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Day 1.
It begins with a flash.
One moment Alex is at the Tower with Kara, Lena and Brainy assessing a confiscated alien beacon and the next there’s a blinding light and a high-pitched frequency that has her dropping to her knees, eyes shut, hands covering her ears. It’s gone as quickly as it came, but the pitch reverberates through her ears even after it has stopped.
When she opens her eyes, like muscle memory, her attention quickly snaps over to Kara, but she blinks and—
And.
Suddenly, she’s staring at a younger version of Kara, curled up on the floor with her hands over her ears, eyes shut. Then she looks to her right, and there’s an equally young Lena Luthor petrified on the floor.
Alex’s heart drops.
“Oh, Spruck. That is not good,” Brainy says after a moment, hovering over the offending beacon as he eyes the two girls on the floor.
Not good at all.
Alex learns two things very quickly. A fourteen-year-old Kara Danvers, Kara Zor-El, is the brazen and temperamental Kryptonian who was abandoned at the Danvers’ doorstep thirteen years ago. A version of her sister, back when she wasn’t her sister at all, that Alex was no longer familiar with. Her Kara now was more level-headed, still a little reckless, but no longer bursting at the seams.
Fourteen-year-old Lena Luthor is the opposite. Careful, calm— reeking of anxiety and discomfort.
She manages to have Kara stand down without being blasted by heat vision or injured by any other super-powered ability. Her sister’s confused, angry eyes glowing with that dangerous red shimmer underneath, as she and a worryingly pale Lena are escorted to the common room area they have inside the Tower.
Alex stands before them with her hands on her waist, separated by the coffee table in the middle, and takes in a ragged breath. Looks between her sister and Lena, considering her words.
“I know you’re probably both very disoriented right now. Believe me, I am too. But you’ve just been turned into younger versions of yourselves.”
“Turned? What do you mean? I was just in Midvale,” Kara barks at the same time Lena lets out a strangled This must be a dream, and Alex hopes it is.
She doesn’t even know how to respond next. Bad guys she can deal with. They attack, and the team responds. It’s formulaic, but this, this feels like a big mistake, is a big mistake.
No one knew what that alien beacon did beforehand, which is why they were studying it. Otherwise, more precautions would have been taken into consideration.
Her silence is an answer in itself, and both girls share glances and then look at her.
“What year is this, Alex?” Kara asks, voice teetering on something and— oh, Kara knows who she is, after all.
“You know who I am?”
“Your heartbeat.”
It’s said with a tinge of embarrassment, an admission that this Kara might not like her sister that much, but still.
“How can you hear her heartbeat from over here?” Lena whispers, eyebrows furrowing.
She sits down after that.
-
Brainy explains it to her first, and then she has to break the news to the two newcomers. They’ve both been transported thirteen years into the future by a highly advanced alien device they currently have no information on. And no intel on where their adult counterparts may be.
Alex would like to think they take it well, but she notices how Lena’s hands shake, how she still looks a little paler than normal, when she starts to realize it’s maybe not a dream at all. Kara has that look in her eye, one Alex is more familiar with— the one where she’s gearing up for something.
And then there’s the matter of explaining the basics of who they are concerning the present, not before realizing the gravity of how much information she should share with two teenagers who have a long history of trauma. Who could potentially remember this and mess with their future.
“I become a Kryptonian hero, and my name is Supergirl?” Kara is in awe, sitting back on one of the Tower’s common room couches, seemingly content and forgetting her earlier grievances.
Alex isn’t surprised that’s what sticks. Never mind being a Pulitzer-winning reporter at one of the world’s top media conglomerates, because this Kara has been itching to use her abilities at the slightest chance.
“Wait, Kryptonian— like Superman?” Lena asks.
“Yes, exactly like Superman, your brother’s favorite person in the world, Lena Luthor,” Kara doesn’t say it with malice, Alex knows that, but she can see the comment immediately hit Lena— young, anxious, vulnerable Lena, always collateral to her brother’s crimes. Crimes against Superman that have barely just begun.
