Kara lifts her head up from where she was staring at her feet as the pod pulls up outside of the accommodation. She climbs out after reaching over and grabbing her things from the footwell in the front, ignoring the way the Kelex seems to be staring into her soul accusingly as she does so.
Walking to the front door, she unwraps Esme's jacket from around hers and unravels hers so she can put it on. She doesn't want to be separated from it now, that wouldn't be very helpful. She tucks both Esme's teddy and her jacket under her left arm and reaches out to open the door with her right, Kelex on her tail the entire time.
She walks in to find both her parents and the entire group sitting in the living area, everyone so silent that she could hear a pin drop.
"Hi." She says to break the awkward air about the room, unsure of what else she can say given their current situation.
Her mother's jaw tightens and her father's hands clench into fists around the material of his pants. "Is that all you have to say?" He asks through gritted teeth.
"I don't know what you want me to say. Let's be honest; we both knew this would happen and had to happen."
Alura springs to her feet like she's about to race over to her to confront her, but Zor-El's hand on her wrist stops her and has her composing herself once more. "Kara, that's not true."
"Yes, it is. We haven't trusted each other since we made that deal. I know you wouldn't give me the crystal, and you've always known that I would figure that out and try to steal it." Kara argues, exasperated because she knows it to be true no matter how much they deny it.
Zor-El sniffs harshly. "I trusted you, Kara. I admit that I've known that you don't trust me all along, but you're my daughter. No matter how old you are, you're my blood and I trust you. I wish you could've granted us that same honour."
"So you're going to tell me you wouldn't have tried negotiating for more days? Or maybe just not given it to me until we figured out the atmosphere issue?" Kara sits down on the edge of the nearest couch, perched beside Nia. In doing so, she sees little Esme curled up between her parents, obviously nervous, if not afraid. "Can we talk about this in private? She doesn't need to hear this."
Her mother shakes her head. "I can't trust that you don't have some other plan that requires her to be elsewhere while we are distracted."
Kara frowns. "I'm not you, mother. I don't use children to trap or trick people."
Alura recoils as though she's been slapped. "I did what I did because I had to, not because I wanted to."
"No, you didn't. You could've used my beacon to call her without having me there. You arrested her in front of me and I'll always remember you as the woman who took away my aunt."
"I sent you into the other room." Alura tries to argue.
"Do you think a twelve-year-old girl is just going to go without peeking? You didn't even check that I'd gone. You know what? Never mind. Just let someone take her out of here. She's just a kid."
This time, it's Zor-El that shakes his head. "No."
"Excuse me?" Kara looks absolutely disgusted as her father stands up and grabs her by the forearm, pulling her across the room to sit beside her mother before he settles in front of her so she can't escape.
The look she finds herself on the receiving end of is nothing short of pure devastation. "I want to trust you, Inah, but you've left me no choice. I cannot allow you to disrespect our family."
He steps forward and reaches out to grasp her arm again as her mother does the same on the arm closest to her.
"Hey, get your hands off her!" Alex is on her feet and storming over quicker than a bullet from a gun, but she's still not quick enough because she's rounded on by both the Kelex from the accommodation and the one from the apartment that arrived with Kara. Their claw hands aren't anywhere in sight as she's threatened in a very similar manner to how Kara was back when she tried to steal the safe.
"Keep the…guests at bay." Alura struggles to find the right word, one that isn't defamatory.
The entire team is kept firmly in their seats with the threat of violence looming over them. Kelly curls herself around Esme to try and protect her in case they get trigger-happy.
"Can I at least give my niece her teddy? She's terrified, look at her." Kara practically spits the question at the pair, shaking her head as she peers around her father's form to see the little girl quaking in her mother's arms.
Zor-El peeks over his shoulder, sees Esme and seems to return back to himself. He looks to Alura. "Maybe we should let her go."
Alura shakes her head. "We can't trust them."
"Look at her, Alura. She's just a child."
Sighing and letting the sight of the terrified little girl tug at her heartstrings, Alura addresses a Kelex. "Take the young girl and her mother into the kitchen and keep them there until further instructions. Disarm unless they try to run."
