[Wednesday, 1:50 PM, In a place close to Mercury, J.A.N.A.I Coliseum, Year 0]

Sitting on the ground and crossing her legs Kara said: "Sit in front of me the same way I am and relax your body, I will do the rest."

Carol walked toward Kara and sat in front of her as instructed, taking deep breaths she relaxed her body, the light of the power inside her diminished as she felt her body losing strength.

Almost immediately after feeling herself weakening, she snapped her powers back in place.

"Ugh*"

Carol grunted in pain as she felt her power burning her body for the first time, followed by a painful impact all over her skin and an explosion of light that almost blinded her even with her eyes closed.

Jumping in fright Carol opened her eyes, only to see Kara still sitting with her legs crossed and her eyes closed, her skin absorbing the golden energy around her.

Without either opening her eyes or lifting herself Kara spoke. "Sit again, your energy has been flowing inside your body for years, and with the help of that Kree chip it was filtered, your body has already accustomed itself to it."

Kara hummed as if in thought. "Relaxing your muscles made it so your body weakened to its normal state, still vastly stronger than a normal human but not durable enough to resist you suddenly supercharging it."

"Your muscles withered when you took your energy out and before allowing them to adapt you suddenly brought it back twice as powerful."

"Oh... but why didn't this happen the first time I used my powers? I mean even though I could take much more energy, and I did, My muscles didn't burn like this." Carol sat in front of Kara and closed her eyes once again.

With a neutral expression, Kara responded. "I really have to train you properly, don't I? Carol, at this moment we are talking and moving at a speed where the human eye is unable to see anything, that is a little over fifty times the speed of sound."

Carol's eyes widened. "Wait, really? Then how can I hear you right now?"

"Communication between two people traveling faster than sound can take many forms, personally I am covering both of us with my aura and twisting space in such a way my voice can reach you, do avoid talking this way when close to weaker beings when you learn how to do such a thing."

"If you do not contain the sound inside your aura then the drastic difference in speed will cause air cracks anyone close to you will most likely explode if you are not careful."

"Right... now what?"

Kara stayed silent confusing Carol who was about to use her senses before she could however she felt a hand touch the back of her head and gently push it forward until she touched something, had it not been for the indistinguishable warmth of Kara's skin she would have jumped.

"Pay attention to my voice, I will manipulate your mind into perceiving a faster time period as its normal state, do not resist."

Carol heard and prepared herself, the next second strange things happened, she felt weightless as if nothing held her down to the ground, which was weird, she could still feel the ground below her, but at the same time she could feel that nothing was there, at least not until... something hugged? yes hugged her.

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℅{??? Dimension, Time: |πr€lπv∆nt}℅

"Kara?" She spoke without a mouth.

"Is that you?" She saw without her eyes, an entity? composed of so many colors she couldn't even perceive before, moving in so many new directions that for a moment she asked herself if she was insane.

How could she not, whatever place she was brought nothing but insanity to her mind.

'No... wait.'

'Carol' stood still looking at the thing in front of her, something happened at that time, wait, no, time does not exist here, just by observing she started to understand, the confusion dissipated for a brief moment, there in front of her was Kara, Really Kara not what was down there but... her, waiting for her to come back to normal, ah yes she understands now.

'I see with no eyes, Talk with no words/mouth, Move without a body, and Think without a mind, I am yet I am not... Myself.'

In a dimension beyond Matter, beyond Time, one being indescribable to those of a lower form of existence hugged the other, and looked intently at its form.

The smaller one was previously confused, but now it was happy after finally seeing a true companion, its form was confused as to why the other was so much bigger and more lively than itself, but it shrugged it off, it was happy, so much that it hugged the other.

It was alone for a looong time, or maybe not? the lower one was confusing it.

In its vision the other was humanoid, it knew the other was simply molding itself according to a form familiar to its lower self, she? yes, it was she, for now, appreciated the gesture.

She felt giggly at being so close to another, And it wasn't just one of those who just passed by and Ignored her even though she called them! Well... she had to stop because of those demons but with her new B.F.I.T.W.U -Best friend in the whole universe- that wouldn't be a problem anymore... She hoped.

The other smiled and finally stabilized her form, humanoid and female in shape she looked like her lower self yet much different, her 'hair' was braided with a headpiece stuck with a hair stick that separated into five pieces were oval-shaped red rocks with a rune each flew around deceivingly randomly.

