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Lillian Luthor does not accept defeat. Lillian Luthor is simply always right, a fact her daughter - and she uses the term loosely - seems to have trouble understanding. If she's being completely rational, she should take advantage of her freedom and lay low, away from her daughter and her ridiculous friend Supergirl. But that's the thing. She has this overwhelming need to prove Lena wrong, prove to her that her faith in Supergirl is misplaced, that aliens are bound to let you down at best, and bring your demise at worst.
So she hatches a plan to do just that.
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It's really not that hard for Lillian to get hold of her daughter's schedule. It's even easier to intercept her on her way to lunch. The same can't be said about Supergirl. It's trickier and needs more time. But Lillian Luthor has all the time in the world.
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Supergirl's ears pick up on someone screaming, and she's at the source two seconds later. A woman is trapped in a car, and the car itself is trapped under a fallen lamppost, so Supergirl has no choice but to enter the car from behind to get to the distressed lady. Except that, it turns out, she's not a distressed lady at all. The moment Supergirl steps inside the vehicle, she feels herself go weak, then a needle forces its way into her neck. In its last seconds of consciousness, all her mind can do is curse Kryptonite.
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The first thing Kara sees when she wakes up is green. Her instincts kick in, and she recoils, jerking back until her back reaches something cold and metallic. Great, she thinks, she wakes up trapped in a cell, in front of Kryptonite. Her vision focuses slowly, and she notices that that green is actually Lena Luthor's vibrant eyes. Relief washes over her because Lena is here. But realization hits her soon after, and reassurance is replaced with alarm because Lena is here. Lena is stuck here with her. Except that she's not caged, she's not tied up so what the hell is going on?
"Ah, I'm so glad you've accepted my invitation."
Kara whips her head to face the source of the voice. She hears her clicking heels before she sees her. "Lillian Luthor," she practically spits out. "You know, people would like you a lot more if you didn't kidnap them."
"That's what I keep telling her," Lena quips from the ground in front of Supergirl's Kryptonite-filled cell. Her expression is schooled, much like her mother's, but Kara swears it showed relief when the hero had spoken a few seconds ago. As if she was glad she was OK. "Let us go, mother." It's calm, but it's also fierce, angry, demanding, especially since she's now standing inches away from her mother's face. Lena Luthor is nothing like her family, but in moments like these, Kara can't help but be reminded that she was raised by them. Lena slightly raises her voice, "Now!"
"Oh darling, you are free to go." Lillian has a smile on her face, but her tone conveys zero emotion. "Though not before I can educate you one last time." She flicks her hand as if her daughter was nothing more than a fly to get rid of, and two men show up out of nowhere, dragging Lena to a nearby chair and holding her there until she stops struggling.
"Your brother and I have always taught you to beware of aliens. And now you trust one? You're friends with the cousin of one who destroyed Lex's life, career, reputation?"
"Lex destroyed all of these himself," Lena spits out and earns a sharp slap to the face in response, almost knocking her off the chair.
"You show your brother some respect," she snaps at her daughter.
"Like you have showed me for all these years?"
Lillian brushes it off. "I can't believe we're still talking about that." Lena's poker face wavers, and this time, it takes her longer to put it back on. Her mother definitely notices, and a smirk etches itself on her face, but, uncharacteristically, she doesn't say anything. "I'll make it quick," she continues. "I'll prove to you that Supergirl is no hero, that aliens are not to be trusted. They're all worthless trash."
Lena raises a challenging eyebrow. "Your type of proof means absolutely nothing. You're the kind of person to provoke a puppy until it attacks you then say that all dogs need to be euthanized."
Lillian continues, paying no attention to Lena's words, Lena's argument. She's right, she knows she's right, and a few comments from her daughter won't change her mind. "And once you see this, I will put a bullet right between the so-called hero's eyes."
Kara flinches unintentionally, something that doesn't go unnoticed by either Luthors. Where Lena's face tries to offer her comfort, Lillian's just shows barely contained excitement.
