The light is near blinding, and rockets towards the ground-

Natalia feels how close to the ground the moving object was, and without thinking, pulls on her powers to make the impact kinder. 

The object is wreathed in an unknown and chaotic energy, which makes controlling the rate of descent and its impact very hard- but she does manage to stop it from tearing itself apart.

The trees part and the impact hits her in a great wave, pushing her to the ground and blinding her with a bright red light.

Natalia is flung back, but manages to manipulate the wind around enough so that she lands softly, even as she rolls along the ground, collecting scrapes and twigs in her hair. 

She pulls herself up as quick as she was felled, and darts towards the downed objects, her heart in her throat. 

Even if these aren't her mother's people, she will protect whatever has fallen. 

What has fallen is covered in smoke and half-buried in the dirt. Lights flash and the fire burns hot. It's like nothing she's seen before- shining and gold and silver, bathed in red glowing lights. Some sort of capsule? She can see something- someone, a human figure, inside. It's not moving.

Healing-

Healing a person, that Natalia knows. She begins to slowly slide down the sides of the impact, focusing on the person. Never mind the object, so foreign to Natalia, the person she can help. Anyone not human is worth helping. 

"Hello? I'm Natalia! I'm here to help!"

The capsule shudders open in a burst of pressure. The man- it's definitely a man- looks human but she can feel with her magic that he is very much not of this Earth. The red energy that she couldn't recognize before feels much more familiar now. Extra-dimensional. She doesn't know what dimension, exactly, it doesn't feel like the energy from her demonic mother's pocket dimension, but...

The man starts awake suddenly and starts coughing, pulls the mask away from his mouth, and tries to pull on the fresh (though smokey) air.

Natalia lays a hand on the strange man's chest, and focuses, trying to make the air flow cleanly into his lungs.

"Hello, there. You're certainly not something I see on my usual ride."

He stares up at her, obviously in shock but hearing her words.

"Clari-el," he says instead of responding and tries to twist around to get at something behind him, but he's still strapped into this his chair.

"Breathe, handsome, breathe." Wildling pulls back from the man, crosses her arms over herself, and then flings them aside. 

The bindings over the man fling apart. 

Once he's free he jumps up and bends to poke at something at the back of the capsule. Light shines and numbers appear. He inputs a dozen or so and another, smaller, capsule opens.

Soft, pale blonde hair peeks out from his arms and a small mumble of sleep mixed with fear.

A baby?

"Are they all right? Do they need healing?" Natalia forces herself not to leap on top of the child, snarling. 

"Cryo-sick. Concussion. Broken arm." He pauses and looks over to her. To this- human? No, not human. "You have healing."

"Yes. Yes, I have healing. And I am not human." 

Natalia sinks as close as she can to the child, and feels exactly the sicknesses the man listed, though she has to guess at the cryo-sick. "I need physical contact. Love. Touch me, and think of how much you care for your child."

-demon then. But it's not that he has much option, as weak as he his. The years spent in the Phantom Zone sucking away everything and the final journey here... He takes her hand and this about Clari. About the love he has for her, for her mother. About everything he sacrificed for her. Still sacrifices.

The love that pours from the man is enough to make Natalia cry, and more than enough to heal his child. 

Natalia cradles the child in her arms, and lets the healing flow over them, watching as the physical injuries heal themselves, and knowing in her heart that the internal ones were knitting themselves together. 

Clari-El snuggles deeper into her arms and closes her eyes. Warm and tired and no longer hurting.

Jor-El watches them both, watches Clari. Breathes easier when he sees her injuries healed.

"-thank you." His accent is strange and there's a noticeable pause before he speaks. Likely he is not a native speaker.

Natalia cuddles the child close, and kisses their head. They feel well, and warm, which settles the worried part of Natalia's heart. 

She lifts her head from the child, to the parent. "I suppose you're not from around here?"

His head shakes, tightly and suddenly. "Mm. No. Here is Earth? The portal was supposed to be Earth. Did we land in some demonic dimension?"

"No, friend, this is Earth. My mother was born and raised here, but was still demonic. As am I. Magic, I am afraid to tell you, is not constrained to planets."

She loosens her hold on the child, trying to calm the man. 

"I know a little of magic," theoretically and how to fight against it, "and have some knowledge of demons. We came from-" he paused and tries to think of the name in this language- English? "The Phantom Zone. We need to leave this place. Some denizens could be following us."

All of the man's explanation sounded like gibberish, and while Natalia knew there where many worlds that bordered her own, none of them would help either the man, nor his child. 

So Natalia listened to her nature, and gently cradled the man's jaw, and kissed him. 

- nnn. He tries to pull away- but also he hasn't been properly touched in years and she's soft- helped Clari- he pulls her closer and buries his fingers in her hair. Deepens the kiss.

