Archive of Our Own ^beta

This is the story of a girl named Kara, and it starts with the sun.

~

The sun shines brightly, its warm rays pining through the crack between the wooden panes of the only window on the tower. A long-haired blonde woman, the sole occupant of the tower, pads barefoot across the wooden floor and yawns. She pushes the windows open, cringes at the brightness of the sun on her face, but only for a moment until her eyes adjust to the light. She grins, blinks a couple of times, and looks out the window to the small landscape she can see from where she stands.

"Good morning, world," she breathes out, hands on her hips, before she starts her day.

~

There are a lot of things one can do in a tower, Kara has realized over the years. Her caretakers bring her things to occupy her time, though for many years now, it has mostly been Mon-El, a man just a few years older than her. He brings her books and paints that she could use to bring color to the two floors she has access to in the tower.

Like always, upon waking up, she fixes herself breakfast, then proceeds to clean every nook and cranny of her home. For today, she arranges the ingredients she has in her modest kitchen, sets aside the ones she needs for an apple pie she plans to bake later for Mon-El, and then goes on to paint for a few hours before she settles in her bedroom to peruse a book.

It is from books that she learned about many things, like how to cook and bake, or how to know which color one should wear at a particular time of the year, or how love would feel should it arrive in one’s life. It is also from books that she has learned of many stories—myths and legends that abound the world she lives in and often find themselves painted on the walls of her tower. One of her favorites is the story of the lost princess of Krypton, who is said to have been blessed by Rao, the sun god himself. It was believed the princess had been taken when she was very young, but the kingdom of Krypton never gave up. Every year, they launch thousands of floating lights into the night sky to celebrate her gift of life, in hopes that the lost princess would one day return.

Interestingly, one night every year, floating lights would also make their appearance in the horizon, dotting the dark sky like fireflies in a field.

She had asked Mon-El once, if she could go see the floating lights. A sort of darkness passed across his features before he gave her a smile and placed a hand over hers on the table.

“The outside world is a dangerous place, my love,” he said, his voice full of concern. “You have to stay here in this tower. Otherwise, how can I protect you?”

The blonde ducked her head in her shame and she offered him a smile. “You’re right,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I asked.”

Mon-El patted her hand and shook his head. “It’s alright. Now eat.”

~

The sun beats down on the back of the young woman’s neck. Her raven hair is up in a ponytail and she wears a vest of dark blue over a shirt, an empty satchel slung across her body. She sprints and jumps across the roof of one house to another and pauses as she grabs a chimney to hold on to. She takes a deep breath and looks around; from where she stands, she can almost see all of the kingdom. Krypton's capital, Argo City, is rich, and from the heart of it where the castle stands, one can see its vast wealth.

“I could get used to a view like this,” she murmurs to herself.

“Tess,” the taller man with her growls. “Come on.”

The raven-haired woman spares him a glance. “Hold on, Corben,” she says, then looks back to the view of the castle hundreds of yards away from them but still so big and majestic. “Okay, I’m used to it. I want a castle.”

Another man grabs her by the arm. The raven-haired woman looks down at the hand before looking up at her other companion, Max, scowling at her.

“We do this job, Tess, then you can buy your own castle,” he hisses, then lets her go.

Tess rolls her eyes at Max and rubs her arm. They continue their way to the castle, up the walls and away from the eye of the guards until they sneak to the roof of the room where they keep the princess’s crown. She doesn’t know why they still keep it when the King Zor-El and Queen Alura don’t seem to have any plans of having another child, not after losing their first, but she doesn’t care because otherwise, they wouldn’t have anything to steal today.

Max works on the opening on the roof that they have made in the past days. Corben ties a rope around Tess’s waist, readying her for the drop. Tess gives him a glance as she tugs on the rope a couple of times.

“You sure this is safe?” She mumbles. “If you drop me in there, you not only lose the crown. I’d also die.”

“I couldn’t care less about you,” Corben growls, but Tess just smirks at him.

“Your pudding brain wouldn’t have thought of this plan,” she says. Corben clenches his fists but Tess knows he wouldn’t dare try anything, not without the crown in their possession first. Max makes a small sound of victory and tells Corben to bring Tess down.

The woman braces herself for the drop; the floor is marble and a solid several feet from where she hangs, but right below her is her prize. Max and Corben help her down, slowly and quietly. Tess counts at least twelve palace knights guarding a crown for a princess with no chances of coming home. It has been almost twenty years, after all—twenty years since the young princess has been snatched from her bed by one of the royal family’s enemies, or so it was said. No one really knew, but Tess is sure of one thing: It was a waste to be just lying there, and she was doing them a favor.

She is lowered enough until she could reach the crown. She takes it with careful hands, grins to herself, and carefully places it in her satchel. She tugs on the rope and motions for Corben and Max to pull her back up.

A guard sneezes.

Tess couldn’t help herself. “Bless you,” she says, and laughs when the guard says thanks. She is already halfway to the roof then, and by the time the guards realize what is happening, Tess is back on the roof and they are already fleeing the scene of the crime.

“Can’t you picture me in a castle of my own?” Tess laughs as they run away from the castle. She hears the warning bell resound in the distance and the yells of the knights surely on their way to hunt them down, but in her satchel is a crown that can buy her life away from this wretched place. “All the things we’ve seen and I haven't even had my second cup of coffee!”

~

“Okay,” the blonde sighs in front of the mirror. “You can do this, Kara. It’s just a simple question.”

“Kara!” A voice calls out from outside the window. “Kara, darling, I’m waiting!”

The blonde perks up and grins excitedly. Making her way to the window, she throws down the rope Mon-El uses to come up to and go down from the tower. Precautionary measures against those who threaten her life, he had said. There is a tug on the rope and Kara moves to turn the wheel, pulling up her caretaker, until he could climb over the window with a little sigh.

“Welcome home, Mon-El,” Kara greets.

“My dear flower,” Mon-El sighs, cupping Kara’s cheek with one gloved hand. “How do you manage to do that every time without fail? It looks exhausting.”

Kara laughs lightly and shrugs. “It’s nothi—”

“Then I don’t understand why it takes so long,” Mon-El says with a pat of Kara’s cheek. Kara flusters at it. He smiles. “I’m just teasing.”

“Oh,” Kara breathes out. He pulls back to put the basket of goods he had brought to the table. He starts sifting through it, taking out several pieces of fruits, and Kara watches him for a moment and fiddles with her hands. “I, uh- so Mon-El, as you know, tomorrow is a big day—”

“What? Come here, Kara,” he calls out over his shoulder. Kara shuts her mouth and nods to walk to him. He gestures for her to sit on the chair and she does. Without much words, he shows Kara his left arm. On it is a large gash, barely hidden by a ragged cloth that is caked with blood. Kara gasps in worry, but Mon-El only smiles and bobs his head. The blonde nods then, carefully removes the cloth, and hovers her hands over the man’s arm.

Kara takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. Despite the brightness in the room, her hand take in a warm, yellow glow. There is some sort of electric numbness she feels on her palms but it isn’t unfamiliar—she has healed Mon-El many times before, after all, of wounds he said came from defending Kara from hunters who attempted to find her, or worse, intruders who dared enter the secret location where the tower is located, hired assassins searching for someone with her healing capabilities.

It is one of the reasons Mon-El keeps him safe and guarded in the tower—so that no one can find her and exploit her powers for their own gain. For it, Kara is thankful, and she expresses her gratitude through the simple effort of healing Mon-El each time he comes back wounded because of the task of keeping her safe.

She sighs softly and pulls away. The bleeding gash is gone now, leaving only smooth skin, and Kara smiles proudly at Mon-El. He examines his arm. Pleased, he takes the knife from his belt and slices a piece of an apple he picks from the basket he has brought, then hands the slice to Kara.

“Eat,” he says. Kara takes it with a smile and a murmur of thanks, then starts nibbling on it. He nods at her, pleased, and takes a bite of the apple in his hand. “What did you want to say?”

Kara hurriedly chews and swallows her apple to speak. “Well. It’s my birthday tomorrow.”

Mon-El looks up from where he takes a piece of bread out of the basket. “No it isn’t,” he says with a furrow of his eyebrows. “I distinctly remember it was last year.”

The blonde lets out an awkward laugh. She fiddles with her hands on her lap again. “That’s- I mean, that’s how birthdays are. They’re kind of an annual thing?”

Mon-El only purses his lips. Kara feels panic start to brew in her, so she tries to just get it over with. “I just- well, since it’s my birthday, I was wondering if- if you could, you know, take me to see the floating lights.

The man blinks and laughs. “You mean the stars.”

“That’s the thing!” Kara exclaims, and she runs to the shelf where she has kept several drawings. She rummages through several pages before finding the one she needs. She quickly shows it to Mon-El. “I’ve charted stars, you see, and they are always constant. But these lights! They’re different. They appear only once every year, on my birthday.” She bites her lip and looks up at Mon-El, who barely gave her star map a glance. “I just… I want to see them, and not just from my window. In person.”

That seems to grab a reaction. Mon-el’s jaw twitches and she looks at Kara, his height towering over hers. “You want to go outside?” He asks, voice demanding.

Kara falters. “I just—”

“I told you, Kara, outside is a dangerous place!” He exclaims. He runs his hand through his hair and shakes his head. “Do you know what lies beyond this tower? Ruffians, thugs, people out to hurt you. That injury you just healed me of was from the outside. And you still want to go out?”

Kara bites her lip, then opens her mouth to reason out with him, but he continues to talk. “There are a lot of things out there that can hurt you and cause you harm, Kara, and you’re too weak to take care of yourself. I’m the only one who can protect you.” His voice turns soft then, his eyes worried, and Kara’s need to see the floating lights is trampled by the guilt she feels at his concern. She should be happy and content like this—given everything she needs, protected like a rare flower. Mon-El loves her and only wants the best for her, after all.

Still, she longs for the outside world. She has read of many things in books, sees things from her window that she wants to examine up close, maybe even smell, touch, feel, but one of the things she wants to experience are the floating lights.

“But—”

“Kara,” Mon-El warns. He puts firm hands on her shoulders and squeezes, hard enough to be felt. Kara swallows.

“You’re right,” she relents with an apologetic smile and a sag of her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

Mon-El sighs and finally smiles at her. He lifts his hands and cups her cheeks. “Promise me you’ll never ask to leave this tower again.”

