Chapter Text
This is kinda dark (as the title suggests) and it’s not coming out the way I want it to as I write it, but basically I have an alternate S5 where instead of letting Lena leave the prison after Non Nocere fails, Lex drugs her and uses the emergency watch she still wears to lure Kara to one of LuthorCorp’s warehouses.
Of course Kara goes, because how can she not, even though she and Lena are fighting. But she at least has the sense to not go alone. She, Alex, Jonn and Nia all show up together, while Brainy monitors the situation from HQ.
Kara isn’t surprised to see the watch in Lex’s hand, but it does surprise her to see that Lena isn’t standing next to him.
“I knew you’d come,” he drawls loudly as Kara and her friends carefully approach. He appears to be alone, but when he snaps his fingers Otis steps from the shadows, roughly shoving a bound and gagged Lena ahead of him.
“Lena!”
Otis kicks the back of Lena’s legs as they come abreast of Lex, sending her crashing to her knees. Lex rips the tape from her mouth and tosses it aside, but Lena doesn’t immediately speak.
She blinks sluggishly, her gaze slightly unfocused as it casts about the warehouse before finally coming to a rest on Kara.
“She’s drugged,” Nia observes in a quiet murmur. Kara nearly speeds to Lena’s side, but hesitates when Alex puts a warning hand on her arm. Who knew what kind of trap Lex has in store.
“Kara…” Lena’s voice is gravelly. “Kara, I’m so sorry…”
In one fluid motion Lex pulls a pistol from his waistband and presses the muzzle to the side of Lena’s head. Lena’s eyes close for a long moment, and Kara can hear the staccato thump of her heartbeat. She may be drugged, but Lena understands what’s about to happen.
They all do.
“Lex!” Kara warns, a threat on her lips, but it dies when she sees Lex’s spiteful glare. Instead, she appeals to any compassion he may yet have. “She’s your sister…”
“Indeed she is,” Lex agrees calmly. “A fact she seems to have forgotten of late. It seems her loyalties have shifted.”
Kara takes a careful step forward, lifting a placating hand. She searches for an opening, some way to swoop in and pluck Lena from danger… but finds none. Lex’s finger rests firmly on the trigger, ready to squeeze at the slightest hint of intervention.
As fast as she is, this is one bullet she can’t outspeed.
“We can talk about this–”
“There is nothing to talk about!” Lex thunders, his voice reverberating across the warehouse. Kara freezes when Lena grimaces, her head tilting from the insistent pressure of the gun at her temple.
In the next moment, Lex calms. His shoulders relax, and he regards Kara with a cool gaze.
“I gave her everything– offered her everything she ever wanted. And she spat in my face.”
His features harden.
“I may not have won her to my side,” he delivers coolly. “But neither will you.”
For a moment, time seems to slow. Kara’s eyes snap to Lena’s. Lena gazes back, her eyes wide and pleading.
Please forgive me.
“NO!”
Kara’s cry is swallowed by the crack of the gu shot. Lena’s head snaps aside in a spray of blood. The force of the impact pitches her to one side, and she crumples.
The world snaps back into motion. With a roar, Kara turns her heat vision on Lex, only for Otis to intercept with a continuous blast from the kryptonite shard embedded in his chest. Behind him, Lex keys open a portal and escapes through it without a backwards glance. Otis follows a moment later, and the portal snaps closed behind them.
Kara doesn’t even think of trying to follow. She doesn’t register the tears on her cheeks as she speeds to Lena’s side. All she knows is that blood soaks her knees as she reaches for her friend, and that Lena’s skin is still warm as she carefully cups Lena’s cheek.
There’s an unnatural stillness that echoes in Kara’s ears, even as she watches the pool of blood slowly spread beneath Lena’s head.
“Kara… Kara!”
Kara snaps back into her body at the sound of her sister’s voice. She blinks, and suddenly Alex is there, one hand shaking Kara by the shoulder even as the other presses against Lena’s neck.
“A-Alex…”
“There’s still a pulse,” Alex snaps, her voice sharp with urgency. “She’s still alive–”
“Take her to the Legion ship,” Brainy echoes over comms. “The healing pods may yet be able to save her.”
Kara nods, though every muscle in her body seems to quake. She carefully slides her arms under Lena’s body as Alex steadies her head and neck until it rests against Kara’s collarbone.
“Don’t look,” Alex warns, her eyes dark. “And don’t you dare stop.”
Without wasting the time to respond, Kara launches into the air and zooms from the warehouse, Lena’s weight heavy in her arms.