Chapter Text
“That was reckless of you. Both of you,” J’onn said. James had taken the kryptonite that Corben had given up back to the van with Winn, while Kara had flown Corben to the D.E.O. Technically, he should probably end up back in the city jail, but that seemed like it was begging for him to break out again.
“We managed fine, J’onn,” Kara pointed out, still slightly annoyed about his lack of support when it came to Lena’s innocence.
“I’ve seen the footage, Supergirl, as has Agent Danvers. If Guardian hadn’t been there, Corben could have seriously hurt you, if not worse. You must be more careful,” he insisted, a hint of emotion slipping into his voice.
“Sorry,” Kara apologized, feeling a bit subdued. “You’re right, I know, I got lucky. I’m still not used to fighting against opponents with kryptonite. But do I at least get points for making sure Ja– Guardian was there for backup?”
“You do,” J’onn acknowledged. “Good job on that front, even if I’d rather you have called in the DEO rather than work with a still technically illegal vigilante. I have to ask, though, from what he and Winn told me when they called in, you were there for a while?” In his voice lay a note of judgement.
Kara steeled herself for another argument. “I was giving Lena some company, since everyone in the world thinks she’s guilty. They didn’t let Kara Danvers in, and she wanted me to let Lena know that she still believes in Lena’s innocence.”
“Kara Danvers insisted, hm?” J’onn asked. “And now what are you going to tell her, given that Metallo explicitly said that he was there to break Ms. Luthor out?”
“That I still believe that Lena Luthor is being framed by her mother. Obviously they leaked that video so that Lena would be in jail where Metallo could get to her more easily, and now Metallo’s just playing damage control. It makes total sense!” Part of her understood that it sounded like she was grasping at straws, but Kara knew Lena, even if she couldn’t explain it. She knew there was no way Lena was working with her mother.
“If she’s not with them, then why would they kidnap her? You need to look at this objectively, Supergirl,” J’onn insisted, as the pair continued walking down to the medbay, where James was being treated.
“For ransom, or maybe they want her to build some technology for them?” Kara suggested. She wasn’t sure exactly what Lillian’s reasoning was, but maybe they’d have a better shot at figuring it out if people stopped assuming Lena was guilty.
Unfortunately for her first two theories, J’onn was quick to respond. “If it’s for ransom, why frame her? And if it’s for technology, that implies Lena is willing to cooperate with Cadmus, which brings us back to Lena probably having already helped Cadmus.”
Kara paused for a second. “Maybe, uh…” She trailed off. At the moment she couldn’t think of anything. The pair kept walking in silence, J’onn clearly attempting to give her space to think. Soon enough, they arrived at the medbay, where Alex, Winn, and James were already assembled.
At that moment, Alex was tending to some of James’ kryptonite burns, but when Kara entered, Alex rushed over. “I’m glad you’re okay, Kara. And… let me know if you need to talk about it. I know you really did believe in her.”
“I still believe in her,” Kara said flatly. Then, she spun around and turned to J’onn. “What if they have hostages!? Maybe that’s how they plan to get Lena to cooperate, or maybe they’re going to do whatever they did to Jeremiah!”
James let out a groan from the table on which he was sitting. Then, he spoke, exasperation clear on his face as he spoke with a wince every few words. “For God’s sake, Kara, why can’t you just accept that she played you? Metallo literally told us he was there to break her out, and if they wanted to use her for something that they’d need hostages for, why would they bother framing her, instead of just kidnapping her?”
“So that no one would look for her, obviously,” Kara shot back.
“Except that obviously we would look for her, because she’d be a criminal. Face it Kara, the facts just don’t add up for your theory.”
“It’s not a theory, it’s a fact. I know Lena is innocent, and I’m going to prove it,” Kara insisted. She turned to look at Winn. “You’re still with me, right?”
“I guess?” Winn said, and promptly received a glare from the other three members of the room. “Look, us kids with evil parents have to stick together, right?” He shrugged, ignoring the glares as best he could. Then, he continued. “But honestly, without something more, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to prove anything from the video. I have some algorithms running to try and dissect every bit of it, but nothing’s really shown up.”
“So we’ve got nothing?” Kara said, slightly despondent. “Do we have anything on Lillian’s location? Maybe if I brought her in we could catch her in a lie.”