Kara quickly catches her slip-up, thankfully.
“Sorry. That was wrong of me to say,” she murmurs.
Alex decides now is a perfect time for a break.
-
There are two hours of peace before that something Alex saw brewing in Kara earlier starts bubbling up to the surface.
“How much longer will it take to fix your mistake?” Kara huffs, and— did her sister ever sound this much like a brat before? And the answer was yes, she did. When they’d get on one another’s nerves through petty fights and trying to one-up each other. When Alex wanted Kara to simply blend in with everyone else, purely for her own sake.
“Brainy and I are working on it as fast as we can. Again, I’m sorry, but it shouldn’t be long.” She tries to reassure her sister, and Lena, even if she doesn’t know how long it will actually take. She’s just hoping on it being soon.
“It better not. I refuse to consider being rehomed a second time, Alex.”
She really couldn’t argue with that.
“I don’t want to be rehomed for a second time either,” Lena murmurs, grabbing both her and Kara’s attention. It hits her like a ton of bricks that Lena was placed with the Luthor family once already, just like Kara had been with the Danvers. That she was thrust upon a life with no other choice, just like Kara, too.
An overwhelming feeling of guilt rises within her chest. The alien beacon has brought two traumatized teenage girls who have barely started living their lives. Two teenage girls who are her family and a resolve builds within her to do right by them. Lest she revert back to her teenage self too, then that would be a mad party.
Unfortunately, it does take longer than they had promised. At least, longer than a few hours. By the end of that first day, Brainy attempts to recreate the earlier events with the beacon, but with no success. Just the blinding white flash and the deafening pitch that had everyone reeling again.
It leaves Kara even grumpier, who ends up downing an egregious amount of Chinese takeout Alex had bribed her with as a peace offering for the trouble. Thankfully, Lena was much more flexible, even if she barely touched her own plate of food. Though Alex wonders how much of the flexibility comes from an understanding of the situation or a habit of falling in line as ordered. She can’t imagine Lillian Luthor would let much slide before her eyes.
Day 2.
The next day proves to be equally as unlucky. By midday, the teens are restless, mostly Kara is. Alex buys them snacks, puts on a movie— Titanic, Lena’s choice— and keeps them occupied for three more hours. Enough time for Nia to arrive from CatCo and take over her newly appointed babysitting duties.
She gets two and a half hours of uninterrupted work with Brainy before Nia comes by the tech room, exasperated, ready to call it quits.
“Why do these things happen to us when J’onn’s off-world?” she questions, sitting back on one of the available chairs. “I think this is the first time in my life Kara has gotten on my nerves.”
Alex sighs.
“What did she do?”
“Talking, prodding, being a bit insufferable. She was definitely doing it on purpose. Poor Lena seemed a little out of sorts, too.”
“And what did you do?”
“I gave both of them access to my computer. That shut her up,” Nia shrugs, and Alex feels her blood pressure go up.
“Nia, they can’t have access to a computer. There are things online about them, about both of them, that they shouldn’t know about right now. You think they won’t hesitate to look?”
“Way ahead of you. I disconnected the internet and only showed them how to play a game with it,” Nia says.
“And you think those two won’t figure out how to access more?” Alex starts to feel like she’s due a vacation, somewhere nice and quiet for the weekend with Kelly and Esme. She’s more than earned it.
“There is a ninety-five percent chance both young Kara and Lena gain access to the internet from your computer, Nia,” Brainy says matter-of-factly, not even sparing a glance at his girlfriend, too preoccupied with the device in front of him.
Nia blinks, and then speeds out of the room, chair toppling over in her haste.
Computer access lasts approximately seven minutes before it gets taken away.
Day 3.
On day three, Alex thinks some tension has fizzled out and that she can breathe a little better, considering the situation at hand. She calls in to both Kara and Lena’s respective jobs making up excuses for their absences, hopes she doesn’t leave space for questions to be asked after the fact.
