I opened my eyes confused, aching, struggling to keep myself conscious, feeling like something was digging deeper into my neck as I tried to turn my head. I screamed, I could not help it, because what was entering my body burned, so I tried to move my arms, but my wrists were handcuffed to the table where I was lying.
"I would not do that," warned Non approaching. "The more you move, the faster the kryptonite will enter inside your body, so the soonest you will be dead," he explained making me look at him for a couple of seconds before closing my eyes, remaining motionless, such as he had warned.
"You need me alive to get Astra back," I ventured to speak in a whisper.
"Do not confuse sweetheart, nothing prevents me from returning you to them dead, when they can do nothing to save you," he said victoriously.
I sighed trying to breathe normally, but every conscious second was a torture, it really was, but I did not want to give him the pleasure of showing me weak, to make him know that he had won, since no, he had not done so yet.
I had hope in the DEO, in my sister, they had to find me, they could do it, so I was not going to give up, I was not going to let him win, at least not easily.
He distanced himself from me, getting me to open my eyes to follow him, looking at him standing in the door, which surprised me.
"Zyan," he called, appearing for the first time in my field of vision. "Since you've done a great job capturing her, you're going to be her guardian, I want you here, watching her," he said before looking at me with a smile. "Call me if something change, I mean when she's dead, "he asked, leaving.
I closed my eyes again as tears struggled to get out of them as he approached.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, stroking my hair. "I'm sorry, I really do, I didnt want to hurt you," he said in a trembling voice, it was clear he was going to start crying, although the truth was that I was going to do it myself.
I blinked, allowing the tears to finally come out, causing him to caress my cheeks trying to dry them while I watched him without finding my voice.
"You tried to warn me, it's not your fault," I whispered, looking straight into his eyes.
"No, it is, I should have defended you," he continued to blame himself.
"You couldn't, you know that, Zyan" I tried to change his mind, to tell him that he had not failed on me. "At some point this was going to happen, it's a revenge and you should be on the sidelines. .." my sentence was interrupted by my own scream of pain at the entrance of the needle in my neck, which indicated that the more I talked, the more it was nailing, I had to keep silent.
"Do not move, it's only going to get worse," he warned, stroking my hair.
Of that I was aware, however, at the moment I was starting to get dizzy, to find myself growing weaker, so I looked at him one last time before closing my eyes as I felt the headache increase.
"I love you, Kae," was the last thing I heard him say before I finally lost consciousness.
She sighed, standing in front of the door, hesitant about what she had to do, for she honestly did not want to confront her aunt again, but she needed to know the whereabouts of her sister and get her out of there as soon as possible.
"It had been so long since she had known nothing of her, that her name had become taboo for her family, who, indeed, began to miss her, to hear more about everything she knew of the galaxy, so she pressed the button, without confident of what she was doing, but especially that if it was going to work.
"Hi, little one," she heard her voice, which made her look up, "I think you called me."
"Aunt Astra," she whispered, hurrying to embrace her. "You got my message," she exclaimed excitedly. "Where have you been?Are you in danger?" She asked, still clutching at her.
"We all are, Krypton is running out of resources, everything is changing, we are killing the planet," her aunt explained, separating her slightly from her. "I have done everything possible for people to understand," she whispered. "I would do anything to keep you and your sister safe, I really would," she assured her, embracing her again.
She sighed confused at the situation, trying to understand how it was possible that her planet was dying, but above all trying to understand why after so long, she appeared there.
"Kara ..." her sister's voice cut, causing them to turn to look at her, noting that she remained motionless on the stairs, watching the scene carefully. "Aunt Astra" she whispered at the same time the first tears began to slide down her cheeks.
Their aunt released her to approach her sister, whom she embraced by getting her sobs, so that soon after they approached her.
"I have to leave, I'm in danger," Astra said putting their hands on each face. "I didn't want to do it without saying goodbye, I adore you," she said hugging them both.
The hugged it broke as the door opened showing their mother, who looked at them for a couple of seconds before she decided to speak.
"Kaelah, take your sister," she said as she took her hand and pulled it out of the room.
She tried to resist, but after seeing how her sister looked at her, she could not help but start walking, because she was aware that something was happening that she should not know."
She shook her head, wanting to forget all that, reminding herself why she was doing all this, for whom, because she really needed her, because she was not prepared to live without her again. So she took a deep breath before she entered that room, knowing that it was their last option, since in the last attempt they had made to find it, people had died, it had been a trap.