Kelly relaxes as one floats towards them, now looking a lot less threatening. "Follow."
She gets up nervously, hoists Esme up into her arms and wraps her up tightly, her heart breaking as she feels her daughter bury her head into the crook of her neck, openly crying from fear.
"This is why I don't trust you. I used to think you were the greatest people that ever lived, but you're not. You're the people that allowed the planet to die when you had the chance to save it. All you had to do was listen to Astra; she could have helped you, but you were too prideful. Now look where she is." Kara bites her lip as she tries to force back the tears, determined not to show her parents how much this is affecting her.
Zor-El's previously devastated look is no longer in place. Now, he's completely unreadable. "We never claimed to be the greatest people, Kara. We've always just been your parents."
"Except for when you abandoned me by sending me to another planet alone with the knowledge that I would be the last of my kind that carries any significant memory of our planet."
"We haven't done that yet!" Alura snaps. "You're holding us to the actions of people we haven't become yet."
"You will," Kara says, her voice low and dark. "That's inescapable. Even now, you have to do it. No matter what, I must be raised on Earth or else the timeline will collapse. You don't get to rectify any mistakes you've made. If you do save Krypton, that's great, but you'll have to live with what you've done."
Alura's lips press into a stiff line as she holds her tongue. Lena watches from across the room, barely looking at the Kelex that is threatening her. It's not the first time she's been on the wrong side of a gun, and it won't be the last. She can deal with the emotional turmoil of that later. She's more concerned about Kara.
Screw it. She steps forward, ignoring the Kelex as it speaks to her. "Remain where you are. Remain where you are."
"What do you think you're doing?" Zor-El asks, arms folded as he takes in the sight of the woman trying to find a way around the floating robot that keeps moving in her path whenever she tries to doge her way around it to get closer.
"I'm going to comfort my girlfriend because her parents are assholes and are terrorizing her." She snarls. "Move your pet rust bucket out of my way."
"What is a rust bucket?" He asks with a frown before shaking his head. "Sit back down. This is a family affair."
Lena's lip curls. "You're not her family. Not anymore. We're Kara's family, and if you think that we'll let you stand there and corner her when you're the ones being unreasonable, then you're sadly mistaken.
Very quickly, Lena finds herself on the receiving end of a pair of glares that are sharper than a knife in a spear factory. "I suggest you sit back down before we have Kelex open fire."
"Just do it, Lena. I don't want you to get hurt." Kara says, her voice pleading and her lips wobbling. "And that goes for you two as well. I don't want any of you to get hurt." She leans to one side to look directly at both Nia and Alex.
Her fingers are playing with the ear of the bear she's still clinging to. She wishes she could give it to Esme to comfort her, although she's happy to take care of it and take a little bit of comfort from it herself. If she weren't so sure that Alex would never let her live it down, she would pull it up into her lap and snuggle it right now. She'd prefer to snuggle Lena more than the bear, but since there are weaponized robots being controlled by her parents, who are nothing short of assholes, that's not feasible either.
"Now, what did you take from the lab?" Zor-El hardens his gaze as he stares down at his daughter.
Kara shakes her head, her eyebrows pinching. "Nothing. I didn't take anything."
"You think I don't know my own daughter well enough to know when you're lying, Kara? Don't insult me. You may not believe we were good parents to you, but we did our damn best and will continue doing our best. We've never claimed to be perfect, but we love Kara more than anyone in this universe. I'm sorry you can't see that, but now we have to protect our daughter and we can't do that with you here. You're not our daughter. The little girl currently at school is our daughter. The little girl who runs up to us excitedly when we arrive home is our daughter. Not you. We tried our best to see you that way, treated you like you're her, but you're not, so now we have to treat you as what you are."
"And what's that?" Kara presses her lips together, holding back the quiver of her lips to not give him the satisfaction.
He shrugs at her helplessly. "You're a threat."
"So that's it?"
"Yes, Kara. That's it." He nods. "So what did you take?"
"I didn't take anything."
