If they thought the heat was bad before, they were severely mistaken. It wasn't anything even close to where they are at now and they still have a little while left to go before they will be able to see The Fire Falls.

The only upside to it is that the heat is preventing the growth of any of the plants from The Scarlett Jungle, making their trip a lot easier since they've left the ravine.

In some ways, they miss it, the simplicity of it, the mostly-even ground and the fact that they didn't need to duck under branches every five minutes when they were walking. Still, being back out between the trees, feeling the drops of moisture that have gathered on the leaves brush off onto their skin, cooling them down as they walk and listen to the chirping of birds and creaking of bugs, both of which are eerily similar to those they would be likely to see on Earth from what little glances they've had at them, not at all like the monstrosities they came across before.

"Kara, please tell me we're not going to be walking in this heat for much longer," Nia complains to the blonde, oblivious to the sweat that is dripping down Kara's forehead, the same amount that's dripping down her own.

"I hate to say it, but that's not all that soon, we have a couple of weeks before we even reach the falls properly and we have to go the long way around so we don't run into any tourists and get asked questions we don't have the answers to." Kara answers, panting while they walk up a gentle incline, one that they have been making their way up for the past twenty minutes and hating every second of it.

Nia groans animatedly and it's contagious because she gets a litany of groans in response, the conductor of the planet's most annoyed orchestra.

Lena wants to groan too but holds back since she's the only one in the group that has any restraint at this point in time. She isn't enjoying the heated trek they're on and absolutely despises the fact that she can't even hold her girlfriend's hand because the pool of sweat that sits between their palms makes her want to gag.

She isn't complaining though, this is what she signed up for and complaining about it isn't going to make her feel any better about where they are or what's going on. Their path is clear and they just have to suck it up and follow it, put everything else aside and just deal with it.

"There is some good news, you know?" Kara turns to speak to the group behind her, walking up the back backwards and surprisingly, she's actually finding it easier.

Lena perks up at that, whatever Kara is about to say, it might just get the others to stop moaning. "What is it?"

"The falls have been here for so long that the wildlife and the environment around them has adapted over time so there are awesome plants around that we can eat to have a bit more variety in our diets and there is also something else, something every last one of you is going to appreciate."

"Kara, I couldn't give a damn about your foraging right about now." Alex huffs, moody from not only being hot and tired but also from carrying Esme, the little princess having been struggling to keep up on the uphill until she got picked up and then she promptly fell right asleep on her mom's shoulder.

Holding her hands up in surrender, Kara keeps talking. "Ok, I'm sorry, I should have started with the good bit, I see that now."

"What's the good bit, Kara."

"Natural hot springs." Kara grins. "We just have to find them, there is a whole bunch of them about though, pretty much all of the bodies of water around will be warm though and the closer you get to the falls, the hotter they are, just another reason for us to stay away from getting to close though, we won't get scalded by the water."

Nia's jaw drops. "Kara, I'm about to ruin your relationship because I want to kiss you right now."

"Forget mine and Kara's relationship, you would be ruining your own relationship because Brainy would be informed of what you did… when I tell him the reasoning behind why I murdered you." Lena glares, at the younger woman, her frustration at their heinous walk coming out in the form of overprotective jealousy.

To everyone's amusement, Nia looks genuinely concerned. "Lena, I appreciate the threat but we all know that I'm not interested in The Girl of Steel, she's all yours. Please contain your jealousy, you're making it weird."

"You made it weird when you started talking about kissing my girlfriend," Lena argues, eyebrows flinching like crazy in time with the words she's spitting.

Kara rushes to intervene, standing between the arguing women. "Please stop, this is hard enough without any fighting, besides, if you guys get any louder, you'll wake Esme up, contain yourselves."

Reasonably admonished, they fall silent, and not just Nia and Lena but all of them. Kara doesn't care though, she can handle a tough mission and a bad day, but she can't handle her team taking cheap shots at each other and making their suffering worse needlessly.

"We'll reach the crest of the hill soon, we'll take a couple of hours to have a break instead of the usual hour, we have enough time that it won't make much of a difference and I think we all need some time to unwind before we carry on. It's coming up to midday and the sun isn't helping with the heat, if we wait it out then it won't be as bad of a walk." Alex decides for them, keeping her tone hushed.

The offer of a break and some space from the others kicks them all into gear and they end up heading off up the hill at what is probably twice the pace they were going at before.

