Astra was afraid.
Alura knew she and Alex were together. And she clearly didn't approve.
"Are you out of your mind?" she snarled angrily. "With the adopted sister of your niece! What were you thinking?"
Astra's eyes watered. "Sister, I love her. Why does that matter? We're not related."
"Stop it," Alex hissed through gritted teeth. "Don't make her upset. That's extremely bad for her in this condition."
But Alura wasn't listening. "How could you betray the laws of Krypton again, Astra?"
"Stop, Alura."
"Are you just trying to spite me or do you really care about your old home?"
"STOP!" Astra screamed, bursting into tears at the same time Kara threw her hands forward to grab her mom. However, she accidentally pushed her with super strength and Alura slammed into the side of the machine-turned-bed Astra was laying in, sending her sister collapsing to the ground.
"Kara..." Alura whispered. "What did you just do...?" She picked herself up off the floor, glancing wide-eyed at her daughter.
Alex turned on her too for a moment, but her attention was distracted by Astra, who she dashed over to help. She didn't know if she'd gone unconscious or not, but her eyes were closed and her body hung limply in Alex's arms.
"Astra! Astra, baby, can you hear me?"
No sound came back to her.
"Astra, speak to me. Show me you're alive!"
The tension in the room was at a boiling point and Hank realized it wasn't good for Astra's healing process, so he sent them all out after replacing Astra on the machine, which would be replaced with a real bed before nightfall every day.
"You okay, Alura?" Alex muttered to her.
"Yeah, thanks."
"Why don't you approve of me? It cannot just be about our age difference."
"No, I just don't want Astra with... you."
"But that shouldn't matter!" Alex sighed in an exasperated tone. "She can love whoever she wants to."
Alura shook her head. "Not you. It's too weird. I don't want you with her."
Alex suddenly struck out with such force that she hit Alura's chest hard, sending her staggering back. "Shut up, you bitch."
"Alex!" Kara was shocked beyond belief. "What is wrong with you? You shouldn't be talking like that."
"Wouldn't you feel the same if she tried to keep you from being with Lena? Nothing will stop Astra and I from loving each other!"
Later...
Alex returned to Astra's room at night, trying to calm herself down before she went in. No one else was in there at that point, not even Hank. She turned on the light to a dim setting and carefully walked over to the bed, gently stroking her fingers through Astra's long brown hair and white streak.
"Baby, don't die on me now," she murmured. "I love you too much to let you go."
"Alex?" Astra opened her eyes and sat up, wincing in pain.
"Hey, don't strain yourself if you don't need to."
"No... I don't care..."
Without listening to anything else, Alex wrapped her right arm around Astra's waist and rested the hand of the other arm on the small of her back, pulling her in for a passionate kiss.
"Alex..."
"Shh, Astra... calm down..."
"But... hey, don't hurt me!"
She winced as she realized she had touched a bruise on her waist. "Sorry."
"It's okay..."
Alex kissed her again, her lips trailing down Astra's neck.
"Ah... Alex... you know we can't go as far as we want to... not when I'm like this..."
"I know..."
Alex sat on the bed and lifted Astra into her lap.
"I just don't like that my sister is trying to keep us apart. I don't even understand it."
"I hate her for that," Alex growled venomously.
"Don't get yourself riled up, sweetheart," Astra replied in a soothing tone. "She has to come around..."
"And why exactly do you believe that, sister?"
Shit, Alex cursed inside her head as Alura stepped out of the shadows. She saw everything. She held Astra to her protectively. "Don't even think about it."
"Think about what you're doing."
"I know exactly what I'm doing." Astra glared at her. "But it's nothing wrong."
"She has to be corrupting you. You wouldn't love her..."
"But I do." Astra's eyes flashed defiantly and she kissed Alex again to prove her point. "I am not under your rule anymore."
"Astra..."
"No."
"I'll go," Alex sighed. "And so will Alura. You can't be getting riled up right now."
Alura rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Alura, don't you think she needs peace? Especially after what Non did to her."
"This isn't over though."
"Don't care."
In the morning...
Kara flew out early to visit Lena again, so Alex assumed she could be alone with Astra. But the door was open and the light on.
Alura.
She was about to turn and leave, but then she heard a raised voice and quietly peeked in through the door. By now, she'd learned to distinguish the twins and from their position, she could see that Alura was pinning her sister up against the wall, speaking to her. Astra looked tired and in pain and she was obviously pleading with Alura to release her. How had things gotten so bad that they had attacked each other?
"Alura, what is wrong with you?" She burst into the room in a rage. "Don't touch her!"
Alura turned around in surprise, releasing Astra and dropping her to the floor. "Alex... I never meant to... I was just trying to keep her from attacking me for what I wanted to say."
"Look at her now! You've hurt your own sister!" Alex dodged around her and knelt beside the fallen woman. "Astra!"
"Alex... I'm alright... it's okay..."
