Deception was one of the elements that was needed as a skill to make survival necessary. People tended to rely on what they believed rather than what they saw and what they heard. Of course, senses could be fooled and that was one of the rules of the Phantom Zone. Expect the unexpected and believe only half of what you see and even then still question it.
They did not know what was going to happen with them until the stepped out of the unknown and took their journey into mystery. The assembled group stood in their disguises, as flimsy and paper thin as they would be but that was the only thing that was keeping the Dementors from attacking them sight unseen. There was magic on the robes that prevented the creatures from jumping in for the attack but their hearts hammered on their chests never the less.
"Is this going to work?"
Harry smiled a little bit, this question was asked but it was hard to give a crystal clear answer. The dark haired wizard placed his hands on his hips when Lois asked the question. To be perfectly honest, it was a question that he considered a lot. The robes were one thing but was there enough of the Dementor aura still on them to fool the monsters?
Kara decided to answer the question for them. "It better work because we're running out of options."
They hoped that they could get out but they needed a plan to herd the Dementors away. The group stood in the distance, the fog kicked up.
"How could you even stand this?" Clark wondered but a smile crossed Harry's face when he looked over his shoulder back at him. He offered one answer in a tone that was curt and crisp.
"You get used to it after a while."
The fact of the matter was that Harry needed to get used to it, otherwise he was going to suffer more than he could ever imagine. He would not want to say that he built up immunity from Dementors because no one could be completely immune to them. Even those who suffered from them the most, they would still feel the chill. The most hardened prisoners cowered in fear.
"How do you get used to it….you must be some kind of glutton for punishment."
Harry thought that this was an accurate statement from Lois and he felt Kara's hand clasp his, squeezing him with a fury that could break every bone in his hand if he was a normal human. He did not bother to correct it; the two of them knew that until the end they were in this together. Lois needed to get sent out first due to her lack of powers. Clark would be next out, and then it would be Kara's turn. Harry would need to stay behind to destroy the exit portal but he was not going to tell Kara this.
They would all be safe and he would remain here.
A part of him wanted to be selfish and be with Kara forever, just so he would have someone to talk to when he was in the Phantom Zone. It was rather boring to be here for his entire life where all of these people attacked him and tried to spill his blood. Although all of these attacks would break up the monotony to say the very least, that was one thing that he could not deny. Still Harry wished….he wished for something more than what he experienced. Even though he knew it was never going to happen.
The life of a young wizard could be a rather lonely one. The dark haired green eyed wizard stood when they approached the cave. He led the way a little bit, being the one who could create the Dementor killing Patronus, he had to be the one to lead the charge. Kara followed behind him, with Lois and Clark beside each other.
Kara stepped beside Harry before she spoke to him in an undertone.
"I know what you're going to do."
Harry raised an eyebrow before he looked at the blonde beside him. "I beg your pardon."
"I know what you're going to do and I won't let you do it."
That was a statement that could lead to a lot of problems between the two of them. Especially given that any argument that they might have would gravely undermine their ability to work together. Kara grabbed Harry's hand tightly, squeezing it, her grip was strong. Yet her hand was soft.
"Before, I forget, these should held shield you slightly, at least from the worst of it," Harry stated handing Lois and Clark amulets. Although he did know that Clark's would restore his powers in time like Kara's did for her.
"Can you get any tackier?" Lois asked when she looked at the design but reluctantly put on the amulet never the less.
Harry turned to her, cocking an eyebrow up. He knew her quips were a defensive mechanism to hide the fact that she was terrified about the entire situation. "Would you prefer to get your soul sucked out?"
Lois clammed up immediately, with a smile crossing her face, and a pained one. She never wanted that, even if a soul was such an abstract concept. "I….no of course not."
Harry's smile remained rather calm before he placed his hands on his hips and he put an ear out to the ground. Kara put an ear out, before she closed her eyes and thought about everything that went on around her. The blonde placed hands on her hips and she craned her neck a little bit.
"They're….I almost hear them," Kara stated when she looked at the group. "I….can kind of understand them."