Their feet connect with the ground with light steps, their toes hitting the curve of the slope before their heels. It's their intuition and their hypersensitivity to the heavier footsteps that they can suddenly hear that halts their progress, the deviation from the background noise they've gotten used to. Then, all of them stop so they can be certain that the steps aren't their own, and that they belong to someone that isn't in the group.

It takes them back to before when the people from The Rebellion were after them and took them back to the accommodation with them, except it can't be them this time, it just wouldn't make sense, surely they would have been out here long ago to come and fetch them, weeks ago in fact, not when they are getting closer to being able to get them what they've asked for.

They just have to make it past the fire falls and then they can stop by The Scarlett Jungle to get the samples for Astra. They can't show up without them because then Astra will face consequences that could change the timeline and they can't let that happen.

"Quick, go, into the bushes." Lena hisses at the group, trying her best to get them to go as quickly and as quietly as possible.

They rush off to where the bushes are thicker, diving into them and dropping low to the ground, eyes peeled and ears desperately clamouring to hear any signs of other people, hoping that they will see them before they see the group.

Alex holds onto Esme tight, resting her daughter on the ground and hovering over her, protecting her from whatever might happen now. Looking down at the little girl, she can see her eyes opening groggily but she doesn't make a noise when she sees her mom above her with a finger to her lips, a signal to stay quiet.

Kelly is squished between Nia and Kara but her eyes keep flickering away from the track they were just walking on and the space where Alex, Esme and Lena are lying down.

They keep themselves hunched down as much as they are physically able to and they barely dare to breathe, terrified that they are giving themselves away every time a branch or a leaf moves because of the tiny puffs of air coming out of their mouths.

Their wait isn't long, barely a couple of minutes, and they see exactly what they feared. There's a small group of Kryptonians wandering through the forest, the only difference is that they are going downhill where they were going uphill.

There are four of them but that's not the scariest part. Behind them, they have two creatures, two dragon-like animals that leave the Superfriends breathless in the beauty of them.

Lena's mouth drops open at the sight of the H'Raka. She hadn't fully believed Kara when she told them the story of how her uncle had one of these back in their first couple of weeks of the mission but here it is, one in the flesh, a dark forest green that is illuminated by its four burgundy wings and underbelly, great white claws attached to its feet that match the teeth that glitter in the sunlight when it opens its mouth to pant, not unlike the way a dog would.

They don't move from their spots, watching from where they are as the group passes by talking in rapid Kryptonese.

In fact, they don't move until they can no longer hear the group and they have long gone out of sight, moving slowly out from their hiding spots and keeping the voices low when they do talk.

"Kara, what were they saying?" Kelly questions.

Kara walks back to where they were originally and looks down the slope in the direction the people went in. "They are environmentalists, it's perfectly normal for them to be out and about around random places like this, they often use H'Rakas to get around and spend their time researching the animal populations and the plants around certain areas, it's their job to figure out what parts of Krypton's nature needs supplementing to get it back to good health and then doing just that. They weren't talking about anything in particular, just a couple of books they're reading at the minute, boring stuff."

"Really? They get paid to go out into the middle of nowhere on the backs of dragons without someone micromanaging their every movement? Sounds like heaven." Alex adds in, lifting Esme up over the top of the bushes and handing her over to Kelly.

"Pretty much, they can't do anything too drastic without approval from higher level people within their guild, but essentially, yes. They are actually well known for making a mess of ecosystems by accidentally losing their H'Rakas and them then hunting endangered species. It's always been a whole thing."

Nia stumbles out from her own spot, standing on uneasy legs for a second before righting herself. "That's cool, but can we keep going, I want that break."

Lena sighs, ready to be the bearer of bad news. "We can't take a break now."

"What? Why not?"

"Because now we know there are people around that could accidentally stumble upon us at any moment. We don't know if there are more of them and we can't risk staying in one spot for long, especially not for two hours. Let's keep walking and just try and stay on track, ok?"

Nia's head drops and Kara wants to do the same, only one more piece of bad news away from becoming a moody gremlin for the rest of the day.

Clicking her tongue, Kelly weighs in. "I want that break just as much as the rest of you but Lena's right, we have to keep going."

"We keep going then," Alex says decidedly, marching off up the hill.