Lillian motions at one of her goons, and he disappears for a moment before he comes back, dragging a struggling teenage girl by the restraints around her entire hands. A sort of power dampening device, if Kara had to guess. Lillian grabs the girl by the hair and yanks it back, forcing her to make eye contact with Supergirl. Her eyes are icy blue and her hair is platinum-coloured, almost the same hue as her skin. She's obviously an alien, and Kara's heart drops because when aliens and Lillian get mixed, it usually doesn't end well.
"Don't do it," Lena says, and though her face is as stoic as it can be, her voice slightly wavers as a hint of fear colours it.
As a response, Lillian fishes a gun from the back of her waist and calmly rests it against the girl's chest, her eyes locking on Supergirl's as an invitation to do something. Kara looks wildly from Lillian to the girl and back, grabs the bars and pushes against them and shakes them with all her might, utters a desperate plea for the girl to hold on, for Lillian to stop, for Lena to do something.
But the bars won't move, Lillian's crazy and Lena's still being held down by the two buff guys.
The girl falls dead on the ground a second later.
It's terrifying with how much ease lives can be taken and how much Lillian Luthor enjoys doing it. The reverberations crush Kara, crush her voice. "No," she lets out desperately in a whisper and takes a step back, her hand coming up to hover over her chest. "No." Her hand covers her mouth and her eyes close to shield her from seeing any more destruction.
"Ah, Supergirl, she was right there, and you couldn't get to her? I'm honestly disappointed. What kind of a hero are you?" Lillian tsks and makes a motion with her hand. Immediately, one of the men holding Lena lets her go and disappears, dragging the body out of the room.
"You're crazy!" Lena says in a choked up voice. Because although she knew that her mother was determined to prove that aliens are bad, she didn't think that she would stoop so low. She thought that Lillian was simply persistent, but she was just proven wrong. Lillian was an obsessed psychopath.
"I am just showing you what you are too blind to see. If that makes me crazy, so be it."
She lifts the gun again, and she's all ecstatic smiles as she aims it at Supergirl. Except that a second later, she isn't. Lena is between the barrel of the gun and Kara, and she's radiating strength and confidence.
Lillian lets out a cold chuckle, the kind that reminds Lena of her boarding school's principal's reaction to anyone getting in trouble. "I just proved to you that she's a useless piece of garbage, and you still want to save her?"
"Just because she couldn't help the people that you murdered doesn't mean that she does no good or that she's useless. Besides," there's a distant look in her eyes and Kara knows she's thinking of Lex before she even says it, "you can't save everyone."
"Look at you, explaining what it means to be a hero. Being a hero is saving people from what they don't know will hurt them."
She scoffs. "You mean like Lex and the alien situation."
"Exactly. Now move."
"No."
"I said..." Lillian removes the safety on the gun. "Move."
Lena stands tall in front of her mother. She lifts her chin up, and defiance shines in her eyes. "And I said no."
Lillian throws a look in her goon's direction, and he's immediately next to Lena, forcefully pulling her back. She then aims the gun back at Supergirl's forehead. Kara closes her eyes. She doesn't want to see the bullet coming, but she also doesn't want to see Lena's expression when it does. She can't help but feel like she somehow let her down.
In her last moments on Earth, Kara thinks about her family, when they were happy, when Jeremiah hadn't disappeared yet, when Eliza brought her to work with her, when Alex gushed to her about some fictional character in a book. In her last moments on Earth, Kara thinks about the family she chose as well, about J'onn, James, Winn, Lena, Maggie, even Cat and Mon-El.
She hears the gun go off. She doesn't feel anything.
It's true, the reason she shouldn't feel anything is because she should be dead. But she isn't. She isn't because she can open her eyes. She isn't because she can hear Lena's heart-wrenching scream. She isn't because she can see Lena dropping on the floor in front of her mother. She isn't because she can feel her own heart break.
There's a deafening silence after the ear-splitting gunshot. No one speaks, no one moves, no one dares to breathe.