Clark's expression turned to his cousin's and he was completely confused. "What do you mean you can hear them?"
"I mean that….they're talking, they're using words, they have their own language," Kara whispered when she made sure that the cloak and the hood was fastened so her face was obscured.
Harry thought that such a beautiful face should not be hidden with a hood but he turned his head a little bit when he turned to explain the concept of Dementors having their own language to Clark.
"They do have a language of their own, no human ear has been able to figure it out. It took me years and years of picking up on patterns before I was able to figure out what any of them were saying. It's hard to translate something like that but they have a culture and a language all of them own."
"Fascinating," Lois responded in a dry voice when she looked at Harry.
"It kind of is," Harry responded when he placed his hand on the outside of the cave and he felt the shimmering coldness underneath his fingers. It caused his finger tips to ice over. "These are temperatures that aren't meant to be walked in by human beings, it's like sinking into ice. The robes should protect you, longer than they should, at least."
Harry hoped at least but they were heading into uncharted territory, with the green eyed wizard pressing his hands on him. He closed his eyes when he ran his hands through his air. There would come a time where they had to walk through.
Kara tapped Harry on the elbow which caused him to spin around a bit jumpy. "So…."
"We're ready," Harry responded when he took a step towards the cave, feeling his knee to buckle a little bit. The coldness did not hit him all that hard which he felt pleased at. He crossed his arms and motioned for Kara.
The Dementors surrounded the pedestal, there were hundreds there. Harry tried to keep his mind blank of all emotion, helping Kara, Clark, and Lois keep their minds shielded why he could .It was hard to suppress all human emotion for even if a bit of it seeped through, the Dementors would jump on it like a dog on a bone.
They were close, Harry could see it at the end of the cave, the walls iced over and he felt a slight chill. He tried to keep his mind focused, he would need to blast them, block them, and send the others through the portal.
There was so much that could go wrong with something like this, so much indeed and Harry stepped forward a little bit .He heard the cold rattling breaths of the Dementors and the chatter that they did. He barely listened to what they were really said, they crossed the barrier and Harry prepared himself for the battle, his fingers numb.
Clark sneezed.
That was the worst possible thing that they could do and he was almost to the portal.
One of the Dementors at the head of the line grabbed Clark's robes before he grabbed him and pushed the robe head back.
'The Son of Jor-El.'
Zod's head snapped up, Harry and Kara could tell that it was him because his wraith bonded with the biggest and most powerful Dementor there. He turned his head forward and stared down his enemies with sadistic intentions. Even if his face could not be seen, they could tell the cold chill.
'It's time to move,' Harry thought to himself when he clutched his hand and felt the numbness in the palm of his hand but he spun it around before he caused a bright light to appear in the cave and cause the Dementors to recoil in horror.
"It's the Accursed One!"
This rattling breath could be heard when the Dementors turned around and advanced upon Harry, which was what he wanted. He met Kara's gaze and he knew that this could be the end, but he could go down.
"You want me, I'm here!" Harry yelled when he blasted several of the Dementors with a bright light, the Patronus Charm filled them with power and caused them to combust in power.
The power filled the Dementors when Harry backed off a little bit, half of a step, maybe more than a half of a step. He could not truly leave until the vast majority of the Dementors were away. He could see that Kara, Clark, and Lois were affected to varying degrees. He could not protect them forever; he wanted to protect them long enough so they could get out of this hell.
"Attack me if you dare!" Harry yelled when he waved his hand, shaking it and he motioned for the Dementors to go after him. The dark haired wizard invited them to go forward and Harry turned around, looking over his shoulder. "Come on Lord Zed, take your best shot!"
He bolted from the caves, with hundreds of Dementors chasing him, most of them drawn away from the cave.
There was one Dementor that remained standing tall and did not follow Harry. He knew that if the accursed one died, he died, but he had far bigger fish to fry, as the human saying went.
Clark walked forward, a frigid feeling going through his fingers but he stood tall. He had a stronger will than he thought, at least he hoped, he had to do this.
