Kara, Just Kara

Prologue - Somewhere Else

"Donna. The time has come to restore what was taken from you. To set you free. Find me and I will release you. I am Alchemy."

Donne wakes with a start, drenched in sweat and heart galloping. It's the third night in a row with the same nightmare. And now she's remembering things. Things that can't be true. She's just a lawyer, not ...

She stumbles into the bathroom and looks at herself in the mirror. The stranger looking back is tired and disheveled, no surprise after three days of broken sleep. Why did she not expect to see a blonde? Why does she feel that she can see madness in in the eyes? She starts the shower and as soon as the water is warm, she lets it engulf her.

She opens her eyes again and gasps. Must have dozed off with her head on the shower wall.
The shower stall is filled with steam, billowing over the edge like the snakes of Medusa. She was dreaming something ... something important ... but it's gone now.

She calls in sick. Sits for hours with a cup of cold coffee, just looking at clouds blowing past. Every now and then she sees something in a cloud, just can't say what. Like a word stuck on the tip of her tongue. An idea that dare not be thought.

Then she walks around her apartment in a daze. Looks at the fake Greek vase she bought ... when ... she can't remember. The framed reproductions of classical paintings of Greek heroes and villains. A leather bound edition of Homer's Odyssey. A terracotta mortar and pestle. She's had these things for years, why do they suddenly feel so significant.

In a moment of inspiration she throws on a coat, grabs her purse, and heads out. It's raining. Of course it's raining. The cold rain hits her forehead like drumsticks and she welcomes the biting cold and the wincing pain. It pierces the mindfog and gives her purpose. When she reaches the Central City Museum, she's walking with brisk and determined steps. Whatever she's looking for, this is where it is.

Few visit the museum in the middle of the day, but she feels like people are scattering before her as she walks in a direct line towards the classical exhibit. She stops at a statue of Hecate, goddess of magic. Donna Milton kneels almost instinctively ... and remembers. Everything.

She lies in her bed, bidding time, then she enters the sleep world and waits for Alchemy. He does not disappoint. She can see images that are intended to scare her, and his voice telling her to come to him. She grabs his soul into her dream and lets it dangle before her visage.

"Even Morpheus knows better than daring to invade the mind of a goddess. Who are you, mortal, and why should Circe let you live through the night?"

She lets him live. He's a nobody, serving a nobody calling himself the God of Speed. That could only sound impressive to someone who has never met Hermes himself. She does owe the nobody a small gratitude for awakening her memories, so he gets to leave with both life and sanity intact, although with no memory of her. The tales he told, of heroes and villains, are intriguing. She needs to know more.

Circe is watching the world through her magical mirror. Alchemy had talked about this Flash as if he was the biggest hero of them all, and she has enjoyed watching him squirm. She has seen no sign of her old enemy, as if she has never existed on this world. It doesn't make sense until she witnesses the Flash and his cohort breach the veil and enter a different world. That is it, she's not where she should be, she was lost among worlds as well as in her own mind. Easily matching technology with magic, she follows the Flash to that other world.

She watches the new world patiently, waiting for the wondrous flying woman to come back. She did not look like her old enemy, but still there was something familiar about her, and this world has no other heroine that compares to the woman with the "S" symbol.

Kara steps out of the wormhole and into her own apartment. What a trip! She can't wait to tell Alex all about it.

Hey, what day is it today ... where's my phone? She puts the wormhole-communicator...thing down and picks up her phone. Good thing I remembered to turn it off. Why does it boot so slooooowly?!? Come on, phone!

At the DEO, Winn gets an alarm and starts waving his arms frantically. "She's back! Supergirl's phone just went online!" Alex runs to his desk. "Where is she? Do you have a visual?"

Winn starts typing. "It's her mobile, which was left at her apartment. Getting visual .... now."

A window pops up showing Kara's living room, with Kara standing there looking at her phone.

Three days! Alex is probably worried sick by now. I better tell her I'm back. Hey, maybe there's still Thanksgiving left-overs in the fridge. First Alex, then snack!

Kara is just about to thumb the speed-dial for Alex when she hears a voice behind her, speaking in a language she doesn't understand. She spins around faster than humanly possible and takes off her glasses in one fluid movement, ready for combat. In front of her stands a beautiful woman with long raven-black hair and a flowing green gown. The woman carries an air of authority and an almost perceptible aura of power.

"Who are you?" Kara demands. "What are you doing here?" She takes a threatening step towards the woman who points a single finger back ... and Kara stops, her body refusing to move.

Alex is already running. "I'm going over there! Keep recording!"

Circe keeps a single finger pointing at Kara, twisting it slightly. "You are truly a wondrous woman, but not the one I'm looking for. No daughter of Themyscira would be stopped by such a simple spell. Let me see .... Maybe you know something ..." She walks up to Kara and places two fingers on Kara's forehead, smiling at the panic in the blonde's eyes. Kara winces as a sharp pain goes through her head. "No, nothing! Shame. Well, then the least I can do is to grant you a wish." Kara can feel memories running through her head, memories from her childhood on earth, her happy times, her frustrations, memories of rescuing and helping people.

"Silly girl – you want to both be normal and to be exceptional at the same time. Mortals always want the impossible. Let me solve that little problem for you." Circe hooks her fingers and pulls them back with a quick movement. Kara feels something snapping, then everything becomes black.

Winn watches the green-clad woman make a simple gesture, then step through a shimmering in the air and disappear. "Alex, we have a problem."