The ship flies closer. It's a bit bigger than they originally thought, probably around the size of a couple of The Rebellion's pods if they were put side by side. It hovers overhead, the nose of it pointing right at the dark creature looming over them and then, suddenly, there's a bright beam of light coming from the front end of the ship, just beneath the nose. It's neon green and so bright all three women are forced to look away.
They cover their eyes and turn their bodies away from the light to avoid being blinded by it while being immensely confused about who the hell is in this ship and how they know to shine the light at the creature as dark as a shadow in an unlit room.
It turns out, the person doesn't know it works because it actually doesn't.
The ginormous creature rears up, showing off its snakelike body as its head, also similar to that of a snake, but with whiskers reaching several feet off the side of its head and the underneath of its chin, drops its jaw in a low screech that's so loud it shakes the trees and sends the small ship spinning off-kilter through the air.
Kara gasps when she looks up just in time to see the ship careen into a tree and drop down several metres before regaining its stability and flying back up and into the open space.
The creature is moving towards them but there's nowhere for them to go. They can either make a break for it and hope for the best that they can dig their way out of the fallen trees and foliage that would almost certainly injure them if they tried, or they can try and run back for the ship they have just spend entirely too long escaping to go back inside now.
Kara's eyes are frantically searching around for somewhere to run to or to hide but there's nowhere available for them to go.
The ship is lowering down, hovering just above them, but the glass dome fitted over the top of the ship for the pilot to see out of is tinted a harsh blue that they can't see into, but no doubt the pilot can see out of. All in all, that means they have no way of identifying the pilot at this current moment in time and they haven't got a clue whether they are a friend or foe.
From beneath the ship, panels slide out to the side and thick, metallic ropes fall from the space exposed, hitting the top of the ship Kara, Lena and Alex are standing on harshly, the impact making a tinny thud and causing the ship to vibrate under their feet for a second.
The implication is clear. They are meant to hold on and then they can be lifted out of there but there's no way they can leave Bolt behind. They just can't leave him there to be a snack for this creature.
Alex grabs at one of the ropes, testing its strength in a quick movement but it takes her long enough that she's lagging behind on the wavelength Lena and Kara seem to be sharing because they waste no time dropping their packs beside the ropes and running towards Bolt as fast as they can.
Alex goes to run after them but can't because the snake-like animal is really very angry about that green light the pilot of the ship shone at him. Angry enough that it's now forcing its way around the crashed ship to try and get closer to the small ship, its mouth opening wide. Its jaw unhinges so it can open its mouth wider than normal, wide enough that it's very possible that it could swallow the small ship whole.
They need to hurry and grab Bolt so they can get out of there. Alex starts working on attaching their packs to the tail end of the ropes, keeping her eye on the movement of their current life-threatening enemy.
It circles, going around and around and around, just twisting and turning over and over, each circle getting closer and closer to its prey. It's trying to trap the small ship so it has nowhere to go. That's not true but they can't go anywhere yet, not until Kara and Lena are back with Bolt.
Kara scurries to Bolt's side, pushing her way through broken branches to do so and being as careful as she can without dropping her speed down so she doesn't stand on anything that's going to make the situation a hundred times worse.
Lena is right behind her, going a little slower and being slightly more careful but still having the same amount of urgency Kara has, rushing to get to the dragon they have formed a bond with.
When they get to him, they are hesitant to touch him at first, the broken trees surrounding him covering him in a light blue sap that is dripping over a lot of his body. That's not the only thing strange though. He's ripped off the covering they used for his injured legs and it seems that he has purposely coated his legs in the sap.
Lena recognises it. She's seen that colour and consistency before, she just knows she has, she's just not sure where she's seen it. The blue is striking, it should be easy to place but her brain just isn't getting it. It's not clicking just yet. Then it does. It clicks when despite the obvious fear in the dragon, Bolt uses his non-injured leg to scrape at the injured one that's covered with sap, scratching it.
