A/N: The prompt that I received for this chapter had me so excited that I started writing it weeks ago, when it was first submitted and received votes. For days and days and days I've been working on this, until it ended up being crazy long, so this prompt will be split into three parts. Luckily, all three parts are finished. I'll post the next two chapters within the following few days. I think this first chapter reads better without the prompt being known (to keep things as a bit of a surprise) so the prompt is stated at the bottom of this chapter. Thank you so much to the guest who submitted it!
Also, thanks for all your lovely reviews, favorites, follows, and reads.
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Time Travel - Part 1
J'onn paced slowly around his office as he looked at Alex and Kara. "I need you to both understand that this is a very dangerous mission. The alien technology you'll likely encounter is extremely reactive, it is perceptive and certain pieces have been reported to react with strong memories and alter time for the beings around them."
"So, like, time moves slower or faster?" Kara asked.
J'onn shook his head. "Time travel."
"Really?"
He nodded. "It's for that reason that you need to avoid touching the technology as much as possible. In the event that something does go awry, Agent Danvers will have a pack with as much DEO tech we can give you that will be useful in a variety of situations. We don't have time to go over each piece now, but most of it should be self-explanatory. A conclusive report of the area and technology that resides there is of the utmost importance and needed rapidly before we have more civilians stumbling down into the alien region, once is more than enough," he said, shaking his head. "We need to know what we're dealing with."
/
"Kara, are you for real right now? Don't touch it," Alex said, without even glancing at her sister. They'd been inside the ruinous temple for over an hour, taking pictures and documenting the area as the sun dipped below the horizon.
"I'm not!"
"I literally just saw you reach toward it."
"You're not even looking at me!"
"I was when you moved your hand."
Kara rolled her eyes. "It looks familiar. I think I've seen it before."
"Yeah, well, J'onn said that there could be weird stuff here."
"Hey!" Kara exclaimed, feigning offense.
This time, Alex was the one who rolled her eyes and smiled. "Just be care-" She was cut off by the sound of metal clattering to the floor.
"Seriously, Kara?!"
The blonde shrugged. "I didn't mean to… it just vibrated and … fell. It looks like something from Krypton."
Both girls leaned down to pick up the object when a bright flash of light filled the area. Kara reached for Alex, lacing their hands together as a loud whoosh sounded through the area and echoed off the stone. The flash was overtaken by a deep black that flooded the air, blanketing the room in total darkness.
There was a sensation of movement and in the brief moment she had to think before they were flung into another world, Kara decided it was almost like flying, just faster and completely out of her control.
/
Kara brushed her fingers against the wall, glancing slowly around the room that had appeared around them.
"Kara, where is this? Where are we?" Alex asked, doubled over slightly. While Kara's powers had dissipated when they reached the new time, it appeared they'd protected her from the effects of high speed travel. Alex, on the other hand, felt a little bit like she might die, or throw up, maybe both at the same time. She sighed and straightened up. "What happened?"
Kara dropped her hand from the wall, turning around to gaze at the other side of the room and taking slow steps around the area. "I think we did more than time travel," she answered, "This is… This is my home. This is Krypton."
Kara moved over to the couch and ran her hand over the white fabric. "This is my living room, my apartment. I-I grew up here." She suddenly moved, running quickly to a desk and opening a drawer, shuffling around until she produced a small magnetic calendar.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Kara whispered, raising a hand to her mouth.
"What is it?" Alex asked.
Kara didn't respond, she bundled her hair in her fingers, pulling it out of her face and let out a long, heavy sigh. Her fingers trembled as she touched the calendar.
"Kara," Alex said again, taking a step closer to her sister. "What's a matter?"
The blonde looked at Alex, making eye contact for the first time since they'd arrived. Her eyes looked tired and moist, her hair messy. She bit her bottom lip. "Krypton explodes three days from now, in sixty eight hours."
Kara swallowed as tears sprung from her eyes. "I don't know what's happening," she whispered, and immediately Alex pulled her sister into her arms.
"We'll figure it out. We'll fix it."
Kara nodded and silence hung between them until a voice came from a bedroom, it was warm and familiar and made Kara's stomach ache with love and longing.
"Kara, honey, is that you? What are you doing up so late? You should be -"
The woman froze as she entered the living room, eyes falling upon the two seemingly unknown figures.
"Mom," Kara gasped, raising a hand to cover her mouth, and her breath was stuck in her throat and her heart was racing but her heart was soaring, too, and her lips were smiling and tears were gathering in her eyes and falling all over again. "Mom…" she repeated, in an exhale of disbelief so quiet that her voice was barely a ripple in the air.
"Kara?" Alura asked. She furrowed her brows, studying the blonde's face, taking in the juxtaposition of the familiar features and the foreign maturity.