Lena finally eats a full meal without having to be gently prodded for not doing so, and her hands don’t seem to be shaking anymore. It’s all made her mind wander, how much Lena must have already endured to have developed such coping mechanisms. Alex notes how the sweatshirt and sweatpants set she has given her, in one of the smallest sizes she could find, looked a little too big on her. Makes it point to get whatever Lena’s favorite food is for their next meal that day.
Kara is more relaxed too, takes to walking around the Tower, albeit still poking and prodding, with strict instructions to stay away from computers and most other things. She doesn’t even break anything, unless they count a dent on a table she accidentally hip-checked. If there was one important detail Alex remembered from this Kara was that she was still a rookie when it came to her powers.
-
Throughout the day, it continues to bewilder her, having this version of Kara right in front of her again, and the reality of their current predicament. She has so much love and appreciation for her sister now, knows it’s reciprocated, but this Kara doesn’t feel that, not yet, at least. To her, they just lived under the same roof and disliked each other.
She wonders if this is how her sister had felt, when J’onn took Alex’s memories in order to protect Supergirl’s secret identity from Colonel Lauren Haley. Being estranged from a version of your family that doesn’t recognize the current you.
Another development, or just acclimation to the current events, is how well Kara and Lena get on, Superman and Lex troubles aside. Well, as best as you can when you’ve been summoned to the future alongside the best friend whom you haven’t met yet.
The two of them together, strangers to each other at this time in their young lives, but now having to interact. A bit shocking, considering the more otherworldly things Alex has had to deal with.
This Kara is all bark and no bite, while Lena is shy, but a willing participant. A full one-eighty from their present selves.
-
After lunch she catches them sitting in one of the Tower’s tables, the newly dented one, and making conversation as Alex moves around the space. She doesn’t know this version of Lena the way she does Kara. Their Lena was steadfast, composed, a warrior first, even if she was all mush on the inside. But she rarely let herself look vulnerable if she could help it. This Lena was subdued, observant, and on edge.
From her spot in the room she hears them excitedly whisper about the books and tools sprawled on the table. One of older Lena’s tables, Alex notes.
Kara’s picking Lena’s brain about things that lay on the table surrounding them, with Lena keeping up fairly well despite not holding any degrees yet. She knows Lena’s a prodigy, doesn’t doubt her intelligence and aptitude, but she had forgotten the immense knowledge her sister had, a prodigy from a dead world, educated and proper. Who was learning calculus and physics by age three.
“You’re incredibly smart Lena, did you know that? Not many humans your age are like you,” Kara says, awe palpable in her tone. Alex peeks back at them, notices how Lena smiles slightly, a light pink coloring her cheeks.
“Thank you. I love learning, and I guess it helps that concepts come easily to me. Knowledge is the power that allows us to shape our future and that of those around us,” Lena says. It’s the closest she’s sounded to older Lena.
“You’re a bit like a Kryptonian in that sense,” Kara says, a soft smile on her face.
It occurs to Alex for the first time since Lena came into Kara’s life that maybe, one of the reasons Kara took to Lena like a moth to a flame was because she reminded her of a different world, a different society. Akin to the one Lena was bred into. Full of the elite, brilliant minds with a monopoly of the future set on their sights.
And that maybe, the shine she consistently sees in her Kara’s eyes when Lena is in the picture means more to her than Alex previously thought.
Day 4.
After day three yields no results, considering Brainy had to disassemble the beacon twice, day four seems to be heading in the same direction.
The girls split off in the afternoon. Much to her surprise, Lena asks if she can tag along with Nia and Brainy as they work on the beacon, who accept, while Kara sticks to Alex in the main control room of the Tower for monitoring the city.
Though, Alex has half a mind to believe it’s some sort of atonement for fighting with her in the morning. Over breakfast, over being stuck in a place for four days straight and having to be babysat with limited things to do, over all the other things this Kara has grievances for.