"The Son of Jor-El shows himself," Zod responded when he looked at him. "I'm sure you thought of me to trapped without a hope. But once these Dementors were sent through, it broke the bindings that held me and I was set free to roam as I pleased in the Phantom Zone. I bonded with the Alpha Dementor and you see what I am before you. And it will be the last sensation that you will ever see."
Clark understood every word that left Zod's mouth with picture perfect clarity. His ears were not damaged, in fact his hearing was stronger than ever before. Perhaps that would be something that would make all of the difference in the world, perhaps not.
"That still doesn't stop us from leaving here, Zod," Clark answered but the General offered his next statement in a booming declaration.
"I do not wish to stop you Kal-El, rather I wish you to use that blood of yours to open the gateway and set me free."
"What's a Kal-El?" Lois wondered, the longer she stood here in the Phantom Zone, the less she understood. She was still chalking this up to some weird hallucination where she would end up back in bed and pretend that none of this ever happened.
Two of the Dementors that stayed behind grabbed Lois and held her.
"Either activate the gateway ,or this one loses something very important to her," Zod responded, when a third hovered over Lois, his hood about to drop and his mouth a few inches away from hers.
Clark knew better, he knew that once he gave Zod what he wanted, all of their lives were forfeit. He was the type of person who would destroy everyone in his path and killed each and every one of them. The Son of Jor-El stood up straight and proud, his hands feeling the chill but he stood forward.
"He won't let Lois leave, you know that right," Kara whispered to him so only Clark's super hearing could pick up what she was saying.
Clark understood.
"First I wish you to kneel and this time there will be no tricks," Zod responded when he peered down at Clark from underneath the hood. As it turned out, Clark's knees buckling ensured that he had little choice in the matter. "That's it Kal-El, before me, on your knees. Come before me son of Jor-El, kneel before Zod!"
"You know, having an obsession with having other men on their knees before you….well that could be a sign of something," Lois offered when she inclined her head a little bit but she felt the cold fingers of these Dementors clasp around her. "But hey, it's a new time so tolerance…."
Lois shut up immediately when the Dementors closed into her closer and felt their cold rattling breath on her face.
'Tact, learn it,' Kara thought to herself when she shook her head at Lois and Clark kneeled.
She knew that Zod would kill Clark and then use his blood to open up the portal, likely taking her down in the process as well. Kara recalled everything that Harry taught her in these fast few weeks. She ran over all of the lessons through her mind, in painstaking detail.
Would it be enough to take down Zod and his followers?
Likely it would not be but at the same time it would be enough for Kara to delay them long enough to allow Lois and Clark to get out of here. At least that's what she hoped. She had to try, the fate of her bloodline hinged on her success or lack thereof. Her and Kal-El were the last two of a dying race, she had to….she had to fight.
Kara closed her eyes and summoned all of the power to her, before she blasted the two Dementors that held Lois with a Patronus Charm. Granted it was not as strong as Harry's was but it did chase them off and allow her to yank Lois out of their clutches in one fell swoop. The third Dementor went down and then Kara bolted towards Zod, before she did what she could to hold him at bay.
She struggled, fiercely looking at him, biting down on her lip. She nearly drew blood from biting down on her lip so hard, her knees knocked together when she tingled. She felt a burning sensation fill through her spine but she refused to go down. Even if a painful sensation filled the pit of her stomach, she had to try and she had to fight. The blonde clenched her fist together, teeth chattering when she looked forward.
"CLARK GO!"
Kara yelled this statement with intensity and a fierce spirit but Clark paused, hesitating at these words. The urgency echoed through them when she continued to speak.
"Cut yourself on the stone, it will release you from the Phantom Zone, but hurry, I don't know….I don't know how much longer I can hold him back!" Kara yelled when she bit down on her lip.
Clark stopped and paused.
"If you don't want to save yourself, you need to save Lois!"
Kara struggled, her eyes becoming bloodshot and her hands shook when she pushed her enemy back, her knees shaking and knocking together, frustration mounting in the back of her head. The blonde shook her head a little bit when she felt a twisting sensation in her stomach.
"Kara, I'm not leaving you behind."