Natalia deepens the kiss, threads her hands through his hair. It was enough to fill her for days. She focuses the small part of her not distracted by his lips, to give him a message.

I will protect your child. I can feel how much you love them. 

He believes it. Feels the truth in it. He can't keep running, not with Clari. Can't keep her in stasis any longer, nevermind the fact that this ship and the pod are ruined, any further time in the pod will stunt her development.

Every part of him wants to leave. And every part of him wants his child. But. Not like this.

After a moment, he pulls back. "Her name is Clari-El. I am Jor-El. We are from the planet Kypton. We escaped, escaped it's destruction," escaped her mother. "We are the last of our kind. Protect her. Keep her secret."

Natalia pulls the child to her, and marvels at her. Small, bright eyed, and that blonde hair- 

"Eloise. Sunshine," she murmurs. 

"I can keep you safe too," she says, pulling the man close, and kissing him. "I can keep you both safe."

Finally he steps back from her, from them both.

"Powerful as you are, this is beyond you."

Can't stay here and have his enemies fellow him. Can't stay here and- play house. Even if Kypton is destroyed, he has no doubt his wife will have survived and be looking for them. They were safe from her in the Phantom Zone, but now they're back in the prime dimension...

"I'm leaving. Now. Take the craft and bury it deep underground so nobody can detect it."

Natalia very carefully puts the child down, makes sure they are cocooned safely, and kisses the strange man. 

She threads her fingers into his hair, pulls him close, lets him feel her power. 

Melts against her and her power, warm, tempting, safe- again he pulls away, abruptly and panic rising.

"No. I don't- use that power and project her, you can't make me- I'm not staying here."

Natalia flings herself back, as far from the man as she can manage, without risking the child. 

"I didn't mean- I'm sorry. I only meant to taste you. The love you feel for your child, it's- intoxicating-"

She looks at the small thing, at Eloise, her sunshine, and then at the man. 

"I will defend the child till I die. I will hide them, keep them safe. And I don't need you to make me keep that promise."

She won't admit she's already planning how to hide the strange craft.

"Good. Good. I can't-" he stares down at Clari and can't look away. He's spent years- decades- scheming and running and fighting. Protecting her while she slept. Every waking moment thinking of her safety. "I won't return."

"Then I will tell them not to wait for you."

... yeah.

Wants to tell her how much he loves her. But she won't remember it. It's irrelevant now.

He looks to the sky and watches it burst open with red energy. They'll be coming soon.

"Hide. Now. I'll lead them away and off planet."

Natalia gathers the small being to her. "Hi, Eloise. Come stay close to me." She kisses the child's forehead, and then-

-she runs. Away from the man and his strange technology, away from her curiousity and attraction. 

She runs to her step-parents house, to keep her small, bright child safe.

The sound of explosions follows her and the sky lights up in red energy. Lighting and thunder and the clouds part and the skies rip open. Three ships burst out and land nearby Jor-El's crashed ship.

Soft, scared noises, and her eyes open and look up at Natalia.

"Hello, my sunflower." Natalia presses a kiss to the child's head, and starts to walk back to her bike. "Do you know what a sunflower is? It's a flower that leans to the sun."

"Mmmm," she shakes her head, not quite understanding her, and tries to sit up and look around. "Rao?"

She knows 'sun'. Memories of a tall, soft, love, family. Little sun. Rao.

Natalia cuddles the little being close, as she walks back to her bike. "Yes, Rao! Means 'sun'. That's what you are to me, the sun. 'Eloise' means sunshine!'"

She blows a raspberry under the child's ear.

Giggles!! And wiggling in her arms.

"Ukr?" She cranes her neck again and looks around for her papa.

Natalia tucks her head next to the child's neck. "One day they will come back, my darling."

"But for now-" Natalia props the strange child on her hip.

"For now, we be strong, and ward anyone that would harm us."

"After all," Natalia says, pressing a kiss to her daughter's head. "-we have to tempt out the sunshine, yes?"

"Rao," she nods again and nuzzles closer to the soft red woman. Sleepy but excited because new. Wanna explore. Wiggles?

Natalia grins, and speeds up. She places the child in the basket of her bike, and starts pedalling towards her home. 

"Look up, Eloise! The sun is bright!"

??!!! Clari looks up at the sky and oooo. Bright. Blue! Wigggles more!!! She holds on tight and makes noises about everything.

She watches the child clutch at the blue sky above them. "All of this is so new and shiny, huh? Where do you want to go, sunflower?"

Shrugs! She has no idea what the woman is saying.

“Those bright eyes, that clever smile. You’re going to do wonderful things.”

Natalia picks up her pace, heading back into town.