Ashborn stood motionless, taking in the strange world around him. A red sun loomed heavy and oppressive in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the cracked, rocky land. Above, distant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, hung in plain view, their sizes and colors distorted by the unfamiliar atmosphere. The land was barren, lifeless, and hauntingly still.
He turned his head slowly.
Beside him, lying motionless on the rough ground, was Kara.
Her suit was torn, her body bruised and scraped. Ashborn stared at her for a moment, then sighed heavily.
Now he remembered.
This was supposed to be Superman's fate. A doomed future, thrown far beyond their time. But somehow, the roles had shifted, and now it was him and Kara who had been cast into this forsaken place.
He clenched his jaw, irritation flickering in his eyes. Being dragged into this was frustrating enough. But Kara? Her presence complicated things. If he were alone, he could maneuver freely, faster, without having to worry about showing his powers. But she had thrown herself in front of that beam to shield him. After that… he couldn't just abandon her.
No matter how inconvenient it was.
His shadow unraveled and slithered across the ground like ink spilled in all directions, scanning and probing the landscape for any sign of civilization. Meanwhile, Ashborn knelt beside Kara, gently examining her injuries and tending to her wounds with makeshift materials from his coat and what little he had with him.
An hour passed.
One of his shadows returned with a discovery... the Watchtower.
Not the present one. A broken remnant, half-buried and inert, but unmistakable. It was distant, months away on foot.
Ashborn picked up Kara, and vanished in a whisper of shadow. He didn't bring them right to the tower, just close enough. Close enough that when she used her communicator, Savage from this timeline would be able to detect and trace them. It had to look natural. He didn't want to show that he knew too much.
Some time passed again.
Kara stirred.
She opened her eyes to find herself under a low canopy of trees. Gloomy vines and strange plants surrounded her, their colors unnatural, their forms otherworldly. A jungle, but not like any she had seen on Earth. She sat up slowly, her back leaning against a gnarled tree trunk.
Bandages were wrapped around her hands and neck. She blinked, then realized something else.
She was wearing Ashborn's coat.
A blush crept into her cheeks as she looked down beneath it. Her Kryptonian suit was torn almost to shreds. It didn't take much imagination to realize he had seen her body while tending her wounds.
Before her thoughts could go further, a voice came from the side.
"You're finally awake."
She turned quickly. Ashborn emerged from between the trees, his steps calm and even. He carried a makeshift basket woven from plant fibers, filled with oddly shaped fruits. He wore only a sleeveless black shirt now, and she recognized the bandages on her body—his torn sleeves.
He knelt and placed the basket in front of her.
"I found these fruits," he said matter-of-factly. "They look edible."
Kara looked at him, then at the fruit. "Where… where are we?"
Ashborn shrugged. "Not Earth. Strange plants. Strange oversized insects."
Kara blinked. "Oversized insects?"
Ashborn casually pointed behind her.
She turned and looked behind the tree she was leaning on earlier.
A few steps away, was the grotesque corpse of a massive insect, its armored shell cracked open and governed in green blood.
Her eyes widened. "You killed that?"
Ashborn gave a slight nod.
He looked at her more seriously now. "Is your communicator still working? Can you reach the League?"
Kara touched her ear, then checked the device hidden behind her hair.
She nodded. "Yeah. It still has a signal and it looks like they are not too far from here."
Ashborn gave a slow smile. "Good. We eat and start moving"
Kara's eyes drifted toward the basket in front of her, curiosity blooming in their tired depths. She had never seen fruits like these before, strange, bulbous, some of them had strange markings. Even the basket itself caught her attention, a tightly woven piece made of unknown fibrous strands and large leaves.
She reached forward, placing her hand under the basket to lift it. But as soon as she tried, her brow furrowed in confusion. It was… heavy. Far heavier than she'd expected.
"What… why is it so heavy?" she asked aloud, puzzled.
Ashborn glanced at her and then, without a word, pointed skyward.
Kara followed his gesture.
There it was, the red sun. Hanging low like a bleeding wound in the sky.
Her heart sank as realization dawned. Her powers… they were gone.
The strength, the invulnerability, the flight, all of it had vanished under the red sun's cruel glare. She was powerless, vulnerable, like a human. And this was a strange unknown world with dangerous giant insects.
A sliver of fear crept into her expression.
Ashborn noticed the change in her posture, the flicker of panic in her eyes. His tone softened, not much, but enough.
"Relax," he said. "Things will be okay… once we get to the other League members."