Zor-El's eyes connect with Alura's, and with that contact comes a silent message, one she hears loud and clear. They each grasp one of Kara's wrists and ignore the way she stiffens beneath them. With her held in place so she can't run, Alura uses her free hand to start searching Kara, and it takes her less than five seconds before her palm makes contact with a crystal through the material of her jacket. "Take it off."
Kara yanks her wrists free and folds her arms over her chest. "No."
Zor-El leans into her space. "That wasn't a request. Need I remind you of the position your friends are in, Kara?"
Gritting her teeth, Kara slides the jacket off. As much as she wants to argue, she won't do it at anyone else's expense.
"Was that so hard?" Alura sighs as she starts pulling out the crystals from each pocket of the jacket, honestly surprised by how many Kara managed to store in there. "Rao, help me." She murmurs.
"How did you get these?" Zor-El demands.
"You should hide stuff better, just for future reference." Kara leans back, her hands covering her now bare forearms, slightly chilly without her jacket.
Zor-El takes the crystals and piles them up on the couch cushion on the other side of Alura. Once that's done, he takes the jacket from his wife and checks it over himself to make sure there are no more crystals there. When he's satisfied that all of them have been removed and that she's not lying to him, he tosses the jacket onto her lap carelessly before he gathers the small pile of crystals in his arms. "Stay here."
Kara watches him leave down the hallway with barely contained disdain written across her face, but they have a chance with him gone. She makes eye contact with the other three women in the room that she actually trusts and conveys a silent message.
Now.
Alex jumps into action first, ever the overachiever, and kicks the Kelex squarely in its tinny body. It sends it shooting back towards Kara, who pushes herself away from Alura, grabs Kelex's arm and shoves the lit-up, weaponized arm into Alura's chest.
The weapon wasn't fully charged, so it barely does anything, but the momentary shock of the bolt of electricity she got and the sudden revolt from the group gives them enough time to make a break for it.
Kara is the last out the door, clutching Esme's teddy to her chest along with her jacket, taking comfort in the items as she meets her mother's eyes one last time as Zor-El's footsteps thud along the hallway, having heard the commotion. He's on his way back so they have to leave now, but she's frozen. She's sure this will be her last memory of her parents, and this one is much more traumatizing than the previous last memory she had of them. This time, she knows what they are.
A hand wrapping around her arm has her breaking eye contact with her mom. Her feet unstick and she whips her head around to see Lena's worried eyes gazing back at her. They don't have time to dive into it though. They have to go.
Rushing through the kitchen, Kara sees that Alex has been busy. There's a Kelex on the floor, a knife sitting out of the screen on its face. She stabbed a robot in the face. That's a very Alex move and honestly, Kara approves.
Alex, Kelly, Nia and Esme are gathered by the door leading out from the kitchen to outside looking uncertain. Kara pushes them all through it and slams it behind her.
"Kara, the crystals." Kelly pushes out, looking frantic.
"It doesn't matter. Just run. Go towards the stable and on my signal, you all have to scream as loud as you can and get ready to jump."
"Jump?" Nia asks, her eyes wide as they start running.
Her question never gets answered over the thudding of their feet and their heavy pants as they run faster than they have ever run in their lives. Except for all of the other times they've been in life-or-death situations anyway, they probably ran just as fast then.
They get within fifteen feet of the stable door before they get the signal. "Now!" Kara shouts right before breaking into a scream.
They all join her, unsure of why they're screaming or what in the world is happening, but still, they trust. They trust and they scream. Not for ice cream, although that would be nice. Nope, they're screaming for H'Rakas. H'Raka's that come storming out of the stable doors in a panicked frenzy thanks to the screaming.
"Jump!" Lena tries to sound demanding, but it comes out as more of a screech than anything.
Between the two H'Rakas, they manage to each get at least one hand on their harnesses as they race across the ground, and they're being pulled right along with them until they get close enough to the accommodation building that the H'Rakas do what the group need them to do and fly.
