Power Girl: Courage Under Kryptonian Fire by Jade Gretz

https://www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai/art/Power-Girl-Courage-Under-Kryptonian-Fire-1252715340

The Iron Bride of Apokolips

The sky of Apokolips was a roiling bruise—black and crimson light folding in on itself, the clouds shaped like the skulls of the damned. Rivers of molten ore laced the cracked plains below, and from the citadel of the dead god Darkseid came the unending toll of metal upon metal, a pulse like a heart made of anvils.

Power Girl descended through that storm like a blade of silver light. Her cape was torn at the hem, her uniform streaked with ash and the faint glow of cosmic energy leaking through the fabric. The Boom Tube sealed behind her with a whisper of implosion, leaving her standing alone on the iron causeway before Darkseid’s throne fortress.

“Welcome, daughter of a dying world.”

The voice rolled from the citadel doors like thunder caught in a coffin. Kalibak emerged, dragging behind him the Beta Club, its spiked head clanging against the ground. His tusked grin was wet with anticipation, his massive frame rimed with soot and the metallic dust of endless wars.

Power Girl met his gaze, chin tilted upward, eyes a pale storm. “You’re not my welcoming committee, are you? Because if you are, Apokolips really needs better manners.”

Kalibak’s grin widened, showing teeth the size of tombstones. “You mock, but your light is dim here. This world devours the righteous. It chews their bones until even memory is ash.”

“Good thing I don’t come with an expiration date.”

He swung the Beta Club. The air screamed as it came down, cracking the ground into splinters of molten rock. Power Girl blurred sideways, her fist driving into his jaw with a sound like planets colliding. The impact hurled him through a column of black stone, toppling it in an avalanche of dust.

For a moment, there was silence—just the echo of her own heartbeat in the unnatural stillness of the planet. Then Kalibak laughed, deep and guttural, rising from the rubble with his grin somehow broader.

“You fight like the last ember of a dying sun,” he said. “But you are far from home, and here, even embers are crushed under heel.”

Power Girl brushed a smear of ash from her cheek. “Cute speech. You write that yourself, or did Darkseid send you a script?”

“Darkseid is gone,” Kalibak growled, his eyes glinting. “The throne is empty. The fire is masterless. I will take his armies. I will take his forges. I will take this world.”

She arched a golden brow. “And I suppose I’m supposed to stop you?”

He bared his teeth. “No. You are supposed to kneel.”

The sound that followed was almost delicate—a whisper of wind, the faint rush of fabric—and then Power Girl’s fist met his chest. The shockwave tore through the causeway, splitting it in two. Rivers of magma surged upward like the blood of the world.

But Kalibak did not fall. He laughed again, and this time the laughter was strange—almost tender. “You think power alone defines rule? Here, the throne feeds on terror. And terror, my little sun, is your undoing.”

The world seemed to darken. The fires dimmed. A smell like burned roses filled the air. Power Girl blinked once—and the fortress was gone.

She stood instead in a silent field under a violet sky. Earth’s sky. A breeze tugged at her cape. Birds circled overhead. For an instant, she thought she’d escaped the nightmare of Apokolips.

Then she heard it.

A voice.

Her own.

“You failed them, Karen.”

The whisper came from everywhere. The field shimmered—and from the edges of her vision, shadows crawled forth. They were faces—faces she knew. Lois. Clark. Helena. Each one pale and blurred, their mouths opening and closing soundlessly until, in one voice, they said:

“You left us.”

She staggered back, heart hammering. “No. This isn’t real.”

Kalibak’s laughter rippled through the false air, distorting the horizon like heat. “Apokolips remembers your fears. The planet itself feeds on them. It shapes what you see. This is your trial, Iron Bride.”

“Bride?” she spat.

“The throne needs a ruler—and every ruler needs a queen. When I take the fires, you will stand beside me, shining and broken. Your strength will forge my reign.”

Power Girl’s eyes narrowed. “You think fear will make me bow?”

He appeared behind her, the illusion melting. His massive hand brushed a lock of her white hair aside, his voice a low growl near her ear. “Not fear. Revelation.”

She spun, slamming her palm against his chest, forcing him b
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