Chapter Text
Astra wakes to the silent murmur of the morning, the sun peeping through the gap of the still-closed curtains, the chatter of birds and the ever-present sound of traffic, both from vehicles and humans. Her hearing is one of her few enhanced abilities that she cannot shut off and is therefore allowed to use, which is as much a blessing as it is a curse.
Mostly a blessing now that she’s learned how to cope with the lack of silence.
Sleepily, she seeks out Alex on the other side of the bed, turning over and reaching out an arm to wrap it around her mate’s waist. Instead of meeting the warm skin she is looking for though, her arm falls through thin air onto the mattress, cold and void of any trace of human warmth, indicating Alex hasn’t been lying there for a while.
Knitting her brows together, Astra opens her eyes and glances at the clock. Eight o’clock in the morning. How early did Alex get up?
Squinting, she scans her surroundings, not finding Alex anywhere in the open apartment. Her x-ray vision tells her the bathroom is empty, too. Maybe she’s out getting coffee at that Noonan’s place, she could be back any minute then.
Astra hums at the thought of a good cup of coffee; she’s putting her hopes on that now, she could use it right about now.
Shucking the blankets, Astra sets out for her morning routine, which includes a decently long shower and an equal amount of time spent drying her hair with an aptly named blowdryer, one of Earth’s many inconveniently underdeveloped tools. Still, it’s better than letting it dry naturally.
Enough time passes that Alex should have made it back by now, but when Astra returns to the open space of the apartment, she is still nowhere to be seen.
Not a coffee run then. Disappointing, but no reason for concern. Perhaps she went out for groceries, or got called in for an emergency at the DEO, those things happen. A note will inevitably be waiting for Astra on the counter in that case, and so she checks.
Nothing.
It’s strange enough to put Astra on edge; Alex is disciplined, she wouldn’t simply forget.
But again it’s not enough reason to worry, not yet, perhaps there was more haste this time - despite there being no signs of it, no traces of Alex having left at all, no plate in the sink, no laundry tossed about - and maybe she left a message on Astra’s phone instead.
Again, nothing.
Now Astra is beginning to worry. They left each other notes for a reason, what with Alex’s line of work and Astra’s former status of being a Fort Rozz convict. She opens her contacts and taps on the first of three saved numbers, calling Alex’s phone.
It goes straight to voicemail.
She huffs. Something is definitely off.
Or perhaps Alex has opted to ignore her, last night’s conversation finally caught up with her. Perhaps it’d finally sunk in and she truly realizes Astra’d wanted her niece dead, her own blood, and made Alex want to get away from her as quickly as possible.
Astra grits her teeth; she thought they’d worked that out, but how can she expect anyone to accept and forgive that when she can’t even forgive herself for it?
Only one way to find out, which is finding Alex herself, wherever she may be right now. Astra decides that if anyone knows it’d be Kara, so she’s the next to be called.
“Aunt Astra?”
“Little One, have you heard from Alex today?” Her voice is calm, as steady as she can make it; she doesn’t want to worry Kara without any preemptive.
“No, why? Is something wrong?”
Astra bites back a string of curses; that left only the DEO and if she isn’t there something is most definitely wrong, if only between the two of them.
Still, if something were truly wrong, Astra is certain the DEO would alert Kara and call for her aid, there is no need for her to concern herself with this yet. “Nothing for you to worry about, Kara. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
Before Kara gets the chance to tell her it wasn’t a bother Astra hangs up, fully intending to call the third and final person in her contacts, Director Henshaw. She doesn’t have the patience for pleasantries right now, worry and insecurity tearing at her; she needs to know what is going on. If Alex is there and ignoring her - much as that would pain her - she’ll know where they’re standing, at least she’ll know that Alex is safe. If she’s not, at least they could help locate her.
She doesn’t get the chance to, however.
The screen of her phone lights up and shows the face of a blonde white woman. While Astra has never seen her like this before, she could never forget that face, regardless of skin color: Brainiac-8, or Indigo, whatever she went by these days. It’s not rocket science to figure out she has something to do with Alex’s disappearance, she must have.
“You,” Astra snarls, her voice dangerously low. “What have you done?”
“Nothing yet.” Indigo sounds amused, looks like it too with that smug grin on her face. “Well, nothing serious,” she admonishes, “that human of yours doesn’t like to sit still, so I had to make her.”