And so, that's how they find themselves dangling from a pair of H'Rakas. H'Rakas that are already harnessed up with two packs of their most important possessions strapped to them, one on each beast. On the back of Swoopy, there's even another guest in the form of a floating, headless Kelex being pulled along by a rope.
They're not out of the woods yet though, both figuratively and literally. Bolt and Swoopy instinctively fly towards the trees, ready to take them back over the forests and away from Kandor.
Lena manages to climb up and onto Bolt's saddle just as Alex manages to climb onto Swoopy's. From there, they start pulling people up until they're safe, or at least try to.
Alex grabs Kara's arm, annoyed that she's still clutching onto the items from before in a bit of a shocked haze. "Come on, Kara. Pull yourself together. We have to get out of here."
Alex pulls the teddy and jackets out of Kara's arms so she can climb up behind her right before shoving them into her chest so she can try and get Nia up too. A quick glance over at the other H'Raka and his passengers tells her they're safe. Lena, Kelly and Esme are all swashed together, Esme between the two women and as safe as they can be given the circumstances.
Knowing that they're safe and in control of Bolt, Alex stops trying to control Swoopy, trusting that the dragon-like monster will follow the other H'Raka, or at least praying that's what will happen.
She grips onto Nia's forearm. "Pass me your other hand." She yells down at her.
"I can't." Nia winces as she tries to use her still-injured hand to get up, slipping more as her other hand gives way a little at a time.
"Kara, help me." Alex snaps at her sister, prompting Kara to shove the stuff beneath her thighs and actually help, the whipping wind doing wonders for getting her back into the action.
She reaches down and grabs Nia's injured hand, ignoring her cries of pain. She pulls up, shuffling her onto the harness one inch at a time, eventually trading her hand for her wrist, then her forearm, then her bicep and armpit before she's lying down across the harness on her belly but still on it nonetheless.
"Signal Brainy," Kara speaks loudly so Nia can hear her over the wind.
"I can't!" Nia clutches onto the nearest part of the harness she can, scared she is going to fall but too afraid to reposition herself better.
"For Rao's sake." Kara sighs. They have had their little signal button hanging on a thin cord like a pendant, and at no point in this mission has it left Nia's neck. None of them have argued against this at any point, seeing it for what it is; Nia needs a connection with her boyfriend, who she's been separated from for months now.
Kara reaches beneath Nia, shoving her hand down the front of her shirt and searching for the signal button with hurried fingers.
"Can you go a little bit fucking quicker?" Alex snaps, looking back to see the lights of what is, quite obviously, a pod coming up behind them.
The button must have fallen into Nia's bra at some point in the ruckus, and Kara grimaces as she pulls it free before she unlatches the locket-like design of it and pushes the button on the inside with a firm press of her thumb.
It lights up so bright that the white light emitting from it shines through the fabric of Nia's shirt, but none of them pay it any mind, too concerned with the pod that is gaining on them, a second one not too far behind.
They don't have to worry though because just as Brainy had promised when they were planning this mission, he's there in no time at all, a large panel open on one side for them to fly directly into, a panel that closes the second they have landed in the large, open cargo bay of the Legion ship.
Upon being trapped, the H'Rakas panic a little thrashing until Lena and Kara slide off their backs and press their hands to the centre of their heads, comforting them with a firm touch and murmured words of reassurance before they hear Brainy's voice come booming from a speaker somewhere in the room. "Please make your way to the cockpit immediately."
Lena grabs some of the straps that are attached to the walls that are used to secure luggage and such in place so she can start buckling the H'Rakas in. She's making sure they're safe, they're part of the team now and she doesn't have it in her to care about the consequences of taking the equivalent of a dragon back to Earth with them.
While Lena does that, Kara helps everyone down so they can start running to the cockpit, all of them unsteady on their feet since the ship is very much still moving. She presses Esme's jacket and teddy into her arms before throwing hers on so it's out of her hands.
"Need a hand?" She asks Lena.
"Nope, it's done." Lena presses a hand to her back, pushing her out the door as she shouts back over her shoulder. "Try not to panic, we don't need you setting anything on fire!"