On the other's forehead, she could see a circular yellow/orange circle, from the other's nose the same color spread in a V shape nor catching her eyes but spilling a small bit below them, Wait a minute! The Sun, The runes, The warmth, she knew where the other came from, IT WAS THE BIRD! The flaming one!!

"~¢√^π~¶!!!" She screamed, the other seemed to be confused as she looked at her weirdly, and a little bit offended?

No, wait! Maybe it wasn't the bird? but she looked so much like it, no, no, no no no no no no even while hidden she could see the feathers, the wings! the six eyes! no wait not only six there were more under her wings! and that gorgeous crown with those beautiful colors, soooo preeeetty~~.

It was so pretty she just wanted to hug the other more and more, honestly if she wanted to explain how pretty it was she'd probably take an entire  ¥€¢£\©®℅™∆§×÷÷Π√♪|`~ to do it, it was even prettier than that really cool humanoid form, but reaaaally~ The Other made herself very... exuberant, what's that word for ×°| again?

'Ah Yes, dummy you don't need to make sense, that's for lower life forms.'

"¥#++¶∆!!"

The other flinched and widened her eyes breaking off the hug, taking advantage of the situation 'It' jumped

}¢¥? and hugged her.

Ah yes, she should cut her connection to the lower one, she met some mean people down there, especially that many-in-one, it was really weird.

She prepared to do it but the other gently put its hand above her head, stopping her from doing it.

"#£=®¢√×[]®£®£^€÷{}¥€×§Π÷|×`§√.3"

It was confused, what was there to like about that place, there were like so few colors to see, and everything was so tiny and fragile, the only reason she even bothered to go down there was because nobody wanted to be her friend here.

And maybe because no Big one accepted her, But they are jerks anyways! Who doesn't let $&%!*∆© stay with their ]{}^°¥°°• anyways it could protect the ™€=`¶`^ without giving it away.

But that changed now, she couldn't even go to another universe because of that STUPID wall anymore! And the Other was kind like a Big One so they could explore everything and beat up any meanie coming their way!

"@&#%! ^£¥™[]°£^¢®÷×|[]°£^|[]®°£[√[]~°?"

The other smiled and touched her form. "°£^£π|[}∆¶÷`√¢^℅©[]=£^`π|[]°£™©¥{}∆£×π|√®[]£=€^|√|∆£=π©©=£^€π•[]°£^€π|℅¶`?"

Having long broken out of the hug and now with her 'arms' crossed It looked at the extended 'hand', and jumped to hug the other again, maybe things down there wouldn't be so boring, contrary to }¢[©¥€¶ now the cube is broken, it only has a single part now, and worse of all it moved soooo slow.

Anyway! not that it matters now right, suddenly everything became a blur and not a §×÷÷Π√♪|`~ later she was back down.

≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥

?♥—♠·—__--¶£^-----&#**'$-+∆¶¶∆`÷¢^|_%`~≠=≈∞?&

∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

[Wednesday, 1:50:00 PM, In a place close to Mercury, J.A.N.A.I Coliseum, Year 0]

Carol opened her eyes and looked around herself, she was... standing? When did she get up? More importantly, what was that? wait what was what again?

Her head hurt as she tried to remember... something it was there — It Was There somewhere, on the tip of her f¥ng£π?

Uuugh* She groaned as the pain became worse, her legs losing sense as she continuously tripped never falling and catching herself at the last §×÷÷Π√♪|`~.

Suddenly two hands touched her head, she felt something touch her forehead and then the pain stopped.

"Stop, please, no matter how strong you are your mind is fragile, do not try to remember, just focus on me ok?"

Carol tried to open her eyes but they seemed to be glued together.

"K-kara? I ca-can't open my eyes, what's happening?" She asked as her heart began to beat faster, everything was weird, she was a little bit afraid she knows that much, what she doesn't know is why she thinks she should be happy, and excited and #@∆°★!

Carol felt herself being pushed down and then forward, in just a second she was on her knees with her head touching something soft.

"It's ok, just calm down, concentrate on my voice, nothing else matters, just me, look at me."

Carol felt something touching her head and moving slowly up and down, was... was Kara caressing her?

When she was about to lift her head something covered her eyes, she felt... something she couldn't quite describe run through her face, when the feeling ended she saw again, the thing blocking her vision long gone before she did so.

She blinked for a while, the pain in her head gradually decreasing as she did so, when her vision finally came back to normal and the tears left she finally saw where she was.

