Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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No light, no light in your bright blue eyes
I never knew daylight could be so violent
A revelation in the light of day
You can’t chose what stays and what fades away

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
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Alex

“How long has she been missing?” I asked as Astra and I marched into Command, security camera footage of Alura’s abduction on the screens. It was pretty similar to how Roulette’s goons had abducted the Bro’vak, a pair of guys in full TAC gear approached her, one hit her in the gut with some kind of taser, and when she doubled over, grabbed her arms and quickly threw her into a waiting van

I could feel the tension and rage just pouring off Astra in waves as we joined Kara around the operations table

“Six hours that we know of” J’onn answered

“You said that she was abducted outside Roulette’s fight club,” Kara pointed out “could it have been Routlette trying to get one of her fighters back?”

“That’s what we thought at first, especially after you told us that she’d been released,” J’onn nodded “but it doesn’t look like it was her”

“I analyzed the background radiation in the area where she was taken,” Winn spoke up, he pulled up a spectrographic analysis on the screens “take a look” he nodded grimly

“That’s kryptonite” I realized as I recognized the radiation signature

“The DEO doesn’t have any kryptonite anymore,” Astra ground out through her clenched teeth “but, we all know someone who does”

“Cadmus,” Lucy spat out “they probably think that they just abducted Astra”

“And what’ll happen to her when they find out that she’s not Astra?” Kara wondered

“Nothing good” I snarled

“All right,” J’onn began “Supergirl, you and your aunt get out there, start scanning the city block by block”

“On it” Kara nodded

“In the meantime, Agent Danvers, work with Agent Schott, see if you track Alura down the same way that you tracked down Non when he abducted Alex,” he ordered, he glanced between all of us “let’s all assume that we’re on a clock, people. Time’s running out”

“Let’s go” Kara nodded at Astra

“Be careful,” I called out “if Cadmus gets a hold of both of you and Alura…”

“We know” Astra nodded grimly as she and Kara took off…

Chapter Text

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Through the crowds I was crying out and
In your place there were a thousand other faces
I was disappearing in plain sight
Heaven help me, I need to make it right

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
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Astra

“Anything?” I asked as I flew over the East side of the city

“No,” Kara replied over my comm. “I've circled the West side twice, and I got nothing twice”

“Guys,” Alex called out “I’ve got James and Lucy each searching the north and south ends of the city on foot. It’s a long shot, but maybe they’ll find something that you two missed”

“Here’s hoping” Kara grumbled

“Agreed” I answered, wincing at a sudden high-pitched tone assailed my ears

“Hello, General” a woman’s voice suddenly chuckled, not through my comm. but as an actual voice projected at a high-frequency sound tuned to my hearing. A voice I recognized all too well, you don’t really forgot the woman who leads an anti-alien terrorist organization and who had you shot in the leg with a kryptonite bullet

“Lillian Luthor” I hissed

“Oh, so you recognize me,” she chuckled “I always figured that you were the smarter sister”

“Where is she?” I demanded

“All in good time,” she tutted “you see, we didn’t even know that your sister was still alive,” she explained “imagine my surprise when a mutual acquaintance of ours revealed that not only was she alive but she was part of an underground alien fight club” I didn’t have to guess to figure that the ‘mutual acquaintance’ was most likely Roulette or one of her numerous guests

“What do you want?” I barked

“Well,” she began “were it anyone else, I might be willing to propose a trade for you, but seeing as how we now already have a Kryptonian…” she trailed off

“You didn’t go to all this trouble to contact me just to gloat” I pointed out

“Hmm, how perceptive,” she chuckled “very well, you want your sister back? Just follow the music, I hear that it’s one of your favorites” there was a crackle of static and then Florence + the Machine’s ’Drumming Song’ began to play directly in my ears. Feeling insulted that she would use one of my favorite songs (not to mention violated) I tapped my comm. getting only static; Cadmus had probably disabled my comm. remotely.