It's the cream that they used to heal Nia's cut from the red plant when they first got here. It's a healing sap and Bolt knew to cover his leg in it instinctually. It seems as though the itchiness left over is a side-effect that affects everyone, no matter the species.
Now that she knows what it is, Lena lets go of her apprehension, gripping at the harness Alex tied onto Bolt and pulling him out from his hiding spot. He doesn't put up much of a fight. He's injured and scared but somehow, he knows he can trust these people, they have done nothing but feed him and help him when he's injured and to his fiery soul, that's all it takes for him to trust them.
He scuttles in the direction Lena is pulling the harness, following along and hurrying up even more when Kara takes the harness on the other side, helping him as much as she can given that he's a very large dragon with a whole lot of weight behind him.
They get out of the trees that Bolt had run into to find that they are blocked from getting to the ship, the body of the snake stopping them from being able to get any closer. It has scales and the texture of its body is much closer to that of an alligator, ridged and rough. There's also a thin layer of what looks to be some kind of algae across its underside, prompting them to deduce that it's likely been through either semi-shallow water recently or a damp marsh area. Something they haven't seen so it must be a resident of deeper into the jungle.
As it moves, Lena takes notice of something odd, yet fascinating. It's got a kind of flipper beneath it, several of them in fact, all in two separate lines in correspondence with the flow of its body and they are trudging against the ground, pushing the dirt up while simultaneously causing forward momentum for itself.
Lena's scientific mind is intrigued by it. It furthers its surroundings and the ecosystem by creating fresh ground for seeds and such, making sure that new life can continuously grow even in places where the ground is solid.
They need to find a way to get over to Alex and the ship and preferably before the weird snake eats anyone or anything.
With a creature this big, they are unlikely to be able to cause enough damage to actually stop it or kill it and since the leopards ran from it, it's safe to say their teeth are probably useless against it, so its skin must be thick. She has to attack somewhere that's going to hurt and she's going to have to attack at the only point that might just be weak enough for her to cause some damage.
Lena still has the sword in her hand and she is about to go for it when she has an idea. She walks in front of Bolt and holds the sword out before instructing him to breathe out an almighty ball of fire by smoothing her hand out under his chin, the flames scorching so hot they light the blade up and cause it to turn a stark orange and then red in just a matter of seconds.
As soon as the blade is ready, Lena moves, running forward with her sights set on her target. The problem is that her target also has its eyes set on her. The flames Bolt breathed onto the sword have caught the attention of the dark creature and it's now set its terrifying orange eyes onto Lena's form, focused on the sword as it shines.
Kara watches in horror as in almost slow motion, the creature's head dives down towards where Lena is running, suddenly all too aware that the light only serves to attract the creature and from the looks of it, turns it feral too. Well, more feral.
She wants to react, to get to Lena and protect her somehow but her body is frozen, time slowing down and her feet are fixed to the floor. There's no way she can get there in time. Right as its colossal jaws are about to snatch Lena up, Lena manages to jam the sword into one of the fins, impaling it and digging the blade into the ground below.
It screeches once again, this time a high pitches squeal of pure pain. Lena yanks the sword back up and then does the same thing to the fin in front of it, stabbing it and trying not to feel guilty for the agonizing screams she's causing.
It does the trick though because the snake-like creature does exactly what she hoped it would do. It runs. Or slithers. Or flaps its fins, until it's forced its way through the broken treeline and out of their sight.
Kara's feet unstick from the ground, her muscles unfreezing, and she pulls Bolt forward, urging him to go as fast as he can. Lena grabs onto the harness too as they come past her, the sword still in her hand, rapidly cooling.
Alex is standing, still holding onto one of the ropes, while tapping her foot impatiently. "There you guys are, we have to go before it comes back!"
They need no more prompting to hurry and Alex attaches the harness to the back two ropes. There are four ropes in total, all in a square so the three of them and their packs are using the front two.