Kara, the bestest $&%!*∆© in the whole √π|√£∆¢¥, NO! her BESTEREST $&%!*∆© in the whooooleeee √π|√£∆¢¥ stood -or more specifically crouched- in front of her, her hands hugged her head who in turn was lying on the Kryptonian's breasts.

She felt a small amount of pain in her head, undoubtedly born from the incomprehensible gibberish she was thinking before suddenly, everything became more clear, and something... Big moved away from... Somewhere leaving a feeling of emptiness and... Blindness behind.

In a split second she escaped from Kara's hold and got up, she wasn't used to any intimate contact not started by her just yet.

Bumph.Bumph.Bumph.Bumph

"So..." Carol said awkwardly while Kara slowly lifted herself up. "What was that?"

Sighing Kara put her arms behind her back and walked toward Carol.

"That, was you, and me, The real you, and the real me that is."

"I... don't follow."

"Of course you don't, it would be weird if you could, I am not insulting you, I don't do that, I am merely stating a limitation any mortal being has, Let me explain it in a way you may understand, Through meditation, I was able to connect with my, how do I say it... soul."

"A soul belonging to any and all living beings is an entity of a higher dimension, commonly the Fourth, by touching your forehead with mine, I was able to locate your true self and ask a favor."

"That being allowing you to see the universe through a different perspective, that is to say, your brain now considers your normal perception of time to be 87,600 times faster, meaning that unless you manage to control your own brain you will forever be stuck in this state, a single second, extended to two entire months."

"Kara, what the fuck?"

Truly, what the fuck, Carol has been confused, surprised excited, and even stupefied by the things Kara had said or done but this was by far the most absurd.

The Kryptonian Talked with her soul, and... touched it? Well not like that but it must mean something right, those romance books didn't lie to her right? Was that soul bond shit real, she hopes not, that shit was just too cheesy for her, she swears she'll kill herself if it is real, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait... Romance?

 

 

'I remember? I read that book when I was a teen, what was the name again? The man with two souls, or something like that? No, it doesn't matter, what matters is that my memories are possibly coming back?' She asked herself while her expression changes to a contemplating one.

Ignoring her question and the weird facial expressions Kara kept walking around Carol.

"You were quite happy to see me actually, the fourth dimension is... boring, too big, and hard to find other entities, at least outside of a God's domain but even if you did they just may want to beat and consume you in hopes of ascending to the fifth, so congratulations Carol I'll be with you even after Death, If Rao allows it I will bring you to his garden."

Kara stopped moving. "Oh, and I know you don't remember saying it but." She approached Carol very closely and glared directly at her eyes.

"I. Am. NOT. That Bird's Daughter, Got it?"

"Umm, o-ok?"

Jumping up and clapping her hands Kara smiled. "Good, now we can finally start your training."

"No, no, no, not this time You can't just tell me you can connect with your soul and not explain it like, I am sorry if I'm being insensitive but can't you just go to the afterlife and meet your parents."

*Sigh* "No carol I cannot, firstly I can only connect with my soul for a small amount of time, the fourth dimension may not be affected by time but the connection to my mortal body makes it so the Laws of the universe force the concept of time into the real me."

"Those same laws state that a body who has a soul, if by any means loses it, will die immediately, so my window of time is small, the deeper the connection the shorter my time is, Understand?"

Carol nodded while seeing Kara slowly walk towards the corner of the arena.

"Secondly, I have no idea where it is, The amount of memories I can remember will impact my mortal body when I come back, simple flesh and bone cannot handle the existence that is the fourth dimension as you know and experienced."

Kara smiled and said in a joking tone. "That being said I could just kill myself and meet my parents right?"

"NO!" Carol screamed with a ferocity that managed to surprise even her.

"Please, Please don't, I'll admit, sometimes I forget you aren't a human, and when I remember I also realize I don't understand how you think.'

"But, look, I understand the knowledge of the existence of an afterlife must have changed the way your entire species looks at the universe, maybe you don't think it is worth staying in this place because you lost everything but there must be something right? Something worth keeping you here."

Having already turned to look at Carol, Kara opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Carol who kept talking in a desperate tone.

"And, and even if you don't just, just, just stay for some time ok! I may be just an Ignorant human or maybe even just a weapon to be used but I can, I can show you it is worth moving forward."

"I mean, just because there is something waiting for you on the other side it doesn't mean life is not worth living, and even if for you it isn't worth it, maybe I- no maybe someone can make it so it is."