Sighing, I turned and began to follow the music…
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’As I move my feet towards your body, I can hear this beat. It fills my head up. And gets louder and louder…’

Following the music as instructed I soon found myself floating over a condemned apartment building which was one of few buildings left standing in an otherwise demolished neighborhood. X-raying the building I found no traces of Alura, or indeed of anyone else aside from a rather sizeable colony of rats in the walls, but I knew that they were watching me from a distance

I would do the same

Mentally scowling, I flew into an open window and landed at the top of a flight of stairs, a florescent blub dimly flickered above, there was power, so obviously someone was using this place.

Wrinkling my nose at the smell of age and mold, I cautiously looked around. A floorboard suddenly creaked, turning; I was suddenly met with a fist to the face. Staggering back from the force of the blow (definitely not Human I figured) I tumbled down the stairs, across the floor and into the wall, making a rather sizeable Astra-shaped dent in it.

“Hello, Astra” a familiar voice suddenly rasped. Shaking my hair out of my eyes, I looked up to see Hank Henshaw—the real Hank Henshaw—calmly walk down the stairs, his cybernetic eye glinting in the dim, flickering light

“Didn’t I kill you?” I spat out. He chuckled

“Oh, you know what they say, no rest for the wicked,” his hand suddenly shot out, grabbing a fistful of my hair and summarily flung me down the hallway “see,” he began as I crashed into yet another wall “I don’t like that Luthor bitch any more than you and the rest of your kind do”

“Well, I’m glad we agree on something” I coughed out even as he swiftly approached me, one hand wrapping around my throat to lift me up off the floor

“But,” he began as he lifted me up off my feet with a frightening amount of ease “Camdus can be very…helpful when they want to be” the next thing I knew I was being violently slammed back into the wall headfirst

Then...nothing…

Chapter Text

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Would you leave me if I told you what I’ve done?
And would you leave me if I told you what I’ve become?

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
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Alex

“Any word?” J’onn asked as I came into Command

“No, and now Astra’s not responding on either her comm. or her cell” I replied

“Damn it!” he snarled

“They probably used Alura as bait” I figured

“But why take Astra too?” Winn asked “I mean, if they already have a Kryptonian…”

“Information, Mr. Schott,” J’onn answered grimly “Astra’s a general, first and foremost, secondly she’s a DEO agent, so she has information that Cadmus could use to undermine us, and thirdly she’s the creator of Myriad”

“A triple threat,” I explained “especially if they get Astra to tell them how Myriad works, they could use it to do…god knows what”

“They could use it against aliens instead of Humans” Winn realized

“Or worse,” J’onn nodded “right now, Mr. Schott—” he suddenly jerked back as he turned to face Winn, yanking his gun out and taking aim right at Winn, eyes glowing red

“J’onn!” I lunged, snatching the gun out of his hand. J’onn gasped and jerked as he shook his head, blinking, looking like he was coming out of a nightmare “stand down!” I ordered to the other agents. I looked over at Winn as I steadied J’onn “you OK?”

“Yeah” he panted out “sure, never better,” he took a shaky breath “I’m…going to go change my pants now” he muttered as I turned back to J’onn

“What the hell just happened?” I demanded “I know that Winn can be a little annoying at times, but I don’t think that’s cause to shoot him” he shook his head, actually shaking

“I could have sworn---,” he took a shuddering breath “Alex, I need you to run some tests of me” he requested as he examined his trembling hands…
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Astra

I sat up with a groan, examining my new surroundings. Another cage, I realized, caged twice in the same night, must be a record somewhere

“Astra, are you all right?” I turned, sighing in relief as I saw Alura in an identical cage next to me, seemingly unharmed

“I’m fine,” I replied “you?”

