Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Reborn

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 18:

Kara and Alex felt the memories settle as the scene coalesced around them, resolving into a familiar and comfortable scene, one with their younger selves watching TV as it showed breaking news occurring a few hundred miles away.

“Whoever this guy is, he is going to die… he’s absolutely pitiful. You get this, right?” Kara asked Bruce over the phone, the girl sitting next to Alex on their couch in National City, watching the Flash struggle with yet another metahuman.

The speaker was on so Alex could hear what was said, but she wasn’t about to interject herself into the middle of their argument.

“We all had to learn. He is getting better.” Bruce said.

“Really? He had Snart and Rory cross beams, Ghostbuster style, to take out their guns. If he is so fast, why didn’t he take them both from their hands before they had a chance to fire? He is screwing around with two small time criminals that got their grubby hands on weapons that came out of S.T.A.R Labs… which, by the way, has the lousiest security system I’ve ever seen!” Kara reminded her friend.

“It was a sound plan.” Bruce argued, ignoring the point about S.T.A.R.’s lack of security. “Yes, he took a chance, but it worked.”

Kara scoffed, looking at Alex who shook her head, rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders at Bruce’s lame excuses for the inept speedster. “Yeah, that time he managed to get lucky and fortunately for him, no one died.”

“Kara, he just needs some time to figure out his powers, he can be a great hero if he’s given the chance.” Bruce said as he continued to try to get her to see his point. For some reason she couldn’t figure out, the man refused to even attempt to see hers.

“Look, Bruce, he can’t fight.” Kara pointed out, the pitch in her voice rising to reflect her irritation with the Batman’s stubbornness. “This ‘yellow streak of lightning’ man that keeps kicking his ass, you know that’s probably the same guy who killed Barry’s mother and the reason his father is in prison. This guy hasn’t beat him yet, doesn’t seem to have a clue how to even slow him down.

“I need to go to Central City and put a stop to this. Barry isn’t at S.T.A.R. anymore. He woke up and left. He’s back at work. Now there are lightning bolts flying around the city and he is probably counting on this amateur in red to take him out.”

Bruce cleared his throat. “I thought you said you wanted to stay out of Central City, out of his life?”

“I do, but it’s not just Barry that’s being threatened! Central City is being overrun by metahumans that Harrison Wells created through his little ‘accident’. The media has been all up in my face asking why I’ve stayed out of Central City for the past three years. This is going to end badly because this idiot doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing! People are going to die, Bruce. Things are going too far, and this hero wannabe will not only get innocents killed, he’s going to get himself killed.

“Listen, I’ve got a plan to end this. Alex can take to the sky, use her weapons to herd the yellow lighting man into a secluded place where I freeze him and… take him into custody.”

Bruce practically growled, knowing what she really meant. “If you kill him, your old friend’s dad will never be proven innocent. If it means that much to you, then go to S.T.A.R. and offer your help. But don’t take over. We need him. He is getting better and needs to do this on his own or he will never have confidence.”

“He shouldn’t be doing this at all!” Kara countered. “You’ve seen the slow mo. This guy can’t fight. He obviously hasn’t been trained, nor had years to master his power. As far as working together, I don’t need an amateur helping me, especially one with powers that he doesn’t know how to use! Alex and I can handle the yellow speedster while you take junior to the Batman school for newbie superheroes. At least teach him to throw a punch!”

Bruce sighed, his tone somewhat condescending which only increased her irritation. “We all learned the hard way, Kara. Pulling him out and telling him he is not good enough will destroy his confidence. We both know what it is like starting out.”

Kara grinned, jumping on the fact he had just proven her point. In a mocking tone, she said, “You are so right! We both know what it is like starting out. Alex and I had barely started wearing bras when we started to learn to fight these monsters. For five years, we worked our asses off, training our minds… our bodies. I worked nearly every day perfecting my powers, flying and turning on a dime, controlling every aspect of my heat vision, my strength, my hand to hand combat.

“The first monster I encountered was a Vrang and I shattered his spine. I didn’t even need to think about what to do. I killed a Kryptonian in my second real fight, then went through the rest. I killed White Martians. Everything that I have face I killed or defeated because I was prepared! You didn’t graduate boarding school and immediately start fighting Bane. No… you spent years training before you were jumping over rooftops. You didn’t let Dick out of the cave until you were absolutely sure he knew what he was doing. But you are willing to let this kid get his metahuman ass kicked constantly because he hasn’t had any training!? I’m fairly certain nearly getting killed day in and out is doing wonders for his confidence.”

