#Kara thinks Lena is dead and does not handle it well | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jazzfordshire · 11 months

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Oooooh, that paladin/new god post... for a SuperCorp AU, which would be which? My first inclination is divine Lena and paladin Kara, but I think an argument can be made for the other way around.

I think either could totally argued, but Paladin Kara is too good for me not to kind of spiral and write Lena as the goddess of Death so!!!! This isn’t much like the original post prompt but it’s where my brain went 🤷‍♀️

As one cursed with eternal life, it was only a matter of time before Death tried to come for Kara.

She sees the goddess for the first time as she’s sitting on a fallen tree, trying to dig a knife out of her back. She’d intervened in a roadside robbery out of pure instinct more than anything else – she prefers to keep to herself, for the most part, and has done so for years beyond counting – and she hadn’t been expecting this band of brigands to have a fourth member hidden in the woods. He’d caught her by surprise. Leading to her current predicament. She hadn’t even noticed the blade sticking out from between her shoulders until after she’d sent the thieves running and the victims on their merry way, and now it’s stubbornly lodged in a place she can’t reach.

Death stands in the shadows. Her dress is (unsurprisingly) black, her long dark hair framing a face Kara can’t quite see. She reminds Kara of the night. A foreign concept, here - the sun of this world never moves from the centre of the sky. Always beaming straight down. It focuses on this half of the planet, leaving the other half dark and dead rather than simply deigning to set for half the day to share its light. It leaves the world’s denizens thinking the globe is flat. A ridiculous notion.

The god of the sun had been benevolent on Kara’s world. Not here.

“I’ve been watching you,” the goddess says. Her voice echoes, clouds around Kara’s senses like a flock of ravens. “You’ve walked this earth for 120 years and haven’t aged a day. You should be dead. Why is your name not on my list?”

“I’m not of this earth,” Kara says distractedly. The voice should send shivers down her spine, but as her spine is currently being scraped by sharp iron she has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

“That much I do know,” Death says coldly. “Your gods are dead.”

The reminder makes Kara’s chest ache. An echo of her dead planet, more dead even than the darkened half of this one. Reduced to rubble. But she smiles through it.

“They are.”

“That shouldn’t mean you can evade death. In any realm.”

“Evade is a funny word for being kept from something,” Kara says, gritting her teeth as her fingers brush the knife’s handle without grasping it. Every time she twists her arm to do it, it sends a shot of pure pain through her. “Could you maybe help me with this?”

“You want to die?” Death asks. Her voice is changed, now – the smoky effect drops, as if it was an affectation interrupted by her shock.

“Would love to, actually.”

“So, how -”

“Ask your brother,” Kara says cheerfully. She knows the pantheon of this world almost as well as her own, now. Learned that hard lesson when she arrived here alone, on this world where the sun never sets. She knows the familial ties that bind the gods. There were many once, one for every little thing one might need to pray for, but now there are but two. Lex, the sun god who provides life, and his unnamed sister the goddess of Death.

Death scoffs. “What does my brother have to do with this?”

“He cursed me,” Kara says, finally turning in her frustration to a nearby tree. Bracing for pain she rubs her back against it, strafing until bark hits blade and the pressure slides the knife free. The wave of pain eases into relief as soon as it’s gone, and in moments the wound has stitched itself up. “With eternal life. Cursed never to see my dead family in the afterlife. Clever, right?”

“That’s not possible,” Death says slowly. “He can’t supersede my domain.”

“Well, he has,” Kara says, nodding her head half-respectfully in Death’s direction before gathering up her things and heading back to the road. She has nowhere in particular to be, but walking gives her a sense of purpose even so. “So take it up with him.”

The goddess disappears in a dramatic wave of black smoke. And that, Kara thinks, is the end of that.

Kara meets the goddess of death again 3 years later. She’s busy putting out a house fire, one that might have overtaken the entire village if left to grow – she’s the only one braving the flames when everyone else has run to safety. The fire sears her palms, leaves shiny red welts that disappear the moment they see the rays of the sun, but it hardly registers as pain anymore. She’s grown used to it in the last few years.

Saving people in need means a lot of injury.

When the flames are dampened and she’s left pouring water on the cinders, she moves a crooked pile of rubble to find the dark goddess sitting with graceful poise on the charred remains of a wooden table. Even in the eternal sunshine, darkness sits around her like a heavy cloak.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Kara says. She brushes the ash from her hands, gesturing at her soot-stained face. “Sorry about the mess.”

“He shouldn’t be able to do this,” Death says. Kara can detect none of the echoing dramatics her voice held during their last meeting – now her tone is clear and sharp. Low and a little raspy, maybe, but not in an unpleasant way. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“Shouldn’t, but did,” Kara says, shrugging and moving to pass around the table. “If you’ll excuse me?”

The goddess holds out a hand, and Kara’s way is blocked by a dark cloud of energy. Kara sighs.

“I don’t know what you’re expecting me to do,” Kara says, with a little more steel to her voice. “I’d love to help you out and go into the great unknown or whatever it is that you do, but I can’t die. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“Why did he curse you?” Death asks.

“Because he is the great Lord of the sun on this world, and honouring Rao dishonours him,” Kara replies heavily, leaning against a very unsteady beam. It’s hot against the skin of her arm. “He took offence to worship being given to another when I first arrived here. Even a dead god.”

The goddess is quiet. Embers crackle and settle around them - the orange glow lights the angles in her face through her cloak of shadow, though the details are still obscured.

“Did you know that the sun moves on most worlds?” Kara says. The goddess doesn’t move. “Rao didn’t control the sun. He was the sun. He moved through the day to cover the whole planet. There’s no night-time, here.”

“Yes,” Death says softly. “My brother likes to be the centre of everyone’s sky.”

“Except the dark side of the planet.”

Death doesn’t answer for a time. Shadows curl around her, licking at the surface of the table like dark flames.

“Most would covet eternal life, you know,” Death finally says. Her voice is curious. “Most hate death as a very concept. Hate me.”

Kara folds her arms. She looks directly at Death, focused on where her eyes should be.

“I’m not most.”

After a beat the goddess disappears, leaving Kara alone in the ashes.

After that day, Kara can almost feel the goddess watching her every time she survives something that should kill a mortal. Every time she heals a fatal wound, or lets another birthday pass her by without a sign of age. But for years the goddess leaves her alone. It’s another 21 before Kara sees the goddess of death again.

This time, Kara is almost sure she’s finally managed it. She dove deep to pull someone from the remains of a shipwreck, and after sending them to the surface for rescue she stayed underwater. Letting her air run out slowly, feeling her lungs fill with seawater. Choking in the dark. Blackness creeping in, the world getting fuzzy, her family’s faces swimming before her eyes as she feels the first spark of hope she’s felt in over a century -

She wakes to hot sunlight, sand under her back, and the goddess of death looking down at her from a regal seat on a beached crate of supplies. Her dark hair is framed by midday sun, her pale skin luminescent and stubbornly resisting its rays. For the first time, Kara can see the details of her face. She’s as flawless as a goddess might be expected to be, each feature carved and tying together a picture worthy of worship. And her eyes. They waver back and forth in colour, once blue and now green, like shades of the ocean reflected by different skies.

She’s beautiful. And she’s looking at Kara like she’s a stubborn puzzle-box, refusing to give up its secrets.

“Damn,” Kara says, coughing up several mouthfuls of salty water and turning over to spit them into the sand. “I came close that time, didn’t I?”

“I don’t understand you.”

Kara flops back. Her lungs are burning, and she can already tell it’s going to be hell to get all this sand out of her clothes. “Yeah, I don’t understand me either.”

“You could be living a life of selfish pleasure. Endless pleasure,” Death says. There’s a crease between her brows that, in her drowning-induced delirium, Kara wants to smooth with a finger. The first hint of imperfection in her limestone face. “You could accrue wealth and fame and followers. You could live the life of a god on earth if you wanted, and yet you spend your time throwing yourself into danger for others.”

“Why not?” Kara says, sitting up and feeling each vertebrae pop back into place. “I can’t die. I can do things others can’t.”

“So instead you aim to eliminate names from my list.” The goddess doesn’t look angry. Just confused. “Today three names disappeared before I could get here.”

“I would say sorry, but I don’t like to lie,” Kara says. She brushes sand from her arms, grimacing at the knots the seawater has made in her hair.

The goddess’ lips twitch. Almost a smile. Her mouth downturns naturally - fitting, for a goddess of the saddest domain - but Kara thinks suddenly that her smile might just be life-giving. She wants to see it. It lights a fire in her she didn’t expect.

“No need to apologize,” Death says quietly. “I take no pleasure in the reaping of souls.”

Kara pauses partway through untangling her hair.

“Huh.”

“Is that surprising?” Death says. One perfect brow arches, and Kara traces its curve with her eyes.

“Well, that’s not how people speak of you.”

“Ah, yes. Death, the cruel thief of joy,” the goddess says, a thread of bitterness weaving into her words. “Waiting in the dark to snatch mortals away at the slightest provocation. Bringing woe and grief wherever she goes.”

The dark smoke that’s been mostly absent from their conversation appears again. It sweeps around Death, blurring her features like a stormcloud, and Kara leans back on her hands.

“I mean. The aesthetic isn’t exactly doing you any favours,” Kara notes.

The smoke parts. And this time, the goddess does smile. It’s almost incredulous, like she’s shocked at Kara’s gall, but Kara finds she was correct - that smile is like the first beam of moonlight after an eclipse. Something not of this world.

“No,” the goddess says, rising to her feet. The sand doesn’t touch her dress. “I suppose it isn’t.”

Her form starts to waver again. Black smoke takes over her features, sweeping across the beach. Kara scrambles to her feet. Sand sticks wetly to her back, making her hyper-aware of just how bedraggled she must look in comparison to the literal goddess she’s speaking to, but she calls out anyways.

“Wait!”

The smoke stops.

“Do you have a name?” Kara asks, hardly daring to hope for an answer. She can feel Death looking at her even with her features obscured.

“I haven’t used it in a long time.”

“No time like the present,” Kara says. The smoke billows out, sweeping across Kara’s soggy boots. Almost like a laugh. After a long pause, she answers.

“It’s…it’s Lena.”

Kara smiles.

“I’m Kara. Since my name isn’t on your list.”

Lena disappears without an acknowledgement. But Kara clings to her name. She holds it in her mouth like a sweet, lets it melt over her tongue as the last hint of the goddess’ presence disappears in the bright sunshine.

“Until next time. Lena.”

Saving people in need becomes something of a pastime. With nothing much else to do with her endless days Kara keeps travelling, helping out where she can and learning how to fight to do so more effectively. And, she finds, she’s good at it. It comes as easily to her as anything.

But sometimes, even easy things go wrong.

It isn’t often that Kara fails. But her strength has limits, even with eternal life – when the man she’s caught mid-fall on a rocky cliff slips from her grasp, there’s little she can do but watch as he hits the ground. She even falls after him, pulling herself towards him on broken legs that snap themselves back into place within moments, but there’s nothing she can do to heal his broken body.

Lena appears in her periphery as she’s holding him. His wheezing breath is starting to leave him - he’s terrified, seizing at her clothes.

“Help,” he chokes. Lena moves just into Kara’s field of vision. Not circling, but making her presence known.

“I can’t,” Kara whispers. She lays him gently on the ground, prising his hands from her tunic and stepping away, and when she finally looks at Lena she sees not satisfaction but deep, unimaginable sadness.

The moment Lena takes Kara’s place, he knows.

“No,” he moans, trying to scramble away but failing as the strength leaves his body. “No, no, please, I – I have a family, you can’t – please don’t -”

“Be at peace,” Lena says softly. A pale hand comes to rest on his wound, a soft glow emanating from her palm. Her face is set in aching empathy. “Your suffering is over. No pain will follow you here.”

The man is not at peace. He’s still terrified, hardly hearing her comforting words, but Lena says them anyways; when his spirit fades and his body goes limp, Lena stands. She doesn’t look at Kara, not directly, but nor does she disappear as Kara takes a heavy seat on a flat rock.

After a moment, Kara calls out.

“Lena?”

Lena twitches. Her hand flexes, making a fist and then relaxing again. Kara wonders if she’s heard her name called a single time since their last meeting.

“Come talk to me,” Kara says softly. She pats the spot beside her, and Lena’s eyes flicker to the movement. “Please?”

Lena comes closer, but she doesn’t sit. Her eyes are downcast. Kara wishes she would look up, so that she could see the ever-changing colour of them. She’s been thinking about it for years, now. She’s just as starkly beautiful as she was the last time they saw each other.

“I’m sorry,” Lena says quietly. Kara shrugs, trying to put aside the guilt eating away at her insides.

“Can’t save everyone.”

“And yet you still try. Doesn’t it get tiresome?”

“I should ask you the same thing,” Kara says. Lena finally looks up.

“My task is enforced on me,” Lena says, her hands coming together in something close to a fidget before she seems to remember herself and stop. Her eyes are grey, today. Like the choppy steel of a stormy sea. “You do this by choice. Have you made some kind of game out of erasing names from my list?”

“I guess you could say that,” Kara shrugs. She moves over, patting the open spot beside her again. “Or maybe I just enjoy your company.”

Lena scoffs. “That’s even more absurd than defying Death.”

“And yet, here I am. Doing both.”

Lena’s face is like stone as she assesses Kara’s words. But she sits.

“You don’t get to talk to people often, do you?” Kara says. Lena has left a great deal of space between them, perching on the very edge of the rock, and Kara takes in what she can of her side profile.

“Not unless I’m bringing them to the afterlife,” Lena says. Her hands twist together again. “And in those cases, as you saw, they tend to be…”

“Afraid.”

“Or angry. Or pleading. But yes. Mostly frightened,” Lena sighs. “Everyone fears the unknown. It doesn’t really matter what I say.”

“But you still try,” Kara says. It’s something she never would have expected from Death, this well of genuine empathy for the humans she reaps, but it seems to be a fundamental part of Lena just as much as her stormy eyes or her sharp tongue.

Lena nods. “Everyone deserves comfort in their final moments. Especially if they’re gripped by fear.”

Kara’s next words come in a whisper.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

Lena looks at her sharply. Her brows are knitted with disbelief, and her hands stop their twisting and instead brace on the rock.

“My brother did this to you,” Lena says. Her voice is low, but urgent as she leans towards Kara as if to persuade her. “Keeps you from seeing your family. He is the source of your curse.”

“Unless I’m mistaken, you don’t seem to be your brother.”

Kara’s hand moves closer to where Lena’s rests. A few inches between them, perhaps, easily closed. Closer and closer Kara moves, towards Lena’s pale fingers, reaching –

The swirling black cloud has hidden Lena’s features before Kara can come close to touching Death’s hand.

“Lena, wait!” Kara shouts. But it’s to empty air. The goddess of death is gone.

After that day, Kara puts herself in danger perhaps a shade more than she did before in the hopes of drawing Lena out again. Sometimes Kara can feel her presence when she saves a life, a gentle smoky warmth just over her shoulder; sometimes she can almost see her as someone’s soul is leaving their body, if Kara has failed to change their fate. A faint outline. A sense of calm, even when the dying person is frightened. But no matter what Kara does Lena doesn’t materialize.

She even tries praying, which feels as silly as it must look. Lena doesn’t answer. Her absence only intensifies Kara’s fascination.

As she walks the world Kara looks for worshippers of her newly-favoured goddess, and finds few and far between. Besides the occasional murderous cult who worship a version of Death that doesn’t resemble Lena in the slightest and a single, run-down temple on a remote island hidden from human access, there’s no trace of the kind of worship given to Lena’s brother the sun-god. No festivals, no sacrifices, hardly even an acknowledgement. Only fear, and resistance against the inevitable. As if pretending death doesn’t exist will stave it off indefinitely.

Even with only three meetings, Kara feels somehow as if she knows Lena. And her erasure feels deeply unfair.

It takes 12 years for Kara to see her again. 12 years of looking for danger, saving people whose names she knows must have been on Lena’s list, stealing souls back from Death in an endless back-and-forth, until finally Kara does something drastic.

She takes her vows, and becomes Death’s only Paladin.

Hearing Lena’s voice again is like hearing the first drops of rain after a long drought.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Kara opens her eyes. She’s only halfway through her 24 hours of silent prayer in this windowless room, the last step in this holy process, and now her patron goddess herself is perched on the altar surrounded by flickering candles. Her legs are folded one over the other in a graceful cross, and her face is set in incredulity.

“Lena!” Kara breathes, grinning wide and rising from her knees. “Long time no see!”

“Death doesn’t have Paladins, Kara,” Lena says fiercely, as if Kara hasn’t greeted her at all. “Nobody walks the earth saving people in Death’s name. My brother’s Paladins seek to defy me, they don’t…they don’t worship.”

“Why not?” Kara shrugs. Her armour, a dark leather set with Death’s symbol on the breast, squeaks with her movement in the way new leather always does. Lena’s nostrils flare.

“Because it doesn’t make sense!”

“It does, though. Think about it,” Kara says, as insistent in her decision as she’s been these last two years of training. She’s had to weather the disbelief of the other Paladins here too, all training to serve the sun-god. She’s gotten more than enough practice. “I can’t die. Ever. Who’s more fitting to carry out Death’s will?”

“What are you going to do, go out and kill people indiscriminately in my name?” Lena says, waving her hands wide. The strength of her reaction makes her somehow more real than she’s ever been, even when her draped sleeves pass over the candles without catching. “What could possibly be the function of a Paladin of Death?”

“You don’t take pleasure in the reaping of souls.”

Lena pauses. Her arms fall slowly back to her sides.

“You remembered that,” she whispers.

Kara knows then with a certainty she can’t describe that she’s done the right thing. She’s tried keeping Rao in her heart, she’s tried escaping from her past, she’s tried every method available on this earth of letting Death take her. But now that she knows Death, has seen her firsthand, she’ll kneel for Lena and nobody else.

“I can be your vassal,” Kara says, lowering her voice to match Lena’s. “I can sort those who can be spared from those whose time has come. Make your job easier. Save them, or ease their passage if I need to. Soothe some of that fear.”

Lena bites at her lower lip. Her teeth are brilliantly white, the edges sharp enough to leave a mark that fades slowly.

“It would defy my brother,” Lena admits. “He’s the one who gave me this task. I’m not meant to deviate.”

“Who better to do that, too?”

Lena is silent. Kara approaches her, trying to absorb her every perfect feature while she can – the curve of her brow, the shape of her sharp jaw framing her mouth. The slight underbite that shines through as she seems to chew on the inside of her cheek.

Kara reaches out a hand.

Lena slides off the altar, snatching her arm away before Kara can get close. “No - you can’t touch me.”

“Why not?”

Lena sidesteps, sliding past Kara and backing up until her back hits the wall. “Mortals can’t touch the gods. You’ll burn. It’ll -”

“Kill me?” Kara grins. She removes her gauntlet, dropping it to the flagstones. “I’d welcome it.”

Again, slowly, she reaches for Lena’s hand. And slowly Lena relaxes her arm until finally, Kara’s fingers wrap around her bare wrist.

Lena’s skin is like ice. It’s cold enough that it might burn, like Lena said, if Kara wasn’t cursed. But it doesn’t. Kara feels more alive than she’s felt in decades, just from a simple touch. Wonderfully alive. Joyously alive. Lena’s intake of breath is sharp enough to cut.

“See?” Kara says lowly. “My curse is good for something.”

“You’re…”

Kara’s free hand joins the first. She cups both of them around Lena’s, feeling their shape; Lena’s long, elegant fingers curl into themselves in the cradle of Kara’s palms, their cold receding. Kara keeps her voice low.

“What am I?”

Lena swallows. Kara watches her throat bob, her lips parting to show a flash of her pink tongue.

“Warm,” Lena murmurs. “Like the sun. I haven’t felt warmth in…a long time.”

Kara is close to her. So close that she can see the shifting sea colours in Lena’s eyes even in the dim candlelight. Carefully, Kara sinks to her knees with Lena’s hands still cradled in her own. She opens up her fingers so that she can press her forehead to Lena’s palms, and she finds that the coldness has left them. They’re almost hot, now.

“Let me serve you, Lena,” Kara whispers, like the endless prayers she’s been whispering since she was locked in this room. “Please.”

Lena’s fingers move. For a moment Kara thinks she might push her away. But instead they relax, and press against the top of Kara’s head.

“You’re the strangest person I’ve ever met,” Lena says. But there’s wonder in her voice. Happiness, even. And when she disappears in her usual cloud of smoke, the smoke drifts over Kara. She breathes it in, feeling it full her lungs, and on the first breath she feels it changing her.

Lena smells of fresh earth. Of fallen leaves, crisp and decomposing in a fragrant autumn. The tangy smoke of a doused fire.

She smells like the cool air of night.

When she smoke leaves her, Kara feels different. Unimaginably different. Envigorated. The pew she uses to pull herself to her feet cracks and splits under her hand with hardly any effort, and when she flexes her shoulders – feeling a new strength in them, one she can’t wait to explore – she feels something else there.

Two black, feathered wings unfurl from her back, filling the room with fragrant shadow.

#supercorp #supercorp fic #goddess/paladin au #tw: death #tw: suicide mention #is it cliche? yes #has it been done before? probably #did i have fun writing it anyways? absolutely!#might get cheeky and write it out into a fic who knows

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cardcaptorsakura96 · 3 months

Text

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes-Chapter 19

Fandom: Supergirl

Characters: Kara Danvers, Clark Kent, Samantha Arias, Lena Luthor, Lillian Luthor, Ruby Arias, Oliver Queen, John Stewart, Diana Prince, Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, J'onn J'onnz, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Cat Grant, Lucy Lane, Damian Wayne, Felicity Smoak, Streaky the Supercat, Martha Kent, Selina Kyle

Summary: What if superheroes had to pay a property damage tax every time they had a fight in the city?

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18

Bruce sat watching the main security monitor in the Watch Tower. It was mostly just a realtime map of the globe. When something happened, it would give a ping and zoom in on that area. At that point, they would determine if League member intervention is needed and if so, who would be best suited for the job. Usually, it was a two person job because there is normally multiple fires to put out due to the large coverage area. However, on nights like this, everything was silent. Or at least silent enough that local authorities could handle the issues instead of the League. On rare nights like these, it left him open to focus on something else while monitoring the board. He had his tablet out scrolling through different websites. While scrolling, he felt a presence hovering over his shoulder.

