Back To Krypton

Chapter 22

Kara stands dead still, hands on her knees and head down, completely surrounded by the yellow mist that she wasn't strong or quick enough to escape, waiting for it to affect her. To kill her. To do something.

Trying to suck air into her lungs without breathing in the smoke is useless, almost as useless as attempting to see through the smoke. It has draped itself across the space so thickly that she can scarcely see more than a couple of feet in front of her, everything else hidden from her view.

Other than her inability to see though, there doesn't seem to be any effects on her. Seriously, there isn't a single thing wrong with her other than her tiredness and lack of breath from running away from the smoke that doesn't actually seem to be harming her at all, it's just super thick and blocks vision.

Based on the light powdery consistency of it and the way it is sticking to her clothes, dusting her over and attaching itself to her hair, it's some kind of pollen. It's a good job that Kara doesn't have hay fever because if she did then she'd be sneezing left and right.

It becomes suddenly very obvious that just because she isn't affected by it, that doesn't mean that nobody is because up ahead she can hear rapid sneezes, one starting just as another one ends, incessant and loud.

Kara follows the sound, intuitive enough to gather that one of the others got caught up in the smoke too, and by her deductions, it has to either be Lena or Alex and since the sneezes are particularly feminine and also really cute rather than the huffy sneezes she grew up listening to whenever Alex got a cold, she knows that it's Lena.

She squints as she forces her way forward, calling out in the hope that Lena can hear her, which she should be able to since she can hear her sneezes. "Lena?"

"Over here!" Lena replies, really quite unhelpfully since Kara can't see where exactly 'over here' is.

"Lena, keep talking, I'll follow your voice," Kara says, keeping her volume loud enough that she knows that Lena can hear her clearly.

"Ok, I'm walking to you as well. I'm just retracing our steps back until I find you."

The pair shuffle closer and closer to each other, wary of walking too fast and accidentally hurting themselves, calling out consistently in the world's worst game of Marco Polo.

Kara keeps on heading forward, following the angelic sounds coming from Lena's mouth and letting them guide her, calling back to her when Lena stops talking.

They mustn't have been too far away from each other because it doesn't take long at all for them to find each other, Lena still sneezing every once in a while, hair coated with tiny yellow specs of pollen, just the same as Kara's is too.

"Lena, are you alright?"

Lena nods shakily. "I'm good, it's just making me sneeze, is all. Are you ok?"

Kara is hasty in her attempts to reassure Lena that she is, in fact, just fine. "I'm alright too, I'm sorry I couldn't keep up with you guys, I'm not a hundred percent yet and couldn't keep going."

Lena drags her into her arms roughly but Kara isn't fighting it, loving the feeling she gets from being engulfed in Lena's warm embrace. "God, Kara. I was so scared when I turned around and you weren't there. It felt like my heart was being pulled out of my chest and I just had to come and find you, there wasn't another option.

"Wait." Kara leans back out of the hug, arms still clinging to Lena's thought. "You walked into the smoke to find me? Did you risk yourself to come back? Lena, you can't do that, it's too dangerous!"

"That's too dangerous? Kara, this entire mission is dangerous. Coming back for you isn't because it's more dangerous for me to be without you. I'm only a good person when I'm with you. You are what keeps me sane and good and smart. I'd be a dumb, evil bitch without you." Lena grabs Kara's shoulders tightly, accentuating her points with tiny shakes that get stronger the further into her ramble she gets.