She looked over at her sister, to see if she was going to add anything to the discussion. Alex was shaking her head at the TV which showed the Flash, once again, letting his target get away. At her sister’s disgusted look, Kara laughed. “You know what, Bruce? Fine. We’ll do things your way. Once he’s dead, I will go clean up this mess or you can.”

Bruce stayed silent for a moment, and Kara thought that would be the end of the conversation.

“Let’s talk about Oliver Queen.” he finally said.

Kara let out an exasperated grunt. “Let’s not. I told you I wanted him left alone. He is doing good work.”

“He is dropping more bodyguards than he is targets.” Bruce reminded her. “I need to put a stop to that. That isn’t justice. You want to handle aliens your way, fine. Humans killing other humans needs to end. Dropping those suspected of crimes…”

Kara laughed sharply. “So, I guess branding ‘suspected’criminals… breaking their bones, putting them in comas, that’s okay? Don’t be a hypocrite Bruce. The things you do aren’t exactly following the letter of the law, now are they?”

There was absolute silence on the other end of the line until finally… “Stay out of Central City, stay away from S.T.A.R. Labs, stay out of the Flash’s way and I will leave Starling City alone.”

Kara laughed. “No problem. When the upstart gets killed, you can start bugging me about the next untrained metahuman you want to recruit. I have all the support I need. If you have any pity left, you will talk this kid out of doing what he is doing before he gets killed, or worse… gets someone else killed, at which point he will have to worry about me.”

She looked over at Alex who had punched her in the arm. Seeing her sister mimicking driving a car, she gave her a thumbs up. “By the way, since we are talking about speed, I need to borrow your Corvette. There is an illegal street racing club I found in Metropolis. Alex and I are going undercover, find out more information, see if we can break it up by taking out all the competitors.”

“No.”

“Great, I’ll pick it up tomorrow. No worries, not a scratch on it, I promise. I’ll even fill it up.”

“No.”

“See you then. Tell Alfred we will stop by around five. Gives us plenty of time to get to Metropolis. Take care, Bruce!”

Kara hung up before the man could argue more.

Alex shook her head, a huge grin lighting up her face. “You think he will ever get really tired of us stealing his cars to go street racing?”

“It’s only stealing if you don’t give it back. I can’t take his Lambo. No one would race us. No worries, we got this.” Both girls broke out into laughter, excited about their plans for the following evening.

The scene dimmed a little as Kara looked at her sister. Alex was looking at her intently, her expression unreadable.

“The Flash.” Kara whispered, memories of her thoughts on the man finally hitting her.

“You were less than impressed, with good reason.” Alex responded.

Kara felt a little nauseated. “It was obvious from the tapes he wasn’t cut out for this. He was great at saving people from burning buildings or catching jumpers if they didn’t fall too far from the ledge of a building but… I just knew… it’s like he was a child playing at being a superhero with his friends… only he never figured out this wasn’t a game… and he didn’t figure out he didn’t have what it takes to do what needs to be done, sometimes it takes losing a piece of yourself to do the right thing…”

Alex shrugged her shoulders. “You were more occupied by Queen, debating trading in your black clad toy for a green clad one.”

Kara nodded, that memory returning as well. “I stayed out of Oliver’s way. He knew what he was doing, he was very capable. Yeah, he failed to stop the Undertaking, but he was doing well. All of us have failed at some point regardless of how prepared we are. The difference between him and the Flash showed in his eyes. He was a killer, prepared to do whatever it took to protect his city. At least I thought so before the Siege.”

Another memory swept Kara away. This time she was flying through the apartment window after saving a village in the Congo from being slaughtered by militants. Alex was on the couch, a look of resignation on her face. “What’s wrong? They cancel ‘Orange is the New Black’?”

Alex grunted; the corners of her mouth turned up at her sister’s humor. “Worse. Bruce will probably not talk to you for a while just to avoid the countless repetitions of ‘I told you so’ that are coming. While you were away, your ‘black hole causing’ superhero wannabe got himself in yet another mess and might be dead.”

