This story, well this plot bunny that will likely mutate into a full blown story later on, came to me when I was re-watching "Bloodlines" the other day and well...you read the summary and see the pairing, you can connect the dots of where I was heading. This chapter is a bit shorter than my normal fare and a story that's mostly done for fun. Plot bunny attacked me and would not leave me alone.

Prolongue.

Kara flew back head over heals before she landed onto the ground with a thud that rattled the ground underneath her. Her chest raised and lowered when she looked up into the air and saw where she was. And it took a moment for her mind to reconcile where she was. The full gravity of her situation weighed upon Kara when she went over what occurred in her mind.

She was on Krypton, with Clark, that being Kal-El, her cousin, and they fought the menace known as Brainiac who went back in time to kill Kal-El before his ship launched to Earth. Kal-El managed to get his past self on the ship and Kara thought that she got Brainiac, she stopped him once for all.

Fuzziness, that was not a good sign, especially where Kara was.

Then Brainiac stabbed her with something, when he feigned being destroyed, Kara grudgingly admitted that machine was highly adaptable and pulled what humans might call "a fast one" on her. Then, she felt him use the crystal, to trap her into the Phantom Zone where she stood right now. Fully understanding her predicament, Kara scrambled, knowing that she had to move quickly.

Where Kara stood, which meant as far as Clark knew, Brainiac was there...he could shape shift. The full gravity of this situation smacked Kara in the face faster than a speeding bullet.

Brainiac was back on Earth, wearing her face, living her life, and she never left Krypton, she never returned back to Earth, back to the Present. Clark could be in danger but with no way out that did not endanger people, Kara could not find a way to return to help him.

Kara recalled everything that her father told her. There were three rules about the Phantom Zone that Zor-El drilled into her head.

The first rule was that no matter what she thinks, time and space were not relative to anything that went on outside of the Phantom Zone. Should Kara find the way out of the Zone, if she did not time the jump properly, she could end up fifty years in the past or fifty years in the future, from the present time. The space time continuum did not matter in here, every single law in physics smashed into pieces here.

The second rule was that never feed a Phantom, that was never tempt it with anything that would draw attention to you. Kara felt the need to put her head down immediately, knowing that being a member of the House of El, she was likely going to be a delicacy for the Phantoms in this prison. Her heart thumped against her chest but she tried to stifle that motion. They could sense fear and Kara needed to be strong if she hoped to last any amount of time in here.

The third rule was that Survival of the Fittest reigned supreme in the Phantom Zone, those who were strong, survived, and those who were week, perished.

Kara stopped and saw the skeletal remains beneath her feet that proved that point and shivers coursed through her body, a knot turning in her stomach but she pressed forward in the Phantom Zone.

She kept moving, if she stopped for almost a second, she would be dead. Something would grab her and that would be the end, Kara hated being helpless but she could not deny the full problems.

Kara realized that her powers were completely gone, there was no yellow sun in here to energize her. The solar battery within her was empty.

Footsteps once again, that was not good, that was never good.

Foosteps in the Phantom Zone were never a good thing, that was another thing that Zor-El reminded her.

The wraiths were bad enough but there were a few prisoners who ended up here that were corporeal. They had their full body and whilst the Phantoms would not let up on an attack, neither would the able bodied prisoners. Most who had been sent here ended up going mad.

Kara rubbed her eyes, she braced herself for a battle. Her body grew rigid when she caught sight of the person who surrounded her.

A dark haired figure moved around her, dressed in ragged robes, with green eyes. Kara caught a hint of a marking on his head, maybe like a bolt of lightning. She could not really tell what was on his forehead or any distinguishing features when she moved around to make sure she was ready to attack it when it pounced.

He moved around her, circling her and Kara decided to attack before she got attacked. She rushed forward and grabbed the figure by the arm, she was barely in the Phantom Zone for an hour and already had adopted an attack first, ask questions later policy.

Kara brought her would be attacker down to the ground, using his leverage against him and slamming him down against the dirt in the Zone. The whispers and laughs of the Phantoms filled Kara's ears and chilled her to the bones.

A pair of green eyes looked up at her as she stood on his chest and he seemed surprised when he looked at her.

"Wait, you're not one of them?"

Kara paused, the fact that it spoke to her was a surprise and she planted her foot onto the chest of her pursuer. She did not let up on her attack not even for a minute when distrustful intentions flickered through her eyes and she looked down at the person who tried to attack her. Or rather she attacked him, not that it mattered in the Phantom Zone. The important thing was that she got the first attack out.

