Chapter Text
'I can see all the doors. Sometimes I see you with me, happy. Other doors open to a desolate world where we are forever separated, never to interact or acknowledge each other. The door I must open is one of those dark worlds, but I promise baby girl, it is for the best.' Elizabeth, the Colombian songbird and interdimensional traveler thought stoically as she placed her baby girl into a carrier.
A simple brown and white silk blanket to cover her descendant, the child she will never grow to know. In nearly all other universes her child is never born, but this, this universe, this door is special. It allowed her to grow a baby girl, give birth and with just enough time left, cast off her child into a universe where she will be safe. Of all the doors, this one is the most consistent for her child. A kind Irish woman will find the baby, raise it as her own with a loving partner and the girl will grow up happy without any knowledge of Rapture or Columbia.
As the baby fussed in her cradle, Elizabeth smiled. She would never know what it would be like to be a mother. To raise the child from start to finish, to hear the laughter and the sadness echo off the walls of her home. "Little Lena, this is my gift to you." Elizabeth kissed her daughter goodbye, opened the tear and placed the cradle inside. She could not bear to see the environment she was subjecting her daughter to. The tear closed and the tears flowed freely down Elizabeth's face. The cries of her daughter would not permeate the dimensional barriers. It would be hours until her new mom found her on the doorstep, cold, lonely, and completely ignorant of her conception.
Four years later
Lena barely understood what was happening. A sinister-looking woman was now her mom. She was certain her mom was the kind, pale, dark-haired woman who tucked her into bed every night, spoke so softly and lovingly to her. This new woman, tall, blonde, cold, was not her mother. Her new brother, however, was a darling. She loved him and wanted nothing else but to spend time with him and impress him whenever she could. This life was odd but Lena could somehow sense it was the best possible world for her to live in.
However…every now and then, at the right angle with the right light when looking at her new mother, Lillian, she would see something bizarre. A reflection of light at Lillian's right hand, an obscure facial deformation on her left side. Occasionally Lena would catch her adoptive mother with a mask on…truly bizarre. Nightmarish in nature, probably a side effect of growing up human, the unexplainable nightmares all children have….something to forget.
Twenty years later
The nightmares dissipated from Lena's mind. The cruelty, the coldness, the apathy that Lillian showed her remained. What a shitty life, to have a loving mother be ripped from her at such a young age only to fall into the hands of a cold, cold woman. Lena remained steadfast in her goal to outgrow her trauma. Her abusive history does not define her. She is not a victim, she is Lena Luthor, the most illegitimate of Luthor's, the false princess to an empire that is now under her command. Giving in to the evil tendencies is a choice, so is spreading love and kindness. She chose the light, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
This path she carves for herself leads to a rich world full of inspiring characters, like her friend Kara. She does not feel like a Luthor when near Kara, she feels like Lena, and just Lena. This is how Lena knows who she really is, because of truly good people in the world like Kara.
This is where our story begins. With a girl who is not at all who she thinks she is, with a mother who is not at all who she pretends to be, and with a friend who is not at all who she says she is.
In the not too distant future
"And who are you to my daughter?" Lillian asked, starring down the kryptonian locked in a cage.
"I'm a friend." Insisted Supergirl, the honest belief held in her heart that Lena coveted their friendship as much as she did.
If only she knew what was about to transpire.
A deal was struck, blood for blood. A deal broken, blood for bondage. Kara woke up feeling outrage, what had Cadmus done to her. She felt a deep sense of emptiness in her soul. She longed for fulfillment but from what she did not know. "What did you do to me?" She groggily spoke aloud to no one in particular.
"Your cells are most interesting, Supergirl. Our sun gives you energy that you can convert into tremendous power. I have clients who are very, very interesting in cultivating that power." Lillian stood calmly next to the bound woman, looking over her chart as she continued, " I do believe I found a way to extract the power from your cells and sell it to the highest bidder. Oh but don't fret, you will be kept alive, after all, I need your cells alive, not necrotic." Lillian laughed to herself at the end. This is what her entire life culminated in this universe, what Atlas sent her to accomplish. Find the girl, extract the ADAM, give it to Atlas to sell to Rapture, profit.
With Supergirl and the sea slug combined, the amount of ADAM would be limitless. With her daughter, the most perfect little sister subject, gathering the ADAM would be simple. Atlas had seen other doors as well, he knew that it wasn't enough to implant the sea slug into Supergirl, he needed to form a bond between the alien and a little sister, to ensure consistent extraction. After all, a big daddy never squabbled about being attacked by a little sister, it was only when the little sister was in danger did he attack. Thus the plan to convert Supergirl into an ADAM big daddy factory begun.
Lillian looked over Suchong's notes. They had him pulled from one dimension into this one, the one where Elizabeth thought her daughter was safe. How fitting her daughter would now be unwittingly collecting ADAM like any good little sister. Suchong had implanted the sea slug into Supergirl's abdominal cavity and implanted the activation phrase into her brain. From now on Supergirl would kindly do whatever Lillian asked, like willingly go to her daughter to get the ADAM extracted from her belly. If this was successful they could implant other aliens, make more little sisters, sell ADAM in this world, make plasmids in this dimension…it would make them so much money.
"Supergirl," Lillian spoke neatly, "Would you kindly stand up?"
Nothing.
Well shit.
"Would you kindly stand up?" Lillian spoke again, looking nervously at the constraints holding Supergirl down. They would be easily broken by the alien, this should present no issue to the superhero.
"Oh fuck off." Supergirl spit into Lillian's general direction. Her faculties slowly coming back into consciousness. Lillian stood adjacent to the woman wide eyed. Something had gone wrong with the surgery, but what were the consequences…
A flash, a bang, smoke and mirrors, and a missing Supergirl. Cadmus was fucked. Lillian's only hope of holding up her end of the deal was that Lena would still be able to extract ADAM from Supergirl…and that Lena was still under Lillian's control.
A while later
Lena was most definitely not under her control. She neutralized the virus and ratted Lillian out. Lillian was definitely now on Atlas's shit list.
Somewhere else in the timeline.
"Well Supergirl, do you trust me now?" Lena flattened her tone, trying to speak as impartially as possible. The woman of steel rattled her from head to toe but that was a weakness subject to compartmentalization.
"Of course…Miss Luthor, Lena, I see now you are not your mother's daughter." Supergirl also spoke evenly, as evenly as possible with the yearning in her cells flaring. Ever since her escape from Cadmus, whatever they had done to her was yet to be realized except for the intense pull she felt for the heir of the Luthor line.
"Oh I am. I'm adopted. My birth mother was a kind, good hearted woman. A force for good, like I am trying to be." Lena laughed, her childhood memories springing into her head. Thinking about her real mother always calmed her down. "Now would you kindly turn around…" Lena paused as she watched Supergirl immediately respond to her instruction. To Supergirl's credit, she looked as confused as Lena as she turned around so quickly."…and fly out of sight." Lena finished slowly and watched as Supergirl wordlessly flew off and into the horizon.
"Would…you kindly come back into my office?" Lena whispered, afraid of the result of her utterance but unable to stop herself as she gasped when the imposing figure reappeared in front of her. A moment passed as Supergirl tried to sputter out an excuse but Lena interrupted, "What did my mother do to you?" the word mother had an inflection known to Supergirl, disgust was the intent.
Another moment of silence as the two women stood apart, the walls of Lena's office felt too close yet too far. The sterile white aesthetic suffocating any hope of familial comfort. This was a room for business and only business. This conversation was business, but not as usual. Supergirl broke as she confessed, "I really don't know."