Chapter Text
“You don’t think I should feel guilty for not wanting to go see that monster, right?” Kara remembered Lena asking her. And like an idiot, she’d sent her right into the trap Lillian Luthor had laid out– because despite what everyone else was saying, Kara knew there was nothing else that it could be. As she flew over National City, her fists clenched, and she did another scan with her X-ray vision to keep an eye on Lena, held in a police cruiser on the way to jail.
Kara had been planning to visit ahead of time to warn Lena about what people were saying, but she’d been caught up in arguing with Alex when the visitor log had surfaced. By the time the police had received the footage (from an anonymous source, she might add! Did no one see how suspicious that was?), she’d been too late, and arguing with Snapper and even James hadn’t gotten them to budge. Come tomorrow, CatCo would be blaring Lena’s guilt to anyone who hadn’t already seen the news, regardless of whether it was true or not. And there was nothing Kara could do to stop it.
Fuming at her thoughts, she didn’t realize that she’d flown all the way over to the jail alongside the cruiser. Then, she saw Lena and the cops getting out of the car, and one of them, not Maggie, pointed up at her, starting to speak. Quickly, she tuned in her superhearing.
“–like Supergirl isn’t planning to let you get away like your mother did,” she heard the cop in question say. In response, Lena looked up, and as her eyes focused on Kara’s silhouette in the sky, Kara saw the brunette set her jaw. Then, Lena looked back to the ground, walking into the prison as the cops marched her in.
Great. Now Lena probably figured that Supergirl considered her guilty too– and as Kara, she hadn’t sent any texts before she’d gotten the news of Lena’s arrest. As far as Lena would know, there really was no one in her corner. Luckily, she just had to visit Lena to fix that!
“No, visitors aren’t being accepted at the moment,” the woman at the front desk droned. “We still aren’t sure how Luthor smuggled in the kryptonite, so the whole place is on lockdown for the time being.”
“But I’m her friend,” Kara insisted, despite knowing that the line probably wouldn’t get her in.
Sure enough, a sneer appeared on the woman’s face. “Oh, well in that case,” she said sarcastically, before a thoughtful look replaced the sneer. “Actually, hell, better safe than sorry,” she said, pressing a button on her desk.
“What is it?” a voice blared out from a speaker.
“We got a visitor for the Luthor bitch. She’s not getting through, obviously, but reckon we should probably check in case she brought some kind of device. Can you send down someone to search her?”
“I– what?” Kara asked, confused. She had to admit, being taken for a potential Cadmus member was a new one.
“Exactly what it sounded like, blondie. You’re getting searched for whatever you were planning to bring the Luthor. Kinda lazy of them to try and pull the same plan all over, I gotta say.”
The fabric of her suit suddenly felt rather constricting. If she was searched… “No need for that, I can go,” she hurriedly said, turning to leave before they could try and detain her. As she did, she heard some muttering behind her with her superhearing, and as she listened in, she heard the receptionist say something about barring her from visiting, just in case. Well, that wasn’t a good sign.
As she walked away, she couldn’t help but be frustrated. Sure, she understood that they were just trying to do their jobs, but it wasn’t like Lena had been convicted yet. There was only circumstantial evidence and, admittedly, some fairly damning video evidence. But the only reason Lena visited in the first place was because Kara suggested it– so why couldn’t Alex and James just accept Lena’s innocence?
But as she thought that, she realized that there was one person who she could trust not to judge Lena by her name. Winn knew what it was like to have villainous relatives, just like her and Lena, and he’d said that she seemed pretty cool from when they worked together at the gala. And he’d probably be able to untangle whatever fake video that Cadmus had made.
With that happy thought in mind, she used her X-ray vision to scan for an empty alley to change in, dimly lit by the setting sun. Finding one, she headed over there and changed before jetting off to the DEO.
Kara paced behind Winn’s workspace, watching as he ran the same set of tests for the third time. As a seventh progress bar filled up, Winn turned to look at her. “Yeah, sorry Kara, I’ve got nothing. If it’s fake–” Winn quailed at the glare Kara sent him. “I mean, the fake recording is pretty much flawless. I’m not sure how they did it, but the footage itself isn’t digitally altered at all. The metadata is a bit weird, so I can’t confirm where or when it was taken, but that could just be the anonymization. As far as anyone can prove, that footage is of Lena Luthor pulling a hunk of kryptonite out of a vault.”
Once again, Kara’s hands bunched into fists. “Seriously?” she questioned. “They can make fakes this good and this is what they use it on?”
“Uh, yeah. Totally. But, uh…” Winn trailed off, but Kara could guess what he was going to say.
“Seriously, Winn? You too?” Kara asked, dismayed.
“No, listen, Kara, I trust that if you think Lena is good, then she’s good. People would probably say the same about me if I’d visited my dad before he broke out, even if I had nothing to do with it.” Winn paused for a moment. “But there’s always a chance that she was blackmailed into it or something. Cadmus is big, maybe whatever’s on the outside managed to get Lena to do their dirty work.”
Kara breathed out. At least someone trusted her judgment. “Still, it doesn’t make sense. I know that she wasn’t planning on going to the prison until I convinced her. If she got blackmailed into it, shouldn’t she have already been planning on making the visit?”
