Chapter Text
Kara threw herself onto her bunk, the thin wooden frame groaning loudly under the sudden weight. She lay still, holding her breath, one eye open, cringing at the thought of having broken yet another item on board the vessel.
Once she was satisfied the bunk wasn’t going to collapse in on itself, she carefully rolled over and shuffled herself up to the top of the bed, resting her back against the postcard covered wall.
Pulling her legs up to her chest, Kara took her phone from her pocket, briefly checking the time before fishing around for her headphones.
“For the love of Rao.” Kara rolled her eyes as she attempted to untangle the mass of wires. Her foot jiggling underneath her, anxiety making her eager to get away from the noisy din of the ship and the storm rumbling above them.
Finally satisfied she’d gotten the last knot out, she connected them to her phone and brought up a playlist Lena had made her for the trip. Kara smiled as the soft tones began to ease the tension in her shoulders.
She’d placed a lot of trust in her gut when she’d stood up to Mon El, persuading the rest of the crew to enter the Devil’s Triangle in search of the lost island of Yamatai.
As part of the research crew for Season 3 of Mon El’s archaeology documentary, she was a mere cog in his great media spinning machine.
It was Lena – well actually Lena’s boney elbow to her ribs – that had Kara finally telling Mon-El that they needed to venture into the Devil’s Triangle if they ever wanted to save his reputation. Mon El had recoiled and told her that she shouldn’t question his superior knowledge if she wanted to keep her job on their return to the mainland.
Alex had quickly stepped up to support her sister, having listened to Kara’s rambling rants over the charts in the map room for the entirety of their 22 days on board the S.S. Endurance. And frankly, she couldn’t listen to Mon El talking about how incredible his instincts were and how wrong all of Kara’s approximations were, without following through on her threats to throw him overboard.
Only Sam’s firm grip on her elbow had prevented a full-blown altercation.
Lena had stood beside Kara, one hand holding her camera, the other holding onto one of Kara’s belt loops, as close to a supporting influence she could be. Jaw clenched in determination not to remind Mon El that it was the Luthor fortune that had funded this ailing ego-stroke of a production, lest Kara think she couldn’t fight her own battles.
Mon El’s face had reddened as everyone in the room had supported the young archaeologist. J’onn, the Captain of the S.S. Endurance and leader of the expedition, had nodded with a small smile and informed Vasquez to set a course for the Triangle. And that had effectively ended the discussion.
Mon El had shouldered past Kara on his way out of the room, leaving her off balance in more ways than one. Silence had fallen over the assembled crew. Almost everyone happy to see Mon-El finally taken down a rung or two.
Lena had begun to follow J’onn and Vasquez onto the bridge. Kara loosely holding her hand as it left her belt loop, offering a strong squeeze and shy smile to her best friend. Lena grinned widely.
“Told you, he’d have to listen eventually. This is going to be incredible.” Lena said, almost bouncing out of the room. Kara had huffed a laugh, before excusing herself with a one shouldered hug for Alex.
And that was how she found herself, on her bunk, in the small room she shared with Lena. Listening to a nostalgic mix of music from college and the odd adventures the two had shared. She was trying not to second guess her every decision.
Kara knew what she was talking about. She’d spent years studying maps, diagrams and crumbling texts in the hopes of finding Yamatai. Her mother and father had dreamed about discovering the unknown and Kara could think of no better way of remembering that.
Even if all she would be a tiny name on the bottom of a long list of tiny names that Mon El graciously offered credit to on his journal articles and documentaries.
Kara pulled her journal from beneath her pillows, the book falling open to her most recent pages. An old polaroid of Kara, Lena, Alex and Winn grinning from the deck of the Endurance. It was a photo that always made her smile.
Back when Kara and Lena had been fresh out of college, following J’onn and Vasquez on one of their many voyages around the world. Before Kara had joined the research crew. Years before Alex had been honourably discharged from the army, and Sam had enticed her away from private security to run Ops for this expedition she was producing. And several years before Kara had worked out why green was her favourite colour, why Irish was her favourite accent, and why her best friend could make a blush rise from her toes to the top of her head with the slightest raise of an eyebrow.
