Pain.

It was the first thing that registered as my eyes slowly opened. Not the sights around me, not the smell of smoke, not the distant explosions. But pain. I slowly crawled into a sitting position fighting the intense wave of nausea. I put my hand on the back of my head where the pain was originating, with a hiss I brought my hand back. Looking with more than a little confusion at the brilliant crimson that my hand appeared to be. That was wrong, wasn't it? I blinked slowly, uncomprehendingly at my hand. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the situation. Situation? I tried to think but it was hard, too hard.

'Perhaps some rest would help? Yes…just a quick nap, that wouldn't be bad right? I could figure out what was wrong after some re-.' My eyes were already closing before the thought was finished.

When my eyes once more opened, it was to something shaking me. No, not something, I knew this something, it had a name...I just couldn't remember it...why couldn't I remember it? Panic was burning its way through the fog of pain and confusion.

‘I needed to remember!'

Wrong.

'Why did I need to remember?.’

Wrong.

'Why was it so hard to think?'

'Mom would probably know the answer.'

'Mom? Mom. MOMMOMomOmOMOMOMOmO-'

A glint of red in the corner of my eye, made me freeze. I focused on it and saw it was my hand, it was coated in a shiny red-

Red eyes, red liquid, RED EyEs. ReD eYeS.

I clutched my head at the sudden spike of pain. 'That thing was still shaking me? Why was it doing that? What was it’s name again? Why did that feel so important?' I put my hand on the floating silver body of the thing to push it away, a wave of nausea hit me once more at the sensation of my hand sinking into cool metal. But the sudden shock of the cool surface seemed to center me better than my nap had, everything felt clear for the first time since waking. I knew the moment of clarity was fleeting however, I didn't know how I knew, but I knew it regardless. If I didn't take advantage of this singular moment I wouldn't be getting another chance.

Acting quickly I slammed my arms together repeatedly, the sharp ring of metal on metal sending lances of pain through my skull. And just like that, the moment was over and I was thrust back under the unending storm of confusion and panic.

But my efforts were not in vain as slowly but surely I felt clarity coming back to me, the pain and nausea quickly fading to be replaced with a different sensation. One that was quickly going from comforting to painful. With a gasp, I turned the vambraces off before I would be unable to. This time the heady feeling had lasted even shorter than earlier, the pain ramping up almost faster than I could register the pleasure.

"Mistress Kara!" Kelex’ voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I realized he must have been trying to get my attention the entire time, but in my previous confusion I could barely register his presence let alone work out that he was trying to communicate with me.

I blinked up at him, still trying to shake off the remnants of what appeared to be a concussion, and unlike earlier, the burning pain from the vambraces didn't just disappear. Instead, it lingered leaving me with a slight burning sensation throughout my entire body. It was something to worry about later. I had more immediate concerns to worry about. "Kelex? What's going on?" The vambraces healed a majority if not all of the damage, however, I couldn't seem to recall how I had gotten in my situation.

"Mistress Kara, we need to leave now! Your mother won't be able to keep it busy for long. You need to go while you still can!"

My brows furrowed in confusion "Mom? What are you ta-" I froze as the memories from the previous few minutes came back to me. My skin paled and I felt dizzy. I shot up to my feet, only to end up stumbling into and bracing myself against the wall from the wave of vertigo. I looked around the hall frantically, looking for any sign of my Mom. My heart fell as I didn't see anything, no signs of my mother, or even the robot.

I whirled back on Kelex "Kelex! Where is she!"

"Mistress Alura ordered me to see you to safety. Now co-"

"Kelex! Tell me n-"

"Mistress Kara, we do not have the ti-"

Holding up my right hand I commanded my crest to form. "This is a primary directive from Kara Zor-El, Thinker of the House of El. You will disregard all prior orders and take me to my mother. Now!" Technically I couldn't give Kelex orders that countermanded orders given by an elder of my House, but since I doubted my mother had the time to invoke her Crest, my more official order outranked her informal one.