Astra’s eyes flash at the confirmation that she does have Alex, of the implication of her being hurt. “What do you want, Brainiac?” She sneers the name like an insult.
“So antagonizing,” she tuts. “I want you on your knees, begging for your own death.” The Coluan looks positively gleeful at the prospect, her eyes gleaming, before her face straightens into something more bored. “Or I could kill your precious human, the choice is yours.”
It’s hardly a surprise that Indigo wants her dead. Astra’s expression’d turned blank somewhere during the threat, and she’s keeping herself in check. Aggression isn’t going to help her now, not with her soulmate’s life on the line. “Alex’s life for mine, that is the trade you want to make?”
“With all my heart.”
“Where do we meet?”
Indigo’s expression turns thoughtful, like she hasn’t thought of all of this before to make it her own brand of perfect. Always playing games. Then a cruel smile graces her lips. “How about the warehouse you two first met? Come alone, do not alert anyone, and come unarmed, or she dies. Oh, and Astra?”
She nearly growls. “What now?”
That previous smile had nothing on the maliciousness of this one, the glint in her eyes one of pure evil. Pain for the sake of pain. “I’d hurry if I were you.”
Astra is spared any further taunting when the screen returns to her contact list, though it hardly matters with that threat hanging in the air. Alex can handle herself, sure, but she is still human, and Indigo is not afraid of causing permanent damage. In fact, she’d only relish it the longer Astra waits.
And so Astra wastes no time, moving towards one of the nearest drawers.
Traveling by human means would take much too long, and she cannot risk taking the tracker with her, Indigo would see right through that. Taking it off will also alert the DEO, of course, but without it around her wrist there is no way for them to know where she is exactly.
She pulls out a piece of paper and writes a quick note, places her phone on top of it when she’s done. Astra also swiftly removes the wristband to put next to the note, before flying off to the warehouse. Items J’onn will find about 5 minutes later, growling out a few curses when he reads the note.
Director Henshaw,
Indigo took Alex in a rather pathetic attempt at poetic retribution. I must go alone for I cannot risk her life, as you surely understand. I will put the tracker back on upon my return, provided I survive this encounter.
Signed,
General Astra In-Ze.
Alex huffs her frustration, wrestling with the ropes around her wrists that are tied behind her back. “Come on, come on!” Her voice is quiet enough for Indigo not to hear, or so she hopes. She has no idea where the woman went, just that she went to go contact Astra.
Her best guess is that the Coluan transferred herself into the security camera just outside the warehouse, which would mean she’s in an entirely different plane of existence and probably, hopefully, can’t hear anything inside the warehouse.
She’d woken up this morning not in her bed, but to a condescending grin in Indigo’s arms as she was flown to the warehouse she’s currently residing at. Alex remembered from the last time they faced her back at the DEO that the woman could change herself into a string of data and enter screens, so her first instinct had been to remove the watch that monitored Astra, simply because it had a display.
Perhaps not her brightest move, considering the DEO could use it to find her had she kept it, but what’s done is done.
Once in the warehouse, wrists and ankles tied, and tucked away near a few boxes, Indigo’d left to contact Astra, and Alex had ample chance to find something to help free herself with. Unfortunately for her, the best thing in reach had been a rusty nail. Not the most useful, but it would have to do.
She’s still struggling against her bonds when Indigo returns, glee radiating off the woman. “Astra should be here any minute,” she says as she approaches Alex, pulling out a knife from some hidden pocket in that blue suit of hers, the shade near indistinguishable from her skin. Her eyes gleam wickedly when she crouches down in front of Alex, waving the weapon in front of her face. “And then the fun can begin.”
Alex’s eyes remain glued to the knife, the eerie green glow of it especially: Kryptonite. She’s seen this knife before, it’s the same knife J’onn had used during the fight with the Kryptonian criminals and then Indigo, who had evidently managed to seize it prior to her departure.
Five minutes pass before Indigo evidently grows bored of waiting, impatience leading her back to Alex. “I calculated an 88% chance of Astra coming for you as fast as her Kryptonian powers could carry her. It appears I overestimated her care for you.” Her head cocks to the side a little, a malicious grin forming on her lips. “Perhaps we both did.”
Alex grits her teeth. “Go to hell.”
“In due time, but for now I have you to entertain me.” Indigo brings the knife to the human’s arm, digging the point into her skin, staining it with her blood, and Alex hisses against the stinging pain. She doesn’t have to endure it for long as the blade withdraws when a crashing noise draws both their attention away, along with a growling voice that both soothes and worries her.