Kara bites her lip. She can see the blue of the sky from the window in her periphery. “I promise,” she says.

He seems to be satisfied by that. He kisses the top of her head. “I’ll be off to get more supplies. See you in a bit, my darling. I love you.”

“Take care,” Kara whispers, and watches him make way out the window, leaving her all alone again.

~

The sun is cruel on her pale skin now, but they can’t afford to stop running. Not now with the full strength of Argo City's knights on their tails. Tess is tempted to look back and see, but all she can focus on is putting one foot in front of the other. They have been running for a while now, unable to lose their tails, and they are already at the heart of the forest.

“Oh no,” Tess sighs when she realizes they have run into a dead-end. She can hear footsteps and hooves in the distance where they came from. They can't afford to run back. Thinking quickly, she turns to Corben and Max, both of them breathless too. “Give me a boost and I’ll pull you up.”

Corben frowns and reaches for Tess. “Give us the satchel first.”

Tess makes a face. “I can’t believe that after all we’ve been through together, you still don’t trust me.”

Corben doesn’t even blink. Tess sighs. “Thanks,” she mutters, then throws the satchel to Corben. The man slings it around his shoulder before assisting Tess with the climb up. The raven-haired woman lets out a grunt as she pulls herself up the ledge, and she sighs when she finally gets there.

“Alright, now help us up,” Max drawls, moving to make his way next, but Tess only smirks.

“Sorry,” she says with a tilt of her head. “My hands are full.” She shows the satchel she has lifted from Corben and gives the pair a two-finger salute before she makes a run for it. The last thing she hears is Max’s sharp cry of betrayal and Corben’s hissed I told you so, but the raven-haired thief doesn’t care; she doesn’t look back as she runs past the trees, trying to get deeper into the forest to put distance between her and the sound of hooves in the nearby distance.

~

She couldn’t believe it.

Rage courses through the Commander’s veins. Of all the things that could greet her this morning, it has to be the theft of the lost princess’s crown. Under her own command. She grits her teeth and kicks her horse to go faster, towards the direction of the thieves. Her father would never forgive her if the remaining tangible thing that the kingdom of Krypton held of their lost princess ended up being taken.

She would never forgive herself.

“Retrieve that satchel at all costs,” the Commander calls out to the knights riding behind her.

“Commander Alex,” a knight at her far right calls out, but she sees them before he can say anything. The two of the thieves—a bulky man who has anger for a face and a shorter one with an unkempt beard—seem to be trapped against the base of a small cliff. Her knights head to them, but Alex quickly notices that neither of them have the crown.

“Winn, James, with me,” she yells out to the two remaining behind her, and they take the uphill climb around the cliff. Scanning the area, Alex notices movement far ahead.

“There's the third one!” She points ahead. “I’m going to kill them.”

~

She is going to die.

Tess can’t breathe. Her legs burn and so does the sun against her skin, but she can’t afford to stop; not now that the knights seem to close the distance. She gasps for air and almost trips on a tree root. Ducking under a tree’s overgrown branch, she casts a glance behind her. It’s a wrong move, because she doesn’t see a low shrub she runs over. She sees the impact before she feels it, a wall of vines against a high wall of rock, and she braces herself.

Except she doesn’t feel the pain of crashing into solid boulder. Instead, she lands onto softer earth and grass. Tess is barely able to collect herself. Instead, she holds her breath and stays still. She hears the horses just outside the wall of vines, an irritated, angry huff and an order for the knights to scatter and keep looking.

When the knights seem to have gone far enough, Tess lets herself breathe. She gets up on shaky knees, fills her lungs with air and stumbles deeper into the part of the forest she found herself in. It seems to be hidden from the rest of the forest and the kingdom, what with most of it surrounded by a wall of rock—like a hollowed-out mountain of some sort, but the most curious part of it all is the lone tower in the middle.

“Circle around!”

The voice, sounding so close, makes Tess panic. She bolts to the direction of the tower just to keep herself out of sight. Without even second-guessing, she scales the wall and makes her way to the open window. She practically drags herself over the sill and all but sags in relief when she feels solid floor underneath her. She takes a deep breath, gets up, and looks out the window to where she has come from. There is no sight of the knights. Tess breathes in relief.

“Finally,” she sighs. She takes the satchel slung over her shoulder and grins at the sparkling crown in her sole possession. “Hello, darling.”

And then, darkness.

~

There is someone in her tower.

Kara’s heart pounds in her chest, against her ears; she hides beside a wooden post, hand gripping a frying pan and poised to attack, but she doesn’t see the stranger move. With a nervous swallow, she tiptoes to the prone figure on the floor. She thinks it’s a woman—the person has long dark hair, but her pale skin makes Kara remember Mon-El saying something about creatures with sharp teeth and thirst for blood. She stills for a moment, and using the handle of her pan, she slowly pushes away the hair from the person’s face. The creature’s features are sharp, jawline and cheekbone, hair dark as her skin is pale. Kara swallows, dips the handle of her pan to gently push the person’s upper lip to reveal her teeth.

No fangs.

Kara lets out a sigh of relief. The person stirs and groans, and mostly out of reflex, the blonde smacks her unconscious again.

~

After several attempts of dragging the unconscious stranger into somewhere more secure, Kara has managed to lock them up in the closet for her mops and brooms. She secures the door with a chair and when all is done, she stares in disbelief.

“I have a person in my closet,” Kara breathes out.

She swallows, blinks as the reality of the situation settles on her. “Oh dear,” she gasps. “I have a person in my closet.” A small grin makes its way to Kara’s lips, and she eyes her weapon with renewed interest. “Too weak to handle myself out there, Mon-El?” She says with a proud little laugh as she flips the pan to her other hand, only to hit her forehead with the handle. She winces and drops the pan altogether, making a dull thud on the wooden floor.

“This is a fluke. I can handle myself,” she mumbles, and she picks up the frying pan from the floor. She straightens when she hears Mon-El call out for her from the window. The grin returns to her lips, a foreign sensation akin to pride on her chest, and she quickly puts the pan on the table before running to the window.

“Kara! I have a surprise,” Mon-El calls out.

The blonde throws the rope down. “I do too,” she laughs.

“I bet my surprise is better!” He exclaims.

Kara chuckles as she moves to turn the wheel to pull Mon-El up. “I seriously doubt it,” she laughs to herself.

Her caretaker lifts himself over the window, basket in tow once more. He pulls Kara into a hug and he laughs, warm and cheerful. “I brought tomatoes and some cheese. We can bake your favorite flatbread for tomorrow. Surprise!”

Kara’s eyes light up at that, but she remembers the pressing matter at hand. Or rather, in her closet. “I have a surprise, too, Mon-El,” she starts, but the man moves to place the basket on the table. He eyes the frying pan curiously but he begins to show Kara the goods he brought.

“My dear Kara, you know I hate leaving you after a fight,” he says sullenly, giving Kara a soft look, “especially when I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.” He shrugs and covers the cheese with some cloth, then begins to inspect the tomatoes.

“About that, Mon-El—”

He sighs. “I hope you’re still not thinking about going to see the stars.”

“The floating lights,” Kara corrects. She makes her way to the closet where she keeps the stranger. “About that—”

“Because I’m pretty sure we’re already done talking about it,” Mon-El continues, leveling Kara with a glare. The blonde falters for a moment.

“No, no but listen,” she tries, hand hovering over the chair keeping the closet door locked. “I know you think I’m not strong enough to han—”

“No, I know you’re not,” Mon-El points out, and when Kara opens her mouth again to speak, he turns to her fully and crosses his arms. “Kara, I told you, we’re done talking about this.”

“But—”

“Enough!” He bellows. “You are not leaving this tower, Kara! Ever!”  

Kara’s hand freezes inches away from the chair and the rest of her body slows to a standstill. Her eyes widen in fear. She falters despite the distance they have from each other. There is cotton in her throat that she tries to swallow. Mon-El seems to remember himself and he runs his hands through his hair in defeat.

“Great. Now I’m the bad guy,” he surrenders with a heavy sigh, his features contorting with regret. Kara bites her lip and threads her fingers in front of her.

“I just- All I was going to say is that—” Kara sighs and barely meets his gaze. “I know what I want for my birthday now.”

Mon-El sighs tiredly. “And what’s that?”

“New paint?” She asks bashfully. “The one made from the white shells you once brought me.”

Mon-El breathes out heavily once more. “That’s a long trip, Kara,” he says. “Almost three days’ time.”

Kara puffs her cheeks and shrugs helplessly. “I just thought it’s- I mean, I think it’s a better idea than, you know.” She bites her lip. “Stars?”

He stares at her, as if studying her, and Kara squirms in his gaze. He looks guilty, and the knowledge of it weighs on Kara’s gut, but she offers him a small smile in attempts to appease him. He finally sighs and walks to her. He places a gentle hand on her shoulder, a stark contrast to his anger earlier.

“Will you be alright on your own?” He asks softly.

Kara smiles at him. “I know I’m safe as long as I’m here, Mon-El.”

He meets her gaze fully. His eyes are bright and patient, and for that she is thankful, and another weight settles on her chest. He kisses her forehead. “I’ll be back in three days’ time then, my dear flower. I love you.”

“Take care,” Kara whispers.

She watches him leave, and at the solitude she is given, Kara feels a foreign sort of appreciation finds home in her chest for the first time.

~

Tess becomes aware of the throbbing ache in her head as consciousness finds her.

“I know why you’re here, and I’m not afraid of you,” a voice says, and she blinks furiously as she tries to look for the source.

“What?” She mumbles, or she thinks she mumbles; she isn’t quite sure she has full grasp of her own body. She has a splitting headache, and she thinks she is… bound to a chair.

“Who are you?” The voice asks, and when Tess looks up, she finds her: a tall blonde, young woman, maybe her age or younger, in a pink and light purple dress, in her hand a frying pan poised threateningly at Tess’s direction. “And how did you find me?”

Tess groans at the realization that her headache might have been caused by that very frying pan. She eyes it warily and she focuses on the woman instead. She looks terrified, that much she can say. Her eyes are shockingly blue; it must be the light, Tess thinks, or the way those eyes are wide with both fear and wonder, and Tess thinks she is pretty.

“Hi.”

The blonde blinks. Tess blinks, too, realizing that breathless greeting came from her, and she shakes her head. This woman probably hit her in the head too hard.