“Is there something that I can interest you in, Diana?”

Diana cocked her head and said, “Well, I got bored of looking at the monitor, and was curious of what has your avid attention.”

“I am doing research for a case that I have ongoing in Gotham,” said Bruce passively.

Diana raised her eyebrow and said, “You case involves searching Monopoly forums?”

Bruce narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why does it sound like you doubt me?”

Diana smirked and said, “It is kind of hard to take you seriously when the title at the top of the page says hacks for winning Monopoly.”

Bruce groaned while he put the tablet down and rubbed his forehead.

Diana chuckled and said, “I never thought you would be that into board games.”

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck and said, “I am not, but I just don’t get it.”

Diana looked at him quizzically and asked, “What?”

Bruce sighed and said, “Everyone one of them has won at least once. Supergirl, The Flash, Damian, Dick, Tim, Jason, and even Alfred. I always come in dead last.”

Diana bursted out laughing.

Bruce frowned and muttered, “I am glad you find it funny. It is embarrassing. I own a multibillion dollar company for goodness sakes.”

Diana wiped a tear from her eye and said, “You do realize that it is just a game that is mostly based on pure luck.”

Bruce sighed and said, “I know. I just want to win just once.”

Diana smiled and said, “It is nice to see you doing activities of a social nature. What brought this on?”

Bruce looked up thoughtfully and said, “It started when I started training Supergirl and the Flash. After training, they would hang out afterwards with Damian and play different board games. Gradually, Dick, Tim, Jason, Alfred and I got roped into the games as well.”

Diana raised and eyebrow and said, “I am surprised that you let them stay at the mansion afterwards.”

Bruce smirked and said, “You act like I never had members from the League over to my home.”

Diana smirked and said, “Not when it is just to socialize.”

Bruce chuckled and said, “Touché. Flash and Supergirl have been a positive influence on Damian getting him to come out of his shell.”

“So, that is their influence. That is wonderful. I noticed that he has been way less aggressive lately.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow.

Diana chuckled and said, “Well, less aggressive for him. He used to start a fight with everyone he came in contact with.”

Bruce sighed and said, “I am glad that has finally came to a stop.”

Diana mused, “I think I am more surprised though by the fact that you have a game night going and that you got all of your sons involved. The last time I saw you all together, everything was tense.”

Bruce looked up thoughtfully and said, “Supergirl and Flash are probably the most social people I know. Their auras are like moths to a flame. Somehow, we all got sucked in. Even Jason. Although, I have a sinking suspicion that he is in it to try to get Supergirl’s number.”

Diana chuckled and said, “Too bad he will be disappointed.”

Bruce smirked and said, “I take it you have seen the commercial.”

Diana laughed and said, “It is impossible not to. It is still trending in the top ten on youtube and it came out over a week ago. The chemistry between her and Lena is amazing.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow and asked, “And that doesn’t bother you?”

Diana gave him a deadpan look and said, “I come from a land inhabited only by woman. What do you think?”

Read the rest on AO3

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narraboths · 2 years

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Why haven’t we gotten an interrogation scene where Lena is like that the whole time and Kara starts standing between Lena’s legs leaning in and Alex starts banging on the window “HEY WE CAN ALL SEE YOU!!!”

"Hello, love."

Kara doesn’t stop dead in her tracks.

She doesn’t trip over her own feet, doesn’t blush and stammer. Her heart doesn’t start beating faster like it’s about to jump out of her chest, her eyes certainly don’t wander along the plunging neckline of the ridiculously ornate green dress Lena’s wearing. And she most definitely does not even think to return the bright, gleeful smile that Lena greets her with.

Instead, it’s an icy stare and three short, heavy steps into the interrogation room, keeping a measured distance from the desk that Lena’s leaning against with such nonchalance as if she was a queen in a throne room.

“I heard you were asking for me.”

“Two hours and twenty-four minutes since my arrest, darling.” Lena has the audacity to pout. “You know I don’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Kara snorts, locking her arms over her chest. “I was busy handling your goons turning the city on its head.”

“Ever the hero,” Lena coos, so mocking that Kara feels an angry blush rising to her cheeks. “You were just stalling.”

She’s wrong, of course. The second J’onn gave her the go-ahead on coming back to the base, Kara sped back to quickly that she broke the sound barrier, but it would not be prudent to admit that, or the fact that she would’ve gladly let Morgan Edge’s offices crash and burn if it meant she could see Lena again just a bit sooner after five torturous years.

Instead, she just huffs and rolls her eyes.

“Why are you here?”

Lena’s face seems to soften for a second.

“Maybe I just really missed you,” she says. Simple, gentle, matter-of-factly. A Kryptonite dagger would’ve hurt less. Then she has that teasing look in her eyes again, the devilish half-smirk playing on her lips: “Didn’t you?”

Every waking moment of my life, Kara wants to say, scream, and, how can you even ask, as if I could ever stop missing you. She doesn’t say that, doesn’t say that she couldn’t care about rap sheets and criminal masterplans as much as she cares to know about whether Lena’s sleeping well and how badly that now-healed hairline fracture on her hand hurt.

“No.”

#anonymous #supercorp #my fic #sorry to take the exact opposite road

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whythinktoomuch · 3 years

Text

Tentatively stepping through the doorway, Lena was greeted by the natural wintry gleam of the Fortress of Solitude. She had only been there that one time all those months ago, but the surroundings appeared familiar enough, seemingly burned into her memories as a particularly difficult flashbulb of an experience.

Cold. Dimmed lighting. Wide open spaces that gave off the illusion of emptiness despite holding some of the most important secrets to be kept in the world.

And in the middle of it all, stood Kara Danvers, still dressed in her Super regalia, staring off into the distance like little else mattered.

“Kara.” Lena rushed forward, the clack of her heels bouncing off the polished walls in an anxious rhythm that rivaled that of her heart.

Kara looked over, blank expression slipping slightly. “Lena?” she murmured, sounding surprised, though not at all startled. “How’d you get out?”

“… Out?” Lena echoed, but Kara didn’t elaborate. Maybe the disconnect was to be expected though, and there were more important things at stake for the moment, so, “Kara, you need to come back.”

“Back.” Kara chewed on the word, tasting the implications like they weren’t quite to her liking. Then she gave a single nod. “Oh. I see.” And with that, Kara turned her back on Lena and walked right off, right into the distance that gradually converged into a yawning doorway.

Lena had no choice but to chase after her. “I know why you’re doing this, Kara. And you have to know that it wasn’t your fault. None of it was.”

Kara didn’t answer. She didn’t have to. Her silence was already speaking volumes just by stretching on and on, running parallel to the seemingly never-ending hallway.

“Will you at least explain what you’re doing here?” Lena demanded, her patience eaten up by a sense of urgency that was somehow eluding Kara. Time was of the utmost importance—that much had been impressed upon her repeatedly and emphatically before she made this journey. “Look, I’m not going to leave until you talk to me.”

Mild amusement flitted over Kara’s features as she looked back at Lena. “How’d you even get here?”

“Does it matter?”

“No.”

Then when Kara made no move to continue their conversation, Lena sighed in exasperation, “I have my ways, okay?”

“Of course you do,” Kara said easily. “I’m just… surprised that they’d send you, of all people.”

“I volunteered to come. Well, I insisted anyway.”

Kara glanced back at her again, expression now unreadable. “We’re not even friends anymore,” she said, matter-of-fact, no malice intended or needed. “We haven’t talked for—what—six months? I guess what I’m trying to say is that, you wouldn’t have been my first pick.”

“And I’m sure the many people who were opposed to my coming here would agree,” Lena said, but Kara didn’t take the bait, falling silent once more. “Where are we going anyway? What’s down here that’s so important that you have to see it right now?”

Kara took an abrupt left turn, and the hallway opened up just as abruptly into an endless series of shut doors, all evenly spaced out along either wall. Each door was fashioned with its own nameplate, which was of little interest to Lena until she started recognizing the names. By then—trailing behind Kara, passing by doors that read James, Winn, Kal-El, and a few with lettering that could only be Kryptonian—it became all too clear why they were there.

Lena’s sense of purpose was renewed, however, when Kara walked right past a door labeled Alex without slowing. “Wait, that’s where we have to go,” she called out in realization. “We need to get to Alex, right? Right, Ka—Kara! Hey, where are you going?”

But Kara evidently wasn’t listening, her stride only cut short upon arriving at another door altogether. The door was plain and simple enough, except in that it was one of the very few without its own handle. The name Mon-El was etched into the dull gold, just barely catching in the light at eye level.

“They disappear sometimes,” Kara said. “The doorknobs, I mean. Well, the doors too, but there’s always another to replace them so… it’s hard to keep track.”

Lena tried her best to not acknowledge the predictable twinge of nausea that twisted in her stomach. “What’s in there?”

“When I could still open it, I’d just see his spaceship disappearing into the horizon.” Kara shrugged. “I’m sure there were other things too, but it’s been years.”

“… Kara, let’s get back to Alex’s door,” Lena said, clearing her throat, ridding herself of any lingering pangs of unjustified jealousy. “It still has a doorknob, so we can still get in there, right? That’s what that means?” But Kara was ignoring her. Again. “Are you even listening to me right now?”

“You say that to me a lot in here.”

And just as Lena was about to ask what the hell Kara possibly could mean by that, she noticed yet another door, just a bit farther down the hall, literally with her name on it.

“You can go in there, I think,” Kara continued, shrugging again. “There aren’t really any hard and fast rules here, but that might be the only door you can open without me.”

Lena, inevitably, took a pause.

Her door appeared more intricate the longer she studied it. The rich, glossy oak with accents of rose gold. The plumerias carved into the wood at every corner. A touch of cursive to her name, lovingly engraved across the polished nameplate. It had a delicate padlock that looked more decorative than practical, but Lena already knew that it would fall away for her, if she wanted.

Admittedly, it took a rather lengthy moment for Lena to successfully tear her eyes away from the door. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Well, there isn’t much else I can give you besides that,” Kara said, promptly moving on, venturing deeper into the hallway that only opened up to more and more hallway with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of doors.

“Kara, stop…” Lena abandoned her door to chase after Kara again. “I’m serious,” she pleaded, seizing Kara by the elbow, tugging insistently. “Let’s go through the Alex door. We can go together.”

Kara shook her head, shaking her arm when Lena refused to loosen her grip. “Let go,” she snapped, eyes briefly flashing red, and Lena unfortunately flinched away from her. Huffing hard, Kara then pivoted away, slipping through the closest door and Lena slipped in right after her before it could swing shut.

The whole world was on fire.

Proud buildings coming down in flames. Air condensed into a thick black smoke. Everyone dying around her…

Coughing, Lena was immediately forced to press her sleeve to her mouth and nose. The door was nowhere to be seen. After a more thorough survey of her surroundings, she finally noticed a slumped figure in the relative distance. It was hard to make out anything in the light of the fading red that made up the sky, but who else could it be? Lena made her way over.

Thankfully, Kara wasn’t too far. She was just sitting atop a darkened precipice, arms around her knees as she watched the world die before her.

“This…. is Krypton,” Lena said as she realized. “Kara. You can’t stay here. This can’t be healthy…”

“And you, of course, would be the resident expert on keeping healthy habits,” Kara said, and her sarcasm didn’t even need a bitter tone to land.

And that about settled it.

Lena grabbed a piece of smoldering debris—still warm, somewhat spongey, surely not fatal—and lobbed it as hard as she could at the back of Kara’s head.

The projectile bounced off harmlessly enough, but Kara slowly turned around, eyes widened. “Ow…?” She pressed a hand gingerly to the back of her head, no doubt still tender from the blow. “What are you doing? The sun isn’t yellow here!”

“None of this is even real!” Lena snapped, and to prove it, she lifted a much larger piece of debris that normally would have buckled her with its mass. When she sent that hunk of rock sailing through the air, Kara finally demonstrated some life and dove out of the way.

“What the hell, Lena?” Kara said, some frustration and thus vigor breaking through the monotony. “What are you doing here? Why did you even come?”

“I want to see what’s behind Alex’s door!” Lena threw back, just as frustrated and then some. “What is this, Kara? Behind one door, you see your home planet imploding. Behind another, you see the man you loved leaving you forever. So, what the hell could possibly be happening in the one for your sister? Whose life, by the way, is still hanging in the balance, in case you forgot.”

Kara huffed, whirling away. “That’s none of your business.”

“You made it my business by fucking off to wherever this is,” Lena said, fighting to maintain eye contact as Kara tried repeatedly to turn her back on her. “You made it my business by making me come after you! So, just do me one fucking favor, and just tell me—”

“I kill her.”

Lena fell silent, blinking, the soundtrack to her sudden hesitation coming alive in the sounds of the world burning up around her.

“I kill her in there. Over and over and over again.” Kara’s words were falling out like she couldn’t stop them, an outpouring of shame and relief rolled into one. “She dies by my hand, only to die all over again, and again, and—”

“Okay, I get it,” Lena hastily cut in. “Well, no. I don’t get it, get it, but… what do you mean you kill her? How…?”

Kara covered her face with a sharp exhale. “Lots of ways! Heat vision. Super strength. Sometimes I’m just throwing her off a building. Other times, I’m choking the life out of her with my bare….” She broke off, voice drying up. “I don’t want to go in there, okay? Stop asking me.”

“Kara, this… this is ridiculous,” Lena eventually sputtered. “Alex isn’t dead. She’s hurt bad, yeah, but how could you possibly give up on her when—”

“Because it doesn’t matter,” Kara said flatly. “Because if not now, it’ll be some other time. She’ll die, and it’s going to be all my fault.”

“But what happened to her isn’t your fault.”

Kara sighed, heavily and exhausted, and suddenly she looked every bit the lonely woman who’d lost everything in a way only few people have. “Lena… Everything down here’s my fault.”

Her entire body sagged then, and she was back on the ground, curled up and watching the horizon again. So, Lena just walked over and sat next to her.

Everything was steadily plunging into darkness. There were more cracks ripping apart the earth than there were buildings, people, or even life in general. The fire climbed higher and everything was smothered in smoke, but all Lena had to do was consider taking a clean breath of air, and she could.

“What happens when it’s over?” Lena asked.

“Just starts up all over again.”

“Okay then.”

After a while, when the sky was too obscured to distinguish from the ground, Kara directed her gaze to her own feet. “… You ever think about what yours would look like?”

“My mind palace, you mean?” Lena asked, and Kara nodded. “Oh, I already know. Boxes.”

Kara exhaled a dry chuckle or two. “Boxes? That’s it?”

“Maybe some filing cabinets too. Just to keep everything organized,” Lena said, and she was mostly joking, but also not. “Boxes just always worked for me.”

“… Is there a box in there with my name on it?”

Lena blew out a breath, shakily laughing at the self-evidence of it all. “Of course there is, Kara.” Maybe even more than one, though they didn’t have to get into that now, or ever.

“Do you want to know what happens behind your door?” Kara asked haltingly, gaze still dropped.

“Not at all. I’m sure whatever it is, I’ve imagined much worse on my own terms,” Lena said, and Kara kinda laughed again, but wouldn't disagree. “… You know what happened to Alex wasn’t your fault, right?”

“Might as well have been. Should’ve been there.”

“You can’t be everywhere at once, Kara. That can’t be expected of anyone, even Supergirl.” And when Kara gave no indication that she was listening, Lena continued with a sigh, “If Alex could be here, she’d say the same exact thing. Though I’m sure she’d include some Midvale lingo and much more swearing.”

“What’s Midvale lingo?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be above using it right now.”

Kara didn’t laugh this time, just nodded solemnly before asking, “How long have I been in here?”

“You’d been out for almost six hours when I made my way over.”

“Did Alex improve at all while I’ve been gone?”

“That’s not really a thing you can tell just by looking,” Lena said vaguely. She didn’t want to lie, but she also didn’t want to give Kara any reason to stay behind.

But Kara looked at her like she knew exactly what Lena was trying not to say. She’d always been so good at reading Lena, or maybe Lena had always been so bad at hiding things from Kara. Either way, if only it had been vice versa, maybe they’d be on better terms now.

“I don’t want to come back just to watch her die. I’ve already done that too many times in here.”

“If she does die, you’re going to regret not being there.”

The ground underneath them started to crumble and come apart, falling in on itself, and Kara watched it happen with disinterest while Lena just watched Kara. But eventually, finally, Kara seemed to come to a real decision because she carefully took Lena’s hand in hers, and Lena let her.

“… Thank you for coming,” Kara said quietly, barely audible over the world falling apart.

“Thank you for coming back.”

They watched the last of the world collapse around them, swallowing them up in a pitch darkness.

Lena jerked awake with a gasp in her corner of the room, but everyone was by Kara, clamoring around her, greeting her with words of worry and such. And Lena just nodded to herself because everything was back to being how it should.

She disengaged the electrodes and pulled the wires off her head, and Brainy appeared by her bedside to help her remove the last of it.

“You were successful,” he said. “I knew you would be. You had the best chances of getting her out of that state, though 67% of the people in this room did think differently. But thank you for bringing her back.”

“I didn’t do a thing,” Lena said honestly. She glanced down at her watch out of habit, and the numbers blurred and made little sense to her weary brain, but it was time to leave. That much was obvious. “It’s late. I should get going.”

“You don’t want to talk to Kara?”

Lena looked over, and just past Nia’s shoulder, she saw Kara staring right at her. “I think she has better things to do tonight,” she said, stepping into her heels, neatly pulling her hair into a tidy bun. “Please give our hero my best, and… keep me apprised of Alex’s condition as well.”

Pausing on her way out, Lena threw back one last glance. Kara was still staring at her. Her mouth was moving and answering questions as they were offered up by the people around her, but her eyes would only meet Lena’s from across the room. Kara half-raised her hand in a subtle gesture, and Lena took the wave for what it was and turned on her heel to leave, refusing to entertain the persistent itch to look back the entire time.

#post-reveal/fallout but pre-make-up sc is where i Live #not sure what this is but it sure is a thing huh #ALSO THE NEW POST LIMIT WOULD HAVE TOTES KNEECAPPED THIS; had to turn off the beta version to post!! >:(#i hate!!! >:(((#my words.

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supercorpkid · 3 years

Text

Life goes on.

Supercorp, Kara Danvers x Daughter!Reader, Lena Luthor x Daughter!Reader

Word count: 2900.

Turns out, you are not fine.

Lena is back home. That sentence alone should bring you immense joy. You should be out there doing cartwheels. It’s all you wanted, it’s what you’ve been incessantly working for. Lena is home, her memories are back, your family has been through the worst and came back from it.

So when you lay on your bed you should be able to sleep and rest. You should be able to think about anything else. About your own life. But no-

Not you.

Not this time.

You fall asleep on your bed but wake up at your mom's bed. So tangled up in Lena you don’t even know how and when you got there. She can’t get up because there’s a freaking kryptonian keeping her in place.

“Baby, are you up?” Lena asks softly in your ear, and you shuffle letting her out of your strong embrace.

“Did Kara bring me here?”

“No, my love. I’m pretty sure you were sleepwalking.” She strokes your hair, gently. “You can go back to sleep if you want, I’ll go make breakfast before Kara burns down the kitchen.”

“No, I’ll-I’ll go with you.” You wake up, still feeling like you could sleep at least another three hours, but if Lena is up, then you should be with her.

And that’s how you spend your weekend. Following Lena around like a lost puppy dog begging for extra care. Always there, Kara barely has time to kiss your mom, without you showing up to interrupt. You don’t care. You know she missed Lena too, but this is different. You need Lena’s undivided attention.

But Monday comes. And you’re not ready for Mondays. You’re not ready for school, and for the kids asking where you were and how the hell you’re still not dead. But most importantly, you’re not ready for being physically far away from Lena again.

“Do you have to go to work?” You ask, while watching Lena picking up her stuff in a hurry and throwing everything on her bag.

“I-What?” Lena glances up to you, trying to understand where that question is coming from. You give her a sheepish smile. “Yes, baby. I have to go to work.”

“But-” You look at Kara for back-up, but she doesn’t seem to be in the same state of codependence as you feel yourself right now, as she keeps devouring the food before her. “Do you actually have to, or is it more like a ‘I have to go to work ‘cause everyone goes to work’ kind of thing?”

“Baby, what are you asking?” Lena stops organizing her stuff, and she goes to where you’re sitting. She pulls the chair next to yours, and sits down, forgetting she was ever in a hurry. “It’s Monday. On Mondays I go to work, you go to school, and Kara-” She looks back at Kara for a second, who is still eating waffles, and not joining the conversation. “Does her usual Kara’ stuff.”

You bite your lower lip. “You almost died.”

“No, I didn’t. You saved me, remember?” She smiles at you, and you raise your hand touching her scar on the side of her face. “This is just a scar, baby.”

“I just think we should be resting.” You breathe out, and Kara snaps her head up at the sound of that.

“You don’t have to go to school today, little one.” Kara says, and you realize you said ‘we’ instead of ‘you’. Well, that means something. It means that you also think you deserve a rest from the world. “I can work from home today, and I’ll only leave if there’s an emergency.”

“Can’t you work from home too?” You look at Lena.

“I can’t, babygirl.” Lena looks sad about it, and you think that maybe if you push just a little more, she’ll stay.

“Then can I go with you?” You pout, making Lena reach for your face. “I would stay on the couch and not make a peep.”

“Why would you want to do that?” Lena asks like she doesn’t know the damn reason why you want to be with her all the time, after she simply forgot you existed for a few days.

“So I can be with you.” You’re not even done with your sentence and Lena pulls you in for a hug, holding your head so strongly against her chest you almost forget everything while listening to her heartbeat.

“What if you stay in with Kara and I’ll go to work and do what I have to do, but come back as soon as I’m done?”

“That could be in three hours or thirteen, mom.” You sigh, dropping your head low. “Who am I kidding? Knowing you, it will certainly be thirteen.”

“It won’t.” She kisses your forehead and gives you a soft smile. “I’ll be here before you even have a chance to miss me.”

“Then you won’t leave at all.” It’s out of your mouth before you even process what you’re saying.

“Baby.” Lena holds your face. “Life goes on.”

You look at her, trying not to show any emotion while you think about it. Life goes on. That easy. It beats you down, knocks you unconscious, makes you lose your will to live, but still goes on. No matter how gut-wrenching going on may be.