“I’ve…been better,” she took a breath as she leaned against the bars separating us “they have J’onn” she reported

“That’s not J’onn,” I groaned as I sat up and examined the bars for any kind of weakness “remember the man I told you about? The one who killed Alex’s father? That’s him”

“I thought you said that you killed him,” she said, she frowned “in fact, I was lead to believe that he had twice once before”

“He did,” I answered “and yes, we did kill him. Or so we thought”

“Obviously whoever has captured us has some rather impressive resources at hand”

“This is Cadmus” I explained

“Wonderful” she sighed

I nodded to the bars “I don’t suppose you…”

“First thing, it wouldn’t bend” she nodded, I examined the metal more closely

“Its Nth metal,” I sighed “virtually unbreakable,” I gestured to the cage itself “explains the design of this as well, probably just machined out one solid block”

“So, what do we do?”

“I’m not sure” I admitted…
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Alex

“Your tests so check out,” I began as I put a slide on the microscope and pulled up the camera feed while J’onn paced nearby “white blood cells are OK, leukocytes the same, aside from an understandable jump in adrenaline, I don’t see…,” I stopped, trailing off as I watched the magnified view of J’onn’s blood sample, watching as one cell suddenly seemed to envelope another before spitting it out, the cell that had been spit out suddenly morphed into an identical copy of the other cell “I’ve…never seen that before” I admitted

“I have” J’onn growled out

“Well, care to fill me in?”

He sighed

“How much do you know about the Holocaust?” he asked

“Enough,” I answered “I’m Jewish, so I probably know a bit more than most” I added, he nodded

“During the war, once the Whites put us into the camps, they didn’t just kill us outright, not at first at least,” he explained “they started to…experiment on us, messing around with our DNA. Eventually they found a way to turn their own blood into a virus, injecting it into the prisoners, changing them”

“Changing them into…what?” I asked\

“Other White Martians” he answered grimly as he held up his still-trembling hand, as I watched, that familiar fiery haze surrounded it, up to his elbow, but instead of changing into his normal arm, it changed into a thicker more muscular arm, the skin a chalky white, with a claw-like hand

The arm of a White Martian….

Chapter Text

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No light, no light in your bright blue eyes
I never knew daylight could be so violent
A revelation in the light of day
You can’t chose what stays and what fades away

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Astra

I looked up, tensing as the door opened, two armed guards entered, flanking either side of mine and Alura’s cells as Lillian Luthor herself entered

“Well, now, General Astra, we meet again,” she smiled as she stepped right up to the bars “you’ll forgive me if I don’t salute you”

“What do you want?” I asked

“Getting right to the point, I see,” she chuckled “aren’t you going to ask why I’m doing this?” she wondered, sounding oddly curious

“Not particularly,” I shrugged “I know why you’re doing this”

“Really? Do tell”

“You’re in denial,” I answered bluntly “when your son was arrested, you couldn’t deal with it, you couldn’t fathom it, how could it be that your son, your own flesh and blood, could do such horrible things? Commit such unspeakable crimes? So, you found a scapegoat, someone else to blame for your son’s own downfall; Superman. Now, it wasn’t Lex’s fault, now, you had someone to blame, he was driven to it, Superman was responsible,” I felt myself actually smile “am I getting warm?” I taunted.

Lillian smirked

“You and your kind think you know us so well, don’t you?” she scowled “I’ll admit that, yes, I do blame Superman for Lex’s fall, but that’s not why I’m doing this”

“Then, why pray tell, are you doing this?” Alura wondered

“I’m trying to save the world,” she answered, and I could see that she really thought that’s what she was doing. I’ve known that kind of mentality before all too well “you see,” she continued “ever since Superman first appeared, the entire planet has all but fallen at his feet. No one wants to help themselves anymore, they all just sit back and wait for some alien to save them, without any regard for what these beings can do, where they come from, why they’re here. The entire planet has all become complacent,” she leaned against the bars of my cage “soon they’ll be voting aliens into political offices, trusting them to lead us, to make our decisions for us, and, eventually, one day, they’ll wake up and find that Earth is no longer ours anymore, that we’re the minority on our planet”

For a moment I simply stared at her before I finally spoke

“You’re insane,” I shook my head “most of the aliens who came here, came out of desperation, we don’t want to be here anymore than you want us here”