“My name’s Tess Mercer,” she continues, but she shuts up when the blonde points the frying pan right to her face. Tess tries to move back but she can’t.

“Who else knows my location, Tess Mercer?” The blonde asks, voice almost threatening despite the audible tremor in it. Tess tries to lift her arms in defense, but only manages to bring her hands up perpendicular to the arm rests her wrists are bound to. She groans.

“All right, blondie—”

“Kara,” the blonde says. Tess stares at her for a moment.

“We’re not friends,” she says flatly, then sighs. “Look, here’s the thing, blondie, I’m just minding my business in the forest when I came across your tower and—”

Oh no.

Tess looks around in panic. “Where’s my satchel?”

Blonde crosses her arms. “I’ve hidden it where you can’t find it.”

The thief stares at her again. She eyes the room once more; it’s a small space, littered with few furniture, and she spots a vase just behind the woman. “It’s in that pot, isn’t it?”

The blonde’s eyes widen and she lifts the pan in her hand.

“Woah, slow down, I already have a concussion,” Tess cries out, trying to move back to no avail. Blondie—Kara—purses her lips. “Will you keep that stupid pan away? I’m pretty sure my head’s already bleeding.”

Kara bites her lip and actually pauses to check on Tess’s head. “It’s not,” she mutters, but Tess just rolls her eyes.

“Blondie,” she repeats with a glare. “I’m not here for you or whatever. I was being chased, I found your tower, and I climbed it, and then you knocked me out with your stupid frying pan and tied me up!”

“You’re an intruder!” Kara insists, waving her pan again.

“Keep that pan away!” Tess yells, pushing herself backwards, but she miscalculates and before she could stop herself, her chair crashes back and she lands on the floor with a groan.

“Are you okay?” Kara asks, hurriedly pulling her back up, and Tess glares at her as she blinks away the ache that throbs on her back.

“Ask me again when I’m not tied to this chair,” she huffs.

Kara bites her lip and seems to study Tess. The raven-haired woman stares right back.

“You’re telling the truth?” The blonde asks hesitantly.

“Why would I lie to you?” Tess shoots back, but then again, she could list many reasons. Kara purses her lips again and nods slowly.

“Okay,” she relents after a while. She points her frying pan towards Tess again and the raven-haired woman groans once more but Kara ignores her. “Alright, Tess Mercer, I’ll offer you a deal.”

“A deal,” Tess parrots dryly.

“Do you know the floating lights?” Kara asks, ignoring Tess.

The thief blinks. “Floating lights?” She scoffs. “You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?”

“Lanterns,” Kara gasps. “I knew they weren’t stars!”

Tess rolls her eyes, but it seems the blonde is too delighted with the confirmation that the floating lights weren’t stars to notice her displeasure.

“Listen, Tess Mercer,” Kara continues, leaning forward with one hand on the back of Tess’s chair. The raven-haired woman swallows at the sudden proximity, like this woman has no idea what personal space is. “This lantern thing is tomorrow night. You will act as my guide, take me to this lantern thing, then return me home safely.” She nods to herself. “Then I’ll give you your satchel back.”

She finally pulls away, and only then does Tess realize she hasn’t breathed. She gulps a lungful of air and laughs. “Listen, uh, Kara, was it?” She grins charmingly at the blonde. “Unfortunately, Krypton and I aren’t exactly friends right now so I can’t exactly take you anywhere.”

Kara frowns at that and she crosses her arms. “Something brought you here, Tess Mercer. Call it what you will—fate, destiny—”

“My dumb feet,” Tess mutters.

“—and I have made the decision to trust you—”

Tess rolls her eyes. “A horrible decision, really.”

“—but trust me when I tell you this—”

“Are you even listening to me?” Tess huffs as she struggles with her binds.

“You can struggle in that chair all you want but without my help, you can never get out, and you can never get your satchel back.”

Tess blinks at Kara at that. Interestingly, the terror she earlier found lingering on the blonde’s eyes has vanished, replaced with some emotion, almost akin to passion or hunger, and she thinks it’s attractive, for a moment, before she realizes what she is thinking. She shakes her head.

“Let me get this straight,” Tess drawls, eyeing Kara. “I take you to see the stupid lanterns, bring you back home, and you give me back my satchel.”

“I promise,” Kara says without skipping a beat.

Tess stares at her in disbelief.

“And when I promise something, I never ever break that promise,” the blonde adds. Tess snorts.

“Only people who break promises feel compelled to add that,” she notes.

Kara blushes. Tess smirks at it, but the moment passes and the blonde shakes her head, resolve back in her gaze. Tess sighs. “Fine!” She relents. “I’ll shake on it but my hands are tied.”

The blonde bites her lip, as if measuring Tess’s sincerity, but moments later she is pulling the knot around her wrists. Tess’s jaw drops at how easily the rope lets loose—she could’ve pulled that herself—and she drags her gaze from her binds to the blonde.

“Where on Earth did you learn that?”

Kara blinks and removes the ropes gently. “Books,” she murmurs. She inspects Tess’s wrists, fingers barely brushing around the pinkish marks on pale skin. Tess shudders lightly. “Did I hurt you?” The blonde asks.

Tess collects herself and scoffs, shakes her head as she rubs the sore spots on her wrists. “You should’ve asked yourself that when you hit my head with your stupid frying pan,” she mutters.

Kara, for her part, at least mumbles a sheepish apology.

~

The sun is high in the sky when they leave the tower. Or at least, when Tess leaves the tower. She makes her way down the wall, the way she came up, she said, while Kara watches from the window sill, the rope Mon-El has always used in her hands.

“Oy blondie, are you coming?” Tess calls out.

Kara swallows thickly. She looks out the window—the green, green grass waits for her, the soft earth, the trees, but she holds on tightly to the rope in her hands and grounds herself on the solid wood and brick of the window sill. This is it, she thinks, the sort of freedom she has wished for years, and yet. Her heart pounds in her chest, both in excitement and in terror, because what awaits her beyond this tower?

All the life she has read about in books, she knows, but also all the dangers Mon-El has warned her about.

“Blondie!” Tess calls out again. With a sigh and a death grip on her frying pan, Kara lowers herself to the ground.

~

The earth is much firmer than she had imagined, but it’s softer than the hardwood of the tower floors. The grass tickles her bare feet, like the feather of the rug Mon-El has once brought, but somehow… crisper, she isn’t sure; it smells fresh, like cold water, smells stronger than the soft scent she takes a whiff off during spring in the tower. As they walk farther away from the tower, Kara observes and absorbs more and more—the trees are tall and short and tiny and massive all the same, everything a green but in more shades that she could have possibly imagined; there are birds that are similar to the birds that have flown past her window and but so different, too, different in color and size and sound, and water is much cooler in the small pool Tess called a pond, and there are fish that she has only ever seen in pictures; there is a cave they walk past and a huge tree that is much bigger than her tower and animals she has never seen in person before, and Kara thrums with the life of everything around her that makes her realize she never really experienced life before.

Everything is new and vibrant and lively, and Kara takes it all with curiosity and hunger but at the same time, fear and doubt lingers in the back of her mind. A voice that sounds like Mon-El's tells her the world is a dangerous place and she will only get hurt out here. She grips her pan tightly and shuffles closer to Tess.

“You okay, blondie?” The woman asks.

“Kara,” the blonde mutters, but she only sighs and shrugs. “I’m fine.”

The thief chuckles. “Look, you don’t have to lie to me. I can see it in your eyes.”

“You can do that?” Kara asks.

Tess pauses and shakes her head, amused. “What’s in that pretty head of yours?” She asks as she plucks a berry from a nearby shrub to pop it in her mouth.

Kara bites her lip. “Nothing. Just…” She hugs her frying pan to her chest. “My caretaker. I’m worried I might worry him.”

Tess raises an eyebrow at that. “We can always go back if—”

“No,” Kara interrupts with wide eyes. She slams her mouth shut and stops walking. Tess only realizes she has a few steps ahead, and she turns to the blonde with a curious glance. “Sorry,” Kara murmurs.

“You don’t have to say sorry?” Tess replies easily. The blonde blinks, confused, but she only nods. Tess hums and waits until Kara is walking beside her before she talks again. “This… Caretaker person. Who’s he?”

Kara lets out a soft sigh. “Mon-El,” she says with a faint smile. “He takes care of me. Brings me food and books and paint in my tower.”

Tess nods slowly. “In your tower,” she echoes. “He keeps you there, you mean.”

When Kara nods, so easily like it is the most normal of things, Tess grits her teeth. “He keeps me safe,” Kara continues. She sighs again. “He says the world is a dangerous place and only he can keep me safe. That’s why I have this.” She grins and brings up her pan, turning to Tess with a proud little look only to hit her forehead with it. It makes Kara laugh, but Tess doesn’t seem too happy.

Kara bites back her laughter. Maybe it’s because Tess is technically her captive. She’ll apologize for it later.

~

Kara doesn’t know where they are. She is just following where Tess leads them—follows the woman closely, sure that the raven-haired woman will keep her safe despite her doubts, if only for the way Tess seems to care for her. She thinks, anyway, because of the way Tess keeps her just as close, looking back every moment or so to make sure Kara is still following.

Her stomach rumbles.

Tess laughs. “It was only a matter of time,” she says. “Come on.”

“Come where?” Kara asks.

The thief doesn’t say anything; instead, she walks past a large boulder and a few more trees, and Kara follows her without much choice. They come across a clearing, and ahead, the blonde finds a small wooden house. A sign hangs at the front of it. Snuggly Duckling, it reads.

“I love ducklings,” Kara blurts out.

Tess smirks at her. “You’ll love it there.”

~

Kara does not love it at the Snuggly Duckling.

When Tess pushes her past the doors, she is greeted with a rowdy crowd; people are yelling, fighting even, and they reek of something Kara isn’t familiar with but she decides that she doesn’t like it.

“Samantha!” Tess calls out as they weave their way through a pair of bulky men shaking hands aggressively—or something, Kara isn’t sure.

“Tess,” a tall brunette greets from behind the counter.

“Sam,” Tess says with a grin as she pushes Kara to sit on one of the chairs. The brunette, Sam, laughs.

“Who’s your friend?”

“This is Kara,” Tess says, patting the blonde’s shoulders. “I’m taking her to Argo to see the lanterns. She needs nourishment.”

