The Darkest Place

Parallels

↑ me when someone asks me about karamel >_<

On to the chapter!

Reign screamed in anguish, thrashing in her molten prison. Laser beams shot from her eyes, hitting anything and everything within range.

Kara saw the beam headed for Sam a second before it happened. Even with all her powers, she was completely helpless to do anything but scream as her friend fell to the floor. This couldn't be happening. After all they'd done to save Sam, she couldn't be dead. She couldn't be.

It didn't end there. The next blast of heat vision tore through Alura and she too fell to the cave ground. Her mother, her heart, her home. She had just got her back. How could she lose her again?

J'onn's eyes widened as he saw the beam headed for him, but he stood rooted to the ground, seemingly accepting his fate.

Mon-El had other ideas. The Daxamite's eyes flickered from J'onn to the Martian's approaching doom, and without a second of hesitation he pushed him out of the way, letting himself be the target instead.

Reign finally sank below the surface, and then there was silence.

Kara dropped to her knees on the ground, paralyzed. Eyes glazed with tears, a painful lump in her throat. They were gone. All of them.

Her breath came in short gasps as she surveyed the scene before her.

She had done this. They could have been saved, but instead she just...stood there. Horrified. Frozen. Why couldn't she have died with them?

She killed them. She killed them, she killed them, she—

"Kara! Kara! Wake up!" Kara jerked into a seated position, limbs flailing, tears streaming down her face. A primal scream clawed its way from her throat.

"Hey, it's okay! It's okay! It was just a nightmare. I've got you." Alex's soothing voice cut through her cries, and a pair of arms wrapped tightly around her. Tightly for a human, at least.

Kara struggled to take a deep breath. That's right. Alex had stayed the night. She was okay. She was in her bedroom. No one was dead.

As Alex continued to murmur reassurances, Kara closed her eyes and honed in on the one thing she needed to hear.

There was that heartbeat, strong as ever. She leaned into Alex's embrace, finally letting herself relax.

And prayed the Phantoms would cease haunting her.

***

Mon-El woke with a gasp, grabbing at his chest. His heart was pounding. The frigid hand of approaching death, the pure pain etched onto Kara's face...it had felt so real.

Don't be stupid, he chided himself. It was just a dream. Shaking off a lingering sense of dread, he headed to the DEO after getting dressed, determined to forget about it. Colonel Haley was in Washington DC, thank the gods, so it was no longer hostile for the time being. Especially since Alex had successfully argued her way into getting her job back, and was now acting Director.

"Hey," he greeted her, leaning against the roundtable. "What can I do?"

"Nothing," she answered with a note of disbelief in her voice, typing something on a tablet and handing it back to an agent. "It's a bit disconcerting, actually. No robberies, no car crashes, not a single crime."

Mon-El blinked. "Nothing at all?" Alex shook her head and he swallowed. So much for distracting himself. "Well, uh, is there anything I can do here then?"