Alex paces at the foot of the bed, ignoring the group all bunched together atop of it. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"We all do, Alex." Kara flops back on the bed in a half-reclined position, her head falling onto Lena's lap where lithe fingers eagerly burrow into her soft blonde tresses, not scratching nor combing, simply resting in the golden locks like each fingertip is being tucked into bed.
The air is thick with apprehension, it's suffocating. Not a single person in that room has anything but every possibility for what Astra's people may require of them running through their head and not a single person can fathom of a single way to express their thoughts in a coherent way.
Sometimes, there is no coherent way.
Somehow, little Esme is the only one to have the courage to state the obvious. "They aren't good people, are they?"
Kelly holds her daughter tight, keeping her arms wrapped around her as tight as she can, unwilling to ever let her daughter go because she fears that if she does, it could be the last time, as rational or irrational as that is.
"We're still figuring that out." Kara offers when nobody else speaks. "But I'm going to go find some answers."
Everybody jumps when Kara sits up, wincing as she does so because Lena's fingers instinctually latched on and pulled her hair slightly with the motion.
Alex pauses her pacing. "Now? You're planning on going out there now?"
"We've been waiting in here for hours now, waiting for my aunt to come up with some plan or talk to some people we know nothing about. We don't know what she's planning, and I need to know. I'm going to talk to her and then I'm coming right back, I promise." Kara grabs hold of the door handle, holding a hand facing outwards towards Alex when she tries to step closer, probably to try and stop her.
Nobody gets the chance to say anything else then because Kara is already out of the door, not sticking around to hear the others try and probably succeed in telling her that they should all stick together.
That may be true, but some things are better off done alone, it tends to get messy when they go in as a group. Wires get crossed and they won't get all of their questions answered, there's too much potential for something to go wrong.
She barely makes it to the end of the hallway back to the living room when a guard steps out in front of her, blocking her path and preventing her from leaving the hallway.
It takes no time for her to recognize the guard as the same one that was in the dining room with Astra, Lena and herself the night they were first brought back here.
"Zin-Ra? That's your name, right?"
A brisk head nod tells her that she's right, but it takes no genius to see that the snap of his neck holds anger and distrust. He definitely doesn't like her.
"I need to speak to General Astra In-Ze."
Words are spat at her then. "Rrip si ehwor i kehp dhid ukep. Rrip ehwor vahdhan taiium." (You should speak your own tongue here. You speak like a foreigner.)
"Now that's the kind of hatred towards diversity that I'd expect from the council. Perhaps you should be trying to raise yourself above their primitive values instead of agreeing with them." Kara retorts, tone hardened into that which she usually reserves for when she's wearing her cape.
Zin-Ra steps forward into her space, challenging her to back down, which Kara will never do, her pride will never let her.
The second he realizes that she isn't intimidated by him, Zin-Ra strikes, setting a firm jab into her ribs and knocking the air out of her lungs. Kara stumbles back from the force of it, caught off guard by it and the audacity of the man to just punch her out of nowhere just to prove his intelligence-lacking point.
She instinctually curls over herself slightly, a hand coming up to wrap around her middle. Zin-Ra takes the opportunity for another sly hit, a cowardly hit if there ever was one. He strikes her across the face once her eyes shift away from him, not being dignified enough to conduct himself in the general rules of a fair fight.
The punch brings Kara back to herself though and just in time too because her eyes flick up as he brings his fist back up again.
She ducks beneath the swinging arm, pushing herself close enough to get her own hit into his stomach and then a knee to his face when he doubles over.
Kara figures that a couple of hits in the same places she got hit would even the score a little, but Zin-Ra doesn't care about equality. He just wants to win and winning for him seems to include grievous bodily harm at the very minimum.
He rushes at her, grabbing her by her shoulders and slamming her into the wall of the hallway with as much force as he can muster, which given that he is a trained soldier, is quite a lot.
She hits the wall with a loud thud, her body overflowing with the pain from the force of it and falls right to the floor after the impact.
Kara really isn't used to fighting without her powers, even the sessions she used to have with Alex stopped because the kryptonite room was destroyed along with the DEO months back so this is a new one.
That doesn't mean that her training from the early days of the DEO has left her. She got a lot of training that she had always thought was pointless but right now, being taught how to fight through her pain is something she's grateful for and it has her stumbling back to her feet and throwing her entire body weight at the idiot that dared to attack Supergirl.
