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The first thing Kara noticed was the smell of fire and brimstone, charred flesh and sirens, the sound of screams echoing across the city. Kara’s eyes fluttered as all these things hit her at once and she groaned, her body aching as she slowly sat up and coughed. There was dust in the air along with the smell of blood.
Kara looked down at herself, noticing scuff marks and blood covering her suit as her soot-covered hair fell around her shoulders. What on earth had happened here? She couldn’t remember but she could tell it was bad. It must’ve been considering the aching she could feel over her entire body. She must’ve been fighting someone, she must have. It was the only thing that made sense with all the destruction around her.
She slowly dragged herself up into a standing position, swaying on her feet as she was hit with a wave of dizziness. God, someone must have hit her hard. Maybe she had solar flared, she wondered. She slowly lifted off the ground to test it, but nope. She wasn’t solar flared, but she must have been close to it whenever she lost consciousness.
She groaned as she slowly started walking around, having trouble seeing through the settling dust. She wasn’t even sure where she was at. A warehouse maybe? It must’ve been damaged during the fight though, because despite the dust she could see sunlight filtering in through a hole in the ceiling as she tripped over scraps of metal on the ground and cracked cement. The place was in shambles.
“What happened here?” She muttered to herself as she kept walking before almost tripping over something.
She looked down in confusion, barely able to make out a leg and then a foot and…a Louboutin heel.
“Lena?” She whispered as her eyes widened in fear and she collapsed onto her knees next to her and pulled her to roll over. “Wake up, Lena! Are you-,” she started to ask as her eyes traveled up Lena’s prone body and she fell silent as she stopped at her neck…because there was nothing above it. It was just ragged torn skin, covered in blood with stringy bits of sinew, and the end of her spinal cord hanging out of the stump.
“No, no, no, Lena,” Kara started mumbling in panic before covering her mouth in horror and turning to the side, retching onto the dusty concrete next to her as tears started streaming down her cheeks. She was hyperventilating, tasting nothing but the stomach acid she had just puked up.
She sobbed and sobbed before she heard talking from the other end of the warehouse and picked up Alex’s voice. She needed her sister, her friends, she needed someone to tell her this was all just a horrible nightmare.
She stumbled to her feet and took a few steps before she saw something circular covered in shadow. She knew she shouldn’t look but she was curious. She slowly stepped forward and saw Lena’s detached, lifeless head lying there. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hanging slack as if she died screaming. Her entire face was devoid of color, just a lifeless gray with blood in her hair and staining the crown of her head and more jagged skin and sinew hanging from where her neck was.
Kara’s knees buckled and she threw her head back as she let out a screaming sob, her eyes flickering with hints of heat vision from the depth of emotional pain she was experiencing. She dug her hands into her hair, screaming and sobbing as she pulled as hard as she could. This couldn’t be real. Lena couldn’t be dead. Not with how much they left unsaid.
She shuddered as she heard the thundering sound of feet and looked up as Alex and the rest of the super friends came into view. She slowly stood, her legs shaking as she took Lena’s hair in her hands and showed them her head.
“Who did this?” She screamed in rage as tears ran down her cheeks. “Who did this to Lena,” she asked in a shaky voice, her entire body trembling with emotion. Whoever did this, Kara was going to tear them limb from limb. To hell with her rule about no killing. She would burn the entire world down for Lena, and she planned to.
Alex looked back at their friends with a nervous look before looking back at Kara.
“Don’t you remember?” She asked tentatively, taking a shaky breath before continuing. “You did, Kara.”
Kara’s knees buckled as she fell to her knees once again and Lena’s head rolled next to her when she let it go.
“What?” She whispered as her hearing started to fade in and out, unable to focus and only able to catch a few words like “Red kryptonite”, “Unstable”, “Rampage through the city”, and “She used herself as bait.”
Her ears were ringing. This couldn’t be true. She would never kill Lena, not even under the influence of red kryptonite. It was impossible. She loved her too much…didn’t she? She slowly turned her head and looked back at Lena’s body with her head lying next to it, her ears starting to ring when she remembered and oh god, she remembered it all. The destruction. The terror. The city burning and finally, Lena’s sweet voice, trying her hardest to get through to her.
“Kara please, this isn’t you,” Lena pleaded, her eyes filled with tears and her face stained with soot.