“Right.” You blink at her, unable to do more than that. “It goes on.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Lena kisses your cheek, picks her stuff and gets out. You lower your glasses watching her when she’s out the door. You watch her get in the car and drive away. You bite your lower lip holding the tears back.

“Life goes on.” You repeat to yourself, and you feel Kara’s hand on your shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “It shouldn’t. It should give us time to recover before throwing more pain on our backs and asking us to handle it whether we want to or not.”

You get up from the kitchen table and go to the living room. Why does this feel so hard for you? Kara dusted herself off, she was even willing to figure out her life with Lena even if she never got her memories back. Lena also wrapped her mind around all the trials and tribulations she went through awfully quick. And here you are.

“Hey.” Kara follows you, throwing herself on the couch with you. You make more space for her. She wraps her arms around you, and hums content. “Let’s have our time to recover. Whatcha wanna do?”

“Nothing.”

“I thought we could train a little.” She asks, taking a lock of hair from your face.

“I don’t want to train. All I do is fight-fight-fight. I’m tired of fighting and getting beat up. And having wins that mostly feels like losses. I’m tired of almost dying or seeing the people I love in danger. I’m tired of doing almost enough and I’m-”

“I think you should see a therapist.” Kara blurts out, and you sigh. “Because all of these feelings you’re having are valid, and I can try to help you with so much, but this feels out of my reach.”

“I just need my mom.”

“Your mom is safe.”

“That’s not enough anymore.” You grunt, annoyed. “Right now, the idea that she’s safe, that she remembers us, that she’ll be back home is not enough for me, momma. I need her here.”

“I know, baby.” Kara agrees softly.

“You remember when I almost died and you-you wouldn’t let me leave the house without you, and you would only wear sweatpants, and you didn’t show your face at work for a month?” You ask and Kara agrees weakly with her head. “That’s what I need. I need sweatpants and disgusting meals and not existing in the world for a while and I need mom with me all the time, so I know she’s safe and sound.”

“And you need therapy.” Kara adds and you agree with your head. “Like I needed when that happened.”

“Yeah.” You lay on the couch, putting your head under the cushions and then mumbling. “And that too.”

Turns out, staying on the couch all morning is not as healing as you thought it would be. Having Kara with you, also doesn’t withdraw the need of constantly using your super hearing to check on Lena. It seems that Kara might be right after all. It seems that this time, shaking off the image of Kara’s bloody face, and Lena’s empty look towards you, it’s going to take a bit more work.

“Wanna have your favorite food for lunch?” Kara asks, and you growl your answer at her. “Donuts?”

“I don’t think that donuts can fix this.”

“Ok, then what do you wanna eat?”

“I didn’t say no.” You look at Kara. “I said that I don’t think it can fix me, but I would love to see it try.”

She smiles fondly at you. “I love you so much.” It’s her answer before disappearing somewhere to order said donuts.

It’s about twenty minutes later when you hear the doorbell, and Kara rushes to answer it.

“Maya!” You hear Kara’s shocked welcome, and you snap your head up at the sound of your girlfriend’s name. You don’t look injured anymore, but you also don’t look the best you’ve ever looked.

“Hi Mrs. Danvers. I’m sorry to show up without a warning, but I’m just a little worried, and I thought I would come and check on-wow, now that I say that out loud, I sound like a total stalker.” Maya says, and you get up looking for your glasses.

“You don’t, sweetheart.” Kara says reassuringly. “Why don’t you come in?”

You get a glimpse of yourself on the TV screen. You look terrible, but that will have to do. You have no strength to make yourself more presentable.

“Hey.” You say, going to the front door, and Maya’s expression warms your heart entirely. Just seeing you makes her so happy.

“Oh, thank God!” She throws herself in your arms and you hold her tight, hearing her heart beating fast. “You’re ok. God! I was so worried!”

“I’m ok.” You assure her, running your fingers through her hair and breathing in her smell. You missed her. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s ok.” She lets go of you, and looks at your face, with a soft smile and you smile too when you look at her dimples. “I’m just glad you’re ok.”

“I’m gonna go buy some… Food.” Kara says, disappearing. You breathe relieved that she’s giving you and Maya some time.

“Come on.” You hold her hand, taking her to the couch. “I think I have some explaining to do.”

“Jamie told me it was a family thing, and I-I saw the attack to L Corp on the news.” Maya fills you in on what she knows, making your job a lot easier, because now you just have to fill in the gaps. “Is everyone there ok?”

“Yeah. Now.” You push a smile out, but it comes out empty and sad. “But, um, when they attacked it, they-they took Lena.”

“What?” Maya yells, looking scared and shocked.

“It’s ok. She’s ok now.” You rush to reassure her. “It took a while, but she’s-she’s safe and totally fine.”

“So, what happened? Why did Jamie’s mom go to pick you and then her?”

“She thought we could be in danger too. Apparently, they wanted to attack to the entire family, so-”

“Were you? In danger?” You smile a little thinking you literally died and was brought back to life.

“Maybe, but-” You see her expression switch to worry immediately. “The entire family was in a safe place just waiting.”

It’s not lying. Whatever you’re doing here can’t be called lying, right? You’re leaving all important -maybe too important- information, but you haven’t lied at all. The family was in a safe place, she doesn’t have to know you weren’t there too.

“Oh, I-” Maya reaches for her backpack and gives you your phone. You raise your eyebrow, confused. “Jamie put it on your locker, and I sorta forgot and have been calling you non-stop for the past week.”

“Thank you.” You pick the phone in her hand and toss it behind you without even a glance at it. “So, um, this thing that happened.” You breathe deep trying to get your words out. “It’s more common than it should in our family.”

“Because you’re Luthors?”

“Um…” No? Yes? Maybe? You breathe again. “I guess that’s also one of the reasons. You know how people hate us. I mean, even your family hates us.”

“But they wouldn’t-”

“No! Of course not! That’s not what I meant.” This is harder than you could imagine. “But some other people would, you know. So, we’re sort of always in danger somehow. I mean, last year they tried to kill Lena, and you remember when I had that cast on.”

“That was all because of your family name?”

“It was certainly because of my family.” But she doesn’t need to know what side of the family, right? Really, it doesn’t feel fair blaming all on the Luthor side when being a Super has caused a lot more problems to you, but you can’t exactly tell her that. As long as you don’t straight up lie, you can somehow forgive yourself. “I just-I’ll understand if you want to run away and pretend that we’ve never met.”

“What? Babe, I don’t want that!” Maya holds your face and kisses you gently. “I wanted the opposite, I-I wanted to be there for you, and hold your hand when all of this was happening.”

“You did?”

“I do.” Maya says, pulling you into a hug, and you melt into her arms.

“I think I’m gonna need it, cause I’m not in a very good place right now.” You say and she kisses your cheek.

“I’m here for you.” She whispers next to your ear, and you smile.

Kara comes back a while later, with the donuts in hands, and you share them with Maya. Definitely, donuts could not fix you. Kara’s attention was nice but could not fix you. Maya’s kisses made you feel better, but no, they also couldn’t fix you. Lena’s hug as soon as she walks in home, a lot earlier than she’s used to, sure helped but you’re still not fixed.

“Baby? Do you want to help me with dinner?” Lena asks, calling your attention and you keep looking at your phone. You’ve been checking it and there’s so many missed calls and texts from Maya you feel bad for not looking for it before.

“Hm?”

“Hey.” Lena kneels in front of you, both hands on your knees, and you finally lower your phone to look at her. “Are you ok?”

“No.” You sigh. “I don’t think I am, no.”

“What are we going to do about it?” She asks, softly. No pressure. No push.

“It seems that therapy is probably overdue in this case.”

Lena gets up from the floor and kisses your cheek. She looks at you with a smile. “I’m proud of you. That’s a big step. Especially for a Luthor. But we still got you. You know that don’t you?”

“Stronger together.”

Lena shows you her hand. You hold it, before getting up. “Always.”

It seems that even though you stopped in time, in place and with the same emotions, life has not stopped itself too.

So, begrudgingly, you go back to school, and willingly, you go to therapy. And your therapist has to sign so many NDAs that you actually feel safe telling him everything. Words come out of your mouth so fast, he is pretty much acquainted with your entire life after just one hour.

“Hey!” Kara’s voice comes from the living room the moment you step inside your house. “We’re in here!”

You adjust your glasses on your face. Don’t do it. Don’t take them off, don’t look to the living room. You walk there slowly, to find both of your moms on one couch, Alex and Kelly on the other, and Jamie sitting on the floor.

“We were waiting for you to start.” Kara adds, and you notice the games on the coffee table. Great. Game night. Exactly what you didn’t need.

“I won’t be playing tonight.” You give one look at Jamie, and she stands up right away, understanding you probably need to talk.

“Are you… sure?” Lena asks and you agree with your head.

“Oh, we need to talk, actually.” Jamie adds and her help it’s much appreciated.

“Well, do you-maybe-would you like to-how was your therapy session?” Kara asks, and everyone’s faces light up in genuine curiosity. You push a smile out of your lips.

“Great! We talked about a lot of things.” You point upstairs with your head, and Jamie agrees, going to your side so you both can leave the room. “In fact, I even made a resolution.”

“Oh, that’s-” Lena looks at Kelly, like she is asking whether it is a good thing or not. Kelly agrees with her head. “So good! Can you tell us about it?”

“Sure.” Your smile comes out untruthfully. “I have decided that I’ll quit being Superkid.” You breathe out one more time and say it more assertively this time. “Starting today, Superkid doesn’t exist anymore.”

#supergirl #kara danvers #supercorp #supercorpfamily #lena luthor #supercorp daughter #kara x lena #kara x reader #supercorp fanfic #lena x reader #reader insert #superkid

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lena-in-a-red-dress · 3 years

Text

Metallo!Lena AU Pt 27

"Drop the syringe, Michaels!"

Kara hears the bark of Alex's order in the middle of a pitch meeting at CatCo. In the time it takes her to fumble out of the room and speed to the DEO, she subsequently hears the hiss of Alex's holster and the retort of a gunshot. She arrives in Lena's lab in time to catch the syringe before it hits the floor. Michaels' body receive no such consideration: it drops to the tile in a heap, lifeless.

Kara stares at Alex, eyes wide and heart pounding. Lena sleeps on, undisturbed by the gunshot. When Kara turns her gaze to the syringe in her hand, she's shocked to see that while the plunger is pulled back, there's nothing in it.

"It's empty," she tells Alex, horror creeping into her voice. Has Alex killed a man for some sort of bluff?

"If he'd pushed that air into Lena's IV, she'd be dead in a matter of minutes," Alex tells her, drawing back to her full height. "Would have looked like a heart attack."

Kara blinks. It would take someone sinister to kill an unconscious woman, and more so to not leave a trace.

"I guess we found our mole," Alex continues. She glares down at Michaels. "I don't think he had time to do anything, but I want to check her just in case..."

Alex moves towards Lena, only to stop as she passes Kara, arrested by a loose, but iron grip on her arm.

"Where were the guards?" Kara asks softly. Since the moment Lena has been stabilized, Alex had two guards posted at the door to Lena's lab to ensure no one without authorization could enter.

Michaels is-- was-- an analyst. He had no business gaining access to Lena. He shouldn't have made it this far.

A telling silence answers her.

"You used her as bait."

Kara's hand slips away.

"I need to check on Lena."

Alex widens the distance between them, and neither of them share another word.

---

Lena dreams of Kara.

At least, she thinks she's dreaming. She claws her way to the surface of a black, fathomless lake, and for a few moments she sees a glimpse of Kara's face. An apparition perhaps, a manifestation of her one wish to see her friend again. But in the off chance it isnt a dream, she issues a final plea.

"Please, kill me."

She knows what Lex wanted to turn her into: he wanted to warp her body into a weapon for him to wield. The sight of Kara's desperate features only confirms that he must have succeeded. So she issues her plea just as an unseen hand reaches from the depths and tugs her back underwater.

Darkness presses in around her, filling her lungs and her senses with chaos and rage not her own. But just before it can fill her completely, a force impacts her chest hard enough to drive the breath from her body. Her world blinks out of existence, and in the void Lena floats.

How long she hangs there, suspended in nothingness, Lena doesnt know. When next she has eyes to open, she does so to find herself staring up at the ceiling of the Cadmus warehouse. She'll know that ceiling until the day she dies: with its spots of damp and mold, plaster sealing the long crack spanning nearly half its width. She'd stared at that sealed crack for days, hunting for any hint the crack would grow to one day collapse and kill her for good.

Only this time, when Lena takes her gaze from the ceiling, she sees she is not bound to the operating table like she was for all those months. Her limbs are free, but she cannot move them. To her horror, her chest is cut open as if for an autopsy: her mother gazes down at her, with something like pity in her eyes.

"You could have been the Luthor who changed the world," Lillian says.

Then her attention turns to the Y-incision flaps. With a long handled bolt cutter, she begins to snap Lena's ribs one by one, until she is able to pry her fingers between Lena's ribcage and sternum and forcing it open with a sickening crunch.

Lena can't move as her mother starts rooting around her chest cavity. She can't breathe. She can't scream. All she can do is lie there, mired in horror, as tears stream down her cheeks.

I am dead, she realizes. There's no room in her for relief, not when this is to be her eternity. Just when she thinks she cant take any more, Lena disconnects from her body. She floats, looking down on herself from above, watching the horror unfold.

I never escaped, did I, she thinks to herself. I was always here.

"I'm so sorry, Lena."

A voice cuts through the scene, startling Lena as though from a dream.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't able to sit with you sooner, but Alex was... well, she was trying to protect me. But she's you're doing fine now."

Kara.

Relief floods through Lena, filling her lungs with air.

"We've done what we can, Lena," Kara's voice continues. "The rest is up to you."

If Lena didn't imagine her time away from Cadmus, if she hadn't imagined Kara, then... perhaps she wasn't dead after all. And if she isn't dead.... then she can still fight.

Below on the operating table, her fingers twitch.

---

In the days that follow, Alex doesn't try to explain herself. She doesn't need to: Kara understands the reasons behind her actions, but she doesn't agree with them. Not when it's Lena's safety in the balance. And so they enter into an uneasy truce: Kara allows Alex to care for Lena, but doesn't let Lena out of her sight.

Not until an alien attack calls her out on Supergirl business. It takes hours, and by the finish of it, she's exhausted, and all she wants to do now is go home, take a shower, and curl up with her favorite television show.

Except home isn't home anymore. Devoid of Lena, it's just an empty apartment, hollow and lifeless.

Hovering above the cityscape, Kara allows herself a moment to wallow, closing her eyes against the burn of tears.

"Supergirl, you're needed at the DEO," Alex says over comms, bringing Kara back to reality.

"On my way," she clips back, just shy of a growl.

She lands on her platform at the DEO moments later, intent on a a quick rinse in the locker room before making her way to Lena's lab. But there's an unusual whisper in the building that Kara picks up on immediately, and eyes flicker towards her in concern before skittering away.

Alarm floods Kara immediately, and she speeds to the lab-- only to find the scene has changed.

Finding Alex there is common enough, though less so in the days since the start of their enduring silence. But this time, Lena isn't lying prone on the hospital bed. She's upright, sitting with her legs over one side of the bed, speaking with Alex in low tones.

The door hisses open to admit Kara, prompting them both to turn and look at her. Alex melts away, but Kara doesn't notice. All she can see is the acuity of Lena's gaze, the familiar spark that soon gives way to a smile.

"Hey," Lena greets.

Kara blurs into a hug, wrapping her arms around Lena and hugging her fiercely. Lena softens into her, folding herself into the nooks and crannies of Kara's embrace as she tucks her face against Kara's neck.

They stay like that, for what seems like hours.

"Thank you," Lena whispers, so softly only Kara could hear. "Thank you for breaking your promise."

Kara only smiles. "Thanks to you, I didn't have to. We only had to run interference long enough for you to fight back on your own."

Lena presses her face deeper into the crook of Kara's neck, her breath warm and fluttering against Kara's skin. It was a small comfort, but Kara as much as she received: something inside her chest eases, a missing piece locking back into place.

Their fight isn't over yet: Lex and Lillian are still out there, Lena's reputation lies in ruins. But right here, right now, they have each other, and that's enough.

previous / fin

#metallo lena au #supercorp #lena wakes up

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infernalshadowtheif · 3 years

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Synthetic Blood

After taking over her father's company, Lena Luthor spends her time trying to develop a safe man made synthetic blood for medical science and maybe for herself and her kind too of course. You see, Lena is technically human but she is also technically a vampire, well more of a half vampire that's more or less human except for her extra abilities and vitality. As she tries to develop a Blood substitute her brother Lex attempts to steer her away from the light and back down a dark path that has always beckoned her to walk down.

[Look, vampires are kinda cool and I've been meaning to finish this idea that I literally dreamed about last year so let me know if you guys like it, hate it, or have ideas for it yeah? I'll post it on Ao3 later.] Words: 3,036K 🙃

Lillian took the cold metal brush handle in her hand, making it up to her hair, and started to brush through the already smooth tresses of hair on Lena's head.

"On to more pressing matters, it seems we won't be hunting for a while, seeing that the humans are now more aware of our kind since your brother started his little war with the Kryptonians." The aimless brushing continued a bit rougher than before but not painful.

"How are we to feed then mother, how are you going to feed? I am obviously already prepared but I know you prefer straight from the source." There was a slight hesitation in the last stroke of the cold brush.

Lillian set it down slowly almost methodically as she turned away and towards the moonlit window behind them.

Lena looked after the older woman cautiously.

"Mother?" Wearily she stood from the vanity mirror and closer to Lillian’s side.

She received a click of a tongue as an answer before she sighed.

"I hated how it reeked on his body, your father I mean, I hated how the smell of artificial blood was always stuck to him, it reminded me of that awful white meat substitute that some humans love in place of real meat."

"Tofu mother," Lena added helpfully as Lillian sneered further at the window and crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.

"Yes, that was it. He always smelled of his fake blood, you already adopted his tendencies to not want to drink from the source of what we need to survive, which is fine but I’ll never understand it." She turned her head to Lena almost puzzled.

“Well mother I know that this situation will be harder but I’ll try and figure something out for us. I'm sure I can maybe synthesize something more to your preferences if need be."

Lillian wasn't the warmest parent compared to most others but after Lex went on with his blood-war with the aliens, she saw that Lena was more stable than she originally thought, especially compared to her son. So through great effort and shattered pride, she tried her best to bridge the gap between her and her daughter as best as she could, trying to make up for years of neglect and misplaced scorn.

With a defeated sigh Lillian finally turned to look at her youngest,

"Thank you, dear, I know you'll try no matter how many times I say I'll be fine. I just want you to use that brilliant brain of yours for more than just little old me, I'm content with the choices and endless amount of repenting I have waiting for me when it's time." Lillian never smiled at Lena, at least not often, especially as a child, but the one she gave her at that moment was the best one she'd ever seen.

“I think we all do mother. Thank you for taking care of me and letting me wait out the sun for today, I lost track of time again.” Lena lightly skims her thumb over the still healing blemish on her arm, if she were a full vampire like the rest of the Luthors in her family she would have lost it or simply turned to dust as her father did.

“Any time dear, this is still your home too, no matter what your brother claims.”

Lena almost cries, such simple words that her past self would have never dreamed of hearing from the woman before her, Lena simply nods in acknowledgment and heads back out to her car to get back to her apartment.

The drive back to National City is quiet, the long highway back lets her mind playback the hellish day she had, to say she’s dreading the minute she has to see the cities resident Super would be an understatement.

She saw me, I know she saw what I’m capable of. Or at least that I'm definitely NOT human.

Lena’s thoughts turn darker as she imagines the red-caped hero’s look of repulsion and utter hate when she does truly figure out that she’s a creature of the dark, or, at least half of one.

Her mind spirals further down the dark hole of fear of what she will do with her, so much so that she missed the new set of headlights quickly coming closer in her side-view mirror.

When it finally caught enough to slam into her back bumper she quickly snaps out of it and tries to keep her own car on the road and away from the sheer drop of the mountainside to her right.

“Fuck! Now, what!?” The vehicle sways again as the car behind her clashes into hers, she took one of her more pedestrian cars today so her usual horsepower she’d use to escape is severely lacking this time as another hit on her life is in motion again this week.

So much for going incognito.

The shattering of her rear window makes her jump, the side of her car slamming right into the metal railing, seeing the lack of ground on the other side has her heart drop right into her stomach as she tries to get control again.

Big nope to that.

Another pop was registered in Lena’s brain as she finally lost control of her car, her vision spinning just as quickly as the car itself.

“Fuckfuckfuck! I swear, I'm going to stake you myself when I deal with your pets, Lex!” Sweating out of panic, Lena decides that trying to outspeed them won’t happen while in her brick ford car, she figures that she just might have to use some of her power for this one.

Her car makes a sudden stop as the front end crashes through the metal railing at the edge of the road, she was lucky the car became wedged into the twisted metal otherwise she would have had a very unfortunate freefall over the cliff.

Dizzyingly, Lena pries her hands from the steering wheel, her death grip making her bones ache as she tried for her seatbelt next. The sound of car doors slamming shut jumpstarts her heartrate, flooding her system with adrenaline.

The shadows in the headlights get closer, the sound of a gun reloading, four sets of boots crunching on gravel as they round her car on both sides.

She is actually scared now, her right shoulder twinges painfully as she tries to rip out the buckle of her seatbelt, “Ah, shit.” They actually hit her it seems, her white blouse is starting to bleed red down her arm the more she struggles on the belt.

A balding man crouches down into her window, his eyes are glazed over, his face is twisted into a sickening grin. “Hello halfy,” He sneers. “Your big brother wanted us to check in on you this fine night, he was deathly worried for your health as of late.”

His gaze snaps to her bloody shoulder fixated on it for a second or so as he takes a deep breath of warm fresh blood, his dull eyes start to pool red as he takes another lung full of bloody air.

Lena shudders in disgust tilting her face away from his, he reeks of death and rot, ghouls were her least favorite creature that her brother had in his employ.

“Enjoying ourselves are we?” She mutters as his eyes roll open again.

He hums in delight. “He did say your blood was more or less mortal, it's almost humanly sweet.” his smile widens, some kind of old meat seemingly stuck in his teeth and gums as he appraises the state of her and her battered car. “Shame you didn't drive your nicer car, we could have stripped it for parts, but ah, oh well. We’re only here for you tonight then sadly.”

