Kindred Spirits, Part II
Fandoms: Supergirl, Nikita
A/N: Kara Zor-El and Alexandra Udinov both had their lives turned upside down when they were about the same age, so I thought, what if I make them small and sad together? Continuation of Part I, but now with supermom Eliza.
Content Warnings: Nikita-canon-typical mentions of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, drug use, non-consensual sex
Kara watches Eliza prepare breakfast before school.
She braces herself and then ventures tentatively, "I made a new friend."
"That's wonderful!" says Eliza, quickly laying down the fruit she'd been cutting. She turns to give Kara her full attention, beaming. "Is it one of your classmates?"
For most kids, that would probably be true, but Kara has been forging her own path on this planet. She knows Eliza hopes that one day she'll make human friends her age, but she's found more comfort and familiarity in strays like Streaky.
Sasha is human and her age, but she's not a classmate. It's hard to be someone's classmate from three thousand miles away.
Speaking of how she's been traversing those three thousand miles...
"Please don't be mad."
Eliza stiffens slightly, but she does a good job of masking her concern. When she speaks, her voice is calm, gentle even. "Why would I be mad?"
Kara takes a deep breath and then launches into her story. She's been back to visit Sasha a few times now. Each visit has shed more light on the horrifying situation Sasha and the other girls are in. It's impossible to keep the emotion out of her voice as she sees her own horror reflected back to her in Eliza's increasingly distraught expression.
To her credit, Eliza lets her get it all out before sighing, "Oh, Kara."
"I'll stop complaining about school," Kara promises vehemently. "I don't know how to fix this. I don't know how to fix Earth things. I know that now. I'll go to school, and I'll learn." She'll endure the inane math and science classes, the boring history classes, anything if it means she'll be able to help people like Sasha in the future. "Please. They need help."
...
Kara stands just to Eliza's left and holds out her arms.
"When I fly with Alex--I mean, when I flew with Alex, we would..."
Eliza notes the present tense slip up and knows she'll have to revisit it later, even if it does pale in comparison to what else has apparently been transpiring.
Jeremiah would put a stop to all of this immediately. Perhaps that's why she hasn't told him yet. Or perhaps, Eliza tells herself, he's already busy with the DEO and doesn't need anything else to worry about.
It's a flimsy excuse, but Eliza knows herself and she knows her daughter. Eliza can tell Kara not to go back, but that doesn't mean Kara won't. And as for Eliza herself, well, she won't be forgetting about those girls in a hurry.
With that in mind, Eliza settles into Kara's hold as she gently hovers above the ground to test Eliza's comfort level.
Then they're off.
It's her first time flying with Kara. Under different circumstances, she'd reflect on the absolute wonder of it. The view is spectacular, and when the wind is in danger of drying out her eyes, she closes them and revels in the feel of the wind against her skin.
And it's all courtesy of her daughter.
Flight. Super speed. Super strength. So many of Kara's powers on display.
But there's no time. Before long, Kara is landing them on the roof of their destination and gesturing for her to wait.
Kara has scoped out the building and the guards' schedules in advance, but she does a run through of the building now just in case. As much as this is a mission to save the girls, Kara has been adamant that Eliza's safety is also a top priority.
Tonight, most of the guards have been pulled away for something else. No one has been assigned in their place. The people in charge clearly found little threat in a bunch of drug-addicted girls with no where to go.
Eliza's here to make sure they have somewhere to go.
And that's only one of the many things they'll need help with.
Addiction treatment, trauma counseling, health check ups, social services (are they safe to go back to their families or did their families give them up), things Eliza's forgetting, things she'd never consider.
Because as much as she is the adult, as much as she's been a lifelong resident of this planet and this country, as much as she can be said to know more than Kara, she doesn't know enough.
When she meets the girls, the one thing she does know for certain is that she will absolutely be crying later.
...
Kara's new friend Sasha is Alexandra Udinov, the lost heiress to a billion dollar company called Zetrov.
At least, to the rest of the world, she is.
To Sasha, she is the lost daughter of parents who had been murdered in their home while it burned down around them. The only part of being an heiress that matters is that she will most likely be killed the moment she resurfaces.
Eliza's mind nearly crashes and burns because of course, of course life had yet another curve ball to throw her way.
And she finds out in perhaps the worst possible way.
Like Kara's earlier protectiveness, Eliza isn't helping the girls blindly. She can't forget that some of the girls have seen Kara use her powers. She can help the girls and investigate the potential threat level at the same time.
By Kara's account, only two of the girls have seen her use her powers. The first girl Kara saved poses no threat. Eliza can't deny that there's something horrifying and perverse in the relief that she was too high, too lost in her nightmare of a reality to remember anything.
Sasha is another story entirely. While Kara may have initially manifested herself as a hallucination with magical powers, her subsequent visits and Eliza's presence are proof that she's more than a heroin-induced fever dream.
Eliza can't help it. Her questions come out a little too pointed, a little too probing. Sasha picks up on the threat assessment, and she visibly retreats, understanding that being a threat to Kara has turned into a threat against herself.
Kara must have made quite the impression though, enough to make Eliza completely trustworthy by association, because Sasha offers up her own identity as collateral. She doesn't say the words, merely shows Eliza her father's watch, holding it out for Eliza to see but not far enough to hand it over, to risk giving it up.
The pieces of Eliza's heart, already broken by the tragedy around her, shatter. She takes in Sasha's hunched frame, terrified she made the wrong choice in trusting Eliza, and feels the oxygen in her blood transform into a self-loathing guilt as her vessels deliver it to every cell in her body.
It's no wonder, really, that Kara and Sasha had bonded so quickly--two girls whose worlds had burned down around them, families lost, and who now live in a world where revealing their real identities could only result in death or worse.
"Can I hug you?" Eliza asks.
Sasha's tiny frame trembles in her arms, unused to comfort after so many months and unsure if it's real.
"Oh, sweetheart," Eliza murmurs, and whatever walls Sasha valiantly tried to maintain dissolve now. Her muscles slacken, and the only movement comes from her lungs, heaving with sobs.
The thought of adopting Sasha passes through Eliza's mind.
She would probably need a new identity and papers, which is doable. They know a guy.
Goodness, she's starting to sound like some sort of career criminal.
"California woman convicted of serial child adoption," the headline would read.
But reality pops the idealistic dream forming in her head. Eliza still has to deal with Jeremiah. Alex has been handling the adjustment from only child to older sister admirably, but Eliza knows they can only ask so much of her. The steep increase from financially supporting one to three children cannot be ignored, not to mention the ever-growing dark cloud of external threats hanging over their heads.
Eliza clutches Sasha tighter and promises, swears to both Sasha and herself, that she'll figure something out.
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