Rather than stand there and debate against carrying on, something that they all know is going to happen whether they like it or not, they keep going. The further away from the group they get, the faster they can take an actual break once they're sure that they aren't going to be running into any trouble.

And so they continue, stomping their way up the hill and then across the flat surface of the ground that comes after that. It does get easier the further along they get, their legs not as tired and since the path is less strenuous, they don't feel quite as hot but it's still not great.

Lena watches Kara out of the corner of her eye the whole time, worried because Kara has that look on her face that she gets whenever she's thinking about something too hard and it's worrying her.

Once they are far enough behind the others that they can talk in a hushed whisper that stops them from being able to overhear what they are saying to each other, Lena acknowledges her. "Hey, are you alright, darling? You've got that look about you."

"I'm ok," Kara replies. "Just caught up in my head thinking."

"About?"

Sighing out a half-laugh, Kara smiles at her. "I can't keep any secrets from you, can I?"

Lena shakes her head. "You can't, even when you're doing what you're doing now and trying to avoid my questions."

Kara rolls her eyes. "I know. There's a couple of things on my mind and I'm not sure as though they are good things."

Lena wipes off her sweaty palm on the leg of her pants before wrapping it around Kara's elbow. "Well, in that case, you should try me."

"The first thing isn't bad. I was thinking about the book the other Kryptonians were talking about. It was one that was part of a series my father used to read, it just brought up some old memories, fond ones." Kara begins, focusing on the good thing she was thinking of, shying away from telling Lena the other thing she was thinking about.

Lena rests her head on Kara's shoulder for a brief moment, taking it away not long after because she realizes how uncomfortable it is to walk in that position but is grateful she could show her support to Kara in the movement anyway. "That sounds like a good memory."

"It is."

"And the other thought?" Lena presses gently, the same way one would tentatively press a single finger to a bruise just to see what results arise at the pressure.

Kara doesn't want to share, too afraid that the idea she has is either so stupid that she's judged for it or has it picked apart, or that it is outlandish enough that they try it and end up in deeper trouble than they have already found except this time they won't have Astra there to dig them out of the pit they trap themselves in.

"Lena, it's just an idea and it's a bad one, not worth looking into."

Lena isn't buying that, if it's just an idea and Kara isn't genuinely considering it in some capacity then she would have no problem sharing, they often share fantasies of terrible plans and ideas in their tent at night to pass the time when they aren't ready to sleep, Kara thinks this plan could work but doesn't want to say, doesn't want to take responsibility if it doesn't work out. She's just afraid.

She considers pressing it and she considers leaving it. She settles for a middle ground. "I won't ask you to tell me. I just want you to know that I'm here and if you want to look into it, we can do that, and if you want to keep it to yourself and stay on the path we have, that's alright too."

"Thanks." Kara hums, wrapping her own sweaty hand around Lena's fingers on her arm, not caring about the heat anymore, just trapped in her own head while she weighs in her options.

The trek after that is quiet, Kara not really sharing anything and just staring off into space while she thinks and Lena giving her the space to do so. Alex and Nia are just talking about some movie they want to watch when they get back to Earth and Kelly is keeping Esme occupied, carrying her on her shoulders and letting her listen to an audiobook of The BFG.

It stays quiet until they are forced to stop for the night with the setting sun and their grumbling stomachs and it stays quiet when they go to sleep in their tents that they have camouflaged by setting up between some trees and covering them in branches.

It isn't quiet when Lena is gently shaken awake in the middle of the night by Kara and has a few words whispered to her, the plan the blonde isn't sure about but has finally decided to share because there's a chance it could work, a chance that they could get the mission finished long before their expected date and get home to their normal lives, to being back in the city they love so much.

"Lena, wake up. Lena? It's just me."

"What's happening?" Lena sits up in a panic.

Kara presses a gentle hand over her mouth, keeping her quiet so she doesn't wake the others up. "The H'Rakas, we can take them. They will think they got loose. We can take them and get the samples and be in Kandor by the end of the week. We can get Esme out of this damned place and back to where she can be safe. We just have to be the ones to go and steal them, we have to do that part alone because if we get caught, it's all over."

Lena 's eyes have barely adjusted to being open and she's registering everything Kara's saying at an extremely slow pace but it does make sense and if Kara's plan works, they are going to be home soon. It's risky but not as risky as their current plan. They can pull it off.

"Say no more, I'm in."