“I’m sorry about this morning,” she says, hovering next to her. “I was frustrated and took it out on you Alex.”
Alex shakes her head, eyes on the monitor in front of her.
“Water under the bridge already, no worries. I know it wasn’t personal.”
“No, really, I’m sorry— I just,” Kara sighs and Alex looks up at her, sees her struggle to find the right words, how her hands clench and unclench.
“Kara, it’s okay.”
Her sister nods, eyes glossy, no lead glasses acting as a barrier, and in less than a second Alex stands up from her chair and hugs her. It’s all it takes for Kara to start crying.
She leads her sister to the Tower’s common room, guides her to one of the couches. It takes her a few minutes before talking again, not that Alex minds.
“This is claustrophobic,” she sniffles, “it feels like I’m getting stuck somewhere unknown again.”
For all intents and purposes she was, Alex thinks to herself.
“I understand how difficult this is. We’re trying really hard to fix this,” she says.
“I know you are.”
They settle again into silence. Kara sniffling, glossy eyes staring off into the distance as Alex takes in the moment.
“At least I’m not alone in my situation, with Lena going through the same too,” she says after a beat.
“You and Lena are getting along, yeah?” Not that Alex has to ask, because she can see it, but she still does. Move Kara’s focus onto other things.
“We are. She’s incredibly smart. She’s very pretty too.”
Of course you’d say that too, Alex thinks, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
“Well, I’m glad you’re getting along.”
“Yeah, someone I’ll have to wait over 10 years to meet again, apparently. It’s—,” Kara sighs, drops her head down seemingly defeated, “It makes me wish things were different.”
“Kara…”
She’s not sure if Kara’s referring to the current situation, or the one back home, or the one life has dealt her. Alex remembers how hard it was for Kara to make friends, not that her own younger self made it any easier. How hard it was to just be sometimes without being so alien. Not having to hide who she was, the extraordinary things she could do.
“No, it’s fine. Not really your fault, nor anyone’s.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t be upset about it. You’re making a friend. I know that hasn’t been the easiest for you,” Alex says.
Kara remains quiet, contemplating her words.
“I think I’d like you to become my friend too. My Alex, I mean. It seems we really care about each other now.”
“Trust me, we do.”
The rest of day four goes on without a hitch, even if they have no working beacon. Definitely not considering that Brainy, on the verge of a meltdown, broke a piece off the bottom of the device. A complete accident, for the most part.
But it’s enough of an issue that Alex calls it quits at five in the afternoon, orders him and Nia to go home, to come back early the next day well-rested and energized.
She uses that time to take both Kara and Lena out for fresh air, beyond the Tower’s balcony. Chooses a quaint diner in their city that she and her Kara absolutely love. Even if that enjoyment comes in the form of Kara ordering an absurd amount of pancakes, and having to convince Lena to order whatever she wants, no matter how unhealthy it was. Which, she thinks she succeeds, if her empty plate is anything to go by.
Day 5.
The next day, after her talk with Kara, Alex decides she needs to check up on Lena, too.
“Are you okay? How are you holding up?” she asks, joining Lena at the table she’s sat in alone, Kara coincidentally distracted somewhere else in the Tower.
Lena mulls over her response before answering.
“I think I’m managing,” she says, playing with the string of the CatCo hoodie Alex had also supplied as new wardrobe. She waits for Lena to say more without pushing, thinks she’s already done quite a bit of that in the last few days. This is Lena’s time to feel comfortable.
“I might have looked myself up on the computer when no one was watching."
Oh, she thinks. Mind quickly going to the things that Lena might have seen, might have read, about her family, about herself. Details ranging from painful truths to media fodder
“And what did you find?” Alex asks, hoping the answer isn’t as bad as the elevated heartbeat in her chest expects.
Lena looks at her, right at her, looking for something before responding. She’s just not sure what that something is.
“A lot of stories about my family, the endless list of horrific things Lex will do. Mother’s involvement, I—“ her voice cuts off, taking in a deep breath and continuing. “Am I a truly good person? Do I deserve a spot with the heroes of this city? With a Supergirl?”