“The black clad speedster in the bad Halloween mask get him?” Kara guessed. This ‘Zoom’ guy was faster than the late Harrison Wells had been before Wells got sucked up in the singularity over S.T.A.R. Labs.

Alex nodded, pointing to the TV. “Footage from inside the police station. Looks like Flash got the hell beat out of himself, possible broken back. He looked worse than Bruce after his last fight with Bane and that’s saying something. Might even be dead, which, while… bad… would solve a lot of the current problems Bruce won’t let us fix.”

Kara shrugged her shoulders, moved to the bedroom and was back in two seconds, having changed into pajamas, now sitting next to her sister, pleased at the thought of finally making some progress in stabilizing the situation in Central City. “Great. I’ve been wanting to take out this slasher wannabe. Cat won’t stop bugging me about it. So, if the amateur hero is dead, Bruce can shut up about me staying out of Central City and I can take this ‘Zoom’ guy’s head off. What about instead of luring him, I just call him out? Maybe we can set some dwarf star grenades on either side of me with trip wires, just to see how he handles a little blast. Could be fun.”

Alex shook her head and smiled. Only her little sister would be looking forward to fighting a large speedster who resembled a monster and think of ways to play with him before the kill. “DEO is moving a team to Central City. Just a quick response team if needed. Maybe we should go. This guy is fast Kara… faster than anything you have faced. We need a solid plan, scout out the area, study his patterns. He isn’t working out of S.T.A.R., that much we do know. We have no idea who he even is and that is surprisingly unusual. Justin can get on it…”

“Waste of time.” Kara argued.

“He can manipulate his molecules, bring them to an excitable state, phase through matter. He could phase through you and take out your heart.” Alex pointed out.

“That’s why I freeze him first. No better way to slow down excitable energy than to freeze it. We do live half our lives in a castle built on frozen ground, I thought you would realize this. My breath is good for more than turning regular cake into ice cream cake. Freeze, punch, break.” Kara stated confidently. “He’s no big deal. He’s a speedster so this should be over fast. Cat will get off my back about never helping Central City, bad guy will be dead, Pizza Rolls for dinner. It’s two for Tuesday night at Gino’s. What do you think? It will be fun.”

Alex sighed, not wanting to burst her happy sister’s bubble, but needing her to listen to reason. “No, we go in when we have a plan, one more solid than you blowing and swinging. He is faster than you. There are a hundred things you could build that would stop him before he got near you. Start using your brain and stop relying on muscle all the time. It’s starting to become a habit of yours.”

Shifting mental gears, Alex decided to ask her sister about an idea she’d had, not wanting to upset her, but needing her help to flesh out the thought or give evidence that her theory was off. “Kara… have you ever thought about the timing of everything that has gone down in Central City?”

“Timing?” she asked, her face scrunched in confusion at the sudden change of subject.

“Yeah. Barry Allen woke from his coma after being hit by lightning, during the radiation surge caused by S.T.A.R.; Wells brings Barry in for treatment, he wakes up and two weeks later the first signs of a red speedster…”

“Alex, stop. It’s a ridiculous theory. I get your point, but you don’t know Barry. I guess I don’t know him now either, it’s been years, but I remember what he was like. Barry is kind, gentle… and he has a big heart. Being a superhero would never be his thing. He isn’t like us.”

“What? Crazy?” Alex asked with a laugh.

Kara playfully shoved her sister, causing Alex to laugh even harder. “I’m the crazy one. If we are both crazy the world would be seriously screwed. Barry just… doesn’t have it in him. He is a sweet guy. Despite what happened to his parents, he had this air of innocence around him. He isn’t the kind of guy who would be comfortable making life or death decisions. Besides, if Barry was somehow the Flash, he knows who I am. He would have called out to me for help.”

Despite dismissing her sister’s theory outright, Kara looked pensive. “Maybe if Bruce would have let me handle Central City’s metahuman problem this guy wouldn’t be laid out somewhere dead or broken.”

Kara sighed and leaned into her sister’s shoulder, letting her know she wasn’t upset. “You know what? Screw it. The Flash could have reached out to me and asked for help, but he hasn’t. If he thinks he can handle the situation, then let’s let him handle it. Bruce thinks he needs to learn on his own, so it isn’t my problem. I guess they both learned a valuable lesson tonight. Still, I hope whoever this guy is didn’t pay with his life and if he did live, maybe it will be a wakeup call. He needs to leave the wars to the warriors and stick to rescuing people.”