“Nothing, she’s totally gone to ground,” Alex responded. “And we don’t have nothing, we have two accomplices, both of whom we can interrogate.”
“One accomplice,” Kara butted in, although she knew it was futile.
“Corben has some kind of telepathy blocker, unfortunately,” J’onn explained. “I assume it’s built in, I won’t be able to read his mind without some form of surgery to remove it, and given it’s likely by his brain and we don’t have his schematics, there’s no way to do such a thing without risking permanent–”
“But you could use it on Lena, to prove her innocent?” Kara cut in, feeling foolish for not thinking of it earlier.
“I could, I presume, though it’s possible she’s allied enough with Cadmus to have some form of neural blocker. Shall I go to the jail and do so?”
“I– you’ll ask permission first, right? I don’t think she’d want you to just do it without that.”
“You realize she’ll likely say no, correct? I would be able to see her guilt.”
“Or you’ll see her innocence, because she’ll say yes!”
J’onn sighed. “Fine. But Kara, even if she’s innocent, you know it won’t be enough for a court of law, yes? And she’ll just say no, if you insist on her consent.”
“She’s innocent, why would she need to say no? Anyways, it doesn’t matter that its inadmissible to court. Once you guys finally realize she’s innocent, we can figure out a way to prove it, instead of always doubting me.”
At that point, Alex interjected. “And if she says no, you’ll stop bothering Winn to work on this during DEO time?”
Kara rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Alex, sure.” After all, why would Lena say no?
“No,” Lena said, faced with the trio of Agent Danvers, Supergirl and Supergirl’s Martian friend, who, bizarrely, was green. (He was pretty far from little, but still, it made her wonder what other conspiracies had a basis in truth. Were there grey aliens who abducted humans out there as well?)
“What?” Supergirl said, sounding completely baffled, standing outside her cell. It was odd, after having seen her in a casual context, to both see her beside another superhero (if a lower key one) and simultaneously be able to see the kink where she’d bent the bar to get in and play games with her.
“Very well. Supergirl, shall we go?” the Martian said, sounding like he had expected this. That alone almost made her say yes out of spite, but she denied the instinct.
“No, J’onn, hold on, let her explain why.”
“I’m not willing to give up the privacy of my thoughts,” Lena explained to the blonde and a frowning Agent Danvers. “Especially not to the director of the DEO.” Honestly, she was somewhat surprised Supergirl had asked– but then again, for all that she wasn’t naive, the alien hero did seem to be rather idealistic.
“Convenient,” her least favorite Danvers drawled. “And of course you know the DEO as well, despite it being a covert organization.”
“Of course she knows about it, Alex,” Supergirl defended. “She’s a genius billionaire, she knows stuff like that.”
“She knows stuff, really? That’s your defense?”
“I believe Lillian helped get it started, actually,” Lena said, directing her words at Agent Danvers. “She never mentioned it by name, but Lex did, a few times. He didn’t like you guys even when it was first founded, though. I think he thought that he could do better personally.”
“Regardless, she doesn’t feel inclined to cooperate, Supergirl. So either you let me look through her mind regardless, or I do have an agency to run.”
Lena froze. They were just going to look through her mind regardless? “You just… do that? Look through people’s minds?” she asked, shocked. In some ways she wasn’t surprised, but the thought that she was so vulnerable grated on her.
“Only to detainees and criminals,” the Martian– they called him J’onn, right?– explained.
“Don’t worry, I told him not to, I know you value your privacy,” Suprgirl added. She seemed proud of herself, and Lena was certainly glad for it, but the very concept was disquieting. Her mind began racing, ideas flying through her head for ways to avoid her mind being read involuntarily.
But those ideas wouldn’t help her here. Worse, that implied the only reason her thoughts were safe was Supergirl’s protection. Perhaps it would be better to take a controlled fall here, despite the risk of the DEO learning about some of her more secretive projects. None of them were strictly illegal, after all, and the benefit from her being out on bail would outweigh any attempts at copying her tech. “How much would you limit yourself, if I gave permission? Could you simply see my memories of that night?” she asked, hoping the answer was yes.
“I could.” Silence fell after that statement.
“See, I told you she was innocent,” Supergirl said, breaking the silence.
“She’s not even said yes.”