Carol's breathing slowed down, her heart kept pounding in her chest while she thought of something else to say, her intentions aren't selfish but she doesn't want to stay alone anymore, not after everything that happened, not after meeting someone so much like her.

"Life... Is meant to be taken one step at a time, maybe the road is a little bit worn or even broken but to reach the other side you have to step on some mud right? One step at a time, always moving forward."

Kara looked at Carol amusingly during the entire time, she was just kidding, she, killing herself? Her mother would spank her the moment she arrived at Rao's garden, who would also not be very happy with her.

 

She was ready to interrupt Carol's speech but when she heard those last words, she flinched, her eyes widened in surprise as she seemed to remember something.

Kara slowly moved her head around as if looking for something.

"Ah." A simple word, said in a small tone but still loud enough to be heard by the desperate human on the other side of the arena, and meaningful enough to make her stay silent.

 

 

 

"Yes... moving forward." Putting her arms behind her back once again she straightened herself.

"You know You don't have to worry about me Killing myself, maybe if I was alone I would do it but, you are here aren't you? Even if you don't realize it yet Carol, you changed the way I look at life."

 

 

She sat on the metallic step of the stairs. "After Alrya died I felt... alone, I had no friends besides mine and Alrya's family, had it not been for them I would not be here now you know, we tried to speak with her soul but... Something was wrong, she wasn't in Rao's Garden."

"... After some, no, after a long time of 'investigation' we were able to determine something, an artifact of some sort was responsible for her death, my necklace didn't shatter at the time so her soul couldn't possibly have been destroyed, but it had been affected somehow."

Kara stayed silent for some time, opting to just look at the ceiling. "You remember what I told you about what Kryptonite does to a Kryptonian don't you?"

Carol looked attently at Kara's face, even while looking upward she had no doubt the Kryptonian could see her perfectly, then with some hesitation, she nodded.

"And you do remember what I said about how we found Alrya right?"

Carol gave another nod.

"You thought she was killed with Kryptonite, but honestly that is very unlikely, this... Thing is by far the most destructive object we as a species have ever found, it corrodes everything that gets near it, Everything."

"Making a weapon with it although not impossible would be highly inefficient, we'd have to create a space bridge so resilient not even all the energy inside our Super galaxy cluster would be able to maintain it for more than a fraction of a fraction of a picosecond."

"Space, Time, Energy, Matter, Tangible or Intangible, it corrodes everything, except souls, I had no chance to do it but my Father worked with other scientists on the Kryptonite Analysis project, he didn't tell me anything, I was barely 5 Krytoz old at the time but I remember him speaking with Mother."

"From what I can remember Kryptonite was said to be able to slightly damage the connection between soul and body but nowhere powerful enough to actually erode a soul much less sever its connection to Rao's garden upon death."

Kara sighed.

"We were all worried, Faora made continuous expeditions outside the planet to find Alrya's soul, my master did the same, I on the other hand, I had to go a therapy, What. A. Joke."

"A Kryptonian needing to seek help because of psychological Problems, I was embarrassed you know, so much so that I refused to go, fortunately, I have, Had an amazing family, my dad gave himself the trouble of learning all he could About the El's psychology and became my own personal doctor."

Throughout Kara's history, Carol had pushed herself closer to the Kryptonian, by now she was already touching the giant woman's arm with her own.

"You know, everything was getting better, it took time but I lost my suicidal thoughts, stopped making crazy plans to escape Krypton, and even reduced the times I snapped at anyone who got too close, it wasn't perfect but it was getting better, I had even started to smile more you know, laugh at silly jokes and all that.'

"I even made plans for when we eventually found Alrya, I just needed to make a clone body and connect her soul to it, sure I'd spend some Krytoz on leave from all my machines and they'd probably force me into a blue pod but really, to have Alrya back it would be worth it."

"Then destiny decided to play a cruel joke on me and my planet blew up." Kara said with a heavy voice.

Lifting herself up the Kryptonian walked down the stairs to the center of the Arena.

"I'm still considered Immature you know, culturally speaking Death is not taken seriously, the afterlife is already there what's there to miss? You may think the contrary because of me and the histories of my family but my race is, well we don't feel as much as you humans do, different brain chemistry, besides soul stuff and all that, but... my family is different, we feel much more than what we are supposed to."

Kara sighed as Carol looked at her with even more attention and curiosity than before.