They skid through the hallways and throw themselves into their seats in the cockpit. "Can we go?" Kara calls out to Brainy, wishing she could see his face. She's more than willing to just take in the view of the back of his head for now though, she'd like to get off this planet, as sad as she is to be leaving again.
"We have an issue." Brainy frowns. "The ship is being tethered by some kind of connection and we can't leave. Our speed has been limited and we can't get out of the atmosphere if we can't pick up speed."
"Can you untether us?" Lena unclips herself and trips her way to his side.
"Yes, but I need to get closer to the source of the connection to do so."
"I can do that. Hand over the controls." Kara appears on the other side of him and Brainy gives up his seat, allowing her to sit down while he takes her seat, pulling up a screen and starting to get to work. Lena's not sure what to do so she hovers for a moment. Kara glances up at her before nodding at her, trying her best to comfort her the only way she can given their lack of time. "Sit down and buckle up. This is going to be a bumpy ride."
Lena does just that, checking that everyone else is strapped in before she clips herself in. "Ok, we're all set."
"Hold on!" Kara yells out before she sets the ship to maximum speed.
She makes an about-turn, which forces the pods on their tail to move out of their way or get hit by a ship that would cause catastrophic damage to them if they made contact at the speed Kara is going.
Speeding towards Kandor, Kara keeps her eyes peeled on the screen in front of her, watching every minute detail as they pass, directing them around trees, rocks and later buildings with a reaction that is much quicker than any of the others could manage. Call it experience; she's been flying through a densely populated city at high speeds for years. She was made for this.
The Communications Centre is in a really inconvenient place: the city centre. That's where she's certain the tether must be from. That's the only place she can reasonably assume managed to track the ship in such a short span of time, and that also has the resources and technology that allowed them to place the tether in the first place.
She speeds the ship forward, well aware that in a matter of moments, there will be a whole fleet of pods and ships trailing after them, just more things to avoid.
Onwards they fly, cutting through the air and rounding building after building in a precise but slightly chaotic manner.
"Holy shit! Kara, can you chill out?" Alex yelps as she's thrown sideways in her seat, the seatbelt a little too loose. She yanks on the straps to cinch them in further, afraid that Kara's driving will make them all snap and they'll end up in a heap in the corner of the cockpit because she can't fly a ship nicely.
"We're flying for our lives here, Alex. Shut up!" Kara shouts, not taking her eyes off their flight path for even a second. She can't afford to lose her concentration and accidentally fly them into a building or something now. These people might be destined to die but she won't be the one to kill them.
The team all hang on as tightly as they can as Kara manoeuvres them through the city and around the stream of pods that are aiming directly for them, all of them shining their lights as brightly as possible in what is a clear attempt to blind them and make them stop. That would probably work better if it were dark and if they weren't up against a ship from the future that has a whole boatload of built-in gadgets and gizmos that help them remain unaffected.
Brainy grits his teeth as he tries to keep his eyes on what he's doing, blocking out Kara and her driving skills as much as he can. While he recognizes that she has the highest probability of being able to safely manoeuvre them through Kandor, or anywhere on this planet, he'd still prefer Lena be the one to drive. He should have asked her to in hindsight.
"Alright, Brainy, the Communications Centre is coming up. How close do I need to get us?"
"Stay on course. This distance is optimal. Circle around if possible."
Kara furrows her brow, momentarily letting her mind slip to the H'Rakas and feeling bad for them. She knows they're slipping about something silly in the cargo bay, even with them strapped in. Hopefully, when they're out of the atmosphere she can check on them and calm them down.
When the Communications Centre is in sight, she flies right by it before taking a harsh left around a nearby school. It's best she tries to keep her distance from that one as much as possible. This isn't a day for the mass murder of children.
"A couple of laps please, Kara. I'll have us untethered in less than a minute."
Kara nods to herself and takes a shaky breath. It's almost over.
Just as she rounds another building, she sees a giant wall of pods blocking her way, and thanks to her instinct not to hurt people, she ends up being forced to pull up, trying to avoid hitting any of them.