Kelex froze for a moment a blue beam shot out and scanned my Crest for a few seconds. "Verification confirmed, Administrator protocols invoked by Kara Zor-El. Purging all prior orders from data stores...Purge complete...This way Lady Kara." He promptly started to float down the hall. His monotonous voice causing me to wince. I didn't like doing this to him but I couldn't allow him to take me away when Mom was in danger.

I followed him through the halls and down to the basement level. All the doors we went through looked as though something had ripped through the metal, and along the walls were what looked like plasma burns, judging by the direction the burns and gouges were facing I could only assume my Mom had some sort of blaster on her. It seemed my Mom had taken the longest route possible and closed every door behind her to buy as much time as she could. I only hoped that I could get to her in time.

The last door we came across gave me pause. It was the hidden door that led to the Sword of Rao. The pause was only momentary as I could hear the static-filled whine of superheated plasma flying through the air coming from down the staircase. I sprinted down them four at a time as I knew the room it was coming from was a dead end, meaning my Mom was trapped in a room with the killer bot.

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The scene I came upon made my blood freeze in my veins. My mother was pinned against the far wall past the plinth that held the sword, the robot’s hand was wrapped around her throat cutting off her air and simultaneously holding her in place. Its other hand though was slowly rising towards her head, I knew without a shadow of a doubt what it was attempting to do, I had seen countless people be killed by the same horrific method today. The realization spurred me into action as I charged towards them yelling at the top of my lungs in the hopes of getting it to stop or at least hesitate. The robot did stop for a moment to turn its head 180 degrees to examine me, it must have classified me as a non-threat however because it quickly turned back to my Mom and continued to raise its arm.

Its shoulder joint had been slightly warped by the heat of my Mom’s gun, the arm made a loud screeching sound as the robot forced it to move despite the damage. That was in my favor however as the loud noise was enough to cover up the sound of metal striking metal. I got within ten feet, it didn't think of me as enough of a threat to turn around for, I got within five feet and it still didn't so much as twitch in my direction, its focus was entirely on my mother. Even when I wrapped my small arms around its waist, my threat level did not go up in its eyes. So when I heaved it off its feet and flung it bodily back across the room and out the door, the robot didn't even resist. Whatever satisfaction I received from such an action immediately turned to dust as I stared in horror at my Mom, the robot had fired its cable as I had started to lift it, and while it didn't hit its intended target, it had still hit her, right in the throat. She stared at me with wide eyes, her hands pressing against the hole in her throat, It must have hit, or at least nicked an artery, as blood was literally shooting out from between her fingers.

Before I could even move towards her, Kelex shot past me and wrapped around her throat, its medical protocols would ensure that she was kept alive as long as physically possible. I wanted to help, but I knew that until I dealt with the robot it would be pointless.

Time was against both me and my Mom, as I could already feel the burning sensation begin to ramp up, soon the pain would be enough to incapacitate me and the vambraces had only been active for less than five seconds. I spun around and charged out the door, tackling the robot that was in the process of getting back to its feet, I straddled it and began raining punches down on it. Each punch hitting harder and faster than the one before. The pain was getting stronger, it was almost reaching unbearable levels, my adrenaline-fueled body just used the pain to throw stronger punches. At this point, I was hardly aware of anything, just the pain and the knowledge that if I stopped punching, both me and Mom would die. Just as I was about to succumb to the agony something unthinkable happened.

The robot caught both of my wrists in a vice-like grip, stopping my arms cold, metal fingers began to constrict around the glowing vambraces. Being a prototype, and a non-combat-oriented prototype at that, they were rather fragile, and after only a few seconds, the vambraces began to spark and flicker under the pressure being exerted on them.

Feeling my power begin to wane, my struggling increased in its intensity.'No!' My vision was starting to get blurry from the tears welling up in my eyes, from both the pain and crushing realization that I would be dying here, with my Mom soon to follow. No saving Krypton, no saving my parents, no saving my aunt and uncle, and I had no one to blame but myself. If I had planned better, maybe spent more time studying, something, anything! I was the one with the foreknowledge, I was the one that could save everyone. I had the advantage and I dropped the ball. Everyone who died was on me. Krypton blowing up, this attack, everything was my fault!