"Supposedly it's the fault of experiments our clan passed through on the Cosmologik Wars, These experiments are what gave Kryptonians so much power, well, more than what we already had, the unique abilities of every Kryptonian surged because of them."

"Mourning the loss of a friend or a family member should take at the very maximum one Kaz In relative time." Suddenly Kara stopped and turned towards Carol.

"You understand I'm speaking about relative time right?"

Somewhat confused Carol nodded.

"*Humm* even then it is only because of the time the funeral takes, fast and nonsensical as to let the living go back to their lives and the Dead to Rao's garden."

"Still, I'm not even an adult, being an El above that made everything worse." Kara once again looked up, her expression slowly morphing into an angry one.

 

 

Suddenly she closed her fist and punched the pillar on her side,

*BOOM*

The strike caused an explosion of sound that permeated through the whole arena, ripples passed through the construct, and even with it slightly shaking aside from the first, no sound was made during the process.

"irresponsible." A punch. "Entitled." Another punch. "Unstable". And another. "CHILDISH." And another. "LITTLE!." And another. "KRYPTONIAN!!"

*CRACK*

A deafening sound spread through the arena as cracks the same size as Kara's fist spread throughout the forcefield surrounding the construct, not quite breaking it and slowly fixing itself.

Carol watched as Kara brought her bloodied hand to her face looking at it as if seeing something curious, she heard small cracks as Kara's wrist forced itself in the right way, her, black? blood was absorbed into her skin as her wound healed at a quick pace, the blood sticking to the energy field evaporated into a black mist as it flew towards Kara's skin and entered her body.

Turning to Carol, Kara wore a neutral expression on her face, with an unnatural calm tone of voice she said. "Unfortunately this also resulted in rapid mood swings, one time I can be happy, the next I may just want to kill something, no rhyme or reason for it."

 

 

She sighed. "You do not need to worry about anything, it is not so severe as me suddenly attacking you, I like you Carol, I would be saddened if you suddenly started fearing me."

Spreading her arms and smiling the Kree Hybrid spoke. "Well... no need to worry about that, as I said before, I trust you with my life."

Kara gave a small smile as she started walking back and forth, Carol recognized this as her friend going into 'Lecture Mode'.

"In older generations that, the sudden attacks I mean, may have happened but we fixed most of it, my mother wasn't originally an El, no she married my father who was part of the family, and had me after some hundreds of Krytoz, she was the typical Kryptonian woman you know, short, to the point, nonsensical hated any form of weakness, her heart as closed as an Esh'kre."

"But then my father came along, a bubbling idiot by my Race's standards, still, even with her thinking of him as a clown he was able to soften her heart with time, he had to train very hard for it, only had enough courage to ask her out after beating her on a racing match."

"I'm thankful for my mother, the time she spent with my dad made it so she knew exactly how to take care of an El, she taught me, you know, how to be normal, she said even though I was smart my way of being would never sit well with others."

"Fortunately between all those idiots in school I was able to find Alrya and she helped me, it was only after meeting her that I gave up trying to fit in, 14 Krytoz of pretending, the only times I could breathe were when I was with Komand'r, I didn't want to disappoint mom with my weirdness you know, I never told Komand'r or Koriand'r about that, I didn't want them thinking I was weird too, I know, stupid, but I was just a child then."

"Everything changed when I met Alrya, she was very pretty I didn't have a good enough control then so every time she tried to help me I lashed out at her, but she didn't give up, and just like my Father did to my Mother she softened me."

Kara stopped and started walking toward Carol.

"It was after that that I gathered enough courage to tell my mom I just wanted to be myself, do you know what she did? She smiled at me and said for me to keep moving forward and don't look back at her, I know she was sad, I could feel it but, I was happy, I was myself, never managed to make any other friends after that but you know fuck them, I was happy with everything and that's what important."

Arriving in front of Carol she opened her arms and hugged her.

"Thank you for reminding me that even though my race is gone I still can move forward, not just for them, but also for myself, there will be people that will be sad if I go, you, Komand'r, her parents, and honestly most of the servants of the royal family."

Kara broke the hug and quickly walked to the corner of the arena.

"But I think we've delayed it by long enough, now, let's train."

Carol shook her head and gave a nervous sigh, she'd continue her conversation with Kara after this.

"So, what will we train first?"

Kara smiled widely. "Martial Arts, without powers of course, Not to worry I will adjust my strength with the help of both my suit and the arena, our speed will be the same, so just fight me and I will correct you ok, the arena will do the rest."

"Okay, if you say so."