For a moment there was silence and darkness before the room erupted with gunfire.
Lena crashed heavily to the floor, pain surging through her body, though she was unable to pin-point the source. Bullets ricocheted around the room, and though Lena could hear people yelling and screaming, she couldn't tell if any were Kara. Lena lay curled up on the floor, making herself as small as possible and covered her head as best she could, closing her eyes and waiting for it all to end.
...
The light went out the moment the bullet from the gun in Lena's hand hit it, and shards of the shattered plastic casing rained down. Kara knew she only had seconds, if that, before all hell broke loose. Despite the pain in her wrists and ankles from the Kryptonite-laced ropes, she threw herself to the floor, which allowed her to pull her feet free from the chair.
Gunfire started, bullets rebounding off the walls and floor of the small room, and Kara could only cry out as she watched Lena collapse to the ground.
I believe in Supergirl.
Kara yelled and tore free of the ropes binding her wrists. The gunfire stopped as their four captives lay dead, having accidentally taken each other out, assuming that Lena was still part of the fight. But Lena had only fired one shot. Kara crawled across the ground towards her, feeling weak and lightheaded from the Kryptonite poisoning. She'd been tied up for a a couple of hours before Lena had been brought in, allowing the poison plenty of time to enter her system.
"Lena?" Kara asked, leaning over Lena's body. She gently placed her hand on Lena's shoulder. "It's ok now. We can - I - " Kara struggled for words as she noticed how much blood was on Lena. Kara lent down and snapped the handcuffs off Lena's wrists. "Lena? Lena? Are you conscious? I can hear your heartbeat. You sound shocked. You - you don't sound well. Umm, I'd say open your eyes, but there's not much to see. Umm, Lena? We need to get out of here, ok?"
Kara forced herself to sit up properly. There was a narrow line of light coming in from under the door. Kara took a deep breath and used her heat vision to blast the door open. The light from the hallway filled the small room. Kara tried not to look at the bodies and the blood spatter and focus on Lena.
"Time to go," Kara said, but her head spun as she moved and she was only just able to stop herself from falling on top of Lena. Kara looked around the room, and saw the mangled Kryptonite bullets scattered about. She was too close to them to begin healing, but she could hear Lena's heart rate dropping as the adrenaline wore off and the blood loss continued. Kara steadied herself, scooped Lena up, and flew out of the room, down the hallway and out of the service door into the empty underground carpark.
Lena moaned, her blouse and skirt soaked in blood that Kara couldn't tell the origin of.
"I know it hurts," Kara said, stopping and lying Lena down as gently as she could. Kara sat down beside her. Looking at Lena in the cold, fluorescent light made Kara want to cry. Her own body ached, she was close to powerless, neither of them had phones on them, and Lena was slowly bleeding out.
"What do I do, Lena?" Kara asked, unable to think straight. It would be so easy just to stop, to curl up beside Lena and wait for someone to find them.
Lena moaned again, her eyes screwed up in pain.
"Good idea," Kara mumbled, as much to herself as to Lena. Saving Lena came first. She had to put her own pain aside and use whatever power she had left to get Lena to hospital. Kara braced herself and scooped up Lena, who gave a short cry of pain. Kara took a few wobbly steps, then flew as fast as her body would allow her out of the underground carpark and into the dark city streets. It took seconds to get her bearings, but they were seconds Lena didn't have.
"Hold on, Lena," Kara begged, "We're nearly there."
Kara flew as directly as she could for National City General Hospital. With every second, Kara could hear Lena's heart rate slowing, and her breath becoming more laboured. Kara flew too fast to allow for tears, though her head spun and her body urged her to stop. A few seconds later Kara landed in an alleyway to the side of the hospital where the bins were kept, and carried Lena inside the ER on foot.
"I need help!" Kara called. "Help, my friend's been shot! She - she's - "
"Ma'am, are you - " a nurse began.
"Please! You have to help her!" Kara cried, tears finally falling.
Within moments a blur of medical staff surrounded Kara, taking Lena and placing her on stretcher bed, and wheeling her out of sight. Kara could hear them calling medical terms to one another as they hurried away, but her head was too muddled and sore to make sense of any of it.
"Ma'am, what's your friends name?" a nurse with a clipboard asked.
It took Kara a second to realise that the nurse was taking to her. Kara wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve, and noticed that her hands were covered with blood. "I - umm. She's Lena. Lena Luthor."
The nurse looked up and raised an eyebrow. "The Lena Luthor?" she asked.
"Yes," Kara spat. "Is that an issue?"
"No, ma'am. No issue. Now, do you want to see someone yourself, or - "
"No, I - " Kara looked down at herself, and noticed that there was blood all over her cardigan and jeans. "I'm ok."
"You sure?" the nurse asked, looking at Kara's red-raw wrists.
"Yeah, fine," Kara said, crossing her arms in a lame attempt to hide her injuries. "I - should go home. Get changed. Come back later."
"Good idea," said the nurse.
"Yeah," Kara said, and walked out of the ER, half in a trance, barely noticing the other people there staring at her blood-soaked clothes, and their surprise that a skinny woman like Kara could have carried her lifeless friend unaided.
Kara made her way back to the dark alleyway before taking off again. It was easier to fly without carrying Lena, but now her arms felt empty and useless. Despite her aching body and waning powers, Kara shot up as high as she dared, grateful for the fresh, cold air at altitude. She did need to go home, but not to her own house. She needed help.
Golden light shone from behind the curtain's of Alex Danver's bedroom. Kara was grateful Alex was still awake as she knocked on the window. She waited a moment for the curtain to be drawn aside, and waved when she saw Alex. Alex's eye's widened as she saw Kara floating outside her bedroom, and she flung the window open.
"Kara! What the hell are you playing at?" she hissed as Kara climbed inside and Alex shut and locked the window and closed the curtains again. "You'd better have one heck of a good reason to be - "
"Alex..." Kara said, holding onto Alex's dressing table for support. "Everything's gone wrong and I... I don't - they shot Lena and she's in hospital and I - I don't..."
"Holy shit, Kara," Alex said, looking at Kara. "Get in the bathroom."
"What?"
"You are covered in blood! You are not getting that all over my carpet!"
"It's not mine," Kara said, allowing Alex to lead her into the bathroom.
Alex turned on the light and Kara sat down on the edge of the bath.
"I'm sorry, Alex. I'm so..."
"Shut-up," Alex said, grabbing a clean face-cloth and running it under the tap. She washed Kara's face. "What happened? What do you mean Lena got shot?"
"I walked into a trap. I knew it was a trap but I - it was worse than I thought. And then they got Lena but she wouldn't play along and I don't know if that saved us or made everything worse or - "
"Oh god," Alex said, having taken Kara's hand and seeing her wrist. "I'm taking you to the DEO."
"No! No, please no, I'm ok," Kara said, tears welling in her eyes. "I'll be ok, I promise."
"You need yellow sunlight..."
"I'm healing already, I promise," Kara lied.
"No, Kara, you need - "
"Alex, listen to me!" Kara cried, grabbing Alex by the hand. "Please. I don't need the Director the the DEO. That isn't why I came here. I need help. I need my sister. I need you to tell me that everything is going to be ok."