Sam chuckles. “Pork and beans alright with you, dear?” She asks the blonde, while she hands Tess a tall mug of amber liquid.

Kara nods at Sam. “What’s that?” She asks Tess.

“Mead,” Tess mumbles before taking a huge gulp of her drink. Kara watches with wide eyes until Sam places a bowl of hot pork and beans in front of her.

“Argo, huh?” Sam asks Kara. “Are you sure you want to bring this woman to that city?”

Kara takes the bowl and the spoon offered her. “Yes,” she says with a nod as she starts to eat. “It’s my dream. We had a deal.”

Tess only shrugs. Sam laughs. “Very well,” the brunette says. “We’re all for dreams around this part. They’re all most of us have.” She hands Kara a glass of water.

They let Kara eat in silence. The blonde wants to ask if Tess is going to eat at all, but Sam only hands her a piece of bread she munches on as she drinks her mead.

“Sam!” A voice calls out, and no sooner than the voice echoed, a woman with short hair comes up to them at the counter.

“Lane,” Sam greets with a curt nod. “What’s—”

“Palace guards,” the Lane woman says. Kara looks at them curiously, but Tess quickly stands just as Sam pulls open the counter and gestures for Tess and Kara to go inside.

“Hide,” Sam hisses. Kara realizes what is happening then—perhaps the palace guards are looking for her. Maybe they are some of the people who want to take her away. She obeys and ducks under the counter as Tess tells her to keep quiet. She jumps when she hears the door slam open.

“We’re looking for a fugitive,” a voice announces. Kara wants to peek and see, but Sam is gesturing towards the back of the small space they are hiding. Kara looks up at the brunette, but Tess only murmurs a thanks before she is crawling to wherever Sam had pointed to. Kara quickly follows, not really knowing where to go, but when Tess ducks under the gap and disappears, she gasps and grins.

A secret passage.

She turns to Sam and smiles at her. “Thank you.”

“Go,” Sam grins.

Excitement brews in Kara’s veins all over again, and the commotion from the Snuggly Duckling is forgotten as she follows Tess deeper into the secret tunnel. A short distance later, Kara finds herself and Tess at a cave-like passage, dimly lit by a pair of torches. Tess takes one and leads Kara forward.

“Let’s hurry, blondie,” she says.

Kara nods. She follows quietly. “What did she mean?” She asks after a while. “When she said dreams are all you have?”

Tess only laughs. “Sorry, blondie. We don’t do backstories around these parts.” She smirks at Kara. “Feel free to share if you’re willing.”

Kara shrugs. “What do you want to know?”

The thief hums. “Well. If you want to see the lanterns so badly, how come you’ve never gone before?”

Kara bites her lip at that. Because Mon-El said the world is not a safe place. Because he said she can't handle herself, though so far she hasn’t been in much trouble. She shrugs. “I—”

She pauses when she realizes the earth is… trembling.

“Tess?” Kara cries out, reaching for the raven-haired woman. “Tess, what’s—”

“Mercer!”

Recognition dawns on Tess. Her eyes widen and she quickly grabs Kara’s hand. “Run, blondie!”

Kara glances back, just briefly, and from where they stand she sees a flicker of light in the darkness.

“Kara,” Tess repeats.

That snaps her from her curiosity. She runs as was told of her. The tunnel echoes with cries Kara recognizes as shouts from people calling out for Mercer—Tess, she realizes—along with some clanking of… metal, she thinks.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel and when they get out, Tess stops abruptly in front of her when she realizes they are on a cliff.

“What do we do, Tess?” Kara gasps, clutching the woman’s arm tightly. Tess looks around, trying to find a way out. The blonde turns to see behind them. The knights are closing in, and they don’t look pleased. “Tess!”

Tess puts her hands on Kara’s arms. “Do you trust me?” She asks. Kara blinks furiously.

“What?”

“Do you trust me?” Tess repeats.

Kara is barely able to whisper yes. Tess wraps one arm around her and then they are jumping off the cliff.

She thinks to regret her answer but then there are arms around her. Kara feels them land on something solid and itchy but doesn’t feel the impact, not entirely. She looks up from where she lies to find the knights looking down from the edge of the cliff. They look small from where Kara is, and she realizes that must have been a fall.

Tess groans. The sound is a low rumble that Kara feels against her ears, and only then does she put two and two together. Tess has absorbed most of the impact. Quickly but carefully pulling herself away, she realizes two things: One, they landed on an area full of dried branches and dead leaves.

Two, there is a branch sticking out of Lena’s left leg.

“Tess,” Kara cries, moving to look at the woman’s wound but not entirely able to do anything. The raven-haired woman pushes herself up with another groan to examine her injury.

“That’s it?” She laughs. “Why do I feel like death already?”

“It’s not funny,” Kara whimpers. She barely notices the tears that run freely down her cheeks. Tess just tilts her head and smiles as she reaches for the branch in her leg.

“You need to go, blondie,” Tess says. She takes a deep breath, puts one hand on her knee and wraps the other tightly on the wood. “Go. Run. They’re after me, not you.”

“I’m not going to leave you here,” Kara insists.

Tess inhales sharply, and with a swift movement she is pulling the branch clean off her leg. She barely makes a sound aside from a whimper held back with a bite of her tongue. It’s Kara who cries as she watches blood dribble from the wound. Tess glares at her.

“I told you to run, Kara,” she says again. She rips a part of her sleeve and pulls it into strips so she could wrap it around her wound. “Now!”

“I said I’m not going to leave you, Tess!” Kara cries again, helpless. “It’s my fault we’re here.”

The raven-haired woman stares for a moment and shakes her head. “If the knights catch me, I’ll be hanged for my crimes.” She smiles and looks down at her wound. “I’m good as dead anyway.” She sighs and extends her hand to Kara. “Lena. Lena Luthor. That’s—” She licks her lips. “That’s my real name. Thought you should at least know.”

Kara stares at the woman incredulously. She swallows, looks up at the edge of the cliff again. The knights are gone, which could only mean they are looking for a way down.

“You’re not going to die here,” she mutters. Mon-El will be utterly displeased if he were to find out, but she cannot let her guide die. Absolutely not. “Just trust me, okay?”

Tess—Lena—laughs. “What are you going to do, talk to them?”

Instead of answering, Kara kneels closer to Lena. She takes a deep breath and hovers her hands over the woman’s leg. She hears Lena call for her but she focuses on her task; she feels the warmth on her palms, something like the heat of the sun, and she barely hears Lena gasp as Kara lets the rush course through her. She sees brightness in front of her closed eyes. Only when she can feel the warmth of Lena’s skin on her palms does she dare open her eyes again.

Lena’s expression of utter shock and disbelief greets her.

“Can you stand now?” Kara asks.

“What—?”

“Can you stand?”

“What?”

“Lena,” Kara says as she stands. There is something odd about calling her that name now. “We have to run.”

Lena is at least able to stand now, except when she does, she looks at her leg with some kind of amazement and horror. Kara has to grab her hand and lead her to where she hopes is the correct direction before she even starts moving.

The sun begins to set and they run.

~

Lena says they have lost them. Kara isn’t really sure, but she trusts Lena, so when the woman suggests they make camp for the night, she agrees too. She helps Lena gather wood and watches her build a fire. Lena picks out some fruits and nuts they roast in the fire, and Kara thanks her more times than she could count. The woman seems to know a lot about surviving out here in the wild, and Kara thinks she made the right decision of asking—well, negotiating—Lena to be her guide.

Lena. Lena Luthor. Lena. It’s odd now how her name feels on her tongue, but it’s a sort of strange sensation that slowly begins to feel familiar.

Kara is munching on some berries when Lena breaks the silence.

“So,” she drawls, barely meeting Kara’s gaze. “How long have you had your… um, magic hands?”

The name makes Kara giggle. She puts a berry in her mouth and lifts her hands to look at them. “I don’t think anyone’s ever called them that,” she says softly, then shrugs. “I don’t know. Since forever?”

Lena stares, disbelieving.

Kara shrugs again. “Mon-El says it’s one of the reasons I have to be kept safe in the tower. Because many people would do anything to get their hands on me.” She stares at her hands and slowly clenches them into fists. “A gift like this has to be protected, he said. That’s why I never…”

Lena nods sullenly. “Why you never left that tower.”

Kara shrugs.

“And you’re still going to go back?”

The blonde bites her lip at that. “It’s complicated.” Lena looks like she is about to ask something more, so Kara brings up a question she has been itching to ask. “So. Tess Mercer, Lena Luthor? What’s with the many names?”

A dry laugh escapes Lena’s lips. She throws a piece of wood into the fire. “I’ll spare you the sob story of poor old me.”

Kara scoots closer. “I’d like to know if you’d let me?”

Lena turns to Kara then. Her eyes are wide and bright, twinkling with the light from the campfire, and Lena finds herself sighing. “I was born to a single mother named only Lena. My real father is a Luthor and he and his wife adopted me when my birth mother died when I was four, but they died when I was six,” she explains softly. “The Mercers adopted me, changed my name to Tess, but they weren’t really better parents, so I ran away.”

“And became a thief?” Kara teases lightly.

Lena laughs at that. “I had to find a way to pay for things.” She points at Kara. “You can’t tell anyone about this, okay? I’d rather be hanged.”

“We wouldn’t want that,” Kara supplies with a little smile.

Lena finds herself smiling back. She shakes her head and throws Kara a berry. “No, no we don’t.”

They slowly settle into silence, finishing their dinner and watching the fire burn. Kara could feel the warmth of Lena's skin against her arm—it feels foreign but oddly familiar at the same time, which is odd, but Lena doesn't say anything. Instead, she moves closer and offers Kara the rest of her meal.

After some time, Lena gets up. “I should get some more firewood,” she says with a nervous smile. She gestures vaguely behind her. "I'll be back. Promise." 

Kara nods. “Hey,” she calls out before Lena could get farther. The blonde tilts her head and smiles. “For the record, I think I like Lena Luthor more than Tess Mercer.”

Lena looks at Kara then, like she is seeing her for the first time, but she just nods and leaves.

“I thought she’d never leave.”

Kara’s eyes widen at the sound of the voice and she whirls around, her blood running cold when she finds Mon-El standing right behind her.

“M-Mon-El,” she gasps. “How did- How did you find me?”