Lena is lying on the ground, pale, her face washed-out. Admittedly, she's always been pale - it's just her skin tone. But now, it's a stark contrast to her bright red-colored lips. To her lips and her lower abdomen. Because blood is slipping between the fingers she has placed on the gunshot wound, and it's slowly creating a puddle around her.
Damn Lena and her stupid good heart. Why did she have to saver her? Why did she have to fight her mother for the gun? Why didn't the goon do his damn job and hold her back? And damn that stupid gun, going off during the struggle.
"This is all your fault," Lillian says quietly, eyes set on her bleeding daughter though unseeing. She whips her head up to look at Kara, and they're filled with so much hatred, hatred directed at her, that she can't help but flinch. "This all your fault!" she screams and raises the gun back up.
"It's yours." It's barely above a whisper. It's broken and oh so quiet, far from the strong, controlled one Kara has always heard. Lena's voice lost its spark, and so did her eyes. Lillian is frozen in place, but her face is unreadable. "Congratulations, you finally did it. You got rid of me. Now for once in your life, take what I want into consideration. Leave me alone. Let me die without rubbing it in my face."
Lillian has the decency, for a second or two, to look ashamed, before her face is neutral once more, yet still somehow radiating evil. But she doesn't move.
"Don't worry." Lena rolls her head away from Lillian. "It won't be long now, mother."
If she's being honest, she wouldn't have sent her mother away if Supergirl weren't here. She is so afraid to die alone, she'd be ready to have her mother's face be the last thing she sees. Lillian leaves the room, and her goon follows. Lena wants nothing more than to just close her eyes and let sweet unconsciousness sweep over her. But she can't. Because she needs to return the favour and save her best friend.
Obviously, she knows Kara is Supergirl. She's known from the beginning. It wasn't hard, really, and it's not like Kara does a great job at hiding it. There was the "I flew here... on a... on a bus" and the "I was getting coffee with Kara Danvers when you called" (who gets coffee at night?) to name a few. There was the constant effort to put as much distance between Supergirl and Kara as possible by constantly saying Kara's full name like "Kara Danvers believes in you". There was this fire and fierceness and loyalty, present in both Supergirl and Kara when they talked to her, and they both ignited a sense of gratitude and confidence in Lena. Plus it wasn't like the glasses were a great disguise.
Not long after she made the connection, she really enjoyed throwing a gala and inviting both Supergirl and Kara Danvers, then watching Kara get all flustered, switching back and forth between her two personas. But she'd never tell Kara that she knew. It wasn't her secret to tell, and she was going to let Kara tell her at her own pace (if she ever actually did decide to tell her).
Lena drags her body across the room, her aching, tired body that refuses to cooperate, and finally, finally, makes it to Kara's cell. She tries to prop herself up, but her hand is slippery from all the blood, and she falls back down. She tries again, but her body is too exhausted. Her whole arm trembles and gives way, sending her back to the ground again.
A soft whisper comes out of Supergirl, saying Lena's name in a way that says 'it's OK'. It's OK if she can't do it, it's OK if Kara dies.
Lena shakes her head viciously, refusing to give up now. Her breathing is becoming more laboured, and every breath burns. Blood is spilling more rapidly now (she didn't know a human body contained that much blood) and is smudged all over the cold floor. She lifts herself up, begging her body to withstand a few seconds of pressure, promising it complete rest if it complied. It seems to accept the deal because Lena can finally reach the big red button on the wall adjacent to the cell. The moment she presses it, her body gives out, and she finds herself sprawled on the floor, looking at the cement ceiling. She can faintly hear a buzzing sound, the cell door sliding open and Kara's worried voice, but it doesn't seem to matter now.
Her body upheld its end of the deal, now it's time she does the same. But she finds that she doesn't mind. Out of all her near death experiences, this one is the best to actually be the last one because this time, she got to save someone in the process. And she's confident that until the moment she leaves this earth, she won't be alone.
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Screams echo in the DEO. Supergirl's. They're not the usual screams of pain that come after injuries in a fight with an alien. They're not the screams of hurt that come after betrayals. They're more like wails that come after a person she cares about sacrifices themselves for her.