A creaking noise shook the car as he ripped her driver’s door clean off its hinges, Lenas heightened smell was shocked by a wall of death the bald man oozed when he leaned in to free her of her seatbelt and dragged her out of the car by the scruff of her blouse.

Still dazed and newly freed from the metal deathtrap, Lena saw this as her last chance to try and escape from her brother’s lackeys. “I may smell human but by no means does that mean that I’m weak like one.” Latching onto the ghoul’s arm with shaking hands, Lena uses his own weight to counterbalance them both into the loose dirt and flipped herself over again to grab for his throat. She hates to use it but her power has to be used now before what little blood she does drink wears off and leaves her completely defenseless, she’ll have to kill him quickly.

His body starts to convulse as she uses her hand to tear into his fragile throat, black rotten blood oozing over her fingers as his body finally stops thrashing about. She’s still aware of the three heartbeats of the other goons as she finally stands up, her glowing eyes lock onto a man with mousy brown hair, his own eyes are terrified. They all are.

These ones are all human, two are just boys compared to her own age, and they’re all frozen stock still like rabbits to a fox.

Lena is shaking, she doesn’t kill humans, she won’t stoop to her brother’s level. “Leave, go home and forget about this whole night, I don't want to kill any of you. This man was not human, he likely would have eaten you all after my death so take this as an act of mercy. Please.”

The youngest is seems to want no part so he tossed down his weapon and dragged the other two back to their vehicle, the older ones still frozen and staring at the rapidly decaying body of the now-dead ghoul. “Let’s get the hell out of here guys!”

The car ripped out and back onto the highway leaving a wobbly and drained Lena in the dust, “Ugh!” She shrieks in anger as she kicks the rotten body in her rage.

Before she can take out more of her frustration on the dead ghoul she hears a familiar chime of her phone’s ringtone, or more specifically, Karas ringtone.

“Shit. Movie night, I was supposed to be at Karas tonight.” Grumbling as she whipped her bloody hand on her jeans, she bent over to pick up her cracked phone to answer her friend.

“Lena?” Lena sighed, “Hi Kara, I'm sorry for not calling you back, I seem to have run into some car trouble on my way to yours.” Glancing over to her clearly totaled car she winced at the sight of it, “Well more like it's completely totaled now.”

On Karas’s end of the line, she heard a crash and rushing of footsteps, “Ohmygosh! Are you okay Lena?? Where are you, I can come to get you or send my friend to help? Please tell me you’re okay..”

The brunette felt her eyes well up with tears, she really didn't deserve this human known as Kara Danvers, she really didn't.

“I'm off of creek falls and the main highway near the cliff drop, I'm no worse for wear sort of, I'm standing on my own two feet at the moment so I’d say ok, for now anyway, I definitely need a shower and a lot of sleep after this though.” Lena tried to joke but didn't hear Kara anymore, just a rush of air against the microphone.

Confused Lena checks the line, “Kara? Are you still there?”

“Y-yeah Lena I'm still here, um, please don't be mad." Now that made Lena pause. "What? Why would I be mad at you?"

The wind in the earpiece lighted up a bit, "I'm almost there, I'm picking you up, I called Alex she'll be on her way too okay? Was there another car involved or an animal run across the road?" Panic gripped at Lena, Kara can't see this mess! Let alone the rotting ghoul body at her feet, she wouldn't understand!

"Kara, wait, it’s alright I already called the authorities and everything, it'll take a bit but I'm fine right now, also don't drive while on the phone! I don't want to be the cause of yet another accident tonight." Lena hear Kara scoff into the phone, "Thank you for the concern, but I'm definitely not driving, I don't even have a permit." She chuckled at her own expense.

Another pause.

"I'll be fine, just promise not to be mad when you see me? Yelling is fine but don't hate me, please." Anxiety wasn't a common thing for Lena but right now she can feel it clawing up her throat and she swallowed down her guilt of having her sweet fragile Kara seeing what her own monstrous hands are capable of.

She trusts Kara with her life, she'll have to trust her with her dark secret now. "Only if you promise me the same, it’s a mess over here and I'm certain that it'll be horrific for you to see why."

Kara hummed in thought for a second, "Well duh, I could never hate you Lena, or any other bad emotion towards you really." She said carefully like if she said it louder Lena wouldn't believe her.

"Ah wait, I think I see you? Oh." Kara whispered then the line went dead.

Lena was sitting hunched against her busted car, looking around confused at the lack of vehicle, Kara nowhere in sight. Letting out a ragged breath Lena let her head fall back with her eyes closed, praying that Kara would listen to her explain the scene before her.

The brunette’s eyes snapped open when she felt a warm hand on her good shoulder, to say she almost shit a brick would be putting it very lightly because right before her was Supergirl, but in Kara Danvers' sweats, T-shirt, and a very red cape with no socks or shoes to top it all off. Being shocked would be a very light word for how Lena is at that moment.

Super- uh, Kara is pretty much herself while she looks Lena over, making soft cooing noises as she checks over each scrape and bruise, she all but balls her eyes out when she shifts Lena's shirt to check the gunshot wound.

"Lena, Rao, I should have listened further out for you, if I was listening I could have stopped this." Lena was a bit slow to process her words but she quickly bounced back and stupidly asked, “Kara? You’re not human?” Kara stilled her hands, “Yeah. I'm sorry I kept it from you ‘till now, I just could never find the right moment to tell you. I was going to try again tonight if that’s worth anything.”

Kara did look nervous, wary that Lena was angry about her lying for so long, but instead of being angry Lena just full body laughed at their predicament.

As light tears started to form in Lena's eyes Kara nervously held the brunette's hand. "Lena? I don't know if laughing should make me feel nervous or happy right now."

Lena chuckled a couple more times and pulled the blonde into a relieved hug. "I've been an idiot, I've been trying to bring up the fact that I'm not human either for the past year Kara, so right now I think it's a bit ridiculous that you've been worrying about the same thing." Lena definitely didn't miss the full bodied twitch Kara did after hearing her say this, she understood though, Lena is technically human but only partially. It was briefly a one sided embrace until Kara hugged her back with almost all her strength, leaving Lena only mildly squished but overall content.

Their little bubble was immediately burst when a black SUV pulled up to blind the two of them, a bedraggled Alex dressed in her own pajamas and combat boots holding a shovel, "Kara. Tell me why did you text me 911 please bring a shovel! At 1 am Kara- WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??"

Alex is out of her car and right by Kara's side almost instantly when the once thought to be dead ghoul flips onto its side to drag its to Lena, grossly gurgling its black blood as it crawls over to the trio.

"That would be what's left of my brother's newest hit and sent to check in on me. He's a ghoul so I probably should have made sure to take the whole head off inside of ripping her throat out." Lena extracts herself from an equally shocked Kara and tugs the shovel out of Alex's limp fingers, "Please pardon me, I'll give it right back."

Alex looks at her dumbfounded, Lena shrugs as she turns back to the ghoul clearly annoyed beyond belief. "I would say have a nice trip given that you're going straight to hell but I really don't appreciate what you did to my car, " she glances over at the once upon a time pristine white paint job and cringes at the many bullet holes and scratches.

"Actually I'm more pissed that I had to meet you at all, so, bye now."

She raised the shovel as high as she could with her good arm and swung down with all of her might, the ghoul let out one last hiss as the head fell from his body.

Exhausted Lena looks back at the gawking Danvers sisters, "Help me clean this up and I'll get you both whatever food you want and could eat for a month?" She was almost certain Alex was going to shoot her up until that offer was in play, both sisters bolted up and came over to help.

"You're also going to fill us in about whatever the hell that thing was and why he worked for your brother." Alex stated as she waved her hand in Lena's direction in an almost protective voice.

"And about the not human thing." Kara mumbled as she grabbed the creatures legs over to the deepening hold Alex was currently working on.

With a big sigh of relief Lena nodded, vowing to answer whatever her two friends asked her.

"Deal."

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anastasiabeaverhousen87 · 3 years

Text

Make Wise Choices Part 6: Soup and fever

Arriving at the Danvers’s apartment Alex parks the SUV, killed the engine and looks into the rear-view mirror to check on y/n. The youngest Danvers is completely passed out slightly snoring cuddle to the blonde doctor. The doctor in turn is looking down at the young woman in her arms mesmerized by the view of rosy cheeks and pouty lips. Alex just smiles at the both of them, they do look cute together.

Kara: “Oh my God isn’t she the cutest, it just makes you want to grab her checks and squish them, so freaking adorable” – the blonde superhero says gushing about her sister.

Dr. Sharpe: “She is very beautiful indeed; she does look quite adorable while sleeping. But I am a bit concern about how rosy her cheeks are looking, and she feels too warm”

Alex opens the door for Cassandra so she can get out, but the sound of the door and the moving of the arms makes y/n a bit fussy.

The eldest Danvers touches y/n cheeks and forehead to check for a fever and hums – “she is a bit warm, but nothing too concerning. She tends to suffer from mild fevers due to stress or when overtired. But let’s get her up and I will check her temp in the apartment, I think it’s for the cold she is coming down with”

y/n moves and puts an arm around the doctor’s neck and hides her face, clearly not happy at the women disrupting her sleep.

Y/n: “ghnooo, comfy don’t move”. - you complain.

Kara: “Yes, she is quite the cuddler. Especially when tired or sick. Want me to help you with her? She is mainly dead weight by now. She won’t cooperate with you when she is like this”.

Dr. Sharpe: “that’s fine I don’t mind, and she is not really heavy. Quite the opposite. I can take her upstairs. And don’t take it this the wrong way, but I’m fairly certain I’m a bit sturdier than you”- she blonde doctor gives a chuckle.

Kara: “Okaaaay then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though. And I bet you are, but I’m used to carry around this goober since she was like 5”

Alex: “yeah she is very clingy especially with Kara., but it’s true she is now mainly dead weight”

Lena- “She won’t drop her, that woman is pure muscle. She has like 5 black belts in all sorts of martial arts and I have the feeling she is a ninja, but I don’t have further evidence to prove that”- the green- eyed woman says and chuckles.

The blonde doctor laughs at this - “I do a lot of heavy lifting and truly I don’t mind. “- says while stepping out of the car with y/n in her arms like she weights nothing at all. Then turn at her friend -“And hey then if you say all those nice things about me why you asked if I had her, you were worried I would drop her back at the office “ - the woman accuses her friend but with an amuse smile on her face

Lena: “I knew you had her; I was double checking. I’m just too fond of y/n and I worry, so sue me!”

Kara: “yeah right Lena, y/n has you wrapped around her finger sooo bad”

Alex: “please, you’re one to talk”-mocks her sister.

The women entered the apartment and Cassandra went to the living room to place Y/n at the couch

Dr. Sharpe: “Should I lay her here or in her room?”

Alex: “The couch Is fine, I want to check her temp and wake her for a little bit, she hasn’t eaten anything if I want to give her something for the cold and she needs something to eat. I don’t want her glucose levels to drop”

Dr. Sharpe: “Is she a diabetic?”

Alex: “No, she’s not. but when she was younger, she struggled with nondiabetic hypoglycemia. It was due to the medication she was taken at the time. We kind of get used to always check she was under the normal levels and she gets cranky, dizzy and sometimes gets horrible headaches if she doesn’t eat and her blood sugar gets low. I don’t want her feeling worse, right now I think she had enough with the teeth surgery and now probably getting sick with a cold”

Dr. Sharpe: “Oh I see. We definitely don’t want that, poor baby”- the doctor looks down at you with a sweet smile”

Alex: “now, here comes the fun part. She doesn’t like being waken up when she is sick.”- the red head looks down sadly at y/n

Kara: “what’s even worse is that you are going to feed her something gross like broccoli. She hates veggies by the way…” the blonde Danvers mentions with a grimace at thinking of vegetables.

Lena: “there’s nothing wrong with broccoli. You two are just picky eaters who enjoy junk food way too much”.

Kara: “you should see when trying to feed her veggies. She is the worst there is. Is always a negotiation strategy. And Lena is the one that handles that , when Alex and y/n fight over veggies always ends with y/n in tears.”

Dr. Sharpe: “Wait… how about you let me cook dinner . I make a really nice creamy chicken noodle soup with mushrooms that can be perfect for her to eat and for us too. Healthy and comforting. My nonna used to make it for me”

Lena: “ohhh yes, that sounds delicious “

Alex: “that actually sounds amazing. And Lena has all the healthy stuff in the fridge so I bet all ingredients you need you can find here”

Kara; “I would never say no to food, especially if made by an Italian woman”

Dr. Sharpe, “ok so I’m going to start on diner, while you check on y/n. When diner is done you can wake her up and feed her and she can take her meds”

Y/n: “Lexie?” - You mumble asking for your big sis, you only call her Lexie when you feel unwell.

Alex: “I’m here baby”.- running her fingers through your hair soothingly

Y/n; “Lexie am cold” - a tear runs down your rosy cheek.

Alex: “oh sweet girl; you’re not felling okay aren’t you? Ok, change of plans, Sharpe you go ahead and continue with the diner prep, Kara can you bring a set of lighter set of pajamas for y/n. I don’t want her overheated. Now baby I’m going to check your temperature and give you some juice or Pedialyte while diner is ready”

Kara: “On it!”

Lena: “come one Cassie, I’ll help you with diner”- the blonde doctor and Lena walk to the kitchen.

Alex: “Here, let me take your temp baby”. - the red head puts the thermometer in your ear and waits for the beep “100.5, that’s a fever but not too bad, let get you into more comfortable jammies and I will bring a light sheet. I can’t bring the blanket baby; you will get too warm and would bring your temp up”

Y/n; “hold me please “- a couple tears run down your cheeks, tears of exhaustion.

Alex: “ok let me change you into fresh jammies and I will hold you before diner. Lena can you bring me a cold compress for y/n. Let see if that can bring the fever down a bit. I don’t want to medicate her just yet”

Alex and Kara work fast on changing your clothes while Lena returns with the cold compress. Alex sits down and Kara picks you up and settles you in Alex lap. While Lena presses the cold compress on your forehead and passes one of the bottles filled with cold grape Pedialyte.

Alex: “Ok sweetie, here drink some Pedialyte, diner should be ready soon”. – and starts to hum softly a tune.

Lena returns to the Kitchen where the blonde doctor is working on getting the soup cooked.

Dr Sharpe : “is she okay?”

Lena; “mild fever, but she seems like she settled down okay now that she is with Alex. She tends to be more clingy to Kara but when she really feels bad , when she is too exhausted or sick, she always wants Alex near her. She is her big sister after all”

Kara; “yeah, Alex has always been our rock since we were kids. Like pretty much raise us , I mean our mom Eliza is the best but she was always busy when we were younger and after Jeremahia took a job that kept him away most of the time, Alex was always more like a parent figure to us, especially to y/n. I didn’t get sick often, but y/n unfortunately wasn’t as lucky. Her immune system wasn’t the best. Y/n would never calm down if Alex was not with her to rock her to sleep. Over the years she became more and more comfortable with me, but when I first moved into the Danvers home y/n would only let Alex hold her when she was very sick. Not even Eliza was able to calm her down.”

The three women look back the at couch where Alex was still humming softly a tune to y/n. still awake but clearly not very aware of much.

Dr. Sharpe: “ok diner should be ready in about 10 minutes.”

Kara works on setting up the table with Lena. While the blonde doctor starts plating the soup for everyone.

Once everything was settled, the blue-eyed doctor walks into the living room to let Alex knows diner is ready.

Dr. Sharpe: “Diner’s ready, you want me to bring her soup here or to the table?”

Alex: “I think the table. She will fall asleep if she is not sitting down or make a mess instead of eating anything. Come on sweetie, wake up for a little bit diner is ready”- she tries to coax you into a more conscious state.

Y/n: “No wanna. Not hungry”- and you try to settle more comfortably on your sister to fall asleep.

Alex: “None of that. come on, Cassandra made her special soup just for you and you need to eat something”

y/n: “She did? For me?” – tearing up a bit and cover a sneeze with the inside of your elbow- “Ok, I guess I can eat something” - you look to the blonde woman who is smiling kindly at you.

Alex: “why the tears baby? – Alex touches your forehead- “Oh baby you feel warmer. Come one lets get you food and then your meds”

Alex walks you to the table where Kara and Lena are waiting and began to eat. Alex begins to feed you the soup which is very tasty.

y/n: “this taste so good, Thank you Cassandra”

Kara: “Oh wow yes its amazing. So yummy”- while pretty much eaten her soup a long with a huge piece of garlic bread in her mouth.

Alex: “Kara maybe you should try to savor it first, you just inhale the whole thing”

Kara: “Ha Ha very funny Alex”

Lena: “Well it is quite delicious. Thank You Cassie.”

Dr. Sharpe: “Well you are all very welcome, I’m glad you liked it. I can always cook more dishes for you, I really love cooking”

Kara: “You will never hear me complaining about food, so by all means you can feed me anytime. This is sooooo good.”

Pleasant chatter among the women at the table continues while Alex works on feeding you the soup, but you only manage half the bowl as you grow too tire and you just want to sleep.

y/n: “I can’t eat anymore Alex, I’m so sleepy”- you look pleadingly to your sister.

Alex: “Ok Kiddo, you ate enough so I can give you the meds, lets get you to bed”

Kara: “Let me take her, you finish your soup. When you’re done you can come to check on her”

Dr. Sharpe: “Yes Alex, you haven’t eaten, I can give her the meds, I’m guessing the cold medicine with the fever reducer, right?”

Alex: “Yes, the ones in the coffee table. And thank you I’ll be right there”

Kara walks to where you’re sitting at the table and take you to your room.

Kara: “Come here sweetie”

You just let yourself be carried away to your room while the blonde doctor picks up her medical bag and the meds on the coffee table.

Kara sits you in your bed while she goes back to bring a glass of water.

Dr. Sharpe: “Hi sweetie, let me take your temp really quick, you are looking quite flush right now”

y/n: “Well I think is mainly your fault, just so you know” – you reply with a hint of flirt behind the words

Dr. Sharpe: “funny girl, may that be the case, just humor me. I don’t like take advantage of sick and delirious women while their inhibitions are low”

y/n: “You can totally take advantage of me”- you try to wink and wiggle your eyebrows, but you are feeling all groggy, so you look like dork with no sense of coordination.

Dr. Sharpe: “well that’s cute, you ‘cute. And all in due time pretty girl”- The blonde woman pokes your nose. And you just pout at her.

Kara: “Ohhhh look at that, the pouting. What you did?”

Dr. Sharpe: “I just want to check her temp; her face looks a bit too flush”

Kara looks at you and nods. “Lay back kiddo and let the doc check your temp”- you comply resting your back into the pillows while the blonde doctor works on checking the surgical foam in your mouth and your temp.

Dr. Sharpe: “You do have a fever pretty girl. The foam for your teeth seems okay and you shouldn’t feel any pain”

Alex walks into the room at the moment the doctor speaks and frowns at the mention of the high temperature.

Alex: “Ok yes, that’s higher than before. Ok here baby, please drink this and lay down.”

Lena walks into the room carrying a bowl with cold water and a few rags. “Here Alex, I brought a few cold compresses to try and bring her temperature down a bit”

Alex handles you a tiny cup with cold medicine and fever reduced. You take it and lay yourself down. Lena and Kara say their goodbye and good night to you.

Dr. Sharpe: “Get well soon pretty girl, sleep tight and rest bella”

y/n: “Will you come to visit soon? I kinda like the idea of the date thing you mentioned before.”

The Danvers and Lena chuckle at that while the blond only looks a bit taken aback but still pleased that the littlest Danvers wants to see her again.

Dr. Sharpe: “You were listening huh? I can definitely arrange to that, however you need to get well first sweet thing” -The doctor places a gentle kiss to your forehead – “sweet dreams”

Y/n: “Thank you” – you yawn and began to close your eyes.

Dr. Sharpe: “Ok I’m leaving now, I’ll see myself out, talk to you later Alex and call me if you need anything”

Alex nods and says good night to the doctor while the blonde doctor walks back to the living room to say goodbye to Lena and the Kara.

Alex: “Okay sweet girl, I’m going to change and get my phone and I’ll stay with you tonight, okay?”

You just nod and close your eyes succumbing to sleep.

You wake up and the room is dark, you can feel a body next to you, but you feel too hot and remove your sheets from you. But the moment you do, you feel cold. You whimper because you feel miserable.

Alex senses you are moving around and turn on the lights to check on you. She looks down at you and notices your red cheeks and sweaty locks. Puts a hand on your cheeks and forehead.

Alex: “Oh sweet girl, you fever got worse let me check”- she quickly checks your temp, 103. “this is not good, come one we need to bring your temperature down”

Alex runs to the bathroom and fills the bathtub with barely lukewarm water and returns to your room to take you to the bathroom. You cling to her trying to get war again after you start to shiver from the cold from the temperature change. Alex removes your clothes and sits you in the bathtub.

You have a few tears down your face and whimper at the cold of the water. In that moment Kara walks into the bathroom.

Kara: “Oh no, fever got worse?” and sits next to Alex while she pours water down your back, neck and front. After a while Alex notices that your temp is down, and Kara works on getting you up and bundle up in a soft towel and brings you back to your room. There they put in a loose shirt and clean underwear but leave you just on that to avoid overheating you. You feel cooler to the touch and Alex brings more medicine.

Alex: “Okay, open up kiddo” – you take the medicine and try to find a comfy spot.

Kara lays down next to you as well as Alex, who touches your arm no wanting to get your body heat up. But still for you to feel comforted by their presence. You can feel a cool rag on your forehead and the soothing voice of Kara signing softly a song and you drift off once again.

note: Sorry not my best and honestly not quite happy with this. not feeling it, i don't have that much inspiration. I’ll get it better for Part 7.

#baby danvers #alex x baby danvers #baby!danvers #baby danvers x lena #baby danvers x kara #lena luthor #kara danvers imagine #kara x reader #kara danvers #alex danvers #supercorp #supergirl

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kassies-take · 4 years

Text

A Page From Maggie’s Book

Can you do a Maggie Sawyer x best friend reader badass team up where reader is new to superhero work and decides to go on a ride along with Maggie to see how police handle threats or something?

@healthtobination

A/n: Sorry it’s taken awhile for me to do this

Warning: Rape, violence

Maggie Sawyer x BestFriend!Reader

Word Count: 1747

“Do I get a gun?” you asked after putting on bullet proof gear.