The man simply shrugs and takes a step forward. “Oh, that’s easy, sweetheart. I just listened to the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that.” He grabs Kara by the arm. “We’re going home, Kara. Now.”

For the first time, ever, Kara tries to pull away from his grip. “No,” she resists. “No, you don’t get it, Mon-El, I’ve been on an incredible journey and I’ve seen and learned so much. I don't want to go back yet.” She bites her lip. “I met someone.”

Mon-El rolls his eyes. “Yes, right, the thief. You must be proud.”

“She’s my- She's my friend,” Kara defends.

“Friend?” Mon-El scoffs and begins to tug Kara towards the other direction. “That’s insane, Kara. She’s a thief. This is why you can’t go out in the real world. You’re too naive. Look at you!” He finally drops his hold and gestures to all of Kara. “Do you really think she’d be friends with you?”

“She—”

“This is why she’s here with you,” Mon-El says. He throws a satchel to Kara’s feet, and the blonde’s eyes widen at the sight of the crown that sparkles inside it. “Go ahead, give it to her. She’ll leave before you can even blink.”

“That’s not true!”

Mon-El laughs sharply. “It is. You know it is. And when she leaves you, don’t come crying to me.”

He scowls at Kara and leaves the blonde staring at the space where he stood, his words ringing in her ears. She looks down at the satchel by her feet and, with a moment of hesitation, takes it to hide it away in a bush.

When Lena returns, Kara is quiet. The raven-haired woman gives the other a concerned glance. “Is everything okay?” She asks, setting down the firewood. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Kara nods anyway. “Yes,” she says with a small smile. “Just- Just tired.”

Lena nods. She begins unbuttoning her vest. Kara blinks at her. “What are you doing?”

The thief laughs. She removes her vest and hands it to Kara. “It gets colder. It's not much, but it'll help,” she tells the blonde. “Go to sleep. I’ll keep guard.”

Kara looks at her. Lena just raises an eyebrow—a surprisingly intimidating tactic—so the blonde obeys, quietly scooting over and laying on the ground with Lena’s vest as blanket. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“I’ll nap here and there,” Lena assures. She smiles at Kara, one that reaches her eyes, and the light of the fire brings out the sharpness of her jawline better. Kara likes to think this is what books meant when they describe something as beautiful. “Go get some rest. It’s your big day tomorrow,” Lena says.

“Good night,” she tells Lena.

~

“—hell! Kara, wake—”

Kara hears a groan of pain. Her eyes fly open, and when she whirls her attention to the sound of Lena’s voice, she finds her raven-haired guide struggling with a knight—one of the knights chasing them the day before. The knight’s helmet is nowhere to be found and Kara realizes it’s a woman, with short red hair and angry eyes.

“Hey!” Kara cries out, getting up and pulling the knight off of Lena. The knight growls and easily pushes Kara away. The blonde lands on her behind on the grass with a little oof, while Lena takes the distraction and throws a punch square on the woman’s jaw.

“Attacking a sleeping woman is cowardice!” Lena exclaims as she rushes to Kara’s side. She helps the blonde up and urges her to run. The knight draws her sword.

“You’re a thief,” she hisses.

Lena hides Kara behind her. “Run, Kara,” she says, but the blonde shakes her head.

“You followed us off the cliff?” Kara asks. “Please tell me you didn’t jump, I- Are you okay?”

The redheaded knight looks confused for a moment, then she shakes her head, as if focusing herself. “Shut up,” she says through gritted teeth. She turns to Lena once more. “You’re coming with me.”

Lena tries to take a step back and once more whispers for Kara to run, but the blonde puts her hand on Lena’s bicep to stop her. She looks at the knight. “Can you just please pretend you never saw us here?” Kara asks.

“Who do you think you are?” The knight demands, sword gleaming with the morning light.

Kara steps around Lena. The thief stops her with a hand on her shoulder, but Kara pushes on. “My name is Kara,” she says with a little wave.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” The knight scoffs. “This woman stole our lost princess’s crown!”

“Do you see it with me?” Lena says with a little scoff. “Clearly, I don’t have it.”

The knight takes another step. Kara keeps her stand in front of Lena. “I’ve read about that,” she says. “But. Unfortunately, I- Um, you heard Lena. She doesn’t have it.”

“Who's- I don't care. She’s coming with me,” the redhead insists, though her voice wavers and there is a furrow in her eyebrows, like she is confused. “I don’t care who you think you are—"

“Please,” Kara says with a shake of her head. “It’s my birthday and I really, really need her to take me to see the floating lights.” She bites her lip. “Please? Pretty please.”

“Look, blondie—”

“I said my name is Kara,” the blonde repeats, a confused tone creeping in her voice. The knight just looks annoyed as she looks at Lena, then at Kara, back at Lena, then at the blonde again.

“What?”

~

Surprisingly, Commander Alex, as she has introduced herself, agrees somewhat. She sheathes her sword back but keeps a sharp glare on Lena. Kara is all smiles again, thanks the knight with a hug and a kiss on her cheek.

“Have you ever seen the floating lights?” Kara asks Alex as they make their way to the kingdom. The knight is hesitant, but she offered to come with them, said she was on her way back anyway. Lena knows it’s a lie and that Alex is just keeping an eye on her, but the knight keeps throwing curious glances over at Kara. Lena can’t bring herself to care.

“Floating- Oh, you mean the lanterns,” Alex grumbles. “I have, since I was a child.”

Lena snorts. “Hasn’t that been going around for twenty years?”

Alex rolls her eyes and kicks a branch in front of her. “If you’re implying I'm old—”

“I wasn’t implying anything,” Lena laughs.

“That’s amazing though,” Kara beams at the knight. “Is it really as beautiful as it looks from afar?”

Alex furrows her eyebrows at Kara. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve only ever seen it from my tower,” Kara explains. She gasps when she sees pretty flowers by a shrub ahead of her. She skips to the plant and admires its bright purple and yellow colors, touches its petals, before giggling to herself.

Alex looks at Lena. The thief looks displeased.

“A tower?” Alex asks with a frown. “Does she mean...”

“It’s her first time outside her tower,” Lena explains.

A dark look passes over Alex’s face. Lena sees anger in her eyes, anger that she feels herself.

They arrive at the kingdom grounds a little over noon. The travel was mostly quiet, with Lena keeping an eye on Kara and Alex keeping an eye on both of them. Kara, on the other hand, stopped every so often to literally smell flowers. It’s understandable, considering if Lena assumed correctly, Kara had never even seen actual flowering plants before. The thought of what Kara had possibly gone through in that tower bears worse ideas in her head. Alex seems to be upset, too. Lena is sure they are thinking of the same thing.

~

Argo City is full of color, life, and celebration. Lena finds it odd, considering they are technically celebrating the anniversary of the day they lost their young princess, but she guesses a day of celebration is better than marking the said day for grieving.

Kara takes in everything with child-like, wide-eyed wonder; she points at so many things and asks so many questions that Lena and Alex barely keep up with answers. Lena ducks out of the knights’ sight when they walk past, only for Alex to roll her eyes, but at least the Commander doesn’t try turning her in. Lena distantly wonders if Kara had some sort of magic words or something similar aside from her magic hands, that made her so charming, that made people want to do her bidding. It would be the only way to explain why Lena agreed to bring her to the kingdom in the first place. It would definitely explain why Alex isn't dragging her feet-first to the dungeons—that, and the weird way the knight keeps looking at Kara, like she is trying to remember her or something. Lena just assumes it's so she could memorize Kara's face, and then the blonde would have her own wanted posters right beside Lena's, when all of this is over.

They get lunch in front of a small house that served freshly-baked cheese bread and dumplings. Kara eats the bread quickly and takes the bowl of the steamed-and-fried dumplings Lena bought for her as they walk down the festive streets. People are singing and dancing, painting the walls and brick roads with red and yellow suns.

Kara finds a line of people leading to a little shrine near the middle of the town. She takes Lena’s hand and tugs her along so Kara could see what they are in line for. Alex follows, however begrudgingly. There is a mural of a man and a woman in regal outfits. The King and Queen, Kara thinks. The woman carries a golden-haired baby in her arms, all wide blue eyes and bright smile.

“It’s for the lost princess,” a girl at the front of the line tells her younger companion, as she places a little bouquet of flowers in front of the shrine. It joins the offerings of flowers and many other colored things Kara doesn’t know the names of.

“The lost princess?” Kara asks, turning to Lena. “So it’s not just a myth, then?”

Lena smiles and shakes her head. “It’s not,” she replies. “Maybe to these children who grew up only to stories of her. I think I was barely three, I think, when it happened.”

Kara nods slowly. “What happened?”

"She was taken when she was a young child, maybe a little over one," Alex chimes in, stepping beside Kara. "By the fallen Queen of what was formerly known as Daxam. At least, that is what they tell us knights. The Daxamites were Krypton's sworn enemy, at least before their kingdom collapsed more than two decades ago."

Kara nods slowly, as if taking in the story with careful consideration. Lena eyes the knight, who still had a curious look in her eyes as she watches the blonde. "Here," Alex says, handing Kara a piece of fabric. Kara examines it; it's a red, square piece of fabric with a yellow print of the sun in the middle. On the border of the fabric are figures she can't read. "Those are Kryptonian words, a prayer the people sing to Rao during the festival. The princess was believed to be the borne of Rao himself, and the King and Queen believe Rao will find a way to bring her back."

“Didn't know you knew so much about this,” Lena notes with an amused laugh.

Alex glares at her. "Shut your mouth, Mercer, or I'm killing you right here."

"Her name is—"

Lena turns to Kara with a glare but the blonde cuts herself off with a giggle.

"You little—" Lena stops abruptly when she hears cheering from her left, and when the pair looks to the direction of the sound, they find a band setting up in the midst of a growing crowd. A man cheers and brings up a stick, and when he strikes the large drum in front of him, everyone else claps. The band with him starts playing a song with instruments Kara has only ever read about; it’s catchy, and soon she starts swaying along with the music as the people begin to clap. A pair of the townsfolk walk into the middle of the plaza to begin dancing. Kara giggles and watches them. More people join them, dancing to the catchy beat and clapping their hands along with the song. Kara turns to Lena with a grin, gestures behind her, and joins the dancing—she doesn’t exactly know what to do, but she follows the woman in front of her and later, she moves in rhythm with everyone as they circle the plaza, their feet moving in time with the beat and their hands clapping along with the music.