“Well,” she sighed “I’d never thought I’d hear an alien say that,” she snapped her fingers and one of the guards held out what looked like a helmet to her “now, getting back to the matter of why I brought you both here,” she held up the helmet “I know from your niece’s fight with the Red Tornado android and from your own fight with Non that if you use your heat vision long enough you can drain your cells of their solar energy”

“Your point?” I asked. She hefted the helmet

“This helmet was designed to collect and store that energy” she explained

“And I suppose that you want one of us to try it on” I guessed

“Hmm, definitely the smarter one,” she mused “now, I know that your sister here still doesn’t have full control of her abilities yet,” she began, gesturing to Alura’s cell “and I know that you certainly won't comply so easily,” she snapped her fingers again. One of the guards removed her gun and handed it to Lillian “so,” she began “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to resort to drastic measures” she explained as she loaded it and pointed it at me. I could see the green glint of kryptonite in the barrel

“You know that shooting me won’t get me to comply,” I pointed out “so why bother?”

She smirked, predatorily at me

“Hmm, you’re right” she chuckled. I watched as she suddenly turned and shot Alura in the leg

“Alura!” I reached for her through the bars as she fell to the ground, gasping in pain as the blood rapidly soaked through the fabric of her jeans. Snarling, I surged to my feet, stopping as Lillian aimed the gun at me again

“Killing yourself won’t save your sister, you know that,” she reminded me “right now, only I can do that,” she turned the gun again, aiming it at Alura’s head “do what I want and I’ll save her life. Refuse and she dies. You have thirty seconds to decide”
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Alex

M’gann looked up as I walked into her cell

“J’onn’s changing isn’t he?” she asked quietly

“Yeah, he is,” I answered “do you know how to stop it?” I asked

“No,” she shook her head “I don’t”
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Astra

“Twenty seconds,” Lillian announced. I glanced at Alura, who still lay on the floor, whimpering in pain. I highly doubted that Lillian would actually help her, the only reason she might even consider it was so that she could have a healthy specimen to study, but I also knew that if I didn’t do what she wanted, she would kill Alura

“Ten seconds, General” she reminded me

“All right! All right!” I snapped “I’ll do as you ask”

“Astra…,” Alura weakly shook her head “don’t” she wasn’t like me, Alura fought with words, not with her fists, she and Kara were too much alike for their own good. They were both too caring, too compassionate. And in places like Cadmus and Fort Rozz things like compassion made one easy prey. Lillian could never break me, she could never do to me what hadn't already been done before

But Alura...Alura she could break, quite easily, simply by threatening me, by threatening Kara

[I’m sorry, sister,] I said in our own language [but I can’t lose you again] I told her

“How touching,” Lillian smirked as one of the guards opened the cell and roughly hauled me out, even though I made no resistance. I scowled as Lillian held up the helmet and placed it over my head, sliding the transparent visor into place over my eyes as she buckled it tightly “comfortable?” she mocked. I said nothing as I took a breath and felt that familiar warmth fill my head, felt my eyes began to warm slightly as the twin beams of pale blue energy suddenly surged out from me and into the visor, being absorbed by it rather than melting it.

I staggered as I suddenly felt the pull of the helmet, I suppose you could say, as it began to draw the energy from me, draining my cells. It was similar to what Rudy Jones did to me, only…more focused, less intense. My head began to pound even as I felt my whole body start to grow weak and cold, distantly I heard someone screaming and realized that it was me as my knees finally gave out and I collapsed, face first towards the floor, the last dregs of my heat vision ebbing out as my vision blurred and swam

“Thank you, General,” I distantly heard Lillian “Cadmus thanks you for your service…”

Chapter Text

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Would you leave me if I told you what I’ve done?
And would you leave me if I told you what I’ve become?
Because it’s so easy to sing it to a crowd
But its so hard, my love, to say it to you out loud

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
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Alex

“Alex” I looked over, surprised as James walked in

“James, hi,” I greeted “what are you doing here?” I asked

“Lucy called,” he explained “told me about J’onn. How are you holding up?”