I stared down at the thing that would be my death, its red eyes bored into mine, and I came to a realization. Earlier on the streets when I had first seen one of the robots, I had thought their eyes glowed with malevolence, that they seemed to enjoy causing destruction and despair. But I was wrong, as I stared into its eyes I realized it wasn't filled with rage or any other emotion, it was empty. Soulless. The things that had killed so many people today, the thing that was about to kill me. It wasn't doing it out of some sense of need or desire. It was just a machine following its programming.

An automaton.

The thing that had caused so much pain, the thing that had hurt my mother, the thing that was now at that very moment in the process of crushing my wrists was just a fucking Automaton. I was going to die because of what was essentially just a pile of metal and polymers. It didn't even care if I lived or died, it didn't feel anything.

My despair turned to rage, an anger that burned so fiercely so all-consuming that I didn't even flinch when my left wrist finally cracked. I glared down at the thing beneath me. It felt like my eyes were burning with my rage, a painful pressure was starting to build right behind my eyes, my vision was starting to tinge red from it. Some clinical part of me distantly noted that I had probably busted a capillary in my eyes from the stress. The pressure behind my eyes made it feel like they would burst at any moment. The red was so intense now that I could hardly make out even the robot’s silhouette despite it being literally a foot away.

"AGGHHH!" I screamed in its face in both impotent rage and pain. One last spike in the pressure was the only warning I got before what felt like burning rods were plunged into my eye sockets. This time the scream that crossed my lips was one born of pure agony. "Aaggghhhhhhh!" I didn't even notice that I suddenly found my hands free as I curled up on the floor and held my eyes in some desperate attempt to lessen the pain. I could feel a warm liquid coming from my eyes and I wasn't sure if it was tears or blood. I couldn't see anything but blackness.

I layed there for a dozen seconds before realizing that not only were my arms free, but I didn't even hear the robot moving. For a brief moment I feared that I had died, but then I remembered the fresh hell that were my eyes and promptly threw that idea out the window, I knew what death felt like, and the acute burning sensation running throughout my whole body at the moment wasn’t it. After a few more seconds of not hearing anything, I hesitantly got on my hands and knees. "Kelex…?"

"Yes, Kara? Are you injured? Should I come help you?" I heard his voice from my left, and judging by the distance I assumed he was still wrapped around my Mom's neck.

"NO! Stay with Mom. I am injured but it’s not life threatening. I just….I just…." I swallowed harshly "...I just can't see." I pushed the panic that wanted to surge within me down as best I could. I needed to think clearly, my Mothers’ life was on the line after all. "Is the robot still functional?" I prayed Kelex would give me some good news.

"No Mistress Kara...you appeared to have released some sort of...optical beam of infrared radiation which melted a hole in its head." Kelex sounded both surprised and more than a little confused, which granted his lack of knowledge on a yellow sun’s effect on a Kryptonians physiology was a given. Though to be fair I was surprised as well. I didn't think I would have been capable of heat vision, at least not without alot more exposure, but then again considering the state it had left my eyes in, maybe I shouldn't have been able to?

'Okay, Kara. What can we do?' I knew the vambraces were out, and the only thing in the house with any healing capabilities was in the medical bay. But thanks to Kelex, I knew everything in the medical bay was shut down by the virus. If I could see, I might have been able to somehow get at least the red sun lamps working. But that was neither here nor there. At the moment I couldn't see, and nothing would change that. Kelex could have probably gotten them working as well but he couldn't move since he was the one literally keeping my Mom from bleeding out.

There was nothing else in the house that could heal...No...that wasn't quite true now was it? After all, I did get the idea of my vambraces from something else. Said thing just so happened to be in the same room I was in, not even a dozen feet away.

Slowly I felt my way across the room to where I remember it being. Who would have guessed that an almost eidetic memory would come in handy? On my hands and knees, I began the arduous journey up the steps.

My mother must have still been conscious and realized what I was about to do, because she made a sort of panicked choking sound. "Don't worry Mom." I smiled in the direction of the sound, and with a calmness I certainly didn't feel, I continued, "Everything will be okay." and promptly gripped the sword handle in front of me with both hands.

I still wasn't quite sure if the warm liquid running down my face was tears or blood.