Chapter Text
The alien arrived on a bright Thursday morning that beckoned to Kara as she soared through sunlight and skimmed across currents that curled her cape into a crimson contrail. Knowing her sister was enjoying some quality fly time after a hellish battle the previous evening, Alex dispatched a drone to identify what had just splashed down far enough off the coast that only those trained to monitor the skies for such arrivals would even notice. The normal tension of uncertainty hummed between the sharp jut of her shoulder blades.
The alien reached National City’s shore that same Thursday morning, mere minutes after destroying the drone with the swipe of its massive talons. As it dragged its hulking mass up from the harbor, scales dripping and glinting in the morning light, Alex was already on her way to the scene with two teams of agents. Still, she refrained from contacting Kara, hoping this was something the DEO could handle without having to ruin her sister’s much needed respite from her Super duties.
She would see her regret for that decision reflected in her sister’s broken gaze for the rest of her life.
The alien slithered swiftly through the streets of National City, leading the agents on a pursuit that left them constantly outpaced and uncertain as to its ultimate destination. Only when it caught something in the wind did it slow its pace but also sharpen its focus, steering its massive reptilian frame deep into the heart of the business district.
The sound of Alex’s voice through her earpiece was barely a forewarning, the alien rounding into sight at the same second Kara heard her sister call frantically for her assistance. She remained stationary, however, hovering outside the office whose occupant always drew her in with magnetic predictability whenever she soared by on patrols.
Positioning herself at the edge of the office’s balcony, she called over her shoulder, “You need to go back inside, Ms. Grant.”
She rotated in midair as she spoke, tracking the unnervingly swift movements of the alien as it barreled down the center of the road beneath them before launching itself a good fifty feet into the air and sinking its talons into the side of the building opposite CatCo.
“What in the hell is that?”
Cat’s voice, right behind her now instead of farther away, zigzagged along her spine like lightning. Unwilling to look away from the alien’s persistent approach, she growled over her shoulder, “Cat, please get inside!”
The alien had already scaled three quarters of the building, the muscles of its long tail pushing against the windows and concrete to shove its body up the side of the structure with alarming speed. Its talons pierced the structure like hot lances through ice as it dragged itself rapidly higher. Kara was certain she could feel each strike tremor through the air around her.
Finally reaching a height slightly above where the hero hovered, the alien pulled its body tightly against the building before shoving away, its force like the tsunami tide curling away from the shore before reversing and slamming its destructive strength against the land. As it soared across the chasm between buildings, it curled into itself, a thick line of quills releasing along the ridges of its spine as it did.
The hero inhaled sharply at the sight, fighting back whatever instinct warned her to run away and instead flying to meet the alien mid-air.
“Kara, no!”
She heard the stereophonic plea, from behind her and from her earpiece, and she nearly laughed at the unexpected confirmation Cat’s command carried with it—because, of course, Cat Grant knew.
After this was over, she told herself, they would laugh together.
Her minor distraction was enough for her to miss the way the quills quivered right before they launched from the alien’s spine. Several struck her with varying degrees of pain registering through her impenetrable flesh with unsettling surprise.
The truest pain, however, was from the quill that completely missed her.
The cry of Kara’s anguish was a palpable, terrifying sound Alex was certain she would never be able to erase from her memory. Looking up, she watched her sister spin and grab the alien from the sky as it continued its trajectory toward her and fly it straight down toward the ground, oblivious to anyone else around her.
“Supergirl! Stop!”
Warning ignored, she continued on an unstoppable path that sent bystanders scrambling from their vehicles and off the sidewalks as quickly as they could manage. The impact rumbled outward in a dangerous explosion of debris as Kara buried her attacker deep into the crater they made. Still, those at the surface could hear and feel her continued journey down through the levels of strata.
Running as quickly as she could among chunks of displaced asphalt and still-spinning vehicles, Alex climbed all the way to the edge of the hole.
“Supergirl, please respond. What’s your status?”
The air within the crater rippled upward with such force, Alex and the other DEO agents with her blew back from the edge as Kara ascended once more toward the top of CatCo Tower. Though she refused to respond to Alex’s calls, her sister could hear the frantic pleading mantra spilling from her lips as she returned to the balcony far above.
Boots touched down, but Kara’s legs shook beneath her so violently, she thought she might continue downward until she hit her knees. Only Cat’s agonized gaze fixed on her every move kept her from completely falling—and completely falling apart.
A large quill pierced through Cat’s right thigh, front to back, forcing her to sprawl across the balcony deck on her left side, her nails shattered and split from the way she clawed against the concrete beneath her.
Pain vibrated through her body and she could barely make out the softly chanted mantra of foreign words Kara whispered beneath the booming bass tempo of her heart beating inside her head.
Eyelids suddenly too difficult a struggle to lift, she sank into darkness that was anything but peaceful. A riot of sound rose from within her office, trampling out onto the balcony with hard-soled insistence.
“Alex, please.”
Kara’s voice broke beneath the weight of her two-word plea, but not even her hero’s panic could keep her rooted in consciousness. Perhaps it was for the best, she mused, as she let herself freefall away from the searing sensations she could feel coursing through her veins.
Waves of awareness churned and crashed around her, dragging her through conversations comprising shouted orders, mostly from a faintly familiar voice—but never the one voice she needed to hear above all others. That voice, she knew, meant safety, meant refuge—meant so much more than she ever found the courage to acknowledge.
Only when she did finally hear it again, it meant something she wasn’t prepared to accept: Defeat. Fear. Heartbreak.
The words filtered through her without making any true impression, but the soft press of lips against her forehead was what remained foremost in her thoughts until the moment nothingness flooded through her and she sank deep within its tow.