The smile widened across Kara's face and for a moment, all was forgotten. She was beaming. She nodded feverishly, sending tears dripping from the edge of her cheeks and splattering on the floor. "Yes, it's me, Mom. It's Kara, your Kara. I mean not your Kara, right now, but your Kara. Just older. It's me, just older."
Alura was still and it took Kara a moment to notice her mother was crying.
"Alura? Is everything okay?" Kara's father, Zor-El, emerged from her parents' bedroom.
Alura made eye contact with him before returning her gaze to Kara, unwilling to look away. Her heart was swelling with love, and warmth was tingling in the core of her body, spreading to her limbs. "It's Kara," she whispered and her voice was hoarse. "It's our baby all grown up."
Tears poured down Kara's face, she tucked her chin toward her chest, looking at the floor before raising her gaze back up at her parents.
"It's really her?" Zor-El asked.
Alura nodded. "I don't know how it happened, but I know our daughter, I know Kara. I would recognize those eyes anywhere."
Kara's dad turned back to his daughter, gazing at her as his heart thumped in his chest.
"I can prove it's me," Kara said quickly. "My birth name is Kara Zor-El, I was born here on Krypton. My twelve year old self has a bedtime right now of 22:00, I remember that, because on our last night," Kara's voice cracked and she swallowed a sob, it felt like she might splinter under the weight of sadness, "… I remember because on our last night together you let me break it and we stayed up looking at pictures and telling stories and just being together until dawn had just broken and I fell asleep in your arms for the last time. I snuck into your bedroom almost every night until was nine because some-sometimes I got scared and I didn't want to be alone."
Kara looked at her mom, saw the face she'd missed for so long. "Your favorite color is purple and you would sing to me when I got sick and kiss me when I got hurt and you- you have a drawer on the left side of the desk where you keep every scrap of paper I've ever given you." Kara wiped a tear off her face in a futile attempt to dry her cheeks.
She turned to her dad, her words growing faster and breathier with each passing second. "And you taught me about planets in space and sometimes when mom worked late we'd watch movies together past my bed night, even on school nights and once every year you'd let me skip school so I could go to work with you and I'd sit in your lap, and at night, every night for years, you would both read to me in bed."
Kara let out a breath that pattered against the back of her teeth and felt like her stomach was clenching. She glanced at the clock on the wall. "And… in a little less than sixty eight hours, you both know that Krypton will explode and we'll have that last night together and then you're going to send me to Earth to protect Kal-El," Kara paused, sucking in a shaking breath as her parents gazed at her. "And I know-" She froze, words caught in her throat as tears choked their way out. She couldn't continue. "Sorry," she murmured as she shook her head and looked down.
Alex wanted nothing more than to wrap Kara up and hug all her pain away but the agent didn't move, instead, she watched.
Kara's mom was at the blonde's side before Kara could notice she'd even moved. "Mama, I missed you," Kara cried softly, feeling little and drowning in a thousand emotions. Then her dad was there too and Kara was too happy to have her parents there to notice Alex stepping back and fidgeting, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
There were hands and familiar arms wrapped around Kara, noses and foreheads touching, lips pressed against her hair. It all happened so quickly. It all felt so right, like a gaping hole had been filled her in lungs and she could finally breathe for the first time in so long.
She'd dreamed about this moment; for her first few year on Earth, it felt as though reuniting with her parents was the only good dream she'd ever been able to remember. It was a relief to have a break from the nightmares, but feeling so hopelessly happy in her dream always led to a devastating crash in the morning, when reality hit like ice in her veins.
But now, in this moment, it was real. Her parents were real, this moment was real.
She was hanging on.
She hadn't felt so light in years, it was intoxicating. Every prior instant of apparent happiness or content since Krypton exploded felt invalidated by this moment.
Alex dropped her head and adverted her gaze.
Kara couldn't stop talking, couldn't stop crying.
She leaned back and Alura reached out, brushing the tears off Kara's cheeks with the pads of her thumbs. The blonde closed her eyes. The touch was so gentle, and Kara felt guilty knowing that despite Eliza giving her everything to Kara and being as wonderful and supportive and loving as she had, this—this—was the touch Kara had craved for years. This feeling. This wholeness in her chest and warmness in her heart that felt like hot chocolate and sunshine and marshmallows and rainbows and everything good in the universe was flowing through her veins from her core to the tips of her fingers and lighting up everything in between.
"I know that you loved me," Kara began, there was so much she was feeling, so much she needed to say. "That you love me now, and I hope- I hope you know how much I love you, too."
"We love you, sweetie, so, so much. And we know you love us, you showed it every day," Alura said and Kara's dad nodded.
Kara swallowed and shifted her gaze between each parent every few seconds, she wanted to make sure she remembered every detail, and guarded each piece of information so that it never escaped her mind.