Kara laughs and laughs. The sound of it is music in itself, and Lena finds herself captivated as she watches the blonde dance. It must be freeing for her, this feeling that is as foreign as it is new, and renewed anger rushes through her veins at the thought of how much of life Kara had missed in that tower.

“Who did you say she was?” Alex asks beside her. Lena glances at the knight.

“Kara,” Lena answers simply. “Pretty sure she told you that thrice. Weren't you listening?”

“And the person who kept her in the tower?” Alex continues.

Lena grits her teeth. “Some man called Mon-El.”

A dark look passes on Alex’s features again. Lena notices her jaw twitch. “You’re sure?” The knight asks.

Lena nods. She is about to ask if Alex knew him, and if she did, where could Lena find him, but Kara is in front of her all of a sudden, all smiles and breathless laughter. Kara takes her hand.

“Dance with me!” She says excitedly, pulling Lena with her into the throng of dancing people.

“I don’t dance,” Lena says, but she lets herself be dragged anyway. Alex laughs behind her but Lena gives her a glare; the knight only smirks as Kara circles around Lena, claps, and dances with the life of a thousand songs.

Not even the sun itself shines as bright as she does in this moment, Lena thinks, and when she trips on nothing at the thought, Kara helps her up with a little secretive laugh that has both of them blushing.

~

When the afternoon wears off into dusk, one of the palace knights comes over to the plaza to announce that the boats are ready. Alex’s Captain finds her and tells her to lead a squad to the western docks, but she greets Kara a happy birthday and glares at Lena before she leaves. The townspeople make their way to the boats and Kara mindlessly follows them until Lena takes her hand and gestures the other way.

“Where are we going?” Kara asks, a smile on her face as she follows the raven-haired woman.

“Well.” Lena grins and shrugs. She leads Kara to a wharf where a little boat awaits. Kara gasps at the sight of it and her blue eyes sparkle with such excitement that Lena barely breathes out the words. “Best day of your life, I figured you should have a decent seat.”

There are arms around Lena’s neck before she could even finish her sentence. “You’re the best, Lena,” Kara whispers. Lena manages a smile and helps the blonde to the boat. Kara yelps when the boat sways a little, but Lena grabs her hands and helps her stay steady.

“Careful. We don’t want to go swimming now, do we?” Lena teases as she helps Kara sit on one side of the boat. 

Kara giggles. "Maybe next time," she says, her hands a firm on the side of the boat. There is hope in her voice and a tinge of sadness, but Lena takes it as half a promise and instead, assures Kara she won’t let them topple over. The raven-haired woman rows them away from the shore, stopping only until they are further into the waters and are given a view of the kingdom a short distance away. The sky is dark save for the little dots of light from where the Kryptonians are readying their lanterns. The raven-haired woman lights up the lamps on the boat, basking the two of them in their soft, orange glow.

Noticing that Kara is quiet, Lena reaches out to touch her arm worriedly. “Are you okay?” She asks.

Kara turns to her with a tight smile and a shrug. “I’m terrified,” she admits. At Lena’s confused look, Kara sighs. “I’ve been looking out a window for so long, dreaming about what it might feel like when those lights rise in the sky.” Kara looks to the direction of the kingdom and sighs, heavy with the weight of her own expectations. “What if… What if it’s not everything I dreamed it would be?”

Lena takes in Kara’s profile. There is worry in the corner of her eyes that she wants to soothe. “Hey,” she whispers, and she hesitates but puts her hand on Kara’s on the side of the boat and gives it a squeeze. “It will be,” she promises.

The blonde looks down at their joined hands. She smiles, then turns to Lena with a bashful look. “And what if it is?” She bites her lip. “What do I do then?”

Lena chuckles and pulls away. She doesn’t miss the way Kara’s hand shifts, as if to chase her hand, but instead the blonde pulls her hands back to place them on her lap.

“That’s the good part I guess,” Lena says. “You get to go find a new dream.”

Kara looks at Lena then, wide-eyed, and even the dimness of their surroundings couldn’t hide how bright her blue eyes are, and the rage Lena feels on her behalf for missing all the life in the world takes a backseat. There is a foreign feeling that settles in her chest, something warm and hopeful, like the adrenaline rush she feels when she runs away from trouble but in this moment, it almost feels like she is running towards it.

“Thank you for being here,” Kara whispers.

Lena swallows the cotton in her throat and shrugs. She wants to tell Kara that she wasn’t here by choice, but the words don’t come. Not when they aren’t the truth.

Movement distracts Kara. She turns to the direction of the kingdom and gasps when she sees them—in the distance are dots of light slowly floating their way towards the sky. Her mouth falls open in awe; here she finally is, after dreaming of this moment. The lights fly into the sky like fireflies. Their boat moves, and when Kara glances to Lena, the woman is rowing them forward. The first lantern that lands on the water near the boat makes Kara gasp. She points at it and calls for Lena. The thief doesn’t think she has ever seen someone so curious and excited, like Kara herself is the embodiment of wonder.

Lena lights up the two lanterns she brought. Kara almost cries, then, but before she takes the one Lena offers, she shakes her head.

“I have something for you, too,” she whispers. She produces Lena’s satchel, hidden all the while under her dress. Lena looks down at it, surprised and amused. Kara bites her lip. “I should have given it to you before, but I was just scared you’d…” Kara sighs and meets Lena’s eyes. “I’m still scared but... I think I’m braver this time. You know what I mean?”

Lena bites back a smile and gently sets down the satchel, her focus solely on Kara. “I think I do,” she whispers.

Kara smiles and takes one of the lanterns. They let them fly together with Kara’s awed gasp. Everything has a soft warm glow as more lanterns land on the water, and Kara takes it all in with a thirst for the life she never really experienced. 

“It’s beautiful,” Kara says.

Lena sighs, eyes still on Kara. “Yeah.”

~

When the event is over and most of the lights die down, Lena starts to row them back to the shore. Distant lights from across the lake that aren’t from the festival lanterns take her attention however, and she lets out a breath.

“Is everything okay?” Kara asks. Lena turns to her with a tight smile.

“Yeah. Uh, there’s just something I need to take care of, if you don’t mind.” It’s not exactly a lie. When Kara nods, Lena mentally prepares herself as she rows their boat to the other side. When they arrive at the beach, Lena takes the satchel with the crown. There is worry in Kara’s eyes that she tries to soothe with a hand on the blonde’s.

“I’ll be right back,” Lena promises. “Wait for me, okay? I’ll deal with Alex about this, don’t worry.” She grins and lifts the satchel, and when Kara nods, she follows the pair of lights down the shore.

“There you are!” The thief exclaims with a nervous laugh as she makes out the two figures waiting. Corben is leaning against a boulder, sharpening a knife, while Max greets Lena with crossed arms and the look of displeasure on his face. “I’ve been searching for the two of you since we got separated. Beard’s coming out nicely, Max.”

Max only scowls. Lena tilts her head and throws the satchel to him. “Anyway,” she chuckles, “Sorry I split but the good news is the crown is all yours, how about that?”

“Holding out on us again, Mercer?” Corben says lowly. Lena’s friendly—and maybe half-anxious—smile falters as he drags his gaze from his knife to meet hers.

“What are you talking about?” Lena asks. Max drops the satchel to the ground and Lena’s jaw drops, but she doesn’t have time to process what is happening as the two men corner her.

“We heard you found something, Tess,” Max explains. He grabs Lena’s wrist; the raven-haired woman groans in pain but Max only tightens his hold. “Something more valuable than that crown.”

Corben smirks down at her and holds up his knife, its blade glinting with the light from the lanterns. “We want her instead.”

~

Kara has counted exactly sixteen more lanterns left lit up at the kingdom that she could see from across the water. She sits by the boat, waiting for Lena’s return like she promised. The night is growing cold and dark, and she is thankful for the big bright moon. She doesn’t think it looks as beautiful like this from her tower, and she looks at it for some time, trying to preserve the image of it in her memory for her to paint when she returns.

She isn’t looking forward to it, but it’s a reality she has to face.

When she hears footsteps, she whirls her attention to the direction of it and lets out a relieved laugh. “I was starting to think you ran off with the crown,” she says with a teasing tone. “Alex would have my head on—”

“Oh, she did,” a voice says. Unfamiliar. Male. Definitely not Lena. Fear runs through Kara, making her freeze, and as the footsteps grow closer she makes out two men emerging from the shadows.

“Where’s—no, Lena wouldn’t—” Kara swallows thickly, not knowing what to do. Tears prick her eyes; she doesn’t believe them. Lena promised. “She wouldn’t,” she repeats, voice wavering.

The men laugh. “See for yourself,” the one with the beard says, gesturing to the waters.

So Kara does.

There, in the distance, is a small boat making its way straight back to the kingdom, a sole passenger on it. Long hair and a sharp jawline that Kara could recognize anywhere, in her hand the glint of the precious stones that made the crown so valuable.

“Lena,” Kara sobs, the tears trailing down her cheeks now. Betrayal overcomes the fear she feels. In the back of her mind, she remembers all the books she had read that tell about some great loves and horrifying heartbreaks. Ever since she was young, she had wondered how those would feel—she has long recognized that reading something isn’t the same as experiencing it, after all. What she felt for Lena in the two days Kara had been with her almost seemed like the beginnings of that great love she read about: the pounding of her heartbeat, the fluttering in her stomach, the untethered joy of one's company.

And what she feels now, perhaps, is how those horrifying heartbreaks feel like—like her chest has been ripped open, like everything that made her Kara has been taken from her.

“Fair trade,” the other man says, stepping closer to Kara. “A crown for the girl with the magic hands?”

“No,” Kara cries. She can’t do this. She feels empty, and she doesn’t think she can handle fighting off these two full-grown men. She sees one of them bring out a sack, and Kara, tired now, just wants to give up.

“Kara!”

The voice is familiar. Kara turns to the direction of the source and finds Mon-El, who immediately rushes to the blonde. The two thugs meet him halfway, and before one of them could throw a punch, Mon-El is already picking what looked like a branch from the ground and uses it as a weapon. He hits the bearded one by the head, causing him to collapse to the ground, then punches the other one in the stomach. The other man grunts. Mon-El calls for Kara, kicks the thug down, and as he is grunting in pain on the earth, her savior runs to her.

“Oh, my precious girl,” Mon-El cries out, relief in his voice. Kara feels the tears burn on her eyes and cheeks as she throws her arms around him.