If anyone had asked Alex two years ago how she’d respond, her answer might have been different. She’ll admit she wasn’t Lena’s biggest fan, prejudice against her last name, the misleading moments where she thought Lena finally shone her true colors, much to Kara’s protests. Then, there were those moments with Reign and the kryptonite, when fighting Leviathan, with Non-nocere, where Lena had strayed due to the hurt Kara’s secret had caused. When Alex finally felt justified in all her previous worries about Lena Luthor.
But.
But there were other times. Lena saving the city from a Daxamite invasion, Lena synthesizing Harun-El for Argo City, in effect saving it, building suits and prototypes for Kara that saved her from kryptonite poisoning more than once. Moments where Lena chose them over her own family, over Lex. When she’d shot him for the sake of the whole world. When she was willing to risk the world for her sister, something Alex couldn't even allow herself.
Lena’s kindness went beyond her bond with Kara. She was the one that understood Brainy the best, she indulged Nia, she was the woman Alex and Kelly had asked to be their daughter’s godmother.
“Alex?”
She had no doubt in her mind that Lena belonged.
“You’re the best of us Lena. You deserve to be here just as anyone else on the team. I mean it,” she says.
Lena sits back, quiet, with no response. Alex decides to pivot with a feeling that Lena wasn’t inclined to say more.
“Do you miss home?"
She looks back at Alex, eyebrows furrowing as a frown colors her features.
“I guess? I’m at boarding school right now, but I don’t think I know where home is, and it’s certainly not the Luthor mansion.”
She says it so matter-of-factly that Alex gets a little upset on her behalf. The Luthors didn’t deserve Lena, that much she already knew.
“But I do want to go back. It feels wrong to be here. I haven’t earned this life.”
And that’s always the problem, Alex notes. Lena shouldn’t have to earn her way through every single thing in life. Kara has always been right. She is good, and she is deserving.
A sentiment she voices to Lena, who just gives her a small, but genuine smile in return.
-
When the day is done, Alex takes both girls out of the Tower again, thinks it’s a good idea. Picks up food and then guides them to Kara’s apartment in an effort to give them both a little breathing room without letting them too loose.
It’s a risk of exposure, but she does set boundaries. Asks Kara not to super speed her way through the apartment looking, seeking, for things which her sister immediately fights.
Kara argues that she could just snoop around, without Alex being able to stop her, but when she catches her challenging gaze, she stands down. Or maybe it was the threat of taking away her potstickers, which sounded less impressive.
They sit in the living room as they eat their dinner. At one point, after Alex has finished her own plate, she sits back in her sister’s couch, exhaustion settling into her bones, and before she knows it, she’s dozing off.
She wakes with a start, glancing around the seemingly empty room. There’s a blanket draped over her, but neither Kara nor Lena in sight. She stands up, squinting, peaking through the divider that separates Kara’s living room space from her bedroom, and she hears it before she sees it.
There’s giggles floating down the balcony opening, then she sees two sets of feet landing. Those same giggles, accompanied by flushed faces, come to a stop once they notice Alex standing with her arms crossed over chest, face stern.
“Please tell me you were not flying, Kara.”
“Well—,” her sister starts, looking back at Lena with a sheepish expression, blush deepening.
“We didn’t go flying. I don’t like flying,” Lena breaths out, gazing at Kara before looking back at Alex, as her sister fails to continue her sentence.
“What she said.”
“Then why did I just see you two land on the balcony?”
“We only just floated up to the roof to look at the stars,” Lena responds matter-of-factly, with Kara nodding along. Since when was this Lena the braver one of the two?
Alex sighs. Uncrosses her arms to rub the remains of sleep from her face.
“Okay, I’m choosing to believe both of you, simply because I’m too tired and I want to get home. Let’s clean up and head back to the Tower quickly, got it?”
