Chapter 27

"Dollywood." Alex's confident voice rings out in the alley.

Maggie stands next to her, watching as the slot in the door slides shut. The metal door creeks open despite the alien's suspicious eyes when Alex said the password.

Alex strides inside with Maggie half a pace behind her, who's just glad the DEO finally reached a consensus. Due to the others concerns about possibly causing a panic, they decided on this plan just minutes ago after what felt like hours of debating. Like they first agreed on, Maggie and Alex will be the semi-friendly faces that will kick the aliens out of their bar. If they can, which Maggie doubts and suspects Alex does as well, they won't tell them the true reason why.

The looks they get when they walk in are different than last time. Some aliens give them nods of recognition but most are suspiciously looking them over. And Maggie doesn't blame them, she and Alex aren't dressed like they were the other times they came here. They aren't exactly wearing casual clothes, instead they're decked out in their DEO uniforms.

Alex stops in the center of the room and nods to the people playing the background music. The band stops and everyone turns to look at Maggie and Alex with increasingly wary expressions.

"We need you all to evacuate." Alex's voice rings out in the otherwise uncharacteristically quiet bar.

No one moves. After a moment of silence, someone stands from where they were seated on a stool. "For how long?"

Murmurs arise from the crowd but stop when Alex opens her mouth to answer. "A few days."

Outraged and disgruntled voices steadily get louder.

"It's illegal to discriminate against aliens here, human. Or do you not remember your own mother's law?" An alien, the one that Maggie remembers Kara had jokingly called "fish head guy" when she was drunk, says angrily.

"I'm not doing this because I'm xenophobic." Alex says. Maggie mentally commends Alex for keeping her tone calm. "My sister's an alien, remember?"

"That doesn't make it okay to discriminate." Fish head guy retorts.

"That's not what I-" Alex stops herself and sighs. "Alright Maggie, you're up."

"I'm very tempted to say I told you so." Maggie murmurs to Alex before raising her voice and addressing the aliens in the bar. "We're not here to kick you out just for the hell of it or because we secretly hate off-worlders. Okay? We're not here to take away one of the few safe spaces you all have. We wouldn't do this for no reason."

"So what's your reason?" Another alien prompts.

"You're in danger." Maggie says, making eye contact with a few people in the crowd. "There are people, humans, who know about this place. So please, sit down and listen up. We'll tell everything you need to know."

***

The boy on his knees screams again when he sees the arrow that went straight through his hand.

"Gods," a woman groans. "Be quiet. Calm down, I'll get it out."

Lena opens her mouth to tell her she's doing it wrong but her words don't even start to escape her lips in time for them to hear it. Plus, she would give away her location. Lena winces in sympathy as the woman goes for the more painful, deadlier, and more damaging option. She yanks the arrow out and the boy howls in agony again. She should have broken the shaft of it and pulled what was left of the shaft out to avoid further damaging the area around the arrow. Now that boy will definitely never be able to fully use that hand again.

"Stop whimpering," the leaders snaps. "And come on, you useless idiots. Shoot her!"

Lena notes with alarm that there are too many assassins raising their bows for her to shoot before they can shoot Kara. She can only pray to the gods that her new friend has the same arrow-proof skin as her cousin. Lena thinks she remembers Cat Grant's article mentioning it, but she can't recall whether or not Kara has it.

Lena lets arrow after arrow fly, deliberately and carefully hitting non-lethal areas on her targets. A few assassins fall to the ground with arrows in their shoulders or legs, but none in organs or arteries. She isn't fast enough to stop them all and Kara is pelted with a few arrows.

Lena resists the urge to cheer or sigh gratefully when the arrows bounce uselessly off of Kara's body.

The guards rush towards the couple of remaining assassins that aren't tending to their own or others injuries. Kara shoots one's sword her heat vision, causing it to turn bright red. The assassin cries out in pain and drops it before they manage to stab one of Lena's guards.

The two assassins that catch on to where she is either end up shot with her arrow or knocked out by a guard.

The leader scowls, watching his warriors fight a losing battle and pulls out something Lena has never seen before. She's heard whispers of its existence but she never expected to see one. Hell even Lex, who was a genius, couldn't figure out how to make it work once, let alone work efficiently enough to use in combat. Many have tried to make a crossbow, but no prototype has ever been effective enough to even think of using in battle.

He aims the crossbow at Kara, who is busy trying to keep Lena's guards alive while they fight against well-trained assassins. Lena shouts out a warning to Kara, knowing that only Lex would have been brilliant enough to make it. Her mother may be smart, but not in the inventive way her son was. And considering his burning hatred of aliens and specifically Kryptonians, Lena would bet that he had some nasty trick up his sleeve when he designed it.

The leader hears her voice and adjusts his aim for her. Lena snaps into focus and draws her string back once more, glad to have the gloves she designed so her hands won't bleed in the middle of an intense fight or training session. Kara sees him aiming for the girl she has a crush on and acts on instinct. She moves faster than she ever remembers going and puts her body directly in the leader's line of fire as he shoots.

Kara's heat vision comes out without any effort on her part. She doesn't even having to strain her eyes like she usually does. The only time this has happened is when it first showed up and when she gets really angry. The crossbow volt vaporizes midair before it can get to her.

Kara flies down and grabs the leader's hands, carelessly tossing the crossbow onto the ground. She sees true fear in his eyes for the first time as she squeezes his hands too tightly. His bones creak but she fights off the red haze of anger just enough to keep from snapping every bone in his hand.

"Kara!" Lena's voice makes her head jerk.

She notices that everyone has stopped fighting and is staring at her. Some of them look at her in awe and reverence but most look at her like she's a demon.

"Are you alright?" Lena asks carefully, approaching her slowly like she's a wild animal to be tamed.

Kara shakes off the rest of the red haze and blinks. "Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. Are you okay?"

"I wasn't the one being shot at." Lena points out.

"Stop with the weird foreplay and kill us already." A female assassin snaps.

Kara shakes her head. "I don't kill. But you might wish I did when we get to National City. My sister won't take too kindly to you all trying to kill me. And my parents won't like that you tried to kill our newest potential ally."

"Oh really?" The leader sneers, looking Kara up and down in a way that makes Lena bristle and ready to punch that look off his face. "And who are you, flying girl?"

"Kara Danvers."

"Like... Sir Alex Danvers' sister? The Princess of the Danvers Kingdom?" The scrawny boy who got shot first gasps out.

"Yes."

"Shoot. Boss, should we try to surprise them by running?"

"Well it won't be a surprise now that you've told them." The leader sighs, exasperated.

"Enough," Lena stops them. "You are all my prisoners now." She pauses for a moment and grins. "You can be my peace offering to the Queen of the Danvers Kingdom."

"So we're going to be escorting then all the way to National City?" One of the guards asks. "There are too many to put on the horses, we'll have to make them walk. That is going to take forever."

"Is that a problem?" Lena raises an eyebrow at him.

He flushes and stutters, "No. Of-of course not."

"Good. Someone go tell the nobles that it's safe now." Lena orders. "The rest of you, either start setting up the tents again or work on tending to the injured. That includes the wounded assassins."

The guards nod to Lena and get to work.

That was less action-y than I expected but hopefully it's still good! We didn't get to the surprise this chapter, so we'll probably get to it next chapter! ;) Thank you all for reading and for your amazing comments! Stay awesome!