"It turns out okay, you know," Kara said, a small, watery smile tugging across her lips. "Going to Earth. Kal-El was okay. I was okay…" Kara turned around, looking at Alex, where she'd quietly stood to the side, unnoticed. "You were right, I have powers over there, I got to become Supergirl, I get help people," Kara gestured to her Supergirl suit. "I missed you a lot, but I didn't have to do things alone when I got to Earth." Kara gestured to her sister before smiling proudly back to her parents. "Mom, Dad, this is… this is my big sister, Alex. Her family, the Danvers, took me in and adopted me when I arrived on Earth, I don't think..." she shrugged and looked back at Alex, her eyes shiny. "I don't think I would have made it without them."
Rosy blush colored Alex's cheeks and she smiled back at Kara and her parents.
Alura watched the interaction, the soft smiles shared between the girls and the warm looks, it was everything she wished she and Astra could have had as sisters. She bypassed Alex's outstretched hand and pulled the girl into a hug.
Alex smiled and laughed softly, surprised and stiff at first before relaxing. She hugged Alura back and shook Zor-El's outstretched hand.
Beside them Kara beamed, clasping her fingers together and bringing her hands toward her face. She caught Alex's eyes and as they shared widening smiles, Kara felt so happy she thought her heart might explode into glitter or something equally wild and sparkly.
A few moments later Alura pulled back and Zor-El released Alex's hand. Kara watched as Alex dipped her head in an attempt to covertly wipe away a tear. Kara reached out and squeezed Alex's palm.
"How did you get here?" Zor-El asked, looking at both sisters.
"To be honest, we're not entirely sure," Alex said and Kara continued, "We were investigating an area linked to alien devices when we came in contact with unknown tech, which must've been a time machine."
Alex nodded in agreement.
"It's kind of awesome actually," Kara said with a grin.
Alura smiled, she'd never expected that she'd be able to see her daughter so grown up. It made her indescribably happy to see that, despite everything, Kara was still the same smiley girl Alura had been so lucky to know and raise for twelve years.
"Well, we need to get you girls home then," Alura said.
"No," Kara spoke up suddenly and all three turned to face her.
She stiffened.
"Sweetheart, you have a life to live, a world to keep protecting with Alex, with your sister," Zor-El said. "Earth needs Supergirl."
Kara cried hopelessly in her mind that she needed Krypton.
"As much as it will pain us to see you go, you must return to Earth," Alura said, "It's where you belong now, Krypton is dying."
Alura ran a hand over Kara's arm but the blonde stepped back, shaking her head. "No," she repeated. "No, we can fix this. We can—we can save you guys, we can save Krypton."
"Baby, Krypton's already gone," Alura said gently. "The timeline's set. We can't alter it, any attempts to do so would be too perilous." Kara looked around, heartbroken to see her father and sister nodding in agreement.
"There has to be something! There has to be a way… there has to," Kara gathered a tangle of blonde hair in her fist and a sob shook her shoulders.
Alura pulled her daughter into her arms. Kara cried harder.
"I don't want to go, I don't ever want to leave you," Kara murmured into her mom's shoulder. "Not again."
Kara hadn't expected to feel those arms again, the embrace that comforted her as she'd grown up, through bad days at school and illness and injuries. Those arms were there—had always been there—to hold her up, to support her, and to keep her warm.
The touch was just as sweet and welcoming as she'd remembered, like being wrapped in a blanket after a cold day or slipping into bed late at night and falling asleep with heavy eyelids before you even had time to think. It was relief; it was safety; it was home.
She didn't know how much she'd missed it until she'd gotten it back, for a splinter of a second, only to say goodbye again.
She hated saying goodbye.
A few moments passed and Kara leaned back, straightening up and wiping her cheeks. "Sorry," she sniffled.
Alura wiped away her own tears before reaching out and tilting Kara's chin up. "My sweet daughter, you have suffered more than anyone I have ever met and you have remained so strong. You are made of steel. Do not apologize for feeling, do not apologize for crying."
Kara nodded and shrugged, keeping her gaze trained on the ground as her cheeks flushed. Alex pulled her into a side hug and it helped remind Kara that not all was lost on Earth. She wasn't alone.
Zor-El put a hand on Kara's shoulder and she realized with conflicting emotions that she was surrounded by the three people that loved her most in the whole universe. At the same time that her heart fluttered she felt something of a sad yank, for her time was waning, and their moments together were fleeting, set on a timer from the moment she'd arrived.
"We need to get you back to your time as soon as possible to minimize any risks," Zor-El said.
"We should have you home before the sun rises," Alura agreed.
Kara took a shuddery breath as she turned to a counter in the living room and picked up a small object. "Here," she said, opening her palm and extending her hand. "This is the device that brought us to Krypton."
Prompt: Kara and Alex somehow time-travel to Krypton and Alex meets Kara's parents. Together the four of them have to figure out a way to get Alex and Kara back to their time before Krypton explodes.