"Not when I'm close enough to destroying her myself." Alex glared daggers at Alura. "She doesn't deserve to have a sister like you."
"Alex, you can't keep me away from her," Alura warned.
"No, but I can tell you to go away!"
"Astra, no..."
"Go... away..." Her eyes closed.
With all her strength, Alex lifted Astra off the floor and brought her back over to the bed.
"Until she's better, you are not welcome in here again."
"She's my sister. I love her more than you ever could."
"If you really loved her, you wouldn't have attacked her! And you wouldn't be trying to keep us apart." Alex stared at her in disgust. "I honestly don't understand how she ever loved you."
She left Alura with a shocked look on her face as they walked out together. In the main control room, a stir was brewing, so they went to check that out first.
Nothing much there except for a soot-covered Supergirl... and Lena.
Wait, what?
"Kara, what happened to you?" Alex asked her, batting soot off of the alien's cape. "And Lena... I thought she was in the hospital."
"The hospital was bombed," Kara said through tears. "If I hadn't been there..."
She would be dead.
"Take her to the room next to Astra's," Hank ordered. "We have a lot of space in there."
Alex followed Kara closely and once she was in the room, she then fled the DEO, walking to the edge of the city and just standing there. Waiting. She could feel a faint presence of others, but she wondered if it had been from people who had recently left the area.
And just as she expected, Non soon arrived.
She was ready.
"You hurt her!" she roared.
Non laughed. "I have not cared about hurting Astra since when I met Indigo."
"You broke into the DEO... you raped her!"
"I merely showed her what she betrayed and how powerful I am." He scanned Alex up and down. "And you're the human she's with? Not much to look at, in my opinion. Alura has the right idea keeping you two apart."
Balling up her fists and taking out her sword, Alex charged at him, but because of his protection that specially protected him from feeling the effects of Kryptonite (which is why he had that type of sword as a weapon now), her sword bounced off of him.
He cackled again, then paused for a moment and raised his head. "Someone else is here. Someone hidden. Two others." His hand moved and threw some kind of dust into the air, then he moved fast and slashed his sword forward into who had just materialized. Alura. And beside her, Kara. Alura took a sharp breath, stumbling back, but she was either stronger than Astra or more resistant to the effects of Kryptonite, because she seemed fine. No marks either.
"Bad sword, Non, against our protection," Kara snarled, ascending into the air. "And if you try to hurt any of us again... well, you won't, because you are dead."
As the two of them clashed in the air, Alex darted over to Alura and they got out of range of the fighting. "What the hell?"
"I don't go out fighting Non without protection anymore. Neither does Kara. Come on. Back to the DEO."
Alex wrenched her arm away from Alura as she grabbed it. "Not with you." She walked away from her, but Alura followed.
"Okay, I get you're still mad about Astra, but... you understand my decision, right?"
Alex turned on her. "What decision? Your sister isn't under your control. Astra and I are together and you cannot change that."
Alura stopped in front of Alex. "Stay away from my sister."
"No!" Alex tried to move around her, but Alura blocked her every time.
"Alex, just listen to me!"
"Get out of my way."
"Not until you listen."
"No, because I know what you're going to say. Out of the way!"
Alura reached for her shoulder, but Alex wasn't in the mood. She grabbed Alura's wrist and twisted it so that she could get a hold on her other arm, preventing her from getting away.
"Now listen, Alura. I don't care what else you do, but you will not get between me and Astra. I get that you want to protect her, but if you try to keep her away, she'll get more and more resentful against you."
Alura sighed. "Alex, don't do this."
"Do what? The way I see it, I should be telling you that."
She stormed away, pushing Alura to the side and starting back toward the DEO just as Non fled from Kara. "Once she is healthy enough to move well, she's coming back to my apartment. I know Kara will be living at the DEO for a while." She felt a bit guilty for trying to overpower Kara's mother, but she would not let anything keep her apart from Astra.
Alex held her word. Once Astra was well enough to move and stand, she insisted on bringing her back to the apartment, on the conditions that she give her medicine and check her condition every day. She was fine with that. She just wanted her away from Alura's rage for a while. Alex gave Astra a standard outfit she had brought in order to get her out of the jumpsuit, then brought her home.
"Thanks," Astra breathed gratefully as Alex set her on the couch. "Movie tonight? I want to act like life is normal for right now."
Alex grinned. "We're alone tonight; Kara's living at the DEO until Lena is better. We can do whatever we want, as well as getting you a blanket."
Astra nodded. "Movie then."
They settled in to watch an Alex's favorite movie called The Descent, but she forgot it was a bad horror movie for that night, meant to scare hard, and even though Astra had seen it before, it had been forever to her since then. At one point when someone was attacked in a more violent way than she had ever done, she screamed and threw herself toward Alex, shivering.
"Shh, it's okay, babe," Alex soothed, turning the volume down a little. "It's not going to hurt you. And you've seen this movie before."
"Not in a while!"