As if triggered by those words, the scene dramatically changed around them. Kara and Alex saw Kara standing on air over a flooded city. The Tsunami hit ten minutes ago; the city already underwater except for a few of the taller rooftops. Soon it would be flowing back into the ocean, taking with it the bodies of those whose lives it took.

Many had heard the warning and made it onto rooftops, but they were of no concern to Kara. They were safe. She was too busy peering into the muddy water, looking for survivors trapped in the brutal currents.

A cry was heard, a child. Looking to her left, a half mile away she saw a young girl fall ten feet from the roof into the water below.

Her mother had just made it, hands of fellow survivors pulling her up when her grip slipped near the top.

Kara moved quickly, sweeping the young girl up into her arms and taking to the sky, cradling the shivering girl in her arms as she searched for more. Finding none, Kara decided it was time to rescue the people from the rooftops of buildings that might be in danger of collapsing.

Kara landed softly on roof of the building where the girl’s crying mother was. The other twenty-two people on the roof crowded her, their eyes roaming over her with awe and reverence. The blonde hated this. The people looked at her as if she were some kind of god. If Kara were a god, she would have never allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place.

A few touched her as she walked through the crowd with the little one in her arms. Some touched her cape; some touched her hair and quite a few took a knee as she passed. She found the distraught mother behind the crowd, still looking at the spot her daughter had fallen from. Finally turning at the commotion on the roof, seeing the blonde surrounded by village survivors, her eyes burst with joy and relief.

Kara handed the scared, soaking wet girl to her mother. The woman dropped to her knees and bowed her head.

Kara squatted down, putting both hands on the woman’s shoulders. “Please, stand up. I’m not a god.”

The woman made no move to stand.

“Hindi ako insang diyos.” Kara repeated, her eyes beseeching the young mother. The woman sat her daughter on the ground and they both slowly stood, the thankful woman wrapping her arms around the blonde.

“Ikaw ay isang anghel na ipinadala mula sa diyos.” the woman replied, releasing her and wiping tears from her eyes.

Kara stepped back before the woman could kneel before her and lifted off.

Alex watching this through Kara’s eyes, could not believe the guilt her little sister felt, the pain and the weight of expectations.

“The pressure… they worshipped you.” Alex whispered. “I knew about the churches and… how did you live with that expectation? All the people, expecting you to perform miracles…”

“I wasn’t worthy. If they had known what I had done in my past, what I was still doing… if they thought about the ones I couldn’t save… they had no clue the devil was in their midst.” Kara’s head was down. She couldn’t look at her sister, couldn’t stand to see her failures reflected back at her in Alex’s knowing eyes.

Instead, she found herself wrapped up in understanding, Alex’s thoughts surrounding her as only their merged state would allow.

“You weren’t the devil.” Alex insisted, her voice full of love, knowing now exactly how uncomfortable these demonstrations made Kara.. and fully grasping why. “You were their savior. I always laughed at the people who worshipped you but… seeing this? Through your eyes? Kara, that woman prayed for a miracle. She prayed for her daughter to be in her arms and then you were there… floating gently to the earth they stood on and delivering her miracle. I get it now. I see what they saw, and I now know why it made you so uncomfortable… Because if you let someone down, you were destroying their faith to believe in anything.”

Kara didn’t move; she couldn’t. She was shaking now, not knowing if she wanted the truth to her next question or not, yet still desperate to hear and feel Alex’s unfiltered thoughts. Quietly, she asked, “And when I killed?”

Alex heard the tremor in her sister’s voice. She reached out with both hands and cupped Kara’s face gently, slowly forcing her to look up so the blonde could read the sincerity in her face, hear it unmistakably in her voice. “You were justice for those who could not get justice and a savior to those who would not be harmed in the future because of your decisive actions.” her big sister insisted.

Before Kara could argue, she heard Alex’s voice summoning her to the Fortress.

“Kind of busy, Alex. Is this an ‘end of the world’ scenario?” Kara asked her.