"I'll always be with you Clark, where it counts even if I'm there but you got to go now!" Kara yelled when she pushed Zod into the wall and tried to seal him inside, using an overlapping Patronus charm.
Clark reached his hand and did as Kara asked, scraped his hand across the edge of the pedestal. He grabbed Lois and they hung on, before they disappeared into a flash of light.
They were gone and Zod busted out but the portal could still be activated before Clark's blood completely dried.
Kara turned her head and aimed her heat vision, before she destroyed the pedestal to turn it into dust with one expert attack. She could tell that Zod became horrified by the fact that she destroyed his ticket out of there and hers out of there. The dust particles dropped to the ground completely useless but with the satisfaction that Lois and Clark were safe again.
"Do you realize what you've done?"
Zod hissed this statement.
"Yes, I do,' Kara responded, feeling better that Clark and Lois were safely out of the Phantom Zone and back on Earth. She was pretty sure that nothing followed them through, at least they were.
Zod advanced on Kara, intent to kill her.
Another blur shot into the cave, returning and knocked Zod hard into the wall. A blinding white lot nailed Zod with all of the fury that he could.
A bloody and battered Harry Potter returned to the caves and Kara watched him, when he engaged Zod in battle.
"You will kneel," Zod breathed.
"I don't think so, Zed," Harry responded with intensity flashing in his emerald orbs when he shook his head, a smile crossing his face.
"ZOD!"
Harry shrugged his shoulders, he didn't really care about the claims of self-important Generals or feed their egos. The fact of the matter was that Zod tried to take a shot at someone that he intended to protect. Perhaps that was just Harry but he did not take that too kindly. Now he was going to have to pay.
The blonde watched Harry, she could tell that he seen better days but he refused to go down. That type of valor was encouraging and kind of frustrating to be honest. She wished that he would allow himself more concern about his own health, but she supposed that could not be helped.
"It's over, Zed!" Harry yelled when he summoned the full force of his power and contained the wraith. He hoped this particular spell would work.
It would destroy Zod but would it help him? That was what he wanted to know. He looked at Kara's encouraging face, the concern burning through her bright blue eyes. Harry needed to win this day, for her, so no one would harm her again. He was perfectly aware that she destroyed the portal and the only way out.
If he died, he would take Zod with him. He was strong; Harry would most certainly do this. There was no question about it, what he was doing. He felt his hands twitch and then go numb with what flickered through him. He tried not to come apart but it was hard, oh boy was it ever hard. His knees knocked together before his eyes flashed together and his heart beat against his chest quickly.
Harry Potter would not break, no that would be the coward's way out and the easy way out. Something that he did not take, no matter what because when the going got tough, that was when he excelled and that was when he pushed himself harder than what was honestly sane. His heart sped up a little bit faster and his breath hitched into himself.
He had to do this; there was a lot at stake.
His breath continued to pick up the pace a little bit and his head shook with his mouth twitch when his eye twitched a little bit. He breathed in and out when his stomach turned and twisted, placing a hand to his heart when it beat steadily and slightly.
"Harry!" Kara yelled, hoping that he would hear her, somehow or some way. The blonde hovered over Harry, a frustrated expression in her eyes. She felt a bit panicked when a blast of light erupted in Zod.
The form of Zod combusted in a bright light when Harry ripped him from the Alpha Dementor and then he destroyed said Dementor with a blinding light. His knees buckled, knocking together a little bit at a time, his heart speeding up with each passing motion. He could barely keep it together but he had to, he really had to.
Kara bit her lip when she watched Harry, there was so much that could go wrong with this and she feared that he would come undone with his own attacks. She never saw much of magic and most certainly not this much magic at once. The aura that pulsed from Harry was kind of alarming and it caused her heart to flutter a little bit, her eyes to widen in fear and she hoped that this would not kill him.
"Harry!" Kara yelled once again, she clutched her hands together and then placed them on her forehead. A pair of Dementors tried to enter but she turned and focused on them. If Harry could do it, she could most certainly do this. She blasted the Dementors hard with her attack, banishing them backwards.