They don't have time to attach themselves to the ropes properly but since Alex has knotted the packs to the bottom, they just have to place their feet on the knots and keep a good grip on the ropes to keep them steady. Alex has the rope to Kelex tied around her waist and the remote tucked into her hand.
Somehow they've actually done it. They have the samples, all of their things, Bolt, and most of their dignity intact. Alex yells up as loud as she can. "Clear!"
Either the pilot understands English or it's just easy to decipher what she means because not a moment later, the ship is rising, pulling them with it. There's a little uneasiness at first because the ship groans in a way that makes them believe for a second that it's not going to make it, but then it steadies itself, the back end dipping a little bit dramatically because of Bolt's weight but in no time at all, they are soaring above the treeline.
Lena starts laughing, purely out of relief when they are high up enough that she can consider them safe from any uncouth animals with snappy jaws. Her laughter makes Kara laugh, who is sharing the rope with her, her arms wrapping around Lena tightly, making her feel safer as she dangles very far above the ground.
At first, Alex is annoyed at the way they're laughing but then a miracle happens; she starts giggling too. The giggle turns into a full belly laugh, one they all share, laughing in a situation that isn't funny but for some reason, it is.
It is funny. Until they look down and see a trail of trees being battered and demolished, the odd shine of black scales peeking through the destruction. "Oh shit," Alex mutters, all laughter gone.
The pilot must notice at a similar time that they do because the ship slows to a stop, just hovering in place.
"Why are we stopping?" Lena panics, her grip on the rope getting weaker as her palms grow sweaty from the fear and adrenaline that's still coursing through her and a faint itching from the sap that got onto her kicking in. Kara looks up at the bottom of the ship, wishing she could see up into it to see who the pilot is so she can ask them what the hell they are doing.
She looks down to see that the creature has stopped. It's following them and the pilot has stopped so they don't lead it back to wherever it is they're being taken. What now though?"
They are just hovering a ways above the treeline with the knowledge that they are being dangled over the top of where a, most likely, furious, gigantic animal is lurking and waiting for them. They need to find a way to get it to stop chasing them and there's one way they know how to do that. They need light and they need it to stay constant because the second it stops, it will try to follow them again.
"Light! We need light!" Lena yells.
"Kara, see if you can get the pilot to put the lights back on!" Alex shouts over to her sister.
Kara shakes her head. "It won't work. It would just make it follow us more. We need Bolt to set fire to a tree."
"We could burn down the whole shitting jungle!" Alex shouts. "We can't do that!"
"No, we won't! Trust me, the council tried that decades ago to get rid of it because it's so dangerous. As you can see, that didn't work so just listen to me."
Lena tilts her head towards the H'Raka, shouting as loud as she can for Bolt. "Bolt, breathe fire, buddy come on."
He ignores her. He only does it very specifically when someone rubs beneath his chin, just as Lena did earlier to get him to ignite her blade and they are hanging from ropes off a ship, they can't exactly just reach over and do it.
"Lena, swing." Kara only gives her that instruction once before starting to swing the rope herself, leaning back and then thrusting forward to try and gain momentum on the rope to swing towards Bolt.
Lena half-screams with the first swing, not having had enough time to register Kara's words before she started moving. "Ah, Kara!"
"We have to swing, Lena." Kara tries again, not stopping her movements, as awkward as they are with Lena and their packs also attached to the rope.
Given a little more warning, Lena moves with her, getting the rope swinging nicely towards where Bolt is suspended.
When they get a good swing, Kara does something else that takes Lena by surprise, not filling her in on the plan when she makes a leap for it, letting go of the rope at the apex of the swing and reaching out with her hands blindly in the hope that she can get a handle on Bolt's harness.
It all happens so fast that even Kara isn't entirely sure what she's doing but someone answers her mid-air prayers that she isn't about to fall to her death because, with one hand, she manages to grasp her fingers around Bolt's head harness.
Bolt is a lot less thrilled than she is though because the sudden pull and weight on his harness pulls at his head and forces his snout down and subsequently, tilting the ship with it, forcing it to make a panicking whirring sound to not make them all crash and burn, literally.