"I thought you had been one of those things, you came out of nowhere...could you please let me up?"

Kara did not ease up, rather she pressed down on him.

"Would it help to say that I came in peace?"

This statement did not improve Kara's mind, when she stared at him with fury and determination, suspicious about his intentions.

"What are you doing sneaking around like that?" Kara asked to the young man when she allowed him a little room to breath, but only enough where he could answer her questions.

"The same thing I think you were doing I gather, making sure that none of these things sees me as a free meal or their gateway out of here," the young man answered when he pulled himself up and looked at her before he shook his head. "Of course, I don't know where here is."

Kara found that hard to believe but she got a good look at this young man, he was disheveled a little bit and obviously in need of a long warm shower but rather good looking all things considered and he did have a dazzling pair of green eyes that stared back at her with the type of intensity that Kara felt endearing. She tried not to let herself get distracted, that was another rule in the Phantom Zone, don't get distracted.

Come to think of it, there were more than three rules of the Phantom Zone.

"You're in the Phantom Zone," Kara answered to him, finally finding her voice and he looked confused so Kara elaborated. "It's a dimension where some of the worst criminals in the universe are sent to pay for their crimes."

The young man offered her a smile. "And what are you in for, being so beautiful that it's a crime?"

Kara flushed slightly but she was going to pretend that she didn't hear that statement.

"I don't belong here!"

The young man winked at her. "Sure, that's what they all say."

Kara felt herself lose her patience but she closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths. It was obvious that he was having a laugh at her amusement, likely in a way to keeping herself sane.

"I was trying to help my cousin fight a powerful supercomputer, but he injected me with something and I woke up here," Kara answered before she stopped, realizing how stupid that sounded in her head. She shook her head off as the young man stepped forward.

"Call me crazy, but I believe you," the young man responded when the two stared at each other, vibrant green eyes met bright blue when the two took a moment to get a good look at the other.

The staring would have to await and there was a humming.

"They're coming," the young man whispered when he reached forward and took Kara's hand before she lead her off.

"The Phantoms, I know about them," Kara protested but she did not let go of his hand, even if they found cover.

The young man watched and waited for them to leave and Kara remained holding to his hand, before she realized and slowly, with dignity, she let go.

"Phantoms, yes, but they're the least of our problems. I'm thinking that my people used this place as a dumping ground for things that they wanted to get rid of."

Kara's interest raised at this statement from this young man, who seemed like an enigma to her as she no doubt did to him. There were many questions that Kara wanted answered and the first, along with the most obvious question, spat form her mouth.

"What do you mean a dumping ground for your kind?"

"My kind, magic users, witches and wizards, I come from an entire hidden world of them," the young man answered before Kara looked at him with a quizzical expression which the young man smiled back at her, while listening for potential attackers. "Yeah, I know, you don't believe that."

Kara decided to throw his own words back at him from earlier and smiled at him before she responded. "Call me crazy, but I believe you."

She was an alien who came from another planet and after some of the things she heard about in the universe and saw with her own two eyes, why would she not believe him? It would seem unfair if she decided to discount his explanation based on some preconceived notion of what was logical. The illogical can become very likely, that was one point Kara would think about more often than not.

"What did you do to get put here in the first place?"

The young man turned around before he sighed and Kara could tell that he was remembering something very difficult to him.

"You don't belong here either," Kara responded in a soft voice.

This young prisoner looked at Kara before he offered a smile. "My own guilt...as strong as it might be, does not indicate that I committed any crimes of any kind. Of course, trying to tell them that, it's going to be like beating a head against a brick wall."

Kara now was more interested in this young man than ever before and she looked back at him, trying to piece together the puzzle that he was. She wanted to stick by him, if nothing else but to learn more about his story and how he came to be in the Phantom Zone.

"You said that your people used the Phantom Zone as a dumping ground for something."

The prisoner turned to Kara and craned his neck to listen for something. Kara felt a slight chill overwhelm her body and the young man grabbed her by the hand once again.

"We have to keep moving."

Kara felt herself grow impatient, as his eyes darted around. "Could you please tell me what in the name of Rao is going on here?"

"I'll tell you when I get us away from them, trust me, they'll feed on your bad memories."