Harry closed his eyes tightly, his eyes flashing with fury, his heart beating on the inside of his chest, and rocking back and forth. He was almost there, he was parting the Alpha Dementor from Zod, he could feel it. His skin felt clammy with he poured a little bit of himself into the attack. Zod extended forward, his knees nervously shaking and the palms were sweaty, cold almost. His eyes flickered a little bit when his teeth chattered alarmingly and he tried to keep up the attack, knowing that he was getting closer.
"NO!"
That screamed and strangled yell came from Zod when Harry pushed into the attack, his elbows twisting and his eyes widened, blood shot and he continued to stare forward. He almost was done, Harry knew it, Zod knew it, and even Kara knew it. The remaining Dementors backed off from the blinding flash of light.
The light shot from the cave and engulfed them all, before they disappeared.
Harry staggered a little bit before he dropped to the ground, not before Zod propelled backwards, he was not coming back around. At least he would get a very long trip before he turned. The dark haired wizard flickered forward, his green eyes widened and dilated.
Kara looked scared when she saw the dilated pupils of Harry, his eyes widened from that.
"HARRY!" Kara yelled when she grabbed him and tried to push him up. Her voice was shaking a little bit. "Please….please speak to me, okay, you….you didn't have to do that."
Harry's head barely was able to nod and she looked at him. Two sets of eyes before the mage found it in himself to speak.
"I….is he gone?" Harry asked Kara when he looked at the blonde and she nodded a bit, biting her lip when she did so. Yet she confirmed Harry's thoughts that he destroyed Zod. "He's….if I banished him, he won't be returning back for a while."
Now that Kara was happy that her friend was okay, she looked at him. The fact that she spent all of these weeks with him meant a lot to her, she had time to grow rather close to him. Her eyes snapped towards Harry and her lip curled into a frown.
"Harry, you do realize that what you just did in there was reckless, don't you?" Kara asked, trying not to keep her voice too accusatory. "You could have….do you not….I mean, I don't want to see anything happen to you."
"I'm not….it doesn't matter if anything happens to me," Harry answered to her.
Kara's temper triggered by this statement.
"It doesn't matter what happens to you….DO YOU REALIZE HOW STUPID THAT SOUNDS? I mean seriously Harry, do you not think that you mean anything, to anyone. If you think….if you think that, you must be….you must be further disconnected just like everything else in here more so than I believed."
Harry's face twisted into a slight smile and it was a sad one.
"I don't mean anything to anyone," Harry responded when he looked at Kara.
Kara shook her head violently and grabbed Harry slightly by his shirt. "You mean a lot to me and I'm not going to let you wither in here because you've been tricked into believing that you deserve being sentenced to this place."
"You actually believed everything that I say at face value don't you?" Harry asked Kara.
Kara nodded her head. "I can see it through your eyes but your words aren't enough, I can see it through the actions that you do. No one who was in there for reasons they deserved would selflessly do so much to protect the others. You….you took on all of those Dementors to make sure that I got Lois and Clark out of here."
"It wasn't much," Harry offered with a shrug.
Kara looked back at Harry. "It was a lot….it was your soul that was on the line."
Harry conceded that she might have had a point, just a small one.
"Kara, I swear we'll get out of here, somehow, some way," Harry told her when he clasped her hand and she believed him when she looked into his eyes.
Kara relaxed her stance a little bit.
"In fact, there's nothing stopping us from taking the portal out of here right now. There's nothing around for miles, I checked. I could feel it. We cleared the Dementors out."
Kara shifted nervously and Harry could not deny that she looked rather cute when she was nervous. "Um….there's a problem, you see, once I sent Lois and Clark out of here…."
Kara closed her eyes for a moment before she looked at Harry, hoping that he would be able to forgive her with what she was about to say. Patiently Harry stood before her and waited for her to regain her bearings. This was much appreciated as Kara took a long time to get back to it but then she spat out the rest of what she had to say.
"I destroyed the portal, so we're kind of stuck in here."
Harry blinked for a moment.
"Oh."
Kara was confused and decided to voice this point. "Oh….is that all that you can say at this point, oh?"
