Work Text:
Her math is a bit skewed because of her time in the Phantom Zone, but it's been roughly 30 or 40 years since Krypton... died. And Daxam along with it.
She knows she wasn't the best person prior to all of it. Sure, she was a child and her family influence didn't help, but she still looks back to her childhood self in shame. It's just her luck that when she starts to get her act together, her planet perishes and she gets sent away.
Grime was her rock those days after she crashed in Phibia, post explosion. He still is, honestly. Sure they had a rough start, with her crashing on his planet and his territory, and him locking her up the first month and a half.
But they moved past that! She proved herself, gained Grime's trust, and he gained hers.
Phibia was on the brink of a civil war. She stayed to help, she wanted to help. But none would let her.
In Daxam she would be off age already and considered an adult at 17, but not there. In Phibia adulthood was recognized at 25 of her equivalent years, and beings under that age were not allowed to partake in any formal military battles.
Sasha thought it was bullshit, of course. She had been training to lead her whole planet since she was born, she knew how to fight if needed.
She fought only once, in what could be called the front lines. Funny enough she did not go out looking for said fight, and it instead came knocking at their doors.
Grime was what could be considered a... rebel leader, you see. Sasha saw that he had a point, with his ideals. He used to be a slave and a gladiator, and as such he wanted those things abolished if not made entirely illegal.
The local crown wasn't so happy about that.
They sent a small squad to the One Eye base. almost half the army went down from that surprise attack. At least a dozen deaths, but double the wounded. Grime among the latter.
Sasha fought. No one stopped her at the time, no one could stop her, really. The Crown's troops used laser guns and high tech available only to them, and she only had a sword that Grime gave her as a "sorry for the imprisonment" gift, but she used it like her life depended on it. Bodies were dropping, left and right, her sword slicing through armour and flesh of enemies.
So, Sasha fought as she had wanted. And as she lay crouched next to Grime, applying pressure to a makeshift tourniquet where his left arm used to be, she herself covered in bruises and wounds, her armour stained with blood and viscera, she begged to never have to fight like that, ever again.
Nine years passed. The civil war truly started on that day of the attack, and it lasted for five of those nine years.
Sasha did fight again, several times, in fact. More times than she or anyone would have liked her too, but she got herself the rank of First Lieutenant from Grime. She helped end the war, and used what she remembered from her days as Princess to help with the diplomacy aspect of those last years post war.
It was Braddock who convinced her to leave, shortly after the war finished and Percy finished the "upgrades" to her pod. She tried to refuse, of course. Citing the need for her to finish local diplomatic assignments and several other excuses, but Braddock did not relent, and each time only offered one solution after another.
In the end, Sasha did not give much of a battle to her leaving. She felt ashamed, but she was just so tired. Of war and diplomacy and leadership.
Shockingly, it was Beatrix the one to talk Grime into leaving with her. She did not know how that conversation went, having been sent to rest and shower at the time, and Grime refused to give her details.
"I'm going where I'm needed, Lieutenant. Do not worry yourself with my decisions." he just told her, cryptically.
Sasha did not want to leave, but nevertheless, she had to. It eased her mind a bit that this time she would not be alone.
The "upgrades" to her pod were just more space, conveniently, but also doubled the resources of it. So, Captain and Lieutenant both hopped in, and with a last goodbye to the people who she grew to love for the last several years, Sasha and Grime were sent into space.
The thing about pods, is that they need to get coordinates inputted in prior to launch, and would not be able to set new ones, as the passengers inside the pod would be in cryo-sleep.
That's how several years later Grime and Sasha found themselves crashing (for the second time, in her case) on a foreign planet.
The impact of the crash is what jolts her awake. Immediately sending her into overdrive to see what happened. It's just after several seconds of staring into the broken pod's window that she guesses they landed, and wearily goes out to investigate.
'A yellow sun...' is the first thing Sasha thinks, feeling the sunshine on her skin for the first time in what might as well be years. It was years.
She hears Grime groaning and goes to check on him and help him out of the pod.
Just as Grime's feet touch the new ground, they both hear the distinctive 'boom!-' of something landing a few feet away.
Still sluggish from the crash and the sun blinding them, they both just see a red and blue figure getting closer and closer.
Instinctually as Grime struggles to stay up, Sasha puts herself in front of him as a shield. Just as she did before all those years ago, but with another person. Another friend.
The figure then stops, now close enough that Sasha can see clearly.
How Sasha manages to stay on her own feet, she didn't know. Her legs started buckling the moment she saw those eyes again.
She thought she was dead.
"...Anne?" she manages to whisper, her voice breaking on that single syllable.
For 12 years, she thought Anne had died along with Krypton. All this time, Grime listened to her talk about the Kryptonian girl, the one who made her think about who she wanted to be and why.
And now she's here, on another planet, in front of her wearing her House of El crest proudly on her chest.
"... Sasha?" Anne also asks, a slight frown on her face that makes Sasha flinch.
Apparently she's also shocked at seeing Sasha. That she's alive? or that she's here on this planet? Probably both.
"...yeah. I'm- I don't. We don't know where we are." The warrior responds, feeling awkward.
Anne then gets a look. Sad, maybe nostalgic, but Sasha can see that it settles on pity.
Her former friend sighs, her tense posture leaving her in a moment, before looking at Sasha straight in her eyes.
"Welcome to earth"