The change in momentum from Kara jumping and then ship tilting throws Lena off balance, causing her hands to slip. Thankfully, she ends up falling and landing on the packs, one leg on either side of one of the packs like she's sat on a swing of sorts.
Alex has to hold back her snort at the sight of a baffled, slightly traumatized Lena Luthor as she swings idly on the pack, her hands grasping at the rope once again, a lot tighter this time though.
Kara manages to get a second hand onto the harness and with burning fingers from the rope, she swings her legs out to wrap around the H'Raka the best she can, getting a good grip so she can duck her head out of the firing line before she runs beneath his chin. The reaction is instant. A great flame bursts forth from his mouth and points down towards the trees below.
They're too high up. It won't reach.
Kara is desperate at this point, her grip slipping. She can't hold on much longer in this position and she can't climb onto Bolt's back until he's managed to light up a tree. The likelihood of the pilot speaking Kryptonese is much higher than them speaking English so she shouts out as loud as she can for them to lower the ship. "Fahrosh!"
It appears that whoever is piloting the ship understands, which isn't too shocking since they are on Krypton because slowly, the ship lowers down until they are closer to the tree line. The descent is slower than Kara's aching muscles would like and they get much lower than she'd like too but she's got no choice in the matter. She's just barely clinging on but she manages to let go with one hand just long enough to get Bolt to breathe fire once again. Bullseye.
A tree bursts into flames and the creature is atop of it in a matter of seconds, its long black body surrounding it in circles in a similar way to how it was surrounding the ship earlier.
The pilot has enough sense that the creature being distracted means they can pull up and get them all the hell out of there and Kara climbs up onto Bolt's back, shaking her arms out once she's settled because she can barely feel her forearms or her fingers. If Lena thinks there's going to be any kind of celebration for not dying tonight, she's going to be sorely mistaken. Then again, her tongue isn't tired.
Speak of the devil, Lena is still sitting on her 'swing', looking down at the treetops and the symphony of red as they pass over The Scarlet Jungle. A place they most definitely do not want to visit again. Alex actually follows her lead, using her own pack as a swing. She tied the knots so she's certain they'll hold. It's not even in question.
As she does so, she lowers Kelex down to her level and then for the first time since watching Kara's giant leap for alien kind, thinks that maybe it would have been better if she had just clung to Kelex and gotten him to taxi her over to Bolt. She's not going to mention that to Kara though because she's got a proud smile across her face and her chest is puffed out like she's the greatest athlete that's ever lived.
All of them semi-comfortable, or at the very least, not expecting to fall to their deaths at any moment, they all watch the trees as they are airlifted out of the most precarious position they have ever been in while slowly being filled with more and more anxiety about who it is that is rescuing them. There's a price for everything and they don't have much they can offer.
They move at a fast but steady pace and make it out of the general area of The Scarlet Jungle just as the sun is beginning to set. The ship lowers down until the bottom of the ropes, and subsequently, the packs, hit the ground and then it just hovers to allow them to untie everything they have and free Bolt from the rope suspension and get out of the way so it can land properly.
They stand off to one side, Bolt sitting down beside them, happy to have his massive feet back on the ground. He might be used to flying but he's not used to travelling commercial. They did not get economy seats. They pretty much travelled by Earth's equivalent of being duct taped to the side of a plane.
As the ship lands softly beside them, they wait with bated breath for the glass dome to retract and expose their saviour to the open air.
It feels like forever before it finally slides down enough for them to see the pilot's face and Kara's stomach drops the second it does, tears flooding her eyes and her chin wobbling.
Lena is left in the dark about the identity of this person but Alex recognises them. She recognises them because she's seen this face before but only in the form of a hologram from a crystal.
"Mom?"
Alura steps out of the ship and hesitantly reaches forward for Kara. "Kara, is it really you? You're all grown up."