“Just barely,” I answered “between this and with Astra and Alura missing…”

He nodded

“Yeah,” he answered, he reached out and gave my arm a comforting squeeze “you’ll find them” he assured me

“I know” I replied, but what neither of us said was would we find them both alive?

“Alex!” I looked over as Kara came over, Mom in tow

“Mom?” I stood up “what are you doing here?”

“Kara brought me,” she answered “she said that there’s something wrong with J’onn”

“I know it’s a long shot,” Kara picked up “but this way, you can focus on finding Astra and my mom” she explained. Grinning, I yanked her into a hug, squeezing as tight as I could

“Best little sister ever” I whispered into her shoulder…
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Astra

I was being dragged, my vision swam and blurred. Colors changed, the lights were far too bright for my liking. I felt myself being lifted up and then roughly forced down, something holding my limbs down as a bright light shone in my face. I weakly kicked and squirmed as a sharp pain suddenly stabbed at my arm

“It should take effect in a while” a voice said distantly

“Good”
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I sat up with a gasp, finding myself back in my cage. Looking over, I found Alura in the same place where she had been where I last saw her

“Alura?” I tried, my voice horse. Struggling to clear my throat I tried again “Alura?” she remained silent, and I felt a mix of terror and rage well up within me “Alura?!”

She suddenly jerked up, gasping as she turned to look towards me, a pained look of relief crossing her face

“I thought I’d lost you” she said

“Likewise,” I replied, I weakly managed to sit up, half dragging myself up to lean against the bars, panting with exertion. Turning my head—an effort in an of itself—I examined her leg, finding that she’d, rather ingeniously, used her socks as a tourniquet, but even so, I could see the blood beginning to soak through it “the bullet’s still your leg, isn’t it?” I asked softly

She nodded [Yes,] she replied in Kryptonese, no doubt too weak and in too much to speak in English. She took a breath, wincing as she did [I told you not to trust her]

“Would you rather I’d let her kill you?” I challenged as she seemed to pass out again, surprising myself as I replied in English, I wondered about that, about…easily speaking in English comes to me now even as I remembered complaining to Alex about how hard it was having to translate everything I wanted to say in my head before I said it. I made a mental note to see if she spoke any Kryptonese when we got out of here.

I tensed and sat up slightly as the door opened again. But this time, it wasn’t Lillian or one of her minions, instead the person entering room—dragging an unconscious guard behind them—was dressed in a heavy parka with the hood drawn up. Dropping the guard, they approached my cell and drew back the hood, and I simply stared.

I remembered how I felt when I found that Kara and Alura were still alive, it had been surprising, joyous, wonderful...but yet, not entirely unexpected, because the knowledge of their deaths had been abstract, there had always been a lingering doubt in the back of my mind, because I hadn’t actually seen either of them die.

But now, I couldn’t stop staring as the figure gave me a soft smile as he rooted around the guard’s belt, finally pulling out a keycard and swiping across the lock, the cage obediently opening. I had no doubts about this man, I had seen him die, I had been the cause of his death

“Non” I breathed as I watched my ex-husband swiftly move over to Alura’s cage and opened it

“There’s not much time,” he said as he gently eased Alura out. He paused and looked up at me “Astra!” he growled out. I shook myself off and hurried out to assist him, and between the two of us, carried her over to simple gurney set up in a corner, no doubt the same gurney that I had been strapped down to earlier.