"Well, nothing will happen to you while I'm here." Alex hugged her as softly as she could, conscious of the still-healing wounds on Astra's body. "I won't let it. Not anymore."
"Really?" Astra blinked. "Are you sure?"
"Hey, I had to nearly strangle your sister to keep us from getting separated. Shouldn't that prove it?"
"Maybe... but what about this too?" Astra leaned up and kissed her fervidly, originally a bit uncertain about it, but more confident when Alex returned it. With kissing and with sex, Non had always been very rough with her, long before he'd snapped, turned on her, and raped her out of pure resentment. She never willingly did it with him, but he'd often threatened her and she had reluctantly given in. With Alex, it felt like a new world, a deep kiss, but not one that had been brought on to silence her, or to give only a means of keeping her down. Alex moved slightly lower and brushed her lips along Astra's collarbone. Astra lay her head back on a pillow, breathing lightly as Alex slowly removed the other woman's top. Since the horror movie was still playing, they switched it to a less scary movie before continuing.
"Your skin is so soft," Alex cooed as she traced one hand over Astra's chest. "So smooth..."
"I don't know how it's always stayed like that, but I'm glad you like it."
Astra inhaled a breath sharply as Alex teased her more and that's what she mostly remembered before Alex stripped her of the rest of her clothing and moved on to previously forbidden actions, despite knowing how angry Alura would likely be when she found out. Astra's thoughts soon became less and less coherent before she finally lost it all.
As she fell back onto the cushions, gasping for breath, Alex carefully set a blanket over her and kissed her again.
"You're exhausted, so I'm going to leave you here to sleep." She kissed her one last time. "I love you, Astra In-Ze."
"I love you too, Alex Danvers. And I..." Her last words before she fell asleep were little more than whispers. "I will never let you go."
In the morning...
"Astra, wake up."
She opened her eyes. "Alex...?"
"No."
"Wait, what?" Astra sat up quickly to see her sister standing in front of her. "Alura, you need to stop showing up everywhere I do!"
"Um... did you sleep with her?"
Astra's face turned red. "Alura..."
"You did, didn't you?"
"Maybe..."
"Astra..."
"I don't have to listen to this, you know."
Alura took a step back. "You and I need to talk. But get some clothes on first!"
"Fine." Astra moved to Alex's room to borrow some of her clothes, leaving a note for her to find when she woke up, then followed Alura out. The two of them headed outside National City, where it was quiet.
"I don't want to hear how you're mad at me," Astra snapped. "You've made it pretty clear you hate me being with Alex. You even attacked me over it!"
"Astra... I'm sorry."
"Oh, you're sorry now?"
"Listen to me. I just wanted to make sure you were making the right choices in case I... have to leave."
"What do you mean?"
Alura bit her lip. "Sister... I fear that I'm dying."
"What?" Astra turned on her. "How?"
"Around when Non attacked you... he attacked me too, actually injecting me with Kryptonite, a lot more than you had gotten in the DEO a long time ago. But something's gone wrong... it hasn't left me since."
"Why didn't you tell Hank?"
"He was already dealing with you and later Lena, so what does it matter?"
"Alura, you're my sister. We are going to tell him right now."
Astra felt like she had expected it when Non responded right away from the air. Damn, he always knows where to find me.
"Going somewhere, my dear?"
"You gave up the right to call me that forever ago, so shut up, you bastard."
Non gave a mock gasp. "Language!"
"I said shut up!"
"Why?" Non grasped Astra by the waist and rose a few feet with her. She didn't hesitate to struggle, but his body protection made it impossible. In desperation, she sent all of her power against him, everything she had, which wasn't much, since previous injuries had drained her. Alura tried to do the same, but Non rose out of her reach, so she shouted up to him to stop. But then he froze. It only took a minute for them to realize the air was getting hotter by solar flare, that Non was using what would have been his weakness to solar heat the air around Astra, which would poison her if she absorbed too much.
Alura aimed her power at Non again, but it took a while before she could actually reach him and he released Astra. Solar flare power would hurt her too if she'd gotten too close, but it was now poisoning Astra.
Non looked at Alura and as Astra fell to the earth in front of her, he was tempted to shoot power at her, but he knew she was much stronger than her at the moment. Alura paid him mind no more as she helped her sister up, but Astra could barely stand, though she attempted to. The solar flare would have weakened them both, but even with Kryptonite inside her, Alura still had much more protection. Astra has also been weakened enough already, with most of her power drained so that she'd been able to bleed and feel pain like a normal human.
No matter what had been and was happening to herself, Alura felt even more guilty than before. If Astra died now, she didn't want the last words passed between them to be part of a fight over Alex. For once... maybe the rules could be bent. After all, they weren't on Krypton anymore. Alura vowed that she would bring Astra to the DEO and get them both extracted of the solar flare poison and the Kryptonite. Then she'd try to make things better with Alex, which would be the toughest part of all, as Alex practically hated her at the moment.
But then both of them heard a rumble.
And the ground exploded beneath them.