The call comes in the middle of the night. It's not the first time, and with a grumble at the hour Kara rolls out of bed and into her suit, still halfway in the dream state she'd slipped into. She's glad, as she always is, that Kryptonians on Earth don't need sleep, but that doesn't mean she appreciates being pulled from that peace to fight whatever alien threat couldn't wait for a decent hour.

"Why can't aliens keep a civilized schedule for once?" comes the sleepy question from the bed Kara's just left, another reason she hates having to leave. Leaving a bed was bad enough, leaving the arms of her lover was even worse.

"Well, for some of us the schedule we keep isn't our own, so that makes it a bit difficult," she teases as she fastens her cape, leaning down for a kiss goodbye. "It sounded urgent, I'll try to let you know if I'll be late to work."

"I think I can come up with a better excuse than your inept friends, and being the boss means I don't have to justify it. You do what you need to do, and I'll take care of the rest." Kara has to laugh at that as she steps towards the window, thankful that if she has to be up this early to save the city, at least she has this to look forward to first. She's never been happier than these months since she'd found the courage to kiss her boss. Since Cat had kissed her back.

"I'll be on the comm, if you want to listen in. Just keep your end muted," Kara reminds her, knowing that Cat sometimes needs that extra level of connection when things get rough. It's hard on her, but she insists that it would be harder to not know.

"I won't distract you, I won't risk my morning latte that way." It's the closest Cat will come to anything too emotional, and Kara knows it. It's still too much to open up completely, and she can see past the walls now anyway, so she doesn't mind. "Be careful," she hears as she flies away, the soft words filling her with warmth. It might not be said to her face yet, but at least it's a step forward.

Things in the city are strangely quiet as she flies to the DEO, and after the urgency she'd heard from Alex, that quiet is a little unsettling. It pushes her to fly faster, needing to know what's going on.

"Thank god you're here, this is going to be bad," Alex says as soon as she walks in, and Kara freezes. Alex is genuinely scared in a way Kara has never seen, and that more than anything tells her how serious it is.

"What do we have?" Kara snaps instantly into pure professional mode, calling on every bit of the maturity she's learned since putting on the cape. She has to be a hero today, maybe more than she ever has before, and there's no room for laughter or fear.

"The Fort Rozz aliens left behind have apparently decided they're tired of living on a planet they can't escape from. They're attacking major population centers across the world, doing as much damage as they can." And oh, Kara had known it wasn't good, but she hadn't been expecting that. Bad she can handle, but this?

"Where is their closest target?" Kara feels sick, but she knows what she needs to do. Maybe she won't be a hero today after all. Maybe today she'll be a soldier, and deal with what that means later.

"Opal City. Last we knew they were hitting the financial sectors, but they're spreading towards the residential neighborhoods faster than we can hold them back." Opal City. Adam. Kara knows that if Cat loses her son she'll be devastated, and she can't let that happen.

"I'll head to the city to help. Is there a safe location set up yet?" Kara will rescue as many as she can, and defeat as many of the aliens as possible, but she needs to make sure Adam is safe first. "And Alex, I need to you get Cat and Carter to safety. Don't let her argue, don't let her refuse. I need to know they're safe or I won't be able to do this today." Kara doesn't know if Cat will forgive her for this, but she doesn't have a choice. She needs something to fight for, something to comfort her as she strikes blows she normally would avoid.

"Do you want me to leave her headset?" Alex understands instantly, not bothering to argue with redirecting DEO resources in the middle of a crisis. She's already pulling up Opal City on the screens, zooming in on the area protected by the National Guard, the one place humanity's firepower overwhelms that of the Fort Rozz prisoners.

"If she doesn't throw it at your head," Kara answers, already heading for the door. The sooner she gets to Opal City and gets Adam to safety, the faster she can help. "Warn the Army I'll be dropping citizens for safety, try to keep them from shooting us out of the sky."

X

Kara manages to get Adam, his neighbors, a busload of tourists, and three families from the street to safety before she turns her attention to the alien threat. She hopes that's enough cover for her identity, but if not then she'll deal with those consequences later.
As she takes off to find the nearest enemy, her earpiece clicks with the tone that tells her Cat is on the line, and her mouth goes dry. She doesn't have time for this, but she can't help taking off a little slower, waiting to see what will be said.

"I thought you knew better than to expect me to hide," Cat says, and Kara can hear the emotions beneath the words. "I don't run from a fight."

"This one, you do," Kara insists, dodging around skyscrapers as she scans for a target. "This one is bad, Cat, I need you safe."
"How can I just sit here when I know you're out there?" And just like that the mask is dropped, no hiding behind walls or quips. Cat is worried, desperately worried, about her safety. And with nothing to do she probably feels helpless, a state Cat Grant does not often tolerate.

"I need to know you and Carter are okay, or I can't do this," Kara says as she spots something throwing fire into the lower levels of a bank. She doesn't hear screams, but from the looks of the blaze that might not mean anything. She's out of time, she has to act. "I have to do this, and you have to let me."

"You'd better come back to me," Cat whispers, and Kara smiles grimly as she begins her run.

"Nothing could keep me away."

X

It takes a month, but Kara keeps her promise. She's battered, exhausted, and deeply sickened by the extent of the fighting, but they've won. The death toll is too high to count, but most accept that half to two-thirds of the population has been wiped out. No country has been spared, and the several aliens had targeted government figures in a targeted attempt to bring humanity to their knees quickly.

Kara doesn't know how many people she saved, how much worse the destruction would have been without her help. She only knows she'd done what was necessary, had pushed aside her emotions and just acted. She can't bring herself to help with the cleanup when asked, can't stomach sifting through the rubble of this world. Not when she looks at it and sees Krypton.

No, she needs to go home, to see Cat, to hold her close and know she's made it through. They've talked occasionally, as Kara flew from city to city and fight to fight, but it hadn't been enough. It had kept her going, but only just. It couldn't erase the sights and sounds she faced each time she reached a new battle, couldn't ease the pain of too many landed blows. It could only give her a reason for the next step, the next moment. Always moving forward, because Cat needed to be kept safe.

She doesn't realize how haunted she looks until she sees Cat's reaction as she lands. The DEO had checked her over, pronounced her free of injuries and not in imminent danger of blowing out her powers, had cleaned her up as best they could, but nothing could erase the look in her eyes. Kara has seen too much, knows she will see more, and it's almost enough to break her.

Cat's arms wrapping around her are what save her from falling apart, the desperation in the embrace giving Kara something else to focus on. They're safe, it's over, and they can move on from here.