“Yeah, but she’s going to,” Supergirl said, with the certitude of someone claiming that the sky was blue. It was that, more than anything, that convinced her. She trusted that Supergirl wasn’t deceiving her, that the alien who should have every reason to dislike her was on her side. And Supergirl probably wouldn’t let this be used against her, she hoped.
“Okay,” Lena said quietly, directing her words to J’onn. “Do it.”
His eyebrows raised. “Just to warn you, this is not admissible in court.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure it would be if my memories implicated me. But they don’t, so go ahead,” she said, with bravado she didn’t really feel. Then she tried to focus on the memories from the night before.
As J’onn’s eyes began to glow an eerie red, she heard a feeling of surprise echo through a channel she hadn’t even been aware existed in her mind. If she was asked, she certainly wouldn’t be able to describe it. For a moment, it felt like she was frozen in time, but quickly, the feeling passed, and the glow faded from the man’s eyes.
“At least by her memories… she’s clean. Apologies for the suspicion, I suppose, Ms. Luthor.”
“I told you she was innocent!”
“But, the footage…” Agent Danvers asked, her tone still filled with suspicion.
“Could be faked, or Cadmus could have developed a way of fooling my abilities. But it’s an important piece of exonerating evidence.”
“So she can get out now?” Supergirl asked, hope in her voice.
“It’s not admissible in court, Su– sorry, El, though it’s possible it’d be enough to get me out on bail.” She looked questioningly at the Director of the DEO. Even if they didn’t officially exist, she was sure they could manage such a thing.
At her words, however, both Agent Danvers and the director gave sidelong looks at Supergirl. “What? She needed something to call me other than just Supergirl all the time.”
“I guess,” Agent Danvers grumbled.
The director cleared his throat. “We should get going, now. But I’ll try and see what I can do to get you out on bail for now, given your cooperation against the Medusa virus.” With those words he turned to leave, and Agent Danvers followed. Supergirl did not. “Supergirl?” he called out, turning his head back.
“Uh, I think I’ll stay here. Just in case Lillian sends someone else to attack Lena, you know?”
Agent Danvers turned and gave an odd glance at Supergirl, then at Lena. Lena wasn’t quite sure how to read it, but soon enough she schooled her face into a more neutral impression. “I assume you want J’onn to grab some pillows?”
“If he could, that’d be nice,” Supergirl said, stepping forward and bending the bars of Lena’s cell. “Can I…?”
“Oh, yes, come in,” Lena said, practically on autopilot. She was raised to be a good hostess, after all, even if she doubts Lillian had planned for her to be hosting in a jail cell. At the same time, the director phased into a neighboring cell and grabbed a pillow and a blanket.
“Here,” he said gruffly. “Be careful, we don’t know if Henshaw might have any more kryptonite. If it looks like he does, just take Ms. Luthor and come get Guardian and I.”
“Thanks. And now you’ll let Winn do his job of proving Lena innocent?”
“We both know you’d have gotten him to do that regardless. But yes, we will.”
Agent Danvers nodded as well. “Good night, Supergirl.”
As soon as the others were out of sight, Lena felt some tension leave her shoulders. “Thank you, El. I appreciate you standing up to them for me.”
“Of course, Lena. What are friends for?” the blonde said simply. “Anyways, we should get to sleep, it’s pretty late.”
As Lena woke up, she found herself disoriented. Her bed was harder than usual, and her blanket was oddly glossy. As she forced herself out of bed, the memories of the past day began to return to her, and as she opened her eyes properly, she realized that what she thought was her blanket was in fact Supergirl, only a fraction of her weight resting on top of Lena, with the rest held up by her flight.
It was early morning, probably around six if her usual sleep pattern was holding. She wasn’t sure if Supergirl normally woke up this early, so she tried to wriggle out without disturbing her. As she did, she brushed past the floating girl, who twisted around mid-air. “Five more minutes,” she groaned.
“Shh, you can stay asleep,” Lena agreed, hoping to avoid waking up the other woman fully. With a few grumbles, she settled down again.
In the cold light of day, the bizarreness of the last night truly began to hit her. She’d known she and Sup– El were at least friendly acquaintances, but she’d never expected to have a connection grow so fast, and she definitely hadn’t expected just how much El would open up to her about her own troubles. Maybe she just needed someone to talk to, but Lena still felt somewhat honored that she’d been trusted enough to be that person.