Kara smoothed out the page, and popped the cap off the pen wedged into the spine of the book. She doodled slightly in the margin, an imagined island with a high peak and numerous valleys. A sun emerging from behind a snow capped mountain.
She couldn’t work out how to unjumble her thoughts. She’d convinced a whole crew, most of them she considered her family, to enter a place, very few sea-faring vessels returned from.
With a groan, she rested her head against the wall behind her, anxiety churning in her gut. But what if she was right, what if the reason Yamatai had remained lost was because of such dangerous seas. What if she could lead this crew to the greatest archeological find since the pyramids? She could ensure Eliza was set up for life, so that J’onn could enjoy a quiet retirement. And she and Lena could travel the world, finding the unexplored together, with nothing to prove. To her family, or to the purpose that Kara’s parents had left to her.
“Kar?” Alex poked her head around the door to the bunk, sighing when she saw Kara hunched over her journal, headphones in, boot tapping out a rhythm onto the blankets. Alex waved a hand in Kara’s peripheral vision.
“Alex!” Kara jumped, her head hitting the cabin roof.
“Steady. You’ve already put a hole through the cupboards in the galley and broken the shower head, don’t give yourself a sun roof whilst you’re at it.”
“Firstly, balancing on a boat is tricky. And secondly, I fixed the shower.” Kara defended with a slight pout on her face.
“You mean, Winn fixed the shower.”
“I provided the boot laces, chewing gum and what I think was a screwdriver.”
“I’ll tell him you’re claiming all the credit for yourself. Mon El would be so proud.”
Alex laughed as Kara’s pout grew and the crinkle between her eyebrows became more pronounced.
“You doing ok?” Alex asked, noticing that Kara’s foot was still twitching to an imaginary beat. An anxious tick she’d had for as long as Alex could remember.
“I’m fine. Just worried. What if I’m wrong?” Alex walked up to the bunk, at eye level with Kara’s boot. Kara sighed and closed her eyes.
“You’re not wrong dummy.” Alex rubbed Kara’s knee. “You’ve studied these documents harder than anyone. Certainly more than that desperate wannabe. If you’re wrong, all we’ve lost in time, little Luthor has us covered for at least another month.”
“What if we can’t get back?” Kara asked quietly, hoping Alex would be able to set her mind at ease.
“Then we kick some water witches behind, and we find a way. We promised Mum we’d bring her back something cool, and I always keep a promise.”
“Water witches? Is that what you think we’re looking for?” Kara grinned.
“Honestly Kar, I understand maybe one word in five. I’m just here to slash my way through a jungle, bring back some new souvenirs and spend some time with my badass little sister.” Alex smiled. “Reckon they’ll have a gift shop?”
Kara snorted, smacking Alex’s arm away.
“And it has nothing to do with winning the affections of a certain producer?” Kara asked coyly. Alex blushed, and scoffed.
“No idea, what you’re talking about sis. I’m here for you, little Luthor, J’onn and god help me, Winn. But if I can further the gay agenda to unknown islands in the pacific, who am I to deny the world.”
“Sure. Sure. You keep telling yourself that. But seriously, thank you for coming, I couldn’t do this without you.” Kara swept her legs around, dangling them off the leg to pull Alex into an awkward hug.
“Any time, Kara. You know that” They stood like that for a few more seconds. Before Alex sniffed the air.
“Christ, I think Winn’s destroying dinner. I’m going to go rescue whatever we have left. You sure you’re ok though. Don’t want you getting lost in that labyrinth you call a brain.”
“I’m fine. Just anxious. Go rescue dinner. I’m starving.” Alex gave her a squeeze and edged her way out of the narrow cabin.
Kara smiled to herself, legs swinging in time to the rocking of the boat. She was ridiculously glad her sister had joined the crew and had brought Winn with her. To be honest, it hadn’t been a hard sell. J’onn had been heavily involved in all of their lives and when he’d told them he was mounting an expedition with Kara and her employer, they’d all jumped at the opportunity.
Kara was settling back into her bunk when the red light installed above the door began to flash. She sat bolt upright as the emergency alarm ripped through the ship. Echoing around the bulkheads of the Endurance. The lights cut out, leaving just the flashing red of the warning light. For what felt like a lifetime Kara held her breath, everything suspended in a surreal swell of panic.