“Mon-El,” Kara sobs.

“Are you alright?” He asks, quickly pulling away to look at Kara and search for injuries. “Are you hurt?”

“How did you find me?” Kara asks through the tears.

“I was so worried about you, Kara,” Mon-El explains. “So I followed you. And I saw them attack you and—” He turns and looks at the men on the ground, moaning in pain. “We should go. Before they come to.” He grabs Kara’s hand and tugs her to the direction of the forest. Kara doesn’t budge as she spares one last glance to the water, where Lena’s boat sails straight back to the kingdom.

“I warned you about her, Kara,” Mon-El says, his voice soft and full of regret. Kara fails to bite back another sob, but Mon-El holds her dearly, like she is all that matters to him, and Kara regrets breaking his trust. And for what? For floating lights? For the illusion of life?

For this agonizing heartache?

“I’m sorry, Mon-El,” Kara cries, but Mon-El hushes her.

“It’s alright, my flower,” he says. “Let’s go home.”

~

Lena comes to at the sound of commotion. She feels a searing headache. She blinks her eyes open, lids heavy with exhaustion, and the first thing she sees is a knight rushing to her. The next are the ropes that render her immobile. Her hands are tied to the wheel of the boat, and wrapped around her right hand is the leather of a satchel.

In it, the crown.

Realization dawns on her, but by then it’s too late. Several knights make sure the ropes around her stay and keep her secure, even as she struggles against them. She screams for Kara as she looks around, desperate to find the now-familiar blonde hair. She can’t find her. Lena manages to elbow someone, but someone hits her on the back of her head. The ache throbs even behind her eyes. Darkness claims her again, and the last thing she sees is a knight with short red hair, ducking out of and away from the chaos by the dock.

~

“Let’s get this over with, Mercer,” the captain—J’onn, Lena thinks, at least if she remembered correctly, from the first time she had been in one of these very cells—says. It’s the day after. Her thoughts are on overdrive, making her unable to sleep, and there are bags under her eyes but all she could think about during the final day she was given was Kara.

Lena drags her gaze from the tiny window that offered her a view of the bright afternoon sky outside to meet his. He looks sullen, almost, and a sinking feeling settles on her gut.

“Where are we going?” She asks anyway. J’onn doesn’t say anything. Lena sighs and scratches the phantom itch of coarse hemp against the column of her throat.

She can’t die yet. Not when she doesn’t know what happened to Kara. She is terrified of what Max and Corben could have done to her.

J’onn gestures for the two knights behind him to take Lena way. Lena bites on her tongue to hold back the tears of helplessness and hopes the pain would will away the images of Kara, being bound and sent to the highest bidder—or worse. The metallic taste of blood drowns her tongue and her arms pulse with the pain of being gripped too hard, but the awful thoughts stay.

Maybe death is an easier way out, she thinks.

~

“I did warn you about her,” Mon-El says again. It had been a fitful night before and Kara is still tired, and her exhaustion becomes heavier with all the foreign feelings in her chest every time Mon-El brings her up. He opens the curtains in her room, welcoming the late afternoon sun, before walking to sit on the edge of her bed. "I really hope you learned your lesson. The world is dark and selfish and cruel, my darling flower." He sighs and reaches for Kara's hand. "If it finds even the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it."

Kara doesn't say anything. She lies still, distantly wondering when the ache would go away. None of her books talked about this ache—they had mentioned some measure of it, some form of pain or the other, but it doesn't capture how the harrowing emptiness inside her makes her want to just disappear. For all the things she had done to keep her sane in the tower, she doesn't think anything could help her now. None of her books tell her how to heal this ache, and not even her own healing hands helped. She knows, because she tried: held her hands against her chest and willed for whatever power she is supposed to have to heal her heart, that for some reason still beat despite the emptiness she feels, held her hands there until her skin chaffed and bruised, but nothing.

Mon-El sighs again, squeezes her hand, and tells Kara he will start preparing her meal before he is leaves for the town.

When he exits the room, Kara shifts on the bed to lie on her back. The ceiling of her room is full of paintings—of the sun and the stars, the trees and clouds, imitations of the life she had only ever seen in pictures but had experienced in that short time she had gone out of her tower. She wonders if it was worth it—if all this ache was worth feeling grass on her very feet, touching lake water on her fingertips, if it was worth laughing and dancing like she had never lived before.

If all this pain she was feeling was worth the foreign but beautiful and welcome feelings she had felt for Lena. 

Kara bites back another sob. She takes the only reminder of her adventure from her secret dress pocket, where she had kept it—Alex's gift, the fabric with the sun on it. She studies the Kryptonian writings carefully, and when she turns it around does she only notice the faint but careful golden script written behind the painting of the sun.

For Kara Zor-El, our lost Princess
May Rao guide you home

~

Lena decides to cooperate, halfway through the walk down the damp hallways of the dungeons. The cuffs are heavy around her wrists, rubbing against the raw skin where Corben had tied her up, but not even the annoying sting could distract her from her thoughts.

When she sees Max in the corner of her eye, she almost chalks it up to her imagination. Except he really is there, locked up behind bars, and Lena sees red. She shoulders one of the knights and rushes to his cell, quickly grabbing him by the collar and pulling him to her, slamming him against the bars. He grunts.

“Who told you about her?” Lena snarls.

Max doesn’t even try to lie. “It wasn’t us! It was the guy!”

Mon-El. “I’m going to kill him,” Lena growls. There are hands on her shoulders all of a sudden, tearing her grip away from Max. She tries to fight them again, tries to find a way out, because anywhere else would be safe for Kara as long as he is away from that scum. “You don’t understand!” She yells. “She’s in trouble, I have to—” She kicks a guard, who punches her on the stomach. Lena coughs. 

~

"Are you from Daxam?"

There is a clattering of a knife against plate as Kara's question, albeit soft, echoes through the quaint kitchen of her tower. Mon-El chuckles, and he turns to Kara with an expression that tries and fails to hide his surprise.

"Don't scare me like that, my dear," he says, shakes his head, and returns to his task.

"I remember," Kara says, walking further into the kitchen with careful steps and watching Mon-El continue chopping the vegetable he is preparing. "I... There was a woman here, when I was much younger. Before you came around. Was she the fallen queen of Daxam?"

Mon-El laughs again. "What silliness are you talking about, Kara?"

"I'm the princess of Krypton, aren't I?"

The man finally stops his task. He turns to Kara with an incredulous expression. "Are you hearing yourself, my love? Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?"

"I have memories of a man and a woman who I think are my parents," Kara says softly. "You told me they were my imagination."

"Of course they—"

"They were- I've seen them," Kara insists. "In the kingdom."

"The kingdom again?" Mon-El shakes his head. "I told you, it's dangerous out there—"

Kara scoffs. "I’ve spent my entire life hiding away in this tower because you said I'm safer here."

"Kara—"

"But all this time, I should have been hiding away from you."

"Flower, listen to me—"

But Kara doesn't. She shakes her head and makes her way to the window. Still only way out, after all these years. Her escape to her freedom.

"Where will you go?" Mon-El exclaims, running after her. He grabs her by the arm. Kara winces in pain but tries to push him away. Mon-El's grip tightens. "She won’t be there for you, you know."

Kara's eyes widen. "What did you do to her?"

Mon-El smirks. "That criminal is to be hanged for her crimes, as she deserves."

The blonde gasps and her eyes water. The ache in her chest tightens again and she feels cotton in her throat. "No—"

"Now, now, Kara," Mon-El whispers. "It’s all right. Listen to me. Everything is as it should be." He reaches out to pull Kara to his chest, but Kara pushes him away.

"No!" Kara takes a shuddering breath. "You were wrong about the world. About me. And I will never let you take my life away from me again!" She runs off the direction of the window again, but Mon-El grabs her once more. He holds her by her forearms, so tightly that she feels his nails dig on her skin.

"You want me to be the bad guy, Kara Zor-El?" He growls. "Fine. I'll be the bad guy."

~

All fight has left Lena. She drags her feet across the stone floors of the hallway, barely giving attention to why they had stopped in front of a closed door.

"What is this?" J'onn demands. He pounds his fist on the door. "Open up!"

"What's the password?" A voice says from the other side of the door. Lena lifts her head; it sounds... familiar.

"Stop this nonsense now," J'onn says, pounding on the door again.

"Come on, man, you're not even trying," the voice says again. There is a sound of clicking. Lena braces herself, but so do the guards beside her, who reach for their swords.

"Hey Mercer!" The voice says again. Sam. Lena grins. The door opens, and sure enough, the women and patrons of Snuggly Duckling are on the other side, wielding their weapons. "Run!"

Sam yells and charges forth; the guards beside Lena take a step backward, but Sam and her crew attack. Lucy kicks the guard to Lena's right and breaks the thief's chains with her sword. "Run," she tells Lena, too, and Sam turns to her with a wink.

"Tell the redhead I said hi!"

Lena runs. She follows the endless maze of the dungeons, and when she finds the light at the end of the tunnel, she regrets not grabbing a sword on her way out. Still, she readies herself and lifts her fists up, readying herself for battle.

"What took you so long?" Alex says as a greeting. Lena blinks a couple of times when she realizes this wasn't a dream; the commander was indeed waiting for her by the exit, a horse in tow as she looked around nervously. "Look, your friends may be able to hold them off, but I have to—"

"You did this?" Lena interrupts. Alex makes a small noise.

"You have to return for Kara," Alex says.

Lena opens her mouth to say something—Why does Alex care? What does she know that Lena doesn't? Why did she help her?—but Alex shoves the reins of the horse to her hands. "Now! Go!"

Lena nods. She mounts the horse, and with a grateful nod at the Commander, she rides for the tower. Everything is a blur; anger and fear courses through her veins and she apologizes over and over to the horse as she kicks his side and wills him to go faster.

Kara. She has to find Kara.

~

When she arrives at the wall of vines deep in the heart of the forest, Lena practically jumps off of the horse and runs straight to the tower, scales up its brick walls as if she had it memorized. She calls out for Kara, her voice cracking, but there is only silence. Her hands are trembling and she cuts her left palm on a jagged edge but she doesn't stop until she is pulling herself over the window sill and she collapses on the wooden floor of the room inside the tower.