As she waited for El to wake, she began trying to run through what her new friend had taught her about Imokh Regrhahs. There wasn’t much else to do in the prison, and she might as well try and be a formidable foe for her friend the next time she played. Realizing what she’d just thought, she let out a small snort. There she was, a Luthor planning on being a formidable foe for a Super, in a very different way than Lex had been. It was ironic, really, that provided the DEO proved the falsity of the recording, the result of her mother’s framing would have been to drive her closer to Supergirl, and to get Corben recaptured. Well, that and plummeting stock prices, but she could deal with that later, hopefully. If she was lucky, Jess and Sam would have it somewhat in hand, though they couldn’t do much about investor panic.
She mulled over those thoughts, sitting in her bed. She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but eventually she heard a groan.
“I had the weirdest–” El cut herself off as she woke up. “Oh, huh. Good morning Lena.”
“Good morning El,” Lena said. God, this had to be the weirdest morning after that Lena had ever had, including that time when she and Jack first got together.
“You know, in hindsight that definitely sounds weird, I really need to get permission to tell you my actual name, though I guess El works for now.”
“Why do you need permission, anyways?” Lena asked curiously as El began to stretch. “It’s your name, isn’t it?”
The blonde rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, a habit which she seemed to share with Kara. “Oh, well. Technically I don’t, but they’ll get annoyed at me if I don’t convince them first. And Alex and I just worked something out, too…” She trailed off as she let out a yawn, and Lena did the same in response. “Sorry, I guess I’m not all the way awake.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lena said, a frown overtaking her face at the thought of Alex and El being close. Were they dating, maybe? It’d explain how Kara knew her, at least. Or maybe it was like she first thought, and Kara and El were dating, having met through Alex. Either way, she felt a pang of jealousy at the thought, which she wasn’t going to examine too hard right now. “Anyways,” she continued, putting on a smile which she didn’t quite feel, “Are you planning to head out?”
“I could stay if you’d like?” she offered, but Lena felt the need to decline.
“No, no need, though I really do appreciate the offer, El.” Involuntarily, Lena felt herself smiling, but she didn’t bother to hold it back. Somehow, in the space of just one night, Supergirl had managed to worm her way past Lena’s walls. “I’ll probably be out soon enough, money greases a lot of wheels, and after that I’ll have to be working twice as hard.”
“Well, let me know if there’s anything to help, alright? I guess I do have a job to do, if my boss hasn’t fired me or something. He’s a jerk,” she said, adding the last part in a stage whisper.
“You have a job?” Lena asked curiously. Then, she caught herself. “Sorry, no need to answer that. But maybe you and Kara should commiserate sometime, she’s always complaining about Snapper Carr. I’d offer myself, but I don’t exactly have a boss to complain about.”
“I do, but it’s a bit unique so I probably can’t say,” El said, brushing it off. “And hey, in my book, your shareholders annoy you enough that they could count,” El shot back. “Or, uh, so I’ve heard from Kara,” she added. Then, she continued. “But seriously, if you ever have a free moment and want to chat, just call out for me and I’ll hear it, okay?” With those words, she darted in for a quick hug, then held back right before making contact. “Can I…?”
Lena pulled her in. “I’ll do that. Maybe not tonight, but soon. I still have to make a try at beating you in Imokh Regrhahs, you know?”
“We can have Kara report it. I can see the headlines now, ‘Luthor Beats Super’,” El said, stepping back from the hug.
“You’ve discovered my cunning plan to claim victory where Lex couldn’t, I see?” It was odd to make jokes about it, but somehow, with El, it felt different, like they were both on the same side of the joke in a way no one else could be.
“That’s right. I guess I’ll just have to try and get a bit less rusty.”
Lena groaned. “Oh, God, that was you when you were rusty? That doesn’t sound good.”
“And so Supergirl prevails once more,” the woman in question said in a faux-pompous voice.
“That’s right,” Lena agreed, smiling. “But seriously, it’s probably almost eight, you should probably get going if your boss, whatever they do, is anything like Mr. Carr.”
El turned, then narrowed her eyes. “Ohshitgottagobye!” she blurted out suddenly. And with a whoosh of air, she was gone.
“See you soon, El,” Lena said, hoping the hero would hear her, wherever she was.