Harry offered a smile at her, and Kara now felt annoyed at this and had no idea why.
"Does anything ever faze you?"
"Your beauty, it fazes me a lot," Harry answered when he placed a hand on Kara's waist for a little bit. She did not recoil or stand back, she allowed him to place his hand on her bare flesh and it sent shivers going down her smile. "But….you see, with magic, I can repair it even if you shattered it into a million microscopic dust particles."
Kara's head snapped up and realization hit her, that did not really come to her until now but she supposed that it was true. She knew magic was capable of a lot and Harry barely scrapped the surface. Maybe when they got out of the Phantom Zone, they would be able to continue their training. The blonde Kryptonian was very much willing to learn more and she had to admit that Harry was a very captivating teacher that was worthy of all of the attention that she could give him.
Harry meanwhile looked where the altar once stood, he had to admit, he saw much better in the past. And he saw a lot worst as well, when he looked over every single inch of the altar. His face turned around when he waved his hand over the dust particles that rested on the floor and it slowly vibrated back to life. He hoped that he could get every single piece of the altar reconstructed so they can find their way out of there.
He concentrated hard and to her credit, Kara kept her lips firmly sealed. She understood without him saying anything that this was a delicate procedure. If Harry botched even one bit of this magic, it was all over. The dark haired wizard waited when each bit of the altar constructed together He repaired it when Kara blew it into smithereens but magic could do anything. It made the impossible very possible.
Harry turned a little bit when the altar glowed before them. He turned around to Kara, who had a bright smile on her face. "So is that the way it should be?"
Kara eyed the altar with an appraising look.
"Yes it is," Kara agreed with a smile, admiring the job that Harry did on the altar. It was exactly right. "You're amazing Harry, you know that."
"I'm glad to see you think so highly of that," Harry responded but then Kara, without warning and without preamble, rushed forward and threw her arms around Harry with a tight hug, pulling his body into hers.
Harry felt the warmth that two of their bodies connecting offered; the weeks they spent inside the Phantom Zone fighting for their lives forged a strong bond that the two of them shared. The two leaned together; they half expected something to interrupt this tender moment.
No interruption came and their lips met together in a searing kiss.
Kara' s mind went on total lockdown, on an impulse she kissed him and he kissed her back. Now his strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her in tight, and gave her a sense of safety and security. The blonde recoiled in his arm a little bit, opening her mouth, allowing him to probe his tongue in a little bit. She matched his motions, the two of them moaning into a deep kiss. Tentatively, she ran her hands over his body.
Harry thought about this and was going to make the most of this opportunity. He kissed Kara like he never kissed another person, human or otherwise before. All of the girls he kissed before her, they lacked meaning. They were just something to pass the time really until something stronger came along and that something stronger was currently in his arms, kissing him back. The two met with passion and intensity, their tongues dancing with each other.
The two continued the kiss for several moments.
"Amazing," Kara breathed when she looked at Harry, she decided to push him against the cave wall and kiss him once again.
If an army of horrible monsters came and slaughtered them right now and then, at least they would die happy. Both of them, they were lost in each other's passions, their limbs tangling in each other. Their heart beats elevated when they felt their bodies pressed against other. Each believed the other to be the pinnacle of the opposite sex and both found an attraction to each other but it was much more than that.
A certain amount of trust established itself when they fought for their lives in this hellish prison over the past number of weeks, almost a month, maybe two. They didn't know, all they knew right now where they found some comfort with each other, running their hands over each other when their lips met.
Kara ran her hands through Harry's hair, she could do it for hours, making is already messy hair even messier. The two kissed for a very long time, lost in the moment and enjoying the taste of each other's lips. They pulled apart from each other.
"We've got the portal fixed, let's get out of here," Kara answered when she looked back at Harry, peering over her shoulder.
"Your chariot awaits, my lady," Harry when he grabbed her hand and gave it a small kiss, which she giggled at.
Kara nicked her finger to draw the necessary blood to activate the portal. It began to glow and engulf them in the light and they held hands. They were drawn from the Phantom Zone.
Back to Earth?
Well not quite.