Maggie scoffed, “you think I am going to give you a gun? That’s funny.”

“It was worth a try,” you shrugged.

“You don’t need a gun when you’ve got force fields.”

“Are we going to stop a robbery? Car chase? Ooh a...”

Maggie chuckled. “You’re cute, I’m a detective officer not a patrol officer.”

“So what do you do?”

“First off, you don’t need this.” Maggie gestured to the bullet proof vest. “till necessary. Second detectives don’t have your typical police cars, we’re stealthy, we find information. Our ride is unmarked cars.”

“What information do you find?” You asked leaning against Maggie’s desk

“We find anything and everything about suspects, their high school, the clubs they join, the name of their family pet, their sister’s name, parents name, job, friends. Everything.”

“So what do we do now.”

“Research.”

You tapped a pen on your knee continuously. The constants ticks made Maggie look at you with a raised eyebrow. She rolled closer to the right side of her desk, took out a key and opened the bottom cabinet. The detective pulled out a thick beige folder and handed it to you.

“What is this?”

“Victims.”

“Victims? Of?”

“Look through them.”

The file revealed multiple women with rape at the bottom.

“All of these women were rapped?” You flipped though several pages.

“You’ve worked with Alex and Kara before, they both go way to fast into action. Punching their way into things. We go the whole way, we want the man responsible to rot in hell. We find evidence and we don’t hold back and we do it for them.”

“Kara and Alex catch the guy. Kara’s a reporter so she has to get evidence.”

“Most of the time, Alex or Kara catch the guys but they get away from lack of evidence. Little Danvers may have evidence but she does not get to control the jury, or how the other side uses the evidence.”

“Sawyer, come have a look at this.”

You followed Maggie down the hall. The other officer played a footage. A view over the city.

“Real-estate, so what.”

“Wait,” The camera flew closer towards a window. Past the window was a girl changing.

“This is disgusting,” you glared at the screen.

“We’ve got a peeping Tom,” Maggie crossed her arms.

“It gets worse,” the screen cut to a bed room corner showcasing the whole master bed room.

A blond millennial woman in a pink shirt and grey sweatpants, walked from what was assumed the bathroom towards the bed. Seconds later a man in a mask pushed her onto the bed. There was obvious signs of struggling from the girl. You turned away as the man ripped open her sweatpants and began thrusting into the woman.

“He’s not a peeping Tom, he’s a serial rapist.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You sat in Maggie’s passenger seat blankly staring at the the dashboard.

“Feet off the dash!” Maggie was as equally as pissed as your were.

“He clearly is the one in the video! Why can’t we use that?”

“We know it’s him, but for all we know it could be a man in a mask.”

“Ugh!!!!” You kicked at dash board. “You know what makes this more frustrating!”

“You kicking my car?”

“No, it’s that parents are more afraid of their kids being gay than they are of their kids being rapist or sex offenders.”

“At least your parents didn’t kick you out of the house.”

“You’ve got a point.”

~~~~~~~~~~

It has been a few days since you and Maggie saw those tapes. You were currently twirling your pen going over notes Maggie took home. You had refused to play any games, even when the rest of Superfriends told you it would be a good way to destress.

“Everything is a dead end right now.” Maggie sighed, explaing to Superfriends about the case.

“Did you guys talk to any of the victims?”

“Yeah we did, one of the ladies said he took her necklace.”

“Did he take anything else from them. You know beside this whole thing?”

“We’re looking through it now. We did find that he went to this coffee shop frequently.” Maggie responded.

“Any of the victims connect there?”

“No nothing. I’m gonna check it out tomorrow see if any of the employees notice him or look through cameras if they have any.”

“Bring me along?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I know this case is important but can we get on with the game?” Alex frowned.

You opened your mouth to say something but Alex stopped you before you could.

“I’m not being insensitive (n/n). I’m very annoyed and as pissed as you are. But the point of tonight was to get your mind off this and have a mental break.” She picked up the dice.

“Lena’s on her IPad going through projects, and Kara is writing an article.” You pointed your thumbs to the side.

Nia peeked over Kara’s shoulder. “Actually they’re sexting each other.” She sipped her wine.

“What now?” You peeked at Lena’s IPad.

“Little Danvers,” Maggie smirked.

“What! Let me have a moment with my girlfriend.”

“That moment better be CONSENSUAL!” You threw popcorn at Kara.

“Why are you only throwing popcorn at me! Not that I mind.” Kara popped a few piece into her mouth.

“Cause I expected it from Lena and not you.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“The workers say he comes often but doesn’t usually stay.” Maggie sighed.

“The other regulars say he just gets coffee and leaves.” You rested your chin on one hand.

“It’s not a dead end yet we can still check the cameras.”

The black and white video showed the suspect parking his car, walking into the coffee shop and leaving in the opposite direction. After several videos of the same action you and Maggie got up from your seats.

“Where ever he goes it must be in walking distance if he doesn’t take his car.”

“Mags... you know how in shows people rent out a storage unit to hide evidence or dead bodies.”

“Yeah what about it?”

“There’s one across the street.”

“Get ready with your shields.” Maggie pulled out her gun from her holster.

“We’re not calling for backup?”

“By the time backup gets here he could be gone.”

You followed after Maggie. Your heart beated against your chest. Clear honeycomb like patterns surrounded your two hands.

Besides a couple of people and a few boxes the units were sickenly quiet. The two of you reached a corridor with flickering lights. The circuit was either cut or it was done on purpose.

Your hands were shaking at the thought. Fear flashed across your face and the shields began to glitch. Maggie on the other hand pulled out a flashlight and sneaked with it over her gun.

Maggie slowed her steps as one of the units were opened. It was deserted yet filled with a twin bed, a few boxes, a blue bike, what seems to be a beaten teddy bear, water bottles, paper towels all lightened by a desk lamp.

“Dispatch this is 129F40, I’m gonna need back up at Studio Self Storage on Conova and Mar-”

A loud yell and a slam against metal met the officer and dispatchers.

“(Y/n!)”

Maggie joined kicking the man away after he threw a punch at your face. He was not giving you any time to recover and use your shields.

He moved his attention onto Maggie after you struggled to stand from the two head traumas you recieved. Maggie was good but he wrestled the gun out of her hands. He overpowered her and slammed her against another metal door.

Maggie pushed maneuvered her legs up against the wall and pushed him back against the other side. She threw punches.

You got up, crossed your arm on your shoulders and pushed forth a shield to move the man away from Maggie.

~~~~~~~~~~

“All officers and firefighters calling all back up, officer is in distress. Officer 129F40 is in distress.”

Dispatcher said over the radio. Alex immediately looked over at J’onn. “That’s Maggie’s number!”

They heard several grunts, as they immediately recognized Maggie and your voices. They also heard a whooshing sounds knowing that that was you and your shields.

Alex reaches towards her ear to activate the com.

“Kar-“

A gunshot echoed around the room before it went silent.

Kara rushed towards you and Maggie as she reached the self storage. She led the police and found Maggie sitting next to you. Kara rushed over scanning your body for the gunshot wound.

“She’s fine. She has a concussion and a few bad scratches.” Maggie said.

“A few? Her eye is swollen shut and her shoulder is dislocated, don’t forget to mention the other cuts on her face.”

You grinned at Kara. “We got him.”