There must be at least a hundred pods all lined up to prevent them from passing, and as she climbs higher, the pods also fly up, blocking her from flying over them. "For Rao's sake, it's like these people have a death sentence," Kara mutters before she hits the brakes, slowing them right down at a frightening pace and letting the pods continue climbing for a few seconds, all of them taking a long moment to realize what happened.
By the time they do know what Kara did, it's too late. She has brought them back down and successfully turned around to go back to circling around the city.
"Almost there! Another twenty seconds!" Brainy calls out an update.
Kara has to slam the brakes on a second time when two pods block their way once again, two very familiar faces manning the ships.
"These people really do not get a hint." Kara spits out, and there's enough anger in her voice to prompt the people nearest to her, Lena and Nia, to look over and see what she's looking at. They were previously just closing their eyes and praying since watching where they're going only leads to a drastic increase in anxiety and nausea.
Kara can faintly hear Lena saying her name, trying her best to get her attention, but she's too busy focusing on her parents to answer, a ringing in her ears slowly drowning out her words. She lets off the brake and then hits the throttle, heading right for them.
The ship blasts forward and she sees the rush of realization across their faces as they see that she's going to force her way past them and pay them no mind. She's not under their control and they've broken their relationship with her, not that there was much of one to begin with. They had their chance at being good parents, but they ruined it. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.
The ship lurches forward, pushing the pods out of the way. Kara breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the pods simply spin out of control before they stutter to a stop and they both head for the nearest building for an emergency landing. They're fine. She might hate them, but she doesn't want them dead.
"Got it! Let's go!" Brainy shouts. Kara takes no more prompting to angle the ship upwards, and she starts building up their speed. They're finally leaving.
As they go, the back of the ship takes some minor blasts from a couple of larger vessels that joined in the fun a little too late. They probably would have had an issue if they had gotten to them sooner, but now it doesn't matter.
They break free of the atmosphere and plummet out into space, where Kara then slows them down enough to swap seats with Brainy once more, allowing him to take over and get them on course back to their time.
Within moments, they're in the timestream and safely away from any danger. No Kryptonians can follow them here, and they can plan what they will do when they get back to Earth. They still have Lex to deal with, but for now, they can spare a few minutes to fully take in the weight of what just happened—all of it. The past few months have been full of a lot of major events that none of them will forget in a hurry, and it will take time to fully process it all.
As soon as Brainy gives them the all-clear, Nia is out of her seat and throwing her arms around him, dropping herself into his lap and pressing her lips to his. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too." His tone is soft, and he reaches out to the still-glowing pendant to turn off the signal. "These past few months have been quite difficult without you. I would not like to repeat that."
Nia beams down at him, her eyes watering. "Me neither."
The rest of the team watches their little reunion, each couple wrapping their arms around each other's waists, taking in the sight of the cute couple reuniting.
"You guys are so adorable." Kara breaks them out of their little moment, grimacing when she realizes she ruined the romantic moment.
"Thank you, Kara. I agree." Brainy nods over at her. "And I must say that you and Lena also make a very adorable couple too. I assume you figured out your feelings for each other based on the way you're pressed into each other."
"You knew?" Lena baulks. "You knew, and you didn't think to tell me?"
Brainy frowns. "I was under the impression that you were aware of your feelings."
Lena throws her hands up in the air. "I was. I wasn't aware of Kara's though. You could have told me!"
"It wasn't my place." Brainy answers simply. "I am pleased you both figured it out though."
Lena sighs. There's no point in being annoyed about it. It all worked out for the best. "Oh well. At least we did figure it out."
"That is a very big plus." Kara shrugs.
"How did the mission go?" Brainy asks. "Did you get the blueprints?"
The team shares uncomfortable looks before Kelly steps forward, her eyes pinned on Kara. "Did we?"
Kara breaks into a smile. "We did."
Everyone smiles back at her, barely contained confusion on their faces as they do. Lena nudges her with her hip. "Want to explain what exactly happened back there? I didn't know you packed the H'Rakas up. How did you even do that without us noticing?"