At that, Winn shrugged. “I heard you mention earlier when you were arguing with Alex that Lillian called her for a meeting? Maybe you’re right and it is all a frame job, though that doesn’t explain the video.”
Kara frowned. “Well, thanks for trying. Consider yourself halfway forgiven for the whole Guardian thing.”
Winn sighed. “Sorry I couldn’t be more help, Kara. I swear, I really did try to find signs of editing, but as far as I can tell that’s definitely Lena handling a glowing green rock which has the exact same visible spectrum emissions as kryptonite. I’ll keep looking, though.”
At that point, though, the clump of combat boots entered the room, and with them, Alex. “Kara,” she said. “I get that you thought she was your friend, but you bothering Winn over trying to prove an untampered video to be a fake isn’t going to help. She took advantage of your big heart, but what you should be focusing on is finding Lillian and Metallo, not picking fights with James and Snapper and bothering Winn.”
“Well maybe I wouldn’t have to do that if you guys hadn’t jumped straight to believing an anonymously sent video with the– what did you call it Winn?”
“The metadata?” Winn offered, before promptly trying to fade back into the background and avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
“Yeah, that. It’s all messed with. This is obviously a way for Lillian to get revenge on Lena for turning her in, by making her look guilty, and all of you guys are falling for it. Except for you Winn, you’re all good.” Suddenly, Kara became aware of more than a few pairs of eyes on her, from DEO agents surprised at Supergirl’s raised voice. “Well you are,” she added, perhaps a tiny bit petulantly.
“Kara…” Alex said, and for some reason, that sympathetic tone just annoyed Kara even further. Couldn’t Alex just trust her judgment for once?
“Winn, let me know if you find anything. I’m heading out,” she said, and with those words, she used superspeed to head out, before Alex could say anything more.
“Can I have another?” Kara found herself asking, her elbows resting on the counter at the alien bar. Slow Helvenian music was playing in the background, but the place was fairly deserted on a Monday evening. So far, the alcohol had only given her a pleasant buzz, but she wanted more.
In said environment, Mon-El’s unhappy expression looked all the more out of place. “Look, Kara, do you want to maybe… talk about it?”
“Talk about what? I’m fine. It’s not like literally no one trusts my judgment when I believe in someone or anything, or everyone seems to take for granted that I’m just an idiot who’s being tricked!”
“Huh? What’s that about?” he asked curiously.
“Well, you heard about Lena, right? She’s being framed by her mom, but no one believes me except Winn, even though I know Lena. She wouldn’t do this,” Kara insisted vehemently.
Mon-El shrugged. “Well, I don’t have a ton of room to talk. You believed I could be better than I was, and I’m glad you did. So if you believe in this Lena girl, I guess I believe in you?”
Kara let out a bark of laughter. “Rao, I wish everyone else could see it that simply. We could have maybe just brought her in for questioning, kept it quiet maybe? And then at least she would’ve known that I believe in her.”
“She doesn’t?” Mon-El asked.
“No, she got arrested before I could text her, and then the prison is on lockdown, so they wouldn’t let me through,” Kara complained. It was nice to have someone that she could just complain to, and Mon-El had that air to him. Maybe he would turn out to be a pretty good bartender after all.
The Daxamite looked around for a moment. “As Supergirl?” he asked in a low tone, seeming confused.
“No, as myself, I’m pretty sure Lena thinks Supergirl thinks she’s guilty.” Kara hesitated for a moment. “I didn’t really talk to her after Medusa as Supergirl. And then I was keeping an eye on her as she got taken to prison from above and she saw me.”
“Still. You use yourself as a source sometimes, right? I remember some people talking about that at CatCo?”
“Yeah? So, like… say that I’m going in on behalf of Supergirl? I don’t think that’s going to work, Mon-El, they already saw me.”
“No, that wouldn’t work anyways. Just… go in as Supergirl. The people of this city love you, they’ll let you through, and just say that you as Kara convinced you as Supergirl to believe in Lena.”
“Oh?” Kara asked, while mulling the idea over in her head. It’d put her identity at risk, and J’onn and Alex would probably yell at her for it, but she knew she didn’t want Lena to feel abandoned.
“Yeah, if you’re loved or respected enough, you can just cut through any reluctance. I used to do it all the time back on Daxam– as part of following the prince, I mean.” For a moment, Mon-El’s face flashed with guilt– he was probably remembering his prince who refused to get in the pod, Kara supposed.
“That’s a good idea, actually,” Kara agreed, brushing Mon-El’s odd look aside. “I appreciate it.”
“No need to sound so surprised,” Mon-El teased. “And besides, maybe she can help you actually pay for some of the good stuff, instead of just getting Aldebaran rum all the time. I mean, it gets us drunk, but there are so many better drinks out there!”
“Yeah, yeah, not beating the hedonist stereotypes there,” Kara shot back, feeling lighter with a plan in mind.
“I prefer the term epicurean, actually. Learned it from one of those ‘word of the day’ apps.”
“Sure. But seriously, thanks for the advice.”
“Of course, Kara. Anytime.”