Kara took a look further down the corridor and found a glaring bloody man with his hands cuffed through the bed frame.

~~~~~~~~~~

You sat on the bed at Luthor Family Children’s Hospital. You got most of the injuries from the first surprise attack. Your arm was in a sling and several bandages on your face. Maggie only had a busted lip.

“I can’t believe you two went in with no back up.” Alex scolded.

“To be fair, they did catch the rapist.” Lena said from one of the chairs. “And without the help of Supergirl.”

“What took you so long anyways Kara?” Alex looked over at her sister.

Kara turned red.

“You weren’t!” You looked between Kara and Lena.

“Well we still proved that National City does need police officers and detectives after all.”

“No we proved that Superfriends is a good team. Half of this duo doesn’t even get paid.” You were still upset. “But Kara could take a page from Maggie’s book, instead of ogling at Lena.”

“Hey!”

#maggie sawyer x reader #maggie sawyer x platonic!reader #maggie sawyer #alex danvers #sanvers #lena luthor #kara danvers #supergirl #supergirl imagine #supergirl imagines #supergirl x reader #supercorp

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oreoambitions · 4 years

Text

The Aftermath

I felt like maybe we could all use a version of this story with a happier ending.

"Lex is dead. I shot him. Jess is taking care of it."

Lena sweeps into the room with those words, already shrugging her bag off of her shoulder. She has eyes only for the figure in Supergirl's arms, but Supergirl has eyes only for her, her declaration playing on a loop in her head.

"Lena, I- I killed Lex."

"Luthors are like cockroaches: you think you've got them handled until they come crawling out of the walls again. Don't worry; I made sure of it this time." She's tapping to life the machines next to the medbay bed when she spares a sharp glance for Supergirl. "He told me everything before he died. About you. Put her on the bed, please."

Supergirl doesn't move. "About me?"

"There's a life on the line here, Kara. A little bit of urgency would be appropriate."

So that's that then. Kara tries to ignore the sudden wave of nausea but it's overwhelming. She stumbles the last few steps to the bed. Linda is breathing, but just barely. Alex mouths something in Kara's direction, but Kara shakes her head. No she's not okay. No she doesn't know what to say. No it doesn't matter right now.

"What's her name?" Lena asks. Alex starts to answer, but Lena looks pointedly at Kara.

"Linda Lee," Kara says. "Lex named her."

Lena cocks an eyebrow. "What a terrible fucking name," she murmurs. "Alex, prep an IV for me please."

"Lena," Kara begins.

Lena holds up a hand. "Don't."

Kara doesn't.

Linda wakes on a Thursday morning feeling like hell. The inside of her mouth tastes like the smell of blood and her bones feel like splinters and she's so weak she shakes just from the effort of sitting up. But she wakes, which is honestly more than she was expecting.

And Kara is there, which feels so impossible that for a moment Linda wonders if she's woken after all.

Linda doesn't have to say anything; the change in her breathing alone was enough to alert Kara, and so Kara is already pouring a glass of water by the time Linda is upright to drink it. They sit there quietly, watching one another, while Linda takes sip after slow sip. Linda looks at her and tries to see the enemy. She wonders if Kara is looking at her and trying to see the same.

"Lex is dead," Linda says. It's not a question. If Kara is sitting next to her and they are both still free then Lex's death is the inevitable conclusion.

"He is," Kara agrees. And then, "I'm sorry."

"I'm not sorry," Linda says. She looks away. There are tears in Kara's eyes, and that's making tears threaten her eyes, and she's not about to be weak in front of Kara fucking Danvers even after everything. "He was not a good man."

"He was your family," Kara replies.

Linda takes another sip of water to be sure that her voice will be steady when she answers, "He wanted me to think he was."

Kara reaches out, hesitant, her eyes on Linda's as she slowly, slowly takes her hand. When Linda doesn't pull away, she squeezes. "You have a new family now."

Linda doesn't believe her.

It takes three more days, but Linda is finally able to sit up for long stretches and even walk the short distance to the bathroom without help. Her powers are coming back incrementally and she waits warily for Alex or Kara to tell her what it is they want from her. What if they ask her to retaliate against Kaznia? None of what Lex did was Kaznia's fault. But they don't ask her to do anything, and they don't ask her to leave, and the longer they simply allow her to recover the more anxious she becomes.

Alex and Kara arrive together one evening and Linda is sure this is it. She can walk all the way down the hall and back now, and her super hearing is returning, and it's about time to tell her to what purpose the United States will be putting her so that she can focus her efforts as she retrains. Alex and Kara are looking at one another conspiratorially and Kara is hiding something behind her back. Linda sits up and resigns herself to her fate.

"You can say no," Alex begins.

Oh Rao, here it is.

"Oh but why would you want to," Kara says. She dumps a pile of bright plastics onto Linda's bed, like books but slender and light, no pages, a puzzle. "Since you can't leave the DEO yet we thought we'd bring our weekly Danvers Movie Night to you. So go ahead, pick one!"

Linda doesn't know what a movie is, but Kara looks over the moon and Alex looks... indulgent. Linda plucks a plastic book out of the pile at random and offers it to Kara, who does a fist pump.

"Yes! I love Brave! Scoot over; we gotta order pizza."

Linda doesn't know what pizza is either, but Kara is worming her way into bed next to her, and Alex is pulling up a chair, and suddenly Linda is in the middle of a war:

"Pineapple does NOT go on pizza I am NOT having it." Alex makes a grab for Kara's phone. "It's an abomination!"

"You have to let Linda decide that for herself, she- give me that back! We can get two pizzas, gosh!"

"What is pineapple?" Linda asks.

Both Danvers stare at her for a moment.

"Okay," Alex agrees, "We can get two pizzas."

Lena is still the most beautiful woman Linda has ever seen, which is difficult because Lena, like everything else, is Kara's. It chafes. Linda doesn't want to talk to her at first, mumbles in answer to all of her questions, won't make eye contact, hates the way her heartrate picks up every time Lena touches her, hates the fact that Kara, leaning against the wall on the other side of the room can hear it. Lena never looks at Kara, and Kara never looks away, and Linda feels trapped in the middle of it.

The first time Lena comes to visit without Kara or Alex on her heels, Linda thinks of it as a trap. Lena is, after all, a Luthor. Maybe she's the one who will want to put Linda's powers to good use.

Lena doesn't touch her this time, doesn't ask medical questions or examine any of Linda's charts. She pulls up a chair and starts digging around in her bag.

"The unfortunate thing about being a Super," she says, "Is that there aren't a lot of people you can talk to about what you've been through." She smiles a tight smile. "Part of keeping so many secrets, right? Not unlike being a Luthor."

"Okay," Linda says. She fiddles with her own fingers, hands clasped in her lap.

Lena pulls a book from her bag and holds it gingerly, tracing the spine, not quite looking at Linda. "Lex gave me my first journal when I was a child, and, well. Every Luthor keeps one. I thought- I know you're not really- Kara said he was family to you, and that makes you family to me, so I thought I would continue the tradition." She holds the book out. "For you. For when you don't feel like you have anyone to talk to."

Linda turns the book over in her hands, admires the soft leather cover, the thick pages. She says nothing; there are tears lodged in her throat and she doesn't want to let them out. Lena fidgets for a moment, and then she stands up.

"Well, I'm needed in the lab, so. I'll leave you to your rest."

She's almost out the door when Linda says, "Thank you."

Lena freezes, her hand still on the doorframe, but she doesn't look back.

When Linda is strong enough to work in the gym, they introduce her to her new sparring partner. Nia is... odd. Goofy. Charming. Until she wants to throw down, and then not so much. She's more than a match for Linda with her powers still recovering, and it's nice to fight with someone who can keep up just for the ache and the joy if it. Linda tries not to think about the day she murdered Kara for Lex, but the first time she puts Nia on her back it all comes rushing in and she cries.

Nia sits with her and doesn't press her to talk about it, and Linda finds that she doesn't so much mind that Nia saw her in a moment of discomposure. When Alex tries to check up on them, Nia uses her body to block her view and sends her away with stern words.

"Have you tried ice cream yet?" she asks when Linda finally pulls herself back together.

"I don't know what that is," Linda admits.

"Oh man, I am about to absolutely blow your mind."

The first time Linda leaves the DEO it's with Nia and Kara.

"You can't wear DEO sweats forever," Nia says, one arm comfortably around Linda's waist. "And you'll feel better when you feel more like yourself."

Linda doesn't know what it really means to feel like herself. Kara drags her through the aisles and it's all overwhelming and bright and impractical. None of the pants have pockets. All of the shirts are too tight in the shoulders. Until at last Nia puts a hand on Kara's shoulder.

"I think I know what we need," she says. She leads them to the men's athletic section, and Linda discovers muscle tanks. This she can work with. She leaves with a bag full of athletic clothing and two pairs of jeans with real pockets and two button down shirts which make Kara smile.

"I have some old things you might like," she says. "I can bring them by some time?"

"You don't have to do that," Linda says. She already owes so much to these people, and to Kara especially. She’s already afraid of what it will take to pay it all back.

Nia smacks Linda playfully on the shoulder. “You have to let people be nice to you sometimes,” she chastises.

Linda doesn’t know what that really means either.

The days pass, and Linda gets stronger, and still no one tells her what it is they want from her. It’s a needle under her skin, a constant prickling anxiety that ticks up every time someone comes into the room until the day the world upends itself. She’s sitting in the sun bed writing in her journal when Alex brings a new visitor into the medbay, and Lena is beautiful, but the woman standing in the doorway is a vision, a goddess, a... Linda is running out of descriptors. In fact, she's not sure she remembers any words in any language whatsoever. The woman ushers a teenager into the room and then stands aside to let Alex pass. She looks at Linda with a curious expression.

"Kara...?"

Linda knows perfectly well that Kara is on the bridge, that this woman would have to have walked past her to get to the medbay.

Alex straightens up. "Oh! Right. Sam, this is Linda, Kara's other sister. Linda, this is Sam Arias. She's... a friend."

Linda is too busy tasting the name Sam Arias in her mouth to stumble over the word sister.

"And I'm Ruby," the teenager says, throwing herself down on a vacant bed and sticking out her arm. "Can we get this over with?"

Alex rummages in a drawer for the large bore needles Linda has come to learn the DEO keeps on hand for drawing Krpytonian blood. She sits up a little straighter, her interest suddenly piqued. Sam takes the vacant bed beside Linda's and rolls up her own sleeve.

"You might as well get a sample from me too," she says.

Alex pauses, needle still in her hand. "Lena said she already tested you."

"Yes, well." Sam glances at Linda, smiles a little, glances away. "I asked her to say that."

Alex sighs but she doesn't comment. She busies herself with Ruby, laughing with her, easing her through the process. Linda notes with approval that Ruby doesn't flinch when the needle goes in. Sam doesn't fidget while she waits, but she keeps stealing glances at Linda and looking away when Linda catches her.

"Who are you?" Linda asks at last.

Sam shifts uneasily in her bed. Alex moves over to her with a fresh needle, pulling on a fresh pair of gloves.

"It's a long story," she says.

"Mom was the vessel of an old Kryptonian god of destruction," Ruby supplies.

"I'd like to hear more about that some time," Linda says.

Alex gives her a slightly dirty look.

Sam comes back alone a few days later when Linda is training alone in the gym. She very nearly outmatches Nia now; she stays late after their sessions to work herself harder, seeking exhaustion, waiting to feel strong. Sam watches her for a while and then starts undoing the buttons on her shirt. Linda is pretty sure she's going to die if she sees any more skin, and so she looks away, willing herself not to flush.

"Wanna fight?" Sam asks, stripped down to a sports bra. She reaches up to pull her hair back.

"I could hurt you," Linda protests.

"I seriously doubt that."

Sam wins their first fight. And their second. Maybe Linda lets her win the third because there is something aching and good about Sam pinning her to the ground, knees on either side of her hips, so close that Linda can taste her breath.

"Yield?" Sam asks. Her eyes are on Linda's mouth.

Linda licks her lips without thinking about it. "Okay," she says.

The story about Reign comes out in bits and pieces between bouts. About the people she killed, how she nearly killed Kara, how she tried to kill Lena. How she packed it all away as soon as Reign was dead and pretended it never happened.

"You had a responsibility," Linda admonishes her. "You could have been there to help make things right."

Sam bows her head. "I know. But I'm here now."

They sit together on the floor, backs against the wall, sweaty and tired. Linda looks at her out of the corner of her eye, those soft brown eyes, slender hands, hard expression.

"So you and Alex," Linda comments, suddenly intensely interested in the wall on the other side of the gym.

Sam laughs. "Once, maybe, but that ship has sailed. She's with Kelly now, and I..." Sam looks at Linda, and then looks away fast. Too fast. "I have my eye on someone else."

Ruby's results come back and confirm what everyone already knows: she's half Kryptonian. The Arias women announce that they'll be moving to National City so that Ruby can be closer to the DEO for training and guidance. Alex announces that Linda is ready to move out of the medbay.

Lena immediately offers her a home. "I have more room than I need and it's like I said: we're family. I'm not going to leave you to figure the world out alone."

Kara glowers at her. "She's not alone."

"I know, darling," Lena says.

Kara flushes at the pet name and stammers. Linda and Alex share an exasperated look from across the room.

"What do you want me to do?" Linda asks. "I have my strength back. I'm ready."

This time it's Kara and Lena who exchange a look. "Ready for what?" Kara asks.

"Whatever it is you wanted me for," Linda says. She holds out her hands, helpless. "You didn't put me back together for nothing."

Lena squeezes her shoulder. "We put you back together so that you could live. What you choose to do with that is really up to you. But we have time; you don't have to figure it all out now."

Linda stares at them each in turn. Kara looks angry. Alex looks confused. The tears threaten to catch in her throat again. "I am a weapon," she says, reciting words from what feels like another life. "A weapon is a tool. A tool must have-"

"Lex is gone," Lena interrupts. Kara is clenching her jaw, tears threatening to spill over, hands trembling. Weeks ago Linda would have thought her weak. Now, she is not so sure. "You have incredible power, but that doesn’t make you a weapon. Like Sam and Kara, you get to decide what to do with your gifts; if you don't want to fight, you don't have to."

Linda thinks of Sam sitting against the gym wall, eyes closed, voice full of regret. I'm here now.

"I want to," Linda says. Her voice breaks. She clears her throat. "I want to help."

Kara cries.

Linda's belongings all fit into the backpack slung over her shoulder when Kara and Alex come to pick her up from the DEO.

"Get in, loser," Alex says.

Linda breathes a laugh; Mean Girls is the last movie they watched together.

It seems ridiculous to get in the car when she can just fly to Lena's, but Alex and Kara have been adamant and conspiratorial about this, so she complies. It is generally not worth fighting Kara on something once she starts to pout about it, and it's generally not worth fighting Alex on anything at all. When they agree on something, well, you might as well give up all together.

So she sits in the back seat and she doesn't comment when they leave National City behind. She watches the countryside flash by and she listens to Alex and Kara sing along loudly - and, in Alex's case, badly - to the radio. Kara punctuates almost every song with a story, and the two of them fight over who gets to choose the playlist when the radio signal gives out and Kara plugs her phone into the stereo.

They stop for gas and Kara buys Linda a sausage wrapped in bread and smothered in beans and cheese, which she refers to as "the king of all road trip meals" and which looks to Linda like vomit just waiting to happen. It turns out to be delicious; they make Alex buy them all a second round.

And then before Linda knows it the sun is sinking into that long golden hour and they are passing out of thick forests into a valley to the tunes of Death Cab for Cutie and Kara grins at her in the rearview mirror and says they've almost arrived. They pass a sign that reads Welcome to Midvale and Linda realizes with a jolt of fear where they're going.

Alex turns around in the passenger's seat to pat Linda's leg. "Hey," she says. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

But Linda is terrified when they pull up to the little house, the feeling of not belonging creeping her spine, her hands stuffed deep into her pockets, her heart racing. A woman comes out of the house before Kara has even locked the car. Linda can see something of Alex in her features.

"Hi mom," Alex says as the older woman ushers her in for a hug. Warm light and the sound of tinny classical music drift out of the open kitchen window to where Linda fidgets in the driveway. Kara hugs Elize too, and then Alex is pushing Linda forward, and Linda thinks maybe she's going to throw up those chili dogs after all.

Eliza smiles at her and holds out her arms. Linda glances at Kara, who nods encouragingly, and then steps gingerly into the embrace. It's... not terrible. Kind of nice. Eliza lets go and pats her on the shoulder.

"C'mon," Kara whispers. She tugs Linda by the forearm. "I'll show you our room. Oh, and Streaky! You're going to love him."

"Dinner's almost ready," Eliza says, "So you girls just go and wash up now."

Alex laughs when Linda sets the silverware out backwards, and Kara flicks kernels of corn at her with a grin when Eliza isn't looking, and Linda feels warmer than she thinks she's ever felt. When everyone is seated, and drinks are poured, and food is served, Eliza smiles at them across the table.

"It's so nice to have my girls home for the weekend," she says. She looks at Linda with a twinkle in her eye. "All three of you."

#supergirl #supergirl fic #ficlet #supercorp #red daughter #lena luthor #linda lee #sam arias #alex danvers #redreign #I did not proofread this #found family #is the best family #that is all

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naralanis · 3 years

Text

Edges

A Replicant!Lena AU because am drunk. Little bit. And watched that movie like last week. Anyway.

also on AO3

“Do you like our owl?”

The voice comes out of nowhere, and admittedly scares Kara enough that she startles the bird in turn, sending it flying in a flutter of beating wings and displeased hoots/

Her eyes follow the owl's trajectory through the opulent waiting room, up until it lands a bit ungracefully on a perch by the door she had come through. There's a woman there now, impeccably dressed and a prim, severe demeanor. Her jet-black hair is pulled tight into a ponytail; her eyes are a captivating green, and there's a full, manicured brow raised in question.

“I do,” Kara says, clearing her throat and not looking at the bird at all. “Is it real?"

A little smile tugs at the woman's wine-red lips, and she lets out a soft chuckle. “Of course,” she says, as if the question is entirely absurd, green eyes shimmering in the light. “Do you think Mr. Luthor would have a fake owl in his waiting room?”

Kara shrugs. “Must have been expensive.”

The woman's smile widens. “Incredibly so,” she quips, motioning to the door. “If you would follow me, Ms. Danvers; Mr. Luthor is ready for you now.”

“Right, right, thank you,” Kara says, reaching for her briefcase and hastening to follow. “Thank you, Ms...?”

The smile turns into a smirk, as if the woman seems to be enjoying playing with Kara as the blonde quickens her pace to follow after the echoing click of her heels. “Luthor,” she says cheekily. “But you can call me Lena.”

Kara almost stops dead in her tracks; she has to make a conscious effort to keep following after her. “Luthor?” she repeats dumbly, unable to conceal her surprise. “Are you a relative of Mr. Luthor's?”

“His sister.”

Kara has to process that information for a second; none of the files she had been given on Lex Luthor mentioned any living family, especially not a sister.

“I didn't know Lex Luthor had a sister,” she admits.

There's a twitch to Lena's upper lip, but it's gone in the blink of an eye. “I prefer to be... behind the scenes, so to speak,” she says. Her gaze abruptly turns to Kara, and yet her steps do not falter for even a moment. “Tell me, Ms. Danvers, have you been a Blade Runner long?”

Kara's brows furrow before she can help it. “For some time.”

“You must have retired quite a few Replicants.”

It wasn't a question, and Kara was not sure if she should treat it like one. “Some,” she said simply. She has never particularly enjoyed her job; it was just one of those things that had to be done, and something she happened to be more than competent at. Nothing more.

“What are your thoughts on them?” Lena presses on.

“Replicants?” Kara asks. The line of questioning throws her for a loop. “I have no thoughts one way or the other; they're... machines, for good or for bad.”

Lena nods, though her expression is unreadable. “And if they're... not good, it is your job to retire them.”

That was definitely not a question, Kara thinks. “Yes.”

“You must be quite good at spotting them.”

That also isn't a question, but Kara cannot think of a response before they reach an impressive set of heavy doors that look to be made of real wood. If Luthor has a real owl, it stands to reason that these would be real wood. Lena stops right at the threshold, shooting Kara an odd look that the blonde cannot process immediately, because they walk into a spacious office, and there, at the end of a long conference table, sits the man, the legend himself, in all his glory.

“Kara Danvers,” Lex Luthor greets them jovially, in a cheerful voice that inexplicably sends a chill down Kara's spine. “Thank you for showing her in, Lena.”

Lena gives him a polite nod, not leaving her post by the doors.

“Mr. Luthor,” Kara says, already reaching a hand out for him to shake, wanting to get this over as soon as possible for reasons she cannot presently fathom. Something about Lex just rubs her the wrong way, and she tries not to let that show as he approaches and shakes her hand. “Thank you for taking the time to see me, I understand you're quite a busy man.”

He grins, and Kara doesn't like it one bit. “Please, call me Lex. Of course, of course, anything I can do to help.”

Kara squares her shoulders, getting right down to business. “Well, Mr. Luthor—Lex--as you know, we'd like to establish a few baselines for your Nexus-6 model to help us with an ongoing investigation. I was hoping to...”

“All in good time, Ms. Danvers. Patience, patience. I'll help you with your little investigation however I can—if you can answer a few questions of mine first.”

She has to fight the uncomfortable feeling that manifests in the pit of her stomach. She's dimly aware of Lena's green gaze fixed on her and Luthor, interested, curious.

“That little test of yours... capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil, involuntary dilation of the iris?”

“We call it Voight-Kampff for short,” Kara says, brow raised in question.

“I must admit I am rather curious, Ms. Danvers. Tell me, have you ever retired a human by mistake?”

“No,” she says quickly. “Mr. Luthor, what exactly is the purpose...”

“But it is a risk, in your profession,” he interrupts. “Is it not?”

Kara frowns. “What is your point, Mr. Luthor?”

Lex's grinning sets her teeth on edge. “The Nexus-6 is the pride and joy of my corporation, Ms. Danvers—the most advanced model ever put on the market. And yet, they still have flaws—fatal flaws, that caused the ones you're hunting to go... off the rails, so to speak.”

He seems to take Kara's silence as encouragement to keep going, and does just that, pacing in a way that unnerves her. “You see, they lack certain capabilities, certain... nuances that you and I are privileged to possess that we simply have not been able to reproduce artificially. Empathy, emotional maturity. They are, I hate to say it, woefully underdeveloped in that regard.”

“I am well aware, Mr. Luthor,” Kara interjects, annoyed that this man—a genius though he may be—is speaking to her as if hunting down those machines wasn't literally her job description. “That's why they have a failsafe.”

Luthor nods, and his expression remains unreadable, even if his unsettling smile is still very much in place. “Yes,” he confirms, stopping and holding the back of his chair. “The four-year lifespan. Tell me, Ms. Danvers, have you ever performed your little empathy test on a human subject?”

“No.”

His grin grows wider. “Lovely. I would love a demonstration, if you would be so kind to indulge me.”

Kara frowns. “Mr. Luthor, I'm here to acquire a new baseline for the Nexus-6 models so as to better understand...”

“Yes, yes, I know,” he waves her off. “I won't stop you from doing your job, Ms. Danvers. I would simply like to see a negative result before I provide you with a positive one. Is that agreeable?”

Kara feels her knuckles tightening around the handle of her briefcase; she wants this to be over.

“Very well. I assume you will be the subject, Mr. Luthor?”

His eyes glimmer in a way that makes Kara's stomach turn. “Try Lena.”

Lena seems just as surprised as Kara feels at the suggestion, but does a remarkably better job of hiding it and regaining her composure. The clicking of her heels approaches immediately after Lex summons her, and her expression is completely neutral by the time she takes a seat at the table.

The brunette eyes Kara with a raised brow breaking her schooled expression, looking almost forcibly nonchalant. She pulls out a cigarette as Kara takes her time unloading and setting up her equipment, still very much aware of Lena's watchful green gaze.

“Do you mind if I smoke, Ms. Danvers?” she asks, and it sounds almost teasing.

The machine whirrs to life, and Kara contains a heavy sigh at the unshakeable feeling that she has walked straight into a trap of some kind.

Her gaze locks onto Lena's hypnotizing green irises, and she flicks the button to start.

“It shouldn't affect the test.”

~page break~

Kara's back is sore from leaning into the Voight-Kampff apparatus, and her eyes sting from the strain of looking through the visor for so long. It feels like hours have passed, but she's afraid of actually checking the time. She shuts off the machine with a strained huff as she rolls her shoulders and arches her back, feeling her spine pop pleasurably at the stretch. She blinks away the strain and dryness of her eyes, taking her time to sink back into her chair, and tries to give her mind a few precious extra moments to fully comprehend what she has just uncovered.

Lex had not moved a muscle during the entirety of the test; he's still sitting unnaturally still by the time Kara shuts off her equipment. Lena eyes her curiously, lips pulled into a taut line.

“Lena, if you would please excuse us a moment.”

Kara deliberately looks at her equipment, putting it away methodically and slowly, but for a moment she catches a hint of displeasure that flits across Lena's face at Lex's command. The brunette hesitates for only a second, but complies. Kara's heart beats in tandem with the fading staccato of Lena's heels, and once the door finally clicks closed behind the other woman, she tries to speak, only to find the words stuck to her throat.

Lex regards her knowingly, his expression—his smirk—shifting into something conspiratorial, as if he had just let her in on a great big joke.

“Well,” he says with obvious satisfaction, slapping his hands on the table. “I must say, I am impressed. That was rather... illuminating.”

“She's a Replicant.” Kara finally bites out, shutting the apparatus closed in its case with a bit more force than she intended. She stares down Luthor, probably doing a piss-poor job of concealing her inexplicable anger, but unable to bring herself to care. She wants him to deny it. She wants him to tell her that her equipment must be faulty; hell, she wants him to tell her that she is just plain wrong and that she sucks at her job. She wants anything but the truth she's still presently still struggling to fully comprehend.

“Well-observed, Ms. Danvers.” he says simply, nonchalantly.

“She doesn't know,” Kara murmur, unsure if to herself or to Luthor.

He shrugs, looking entirely unbothered. “I think she's beginning to suspect—I made her into a rather intelligent prototype, after all,” he explains, drumming his fingers casually on the solid wood of his conference table. “Tell me, Ms. Danvers, how many questions does it usually take you to, as some policemen so eloquently put it, ‘sniff out a skin-job,’ eh?”

Kara grits her teeth, “Twenty to thirty questions, cross-referenced, depending on the model,” she answers by rote. “How can she not... how can it not know what it is?”

Lex's smirk is unbearably smug. “It took you over a hundred for Lena, didn't it?”

Kara has to focus on unclenching her fists for a moment. “Yes,” she confirms, turning a flinty gaze to Luthor as she repeats her question. “How?”

“’More Human than Human’, Ms. Danvers—that is the motto here at LuthorCorp. Our goal is commerce; it's that simple. Lena is... an experiment. Nothing more.”

He stands, walking around the table tos top directly in front of Kara.