“Eh, maybe not, but it’s at least the end of Central City and maybe the surrounding areas. A hoard of metahumans just showed up, attacking everything in sight. Must be twenty of them. Bruce is on his way. I’m going to sling shot through orbit. I can be there in twenty minutes.” Alex told her.

“Kelex, shut Scarlett down.” Kara ordered as she launched herself towards Central City.

“Kara, what the hell!?” Alex yelled into her comms.

“You’ve never been in space with the ship. I told you I would test it first and you agreed. I don’t remember testing it. If you want to get to Central City start flying. Kelex, make sure she stays in the atmosphere. Do not go past Mach 5.”

As she watched her younger self lock down her sister’s flight plan, Kara heard her Alex grumble beside her. “I always hated when you did that. I wanted to break something over your head.”

“I will never take unnecessary chances with your life, Alex. Never. It was the right call. You sometimes have more balls than brains. Considering it nearly fell apart and the oxygen supply leaked out you should be thanking me for testing it first. That jet was never going to hold up to space travel, no matter how much I modified it.” Kara told her, not a doubt in her voice.

None of that mattered. Kara was three minutes away from Central City when Bruce told her the problem had been taken care of by the Flash.

Kara was livid. “What’s the damage?”

“I’m keeping an eye on it.” Bruce replied, “I’m over Keystone now. The metas are gone. I’ll share the information at the Fortress. I believe these metahumans… I have a theory about alternate universes…”

Kara laughed harshly. “So, he isn’t just getting beaten by Zoom, now he is bringing metas from an alternate dimension to fight?”

“The metas were most likely brought in by Zoom. I haven’t figured out what the Flash did but they are gone. Come to the Fortress and we can talk about this, figure it out together. The mathematics involved are more your skill set.” Bruce said.

“Or I could have a talk with the Flash now, convince him to go into an early retirement. The guy is pissing me off, Bruce. You say he isn’t responsible for these things, but they seem to rotate around him. Zoom has been loose for months now. This should have been over within days of Zoom’s appearance, but no. You said to let the Flash handle it.” Kara was growing angrier with each sentence. “My friend… he is in Central City. If he dies because of something this Flash guy couldn’t stop there is going to be hell to pay… starting with Flash and ending with you. Do you understand me?”

A moment of silence settled around the sisters, the honest threat ringing in their minds, before Bruce’s voice materialized in the darkness surrounding them, calling her to Central City.

Kara knew what was coming, she remembered letting Grayson spend the night, drinking, drinking so much all the time and the trip to S.T.A.R. Labs, determined to take out the lab and the Flash despite what she told Bruce.

“It was him.” Kara whispered to Alex, her memories emerging of the man behind the mask of the Flash. “You were right, it was always Barry. All the times I watched him be beaten, injured, nearly killed, ridiculed the Flash… it was him.”

Alex felt the overwhelming sense of guilt flowing off Kara as she realized the guy she had been laughing at and despising for two years was the same one who shared her first date, her first kiss.

“I let that happen. I left him, left his life so he wouldn’t be caught up in ours, the violence, death, blood. The pain… this wasn’t supposed to be his life!”

Kara stopped talking when she felt a new emotion surge, one of intense anger, hate. She knew immediately this was not her emotion.

“Alex?”

“Don’t feel pity towards him, he doesn’t deserve it and you don’t need to feel guilty over his poor choices. You were always right about him.” Alex seethed, shocking Kara by the intensity of her hatred towards Barry Allen. “He was weak. He wasn’t able to make the right call or any call without somebody telling him what to do. He was never willing to really take responsibility, he only wanted everyone to think that he could.”

Kara was so shocked; she froze stone cold at the venom in Alex’s voice. She had never seen her sister this enraged over anything in her life. She asked, stumbling through her words. “Why… why would you say that?”

Alex shook her head. “After you were gone… I knew you were alive, but I began to doubt I could get you out. I could have saved you from that pain, if he had just done what I told him to do.”

Kara understood what she was talking about without needing to be told. “You asked him to change the timeline, didn’t you?”

Alex nodded, her gaze never leaving Barry Allen’s image, her eyes seemingly sparking fire even now with the intensity of her anger. Images flew unbidden into Kara’s mind as Alex’s rage caused a flood of memories to be released…. memories of the weeks she and Kelex worked in the Fortress… memories of the two tirelessly running simulation after simulation until they found the one scenario that would cause the least disruption in the timeline… memories that held such intensity that pursuing the task before her was the only thing keeping Alex from losing her sanity.