“And what do you know about who I am,” Kara sneered as she floated a few feet above the floor of the warehouse and stared down at Lena, stark red veins running through her eyes and face.
“Kara, it’s the red kryptonite doing this to you. It’s a mutated strain, stronger than last time, but I know you can fight it. You’re a kind, strong, and amazing woman who has only ever tried to do right. I know who you are, Kara and it’s not this,” she begged, her bottom lip wobbling as she tried not to collapse into tears.
Kara rolled her eyes as she slowly descended and walked up to Lena, staring down into her eyes thoughtfully. She slowly raised a hand and tucked a piece of hair behind Lena’s ear before giving her a sadistic smirk.
“Oh, you have no idea who I am. I’m free now. Free of all the bullshit human rules, free of my parent’s expectations, free from caring about you mere ants. I’m a god, and I’ve been freed from humanity. This is what a Kryptonian is, Lena,” she cooed and stroked her cheek, “Cold, hard, callous, unfeeling.” She enunciated before grabbing a fist full of Lena’s hair and tugging roughly, forcing her to her knees in front of her, causing Lena to gasp and wince in pain.
“Well, that’s not who my Kara is,” she forced out through gritted teeth, “My Kara is still in there and I know she can fight her way back from this. My Kara isn’t this weak-willed shell of a person that can’t control themselves.” Lena bit out angrily.
Kara glared down at her and just laughed. “This is the real Kara. The Kara I was meant to be,” she growled and threw Lena across the floor before slowly stalking towards her, grabbing her by the throat while lifting her and choking her.
Lena’s eyes widened as she realized the precarious situation she had gotten herself into.
“Please, Kara…I love you,” she choked out as she scratched and clawed at Kara’s hand.
“How sweet. A love confession before you die,” she said with a sinister laugh, “Goodbye, Lena.”
She smiled as her other hand gripped Lena’s shoulder and repositioned her hand at Lena’s throat to cup her chin and she slowly started pulling in opposite directions. Pulling and pulling and pulling as Lena’s eyes widened and she started to scream in agonizing pain, begging and pleading for her life until there was a ripping and tearing sound as skin, tissue, and sinew ripped apart and dragged around her spinal cord until her head was fully separated from her body.
Kara just laughed and tossed her body and head aside like they meant nothing at all before taking off and shooting through the ceiling of the warehouse, hovering above it while covered in Lena’s blood.
“What to do next,” she said to herself with a sick smile when she suddenly felt a prick in her neck, her head shooting to the side and her eyes narrowing when she saw Alex. She was about to go after her when she suddenly felt all the strength drain from her body and she fell from the sky.
“Oh god, no,” Kara whispered before screaming, “NO!”
Her fists started beating against the concrete as she was lost to her grief and guilt, the concrete cracking under the force. She couldn’t believe she had done this, even under the influence of red kryptonite even if it was a super-charged version. Lena couldn’t be dead and not at her hand. It couldn’t be true. It had to be a trick, a cruel trick.
Kara kept screaming and threw her head back, her laser vision cutting through the building in her anguish.
“Everyone, get out of here,” Alex shouted as the building started groaning, its structural integrity breaking down with Kara’s outburst.
The rest of the super friends ran out of the building while Alex stayed behind. She knew her sister needed her.
“Kara, please stop!” She shouted. “The building is going to collapse. I know it hurts, but Lena wouldn’t want you to beat yourself up. You know she would forgive you if she was here. She wouldn’t want this.” She tried desperately.
Kara could barely see through her tears and laser vision, digging her hands into the concrete as she sobbed, barely able to force out a few words.
“Alex, get out. Not in control,” she choked out as the building creaked some more and she clawed at the ground, the first piece from the ceiling beginning to fall.
Alex looked at Kara one more time before running out of the building and to their friends right as the entire building collapsed on top of Kara.
Kara couldn’t take this. She couldn’t live with this. There was no way she could go on after all of this. As she lay under the rubble of the building, she realized what she had to do. If she couldn’t live with this, she would have to die with it. She shot up out of the rubble, causing a sonic boom behind her as she flew out of Earth’s orbit, past Mars, past Mercury, and then straight into the sun.
“I’m sorry, Lena,” she whispered, her final words as the sun enveloped her.
A Kryptonian could survive a lot, but no Kryptonian could survive the full heat of the sun.