“The Nexus-6 is quite a marvel of bio-engineering, Ms. Danvers, if I do say so myself,” he begins again, voice laced with deliberate false-modesty. “Nevertheless, I began to observe in them certain behaviours, certain... strange obsessions. They are, after all, stunted, in a way; they are emotionally inexperienced. That’s to be expected; after all, they only have a few years to store and process experiences that take a lifetime to build, experiences that you and I may take for granted.”

His eyes glimmer in the low light of the room, pupils dilating in a way that takes Kara's mind back to the test she just performed; she wants to smash her machine to smithereens for reasons she cannot fathom.

“It's what makes them unstable, you see. If, however, we gift them with a past—any past—we create a cushion; a safety net for their emotional development, and thus, we can control them far better.”

Kara's eyes widen; she feels her throat go dry. “Memories,” she whispers. “You mean... you mean you're giving them memories.”

Lex chuckles, looking increasingly pleased with himself. “Bingo! With this process, we have better control over them. Who knows, perhaps we'll even be able to increase their lifespan, in time. They're quite expensive to make; it's such a shame they have such a short shelf-life.”

Kara opens her mouth, then closes it again, finding it difficult to form coherent sentences.

“What memories are you even giving them—she, she thinks she's your sister!” she finally croaks out.

Lex waves her off, unperturbed. “The source of the memories is inconsequential, Ms. Danvers. They can be fairytales, for all I care,” he says, and for the first time, as he regards Kara curiously, he looks... annoyed. “In Lena's case, I wanted them to be as real, as tangible as possible. Implanting some of my own memories—easily recalled, and easily corroborated with minimal tweaking—was the simplest course of action.”

Kara's not sure why the mere idea of memory implantation makes her sick to her stomach; she feels her hands balling into fists and jaw clenching so tightly she can practically hear the grind of her own teeth. Green eyes and questioning glances flash back to her mind, and Lex regards her pensively for a long moment. His smile fades by degrees, until his lips pull into a thin line, and for the first time, he looks displeased.

“Remember, Ms. Danvers,” he says, brows furrowing in clear distaste. “She's an experiment. Nothing more.”

#supercorp #kara danvers #lena luthor #supergirl #Replicant!Lena #Blade Runner AU #prob has been done before #but ya know what #here's my take #it's lukewarm at best #ficwriting #hooray for drunk posting

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evilsnowswan · 4 years

Text

The Lake

Summary: After everything is said and done and Lex is finally defeated, Kara invites Lena to Sand Point Lake in Midvale. Out of all the places on earth she could be, a lake in the middle of nowhere doesn’t even make Lena’s Top 100, but it’s Kara who’s asking, so does she even have a choice? A.k.a. a fluffy Supercorp beach day.

Chapter One is POV Lena. Chapter Two POV Kara. They're both gay and dumb.

Loosely inspired by @lisamar1exo‘s glorious summertime supercorp art.

AO3: AO3 link via reblog (because tumblr doesn’t like links these days and I’m tired).

The Lake | Chapter (1/2): One (Lena)

Come to the lake with us, Lena? Please?

She had said yes. Not without hesitation or trepidation, but here she was: sunhat, sunglasses, spanking new two-piece, with her toes in the soft sand.

Swallowing back a sigh, Lena discreetly adjusted her bikini top. She had half hoped her assistant wouldn’t find something suitable—short notice, over lunch—for her to wear to this little outing, giving her an out. However, in something akin to a small miracle, Jess had returned a mere 30 minutes later with five options for Lena to choose from, stripping her of all excuses as she stripped down to her underwear in her office, cussing under her breath.

“Kara, could you—”

“Comin’! Already on it!”

The beach was only a short distance from the car park, and Lena watched from behind the safety of her big round sunglasses, as Kara hurried back to give her sister a hand with the cooler. Effortlessly, they lugged the huge blue thing between them, which—knowing both Kara and Alex—had to be filled with enough food to feed a small village. The two sisters led the way with Kelly not far behind. Nia half walked, half skipped alongside Kelly, little Eli squealing and laughing in her arms, the two of them clearly too flooded with excitement at the prospect of a beach day to contain any of it.

As a soft smile tugged at her lips, something else was tugging at her heart too, and Lena hastened to shove it back into the same box it had come from, mentally taping it and kicking it to the back of her mind. Hugging herself with one arm, gripping her left elbow tight, her nails dug into her skin as she lifted her chin and inhaled.

Of all the places in the world, how had she ended up here? At a fucking lake with her former best friend turned superhero, family and friends.

Her eyes swept over the gravel parking lot, turned skyward, then crashed in the sand at her feet. The sky and the water were intensely blue, the sandy beach was clean and white and deserted. Except for them, there wasn’t another soul in sight. Lena hadn’t expected a beach like this, not in a sleepy town like Midvale. It reminded her more of the one’s she’d seen in National Geographic or glossy travel brochures perhaps—except without the sprawl. Here the beach was nature, not real estate.

“Hello, Lena,” Alex let go of the cooler handle with a small grunt and shaded her eyes against the afternoon sun, as she stood beside Lena. Kelly smiled and waved hello as well, before sprinting after Eli in his sun suit, who was toddling straight for the water as fast as his chubby legs would allow, a blue-and-green sun hat clutched in her hand.

Alex chuckled, knuckles pressed to her mouth for a moment before she smiled and shook her head.

“Hello.” Lena looked directly into the sun. The heat felt almost too intense on her face.

“This is going to be GREAT!” Kara’s outdoor voice hitting her neck nearly had Lena flinch hard enough for it to be noticeable, and she clenched her jaw, letting out a jittery breath, before she turned to her with a smile. Kara rambled on about the snacks they had brought, the weather, and the breathtaking view, her ponytail swinging merrily as she set up shop in the sand.

Lena simply smiled and nodded, took off her hat and pushed her sunglasses up on her head before handing over towels, bags, and equipment as requested. All around them, people were busy spreading blankets and towels, setting up tables and chairs, and even putting up a small tent. Lena blinked as it popped up of its own accord and stood—shell-shaped and ready to shelter at least two adults and a small child from the sun. Oh. Ingenious.

“Wait—”

She paused, the rolled-up towel she was holding pressed to her middle.

Kara frowned, glancing at the sky, then back at Lena. The familiar crinkle appeared between her eyes and Lena felt something cool twist and coil in her belly.

It had been… months. Everything was fine. Fine between them now. Kara was Supergirl. Supergirl and she had worked together to stop the megalomaniac that was her brother from bringing about the apocalypse yet again. All was well. Except, that was the thing, wasn’t it? She’d worked with Supergirl, but her friendship with Kara…

“Lena?”

She looked up to find Kara holding onto the pole of a large green-and-orange umbrella, firmly pushing and twisting it deep into the ground. A feat, Lena was fairly certain, not humanly possible.

Even as her brain made the connection and deduced that her help wasn’t needed, her body had already taken a step forward and let the towel drop, so she could steady the pole as Kara fumbled to open the umbrella, the tip of her tongue peeking out from between her teeth.

“There should be a cord somewhere…” She mumbled, ducking her head beneath the sturdy material and reappearing a moment later, gesturing empty-handed. “There’s a little… thing attached to it,” she said, blushing. “At the end. It goes through one of these.” She indicated small holes along the pole, and Lena nodded. Yes, easy.

“Just one sec…” Kara vanished in between the folds of the umbrella again, the massive thing nearly swallowing her whole, leaving only her calves and bare feet visible.

Lena had to bite her tongue not to laugh.

“Aha!” Triumphant, Kara held up the cord. Her face was flushed and her hair wild, sticking out on the back of her head from the static.

One of Lena’s hands flew to her mouth, but didn’t make it there in time.

Letting her hair down and brushing her fingers through it, Kara shot her an indignant look, which held no true outrage and immediately crumpled into a laugh of her own. “Not funny, Miss Luthor.” She stuck out her tongue playfully and Lena copied her, albeit having to wrangle her upbringing and Luthor-etiquette for the more human reaction first. Easygoing and playful didn’t come naturally to her and felt foreign on her features. Even as she joined in laughing, the feeling lingered like cheap perfume.

“Some would beg to differ… Miss Danvers.” She hadn’t meant for her voice to drop like that. And maybe it hadn’t? Not by much anyway, but the way Kara stopped in her tracks and cocked her head to one side contemplating her, one hand sneaking up to cover her heart—well, maybe it had.

Kara’s front teeth came down on her bottom lip and she sucked in half a smile.

Lena’s own mouth had gone dry. She pressed her lips together to dispel the feeling, her heart doing a funny nervous hop-skip in her chest as she stumbled about her thoughts, rooting around for something… else to say. She only just stopped herself from uselessly opening her mouth a few times—People don’t gape open-mouthed. That’s for primates at the zoo, Lena.—and found herself mirroring Kara once again instead, head tilting to make room for her hand to reach her neck and rub it.

“I-um,” Kara fiddled with the cord, tugged a little. The umbrella fluttered like a strange tropical bird. “Maybe-we shouldn’t be out in the sun. It’s...” Kara trailed off, ducking her head in a smile.

She had freckles—splashes of freckles fanning out across her cheeks. Lena was so distracted by them that she almost didn't duck in time when Kara opened the umbrella and it finally stood, tall and wide, casting them in shadow.

“Oh... gosh. Sorry!”

“And here I thought, we were past quarterly attempts on my life,” Lena deadpanned, shooting Kara a little smile so she’d take it as the joke it was meant to be.

Kara looked scandalized for a second, then pensive. “Hmm-hmm. It’s… it has been quiet, hasn’t it?” Lena could only try and guess at what she was thinking—Kara-thoughts or Super-thoughts?—but, either way, Kara’s mind seemed to be going a thousand miles a minute, turning her smile upside down and drawing her eyebrows together.

“That’s...a good thing, though, isn’t it?” Hands clasped, Lena fidgeted nervously, scolding herself in her head. Too soon. “Everyone safe and happy. That’s good, right?”

Kara’s gaze swept the beach, lingering on her sister setting up the grill and Kelly settling back on her lounger with a book while Nia and Eli enthusiastically dug a hole in the sand nearby, an array of colorful beach toys scattered about them. “Yeah,” she said softly, eyes settling on Lena’s face and searching it with a sudden intensity that made Lena flush. “They are okay, aren’t they?”

Maybe, one day, after several… bottles of wine, she’d tell her about the dead brother she didn’t want to miss, the mothers she had lost, the late nights spent in her office to fill the deafening silence with paperwork and overseas phone calls. Maybe. One day. Until then, okay would have to do. She was okay, they were okay.

“Yes,” Lena said.

When Kara smiled in response, she smiled with her whole face; the smile curving her lips and reaching to touch her eyes like a cat stretching out in a patch of sunlight, setting the watery blue ablaze.

“Yes,” Lena said again, with feeling. Even in the shade, the air did feel a little too hot. She shouldn’t have taken off her hat. “They are okay.”

Eyes still smiling, Kara nodded at the blanket and towels at their feet. “Sit first or swim first?”

Lena swallowed hard. “Sit, definitely sit.”

So they sat, Lena ditching the reports at the bottom of her bag for the novel she had brought and Kara flopping over onto her belly to thumb through a copy of National Girl, letting out a squeal of delight at the sight of the extra glued to the back.

Lena raised a brow at the high-pitched sound and watched as Kara tore open the packaging and admired the woven bracelets on her palm. Two identical pink-and-white bracelets with charms worked into them.

“Friendship bracelets,” Kara said, beaming. “Twin bracelets. Look, Lena!”

“They’re… nice?” Lena said, confused by the over-enthusiastic reaction the cheap accessories had elicited from Kara. She looked at the bracelets again, eyes following the pattern to the silver infinity charms, one in each of them.

Kara sat up on her heels and looked at her expectantly, scooting closer. “Um, it’s probably a little silly, but…” she laughed, looking at her hands and back at Lena. “Would you-I mean, I know, it’s–but- but would you maybe want to…?”

She looked down, hanging her head, her chest heaving, and it was such an endearing picture, Lena dropped her book into her lap and almost reached out to tip her chin back up.

“You-you don’t have to… if you don’t want—?” When Kara looked at her again, the deep red was undeniable in her cheeks and her pink lip was once again trapped between her relentless teeth. She worried it, glancing at the lake quickly, and the movement of her neck drew Lena’s eyes to places they had no business being, noting the lovely lush pinks and reds covering Kara’s chest, standing out most marvellously against her ultramarine bathing suit.

“I-I’d love to?” As soon as the words had left her, Lena squeezed her eyes shut, scrunching up her nose and feeling herself blush most ungraciously too, helpless heat erupting in her cheeks and travelling down like a landslide.

“So, sh-should I?”

Kara waited, her mouth falling open as Lena held out her left arm. She closed it again to smile at her—shyly, tentatively—her deep blush spreading over her cheeks and temples, and the after-image of sunlight reflecting off water, the visual burn-in, glistened bright in her eyes.

As Kara leaned over to tie the bracelet on Lena, her hair fell over her shoulder and into her face, and she blew out a breath that hit Lena’s wrist unprepared, firing up something that had been cold and long forgotten inside of her. Lena squirmed, but didn’t draw back, leaning into the sensation instead of away from it.

“There. All done!” Kara took her hand, lacing their fingers together, and held it up, so the bracelet freshly adorning her arm would be properly admired.

“Thank you,...Kara.”

Letting go, Lena laughed, a little breathless, and, with trembling fingers, picked up the other bracelet from Kara’s lap to reciprocate.

Kara immediately sat up, pulling back her shoulders, and kept unnaturally still for Lena as she held out her own arm.

Lena sucked in her bottom lip, willing her fingers to still long enough to tie the knot.

Her heart fluttering in her throat like a trapped hummingbird, she held onto the simple string a moment longer than strictly necessary, unable to look at Kara’s face or meet her eyes just yet. Instead, her gaze stopped and lingered on Kara’s chest rising and falling, regularly but rapidly.

Her one-piece bathing suit left her smooth, sun-kissed shoulders bare—or they would have been, if it hadn’t been for the straps of the halter-neck tied into a bow behind her neck. A bow that was, slowly but surely, coming undone right before Lena’s eyes, a gentle tan line visible where the fabric of the suit wasn’t quite pulled as tight anymore.

Dumbstruck, Lena’s hammering heart screeched to a halt, missing a beat, before it jumped out of her chest and ran screaming. Inhaling sandy heat, Lena held her breath as she reached out, unthinking, and, tongue pressed to the roof of her mouth, managed to untie and retie the bow quickly, rocking back on her heels when she was done.

“Tha-thanks,” Kara spluttered.

Nodding, Lena stared at her hands in her lap. They were kneeling in the sand, so close now that their knees touched and, when she lifted her gaze by maybe a fraction, Lena could see Kara’s hands fidgeting with the bracelet on her arm, turning it around and around.

As the little silver charm caught the light, Lena’s eyes were drawn to the symbol, and she felt a wave of warmth wash over her that had nothing to do with either the heatwave or the still lake.

I gcónaí, she thought, taking herself by surprise. I gcónaí. Always.

“Beautiful…” Kara breathed, and Lena’s head snapped up. “They… they are pretty, the bracelets?”

Objectively speaking? No, absolutely not. They were what her mother would have referred to as ‘hideous nonsense’ and promptly cut off her with the sharp scissors. However, in Lena’s eyes the little trinkets grew more precious and more perfect with every second she felt the surprisingly soft string against her skin.

“You think so?” Smirking, Lena raised her chin, giving Kara a challenging look. Why did she stumble over her words all the time? Supergirl never did; oh, but Kara? Kara barely made it through a complete sentence on a good day. She’d almost forgotten about that. It was adorable.

“Uh-huh.” Kara’s eyes were wide and earnest. “It… it looks good on you.”

The compliment, silly and untrue as it might be—because the pink-and-white looked much nicer against Kara’s tanned skin than her own—the compliment made Lena’s heart glow, and it probably showed on her face—for Kara’s smile grew instantly and incessantly wider.

Lena watched Kara relax into it and licked her lips, bracing herself for the inevitable hug that had to be coming any minute now. How long had it been? Kara was a hugger, but they hadn’t hugged in… forever? Well, in a really, really long time, anyway.

As Kara’s eyes locked on hers, Lena suddenly wasn’t so sure she was ready for it.

“Hey, ladies!” Nia’s voice made them both jump. She’d materialized by their towels, somehow snuck up on them without either of them taking notice, and was now hovering at a few steps distance, mindful not to get sand all over their things. What she lacked in physical proximity, however, she made up in volume. “We’re going in. You two coming?” She grinned at them. “Eli says you ‘ave to.”

“Sure.” Kara laughed, turning to Lena. “Lena?”

They looked at her expectantly and Lena’s whole body tensed. Wavering, she gazed at the water. The lake suddenly seemed much bigger and rougher, the less-than-inviting blue-green much too cold for her heated skin, and she shook her head and shot Kara an apologetic smile. She seemed very eager to get going, but held back, and it made a sticky guilty feeling crawl down Lena’s spine.

“Pleeeease? Come on!” Nia whined, widening her stance with her hands on her hips.

Kara looked at Lena. Hesitated.

“You go,” Lena waved her on, picking up her book with her free hand. “I’m good here.” Her heart stuttered in her chest, thudding against her ribcage, rattling the bars. “Really. It’s fine. I still need to finish the chapter anyway.” She held up the book for emphasis.

“You sure?” Kara’s head was tilted, her eyes quizzical and probing, her concern prickling on Lena’s face.

“Yes,” Lena said, a little too quickly and a little too enthusiastically, attempting to gloss over it with a brilliant smile. “You go have fun!”

Kara still didn’t move and, by now, Nia had thrown decorum to the wind and sat down on one end of Lena’s towel, giving her puppy eyes over one shoulder. It would have been cute, for Nia was almost as cute as Kara when she pouted like this, and it almost worked on Lena too, for she risked another uneasy glance at the lake. However, as it was, Nia’s persistence only made her draw up her shoulders at the—seemingly inevitable—prospect of a swim, shuddering in spite of herself, but masking it as brushing sand off her arm.

“Luthor, I’m not taking no for an answer!” Nia warned, deepening her pout. She had French-braided her hair down each side; her yellow halter-neck bikini had white polka dots splattered all over it and the frilly bottoms matched, and she looked every bit the little sister Lena had so longingly wished for when she was younger. Oh, the irony.

“Children, lay off and let the adults enjoy their peace!” Alex Danvers had abandoned her perch by the cooler and now crossed over to where they sat, taking great care to stay in the shade and on towels and blankets at all times; swearing loud, child-friendly nonsense, when she accidentally stepped on the hot sand, breaking into a little funny sprint to get under their umbrella.

“Fu-fudge, that’s hot,” she muttered as she came to a stop next to them; then shot an equally heated glance at Kara. “But someone took the liberty of leaving my shoes at home.”

Kara ducked her head, but rounded on her sister all the same. “They were Birkenstocks, Alex. I thought they were Eliza’s!”

“Are you accusing me of wearing mom-shoes, Kara? For I am and I would, if it weren’t for you. Thank you very much.” Her hands found her hips and only now did Lena notice the beer cans she was holding in each of them. No, judging by the brand logo, they had to be ginger ale. Too bad, she’d given an arm and a leg for a cold beer, or even better: a nice whisky sour on the rocks, right about now.

Kara stuck out her tongue, but Alex didn’t take the bait, crossing her arms over her chest as best she could with her cargo in hand. “Now, get going both of you, and leave the grown-ups to enjoy a cool drink in the shade, why don’t you.”

Nia stood at once, brushing sand off her butt sheepishly, but Kara just opened her mouth, giving every impression of wanting to argue. A short, but entirely silent, deadly staring match ensued, which Kara lost, and with a quick glance at Lena, Kara got up too, her hand brushing Lena’s leg as she got to her feet.

“Fine,” she huffed.

“Be boring then,” Nia teased and dashed for the water before Alex could turn her wrath on her, kicking up sand as she went, a laughing Kara hot on her heels.

Lena and Alex looked at each other for a moment. Alex didn’t ask and Lena didn’t talk. She simply took the proffered can and nodded her thanks, pressing the cool drink against her leg as she hugged her knees tightly to her chest, her book lying forgotten in the sand.

“Kids,” Alex muttered more to herself, opening her can with a pop and taking a long drink.

Setting her ginger ale down in the cool sand, she flopped down on Kara’s towel and lay on her back with her eyes closed, hands behind her head.

Lena watched as Kara, Nia, and Eli splashed about in the shallow water closer to the waterline, with Kelly standing guard for a bit, before she plucked her little boy from the water, adjusted his floaties, put him on her shoulders, and waded in deeper slowly, followed by Nia and Kara, who, apparently, had a blast splashing and dunking each other under the water.

Lena inhaled sharply and looked away, rubbing her arms. She heard Kara shriek and laugh, followed by a loud splash, and forced herself to look, because not looking was worse.

Kelly and Eli were still in the water, but Kara and Nia had taken to climbing the jagged cliffs that jutted out and dropped into the lake, and—Lena held her breath, panic rising within her—diving off them at murderous velocity. Watching Kara fly over the edge with a jubilant whoop—even while knowing she could literally fly and was practically indestructible—Lena’s heart clenched painfully. She could barely force air into her lungs until Kara’s head broke the surface again and the soft breeze carried her booming laughter all the way back to Lena’s ringing ears.

Alex raised up and squinted against the sun just in time to see Kara and Nia cliff-dive into the water together, hitting the surface dangerously close to the rocks.

“Be careful!” she called out to them, now watching her wife, son, and sister with the intensity of a lifeguard on duty. “Hey, Kara! Take it down a notch!”

Lena felt dizzy and light-headed from the lack of oxygen in her lungs and brain, fingers digging into her arm hard enough to possibly leave a mark. “They have lost their freaking minds,” she said, her voice coming out strained and the words strangely clipped.

She could feel Alex watching her, but didn’t dare tear her gaze away from Kara again.

“No, they haven’t,” Alex corrected calmly. “My sister was born brainlessly reckless.” She paused for a long swig from her can. “Can’t speak for Nia Nal, though. Kara’s probably rubbing off on her.”

“So you don’t share Kara’s sense of... adventure?”

Alex laughed dryly. “Let’s just say, Kara’s and my idea of a... good time differs greatly on occasion.”

Lena made a non-committal sound, her stomach in knots over yet another witnessed dive with breakneck abandon.

Alex touched her arm, making Lena flinch, but she had the grace not to comment on it. “Come on, Lena, let’s make some PBJs. They’re going to be ravenous when they’re done.”

Lena didn’t move.

“Peanut-butter-and-jelly on soft white bread, Miss Luthor, I take it you’re familiar with the concept?”

Before Lena’s mind had fully registered what was happening, she’d been pulled to her feet, taken by the hand, and led over to the massive cooler—which did indeed hold so much more than just peanut butter and jelly.

“Strawberry or Raspberry?” Lena held up both jars, not knowing which Kara liked better and unable to make up her mind on the matter.

“Both,” Alex laughed. “With my sister, it’s always both. Or option d, all of the above, preferably all at once or—wherever that’s impossible or very, very gross—in very close succession.”

“Noted.” Lena shook her head, but proceeded to open both jars anyway.

Alex rested her elbow on the edge of the cooler, grinning up at her. “There’s a lot you don’t know… yet.” She poked a finger at the bracelet on Lena’s arm and Lena felt herself blush furiously.

#supercorp fanfic #lena luthor #kara danvers #supercorp #supercorp fluff #my fic #fic: the lake

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superspoonie24 · 3 years

Text

Broken Steel

Kara is having panic attacks and is determined to find out who’s causing them. Almost 3k. Kara really just needs a hug and therapy. 💛

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27130801

CLICK

"Oh no," Kara whispered as the door locked behind her. "It's okay. You'll be okay," she mumbled to herself.

Kara took a deep breath and focused on the reason she went into the supply closet in the first place. She fumbled around for the ream of printer paper until she finally found it hiding behind the toner.

"Gotcha! Now to get out of here."

Kara turned around to open the door, but the handle wouldn't budge.

"Shoot."

Kara jiggled it and pulled on it but nothing worked. She'd blown her powers out, so she couldn't 'accidentally' break the door. She just had to sit and wait for someone to find her.

"Okay Kara. You can do this. Just breathe. Focus on what Harley taught you."

Kara took a deep, diaphragmatic breath in, held it for seven counts, and let it out for eight. She repeated it over and over, but the panic still rose within her.

At somepoint she ended up on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. The walls were closing in, and it felt like she would be stuck there forever.

"No Kara. You're not in the pod. It'll be okay. Just breathe." Kara squeezed her head tight, begging her mind to focus on something, anything else.

"Come on Kara. You should be over this. You're the Girl of Steel, and you can't handle a closet?" Kara chastised. She dug her finger nails into her temporarily human skin.

Tears were threatening to fall when the door opened behind her.

"Kara!" Winn exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

He reached out his hand and helped her up. Kara brushed off her skirt and wiped her eyes.

"Huh? Oh I'm fine," Kara lied. "Just had a little trouble with the door. Someone she really fix that."

Kara walked off without saying another word. She didn't go back for the paper.

***

The elevator ride that night after work was the longest of Kara's life. She fiddled with the end of her shirt and rubbed her hands together. If she had her powers she would've just flown home, but she couldn't. And after having to walk everywhere all day, Kara was too exhausted to take 15 flights of stairs. Although right now, she was beginning to rethink it.

When the elevator dinged and the doors finally opened, Kara tore out of there. She ran into the empty street and enjoyed the open air. Despite how exhausted she was, Kara walked all the way home.

***

'What's going on? Why can't I move?' Kara thought to herself as she opened her eyes to total darkness. She felt like she was floating; she felt sick to her stomach.

'Not this again,' she grumbled. 'Alright. Breathe. You can do this.'

Kara maintained steady breathing as she drifted aimlessly through space. A bright light appeared in the corner of her eye. She turned her head. Suddenly she could see every detail in high definition.

'I'm- I'm in the pod? As an adult. Wait what was that flash? Where am I? Why can't I move!'

Kara's breath picked up and she whipped her head around, only adding to her nausea. She located a familiar white moon and a bright yellow sun.

'NOOOO!' Kara screamed as she watched her planet explode for a second time. Tears streamed down her face as she mourned the loss of her new home: Earth.

***

Kara woke up hyperventilating, her body covered in sweat. She looked around and realized she was in her room, on Earth.

'It was just a dream. Well, a nightmare,' Kara thought to herself.

She flung what's left of the covers off the bed and sat up. She stretched and accidentally got a whiff of her fresh sweat.

'Guess I'm gonna shower now.'

Kara got up and headed to the bathroom. She stopped in the doorway, staring at the small room.

'It's okay. You can do this. You're not in the pod. You're not in the closet. You can leave whenever you want.'

Kara took a deep breath and stepped into the bathroom. She left the door open.

***

Kara spent the whole day ready to fly through a wall at a moments notice. She nearly punched Winn when he came up and tapped her on the shoulder.

'Get it together Kara,' she chastised herself. 'You aren't under attack. Relax dammit!'

Kara took a few deep breaths and broke the mouse in her hand.

'Dang it.'

Kara looked around the office to see if she could get some intern to get a new mouse for her; it was empty.

'Okay. Guess this is a job for Supergirl.'

Kara tried to laugh at her bad joke, but it didn't help. She made her way to the supply closet and stood at its door.

'It's just a closet Kara. Prop the door open. Find the mouse. Get out. You've done it a hundred times. You can do it again.'