Kara's eyes narrowed when she looked at this young man before she gave him her most dangerous look, she wanted to know what was happening. If she was in the Phantom Zone, and she was in danger, should she not have a right to know what was going on? She stood on her feet, rigid and unmoving before her eyes darted and dodged around, she heard the echoes of something in her ears.

It was Krypton dying around here, when her father shoved her onto that ship but how could that be? She went catatonic before the young man grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard, which jolted Kara out of her thoughts.

"You hear that, something's happening, they're breeding."

Kara's heart thumped against her chest, anything breeding in the Phantom Zone was a logical cause for panic was far as she was concerned. She took a moment to look at the young man before her, wanting to know what was going on.

"What's happening? WHAT'S BREEDING?"

The young prisoner took a moment before Kara's eyes widened and she saw the creatures, there were horrific, faceless monsters. She thought that they were the Phantoms but they were worse than the Phantoms. They sucked all the life out of everything that was around them and Kara felt her skin grow frigid and clammy.

"Behind me!"

The young man shielded Kara with all of his worth, before he summoned all of the power and sent what appeared to be a glowing creature that resembled a stag from his hand to stampede the monster. The monster was driven off for a moment and the young man staggered a little bit.

"Sorry that spells draining even with a wand," the young man stated in an apologetic voice when he turned to Kara. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," Kara managed when she gazed intently at him. "What about you?"

The young man waved off her question when his knees buckled and he rocked back and forth on his feet, trying to stand up on his own two feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine, there's a reason why they don't recommend you do magic without a wand but the things you have to learn when your life is in danger, huh?"

He seemed to shake off his cobwebs and seemed far more rattled but then again he was in the Phantom Zone. The two of them moved quickly, both knowing that by instinct that once one Phantom picked them up, the others would not be far behind. Even though that thing was not technically a Phantom, the same rules and principles still applied. And the danger increased.

"We should be safe for a few minutes."

Kara thought that was more than they could hope for given the circumstances that they found themselves in and the blonde shook her head. She sank down on her knees and backed off to see the broken bones, the busted skull, and all of the other remains of something that was ripped apart by one of the Phantoms or maybe even something worse.

"How long have you been here?" Kara asked the young man.

"Oh, I stopped counting ages ago, too busy running for my life."

Kara's face contorted into sheepish smile but she got the sense that this young man was running in the Phantom Zone for years, decades even, it was hard to tell.

"I've made all kinds of new friends in here, shame they all want to kill me. Of course for me, it's a another Wednesday."

Kara looked at him in disbelief before she offered one question. "Do you...do you...do you always joke this casually about your death?"

The young man snickered before he looked at Kara with a smile that sent her heart aflutter.

"I've learned that if I take my death too seriously, I won't live a very productive life," the green eyed prisoner said when he shrugged his shoulders and turned to face Kara properly. "We've got to find a way to get you out of here, if you don't belong."

Kara knew of the way out of there, but obviously she was not touching it. Her father left the gateway but that was something she knew would open a Pandora's box that she would not have on her conscience. Not after what happened with Kal-El, she could not risk any of the prisoners getting out and infecting people on Earth or anywhere else in the universe.

"What about you, I assumed you didn't belong either?" Kara asked him when she looked at him, a quizzical expression flashing through her blue eyes.

"Oh, me, I fit in well with all of the freaks and misfits and criminals."

"You don't seem the type," Kara responded when she looked at him.

"Really, I would have thought you would have pegged me as a criminal by now?"

Kara stared at him in confusion and bewilderment before she launched forward to ask for clarification of this line of inquiry. "Why?"

"Because I've stolen your heart, obviously," the young man joked at her, with a bright smile.

Kara shook her head, he had been in here for a very long time it seemed, although she found his antics to be a bit more amusing than she would have normally. If nothing else, it was a way to keep her sanity while trapped in the Phantom Zone. She cleared her throat when she looked at him.

"Why did you get here anyway?" Kara asked, steering the subject back to its intended purposes.

"Now, beautiful, I can't tell you my entire life story," the young man stated with a roguish grin when he stared down Kara. "Not until I know your name, I can't keep calling you beautiful, no matter how accurate it is, now can I?"

Kara took a moment to stare at him through narrowed eyes before she breathed in and told him. "Kara."

The young man smiled. "Pretty name, fitting a pretty girl."

Kara rolled her eyes before she commented in a droll and sarcastic tone of voice.

"You're quite the charmer...um, now that would be the perfect open to tell me yours."

The young man responded with a grin on his face. "Harry."

To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.