She doesn’t wait for a response, turns around back into the living room. Thoughts suddenly wandering to what type of teenager Esme might be, and if this will be Alex’s daily life in a few years.
Then there’s murmuring and giggling behind her again, and Alex is so, so, confused and so, so over it as to why that she can’t help but prod.
“What are you two giggling about?”
“Nothing!” They answer in unison, high-pitched and an obvious lie, that it's almost insulting.
And she should be a little more upset that they went rogue, but she’s also tired. She should push a little more in case they’ve done something they shouldn’t. But can anyone blame her if she’s willing to let it slide for these girls who deserve all fleeting moments of real freedom they can get?
Day 6.
Shit hits the fan the next day. It’s all her fault for being too trusting.
They all had one simple task: go down two blocks, get food, come back. It was a Maaldorian-run restaurant that had been opened a few months ago and had become a go-to place for the team with its proximity to the Tower. But in the middle of ordering, a rugged-looking man had stepped inside, slightly off-putting, murmuring things to himself. Murmurs that quickly became loud comments about aliens, how they had no right to be in the city, nor operate in it. Clearly targeted at the shop's owners and workers.
Alex had tried to diffuse the situation, standing up against the man easily, pushing both Kara and Lena away, before they— before Kara got any ideas.
"You're defending them? These creatures taking over the city?" He asked, stepping in front of her, as if he could intimidate her. She had faced bigger threats to last her a lifetime.
"Stand down, sir."
"Or what?"
"The police will get here, and you'll be arrested," she responded, voice steady, gazing directly at the man.
He doesn't take the comment kindly. But before Alex has a chance to fully react, she's roughly pushed against the floor, gunshots ringing out, and screams.
The push disorients her, didn't expect that sort of abnormal strength from the man when she's faced-off against worse. She realizes why when the man is also on the floor, unconscious, gun thrown to the side, and Kara's kneeling in front of her to help her up as other patrons look stunned at the scene that just played out in front of them.
'I'm sorry,' her sister says, hoisting her up with Lena in tow, "I pushed you too hard."
"Kara—" she groans, feels the ache building on the side she fell on. She doesn't get to say anything else as Lena speaks up.
"I think a bullet grazed me," she murmurs, twisting to the side. There, the long sleeve she was wearing now had a hole by her left side— red shining underneath.
"Okay," Alex breathes out, "Let's get both of you to the Tower before the police show up."
The graze isn't that deep thankfully, and at best, it'll leave a barely visible mark on her skin. One that Alex isn't sure of is whether Lena will remember its origin when she goes back. But it takes her barely ten minutes to clean her up, as Kara fusses around the room, visibly upset.
"Kara, it's okay," Lena says, holding the medical tape Alex is wrapping around her, "This isn't your fault."
"Yes, it is, because I should have moved faster and not hesitated!" Alex just looks at her sister, unsure of what to say. She wasn't exactly happy about Kara using her powers in public, even if she moved fast, in fear someone might have noticed, might have asked a few questions. But it saved her and the other patrons from a reckless man and his gun.
"I'm not pleased you used your powers, but it might have been the right call," she says, putting a second piece of tape on Lena's side, fastening the piece of gauze covering the bullet graze.
"There, all cleaned up. It might leave a little scar, but otherwise you're good," she adds, stepping back to dispose of the materials she'd used.
"That's going to be weird if I don't remember how I got it," Lena laughs, pulling her shirt down.
"I should have done it better," Kara murmurs, sitting next to Lena on the medical bed with her eyes focused on the tattered hole of Lena's shirt, "Both of you got hurt because of me. Lena with the bullet I didn't catch, and Alex by me pushing her away from that man to the floor."
Alex sighs, sitting in front of both girls.
"If there's anyone to blame, it's me. We shouldn't have been there in the restaurant, and I shouldn't have taken you out in public like this, testing our luck."
"Are you two just going to blame yourselves?" Lena asks, gazing at both of them with an incredulous look, "Let's just be happy we're safe, and that Supergirl was there to hazardously diffuse the situation."