The Endurance slammed over the crest of a wave, and Kara was flung off the bunk and into the wooden closet that lined one wall of the cabin. The mirror shattered against her shoulder as she tumbled to the floor.
“The heck – “ Kara stumbled to feet, her ears ringing, disoriented by the flashing lights and flickering electricity. She fumbled against the wall, trying to find anything to hold onto as the ship bucked wildly in the storm.
She turned a corner, desperately heading towards the galley, Alex would know what to do. Alex could get her to Lena. Together they could keep everyone safe. Ride out the storm so to speak.
A loud hissing was the only warning before a wave of water careered through the corridor. Kara gasped, her mouth flooding with water. She was thrown against the bulkhead, all sense of direction lost as she spun wildly through the flooded corridor.
Kara frantically waved her arms around desperate to find purchase on something, anything to stop her momentum. She felt metal between her fingers and instinct took over. She clenched her fist and pulled herself against the current. Gasping out a relieved laugh when she pulled herself up onto one of the ladders
Her relief was short lived when the door wouldn’t budge.
“Shit. Shit. Shit” Kara gasped, the water was rising around her shoulders. She could see through the porthole into the storm raging outside, waves hammering the deck just out of sight. Kara hammered on the glass, hoping that someone, anyone was still alive on this ship, anyone that could help her find her family and friends. Anyone that could save her.
She felt the water lapping around her chin and took one final desperate lungful of air. Within seconds she was fully submerged, hammering her fist against the glass. Screaming wordlessly, using her last breath to scream into the void.
Black spots were beginning to dance across her eyes. Her lungs screaming for her to take a breath. She stopped hammering, stopped struggling to tread water, her arms and legs beginning to feel like lead as she started to drift.
She thought of Alex and their home in Midvale, where her foster mother would never know what had happened to her daughters.
She thought of Winn and all the times she tried to convince him that Nintendogs was clearly the greatest videogame on the planet.
Of J’onn and every time he’d pushed her harder, rock-climbing, archery, languages, desperate to fulfil an ancient promise to her parents.
And finally, she thought of Lena. Of all the time she’d wasted.
All the times she convinced herself that being her best friend was enough. That she could live with just having Lena in her life. All the times she wanted to tell her she loved her. When the sun had set behind her on a hike, Lena grinning wildly from behind her camera.
When she’d laughed drinking a hot chocolate and it had spurted out of her nose all over Kara.
When they slept side by side, both lost in their heads, grasping each others hands desperate to anchor themselves in something real.
Kara almost smiled to herself, when suddenly a sharp pain in her wrist brought her blearily back to consciousness.
She was pulled onto the deck and she collapsed onto the deck, the boat still being flung wildly in what felt like every direction.
Kara gasped, clearing her lungs, coughing water onto the waterlogged deck. She looked up and saw the deck had been ripped in two. She could see the sky with the rise of the wave, where the bridge of the ship should be. As the boat crested the wave, she saw the bridge, hanging onto her section of the deck by miracles.
She could see J’onn holding onto a mast on the other side of the tear in the deck. Frantically waving his arms. His yells lost to the storm, but his message was not. She had to get to him. She had to get to him now. One more wave, and this ship would be in two.
Kara breathed deeply, closing her eyes, summoning all the strength she knew she had. And she ran.
She flung herself forwards. Boots slipping on the deck. Her knees clattering onto the wood, her arms flailing wildly to pull her along. The deck had veered upwards, almost vertical. Kara screamed, her feet leaving the deck, suspended between deck and wild sky. She landed hard, air knocked from her lungs. But still she ran.
She could see the edge of the deck. And she pushed. Her legs springing her into the air. Lightning split the sky. Time slowed down. Kara’s legs wildly flew beneath her, willing herself forwards.
J’onn stood, arms out, ready to catch her. There hands touched, and she grasped it with all her strength. She could feel J’onn holding on tightly, trying to pull her up.
But Kara could feel herself slipping. Her skin wet and offering no grip for J’onn’s tight grasp.
Her fingers slipped through his, and she was falling.
As she slammed into the water, she only had two thoughts.
She’d almost made it and she prayed to god that Lena had.