Kara just stood staring at the open door. She focused only on her breathing, blocking out all other sounds.

"Whatcha staring at?" Nia asked.

Kara jumped a foot in the air and nearly fell over.

"Nia!" Kara shouted. "Don't. Scare me like that."

Kara struggled to regain her breath.

"Sorry?"

Nia looked at Kara and asked "are you okay?" She then whispered "I thought you had super hearing."

"I do!" Kara replied, louder than necessary. "I was just- focused on something else."

"Alright..." Nia looked at her again but brushed it off. "So what were you staring at?"

"Oh. Right. I was.... Looking for a mouse! For my computer. Oh I just remembered I have to do something," Kara lied. "Would you do me a favor and get me one?"

Nia looked at Kara's trembling hands, but didn't push it.

"Sure. Go do your thing and I'll have the mouse waiting on your desk."

"Thank you Nia! You're the best."

Kara gave Nia a tight hug before dashing off.

'Time to go check on an old friend.'

***

Kara landed outside the DEO and marched her way to her 'old friend'.

"How are you doing it?" Kara asked as she slammed on the wall.

"Well isn't it my luck. The birdy has decided to visit the cat."

"Answer me!" Kara demanded. The glass started to crack.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Psi shouted.

"How did you get in my head? How come I feel this fear in every bone in my body? What did you do to me!"

"Nothing silly bird." Psi backed away from the glass and sat on the bench. "I haven't been able to do anything since you put this stupid lock on me. Not to mention the 24/7 surveillance keeping me from escaping."

Kara's eye twitched and she clenched her fist.

"It sounds to me like the birdy has some problems she can't solve. Sad how easy it is to break the Girl of Steel."

Kara punched the glass; it almost broke. "You better not be behind this," she threatened. "And you better pray I find the person behind this!" Kara shouted as she walked out the room, her hand twitching.

'Dammit,' Kara muttered as she rubbed her sore hand. 'I really thought she was behind this. shirt! It's game night.'

Kara flew out the window to get her apartment ready for her friends.

***

"Damn Kara. I can't believe you won again!" Lena exclaimed, gently punching her shoulder.

"Don't feel bad. No one has dethroned this queen in quite some time," Kara boasted, making broad royal gestures.

"I remember when you first came to Earth and didn't know what uno was. I miss that."

Kara shot Alex a glare and Alex stuck her tongue out.

"Has anyone thought about Kara using her x-ray vision?" Lena piped in.

The group collectively turned and stared at her. Kara's eyes flashed red.

"I'm just saying, she doesn't have her glasses on. They're leadlined, right?"

"Yes I do believe that Lena is correct." Brainy turned and stared at Kara.

"Fine." Kara swung around and put her glasses on. "You want to test it? Let's go. Rematch. Glasses, on."

The room was dead silent, everyone waiting for Lena's response.

"Deal. Get ready to lose, Kara Zor-el."

"It's on, Lena Luthor."

The rest of the room joined in the next game, but no one was surprised it was down to Lena and Kara.

"Uno," Lena flirted. She held up her card for everyone to see.

Kara didn't respond. She placed a plus 4, which made the room gasp. Lena grumbled as she drew four more cards.

"Red."

Lena grumbled again.

Kara slowly got through her hand until only 2 cards remained. Lena placed down a card and smirked.

"Uno!" Kara called out, beating Lena to it. Lena drew four cards.

"Do you want to keep going? Or will you just admit defeat and bow down to your Queen." Kara made another regal gesture with her hands, being very careful to keep her cards hidden.

"Never," Lena snarled.

Kara placed down a card.

"Uno." She mocked Lena's move from merely a few minutes ago. Kara prayed no one could see her sweating.

"fork," Lena mumbled, placing down a red 5.

Kara smirked. She placed down a blue 5.

"I win," Kara boasted. "Still think I cheated?" Kara asked as she played with the glasses sitting on her face.

"No," Lena mumbled. She was in full pout.

"Face it Lena," Kara started as she walked over to where Lena sat. "No one can dethrone the queen."

Lena looked up into Kara's eyes and Kara felt heat rise to her face. Her hands started to sweat, for a different reason than before. Kara knew she was blushing.

"Alright!" Alex shouted. "Let's play a different game."

Kara looked to Alex and gave her a silent thanks.

Kara scurried away from Lena and Winn pulled out a different game. Kara wasn't paying attention to his choice; she was stuck in her thoughts.

'Why did Lena think I was cheating? Does she not trust me? Does everyone else think that? And why was I blushing?'

"Are you okay with what Winn chose, Kara?" Nia asked.

"Huh? Yea. That's fine."

Kara glanced around as everyone started picking their pieces.

'Of course he'd choose monopoly. He insists on playing it everytime. Even though he always gets out first.'

Kara rubbed her arm slowly as the game started. She rolled the dice and went through the motions, using her standard tactic of buy everything she lands on. She took some deep breaths, but nothing seemed to help her calm down.

"Hey," Kara interjected. "Is anyone else hot?"

She looked around at the sea of shaking heads.

'Oh. So it's just me. Get it together idiot. It's just game night. There's nothing to be on edge about.'

Kara continued playing. She nearly broke the table when she landed in jail for the third time in a row.

"Oh come on!" Kara shouted as she slammed her piece on the corner spot.

"Kara, are you okay?" Lena asked.

"I'm fine. Go enjoy boardwalk and probably win this stupid game."

"Kara. What's wrong?" Kelly asked, taking note of the unusual behavior.

"I said I'm fine!" Kara yelled. She brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tight.

The game continued.

'Dammit Kara. Get it together. They're just worried about you. Why are you upset? Why are you attacking your friends? They just want to help.'

"I'm gonna go get a drink. I'll be right back." Kara stood up and left the table, not waiting for a response.

"Can you grab me a coke!" James shouted.

"Uh, sure!" Kara replied from inside the fridge.

'This is nice. I could just stay here for a while.' Kara rummaged through the fridge for James's coke. She found one burried deep in the back and pulled it out. She walked back to the table.

"Here ya go," Kara said as she handed James the coke.

"Thanks." He grabbed it and set it on the table. "Weren't you going to get something?" James asked.

"Huh?" Kara mumbled as she sat down. "Oh... I uh, changed my mind?"

No one questioned it.

"Your turn." Nia handed Kara the dice.

"Finally!" Kara shouted. She rolled doubles.

The game continued without a hitch, until Kara landed on boardwalk.

"Oh come on!" Kara exclaimed. "It can't possibly be that much!"

"3 houses Kara. Fork it over." Lena held out her hand for the money.

"Alright alright. Just give me a second."

Kara felt everyone's eyes fixed on her as she rummaged about for her money. The room was silent. Everyone was waiting on her.

'Come on Kara. Hurry up. Just admit you don't have enough and forfeit.'

Kara's hands started to shake.

'No, it'll be fine. I just, need a minute to think.'

'They're all waiting on you. Your slowing down game night. Just end it. They don't want to be with you anyways.'

'That's, that's not true.'

Kara's breathing sped up.

'Yes it is. You know it is. They're just pitying you. The poor little alien with nowhere else to go. They don't want to be with you. They don't like you. Who would possibly want to hang out with a lost alien who's parents didn't even want her.'

"Stop it!" Kara shouted. She brought her hands up to her head and started rocking back and forth.

The room started to spin. She could hear every little beep of a microwave, every pet scratching at a door, every scream from her dying planet.

"Make it stop. Please. Everyone just stop."

Tears streamed down Kara's face. She continued rocking and pushing her hands into her head, trying to stop the noise.

"shirt." Alex ran to Kara's room without another word.

"Kara are you okay?"

"Try to take some deep breaths."

"You're safe here."

"It's okay Kara. Breathe."

Kara continued rocking back and forth. Her thoughts swirled about in her head, one insult after another.

"Everyone stop," Alex stated as she ran out of Kara's room. She was holding something in her hand.

Alex knelt down next to Kara and held up the earmuffs. She slowly pulled Kara's hands away from her head; Kara didn't resist. Alex slid the muffs over Kara's ears and pulled her sister into a tight hug.

'It stopped. Why did it stop? What's going on?'

Kara took a slow, deep breath, and let herself be hugged by Alex.

'Oh.'

Kara's tears slowly stopped falling as Alex rubbed small circles into her back, never letting go. Kara eventually opened her eyes and spoke.

"Thank you, Alex." She hugged her sister back.

"You okay now?" Alex asked, still hugging her.

"Yea. Thank you."

"Anytime." Alex gave her a tight squeeze before finally letting go.

Kara felt sick as she realized all of her friends just witnessed her total breakdown.

"So uh. That happened," Kara laughed, trying to brush it off.

"Do you want to talk about?" Kelly asked. "Only if you want to."

"Well um, you guys deserve to know..."

Kara rubbed her arm and looked to Alex.

"She had a panic attack."

The room stopped and stared at the Danvers sisters.

"I used to get them a lot when I first came to Earth, after... Well after everything. I uh. I haven't had one since Psi showed up..."

"Kara is claustrophobic, which usually is what triggered it," Alex explained.

"Is that why I found you staring at the closet?" Nia asked, concerned for her friend.

Kara nodded, but couldn't bare looking at her.

"Sometimes," Alex continued. "sounds and noise cause it, which is why I got the special earmuffs Dad made for her."

"Jeremiah knew I struggled with my powers." Kara looked up and smiled. "He made me these glasses, so I could control my x-ray vision. He also made a few pairs of earmuffs that keep me from hearing anything. I forgot I even had them, until now..."

"Kara," Kelly started. "This is nothing to be ashamed of."

Kara looked up at Kelly, tears forming in her eyes.

"But I'm the Girl of Steel. I can't just break because the microwave keeps beeping."

"But you're also a person." Kelly came over and put her hands on Kara's. "You deserve as much as help as you give others. You don't have to do this alone."

Kelly squeezed Kara's hands, and Kara looked her in the eyes.

"You sure?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm not disappointing anyone?"

"No Kara," Kelly answered. "You're not a disappointment."

"We love you" Alex said as she pulled Kara into a hug. "All of us do."

"I'm impressed with how well you've handled everything," Lena chimed in. Everyone turned and looked at her. "I'm just saying! I turn to the bottle every other night, and I'm not the last daughter of an entire planet."

Everyone laughed at Lena's statement and Kara gave a slight smile.

"If there's anything we can do, please let us know." Nia smiled over at Kara.

"I uh," Kara stammered. "Maybe a group hug?"

Immediately, everyone surrounded her and squished her in the middle of all their love and support (and their arms). She was squished up next to Lena and couldn't help but blush. Tears fell onto Lena's shirt as Kara's walls came crashing down. For the first time since she got to Earth, Kara let herself break.

***

After the tears stopped falling, everyone returned to game night and the rest of the night was filled with joy and laughter. Kelly talked to Kara about joining her PTSD program, to go along with her regular therapy. After a moment's hesitation, Kara agreed.

Weeks passed and Kara started feeling better. She kept an eye out for whoever was causing the breakdowns, but she couldn't find anything, or anyone.

'Maybe Psi was right...'

#whumptober2020 #no.18 #panic attacks #phobias #paranoia #supergirl #fic #aly writes #claustrophobia #kara has a n x i e t y #and also panic attacks #kara danvers x therapy #vent fic #seriously kara just needs to talk to a therapist god damn #this bitch's been through a lot

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ruffiorocks · 5 years

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Lena deserves better than being the only one to suffer for her faults

You know, I hope they don't make Lena go bad, even if she temporarily loses her way.

It would be such a waste of 3 seasons of character development and soooo cliche.

Plus I know Kara is the main character and the main hero, but this show has actually done a pretty good job of showing us that Kara is in no way perfect, she makes rash decisions, f**ks up, lies, has a lot of emotional issues, has been xenophobic (Mon El) makes poor choices sometimes, can be manipulative (using James against Lena), uses Lena quite a lot, has serious Jekell and Hyde issues, scoffs at authority even if those in authority are arseholes etc. She's even killed people/aliens, she killed Rudy/Parasite and she killed Reign, even if she did go back in time and reverse that.

Lena is in no way perfect either, but then she was never supposed to be a squeaky clean hero like we're supposed to see Kara as, although as I've mentioned she isn't squeaky clean at all! Lena has done dodgy stuff but because of her last name and the fact the show likes to 'tease' her going bad, she is the ONLY one that anyone is concerned about when it comes to being questionable, because that's how the show presents it. Even in the teasers or promos about her, they leave whatever she's doing as a question mark.

But Kara on the show, and even in promos is presented as the hero in the right no matter what. The only way we really get to see Kara as having done something wrong is if Lena or Kara herself points it out. People say this is the show Constantly making Kara apologize to Lena but I think it's great! Having Kara apologize for some of the nonsense she pulls, especially to Lena humanizes her and acknowledges that she isn't as perfect as she's usually presented to be.

The show does a horrible job of ignoring how dodgy the other Superfriends can be, because they are the 'heroes' and Lena is forever the question mark, even though without her they can't always save the day. They get round this by sometimes making Lena indirectly responsible for what goes on. But Lena isn't always the ONLY one involved in the issues that happen.

E.g. Rhea and the Daxamite invasion:

When Rhea first arrived with Mon Els dad and the Daxamite fleet, she had no interest whatsoever in Earth. ALL she wanted was for Mon El to go back with them. She threatened Earth because she thought they were holding Mon El hostage.

Mon El who had talked a big game about not being OK with slavery or anything else Daxam did and wanted to be a hero, took less than an hour to decide he had no interest in taking the colossal opportunity handed to him where he could make a difference. He thought his culture was dead, no way to make up for his past faults. But lo and behold he got a second chance to write Daxams wrongs. Yes his mum threatened to lock him in a cell until the reached Daxam but is 3 years in a cell really that big of a price to pay for the ability to make changes? He would have been king, he probably couldn't change things Immediately, but he could have built a support base, staged a coup, led a rebellion or at least tried!! But nope, he decided to leave the remaining Daxam Slaves and any future ones to their fates so he could have his girl. Don't forget as well that Mon El left it until he was beamed aboard his parents ship to let Kara know who he was. He let Kara think he was possibly going to his death when he knew it was just mum and dad and he was way past currew! Kara in tears because that jack ass was crying to thought he might die and risked her own neck to join him on the Daxamite ship.

Kara in this situation wasn't any better. She talked a big game about how sh*t Daxam was and how wrong slavery was. She even went to Slavers Bay with Mon El and rescued people. But when the time came for Mon El to possibly fix or at least begin to fix Daxams slave issues she had zero interest in it, she had a go at Rhea for it but made no attempt to convince Mon El that maybe going back and helping his people was a good idea, no Kara's concern for Daxamite slaves only goes as far as her not getting her man. The stupid thing was if it had been the other way round it would have been in character for Kara to take that 3 years in a cell and do the noble thing.

So yeah, Rhea only invaded because Mon El told her to get lost and she blamed Kara for it. Lena had absolutely nothing to do with that, Rhea had already made the decision to make Earth New Daxam because of Kara and Mon El, way before she ever set eyes on Lena.

But non of that is ever acknowledged, but Lena's part in helping an alien try to get home and in the process perhaps help third world countries get the aid they needed in mere minutes was heavily highlighted. We got to see Lena hating herself for that, while Kara/Supergirl mopped about like an emo ignoring Lena and not really acknowledging the part she played in the invasion. Because we're left to see it as purely Lena's fault.

We are shown Jonn as the fatherly papa bear who struggles with violence. We saw him try the path of peace and fail at it, his father shows up and tells him that's OK and we're all like "ahhh papa bear".

BUT

Whats glossed over is Jonn's serious anger issues and homicidal tendencies. He wanted to kill the White Martian that was impersonating the Senator, he had already knocked it out and subdued it. But that wasn't enough for Jonn, he wanted it dead because it was a white Martian, he was going to kill the unarmed, unconscious alien and even brought along Kryptonite cuffs so Kara wouldn't be able to stop him from slaughtering it. Thankfully Kara gave a hope speech and he snapped out of it.

Secondly Jonn actually DOES kill Manchester Black after he disarms him. Manchester who can no longer do any harm to him is brutally stabbed it the chest, all because he made Jonn see something traumatic. If Jonn can't handle the possibly of psychic attacks he shouldn't be out there fighting. He killed a human that couldn't harm him after he was disarmed. But is this highlighted or discussed in any way whatsover? No! Manchester is just gone and Jonn gets to be all 'well that's done and dusted, off to game night".

Kara's roll in this? Kara is shocked for all or 5 seconds before she is telling Jonn every one makes mistakes amd he can still be on his path of peace.....I mean....... What?! Who wrote that dialogue? But Kara's own super hero code shouldn't she have reported Jonn or had him arrested? No of course not because Jonn is one of the designated heroes and not deemed questionable by writer's or the audience even though his actions say something different.

People that call Lena a murderer for shooting an unarmed Lex don't seem to recall Kara killing Parasite rather than locking him up and getting the DEO to try and find a cure. They don't recall Jonn INTENDING to kill the White Martian. They don't remember Jonn MURDERING an unarmed Manchester Black in same F**king season as Lena shooting Lex! Why is this not acknowledged? Because the show chooses not to highlight it! They don't even have Kara bothered by Murder or Killing enemies if it's her or the super friends doing it.

But Lena? Ooh she shot an unarmed Lex, must be dodgy as f**k and deserves to be locked up, what an evil murderer!! Oh no, Lena shot the Arrowverses version of Hitler who was about to destroy an entire planet of Kryptonians who are only still here because of Lena!! How awful she must be.

Let's not forget as well that a lot of what Lena has done has been supported by the Superfriends at one point or another. I seem to recall a certain Alex Danvers and Brainy working on that Harun El serum!

Yes Adam was a terrible tragedy that shouldn't have happened. But is that worse than Jonn actually premeditating murder? Or out right Killing someone he had already disarmed? You talk about clinical trials etc but the show isnt going to waste precious air time going through that. Lena made a gigantic mistake, at least she owns the mistake and refused Haley when she wanted to use the Serum on DEO Agents.

Kara has zero issues telling Nia a girl she has known for 5 minutes her secret because she felt some solidarity and was missing Alex. She didn't know Nia at all, Nia could have been playing her or anything, but this isn't acknowledged because Nia is the new Hero (fyi love Nia). But Lenw, her best friend of 3 years and the girl who has been in the DEO kicking add and saving lives and the world apparently isn't Worthy of this secret. Why? Kara's bulls**t excuse is to keep Lena safe, yet she apparently gives zero f**ks about Winns of Nia's safety. The real reason is because Lena is q Luthor and the show just needed her to not know and although the keeping Lena safe reason isn't a bad one, it becomes null and void when they have Kara telling people she barely knowns who she is. That goes for the "Kara doesn't owe her identity to anyone" argument as well , that only works when she isn't telling everyone she meets after 5 minutes of knowing them.

Basically after that tangent I went in, if Lena becomes bad after saving the world and Kara's ass more times than many of the super friends have done purely so we can have Kara defeat her and come out as the shining heroine that defeats the bad Luthor (not cliche at all) whilst not acknowledging some of her own faults and the homicidal tendencies of Jonn and the actual murder he committed it would be beyond hypocritical.

Fyi, had Kara told Lena who she was, a lot of issues could have been avoided, especially the Rhea one and Reign/Kryptonite one.

#supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers #anti mon el #anti jonn jonzz #alex danvers

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stranger-who-writes-fiction · 4 years

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Gotta make a 5x08 post because if I don’t gather all of my thoughts in a single place, it’s absolutely gonna devolve into a series of ‘AND ANOTHER THING!’ posts. XD

Spoilers!

I really do think that they’ve made great strides in balancing all of the stuff that goes into a single episode of Supergirl. But! There are still pacing problems--this episode is pretty darned rushed and nowhere is that more apparent than Alex and Brainy just. Hopping into the Fortress and Kara shaking off hours of Kryptonite exposure like...’business as usual, lads!’

(And I mean...I get it, they had to wrap a lot of stuff up because Crisis but. It’s not like they didn’t know that the first chunk of the season would need to be handled by episode 8. So on the one hand, okay....but on the other hand, ehhhhhh?)

(Also SG did not tie its season in with Crisis the same way Flash and Arrow did, so it’s not as though anything was taking time away from their series regulars/season-long plot.)

Right, so. Kara speeds off to Lena’s secret lair and....

Here’s the part where I admit a couple of things: 1.) I have never liked Lena Luthor. Ever. At all. But, 2.) I’ve disagreed with a lot of the more... intense Lena hate this season. For instance, I actually think it makes sense that for seasons 2-4, Lena doesn’t show a lot of self-awareness, and refuses to change, because you can’t have Lena being like, ‘Whoops, I’m wrong, my bad, sorry,’ and then proceed with a ‘Dark Lena’ plot. So I was like, ‘okay, this season is payoff to something they’ve clearly been building for several seasons...and said payoff is about Lena learning a lesson, and being taken to task for her shady business.’

And perhaps that’s where we’re still headed. BUUUUUUUUUUT:

In the meantime, it’s getting all muddied.

For instance: we get really frustrating moments, like Lena shooting ion canons at Kara, but stopping short of killing her with Kryptonite ones, and Kara being like, ‘I won’t give up on you!’ because WOW, Lena didn’t kill her.

Much friendship. Such love.

(Admission number 3! I rolled my eyes at Lena every time words came out of her mouth because they were all terrible.)

Speaking of eye-rolling! The Malefic interrogation scene!

Lena kept that man AS HER PRISONER but because she didn’t resort to physical violence, and kept him from being physically violent via mind control, we’re meant to believe that she’s still basically Good.

NEVER MIND THE SHADY ETHICS OF CONSENT AND EQUALLY-SHADY EXPERIMENTATION AND, OH YES, THE MIND CONTROL.

‘Well Malefic was a terrorist.’ Except Lena didn’t kidnap him with the intent of saving J’onn, or Kara, or anyone that Malefic was attacking--she kidnapped him with the intent of using his brain for--and I cannot stress this enough--MiND CoNtROL!!!!!

And yes, yes, it’s very in character for Kara to believe in people and hope for the best and think she can save everyone, but at what point does the narrative say, enough is enough? She’s got everything from murder to mind control under her belt and Kara’s over here like, ‘She’s not physically hurting anyone, and she probably got a good reason for it!’

Kara, I love you, but. No.

(Not to mention all of the very uncomfortable stuff happening re: Kara blaming herself and thinking that SHE has to fix someone who has intended to cause and has actually caused her physical harm. Multiple times.)

*takes a deep breath*

*because I’m gonna need air to yell in just a second here*

The hologram scene!

Which is a repeat of Kara apologizing for one past mistake and Lena treating it like it was a pattern, and Kara just. Taking it.

‘You just exposed me to the ugliness of humanity.’

SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP

Again I get that it’s extremely in-character for Lena to have zero self-awareness but this kind of stuff doesn’t do her any favors in the sympathy department, because we KNOW that Kara has bent over backwards to support and defend Lena, and Lena’s out here like, ‘You’re the WORST’!

I just wanna laugh in her face, which I don’t think is the response that the show wants.

Up next, the first DEO balcony scene, AKA, my favorite part of the episode.

I’m gonna quote the whole thing, because it’s wonderful:

“Your choice to conceal your identity wasn’t born out of a place of maliciousness. It was born out of love and compassion. And you were just trying to protect your family. And you were trying to protect Lena from people who could use that information to hurt us.”

And then there’s the whole list of all the shady nonsense Lena has pulled and honestly, *chef’s kiss*

And see, here we are, thinking, GOOD, YES, GOOD, at last, a voice of REASON. Now, Kara will learn that while it’s okay to believe that people can change and have hope, she can recognize that it has to be them that wants to change. She can’t do it for them!

Buuuuut then the show is like, ‘well Alex wants to use lethal force and that’s BAD’. Which it is.

So if you’re trying to position Alex as the voice of reason and in the Right, you can’t turn around and say, ‘look at how unreasonable Alex is being right now! Look at how wrong she was!’

It’s incredibly frustrating that the episode lands on the note of: Alex was wrong to think that people can’t change, and Kara was right, so we just have to deal with Lena’s sh*t a bit longer’. Like, Alex lays out all of the very real, very valid reasons for Kara to MAYBE BE UPSET WITH LENA and see that Lena’s just as much in the wrong--if not MORE SO--and the episode doesn’t use that to teach KARA anything new...somehow this turns into ‘teach Alex to BELIEVE IN PEOPLE’S ABILITY TO CHANGE.’

Which would be a fine lesson at any other point but maybe not after repeated attempts to get Lena to surrender and stop her MIND CONTROL PLOT.

Speaking of repeated attempts to reach Lena: I appreciate that J’onn reminds Kara that she already talked to Lena (and tearfully apologized for the...third time? now?) and Lena was just as petty and melodramatic and UNWILLING TO ADMIT TO ANY KIND OF WRONGDOING OR SHOW ANY DESIRE TO CHANGE but again, all of this information is buried in another ‘Kara believes in Lena in spite of all evidence to the contrary and the narrative justifies her blind devotion’ plot.

WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE. Specifically, when Lena was like. Framed or whatever but NOW she is, in fact, just as shady as all the evidence suggests AND YET.

AND YET.

‘She’s just hurting, I can still fix this!’

*so many alarm bells ringing, all the red flags flying*

I made this a few weeks ago, and never posted it, because at the time, I didn’t feel like there was enough evidence to support my concerns but:

Dude as bad as season 2 got, they at least were like, ‘hey, Kara has abandonment issues, let’s unpack that a little’.

All of this? Is simply All About Lena.

(I wanna believe that there’s a little bit of forward movement re: Kara, given that she knows Lena framed Hope/Eve at the end but it’s STILL right there next to, ‘we gotta hope for the best! And save Lena’s soul!’)

NO. YOU. DON’T. LENA HAS TO DO THAT HERSELF.

Like. How can you go through the entirety of season 2, as well as Kara telling Mon-El off in season 3, only to repeat Kara taking responsibility for other people’s crappy choices? HOW ARE WE REGRESSING LIKE THIS. >:C

As for other stuff in this episode: Rama Khan was...there.

I’m glad Mrs. Wheeler is in charge now; I still think the Leviathan stuff is kinda weak overall, but Rama Khan in particular felt very ‘meh.’

(...I think maybe I just don’t like his costume.)

(Also I know they said Mrs. Wheeler’s actual name in this episode but I can’t remember it.)

I liked all of the Andrea stuff!

Like that was genuinely Sad, at the end, when she used the contacts to revisit memories of Russell.

Russell, who appears to be very dead, which I find. Disappointing.

(Side note: Crisis better look stunning because ‘chained to a pile of dirt’ and ‘trapped under a single slab of concrete’ was about the same level of Earthbending FX we saw in the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender movie.)

(So. Not great, Bob.)

Poor Malefic has been sent to Mars, so. Guess we won’t be seeing him any more.

Ahhhh, but then, we have the CRISIS TIE-IN.

Which was pretty chill, actually. All things considered.

‘Good job on reconciling with your brother. Wanna save the multiverse?’

Also YAY, LEX IS BACK--A CLEAR-CUT VILLAIN WHO WE CAN ALL LOVE TO HATE WITHOUT A BUNCH OF PEOPLE JUSTIFYING HIS GARBAGE DECISIONS.

Okay I think I’m done yelling about this one! Can’t wait for the Crisis to come, and maybe erase this tedious arc from all of existence!

Oh crap I just remembered that J’onn and Alex apparently need Lena’s help to save Earth-38...ugh.

#stranger rants #SG post #supergirl spoilers #long post #it's 80% frustrated grumbling

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