She knocks him to the floor, dazing him. He clearly wasn't expecting her to fight back, and it takes a second for him to realize that he's now flat on his back with Kara straddling him, her fist pounding into his face with a rage that he hadn't anticipated.
Kara gets half a dozen punches in before she's being dragged off of him though, two sets of hands grabbing her arms and holding her tight.
Her fist aches, as does most of her body but her knuckles are screaming at her. Her biceps are being pinched in the grips of two other guards and when her fury-induced tunnel vision clears, she can see another guard hunched over Zin-Ra, trying to wake him up by tapping the side of his bloodied face. She must have knocked him unconscious.
"What is going on here?"
Astra storms into view, drawn by the ruckus and the sounds of the guards berating Kara, not that she's paying them any mind, her eyes now glued to Zin-Ra, in utter disbelief at what just transpired.
The guards fall silent at the entrance of their general.
"I suggest you let go of my niece this instant, we will have to conduct an investigation into this but until then, you have no right to restrain her." Astra steps over Zin-Ra, who is now being tended to by another man, one who is very clearly a medic of some kind.
The guards not only release her but also take a step back as their general approaches. Astra stops in front of Kara, her hand falling to her niece's forearm. "Are you alright?"
Kara clears her throat, well aware that she isn't and from the pain she's in, worsening now that the adrenaline is wearing off. "I'll be fine. Can we talk somewhere privately? I was looking for you before Zin-Ra decided that he wanted to get his ass handed to him."
"Disrespect towards any members of The Rebellion is not tolerated, Kara. You are not to speak of any of my guards or anyone else in such a manner again. I will however listen to your truth of what happened here, and we can discuss anything else you need. Come, we will talk in the library, and I'll have someone bring me some medical supplies to get you cleaned up."
Astra tightens her grip on Kara's forearm, but she knows that it's just for show, she isn't pulling her or forcing her to go with her, just merely guiding her and holding a pretence. Kara knows better than to speak until they are away from everyone else, Astra is already going to have a job getting her out of this situation that Zin-Ra created by attacking her. She knows that the other members of The Rebellion are not going to side with her on this.
Astra takes her to the library just as she said, pulling her through the door and sending someone off to get some medical supplies. She is taken up to the desk and placed into one of the chairs while Astra waits by the door for the supplies to be brought to her.
As soon as they are in her hands Astra is right up next to her, dragging a chair beside her own so she can see how badly Kara is injured.
The time alone gave Kara time to think and notice the amount of blood on her knuckles and the tightness of the skin on her face from her own blood drying in place.
She wonders if the others heard the fight, if they are going to be questioned or if they are even safe here after that. She has to keep them safe, she has a duty, and she has to fulfil it.
"Will the others be dragged into this?"
Astra focuses on her face first, wiping away some of the blood so she can see where it's coming from. She finds the source as the cloth drags over Kara's split eyebrow and around her rapidly swelling eye.
"I will try to keep them out of it. It helps that they were not present at the time of the fight. What happened Little one?" Astra cups Kara's cheek, eyes darting over Kara's visible injuries.
With a deep breath, Kara explains the best she can. "I was coming to find you, to see if you have any updates but he blocked my way through and was mad that I didn't speak to him in Kryptonese. He insulted me and when I didn't back down he attacked me, I defended myself."
"Why didn't you stop when you had him on the floor?"
"He already got up once and attacked me a second time, I wasn't going to let there be a third." Kara tries not to flinch away from any of Astra's touches. "I knew he didn't like me from the second he reached for his weapon when I hugged you in the dining room when I was brought back here. I didn't think he would do anything about it though, that's on me for not taking it into consideration."
Astra shakes her head. "It's not on you. I gave you my word that you would be safe here. I will sort this out, Kara. There will be justice for this. I'm sorry I had to be stern with you out in the hall. I have a pretence I must uphold in front of the other members lest I lose respect and with it, what little control I have."
"I get it. I would get it if you had to do something about how I spoke about him, but I am glad that it probably won't come to that, I'm already going to be sore tomorrow, and I don't need anything else on top of that." Kara's arm is wrapped around her ribs, protecting them unconsciously from any more harm.
Astra pulls it out of her way. "I have to see."
Kara helps lift her shirt enough to show the darkening bruise already forming on one side of her torso from the punch she took. "He has a good punch in him. I'd be more impressed if I wasn't the one on the receiving end." Kara laughs a little, trying to ease the tension.