Knowing she needed to calm her sister, get her to see some reason, Kara reached out, catching Alex’s hand to pull her attention from wherever her demons had driven her. Her voice was soft as she spoke, hoping Alex could hear her, “You know how dangerous that would have been. He couldn’t do that, Alex. Time travel has serious repercussions. You thought you had figured it out, you and Kelex ran scenario after scenario but that’s all they were. You can’t be angry at him.”

Alex laughed bitterly, shaking her head, but not pulling away either. “But that’s my point, Kara. He did it. He went back in time to the exact place and time I asked him to go… the one moment in the timeline where he could tell me what I needed to do to stop all of this from ever happening with minimal repercussions. It took some doing, but he eventually caved to my demand that he grow some balls and save your life. So yeah, don’t give me that bullshit. He time travelled, but for his own selfish reasons and they weren’t to help you by doing as I asked.”

Kara became more troubled, feeling her sister’s anger spike as Alex continued her diatribe, hatred of the Flash and Barry Allen evident in every word she spoke. “You had dumped his ass months before this, but he still went back in time and looked at you, saw you while you were sleeping and said goodbye.”

Alex’s eyes pinned Kara with such anger, the blonde couldn’t breathe. Alex was gritting her teeth so hard at this point; Kara could feel the grinding of them. “He had no right to see you and not do anything. Our family was falling apart, and he risked time travel, not to save you, but to see you one last time. He could go back in time as many times as he wished and see you, but we couldn’t? Oh, no. He should have stayed away from you or made the call to change things. He took what he wanted. So, don’t argue with me… I’ll always hate him. Nothing you can ever say to me will change that. I worked my ass off to try and find a way to bring you back and was getting nowhere! He could have done it so easily, but he was too weak, too selfish to actually do it.”

“Alex…” Kara felt she was losing her sister in that moment, finally getting a glimpse of what her absence had done to Alex.

Alex chuckled somewhat maniacally, still lost in her own mind. “After his little stunt, I had Kelex remote destroy his ring. He may be able to travel back in time and see you all he wanted, but he wasn’t going to do it in the suit you gave him. The ring is nothing but costume jewelry now, the suit destroyed. He was no hero, he didn’t deserve any part of you.”

“Alex, please…” Kara pleaded.

“It’s the truth, Kara!” Alex yelled, pulling their hands apart, her hate nearly causing Kara to fall on the ground.

But the hate was gone an instant later, Alex’s rant stopping immediately with the change in scenery. The feelings on her skin… no… the Batcave doused in red light… falling, stinging sensations…

Alex felt the two of them in a bed at the Block, her previous mood shifting with the new sensations she was being subject to. The chills, the hallucinations, the shaking. Kara recognized them but Alex was feeling it for the first time, and it scared the hell out of her.

“Kara?” Alex was in pain. Kara held her sister tightly from behind while Alex trembled in her arms.

“I’m here.” Kara assured her. “It hurts. The shaking… I felt like I was dying in the worst possible way.” the blonde mumbled, squeezing Alex tighter, the way Alex had held her in the early stages of withdrawals.

“How… how did you handle it? How did you not lose your mind?” Alex asked shakily. “God, it hurts!”

Kara smiled despite the agony she was experiencing, holding Alex even closer. “I survived because you held on to me, like I am holding on to you right now. Let me hold you. I feel it too. I remember this, some of it… just concentrate on my arms and know that none of this is real.”

The two girls spent what felt like an eternity holding onto each other, blacking out, wanting to vomit, squeezing tighter when one of them wanted to rip the IV out and run. They wouldn’t run. Not this time.

Finally, it stopped and they both felt exhausted.

“I never want to feel that again.” Alex whispered, her body aching. “You must have hated me.”

Kara shook her head. “Never. Your arms got me through it. I never want to feel that way again… I won’t. I am never going to let either of us feel that way again. I swear to you, Alex, and I’m not lying this time. Never again.”

“I believe you.” Alex said, surprising herself. She did feel it though, Kara’s honesty. She believed her this time. A part of her knew there was no way to be sure, but that didn’t matter. Right now, she felt a dedication from Kara she had not felt in a very long time.

