Chapter Text
Lena let out an irritable huff as she made her way down the sidewalk. Project Non Nocere had looked so promising. Steve and his enemy inmate had, briefly, gotten along… before all hell broke loose. Before Steve’s body had ramped up the mental pain of suppressing his survival instincts into utter physical agony.
Lena only had a couple of strategies left to try, feeling the doubt bubble up in her throat. She did not have much faith in the last-ditch efforts she would soon be making. Project Non Nocere would be a failure. Maybe it simply wasn’t possible to fix humanity’s basic personality. Science wasn’t about faith, of course - but her analytical instincts were often correct.
Maybe there was no way to avoid the hurt.
Lena yanked hard on the door to Noonan’s, still caught up in her own brain on the multiplexing issues involved - how were the Kryptonians able to produce such high purity optic fiber for Myriad? - as her caffeine withdrawal headache caught up with her. She should have just made some coffee at home, but perhaps the walk and the familiar coffee shop would help jog better ideas.
“Haven’t seen the two of you in a while! Same as usual?”
The barista at the counter smiled, somewhat uncertainly, as a startled Lena glanced up. Two of you? Lena whirled around to find a familiar blonde’s face, an awkward and unusually guarded glance to match Lena’s increasingly exasperated one. “Yeah”, the Kryptonian said quickly, stepping forward with her $20 in hand. “Same as usual.”
Lena held back the urge to roll her eyes, and stepped to the side of the counter to wait for her order. The barista eyed them briefly, before handing Lena’s cup to her coworker, and beginning work on Kara’s sugar-filled monstrosity.
“You know buying me coffee doesn’t make up for calling me a villain, right?” Lena hissed.
“This is awkward, Lena, I want out of this as quickly as you do.” Kara said stiffly.
As adept as their usual barista was at making Kara’s drink, the other came back with Lena’s espresso first. Lena grabbed her cup and bolted for the door.
And that’s when the screaming started.
Two men had entered the shop, wearing distinctive black jackets, with a platinum star on the left breast. Their hoods were pulled up, silver masks covering their faces. One held some sort of assault rifle in his hands, while the other had a pistol holstered - along with zipties - on his belt.
Lena halted in front of the doorway, eyes wide. Do I still get quarterly assassination attempts on this Earth?, she wondered dimly, at least vaguely grateful that Supergirl was nearby. Her heart in overdrive, and mind working like sludge, it took her a moment to recognize the masks as what must be some sort of Earth Prime variant on the Children of Liberty.
The second man stepped forward, grabbing Lena’s arm. “Ms. Luthor, you’re coming with us”, he said gruffly, as he jerked her arm forward to throw her between the two men. Grabbing her bag, he reached in to find a phone, and smashed it on the ground. He shoved her forward, and she stumbled outside towards a waiting black van, feeling her arms pulled behind her and being clasp in the zipties as she panicked.
Supergirl, she kept thinking, her heart racing. Kara, where are you?
A twisting knot formed in her stomach, as she was tossed into the back of the van. As angry as Kara was at her - as she was at Kara - she still had somehow assumed that Kara would defend her, when push came to shove, when her life was on the line. But doubt crept in her mind, a vision of trapping her best friend in kryptonite, leaving her in a cold fortress. Kara wasn’t going to stop this. Why would she?
“Wait!” cried out a familiar voice behind them, Kara pushing past the cafe door before coming to a halt. “You want to take me too.”
“Are you crazy, lady?” said Lena’s escort. She couldn’t see Kara out the door, but could see where the two men had turned back towards the cafe.
“Whatever leverage you need Ms. Luthor for, you’ll want me too. I- I’m her friend. And I wrote the CatCo piece on Agent Liberty last year, with Supergirl’s help.”
The men looked bewildered, but the second muttered “Boss, we gotta go” to the first, and the first gave a nod. The sounds of shoving, zipties, another shattering of a phone - and suddenly the blonde tumbled into the van behind Lena, before landing with a thud on the floor. The doors shut behind them, and Lena could hear the heavy steps as the men walked to the front of the van.
“Kara, what are you doing?!”
“Uh, following you?” Kara said, wincing as she glanced at the scrape on her arm. Unlike Lena, her hands were tied haphazardly in front of her instead of behind. Kara gathered herself, taking a deep shaking breath, noting the two benches in the van, and the barrier between them and the drivers up front. Kara brushed a hand behind her ear before pulling herself towards Lena. She gingerly reached out, cupping Lena’s face, eyes searching with meaning that Lena couldn’t quite process at the moment. “Are you alright?”
Given the recent betrayals, Lena was thrown off by the sudden show of affection - but she noted the curious feel of warm metal pressed behind her ear. “What are you-”
“NO TALKING”, shouted the man now loaded in the passenger’s seat, from the other side of the van cage. “And get to the other side, blondie.” An engine rumbled to life.
Kara obediently pulled back, scooting to the other bench, flexing her hands nervously and eyes dropping down to examine where she was scraped. Lena stared in a daze, her brain slowly catching up. She was being kidnapped by the Children of Liberty - of course, Luthors were alien lovers on this Earth. And Kara was here, and had put something on Lena - a tracker? Didn’t the DEO have some sort of tracker on Supergirl? And Kara was bleeding, which wasn’t weird after the rough treatment… except, she was Supergirl.
Lena’s voice dropped to a whisper, numb and confused, “Kara, is your… friend going to show up?”
Kara furtively glanced towards the men in the front of the van, unsure if they were listening. Concern and resolve were written on her face as she glanced back at Lena. “She’s, uh, away for a few days. On a business trip.”
That’s when it dawned on Lena. Rumors of what had happened to Superman a few years ago, brief concerns voiced in conversations she had overheard when the DEO was trying to figure out how to tackle Reign.
Kara had solar flared.