I watched as Non swiftly undid Alura’s improvised tourniquet, throwing the bloody socks away as he grabbed a pair of forceps “hold her still” he instructed as he gently began to ease them into the wound. I cringed as Alura kicked and squirmed

[Easy, easy, sister,] I moved into her field of vision and took her hand [easy, easy, just hold on,] I looked over at Non [do you have it?] I asked, he sighed

[It’s in deep,] he announced, he looked up at Alura who stared at him, clearly disbelieving [this is going to hurt] he warned

[On three,] I told her, even as I counted to two with my free hand [ready?] I asked, she nodded shakily [one…two…]

Non suddenly thrust the forceps in, Alura gave an almighty jerk and let out a short scream of pain as Non grimly wrenched the bloody forceps free and held them up, the kryptonite bullet gleaming in the light

“Beastly thing,” he muttered, tossing it away as he roughly hauled Alura up “we need to go,” he instructed, ushering us towards the door and down a dimly lit hallway, I could smell an overwhelming…dampness, and reasoned that we may have been underground or at the very least below street level “here,” Non stopped us at a metal gate, he swiped the keycard across the lock, which beeped and opened.

He turned back to us “you need to go” he instructed. For a moment I simply stood there, even as Alura quickly hobbled through the gate

“Come with us” I pleaded as I recognized the man before me as the friend I used to know, not the mad, bloodthirsty killer he had been at the end, but the kind, gentle man he used to be, the man I’d grown up with

“I can’t,” he shook his head “Cadmus needs someone to punish,” he explained “and I would rather it be me than you or her” he reached out then, gently cupping my cheek

“Astra! Come on!” Alura called out from further down the hall

“You need to go,” Non urged even as an alarm began to sound “I’ll be all right,” he promised, he smiled and gently brushed his thumb across my cheek “go to your Alex” he whispered as I could hear the sound of pounding boots come towards us

“Thank you,” I whispered as I squeezed through the gate. Looking back, I watched as he turned towards our pursuers and slowly held up his hands, surrendering “I’ll come back for you” I vowed. He glanced back at me over his shoulder, smirking

“I know” he said simply as figures appeared at the end of the hall

“THERE SHE GOES!” one shouted. I charged forwards, all but slamming into Alura as I ran down the hall, dodging gunfire as I did. Sparing one last glance back I saw two armored figures roughly shove Non to the ground and painfully wrench his arms behind his back, even though he made no move to resist.

Biting back the urge to go charging back like some wild animal, I instead urged Alura on, finding and quickly ascending a flight of stairs, finding myself back in the same hallway where I had confronted Henshaw before (I could still see the dents in the wall from where I’d been thrown into them).

“Here!” I urged Alura up towards the window I’d come in through, praying that one of us could fly, as we crashed through the glass and then took to the air…

Chapter Text

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You want a revelation, you wanna get right
But, it’s a conversation, I just can’t help tonight
You want a revelation, some kind of resolution
You want a revelation

--Florence + the Machine: “No Light, No Light”
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Alex

“We got something on radar” Lucy announced as there was a sudden gust of wind. Turning, gun ready, I felt my heart skip a beat as Alura gently touched down, carrying a bedraggled-looking, but alive Astra

“Are you all right?!” I demanded as I rushed up to them, quickly slinging one of Astra’s arms over my shoulder

“We’re,” she coughed “we’re all right” she explained as I eased her into a chair, while Lucy and J’onn both barked out calls for medics

“What hell did they do to you?” I hissed as I checked her over

“Nothing I haven’t been through before,” she answered as she waved off the medics and weakly stood up, leaning against the operations table “they have Non” she announced

“Whoa, wait, Non?” Winn asked “as in, your crazy ex-husband? Your crazy dead ex-husband?”

“Not so crazy anymore and decidedly not dead,” Astra nodded “he helped us to escape” she explained, coughing again

“It’s true,” Alura confirmed “I saw him with my own eyes”

“How’d he survive?” I asked “I mean I saw you kill him” I exclaimed

Astra shook her head “I don’t—” she broke off as she started coughing hard

“Astra?” I reached for her as she spit up into her hand. Grimacing, she held up her hand, a few drops of blood staining her palm, even as she started coughing again. Harder than before

“They…injected me…with…some…” she panted out, I watched in horror as her eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head

“ASTRA!” I dove to catch her as she suddenly collapsed “she's burning up" I reported as I felt how hot and clammy her skin was as Kara and the others crowded around us…