The scene shifted with young Kara listening to Barry Allen on the phone, with him talking her into staying at the Block, asking what she would do if it was Alex who was in her position.

Barry showing up, seeing her at her worst.

“Why did you all let me see him?” Kara asked, genuinely confused.

Alex shook her head, the intense anger she felt towards the Flash toned down now, with a layer of guilt rising up to replace it. “Leslie warned us not to. You hadn’t even met her yet, but we had. She told us not to let you become involved in any romantic relationships. You had too many of your own battles to fight to worry about romance and trying to make a relationship like that work. But, we didn’t listen. Barry made you smile. We thought you would have another goal, something to reach for. I thought as long as you were happy, maybe it would take your mind off other things. Barry seemed to make you happy… but the Flash didn’t, and I didn’t see it. A relationship with the Flash was not what you needed.”

Kara felt how much Alex mourned her decision to let Barry near Kara when she was still so fragile with her perceptions of herself. Alex looked at her, sighing with regret. “I’m so sorry, Kara. I failed you. We all did. You got better but…”

“I kept pushing him away every time I let him in.” Kara realized, interrupting her sister’s self-flagellation. “I loved Barry, but he had changed. He never really knew me… not the real me at least. He was my ideal boyfriend. Sweet, funny, cute, a bit of a nerd but in a cool way. He was perfect. But the Flash changed him. I saw him becoming like me. Bruce, Connolly, they wanted to harden him. They did to a point… but I never got over my feelings about the Flash… and it was no secret how I felt about the Flash and that never changed. I separated them in my mind as much as possible. I tried to reconcile the two, even made him that indestructible suit Kelex would control.”

“He made you happy for a while.” Alex admitted reluctantly, before continuing, “But he did the one thing you would never be able to stand. He tried to convince you over and over again that you needed his protection and Mom and Dad encouraged it. Unlike Dick who didn’t give a damn about Mom and Dad’s opinion, Barry did everything they asked. They told him to make sure you ate certain foods, to bug you about medication, to take care and protect you. The only way he could ever get you to agree to do something was if he prefaced it by saying Mom or Dad had asked him to.

“As much as I can’t stand him, it wasn’t all Barry’s fault. Our parents, especially Mom, used him to try and manipulate you too. Barry wanted their approval so badly that he would do anything they asked him to… and Mom just kept pushing him at you. She was so bad she even encouraged you to have sex with him every chance she got, acting like it was perfectly normal for her to be all up in your… romantic entanglements. At least Dad wasn’t trying to pimp you out.” Alex watched her sister’s face go still with the revelations of what her family had done. “We’re all at fault, Kara, but subconsciously, we were so scared of losing you, we couldn’t go through that again… and we would have tried anything to make you happy. Barry believed what they said about you… but the problem is, they were lying to him and themselves. You didn’t need him, you never did. You had too much to handle to deal with Barry Allen’s insecurities on top of your own.”

Kara’s face darkened with the memories returning, her unspoken irritation at Barry trying to subtly manipulate her surfacing rapidly now along with a new understanding of her parents’ complicity in his actions. “I never wanted protection. I certainly didn’t want his. I fought nearly my whole life and suddenly he thought I needed protection. The Flash decided he would take care of Supergirl. He was so insistent that he could protect me, that he was getting better and I shouldn’t worry about… do you know how many times I wanted to yell at him, tell him the Flash wasn’t good enough to protect me? I didn’t need or want that protection, not from my enemies. Powers or not, I still had my demons and I knew how to set them loose. I still had weapons and you always at my back.”

Seeing her sister’s understanding expression, Kara sighed, relaxing somewhat, accepting what she should have done but was reluctant to do in the past. “I don’t see how I will ever be able to open up to anyone… not really. I’m having a hard-enough time with my own life to worry about making someone else happy.”

“That’s why you held on and pushed him away at the same time. Makes sense now. You were getting happier though, not because of him, but because you felt better about yourself. You were beginning to love your life, get a feel for what your future could be like without the pressures we’d been under… and then the unthinkable happened.” Alex told her.

Before Kara could ask what, she felt a blow, one that should have crushed her head.

The girls hit the ground, grabbing their heads, eyes closed.

When their eyes opened they saw it standing over them.

Doomsday.