She finds the familiar blonde sitting on the floor, hear head down, golden hair covering her face. Lena lets out a heavy sigh, her shoulders sagging with gratitude and relief as her worries ebb away.

"Thank Rao," Lena chokes out. She takes a step forward, meaning to ask Kara how she is, but she realizes Kara's hands are chained together on her lap. Kara looks up, her eyes swollen and red-rimmed with tears. The relief Lena feels is replaced by dread, but before she could do anything, a sharp pain blooms from her left side.

"Thank Rao," a voice echoes, sarcastic and furious. Mon-El's figure looms beside her, on his face a scowl, and he digs the knife deeper one more time. Lena groans in pain. The man pushes Lena, and the thief falls to the floor with a thud and a grunt.

"Lena," Kara sobs, and she gets up to run to Lena, only for Mon-El to grab her by the arm to keep her where she stands.

"Look what you've done, Kara," Mon-El sighs. Lena whimpers in pain as she presses her hand against her wound. She pulls away to look at her hand, groans when she sees the bright red of her own blood. Her vest is stained red now, too. Lena sits up, but the pain far too much for her to handle and she cries out. She manages to push herself up against the nearby shelf by the window entrance to keep her hand against her wound.

"Don't worry, no one will know you made me hurt her, Kara," Mon-El says as he forces Kara to walk to the window. "Our secret will die with this thief. Now let's go." The blonde struggles but Mon-El is stronger; even so, Kara doesn't relent. She thrashes and tries to pull away from the man, helplessly hits him with her fists and the metal of her chains. "Kara, enough! Stop fighting me!"

"I won't stop," Kara cries. She tries to pull away from Mon-El again, but the man holds her more tightly around both her forearms. Kara grits her teeth and glares at Mon-El, blue eyes shiny with tears and anger. "For every minute of the rest of my life, I will fight you. I will never stop trying to get away from you."

Mon-El growls. Kara takes a shuddering breath, as if out of fear, but she looks down at Lena, lying on a pool of her own blood, body unmoving, half-dead save from the small sounds of pain she makes . "But if you let me save her, I will go with you," Kara says, voice almost a whisper. Lena hears it though, and she sits up further.

"Kara, no," she coughs.

Kara meets Mon-El's gaze. There are still tears in her eyes, but she doesn't waver as she speaks. "I'll never run, I’ll never try to escape. Just let me heal her, and you and I will be together." She musters a small smile. "Forever, just like you want. Everything will be the way it was. I promise." She swallows thickly as Mon-El glances at Lena with disgust. Kara lifts her hands, notices that bruises are already starting to bloom underneath his grip, but she reaches for his wrists to get his attention. "Just like you want, Mon-El," Kara repeats. "Just please, let me heal her."

Mon-El glares at Lena before turning to Kara, his gaze softening the tiniest bit. He nods a little and pulls away from Kara to remove her chains. He walks over to Lena to secure the chains around her ankles, before locking the chains around a post in the middle of the tower.

"In case you get any ideas about following us," the man says with a scoff. Lena manages a laugh, wet with blood. Funny how she was already back in chains even if she just escaped prison minutes ago, she thinks, but her fleeting thought vanishes far more quickly as Mon-El hits her with a backhand. Her lip splits and bleeds.

"You deserved that," he spits, and he gets up to push Kara toward the thief. "You have a minute."

"Lena," the blonde cries. She looks at Lena's wound and fails to bite back a whimper. "I’m so sorry. This is all my fault- Don't worry, I—"

Lena coughs. "Kara—"

"You have to trust me," Kara whispers, placing her hands over Lena's wound. The raven-haired woman shakes her head and gently wraps her hands around Kara's wrists, careful against the bruised skin.

"I'm sorry, Kara, I promise I didn't—"

"I know you didn't run away," Kara assures, her voice soft. She pulls away from Lena's grip and meets her gaze. "You'll be alright. I promise." 

"Kara. If- If you do this, I'll never see you again," Lena whimpers.

Kara closes her eyes and smiles, her lips trembling with tears as they roll down her freckled cheeks. "You were my new dream," she tells Lena, and the bright light glows from her hands. Lena feels the warmth against her skin again, like when Kara healed her palm, and as soon as the light is gone Mon-El is grabbing Kara and pulling her up.

"It's time to go," Mon-El says. Kara manages a small nod and gives Lena one more glance, one heavy with hope and heartache all at the same time. Lena doesn't even know where she mustered the energy to get on her feet, but she feels angry and helpless and all she could do is stand. The chains around her ankles are cold and there are remnants of warmth against her skin, electric on her fingertips, but she reaches for Mon-El to grab him by the collar and push him away from Kara.

First mistake he made, she thinks, is not restraining her far, far away from the window.

Mon-El manages to hold on to one side of the window. He is teetering off the edge, held only by his frail grip on the old wood and Lena's hand around his shirt. "You sentient pile of dung," she says through gritted teeth. Mon-El begs for her to not let go, tells Kara to stop Lena, but the raven-haired woman only smiles. "You can never hurt her again," Lena promises.

Then she lets go.

Lena turns to Kara in a heartbeat and pulls her in her arms. Kara makes a sound of disbelief, but she wraps her arms around Lena too, frame shaking with nerves and adrenaline.

"You saved me," Kara whispers.

Lena shakes her head. "No, Kara," she whispers back. "You saved me."

~

They make their way down the tower when Lena is able to walk without wincing and Kara has stopped shaking. Mon-El is a lifeless form on the ground and Lena tries to shield Kara's eyes away, but the blonde says she can handle it, so Lena lets Kara spare her captor a fleeting glance.

"That is Mon-El of Daxam, alright," a familiar voice calls out. The pair turn to the source of the voice to find Alex, riding a palace horse and guiding another on one hand—Lena's horse from earlier. She must have found the entrance at the wall of vines.

"Commander Alex," Kara greets with a curt nod, before stepping in front of Lena protectively. "If you're here for Lena, I'd have to tell you that you have to get through to me first."

Lena chuckles and puts her hand on Kara's shoulder. "It's fine, Kara."

Alex smiles, however. She gets off the horse, glances at Lena, then meets Kara's gaze. She sighs heavily.

"Of course, your Highness," she says softly, before bowing to the blonde woman.

Lena makes a small sound. "What, I don't get a bow?"

"Shut your mouth, Mercer," Alex says when she straightens up, but she falters when she sees the bright red stain on Lena's vest. "You're wounded," she says, immediately reaching for a bag on her horse's saddle. "I can—"

"It's fine," Lena waves off. "Kara healed me. Didn't knew you cared though," she adds with a smirk. Alex looks up at her, then at Kara, who is looking back at her with wide eyes, then glances at the raven-haired woman once more and back to Kara again.

"I'm sorry, what?"

~

The three ride to the kingdom at Kara's request, once they explain—albeit vaguely—how she healed Lena. The thief rides with Kara, the blonde in front of her and Lena helping her with the reins. Alex leads the way even if she is quiet the whole time, though she managed to tell Lena that she will have other knights return for Mon-El's body. The decision of what to do with his remains is left to the King. The knight doesn't say anything else, but Lena puts two and two together, and she thinks Kara knows, too, one way or another, for she is also quiet during the whole ride.

They head to the palace as soon as they arrive at the kingdom. Lena wonders when the knights would come capture her but they only cleared their way, and but they arrive at the palace gates without anyone subduing her. Maybe Alex had given her temporary amnesty so she could return for Kara.

There is a pair of guards that greet them. They dismount the horses, and one of the knights take them as the other leads the three down a hallway. They reach a huge door. Alex turns to Kara and Lena.

"Go ahead."

Lena looks confused for a moment, but Alex and the other knight open the doors for them. Inside is a room that looks like a nursery—everything looks old but unused, and there are two people waiting inside, standing over a crib. They wear what looks like expensive clothing, all heavy robes and delicate fabric, on their heads golden crowns sparkling with precious stones, much like the crown Lena had stolen.

"Welcome home, Princess Kara," Alex says. Kara looks at her with a small, unsure smile, before she turns to the pair inside the room.

"Um. Hi," she says nervously. She looks at Lena, who manages a supportive smile, and when Kara returns her attention to the man and the woman, she finds them looking at her like she is an illusion.

"Your Majesties, King Zor-El," Lena greets softly, bowing. "Queen Alura."

Her greetings fall on deaf ears, however, but Lena can't bring herself to care. Not with the King whispering my child with such wonder and relief. The Queen rushes to Kara, pulling her into a tight embrace. They cry together, and the King finally joins them, wrapping his arms around his wife and his long-lost daughter.

Lena almost feels like intruding. She looks away and takes a step back with an intent to leave—even Alex and the knight from before had left the doorway—but the Queen addresses her.

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty?" Lena stutters.

Queen Alura smiles at Lena, then pulls her into the hug with them. In the nursery where everything is old but unused, the red and orange rays of the setting sun filters through the tall glass windows, basking the room in a warmth that almost felt like the healing glow of Kara's hands. Kara weeps softly, and so does King Zor-El and Queen Alura, and they hold their daughter in a way that could only be to make up for their lost years.

"From Rao's fire you are born, my child," King Zor-El whispers against Kara's hair. "And in Rao's light you return."

Kara finds home then, and Lena realizes she is home, too.

~

The kingdom rejoices. Kara dances with her people, and so do the King and Queen, their clothes simple and their feet bare as they clap, move with the music, and celebrate with their townsfolk. Lanterns are lit up that night, dotting the night sky with lights brighter than the stars themselves. The women of Snuggly Duckling and the knights put their differences aside to share drinks and revel the return of Princess. Lena introduces Commander Alex to Sam properly, and the two hit off.

At last, Kara is finally home, and she finally has a real family. A Princess worth waiting for—beloved by all, she leads her kingdom with all the grace and wisdom that her parents did before her. Lena starts going by her birth name again. She had stopped her thieving ever since Kara's return to the kingdom—had earned a pardon for her crimes and turned it all around. 

They find home in Krypton and in each other, and Rao himself blesses them.

~

The sun shines brightly, its warm rays pining through the crack in the window of the tower. The long-haired blonde woman pads barefoot across the wooden floor and yawns. She pushes the windows open, cringes at the brightness on her face, but only for a moment until her eyes adjust to the light. She grins, blinks a couple of times, and looks out the window to the majestic kingdom she can see from where she stands.

"Good morning, world," she breathes out, hands on her hips.

~The End~