"Where's Fort Rozz?" She asked in a firm voice.
"I've been a prisoner for years, you're going to need a lot more than a voice to scare me," her aunt said with mockery.
"Then I may have to call my cousin and between the two make you talk" she said without wanting to give up.
"Kal-el has been raised by humans, he wouldn't know how," her aunt continued with her mockery.
She ducked her head. She was not getting anything out of it, so she sat down by the window, looking for eye contact with her, trying to explain what had happened, trying to give her a little help.
"Please, I need you to tell me," she begged.
"Kara, I'm not going to do it." she shook her head.
"He has her, he's going to kill her and I'm not going to be able to do anything to stop it," she assured her, feeling tears welling up in her eyes.
Astra stared at her in disbelief at what she had just said, as if it were hard to believe that this had happened, that her husband had taken Kaelah.
"When did this happen?" She asked, showing some concern.
"He kidnapped her to have a currency of exchange, she gave us twenty-four hours, of which we only have five left" she started to cry, feeling helpless to not be able to do anything. "He's going to kill her and ..., please tell me where they are" She pleaded again.
"Kara, listen to me, the only way to get her alive is to make that exchange," her aunt explained. "Humans will not accept it.
"Then I think I'm glad I'm not." She smiled slightly, seeing a small hope for the first time in all this.
She left the room in search of Alex, the only one she could convince enough to make that plan possible, but after how she had treated her in the last hours, she was not sure if she would want to help her.
"Alex" she called her approaching her. "I need your help" she asked nervous about the answer I could give her, however, her sister looked at her expectantly. "I know ... you don't believe her, I don't do it myself, but. .., she told me that the only way to get Kaelah out of there is to do the exchange, "she explained, holding back tears." I need you to accommodate Hank so that he allows it, that's the only thing that can return her to me, I'm seriously not prepared to to lose her." She began to cry as she embraced her.
"I'll try, I want to get her back too," Alex tried to smile at her, pulling her slightly away from her.
She nodded, wanting to believe that she was going to convince Hank that he would allow them to exchange them, because if they did not, she could tell that the next time she saw her sister, she was going to be dead.
"Kaelah Zor-el, it's time to wake up," I heard him say at the same time he was stroking my cheek.
I opened my eyes, showing myself tired, with difficulty to keep myself conscious, to continue breathing, feeling completely weak, a fact that helped me to understand that it would not take long to die, because it became increasingly difficult to control my body, not to mention the ardor that ran through my body.
He plucked the needle from my neck causing my cry, as any pain was accentuated by the poisoning, making me to look at him without understanding why he did this.
"You know, I'm going to give you back to your sister, it's too bad they can not do anything to save you." he smiled victoriously as he removed the handcuffs from my wrists.
At another time I would have tried to defend myself, to fight, but right now, my own exhaustion would not allow me to stand up, so everything got complicated when I tried to sit down, because I was losing my balance. However, he managed to keep me completely upright, but realizing that I was not able to walk by me, he held me in his arms, causing me to lean my head against his shoulder, trying to avoid my dizziness, increased by the time he started to fly .
I opened my eyes the moment he left me on the floor, watching my sister in front, making me want to run to her, but could not, I was not able to get up.
"Go away," he whispered, staring at me.
I struggled to get up, which I stumbled toward them, crossing me with my aunt, who looked at me placing her hand on my cheek before continuing in the opposite direction.
I struggled to keep moving forward, feeling like my sister was trying to graft me, hugging me against her as she stroked my hair and began to cry.
"What did he do to you?" She asked.
"Kryptonite," I replied simply, feeling like I was losing my balance by being caught by her.
She practically dragged me to where Alex was, making her to grab me while Kara was about to attack, but Astra's voice was the next to be heard.
"No, stop, there have been too many things out there, it's a small truce," she said shortly before they left.
Between the two they managed to get me into the car, leaning my head on Alex's shoulder, who hugged me against her, stroking my hair, as she tried to keep me calm.
I felt my breathing becoming more and more expensive so I opened my eyes to look at her, struggling to be able to speak.
"Tell ... Kara ... I love her" I whispered. "And ... you ... too."
"Kaelah, you have to be strong," she said, forcing me to look at her.
I nodded even knowing that it was not going to be possible, that at some point my heart would stop beating, since it was too late, Non had taken care of it.
I breathed one last time before I lost consciousness on her shoulder.
Thanks for reading,
Ayrin