And Kara can't stand the stress of waiting to hear if Lena's going to survive. Her own heartbeat is so fast that she can hear it, unlike Lena's. For a moment, back in CADMUS's facility, it had disappeared completely. She doesn't know how she got them out of there eventually after that. All that she remembers is that her sole focus was to get them out of there, whatever way possible, whatever the cost.
Kara had dropped Lena in the medical bay of the DEO and J'onn had to physically restrain her to stop her from following her in the operation room. She'd watched from the window as a doctor ripped Lena's shirt open, screaming for a crash cart, screaming for everyone to 'clear', screaming for more voltage, screaming 'again' and 'again' and 'again', and then finally, whispering that they had a weak pulse. Kara's knees had almost buckled in relief as the adrenaline had faded away. She had stood there then, on the outside looking in, as doctors did blood transfusions and stitch jobs that were bound to leave a big, angry scar.
She had followed them as they'd wheeled Lena, still unconscious, and still in critical condition, into a room, and she had stayed there until she was forcefully kicked out to get checked on herself, in order to make sure the Kryptonite injection when she was kidnapped didn't have permanent damage. They hadn't let her in Lena's room afterwards, saying that she needed rest. It didn't make any sense, but Alex had threatened to tie her up and leave her in the training room with Kryptonite, and Kara had preferred having the freedom to rush to Lena's side if she had to.
Kara paces restlessly in the DEO, and she's surprised she hasn't already dented the cement underneath her feet. Lena's stable for now, but she's not in the clear yet. Someone had tried to explain to Kara the medical stuff behind it to distract her, but she hadn't listened to a single word they had spoken. She doesn't even know who they were. All that she knows is that one moment everything can be fine, and the other, she might never be able to talk to Lena ever again. Human physiology is so delicate and volatile, and it somewhat scares her how fast she can lose her newfound family.
It's seventeen hours later, seventeen hours since Lena's heart started beating again, seventeen hours since Kara had what almost was a panic attack, seventeen hours since she'd washed blood off her outfit and changed into civilian clothes, that a doctor announces that Lena will make a full recovery. It's seventeen hours later that Kara can finally breathe again.
It's another few hours before Lena wakes up, and Kara is allowed to go in and see her. The lights and white sheets do nothing but aggravate the pallor of Lena's face. Her eyes flutter open the moment Kara enters the room, and she smiles weakly.
Kara doesn't know what to say, doesn't know if there's anything to be said. "How are you?" she settles on asking the safe, trite question.
Lena points at an IV protruding from her hand. "Great, actually. I don't even feel a thing. Top-notch morphine right there. What about you?"
"What do you mean, what about me? You're the one in a hospital bed."
"Well yeah, but you were in my mum's grasp, and it's not like she's the gentlest woman on Earth." When Kara doesn't respond, and just looks at her with a slightly agape mouth, it takes Lena a moment to realize why. "Oh shit, I wasn't supposed to know that you're Supergirl." She points to the IV again. "This thing is messing with my awareness."
Kara just smiles. "I'm glad you know." She takes a seat next to Lena and starts fidgeting with her fingers in her lap, not looking at her. "Thank you," she says finally, earnestly, meeting her eyes. She takes Lena's free hand and squeezes it. "Thank you," she repeats, emphasizing her gratitude.
Lena tries to return the squeeze as a response, but with her depleted energy, it comes out as a twitch of fingers. She looks so vulnerable at this moment that Kara can feel her heart constrict. It doesn't help that the bed is way too big for Lena either.
Lena's hand starts slipping away from Kara's own, so Kara just holds on tighter, afraid of letting go, afraid of losing her all over again. "Sleep," she tells her. "You need it. I'll be here when you wake up."
Lena's eyes are closed, and her question comes out mumbled. "Promise?"
Her breathing evens out, and she's asleep before she hears Kara's murmured "I promise."
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Lena wakes up a few hours later to a silent and dark DEO and to the weight of Kara's dozing upper body on her thighs. She falls back asleep, comforted by the warmth.