“Get away from her,” Astra demands, dust from the new hole in the ceiling still raining down on her, her entrance and posture a clear threat; she has her powers, and she’s not afraid to use them. She’s here to fight, not to surrender.
Except right now Indigo has leverage, and Alex hates that she’s only a liability at the moment; being the damsel in distress sucks.
“Always in time to spoil the fun,” Indigo drawls as she moves away from her, facing towards Astra, but still keeping the blade close to Alex, keeping it ready to tear open her throat. “You know the deal.”
Astra makes eye contact with Alex, and she can see some concern there - Indigo was wrong, they hadn’t overestimated her care, if anything even Alex had underestimated how much Astra cares - but it’s overshadowed by the vicious fire of a burning anger and determination, and Alex knows Indigo won’t make it out of this alive. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” Fight, even with my life at stake. “Are you?” Don’t surrender your own. Alex hopes Astra will understand, that she’ll help in whatever way a human can in between two super-powered beings, that she knows the risk, but isn’t going to let Astra sacrifice herself for her. That they’re in this together, and either they both die, or both survive.
Astra nods and they hold each other’s gaze for only about a second before she looks at Indigo instead, who beckons her, “well?” Astra squares her jaw and starts moving towards her, her posture rigid and that fire in her eyes never diminishing.
Indigo’s full attention in on her soulmate now, and Alex carefully takes the opportunity to continue working on getting rid of those damned ropes around her wrists. The rope is frail at best, but it’s bulky and the rope work is solid; it’s a struggle, but she’s managed worse.
“One wrong move and she bleeds,” Indigo reminds her when she’s getting close, close enough to use her super-speed and just be done with it, if it weren’t for that damned Kryptonite.
When she’s about two feet away from Indigo the woman tells her to stop, and Astra’s jaw twitches. Alex can’t see it, but when Astra stands unmoving for a couple of seconds too long Indigo must have given her some sort of look, because she gets to her knees stiffly and slowly.
That’s when Indigo decides to move towards Astra instead, the knife away from Alex at last, now instead in the Kryptonian’s near vicinity, which is bound to make her at least queasy. Not that the general would ever show such a thing.
Her eyes rise to meet Indigo, defiance still in them and seemingly as focused on her as she is on Astra, but Alex can see that telltale twitching of her eyes occasionally, undoubtedly flickering to her to check in. “You’ll let Alex go when this is done?”
“I suppose. I have no interest in killing one puny human.”
Another twitch of her eyes, and Alex is still avidly wrestling with those stupid ropes. If only this nail was a little rustier, or just a little longer, or just a little sharper, that’d make it easier to wear it down, but this is all she has, unless she can somehow get her hands on that knife.
“Then get on with it,” Astra hisses.
“Oh I will, but not until you beg for it.”
“I don’t beg.”
Her eyes flicker once again, and Alex catches on that this is all an act to stall, to give her the time to cut her bonds loose, to help out, because with that Kryptonite knife there is nothing super Astra can do to save them both, and right now she’s the vulnerable one, not Alex.
“Then maybe I need to give you a reason to beg.”
Correction, Alex is still a vulnerable one, and they both realize it when Indigo starts to turn towards her.
“Wait!” Astra says quickly, before Indigo has taken her eyes off her and instead goes back to fully facing Astra again, cocking her head expectantly.
A taunt is all it had been, and it’s sickening how all of this is simply a game to Indigo, while it’s anything but that to them. Astra grits her teeth, a lip curling up in disgust, before she spits out a “please.”
Alex can feel the ropes weaken, can feel they have more give now, that they’re about to break, if Astra can stall just a little longer…
“You’ll have to do better than that, put some feeling into it.”
Astra looks like she’s about to object, but then appears to think better of it when her eyes shift to Alex at a human speed. The fire in her eyes dims, and Alex’s eyes widen in panic, at seeing the fight leave Astra, the struggling against her bonds increasing. “No,” she breathes, but Astra turned her attention back to Indigo. “Astra, please!”
A shake of Astra’s head is all the acknowledgment she gets; once that stubborn Kryptonian makes up her mind, there really is no talking her out of it.
This isn’t happening. This cannot be happening. Astra is not going to lay down her life because she deems this too risky, this doesn’t have to happen if those damned ropes would just break already, if she could jump Indigo right now and reach for that knife they’ll have a chance.