"Ok, so I'm going to have to explain this a bit at a time." Kara starts.
"Please do," Alex says.
"And please tell me what a H'Raka is," Brainy interjects.
"It's one of those dragon-type creatures we have in the cargo bay," Nia explains.
Brainy shoots up from his seat and almost sends Nia sprawling onto the floor. "You kept them? I thought you let them go! We can't take them back to Earth with us."
"Sure we can, and we're going to." Kara's voice is firm as she says it. "Bolt and Swoopy are part of the team now and there's nothing anyone can say that will change my mind."
"You definitely changed the timeline. There's going to be a mess to clean up when we get back to Earth." Brainy complains, sitting back down in a huff.
"Anyway, I packed the H'Rakas up early this morning before anyone was awake, and I opened their stall doors. I used the fact that they're known to break free from rope when startled to my advantage so we could use them for a quick getaway too. It was a perfect plan."
"And you packed the one crystal we have?" Lena confirms, proud of Kara now that she's aware that Kara actually came up with a pretty good plan, one that was actually successful.
Alex grins at her, sharing Lena's thoughts. "I'm glad part of your plan worked."
"The other parts worked too." Kara shrugs. "I meant to get caught at the apartment and the lab."
"Why?" Alex's eyes widen dramatically.
"So they wouldn't think to check the bear."
In an instant, all eyes are on the bear cradled between Esme's arms, the little girl grinning almost evilly. "I helped Aunt Kara."
"What do you mean?" Alex asks, in shock as she takes in the look on her daughter's face.
Esme holds out her bear for Kara to take. "I helped Aunt Kara."
"She was my little spy." Kara grins. "Nobody is going to suspect a kid who is playing of shoving important information crystals into their teddy bear. I got my father to get a few of them out when I took Esme with me to the lab the first time under the guise of needing them for research. He counted them all before putting them away, but I stuck a few blank ones in their place. He didn't suspect a thing because I was too busy being suspicious about other things."
"You used my daughter to steal?" Alex wants to be angry, she really does, but Kara just came up with a plan that was so good that even she didn't see through it.
Kara smiles. "I sure did. I figured that if the other plans worked then that's all fine and dandy, but this was my main plan. I had a plan in a plan in another plan. I wanted to cover all bases and it worked." She holds up the bear before she unzips the back of it and pulls out several crystals that had been pushed into it. "Now, that's how you use a bear to smuggle the goods."
"Holy shit." Nia laughs. "You got us, Kara. I'm not even mad about it. I have a crazy amount of respect for you right now."
That leads Kara to take a deep bow, the crystals balanced precariously in her hands. Lena takes them off her, scared she's going to drop them. "You're the most annoying person I've ever met."
"How did you plan for us to escape from the accommodation other than the H'Rakas? How did you know we'd get out of there?" Kelly asks.
"I just figured that they'd cross a line at some point and Alex would go all mama bear. That kind of happened, but it was mostly dumb luck there. I couldn't plan it all, but I did a lot of it covered just in case."
"I have no idea what happened to you guys out there, but I do have to ask more questions," Brainy says. "Did I see you carrying a sword on the back of one of the H'Rakas, and why did I see a decapitated robot being dragged behind you?"
"Yeah, it's a family heirloom, and the Kelex is purely to help carry luggage." Kara boasts. "The sword is actually super cool and—"
"It's definitely going to change the timeline some more." Brainy cuts her off, not even touching on the Kelex again. That whole thing is horrifying.
Lena comes to her rescue. "Most likely, but we've got everything we need to get back home and face Lex. We've got everything under control, Brainy. This is a happy time. Smile."
His shoulders sag. "I am happy. The mission was successful and that's excellent news."
"It is." Kara agrees, scooping Esme up and setting her on her hip. "And Miss Esme here is the star of the show. She's the hero here."
The group breaks into applause for the little girl, who is laughing her head off as they holler her name.
"We did it." Kara sighs after she sets Esme back down, moving to wrap her arm around Lena's shoulders and leaning in to press her lips to her cheek. "Now, let's get back to Earth."