Astra's own fury is palpitating off her in waves. "He will pay for this. I will be sure of it."
"He already has."
"He has not."
"He was the one who ended up unconscious on the floor." Kara watches the way Astra's eyes trail over each injury she finds, even lingering on some of her old scars.
Astra tugs her shirt back down, instead aiming her hands for some sutures for her eyebrow and the bridge of her nose, the only other place her skin broke. "Are there any more injuries?"
Kara shakes her head, "he threw me against the wall, my back is a bit sore, but I doubt that there is anything major there, probably just more bruises. My knuckles will heal in due time too. It'll all heal, Aunt Astra."
Kara was already convinced that Astra is on their side, loyal to them as much as she is to The Rebellion, but now she's sure. There's no denying the love and care that she is showing her now, the rage that comes with knowing that someone just attacked her family.
"Show me."
Kara turns in her seat, her movements slow to not jolt the bruises that are setting in now, all adrenaline drained and the pain hitting her full force. He did some damage, that's undeniable.
Astra once again pulls up her shirt, her fingertips falling to her scarred back. Kara knows that it's the part of her body with the most residual damage, she has some major scarring from the reign incident and her fall from the top of the building where she was dropped off but in the moment that Astra asked her to turn, she forgot about it.
It doesn't even enter her mind until she hears the gasp. She pulls at her shirt, dragging it back down and trying to turn back around but Astra's firm hands stop her and in her injured state, she doesn't have the strength to fight.
"I did not realize how brutal the battles you have fought in have been to you." Astra brushes over each scar with the faintest of touches. "Little one…" Her voice trails away, no words enough to express the despair she feels at having her most precious family member sitting before her with every major wound she's ever had on show before her.
"I know it's bad. I'm not ashamed of them but I know they aren't pretty. You're the only person other than a couple of doctors and Alex that knows that they're there. What happened tonight will be forgotten soon enough, I have been through worse and probably will do again. I need everything here to go smoothly so I can keep everyone safe."
Astra finishes looking, gently turning Kara back towards her and enveloping her into a hug. "We'll keep them safe together, and I'll keep you safe."
They both know that it might not be possible, but they both know that she's going to do whatever she can to make the words as true as she can make them be.
Kara sinks into the embrace, revelling in the feeling she has now that she has someone to protect her, someone she doesn't feel like she has a duty to protect of her own. She can be completely vulnerable without worrying. It's something she doesn't have with anyone else and losing Astra again when the mission is over is going to destroy her all over again. She has to make it last while she can.
"I will do everything in my power to do so," Astra whispers into her hair and Kara is half convinced that Astra is making the promise to herself.
Kara sniffs as she chokes back tears that are threatening to fall. "Is there any way you can get the others into their own rooms before I head back down there in a little while? I don't want Esme to see me like this." She gestures to her swollen eye, well aware that she's got a nice shiner forming.
"Of course I can. Would you like me to bring Lena up here for the rest of our discussion? I have a feeling that you have some questions for me about my earlier talks with my people."
"I think that might be best, Lena is probably in a better frame of mind for this than I am."
Astra takes her hands. "We can talk about this tomorrow, Kara."
"No, we can't. I need to know what's going on and I don't think that I can wait another day. I need to know everything I can because the apprehension is killing me."
With a solemn nod, Astra agrees. "There are no faults in your logic. I will escort the others to their own rooms and Lena up here myself. Your partner should be with you at such a time."
Kara isn't denying it at this point, Lena and herself are entering the territory where they can't deny that they are becoming partners. It is no secret between them by now that their feelings have developed and neither have been open to talks on the matter. That's another thing to add to the to-do list. Tomorrow. Maybe.
"I'd like her to be here."
"I know. Nobody is permitted to come in here without my say-so, so when you hear the door open again, it will be me. If it's not, use this." Astra reaches around to the back of her own pants and beneath her jacket to pull out a small knife.
Kara is shocked by the action, her brain frozen at the implications.
Astra's strong footsteps echo as she makes her way out without another word, just a small shoulder squeeze and the room suddenly feels freezing.
Even Astra doesn't trust these people, and she's their general.
She's their general but she is very obviously not in total control anymore.
Astra doesn't think she's safe here.
Astra just gave her a knife.
Astra is on her side.
This probably isn't going to end well.