Kara inhaled slowly and gave a small nod, a smile pulling at her lips despite the fear. "Yeah… once we find them, everything will be okay."
They ate together in silence. The fruits were bitter and oddly textured, but they filled the emptiness in their stomachs well enough. Afterward, as they prepared to move, Ashborn unfastened the guard on his left arm and extended it toward Kara.
"You'll need this," he said simply.
Kara looked at it, surprised. "What? No, you should keep it. I'll be fine."
"You won't," he replied flatly. "I can defend myself. You can't, not here. Take it."
She hesitated, then reluctantly accepted the arm guard, sliding it over her bruised forearm. The weight was reassuring. She hated how true his words were.
They set off toward the signal's direction, the red sun casting long shadows as they walked. Along the way, they encountered creatures, strange, monstrous things that defied Earthly logic. Some were insectoid giants with chitinous shells and snarling mandibles. Others were animals, dogs with bone-like spikes coming out of their bodies.
Kara couldn't believe how many there were.
And she couldn't believe how easily Ashborn dealt with them.
He moved like a wraith, every attack swift and deadly. The blue dagger he drew from behind his back glowed faintly, it was clearly another magical dagger. Each strike was clean, silent. She watched, in awe, as he dispatched beasts she wouldn't have been able to even run from in her current state.
By the time night fell, they had traveled miles.
Ashborn built a fire, using materials he scavenged with ease. He even roasted meat from one of the creatures he had killed, though Kara hesitated to eat it, hunger eventually won.
The two of them sat near the fire, its glow illuminating their faces.
"Thanks," Kara said suddenly, her voice low but genuine. "For everything. I wouldn't have survived an hour here on my own."
Ashborn didn't look at her. "You are here because of me," he said simply. Then his voice turned colder. "And what you did back there… was foolish."
Kara blinked. "What?"
"You should've never tried to block that beam," he said, eyes fixed on the fire.
"I thought you were going to die," she replied, her tone tightening. "I was just trying to save you."
"I didn't ask for your help," Ashborn said firmly. "And now, it was clearly the wrong thing to do. If something like this happens again, don't throw yourself in front of danger for me. I don't appreciate that kind of behavior."
The words hit harder than any punch. Kara's shoulders slumped, her head lowering as she responded quietly, "I won't… do it again."
Ashborn didn't respond. He watched the flames crackle, his expression unreadable.
This was the DC universe, a place of miracles and monsters. It wasn't unheard of for things like this to happen. But Kara had almost died for someone like him, someone who was far stronger than he let the world see, far stronger than her or any of her social circle. Someone who hid behind the facade of a normal human and chose to live a laid-back life.
She shouldn't be in harm's way for someone like him.
As the fire dimmed and the sounds of the jungle settled into a quiet hum, Ashborn stood and turned his gaze toward the dense, dark horizon.
"Get some sleep," he said without turning. "I'll keep watch tonight."
Kara, still tired from the day's march, gave a silent nod. She curled up near the fire, still wearing Ashborn's coat, and drifted off to sleep.
___________
The next morning, she awoke to the gentle aroma of something cooking. The sky above remained the same crimson hue, but the temperature was cooler now in the early hours. Kara stretched, groaning slightly from sore muscles and stiff joints.
She looked around and blinked in surprise. Next to her was a fresh batch of fruits, neatly stacked. And over the fire, sizzling on a flat stone, were what looked like eggs being fried.
Ashborn crouched nearby, focused on the fire. Without even glancing at her, he said, "Good morning."
Kara rubbed her eyes and smiled faintly. "Morning… Where did you find eggs?"
"There are birds around," Ashborn replied, flipping one of the eggs with the tip of a stick. "Not chickens, but close enough. I collected these and more fruit before the sun came up."
Kara sat up and nodded silently, somewhat amazed. She'd barely lasted a day, and here he was preparing a full breakfast.
They ate in relative silence, the food still strange but acceptable.
Once finished, they packed up their supplies and continued onward, heading toward the signal they'd been tracking since yesterday. The terrain grew rougher, the jungle thinning and giving way to charred rock and metallic debris.
By noon, they crested a hill... and Kara stopped dead in her tracks.
Her heart dropped.
Before them lay the ruins of the Watchtower, scattered across the scorched earth in broken pieces. Twisted metal, broken support beams, it was all there, collapsed like a corpse picked apart by time.
Kara stepped forward slowly, disbelief and fear clouding her face. "No…"
Ashborn's expression remained calm as he stood beside her.