Come on, come on, come on!
“Please,” Astra starts, and it sounds so sincere that Alex’s stomach churns.
This is bad, this is very bad, Astra is actually going to go through with this, and she’ll have to watch as Indigo kills Astra right in front of her, as she kills her soulmate, the person she is meant to spend the rest of her life with, the woman she loves.
“Please, what?”
With a final harsh tug Alex finally manages to free her wrists and she doesn’t hesitate to lunge for Indigo even when her ankles are still bound, to get as close to the knife as possible, to get it away from Astra. Colliding with a Coluan turns out to be just as pleasant as colliding with a Kryptonian or a brick wall - which is to say not at all pleasant - but Alex grew up around Kara and she’s been trained for situations like these.
She jams the rusty nail into the junction of her neck and the shoulder of the arm that’s holding the knife, and it startles Indigo enough to slacken her hold on the knife. Alex scrambles to grab it and toss it as far as she can, but she doesn’t get the chance to. One moment she’s picking up the knife, and the next she collides with an actual wall, thrown off by Indigo.
She doesn’t have the knife.
“You stupid human,” she hisses, her arms transforming into long blades; at least it appears Indigo doesn’t have the knife either. “I was going to spare you, but now you leave me no choice.”
Crack!
The muscles in her blue body go slack, falling to the ground like a marionette without its puppeteer. Or in this case, Alex notices when her head hits the concrete, a body without its brain. Alex looks up at Astra, who burns the appendage with heat vision for good measure.
Alex blinks; for some reason she’d expected this to be a lot more complicated and epic.
While the fight wasn’t all that she’d thought it would be, she realizes that the resulting pain certainly is up to par with her expectations when she attempts to reach for the bindings around her ankles.
Astra is at her side the moment a pained groan leaves her throat, crouched down at her level, gently guiding her back to the concrete floor and clearly assessing her for injuries. If the squinting is anything to go by, she’s using x-ray vision to do so.
Alex pushes back the urge to insist she’s fine, instead asking, “anything broken?”
After a few seconds Astra shakes her head. “You got lucky,” she says before working to undo the bindings.
“Sure doesn’t feel that way,” she grumbles. Alex may not have broken anything, but when she touches her right side - right where her soulmark is located, of all places - she can’t help but hiss at how sensitive it is. That’s going to be some very nasty bruising.
When Astra’s freed her ankles Alex immediately moves to get up, her jaw clenched against the sting. She stumbles only slightly before she feels Astra’s hand on her shoulder. Alex is ready to tell her off, that she doesn’t need to be steadied, that she can stand perfectly fine on her own and that’s she’s had much worse; it evaporates when the touch turns to Astra pulling her in and holding her close.
She’s gentle, and Alex could swear Astra’s hands are barely touching her at all. The clear effort not to hurt her is noted, but as much as the consideration warms her heart she tires of it quickly and wraps her arms around Astra, clinging to her as tightly as she can. In turn Astra dares to tighten her hold, and Alex ignores her stinging side; she doesn’t care right now, the relief setting in as the adrenaline starts to fade.
They survived, both of them, despite their adversary’s plans.
They’re alive, except they won’t be for long, because J’onn is going to kill them. First he’s going to kill her for ditching the monitoring watch, then kill Astra for breaking the terms of her release, and then kill Alex again for losing his knife just when she’d found it again.
She cringes and Astra releases her immediately as if being burned, backing up a few steps as she regards Alex with some frantic combination of concern and regret, but Alex is quick to explain, “Hank is going to kill us.”
Astra close her eyes with a sigh, after which she straightens. “Then we better head back,” she says, meeting her eyes with a small mischievous grin that makes Alex wonder if she should be concerned. “Do you trust me?”
Alex doesn’t have to think about it, just looks at her quizzically. “Yes?”
That grin widens, and the next moment she’s scooped up with a slightly startled “wow”, now settled surprisingly comfortably in Astra’s arms. Her stomach flips when they take off barely a second later, having next to no time to adjust, but it hardly matters because they are flying.
It’s one thing to go flying with Kara, how they used to sneak out and enjoy the thrill of both soaring through the air - with flips and corkscrews, close above the ocean water or high above the clouds - and disobeying her parents. It’s quite another to be here with Astra when there is no mischief, and the hammering of her heart in her chest is due to a completely different reason.
