Yes, it's *that* Earth-16. Details to come next chapter, but feel free to ask if you want!
I hope you enjoyed! I certainly did. Gonna take a little while to build the next chapter, but it's gonna have a ton of answers! I hope you look forward to that. Leave a comment/review if you'd like, or an ask over at Tumblr (darthkvznblogs). Until next time!