Kara knows she shouldn't. The timeline is probably super messed up from this already and if she was smart then she would walk in the other direction. Her head isn't doing the thinking though, now it's her heart's turn to take over. She steps into her mother's arms, her head burying into the crook of her neck and her arms wrapping around her mother's waist tightly.
Lena's jaw is on the ground from how shocked she is. This is Kara's mother. Kara's mother just rescued them from being killed out in The Scarlet Jungle. How in the world did she know where to find them? Something is very clearly amiss.
Alex seems to be having a very similar reaction to Lena's. She has no idea how she's meant to react to it all so she's just sort of standing there as she watches Kara cling to her mother. Her mother that she hasn't seen since she was twelve years old. Her mother that has been dead for years, except they're in the past and now she's here. Yep, the timeline is screwed. Fuck.
"Kara?" Lena calls out, needing confirmation that this really is who they think it is.
Kara pulls back but doesn't turn towards Lena. She stares at her mother's face while Alura cups Kara's cheeks in her warm hands, her eyes drifting over Kara's face, much more mature than that of her daughter from her current time.
Alura assesses every detail of her face and Kara does the same. She's exactly how she remembers her, smell and all. She can't count how many times over the years she has yearned for a hug from her mom and now she's had one and she doesn't want to let her go. She has to though, there's too much to do, too many answers to seek.
"I can't believe it's really you. How are you here?" Kara's voice is shaky and a couple of tears run down her cheeks only to be wiped away by a flick of Alura's thumbs.
"Astra asked me to come."
Now they are all even more confused. Even Lena, who until a moment ago had no idea what Alura even looks like, is confused because it's common knowledge that Alura and Astra didn't get along. Alura is the one that sentenced Astra to Fort Rozz and subsequently, The Phantom Zone.
Kara shakes her head. "Why would she do that? Where is she?"
Alura's expression darkens and Kara sees the answer written across her face. "You've sentenced her already?"
"She handed herself in peacefully in exchange for my help. I had no idea who I was rescuing until I showed up and saw your face. I could pick that face out in a crowd of any size, my daughter, no matter what age you are." Alura's voice is soft, perhaps even softer than her expression as her fingers play with Kara's hair.
"I guess history played out how it was meant to after all." Kara peers back over her shoulder. "Astra being sentenced to Fort Rozz is something that needed to happen anyway. I just wish I could have said goodbye one last time."
Alex's big sister instincts kick in at seeing Kara upset and she doesn't care if her mom is there, she's going to force her way over to give her sister a hug. "Come here."
Kara turns to Alex and lets herself be bundled up into her arms. "Rao, I'm a mess."
"That's ok," Alex reassures her. "This is a lot, we get it."
Lena is not one to just stand by while everyone is comforting her girlfriend but she doesn't want to force Kara to break the hug so she just piles in, wrapping her arms around the pair, really quite aware of Alura watching them carefully, as if she's trying to figure something out.
When the hug breaks, Alura speaks. "Inah, who are your friends?"
Kara's heart skips a beat at the name. It's just a simple word, the Kryptonese equivalent of 'daughter' but it's such a long-forgotten memory that she barely registers the question that followed the name. "It's been a long time since someone has called me that."
"Why? Your father and I refer to you by that name often Kara." Alura looks genuinely confused and it knocks the air out of the lungs of the other women. She doesn't know she's going to die soon. With her being a member of the council and the council hiding the state of the planet, Kara has always assumed she knew about Krypton's impending doom. Maybe she doesn't. Or maybe she does but has an escape plan for them all, one that will never come to fruition.
Kara wipes her cheeks, freeing them of the tears that just won't stop no matter how hard she tries to stop them. "It doesn't matter. This is Alex and this is Lena." She points to them in turn, careful not to give away their relationships, she's already had one slip-up that could already affect the future as they know it, and she can't afford any more.
"It's lovely to meet you. I am Alura Zor-El, formerly Alura In-Ze and I am Kara's mother. I believe we all have much to discuss."