She smiles up at her soulmate. Astra looks like she’s enjoying herself as much as she is, an unbridled joy in her eyes when she looks at Alex, and the attached warmth makes her heart melt.
They fly longer than is necessary; even this high above the ground Alex can tell they’re making a detour, but she doesn’t comment on it, instead presses against Astra even more.
When they finally do get to Alex’s apartment J’onn is waiting for them and calls off his search parties the moment they come in. Surprisingly, he doesn’t look angry, just somewhat exasperated. Astra looks like a kicked puppy when he gives her a proper scolding, but he then leaves them alone to deal with the situation tomorrow and let them have some much needed time to themselves.
“I love you.”
They’re in bed, all bundled and cuddled up to each other in silence, until Alex says this out of the blue. Astra’s eyes shoot open to look at her, and Alex looks more vulnerable than she’s ever looked. She also looks a little shellshocked, like she hadn’t meant to say it, like it just slipped out, but when Astra opens her mouth to respond, Alex stops her.
“Wait, you don’t have to, I just… I need to say this.” She gives Alex an encouraging nod, and she takes a breath before she continues, her gaze no longer meeting Astra’s. “When I saw you in front of Indigo, when she was about to… kill you. I thought I was going to lose you.”
Astra hadn’t thought any differently, she’d thought this was the end of the line for her too. She’d known Alex was up to something, had seen the nail in her hands (through x-ray vision, of course) and the damage to the ropes, but when she couldn’t stall any further and she still hadn’t been free, Astra hadn’t much faith to make it out alive.
“You were just sitting there because you didn’t want me to die and I realized then that I couldn’t… That I don’t want to imagine my life without you, because I love you.” Alex dares look up as she says the last part, to see Astra smiling softly.
Her heart soars at hearing the words again, this time without being caught off guard.
“I wasn’t sure before. I knew there was something, but love? I didn’t think- didn’t dare to hope that would happen.”
Astra could certainly relate, she’d given up on a soulmate as a whole, and even when her mark appeared she couldn’t imagine being loved, or have the chance to love in return.
Alex continues, and it’s starting to sound more like rambling, gaze turned away again. “I mean, this is good, right? We’re soulmates, and girlfriends, and living together, even though you’re probably going to move out soon, I’m sure the DEO will find a place for you to live within the week. It just feels like it’s so early, you know? And-“ Her voice dies in her throat when Astra cups her cheek.
“Brave One,” she murmurs, prompting Alex to look at her. When she does Astra’s smile grows. “I do love you as well.”
Oh, how Alex lights up at that, she can almost see the woman’s heart leap out of her chest, much like how she lunges to kiss Astra. Their lips positively crash together, but the kiss softens gradually, movements slowing as well.
It’s Astra who pulls away first, settling her forehead against Alex’s as they catch their breaths.
“I don’t have to move out,” she says after a moment. “I could stay, if you’d like me to.”
Yes, of course Alex would like Astra to stay with her, in her apartment, in her bed- in their bed, and she kisses Astra again. Astra, who this time responds more eagerly and enthusiastically, who rolls them over and makes sure Alex knows just how much she loves her and just how much she’d like to stay, specifically in this very bed.
There is no irksome alarm to dismiss every half hour this time around, and later, when they face J’onn in the morning, he doesn’t bother reequipping them with the gadgets either. So long as Astra will help them get rid of the remaining pieces of Myriad, which she will.
Later she even joins the DEO, seeing as they never did her any harm, and being out in the field with Alex had been too appealing to pass up on. At least for a while, until Astra figures out a proper way to make the humans consider their planet and take care of it.
Later, much later, they get married, Kara escorting Astra to the altar, and J’onn escorting Alex. They’ll make their vows to love and protect each other for as long as their bond lasts in front of their family and friends, which includes about half the DEO. They’ll seal their vows with a kiss, and make each other more promises during the night that follows whenever their mouths aren’t busy with the other.
Later they talk about starting a family, but settle on a dog first, a big mixed breed from the shelter that listens to the name Bruno. There is time for kids at a later date, for they’ll have many decades to share.
But right now, when Alex has fallen asleep beside her, Astra gazes at the mark on her wrist, at the graceful lines that show her late sister’s name, and she smiles at the absence of the anger and despair that she used to feel when looking at it. Instead all she feels is love: for her soulmate, but also for her sister and niece, knowing she has Alex to thank for it.
It may have take over seven decades, but Alexandra Danvers had been well worth the wait.