"Hey! What do you mean hazardously?"
Lena smiles.
"Hazardously? Sorry, I meant to say heroically."
Day 7.
Things take another turn the next day. Brainy makes the three of them join him in the Tower at eight in the morning sharp, promising that the alien beacon was ready to turn Kara and Lena back.
He positions all three of them in the middle of the room as he explains why the beacon was so difficult to fix.
And Kara has to interrupt him.
“This just sounds like a convoluted excuse as to why it took you so long to fix it,” she says, almost challenging.
Brainy blinks at her, unmoving, malfunctioning even.
“Brainy?”
“Right, yes, as I was saying,” he gives Kara one last unamused look before moving back to the beacon, “Although we do not know if you will retain your memories of the past few days, or where your adult counter parts went, there is a ninety-seven percent chance you will simply go back to the moment you left.”
“Oh, that’s good then. No need to worry about having people noticing we’ve disappeared for seven days, memory or not,” Lena says.
“That’s right young Lena, no need to worry at all,” Brainy says with a smile, holding the beacon between them. “All you need to do is hold onto the beacon, I’ll press the button in the middle, and it should work.”
Both girls raise their hands against the device, but Kara yelps when he moves to press the button.
“Wait—,” she says, retracting both hands, “That’s it? No goodbye?”
“Did you not want to go back as soon as possible?”
“Uh, yeah, I did. I do. But we all just spent a week together, I just thought— “
“I think— what Kara is trying to say— is a thank you to all of you for taking care of us this past week. Especially you, Alex,” Lena interjects, shooting her a small smile.
Kara breathes out, nodding, definitely embarrassed.
“Yeah, that’s about right.”
“We’ll see each other soon, yeah?” Alex says, stepping in to hug both girls. Even if they don’t remember this ever happened, in the off-chance they do, letting them know that she’s going to be in their corner.
Both girls stand back in front of Brainy, hands raised towards the beacon, staring at each other. It’s Kara who speaks up again.
“I can’t wait to meet you again Lena.”
“I can’t wait either, Kara.”
They share a smile with each other, something entirely their own.
Brainy presses the button, and then there’s that blinding flash from a week before Alex can remember to cover her eyes, sans the high-pitched frequency, but she’s still blinded.
There’s suddenly a thud on the floor, heavy, crackling the concrete beneath, someone yelps—
And.
Yeah. That’s the right version of Kara and Lena on the floor alright.
“What the hell was that?”
Much like she’d done seven days ago, Alex sits down to explain what happened. The more she details the events of the last couple of days, the more it looks like they don’t believe her. To them, it seemed they had just blinked, and then they were on the floor with their ears ringing.
“Do you two not remember anything? We’re not sure if they— you— would keep the memory of the last few days. Brainy said the beacon was highly sophisticated technology. Sleek, advanced,” Alex says, but two sets of eyes stare at her, then at each other and wow— she’s having a crazy dejavu moment.
Then she remembers yesterday’s events.
“Lena, do you by chance have this tiny, scarred blemish on your left side?”
Lena tilts her head, squinting at her, “How do you know about that? I don’t even know how I got—“
“Oh.”
“What? What’s going on?” Kara asks, confused, moving towards Lena before she stops her.
“I naively took you both to the Maaldorian restaurant we like, and there was this anti-alien guy who started threatening the workers and patrons. I tried to dissuade the altercation, but he took it as a challenge, pulled out a gun. Before I knew it I was on the floor, gunshots had rung out, and the man was on the floor too.”
“What happened?”
“Kara happened, the younger you. She got involved,” Alex says with a sigh.
“That… sounds like something I’d do at that age.”
“It’s something you do at this age too,” Lena says with a laugh. “I can’t believe I had a scar from the future all this time. I really don’t remember it.”
“It seems like we got up to some trouble,” Kara laughs too, and Alex groans, feeling the tiredness of the whole week really settle in.
"You don't know the half of it."